Sisera's Gift 2: Sacred Blood

by Robyn Wideman

  “I have never seen anything like that,” Caritha said.

  “What are you doing?” Isabella demanded as she sat up.

  “Oh, good morning,” Sisera said, calmly. “I was just showing Caritha your flame shield.”

  Isabella was flabbergasted. “By throwing rocks at me while I was sleeping?”

  Sisera shrugged. “That’s how I did it the first time,” she said.

  “You can’t control it?” asked Caritha.

  Isabella shook her head.

  “I saw you sparring with Shayla the other day. She hit you a few times. Why didn’t that protect you?”

  Isabella shrugged. “I really have no idea. We don’t know anything about it. We were hoping that Apophis knew something about it,” she said, then she looked around. “Where is Shayla?”

  “She is speaking with Apophis privately,” Caritha said. “Maybe it is to protect you when you are not capable of protecting yourself?”

  “Then it would be surrounding her at all times.” Sisera snickered.

  Isabella glared at the gold-purple which caused the dragon to fall into a fit of laughter.

  “It wasn’t that funny,” Isabella said, turning her back on the dragon.

  “So, it started when you were frozen by Venia? I wonder if it was triggered by her magic,” Caritha said, thinking out loud. “Shayla might know. She should be back soon.”

  They sat and waited until Shayla and the alpha dragon returned to the field. Isabella watched the sun as it crawled from its place on the horizon to hang high in the sky. Occasionally, Sisera would throw a stone at her from behind, triggering the flame shield. Isabella tried to ignore the nuisance.

  “They’re coming,” Caritha said, sitting up from the lounging position she was in.

  Sure enough, through the trees came the large dragon followed by the young woman.

  Apophis looked even more brilliant than she had the night before, Isabella thought.

  “What do you think they were talking about for so long?” she asked Sisera through the mindlink.

  “Probably us,” Sisera said.

  “Good morning.” Apophis greeted them as she approached. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

  “Quite all right,” Caritha said as she stretched out her wings. “These two have been entertaining. It turns out that Isabella has developed a neat little trick that I believe you will both be interested in.”

  Apophis looked intrigued. “Oh really?” she said.

  Without warning, Sisera picked up a large stone and hurled it at Isabella. Shayla immediately jumped forward to try and deflect the large stone with a fireball but the distance was too short and the stone had almost reached the young girl by the time she had a ball formed. Suddenly the purple flame shield, appeared, stopping the stone in mid-flight.

  “Whoa.” Shayla stood, slack-jawed, her fireball fizzling.

  “That is incredible!” Apophis said.

  Again, Isabella turned and glared at Sisera. The dragon just grinned and shrugged.

  “Have you ever seen anything like that before?” Sisera asked Apophis, trying to avoid Isabella’s stare.

  “In all my days, I have never.” The Alpha shook her head. She looked to Isabella. “You did not mention this ability as all last night. Why is that?”

  Isabella looked down in shame. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem important at the time. To be honest, I don’t really think about it.”

  “This could be the most important thing ever to happen. This could change the outcome of the war drastically in favor of our side,” Apophis said.

  “I just didn’t think that it was that big of a deal. It doesn’t stop magic so it can’t be that great of an ability,” Isabella said.

  “Well, we will have to test it. Perhaps, there is some way for you to control it,” Apophis said. She turned to Shayla. “Go find Brendoth immediately.”

  Isabella tried to calm her nerves as she watched Shayla hop on to the back of her huge dragon. The older girl met her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. Isabella returned the smile, feeling a little less nervous. She sat on the cool grass to wait, bit also so she would not fall from her knees shaking so badly.

  When Brendoth flew over the mountain a few minutes later, Caritha was not with him which set off Isabella’s anxieties again. She scanned the skies, desperately looking for her friend but with no success.

  Sisera and Isabella displayed what they knew about the protective purple flame. Sisera threw rocks, which only triggered the shield when Isabella had no idea the attack was coming. When she could see the projectile she did not need the shield because her reaction was to just get out of the way.

  “This is truly a mystery,” Brendoth said eventually, shaking his head. “How does it react to magic?”

  “The only thing that we have tried is Sisera blowing fire on me. It does not trigger the shield but the attack doesn’t have any effect on me regardless,” Isabella said in reply.

  “Perhaps an attack from another dragon?” Apophis said.

  “We are not going to try that.” Sisera was immediately defensive. She instinctively moved in front of Isabella.

  “No need for that,” Brendoth said. “We are not going to hurt her but we have to test her limits. Apophis has an amazing healing magic, as I’m sure you know, should anything go wrong.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous,” Sisera said, stamping her feet, insisting, preparing for a fight.

  “It’s okay,” Isabella mindlinked. “We have to do this or we will always be guessing.”

  “But…”

  Isabella put her hand up to stop whatever argument the dragon had. She stood in front of Apophis and Brendoth. “What do we do?”

  Brendoth turned his head to check with Apophis. The alpha nodded her head.

  “Over here, dragonkin.” Brendoth ushered the young girl to a clear area. He checked to make sure Apophis was watching her, then leaped into the air. He pumped his wings and gained some height. The huge dragon suddenly twisted in the air and sent a barrage of icy needles toward Isabella. Sure enough, the flame shield appeared, destroying the icicles on contact.

  “That is truly amazing,” said Apophis. “This is very, very good for our cause.”

  Brendoth landed next to Apophis. “That is something for sure,” he said, shaking his head. He gestured to Apophis and the two dragons walked to the other side of the field to speak in private.

  Isabella and Sisera both breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  “That was terrifying,” Isabella mindlinked.

  “You are telling me,” Sisera said. “I have seen him use that attack before. It always ended poorly for the one on the receiving end.”

  “So, what does this mean?”

  “I guess it means that you are impenetrable.” Sisera shrugged.

  Isabella thought about the implications of what that meant. “And I suppose that means I will have to take on greater responsibility, right?”

  “Yeah. Most likely.”

  “Great,” Isabella said with a melancholy tone.

  She stared at her feet, kicking stones. “I will never get any time to be with Makal,” she thought.

  Apophis and Brendoth finished their conference and approached the bonded pair, who were nervously waiting.

  “Stay here and train,” Brendoth said directly, a commanding tone in his voice.

  Apophis nudged him with her wing and gave him a distasteful look.

  “What he means is, would you consider staying here with us, to train your skills?” she said.

  Isabella looked at Sisera. She could see that the dragon had perked up at the prospect of the idea.

  “It would be more beneficial for me to train with the dragons,” she thought. “Rather than go back to the tower where I am on my own.” The idea of leaving the Tower, though, made her heart hurt. The Tower of Kings had not been her home for long but it was the only place in the world that she would consider calling a home.

  “I don’t know…”
She started to speak but lost any words that were to follow. She was so confused.

  “Think about it,” said Apophis. “Continue your training with Shayla and we will come back to this conversation at another time.”

  Isabella nodded that she agreed it was a good idea. She was not ready to make a huge, life-altering decision right now.

  “We will see you this evening,” Apophis said and flew off with Brendoth shortly behind her.

  Isabella and Sisera went off in search of Shayla. They found her with Caritha, lounging by a small pool. The older girl smiled and waved them over.

  “How’s it going?” Shayla asked excitedly.

  Isabella sat on the beach next to Shayla and told the story.

  “So, you have no idea where it came from? You don’t have a similar ability?” Shayla asked, nodding at Sisera, who was baking in the sun, next to Caritha.

  “No.” The dragon shook her head and pointed a wing at the white-red lying next to her. “This one’s egg got all the special powers.”

  Shayla laughed. “Well, I wish I would have an ability like that. It is truly amazing.”

  The white-red rolled over. “Be happy with what you got or I’ll take them away,” Caritha said, sleepily.

  Isabella laughed, then stopped. “Can she do that?” she asked seriously.

  Shayla turned to her and burst out laughing. “No, she can’t do that.”

  “Oh, good,” Isabella said, relieved. “I don’t know what I would do without them now.”

  Shayla jumped up. “Well, let’s put them to some use,” she said, extending out her hand to Isabella. “Let’s go and hone those skills.”

  Isabella took the offered hand and stood up. “What did you have in mind?”

  “A race. Around the island,” Shayla said, smiling. “Loser hunts dinner.”

  “You’re on.” Isabella laughed.

  “And, go,” Shayla shouted and took off running down the beach. Caritha suddenly leaped to her feet and took off after her. Fifty yards down the beach, Shayla jumped high into the air and landed on her dragon’s back, as the beast took off.

  Isabella stood, looking slightly stunned. “Sisera, get up,” she shouted, “We’re losing.”

  The gold-purple rolled over and groaned. “No. You are losing.”

  “Come on, steed.” Isabella urged Sisera and took off running down the beach, following Shayla’s rapidly disappearing form.

  Isabella ran down the beach, without looking back. When she reached the edge of the beach she leaped into the air, kicking her legs over to perform a back flip. As she turned over in the air, she looked back and saw her dragon slowly get to her feet. Suddenly, Sisera launched herself toward Isabella, leaving a giant hole and a storm of sand in her wake. As Isabella completed the flip, Sisera flew underneath so the girl could land on the dragon’s back.

  “To victory,” Isabella shouted, her face beaming. She threw her arm into the air as they flew after the white-red and her bonded.

  40

  Kai opened one eye to find Rosalie bent over top of him with a hand on his forehead.

  “He’s awake,” she said, turning her head.

  Kai tried to blink. He could not open his right eye. He also had a splitting headache, but he seemed all right otherwise. He wiggled his fingers and toes, all of them still worked.

  “How are you feeling?” Rosalie asked, looking deeply concerned.

  “My head hurts.” Kai managed to squeak out the words. “Water?”

  Rosalie lifted a canteen to his lips and slowly wetted his mouth, easing it open to relieve the dryness. Kai sipped at the cool liquid, relieved that he had survived whatever had attacked him. What was it? His head was throbbing.

  Raven! He tried to sit up but sharp pains shot up his sides.

  “Whoa there,” Rosalie said as she pushed him back down. “Not too fast. You’re in bad shape.”

  “Raven. Where’s Raven?” Kai managed to whisper even though speaking caused pain to shoot through his face.

  “She’s gone. We don’t know where,” Jaime said, stepping into Kai’s limited vision. “When I arrived, she was still beating you, although you were already unconscious.”

  Kai looked up at Jaime, trying to focus on his face. After a few seconds, his vision cleared and he could see that his friend did not escape unscathed. Jaime’s face was bruised and swollen, much like his own, Kai imagined.

  “Yeah, she got me too,” Jaime said, noticing that Kai was looking at him. “I jumped on her back to try to stop her. She stopped beating on you and started beating on me. That woman is fierce. I managed to escape her by climbing up onto the roof of the balcony. As soon as I got up there, she lost interest in me. I thought she might turn back to you, but she just left. I immediately got down and checked on you. Thankfully you were still breathing. Rosalie came out of her hiding spot and tended to your wounds while I tried to go after her. I couldn’t find her and no one that I asked had seen her. I have a couple of squadrons of Daxrah searching for her now.”

  Kai closed his one good eye. What happened to Raven? Why would she attack him like that? The thoughts ran through Kai’s mind repeatedly.

  Rosalie placed her hand on the back of his head and raised the canteen to his lips. He let the cool liquid run in. The water loosened the cement that held his mouth shut. Rosalie then spread a healing salve on his face, wrapping it loosely with light bandages. She repeated the process wherever he had deep bruises. She took a little blue vial from the pouch on her belt and broke it open, pouring the contents into a small cup. She measured a few drops of water into the cup and mixed it with a smooth wooden stick. She had Kai drink the concoction.

  “Wha…” Kai tried to form a question but found that he was unable.

  “It’s a healing potion. It speeds up the effects of the ointment that I have spread on your wounds.” Rosalie looked deep into his one good eye and smiled reassuringly. Whenever she had that look, Kai knew that something was not right.

  “Hurmp…” Kai could not seem to get his mouth to do what his brain wanted it to.

  “Just rest, my dear.” Rosalie put her hand on his forehead, gently pushing his head into the pillow.

  Kai did not try to resist. He was so tired. He closed his eye and let sleep take him.

  When Kai awoke, he opened his eye. The only thing he could see was a dark ceiling. He suddenly had a bad feeling. It was too dark. He lifted his head, which he did not have as much trouble doing. The room was completely dark, except for a few thin beams of light coming in through cracks in the window shades.

  “These are my quarters,” he thought to himself. “Did they move me here, or was I here the whole time?”

  He tried to move his legs and found them to be responsive but sluggish. Kai slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, and scanned the room. All the candles had been extinguished and there was no fire in the hearth. He could make out the equipment Rosalie had used in his healing process but she was nowhere to be seen.

  “Ros…” he tried to call out.

  “Shut up.”

  A familiar voice cut him off.

  “Just lay back and keep quiet. Trust me.”

  Kai followed the voice's instructions. He knew the voice but why could he not place match the voice to a face or a name. His head was no longer throbbing but it still did seem cloudy. He lay as still as he possibly could and listened intently. He could hear no sounds. Nothing at all. For a moment, he thought perhaps he had lost his hearing when suddenly the door swung open, flooding the room with light.

  “You check that side. Be thorough,” a deep, male voice whispered.

  Kai could barely make out the movement but he counted two sets of footsteps. He held his breath the best he could.

  “It’s clear. Lock the door and move on the next one,” the voice said a few minutes later.

  Kai watched the light disappear when the door shut. There was a sound that he could not identify then all was quiet again.

  “They’re g
one,” said the familiar voice. “Remain still, though. You are still healing. The less you move the better right now. I know you have questions and I will answer them the best I can in time. Right now, you must trust me.”

  Kai was about to protest but Camdyn appeared in his field of vision. He felt a wave of relief. His mentor gave him a reassuring nod and disappeared from his view. Kai relaxed his full trust in the old man.

  Kai shut his eyes and sleep quickly took over him.

  When he woke, the room the completely dark. The thin beams of light had disappeared. He listened for any sound but could hear none.

  “Camdyn,” he whispered as quietly as he possibly could.

  “I’m here,” came a whispered reply, somewhere to the right of him. “Don’t move too quickly.”

  Kai sat up slowly, propping himself up on one elbow. Most of the pain he felt had dwindled away to almost nothing. He looked around but could find no sign of his friend.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “We’ve been attacked again. Those Sacred Blood bastards again, best I can figure,” Camdyn said. “Started the same way as last time, fire on the outskirts of the village. It spread fast this time though, consuming most of the village. Everyone was out there working to fight it. And, when I say everyone, I mean everyone. There was not a soul left within the Tower walls, except for you. Most of the villagers were working to protect the west village while the Daxrah and the Tower guard fought the fires on the front lines.

  “Wait,” Kai shook his head in disbelief. “How long was I out for?”

  “This is day five.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that we are the only survivors?” Kai was stunned.

  “Are you daft? I was told she kicked you in the noggin a few times, so that could explain it.”

  “What is happening then?”

  “Well, somehow they snuck into the Tower and shut the gates.”

  “They what?” Kai could not process all that he was hearing.