by Eric Vall
“We’re never going to find him like this,” I snarled. “This desert is too vast, and I don’t know it well enough--”
I broke off as an idea suddenly hit me, and then I angled my wings to take us slightly to the west.
“Where are you going?” Nike called out. “Have you found him?”
“No,” I growled, “but I know someone who can.”
Chapter 16
The Crimson Canyons looked blood red in the light of the fading sunset, and I pumped my wings faster.
This idea of mine was crazy, but perhaps it was just crazy enough to work.
“Evan, I don’t understand,” Nike shouted over the wind. “Aleksey’s trail is faint here, he has not come in this direction.”
“Good,” I growled back, “that means he’s still alive for me to tear to pieces.”
“What does that me--” the Prince of Light began to ask before he was cut off by an ear-splitting roar.
I snapped my head up at the sound, and then bared my teeth at the sight of Valerra in her dragon form perched on one of the reddish hued cliffs. I angled my trajectory to land beside her, and crimson sand billowed in my wake.
“What is the meaning of this?” Valerra demanded the moment I touched down, and her golden eyes narrowed at Nike on my back. “You might be welcome in my canyon, Evan, but I never said anything about filthy--”
“Humans, yeah whatever,” I cut off the irate dragon. “That doesn’t matter now. I need your help.”
“Oh?” the other dragon sneered, and she tilted her head at me. “And why should I care about that?”
“Because this concerns you, too,” I snarled and gnashed my teeth. “Now, are you going to listen to me or not? This is about the man who tried to steal your sister’s egg.”
Valerra’s nostrils flared at the mention of Olivier, and her pupils narrowed into cat-like slits.
“Go on,” she grumbled, but I didn’t miss the final glare she tossed at Nike.
“A man has attacked Hatra,” I began. “He was one of the scholars King Rodion sent to help rebuild the city. I was away on a mission, but when I returned, I discovered this man had attacked my people and stolen our weapons and stores of orichalcum.”
“Petty human disputes,” Valerra scoffed. “You said this had to do with the man who foolishly tried to steal from me.”
“I’m getting there,” I gritted out. “Now, I don’t have any definitive proof just yet, but this can’t be a coincidental attack. I believe this man works for or is somehow tied to Olivier, the man who attacked you, and The Green Glass Sect.”
“And where is this man now?” Valerra asked as she flexed her talons against the stone beneath her feet, and I knew she was envisioning ripping this man to shreds.
Hell, I was too.
“He’s somewhere in the desert,” I explained. “After he attacked my people in Hatra, and siphoned off their powers, he fled into the desert. We’ve been trying to track him, but he’s somehow been able to throw us off his sent. We suspect some kind of demonic magic is in play. We were flying in circles with no leads, but then I thought to myself, who knows this desert better than anyone? Say, someone who has lived here for three-thousand years?”
Valerra huffed and flashed me her fangs. “You came to me so I would be your hunting dog, is that it?”
“Look,” I snapped as I took a step toward the larger dragon, “I don’t have the time to mince words with you. Every second we stand here is another second Aleksey has to get away. I came to your for your expertise and because we share common enemies and goals. Remember, if Hatra falls to the Green Glass sect or to demons, where are they going to look toward next?”
I jerked my head to motion to the canyons around us.
Valerra narrowed her eyes and opened her maw to respond, but I cut her off to add one last thing.
“And if Hatra falls and I am dead,” I said as I met her gaze, “who will be around to help you? The demons got to your sister’s egg once, and it was only because of me and my people that you both survived. If we perish, so do you, so it’s really in your best interest to put aside your pride and fucking help me!”
I panted after I finished my rant, and I felt Nike shift uncomfortably on my back. A long silence stretched between Valerra and me, and not once did I look away from her golden eyes. I actually wanted to bring up the fact that I’d fucked her brains out recently, and if I died then she’d never get any more of that, either. But it wasn’t the right point to bring up when Nike was listening.
Then the massive crimson dragon huffed, and it may have been my imagination, but I thought I saw something almost like a smirk drift over her snout.
“We might make a dragon of you yet,” Valerra said as she trailed her eyes across me.
“Does that mean you’ll help?” I demanded.
“Fine,” she sighed, and then she closed her eyes.
A second of silence ticked by.
“What are you--” I started to ask, but I was cut off as an enormous wave of power crashed into me.
I stumbled under the onslaught, and I heard Nike groan on my back. Before I could ask if he was okay, the crush of energy suddenly abated, and I gasped at the absence.
“There,” Valerra said decidedly as she opened her eyes. “I have found him. He is at the oasis I showed to you, Evan.”
“You found him?” I gaped. “Are you sure?”
Valerra snarled and snapped her fangs at me. “You ask for my help and then you doubt me?”
“It was just a question,” I retorted. “How did you do that? That power was …”
“Impressive,” Nike chimed in over my shoulder, and Valerra’s golden eyes shot to the noble on my back.
“I am a three-thousand year old dragon,” she sniffed. “Impressive is the least of my attributes.” Then her gaze snapped back to me. “If you did not sully yourself with these humans, you could obtain this power too, little dragon. Of course, it would take you a few centuries.”
I rolled my eyes at her bigotry. “Thanks for the advice.”
“Hn,” Valerra grunted, and then she began to turn away and spread her wings.
“Wait!” I called out after her. “Where are you going?”
“You asked for my help, and I have given it to you,” the crimson dragon replied as her eyes narrowed at me. “I have told you where this traitorous human is located. I never said I would aid you in apprehending him. You do what you must for your people, and I’ll do what I must for mine.”
Before I could reply, Valerra buffeted her wings and shot up into the sky. The fading light of the sun glinted off her crimson scales as she wheeled overhead for a moment, and then she glided in the direction of her cave.
“Well, she’s charming,” Nike muttered on my back.
“She’s not all bad,” I replied as I watched her massive form disappear. I knew she was going back to her cave to check on her sister’s egg, and as much as her presence would help us on this hunt, I couldn’t begrudge her decision.
As she said, she would do whatever it took to protect her people, and now it was my turn to do the same.
“You know where this oasis is?” Nike questioned.
“Yeah,” I said, “so hold on.”
Then I spread my own wings, took to the air, and directed myself toward the oasis.
Aleksey, here we come.
I flew faster than before and ignored the trail of power we’d been following through the desert dunes. There was nothing leading to the oasis, but I had a theory.
“Nike, I think I figured it out!” I exclaimed. “That power trail is leading us away from where Aleksey is actually located. It’s a false lead.”
“And we were meant to chase it into the heart of the desert while he recuperates at the oasis,” Nike growled back, and his power flared all around us.
“Exactly,” I laughed darkly as I soared over the desert dunes in the direction of the oasis. “And that’s where we’ll catch him and make him pay for everything h
e’s done.”
“Be careful not to kill him,” Nike added.
“Why?” I asked as I crested over a particularly large dune. “I mean, I wasn’t going to since death would be too merciful for him.”
“We still need to recover the orichalcum from him,” Nike explained quickly. “If he dies before we do, we might never get it back. We don’t know if he’s already handed it over to someone or if he’s hidden it somewhere. Even if it’s hidden away in his spatial storage, it would take us days, if not weeks to break into it.”
“Well, fuck!” I groaned as my power lashed out around me at those words. “That just makes things more complicated now.”
Just then, we came to the same oasis Valerra had brought me to once before. The sun had finally set, and the moon glittered off the pool of water like a diamond hung in the sky. Right on a small dune in the oasis was Aleksey. With my enhanced eyesight, I could see his face was pale and his eyes bloodshot from the power overdose. Nike was right, he was already suffering the aftereffects of absorbing all of that power from my family back in Hatra.
The question was whether or not he’d be able to fight against us. But no matter what happened, we had to overcome him.
“What a coincidence,” I growled as I flew toward Aleksey, “were you just out for a stroll in the desert?”
Aleksey slashed his hand in the air between us, as if summoning something from the sky. All that happened was a fizzle of power, like an outlet had short circuited in a thunderstorm.
It was really quite underwhelming.
I swooped down lower toward the lone man, and I felt Nike shift higher up on my back.
“Nothing to say in your defense, Aleksey?” Nike shouted, and I could feel his rage like a fire between my shoulder blades.
“Go ahead and die!” Aleksey snarled angrily, and then he made another gesture that formed a bolt of poisonous looking lightning. The purple and putrid beam of energy shot straight toward us, as if it was a GPS guided missile.
“Well, now that’s just rude,” Nike said over my shoulder as I dodged the bolts of magic.
“You okay back there, Nike?” I asked, but before he could respond, Aleksey shot another bolt of lightning at us.
I bared my fangs and pulled up my own lightning power from the depths of my spiritual sea. A black beam of energy shot out from me, and it collided with Aleksey’s lightning with a clap of eardrum-shattering thunder.
I gritted my teeth as I poured even more magic into my attack. He was much more powerful than we’d anticipated, and I realized that first aborted attack was a ploy to draw me in closer. He was clever, I’d give him that, and because he had siphoned energy from the most dangerous people in Hatra, I knew he was not someone to be underestimated.
But, slowly, my lightning began to overtake the traitor’s own spell, and I watched with a dark glee as his attack was shoved further and further away. Aleksey might have the backing of some demonic power, but I had not only the Sword of Healing to rely on, but even Asher’s power to back mine up.
Not to mention, it was two against one.
“He thinks he’s quite clever, but he’s a clawless cat,” Nike laughed, and then he leapt from my back and landed gracefully on the sand.
“Nevertheless, a cat we’ll put down,” I replied back with a thunderous growl. “I’ll watch your back.”
In one smooth movement, Nike unsheathed his Sword and went on the attack. His power exploded around him, and he looked like a silver sun to my eyes.
While I doubted Aleksey would be able to overcome Nike in combat, I still poured healing magic into my brother in arms to prevent any power drain. We didn’t know what other tricks the traitor had up his sleeves, after all.
As if he could read my thoughts, Aleksey started to laugh maniacally, and the bright light that surrounded Nike began to fade. I could see a scowl etched across Nike’s face as Aleksey siphoned his power, but he hefted up his sword regardless and lunged at the crazed noble.
There was another ear-splitting crack of thunder, and then a bolt of white and purple energy exploded out of Aleksey. Nike dove out of the way just in the nick of time, and he barrel rolled across the sands. A moment later, Aleksey’s attack disappeared, and in its wake was blackened sand and sparkling glass.
If Nike had been hit by that bolt, he would have been vaporized.
“Fuck this guy,” I snarled, and rage boiled up in my gut like an erupting volcanoe.
A moment later, a torrent of crimson flames shot from my open maw, and a fireball half my size tore across the sands toward Aleksey. The bastard dodged the attack at the last second, but I wasn’t going to let him get away.
I bunched up my legs, spread my wings, and shot up into the sky. With two strokes, I was already several stories overhead, and I pinwheeled through the air as I closed in on Aleksey.
I could see the noble bare his teeth as he squared his stance and turned to face me, and as much as I hated him, I had to say he had balls.
But I was still going to melt the flesh from his bones.
As I soared over Aleksey, I strafed the ground around him with crimson fireballs. The heat felt like a warm summer day on my scales, but I could tell by the way the sand was melting that the flames were searing.
Aleksey attempted to dodge a few of the attacks, but he was too slow on the last one, and he let out a blood curdling scream as the bottom of his left leg caught on fire. He tumbled into the sand, and another fireball crashed down on top of him.
I grinned in victory and swooped down for the kill, but then the smoke cleared, and I saw Aleksey snarling up at me from the ground. His hand was singed, and it looked like he was impaled by molten glass in multiple places, but I didn’t have the time to be sure, because then he made a motion with his hands, and a fireball shot toward me at the speed of light.
I barrel rolled out of the way at the last second, and the tip of my wing nicked the top of a dune. I began to spiral, but I managed to right myself before I could slam into the sand. My landing was a little bumpy, but as I skidded across the soft sand, an idea came to me.
“Absorb this, you piece of shit,” I snarled.
Then I pulled up my stone power from deep beneath my spiritual sea.
The sand before me began to ripple like water, and I shoved all my energy and rage into this attack. The dunes exploded as a wall of sand arched up into the sky, at least fifty-feet tall, and I watched as Aleksey looked up at the encroaching wave.
I let out a roar, and the sand shot toward the noble like a force of nature. The desert shook, and a boom split the air as the sand smashed back into the ground, and I bared my teeth as I imagined Aleksey broken to pieces under the half ton of desert I’d just dropped on him.
“It’s not over yet,” Nike said as he suddenly appeared at my side.
“What are you talking about?” I asked and glanced at him from the corner of my eye. “He might have been able to siphon our powers, but he can’t absorb a wall of sand.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Nike muttered, and then he lifted a hand to point.
I followed his line of sight and gaped at what I saw.
The sands had resettled, though some of the vegetation around the oasis had been churned up in my attack. But that’s not what I was staring at.
Aleksey stood hunched over in the same place he’d been before, and his shoulders heaved up and down as he panted for breath. He definitely didn’t look smashed to pieces, and I snarled in anger.
“He’s a fucking weasle,” I spat, “he keeps wiggling out of everything we throw at him.”
“I believe he has help,” Nike replied with a considering tilt of his head, “but it looks like this help comes at a price.”
I was about to ask what he meant, but then Aleksey moved, and I zeroed my sights in on him again.
Nike was right. Aleksey was looking worse for wear. His skill was pale and wan, even in the bright moonlight, and he was drenched in sweat. His eyes were wild and crazed, and blood
leaked from their corners, as well as from his nose and the corners of his mouth.
“Whatever enabled him to absorb our powers has a limit,” I realized. “Okay, new plan. We attack in tandem. Pour everything into one blow. We overload him like a circuit board.”
“A what?” Nike asked with a confused frown.
“Nothing,” I replied quickly. “We just need to overload him with power.”
“Do we still want him alive?” Nike inquired as he lifted his Sword again.
I bared my fangs in a soundless snarl.
“Honestly,” I said, “I don’t care at the moment. I’m just fucking tired of this guy. If we can get some answers from him, fine, if not, we’ll find them some other way.”
“Agreed,” Nike murmured darkly, and I felt the air go supercharged as he began to summon his power once again.
“On the count of three,” I growled as I pulled at my own spiritual sea. “One … two … three!”
As I shouted the last number, the night sky was split by blinding light. Nike had once again turned into a silver sun, and my black lightning arced through the air as it raced toward Aleksey.
“Come on!” I heard the crazed noble shout, and then our attacks slammed into him with the sound of the world cracking in two.
I screamed as I dumped more and more power into my attack, and I could feel Nike do the same beside me. I couldn’t see him since the desert was nothing but pure white light now, but I could feel his energy press down on me like an oppressive weight.
The moment seemed to stretch on forever, but then the light disappeared in the blink of an eye. It took a moment for my sight to adjust, but when it did, the three moons of Inati glowed in the sky, outlined by a million stars.
And Aleksey lay crumbled in a blackened crater of sand and molten glass.
I went to take a step forward, but my talons stumbled in the sand, and the sky pinwheeled overhead.
“Careful,” I heard Nike grunt beside me. “We just unleashed a considerable amount of power.”