Dragon Mage- Uprising

by Brian Ference

  “So! You wish to see a sample of my power?” His voice hissed. Cyrus held up his runestones in a pale hand. A cloud of foul smoke appeared behind him, all green and thick with menace as it swirled and swarmed. Fantastic shapes formed in the air before his dragon’s snout.

  The mysterious smoke whipped out and formed into a giant clamshell. He raised his staff and the clamshell flew over the water and snatched Livis from the deck of her ship, closing like a cincture around her.

  Maquia and Skarlee hacked at the sinister, glowing shape but their blades found no opening. The smoke-formed sides resisted their strikes. Shell and all lifted off the deck.

  Livis beat at the magical barrier with her fists while her crew shouted below.

  “Cyrus, let her go!” ordered Serle. Harpoons and cannons turned on the wizard. Cyrus lifted a hand and the pirates’ harpoons flew wide; their cannonballs turned into green puffs of smoke.

  The mage signaled Valoré and the dragon gripped the clam shell in its claws and soared up into the sky with a cry of triumph.

  Cyrus’s deep-throated cackle faded to a dull echo, as the seamen from both sides stared. Valoré was too fast for their missiles and evaded the gleaming tips that sought to penetrate the wizard’s magecraft.

  Serle sank to his knees in a pool of despair. No amount of drink would ever save him from the sight of his daughter whisked off by that madman.

  * * *

  The third day passed with still no sign of Livis. Darek paced the beach on Valkyrie, his hands behind his back. The dragons watched him with confusion. Jace had sent an angry letter by dragon reprimanding him for not returning to Valkyrie and helping train recruits. No matter. He knew something had happened to her; he could feel it in his bones. Now he began to worry. Mounting Silver Eye, he flew over the white-capped swells of Dragon Sea, heading north. Winguard and Broodhorn trailed after him.

  Up and down the Black Claw Coasts he scoured, looking for her. Instead he found broken debris, wreckage from ships, and fires burning on island shores. Cyrus and Serle’s handiwork. Darek’s heart sickened over the destruction. He had been distracted from his duties. When would such destruction reach the Red Claw islands?

  With no sign of the small schooner that was Livis’s ship, he thought to turn back. Night was coming. There. A glint off a metal harpoon caught his attention. The wind whistled in his ears as he banked Silver Eye in a steep dive.

  The pirates aboard The Singing Gull trained their harpoons on him as he swooped closer.

  “Hold!” cried a voice. Skarlee thrust a finger up at him. “You! I knew you were working with the black-robed wizard. Where has he taken her?”

  “Cyrus took Livis?” Darek stared gape-eyed.

  The pirates frowned at one another. “You claim not to know?”

  “No. I was supposed to meet her. She didn’t show.”

  Skarlee spat out a livid curse. “Then take your dragon and find her!”

  “I’ll find your Mistress,” Darek swore, “but I’ll need your help against Cyrus.”

  “Done! If you can find her, we’ll kill whoever needs killing,” croaked Skarlee.

  “I’ll gut the black wizard myself,” rumbled Maquia, lancing his sword in the air.

  With murder in his heart, Darek spurred Silver Eye back into the sky, back to the Rookery to seek Briad. Only he knew where the magician’s lair lay. He would use whatever magic it took to extract the knowledge and find that secret place.

  Chapter 16.

  Curakee

  The red dragon’s wings beat at the air. Livis shrieked as it glided through the opening of a gloomy seaside cave and sent her sprawling on the stone. The glowing clam shimmered then dissolved in bands of serpent-colored smoke, as if it had never existed.

  Her eyes flitted about in bewilderment. A black strand of water stretched from shore to cave mouth, rippling in the gloom. In the middle of the chilling water glowed a strange prism, perched on a gnarled tongue of rock. A man was imprisoned inside.

  Cyrus leaped off his dragon and raised his mage staff. Livis struggled to gain her feet, but a beam of energy shot out from the staff and struck her in the chest. She sank in agony. Choking, gasping, she tottered to a crouch but fell back rolling in pain on the damp stone.

  Cyrus stepped forward, a grin carved on his face. She tried to crawl away. Cyrus grabbed her arm and threw her back roughly on the cold stone and forced her chin up to look at him. “You take my gold and expect to give nothing in return?”

  “I didn’t spend your gold, you cretin. Krag and his stupid henchmen did—”

  “A leader is responsible for those they lead.”

  “I’ll not grovel like a worm before you,” she spat. Her chest heaved. Rolling to her feet, she tried to strike him, but Valoré was faster. He thrust his snout in between her and his master who grinned all the more. The dragon bunted her back and she slid across the stone floor, the wind knocked out her. “I’d rather die,” she croaked, massaging her bruises.

  Cyrus’s mouth curled in mockery. “You might.” A harsh laugh dribbled from his lips. “Be careful what you wish for.”

  She clenched her fists and looked for an avenue of escape. None presented itself.

  “I see you are too unruly to see reason.” Cyrus sighed. “A pity.” He raised his staff, this time his runestones clutched glowing in the other palm. The green rays reflected in Livis’s eyes.

  She fell in a deep mesmeric spell as he drew her into a world beyond, casting aside her strength of will and free spirit. Her eyelids drooped and her head hung in a state of deep trance.

  Cyrus smiled, the satisfaction stretching from cheek to cheek. This day’s catch had been grand. The mage boy’s consort—this young beauty… A rising leader amongst the foul pirates, perhaps a queen to replace her drunken father.

  The dark oracle would shed light on what should be done with her. Yes, he could use her in his plan…though sacrifice to Dendrok remained the most practical option.

  “The oracle will decide your fate.” He prepared the necessary ingredients and soon a foul smoke rose over the shark head talisman. Dire images swam before his eyes—fire and raging beasts, charging him in a mist of vapor, breathing fire and poison. His own shrieks faded in the mists of illusion, then spouted an image of himself hunched over as an old man. A drawn and thin figure, bony like a skeleton and sitting on a fallen log on a lonely shore. His head lay in his hands…a man lonely, pathetic, and stripped of all magic.

  Cyrus shook his head in disbelief. He hurled his mage staff aside and swept the air with his hand.

  “Oracle!” he bellowed. “Why show me this? I need to see the truth of this girl and how I might use her, not some fanciful tale.”

  Krag, eying the cannons aimed at him, snarled. “Perhaps it’s time for new leadership, ‘Mistress’. I challenge you to a duel!”

  Livis scowled. Krag was a skilled fighter, but she had been training with constant diligence with Maquia. No reason why she couldn’t win against this blowhard. “Very well, Krag. Winner take all.”

  Maquia whirled on her. “Mistress, are you sure? Krag is—”

  “—an arrogant oaf who needs to be taught a lesson.”

  Skarlee grinned as Livis drew her sword and fingered her blade with confidence. “We fight on neutral ground,” she shouted across the waves. “On Numestis’s ship.”

  “No quarter,” he yelled back. “We fight to the death. If I lose, you my ships and my men. I win, I become first captain, Agreed?” In his sharkish expression Livis could see he would not hesitate to kill her and watch his fortunes rise even further.

  “Agreed. Now are you ready to fight, or do you need to wax that fine new coat of yours first?”

  The man cursed and ordered his rowboat dropped in the waves. Livis did the same and soon they were both aboard Numestis’s ship.

  Numestis’s mates cleared an area at the midships deck. The various crews gathered around to watch.

  Livis drew her cutlass and beckoned Krag to initi
ate. The man attacked without preamble, hacking furiously in a bid to end the fight with as little ceremony as possible. Livis parried, then gave ground. Maquia had taught her well…wait for an opportunity to draw out an impatient opponent.

  Krag made a quick sally to pin her against the mast, but Livis caught the blade on her own, turning it aside as she spun to his left flank. She blocked his strike, then another, while the man began to tire, raining blow after blow with curses thick on his lips. Men began to jeer as Krag’s sour threats grew desperate. He overturned a barrel of grog and threw a coiled rope at her. Livis dodged only to earn a cut on her thigh.

  She forced back a yelp but held her cool and wiped away the blood.

  Krag laughed at the crimson line on her sleek flank and slashed a murderous loop, surging in for the kill. So…the exact move she had been waiting for. Rolling forward, she ducked under Krag’s strike and crashed her shoulder into his chest. Krag fell back, wrenching her blade from her hands while she brought both of them to the deck. In instinctive desperation her fingers snatched for the dagger at her belt.

  Snarling, Krag’s momentum brought him up again, bounding forward to finish her off. Then he paused, peering down at the dagger protruding from his chest. Livis rose to her feet to cheers as Krag sank against the railing, the whites of his eyes wide in disbelief.

  She pulled her blade free as Krag gurgled his last breath. “No one steals from me.”

  Her command now cemented, the pirates went on to raid prisons up and down the coasts and capture what ships they could. Krag’s absence was not missed.

  Chapter 17.

  Sacrifice

  Livis jerked awake from her trance, a gasp on her lips. Her belly felt sore and she vomited. Damp stone surrounded her, a clammy chill lingering in the air. Was her memory failing her? The wizard was nowhere to be seen. This place was different. She lay on her side, blinking in a vast cavern with a shaft of pale light shining down from a high slit in the rock above.

  Rising to her feet, she traced fingers along the cold, damp wall, then crouched to pick up a handful of pebbly rock. A sickly blackness plagued her mind. She felt as if something had been done to her, or had it all been some fevered dream? She shoved the spidery memories from her head and crept ahead.

  Her eyes wheeled to the far wall where a row of rock teeth jutted out. The flash of white fangs disappeared beyond as of a creature struggling to burst through. Echoes of strange murmurs and grunts pierced the gloom, human? Then a slither and a hiss.

  She sensed a movement nearby. A white and brown banded serpent darted from a hole, its tongue flickering out at her. She recoiled and kicked at it. The creature hissed at her, raising its wedge-shaped head like a cobra and struck, missing her foot by inches before slithering away to disappear in another dark hole.

  Livis shivered. From the ledge above came the thud of heavy paws and an unmistakable gust of a dragon’s breath. A pair of shining eyes revealed the hideous red dragon that had carried her to this place. The thing looked hungry.

  Cyrus appeared at the dragon’s side, stroking its scales with loving tenderness. The man’s dark eyes gleamed like a dragon’s, his hair matted like a bedraggled rat. Livis stepped back, looking with desperation for an escape.

  The mage’s cryptic voice rumbled, “You may go, Valoré.”

  The beast snuffled and turned on its hind legs to disappear back up the passage.

  Figure stood staring down at the cavern, at its single occupant. “Welcome to Bergerax. You wonder why I have brought you here?” His echo boomed like a distant evil bell.

  “What do you want?” she said, not liking the waver in her voice.

  Cyrus grunted and motioned to a sunken pit in the floor. Livis heard a human wail and ran to the edge of the pit. A ragged man clung to the wall, half-starved. “I thought you should see what becomes of those who betray me.”

  Livis hissed, appalled at the wizard’s cruelty; she knelt, better to study the victim, feeling a pang of sympathy for the wounded, trembling man below. She saw a figure who had once been handsome, but now hunched with wild darting eyes and haggard limbs. His limp hair stuck to his scalp like a drowned rat.

  “Who are you?” the man called up in a hoarse whisper.

  “I’m Livis, and you?”

  “Raithan, once captain of the Black Claws,” he mumbled. “I’ve a daughter—much like you. Meira, the same age. If you survive this, tell her my thoughts were, of her until the end.” He hung his head and his lips trembled, as if he knew in his bones he would never see his daughter again.

  “Meira?” croaked Livis. “I remember that name. Darek, a Red Claw, mentioned a sister by the name of Meira. Do you know him?”

  “Aye, the same. Darek and Meira—they’re half brother and sister.”

  Livis’s eyes widened in astonishment. She licked her lips. “Then, that means…”

  “Enough!” growled Cyrus. “Now that you two have made the proper introductions, let us move on.”

  Livis recoiled at the fetid reek, of stagnant pools and musky, rotting things.

  “It is time you witnessed Raithan’s punishment.” With a malicious sneer Cyrus flourished a hand to the mesh of rock pillars where Livis had seen some foul beast struggling to gnaw its way through.

  “You’ll have to forgive Dendrok. He hasn’t eaten for several days.” The wizard gave a raucous chortle. “He’s nearly broken through though. When he does, Raithan will receive his trial by combat.”

  “Let’s get it over with,” coughed Raithan. Yet Livis thought she saw some fight in the condemned man’s eyes.

  Cyrus sighed. “Prepare yourself! The trial begins, now!”

  Raithan flashed a rude gesture Cyrus’s way.

  Cyrus rubbed his wrists. “You’ve a part to play as well, Livis. If you can reach the ledge atop the cavern, you will win your freedom. Fail, and Dendrok will have two sacrifices instead of one.” He stared meaningfully at Raithan.

  “Let her go, Cyrus,” Raithan grunted. “She has nothing to do with this business between you and I.”

  “She has everything to do with it!” thundered Cyrus. “You’ve both betrayed me! The pair of you will suffer for it! The question is, which one of you will be the first to enter Dendrok’s jaws?”

  “You’re a madman!” shrieked Livis.

  Cyrus crafted a small bow. “Thank you for that wisdom, wench. Dendrok requires a sacrifice—to achieve his birthright. So it is ordained. The dark oracle has spoken.”

  “What’s he talking about?” moaned Livis. She looked up at the ledge, an avenue of safety, circling along the cavern and up to the high slit above.

  Raithan shook his head “You want me to explain the musings of a lunatic?”

  “Silence!” Cyrus screamed. “Insults will earn you little quarter.”

  The captain grabbed at a jagged rock. “Find anything you can use as a weapon,” he hissed.

  Livis nodded and moved to the side to retrieve a broken spear.

  Cyrus studied their efforts with some amusement. “Little good that will do you.”

  The rockface holding Dendrok back had started to crumble. Livis leaned down into the pit and extended a hand to help Raithan out.

  A pair of jaws broke a hole in the crust. Long claws reached through to widen the opening.

  “Get on my shoulders!” Raithan hissed, crouching down by the wall where the ledge swung lowest. “I’ll lift you to the ledge.”

  “But how will you get up?”

  “Do it!”

  Shaking her head, Livis climbed on his back. With a grunt, Raithan lurched to his feet, hoisting her up and she shot out a hand to the jagged ledge.

  With precarious skill, she teetered in place as her fingers grasped cold damp rock but fell short by several inches. “It’s no use,” she cried. “I can’t reach it.”

  “You’ll have to jump!”

  She jumped back down. “I won’t make it.”

  “Then we’re both dead,” murmured Raithan sadly.
>
  Dendrok, had gnawed through the thinnest pillar and spat out the last crumbling bits from its mouth. Like a water snake, it squeezed through the narrow gap and flopped on all stubby fours, moving head from side to side like a gator. Its tongue flickered out and its web-like wings drooped as if numb. The eyes blinked, pinpointing its quarry. It sprang in their direction.

  Livis grabbed up the largest rocks and leaped aside as it whistled by her side like a blur of nightmare.

  Raithan dodged the white, dripping fangs that came snapping at him. He whirled and tossed his chunk of rock, striking the creature square on the snout. The creature growled and swatted out a clawed foot.

  Livis threw her spear, taunting the dragon, “Over here, you ugly beast! Catch me if you can!”

  “Beware the tail! It’s poison,” shouted Raithan.

  The creature slavered and lunged at her. Livis rolled back, stumbling as she struggled to get away. Razor-tipped fangs snapped out at her. She howled as it grazed her leg, leaving a thin trace of crimson.

  Raithan lifted a heavy rock, smashing it on the spiked tail. Dendrok whirled, giving Livis time to limp away.

  Cyrus clicked his tongue. “Is that the best you can do?” he crowed down.

  Claws arched out at Raithan, who grunted and sprang sideways, trapped now against wall. He yelled at Livis. The dragon’s back arched just under the ledge.

  Spying an opportunity, she leaped up on the monster’s spine and clambered up to the ledge, her fingers grasping at the crumbling rock. Raithan attacked, striking at the beast’s eyes. Her fingers clutched empty air… then three fingers caught at the edge, her legs dangling.

  The beast knocked Raithan back and leaped up, snapping at her heels. Livis kicked at its crusty snout. With a hoarse gasp, she pulled herself up.

  Squealing in frustration, Dendrok turned to Raithan, who backed away.

  “I’ll find a weapon!” Livis yelled. Wriggling across the ledge, she hugged the wall and crept inch by inch where another tunnel joined the cavern. Bits of crumbling rock tumbled down.