“Hold on!” I shouted to Letharia. Somehow, the magic that enabled me to breathe underwater also allowed me to speak, though my voice sounded weak to my ears.
The water power flowed into my hands, gently at first, but faster and faster until it was a rushing torrent that begged to be free. The moment I released it, it felt like a dam being opened, and the magic burst out of my body with terrifying force.
One pillar of water sliced through the water ahead of us, and Letharia’s sleek body sliced downward at twice her usual speed. When the second pillar of water pushed against the water building up behind us, it propelled us through the water like we had an outboard motor strapped to our backs. In seconds, we were out of the descending tunnel, beneath the rocky shelf, then out into open ocean.
I gasped as the water magic slowed to a trickle, but I managed to keep enough to breathe underwater. I knew the woman that had once been Curym still retained sufficient water magic that she wouldn’t drown in the minute or two it would take us to reach the surface. Now, I just had to make sure everyone else got out of this battle in one piece.
I felt the three enormous magical presences of my three dragons a few hundred feet away from me, along with hundreds of tiny pinpricks of the merslayers. My gut clenched as I saw just how dire the situation was. Rizzala was surrounded by nearly thirty merslayers. Their flashing claws and needle-sharp teeth lashed at her from all sides, and Rizzala couldn’t evade their blows. Worse, I could sense her reserve of water magic running out.
Behind Rizzala, Arieste and Irenya were both covered in scaly blue bodies. We’d killed all the nagia, but there were still hundreds of merslayers, more than enough to cover the two huge dragons. Merslayers clung to their arms, legs, wings, heads, and tails. Arieste and Irenya both tried to shake free of the minions, but nothing they did seemed to work. Irenya had a bit more water magic, but I knew they both had seconds before they used the last of it in their desperate battle.
I hesitated for a single moment, torn by the desire to help all three and knowing I could only help one at a time.
In that instant, I felt the last of Rizzala’s water magic dry up, and the merslayers swarmed over her compact, panther-like body.
“Get to Rizzala!” I shouted at Letharia.
The green dragon sliced through the water and hurtled toward the black dragon at a tremendous speed. I could feel Letharia’s concern for Rizzala through the magical bond we share, and I could also feel Rizzala beginning to panic as the merslayers dragged her deeper into the ocean.
I summoned all the small amount of ice magic I could muster, then tapped into the rushing, flowing water magic I’d taken from Curym. I didn’t have a lot of experience wielding it, but I’d learned that all magic tended to do what it was created to do. Just as Rizzala’s darkness magic wanted to change my skin and Irenya’s magic wanted to turn into a blast of fire, Curym’s magic wanted to become a column of hurtling water.
I released the ice magic first and used it to create a thin shield between me and my target. When I unleashed the water magic a moment later, the force of the water pillar shattered the shield into tiny fragments. The water caught up those shards of ice and swept them along as it hurtled toward the merslayers attacking Rizzala. When it finally struck, those sharp, icy shards peppered the scaled body and delicate flesh of the monsters with devastating force.
The force of the water pillar knocked Rizzala backwards, but her tough skin deflected the ice shards as I’d hoped it would. All of the merslayers were knocked off her and sent flying in all directions, and the way was clear for the black dragon to get her bearings. She cast one glance at me, and I thrust a finger toward the surface. Rizzala gave me a little nod, then began paddling as fast as her panther-like body could carry her upwards. I had to hope she could make it to the surface, but I didn’t have time to check. I had to save Irenya and Arieste.
Letharia whipped around in the water and streaked toward the embattled red and white dragons. Seven heartbeats passed before I could draw on the water magic again, but that was more than enough time for us to close the distance to Irenya and Arieste. This time, I shot a pillar of water from each of my hands, and it had the same effect as a pressure washer cleaning off a dirty car. The merslayers were knocked loose from their hold on my dragons, and the force of the jets of water stunned them. Irenya and Arieste’s claws, teeth, and tails tore through a dozen of them, and the water turned a pale blue with merslayer blood.
I could feel more of the merslayers coming up behind me, but Letharia took care of them with the sharp, stinger-like tip of her green tail.
“Let’s get out of here!” I shouted into the water, and again the magic made it possible for me to speak through a mouthful of ocean. “We have what we came for!” I was amazed that I could breathe normally even though I was sixty or seventy feet underwater.
Arieste turned and began swimming up toward the surface, but Irenya actually hesitated a moment, her jaws clamped around three struggling merslayers. The exhaustion of her water magic made the decision for her. She snapped her mouth closed and bit the monsters in half, then followed Arieste upwards.
I cast a glance around the ocean. More than sixty merslayers had survived, but there were easily two or three hundred bodies floating like chum in the water. I could see the dark shapes of sharks gliding toward us, along with a few underwater predators I didn’t want to get a closer look at. We’d deal with Curym, and hopefully the ocean would finish off her minions.
“Let’s go,” I told Letharia. “We’ve won this battle.”
The green dragon hurtled upward, and we broke the surface of the water a moment after Arieste and Irenya. Rizzala was already fifty yards ahead of us paddling toward the broken towertop. I felt no merslayers anywhere near us, but the Mark of the Guardian sensed them hiding among the rocks and coral around what had once been Curym’s lair. Without their dragon to guide them, they were like any other wild animals, driven by their basic instincts to survive and evade danger. Right now, I was the biggest threat to their survival, so I had no doubt they would stay far away from me.
Letharia skimmed through the water far faster than either Arieste or Irenya, and we reached the towertop a few seconds after Rizzala pulled her black body onto the ruins of what had once been a beautiful tower. The spired roof was somewhere in the bottom of the ocean, and the glass walls had been shattered. Thankfully, the floor had survived the weight of the dragons, which meant our gear had remained intact. There were a few marks left by merslayer claws, but the monsters hadn’t broken through ice shield I’d summoned to protect our equipment.
I slid off Letharia’s back, then lifted Curym and placed her gently on the ground. I was surprised that she still hadn’t stirred, but in truth she’d only been unconscious for a minute or two. Everything had happened so fast after I touched the gemstone to the altar.
I pulled the key out of my pocket and stared at it. In the bright light of the midday sun, I could see the details more clearly. The same ancient-looking magical runes had been etched into the gold, but there was no way I could read them.
A quiet gasp sounded from the woman on the floor. When I lifted my eyes from the key, I found the blue-haired woman staring at me. I was struck by the beautiful color of her eyes, a deep sea-blue with hints of green that seemed to sparkle with intelligence. But there was no mistaking the fear etched into her face as well.
“I feared you had come for the Dreamkey,” Curym said, and her voice echoed with dread. “Never, in my wildest dreams, did I imagine you would come to claim my magic.” Her eyes met mine, and a shudder gripped her body. “In doing so, you have doomed all of Agreon!”
Chapter Eighteen
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I’m trying to save the world, and that means stopping the dragons that are threatening all of humankind.”
“If you truly intended to save the world, you would not have taken the Dreamkey!” the woman retorted. “I am the only one that can protect it.” Her
eyes narrowed as she glanced up at Rizzala and Letharia. “But if you have already defeated these others, that means you have the remaining four keys. You prove my belief correct: you humans would spell our doom.”
“Hang on,” I told her. “What are these keys you’re talking about?” I looked to the two dragons beside me, but they looked as puzzled as I felt. “The only key I know of is the one beneath Whitespire, the one you invaded our lands to claim.”
“I came to claim the key not to use it, but to protect it,” the blue-haired woman snapped, and she raised her chin in proud defiance. “I knew that if it fell into the hands of you ignorant apes, you would turn its power to your will, and in doing so destroy all of Agreon.”
“Apes?” Anger rumbled in Irenya’s tone. “How dare you--”
“Easy, Irenya,” I told the red dragon. “Remember how Riamod felt about humans not long ago.”
Irenya subsided, but a low growl echoed in her throat and her amber-colored eyes burned as they fixed the woman with a furious gaze.
“And this,” I said as I turned back to the woman held up the fragment of key I’d taken from Curym’s lair, “you said there were four other keys like it? Are they the same as the one in Whitespire, or are they different?”
The woman seemed surprised at my words. “You came all this way without knowing what you hunted?”
“I came to defeat you,” I told her. “I came to claim your magic and stop you from threatening the human kingdoms of Iriador again.”
“Impossible!” The woman’s eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. “You mean to tell me that you have unleashed the destruction of Agreon through your accident and ignorance?”
Rizzala let out a growl, and Letharia bared her acid-tipped fangs.
“Dial the attitude back a few notches,” I told the blue-haired woman. “If you really are trying to protect this world from being destroyed, we might just be on the same side.”
“I doubt that!” the woman snorted. “You humans are too small-minded and short-lived to see the panorama.”
“Then educate us,” I said as I swallowed a flush of irritation. Letharia’s acid had nothing on this woman’s biting tongue. “Start off by telling me your name. Unless you want me to call you Curym.”
“As good a name as any,” the woman said with that same hint of defiance in her eyes.
“But it’s not your human name. Mine is Ethan DePaolo, and this is Rizzala and Letharia,” I said, and gestured to the black and green dragon. At that moment, two very wet, very dripping white and red dragons climbed into the ruined tower. “These are Arieste and Irenya.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the four dragons surrounding her. She would recognize their dragon forms, but she seemed confused that I addressed them by different names.
“They were once Emroth, Zaddrith, Frosdar, and Riamod, but now they’re human, just like you,” I told the woman.
“All the easier to enslave!” she snapped.
“Not slaves,” Arieste rumbled. “Allies, companions, friends.”
“All of us,” Irenya added in her booming dragon voice, “working together to protect the world.”
“And, if you say you are trying to do the same,” I put in, “there is no need for hostility. We all want what’s best for Iriador and all of Agreon, right?”
Four dragon heads nodded, and the blue-haired woman’s defiance softened a fraction.
“You may call me Kyanne,” she said, her words just on the friendly side of curt.
“Nice to meet you, Kyanne,” I replied with a grin. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, why don’t you tell me exactly why this Dreamkey is going to bring about the end of the world?”
Kyanne’s face hardened, and for a moment it seemed her resistance would continue. However, after a few seconds, she broke her silence.
“The Dreamkey is one of six spread around Agreon,” she said. “Six fragments that, when united, produce a key capable of unleashing death and devastation upon our world.”
“What kind of death and devastation?” I asked. Scenarios ranging from nuclear holocausts to zombie outbreaks to Black Death-level plagues flashed through my mind.
“I…I don’t know.” Kyanne’s face fell.
“What?” Letharia hissed. “You convincccccced me to attack Whitesssssspire without knowing the factssssss? Zaddrith sssssssacrificcccccced many of her creaturessssss in that battle!”
“You didn’t ask, and what was important was that I knew that the key was beneath Whitespire,” Kyanne retorted. “Even though I didn’t know precisely what the power was, I knew enough of what would happen if the humans got their hands on it. That was enough to goad me into action.”
Letharia’s huge green body coiled up around Kyanne, and her lips drew back to reveal long serpent fangs.
“Letharia,” I said in a soothing tone, “let her speak.”
With a hiss, Letharia lowered her head but didn’t take her emerald-green eyes off the blue-haired woman.
“If you don’t know what the Dreamkey or these other keys do, how do you know they are dangerous?” I asked her.
“I simply know!” Kyanne’s sea-green eyes flashed, and she lifted her head higher. “For five hundred years, I have guarded that key from threat, keeping it safe in my lair. I have carried the burden of the knowledge of what would happen if the key was united with the other five. I thought perhaps the other dragons of Iriador shared the same burden, but it seems I bore it alone.”
I glanced at the four women beside me. “Did you know about Dreamkeys or anything like that?”
“This is the Dreamkey,” Kyanne corrected. “The others are the Spiritkey, Breathkey, Thoughtkey, Reasonkey, and Sensekey. The one beneath Whitespire, the most powerful of all, is known as the Lifekey.”
I turned to my dragon women. “Ringing any bells?”
Rizzala and Letharia shook their head without hesitation, and Irenya did likewise a moment later. Arieste, however, remained silent, her dragon features wrinkled in what I guessed was an expression of concentration.
“Arieste?” I asked.
“For some reason,” the white dragon rumbled, “mention of the Sensekey triggers a faint memory from my years as Frosdar.”
“You know of it?” Kyanne straightened, and her eyebrows shot up. “Frosdar had it?”
After a few heartbeats of silence, Arieste shook her head. “The memory is too faint to recall. I thought I recognized the name, but if I ever knew of it, the recollection has slipped from my mind. But perhaps further pondering will restore it.”
“Tell me,” I said as I turned back to Kyanne, “if this key unlocks something so dangerous, why would you have it? From what I’ve learned of most dragons, they care more about treasure and expanding their domains than protecting anything other than themselves.”
“But that is precisely why I was entrusted with the key,” Kyanne retorted. “I am not like the other dragons. I seek no treasure beyond knowledge, claim no more land or ocean than what is required to shelter my guardians. The merslayers and nagia were created to help me guard the Dreamkey, and ultimately aid me in my quest to reclaim the other fragments from around Agreon.”
“And once you had all those fragments?” I asked. “What’s to stop you from putting them together and using that power for yourself?”
“Because I have no desire for power,” Kyanne said with a shake of her head. “Water does not seek to devour or destroy. It simply desires to find peace, calm, and unity with its kind. Every drop of rain flows from the highest mountain peaks, into rivers and streams, to join with its brothers in the ocean.”
“So you’re saying Curym was a good dragon?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Good and evil are human constructs,” Kyanne said with a dismissive wave. “I have read many stone tablets with the works of what you humans call philosophers and wise men, and I understand much of the way you think and believe. You are so consumed by the fact that you will soon die tha
t you fail to look beyond your own lifespan. A dragon’s life is long, and there is much to learn that the human mind could never truly grasp.”
“You’re human now,” Irenya growled.
“I am,” Kyanne said, “but I retain much of the knowledge I acquired as Curym.” Her beautiful sea-green eyes turned up to meet mine. “Knowledge that could aid you in your efforts to protect this world, if that truly is what you desire.”
“That’s why I’m here,” I told her. “I’m here to stop the dragons from destroying the people of Iriador.”
“A very human mindset,” Kyanne retorted with only a hint of disdain. “But perhaps I will be able to teach you to see beyond the immediate present and plan for the future of not only your little human city, but all of this world and the creatures that share it with you.”
“I’ll take that to mean you’re willing to join us,” I said with a grin. “If you prove that we can trust you, I’ll be happy to return your magic, just like I have with them.” My gesture encompassed my four dragons.
“I have no desire to wield the magic any more than is necessary to protect the Dreamkey,” Kyanne said. “I seek only to be near the key so that I may safeguard it from all that would seek to use its power.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise. All of the other dragon women had been eager to regain access to their magic, but Kyanne cared more about this key fragment than her water magic? Talk about a twist I didn’t see coming.
“But I give you fair warning,” Kyanne continued, and the defiance returned to her eyes, “I will not hesitate to stop you if you attempt to claim the Dreamkey’s power or the power of any other keys for your own. Even if that forces you to kill me, know that I am dedicated mind and body to protecting the keys from misuse and protecting the world from the power of the keys.”
I couldn’t help grinning at her determination and mettle. None of the others had straight-up threatened me, but Kyanne didn’t hesitate even thought she was surrounded by four dragons that could snap, crush, or burn her in a heartbeat. It revealed a lot not only about her character, but also the importance of the Dreamkey and the others.
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