by P. R. Adams
Rains had taken away the worst of the clinging stench of ash, but there was no washing away the horrific loss of life.
How many thousands had died during the attack?
Garelan was dead. Empty. Nothing stood between his team and the crypt. Nothing stood between them and facing the mad wizard and his dragons.
It was time.
Tarlayn took the lead, the base of her staff creating a steady rhythm as she descended the winding stone steps leading into the bowels of the university. The drone-prophet followed close behind her, giving off just enough pale blue light to make the descent possible.
Riyun’s heart raced. It wasn’t just the sense of imminent danger brought on by the smell of ancient dust coating the tight stone space. Nor was it the welcome absence of aches and pains after much-needed rest. What had him charged was the realization that facing Meriscoya wasn’t just about saving the team or going home, but about saving this world. It was easy to brush off Alush and the concept of prophecy, but it was impossible to ignore the pain of obliteration caused by the mad wizard.
Javika stayed close to Riyun’s side, saying nothing but watching him.
After several long minutes, the spiral stairs deposited them in a low, stone hall with heavy arches set at regular intervals. Beyond each arch, thick wooden doors blocked what could be rooms or perhaps other passageways.
The wizard led them to the end of the hall and signaled for Lonar to open the door there.
Riyun held up a hand to stop the big man. “Tarlayn, is this it?”
Emerald light flashed at the end of her staff as she turned. “Beyond this door is a chamber that opens onto several crypts. What we seek is in the crypt at the far end.”
“And you can’t tell us what that crypt holds?”
She tapped the glowing stone against the door impatiently, and it shuddered open. “If you are too frightened to look upon it, why not stay here?”
Alush floated past her, then hesitated in the doorway. “Destiny calls you, Riyun Molliro. Do not ignore the summons.”
Riyun was tempted to unsling his carbine and put a burst into the drone–prophet. If there was some call of destiny, it was too quiet to be heard. What he did hear was that there was the possibility of finding the tool that could destroy a threat everyone wanted dead.
So he signaled for the others to hold position, then pushed past the drone and crossed the inner chamber until the opposite door blocked the way. The glow from the wizard’s staff and drone barely touched him. “I think we’ve all heard enough about destiny. It’s time to start talking about taking charge of the situation.”
Before Tarlayn could stop him, Riyun drove his shoulder into the door. The impact rattled through his body, reminding his joints of their recent injuries.
But the door gave.
He pushed it aside and turned his flashlight on.
The chamber beyond the door was disappointing. Maybe twenty feet on a side, with narrow arches opening into smaller chambers to the left and right. Each chamber held a stone sarcophagus. But opposite the door he’d opened, an alcove held something curious: a staff.
Not something mostly functional, like Tarlayn’s, but an ornate and intricately fashioned device like the one in the Total Rewrite blue glass chamber that had transported them to this world.
“What?” Riyun stepped closer to it.
A prop. Nothing but a prop. That’s all the artifact was when they saw it. How could this be any different? Beraga and one of his people had actually made fun of the things, hadn’t they?
Power incarnate?
Wood struck stone, and he felt Tarlayn approaching even before the light from her gem filled the chamber. She gasped. “I knew it was here.”
There was reverence in her voice. She really thought this was something. Maybe Riyun was too dim to see it. “What is it?”
She stopped before the alcove, hand outstretched, fingers trembling. “Salvation.”
He couldn’t stop thinking of the prop Beraga had treated with such casual disregard. “I need more than salvation. What is it?”
Tarlayn pulled the staff from the alcove. She blinked in awe. “This is the most powerful artifact ever devised. Boriani, the wizard who created this, had a connection with the Chaos Abyss that no one has ever matched. And with this…” She raised the staff to tap the ceiling, unleashing a brilliant, pure, white light.
And they stood once again in the banquet hall.
Dizziness washed over Riyun, and he wasn’t sure for a moment what was up or down or left or right. He’d been on a battlefield far away for an instant, ducking beneath a burst of brilliant fire in the sky. “How—?”
The wizard chuckled. “This! This! I told you—”
Her words were lost in the thundering crash of something massive shattering the roof above them. Stone cracked, wooden beams snapped, and pieces of masonry plunged to the floor before exploding.
And then the horrifying wedge-shaped head of Niyalki poked through the largest opening.
It had been waiting for them. It had known.
Riyun stumbled toward the outer doorways, assuring himself that he knew what he was doing. “Out!”
But the others looked just as disoriented as he felt. They staggered into each other, into the walls, or simply fell to the floor.
And the sulfuric smell that preceded the inevitable dragon cough filled the banquet hall.
They needed to get out! Now!
Riyun helped Javika to her feet, then the two of them helped Lonar up.
The sapphire glow of Alush acted like a beacon far, far away. “Come!”
How long did they have? A second? A few? Riyun pulled Quil to his feet. “Follow the drone!”
Tarlayn held the artifact up toward the dragon. “Turn back, Ancient One! You cannot stand against me now!”
The dragon shook its mighty head, clearing away even more of the roof with a terrible crash and revealing in the process a rider on its back.
Meriscoya had come, riding the back of his giant servant!
There was no need for a photograph or video for Riyun to know who he was seeing now. How could it not be obvious to the others? “Tarlayn!”
She turned her back toward him. “Meriscoya! This horror you have brought upon the world must end!”
The mad wizard frowned. “This will only end when our freedom has been granted us.”
That nose. Those eyes.
Riyun brought his Devastator around and sighted on the dragon’s head. The rest of the team stumbled and staggered through the doorway, moving like infants taking their first steps. There would be no escaping the fire if it came, not as out of sorts as they were.
Tarlayn shook her head. “Freedom is an illusion. We are all slaves to our fates. Stop this. End the madness, or I will.”
The dragon squeezed its shoulders through the breach in the roof, and it opened its mouth. On its back, the younger wizard pulled a staff of his own from an ornate saddle. “I refuse to accept slavery as my fate, and I condemn you for exactly that.”
“Our love—”
“It was never love, Tarlayn.”
The old woman’s face pinched in anger, and she whispered something that caused the artifact to glow like the sun.
Instead of a cough, the dragon let out a deep squeal as more masonry clattered to the floor.
Then the giant creature’s wings beat.
Seconds passed before Riyun’s vision returned. Black splotches danced before him as he backed along the wall, using his hands to guide him. Someone grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him roughly along.
“This way!” It was Lonar. The tweak was hauling his lieutenant along like a duffel bag.
Riyun had just enough time to glance back into the banquet hall—a ruin, the roof all but gone, the floor covered in debris. Tarlayn stood in the center, her staff in her right hand, the artifact in the other, both raised to the sky. He couldn’t make out details, but she exuded calm and confidence.
There was no sign of the dragon or of Meriscoya.
Lonar stopped. “Need to set you down here. We—”
A dark shape dropped onto the opening of the roof, and the entire hall shook from the impact. Snaking streamers of smoke curled up from the giant monster’s head and neck, and it appeared as if the scaly hide that was all but impenetrable to small arms fire was now peeling and cracked. On its back, the mad wizard glared. He was surrounded by a deep, violet glow, but the robes he wore also seemed to smolder. Half his face was a brilliant red, the black hair cooked away.
That baldness made the resemblance unmistakable.
The tweak gasped. “Beraga?”
Finally! Riyun winced. “Yeah.”
The mad wizard pointed his staff at Tarlayn. “You can’t stop me, old woman. Nothing can.”
Purple energy so dark that it approached black leapt from the end of his staff, wrapping around Tarlayn’s left arm. And in the blink of an eye, that arm withered to bone.
She groaned. “No.”
“It’s over.” The magical energy from Meriscoya’s staff wrapped around her throat. “Our world is dead.”
Then the giant dragon coughed, filling the banquet hall with fire hotter than a star.
44
Rock scraped somewhere above Riyun, and dust rained onto his face. He coughed and spat the bitter powder out, then a stream of coughing shook him. His skin was tender, like sunburn, especially on his face and neck.
“Lightning! Lieutenant!” It was Lonar again—muffled and distant. The tweak always seemed to be there when things fell apart.
Or when they fell in.
That’s what had happened. The fireball the dragon had spat out had been like a miniature sun. So much pressure, so much heat, and the northwestern section of the Lyceum had already been damaged. So it had all simply collapsed.
And they had somehow survived.
At least Riyun and Lonar had. But it sounded like more. Rocks were clacking and thudding far too quickly for a single person to be pulling them off, even one as powerful as the big man.
Riyun twisted, then froze, grimacing. He was pinned in, squeezed between large blocks of stone. He felt around in the dark and found something small leaning against his chest. His gloves made it almost impossible to make out fine details, so he bit into one and tugged his hand free. Now he could make out what the item was: his flashlight.
He flicked it on. The stone all around him should have been black from soot. Instead, it was green.
Emerald.
But the color was fading.
Tarlayn. She’d somehow managed to protect them, just like at the boarding house.
Heavier scraping brought his attention up again in time for another face full of dust. He blinked and spat and shook his head. Before he could ready himself, a rumble of heavy rock silenced him.
Light broke through, then Lonar’s face filled the hole. “Well, lookie there.”
Someone shoved the big man’s head aside, then another face was there.
Javika. Her lips pressed tight in anger and concern. “You are alive?”
It wasn’t clear if she meant that as threatening or not. Riyun went with not. “At the moment.”
She seemed to grow angrier. “You are in pain?”
“Like I spent the entire day on the beach at the height of summer.”
Her head pulled back, then more hands grabbed clumps of stone and pulled them away. Before long, those hands were prying him free, lifting him out, and setting him on his butt.
Riyun recognized the diggers now: Lonar, of course, and Javika, but also Quil and Hirvok. And there were others tossing the rocks away: Symbra and Naru.
They had all made it out. There was even the sapphire glow of Alush coming from a still-standing portion of the southern structure.
Hirvok snorted. “I can’t believe I almost fell for it.”
Riyun wiped dust from his face. “Sorry? Fell for what?”
“Her whole ‘I can destroy him’ nonsense.” The sergeant handed Riyun his helmet, which must have been knocked free when everything fell apart.
“Don’t feel bad. I did, too.”
The moon was still a silvery disc in the black sky. After a second, Riyun realized nothing really remained of the hall they had retreated into. In fact, little of the Lyceum stood other than the southwestern quarter. There had to have been more than just the dragon’s breath behind the destruction.
Hirvok cautiously descended from the top of the rubble, most of which was blackened by the fire. “Okay, what do we do now?”
“Same thing we were planning to do before: We kill Meriscoya.” Riyun accepted Javika’s offered hand and found his balance. “The only thing that’s changed is that we’re doing it on our own.”
The sergeant spun around. “Say again?”
“We hunt this bastard down.”
“Maybe you didn’t notice, but this entire place was blown to pieces.” Exasperation oozed from Hirvok. “The team was nearly wiped out—” He snapped his fingers. “—like that.”
“But we weren’t.” Riyun turned to Lonar.
The heavy weapons specialist looked away. “Magic, Lieutenant. We should be dead.”
“We should have been killed at the boarding house. We didn’t stop then.” Riyun turned to Symbra. “This guy is going to kill everything in this world if we don’t stop him.”
The young woman bit her lip. “It’s down to us now. No wizard.”
“We can’t just turn away, Symbra. He won’t let us. You know that.”
“Would it be a waste of our life if we don’t take advantage of this unlikely survival? It seems like a gift we should accept.”
“To do what? If we don’t kill him, no one will.”
“What if we can’t kill him? If Tarlayn couldn’t, how can we?”
“We find someone who can. That artifact she had—she hurt that dragon. She hurt Meriscoya.” He stared at Naru. “What about this game design you talked about? There’s a point where the heroes start to win? Right? You said we would be beat down until we were ready for the boss fight. Well, we’ve been beat down, haven’t we? And now we have that artifact. We’re ready.”
Naru’s eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t believe.”
“It’s not just a game? Sure. But it’s something. With that artifact—”
“I-it’s gone.”
“It can’t be gone. Did you see what she did with it? That light, the way it lit everything up? It burned both of them. It drove them away.”
“They came back and killed her.”
“We weren’t ready for them. If we’d helped—”
“You asked for a powerful weapon, didn’t you? Well, she had one.”
“I know! And it almost worked! That artifact is real. I thought it was fake, just like the one we saw in the glass chamber, but it’s real. It’s still here. It has to be.”
Quil pinched his chin. “If we did not see the staff destroyed, then perhaps it did survive.”
Naru shook her head. “No! They killed her, and she was the only one who could use it. It’s gone. Even if it’s not, none of us can use it. We’re not wizards. She said it took a wizard. A special wizard.”
“Not necessarily.” The pseudo frowned. “Many stories are designed with the idea of a false champion. She might have been misdirection the entire time.”
Riyun blinked. “What? You never said anything about a false champion.”
“It is not the most common of structures in fantasy stories.”
“But it’s something that’s done?”
“This—” The hacker groaned. “Listen to yourselves, the two of you. This isn’t a game. We were wrong. You said it yourself. Symbra’s right. We can’t stop this wizard. If he wants to blow up the world, it’s going to happen.”
Riyun tried to wave the hacker down, to cool her off. “Think about this as if it were a game.”
“I just told you, it’s not.”
“I hear you, but liste
n to me for a second. If this were a game, we just survived what we shouldn’t have survived. Right? Didn’t we?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “That describes everything that’s happened since we arrived here. Magic and luck saved us every time.”
“Even better. Doesn’t that sound like…” Riyun squinted and looked to Quil for help. “What am I looking for here, Quil? What is it where we survive when we shouldn’t be?”
“Destiny?” The pseudo cocked his head. “We are the chosen ones.”
“Chosen ones!” Riyun pointed to the dark sky. “As far as Meriscoya is concerned, we are dead. He was focused on Tarlayn’s magic, right? We have a window to operate within, free of his awareness.”
Hirvok threw his arms up in frustration. “How can you even believe that?”
“Because if he knew we were still alive, he’d be here already with that dragon, and they would burn the last of this place into so much lava.”
“Fine! So if they really think we’re dead, we need to run.”
“When you have the advantage of surprise, you don’t run from the enemy. You strike.”
“Unless that enemy is a nuclear weapon with wings, then you run as fast as you can.”
Javika pressed herself against Riyun’s side and glared at the sergeant. “Then run.” She looked from Hirvok to Symbra, then to Naru and Lonar. “Riyun and I will hunt this wizard down. We will protect you while you flee.”
“Uh-uh!” Hirvok chortled. “Don’t even try that. You can’t trick us into throwing in with this idiocy.”
Lonar’s shoulders sagged. “There isn’t really any other choice.”
“What? You’re going to go along with them? That’s suicide, big guy.”