Zandra's Dragon: Dragons of Telera (Book 6)

by Lisa Daniels

  He refused to elaborate on that, but it did nothing to quell Nox’s unease. He could just about tolerate the idea of working with a black veined witch. By the moon, he could even deal with the fact that Erlandur had the same condition, and Erlandur actually used magic to animate his undead wolves.

  Nox growled. The Spine wolves were the greatest clan. They may not have the history of Lunehill, but they lived on death’s doorstep, and had built themselves up into a sizeable military force. Nothing compared to the number of citizens in the Fractured City, as Faith and Erlandur insisted on ramming the notion into his head about.

  Mostly, he felt pissed off that Erlandur kept such a heavy secret. He reckoned others back in the clan headquarters would feel the same. Who wanted to follow a leader that withheld vital information? Who worked with the enemy?

  “I don’t understand how they used my grandmother’s body,” Faith was saying. “I know they buried her. I’ve visited her grave before.”

  “Do you want to hear an answer from me?” A voice drifted from outside the room, and Nox fixed his attention on a slight, white haired woman with dark eyes and pale, pale skin. His nostrils flared slightly, taking in the prominent veins upon her body. One of the cursed. Although… something seemed off about her. Disconcerting.

  “I imagine if I don’t, you’ll tell me anyway.”

  “Right,” the newcomer said, allowing a smile to lift her incredibly red lips. The contrast of color made Nox stare closer.

  He vaguely remembered being carried out of the chasm, and the lull of her voice, but nothing else. Even with everything the witch and knight had said, understanding the alliance with an underground resistance dedicated on toppling the Shadow city, he didn’t fully trust them. He didn’t see what benefit a Shadow got from slaughtering their own kind.

  “It’s like this.” The woman edged in, and her face took on a cold, neutral slant. “Shadows can possess bodies, if they don’t devour the flesh. Even if the body is dead, as long as a Shadow finds one, it can be taken. And, let’s face it. The Lunar Wastes can keep bodies perfectly preserved for years. Which is enough time for a Supreme to link the body to a Shadow from the origin world.”

  Link? Origin world? Dead body possession? Nox shuddered, baring his teeth in distaste. Hard to wipe out his undying hatred of Shadows, and to stomach the idea of accepting one as an ally.

  “Echo, that is disturbing,” Faith replied, clearly unhappy with the fact. Erlandur’s mouth wrinkled as well.

  Echo smiled, though there was a dark undertone to it. For some reason, although she wasn’t exactly what you would call pretty, there was something arresting about her features. Her dark eyes pierced the room, and her face was sharp, hawk like, yet somehow attractive. Nox resisted the stirrings of primal urges in his gut in a silent huff of disgust. He didn’t have time for this.

  “It’s good to see you’re recovering,” Echo said, indicating to Nox with a nod of her head. “When I found you, I honestly thought you had to be dead at first.”

  “You found me?” Nox allowed one eyebrow to twitch. “Then I thank you for my life.”

  “No problem. I’m going to be heading back out to search for any other members of the scout team as well. If you survived, maybe there’s others.”

  “When? Now?”

  Echo nodded. “The faster, the better, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Something about her tone seemed off. Nox disregarded it. “I want to help.”

  “No,” Echo said bluntly. “I don’t need help.”

  Nox snarled. “I can’t sit here and do nothing. “You’ll need a werewolf’s sense of smell to be able to catch anyone you can’t see.”

  Echo considered this for a moment. “If you do come, there’s a condition.”

  “Yes. What is it?”

  Echo grinned mordantly. “I get to ride on you. I get tired of having to use my magic to get around everywhere.”

  Nox rolled his eyes. “Really?” He considered the witch for a moment.

  “Well, that, and the fact that you’re going to have to tolerate the magic I use. And I don’t think you’ll like it.”

  Nox shook his head. “I’ve not been liking Shadow magic since I’ve first heard about it. But I can see its use. We have a witch called Yarrow, she’s able to directly communicate to Shadows.”

  Echo pursed her lips in thoughtfulness. “That’s interesting. Was she born with this power?”

  Nox closed his eyes, trying to remember the Ghost Laker’s power. “No. She was a lightning witch before it affected her.”

  “Huh. I’ve not heard of that before. I was born with this,” she explained, and Nox felt a momentary horror. Born with such dark gifts? He couldn’t imagine that. Holding a squirming infant in his arms with the black taint in their veins.

  He examined Echo again, now with increased interest. Something about her mannerism appealed to him. The dark eyes looked attractive, with those long eyelashes, those rounded cheeks and ruby lips which appeared soft and kissable. The veins, well, he could pretend they were inked tattoos, and not a froth of corruption in her veins. A hardness existed about her, too. Something cold and heavy and dark. He sniffed the air, and caught a scent of damp rock and earth emanating from her skin.

  “Are all the people in the underbelly like you? Black veined?”

  Echo shook her head. “Not everyone. But we stand out the least in this city, believe me. If a Shadow catches you looking normal, they’ll devour you. When you’re tainted, they already think you’re one of them, even though that’s not always the case.” She sucked on her lip. “If you’re ready, I’ll be leaving in ten minutes. We can’t waste time looking for your friends.”

  Nox nodded in full agreement. “Of course. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’d come, but I’m still healing,” Faith said.

  “And I think I’m not allowed to leave,” Erlandur added. Nox noticed how Erlandur’s hand strayed to Faith. Apparently those two had gotten cosy during the trip. He examined Erlandur’s dark veins in a mix of trepidation and respect. Human had sacrificed a lot in his pursuit of an end to the Shadows. Nox admired him for that. Shame he wasn’t born a werewolf, really. He’d be a fine warrior.

  With a grunt, Nox rolled out of bed as Echo left, and he stared after her unusual, long white hair. An interesting individual. Something smelled different about her. Like she was dangerous.

  Nox had a thing for dangerous women. He grinned to himself, preparing for the trip.

  He got the shock of his life when Echo demonstrated her magic on the surface, letting it flick out of her fingers to coalesce into a monstrous demon. He hissed in alarm as the monstrosity, which gave off the distinctive pulse of a Shadow, stood there with black long arms hanging.

  “This is my magic. I can summon a creature. I call it Monster.”

  Monster is a suitable name for that thing, Nox thought. He narrowed his eyes at it in suspicion. “Does it contaminate?”

  Echo shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. I used it to carry you back. Can you see me lugging your body all the way from the chasm to the town?”

  “Huh.” Nox wasn’t sure what to think about that. The notion of being carried by that thing sent unpleasant shivers groping his spine, like icy fingers. Echo released Monster with a sigh of relief, rubbing her cranium.

  “I’ve already used Monster too much. I need to rest a bit. Well. Are you morphing then? We got some people to rescue.”

  Nox rolled his eyes, growled, then constricted himself, transforming into his warrior form.

  Chapter Three

  Echo watched in wry amusement as Nox transformed with that look of indignation stamped upon his face. For a werewolf, he seemed to be taking her veins and her magic better than expected. Of course, she could never confess to him the real source of her magic, and the soul she housed inside. Suicidal, to even consider admitting that to a werewolf. They spent their lives fighting against abominations like her. She was merely a spirit that had hijacked a human body from n
ear birth. She came from the origin world that held a sparse number of their population, from all the destruction the humans accidentally wrought in their quest for more power.

  Still, the Shadows did not need to commit genocide. They could still live in the origin world. They could keep to the Fractured Spine without expanding and consuming all other life.

  Nox resembled a finely silver-white furred werewolf, big, like they all were, with gleaming yellow eyes. He still seemed to wear that scowl as she mounted upon him, digging her fingers tight into his furs and preparing for the ride around the chasm, to try and detect any more of the scouting party. They needed every living person they could get.

  She clung to his back, enjoying the relative speed he loped up to, the way his huge paws sunk into the snow, leaving elongated prints all behind them. Honestly, Echo didn’t know if they’d find anyone else, but she had to try. Anything rather than sit around and wait for a war to start, or deal with dodgy black market traders.

  Her mind whirred through the idea of Nox in his human form, with his dark hair, yellow eyes and noble stature. Son of a chieftain, too. Not bad. It didn’t take them long before they found the first body. Two hours riding, near the spot where Echo had discovered him, and Nox’s sensitive nostrils picked up on a presence. They’d only just recently died, too. His body had impaled itself onto a spike in the chasm, but with werewolf healing, it might have been salvageable.

  Nox let out a mournful howl, before pressing on, continuing their scout.

  With time being of utmost importance, they scouted through the rest of the daylight and through a portion of the night. The snows whorled around them, tumbling down now from the cloud stifled skies. Before Erlandur's original expedition, Echo had never seen a werewolf before. She only knew them as the beasts that opposed the Shadows viciously, fighting against their influence and harboring strong hatred towards her kind. She caught some of that from the werewolves, who had never seen a black veined human.

  The things Erlandur had done to consolidate his powers, though. To become the first magic caster from the male bloodline. Sometimes, she'd been allowed to peek. Helena and the other Supremes in direct contest with the methods of the Shadows operating within the Fractured City had lured Erlandur along with other hopefuls, other men and women who wanted to risk everything for stopping the cause.

  All of them except Erlandur had died. By all rights and methods now, Erlandur ranked as a Supreme, encased in the armor that protected him from spells. His ability was to raise up anyone who had died again and bind them to him – a marvellous, terrifying power. The more who died in combat, the stronger he became. He only had to lose his soul to obtain such strength. A worthy sacrifice. The upper Shadows wouldn't know what hit them, once the invasion force made it safely into their tunnels.

  One thing bugged Echo, however. The cold seeped into their bones, it slowed them down, it did things to their brains. Shadows were weak against the relentless onslaught of winter, of the blizzards that raged through the plains. Sure, they might be able to make it some of the way, but then it would simply be too cold for them to move or function. So how in the world did they get so far?

  Helena and the three other Supremes didn't know. They departed from the main branch years ago, trying to forge alliances with humans and werewolves. They were the ones who encouraged the werewolves to settle all across the Lunar Wastes, instead of in their original homeland, the Crescent Island beyond the Fractured City.

  The last stage of their plan before the invasion involved heading to Crescent Island.

  Echo shivered at the implication. She focused on the scenery, scanning for any shapes half buried by snow. Nox's furs warmed up her hands, and his pants huffed up the air, leaving steamy trails as they bounded. Even with the fur mask on her face and the goggles to protect her eyes from the sting of wind, Echo's cheeks still froze underneath her protection. She needed every layer of warmth possible.

  Wonder what it would be like if he attempted to jump the chasm at its thinnest point? The thought trickled into her mind. If he failed it, we'd tumble far, far down. I'd probably land on him and break his spine. Echo blinked. Already, she felt her emotions beginning to dull, to lessen, the sympathy in her dying. When they passed a body in the snow, not one of the expedition, but a small child, Nox sniffed around it for a moment, and Echo stared dispassionately. Likely deserved it. One less idiot alive. Vaguely, she considered that it'd only been five hours since her last summon of Monster. Personally, she didn't care when her feelings dimmed. It made it easier to think, to make the moves that mattered.

  However, she also understood on a perspective level that her companions and allies in life needed emotion. Monster growled in her head as it crept over her mind.

  Nox gave a startled yelp, and Echo's attention snapped to a small gathering of rocks in the distance, near the base of one of the mountains, with a plume of smoke wafting partway into the air.

  “There's a bridge a league on,” Echo informed him. “We can use that to cross over then double back to the site.”

  Nox barked confirmation to her instructions, and picked up his pace, now taking great leaping strides. Echo clung on, her dispassionate thoughts still whirring away.

  If the Shadows of the Fractured City weren't so greedy, so vain, they might have learned to live in harmony. It's more logical to form alliances than to antagonize. It's not smart to keep pursuing an agenda that the humans have likely long since forgotten about. Not to mention, the number of witches who existed today were a scarce fraction of their former glory. Maybe a hundred, two hundred. Not the tens of thousands that once existed.

  Her fingers tightened on Nox's furs as he bounded forward, reaching the bridge mere moments later. It had seen a lot of use, and had ridges all along the arch to compensate for the constant snow that tumbled down. Nox clawed over it, jumping into ten inches of snow and lifting his way through it.

  Once he reached the shale of the mountain, he regained his speed, and they slowed once they neared the fire, and he half shook her, growling.

  “Alright, I'll get off.” Echo clambered off, flaking off some of the snow on her robes, and watched as Nox crawled on his belly, carefully approaching the camp upside of the wind. He disappeared around the corner, then howled for her to come a moment later. She stumbled through the path he had made through the snow, and saw three members of the scouting expedition clustered, two of them in human form, attempting to heal from severe injuries, the other in wolf form, clearly guarding them. Four sets of yellow eyes peered at her.

  “Good job we found you.” Echo figured introducing herself might be a neat idea. “I'm Echo, a witch of the underbelly.” She flashed her crescent symbol. “We're part of a resistance forming to combat the ruling faction of the Fractured City. I'd explain more, but it seems you two are in severe need of medical care. And… unconscious. Never mind.” Echo crouched beside one of the werewolves, her long white hair drooping. One werewolf had two broken legs and crushed muscles, preventing him from healing efficiently. The other seemed to have at some point suffered internal injuries, and bandages covered his stomach and collarbone. “Are you fit to go?” She addressed the final werewolf, silvery white like Nox, but leaner and thinner. The werewolf walked towards her, snuffled at her hand, eyes lingering a while on her black veins. Nox barked at him.

  The stranger shifted temporarily, revealing a tall, willowy thin man, who introduced himself as Loras. “I don't think we can move these two yet. If they go on our backs, they'll likely sustain more injuries.”

  “My magic will sort that out. We need to get you to our base as soon as possible. They have patrols. You're not safe here.”

  Loras scowled. “What magic do you have?”

  “It's a Shadow creature that can carry them. Don't worry. It won't contaminate. I used it for Nox when I found him earlier.”

  Nox whined, but the sound seemed to reassure Loras. “Let's see this thing, then.”

  Echo smiled sardonically, before
allowing the magic to ripple through her veins. Monster formed in the snows, huge and imposing, blue eyes scanning the environment. Loras swore and stepped backwards as Echo commanded Monster to gently scoop up the two werewolves, then readjust its shape so that its arms became baskets for the werewolves, and three more spots appeared on its back.

  “Let's sit on Monster. It won't bite.” Echo clambered up Monster, her hands sinking into a strange, gloopy substance as she settled into one of the crooks. Reluctantly, Loras followed with Nox, who had shifted back into human form.

  With all of them seated, Monster rippled silently across the snows, unaffected by the bumps or the depths. Nox gasped behind her as Monster stretched its form again, flowing down the chasm wall with all of them on board, before reaching the bottom and flowing back up the other side, stopping just before reaching the surface.

  “We're gonna chasm surf to avoid detection.” She smiled at their dumbfounded expressions.

  “Why didn't you just do this earlier, instead of forcing me to run all the way to the bridge?” Nox glared accusingly at her.

  “I prefer to avoid using my magic when possible. I get massive headaches summoning this thing.” They rippled along the wall, and Loras gradually calmed down, observing his unconscious companions, and noting the minimal disturbance they got.

  “This is impressive.”

  Yes. My darkness is rather impressive. The empathy filtered back into Echo, and she winked at them. “Your friends will be fine. We have good carers in the underbelly.”

  “Did you collect anyone else?”

  “One was dead. I know not his name. And Faith thinks one called Mordyn is deceased as well. She said that he was draped across her undead mount before the avalanche took place.

  Nox smacked his lips. “Well, you can figure out it’s Nethen. You guys are the only survivors left.”

  Loras sighed, scratching at his dark, shaggy beard. “I thought as much.”

  “The more I associate with you,” Nox said, now addressing Echo, “the more impressive you seem. But I smell something off about you as well. Like with Erlandur.”