by Ben Wolf
Then he turned and headed toward Gavridel.
When Axel reached the Gemstone Imperator, Gavridel didn’t move.
“I don’t care what powers you have,” Axel said, “or what fancy armor you wear. If you don’t move, I’m gonna go through you, one way or another.”
Gavridel’s armored head seemed to look down at him. His voice deep, heavy, and muffled by his helmet, Gavridel replied, “If you leave now, and we should happen to meet again on the battlefield, I will not grant you this mercy a third time.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Axel said.
Gavridel didn’t move right away, but he did ultimately step aside so Axel could pass.
Axel turned back one last time, but not to call for Calum. Instead, he focused on Riley.
“Any of you wanna come back with me, this is your only chance.”
“I’m staying,” Lilly insisted. “Condor is, too.”
Condor could stay all he wanted, for all Axel cared. Maybe once the fighting started, they’d finally get to have that rematch they’d been talking about for so long.
Riley motioned with his head, and the Sobeks and Werewolves followed him toward Axel. Riley glanced back at Calum, who nodded at him, and that was that.
“Fine,” Axel said.
Then he led them all down to the street, unhindered by any other soldiers along the way.
Magnus landed in the street before Valkendell’s gates not long afterward, and his golden eyes searched their group plus the remaining Werewolves and Sobeks who’d also made it down.
Axel knew he was scanning for Calum and Lilly. “They’re not here.”
“What?” Magnus asked. “Where are they?”
“They decided to stay,” Axel said. When Magnus eyed him, Axel insisted, “I’m serious, Scales. They wanna stay.”
“It’s true,” Riley said, his voice sullen and devoid of it usual sarcasm. “We could’ve gotten them out but… they chose to stay there.”
Magnus seemed stunned to silence as the Sobeks and then the Werewolves began to climb onto his back.
Axel patted Magnus on his scaly hide. He didn’t like leaving them behind, either, but they’d made their choice. Now they’d have to live—or die—with it. “Let’s go, Scales.”
Calum was alive. The King had saved him.
He crouched down in front of the exhausted King, looked him in his eyes, and said, “Thank you. I’m in your debt.”
The King didn’t respond except to continue to stare into Calum’s eyes. Finally, after a long moment, he said, “Then help me up.”
Calum stood up, reached down, and hauled the King up to his feet. The King’s legs wobbled, and he braced himself against the wall with one hand. Matthios moved in to help as well, but the King waved him away.
“That light in your heart,” the King began, “is there permanently. I cannot remove it.”
Calum looked down. The glow sent a shudder throughout his body, but it was his memory of what had happened before, when Lumen’s light was trying to kill him, that sparked the sensation rather than the light doing it this time.
He glanced at Lilly, who immediately came to his side and clutched his right hand in hers. Condor followed, keeping a fair distance away, but Calum noted a bit of a frown on his face at the sight of Lilly holding Calum’s hand.
“Will it kill me?” Calum asked the King.
“Only if Lumen gains access to it once again,” the King replied. “Otherwise, it is a power that is now yours to wield.”
Calum’s eyebrows rose. “I can… still use it?”
“As I said earlier,” the King inhaled a long slow breath, “the power is stabilized. It is also centralized. You are free to do with it what you wish. It cannot and will not harm you anymore. What Lumen had intended for harm, I have reclaimed for good.”
Calum held up his left hand. With barely a thought, white light began to flare from his fingers and palm. It appeared just as it had before, but with one crucial difference: there was absolutely no pain and no burning sensation whatsoever. Instead, he felt a cooling sensation, as if the power had been rubbed in a poultice of mint leaves before leaving his heart.
“It doesn’t hurt,” he said aloud, mostly for Lilly’s benefit.
She squeezed his right hand. “I’m glad, but I’m more glad you’re alive.”
“Takes a lot more than a shiny light to kill me.” Calum puffed out his chest… his glowing chest. He wondered if he could do something about that, too. “I used to work in a quarry, after all. Hard manual labor, day-in and day-out.”
“That is humorous,” Matthios said from behind them.
He’d taken up a position next to Condor and stood there with his arms folded. His molten eyes still blazed, but he no longer gave off the same threatening air he’d displayed when everyone had been trying to escape only moments earlier.
“…correct?” Matthios asked. “Or am I wrong?”
“I thought it was very funny,” Calum said.
Lilly shook her head. “Needs work.”
“I agree with the Premieress,” Condor added.
“Curses,” Matthios muttered.
Calum concentrated on his glowing heart, and within seconds, the light vanished. Interesting.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Lilly said.
“Me neither,” Calum replied. “I wonder what else I can do.”
“Perhaps it is best that we all get some rest.” Gavridel’s deep voice sounded from down the hall. The mammoth Imperator walked toward them at a slow pace with footsteps that shook the floor and the walls. “Matthios and I will see to it that the King gets some as well.”
As Matthios and Gavridel met with the King to escort him out of the hall, Calum said to him again, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“You are welcome,” the King replied.
A moment later, Calum and Lilly were alone again…
And also, Condor was there.
“You can take Axel’s chambers.” Lilly pointed to the door down the hall.
“Not adjacent to yours?” Condor said. “I’d prefer to be physically closer to you…”
I bet you would, Calum thought.
“…so that I may better protect you should the need arise,” Condor concluded.
“If anyone here meant me harm, I would’ve been dead a long time ago,” Lilly said. “You will take Axel’s chambers, and you will get some rest. We’re safe here. So relax.”
“Very well, Your Highness,” Condor grumbled.
When he didn’t move, Lilly shooed him away with her hand.
Condor grumbled some more and retired to his new chambers.
As soon as the door shut, Lilly flung her arms around Calum’s neck, and she kissed him long and hard. When they stopped, she looked into Calum’s eyes and said, “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
Calum smiled at her. “I’ll do my best not to.”
“You’d better.”
“I’ll be fine.” He tucked a blonde strand of hair behind her ear. “After all, I worked in a quarry, day-in and day—”
She stopped his mouth with another kiss.
In the early hours of morning, as the first rays of sunlight crept over the eastern mountains, Magnus returned to Lumen’s camp with his riders—two fewer than he’d hoped. They slid off his back, and as their feet hit the ground, Magnus called Riley aside. Axel stuck around, too, even though Magnus hadn’t necessarily wanted him to.
“You are certain they did not wish to come with us?” Magnus asked Riley.
“Positive.” Riley nodded. “They could’ve left, same as Axel, but they wanted to stay. Strangest part was that the King was willing to let ’em go. Wasn’t expecting that.”
“Nothing about the King is what you’d expect,” Axel said. “He’s weird instead of intimidating, quiet instead of demanding. He doesn’t eat or sleep. He’s basically invincible, although Calum hit him with a blast of Lumen’s light and hurt him a little bit.”
&nb
sp; “He didn’t seem like much of a tyrant to me.” Riley folded his arms. “I mean, they could’ve stomped us out at any point, but they didn’t.”
“They?” Magnus asked.
“The King and his two Imperators,” Riley said. “Matthios and… the other one.”
“Gavridel,” Axel said. “He’s the big one covered in gemstone armor that we walked past on the way out.”
“The King and his Imperators had you cornered,” Magnus eyed Riley and Axel, “and then he just… let you go?”
“Pretty much,” Axel replied.
“A lot more than that happened,” Riley said.
“Such as?” Magnus asked.
Before Riley could respond, a blinding light shone within the camp and shot toward them like a blazing spear. Magnus recoiled and prepared himself to grab Riley and Axel to fly away if need be, but the light stopped before them and materialized into Lumen. As he spoke, his light faded so Magnus could make out his features without squinting.
“You have betrayed me,” Lumen’s voice boomed.
It was a poor way to initiate a conversation such as this, but Magnus took it in stride. “We did no such thing. We rescued one of our lost compatriots and returned with him.”
“You disobeyed my command regarding this matter,” Lumen asserted.
“No. We did the right thing,” Riley spoke up. “They were alive. All three of them. We were right to go in and try to rescue them, and we even got one back.” Riley shrugged. “Not the one I wanted. Not even my second choice, but still… it’s better than nothing.”
“Thanks,” Axel said, his voice flat.
“I was explicit,” Lumen continued. “I said I could not allow you to enact such a foolhardy plan, and you agreed.”
“You refused to allow us to negotiate with the King on your behalf, to which I agreed,” Magnus corrected. “There was no negotiation to be had. We extracted Axel from Valkendell by force, and we did not lose even a single soldier in the effort.”
“Do not play coy with me, Dragon King,” Lumen spat. His hands rested at his sides, too near the golden hilt of his sword for Magnus’s liking. “You fully understood the meaning of my words, yet you disregarded them to fulfill your own ends.”
“We did what was necessary,” Magnus insisted.
Fury burned within Magnus’s chest, and he felt the familiar heat of emerald fire creeping up his throat. Unlike the last time he’d stood his ground before Lumen, this time he did not push it back down. Rather, he kept it chambered in his neck, ready to release it should Lumen try anything.
“Axel,” Lumen said, “return to the camp.”
Axel glanced between Lumen and Magnus. “Sure, but I’ve got some information you may want to hear before we—”
“Now, Axel,” Lumen ordered.
Axel stared at him, confused at first, but when Magnus turned his blazing eyes toward him, he immediately headed for the camp.
By that point, many of the soldiers had awakened from the sound of Lumen chastising Magnus and Riley for their actions. Thanks to Lumen’s light and the break of dawn, Magnus could see men, Saurians, Wolves, and Windgales alike standing on the outskirts of the camp, watching it all unfold.
“I have sacrificed a millennium of my existence, and even more than that, to see to it that Kanarah could one day be free,” Lumen declared, aware of the crowd that had gathered behind him. “Yet you do not seem to value my sacrifice. You certainly do not honor my authority. It is clear that your goals no longer align with ours.”
Magnus tensed. This wasn’t going in the direction he’d hoped it would go.
“Therefore, you must be punished for your insubordination,” Lumen continued. “And if you wish to remain a part of this army, you will be reeducated before you will be allowed to lead your soldiers into battle.”
Riley spoke before Magnus had the chance. “No.”
“You would really refuse these generous terms?” Lumen asked. “I could simply have you executed, but I have elected to show mercy instead. Yet you refuse?”
Magnus and Riley had discussed this in private before they had even begun to gather soldiers willing to help them try to rescue Calum, Lilly, and Axel. They had already agreed that if Lumen tried to punish them or make an example of them, they would leave the army and take their respective soldiers with them.
Magnus had warned Riley in advance that Lumen might actually attack them if they tried to leave, but it didn’t deter the Shadow Wolf’s resolve. Neither of them had trusted Lumen since he’d so casually decided to give their friends over to the enemy. It had made them wonder if they had joined the right side of this war to begin with.
That, combined with what Riley had shared about Calum and Lilly choosing to stay behind and Lumen’s tantrum playing out before them, had all but made up Magnus’s mind. He didn’t know for sure that the King was in the right, but after everything that had happened, he knew for certain that Lumen was in the wrong.
“We refuse,” Magnus replied. “And we hereby withdraw from your army, along with our soldiers.” Louder, to his Saurian warriors who’d gathered in the crowd behind Lumen, Magnus called, “Saurians, pack your belongings. We leave this place in one hour.”
“Belay that order!” Lumen’s voice registered like a thunderclap, but he never took his blazing eyes off Magnus and Riley. “You will remain where you are, and you will fight alongside me for Kanarah’s salvation.”
The Saurians remained in place, looking at each other in confusion.
“Saurians,” Magnus called back. “I am your king. You will obey my commands.”
“He is your king no more,” Lumen shouted even louder. “And neither is this pitiful excuse for a Shadow Wolf the leader of the Wolf tribes.”
“Hey!” Riley barked at him. “That’s rude.”
“Now you will answer to new leaders,” Lumen declared.
The plurality of the word “leaders” caught Magnus’s attention. Had Lumen already chosen replacements for them from within their own armies? Magnus had suspected it was a possibility, but if that were the case, then it meant Lumen had been planning to replace them for longer than they’d known.
“Saurians and Wolves,” Lumen spread his arms wide and faced the soldiers, “I present to you your new lords.”
Twin flashes of light blazed into being out of nowhere. They each formed a line of blazing white light, and then they expanded into circles. The one on Lumen’s left stayed about the size of Lumen himself, but the other elongated until it was more than twice as tall as Magnus if he stood upright on his hind legs.
Then, from within the voids of light emerged two figures.
Magnus and Riley recognized them immediately.
The first was Rhaza. Apparently, he’d survived the encounter, only now, he was larger than before—more than twice the size of Riley—and white light shone from a sort of puncture wound on his side.
His eyes, previously black with silver irises, had changed as well, and now the irises glowed white instead. His claws were longer and also glowed with white light, as did his teeth. His hands and feet were bigger, and his body looked so pumped full of power that his muscles were threatening to burst through his mangy fur-covered skin.
But compared to the sight of Kahn emerging from the void, Rhaza looked tame.
The former Dragon King’s foot touched the ground with a boom that shook the camp and everything nearby. It might’ve even rattled Solace’s city gates.
When the rest of Khan’s body stepped out of the light, Magnus glared at it in disgust. In truth, this wasn’t Kahn anymore at all, but rather an abomination. Magnus had crushed Kahn’s skull and hurled his body down the mountainside, but Lumen had transformed him into a beast that Magnus and Riley were all-too familiar with:
A Jyrak.
Kahn towered over everything for miles. He was easily as large as the Jyrak Lumen had slain back in the Central Lake.
His scales had turned black, and the spikes on his back had elongated to
a freakish size, just like the rest of him. Bronze teeth lined his mouth when he opened it wide, but unlike the Jyrak they’d faced at the Central Lake, Kahn had no tongue.
He still had wings on his back, but they were shriveled and gray like dead tree branches that could snap off at any moment. Unless Lumen had bequeathed Kahn the ability to fly after this grotesque resurrection of sorts, Kahn would never be able to get off the ground. For that, at least, Magnus could be thankful.
But the most hideous part of Kahn’s appearance was the shape of his head. It still looked like it had after Magnus had crushed Kahn’s skull: caved in and horribly misshapen, more resembling a jellyfish than a dragon’s head.
How he was even still functioning with his head in that condition, Magnus didn’t know. Yet somehow, despite the lingering trauma to Kahn’s head, his eyes still glowed with yellow light like the first Jyrak’s had.
Kahn loosed a droning roar that matched the first Jyrak’s voice almost exactly, and Rhaza joined in with a horrific howl. The two dissonant noises sent a wave of shudders throughout the army gathered at the outskirts of the camp.
To Magnus’s great regret, he shuddered as well.
Lumen turned to face them once again, and so did Kahn and Rhaza. With his mask on, Lumen looked as cold and emotionless as ever, but Magnus knew that if Lumen could’ve smiled, it would’ve been now.
“Behold your replacements,” he said. “Behold your demise.”
Then Kahn and Rhaza lurched toward Magnus and Riley.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Instead of facing down Lumen and the two monstrosities he’d crafted from Rhaza and Kahn’s bodies, Magnus snatched Riley into his hand and leaped into the sky.
As Magnus ascended, smoke plumed from his nostrils, and the fire chambered in his throat blasted out toward Lumen, their true enemy. The General of Light let the flames wash over him as if it were a pleasant summer rain. It did no harm to him whatsoever.
Magnus knew they were abandoning their armies to Lumen’s control—to those abominations below—but they’d had no other choice. It was either flee or be destroyed.