by J. K. Barber
“So I assume these are the infamous twins and their merry band of protectors I keep hearing about,” the woman stated blandly, “who keep miraculously slaughtering my Shadow Walkers.”
Jared looked the dragon rider over briefly. He spoke, “And you must be the Empress of Ice, the wicked bitch that keeps trying to kill us and failing to do so miserably.”
Salamasca laughed, “My dear boy,” she began before her eyes went wide. Roane, who had been enjoying her Mistress’ dramatic entrance and banter, followed her Queen’s startled gaze. Jared and Johnson felt an electrifying tingle behind them. The Illyander men turned and stepped to either side uncertainly at the sight of the twins melding together in magical flows resembling the rich colors of a rainbow. Katya’s backpack slowly dropped to the stones as her body disappeared. Jared quickly fetched the bag with the Nhyme inside and slung its straps over his shoulders. The twins became a ball of glowing luminescence that solidified into the crouching form of a giant armored woman. Her white unbound hair blew gently in the breeze. Ever so slowly, she raised her head and fixed the Ice Queen with clear blue-green eyes. She stood from her crouch, her gaze still locked on Salamasca. All eyes watching her were mesmerized by the lush green ivy decorating her breastplate and large star sapphires embedded into her silver bracers. She wore a silver chain skirt over blue cloth that draped to mid-calf. In one hand was a softly glowing, runed staff and in her other was a matching sword. Jared smiled at the vision, recognizing what stood before him. Johnson and the rest of the individuals gathered simply stared in awe, even the Ice Queen.
“Salamasca, at last we meet,” the giant woman spoke, her gentle tone almost motherly but with a supernatural resonance. “I am Akor’shi-kai. Your destructive desires and dark experiments have gone too far. You have no regard for She that is life. Your obsession with death dealing and the twisting of purity to your polluted desires are a blight upon Aronshae. The Great Mother Herself demands an end to it all. You will be consumed by Her blessed light, returned to Her womb to be purified and reborn.” Her tone shifted strangely, her voice sounding more human-like. “Lay down your staff and yield. There does not need to be a battle between us. The others present need not be put in harm’s way.”
Walron looked from the Great Mother’s Avatar to his mistresses, his purple draconic eyes searching for some clue as to whether or not he should attack. Sensing his fear, the Ice Queen laid a hand on his neck to reassure him. Her calm demeanor was successful in getting the dragon to relax. Walron crouched, ready to assail this new threat upon command.
“Akor’shi-kai, you call yourself?” Salamasca asked, looking the avatar over. The great woman nodded, her eyes level and serious. “Prepare to be returned to your Mistress.” The Empress of Ice squeezed her thighs in her saddle, giving Walron her signal to attack. The dragon roared so loud that the balcony shook as he charged Akor’shi-kai. Jared and Johnson dove away just in time as to not be crushed flat by the oncoming leviathan. The Great Mother’s Avatar planted her feet to receive the charge and raised her sword. Biting into her wrist with his massive teeth, Walron attempted to remove her hand. Akor’shi-kai’s bracer flared brightly with white light but didn’t even bend under the astounding pressure from the dragon’s jaws. With a deft stroke of her sword, the avatar sliced a large gash into the dragon’s chest. Blinded and wounded, Walron reared, his wings beating once to pull him up higher, and raked with his claws desperately, hoping to avoid another strike and wound his opponent. Akor’shi-kai ducked and ran under him and through his hind legs. Before she reached his tail spikes, she dropped her staff and took hold of the slender part of the dragon’s tail in a gauntleted hand. With supernatural strength, she hauled him in a semi-circle, crashing his body against the tower, which trembled terribly under the blow. Stonework flew out with the impact and fell to the courtyard below. Walron was knocked unconscious. It took every ounce of training and dexterity for Roane, Jared, and Johnson not to get crushed as the two giants fought. Johnson didn’t move quite fast enough and Walron’s body clipped him. The soldier was flung into a thankfully undamaged part of the balcony rail so he wasn’t flung off, but Roane’s rapier spiraled out of his grip, skidding to a halt right at the Ice Queen’s Chancellor’s feet. Johnson’s collision into the rail threatened to render him unconscious, and he weakly moaned in pain on the stone floor. Roane, crouching just inside the balcony doorway, flashed a grin and reclaimed her weapon.
Somehow, Salamasca managed to maintain her seat on Walron’s back. With a flourish of her staff and a guttural word that resembled a growl, the Ice Queen cast a spell at Akor’shi-kai. There was no immediate effect at first, but then slowly black swirls formed around the Great Mother’s champion. Like oily ghosts they swam up and down her body. Akor’shi-kai clutched at her chest and cried out in pain. She fell to her knees, coughing up black ichor. Her face went deadly white, and then her veins became visible beneath her skin turning a tainted black. “Just as I bent the magic of Aronshae’s precious crystals to my will, so too shall I have your power, one called Akor’shi-kai.” The Empress of Ice laughed at the woman’s pain.
Jared searched for some way to help the twins but had little knowledge of magic and he dared not approach the dragon. However, he did know from the stories that the Ice Queen was still flesh and blood. The woodsman flicked two throwing daggers at Salamasca with nimble-fingered precision. The projectiles hit some unseen barrier and bounced off with no harm done to the pale queen, who spared him a contemptuous glance.
“Child, you are but an annoying insect to be swatted away,” the Empress of Ice sneered, waving her staff once more. Black glowing tendrils shot from the wooden shaft and slithered likes snakes across the stones towards Jared. He tried to strike at them as they approached, but his blade passed right through them. They spiraled up his body, tightening like a cocoon around his struggling form. The woodsman’s sword, still in his hand, bit deep into his hip as the tendrils tightened more and more. Warm blood spread down his leg as he fell to the floor, a painful wail upon his lips. Jared was squeezed so tight that he began to gasp for air as his lungs were slowly being crushed. Tiny muffled cries came from Katya’s backpack that he still wore. Feeling free from threat, Roane advanced upon the kneeling avatar and placed her rapier to her throat.
“See,” Roane spoke aside to the enwrapped woodsman and staggered soldier. Johnson was struggling to sit up at the rail, his vision spinning with specs of light. “Even the Great Mother bows before my Mistress.”
Akor’shi-kai’s coughing stopped suddenly. Her eyes cleared of all pain. Her skin began to glow, rapidly increasing in intensity until the blackness in her veins was replaced with a cleansing, burning bright light. Before Roane’s brain could register that she was in danger, Akor’shi-kai buried her sword into the leather-clad regent’s chest. Roane’s eyes went wide. Salamasca cursed as she watched a dying Roane slide off the massive woman’s blade, and then Akor’shi-kai strode over to Walron and reclaimed her staff from where she had dropped it. She pointed the rod directly at the Ice Queen and its runes glowed brightly.
“You leave me no choice, Salamasca.” The point of Akor’shi-kai’s staff shone with a dazzling brilliance, gathering an immense amount of power with her intent clear to strike Salamasca down. The Ice Queen quickly cast another spell, muttering dark words that sent shivers up the spine. The air around the giant woman filled with inky waves of energy but they flowed over the Great Mother’s Avatar with no effect and disappeared. Motes of light danced around Akor’shi-kai. Her whole body was awash in radiant power, and the light at the point of her staff was so intense it was like trying to look at the sun itself. Walron stirred beneath the Ice Queen, awakening. The Empress of Ice savagely kicked at his scaly hide from her stirrups, demanding that he rise and defend her. He was still groggy though, as he blew black blood from his snout. Akor’shi-kai’s spell would soon reach its full strength. Salamasca’s eyes went wide, knowing that this was truly her end. The ageless woman assumed she was ab
out to be dissolved, disintegrated or would simply cease to exist. For the first time in a hundred years, Salamasca felt fear. The Ice Queen’s mount came fully awake and roared in defiance, attempting to bite the tall woman in two.
His teeth met with air. The powerful light building around the merged sisters was sucked, as if into a void, out of existence, reducing it to the size of a small sparkling diamond before it finally winked out.
As quickly as Akor’shi-kai had formed, she had fallen in two, the twins lying side by side staring blankly at one another. Salamasca did not test her good fortune; she grasped Walron’s reins and urged him to take flight. Before he obliged, the dragon scooped up Roane’s body in a massive claw and then launched into the air. Walron pumped his wings hard towards the center tower and in another flash of light, the dragon the Ice Queen and her chancellor were gone. The dark bonds holding Jared evaporated. Blood dripped from his hip and he gasped for air. When his lungs had recovered, he swung Katya’s backpack to his front and quickly opened it. He prayed to the Great Mother that the Nhyme were alright as he threw open the flap. The woodsman peered down at two turtles regarding him with scowls on their tiny faces. Jared sighed, smiling at his little friends.
“Good thinking, guys,” the woodsman whispered with a glance to Johnson who could not possibly hear him from across the balcony. “All seems well now. We are safe.” Niko nodded, turning back into his Nhyme form in the bottom of the pack. Chyla changed as well, but she did not move; instead she curled up into a ball hugging her knees. Jared worried about the toll the day had taken on her; the female Nhyme would be forever changed having killed for the first time the night before. Niko was not as bothered by the great wide world as his companion and stroked her blonde hair, after settling her head in his lap. Jared whispered once more before returning his attention to the present situation. “Thankfully, one of our troop lives, so stay hidden still.” After another nod from Niko, Jared closed the flap to the backpack and stood up, limping tenderly in place for a moment. Seeing that the twins’ chests were rising and falling not far from him, the woodsman took a moment to bandage his hip as best he could. The cut was thankfully not too deep. Johnson was finally able to stand, but he clutched at his ribs, several were probably broken.
Jared and Johnson made their way to the sides of the twins, Johnson to Katya and Jared to Sasha. The girls were confused and drenched in sweat. The woodsman ran his fingers along the streaks of white in Sasha’s red locks. Glancing to the sorceress, he observed that her hair had changed similarly, the strain of merging plain for any to see.
“Wha… What happened? Why didn’t the spell go off?” Sasha asked wearily, not even trying to sit up.
Katya rolled to her side, her breath staggered, but managed a disgruntled reply, “Sasha, did you not feel the third life force bound with us the moment we joined?” Sasha stared at her sister, confusion clear on her face. The sorceress took a few deep gulps of air before continuing, “Completing the spell would have fulfilled the avatar’s purpose, consuming us as well. You are pregnant, Sasha. Of course, the Great Mother would not take the life of your unborn child.”
“What?” Jared and Sasha said at once.
Chapter 17
Sirus flapped hard, pushing his wings to gain as much height as quickly as he could. The shock of Sindai’s death had brought about a change in the dragons. For the first time since they were born they felt no compulsion to obey; not the Ice Queen, not Roane, not anyone. Niambe had wanted to fly down to where Sindai had come crashing down into the mountains, but Sirus, Isa and Misae had yelled at her through their mental link to stay aloft, away from the human army below.
Despite their small size, they are dangerous, even to us, Sirus had warned Niambe. Sindai underestimated them because we were able to attack them easily before, but they are no longer so afraid of us now and they have discovered that their magics can hurt us, Sirus explained to his sister. The former woodsman had resisted thinking of the other dragons as his siblings, since he had been born first as a human, but with the death of Sindai a simple hard fact had been driven home. He cared for his clutchmates as much as he would his own brothers and sisters. There was a void inside him where Sindai had been and it would never be filled. Even when Walron had shut himself off from the others, Sirus had still been able to feel his presence somewhere in his mind and in his heart. It was different when Sindai had plummeted to the ground below. Distantly, he had been able to feel the other dragon’s fear and pain as he fell, crashed and died. It reminded Sirus of when he was in the woods at night, in his former life, and could hear the crickets all around. Eventually, he failed to notice them until winter came and they disappeared. It was their absence that made him realize their song had been all around him throughout the seasons.
It was the same with Sindai. Sirus had heard the everyday emotions of his brother but had learned to filter them out instinctively until they had been reduced to background noise. Sirus had not ignored Sindai, only learned to filter his perceptions of his clutchmates to preserve his own identity and sanity. Now that the other dragon was gone though, he couldn’t ignore the area of silence in his mind.
Niambe! No! Stay with us! Isa screamed in his mind, diverting Sirus’ inner eye away from the emptiness in his head. Niambe had always been the most sensitive of Sirus’ siblings, the first to comfort one of her clutchmates when they were sad or hurt. Now she was once again drifting away from the flight of dragons, drawn by her nurturing instincts to help Sindai. Sirus banked towards his sister, moving to gently herd her back towards the rest of the group.
Niambe, please. Sirus said, through the shared link. I understand that you want to help Sindai, but he’s gone. There is nothing any of us can do for him right now. Believe me when I say that I understand, better than you know, what it is you’re trying to do. We can’t go down there though, without putting ourselves in danger. Sirus looked again to the small group of blue-robed figures that walked in the center of the advancing army, still amazed at the eyesight he possessed in his new body. He could see for miles and in such detail that it often took his breath away. He had “borrowed” the sight of a few eagles or other birds in his former life, but even their superior vision paled in comparison to what he could perceive now. Even at night, under the gloom of a new moon, Sirus had been able to see each and every solider in the Illyander army as he was forced to attack the helpless men. Though it had been nearly pitch-black, he was able to see every color vibrantly and even a few hues for which he had no names.
But, he’s hurt, Niambe said, her words laced with feelings of concern. He needs us, but… but, I can’t find him anymore. Sirus knew her meaning. Regardless of the distances involved, the clutchmates had always known where their siblings were, if not their exact location, then at least their direction and relative distance away. Since Sindai had died, that knowledge was gone. Niambe had failed to fully understand the meaning of her new found ignorance. It broke Sirus’ heart to have to explain it to her.
The once human woodsman called up memories of his best friends, their bodies burnt until they were barely recognizable as human, and carrying them to the graves he had dug for them. The mental images of their graves filled in with dirt and the meager markers he had been able to cobble together flowed through his mind into Niambe’s and the minds of his siblings. A great wave of sorrow and fear crashed all around Sirus as the dragons finally came to the realization that they could die. It was a thought none of them had ever had before and the effect was devastating. A roar of sadness and primal terror ripped from the throats of all the dragons, echoing off the mountains below as their wings beat faster, as though getting farther away from Sindai’s corpse would somehow make them safer. With a start Sirus realized that his own draconian voice had joined with that of his new family and his wings were straining to put on speed just as theirs were.
To calm them, once he had collected his own wits, Sirus sent another image. A young boy stood beside him, barely able to walk, clutching h
is leg tightly, tears streaming down his ash-covered face. The dragons slowed their frantic wing beats. Though he did not send the words that he had told the young boy that day, Sirus did manage to convey their meaning. All living things die. It is the way of the world; however, they are reborn someday, hopefully into a better life than the one they left behind. Misae, Isa and Niambe were confused by the idea, but took some comfort in the sentiment.
Then we should return and put him in the earth, as you did with your friends, Niambe said, once again trying to veer away from the rest of the dragons. Sirus altered his path once more, directing his sister to continue on with the rest.
We will, Misae said, her mental voice adamant. But for now it is too dangerous. Sindai would not want us to be hurt as well, she explained. We will join the others and then, when it is safe, we will come back for Sindai. We will bury him and will mark his place of rest just as our brother Sirus did in his old life. It may be a long time before it is safe for us to return though, so we need you to be patient. Misae, more than any of the other dragons, grasped what had happened to Sirus and had been helpful in explaining it to the others when he had been unable to find the right words and images himself.