School of Swords and Serpents Boxset: Books 1 - 3 (Hollow Core, Eclipse Core, Chaos Core)

by Gage Lee

  “Hush,” I whispered. “We’re almost there.”

  Hagar paused at the edge of the cave and peered into the darkness. I waited, a few yards back on the bridge in case we needed to turn and run. After a few breaths, when nothing attacked her, she turned back and offered me a shrug.

  “Our people say we can see the training grounds from the ledge up ahead,” Hagar whispered to me once we’d all entered the cavern. “The Shambala team should be there for at least another half hour. Hopefully that’s enough time.”

  “It will be,” Niddhogg agreed. “Let’s see what they have to show us.”

  The three of us hustled across the narrow cavern to an even narrower opening in its wall. The moonlight illuminated it like a jagged crack of lightning in the darkness. It was wide enough for Hagar to squeeze through if she held her breath, and Niddhogg made it without effort. I was taller and thicker than my handler, though. I took a deep breath, let it out, and then wedged myself into the crack.

  The stone clutched at the material of my robes, pulling it tight across my body and tangling my arms and legs as I tried to force my way through the stones. It was a tight fit, and I heard a few seams pop and stitches rip before I reached the halfway point. The narrowed, and a spark of panic burst through my aura. If I got stuck here...

  “Tight squeeze,” Hagar commented. “Please don’t get stuck.”

  “That doesn’t help,” I whispered.

  I was wedged tight between the stone walls. A knob of rock pressed against my sternum, and another had wedged itself into my hip. My bones and muscles were strengthened by my disciple-level core, but that didn’t entirely blunt the pain. The harder I struggled, the worse it hurt. I was going to have a hell of a bruise by the time I got through this.

  If I got through this.

  I took another shallow breath and forced all the air from my lungs. At the same instant, I jerked hard toward the opposite end of the crack. My robes tore, the stone bit into my skin hard enough to cut me, and I gained a few more inches. My right arm was free.

  An arm outside the crevice let me apply more of my strength to the problem. If my core hadn’t been damaged, I could’ve cycled jinsei, pushed the sacred energy into my channels, and dragged myself out easily. As it was, I had to rely on my natural strength. I shoved once, twice, then again, and finally scraped my way free of the crack. My robes were in disarray, the shirt beneath them torn, and blood trickled from a pair of ugly scrapes across my lower back and chest.

  “Glad you could make it,” Hagar said. “This way.”

  She led Niddhogg and me along a narrow ledge. The wind tugged at us, threatening to rip us off our perches and send us plummeting to the stone bowl beneath us. The ledge grew steadily wider over the next twenty yards, until it met a broad, crumbling parapet with a low wall that faced the training grounds below. We all crouched down and peered over the edge of the stone and finally saw our foes in action.

  The practice arena they battled in was impossibly old. The stone statues that ringed it had long lost any sense of definition or detail as they’d grown weathered over the millennia. Their long, sinuous shapes told me they’d once been dragons, but now they could’ve been the knotty roots of enormous trees, or stylized waves crashing on a beach. Inside the ring formed by the statues, the sloped walls of the arena flattened out into a stone floor of massive granite tiles. The square stones had held their shape better than the statues, though their edges were worn and crumbling. They’d once formed an intricate mosaic, but now it was impossible to make out anything but subtle shadings and patterns hidden by layers of dust and gravel.

  The dragons moved across the arena in a loose line. They each held a different fusion blade, and I noted that Trulissinangoth wielded an impressive curved blade nearly as long as she was tall. Despite the weapon’s ponderous size, she wielded it with ease. The way she twirled it around and tossed it from one hand to another made it seem light and nimble.

  “They’re strong,” Niddhogg whispered. “Even these younglings could lift a few hundred pounds without breaking a sweat. Don’t be fooled by those big weapons. They’re fast and can switch from defense to offense in the blink of an eye.”

  “That’s comforting,” Hagar said with a smirk. “How are we supposed to deal with that?”

  Niddhogg was silent as we watched the dragons close in on an arc of humanoid constructs. The artificial soldiers were human-sized and bore sturdy rectangular shields and long, straight swords. Individually, the constructs wouldn’t be much of a match for any one of the dragons. This group, though, thirty in all, seemed like a serious threat to even five of the younglings. The dragons must have reached the same conclusion, because they grouped up into a loose formation that allowed them to protect one another’s flanks while still giving them room to attack with their oversized weapons. They approached the constructs without hesitation. Though they clearly believed they’d win this fight, they didn’t take any unnecessary risks. They halted just outside their opponents’ reach and braced themselves for the attack.

  The constructs were just as organized as the dragons. They paired up along the arc of their formation and moved to encircle the Shambala team. They were also careful to stay out of the dragons’ reach and kept their shields raised high to protect their bodies and the lower halves of their faces. Their mechanical steps clanked across the stone and echoed through the arena. Their superior numbers allowed them to nearly surround the dragons, who rearranged their formation into a defensive circle.

  Trulissinangoth shouted a single syllable command, and her team brandished their weapons. The threads of jinsei that surrounded the team at her command were visible even from this distance. The sacred energy bolstered the team’s members and bound them together. It was an impressive feat, and I had no idea how they’d done it. Their cores weren’t tied together, exactly, but they were loosely connected. It wasn’t long before I saw the reason behind the technique.

  The constructs charged without warning. Silver light flashed from their joints as they surged forward, and sacred energy crackled across their bodies. They moved with inhuman speed, and a shock wave of dust rose behind them. The constructs whipped their shields across their bodies in a backhanded strike that knocked the dragons’ weapons out of line, then lunged forward in a synchronized thrust. Their sharp tips streaked toward the dragons with lightning speed.

  It was hard for me to imagine how the dragons would survive this carefully orchestrated attack. Their weapons were out of defensive position. As fast as they were, the constructs’ blades formed a thicket of deadly points that left the dragons nowhere to dodge. Despite the fact that it would make my life a lot easier if the entire Shambala team was murdered by their sparring constructs, I held my breath in dread anticipation.

  The dragons moved as one within the noose of blades that closed around them. While each dragon’s weapon was out of position to defend him or herself, they were close enough they could defend their partners. The dragons’ fusion blades spun like turbines. In the blink of an eye, the Shambala team was surrounded by a barrier of whirling sacred energy. Sparks flew where those jinsei weapons slammed into the steel blades of the constructs. A rattling series of high-pitched cracks accompanied the sparks, and suddenly the arena’s stone floor was littered with shattered blades.

  “They disarmed them all,” Hagar whispered.

  “They’re stronger than I thought,” Niddhogg said. “You’ll want to stay out of their reach.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” I muttered. I’d brought the little dragon here to find some flaw in my opponents, not celebrate how strong they were. “Any idea how we can take them out?”

  “I’ll keep watching.” Niddhogg settled down next to me, wings flattened against his back.

  With their opponents flat-footed and weaponless, the dragons moved to the attack. Their fusion blades shattered their enemies’s shields and drove the constructs onto their heels. With a roar, the Shambala team thrust their heads forward and un
leashed streams of fire in green, red, blue, gold, and silver. The flames speared through the constructs, bursting mechanical heads and shattering armored torsos. The dragons followed through, sweeping their blades to shatter their foes’ legs before the constructs hit the ground. The dragons fell back into a defensive posture just as quickly as they’d struck. They cycled more jinsei into their cores and waited for the next challenge to appear.

  More constructs emerged from hidden doorways at the arena’s edges. These were armed with longbows and wore quivers of arrows across their backs.

  “How do we defeat that?” Hagar slumped down against the wall, her back to the arena, her legs sprawled out in front of her. Even her red Mohawk seemed deflated by the seemingly impossible task that lay before us.

  “Maybe we won’t have to fight them directly,” Niddhogg offered. “You didn’t face them in the first two challenges.”

  “And that’s exactly why I’m sure we’ll face them now,” I said. While my two companions seemed dejected by the challenge we would certainly face, I couldn’t help but be exhilarated by what I’d seen. My whole life had been a struggle against impossible odds. I’d done my very best when my back was pushed against the wall. Even with a hollow core, and no one to guide me, I’d beaten impossible odds to achieve victory.

  I refused to believe the coming challenges would be any different.

  “We should go,” Hagar said. “Watching this isn’t doing my confidence any favors.”

  “Wait.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “I want to see the rest of their practice.”

  The dragons burned the archers’ arrows out of the sky with their flaming breath, then charged in to shatter the constructs with powerful swipes of their fusion blades. It was a stunning display of raw power that showed me the dragons were even stronger than I’d imagined.

  But even the strongest of creatures have a weakness. I just had to find it.

  And, as the constructs reset for their next exercise, I realized the answer could be right in front of me. I counted slowly. When I reached thirty, the next set of constructs appeared and the scrimmage began again. This time, the dragons faced off against creatures that were much faster than they were, but also much more lightly armored. The Shambala team defended themselves with the same spinning blade technique they’d used against the sword circle and used their breath to finish the fight.

  I started counting again.

  The next set of attackers, enormous constructs with massive axes and armor plating so thick I couldn’t imagine even the dragons’ fire cutting through it, appeared around the dragons when I reached the count of thirty.

  The dragons handily dispatched these new enemies, as well. Rather than a brute strength attack, they focused precise strikes against the large constructs’ joints. Fusion blades carved through knees and ankles to bring the constructs down. Dragons darted in and unleashed gouts of breathed fire through the chinks in the armored plating to reach the delicate mechanisms within. One by one, the oversized constructs collapsed onto the stone, silver jinsei leaking from their ruptured joints.

  The dragons’ breath no longer cycled easily. They took deep, gulping breaths and exhaled in noisy bursts. That had been an impressive workout. They’d dismantled dozens of constructs with only the briefest of pauses between rounds. I scratched my chin and considered that. They were strong and fast. They had natural armor and breath attacks that could blast through metal as easily as an arrow through a sheet of paper. Those flames would have no trouble burning away robes and the flesh beneath.

  I considered our dilemma, and a slow smile creeped across my features.

  Of course. The dragons did have a weakness.

  Now I just had to find a way to survive long enough to exploit it.

  The Plan

  KNOWING HOW TO TAKE down the dragons was not the same as doing it. After I explained my ideas to Hagar and Niddhogg, the dragon nodded slowly.

  “It’ll work, but it’s going to be hard, kid.” Niddhogg scratched his chin as he fluttered along beside me. “If you make even one mistake, or if you misjudge the timing, that’ll be the end of you. And your team.”

  “Sounds like a typical Jace plan,” Hagar said. “How far will the rest of us have to stick our necks out to make this work?”

  “Not far.” I shouted to be heard over the wind wailing past the bridge. “We need something to help us resist fire, though.”

  “Professor Shimizu,” Hagar offered. “Maybe he can help us come up with some potions.”

  “Good idea.”

  We were halfway across the bridge when a gust of freezing wind blasted across us. A shadow swept overhead, and the leathery thump of flapping wings drew our attention to the sky.

  “Run!” Hagar’s feet pounded the boards and sent dancing vibrations down the bridge’s length.

  A dragon twice the size of Elushinithoc wheeled through the sky above us. It hovered there for a moment, then vanished behind a passing cloud.

  I chased after Hagar and we plunged into the cavern just ahead of another gust of freezing air that sent Niddhogg shooting past us, his stubby wings flapping wildly to avoid a collision with the rough stone walls.

  The wind whipped Hagar’s hair around the top of her head like a crown of fire. I caught a glimpse of a wilder, more dangerous version of her than I’d ever known. There was something in her eyes that warned me that the woman I saw at school was not very much at all like the woman who went on secret missions for my clan. She winked at me, then raced to the portal and vanished.

  The wind kicked up again and carried a rich floral scent to me on its icy breath. An enormous shadow passed the cavern’s entrance, and a much stronger gust of wind blew a drift of snow across the stone floor. A powerful presence sent tingles of fear racing across my core.

  The dragon was searching for me. The weight of its attention and hunger bore down on me like a tidal wave of power. The sheer enormity of its strength held me in place for long seconds until I finally broke free and ran across the cavern.

  Before the dragon could find me, I slipped through the portal and into Hagar’s secret room inside the School. I opened my mouth to tell her to close the gate, right that second, but she interrupted me with a wagging finger.

  “You attracted some attention.” She smirked and tapped a red light on top of a machine next to the portal. “Look how bright that warning beacon is. Your new friend must be awfully powerful.”

  “Close the portal.” I tried, and failed, to mimic Hagar’s cool demeanor. She acted like there was no danger in the world she couldn’t handle. Not even a dragon I was sure would be headed our way any second. “Please.”

  “You’re no fun,” she said. Before I could ask again, though, she flipped a switch on the machine and the portal vanished with an electric crackle and the stink of ozone. “All gone. You think that was an all-grown-up dragon?”

  “I’d bet a crate of jinsei elixirs that it was.” The encounter had rattled me so badly my heart still pounded. Judging by the shadow, that creature had been immense, with a core powerful enough to match its physical form. It had to be at least two levels higher than me: a full-grown master dragon. “I hope it didn’t see us.”

  “Something that powerful wouldn’t need to see you to identify your core,” Hagar said with a sadistic grin. “I guarantee that dragon recognized the only Eclipse Warrior in the world. I bet he comes to the School looking for your autograph.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time I’d signed an autograph.” I feigned a yawn, despite the horror that boiled inside me at the thought of whatever had been outside the cavern coming after me. I put that thought aside and focused on the more immediate concern. My stomach was growling. “Is it dinnertime?”

  “Definitely,” Niddhogg said. “Let’s eat!”

  “He eats almost as much as Eric.” Hagar paused outside the secret room to let Niddhogg get out of sight, then turned back to fiddle with the door’s lock. “New security measures. I wouldn’t try to break
in here again if I were you.”

  “Don’t pull another weeks-long vanishing act and I won’t have to resort to desperate measures to find you.” I poked Hagar with my elbow, then took off for the dining hall.

  With everything that was going on—the Gauntlet, worries about the heretics’ attacks, the assessments, and the more advanced courses we were all taking—I didn’t see my friends as often as I’d have liked. If we got together more than twice a week, it was a miracle. I was relieved to see they’d all made it to dinner and had places waiting for Hagar and me. I hurried through the buffet line, snatched up plenty of protein and carbs, then forged a path through the crowded dining hall.

  “The gang’s all here,” Eric said and clapped his hands. “Feels like it’s been forever since this happened.”

  “At least since the hospital,” Abi agreed. “It’s good to see you all, my friends.”

  “And it looks like something’s eating Jace,” Clem said. Her impish grin spread from dimple to dimple. “Go ahead, spill it.”

  “I know how to beat the dragons,” I said. Nidhogg, who sat at the other end of the table between Eric and Abi, flapped his wings at that news.

  “You’re sticking with that plan?” He grimaced. “It’s dangerous.”

  “Don’t be such a pessimist, Nidd. So, how do we do it?” Clem asked. She stabbed an asparagus spear with her fork and bit off its tip. “The dragons are faster than we are, they’re stronger than we are, and they can breathe fire. Any one of those would be a problem. All three is a disaster waiting to happen.”

  “Niddhogg’s not the only pessimist,” I teased Clem.

  “I have faith in our fearless leader,” she teased right back, a faint blush rising in her cheeks.

  “The dragons aren’t like us.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice. My friends leaned in, as well. They didn’t want to miss a single word of what I had to say. “They need jinsei to benefit from all three of those advantages you mentioned. Breathing fire? Jinsei. Enhanced speed? Jinsei. Ridiculous strength? Jinsei. Without sacred energy, they’re not nearly as powerful.”