Rift Walker (Ember & Ash Book 1)

by E. A. Copen

  I reached out to touch the rock, but a sudden sharp pain in my stomach made me cry out and double over in pain. Ike and Dex both reached to help me, but I shoved them away. “I think I’m okay.”

  “That didn’t sound okay,” Ike said with a frown.

  I carefully lifted my shirt to look at the magicite scar running across my stomach. The indigo scar was glowing.

  “It’s responding to whatever’s in the rock,” Ike said. “I wonder what that means?”

  “It means I don’t want to stay in here any longer than I have to,” I said, dropping my shirt and clutching the scar.

  “Does it hurt?” Ike asked.

  I shook my head. “No, not now. Initially it did. But now?”

  “It’s like a dull, painless gnawing,” Dex said, watching the lights dance across the cave wall. “A hunger you didn’t know you had. I feel it too. I don’t like it.”

  “Eldarghrott,” Foggy said, frowning. “Thirst stone. My people have stories about it. The old songs say that when magic bleeds into a place, it taints it. The ground becomes cursed and all who walk on it bear that mark.”

  Dex retracted his hand. “What mark?”

  Foggy shook his head. “Don’t know. Stories are unclear on that. But those stories aren’t tales of heroes, lad. Those are tales of gods and older things, of a time before counting. Could be just an old legend.”

  “Legends are often based in truth. We shouldn’t linger.” Ike gestured for us to go forward.

  Dex moved away from the cavern walls, careful to keep his distance from the shining magic rock.

  Deeper in the cave, we found the first signs of dragons nesting. Thick brown pellets full of bone and other discarded material sat in piles. Dragon dung. It was laced with magicite, confirming our suspicions that the dragon had been eating it.

  Just beyond the dung chamber was a huge cavern. It was as large as a stadium. A small hole in the cavern wall let in enough sunlight to allow a single tree to grow. At the rear of the cave, a waterfall poured in, creating a narrow river through the center. The tree stood on a pile of rocks, leaning over the river as if it were reaching for that single ray of sunshine.

  The sight would’ve been breathtaking if it wasn’t for the enormous dragon sleeping on the other side of the river. She was curled up with her head over top her tail, protecting any straightforward path to her underside. A host of dragonlings huddled around her, sleeping restlessly.

  I pointed to the tree. It would provide a perfect vantage point for Dex to cast his spells. Dex nodded and crept toward it as silently as possible.

  Ike motioned he would hold position at the cavern entrance as our rear guard. Foggy and I traced out the path we would take with gestures.

  We would get one surprise attack. After that, the dragon would wake, and we’d be knee deep in the fight. I wanted to make it count, get as close as possible before that happened, but there was no way to get to the dragon without wading through dragonlings.

  Once we agreed on a path, we moved carefully and quietly to the edge of the stream. The noise of the waterfall masked most of our sound, but we hadn’t accounted for scent. One dragonling must’ve caught it. It rolled over and shook its head, waking up. Foggy and I froze in place, midway through the stream. Icy water lapped at my ankles and numbed my feet through my boots. Red gold eyes focused on us. I held my breath.

  The dragonling let out a high-pitched warning shriek. Its brothers and sisters stirred. The dragon’s eyes snapped open.

  So much for our surprise attack.

  Foggy let out a guttural war cry and raised his hammer high. Crimson light poured from his tattoos, his eyes, and his hammer as he charged forward, swinging. A dragonling lunged. He smashed the hammer into the side of its chest, caving it in with a single blow. Another snapped its jaws at me. I batted it away with my sword and kicked it back.

  The elder dragon rose, shaking sleep from her body. The cavern floor trembled with her movements. She shifted, moving to face us. Her massive, magicite lined jaws opened, and I felt heat against the side of my face.

  My blade slid along the tough, scaly exterior of an older dragonling’s foreleg, producing sparks. Claws raked at my face, forcing me back. “Dex!”

  Searing fire exploded out of the elder dragon’s mouth in a wide column aimed straight at me. Just moments before it burned me alive, the column of fire turned and made a half circle around the edge of the cave. Moss caught fire, burning to a blackened crisp. I turned around to see Dex stagger. He caught himself on the tree trunk, pushed back up, and lifted his left hand in a fist. The river rose, solidifying into a wall of icy spikes. He kept his left hand raised and made a cutting gesture with his right. A lance of orange flame sliced the ice wall in half. With a loud grunt, Dex directed the sharpened stakes of ice toward the dragon, impaling several dragonlings in one move.

  Foggy rushed forward and smashed his way through two more, creating an opening.

  The dragon roared, the vibration of sound shattering all the ice into a fine mist of snow. Razor-sharp claws sliced through the air, pulling down rock. She readied another mouthful of fire, but this one was different, green instead of fiery red. Dex tried to redirect it, but this strange green fire didn’t obey. The dragon breathed it over the cave, unhindered. I dove behind a large stalagmite and hugged myself tightly to keep from getting caught in the blast.

  When it passed, I emerged to find everything burning with a strange green fire the color of the rifts. Rift fire, I thought. I could feel the same energy pulling at me, tugging on the scar. Dex had abandoned the tree, which was also on fire. He emerged from the shallow stream he’d jumped into and patted the fire out of his hat.

  Foggy pinched a flame from his beard and kicked back another dragonling with a yell. “Sooner’s better than later, lass! It’s a bit warm in here!”

  That was an understatement. The ambient temperature had to be over a hundred and rising quickly. With eerie green smoke billowing toward the cave’s ceiling, we’d soon be choking and burning. The dragons didn’t seem to mind the sudden heat. They were still fighting as fiercely as ever.

  The elder dragon spread her leathery wings and let out a roar that shook the mountain. If she took off, we were done for. We’d never get another chance to finish this.

  “Dex, keep her on the ground!” I shouted and stabbed my sword through the side of a nearby dragonling. It shrieked and tried to pull away, but I’d found a weak spot just behind its front limbs. My sword came away bloody. The dragonling thrashed and fell over, dying.

  The elder dragon flapped her wings, creating a whirlwind that threatened to push us all back to the mouth of the cave. I leaned into it, fighting for every step forward.

  A moment later, the waterfall solidified into a block of ice. Dex drew the ice out into a platform and pulled it up, wrapping it around the dragon’s legs. She snapped at the growing ice around her feet and spat fire at it, melting it almost as fast as Dex could build it. A glance back at Dex told me he was straining to keep up. I needed to buy him time, distract the dragon so he could finish. But how?

  I looked around for something, anything, that would help and found a fist-sized chunk of magicite at my feet. I picked it up and threw it at the dragon, hitting her in the face. She snarled, and her head snapped up, eyes searching.

  “Hey! Over here!” I jumped up and waved my arms. “That’s right. I threw it! What are you going to do about it?”

  She made a clicking sound in her throat and more flame erupted, but this time aimed at me. I dodged behind the stalagmite again. Her claws lashed out and broke the rock. Heat lashed at my back, but it wasn’t the dragon fire. I’d gotten lucky and only been grazed by a claw. I rolled out of the way and came up with two dragonlings on me. One snapped its jaws at me, and I jammed the blade of my sword into its mouth. It backed away, spitting blood.

  Rock rose out of the ground like a spear, impaling the other. I looked behind me. Ike nodded and mouthed, “Go.”

  Dex ha
d built up enough ice around the dragon’s rear legs she was frozen in place, though the ice was melting fast. Foggy was off to my left. He’d attracted most of the dragons and was nearly overwhelmed by them. Blood dripped from several gashes on his face and arms, but still he swung his hammer, laughing as he smashed it against their wings, heads, and limbs.

  This is the best chance I’ll get. I took off running, sword in hand.

  My movement caught the dragon’s eye. She turned all her attention to me and opened her mouth. Green fire lit in the back of her throat. Even if I turned and ran, I would never make it out of the way in time.

  “Ember!” Dex twisted his fingers, and the water jumped out of the stream bed, forming a slippery, frozen platform. The platform grew, spreading through the cave like a road. I jumped on it and ran along it, narrowly avoiding the blast of magic fire. The ice crumbled beneath my feet, even as I raced along it. I had no choice but to jump while I still had something solid enough to allow it.

  I leapt off the ice platform and threw myself at the dragon, sword out. The blade went home, landing wedged between two scales just in front of her left foreleg. I hadn’t penetrated deep enough to reach anything vital, but she definitely felt it. Blood seeped from the wound. The dragon reared and roared. I gripped the sword and held on as she tried to throw me off. Twice I thought I should have lost my grip, but the strange root that secured my hand to the grip kept me attached.

  Her flailing threw me back against her neck, and I fought to grip another scale. Foggy, having dealt with the dragonlings, was at her feet. He drove his hammer into the joint of one of her forelegs, drawing the dragon’s attention back to him instead of me.

  She screeched and batted him aside. Foggy smashed against the cave wall and fell still.

  I yanked my sword free and gripped her scales to keep from being flung off. I’m in the wrong position! I was supposed to go to her underbelly. How am I supposed to kill her from up here?

  The dragon’s scales were thick and overlapping, growing thicker closer to the spine. But there was one place that wasn’t so protected. I never would have seen it if I hadn’t climbed onto her back. There, at the base of her skull, where the scale pattern changed, allowing the magicite horns to grow out of her skin, was a small patch of exposed gray skin. All I had to do was make it there. “Dex, Ike, keep her busy!”

  They looked at each other and nodded once. Dex moved as if he were pulling back a bow string, and an arrow of ice materialized out of the air. He fired it at the dragon, striking her just below the eye. Ike brought his hammer down on the rock and a sharp lance of stone jutted from the ground just in front of her, nearly stabbing her.

  The dragon snarled and broke the rock with her claws. Her roar shattered the ice at her feet and a blast of flame helped melt what little was left. She spread her wings and flapped, the force of her wings knocking Ike and Dex onto their backs.

  I fought to climb her scales like a ladder. When she lifted off the ground, the sudden upward movement tipped me to one side. I stayed on her by stabbing her in the side of the neck. The sword went in shallow, blocked by a second layer of scales, but it was enough to keep me from falling off.

  The dragon rose into the air of the cavern. Choking smoke stung my eyes. She banked to one side, a wing smashing protruding rock. The rocks scraped against the side of my face as they fell, and still I held on. With a grunt, I hauled myself back onto her neck and pulled myself forward. Inch by hard-won inch, I moved while she rampaged around the cavern, spitting fire and smashing rocks.

  She’ll pull the whole cavern down on top of us if we don’t burn to death! I pulled myself forward. The small, vulnerable spot was just out of reach. One more inch and I would be on top of it.

  The dragon banked hard to one side and grabbed more rock with her talons. She held onto it this time until we came around and dropped it directly on Dex and Ike. They scattered to keep from getting hit.

  I finally made it into position. With a shout, I lifted my sword and drove the point down into the small opening. Skin gave way. I felt the snap of tendon, the resistance of bone, and pushed through. The dragon roared and jerked its head to the right. The movement was enough to sever the spine.

  She dropped like a leaf, drifting first in one direction and then the other. When we hit the ground, it shook free the rocks of the cavern ceiling. Half the cavern caved in immediately, with the other half threatening.

  I pulled my blade free, my body trembling. Beneath me, the dragon snorted and snarled, but its body no longer responded. Carefully, I slid down the side and stood on shaky legs. All I needed to do was deliver the killing blow, and the heart was mine.

  I moved carefully into position and lifted my sword, but looked into the dragon’s eyes. I expected to see vicious anger, the face of a monster lashing out in pain. There was pain in her eyes, but nothing about her seemed violent now. I glanced around, my heart in my throat. The bodies of her children lay smashed and slaughtered at my feet, her lair burned and broken.

  She suddenly seemed less a monster and more a mother.

  The dragon let out a wounded bray and closed her eyes, resigning herself to her fate.

  “I’m sorry, but your death will save someone I care about.” I put a hand on the dragon’s head, a comforting gesture.

  There was a sudden flash of light and I found myself transported from the broken cavern to the forest where I had met the shadow warrior. Before me knelt a woman wearing a crown of magicite thorns. The magicite grew into her skin like barbed wire, looping in and out of her body at the joints. She held a still child in her arms.

  Stunned, I staggered back a step and looked around, panicked. “What’s happening?”

  “She hurts.” The shadow warrior was suddenly beside me, looking at her. “And now you can see her pain.”

  “Why?” I looked back at her and swallowed, watching as she held her child and wept.

  A strange woman’s voice echoed through the forest. “Where am I? What is this place? Why does it hurt? I want to go home! Home! But the way is blocked. I cannot go home, and it hurts to be here.”

  The shadow warrior tilted his horned head to one side, watching with me. “She was dying before, and so were her children. The magic stone ate away at who they were, what they were, twisting them to its purpose, as it does with all things. You have ended their pain, but she still grieves. She wants to join them.”

  “I don’t understand. Why am I seeing any of this?”

  He stepped between me and the dragon. “I am a tool, a slave to your will. I see only what you show me, feel only what you feel. My last master… Hot rage, glowing like the end of a blade fresh from the forge. It seared all it touched. They were the enemy. They must die.” He stepped aside and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “But you are deep and sad, a broken well in a desert overgrown and forgotten. You see a different way. It should hurt more to kill than to die.”

  I looked down at my hands. They were stained red. “I think I understand.”

  “Release me,” the dragon in her human form whispered. “Please, I just want to go home.”

  “I’m sorry about your children.” It didn’t feel like enough to apologize, but what else could I say?

  “You freed them.” She clutched the still child to her chest. “This world is wrong, not ours. It… hurts to be here. Can’t think. Can’t breathe. The rocks cry out, but they are not ours. We want to be free of their song.”

  “You want me to kill you?” I dropped my bloodstained hands to my sides.

  “Yes,” whispered the dragon mother. “I want to end what I have become. What we have become. We aren’t right. This is not our home. We can’t grow here, can’t be here. Everything is wrong; everything is pain and fire.” Her head suddenly shot up. She looked to one side, wide eyed.

  The vision faded, and I was back in the cavern. I pulled my hand away from the dragon and gasped for breath, as if I had been under water.

  There wasn’t time to understand wha
t had just happened. Movement at the cavern entrance caught my attention. I turned away from the dragon in time to see Ash and a handful of his guards march in.

  Dex launched an ice arrow at him.

  Ash lifted a hand, opened a rift, and let it swallow the arrow. He dismissed the rift with a flick of his hand. “There you are. I wondered where you’d run off to. I suppose I should thank you for slaying the dragon for me. You’ve saved me the trouble. Now, step away, Ember. While you still can.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I looked over at the dragon. She was still breathing, still in pain. I wanted to help. Ash wouldn’t be so kind. He wanted the heart, yes, but he didn’t care if she was hurting. He wouldn’t respect the beast he had to kill.

  And he certainly didn’t deserve its heart.

  “I won’t ask twice.” There was a dark warning in Ash’s words.

  “Get your own dragon,” Dex spat and readied another arrow.

  Ash lifted two fingers. “Careful, half-breed. I can open a rift inside your chest cavity far faster than you can fire that magic arrow.”

  “Stand down.” I lowered my sword and stepped away from the dragon.

  An expression I couldn’t quite read crossed Dex’s face. He looked from me to Ash and back again without canceling his spelled arrow. He’s thinking about how he’s dead either way. What does he have to lose? Maybe letting a madman use his magic to rip his heart out of his chest would be faster, cleaner. And maybe he could take that madman with him.

  I gave a subtle shake of my head and mouthed, “Trust me.”

  Dex let the arrow evaporate. He lowered his head and lifted his hands in surrender. I dropped my sword to the ground, and Ike did the same with his hammer.

  Ash sent people around to collect our weapons—including the unconscious Foggy’s hammer—and to tie Dex’s hands behind his back.

  Once Dex was bound, Ash stepped up to him, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You should’ve died on that ledge,” he said and punched Dex in the gut.