by Mike Shelton
Roland gasped and then said, “Stay away from her. She is of no concern to you.”
Rodric laughed.
Suddenly, they were pulled into a room. Glancing around himself, Bakari realized that Darius and Mezar had not followed them. Then Bakari recognized that they were in a room in the Citadel. The window opposite himself showed that it was late in the evening, and two people sat on a couch in this well-decorated room.
“It’s Alli, Roland!” Bakari yelled out to his friend. “What is she doing there?”
Rodric turned to the Chameleon with a glare and said, “Yes, Son, what is she doing there? I thought you had things taken care of in Quentis.”
The Chameleon’s eyes opened wider, and he couldn’t find words quickly enough. So Rodric sent a wave of black power into the Chameleon, and he leaned over and screamed.
“Do not fail me again,” Rodric bellowed, “or your brothers will inherit without you.”
“It was the Followers of the Dragon, my lord,” the Chameleon said. “They freed her and the dragon rider boy.”
Rodric growled and turned back to the group around him.
Bakari rubbed his head. This place was confusing. It was as if he was now in three places at once. His body stood in the cavern with Danijela, his spirit was in the magic stream with those around him, but now, through tapping Alli’s aura, they were also in the Citadel.
“It is time,” Rodric said, repeating his words from earlier. He led his three sons into the next room, and Bakari and the others followed them.
Then Bakari stared down at a form on the bed in front of them and gasped. Turning to Roland, Bakari stated the obvious, “Roland, that’s you!”
“I will use Roland Tyre’s body!” Rodric yelled. “What would be better than a High Wizard of the Citadel to rule the lands?”
“Oh, no you don’t.” Roland turned quickly toward Rodric. “You’re not having my body. It’s way too good-looking for you.”
No one laughed.
“Alli, is there any change?” a young woman said from the other room.
Bakari whipped his head back around and took a few steps. “Kharlia!” he exclaimed. “What is she doing here?”
Danijela stepped up next to Bakari and nodded her head, as if she was understanding something that he was not. “An Elvyn healer,” she said. “Interesting.”
Bakari turned to Danijela and said, “She’s not Elvyn. She’s Kharlia, my…my…” He didn’t quite know how to characterize their relationship. “My good friend,” he finally said, though he knew it sounded lame.
“Bakari,” Roland sighed from behind him, “I don’t think women want to be referred to as just your friend. Girlfriend, sweetheart, or something more official would be the best.”
Bakari blushed.
Behind them, a swirl of black power began to build. Roland ran over and pushed the apparition of Rodric, but nothing happened. Not being in the physical world, they couldn’t actually touch each other.
Tendrils of black began to pour darkness into Roland’s body that was lying on the bed. Roland stepped forward and, with a flick of his wrist, brought forth a powerful white light. His light met the black power head-on, but the white light couldn’t penetrate it and eventually dissipated.
“I hope Jaimon finds Bakari soon,” Alli said in the other room.
Bakari kept moving his head back and forth, for it was hard to keep track of what was going on between the physical world and the magic stream.
“You said that the artifacts were the only way to defeat the Chameleon?” Kharlia asked Alli.
These words were heard by those in the magic stream. The Chameleon stepped away from Roland’s body and towards the two young women.
But Rodric pulled him back. “No, I need your power now,” he ordered. “Worry about killing them later.”
Both Bakari and Roland turned to Danijela.
“Our wizard magic can’t work against them,” Bakari said to his group. “We’ve seen it before. Their powers absorb our magic.”
“But the power of a dragon might work,” Danijela said. “Bakari, can you reach your dragon? You have to try again. It might be the only way.”
Bakari concentrated, trying to put more of his focus on being in the cave, back where Abylar was standing in the dark, underground cavern.
Abylar, come to me, Bakari ordered.
He felt the cavern floor rumbling around him and saw the lake churning again. Abylar stood taller and took a step forward.
Abylar, as your master, I order you to come to me now. Bakari reached into Abylar’s mind and dug deeper. He could feel the poisonous compulsions of Rodric’s powers there. But, with the old king’s attention elsewhere, Bakari was finally able to break through these.
With one last push of thought, Bakari directed Abylar out of the dark water and back onto the dry ground of the cavern floor. To Bakari’s surprise, the dragon brought his huge jaws down over Bakari’s wrists and bit the manacles off with one snap of his teeth.
I am the Dragon King!
Power raced through Bakari as the bond came back—this time, more powerful than ever. Abylar’s deep roar thundered through the cave, and colors of power swirled around him. Bakari felt alive once again. His hearing, sight, and other senses were all amplified.
So Bakari focused his attention on the others, moving through the magic stream and back into Roland’s room at the Citadel.
He brought his arm up, to confront Rodric with all the power coursing through him.
But Roland shouted, “No,” stopping Bakari just before he would have released his dragon powers.
“Too much of him has entered my body now,” Roland explained. “If you kill Rodric, you will kill me.”
“But, Roland…” Bakari begged. “We can’t allow him to take over your body.”
“I have an idea,” Roland said.
“Roland, you already hold too much power,” Danijela warned. “Be careful.”
“Aren’t I always careful?” Roland smirked.
“Roland, focus!” Bakari commanded.
Roland walked toward the other room and called forth, “Alli! Alli!”
Alli stood up from the couch and glanced around. “Kharlia, did you hear someone call me?”
“No.” Kharlia shook her head. “You’re tired, Alli. Get some sleep. I’ll watch over him. Anyway, Tam will be back shortly.”
“Alli!” Roland yelled again, putting more of his power into his voice. The others in the room cringed at its intensity. And Rodric’s sons faltered.
But Bakari noticed a euphoric look on Rodric’s face. Looking over at Roland’s body, he saw his body begin to twitch.
“Roland, whatever you are going to do, do it now!” Bakari yelled.
“Alli, please come to my room,” Roland said, trying to coax her.
Alli turned toward the room. “I need to check on Roland,” she told Kharlia.
Kharlia followed, then gasped. “Alli, look!”
When the two young women looked at Roland’s body, it began to twitch again.
“He’s alive!” Kharlia exclaimed.
Alli moved over to the bed and touched Roland’s cheek tenderly. She pulled back with a hiss. “It’s hot. Too hot!”
“I’ll get some water,” Kharlia said, and she ran out of the room.
Alli pulled back the blankets a bit and yelled out, “His arms are turning black—just like Lan’s did.”
Bakari turned to Roland and asked, “What are you doing?”
Roland gazed at him, with power in his eyes, but then a tear dropped out of the corner of his eye. “I was wrong. This is the only way, Bakari.”
“What is the only way? Roland, what is your plan?” Bakari asked.
But Roland turned back to Alli and said, “Take out your sword.”
Nothing happened.
So he yelled again, putting more power into his voice, “Alli, Take out your sword.”
Alli pulled her sword out from its scabbard as Kharlia came
back into the room.
“What are you doing, Alli?”
Alli turned to Kharlia. Tears filled Alli’s eyes as she said, “He’s here, Kharlia! He’s here. I can feel him and hear him. He needs me.”
“Why the sword, then?”
“I don’t know… I don’t know,” Alli began to cry.
Roland’s body convulsed and shook as Bakari watched the last of Rodric’s powers enter it. A look of glee spread across Rodric’s sons’ faces as Rodric’s apparition totally dissolved into Roland’s body.
“No, Roland!” Danijela screamed. “You can’t do this.”
Bakari fully put together what Roland intended. “Why, Roland?” He moved to stop his friend. “There must be another way.”
Before anyone could answer, Roland’s body sat up in the bed. He blinked a few times, then turned and stared hard at Alli. His eyes were black, and his smile looked wicked. Then he opened his mouth to say something.
Roland turned to Bakari and said, “Tell Alli that I loved her and that I don’t blame her.”
“Blame her for what?” Bakari asked.
“For this.” Roland said.
“No. Roland!” Danijela yelled out.
As Bakari watched, Roland’s spirit glowed with the brightness of thousands of wizards. Then Roland’s spirit broke the barrier between the magic stream and the Citadel, and he stood in the room with Alli and Kharlia.
“Kill me!” Roland’s spirit yelled out. “Alli, kill my body now!”
Alli peered up at Roland’s spirit then back to the body on the bed. Black tendrils crawled up his body’s arms and neck. The mouth opened, and a loud, evil laugh came forth. Alli looked at Roland’s apparition one last time, then brought the blade through the air.
“No, Alli. Don’t!” Kharlia had said, to try to stop her. But Alli’s instincts were legendary, and she had brought her sword up and back down in one swift stroke across Roland’s body.
“Nooooo!” An evil wail screamed out of Roland’s possessed body. The body thrashed around, then it stopped moving, and the black tendrils of darkness faded away into the air around them.
The three brothers in the magic stream glared at Roland’s spirit in horror.
“He entered me fully and became mortal. Now he is dead!” Roland’s spirit yelled out. Then he fell to the ground in the magic stream, power blinking out from him.
Bakari rushed over to his friend. “Roland, what have you done to yourself?”
Danijela was soon by Bakari’s side. “He sacrificed himself to rid the world of the evil king.”
“Why would he do that?” Bakari felt tears sting his eyes. “We could have found another way.” Turning to Roland he continued, “How will Alli feel? She killed you, Roland. You made her kill you!” Anger mixed with the tears, and he hit his friend on the shoulder—but of course in the magic stream his fist just slid through Roland’s spirit.
Roland opened his eyes weakly. “I did what I had to do, Bakari. It was the only way. Our magic wasn’t working, but a sword can kill just as easily as magic can—sometimes even more deftly.”
Bakari was briefly aware of Kharlia rushing to Alli’s side in the Citadel room.
“Move over, Alli,” Kharlia yelled as she jumped up on the bed to try and keep Roland’s body alive.
But Bakari knew it was too late. He had seen Rodric’s spirit fly away. He was dead. After one hundred and fifty years the evil king was finally dead, and the body of Bakari’s best friend had died with him.
“Now what will you do?” Bakari said to Roland’s spirit, though he was mad at his friend. “Your spirit is still here, in the magic stream. Are you going to roam the stream like he did, going more and more mad, until you try to return again?”
“I don’t know.” Roland smiled. “I don’t know. But please, Bakari, don’t hate me.”
Bakari didn’t know what he felt. He had never imagined Roland dying like this. He felt his own body fall to the ground in the cavern. Abylar curled up next to him and tried to comfort him.
“I don’t hate you, Roland,” Bakari said, feeling himself fading out from the magic stream. “You are my best friend. As pompous and bragging and arrogant as you were, I still knew there was good in you.”
“I finally did something for someone else, Bakari. You were right. I did have some good in me.”
Danijela and Roland began to fade away from the magic stream, and Bakari found himself, once again, in the cave, next to Abylar. Danijela sat next to them, once again in physical form.
“Thanks for believing in me,” Roland said from the magic stream. His voice sounded a soft echo off the walls of the cave.
Bakari turned to Danijela. Tears flowed freely from his eyes.
She reached over and held his hand. No words were said or needed.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Bakari lay down on the hard cavern floor for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts. Then the black water in front of them began to churn again. Bakari sat up, and Danijela flashed a mage light over the water.
In the deepest, darkest corners, a brief outline of three men stood above the black water.
One of them pointed a black finger directly at Bakari and said, “We are coming for you, Dragon King. First, though, we will destroy all you know and love.”
Bakari stood up and let out a loud wail. As he did so, he pulled the power of Abylar to him, and the wail turned into a roar. A dragon’s roar.
His best friend was dead because of these men. They would pay!
The three specters laughed and then disappeared. Bakari was about to scream after the three brothers again, but he was stopped by a flash of acknowledgement through the bond.
“They’re here!” Bakari yelled and began to run toward the cave entrance.
“Who’s here?” Danijela asked as she used her short legs to try and keep up with him.
Abylar roared from behind the two, and a stream of fire shot by them.
“Hey!” Danijela yelled. “Is your dragon trying to kill us?”
“No, he’s just excited to see his kin,” Bakari said.
“His kin?” Danijela asked and then followed up, a brief moment later, with, “You mean the other dragons are here?”
Soon the three of them came out of the cave’s entrance to view two dragons, circling in the air.
Jaimon waved down from his green dragon, Cholena. “Master! Glad we found you.”
Miriel flew down lower, and her scales reflected light from the afternoon sun. She roared, and Bakari waved at her. Then he noticed Breelyn’s absence and the black tips of Miriel’s wings. A hollow pit formed in Bakari’s stomach.
He gestured for Jaimon to land. Before Jaimon did, however, they heard another loud roar to the north. Stepping a few feet farther out, toward the ledge, Bakari shielded his eyes and looked north. Soaring down toward them was a bright red dragon.
Ryker dropped down lower, and Liam waved at Bakari and then at Danijela. “Auntie, how are you?”
Danijela was speechless.
“Surprised?” Liam asked.
Danijela shook her head. “I always knew you were destined for greatness.”
All three dragons landed, and the two riders jumped off. After a few hugs, Bakari filled them in on what had happened. Jaimon was shocked about Roland’s death but more concerned for Alli, as Jaimon knew Alli better.
Before the conversation went too much further, Jaimon brought out a small knapsack and opened it on the ground. He pulled out half a dozen small objects—figurines of dragons in various poses.
Bakari looked down at him. “What are these, Jaimon? Toys?”
“Oh. No, Bakari.” Jaimon smiled at him. “They are artifacts of power. A means of drawing more power from our dragons. Alli used one of them on the Chameleon. She almost had him, but then he got away.”
“Alli used them to pull dragons’ power?” Bakari was amazed. She wasn’t even a dragon rider. She was powerful indeed.
“The Followers of the Dragon
said these are for you,” Jaimon said. “With these, we can call forth the power of the dragons—and then give all our power to you—to get rid of the Chameleon and his brothers once and for all.”
“I’m in,” Liam offered.
Danijela turned to Liam and smiled. “Settle down, Liam. We don’t even know what we are dealing with here. I have shared a Cremelino’s power before, but a dragon’s…?”
“Well, Auntie Anwar,” Liam shot back, “I am bonded to both.”
Danijela’s eyes opened wide, and she turned to Bakari.
“I’m in too,” Jaimon said. “I saw Alli use the jade artifact. We can defeat them, Bakari. I know it.”
“And save Breelyn?” Bakari asked.
The Jaimon shook his head. “I don’t think so. I saw her. She’s leading an army into Alaris. She’s turned evil.”
Bakari hung his head low. One friend dead, another turned evil.
When will this end?
“It stops now!” he yelled out loud and stood up.
“But we don’t know where they are,” Jaimon said.
“I know where they are in the magic stream. That is where I will go.”
“But you need to rest, Bakari,” Danijela said. “You’ve been through a lot today.”
Bakari gritted his teeth together. He knew the High Wizard of Arc was right. “Are you always so pushy and matronly?” He grinned to take the edge off his question.
“Yes, she is,” Liam answered with a laugh.
Bakari closed his eyes to feel his bond with Abylar, letting his dragon’s powers and senses flow through himself. He thought about the best way to do this. They most likely would only have one chance. He thought about all he had been through to get to this point: the Orb, his dragon, the war in Alaris, his heritage in Mahli—
That is it! Mahli! My kingdom.
“We fly to Mahli,” Bakari said. “From there, we will use the dragons’ powers to destroy the Chameleon and his brothers.” Then Bakari turned to Danijela and asked, “Will you join us?”
Danijela thought for a moment. “I would love to ride on a dragon, Bakari, but this task is for the dragon riders. I need to return and discuss these things with Darius and Mezar and the others.”
