“But Curym--” Letharia began.
“I just one more fear to face,” Arieste said in a voice that was at once soothing and firm. She took Letharia’s hands in hers and gripped them hard.
“She’ll kill me!” Letharia whimpered.
“Those spikes in the tunnel could have killed you,” Arieste replied. “So could the water that flooded the tunnel or Mistress Oharia. There are a thousand things that can kill you every day. But if you live your life in fear of what could be, you will never get to experience the many wonders that there are. Curym may be dangerous, but you are far more powerful than her.”
“I’m not!” Letharia protested. “I’m just a scared human woman, not even a dragon anymore.”
“You will be a dragon once more,” Arieste said with a smile. “But it is not the dragon part of you that makes you strong.”
Letharia’s brow wrinkled in confusion, and she stared down at her thin arms and long, slender fingers.
Arieste placed a hand over Letharia’s heart. “This is what makes you strong. Courage in the face of fear, determination to fight for those that matter.” Her eyes darted up toward me, then toward Irenya and Rizzala.
“It’s not the size of the dragon in the fight,” Rizzala called over her shoulder, “but the size of the fight in the dragon.”
I smiled at the familiar adage, the same one I’d used when convincing the warrior woman that the two of us could defeat Zaddrith.
“Curym fights alone,” Arieste continued, “but you do not.”
“Curym’s minions—“
“Are simply creatures heeding her command.” Arieste shook her head. “They do her bidding, but she is alone in this fight. She has no one to watch out for her, to shield her as you shielded me.” She gripped Letharia’s hands tighter. “You’ve got all four of us. Ethan, Rizzala, Irenya, and me. And we’re not just allies fighting for a common cause. We are friends, a family even. We fight for each other because we care for each other. That includes you, too.”
“I-It does?” Letharia’s hesitant voice was accompanied by a surprised look in her eyes.
“You’re one of us,” Irenya called over. “For better or worse.”
“We’ve got your back!” Rizzala rumbled, and punctuated her words with a snap of her powerful jaws around a merslayer’s neck.
“We fight together,” I told her, and held out a hand. “We win together.”
She made no move for a long moment, but finally she reached out and slipped her small hand into mine.
“Together,” she said in a quiet voice, and stepped out of the dress she’d borrowed from Arieste.
I drew out the green gemstone and placed it against her shoulder. “Together,” I repeated, then tapped into the acid magic.
My stomach churned as the biting, metallic-edged power raced through my body, down my arm, and into the gemstone. Letharia sighed and threw her head back as the magic suffused her body, and her skin began to deepen from a pale white to a light green, then neon green scales. Her legs squeezed together, then began to elongate into the long serpentine tail of her dragon form. Her arms pressed against her sides as her torso lengthened and turned into rippling coils, and four dragonfly-like wings snapped out from her sides. Her petite features changed to a snake’s broad head and square snout, and I felt the familiar moment of doubt as I stared into her emerald green eyes.
I knew I was taking a risk giving her back her power. There was always the chance she would panic and simply fly away, which would seriously set back our plan to bring down Curym right here and now. She could also turn against me and use her acid magic to try to kill me and the other three women. I was gambling on the fact that the Letharia I’d come to know over the past couple of days was vastly different from the woman I’d met in Zaddrith’s swamp.
The green dragon coiled up like a snake, and her head lifted high above mine. Her mouth opened to reveal four long fangs dripping with neon green acid. Now was the moment of truth.
“Let’ssssss do thisssss,” she said in a hissing voice.
With a grin of mingled relief and excitement, I turned to Arieste and drew the white gemstone from my pocket.
“Your turn, gorgeous,” I said with a wink.
“You know just what to say to charm a woman,” she said, and pressed a kiss to my lips. “I’ll be expecting more than that later.”
“Happy to oblige, my lady,” I replied as I tapped into the ice magic. The power flowed through my body with that same numbing chill, but it flowed through the white gemstone and into Arieste far more easily than it had before, almost as if using the gemstone to channel other powers widened the magical conduit. Within seconds, the stunning platinum blonde had changed into a huge white dragon.
“It’s getting cramped in here,” Arieste growled. The forty-foot-wide room was barely long enough to contain her body, and I heard the sound of glass shattering as her tail whipped around.
“Take this magic, then take to the skies and get ready to attack,” I told her. This time, I drew on the water magic I’d taken from the merslayers and nagia. The supply of magic was limited, but I drew on a full quarter of what I had and infused it into her body. She and Irenya would be doing most of the attacking, so they’d need as much of the power as I could give them.
“Mmmm,” she rumbled, and her voice echoed with a mixture of curiosity and delight. “A fascinating sensation, this water magic.”
“Save it until you need it,” I told her.
She dropped her head to nuzzle against me, and I rubbed her big dragon neck. We both knew that we were about to face the hardest fight of our lives, but there was no need for words.
“See you on the other side,” I told her.
“Can’t wait,” she growled. Her tail whipped out and shattered all the windows along the northern wall of the room, just enough for her to squeeze her bulk through. The moment her forelegs and midsection were through the opening, she snapped out her broad white wings and took to the skies.
I watched her go for a single moment, then turned back to where Rizzala was still ripping apart the merslayers.
“Just a few more seconds, Rizzala,” I said, “then we’re out of here.”
“No rush,” the black dragon growled. “Things are just getting good.”
“Save some for the battle with Curym, eh?”
“Plenty to go around!” she boomed in response.
“Irenya, you’re up,” I said as I moved toward the diminutive redhead and drew out the red gemstone.
“About time!” She hopped toward me eagerly, a bright smile on her face, and she thrust out her ample chest. “I’ve been wanting your hands on my body for days.”
“More fun to come, I promise,” I told her with a grin as I nestled the stone between her breasts and tapped into the magic. “First, we need to kick this blue dragon’s ass.”
The fire sizzled through my body and rushed into Irenya’s with blistering force. Her well-formed arms, shoulders, chest, and legs lengthened, broadened with thick bands of muscle, and changed into the familiar red dragon form I’d come to know so well over the last few weeks. Irenya’s amber-colored eyes sparkled as I finished pouring the fire into her, then added as much water magic as I’d given Arieste.
She seemed to recoil from the water magic, not out of pain as she had with the acid magic, but with the same surprised reaction as when I’d infused her body with ice. The fire within her seemed to resist my efforts for a moment, and I had to push harder than ever to force the stolen water power through her gemstone and into her form. Finally, the barrier gave way and the magic rushed into her.
“I’ll be waiting, handsome.” She nuzzled me as well, and her surprisingly-rough dragon tongue licked my face. As she straightened her legs to lift her bulk, I heard the shattering of glass and the straining of metal from the tower around me. When she leapt into the air, she literally took the ceiling, roof, and spire of the tower with her. I watched her go, and my eyes followed the top of the tow
er splashing into the water as she shook it off her back.
“You’re going to have your hands full delivering on all the post-battle promises you’ve just made,” Nyvea purred in my mind, “but I’m sure you’ll be up to the task. I’ll watch, and advise to make sure you don’t forget about any of these beautiful women. You know, just to be sure.”
Right now wasn’t the time for those thoughts, as pleasant as they were. I watched Irenya and Arieste circling high overhead, their eyes fixed on me as they waited for the signal to attack. There was just one more thing to take care of.
“Rizzala, time to go!” I called out as I raced toward the black dragon. I tapped into my ice magic and summoned the thickest, strongest shield I could to block the staircase. We only needed a few seconds to make our getaway.
“Aww, no more fun?” Rizzala said as she turned to me.
“For now, no,” I told her. “We need to go before Curym recovers fully.”
“Then let’s make our move,” she growled.
“Are you going to be okay underwater?” I asked her. “This dragon body isn’t exactly made for swimming.”
Back on Earth, YouTube had been filled with videos of panthers playing in swimming pools, lakes, and streams. While the cats could swim, they weren’t streamlined.
“I’ll make it work,” Rizzala growled. “If nothing else, I’ll give Curym an easy target.”
“I could always use your help in the lair,” I told her. “Who knows what I’ll find there.”
“My place is fighting beside the others,” she replied with a shake of her huge dragon head. “We will distract her long enough to give you the chance to reach her lair and shatter the altar.”
“Good luck, then,” I told her, and poured water magic through the gemstone into her body. Her gemstone put up little resistance, and her darkness magic seemed to make space for the new power more easily than Arieste’s ice magic or Irenya’s fire.
Rizzala let out a loud growl, then leapt out of the now-shattered tower and dove into the ocean.
I slipped out of my pack, piled it with the packs of the other dragon women, then tapped into the ice magic to summon a thick ice dome to protect it. I couldn’t take my pack underwater, as I needed to be as aerodynamic as possible to minimize resistance as we descended. Hopefully the merslayers would rather chase us than waste time trying to break through the ice dome for our food and clothing.
I drained the magic from the last of the merslayers Rizzala had piled up for me, then turned to Letharia. “Let’s do this,” I told her with a grin. “Let’s go kick Curym’s ass!”
Chapter Fifteen
I leapt onto Letharia’s back, but found it was surprisingly hard to stay in place. Her body was sleeker than any of the other dragons’, and she had no spikes to hold onto. Thankfully, if I sat far enough back, I could wrap my legs around the bones that connected her dragonfly wings to her serpentine body. It would be a strange ride, that much was certain.
“Get me to the lair’s entrance,” I told the green dragon. “Once I’m inside, help the others. The last thing I need is for Curym to catch me in her lair while I’m trying to destroy her altar.”
“Yessssss,” Letharia said in her hissing dragon voice. “I am no fighter, but I will do what I can.”
“You’re our best chance underwater,” I said. “I have complete faith in your ass-kicking abilities. Curym won’t know what hit her.”
“Your confidenssssee issss encouraging,” she replied as she slithered toward the shattered glass window. Then she hesitated just a moment before sliding down the wall and into the ocean.
Just before we hit the water, I tapped into my ice magic. Though I’d given most of it to Arieste to turn her into a dragon, I had enough that I could create a shield around my body. Instead of a round, humped dome shape, I made it a long, half-teardrop-shaped construction that would allow Letharia to slice through the water without slowing her down. I didn’t have much experience with hydrodynamics, but even I knew that the sleeker and more streamlined the shield, the faster Letharia would move.
I drew in a deep breath as the water closed around my improvised shield, but it held. The ice distorted my field of view, and the ocean grew darker as we descended. I had only the Mark of the Guardian to warn me of approaching danger, and my magical radar was pinging like crazy. I sensed at least fifty to a hundred merslayers below, and the unmistakeable presence of Curym herself.
I knew Letharia had a body made for slithering through wet conditions, but I was surprised by just how maneuverable she was. Her wings glided up and down and her tail whipped back and forth like a fish’s, and we hurtled through the water with surprising speed. In fact, we were swimming so fast, we were already halfway down by the time I felt Arieste and Rizzala’s magical presences hitting the water’s surface above me.
I risked a glance over my shoulder and found Rizzala swimming with the grace of a panther, and she was making the descent slowly but steadily. The red and white dragons, however, sliced through the water with speed almost as impressive as Letharia’s. Both had their legs pulled up and their wings tucked back against their sides, and their long dragon necks and tails undulated in a manner similar to Letharia’s. They reminded me of a National Geographic documentary I’d seen on cormorants, the Earth birds that actually dove into the water to eat fish.
Only we weren’t after fish. Their target was much larger and had the ability to bite back.
I felt a massive surge of magic coming from beneath me, and my head whipped around in time to see a bubbling, white mass of water shooting up toward us. Letharia barely managed to slither out of the way in time, and the pillar actually struck Rizzala in the shoulder and knocked her to one side. A massive burst of air escaped from the black dragon’s mouth as she struggled to right herself.
I was relieved to find that none of the dragons were using their water magic. We didn’t have enough siphoned magic for a prolonged underwater fight, and I had no idea how long the dragons could hold their breath. Soon enough, they’d have to tap into their water magic and the countdown would begin. If we didn’t defeat Curym before the water magic ran out, we’d be in serious trouble.
A quiet cracking sound echoed from my improvised ice shield, and I quickly summoned the magic needed to repair it. The icy enclosure wasn’t just meant to protect me from the water pressure, but it also held enough oxygen for me to hopefully make the descent without using the magic I’d stolen from Curym. The longer I could delay using it, the better.
My gut tightened as I felt Rizzala tap into the water magic. The black dragon was struggling to make the descent, and her body wasn’t as aerodynamic as the other three. But just her presence would be enough of a distraction to prevent Curym from noticing the real threat: me.
Right now, I had only a fraction of the magic I’d taken from each of the four dragons I’d defeated. Curym might be able to sense it, but it would only be like a spark next to a bright fire. I was as close to invisible to her magical senses as I could be, and clinging to Letharia’s back, I’d be hard to see in the vast ocean.
Seven heartbeats passed before another blast of water magic shot up toward us. Letharia slithered to the side, but the water pillar caught her tail and spun her around for a moment before she righted herself. The impact of the magical attack sent massive cracks through my ice shield, and it cost me precious seconds to repair it. By the time I sealed up the fissures, nearly a gallon of ocean water had seeped through. I could feel myself growing lightheaded as my oxygen ran out.
“Faster, Letharia!” I shouted in the hope that she could hear me through the ice shield and the ocean. “We need to reach that lair now.”
I searched the ocean, but I couldn’t see where Curym was hiding. The Mark of the Guardian pinpointed her beneath a rocky sheld far below us. She had no reason to come out of hiding anytime soon, not when she could simply hurl water pillars and her merslayers at us. We’d have to take the attack to her to draw her out.
The
magical presences of dozens of merslayers pinged on my magical radar, and I could feel them drawing closer with every heartbeat. Their mermaid-like tails sliced through the water with terrifying speed, fast enough that they would close on Letharia and me before Arieste or Irenya caught up. We’d be facing more than fifty of the fish monsters alone.
Letharia whipped to the side so violently my head smacked up against the inside of my ice shield, and a rush of bubbling white water shot up a yard away from me. I felt a surge of water magic coming from Arieste as she tried to fight the powerful water blade and the ocean’s currents.
Then the merslayers hit Letharia. The dragon’s serpentine body lashed back and forth as she tried to hurry the descent and evade the monsters at the same time, but a few of the merslayers managed to grab onto her scales. One actually managed to sink its claws into my ice shield, and I could hear the ice beginning to crack.
I summoned more ice to reinforce the shield, but in that moment, Letharia’s body whipped again and distracted me from accessing the magic. The merslayer somehow managed to hold on and continued its assault against the ice protecting me from the ocean. Even as I tapped into the magic, I could feel the shield weakening.
I drew in a deep breath of the little oxygen that remained in my ice shield, then did the one thing I’d wanted to avoid all this time: I drove my boot into the merslayer’s claw and shattered the shield. Water smashed into me with the force of a Mack truck going sixty-miles an hour, and the impact knocked the air from my lungs but managed to hold onto her. But as the ice shield shattered, the merslayer was dislodged from Letharia’s back.
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