Chapter Sixteen

Edna dreams that night. It is the reoccurring dream that she usually dreads—the long walk that ends in darkness. This time, however, though everything happens the same as it always does, the dream is not a nightmare as it has always been. What makes this dream different is how she feels—not what happens, and not what she sees or does not see. Instead of the usual purposeless wandering, in this dream there is a destination—and it is the destination who summons her forth. It is not clear who she walks towards, or if there are more than one who await her arrival, but it seems as though those who are summoning her might be her parents, for there is a parental love and eagerness about the feeling that guides her forward, joyfully awaiting her arrival. And Edna senses the anticipation and desire that these someones have for her. But it is not her parents who wait for her—at least, not the ones who begat her.

There are—as is always the case in this dream—people waving on each side of her, but Edna is so engrossed with the pleasure of being wanted, and being waited for, that she does not concern herself with who those on her left and on her right are waving at. And it is the love that has summoned her that holds her head fixed in this dream; she never tries to turn her head to the left or the right. Edna is surprised at how novel the feeling of being wanted by a parent is, it is a feeling that she has never known—indeed, it may be a feeling few experience. Those who grow up with parents who love them in this utterly selfless, unconditional, and wholesome way, may know what it feels like to be wanted, but they do not have the luxury of observing the feeling for the first time.

These parents that Edna feel are her destination can be none other than God, she comes to believe, as she continues to walk, but she does not understand, at first, why she comes to this conclusion. She had never had the idea of God as an entity so parental and personal. But there can be nothing better than a being who loves in this way, and this is why it seems clear to her that it must be God. For, there could be no more superb a being than the most superb of all beings—God.

Suddenly, just as in previous dreams, the light is gone, and she walks in darkness. This time, however, she does not fear what lurks around her, or what comes from behind her, even though she knows that there are things nearby that want to harm her. She feels safe in a similar way that she felt safe when in Gargan’s hand, but she senses a much larger and much more powerful hand that surrounds her now. It is as if whoever is calling her forth—God, she is now certain—is so voluminous that this almighty being is capable of being her destination even while surrounding her with protection. Nothing that wants to harm Edna can penetrate the enormous hand of God.

Our dreams are like our time in Storia. For, what seems like hours, days, even weeks, or longer, can take place in the span of moments. The difference is that we sometimes remember our dreams, but we do not remember our time in Storia—not consciously, anyway. When Edna wakes in the morning, this dream is fresh in her memory, and seems to her to have taken up the entirety of her sleep. She is not disappointed, however, as we often are when we wake from dreams in which we have obtained something we have always desired. She is not disappointed because the feeling has not left her. And she knows that the dream has revealed what was already true. She has not woken from the dream into reality, she has woken with a deeper understanding of reality.

Edna lies awake, feeling more peace than she has ever felt before, and she urges herself to remember the feeling as best as she can; for she knows that time and dementia will weaken its intensity. But she also believes that the feeling will never leave her entirely and that, one day, it will be fully restored.

The idea of living for eternity, in even the best of circumstances, has always seemed like damnation to Edna. She never understood why so many would want to believe in heaven. But she now understands that eternal life is not an endless minute after minute, hour after hour, year after year; tick tick ticking away of time. Eternal life is relationship with God. Eternal life is the feeling of being wanted by God.

As Edna contemplates, the Huldu get right to their task. Bows and arrows are collected quickly before the Huldu hover around the tunnels that exit their cavern dwelling. A few of the Huldu will stay with Edna and her companions to ensure that, no matter what happens, there will be help for the larger creatures in their cavern to make it through the tunnels, and one Huldu will stay behind with Kadiatu until all danger is gone. And with these plans already in place, the escape begins.

“Dragons!” Heldul yells into the tunnels, “we hope you’ve chosen to surrender! Be ready for us, we are coming to tie you up. Now!”

Huldu begin running down the tunnels, but only as far as they safely can. Where they stop, they run in place and in a few moments the Huldu in the side tunnels pop out into the main tunnels where, from what it seems to the dragons peering into the darkness, they have popped out from around a corner. Suddenly fire explodes into each main tunnel and the endangered Huldu slip back into the side tunnels. They keep to the center of their shelter as yellow and orange flames incinerate the darkness of the tunnels on both sides of them.

“Keep going, Huldu!” Hendi can be heard. “It is better to die by their fires than to live any longer as their slaves!” The running in place continues.

The dragons are galvanized by the boldness and seeming self-destruction of the Huldu. They quickly catch their breath before belching more fire into the tunnels at the sight of Huldu as they come into view.

This feverish excitement continues until the fires begin to dwindle, and only sulphuric stomach debris can be heard puffing out of the dragons’ throats. The Huldu in the side tunnels waste no time. They hasten into the main tunnels with their weapons, eyes and throats stinging from the fumes, and shoot into the fleshy caverns just ahead of them on the other side of the tunnel openings. Though the archer’s eyes smart, it is not hard to hit their targets.

The dragons who have been hit fall to their backs and grasp at their mouths with talons that cannot reach deep enough to pull out the arrows that are embedded in their throats. More dragons peer into the tunnels, confused and not fully understanding what has just happened, and are immediately shot in the eyes. These dragons fall backwards into the others who have been injured, wings thrashing against their own bodies, the bodies of other dragons, the cave walls, and the piles of gold. When the rest of the dragons wizen to the danger, the archers blow a piercing whistle on their fingers and the Huldu who have been running in place—many also with bows and arrows—now run through the tunnels, and as soon as they enter the caves, they begin shooting at the dragons’ eyes, successfully hitting a good many of their targets. The dragons who have not been shot let out screams of high-pitched anger and fear while they flee.

The archers run after the dragons and the rest of the Huldu follow close behind; all but those few who have stayed with Edna and her companions. The feathery black creatures swarm through open dragon lairs, past silken curtains, across golden floors, and into the painful sunshine of freedom.

The Huldu have grown accustomed to the dimly lit underworld they live in and as soon as the powerful light of the sun touches their eyes they begin to wince in pain. More and more Huldu pour into the open air, hands immediately at their eye’s, stumbling in the light. They had planned to ride their adrenaline and continue their attack while they had the upper hand, but their beloved sunshine has become a blinding enemy while dragons watch from a distance.

The surviving dragons observe the phenomenon from the trees and Cellu stays near them. But not too close. And there are two dragons who had been suspicious of the Huldu’s sudden suicidal boldness and had kept farther from the cave openings while using none of their fire.

Upon seeing the Huldu stumbling and blind, the dragons begin walking towards them, like fat house cats on the prowl. Twynne and Pixie have caught up with the Huldu now and see the menacing creatures coming towards them.

“Dragons! Coming this way!” Twynne yells. The Huldu try hard to see but every time they open their eyes the sunshine strikes their sensitive pupils.

Cellu walks up closest to his old group, keeping a cautious distance. “Listen to me, usurpers!” He yells. “You may have come seeking blood, but I won’t allow it. I’m the protector of the dragons!” He holds the cane up.

Edna, having arrived in time to hear Cellu’s speech, is rolling her eyes. “Oh, you are an idiot,” she yells. “I’m not sure who you’re trying to fool here: the dragons, us, or yourself, but not even the dragons are that stupid. We all know you want their treasure.”

“Lie!” Cellu yells.

“No, you lie!” Pixie says. “But the prophecy doesn’t lie. We don’t need to be afraid of you—that cane belongs to Edna, only she can wield its power!” The Huldu begin an uproar with Pixie’s proclamation. Their eyes are beginning to adjust to the light, and they cheer with confidence. A fearful expression betrays Cellu’s eyes; the dragon’s as well. Edna lifts her cane-less hand into the air. Her fist is clenched, and she stands upright with a steely resolve. The Huldu take that as their signal and begin to run toward Cellu, swarming around the old woman and her outstretched arm.

Cellu looks at the two dragons behind him, the ones who preserved their fire. “If this cane goes back with them, you’re dead!” he yells. The two dragons look at each other, nod, then waddle towards Cellu as if to protect him; instead, they expel an inferno at the centaur and the cane. Cellu drops the cane and throws his body to the floor, flailing his limbs and stubborn horse legs while the flames tear mercilessly at his skin.

The dragons continue to exhale all the fire within them at the remains of the cane, and when they are finished the cain is gone; in its place is charred ground. Astonishment encompasses both sides of the fight as every creature who is present—except for the centaur who can think of nothing but pain—stares at the smoking patch of ground where the cane had fallen. The dragons look at each other and smile with an expression of shock and delight. Many Huldu drop their arms in unison and leave them to hang like broken tree limbs. Edna looks at Pixie with a questioning expression and Pixie returns the look without answers.

Edna is tempted to despair, but the dream is still so vivid in her mind that instead of feeling hopeless, she envisions the enormous hand of God surrounding her and the others. She looks towards her enemies, thoughtfully, observing them as they begin again to encroach. She considers the cane that has long since been in her possession. It had no special powers, she is certain of this, somehow, and she is convinced of what she believed all along: she never would have been able to fight a dragon with that thing. She feels confident that if there was some miraculous plan for her to fight one of these dragons and win, she would have some inkling of certainty that doing so is possible.

And even if she could, what good would it have done for her to fight only one of these dragons? They are all equally corrupt. Edna develops an odd confidence that the prophecy is still true but that it has not played out the way everyone in Storia had been expecting it to. But how can this be so? Is the prophecy a metaphor? She wonders. But though she is aware that triumphantly fighting dragons can easily be compared to one overcoming physical or mental obstacles, especially those of a woman Edna’s age, no specific analogy comes to mind with conviction as she silently contemplates the puzzle, so she continues to follow the intuitions that seem to be bringing her clarity in this long desperate moment. An image of Gargan’s pet dragon trying to wrestle the cane from her abruptly comes to mind, and her understanding is suddenly illuminated.

“The prophecy has already been fulfilled!” Edna yells, and looks at Gargan, “Your dragon, remember when she was jumping on me? I swung at her with my cane, before she tried to wrestle it away from me. I won that little tug of war; I fought with your dragon with my cane and won! That was the prophecy—a silly play fight. That’s all there is to it! I was never supposed to fight any of these dragons, that’s for the Huldu!” Edna turns to the Huldu, “That means you can’t lose. Your victory has already been set in motion!”

The Huldu, who had for so long been waiting for a dragon slayer to rescue them, have a sudden shift of expectation. They now no longer anticipate liberation via human hands; they anticipate the freedom that they, themselves, are about to reclaim. They all begin to hum in unison as though, in that moment, they all have the same mind. And there is a haunting beauty to the sound of the humming. It sends an exhilarating drum of vibrations through Edna and her companions, creating vicarious anticipation within them of the Huldu’s imminent freedom.

But to the dragons the vibration is their own judgement; and it incites both anger and fear. The dragons begin running towards the Huldu with one thing on their mind—not gold or vengeance, but stopping the sound of that judgment. They are too full of rage and fear to act wisely. The archers raise their bows, the humming continues, and arrows pierce through the eyes of the charging dragons.