by Aaron Crash
Uchiko let go of his hand and walked away. She again showed him the human side of her face. “We’ll fight for you, Steven. You are our Prime. We talked among ourselves, now that we know who we are. There is no other Dragonsoul Prime we want to serve.” She half caught a sob. “You are probably the only Dragonlord that would have us at all.”
Steven thought that might be true. He was grateful for their help, no matter what they looked like, and no matter how much the other Dragonsouls saw them as failures.
An idea was forming in his head. He was thinking about one of his college classes, where they’d studied the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese had used a wide array of tactics against the U.S. In the end, Saigon fell.
Perhaps Steven could take a page out of history. If Sabina saw fire in her vision, Steven could give her a firestorm that would warm the world. And Liam could cast portal spells. That could really level the playing field if he used them right. Tessa said she wanted to try some Incanto magic she’d seen Gideon Scaramanga use during their battle with the Terror Trio and Rhaegen Mulk.
“Steven!” Tessa called out. “Come quick!”
Steven and Uchiko raced back to the campfire.
They found Mathaal with the book on his lap. On one of the encrypted pages, the lines came together to form a picture of Mouse, naked, on her knees, with her hands tied behind her back. Dragonskin Templars surrounded her. The Slayer Blade was stuck in the ground in front of her.
The sketch animated as a huge shape blocked out the tableau. Then a huge dragon face stared right at them, a silver dragon with a long beard. Rahaab.
The beast grinned, eyes shining with victory.
He’d captured Mouse.
RAHAAB’S AERIE WAS lit with strings of lights from tree to tree surrounding the house. He stood in the outdoor living room, the firepit burning, and turned into his partial form to slap Mouse again. He liked to watch her flesh break and bleed. “You thought you could come into my kingdom and kill me?”
“Yeah, it was one of my poorer life decisions.” She gave him a weary smile.
Rahaab knew she longed for death, but Rahaab would keep her alive for the moment, to use as bait. And as a distraction. The Drokharis child would want to rescue her. Of course he would. He probably found her roasted-almond stink attractive.
Mathaal wasn’t at his ranch, and the ninja bitch and her batch of failures had disappeared as well. Rahaab knew what was coming. Around him, his Dragonskins were awake, alert, because this early morning would see fire and bloodshed. His wives came forward, also as Homo Draconi.
Bolour, with her crystal scales, gleamed. Giving her a crystalline coating had been potent magic, as powerful as the spells he’d used to make Uchiko and Onari Guard human for the moment. Ha, that was gone, and that drain on him gone with it.
Hwedo’s scales were so dark purple, she seemed to be a walking shadow in the night.
But his most powerful and his most beloved wife was Shamhat, dark green and huge, as big as he was. Her eye was restored thanks to his ancient ability to unlock the vast potential hidden away in the Magica Cura spell.
Since Rahaab couldn’t find his enemies, not even with his most powerful divination charms, he sent his thoughts to his encrypted pages in the third volume of the Drokharis Grimoire. He sent a sketch because didn’t the monkeys chatter that a picture was worth a thousand words?
Rahaab stepped back and raised his serpentine face to the stars. A hundred thousand years of memories filled him. Half of them came from this little planet, lost and alone, circling, chasing a mediocre sun through the universe.
His brother Icharaam, slain. Mathaal’s decline and slide into madness. Rahaab should’ve killed him in the library pit on that far-flung island. But he’d stayed his hand. Out of pity? Or did a part of him like watching Mathaal suffer?
Or did he tremble at the idea of killing his brother? With Mathaal gone, there would be nothing on the planet that could kill him.
The Zothoric could, but he’d never give them the chance. During the time of Hammurabi, the demons had sent a scouting party to the blue-green gem. He’d ended them before they could send word back to their kind.
Rahaab had kept Mathaal alive so that if he grew too weary of life, his brother could kill him.
Did immortality frighten him? It did. Rahaab had never felt more tired. He was sick of breathing and thinking. Death would be the great abyss. And yet, if he died, what would happen to Earth? The Drokharis child would open doors into other worlds and the darkness would come. The shadows of teeth and talon would come and destroy the beautiful world that had been his home.
Rahaab couldn’t die, not yet, not until the last of the Drokharis was slain. No other bloodline could wield their same power. Were the Drokharis descendants of the Alpheros? Or had their power come from somewhere else? In the end, Rahaab didn’t know.
He stormed back to his captive and stuck his face into the Dragonsoul woman’s bloody visage. “Did you enjoy my kiss?”
She’d come traipsing into his Aerie, flirting with him, vowing she’d serve him forever and that she was happy to betray Steven because no way could her Prime face a true dragon descended from the stars. Rahaab had turned human. Though disgusted by her, he’d played along to see what her game was.
She’d kissed him, panting and sweating and stinking. She’d thought to seduce him. Instead, when he drew back, she used SerpentGrace to pluck the ancient Slayer Blade from its sheath. The blade turned when it hit his skin. A lesser weapon would’ve shattered completely.
Then her torture started.
Mouse’s little sword was stuck in the ground behind her. Rahaab had his own sword, Samael’s Lash, and it lay sheathed next to the firepit.
Mouse still wasn’t speaking.
Priest lunged forward and grabbed her hair. “Answer him! Did you like his kiss?”
Mouse laughed. “Oh, it was okay. For some old guy who smells like worm food. I was surprised he could get it up. Age doesn’t play fair where penises are concerned.”
“You will not speak to him like that!” Priest breathed fire, and the flames scorched her neck and shoulders, blistered her ear. Her hair caught fire, but Rahaab put it out with a swipe of his huge hand.
She let out a shriek. At first it sounded like it was full of pain and fear but then he realized it was laughter. “I’ve always found priests so hot! It’s something about the collar and all that yummy chastity.”
That struck Rahaab as funny. Nikki Angel had been as courageous and humorous as this monkey in front of him, yet she’d screamed in the end. Screamed with what he’d done to her and then was silent when he buried her.
Rahaab went to ask Mouse another question when an Inferno Exhalant exploded through the pines on the western side of the house. Arrows came raining down from the north.
The battle had begun. Rahaab wasn’t surprised. And he wasn’t afraid.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
STEVEN AND SABINA HELD back, standing in the pines on the north side of the ruined mansion. The Onari Guard next to him had hit the Dragonskin guards with a storm of arrows. Aria had started a forest fire to the west while Tessa and Liam were hitting the mansion from the south.
The scent of the smoke washed over Steven, and he could smell the hint of cinnamon in the air. That was from Aria. His own orange blossom and burning cedar smell mixed in with the scent of the incoming conflagration.
Cassius Pine’s house was a pile of sticks, but the outdoor living room remained, a fire burning in the fireplace there. Strings of lights filled the pine trees. The mansion had been built on a steep incline of a mountain surrounded by rocky outcroppings. The ground to the south was a bit more level. To the east was a field of boiling mud.
In the northern forest, Templar Knights drew back behind trees, but Uchiko’s archers were ruthless. Invisible in the dark night, their arrows found their mark, piercing throats and impaling hearts. Some of the Dragonskins cast shield spells, but those only protected against normal arr
ows. Tessa had enchanted other shafts, and those flashed pink through the force fields and into the guts of the creatures. If those failed, rose-tinged throwing stars found their mark.
Sabina’s eyes glowed next to Steven. “The Trinity will come next. Are you ready?”
“I am. Ready when you are.” Steven remembered what Mathaal had told him.
The crystal dragon, Bolour, swept in. Her scales were thicker than most, a gift from Rahaab centuries ago, ancient sorcery from either an artifact or a forgotten tome of magic. She let out a blast of electricity that cut through trees and sizzled across the dirt, throwing dust into the air.
The dark shapes of the Onari Guard were illuminated for a second. Shamhat flew in and cast Impetim missiles from her great scaled hands. Sabina caught them on her green force fields, and none of the ninjas were slain.
Bolour spun. Steven knew she was searching for the Magician who’d cast the shield spell.
Uchiko’s kusarigama shot out of the darkness and looped around the crystal dragon’s neck. She and three of her men used DragonStrength to bring the crystal dragon down. Behind them stood a crooked figure swathed in black robes. He didn’t attack. Not yet.
“Now!” Sabina called out. She’d seen what they needed to do using her amazing divination skills.
Steven, imbued with SerpentGrace, raced forward, going from human to dragon in seconds. He hit Bolour with ShadowStrength, pulling her strength into him even as he soared toward her.
And then, already faster and stronger than her, he added one final element to the attack.
Each of the talons on his hands gleamed with a white light brighter than the sun. The entire forest was lit up by the heat. IonClaws.
The crystal dragon’s eyes widened at the surprise attack.
Blurred with speed, muscles bulging, claws blinding, Steven slashed through Bolour’s throat, and blood sprayed the trees around them. He’d severed her main artery and nearly cut off her long serpentine head.
The world seemed to go quiet for a long moment.
Then she let out a long sigh. All that dead dragon meat struck the ground with a great thump.
The crystal dragon’s Animus supercharged Steven. These were great big ancient beasts, and they had the power of the ages in them. He shifted into his Homo Draconis form and hit the ground running. He sprinted back to Sabina. Uchiko unwound her chain-sickle from Bolour’s body and vanished with the Onari Guard into the night. The crooked figure in black robes followed them.
Shamhat howled. She hit the pine trees around her with her ChromaticFury breath, turning the wood to ash. The ground boiled from the power of the Exhalant. The ninjas, though, had disappeared into the shadows and smoke. The forest fire to the west blazed closer.
The northern pines were now full of the Dragonskins searching for the archers who’d harried them, which was just fine with Steven. Only two of the Trinity remained: Shamhat and Hwedo, who would want revenge for their fallen sister-wife.
Aria’s sleek form appeared in the eastern skies. She let out a spray of the Inferno Exhalant, making her a torch burning brightly in the night.
Shamhat and Hwedo raced toward her. Aria’s orders were to lead the two wives on a merry chase and not engage them.
Sabina and Steven sneaked through the pines. Around them, they heard the whispers of the ninjas. They crept across the pine needles, down the slope, until they turned west, coming in from the east through the forest. They’d have to be careful to avoid the field of bubbling mud. As well as other things Sabina saw using her gifts.
“Wasps,” she whispered. “Incoming. And bears.”
A great buzzing sound shattered the still. A hundred droning wasps, nearly invisible in the darkness, came zooming in. Their dangling legs looked razor-sharp. Their stingers were three inches of agony. They came in at Steven and Sabina. The wasps smacked into their shields, black and green, like mosquitoes into a windshield.
Steven turned into his True Form and breathed out a lake of fire. Furry segmented bodies went up in flames, smoking and falling to the dirt. Pine needles caught fire, and smoke filled the air. A dozen of the wasps were killed at once. Others slammed into Steven’s back, stingers stabbing through his scales.
He went rolling through the forest, smashing through pine trees, shedding the giant insect before they could do too much damage.
A thunderous roar rocked the world. From out of the darkness shambled three giant bears, full-grown male grizzlies, but these had been mutated by Rahaab’s magic. Each bear was at least twelve feet tall with a huge mouth full of fangs glowing with silver energy. Silver, Rahaab’s color. Their eyes glittered with the same color light. To make matters worse, each bear had an extra set of arms and claws sprouting from its abdomen. With six limbs, they came bounding toward Steven.
Onari Guard arrows pierced the attacking bears. Normal arrows slipped off their hides. The arrows that glowed pink hit home. However, that only seemed to add to the fury of the magical mutants.
Steven bit a wasp out of the air, grinding it between his teeth. It gave him a shot of Animus. He whacked a bear away with a shield, then spun and flicked his tail into another. The bear went rolling. The last one leapt onto Steven, its rear claws shredding his thighs. Its four other talons also worked him over, slashing into his scales.
Steven added a layer of protection by accessing his DarkArmor ability. That would keep him alive. He saw a tree on fire in front of him. He body-slammed the mutant grizzly into the flaming pine and then onto the dirt. Steven’s full body weight, along with the hard wood, made the bear roar. Add fire and it made the bear dead.
But there were two others. No, make that that three, no, five, seven, nine. A dozen more of the mutant bears came out of the woodwork.
And another batch of wasps buzzed in.
“To the east!” one of Rahaab’s Dragonskins screamed into the fiery night. Soon, that section of forest would be full of Templar Knights, scaled creatures who could cast spells and hack at them with their medieval weapons.
And yet it was all going as planned.
Steven grinned and threw a dozen spinning black stars of Impetim energy into a bear, blasting off two arms and then the thing’s head.
Uchiko’s kusarigama swept out of the darkness and snagged a running bear. Its six limbs got tangled in the chain, and it went rolling across the ground. The ninja leapt out of the shadows and cut the bear’s throat with the sickle. The half-dragon’s skin glowed for a minute, and then she swept the chain off the mutant grizzly, swirling the weighted end into one wasp and then another, bashing the insects down.
More throwing stars spun out of the darkness to take down the silver-and-black buzzing menaces. They plunked onto the pine needles. Onari Guard archers also helped clear the air. The crooked man in black kept close to the ninjas but didn’t attack. Not yet.
Steven took to the air and opened his mouth to let out a scream of lightning into one bear, then another, then another. The skeins of electricity struck them, blowing off chunks of meat, lighting up their skeletons, and sending all three into the dirt, dead. More Animus flowed into him.
“Magica Cura.” He cured the wounds caused by the wasps and the bears. He rose into the air. With his black scales, he’d be hard to see in the dark of night. He took stock of the situation.
Fires blazed in the forests to the west and east of Cassius Pine’s Yellowstone Aerie. The remaining wasps and bears wouldn’t like that. And Rahaab’s Dragonskins weren’t exactly fireproof, so they couldn’t withstand the flames for long. Most of the Templar Knights raced down from the north, both on the ground and in the air, heading east. Some however, broke to the west. They might be thorns in Liam’s and Tessa’s sides.
Steven sailed over the southern part of the Aerie. He watched as spines of rock shot out from the ground along with a geyser of superheated water. That would be Tessa, casting an Incanto spell to give them cover and to lure the remaining two dragons of the Trinity to them. They should be getting tired of c
hasing Aria at this point.
And if worse came to worst, that geyser would protect Steven’s human vassals and the Onari Guard from the rising flames of the forest fire.
Steven wheeled into the sky, searching for Sabina’s glowing eyes like an eagle hunting. He found her flinging her green sparkler missiles into the incoming Dragonskins. Ninjas fell back, bombarding their enemies with throwing stars and arrows. Uchiko was nowhere to be seen, which was what a ninja like her wanted.
She had a definite job to do. With her was Mathaal, the crooked man in black. He was their ultimate weapon against Rahaab.
Steven fell out of the sky and onto a winged Templar Knight and tore him in him half with his claws. More Animus for Steven and one less Dragonskin. Rahaab wouldn’t have forty-seven elite knights after this forest fire battle. He’d be lucky to have one left.
Steven soared over and snatched up Sabina in his claws. It was time to make a play for the mansion itself. He’d divided Rahaab’s forces and had taken out one of his wives. Aria, Tessa, and Liam would take out the other two. At the same time, they were in charge of rescuing Mouse.
Uchiko would escort Mathaal to the mansion itself. Sabina had mapped out a safe route through the traps Rahaab had set up. The Onari Guard would harry the Templar Knights, drawing them away from the fight.
Blinding light and dark flames marred the sky to the west. Aria, their best flyer, dodged Shamhat’s ChromaticFury and Hwedo’s ShadowFlame. The scarlet dragon led Rahaab’s wives lower, lower, lower, until the flashing battle was lost in the pines.
No sign of Rahaab himself. What was he doing?
“Death! Steven! Death itself!” Sabina yelled above the wind. “Watch out! The yellow dragon. Heaven and hell, the future and the past, love and hate, the living and the dead.”