and be able to hock it. She'd never seen a pearl that large and knew the pinkish color had to come from the she-dragon's essence added to a natural pearl. As she'd walked with it, the gem had warmed in her hand and then gone cool. She knew in that moment the last flicker of life had been extinguished within the bizarre creature on the other side.
But as much as she'd wanted to hold on to rage within her about what had happened with her man, she felt nothing but love from the pearl, and oddly felt sorry for the crazy, mixed-up dragon. There was no anger, no animosity, no negative charge coming from the pearl it had left. All she felt radiating from it was a free spirit, one with no malice of intent. The bite had been pure pleasure. There was no encroachment ever designed into it.
Damali picked the pearl back up and placed it in her palm, staring at it with new eyes. "Who were you?" she whispered. Her gaze went to the sea. If it had dragon essence on it, no human needed to have it--who knew what it carried? She was about to stand to pitch the pearl to a much larger place that it deserved to get lost in when it began to glow. Damali slowly lowered it back into the water to wash it off, and to make sure that her eyes weren't just playing tricks on her. The sun was bright, she was weary, and all this madness had undoubtedly messed up her mind.
"A dragon's gift," a light, disembodied female voice whispered on the breeze, yet it was also coming from inside the underwater pearl at the same time.
Damali looked around, sensing, and then looked down at the now-white-glowing pearl, and talked directly to it as she kept her palm submerged. "Why did you give this to me?"
"Because you needed to know," the pearl quietly replied, each word causing a slight strobe beneath the clear water.
"Yeah, well, I know you bit him, but I ain't mad--"
"Good. Because I gave him something, too."
Damali frowned. "I'll pitch your little pink ass--"
"Wait," it whispered. "I gave him insight."
Damali could feel herself about to get angry again, but something about what this dragon pearl said made her need to hear more.
"I was Cain's lover for years," it murmured. "The Neteru needed my insight."
Damali stared at the stone. Oh, shit... Carlos had been right. Information she'd gleaned from her journey to Ethiopia and at the Neteru Council of Queens began to refresh in her mind and then slam it. The inscription at the Isis Temple in Egypt almost made her stand up. An epiphany. The queens had forecasted one was coming. "Okay," Damali whispered more reverently, "talk to me."
"He needed to learn how to heal," it whispered quickly, harshly, but with a loving vibration emanating from it. "How to throw energy. To do all that Cain knows how to do. It is resident within him, takes time to perfect, but he does not have the benefit of time. My bite was a peace offering, actually, to you. I taught him, so you could receive that gift as well."
Although Damali didn't like the sound of it, and it had the ring of
dragon double-talk, she was more curious than wary. "All right, then. Say, if I were to go with that theory. I haven't witnessed--"
"He is afraid," the pearl whispered. "He is insecure."
"Carlos insecure? Puhlease," Damali scoffed. "He musta really blew your mind when--"
"No," the pearl argued, becoming a darker shade of pink as though agitated. "I felt it running all through him. Cain inspired that. Something else darker did, too."
"Deep." Damali just peered at the pearl and brought it up out of the water. But then it went still until she submerged it again.
"Thank you. I need the pools of natural waters to work."
Damali chuckled in awe. "Wow. So, you're like a minioracle. A cosmic iPod that just downloaded dragon essence, huh? Too freaky."
"All the best oracles use them," it murmured. "I am the newest and last made. I am rare. Do not cast me away. You will need me."
"Whoa . . ."
"Cain is not who you think." Damali stopped smiling. "Who is he?" "Dante's son. He is aware that you have slain his father. He means you no direct harm, in fact, you have helped his cause. He is infatuated with you, truly he is, but will wreak havoc on your world."