The Dragon Empress: The Dragonspire Chronicles Book 6

by James E. Wisher

Yaz put himself in his mother’s shoes. “You’re wrong. If it was the only way to wake me, she would have risked it anyway.”

  “No doubt,” the entity said in a smug tone that made Yaz want to punch him. “Things are getting interesting now. Let’s see how he does against a dragon.”

  Yaz refocused on the window. The giant black dragon came roaring in at Wrath. The fool stood his ground, conjuring a bubble around his body as black flames rushed at him. When the attack ended, Wrath flew away unharmed, but his clothes were steaming.

  “Don’t fight it, you idiot, get out of there.”

  “Sound advice,” the entity said. “Pity he can’t hear you. Dragons are tricky, even for someone as powerful as you are now. Did you know they’re born from the mingled blood of The Creator and The Destroyer? It’s why they’re so resistant to magic, even mine.”

  When the dragon banked around again, Wrath zipped out of its way, avoiding a second blast of black fire.

  “Looks like he can at least learn the hard way,” the entity said. “What do you think he’ll do now?

  “If he’s smart, he’ll get out of sight until the dragon gets frustrated and leaves,” Yaz said.

  “That would be smart. The little girl can’t stay connected to the dragon forever. Even her power has limits.”

  “How do you know?” If they were in Yaz’s mind, then how did this thing know stuff he didn’t?

  The entity chuckled. “Just because I know everything you know, doesn’t mean that’s all I know. I am an eternal cosmic entity after all, I have existed longer than the reality that you live in.”

  Yaz didn’t really understand all that. He was riveted by the sight of his body basically playing tag with a dragon big enough to swallow him with a single bite. A near miss from its lashing tail was the last straw.

  “Let me out. If this keeps up Wrath will get me killed.”

  “I don’t think so. I have so much more to tell you. It’s been thousands of years since I’ve had someone to talk to on this world.”

  “What happens to me if Wrath gets my body killed?”

  The entity cocked its head, a very human expression, and said, “You’d vanish. Your soul would go to whatever eternal fate you’d earned.”

  “And you wouldn’t have anyone to talk to. Let me out and you have my word that I’ll come to visit with you once a month.”

  “Once a week.”

  “Twice a month.”

  “Twice a month for a full day and in your dreams whenever I feel like it.”

  “Deal.”

  A rectangular shaft of light appeared. Yaz turned to find the doorway open behind him.

  He willed himself through the opening and stumbled out into his library. He was free. Now all Yaz had to do was reclaim his body from Wrath.

  Yaz looked around his library but saw no sign of Wrath. His other emotions were gone as well. A quick walk to the library closet revealed their fate: Wrath had tossed them in and iced over the door. Yaz pounded the door to little effect. He couldn’t even crack the ice.

  Frowning, he focused his will. This was his mind, gods damn it, and no one was going to take it from him. He placed both hands on the ice and demanded that it give way.

  The ice shattered and vanished. He yanked the door open and his emotions came rushing out, jumping up and down and demanding that he pay attention to them. This was why he kept them looked up in the first place. As soon as they came out, they ran out of control.

  “Guys, calm down.” His emotions fell silent and stared at him with wide eyes. “Where’s Wrath?”

  They all started babbling at once.

  “Enough!” Yaz pointed at a version of himself that had a lion’s mane. That had to be his courage. The figure was depressingly small. “Where is he?”

  “In our consciousness.”

  That wasn’t terribly useful. Yaz had never visualized the space his mind occupied when he wasn’t in his library. His awareness was everywhere during those times. There wasn’t exactly a room he could go to.

  A tiny, yellow version of him tugged on his pant leg. It had to be his fear. “If you wish to suppress him, you must summon Wrath back to this room and defeat him.”

  His fear spoke with a trembling voice and all his other emotions appeared equally ill at ease with the idea. Unfortunately for them, Yaz had no other options.

  “Will you all help me? I’m not sure I can beat him on my own.”

  They all started to glow and one by one his emotions leapt at him, penetrating his chest, and becoming one with him. His body shook with the strength of each feeling he experienced as they joined with him. It was much stronger than when they combined to open the black door the first time. Instinctively he knew that he would never see them as separate again. Finally, only his fear remained.

  “You want me too?” the little guy asked.

  “I need everybody.”

  “I’m too weak to help.”

  Yaz crouched so he was nearly eye to eye with his fear. “No, you’re strong. Your job is to warn me when I’m facing danger. That’s very important. But sometimes I need to do things despite what you say, like facing Wrath. When those times come, all you need to do is offer your support instead of warning me about the danger. You can do that, right?”

  Fear looked into his eyes and nodded. “I can.”

  Fear leapt into his body and sent a final shudder through him. When it was done, Yaz felt strong, stronger than he’d ever been. Perhaps that was the secret. Embracing your emotions instead of locking them in a closet.

  One way to find out for sure.

  “Wrath!” Yaz focused all his will on compelling his dark side to appear.

  A pool of darkness appeared on the floor. It stretched upward, taking on the form of his pale, violent self.

  Wrath stared at him in disbelief. “Are you trying to get us killed? I’m fighting a dragon right now.”

  “I saw. Didn’t look like you were winning. And your attacks on the tower were only a little less pathetic. Time to return control to me. Maybe I can salvage something out of the mess you’ve made.”

  “No! I refuse to go back. Your body is mine now. I don’t know why Dad let you go, but once I get you in the closet, you’ll never emerge again.”

  Black tentacles appeared and shot at Yaz.

  He gathered his will and blasted them to nothing.

  Wrath took a step back, clearly shocked.

  “You are only a part of me,” Yaz said. “A small part. There is no way you can defeat the rest of me combined.”

  Wrath sent more dark blasts at him. Yaz brushed them aside like they were nothing.

  When the attacks stopped, Wrath trembled. “Don’t lock me away. Please.”

  “I won’t. Like I said, you’re a part of me.” Yaz opened his arms and embraced Wrath. In a final flash of light, his dark side vanished, becoming once more a part of the whole. “That’s better.”

  Yaz closed his eyes and when he opened them, he found a huge black dragon flying right at him.

  Chapter 14

  Teeth as long as swords snapped shut directly above Yaz’s head. He’d avoided them by the barest fraction. Now that he had joined with Wrath, he understood how his powers worked. He willed himself down toward the ruined city.

  For all its power, the dragon wasn’t fast enough to keep up. It had to make a wide, sweeping bank. While it turned, Yaz landed and ducked into an empty building. He conjured a sphere of darkness around himself and waited.

  A minute later the stones rattled and shook as the dragon soared over his hiding place. It hadn’t taken long, but she seemed to have lost track of him. It hardly seemed possible to Yaz given how keen their sense of smell was. The dragons back home could smell him coming with their dinner from hundreds of yards away. Not that he planned to question his good luck.

  When several minutes had passed without fire or fury, he risked a peek outside. No sign of the dragon, so that was good. He stepped out onto the street and looked towards the t
ower. Getting a closer look just now would be a waste of time since he couldn’t get inside. What he should do was go find his mother and friends. Given what Wrath did, they had to be worried. He also needed to ask about how to deactivate the towers. Hopefully his mother would know something.

  As he considered his options, a voice hissed at him. “Yaz?”

  He spun, darkness gathered around his hands. A street away, the ranger he’d helped rescue stood just far enough out from a fallen building to be seen. Moz waved him over and Yaz ran his way. He kept darkness shielding the bulk of his body just in case, but he really didn’t expect trouble from Moz.

  “That was some show you put on,” Moz said when Yaz had reached him and they both ducked back out of sight. In the alley between buildings waited a pair of men in dragonscale armor and a middle-aged woman that was probably a bard. At least that was his assumption since ordinary middle-aged women didn’t visit ruined cities with rangers.

  “Yeah, it’s a long story. What are you doing here?”

  “The Dark Sages destroyed the capitals of Rend and Carttoom. I led a group here to try and stop them. We met up with a team from Carttoom, but so far we haven’t accomplished much. Between the dragon and the shield protecting the tower, we’re basically powerless.”

  “I assume you brought a small group so the dragon wouldn’t just wipe you out instantly.”

  “Basically. We figured a small, highly skilled group could deal with the source of the problem.”

  “But you can’t get to it,” Yaz finished for him. “It seems we have the same problem. I suggest we work together. I have to—”

  “Moz,” the bard said. “Two serpents are coming.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Yaz asked.

  The answer appeared a moment later when a pair of snakes as big around as a tree trunk and close to a hundred feet long came slithering down the street from the opposite direction of the tower.

  The bard hummed and swayed and soon one of the serpents stopped and mimicked her movements. The other kept coming.

  “Lucy can only control one snake at a time,” Moz said. “We need to run.”

  Yaz raised his hand and willed a giant hand to appear. An instant later a pure-black gauntlet appeared and grabbed the approaching snake. He flicked his wrist and sent the monster flying across the city. Yaz didn’t see where it landed, but he doubted it would be returning anytime soon.

  Lucy sent the other one on its way and blew out a sigh. “That drained me. Let’s go before any more show up.”

  “Our camp is this way.” Moz set out west.

  They marched at a steady pace, not rushing. Yaz kept his gaze bouncing from the sky to the fallen buildings. Any moment he expected the black dragon to take another run at them, but the group reached the fields outside the city without further trouble. Moz led them to the centermost of a group of widely spaced tents.

  Yaz stepped through the open flap and found Callie seated in a camp chair waiting for them. She smiled when he entered. “Hello again. Perhaps one of these days we can run into each other when there isn’t a battle to be fought.”

  Yaz smiled back. “That would be nice. It feels like a long time since I haven’t had a battle to fight. Assuming we survive the current ones, I’m looking forward to a little peace and quiet.”

  Moz snorted. “There’s always another fight. I thought I could retire. See how that worked out. Looks like you’ve got that power you showed back in the swamp under control. First destroying the flying ship then attacking the tower and finally going one on one with that huge dragon.”

  “More or less. Even with my power under control, I don’t have enough to force my way into the tower. It’s protected by a barrier that draws power from all the other towers.”

  “We noticed that as well. The elemental dragons tried their luck and had a similar result, though they ended up burned alive by the dragon. We know the problem, the question is, what are we going to do about it?”

  “I know how to open the tower door if we can get through the barrier,” Yaz said. “I should be able to get inside the satellite towers, but I don’t know how to turn them off.”

  Callie and Moz shared a look before Moz said, “We scouted the Dark Sage’s base and found a notebook in a hidden room. The problem is, it’s written in some kind of code. We can’t make heads or tails of it.”

  “May I see it?” Yaz asked.

  Callie took a black leather-bound book off a small folding table and handed it to him. Yaz ran his fingers over the cover. The letters LB were embossed on it. “Leonidas Black?”

  “That’s our guess,” Callie said. “Can you read it?”

  Yaz flipped to the first page and stared at the random-seeming jagged lines. He’d never seen writing like that before. He flipped through the rest of it, but it was all the same.

  Finally, he closed the book and handed it back. “I’m sorry. It looks like gibberish to me. My mom’s a brilliant scholar. She might be able to decipher it. I was planning to go get her and my friends so we could make a plan to attack the outer towers. Is it okay if I bring them here?”

  “We’re not in a position to refuse help,” Moz said. “Callie told me what you and your friends have accomplished. We’d be glad to have you.”

  “Okay. I shouldn’t be long collecting them.”

  He went outside and leapt into the air. As he soared east, all Yaz could think was that he was finally flying and he didn’t even have a dragon. It was just like that dream he used to have. Maybe this was what it meant.

  Leonidas listened, outwardly calm but inwardly seething, as Jax explained that his final flying ship had been destroyed. His cadre was gathered on the lower level of the tower. Everyone was standing despite the many comfortable chairs scattered around. The pressure in the room was considerable and Leonidas knew he was the source of his people’s discomfort. In the throne room, Ariel slept at his command. For all the use she was he might as well leave her asleep. After the initial rush of destroying the capitals, the dragons had turned out to be a considerable waste of time.

  When Jax finished Leonidas said, “Thank you. I’m sure you did your best. What do we know about this dark magic wielder?”

  He looked from face to face but no one had any answers. He couldn’t even be angry as he didn’t have a clue himself. How could someone powerful enough to destroy his ship and survive a full-on blast from the black dragon just appear out of nowhere? Well, the next time he showed up, Leonidas would deal with the pest himself. No wizard was a match for his Black Ring.

  “Do you want us to go on another recruiting trip, Boss?” Shade asked. “We only visited about a third of the mercenary camps we know about.”

  “No, thank you, Shade. Until we’ve dealt with the groups surrounding the city, bringing in more soldiers would be a waste of time.”

  “How are we going to deal with them?” Jax asked.

  “First, we’ll send the dragon in to wreak havoc. They’ll avoid most of its attacks of course, that’s the whole point of sending such small groups, but it will put them into a panic. Before they recover, Shade and I will attack the Rend bards and Domina and Jax will deal with the Carttoom wizards.”

  “What about me?” Polymus asked.

  “You and Rondo will protect the tower. If, for some reason, Jax and Domina are forced to retreat with the enemy on their tail, you will be here to let them in.”

  Polymus jerked a thumb at Rondo. “What do I need him for?”

  “You don’t. I need him here to keep an eye on you. Rondo has earned my trust, you, I’m still on the fence about.”

  “When do we move?” Shade asked, sounding eager for a fight.

  “Dusk. The black dragon swooping down out of the night sky will have a greater impact than during the day. Plus, we have magic to see in the dark. I doubt all of our enemies do. Get some rest.”

  The group dispersed but Rondo made his way over.

  “Problem?” Leonidas asked.

  “A sm
all one perhaps. Should Polymus betray us, how am I to stop an immortal alchemist?”

  Leonidas smiled faintly. “Go talk to Domina. In her spare time, I’ve had her working on a project for exactly that eventuality.”

  Rondo blanched but turned toward Domina. He really was a coward, but at least he was a loyal coward.

  Chapter 15

  Though Yaz hadn’t been aware of either his arrival or departure from the Well of Darkness, when he became one with Wrath, he gained the memories that his dark side had kept hidden. Below him, the trees and snow were little more than a white-and-green blur. His power allowed him to fly far faster than even a dragon. It thrilled him more than he could put into words. The power no longer came just through the black door, it infused every speck of his being.

  He understood better what the entity – he refused to think of that thing as his father – meant when he said Wrath was drunk on power. He would have to be very careful not to overestimate what he could do since it felt like he could do anything.

  The well wasn’t far now. Something was moving on the road. That had to be the sleigh.

  Yaz dove, pulled up, and flew beside them.

  The sleigh wobbled and nearly went into the trees when Silas noticed him. They slowed and Yaz landed beside the transport. Silas gave him a hard look.

  “It’s okay. I’m me again.”

  Brigid leapt out and hugged him. Yaz sighed and allowed himself to forget about everything and enjoy it for a few seconds. When they finally parted his mother asked, “What happened in there?”

  “I met my father, or so the creature claimed. It said the dark substance you made me out of was its blood.” Yaz shrugged. “I don’t know. I was trapped in my own mind. It wanted to ask me questions. Lots of questions. It let Wrath control my body until I convinced it that my dark side was apt to get me killed. We made a deal and I was set free.”

  “What kind of deal?” Silas asked.

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t sell my soul or anything. I just agreed to talk with it twice a month. It seemed a small price to pay for my freedom.”