“Oh, Tiberan,” Eszhira said sadly.
“It’s better this way,” he said. “I will not intrude. I love her too much.”
She nodded and touched his face gently before he faded into invisibility. “I’m so sorry,” she said, and then turned to step out of the shadows.
“Aradma!” Kristafrost shouted. “Aradma! There’s not much time before nightfall! There will be too many of them!”
Aradma turned and saw the two women approaching. Her face lit up into a smile. “Kristafrost! What are you doing here?”
“The same thing you are, I’m sure,” Kristafrost said. “We’re trying to find the queen. She’s she source of it. But there’s more! I’m with—”
“Just me,” Eszhira broke in. “The two of us came because we thought Pavlin was the source. We took care of him, but now we—the two of us—we hunt the vampire queen. Just the two of us.”
Kristafrost gave Eszhira a quizzical look. Tiberan watched from the shadows, faded from view. He was happy the gnome didn’t question Eszhira’s words.
“Who are your friends?” Kristafrost asked.
Aradma introduced them all. The black man was the only one Tiberan recognized.
Kaldor. His Green Dragon memory could not forget. Graelyn had loved Archurion. The Green Dragon memories in him even held impressions of Kaldor the man, before he awakened to being Archurion.
It makes sense, he thought. She should love him.
He was happy for them both, despite his disappointment. His heart ached with the loss, but he understood. He did not begrudge her. Nine years had passed, and as far as she knew, he had died. He would remain dead. He knew that if he stepped forward and tried to be part of her life again, it would only cause her grief. He knew he would fight for her, and neither she nor Kaldor deserved his interference. Instead, he would disappear and make a life for himself. His heart would heal in time. All he had to do was wait here and remain hidden as this scene played out.
Kaldor walked over to the throne. He stared at it for a long moment. “So this is where he died,” he said. “Valkrage saved us all, though he drug us through hell to do it.”
“This is where Tiberan died,” Aradma said softly.
Kaldor put his arm around her waist and held her close. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I wish I could have met him.”
Eszhira stole a glance back to where Tiberan stood, but he kept hidden and she said nothing.
Kaldor held his hand out over the throne. “Valkrage’s magic lingers,” he said. “I can sense the time fluctuations.”
Tiberan held his breath, but the wizard said no more about it.
“One would expect so,” Kristafrost added. “He was Eldrikura, after all.”
Kaldor nodded. “Yes, he was.”
“The sun’s about to set,” the one called Arda said. “There’s not much time.”
Kaldor drew his wand. He pointed to the corners of the room, tracing golden sigils which expanded and faded. He pointed to the floor and walked around the throne in a large circle. The line glowed blue. “Gather inside,” he said. They all complied. The six of them stood in its center as light trickled up from the blue outline.
“Now,” the wizard said, “we wait.”
* * *
The sun went down. Aradma tensed. She was glad she wasn’t far enough along in her pregnancy that shapeshifting might hurt the baby.
“Sidhna!” Kaldor called out. “It is time to end this! It is I, Kaldor! I have come for you!”
Mists rose and poured through the balconies at either end of the hall, flying up through the air from the city streets below. The mist roiled up through the open doors and windows from inside the tower and flowed into the hall, descending upon the circle and stopping at its glowing blue barrier. Vampires took form, hundreds of them. The fog continued to swirl about the mass of undead’s feet, and Aradma knew there were hundreds more. Thousands.
“Sidhna!” Aradma now called. “You faced me at the top of Taer Iriliandrel. You know me. I am the Heart of the Dragon who stole your life! Come, let us end this!”
The red-haired elven woman stepped out of the fog. Unlike the other vampires pressing against the magical barrier’s edge, she was beautiful and young. “You did not make me what I am,” she laughed. “You only destroyed what I was.”
She placed her hand on Kaldor’s magical shield. The blue, hemispherical globe became visible when she touched it, lightning crackling over its barrier. The other vampires stepped away, but she tested it, pushing on its surface. The barrier shook and trembled but it held.
“What is your plan, Kaldor?” Sidhna asked. “You never were stupid. Has your hatred for me made you blind? This circle will not last the night.”
“Sidhna, I never hated you,” Kaldor said. “I loved you once. Then I pitied you. It was Graelyn’s failing, and not your own, that Aaron never received the power of Life. Graelyn abandoned you and made you what you were.”
“I pushed her away,” Sidhna sneered. “I didn’t want her in the end.”
Aradma shook her head. “It would have made no difference. If Graelyn wanted you, she could have consumed you, like Eldrikura did to Valkrage. Graelyn is dead now and can’t ask your forgiveness. But I can.”
Sidhna snarled, fangs extending. Her eyes flashed red. “I will feed you to my children.” She raised her arm and then slammed the flat of her hand against the magical barrier. It shuddered under the blow. She slammed again and the barrier held. A third time, and the blue energy shattered with the tinkling of glass.
Kaldor raised his wand.
“Ie’Hyoor.”
A starburst of light exploded from the wand’s tip. Aradma shut her eyes as its warmth radiated over her. The light spread into a golden ball of sunlight, extending ten miles in all directions. The intensity of the light sent tremblings of pleasure through her body, and she knew when she opened her eyes the hall would be filled with growing grass. She fell to her knees as the life-giving Light flowered through her.
Aradma felt Kaldor’s hand on her shoulder. The sun’s warmth was gone. She opened her eyes and stood. The hall was dark once more under the night sky. The mists and vampires had disintegrated, their ashes concealed on the floor beneath a thick field of grass and clover flowers.
Sidhna alone remained. She knelt on the floor, flesh smoldering. Smoke rose from her body, and her clothing had been burned away. She laughed.
“I am beyond your power now,” she said. “Malahkma protects me.”
She stood. As she rose, her skin crackled and peeled. She pulled it curiously away from her body, revealing a new skin beneath, covered in red snake scales. She stood naked in her serpentine body, red eyes flickering. Her red hair had burned to ash, and she slid the remnants of her scalp away, dropping the old skin to the floor. A thick mass of tiny serpents extended from her skull, writhing down over her naked shoulders and reptilian breasts. Her face still had the features and shape of the elven woman, only now it was red, with fine scales that glittered in her eyes’ crimson light.
“I will consume you,” she hissed.
Kaldor snapped his wand forward, and a thick stream of white fire shot forth. Sidhna leaped to the ceiling, clinging to it with unholy magic. The fire burned a clean hole in the wall behind where she had just stood.
Arda drew her pistols and opened fire, advancing on Sidhna’s position. The serpentine vampire slid and dodged, dropping back to the floor and rushing forward.
“Spread out,” Kaldor said. “Hit her with everything!”
Aradma shifted into the white leopard and faded from view. She fanned out, circling to flank the vampire.
Anuit transformed into something out of a nightmare. Aradma stopped for a moment, surprised at the woman’s rows of teeth and inky black skin. Anuit’s fingers stretched into talons, doubling in length. Her two demons appeared behind her, the imp and the succubus.
Aradma was now behind the vampire. She pounced, throwing her weight into Sidhna’s back, raking with her claws. She cl
amped her teeth down on the vampire’s neck, at the same time summoning Life in the floor beneath her.
Sidhna snapped around, breaking free of Aradma’s grasp. She threw Aradma to the floor, and then was gone. The sharp vines Aradma had summoned to impale the vampire now stabbed through her own body. She fell out of her leopard form, crying out as the wood tugged at the impaled flesh of her limbs. She concentrated and the vines receded. Thankfully, none had pierced her belly. Aradma tapped into the power of Life and Ahmbren’s healing light filled her, knitting flesh together. Sidhna was fast, but the druid wasn’t out of the fight.
* * *
Arda saw Aradma fall into the vines, but she had no time to go to her. Sidhna rushed forward. The paladin drew her sword and swung it in a deadly arc in one smooth motion. Sidhna caught it in her clawed hands, knocking it away. The vampire thrust her arm forward, but Arda spun, parrying the vampire’s claws with her sword. The paladin countered with another slice but Sidhna ducked underneath. The sidhe raked her claws across Arda’s belly, but the zorium covered pockets of armor-resin solidified against the impact, protecting her.
Sidhna looked surprised for a moment. Arda didn’t hesitate, reversing her sword stroke across Sidhna’s neck. The vampire’s new scales proved tough and Arda drew no blood.
Fuck!
Sidhna whirled and kicked, slamming her foot into the paladin’s stomach. The armor hardened again, but Arda flew back against the wall, knocking her head against its surface. She crumbled to the ground, blood trickling from her temple.
Aradma was there, channeling healing Life into the paladin. Arda joined her own Light to Aradma’s magic, and seconds later she stood, refreshed and ready to fight again.
* * *
Anuit saw Sidhna leap at Arda’s fallen body. She stepped through darkness and appeared in front of the vampire, catching her in her taloned hands and flinging her away. Sidhna landed on her feet and leaped, this time at Anuit.
Anuit touched the dead souls floating in the air around her. There were thousands of them, freshly dead, the remnants of the multitude of vampires killed by Kaldor’s sun spell. Their fresh soul matter burst with dark energy and Anuit drank it in. She opened her taloned hands and her hellhound-toothed jaws wide. Black energy erupted from her body, streaming into the red vampire. Sidhna fell back, sliding across the floor and slamming against the far wall.
* * *
Eszhira activated the fire on her blades. Kristafrost laid a hand on her wrist. The seelie looked down at the gnome.
Kristafrost shook her head. “We’re going to sit this one out. We’d only get in the way.”
Eszhira watched the fight for a moment and realized the gnome was right. “Become invisible,” she agreed. “If we see an opening, take it. Otherwise, stay out of the way.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Kristafrost replied as she placed her ring of invisibility on her finger.
* * *
Kaldor saw Anuit’s dark energy hurl Sidhna against the wall. He had underestimated the woman’s power. He hadn’t seen that much raw Dark in a sorcerer since Archurion had destroyed Artalon eleven thousand years prior. Her demons flanked the vampire, and she linked dark energy through her minions. Three streams of shadow held Sidhna in place.
The vampire queen pushed back. She stepped forward against the blast, slowly pushing through the dark energy. The negative force of the void could not absorb life force that didn’t live within the undead creature. Malahkma had been imprisoned in the void, bound in the Abyss by Athra. She had grown immune to its effects and conferred the same invulnerability on her champion. Against Sidhna, the bolts of dark energy were just pure force, and the vampire queen had physical strength in abundance.
Aradma stood beside Anuit. She raised her arms, and thick trunks of sharp wood grew and flew at the vampire. Wooden splinters shattered against the red-scaled skin, pushing her back against the wall. Again, Sidhna slowly pushed forward.
Arda joined them. She opened herself to the Light, forgoing her weapons. A soft beam of white descended from above, opening a bright pillar of holy luminescence on the vampire. Sidhna bent to the ground, falling to her knees, now under the full might of all three women’s power. Still, she was able to slowly rise again to her feet and step forward.
Kaldor raised his wand. Golden orbs of light appeared and orbited his target, floating around her. Beams of hot white fire with perfectly straight lines shot inside at the vampire in the center of the orbits.
Sidhna screamed. “You will not undo me! Malahkma is stronger than all of you.”
They kept up the barrage. The light of energy around the vampire expanded brightly until her screaming stopped.
One by one, they dropped their power. Sidhna’s body lay curled in a ball on the ground. Blood seeped from between her ruby scales, leaving smears on the ground and wall behind her. The building’s wall had warped under the assault, but the zorium infrastructure held true.
* * *
Tiberan watched the battle, and he realized there was nothing he could do to help even if he wanted to. Sidhna was a foe beyond his ability to openly confront. He saw the matrix of gold energy around her, and he knew a goddess lent her strength. Aradma had told him about the gold, webbed light she saw whenever divine magic happened in her presence. He had never been able to see it before, and wondered why he could now. He saw the same golden glow around the sorceress’s demons.
Their combined might finally brought the vampire queen to the ground. They dropped their powers, and he saw the enemy fallen, curled in a fetal position. Her scaled skin glistened with fresh red blood. He couldn’t tell if she was alive; he could sense no life force in her anyway, and she did not appear to breathe. He didn’t know if vampires breathed or not.
Then she slowly straightened and rose. She looked weakened, but they had thrown everything they had at her. They didn’t seem any closer to victory than before.
Sidhna looked at Aradma.
“You have won this night. I concede Artalon to you. But I will hunt you. I have time. My lord has already destroyed your sovereign borders. My home soil now permeates your land. I will go and wreak my vengeance upon you, starting with your child.”
Sidhna dissolved into a red mist and flew away into the dark sky, darting north.
“No!” Aradma shouted. “Fernwalker!” She started running towards the balcony.
“Wait!” Kaldor shouted. “You can’t beat her on your own!”
Aradma stopped and whirled to face him. “She wields the power of the Kairantheum!” Aradma exclaimed. “We cannot beat her without Artalon, and we’ve no idea how to unlock its secrets. Our only other option is to use the Kairantheum against her.”
“What are you saying?” Kaldor asked.
“I’m going to fight a goddess with a goddess.” Aradma leaped off the balcony and shifted into the white falcon, giving chase to the column of red mist.
“No!” Kaldor shouted. “There is too much at stake!”
But she was gone.
The wizard ran to the carpet. As soon as he stepped on it, it sailed up into the air after her, flying just as fast.
Anuit released her demons, and her features lost their demonic visage, returning to human appearance. “What now?” she asked Arda.
“We’re stuck,” the paladin replied. “But Artalon is ours. We should try to unlock its secrets.”
“Can we find a safe place to sleep first?” Anuit asked.
“I don’t feel much like sleeping,” Arda commented.
“Neither do I,” Anuit admitted.
Kristafrost and Eszhira reappeared. “We’ll help,” Kristafrost said. “I’ll send word to Cloudmoore that Artalon is empty and ready for our return. It’s time we gnomes reclaim what we built.”
Tiberan slipped away. Aradma’s fate was out of his hands.
38 - Into the Abyss
Aradma flew as fast as her wings would carry her.
The Faerie’s Breath.
They had bought so muc
h of it. The gypsies brought it in potted soil, spreading it throughout their land. There must be pockets now where Sidhna could safely sleep. The magic of their sovereign borders had dissolved. At least it was Roenti soil and not Astian. The Covenant would still be contained, and most of the Roenti hungerbound were dead or dying. But none of that mattered. Sidhna flew north.
Aradma’s wings grew tired. She had never before flown this swiftly, and knew she couldn’t maintain the pace. She channeled Life, healing her muscles and replenishing her energy as she flew. She would squeeze every bit of strength she could out of her power to keep moving. She needed to be faster than the red mist. She needed to get to Windbowl before Sidhna.
She flew for hours. It was just over a thousand miles between Artalon and Windbowl. She knew Kaldor was behind her but not how far. She couldn’t afford to look back, and as much as she loved the man, she wasn’t going to let him stop her. She would offer the world to another ten thousand years under the gods if that was the price needed to save her daughter’s life.
She descended into Windbowl and tumbled to her knees at the front door to her house. With effort, she pulled plant life from the ground to form her clothing. She breathed heavily, fire burning in her lungs. Blood rushed through her temples and her skull ached. She pushed the door open.
Oriand stood there, most likely having stirred at the sound of her noisy entry.
“Aradma!” she said. “What—”
“Fernwalker!” Aradma gasped. “Where is my daughter?”
“She’s asleep—”
Aradma rushed past her and found her child nestled in her bed.
No time.
She lifted Fernwalker in her arms.
“Mom?” the girl asked groggily as she rubbed her eyes awake.
Aradma headed for the cellar stairs.
“Aradma!” Oriand stood in her way. “You know I can’t let you down there.”
Aradma shook her head. “There’s no time. Step aside.”
When Dragons Die- The Complete Trilogy Box Set Page 81
