by Aaron Crash
Rhee flung the chakram, and it went spinning into the chest of the guard near her. His eyes crossed, and his tongue burst from his mouth. Paralyzed, he went down first on his front legs, then his back, and he fell on his side with a thunk.
Rhee danced over and plucked the throwing disc off the ground. She spun it backhand, and it took down another victim. Her aim was perfect.
I landed at the foot of Dryx’s table. She struggled weakly against her bonds.
I was right in the middle of the surprised womb sorceresses. I whipped my tail into the face of a giant, and she went down, clutching at her broken nose. “Agnaat injit!” My scales thickened in a wave of heat that made Dryx wince. She might get a little toasted, but she wouldn’t die.
“Ksaat injit!” I conjured up a hunk of rock and threw it at another sorceress as an ice spear shattered off my thickened scales. With my DarkArmor, I was bulkier. I couldn’t fly, but I could lumber about. I backhanded a sorceress and she went down. My tail swept the legs out from under another, and I stomped on her arm with a big scaly foot. I snapped that one in two.
I plucked an Agni lantern off a nearby table. I was going to try my new Enchant spell. “Agnaat injit.” I accessed the fire and turned it from living flame into potential energy. I wanted to make a concussion bomb, something to disable the centaurs. I wasn’t sure if my flash-bang lantern would work, but I hurtled it anyway at three centaurs racing toward Rhee and Figg with spears.
The lantern hit behind them. It exploded and flung the centaurs forward, knocking them off their hooves. I didn’t receive a dose of shakti, so they were just stunned, not dead. All of the centaurs were taken care of, some unconscious, some groaning. One had ice hoof cuffs binding all four of his legs. That was thanks to Figg’s Vanka magic.
I hauled up one of the giant women I’d smacked down. I shook her at Dryx. “What’s wrong with her? What did you do to her?”
The sorceress was a big woman, but older, with a wattle on her neck and bone-white hair. She had pale blue eyes full of hate. Blood oozed from her broken nose and dripped on her robes. “I don’t need to tell you a thing.”
Rhee walked over and drew her sword. “Release our friend. And we’ll be taking these other angel people with us.”
“You can’t,” the old giantess said in a croak. “If you remove them from their Dvey tank, and if they’re still alive, they’ll claw your eyes out. We’ve had trouble controlling them even when they are viable.”
“Are there other factories doing experiments on the Jataksha?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, this womb was for the sky demons. Other Lore Factories do different things.”
My summoner marched up in full rage mode. “You vile witches. You created those winged devils, the Gurgaloids, didn’t you? You twisted the Jataksha and made them into those horrors.”
The old giantess straightened. “Madam, you are mistaken. We are trying to engineer an army of winged warriors to fight them. The Jataksha kept withering or dying. That and we had several unfortunate incidents.”
I saw one unfortunate incident. One of the winged men in the goo had his heart, lungs, and stomach floating on the outside of his body. I was pretty sure you wanted that stuff on the inside.
Another Jataksha had wings growing out of her skull, little chicken wings, and her real wings were nothing but bone.
They must’ve taken a volunteer because one of the chambers held a Pegasus-like centaur, or would that be a pegataur? Either way, one wing was bigger than the other. Feathers had grown out of the horse man’s eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s hard to fly when you have feathers in your eyes.
I won’t go into all the monstrosities, but it was clear that their experiments weren’t going well.
Figg bashed another sorceress, who was trying to get up. She sank back down, bleeding. “We should murder you all. The Jataksha are people. You were doing experiments on innocent people.”
The old sorceress shrieked, “What of the Wynnym that the Gurgaloids have killed in our city? What about the innocents who have been slaughtered? Yes, we regret doing this, but we had no choice! Our flight is limited. We had to take the fight to them in the sky!”
Rhee freed Dryx and helped the sky warrior off the table. They limped toward the back door, the same door we’d come through. Broom should be down there.
The old sorceress gazed at me, finally understanding what she was seeing. “You. You’re not human. And you’re not Jataksha. What are you?”
I opened my mouth and showed her my fangs. “I’m a dragon angel, a righteous warrior of light and hope. I’ll take care of your Gurgaloid problem. But this place? The Lore Factory is over for good. Fuck Dvey. And fuck you.”
I let her go, thinking to leave her alive.
Figg had other ideas. She grabbed hold of that central arm, still sparking, and rammed it into the chest of the giantess. It parted her clothes, and her flesh swirled around the electricity, sucking off most of her chest and revealing bone.
That was probably the right decision. Broom wasn’t going to be thrilled about it, though.
I took off flying. I soared over and picked up a spear off the ground. I then smashed through a chamber. Green ooze splashed everywhere, and a withered Jataksha slithered onto the floor. I knocked over chamber after chamber, to see if any of the winged people were still alive, but they weren’t, especially the ones with the organs outside their bodies. The pegataur also wasn’t viable.
I smashed all the tanks. Then I slammed the spear into the cogs on the right side of the room. On the left side, I drew stone from the floor and flung it into the gears. On both sides, the machinery began to unravel.
The Wynnym men and women were limping toward the far door because the whole place was grinding to a stop.
Figg ran for the doorway we’d come in, but she wasn’t going to make it. A cog came tearing out of the wall, rolling like a wagon wheel. A piston exploded from the pressure filling the room with mist. I flew over and got my hands under Figg’s armpits. I picked her ass up and we sailed to the door. She went stumbling through. I landed, tucked my wings, and rolled out, but I hit her anyway. We both went careening down the steps as the room behind us exploded.
Up together, we hurried down the hallway and back into the deserted mine. The roaring behind us didn’t stop. If there was a vein of coal there, it could’ve caught fire. Underground coal fires were a thing. I think one was still burning in Helper, Utah, back on Earth.
Dryx shoved Rhee away. She whirled on us. “I didn’t need your help! I could’ve gotten free on my own! I am weary of you saving me again and again! I am Lalindryx Nagina Pjolin, Her Ascended Majesty, a sky warrior of Al-Mawkwa-Takka, of the Pjolin Wassi.”
“Nagina.” Rhee would never not laugh at that.
Dryx was all sorts of upset and indignant. She was also the color of college-ruled notebook paper. Several feathers fell off her withered wings to float to the floor.
She about joined them, but I caught her in my scaly arms.
Then I noticed we were missing someone. “Where’s Broom?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
WE MOVED AWAY FROM the now burning Lore Factory and walked back through the twisting corridors and mineshafts. At a juncture, we stopped, with four different directions for us to go. I was pretty sure we needed to go straight.
Figg was still fuming. “I love my village, but I would never take people and experiment on them. We have to end the Gurgaloids. We have to destroy them like we destroyed the Kankar. If the Wynnym didn’t create them, then Dvey must have.”
Rhee was rolling herself a bidi. “Those stone-ass winged things are tough. Can’t we just get the brand and get on back to Foulwater and kill fin lickers? I like killing fin lickers. Or what did Dryx call them? Oh, yeah, something like Aquaterrans.”
“Aquaterrebs,” Figg said. “I’ve heard that term before. When I was at my school in Khambatta. But where is Broom?”
The pirate elf shrugged, took a drag, and th
en gave the bidi to Figg. “Don’t know. I came out here with Feathers, and she wasn’t around. I called out. Nothing. I did hear something answer me. It was more of a groan. Didn’t Broom say these halls were haunted?”
Then, from out of the rocky corridor to our left, we heard a spectral voice that might have come right out of a VR horror game.
“A ghost that ate people,” I affirmed.
Rhee’s face darkened. “Could it be that Broom was eaten?” She raised her voice. “Broom?”
I set Dryx onto the ground. I couldn’t help but growl. “We need to see. I don’t think she would’ve left us.”
“Or maybe she would,” Figg whispered. “She was betraying her people. This is the town where she grew up.”
Rhee had anger in her eyes. “No. These fucking people treated Broom like shit. You heard her story. She has to pretend to be tough. She has to lie to us, to herself, because her truth is so fucked.” Rhee drew her sword and her dirk. “I’m going to go find that ghost and kill it. If it has Broom, I’m going to save her.”
“Hold up.” I accessed the Five Magics Skill Tree. I still had plenty of shakti, and I loved that I was progressing down the Agni branch. Standing there in my partial form, I felt like I could wrestle an alligator. Or a ghost. I nodded at Figg. “Stay with Dryx. Rhee and I will be right back.”
We didn’t need to take a step.
The thing moaning was slumping toward us, casting shadows. I stood with the sea elf, and I armored up in DarkArmor. At the same time, I filled my lungs with air. Maybe I could breathe fire.
From out of the tunnel emerged what was clearly another failed experiment. This one filled up the entire tunnel. It was a Wynnym male, but its face was mostly mouth, a nightmare of fangs, without eyes. It must see somehow. It lurched toward us, gasping and wheezing, spit dripping from his mouth. His arms were little things, like T. rex claws. On his back were wings, one stone, the other flesh, but both had hooks. It seemed womb witches had tried to combine a centaur with a Gurgaloid. There was no blood on the face of the monster in front of us. Its teeth were clean. That meant it hadn’t chomped down on Broom. I wasn’t sure where she’d gone, but the creature hadn’t gotten to her.
“Stay back, Rhee,” I said. “I want to try something.”
I tried to remember how to access the Inferno Exhalant. I only managed to belch out a little smoke. My birth song blasted through my head, and that didn’t help.
Rhee took a fresh grip on her sword. “Axel, the smoke is not helping.”
She was right. I gave up.
“Agnaat injit.” I hurled a fireball. It left my hand as a simple little marble of flame, but it hit the monster with an explosion of fire and light. This wasn’t a pinkie finger of flame. This was a full Armageddon of fire. The explosion scorched his flesh, and it completely blew off the flesh wing.
I cast another spell, raising a wall of flames, and then followed that up with another fireball. Bathed in flames, it fell onto its knees, shrieking as it cooked. Smoke poured up against the ceiling, boiling through the corridor.
I’d taken care of the ghost, and I was working at full strength. The fire inside of me felt like power, not burning. The ink on my arm hadn’t changed colors or smoked like before. Figg’s tattoo gleamed when she cast spells. I wondered if I was doing something wrong.
We had to get out of there. All that fire would draw the attention of the Wynnym. I figured they’d be coming for us. I backed up to pick up Dryx, and we hurried onward.
Dryx, in my arms, let out a groan. “I need water. I need the Quickening. Please. Please, find us a place. You promised,” she sighed. “You promised me, Axel.” The sky warrior touched my face and smiled—it was one of the only smiles I’d ever seen on her face. “Your dragon face is fearsome, but I do love your wings.”
“Back to the waterfall,” Rhee said. “We can check to see if Broom is there. Or maybe she left us a note.” It was clear she was trying to be hopeful. It was a fragile hope at best.
While we walked, Figg asked, “So, Axel, the concentration ink has healed you. Did you try and run your shakti through your tattoo?”
I raised one of my big dragon-y eyebrows. “I didn’t know I could do that. I have more shakti, though, and I wondered if I wasn’t using the ink right.”
Figg’s lips disappeared. “See? This is why getting ink outside of a school is a poor decision. You have power, but you don’t know how to use it.”
“But I’ll learn,” I replied. “We have a lot more battles to fight tonight. And again this Monday when the merfolk return.”
We made our way to the room behind the waterfall. There was no sign of our red-haired friend, but there were signs she’d been there. One of the scrolls on the table had been folded along strange lines and then rerolled. Rhee pressed the paper flat. “It’s just an old inventory of mining equipment with strange marks on the side. I don’t recognize the marks at all. Figg?”
My summoner came over, checked, and frowned. “No. It’s just scratches. That’s not a language.”
I sat down on the stone bench with the sky warrior’s head on my lap. “Do you have nuna seeds, Dryx?”
She shook her head. “I do not. I ate the last one. And then they arrested me and brought me to that room.” She caressed the scales covering my muscled chest. “You came for me. All three of you came for me. I saw what they did to the other Jataksha. Were any still alive?”
“No,” I said. “I knocked over the chambers. They were all either dead or too mutated to live. We couldn’t save them, but we saved you.”
Figg stood next to us. Rhee knelt. She brushed some white hair out of Dryx’s face. Both the women were quiet, and I was grateful.
The sky warrior closed her eyes. “I’m sorry I shouted at you before. I should be grateful, but I’m usually the hero. I was the one who saved my friends, and I saved our city in the service of the sky king. Now, I will never see my home again. I will never be among my own kind again. I am stuck here with you monkey bones. It is a fate worse than death.”
Rhee laughed. “I’ve had lovers who’ve told me that after a long weekend. Being stuck with me is a fate worse than death.”
“I’m not a monkey bones,” I said to the sky warrior. “I’m a dragon, and I’m far from home as well. Don’t give up hope. Tell us, Dryx, what do you need? What is the Quickening?”
Dryx closed her eyes. “When we are born, we are like Finniwigg, an ungraceful people, stocky, and with very little elegance.”
That made Rhee chuckle. “Just like Figg.”
My summoner wasn’t too pleased, but there was no raging. Instead, she took that moment to get water from her satchel. Rhee got wine. They gave Dryx swallows from each.
The sky warrior swallowed and continued. “It’s when we become mature women and men that our wings begin to grow. For most, it’s thirteen summers, or fourteen winters, and then the wings come. But to grow our wings, and to keep them, we need the Quickening. Sex. Our feathers and wing muscles need the passion to keep them healthy. Nuna seeds can be used for a while, but in the end, we need the fire of flesh. Some of my kind never have sex and never get wings. But for most of us, the sex, any sex, is important. We don’t have the same idea of monogamy or infidelity as other races. Passion is something we need, every day, to stay healthy. To be a Jataksha without wings is to be an outcast, ugly and unwanted.”
The sky warrior sighed. “It’s why I have trouble finding Finniwigg attractive. She has no wings. Rheesee has her ears, and though she is a mongrel dog, she is pretty in her apish way.”
“Oh, Feathers, you say the nicest things.” Rhee laughed a little then winked at my summoner. “I had trouble finding Figg attractive at first. She grows on you. Like some sort of skin disease.”
Figg scowled. “You people are insufferable. I’ll leave the room since I’m so ugly. Axel fucks Lalindryx. We can then wing our way up to the stone square in the clouds. We should hurry because there is no telling if the brand is there, or which bra
nd it will be.”
Hooves clattered on stone.
Figg stood, prepping a spell and gripping her bident. Rhee dashed from us and into the shadows of the ledge near the entrance to the room. Water continued to pour down, hiding us from the centaurs.
Dryx groaned and lost a feather. She was getting paler. If the Wynnym found us, we’d have to kill them quickly because the sky warrior was in a bad way. We couldn’t wait.
I eased her head off and laid it back down on the stone. I walked to where Rhee stood. She held up a hand. The elf girl was seeing something, but she wasn’t drawing her sword and rushing to fight.
I noticed the folded scroll hung from her belt. The folds were new. Was that somehow a secret message from Broom?
Rhee crept back to me. She was gritting her teeth and tears shined in her eyes. “Broom is leading soldiers down that corridor. She’s... she’s in chains. They must’ve convinced her to tell them where we were. They might have hurt her. Or she might have turned on us. I don’t know. But everything is fucked now.”
“Maybe not.” I took the folded scroll from her belt. I went to a lantern and laid it down, folding it along the right lines. That’s when I saw the message. Those strange marks we saw didn’t mean anything unless you folded the scroll, and then they formed three short sentences.
I’m still on your side.
Trust me.
And run when you can.
Rhee read the words. She let out a sigh of relief. “She went to them, but they didn’t trust her, and now she’s a prisoner.”
“Looks like it.” I sighed.
Broom had given us the chance to escape, but where would we go? Dryx needed the Quickening. After we took care of that problem, we could get the brand and then swoop in to rescue Broom. We weren’t going to just abandon her. Also, I wanted to question the Stallion King more. Why had he arrested us in the first place?
This all felt so familiar to me—being on the run, having our lives threatened, and saving friends from evil kings. I’d spent years doing this, and my mission on Azrack with Uncle Jared was just one of many adventures I’d had.