More scrambled up behind them.
Ryleigh searched the platform. There had to be something she could use as a weapon.
“I’ve got it,” Mia cried.
The portal opened just enough for an adult to squeeze through. It would have to be good enough.
“Wait, Mia.” She grabbed her arm and yelled over the raging wind. “How will Jackson find us?”
Mia shook her head. “He won’t.” With a wave toward the others to follow, she started into the opening.
Ryleigh pulled her back. She wasn’t sending Mia, or any other unarmed civilian, into an uncharted realm. Especially with Thaddeus on the loose. Yet this was their only chance of escape. “Can you hold it open?”
“I think so, but I’m not sure how long.” Violent tremors shook her body, and a steady stream of blood flowed from her nose.
The Queen’s Army was already engaged with savages near the edge of the plateau. The enemy had obviously penetrated the line of Guardsmen.
Ryleigh grabbed a fallen savage’s flail and leaped over his body. She grabbed Lucas’s arm.
He spun on her.
She took a step back and gestured toward the wavering portal. “Take one soldier and go.”
He nodded, grabbed the nearest Guardsman, and ran toward the portal.
Ryleigh covered them, taking on two savages to allow them time to escape. The three-headed flail was heavier than she was used to, and it slowed her swing. She ducked to avoid a savage’s sword.
Noah planted his foot against the savage’s gut and shoved him backward over the cliff. “Go, Ryleigh.”
Another Cymmeran soldier fell.
Ryleigh backed off. They couldn’t wait any longer. She could only hope they’d bought Lucas enough time to secure the portal and whatever lay on the other side. She signaled to the waiting civilians.
Trying to avoid the worst of the battle, they bolted toward the portal. A few of the women had broken off large branches and wielded them against any savages that broke through the line of soldiers. Others hefted large rocks, hurling them at savages who seemed to be gaining the upper hand against their soldiers.
Unarmed women fled with the children, shielding them from the carnage as best they could.
A child screamed.
Ryleigh spun.
A woman struggled against a savage’s hold while trying to keep the child out of his grasp.
Running toward them, Ryleigh heaved the flail back, then rounded and nailed him square in the chest, driving him back.
He came again.
Another joined him.
“Get out of here. Faster.” She swung again. She had to find a lighter weapon.
Noah lunged at the savage, driving his sword deep.
“Here.” Tatiana shoved a sword into Ryleigh’s hand.
After discarding the flail, she hefted the sword and rounded on another savage.
A grunt from above her startled her, and she jumped back.
A savage dove from a ledge above the cave.
“Noah,” Ryleigh screamed.
The savage landed on him, knocking him to the ground.
A second savage pounced.
Ryleigh lost sight of Noah beneath the two savages. She plunged her sword into one of them and shoved him back off Noah.
Tatiana went after the other.
Tristan and Jimmy intercepted the savage.
Ryleigh left him to them and ran to Noah. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the portal. The last of the civilians had just gone through. The edges of the portal wavered, faltered, and started to close. “Pull back.”
She gestured the remaining soldiers toward the portal. She had to get them through before Mia lost control.
Tristan and Jimmy continued to fight.
“Pull back. Now,” she screamed.
Tatiana grabbed Noah’s other arm, and together they dragged him toward the portal.
Noah’s eyes popped open, and he scrambled back, trying to gain his feet.
Wind from the closing portal battered them.
Before he could get his balance and try to rejoin the fight, Ryleigh shoved him through the portal. Getting them all to safety was all that mattered. She’d deal with the consequences later.
Tatiana grinned and shook her head, then dove through behind him. The portal wavered again and shrank.
Ryleigh started toward Tristan.
He waved her back as he and Jimmy finally retreated and ran toward her. “Go. We’re right behind you.”
Savages surged onto the plateau. More jumped from the rocky ledges above the caves.
The portal narrowed.
The instant Jimmy and Tristan reached her, knowing they’d never go through before her, she plunged into the portal.
* * * *
Jackson guided Ophidian to avoid an army of creatures pouring from the remnants of the mountainside, barreling through the debris. Enormous beasts, on two legs, their skin pale gray and covered in ice, tufts of hair sticking out randomly from their heads and faces.
One jumped up, grabbed Dakota’s dragon by the wing, and flung him and his rider across the valley into what was left of the opposite mountain face.
Ophidian swung around, then dove toward them.
As they hurtled toward the creatures still freeing themselves from the mountainside, Jackson tore the bow from his back and nocked an arrow. His arrow found its mark in the center of the creature’s chest but bounced off instead of going through its heart.
It kept coming.
He pulled up and waved the others off. Swinging around, he readied another shot. In a move that had worked against the savages in the past, he signaled Ophidian to shoot a stream of fire, then launched his arrow through the flames. It caught fire and flew into a creature, melting a path through the thick ice covering its chest. It took two more arrows to fell the giant monster.
Using the dragon-fire, the Death Dealers eliminated dozens of the creatures, leaving a path of scorched bodies littering the mountainside.
Confident the others could finish the job, Jackson guided Ophidian toward Dakota. He leaped from his back before he landed and ran toward the dragon crumpled in the snow.
“I’m all right, but Draco’s wing is torn.” Dakota crouched behind the dragon, warm orange light emanating from his hands as he smoothed them over the hole in Draco’s wing.
Relieved to find his friend unharmed, Jackson patted his shoulder and fell to his knees beside him. “How bad?”
“Bad enough.” He looked up, blood trickling from a gash above his right eye, his teeth clenched. “I shouldn’t have gotten so close.”
“Not your fault. Just bad luck you were there when they burst from the mountain.” He added his healing touch to Dakota’s, pouring white light along the edges of the tear, concentrating on healing the wound with a clean seam.
At least when the mountain shattered, the earthquake had ended.
“What were those things?”
“I have no idea, but we’ll investigate once Draco’s all right.”
“Jackson,” Ranger called. He landed his dragon and ran to them. “I think we got them all. Some of the prisoners were killed by debris, but we freed those who weren’t.”
“Did you get any answers?”
“Not really. They were pretty shaken.” Ranger shrugged. “They didn’t seem to know much. They were taken from the human realm and put to work enlarging the opening in the mountain.”
Men who’d lived in the human realm, suddenly snatched from their existence and thrown into the harsh realities of another realm, complete with sorcerers, monsters, and fire-breathing dragons.
“All right.” He would assume responsibility for those men. He couldn’t very well leave them out there to fend for themselves, but he couldn’t take strangers back to Cymmera. He had enough traitors in Cymmera without adding the possibility of more. Someone would have to explain the situation to them and o
ffer them the opportunity to pledge allegiance and become citizens. His people were in charge of Argonas at the moment. He’d have to trust them to take care of it. “Choose four Death Dealers to take the prisoners to Argonas and leave them at the castle.”
“Should they return after?”
Elijah had told him to go to the highest peak, yet a large chunk had been carved out of the shattered mountain. Had Thaddeus foreseen Jackson’s mission and changed the course of history? If Thaddeus had interfered, Elijah’s visions could be irrelevant now.
Something gnawed at his gut. It could be the effects of the snow. Despite his best efforts, some had gotten into his mouth. Or it could be something else. The urgency to return to Cymmera hit him hard. “No. Have them return to Cymmera. We’ll clean up here, then figure out what to do, but I don’t want them coming back out here if we’re gone. Send Vaughn to help Dakota.”
“Yes, sir.” He jogged toward the others.
Jackson squeezed Dakota’s shoulder. “I’m going to leave Vaughn to help heal Draco. I want you two ready to go as soon as I get back.”
“Where are you going?”
The smoldering remains of the camp Thaddeus had been running lay in ruins across the mountain. “To figure out what’s going on.”
Leaving Dakota and Vaughn, Jackson and the remaining Death Dealers returned to the rubble filled clearing. They left the dragons outside the clearing, where they could be summoned if needed but be out of harm’s way. Dragons weren’t as easily healed as other creatures, and he didn’t want any more injured.
“What do you think it is?” Ranger stood beside him, hand resting on the sword sheathed at his side.
He had no clue. “Let’s explore the cave. With any luck at all, we’ll find Thaddeus and Chayce holed up in there.”
He doubted it, but he had to check. When he’d picked his way over the last of the debris, he unsheathed his sword and approached the gaping hole the explosion had torn in the mountain. If there’d been a discernable path leading through the mountain, it had been destroyed or covered by rubble. He climbed a pile of rocks partially blocking their way.
No light penetrated the dank cavern, and it took his eyes a moment to adjust to the complete blackness. His feet tingled, numb from the cold. As he crept through the dark, sword ready, his stomach lurched, bile surging up the back of his throat. He didn’t think he’d swallowed enough snow to make him sick, but the farther he descended into the mountain, the more his stomach churned.
A face hovered in front of him. The grotesque frozen mask of one of the ice creatures.
He sheathed his sword and grabbed his bow, nocking an arrow as he took aim at the creature’s head.
The monster remained frozen in place, seemingly suspended in the darkness.
No, not suspended.
The tunnel curved away from the wall where the creature was encased in a thick block of ice.
Jackson kept his back against the opposite wall as he tried to make sense of what they’d uncovered.
A long row of ice-encased creatures, some fully formed, others only partially so.
“What do you think?”
Jackson jumped, startled by Ranger’s whisper against his ear. He shook his head. He had no idea what to think.
Something was wrong. He focused on the sounds around him. The harsh breaths of the other Death Dealers, the scrape of a boot against a rock, the soft brush of fabric as someone shifted position.
A low hum vibrated beneath his feet. Definitely not mechanical, but not natural, either. Magic! “Destroy it all.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Destroy it. Everything.” He strode toward the hole they’d entered. “Burn it. Now.”
“Jackson.”
He kept walking.
Ranger jogged to catch up. “You can’t be serious. We don’t even know what it is.”
“Can’t you feel it?” Tendrils of evil slid through his mind, visions of death and destruction bombarded him. “Whatever this is”—he gestured at the space surrounding them—“it’s not natural.”
“Are you sure?”
His gut cramped. The intensity of the need to flee, to escape the stench of death, beat at him. “Positive. Burn it to the ground. All of it.”
Ranger let it drop as they returned for the dragons. Jackson had no doubt he’d follow the orders, and he didn’t hold it against him for asking questions. Ranger was a good man, a good soldier, and a good friend.
Using the dragon-fire, they leveled the entire compound, spraying flames throughout the underground chambers, destroying everything in their path.
He needed to speak with Elijah. Thaddeus had become too powerful, and he’d obviously embraced some kind of dark magic. They had to stop him. Now. The sudden certainty Thaddeus posed more of a threat than Chayce started as a small niggle at the back of his mind. It quickly flared to a pressing urgency, an intense need to return to Cymmera. Whatever army Thaddeus was creating beneath the mountain could never be unleashed.
With the camp destroyed, he returned to Dakota.
Ophidian perched on a protruding section of boulders.
Jackson climbed down and jogged toward his partner. “How’s Draco?”
“He’s good to go. Not perfect, but he can fly back to Cymmera. Then I’ll get him a healer.”
“Good.” Indecision beat at him.
Elijah had been so specific about when to open the scroll, but what if he hadn’t predicted Thaddeus’s role? And what if he had? A large chunk of the mountain had been destroyed. A good portion of land lay burning and in ruins. The fires would eventually burn themselves out. The miles and miles of ice, snow, and water beneath the frozen surface of the lake would keep them from spreading to civilization.
He slid into a crevice in the side of the mountain, took the scroll from his satchel, and unrolled it. He suppressed the guilt. “I’m sorry, Elijah.”
Ranger and Dakota hunched over facing him, doing their best to block the wind from tearing the scroll from his grasp.
He unrolled it a little at a time, keeping a firm grip on the rolled portions, blocking as much of the wind as possible with his back, and read.
My Dearest Son,
I have been deeply honored to serve Cymmera these past centuries, interpreting the sights I am gifted with to the best of my ability in order to protect my kingdom. For the first time in my existence, I have manipulated events in an attempt to alter the future, hoping to avoid the visions that have haunted me of late. Forgive me.
“Oh, Elijah. What have you done?” Jackson quickly unrolled another section of the note.
You are a son to me, Jackson. And, as any parent would protect their child, I have done my best to protect you. I’ve done all I can to change your destiny, to alter your fate as I saw it play out in my visions again and again. A fate I could not accept. I have done all I can to give you a chance to succeed. I only hope in removing you from harm’s way, I have not failed you. Be well, my son. Until we meet again.
“No. No, no, no!” The bitter wind ripped the scream from his throat and carried it through the mountains. “What have you done, Elijah?” Jackson crumpled the scroll and pressed his clenched fist to his head. He had to get back. Now.
“What’s wrong?” Dakota’s teeth chattered in the frigid air. His lips had already turned blue.
Ranger didn’t look much better as he huddled shivering, his goatee and long, dark hair encased in ice.
He had to get them out of there. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Home.”
Chapter 4
Pressure built against Ryleigh’s ears, followed by stabbing pain. She slapped her hands over her ears and prayed her eardrums wouldn’t rupture.
Raging wind battered her. It propelled hundreds of sharp, miniscule projectiles that stung her face and arms. She squinted to keep the sand, or pebbles, or whatever was hitting her, out of her eyes.
> She pushed forward, had to keep going. Passing through a portal from one realm to another had never felt like this. This was more like fighting her way through a nightmare.
Blackness surrounded her, blinding, suffocating. They had to turn around, had to get out of there, had to go back. Trying to enter an uncharted realm had been a mistake. No way should she have allowed the children to pass through this torture. They should have taken their chances going up the mountain.
She turned around to make sure Tristan and Jimmy had followed her. At least, she thought she did. Everything looked the same. Black. She’d lost all sense of direction as the wind whipped wildly from everywhere at once. “Mia!”
The wind tore the word from her lips. She couldn’t even hear her own scream.
Her foot caught on something. She stumbled and reached forward to break her fall. She landed hard on her hands and knees. Pain shot up her arm from her injured hand.
Pressure weighed her down, kept her from standing. She lowered herself onto the spongy ground and rolled onto her back.
Jagged bolts of lightning cut through the black and hit the ground with small explosions of light and smoke.
“Ryleigh.” The voice came to her from a distance, familiar but warped.
She tried to sit, but the pressure kept her down. She rolled over onto her stomach and belly crawled, trying to escape the storm’s force.
“Ryleigh.”
She dug her toes into the ground and pushed, inching away from the portal. If she could just move away from it, maybe the pressure would release her. “Get everyone down. It’s not as bad on the ground.”
Warped voices came to her as the message was relayed from one to another.
“Lay down and stay still,” she yelled. If they could keep everyone still until the portal closed, maybe no one would get hurt.
“Ryleigh.” Someone grabbed her arm. His body pressed against hers. With his mouth against her ear and his voice raised to yell over the noise of the wind, she couldn’t make out who it was.
She squeezed his hand.
“Hold on. Don’t try to move.”
A chorus of voices invaded her mind, screaming, crying, yelling, soothing.
Battle for Cymmera Page 6