That explained it. Yaz had read about the legendary warriors. They had a bad reputation in Carttoom, but that was to be expected given that they served Rend.
When Moz reached them, he shoved the old man forward. “This is the leader of the Scaled Society.”
Yaz stared at the man, trying to decide how best to kill him. Nothing too quick, that was for sure.
He must have read Yaz’s intentions from his expression. “Do what you like with me. Nothing matters now that Leonidas has activated the final spire. All the dragons will be enslaved once again by that child’s gift. I deserve to be punished for my failure.”
“You deserve to be punished for what you did to my father.”
The old man stared at Yaz. “Your father enslaved dragons. He deserved the punishment he got. I only wish I could have fed him to the black dragon before she flew away.”
Yaz’s fist crashed into the cult leader’s head, sending him to the ground. “Unless you have some use for this pile of refuse, I’m going to break his arms and legs and leave him here to starve to death.”
Moz shrugged. “Do what you will. I’m sure he’s earned it many times over.”
Brigid put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t. Show mercy. Show you’re better than him and his followers.”
Yaz snarled. “You should thank her. Brigid just saved your life.”
The old man shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now.”
A final hard punch sent him to dream land. It was better than he deserved, but Yaz needed to get going. His mother was waiting.
Epilogue
Leonidas couldn’t stop smiling as his ship soared away from the swamp. He’d done it. At last the final tower was activated. Now all he had to do was take Ariel back to the central tower. From there she should be able to command every dragon on the continent. The world was now his for the taking.
“Boss?”
He turned from the rail to find Shade and Rondo approaching with Polymus’s head. A few feet away, a headless corpse of some unlucky cultist lay on the deck staining the wood red.
Leonidas gestured toward the body. “A gift.”
“That will serve,” Polymus said. “Lift his trunk vertical then place me on the stump of his neck.”
Shade jerked the body into position while a grimacing Rondo gingerly settled Polymus into place. Slowly the flesh mingled, fusing head and body into a whole. The arms twitched and when they did Shade dropped him before shuffling back.
“That’s nasty, Boss.”
It was, but also fascinating. Polymus was truly immortal. Somehow, Leonidas would pry the secret out of him. Then he only had to feed the potion to himself and the girl and he could rule the world forever. It was a lovely thought.
Domina emerged from below deck with a pair of cages. He’d prepared messages for his agents in both Rend City and Carttoom City for when he emerged victorious. While it would certainly be satisfying to burn both cities to the ground, he would prefer not to damage his empire any more than necessary. He would give both kings a chance to pledge their loyalty to him before sending in his dragons. Perhaps they would be smart enough to surrender. Given the arrogance of kings, he doubted it.
He opened the cage doors and the pigeons took off, one north and the other east. His first imperial missive was on its way. It was a glorious day, the first of many.
With surprisingly little magical prompting, Tolin revealed everything he knew about the Dark Sages. Callie was thoroughly disappointed. She knew more about the organization than he did. She shouldn’t be too surprised. The less the weak-willed fop knew, the less he could reveal if caught. Clearly his master held him in as little regard as Callie.
As she pondered whether asking further questions would be of any value, Tamsin said, “There’s a pigeon coming.”
Callie brightened. Maybe this wouldn’t be a complete waste of her time after all.
Tamsin held out her hand and the pigeon fluttered in through a small window and lighted on her wrist. It had a small scroll tube attacked to its leg which Callie removed. As she read her heart raced. She read the message a second time just to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood.
“Gods above! We need to get to the palace, now.”
“Please don’t make me go,” Tolin said. “The king will have me executed.”
“You betrayed the nation,” Callie said. “What did you think was going to happen if you were found out? Grab him and let’s go.”
They dragged Tolin through the halls of his mansion, ignoring the shouted protests from his wife and questions from the servants. A guard was waiting outside, his sword drawn and ready. Unfortunately for him, sometime in the past he’d broken his leg. A hiss from Callie snapped it again, sending him to the ground. If there were other guards watching, that display was enough to convince them discretion was the better part of valor.
On the plus side, Tolin’s mansion was only a ten-minute walk from the palace. The soldiers on duty outside knew Callie well enough that they let her right in without questions she wasn’t anxious to answer at the moment. There was no way King Rend was available this early so Callie made her way to the entrance of the throne room in the hopes that Malik had reached his post.
A brisk walk down a long, carpeted hall followed by a left turn brought them to the throne room doors. As she’d expected they were closed. Happily, Malik was indeed perched on his tall stool out front ready to greet any early petitioners. His grim, black-robed form was oddly comforting to Callie today.
The seneschal took them all in with a long look and sighed. “Do I want to know?”
“Probably not, but you need to.” Callie looked around again, but it was just them. “Tolin here works for the Dark Sages. This morning he received a message by pigeon ordering him to tell King Rend he had one week to surrender and swear allegiance to the new Dragon Empire. I have a copy of the message if you want to see it.”
“I assume there’s an ‘or else’ attached,” Malik said, seeming unperturbed by the news.
“Yeah. If the king refuses to surrender, the capital will be burned to the ground by dragon fire.”
Malik raised an eyebrow, about as drastic a reaction as she’d ever seen from the man. “How credible is this threat?”
“Very, considering he has Ariel.”
“So be it. I’ll alert His Majesty. You all can wait in the throne room. I doubt you’ll encounter anyone, but if you do it goes without saying that you should keep this news to yourself.”
Malik unlocked the throne room doors and Callie led the way inside. Once everyone was through, he locked them again.
“What now?” Tamsin asked.
“Now we wait.”
Lucky for them, they didn’t have to wait long. Barely fifteen minutes after Malik left, the king burst out of the rear entrance that connected to the royal residence. Red faced and furious, he had a bare sword in his hand. He took one look at Tolin and stalked over.
“I trusted you!” the king roared. “You worthless, miserable traitor! I’d kill you right here only I don’t want to ruin the carpet.”
Tolin fell to his knees. “Have mercy, Your Majesty. I had no choice but to obey. If I hadn’t, they would have killed me.”
“Better to die with honor than live without it. I’ll have you drawn and quartered later. Callie, how serious is this threat?”
“As serious as it gets, Your Majesty. Will you yield?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Malik is already summoning my generals to prepare battle plans. We’ll have to evacuate the civilians, of course. Plenty of them won’t like it, but too bad. Better than being burned alive. I’ve even ordered a messenger sent to Carttoom. I doubt the bastard will see reason but given that this outfit operates out of his territory, hopefully he’ll come around.”
Callie nodded along as the king spoke. She’d missed this side of him. The last time she’d seen King Rend this energetic and focused was during the last war. Pity it took another one to bring him a
round.
Callie’s stomach twisted as she thought about it. They were at war again. She’d hoped not to see another one in her lifetime.
So much for that.
With the help of the enchanted sleigh, Yaz, Brigid, and Silas reached the base of the Central Mountains in a few days. The peaks towered above them, white-capped and jagged. The wind howled, driving snow into his face. He ignored the discomfort. After losing his father, it meant nothing to him. Whatever it took, he was not losing his mother as well.
They’d left the dragonriders behind to help protect the new village. There wasn’t room for them in the sleigh and they’d only slow Yaz and the others down. Calvin hadn’t argued. When he looked at Yaz now, fear tinged his expression. Even Burke, who had never regarded him with anything but disdain kept his distance and refused to meet Yaz’s gaze. Not that he blamed them after what happened in the swamp.
And so it was just the three of them again. Yaz had reviewed his memory of the atlas and knew exactly where to find the pass they sought. He stared hard at the mountains. They wouldn’t stop him.
Nothing would stop him from saving his mother.
Author Note
Dear Reader,
* * *
Dark times are coming for our heroes. With Ariel now awake and under their control, can anyone stop the Dark Sages?
* * *
Find out in the final installment of the Dragonspire Chronicles, The Dragon Empress.
* * *
Thanks for reading,
* * *
James
Also by James E Wisher
The Dragonspire Chronicles
The Black Egg
The Mysterious Coin
The Dragons’ Graveyard
The Slave War
The Sunken Tower
The Dragon Empress
The Dragonspire Chronicles Omnibus Vol. 1
The Dragonspire Chronicles Omnibus Vol. 2
* * *
Soul Force Saga
Disciples of the Horned One Trilogy:
Darkness Rising
Raging Sea and Trembling Earth
Harvest of Souls
Disciples of the Horned One Omnibus
Chains of the Fallen Arc:
Dreaming in the Dark
On Blackened Wings
Chains of the Fallen Omnibus
* * *
The Aegis of Merlin:
The Impossible Wizard
The Awakening
The Chimera Jar
The Raven’s Shadow
Escape From the Dragon Czar
Wrath of the Dragon Czar
The Four Nations Tournament
Death Incarnate
Aegis of Merlin Omnibus Vol 1.
Aegis of Merlin Omnibus Vol 2.
* * *
Other Fantasy Novels:
The Squire
Death and Honor Omnibus
* * *
The Rogue Star Series:
Children of Darkness
Children of the Void
Children of Junk
Rogue Star Omnibus Vol. 1
Children of the Black Ship
About the Author
James E. Wisher is a writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. He’s been writing since high school and reading everything he could get his hands on for as long as he can remember.
To learn more:
www.jamesewisher.com
[email protected]
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