I replied telepathically, Hey ho Zahna, yes it is.
I mind linked to the twin, Omar. He had succeeded in creating a massive red ball of illusion so that when the Dragons tried to escape the third realm and go into the sixth, they’d think they were already in the sixth realm. And in their confusion, not actually escape into it. It was a monster looking ball and I hoped he had enough power to send it flying into them at the appropriate time. He not only had the invisibility illusion set, but he’d contributed substantially to the illusion that only Jen and I were on the beach.
Feeling my mind link to him, he clairvoyantly looked at me.
I nodded in approval. It was kind of cool working with a team of Tazmarks. A first for me.
I mind linked to my half brother, Marco. He acknowledged me with a big piratey grin under black mustache, showing fang. He had succeeded in creating a fake Dragon escape hatch, a state of the art, fiery exit into the seventh realm that seemed like a sixth realm exit. He also had contributed much to the illusion that only Jen and I were present on the third realm beach.
My other half brother, Sabin, was in the sixth realm near the Time Portal opening that led to Cyrus. He’d enlisted the Gobi Giant to guard the entrance and camouflage the way in. The Gobi Giant was a compilation of magical rock beings that could conglomerate to give the appearance and vibration of a solid wall. It wouldn’t stop them, but it would buy us time.
I was satisfied. Our team was good, strong, varied. I reappeared next to the Shens. Jen reached out and squeezed my hand nervously.
The High Lama Khandro said, “We are prepared.”
I said, “When the time comes, it’s best you all do your work from inside the cave. For what the other Tazmarks have planned, you will require cover. André, you know how to attack without physically seeing the enemy, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, you just see your target in your head with second sight. So I will see in my mind the Dragons on the beach and aim at their foreheads.”
“Good boy,” I said, like master to the dog.
“Jen . . .” My eyes were weighted.
“I know, I know,” she jumped in, “I must hail a Divine Light Ice Storm. I must.”
We waited vigilantly, sitting in a row, shoulder to shoulder on the white sand beach near the cave entrance for the passing of several hours. We each, with our own special way, watched the Black Box become growingly transparent. Jen missed the babies bad. She hadn’t seen them since early morning. It was now early evening even though the sun was yet bright, not due to set until some time later.
Finally, the time was at hand. The Black Box was about to break. Everyone felt it. The Tazmarks excitement filtered through me, and the Shens jumped up and headed into the cave. I grabbed Jen’s hand and pulled her back to face me. I gave her a quick, strong kiss on the lips. “You can do this. You can.”
She nodded, not looking too confident, and walked away into the cave with the others.
I stayed out to oversee the grand show. With all my power, I fortified the already cast illusion that the beach was empty, save Jen and me.
The Black Box was gone. Slowly, hundreds of Dragons became visible on the third realm beach. A cold vacuum encompassed them, and subzero hailstones gushed from the sky. Charlotte’s handy work. The stones were so big and came down so hard, they bounced off the Dragon scales. And the Dragons seemed stunned.
Aruka stood outside the vacuum on the shoreline in shallow waves that swirled about her soft purple boots. She bellowed with a certain amount of glee, “Orior oriri ortus ex profundum! Tentatio Extraho!” Slimy, yellow, flame shaped, topknots rose from the sea and hordes of grey Jackaeels emerged on the beach, ejecting foot long tongues that spit about five yards of electrical charge. Blue lightning struck Dragon heads, and some went down instantly, convulsing. More and more Jackaeels rose from the sea. Aruka cackled joyously.
A giant red ball flew at the Dragons washing over the masses. Omar did it! He actually hurled that giant thing. I was impressed. The Dragons were confused because to them it looked like they weren’t in the third realm, but the sixth; and yet the sixth realm shift to the third realm had surely felt complete.
Subzero hail continued to pound the Dragons while Divine Light crept across them like a rising sun, getting slowly brighter. The Dragons moaned and jerked their heads side to side, feeling the caustic substance on their scales. I sensed it was the High Lama Khandro’s doing.
Here and there, a Divine Light beam would stab a Dragon in the forehead. André, of course.
But, still missing was Jen’s Divine Light Ice Storm. I sent her a telepathic message, You can do it.
The Dragons, realizing they’d been duped, threw out Black Light Shields around them, slowing the Jackaeels blue electrical strikes. But if the Jackaeels spit hard and consistently, some strikes got through. The Dragons weren’t used to the third realm and they were less proficient here. Then the Dragons hissed fire, scorching the front line Jackaeels, but Aruka kept them coming.
Bunches of Dragons took to the skies, flying in various directions, confused, feeling like they were already in the sixth realm in which they sought to escape. A haunting tone rolled overhead with a stunning pink-red smoke wafting toward the flying Dragons. Hordes of them flew toward the cliff where Cecelia lurked. Love spells. Damn. She was good.
A slew of flying Dragons, not lured by the love spell, were drawn into Marco’s seductive trap edged in fire. Soaring into what they felt was escape, but actually the seventh realm, they disintegrated almost instantly before realizing it was a trap.
The Dragons on the ground were beginning to fight back with all they had. I felt their magic rise and their fury too. They were bringing up the power of the volcanoes to explode them. They needed the warmth and fire that the Dracovar Worlds provided. They were not acclimated to cooler environments, and the heat would clear their heads and give them power. But with our ambush in play, I doubted they’d have time to pull it off.
Dian’s militia had arrived.
Rocket and grenade launchers fired on grounded and flying Dragons alike. Some Dragons had parts of them shot off, while others exploded like piñatas, guts and Dragon bits spraying in all directions.
Hell yeah!
The Alaculufes, from behind cliffs and boulders, fired their machine guns at the Dragons, aiming for their big wide butts. When their butts were hit with the red laser light imbued bullets, the Dragons would jump a few feet in the air with a screech, almost like a human crying ‘yow!’
The subzero ice storm stopped, but Divine Light thickened over the Dragons. Charlotte had joined in on the High Lama Khandro’s endeavor. But no matter how many Dragons were obliterated, there were always more on land and in the sky, roaring fire, and using mind magic to explode Jackaeels, Alaculufes, and soldiers. The Dragons were stalling. I sensed it. I concentrated harder, breaking into their collective mind. They were waiting for the Council of Six, the most powerful Dragons of all, next to Quen-tan, to get to Cyrus and turn back the clock.
I focused on The Council and saw them with my clairvoyant mind. They were heading for Cyrus.
Jen and I must go after them. I turned to get her when my back was clutched, gripped by talons. I rose into the air. A missile shot under my feet just as I was carried into the sixth realm.
A Dragon had me! I heard a feminine voice, “You’re mine, Ixion!”
Ah, it was Sardi. If I hadn’t heard her voice, I may not have recognized her. She sped up and dug her talons tighter into my back, going right through my ethereal webbed wings.
“I’m not yours,” I mumbled. I imagined her belly exploding in pain, which would give her nothing more than a bad stomachache—but still.
“Oh,” she groaned.
I felt her talons weaken a bit, so I shot her with red laser light, right in her belly.
“Behave Ixion; that is my breeding center.”
“Well, drop me, or you won’t have one.”
“Oh please, Ixion, let it be like
it was for us. You took out Diego. We all felt it. You took out Quen-tan. Come back to us! Come back to me. Be with me again, the way we once were.”
“I thought the Dragons wanted me in a Black Box.”
“Not me. I will hide you!”
I heard Jen cry for me, “johnny!”
She had seen what had happened with her second sight, and she’d run out of the cave looking for me. I had no time to dally with Sardi. I had to get Jen out of the line of fire, and take her to Cyrus to stop the Dragons from setting earth back on a course of destruction. With acute focus, I imagined a bomb exploding in Sardi’s stomach.
She shrieked and dropped me, whimpering as she flew away.
As I flew back to Jen, the sixth realm darkened significantly and the thundering beat of flapping wings in the distance stopped me for a moment. New arrivals. Massive Dragon armies blackened the sky with their bodies for as far as I could see. They were really going to do it. Destroy earth. Once the Council undid my work from Cyrus, they would manifest in the third realm and scourge the earth with massive fires, volcanic eruptions, and high magnitude earthquakes all over the world, generating enough friction and heat to destroy the planet. What I had done to wake the world, they would do to finish it. I understood now. The first Dragon army was to keep Tazmarks and Shens from thwarting the plan to destroy earth. Incoming armies were for the actual destruction.
My head grew hot with coursing blood. I flew back to Jen in seconds.
A Black Dragon on all fours had its big, fat face in Jen’s. I hovered above them in the sixth realm, and clairvoyantly assessed the situation. He’d paralyzed Jen the way the Dragons had paralyzed me earlier. Her pallid face held dread, but her feet were rooted to the sand. The Dragon talisman glimmered over her blue woolen jacket. And I willed my power to shoot through the dragon talisman’s eyes and strike the offending Dragon. It would only distract him, but I only needed a second to grab Jen and head for Cyrus.
Red beams light shot out of the dragon talisman’s eyes and went between the Dragons legs and hit . . . well, ahh oh.
He screeched, standing on his haunches. A Divine Light beam almost stabbed the Dragon in the forehead, but got him in the eye. André was on the job.
The Dragon roared, shaking his head angrily. Before I could act, he clomped back down on all fours and regained his one-eyed focus on Jen.
Before I could make a move, the Alacalufes blasted out from the side of the rock cliff with Zahna flying overhead. The Alacalufes charged the offending Dragon from behind with machine guns blasting. The bullets riddled the Dragon’s butt. I was very concerned that Jen might get hit.
The Dragon screeched, and turned its head to blow fire at the Alacalufes. I think they knew what was coming because they stepped back frantically while firing. I commanded them to stop firing. They did almost instantly, and I appeared in front of them facing the Dragon. I could hear them panting fearfully behind me. Fire began to blast from the Dragon’s scaly jaws. From my hand, I shot a red laser beam into its other eye, blinding it.
The Dragon screeched, paining my ears.
The Dragon’s hold on Jen had broken, and she shook her head to get out of her daze. With my mind magic, I spellbound her to walk back into the cave. I summoned a red laser light sheet to manifest behind the Dragon. I willed the sheet to move forward into the Dragon. The Dragon swooped his head, this way and that, confused. The red light absorbed the Dragon and he bellowed in agony from the burning substance, until he dissolved.
The Alacalufes cheered and scattered back to shelter.
I had to get Jen. A Dragon appeared in front of me, before the cave entrance. Ah oh. My feet were grounded. I’d been paralyzed. Sensing the presence of others, I looked over my shoulder and saw two more Dragons.
Divine Light stabbed the forehead of the Dragon in front of me and it began to fry. All right, André!
I heard machine guns firing. The Alacalufes had reemerged, peppering the two Dragons behind me with red laser light imbued bullets.
The Dragons huffed and snorted, turning their heads to hiss fire on the Alacalufes.
Zahna appeared on the rock cliff above us. With both hands, she simultaneously shot red laser light at the two Dragons that were about to incinerate the Alacalufes. The light penetrated their heads, boring holes into their brains. All right, Zahna! The Alacalufes were jumping up and down, excited that the demon gods had helped them, and that they had helped the demon gods. Then they scattered quickly back to the shelter of cliffs and boulders.
Jen and I had to get to Cyrus! I hoped she could find a way to hail a Divine Light Ice Storm into it—if need be, and the need probably would be.
I started to enter the cave when I telepathically heard Tupuro overhead. “Yee hah, rock and roll!”
I looked up. He streaked by like a torpedo at Mach 2, shadowing three white and blue F-16 Fighting Falcons. Pretty nifty third realm flying. Then he shifted to the sixth realm, shadowing the aircraft still.
The Falcons were dog fighting with the flying Dragons, using heat-seeking missiles.
Damn. Would have been fun to watch. But no time. I manifested in the cave before Jen. She was sitting next to André, head lowered, straining her brain to conjure a Divine Light Ice Storm.
I squatted. Feeling my presence, her head snapped up and she flung her arms around my neck. I held her tight and said, “Save the Divine Light Ice Storm for Cyrus. We must go.”
Charlotte, hard in concentration, did not look at us. André was holding his temples hard, eyes squeezed shut, in deep focus. The High Lama Khandro nodded, affirming the situation with a good luck wish in his eyes.
Absorbing his good luck wish, I scooped Jen into my arms, romance style, and flew us into the sixth realm.
As we moved toward Cyrus, I said, “When we arrive, you must be prepared to conjure the storm, Jen. You must.”
With her arms tight around my neck, she said, “I have been trying every way I know how, and I can’t make it happen.”
“Don’t give up. Just don’t give up.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
We arrived at the sixth realm opening to the Portal of Time. I set Jen on her feet. Her arms hugged her stomach as she looked about the cave-like surroundings of igneous rock, something like a mine, with maroon chunks of bloodstone in the walls. A massive mound of grey dirt and rubble blocked all but a sliver of the Portal’s entrance where pearly light shined through.
Coughing sounded from under the heap. I manifested the mound to a spot a few yards away, disturbing a cluster of maroon Duby bats. They swarmed about the cave, screeching their discontent.
Jen scrunched up behind me, exclaiming, “Oh geez!”
Where the mound used to be, sat Sabin, hands planted on the ground behind his back. He was shaking grey dust and cement globs from his head; his black hair looking more like a grey helmet. His blue pants and shirt were caked in dust and crumbles of rock.
The bats settled in another corner of the cave.
Jen came out from behind me and addressed Sabin, “Are you all right?”
He replied to her with a condescending eye. “Yes sweetheart, I’m all right. But the world may not be.” Sabin jerked his head to the now exposed Time Portal entrance. “The Gobi giant disguised the opening, but it didn’t take them long to locate it and blast through. They just went in. Go! Now!”
“Come with us,” I said.
“I can’t get around in there yet. I keep losing my balance.”
“Very well,” I said.
The cave rumbled and the ground trembled as if a speeding train were running beneath it.
“They are in Cyrus,” I exclaimed. I swept Jen into my arms so fast, I think it startled her. I flew us into the Tunnel of Time with great expediency. Jen clutched the sleeve of my tee shirt, digging her fingers into my arm.
I said, “They are disrupting the past and future, forcing the call for destruction.”
“But I can’t create a Divine Light Ice Storm! Is ther
e another way to stop them?”
“No Jen, there is not.”
She mumbled, “I feel sick.”
“It won’t be long.”
Sensing Cyrus, I turned quite suddenly into an opening that didn’t seem there, like flying through a wall.
There it was, the clear crystal foundation that emanated every tone in the spectrum of sound in a constant harmonious hum.
I set Jen on her feet, then we went to the foot-high bank of misty green and purple stripes, and looked over the edge. The spiral of colors whirled into seeming infinity.
Continuing to stare, the scene formed into a colossal crystalline pyramid that pointed down to earth. Jen gasped. Six gunmetal grey Dragons soared about, doing aerodynamic acrobatics in the kaleidoscopic panorama. Maroon powder flicked from their flapping wings, dusting the land below all over earth time. The Council Dragons vanished and reappeared as they wove through out time periods.
“Oh my God!” Jen cried.
“No Jen, oh my Goddess. You can do it. Do it now. You must.”
But she stood there frozen, staring at the scene.
I grabbed her shoulders squaring them to me, and shook. But no amount of rattling filled the empty look in her eyes. Where the hell was she? I could not wait for time to tell.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Now it was I in a panic. I calmed down for it was the only way to escape doom. I stared into her empty eyes and moved into her being. I saw what she saw, and experienced what she experienced. Dragons dusting a world, her world, her goddess home world in outer space. Her world explodes. She fails to save it.
An Angel's Touch Page 39
