28
ETHAN
I'd felt it when I first arrived at this place, before fighting the dragon, but I hadn't quite recognized it then. I thought it was Jessica I sensed inside the house. The thought of her in danger had dulled my senses.
But now that it was over, and she was by my side, I could feel it.
It pulsed similar to the totem, a heartbeat without a heart. But different, too. Sharper, more dangerous.
More powerful.
That scared me. What could be more powerful than a fucking totem that turns men into beasts?
But I knew it was there, and I knew it pulsed for me.
"There's something here," I said.
Jessica frowned. "Like, another dragon? One of his brothers?" She looked around with alarm.
I grabbed her hand to calm her. "No. Inside the house. Do you not feel it?"
"Oh." She paused. "What's it feel like?"
If she couldn't sense it now, then there was no use describing it. "I don't know. But it's in there."
Jessica jerked her head with remembrance. "Hey. Yeah! There's a chest inside, in the den where they tied me up. The dragon was angry that his girlfriend brought it here." She looked sideways at me. "He was angry that she would bring it close to you."
I didn't understand why, but I smiled.
We waited for the smoldering remains of the house to die down. I found some clothes in my car and pulled them on while Jessica gave an exaggerated pout, but she relented when I offered to stay naked if she did the same. Then we sat on the hood of the car and watched the sun crawl across the sky and the smoke begin to fade.
When it looked safe enough, I approached the front door. Or at least where the front door had been. I grabbed the first wooden plank within reach, testing the pile as it came away.
It wasn't hot to the touch, and nothing else collapsed around me, so I tossed the board aside and grabbed another.
The work was slow. Jessica began helping without saying anything, starting in at another angle. Piece by piece we dug through the rubble, carving out a space into the area which had been the den, and all the while whatever was inside pulsed, waiting for us.
It was night by the time we reached it. A heavy wooden chest like Jessica had described, with iron handles and a padlock as big as a hamster. I prodded it with my shoe.
"I can't believe it's not damaged," Jessica muttered. I began to nod, then stopped. Somehow it wasn't a surprise at all, even though the wood should have burned. It didn't seem strange.
Not after everything we'd been through.
We each grabbed a handle and carried it out to the car between us. It wasn't heavy, at least not with mass. But its importance was something we could both feel.
And when I went to test the padlock, it fell open as if it had never been locked at all.
"Maybe the fire loosened it," Jessica offered, but we both knew that wasn't it.
With trembling fingers I opened the lid.
The bottom of the chest was filled with long, stringy hay, the musty smell instantly familiar even to a city Systems Administrator like me. There was no other padding, just the wooden walls and the internal iron bands of the chest.
On the bed of hay rested a sword.
The blade was two feet long, double-edged and with a blood groove down the middle. The hilt was plain and practical, a few inches of jutting metal above the grip, which was brown leather. The pommel was an ornate octagon, skillfully wrought by the blacksmith with something resembling a Celtic cross set inside.
The sword pulsed at me, demanding I pick it up, and before I could think to do anything else, I did.
The grip felt perfect in my hand, the weight just right. I held it up to show Jessica, and her eyes went wide.
"What's that glow..."
She was referring to the green light coming off the grip. I felt an indentation in the leather, so I held the blade with my other hand and turned it over carefully.
Set inside the grip were six gemstones in a vertical line.
A rectangular emerald.
A round sapphire.
A teardrop ruby.
An oval onyx.
A triangle amethyst.
And at the top, a square diamond.
But the emerald glowed alone, giving off light the others did not possess.
Emerald. Like the totem. Like me. Like the dragon.
"Six gemstones," I whispered. "Six brothers." I knew it, the way the dragon had known it.
"What does it mean?" Jessica asked.
I didn't know. I had some ideas, but for now I knew how precious this sword was. That I had to do everything in my power to keep it safe.
Holding it like a newborn baby, I gently placed it back inside the chest and closed the lid. Wordlessly, Jessica helped me lift it up into my car's trunk.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving." I strode across the clearing to the spot where I'd shifted, where the torn remains of a pair of jeans and shirt were scattered. I found my wallet and cell phone in the pocket, and transfered them to the ones I was wearing.
Jessica smiled. "I could eat."