Seventh Talon_Dragonrider's Fury

by James Patton

  Vasia was still casting, but Malinite bit down on her arm. Boh noticed for the first time that it was the only intact talon. All the others had fingers missing or were broken or mangled in such a way that they’d never cast a spell.

  The ground was coming up, and that left her with time for one more attack. Boh drove the knife into Vasia’s back once more and left another gouge several feet long.

  Vasia was laughing. “Take all my blood, you foolish elf. Drown in every last bit of it. Bleeding me won’t change the outcome. My wounds heal faster than you are making them. Get it through your fragile little skull— you are weak.”

  The dragon was right; her first cut had almost healed over. And for the first time, she felt doubt creeping in. “If I must, I will cut you a billion times over. I will take every bit of flesh and blood from your bones.” Boh growled and stabbed the queen again and again.

  “BOH! Disengage.” Malinite roared, and she listened, feeling the warning more than seeing it. Her shield threw her high up in the air, and then the two dragons struck the ground. Their impact sounded a mountain collapsing, and she could see the trees swaying and the earth rippling where they struck. The angle of their trajectory put a furrow into the ground about thirty yards long, and then they bounced, Malinite was on top when they struck the ground a second time. They flipped and tumbled several times before breaking apart and sliding to a halt. Neither dragon survived the fall without injury. Both sets of wings were mangled, and while limbs looked intact, neither dragon was in a hurry to move.

  Malinite had crashed up against a boulder, and his breathing was labored. Boh dove at him, already preparing to cast Transfusion once she landed. The second her feet touched down the beam was already forming. The seductive dark energy drained Vasia of her life force, and Boh pumped it into Malinite.

  *Stop, Boh. It won’t help me* Malinite told her. *Please escape. I can hold her back long enough for you to get away.*

  *Not without you, you big dumb bastard.* She replied, and he chuckled which sent him into a coughing fit.

  Both of them felt the power of their bond grow, and the awareness of each other increased. Malinite’s emotions and thoughts started coming at her from a distance. Boh flew up into the air to dive at the queen. She knew they could talk without touching now, and she had a promise to keep.

  *Do not do this, Boh. Please, she wants me only. I left her, and that is why she is here.*

  *And I made her a promise, remember? You were there.* She felt him wince through their connection, but he said nothing more.

  “Last chance, girl. Walk away. I just want my hatchling.” Vasia said, struggling to stand up.

  Boh could see Vasia’s leg would not hold her. Malinite’s talon had left a gaping wound, and even the Dark Queen would struggle to heal from it. She felt a grim satisfaction knowing her dragon had hurt Vasia.

  Instead of replying, Boh went into a dive. The queen struggled to back away, but the fall had hurt the Dark Queen much more than she wanted Boh or Malinite to know. Boh slowed as she approached the queen’s head and shuddered at the sight.

  “Yes, look on my gruesomeness, it is your king’s doing after all.” Vasia hissed.

  “Gods, put your Shroud back up. No one wants to see that shit.” Boh could not hold back the sneer on her face nor the one in her voice.

  One side of Vasia’s face was normal, minus the missing scales. The other side— the skin was meticulously removed, and there was this clear line that went straight down the middle of the Dark Queen’s snout. It went from normal to hideous like two sides of the same coin. On the hideous side, her broken teeth were visible, and saliva dripped through without a lip to stop it. The sick bastards had even sewn the remainder of her lip into her gums to keep that precise line down the middle.

  The worst part was the milky white eye, it still moved in its socket, but it had no eyelid to shield it or keep it moist. The tears produced just leaked down her face. There was no way that thing could see any more, but it still moved to track her, just like her good eye did. Boh could not help herself from shying away from that side of the dragon’s face.

  “Seen enough?”

  “Do you blame them?” Boh snapped back. “If you want sympathy, you will get none from me.”

  Vasia laughed, and for the first time, it did not have a sinister feel to it. The dragon was amused.

  “This was Atagon’s doing.”

  “No. Blame who you want, it was your doing. I’ve pieced enough together to know a thing or two.”

  “Like what?” Vasia asked, and she was alert now.

  “Heinrich? You paying attention?”

  “I’m watching, but do not expect me to intervene. I need you as a messenger, nothing more. Die. Live. I don’t care.”

  “I just want you to see who Osric’s biggest betrayer is. Behold, his bride. The kingslayer—”

  “ENOUGH!” Vasia growled and rushed forward, but Malinite struck her from the side.

  *What are you doing, Boh?*

  *I just figured it out, Atagon never betrayed his friend. The texts in the library gave no hint or indication of any rivalry between them. There was plenty of fighting between Osric and Vasia. Think about it.*

  Malinite pinned Vasia’s casting hand, and his other front talon gripped her throat, digging the fingers in. His only other undamaged talon tried to keep rooted into the ground. Her dragon was using all his weight and strength to keep the bigger dragon down.

  *Now is not the time for your theories, flee or kill. Especially now that you have angered her.* He growled at her and then started coughing. The blood froth at his lips did not escape her notice.

  Boh

  Chapter 73

  Dragon Slayer

  Some days, my MS had me laid up in bed struggling to breathe. I wondered if I was fighting a losing battle. Each breath more of a struggle than the last. I cried because of how easy it was just to give up. Let the pain and suffering win.

  Everyone treated me like I was weak or fragile, but I never felt that way. I was a soldier, fighting for survival under impossible circumstances. If I snapped, then deal with it. Reward me for the ninety-nine days out of a hundred where my fork did not end up in someone’s eye.

  -from Boh’s Journal, September 27th, N138

  Vasia struggled to get free, and Boh could see the massive chest expanding as the giant dragon sucked in enough air to release a typhoon.

  Fingers twisted into the complex motions of the Wind spell, and Boh filled her shield trying to launch into the air and escape the pending attack. Pain exploded in her leg as Vasia’s tail slapped her back to the ground.

  As an expert in broken bones, Boh knew her leg had snapped. The pain she could get past, but the slow grind of bone grinding against bone inside her a sheath of skin left it hard to concentrate. Scooting backward, she dragged her leg along with her and attempted to get out of range of the breath attack.

  The bellowing roar and calid moisture struck her, but nothing happened. Boh tugged at her pointed ear, confused. Almost outside of her body, she felt the herself shaking with laughter. Boh was no longer sure if she was laughing out of relief or hysterics.

  “I wonder if you deserve pity,” Boh said still shaking with laughter. It was coming in bursts, and she knew part of it was the adrenaline. “You wanted me to play the part of the victim, but look at you. The question is, do you blame yourself or something else. The Shroud maybe?”

  Vasia winced, and Boh knew she had guessed correctly.

  *Careful. Vasia is vastly more dangerous than you can comprehend.*

  “I said stay the hell out of my head!” She snapped at Heinrich. The Mind Wraith’s connection felt like static. It was not smooth like communicating with Taro or Malinite. Heinrich’s mind speech was electricity in her brain, and it made her twitchy.

  “Point remains.”

  She flooded her mind with the darkest curses she could come up with, and that was some seriously dark thoughts. All of it she sent toward Heinr
ich. Let that freak think twice about invading someone’s mind again.

  *What is wrong with her?* She asked Malinite, and she could hear him chuckling in her mind.

  *Nothing. I have a finger stabbed in her breath gland. Breath attacks are part magic and part chemical reaction, and I am preventing the chemical part from happening. Right here.* Malinite said and showed her via a memory, which was not something she knew they could do.

  *Well that is handy to know.*

  *I’m afraid I cannot hold her back much longer. If you want to hurt her, you better do it fast.*

  Boh rolled onto her good leg and managed to stand. The other leg would hold her, but it was going to hurt like hell. Vasia’s torture made her acutely aware of what each bone could handle. The pieces ground together as she limped towards Vasia. Her goggles were in her way, so she shoved them up to her forehead and wiped the sweat out of her eyes.

  *What is wrong with you?*

  *Dammit Boh, get your revenge. I am dying. I think my lungs and heart are damaged somehow.*

  *Then release her, and we will flee. We can get away from here.*

  *I’m… I am not going to survive this. I am sorry. I wanted to be there when you killed Vasia.*

  She knew the truth in his words but refused to believe it. Once more she started to cast Transfusion. The seductive nature of the spell called to her like an old lover, and the link formed between her slender elven hand and Vasia’s decimated body. Her other hand sent the healing towards Malinite. Opening her body to the full extent of the power she tried to take everything Vasia had, and the consequences of the action could kiss her ass.

  Aila had said she touched the ethereal. She could do it again— she had to do it again. Last time it was triggered by opening her Box of Broken Dreams, the place she stored all her suppressed memories. Once more that box was opened, and the suffering was released. Boh was no longer even aware if she was dead or alive because she put all of it into the spell.

  Her feet left the ground as the power was so intense that she lifted up into the air. It was not enough, and she knew it. She could feel the connection between the two. Vasia struggled weakly, and Boh knew she would die before she drained the dragon of all her life force. Malinite was too severely wounded, and it was like pouring life into a bucket with too many holes. It drained out just as fast as she filled it.

  “Stop Boh, before you kill yourself too.” The Wraith spoke up. “Your healing will not fix the broken bones, and I suspect the ribs are in his lungs and maybe slivers of bone his heart. Vasia is the only one that could save him.”

  The spell canceled the moment she closed her fist, and she winced as her broken leg touched the ground once more. The Dark Queen was laughing at her, and it took everything in her not to charge her and ram a knife into that pale eye.

  “Save him,” she said limping towards the queen, and her knife went into its sheath as she pulled the Luger. Her breathing and hand steadied as she calmly pointed it at Vasia. The barrel was maybe five feet from Vasia’s milky eye, and it did not waver.

  “No,” Vasia said weakly. Transfusion had weakened the Dark Queen, and despite Malinite’s failing body, he felt stronger with the stolen health.

  *Kill me, Boh. You know she will not agree. I have a plan, it's insane and it will save your life. But you have to kill me.*

  “At this range, I will not miss,” Boh said ignoring Malinite’s pleas. “I am willing to break my promise, just save him. Your life for his.”

  “No.” Vasia was laughing now. The dark mist started to ooze out of her skin with the setting sun. It was trying to amass strength once more. Boh instinctively knew that if the Shroud came back, they were all dead.

  Boh squeezed the trigger three, four, five times. Vasia’s milky white eye did not explode so much as melt like ice cream in the sun. The bullets barely penetrated the thick membrane of the eye, but several impacts all at once caused it to rupture. A roar escaped Vasia as she used one of her damaged talons to bring up her shield. Boh saw the Shroud dissipate the moment the Elemental Shield engaged. She fired the remaining shots, but not because she thought they would pierce the shield. Boh wanted Vasia to keep her shield up as long as possible.

  *Boh, please. I have a plan.*

  *Shut up, I am not going to kill you. How come she is not breaking my bones?*

  *She needs at least four fingers, even for the verbal spell. It's complex magic. A shield you can do with almost any hand, even if it is missing fingers. I have the only talon with all its fingers pinned down.* Malinite’s thoughts were slurring; it was like listening to music underwater.

  *And the shroud?*

  *Unsure. I think the Shroud is a passive ability, so it does not have a casting component. It just exists, but it was not very strong. I think the sunlight might weaken it. It also disappeared when she hit the ground, so maybe she damaged her head.*

  *One can hope.* She said, and Malinite started laughing.

  *Dammit girl, don’t make me laugh. That really hurts.*

  Malinite was dying, and she knew that. In the knowing, she felt a change coming over her. Power flowed through her, but it was unlike elemental energy. It was not coming from anger or rage or any other definable emotion. It came from the bond, and Boh could feel it coursing through her connection with Malinite. If vengeance was energy, Boh knew this was it.

  *What is happening to me?* She asked Malinite, hoping he had the strength to answer.

  *It is the Dragonrider’s Fury. Sometimes when a rider loses their dragon, they are compelled by the Dragonrider’s Fury to make things right.* Malinite told her, but his voice sounded weak in her mind. *Boh. You should listen to me.*

  *It is not over yet.*

  Refocusing on her surroundings, Boh found herself within range of Vasia with her knife in hand. She was not aware of when she swapped out weapons but sensed the incoming attack more than saw it. The Dark Queen’s head shot forward with the deadly accuracy of a snake, but the Fury had increased her agility and speed to the point where the attack felt slow. Rather than dodge, she jumped up and wondered at how her leg could support her.

  Boh’s mind expanded and time slowed to crawl. Knowledge filled her from sources she only vaguely recalled seeing, reading, or hearing. The half-giant and the vulture’s words came back to her, only this time they were not gibberish. Knowledge of the Dragonrider’s Fury flooded her and gave her an avenue to victory. Not the one she wanted, but the one that would give her the best outcome.

  Malinite’s thoughts crowded in, giving her his theory, and then he replayed her torture, again and again, making her see what she had missed. There has to be another way.

  And then hundreds of options revealed themselves, all arrayed before her. Every choice was equally daunting and horrifying. Several elements would not change, they were part of the cycle of events that were in motion.

  Malinite was going to die.

  *Boh, you have the heart of a dragon. I know you can do this, and I know you will crush her. I have never met a dragon with your strength, and I die knowing I saved the greatest among us. I died protecting my rider. I died keeping my promise. I died saving my Queen.*

  *I will not lose you too.* She was angry again, not even her Dragonrider’s Fury could suppress it. Too many people have died to help her, pushing her along, supporting her. *Take me instead, let me sacrifice myself instead.*

  *Boh, you sacrifice the most of all.* Malinite told her sadly, and time started to speed back up.

  Below her Vasia was looking at her with her remaining eye, which opened wider when Boh dodged her attack. At the same time, Boh could see the magic of the Fury in her leg, keeping the bone fused together. The leg remained broken; she knew that, but as long as the Fury held, her bones would too.

  A tree nearby also caught her eye, a vulture sat there watching. Even Rune’s smug presence was near; she could hear him using her father’s voice again and admonishing her.

  Malinite stopped sharing the torture. Instead, the memory
focused on one specific element of those events, and she remembered how he had talked her into another course of action. Every bit of knowledge she gained along the way was trying to contribute to something bigger than herself, but first—she had a promise to uphold.

  “Damn you all. I honor my promises!” She shouted to the heavens, and her foot touched down on Vasia’s snout, and she used it to propel herself into the Dark Queen’s face. She dropped Glide to hold the knife in both hands and used her Fury augmented strength to plunge the blade deep into Vasia’s remaining eye. A vicious grin tugged at her face as she let gravity pull her downward. The knife did the rest of the work as it created a long vertical slice through the orb.

  Boh’s feet pushed against the side of the dragon’s face, and she flipped backward to land on the ground near her dragon. Vasia roared and thrashed hard nearly dislodging Malinite who was on the edge of death, but she could not get free of his dead weight.

  “Hey, bitch!” Boh called out, taunting the dragon who settled down and turned the sightless eyes towards her. “I warned you. No—I promised you. If I saw you again, I would be the last thing you ever saw. I keep my fucking promises!”

  Malinite chuckled weakly, while Vasia spit out enough curses that even Boh’s few choice words felt weak in comparison.

  *You ready, my Matriarch?* Malinite said to her.

  *What?* Boh ignored the queen comment before, but she must have missed something.

  “Before the gods and those present, I recognize Boh as my Matriarch, and I pledge my bloodline to hers. I shall recognize no other as my Matriarch. Do you accept my pledge, which I have freely given?”

  “STOP THIS!” Vasia struggled to get free, and she fought so violently that the ground trembled. Even Heinrich seemed taken aback.

  “You cannot recognize a two-leg as a Matriarch!” Heinrich said.

  “I accept,” Boh said ignoring them, and tears flowed down her face as she hugged her dying dragon.

  You have gained Malinite’s Tear. This tear is a pledge given to a Matriarch and as a recognition of his respect and servitude.