Ghostflame (The Dragon's Scion Book 2)

by Alex Raizman

  Armin sighed and created a sphere, his mind too occupied with bitter thoughts to care.

  Not that stopped him from screaming when the guard’s features melted in the face of the light. “Quiet!” the guard snapped. “This is a rescue mission, Armin.” His features had resolved into Lorathor’s grinning face. “Now, let’s get you out of those chains.”

  Armin couldn’t speak from the shock. Relief, confusion, and joy washed over him.

  Right up until he saw Clarcia stand up, her dead eyes glowing with unnatural malice.

  Chapter 45

  One day earlier.

  “I don’t know what you want me to check out here,” Bix said. “It’s just some manky swamp in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Middle of nowhere is where the resistance often has to hole up,” Haradeth said. The three-dimensional display in front of them showed a near endless swampland, dotted with ruins. It was a dismal landscape, full of mutated life. “We can’t exactly hide our forces next door to the capital.”

  Bix sighed, a sound like nails rattling in a tin. “Fine. It’s not like other watchers can’t look in different places while we do.” She studied the landscape, tapping her food. Clangclangclang – “I remember Dor’nah back when it was…you know, actually a nation. Before everyone who lived here got murdered and started sinking into the sea?”

  “Oh?” Haradeth asked.

  “Oh yeah, absolutely. Back when it was the Three Empires – Hallith, Dor’nah, and Cardometh. Dor’nah was different from the other kingdoms you humans put up. Sylvani were welcome there, as were the Kan’nah. I actually went a couple times. Only stabbed someone once.”

  “Kan’nah?” Haradeth said, furrowing his brow.

  “You call them Underfolk now. Back then they didn’t live underground. Interrupt me again and I’ll make a necklace from your teeth. Understand?”

  Haradeth nodded furiously, and Lorathor flashed him a reproachful glare. Just as Haradeth started to wonder if Lorathor had caught Bix’s unique brand of lunacy, the Sylvani winked and turned his attention back to Bix.

  “Now, where was I?” Bix said. “Yes, Dor’nah. Humans, Kan’nah, and Sylvani. I went there a few times. In the night, because I didn’t want to be seen. This was…a long time ago. Everyone living together in a state of mutual hatred that never quite bubbled over into bloodshed, which is the closest you meat ever gets to peace. I didn’t even stab anyone when I was there because a random murder could have boiled over into indiscriminate warfare, and I didn’t want that. There’s no fun in random murder.

  “But I hear you wondering how all these different people lived together. No, no, don’t say anything, not if you want to keep your teeth. See, all those people had one thing in common. They hated dragons. Which is a stance that can, perhaps, be understandable in the days when those three races were considered food sources by dragons. However, it’s not a very good idea to hate dragons when you share territory with a dragon that also was the most powerful necromancer alive. His lair is right over….ooooh, what’s this?”

  Haradeth waited to make sure Bix wasn’t going to say anything else before asking, “What’s what?” The drone was flying up towards a structure that loomed over the landscape, even though it was sunken into the terrain. Haradeth tried to get a sense of how large the building had been, but his mind rebelled at the scale. For perspective, on top of the building was the skeleton of an immense a dragon, overgrown with moss, still clinging to the top of the building.

  “Bah. Why do you even have eyes if you don’t use them?” Bix flew the drone lower to the ground.

  Haradeth’s eyes widened and Lorathor gasped. Skitterers, sitting in the swamp outside the building. At least a dozen of them. “Okay, fine. I am only going to say this once,” Bix said, her eyes whirring as they narrowed into slits. “You were right, we should check here.” She flew the drone into the building.

  “Thank you. I’ll never mention it.” Haradeth said.

  “Good, you do learn quick,” Bix said, her voice light and cheerful. “So, it looks like someone brought a military presence into the ruins of Dor’nah and decided to take a stroll through a dragon’s lair. That’s…completely illogical, but you lot often are.”

  “Is there a portal-” Lorathor started to say but caught himself with Bix’s gaze fixed on him. “Fine. Is there a booger here?”

  Bix gave him a look that was so clearly a ‘proud parent’ look that Haradeth had to suppress a laugh. “Oh yeah, most dragon lairs have at least one booger,” she said. “At least the old ones. They used to consider it a status symbol to pick one and stick it in the hoards, because they were so rare.” Bix paused to consider her words. “Actually, they still are rare, but they also were. Even at the height of things we only had about fifty on this landmass. There’s one down there, though.”

  The drone’s vision switched, giving them a false-color image of the pathway, it was travelling in pure darkness. Gems glittered on the walls among the artwork, woven between thin sheets of precious metal foils. It was beautiful. “A dragon made this?” Haradeth asked.

  “No, no no no. Draconic art is different. They do their art by melting stones with their breath and reshaping it into something else.” Bix sighed. “I truly do love their artwork. It’s so wonderful to look at statues made with molten stone. Art made into a destructive act. I do hope we find some down here. Anyway, this art was made by humans or Underfolk or Sylvani. Probably humans because there’s more of you buggers. Talons aren’t good at fine work like this.”

  Haradeth nodded, watching the display. These drones were incredible creations. They could cover a hundred leagues in a day. The path in front of them flew by in a rush as it sped down into the depths of the dragon’s lair.

  And into a group of Alohym soldiers. “Light and Shadow, look out!” Haradeth shouted.

  Bix gave him a level look. “What are you shouting about? Are you afraid of the big bad soldiers?”

  Haradeth stared as the soldiers ignored the drone. A couple waved hands in its direction. “Bix…how small is this thing?”

  Bix held up two fingers close to each other. “Too tiny to stab easy. Or notice. At least right now. I activated a couple circuits on it that give us a temporary spatial distortion that…” she noticed the glazed looks on their faces and gave another of those mechanical sighs. “This is why I call things boogers. Fine. I turned on the tiny maker. It’s tiny for a couple hours. Then it will re-enbiggen.”

  “I followed that,” Haradeth said.

  “I know. I put it on your intellectual level.” She directed the drone to fly under a locked door.

  In there was Armin, chained to a wall, and that bastard Theognis.

  The Portal Stones – Haradeth refused to think of them as boogers, even if he’d say the word aloud to placate Bix – were objects spread across the world. Myths from various cultures held different significance to them. The Cardomethi had claimed they could access the realm that the ancient Alohym had used when they left. The Dor’nahi had maintained they were gates to the true ancestral home of humanity, and would one day lead them back. The Kingdom, before its fall, had believed them to be pagan iconography from a pre-Light religion. The warriors of Xhoa held they were gateways to the Shadow, where their Holy and Eternal War would one day spill out of that realm and into the mortal world. The Underfolk had held the belief that they would lead to a world where there was only darkness above and light below, a sacred land where humanity would be forced to live beneath the Earth.

  In hindsight, Haradeth realized it should have been telling that the Sylvani were the only peoples who didn’t ascribe any significance to them. Sylvani travelers, when asked about the stones, would only repeat one of the other culture’s legends. Usually with song and drink, because the Sylvani bought their way into acceptance through entertainment when they could, and getting the locals too drunk to organize a mob when they could not.

  To the best of his knowledge, no one had asked the Alohym what they belie
ved the stones would lead o. They might not even be aware of the portal stones’ existence.

  He voiced that possibility to Bix as they were gearing up, and she shrugged – an expressive gesture with metallic limbs. “Who knows? But I’m guessing not. If those things could have accessed an interplanetary method of rapid transit, I think they would have lept on it with all four hands.”

  “You mean they could have activated it?” Haradeth asked. That thought had never occurred to him, and its implications were disturbing. Were they just handing the Alohym another weapon to use in their domination of the world?

  “Not without me stabbing them lots. Even Anortia would have acted then, I think. The only way to fully control the boogers is from here, and the Alohym would have come here if they knew. Also, if they knew what the boogers were, they probably would have figured out that we hadn’t all died out. They would have come and murdered everyone in the face. Except me. Because I’d be stabbing them, you see.”

  Haradeth nodded, a small part of him surprised at how easily he’d come to take the little automaton’s violent nature in stride. “But once we activate them, can they trace it back here?”

  “Probably not.” Bix looked uninterested as she worked on the console.

  “Probably?” Haradeth asked.

  Bix sighed. “Haradeth. We last fought the Alohym like, back when your people were deciding that eating cooked meat was a better long term plan than waging wars with flung feces. Excremental artillery. Shit showers. I think that’s all of them.”

  “Okay, I just don’t-”

  “Wait, no, I have one more. Crap catapults. Okay, now I’m good. What was your most likely stupid question?”

  Haradeth waited for a second to make sure Bix was, in fact, done with her jokes. She motioned for him to continue. “I don’t see what that has to do with them being able to hijack the portal stones.”

  “Because we’re talking about thousands of years, no matter what world you’re on. I wasn’t just making fun of you for being a bunch of monkeys who developed culture and decided it made you rightful masters of this world. Back then, you had…flath, I used all the good terms. Insert a scatological weaponry reference for me okay? Okay. But by the time the Alohym arrived, you’d gone from that to castles and catapults and stabby death, which is a much more refined way of waging war compared to the poop. Even if the Alohym hadn’t shown up, given thousands of years, even you idiots would have figured out arcwands. Technology grows and changes. The Alohym couldn’t crack the Transmatter Warp Platforms back when they invaded us, so they might not be able to crack it now. Or perhaps they’ve figured it out in the millennia in between.”

  “Wait, what did you call the portal stones?” Haradeth asked.

  Bix pressed a knife against his throat. “Boogers?” Bix asked.

  “Boogers,” Haradeth agreed.

  The knife vanished, as fast as it had appeared. “It’s a Transmatter Warp Platform. It bends spacetime curvature so the distance between here and there is shorter. It’s their proper name, but I long ago gave up trying to get you people to call them by that. Since you insist on calling them portal stones, I decided to give them an equally stupid name. Thus, boogers. Now, I’m almost ready. What’s the plan?”

  “Plan?” Lorathor asked, walking around the corner. The Sylvani was wearing some kind of blue armor that reflected light in a dull manner. It was unlike any metal Haradeth had seen before. He’d told Haradeth bout it. It was a cultural artifact of the Sylvani, but they could be used with special approval. Bix had a suit she could authorize someone to use. The…what was it Bix had called them? The polycarbons in the suit would shift to match the wearer’s natural shapeshifting, allowing Lorathor complete access to his natural talents.

  “Yes. Plan.” Bix gave them both a level look. “You don’t have a plan?”

  “I didn’t think you’d be in favor of one,” Haradeth said.

  “Of course I’m not. It’s no fun messing up someone’s plans if they don’t have one.” Bix crossed her arms and glared at Haradeth.

  “Well, that’s part of why I didn’t have one. You can focus on the fact that we’re disrupting the Alohym’s plots?”

  “Patronize me again and I’ll…flath, these are complicated equations, even for me. Do me a favor and assume I threatened you and you were truly terrified of it.”

  Haradeth thought for a moment and discovered coming up with possible torments Bix could unleash was more frightening than any of the threats she’d actually make. “Done,” Haradeth said.

  Bix nodded in approval. “We’ll only have a few seconds. This is some slipshod math. But it will get us there, and there is a ninety-six percent chance we’ll arrive with every body part we left with.”

  Bix pushed a button on the console, and the air over the Portal Stone distorted. As Haradeth watched, it folded in on itself, almost like someone pulling a sock inside out, if the sock was the fabric of reality. It hurt his head to watch. “Wait, what was that last thing you said?”

  “No time!” Bix said cheerfully and dove through the portal. Haradeth gaped at Lorathor, who laughed and followed. Swearing under his breath, Haradeth jumped through after them.

  The portal snapped shut after them. They were in a treasure room lit by dozens of Alohym arcglobes. There were three soldiers in here, staring at them in mute astonishment. “Get Theog-” one of them started to shout.

  For his quick thinking, he died first. A dagger sprouted from his throat, moving so quickly Haradeth could barely track it. Bix stood there, grinning at her handwork. The two soldiers remaining began to raise their arcwands.

  Haradeth dove for cover as one of them opened fire, unlight ricocheting off a pile of gold. Lorathor closed the distance between them in two great strides, unlight glancing off his armor. The third stepped around and took aim at Lorathor’s back, and Haradeth hurled a gold plate like a discus.

  It hit the side of the man’s head and lodged in there.

  Bix chuckled. “I knew I kept you alive for a reason.”

  “Lorathor.” Haradeth pointed down the corridor. “Wear one of these faces and tell Theognis the portal stone activated. Then find Armin and the others.”

  Lorathor started to run, his skin and armor already running as he did. Bix gave him a sideways look. “I’m no strategy expert, but why did we just give up the element of surprise?”

  “Because we didn’t,” Haradeth said, taking cover. “He’ll be expecting resistance fighters. He definitely will not be expecting a godling, and he can’t possibly be prepared for you.”

  Bix nodded at that and headed over to climb into a cauldron. “I’ll pop up when he least expects it. Then I’ll stab him.” She clambered up the side and looked in. “Hey, Haradeth, if someone’s in here, should I stab them? She looks…weird.”

  Haradeth ran over to the cauldron and looked in inside.

  A half Alohym woman was huddled in the bottom, staring at them both with wide eyes.

  Chapter 46

  “Can I stab it?” Bix asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. The half-Alohym hissed at Bix, her jaw widening to reveal mandibles. Bix reached out and rapped her across the forehead with her metal knuckles. The woman recoiled from the blow, her hands coming to her head to grab at the impact. “No. Bad freak of nature. You hiss at me again, and I will stab you. Actually, I might stab you anyway.”

  “Don’t,” the woman growled. “Please.”

  That last word froze Haradeth’s hand as he reached for his blade. There were many things he could imagine an Alohym saying. Please was not on that list. “Bix, wait.”

  Bix glared at him. “Try that again, godling.”

  Haradeth swallowed. “Bix, I’d appreciate it if you would wait till we understood more.”

  “Better. We are kind of on a tight timeframe though.” Bix’s head swiveled until it was facing backwards.