The Far Side of Creation (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 7)

by M. R. Mathias

  He wished he’d listened better to the old wizard, for he might have been able to teleport them right to the citadel, if he had. But he knew which stone was what and how to get from tower to tower, so that would have to do.

  Then it was time for him, Pyra and their two escorts to go.

  “What’s your name?” Vanx asked the Zythian.

  “Laanard,” he answered with a confident nod.

  “No matter what you see when we go through, do not stop!” Vanx shouted the command, while using a spell to snap both of his escorts to full attention. “The others may be doing well against them, but those fargin’ dazers could be destroying our comrades. It matters not. Our part is a greater deed, and it has to be done. Those who went before us, they did so knowing that their only purpose was to create the distraction. Stay focused and follow Pyra, no matter what might be happening when we appear.” He looked at the acolyte and the human archer in turn. “Save your spells and arrows for our fight.”

  Once he saw a nod of understanding from each of them, Vanx let Pyra take them through.

  Chapter Twenty

  Into the wicked storm we sail.

  We have no choice,

  and we cannot fail.

  Vanx didn’t realize how many of Pyra’s wyrms had gone with the first two groups, and the half-dozen random dragons that came from the Sea Spire with his group turned out to be necessary, just to allow them to get past the heated exchange of dragon fire, wicked jags of lightning, and thick streams of terrible blue goo that filled the sky when they arrived.

  Of course, there had been Trigon spellcasters on their stunted wyrms waiting for the others. What surprised Vanx was how many of the enemy there were. They hadn’t been expecting a second coming, though, which was the whole gist of Vanx’s and Pyra’s plan.

  Pyra’s wyrms were fighting tooth and claw. A few were using spells, but Vanx saw that simply mauling the spellcasters from their pruned mounts was the most effective form of attack. Still, the overwhelming number of Trigon minions alone gave the opposition the upper hand.

  Pyra carried them, as fast as she could fly, right through the aerial melee toward the citadel. Vanx had to trust what he’d seen in the mirror, and even though he hadn’t had any of the foul powder needed to allow the one looking to know how far into the future they were seeing, he had no other choice but to act as if it were an immediate outcome he had to change.

  One of the human archers shot an arrow across Pyra’s path. It stuck into a dazed wyrm Vanx hadn’t seen coming. A spell from the Zythian acolyte ended another when it tried to block their way.

  A small swarm of the stunted dragons came at them, then. Pyra turned most of the attackers to ash with one well-timed blast of her fiery breath. The others were dispatched on the fly, as the group didn’t slow to engage them.

  Vanx had the feeling they couldn’t get there to save Zeezle fast enough. He could only hope the portent he’d seen wasn’t already happening.

  It was getting dark, but the vast stretches of city they were flying over were still plainly visible. Block after block, from the edge of the sea, inland all the way to the horizon, was a disheartening, overpopulated mass of filthy life. There was even a dark, smoggy cloud looming over it all.

  Poops resituated himself in Vanx’s lap. Pyra was so wide that there was plenty of space, but the dog used Vanx’s thighs to keep himself on the dragon, while Vanx used the protruding spinal plate behind him and the rope he’d fixed over the plate in front for hanging gear.

  Searching the horizon, it wasn’t long before Vanx saw them.

  There was the Paragon in dragon form, standing in that barren stretch of wide-open, cobble-covered area outside the Trigon citadel’s walls. He made his own blue illumination in the evening shade.

  Vanx knew from studying castle defense that the open ground was there so that nothing could approach the citadel unseen. As they flew nearer, he saw that the Paragon had Zeezle in his clawed fist. He did something then, something that he’d never done before, but had read about in Aserica Rime’s thick spellbooks.

  As the spell words left his mouth, he knew he’d gotten it right. He had Pyra key Kelse in on what was about to happen, and then held onto Poops as Pyra folded back her wings and dove.

  Zeezle disappeared from the Paragon’s hand, and in the brief moment of confusion, Vanx called out the blue bastard’s true name across the ethereal. This caused the Paragon Dracus to dismiss Zeezle and turn to look at Vanx.

  This was all a distraction, though, for what Vanx had seen in the Mirror of Portent was happening that very moment, only Zeezle wasn’t dead.

  Kelse reared her head back, slinging the tears that had been pooling on her eyelids. They flew up and away from her. As Zeezle fell he batted one of the hardened drops hard across the firebrick with his open palm.

  The Paragon Dracus forgot Kelse too, and went chasing after the teardrop, stomping right into the gathered populace as he went.

  Zeezle didn’t look to be as injured as Vanx expected. His friend joined the Zythian acolyte in healing and freeing the great green wyrm, while Vanx and Pyra, and the archer on the blue wyrm, protected them from the sky.

  I’ve a task, Vanx said to Zeezle through the ethereal. Pyra’s blasting roar made any other sort of communication impossible. Promise me you’ll get Chelda.

  If she can be saved, she will be, Zeezle replied. The fae were having a hard time keeping the blue phlegmy stuff off of them now, for the sky was full of lesser wyrms and spellcasting dazers. Some of the little sprites and fairies that had come with them were nowhere to be seen anymore.

  Pyra used her fiery breath to clear the sky ahead of her while she banked back on course. Soon they were up and over the citadel wall, avoiding the hundreds of arrows flying up at them, by rising so high they all fell short. Vanx saw the large triangular park. He saw the three massive cages dangling overhead, and the altar in the center of the space. He checked his pouch, and his hip, and was reassured when he felt the Emerald Earth Stone and the dwarven hammer, both still where he’d secured them. A glance beside him revealed that Zeezle and Kelse were now flying up toward one of the cages, and that the Zythian spellcaster Ruuk had sent with him was a good way behind the human archer on the darker blue.

  They were better off together, Vanx thought, just as the dazed wyrms swarmed over the archer and the blue dragon he was riding. The wyrm went spiraling down into the city, and a cloud of smaller dragons followed.

  Laanard and his wyrm were suddenly at Pyra’s side in the sky, having teleported there to avoid a similar fate.

  You need to hurry, Vanx heard the Zythian say. The Paragon Dracus has swallowed the teardrop Zeezle diverted him with, and it is in a rage.

  Pyra was flying as fast as she could, toward the triangular altar ahead of and below them.

  I wonder what happened to the other teardrop? Did you see? Laanard asked.

  Vanx had seen Zeezle catch it when he slapped the other one right past the Paragon, but he didn’t tell the acolyte that. He was so relieved to have been there in time to teleport his friend from that evil bastard’s grasp that he had to force the elation of knowing Kelse was being saved, too, out of his mind.

  There were already Trigon men and wyrms gathering near the altar. Vanx snarled and prepared to cast the most destructive spell he knew.

  Do not destroys the altarssss, Pyra said into their minds. Which was good, because the explosive ball of energy Vanx was about to throw down at the ground might have done just that.

  Vanx sighed. Just keep the altar clear until I’ve done the crazy old wizard’s deed.

  What crazy old wizard? The tone of the Zythian’s question held true concern.

  The crazy old wizard who told me to do what I’m about to do, Vanx said. Now keep them off of me.

  The look of uncertainty that came over the Zythian was almost comedic.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Always somewhere,

  the sea it swells.

  How f
ast and deep,

  only Nepton can tell.

  Vanx teleported himself and Poops right to the altar top. There weren’t any of the dazed or Trigon in the immediate area, at least not on the ground. They were all concerned with something happening up in one of the cages.

  He urged the dog down from the raised chunk of gore-covered rock and placed the Emerald Earth Stone in the center, then he, too, jumped down, and made ready to smash the gem with the dwarven hammer.

  He was amazed, for at his belt the hammer had been extraordinarily heavy, but once he had the handle in his squeezing grasp, it lost most of its weight. It also filled him with a jolt of magical energy.

  Stay with me, Poops, he said, and started his overhead swing.

  Before he could hammer the stone, the piles of ogre skulls, rotting human corpses, and the dusty bones of several other things, exploded beside him, sending he and Poops flinging away from the altar stone with the debris.

  He managed to keep the dwarven hammer in his possession, but it was the Glaive of Gladiolus he drew and poked his dog with when they landed, just in case he’d been injured.

  He saw the Paragon Dracus raising up above them now. It was in a slow hover, and its eyes seemed to be looking past them, deep into the ground. It slobbered a frothy strand of gooey blue saliva, then it reached out a clawed hand, pointing right at Vanx and Poops.

  Crackling energy formed at the Paragon’s claw-tip, and Vanx started casting a shielding against magic that he hoped would work as Aserica Rime had described it in her spellbooks.

  As the shielding created a hissing yellow orb of radiant energy around him and the dog, another explosion from the Paragon sent them, orb and all, bouncing over the remains of the hundreds of creatures that had met their end on that altar block.

  The spell kept them from harm, but they were held within the orb as if it were a giant marble. The world was turning and twisting and spinning around them so much that when they finally stopped, Vanx had to shake his head to clear it and reorient himself.

  Poops whimpered beside him, and Vanx ran his hand reassuringly down his dog’s back. He could see the Paragon reaching down to grab the emerald from the altar, but to his surprise, something swept out of the darkened sky and yanked the Paragon from the ground before he could get the jewel.

  Vanx craned his neck and saw that it was Kelse that had snatched the Paragon, and Zeezle was using the dragon tear he’d caught to blast a pulse of hot, lime-colored energy at the mass of wyrms up near the cages.

  No—Vanx was wrong. He watched in awe as the blast hit the huge chain holding one of the prisons. It started to fall, and all the torque that was suddenly lost in the cantilevered arm holding it caused the great beam to go flinging upward, slapping dazed wyrms right out of the way as it slammed into the side of the tower that had been its anchor.

  The cage didn’t fall far before Kelse, covered in a sheen of sparkling green dour energy, caught it, and carried it down into one of the great park’s three corners.

  Vanx found he and Poops could actually walk within the shielding orb, if they stayed close, but Vanx wasn’t sure they had that much time. It was clear, by the way the Paragon had been going after the Emerald Earth Stone, that he didn’t want Vanx destroying it. That just made Vanx want to do the deed all the more.

  Before he and Poops could get back over to the altar, though, the Paragon appeared there, and it was again reaching for the emerald.

  Vanx didn’t know what to do, so he yelled out.

  “Cease, Richard Blanchard!” Vanx’s voice calling his true name drew the Paragon’s attention from the emerald immediately. “By your true name, I forbid you to touch the Emerald Earth Stone.”

  The Paragon cocked his head and then scoffed at Vanx, but when it turned back to grab the gem, the emerald was no longer on the altar.

  “Looking for this, Richard?” Vanx was holding the emerald artifact in his hand. But this time, when the Paragon’s enraged blast sent him and Poops bouncing and spinning away, Vanx was ready.

  Close your eyes until we still, he urged the dog. The only problem was, they never stilled, and when Vanx finally did open his eyes, he found they were being carried by the Paragon Dracus, up and away from the altar.

  Vanx did the only thing he knew to do then, and he did it just before Kelse, with Zeezle, and the bigger form of Chelda clinging behind him, attacked the Paragon. The protective sphere popped like a bubble, and it was all Vanx could do to grab Poops in his arms as they fell away from the roaring killer of dragons.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I’ve walked a long and lonely road.

  If only you could see where I’ve been.

  It’s kind of funny how the pages turn.

  Once upon a time I thought it’d never end.

  Vanx used a spell to slow their landing, and as soon as his feet were on the ground, he let Poops down and recast the protective orb spell around them. They ran, having to hop and leap over and around all the old carcasses and skulls. Occasionally, they got too far apart, and the shielding would crackle away, only to reform when they were close again. Vanx almost told the dog to stay at a distance, for the orb’s glow made them easier targets for the stunted wyrms and their riders. Luckily, the Trigon spellcasters had mostly abandoned the use of the blue, gooey phlegm. The sprite still clinging to Vanx’s hair was managing to displace what little goo that was still coming, but the spellcasters were still doing their best to keep them from the altar. A few used harsh pulses of magic that took melon-sized chunks out of the ground and filled the air with chips of flying rock and debris. Others were throwing jags of wicked-looking blue lightning in their path, but nothing could divert them from their objective.

  When they finally gained the altar, there were dazed foot soldiers there. Vanx counted eight of them, and he ran up and swiftly poked three of them with the Glaive. Those he hadn’t undazed attacked.

  The hammer was far more effective than Vanx thought it could be. It flew on its own, and all he had to do was guide it. Just a touch of the Glaive of Gladiolus in his other hand cured the Trigon daze, leaving the fighters stunned and disoriented. The hammer caved in their skulls, or in one case moved a dazed man’s shoulder armor around to where it touched his spine.

  Vanx dodged a well-swung blade, and just as soon as the momentum of the swing carried the sword past them, Poops leapt at the attacker, knocking him off balance, so that Vanx could flatten his thigh with the hammer.

  Poops ran and jumped off of the altar and clawed the face of the last of them, then he came back around to Vanx’s side.

  Above them, Vanx watched Zeezle, all drenched in dragon dour from the dragon tear he’d snatched. He used Zythian spells, and Kelse’s magic, to thwart the Paragon as best as he could.

  The Paragon was masterful in how it predicted the green dragon’s sinuous flight pattern, though, and just as Zeezle cast a bright, lime-colored explosion of energy that looked to overtake the blue bastard, the Paragon’s arm extended into a whip-like appendage.

  With a popping “snap”, it sliced right through Kelse’s neck, severing her head from her body.

  Worse than that, the huge green wyrm’s body was falling right at Vanx and the altar.

  This time, he didn’t hesitate. He tossed the Emerald Earth Stone onto the altar and swung the hammer down on it with all the might he had.

  He saw the Paragon appear, reaching for the emerald, with a snarl of triumph on his spike-maned head, but the hammer was more powerful than either of them could have guessed.

  The Paragon’s claw wrapped around the gem and started away, but Vanx’s aim was true.

  The hammer smashed the Paragon’s huge claw flat, crushing the Emerald Earth Stone with it.

  The explosion of power sent the Paragon flailing back away from the altar. Vanx would have gone, too, had he not stumbled backward over his dog, which allowed the ring of expanding power he just released to mostly go over his head. He did have several tiny chips of stuff stuck in his
face as he collapsed where he was, content to drift away to the feeling of his dog licking his wounds.

  Zeezle and Chelda were falling toward the concentric ring of sparkling green magic that was suddenly flowing out from the altar, across the citadel, the harbor, and beyond. The humming field was so powerful as to lessen the speed of their tumble and hold them above it. Kelse’s dead body hit the ground, though. Part of her bulk protruded up through the energy field, like an island formed of scales. Her body caused a missing, wedge-shaped area to be shadowed out of the expansion of emerald energy.

  The Paragon was taller than the height of the magical expanse as well. He didn’t seem to be all that affected by it, either. He stood up and stalked back toward the altar, but something else was happening. The destroyed emerald’s magic was suspending them.

  “Look,” Chelda said, her huge naked tits more than a little distracting. “Look at Kelse.”

  Zeezle watched from the strange hover trying to keep his tears to himself, for he’d come to love Kelse dearly. He wished he could see Vanx, or even Poops, but the radiant field was opaque and reflective, with millions of sparkling green particles.

  What Chelda was trying to show him was that, above the magical stuff, the ground was reclaiming the green dragon’s body at an accelerated rate. It was happening so fast, that by the time Zeezle found where Kelse’s head had landed, all that was left was a flower-covered hill. And now the body was seemingly melting and sinking below the field of green, so that the wedge disappeared and the outflowing ring extended on.

  “Look there.” Chelda pointed at the wyrms and their riders hovering about in the sky. “The daze has left them, ya! They are all stupefied.”