Ghostflame (The Dragon's Scion Book 2)

by Alex Raizman

  Theognis only had two hands. They couldn’t be in four places at once. His barriers caught the saw blade and the needle, but the electrified fork and razor-thin blade dug into his gut.

  Theognis’s body locked up in pain and shock as Bix leaned in close. “It’s means I’m gonna stab you lots.”

  Armin had just enough energy to raise his middle finger towards Theognis before he passed out.

  ***

  Haradeth had seen Armin’s snap undo the cage around Bix. You couldn’t let me go, Armin? Haradeth wondered. Letting Bix go was the correct tactical decision, but how had Armin known it?

  She was digging that saw into the side of an unlight cage when he walked up. Perhaps that was enough for Armin to draw the correct conclusion, or perhaps Lorathor had told him how dangerous Bix could be.

  It didn’t matter. Armin had made his choice, and Bix was now digging her weaponry into Theognis’ gullet. “You…what are you?” Theognis choked out.

  “Crazy,” Bix said, the moment before she headbutted Theognis. Haradeth could hear the crunch of bone. Theognis reeled back, out of the range of Bix’s weaponry. “Absolutely mad.”

  She dashed forward and Theognis’s whole body began to darken the air around it like an unlight beam. The wounds in his stomach sealed, and he leapt back from Bix’s attack. The movement sent his frail form into the air like a startled cat, and Theognis hit the ceiling above. His hands and feet stuck to the surface, and he snarled down at Bix.

  “You are nothing!” He screamed, flecks of spittle spraying from his lips. Bix didn’t respond to the taunt, instead placing her tail against the floor and pushing herself upwards. One by one her extra arms retracted into her body and added their length to her tail, pushing her higher into the air. A pair of daggers sprung into her outstretched hands.

  Theognis moved, skittering across the ceiling like some kind of spider, still surrounded by an aura of darkness. Bix whipped her hands and sent daggers flying towards Theognis. He took his hands off the ceiling and intercepted both of the blades, moving with inhuman speed.

  He’s so fast! Haradeth thought, grinding his teeth together. He felt so helpless, completely trapped and unable to do anything to influence the battle.

  “Psst. Haradeth.”

  Haradeth turned his head towards the sound and saw Lorathor. He’d survived the unlight wave and had sidled up to Haradeth’s unlight prison.

  Above them, Theognis was dropping towards the ground, and Bix was lunging after him, her tail retracting and forming the extra arms again. Theognis let out a blast of unlight, and Bix had to twist to avoid a direct hit. It still glanced off her chassis and sent her spinning to the side, cursing as she fell.

  “Help them,” Haradeth said towards Lorathor. “Shoot him, do something!”

  Lorathor held up his arcwand. “Arcell’s empty. Unless you can give me a weapon, there’s not much I can do.”

  Haradeth cast his eyes around the room. The woman who’d come with Armin was watching the fight with a concussed intensity, trying to follow what was happening. Ossman had passed out from his injuries. Synit was still nowhere to be seen. “Get her arcblade,” Haradeth said, pointing towards the woman.

  “Oh, yes. I’m sure I’ll fair much better in melee against a mad lumcaster coursing with dark energy than a skilled swordswoman. I might as well…” Lorathor trailed off and his strangely shaped pupils contracted at the sudden realization. “Actually, hold on.”

  “I’m sure not going anywhere,” Haradeth said as Lorathor began to creep forwards.

  His attention pulled back to the battle, Haradeth could see Bix was starting to struggle. Theognis was sending beams of unlight her direction in a steady barrage, and Bix had to keep twisting and flipping backwards to avoid taking a serious hit. Her eyes were as narrow as Haradeth had ever seen them, and if not for the extra four arms providing her multiple points of balance, she would have been cut down long ago. How long can she keep this up? Haradeth wondered. Then he noticed how Theognis’s knees were shaking. How long can he?

  “No. No, no no. Whatever you are, you die here!” Theognis screamed. He began to pull in more unlight, plunging himself into pure darkness.

  Beams of unlight streaked out of the shadow, moving in all directions. One scoured the ground just inches in front of Lorathor. One struck Haradeth’s cage, leaving it unfortunately unscarred.

  Another caught Bix on the arm that had the needle. It shattered under the impact, throwing Bix off balance and sending her tumbling to the floor.

  When the light returned to Theognis, his body had been warped by the unnatural energies coursing through him. He was covered with a patchy carapace that left huge swaths of his skin exposed, and that skin was raw and red, leaking a mixture of black and red fluids. One of his arms had become a massive claw like something found on some deep sea crustacean, and his left eye budged out of his head, huge and multisegmented.

  In fact, the rational part of Haradeth’s mind thought while the rest of his brain screamed in silent terror, he looks a bit like one of the Alohym…

  Theognis extended his claw and screamed, sending another beam of unlight towards Bix. She rolled along the floor, wrapping her three remaining arms and tail around her body to give her an almost spherical protection from the stone floor.

  Lorathor reached his destination and gently plucked the woman’s arcblade from her hands. She gave him a confused look. “‘S my sword,” she slurred.

  “I know. I’m only going to borrow it for a moment.”

  “‘Kay,” she said, squinting at Lorathor. “You’re a Ssslyvani?”

  “It’s the eyes. Always gives me away.”

  The woman considered that statement and nodded. That appeared to be a mistake, and she pitched forward and clutched her head in her hands.

  “Lorathor, stop bantering and do something!” Haradeth shouted in sheer frustration. Bix was still rolling from the continuous stream of unlight pouring from Theognis’ claws, and Theognis was continuing to mutate from extreme unlight exposure. Any moment now she was going to slow down too much, or he was going to jerk his hand fast enough and that would be the end of it.

  “Patience,” Lorathor said. He picked up the arcblade and flicked it on. He swung it experimentally, nodded, and turned it off. “This is a terrible idea,” Lorathor muttered.

  Synit climbed on top of the gold pile she’d fallen behind, finally regaining her senses. Her antenna twitched in agitation as she saw the tableau in front of her – Bix spinning around the room but unable to advance on Theognis, Theognis chasing her with an unlight beam, and Lorathor pulling the arccell from the blade’s hilt. “How can I help?” she shouted.

  “You!?” Theognis snarled, whipping his attention towards Synit. The unlight beam cut off, and he surged towards her. His legs were different sizes and the left one split into two legs at the knee, making the movement an awkward shuffle. “You. Are. Coming. With. Me.”

  “That helped,” Lorathor said, and he tossed the arccell towards Bix. “You know what to do!”

  Bix caught the cell and nodded, shoving it against the open wires on her severed arm. The arccell began to glow brighter, going from dull red to yellow to blinding white. She smiled and waited for cracks to begin to form along the edge of its casing.

  “Hey, ugly man, son of ugly!” Bix shouted.

  Theognis whipped his head towards her.

  Bix threw the arccell at Theognis, letting it clatter across the ground. Theognis eyes widened in horror, and he leapt towards the container, trying to get his protective hands around it. His movements were slow and uncoordinated. Lorathor threw the now powerless arcsword.

  It tumbled through the air, and just before Theognis reached the arccell, the sword did. It struck the casing and broke off a chunk with a clink.

  For a moment, the world went silent. Theognis stared at the overcharged cell, his eyes widening in horror.

  Then the cave erupted with light and deafening sound.

  Slowly,
Haradeth’s eyes cleared, and the ringing in his ears faded to a dull whine.

  The detonation had been bright and loud, but the destruction had been relatively contained. Where Theognis had stood was now a pool of molten gold streaked with charred, black bit that Haradeth tried not to think about too hard. Lorathor and Synit were both red on the side of their bodies that had faced the explosion, like they’d been in the sun too long. Bix was removing blast shields that had dropped down in front of her eyes.

  All of them were staring at the molten pool where Theognis had died. It had been such an abrupt end that Haradeth could barely believe it had worked. Part of him still expected Theognis to come dropping off the ceiling, or emerging from behind some other pile of treasure. He wasn’t alone with that. All four of them waited with bated breath.

  Finally, it became apparent that it wasn’t happening. Theognis was well and truly dead.

  Haradeth let out a ragged breath of relief. He held up his hand and pressed it against the unlight cage that still surrounded him. It felt as solid as it had before. “Can someone get me out of this Shadow-damned box?” Haradeth asked as the rest of the group began to relax.

  “Nope,” Bix said. “If it’s like a lumcast box, it’ll take a bit of time before it fades on its own. Probably a couple hours.” She walked over to Armin and nudged him with her foot. “Or sooner if he wakes up. He’s interesting. Think he’ll mind if I stab him?”

  “Yes, Bix, I think he will,” Haradeth said wearily, sinking to the floor. “Most people don’t like being stabbed.”

  “People used to like it when I stabbed them,” Bix said. She nudged Armin again. “Are you sure? I could probably get him up so he can let you out of the box. I didn’t like being on the box so I assume you don’t either. But maybe you do. I don’t know what kind of things you like.”

  “Most people don’t like being in boxes.” Lorathor said, walking over towards Synit and offering her a hand. “Although there are always exceptions.”

  Synit took his offered hand gratefully.

  “I really should stab her,” Bix said, pointing her finger towards Synit. She pointed towards Aldreda. “Or her, although I broke a bit so it’d be harder to stab her properly. But if I don’t stab that one, she’s probably going to die.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Haradeth said.

  “She has major subcranial trauma. Massive fluid buildup. If I don’t release it, she’s going to have a fatal aneurysm.” Bix gave Haradeth an inquisitive look. “She also can’t properly reason what’s going on, so she can’t really agree to be stabbed. Are you sure she doesn’t like being stabbed?”

  Haradeth gaped at her. “Light and shadow, Bix! If it’ll save her life, then yes, stab her!”

  “Yay!” Bix said, bounding across the distance to Aldreda. The woman’s head was starting to droop, and Bix grabbed her by the chin. “This part might get a bit gross.”

  Haradeth dutifully looked away, as did Lorathor. Synit didn’t, instead staring in what Haradeth thought might be horrified fascination. Lorathor started to go around, checking on Armin and Ossman. “They’re both alive,” he reported over the horribly suggestive sounds that were coming from where Bix was working on Aldreda. “Ossman’s going to be in a sling, and Armin…I don’t know what’s wrong with Armin.”

  “He pushed himself too hard,” Synit said. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Bix. “Whatever he was doing to Theognis’s lumcasting took a lot out of him.”

  “What was he doing?” Haradeth asked.

  Synit shrugged, wincing at the motion. “You’ll have to ask Armin. He’s the one who did it. Haven’t you seen him do that before?”

  Haradeth shook his head. “It was new to me.”

  “And me.”

  “Me too!” Bix said cheerfully. “All done over here.”

  Haradeth looked back. Bix had torn Aldreda’s sleeves from her tunic and fashioned them into headbands. Aldreda was laying down, her head carefully resting on a pile of gold.

  Synit spoke first. “Bix…why do you want to stab me?”

  “Because you’re weird and gross and kind of useless,” Bix said, her voice still full of cheer. “Although that whole ‘I am a living arcwand raaar’ thing was pretty neat. But I can’t fix you being weird and gross. I can fix you being kind of useless.”

  “How?” Synit asked, her voice sharp.

  “You’re in constant pain because you have two spines,” Bix said. “You don’t need two spines. No one needs two spines. Honestly it’s pretty greedy of you. And stupid, because it hurts you lots. So I’d stab you, I’d remove the fluid sack that’s keeping your spines apart, and I’d fuse them into one. You’ll be in a lot of pain for a very short time, but then you’d be in…” Bix’s eyes whirred. “Well, you’d still be in constant pain, because you’re very poorly made even for meat, but you’ll be in much less constant pain.”

  Everyone was staring at her. “Bix,” Haradeth said. “What did you say you did on the Sylvani home world?”

  “I stabbed people.” Bix shrugged. “I’m good at stabbing people.”

  “Were you a medical-”

  “Nope!” Bix said. “I told you, I’m very, very good at stabbing people. And you have really known how people are put together to figure out how to best take them apart. I probably am better than most medical Lattice Minds were.”

  “Do it,” Synit said, practically pleading. “Please.”

  “Woo!” Bix said. “I get to stab you. Haradeth, stay in the box. Not that you can get out. Lorathor, make sure he doesn’t get lonely or start leaking fluids or something. I’m going to stab.”

  Haradeth watched them walk off, his mouth hanging open, unable to form coherent words. “I think…” he finally said, licking his lips, “I think when we get back to the resistance, she’s going to be de’Monchy problem.”

  Lorathor laughed. “Please, Haradeth. You know damn well he’s going to put her under your care.”

  Haradeth groaned, then laughed. “I can’t believe we survived that.”

  Lorathor chuckled with him. “If we can survive what just happened…maybe there’s a hope in hell we’ll be able to win this war.”

  Haradeth stared ahead, thinking of the new possibilities offered by this treasure trove and by the portal stones and Bix’s strange Lattice Mind. “You know, Lorathor?” He finally said. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Chapter 50

  The distant droning was growing louder. Tythel was perched in a tree, high enough to see over the walls of Karjon’s valley. She squinted in the direction the sound was coming from. She could barely make out the shape against a cloud, a small cluster of black specs. Tythel leapt out of the tree and landed next to Eupheme and Tellias. “They’re almost here.”

  “How many?” Tellias asked anxiously.

  Tythel shrugged. “I can’t say for certain. At least one carrying a couple people, and two other shapes in the air. The other two are moving pretty fast.”

  “Skimmers?” Eupheme asked.

  “Most likely,” Tythel said.

  “Why not stay up there longer and make sure-” Tellias started to say, then he caught himself halfway through the question and shook his head. “You do that, and they’ll be able to see you.”

  Tythel nodded.

  “They’re going to go up the mountain first,” Eupheme said. “Looking for the entrance to the lair. Are you sure they won’t find it, Tythel?”

  Tythel nodded again, this time more definitively. “I melted it shut with a sunstone before I left. They’ll find a place where the rock was molten if they really look, and they might figure that was the entrance. Would their Umbrist be able to get in?”