by Susan Illene
“About time you guys showed up,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “I’ve been waiting for months!”
“Who are you?” Phoebe asked, narrowing her eyes.
She smiled brightly. “I’m Allison, and I will be your guide today.”
Everyone looked at each other confused. I turned back to her. “There must be some mistake. The last two guides weren’t…”
Allison lifted a brow. “Modern? Young? Friendly?”
“Yeah, actually,” I agreed.
She nodded. “Your original tour guide sacrificed herself to get rid of the dragons in this area. She was a slayer like you, except a really old one who’d been around for ages. Since I happened to be in the area when she died, I was chosen to take her place.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “I always figured the other guides weren’t actual people.”
Allison shook her head. “Oh, they were people a long time ago, but their spirits have been stuck in their caves for thousands of years waiting on you, so they’ve gotten a little…antisocial.”
“Right,” I said, feeling like I’d just entered an episode of the Twilight Zone—which was saying something, considering the way my life was these days.
“Anyway, if you all will follow me, we will begin the tour.” She gestured at us, then turned and led the way into the cave. It was dark at first, but as we started down a set of slippery steps, the glow we’d seen at the other fragment locations started emanating from the walls. “As you can see, magic runs this place now, but we did have electrical lighting effects before.”
“Were you an actual tour guide here?” Danae asked.
“Yes.” Allison glanced back at her. “That was one of the reasons I was chosen.”
Aidan frowned. “Who selected you?”
“You’ll get all the answers you need to know soon enough,” Allison said, continuing to lead us through more series of steps, plus some twists and turns that seemed to go on forever.
The place was huge. The roof went up nearly fifty feet in some spots, and the paths were often much wider than the last cave we visited. I found deeper pools of water and many sunken areas below the path we followed. This was the kind of place dragons would love to nest inside. There was so much space and interesting rock formations.
Allison paused for a moment as we worked our way across a bridge of sorts. “As you may be wondering, this cavern is made of gypsum or more specifically—it is mostly alabaster. There are only a few places in the world where black alabaster can be found, and this is one of them. For you, Aidan, you should know that alabaster is tolerant to your second fire and can be used for building materials.”
“My toriq does not own this land,” he said, though I could see interest in his eyes.
Allison shrugged. “The Thamaran won’t come within fifty miles of this place, so if you wanted to make your way back here someday, you’d be fine once you got close—or you could send others.”
As much as I could understand Aidan wanting to try out a different material for building stuff, I hoped he didn’t return. I addressed Allison, “What happens to you after we’re finished with our quest?”
“That’s not for me to say,” she said in a clipped tone.
I must have hit a sore spot, or maybe she didn’t know. She spun on her heels and continued the tour, pointing out various rock formations, most of which had been carved out when a fast-moving river had run through the underground area. We discovered that the path we followed through the cave was three-quarters of a mile long if we followed it to the end.
I began to wonder how much of that distance we would be traveling when Allison stopped in a wide, open area. She turned to face us. “When I used to give regular tours, this was the spot where I might turn out the lights so people could see how dark it gets. Now, this is where you’ll see the final part of the story on what happened with the orb Finias created.”
As she faded away, so did the glow on the rocks. Bright light started to shine from the back wall where a scene began to appear, featuring Finias riding a black horse. The sorcerer had aged since we last saw him so that he looked like he was in his sixties now. He carried the orb in the palm of his hand, holding it close to his chest. In the sky above him, at least a hundred dragons—green this time—flew in formation. The angle changed to show a fortified city ahead of him with high walls and guards posted at the gates. Half a dozen men sat on horses in the middle of the path leading there. Despite their overwhelming odds, they didn’t back down as the sorcerer approached them.
Finias came to a stop a short distance away, two dragons landing on either side of him. “Surrender now, or else I will destroy your city.”
A stately-looking man wearing leather armor shook his head. “We have seen what you’ve done to the other cities you have conquered. Your people suffer while you grow rich from their labor, and when you are not happy with them, you feed them to your dragons. Enough is enough, Finias. You cannot have every place you set your sights on.”
“Even if it means you will all die?” the sorcerer asked.
The city leader lifted his chin. “We would rather cease to exist than live under your control, but if you had any sense, you would stop this madness. Using dragons to manipulate and kill people? You are no better than the beasts you lead.”
“Very well,” Finias said, his face turning red. “You will not be troubled by me any longer.”
He raised the orb. “Dijis!”
The dragons swarmed toward the city, blowing flames of fire. The screams from men and women rose up. Some of the beasts grabbed people, chomping them into pieces. Others concentrated on burning everything in sight. Finias kept the two dragons at his side, prepared to have them burn the men across from him if they dared to move.
It took almost an hour for the beasts to eradicate any trace of the city from ever existing. All the while, the leaders sat frozen on their horses, watching it happen in horror. Every time one of the men would start to ride forward with the intent to kill the sorcerer, the dragons would snarl at him. The leaders could do nothing except watch their people die.
After it was over, a satisfied smile crossed Finias’ face. “I will leave you men to spread this day’s events to others so they might learn from it.”
With that, he turned his horse around and rode off into the distance.
The next scene opened with a group of people gathered around a trestle table. One, I was surprised to see, was the slayer we’d seen during our first history lesson—the mother of the shifters. I’d known my kind could live forever if we weren’t killed, but it was still incredible to see her alive after what must have been thousands of years. She hadn’t aged at all. It was only in her eyes that you could view the toll it had taken on her to live so long. The joy I’d seen when she looked upon her children was gone, and I couldn’t find a trace of happiness in her demeanor. She simply existed now. The man/dragon she’d once fallen in love with had likely died millennia ago.
The leader of the destroyed city spoke to her. “Finias must be stopped—no matter the cost!”
“Are you certain you are willing to sacrifice anything?” the female slayer asked, lifting a brow.
“Yes! He murdered my family and my people.”
An older man who looked just like Savion spoke up. “There is a way.”
Hearing his voice, I was certain it was him.
“How?” another man with yellow eyes like a shifter’s asked. He stood next to a woman who also had yellow eyes.
“We must get the orb from the sorcerer,” the slayer said.
“Everyone who has tried has failed,” the city leader argued.
Savion clasped his hands together. “That is because there has never been a pact between all the races to be rid of him. If we stand together, we can do it.”
The female shifter furrowed her brows. “Your magic is strong enough?”
Several of us gasped, having not realized he was a sorcerer when we met him before.
“With enough help and the right planning, my powers will be sufficient, but doing this will not come without sacrifice,” Savion warned. “Most of us will die to accomplish this task.”
The city leader laid his hands flat on the table. “How certain are you that this will work?”
“I am absolutely certain if we swear a blood oath now to do what we must,” he answered.
The female slayer rose to her feet. “I will gladly do whatever it takes.”
After a few more questions, everyone else agreed as well. The scene faded away.
A new image appeared before us of Savion and the female slayer walking through the corridors of what appeared to be a palace. It was night, judging by the dark windows. They passed several guards along the way who did not acknowledge them or look in their direction. Deeper and deeper into the palace they went, taking one turn after another and climbing several sets of stairs. Eventually, they stopped in front of an intricately carved door with ferocious dragons depicted on it.
Savion furrowed his brows and light glowed from his hands. He reached for the handle, but when it shocked him, he jerked back. Taking a deep breath, he tried once more. The light emanating from his fingertips increased until it lit up half the corridor. It was a good thing the nearest guard was around the corner because I wasn’t sure he could have hidden that with whatever invisibility spell he was using.
A light pop sounded, and he sighed in relief, pushing the door open. He went in first with the slayer following behind him. They exchanged looks once, and there was a wealth of meaning in their expressions. They weren’t a hundred percent certain their plan would work, but they would try anyway. Creeping across the room, the slayer moved somewhere out of sight. Savion continued forward until stopping a few feet from a large bed. Finias slept on it with two naked women sprawled on either side of him. His eyes were closed, and he snored loudly.
Savion drew out a knife and sliced it across his palm, then lifted his hand into the air. It stopped at some kind of invisible wall that briefly lit up. He began chanting words I could not understand, but he repeated a series of them over and over again.
Finias jerked up in bed, his gaze shooting to Savion. “What are you doing?”
The chanting continued without pause.
The evil sorcerer knocked one of the women to the floor in his haste to climb out of bed. She landed with a thud, crying out. He barely spared a glance for her as he jerked on a robe to cover his naked body. There were some things I could have definitely lived without ever seeing, and that was one of them.
“You will die for this,” Finias said after strapping his robe tightly around him.
Savion continued his chant, sweat starting to form on his brows.
“You will not break my spell in time.” Finias grabbed a knife from the bedside table. “It was foolish of you even to try.”
Savion chanted louder, and the magic thickened so much that we could feel it even though we weren’t there. As the evil sorcerer raised his knife upward, a bright series of sparks crackled between the men and the protection shield broke. He’d done it!
Finias drove his knife downward, and my stomach clenched. He plunged it straight into Savion’s chest. The sorcerer fell to his knees, but he managed a smile for Finias.
“You think you’ve won, but you haven’t.”
I caught sight of the female slayer leaping across the bed with her dagger raised. Finias didn’t hear her until the last moment. He began to turn, but it was too late. She plunged the blade straight through his neck with such strength it came out the other side. The evil sorcerer fell to his knees. Shock flickered in his gaze in that brief moment before he went slack, slumping to the floor. The slayer rushed toward the bedside table and grabbed a wooden box from on top of it. She flipped it open, revealing the orb inside, and took it out to stuff into a pouch hanging from her belt.
The female slaves began to cry. The slayer rounded on them and spoke in a hushed tone, “Be quiet, and do not alert the guards for at least a few hours, do you understand?”
Both of them looked at her like she was their savior and nodded their heads. There was no telling what Savion had done to them. The girl who’d been knocked off the bed spoke in a whisper, “His sons will come after you.”
“I know,” the slayer answered. “But I will be long gone by then if you keep quiet for a few hours.”
“We will,” they both promised.
The slayer gave Savion a sorrowful glance, knowing she could do nothing for her partner, and moved toward the door. She paused there to clutch at a crystal hanging from her belt, squeezing it until it began to glow. I wasn’t certain what it was for until I caught her passing the guards again unnoticed. Savion must have made it for her, anticipating that she might be the only one to survive. The slayer hurried through the palace, only slowing when she neared guards so as not to make a sound.
My heart stuck in my throat as I watched her make the long journey back through the palace, noting that the crystal was beginning to fade. The slayer noticed it as well. When the gates to the palace appeared up ahead, she raced toward them. They were already opening for a supply cart to pass through, but she was out of time. She jumped onto the back of the cart and pulled a woolen blanket over her. No alarms were raised, and she made it through the gate with no one the wiser.
The scene flashed forward to the slayer meeting with the city leader deep in the woods. He waited there with a spare horse, handing over the reins when she got close.
“Savion?” he asked.
She shook her head, mounting the horse. “Finias killed him right after he got the shield down.”
“He was a good man—for a sorcerer,” the leader said.
“Yes, he was.” The slayer guided her horse around and into a trot.
We watched in brief glimpses as the two of them rode for what seemed like days until they reached a coastal area. I couldn’t even begin to guess where since it was empty without any special landmarks. On the beach, they met with the two shifters we’d seen before. They asked about Savion, and the slayer gave them the same answer as she’d given the city leader. Exhaustion lined her face, and the human leader appeared half dead where he sat on his horse. Their pace had been grueling to make it to the coast.
The slayer handed the orb pouch over to the male shifter. “Guard it with your life.”
“Of course,” he said, taking it from her. It disappeared, and I could only assume it went into shiggara. That was probably the safest place for it.
The sound of thundering horse hooves in the distance drew their attention. The angle changed to show a group of soldiers riding for them. They were led by a man who looked like a younger version of Finias. It didn’t take much to put two and two together. As the evil sorcerer’s son continued toward them, the shifters began to change into their dragon forms.
“Hurry!” the slayer urged. “All he needs is to be close to the orb to call upon it.”
The shifters finished their transformation and took flight over the water, picking up speed quickly. After the slayer was satisfied they’d gotten far enough away to be out of danger, she turned to the city leader. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” he said, straightening in his saddle. He might have had fancy armor for the time period, but he didn’t look to be in good physical shape. Most likely, he’d led an easy life before his city was destroyed. Still, he lifted a sword and appeared ready to face the overwhelming odds.
When Finias’ son was about fifty feet away, the slayer pulled a slim knife from her belt. She muttered under her breath. “Can’t let him close, or I’m dead.”
She threw the blade, landing it in the man’s eye. He cried out, then fell from his horse to land with a thud on the ground. The slayer drew her sword and attacked the men with the city leader following close behind. She fought with such viciousness that the first three went down under her blade alone. The city leader barely finished his first opponent, and was already wounded from that battle, but he went a
fter another. His next fight didn’t go as well, and he ended up with a blade in his belly. The slayer finished off her last opponent and the one who struck the city leader. She didn’t even appear winded.
The city leader slid off his horse and fell to the ground, blood soaking the front of him. As he lay there gasping his final breaths, the slayer kneeled next to him. Sorrow filled her features.
“You completed your task, and you have done well,” she said.
Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. “Only one…of the six sons are dead.”
“I know,” she said, “but I will hunt them all down no matter how long it takes.”
His gaze went to the ocean. “Let us hope…the shifters make it to that faraway land.”
“If they are committed, they will,” she promised.
The scene faded away, and a new one began with the red dragons flying over an endless sea of water. I glanced at Aidan. “Can you really fly across an ocean without stopping?”
“Not exactly,” he said, still watching the scene. “But there is a way to float in the water for a while to rest so that one could keep going.”
“What about storms?” I asked.
“If they are strong, we cannot fly through them.”
We watched snapshots of the shifters flying for hours without breaks, then lying on the water with their wings spread wide while they rested. They shifted to human form occasionally to catch fish and eat, as well as drink from the water skins they pulled from shiggara. More than once, they were attacked by water dragons and had to fight for their lives. During one particularly difficult battle, the female shifter died. For a few hours, the male held her in his arms before he finally forced himself to continue on his journey.
Though we only watched glimpses of his trip the rest of the way, it was exhausting to see. The wear and tear it took on the male shifter’s body was brutal, but at least he was lucky the worst weather was only light rain. Eventually, he reached land and rested for a day before continuing onward.
His journey through America was almost as tough to watch as the one through the ocean. Dragons lived there too, and the shifter fought battle after battle while searching for the best place to hide the orb. He must have spent months altogether to make the journey before coming across a Native American tribe. He met with a female shaman who looked just like our guide in Missouri. She appeared to have been expecting him—she wasn’t much of a talker back then, either—and readily agreed to help.