Wrath of the Dragon Czar: Aegis of Merlin Book 5

by James E. Wisher

  “Master!”

  Conryu ended the spell and focused on his link with Prime to see what had the scholomantic upset. A figure in white was flying toward them like a bullet. Seemed they’d been spotted.

  He blasted away from the camp in the opposite direction from the vampire’s base. The last thing he wanted was to lead the witch back to Anya and the defenseless Sasha.

  A bolt of lightning streaked by, close enough to singe the hair from his arm. If she wanted to play rough, he’d be happy to oblige.

  He pulled up and spun.

  A blur of white shot by.

  He raised a hand. “Break!”

  A sphere of dark magic streaked after the witch. Guided by his will, it followed her every move like a heat-seeking missile.

  Finally she hurled a lightning bolt at it and the two magics canceled each other out. Pretty impressive.

  Conryu put his hands together. “Darkness dispels everything.”

  Dark energy gathered between his palms.

  The witch gathered herself for another spell. Power crackled around her hands.

  Conryu finished first. He hurled the ball of energy at her.

  It exploded, dispelling all magic in a thirty-foot area.

  The witch plummeted toward the ground.

  He opened a Hell portal and watched just long enough to make sure she caught herself before throwing a little wave her way and flying through the portal.

  A shiver ran up Lady Wolf’s spine as she stalked around the quiet camp. She’d already wasted a month with these Imperial fools and the operation showed no sign of coming to an end any time soon. Did the czar really expect her to spend months on end doing nothing at his side while he hunted vampires? Surely by this point the Solar Orb had proven its usefulness. It should be clear to anyone with half a brain that she’d held up her side of the deal.

  It was probably some sort of power play. He wanted to prove he possessed strength enough to force her to do what he wanted. A month should have been enough to satisfy this. She paused and looked up into the clear sky. Unfortunately, no solution presented itself.

  A hint of movement caught her eye. The dot soon resolved into a witch approaching at high speed. She flew straight for the czar’s huge tent. Eager for anything to alleviate her boredom, Lady Wolf followed.

  She reached the tent just as the witch touched down. The flap opened before the witch could take a single step closer and the czar emerged. He must have been able to sense her anxiety through the link that allowed him to control them.

  “What has happened?” he asked.

  “A spy was surveying the camp from a distance. I drove him off, but I don’t know what he might have seen.”

  Lady Wolf frowned behind her mask. No vampire would be out flying at this time of day. A sick feeling twisted her stomach.

  “Did you get a good look at this spy?” the czar asked.

  “Not too good. It was a young man dressed in black. He escaped through a Hell portal or else I would have captured him.”

  “A man, able to fly, you’re certain?” Roman scratched his chin with a long talon.

  “Yes, Majesty. Though I sensed no device powering the spells.”

  “Of course not,” Lady Wolf said. “You had the dubious pleasure of meeting Conryu Koda, the only male wizard on earth. The abomination has been a thorn in our side since his discovery.”

  “You seem familiar with this boy,” the czar said.

  “I’ve never encountered him personally, but he ruined one of our projects this past summer. I recommend you withdraw back to the Empire before he does to you what he did to us.”

  Roman laughed. “You expect me to lead my army away because a single whelp of a wizard has arrived on the battlefield? Surely you’re joking.”

  “I assure you I’m serious. If the abomination has allied with the vampires, your chances of victory have just dropped by more than half. You’ve sent a message, killed some enemies, showed them they can’t interfere with you and get away with it. Take the win and walk away. That’s my advice.”

  Roman’s eyes glowed as he scowled at her. “And let you return to your precious Society? Your motives are painfully transparent. We’re not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

  The czar returned to his tent, ending the conversation. Lady Wolf silently cursed the arrogant fool. Yes, she would have liked to take her leave of the Empire, but that in no way lessened the risk of having Conryu on the battlefield. His power alone sufficed to change the shape of the war. And if he somehow found out her plans or worse captured her and the artifact fragment, all hope of freeing Morgana would vanish. She couldn’t have that. Nothing could be allowed to interfere with her mission.

  Maria sat at the end of their usual table and picked at her salad. She hadn’t seen Conryu since Sunday and she was getting worried. Especially since Anya had gone missing as well. She didn’t believe for a second he’d run off with the beautiful girl. He wasn’t that sort of person. No, she could definitely rule out them going off together.

  The slightly more worrying idea that wouldn’t stop gnawing at the back of her brain was that the Department had sent him off on some new, dangerous mission. Her father, or more likely Malice Kincade, might have ordered him not to say anything to her or anyone else. She tried to imagine what they might have sent him to do, but the options were too vast. Whenever the Department had a difficult problem, it seemed they looked to Conryu as their first and only option.

  She tossed her fork on the plate and ground her teeth. Whether he was in danger or not, the not knowing bothered her more than anything.

  “Have you seen him?” Kelsie sat beside her and tapped her finger on the table.

  “No. I don’t suppose you heard anything through your family?”

  Kelsie shook her head. “No one talks to me anymore. I prefer that most of the time, but right now it would be nice to have those connections. What are we going to do?”

  “I’ve got a free period after lunch,” Maria said. “I’ll go see Dean Blane and find out if she knows what’s going on.”

  “I’ll go too. I have light magic class, but I’m not progressing enough to make it worthwhile.”

  Maria reached out and stilled her tapping finger. “Maybe it would be best if just one of us goes. We don’t want to act like we’re making demands. As soon as I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”

  Kelsie scrunched up her face and Maria feared she might argue. After a moment Kelsie sighed. “Promise?”

  Maria made a little X over her heart. “Promise.”

  Maria left the cafeteria and made the short walk over to the main building. Upstairs in the administrative area all the damage from the dragon mane had been repaired and all the secretaries had returned to work.

  It never ceased to amaze her, the things you could accomplish with magic. Maria ignored the looks from the secretaries and marched straight down to the dean’s office. She knocked and the door opened almost at once.

  Dean Blane sat behind her desk, a worried crease in her otherwise youthful face. Before Maria could get a word out the dean asked, “Do you know where he’s gotten to?”

  Maria’s heart sank. Dean Blane didn’t know either. That made the Department sending him off on a mission much less likely.

  “I was hoping you did. The last time I saw Conryu was Sunday at lunch. Since then it’s like he vanished off the face of the earth.” Her eyes widened. “That’s not possible, is it?”

  “With that boy I hesitate to say anything’s impossible, but it is very unlikely.” Dean Blane hopped off her chair and came around her desk. “I guess we’ll have to look for him.”

  Maria brightened. “Do you think you can find him?”

  “Of course. Wind wizards are the best at this sort of thing. If the air is touching him, the spirits can find him, especially since I haven’t taught him how to hide from them yet.”

  A wave of her hand and one of the bookcases slid aside revealing a mirror. Dean Blane chanted i
n the language of air and clouds filled the glass. She frowned and stared, starting the clouds swirling. Maria didn’t know much about scrying and dearly wanted to ask questions, but she knew better than to distract a wizard in the middle of a spell.

  It took most of half an hour for the clouds to part and reveal Conryu sitting on a rusty park bench alone in a clearing. He had Prime in his hands and appeared deep in thought.

  “Where is he?” Maria asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure, the spirits aren’t fantastic when it comes to human ideas like boundaries and nations. Considering the setting and how long it took to find him I’d guess Europe somewhere. The more pressing question is: What the hell is he doing there instead of here?”

  “Can’t we ask him?”

  “We certainly can. And he’d better have a good explanation.”

  Dean Blane chanted again and Conryu looked up from Prime and straight at them. He offered a sheepish wave.

  “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?” Dean Blane asked.

  “I find I’m in a bit of a complicated situation. Remember how you said you wanted me to find out what was bothering Anya and try to fix it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Turns out she was worried about her mom, so I offered to take her for a visit. It was supposed to be just for a night and we’d be back this morning for class, but I ran into a problem.”

  “What kind of problem?” the dean asked.

  “The Dragon Empire has invaded and they’re hunting vampires.” Maria’s heart skipped a beat, but Conryu went right on talking. “Apparently they’ve got an elf artifact that creates artificial sunlight and they’re powerless to deal with it on their own. The Imperial soldiers are also killing any regular people they run into. I rescued a group of fifty families last night. Must’ve been sixty kids with the group and the soldiers were shooting at them with machine guns.”

  “This isn’t your fight,” Dean Blane said. “If the Alliance government knew you’d gotten involved in a foreign war, they’d lose their minds. You need to grab Anya and get back here right now.”

  Conryu stared at them through the mirror and Maria steeled herself. She’d seen that expression before and if there were innocent people in danger, it wouldn’t matter to him where they lived. He wasn’t coming back, at least not soon.

  “I already volunteered to help them out and the vampire’s leader accepted. There’s another thing I forgot to mention. The Imperials have a Le Fay Society member with them and I’d bet my bike she’s the one that provided them with the artifact.”

  Dean Blane’s expression shifted to one of concern. “Why would the Society be helping the Empire?”

  “Exactly what I’m hoping to find out. Whatever it is, I doubt it’s good for us or anyone else. Can’t you cover for me until we get this straightened out? I already know enough spells to pass the midterm so that won’t be a problem. Besides, I doubt Anya would leave with her mother in danger, I certainly wouldn’t.”

  Dean Blane sighed and Maria knew he’d won. “Alright, we’ll keep things quiet here. It’ll help that you’re not in any formal classes. Is there anything we can do?”

  “Anything you can find out about an artifact that creates artificial sunlight would be great. Prime’s teaching me how to switch it off, but his knowledge of light-magic-based items is very limited.”

  Prime grumbled something, but Maria couldn’t make it out. Conryu shooed him away.

  “I’ll speak to St. Seraphim, she’s our expert. Give me a few hours and I’ll be back in touch.”

  “Sure, my hosts won’t wake up until sunset anyway.”

  “Please, be careful,” Maria said before Dean Blane could sever the connection.

  He grinned. “I’ll be fine. Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  The image vanished and Dean Blane waved the bookcase back into place. “I trust I don’t need to tell you not a word of this leaves my office.”

  “I have to tell Kelsie, she’s nearly frantic.”

  “Her and no one else. If Malice got wind of Conryu’s shenanigans she’d have him locked up before you could say civil rights.”

  Maria nodded. She couldn’t even begin to guess how Conryu would react if someone tried to arrest him for helping people. The only certain thing was it would be ugly.

  “Are you sure just my regular dispel won’t work?” Conryu had been studying the page on a spell called Focused Dispel for the past hour and change. He understood the basic concept, but risking everything on a spell he’d never cast before seemed unwise.

  Prime flew up out of his hands. “An elf artifact is by a large margin the most powerful magic you’ve ever tried to dispel. It’s possible your spell would succeed, but the chances are it wouldn’t. Focused Dispel gathers that huge sphere of dark magic and compresses it into a narrow area, giving the maximum chance for success. I assure you I wouldn’t lead you astray.”

  “I know you wouldn’t, pal. Let’s run through it once more. I cast my normal dispel then instead of releasing it I compress it between my palms and focus only on the crystal. If it works right, I should get a line of energy instead of an explosion. Right?”

  “Exactly, Master. I have every confidence in your ability to pull it off.”

  “Thanks, Prime.”

  Anya emerged from the ruined building serving as their hotel, her hair in disarray, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She spotted him and stifled a yawn. “Did you get any sleep?”

  “Just a quick cat nap. I’m still buzzed from the life energy I got yesterday. Dean Blane got in touch.”

  Anya winced. “How mad is she?”

  “Less mad than worried. We’re in the middle of a war zone after all.” Conryu glanced at the sky. The horizon had begun turning pink and purple. Wouldn’t be long now before the others got up. “Is there anything to eat around here? I’d love a Giovanni’s pizza.”

  “I don’t think so.” Anya sat beside him on the bench he’d appropriated. “I really appreciate you doing this for my mom and everyone.”

  “My pleasure, though your mom makes me a little nervous, and not because she’s a vampire.”

  “Yeah, she’s different than I expected, but she’s still Mom.”

  The last of the light vanished and black mist rose out of the ground. Soon Sasha and Talon arrived.

  “Morning,” Conryu said. “Or I guess evening. I don’t mean to be rude, but where can a guy get a bite to eat around here?”

  “I don’t have anything handy, but Sasha and I need to hunt, so we can bring you back something. How do you feel about rabbit on a spit?”

  “Since I haven’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday, anything on a spit would be good. I’ll have the fire ready when you get back.”

  Talon nodded and he and Sasha vanished into the night. Anya helped him gather firewood from a dead tree in the park and when the vampires returned an hour later, they had a roaring campfire lit. Three skinned and gutted rabbits were placed a safe distance from the flames. Conryu was no expert chef, but the smell of roasting meat set his mouth watering.

  Dinner was half cooked when Talon said, “I sense something.”

  Conryu noticed it a moment later, the familiar tingle of Dean Blane’s communication spell. “It’s okay. I was expecting this call. I asked my teacher to research the Imperials’ weapon.”

  He located the source of the spell and found Dean Blane, Maria, Kelsie, and St. Seraphim looking back at them.

  St. Seraphim’s white robes practically glowed when she smiled, her blond hair swirling around her pale face. “Did you really locate a Solar Orb?”

  “Somebody did,” Conryu said. “But I haven’t actually seen it yet. Did you find out anything about the elf weapon?”

  “I did,” St. Seraphim said. “First, it’s not a weapon.”

  Talon hissed. “This thing has resulted in more of my people’s deaths than any other force in over a thousand years and you say it isn’t a weapon.”

  Conryu
winced. “Guys, this is Lord Talon, my generous host. Lord Talon, two of my teachers, my girlfriend Maria, and Kelsie Kincade.”

  St. Seraphim cleared her throat. “Please let me clarify. The elves didn’t create the Solar Orbs as weapons. They used them to light giant underground farms. The light generated by the orbs is adequate to sustain photosynthesis. At least three known samples were discovered by artifact recovery experts in the last century. How one of them came to your land I can’t say.”

  “There are two more of these devices,” Talon said. “Where are they?”

  “You’ll be relieved to know one is in a museum in Central and the other is believed to be a part of the Iron Emperor’s extensive collection,” Dean Blane said. “Neither of them present an imminent threat to you or your people.”

  “That’s something I suppose,” Talon said. “How do we destroy the one that does present a threat?”

  “Destroy it?” St. Seraphim cocked her head. “Elf artifacts are among the most durable items we’ve ever encountered. An elf-spell glass was dug out from under a fifty-ton heap of rubble and not only did it still function, but there wasn’t so much as a scratch on it. I doubt even Conryu’s considerable dark magic potential could shatter one of the devices.”

  The vampire lord tensed. Conryu stepped in. “Prime and I were planning to use a Focused Dispel to negate its magic. Would that be effective?”

  “It should work as a temporary measure,” St. Seraphim said. “A wizard of sufficient skill should be able to restore its function given time.”

  “They won’t have sufficient time,” Talon said. “I’m grateful for your help.”

  Talon bowed and moved away from the portal. Conryu watched him for a moment then asked, “Any advice for me?”

  “Don’t get yourself killed,” Dean Blane said.

  “Seconded,” Maria said.

  Kelsie nodded, but seemed unable to speak.

  “Thanks, guys. I’ll be in touch when it’s over.”

  Maria blew him a kiss and the spell ended. He’d be able to give her a real one soon enough, assuming he survived.

  When the portal had fully closed Talon said, “How can she say it’s not a weapon?”