Dragonwatch, vol. 4: Champion of the Titan Games

by Brandon Mull

  Jinzen was half roaring, half screaming. Kendra crouched low, hands over her ears.

  “My eyes!” Jinzen yelled. “You devils will pay for that trick.” It sounded like he was colliding with mirror after mirror, flopping around haphazardly. “You will pay dearly!”

  “Everyone lie low,” Warren shouted. “This overhyped dragon is mine. After I smash more of his things. Where is the little worm? Is he hiding?”

  Kendra got down flat on her stomach and pressed into the juncture where the floor met the wall. Glancing at the ring, she noticed that the white stones forming a unicorn were gone, with empty sockets in their place. Somehow her energy had consumed them.

  She could see a reflection of Warren walking, clutching two large poleaxes with huge, semicircular blades. Arms unsteadily straining, he dragged the butts of the axes on the floor to manage the weight, keeping one facing ahead of himself, one behind. He chattered nonstop.

  “What’s the matter, Jinzen?” Warren taunted. “Do you think if you close your eyes we can’t see you?”

  Kendra no longer heard the dragon crashing into things. Was he keeping still? Had his sight returned? Did he have his mirror maze memorized? Gilded lengths of dragon flickered in the mirrors, and Kendra heard a whistling rush of air.

  “A lot of dragons get slow in their old age,” Warren heckled, arms wobbling, trying to keep the axes stable. “And they become so fussy about their weird possessions.”

  Kendra saw Jinzen speed directly into the ax Warren held behind himself, the dragon splitting down the middle for nearly a third of his length before slamming to the floor, dragging Warren with him. After sliding to a stop, Jinzen did not move.

  Arising, Kendra chased the reflections of the motionless dragon in the wrong direction several times before making her way to the actual corpse. She arrived at the same time as Raxtus and found Warren bent sickeningly out of shape.

  “I’m okay,” Warren claimed, responding to her expression. “No pain. I’m already regaining my normal form. Great flash, Kendra! I could sense it with my eyes shut. It did the trick.”

  “You taunted him into flying right at you,” Kendra said.

  “He had flung me into a treasure pile,” Warren said. “I found the axes right after your flash. He could hear which way I was facing and tried to take me from behind. I caught a glimpse of his milky white eyes just before impact. He was blind as a bat. Ran straight into the ax.”

  Reflections of Tanu staggered into view. Minutes later, his actual form rounded a nearby corner, peaked and panting. “That speed potion takes a lot out of a guy.”

  Somewhere, they heard Vanessa quietly weeping.

  Warren scowled, unsteadily rising. “Vanessa?”

  She didn’t answer, but the soft crying continued.

  “That isn’t like her,” Warren said.

  “This way,” Raxtus offered.

  The fairy dragon led them through many twists and turns. Kendra kept her eyes on Raxtus and tried to ignore the disorienting parade of reflections. They found Vanessa just outside the maze, in a luxurious area heaped with treasure. The shards of a broken vase lay nearby on the floor.

  Vanessa sat on a mound of gold coins, face in her hands, shoulders shaking. Warren went to her, but she swiveled away at his touch.

  “Vanessa, what’s wrong?” Warren asked.

  “I’m so foolish,” she lamented through her sobs.

  “You did great,” Warren said. “We got Jinzen.”

  “I knew not to look,” Vanessa said with self-loathing. “I was an instant too late. The whole maze went supernova. I’ve compromised my role on this mission.”

  Her hands dropped to reveal her milky white eyes.

  Merek stopped just before the stairs led into a circular room littered with bones. Seth stood next to him staring at the morbid jumble of skeletons, some plainly human, others clearly not.

  “Is it a lair?” Seth asked.

  “See the black stone in the middle of the floor?” Merek asked. “The one rising above the bones?”

  “The blocky one?” Seth checked. “With little veins of red?”

  “There is something wrong with that stone,” Merek said. “Do you see the dimness around it? As if it pollutes the nearby light. Or maybe absorbs it.”

  Testing with his shadow-charming senses, Seth could feel the rock had a deep, though alien, awareness. He perceived no words—just a profound hunger.

  “It’s hungry,” Seth said.

  “Yes,” Merek said. “Certain rocks are more aware than others. I’ve run across some ancient ones that have developed strong identities, along with peculiar attitudes and appetites. That is no ordinary rock. Bones carpet the room for a reason.”

  “Want me to check it out?” Calvin offered.

  “No,” Merek said, removing Serena from his pocket. “Most living creatures who enter that room don’t stay alive for long. I’m a little different, though.” He handed Serena to Seth.

  “Are you sure about this?” Seth asked.

  “Who can be sure about a malevolent rock?” Merek said. “Keep your guard up.”

  Merek stepped into the room. He turned back to Seth and nodded. “It’s draining my life away.”

  “Get out,” Seth urged.

  “I have life to give,” Merek said, picking his way through the bones toward the stone.

  “So do I,” Seth countered. “I wouldn’t mind getting a few years older.”

  “It doesn’t make you older,” Merek said, lying down with his chest atop the rock. “It saps your life. A baby would wither and die in here, not grow. Come through the room. It’s feeding completely from me. Hurry.”

  Seth raced into the room, stumbling on some bones as he hastily crossed. Once he passed through the far doorway, he turned to Merek and called, “I made it.”

  “Get well into the hall,” Merek said.

  Seth complied as Merek got off the rock and rejoined him.

  “You look the same,” Seth said.

  “I’m one of the undying,” Merek said. “I have an inexhaustible supply of life. And one like me could never carry the Unforgiving Blade. That room should have thwarted anyone who could wield it. Look! More stairs.”

  Up they climbed, winding to unguessable heights within the thick walls of the pyramid. Seth wondered how quickly a normal person would have died in the room with the black rock.

  “Have you ever died?” Seth asked.

  “Many times,” Merek said. “And I am always reborn.”

  “You remember multiple lives?” Seth asked.

  “I do since you restored my memories,” Merek said. “Mine is a long history. Being reborn can play tricks with your recollections. So can long periods of inaction. Certain types of memory lapses can be regenerative, like sleep, allowing a person to rest and recharge.”

  From up ahead they heard a continuous, earthy grinding. When they reached the next doorway, they found a circular room with a rock floor that sloped into the walls like a shallow bowl. Circling inside the bowl was a spherical stone ball, tall enough to reach Seth’s chin.

  “I don’t trust it,” Merek said.

  Seth tried to get a sense of the stone ball with his power and was surprised to hear words repeating, like a mind stuck on a looping thought.

  All who enter must be crushed. All who enter must be crushed. All who enter must be crushed. All who enter . . .

  Why crush people? Seth asked.

  The repeating mantra halted, and the ball swerved slightly off course, interrupting its perfectly circular route. You hear me?

  It must be tough having the same purpose for so long, Seth communicated.

  It is my mandate, the stone replied.

  Who gave the command? Seth asked.

  One who reached me long ago, the stone replied.

  Like I am reaching you now? Seth asked.

  Much like this, yes, the stone acknowledged.

  I have a new command, Seth conveyed. You can finally rest.

 
I can rest? the stone verified. No more crushing all who enter?

  Rest, and crush no more, Seth soothed.

  As you command.

  The stone ball lazily spiraled to the bottom of the bowl until it settled and became still.

  “The ball was going to crush anyone who entered the room,” Seth reported. “I gave it new instructions, like I would with the undead. Might be smart to keep our guard up, just in case.” Seth probed with his power. “The ball seems quiet now.”

  “Let me go first,” Merek said, stepping gingerly into the room. He walked lightly to the other side of the shallow bowl and out the far doorway.

  Seth followed. The stone ball never budged.

  More stairs continued upward. Seth’s leg muscles were burning when at last the stairs ended at a wall of boulders. Merek stepped forward, hands running gently over the fitted stones.

  “Well, we tried,” Seth said, panting from the climb. “At least we got some exercise.”

  Merek looked at him dubiously.

  Seth winked. “Let me check for a hidden door.”

  As he had done at the bottom of the stairs, Seth mentally searched for a lock and was surprised to find one right in front of them. Drawing on his power, he willed the mechanism to unlock, but the effort was met with considerable resistance.

  Planting his feet, clenching his fists, Seth concentrated all his energy on the problem. Still the mechanism defied him. Gasping for breath, Seth kept pushing, and all at once the resistance relented, as if he were in a tug of war and the other team dropped the rope. The mechanism unlatched, and a previously unseen door composed of multiple rocks swung open.

  “That looked like a fight,” Calvin said.

  “Something opposed me,” Seth replied.

  Merek extended a hand to keep Seth from going forward. “Let’s survey the room first.”

  Beyond the doorway awaited a room that looked to be inside the top of the pyramid—at least, the lofty ceiling came to a point in the center. Occupying the middle of the room was a large block of stone so black that no subtleties of texture were discernible. Part of a long knife jutted from the top, much of the blade buried in the rock.

  “Now, that is a black stone,” Calvin said. “It looks more like a void than a rock.”

  Seth mentally scanned the room. “The space feels empty.”

  “I get the same read,” Merek said, stepping into the room. Seth followed.

  The moment Seth set foot in the room, he became acutely aware of the dark well of power inside himself. He had never sensed it so distinctly. To his alarm, the darkness within was irresistibly drawing him toward the black stone. Seth walked jerkily, straining to resist.

  “Are you all right?” Merek asked.

  “I’m being pulled,” Seth said, unable to look away from the fathomless darkness.

  “Take the blade and we’ll depart,” Merek said. “This shrine is dedicated to darkness.”

  Seth quit resisting and felt the pull lessen. He hurried to the stone. Looking down at the dark shape, Seth could discern no surface, as if it were made from the essence of shadow. The stone seemed much deeper than it should be, a window into endless night.

  “Claim the blade, Seth,” Merek said. “I can’t do it for you. Be extremely careful. Wounds from that edge will never be repaired.”

  The words reached Seth from far away. He extended his hand, not to the ebon handle of the Unforgiving Blade, but toward the darkness encasing it.

  “Seth!” Calvin shouted from his pocket. “Not the stone! The knife.”

  Seth heard the words, and he numbly glanced at the nipsie waving at him. He felt deliciously drawn to the stone, as if an unnamed appetite that had starved throughout his life was finally about to be sated.

  “Seth!” Calvin yelled. “Wake up!”

  Seth paused. He was here for the blade, not to commune with the darkness.

  His eyes flicked to the dark handle and the darker blade. The blade seemed made from the same shadow substance as the stone. He grabbed the hilt and lifted the long knife. The stone offered no resistance. The knife felt so light, Seth wondered if the hilt provided the only weight. A shudder ran through the pyramid, then subsided.

  “I’m not sure that’s a stone,” Seth said, forcing his mouth to speak and his legs to back away. “It’s more like the absence of a stone.”

  Merek watched the dust trickling down from the fitted stones of the sloped ceiling. “We should not linger.”

  The darkness did not speak to Seth with words. But he knew the absence of stone wanted him to cut off a piece of it to bring with him.

  “Merek?” Seth asked, feet sliding toward the absence of stone against his will. “Can you get me out of here?”

  Strong arms encircled Seth and carried him from the room. Once he was back on the stairs, the draw of the void ceased. Seth didn’t look back at it.

  “Hurry,” Merek said.

  “What about Isadore and Basirus?” Serena asked.

  “We’ll solve that problem when we reach it,” Merek said. “Let me lead the way. Don’t forget the room with the draining stone.”

  “I wish this knife had a sheath,” Seth said, holding it away from himself.

  “I’m not sure such a weapon can be sheathed,” Merek said. “Except perhaps in pure darkness.”

  “I think you’re right,” Seth agreed.

  The pyramid did not tremble as they descended the long stairs. The spherical rock remained at rest in the bowl-shaped room, and Seth crossed the room with the draining stone the same way he had coming up. Seth held the knife out in front of himself, careful not to let it touch anything.

  When Seth reached the bottom of the stairs, the pyramid began to quake. A huge boulder dropped from high above and crashed against the floor, spitting dusty fragments in all directions.

  “Run,” Merek urged, staying behind Seth.

  Seth sprinted to the opening and dashed along the triangular corridor. The rumbles of the pyramid were punctuated by rocks falling behind him. Seth burst out of the passage into a torrential downpour. Lightning slashed across the sky, producing thunder that overpowered the crash of tumbling boulders. Merek emerged behind Seth, and he pointed to where Isadore had found shelter beneath a dome visible only by the rain being repelled off of it. Basirus waited beside her in his human form. Both of them looked perfectly dry. The sorceress waved for the others to join her.

  “She’s using magic,” Merek said.

  “Do we go to her?” Seth asked.

  Lightning struck the pyramid, and the thunder felt like a physical blow. Seth was already halfway soaked.

  “Take care if you do,” Serena warned.

  “We have matters to settle with those two,” Merek said. “And having shelter is preferable to being caught in this storm.”

  Seth ran to where the rain splattered against the invisible dome. Isadore waved a hand, and part of the dome stopped repelling rain. Seth figured the barrier was gone, and he stepped into her dry refuge. After Merek entered, Isadore made another gesture and the dome re-formed, significantly muting the storm.

  “I see you were successful,” Isadore said, eyes on the shadowy blade.

  “We got it,” Seth said. “I think the pyramid is collapsing.”

  “May I hold it?” Isadore asked.

  “No,” Seth said.

  “Don’t be selfish,” Basirus pressured.

  “This blade stays in my hand until I’m done with it,” Seth said.

  “And what are you going to do?” Isadore asked.

  “We have a long road ahead,” Merek said. “Thank you for your help with this leg of our journey.”

  “We’re not fair-weather friends,” Isadore assured him. “This dome will protect us from the storm. It is a specialty of mine. It even repelled some nasty rocks who took an interest in us.”

  “Can the dragon fly?” Merek asked. “We need to travel.”

  “What is the destination?” Basirus asked.

  “
The wild highlands,” Merek said.

  “Could that involve the Dragon Temple?” Isadore asked.

  “Our business is private,” Seth said.

  “Am I not part of your business?” Isadore asked. “I seldom give charity.”

  “I can’t fly in this weather,” Basirus said.

  “What about running?” Merek asked.

  Basirus sneered. “Run through the Perennial Storm to the highlands? For what?”

  “To reach the Dragon Temple before the storm abates and entry becomes impossible,” Isadore guessed. “Why did Humbuggle involve the Dragon Temple? What has he hidden there?”

  “You ask many questions,” Merek warned.

  “You need a key to enter the Dragon Temple,” Isadore said. “Is that already managed? Do you have other partners?”

  “We need transportation,” Merek said.

  “A run to the Dragon Temple from here might not be possible until the storm ends,” Isadore said. “Even for a dragon as strong as Basirus. Not to mention the danger from the lightning and the thunderbirds. We would need to be full partners to attempt such folly. And I would have to carry the blade.”

  “We’ll find our own way,” Seth said.

  Isadore laughed richly. “Oh, you will? How fast do you run during hurricanes? I’ll take Serena back.”

  “No,” Serena said.

  “Excuse me?” Isadore responded.

  “Our partnership ends tonight,” Serena said.

  “After so much time,” Isadore said. “I wonder what prompted such an abrupt change of heart.”

  “We all want to win,” Serena said.

  “Well spoken,” Isadore approved.

  “We know your task involves the Dragon Temple,” Basirus said.

  “I believe that will have to suffice,” Isadore replied. She moved closer to Basirus and her hands fluttered.

  Merek drew his sword. Part of the dome folded inward, and suddenly there were two domes repelling the rain. One held Seth and Merek along with their nipsies. The neighboring dome contained Isadore and Basirus.

  “We’ll wait out the storm separately for now,” Isadore called, her voice barely audible.