by Aaron Crash
Liam sighed. “This is what troubles me, Steven. If Mathaal forgets who he is during the fight, he won’t be able to use HeartStrike on Rahaab. Or he might turn against us. Remember, he nearly destroyed me during our last fight.”
That had been at the Infinity Ranch in Cheyenne. Steven remembered that battle vividly.
Mathaal opened his purple eyes, and they were clear again. He coughed a bit. “My poor brother. He took my mind, but he couldn’t kill me. It saddens me that I will be able to slay him. So much bloodletting in this life. It’s sad. If only we could spend our time reading, eating, and making love.”
He didn’t even know he’d lost his wits. Steven knew that the attack on Rahaab was risky but what were their choices? And Mouse, he knew she wouldn’t just wait out the battle. She’d gone dark, and that meant one thing. She was racing toward Rahaab with the Slayer Blade. If they ended the ancient Alpheros first, Mouse might walk onto the battlefield after the fighting was done.
Mathaal told Steven more details about Rahaab’s Trinity of Wives, Bolour, Hwedo, and Shamhat, outlining their abilities. Old Matchstick also talked about the Forty-seven, the Templar Knights who formed Rahaab’s special strike team.
The ancient Alpheros also said something else. “If you ever clash with Rahaab, he will fight either as a dragon or a Homo Draconis. He loathes humans and rarely will take their shape.”
Aria returned with Uchiko and their recon team. Rahaab was sleeping on the ruins of Cassius Pine’s mansion in the forest. Hundreds of Dragonskins were camped around him, including the Forty-seven and the Trinity.
Sabina and Tessa had joined them to hear Aria’s report. Sabina spoke. “There are traps, landmines, and there will be a great fire. I see wasps, giant insects, and I see other creatures that Rahaab has created. We are outnumbered.”
Including Uchiko, they had twenty-three Onari Guard. Yet they also had Mathaal, who in his dragon form, could take out the hundred Dragonskins and the three wives all on his own. He’d done it before. Yet they needed him on point to kill Rahaab.
Steven frowned. This attack was a bad idea. If only he knew where Mouse was.
He got up and walked off into the forest alone to think. The night was warm. The pine trees, the sleeping greenery, all smelled good.
Uchiko emerged from the darkness, making Steven start. He almost cast a Magica Impetim spell. As a ninja, she could move silently without being seen. That just might give them the edge they needed.
Uchiko approached him and held his hand. He’d never been so close to her. And he’d never been alone with the tragic half-dragon ninja. “Steven, a word.”
“Yeah, Uchiko, what is it?”
She paused. Her serpent eye flashed in the moonlight. Yet when she turned, all he saw were the stars on her smooth human skin. “I…I’ve been in agony since you and your Escort cast the Magica Incanto spell that freed us. And yet that agony has been sweet. When I was caught in Rahaab’s spell, I’d forgotten about you, about my failures, and about how ugly I am. Now I remember. I feel this great passion for you, Steven. And yet, my appearance is hideous.”
He reached out and touched her cheek. “You aren’t. I feel the connection as well. When I saw you before, I was drawn to you. Even now, I want you.”
“No! It cannot be!” She shrank back, turning.
Steven wasn’t sure what to do. He let her be.
With her back to him, she calmed herself. “I cannot let myself be with you, not how I am. But I keep thinking, if Rahaab’s sorcery restored us, perhaps there is a way to reverse the rituals. Or to change us. I don’t know. I’m afraid to hope. Part of me just wants to forget. I was happy with my family, the Onari Guard, taking care of the old man on the ranch. It was simple. Now? Nothing is simple, and I am tortured.”
Steven moved over to her. Standing behind her, he took her human hand in his. He would’ve taken her claw, but she moved it away. She really couldn’t be with him. He was fine with how she looked, but she certainly wasn’t.
“First things first, Uchiko,” he said. “We might die tonight. And then it won’t matter. If we don’t, if we win, I will find a way for you to either complete the rituals or undo them. You’re right. Rahaab had the power, and he chose not to use it. Instead of helping you, he convinced the Dragonsoul Conclave to exile you. I think if you hadn’t been guarding Mathaal, he would’ve had you killed. He’s bad, Uchiko. He’s so bad his own brother is willing to kill him.”
Uchiko let go of his hand and walked away. She again showed him the human side of her face. “We’ll fight for you, Steven. You are our Prime. We talked among ourselves, now that we know who we are. There is no other Dragonsoul Prime we want to serve.” She half caught a sob. “You are probably the only Dragonlord that would have us at all.”
Steven thought that might be true. He was grateful for their help, no matter what they looked like, and no matter how much the other Dragonsouls saw them as failures.
An idea was forming in his head. He was thinking about one of his college classes, where they’d studied the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese had used a wide array of tactics against the U.S. In the end, Saigon fell.
Perhaps Steven could take a page out of history. If Sabina saw fire in her vision, Steven could give her a firestorm that would warm the world. And Liam could cast portal spells. That could really level the playing field if he used them right. Tessa said she wanted to try some Incanto magic she’d seen Gideon Scaramanga use during their battle with the Terror Trio and Rhaegen Mulk.
“Steven!” Tessa called out. “Come quick!”
Steven and Uchiko raced back to the campfire.
They found Mathaal with the book on his lap. On one of the encrypted pages, the lines came together to form a picture of Mouse, naked, on her knees, with her hands tied behind her back. Dragonskin Templars surrounded her. The Slayer Blade was stuck in the ground in front of her.
The sketch animated as a huge shape blocked out the tableau. Then a huge dragon face stared right at them, a silver dragon with a long beard. Rahaab.
The beast grinned, eyes shining with victory.
He’d captured Mouse.
۞۞۞
Rahaab’s Aerie was lit with strings of lights from tree to tree surrounding the house. He stood in the outdoor living room, the firepit burning, and turned into his partial form to slap Mouse again. He liked to watch her flesh break and bleed. “You thought you could come into my kingdom and kill me?”
“Yeah, it was one of my poorer life decisions.” She gave him a weary smile.
Rahaab knew she longed for death, but Rahaab would keep her alive for the moment, to use as bait. And as a distraction. The Drokharis child would want to rescue her. Of course he would. He probably found her roasted-almond stink attractive.
Mathaal wasn’t at his ranch, and the ninja bitch and her batch of failures had disappeared as well. Rahaab knew what was coming. Around him, his Dragonskins were awake, alert, because this early morning would see fire and bloodshed. His wives came forward, also as Homo Draconi.
Bolour, with her crystal scales, gleamed. Giving her a crystalline coating had been potent magic, as powerful as the spells he’d used to make Uchiko and Onari Guard human for the moment. Ha, that was gone, and that drain on him gone with it.
Hwedo’s scales were so dark purple, she seemed to be a walking shadow in the night.
But his most powerful and his most beloved wife was Shamhat, dark green and huge, as big as he was. Her eye was restored thanks to his ancient ability to unlock the vast potential hidden away in the Magica Cura spell.
Since Rahaab couldn’t find his enemies, not even with his most powerful divination charms, he sent his thoughts to his encrypted pages in the third volume of the Drokharis Grimoire. He sent a sketch because didn’t the monkeys chatter that a picture was worth a thousand words?
Rahaab stepped back and raised his serpentine face to the stars. A hundred thousand years of memories filled him. Half of them came from this little planet, lo
st and alone, circling, chasing a mediocre sun through the universe.
His brother Icharaam, slain. Mathaal’s decline and slide into madness. Rahaab should’ve killed him in the library pit on that far-flung island. But he’d stayed his hand. Out of pity? Or did a part of him like watching Mathaal suffer?
Or did he tremble at the idea of killing his brother? With Mathaal gone, there would be nothing on the planet that could kill him.
The Zothoric could, but he’d never give them the chance. During the time of Hammurabi, the demons had sent a scouting party to the blue-green gem. He’d ended them before they could send word back to their kind.
Rahaab had kept Mathaal alive so that if he grew too weary of life, his brother could kill him.
Did immortality frighten him? It did. Rahaab had never felt more tired. He was sick of breathing and thinking. Death would be the great abyss. And yet, if he died, what would happen to Earth? The Drokharis child would open doors into other worlds and the darkness would come. The shadows of teeth and talon would come and destroy the beautiful world that had been his home.
Rahaab couldn’t die, not yet, not until the last of the Drokharis was slain. No other bloodline could wield their same power. Were the Drokharis descendants of the Alpheros? Or had their power come from somewhere else? In the end, Rahaab didn’t know.
He stormed back to his captive and stuck his face into the Dragonsoul woman’s bloody visage. “Did you enjoy my kiss?”
She’d come traipsing into his Aerie, flirting with him, vowing she’d serve him forever and that she was happy to betray Steven because no way could her Prime face a true dragon descended from the stars. Rahaab had turned human. Though disgusted by her, he’d played along to see what her game was.
She’d kissed him, panting and sweating and stinking. She’d thought to seduce him. Instead, when he drew back, she used SerpentGrace to pluck the ancient Slayer Blade from its sheath. The blade turned when it hit his skin. A lesser weapon would’ve shattered completely.
Then her torture started.
Mouse’s little sword was stuck in the ground behind her. Rahaab had his own sword, Samael’s Lash, and it lay sheathed next to the firepit.
Mouse still wasn’t speaking.
Priest lunged forward and grabbed her hair. “Answer him! Did you like his kiss?”
Mouse laughed. “Oh, it was okay. For some old guy who smells like worm food. I was surprised he could get it up. Age doesn’t play fair where penises are concerned.”
“You will not speak to him like that!” Priest breathed fire, and the flames scorched her neck and shoulders, blistered her ear. Her hair caught fire, but Rahaab put it out with a swipe of his huge hand.
She let out a shriek. At first it sounded like it was full of pain and fear but then he realized it was laughter. “I’ve always found priests so hot! It’s something about the collar and all that yummy chastity.”
That struck Rahaab as funny. Nikki Angel had been as courageous and humorous as this monkey in front of him, yet she’d screamed in the end. Screamed with what he’d done to her and then was silent when he buried her.
Rahaab went to ask Mouse another question when an Inferno Exhalant exploded through the pines on the western side of the house. Arrows came raining down from the north.
The battle had begun. Rahaab wasn’t surprised. And he wasn’t afraid.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Steven and Sabina held back, standing in the pines on the north side of the ruined mansion. The Onari Guard next to him had hit the Dragonskin guards with a storm of arrows. Aria had started a forest fire to the west while Tessa and Liam were hitting the mansion from the south.
The scent of the smoke washed over Steven, and he could smell the hint of cinnamon in the air. That was from Aria. His own orange blossom and burning cedar smell mixed in with the scent of the incoming conflagration.
Cassius Pine’s house was a pile of sticks, but the outdoor living room remained, a fire burning in the fireplace there. Strings of lights filled the pine trees. The mansion had been built on a steep incline of a mountain surrounded by rocky outcroppings. The ground to the south was a bit more level. To the east was a field of boiling mud.
In the northern forest, Templar Knights drew back behind trees, but Uchiko’s archers were ruthless. Invisible in the dark night, their arrows found their mark, piercing throats and impaling hearts. Some of the Dragonskins cast shield spells, but those only protected against normal arrows. Tessa had enchanted other shafts, and those flashed pink through the force fields and into the guts of the creatures. If those failed, rose-tinged throwing stars found their mark.
Sabina’s eyes glowed next to Steven. “The Trinity will come next. Are you ready?”
“I am. Ready when you are.” Steven remembered what Mathaal had told him.
The crystal dragon, Bolour, swept in. Her scales were thicker than most, a gift from Rahaab centuries ago, ancient sorcery from either an artifact or a forgotten tome of magic. She let out a blast of electricity that cut through trees and sizzled across the dirt, throwing dust into the air.
The dark shapes of the Onari Guard were illuminated for a second. Shamhat flew in and cast Impetim missiles from her great scaled hands. Sabina caught them on her green force fields, and none of the ninjas were slain.
Bolour spun. Steven knew she was searching for the Magician who’d cast the shield spell.
Uchiko’s kusarigama shot out of the darkness and looped around the crystal dragon’s neck. She and three of her men used DragonStrength to bring the crystal dragon down. Behind them stood a crooked figure swathed in black robes. He didn’t attack. Not yet.
“Now!” Sabina called out. She’d seen what they needed to do using her amazing divination skills.
Steven, imbued with SerpentGrace, raced forward, going from human to dragon in seconds. He hit Bolour with ShadowStrength, pulling her strength into him even as he soared toward her.
And then, already faster and stronger than her, he added one final element to the attack.
Each of the talons on his hands gleamed with a white light brighter than the sun. The entire forest was lit up by the heat. IonClaws.
The crystal dragon’s eyes widened at the surprise attack.
Blurred with speed, muscles bulging, claws blinding, Steven slashed through Bolour’s throat, and blood sprayed the trees around them. He’d severed her main artery and nearly cut off her long serpentine head.
The world seemed to go quiet for a long moment.
Then she let out a long sigh. All that dead dragon meat struck the ground with a great thump.
The crystal dragon’s Animus supercharged Steven. These were great big ancient beasts, and they had the power of the ages in them. He shifted into his Homo Draconis form and hit the ground running. He sprinted back to Sabina. Uchiko unwound her chain-sickle from Bolour’s body and vanished with the Onari Guard into the night. The crooked figure in black robes followed them.
Shamhat howled. She hit the pine trees around her with her ChromaticFury breath, turning the wood to ash. The ground boiled from the power of the Exhalant. The ninjas, though, had disappeared into the shadows and smoke. The forest fire to the west blazed closer.
The northern pines were now full of the Dragonskins searching for the archers who’d harried them, which was just fine with Steven. Only two of the Trinity remained: Shamhat and Hwedo, who would want revenge for their fallen sister-wife.
Aria’s sleek form appeared in the eastern skies. She let out a spray of the Inferno Exhalant, making her a torch burning brightly in the night.
Shamhat and Hwedo raced toward her. Aria’s orders were to lead the two wives on a merry chase and not engage them.
Sabina and Steven sneaked through the pines. Around them, they heard the whispers of the ninjas. They crept across the pine needles, down the slope, until they turned west, coming in from the east through the forest. They’d have to be careful to avoid the field of bubbling mud. As well as other things Sabina saw usi
ng her gifts.
“Wasps,” she whispered. “Incoming. And bears.”
A great buzzing sound shattered the still. A hundred droning wasps, nearly invisible in the darkness, came zooming in. Their dangling legs looked razor-sharp. Their stingers were three inches of agony. They came in at Steven and Sabina. The wasps smacked into their shields, black and green, like mosquitoes into a windshield.
Steven turned into his True Form and breathed out a lake of fire. Furry segmented bodies went up in flames, smoking and falling to the dirt. Pine needles caught fire, and smoke filled the air. A dozen of the wasps were killed at once. Others slammed into Steven’s back, stingers stabbing through his scales.
He went rolling through the forest, smashing through pine trees, shedding the giant insect before they could do too much damage.
A thunderous roar rocked the world. From out of the darkness shambled three giant bears, full-grown male grizzlies, but these had been mutated by Rahaab’s magic. Each bear was at least twelve feet tall with a huge mouth full of fangs glowing with silver energy. Silver, Rahaab’s color. Their eyes glittered with the same color light. To make matters worse, each bear had an extra set of arms and claws sprouting from its abdomen. With six limbs, they came bounding toward Steven.
Onari Guard arrows pierced the attacking bears. Normal arrows slipped off their hides. The arrows that glowed pink hit home. However, that only seemed to add to the fury of the magical mutants.
Steven bit a wasp out of the air, grinding it between his teeth. It gave him a shot of Animus. He whacked a bear away with a shield, then spun and flicked his tail into another. The bear went rolling. The last one leapt onto Steven, its rear claws shredding his thighs. Its four other talons also worked him over, slashing into his scales.
Steven added a layer of protection by accessing his DarkArmor ability. That would keep him alive. He saw a tree on fire in front of him. He body-slammed the mutant grizzly into the flaming pine and then onto the dirt. Steven’s full body weight, along with the hard wood, made the bear roar. Add fire and it made the bear dead.
