The Champion's Ruin

by Kristen Banet

  Mave straightened, anxious. Kristanya summoned two curved blades, moroks, traditional weapons of the Andinna. Only Mave used them in pairs, but now Kristanya held them in the same fashion.

  “I was required to have a test, so I made an impossible one,” Kristanya said with a smile. “You must draw one blood on me. Then, and only then, can you become my Avatar.”

  “You’re the goddess of war,” Mave said, drawing her own swords. She had lost one on the mission when she had lost Kian. It hadn’t been difficult to replace, only heartbreaking.

  “Exactly,” Kristanya growled happily, spinning her swords in her hands. “One blood, little warrior. We begin now.”

  The goddess launched her attack before Mave could register the words. She didn’t block the first strike but was able to move just enough to keep it from doing more than minimal damage, a thin cut across her thigh. The second strike glanced Mave’s ribs. Mave winced but kept moving, thrown off her game. This was fast, faster than anyone Mave had ever fought, including the goddess herself.

  The goddess was going for the kill. Mave stumbled and fell, rolling before a sword entered her heart.

  I need to be faster. I need to be stronger.

  Mave was already bleeding, so she called on the power of her spilled blood to fuel her. The next time Kristanya attacked, trying to open Mave’s gut, Mave was able to jump away with more confidence. The blade nicked her hip, but it was a shallow wound and gave Mave another source of blood. She remembered the mistakes she’d made fighting Lothen. She couldn’t make them here. She couldn’t call too much and kill herself in the process.

  Mave tried to go on the offensive, but Kristanya deflected her attack with ease and sliced into Mave’s bicep before she could pull away.

  “I’ll kill you with a thousand cuts if you don’t want to die quickly,” Kristanya said, smiling. “If you really think you can win, I’ll destroy you slowly. It’s been a long time since someone truly gave me a chance to practice.”

  Mave was a toy, and Kristanya was going to play with her.

  Their blades clashed, and Mave tried to hold strong. If she faltered, Kristanya could cut her in half. Her muscles screamed, wondering how her opponent could be so strong. She had to break the block and jump, wincing as the blade slid over her shoulder.

  Mave kept calling on power as Kristanya continued to attack. It was relentless. Mave felt chased, she felt beaten, and it had only begun.

  “You think you can hold the darkness and conquer death?” Kristanya roared, both taunting and furious as she cut into Mave again. “Do you think you could represent me on the mortal plane?”

  “Yes!” Mave answered, kicking the goddess back, finally getting a hit. It wasn’t a blood, though. It was purely defensive, and the goddess only moved back two steps. “I do,” Mave growled. “I think I can. On the mortal plane, I have conquered death time and time again. I have overcome, and I have been a bringer of it. You know that.”

  “Prove it now, then!” Kristanya laughed, spinning her blades. “Prove that your dark core is as deep and cold as my own. Prove to me when you have nothing left, you can call upon that last bit of yourself.”

  The goddess attacked again. Mave roared and met her, their swords hitting hard enough to make the world shake with the sound. One of Mave’s moroks broke, the steel snapping in two. She ducked, so Kristanya couldn’t take her head.

  Mave tried to kick Kristanya’s feet out from underneath her, but the goddess jumped the attempt and kicked Mave in the face, sending her head back to crack into the rock and dirt of the mountain.

  Her ears were ringing, but Mave overcame the daze and kept moving. She didn’t fall into the past, long over that weakness. She was Mave, and she was an Andinna warrior, fighting a goddess. The horrors of the pits and Elliar were long behind her. They had made her stronger.

  She dodged Kristanya’s next two vicious attacks but once again, found herself on the back foot. The fight continued as Mave began to breathe hard. Kristanya pressed her to keep moving around the peak, knowing if she ran too far, she would enter the storm and be swept away. Trapped in this small space with a goddess bent on her death, Mave reached into herself.

  She didn’t try to heal her wounds. She only yanked more power from her blood and flooded her body with it.

  When Kristanya swung again, launching the next deadly attack, Mave was able to block the first two swings and deliver a counterattack. It didn’t land, but it made Kristanya jump back, which gave Mave the opening she needed to press forward and take charge.

  “You call upon the blood of the living,” Kristanya said with a grin as Mave tried everything she knew to break the goddess’s defenses. “And that power fades every moment you use it.”

  Mave knew the goddess was right. Every swing meant Mave had to call more power to maintain. Every injury allowed more power to slip away and weakened her body.

  Mave was too slow with a single strike, and Kristanya took advantage, cutting Mave open across the back of her hand. Her remaining sword flew from her hand, and when Mave looked down as she ran, she saw black blood flowing from her injury, not red.

  Her legs were shaking as she grabbed her sword in time to stop Kristanya from delivering a final blow. She held the sword above her as Kristanya pressed down on her with both of her own.

  Mave stared into the goddess’s black eyes, her mind frantic.

  No. I can’t lose here. I can’t fail them. I have to do this for my family. All of them. The ones who brought me out of the darkness. I need to do this for them.

  Mave reached into herself, deeper than she ever had, and pulled on power she had never reached before, not consciously—her soul, kept in her dark core, the place she hid. It had kept a dark power from her for so long but had always been the source of her strength. She had never realized the strength it had, giving her the willpower to defy and to fight, to survive when all those around her wanted her dead.

  Now, she had to actively use it. Even when the body and blood died, the soul remained—a secret truth of the Andinna, hidden in plain sight. Souls lasted so long, they visited on Al Moro Nat. They continued into the next plane when the mortal body failed.

  With a roar, she pushed up off her back and made it to her knees, then rose to her feet and forced Kristanya to back away.

  “What have you done?” Kristanya asked, curious. Not angry or surprised, just curious, as if she had never seen a mortal do what Mave had done.

  Mave looked down at herself, black stains all over her body and armor.

  She had never felt more alive.

  “Found more power,” she answered. “Found my power.”

  She ran for Kristanya and swung quickly, her sword cutting through the air like there was no resistance, so fast it was a blur. The goddess defended, grinning viciously.

  “Now, this is a fight!” Kristanya laughed.

  Their swords once again met hard enough, it echoed around them and shook the earth. This time, one of Kristanya’s blades broke, and the goddess snarled as she brought a foot up and kicked Mave back nearly twenty feet and sent her rolling in the dirt. Mave felt something break and snap, screaming as she stopped with her face in the dirt.

  When she tried to get up, she couldn’t.

  She had to.

  “Even your soul will fail eventually, Maevana!” Kristanya called, walking toward her again. “Even that will fade. Souls are powerful things and endure for what seems endless to you, but I know they fade. Even at its strongest, right now, you will not get a single blood on me.”

  Mave tried to push up, wondering what was broken, wondering what had just happened.

  Finally, Mave realized she wouldn’t be able to stand, so she laid there, tears flooding her eyes as she realized Kristanya had broken her back.

  Kristanya drew closer every step.

  Mave called on everything—every drop remaining of her blood, every bit of her soul.

  She would give it all for this. She risked killing herself, but eve
n if she died, she would prove to Kristanya, there was one mortal who could have done it. Mave would do it with her last breath.

  As Kristanya raised her remaining blade, Mave collected every ounce of power she had.

  She swung, knowing it was her only chance. Kristanya’s sword fell to the ground as Mave watched red well up in a thin line on Kristanya’s leg.

  “Ah,” Kristanya said softly. Mave felt panic as Kristanya rolled her over to stare at the sky. “You are dying, Mave.”

  “Yes,” Mave answered, swallowing. “You…”

  “I know what I did to you,” Kristanya whispered, reaching down. “But knowing death was coming, you didn’t accept it. You got your one blood, little warrior. And now…I must uphold my end of the bargain. We’ll both have to live with the consequences.”

  Mave tried to keep breathing, but Kristanya put a hand on her chest, and power flooded into her. She screamed, the cold, dark power flooding her every sense. Kristanya stepped away from her, but Mave only screamed as the power ripped through her body.

  “Retreat,” Kristanya whispered.

  Mave knew what the goddess meant and listened but could not get past the power now inside her. It was deadly and destructive. It was fearsome and raw. It was a rage that refused to be contained. A monster that wanted to consume all things.

  I understand now. I have to control it. This is the final test. Control it before it finishes killing me.

  Mave fought, retreating to her cold and dark place, the fear of her fate leaving her. She looked at the power and demanded it to yield to her, for she was Maevana Lorren Amori, and she only bowed to her king.

  Everything changed. Mave moved and found herself lying on the ground in a different position. She was disoriented and confused but knew she wasn’t going to die. Why was giving her a real hard time figuring out.

  “And now, you are my Avatar,” Kristanya said in her mind. “Three domains lay at your fingertips—war, death, and darkness.”

  Mave tried to stand, but everything felt odd. She looked down and saw she had no hands.

  She had black scaled feet with deadly, shining black talons at the end of each toe. She looked at Kristanya and saw a dragon staring back at her with pure black eyes.

  In the blink of an eye, they were Andinna again, and Mave groaned as she went to her knees, her body weak, but nothing was bleeding, and her back was no longer broken.

  “My power healed you because it needed a vessel, and you proved yourself. However, it will also take its toll. Every time you use the most destructive of its abilities, you will quicken your pace to your own demise. The mortal form isn’t supposed to contain such power. Use the power wisely.” Kristanya knelt in front of her. “You and I are bonded now. I will always answer your call to give you guidance or a warning.”

  “Is there anything else?” Mave asked, looking up to Kristanya.

  “No. You can go now. Go to your brother, the Avatar of Lariana, and let him point you toward war. Be his Champion.” Kristanya turned away, looking into the storm again. “Show them, my Avatar, what happens when the black dragon flies again.”

  The goddess disappeared, but Mave heard what the goddess had said.

  Alchan succeeded. He’d done it. He was out there, waiting on her now.

  She’d always had faith in him.

  She took only a moment to decide how she wanted to get off this mountain and return to her family.

  Mave ran into the storm, not letting the battering winds stop her or push her around. She reached a cliffside, spread her wings.

  And jumped.

  46

  Mat

  Mat felt as if there was lightning in his veins. It got him out of bed, panting and holding himself as something raw and powerful reached out to him and touched him from his bond with Mave.

  “Mat, are you okay?” Zayden asked as Mat ran for the door.

  “She’s…” He could feel her, but everything was wrong—different. He hadn’t had much time to adjust to the bond before she left, and for days, she had gone so far from him, he felt as though he was going insane. He had needed her, and she was out of his reach. He didn’t understand how she or Luykas could tolerate the vast distances they managed.

  He burst out of the bedroom, glad he had slept in loose pants. He ran through the temple, his heart pounding, frantic to find her and figure out what was happening. He heard footsteps behind him.

  “Mat!” Bryn called out. “Mat, slow down!”

  He couldn’t. He ran out of the temple and reached the giant platform and saw something in the sky. He was speechless as his bond tried to tell him something he wasn’t certain he could believe. It couldn’t be real, could it?

  “Is that a wyvern?” Emerian asked, confused at what Mat was watching.

  “No…” Zayden said, sounding more wary. “Way too big to be a wyvern, I think.”

  “Mat, what’s wrong?” Bryn asked, touching his arm.

  The beast in the sky turned to him. Mat had to back up, fear overriding his other emotions. They backed away, practically scrambling as a monster drew closer in the sky, taking cover in the open temple door because none of them were scared enough to run inside.

  “By the Skies,” Zayden whispered first. “Not a wyvern…a dragon. It has four legs. See? Wyverns have their wings attached to their front legs. Dragons have four legs and wings coming out of their back.”

  “There’s only one black dragon! Is it…” Bryn stopped talking.

  Mat watched as it soared through the air toward them as if it had realized they were there and wanted to see them…or eat them…or destroy them. He had no idea what he was feeling anymore because he couldn’t trust any of it, but Zayden was right.

  It was a massive black dragon with wings.

  “Kristanya doesn’t have wings,” he said, not really talking to the males. He had to say it out loud for himself to really believe. “She gave them to us.”

  The dragon landed on the platform, taking up most of the space. The beast was probably five times the size of Rain’s wyvern form and three times the size of the biggest wyvern on record.

  It roared into the sky, shaking the entire temple. Around him, his friends grabbed onto each other, but Mat held his own balance. The bond was still too confusing. He couldn’t understand. He couldn’t believe.

  When the roar was over, the dragon twisted its head and neck until it was on the floor and staring at him.

  Mat saw the truth in the dragon’s eyes.

  A color he could never forget. A color that he could never deny.

  Blue-grey like frosted steel or a winter storm—cold.

  He stepped closer, knowing the bond would never lie to him. He had to trust it.

  The dragon breathed into his face as he stared into its eyes.

  “Mave.”

  Epilogue

  Varon

  Varon sat on the cliffside again, watching the clouds roll by. He knew he was there because something great had happened, something wondrous.

  His friends had succeeded. They had done it, and soon the world would know what happened when the twin powers of light and dark go to war to protect their people.

  “Varon,” she said softly, almost chastising. “Do you know what you have done?”

  I do. He confirmed, speaking with his thoughts. And I regret none of it.

  “Of course you don’t. I sent you into the world with a specific duty, and you fulfilled that duty time and time again. I have seen my Avatars do many things, but I have never had an Avatar who fulfilled it the way you have. You meddled into the affairs of the other goddesses. Varon, stand, and look at me.”

  He got to his feet, leaving his favorite view behind. He saw her waiting, but what he had not expected was his goddess to be flanked by her older sisters.

  “You have walked outside the bounds of your duty, Avatar,” Kristanya growled, a being of vicious fury.

  “And you reminded us that not even we fully understand the hearts of our people,” Lari
ana said with all the regal poise he expected.

  “Varon, explain yourself,” his goddess demanded, staring him down.

  I love my people more than I was willing to follow the rules. If upsetting all of you is the price I had to pay, I will pay it. Punish me. I am at your mercy. He went to his knees in front of them.

  “Your charity case is full of surprises,” Kristanya growled. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Avatar of Amonora, today we give you a gift for delivering us a much-needed reminder,” Lariana said, now humored.

  He looked up, shocked by their words.

  “For ages, it has been believed my sister and I are of equal power, and I rule because I am the dominant one. Your King reminded me this is not the case, but you reminded both my sister and me of something far more important.” Lariana crouched in front of him, her smile serene. “Tell me, Varon, who do you believe is the most powerful goddess?”

  He answered with his heart.

  Amonora, for it is love that brought our world out of the primordial chaos and into a time of peace. It was love that gave you the ability to rule your sister. It gave her the ability to appreciate the world and to follow you. It was love that gave you the male dragons, husbands who helped shape this world. Love that pushed you to create us, your children, and our wyvern cousins. He took a deep breath, unneeded since he couldn’t actually speak, but an old habit. And I knew it would be love, not war or leadership, light or dark, that guided the Andinna to where they are today, with an Avatar of Lariana and an Avatar of Kristanya walking the world, ready to defend their people and usher in a new age. The same love that brought you together would be the thing that saved our people.

  “And you are correct,” the white dragon goddess said, pleased with his answer. She touched his cheek. “And for the wisdom that has guided your steps, Kristanya and I came together, a combination of her power and mine, to give you a gift.”

  Her hand trailed down and wrapped around his neck.