Celos lowered his sword and looked at Aleena. His eyes left hers and went to the surviving men from the mercenaries she had recruited. His lip twitched before he turned back and stepped onto a rock covered in gore. "Throw down your arms and Leander will show mercy. You will be allowed to live and to go home."
It took several moments before the first man closest to them raised his arm and let his sword fall from it. From there it was a chain reaction, with the men throwing down the weapons and dropping shields and helms.
"I don't believe it—we've done it," Durak said as he rushed over to them.
"Believe it," Aleena told him. "We had Leander's blessing."
Epilogue
Sarya looked up from where she struggled to climb the rock wall. The pathetic humans were worrisome insects. They destroyed and reproduced, eating and changing everything around them. Then they'd spread and form a new colony and do it over and over. They were a plague on the world even if they did unearth some amazing things.
She blinked against the shapes that swam in her vision and saw something dark against the sky. Was the fool throwing rocks at her? She hissed out a laugh that made her rasp and cough. She hadn't breathed fire like that in years and it left her throat raw and aching. She ignored it; she was almost there. A little more pain for an eternity of power! She could feel the energy below. It ran between her and her new body; she only needed the catalyst to begin the transfer, the girl, and the burst of pure untainted life from the warrior to make it complete.
Sarya realized that the dark shape hurtling towards her wasn't a rock; it was the warrior! The fool had thrown himself at her, like half of a doomed couple performing a lover's leap. He was making this easy on her: he'd be squashed like a bug when he hit, even if he did bounce off of her on the way down.
Something pulsed with light in front of him, drawing her cloudy gaze to the sword he held out in front of him. Was it glowing? The warrior streaked past her head in a blur but before she could register it, she felt he slam into her body. A great fire burst in her back and chest, making her rear up on her hind legs without even thinking about what letting go with her front legs would mean.
Sarya tumbled backwards, consumed by the agony inside. She flipped end over end, her tail striking the wall hard enough to crack the rock and send huge shards of broken rock tumbling to the floor below. She landed on her chest first but her head and neck slammed into the stone at the same time. She felt the popping of her aged and weakened bones, several of them bursting through her once magnificent skin.
Sarya wasn't dead yet. She could still kill the woman and finish it. She moved her head, looking for the corpse of the man. Had she landed on him? Her chest still burned inside worse than her throat ever had. She cast about with her senses, seeing with her magic and looking for his released spirit in her web of souls.
She was returned to her mundane senses by something that pulled at her. Everything was darker. Had she landed on the flames the wizards had lit? Such puny fires couldn't hurt her.
Whatever it was pulled at her again, yanking the flames in her chest. She coughed, spitting out fire that proved there really was a fire in her chest. She'd never seen such a thing before.
The warrior, Alto, he was alive! She struggled to move but failed. Everything was dark and cold. Everything except her chest. Her vision faded until nothing was left, and then nothing remained but the fire burning her. It consumed her, scorching her so thoroughly that she could only howl in voiceless agony.
The fire lifted free, bursting out of the hole in her back as the sword was finally yanked free. Sarya went with it, feeling it swirl around and within her as it carried her. She touched the warrior and felt him, and then he was gone and left behind. She'd glimpsed his life and his memories. Everything there was to know about the man she had seen in that brief instant.
Sarya came to an abrupt stop. The flames cooled and left her in peace. She tried to breathe, the first cool breath of air that didn't cause her body to ache. There was nothing. No breath and no air.
She realized she could see again, except the world had a reddish shade. She tried to blink, thinking it was blood from the fall, but nothing changed. She blinked again and realized nothing was happening; she wasn't blinking.
Her view had changed. Now she saw herself laying on the ground. She saw the warrior rise up from her back, his flimsy metal armor dented and in some places missing. He couldn't be alive, not after that fall! Humans were puny and fragile! Bags of blood and bones. Yet the warrior staggered free of her and turned to stare back at her, and then he turned and looked right at her. The real her. The new her.
He sheathed his sword at his side, and then turned in time for the maiden to crash into him and knock him down. On her body, no less! They were performing a filthy mating ritual on her body! She howled in silent rage.
Sarya wasn't dead. Far from it, she'd managed to achieve immortality. She'd live trapped inside the silver statue for eternity.
###
Afterword by the Author
Silver Dragon wraps up a storyline in my fantasy series, Blades of Leander. It's epic in as many ways as I could make it, but the story of Alto and his companions is far from finished. In fact there are other characters that have yet to be introduced. Not to mention some downright nasty villains that make Sarya look like a puppy that's lost all its baby teeth.
Reviews are always welcome and encouraged, they help make writing a reality for so many of us writers that are struggling to succeed. They also help encourage us to know where to go next when we sit down to write. I have ideas for the next Alto mini-series in mind but do my readers want to know what happens next as much as I want to tell them? Let me know!
To assist you in sharing your thoughts publicly or privately about the book you can leave a review where you purchased it or let me know directly. Visit my blog (http://booksbyjason.wordpress.com), my website (http://www.booksbyjason.com), my twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/booksbyjason or @booksbyjason), or look me up on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/booksbyjason). If that's too much, just send me an email at [email protected].
Thank you for reading and enjoying the book. The only promise in good conscience that I can make is that if you keep reading, I'll keep writing!
Other books by Jason Halstead
Child of Fate (Blades of Leander, book 1)
Victim of Fate (Blades of Leander, book 2)
Silver Dragon (Blades of Leander, book 3)
Blades of Leander (all 3 in 1)
Isle of the Ape (Order of the Dragon, book 1)
Voidhawk (Voidhawk, book 1)
Voidhawk – The Elder Race (Voidhawk, book 2)
Voidhawk – Redemption (Voidhawk, book 3)
Voidhawk – The White Lady (Voidhawk, book 4)
Voidhawk – Lost Soul (Voidhawk, book 5)
Wanted (Wanted, book 1)
Ice Princess (Wanted, book 2)
Bounty (Wanted, book 3)
Dark Earth (Dark Earth, book 1)
Devil’s Icebox (Dark Earth, book 2)
Soul Mates (Dark Earth, book 3)
Voices (a Dark Earth Book)
Bound (a Dark Earth Book)
The Lost Girls (The Lost Girls, book 1, a Dark Earth novel)
Traitor (The Lost Girls, book 2, a Dark Earth novel)
Wolfgirl (The Lost Girls, book 3, a Dark Earth novel)
Black Widow (The Lost Girls, book 4, a Dark Earth novel)
New Beginnings (Vitalis, part 1)
Vitalis Omnibus (Vitalis, book 1, parts 1 – 7)
Vitalis: Resurrection (Vitalis, book 2)
Vitalis: Provenance (Vitalis, book 3)
Forbidden Love (Homeland, book 1)
Human Nature
Sex Sells
this book with friends
Silver Dragon Page 32