Dragon Mage- Uprising
Page 17
Dendrok dove down to finish off his hated master.
Cyrus blinked in utter disbelief, his magic faltering at the worst time and his confidence with it. At the loss of his runestones, his dark arts seemed to desert him. Only Fercifor came to his aid. The other serpents rallied against the cruel mage.
The great black-green worm Fercifor reared out of the waves like a demonic cobra, snapping fangs at the descending drago-serpent. Dendrok reared and flailed front and hind claws ripping out chunks of flesh from Fercifor’s tube-like body.
Cape Spear riders surged forth to attack dragons and serpents while Dendrok and Fercifor tore at each other.
Now did Fercifor catchh Dendrok at the base of the tail and whip its serpentish neck like an attack hound, flinging the drago-serpent far out in the water.
Cyrus’s lips quivered in horror, as if recalling Agrippa’s fateful words.
“You see it now, don’t you, mage?” boomed Darek down at him. “You can’t control these serpents. Agrippa was right. See your own beasts turn on you.”
Cyrus howled a miserable cry. “No, you are wrong! Fercifor defends me. Look, he is loyal!”
“Fercifor is not enough and he is lost too. Watch how Jace and his riders slay all your serpents.”
Cyrus lanced his staff which he gripped in his fist like a jealous child and flung up a ray. But the ray was nothing that didn’t sputter and die against Darek’s most basic shield.
The serpents now masterless and frenzied with blood, sprang upon Dendrok floundering in the water. The serpents tore at its wings and slithered in and about like feral eels, hissing and biting at each other for spoils. Darek, despite his desire to see the end of this horror, felt sorry that innocent creature.
Jace, Meira, Bree and the others swarmed in on the serpents like spiders amongst a swarm of flies
Even Windbiter, hovering from afar, did not come to aid Cyrus. Perhaps the mage’s spell had been completely broken, for a glimmer of recollection seemed to spark in the old grey dragon’s eye with the memory of how Cyrus had let him roast in the cave while it blew hot breath to heat the egg that would become Dendrok.
Cyrus’s magic was at an end.
But a strange feeling washed over Darek as the sea churned with blood and he glimpsed a new menace. A yellow-bellied squid speeding with hungry eyes toward its long-awaited prey, tentacles arching and plunging it forth in bursts of speed. It reached a gray tentacle and wrapped it about the flailing mage’s waist, pulling him toward its gaping two-toothed.
Two more seconds and the monster would eat him alive.
But a power moved within Darek of which he had no control. He sent a streamer of fire from his hands that shore the tentacle in half. Cyrus fell back in the waves, limp. In dreamlike trance, Darek sent his new dragon swooping down to snatch up a length of rope from the wreckage. He tied an end fast to his dragon’s harness and swung over Cyrus who grabbed the moving line in a grateful fist. He pulled the mage up into the air. All the painful deaths the mage had caused swirled in his mind, and all those that he should rightfully instil on the mage, but none of those would come to pass. Out to open water he flew, south and east, while the riders watched in astonishment. He summoned Meshoar and Winguard whose riders had both fallen in battle. He would need those beasts for the task ahead.
Along the way, he ignored Cyrus yells and insults. Without staff and runestones, the mage seemed powerless. Also deathly afraid of letting go of the line and dropping in the middle of the ocean. Was he scared of the serpents and squids that haunted the seas? Darek gave a sinister laugh.
At last, having thought long and hard, Darek leaned over his saddle and roared down at the mage, “You who has caused so much death, Cyrus, I strip of all power and banish on some nameless isle. To never see a soul again, to live out your life in misery.”
Cyrus snarled up at him. “And I curse you, mage boy, and all your kin for the end of time. May the hex of the dark dragon strike your scions for the end of time.” And he laughed a maniacal sound, for Cyrus had gone completely mad in that moment. But in the tone shivered a hint of truth that he knew something Darek did not.
“I hope you’re watching this, Agrippa, wherever you are,” Darek whispered, struggling to maintain the higher path. Booming an arcane phrase and with a fling of hand, he smote the wizard with the Spell of Undoing, which he had been practicing for long hours in the secrecy of his room at the Rookery.
A brilliant streak of blue color hit Cyrus in the temple, lighting him like a lightning bolt. Cyrus howled and arched his back like a frenzied cat.
“You will wake each day to the memory of your foul deeds, Cyrus, your sacrifices and twisted deeds of outrages upon man and beast, knowing you are powerless to do so again.”
Cyrus gave one last screech and flinched in pain and horror as an electric shock sizzled through his body. The mage was unprepared for the eternal transformation that would strip him of his most prized powers.
“Justice is served,” growled Darek. “You have life. Now get out of my sight. I never want to see your dirty face again.” And he bid Meshoar and Winguard to take the broken mage far away. He cut the line and Cyrus fell into the waves and Meshoar grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and spread wings to fly south and east across the graying seas while the wizard flailed and gnashed. Winguard trailed after, a backup should the mettlesome Meshoar fail in his mission. Far away, a strange, yellow-bodied squid swam after the dragons, following an imperceptible scent that only the undead could track.
Chapter 21.
New Beginnings
Darek, leathers torn, blood-streaked and haggard, made his way back to his scattered forces. The Red Claw ships, having at last arrived, cemented their victory. In aftermath of the battle, they gathered up the pieces of the Visilee sea guard and searched for survivors. Any remaining sea serpents had fled to deeper waters. The small Black Claw force that had joined them on their way to the Three Sisters’ Isles drew back to their savaged ports.
Darek’s new dragon was a dependable mount, one that he’d come to respect, black with yellow stripes. He called it Unshakeable for its faithful service. As he flew low over the hodgepodge of ships, his keen eyes caught sight of some commotion on a Black Claw deck. He swooped down to investigate. Two familiar pirates, hands bound behind their backs, crouched in a slave line with other pirates, joined by a common rope. Serle and Hreg. The Black Claw captain stood with his sword raised like an executioner’s axe, ready to lop off the head of Serle who had caused them so much woe.
Darek thought of Livis and he made an instant decision. Urging Unshakeable in a dive, he cut the line holding Hreg and Serle, snatching up the end and fastening it tight to his dragon’s harness. He ignored the cries of outrage and urged his dragon skyward, the two pirate criminals were pulled from the deck and jerked up in the air.
A grin broke out on Darek’s face, even as harpoons missed him by inches. He laughed and saluted the astonished faces of Serle and Hreg as they dangled like fish from a line. There had been too much bloodshed this day.
On sight of The Singing Gull, Darek swung low. He dropped his prisoner’s to Livis’s deck. The pirate queen sported many cuts and scratches, her hair disheveled and blood on her sea leathers, but there was nothing of the mad look he had witnessed before.
He still couldn’t meet her eye. “I thought you should be the one to deal with these two,” he growled. “A couple of codfish, I rescued from the bait hooks.” He cut the line holding the prisoners and the two rogues rolled at Livis’s feet.
She stared at her grubby father and nodded. She signaled to her harpoon master, Maquia. “Cut them loose, harpoon master. But beware their teeth, they’re sharp.”
“Aye, mistress, as are mine.”
Serle shook his head in defeat.
Darek sent Unshakeable onward. “Lots to do, Livis. We will meet up soon.” He circled back to Visilee even as an emptiness stole over him. There would never be another dragon like Silver Eye.
; Livis waved and a sad quiver touched her lip, at the sight of him no longer riding his silver dragon.
Though he was heartbroken at the loss of Silver Eye, his spirit felt lifted of a weight of duty. Unshakeable snorted, complaining at last over such exertion following the battle. Darek soothed him with soft words.
Of Cyrus’s dragons, only Windbiter had survived and Darek took the trembling beast under his wing to add to the diminishing forces at the Rookery. He hoped in time to heal the damage done to Windbiter’s mind. He returned to the Rookery to find Meira with a great white bandage wrapped around her brow. She had been awarded the title of ‘Assistant Combat Instructor’ and sworn an oath to protect the Red Claws from further invasion.
Bree was cut and bruised, but still alive. Two of Jace’s ribs were cracked and his claw arm wrenched, but he was as stoic as ever. Darek mourned Briad’s death along with those of many others.
Darek sighed. At rough count, three quarters of the riders and dragons had died in the battle of Visilee. There would be cries of backlash from Cape Spear, but nothing to compare to the alternatives that could have been far worse.
Evren, the glib, slick-tongued merchant-chief, could maunder on all he wanted about Jace’s incompetence and the risk he incurred in taking the Cape Spear forces to their near decimation, but nothing could change the facts—without the Red Claw intervention, Dragon Sea would be under the dominion of Cyrus right now.
“You still have not told us what you did with that madman,” grumbled Meira on the Rookery training yard. “He’s escaped death before.”
Darek shook his head. “No, Meira. Cyrus has his old friend to keep him company—a squid.” She wrinkled her nose at the memory of that creature and traded frowns with Bree. Darek gestured. “Somehow I don’t think he’ll be swimming to safety or building a raft too soon. Last I checked, his undead monster was haunting the shores like a predatory ghoul. One of his zombified experiments, I guess. The creature’ll come to haunt the villain for the rest of his days.”
“Good riddance!” Bree shivered.
“Just be sure the blackguard doesn’t escape,” grunted Jace. “I’d feel better if Cyrus’s head were on a pike, or he was locked in one of our jails.”
“No, Jace. Cyrus’s stripped of his powers. You can rest assured. He’ll wake each day of his life to the memory of his foul deeds knowing he’ll never be able to wield magic again.”
There were grumbles at that, some hear, hears, and nothing more was said. Though many asked which island Cyrus was on, Darek would not tell anyone.
He devoted his energies to regenerating the dragon amulets. After many unsuccessful attempts in his private study, he at last found a successful combination. Even the most stubborn young dragons returned to the stalls. Waving the amulet in front of their feral faces, they became pacified by the crystal glint of the red-gleaming stones and Darek loosed a sigh of relief. It had been a difficult set of magic to get right. Two sets he gave to Jace. One set he kept for himself. For the first time, he could truly call himself a ‘Dragon Mage’.
Darek decided to stay on at the Rookery, as both teacher and student. He returned to Valkyrie often as his private retreat. There he set up a shrine for Agrippa and continued his mage studies using Agrippa’s extensive collection of books and talismans. A startling realization gripped him one day. He knew he would one day need to find an apprentice to take over his duties when he was gone.
Darek at last returned to Livis’s side.
She greeted him with a sigh. “What a pawn I’ve been in this whole game. What a fool.”
“We all were,” said Darek, stroking her back. With his support, she took over for Serle as resident leader of the decimated pirate bands. They signed a peace treaty with the Dragonclaw Islands, focusing on rebuilding their colony.
“What did you do with Serle?” Darek asked.
“Serle’s been relegated to bosun of The Persephone,” she said. “Skarlee’s acting captain so he can keep an eye on him.”
“Good to hear. Now let’s focus on what matters.” He held her tight, placing his hand on the swell of her belly.
“The pirates will never accept me as their chief,” he said in a quiet voice.
“In time, they may. Especially if you bring them dragons and gold.”
“If they won’t accept me, at least they will accept our son—but I want him to become a Dragon Mage, not a pirate.”
Livis smirked. “Oh they’ll accept her alright, but why can’t she be both?”
I
Epilogue
Some months later, Darek landed in a glade on Valkyrie Island to meet with Livis while her ship anchored in the bay by the dragon caves. Now that she was pirate queen, she commanded a much larger and faster vessel, but still sailed The Singing Gull for nostalgic reasons. Her belly had grown to near bursting, already ripe with the child they would have together.
“What shall we call her?” asked Livis.
“We should call him Grippa” Darek remarked, wide-eyed.
“Or Aggra?”
He shook his head and sighed. “You’re something else.”
She brushed him a cool glance.
“Okay, Zara then. In the old pirate tongue, Zara means ‘warrior’.”
“It has a nice ring to it, Livis. Okay, Zara it is.”
They both lay on the grass, holding each other in their arms. Darek felt a soothing, pervading warmth; harmony and peace reigned in the island realms. Tracing a finger over Livis’s belly, he could not help but recall the bitter curse Cyrus had laid on him and his descendants. Why it flashed in his mind at that moment, he did not know, only that he thrust it aside as quickly as it had come.
“What’s wrong?” Livis murmured.
“Nothing. Just a stupid thought.”
They watched the clouds pass by, calling out the shapes of each one. So happy, oblivious to the fact that even in defeat, Cyrus’s magic had put a spell on the child that would change the course of the Dragonclaw islands forever…
About The Authors
BRIAN S. FERENCE lives in Cave Creek, Arizona with his wife Rachel and three children Nathan, Lena, and Victoria. He has always had a passion for reading and writing from a young age. Brian loves new experiences, which has included operating his own company, traveling the world, working as a project manager, diving with sharks, and anything creative or fun. He is always up for a new adventure such as writing or other artistic pursuits.
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Books By Brian Ference
The Wolf of Dorian Gray Series:
Book 1: A Werewolf Spawned by the Evil of Man
Book 2: Purgatory of the Werewolf
Book 3: Lupari – Werewolf Hunter
Werewolf M.D. – A Paranormal Romance Series:
Werewolf MD (pen name Taylor Haiden) – Book 1
Werewolf Epidemic – Werewolf MD Series Book 2
Dragon Sea Chronicles
Dragonclaw Dare – Prequel
Mage Reborn – Dragon Sea Chronicles Book 1
Dragon Mage – Dragon Sea Chronicles Book 2
CHRIS TURNER, writer of fantasy, adventure, and science fiction. Visual artist, musician.
Chris's books include: The Dim Zone, The Timelost, Avenger : a swords and skulls fantasy, Beastslayer : Rise of the Rgnadon, The Relic Hunter series, Denibus Ar, The Rogues of Bindar series, Future Destinies and Fantastic Realms.
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