by Scott King
"We will do it like before." Doug rose to his feet, using the wall for support. "I'll deal with Kane. You two secure an exit route."
"You can barely stand, and you are still loosing blood." Carter reached out to help Doug, but the former dragon pushed him away.
"I'm already healing thanks to the Arg'Natz. Give me another minute and... well, I won't be up to full strength, but I'll be able to throw a punch."
A yell, higher than any Alex had heard, erupted inside her mind. She covered her ears by instinct, but it did nothing to quell the scream.
Kane had grown two hands out of the side of her ollip's chest and was using them to rip the shell off one of the armored shoels. Like shedding a corn husk, the shell came off. Beneath it were dozens of nesting worms. They swarmed Kane, biting her hands, and crawling across her body.
Kane shrunk, drawing the shoel in, and then ejected sharpened quills that tore through the worms and caught the shelled shoel.
The mind yells increased ten fold, and Alex staggered to her knees. She didn't know how the others were bearing it. It was bad enough facing Kane, but to have to deal with the shoel made this a losing fight. There were too many sides. "That's it."
"What?" Doug let go of the wall, standing on his own.
"We are going to listen to some advice that Kane gave you. She said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"So you want us to work with her to stop the shoel?" Doug asked.
"No." Alex smiled. "Do the opposite."
Doug's eyes widened, and a grin stretched across his face. "I can work with that."
"Good." Alex handed Carter her sparker. "You can't fight worth crap without your magic. I'm going to drop the shambling Grekers. I need you to burn them. Got it?"
Carter shot a series of sparks into the air.
"Any questions?" She looked to them both. Neither protested. "Let's do this."
They formed a triangle formation with Doug as the point. The first shambler ignored Doug completely and dodged Alex's leg sweep. It grabbed for Carter, its circular mouth bending in the direction of his face.
Alex stomped the heel of her boot at the back of the shambler's knee. Bones popped. It tumbled over and continued to crawl, still trying to reach Carter. She kicked it in the side and felt ribs splinter. It didn't seem to register pain or notice.
Carter lit the thing's head on fire.
The mind-cries rang in her brain.
The other Greker shamblers turned to them. There were sixteen in all. With arms clawing at the air, they charged.
The first two ran past Doug and dove for Carter.
Alex kicked one, sending it flailing into the pit, while Carter dodged the other and lit it on fire.
"Doug, go!” Alex said. "They don't want you. They are after Carter."
"What did I do to them?" Carter drove his boot heel into the flaming shoel.
"You are the one lighting them on fire," Doug said. His color was back to normal, and the blood had stopped gushing from his finger nub.
"They know a real threat when they see it!" Carter let out a squeal as a shambler he hadn't seen grabbed him from behind.
"Real threat?" Doug ripped the worm out of the shambler's neck. The headless Greker body fell to the ground.
"You heard Alex.” Carter gave Doug a glaring stare. “Go get the Dragon Lotus."
Doug tossed the worm into the pit and leapt over the remaining shamblers, running toward Kane and the horde of armored shoels.
"Carter, back away from the pit and toward the cavern walls," Alex said. "Try to space out the shoel so I have enough time to deal with each individually."
He crept sideways, spreading the distance between the shamblers. It didn't work as well as Alex had hoped. The possessed Grekers hadn't all been in perfect shape. Some had wounds on their legs and were limping, others were missing arms. One didn't have a torso and moved by clawing its fingers in the dirt. Five were capable of running and proved it by charging Alex and Carter.
"Alex, they are coming!'
"Shhhhh." She was counting in her head. Timing their movements. She couldn't take out all five. Not at once, but she had to remember she wasn't fighting regular folk. These things kept coming, no matter what, but they weren't exactly fighting with swords or focus.
Gideon had taught her that there was a rhythm to fighting, an art to being on a battlefield. One had to listen to the music and adapt to its beats and flows. So she listened, taking in every sound, shuffle, and movement. She struck low at the first Greker, using her sword to slice the tendon on the back of its leg. On a human, there is too much muscle in this spot, but on a Greker she managed it easily.
For the second shambler, she wanted to take a stab at its neck, but its neck was gone, replace by a shoel. So instead, she grabbed it by the back of its arm and tugged it down, slamming it so that it landed on its back. She rolled out of the way of its teeth and brought her sword down where she thought the Greker's heart was. She struck rib and settled for leaving a gash along its chest, slowing it down enough so that Carter could finish it off.
He was on her heels lighting it on fire.
"Watch your back!" She sprung to her feet then kicked the third shoel. She reached Carter in time to swing him out of the way as the fourth and fifth were about to grab him.
"Thanks."
Across the way, she could see Doug. He held a segment of shell and was using it as a shield, still fighting his way to Kane. He seemed to be having as much trouble as they were.
"They want you." Alex directed her attention back to the three functioning Grekers. It was as if the longer the shoel controlled the bodies the more control they gained.
"It's 'cause I'm so sweet." He winked at her.
She laughed. Not because it was funny. It wasn't. She laughed because it was so awfully bad. The kind of bad joke that Gideon would have loved to hear. "We are fighting for our lives."
"They keep coming, and they keep coming for me."
Carter was right. They needed to change tactics. She needed to focus on crowd control and her sword wasn't good for that... but one of the Greker's spears would be perfect. She eyed the carnage across the cavern floor and spotted one. It was twice the height of a Greker and designed for thrusting. It would be perfect.
"Come on." Alex patted Carter on the back and then ran to circle around the pit in the other direction. The route brought them dangerously close to Doug and Kane's fight with the shelled shoel. Looking in its direction caused terror to reform in her gut. Not mere fear, but a physical repulsion.
Alex picked up a spear.
Bracing her feet, she took a strong stance and leveled the spear so that it pointed toward the closest Greker. She moved forward, thrusting the spear into the shambler's knee. It was meant to be a feint to get the shambler to react, but it didn't. It merely took the wound and continued moving toward Carter.
Alex lowered the point of the spear and swung it upward rotating her shoulders and allowing her hands to follow the movement. This left her shoulder exposed, but since the shamblers weren't after her, she felt it was worth the risk.
She struck the shambler in the groin and jerked the spear sideways so that the weapon ate into the shambler's inner thigh. She felt the tip hit bone then pulled back.
The shambler tipped over, and Carter lit it on fire.
The last two shamblers attacked together, and on instinct, Alex threw all of her weight into the thrust. She managed to drive the spear through the chest of the first and into the side of the second.
Alex drew her sword again and dismembered the first shambler's leg. Stuck together, both possessed Grekers toppled over and Carter subjected them to the wrath of his sparker.
"Let's finish this up." Carter pointed to the limping and crawling shamblers still trying to reach them. Methodically, one by one, they cleaned up, being careful not to miss any and making sure every shambler was burned to a crisp.
A chorus of screeches sounded from the other side of the pit.
<
br /> Kane was human but giant-sized again. At her feet, Doug stood on an armored shoel that had been deshelled. From the creature’s moist back, he drew out worms and threw them at Kane. The shapeshifter tried to block them, but they bit into her and held on. Already, there were too many for Alex to count.
"Nothing can stop me," Kane yelled. "Not even these things."
"Don't forget our bond, dear wife. I can tell when you are lying, and you are terrified."
Alex felt sympathy. Actual sympathy for Kane.
Kane was a monster. She deserved to die a thousand times. But Alex understood fear. Being on the other side of the pit, fifteen parses away, she still didn't feel safe and wanted to run.
Doug threw more and more of the shoel at Kane. For every one she blocked, two more attached themselves to her. Sheets of her black flesh billowed out, flowing into the mouths of the shoels. Her mass decreased.
"You will regret this," Kane said in a voice so low that Alex had to strain to hear.
"I regret nothing." Doug jammed his fist into Kane's chest. She gasped, closing her eyes.
She whispered something into Doug's ear.
Her chest opened, releasing Doug's arm. In his palm was the Dragon Lotus.
Kane's body ballooned outward, slamming Doug against the wall. Her thin flesh formed into ribbons, entangling any shoel not already feeding on her. They become a knot of shadow and horror, and it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next began.
Kane made a groaning sound.
The ball that was Kane's body rolled, slowly at first, but then it picked up speed, falling into the pit. She took all the shoel with her.
Alex gasped.
"Gorph," Carter said.
Doug, limping, stayed as far away from the pit as possible and followed the wall until he reached Cater and Alex's side.
"What did Kane whisper?" Alex asked.
"Nothing that matters," Doug said.
Feeling too tired and hurt to run, the companions fled the sunken chamber as fast as they could. When they exited the steeple, a light rain was falling across the island, stilling the last wisps of smoke and ash.
Only a few black clouds dotted the sky. Past the island's ridges, Alex could see specks of blue. The rain would pass, and after being trapped underground with the foul creatures, the water felt refreshing on her skin.
"We did it." Carter faced Doug. "I can't believe we did it. Can we see the Dragon Lotus?"
"Take it." Doug pushed the blossom into Alex's hands. "This is yours. Not mine."
The blossom was heavy, like a full grapefruit, and smelled of warm memories. The folds of the petals looped in on themselves as if forming an infinite pattern. Beads of water from the rain pooled in the folds of the blossom, and no matter which way the light caught the petals, they glistened as if caked in a thin layer of ice.
"We are stuck on an island, hundreds of leagues from Elene." Alex held out the blossom for Doug to take. "This does me no good. I think you have earned it."
"What about the dragons?" Doug asked. "How can we free them without the lotus?"
Alex plucked a single petal from the blossom. It came free with no resistance.
Carter gasped.
Doug snatched the blossom back as if he feared Alex would harm it further.
"The Sisters said all we need is a single petal to undo Medrayt's spell." Alex wrapped the petal in a strip of cloth and stored it in her belt pouch. "That means you have practically a whole blossom to chomp on. I don't know if it will fix you, but it's worth a try."
"That's crazy," Doug said.
"Eat. The. Gorphing. Flower!" Not waiting for Doug to protest again, Alex snatched the Dragon Lotus from Doug's palm and shoved it into his mouth.
Once it was in his mouth, Doug didn't resist. He chewed and swallowed. With a worried look, he glanced from Carter to Alex. "Is it working?"
"That was a waste." Carter threw his arms in the air. "Not only are we stuck here in the rain, but you force fed him our chance to stop the dragon army."
"We don't know that," Alex snapped.
"I know magic," Carter said. "Unless these are pure magic they won't have the power to do what we need. It's all over. And look, it didn't even work. He's still human."
"You don't feel any different at all?" Alex asked, hoping for anything.
"My stomach aches a bit, like I ate something bad." Doug shrugged. "I'm sorry, but I don't feel any different."
Alex had been so sure she was right. She had thought it out. The Sisters had set all of this in motion. They wouldn't let things move forward if there wasn't a solution. There had to be. Otherwise they would be meddling right now.
The breeze picked up, and the rain fell harder. Alex crossed her arms in front of her. Night was coming. The last thing she wanted was to be near the steeple when it got dark. She needed to be as far away from the shoel as possible.
Something snapped.
Doug hunched over, holding his gut. His face was scarlet, as if something were strangling him.
"Doug?" Carter said.
Doug twitched, and when he did, a gnarly mound of flesh poked through his back, ripping through his shirt. His body continued to bend and twist in unnatural ways. His arms popped and rotated out of their sockets, and his head went bald, not from his hair falling out, but from its becoming matted and sucked into his scalp.
Doug's human form wasn't breaking or mutating. It was shifting, differently from how Kane shifted, but still shifting. It took less than a minute, and when done, Alex found herself standing in front of a fat red dragon.
Like a dog trying to dry off, Doug shook and let out a long sigh. His wings flapped. "It's like coming home." Doug's voice reverberated several octaves deeper than Alex was used to hearing.
"It's been a while," Alex asked. "But you think you're up for flying?"
"I'm more ready than you know." Doug flapped his wings, holding them open. The wind struck him, billowing out the saggy bits. "It won't be quick. We will have to stop for breaks, and it will take four to six days."
"I'm fine with that," she said. "Carter?"
"I'm all for getting off this island and rushing to save the day."
"Hop on." Doug leaned down, or at least attempted to, his pudgy gut was so round that leaning down for him was like a regular dragon standing.
Alex grabbed a spike protruding from Doug's back and hoisted herself up. She then leaned down and offered Carter a hand. He climbed up in front of her, and they sat between the ridges above the middle of his back.
"You good?" Doug said.
"I think so," she said.
"We are going to have to do a test run." Doug stretched, arching his back. "Get to mainland and then stop. If I fly at full speed, you two might freeze to death. We will need to get you better clothes."
Doug leapt into the sky.
His wings moved in a rhythmic, controlled way, drumming the air.
Less than ten parses off the ground, the wind nipped at Alex, and she pressed into Carter, using him for warmth.
"We are flying!" Carter shook his hands cheering.
Alex thumped him on the side. "Hold on with both your hands."
"I'm not going to fall," Carter said.
The higher they went, the harder the rain felt. East, from where the winds blew, she saw clear skies. They would have to endure the rain for only a bit longer.
Doug rose out of the shadow of the ridgeline and into direct sunlight. The view was spectacular. Never in her life had Alex been so high in the air. And the way the sun sank into the sea on the horizon–
Doug's body snapped.
His wings retracted and were sucked into his shoulders. Between her thighs, Alex felt the scale ridges soften and shift from reptilian to a warm skin.
They fell.
The moment Doug dropped back into the shadows of the ridge, he changed back into a dragon.
Carter landed on Doug's back, but Alex didn't.
Doug caught her with his hind claws. Gl
iding toward the earth, he set her back on the ground and landed. "Sorry, I don't know what happened."
"I think it might be the consequences of not eating the whole blossom," Carter said. "Seems sunlight makes you human."
"That's stupid," Doug said.
"Any stupider than a flower turning you back into a dragon?" Carter asked. "This is magic that follows no rules I've seen."
"Let's try again," Doug said. "This time, I'll stay clear of sunlight."
43
War
Eldsday, 29th of Winewen, 1162.111
When Gideon heard the horns sound, he knew the dragons had been spotted. He arrived at the ramparts in time to see them make their approach.
The colors of their scales in the high sun and the way their bodies moved were beautiful. They were ancient and rare. Something he hadn't seen in a long time. They were also the enemy.
The first death was a green dragon with yellow coloring along its spine. It flew into the invisible barrier surrounding Elene. Its body made a thud as its neck snapped then it went limp.
Two more dragons crashed into the barrier before the rest managed to divert their path. They settled on the mountain peaks above the city and the plains to the east and west.
From there, the hours blurred. The dragons took turns rising into the sky, forming a single line, and blasting the barrier with fire. Their attacks were clunky at first, but after the initial attempts, their timing was perfect so that there was a constant stream of dragon fire. As the flames licked the barrier, it shimmered with pulses of amber light.
At noon on the third day of the siege, the dragons changed their pattern so that instead of one constant stream of fire eating at the barrier, there were three. It meant that the dragons had less downtime, but fatigue was still a long way off for them.
Gideon began to worry on the fifth day. He entered the chamber to check on Owen, and the mage was dripping with sweat, so much so that if he hadn't known better, he would have thought that the old man had just stepped out of a bath.
