The Dragon Empress: The Dragonspire Chronicles Book 6

by James E. Wisher

“Agreed. I further suggest a weekly meeting. Given that this is our territory, we can provide you with food and basic supplies. You have enough to last until this time next week?”

  Moz glanced at Callie who nodded. “We’re good. What if I need to get a message to you?”

  “I can send a bird,” Tamsin offered.

  “That would be fine. My tent is dark red with a gold flag on the roof. If there’s nothing else, I need to return to my people. I’ll see you next week.” She disappeared.

  A minute later the earth master said, “She’s gone.”

  Moz blew out a breath. Though thoroughly professional, that woman made him nervous. “At ease, everyone. Let’s find a place to make camp. We’ll need scouts to make sure no one tries to sneak into the city.”

  “I’ll take the first patrol,” Tonia said before shooting skyward.

  Moz didn’t like her flying around up there with dragons in the area, but they didn’t have a ton of good options. At least they knew where anyone would be heading if they wanted to enter the city. After all, there was only one safe path and Moz knew where it originated.

  “What are we going to do now?” Callie asked as the rest of the team broke up to carry out their tasks.

  “I know what we don’t do. We don’t take that Carttoom witch’s word for anything. First, I’m going to get a team together to scout the city. Once we’ve had a look around, we’ll check out the citadel.”

  “You think she’s lying?” Callie sounded incredulous and Moz didn’t blame her. Still, he couldn’t take anything for granted, not with Carttoom.

  “If everything is as she says it is so be it. But I want to see what’s going on with my own eyes. The stakes are too high to take chances.”

  Chapter 8

  Brigid sat in the back of the sleigh with Yaz’s unconscious body and stroked his hair. He seemed so small, even smaller than usual. They’d been flying eighteen hours a day for over a week at the fastest speed Silas could coax from their transport. She worried that the wizard was going to wear himself out, but he seemed determined to get Yaz there as quickly as possible.

  Helena – Yaz’s mother had properly introduced herself as they were carrying him out of the fortress – sat in front guiding Silas. She said they should reach the Well of Darkness by the end of the day. Just the name of the place gave Brigid a shiver. Still, if it was the only place where they could fix Yaz, then she’d face her fears head-on.

  Brigid did her best to think positive. After all they’d accomplished, the gods couldn’t take him before they had a chance to enjoy their successes.

  Helena looked back. “How is he?”

  “Same.”

  She’d been asking every hour or two since they left this morning. Her worry was doing nothing to make Brigid feel better. Not that it was Helena’s job to reassure her. Yaz’s mother had to be even more worried than Brigid. It was her son after all. Brigid had known him less than a year.

  She smiled and shook her head. Hard to believe they hadn’t been traveling together for longer than that considering everything that had happened. It felt like a lifetime.

  After a few hours of silence Helena said, “There it is.”

  Brigid looked away from Yaz. She hadn’t really been paying much attention to where they were going. There had been forests for a while, then fields, then forests again. The sleigh was just gliding into a clearing in a dense patch of trees. Directly ahead was a ruin made of black stone.

  It might have been a square tower at one point, but the top half had crumbled, the remains sitting in pieces on the ground nearby. The clearing was totally silent. No birds chirped, no squirrels barked at them from the surrounding trees. It felt like they’d flown into a zone of emptiness.

  Silas stopped the sleigh twenty yards from the ruin. “This isn’t an imperial design. Was it Kingdom of Aqua?”

  “Older,” Helena said as she climbed out of the sleigh. “Far older. Even Kranic couldn’t tell who or what created the well.”

  Silas muttered a spell then pointed at the ground directly in front of the sleigh. A golden disk appeared about a foot off the ground. The three of them wrestled Yaz onto the disk then Helena led them to the ruin. An empty doorway led to the interior of the tower. Not that there was much of an interior. The center of the floor had a hole probably twenty yards across and so deep Brigid couldn’t see the bottom when she looked over the side.

  A ramp had been built into the side of the pit and they set out with Helena in the lead and Silas bringing up the rear. A conjured light floated overhead so she had no trouble seeing where she was walking. The ramp was smooth, but not so steep that she had any fear of falling.

  “Are there any guardians?” Silas asked.

  Brigid swallowed. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might have to fight.

  “There weren’t the last time I was here, but that was over twenty years ago. Unless Kranic returned to leave some, I doubt we have anything to worry about.”

  “What are the odds he did?” Brigid asked.

  “Not good. Once he had what he wanted, I’d wager he never gave this place a second thought. That was Kranic’s way. He took whatever he wanted and when he was finished, threw whatever was left away. The world is a better place without him in it.”

  Helena spoke with such venom that Brigid wondered if Kranic had done something to her personally, not that she had courage enough to ask. Yaz was easy to talk to, but his mother was a bit more intimidating.

  They continued downward in near silence, only their echoing footsteps breaking the overwhelming gloom that filled the pit. The further they got from the surface, the tighter Brigid gripped her staff. When her hands started to cramp, she forced herself to relax. There was no threat here and worrying about what might be did no good.

  She wanted to talk, to hear the others’ voices, but couldn’t force herself to say anything. It was like her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth.

  “I can see the bottom,” Silas said.

  Brigid looked and sure enough the gray stone of the floor was barely visible in his magical light. In the center of the floor was yet another hole, this one only about ten feet across and so inky black the light didn’t penetrate the surface. That had to be the Well of Darkness.

  “What do you think it is?” Brigid asked.

  “I don’t know,” Silas said. “I can’t sense any magic from it, yet it has to be sorcery of some kind. It reminds me of Yaz’s power which I also can’t sense.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “I’d be more comfortable answering that question if I better understood how his power worked. As best I can tell, it doesn’t resemble any of the five primary types of magic and it isn’t necromancy. It doesn’t work like bardic magic either. I’ve been thinking about it off and on since I first saw Yaz use it and I still haven’t come up with a good theory.”

  “Do you know how it works, Helena?” Brigid asked.

  “All we knew was that, as your friend said, this power exists outside the normal realm of magic. That led us to believe Lord Black wouldn’t be able to absorb it with his ring. That’s all Kranic cared about, that it would serve as a weapon to be wielded against his rival.”

  They reached the bottom of the ramp and gathered around the well.

  After they’d stared at it for half a minute Brigid asked, “So what now?”

  “Now we put my son in there and pray the well’s magic repairs whatever was broken when he opened the door in his mind.”

  Silas gestured and the disk holding Yaz’s body floated out over the darkness. “You’re sure about this?”

  “No,” Helena said. “I’m not sure about anything. But this is his only hope. This act of desperation will decide if he lives or dies and it’s totally out of our control. Put him in.”

  Silas nodded and snapped his fingers.

  The disk vanished and Yaz landed on the black surface. It rippled and held him afloat. After a few seconds, black tentac
les formed and pulled him under. It was like the black substance was alive and claiming him as its own. Brigid shivered at the thought.

  The instant he was fully submerged she lost all sight of him.

  “Now we wait,” Helena said.

  Yaz was pretty sure his eyes were open, but it was just as dark as when he was unconscious. Wait, he was conscious, wasn’t he? Maybe this was a dream. The last thing he remembered was killing that weird younger version of himself to save his mother. As soon as he saw she was safe, the door had slammed shut, taking his awareness along with it.

  How long ago had that been? He wasn’t used to this kind of confusion. With his perfect memory, he’d never had to struggle to figure out what was going on.

  Okay, he’d assume that he was awake and somewhere with no light, sound, or smell. If that was correct, then Brigid, Silas, and his mother had to be around here somewhere.

  “Mom! Brigid!” He knew he shouted as loud as he could, but he heard nothing.

  Getting more and more worried, Yaz took a step. It felt like there was nothing under his feet. Where the hell was he?

  Maybe examining his last memories would help. He closed his eyes, more out of habit than because there was anything to block out in this place.

  In his mental library, he found Wrath towering over his other emotions. After he lost consciousness his emotions must have separated again. The cloaked figure had his cowl thrown back so Yaz could see his own pale, black-eyed face looking back at him.

  They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Wrath said, “Took you long enough. I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to show up. Come along.”

  Wrath had never acted like a true individual before. His dark side had always had a sort of awareness, but now he felt like his own man. That couldn’t be good.

  Yaz held his place. “Where, exactly, do you think you’re taking me?”

  “To meet your true father.”

  Yaz swallowed the lump in his throat. Mom had said he was just an amalgam of various genetic material that she had carried to birth. According to her, he had no father. If she was telling the truth, then what was Wrath talking about? And for that matter, how did one of his emotions know things Yaz didn’t?

  “Who is he?” Yaz asked.

  “Dear old Dad is a little hard to describe. Better if you just meet him yourself.”

  “Where is he?”

  Wrath actually cracked a smile. “Where do you think? Through the black door.”

  “We can’t open it again. Last time nearly killed me.”

  “You really have no idea where you are, do you? Your friends have brought you to the place where it all started. Here, we can open the door and use our power freely. Here, we are as close to gods as men can get.”

  Yaz had never questioned his sanity before, but he was beginning to now.

  “Look, just come along and meet him. He won’t let us leave until he has his say anyway, so we might as well get it over with. Unless you fancy floating in the dark nothingness for eternity.”

  Yaz didn’t fancy that at all. “Fine. Lead on.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Wrath glided along toward the back of the library.

  As Yaz passed them, his other emotions looked up at him with worried eyes. No doubt if he had a mirror, that’s what his own eyes would’ve looked like.

  Wrath held the door for him and motioned him through.

  “After you,” Yaz said.

  “Dad already knows me. You might say I take after him rather than Mom. It’s you he wants to talk to.”

  Something was off. “We’ll see him together or not at all.”

  Wrath’s smile broadened. “I fear that isn’t an option.”

  A black tentacle shot out of the door, wrapped around Yaz, and dragged him through the opening. As the light grew smaller, Wrath looked in at him, waved, and slammed the door shut.

  For the second time, Yaz found himself alone in absolute darkness. He looked all around, but there was nothing. Wrath seemed to have led him into a trap.

  “You’re a scrawny one,” a deep, booming voice in the darkness said. “Just like your insane little brother. I must say, my power clearly doesn’t agree with you humans. It seems to stunt your growth. Oh well, I suppose being forcibly imbued with the essence of a being that has existed longer than the universe itself would be hard on a mere mortal.”

  “Wrath said you wanted to talk to me. Was there something beyond insulting my mortality that you wanted to discuss? If not, I really should get back to my friends.”

  “Oh don’t worry about that. I told your dark side he could play with your body until we finished. You might very well end up waking only to find he’s set everything right while we chatted. Assuming you convince me to let you go at all.”

  “Could you at least show yourself? And how’s he going to set things right? If I’m locked in here, he can’t open the door to use my powers, because I could escape.”

  A section of darkness took on a faint red glow. Before Yaz’s eyes, that chunk of darkness turned into a humanoid shape with crimson flames for eyes, a jagged mouth, and no other features. It resembled a child’s drawing of the monster under his bed more than anything real.

  “Happy now?” the figure said. “As to your question, you have now bathed directly in my blood. Your power no longer flows from the tiny door in your mind, it now infuses your entire body. Before, you were mostly human with just a drop of me, now you are split nearly fifty-fifty.”

  Yaz’s mind reeled. “I didn’t understand much of that explanation. Maybe we could just skip to the part where you ask me whatever you want to know so I can get out of here.”

  “I’m unsurprised that you failed to understand. Unless they had a working understanding of how the universe was created, anyone would struggle. My question for you is simple, why do you want my power?”

  “I don’t want it. Unfortunately, I need it to stop some evil people from crushing the world under their boots. Once that’s done, I’m content to let it go.”

  The figure drifted closer, staring at Yaz with its burning eyes. “You really don’t want it, do you? Amazing. Many would sell their souls for a fraction of the power you possess. Why don’t you want it?”

  “Because power is a pain. You either have people that fear you, want to use you, or destroy you. I will grant that a certain amount of power is useful in getting the world to leave you alone, but beyond that…” Yaz shook his head. “You can’t count on it. Even if I became invincible, others could try and hurt my friends or they might take them prisoner to force me to do favors for them. That would be worse than being powerless. My very existence would be putting those I care about in danger.”

  “You’re thinking of the dragons in your village. You counted on them to keep you safe and they failed. I can see why you’d be mistrustful. Pity for you that my power is now a part of your very essence. You could at best hide what you are, but it will always be there.”

  Yaz shrugged. He’d never been one to dwell on problems he had no hope of fixing. “Then why bother asking me? What is the point of all this?”

  “Curiosity. You mortals fascinate me. I understand demons, angels, the beings you call gods, even dragons to a certain extent. They are all slaves to their natures. But mortals have no one nature. You come in an infinite variety of good, evil, and everything in between. Of everything The Creator forged when he bound my darkness and created your reality, I think mortals were his greatest accomplishment. Five thousand years have passed since I last had the chance to speak with a mortal of this world. I wish to savor it.”

  “For how long?” Yaz asked.

  The dark shape shrugged. “Until I run out of things I want to know.”

  Yaz somehow suspected that might be a very long time indeed.

  Chapter 9

  Ordinarily, Moz never would have set up his camp the way he did, but when the main concern was a dragon blasting them, keeping the tents separated made sense.
In fact, he’d ordered them pitched at least fifty paces apart and staggered so the dragon could only hit one in a given pass.

  Hopefully.

  At any rate, no one had bothered them. Tamsin reported no movement at all during the night.

  Having eaten his bland breakfast of bread and porridge, Moz gathered his troops. Everyone looked at him expectantly. This would have been a good time to make a rousing speech, but that wasn’t his style.

  Instead he got straight to business. “I’m taking a small group to explore the ruins. I want everyone else to patrol the area and make sure there’s nothing hiding, waiting to strike when we’re not expecting it. Callie, Lucy, Albert, and Troy, you’re with me. Let’s get started.”

  They broke up and the remaining rangers and bards paired up to scout. His people knew their business and Moz was content to let them attend to it. Nothing worse than having an officer looking over your shoulder every second you were trying to work.

  Moz set a direct course toward the city. They hadn’t gone far when Callie said, “I thought you told me there was only one safe path through the ruins.”

  “For others that would be true, but we’ve got someone with us capable of controlling the giant snakes that guard the area, so we should be okay. Besides, if there are any enemy soldiers waiting, they’ll be on the safe path.”

  “I appreciate your confidence in my abilities,” Lucy said. “But I’ve learned to my detriment that just because it has scales, doesn’t mean I can control it.”

  “These aren’t dragons we’re talking about,” Moz said. “As far as I could tell, they were just really big animals. Besides, it’s winter. Maybe they’ll be hibernating.”

  “You don’t sound very confident,” Callie said.

  “No. I believe these creatures were bred specifically to serve as guardians for the ruins. They wouldn’t be much use if they were dormant half the year.”

  “Warm-blooded serpents?” Lucy shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Of course, I’d never heard of a flying ship until one of them attacked the college. Whatever they are, I’ll do my best to control them should we encounter one.”