Dragon Wave

by Valerie Emerson

“What does that remind you of?” Dante breathed.

  “A Wyrm…no. A dragon. It’s kind of both.” He looked at Dante. “They’re going to kill him.”

  He was on his feet before he finished speaking, but Dante slammed into him. “Hide us. Hide us!” Dante nearly screamed into his ear, and Jack realized they were tumbling into open ground and in plain sight.

  He pulled his cloak over them, but when he tried to move again, Dante dragged him up and pushed him against a tree. The thin stems were as strong as steel and held him up against Dante’s weight.

  The worshipers looked their way. The priest barked orders, and a handful of acolytes who’d been mingling with the crowd rushed toward them. Dante tightened his grip on Jack’s shirt. Jack tried to move one more time, but Dante wouldn’t allow it.

  “We have to stop them,” Jack hissed.

  “We can’t! They’ll kill us too. I’m sorry, Jack. We need to find out what they’re up to and warn Earth.”

  The acolytes drew near, and the men fell silent. Jack was tempted to shout at them, give their presence away. He wanted to fight. But Dante was right, as much as he hated it.

  The device holding Dawkins lit up, crackling with energy that made the man’s skin seem as thin as paper, revealing the shadow of his skeleton underneath. Energy exploded up into the dragon shape, and they swirled together to form a whirlwind made of light and darkness.

  Jack’s dragon weighed on him. He could sense the danger the whirlwind posed and the intent behind the ritual. It was a weapon, but there was a deeper intent behind its creation. This wasn’t just an attack.

  He shook his head, trying to clear it, and pulled Dante to his feet. “Come on. We need to warn Earth.”

  “How are we doing that?”

  “First, we’ll try Night Thorn. She likes me. Maybe she’ll boost my signal if I ask nicely. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.”

  ***

  Far away, on the other side of the galaxy, Julia rolled onto her back and groaned. At first, she thought her alarm was going off, but it was too dark and felt far too early. Then she realized her datapad was blaring its ‘urgent message’ alarm, and so was Cor’s. She sat up and opened the message.

  Jack’s face filled the screen. “This is M1C Jack Gagnon. This is an emergency message, and I hope it gets to you in time. The Pirr are sending an energy strike toward Earth. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but you need to be alert. And the Pirr on Earth. You need to see what they’re up to.” He gasped for breath; he must be running. “Move quickly and be safe. Gagnon out.”

  The screen went dark. Julia looked at Cor. He’d sat up during the message, and he looked extraordinarily pale in the light of her datapad. They didn’t need to speak. She set the message to forward while Cor dressed at record speed, and she did the same.

  “Where are they?” she asked Coraolis.

  “They got a suite in Brinkman Hall.” He frowned, then shook his head. “They won’t be there.”

  Julia nodded. If the Pirr were up to something, their student ambassadors were either sacrifices or they were a part of the puzzle. She’d bet on them being complicit. In the week since they’d arrived, they’d asked too many questions about the wrong things. Looking back on it now, she should have known the moment they got too interested in the research facility and Isabel.

  “The research facility,” she said.

  “I’m calling them now.” Cor dialed as they rushed out the door, then sprinted down the stairs rather than wait for the elevator. “No answer.”

  “Campus security isn’t answering either. Keep trying.”

  They burst out the door of their building and sprinted down the street, across to the wall around the campus forest. Julia went straight to the barrier, then turned to look at Cor.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. He was already out of breath.

  “Give me a boost. You can go around to the gate and get some help.”

  He hesitated, but instead of arguing, he cupped his hands. She backed up and made a run at him, jumping at the last second to plant her foot in his hands. He lifted her up and she grabbed the top of the wall, then vaulted over it.

  “Julia?”

  She landed in a crouch on the other side. “I’m fine. Get help!” she shouted then took off.

  Despite the darkness, she’d been running in those woods for years. Once she hit a path, she put on more speed. She zipped past a pair of students canoodling on a bench and shouted to them, but didn’t stop to see if they understood, or if they would follow.

  She set a ground-eating pace and, before long, she reached the open ground of the quad. The streetlamps that ordinarily lit the grounds at night were out, and all of the buildings were dark. Her heart leaped to her throat. She poured on speed, heading straight for the research center.

  Julia slowed when she reached its door. Glass crunched beneath her feet. She got low and crept into the building. Someone was shouting up ahead, near a flicker of blue light she couldn’t identify.

  Her instincts said charge, but she didn’t have a weapon, and she was probably outnumbered. She needed to do this the smart way.

  She followed the sounds of fighting, which brought her closer to the blue light. Isabel was collapsed on the floor, cradling a broken arm. Ingram was up and swinging a fire extinguisher like a club, but Honia ducked and wove around his attacks as gracefully as a dancer.

  Rry was at the safe in the back, trying to break in. The hairs rose on Julia’s neck, and she charged. She grabbed a needle nose pliers from a counter as she passed it and flung it at the back of the Pirr spy’s head.

  It hit dead-center, but all it did was make the alien angry. She whirled around and met Julia’s attack. Rry telegraphed every punch, making it easier to dodge, yet she also took every one of Julia’s strikes like they were nothing.

  “This is a fine way to repay our hospitality! Don’t you have any manners on Hoi?” Julia huffed, dodging another punch. That time she wasn’t quite fast enough. Rry’s fist clipped her jaw, sending her spinning.

  She landed on the floor but pushed herself up just before Rry’s boot came down where her head had been. The Pirr was slowing, but so was Julia, and Ingram was losing his fight. Pretty soon it would be two on one, and she didn’t care for those odds.

  “Julia!” Coraolis charged into the building, followed by two security guards. One of them tasered Honia from behind. The Pirr went down, twitching. The guard used zip-ties to bind the Pirr’s hands, while Ingram turned his fire extinguisher on Rry. He pulled the trigger and white foam hit the alien in the face.

  She screeched—it was hard to say if in outrage or pain—and clawed at her eyes as a hand reached between Julia and Ingram and hit her with the other taser. Rry went down, and Julia let herself gulp several breaths of air.

  Julia was on the verge of sitting on the floor when she felt the approaching attack. Energy and darkness twisted together, and it was coming directly toward the Academy.

  “It’s coming,” she breathed. She dropped to the floor and let go of her body, leaving the Pirr to the security guards and Ingram. She left her body and soared into the Astral Plane, rising up to meet the threat as it approached.

  She sensed it better from there. The attack ripped through the Kuiper belt, narrowly missing Pluto before it screamed toward the inner planets. It left tiny shards of glass and rock in its wake, and she could see that nothing physical would stop it or slow it down.

  Coraolis appeared at her side. He grabbed her hand, sharing his strength with hers. Their wills pushed against the cyclone, trying to change its course or unravel its power, but the best they could do was impede it some, as if standing on the seashore trying to hold back the tide.

  She pushed harder, squeezing Cor’s hand hard enough to cut off circulation. She hardly noticed when the hand came down on her other shoulder. She didn’t react at all until Honora shouted in her ear.

  “Instructor! We got your message
!”

  Julia looked back. Her students formed a half-circle behind her. Beyond them, she saw instructors and students from all over the Academy. They’d all come at her summons, no questions asked. Despite the situation, Julia smiled.

  “What do we do?” Honora repeated.

  “Feed your strength to Coraolis!” she said, turning to address everyone. “Slow it down, get it under your control!”

  “Is that possible?” Coraolis asked, sweating.

  “Do the best you can. I need a little time.” She squeezed his hand and let go as the first of her students put their hand on Cor’s shoulder, then another. The power of almost every Mystic at the Academy flowed into Cor, and he wove it into a shield against the energy attack.

  Julia darted away, leaving the others on defense. She thought she could sense the attack slowing, but not by much. Not enough to stop it from touching down on Earth.

  ***

  Coraolis’s strength was flagging. Which said a lot, considering all the power feeding into him. It meant all of them were running low. No matter how hard he pushed, no matter what tricks he used to divert the attack, it was implacable.

  He needed Julia’s strength. He had no idea where she’d gone, and he didn’t have the strength to spare to seek her. Something told him to leave her alone, anyway. She knew what she was doing. She must.

  Then, he spied her, and his concentration fizzled. Coraolis scrambled to put his defense back in order as Julia soared above them all, her hands outstretched toward the ridiculous sparring ball. Her students called it Thunder Ball.

  He frowned. What was she doing with it now?

  “Oh,” someone breathed in his ear.

  He glanced at the source of the voice. Julia’s prize student, Honora, hovered nearby. She was grinning. It looked like hope.

  “What?” he demanded, a little too harshly, but she didn’t seem to hear him. Rather, she whooped as Julia dove, sending the sphere ahead of her until it crashed into the side of the attack.

  The whirlwind writhed, trying to tear itself away. Within moments, it was contained inside the globe. Streaks of blue light and sooty black swirled together, pressing against the inside wall, yet it didn’t budge.

  “Thunder Ball absorbs all the energy you throw at it. If you touch it, it sucks you in, and only Julia can let you out,” Honora breathed. “It’s brilliant!”

  Julia left the sphere where it was and returned to Coraolis. She was pale and exhausted-looking, but he’d never seen her look so proud. Behind her, the attack raged in its prison, but only kept feeding the power that imprisoned it.

  ***

  “Thank you, Thorn.” Jack hoped his transmission went through. He was sure that was their only shot. Any minute, the Pirr would close in on them, and she’d have no choice but to open her doors for her masters.

  When it opened, Dante was there, ready to fight his way out. He didn’t want to be taken prisoner, not on Hoi.

  Khiann stood at the foot of the ramp, her hands clasped in front of her. She wasn’t touching the sword on her back, and there was no sign of any others…yet.

  “I’d really rather not get in a swordfight,” he told her. Too bad he probably didn’t have a choice. He’d just feel better about it if he had a sword of his own.

  “I don’t believe in genocide.”

  “What?” Jack peered over Dante’s shoulder. “Is she stopping us?”

  “I am not. I am here to tell you that while my faith is strong, I don’t believe that the Reckoning requires the sacrifice of an entire race. We have behaved dishonorably. I have done what I must to alleviate some of the damage.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dante asked.

  She shook her head. “No time to explain. It is simple. You fooled me into joining you on the Astral Plane, and you struck me down. I do not know what happened after that, but you somehow hijacked my ship.”

  Jack whistled. “You’re going to…lie for us?”

  She shook her head. “It is what I would like you to do so that I do not have to lie.”

  “You could come with us,” Dante suggested.

  “I cannot.” Khiann stepped onto the ramp and took Dante’s hand, sliding something onto his forefinger. It was a gleaming blue band that could have been carved from a sapphire, but he could see traces of the circuitry within.

  “Night Thorn,” Khiann called.

  “Yes, Commander Xoa?” the ship responded promptly. “I have assisted the humans, as ordered.”

  “You will assist them further. You are Dante’s ship now, Thorn. Keep them safe, and follow their commands.”

  “What about you?” The ship sounded so forlorn it hurt Dante’s heart a little.

  “I will be fine. If you stay here with me, you will be grounded for a very long time.” Khiann stepped back. “I’ll be waiting for you on the Astral Plane.”

  “Wait,” Jack said, as their door started to slide shut. “Khiann, if you meet us on the Astral Plane, we’ll tell you all our state secrets!”

  She smiled and nodded. “Peace out.”

  It was easy enough to overpower someone who didn’t want to win. She still put up a fight, but her heart wasn’t in it, and that let Dante knock her out of the Astral Plane hard enough to render her unconscious on the other side. When he came out of the trance, Night Thorn informed them that they had already left the system and were running dark. She would have them on Earth in a week.

  Dante dropped into his guest chair and settled in. The trip back felt infinitely longer than the journey to Hoi, but at least he had a strange friendship with a spaceship to build. He’d be home soon enough.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Alzarak the Red flaps his wings, sending most of you flying back in a gale force wind. But Coraolis, thanks to the bonus from your magic sword…”

  “Leviathan’s Fang,” Coraolis supplied.

  “Right,” Jack agreed. “Leviathan’s Fang gives you the extra strength you need to stand against the mighty wind. It’s your turn. What do you do?”

  “I think he’s panicking. He’s probably flapping his wings to try and fly away. I’m going to charge right up the middle and finish him off.”

  “Are you sure? You see smoke coming out of his nostrils. The air around him is starting to distort with heat,” Jack warned.

  Coraolis grinned at Jack. They’d been playing long enough to know when Jack was bluffing. He shook the twenty-sided die in his hand.

  “Is the princess still back there?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Will she still die of a curse if he lives through the night?”

  “Yes, if you care about that sort of thing,” Jack scoffed.

  “Then I’m going for it.” Coraolis rolled, and his die bounced across the table. Everyone went silent, watching it ricochet off a rulebook then an empty nacho bowl, until it came to a stop in front of Jack’s screen. The number twenty faced up.

  “Yes! A natural twenty,” Dante said.

  Coraolis grinned and grabbed his dice to roll damage. Jack looked at the total and groaned.

  “Okay, Hector the Mighty charges straight at the evil dragon. In one mighty blow, he separates its head from its shoulders. There is a bold shout, as if all the gods in existence are cheering your victory. Congratulations, you have saved the kingdom.”

  The room erupted in cheers. Dante and Julia high-fived Coraolis in turn. Even Jack was grinning; Dante knew he didn’t really want to kill off their characters. He just liked to present a challenge.

  When the celebrations died down, they picked up their drinks and moved to the living room. There was a mess to pick up, but they were still basking in their victory while Jack enjoyed the feeling of a story well told.

  “So how much experience was that worth?” Dante asked.

  “All the XP. You now have all the XP there is to be had in this world,” Jack teased. “But if you really want to know, I’ll add it up and message you tomorrow.”

  “We need to decide what
to do with the loot, anyway,” Julia pointed out. “I guess we’ll have to meet again next week.”

  “I’ve got no more epic stories right now. You guys can take your loot and buy castles or start your own temples or something, but I have nothing else for you.”

  “What about non-epic adventures? We could jump ahead fifty years and play our own grandchildren,” Coraolis suggested. “That could be fun.”

  Jack chuckled and nodded. “Sure, just give me a little time to put something together. Hey, Julia, no electronics at my table please.”

  “This is my living room,” she pointed out, but she put her datapad away. “I wanted to see if there was anything new about the negotiations. It looks like our prisoners are being sent back home.”

  “Good for them. Honia needs to learn moderation for his junk food consumption and he isn’t going to learn it here,” Coraolis quipped. “Really, I’m not surprised. It’s a relatively small concession, but it’ll help them feel better about the loss.”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like they take failure well,” Dante mused. “I heard Khiann was involved in the negotiations, but I never see her on the broadcasts anymore.”

  He hadn’t heard from her since they escaped Hoi, but he hoped she was all right. She’d committed treason in the name of doing the right thing. He couldn’t imagine the bravery it took to do that.

  “They don’t trust her to play along with their scheming.” Jack took a long drink of his beer. “She was surprisingly decent.”

  “She was,” Dante agreed. “Have we heard anything from the probes?”

  “The ones watching the black hole? Nope,” Coraolis shook his head. “It’s been quiet since we chucked in the Pirr artifact.”

  “I sure hope a black hole would be enough to destroy it.” Jack shuddered a little. “If they weren’t going to tell us what it did, it was best that no one have it.”

  “We couldn’t find out the hard way.” Coraolis draped his arm across the back of the couch, and Julia leaned into his side.

  Dante sat back in his chair, feeling content. Thanks to Jack’s determination, Dante was back in the fold, trusted by his friends again. If his smile was a little dopey, he didn’t mind, not even when Cor noticed and called him out on it.