Dare to Believe: Teen & Young Adult Epic Fantasy Bundle (Series Bundle Andy Smithson Bk 4, 5 & 6): Dragons, Serpents, Unicorns, Pegasus, Pixies, Trolls, Dwarfs, Knights and More!

by L. R. W. Lee

  Andy and Yara paused in the entry and when Alden reached them, they patted him on the back. “You okay?”

  Alden nodded, catching his breath.

  Zolt raced toward them down the hallway. Alden sprinted ahead with Hannah on his heels, meeting them head-on outside the kitchen. Seeing Marta huddled with several servants on the far side, Andy paused. But Ox was giving the adversary what for, sandwiching enemy heads between swiftly drawn metal pots.

  He’s got it under control.

  Sergeants Gavin, Hammond, Fulk, and Albin sprinted past, weapons drawn.

  “We need to find Father!”

  Mom and the captain jogged behind Andy and Yara. Hearing Andy’s imperative, she instructed, “You two head upstairs, we’ll look down here!”

  Andy raced up the grand staircase and emerged into the dining hall. A quick sweep of the space revealed chaos: Cadfael dueled three zolt simultaneously with Lucee doing her best to defend his back with a short sword. Weapons clanged as soldiers and cavalry fought an army of zolt. Majors Caden and Cahill paired up and fought at the far end of the hall.

  Where’d all these bird-guys come from? I’ve never seen so many.

  Andy and Yara bounded through the obstacle course of casualties, trying not to slip on the bodily fluids that colored the stone floor.

  More zolt than royal blue downed from the looks of things.

  Just before they reached the stairway leading to the upper floors, a figure in black robes appeared from the grand stairway where they had just been. Arms outstretched, the mage directed bolts of energy at skirmish after skirmish, upending combatants clad in royal blue. Viceroy Stoneshield flipped upside down a good five feet in the air and came crashing to the ground. Major Magnor suffered a similar fate.

  “No time to fight him, we’ve got to find Father!” Andy decreed, racing under the archway toward the stairs. A stone statue of Sir Gareth, nephew of King Arthur, stood in the alcove to the left of the stairs. Like so many others, the knight had first come to life just after Andy received Methuselah and the gold key. The chevalier saluted. “Fair thee well, Prince Andrew. May I lend assistance to your cause?”

  “Yes! Eradicate the enemy!”

  “It shall be done!” The knight bowed low then lumbered toward the chaos.

  “Thank you!” Andy called after him.

  “You can literally move mountains!” Yara exclaimed as they bounded up the first flight of curving stone steps.

  “He’ll be in the laboratory or his chambers if he’s up here.”

  Yara slowed as they approached two corpses on the stairs. “Wait! Andy!” She turned the first one over. The soldier’s weapon clattered down the stairs. “There are no marks on him. How do you suppose he died?”

  “I don’t know. Does it matter? Come on!”

  “No! Wait!” The princess inspected the other officer. “No wounds on this one either.”

  “Okay, and…?”

  “Soldiers don’t just drop dead. There’s not a mark on either of them.”

  “Look, I’m sorry they’re dead. I don’t know what happened to them, but we don’t have time.”

  “This is Abaddon’s work. I saw the same thing when he invaded our castle in Cromlech.” Yara’s comment brought Andy up short.

  “What’d he do?”

  “He drowned them. I watched from hiding…it was awful.”

  “But how?”

  “He’s a shapeshifter, right?”

  Andy nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen him switch between all sorts of forms.”

  “Have you seen him in his waterbender form?”

  Andy’s mind whirled. “I had a dream a couple years ago. Abaddon and Imogenia were talking upstairs in an old dilapidated house. In my dream Abaddon kept shifting forms—one of them looked like water in the form of a person. He stood and waved his arms about wildly then morphed into a herewolf.”

  “That sounds like it. Abaddon can drown people when he shifts into that shape. I think he’s up there.”

  Andy swallowed, looked up the stairs, and nodded.

  Halfway up the next flight three more casualties littered the stairway in similar condition. Andy and Yara locked eyes.

  They reached the landing. Private Boingderban dueled two zolt nearby, and Trevig, the burly man who had shown Andy how to chop firewood, battled another three at his back. Methuselah felled one adversary as Andy and Yara ran past.

  A trail of blood and bodies snaked down the hallway, and the pair leapt and zigzagged around the fallen. They approached Mermin’s library and darted inside, but a quick scan revealed no life. Dashing toward the laboratory, they dodged another duel between a servant and a feathered fiend, panting as they pushed open the heavy wooden door.

  Overturned tables, scattered papers, and broken beakers littered the large, stone-walled room.

  “Father, are you here?”

  “Is anyone here?” Yara echoed.

  The pair checked anywhere the King could have fallen, but their search turned up only a servant who would serve no more.

  “Let’s try upstairs in his chambers.”

  A trio of zolt spotted them and charged as they headed back past Mermin’s library. Andy and Yara snapped into ready positions and waited for their foe to reach them. Without much room to maneuver in the corridor, the fight quickly became a stalemate, blocking the pair’s quest.

  “I know it’s bad form to attack first, but…” Andy lunged at the middle zolt. The enemy proved faster than he expected and sidestepped, giving the bird-man to its right opportunity.

  Clang.

  Yara stepped forward, narrowly blocking the downward slice.

  Reacting from his off-balance position, Andy spotted an opening to attack the left zolt and slashed at the guy’s abdomen.

  Uhhhh… A dazed look overwhelmed the bird-man’s beady eyes. He grabbed at the wound as he fell to the floor and moved no more.

  Andy righted himself and blocked the middle enemy’s swipe at Yara’s exposed side. He stepped back quickly, drawing his opponent off balance, then rounded on the unsteady form, bringing Methuselah’s blade across the enemy’s back. His upswing caught Yara’s opponent in the side, ending that conflict as well.

  Yara and Andy exhaled.

  “I nearly had him.”

  “Sorry to ruin your fun, I just figured I had the opening…”

  Yara smiled. “Come on, let’s go find your father.”

  Private Boingderban helped staunch the bleeding from a nasty wound Trevig had received. “I’ve got him!” the private assured as the pair ran past.

  They passed five more bodies strewn across the stairs on their way up to the next floor. Like the others, these had no visible wounds. They headed left at the landing, ducking and bobbing through the combatants, then leapfrogged over more seemingly undamaged bodies.

  The living tidal wave Andy had witnessed in his dream filled the hall outside the King’s chambers—its head, curved and frothy white like the top of a cresting wave, reached nearly to the ceiling. Broad arms like waterfalls waved wildly around a body that reminded Andy of a waterspout he had studied in science class. Abaddon lurched toward them on legs resembling a pair of geysers.

  Andy brought a protective arm across Yara, halting them in their tracks. A sound like angry surf breaking against the shoreline filled the hall. Andy and Yara assumed ready positions, but before the waterbender moved, the life-size statue of Sir Lionel, animated by Andy’s presence, crashed through the surf from the far side and shattered into a thousand pieces. Andy took a swipe at his nemesis but Methuselah passed through the water without consequence.

  Andy had heard brooks babble before, but the voice gushing from Abaddon’s aquatic form was anything but soothing. “You see? You no longer affect me! Three times you bested me, but never again. Your blade and a unicorn horn gave life to the phoenix all those years ago. Since I blended with that phoenix in the pyre a dozen moons ago, the sword no longer has any sway over me!” Laughter like the sound of surf
receding back into the ocean filled their ears. “You shall become as this toy soldier.”

  Andy’s thoughts turned soggy.

  “Andy!” his inneru screamed into the raging storm his thoughts had become.

  “And now I shall cherish this moment when I, at last, exact my revenge.” Abaddon surged forward, catching Andy’s foot like a riptide.

  Yara held her ground but closed her eyes, focusing.

  The interruption distracted the waterbender and Andy scrambled up. He grabbed Yara’s hand and took off running.

  “Think you can escape me?” The fury of a tsunami chased after them. Foam quickly licked at Andy’s heels. It sucked him backward, and he watched in horror as he was pulled farther and farther from Yara who had stopped and again focused.

  Abaddon let go and Andy slid to a stop.

  “You shall not die so easily. No, you will beg me to kill you before I am done with you.”

  Andy tilted his head back to see his adversary’s face.

  “Yes, gaze upon me. You are lower than the worm who must look up at everything in its world. But unlike you, it knows its place. Kneel before me as your sovereign and you may persuade me to end your suffering quickly.”

  “You’re not my sovereign!”

  “Considering your father is now in my care, you’re wrong.”

  “You’re bluffing!”

  “Am I? Your father currently lays in a cell in the dungeons below. But you’ll not be so lucky to join him.” Abaddon hurled a water spout at Andy, making him flop like a fish out of water—the blast pummeled him, coming in unrelenting torrents. Andy thrashed about and struggled for air. Just when he thought he might pass out, his nemesis shut off the flow and Andy gasped hungrily.

  “Kneel before me!”

  “Never!”

  The waterbender readied another volley but halted, lifting his sights to Yara who stood a short distance away.

  Not wanting to give Abaddon any leverage by revealing how he felt about her, Andy bit his tongue and kept quiet.

  “Little princess, you are like a gnat, trying to plant suggestions in my mind. You have annoyed me enough.” Abaddon focused his gaze on her.

  As if in his warp state when everything around him slowed, Andy watched Yara drop her sword, grab her head in her hands, and fall to the floor writhing.

  Andy scrambled up. “No!” He grit his teeth and hurtled toward Yara with every ounce of strength he could muster, but Abaddon sucked him back.

  “So you care for her.” The waterbender threw a blast past Andy, snatched up the princess, and gave her a toss. Her body thudded against the cold stone.

  “Stop!” Andy tried to fight back tears, but they betrayed him.

  “More you say? By all means…”

  Yara again thudded to the unforgiving stone as Andy scuttled to reach her, only to be sucked back.

  “Kneel before me!”

  Tears streamed down Andy’s cheeks as he looked at Yara’s unmoving form, and his anger boiled over. “Never!”

  Abaddon’s tidal wave washed over him. He felt it pry open his mouth and assault his nose, ears, and eyes in an onslaught. But the water could not penetrate. Something blocked it. His world became a fog, then blackness swallowed him.

  Andy woke to distant sounds of conflict. He lay on his side staring at the stone wall of the corridor. He prayed it had all been a nightmare, but when he sat up, his eyes found Yara laying where Abaddon had last dropped her. Panic assaulted him. He fought to rise, then wobbled over.

  “Yara, are you okay?” No response.

  Andy’s legs gave out and he thudded to the floor. He placed a hand on her back, and nudged.

  “Yara?”

  He reached for her hand.

  “Yara…please…say something…”

  Her hand was cold.

  A tidal wave of primal emotion washed over him. “No!” The cry fused together terror, disbelief, and disorientation, giving voice to a pain so intense he would not have wished it even on his enemy.

  He shook her again. “This can’t be happening! Please tell me this isn’t happening.” A flood of tears welled up, burst the dam, and streamed down his cheeks as he shook her.

  “Wake up. Please, wake up.” He brushed strands of blonde hair away from her face as numbness washed over him.

  Slowly, he turned her over and pulled her close before dissolving into sobs.

  “Oh, Yara…” He buried his face in her shoulder.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Aray

  “Andy! Thank goodness, we finally found you,” Hans and Captain Baldric rushed toward him. Seeing Andy cradling Yara in his arms, they stopped short.

  “No! Oh no…” Hans’s face fell and his body slunk to the floor. He felt her neck for a pulse. Finding none, he slowly shook his head. He leaned over the princess—his princess—as a sob escaped.

  “What happened?” he quaked a second later.

  Andy opened his mouth but words refused to form.

  Hearing the clash of weapons growing near, the captain scouted both ways for enemy. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

  “We take the tunnels,” Andy asserted, fighting to break free from the fog that clouded his mind.

  Captain Baldric shot Andy a questioning look, but Hans’s nod reassured him.

  The healer ran a sleeve over his eyes, then cradled Yara’s body in his arms like a protective father. He rose and took a deep breath. Andy tucked Yara’s arms against Hans’s chest, then placed a hand to her knee, unwilling to let her go.

  “Which way?” the captain questioned, waving his sword.

  They entered the King’s chambers. The silken bedding that adorned Father’s bed lay shredded on the floor, its feather contents blanketing much of the room like winter snow. Papers from his overturned desk littered the space. Slices marred the wood and rich fabric on a pair of armchairs upended to the right of the bed.

  Had the situation been different, Andy might have mourned the devastation to this place that held cherished memories, but the fog he barely beat back kept him from lingering. The trio forged ahead to a tapestry that lined the far wall.

  The captain furrowed his brow as Andy pulled aside the cloth to reveal a foot-wide opening. “Hold this back, please.”

  Andy assisted Hans past the second hanging that lined the tunnel and they stepped into the darkness.

  “Wha…?” the officer stammered.

  “This system runs up and down the outer wall,” Andy explained as he extended and lit Methuselah’s blade.

  They wound their way down a flight of stairs, past the King’s laboratory, then down the next flight that passed by Razen’s office. They heard fighting echoing on the opposite side of the wall as they descended past the dining hall and down two more flights.

  Hans’s breathing grew labored and Captain Baldric took to glancing back at him every few seconds. The healer’s face hardened.

  Reaching the secret door leading to the servants’ quarters, they turned right and followed the curving passageway until they reached the end of the line. Stairs led up to the secret sliding door Andy and Alden had used to access the castle the last time Abaddon attempted to take over—as the boys returned from the Dragons’ Lair.

  “You okay, Hans?” Captain Baldric queried.

  Hans shifted Yara and nodded.

  Andy steadied the healer as they mounted the stairs, stopping on the landing. Andy located the trigger stone and depressed it. The captain surveyed the landscape as well as the sky above, finally waving them forward, his sword at the ready. Despite the dense fog, sounds of conflict echoed against the hard castle wall.

  “Which way?” the captain questioned.

  A broad-winged shadow passed between them and the sun, and a screech quickly followed. “I will protect you. The drawbridge is up, but others have gathered on the far bank, over the service bridge.” The words echoed in their minds.

  “Go left!” the officer declared.

  Locating the exterior ston
e, Andy kicked it and the exit sealed shut.

  The griffin’s form swooped and dove as it followed their path along the foot of the castle wall, eliminating five zolt that materialized as they neared the Cavalry Training Center.

  Mangled black-feathered corpses dotted the area along with many wearing royal blue uniforms. The stink of spilled blood and death comingled with smoke and dying embers. Andy’s lungs burned and his eyes stung.

  “We’re nearly there,” Captain Baldric coughed.

  Griffins patrolled the skies as they made their way across the service bridge. The sounds of weeping and mourning replaced those of conflict as they passed groups of castle servants huddled together on the grass in the lengthening shadows.

  With his hand still on Yara’s knee, Andy walked beside Hans in a daze.

  “Let’s lay her down here,” the captain instructed.

  Hans complied, resting Yara’s body on the grass. He and Andy collapsed alongside.

  Alden and Hannah rushed to meet them. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay,” Hannah gushed. “What’s wrong with Yara?”

  The captain shook his head.

  “What? No!” Hannah shrieked, throwing a hand over her mouth and falling beside her friend.

  Alden embraced Hannah, eliciting a whimper, then wept with her. Through it all, Andy ran a hand through Yara’s blonde locks. Hans stared blankly.

  “Andy! Majesty! Mermin! Where are you?” Mom’s call emanated across the open field.

  “My queen!” Captain Baldric waved his arms. “Andy’s over here.”

  Mom appeared next to the captain. “Majesty…” Before the man had time to explain, she had assessed the scene and recognition dawned.

  “Oh no… No… Oh, Andy…” Mom rushed to his side and engulfed him, loosing a waterfall of tears from both of them.

  “Cadfael! There she is! Oh, thank goodness.” Lucee scurried over but gasped as she took in the situation before reaching her daughter. She threw her arms around Hannah. Charis, Larissa, and Ro appeared, clinging to their father.

  “It was Abaddon.” Andy sat back and wiped tears. “Yara tried to save me by planting suggestions to distract him. But he attacked her mind. He killed her. It’s my fault she’s dead.”