“I got that sneaky sod!” Nester announced.
“Yes, but the others are getting away!” Omari said.
“Forget about them!” Jarial said. “We must help Kaijin!”
Zarya ran her hand over Kaijin’s face, then rested it over his chest. Her touch was soft and soothing.
“Zarya ...” he mumbled.
Zarya nodded and smiled. “Sit up slowly, Kaijin.”
When Kaijin did so, he felt a sudden rush of blood to his head and his vision blurred for a moment. He waited until the sensation passed before focusing on Zarya again. Miele channeled happiness and relief into his mind.
He put his hand over the place on his chest and felt the hole in his clothing. Miraculously, he felt no pain within. “Thank you for healing me,” he said to Zarya. “I thought for sure that ...”
Zarya shook her head. “No, it was not me.” She picked up the bolt from the ground and showed him. “I saw this go into you, but only moments later, it dislodged.” Wrinkling her brow, she held up Kaijin’s hand, on which Ranaiah’s ring was still glowing. “Of course. This must be the reason.”
“The ring?” Kaijin asked, confused.
“A regenerative ring,” Jarial interjected. “A rare and highly-coveted artifact, I might add.”
“Rare and ’ighly-coveted, eh?” Nester stroked his sideburns.
Jarial stiffened. “Don’t even think about it, brownie.”
Kaijin smiled again, his thoughts returning to Ranaiah. Thank you for this. I love you, too.
After the group gathered again, they pressed on, following the kinlings’ distant noises.
Nester stopped before another junction, where a portcullis was halfway lowered. Lights flickered from the room beyond, revealing stone walls lined with wooden shelves which had books, potions, and trinkets stored haphazardly on them. A rickety wooden cabinet sat in one corner, one of its drawers slightly ajar. Beyond that first room was a second one, where Kaijin could spot something glimmering atop a wooden desk.
Nester let out a gasp, and he started toward the room, but Kaijin grabbed the brownie by the back of his jerkin before he got too far. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Nester blinked. “Uh ... I gotta take a piss.”
Kaijin narrowed his eyes. He’s up to something. Then again, when is he not? He let the brownie go and faced the others. “I assume this is their hiding place. So do we do this the diplomatic way, or—”
“What do you think, Kaijin?” Omari interrupted, his face hardening. “They nearly killed Aidan—and you, too! These creatures deserve no mercy.”
Aidan growled and clenched one of his fists. “They lied to Aidan. Liars have no honor.”
“I concur,” Jarial added with a nod. “Enough is enough. Besides, who knows how many countless others have fallen victim to these creatures?”
Zarya tapped her chin. “It does look like these kinlings have been here for quite some time.”
“Indeed,” Jarial agreed. “But for a bunch of primitive creatures, they seem strangely organized.”
Kaijin raised an eyebrow. “Do you think there’s a greater power at work here? A mastermind?”
Zarya shrugged. “Perhaps. Maybe Nester knows something?”
Kaijin spun back toward the brownie to find him sneaking through the first room and nearing the room beyond. Kaijin was about to call out to the brownie when he heard another one of Miele’s shrieks in his mind, and he winced. More of them near?
“Nester!” Zarya called.
“Damn it! Get back here!” Jarial barked.
Aidan shoved everyone aside. “Stay here. Aidan will get him.” He entered the room.
The iron portcullis suddenly slammed shut behind him. Nester dove into the next room beyond just seconds before that gate lowered, too. Nester was out of sight.
Kaijin heard the dog-yipping sounds approaching from behind him and his friends. He turned. Miele flew around his head, screeching, and he noticed Percival and Sable staying low to the ground, as though they were about to pounce. Jarial’s hands went alight with a new spell, and Omari retrieved his staff from his back. From the darkness of the tunnels beyond, four kinlings emerged into the light, blocking them in. The kinlings snarled and yipped excitedly as they brandished their short swords, daggers, and small crossbows.
Zarya unhooked her flanged mace from the thong at her side and muttered, “They’ve been waiting for us.”
Kaijin heard the clicking of crossbows. At least one of them was aimed at him. His necklace burned his chest, and he winced, but then he smiled at the reassurance of the Firelord’s power. His eyes on the archers, Kaijin began chanting a spell.
A fifth kinling emerged from behind its other four comrades. This one looked better equipped than the others. Its leather armor wasn’t damaged, nor was its small sword rusted. The kinling pushed its way through its comrades and rushed at Zarya, swinging its sword.
Zarya spun out of range of the creature’s attack, the blade narrowly missing her ribs, and swung her now-glowing mace at the creature. The blow collided with the kinling’s back, and the creature’s body crumpled to the ground.
In one fluid motion, Omari whipped his staff around and pointed it at the remaining kinlings. His eyes briefly went white and pupilless. Energy channeled down his body to his hands and into his staff. The tip of the staff shimmered with electricity.
The kinlings scrambled backward in retreat, loosing the bolts from their crossbows.
Kaijin’s spell incantation was interrupted when he ducked, expecting to feel the thud and burning pain of impact again, but instead, a spherical shield of energy encompassed the group and deflected the bolts. The hairs on Kaijin’s arms stood on end in the electrified air, making his arms itch, but the sensation was brief. As soon as the last crossbow plunked to the ground, the shield dissipated as abruptly as it had been summoned.
The kinlings stood dumbfounded for a moment, and then one of them, who wore no armor but simple ragged clothing, advanced toward Kaijin’s group, saying something in its native tongue. The creature’s eyes glowed red, as did its small hands.
“You three take out the shooters,” Jarial ordered, his eyes giving off a colorful gleam. “I will deal with this ... amateur.”
The kinlings fumbled to reload their crossbows.
Miele dive-bombed one of the archers, nipping at its scaly face before soaring up and away from the kinling’s reach. The kinling howled and dropped its weapon as it held its face. Hissing, claws extended, Sable pounced on the kinling, knocking it down. She dug her claws into the creature’s ribs and bit into its scaly neck. Percival ran to Sable’s aid, as the kinling began struggling frantically. With his jaws, Percival dragged the crossbow away from the kinling’s reach.
Kaijin focused his efforts on the remaining archer, who began to cower away, its crossbow still aimed warily at them. Uttering the final words of his spell, Kaijin extended his hand, and flames leapt from his fingers. The flames grew in size and surrounded the frightened archer. He closed his fist, and the flames, turning white, consumed the creature. He lowered his hand, and the flames extinguished on their own, leaving behind only ash remnants of the kinling.
Jarial summoned a glowing sphere that swirled with all the colors of the spectrum. He hurled it at the kinling caster, but it dissipated when it hit an invisible shield around the creature. The kinling caster’s eyes and hands grew steadily brighter, the spell rising toward completion.
Finally, the creature unleashed a blanket of red light over Kaijin and his group. Almost instantly, a white, sticky substance materialized on the ground around them, encasing their legs and enveloping Percival and Sable.
Kaijin summoned a small fireball in his hand and burned away the white substance with it. Jarial did the same, and the two of them helped Zarya and Omari get free.
The kinling caster snarled and prepared another spell as it slowly began to retreat.
“Enough of this.” Jarial extended his hand toward the cas
ter and uttered a phrase. Suddenly, the ground around them burned, and something emerged from within it.
Its horns appeared first, and then the creature—a red Dragon—climbed out fully. The Dragon stood about as tall as Jarial, and its girth filled nearly the entire width of the tunnel. Its tail lashed about and its eyes flared as it regarded the kinling caster with great interest.
Kaijin gasped as the tail came closer to him, but instead of getting hit by it, the tail went right through him, as though the Dragon were a ghost. He breathed a sigh of relief. Just an illusion.
The Dragon, however, seemed to appear very real to the kinling, who froze in place. The Dragon stared menacingly at the creature, then opened its jaws and spewed an inferno at them. The flames looked real, but Kaijin felt no heat.
The caster turned pale, then collapsed from shock.
Jarial dismissed the Dragon and exhaled, looking slightly worn. Sable returned to him, purring contentedly and rubbing herself against his calves.
Kaijin stared at Jarial, wide-eyed. “Master! You almost had me fooled by that thing!”
“Remember, Kaijin. Things are never what they seem,” Jarial said, and then addressed the group as a whole. “Is everyone all right?”
“I think so,” Kaijin said, rubbing his forehead. Zarya closed her eyes, summoning the healing power that coursed through her. Her entire body radiated a soft blue glow. “Yes, I will be fine,” she finally replied, not opening her eyes. Then she began to pray.
Omari, not responding, marched over to the caster’s body and prodded it with his staff, which continued to give off an electrical aura. The kinling’s body remained limp. He curled his lip and stabbed the creature through the chest, allowing the electricity to burn a hole through it. “Good riddance,” he muttered.
Percival approached the caster’s corpse and sniffed at it a few times, then growled.
Kaijin eyed the corpse with disgust, but as he looked down, he noticed a bright light reflected on the floor from the locked room where Aidan and Nester had gone. As he whirled toward the source of the light, a deep, desperate roar shook the very walls of the tunnel.
“That sounds like Aidan!” Omari cried, lifting his staff as if to strike.
Zarya rushed to the locked portcullis, and everyone followed. “Oh goddess ...” she whispered.
Aidan lay helpless on the stone floor of the locked room, trembling and bound by glowing, magical ropes. A robed stranger—another half-Dragon—knelt beside the fallen giant and stuck a syringe into his neck.
XVI
Who are you?” Kaijin demanded of the stranger through the portcullis.
The robed half-Dragon ignored Kaijin and emptied the syringe’s contents into Aidan. Aidan thrashed for a moment, then went completely still.
Zarya grabbed the bars. “Aidan!” she cried, shaking them violently.
Another kinling, who had been standing near a desk against a wall of the room covered with an assortment of books, parchments, potions, odd trinkets, and alchemical apparatuses, approached the robed stranger and retrieved the empty syringe from him. The subordinate seemed to not notice Kaijin and his group, or perhaps it was simply unthreatened by them.
Miele screeched frantically from the ceiling.
Jarial approached the bars. “What have you done to him?”
The stranger stood up and briefly regarded the group with intense crimson eyes before fixing his attention on Jarial. Smirking, he said, “Nothing for you to be concerned about. He is mine, now.” His voice was thick with an accent that Kaijin hadn’t heard before. The stranger’s eyes began to give off a soft, white glow, and he summoned a translucent, magical barrier around him and Aidan.
Kaijin looked sideways at Jarial and whispered, “Aidan isn’t moving, Master. He ... He’s—”
“Let us not jump to conclusions, Kaijin,” Omari muttered. “We need answers, first.”
“Omari is right,” Jarial said, nodding. “And we need to be careful about making any sudden rash actions that may further jeopardize Aidan.”
Percival and Sable approached the bars, sniffing them warily, then withdrew to their masters.
The stranger folded his arms within the long sleeves of his robes and smiled, revealing a set of broken, yellowed canines. “He is exactly who we need for our ship’s crew. Do not worry. His body has been unharmed, but his mind has been made anew. When he awakens, he will know only me: Vheradan.”
“How dare you force him into submission!” Zarya yelled. “Aidan does not belong to you! You are a disgrace to your kind, to perform such an evil act!”
Vheradan sniffed toward her and frowned. “Be silent, Celestial. You know nothing.”
Kaijin tilted his head. “A ship? You need him for a ship? Where are you going?”
Omari growled. “Does it matter? He has Aidan! We must get him out of there!”
“Yes, but—”
“Where?” Vheradan interrupted. “Back to Salanis, our home. It used to be such a simple task to go to and from the island, but these days, it’s not often one can sail peacefully without being robbed by pirates or attacked by giant sea creatures.” He approached the portcullis and examined each member of the group, and then rubbed his chin.
A polished obsidian ring glinted on Vheradan’s clawed finger. Percival suddenly squeaked and tugged at the bottom of Omari’s robes with his teeth. Omari scowled at the weasel. “What now, Per—!” Omari looked back toward Vheradan, gasped, and pushed himself away from the portcullis. “That ring—where did you get it?” he demanded, aiming his staff between the bars.
Vheradan arched his eyebrow. “This? Just a trinket I stole from a man years ago. He was being arrogant with me, so I put him in his place.”
Kaijin’s gaze moved from Vheradan to Omari. What’s so special about the ring?
Omari growled. “You ... thief!”
“Omari, enough. It is unwise to provoke him,” Jarial said.
“But, Master Glace. You do not understand—”
“Your personal issues can wait. We must get Aidan out of there safely before—”
Aidan let out a terrible cry. Everyone jumped in surprise, including Vheradan.
Aidan jerked and spasmed on the floor, yelling in pain and holding his face.
The veins in his chest, arms, and back became more visible. The nubs in his back grew and extended, developing fine silver scales that glistened in the low light. Translucent membranes unfurled and stretched out as massive wings. He uncovered his face, revealing two silver pupilless orbs that stared blankly toward the group.
Zarya gasped. “A ... Aidan?”
“Amazing,” Jarial whispered.
Omari narrowed his eyes. “Master Glace, what manner of magic is that?”
Jarial shook his head slowly. “That isn’t magic ... at least, not fully.”
Kaijin locked gazes with the giant. Somehow, he sensed Aidan was still there. Beneath the creature’s pupilless gaze, Kaijin felt a mix of sadness and pain. It’s him.
Vheradan retreated from Aidan, inadvertently backing himself into a wall. “Wh—What is this? No. This isn’t supposed to happen. You’re supposed to be resting now!”
The kinling assistant rushed to the desk and fumbled through the mass of items upon it until it uncovered a wand from under a sheet of parchment. The kinling grabbed the wand and aimed it at Aidan, growling nervously.
Sable hissed again and yowled.
“No, you fool!” Vheradan gestured at his assistant. “He is not to be harmed! Put that back, now!”
The kinling reluctantly returned the wand to the desk.
Aidan rose to his feet, then stumbled about like a newborn fawn trying to find its legs. As Aidan turned, Kaijin spied a small dark tattoo on the half-Dragon’s upper back, above the base of his left wing, that he was certain he hadn’t noticed before.
“There has to be a way to open this thing.” Omari examined the portcullis. He tilted his head against the bars, peering toward the inside wall beside it. “I
do not see anything.”
Aidan finally regained his balance, then looked at Kaijin and his friends before turning his attention to Vheradan. His fists clenched, and the muscles flexed in his forearms.
Vheradan gasped and slowly began sidling toward the other closed portcullis that led to the next room. “Stand down, Aidan. I don’t intend to hurt you,” he said, slowly inching his hand toward a small lever that protruded from the wall beside the portcullis.
Aidan stormed over to Vheradan, grabbed his arm, and yanked him away from the lever.
Vheradan grunted “I said s-stand down! Y-you’re supposed to obey me!”
Aidan grabbed hold of the collar of his robes and lifted him up off the ground. He slammed Vheradan against the wall.
The kinling barked and growled frantically, speaking in its unusual tongue, then grabbed the wand again and pointed it at Aidan. Ice shot from the wand toward Aidan’s back, but when it hit his skin, he appeared to absorb it.
Kaijin blinked. What in the ...
Aidan winced and looked over his shoulder at his assailant. The kinling dropped the wand and cowered into a corner of the room.
“You absorbed the ice?” Vheradan said with a gasp. “That means you must be a ... no. You can’t be. They were all killed off.”
Aidan bared his fangs at the other half-Dragon. “Aidan does not know what you are rambling about, but regardless, he will never follow you,” he said in a voice which, unlike the rest of his body, hadn’t changed.
“Put me down, Aidan,” Vheradan said. “This is such a momentous discovery. It all makes sense now why the formula had a strange effect on you. You have no idea how rare—”
Flameseeker (Book 3) Page 15
