by Adam Thomas
“Then Astrid might still be alive?” Emric asked
“The Azurennites live beneath the water. Unless they were keeping your friend above it, I don’t see how she could be. But all things are possible.”
“Tell us where these Azurennites live.”
“Your kind cannot reach them. Better you stay here and help defend our village against the inevitable raids. I can see by your weapons that you are warriors. Our life is simple, yes, but fulfilling.”
“So you never even tried to get Astrid back?”
Kelona shook her head slowly. “Like I said before, we are a peaceful people. When attacked we retreat into our shells. The magic I possess is for healing only. We are not fighters.”
“Good thing we are,” Rhys said.
“Good thing I can cast a spell that will let us breathe underwater,” Alurel said.
“I’ll ask again,” Emric said, resolve hardening his voice. “Where are the Azurennites?”
twenty-seven
The Dragon and the Feast
The battle was swift and one-sided. The Azurennites – blue-scaled with long, shark-like tails and humanoid torsos and heads – obviously had never thought they could be attacked in their underwater home. The B-Team surprised them with a magical onslaught that boiled the cold water and sent them scattering into the depths. The few Azurennites that stayed to fight met their ends at the point of Tyrevane.
Yes, yes, this is what I crave. Cold blood, warm blood, it does not matter. Kill, conquest, give me more.
The voice burrowed into Rhys’s mind like a parasitic insect. When the half-dozen slain Azurennites floated before him, he spun in the water looking for more foes to give to the blade. But only his friends remained. Rhys squeezed his eyes shut and forced the pounding of his blood to lessen. The voice within Tyrevane faded.
Sorvek and Rhys kept watch while the others searched the dwellings, which were built like large bulbs of coral on the seafloor. They worked their way from hut to hut and found hiding Azurennites in each one. These fish people cowered against the walls, non-combatants all, and the three searchers let them be.
“Don’t tell Rhys that there are more of them,” Shonasir said over the hag’s nails they each wore.
“Why?” Emric asked.
“I’m worried about that sword. Haven’t you noticed?”
Emric nodded grimly, and they moved on to the final dwelling. Inside they found a single being, her waist and all four limbs chained to the rocky seabed. She thrashed against her bonds, sending her dark chestnut hair swirling about her like the fronds of an anemone.
“Astrid!” Emric called, but the word came out as a series of bubbles. The B-Team could talk to each other over their telepathic earrings, but not to anyone else. Emric grabbed his ear and shouted, “Someone help us get these chains off. I found her!”
The wary look in Astrid’s eye held no recognition. It was a feral, predatory look, a long burning bloodlust. Emric stayed back as his friend continued to strain against her chains. He looked down and saw her wrists were raw and bloody were the metal bit into them.
All five members of the team crowded into the hut and encircled Astrid.
“How is she still alive?” Sorvek asked.
“I have no idea,” Emric said. “But let’s keep her that way.”
Shonasir called upon the elemental force at their disposal and flashed their friends a grin of triumph. “Being here in this realm, where the presence of water is so pure, I can harness so much energy.”
They grabbed the manacle on Astrid’s wrist and covered it with frost. Astrid jerked her hand away at the cold, but something in Shonasir’s confident demeanor must have made her reconsider, because a moment later she reached out again.
Shonasir pumped as much icy magic as they could into the manacle until…
Crack.
The locking mechanism broke as the ice expanded inside it. With one hand free, Astrid understood what the elf was doing and submitted willingly as Shonasir broke the other four locks.
But as Astrid calmed, her breathing became somehow more labored. A flash of panic crossed her face, and she put her hands at her throat.
“She’s drowning!” Emric yelled, and he pulled her to him. “Alurel, do something!”
The druid put a hand on Astrid’s head and recast her water breathing spell. Astrid stopped clutching her throat, and her eyes went wide as recognition dawned.
“Emric?” she mouthed.
He nodded, and he pulled her in again. This time she embraced him back. They floated there for a time, spinning slowly in each other’s arms with Astrid’s swirling hair obscuring their faces.
At length, Rhys said, “We don’t know when they’ll be back. They could regroup and attack.”
“You’re right,” Emric said. “Let’s go.”
“Everyone, get ready,” Alurel said.
“Get ready for–” Sorvek began, but his question ended in a surprised whoop, as Alurel’s spell propelled all six of them towards the surface at speed. They erupted from the water and skidded across it as if it were solid ice.
“Water walking spell,” Alurel explained. “If you’re underwater when it’s cast, it makes sure you get to the surface right quick.”
“Let’s get back to the Aldabrachians,” Shonasir said. “Make sure the Azurennites didn’t counterattack.”
Emric supported Astrid as the party made their way across the top of the water back to the beach. Heavy rain pelted the water about them. They were within sight of the village when they heard a roar in the distance.
“What was that?” Sorvek spun around looking for the source of the call.
“Nothing good,” Alurel said.
Astrid spoke for the first time. Her voice was raspy and fierce in equal measure. “Once they realized I could survive underwater, they decided to wait for some holiday to give me to their god. I was supposed to be a sacrifice.”
“Are you saying?” Emric began.
A look of cold fury steeled Astrid’s features. “Where is my axe?”
An ice blue dragon shot over head and wheeled in the cloudy sky. The beat of its rime-encrusted wings turned the rain to snow along the arc of its flight. A second roar thundered over the water, sending the Aldabrachians scattering towards the inland coconut groves.
“The Azurennites god is a dragon?” Emric called as they raced for the village.
“Must be Azurenn,” Astrid shouted back.
Kelona was the only villager who remained. She stood in the center of town holding Astrid’s broken axe. The weapon was still functional even with a shortened haft. This she passed to Astrid, who gave a wordless nod of thanks. The B-Team spread out across the village square. Emric, Sorvek, and Alurel crouched behind huts, while Rhys and Astrid remained with Kelona, who retreated into her shell. Shonasir took to the sky on their Awakened Storm.
“Come on, I’m the one you want,” Astrid said under her breath. Then she screamed up at the dragon, whipping herself into a rage as she yelled. “Months underwater so I could be your supper! Try to eat me now, you cold-hearted worm!”
Azurenn’s wings bent low against its body and it sped towards the ground. When it came within range, many things happened at once. Sorvek blasted it with pure energy while Alurel called down a beam of searing light. Shonasir let fly an arrow, which sparked with electric potential. But the dragon had eyes for Astrid alone.
“My worshipers are dead,” Azurenn bellowed, its deep voice rumbling like an earthquake. “Dead in the water instead of enjoying the honor of gracing my board. And for what? So you, my Hatching Day prize, could escape my larder? I think not.”
With these words, the dragon released a breath of freezing wind, which engulfed the entire village. Everyone but the flying Shonasir felt the intense chill of the dragon’s breath. It sapped them of their vitali
ty and their speed. But it did not kill them as the dragon had intended.
Rhys bore the brunt of the cold stoically and brought Tyrevane to bear.
Yes, yes, feed me dragon’s blood. Let me taste the power pumping through its veins.
Rhys gritted his teeth and charged, Astrid at his side. She yelled a battle cry and together they slammed their weapons into the dragon’s icy flanks. It attacked with tooth, claw, and tail, battering them mercilessly. More magical attacks came at the dragon from all sides until it inhaled another great breath and exhaled a second blizzard from its throat. Emric and Alurel had both come out from hiding to heal the front line fighters, and Azurenn’s freezing breath laid them low. They collapsed to the ground, chilled to the bone and rapidly losing consciousness.
Kelona peered out from the safety of her shell and saw them fall. Summoning her courage, she staggered over to them, weighed down by the ice clinging to her shell. Dropping by their sides, she gripped their hands and gave them all her healing magic. Warmth flooded through Emric and Alurel, and they stirred.
Meanwhile, Sorvek and Shonasir continued peppering the dragon with lightning arrows and lances of energy. Azurenn launched itself into the sky and tore after Shonasir. The Storm’s speed was no match for the dragon, and Shonasir knew it. The elf angled toward the ground and leapt just as the dragon overtook them. The Storm dissipated at the dragon’s cold bite, and Shonasir crashed through the thatched roof of one of the huts.
But now a quandary came to the dragon. It desired to eat Astrid, but to do so it would have to come back to the ground where blade and magic endangered it. Some dragons would have flown off, content to attack another day. But Azurenn was done waiting for its prize. It would have the dwarf its followers promised it, and it would have her now.
The dragon dived again, gathering a third blast of cold at the back of its throat. But before it could exhale, Rhys and Astrid hurled their blades towards its open mouth. They struck home in the same instant blasts of magic from Sorvek connected with each of Azurenn’s furious eyes. The dragon crashed to the ground, leveling half the village. But it was dead.
Shonasir crawled from the wrecked hut, and made their pain-filled way to Emric and Alurel. Sorvek joined them too, and they watched Rhys pull Tyrevane from the dragon’s mouth. Their friend stared at the blade, which was somehow clean, pristine as the day it was forged. Then Rhys touched the cold steel to his forehead and began hacking away at the dragon’s throat.
“We need to do something about that sword,” Shonasir said. The words came out weak and breathy as they clutched their side, which had taken the brunt of their fall.
“I don’t fancy broaching that subject with him,” Sorvek said.
“Let’s keep an eye on him,” Alurel said. “So far, he’s only attacked enemies.”
“So far,” Emric said.
After much battering at the icy scales, Rhys managed to gash open the base of Azurenn’s neck. From it slipped a large, impossibly smooth sapphire.
Kelona took one look at it and said without fanfare, “With that, I can send you home.”
“Not until we help you rebuild your village,” Emric said. “We are so sorry to have visited this horror upon you.”
“Horror?” Kelona echoed. “Our enemy lies slain, and my people are unhurt. We have lived with the horror of abduction and murder for far too long. With their god dead, I doubt the Azurennites will bother us again. And if they do, we will have the dragon’s head mounted on a pole to remind them to stay away. No, your arrival spelled the end of our plight. Huts can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be reclaimed.”
The rest of the Aldabrachians began emerging from the coconut grove in ones and twos. Soon the whole village was standing around the slain dragon and congratulating the B-Team for their heroism. Astrid soaked up most of the glory, as she had been their champion before her kidnapping.
The rain and sleet let up, and Kelona called for a feast. The B-Team decided it would be poor form to refuse. And a good thing they did not, for the spicy crawfish were cooked to perfection. The celebration went on for hours around multiple cooking fires. Emric provided the entertainment at Astrid’s behest, summoning from the depths of his musical mind every song by the dwarven band The Crash that he could recall. Finally, the Aldabrachians drifted off to sleep in the undamaged huts.
Sorvek and Alurel found themselves alone, sitting by one of the fires. The two half-elves looked at one another, and Alurel broke the silence. “Do you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“There’s something about this place. It feels...I don’t know...clarifying.” Alurel pulled the ironwood seed from her bag. Not even the freezing dragon’s breath had damaged it. She walked to the edge of the water and pushed the seed into the wet sand.
“Now that you mention it,” Sorvek said. “I do feel something, or should I say I don’t feel something as much. When I was fighting the dragon today, my patron was less present in my mind than normal. Usually, when I draw on the power of my pact, I feel on the edge of being consumed by the Shadow. It is not a good feeling.”
“But you didn’t feel it today?”
Sorvek stared out at the twilit water. “It was more like I was standing back from the precipice. I could see the edge but I wasn’t teetering on it. The Shadow was there, certainly. It’s always there whispering to me. I hear it even now. It doesn’t like that we’re talking about it. But I don’t care.” Sorvek thumped himself in the chest. “Do you hear me? I don’t care!”
He started shaking, and Alurel came to his side and put her arm around him. “You just killed a dragon today,” she said. “You can handle your patron.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sorvek said. His voice trembled now in fear after his momentary defiance. “I didn’t ask for this. I only said yes because there was no other way out. I’m afraid…” He swallowed hard and gritted his teeth against his trembling. “I’m afraid I exchanged my prison in Ornak for another kind, bound to this Shadow, whatever it is.”
“But here in the Realm of Water?”
“Its power is less. It clutches at me less. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“It’s the water. It cleanses, feeds, sustains.” Wonderment filled Alurel’s voice. “Sorvek, look!”
The ironwood seed had cracked open in the pure water and revealed a single green-gray stem that was beginning to unfurl even as they watched.
“This is a place of new beginnings,” Alurel said.
At a nearby campfire, Emric and Astrid were also having a conversation.
“When I saw you today, I didn’t recognize you,” Astrid confessed.
“I could tell,” Emric said. “Your eyes were so wild.”
“The only way I could survive below water was to keep myself raging and furious all the time. Somehow that gave me the ability to breathe.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“And yet, here I am.”
“Here you are.” Emric said the words in a flat, noncommittal tone.
Astrid crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“You think I wanted to get stuck here in this plane with a bunch of turtles and fish people who were going to feed me to a dragon?”
“No, I don’t think that,” Emric said quickly.
“Then what? Did I not thank you enough for saving me? I’ll say it again: you have my undying gratitude, mi’lord.” Astrid’s flaring temper soured her thanksgiving.
Emric stared into the fire for a long moment. It crackled and popped, sending sweet-smelling smoke into the air. Finally, he said, “You don’t know what it was like.”
“What what was like?”
“I searched for you after the waterfall. But you were gone. And Lorn was broken. I carried him all the way back to Anvilcairn. He’s paralyzed
Astrid, and everyone blamed me for that and for your death.”
“I’m not dead.”
“Tell that to your parents. Tell it to mine. My mother always thought of you as the daughter she never had. She would trade any three of her sons for you, four if she had to. And then...and then you were gone.”
“Excuse me for accidentally falling into a magic portal.”
“We should never have been on the river in the first place. None of us knew what we were doing.”
“So this is all my fault?”
Emric craned his head back and let out a sigh of exasperation. “I’m not trying to assign blame, Astrid.”
“Of course it’s my fault.” Astrid’s voice rose in volume until she was shouting. “You and Lorn were always following me around. You two never had to take responsibility for anything. Who was it that got you into scrapes? Me. But who also got you out of them?” Astrid stood up, and now she loomed over Emric, her face reddening with fury in the firelight. “Fine. If you want to blame me for this whole mess, then do it.”
She lashed out and hit Emric square in the jaw with a powerful swing. He was so surprised that he didn’t make a sound. He just righted himself and began massaging his cheek, never taking his eyes off Astrid. Then, all at once, she dropped to her knees, put her head in Emric’s lap, and wept.
Between heaving sobs, Astrid choked out the words that her rage had bottled up. “It was terrible... down there...I’ve been angry...for so long...I’ve forgotten...how to be...anything else...I’m so...so...sorry.”
Emric moved his hand from his jaw to Astrid’s hair. Looping her long chestnut curls over one ear, Emric stroked her hair and whispered, “I’m so happy I found you. We’ll get you home tomorrow. Come, let’s rest now.”
As the celebratory fires smoldered to embers, the B-Team dropped off to sleep. Shonasir stood watch, their bare feet ankle deep in the pure water of the elemental plane. They sat down at the water’s edge next to the sprouting ironwood seed and dug their hands into the sand. Channeling their tempestuous power into their hands, Shonasir sent a current into the sand and pulled up a piece of newly formed glass. They did this again and again until they had perfected the technique. They encased the seed and some of the precious water in a glass sphere, ready for transport back to the Material World.