Heartgem Homestead

by Edmund Hughes

  CHAPTER 24

  He'd been quieter on his approach than he’d realized, as the other climber had not noticed him. Hal made out the silhouette of a young woman, clad in pants and a tight tunic, with a rather petite, though nicely endowed figure. She was standing on the side of the ridge that terminated into a steep cliff. And she looked like she was thinking about jumping.

  Is she serious?

  Hal saw her spread her arms to either side and bend her knees. She was going to do it. He didn’t think twice, closing the distance between them in several long strides. He made it to the girl just as she jumped, grabbing her by the back of her tunic and pulling hard. He heard the sound of her clothing tearing, but managed to pull her safely onto the cliff. Onto him, actually, as they both fell into a tangled heap.

  The girl leapt off him, yelling something that he couldn’t quite make out. Hal rose to one knee in time to see something his eyes almost couldn’t believe. Light pulsed around the girl, and suddenly, she was clad in glowing purple magical armor.

  It was unlike anything Hal had ever seen. The armor was ethereal, almost translucent, and gave off a ghostly violet hue that was almost upsetting to look at. It didn’t cover her completely, but the girl wore gauntlets, shoulder pauldrons, a chest piece fitted to her moderately large breasts, and knee-high boots.

  In the light of the girl’s armor, he could see her features more clearly. She was beautiful, in a dangerous kind of way. Her hair was shoulder length, wild locks of chocolate brown. Her face, cheekbones, and chin were angular. She had long, pointed ears that jutted out diagonally, and unbelievably, they seemed to shift and move as though she had a measure of control over them.

  Hal was too busy gaping to notice the most important detail of all, the magical purple spear she held in one hand. It lashed out, the tip giving a warning stab to his shoulder like a striking snake. He let out a surprised shout of pain, and then his eyes went wide.

  The spear left the girl’s hand, giving up its stiff form as it did. It coiled itself around Hal, again conjuring up the image of a snake in his mind. His arms were bound to his sides by it, leaving him completely helpless.

  She stomped her foot and said something else that he couldn’t make out. There was one word that he recognized, and wasn’t spoken in common tongue. Hal’s mind raced as he pulled details from old memories. She was speaking the elven language.

  Roth had taught Hal the basic pronunciations of elven as an academic exercise, rather than something he would ever actually use. The girl’s speech was deeply accented, at least compared to how Hal had been taught. But he could make out most of the words if he tried.

  “…would dare even touch me! Pathetic cattle. Know your place! I am an Honored Valkyrie of Zelnata, capital of the Upper Realm. I am a loyal servant of Empress Kay!”

  The girl made a gesture and breathed out heavily through her nose. Hal cleared his throat.

  “Very… impressive...” he managed to reply.

  The shock Hal saw in the girl’s expression was so profound that he almost started laughing. It took several seconds before she was able to regain her composure, and the very first thing she did was to wave her hand at the spear. It tightened around Hal, squeezing him painfully and pushing the air out of his lungs.

  “You speak the language of the eklids,” said the girl.

  “…Affirmative,” said Hal, struggling to remember the casual word for yes.

  “You speak it poorly,” said the girl, switching back to her accented common tongue. “So I will use your beast language, if it can be truly be called a language, at all. As I’m sure I speak it better than you speak the upper tongue.”

  Was that supposed to be an insult?

  Hal glanced down at the spear, and then looked at the girl expectantly. She made no move to release him.

  “You have an odd way of showing gratitude to someone who just saved your life,” said Hal.

  The girl raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

  “The cliff?” said Hal. “You were about to jump off it. I’m not exactly sure what you were thinking…”

  The girl let out a high pitched, mocking laugh. She lifted her arms out to the side, and suddenly, wings appeared, made of the same violet magic as her armor. They each were as long as she was tall, with little trailing tassels hanging from their bottom edges.

  “You are a fool,” said the girl. “A foolish bull with no grasp of the world.”

  Hal scowled at her. The girl looked as though she was weighing her options.

  “If you’re going to kill me, hurry up and do it,” he said, irritated by her attitude.

  “Yes, that’s what I was considering,” said the girl. “But you are one of the desert locals, aren’t you? Do you know of Aangavar, the dragon who lives in these mountains? Do you have knowledge of where he roosts?”

  It was Hal’s turn to be surprised, though he hoped that he was better at keeping it from showing on his face than the girl was. He spent a second testing the strength of the magical spear, or whatever it was that held his arms. He still couldn’t move.

  “Why do you want to find the dragon?” he asked. It seemed like the only safe answer. The girl had called the dragon by name, as though such a monster should need one. If she was somehow in league with it, he’d rather die than answer her questions.

  There was a rider on the back of the dragon when I first saw it. But… No, it couldn’t be her. The rider wore regular armor, and would know where the dragon’s roost was.

  The spear tightened around Hal again, and this time, the barbed tip on the end of it dug into his shoulder, near the earlier wound she’d given him. Hal forced himself to not let out a gasp of pain.

  “You will address me with respect, cattle!” snapped the girl. “Say my title. Honored Valkyrie.”

  Hal glared at her. The girl clenched her hand, and the spear tightened in line with the gesture. Hal could feel his eyes bulging out of their sockets as the pressure on his body became almost unbearable. Finally, she relented, staring at him expectantly. He had no other choice.

  “Honored Valkyrie,” said Hal, through clenched teeth.

  The girl smiled. It was an odd expression on her face, cold and harsh, like the smile a cat gives a mouse in the midst of toying the life out of it.

  “I like how that sounds on your lips,” said the girl. “Hmm. You are a bull, after all. Perhaps I could use some entertainment in my surface adventures. Yes… you would make an interesting slave.”

  A small pouch bag hung from the side of the girl’s hip. She reached into it and pulled out a set of small bracers, each barely larger than a bracelet. It took Hal several seconds to realize that she planned to put them on him, but looking at them, he couldn’t fathom what they were meant to do.

  “There’s no chain connecting them,” said Hal. “Why even bother?”

  “The chain is made of magic,” said the girl. “Command bracers. Far beyond your level of understanding, cattle. Just relax and accept my rule.”

  “Accept your rule?” Hal shook his head, feeling a sudden wave of dread sweep over him.

  “You will be comfortable,” said the girl. “I will be gentle with you, rest assured. And once my name has been cleared and I’ve returned to Zelnata, perhaps I will even allow you to visit the night harems, on occasion. Assuming you serve me well, in all things.”

  She strode toward him, her posture brimming with confidence, lips still set into that same smug, domineering smile. Hal’s arms were still pinned by her magical spear. The girl loosened it halfway, freeing most of his right forearm enough for her to have room to put the bracer on him. She opened the clasp, and started adjusting it to prevent him from taking it off.

  Hal made his move before she could. He shot his hand down to his belt and pulled loose his pistol, tipping himself forward to fall onto the girl in the same instant. She let out a surprised squeal as they fell. Hal managed to get the barrel of his gun to her chin, and held it there, his eyes locked onto hers.

>   “You would turn one of these on me?” shouted the girl. “A coward’s weapon! Pathetic! You are no ordinary bull, not of this region… Who are you?”

  Before Hal could answer, a deafening roar came from overhead. He glanced up, which gave the girl an opening. She slammed one of her fists upward, striking him hard in the side of the head with a magically gauntleted fist.

  The spear uncoiled from Hal’s body and flew back into the girl’s hand. She whirled as the dragon landed no further than twenty feet away from them, the ground shaking beneath their feet.

  CHAPTER 25

  It was as just terrifying as Hal remembered, if not more so. Its eyes were blood red rubies, completely fixated on the two tiny creatures in front of it. Its jet-black scales were shiny, like recently oiled armor. It had its wings wrapped close to its body in a strangely humanlike gesture, as a man might adjust his cloak on a cold winter night.

  Terror seized Hal from the depths of his being. He trembled uncontrollably. He saw Lilith in the crowd, just before the flames broke through the windows and incinerated her and everyone else nearby. He saw his father dangling from the monster’s mouth, only legs and feet visible, blood dripping down like the juice of a ripe plum.

  The girl stood with her head held high, almost as though she meant to defend Hal. She pointed her spear up at the monster, and even before she spoke, Hal knew that her mind was on violence.

  “Aangavar!” shouted the girl, in elvish. “You were expecting me, were you not?”

  The dragon angled its head at the girl. It opened its mouth, and replied with words spoken in the same, accented elven tongue.

  “Honored Valkyrie Zoria. It seems one betrayal always begets another. Is there no end to the cycle of hate and violence? Come you here to entangle me, so long since serving in full, back into the fold?”

  The dragon spoke without moving its mouth or tongue. Hal found it incredibly unnerving, and he couldn’t keep himself from wondering how the sounds were formed. Dread spread through his body, all the way to the tips of his toes and fingertips. It had been a mistake to think he could sneak into the monster’s territory unnoticed, and he was about to pay for it with his life.

  “You know nothing of what you speak!” shouted the girl. “I was the one who was betrayed! I am loyal to my Empress, even in disgrace. Either admit that you’ve been bribed by Gardius, or ferry me back to the realm.”

  “You foolish child,” said the dragon. “Were that your eyes be just a little bit wider.”

  The dragon lashed out with one of its arms, pounding its claws toward the girl. She dodged, swinging her spear in a counterattack that bounced off the thick scales coating the dragon’s hide. Hal was back up on his feet, gun in hand, paralyzed by indecision.

  He knew he needed to run, but still wanted to fight. Fear surged through his veins like ice water, giving weight to his terrified thoughts. He had an opening to escape, and what other option did he have?

  But Hal felt his anger, too, along with the desire for revenge. This was a chance to fight the dragon, and perhaps even help kill it. Could the girl win against it? He could find a rock, or a stick, and attack the monster alongside her.

  And get myself killed in the process. I was a fool to think I stood any chance against this… thing.

  The girl was holding even with the dragon. She had her wings out, and seemed to be able to use them for short burst of flight. The dragon was heavy and slow, and seemed annoyed by the girl’s mobility. She’d sneak in and stab against its scales with her spear, occasionally managing to make the monster roar in either pain or rage.

  “You flirt with death, little one,” said the dragon. “How many days have you shaved off your life through putting such stress on your runes?”

  “Concern yourself with your own fate!” shouted the girl.

  She landed and spun, throwing herself into a foolhardy, head-on lunge. The dragon inhaled through its smoking nostrils, and then unleashed its fire breath. The fire burned blue around where it left the monster’s mouth, transitioning into a blindingly bright orange as the flames expanded into a curling stream.

  The fire scored a direct hit on the girl. She let out a scream, shielding her face with the ethereal violet gauntlets on her hands. Her armor flashed bright white and then shattered in the same moment that the dragon relinquished its attack. Smoke rose in small tendrils from the girl’s singed clothing, and she wavered on her feet, barely standing.

  The dragon slammed its claw down on her, pinning her to the rock underneath. It held the girl there, slowly squeezing, in the exact same way it had held Hal back at his family’s homestead. As soon as his mind made the connection, he felt his anger and rage toward the monster finally win out over fear.

  “I will report your death back to your family,” said the dragon. “Though of course, it may be some time before I next return to the Upper Realm. Rest easy, little one.”

  The dragon inhaled, preparing a second breath of fire to finish her off. Hal was already moving, pistol in hand, heart in his throat. He threw himself the last few feet, cocking the pistol’s hammer and aiming up at the monster as it exhaled inferno onto him and the girl.

  Hal channeled his anger. He pictured what he wanted and willed the outcome into existence, taking all of the advice Cadrian had given him into account. He pulled the trigger just as the oncoming flames were about to reach them.

  Fire exploded in the hand that held the pistol, almost exactly as it had the last two times Hal had attempted gem magic with his ruby. But this time, the end result was different, and given the circumstances, it was nothing short of fantastic.

  The dragon’s flames reversed, bouncing back the instant before they would have reduced Hal’s flesh to ash. He could feel his control over the spell, and though it barely lasted an instant, it was long enough to reflect the dragon’s flames back into its face. It stopped breathing fire out of sheer surprise and reared back, lifting up its claw for a vital instant.

  Hal pulled the girl free and threw her over his shoulder, taking off toward the nearest trees at a dead sprint. It was dangerous, even disregarding the dragon. He was headed toward a steep slope, and all it would take was a single missed step to send them both tumbling down the mountain, on route to severe injury, if not death.

  The dragon roared and charged after them. It couldn’t take flight over such a short distance, but it moved far more quickly across the ridge than Hal had expected it to. He reached the trees with barely ten feet left between him and the monster, and an instant later, he felt heat on his back as the dragon incinerated the section of forest he’d just passed through.

  Hal glanced over his shoulder, and immediately realized his mistake. In the second he’d taken off the ground in front of him, he’d lost his footing. He was falling forward, still holding the girl, but he didn’t hit the forest underbrush as he’d been expecting. He kept falling, tumbling into darkness as he dropped through the mouth of a deep, cavernous sinkhole.

  CHAPTER 26

  Hal landed hard on the rock floor of the gaping chasm, the impact made doubly painful by the girl crashing down on top of him an instant later. He coughed, barely able to see. The only illumination came from the barest trickle of starlight that managed to sneak through the canopy of tree branches, leaving the pit in near darkness.

  He’d started to consider whether it might be possible for him to climb out when something moved across the hole’s opening. Hal reacted on instinct, grabbing the girl and pulling her deeper into the shadows. The dragon unleashed its fire breath down against the rock an instant later, barely missing the two of them. The flames came close enough to make Hal sweat, though the heat was offset by his cold, palpable sense of terror.

  The opening was far too small for the dragon to fit down, which seemed to be the only upside to the situation. Hal pulled the girl deeper into the cave as the dragon roared and blasted more flames down at them. It was pitch black, but the dragon’s breath was a gift in that regard, giving him a second of vi
sibility each time it came. They hadn’t fallen into a hole, but into a cavern, one that extended for at least a few dozen feet in front of them and probably much, much further.

  Hal kept dragging the girl, feeling his way along the dirty stone walls as he turned a corner and put himself temporarily out of the dragon’s range. The air was stale and cold, and it smelled of fungus and decay.

  He traveled for several more minutes, letting his heart return to a regular rhythm before stopping to consider his situation. He was trapped in the cave. And, to complicate matters even further, the girl was trapped there with him.

  It had been a rash decision to try to save her. Hal had been expecting to make it into the forest and eventually out of the dragon’s territory. Out in the open, he could have left the girl in a safe hiding spot until she woke up, or possibly split off from her amicably even if she regained consciousness early.

  Like a wolf and a mountain lion escaping from a bear, they both would have recognized their circumstances and acted accordingly. Now, away from immediate danger and bottled into a new desperate situation, there was no way for him to tell what she’d do when she woke up. She’d already attacked and defeated him once.

  Hal realized that he still had the slave bracer on his wrist, though the girl had never closed it completely. He mulled it over for a few minutes, and then bent down to search the girl over. He winced as he accidentally touched one of her breasts in the dark before finding the pouch at her side. The other bracer was still inside of it.

  I don’t like this, but I don’t see any other choice…

  He closed the first bracer over the girl’s wrist. Nothing happened. He put the second on her, and as soon as it tightened, both bracers flashed with light, and the runes carved into the bracelet’s surface gave off a glow for a few seconds. The girl made a noise, but didn’t wake up.