“Pyrem Orbium,” Hekla said.
A fireball left the tip of her scepter and collided with the dragon’s eye, blinding it momentarily. Hekla then spun to her left to avoid another snap of the dragon’s jaw, then slammed her scepter onto the dragon’s forehead. Duliogial whimpered at the touch.
“Levitatum Personae,” she said.
She lifted into the sky and aimed her scepter to guide her toward the entrance Astrid had told her of. Hekla needed to get the dragon to follow her into the caverns underneath Caelestis.
When she arrived near them, she stopped. “Ceasum.”
Hekla dropped to the ground, where she landed on her feet, low, and rested her left hand on the ground as she focused on the flying dragon coming toward her. She smiled. Hekla had succeeded in enraging the dragon. Duliogial was blinded by his rage. All he could see was her. And all he wanted to do was kill her. Hekla planned to use that to her advantage.
So far, the dragon hadn’t spat any more fire, but he also hadn’t tried. Hekla hoped to keep him busy enough that he wouldn’t try to see if it had come back. She needed to keep him away from fire, especially as she made her way down into the caverns under Caelestis. There wasn’t enough room to move around down there.
She spun around, missing another slash from his tail, and used her scepter to smack into his jaw—first the left side, then the right. Before Duliogial could respond, she thrust the scepter upwards in an uppercut. The ears of the metal dragon at the tip of her scepter penetrated the throat of Duliogial. He cried out in pain.
Hekla turned around and ran into the caverns as fire followed her. He had tried his fire again, and it was back. Hekla knew this would complicate things for her, but she needed to proceed. Footsteps pattered behind her as Duliogial followed her. She dared not look back. Hekla needed to get deep into the caves, and she needed to study the spell that kept the other dragon at bay. More importantly, she had to discover why the spell holding him under Caelestis was broken.
She weaved her way through over a dozen tunnels. Hekla didn’t know where she was going, but she trusted her intuition. She had to. And she believed that if she made a wrong turn, Speltus would let her know.
Speltus, is Duliogial still following me, she asked.
Yes. Keep moving.
Hekla nodded and decided to ask no more of Speltus. She knew he was working hard, using his magic, or sight, or whatever, to help her. There was no other reason he would be so quiet during the fight and flight—not with his outspoken personality.
I resent that, Speltus said.
Hekla smiled. I believe you mean; you resemble that.
Speltus growled inside of her head, and Hekla laughed.
She made another left where she skidded to a halt. Taking a deep breath and panting, she saw the dragon in the distance. Its entire body was in chains. A lingering magic filled the air. She focused her eyes, and noticed the dragon was laying down, sleeping. Hekla bit her lip as she moved her scepter in front of her. The scepter began to glow a dull blue as she looked at everything around her.
Hekla didn’t know how long she had. But she imagined Duliogial would arrive soon. She closed her eyes and felt the magic. There were remnant of the spell surrounding her, and she tried to focus on them, tried to take them in, to dissect them. She had to focus.
Hekla…
Not now, Speltus. I’m trying to focus on this spell.
Hekla.
I said not—
Hekla!
“What,” she growled aloud as she opened her eyes.
Look.
Hekla’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked to the cavern wall in front of her. Her eyes widened. Laid out in front of her, in a long-forgotten language, but one she had studied, was directions. Directions of how to complete a binding spell to lock the dragon under the city, and to keep his magic feeding the city, as well as keep him eternally healthy to ensure the city’s survival.
Her mouth parted. “It is all here.”
She looked over all the notations, all the words, and all of the mathematics laid out in front of her. Whoever had imprisoned this dragon had done their homework. They’d been thorough. How was she supposed to do any better? And even with how thorough whoever this was had been, it still hadn’t worked. The dragon was still breaking through the spell. So how could Hekla do any better, when she was completely clueless to what they had done.
“This is beyond me, Speltus.”
A swirl of blue magic appeared from her scepter, and Speltus’s small form appeared in front of her. He, too, looked up at the complex letters and numbers carved onto the cavern wall.
“You can do this, Hekla,” Speltus said aloud.
Hekla clenched her eyes closed. She knew what that meant. It meant Speltus had no idea what he was looking at. Or, he just wanted her to sweat. Either way, she grew aggravated with the little dragon. Taking a deep breath, she looked over the letters and numbers on the wall again.
Footsteps echoed in the distance. They were getting closer. The hallways under Caelestis weren’t large, and so a dragon had a more difficult time navigating them, but they were still large enough for a dragon to get through. Hekla had found a few human-sized passages on her way down, which had saved her valuable time, but she didn’t know if it would be enough.
Then she saw it. A mistake. Then another. Her eyes widened as she found a third mistake. Suddenly, an impossible problem became probable. A number hadn’t been carried properly on a math problem. It was a simple error, and one that was common for inexperienced mathematicians. Hekla liked numbers. She always had. It was a trait not shared with her other sisters. Instead of strength, or stealth, she’d excelled at study, which included math.
Hekla saw a small chunk of gray limestone on the ground. She picked it up and went to the wall where she added parenthesis to a math problem that had been without. It was simple. Whoever had written the spell down, had begun with the wrong prefix, and it needed to be reversed for the spell to work. The entire problem was fixed by adding parenthesis and changing a six to a nine. Perhaps whoever had done it had a case of dyslexia.
What are you doing? Speltus asked.
“Fixing this spell. The math is wrong.”
Math… in a spell?
Hekla tilted her head as she looked at the small dragon with two paws on the wall.
“Yes. All magic has math involved. Though, usually it’s at a subliminal level. It isn’t something thought of, but you get the spell just right, you need to know how much of what substance you need, whether it’s water, ice, fire, or some other substance. I did a calculation in my head when I used the ice spell on Duliogial to ensure I had enough ice that when met with fire, it emitted enough water to drench his throat with enough water to keep him from using his fire-breath for a little while.”
Speltus shook his head from side to side, as if trying to comprehend her words. What math is involved for this spell.
“The weight of the sky kingdom divided by the weight of the dragon times the amount of levitation magic needed to keep the dragon afloat, with a factor of 0.25 to funnel back into the dragon to keep him alive times 3.14.”
What? That doesn’t make any sense.
“You’re right… it doesn’t. That’s why the math is wrong. It needs to be the weight of the dragon, divided by the amount of magic required to keep him afloat to retrieve your decimal needed for your weight to lift ratio. Then you take that number and times it by the weight of the sky kingdom. You will then have the total amount of magic required to keep the city afloat. Then you divide that number by 3.14 to identify how much magic is needed to funnel from the dragon into the kingdom every day. But, to keep it running continuously—without weakening the dragon, or letting age be a factor, you have to funnel the magic back from the kingdom into the dragon. So you have to add an additional factor into it of the amount of energy it takes to keep a dragon healthy by dividing the weight of the dragon into the required energy to keep him afloat times 0.3 to account for his e
nergy, and funnel that into the kingdom and back into the dragon—”
Enough, Speltus said. You’re making my head spin. Do you know how to fix it?
“Done.” Hekla smiled.
A few numbers had been moved around, and a few parentheses that hadn’t been there before had been added. Hekla glowed as she looked at what she’d done. Numbers. She loved numbers.
Company, Speltus said inside of her mind.
Hekla froze as she turned around. Duliogial had arrived, and he didn’t look happy. Fire blazed from his jaw, and Hekla rolled out of the way. The fire flew past her, and into the cavern behind her where the other dragon was imprisoned. It crashed into the other dragon, and he awoke with a snarl.
“What is the meaning of his!” the dragon prisoner demanded.
“Is that you, Xolderan?” Duliogial asked.
“Duliogial?”
Great, Hekla thought, they know each other.
“Xolderan. Look how the mighty have fallen. Are you in chains? Have they contained you?”
Hekla began crawling out of the way as Duliogial approached Xolderan. At first, she was worried they may have been allies, but so far, their conversation was heading in a different direction.
“And what have you been doing all these years, Duliogial? Hiding? Cowardice? How pathetic. I fought. I slaughtered the pathetic humans. I killed millions of the vermin, trying to reclaim this world for dragonkind. And what have you done? Whimpering in the darkness.”
Duliogial laughed manically. “Have you heard nothing? It looks like this dark prison has blinded you. I have disrupted the three kingdoms. My power has consumed the three kings, and they all fight each other in war. Right now, my army—their own dead warriors, destroys them. All the while, you rot in this prison.”
Xolderan roared, his chains shaking. All of Caelestis trembled. Hekla fell to the ground, her face in the dirt with the vibrations.
It is time, Speltus said.
Hekla clenched her teeth. She hoped the timing was right. Hekla had laid there, studying the spell that tied Xolderan to his prison. It was intricate, and the person who had casted it, knew what they were doing. They had just missed a vital part to the puzzle: the proper amount of magic needed to keep Caelestis afloat, and the proper funnel to keep the magic in a continuous flow from Xolderan to Caelestis, and back to Xolderan. Hekla had solved that puzzle.
Closing her eyes, she aimed her scepter toward the two dragons, who had begun fighting, though Duliogial was prevailing as he wasn’t as weak, and had no chains to bond him.
“Enviduium. Verilium. Enchantum. Ceasum.”
The chains broke. Xolderan roared as he leapt forward to intercept an attack from Duliogial. The two dragons locked in an epic battle that Hekla dared not interfere in. Their fight was brutal. They scratched, snarled, and bit at each other. Hekla thought a wild dog fight was bad, but this was as fierce as she had ever seen. Blood filled the ground as they fought. Dragons were supposed to be impenetrable. Their scales harder than iron. But not when they fought each other. The secret to tearing through dragonflesh, was dragonteeth.
Hekla couldn’t get a good aim for her next magical attack. The two dragons spun in circles as they fought, and she had a hard time deciphering the difference between the two. They both were near the same height and stature and it was too dark in the caverns to see their hides clearly.
The ground below her began to tremble uncontrollably. Her body was forced to the ground and she could barely move. Everything around her shook. Rocks began to fall from the ceiling of the cavern.
Speltus, what is going on?
Xolderan is no longer bonded to Caelestis. His power is no longer keeping the kingdom afloat.
We’re falling?
Yes. And unless you bind Duliogial or Xolderan back to Caelestis, we’re going to crash to the ground… and everyone will die.
The two dragons didn’t seem to care about what was happening around them. They continued to fight, scratching and biting each other.
“Pyrem Orbium,” Hekla said.
A ball of blue fire flew from her scepter and struck one of the dragons. She used her scepter to help her get to her feet. The dragon turned around to look at her. His opponent was on the ground, attempting to get back to his feet, when a large rock from above him fell on his head, knocking him back onto his side.
The roar of the dragon echoed through the cavern. Hekla wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn’t. It took all of her energy to hold onto her scepter to keep herself on her feet.
The dragon still standing, Xolderan. She realized he wasn’t the same dragon she faced under the sea. He snarled at her, and began to run toward her. She unsteadily turned around, using her scepter as a walking stick to rush through a small tunnel where the dragon couldn’t reach. It snarled as its nose poked into the small opening, its teeth reaching for her feet, snapping at her.
Her heart pounded. The entire cavern around her was caving on top of her, and a large dragon was trying to chew her to pieces. She sat and began to sob. Hekla had never been so scared in her life. After what felt like hours, though Hekla knew was only several minutes, the dragon moved from the entrance.
Hekla, now! Speltus shouted.
Hekla ran. She ran into the cavern, and toward the fallen dragon. Duliogial began to get to his feet and snarled at her. Another dragon snarled from behind her. Hekla looked over her shoulder to see the other dragon running on all four legs toward her. She trembled. Hekla stood between two dragons, both whom cared little for human life, and would kill her without batting an eye.
Hekla, now! Speltus repeated.
“Enviduium. Verilium. Enchantum. Ehealium. Expandum,” she cried.
Duliogial shrieked as blue magic surrounded him like a blanket and moved him further back into the cavern. Chains formed around him, bounding him to the wall. The cracks in the wall that had begun to weaken after centuries of Xolderan trying to escape suddenly began to seal.
“What have you done?” Duliogial screamed.
“By the power of the Unseen Ones. By the judgement of the sisters. You, Duliogial, are now imprisoned forevermore. You now have the burden and the privilege to keep Caelestis afloat.”
“No!”
“Levitatum Personae,” Hekla said.
Her body lifted into the air as Xolderan’s jaw closed on the place where she had just stood. Xolderan growled his frustration.
“Kill her!” Duliogial yelled.
Hekla aimed her scepter toward the dragon, and the magic pushed her away from the two of them. She flew through tunnels until she felt she was safe enough.
“Ceasum.”
Once she was down on the ground, she began to run. She ran as fast as she could. With each step, she could hear Xolderan’s giant paws slam against the surface of the cavern behind her.
50
Astrid
Pride can be a distracting emotion. Using your enemy’s pride against him, can be a tremendous help in battle. Remember this, and when all of your weapons have been exhausted, do not forget that a haughty spirit will lead to its own destruction.
Nuldronian, The Protector, Fifth Dragon Elder, Sixth Age of Verdil
Astrid watched as Hekla disappeared in the horizon. She’d finally done it. Hekla was heading for Caelestis with Duliogial on her tail. Astrid called for a Sky Ethereal, having still carried the special whistle for the creature in her pouch. It arrived quickly, and she had barely mounted before they were hurrying toward Caelestis. She knew Hekla had meant to draw Duliogial to the sky kingdom, but the rest had been kept secret. Hekla had said to protect them all. Astrid shrugged her shoulders, as the evil creature lifted into the sky in search of her younger sister. With one last glance at the sky, Astrid took off flying toward the sky kingdom.
I hope you know what you’re doing, Hekla.
The Sky Ethereal couldn’t seem to move fast enough. She flew against the wind, but she didn’t let that stop her. For the moment, she was grateful not to be fighting.
The seasons had started to grow colder, and with it, the calm breezes of summer had been replaced by cool, fall winds. Winds that were awful for her aim.
Have you forgotten that you have me? Aronus interrupted her thoughts.
Indeed, I do, but I can’t count on you for every single thing. Sooner or later, I’m going to have fight on my own, or at least hunt. I don’t imagine that you’ll be with me forever?
She shook the thoughts from her head. Her focus needed to stay on reaching the mountain caves tucked below Caelestis. She had spoken with Hekla about driving Duliogial there, but she had no idea how the whole situation would play out. Only time would tell, and for now, she just wanted to make sure she was where Hekla needed her to be.
I don’t know why you keep saying these things, Astrid. I am your dragon guide, and I will be with you for as long as you rule over Caelestis. That is my vocation--to assist you--to guide you. It’s kind of the whole purpose I was placed with you.
Understandable, but if I were to hold onto you, then I am no better than the elders who chained Xolderan to serve Caelestis for all of eternity, she offered.
Xolderan chose his own fate when he killed thousands of humans for no reason. That is why he wasn’t given a choice. I may not have been given a choice at first, but when your journey is complete, I will have the choice, and I assure you, I want to stay by your side, for as long as you’ll have me. I never thought the day would come when I would want a human for a friend, but I suppose we can all learn something new from time to time.
Astrid laughed. That is a great compliment coming from you. I, too, would enjoy your companionship.
Astrid was ripped away from their internal monologue when the dark shadows of the mountaintop came into sight, and as she flew toward the dark area beneath the kingdom of Caelestis. The ground trembled beneath Astrid’s feet as she landed and she heard multiple roars from dragons underneath her. Biting her lip, she slid to a stop and saw a handful of Caelestan soldiers glancing her way with inquisitive faces. Astrid hadn’t brought all of the Caelestan soldiers for this exact reason. She knew some of them would be needed when they brought the dragons back.
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