Fenroot harrumphed.
“I gave you everything,” Dark said. “You were my most treasured dragon. Your flying skills were second-to-none. I showered you with gifts. Land. Treasure. What else could I have done to have stopped you from betraying me?”
“I wanted the same thing you did,” Fenroot said. “Power. Surely you understand. The pull, the force, the intoxication that takes hold of you…The devotion to something greater than yourself?” Fenroot arched his claws. “But there can be only one dragon lord. That is what you could never give me. Why else do you think I masqueraded my skills? To please you?”
“Why else?!” Dark roared.
“Ha! Your blindness has inflicted you worse than my betrayal ever did! I was learning. Learning how to overthrow you, learning how to show the other dragons a new way. The signs were there, but you were so full of yourself that you couldn’t see them. Still, you are blind to what is happening around you.”
Dark growled. “When I have your blood, the blindness I suffer from will be cured, rest assured.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Fenroot said. They were closing the circle between them, stalking around each other like lions. “The poison’s in your blood. The prophecy will not be fulfilled.”
“Prophecy?”
“When I eviscerated your parents,” Fenroot said, “They tried to curse me. A seer said that I would die at your hands.”
“Splendid tale! Tell me more!”
Fenroot laughed. “They say that one becomes all-knowing in death. You’ll soon find out.”
“My parents didn’t need to curse you,” Dark said. “You would have done yourself in. You amassed the biggest army I’ve certainly ever seen. Yet I am still alive, you brute. See any problems with your little strategy?”
Fenroot lunged, but Dark slid out of the way and Fenroot stopped just before the edge of the platform.
Fenroot looked over the edge and cried out.
“Don’t be afraid,” Dark said, preparing his claws to slash. “It’ll soon be over.”
But then Dark saw it himself.
The platforms below.
They were bobbing up and down.
They were not platforms.
They were body parts. Elaborate, ornate metal wings…claws…scales like plate armor…arms…shoulders….
Below him, the platform lit up.
A reptilian eye. White and black, like a template. Dark had never seen an eye like that.
They were standing on the head of a dragon.
***
Miri watched with bated breath as Norwyn and Moss rolled around the floor, exchanging blows.
Norwyn dug his claws into the Crafter dragon, but Moss grabbed his head and tried to gouge his eyes.
“This is for my daughters!” the dragon cried.
“I didn’t kill your daughters,” Norwyn said.
“You might as well have!” Moss said. “Fenroot told me that I wasn’t active enough in the betrayal. I’m making up for it now.”
Norwyn looked at the chamber. It was humming and glowing.
“Only one dragon will come out,” Moss said. “No Abstraction Chamber can hold two! I would hate to be in there. They’re probably seeing hallucinations like no other. The Abstraction must be visualized, understood and accepted before the transformation begins. Will you pray to Fenroot now or later?”
But Norwyn pulled Moss and they tumbled through the open grate in the floor, falling into darkness.
***
Miri crawled out from behind the computer panel. Her heart was pounding. Something sparked at her feet and she came face to face with a live wire that was hanging from the ceiling. She covered her mouth to suppress a scream, then crawled around it.
She needed to get out of here.
But then she saw Amal and Demetrius on the screen. They were still there.
Miri ran to the panel. She pressed buttons until she found an intercom.
“Hello? Governor Shalewood?”
Amal and Demetrius looked up, bewildered.
“It’s me, Miri Charmwell. And from what I can tell, you’ve got a big problem coming your way.”
***
“Where are you, Miri?” Amal asked, looking around.
“I’m in the chamber above you. I can see you through the security camera.”
Norwyn and Moss crashed into the aquifer. They bobbed up and down on the face of the water, reaching for each other.
Moss latched onto one of the metal walkways with his tail.
“What exactly are we looking at?” Amal asked, studying the motor. “I don’t understand what this platform does. But whatever it is, the white dragon didn’t want us to know about it.”
“Norwyn?” Miri asked. “I’m not sure about him, either. But what I can tell you is that there are a lot of computer panels up here. More than I’ve ever seen in my life. And my guess is that they control the motor down there somehow.”
Demetrius ran his hand on a large pipe that extended up into the well. “Yeah. It says Abstraction Chamber.”
“Hmm,” Miri said. “Oh, crap—gotta go! I’ll be back!”
“Be back?” Demetrius said. “Nice time to take a freaking potty break.”
“Come on!” Amal said, grabbing him. They retreated into the shadows as Norwyn burst out of the pink river and grabbed Moss by the tail.
***
Dark and Fenroot stared in shock at the forming dragon below them. Made of pure metal, it was of the Keeper variety, and it was menacing. But the head was featureless. The eyes were practically blank and there were no teeth in the mouth. The body parts hovered in the air, inching closer together as if invisible hands were stitching them together.
Dark seized the opportunity to sink his teeth into Fenroot’s shoulder. Fenroot roared and tried to pull at him. Dark wrestled him down onto the platform, clawing at his throat.
But Fenroot kicked him away and took flight.
Dark spread his wings but they ached. The poison was spreading to them.
No! Not now!
He lifted off after the silver dragon just as the wings of the metal dragon began to glow.
***
The river current carried Norwyn and Moss away from the motor and into a long corridor.
“You chose the wrong lord to be loyal to!” Moss cried.
“You chose the wrong one,” Norwyn said.
They floated, feet apart from each other, swimming to try to snap at each other. But the current was strong and they could not break free from the water.
“What’s it like to be an ineffectual henchman?” Norwyn asked.
“You should know!” Moss said, slashing his tail.
“At least I’ve accomplished something these last thousand years.”
They flowed into another corridor. A giant turbine spun at the other end.
The processing center. Magic flowed through the turbines into the center where elves used it to create energy.
Moss didn’t see it yet.
“I have a legacy,” Norwyn said, staring Moss in the eye. “A legacy that will last.”
“Have I not a legacy?” Moss cried. “It will live through Fenroot!”
They flowed closer…
“I suppose you’re correct,” Norwyn said. “Perhaps your name will live on forever.”
Moss grinned. “Of course. And I’ll especially—”
Then he heard the turbines. Turning around, he screamed as he saw them.
Norwyn activated a flurry of orbs from his tail and they stuck into Moss’s joints, stopping him from moving. The dragon struggled to rip the orbs out, but there were too many. The current pulled him under.
The turbines jammed. They tried to rotate and rotate, smacking against something hard. Then, a slicing sound, a pool of red among the river of pink, and the turbines flowed again.
Norwyn sprouted more orbs, and they attached cables to his body and pulled him out of the aquifer. Flapping quickly, he breezed through the corridor and back into th
e open space. Targeting the sky well, he flew up as fast as he could.
***
The cylinder was sparking.
Miri stared at it nervously.
What was going on in there?
She ducked behind the panel again as Norwyn climbed out of the hole in the floor. He covered it with the grate and then ran to the Abstraction Chamber, sat, and waited.
Something about the white dragon made Miri nervous, the same way that seeing the orbs so many times had made her skin crawl.
But she didn’t know what to do.
“Hey, bastard!”
A shape darted through the tunnel leading to the Abstraction Chamber, and it slammed into Norwyn.
The white dragon flew across the room and crashed into the wall, sliding down.
“What’ve you done?!” the voice cried.
It was Frog.
***
The metal dragon began to flap its wings. Fenroot narrowly avoided one of the wings as the metal dragon let out a fierce, mechanical roar.
Dark flew after him. Materializing a fire blast on his claw, he fired at Fenroot, striking him in the tail. Fenroot lobbed a fireball back at him, but Dark flew out of the way just in time.
POW!
A metal wing struck Dark, knocking him swiftly out of the air. He landed on the dragon’s leg.
Fenroot roared and circled back toward him.
Dark tried to take off again.
Damn it! One of his legs. It was broken.
The metal dragon lifted the leg that Dark lie on, as if it were trying to stand, but in a quick, jerky, robotic motion, the metal dragon locked its knee and sat back down.
Dark looked up in fear.
Fenroot was diving right for him.
Dark lifted his claws in front of his face to defend himself.
CLANG!
The metal dragon, who moved its front legs wildly, struck Fenroot. The silver dragon landed on the dragon’s foot, below Dark.
Dark ran, dragging his leg. Ignoring the blinding, excruciating pain, he leaned forward, all his teeth bared and ready to tear into Fenroot.
The metal dragon roared and its arms and legs went crazy, flailing everywhere. But the dragon’s mouth opened. Soon it was several feet from Dark.
The metal dragon seemed to move every time Dark did.
Is it mirroring me?
But Dark ignored it, running at the silver dragon. Fenroot lie on the metal dragon’s claw. One of his wings was broken and it flopped on his back.
Dark grabbed Fenroot and hurled him into the dragon’s mouth. He followed Fenroot into the huge metal jaws and punched him.
“The prophecy will fail!” Fenroot said, slashing Dark across the chest.
“Traitors don’t get the benefit of seeing prophecies fulfilled!” Dark screamed.
He punched Fenroot again. And again. The silver dragon put up his arms over his face, tried to generate a magical blast, but Dark sunk his teeth into Fenroot’s sinewy neck and pulled as hard as he could.
“No!” Fenroot cried.
Blood erupted all over the inside of the metal dragon’s mouth, spraying the walls and covering Dark’s scales.
Dark severed the silver dragon’s head and with his mouth, he tossed it deep into the cavernous metal maw. The head ricocheted as it bounced off the metallic walls of the dragon’s neck, and into an infinite darkness.
Dark flew out of the mouth just as the dragon clanged it shut.
He hovered, studying the metallic dragon. The eyes were filling in. They were turning green.
The mouth slowly grew teeth. Slightly yellowed and curved.
The beast’s scales began to shift and take on a certain pattern.
He recognized it.
The metal body flashed and a pinpoint of radiant light started in its stomach and then grew brighter and brighter.
Was it…could it be—
Dark covered his face as the light engulfed him.
And then it stopped. The dragon fell apart at the joints and its body crashed into the pink river below.
Dark couldn’t flap his wings anymore. He had nowhere to land.
He fell out of the air and closed his eyes.
***
Norwyn and Frog danced around the chamber. Frog charged into him. “You’re a phony, Norwyn!” the river dragon said. “I was too afraid to stand up to ya. And I’m late. But I ain’t gonna be absent in this. I won’t let ya take him into Abstraction. It’s against everything he knows.”
The cylinder began to glow.
“You’re too late anyway,” Norwyn said. “The Abstraction is almost complete.”
Norwyn flew at Frog and knocked him backward behind the cylinder, but the river dragon’s claws went out and seized something. A fan of sparks erupted across the cylinder.
Frog held up a giant power cord in his hand and grinned. “Maybe’ve you’d’ve thought about protecting the power source,” he said.
“No!” Norwyn cried.
The cylinder powered down and the metal door slid open.
Fenroot’s body rolled out, headless and completely flattened.
Dark stumbled out, dazed and covered in blood. He fell to the floor, visibly in pain.
“Norwyn?” Dark cried, looking around in the smoky air. “It didn’t work. The poison is almost done.”
LVI
“Get back in the chamber,” Norwyn said.
“What?” Dark asked. “It’s over, my friend. I’m finished.” He glanced at Fenroot’s body satisfactorily. “I have my revenge. I do not fear death now.” He reached up and grabbed Norwyn. “You have been nothing but steadfast to me, and for that I thank you.”
“Get back in,” Norwyn said. “We will try it one more time. It malfunctioned.”
“If you call me a malfunction,” Frog said, standing.
“Frog unplugged the machine,” Norwyn said flatly.
“You imbecile! Why?” Dark shouted. Then he did a double-take. “Frog? What are you doing here?”
“It’s all a ruse, my lord,” Frog said. “I just wish I had had the guts to come here sooner. Forgive me for my cowardice.”
“Ruse?” Dark asked. “I don’t understand.”
Norwyn sprouted orbs from his tail. They bloomed knives, surrounding Dark and Frog.
Dark fell to his knees. His entire body was burning and he wanted to lie down and go to sleep.
“You don’t get to die,” Norwyn said. “Not yet.”
“Abstraction could have worked,” Dark said. “But it’s fate—”
“When’ll ya going to tell him what your real plans are, Norwyn?” Frog asked.
“This is the plan,” Norwyn said.
Dark sensed a shift in Norwyn. Something told him to proceed carefully. “And what is that, Norwyn?”
“The aquifer,” Norwyn said. “It’s time to run it dry.”
“Run it dry!” Dark exclaimed. “But our oath—”
“The oath is a thousand years old,” Norwyn said. “And it’s no longer relevant.”
“But what about saving the world?” Dark asked. “You told me it was possible. That there is still time.”
“You haven’t seen what I have. The aquifer I showed you—that was the best of them, not the worst. The rest are far lower and beyond saving. The only thing left to do is to find the rest of the aquifer points, and run them dry.”
“No,” Dark gasped. “No…”
“It was all lies,” Norwyn said, shaking his head. “All I had to do was appeal to your ego. The future also threw off my trail—after all, you could never verify that what I said was actually true. All I had to do was steer you in the direction of revenge, and you did the rest for me.”
“But when you asked me ‘how badly I wanted to die’—”
“It was a test. I needed to see how hell-bent you were. It was a way for me to check your temperature, make sure you wouldn’t deviate from your trajectory. If you had, I would have killed you.”
Dark gasped.
> “Step into the chamber,” Norwyn said. “You will ascend to Abstraction, and the city will bow down to you. The other dragons in Abstraction will call you their lord if that’s you want. And then, one by one, the remaining traditional dragons will flock to you to pay their tribute, and we will take their shares of the aquifer. Then you will die and the real work will begin as I destroy the world.”
“You’ve been the traitor all along,” Dark breathed.
“I’m not a traitor,” Norwyn said. “A thousand years ago, I laid my life down for you, and I meant it. I believed in what we were doing. I’m glad you got your revenge. You deserved it. But Fenroot screwed this world up more terribly than you can imagine. By the time elves got hold of magic and began mass-producing it, it was too late. I knew back then, and it is all the more clear now. The world is over, Dark. This existence is an egg. And when it cracks—when the world stops moving and the elves are all dead in their magical stupor and the traditional dragons die are dead in their caves, it will be we, the dragons in Abstraction, who survive. For we are no longer tied to this world. We are tied to the higher values of the ether—of Andor. Surely you saw a glimmer of it when you were in the Abstraction Chamber? No matter. We will emerge to rebuild this world. A world without magic. A world without elves. A world in our image.”
“Scandalous,” Frog said. “Just scandalous.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Dark said. “You’ve not only betrayed me—you’ve betrayed your entire race.”
“You betrayed our race,” Norwyn said. “You failed to see what everyone around you saw, and you paid the price for it. Now, we’re paying the price because of your failure.”
Dark didn’t know what to say. The words stung.
“You didn’t spend nine hundred years on the run for your life,” Norwyn said. “While you were asleep, there were times when I thought I would starve. I was hunted in the forests, driven out everywhere I went—with no friend, no companion, no consolation for serving you. Solitude was my reward. Too many of us dragons paid that price.”
Old Wicked (The Last Dragon Lord Book 3) Page 21