Dragon Emperor 10: From Human to Dragon to God

by Eric Vall

  “I do not trust everyone!” Vallen claimed with an offended look on his face.

  “You literally just told a dragon about a secret stash of gold.” Naomi gave her brother a look that dared him to argue.

  She did make a valid point. I was a dragon, and dragons do love gold.

  “Well, he’s helped us already,” the other lizard mumbled as he crossed his arms. “He could have robbed us by now if he wanted to. I was just trying to be helpful.”

  “That isn’t the point, Vallen,” his sister said with a roll of her reptilian eyes. “We’re almost there.”

  We walked the last few yards, and I could feel the sand under our feet transition into smooth stones that covered the floor. As we all entered the cavern, Naomi set her torch into a sconce on the wall, and as she flicked small fireballs toward the other sides of the room, the fiery spheres took their shape on top of their mounts.

  The cavern lit up in the flickering glow of her fire, and I stared in confusion at the empty room with gray and white stones covering the floor. Black shadows danced in the corners, and the little cascades of sand continued to drip down the walls randomly. A dozen other tunnels led away from the spacious cavern, and the fiery torches hung on the walls between them to light the room.

  As I looked over at Nike, Aaliyah, and Miraya, they all shrugged as we tried to figure out where the Sundex was in the big empty space. There were no secret bookshelf doors in here, and it looked like there was absolutely nothing except the fires burning on the walls.

  Naomi smiled to herself as she walked to the center of the room and placed her hand on the ground. She mumbled a few words, and then I could just make out a hexagon-shaped stone larger than the others. The lizard mage stood up and stepped backward. Then the hexagon stone rose up from the ground, and a stone pillar followed it up. The movement shook sand and pebbles from the pedestal as it came to a rest, so the top of the hexagon stone stood about as high as my waist.

  Then the stone split straight down the middle and slid down the sides of the pillar. As the stone pieces went down, another piece of rock ascended and held a shiny gold object on its surface. The golden object gleamed in the light of the flames, and I could see shapes and stones decorated the sides. When the stones finally stopped moving, I stepped forward to get a better look.

  The four-sided pyramid stood about a foot tall, and each face was covered with writing that looked oddly familiar. I squinted as I got close enough to see the scrawls and recognized a language from back on Earth, and I took in a sharp breath at the familiar letters.

  How was this possible? Everything else I’d seen in Inati had been in languages I only understood because of a magical earring Alyona had given me, but these words I could read for myself.

  “Latin?” I asked as I looked up at Naomi.

  “You can read it?” she gasped.

  “Well, I only know some things in Latin,” I replied with a shrug. “Carpe diem, veni vidi vici, and all that.”

  “No one knows the ancient human language,” Miraya whispered. “It’s been dead for thousands of years. You may have a hard time explaining this.”

  “Ah,” I sighed as two pairs of yellow eyes waited for an explanation. “I, um, I’ve read it before.”

  “Where?” Naomi eyed me suspiciously. “Your spirit is correct, you know. The language of the human era was lost long ago. Explain yourself.”

  Damn Demi-Humans could always hear the quietest things. At this moment, I missed having Miraya in my head where no one else could hear her. Even Vallen looked shocked as I racked my brain for a viable explanation and finally decided to go with the truth.

  “I don’t know why the language is lost to you,” I started carefully as I combed my fingers through my hair. “But where I’m from, it’s an old language for philosophers, certain religions, some schools, and stuff.”

  “In Hatra?” Naomi raised a magenta eyebrow.

  “No,” I said as I shook my head. “I am not originally from Hatra… I’m not from Inati at all.”

  “W-Where, um, where else could you be from?” Vallen asked with wide eyes.

  “I was born on a world called Earth,” I explained. “In that world, there is no magic, no Demi-Humans, no intelligent species other than humans. There are animals, plants, countries, but many of the animals and plants that are here do not exist there.”

  “Impossible!” the Demi-Human lord cried out. “What are you talking about?”

  Well, I’d already started, so I might as well go all in with my explanation.

  “One normal day, I was there just hanging out with my aunt, and a moment later, there was a flash of light, and I was here,” I continued. “Well, I was in a cave near Hatra in my dragon form. I didn’t know anything about magic, but Laika and the dryads helped me get to the city and begin to learn how to control my powers. I’ve learned many things about my magic, and I’ve used it to help everyone I can. I still don’t know how I got here, but I’m confident I was brought here to help with the war against the Breach.”

  “How can you know this?” Naomi hissed, and her forked tongue flicked out with agitation. “You are a stranger to this land!”

  “No, he’s not,” Miraya argued, and she lifted her chin in defiance. “He may not be born of Inati, but he is certainly tied to it. His destiny is here.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” the lizard mage scoffed. “You’re not an Oracle.”

  “I have been the spirit of the Sword of Healing for countless generations, child,” Miraya scolded, and somehow her tiny voice boomed around the cavern. “I can sense his destiny, his future, and his soul. You may have studied magic for most of your life, but I have lived a thousand lives within the sword, and I know Lord Evan is meant to be here.”

  Damn, she was a little badass when she was pissed.

  Naomi’s mouth fell open in shock, and Vallen covered his own gasp at Miraya’s outburst.

  “Thank you,” I said to her as I wrapped my hand around her clenched fist, squeezed her gently, and then I turned back to the lizards. “Now, only a select few people know the truth about my origins, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Why?” Vallen asked after a moment. “Your story is like nothing we’ve ever known. People would come from far and wide just to meet you and hear of your unbelievable adventure!”

  “Exactly,” I said. “No one will believe it, and I’ll lose my credibility with my people. There’s too much at stake for the people not to have trust in me. I live here now, and I’ve accepted I won’t be going back to Earth. I have things to do here.”

  “Okay, so you were brought here by some kind of magic, and you aren’t going anywhere,” Naomi said with a dismissive wave. “Fine, we won’t tell anyone else. But what does the pyramid say?”

  I took another step closer and wiped the thin layer of sand from the carvings in the gold. On the side that faced me, a black onyx was set in the gold at the bottom of the pyramid, and as I circled around the pedestal, I noticed each side featured a different colored jewel below the writing. The onyx, white pearl, bright blue sapphire, and rainbow-colored opal shone with the reflection of the dancing flames behind me, and then I came back to the onyx side and blew the rest of the dust from the face so I could see the writings.

  “Lucis adfert,” I read slowly. “Lux autem semita tua.”

  Before I could move on to the next line, a coldness spread through my body from my head to my feet. The freezing ache soaked through to my bones, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread and impending doom as I stood in place and shivered.

  “Are you alright, my lord?” Nike asked as he stepped next to me and peered at my face. “What is it?”

  “Something is wrong,” I murmured as another chill shook my body. “This isn’t supposed to be here. It isn’t supposed to be anywhere. Why is it here?”

  “The Sundex?” Naomi asked and looked down at the pyramid. “It’s been here for ages. What do you mean?”

  “I don�
��t know,” I growled. “It just shouldn’t exist. I can feel it. We need to get rid of it. I’ll melt it.”

  I took a deep breath to summon my fire magic, but Naomi grabbed the Sundex and held it to her chest.

  “You can’t do that!” she cried out. “Even if we wanted to get rid of it, no one knows how.”

  “I’ll try a few things,” I grumbled, and the familiar heat of my fire rose to the surface of my hands and eased some of the cold ache that had settled in my body. “We have to try something.”

  “It’s been here for generations,” Naomi argued. “Why do we have to destroy it all of a sudden? What could possibly happen now?”

  “You’re not supposed to ask that,” Aaliyah muttered. “It always brings bad luck. Everyone knows that.”

  “If Lord Evan is worried, maybe we should be, too,” Vallen pointed out as he wrung his hands nervously. “He was obviously brought to our world for a purpose or a destiny, as the Lady Miraya said. What if his destiny is to stop something from happening with the Sundex?”

  “Gods, not you, too!” Naomi exclaimed as she clutched the relic closer to her bosom. “You’re being ridiculous. It has been fine this whole time.”

  “The Breach has never been open before,” Miraya reminded her. “It brings a whole new set of dangers to our world that may not have existed before.”

  “Plus, if the Green Glass Sect has figured out the Sundex’s location, it’s not safe here anymore,” I added as I clenched my teeth with frustration. “If we don’t do something, we’re putting all of Rahma at risk. I understand you don’t want to destroy it, but we can’t just sit on our hands.”

  “How do we know these Green Glass people are even after it?” Naomi asked with a raised brow. “They could be after any one of the hundreds of treasures that are hidden down here. Or it could be anyone coming after the gold and jewels you wanted just a few moments ago.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed, and my companions looked at me in surprise. “So, let’s set a trap and find out for ourselves.”

  “A trap?” the lizard repeated as she stared at me incredulously. “What do you want to do? Hang a net from the ceiling?”

  “I was thinking more like an anvil.” I smirked at my Wile E. Coyote reference.

  “A what?” Vallen asked with a bewildered frown.

  “Earth joke,” I chuckled. “Anyway, the net isn’t a bad idea, though I think my web magic will work a little better, but we can’t risk them actually getting away with the Sundex. They’re too smart to fall for something obvious.”

  “I could cast a trap spell,” Naomi murmured as she set the artifact down and paced around the Sundex’s pedestal. “Do we want them dead or alive?”

  “They typically have at least one mage in every attack,” I countered. “So, they might be able to see it coming, and we need at least one alive so we can ask how they knew it was here. What else?”

  “What about a trap door as they come through the tunnel?” Aaliyah suggested.

  “That could work,” I replied as I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “But we don’t know how many will be coming, so if the first guy falls in, the others will just avoid it and could still get to the relic.”

  “What if you use your displacement magic on it?” Nike offered. “You make it look like it’s in one spot, so they go there instead of to the real one.”

  “I think we’re on the right track, but I don’t know how to use that on another object,” I said. “And if they figure it out, we’re still leaving the real Sundex out in the open for one of them to get their hands on it.”

  “What if they think it’s right here, but it’s actually not there?” Naomi proposed.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  The lady mage whispered a few words and then waved her hand out, and a replica of the Sundex on the pedestal appeared a couple feet away.

  “Mirage magic,” Aaliyah whispered.

  “That’s perfect,” I agreed with a broad grin. “We can put the real one back underground, so even if they get all the way in here, they won’t be able to take it.”

  Naomi nodded and placed her hands on the split stones around the Sundex, and the blocks began to shift back over the top of the pedestal as the stone holding the relic slid back down into the pillar. Then the whole column started to descend into the ground, and the stones thumped back into place in the smooth floor. Then the mage motioned toward the fake pillar, and the magical image shifted over to cover the real hexagon on the floor.

  “Amazing!” Vallen exclaimed.

  “Yeah, it is.” I nodded. “Now, the most important part of this trap is that they have no suspicions anyone is here. So, Lord Vallen, you should return to the castle and act natural.”

  “And miss out on the action?” he replied with a nervous giggle. “Well, if you insist!”

  “How is he supposed to get back if I’m staying here?” Naomi asked.

  “Well, I’m about to send a message to Alyona,” I replied. “Just follow the little dragon.”

  I chuckled at Vallen’s wide eyes as I conjured my silver magic dragon in my palm.

  “Go to the princess and tell her we’ve set a trap in the catacombs to catch the Sect when they try to steal the relic,” I murmured. “She and the others should stay upstairs and continue their research. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  The tiny beast nodded and expanded its wings.

  “Oh,” I added before it zoomed away. “Go slow enough that Lord Vallen can follow you out.”

  I swore it sounded like the little dragon chuckled as it hovered above my hand and flapped its wings in slow-motion before it flew toward the tunnel we’d used to get here.

  Vallen looked at me, and I dipped my head in the direction the dragon had flown. Then the lizard gasped and scurried after my messenger.

  “Do you think we should just wait down here?” Aaliyah asked with a doubtful look.

  “The lioness makes a good point,” Naomi agreed. “We have no idea when your Sect people will get here.”

  “Perhaps some kind of magical barrier?” Miraya suggested.

  “Yes, I could cast a spell that notifies us when someone crosses it,” the lizard mage said as she looked over the tunnel entrance.

  “The Sect mages are extremely knowledgeable with magic,” I argued. “They could sense a barrier spell.”

  “Even if I did one over the door to the stairs?” Naomi asked.

  “I doubt it matters where it is,” I replied as I rubbed my chin in thought. “They seem to be a step ahead of everyone’s magic.”

  “What else could we do?” Miraya wondered.

  “We should keep watch in shifts,” I decided. “Two of us will stay down here for a few hours at a time, and I think Alyona could create a portal upstairs, so we wouldn’t have to keep using the tunnels to get here.”

  “Just stand guard here in the cavern?” Naomi raised an uncertain eyebrow.

  “No, that would make us easy targets,” I answered. “Each person would pick one of the tunnels. Other than the one they’ll come in, of course. We can sit just inside them and stay out of the light, but we should still be able to see in here.”

  “I don’t know how to take back my fireballs like you do,” Naomi said as she pointed at the bright torches. “We should make it a little darker, so they definitely can’t see us hiding.”

  “Okay, let me show you,” I offered as I walked over to the torch I’d lit. “I learned with touch first, and I put my fingers next to the flames.”

  I lifted my arm and put my fingers at the edge of the fire, and she sucked in a deep breath.

  “Don’t worry, it won’t burn,” I chuckled. “Get close enough to feel the heat, and then call to it. To me, it feels like the fire wants to come home.”

  Then I pulled the fire back in, and the flames disappeared into my fingertips as the warmth soaked back into my skin. It was a welcome relief from the cold I’d felt with the Sundex.

  “Okay, I’ll try it,” Na
omi murmured, and she walked over to one of the torches she had lit. “Just reach in there?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go all the way in yet,” I laughed. “Just on the edge where you can feel it.”

  She nodded and lifted her hand next to the black flame. Then she closed her eyes, and the fire flickered for a moment before it rushed into her hand. She gasped as the flames returned to her, and then she looked at me with a grin.

  “I did it,” she said.

  “Yep.” I grinned back. “So, take out as many as you like.”

  Naomi nodded and made her way around the cavern.

  “So, what did the Sundex say?” Nike murmured once he walked over to me.

  “‘Bringer of light,’” I replied. “Then it said, ‘to light your path.’”

  “We knew those things,” he said with a confused expression. “Why did it worry you?”

  “It wasn’t exactly the words,” I explained as I tried to piece it together. “It was more like they activated this feeling of foreboding. This deep chill settled in my bones, and honestly, I still feel it. It isn’t as bad with the Sundex going back underground, but I can definitely tell something is off. It’s weird.”

  “It’s not weird,” Nike replied. “You should have learned by now that your understanding of magic goes even deeper than some people who were born here. If you feel something sinister will happen with the relic, then I believe you.”

  “Thanks,” I murmured. “At least one person doesn’t think I’m crazy. Well, one person besides Vallen. His favor doesn’t seem to mean much with Naomi, though.”

  “Yes,” the noble chuckled. “He is a bit of a character. And his sister is something else entirely.”

  “Whose sister?” Naomi asked as she popped up behind me.

  “No one,” I replied with a smirk. “Everything ready?”

  “Yes,” she answered and tucked a lock of her magenta hair behind her ear. “We just need to decide who will take the first shift.”

  “I will take it,” I volunteered. “Would you like to join me?”