A third nagia hacked at me, but I was ready with an ice shield to deflect the strike. Even as her scimitar bounced off the inch-thick dome that appeared in front of her, I was reaching for my acid magic. I dispelled the ice shield, then sent a stream of neon green acid spraying from my palms right at her face. Her shrieks echoed loud in the glass-walled room, and she clawed at her face in an attempt to stop the corrosive liquid from burning through her flesh.
A loud cry of anger sounded behind me, followed by the clang of steel striking steel. I shot a glance over my shoulder in time to see Rizzala knocking aside two flashing scimitars. The warrior woman dodged a low thrust aimed at her gut, ducked a powerful swipe that would have taken off her head, then drove the flaming tip of her magical spear into the nagia’s gut. A heartbeat later, Irenya’s fire engulfed the nagia’s head, and the creature fell back with a scream.
“Ethan!” Arieste’s cry echoed from my right. “She’s trying to run!”
I whirled and found Mistress Queraya slithering as fast as she could away from us, toward a section of wall where the glass had been shattered to create a hole. I raced toward her at full tilt, but even as I began to move, I knew she’d reach the opening long before I could reach her. Once she was through, she’d have the entire ocean to hide in, and there was no way I could follow her into the depths without the water magic to breathe underwater.
My gut clenched as the nagia Mistress curled her tail beneath her, then flung her huge serpentine body toward the hole. Right into the wall of ice which had just appeared there.
I had no time to shoot Arieste a word of thanks for her quick intervention, because I had a pissed-off nagia Mistress to contend with. I felt the fire magic flooding through me once more, and I summoned as much of it as I could muster, then sent it hurting toward her. The Mistress, though stunned from her face-first impact with the ice shield, managed to throw herself out of the way. Her head and torso escaped the flames, but not her slithering body. Her pale blue skin blistered and charred beneath the heat of the magic, and her scream of mingled rage and pain echoed in the chamber.
“Curse you!” Mistress Queraya hissed as she reached for the two long scimitars on her back and the short swords hanging on her belt. “You have defeated my sisters, but not--”
Her words cut off with a gasp as I summoned a dome of ice to appear around her head. Back in Whitespire, I’d discovered that the limited oxygen in my improvised diving helmet made it terrible scuba gear, but cutting off an enemy’s air supply served as the perfect distraction. Mistress Queraya recoiled, stunned, then clawed at the inch-thick layer of ice encasing her head. I crossed the distance to the nagia in two steps, drew a dagger from my belt, and drove it into her chest just above her ample breasts, where I guessed her monstrous heart would be.
The fishbowl-shaped helmet around the nagia’s head muffled her screams, but I could feel her struggles growing weaker as sea-blue blood gushed from the wound.
“Now!” Nyvea cried. “Siphon her magic before she dies.”
I reached out with my mind and searched for the magic flowing within her, the magic that held her together. It had been weeks since I used the Mark of the Guardian this way, but I could feel it eagerly grasping at the rushing, fast-flowing power of Curym’s water magic. The power was weakening as Mistress Queraya died, but there was enough that I could sense it as clearly as I felt the magic flowing through my four dragon women.
I pulled on the magic, though it felt like trying to control a waterfall with my bare hands. The magic resisted my tug at first, as if it was bound by strong cords to the creature it animated. But my will was stronger, my control over the magic enhanced by the addition of new powers and weeks of practice. Suddenly, the water power gushed out of the dying nagia and surged like a tidal wave into my body. I was nearly knocked off my feet by the force of the new power, but managed to retain my grip on the thrashing creature. The nagia fell back to the ground, landed hard, and lay still as I ripped out the last of its magic.
My jaw dropped in marvel at the sensations flowing through me. The water magic was a force that none of the other magics could compare. It recoiled from the fire and flowed around the ice, but the acid could not touch it. Darkness simply accepted the power, and the surging sensations finally settled to a dim trickle deep within my core as the water magic settled among the others.
“Damn!” I breathed. “That is amazing! And to think I have only a fraction of what Curym has.”
No wonder Curym was the cleverest of the dragons of Iriador. Water was inexorable yet far more adaptable than any of the others. Water sought to flow through cracks and avoid obstacles, yet it could wear mountains into valleys and carve canyons through solid stone. Where fire was fury, ice was solid immovability, darkness changing, and acid corrosive, the water was clever, careful, unstoppable.
“Here, Ethan,” Rizzala growled from behind me. “Take their power before they die.”
I looked up from the dead Mistress to find Rizzala trying to wrestle her spear from the body of a dying nagia. The serpentine creature gripped it with two hands while her other two arms struck out at Rizzala with her short swords. The nagia was dying, but it wouldn’t go without a fight.
I ripped my axe from the split skull of another nagia and raced toward Rizzala. I brought the axe blade down hard enough to sever one of the creature’s upper arms at the elbow, and Arieste’s ice shield encircled its other hand a heartbeat later. I leapt atop the struggling monster and tapped into the Mark of the Guardian. This time, I was ready for the sudden rush of power as I siphoned the water magic out of the dying nagia. There was far less than I’d taken from the Mistress, but I could feel the power amplified by the other magics.
When I had drained the last of its magic, I turned to regard the other nagia in the room. The three I’d taken down were dead, the power within them snuffed out. I regretted having to kill them when we could have used their magic, but there was no way I’d have been able to take Mistress Queraya’s power while worrying about enemies attacking from behind.
I turned to Arieste, Irenya, and Letharia, who stood at the head of the staircase into the room. “You did good!” I told them with a grin. “That fire blast of yours was perfect, Irenya. And Arieste, those ice shields were damned brilliant.”
Both of the women glowed under my praise. Letharia, however, stood frozen, her emerald green eyes wide in fear. I recognized the stunned look of someone that had just seen death up close and personal for the first time, because I’d seen it in Princess Selene’s eyes when she killed a murloc on the walls of Whitespire. Even though Letharia had been a dragon and doubtless had taken a life before, it was something else entirely to see it in human form. A human form that could be easily destroyed by the creatures we’d just slain.
“Letharia, are you okay?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”
Her expression was dull, her eyes glazed over as she looked at me. “N-No,” she finally managed. “I wasn’t’…I didn’t….” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t do anything. I just froze.”
“You need not worry,” Arieste told her with a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Fear is perfectly normal in these circumstances.”
“Yeah, it’s just your brain’s reaction to a threat,” I said and gave her a grin. “Some people fight, some people run, and some people freeze. All of our brains react differently.”
“But…” Letharia swallowed, then shook her head. “I froze, and in doing so, could have put your lives at risk. What if there had been more, or if--”
“Do not burden your mind with questions of what if,” Rizzala said as she came to stand beside the dark-haired woman. “Simply understand that your reaction was normal, and prepare to overcome it the next time you are faced with a threat.” She gripped Letharia’s upper arm in her strong hand. “That is how a true warrior is made.”
Letharia gave her a weak grin, then nodded. “O-Okay.”
I turned to Arieste. “Good eye, Arieste. If it wasn’t for you,
Mistress Queraya would have gotten away.”
The platinum blonde grinned, and a hint of color rose to her cheeks. “It was a team effort,” she said.
I strode toward the iced-over opening in the glass walls. The glass had been either cut or broken, and the opening was just a few inches above the level of the ocean. I could actually see the shifting tides moving just below the surface, and occasionally some of the water would splash through the opening to trickle onto the ground.
“Well, I guess that explains how the nagia got in and out of this place,” I said. I had been wondering about it after discovering the magic-sealed door at the base of the tower.
Something Letharia had said earlier popped into my mind, and I turned to the dark-haired woman.
“You mentioned that the nagia made their nests in a dry place above the water level, right?” I asked, then gestured at the room around us. “You can see where the water pools on the floor and flows along the wall. This isn’t dry enough for them, is it?”
Still in a bit of shock, Letharia took a long moment to respond. “No,” she managed finally. “They would make it at the top of the tower.”
I glanced over at the stairwell that rose to the highest chamber in the concubine’s tower, and my gut tightened. Could there be more nagia waiting up there for us? I tapped into the Mark of the Guardian and scanned the room above. I felt only the faintest blip on my magical radar, nothing large enough to be a minion, but something that reminded me of the power I felt coming from gemstone-enhanced weapons.
“Let’s go check it out,” I said. “I think there’s some loot up there, something with a gemstone and real power.”
I led the way up the stairs, with Rizzala beside me and Arieste behind Irenya and Letharia. Even through the cloud cover, the daylight streaming through the glass walls of the top tower room was almost blinding after a day spent in the dark tunnels. I had to shield my eyes as I scanned the room for the magical presence I’d felt.
Bronze swords, brass breastplates, painted wooden shields, and massive longbows leaned against the walls, as neat and tidy as expected from warriors like the nagia. However, upon the huge circular bed in the center of the chamber lay a pile that could only be the treasures of the nagia clan. Gold, jewels, and trinkets nestled among animal pelts, stone statuettes, and a random assortment of human and animal bones.
I followed the Mark of the Guardian’s pingings to the far side of the pile and scanned the objects piled there. To my surprise, I found a long brass tube about an inch thick and ten inches long, with a red gemstone set into the bronze cap at one end. I picked up the object and studied it, curious. The crimson stone meant it was a fire weapon, so maybe it was some kind of magical flamethrower. That would be fucking awesome, but something about the design made me discard that idea. The brass and bronze would heat up too quickly when exposed to a prolonged burst of flame.
As I lowered the tube, something rolled out from within it and dropped to the floor. I caught it before it rolled away and found I was holding a round, smooth black stone. The stone looked exactly one inch in diameter, and when I dropped it into the tube, it fit perfectly.
My heart leapt as I realized what it was.
“Holy shit!” I shouted and my eyes flew wide.
Rizzala was the first to race around the pile of loot. “What is it?” She held her spear gripped tight, and her eyes searched for any sign of threat. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong!” I said with a grin. “Look at this!”
I upended the tube until I was certain the round stone was set against the bronze cap, then leveled it at a pile of furs and pressed the red gemstone. The tube bucked in my grip and grew suddenly hot as the round stone shot out from the hollow end, then plowed through the furs.
“Wow,” Rizzala gasped as she leapt back in surprise. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the brass tube. “What is this thing?”
“It’s called a firearm,” I told her. It was as primitive as the early Chinese cannons I’d read about in history books, but the fact that it used magic instead of gunpowder meant it would be much easier to use. “And it can do some serious damage, if we can find the right ammunition for it. Help me look.”
I dug through the pile of furs until I found the round stone rattled around the inside of a skull it had shattered. The stone seemed undamaged by the fire and impact, though I doubted it would survive more than a few shots before cracking.
To my dismay, we couldn’t find any more round, smooth stones for ammunition. We spent a full five minutes pawing through the pile, and the other three women joined in when we called them over. However, we eventually had to give up the search. We had more pressing things to do than find more ammunition.
I pocketed the stone and slipped the tube into my belt. “Let’s go,” I told the four women. “This is the only magical weapon here.”
“Shame,” Rizzala said with a shake of her head. “That would have been handy for fighting the other nagia.”
“We don’t need it,” Irenya replied, and her face split into a grin. “You saw how easily we took those five down.”
“That was the easy clan, remember?” Arieste said. “The others will be harder.”
“And you’ll be ready for them,” I told the four women. “You’ve got more than enough magic to handle it.”
Our spirits were lighter as we descended the curving staircase back down to the magic-sealed door at the base of the tower. We’d taken down the first of our enemies and claimed their water magic, so we were one step closer to being ready to deal with Curym. I had confidence in my team that we could deal with the others as quickly.
As we descended the stairs into the tunnel and began the hundred-yard crossing to the next tower entrance, my mind raced with the implications of what my latest discovery meant. The magic-powered firearm would do more than just give me an edge our fight against the nagia. It could give the soldiers of Whitespire and Windwall a serious edge against both dragons and their minions. Metal balls could shatter murloc skin, Snow Killer hides, and rock troll stone, perhaps even dragon scales.
The problem was how to replicate it. I had a pretty good idea of how it worked: the red gemstone produced a sudden burst of fire, which filled the brass tube and the explosive force would shoot the stone out. But it was the magic that evaded me. I had no idea how the gemstones were created or imbued with power in the first place. I’d simply taken the magic-powered weapons we’d found at face value without ever questioning their provenance or origin. Until we figured out the secret of those gemstones, we wouldn’t be able to replicate it.
As we approached the magical door that led into the southwestern tower, I pushed the thought from my mind. I could look into the magical gemstones and their creation when we returned to Whitespire, after defeating Curym. Hell, if the blue dragon really was the smartest of the lot, she might know more about magic. If not, Letharia would probably much rather spend her days researching in a library than fighting battles.
The fire magic surged to my fingers with an eager energy, and I released it in a thin thread toward the stone door. Again, the runes lit up and filled the corridor with a red glow. After a few seconds, we heard the hissing of the watertight seal, and a gush of water slid down the stairs toward us as the stone door rumbled to one side. This time, there was a lot more water in the stairs, and I had to step back to avoid the deluge.
None of us spoke as we climbed the stairs in silence. We had gotten out of the first battle unscathed and victorious, but that had been the easy fight. Now we were going to face the clan of Mistress Ohiara, and Letharia had estimated there were seven or eight nagia to fight beside the Mistress. This would be a much harder battle, no doubt about it.
I felt the familiar clenching in my gut as we stepped into the room at the base of the tower and stared through the glass walls at the endless ocean outside. For a moment, I thought I caught a ripple of movement, but the water was too dark to be sure. When I used the Mark of the Guardian t
o scan our surroundings, the only magical presences in the area belonged to the nagia upstairs. In the distance, I could feel the larger, powerful pulse of Curym herself, but it was too far away for me to get a lock on her position.
I wasn’t certain why Curym hadn’t come after us yet. I suspected it might have something to do with the magical seals on the doors. Maybe the runes that sealed the door also concealed our magic, or we were too deep underground for her to sense us clearly. But she could have made a move against us when we attacked the first nagia’s tower, or she might be gearing up for an attack on us once we were at the top of this tower. Whatever happened with the nagia, we had to be ready for Curym as well.
A tense silence gripped our group as we climbed the few floors to where the nagia waited. Rizzala was a step behind me, with Arieste next, and Irenya and Letharia bringing up the rear. That was probably for the best, as that meant less risk of Letharia getting hurt if she froze up again. Her acid magic would be handy if she could just summon the courage to face her enemies.
I slowed our pace as we slipped in silence up the last staircase to the nagia’s level. My magical radar found nine monsters waiting, including a larger, more powerful force of water magic that could only be Mistress Ohiara. Thankfully, the nagia were spread out on the two floors above us. Six of them lounged around on the level immediately above us, while Mistress Ohiara and two more were on the topmost floor.
I turned to the women and mouth the word “six” as I pointed to the floor, then “three more” as I indicated the roof above. This time, instead of charging in with fire magic blazing, I tried a different approach. I activated the darkness magic until my skin began to shift colors to match the light sea-green of the ocean visible through the glass walls. I thrust a finger at Rizzala and Irenya, and nodded for them to do the same.
“Arieste,” I whispered, “stay here, and be ready to move when you hear us.”
The platinum blonde nodded, and I felt the magical energy surging within her as she activated both her ice and the fire magic I’d given her. I was surprised by how quickly she’d grown accustomed to wielding the various powers. Maybe it was because she’d been linked to me longer than the others, or perhaps because she had the most experience. After all, she had been the test subject for the mixing and matching of powers. The fire and darkness that had saved her life seemed to have enhanced her abilities beyond the others.
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