by Ben Hale
“Don’t worry, pet,” she said. “I’ll slow down for you.”
He laughed and sprinted away. Dodging buildings and leaping to roofs, he raced through the city to one of the spires. Although his pace was fast, he kept his senses focused on his surroundings, and listening for the city’s guardian.
He reached the spires and paused to examine them. Six of the spires were placed in a circle with a seventh at the center, its height exceeding the others. Jack scanned the darkness for the dragon and then darted to the center spire, slowing to circle the exterior. To his surprise it lacked doors or windows, the surface as smooth as glass. Aranis fell into step beside him and gestured to one of the other spires.
“Care to choose another?”
“No,” Jack said.
He aimed his shadowhook up the wall and sent the thread of darkness as high as it would go. He twisted his body and raced up the wall, sprinting to the end of the shadowhook. When he reached the apex he released and fired again, his momentum slowing until the thread of shadow caught in the gloom above.
Movement caught his eye and he glanced at Aranis. Hands from her cloak rose and caught the wall, fusing to the shadow and scaling the wall for her. She smirked at him.
“Don’t get too tired,” she said. “You might need your strength later.”
He grinned and accelerated, and together they scaled the exterior of the towering spire. Higher and higher they climbed and Jack looked back at the receding ground. They were hundreds of feet above the city but the spire continued to reach for the heavens. They passed the tops of the lower spires and still they climbed, ascending beyond the taller ones until finally the summit came into view. Rising to a point, the spire resembled a spear that pierced the night sky. Jack scaled to the top and grasped the point, breathing hard. Aranis joined him, also out of breath from the ascent.
“And why did we come up here?” she panted.
“For the view,” Jack said.
She muttered under breath. “What do you expect to find?”
“I’m not sure,” Jack said. “But I wanted to see the breadth of the city.”
The predawn glow had begun to light the horizon, and as it brightened Jack examined the Shattered Isle. From his vantage point he realized the city was actually rather small, its streets sufficient only for a few thousand to live. The seven spires made the city appear much larger.
As the light continued to brighten he scanned the city, searching for anything that resembled a vault. The city appeared to be separated into three distinct sections. The outmost ring contained smaller structures and homes. He’d passed through the inner ring on his way to the spires, and Jack recalled that they resembled shops.
The center of the city contained the seven spires, including the broken base of the southernmost spire. Jack had chosen to climb the one at the very heart of the city. He frowned, his gaze falling to the spire at his feet.
The entire city pointed to the center spire, suggesting that anything of value would be contained inside. But on the ascent he had not spotted any place of ingress. Perhaps the entrance lay beneath the ground? He shook his head, dismissing that idea. He’d seen nothing in the city that descended beneath the earth.
“Jack?” she asked in a rising tone.
“Do you see the dragon?” he asked, casting about for movement.
“See for yourself,” she said, gesturing to the eastern spire.
He turned to find Aranis leaning out, her gaze on the spire nearby. The sun had yet to breach the horizon but the light was sufficient for him to see a bump on the side of the spire that had been absent before.
He frowned and peered into the gloom, surprised to see the bump was growing. Swelling and stretching against the side of the spire, the protrusion moved like liquid rather than stone. It stretched to the side, turning into wings, a tapered body, and an arrowlike head. The liquid condensed and the body hardened, the claws stretching away from the spire. In spite of himself, Jack’s gut tightened with fear as he watched the dragon coalesce into shape.
Movement shifted in his peripheral vision and Jack’s eyes flicked to a different spire. He sucked in his breath as he spotted the second dragon taking shape. At the top of the center spire Jack twisted, spotting the other dragons bound to the spires.
“The island doesn’t contain a dragon,” Aranis breathed.
Jack met her gaze and completed the thought. “It contains a nest.”
Chapter 31: The Vault Guardian
“How many do you see?” Jack asked.
“Five,” Aranis replied, her voice tense.
Jack looked down at the great dragons clinging to the spires, their bodies wrapped around them. Wings of silver curved about the spires, the material as flawless as the structures they clung to. Their bodies reflected a distinctly metallic sheen. Then Jack looked down—and spotted another dragon clinging to the spire they stood on.
“Make that six,” Jack said, easing out of its view.
Aranis followed his gaze and then retreated with him to the peak of the spire. Surrounded by six dragon constructs, his gaze was drawn to the seventh spire, the broken one. Aranis noticed it as well.
“The spires are the source of magic for the beasts,” she whispered.
“And someone destroyed one,” Jack said.
“Why are they coming out now?” Aranis whispered.
Jack shook his head, his gaze still on the beast below them. The huge head was less than fifty feet from the apex, and Jack examined the tapered skull with its thousands of needlelike teeth. Its eyes were closed. The strange dragon seemed not to breathe, its body as still as the spire it used as a bed.
The proximity allowed Jack to see red veins just beneath its skin. The lines were faint, but pulsed with power. The air around it radiated with heat, indicating the construct was one of fire and steel rather than lightning.
“I’ve never seen a machine so complex,” Aranis said.
“The dwarves would like it,” Jack said.
Aranis snorted a laugh and whispered, “They would be killed trying to take it apart.”
“I’m sure some have been,” Jack said, gesturing to the ring of broken ships that lined the beachfront of the island, some of which were distinctly dwarven.
Light touched the horizon, and the spires seemed to suck in the glow, growing brighter by the second and filling the city with light. Aranis leaned back from the drop and turned to Jack.
“Time to go.”
Jack leaned out for one last peek at the beast. “We’d better hurry.”
“Why?”
He watched the eyes snap open and felt a chill as they focused on him. Multifaceted and containing various shades of red and orange, the eyes reflected his expression. He turned and stepped to the edge, diving off.
“Because it just woke up,” Jack shouted.
He plummeted down the side of the spire with Aranis in his wake. The dragon construct released an unholy growl and surged to the top of the spire, wrapping its claws around the top and angling its head down at them.
The growl was answered by another construct, and then another. In seconds the entire nest had woken, and their collective growls sent a shudder throughout the city. Then they leapt into the air.
Jack cast his shadowhook at the spire and yanked against the rope, launching himself to the side as the first dragon dove for him. Aranis went in the opposite direction, using her cloak to shift directions. She threw her arms wide and the cloak fanned out, allowing her to glide between the spires.
Jack cast his shadowhook again, splitting the gap between two spires and wrapping around to the right. Then he released his magic and fell again. Wind shrieked in his ears as he accelerated and his cloak streamed out behind him. A rumble of warning came from behind and he cast his shadowhook at a nearby spire—but a dragon construct exploded into view.
Jack’s body tumbled along the creature’s back and bounced off the wing. He grunted in pain as he slammed into the hard surface of the spire and released his sh
adowhook, plummeting again toward the street below.
Dragons flapped their wings above him, their growls shredding the air as they sought the intruders. He caught the shadow on the wall and held on, sliding down the spire at shocking speed. At the last second he tightened his grip and slowed, landing hard in the street. He rolled to absorb the impact and sprinted away.
A dragon came down in front of him, its jaws opening to unleash a stream of fire. Jack dodged into a broken house but the dragon turned its breath upon him, the flames filling the house and bursting through the windows. Jack leapt through the opposite window and came up running in another street.
The dragon in his wake growled and pounced upon the roof, tearing it apart as it sought for Jack inside. Before it spotted him, he leapt to a building and sprinted alongside it, using the eave of the roof to block the dragon’s view.
A second dragon came down in front of him, the impact nearly knocking him from his feet. He lunged through a window, sprinting back to the first street as he sought for an escape. Then he spotted Aranis. The dark elf raced along a rooftop before diving from view, a trio of dragons streaking toward her.
Jack veered toward Aranis, crossing the street and sprinting through a house. Dodging down an alley, he used an adjoining alley to reach her. He slid to a stop at the corner and spotted Aranis racing down the street—as a fourth dragon dived into her path, cutting her off.
Trapped, she slid to a stop and spun, launching a trio of daggers into the dragon’s face. One bounced off, while another sank into the dragon’s eye. The third managed to pierce the flesh and sink all the way to the hilt. The dragon released a bellowing roar and leaned down. Air hissed and built into a shrieking wail—and flames burst from the construct’s maw, blasting a current of fire at the dark elf.
Jack cast his shadowhook on the dark elf and it fused to her cloak. Then he leaned back and heaved her across the gap, yanking her out of the way as the fire engulfed the street, scorching the white material with a feathering of dust. Jack caught Aranis in his arms.
“Hello, pet,” Jack said with a smile.
She scowled at his words and twisted out of his grip. They raced down the alley, dodging into a building. Behind them, the fire faded to reveal an empty street, and the dragons leapt about like enraged cats, searching for them. Jack watched them from the darkness within a house, but the dragons did not spot them. Growling in fury, they moved on and Jack leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
“That was more fun than I thought,” he said with a grin.
“They are faster than dragons,” Aranis said.
“They’re constructs,” Jack said, sliding to the floor. “But they are worse than the female construct I fought in the Vault of the Eternals.”
Aranis snorted “Why is it always women with you?”
Jack grinned. “Captain Erix will keep his men inside until the dragons calm down. Looks like we’re stuck here.”
She sank into a seat across from him. For several moments they stared at each other, and Jack wondered again about her past. On impulse he decided to voice his thoughts and gestured to her.
“How many have you killed?”
She stared at him and then shrugged. “Over a thousand.”
“How many have you failed to kill?”
“You.”
Jack chuckled dryly. “Is that frustrating?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t come to the surface for the bounty.”
She remained silent, confirming his guess. Then she asked, “Do you choose what you steal?”
“I do now,” he replied. “But not when I first became a thief.”
She looked away. “Every one of my targets was chosen by another.”
“You’re a weapon,” Jack said.
She peeled back her cowl and pointed to her cheek, to a small tattoo of a dagger embedded into a heart. “This was given to me when I left the Pit,” she said. “If I failed to eliminate a target, my master would activate his, and kill me. Then I was sent to murder an infant child, but instead I killed my master.”
“When?”
She stared at him and then shrugged. “Right before I came to the surface.”
Pain and rage reflected in her dark eyes, and Jack realized why she looked different than Gallow. Aranis hadn’t killed out of choice, and ultimately she’d killed her master rather than continue being his pawn. She’d escaped to the surface and latched onto Jack, most likely because he represented what she’d never known, freedom.
“Until now you have killed for another,” Jack said. “But now you have a choice. Will you be like Gallow and kill for pleasure? Or Inna and kill for justice?”
Aranis didn’t respond, and after a moment she returned her cowl over her face. Jack let conversation lapse and stood, moving to a window. In the distance he could see the hunting constructs. After several minutes Aranis joined him, all trace of her vulnerability gone.
“Did you see the smallest dragon?” she asked.
Jack shook his head. “They looked the same size to me.”
“It stayed behind the others,” Aranis said. “When the others attacked us it was to protect the smallest of their number.”
Jack peeking out at the rampaging dragons. Although they all looked similar, he spotted one that was indeed smaller than its companions.
“Why would the pack protect one?” Jack asked.
Aranis tossed him a spyglass. Jack recognized it as the personal spyglass of Captain Erix, and threw her a questioning look. The dark elf shrugged.
“I’m an assassin,” she said. “Doesn’t mean I’m not a thief.”
Jack stifled a laugh and used the spyglass to examine the dragons. They rushed about, occasionally pulling a roof off and tossing it aside. Then he spotted the smallest of the dragons up on the mountain. It paced back and forth and snarled, its features more dynamic than the others.
It roared, the sound deeper than the others, more grating. The threads of power beneath its skin pulsed and fire exploded on its back. The flames cascaded behind it before it leapt into the air, winging for the waterfront.
“Is it the queen?” Aranis asked.
“Perhaps,” Jack said. “They keep looking its way.”
“But why is it smaller?” Aranis asked.
Jack returned to his examination of the small dragon. He retreated into the gloom as one of the dragons soared above, dropping into the adjacent street to begin the search anew. Jack and Aranis waited for it to pass on before returning to the window.
The sun continued to rise, reflecting off the spires and flooding the city with light. Jack shielded his eyes from the glow and continued to watch the dragons. Shortly after, the queen hissed and the others obeyed the order. They leapt to the spires and wrapped about them, their hides glowing with power as they returned to their former position. A trio of the constructs glided about the city, their pattern suggesting a patrol.
“You think one of them brought us here?” Aranis asked.
“Has to be.”
“But why?” she asked. “Why not sink us when we were on the ship?”
Jack tried to puzzle out the mystery, his eyes drawn to the small dragon. The construct clung to the spire in the center, strategically the most guarded from the others. But why? The entire city seemed empty, devoid of any sign of life. But if the spires were the lairs of the dragons, where was the Mind Vault?
He dropped his gaze to the city, considering where they had searched and where it might be. Nothing was out of place, and the only thing the dragons protected was the smallest of their number . . .
His eyes snapped to the small dragon and he used the spyglass to examine it anew. The more he looked the more he noticed what set it apart. The others were more liquid, with more fire in their bodies. The one in the center seemed more solid, with sharp protrusions extending at uniform locations.
Was it possible?
He shifted to watch the others, noting their posture and propensity to look t
o the small dragon—in perfect unison, as if the small dragon was the mind of all of them. A smile spread on Jack’s face as he realized the truth. The dragons didn’t protect it because it was the queen. They protected it because they were part of it. The smallest dragon didn’t guard the Mind Vault.
It was the Mind Vault.
Chapter 32: A Daring Plan
Jack and Aranis tried several times to escape their hiding place, but each time they were nearly spotted. Resigned to waiting, they stayed until darkness fell and all but one dragon returned to the spires. Then they slipped into the eerily silent streets of the city and made their way back to Erix and his crew. The moment they stepped through the door, Erix and Inna demanded answers. Jack briefly shared the tale and his suspicions, and when he finished the captain shook his head.
“If what you say is true,” he said. “Why would they force us to come to the island? Why not just destroy us?”
“Perhaps guarding the island is not their only function,” Sirani mused, her gaze on the dragon of air she was crafting.
“What does that mean?” Inna asked.
“The ancient race is a mystery because they did not want to be seen,” she said, “The constructs do not just protect the island, they protect the region.”
Inna nodded at that. “Perhaps they bring nearby visitors to their masters.”
“But there are no masters to tell them we are friend or foe,” Erix said.
“Which is why they are hunting us,” Aranis said.
“So they serve the same functions they did thousands of years ago?” Jack considered the ramifications of that idea. “Perhaps the Mind Vault is the only thing left that controls them.”
“If that’s true,” Inna said, “they will never let us escape.”
“That explains why the other ships are pointed outward,” Erix said. “They fought the dragons in the city until they realized it was empty, but when they fled the dragons tore them asunder.”
“We know what they do,” Rezko said, joining them. “What do we do?”
“We can’t fight and we can’t flee,” Erix said. “We need a third option.”