Culmination

by Selena IR Drake

  It shocked Amorez that Dimitri had managed to claim the city in less than half an hour. We’re going to have to improve the defenses if we ever decide to rebuild this place.

  She suddenly felt one of the dragons pressing against the back of her mind. It only took her a mere heartbeat to learn that it was Zenith. A small smile touched her lips as she allowed him access to her mind.

  There is a Sentinel perched on my snout. Amorez cracked up at the tone in Zenith’s voice. Aidana gave her a quizzical look, but she just waved it off. He is telling me that the Wakari are just about ready to topple the supports holding the palace aloft.

  Thank you for letting me know. Amorez said, and her gaze fell on the palace. Hyperion’s red force field was still in place, pulsing like a tiny star. She frowned. Have you told Xy about it?

  Neither she nor Kitfox are answering.

  Kitfox? Why would he be able to speak to– Courtesy of Zenith, several images of her daughter and the Demon flashed in her mind. Realization suddenly hit Amorez like a ton of bricks. She pursed her lips as she stared at the palace with renewed worry. That explains a lot.

  I can try to send the Sentinel in to relay the message.

  Amorez nodded. Do it. An idea suddenly came to her, and she called for Blood Fang’s, Black Kat’s, and Aidana’s attention. In whispered tones, she quickly told them of her plan. They readily agreed. Hold on. You’ll have three more to send in.

  Zenith hesitated, uncertain if her choice was a good one. After almost a minute, his reply echoed back to her. If that is your wish.

  ◆◆◆

  My fans met the cutting edge of Dimitri’s dual sword in a burst of crimson sparks and the metal rang like bells. I followed that attack with a series of quick blows. Dimitri’s scowl deepened with every hit that managed to break through his defenses and draw blood. They weren’t many, but, for me, they counted.

  Finally, he had had enough and uttered a spell to shove me away. The gust of air knocked me off my feet, and the wind was knocked out of me from the impact. Ignoring the jolt of pain and my inability to breathe, I rolled a few times and managed to get back on my feet.

  And just in the nick of time. Dimitri had crossed the distance between us and held his sword ready for a kill. I danced out of the way, feeling the rush of air across my face as his sword passed by. Before he could recover from his foiled blow, I twisted around him and landed a hard kick to his lower back. He loosed a yowl and hobbled forward a few paces. He retaliated with a blast of fire, which I deflected with a wall of ice. The fire and ice met in an angry hiss that blanketed the balcony with steam.

  I stood on guard, waiting for the fog to blow away. Seconds ticked by like hours. I let them. I needed the respite, no matter how short it was. The initial energy I had when this bout started had dwindled to almost nothing. My fans had turned heavy and my shoulders burned from the exercise. I would be lucky to escape this battle unscathed.

  I chanced a glance towards Kitfox’s direction, hoping to get a glimpse of him through the steam. All I could make out were shadows in the roiling cloud. I truly hoped that he was okay. Whatever Hyperion did to him to cause him so much pain had sent me into a blind rage. I had nearly succeeded in landing a killing blow to Dimitri in the first few seconds that we fought. But his reflexes proved to be much faster than I had thought, and I had been unable to finish the cut.

  A muttered spell and the sudden clearing of the steam brought me back to the current situation. My grip on my tessens tightened, and I forced myself to look away from my teammates to face Dimitri again. But he was nowhere to be seen.

  No! I went cold. Frantically I searched every nook of the balcony for the Shadow Keeper, but found no trace of him. I even looked to Hyperion to see if he would betray an answer to his Keeper’s mysterious disappearance, but the dark dragon only stared at me, bemused.

  A whisper of Kinös Elda from behind caught my attention, and I reeled about. I had only managed a quarter of a turn before Dimitri’s spell struck me on the right side of my body. The air rushed from my lungs and I spun heels over head in the air. It felt like an eternity before I collided with the stone banister of the balcony, busting through it, then tumbling further and further. I landed in a broken heap at the foot of one of the many trees in the courtyard, and there I lay, staring up at the leaf-heavy branches, struggling to breathe and wishing for the world to stop spinning so madly.

  Every bone and muscle, every sinew within me, was afire with indescribable agony. My lungs burned, both from the lack of breath and a few broken ribs. At last I was able to breath and, through the shallow breaths and lightheadedness, manage a healing spell. The pain melted away, leaving me whole once again, but my exhaustion grew substantially the longer I maintained the spell. All too soon I was forced to cut off the stream of magic before I gave in to my fatigue. Pushing myself up to a sitting position, I reclined against the tree until a wave of dizziness passed. I placed my palms against the bark and drew in strength from the tree’s essence, sighing in relief as much of the weariness left me.

  My first coherent thought was: where are all the soldiers we locked out here? Taking a quick survey of the gardens, I saw no sign that they had ever been out here. I began to believe that those soldiers were nothing more than the product of a reflection spell. Was Dimitri so confident in his victory that he left himself unguarded?

  Then I searched for Dimitri, finding him atop the balcony, squaring off against Kkorian and Shazza. I was amazed to see that Dimitri could fend the duo off so easily. He was moving so fast that Shazza could barely keep up with him and he somehow dodged several shots fired from Kkorian’s pistols. I knew there was no way he could ever be that strong or fast by himself. Even if he used a spell on himself to enhance his physical abilities, he would have been tapped out by now and quickly growing weaker. Instead he was just getting stronger and faster.

  That left only one culprit.

  “Hyperion.” His name escaped me in a growl.

  Laying both my hands flat against the tree, I drew in more energy; I was going to need it for what I was about to do. When that tree was dangerously close to withering, I moved on to another and repeated the action again, and again. A total of five trees were nearly drained dry before I felt ready. By then, my hair was standing on end and I felt like I could soar to Bedeb.

  Turning towards the guard tower upon which Hyperion sat, I focused and compressed all the energy I gathered into a tiny ball at the tip of my index finger. I kept the ball about the size of a pebble as I pushed every last drop of the excess energy into it. By the time I was done, the ball looked like a miniature, blue sun swirling on the tip of my finger.

  I took a deep breath and glared up at the Shadow Dragon. As loud as I could I shouted, “Hyperion!”

  The dragon’s head jerked, and he looked down at me with a fire in his eyes. The moment I could see the crest of his brow ridge, I hurled the miniature sun at him as fast as I could, propelling it forward with a spell. He never even saw it coming.

  The ball of energy struck him almost directly between the eyes and exploded with such force it rivaled Zenith’s Galactic Tsunami. Hyperion bellowed a deafening roar of agony and reared. That proved to be his undoing, for his hind foot slipped off the apex of the tower, and the rest of his bulk twisted and followed. He howled as he plummeted, colliding with parts of the palace and knocking loose enormous chunks of masonry, which rained down on him. His impact with the ground rumbled like a thousand thunderstorms and threw a billowing cloud of dust several meters into the air. The entire palace and surrounding gardens were rocked violently, and I desperately held on to the tree to keep from falling.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dimitri fighting to remain on his feet during the quake. He failed miserably, and slipped off the balcony crashed into the thorny bushes at its base. I could not help but smile at his pained cry.

  ◆◆◆

  A low rumble echoed far, far overhead.

  All work on the massive pillars s
topped, choking the cavern in near silence. Pyrex looked up, into the perpetual darkness, and a deep frown crept its way across his face. It sounded as if a colossal explosion had rocked the land, causing the supporting pillars below too much stress than what they could handle in their current condition.

  A turbulent snap nearby confirmed Pyrex’s suspicions: The impact had caused too much of a tremor, and pillars were giving out now.

  “Run!” He screamed. “Get out of here, you fools! Go!”

  Every Wakari immediately dropped their tools and bolted for the tunnels that would lead them to safety. Pyrex lingered behind longest, making sure each and every one of his clansmen was evacuating. Then he ran after them, singing as loudly and clearly as he could in hopes of softening the granite just right to fall away from their escape route and prevent it from crushing all of them. Several others lent their voices to his, and the cavern filled with song and the patter of many hustling feet.

  Behind them, cracks shot through the enormous pillars like lightning. Chunks of the cavern’s roof began to rain down, striking the stalagmites and exploding like thunder into rubble. Then the first pillar toppled, colliding with its neighbor hard enough to jar it loose. Both of those collapsed into the next, creating a massive domino effect.

  The hatchlings asked me, "What is it to pray?" I told them that praying is speaking to the higher beings known as the Five Souls. One of the reasons to speak to them is to ask for guidance, another is to ask the Gods to watch over the spirits of the dead. The dragons found the idea of gods to be strange. Then I told them about Khatahn-Rhii, the dragon-shaped God of Wind and Autumn and the inspiration for their creation. They liked Him very much.

  – FROM “THE DIARY OF AMOREZ” BY AMOREZ RENOAN

  Amorez stood with Blood Fang, Aidana, and Black Kat, ready to pass through the force field the moment Zenith created a passage. But the Dragon of the Heavens seemed distracted and hesitant to let them pass beyond the barrier. In fact, both he and the silver Sentinel upon his snout just kept staring at a distant point far beyond what any of them could see.

  “What’s wrong, Zenith?” Amorez surprised herself with how her voice was so calm despite being impatient.

  “I feel a… distortion.” Zenith did not look away from the point of interest as he spoke. His answer brought a fearful frown to Amorez’s face. “It is almost as if space itself is collapsing in a single, miniscule point.”

  “What could possibly cause that?” Asked Black Kat.

  “An exceptionally talented Sorcerer could manage it,” Aidana replied after a moment of thought, “but not for more than a few seconds before they killed themselves from the energy drain.”

  “It has been much longer than a few seconds.” Zenith muttered.

  A pained roar from Hyperion won all of their attention in an instant. Amorez watched the enormous Shadow Dragon as he suddenly reared, lost his footing, and plummeted. With his downfall, the protective barrier he projected vanished with a rush of air. Without a moment’s hesitation, she and the others burst forward, drawing their weapons and fearing the worst.

  ◆◆◆

  The ground continued to shake and rumble even after several minutes, and it showed no signs of letting up any time soon. Suddenly remembering the Wakari’s plan to sink the palace, I jumped into action. I shoved myself away from the tree and hurried towards the balcony as fast as I could. With a simple spell, I jumped and landed neatly on the balcony beside Shazza.

  “This place is coming down. We have to get out of here now.” I explained, rushing to help Thera get Kitfox on his feet. Despite Thera’s magic touch, the Demon was still too weak and shaky from Hyperion’s attack to stand on his own.

  “Here, let me take him.” Shazza said, handing her bow to Kkorian. The pirate grunted and nearly lost his footing when the full weight of the weapon hit him. He made a face at Shazza’s back as she bent to pick Kitfox up. “You owe me, fox boy.”

  Kitfox growled something that sounded like a death threat, and Shazza chuckled.

  “Come on.” I said with a smile. I hopped up on the banister, managing to balance for a moment despite the growing shaking. Then I uttered another spell and jumped off, landing gracefully in the gardens a few meters away from the palace. Shazza landed right beside me with a slight grunt, and the two of us looked back at Thera and Kkorian. The Feykin grabbed Kkorian around the waist and, ignoring his yelps, shoved him over the edge. She spread her ebony wings wide and managed to control the descent to the ground despite the weight in her arms.

  An arm’s length from the ground, Thera released Kkorian and pumped her wings hard several times to regain altitude. Before she could land, a terrifying rumble from deep beneath our feet rocked the land and a long fissure burst into existence a few meters away. Thera remained in the air while the rest of us bolted for the bridge.

  After a few meters, I realized Kkorian was struggling to keep up with Shazza’s bow in his arms. To help him manage the load, I cast a spell to force the bow to hover in the air a short distance from the Dákun Daju. The pirate somehow managed to keep a grip on the back of the bow as it took to the air, and haul himself up on it. Even though we were out of breath, the image of him riding on the bow with his coat and hair flapping madly behind him made us all burst out laughing.

  Our laughter died the instant we saw four figures coming towards us from the other end of the bridge. Unable to tell who they were at such a distance, our escape from the crumbling palace ground to a halt a few meters before the main gate. We prepared for a battle, but with most of us being either weaponless or injured, the outcome could not be prophesized.

  Several tense seconds ticked anxiously by. The shaking grew louder and ever more violent. Several new cracks broke the surface. I remained planted to the ground, ready at any moment to launch a counter attack at those who approached. A flash of silver suddenly streaked through the air, heading right for Thera, and I began to work a spell. Before I could utter the words, one of the four rapidly approaching called my name.

  “It’s Amorez’s team!” Cried Thera as she dove towards them.

  Relief washed over me, and I burst forward with renewed determination to escape. I hadn’t even gone a meter when something snared me around my left ankle and jerked me back. I gasped as I crashed to the ground. My head bounced against the soil, and stars danced before my eyes. Before I had any chance to recover I felt myself being dragged across the ground by the invisible tether. Somehow, I managed to clear the fog in my head and trace the tether towards its origin. There stood a bruised and torn Dimitri, glowering furiously.

  I shot him a look of pure hatred and tried a spell to cut the tether. Dimitri must have bewitched the line to prevent its destruction for all I managed to do is create a few dancing sparks in the air. I cried out for help and my friends quickly sprang into action. When they were just an arm’s length away, Dimitri bellowed a spell and all four of them were sent flying from a violent explosion of fire and air. Just as I began a spell to save them, a wall of crackling, red energy sprang up between us. I shouted a curse unto Dimitri and he merely sneered back.

  “You and I are not done yet.” He growled and jerked the invisible line. I winced as a heated pain similar to rope burn sprang to life around my ankle. “You will pay for what you did to my dragon.”

  “Ha!” I shouted, getting to my feet as fast as I could. “I did everyone who died here today a justice by taking that overgrown bastard down!”

  “Xy!” Amorez called from behind me. I spared her a glance over my shoulder, finding her dangerously close to the energized barrier. She was a mess of dried blood, gore, and dirt. And her left arm was missing from the middle of her bicep down. There was a look of absolute terror written on her face. “Xy, I can’t force the barrier to drop.”

  I nodded in understanding. I glanced back at Dimitri, then at the shaking land all around. Several more fissures had sprung to life, some large enough to swallow the trees and statues that dotted the yard. Finally, I ret
urned my gaze to her. “You should leave.”

  “What?!” Shouted Kitfox. I looked to him, seeing him half supported by Blood Fang and trying to escape. His amber eyes swam with a mix of hurt, fear, and anger. “I’m not leaving you here alone to fight that… that…”

  “You have no choice.” I said. As if taking a cue, a deep crack exploded into existence right between us. Shards of stone and clumps of dirt were sent flying in all directions. A thunderous rumble bellowed from somewhere on the opposite side of the palace, and a dust cloud appeared over the trees seconds later. “You have to go. Now.”

  “But..”

  “Please, My Love.”

  He growled his displeasure at the situation, but I could tell his resolve was about to cave. “I’ll only leave if you can promise me that you’ll kill that bastard so we can be together again.”

  I smiled through a sob. “I promise, you and I will be having dinner together tonight.”

  Kitfox nodded and wiped a tear away. Finally he gave in, allowing himself to slump heavily against Blood Fang.

  Another fierce jolt of the ground forced everyone into evacuation mode. Weapons and the injured were swiftly gathered and they began to leave. They paused a moment to wish me luck and mutter curses unto Dimitri, and then they were gone.

  I took a deep breath and forced myself to face my greatest foe. Dimitri stood with his arms crossed and a bored look on his face.

  He scoffed and uncrossed his arms. “About time you finished with all that useless touchy-feely crap.”

  My hands found their way to my belt by instinct, and a cold jolt of panic swept through me when I realized I had lost my fans. I swore silently and scanned the area for a sign of my weapons.

  Dimitri loosed an infuriating laugh, drawing my attention back to him. He freed his dual sword from its sheath and flourished it in spirals at his sides. “Still think you can beat me without your precious war fans?”