Cults of the Dragon Gods (Path of Transcendence Book 4)

by Brian McGoldrick

  A slight frown is visible on Valcrit's face. "I am aware of the injury, Master, but like you, I cannot ascertain the extent of it. I will be careful. Is there anything else?"

  I shake my head. "No. You are our only Psi."

  Valcrit almost looks like he is going to smile. "You underestimate yourself, Master. I am a telepath and an empath, but beyond that, I have little skill. With a little training, I think that the breadth of your skill has a Psi will far exceed my own."

  With a bow instead of a salute, Valcrit turns and departs from the Captain's cabin.

  When I look at Elan, she shrugs. "Valcrit has always been an odd one. Perhaps because he is a telepath, he seems to see and understand much more about the people around him than he ever reveals. Had he chosen to use his Power, there are many ways he could have risen in DokkAlfar society, but he seems to prefer to remain in his current position. Of all the people that have served me over the centuries, he is one of the very few that I have placed my trust in." crater.

  *** Santa Rosa Island – Earth ***

  Return: Day 354

  August 17, 2078

  (Brand)

  At 8:25AM, the chameleon field drops. We are slightly less than three miles from the northern tip of the northeast peninsula of Santa Rosa Island.

  With the changes to my body from becoming a Triune, I do not need to use the spell to give myself telescopic vision. Channeling a tiny thread of Trinity into my eyes, I alter my vision so that I can clearly see the peninsula and easily make out individual humans. The back side of the manor house faces the north, and there is an Olympic size swimming pool surrounded by lawns and gardens.

  Near the pool, and umbrella mostly conceals the form of someone seated at the table. Lined up behind the person in the morning sun, there are five women wearing white aprons over heavy black dresses that cover them from their next to their wrists and their ankles. Next to the women, a man wearing a black tuxedo with tails stands with his back ramrod straight, as though he is standing at attention.

  When the man looks up and shades his eyes, we are less than two miles from the coast of Santa Rosa Island. The man turns to the person seated under the umbrella and appears to say something.

  As the person rises from their seat, it turns out to be a woman dressed in a very skimpy black bikini. Her midnight black hair reaches the back of her knees and sets off the snowy pallor of her skin. With skin that white, she must use some means to completely block the UV radiation from touching her. Despite wearing thin soled sandals, she stands a head taller than the butler and head and shoulders taller than the maids. Her well toned body and six pack abs show off her pair of tits that are the size of honeydew melons. Her sultry features are too heavy for her to ever be considered beautiful, and her frowning expression suits her much better than a smile.

  I have known that woman since childhood. She is the woman I once thought of as my Aunt Karin, and seeing her, a simmering anger fills me.

  Seeming to sense the change in my emotions, Elan puts her arm around me and rests her head against my shoulder. *That is the woman who you thought was your aunt. I am surprised to see her here.*

  *So am I.* I reply to Elan using the same whisper channel that she opened.

  With a quick step, the butler races into the manor house.

  Thud!

  As the Night Raven reaches the midpoint between the shore and the manor house, we drop one of the heavy bow anchors. The Stern of the night Raven slues around to the west, and we drop the Stern anchor. With the ship anchored in this position, a full broadside faces the manor house.

  Seeing the huge indentations in the manicured lawn and the muzzles of the Mana-cannons, Karin's frown changes from irritated to outright hostility.

  Dozens of men, dressed in a both modern Earth fatigues and armor that appears to be made from leather and decorated with feathers, charge around both sides of the Manor house. Their weapons are either modern Earth firearms or swords, spears, and bows. The mixture of raw hostility and anxiety emanating from them floods the area like an emotional white noise.

  I hop onto the quarterdeck rail and take off my helm. For a few moments, Karin and I stare at one another. Her eyes are burning with anger, and my eyes are filled with cold contempt.

  My Trinity enhances the volume of my voice to the point it booms like thunder. "Aunt Karin, I never imagined I would find you here. Though, I suppose I should just call you Karin. After all, there is no blood relation between us."

  "Mark … no, Marek the Bastard. That is your proper name you know, Marek the Bastard. You are right there is no blood relation between us. Like the Vangrade Empire, the Kingdom of the North does not recognize the lineage of bastards." Karin's venomous hostility cuts through the static of background emotions like a knife.

  "No, you may call me Brand. It's the name I've chosen for myself. It suits me don't you think?" As I point to my burn-scarred cheek, I flash a predatory grin.

  "It is a shame the Dread Reaver did not do his work properly and make Ash a suitable name for you."

  "Did you know that this sow is the one that sold you to the Dread Reaver? Or that she ordered the capture of a few of your compatriots?" The slightly nasal voice of a man does not boom like my own, but it is still clearly audible across the entirety of the peninsula.

  At the sound of the voice, the soldiers and warriors gathered behind the manor house settle down and looked toward the open door where the butler disappeared. The hostility and anxiety transform into a cold aura of aggressive determination.

  A tall, whipcord lean man exits the matter house. He is wearing a red loincloth with a feathered cloak draped over his right shoulder. With coppery skin and shoulder length, jet black hair, he has a sharp face that could pass for anywhere from twenty-five to fifty years of age. While the man does not appear hostile, there is an overwhelming air of danger surrounding him.

  As Karin stares at the man, anger and a heavy dose of fear blend in with the hostility emanating from her. "What do you want, Spymaster?"

  The Spymaster smiles at Karin. "I think it is time for you to drop the Spy and call me Master. With your mess showing up on my doorstep, you finally outlived the usefulness you once provided."

  Without revealing any emotion, I stare at the Spymaster. "What exactly do you mean by Karin being the one that sold me to the Dread Reaver?"

  The Spymaster looks up at me with a smile that does not reach his eyes. "I had no knowledge of your entry to this world. Therefor, no one else could have possibly know, but unlike your guardians, this sow was flagrant in her use of Power. I knew of her. Incompetent as she is, my counterpart from the Pan Long Empire should have known of her as well. Even, that heretic buffoon, J'Rome, would have been aware of her if he had bothered to look. When the Dread Reaver arrived, it was impossible for him to miss a wild pig running rampant in a china shop. You might not recognize it, but that is an old Earth expression that has fallen out of vogue."

  The Spymaster stares at Karin with an expression of contempt and disdain. "When confronted by the Dread Reaver, this one could not sell you out fast enough. You were worth one thousand fully charged low grade Power crystals."

  Despite glaring at the Spymaster, Karin tries to watch me from the corner of her eye. "Enough with your lies! How dare you turn against me like this! Once I report your treachery to the Seventh Feathered Sky Lord, you will be the one to suffer."

  The Spymaster laughs. After almost a minute with his hand clutching his stomach, the Spymaster's laughter quiets.

  Karin does not reveal anything on her face, but for some reason, she does not keep the fear from her aura.

  "You are nothing but a sow that we are using. I am a Priest of Tezcatlipoca. My purpose here is to monitor the actions of the Pan Long Empire and the heretics. If my Tezcatlipoca wills it, I will render judgment upon the Seventh Feathered Sky Lord. You are nothing but an animal that does worship the True Gods of the Thirteen Heavens."

  The Spymaster reveals his Power, and with the ex
ception of Karin, everyone on the ground prostrate themselves around him. Judging from the field of loose Power surrounding him, the Spymaster has completed the Third Circle of Coalescence and could step into the Fourth Circle at any time.

  Looking down at the butler and the maids, the Spymaster frowns. "You six remove those ridiculous rags that sow has commanded you to wear."

  "I hear and obey, Holy One!" The six voice their acknowledgment of the Spymaster's command and rapidly strip naked before prostrating themselves on the slate tiles of the patio. With the sun beating down from a nearly cloudless sky, that slate should already be hot enough to painfully burn sensitive body parts like the man's dick and the women's nipples.

  The Spymaster looks back at me. "Since you did not about the sow's presence, you must have come here for another reason. Would that be your compatriots?"

  "Give me Thorrin and Pancho."

  "I am curious, how did you learn they were here? Was it from those Sisters of Penitence?"

  I smile. "I wasn't certain until you said that Karin ordered their capture."

  "I see. You were gambling. You are not as interesting as I thought you might be. I was expecting more from a Triune." The reveals a crestfallen expression, but it is unlikely to be real.

  Karin's had snaps around to stare at me, but I ignore her.

  "You say that Karin ordered Thorrin and Pancho's capture. Do you have any reason to not return them to me?"

  Losing all expression, the Spymaster's face tuns into a blank mask. "Bring the prisoners."

  "I hear and obey, Holy One!" The naked butler springs to his feet and runs into the manor house.

  Turning to Karin, the Spymaster holds out a slave collar that appears in his hand. "Put this on and remove those scraps of clothing. Designer swimwear is wasted on a sow."

  Karin draws heavily on Mana, Ki, and Psi, but a bolt of Power slams her into the ground. The Spymaster's strike was delivered so quickly that it was impossible to tell what he did. If anyone on this island is a dragon, it has to be the Spymaster.

  "Stupid sow. Do you think because you are on the Third Path of Transcendence, you are my equal? Even though we are both on the same Path, the difference between is like that between a candle and a bonfire. Strip and collar yourself, sow!"

  If I faced off against the Spymaster, I cannot see how I would win. Was his little display with Karin his way of giving a warning to me?

  With her naked fear showing on her face, Karin does not try stand. With trembling hands, she strips off the scraps of fabric that make up her bikini, revealing a cunt and nipples so pale of a pink that they are almost white like the rest of her skin.

  The Spymaster smiles coldly. "Kneel and display yourself before La Raza de la Serpiente."

  Facing the cluster of soldiers and warriors, Karin shifts into a kneeling position, with her back arched, and spreads her knees at a 45° angle.

  After carefully appraising Karin, the Spymaster shows a small frown, and appearing to ignore her, he turns back toward me. "If you are interested in this sow slave, I will sell her to you for a cheap price."

  "What do you consider cheap?"

  The Spymaster smiles. "I think one thousand copper coins would be about right."

  I return the Spymaster smile. "If you want that much money for her, you'll have to throw in some proper training."

  "I can arrange for proper training in domestic chores, fellatio, and intercourse, but you'll have to come to Tlatilco on Taereun, as you call it, to pick her up."

  As Karin's back stiffens, righteous indignation mixes in with the aura of rising fear around her.

  My smile never wavers. "Hang onto her, and when I passed through, I'll take her off your hands."

  Steel is pain. Steel is cruelty. I my vision into the Realm of Mind.

  Yep, Spymaster is a dragon, or to be precise, he is a feathered serpent.

  As though, the Spymaster expected my action, he meets my eyes in the Realm of Mind with a smile. At least, I think it is a smile. The closest thing I can think of for the appearance of the Spymaster's head is an alligator or crocodile, but as his eyes squint slightly, the corners of his lips appear to distinctly rise.

  Unlike in the Realm of Body, the Spymaster has a long sinuous body covered with primarily red and green feathers, and there are two feathered wings jutting out from approximately a quarter of his body length behind his head.

  After taking a good look at the Spymaster, I return my vision to normal and wait for the butler to bring Thorrin and Pancho. By the time he returns the three naked colored prisoners in tow, the time has already reached 8:52AM.

  "You can keep the girl if you want her. She's of no use to me."

  "Bastard! Murder! Ugly freak! Where is my brother!" The butler's brutal slap silences Turner's sister, and the blood dripping from her mouth and nose, she glares at me from while laying on the ground.

  With an expression of towering rage, Thorrin glares at me, but his guilt and humiliation are at odds with his expression. "Are you the kind of asshole that would leave a twelve-year-old girl in the hands of religious nut jobs?"

  Crack!

  As the butler tries to slap Thorrin, Thorrin intercepts the butler's forearm with his own, and the distinct sound of breaking bone is audible over the background soughing of the wind.

  His coppery face turning pale, the butler cradles his broken arm but does not cry out in pain.

  The Spymaster continues smiling. "I have no use for an insane Possessed child The three of them are a package deal. Take them or leave them."

  I glance over my shoulder. "First, take a Longboat down and retrieve them."

  "Aye, Master."

  With a look of desperation on his face, Pancho stares up me. "Brand, they have my granddaughter."

  As I shift my eyes from Pancho to the Spymaster, the Spymaster shrugs. "We have a drug addled whore that services one of La Raza's MS-13 commando groups by the name of Candace Taylor."

  Pancho glares at the Spymaster. "That's my granddaughter pendejo."

  As the Spymaster's blast knocks Pancho to the ground, I managed to catch a glimpse of it. He appears to be using the braided Power of a Coalescent to create what looks like a telekinetic fist.

  Paying no further attention to Pancho, the Spymaster turns back toward me and observes me through narrowed eyes. "If you want the whore as well, you can have her."

  I look at Pancho sprawled out unconscious on the ground. "Give her to me, as well."

  The Spymaster smiles again and turns to one of the gun carrying soldiers with tattoos covering most of his face. After the Spymaster says something in a language I do not understand, the soldier turns and takes off at a jog.

  As the longboat touches ground, the time is 8:56AM. While Turner's sister enters the longboat, Thorrin puts the still unconscious Pancho in and climbs in after him. The tattooed soldier has not returned.

  A few seconds before 9:01AM, dozens of missiles are visible rising into the sky from over the horizon. The Spymaster's eyes open wide in shock, which is probably the first honest emotion I have seen on his face. He glances at the butler and gives more orders in that language that I do not understand.

  The butler races into the manor house and returns less than thirty seconds later with a notebook computer in hand. While the butler holds it for him, the Spymaster types rapidly on the keyboard is an aura of growing fury surrounds him.

  At 9:02:53AM, ten nuclear warheads eliminate the city of Fresno, but other than a momentary sense of satisfaction, I do not feel much of anything.

  Taking out my Delphi tablet, I quickly scan through the news sites and find a feed of the Chinese president making a speech. His words are in English, but I do not know if he is speaking English or if Delphi has automatically translated into English for me. The Chinese president is making a speech about eliminating the great evil of the American Empire, but when someone runs up to them from offscreen and whispers in his ear, his face pales and transforms into an image of blatant terror. He was
probably informed about the other fifty missiles from Tie Quan's submarine that I launched at other countries around the Earth.

  The tattooed soldier returns dragging a too skinny, malnourished girl with greasy looking dark brown hair. She has a facial tic and her eyes look ready to bug out of his skull. Fear surrounds her like a foul-smelling cloud.

  Seeing the soldier with the girl, the first mate's near terror is replaced by hope. Is the change takes place in the first mate's emotional state, the Spymaster's head snaps around and he stares at the first mate with ever widening eyes.

  When the Spymaster looks up at me, a cold glare replaces his wide-eyed stare. "You are the one responsible for this?"

  I shrug. "Only, the other fifty missiles are my doing, but you already know that, don't you?"

  The Spymaster's eyes rake across the open gunports of the Night Raven, and then, his stare settles on my people in the longboat.

  "Don't even waste your time thinking about it. If you try to use them as hostages, I'll attack."

  With a smile back in place, the Spymaster looks at me again. "Why don't you and I fight one-on-one and leave the rest out of it?"

  "I don't think so. The Night Raven has enough firepower to hurt you bad."

  The Spymaster smile does not waver. "Can I interest you in a new job?"

  I laugh. "No thanks."

  The Spymaster chuckles. "You have turned out to be far more interesting than I would have ever imagined a pig could be. Take them and leave. I am certain there will be another time for us to continue this discussion."

  The first mate does waste any time. Taking the girl from the tattooed soldier, he throws her in the longboat and immediately launches it into the air.

  "My guess is the dragonians and dragon bloods copy you little lizards when they call us pigs. Why do you little lizards call humans pigs?"

  The Spymaster grins and fine lines appear at the corners of his. "Roast human tastes almost exactly the same as roast pig. Most Dragons have a fondness for pig meat of both the four-legged and two-legged variety."