Zyla cried out and I spun toward her in alarm. Her polearm slashed at Eventen. His look of shock sent a stab of smugness through me. See? Not everyone likes your smarmy charm, Eventen.
A fist hit me in the jaw while I was distracted, and I stumbled, hands coming up to guard against the pain as I fell to one knee.
“I can’t let you stop the leak of souls, Legend. Not now,” Katlana said. “I gave my own brother to the Dusk Covenant. I will give you, too. I’ll give everything if that’s what it takes. Do you know why?”
“Because you’re pure evil in a cool leather suit?” I asked, leaping to my feet again. In a second, a knife was in my hand, but I didn’t want to hurt Katlana – definitely didn’t want to kill her.
“Why not?” my mimic asked, appearing behind Katlana. “Kill her!”
There was a dragon scream from the balcony and then the hall was lit orange with flame.
“Don’t hesitate!” The mimic grabbed Katlana from behind, pulling her backward.
She stumbled to the side, nearly crashing into Zyla and Eventen, clawing at her neck as she fell against the wall. How did he do that? He should just slip through the living!
“I told you that killing Shabren’s shadow had a strange effect on me!”
I kicked out, clipping Eventen in the knee just long enough for Zyla to run past him, through the balcony and leap up onto the rail. My heart stuttered in my chest. Zyla!
Saboraak! I yelled mentally. Come quick!
I’m here!
There was another burst of fire, Eventen cursed again, and then he spun around and half-ran, half-limped after Zyla.
A blow from behind hit me across the shoulders. Katlana had recovered. She held the fire stick, but there was something wrong with it. When she pointed it directly at me, no fire came.
This was my chance!
I darted forward, shoving her hard so that she slammed against the wall. She struck out with the rod, but while it cracked painfully against my arm, there was still no magic fire. I grabbed it, ripping it from her hand as she squirmed and flung it away.
Caught her! Saboraak yelled. Hurry!
Katlana yanked her helmet off and whipped it at me with both hands. I ducked under the flying metal ball and then slammed my shoulder into her belly. The sound of air whuffing from her lungs filled my ears. I didn’t dare stop. I kept the pressure up, pushing with all my might. Give this woman an inch and she’d kill you!
“And now you kill her!” my mimic urged. “Come on!”
I could end this now.
I put my knife to her throat. I could feel her breath growing shallow under my shoulder. Her nose was inches from mine, anger and fear warring in her eyes.
She was the enemy. She’d destroyed this city. By her own words, she’d destroyed her brother. The world would be a better place without her.
My heart pounded in my ears, spikes of emotion flooding through me from head to hand and back again. Anger. Fear. Certainty.
“Do it!” the mimic yelled. “Be a man.”
I could do it. I could kill her and that would be one less person trying to kill me.
My hand shook. I’d never killed. Not like this. People had died around me by accident or because I was faster than they were, but I hadn’t directly caused it. And this was a woman. An angry, evil woman, but still a woman.
“Kill!”
I wanted to. I wanted it so badly.
With all the strength of my will, I mentally shoved the mimic away.
I would not kill.
Not today.
Surprisingly, the mimic stayed gone.
I spun Katlana around so quickly that she gasped. Pressing her face to the wall, I yanked the cloth from my forehead and wrapped it tightly around her wrists, binding them with fast, firm knots.
“I hope you aren’t afraid of heights,” I said through clenched teeth.
This was better. Better than killing her. Better than having her blood on my hands.
I was surprised that Eventen hadn’t hit me from behind yet. I’d have a harder time not killing him if it came down to it.
Katlana hissed something that I didn’t hear, but there wasn’t time for that. I lifted her up onto my shoulder.
“Kick and I’ll drop you,” I warned.
And then I was stumbling to the balcony. It was empty. Eventen and his Gold dragon must have flown away. I climbed up on the rail overlooking the city below.
When I gasped, it wasn’t from the height.
Chapter Sixteen
DARK SHADOWS AND WHITE moonlight flooded Woelran City. Not an orange light lit the city. Not the flickering light of a candle. Not the glare of a torch. No reddish flames of an open fire. Not a trail of smoke rose to the sky above.
I shivered.
But below the city, the ground seemed to creep as if the very earth had come alive and was marching.
Skies and Stars!
I barely bit off a cry – whether of terror or horror, I didn’t know.
Katlana kicked at me and I hit her leg with my palm.
“Settle down or I’ll toss you over,” I threatened but I knew the threat was weak. If I couldn’t kill her before, I couldn’t kill her now, either.
A sudden burst of gold lit the air under us, and I leaned over the balcony, almost losing hold of Katlana in my surprise.
Saboraak burst upward, Zyla on her back. Behind her, flames followed, bursting from the throat of the Gold dragon. But they weren’t the only shapes hurtling through the air beneath us.
Nostar rode his Green dragon with an air of excitement, swinging wildly from side to side in his saddle as his dragon ducked and rolled between the shining dark bodies of flying golems.
A formation of four Greens surrounded a second golem, while the fifth ripped the rider from its back and soared away.
Flying golems! Here?
There aren’t many. Just enough to give us trouble with this Gold dragon leading them.
Leading them?
They’re following his lead. If that isn’t leading, then what is?
My arms were shaking as I watched Nostar join the Greens. They wheeled in formation toward Saboraak. She was outnumbered!
They’re on our side! Was I ever surprised when it turned out they were the only living dragons in the cotes! The rest ... the rest are ...
Shadows?
Yes!
Like my mimic, perhaps. But how could that happen to a whole city?
The Magikas took this city months ago. I don’t know when they did this, though. Nostar didn’t know. He just arrived here last week, and he spent most of his time in the woods.
She arched gracefully around and Zyla stood in her stirrups whooping and slashing with her polearm as they came around, streaking over the Gold’s head.
The Greens were right on his tail, herding him away.
Get ready!
I braced myself. She was going to swing in close to the balcony. Her body grew larger and larger in my view and then when her wing almost hit me, I leapt, landing in the saddle behind Zyla awkwardly, nearly dropping Katlana. She cursed loudly and I dropped her from my shoulder to lay over the saddle – just like I had been positioned when Shabren captured me and flew off.
There was a roar from beneath us and a dark swell puffed up from the city. Tachril burst past us, Nostar on his back. Nostar was yelling as hard as he could and signing wildly.
“Flee! Flee now!”
He sped up, the formation of Greens hot on his heels.
“Can you fly that fast with three on your back?” I asked Saboraak aloud.
Long enough to get out of the city!
She sped forward, joining the formation of Greens and I looked behind me. I couldn’t see the Gold dragon. Perhaps the Greens had defeated him.
He’s still out there.
Perhaps he was hiding.
He’s strange. He doesn’t think right.
Like, rabid?
Maybe. I don’t know.
Were we going
to be fast enough to escape the flying golems?
How many can there be?
There was a sound in the air that hadn’t registered until just now. A buzzing sound. I looked down. I couldn’t tell which of the dark shapes crawling over the buildings and the ground below were flying golems and which were crawling golems like the wolf golem, but I knew one thing – the city was completely overrun with them. They spilled out on the ground and across the countryside and it was going to take all of Saboraak’s strength and all of our nerve to get away from them.
And I had their queen.
I looked down at Katlana’s back. What was I going to do with her?
I’m proud of you. Saboraak said.
For not knowing what to do?
No, silly. For not just killing her. For fighting down your shadow self and being ... Tor. The guy who makes threats he doesn’t keep because he has a soft, gentle core.
I wasn’t gentle.
The guy who protects the weak, who defends those in need and who’d never kick an enemy when they were down.
Who said I wouldn’t kick them? If Katlana had been Eventen...
For being a hero all over again.
I was no one’s hero.
You’re my hero, Saboraak said.
“Where do we go now?” I asked aloud.
“We can try for Estabis to the southeast,” Zyla said, her curls bobbing in the wind and that polearm stuck out like she was ready to fight every golem from here to Estabis.
“You’re my hero, Zyla,” I said tiredly.
“I told you this place reminded me of ghosts.”
“I already told you that you’re smart. Don’t make me admit it again.”
She laughed as we flew through the night by the light of the moon with a thousand buzzing golems chasing after us.
Read more of Tor and Saboraak’s story in:
Dragon Chameleon: Episodes 9-12
To the intrepid reader:
DEAR READER,
You’ve made it this far in your journey with me and my stories. Thank you for caring about stories and the characters that leap from the page.
They say that real book lovers just can’t say goodbye to the stories they love, and I’m sure that’s true for you, too. I’d like to invite you to download another story in the Dragon School and Dragon Chameleon world. By downloading it, you’ll be added to my newsletter, so you won’t have to take any extra steps to be alerted to new releases.
You can find the link to the story on my website at www.sarahklwilson.com.
I am – wholeheartedly – yours in fiction,
Sarah
Behind the Scenes:
USA TODAY BESTSELLING author, Sarah K. L. Wilson loves spinning a yarn and if it paints a magical new world, twists something old into something reborn, or makes your heart pound with excitement ... all the better! Sarah hails from the rocky Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario -
learning patience and tenacity from the long months of icy cold - where she lives with her husband and two small boys. You might find her building fires in her woodstove and wishing she had a dragon handy to light them for her
Sarah would like to thank Harold Trammel and Eugenia Kollia for their incredible work in beta reading and proofreading this book. Without their big hearts and passion for stories, this book would not be the same.
www.sarahklwilson.com
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