Cyrus, grinding teeth at her progress, lifted a hand to direct a searing blast. Livis teetered back on her good leg as green fire shattered the rock at her feet. She jumped back with a gasp. Twenty feet of ledge crumbled before her eyes.
“Oops!” called Cyrus. “How careless of me!”
Dendrok’s wings fluttered as it closed on Raithan. Cyrus’s dark chuckle reverberated through the cavern.
As Livis sank to her knees, she caught a shiver of movement from a tunnel to her side.
A figure with strong young body stormed out and stood on the ledge, chest heaving, sword in hand.
There was a familiarity to the proud stance. Could it be? “Darek!” Her breath caught in her throat.
The Dragon Mage ran to the ledge’s edge.
“You!” cried Cyrus. “Come and meet your doom.”
Darek held up his sword and a green orb of fire grew around it. “We’ll see about that, Cyrus.” He threw a ball of blistering fire.
* * *
Darek leaped aside as Cyrus deflected his attack and launched a bolt of his own. Flakes of rock peeled off the wall where Darek’s head had been.
Livis and Raithan both alive. A miracle! Raithan didn’t look though as if he had long.
He instantly sized up the situation, sending a torrent of mental sound to confuse the half dragonish creature hovering in the pit. It turned to face him, pumping its wings with fury, but seemed unable to stay aloft in the cavern. He threw up a shield around himself and Livis.
Darek took a running leap and jumped to the floor. He rolled to his feet to face the drago-serpent. As he hoped, Cyrus paused his attack, not wanting to hit his own creation. Dendrok surged toward him.
“Down, you hellion!” he commanded.
The dragon charged him, bypassing the command, its mind like a serpent. What was it? Some hybrid of serpent and dragon? But neither. The thing was a slithering monstrosity of wild potential, an untamable deformity of this world.
As it winged in, Darek felt a strange fluctuation in his magic. He watched his blast bounce off the drago-serpent’s hide like rain off a duck’s back.
Cyrus laughed, pleased at his creature’s natural resistance to magic. “How do you like my new creation, mage boy? You’ll find him a formidable adversary. Dendrok, kill them…now!”
Darek gasped as the dragonish beast lurched at him.
“No!” cried Darek. With a livid curse, he loosed a beam of mage fire that singed the beast’s nose with flame before it could devour Livis and Raithan. The creature gave a scream of agony and swatted at its snout in pain. Such assaults, as powerful as they were, did not dent its scaly hide. With a fury of ages it dove at Darek, and launched claws raking the black stone.
Darek spun back in fright, clawing for support on the ledge. Cyrus loosed more magic upon him, green rays slewing sideways in a wild rush. Darek absorbed the first volley with his shield and dodged the follow-up bursts.
“Run!” he yelled to Livis, pointing at a tunnel opening down the ledge from where she stood.
Cyrus’s shrill words filled the cavern as summoned a foul wind that knocked Raithan to his knees.
“Go!” Raithan, shouted. “Leave me!”
Livis’s eyes grew wide with fright. She reached the tunnel and turned back to look at Raithan.
Dendrok, driven back by the falling rock, loomed like a shadow of death over Raithan and both Darek and Raithan knew the captain had seconds to live.
“Save yourself,” Raithan howled. He met Darek’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
The monster struck with its barbed tail, impaling Raithan in the stomach.
Raithan grunted in pain.
“Noooo!” Darek cried out in horror. He was too late.
The drago-serpent roared and its jaws descended to devour Raithan. Livis turned her head, choking with grief.
A shriek of ecstasy shrilled from the beast’s maw that rocked the roof of the cavern as Raithan’s blood fired the Spell of Binding. Cyrus had cast such spell on the dragon from its birth. Its back arched like a bow. From its putrid jowl came an ear-splitting howl that quaked the very rocks to the core. Imbued with a power undreamed of, the beast shot up like a hurricane. Its iridescent wings in full power, it fled past the quaking victims clinging horrified to the ledge and crashed against the thin slit of rock above. Shards crumbled and fell down into the stagnant pools below.
The beast bounced back, shaking its dazed crown. Again it smashed its serpentish skull against the rock, as if impervious to pain. This time, huge chunks of rock fell from on high, while the creature slipped through the opening to raise snout in a final shriek of rapture to the sky.
Fear twisted Cyrus’s face. He rumbled dark incantations, letting them gather weight in a whirling ball of power. He launched the Spell of High Binding on the beast. To no avail. The beast tore through the rock, shearing off bits of its wings in the process, as a bird tears through a spider’s web in search of the fly. Nothing could stop it as it tore through the last layers of rock and moss and moldering earth and gained its freedom at last.
Cyrus, enraged and thunderstruck, summoned his beastly red-scaled dragon, Valoré. It seemed he didn’t control Dendrok after all. Perhaps the Spell of High Binding had failed.
Just at that moment, Silver Eye came flying out of the passage, her claws raking at the dark-robed Cyrus, who ducked back and gave a grunt of roaring surprise and anger.
He flung a bolt of magic which missed her hide by inches and continued on to strike the far wall. A great slab of rock fell into the pool below.
She coursed up the cavern at that place where Darek and Livis stumbled in the murk, a great gash on her side where the red-scaled dragon had clawed her.
As Silver Eye flapped in place beside him, he jumped on her back and drew Livis beside him.
Cyrus mounted Valoré and streamed up after them, the dragon’s teeth aching for a piece of Silver Eye, to whom he had lost the last fight.
Darek burst through the gap; Livis clung to him for dear life, her heart thumping against his back.
Out from the gaping hole the red dragon burst. Cyrus, at first pursued Darek and the girl with a blistering vengeance as the sun’s last rays fled the skies. But he turned on sight of his drago-serpent flapping with mad glee for the shelter of the nearest volcano. “Back, Valoré! Follow Dendrok!””
Darek spurred Silver Eye away from the wretched place, to the islands that dotted the seas to the east.
Chapter 18.
A Seed is Sown
Darek and Livis flew on the back of Silver Eye away from the dark loom of Curakee Island. He turned to gaze back as blazing mage fire light the distant volcanic cone and the twilight sky.
Cracks, bangs of doom…such could only be Cyrus battling his drago-serpent in the dormant cone. Darek shuddered and Livis cringed.
He felt her quivering body press herself against him. “Take me far from this horror,” she murmured.
“I will Livis, I will.” With a wordless grunt, he spurred Silver Eye through the darkening sky. Her flanks were battered and gashed, but his wounded dragon surged tirelessly on.
For leagues they flew, Livis nursing the slash on her leg as the stars wheeled over them and the sea breezes stilled. A dark blot appeared below and Darek swung Silver Eye down toward the island growing larger and larger.
“I knew there was something special about you,” whispered Livis in a husky tone. “I felt it in my bones the moment I saw you.”
Darek smiled, his eyes slitted with mischief. “I thought it was my good looks and wit .”
“That too,” she laughed, batting him with a playful swat on the shoulder.
Guiding them to a place up the shore, Darek dismounted between a grouping of sea furs and a copse of windblown gumwoods. He helped Livis down, his hand lingering on her hip. The tide washed moonlit water up the sparse beach. “This should be a safe place to rest for the night. I’ll make a fire.”
She gave a wordless murmur but stumbled, c
learly exhausted. Darek caught her as she swayed. “Kraton! You’re hurt. Here, sit down. Let me see that leg.”
She winced as she sat, extending her leg as Darek peeled back the sopping leather. The dark cut ran from ankle to knee, still oozing blood.
“Another inch and that monster would have killed me,” she grunted.
“You fought well.”
“Your friend, the Captain, I’m so sorry. He seemed like a brave man.”
“Raithan!” Darek rasped. A flurry of mixed emotions gripped his heart. Yet in the aftermath he could only feel sadness, despite the grief and slavery the captain had caused him. He spread palms an inch above her wound and moving them in slow circles, visualizing warmth and a rosy good will. A cleansing heat tingled in the wound and the young woman’s leg twitched.
“Oooh..oh... What are you doing?”
“Relax.” He cauterized the cut, stopping the flow of blood. Then he reached into the wound with rich healing energies and began to mend the tissue that had been damaged. He let out a breath and a shiver ran through his upper body.
“Another of your rare talents?” she gasped.
“Agrippa was trying to teach me the finer points of healing before he died. I’m sorry to say he had not enough time, but I’ve been practicing. There, that’s the best I can do. Silver Eye is next but I have to rest.”
Feeling much relieved and lighter of spirit, she gained her feet and limped around, clearly pleased by the lack of pain. “Ok, dragon boy, in the meantime let’s get to work on that fire.” Darek, shaking his head at her resilience, helped gather up driftwood and fallen dalcus leaves for a camping pallet.
“I don’t think your girlfriend is going to like us hunkering down together for the night.”
Darek gave a rueful sigh. “That’s over now. Bree heard one mention of your name and bailed on me.”
She chuckled out a thin laugh. “I have that effect. Not to be known as a man-stealer, Darek, but in your case, I’ll make an exception.”
Darek looked away, still unsure of his feelings.
Livis shivered. “It’s cold Darek. Would you hold me?”
He swallowed hard, but wrapped his arms around her. A rustle of passion like no other stirred in his chest. “You’re beautiful beyond words, Livis. I’ll never stop thinking of you. I couldn’t stand the thought that you were in danger. I’ll kill Cyrus for what he did to you.”
She shuddered, her shoulders convulsing. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? I’ve beaten him before.”
A wild fear entered her eyes and passed over her pale face like a cold wind from a storm. She shook her head. “Whatever grave that madman has risen from, he’s become more powerful than ever.”
Darek scoffed. “No matter. He’ll pay for what he’s done.”
“Stay with me, please.” He held her tight, taking in her scent from the top of her hair. Her skin was soft and inviting to his touch despite the fight. She leaned back into him as his breath fell hot upon her neck. She turned her head and he kissed her. Darek felt her hands search his body, pass over his arms and to his chest and lean stomach. They lay down together by the fire as the waves continued to pound against the surf and the fire flickered with warmth. That night they spent wrapped in each other’s arms, passion washing between them like a storm, sharing a moment that would change the world…
Bathed in the afterglow of union, they nodded off to sleep. Neither saw the star-shaped flash of light in Livis’s navel Cyrus’s dark prophecy began its inevitable journey.
* * *
Cyrus employed the mighty power of Valoré to catch up with his errant servant Dendrok as he hovered before the chalky mouth of the dormant volcano. Aldrax was its name and revered by a distant tribe out of time and mind. The creature let out a hiss of warning as his master approached. More than ever did the hatchling look like a flying serpent in his late stage of development. Cyrus lips compressed in a stew of mixed pride and anger.
“Aye, you magnificent beast! Why do you threaten me? ’Tis I who birthed you. Have you forgotten? Come and attack me and see what happens!”
The drago-serpent understand some of these words but stared at him with sightless eyes. The creature had been deformed since birth, but with its new powers it no longer needed eyesight. So passed a battle of wills between mage and serpent. The drago-serpent hissed and lashed its growing poisonous tail, now deadlier than ever—but Cyrus dodged the fangs and tail, his malevolence an overpowering force.
He lashed out with a green beam of fire and stung the beast on its left flank. The creature shrieked and its wings folded back, caught by an invisible net that wrapped about it like a fly in a spider’s web.
The beast plummeted down the forgotten volcano and landed spine-first, kicking up a cloud of dust at the bottom of the ashy caldera.
Cyrus drifted down after it on Valoré with leisure, gloating like a clucking chicken.
The drago-serpent writhed in pain on the shards and ashes below, like a cowed hound. Its eel-like body glistened in the starlight and rising moonlight like something from another world, something undreamed of. Wings like wasp wings, insectoid to the end, made Cyrus reel with pride at his sorcery. Cyrus came to settle beside his errant beast. He chanted the endearment spell and Dendrok was once more his, a thrall under his power. He gave a terrible, grave chuckle.
“Don’t be disappointed, my pet. All eventually kneel to my will. Rise and pay obeisance to me, Cyrus, Dragon Mage of Dragon Sea! Endless rewards will be yours for carrying out my will of death and fire. Crush my enemies, Black Claw and Red Claw alike. I have given you life and power—power beyond any creature’s measure. Yet you sit there like an angry cat and spit at me. No more!” With a vengeful cry, he reached in his robe and threw a pinch of caustic powder at its snout, igniting it with a spin of his mage staff. The dust flared and scorched the beast’s face. Dendrok howled in pain. “Yes! Feel the scars you gave me at you birthing—and as you do, let our shared pain bind us! FERUS NAUR!”
The creature’s eyes shut with a moan, its pale tongue loosing a hiss of torment.
Cyrus patted the creature’s head. “A fitting punishment for your disobedience, Dendrok. But so too come the rewards.”
He raised his hands and the creature’s cloudy eyes cleared. The blindness was lifted and Dendrok could see.
“Challenge me again and your blindness will return.”
He mounted Valoré and flew up out of the volcano as the blazing stars burned in their bright profusion. The beast, compelled to obey and overwhelmed with the return of its sight, took wing after him.
Landing in the bay, Cyrus hauled three of the Bimsbrun sacrifices out of the hidden cave where he kept them along the shore. Pale, shivering creatures with haggard faces, whimpering in the night breeze. Cyrus dismounted Valoré and prepared the necessary ingredients. Then he set a fire blazing. Serpents would rise tonight. He raised his arms to the sky, chanted the forgotten words, “Fastaslix Neros Maunos Fuit!”
Dendrok cocked his head at the sound, watching closely as a nebular shadow crept over Curakee Island. A dozen grotesque shapes slithered from the waves and onto the moonlight beach like silent wraiths. Lean and sleek they gathered as one, with wedge-shaped heads and pale, green-gleaming saucer eyes. Never blinking, they contemplated the human victims with a hunger unknown to even dragons. The human victims cringed, fought against their bonds, but to no avail, exposed as they were to the serpents’ tongues and pointed fangs. Their cries faded. Twelve new beasts, sated with human blood, became new servants under Cyrus’s power, ready for the dark deeds ahead.
* * *
Darek awoke before dawn and scouted out a grove of palms, heavy with fresh coconuts. He picked several for Livis, dropping them by her side along with a cache of fish caught by Silver Eye.
Darek conjured a fire and roasted eelfish on gumwood skewers. He and Livis ate in peace, with the silence between lovers stretching for long moments.
Livis gazed
into his eyes. Her heart, he saw, filled with pride and appreciation. They kissed for long moments unwilling to let one another go and unsure when they would see each other again. The fragility of life on the Dragon Sea was ever in question, a constant source of worry on any islander’s mind.
“If only we could stay here forever, Darek, far from the worries of this mad world.”
Darek stroked her arm and ran his fingers through her hair, relishing every moment he had spent with her, and she blinked with appreciation at his tenderness. He smiled but fell silent. Cyrus was a vile menace that must be stopped at all costs. Now that he knew where his hideaway was, there could be no other choice. He would return with Jace and the entire Red Claw clan to crush the mage.
Livis firmed her lip. “Take me back to my crew, Darek. I’ll fight this wizard with you and defy my father if I must.”
Darek gave a quiet grunt of acceptance. “I thank you for your support. The raiding needs to stop.”
She nodded and Darek grew solemn. “I may need to call on you for help soon.” He sat up and looked across the water, wondering where Cyrus would strike next.
He helped Livis to her feet and onto Silver Eye’s back. He mounted his faithful dragon and guided her airborne to search out The Singing Gull, feeling a renewed sense of purpose as never before. At all costs, he would stop Cyrus and end the many conflicts wrought by the mage’s hand.
Chapter 19.
Visilee
Life at the Rookery was a welcomed relief. They trainees had settled back into their routine after the recent sabotage, and yet Darek felt something brewing in the air. He knew he should tell Meira what had happened to her father, but he didn’t have the heart to spring that news on her now. Let her remember him as he was.
While Jace instructed a group of young riders on storm weather battle tactics, an unknown rider, flying a blue-gray dragon, landed with a heavy thud in the training yard. All eyes turned to her. Darek saw the crest of Three Sisters’ Isles on her leather jerkin.
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