Suddenly an idea hit him as the golem loomed overhead. He dropped the shield and again used the levitation spell, hurling the golem backward straight at the robed figure, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. The figure never even moved as the golem shattered on him and fragments flew everywhere. A cloud of dust obscured the result, but the golem’s head rolled straight toward him, between his legs, and came to rest a few feet behind. He had done it!
Then movement caught his eye. The cloud faded to reveal the robed figure without a mark upon it, for it had erected its own barrier. It rose to its feet and as Raith fumbled for a magic item, the sound of stone moving came from behind. He turned and saw in horror that the golem had reformed and was swinging a crushing fist at him. Ribs snapped like twigs as he was flung to the ground, the last healing vial breaking with the impact. The golem took one step and hurled another rock down at him, smashing his pelvis to bits. He would have screamed but for the stabbing pain in his lungs that left him gasping at his murderer.
The golem raised a final boulder.
“Stop.”
The golem halted.
Soft footsteps signaled the approaching figure, which wore a badly singed robe but walked without pain. The figure stopped and gestured for the golem to move aside.
“You,” Raith wheezed, more certain of the identity now that he recognized something he’d seen at the banquet in Olliana. He’d seen drawings of it many times before and would know it anywhere.
“You no doubt recognize my staff,” answered the figure in calm approval, “as all serious wizards should. And of course, you’re presence here is a great sign of your seriousness. You have come for the soclarin.”
Raith didn’t bother to confirm it. The voice sounded different than he remembered, but then his senses were beginning to fail him. He’d already lost feeling in his legs.
“It was you who stole the scroll,” observed the figure.
“Yes,” Raith confessed, seeing little reason to hide his secrets anymore. He would soon have no need of them.
“Personally, or did you hire someone?”
“Hired.”
“And then killed them upon delivery?”
Raith nodded slightly, suddenly overcome with sorrow for what was happening to him. The figure could heal him but clearly wasn’t going to despite this going against everything Raith knew about the man whose voice he heard. Then again, so did allowing a golem to bludgeon him to death.
“Excellent. And you have the scroll with you?”
Again Raith nodded, but the figure made no move to retrieve it.
“Did you not wonder why I left the gate open?” the figure asked. “Or did you, like everyone else, assume I had gone forever and perhaps someone else had done it?”
Raith struggled to acquit himself well but relinquished his pride as a spasm shook him and blood trickled out his mouth. “I don’t know,” he confessed.
“That’s because you are a fool,” replied the figure coldly, watching without compassion as the young wizard slumped further. “You, my dear boy, are the reason the gate is open. I needed to know who had the stolen scroll, who outside the court knew about soclarin, as the individual would come looking for it. You triggered the spell I put on the gate to alert me when you stepped through, and you have met your end via the golem I left waiting for you. For all your ambition, you are, like so many, blinded by it, and therefore come to the pathetic end that is your destiny.” The figure chuckled. “And in the process, your ambition has caused the dragons to be free to doom your world.”
Feeling a dreamy haze overtake him, Raith said quietly, “But I want the dragons free.”
“And so shall they be.”
Surprised, Raith asked, “You won’t close…” His breath failed him.
“No. Only you knew of the ore, and you’ll not leave here alive. No one else knew to come looking for it, but I suspect others may know now. The trap must remain.” He cast a glance toward the gate, visible beyond the tree tops. “And I care nothing for what becomes of Honyn.”
The figure pulled back the hood, revealing black hair and a cold expression. The face was similar to the one Raith anticipated but not the same. His surprise was plain.
“I am not who you expected?” the figure asked.
“S-s-s,” stuttered Raith, confused as blackness overtook him. “Soliander?”
“Indeed,” confirmed the arch wizard, “the real Soliander.”
Chapter 18 – End Game
Right from the start Eric had his suspicions. He’d only traveled via worm hole – or whatever it was – once before, but the vivid memory remained. There had been lots of flashing lights, roaring sounds, wardrobe changes, that sort of thing, but none of that happened this time. Maybe the spell sending them home was different, but they still needed their clothes back. Granted, all this magic stuff was rather new to him, but something didn’t seem right. It wasn’t just his lingering fear that they weren’t really headed home either. His suspicions only deepened when the spell stopped almost as soon as it began.
His first thought was that something had gone wrong. For one, he still wore the leather armor and weapons, Matt still looked like a wizard, and Ryan and Anna hadn’t changed either. They also weren’t standing in a field surrounded by the stone monoliths of Stonehenge, but in the center of a dusty chamber with cobwebs on the walls. The stone work, general disrepair, and odor of decay seemed familiar. Through a dirty, stained-glass window off to one side, forest-covered foothills sloped away for miles. A nearby wooden door stood closed, but another was open enough to reveal a tall, swiveling mirror with the looking glass removed. The room was sparsely furnished, but what little remained lay covered in filth and mold, mildew having rotted cushions and curtains. The only newer items were a wooden tray with an empty plate and drinking cup on the center table, and a rough cot in one corner. Upon this sat a woman about twice their age. She looked to have seen better days, for the dirtiness of the room had clung to her gown, face, and hands, as if the room’s disrepair were slowly consuming her, making her a part of itself.
Anna turned to him. “Where are we?”
It was the woman who answered. “Castle Darlonon. I assume from your astonished expressions that you did not come here to rescue me?”
“No,” Anna answered. She peered curiously at the woman. “You look a lot like Queen Lorella.”
“That’s because I am Queen Lorella,” she replied, rising with a natural air of authority her surroundings hadn’t changed.
“You do look a lot like her,” Ryan admitted, stepping closer, “enough to be her sister maybe, but we just came from where she is.”
“Olliana? That is an imposter and has been for some time.”
“How do we know you’re not the illusion?” Eric asked.
“The staff isn’t telling me there’s anything,” Matt observed. Suddenly he looked surprised and opened his mouth to say something when Anna spoke.
Anna asked, “Why would someone impersonate the queen?”
“Because the queen learns all,” said a bold female voice from the other room, “and that’s just the sort of information I need.”
They stared as another Queen Lorella stepped into view wearing a smug sneer and a tight-fitting leather outfit showing a dragon’s head emblazoned on the breast, every tone and movement hinting at danger and cunning, not elegant benevolence. Behind her stood a swivel mirror shimmering with light. Eric noticed that Matt looked less surprised than the others. Had the staff warned him that magic mirror was on?
“You have no doubt noticed,” continued the new arrival, stalking into the room in black, heeled boots, “that you have not been safely delivered to your precious home world, wherever that may be – and I intend to know. A visit there seems only fitting once I have terrorized Honyn, a joy for which I will wait no longer. When done I will return to tear answers from your hearts, one by one, until there is nothing left of you. And what I want most to know is where the real champions are.”
Looking back and forth between the two queens, Ryan objected, “But the spell was supposed to send us back. We finished the quest.”
“Did you now?” the imposter interrupted, snidely amused. “You accomplished nothing more than what I let you believe, fool! The gate stands open even now. Its closing was an illusion, as was Sonneri’s attempt to send you home, though he thought it was real, but he saw what I wanted him to see while another spell of mine brought you here.” She laughed cruelly.
“Nir’lion,” Eric said in realization. Two dragons had come through. Who had they killed?
“But we killed Nir’lion,” Ryan protested.
“No!” the dragon snarled, slapping him so hard that he crashed to the floor with three bloody gashes on his cheek. “You killed my daughter,” Nir’lion growled as Anna bent down to him, “and for that I will roast you alive!” Tendrils of smoke drifted up from her nostrils, a reek of power from her engulfing the room like a smothering weight.
“What now?” asked Eric, hoping to distract her from more violence.
“Oh, I want a great many things. My brethren will be arriving in minutes to take back this world that belongs to us.”
Hoping for answers and to stall, he asked, “Why didn’t all of you come back before? Why just you and your daughter?”
She gave him a withering look. “What point lay there in that? Unless I found and killed every wizard able to close the gate, someone could just send us back. I had to find and execute them all first, before anyone knew we’d returned. Perndara ruined that by being seen.”
“You didn’t know only Soliander can do it. Or someone with the ore.”
“Yes, not until I replaced the queen here and read the scroll, but then I learned someone had stolen a copy. I had to kill them. I cannot allow knowledge of how to close the gate become commonplace.”
“Why did you summon the champions? It wasn’t supposed to work.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s why I had them summoned. Empty gesture to silence the kingdoms threatening war, which could interfere with finding out who could close the gate.”
“You knew we weren’t them at once, didn’t you?”
“Of course. I would never forget those four. The question now is how you came to be here in their stead and where they are. Giving me the answer is the only reason you’re still alive.”
Eric wasn’t looking forward to being tortured, however she was planning to do it. He had to stall for time. “Why didn’t you just do something to us then? Why let us complete the quest, or appear to?”
“I wanted to know who you were. My spies soon assured me that you were not up to the quest’s challenge, which meant that by fooling you into believing the gate had been closed, I could undo the damage that Perndara had done to my plans. And it worked. Armies have already stood down. You even found out for me who stole the scroll.”
They had indeed. But Raith was on the other side of the gate, still alive, unless the dragons over there had gotten him, which seemed likely. “What of Perndara? She fought us and if we’d done the spell to close the gate, she would’ve been pulled through. Since we weren’t doing it for real, we would’ve known it didn’t work.”
“She was supposed to pretend she couldn’t handle you and fly back through it before you tried. As it turns out, she couldn’t handle you for real.”
The dragon looked at him as if realizing he was a bigger threat than believed. Maybe they could use that to their advantage, but he had no idea how. The entire quest had been a trap. They’d achieved nothing, would not be going home, and Honyn would be destroyed. They had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
“So now what?” Ryan asked from where he still sat on the floor.
Nir’lion sneered. “Now you will wait for my return, when I will learn from you and your elven friend in the dungeon how you have come to be here instead of the Ellorians.”
“Wait for your return?” the rogue asked, relieved she was leaving.
Nir’lion turned to the window, smashing it and sending shards of glass to the floor. “The armies of Honyn are unsuspecting once more, and the time has come.”
She climbed onto the window ledge and leapt into the sky as storm clouds rolled in. She dropped out of sight at once. Eric raced to the window to see her morph into an enormous golden dragon bigger than the one they’d killed, her wings snapping out to catch the wind. As she soared away, a great rumbling shook the room, sending loose mortar falling from the ceiling and dislodging blocks from the walls. From the gate room, dragon upon dragon soared into the sky, some slamming claws into the ruin in a first swipe at the world they would destroy. The darkening sky filled with death on wings, silver, blue, red, green, golden, and black dragons headed in every direction and roaring with bloodlust. As if at one with the impending dragon storm, the sky unleashed a crack of lightning and torrents of rain began to lash the tower.
Eric turned around, glad to see Ryan rising now that Matt had used the Trinity Ring on him. It now had only one spell left and the other rings were spent, so if Anna didn’t start healing people soon, someone might stay hurt next time.
Anna interrupted his thoughts on asking, “How did you come to be here, Your Majesty?”
The queen sighed. “She came to me in human form as an emissary from Nurinor, bearing the gift of a golden mirror she placed in the royal suite. One moment I stood alone with it, and the next something invisible wrenched me through it. I’ve been trapped here since. I heard the fight with the other dragon and had hoped to be rescued, but no one came.”
Eric said, “I assume you heard the part where we’re not the real champions and have somehow been substituted for them. Before you ask, we don’t know how or what’s going on. We’ve learned a lot and done okay on the quest, aside from being fooled by Nir’lion.”
“Yes, I’ve known for some time. And there’s no shame in being fooled by her. I was. The magic of dragons is very powerful.”
“So what do we do now?” Matt asked, eyeing the portal mirror in the other room.
Eric saw his gaze and said, “I doubt she would have left us here with that if we could use it.”
“We’ve got to get out of here,” answered Ryan. “She made a mistake bringing us here because the Dragon Gate is downstairs. We just have to get to it.”
“Right,” agreed Eric, surprised by that, “but that means it’s probably really hard to get out of here or to it.” He listened at the door but heard nothing. “I’m not sure where we are, though it seems like a tower from the view.”
“The northwest corner,” offered the queen, looking skeptical. “There are guards outside and at the bottom of the tower.”
“Okay,” said Ryan, lowering his voice, “assuming we can get out of here, let’s plan what we’re doing. Do we just close the gate or go get Raith, too?”
Eric said, “It’s been a week since he went through. Do we have any reason to believe he’s still there? He could’ve come back. The gate has been unsealed all this time. Or the dragons could’ve killed him.”
They looked at Matt to see if he was getting any images in his head. “He might still be there,” the wizard admitted, “but there’s no way to tell. Soliander has an earth golem guarding the place.”
“I think we have to be sure,” said Anna, “because if he’s here with soclarin then it’s our fault and we need to go after him. If he’s there we need to stop him.”
Eric frowned. She was right. “Okay, let’s go through the gate, but we have to hurry. Nir’lion probably won’t be back soon, but there’s only so much time before she knows we’re gone.” He started examining the door’s lock, pulling tools from various pockets in his black leather pants.
Ryan observed, “She’ll never suspect we went through the gate unless someone sees us.”
“What about Lorian, or whoever she’s got downstairs?” Matt asked. “Should we get him now? He could help us.”
“I think we just run the risk of being caught,” ans
wered Eric, inserting a tool into the door and fumbling around with it. It had been years since he did this and it brought back bad memories. “Let’s get Lorian when we come back.”
Anna interjected, “Okay, but what about the queen? She can’t come with us. It’s too dangerous.”
Ryan exchanged a look with Lorella. “Yeah, but leaving her here isn’t wise, especially once we take out the guards. Who knows what else is still in this place? The guards are keeping her in here but also protecting her in a way.”
That was a good point that no one had an answer for until Matt reached for his spell book. “I have an idea,” he started. “There’s a spell of invisibility in here somewhere. She can just stay here until we return and no one will realize she’s still here.”
Ryan remarked, “That might work. Do you know how to cast it?”
The wizard made a face. “No. I have to find it first. Ah, here it is. It doesn’t look too bad.” He spent a few moments practicing the words and gestures. Then he gave the staff and book to Ryan before approaching the queen, who arched an eyebrow at the idea of him casting a spell on her. He faltered.
“I, uh, beg your pardon, your honor,” Matt started, and Eric smiled at the title, “but I need to, uh, cast this spell on you, if you don’t mind.”
At that, Eric chuckled, prompting Anna to smack his arm. It jostled the tool in the lock, which clicked. In surprise, the rogue pulled on the door and it opened with a creak. He waited before going any further.
“Your Majesty,” Anna started confidently, “we’re certain this is the best way to protect you while we’re gone.”
“If I didn’t agree I wouldn’t still be standing here,” the queen replied with muted humor. Turning to Matt, she asked pointedly, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
The Dragon Gate (The Dragon Gate Series Book 1) Page 24
