by Eric Vall
“I know.” I frowned and looked over my shoulder at the Lunar Palace. “I’ll make time to talk with her alone. I don’t want her to worry about it.”
“She’s a woman,” my father chuckled. “She will always worry, but she will worry less if you talk to her. Trust me, I have many years of wisdom on this subject.”
“True,” I laughed and gently punched him in the arm. “You give some pretty good advice, old man.”
“Hey!” he cried out with mock offense. “I am not old.”
“You’re like a thousand years old,” I replied with a cheeky grin. “That’s old as hell, Pops.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Hell is much older.”
We laughed as we turned back toward the palace, so I could prepare to head back to Kana, and when we walked in the front door, Aaliyah’s voice echoed down the hall.
“They’re back!” the lioness called out.
“Good,” Julia said as she hustled into the great hall and wrapped me up in a hug. “I wanted to say goodbye, too, you know.”
“I haven’t left yet,” I chuckled and squeezed my mother in a loving hug. “And I’ll be back again soon.”
“I certainly hope so.” Julia’s voice was muffled against my shirt, and when she straightened back up, tears glistened in her pale blue eyes. “Be careful.”
“Always,” I vowed.
I turned to see Alyona, Laika, Miraya, Valerra, and Naomi had joined Aaliyah, and my lovers were giving their own teary goodbyes to the Crimson Dragon. After some hugging and kissing, I gripped my father’s forearm and nodded, and after he returned the nod, I walked over to Valerra.
“It won’t be as long next time, I promise,” I said softly. “And you can send me a message anytime.”
“I probably won’t,” she replied with her nose up in the air before she clenched her jaw and looked me in the eye. “But I might.”
“I love you, too.” I winked and pecked her on the cheek.
Then I walked over next to Alyona and the other women as the princess began the spell to open the portal.
“Make a path to the distant place in my memory,” she intoned as she traced a circle in the air. “Transcend both time and space. And make both places the same.”
Suddenly, the glowing circle appeared before us, and through its shimmering surface I could just make out the art-filled great hall of Kana’s palace.
“Go ahead,” I said as I gestured for my women to go through first.
Alyona waited with me, and we waved goodbye before we followed the others through the portal.
“Oh! Lord Evan!” Vallen cried out as he scurried into the room, and the lizard Demi-Human was pale and wide-eyed. “You have arrived just in time!”
Before I could ask what he meant, a flurry of soldiers rushed through the room and out the front door.
“Vallen, what’s going on?” Naomi demanded as she stepped forward to address her brother.
“It seems we are under attack,” the lizard leader yelped and wrung his hands. “There’s a group of warriors at the front gates!”
“Again?” I groaned as I headed for the door. “Why are all these dickbags attacking my cities all of a sudden? What do they want?”
“I didn’t ask,” Vallen said meekly. “Should I go with you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll take care of this.”
Time to burn a few more bastards.
A dragon lord’s job was never done.
Chapter 15
I ran outside the palace with my women hot on my heels, and I could hear a bunch of shouting and then an explosion that shook the ground and brought the images of my dream back to the forefront of my mind.
Was this what my dream had been about?
I shook my head and kept running toward the gate. As we got closer, I heard the crashing sounds of swords hitting something hard, and when we came around the corner, I saw an echidna scuttling through the entrance to Kana. The huge scaly beetle towered over the Kana guards, and its bright red eyes flitted around to search for its plan of attack. The fur that lined its back stood on end, and the lizard warriors were trying valiantly to fight it back out, but their swords did nothing to its hard shell. Even if their swords worked, they were so close they would be burned by the beast’s toxic blood.
“Echidna!” Ravi shouted from above us, and I looked up to see the phoenix flying overhead. “I’m going to see if there are more outside the wall!”
I nodded, and she zoomed out over the city wall.
“Find the others,” I ordered, and my companions hurried away to find Nike and the dryads before I rushed over to Abel, who was snapping off orders. “Abel, I can help you, but I need the other guards to get back.”
“We cannot allow the beast to push its way into the city,” the lizard warrior argued. “It would take countless lives.”
“I know,” I agreed. “If they’ll back up, I can build up the sand into a wall.”
“That creature just pushed through our gate like it was a child’s toy,” Abel said with a dry laugh. “You think sand will hold it back?”
“I’ve used it on them before.” I smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Or do you doubt my fighting abilities now?”
Abel cocked his head to look at me for a moment before he turned to his guards. “Everyone, back up! Lord Evan needs room to fight the beast!”
The warriors immediately shuffled back from the echidna, and I stepped forward and called on my stone magic. I lifted a wall of sand up on three sides of the beast, and the echidna released its piercing shriek at the barrier. The lizard guards covered their ears against the deafening sound, and I conjured a wave of my healing magic to protect everyone from the noise.
Then I heard my group running up behind me, and I turned to see Nike, Laika, and Aaliyah preparing for battle with blades and claws while the dryads, Alyona, Miraya, and Naomi discussed magical tactics.
“It’s impervious to fire, right?” Polina asked.
“Yes,” Ravi answered as she swooped down and landed on the dryad’s shoulder. “And its blood will poison you. These are the creatures that kept my tribe running for years and the reason I finally sought help from Lord Evan.”
“They don’t usually travel alone,” I murmured. “Why is this one by itself?”
“I’m not sure.” The phoenix frowned. “Perhaps we’re lucky.”
“We don’t get that lucky,” I laughed.
“What should we do, Lord Evan?” Abel called out.
I turned back to see the lizard guards standing just outside the sandy wall that contained the beast with their swords and bows at the ready.
“We need to get it out of Kana,” I advised. “I’ve got an idea.”
Abel dipped his head, and I shifted into my dragon form. Then I kicked up sand as I flew up into the sky and hovered over the echidna. From up here, I could see the creature was trying to burrow into the walls I’d created, but it couldn’t get through and continued to screech.
“What’s your plan?” Ravi asked as she flew up next to me.
“I need to get some more space,” I said before I dropped closer to the echidna and grabbed it with my foreleg.
My claws were just big enough to grasp the echidna’s hard shell, and it squealed as I clenched tighter and lifted it from the ground.
“Shit,” I muttered as some of the beast’s toxic blood hissed against the skin of my clawed foot.
I flew over the city wall and further out into the desert. Then I focused on my earthquake magic to use the trick I’d learned in my spiritual sea. The ground shook as a jagged line cracked across the sand underneath me, and I called on my terra magic to pull the crack wider and wider until it was big enough for the echidna. The giant beetle thrashed and screeched in my claws, and then I dropped it into the abyss.
I used my terra magic to push the opening closed, and I could hear the blood pounding in my ears once the echidna’s screeching was gone. Then I shook my head to clear the throbbing noise
, and my automatic healing flushed the poison out from my veins.
“That was new,” Ravi chuckled as she hovered near my head.
“Just a little something I picked up,” I snickered. “Let’s get back.”
We flew back into the city, and I released the walls of sand that had been blocking the echidna. The soldiers jumped back as the sand crashed to the ground in front of them, and I shifted back into my human form to land next to Abel.
“Where is it?” the warrior asked as he peered around me to the gate. “What do we do if it comes back in?”
“It won’t.” I smirked. “But we do need to be prepared for more. They typically travel in colonies, and--”
“Look out!” one of the guards bellowed.
I turned back around to see a swirling funnel of sand tearing through the open gate. It picked up more sand as it went, and it ripped through the cobblestoned street toward the city.
“A sandstorm?” I raised an eyebrow. “What the fuck is going on here?”
The guards dove out of the tornado’s path, and I stepped in front of it with my mouth open. Then I bellowed a column of fire onto the whirling sand, and small sections began to heat up from the flames. The fire heated the sand into chunks of glass, and they crashed noisily to the ground as the funnel continued to barrel toward me, but it had lost some of its power.
Ravi flew over the funnel and poured her own flames into the sand tornado with mine. More shards of glass shattered to the ground until only a swirl of wind remained and then dissipated into the air between us.
“Lord Evan?” Abel called out as he and the other guards emerged from their hiding places. “Is it gone?”
“Yeah, but I have a feeling we’re not done yet,” I grunted. “Neither of those should have randomly appeared and definitely not at the same time.”
“Is Kana under attack?” Naomi asked as a glint of anger flashed in her amber eyes.
Before I could respond, a large spinning circle appeared in the air where the city gate had stood. Then the portal opened, and a small army poured into the city like an ebony waterfall. The intruders wore black robes and turbans that left only their eyes exposed, and they looked like ninjas as they sprinted out of the portal with swords and staves.
The lizard warriors immediately jumped into action and struck down the first few men. Then Laika, Nike, and Aaliyah sprinted into the fray, and I pulled the Sword of Hatra from my spatial storage to join them.
“Miraya!” I called out to the spirit. “I need you with me!”
The sword spirit dipped her head and disappeared. Her essence filled my spiritual sea, and the Sword of Hatra nearly vibrated in my hand with her power. So, I gripped the handle of my blade, dashed toward the invaders, swung the sword in a wide arc, and sliced through my first opponent like warm butter. His two halves slid to the ground, and I moved on to plunge my blade into the gut of another.
“Who are these guys?” Laika growled as she whirled around and cleaved her broadsword through a black-robed intruder.
“No idea,” I grunted and threw a fireball at a man who tried to jump on Aaliyah’s back. “But I intend to find out.”
“Watch out!” Naomi yelled and threw her own black burning orb.
The lizard mage’s fireball hurtled through the air and engulfed another intruder in ebony flames right behind me.
I whipped around to see the man burning, and something caught my attention on the other side of the flames. One of the intruders had stayed back while the others attacked, and he stood just past the portal. His hands were tucked into the sleeves of his black robe as he watched the battle take place. His turban wrapped around his face, and I could only see the dark centers of his wide eyes.
“That’s who we need to go after,” I murmured as I subtly motioned in his direction.
“How do we get him?” Alyona asked.
The princess conjured a stark white tendril of magic that billowed from her palm like smoke, and she blew it across her hand. Then the ivory tendril shot out and wrapped around another attacker.
“What the--” he cried out before Alyona clenched her fist, and the magical rope squeezed him until his eyes bulged from his head and he collapsed onto the ground.
“We have to make our way closer,” I said and ducked to avoid a wayward arrow. “Let’s fan out and surround him.”
My group nodded and leaped back into battle as we slowly made our way around the man I suspected was the leader. I slashed and stabbed as I crept closer to him, and when I was still about ten paces away, he seemed to realize how close I’d come.
“Stay back, dragon!” the man bellowed in a deep voice as he uncovered his hands.
I could see the skin of his hands was mottled with deep purple splotches that looked almost like bruises, and he calmly clutched them together over his chest. Then his dark eyes narrowed into slits as I approached him at a cautious speed.
“Who are you?” I demanded as I got closer. “What are you doing here?”
“Following up,” he chuckled and then spun a finger in the air.
Suddenly, a gust of warm air blew through the open city gate and past the stranger into the corridor. The air kicked up sand and stones, and the lizard warriors had to duck and cover their eyes from the onslaught.
Then a green-tinted barrier rose from the ground between the portal and the guards and blocked the wind. It continued to soar above the warriors and created a bubble over the top of the melee. Both the lizard Demi-Humans and the remaining intruders stopped fighting to look up at the magical barrier, and I looked over at Alyona and Naomi. I expected one of them had created the protection spell, but they both looked at me with confusion.
“What is this?” the enemy mage hissed.
I wondered the same thing, but I didn’t have time to try to find someone who was helping us. I was the only one on this side of the barrier spell, and I had to take this mage out before he went back into the portal. So, I stormed closer to the mage, and he furrowed his brow before he conjured a spell I’d seen before.
Nue clouds billowed from the mage’s hands toward me, and I called on my fire magic to create a shield in front of me. The clouds sizzled against the fiery defense, and the mage’s face registered his shock.
“Alyona!” I called out to the princess.
“I see it!” she yelled back and activated her own spell.
Within seconds, the pure cleansing rain of Alyona’s counter spell poured down over the clouds, and they dissipated in a crackling steam.
“Ah, I’ve heard of you.” The mage scowled as his gaze drifted to Alyona and then back to me. “I believe we have a dear friend in common.”
“I have nothing in common with you,” I growled. “Surrender now, or you can die like your comrades.”
I gestured toward his fallen soldiers that littered the ground inside the barrier spell. Without the mage to help them, they were helpless against the Demi-Human warriors.
“Pawns,” the mage retorted with a careless wave of his hand. “They mean nothing. I’ll get what I came for.”
Before I could respond, the mage lifted his palms up, and thunder boomed overhead as a bolt of lightning cracked across the morning sky. Then droplets of rain sprinkled down, and I laughed at the watery attack.
“What’s this?” I held out my hand to catch the drops. “Rain doesn’t scare me.”
“Not yet,” he murmured and lifted his hands higher.
The tiny droplets soon grew until huge globules of water crashed to the ground and left soaking craters in the sand. I sidestepped a drop the size of a small car, and it exploded like a water balloon once it hit the ground. The water splashed up onto my arms, turned black, and sizzled as it burned my skin like acid.
The fuck?
I examined the burns on my arm, though my automatic healing was already repairing the damaged skin. Then out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alyona, Naomi, Nike, and Aaliyah running toward me.
“Stay in the barrier!” I calle
d out and held up my hands. “The rain is toxic!”
Nike held out his arm to stop the women and nodded his head.
I conjured a new fire shield and held it over my head before I whirled around to find the mage, but he’d turned his back to me to continue around the barrier into Kana.
Big fucking mistake.
As I held the shield above me, I shot webs at the mage’s feet, and the sticky binding wrapped around his ankles and tethered him to the ground.
“Oh!” the mage cried out as he tipped forward and landed on his hands and knees in the sand.
His surprise seemed to affect his power, and the deadly rain slowed as he tried frantically to tear the webs away from his feet.
“You’re not getting away that easily,” I muttered and used my speed to bolt across the space between us.
Then I stabbed the Sword of Hatra through his blotchy hand into the ground, and the mage howled in pain.
The toxic rain stopped completely, and my fiancée rushed toward me with the others in tow.
“Are you alright?” Naomi asked as she examined my scaly forearm.
“I’m fine.” I smirked. “Healing power, remember?”
“Right,” the lizard mage chuckled before she turned to face the masked man as he writhed on his stomach and tried to reach the sword with his other hand to no avail.
“Don’t bother,” I advised with a sarcastic smile. “You can’t handle a Noble Sword.”
“Lord Evan!” Abel gasped as he ran over to join us. “He is the last enemy remaining. We’ve defeated the others.”
“Good, let’s figure out why he’s here,” I grunted.
“I’ll restrain him,” Alyona volunteered and then pointed at the captive. “Ties that bind, hold mine enemy, until his last breath is mine.”
A white rope of magic snaked from Alyona’s fingers to the mage and wrapped his arms against his sides, and then it lifted his body from the sand and held him in the air before us.
“Do you want us to move him?” Abel asked as he grabbed one of the mage’s shoulders.
“Unhand me, you filthy creature!” the mage spat out.
Naomi’s forked lizard tongue slithered out of her mouth with a hiss before she ripped the turban from the mage’s head.