He hesitantly concentrated on one of the greater pulls and watched in morbid fascination as a liquid darkness came twisting towards him obediently, stretching out, reminding him of some blind worm. He took a step back as the blackness prodded against his chest.
‘What is this?’
The blinking signal almost seemed hesitant.
It’s an abomination.
Andrew let the blackness twist through his fingers. It was fascinating. Nearly a living thing; perhaps not intelligent, but inquisitive. Akin to solid smoke. There was something insistent about it that made him think of life. A hungry, persistence to it. And it seemed to be growing increasingly more frustrated; searching for something and unable to find it; it reminded him of a leech.
The pulling sensation in Andrew’s arms grew stronger. He could feel energy: vast, raw energy, humming just at his fingertips. The stuff was full of it—perhaps made of it—and he realised that maybe he could tap into it.
The light blinked.
It’s not worth it.
Andrew scowled. ‘What’s not worth it?’
Using the Darkness as an energy source.
‘So I can do it.’
Yes. But using it can have unintended consequences.
Well, now that was interesting. Unintended consequences? Like what? He was more curious to find out than afraid and slowly, he began to experiment with this new sensation. He opened up to the dark worming against him; to the tugging and was suddenly flooded with a jolting sensation, sparking all of his nerves to life. Andrew staggered backwards as the overwhelming sense of life flooded through him. He could feel every cell burning in his body. Strength coiled through him, the pain was pushed away. He’d never felt so alive.
Andrew let out a laugh. What was this? This beautiful, wonderful, enlightening power that now coursed through him. He felt like he could do anything. Perhaps he could!
He could no longer see the light. No matter. He didn’t need it. He grinned. The Myrmidons were expecting him to open a doorway when he came back to them. Well, he’d do much more than that.
If he could bring it back with him, that was.
Now, how to get back?
Andrew spun round, the blackness fluttering about him obediently, like part of his clothing.
With a new sense of peace he closed his eyes, attempting to sense his physical body. His last time in this dreary world he’d been confused; out of control; vulnerable.
It had allowed the dark stuff to take him over. This time was different. His brain wasn’t as addled by drugs. The thing inside of him had brought him back before. He just had to stay in control this time.
Andrew began to let the world he was in drop away. The sandy beach, the silence, the scraggly trees, the river, he tore it away, piece by piece, breaking down the reality.
‘I’m sitting in a chair, on Scrabia, in the Bone Vault, surrounded by Myrmidons…’
He could feel it against him, surrounding him, the subtle change in atmosphere. Voices, his breathing, his heart, the pain; it was all returning.
Andrew’s eyes snapped open.
‘He’s awake,’ Ramses was saying.
Andrew smiled to himself. Oh, yes he was.
Slowly he looked towards Ramses. The sense of power rippling as it grew. His muscles were straining beneath his skin, aching for any sort of movement. He felt like a horse in the box before a race.
The man took a step back, and Andrew could see fear in his eyes. Though unsure if Ramses could see this new cloak that clung to him like a shadow, filled him with hunger and power, certainly he could see the transformation. Andrew was no longer doubled over and weak.
‘Restrain him,’ Ramses ordered tightly.
Like hell they would.
Andrew flung himself forward out of the chair, sucking the blackness into him, and it went pouring through him, filling the room, clogging it up. It trailed after him in ribbons, his chest a portal and it coursed through him, bringing his body alive with power. He felt, for the first time, completely in control of his body, completely powerful. Like a god. Strength, speed, awareness, it was all his.
The mercenary that reached him first he grabbed and slammed forward, hitting the man’s head against the armrest of the chair. It gave a rather satisfying crunch! The second guard moved in, but Andrew was ready. He ducked out of the way of the grasping hands and pushed a well-aimed boot into the exposed gut. The man went falling back.
He’d been distracted too long. There was the scrape of a sandal on stone and his head jerked round to see Ramses just disappearing down a twisting staircase at the opposite end of the room. With a growl Andrew went tearing after him, black fluttering behind him in every direction.
More feet were echoing from down the hall. Andrew gave them a quick glance before deciding he didn’t want to bother. Not enough time. He instead darted for the curved stair. Perhaps a seven metre drop.
You can make that.
The confidence in him welled, fuelled by this outside force that wrapped round and energised him.
‘Ramses!’ he roared to the scrabbling figure below.
The man looked up in horror as Andrew swung his body up over the edge and into open air. His brain registered that this would kill him but there was still no rational fear.
He landed in a crouch, rolling the impact of the ground through his body. Funny, it should have hurt. It didn’t.
His head snapped up. Ramses took an uneasy step back. It twisted a grin to his face to see the man so afraid. His muscles coiled under his skin, tensing his body in readiness. His normal hyper-observant senses were expanded. Every little shift in the sand, ripple of clothing, change in the air, it was all there, informing his brain. This was incredible! Oh, to feel this all of the time!
More soldiers were forming a rather pathetic, weak wall before him, blocking Ramses from his path.
They collided. His old body wouldn’t have been able to handle it. He would have collapsed, his heart would no doubt have failed him.
This…oh, this was glorious.
He tore into the first of the soldiers with animalistic instinctiveness, barely aware of the slashes of red. The men fell to his feet in a heap but he was already moving on, spinning, striking, breaking into the next few so quickly Andrew was almost not aware of what he was doing.
It was easy to completely fall into the black energy he’d taken in.
* * * * *
Marus banked hard, body wheeling about, as he spotted the scrawny figure scrabbling over the rubble of the wall. Allowing a certain shifting of wings he went as silent as an owl, sweeping after the man.
With the speed, his vision narrowed to a tunnel, all focused on the bobbing brown head before him. It welled up, overwhelming, that instinctive predatory urge that he hadn’t had in ages. His claws extended. Oh, it would be so easy to drop down and sink his talons into…
A sharp kick in his ribs from Arkron shook him from his murderous thoughts.
With another slight twitch of his wings he landed lightly behind his brother, causing him to nearly jump from his skin.
Tollin whirled round, fanning away the cloud of sand. His eyebrows rose. ‘Ah! Andrew said you were circling around here!’
Marus had not seen his brother in a very long time, and if he’d been in human form, perhaps he would have had stronger emotions concerning him. Yet all of that was quashed in the cold reptilian mind he was compressed in.
Arkron slid from his back and sidled up to Tollin. ‘Well, well. Look who decided to show up.’
Tollin ran a hand through his hair. ‘Better late than never. Have you seen this time device?’
Arkron shook her head unhappily. ‘I’m afraid that one has missed me. Too many tunnels on this world, Traveller, too many ancient things. I’ve been…distracted with other things.’
Tollin sighed. ‘Pity. Don’t suppose you could spare a moment?’
A bone-rattling roar broke across the desert and Marus lowered his belly to the ground as he
watched Noel rise from the Bone Vault like a beast from hell. Tollin whistled. Even Arkron, alarmingly, looked a bit pale.
‘Afraid not, love.’
Marus couldn’t help but whine a little.
Tollin nodded appreciatively, expression pallid. ‘Just my luck, I suppose. Keep him out of the city, will you? He’s done enough damage already.’
Marus rolled his eyes, wincing as the sound of Noel knocking down another wall drifted across the desert. ‘Right. Why don’t you just get on with wherever you were rushing off to.’
But Tollin had already turned away, shoulders hunched, jogging on. Arkron swung up again to Marus’s back and he reluctantly pushed away from the earth. The muscles in his wings strained with protest. He did not want to fly towards that monstrous hurricane that was sweeping over the city.
Arkron groaned. Marus was not so encouraged to know she was dreading the confrontation was much as he.
Noel was hovering over the city, massive wings beating down, blocking the stars; the entire city was shadowed beneath him.
Marus hung back. ‘I’m beginning to think this is a horrible idea!’
Arkron leant forward over his back. ‘Too late! Draw him away from the city. If only to save the princess.’
Marus growled. He wasn’t so thrilled about that plan but he climbed upwards to gain the height and speed he would need. When Noel was much smaller below and Arkron was no doubt chilled by the thin air, he dropped.
From his human memory, he had the distinct picture in his mind of little birds attacking a raptor and well, that’s what he was now. He struck at the massive head of Noel sharply and with fire. It snapped the monster’s head round and Marus just had time to see the horrible eyes narrow before he was swooping down Noel’s spine. He could distantly hear Arkron laughing and managed to wonder what really was wrong with that woman.
It took the lumbering dragon a long time to turn and follow, but once he got moving, there was nothing more terrifying than having such a gargantuan thing pursuing him. If he could sweat, he would. Instead he could only let out a little cry as his wings went beating like mad to outfly Noel. As fast as he was, his work was near for nothing as he heard the horrifying massive jaws slamming shut behind him.
Arkron pushed herself forward along his neck to shout. ‘I need to face him for this to work!’ She held tightly as he dove. ‘Get beyond that ridge in the mountains! He won’t be able to find you. We can spring our trap on him there!’
Marus clenched his teeth and banked hard to the right, sweeping just out of the reaching claws, like a dragonfly from a child.
It was a relief to enter the cover of the mountains, for his lithe body could twist among the natural spires with ease as Noel doggedly blundered on. For a moment all was silence as he darted on, looking for a safe place to turn about. He darted round a pillar of rock and the sight made his blood stop up. The monster filled his vision. His spines rose.
The colossal jaws swung open and Marus barely had time to climb into the air in wild alarm as liquid fire struck all about him. It was as if the mountain had erupted. The stones smouldered and the sand melted. Arkron’s wracking coughs alarmed him. He hadn’t thought of that.
He returned the fire, backing up, forcing Noel to crawl over the ridge. The monster’s eyes were glowing with a hellish light; they drew him in. It swallowed his vision, pulled at his nerves, burned into his soul and Marus found himself going helpless against it.
His wings began to slow in their beating; that commanding power overwhelmed all instinct. Whatever half thought-out plan he’d been considering was gone now. All that mattered was submitting to the indomitable will of this alpha.
The jaws began to swing wide again: A gaping, fetid, jagged maw, glowing with a hellfire that wafted over him in a tantalising wave. He drifted in towards it, happy to oblige, past the first row of sharp teeth.
A stabbing pain spiked through his side, ripping him from his trance. He yelped, nearly dropping, and whirled, concentration spinning. Just in time he saw Arkron pulling a blade from his ribs.
She had stabbed him.
‘What the hell, you crazy bitch—!’
The jaws began to swing down and Marus, fully awake and in pain, dove out of the way. Arkron was beginning to shine now, with that terrifying green light that came with her magic and he felt her attempting to stand on his back as he twisted and dodged the snapping jaws.
‘Hurry up!’
Arkron yanked roughly on his spines and Marus rose in the air, climbing wildly, bleeding, fluttering up before the monster, watching in horror as the jaws rose to meet him.
There was a moment when time seemed to hang still, and the beating of wings, the falling of rock, his own breathing, all seemed to catch. He hovered above the beast, Arkron balancing along his spine, the fire welling in Noel…Marus swung his mouth open; it was the last of his fire but it would have to do.
And then there came a blast of green flaring over his head like a shooting star and striking the monster directly between the eyes. It rippled along Noel’s scales as coloured smoke, seeping in.
Marus felt a little ill. He knew the sensation. He’d been through it himself; that odd numbing sensation that branched along the body, through the nerves. And then the intimate power would begin to drain, sucked away by the witch. He knew he should resent her for that, for she had his power, but she was stealing Noel’s now, and there was something rather satisfying in that.
Noel let out a horrified roar and pushed away from the mountain, giant wings pounding downwards, making Marus wobble. But his wild retreat wasn’t enough. He was hooked on the witch’s line and she was draining from him all she could get.
There was something almost deceptive in the perception of it to watch the dragon, even as he shrank away, to watch him also shrink. For his body was certainly doing that. He twisted and jerked in the air, just like a fish on a line, body in spasms. He was disproportionate now, limbs, wings, no longer a perfect, terrifying god. Now he was distorted, ugly, ungainly, and falling fast, wings no longer able to hold his bulk.
Arkron let out a groan, drunk on the power.
Marus was wobbling as well, growing weak. It was a relief to watch as Noel finally went tumbling from sight, the last of the green light tearing from him. There was a distant crashing as the dragon went rolling down the mountainside. Good. Let him fall into the Bone Vault to rot.
Unable to remain aloft, Marus drifted downwards like a falling leaf only to crunch to the ground. He was exhausted. And his side hurt. He watched through hooded eyes as Arkron slid from his back and went weaving away, high on magic.
Turning back to him, she grinned. He weakly returned it before managing to shift back to human form. He regretted it immediately and swore, looking down at his bloody side. ‘Damn you, woman!’ He swore again. ‘You stabbed me!’
She sat next to him, letting her hands gently run along his chest, she was still glowing. He had to admit: that didn’t feel so bad. ‘I had to, you big idiot.’ She smirked a little. ‘You were falling completely under his spell. What was I supposed to do? Allow you to let him eat us?’
Her fingers prodded at the wound and he lay his head back with another swear. ‘Sort of a weird experience…’ he mumbled, shifting his eyes down to watch as her fingers shimmer, pressing to the edges of the wound. ‘Watching you do to that stupid git what you did to me…’
Her magic flared. ‘Oh, don’t tell me that still bothers you.’
His back arched as the pain grew worse.
She clucked. ‘If I didn’t then you’d be much worse for wear.’
Marus wasn’t sure about that. He peeked under his elbow and watched in morbid fascination as the wound began to knit closed. He prodded at the new skin as the last of the raw flesh disappeared. ‘Well, you do have your uses…’ His mouth twitched.
Arkron laughed and leant over him, eyes still sparkling. Those damned lips of her pulled upwards in an achingly teasing smirk. ‘Mm. I certainly do. And you seem t
o need reminding of it.’
Marus looked her over. He forgot about Andrew, he forgot about his brother and Noel and all the madness. He just thought about sliding his hands along her curves and pulling her closer. ‘Reminding? Yes. Dragons have a terrible memory.’
Without another care, he pushed himself up for a kiss, deciding things were not so awful after all.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tollin’s breath was near the only sound. It was dangerous, running alone across the desert, something only a mad, desperate person would do. Of course, he fit that ticket rather well.
The dramatic battle ending with Noel crashing down the mountain about an hour earlier had been a sight to see. There was something rather troubling about such power reduced to…nothing.
The directions he’d been given were not exactly precise, but after skirting the Bone Vault, he at last arrived to the deep crater Noel had made in his dramatic arrival. His breath hadn’t yet caught back up to him. He hadn’t run so hard for so long in quite some time and his legs now ached with a pleasant tiredness.
The face of the mountain had cracked, and though the sand was deep, Tollin could see what had once been an impressive structure, now buried by time. He licked his lips. This had clearly been here years before he’d ever taken his first breath. It was a sobering thought.
There wasn’t time to think on it, however, and Tollin hopped lightly down the steep incline.
The city behind him momentarily was forgotten. His eyes went hungrily tearing over every inch of the entrance. Only at the top of the steps did he pause, nerves twitching. Someone else was here. Fresh tracks, larger than his own, and much more recent than those of Victoria and Andrew’s, were stamped about in the red sand. And something else: droplets of sparkling copper. Dragon blood. Tollin swallowed nervously.
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