by Ben Marble
Despite the reptilian features she could make out the surprise on the dragon’s face as it was dragged with her into the marble. Her momentum kept moving them forward and the last thing Brianne saw before she entered the pocket dimension was Sierra's face as the marble flew past her and over the side of the cliff.
✽ ✽ ✽
Ember and Nightfire finally pulled apart in just enough time to avoid hitting the ground headfirst. Ember had managed to direct the fall just right, while she went off the direction of the cliff into the open air, and Nightfire hit the side of the cliff as he tried to fly up and gain altitude.
The larger dragon screamed and rolled back down onto the ground in pain. Ember was certain several of his bones had been broken by the impact. Now she had the advantage.
Charging back down she hit Nightfire full force with her body and rammed him back up into the mountainside causing more cracking and grunts of pain. When she stepped back, her enemy was limp and unconscious. It was time to go help her students.
A snap of her wings took Ember away so quickly she did not see Nightfire open his eye and watch her depart.
✽ ✽ ✽
Xander was not sure how, but he had managed to upper hand. Chandler had not expected a physical assault. The other apprentice was putting all his energy into maintaining his shields. Every time the larger apprentice tried to throw a spell at Xander, he spared just enough energy to counter the magic. Renewing his attack Xander continued to beat down Chandler's shield. He now had no doubt the reason that Chandler had been so quick to knock Pinenut away was that chaos magic's shields were more vulnerable to physical attacks then his own. He managed to lay into the shield for a few seconds before Chandler finally threw him off with a sharp gust of wind.
Landing on his side hard, Xander prepared for a new barrage of spells. He was not sure he could block a magical with what was left of his shield. Bracing he sat as the cracking sound of thunder overhead told him Chandler was about to strike.
It took a few seconds for Xander to realize the lightning following the thunder had not hit him. He looked up to see Sierra was casting a barrage of spells at Chandler keeping the other apprentice from attacking him. He did not see the other dragon or Brianne, but if Sierra was here the other fight had ended.
He could not charge or attack Chandler physically without getting in the path of Sierra's spells. So, Xander started picking up stones and throwing them at the shield. It was not optimal, but it started taking a slow toll on Chandler’s shield. An arrow hit and splintered. Pinenut had recovered and was joining the attack taking even more energy from the rogue apprentice’s protection.
All Chandler's energy was going into a rapidly fading defense. The fight was out of him, and he was doing everything he could to stay alive. Xander let a couple more stones hit then raised his hand and yelled "Enough."
"I surrender myself to your mercy," Chandler said. Xander chose to ignore the sarcasm in his voice and stepped forward.
Ember landed behind the turncoat apprentice growling menacingly. "We are done here, secure him. Xander we are heading to the cave Pinenut mentioned.” Ember looked around. “Where is Brianne?"
"She went over the cliff," Sierra's voice cracked as she said it. "She drew the other dragon into the marble with her and I couldn't stop it, it just went right past me."
"We will go find the marble shortly. For now, we will take care of what we can." Ember said. Xander stepped forward and created some bands to wrap around Chandler's hands and Sierra shielded him. The apprentice looked so smug Xander could not resist, he punched him straight in nose hard enough to hear bone crack. Chandler went down like a sack of potatoes and fell to the ground rolling back and forth holding his face. Ember gave Xander a look that was not disapproving. In fact, if he had not known better he would have thought she enjoyed watching him drop Chandler.
"Pinenut," The elf had walked up to them, and gave Xander an even look. "Would you walk Chandler and Ember to that cave, Sierra and I are going to go find the marble that went over the cliff."
"I can do that." The elf saluted.
They stated to walk their separate ways when a sudden blast of lightning made them all scatter. Nightfire swept down and grabbed Chandler in his claws. Instead of staying to fight he flew off with the other apprentice before any of them could react.
Ember spread her wings to pursue but then paused. "We have to let them go. There are more important things at hand."
Watching them fly off, Xander clenched his fists and sighed. "We will get them later. Let's take care of our friends. Pinenut?"
The elf nodded and started to lead the way to the cave so Ember could contact the order dragons. Sierra and Xander went the other direction to find a marble.
Epilogue
The shards of the green marble sat on Ember's desk. Xander felt like the scattered pieces symbolized something, but he was not sure what. Darkly he stared at the pieces and did his best not to look up at Fuego who was patiently listening to his account of their adventure. For some unknown reason Xander had been chosen to go last, when as the head apprentice he should have gone first.
The words had painfully bubbled from his mouth in places. Revisiting Michael's death would never be easy. Neither would the loss of Brianne. The moments ticked by, and he was not interrupted once in his telling of the story. Fuego might have been a statue for all that he moved or made a sound. Ember stood behind him similarly still. The silence extended a long after he finished speaking.
"You have performed well. I am humbled by how you managed this situation, and I have every confidence you will be ready to face the challenges that are now coming." Fuego gave him a smile and leaned back in his chair.
"Are we now training all the apprentices for war?"
"Unfortunately, yes. It seems we will be fighting, and we can't be caught unprepared again can we?"
"So, we are going to start dying over a fight between you and the rest of your family."
The old dragon stopped and regarded Xander carefully. He removed his spectacles and polished them on his shirt. "Yes, you will be fighting our enemies along with the rest of your duties. I wouldn't wish this on you, but it is what it is."
"Isn't it a war you started?" He heard Ember shuffle uncomfortably behind him. "We have bled enough on your account already, it would be nice to know whether we are on the right side."
"Let me tell you one thing,” Fuego’s voice dripped with grief. "There is no right side in this war. If we had not started it, then those so dubbed chaos dragons would have. We were all set against each other before the first blow landed. We happen to be the side that struck first."
"I stood in villages that were nothing but craters in the ground because a chaos spell backfired. I watched parents of many different races and creatures bury children who had been changed into horrific creatures because they ventured into that magic without the proper knowledge. I myself had to tell families about loved one’s deaths and their descent into madness. We did not make the decision to stop using chaos magic lightly. We could not allow those who wouldn't give it up to continue spreading its disease around the world."
"Nighfire can tell you we struck the first blow and he wouldn't be lying. He can tell you that we have tried to kill of his faction, we left them in a magic starved world to die horribly as mad beasts and it will all be true." Fuego put his spectacles back on and looked back at Xander. "If you talk to him again ask him what the body count was on their side before we struck at them. Ask him about the accountability they took for their actions that took the lives of thousands. Then, ask him about Evelon.
"What is Evelon?"
"It was the dragons home city. It was where we gathered, where dragons were hatched and grew to adulthood. It was the Mount Olympus of our kind, and the chaos dragons burned it. Killing thousands of hatchlings and eggs, drawing in thousands more that had no desire to take place in our war. Make sure you ask Nightfire what makes him so holy that he can throw our sins in our face,
and yet forget about his."
The silence fell again and Xander watched Fuego stare at the wall as the dragon organized his thoughts. A hand on his shoulder reminded him that Ember was still standing behind him.
"We have one more thing to discuss with you." Ember said quietly. "I was going to withhold this from the other dragons until the time was right, but now that Brianne is gone, I don't have the skills or ability to monitor you closely."
"And that is?"
"You are changing my young apprentice." Ember said. Fuego walked around the table looking at him carefully. "When we first took you in, we put a block in you, to stop the change that began with your eyes. The changes have gone a bit further and I'm not even sure what has been changed in you."
"You did what to me?" Xander felt his hands gripping the arm rests of the chair.
"We decided to stop your body from changing further to accommodate what I did to your eyes. We had no idea if your body would keep adapting and changing or not. We also did not know if the changes might eventually kill you." Ember sat on the desk in front of Xander. "We didn't tell you because you were already angry enough at us, and we didn't need to confuse you further. If you had known, you might have gone poking around and accidently removed the block on your own. Young apprentices tend to do things like that."
"You have lied to me."
"Omitted, for your own good." Fuego cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, let's say that you "omitted it for my own good." Why are we discussing this now?”
"Because when Nightfire healed you he removed that block” Fuego moved to stand next to Ember. “We do not know what this means for you. Nothing might change, or you could rapidly start evolving to accommodate the changes. There is no way of knowing until the melding of dragon and human in your body have run its course. "
"So, now I have to fight your enemy and I might die horribly. Do you have any good news?"
"Brianne is still alive." Ember's voice was calm and low tinged with a touch of happiness.
"How do you know?" Xander jumped to his feet in excitement.
"We have had word from Nightfire that she escaped the pocket dimension with Blazeheart, the dragon who she trapped with her."
"How reliable is word from Nightfire?" Xander asked while filing away Blazeheart’s name. He now knew which dragon he would hunt for his family’s deaths. He would not say anything. Not now. He did not need to complicate things further by letting Ember know his intention towards the chaos dragon.
"He is happy to inform us he has one of our students imprisoned along with Torch's students. I'm pretty confident he is gloating and not lying."
"Good," Xander spun to face Fuego. "When do we start working to rescue her?"
"We don't." The older dragon looked away. "Take heart in the fact she is alive, and there is no sign that the chaos dragons will hurt her. For now, we don't even have an idea where Nightfire's lair is. We don’t know if she is still being held by Nighfire or another chaos dragon."
"So, good news but bad news. Any pure good news?"
The two dragons watched him silently without saying a word. Xander shook his head and started walking towards the door.
"Alexander," Ember called behind him, causing him to turn and look at his master. "If you start to feel sick or notice any sudden changes let us know immediately. Right now, only me and Fuego know about your... condition. We don't plan on telling the other dragons until they need to know. The last thing we need is for them to be poking and prodding you when they should be focusing on prepping their apprentices for the coming war."
"Thank you, I guess." Xander nodded to her. Without another word he was out the door and heading down the hall. He had to find Sierra.
It didn't take long. The other apprentice was in the study pouring over some books. He walked up behind her and watched for a moment. Sierra was so intent she did not notice him when he sat down next to her. When she finally did note his presence, she looked up and gave him a long stare.
“We need to figure out how to save Brianna, she is alive.” He said.
“What you need to do,” Sierra said quietly. “Is listen to Ember and let the dragons handle it.”
Silence filled the room as both apprentices stared at each other. Xander worked through his brain on how he was going to get through to Sierra. He could not do this alone, there was no way he would be leaving the cave by himself soon due to his condition. With the war it would be worse. He could not fight the other apprentice and find a way to save their friend. He swallowed feelings of betrayal and started to think this through.
“I want to make myself clear,” Sierra started up again. “We already know the dragons will replace those we have lost, including Brianna. Once we are a full five again, I will start challenging you for head apprentice. Not just because I want it, but we need to be at our best. This is going to be a war. We are going to be fighting.”
“It is yours,” the words slipped from Xander’s mouth. “I am done with the pointless games and challenging you. If you want it so badly, you are now head apprentice. I am going to save our friend with or without you.”
“No, I will earn it properly!” Sierra stood abruptly. “You cannot just give the position to me.”
He stood slowly and met her gaze in a way he hoped made his inhuman eyes flash. “Then in the next challenge you will beat me without much effort. Congratulations Sierra enjoy leadership.”
“You will do this properly!” Sierra was yelling now. “You cannot simply give it up after you helped us survive…” Xander watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath. “Michael is dead. Chandler betrayed us and Brianne. As much as you want to believe she is alright, she might be gone as well. Ember and Fuego told me about Nightfire’s message. You think you can trust him after all he did?”
“For all he did, Nightfire was more honest with us than Ember has ever been. Yes, I know he is our enemy and his honesty was aimed at shaking our faith in the order dragons. It should not have been able to. If we had been told the truth up front, none of what he said would have had any hold on us.” Xander forced himself to lower his voice. “I am not going to fight with you Sierra. You do what you feel is best. I will support you, unless you ask me to turn my back on Brianne. If you make that choice, then you are no better than anyone else who stands to the side and lets evil win.”
“You know that is not true.” Sierra’s voice dropped low and she looked like she was holding back tears. “We are all that is left. Don’t leave me alone.”
Xander thought to Michael’s words about Sierra liking him. Part of him saw it in her eyes now. Something she would not express so she pushed herself against him by challenging his actions. A need to make sure she was relevant to him on a level that Sierra was comfortable with. He felt hollow inside as he decided to use those emotions against her.
“I will keep challenging you, I will not abandon you if you will not abandon me.” He put on a face smile as some light returned to her blue eyes. He liked those eyes he found. “Unless you turn your back on Brianne. If you do that, then you will be on your own as much as she is.”
He watched as Sierra’s face went pale, and anger replaced the light in the blue eyes with cold fire. He had betrayed her. As surely as anything he was manipulating her, and it made him sick.
“Fine,” she spat the anger returning to her voice. “But you will continue to work and challenge me. I will help you with Brianne. If we get caught,” she gave a cold smile. “I will make sure they know whose idea it was, and who was responsible.”
“That is all I ask,” Xander said quietly. He turned. He had to plan to save their friend. A war was coming. He wanted everyone he cared about, Brianne, Sierra, and even Ember he admitted quietly to himself, to be close by his side. Not matter the cost.
Even if it meant he would always alienate himself. That he would always be alone.
Author’s Note:
Thank you for taking the time to read this adventure. Th
is book is close to my heart, for while Grimmack was published first, this is the first work I completed that I feel is good enough to share with the world.
This is intended to be the first book in a trilogy. My stories with Xander and his fellow apprentices are not done. Keep an eye out for the next book if you enjoyed this one.
As always, if you enjoyed this story, please leave a review on amazon.com, goodreads.com, or where ever you find it appropriate to give your opinion. Good, Bad, I want to hear it.
Thank you again, and I look forward to leading you on another adventure soon.
Ben.