I understand her decision, and so I say my next words carefully. “If my plan succeeds, we can end the Sundering.”
Phoenix frowns, face skeptical. “What do you propose?”
“First, we need to evacuate the north,” I say. “Everyone needs to head south of Al’Kalesh.” Once, this would have seemed a ridiculous proposition, to move hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes. But now, as the countryside burns and the air blackens with smoke, no one challenges the idea.
Phoenix gestures at Gray squad. “Tara. Clive. Deliver this message to every remaining village or city north of Al’Kalesh. Dragoncliff has fallen. They must head south.” The two Ashknights nod and run to grab horses at the stable. They could fly instead of ride, but they would tire after three or four villages. This mission will take them weeks, maybe months to complete, yet they do not hesitate, do not pause over the dead bodies of their comrades. Those deaths would mean little if they were to surrender now, and so they carry on steadfastly, performing the duty they spent years training for.
My own mission will end much sooner. The moons are already appearing in the sky. There are only a few hours left until the sacrifice is made.
“Second,” I continue, “We must travel to Al’Kalesh and find Kaden and Enzo.”
Mabel scowls. “Enzo is in the Asylum.” I can tell his loss is still tender in her heart.
“He is not,” confirms Raven. “You will see.”
Landon sighs. “Even if Enzo is there, it will take weeks to get to Al’Kalesh.”
It will not, but I don’t argue yet, as they began to discuss amongst themselves. I use my commanding voice to snap them back to attention. “Listen to me,” I say. “I know how to repair the Wall.” This is only partially true, but it will have to be enough, and it grabs their attention like nothing else. “The man I have been seeking, the man called Pike, is the key. The children he takes are for a sacrifice. A sacrifice that is supposed to restore the Wall of Light. However, this time it will not work. The only sacrifice that will do… is Pike himself.” I glance up at the tower with the Outcast, hoping she cannot hear me. She would not approve of my plan, if she knew the whole of it.
“So we find this Pike then,” says Bix, “and kill him.”
“We enter his Sanctuary,” I clarify. “The Dream that Cannot be Dreamt. And there we make the sacrifice.”
Bix nods approvingly.
The others don’t look as convinced. Not even Raven, though she heard what Illian had to say.
“Even if this is true,” says Phoenix, “Pike is said to be undefeatable.”
“He can best any of us alone, that is true,” I say. “But together we can win.” The words are a lie, but they are all I have.
Landon rubs his chin, then nods. “Like I said, Silverwing, I’m with you.”
“As am I,” says Mabel.
Bix puts a fist over his chest. “I will follow you anywhere, Sky of the Knightly clan.”
Zev shrugs. “Your plan sounds highly implausible, but I suppose it’s the best we have.”
“I…” begins Phoenix. “I don’t understand how you know this… but… I trust you. I will follow you.”
I grin at her, then turn to Raven.
“You are all fools,” she says quietly, her voice venom, her body stiff and full of rage. “He will kill you. Kill all of you.”
“Not if we work together,” I say calmly. “Not if we—”
“You cannot defeat him.” Her eyes turn glossy. “I will not watch you die. I will not.”
I had almost the entire group convinced, but now I see doubt begin to creep back into them. And then I see how small they all look, like children playing at a game far beyond them, when all they want to do is go home, to rest in their bed, to sleep and feel safe.
“I know you are scared, Raven,” I say softly. “We all are. But we have a chance to end the suffering. Not just for us, but for everyone. We can end the Sundering.”
“Fine,” she says. Something about the way she says it makes me not believe her, but I don’t have time to argue now.
I turn back to the rest of the group. “Bix. I need you to find the stash of dragonstone in the fortress and grab as much as you can.” He grins widely.
Phoenix raises an eyebrow. “Dragonstone? Why?”
I smile as if to say forgive me. “There is something you should know.”
And then I tell her I am High Dragon, but I don’t think she believes me. The rest of the squad confirms my story, but all Phoenix does is shrug. “It seems the world makes no sense anymore,” she mumbles.
I gesture to the group. “Everyone else, grab as many talismans as you can find. Nir knows, we’ll need them.”
They disperse, returning moments later. Bix returns last, carrying a giant steel chest over his shoulder. He drops it to the ground and plops it open, revealing what seems a hundred blue stone. “Will this do?” he asks smugly.
I nod. “There’s something I haven’t told you yet.” I pause making eye contact with each of them. “Something you will not understand, but for all our sakes you must trust me anyway.” I grit my teeth, then wave my hand over my head as a signal. “I’m working with the Outcast.”
Forty-Five
Sylus
The Red Queen dives from the tower and lands at my side, her crimson hair wild in the wind. She wears her white mask once again, to help avoid confusion.
Phoenix summons her Spirit armor instantly, body covered in flame, her eyes fierce and vengeful.
I jump between her and the Outcast. “She is not our enemy,” I say.
“She killed Alec,” spits the Ashlord.
“She had her reasons,” I say. “Alec was a traitor. Working for the man who stole my daughter.”
Phoenix’s fire dims, but she doesn’t drop her armor, eyes fixed on the Outcast.
“She is no threat to us,” I add. “Isn’t that right?”
“I am no danger to you,” replies the Outcast, her voice distorted by the Mask of Nir. “I can get you to Al’Kalesh. Pike will most likely be there to defend the palace from the Ashwraith rising.”
Phoenix scowls. “How do you know about the Ashwraiths?” She glares at me. “Did you tell her?”
“No,” I say. “But does it even matter? Look around? The world is on fire. And it's not as if their existence will be a secret much longer.”
Phoenix bites her lip, still fuming with anger.
Landon clears his throat, then scratches at his blond hair. “Um… care to explain the Ashwraith rising?”
I turn to him. “Ashwraiths are real. Corrupted Twin Spirits who have regained control of their bodies. For millennium they have lived in hiding underground, and now seek to take Al’Kalesh for themselves. Got it?”
“Um… sure?” He looks as confused as the rest of my friends, all except Raven and Phoenix, but I have no time for more details at the moment.
“Listen,” I say, playing squad leader once again, pulling them in with my voice. “Right now, we need to get to Al’Kalesh as quickly as possible, and the Outcast is the way. I leave to stop the Sundering. Anyone who is coming with me, grab onto the woman in the mask.” I clasp the Red Queen’s shoulder. Slowly, the others follow, grabbing onto her shoulders, arms, and hips, Bix once again holding the chest of dragonstone. Raven is the last to join us, still angry and afraid. Once we are all touching the Outcast, she bows her head, and as a thunder of dragons blots out the sun, we disappear from the center of Dragoncliff and appear at the very heart of Al’Kalesh.
We stand in the plaza where I watched nine bodies burn on pyres three years ago. Now, it the city that is ablaze. Fires rage into the sky, consuming the tallest and most splendid manors—the homes of nobles, of the Emperor’s strongest supporters.
It does not take long to see what caused them.
A black dragon, as large as three of the ones we just fought, glides through the dark sky, spewing flame. But this is no creature of the Ashlands. This is Kaden. No, I realize. T
his is Darkflame. This is the side of him that lives with death.
Below him, men and women flee screaming and yelling, clutching babes and precious belongings to their chests. Darkflame does not target them, leaving them be. In fact, his efforts seem focused on forcing an evacuation, nothing more.
The clash of steel echoes to my right, where a group of Al’Kalesh soldiers clad in white and red fight in the streets against a mob wielding obsidian swords. The Ashwraiths. They are here. They have come. And though they are not as well armed as the guards, they are highly skilled from lifetimes of training, and they overtake their enemy with ease.
“Whose side are we on again?” asks Landon quizzically.
“The Ashwraiths.” I think.
The Outcast steps back from the group, turning away. “I have done as I promised. I have brought you to Al’Kalesh. Now, I must go.”
“Thank you,” I say, “I understand.” But I don’t. Because even though she denies it, I know, if she truly is me, she still cares for the squad, even if she has forgotten. She will regret not helping more when the time comes.
The Outcast nods. Then vanishes. And I focus on the mission.
The moons are high. Time runs low. There is no sign of Pike yet, but he will come. He is convinced the sacrifice will work, the Sundering will end, that life and civilization will go on. He will wish to protect the city he has cultivated for centuries.
“Follow me,” I say, as I dash toward the fires. Toward Darkflame.
Something blocks my way.
He stands in the middle of the street, his arms and torso bloody, his chest heaving with effort. He turns his bald head up, staring at me with two empty black sockets.
“Have you come to kill me?” Sylus asks.
I shake my head. “My quarrel is not with you.”
“Liar,” he hisses, spitting out blood. “You are with him. With the Darkflame. You wish to kill the Emperor, may he never burn.”
He is not wrong, and I realize there is no way to avoid this conflict. Kaden prayed I would never have to face a Shadow in combat, but not all prayers are answered.
The rest of my group catches up, halting at my side, waiting for instruction. Sylus notices them, but he does not seem fazed. He tastes the air with his forked tongue, and then, like a coiled viper ready to strike, he unleashes himself.
He moves faster than any being I have ever seen, with the exception of Pike, closing the distance in an instant, weaving between us, slicing at our throats with his claws. I avoid his first strike, but the others are not so lucky. Zev gets hit in the thigh, Mable across the forearm, Landon in the shoulder, and though they wear transmuted Spirit armor, it is not enough, and the claws cut through their protection, tearing open their flesh. Phoenix, the most skilled of us, takes the offensive, summoning a flaming whip into her hand and swinging at the Shadow’s knees. He evades with ease, jumping up and twisting in the air, cutting Phoenix across the shoulder as he lands, then smashes into her with his body, sending her to the ground.
I understand then why Kaden warned me. Why he told me to never fight a Shadow. I faced off against Sylus before, but it never led to battle, I assumed because he was worried about fighting me and the squad. I was wrong. He never feared losing. He wanted to avoid a spectacle, a showing of death, because, most likely, it would not please his master. But now there is nothing to avoid. Now he is free to fight at his best, and his best is too strong for us.
Sylus tears our group apart, cutting through joints, breaking our armor. He is so fast there’s no time to reach for our talismans. I try to strike at him from behind with my claw, but he turns as if he saw me coming with ease and trips me with his foot. It is his dragonstone, his Flesh Imbuing, it allows him to see not with his eyes, but with something else, with his Spirit.
I roll out of the way just as he slams his hand into the ground where my head was a moment ago. Bix jumps at the Shadow from behind, trying to body slam him, but Sylus dashes out of the way, striking out with his spiked tail as he does, cutting Bix across the side. It is a shallow cut, but it bleeds, and as Bix lands, the Shadow strikes at him again. The giant Twin Spirit throws up his transmuted arms as a shield, and unlike the rest of his armor, they hold, the emerald shell hardest around his wrists.
Raven swings her sickle at the Shadow’s knees, but he leaps up just in time and kicks her in the chest, sending her flying.
We will not win this fight using regular methods, so I look for the stash of dragonstone Bix left on the ground near a building and run toward it while Sylus is distracted. I am almost there when the Shadow tackles me from behind, pinning me on the ground. He raises his hand, about to cut me open, but Raven dives down from above, slicing with her sickle, her eyes red and glossy.
Her maneuver is fast, but dangerous. She will save me, but she puts herself at risk. Sylus must know this, because he smiles as he turns away from me and leaps up into the air to meet Raven. She is already mid-flight. There is nothing she can do, at least not quickly, to change her direction. She cannot evade the Shadow.
They meet in the air. With one claw, Sylus knocks aside her sickle, and with the other he strikes at her throat. He can kill her, I am certain, because he is some form of Twin Spirit, enhanced with dragonstone and Flesh Imbuing, and once he cuts her open, she will die. He may have to enter her Sanctuary, or he may not. Either way he will defeat her. He is better. Faster. Stronger.
He slicer at her throat, claws inches away from her neck, nothing anyone else can do to stop him. And then…
Then the air between them shimmers.
And the Outcast appears.
There isn’t enough room between Raven and Sylus to block the attack. So she doesn’t. She just hovers there, head right in front of Raven, as Sylus cuts through her neck instead. Red liquid pours from her throat, and she makes a gurgling sound behind the mask, as her body begins to spasm. She is dying. But she has done what she set out to do. Because though she could not block Sylus’s attack, she could strike. And by her waist, she holds her sword, and it pierces the Shadow's belly, cutting him through.
When he realizes what has happened, his smile fades, and the three of them collapse in a heap. The Shadow clutches at his wound, his gut spilling out, leaking red, but before he can stand, Raven jumps on top of him, cutting his stomach once. Twice. Then, when he slows, she swings at his neck, severing it after three strikes. The decapitated head tumbles to the side, tongue still tasting at the air. And then it goes still, and Sylus the Shadow is dead.
I run over to the Outcast and grab her hand as she spasms on the ground, the life leaving her.
She returned.
Though she said she could not remember the squad, no longer cared for them, no longer called them a priority, she gave her life for Raven. For the others.
And I realize, somewhere she had been watching, from a building or tower perhaps, for how else did she know what Sylus was about to do. Not only did she come back.
She never left.
At some point, she remembered what it was to be human. And for that I will forever be grateful.
Darklfame—Kaden—roars from somewhere in the distance, and I remember I must go, I must finish the mission.
I start to stand, but the Outcast grabs my hand, pulling me closer, throat gurgling. She is trying to say something, but she cannot, neck torn open. But somehow, somehow, she reaches out to my Spirit.
There is something… she says.
There is something you should know about Ka…
Her words trail off unfinished. Her hand goes limp. And I realize the Outcast is dead.
What did she mean? What was she trying to say?
Something about Kaden?
I can’t worry about it now, and I have no time for guesses, though still I wonder what could have been if she had stayed with us from the beginning, if she had fought in earnest. In the end, I will never know, but I will remember her for what she did, for the lives she saved.
I study the sword in her hand.
It is covered in hundreds of glyphs. Some I recognize: Density, to make the steel unbreakable. Weight, to make the blade lighter. But the other glyphs I do not know, have never seen before, and I wonder how much knowledge died with the woman before me.
Her weapon can still be of use, however, so I take off her belt and scabbard and tie it around my waist, and I take her sword for my own. Then I leave her body behind as I stand and run down the street, my friends following. I yell toward the sky. “Kaden. I know where Kara is!”
Forty-Six
Palace Of Storms
Eventually Darklfame hears me over the burning buildings and dying screams, and he dives toward the ground, shedding his scales and turning to Kaden once again.
His body becomes human, but he retains his black Spirit armor as he lands before us, eyes frantic. “What are you doing here?” he asks.
“I know how to find Pike,” I say quickly. “He is the Emperor. Titus is one of the faces he wears.”
I hear a few gasps behind me, the information new to all of my squad, but I don’t go into more details.
Kaden clenches his jaw. “Then the fight for Al’Kalesh will be an even more difficult battle than I imagined.”
“Come with us,” I say grabbing his hand. “We can storm the palace together. We can find Kara.”
He sighs. “The palace… the palace is impenetrable.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“It is guarded by at least thirty Shadows, far more than I thought. I had no idea the Emperor had created so many. The records spoke of only nine.”
Phoenix walks up beside us. “So what was your plan?”
“We would take the city but leave the palace,” says Kaden. “Then we would starve them out, or perhaps come up with something quicker. But if the Emperor is Pike…”
Of Dreams and Dragons Page 37