Amulet of Souls (The Sentinels of Wizgrad Book 1)

by Hampton, Pegs

  “Where are we? Are we lost?” Iris asked.

  Iris shivered violently from the cold. They had travelled through the thick blizzard for almost six hours and there was nothing to be seen, but the white wall of snow inches from their face.

  “Not far now” Zelkith replied. Iris guessed he was in a lot of pain by his tone of voice. They struggled through the pain for another three hours until they finally found the massive ice doors to the Dragon’s keep. They both puzzled how to get through but said nothing to each other. Zelkith walked from side to side to try and keep warm. He suddenly stopped in place and did not move for a few moments.

  “What is it?” Iris asked.

  “Warm my throat,” Zelkith said. Iris did not give it any thought. Her mind was blank from the cold. She shimmied her way up Zelkith’s back and placed her palms over his throat. She rubbed violently which was mostly her shivering and partly her attempt to warm it.

  “Whatever you do, don’t let go,” Zelkith said.

  Zelkith began to bark frantically. He croaked to start with, but his bark gradually became clearer, louder and more distinct. Iris could feel her hands warm, even more. Zelkith took in a large breath and let out a bark enforced with magic. The shout hit the door of ice and the bang echoed inside.

  “I’m getting weak,” Zelkith said.

  With his last burst of energy, Zelkith rushed towards the door and unleashed a bark that broke a small hole in the door. Zelkith barged through the hole and they smashed through.

  They landed roughly on the floor and crashed into something large just inside. The door behind them sealed up with ice instantly.

  They got themselves up still in a slight daze. They looked around to take in their surroundings. Immediately they noticed the numerous Dragons scattered all around.

  Iris looked behind her and recognised they had crashed into Roseflame. Iris felt sorrow in her heart, but she also seemed happy. The fact Roseflame was here meant that they had made it.

  “I told you not to follow!” came a voice. Iris saw a face that filled her with glee.

  “Mireylon!” she shouted in relief. She ran over towards him and threw her freezing cold arms around him. Beside Mireylon were two icy figures. She looked at one and noticed it was Morton, but she did not recognise the other person.

  Iris gave a puzzled look at the other icy figure and asked who he was, but Mireylon had no idea.

  They looked up at the large staff that the unknown frozen man held. Out of curiosity, Iris touched the crystal at the end of the staff. A gust of magic shot from the crystal in all directions.

  Zelkith and Mireylon instantly turned to ice like the Dragons around and Iris was sent through the air and landed several metres away. In front of Iris stood a tall Elf, with a long grey beard and long pointed ears, yet he still looked in his fifties.

  The tall Elf looked down at Zelkith, Mireylon and Morton and then at Iris. “Turn him back!” Iris yelled in fury. She stood up and ran at the tall Elf. The Elf pointed his staff at Iris, but nothing happened. She jumped into the Elf and pulled out her dagger. They slumped straight onto the icy floor with a thud and she pressed the blade against his throat.

  “Turn them back now, or I’ll slice your throat!” Iris snapped. The Elf's face changed from aggressive to soft.

  “NOW!” Iris yelled. He pointed his staff at Zelkith and instantly the ice disappeared and Zelkith started to move once again.

  “Get his staff,” Iris commanded. Zelkith grabbed the staff with his teeth and tugged it away.

  Iris then pointed at Mireylon. “Now you’re going to do the same to him.”

  “Who are you?” The Elf said.

  “You are in no position to be asking the questions.”

  “Actually, I think you’ll find I am,” he said. He pushed himself against the blade. Iris tried to resist, but they both knew that she would not hurt him.

  “Now tell me. Who are you?” the Elf insisted.

  “I am Iris, What is it to you?”

  “Everything.”

  “Don’t try and trick us with riddles,” Zelkith said.

  The tall man looked directly into Iris’s eyes. He held out his hand and the staff flew directly into his hand.

  “Only someone of my bloodline is capable of reversing the spell I put myself under, but someone like you was the last person I expected to see,” the Elf said.

  “Who were you expecting?” Zelkith said. Iris was still in a state of shock, partly from his rude behaviour.

  “My daughter, Airianna Kyro, she was supposed to free me,” the Elf said. Thousands of questions ran through Iris’s head.

  “You’re my Granddad?” Iris mumbled to herself.

  “That is a possibility. I am Aymon Kyro. Quite obviously more time has passed than I thought, please tell me, what happened to my daughter?”

  “I… I…” Iris said. She did not know how to respond. It felt like a ten-ton weight had been dropped in her stomach, the guilt that he had never known Airianna had even died and Iris had never been old enough to remember her.

  “Your daughter died honourably in battle, to protect Iris and keep her safe. Her husband bound me to Iris to keep her safe before he also died. I hate to say this so suddenly, but the man who killed them both is planning a war that we have no chance of winning unless you free that man from your spell” Zelkith explained.

  “Who is this man? I’ll deal with him myself!” Aymon exclaimed in anger.

  “That won’t be possible, he has amassed an army that no single person could stop,” Zelkith said. Zelkith glanced over at Mireylon “That man is a strategic genius that knows the enemies and battlefields more than anyone else in our alliance. We came all this way and battled through the frozen desert at the risk of our lives just to find him, and we won’t be leaving without him!” Zelkith said. He prepared himself to attack, but Aymon raised his hand slowly.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Aymon said. He pointed his wand at Mireylon and the ice disappeared from him immediately like it did Zelkith. Mireylon looked around dazed to see the Elf stood near him.

  “What just happened? Who are you?” he asked.

  “A friend. I hear there is a war imminent, by the sounds of it, you will need my help” Aymon replied.

  “We will take all the help we can get, are you the ones who froze all these dragons?” Mireylon asked with a hint of restrained anger in his voice.

  “Yes and I…”

  “Then you shall release them” Mireylon interrupted. Mireylon pointed at Morton and Roseflame.

  “Look, if you’re serious, I want your protection,” Aymon said when he looked at Roseflame.

  “Protection? You froze almost fifty dragons in an instant and turned an entire desert into a frozen wasteland. What can we do to protect you?” Zelkith said.

  “That spell was dangerous to cast and frankly, I doubt I could ever do it again. I just want you to somehow convince this Dragon not to kill me,” Aymon asked.

  They agree to try. He pointed his staff at Morton and at Roseflame. The ice on them both melted straight away.

  Roseflame took one look at Aymon and sent out a stream of fire towards him. Zelkith let out a magical bark which dispersed the fire around them.

  “Wait!” Iris yelled at Roseflame to stop. Roseflame knocked Zelkith out of the way and used her giant talons to pin Aymon to the floor. Aymon dropped his staff and the crystal smashed against the floor.

  “This vermin deserves to die for what he has done!” Roseflame yelled so loudly that it made the tower shake.

  “He is the only one who can save the rest of your kin,” Zelkith shouted. Roseflame pulled back but pierced one of her talons through Aymon’s arm.

  “Do you have any idea what this man has done!” Roseflame roared. She pulled her claws from Aymon’s arm and raised them high.

  “I have dreamt of doing this for so many years. Die!” she screamed. Roseflame slammed down her hand and Zelkith looked away. There was no bang or noise, Rosefla
me had stopped just above their heads.

  “Move out of the way, I’m warning you” Roseflame yelled. Iris had jumped in the way and shielded Aymon.

  “I will not let you kill what little family I have left” Iris blurted in tears.

  Roseflame knocked Iris out of the way and went on the attack again. Zelkith took off into the air and bit Roseflame’s hand in the air. She screamed and tried to shake him off. Zelkith jaws were clamped shut and would not let go.

  Roseflame got her other hand and squashed Zelkith’s body tight. The high pitched whelp echoed through the hall and she threw him to the floor. This time, there was nothing to stop her. She slammed her hand down with immense force.

  They looked to see Aymon with his other arm raised. There was a large circle shaped bridge made of ice above him. The bridge dispersed the attack into the floor around it. She spewed fire at the bridge and it had started to melt within seconds.

  Iris ran to Aymon again and stood in the way. Roseflame did not try to move Iris and she slammed her tail down towards them. Iris closed her eyes, there was nothing she could do to help.

  With an immense crash, the floor shuddered. Mireylon had used his incredible speed to move both Iris and Aymon.

  “Why would you betray me!?” Roseflame yelled at Mireylon.

  “I hate this man just as much as you! But I cannot allow you to kill Iris.”

  “This is treachery, I will never forgive you for this!” she screamed. Roseflame spewed lava at the large doors and flew straight through them. The door sealed up once more, covering itself with ice.

  “Mireylon, I do not know what you have heard, but…” Aymon explained.

  “I do not care for your lies and excuses,” Mireylon interrupted. “Iris is the only reason you are still alive.”

  “Just hear him out” Iris insisted.

  “Hear him out?! This man killed almost every Dragon in existence!”

  “If it weren't for me they would be” Aymon argued. The wound on his arm had nearly healed.

  Mireylon’s face turned to pure fury. He clenched his wand tightly.

  “I know these dragons well, Queen Arlia and King Tyrath,” Aymon said as he stood up. “Over there is Mersoth, Champion of the Skies, and there is Rhaegos, the head of the Council, and my favourite, Mia, the calm and peaceful one,” he said as he pointed out all the Dragons by name.

  “What is the point you are trying to make?” Mireylon said, still angered.

  “It was King Tyrath’s decision that I would freeze most of his kin, along with myself to protect the Dragons from getting caught in a war which would eventually lead to their deaths. But for it to work it had to be convincing to the outside world, so a few of the young were not told and left to fend for themselves to make it seem like I attacked the tower on my own accord” Aymon explained.

  Mireylon pondered this for some time and he walked backwards and forwards with his hands on his head.

  “I don’t believe you, you are full of nothing but lies and deceit!” Mireylon insisted.

  “I can prove it to you, but you will not like what I suggest,” Aymon said.

  “How?” Mireylon grunted.

  “I can reverse the spell, but I cannot do it alone, and I will also need your help, all of you,” Aymon said.

  “Explain what you mean,” Morton demanded.

  Aymon told everyone about the spell that he cast on the Dragons. It was a spell that was made to force animals into hibernation to make it easier for remnant rituals. Because of the massive scale of the spell, it used more energy than Aymon had himself.

  “Mireylon we are going to need your wand for this,” Aymon said. Mireylon lowered his eyebrows in suspicion. Iris gently held Mireylon’s arm and pushed it outward. Mireylon reluctantly released the grip on his hand and the wand was free for Aymon to take.

  “Just hold it up so all of us can touch it,” Aymon said. Mireylon held the wand up vertically and the four of them grabbed hold.

  “We get only one go at this, we cannot make a mistake,” Aymon said.

  A paw was then placed on the wand “You are not the only ones who have magic in them” Zelkith added.

  Aymon explained what was to happen, he would cast a spell, but it had to pass through all of them to work.

  “Just don’t fight it, you will feel it take your magic but remember it is not permanent,” Aymon said in a serious tone.

  They all looked at each other and Aymon nodded his head. Iris closed her eyes and she felt a power come from her heart and out of her fingertips. The wand seemed to suck the energy from her. It was the most peculiar feeling she had ever felt. She could sense the magic surge through her and leave her body.

  Aymon cast his spell and a bright spark of green light flew into the air. The tower itself had started to melt and even the Dragons did. The light began to fade and the place was as cold as before. The tower that had melted froze again immediately.

  “This can’t be…why would this happen,” Aymon said. He dropped to his knees and looked up into the air. “I don’t see what we did wrong, everything happened as it was supposed to…I’ve failed…” he added. There was gut wrenching disappointment evident in his voice and he put his hands over his face.

  “What does this mean?” Mireylon asked.

  Tears strolled down Aymon’s face and the grief was apparent on his face. He looked up to the group and said. “It means we are stuck here and your allies are doomed…”

  Chapter 15

  Iris and the others pondered for hours about how they would escape Icethorpe. Aymon placed his hands on several of the Dragons and prayed his magic would work without a staff.

  A loud bang echoed inside the tower. Everyone turned to see Iris with a large brick of ice in her hand stood beside a golden pedestal.

  “What are you doing?!” Aymon shouted.

  Iris whacked the pedestal with the ice block again. The pedestal was used by the Dragons for thousands of years and was an important relic to them.

  Aymon ran over and grabbed her. She shoved him out of the way and took another swing at the pedestal. This time, a slight crack in the floor appeared.

  “Help me!” Iris shouted. Aymon had got a grip of Iris’s arms and pulled her away.

  Mireylon was the first to run over and grapple Aymon down to the floor with incredible speed. He did not need an excuse to attack him. Aymon overpowered Mireylon and cast a cage of ice over him.

  Zelkith shouted a spell at Mireylon, which shattered the ice cage over him. Zelkith then ran over to the pedestal, sunk his teeth into the top and started to tug down with all his body weight.

  Iris picked the brick up and struck the relic once more. Aymon made an ice column underneath it to stop it falling any further. Zelkith clawed at the column of ice with his massive paw and it smashed into tiny pieces.

  Aymon ran and pushed Zelkith with enough force to send Zelkith across the floor. Aymon then trapped him inside a wall of ice. Aymon then ran for Iris again but stopped abruptly when Mireylon grabbed the back of Aymon’s robe and threw him down to the floor away from Iris.

  With another smash from the ice brick, the pedestal was almost loose.

  “Whatever you’re doing Iris, you better hurry up,” Mireylon said.

  Aymon cast a wall around Mireylon and trapped him again. Iris frantically pulled down on the pedestal and with a crack, it fell to the ground below.

  Iris leapt up over the fallen relic and to the ground to where the pedestal once was. She knelt down and took out a small pouch from her side.

  She gently parted a tiny amount of soil and took out the cutting Mr Pannett gave her. She saw a little flower grow from around the bottom of the pedestal and knew there must be soil underneath.

  “I didn’t realise you were…what is it?” Aymon asked.

  “You would not have understood,” Iris said.

  She pushed the cutting down into the soil and grabbed a small block of ice. She gripped the ice in her hand and water dropped onto the par
ted soil.

  From the earth shot a plant that grew at a rapid rate. Within several minutes, it was as tall as a fully grown tree. The taller the tree became, the more warmth it radiated.

  They all stood and watched as the magical tree began to melt the ice on the floors and walls. Where the melted ice flowed, bright green grass and flowers grew in its place.

  They saw the bright green light from the spell they cast earlier slowly float by them. It whizzed into the tree and it exploded with growth. It crashed through the top of the tower and out of the sides. The warmth radiated into their hearts and filled their very souls with bliss. Bright green grass and beautiful flowers in every colour imaginable bloomed from every possible space.

  The wooden doors to the tower fell down with a loud thud and what they saw beyond was unbelievable. As far as they could see, green meadows and tree-sized flowers bloomed into the distance. The sound of birds and insects could be heard and Iris even spotted a giant butterfly flutter past which was an array of glittered blue and red.

  The Dragons of the keep also melted and started to move once more. Iris watched partly in anticipation and partly with concern. She was the one that just desecrated their prized relic and the tree she planted had made several massive holes in the tower.

  First to land was the King of the Dragons, King Tyrath. He was broad, mighty and gave an aura of strength and pride. He held his head high and had two giant white horns, which stood proudly in the air against his silver, scaled body. His mighty jaws lead down to a diamond beard under his chin. His wings were large, pointed and sturdy. His tail was remarkably thick and sturdy and the tip was a hard, sharpened diamond. It was like a sword attached to his tail.

  The Queen also landed and she was a contrast to Tyrath’s impressive form. Queen Arlia was a small, deep purple Dragon. She had soft, gentle rounded wings and a rather short tail. Her must stunning feature was her eyes, which were a brilliant blue and gazed deep into Iris as she looked directly at her.

  “Who destroyed the Pedestal!” The King roared. He pointed at the remains of the Relic that was on the floor beside Iris.