by Aaron Crash
“It was like a day,” Steven protested. “And I came right back.”
“Don’t care!”
Steven had an idea. “Let’s go find a mountaintop to sleep on. Aria, you wanna join us? We can sleep in our True Forms.” Aria hadn’t changed back. She whirled back up into the air. Steven let Tessa know they’d be sleeping apart.
Steven and Mouse left the fire to join Aria flying through the sky. They soared above the forest, up a mountainside, until they hit the timberline. They kept going until Steven found the flat, rocky top of a mountain peak. There, they came down to rest. Around them, ridge after ridge of mountains reached to the horizon, painted a glorious color by the bright night sky. At thirteen thousand feet, the thin air was downright cold.
Aria stayed a dragon, spouting flame to keep Steven and Mouse warm while they made love as humans. Mouse was wild and loud, talking dirty and then whispering love. She didn’t care that Aria was close by. She wanted Steven in any and every way she could get him.
Once they finished, the three dragons fell asleep in a tangle of wings, bodies, tails, and arms. Not once did Steven feel cold. Inside him burned a fire that the night air couldn’t touch.
He woke up with the sun shining down. Mouse had found shade under one of Aria’s wings. The scarlet dragon covered her face with the other. Seeing the two sleeping, Steven slithered away as quietly as he could.
He gazed down at the wonders of the mountain ranges and forests around him. He was on top of the world, an onyx-colored dragon, powerful and deadly. He breathed in the morning air, and the world smelled so good. Up so high, he could see the curve of the Earth, and he felt keenly that he was on a chunk of plant-covered rock spinning around a medium-sized sun hurling through infinite space. He’d had visions of floating in the heart of the universe. Was that his eventual destiny?
He wasn’t sure. Leaving Earth felt impossible. And yet when he’d been working three jobs and going to college full-time, the idea of becoming a dragon with a harem of beautiful women would’ve felt stupid. Yet there he was, on a mountaintop, a full-on dragon. He could breathe fire and everything. The lightning thing was going to take a bit.
He returned to Mouse and Aria. “Hey, girls, I’m going to go down to the trailer and eat as many pancakes as is dragonly possible. You want to join me?”
“Coffee,” Mouse sputtered. “This was great and all, but where’s the coffee? We can breathe fire. We should be able to breathe coffee.”
“Or maybe when I figure out the Magica Incanto spells, I can figure out how to create a magic item that give us coffee on demand,” Steven said.
Aria stretched out her wings. “I don’t need pancakes. And I don’t need coffee. Sleeping up here, with you both, was wonderful. I’ve rarely rested as well.” She then winced. “But the headache is not fun. This is the hanging over, I think.”
Mouse laughed. “It’s hangover. But yeah.” She sat up on her haunches, an amber-colored dragon. She gave Aria a long look. “I agree, though. At first, I wanted Steven all to myself, but then when I’d wake up, I’d feel your heat, smell your cinnamon smell, and I’d fall right back asleep. I knew if we got attacked, I’d be safe.”
Aria circled her long neck around Mouse and the two embraced.
All three flew back down to the trailer. It was a little before nine. Liam, ever the chef, however weak, had the pancakes going, along with dozens of eggs flecked with pieces of bacon. Tessa was up and already taking coffee orders. Sabina was wrapped in a robe, sitting quietly.
“It’s nice out,” Steven said. “Let’s eat outside.”
“I can help set the table,” Sabina said. She cast her Divinatio spell to see. She found the folding table in the storage compartment along with chairs. She brought out plates, silverware, and glasses for the orange juice.
“Any incoming enemies?” Steven asked.
Sabina paused. “No. We’re clear. I don’t see a battle during the day, but I see a battle at night. It will be on a highway. We will be rescued by an unlikely hero. We’ll get hurt, but we’ll survive. First, however, you will eat a great deal.”
Steven chuckled. Lots of food was definitely in his future.
Tessa cut up two cantaloupes, and they had a huge breakfast under a bright blue sky with crows cawing from the towering pine trees while the creek babbled.
Steven held his coffee, a triple espresso, up to his nose. Tessa was a miracle. He sipped the coffee.
Everyone else quit eating, but Steven kept on going. He wolfed down pancakes, the last of the eggs, and at least an entire cantaloupe by himself.
“Next time, we’ll have to get some cinnamon rolls,” he said. “I love something sweet in the morning.”
“Which brings up a question,” Tessa said. “Do you eat the sweetie first? Or do you eat it as a dessert right after your meal but before your second cup of coffee?”
“Neither,” Mouse answered. “It goes coffee, breakfast, coffee, with coffee for dessert.”
“Aria?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t understand the question,” the Indian woman admitted.
Steven did. “No, it’s something to ponder. Like a donut. If you’re going to eat one, do it right away, before the main breakfast? Or after eggs, as a dessert?”
“I say first thing,” Tessa said. “Life is short. Eat dessert first.”
“Americans,” Aria sighed. “You have breakfast dessert.”
“I agree.” Steven leaned back and patted his stomach. “Eat a cinnamon roll with coffee while you wait for breakfast. And then? Mouse is right. More coffee. But with how my metabolism is right now, I could go for seconds on dessert.”
“I’d like to see the third volume of Stefan’s book,” Liam said. “Debating the order of breakfast food might be interesting, but really, we have more important things to consider.”
Steven nodded. The Yellow Ronin was right. They had a lot to do that day. At least they wouldn’t be fighting. Their next battle would be at night, so they had at least twelve hours before the sun set. They would make the most of it.
Starting with the mysterious locked third volume of the Drokharis Grimoire.
Chapter Eighteen
THEY CLEARED THE TABLE. Tessa plunked down the third volume, which was locked up tight with solid iron chains. “Well, there it is.”
The Yellow Ronin jiggled the large lock. He sighed. “I’ve not seen anything like this before. Interesting. Cassius Pine told you where the book was only to lock it tight.”
“Yeah,” Steven agreed. “But I got a peek inside before Sabina cast her Divinatio spell. That’s what did it.” He explained about the Path of the Mirror-Souled Dragon as well as the encrypted pages. And that Mathaal was an old man in Montana, somewhere, eating peach cobbler with Uchiko.
“I do like peach cobbler,” Liam agreed, “but only in September, and only made with Palisade peaches.”
“Heck yeah!” Tessa agreed. “We used to trek over to Grand Junction every fall. Totally delicious.”
“There I go, contributing to another insipid food conversation.” The Yellow Ronin sobered. “There must be a key to match the lock on the book. I’m guessing that Rahaab has it. Or his brother. Maybe if we find Mathaal, we can open the chains.”
“Or we magic up a key,” Steven suggested. “Tessa?”
She smiled brightly. “Oh, like an Incanto spell. Make a skeleton key that can open any lock. It’s an interesting idea.”
“Then we can look inside at least,” Steven said. “Those pages might still be encrypted, but we can get a glimpse of it.”
“I’ll be right back.” Tessa left and went inside the trailer.
Aria had excused herself and taken her chair into the shade of a pine by the stream. The hot sun had burned off the cool of the morning. Aria let out a groan they all heard.
“She’s hurting bad.” Mouse smiled. “Hey, Aria, there’s a cure for hangovers. It’s called getting drunk again as fast as you can. Should I get you a bottle of Wild Turkey liquo
r?”
Aria didn’t open her eyes. She lifted her right hand and raised her middle finger.
The petite blonde laughed.
“Liam,” Sabina said softly. “I told Steven, and I’d like to tell you. I want to become a Dragonskin. Have you ever helped anyone go through the rituals?”
The Yellow Ronin, already weak and pale, turned even whiter.
“For the love of biscuits,” Mouse hissed. “I can’t even talk about how fucked the Dragonskin rituals are. I won’t be a part of it. Never.” She cast a hide spell and flew off as an amber-colored dragon.
“She tortured Edgar Vale for over a day,” Steven said. “In the end, it drove him insane. It won’t have to be like that for Sabina, will it, Liam?”
Before he could answer, Tessa banged out of the trailer and returned to the table holding her key chain, which was a work of modern art: keys, ribbons, strips of leather, and costume jewelry rings.
She started going through keys. “I think this will work better if I use my favorite key, which is to the Coffee Clutch.”
“Eduardo didn’t take it back?” Steven asked.
Tessa shook her head. “I kept meaning to drive it over, but then the next dragon would attack us. It’s been, uh, intense, right?”
“It has,” Steven agreed. He glanced at Liam, who had his face in his hands. Was he still shaken up by Sabina’s request? It seemed so.
Tessa untwisted the big key from a key ring. She raised it. “I think we should all cast the Incanto spell. We’re going up against Rahaab, and since he’s ancient, he’s going to have major mojo.”
“Even me?” Steven asked.
“Especially you.” Tessa grinned at him. “Might as well get your Incanto magic on. And no skipping to Divinatio. We don’t want you to make the same mistake that I did.”
“Okay,” Liam said. “On three.” He did the countdown.
The Yellow Ronin, Tessa, Sabina, and Steven all said “Magica Incanto” at the same time. All had their hands out.
Each had a different light emanating from their fingers. For Steven, it was black. For Tessa, pink. Liam’s hand glowed yellow, while Sabina’s hands and eyes gleamed green.
The colors coalesced around the key.
“Bring the book,” Steven said. Tessa handed him the key. Darkness surrounded it. For some reason, his magic had won out.
Sabina picked up the book. Steven inserted the key into the lock, and though it was a different size, he felt it grab the tumblers. The lock clicked open, and the chains crumbled into ash and blew away.
He opened the book easily.
Grinning, Steven found the first encrypted page.
She drove in from a city called Billings. She says the peaks I see are the Beartooth Mountains. I’m not sure what a bear is. As for teeth, I lost another one. She doesn’t say it, but she is waiting for me to die. I wait for the same thing. I’m a hundred if I’m a day. A hundred years old. But I feel older than that. How can that be? People don’t live much longer. Maybe I’m not a person. Maybe I’m something else.
He read the words out loud before they disappeared.
Steven touched the blank page. “That must be Mathaal.”
“It seems he’s gotten worse,” Liam said. “He doesn’t even remember that he’s a dragon anymore. Interesting. This is good, though. We’re in the Beartooth Mountains, and we know he’s within driving distance of Billings. Unfortunately, driving distance for Montana people could be anywhere in the state.”
“Well, we should head for Billings,” Tessa said. “And keep the book open to that page. At some point, we might get another clue.”
Steven turned to the next set of encrypted pages. What he saw put a chill in him.
The ink flowed around the pages until words formed.
So, boy, you have unlocked my chains. I am not surprised. Your father’s magic runs strong in your blood. The Drokharis clan has always been powerful, and I have watched them wander about the Earth for millennia. But nothing like you. You are unique, fate-blessed. You took Shamhat’s eye, and yet I could heal it because I know spells you do not. I could attempt to argue with you, I could try to convince you to stop your reckless pursuit of revolution, but you are a child. You do not converse with children. You punish them. And I will punish you.
Liam and Tessa read the words over his shoulder before they disappeared.
“Well, that was Rahaab. He just told you to get off his lawn,” Tessa quipped.
“I wonder if he knows where I am now.” Steven sighed.
“He knows where Mouse is,” Liam said. “As for the book, he could lock it, but your father had it protected. I believe we are still hidden for now.”
Sabina murmured something, and her eyes lit up with green light. “I will make sure that that cabron can’t find us. Don’t worry.”
“Not until we can find Mathaal,” Steven said. “I’m betting he can help us with both the book and with the secrets to killing an ancient dragon.”
“An Alpheros.” Liam scratched his bearded chin. “Tessa told me about our three ancestors and their very Cain and Abel story. Stefan was never sure if that was true or not.”
“It’s true,” Sabina said abruptly. “All of it. Rahaab doesn’t care he’s killing his descendants.” Her eyes lost their glow. “Liam, I know my timing isn’t very good, but I need to know about the rituals. Have you done it before?”
“I have.” Liam’s voice was grave. “I watched a friend die. Another, like this Edgar Vale, lost his mind. The process is brutal, and I would ask that you think about your decision very carefully.”
Steven thought of Uchiko and the Onari Guard, who had failed the rituals and had become half dragon, half human, unable to fully transform into either.
Sabina, sitting in a chair near them, was motionless. “Aria is worried I won’t be able to handle myself in battle. As a Dragonskin, I would have access to powers I don’t have now. I want to help Steven. He took me in even though I’m broken. I want to return the favor. And I’m strong, Liam. I had to be.”
“What does it entail?” Tessa asked.
Liam let out a long breath. “Her life will not be her own. She will have to follow a strict diet, a strict schedule of meditation, and practice self-denial. And in the end, every part of her skin will have to be burned off. And she will have to heal the flesh and transform herself from the inside out. Not one in a thousand can do it.”
“No coffee?” Tessa asked, trying to make a joke.
Liam shook his head. “I know the spells. I can help. But I would rather not. Please, Sabina, you won’t be able to serve Steven’s Primacy if you are either dead or insane.”
“¡No manches!” Sabina snapped. “I understand the risks. I’m not a kid. And I’m not a scaredy-cat.” She touched the scabs on her right arm from when Gideon Scaramanga had stabbed her. The wounds were finally healing. “I’ve been dead once. I can do it again.”
Liam closed his eyes. “We can start now. We will need groceries. Rice. A lot of vegetables. Very little meat and very little fruit. No sugar. You will eat only the barest minimum. The Shaolin monks in China took their cue from the Dragonskin rituals to increase their inner power.”
“Sounds like the ultimate diet,” Tessa said. “And not the beach-body sexy kind.”
No one said anything.
Steven wanted to ask Sabina one more time if she knew what she was doing. But obviously, she’d thought a lot about this. “Maybe we should wait until after we defeat Rahaab. We have enough on our plate as it is.”
“No,” Sabina said. “I’ll start today. I know a little of what I need to do.” She got up and sat down near the stream in some grass. She got in the meditation position, legs crossed, hands in her lap, with her thumbs almost touching, but not quite.
“It’s meditation, it’s a strict diet, and it’s the burning,” Liam said.
“I was burned,” Steven said. “Remember, Tessa? In the sacred pools of the Lookout Mountain Aerie?”
Tessa nodded. “Yeah, you couldn’t change into your True Form until you went through that. It’s going to be far harder on Sabina. But we can be there for her.”
“We can,” Steven agreed.
He turned back to the book. He showed Liam the sketch of the Path of the Mirror-Souled Dragon before turning to the last encrypted pages. He wasn’t sure whose thoughts they were, but the ink swirled, and he was given more.
Rahaab is old and afraid. I don’t know why. If we spent less time fighting among ourselves, we could someday battle the Zothoric. We’d finally be free. But I get the idea that Rahaab doesn’t want to be free. He’s come to enjoy his fear. Or maybe it’s not his fear he likes, but everyone else’s. It does give him power. Those in power are loath to give it up. That’s a lesson for the ages.
Steven read it over. “Who do you think this is?” he asked.
“I could be Icharaam,” Liam said. “If Mathaal is hidden from me, maybe the third brother is as well. Maybe he’s not dead. Or we are reading his thoughts from fifty thousand years ago.”
Steven didn’t know.
He accessed the skill tree again to look it over.
<<<>>>
<<<>>>
HE’D CAST HIS FIRST Magica Incanto spell! And it had worked wonders; the spell knocked away Rahaab’s magic and busted his lock. Of course, he’d had help from the other spellcasters in his group. He’d progressed far down the Pugna tail of the dragon and had mastered ShadowStrength. But what about IonClaws? Should he attempt to use them? Or should he try the Toxicity Exhalant? Probably not. He needed to get better at lightning before he tried the poison gas cloud. That side of the skill tree had always been difficult for him. It had taken him forever to breathe fire.
Well, forever wasn’t the right word. He was learning Dragonsoul skills faster than anyone Liam or Aria had ever met. That made him feel good. But he was still frustrated. He needed to be at his best if he was ever going to face Rahaab.
Though he hadn’t levelled again, all the fighting and the sex had topped off his Animus.
