Wrath of Dragons

by Scott King

  The suns formed a ring in the center of the cavern. Their shape and color suggested they existed in various stages of completion. The smallest had a burgundy cast and was dense, while the largest looked like a swirling sphere of fire.

  "I'll kill us." Carter stared at the suns. "The threading and the magic is old and coming apart. If I mess with them at all, they could destabilize."

  "We are dead anyway," Alex said.

  "Yeah but–"

  "Carter, I don't know much about magic," Doug said. "But right now we have two options. We get frozen to death by wrents, or you magic the suns and make them burn hotter."

  "It doesn't work like that." Carter whisked his wrist in a mock gesture. "I can't wiggle my fingers and tell them to burn hotter. The braids of that magic are beyond anything I've ever seen. This isn't magic. Not like the magic of now. This is old magic, pure energy."

  "Do it." Doug said in flat, commanding tone.

  Carter sighed and then closed his eyes.

  Doug groaned. "What are you–"

  "Quiet, I need to focus." Carter used a snappish tone Doug was used to hearing only from Alex. "You and Alex need to buy me the time I need."

  Doug still hadn't caught his breath, but the stitch in his sides had eased. "I'll take the front," he told Alex. "You take the back."

  She drew her short sword.

  Doug took a defensive stance, rooting his heels.

  They waited.

  The twinkling wrents continued to creep closer to the companions, like a deadly fog sneaking across a river. There were so many that the twisted and pointed buildings writhed.

  Never had Doug seen a nest of wrents so huge, but without any predators to kill them and a forever-burning heat source, it made sense that they would take over the fallen city.

  The first wave came not from below, but from above.

  Dozens of the heat suckers, fell upon Doug. He knocked a few away, but spun, allowing the rest to clamp onto his posterior. The burning cold ran down his spine and when it became unbearable, he jumped and landed on his back, squashing them. Their wet innards, for once, feeling warm.

  Alex handled them in a more efficient manner. She spun as if in a dance. She deftly sliced them in half or batted them away with her blade.

  Doug knocked a wrent off Carter's shoulder, and it stuck to his hand. He shook it fiercely, but the creature held tight. With all else failing, he clapped his hands, summoning his brute strength. It popped like a cherry tomato.

  The onslaught grew, and Doug realized they had no chance of keeping all the wrents away. Instead, he put himself as close to Carter as possible. He had more body mass than either of the teens, and he could shield them.

  "I can't keep this up," Alex said. Two wrents perched on her neck. "It hurts."

  "Help her," Carter said. "I'm about ready, and you two need to be as close to me as possible."

  Doug plucked and squished the wrents on Alex, and she returned the favor by clearing away those that had stuck to his shin.

  "There!" Carter clapped.

  Nothing seemed to happen.

  "What did you do?" Alex split three more wrents with her sword.

  "I didn't want to mess with the magic of the suns. It was too much," Carter said. "But I found a weak spot in the bindings that were holding the suns in place."

  Doug squinted, and sure enough all five suns were moving, sliding downward at a snail's pace. "What good does that do?"

  "You wanted it hotter," Carter said. "I couldn't make the suns hotter, but they are blasted hot as it is. So instead, I'm bringing them down to the city."

  The farther the suns fell, the faster they moved.

  Doug felt the warmth on his skin rising. The wrents must have felt it too because after a final push, they retreated, hopping down the buildings.

  "You slurping idiot." Alex sheathed her sword, the metal ground against the scabbard.

  "What?" Carter threw his hands in the air. "You asked for the impossible. I did the next best thing."

  Doug realized Alex's concern. The five suns were hot. Hotter than any furnace or fire he'd ever seen. So hot they would melt rock and metal alike.

  The first and largest sun hit the ground.

  Doug braced himself, expecting to feel it, but there was no shake or vibration. The largest sun oozed onto the rock floor of the city, devouring all buildings and structures in its way. Smoothly they sunk, and a band of molten rock arced out from it, like ripples in a pond.

  "Oh, that's what you meant," Carter narrowed his eyes, looking at the smaller suns and then back to the big one. "Oh gorph. Gorph gorphity gorph."

  "What?" Doug asked.

  "There were primitive agyls mixed with threads of magic to bind the suns in place," Carter said. "That's why it was so easy to release them, but they weren't merely holding the suns in place. They were holding each one together. All five of them are unstable."

  The largest remaining sun expanded. Its fiery rim, swallowed the smaller ones. Tendrils of energy exploded out of it, licking the cavern ceiling. Stalactites melted, and freshly molten lava, rained down on the city.

  The wrents, still seeking heat, flooded toward the inferno, their twinkling fading out as lava swallowed them.

  As the ring of viscous rock spread farther from the suns, the bottom of the cave bowed and sank. The catwalk where they stood was far enough away to prevent its collapsing, but still the whole thing shuddered.

  "Get us out of here, now!" Doug scooted as close to Carter as he could. Alex did the same.

  "Prösenta!" Carter pointed his hands to the ground, and they rocketed into the air. "Where are we supposed to go. This whole cavern is going to be destroyed."

  The ash and embers, clouded Doug's view. As far as he could tell, the now-melting walls of the cavern blocked the city. "We need to get out of here."

  "There!" Alex yelled.

  To their back was a cylindrical tower, like a lighthouse. It rose higher than all the buildings around it, and at its zenith was a bridge leading to a closed iron gate.

  Between them and the tower was the field of raining lava.

  "We won't make it," Doug said.

  "I don't see any other way, do you?" Alex said.

  "It's fine." Carter spoke slow between deep breaths. "I have this."

  Carter brought his hands together, and the wind moved, becoming a bubble around them, as it had on the cliff. The overwhelming currents not only kept the heat at bay, but they slung away any drops of melting rock that touched it.

  The companions floated over the center of the city. Below them, geysers of liquid fire erupted from the mega sun. In seconds, buildings that were thousands of years old became glowing pools of nothing. Their history and any clue to the past was burned away by uncontrolled magic.

  "Brace yourselves!" Carter yelled.

  A column of fire slammed into the base of the bubble and plowed them into the ceiling. The air cushioned the blow, but the heat was all encompassing. Sweat matted Doug's hair to his forehead, and every bit of his body dripped with it.

  "I'd like to have a few of those wrents now," Alex muttered.

  Doug agreed.

  "I'm doing my best," Carter said. His tone was intense, his face caught in a permanent frown. The veins on his temple pulsed. Either it was a trick of the light, or his blood was glowing.

  A chunk of lava landed on top of the bubble, and Carter grunted as if the blow physically hurt him. For a moment the bubble spun wildly out of control, but then steadied.

  "I'm not going to make it." Carter's eyes had a foggy look, and he swayed back and forth, the bubble matching his motion.

  "Get us as close as you can and out of the lava field." Doug shifted, locking an elbow under Carter's armpit. "I'll carry you the rest of the way."

  Behind them, the heart of the city was gone, just a few nubs of buildings remained. Doug saw only the tip of the sun as it sunk lower into the earth. The cavern ceiling bent downward, touching the magma below.

  C
arter fainted.

  The bubble crashed into the side of the tower.

  Doug kept his grip on Carter, cradling the boy, so that when Doug landed on the stone bridge, he took the brunt of the impact.

  "We have to move!" Alex ran toward the gate.

  Doug slung Carter over his shoulder.

  "Step it up!" Alex was already halfway across the bridge.

  "You want to carry him? I did just wake from a coma, but if you think you can do a better job, by all means take him."

  "Hurry, I'll get the gate."

  The gate was wide enough for several carts and tall enough that a dragon could pass underneath without ducking. No visible chains, ropes, gears, or any kind of opening mechanisms were attached to the gate or wall.

  An ember landed on Doug's chest, and he patted it out, but not before it left a hole in his shirt and burned the skin beneath.

  Doug shifted Carter, wrapping the boy in his travel cloak and holding him with both hands as he leaned forward to protect Carter's body as much as possible. Embers kissed Doug's back, and he did his best to ignore them. There was nothing he could do but keep walking.

  Blood dribbled from Doug's burned back, running down his side and collecting in his boots so that, with every step, there was a wet suction sound.

  Although the distance across the bridge was a fraction of what he had run earlier, it felt ten times farther. Each step required him to summon his last reserves of strength. Already the pain in his sides had returned, and he breathed so hard that he could feel his lungs pressing against his ribs.

  "Open the gate." Doug chose not to set Carter down. He feared that, if he did, he wouldn't have the energy or will to pick him back up.

  "I don't know how," Alex said. "There is nothing here. Not even a keyhole."

  The metal gate was smooth. Nothing was painted or etched into it. The rock walls to the side of the gate were equally polished.

  "It must be magic of some sort," Doug said.

  "Well I don't know any magic."

  "Neither do I."

  "Can we wake Carter?" Alex asked.

  Doug shook his head. There was no way they would get him awake.

  "Then what do we do?" Alex said. "My father, my people, everyone is counting on us."

  The expanding magma reached the round tower. It tilted, and its base shrank like a sand castle devoured by water.

  The stone bridge groaned and shook beneath Alex's and Doug's feet.

  "I think it's over kid."

  "There has to be another way." Alex half hung over the bridge's railing looking down. "Maybe another exit or way out."

  "It's done. There comes a time when all your effort isn't enough."

  "No!" Alex made a fist and pounded on the gate.

  "You think I want to die as a human, or die at all? This is the only way out. If we can't open it, that's it."

  "Then we break the gate down." She knocked on the gate with both fists, kicking it between each hit. "I will not die here!"

  Doug wanted to live. He wanted to be a dragon again and to feel the sunlight, real sunlight from a real sun, on his scales. He wanted to go back home to his cave and live in peace without drama, people, or noise. He knew there was no way out.

  He leaned against the gate. The cold metal felt comforting against the wounds on his back. If they were going to die, then he wanted to take in the sights. It wasn't every day you got to see an ancient city swallowed by fire.

  The sound of gears and whirling came from below their feet. The gate creaked and fell away, retracting into the ground.

  Doug lost his balance, falling backward.

  Blinking and confused, he saw a long shaft of light, and at its other end was blue sky.

  "Get up, get up, get up!" Alex lifted Carter off Doug's chest. "We gotta go."

  "Why did it open?" Doug crawled and then stood.

  "I don't know, but let's not risk its closing again." Alex passed Carter back to Doug, and they ran toward sunlight.

  32

  Her Sword

  Ulesday, 7th of Winewen, 1162.111

  When Kane's eyes opened and she saw that everything was cast in that puke-green light, she knew she was back in Agnar. After what felt like months, she was out of Yorndrak and back in the real world.

  Forming her fingers into knives, she rolled onto her side and looked for Doug. She had to move fast, before he expected it. But to her surprise, he was nowhere in sight.

  She lay on a bed. A frilly bed with a mattress that was too soft and sheets that were clean. The room around her was ornate with vases and other extravagant decorations.

  Her legs wobbled as if the muscles had atrophied. How long had she and Doug been in Yorndrak? She shifted to add more muscle mass to her calves.

  Opening the chamber door, she found Bova seated at a desk. The desk was covered in parchments and various quills and ink wells.

  "By all that's holy, you are awake!" Bova set down a rubber stamper and clapped.

  "Where is Doug?" Kane had to force the sound from her dry throat.

  "Gone. He and the children left over two weeks ago."

  Kane closed her eyes and reached out with her bond. It was true. Doug wasn't close. He was far off, but she did have a general direction for him. "Why didn't you wake me when he woke?"

  "He wasn't awake. He was dying."

  "He's alive. I feel him." Kane's stomach rumbled. She didn't need to eat. She gained no nutrition from it, though there were times she enjoyed doing so, and she thought maybe the hunger was something Doug felt wherever he was. She shrunk her stomach, removing it completely from her digestive track. "I have to find him."

  "Of course, I will be happy to help, but as the new Arg'Natz, there are things that need your attention."

  That's right. The whole blasted reason she ended up in Yorndrak was 'cause of the Arg'Natz, and now she was its bearer, well co-bearer, but the Grekers didn't need to know that. The Grekers would be a useful tool, but to take full advantage, she needed their loyalty, and there was only one way to get that.

  "Summon your people," Kane said. "Tell them the Arg'Natz is awake and I wish to speak to them."

  Word went out, and within an hour the entire population of Agnar gathered in the arena. From the arena's high vantage point, Kane saw lines of Grekers, like ants retreating to their hive, flowing toward the building where she waited. They left work, equipment in the fields, and dropped whatever else they were doing to head toward the heart of the city.

  When the last Greker arrived, she stood up and took center stage. She boosted the size of her lungs and voice box so that she could speak loud enough for all to hear.

  "I am your new emperor," Kane said.

  Whispering and gasps trickled through the audience.

  "I understand that is not how you have run things in the past." Kane crossed her arms. "Things are changing, and you will accept them. The Arg'Natz has always been a spiritual adviser while the Pontis ran your city, but now only my word is law."

  A whole section of Grekers stood and turned their backs to her, as if to leave the arena. That was bad. She wanted to evoke fury, she wanted them to feel as if their way of life was threatened, but she didn't want them to leave.

  "I understand why this causes you discomfort. I am an outsider. One who looks human and is telling you to change your ways." She held up a hand, and it shifted to become a blooming iris with bright red petals that continued to look red, even in the green light. "But here is the thing. I am not a mere outsider. I am something special."

  Kane shrunk and took on Greker features, including their furry cheeks and coarse skin. "I can make myself look like you. Maybe that would ease your fears, but I'm not here to make things easy for you. I'm here because I'm destined to be here. I'm here because I am the Arg'Natz you have been waiting for."

  She shifted again, but instead of taking human form, she kept her frame slimmer and allowed her ears to form points. She took on a bright orange skin tone that was perfectly unblemished
. With every tweak of her features, the ruckus in the audience grew quieter and quieter. By the time she took on a fully Erediän form, not a single Greker yelled or heckled her.

  "I am the one destined to bring back the Erediä," Kane said. "That will not happen today. It will not happen tomorrow. Nor is it something I can do in this city. I must return to the outer world. I have to seek the things that will allow me to bring them back."

  Everything Kane said was total garbage. She had no intention of bringing back the Erediä, nor did she think it was possible in any kind of way, but the Grekers didn't know that. "So I ask you now. Resolve your differences. Fix this unrest between your factions and be strong. The day will come when I call upon you, and when I do, you need to be a strong nation. You need to be my mighty blade, for I will need your strength to return the Erediä to this world."

  The crowd broke into a roar.

  Cheers. Shouting.

  It was exactly what Kane wanted. She hadn't lied about wanting them to be strong. They would be a powerful weapon, and if she swung them at the Sisters or Doug, then so be it. They wouldn't be any the wiser.

  33

  The Chamber

  Eldsday, 9th of Winewen, 1162.111

  Owen, Edgar, and Gideon stood on the ramparts to the palace, overlooking Elene. The city was eerily quiet. Usually at dusk, there was a chorus of noise as people shuffled through the streets or went about preparing for evening activities.

  "Well?" Edgar asked. "Is the city clear?"

  Owen opened his eyes. "I sense no one but your soldiers."

  "The last caravan?" Edger said.

  "I put Conner and Cynthia on it myself before it left for Compitum," Gideon said. "I did another walkthrough of the city. It's deserted."

  "You are sure?" Edgar asked.

  Owen looked to Edgar. He paused for a moment and then knocked Edgar in the head with his walking staff. "It may have been awhile, but I still don't like stupid questions. We both told you it's empty."