Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  There was no way I was leaving without MY stuff.

  “You and your shit!” Carah looked around furiously. “Hah!” She dove down, not even four feet away, and came up holding both my lamp and the inquisitor’s shield. “Here! Happy now? Move!”

  She shoved me hard, and I stumbled into the next room. She followed after me just in time as the room behind us began to collapse.

  Carah looked over in the direction that Edward had escaped. The flames had already blocked any chance to get out in that direction. Looked like the explosion had blown the fire all through the building.

  “This way!” Axle’s voice called out from the warehouse in the back.

  My head was beginning to clear as I shoved Carah ahead of me towards his voice. Axel stood at a door that was just visible over the stacks of boxes. Carah booked it over to him, but I ground to a halt.

  From what I had seen during the fight, these boxes were full of food. The city wasn't well enough off yet that we could just ignore more provisions. I quickly stored my weapons and slapped my hand against the nearest box and added it to my inventory. As soon as it vanished I quickly touched the next crate. And then the next.

  “Get a move on, Dragon!” I heard Charlie yell, as I continued to work.

  Whatever that guy had thrown into the flames was really making them move fast. I could already see them through the open door, still burning that nearly white color. I tried to pick up the pace, but there was only so fast I could move.

  “Jake, damn it! Get your sweet ass over here!” Carah screamed as the flames worked their way into the room. “I don't care if you are fireproof!”

  I didn't feel fireproof to these flames. I could feel the heat they let off as if I was still human. Whatever the inquisitor had in that vial... I grimaced.

  No time to worry about that now. Over two-thirds of the boxes were still in the room. I felt a hint of panic as I moved further into the room and continued my work. I moved farther and farther along the room as the flames advanced. I had to abandon some crates and barrels to the flames as I moved to safer targets.

  When I was almost to the door, an arm reached through to grab and yank me outside into the alley behind the building. Carah stood there alone. The others were already at the exit to the street as they carried Rachel between the two of them. “Come on! Jeez! You’re gonna give me a heart attack!” She gave me a shove, and we ran towards the street.

  There was a shout from up ahead and then a scream. Axle stumbled back into the mouth of the alley, clutching his face. He wobbled and then fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Charlie let out a bestial roar from just out of sight. My heart leapt into my throat.

  Oh, god.

  The inquisitor had run out that way! Had he staged an ambush? I pushed myself to run faster.

  Not as fast as Carah, though. She broke away, racing up to Axle at a speed that I just couldn't match. She slid to a stop next to Axle reaching down to feel his neck in a search for a pulse. Then she was routing through her belt pouch, yanking out a vial and taking a swig before administering it to axle, mouth to mouth. I could see that it wasn't the normal potion.

  I was almost to the end of the alley! Something flew into view, hit the ground and tumbled out of sight. It looked like... Charlie's crossbow? Shit! Charlie screamed--a sound half pain and half anger.

  I charged past Carah and skidded out onto the street. Charlie stood gripping her left hip where blood ran freely down her leg from a puncture wound. She looked furious as she stood between Rachel, where she lay on the cobblestones, and...

  Edward.

  He stood in a fighter’s poise, the familiar Inquisitor rapier in his hand. Its tip was coated in blood.

  “-her over, this could all be so much easier,” he was saying. His tone was cultured tone and had a hint of laughter, even as his face showed just how serious he actually was.

  “Go kiss a cobra, ya damn-” Charlie gritted out before being cut off as Edward rushed at her.

  “How fool-” he started.

  I slugged him clean in the face, sending him down to the pavement. He rolled to the side as I lashed out with my foot. With a quick maneuver he was back on his feet, spitting a bit of tooth out to the side.

  “I should have known it was too much hope that you and the Sentinel had killed each other,” he snarled.

  Me? I didn't talk. Instead, I spat a ball of flame at him as I tried to retrieve my great sword from my ring..

  Edward attacked with a lunging thrust. I jumped to the side, careful not to let that poisoned blade touch me. I tried again and this time managed to pull out the sword.

  The problem was, Edward had been expecting it. He lashed out with a kick that hit the sword before I could get a grip on the handle and sent it spinning away.

  “Predictable!” He gave me that ear-to-ear grin again. It sent chills down my spine.

  Damn! Damn! Damn!

  My eyes flicked to where MY sword had been thrown. A mistake.

  Taking advantage of my distraction, Edward lunged again. I turned at the last moment. The blade scraped along my scales and cut a slit through my shirt. A line of numbness followed the blade’s path. It had to be the venom.

  Not good!

  I yanked my attention off my sword and swung a clawed hand at the doppelganger, making him pull back a step.

  “Hmmph! Like an animal? Is that what you’re reduced to in the face of a superior opponent?”

  Behind him, I saw Charlie sag to the ground.

  Damn it! I don't have time to deal with this joker!

  I ran to the side to make sure Charlie was clear of my line of attack. I spat a ball of fire at Edward as I reached into my inventory. The fire hit and splattered across him to no effect.

  “Really, you think I hadn't…!” he started, then his eyes went wide as he threw himself backwards.

  The wall from Rachel's house slammed down and made the street shudder as it just missed his toes. Edward looked at the wall in shock as he pushed himself up. Just enough time for me to hit him full in the face with a charging strike using the Sentinel’s shield. The blow flipped him back along the cobbles leaving him sprawling.

  Did that do it?

  With a grunt, he managed to push himself up just enough to raise his head. He glared at me. Bruises were starting to form where his nose should have been. I didn't have time for any other tricks he might have up his sleeve.

  I have to get to…

  Out of nowhere, Rachel stepped into my field of view on wobbly legs. She had MY sword in her hands, raised above her head.

  “Rachel! Damn it, we need him!”

  She swung the sword, falling forward to get the range she needed. I saw Edward look up at her, finally realizing she was there. Shock filled his eyes and then regret. He didn't have time to escape, and he knew it. The blade cut through him and hit the pavement on the other side with a wet crack.

  Rachel rolled onto her side and lay there panting, tears in her eyes. Any anger I had at losing Edward as a source of information drained away as I looked at the emotion on her face.

  Axle and Charlie limped over, supporting each other, as they made their way to Rachel's side. Carah was right behind them, hovering over the two like a worried mother hen over her chicks. Relief flooded through me, as I saw them. I hadn't known if… In any case, I was glad to see them.

  Axle gave Charlie a squeeze and then let her sink down next to Rachel.

  “It’s finally over,” Charlie said, leaning in to hug the other woman. “Ya made sure of that.”

  Rachel sniffed, leaned into Charlie’s shoulder and began to sob.

  It felt wrong to just stand there watching, but I didn't want to be that guy who just ignored it…

  “I…”

  Carah grabbed my arm. “Come on, ya big lug. Let’s leave them alone for a second.”

  Hopefully, my face didn't show how grateful I was to be pulled away.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Chapter 19

/>   Carah had me move Edward’s body into a nearby alleyway out of Rachel’s sight. After depositing the head next to the body, Carah went into one of the nearby houses to search for something to cover him up with. By the time we were done, the others had stabilized Rachel enough that we could begin heading back to the campus.

  The walk was nerve wracking. I didn't know about the others, but I was half expecting to be attacked by inquisitors the whole way. Maybe it was just that I was still on edge from the fight. Maybe it was just the feeling in the air. Or maybe it was the fact that I had a dead body wrapped in a bed sheet slung over my shoulder.

  Just the body though.

  Carah was carrying the head in a pillowslip.

  The fact that nothing happened the whole walk back did not make me feel any better.

  When we arrived, the campus felt far too still after the flurry of activity that was going on when we’d left. The construction crews were gone--not a single contractor in sight. Most likely, they were back at whatever they were using for offices.

  The biggest difference, though, we discovered when we went inside. When we walked in, a group of ten fighters were pulling on bows and taking aim. They stood behind a barricade that had been hastily made of what looked like scavenged stone blocks.

  “Whoa, whoa, guys! It's just us!” Axle said, stepping to the front of the group his hands up.

  “Axle?” said the woman at the center of the group. She lowered her bow, and the rest of the archers took their cue from her.

  “Aw crap…it's Sarah,” Carah muttered.

  As much as their names were similar, the two women couldn't be more different.

  Sarah's eyes flicked over and noticed Carah and me. Her expression didn't change, but the cat ears on her head flicked. Her tail lashed once. Then she noticed the bloody cloth--wrapped body on my shoulder.

  Her eyebrows snapped together. “What that?” she asked, pointing at my load.

  Carah grinned at her as sweet as she could. “Oh, just the guy who blew up the Gray House.”

  Sarah paused. “Excuse me?”

  Charlie gave her a glare. “Look. Cyrus told us to go after him. We got him. Can we go see Cyrus now? Rachel here really needs to sit down.”

  It was true. By this point, Rachel was almost draped over Charlie.

  “I'm alright,” Rachel managed to get out. She didn't sound alright. She hadn't even had the energy to mimic one of us on the walk back.

  Sarah looked at the three of them in surprise. “Well... I guess that shouldn't be an issue.” She looked over at Axle. “He’s in Gloria's office.” The archers let us pass through the barrier and head into the campus.

  As we walked further in, I noticed other changes. Glancing into a few open doorways as we passed, I could see that the large windows of the rooms had been bricked up. A little bit further along, we saw the back of another checkpoint at an alternative entrance.

  “Holy shit! When did we enter the maximum-security wing?” Carah asked.

  I couldn't help but agree. This seemed like overkill, especially since the threats they were trying to protect against could either turn invisible or change shape.

  “Hey. Cyrus is in charge. There’s probably a good reason, right?” Axle put in.

  True. If Cyrus had ordered all this, then maybe something else had happened.

  Finally, we stopped outside the mayor's office. Axle looked like he was about to knock, but Charlie didn't seem to want to wait anymore. She shouldered the door open.

  “Cyrus!” She called out, as she entered the room dragging the Rachel and Axel in with her.

  I saw her back stiffen.

  What?

  Looking over her shoulder into the room, I could see Cyrus. He was standing behind Gloria's desk with a crossbow in his hands. It was pointed directly at Charlie.

  “Whoa, easy there!” She raised her free hand. “It's us!”

  “Stay there and show me the body.” He didn't lower the weapon.

  “Jeez, calm down!” Carah said. She made a flicking motion with the pillowcase that sent Edward’s head flipping through the air. It hit the floor with a bounce.

  Cyrus’s eyes flicked down, observing the head. He was silent for a moment and then lowered the crossbow to the desk. “You can’t be too careful when dealing with a shape shifter.” He stated.

  That was probably as close as we were going to get to an apology. Also? Now that I wasn't worried that he was going shoot us, I noticed that a large bandage had been attached to the side of his head where Edward had brained him.

  Looks like even magic couldn't instantly fix that mess.

  “Ya mind if we come in now?” Charlie grumped.

  Cyrus gestured at two couches in front of the desk.

  Those are new…

  The others settled in but I hesitated. I really didn't want to sit on those with a bloody body on my shoulder. Cyrus looked at me and assessed my load. “Is that the rest of him?”

  At my nod, he gestured at the desk. The clean desk without a single scrap of paper on its surface…or even anywhere around it. The man was a machine. “Put it here,” Cyrus said, his voice even flatter than usual.

  I looked at the desk again. Hell, it looked like he had even oiled the damn thing. “Are you sure you want this up there? It’s kind of messy…”

  “Yes. Now, please.”

  It was a painful thing to do. This was the first time since waking up that I’d seen any of Gloria’s desks clean. But if that’s where he wanted it, then that was that. With a heave, I flipped the body off my shoulder onto his desk. It landed with a thud. Gripping the edges of the sheet, I looked up at him questioningly. Cyrus nodded, and I pulled the sheet open to reveal the body. A look of satisfaction, which I wouldn't have expected from the half-golem, spread across his face.

  After a moment of silence, Axle cleared his throat. “How’s Gloria?”

  Cyrus froze for just a moment, then he relaxed, his face reverting its normal impassive expression. “No change. The ring seems to have saved her life, but she has yet to awaken.” Even saying that as calmly as he did, Cyrus couldn’t even look at us. Instead keeping his eyes locked down at the corpse in front of him.

  Suddenly his expression changed as the golem seemed to notice something.

  He reached down, grabbed the back of Edward’s shirt and lifted it up. After looking inside, his eyebrows snapped together. With a quick motion, he gestured to Charlie to take a look.

  “What?” she asked crossly as she got up and moved to the desk. Leaning forward, she peered into the shirt. “Son of a... There’s no way they’re connected!”

  “That,” Cyrus gestured into the shirt, “says otherwise.”

  “Hey! Don't leave us in the dark!” Carah stood up and hurried over to the desk. After a moment of hesitation, Axle and I followed.

  At the desk, I had to crane my head around to be able to see the inside of the shirt around the others. What Cyrus had noticed was a tattoo, the first one I had seen since the change. It filled Edward's entire back from the base of his neck down. The thing that caught the others’ attention, though, was what the tattoo depicted--a snake weaving its way around a clawed hand. The symbol of that street gang Carah had told me about.

  “He’s a member of The Chosen?” Axle muttered. “Well, that, at least, explains how he got away with living in their territory.”

  “He has a point,” Carah agreed. “This guy might just have joined them so he could live there under the radar.”

  “A possibility.” Cyrus dropped the back of the shirt and waved us back to the couches. As we turned, he went back to searching the body.

  After a moment of watching him pull off anything that looked that it might be remotely important or useful, I cleared my throat. “So... What’s up with the extra security?”

  “I have come to the realization that we are at war.” Cyrus didn't even look up as he spoke. “Up till now we have chosen to ignore it, but after that last attack, I decided that we need to
take the situation seriously.”

  He paused to look up at us. “As such, it is my duty to let you know that, for all intents and purposes, the Adventurers are now a pseudo-military force. Until the situation has changed, and it has been determined that the war has concluded, you are effectively drafted. Including you, Ms. Rachel.”

  “Oh.”

  Well, that wasn't the response I’d been expecting.

  Actually, I really wasn't sure what I’d been expecting.

  “I'm not a fighter!” Rachel protested.

  “Neither were most of the people that currently make up the Adventures. Not a single member of the team that rescued you had any military or live-combat experience. Yet they have stepped up to defend our city when it is needed. I am requesting that you do the same.” His face seemed to soften just a smudge. “Do not worry. I am assigning you to your cousin's team--all people who, by now, I hope you will trust.”

  She looked at us. Fear was still evident in her eyes, but she seemed little less afraid now than before.

  “Her cousin?” Carah blinked. “Who's running that team?”

  “Axle,” Charlie said as she reached over to grip Rachel's hand. “We got this. Don't worry.”

  “Wait,” Carah said to Charlie. “You two are cousins, and you didn't say anything?”

  “There was never really a point where it came up. What did ya want me to say, ‘Oh, and by the way, we’re cousins?’” Charlie shook her head.

  “It was never important,” Rachel added.

  “It wasn’t…” Carah started, but I put a hand on her shoulder to cut her off.

  “Welcome to the team,” I said and smiled at our newest member.

  She jerked back, startled.

  “Jake,” Carah sighed. “Teeth.”

  Shoot.

  There must have been something in my expression, because Rachel relaxed and began to giggle.

  A cloud of anger crossed Cyrus' face for just a moment, and then he winced, holding a hand up to the bandage on his head.

  I'm pretty sure I was the only one who noticed that anger. Before I could say anything, the pain seemed to pass. “Rachel, I believe you have intel on where the Inquisitors’ stronghold is?” He said in his usual flat tone.