The Coming Dawn Trilogy

by Austen Knowles

  “Fly. Fly, Cobaaron. Yes. I have an idea,” Ky blurted out that she was a Star, as if that explained everything. “The winds are in our favor! I’m a Star. I can get hot! We can fly. In a hot air balloon—a really big hot air balloon. It would be silent, and I’d heat it up. I’m so hot, that I’m sure it would work.”

  “A what?” he asked. Ky explained by drawing a picture, and as she drew she explained how it flew. When she finished he gaped as if he’d never seen her before. “That is like...magic,” he said in amused fascination. “And it could lift my men? By the thousands, there’s five hundred.” She nodded, and supposed it was at least worth it to try. “But where would I get all the materials?” He thought for a moment. “We could use the ship’s sails and ropes, but that would certainly make it hard for us to leave if this doesn’t work.”

  “It will work. We have to try.”

  He was skeptical. “I don’t know. A flying hot air balloon of cloth? It’s very strange. That’s like magic.” He laughed: “My men will definitely think you’re a witch.” His laughter subsided and he took a deep breath, sounding hesitant. “I don’t know. That would be really big, and risky. It would be a lot of work. We would have to modify your drawing to accommodate so many men. But, nothing like this has ever been done before. Maybe that is why he may not see it coming; if he does, he wouldn’t know what it was, or how to stop it until it was too late. It might work.” He still didn’t sound enthused with the idea, but he shrugged and agreed it was the best plan they had.

  “Cobaaron, it’s in the archives; you can’t stop the future. What could go wrong?” Ky asked.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The northerly breeze was cool and a dark overcast sky of thick clouds was a perfect camouflage, concealing the colossal hot air balloon. They couldn’t have asked for better conditions. As they flew silently, Ky was strapped into a welded swing made for her. Not far below Huntra lay quietly in his metal crate much like a birdcage. His eyes were closed, hiding, as if not seeing meant it wasn’t happening.

  Thousands of men were beneath Ky, sitting in swings attached to thick ropes of different lengths, dangling from metal rings affixed to the base of the balloon. No one spoke, and the women were quiet since their lives depended on it. While suspended from ropes, everyone was uneasy about the height, and Ky noticed some warriors were frightened, obviously believing the rumors she was a witch.

  Ky tried to ignore their stares as they drifted. They passed the Mounts of Rion hours ago, and despite the cloud cover Cobaaron said they were getting closer, now that they were floating over the Black Forest surrounding the king’s castle.

  Ky was relieved to hear the news. Though it took little effort to glow, Ky didn’t realize how long she would have to stay awake. Cobaaron ended up asking Ambrosia to charm Ky to keep her awake, but the charm didn’t cure her exhaustion. The weight of carrying so many men was great, and Ky shined nearly the entire trip to keep them aloft. Shining for days made her fatigue crippling; Ky felt like she ran for miles. Her drained body seemed to be playing mind games.

  Several times Ky swore she saw dragons swooping under them. Long black tails, spiky lizard bodies, colossal wings, and some even had two heads with crowns of horns; they buzzed silently underneath. They would fly so swiftly she would almost miss them. The clouds even churned behind the creature as if it were really there. But she couldn’t have been seeing them, because no one else was saying anything of the danger. It had to be her fatigue. But again and again something flew under them until she was convinced it was there.

  “Dragon!” a woman screamed. Two enormous wings flapped, as the dragon flew swiftly toward them. Ky could see its head looking down, blowing fire below them. Clearly, it was another beast, because this dragon had only one head: gray with black spikes. The dragon spun gracefully around to his back as it flew through their ropes. Lines strained and snapped as ropes caught in its wings. When warriors fell, they quickly reached out their arms as other men seized their comrades. But the dragon wasn’t fazed as the balloon was violently dragged until the last ensnared ropes broke. The balloon swung to the right and lost control. Everyone clung on as they were thrown around wildly.

  “Take us higher,” Cobaaron ordered. “It will be coming back.”

  Ky ignited hotter as the balloon continued to whirl out of control. When she lit up, her heat steadied the craft. The balloon started to rise.

  “Make your sword ready for me, Balkan,” Cobaaron told the warrior directly below him. The warrior nodded, and then removed his long sword from his belt. Seconds later, Cobaaron pushed off his swing.

  He plunged straight down. The warrior dropped his sword as Cobaaron was about to pass him. Cobaaron quickly fell a few more feet, before reaching out for the weapon. He clutched the iron handle as if he’d done it many times before. He continued to dive between the warriors, who pulled ropes to avoid him.

  She watched in horror as he fell over a hundred feet in seconds. Just then the dragon soared between the ropes again. The screaming women became frantic. This time, warriors were ready, and jumped ahead of time to get out of the way. Octavos slammed into Athaya, the only woman in the direct path of the dragon, when he pushed her out of the way. He wrapped his arms around her, and they toppled backward off her swing. She screamed as they fell several feet before being caught. The dragon missed them by inches.

  Ky no longer saw Cobaaron when the dragon jerked the entangled ropes, and the balloon lost control again. “No!” terror-stricken, she screamed as she searched below. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen within the thick clouds. Her light burst… she was horrified. Did he land on the dragon? She hoped, more than believed he was okay. If he missed, they were at least five hundred feet above ground, and he wouldn’t survive. Ky felt a viselike squeezing of her heart. The balloon lost altitude as it spun, because her thoughts were on him.

  “No,” Ky whispered, remembering the archives. They survived. The archives foretold their safe journey to the City of Lights. The future couldn’t be changed.

  Women were screaming. The balloon still spun, which made holding onto the ropes harder for everyone. Especially the warriors hanging to ropes with no swings. “Shine Ky!” Octavos commanded, urgently. Ky beamed hotter before Octavos bellowed to her. The balloon slowly became steady again.

  Through the clouds the dragon’s shadow approached once again. Its dark body was enormous and the wings stretched twice as long as the dragon’s length. It tucked in its wings so it could glide within the ropes. Warriors dove to get out of the way once again. Then Ky saw him. Cobaaron was holding onto one of its wings by the shoulder blade. When the dragon rolled over, Cobaaron let go of the wing and ran. He was sprinting to stay on top of the beast. He raised the sword and swung the tip of the blade like an axe. The sword pierced through the legendary soft scale on its chest that Ky read about in books. A red beating heart could be seen under the thin scale. The sword easily punctured the heart. An earsplitting wail cracked through the air as loud as thunder. Cobaaron kept running, leaving the sword in its still beating heart. But the dragon went limp and began to slump and fall. Cobaaron paused, seeing how far he was from the hot air balloon. He sprinted, and then leaped.

  “He’s not going to make it!” a warrior shouted, and then immediately jumped for Cobaaron. He wasn’t the only warrior who leaped. Masses sprung from their seats at the same time. They grabbed each other’s ankles, forming a long chain. Others hurried to help the single warrior who was holding the chain to the ropes. Outstretched arms seized Cobaaron. Momentum and gravity made the chain of men drop. There was a loud roar from the warriors straining to hold on as they swung toward the ground then back up. They were flung high up between warriors. Many hands seized hold of them and the chain simultaneously broke. Noxis, smiled proudly because of his brother’s achievement, and caught Cobaaron.

  Branches broke with a loud crack, followed by a dull thud. The dragon fell to the ground, dead from the blade that pierced its heart.

 
“That went well, brother,” Noxis praised him, still grinning.

  “There is fire ahead.” Cobaaron nodded to the south. “I saw the flames. The king had dragons set fire to the forest. That’s why they’re here. He knows we’re coming.”

  Cobaaron told Ky to go higher. She took them up, and didn’t stop heating the air in the balloon. Soon she smelled the smoldering trees. Within minutes the smoke was so thick it became difficult to breathe. People closer to the ground coughed. Then they entered a billowing black fog. Flames blazed below. The hot air balloon descended.

  The tall pine trees towering over two hundred feet, were engulfed in fire twice the height of the trees. Ky simply couldn’t shine hot enough to get them out of the hot black smog. Suddenly, an explosion from a cluster of tight trees burst into flames. They were directly over the fire ball.

  There was a clamor of screams. Warriors, women and ropes caught fire. The flames quickly climbed the lines. The men were the first to let go; they fell backward through the smoke as if welcoming an honorable death and the fire below. The women screamed in terror. Some begged for mercy, ripping off their clothes, until fire burned their ropes to strands before breaking.

  The swift flames ate its way up the ropes, all the way to the top, and then spread to the balloon itself, and other ropes. A hole grew as fire burned the balloon. The amber glow from the widening gap speedily spread through the flammable fabric like an elaborate orange snowflake. The glowing embers of the balloon quickly cooled, and then fell like gray volcanic ash. They crashed toward the ground as they entered hotter smoke and the hole expanded. The balloon picked up speed, plummeting toward the earth.

  Just then Oella stood in her swing. She took glass from her pocket, and immediately the glass transformed into a white whip with a long lash. She cracked the whip, and the end of it twirled around Huntra’s cage.

  “Let go, Ky,” Cobaaron yelled.

  Oella yanked the rod, and Huntra’s cage tugged free where it hung from metal rings. Oella snatched the cage and jumped.

  “Jump!” Cobaaron commanded everyone as he leaped.

  Without thinking or questioning Cobaaron, Ky pushed off the swing. As she fell, the wind screamed in her ears. She nose-dived toward the earth, as warriors clutched women to make sure they let go of their tethers.

  Ky’s screams blended with the cries around her. They fell hundreds of feet through fire. They dropped drastically within seconds between the treetops. They were all going to die. Just then Oella dropped her whip and Huntra’s crate. Oella clapped her hands together with a deafening rumble.

  From Oella’s hands, air exploded outward with a resounding blast. The concussion of air flattened a vast circle. Trees leveled, fire smothered out, smoke cleared, and everyone blasted upward. Ky felt like she was punched back into the sky. When she began to fall again, the air in the circle continued to gust. They fell slowly; the air became still the moment the ground was near, and Ky landed with a hard thump, but she was alive.

  Huntra’s cage burst open after hitting the ground. He sprinted out, and increased his mass. Oella fell near Ky. Warriors collided to the unforgiving earth, but not everyone was lucky enough to fall inside the enormous barrier Oella made. There were screams around the survivors, muffled by the smoke and fire.

  Ky saw the whip. It was only feet from her. Oella saw it at the same time, and stood touching her rib where the glass was in her side. Ky crawled in a hurry toward the whip.

  “No, Ky!” Cobaaron commanded. He was bent over, still jostled from the hard fall, as he strode toward them, off balance. “Don’t touch it.” Ky wrenched her hand back.

  Oella picked it up, and then said, “I’m beginning to think you can read my mind.”

  “No. I know your kind,” Cobaaron replied. He slowly knelt down and picked up the cage. His eyes never left Oella.

  “So, you know what I’m going to do now?” Oella asked.

  “You’re going to try to kill me and run,” Cobaaron stated calmly.

  “You’re so arrogant, it’s disgusting,” Oella snarled. “You think you can overpower a witch? And with what? A small cage? I’ll kill you, and release your curse.” Oella touched her ribs again. She smiled maliciously. “Then I’ll kill your precious partner as her light leaves her.”

  “You will not defeat me, and when you see that I have mercy on your life and let you live, you’ll take us all out of this fire to the castle.”

  “We’ll see,” Oella hissed. She twirled the whip high over her head.

  Everyone backed up. Cobaaron and Oella were encircled by warriors trying to keep as much space between them as possible without pushing men too close to the fire. Noxis captured Ky. His grip was tight, as he restrained her so she could hardly breathe. “Don’t even think of helping!”

  The lash spun faster and faster. Without warning, she cracked the whip. Cobaaron caught the popper with the cage. The whip wrapped around the metal. Cobaaron spun the crate, coiling the thong around the bars even tighter. Then he yanked the whip hard, wrenching it from Oella’s hands. He grasped it when the handle flew toward him.

  Oella blew into her palm and a fireball grew. She threw the fire, and as it sped toward Cobaaron the blazing sphere swelled until it engulfed his entire body in seconds.

  The ball of fire went through him, shoving him back a few feet, but it didn’t have the effect Oella hoped for, because his skin consumed any fire that remained as Cobaaron’s veins glowed silver. Oella paused for a heartbeat watching in amazement and fear.

  Seconds later, Oella screamed, and her face contorted into an eerie, deathly, sunken appearance with solid black eyes. The rest of her became white as a ghost. Her hands thrust forward. Cobaaron was elevated, and tossed violently around by Oella’s invisible grip.

  Cobaaron cracked the whip and it wrapped around Oella’s neck. Instantly he fell to the earth, as Oella scratched at her throat trying to pull off the binding braid, but couldn’t. The magical whip wasn’t going to let go. Slowly her face became human again, and her skin returned to an ivory flesh tint. She frantically continued to free herself.

  “I’ll release you if you keep your word to take us to the castle,” Cobaaron said. As he spoke, Noxis released Ky, and ran toward Oella. “No!” Cobaaron yelled, but it was too late. Noxis crossed his two blades like scissors and sheared Oella’s head from her body; her head rolled to the ground as her lifeless vessel slumped.

  “You disobeyed me, Noxis!” Cobaaron bellowed angrily.

  “She was too dangerous to live. I saw the opportunity and took it,” Noxis said, instead of an apology. He, along with many other warriors, seemed relieved to see her dead after she struck fear in their hearts. Even Ky couldn’t view her, or any witch, as harmless anymore. The image of the sunken face and black eyes showed her true nature, and Oella was unnatural and evil. Dark magic distorted and changed her into something wicked.

  “She was our way out!” Cobaaron growled and looked for Ambrosia, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Ky and I are the only two who can withstand the flames. You will have to wait in the protective perimeter. We’ll go ahead,” Cobaaron said. Ky told Huntra to stay in the safety of the circle with the warriors before she promised to return.

  Cobaaron coiled the white, glowing whip and strapped it on his belt. The warriors stepped away, carving a path for them. Cobaaron took Ky’s hand and they walked between the warriors. The men watched in awe as Cobaaron and Ky walked into the wall of deadly fire.

  Warmth was the only sensation as the flames roared around them. But not even Cobaaron’s hair burned. They stepped over bodies as they hurried toward the castle.

  “How can you touch the whip?” Ky asked as she hurried next to him.

  “Because you can’t touch a magical weapon unless you’ve overpowered its master. The loyalty lies with the most powerful. Witches are prideful, and think they are more powerful so there is nothing to fear. The smart, experienced witches never make a w
eapon to fight.”

  An explosion of fire and smoke threw them to the ground. Ky landed on a burning warrior who had long since died. Cobaaron jumped up, and then helped Ky to her feet, telling her they had to hurry out of the smoke. Ky stumbled from exhaustion as they rushed through the woods, hurdling over burning logs and blackened bodies.

  She didn’t have the strength to run as he wanted. He tugged as he hurried, but then Ky tripped. She stepped in water, and the new resistance slowed her so drastically she face-planted into the pool. He hoisted her up, and as they took the last remaining steps out of the smoke and fire, she saw they were standing at the edge of a lake.

  The hot air balloon burned not a hundred yards from them. “Hey!” someone yelled, and they whirled around. Octavos, Athaya, the twins Brute and Davior, Laxis, Vergara, X-avor, a few women and hundreds of other warriors were grouped at the edge of the water. They were trying, with no success, to hack their way through the forest fire to meet up with the larger group of warriors.

  “Octavos,” Cobaaron called out, sounding relieved. “I thought you were dead.”

  “Never,” Octavos smiled a cocky grin. “Why are you alone?” Cobaaron told them what happened as the two groups approached. After the explanation, Octavos said, “Ambrosia took a group of women into the fire hoping to find you and the troops. But now that you are here, we can cross the lake. The castle should be just beyond. If we’re lucky, and fast, the fire will not have spread to the other side when we get there.”

  “Then let’s swim. There is no time to waste.”

  “There is no need to swim. The water is shallow,” Laxis said.

  They fell behind Cobaaron and waded across the lake. Thankfully, Cobaaron had a firm grip on Ky as he helped her walk; she was lagging behind from exhaustion.