by Riley Storm
“Galen,” she called at the retreating dragon’s back. “Wait.”
He paused, running a hand through his hair as he waited for her to catch up to him.
“You’ve tried to awaken the rest of the dragons?” she asked, putting the gate at her back and continuing to walk back toward Drakon Keep.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to just open a portal back. So much walking!
“Yes,” he said, biting the word off.
She stared at him, not impressed with his attitude toward her question.
“Why do you want to know?” he asked with a sigh.
“Like you said,” she explained. “If you shifters lose, then we can expect to have trouble as well.” She looked skyward. “This goes against everything I was told. I was to stay neutral, to not get involved in anything.”
“I’m sure that’s all you were told,” Galen grumbled. “I’m sure your vaunted Archmage didn’t make any comment whatsoever about you striking at us if the opportunity presented itself.”
“The Archmage isn’t here right now,” she snapped. “I am, and I’m offering you my help.”
Galen lifted his eyebrows in silent question.
“If you’re telling the truth. If the vampires are real. Then the stakes are high. Higher than they’ve been since the last days of the war between our kinds.” She looked up into the bright blue morning sky, noting the line of gray clouds moving in.
“And your point is?” Galen pressed.
“My point is, that I can’t stay neutral. Not if I have the chance to help,” she said, wondering if this was the best course of action after all.
“Help? How could one mage help us? You’re strong, very strong. But you’re just one. Besides, I’m not sure your Council would approve of this.”
Kyla smiled tightly. “The Council is operating on flawed logic. You know this as much as I do now. They think you’ve brought all the other Houses under your command. That you are ruling them all now, getting ready to strike at the mages.”
Galen sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you? Even if the vampires weren’t a threat, as long as you don’t break the Accords or cause us trouble, we don’t care. War isn’t something we want, nor are we looking forward to it, Kyla. We just want peace. To find our mates, to raise our young, and maybe, just maybe, gather a big pile of gold.”
She couldn’t help but smile at that last. “A dragon sure does love his treasure,” she said, and Galen nodded along with her. “But there won’t be any more treasure if the vampires win. And you need all the help you can get.”
The dragon king went still at her reminder.
“What are you suggesting then?” he asked, now more curious than anything.
“You told me that the magic didn’t work,” she said slowly. “That it didn’t awaken the other dragons the way you wanted.”
Galen nodded slowly. “Yes. It’s…more complicated than that, but that is the gist of it, yes. Only the five of us are awake. The artifact, it didn’t awaken the rest like we were told it would, in times of need.”
Kyla steeled herself for his outburst. “Let me try.”
His mouth dropped wide open. “What?”
She scratched at the back of her neck, trying to shrug off the shiver that had run down her spine at the look he’d given her. “I know, I know. It’s crazy. Absolutely crazy. I saw how you reacted to me just being in there, but think about it, Galen.”
The dragon king seemed ready to pick her up and throw her over the gates at the mere suggestion. So why was she continuing to argue her side, to try and convince him? What was pushing her to want to help him and his brothers?
“How could you help?” he asked disdainfully. “You don’t know anything about it.”
Kyla crossed her arms and just stared at Galen, waiting for him to realize the level of disrespect he’d just given her.
“What?” he snapped after a moment.
“Tell me then, Galen Drakon, King of House Draconis. What do you know about the process of reanimating a stone dragon?” she challenged.
Galen opened his mouth to respond immediately, then clamped it shut, a small crease in his forehead the only sign that he was thinking her words over.
“You said there was an artifact that awakens them, is this correct?”
He nodded. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Too late, cat’s out of the bag now,” she said, waving it off. “You know how to use it, that much is obvious since some of you are awake. But tell me, do you know how it works? Do you know what actually happens?”
Galen shook his head bitterly. “No,” he admitted after a moment. “Just how to use it. But you don’t know anything about it either,” he pointed out.
“No, but there’s one thing I know better than you,” she said. “Magic.”
She held up a hand as Galen started to speak again.
“You dragons, you can use magic. Naturally. You just do it,” she said. “At least according to our texts. But we study it. We learn it, we experiment with it. I could never match your mastery of the wind, Galen, but I would argue that you cannot come close to my knowledge of magic and how it works.”
The big dragon shifter closed his mouth and looked over her head. She let him think in silence, knowing that right now wasn’t the proper time to interrupt him. He needed to accept her offer of help, and she couldn’t force him into it.
This is crazy, she thought to herself as the implications of it all settled in. So why does it feel so right, helping the dragons?
But it wasn’t the dragons that she felt right helping, Kyla realized even as she thought it. No, it was one dragon in particular. One big, proud, well-endowed king of all dragons. That was who she wanted to help. Who she wanted to stay around.
“Tell me,” she said quietly once their eyes met again. “What do you have to lose?”
Chapter 13
“This is a bad idea,” Victor growled. “Letting a mage discover our most sacred of places, and touch the artifact. What if she breaks it?”
Galen could sense the assembled irritation from the others, and he knew that his choice didn’t sit well with them. It was also the first time he had made a decision as King without their input, and he realized it might be his last. If he was wrong about Kyla…
He wasn’t, though Galen wasn’t sure how he knew.
“The decision is made,” he said, cutting off further protest.
Nor did he bother to tell them that Kyla had been down in the cavern before. They didn’t need to know that, just as they didn’t need to know what had occurred in the chamber above, where Kyla and he had battled.
You did more than just battle the mage.
Galen shoved that thought from his mind. Each time he relived that memory, he was filled with guilt, with anger at himself for being weak. For so long he had been strong, and it irked him to know he’d fallen under her spell, even if just for a few moments.
I am stronger than that.
“Have you considered all the outcomes of this?” Aaric said, standing off to the left, arms crossed unhappily. “What she might be able to do with the knowledge you’ve given her?”
Galen shot his defacto second-in-command a look. “What do you mean?”
“She’s examining the artifact,” Aaric said bluntly, pointing to where Kyla stood in the very center of the cavern, holding the black box in her hands. “What if she learns how it works, how the spell works? What if she can do something with it?”
“Like wake up the rest of our kin?” Valla countered.
The other four dragons turned to look at him. Galen was surprised the youngest had spoken up in challenge the way he had, though he wasn’t disappointed. Valla was slowly finding his voice among the others, and Galen liked who the young dragon was becoming. He would make a fine choice to replace him as King one day.
If we survive that long.
“I’m not comfortable with this either,” Valla said to the curious looks directed
his way. “But we have to consider the fact that the five of us, we aren’t enough. We all fought the elder vampire. Honorius is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. He held us all off like it was nothing. A casual display of his powers in the middle of the day.” Valla pointed at Kyla. “We need all the help we can get, and if she can awaken even one more dragon, it increases our chances.”
Aaric shook his head. “What if she’s not on our side, like she says? Consider that outcome, brothers. With the artifact in hand, she could learn the spell.”
“And then what, never use it?” Valla snorted. “That seems pointless.”
“Or she could reverse it,” Aaric said. “She could put us all back to sleep.”
The others stiffened in alarm at this proclamation. Galen did not, for two reasons.
First, he trusted Kyla, though given that he couldn’t identify why, he would not be able to convince the others that she wasn’t here to hurt or betray them. But it was his second point that trumped the others anyway.
“And what if she does?” he said with a shrug, not particularly caring. “She could send us to sleep and bury us here. Maybe. I don’t know. But how is that all that different than going out and dying to the vampires? The overall result to the rest of the world is the exact same.”
“He’s right,” Victor said. “I don’t like it, but he’s right. We’re in a hopeless situation right now, my brothers.”
Galen nodded, appreciative of the support from a once critical voice. He didn’t need them to like his decision. Just respect it.
“We need any advantage we can get,” he said quietly. “No matter how crazy or far-fetched it sounds. Anything that might help us win the day. Otherwise, nothing we do will matter. This is the fight of our lives, brothers. More so, I daresay, then even the last battles against the mages. Because if we die this time, then the blackness of the vampires will spread across the world, and all of humanity will suffer. We must take chances. For them.”
The other dragons hung their heads, absorbing his words. Galen let them think, let them reflect on everything that they had to lose. These were desperate times, and the dragons must be willing to take desperate measures.
Not just for themselves, but for his four brothers at least, for their mates, and their babies. He hated forcing them to think that way, hated the despair that it brought over his House, but Galen could see no other way.
They must be willing to risk everything to protect those that they held dear.
Leaving them to their thoughts, he walked across the cavern floor to where Kyla was now sitting, eyes closed while turning the box over and over in her hands. He couldn’t imagine what she might be seeing behind those eyelids, but she didn’t seem to have given up yet. That alone was progress, he hoped.
“This is amazing,” she said softly. “It’s magic, and yet…and yet there’s more to it. Almost like it’s…programmed. Like a computer.”
Galen frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean like, think of magic that could be designed by someone behind a keyboard. It feels manufactured. Like someone designed the magic with the aid of a machine. I don’t know how to explain it,” she said excitedly. “But I’ve never felt anything like it. Where did you say you got the artifact from?”
Galen shrugged. Then, realizing she couldn’t see him, he responded. “I don’t know. It’s been in our possession for as long as I’m aware. Many of our leaders used it to leapfrog through the down years of our conflict with you, going to sleep and awakening when they were needed. But I’m not aware that anyone knows the truth behind it. The origins of our people are…murky.”
“Either way, this is amazing.”
“But can you get it to work?” he asked cautiously, not letting himself hope.
“I can activate it,” she said. “That’s fairly easy. I…I don’t know if it will do what we want it to though. This is…beyond me. It’s probably beyond the Archmage. No human could do this, Galen. Not that are alive today.”
He nodded. “But you can turn it on.”
“I think. I just…I don’t know if it will actually work. There’s, I don’t know how to describe it to you. It’s complicated, and I don’t know if everything is here.”
“Something is missing, you mean.”
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” she said, at last opening her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Galen studied her, then the artifact, considering his options. There weren’t any. He had to try.
“Activate it,” he said, then retreated to the edge of the cavern, near to where he had deactivated the wards, to allow Kyla to use her full powers in the room.
The dragons held their breath as Kyla stood and magic began to pulse from her hand.
“Hold on to your butts,” Galen said quietly as she fed energy into the artifact.
At first it just absorbed it, sucking in all the jade energy she could feed it, like a hungry child with an insatiable appetite.
“What is she doing?” Aaric asked as nothing seemed to change.
“Working,” Galen hissed, angry at the doubt in his brother’s voice. He believed in Kyla. He knew she could do this, that she just wanted to help. Why couldn’t the others see the same?
The uncomfortable shuffling of the dragons stopped as the artifact pulsed with golden light, bathing Kyla and the immediate area around her in its glow. She continued to feed it with magic, however, and the circle of light grew larger and larger.
The artifact began to rise into the air, of its own accord or because of what Kyla was doing he didn’t know, but as it rose, more of the cavern was covered in its brilliant touch. Dragon statues were bathed in the rich golden aura, but still the artifact grew brighter. Kyla lifted another hand, and both palms sent streams of green energy into the artifact, only to turn into more light.
“It’s working,” Valla said quietly, the dragons awed by the sight in front of them.
“It’s beautiful,” Galen remarked, his eyes on Kyla.
The light eventually grew so bright that they were forced to shield their eyes from it, looking only at the statues that were covered in its touch. He waited patiently for the spell to reach its peak. To swirl out and over the sleeping dragons and awaken them all.
Galen grinned. The vampires were in for a fight now! He could just imagine the swarms of elder dragons as they took to the skies to fight back the gathering darkness outside of Drakon Keep. What a show it would be.
We’re coming for you, Honorius. Your time on this earth is about to come to an end.
The light exploded into a brilliance that had everyone crying out and averting their gaze entirely, eyelids screwed shut against the brightness.
The wave of magic washed over Galen and his brothers like a shockwave, a physical thing that rocked them back a step. Then it was gone, and the cavern once more was lit only by the flickering torches on the perimeter.
Galen stood, trying to watch every statue at once. He waited for the telltale crumbling, the sharp cracks as stone was split asunder, freeing the mighty dragons from within.
“How much longer?” Victor asked after several more seconds had passed.
“Maybe it takes longer, because it’s waking so many up at once,” Valla suggested.
Galen looked down. “No, that’s not it,” he said quietly. “It didn’t work. It failed.”
The others sagged, distraught as the hope they’d let flare up crumbled and died as one.
Kyla came over to him, somber and dejected. She gave him the artifact, placing it gingerly in his hands.
“I’m sorry,” she said, hanging her head. “I’m so sorry. I thought it was going to work.”
“Me too,” Galen said. “Me too.”
What was he supposed to do now?
Chapter 14
Kyla felt terrible.
Like the dragons, she’d thought that the spell was working. The artifact had responded to her touch, to the magic she fed into it. Kyla could feel the spell unfolding, feel
the strength of it as it built. Yet she’d been unable to shake the feeling that something was missing from it.
Despite the power, it lacked the proper sequence to unlock the dragons from their shell. That was the best that she could interpret, her impression at least. The spell was far too complicated for her to truly understand, and not for the first time she wondered just who, or what, had created it.
“I thought I had it,” she said, head lowered in defeat, and embarrassment. “I…I’m sorry Galen. I didn’t mean to get your hopes up.”
The big dragon shifter shook his head. “It’s not your fault, Kyla. You tried. For that, I thank you. It was worth an effort, and you gave it your all, that much we could see.”
She shrugged. “I still failed.”
“It just isn’t meant to be then,” the dragon king said heavily. “But now I think it is time for you to go. We have much we must do.”
“Yeah.” Kyla had no other words at that time.
Galen carefully handed the artifact off to one of the other dragons, then gestured for her to head up the hallway to the stairs. She nodded in apology to the others and then took her leave, heading out.
Her foot had just landed on the bottommost step when a hand came to rest on her shoulder. She turned to see Galen right behind her.
“Come here,” he said, slipping the hand from her shoulder and leaving it extended just in front of her as he stepped back into the center of the spiral staircase.
“What is it?” she asked, taking his hand without a second thought and letting herself be pulled off the stairs.
Galen pulled her unexpectedly close and she put her hands up to stop herself from slamming into him. They came to rest on his chest and she felt the power beating there, the strength of his muscles and the rhythm of his heart.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Um. I guess?” She was too confused to answer properly.
“Hold on.” Galen took her arms and wrapped them around his waist, then he did the same to her.