“Looks like we’re walking from here on out,” Camdyn remarked, climbing out of the saddle. He was wearing his leather and chainmail, so the movement made the armor jingle.
“Wonderful,” Jasper replied sarcastically, dismounting as well.
Razja rubbed her horse’s mane affectionately. “Will they be okay? There isn’t anywhere to graze here, and I worry about them drinking any water they might find.”
The other two looked at each other dubiously.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine, lass,” Camdyn offered. “They know their way back to the plain. They’ll be safe while we’re out doing our business and can find them after.”
She caught the hidden meaning behind his words. If there even is an ‘after’. Still, there was nothing to be done about it now. They needed to enter the crater and the horses refused to budge.
Dismounting, she gave the dappled horse one final pat before turning it away, sending it clopping back down the path with the other two. Within seconds the fog swallowed them up and they were alone.
“Let’s get this over with,” Jasper muttered, bringing his handkerchief back up and walking up the path.
Camdyn gave her a sympathetic look then went after him, leaving her to take up the rear.
The road led them up a gentle incline before dropping steeply down into the mouth of the crater. Below, pools of bubbling water coughed up plumes of acrid smoke, darkening the sky and making it difficult to see. As before, the trail marked a clear path ahead, the soft, ashy ground marked by the signs of footprints, hoof marks and wagon ruts.
Carefully, they descended into the crater and followed the trail forward, mindful to remain stealthy and not stray from the path.
The interior was even worse than the rest of the Deadlands. Volcanic rumblings shook the ground every few minutes and vents of steam spewed foul-smelling gas into the air. Strange red insects skittered across the ground, and no matter where Razja looked, it was like she had entered the depths of hell.
It was not long before they came to the middle of the brimstone pit. Figures gathered ahead of them, and the sound of their voices sent the three companions hiding behind a large, pocked stone sticking out of the ground.
As Razja peeked around the edge of the rock, the fog cleared enough for her to see what laid ahead.
Enormous black stones formed a hippodrome of sorts, a wide gathering area constructed after a strange fashion that she had never seen before. It was a circle set in the center of the crater, with intricate patterns carved into the stonework. Ebon-colored obelisks had been placed at regular intervals, rising from the outside of the circle and moving in toward the center like a forest of black spikes. At the very middle of the hippodrome, there was a raised platform, upon which was what looked like an altar.
The bearded dragon priest stood near the altar and was addressing a crowd of dozens of people, all of whom were looking up at him in rapt attention. He seemed to be giving some kind of a speech, and was gesturing grandly at the altar beside him.
“I don’t see a dragon,” Jasper whispered beside her. “That’s a good sign.”
“They must be getting ready to summon him,” Camdyn reasoned, quietly pulling out his sword. “We got here just in time.”
“What’s your plan, sellsword?” Jasper asked, eying the big man’s bare steel. “Are you going to rush in and try to kill them all? There’s got to be a hundred men standing between us and that damned priest.”
Camdyn shrugged one heavy shoulder. “We need to do something. It’s almost too late!”
“I agree,” Jasper said, holding up a placating hand. “But we need to be smart in the way we approach it. If we just rush in, they’ll kill us and summon their dragon anyway.”
Both of them then looked at Razja.
“What?” she asked, suddenly feeling very queasy.
WHEN EVERYONE WAS IN position, Razja embraced the magic.
Warm energy flooded her entire body, pulsing with the beating of her heart as it coursed through her veins like liquid fire. She brought up both hands and pointed above the gathered cultists, muttering the words of power and praying silently that their mad plan would work.
Lighting fell from the sky, conjured by her spell in a deluge of power. The crackling almost drowned out the screams as men and women were turned to ash, completely incinerated by the violent magic.
As soon as the spell initiated, Camdyn and Jasper leapt from hiding, springing from their hidden places on opposite sides of the hippodrome and rushing in to the confusion.
Panic ensued as the cultist began moving in all directions, attempting to understand what was going on.
Razja immediately set out on another spell, letting the lightening continue as she prepared to rain fire down upon their heads. For the time being, no one saw her, and every second she remained undetected gave her companions a greater chance to kill the red priest. With luck, they would not be caught up in the destruction her spells caused.
Blades flashed as the sellsword and the assassin rushed in, hacking their way through the chaos with all the skill they possessed. Limbs were lopped off and necks were slashed, blood flying and mixing with the magical torrent that engulfed the stone circle.
As she threw fire into the mix, Razja noticed that the dragon priest was yelling at someone, shouting frantically from his place next to the altar. The bearded man looked furious as his zealous flock of followers cowered before the unexpected attack. Even from a distance, she could see that his face had grown as red as his robes, and he was now waving his arms wildly, trying to get the attention of someone nearby.
I could end this now, she thought, cutting her fire spell short. One well-placed magic missile could kill him, and then we could get the Tears from off his corpse.
It was a long-shot, but Razja knew that she had to take the chance.
Working quickly, she took aim at the dragon priest and embraced the power once more. Its energizing flow filled her with the confidence she needed. Speaking the words of the spell, her fingertips began to radiate a white light until they grasped what appeared to be glowing arrow of pure magic. Then, bringing her arm back, she hurled the missile, sending it streaking over the milling cultists like a shooting star.
It exploded with a shower of sparks, hitting the priests directly and causing those around him to shrink back in terror.
When the sparks faded and the smoke cleared, the priest remained standing on the platform, a translucent shield surrounding his entire body.
Magic user! She cursed herself inwardly, furious that her gambit had failed. Scrambling, she began preparing another fire spell, hoping that the momentary delay had not put her companions in a dangerous position.
Camdyn and Jasper had nearly reached the altar, but their progress had also been slowed. Many of the cultists had rallied in the confusion and begun fighting back, forcing them to engage many foes at once. The warrior and the assassin stood back to back, fighting against a rising tide of fanatics in red clothes.
More fire began to fall on their heads, but it did little good. There were men with swords approaching her from the gathering area, having found where she had been hiding.
No! We’re so close! We can’t fail now!
On the platform, the dragon priest accepted something from one of his nearby followers. It looked like a huge hammer that glowed with red, green and blue lights. The Tears of Eternity. Somehow, they had managed to turn stones into a weapon of some kind, fastening them into the metal of the hammer’s blunt head.
The dragon priest hefted the weapon and strode over to the altar, his determination made apparent by his purposeful gait. His shield ensured that none of Razja’s spells could touch him.
There was nothing that she could do to stop him.
Raising the hammer high above his head, the priest brought it down hard on top of the altar, resulting in a resounding crack that cut through the chaotic noise around him. He did it a second and third time, smashing the dark stone with enoug
h force to cause it to crack. On the fourth hit, the altar split in two, unleashing an intense hissing sound and an otherworldly gust of wind.
The men bearing down on Razja stopped dead in their tracks. In fact, everyone on the hippodrome turned to regard the platform, the wind causing the fog to swirl around them like some sort of terrible storm.
Gods above, Razja realized with horror as the priest’s followers all sank to their knees in reverence. That was not an altar at all... it was the seal on the dragon’s prison. That madman used the Tears to break it open!
Casting the hammer aside, the bearded priest raised his hands in rapture, watching as an enormous crack began to form in the hippodrome itself. Camdyn and Jasper fled at once, racing over to her position as the wind began to grow in intensity.
“We failed!” the assassin cried. “Let’s get the hell out of here while we still can!”
“No,” Razja responded, feeling the blood drain from her face. “Look!”
She pointed, and the others looked. The crack in the stone was growing wider, loudly splitting to form what looked like a canyon in the middle of the crater. Kneeling zealots fell into the chasm, screaming in fear or elation as the darkness below swallowed them whole. The rest merely bowed their heads, whether in prayer or terror Razja could not tell. The red priest, though, was smiling broadly, his bearded face revealing a look of triumph that made him look insane.
The ground began to shake, and for a moment it felt like the entire world was ending.
Razja could not look away, could not bear to tear her eyes away from the madness unfolding before her. Some of the priest’s followers lost their nerve and began to flee, getting up from where they were kneeling and running away from the broken hippodrome.
Just when the howling of the wind reached its height, a red glow began to emanate from the depths of the chasm, which had grown as wide as the mightiest river she had seen in the westlands. An extraordinary heat washed over her, and when she looked into the depths of the darkness, she could see a large pair of eyes looking back at her.
Crimson, reptilian eyes.
Chapter Twenty
Draxxes the Defiant rose from the tear in the earth, emerging like a mountain of jagged teeth and dark, glittering scales.
Men and women screamed at the sight of the great beast, which stood more than fifty feet in the air. Razja could not look away even if she wanted to. Her eyes were transfixed on the creature from legend, a being that, until recently, she thought was only a legend.
Draxxes pulled itself from the chasm and stood on the fractured hippodrome, his great serpentine head looking about as he beheld the cowering people beneath him. His wings spread out as if stretching after a long slumber, long bony fingers webbed with leathery skin that would allow him to take flight. His legs all ended in claws that were bigger than horses, and his tail coiled behind him like a giant snake, thick and covered with dangerous-looking spines.
The dragon’s red eyes looked them over, and then Razja heard a voice inside of her head, booming and powerful as a thunderstorm.
Ah... Thel’Varden. It has been far too long.
She immediately registered that the voice belonged to Draxxes, and judging by the awed expressions on the faces around her, she assumed that everyone else was hearing the same thing.
Humans freed me from my prison? Amusing. It was because of humans that I was put away in the first place.
“We are your humble servants, oh Draxxes the Great,” the dragon priest declared, prostrating himself before the beast and touching his forehead to the stone. Some spell must have projected his voice to make it seem so loud. “It was us who brought you back to the realm of the living, and it is us who serve you.”
The realm of the living? Draxxes asked, his immense voice full of mocking. Is that what you call it? There are many realms, human. This is but one of an infinite number of them. However, I would not call what you creatures do ‘living’. You are dust, given sentience by beings greater than yourselves and allowed to linger in the world me and my brother created.
“We know of your greatness, oh Draxxes,” the dragon priest affirmed, looking up. “That is why we have freed you, to cleanse this world and make us your chosen people.”
The dragon laughed, causing everyone present to shy away from the thunderous noise. Even though the sound was only a mental one, it was still powerful enough to make Razja’s head feel like it was going to explode. When the laughter subsided, Draxxes opened his jaws, revealing row after row of razor-sharp teeth.
Your intentions are good, human. You have unshackled me from my wrongful imprisonment, and for that I am grateful. But you are not my chosen people. Humans are a blight on my perfect world and have been since your foolish gods brought you here. You are correct about one thing, though. I will cleanse this world and burn away the corruption your kind has sown in my absence – and I believe that I will start with you.
With that, Draxxes the Defiant reached forth his jaws and devoured the red priest, his teeth snapping him up like a serpent snapping up a mouse. The bearded man shrieked as the maw clamped down on him, but he was quickly cut off as the dragon swallowed him whole.
Gods above! Razja stared in horror at the terrible scene, eyes wide as she watched the red priest vanish in an instant.
When Draxxes was done with his meal, he lifted his head up to the heavens and let out a roar so powerful that the ground beneath her feet began to quake. She clamped her hands over her ears along with everyone else in the crater, cowering before the primordial might of the great dragon who helped create the world.
Jasper and Camdyn seemed to have more sense than everyone else, and they immediately got to their feet and began hauling her up as well. "Let's go!" Jasper's tone was urgent, real fear creeping into his voice. "We need to get out of here before that thing kills us all!"
It was difficult to argue with him.
Once he was finished roaring, Draxxes pulled the rest of his body out of the chasm. Each one of his clawed feet looked large enough to crush a castle, and when his full form emerged from the shadows below, he seemed to block out the sun's meager light. Thick chains attached to his hind legs prevented him from fully emerging, however, the shimmering metal bright with some sort of magical enchantment. They tugged at the dragon, keeping him from escaping his prison, and the creature let out another angry roar.
Razja turned to flee with the others, but as she turned something caught her eye. It was a faint glimmer amidst the chaos of the fleeing cultists.
The Tears of Eternity!
The hammer carrying the gemstones had been discarded by the red priest and now laid alone on the ground close to where the dragon was thrashing against his bonds.
Razja stopped dead in her tracks.
"What are you doing, lass?" Camdyn shouted. "Is something wrong?"
She turned to regard her frantic companions. "The Tears! Do you not remember what the Wanderer told us?"
They both gave her confused looks.
She gestured at the distant hammer. "The Tears were not only useful in imprisoning the dragon. They could also be used to hurt or even kill him! They are immensely powerful artifacts from a god!"
Jasper groaned. "What are you getting at, sorceress?"
"We can still complete our quest," she replied. "We can still prevent the destruction of the world. If we can use the Tears against Draxxes, we still have a chance to defeat him, possibly even imprison him again!"
Camdyn glanced at the dragon and rubbed his chin. "It'll be a long shot."
"We have to take it," Razja insisted. "We're going to die either way. Besides, that's another thing the Wanderer told us - Draxxes will be weakened immediately following his release. It will take him time to recover his full strength."
Jasper eyed the dragon warily. "That beast doesn't look weakened to me."
She stepped forward and rested a hand on the assassin's arm. This prompted him to look at her, and she stared deeply into his dark, fathomless e
yes. "We have to do this," she said gently, her voice cutting through the noise around them. "This is our chance to be heroes, to do something great. There are three stones and three of us... we need you, Jasper Aurelio."
Jasper regarded her for a long moment before finally nodding his head and sighing. "We've come this far. Lead the way, sorceress. I'm with you."
Just then, Draxxes managed to pull one of his legs free from the chains, causing it to shriek with the sound of rending metal. A group of cultists had taken to shooting the dragon with crossbows, but the projectiles might have been pebbles tossed by children for all the damage they did. The dragon turned on the tiny humans and unleashed a torrent of flame upon them, burning them to cinders in a matter of seconds. When it was done, there was nothing left but blackened stains marring the ground.
"Stay close to me," Razja said, speaking to her two companions. She readied her bracers and embraced the magical energies of the universe. "I'll protect you from the dragonfire."
With that, she started forward, running against the flow of fleeing men and women as she made her way toward the dragon.
The warrior and the assassin followed close behind, their weapons ready and their expressions grim but determined.
If this was to be their end, they were going to meet it with courage.
Draxxes growled and pulled again on the chain binding his other leg. It held fast, biting into the scaly flesh like a vice of profound strength. It truly was a terrifying sight, one that made Razja's heart drop into her stomach, but she continued forward doggedly, a spell on her lips ready to be cast.
None of the cultists tried to stop them. Most of the wretches were too busy fleeing, and those who remained seemed too stunned to move. Very few continued to bow before the dragon, their heads touching the ground in zealous deference. Even fewer attempted to fight back at the great monster, their puny weapons doing little against its impenetrable hide.
The gem-studded hammer was in sight. It lay forgotten on the stone floor of the shattered hippodrome, glowing brightly.
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