Fallen Sepulchre

by J D Franx

  Merethyl turned to Magkahn and nodded. Both women stepped up to Kenna and unbuckled the straps on her hands. The serpent struck at them repeatedly, but they were faster. As the buckles sprung free, the viper turned and struck Kenna. It burrowed its way into her body and took the black stone with it.

  Tanner screamed as black tentacles edged in silver raced through his sister’s flesh. Her face, arms, hands and body were covered in black and silver vines. He sobbed as she arched her back and shrieked as more agonizing convulsions ripped through her small body.

  “Hurry!” Merethyl barked. “The guild’s magic will calm the reaction she’s having.”

  “Talk to her, boy,” Magkahn ordered as she stared hard at him and struggled with the buckles at Kenna’s feet. “Try to calm her.”

  He shook his head as Kenna went limp.

  “Fuck!” Merethyl cursed and lifted the girl’s wrist to check for a pulse.

  “Is she dead?” Magkahn asked quietly, placing two fingers on Kenna’s throat. “There’s no pulse. It didn’t work.”

  “Fuck,” Merethyl repeated. “Get out of here, Mags. I’ll kill the boy, so he doesn’t tell Ghul our plans.” The guild council member nodded and quickly left.

  “Please,” Tanner begged. “I will not tell him.”

  “Of course, you will,” Merethyl answered as she placed the girl’s hand at her side and turned to face him. “If it helps, you will feel nothing.” The woman’s hands filled with blue lightning and Tanner finally lost control of himself as she flung the energy at him. He threw his hands up in a futile gesture to stop the attack. Before he could close his eyes, the magic stopped short and raced away. It struck Kenna and the wooden table.

  “Very intriguing,” Merethyl snarled. “You have magic.” Tanner stared in disbelief at the shimmering wall of blue in front of his hands. “Well done, little one. I’ve not seen a Puritan’s blue shield in centuries,” she continued. “That certainly changes things.” She approached him and knelt until she was at his eye level. “How would you like to never go hungry, again? You are a gutter rat, right” He nodded and she continued. “So, you must know who the Broken Blades are, child?”

  He nodded and nearly lost control of his bladder. Every gutter rat, homeless, and dirt-poor citizen of GutterTown had heard of the magical killers.

  “Would you like to become an assassin, boy?” she asked. “We are the most powerful magical killers to ever live. We pay dues to no one, and nobody ever bullies or beats our sisters. It is a one-time offer, child. Yes, or no?”

  “No!” Kenna growled as she sat up on the table. Black and silver energy exploded from her body. It lifted Merethyl from her feet and slammed her into the wall. She fell to the floor unconscious.

  “Kenna?” Tanner whispered and rushed forward as she fell from the table.

  “We have to leave, Tanner,” she told him, barely conscious. “It hurts.”

  He helped her struggle to her feet and she leaned on him while he guided her through the room into the open warehouse. Kenna stumbled, and he nearly fell with her as the door to the outside crumpled. A second impact snapped the door off and it skid across the floor in front of them.

  Tanner nearly choked on his own tongue as a massive snake with a woman’s body coiled around the door frame and burst into the warehouse. Like some berserker from the Northman stories, the snake-woman attacked the door in a frenzy of slashing claws and spitting venom. He held Kenna tight, too terrified to move. She finally noticed them and slithered over, gently dropping from her tail to her feet.

  “Wizard was here, soon ago,” she hissed. She cocked her head to the side and reached out her hand to touch Kenna. Tanner shifted his body to protect her and the woman hissed again. “Not hurt,” she added and inched closer. The woman gently stroked Kenna’s cheek, and Tanner could see her calm.

  “Another child of black,” the woman said and looked to Tanner. “Flee. You must go.”

  “Taseeda.” A voice barked from the door. “Kill them and move on. The enemy has fortified the market and make their stand there.”

  Tanner shook at the sight of the bizarre man. Green scales fringed in red covered his body and the leathery wings folded close to his back twitched with annoyance. Slit eyes identical to a lizard’s stared at him, and he wondered if he and Kenna would ever get away from the nightmare of the past few days.

  The snake woman turned and hissed. “After you,” she said.

  “After you finish them,” he persisted, and he pointed to Tanner and Kenna. “Our orders were a high body count as quickly as possible.” Tanner gasped as the man drew a set of blades covering his hands like gloves.

  “No!” Taseeda snapped. “Leave them, Kurse. We go.”

  “Sorry, gorgon,” the man said and moved forward. “I do not take orders from you.”

  The woman slid over to shield Tanner and his sister. She attacked the scaled man in a flash, and Tanner jumped at the stream of hissing venom that shot from her mouth. The smell burned his nose and caught in his throat. The man spun on his foot and jumped into the air, so Tanner shook his sister back to awareness and started dragging her toward the door. The man’s wings snapped open, and he slammed into Taseeda. The impact drove her into the far wall. Dropping to his feet, the man turned and headed after Tanner as he tried to escape through the open door.

  “Kenna, wake up!” Tanner pleaded and shook her again. “We have to run, I can’t carry you! Please!”

  “Leave me,” she whispered. “It hurts, Tanner.”

  “Please,” he said, trying again. “Please, Kenna...” He stopped short as the winged man crouched in front of them.

  “Filthy street rats,” he muttered and placed one of his blades to Kenna’s throat.

  “No,” Tanner said and reached for the man, knowing he would be too late. Kenna’s hand shot out and latched onto the man’s arm. Kurse screamed and Kenna stood under her volition until she hovered over the crumpling man. He was dying slowly, and Tanner knew the winged man had little time left. Tanner stared in awe as a myriad of rippling colours flowed from the man to Kenna.

  He struggled with it, but it finally dawned on him that his sister was about to kill this man. He panicked and grabbed her arm.

  “Kenna, stop! Please, stop! You will kill him,” he said and grabbed her other arm. “We have to run!” With a sharp twist, he tore his sister’s grip from the man’s arm and dragged her toward the exit. The man panted and groaned on the warehouse floor. Kenna turned and stumbled at Tanner’s side, but he sighed with relief. He no longer had to carry her full weight.

  In fact, she seemed to be getting stronger with each second that passed. Putting an arm around her waist, he helped support her as they ran from the warehouse without looking back.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “The powerful find more meaning in madness than the weak, because the weak refuse to see its benefits. The powerful use all the tools at hand.”

  Dead Sister Doctrine

  DRAGON ISLES

  BLOODKIN CASTLE

  Kael glanced back at Galen and the new Queen Bale. She would always be just Corleya to him, but he understood the need for etiquette and respect. She had earned his respect. He put his focus on his spell. They were far from the Kasym, so it was easier to open a vortex. However, he still found it tricky. He frowned as he stepped into the swirling magic and jumped from the Cascade Citadel to Ver Karmot. The magic carried him away and in seconds the pressure of dragon magic pushed against his jump, but he shoved back violently, and the resistance stopped. Their magic would only slow his arrival. He smiled and watched through the storm of magic as his vortex began to form on the far side. Queen WhiteScale entered the throne room and called her honor guard to her side. She eased into her throne as if waiting for him to arrive. The black and purple snap of immense magical energy exploded around him, and he walked from the white blaze of chaotic energy caused by the Fae realm jump.

  Frowning as swords and pikes surrounded him, he said, “I mean
you no harm, Your Highness. Your guards can stand down.” Shelaryx shook her head. She was perturbed, but clearly intrigued.

  “I think not, Kael Symes. Until I know your motives,” she purred. “The child of prophecy has finally found his way to another magical race. You should have saved yourself a lifetime and a death by simply coming here first.”

  “Should have, could have.” He shrugged.

  “You are right,” she replied. “The past is now irrelevant. My spies in Corynth swore you were the DeathWizard who helped Princess Corleya fight her way to the Cethosian throne. I must admit, I am surprised, especially when I was told that you helped her to unlock the Citadel’s magic. That magic has been dormant for hundreds of years.”

  “You offer too much credit,” he replied. “Besides, I helped her, not her father. It was he who would have sooner killed me. Or, maybe, you’re surprised that I found my way back to the living?”

  The Queen laughed. “You act as though forgiving those who wish to kill you and returning from the dead are simple tasks. And, yet, no other of your kind have ever done either.”

  “I thought I made it clear I’m not here to discuss the decisions of my past, Your Highness.”

  “No, I don’t imagine you are. So, tell me why you are here.”

  “You have something I want.”

  “Don’t you mean someone, Kael? The only reason you would be here is for a certain ArchWizard.”

  “Yes,” he replied. “We have things to discuss.”

  “And if I say no? Giddeon Zirakus is here paying for his crimes against you and so many others. It is a miracle granted by the old gods that you stand here before me. It gives me hope. It is most certainly a day I never thought I would see. Giddeon nearly cost this world everything. I am not willing to release a traitor of his magnitude. Ri’Tek warriors walk this world for the first time in over ten thousand years because of him. It is a crime punishable by a very slow and painful death.”

  Kael snorted, again. “Yet he lives. Maybe instead of you and the Fae hiding behind your ancestors’ magic, you both should have come forward and helped. Letting Giddeon and the Wizard Council know the truth would have—”

  “What?” the Queen barked, interrupting him. “Saved you? Stopped the seals from opening?”

  “To start,” Kael quipped as he struggled to hold his tongue.

  The Queen rose from her throne and stepped closer. “You are a fool if you believe that. Had the Fae done so and Sythrnax caught even one of them, he would have opened the seal anyway. If he managed to catch a matured Fae, he would have brought down Jasala’s Sepulchre and all the Ri’Tek would be free right now as we speak. My Kin and I have been here stuck on these islands for an aeon while protecting this seal.”

  “Right, so I keep hearing,” Kael snapped. “Yet with so much on the line, it still seems like I’m the only goddamn one doing anything about it! I can’t fight them alone. Maybe it’s time for those with the real power in Talohna to start acting like it. Stand up and help.”

  The Queen stared at him. Shifting, she eased herself back onto her throne. Her movements reminded him of a slithering, poisonous snake—patient, but deadly.

  As he stared, it finally hit him. The way she moved, her entire demeanor—it was not like a snake at all. He blinked to focus his eyes and the Queen’s aura lit up like the sky over Sam’s Bay on the Fourth of July. He stared, unable to blink, and shock rolled through his very being as the savage and wild mix of colours in her aura revealed her true identity.

  “You are right,” she said, bringing his attention back to her physical form. “It is time. The Fae and the DragonKin will do what we can to help without risking the Sepulchre. If it does happen to fall, we will commit all we have to the fight.”

  Kael strongly suspected he was being played long before she opened her mouth.

  “Perhaps a deal then?” she offered. “I will give you Giddeon to do with what you will, but I want something from you first.”

  Kael smirked, he had her. “What could I possibly do for the last Dragon Behemoth?”

  Queen WhiteScale glared at him. If looks could kill, he would have been dead on the floor. He began to wonder if he had pushed too far.

  “You know?” she growled. Fury marked her frown and pursed lips.

  “I didn’t believe it until I arrived and saw your presence and mannerisms for myself.”

  “Rather guarded, are you not, Kael Symes? In reality, I suspect you can read my aura as easily as I can read yours.”

  Kael chewed his lip and decided insulting a ten-thousand-year-old dragon probably was not his wisest move. “Auras rarely reveal one’s race. You are a definite exception,” he said, instead. “But in my time here, I have found that guarding one’s secrets is the only way to stay alive. And even that doesn’t seem to work so well. Trust gets you killed, literally, so just tell me what it will cost me to get Giddeon from you.”

  Queen WhiteScale bowed slightly and turned to the guard on her right. “Commander Zatassa, tell my daughter to bring them.”

  “Are you sure, Mistress? He could—”

  “He will not. Now, please, Commander.” He bowed and left, exiting through a crystal door. He returned with a young woman who carried an ornate wooden box decorated with symbols from corner-to-corner. The carved characters blazed with a kind of magic he had never seen. With his senses wide open, he instinctively shielded his eyes with his hand and forcibly muted his senses before he went blind. As his vision cleared, he recognized the woman Queen WhiteScale had called was her daughter.

  “That... just... that makes so much more sense,” he mumbled as he stared at the woman he helped save in the Wildlands Forest so long ago.

  Queen WhiteScale smirked. “I understand you have already met my daughter, Saleece. It will make your task much easier.” Kael raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer. “Saleece, my dear, show him.”

  The young woman stepped closer. Coming to a stop only two feet from him, she slowly opened the wooden case.

  Kael gasped as the lid opened completely. “Dragon eggs,” he breathed. Six eggs the size of a basketball were surrounded by the box’s velvet inlay.

  “Yes. One from each of the dragon clans who still have Kin alive on this island. Each the descendant of a clan queen or king. They were all that were saved ten millennia ago when the Ri’Tek Sect priestesses and their Vascuul attacked our nursery.”

  Kael stared in awe. “Jesus,” he said. “I can do a lot of things since I got back, but there is no way my magic can hatch those eggs.”

  The Queen smiled. “No, it cannot. Only a queen can hatch them and only time—a thousand years or more—will see them begin to mature. Time, we do not have if we are to survive the coming war with the Ri’Tek.”

  Realizing what she meant, Kael shook his head. “No.”

  “Then, you will not get Giddeon and the answers you seek. And you will certainly not be able to take him from me by force.”

  “Then, you can fucking keep him,” Kael snapped as he lost his temper. “You’re goddamn insane. Just like every other power in this world. Greed and power blind you to the consequences or the sacrifices of what you’re asking.”

  The Dragon Queen remained in her throne, but the threat was clear. “How dare you, Kai’Sar!” she hissed. “You have not earned the right to judge me or my people.” A growl emanated from deep within her throat and wisps of gray smoke curled from her nose. “We have sacrificed more in this fight than you can ever imagine! My father knew he would die if he engaged the Vascuul dragons, and still, he gave his life willingly so that your corrupt kind could lock the Ri’Tek away. Vaighar killed five of the seven Vascuul dragons before he fell. We have lived in exile for thousands of years, and the Fae have almost lost the ability to have children because they have been forced to live off-phase from their home dimension. Do not dare speak to me about sacrifice or loss. You will do as I ask, or you will join your father in my dungeon.”

  Kael’s anger jumped to life a
t the challenge, and he struggled to keep it in control. For the first time since he returned, he did not want to control it. He was tired of being used as a pawn in a war so old no one alive even knew it had ever existed. A voice rolled through his mind as he grabbed for his magic.

  Even you cannot win a fight against a white dragon—even one as weak as she is. Secede or die here, Kael.

  I thought you’d be drooling over a dragon soul, he snapped inside his head.

  By proxy… you’d have to be alive for me to use it, idiot.

  I don’t care anymore, I am tired of being a goddamn pawn, he growled back. He knew Akai was right, but he could not stop himself from attacking. The long scythe appeared in his hand, and he immediately peeled the shorter scythe from the handle before he leapt at the Queen and swung. Every bit as fast as he was, she slid from her throne, raised her arms, and barked her spell before he reached her. A green shield bloomed from her hands, and his blades slammed into it and stuck. Kael leaned on his blades and the Queen pushed on her shield, but neither gained any ground.

  Holy shit! You are as strong as she is.

  “Foolish shit,” Shelaryx hissed. “You would have been dead long before your vines matured if not for me. How dare you attack!”

  “Liar,” he snarled. Power surged through him and still he reached for more. Black flames sparked to life along his arms and he pushed his blades further into the shield.

  “Dragons cannot lie, little fool, but we can lose our tempers.” A blast of energy knocked Kael back as the Queen roared. He stood, panting and looked up into the face of a massive white dragon. “I saved your life in the bottom of the Black Arc over a year ago when a Zakair gutted you like a spring pig.” She roared again. “I convinced the DeathGod to heal you. In exchange, I freed him of a favor he owed from over a millennia ago.” The dragon stomped and whole throne room shook under her rage. “It was a priceless sacrifice with no equal. Dathac does not grant favor.”