by Gage Lee
Taun took a deep breath. It was difficult to focus with Kam calling out orders, but there was no other way for his team to survive much longer. The ball bounced perilously close to the center with every passing second. Sutari's ragged breathing made it clear she'd only last a few more minutes, and Moglan couldn't adjust his bond with enough precision to keep the table level. It dipped or rose on his side with erratic jerks, despite Kam's barked orders.
When Taun looked at the game the way Axaranth described it, he realized why the outer band of the wheel didn't spin. Besides the bonds that tied that rim to the team, there were more bonds that connected it to spikes hammered into the ground. Pneuma tied those to a box in front of the game's operator. The wheels dipped toward the ground when pulses of power from the box reached them and rose when that power faded. Those pulses also kept the wheel spinning. It reminded him of the magnets he'd experimented with back home in Sage Lantan's workshop.
An idea popped up in Taun's head. Reacting to the pulses was impossible. By the time he saw them coming and relayed the information to his team, it would be too late. But maybe there was a way to cut out the middle step.
"Do you trust me?" he asked Karsi.
The princess looked at him curiously, then nodded. "We work together so well in the workshop. Why stop now?"
"Don't panic," Taun said. "This might feel a little weird. But I won't hurt you, I promise."
While Kam shouted orders to his team, Taun let part of his mind work on another problem. It was like the time he'd split his consciousness in the workshop, focusing on two different things simultaneously. It was difficult, but not impossible for him thanks to the time and training he'd put in since. The knight extended a thread of pneuma to the princess, gently connecting it to her core.
Karsi shuddered at the touch, her eyes going wide with surprise. She resisted on instinct, then accepted Taun's connection. The pneuma snapped into place with a crack that echoed through Taun's thoughts. He felt a moment of disorientation as his senses blurred with Karsi's, the smell of her lavender perfume filling his nostrils. And then it passed.
"That was different," she said a little breathlessly. "I've never done anything like it."
"Me either," Taun said with a grin. "Moglan, I need to try something. Don't freak out."
"I'll try," the shaman said. "But you know me. I'm just a big scaredy-cat at heart."
"Less talking, more concentration," Kam said, his voice more tense than usual. "If we want to win this thing, we have to stay sharp."
"Hang in there," Taun said, encouraging his team.
His connection to the shaman went more smoothly than the first bond he'd formed with the princess. Taun didn't know if it was because Moglan was used to dealing with the spirit realm, and he didn't care. He had three of his five teammates connected, but the wheel was spinning ever faster. Another team had dropped out, and from the groans Taun heard from the remaining players, more would fall soon.
"Sutari, I need to bond with you," he said. "It's temporary and won't hurt."
"It better not," the warrior snapped. "And you better not drain any of my pneuma. I need all I've got."
"I won't," Taun promised. "Kam, same with you, all right?"
"Drop your side, Moglan!" Kam said. "Do whatever you have to do, Taun. I'm on the ragged edge here."
Taun didn't take the time to explain anything else. He pushed the connections into place, forming a complete circuit that passed through every member of his team. It was a strange sensation, but it wasn't altogether unpleasant. He felt a sense of camaraderie and belonging that went deeper than mere friendship. He held onto that warm glow, then put the last part of his plan into place.
It only took him a few moments to tie his pneuma to the magnet-like spikes beneath the wheel. He reversed the connections so that whenever a pulse hit one spike and pushed the table’s edge up, Taun's bond to his teammates pulled the same edge down by the same amount.
Very clever. That is the same solution I devised. This used to be a training exercise for those who operated my weapons. It is quite an honor to see they still use it, even if they do not know why.
"Okay," Taun said, "everyone relax. I've got this."
"You can't do it all by yourself," Kam said. "We can't just stop!"
A round of pulses slammed into the spikes, and Kam's eyes widened. He barked orders to the team, but Taun's plan was already in place. When the members of his lodge acted, they sent the wheel wobbling wildly from side to side, amplifying instead of neutralizing its pitch and yaw. The ball bounced into the air, hit the wheel and spun wildly, then flipped into the air once more.
"Listen to me," Taun said. "I've got this.”
Kam pursed his lips, then nodded. "I hope you know what you're doing."
When the next round of pulses slammed into the spikes, Taun was ready. He let the pneuma flow through him into his teammates. When a burst of energy hit one of the spikes, Taun's connections channeled an equal and opposite flow through the connection to his teammates. Little by little, the ball's bounces became shallower until the perfect maneuvering of Taun's plan stopped them altogether. The ball still spun, but the force of the whirling wheel pulled it away from the hole at the center and into the rim that surrounded the wheel. Within seconds the ball was rolling along the edge of the wheel as smooth as a marble in its track. Taun felt a sense of relief wash through him. It didn't matter how fast the wheel moved or how erratically it pitched and rolled. His team was in perfect synchronization thanks to his efforts, reacting to the wheel's motions in the same instant they happened.
A minute passed, then two. Trumpets sounded, and Taun watched two more teams march off the field. That just left the Broken Blades and Orichalcum Forge lodges. Auris glared at the knight, rage burning in his eyes. Taun returned the gold's look with a slight smile. He was calm at the heart of the competition, untouched by the tension that twisted the gold dragon's face into a fierce mask.
"You can't beat me," Auris snarled.
Taun held the gold's gaze. "I already have."
The wheel spun faster and faster. The red ball became a streaking comet, hissing against the metal disc. The rest of the Broken Blades could only stare at Taun in awe, shocked by what he'd done and thrilled by the power that raced through them. They'd been friends before, but now they were a perfect team working in flawless unison.
The trumpet sounded again. The Orichalcum Forge lodge had lost control of their wheel and the ball spiraled down into the dark hole.
Auris had lost.
"And we have a winner!" The operator shouted. "Come claim your prizes!"
The Archon's Wheel slowed and the red ball vanished. Taun let the connections he'd maintained fade away and felt a pang of loss that was mirrored in the eyes of his friends. The princess rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck. Though she was taller than Taun, she lowered her mouth to kiss him on the cheek and whispered, "That was amazing. I've never felt anything like that."
Moglan joined the mob, crushing Taun in a fierce hug, and pulling Sutari into their huddle. Kam joined last, looking dazed and happy by what they'd just experienced. They shouted with excitement and pounded on each other's backs, laughing for long moments as they staggered toward the game's operator like a pack of drunken rowdies leaving a bar. They'd nearly reached their goal when something streaked in on Taun's blindside and knocked him to the ground.
The knight skidded across the grass, the shoulders of his tunic tearing open against the rough earth. He struggled to catch his breath, drawing in a great whooping inhale before panic could take hold. He had a hard time focusing his eyes for a moment, but he didn't need to see to know who the blurry shape rushing toward him was.
"You're dead, human," Auris roared.
THE GOLD DRAGON MOVED with the speed of a shooting star. Auris stomped down at Taun, narrowly missed his target, then stomped again and again.
The knight rolled away from his attacker, but each blow came closer to flattening him. Th
e claws on Auris's feet shredded Taun's tunic with every stomp, and the knight knew he had to do something, anything, before the gold killed him.
"It was a game," Taun shouted, rolling up into a crouch just outside the dragon's reach. He drew in a deep breath, filled his core with pneuma, and let the mystic energy fill his arms and legs with supernatural strength. Fiery anger swirled in Taun's heart, and he clenched his fists as he stood up. "You lost. It's not the end of the world."
"The heir to the Vash family does not lose," the gold roared.
Auris was much bigger and stronger than Taun. His dragon sign claws carved the air into shrieking slivers as he stomped forward, every move transformed into a deadly attack by his martial arts training.
He follows the Tsunami Blade style. It is all offense and no defense. His strength is his weakness. Turn it against him before he carves you into bite-sized morsels.
While Taun appreciated Axaranth's advice, he wished it was more precise. He ducked under a sweeping slash from the dragon's claws, darted to the right to avoid a brutal crescent kick, then threw himself back to avoid a gutting uppercut. Auris was playing for keeps, and Taun had no idea how to turn his foe's superior strength to his advantage.
"There is no place for you here, human," Auris snarled as the two fighters circled one another. A crowd had formed around them. Most of the spectators were confused about what was going on, but Taun's lodge knew exactly what had happened. The rest of the Orichalcum Forge lodge stood between Taun's friends and the fight, barring them from stepping in if things got out of hand. The knight had pushed the prince too far, and now he'd have to pay the price.
"Look at this," Taun said. Auris had sliced his tunic to ribbons, revealing most of his torso. The knight jabbed a finger at the glowing soul scale in the middle of his chest. "This is why I'm here. You're telling Axaranth he doesn't have a right to attend the Celestial Academy?"
Auris hesitated for a moment, and Taun took advantage of the time to get a better survey of his opponent's strength. The dragon's core wasn't blue any longer, it had advanced to green, putting it three steps ahead of Taun's. Great, another way that Auris had tilted the odds back in his favor. The knight watched as pneuma flooded into that core, then gushed out to fill Auris's body with power. Enraged as he was, the gold still had perfect control over his pneuma. He was far more deadly than Taun had expected.
But Axaranth was also right. All that power had to go somewhere, and if Taun could redirect it, maybe he could stop the fight before Auris tore his head off.
"I don't know how that ended up in you," the crown prince shouted, "but I'll tear it out of your chest when you're dead. It belongs to someone more worthy than a human serf."
Taun saw the pneuma explode from the dragon's feet and propel Auris toward him, a rooster tail of torn grass and dust flying up in the dragon's wake. The prince's pneuma was filled with the earth element, the only power the warrior had truly mastered. And while it gave him incredible strength and claws that could carve through armor, the single-minded devotion to one element was a weakness.
The knight reached out to the elemental spikes driven into the game field. With his next breath, he pulled water pneuma from those spikes and he held it in his core as the dragon came at him. He waited until the last possible second before impact, then exhaled a blast of dragon's breath at the prince's feet.
Surprised, Auris couldn't dodge Taun's trick. The water pneuma disrupted the flow of earth pneuma from the dragon's feet, stealing power from his charge. Off balance, the dragon crashed into the ground beside Taun. His shoulder dug a furrow through the earth, the crushed grass staining the front of his golden tunic with an emerald smear.
The gold dragon howled in rage. His claws tore the earth as he dragged himself back up to his feet. By the time he turned to face Taun, the knight had backed away several yards. "You're dead," Auris growled. "I will bury you in a pauper's grave. Your family will never know your fate. I will cleanse this world of your existence. It will be as if you never were."
Auris didn't charge Taun this time. He advanced with careful, measured steps. His claws wove hypnotic patterns in the air before him, trails of earth pneuma glowing yellow from their tips. He circled as Taun tried to widen the distance between them, using his longer legs and more advanced training to close the gap. He sneered, and a blast of earth pneuma sent him flying into the air, then propelled him down toward Taun's exposed head.
The knight knew he couldn't stop the attack. Even if he quenched the earth pneuma with water, Auris had too much momentum. He'd come down on Taun like an avalanche full of swords, and that would be the end of that. But Axaranth had given Taun the key.
Rather than try to stop Auris, Taun stepped to the side and drew fire pneuma into his core. He thrust his hands up toward the dragon, but he had no intention of trying to block the attack. He unleashed the fire into the stream of earth pneuma that propelled Auris. Because the two elements were allies, the maneuver increased the force of the earth pneuma, and drove Auris down faster than he expected. The dragon slashed wildly at Taun, but he'd already passed his mark. The crown prince hit the ground, moving faster than a galloping horse. Not even his gold scales could protect him from that impact, and the air flooded out of his lungs in a rush.
The dragon's eyes bulged from their sockets and his mouth hung open. His claws dug at the ground as he tried to gather his breath, but he was too dazed to harness pneuma.
"Stay down," Taun said. "If you try to get up, I'll hurt you. I didn't want this fight, but I will not die for your pride."
For a moment, Taun thought the dragon had come to his senses. Auris's shoulders slumped, and the tension left his body. The warrior gulped air and lay still.
Unfortunately, the dragon was full of tricks.
Auris sucked in a deep breath that pulled earth pneuma from the ground. The energy flooded the dragon's limbs, and Taun saw his claws flare to life again. The mystic energy thrust the gold dragon up from the ground.
And Taun struck with every ounce of strength he had in his body. He pulled water pneuma into his core and surrounded his fists with its essence. He brought his hands down like twin hammers, driving them into Auris's chest. The crushing attack slammed the dragon back to the ground and purged the earth pneuma from his body. When the dragon struggled to rise again, Taun was relentless. His heavy-handed strikes pummeled the dragon into submission.
Taun didn't stop until Auris was limp beneath him. He hadn't wanted to hurt the dragon. But he knew if the crown prince got to his feet, that would've been the end of his life. Auris had lost all reason.
When the prince stopped moving, Taun stood and raised his hands over his head. "It was self-defense," he shouted. "I didn't start this fight."
"I saw it," Karsi shouted, raising her voice so there could be no doubt who'd spoken. "Taun did no wrong."
"Traitor!" someone shouted.
A gold dragon lunged out of the crowd, a sword flashing in his hand. He moved like a streak of golden lightning, and there was no time for Taun to move, nowhere for him to go.
Harden yourself with metal.
Taun tried to do what Axaranth had said. He drew metal pneuma into his core, but he was too slow. The blade would find him before he could finish taking the breath.
"No!" Moglan shouted.
The shaman moved faster than Taun would've believed possible. One moment, he was three yards away, the next he bulled through the mob on a burst of water pneuma, dragon sign wings flaring behind him, and drove his shoulder into Taun's side. The unexpected attack hurled the knight clear of the killer's blade. In the blink of an eye, Moglan's hand lashed out and caught the gold around the neck. He thrust the dragon away, holding his feet off the ground, keeping him aloft until the attacker's eyes rolled back in their sockets and turned red from bursting blood vessels.
"Let him down," Taun gasped as he stood again. "Don't kill him."
Moglan nodded and released the unconscious attacker. He turned toward Taun, ope
ning his mouth to say something.
Blood gushed out over his lips, and the shaman's knees sagged.
The knight rushed to his friend's side. The gold dragon had buried his blade deep in Moglan's side. The shaman collapsed into Taun, who struggled to keep his big friend from falling to the ground and driving the weapon in even deeper.
"I'm sorry," Moglan gasped, blood splashing out of his mouth. "I tried."
Chapter 21
THE PHYSICKER, AN EMACIATED green dragon whose massive wings twitched under the thick chains that bound them flat against his shoulders, emerged from the ritual chamber with his head hanging low. To Taun, the old dragon looked like he'd been the one who'd suffered a life-threatening injury. There was life still in the aged creature, but only a thread.
"Your friend," the physicker wheezed, one hand held to his chest, "is more alive than dead. But he must remain abed for some time. Likely past the end of this school year. You may see him for a few minutes, but only that. He needs rest so the healing spirits may do their work."
Taun was surprised to get that much out of the healer. The old dragon had refused to let more than one of Moglan's friends into the tower's waiting room, and had given Taun no information at all during the hours the knight had paced the floor, waiting to see if his friend would live. Hearing that he could actually speak with Moglan was an enormous relief.
"Thank you," Taun said quietly. "I appreciate your efforts."
"Yes, well," the physicker said with a faint smirk, "I hope it is worth the trouble. I fear your big friend will eat us into poverty when he regains his appetite."
"That seems likely," Taun agreed. "I can see him now?"
The green dragon nodded and waved a hand toward the door he'd just exited. "He's in there. I will stick my head in when it is time for you to leave. Do not make me ask twice."
The young knight wasted no time thanking the physicker again. He pushed open the door and slipped inside, careful to be as quiet as possible. When he saw Moglan lying in a bed, surrounded by healing crystals dangling on chains from the ceiling, eyes closed and face as pale as the sheet that covered him, Taun's breath caught in his chest. The shaman, always so full of energy and good cheer that he seemed even larger than his immense body, now looked withered and wasted away. His eyes flickered when the door closed behind Taun, and he tried to force a smile onto his face.
