Wrath of the Dragon Czar: Aegis of Merlin Book 5

by James E. Wisher

  “Lead on,” Conryu said. He’d really hoped the rumor of an invasion would turn out to be nothing. He should have known better. The one rule of his life was that anything that could go wrong would.

  8

  A Bad Situation

  Xavier had his base – if you could call a sleeping bag, camp stove, and radio a base – in the half-finished fort. He led Conryu and the others there at the tip of Kai’s sword. Despite his repeated assurances she didn’t put the weapon away. While Conryu appreciated her concern, it was possible to take it too far.

  She backed off when Xavier sat down in front of the radio and switched it on. It crackled to life and he said, “This is Xavier making contact from Constanta. Lord Talon, are you there?”

  The silence dragged for half a minute when someone replied, “I hear you. Have the Imperials attempted to return?”

  “No, my lord. I have guests. Anya Kazakov and a friend. She says she knows you and has your gold cross to prove it. The girl wishes to see her mother who I gather is one of the new converts.”

  “I hadn’t thought to see her again so soon, but she’s certainly welcome. I can be there with her mother in an hour.”

  Conryu shook his head. “No need. If he provides a location, I can take us there in moments.”

  “Our guests request permission to come to you, my lord.”

  “That would be most convenient. We’re holed up in a small city seven hundred and fifty miles northwest of Constanta. Is that sufficient?”

  Xavier looked at Conryu who nodded.

  “That’s fine, my lord. I’ll send them on their way. Out.” Xavier switched off the radio. “May I be of any further assistance before you leave?”

  “No, thank you,” Conryu said. “You’re welcome to join us if you like.”

  “My assignment is here.” Xavier bowed to Anya. “I hope you find your mother well.”

  “Thank you.”

  Conryu led the group out of the fort. Kai finally put her sword away and vanished without a word. Xavier raised an eyebrow. “You keep interesting company.”

  Conryu grinned and thought of the Dark Lady and Cerberus. “You have no idea. Stay safe. Reveal the way through infinite darkness. Open the path. Hell Portal!”

  The disk opened and they stepped through.

  An instant later Conryu, Anya, and Prime emerged at the edge of a park with a dry fountain. The vampires he’d seen through his viewing window had vanished when they arrived. He frowned at the unfriendly greeting. They’d been invited after all.

  He shrugged and conjured a light. “They’re your friends. Maybe you should say something.”

  “Lord Talon?” Anya said. “Mom? Is anyone here?”

  A tall, pale figure detached himself from the darkness. He was dressed in an all-black suit and his eyes burned red in the dark. Conryu tensed, but Anya smiled.

  “Lord Talon. It’s good to see you again.” She showed him the cross around her neck. “I wore it like you said.”

  Finally the vampire smiled. “So you did. I apologize for the less-than-friendly welcome. We have to take precautions given our precarious position.”

  “I heard about the invasion,” Anya said. “That’s why I came. I wanted to make sure Mom was okay.”

  “She is. I sent word for her to join us. I’ve made every effort to keep the younger members of our family far from the enemy. While we wait perhaps you can introduce me to your companion.”

  Anya blushed. “I’m sorry. Lord Talon, this is Conryu Koda. He’s been generous enough to protect me from some of the Empire’s agents.”

  “The boy wizard. A pleasure, young man.” Lord Talon held out his hand and Conryu gave it a shake. “No hesitation about shaking hands with a vampire?”

  Conryu grinned. “No, sir. Some of my best friends are demons – the ill-mannered book floating at my shoulder, for example. Shaking hands with a vampire doesn’t even make my top five list of weird things. I must admit I’m surprised you’ve heard of me out here.”

  “We may be isolated, but some news still reaches us. I would have had to be living at the bottom of the deepest mine not to have heard of you.”

  Conryu grimaced. “Yeah. So what’s the deal with the Imperials?”

  Before Lord Talon could answer a sultry female voice said, “Kiska?”

  “Mom!” Anya looked around trying to spot her.

  A woman in black emerged from the darkness. She could have been Anya’s sister, same blond hair, same amazing figure. The only difference was the eyes. They were blood red.

  “Kiska?” No one else in the whole world called Anya that.

  “Mom?”

  A female vampire formed out of the darkness just like Lord Talon. It was her mother and at the same time it wasn’t. The fine wrinkles had vanished along with the hint of gray in her hair. She appeared to have reverse-aged twenty years.

  But the eyes were what really startled her. The burning, blood-red pits glowing in her mother’s youthful face hammered home that this was both her mother and not. Mom smiled, revealing her elongated eye teeth.

  “I’ve missed you so, kiska.”

  She opened her arms and Anya hugged her. The embrace grew tighter and tighter until Anya groaned. “Too tight. Can’t breathe.”

  “Sorry, sweetheart. I haven’t gotten full control over my powers yet. Lord Talon says it can take years.”

  “Decades in some cases.” Lord Talon joined them along with Conryu. “Sasha is a quick study. She can already dematerialize at will.”

  She seemed unimpressed with the compliment. Instead, her gaze was locked on Conryu. “Who is this handsome man?”

  “Conryu Koda, Mrs. Kazakov.” Conryu held out his hand.

  Her mother took a hold and seemed to make a conscious effort not to squeeze too tight. She also made no effort to let go. When Mom licked her lips in an entirely inappropriate way Anya said, “Conryu’s been helping me out as a bodyguard. He handled the transportation here too.”

  “How versatile. What else can he do?” Mom purred and moved closer to Conryu who did his best to keep the space between them.

  “Mom!” Anya’s cheeks burned. What in the world was wrong with her mother?

  She finally took her eyes off Conryu and pouted. “Don’t you want to share, kiska? It’s rude to keep such a lovely boy all to yourself.”

  “Oh my god, Mom.”

  Lord Talon swept in and separated Conryu and her mother. “Sasha, we talked about this. You need to control your urges.”

  “But he’s so yummy.” She licked her lips again and Conryu took a quick step back, his gaze darting all over the place in search of an escape route.

  Anya had never been so embarrassed in her life, yet she didn’t dare say much about it since she was the one that agreed to let her mother be transformed into what she was now. “What happened to you?”

  “Your mother is fine,” Lord Talon said. “Hypersexuality is a common side effect of the transformation. Her senses have been heightened and everything she experiences has more impact. In a year or two she’ll get used to it and return to normal, more or less. Why don’t you two go get reacquainted? I’ll keep Conryu company.”

  “That’s a great idea!” Conryu flicked his wrist and the glowing orb over his head flew to her. “There you go. You two have fun.”

  “Isn’t he cute?” Mom said.

  Anya grabbed her arm and dragged her what she hoped was a safe distance away. They found a park bench and sat.

  Now that they were alone Anya wasn’t sure what to say. Finally she blurted out, “I’m sorry. When I thought you were going to die, I couldn’t stand it. I accepted Lord Talon’s offer on your behalf. I know it wasn’t my place…”

  Her mother placed a finger over her lips. “It’s okay, Anya. I’m glad to still be alive, or at least reasonably alive. I would have made the same choice for another chance to see you. I don’t regret what happened and neither should you. Perhaps when you get older, you’ll join me. Assuming those basta
rds from the Empire don’t kill us all first.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “Bad enough. Not many have been destroyed, but that’s only because we spend so much time putting distance between us and the army every night then we sleep in the deepest niches of the earth, ones that can only be accessed by someone able to dematerialize. Even so, it’s only a matter of time before the witches figure out some way to find us and dig us out. Or just wait until the thirst drives us to the surface where they can kill us.”

  “If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it. I can shoot. I… I even killed a man in Paris.”

  Mom put an arm around her and pulled her close. “I love you, kiska.”

  “I love you too.” Why did it feel so much like a goodbye when she said it?

  It was with considerable relief that Conryu watched Anya and her mother move out into the night. He conjured a second light sphere so he wouldn’t be left in the dark. They’d probably be a while, so he looked around for somewhere to sit.

  “I hope Sasha wasn’t too hard on you,” Lord Talon said.

  “Nah, though it’s a good thing my girlfriend is half a world away otherwise she’d be strangling me right now.” Conryu settled on the edge of the fountain as his best option.

  Talon laughed, a surprisingly human sound. “You’re handling this better than most humans would. Anya, I can understand. She’s spent time with us before, but you treat chatting with me like it’s the most normal thing in the world.”

  “I’ve been marked by the Reaper, nearly killed by the Devil, stepped into a portal to the netherworld twice, and made more trips through Hell than I care to count. Hanging out with a vampire practically is normal for me.”

  “Pity more humans aren’t equally open-minded.” Talon settled in beside him. “Given our nature, we have limited contact with other nations and we only have good relations with Germany, since they’re on our western border.”

  “If you’re waiting for humans to make sense, it’s a good thing vampires live forever.”

  Talon tensed and a moment later another vampire solidified before them, a young-looking man with a gaunt build. “Lord Talon, some of the humans are under attack by the enemy army.”

  Talon bared his fangs. “Do they have the artifact?”

  “I didn’t see it, but I didn’t get close either. What should we do?”

  Talon leapt to his feet and paced. It seemed like an easy decision to Conryu, but then he wasn’t the one at risk of getting paralyzed and killed. Wait, the artifact posed no danger to him. Maybe he could help.

  “How many soldiers are we talking about?” Conryu asked.

  “Who are you?” The newcomer glared at him with glowing eyes.

  “Conryu is my guest,” Talon said. “You will address him with the proper respect, Horatio.”

  The vampire lowered his gaze. “My apologies. There are around three hundred soldiers with perhaps fifty families trapped. I saw no witches or dragon-bloods.”

  “Arrogant bastard!” Talon said. “Roman would never have dared send such a weak force before he gained his new weapon.”

  “Sounds like a trap,” Conryu said. “How much do you want to bet there’s a witch hiding in whatever elemental realm she’s aligned to, just waiting to spring out and paralyze any of you that shows up?”

  “That’s exactly the sort of thing Roman would try. If I send some of my people to help the humans, he kills vampires and if I don’t he kills the humans. Either way Roman wins.”

  “What’s going on?” Anya asked as she and her mother came to join the conversation. Sasha gave him one long look, but she seemed to have herself better under control now.

  “Another Imperial raid. We were discussing our options, but none of them are good.” Talon’s dejection came through loud and clear. Clearly being helpless wasn’t something the vampire was used to.

  “I can try to rescue them if you’d like,” Conryu said.

  Horatio barked a laugh. “What hope could a single human have?”

  Conryu grinned. “I know a few tricks. I don’t want to stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but innocent people getting killed sits poorly with me.”

  “With me as well,” Talon said. “Do what you can. Where are they, Horatio?”

  “An old church of St. Simon about four hundred miles west of here. The stone walls are slowing the attack since the Imperials didn’t bring heavy weapons.”

  “Definitely a trap.” Conryu got up. “Where should I send them? I can’t bring that many people through a Hell portal.”

  “Send them east,” Talon said. “Horatio will meet them two miles from the church and guide them somewhere safe – safer anyway.”

  Conryu nodded and gathered his will.

  “Wait!” Anya ran over and grabbed his arm. “You can’t fight that many soldiers on your own, you’ll be killed.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Don’t joke. This isn’t your fight and these aren’t your people. Why risk it?”

  All three vampires were staring at him now. Conryu grimaced a moment then decided the simplest explanation would be best. “I’m doing it for the same reason I agreed to help you and rescue Iliana: it’s the right thing.”

  He eased his arm free of her grasp and chanted, “Reveal the way through infinite darkness. Open the path. Hell Portal!”

  When the portal had closed behind them Prime asked, “Do you have a plan?”

  “Of course I have a plan, sort of. Can I cast a spell through a portal without actually leaving Hell?”

  “No, Master. Magic doesn’t work through portals that way.”

  “Naturally, that would’ve been too easy. Okay, Plan B. I appear behind the soldiers and cast Reaper’s Grasp. With my new power boost it should take out that many soldiers, right?”

  “It’ll be tricky,” Prime said. “You’ll need to cast it at full power, but diffuse the energy so no single soldier gets hit too hard, otherwise…”

  “Otherwise I’ll end up with a pile of corpses. Which would probably please the Reaper no end.”

  “Precisely.”

  Cerberus trotted up and gave a happy bark. His guardian demon seemed pleased by the extra time Conryu had been spending in Hell lately. He leapt onto the demon dog’s back and they were off.

  It didn’t take more than a few seconds to reach the proper location. Conryu opened a vision gate revealing a tumbled-down stone church getting pelted with bullets from three different positions, fortunately all on the same side of the church.

  He maneuvered around until he stood about a hundred yards away from the nearest position and generally in line with the other two. He took a deep, steadying breath and opened a portal.

  The moment he emerged he cast, “Fingers of the Reaper, black and twisted. Reach for my enemies and claw the life from them. Feed me their souls that I may be strong, Reaper’s Grasp!”

  Guided by his will, scores of dark spirits poured from Conryu and flew out into the gathered soldiers. He focused every bit of mental energy he could muster to command them not to kill anybody. The first one returned mere seconds later and filled him with energy. He’d cast quite a few powerful spells tonight and the recharge felt amazing.

  Conryu didn’t let the energy infusion distract him. He also didn’t let the screaming dissuade him. A few soldiers tried to shoot the bodiless spirits, but they might better have saved their bullets.

  Two minutes later all was silent. No witch appeared, whether because there wasn’t one watching or because she didn’t detect any vampires, he couldn’t say.

  The final spirit returning to him paused before Conryu. “Did you enjoy your feast?” the Reaper’s cold voice asked.

  “Not especially,” Conryu said. It was partly a lie, but he’d never admit to enjoying the sensation of stolen life energy entering his body. “Thanks for the power boost.”

  “One day, boy, your focus will slip, just a tiny bit, and I will have a feast of my own.” The spirit van
ished without delivering its load of energy.

  “Do you think that means I managed not to kill anyone?”

  “I believe it does, Master.”

  Thank goodness for small favors.

  Conryu watched the sun rise from five thousand feet in the air. After last night’s successful rescue, he’d earned the respect of Horatio and Talon. When he offered to help them with their Imperial problem, the vampire lord had been quick to accept.

  While the vampires slept, Conryu intended to take a quick look at the opposition. Anya had offered to join him, but she looked exhausted after the long night and besides he didn’t know how to carry someone with him when he flew yet. Conryu was still buzzed from the infusion of life energy, so he and Prime set out at first light.

  The army hadn’t been hard to find; it sprawled over the equivalent of four football fields. He didn’t see much activity considering the size of the force. Being on alert all night must have tired them out. Good for Conryu. He was way less likely to be noticed this way.

  “You’ll need more than a Reaper’s Grasp to deal with that many people,” Prime said.

  “No kidding.”

  Conryu cast the farseeing spell Terra had taught him and took a closer look. The tents looked to be in good shape. Small groups of men with rifles slung over their shoulders marched around the perimeter of the camp looking more bored than alert. No need to be too cautious when your main enemy slept all day.

  He shifted his gaze toward the center of the tents. Hello, what have we here? At his mental command the view zoomed in closer. A woman dressed in a fur-trimmed gray robe, wearing a mask that resembled a dog stalked along looking like she wanted to kill someone.

  What was a Le Fay Society member doing mixed up with an army? Were they allied or was she a mercenary? Or maybe she’d provided them with this new weapon. That struck him as very likely. Why the Society would provide the Dragon Czar with such a valuable item was something he very much wanted to know.