“Your wish is my command, my love.” Derren winked at her, nodding to Krista and Chran. The dragon morphed into a four legged beast from someone’s nightmares, all teeth and talons, wrapped in the glow of his golden scales. He breathed a mist over Derren and Krista, turning them instantly invisible, before breaking for the door.
Katheryne watched as Chran took the door off its hinges and bounded into the room. She watched the whole thing through her mind’s eye, as Derren and Krista flew into action. Neither of the guards even got a shot off, before collapsing on the ground with broken necks. Katheryne walked into the room as the woman slapped her hand down hard on a flashing button. She turned to them with madness in her eyes, and a maniacal grin on her lips.
“You’re too late.” She spat the word out, “It’s started, and there’s nothing you or anyone can do to stop it.”
Krista grabbed her, twisting her arm so far up her back she screamed in pain. She smiled, however, clearly enjoying the sensation. Krista frowned, giving another jerk, but all it did was illicit a laugh from the woman. Katheryne paused as she recognized her.
“Vice President Alvarez.” Her momentary shock at finding the second most powerful person in the United States government was the enemy was replaced by a wry smile. “I suppose if you need to take over the world, you start near the top. But why not go right there?”
Krista relaxed her grip slightly, clearly perturbed at her inability to make this woman suffer. It allowed Celia to look Katheryne in the eye.
“All in good time, dearie,” she said, as her smile broadened. “All of you will soon bow before me.” She glanced at the main display, which showed the collision assembly. Lines of yellow energy fed an expanding reaction, which was slowly approaching the emitters themselves.
Chran morphed to human form, and crossed to the panel, his hands flying over the control before he turned, shaking his head.
“The controls are locked out and it wouldn’t matter anyway.” He indicated the display, “The reaction has become self-sustaining.”
“What does that mean?” shouted Derren over the hooting alarm. “What’s happening?”
Chran hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know, Derren. Perhaps if Toshi had arrived back in time to accompany us, he might understand this.”
A cruel laugh interrupted them. “The Gates to Hell are opening, and Lucifer is emerging to take his rightful place on the throne of this world. All will serve him, and I will stand at his right hand.” She struggled against Krista’s unbreakable hold.
“Release me now and you’ll all die quickly, I promise you. But keep me here and I warn yo...” SMACK!
Katheryne rubbed her wrist. “Ow, that hurt, but shit, it felt good.”
Derren laughed out loud, and the others grinned.
Celia’s head lolled on her shoulders, her eyes glazed over. Katheryne reached out and grasped her chin, raising her face up close enough she smelled her expensive perfume.
“Time to come out to play you piece of shit.” The others watched her close her eyes, as a glow enveloped the two of them. Krista released her hold as the glow became a solid shield separating them from the physical plane. Katheryne was creating a pocket of the Never inside the lab, and it began to expand. Derren, Krista and Chran retreated to the corridor, as the field expanded to fill the room. The floor and ceiling were gone, and the globe held the floating figures of Katheryne and Celia Alvarez. As they watched, something else entered. Celia screamed as she realized how wrong she’d been, seconds before the Beast ripped her soul from her body.
*
The void surrounded her. Katheryne was vaguely aware of the woman floating nearby, but she was a mindless shell now. As Katheryne joined her mind with the Vice President’s, she felt the beast withdraw, so she’d trapped it inside this bubble, which existed halfway between the physical and spirit world. It wasn’t truly the Never, more a dream state which existed between the beast and its victims, and as she looked around, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise up.
“About time you showed yourself.” Katheryne willed her body to turn toward the form, which struggled to stay concealed. “You can’t get away. Not this time.”
A stench of rotting flesh assaulted her senses, as the Beast’s cloak fell away at last. Katheryne expected a dragon shape to emerge, but what floated before her was a perversion of the form in her head. Teeth filled a head capped with flowing black dreadlocks. Eyes red as a smith’s forge pierced her defenses as a hammer of talons flew at her, throwing her back with so much force she bounced of the interior of the globe.
“Why should I want to escape, when I will soon return to my master with your soul?” Another blow from the barbed weapon crushed her chest, and Katheryne tumbled head over heels into Celia’s lifeless body.
The Beast swam across the space between them, as the globe surrounding them faltered and threatened to fail. It grasped Katheryne in a huge clawed hand, pulling her to its nose, sniffing as it groaned in anticipation.
‘Master will be pleased. At last I bring the one he desires above all others.’
Just as it imagined the pleasure it was about to experience, the souls it might enjoy, Katheryne’s eyes opened. They were not glazed or confused, and she broke the Beast’s grip and backed away. She closed her eyes for an instant, reaching into the deepest pocket of the monster’s mind, where a tiny spark of light hid away from pain and suffering. She linked with the spark, uttering a single word.
‘Now.’
*
Inside her prison, the sliver of consciousness rose up to assault her jailor from within. Power flowed into her from her sister, as they joined in battle. Love destroyed the hate imprisoning her, and she flew out through the black boundaries, obliterating them as she passed.
*
The Beast screamed in fury and pain, recoiling from the soul it thought was dead. Katheryne grasped it with her mind, holding it immobile, as she watched it wither and die. It took moments, with the Beast thrashing wildly as the tiny sliver flew repeatedly through its body, obliterating it piece by piece. At the end, all that remained was a brilliant glowing ember. Then it was gone.
*
“Captain!” Zlotta pointed to the display she’d directed to the main screen. “We have a situation in hold four.”
Hold four was where the dragon eggs were stored in cushioned cradles. The screen showed one of the eggs hovering in mid air. What alarmed Zjokara was the color of the egg in question. The grey egg flared brilliantly, emitting every shade of the spectrum, before vanishing.
*
The shield dissipated, and Derren ran to catch Katheryne as gravity reasserted its control. He needn’t have, but Katheryne slipped gently into his arms as she glided to the ground.
A heavy thump marked the collision of Alvarez’s body with the ground, but what drew all their attentions was the miniature sun hovering above their heads.
Katheryne’s eyes were moist, as she watched the tiny globe of energy settle in front of them. She waited for it to fade, to enter the Never and join its energy with the cycle of endless rebirth, but it remained, glowing strongly in front of them.
Chran saw it first, the distortion in the air above the spark, as a rift in space opened. A dull grey orb passed though, before the gateway to the Never snapped shut with a pop of air. The orb hung above the spark for an instant, before the light rose and entered it.
Fire illuminated the egg, but the hues were all the colors of the rainbow. Indigos mingled with gold, which in turn mixed with silver blues. Energy spiked out and touched them all, and each of them felt the love and gratitude from the being within.
Katheryne touched the egg, and felt a quiver from within, as her sister fought to be born. Somehow she knew this was the birth of a unique being, possibly one who might mean more to the universe than she did. She might exist to save it, but her sister would be there to rebuild it after the destruction ahead.
The shell dissolved in a flare of light, and before the
m stood a small white form. She was pure snow and ice, but radiated warmth and love. She walked with newfound legs to stand in front of Katheryne.
“Hello Katheryne.” The dragon took her sister’s hands in a grip which was gentler that she could have imagined. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
Katheryne looked at her curiously.
“Yes, I saw it all, Kat.” Her smile warmed Katheryne’s soul. “She is here now with me, at least a part of her is. She couldn’t pass over fully because she had something to say.”
The White dragon looked at the others, “To all of you.”
Krista sobbed. “Perri? Are you there? Is it really you?”
Suddenly, the dragon was gone, replaced with a glowing figure with wild flowing red hair. She reached out, taking Krista into her arms, smiling as tears flowed down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have more time, Kris.” Perri smirked, as she saw their private joke cut through the grief. “But you showed me what I was missing my whole life; true love. I love you, Krista. I always will. Remember that.”
Krista was on the edge of breaking down, but she summoned her heart and strength. She wasn’t about to let her lover go without a proper goodbye. She took Perri’s face within her hands, kissing her tentatively on the lips. The gentle kiss grew more passionate and intense, and both clung onto an impossible hope. Eventually, after what seemed an age, Krista broke contact
“I will, Perri. I will always remember you,” she said, tears flowing down her cheeks, like an endless river of warm pebbles. She turned into her brother’s embrace.
Derren simply looked at Perri and nodded. He fought a lump in his throat to be strong for his sister, but as he looked at Katheryne, he lost control and broke down.
Perri held out her hand and Katheryne took it.
“I’ve loved you forever, Kat. Ever since that day in the dorm, you’ve been the light in my dark world.” She waved her arm, indicating their surroundings.
“And I’ll miss you guys blowing up things.” She lowered her head and Katheryne’s breath caught in her throat.
“I have to go now, honey,” she said, as she started to fade. “Your baby sister is amazing, by the way. A lot like you; but not. Ah, you’ll understand soon enough.
“Goodbye, Kat.”
And then she was gone.
They stood in darkness. The alarms had stopped when the power cut out. Chran’s glow was the only illumination.
All of them were numb, but the room abruptly filled with a warm multi-hued glow as the white dragon reappeared. She settled on the ground in front of them, adding her glow to Chan’s.
“Tenybris is free,” she said. She indicated the wrecked controls. “This whole place was designed to open a gateway to another universe, to bring him here. Thanks to your intervention, what it did was destroy the barrier which held him in place, and begin the return of magic to the universe.”
She saw the shock on their faces. “Yes, the Veil is rising and Teralia is returning to the universe, along with the magic Tenybris needs to succeed. We need to prevent him attaining mastery of it. Even now, forces inside the Veil fight to destroy Tenybris’s greatest ally. We must do everything we can to help.”
Katheryne stretched her hands out. “You’re my baby sister. How do you know all this?”
The white dragon grew before their eyes, filling the cavern carved out by the fight earlier.
“I suspect it’s another of Olumé’s tricks,” she said, chuckling. “I have so much knowledge within me.” She looked at Chran, a proud smile gracing her beautiful reptilian features. “I have all your father’s memories, Chran, and I tell you now, he could be no prouder of his son.” She raised her head up, raising her wings outward. Her bearing was regal. “I am the Queen of Dragonkin.”
All of them bathed in the warmth and love emanating from her. A name appeared in their minds…Amaré.
Amaré lowered her head to face Katheryne. “But I am your sister, Katheryne, above all else. You saved me, but now we need to save the universe. Are you in?”
Katheryne glanced at the others. The grief was still there, etched into their souls for an eternity, but one by one they nodded.
The young woman, who in the last few months had lost so much, grinned at her sister. “Hell, yeah!”
Chapter Forty Six
The Return
Tenybris stood on a familiar stretch of ground. The last time he’d been here, this plaza had been streaming with people. Now it was empty, except for the dozen beings in front of him.
Looking around, he saw the mighty portal machines sitting dormant. The life which seethed through this city seemed muted and dull, as one of the delegation approached him. The being seemed to want to talk, but as Tenybris stretched out his awareness, he caught the taste of magic. He took a faltering breath, as he absorbed the first power in thousands of years. There was an odd taste to it. It was much...cleaner than he remembered it, but that would soon change.
The man took another faltering step, and was about to speak when Tenybris took his soul. The spell still worked! The energy within the being flowed through Tenybris, causing a shiver of insurmountable pleasure to pass through him, but something was different. Before, when Tenybris possessed the symbiotic link with the pit on Teralia, the excess life-force passed into it, to be returned in the form of magical power. The link, however, wasn’t fully formed; something was blocking it, so the wasted essence dissipated, lost forever.
For a second, Tenybris was concerned. What would he do without the dark magic of the pit to bolster his own? Then, his spell returned the twisted and corrupted sliver of soul to its victim. He laughed, as his slave turned to look at the others. They began to edge backwards, before realizing this creature was no longer one of them. As a group, they turned and ran, but Tenybris stole their souls before they took more than a few steps.
This group swept outwards, spreading the affliction across the surface of this world he had searched so long for. It would take time, but as he took in the memories of the first souls he had consumed in millennia, he smiled. These mighty portal machines may take months to reactivate, but once he had these new weapons, these child warriors, he would be unstoppable.
What he wanted most of all, however, were the eggs from his vision. With the dragons behind him, he would take Teralia, and twist the magic back to his will.
He just had to find them, but in the meantime, there was a whole planet to feast upon.
Worlds of the Never: A book with Dragons, Faeries and Elves, mixed with Science Fiction and Time Travel, for Young Adults and Teens. (Tales of the Neverwar 2) Page 20
