by Sam Ferguson
Kyra’s eyes went wide. “Is Leatherback all right?”
Njar nodded, limping into the clearing and leaning upon his staff. “I believe he is, but I haven’t seen him since he returned to the aspen grove.”
Kyra had already suspected, but now the illusion was clear to her. “Is Njar dead?” she asked pointedly.
Njar laughed heartily and shook his head. The form turned into that of a tall man with fangs and long, braided silver hair kept neatly with red bows. “No, he is not dead, though he may wish he were,” Severin answered. “You can feel the dagger calling to you, can’t you?”
Kyra looked to the weapon and gave a slight nod. She couldn’t deny that she felt its power, and longed to have it for herself.
“If you are wondering why your mother could not feel it, it is because you have the blood of a vampire running through your veins, and she does not.”
Kyra felt the rage swell up inside her at the mention of her mother. “You killed her,” she hissed.
“A mortal’s life is never a long affair, though it need not be the case with you.”
“I will never join you,” Kyra said.
Severin laughed. “No, I hadn’t expected you would, but just to be clear, I never wanted you to join me. You might make a good servant, but honestly your actions of the last year have proven you to be a little too free-spirited.”
“How did you find me?” Kyra asked. “You must have been close by to come so soon after the beacon lit the sky.”
Severin pointed to the gash in her arm. “I can smell your blood from a very long way away. It is the same way that wraith found you in your dragon’s nest.” The vampire looked up to the sky then as a great shadow crossed over the moon. “Ah, your dragon has come to rescue you.”
Kyra didn’t look up. She knew that Leatherback was not here. It was only an illusion she had cast in the hopes of gaining the upper hand with a distraction.
A great and terrible roar thundered through the air and flames lit up the sky.
Severin laughed and waved his hand. The shadow over the clearing disappeared. “Please, don’t waste your time with illusions for my sake. I am far beyond your skill.” He smiled at her, his evil fangs shining in the night. “You should ask that boyfriend of yours what my magic is like,” Severin said.
“Boyfriend?” Kyra echoed.
Severin chuckled softly and stepped closer to her. “Oh, that’s right, you don’t know that Kathair Lepkin has feelings for you. Sorry, did I spoil the surprise?”
“How do you know of him?”
“I may have met him and his dragon slayer tutors, though I must say they turned out to be far less effectual than I had hoped. I led them all straight to your precious Leatherback, but they couldn’t even bring him down. Pity, really, because I will not make his death a quick one.”
“Let him go, and I will give you the dagger,” Kyra said. “All I want is peace. Let us go and we will not trouble you anymore.”
Severin laughed and shook his head. “I will have the dagger anyway. You have nothing of value to trade with me.”
Kyra knew she had to make her move. The vampire was walking toward her, and she would be no more of a match for his powers than she was for Cyrus. She raised the dagger into the air and then plunged it down to the altar.
“Kung ger’ah sik’en du heth!” she shouted. The dagger glowed with an ethereal silver color as it tore through the stone and the altar split apart. A great thunder rumbled through the mountain and the very ground shook and groaned in protest.
A moment later, something sharp tore through her right shoulder and she was flung back from the altar to land ten yards away on the ground. She moaned in agony as smoke and blood issued out from her nearly severed arm.
“You should have brought your dragon,” Severin hissed.
Kyra tried to stand, but screamed in pain with any movement as it only worsened the pain in her arm.
“What were you thinking, facing off against a vampire alone?”
Severin stepped toward the stubby core of the altar and reached for the dagger. His hands clasped around the hilt and the rubies began to glow bright and hot.
“I can feel its power!” Severin shouted. “With this, I shall have dominion over all of—”
The remainder of the altar turned black as the void then, and a silvery shimmer glistened across it. Severin looked down and tried to pull the dagger free, but found that not only was it lodged in the stone, but he was stuck to it.
“What is happening?” Severin asked as his knees went weak and he fell in front of the dagger.
A great, black and silver line appeared in the air near the altar, slicing a vertical gash in the very fabric of space. Thunder rumbled all around and lightning shot out as bony fingers reached out from inside the line and pressed it open into a widening portal.
“What is this?” Severin shouted.
Kyra smiled. The plan had worked. “I had to give the dagger some of my energy,” she said through her pain. Severin turned and looked at her incredulously. “That was the only way I could open the rift.”
“The rift?” Severin repeated.
The portal opened wide enough for a skeletal figure to step through. He was wearing black, tattered robes, and had glowing yellow eyes shining from his skull.
“You have eluded me for a long time, Severin,” the figure said.
“Khefir,” Severin whispered. “You can’t be here,” he protested. “You were banished from the Middle Kingdom!”
The skeleton laughed aloud, its loose jaw clicking and clacking with each movement. “Archmage Durit may have found a way to keep me from this land, but you have unwittingly brought me back.”
Severin shook his head and tried again to pull himself free from the dagger. “No, it isn’t possible!”
Khefir turned and pointed to Kyra.
She watched as a pale yellow spark lifted from the bony finger and floated over to land in her ghastly wound. She cried out in pain as the stinging magic repaired her arm, growing new tissue and sealing the skin over it.
“Kyra Dimwater, you have come through with your end of the bargain, and now I shall come through with mine,” Khefir said.
“You made a deal with a devil?” Severin spat.
Kyra pushed up from the ground and walked over to the vampire. “This altar was built by my ancestors. You see, the Dimwater line has only been practicing noble magic for a few generations. Before that, we were a line of necromancers and dark sorcerers, and we went by the name Noctumbra. When we changed our ways, we built this altar over that of our ancestors. It is one of the last few vestiges of dark magic in the Middle Kingdom. The spell I cast took some of my energy, and then plunged it through the newer altar and down to the ancient one, where it could mix with the underworld and invite Khefir back to this plane in the Middle Kingdom.”
Severin held his mouth open in terror, shaking violently.
“When you seized the dagger, it drained some of your power as well, giving the magic an additional boost.”
Khefir reached out with a bony hand and gripped the back of Severin’s neck. “Part of the deal was that I would get your undead soul. There shall be no more escaping death for you.”
“What?! No!”
A black mist formed around Severin’s form and a great wind whirled around them. Kyra couldn’t see what was happening, but she heard Severin’s tormented screams. Then, the mist vanished and a jumble of bones fell into a heap where Severin had once been. In Khefir’s hand was a chain made of gold. The fiery links extended out like a leash, and wrapped around the spirit form of a man that looked much like Severin had in his physical form.
“Khallak!” Khefir called out.
A trio of large, red-skinned orcs came out from the portal and knelt before Khefir.
“Take Severin down to the lower levels of Hammenfein. I shall meet up with him shortly, and then he shall begin to have a taste of his everlasting torment for his crimes in this world.”
Khefir then took a few steps toward Kyra and gestured toward the dagger with a bony index finger. “As per our agreement, the dagger is yours. Now that I may come to the Middle Kingdom and collect the souls of the wicked once more, you have made my work much easier.”
“Remember what you owe me,” Kyra said proudly.
Khefir nodded. “I will not allow Hatmul entry into the Middle Kingdom,” he promised with a nod. “While I am permitted to collect the wicked souls, he would torment the living, and I agree that he should not be allowed to do so. Man torments himself enough as it is.”
“And…” Kyra pressed.
Khefir laughed, but it was not the menacing sound he had emitted while laughing at Severin. “I have prepared a place for your friend, Leatherback. I will protect him from Hatmul, as my brother would surely enslave him, but I have a dominion of Hammenfein where Leatherback can aid my orc generals in fighting demons that do not yield to the order of Terramyr.”
“Well then, I suppose for a deal with a devil, this is likely as good as it could have gone,” she said as she put her hand out to shake Khefir’s.
“You could have died,” Khefir pointed out. “It was very foolish to tempt the vampire as you did.” Khefir pointed to her newly-healed shoulder. “He could have killed you if his aim had been a bit better—or”
“Or if my ward had been a bit weaker,” Kyra corrected.
“Nevertheless, as soon as he touched the dagger, I would have had my prize.”
“And I still would have had mine as well,” Kyra said truthfully. “You are bound to your promise whether I am alive or dead.”
Khefir nodded. “You were willing to sacrifice much for your friend, and for that, I do hope you can destroy the blight that afflicts the Middle Kingdom. When you have done so, come back to this spot and I shall return your friend to you.”
Kyra nodded with a smile.
“One more thing,” Khefir said as he started away for the portal. “I have collected millions of souls since the first Great War. I know the wicked from the good. You may have vampire blood in your body, but your heart is as pure as they come on this world. Fare well, young sorceress, and take comfort that if you continue as you are now, despite what others may fear in you, I shall not come to collect your soul when your life reaches its end.”
Kyra smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek. It was ironic that priests feared her while one of the rulers of Hammenfein so revered her, but the words were good to hear nonetheless.
She watched the large god disappear back through his black portal and then she took the dagger in hand. Now, she had to find Leatherback.
Chapter 20
Kyra managed to reach the coastline by early morning. She didn’t have a boat, but she knew how to find Leatherback’s mountain on an island in the sea. She traveled by way of a magical platform she summoned using one of the spells in the book her mother had given her. It was not as fast as flying through the air, but it was much faster than any boat she might have been able to pilot by herself.
She reached the island by late afternoon.
She climbed up the eastern slope and then navigated her way around the west face of the slope where Leatherback’s mine was. To her dismay, the dragon was not there.
To pass the time, she gathered fruits and cooked some fish from the mountain stream. She built a fire and waited long into the night, but Leatherback didn’t come.
She had no way of finding Viverandon, and she didn’t want to risk being caught at the aspen grove, so she waited on Leatherback’s island. She stayed there, making do with what food she could find for three days before she heard the familiar beats of Leatherback’s wings.
The shadow he cast over the mountainside was a welcome sight as well, filling her with joy. She called out to him loudly, waving her arms.
Leatherback dropped down, a smile on his face.
“I was looking for you,” he said. “I searched our pond, but you were not there. I couldn’t go to the school either.”
Kyra frowned. “Well, why didn’t you have Njar use the Pools of Fate to find me?”
“Njar is missing, and the Pools of Fate no longer work, they are cursed.”
“Cursed?” Kyra repeated.
Leatherback nodded. “I have been looking for him as well, but I can’t find him.”
Kyra took it all in. This was supposed to be a happy victory. She had not expected to be caught off guard by something like this. “Does anyone know where Njar went?”
Leatherback shook his head. “He was with me last, and then he went to Viverandon. There was another satyr that was killed underneath Nonac, the great tree that guards the way into Viverandon. The others fear that Njar is dead.”
Kyra felt a pit form in her stomach. She had thought that Severin was lying when he had spoken of Njar. Now she realized how wrong she had been to assume that. If the Pools of Fate were now cursed, and Njar was missing, then he was either killed by Severin, or imprisoned somewhere.
“Why have you come here?” Leatherback asked, pulling her from her thoughts.
Kyra produced the dagger. “Severin the vampire is dead.”
Leatherback roared and shot fire into the sky as he jumped up and whirled around happily. “When can we make the journey north?”
Kyra shook her head. “I can’t make that journey yet. I still have to find the right spells to help us get over the mountains.”
Leatherback frowned. “I have to go. Without the Pools of Fate, I have no protection.”
Kyra shook her head and smiled softly as she reached out and stroked Leatherback’s snout. “Actually, there is a place where you will be safe.” She raised the dagger up for him to see it. “You can go there while I train harder and prepare for our journey to the north.”
“Where will I be?” Leatherback asked.
“It is a place between Iverglendar and Hammenfein,” she replied. “But, Nagar’s Blight cannot reach you there.”
“Will it be safe?” he asked, suddenly sounding much smaller than he really was.
Kyra nodded. “I made an arrangement that will keep you safe. There will be others with you, orcs that are sworn to fight for Khefir in the afterlife. They fight against demons and other things in Iverglendar and some planes of Hammenfein.”
“Dragons?” Leatherback asked.
Kyra shook her head. “No, the demons are kind of like the wylkins and garunda beasts we have already fought. There shouldn’t be anything down there that will give you any trouble, especially with an army of orcs beside you.”
“I don’t like orcs,” Leatherback snorted.
Kyra laughed. “You haven’t met any orcs,” she said.
“Will I be able to fly and see the sky?”
Kyra frowned. “You can fly, but the sky there is red and filled with thick clouds. There is light, but it is not the same as here.”
Leatherback snorted and a puff of smoke issued out from his nose. “You will come for me soon?”
“As soon as I am able to travel to the north with you, I will come.”
Leatherback nodded. “Will you come with me now?”
Kyra shook her head. “There some more things I must do here. Lepkin and Njar both need my help, I think. I will find them, and I will continue to train. I will come to you as soon as I can, I promise.”
“I would help them too,” Leatherback said.
“It is not safe for you to stay on this plane,” Kyra said softly.
The dragon nodded and then moved in close to nuzzle her with his snout. “Before I go, will you tell me the story of the Moon Dragon one more time?”
Kyra smiled and threw her arms around Leatherback’s snout and let a couple of tears fall onto her friend as she leaned in for the best hug she could manage.
“There is always time for one more story, my dragon-friend,” she said.
About the Author
Sam Ferguson is a fairly average guy.
That’s it.
No, really, that’s it.
Oh- you are actually reading this?
Well… the truth is that Sam is a very lucky guy. He juggles work in such a way that he makes sure to spend enough time with his loving wife and five sons. He is blessed to be writing full time now. In his spare time he is an avid powerlifter, and competes from time to time.
He spent nearly five years serving as a U.S. Diplomat and absolutely loved the experience, but decided to move back home. Outside of the U.S. he has lived in Latvia, Hungary, and Armenia. He speaks Russian, Hungarian, and Armenian. (He used to speak some Latvian too, but he has no one to practice with anymore…)
He has a large, happy dog.
He plays the Elder Scrolls series.
His favorite superhero is Wolverine, but Batman is a close second.
If the kids go to bed at a reasonable hour, he will cuddle up with his wife to watch Scrubs reruns, the Big Bang Theory, Castle, and Burn Notice.
See, really just an average guy after all.
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About Terramyr
This book is a story from the world of Terramyr, a world which is part of a grand fantasy universe.* The world of Terramyr is rich in stories of adventure and magic, where struggles of the small and mighty alike are worthy of being told. Each story reflects a different point in time where the course of Terramyr’s history is affected; all paths leading to a moment when the life of Terramyr will be weighed in the cosmic balance.