Exactly, Teeth replied. His appetite is leaking out of him. Making his lair take on some of the qualities of his power and hunger. He’s closer to advancing than even he realizes.
You mean the place outside probably didn’t look like that before? I asked, baffled.
Probably not, but we’ll find out when we kill him. And hurry. Both of my dads are saying that if we don’t act soon, we’ll all die.
A distant roar over our heads reinforced his words.
There, Teeth said. Look behind you.
For a second, I wanted to point out that he couldn’t look in any direction I wasn’t already facing, but then I felt the tug as well. I turned to discover a cloud of mist that was hovering close to the waves, far off in the distance.
He’s trying to hide it, Teeth whispered in my mind. But that’s where his hoard is. Take it, and we can end this.
Whether he was right or not, there was nothing else out here for us to investigate. My entire team must have felt the same way, because as soon as I turned, everyone else noticed the mist and mentally sent a desire to walk toward it.
How is that going to work? I demanded as we ran toward the mist-covered island. Because in all the books I’ve read, taking a dragon’s treasure just makes everyone die faster.
Your books are normally right, Teeth answered. But the Tidefather has been trapped and wounded for too long. His treasure is the only thing keeping him alive. At this point, he has to advance to the next stage of Wyrmhood or he’ll die. And he can’t advance if he loses his hoard.
That would have to do for an explanation. Another roar echoed through the hazy sky over our heads. The water we ran through began to churn, increasing from moderately choppy to the sort of waves that made sailors uncomfortable.
The mist shifted as we approached, giant plumes churning in opposite directions. As we ran awkwardly over the unnatural water, the plumes stirred even more.
Then they began talking.
“No,” a motherly voice said sadly. “Not you, too.”
“I don’t recognize them, mother,” a little girl’s voice said.
“It doesn’t matter, dear,” the woman said kindly. “It’s still sad that they’ve joined us.”
More ghosts.
The consequence of being king of a dead world.
We came within a few dozen feet of the island. It looked like a sandy beach, reminding me instantly of the islands where I had watched pirates bury their treasure on hundreds of old television shows. Now I could make out shapes within the mist: a long-haired woman clutching a little girl to her side, an old man sitting on the sand, a tall, strong man reaching for a weapon that was no longer there.
“You were not devoured,” the ghostly soldier said as he watched us carefully. “How did you get down here? How did you even learn of this place?”
“Did he see the others?” the old man asked, getting up. “Do you know of our kin? Did you see any children? Did my grandson get away?”
The next roar told me just how little time I had for answering questions.
“HE IS A THIEF!” the Tidefather’s voice thundered through the air. “STOP HIM! STOP HIM RIGHT THIS INSTANT!”
Val turned and looked up at that.
“Did he just tell the people he ate to stop us from saving them?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Virtus grunted. “Keep running. Don’t look behind you.”
Naturally, we all turned back to look, even though he had already warned us and could send impressions of what he saw through the mindlink. It wasn’t enough to kick the habit.
The waves were rushing toward us. And I could make out a familiar group of bodies riding inside them.
Don’t bother with them, Teeth told me tensely. It doesn’t cost him as much power to create them here. Just get to the center of his Hoard.
He had a point. With just a glance, I could tell that there were far more than thirty Scalelings attacking us this time, and this island was too big to properly cover in traps.
“You came for our treasure,” the soldier ghost said suspiciously.
Keep going inland, I sent to the team. Stick to the plan.
“If by treasure, you mean yourselves, then yes,” I responded. “The others said I could free you if I could just get ahold of the Well.”
Every translucent head whipped to my direction.
“It’s this way,” the soldier ghost said. “I’ll show you.”
He floated in front of us, more detail appearing on his hazy body. I could now tell that he wore a suit of shell-like scales similar to what I was currently wearing, and an open-faced helmet with a wave-patterned crest on the top. A smoky spear appeared in his hand. “You should hurry,” he continued. “I will keep in view, but follow me as quickly as you can.”
“Noted,” I replied.
Weylin, speed song. Breena, Air Magic. Petal, Fire Magic. Karim, Lightning Magic. I’ll handle Blood Magic. Let’s see how fast we can move.
It turned out that stacking too many different sorts of enhancement magic was dangerous. Our heads ached, our bodies grew hot, and our hands couldn’t stop shaking. The whole thing felt far more inefficient than my battleform, and I could tell a lot of the power from the last few spells just bled off uselessly into the air.
But it was still more than enough to get the job done.
We zipped quickly past a lot of fantastic, presently useless sights. Mostly more treasure, such as mountainous piles of coins and gems. But there were also items with strictly historical value, carefully placed and arrayed in organized rows. Beyond them were stored even more books, stacked just as carefully in piles or on shelves.
Knowledge, Teeth whispered. Knowledge is one of his cravings. It explains why he was so curious about us.
That was vaguely useful to know, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Placing such items far from the center of his hoard meant he saw them primarily as a means to get more treasure, not as an end itself. We kept running forward, our feet practically flying as our bodies hummed with power. The knowledge that we could not keep so many spells going for very long made us jog even faster, until I couldn’t even tell what treasures I was passing.
The Well. I have to get to the Well.
Finally, we reached what appeared to be the center of the sandy island.
Broken pillars dotted the treeless landscape, and diminutive pieces of rubble cluttered the sand like a bad parody of grass. Aside from the location itself, the debris looked like any of the other set of ruins I had seen on Avalon’s surface. The difference was that the very center of these ruins had a large dais mounded with random pieces of treasure. It all surrounded a crystalline decanter that rested on a short pedestal, with sparkling fluid shifting around inside of it.
“That’s the Well,” the soldier ghost said to us, finally floating to a stop. “He’s been keeping it hidden away here, because he never learned how to break our seals on it.”
“Do I have to break the seals to save you all?” I asked, panting as the various speed spells finally wore off of me.
He considered me pensively.
“No,” he admitted. “We only had time to ward it against one creature. And,” his eyes glanced toward my scabbard, “If you’re the one we all hope you are, then it can’t be warded against you. Even if you’re not,” he added tiredly, “I’d still rather you have it than him. Open it, drink it, do whatever you want to take it from him. While you still have time.”
His eyes darted to peer behind me.
Go ahead and look this time, Virtus said ironically in our mindlink. Not that it will make a difference.
A throng of Scalelings was charging in our direction, at least a hundred strong. They seemed faster and more powerful than the ones we had battled back in the mountain, which meant they were probably all faster and more powerful than I was.
We’ll hold them off, Virtus sent. Hurry up and figure out what you need to do.
I raced for the sparkling decant
er, clearing most of the distance in a single leap.
Something else leaped right in front of me, missing my head by inches. Had I landed just an inch closer, its claws would have scraped across my face before it crashed its way into the ground just in front of me. I had no idea where it had come from.
“Well done, thief,” sneered the largest Scaleling I had seen yet said, speaking with the Tidefather’s voice as his puppet and rising back to his feet. The humanoid monster was over seven feet tall, taller even than Virtus. Muscles rippled under his scales. Unlike the others, this one had a large fin cresting the top of his head. “You unearthed my secret realm. And the source of my Hoard, as well. Tell me how you knew to look for either, before I make you,” the Scaleling flexed his powerful claws.
Behind me, a dozen other massive Scalelings leaped toward my companions, forcing them to turn away from the oncoming army to deal with an enemy on a second front.
“I learned about the Well from the Atlanteans that I rescued from the Flood,” I answered coolly, turning my attention back to the monster in front of me. I had to hurry, but there was a way to take this monster out quickly, if I was careful. “They told me I need it to escape this place.” I looked the thing straight in the eye, doing my best to show that I was speaking honestly, while pacing around it. “It’s kind of stupid for you to keep it locked up here, isn’t it? When you should be using its power to help you escape?”
“You know very well that if I could do so, I would have already left this forsaken vault,” the Tidefather snarled. “And every second you delay by talking to me is a moment you give my army to overwhelm you. But if you give me what I need, I may spare your companion’s lives.”
“Really?” I said, holding out my hand. “You promise? You’d shake hands on that?”
“If you thought it would help,” the monster replied smugly, stepping forward and lifting his hand. “I promise.”
“Liar,” I answered, summoning Shard into my waiting hand.
He had never seen me use the weapon, and my other spear had snapped in the last battle anyway. So it took him by complete surprise when the icy spearhead of my new poleaxe burst into his throat. I reshaped the weapon into a bardiche immediately, shredding away half of the monster’s throat as the spearhead and axeblade connected and widened. It tore free of his neck before it finished solidifying, but the weapon had wreaked enough havoc to the Scaleling’s vital guard to send him to his knees while reaching for his frosted throat with trembling claws. His hands closed about half the distance before I swung my fully transformed weapon around and decapitated him. Then I turned my attention back to the pitcher on the pedestal.
The other monsters shrieked and tried to intervene, but my team was able to intercept them long enough for me to grab the crystal handle and lift it clear of the pedestal. I instantly summoned it directly into Breaker’s special storage, removing it from the dragon’s hoarding realm.
“Everyone come here!” I shouted out, realizing I should have done so much sooner. “The new Lord of Avalon wishes to rescue you from this place! Come live again, so you can join those who have already escaped!”
The island had begun shuddering as soon as I spoke. Another pained roar tore the sky apart, sending the clouds scattering into different directions and revealing a cracked sky over our heads.
That’s it, Teeth said. Now start taking everything else you can.
I couldn’t grab everything. Gold was a heavy metal, and I still kept over a hundred pounds of emergency supplies in Breaker’s storage space, in addition to my numerous weapons. But I suspected that the items on this dais were the most valuable pieces of the Tidefather’s hoard after the Well, and would weaken him the most. I swept up every pile of gold, every expensive necklace, every ancient tome, every priceless artifact I could in what time I had. The sky shook with every item that went missing and the nearby Scalelings began shrieking in pain.
But then the real treasure showed up. The Atlantean ghosts had followed us from a distance as we ran here, so when they heard my call, they swarmed past the Tidefather’s children and began circling the dais, unable to step upon it for some reason.
“You’ll do it?” the mother asked with desperate hope, clutching her child in front of her. “You’ll share the treasure? What you came here to take?”
“No,” I answered bluntly, “I’m not parting with a single piece of it.” Their faces fell immediately. “That’s why you’re all coming with me.”
The crystal container reappeared in my hands. I uncorked the vial on top of it and poured out the liquid onto the desperate throng below.
The water splashed onto the first two ghosts, the mother and her child. Then to my surprise, it jumped to the next, the old man we had seen at the shore. Then the flood rippled out in a ring, catching the soldier and the rest of the nearby phantoms, spreading to catch others still floating toward us. Color began to return to their bodies, as they turned from translucent grey back to their blue or green skin tones. The mother began to laugh as her daughter’s hair regained its white color, not even noticing that her own locks were back to the seafoam green color Atlantean adults usually had.
“No,” one of the nearby surviving Scalelings cried, as my friends finished off the other monsters, who were all still shrieking and writhing in pain. “It’s impossible! You cannot bring them back! They are just ghosts! The real people have all been destroyed! They are forever gone!”
“Clearly not,” I replied calmly as the former ghosts began to vanish from the dragon’s keep one by one. “Since enough of them were still around to talk to me. And if you think it’s possible to completely destroy anything, Einstein’s First Law of Conservation would like a word with you.”
The Scaleling try to snarl out a retort, but his words choked off as he began to disintegrate.
That did it, Teeth whispered. He’s too wounded to withstand the loss of this much treasure.
Do we need to evacuate or something? I asked my inner dragon. The bastard had been pretty vague about this part of the plan earlier, and none of my threats had worked to make him share any details.
Too late, he said cheerfully. Just get everyone together and hold on tight. And don’t let Breena get hurt again, you dumbass shit, he muttered angrily.
Everybody form up in a circle! I shouted into the mindlink. Full protection spells! It’s gonna be a rough ride out!
I wrapped an arm around my bonded companion, ignored her squawks of protest, and began casting every defensive Earth and Air spell I could think of. Karim furiously wrote dozens of magic scripts into the air, reinforcing the script shields he and I had created over everyone before we had ventured into the dragon’s depths. Weylin began singing softly, hopefully some other spell he hadn’t taught me yet. Petalbell let out an angry, muffled yell of her own that I couldn’t fully make out, but the gist of seemed to be “Just because Wes does it to Breena, doesn’t mean you can do the same to me!” It seemed to be directed to Breyn.
Another roar echoed over our heads, but this one lacked the power of all the previous ones. This one spoke of denial, of refusal to believe the end had finally come. The force behind it trickled out, until it faded into nothing more than a choking gasp or a whimper. I never could decide which.
As it ended, the clouds began to vanish, shrinking into the sky like they were being sucked into a pinhole above our heads. In their place was a mosaic of cracks that stretched across the horizon. The pieces crumbled inward, revealing a black hole that heaved on everything below it. I felt my hair whip upward, and I saw pieces of the rubble and leftover treasure begin to float up and vanish into the sky. The traction from the giant maw of blackness kept increasing, with increasingly larger objects flying up into the vacuum every second, until I could feel my legs begin to lift upward.
We’re going to get sucked into a giant black hole in the sky? I shouted incredulously at Teeth.
That was what theoretically should happen next, yes, Teeth said confidently. You’ll
be fine, except for the rough landing. Don’t let Breena get hurt.
Of course I won’t, and you bastard, I growled. Why did you risk a heavy blow to our skull by keeping this a secret?
Gee, I don’t really know, Teeth replied sarcastically, but, counterpoint: why did you risk atrophy to our testicles by screwing things up so bad with Merada last time?
I blinked at that.
Stell walked right in on us, completely freaked out, and the whole thing was somehow my fault? I demanded, feeling Val shift next to me as the pull from the sky increased. And you’re choosing to talk about it by launching me through an atmospheric hole, without any real warning?
Yes, and you’re welcome for the restraint. Remember this experience the next time you turn down an opportunity to lose your virginity with a gorgeous, funny, multi-bodied nerd-girl that’s given you a hundred different clear signs showing that she’s really into you.
That’s not even remotely—I began, before the wind whipped away my vision.
Oh, look, Teeth interrupted cheerfully, as my feet lifted fully off the ground. Our turn.
We were sucked through the air so quickly, I didn’t even have time to curse.
Chapter 14: Behold the Behemoth
Our magic protected us.
We were through the dark vacuum before I even realized it. But the Air magic directed our trajectory, and cushioned our descent just enough for the script shields and Earth magic to absorb the force of impact. Despite our exit seeming more violent than the entrance, we actually took far less damage.
It didn’t make me resent Teeth any less.
Breena flew out of my grip before I even landed, pointedly demonstrating that she didn’t need to land at all. I bounced a few times off rubble and coins, script shields flaring over my skin as I rolled to a stop. Sand greeted my face, and I spat it out as I stood back up.
Inspecting our landing site, I realized I had landed on a wide beach, with a thin pool of water at my feet. The cold mountain loomed above me. The rest of my team surrounded me at various intervals. At the very edge of my vision were the resurrected Atlanteans, specifically the wizards and soldiers, hurling spears and firing icy spells at something behind me.
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 27