Kai pulled himself up off the ground and followed her out. As he entered the yard he was again shocked at how much killing had taken place. Hundreds of bodies lay in the light of the morning sun.
“Kai,” Shayla shouted. “I need help.”
He looked toward the machines to find that both Sisera and Caritha were still alive but caught in the contraptions.
Kai ran over to Shayla who was attempting to release the lock on the nets.
“Forget about us,” Sisera said. “The hot house. Isabella followed some man and Raven in.”
“Raven,” Kai shouted, “What about Raven?”
“She’s in there. She’s different, though. Something has happened to her,” Sisera said.
Kai began to run as fast as he could to the converted warehouse, only to be beaten there by the dragonblood girl. When Kai entered through the door, he immediately found Shayla, kneeling on the floor.
“What’s going…” he began to ask before his mind registered what he was looking at. In the warehouse was Raven standing next to a big man in dark armor and a forest green cloak, who had a strip of purple wrapped around his raised wrist and forearm.
Kai suddenly realized that the man was somehow holding Isabella in place using magic.
“Release her,” he said in his most commanding voice.
“Why would I do that?” came the reply.
“Because all your people are dead. It is just you against us, and there are more of us than there are of you,” said Kai, forcefully.
The big man chuckled. “We’ll see about that,” he said as he reached into his cloak.
49
“Your options are running out, Kader,” Tarak thought to himself, as he looked around the warehouse, a little mournful that he would not get the chance to fully study the wonders within. He reached beneath his cloak and found the pocket containing the packet of ingredients he needed.
Tarak watched the man from the shop in Bridgewater intently. The Daxrah commander did not look like he was in any shape for a fight at the given moment.
“Perhaps we will battle another day,” Tarak thought, slightly disappointed.
The man began to walk forward and Tarak could see that there was something off with the way he moved.
“On your knees,” Tarak shouted. “Or I will crush this sweet, innocent girl.”
The High Priest lifted the girl higher into the air for effect and the man immediately dropped to his knees next to the other dragonblood.
“You are a sworn protector of the dragonbloods,” he said to the Daxrah. “You do it poorly.”
Tarak could tell he struck a chord because no matter how hard the man tried to hide his emotion, the shame showed through. He pointed at Raven, standing perfectly still, staring blankly through her long hair that hung loose in front of her face.
“You couldn’t even protect those closest to you,” he shouted. “You couldn’t see it coming because of your own arrogance. You know that, right? You allowed all this to happen because you didn’t have the skills necessary to see the signs.”
“You are right. It is all my fault,” the man shouted back. “Take me instead. Let her go unharmed and you can have me. You will be allowed to walk out of here. You have my word.”
Tarak laughed. “You don’t think that I can walk out of here without your permission? You clearly have no idea what is happening right now. I am taking this filthblood. She is mine now. I am going to walk out of this hole with her and you will not stop me.”
“All your men are dead. All of them. Do you really think that you will make it back to hell before we hunt you down?”
“Why, yes I do. You are weak. Your people are weak. You know nothing of what true power is. You protect these children who play with magic as if it were a toy, performing sideshow tricks with their pet reptiles. It’s pathetic,” Tarak said. “All you do is disrupt the natural flow of time. Certain things are meant to happen in this world but the presence of the wyrms prevent them from coming to pass. Their time is done. It is time for mankind to arise and become something much greater than we are. Until every last dragon is dead, the gods will not allow that to happen. You would rather us revert to the days of servitude, slaves to the magic lizards. I am no man’s slave, and I will leave this world before I bow to a beast.”
Tarak used the telekinesis spell to slam the dragonblood girl into the ground to emphasize his point. This action caused a curious purple flame to appear between her body and the floor, absorbing the impact for her.
“Isn’t that interesting,” he thought to himself.
He used the powerful magic to pin the girl to the floor for a moment before raising her up a few yards in the air. She struggled but the magic was strong and it coursed through every stitch of armor she wore.
He was getting better at controlling the magical armor. The girl’s armor was specially made by Brotherhood Builders that were secretly planted in the village months ago. The armor was made using specially enchanted fabric that Tarak had to have shipped in from the far east. It allowed a person who had the some of the fabric, as well as the correct spell, to control the wearer as if they were a puppet. He had some practice using the arcane eastern magic but his ability was still in its infancy.
One thing he was not prepared for was his bracers shattering in the fall after killing the dragon. He couldn’t hold spells with them anymore so he was now limited to one at a time, which was an incredible disadvantage when he was outnumbered. Also, without them, he was not able to create elaborate illusions but he did have one trick that he was saving in case of emergency.
“Take me.”
The soft but determined voice caused the room to silence. Tarak turned his attention to the speaker, the other dragonblood.
“Take me,” she repeated. “I’m also a dragonblood. More powerful than she is. It would be impossible for you to capture us both so take me instead.”
Tarak considered the option. There would be no way for him to control her because she was not wearing a stitch of the magical fabric that allowed him to use the eastern puppet spell. “I could not afford to take the chance.” He thought to himself.
“No,” he said, his magically enhanced voice booming through the growing house. “She is mine. I have claimed her. I will take her powers then I will return for you.”
“You’re confident about yourself. There are two hundred reserve soldiers on their way here, right now. You will never escape,” the Daxrah said.
“That’s it? I was expecting a challenge,” Tarak said aloud but inside he was beginning to get nervous. He needed a miracle if he wanted to escape with the dragonblood girl.
Tarak cursed Omar and his insistence on capturing a live dragon. It would have been much less complicated to just kill the dragon and focus on capturing the filthblood.
He prepared to use the ingredient packet to cast when from behind him he heard a soft voice calling his name.
“Santaal? Thank the gods,” he thought.
Still clutching the dragonblood girl, using the telekinetic link, Tarak backed toward the other end of the warehouse. The girl floated through the air while remaining six yards away. She was visibly trying to struggle but the magic held her tight.
“Heel,” Tarak said and Raven turned to follow him. With any luck, he could dose her again before the potion, that was keeping her under his control, wore off. She turned out to be a valuable asset and he would hate to have her turn on him unexpectedly.
“Tarak,” Santaal called, entering the warehouse through the door at the other end.
Tarak looked over his shoulder to see his brother and a wave of relief passed through him. The feeling did not last long though as the other dragonblood girl took advantage of his momentary distraction and was rushing towards him, flaming balls forming in his hands.
Tarak cursed. There would be no way for him to retain his hold on one while fighting the other and cast his spell all at the same time.
“Protect me,” he called and Ra
ven leaped into battle, tackling the dragonblood before she reached Tarak. They rolled to the side, knocking over a table with planters of medium sized fern bushes, and came to a stop with Raven on top. The huge warrior woman began to drop heavy fists on the girl, who threw her arms up to protect herself from the blows.
Tarak caught a glimpse of movement and looked up to find the point of an arrow a mere foot away, suspended in the air. The Daxrah had pulled his bow and fired. Tarak looked over his shoulder to find that Santaal had saved him from an arrow through the head. His brother had caught the projectile in a holding bubble, a spell traditionally used for hunting or moving objects around.
The Daxrah recovered quickly from the surprise of not hitting his mark and send a barrage of arrows toward Tarak, who dove to the side. He pulled the gold and purple dragonblood girl through the air and held her in between himself and the archer, as a shield.
“Now is the time, I guess,” Tarak thought to himself and broke open the packet with his fingers.
When he cast the spell, the packet began to smoke, lightly at first but within seconds, thick black smoke poured out. Suddenly, shapes began to form in the smoke and solidify into black ash copies of Tarak. Soon there were seven smoke men standing between Tarak and the Daxrah. The smoke men began to run toward the kneeling archer, who pulled a sword from his scabbard to defend himself.
“Now is our chance,” Tarak thought. He looked for Santaal so he could give him the signal to escape but his brother was now locked in battle with the other dragonblood girl, alongside of Raven.
Tarak could feel the magical energy he was using to maintain the spell on the purple dragonblood girl being replenished from the amulet pressed against his chest but he began to worry about how long he could hold it for. He had no idea how much power he could take from the amulet before it inevitably ran dry so he had to hurry.
He checked to make sure the Daxrah was still tied up fighting the smoke men before he moved to help his brother. The Daxrah was fighting fiercely, despite his obvious injuries.
Just then there was an explosion of magical fire. Tarak’s head snapped around to find the dragonblood girl casting small fireballs. Santaal was deflecting them using a strong shield spell. One fireball struck the overhead apparatus and the contraption exploded, sending small purple crystals raining down.
The crystals began to glow brightly as they absorbed the immense amount of magic that was in the room. Suddenly, Tarak lost the magical tether between the purple dragonblood and himself. The girl landed on the floor and was immediately pulled to safety by the Daxrah. Tarak cursed again and attempted to reconnect the spell but without success.
“What is happening?”
Tarak heard his brother shout but before he could reply the bright light from the crystals began to cut into him. The light was got so bright that it hurt him to look at it anymore so he tightly shut his eyes but the pain remained. He felt like it was tearing him apart and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Just as quickly as it began, the pain receded, the light faded, and there was nothing but silence.
Tarak slowly opened his eyes. He was no longer in the warehouse. Instead, he found himself in a dark cavern. He looked around to find the unmoving bodies of Santaal, Raven, and the wrong dragonblood girl.
“What happened?” he thought to himself. He lay back on the hard stone ground and faded into unconsciousness.
50
Kai sat on the parapet of the outer wall staring out at the abandoned village in the afternoon sun. He expected to be full of rage and emotion but he found that he was just numb. The images from the night before filled his thoughts but, strangely, that was not enough to reignite the flame inside of him.
“Where did they go?”
He kept coming back to the question. He just could not wrap his mind around it. Seeing four people disappear into thin air had broken something in his mind.
“It’s just shock. It will go away soon enough,” Adina had said when she checked him over. She had arrived with Amelia, at first light, after receiving the message that the battle was over.
Although they had suffered huge losses, they had successfully defended their home for a second time, which was something Kai was grateful for. He could not help but blame himself for the oversights that led them to where they were. It was something he would have to learn to live with but it was still fresh in his mind.
“Kai.” The familiar voice came from behind him.
“Lady Isabella,” he greeted her without turning around.
“Rosalie asked me to check in on you,” the young dragonblood said.
Kai could tell from her body language that there was much more than that to her seeking him out. He was more than a little surprised that she had been released by Adina so soon considering what she had endured.
“I’m fine,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“I recovered quickly. Dragon magic.” She shrugged. “I just wanted to tell you that Adina has some news regarding the disappearance.”
Kai perked up. “Does she know what happened?” he asked.
Isabella shook her head. “She asked me to come get you.”
Kai struggled to pull himself to his feet as his strength still had not fully returned. Isabella tucked her arm underneath his left armpit and hoisted him up. Kai nodded a thank you and, using the girl as a crutch, hobbled toward the entrance to the Tower.
As they descended the stairs into the main yard, he looked around at the bloody field of battle. The machines that had captured the dragons still remained intact though the beasts had been released. What was left of the Daxrah and the Tower guard, as well as the few villagers that chose to return to Mara, loaded the piles of corpses into the giant metal nets. Sisera and Caritha disposed of their fellow dragon, who had been lost in battle before they returned to carry the nets off to the ocean. The ground, however, was still soaked in blood.
“There is already talk that the Tower is cursed,” Isabella said.
Kai stepped gingerly around several pools of gathered blood before he said. “Who is saying this?” he asked.
“Everyone,” she said. “I can’t help but agree with them. Nothing but bad stuff has happened to us here.”
Kai nodded. He could only agree.
“Adina has a few ideas about where we could go.” She continued. “Sisera wants to accompany Caritha back to Apophis first, though.”
“Are you feeling well enough?” he asked flatly.
Kai thought back to the previous night when Isabella had been caught, and rendered helpless, by the Sacred Blood priest. Luckily, Kai had managed to destroy the ash monsters that the priest had sent to fight him just in time to see the magical tether disappear. As soon as Kai saw Isabella fall from the air, he rushed forward and grabbed her, dragging her to safety but by then it was all over.
“Where did they go?” he asked himself again.
“Like I said before, dragon magic,” she said, bringing Kai back to the present.
Kai pulled open the door to the main hall and let the dragonblood girl enter before him. They walked to the reception hall where Amelia was sitting with Adina, Rosalie, Jaime, and Hamza. They all rose when the pair walked into the hall.
Jaime rushed over to relieve Isabella of her burden, although she was not struggling at all. He led Kai to an unoccupied bench and helped him sit. Rosalie walked over and sat next to him, looping her arm through his to hold him up.
Kai looked back and forth between her and Adina. “Trollseed?” he asked hopefully but both women shook their heads.
Amelia remained standing and addressed the group. “We won the day but now we must make some hard decisions. I, for one, do not wish to remain here, at the Tower. Too much has happened here and it no longer feels like home. Do any of you disagree with this?”
Kai looked around to find everyone shaking their heads.
“Adina has presented me with an idea that I feel would make a suitable plan for the time being. Ad
ina, would you care to explain?” Amelia found a seat as the old witch stood up.
“There is a mining town to the west of here. It is fairly remote and hidden but more importantly, it is easily defensible. A downside is that the town is already occupied by a sizable group of inflicted people and their caretakers.”
“Is this the mine where those crystals came from?” Kai asked, visions of the purple glow that consumed his friend, as well as their enemies, came to his mind.
“Yes.” Adina hesitated as she composed herself to answer the inevitable question. “That is the main reason I thought of the place. To my knowledge, nothing like that has ever happened before. From your descriptions, Kai, the crystals definitely played a role in the incident but I don’t know how or why. I need to further study the crystals so I can discern what happened. It could be a spell that this Tark fellow cast or a combination of the magic and crystals. It could even be a property of the crystals that has gone undiscovered. I won’t know until I do tests and an endless supply of them could be very helpful. Also, we are in close enough proximity that I can return here if need be.”
“Tarak,” Kai said. “The other Brother called out the name Tarak.”
“Yes, well, I will send pigeons to a few friends I have to find out more about this Tarak,” Adina said. “In the meantime, are we agreed to go to the mine?”
Before anyone could answer, Isabella stood up. “I think it is a great idea to send people to the mines if they are willing to have us. I won’t have us take over someone else’s home.”
“Some people?” asked Kai.
“Yes, some people. I think it is obvious that the current situation is not tenantable, but I will not abandon the tower, and until the tower and village are cleaned up we need a temporary place to put people.”
“Isabell—” said Amelia.
Isabella raised her hand. Stopping her mother before she could say anything. “I’m not changing my mind on this. I am staying here.”
Kai stared at Isabella. He’d never seen her look or sound so much like her mother, so much like a queen.
Sisera's Gift 2: Sacred Blood Page 33
