The Dragon Unleashed - The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King Chapter 14
Book: The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King | Author: Lynn Abbey | Series: Chronicles of Athas, Book 5
The Last Night
This is the chapter that broke me. Fair warning.
It opens in the map room, where Hamanu receives Nibenay’s reply. The Shadow-King has agreed to terms for the battle. At dawn, the armies engage. Nibenay, Dregoth, and Inenek will cast their spells. And Hamanu must “do what must be done.” A champion’s solemn oath, worth about as much as a single grain of sand.
Hamanu stares at the sand-table where colored silk strips represent the armies. Yellow for Urik. Green for Gulg. Red for Nibenay. Black for Giustenal’s undead forces. And a tied-up bundle of blue ribbons. Blue for Tyr. Blue for the army that hasn’t arrived. Blue for Sadira and Rkard, who aren’t coming.
He whispers to the absent Windreaver: “Mistakes were made. I had choices, and I made the wrong ones.”
Then Hamanu begins his goodbye tour of Urik, and Abbey writes it with a quiet devastation that just builds and builds.
Saying Goodbye
He sends Enver home with a poison meant to be merciful. The dwarf refuses to take it. He has his focus, that uniquely dwarven purpose, and it’s bound to Hamanu. When Hamanu tells him “It is I who abandon you, not you who abandon me,” it’s one of the most honest things a sorcerer-king has ever said.
Hamanu walks through his empty palace, snuffing torches one by one. He visits the throne room and leaves the lion’s head lantern burning. The eternal flame of Urik. He can’t bring himself to extinguish it.
In his cloister, he finds the murals of the Kreegills, Pavek’s garden, the grain growing silver in the moonlight. He plucks a sprig and holds it to his nose. He remembers the smell.
Then he bolts the cloister doors from the inside, slashes into the netherworld, and emerges at the palace gate as Manu. Not the Lion-King. Not the champion. Just the slight, dark-haired kid from Deche.
The Fountain Scene
And then comes the scene at the fountain. This is the one I keep thinking about.
Hamanu stands by his fountain in the city center, watching ordinary people toss ceramic bits into the water and make wishes for their loved ones. He listens with his champion’s ears to prayers meant only for the Lion-King. Most pray for the safety of someone outside the walls. Some pray for the city. And a few pray for their king. “Let him lead us to victory. Return our king, safe, to us.”
As if they knew he wasn’t really a god at all.
A little boy named Ranci tugs his shirt and offers to share a wish. “You scared?” the boy asks. “Yes, a little,” Manu says. Because Manu knows better than to lie to children. They toss their ceramic bits in together. Two tiny ripples in the moonlight.
“It’s gonna be all right, isn’t it?” the boy asks. “The Lion’ll take care of ’em, won’t he?”
“He’ll try,” Hamanu says.
I’m not going to pretend that didn’t get to me. A thousand-year-old immortal champion, disguised as the teenager he used to be, sharing a wish with a kid at a fountain on the last night before the end of everything. Abbey knows exactly what she’s doing here.
Pavek’s House
The final scene is at Pavek’s home, crowded with strays and orphans the druid-templar has collected. Hamanu arrives as Manu and spends the evening among Pavek’s friends. Javed is there with his bride. The Quraite druids are there. Merchants and artisans sit together in ways they never would on the street.
Pavek is remarkable. He serves wine, clears dishes, and makes everyone feel welcome. Hamanu sits among them with nothing to say, an immortal champion surrounded by the warmth of ordinary human company he’ll never have again.
Before he leaves, Hamanu gives Pavek the scroll case with his history. His last command: come to the south gate at dawn, raise the guardian spirit, and destroy what Hamanu becomes.
“If ever I have a son, I will name him Hamanu,” Pavek says, his voice thick.
And Pavek adds one more thing. Telhami, the old druid who loved them both, will be waiting for Hamanu on the other side. She’ll welcome him into the guardian.
“He hadn’t thought about after; it gave him the strength to turn away and walk out the door.”
That last line. That’s the whole book in one sentence.