by Jordan Baker
"You have some form of Stroma's power," he said, then his voice turned harsh. "I can smell it, but it is such a small portion of what that god once was. He died weak and feeble, barely a god at all. No, it isn't Stroma's power that is interesting, but the dragon gift within you. Now that would be truly useful, for no fire would ever harm me again."
"See," Lexi said. "You can have me instead and let Aaron go."
Aaron's face tightened and the flames and darkness disappeared from his eyes.
"Lexi," he said, his voice like his own once more. "You have to get away, and get the others."
"Aaron?" Lexi was still confused, but she knew that it was him.
"Yes," he said. "I do not have much time. Do not let the shadow take the dragon gift. I need you to fight me, and use your fire."
"Fight you?" Lexi took another step backward. "I don't want to fight you. I came to help you."
"The only way you can help me is to fight me, Lexi," he said. "Use your fire. Destroy the shadow, no matter what."
"And what about you?"
"I am not important," Aaron told her.
"You are to me, and to the others," Lexi said, her voice cracking as her emotions quivered inside her.
"That is why you must do what must be done," Aaron said. "It is the only way."
"No," Lexi said. "There has to be something else. I won't fight you."
"Please, Lexi," Aaron said. "Truefire is the only way to destroy the shadow."
"I am going to find the others," she said. "They will know how to save you."
"There isn't time. You must fight," Aaron said, but she was already gone.
Aaron grasped the sides of his head as he felt the thoughts of the god try to take over.
"You are powerful," Kenra said, using his own voice. "You should not be able to resist my will."
"I will never stop fighting you," Aaron said, then he felt something deep within himself. "But you are not the true enemy."
"Of course I am not your enemy," the god said. "We are more than allies, you and I. Through the power of the shadow, we are one, but soon this part of you that foolishly tries to act against me will fade away and become a memory, just like the others."
"No," Aaron said, gritting his teeth as he focused his thoughts. "I have seen the truth."
"The truth?" The god sneered. "What truth is that?"
"You are the memory," Aaron replied. "I can see you clearly now. I can feel you, and I know what you are."
"Then you know the futility of your struggle," another voice said, using his mouth, but with a deep echo of something far darker than Kenra.
"No, I do not know that," Aaron said. "I refuse to accept that."
"Then this will be very painful for you," Kenra replied, with the strange voice resonating in the background. "You can watch as we destroy them all."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lexi raced across the city toward the smoke and the fires to where the fighting was at its worst. The Darga and the grey soldiers had been pushed back, almost to the temple district by the combined forces of the Maramyrian and Kandaran soldiers along with the Aghlar warriors and a number of pirates who had left their ships to join the fray at the request of the goddess of the sea. The mage, Zachary was fearsome to behold as he blazed his way through the streets with blasts of fire, while Ariana and her blood handed soldiers spread through the parts of the city that had been cleared, rescuing the people of Maramyr, who appeared to have come to their senses, after the spell at the temple had been released, but many of them were sickly and barely had the strength to flee the city. Lexi found Ariana, coordinating the rescue efforts, giving out orders to her blood soldiers, and she was with the elven woman, Keira, as well as Borrican, Storm and the other dragons, as well as the mages, Stavros and Cathas, and the goddess, Ehlena, who Lexi noticed looked worse than before and she could sense that the shadow had grown stronger around her.
"Lexi," Borrican said, turning toward her as she blurred into view with a thunderclap and a flash of lightning.
"It is done," Lexi said. "Calexis is dead, but bad things happened."
"What about Aaron?" Ariana asked. "Where is he?"
"He is with the god and the shadow is in him now," Lexi told her. "He is still fighting it, but he said I should fight him and burn him with my fire."
"What do you mean the shadow is in him?" Ariana asked.
"It went from Calexis to him," Lexi said, with a frown.
"Then it is time," Ehlena said. "We must clear a path to the palace and fight him there."
"I don't want to fight Aaron," Lexi said, her voice insistent.
"He told you that you must," Ehlena replied. "It is the only way."
"Aaron knew this when he came to Maramyr," Stavros explained. "He kept Calexis busy for long enough that we were able to break her spell and save the people. That was what he wanted."
"But we have to free him," Lexi said. "He spoke to me with his own voice. We have to get the shadow out of him."
"That is not Aaron's plan," Stavros said, glancing over at Ehlena. "In fact, it is the opposite."
"He wants the shadow in him?" Lexi was incredulous.
"Kenra always wanted Aaron's power," the mage told her. "He has lusted after it since he was born, so Aaron used that to make the god focus on him instead of spreading his power outward, so the shadow would be concentrated here, where it could be destroyed."
"But I thought Aaron would destroy it with his fire," Lexi said.
"It may be that it took too long," Ehlena said. "Aaron's power is very great, but the shadow has been growing for a very long time, and Calexis stole so much power from the people of this city, that the shadow has grown far more powerful than before."
"This is what Stroma feared," Stavros commented. "If Aaron cannot resist the shadow away, then it will become even more powerful still and it will take everything we have to stop him."
"So you are saying we have to fight Aaron?" Borrican asked.
"Sadly, that is what we must do," Stavros replied.
"It is what he has asked," Ehlena said, and she turned to Lexi. "With your fire, you will be helping him."
"But it will hurt him," Lexi said.
"Yes," Ehlena said. "It will, but it is what he wants."
"There is no other way?" Ariana asked.
"No," Ehlena said. "We must destroy the shadow and Aaron is aware of this."
"Where is he?" Ariana asked, turning to Lexi.
"At the palace," she told her.
"Then we must go there now," Ariana said, then she turned to Keira. "Get as many out of the city and onto the ships as you can. I fear the fire that will burn in Maramyr this day will make the burning of the elven forests seem like a small cook fire by comparison."
"Then you should leave the city as well, princess," Keira said.
"Borrican, Storm and the others can protect me, and so long as I am not directly in the path of truefire I will not be harmed," Ariana told her. "It is important that I see this to the end."
"As you will," Keira said with a nod, then she turned to several of the soldiers who stood nearby awaiting orders and they left to carry out Ariana's commands.
"What must we do?" Borrican asked.
"You must your fire to destroy the shadow," Ehlena said.
"I would also speak with Aaron," Borrican said.
"I fear it may be too late for that," Ehlena replied, then she tilted her head and smiled a little. "But perhaps not. I can hear him arguing with Kenra."
Ehlena turned suddenly and looked up into the sky to the south, past the city gates as several dozen winged shapes appeared. Borrican, Storm and the dragons growled as the air began to shake with raw power, and a great winged lioness landed heavily upon the ground. A man leapt down from her neck to the ground and, a moment later, the lioness shifted into the form of a woman, who was clad in the most minimal of coverings the dragons could imagine. Behind her, the other creatures, many of them in exotic shapes, shifted into people as wel
l.
"Who are you?" Borrican asked, his dragon senses raging at the dangerous energy that surrounded the strange people.
"Calm yourself, dragon," the woman said. "We are not here to fight you."
"Kasha," Lexi said. "They say we have to fight Aaron and burn the shadow with fire."
"Then that is what must be done," Kasha replied, then she turned and stared at Ariana, noticing that the presence of the young woman reminded her of Aaron in some ways.” You are much like him."
"He is my brother," Ariana said. "Who are you?"
"Kasha," Ehlena said, making formal introductions. "This is Ariana of Maramyr, and the dragon is Borrican of Kandara. They are the leaders of their lands."
"I am Ansari," Kasha said, looking at the two nobles with her ability to see the energy of things, fascinated by the unusual powers they both possessed, as well as the bonds that connected them, their essences intermingled. "I speak as Ansari, for all Ansari. We have come to destroy the shadow."
"What about Aaron?" Lexi asked. "Can't you find a way to save him?"
"No, Lexi," Kasha said, glancing over at Ehlena and sensing the darkness that still lingered within her. "If the shadow has truly taken him, then he must be destroyed."
"But I don't want Aaron to die," Lexi whispered. "Don't you want to save him? "
"It may not matter what you or I might want," Kasha said, looking ahead over the city where a strange darkness has begun to form, like a cloud but covering everything as though the gloom of morning was suddenly turning back into night. "The shadow grows powerful."
Fire and swirling black smoke, different from the grey smoke of the shadow, moved toward them, breaking through the parting lines of the soldiers, and Zachary walked back from the battle, and he nodded at Stavros as he approached.
"You're not looking particularly well, old friend," he said, grinning through gritted teeth with fire curling around him and smoke rising from his charred and blackened flesh. "Well done at dispelling that disgusting magic though."
"I played but a small part in that," Stavros said. "I must say, you aren't looking particularly well yourself, Zachary."
The burning mage shrugged.
"Well, I see the Ansari have finally come to their senses, at least," he said, glancing at Kasha and the warriors of the desert.
"I can see that you are in great pain, mage," Kasha said, appalled at the sheer amount of truefire swirling within the core of his being, so much so that its flames were consuming him. "Your fire destroys you."
"It can't be helped," Zachary told her with a shrug. "The only thing that eases the pain is unleashing fire and that just makes it burn even hotter, so if we're going to fight the shadow, we might as well get to it before this old goose is completely cooked."
"We must all work together to destroy the shadow," Ehlena said, looking at everyone who was assembled and ready to do what they knew must be done.
"Storm," Borrican said. "You and the others take to the skies and keep your fires burning hot. I will join you when it is time."
"Of course, Akandra," Storm said with a nod, then he and the other dragons left, and a few moments later, they shifted their forms and took the sky.
"My people will join you," Kasha said, then she turned to the dozens of desert warriors and nodded, and one by one they all shifted their forms, this time becoming dragons, then they leapt into the air.
"I thought Ansari didn't take the form of dragons," Lexi said.
"It is not something we do lightly," Kasha told her. "Only the madness of fire will destroy the madness that is the shadow. You know the truth of this."
"I know," Lexi said with a frown as Kasha turned and walked away, then shifted her form to a tan colored dragon with glittering green eyes and flew up into the sky.
Ehlena put her hand on Lexi's arm.
"Lexi," she said. "If you believe in Aaron, then trust what he has told you. He may know the shadow better than anyone, and with our help he may find a way to stop the darkness."
"He will kill himself to save everyone else," Lexi said. "That is his plan, and I don't like it."
"Perhaps," Ehlena said. "I may hear many things on the wind, but I do not know Aaron's mind."
"He is wrong," Lexi said. "He shouldn't be the one."
"If that is what he intends, it is his choice," Ehlena replied.
"Is it?" Lexi asked. "Maybe this shadow power is like the traders' potion, and it makes you want it more, and it makes you think things that you don't want to think."
Ehlena stared at the dragon girl, wondering that even though the words she used were sometimes simple, Lexi was very thoughtful and insightful, and seemed to have an exceptional capacity for empathy, which was a trait that her mother had lacked almost entirely. She also wondered at the seemingly endless depth of her emotions, which the other dragons had mentioned as almost frightening, even to them.
"Aaron has a plan," Ehlena told her. "And he knows it might not work, but he needs all of us to do what we can if there is any chance at all that he will succeed."
"He has a plan where he doesn't die?" Lexi was a little unsure, and she shook her head."
"With some luck, and some hope," Ehlena replied, trying to reassure her.
"And he wants us to burn the shadow with fire, even if it burns him too?"
"It is the only way," Ehlena said. "Aaron is strong and the fire within him may protect him."
"I don't like that," Lexi said, then she walked away and leapt into the air, shifting her form into a great blue dragon.
"I don't like it much either," Ehlena said, then she turned to Zachary. "If you wouldn't mind clearing a path to the palace."
"I thought you'd never ask," Zachary said, then he turned to Ariana. "Do you care if I do a little damage to the city?"
"As long as you don't kill anyone," Ariana said.
"It's fine," Borrican told her. "We checked the entire city. There is no one left from the temple district to the palace. It is completely empty."
"Then do what you will, mage," Ariana told Zachary.
Zachary nodded and took a deep breath, then he let out a great sigh and strode forward toward the mass of soldiers battling the Darga and the remaining grey soldiers. With every step, the flames around him blazed hotter, burning higher, and Ariana heard him call out for the soldiers to clear a path, which they did almost immediately after seeing the walking column of fire coming toward them.
"So much power," she commented, looking over at Stavros. "It is fearsome to behold, and to know how destructive it can be. It is no wonder that the Council of Mages kept such strict rules about the use of magic."
"His fire is now far more powerful than that of any mage who has ever lived," Stavros said. "I have never seen magic so intense yet somehow he manages to control it."
"Barely," Ariana said. "Do not forget that Zachary has lost control before and destroyed much of the elven forest."
"Well, you just gave him permission to destroy some of your city, and it looks like he is doing just that," Borrican said as Zachary unleashed a massive blast of fire, far greater than anything he had before, cutting a wide swath through the enemy and tearing stone and brick away from homes and buildings.
Zachary laughed as dozens of Darga were incinerated and he thought at first that he had them on the run as they began to flee but then he noticed that a number of their winged brethren had appeared, as though coming to warn them. Within moments, the lizard men had almost cleared the streets, leaving only a few grey soldiers who were quickly cut down by the Maramyrians and the others who bolstered their ranks. Zachary marched forward at the head of the army, straight toward the temple of the god, the dark, ominous structure that had been built at the center of the temple square. He glanced back at Ariana, then he hit the temple with another blast of fire, tearing a hole through the middle of the structure. The soldiers that followed along behind him cheered at seeing the symbol of the dark god and the priesthood, the forces that had caused so much ruin being dest
royed. The roof of the temple caved in as the army marched past the flaming ruins and they approached the gates to the inner city. Zachary summoned his power and he was about to blast through the gates, when the large, iron and wood doors suddenly swung open. The soldiers, who had been cheering loudly fell silent when they saw what lay beyond.
While the gloom of the clouds that hung overtop the outer city was dark, the inner city was almost like another world, as though it was night, and shadows moved through the streets like a dark, ominous fog. Now, with the gates open, the darkness that flowed within the inner city began to move outward, creeping over the ground and through the air.
"Fall back," Zachary yelled as his flames flared brightly around him, and he unleashed a blast of fire, driving the darkness back, its shadowy tendrils moving away from his flames. Ariana, Borrican and the others moved toward the open gate as the soldiers moved back, fleeing from the shadows as Zachary held them at bay.
"What is this?" Ariana asked, as her own flames burst to life around her, not nearly as powerful as those the mage wielded, but apparently enough to keep the shadow away, as the dark tendrils recoiled from her.
"This is the true power of the shadow," Ehlena said. "It is what will become of this land and all the others, in time, if we do not stop it here."
"It is like the poison smoke the Darga used in the forest, but it is everywhere," Ariana commented.
"It is worse than poison," Ehlena told her. "If the shadow touches you, it will steal your very life from you. This is the true power of the shadow, a power I have not seen since the last age."
"Does this mean that Aaron has fallen prey to the dark god?" Stavros asked.
"I do not know," Ehlena said. "But the shadow has grown truly powerful if it can manifest like this."
"We cannot take the soldiers," Ariana said, then she turned to the two mages. "Stavros, can you and Calthas create a barrier that will stop the shadows from spreading any further?"
"For a short time," Stavros said. "I do not know how long, for it seems that the shadows themselves will feed upon whatever spells we cast, and casting truefire is one of the most exhausting forms of magic, not counting Zachary."
