Wrath had never acted like a true individual before. His dark side had always had a sort of awareness, but now he felt like his own man. That couldn’t be good.
Yaz held his place. “Where, exactly, do you think you’re taking me?”
“To meet your true father.”
Yaz swallowed the lump in his throat. Mom had said he was just an amalgam of various genetic material that she had carried to birth. According to her, he had no father. If she was telling the truth, then what was Wrath talking about? And for that matter, how did one of his emotions know things Yaz didn’t?
“Who is he?” Yaz asked.
“Dear old Dad is a little hard to describe. Better if you just meet him yourself.”
“Where is he?”
Wrath actually cracked a smile. “Where do you think? Through the black door.”
“We can’t open it again. Last time nearly killed me.”
“You really have no idea where you are, do you? Your friends have brought you to the place where it all started. Here, we can open the door and use our power freely. Here, we are as close to gods as men can get.”
Yaz had never questioned his sanity before, but he was beginning to now.
“Look, just come along and meet him. He won’t let us leave until he has his say anyway, so we might as well get it over with. Unless you fancy floating in the dark nothingness for eternity.”
Yaz didn’t fancy that at all. “Fine. Lead on.”
“That’s the spirit.” Wrath glided along toward the back of the library.
As Yaz passed them, his other emotions looked up at him with worried eyes. No doubt if he had a mirror, that’s what his own eyes would’ve looked like.
Wrath held the door for him and motioned him through.
“After you,” Yaz said.
“Dad already knows me. You might say I take after him rather than Mom. It’s you he wants to talk to.”
Something was off. “We’ll see him together or not at all.”
Wrath’s smile broadened. “I fear that isn’t an option.”
A black tentacle shot out of the door, wrapped around Yaz, and dragged him through the opening. As the light grew smaller, Wrath looked in at him, waved, and slammed the door shut.
For the second time, Yaz found himself alone in absolute darkness. He looked all around, but there was nothing. Wrath seemed to have led him into a trap.
“You’re a scrawny one,” a deep, booming voice in the darkness said. “Just like your insane little brother. I must say, my power clearly doesn’t agree with you humans. It seems to stunt your growth. Oh well, I suppose being forcibly imbued with the essence of a being that has existed longer than the universe itself would be hard on a mere mortal.”
“Wrath said you wanted to talk to me. Was there something beyond insulting my mortality that you wanted to discuss? If not, I really should get back to my friends.”
“Oh don’t worry about that. I told your dark side he could play with your body until we finished. You might very well end up waking only to find he’s set everything right while we chatted. Assuming you convince me to let you go at all.”
“Could you at least show yourself? And how’s he going to set things right? If I’m locked in here, he can’t open the door to use my powers, because I could escape.”
A section of darkness took on a faint red glow. Before Yaz’s eyes, that chunk of darkness turned into a humanoid shape with crimson flames for eyes, a jagged mouth, and no other features. It resembled a child’s drawing of the monster under his bed more than anything real.
“Happy now?” the figure said. “As to your question, you have now bathed directly in my blood. Your power no longer flows from the tiny door in your mind, it now infuses your entire body. Before, you were mostly human with just a drop of me, now you are split nearly fifty-fifty.”
Yaz’s mind reeled. “I didn’t understand much of that explanation. Maybe we could just skip to the part where you ask me whatever you want to know so I can get out of here.”
“I’m unsurprised that you failed to understand. Unless they had a working understanding of how the universe was created, anyone would struggle. My question for you is simple, why do you want my power?”
“I don’t want it. Unfortunately, I need it to stop some evil people from crushing the world under their boots. Once that’s done, I’m content to let it go.”
The figure drifted closer, staring at Yaz with its burning eyes. “You really don’t want it, do you? Amazing. Many would sell their souls for a fraction of the power you possess. Why don’t you want it?”
“Because power is a pain. You either have people that fear you, want to use you, or destroy you. I will grant that a certain amount of power is useful in getting the world to leave you alone, but beyond that…” Yaz shook his head. “You can’t count on it. Even if I became invincible, others could try and hurt my friends or they might take them prisoner to force me to do favors for them. That would be worse than being powerless. My very existence would be putting those I care about in danger.”
“You’re thinking of the dragons in your village. You counted on them to keep you safe and they failed. I can see why you’d be mistrustful. Pity for you that my power is now a part of your very essence. You could at best hide what you are, but it will always be there.”
Yaz shrugged. He’d never been one to dwell on problems he had no hope of fixing. “Then why bother asking me? What is the point of all this?”
“Curiosity. You mortals fascinate me. I understand demons, angels, the beings you call gods, even dragons to a certain extent. They are all slaves to their natures. But mortals have no one nature. You come in an infinite variety of good, evil, and everything in between. Of everything The Creator forged when he bound my darkness and created your reality, I think mortals were his greatest accomplishment. Five thousand years have passed since I last had the chance to speak with a mortal of this world. I wish to savor it.”
“For how long?” Yaz asked.
The dark shape shrugged. “Until I run out of things I want to know.”
Yaz somehow suspected that might be a very long time indeed.
Chapter 9
Ordinarily, Moz never would have set up his camp the way he did, but when the main concern was a dragon blasting them, keeping the tents separated made sense. In fact, he’d ordered them pitched at least fifty paces apart and staggered so the dragon could only hit one in a given pass.
Hopefully.
At any rate, no one had bothered them. Tamsin reported no movement at all during the night.
Having eaten his bland breakfast of bread and porridge, Moz gathered his troops. Everyone looked at him expectantly. This would have been a good time to make a rousing speech, but that wasn’t his style.
Instead he got straight to business. “I’m taking a small group to explore the ruins. I want everyone else to patrol the area and make sure there’s nothing hiding, waiting to strike when we’re not expecting it. Callie, Lucy, Albert, and Troy, you’re with me. Let’s get started.”
They broke up and the remaining rangers and bards paired up to scout. His people knew their business and Moz was content to let them attend to it. Nothing worse than having an officer looking over your shoulder every second you were trying to work.
Moz set a direct course toward the city. They hadn’t gone far when Callie said, “I thought you told me there was only one safe path through the ruins.”
“For others that would be true, but we’ve got someone with us capable of controlling the giant snakes that guard the area, so we should be okay. Besides, if there are any enemy soldiers waiting, they’ll be on the safe path.”
“I appreciate your confidence in my abilities,” Lucy said. “But I’ve learned to my detriment that just because it has scales, doesn’t mean I can control it.”
“These aren’t dragons we’re talking about,” Moz said. “As far as I could tell, they were just really big animals. Besides, it’s winter. Maybe they’ll be hibernatin
g.”
“You don’t sound very confident,” Callie said.
“No. I believe these creatures were bred specifically to serve as guardians for the ruins. They wouldn’t be much use if they were dormant half the year.”
“Warm-blooded serpents?” Lucy shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Of course, I’d never heard of a flying ship until one of them attacked the college. Whatever they are, I’ll do my best to control them should we encounter one.”
“I warned the earth spirits to be on the lookout for slithering,” Albert offered.
Moz smiled. The kid reminded him of a puppy, always eager to please.
He stopped just short of the rubble. “From here we enter enemy territory. No talking or other noise unless we’re about to be attacked. I’ll take point. Watch my hand signals. Questions?”
There were none, so he stepped over a pile of broken rock and entered the ruins. Nothing attacked or struck him down, so at least every inch of the place outside the safe path wasn’t a death trap. With any luck, the danger had been overstated. The obvious problem was where to look for five fallen wizards in this huge city. He also wanted to have a glance at the tower, try and figure out if there was any way to sneak in.
He settled on a direct course to the tower. If they should cut a survivor’s trail, he’d decide what to do then.
It didn’t take long to discover that in a ruined city, direct was a relative term. Fallen buildings clogged the streets, forcing long detours. They walked steadily for half an hour and he doubted they made more than a quarter mile of progress. Moz stopped in front of a heap of debris that had once been a three-story building and considered how best to get around it.
As Moz thought, Albert tugged on his cloak.
“What?” Moz whispered.
Albert pointed west. “There’s something moving over that way. It’s not slithering, but it doesn’t seem human either.”
Moz grimaced. The smart thing would be to avoid any potential threat, but he also wanted to know what else they might have to worry about in these ruins. This might be a good chance to find out.
Just enough room existed between the fallen building and its more upright neighbor for them to slip by and head west. Moz motioned the others to follow him and squeezed through the gap. It was so tight his breastplate scraped the stone. Luckily, he was the biggest of the group, so the others should have no trouble.
On the opposite side he waited until everyone joined him then gave Albert an inquiring look. The young man pointed west and a little south then held his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. Whatever he sensed was close then. Good to know.
He set out, keeping close to the still-standing buildings. While they were reasonably intact, there were enough holes that a quick escape would be possible.
Fifty yards further on the sounds of crunching were followed by a loud hiss then more crashes. Moz tiptoed to the end of the street and peeked around the last building. One of the giant snakes, an eighty-foot specimen with a flared hood, was slamming its head into a building as though trying to force its bulk into a too-small opening.
Must be something in there it wanted. In that case, Moz wanted it too. Besides, this would be an excellent opportunity to see if Lucy could actually control one of the monsters.
He caught Lucy’s eye and whispered, “You’re up.”
The bard eased over beside him, took one look at the snake, and blanched. “It’s huge. I’ve never tried to control anything that big.”
“Well, now’s your chance.”
She shot Moz an ugly look and started to hum. Lucy swayed back and forth, the humming growing louder by the moment. After twenty seconds, Moz noticed the snake swaying in rhythm with her. So far so good.
Lucy stopped and the snake stopped. She looked west, down the street away from the building it had been trying to batter down. The snake looked that way and she hissed. It took off like a shot, slithering away as fast as it could.
When it was out of sight, Lucy blew out a long breath. “I told it there was prey that way. It shouldn’t be back for a while.”
“Good,” Moz said. “Well done handling that monster.”
“It was a near thing. Its mind is more advanced than any snake I’ve ever encountered. Not as alien as a dragon’s but different enough that I wasn’t sure it would obey.”
“But it did and that’s what counts. Let’s see what it was after.” Moz ran across the street with the others behind him.
The snake had smashed a pretty big hole through the wall. The target of its fury was immediately obvious. A man lay in the rubble, his body a mass of burns.
He opened his mouth to say something but only a meaningless gurgle emerged.
“Callie,” Moz said. “Heal him enough so he can talk, but no more until we know who he is.”
She shot him a look, but Moz didn’t blink. They both knew better than to take anything for granted. The gods alone knew who this poor bastard was. Until Moz was sure he wasn’t an enemy, he’d treat him as a potential threat.
Callie knelt beside the injured man and made soothing noises. The burns on his face and throat slowly vanished.
“Who are you?” Moz asked when she’d stopped.
“Pyrim Flameborn. My thanks for saving me from that beast and healing some of my burns.”
Moz recognized the name at once. He was the elemental dragon of fire. Even someone not steeped in the world of wizardry would know that name.
“I’d heard you and your fellows attacked the tower. I take it things went poorly.”
“That’s putting it mildly. We were arrogant, confident in our power and certain nothing could stand against us.” A bitter laugh started him coughing.
Moz glanced at Callie and nodded. This wasn’t an ally they could afford to risk losing. She resumed her healing and soon his coughing subsided.
“Thank you again. As I was saying, we were certain all we had to do was show up and crush these upstarts. Unfortunately, there’s some kind of barrier protecting the tower. We couldn’t even scratch it. Then the dragon came. A huge, black beast, bigger than any I’d ever seen. Despite its size, we believed our magic was superior so we didn’t even try to dodge. Our strongest spells bounced off its scales like water. Its fire however worked wonderfully against us. Even me, the master of fire, stood helpless against it. I only survived by turning a fraction of its attack aside. I can’t imagine the others being so lucky.”
“Do you know about where they fell?” Moz asked.
“We had the tower surrounded at first, but when the dragon came, it was chaos. They could have gone down anywhere.” He hung his head, unable to look at Moz. “I didn’t try to save the others. When I saw that dragon, all I wanted was to survive. Now that I have, I find it bitter indeed.”
“That may be, but we can still use your help. My companions and I are here to deal with the Dark Sages and end their plans. Having a master of fire magic on our side would be welcome.”
“Despite my proven cowardice and general uselessness?”
“I’ve seen the dragon you faced. There’s no shame in losing to such a creature. Our hope is to find a way into the tower so we can deal with the humans controlling the dragon rather than fighting the dragon itself.”
“A wise plan. Alas, I see no way through their barrier. Still, if I can be of any help, I am more than willing.” Callie fell silent and Pyrim flexed his arm. “Amazing. You must be a bard. No other magic could have healed me like this.”
“Healing is my gift,” Callie said.
“Let’s get out of here,” Moz said. “Maybe we can find your compatriots and maybe we can’t, but it wouldn’t hurt to look.”
At this point, Moz wasn’t willing to ignore any avenue that might strengthen his position. After hearing Pyrim’s story, he figured he’d need all the help he could get.
Moz, his squad, and Pyrim searched the ruins for the entire day without finding another living person. They did find the charred bodies
of the elemental dragons of lightning, water, and earth. There wasn’t enough left of them to bother moving. The dragon of wind was nowhere to be found. Pyrim suggested she might have escaped by turning incorporeal which seemed as likely as anything else to Moz. If she survived, maybe she’d put in an appearance when they needed her, but he wasn’t counting on it.
So it was with a single extra ally that they returned to the edge of the city. Scouting the tower would have to wait until tomorrow as he didn’t relish wandering around the ruin after dark. The gods alone knew what else might be waiting for the sun to go down.
He had barely stepped beyond the final pile of rubble when Tonia came flying out of the sky. She landed a few feet away and ran over. “We’ve got trouble.”
Moz swallowed a curse. “What kind of trouble?”
“An army is marching right toward us.”
Moz scowled. They couldn’t be soldiers from Rend or Carttoom. Both kings had agreed to avoid exposing a large force to the dragons. That meant they had to be working for the Dark Sages. Which made a certain amount of sense. You might be able to destroy a kingdom with dragons, but they couldn’t control it. You needed men on the ground for that.
“How big of an army?”
Tonia pursed her lips. “Enough that I had trouble counting them. Over a thousand for sure.”
Way more than Moz’s small force could deal with that was certain.
He glanced at Pyrim who shook his head. “After all I’ve done, my magic won’t be worth much for days if not weeks. I’m sorry.”
Moz waved him off. He hadn’t expected a miracle anyway.
“We could just let them pass,” Callie said.
“I’m fine with that,” Moz said. “Having to feed that many men will eat up their stores in a hurry. The problem is I doubt they’re just going to march past us. Our group is too small to target effectively with the dragons but we’re an easy mark for a company of regular soldiers. Even the bards won’t be enough to defeat a thousand men.”
“No,” Callie agreed. “However, if my bards teamed up with Carttoom’s wizards, we might be able to wipe them out if we can catch them in the open.”
The Dragonspire Chronicles Omnibus 2 Page 42
