Desperate, I tapped into the water magic long enough to fill my lungs with one breath. My head ached and my ears felt ready to burst, but I had to hold on. One heartbeat, two, three, just a few until the ice magic recharged.
The moment the power flooded my body, I drew on as much as I could manage and used it to create a thick coat of ice armor around my body. Immediately, the pressure on my head and chest diminished.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself not to exhale. I had to hold in the oxygen as long as possible to draw out the water magic. I’d only have a few minutes to use it, and if I burned through it just getting to Curym’s lair, there was no way I’d be able to finish this mission.
But Curym seemed to understand that as well, for she kept hurling merslayers at us. Letharia tried to slither out of the way, but there were too many of them to evade completely. I felt the green dragon’s body shudder beneath the impact of dozens of merslayer claws.
Suddenly, Letharia whipped her body around and began swimming upwards, away from Curym and the merslayers. My heart sank and, for a moment, I was gripped by the horrifying thought that Zaddrith’s cowardly nature had taken hold of her. Then I saw three huge shapes hurtling past me right toward the enemy. Irenya and Arieste sliced through the water, with Rizzala holding tight to Irenya’s rear leg.
Understanding dawned the instant before Letharia curled around and began the descent once again. She’d made the mistake of swimming too far ahead of the others, which had left us vulnerable to attack. Now, there were three other dragons to distract Curym and her merslayers. Lerharia’s feigned retreat bought us a moment to circle around behind the others. Curym would be so focused on the threat right in front of her that she wouldn’t see Letharia slipping off toward the blue dragon’s lair.
I wanted to shout in triumph but couldn’t spare a breath. Indeed, I could feel myself growing light-headed as my lungs begged for oxygen, and I had to tap into the water magic again just long enough to draw in another lungful. We had to get to the entrance to Curym’s lair soon, or I might find myself either passing out from oxygen deprivation or I’d use up all my water magic.
Magic and white light flared off to my left, and I saw one of Curym’s water pillars slamming into Arieste’s hastily summoned ice shields. I grinned as I searched the ocean and saw no sign of Rizzala. I could feel her through our tether and a hint on my magical radar, but the darkness magic in her body would be hiding her from not only my view, but the enemy’s as well.
Irenya, however, had to take a different approach with her magic. She couldn’t blast pillars of fire into the ocean, but to my surprise, I found her drawing on the power anyway. Instead of releasing it, however, she held it and used it to fill every cell of her massive body. My eyes widened as I realized what she was doing. She was super-heating her body as a protection against the merslayers.
A massive rocky shelf hid my dragons and the enemy from view, and hope surged within me as Letharia slithered through a twenty-foot opening in the underwater cliff. Everything went dark, and I found myself suddenly wishing for a diver’s torch. I couldn’t summon fire to light our way, so I had to rely on Letharia’s instincts to get us where we need to go.
The stone walls pressed in around me, but I could feel the pressure of the water diminishing as we swam in a direction I assumed was upwards. I risked using a little more water magic so I could take another breath. I had no idea how far up this passage went, but I had to be ready for anything we’d find.
We broke the surface of the water, and immediately I dispelled the ice shield and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Calling it fresh air wouldn’t be accurate, as the air was distinctly heavy with the salty odor of ocean water edged with the stink of rot and decay. But it was oxygen, and I could breathe it without having to use magic. That was enough to bring hope surging within me.
I leapt off Letharia’s back and treaded water beside her serpentine form. “Go!” I told her. “Help the others to lure Curym over here. This battle ends when I take her magic, but to do that, I need her gemstone.”
“Ssssssssso be it,” Letharia hissed. “Ssshe will be here ssssssoon. Doubtlessss she hassss already ssssensssed ussss.”
“I’ll be quick, then,” I told her.
“Be ssssssafe, Ethan,” she said, then dove her serpentine head into the water and left me alone in the silence and darkness.
I summoned a small burst of fire and shot it into the air above me. In the brief second it lasted, I was able to get a decent view of my surroundings. I was in a rocky cave at least twenty feet high and thirty feet across, with an inclined slope rising out of the water on the side of the cave opposite me. A round tunnel cut through the rock wall and disappeared into darkness.
I tapped into the Mark of the Guardian and used it to search for any magical presences in the cave. My heart leapt as I found a massive amount of energy a short distance down the round tunnel. There was no mistaking the rushing, surging power of Curym, and in such a vast quantity that it could only be the altar.
I swam toward the inclined slope until I hit a rock ledge, then dragged myself out of the water and onto hard stone. Not for the first time, I was glad for the ice magic’s ability to shield me from the chill. The ocean would be freezing cold at the depth we’d reach, and were it not for the magic, I’d probably have died of hypothermia long before I reached the altar.
Warmth flowed through me as I tapped into the fire magic. Drawing my axe, I summoned a thin coating of flame to burn around the steel head, then held up my magical torch. Light glimmered off the surface of the water and shone on moist-slickened rocks, but I saw and heard nothing else. The Mark of the Guardian could only detect the massive amounts of water magic radiating from Curym’s altar.
I picked my way up the inclined slope and along the slippery rocks. To my surprise, there was moss and lichen growing all around the tunnel, even in the absence of sunlight. Proof, perhaps, that life always found a way to flourish, even in a place as isolated and remote as this.
Yet a dark doorway off to my right indicated that maybe the tunnel wasn’t as isolated as I’d thought. I tensed as I drew in front of it and held the torch to scan the shadows. To my surprise, I found solid rock, with no hint of door handle, lock, or even a seam in the stone. Perhaps this was another of the magic-controlled doorways that led through the underground corridors beneath King Dentas’ palace. I contemplated using magic to try and open it, but hesitated. Curym had flooded the tunnels in an effort to drown us out, so I didn’t want to risk flooding this lair with water. Besides, there was no need to go exploring, not when I had to get to the altar and sever Curym’s connection with her magic. That would put a quick end to the underwater battle, hopefully before the dragons’ siphoned water magic ran out.
The light of my magical torch shone on smooth stone walls, which arched upward to a perfectly rounded ceiling. This had the look of a man-made structure, an odd change from the lairs where I’d found the other four dragons. Did a human build this tunnel for the altar, or did Curym simply claim this man-made tunnel for her altar when she discovered it? This was a chicken-and-egg question I didn’t have an answer to.
My heart leapt as I caught sight of a faint blue glow twenty yards down the tunnel. Magic had to be the only source of light in this rocky chamber. I hurried toward the blue stone altar, eager to shatter it, claim Curym’s power, and put an end to this battle. I didn’t want to risk any of my dragons getting hurt by the merslayers or Curym herself.
Something stopped me as I approached the altar. There was something strangely off about this entire thing. Curym was supposed to be the smartest of the dragons, so her strategy for dealing with the four dragons far away from her lair made sense. But then why didn’t she try to stop Letharia and me when we made a move toward her lair? According to the other dragons, they had a biological, psychological, or magical imperative to protect their altars. So where was Curym to stop me from destroying her magic? She wouldn’t leave it unguarded to deal wi
th a threat, even one she thought she could defeat, would she?
My answer came a moment later as a huge serpentine figure with the face of a woman, long blue hair, and four powerfully muscled arms slithered out from behind the altar.
“Little human,” she snarled, her face twisted in rage as she drew two huge scimitars and leveled them at me, “your quest for ultimate power comes to an end here!”
Chapter Sixteen
I tightened my grip on my axe as two, three, and then six more nagia appeared in the soft blue glow emanated by the gemstone in Curym’s altar. The fact that they’d been concealed behind the altar was the reason I’d been unable to sense them. The water magic running through them was like a match against the floodlight of power emanating from the stone.
One against seven. Not the best odds in the world, I had to admit. Curym had counted on me coming for her lair, but she’d anticipated that I’d send my dragons to keep her occupied. She’d been clever to set the nagia in wait.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t counted on my kicking her nagia’s asses. She’d been too confident that seven nagia were enough to stop me. Time to prove her wrong.
I snuffed out the magical flame coating the head of my axe, and the tunnel was plunged into near darkness, with only the soft blue light of the glowing altar brightening the room. At the same time, I tapped into Rizzala’s darkness magic, and I felt my skin begin to shift colors to blend in with the shadows.
The magic must have worked, for the Mistress, who Letharia had called Kalrak, hissed and drew her two short swords with her lower pair of arms.
“You will not claim the Dreamkey!” she snarled. “Your body will join the myriad others that have tried in vain to take what rightfully belongs to our mistress.”
My brow furrowed in confusion as I crept toward the curving tunnel wall. I’d never heard of anything called a Dreamkey. Did Curym not know I was coming here for her altar? The mention inflamed my curiosity. What could be so important that Curym considered it more crucial to protect it than her altar? If she didn’t think I was coming here to take her magic as I’d done to the others, what did she think I was here for? I desperately wanted to find out, but right now I had more important things to focus on.
Mistress Kalrak lunged at where I’d been standing a moment earlier, and her blades hacked empty air with enough force to chop through a solid tree trunk. The other six nagia spread out and drew weapons of their own. One actually slithered to within just three feet of where I stood, close enough that I could reach out and touch its heavily muscled arms and long blue hair.
That meant it was within the range of my axe. I whipped the heavy steel head at the creature’s neck, and the blade hacked through flesh, bone, and gristle with deadly ease. The nagia’s head bounced off the stone wall and pale blue blood sprayed from the stump of its neck. Even as the corpse slumped, I called on the Mark of the Guardian to pull the magic from the monster’s dying body. It wasn’t much, little more than a trickle, but every little bit would count when I swam out to face Curym.
Two nagia hissed and slithered toward the dead nagia, but I was already on the move. I managed to slip between them, then spun and drove the pick side of my axe into the back of one’s skull. The creature slumped forward, blue blood turned the stones slick, and I siphoned out what little remained of its fading powers.
That moment of delay nearly cost me my head. One of the other nagias had seen the body fall and hurled her serpentine body through the air with the speed of a striking sidewinder. I had just enough time to throw myself into a forward roll, then two enormous scimitars cut through the air inches above my back. I was up to my feet in an instant and racing toward the opposite wall of the tunnel, where there were no nagias.
My heart pounded as I pressed my back against the cool stone and sized up the situations. I’d taken two nagias down, but there were still five more, including a pissed-off Mistress.
“Coward!” Mistress Kalrak hissed. Her eyes darted around the cavern and she searched the shadows to find me. I didn’t know if she could sense magic like the dragons could, or if she had to rely on her physical senses like me. Against so many enemies, I didn’t want to risk doing anything that would give away my position. I needed that advantage to win this battle quickly.
“You cannot escape this place, thief!” Mistress Kalrak shouted. “The only way out is down, for all the other tunnels your humans used to use are blocked by earth, stone, and water.”
I gave myself a mental high-five for not trying to open the magical doorway. Curym really had chosen a clever place for her lair, with only one way in and out. With her merslayers, nagia, and the dragon herself to guard it, there was very little chance that any enemy could get in.
But I wasn’t just any enemy. I hadn’t come to kill her or steal her treasure. I’d come for her magic, and she’d made the mistake of underestimating me.
I summoned fire magic to my hands, then sent a single blast at the nearest nagia a few yards to my right. When it whipped around to shield itself from the scorching flames, I leapt to the left, toward a nagia that was already slithering at the position where it guessed I was hiding. The creature was clever enough to try and intercept me even though I was invisible. Her swords flashed out and carved deadly arcs through the air on both her right and left.
I went straight down the middle. I raced at her, leapt high into the air, and brought the sharp blade of my axe crashing onto her high forehead. Blue blood sprayed as steel shattered bone and brain, and the nagia sagged. I didn’t bother trying to siphon off this one’s magic, but spun and sprinted back toward the nagia I’d attacked with fire.
My gamble worked. The nagia surged toward their dying comrade, no doubt in an attempt to stop me from breaking past and heading toward the back of the lair. The still-burning nagia didn’t even have time to let out a cry of pain as I hacked both of her right arms off with a single blow, then brought the pick side whipping around to punch through her chest. She let out a terrible shriek of pain, but her resistance was weak as I siphoned the magic from her body.
“Behind you!” Nyvea screamed at me.
I ducked on instinct, and two huge scimitars whistled above my head to hack through the head of the dying nagia in front of me. I threw myself to one side, barely in time to avoid Mistress Kalrak’s four whirling blades. She had no idea where I was, but that didn’t stop her from weaving deadly arcs of steel in the air. Her scimitars hacked and slashed almost too fast for my eyes to see, and the shorter swords in her lower arms thrust with the speed of a scorpion’s tail. She was like a blender set to puree.
I knew there was no way I could fight her hand-to-hand. She had four arms to my two, and she wielded her four swords with a skill Adath and Sir Galfred would envy. If I met her axe to swords, she’d cut me to pieces.
In a fight to the death, magic always beat steel. I drew on as much fire as I could muster, summoned it to my right hand, then punched out with a blow backed by all the force of my arm. My fist didn’t come close to her flying swords, but fire surged from my knuckles in a single concentrated blast. Red-hot flames drilled a fist-sized hole through her torso and blew out the back of her spine. The spinning swords slowed, and Mistress Kalrak’s huge body sagged. She hit the ground with a resounding thump and lay twitching, and blue blood began to pool around her.
I glanced at the two remaining nagia, who were a good ten yards away from me. It was worth the risk for the magic I’d siphon off the dying Mistress. I drew in a quick breath, tapped into the Mark of the Guardian, and pulled the power from Mistress Kalrak’s body into my own. To my horror, I felt the darkness magic slipping from my grasp as the power ran out. I couldn’t stop pulling the magic out of the nagia, but now the other monsters could see me.
There was a lot more water power than I realized. Mistress Kalrak might not have been the most powerful of the nagia, but this close to the altar, the magic had infused her body. I found myself drawing more and more of the power into my body, and still it
continued to flow. I couldn’t stop, but I couldn’t afford to keep going as the remaining nagia slithered toward me.
Time slowed to a crawl as I tried to pull the magic out of Mistress Kalrak before the enemy reached me. I needed that magic to fight Curym, but I had to fight to survive this.
The water magic dried up a heartbeat before the nagia attacked. The moment I felt the flow of power from Mistress Kalrak’s dying body slow to a trickle, I released my hold on it and the Mark of the Guardian. I had enough time to take a single step back and to the left before the nagia hurled themselves at me. One of the two actually came within an inch of skewering me with her barbed tail, and only my quick reflexes saved me from a vicious slash of a scimitar.
But that was as close as I’d let them get. I tapped into my ice magic and summoned a dome of ice to form around the farthest nagia’s head. The monster clawed at the translucent helmet that was cutting off her oxygen, but I’d made the ice thick enough that it would take her a few seconds to get through it. More than enough time for me to deal with her comrade.
The last nagia made the mistake of turning toward her thrashing, struggling companion, which meant her heavily-muscled back was exposed to me. I took two running steps, leapt off her thick, scaled tail, and brought my axe down onto the back of her head. She sagged like a sack of rocks, and her face and chest slammed into the stony floor hard. I didn’t even bother tearing my axe free of her skull as I drained the water magic from her twitching body.
A loud tinkling of shattering ice echoed in the tunnel, followed by the hissing scream of the nagia. She hacked at me with her sword, and the steel blades cut through the air all around me. I had to give ground to avoid being cut to pieces, but it turned out the nagia was just buying time to get away. She swung a vicious two-handed blow that forced me to leap back, then whirled and slithered as fast as she could down the slope toward the ocean.
She didn’t live long enough to regret the decision to flee. I caught up to her in three strides, and I brought my axe down hard on her barbed tail. Her shrieking cries echoed off the stone walls as she turned to try and counterattack. Her swiping swords bounced off an ice shield I threw up in front of her, and as she crashed through the barrier, she met a face full of my fire. Her perfect, pale blue skin shriveled and withered beneath the blistering heat, and she fell back with an even louder cry of agony. My axe put an end to her cries as I hacked off her head with one powerful blow.
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