Wrath of the Dragon Czar

by James E. Wisher

  He sent his thoughts outward toward where the others capered and snarled for the humans.

  Marek, how goes the distraction?

  More of the fools gather by the second. Give them two more minutes and every so-called guard will be watching us.

  Talon shifted his focus back to Xavier. His agent crouched in the ruins of one of the destroyed warehouses across from the fort. His vision seemed far too feeble to Talon, but then again he was only human.

  Two minutes passed.

  Go.

  No hesitation from Xavier as he sprinted straight across the open space separating his hiding spot from the fort. He pressed himself tight to the wall. Talon felt the pounding of his heart and smiled in the dark. It had been seventeen centuries since his heart beat its last. Sharing minds with a human was worth it for that long-forgotten sensation alone.

  Xavier eased along toward the unfinished section, straining with his meager senses to detect any threat. How did humans survive with such limited awareness of the world?

  A shadow passed in front of the open section. Xavier ducked out of sight and held his breath.

  No reaction. The guard hadn’t spotted him.

  Perhaps the feeble senses of humans weren’t such a bad thing after all.

  Xavier continued his painfully slow approach. At the edge of the opening he peeked inside. A single guard stood with his back to the gap. He wore the white uniform of the Imperial army. A rifle hung from his shoulder and a knife was belted at his hip.

  Inch by inch, Xavier eased closer. When only a foot separated them he lunged, wrapping his forearm around the guard’s throat. The enemy struggled for a few seconds then went still.

  A tickle in the back of his mind distracted Talon. He disengaged from his agent and focused on it. Marek?

  The humans are getting bored, Talon. You need to hurry.

  Talon shifted his focus back to Xavier and sent feelings of urgency through the link. Dead ahead of him was the partially constructed fort. Even from a distance Talon sensed the key stone. No guards protected the structure so Xavier sprinted over and through the rough door.

  Inside the only item of note was a central column. It seethed with magic.

  That’s it, Xavier. Throw the sphere against the column.

  Talon felt the acknowledgement and Xavier dug the sphere out of his pocket.

  “Hey, you there. What are you doing?” One of the soldiers at the edge of the gathering had noticed Xavier.

  Hurry.

  Xavier hurled the sphere.

  It struck home and shattered.

  Bullets pinged all around him.

  Xavier leapt behind a wall as dark energy burst from the broken sphere and erased the wards.

  Talon withdrew from his agent’s mind.

  Attack!

  Following his own command, Talon raced toward the fort. He moved at speeds no human could hope to match. In seconds he reached the wall and leapt over it.

  Marek and the others were already busy slaughtering the soldiers. He sensed no pain from Xavier and the man knew enough to keep out of the way when the vampires were in a frenzy.

  Content to let his people deal with the soldiers, Talon swept the area in search of the enemy commander. He spotted the man cowering in the watchtower.

  Talon turned into mist, flew up beside him, and solidified. The human’s terror excited him. Talon’s fangs extended to their full four-inch length.

  “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.” The general gibbered and begged.

  Satisfying as it would have been to tear the coward’s throat out and bathe in his blood, someone needed to carry Talon’s message back to Roman.

  He reached out, grabbed the general by the throat, and lifted him off the floor. The stink of urine turned Talon’s stomach.

  “Look close, Imperial, and see what happens to those that try to invade my domain.” Talon forced the general to watch as the others slaughtered his men without mercy.

  The soldiers’ guns were useless and they were so afraid they missed most of their shots anyway. The battle, if you wanted to call it that, ended in minutes. When the last soldier was dead Talon hurled the general off the watchtower. The human landed with a grunt of pain.

  Talon materialized beside him. “I’m going to spare your useless life. In exchange for my generosity you will take this message to Roman. His empire isn’t welcome here and anyone that crosses the border without my permission will face the same fate as your men. Do you understand?”

  The general nodded as tears streamed down his face.

  “Someone put this wretch on a boat and get him on his way. The sight of him sickens me.”

  A vampire led the general away. Hopefully Roman would take the hint and let this matter drop. If he didn’t, well, his people seldom dined on human blood. If the Imperials wanted to provide them a feast, they wouldn’t turn it down.

  Conryu took his time climbing the stairs to the light magic floor. St. Seraphim said she wanted to meet him there instead of in her office. So far he’d had one class with all the department heads but her and this was the one that had him the most worried. Conryu’s strongest aptitude was in dark magic so he had no idea how he’d do with light. Dean Blane assured him that he had a modest alignment with light magic and that even if he didn’t, his raw power would still give him a well-above-average chance to succeed in the field.

  Maybe Prime’s bad vibes passing through their link had him on edge. Ever since the scholomantic learned he’d be studying light magic he’d been trying to convince Conryu not to do it. Prime worried about the magic traveling through their link and hurting him. That didn’t strike Conryu as very likely, but then he didn’t really know much about it.

  Conryu stepped into the hall and checked the nearest door. It was labeled seven. St. Seraphim said to meet her in room three. He shrugged and turned right. The floor wasn’t that big, he’d find the right room soon enough.

  “If you can’t find it, Master, we can still call the whole thing off.”

  “Don’t be such a wimp, Prime. If I’d known light magic healing I could have saved Jonny a lot of recovery time. I’m going to make this work and you’re going to help me.”

  “I know almost nothing about light magic. All demons care about is how to kill those who wield it.”

  “I’ll be wielding it shortly, so you’d best get used to the idea. Here it is.”

  The door to room three was partway open. Taking that as an invitation he pushed through. Twenty desks faced a blackboard. A bookcase covered one wall. No sign of a teacher.

  “Maybe she had second thoughts,” Conryu said.

  “That’s probably it. Let’s go, Master.”

  “Let’s not. I don’t have anywhere to be, we can wait a while.”

  A while turned out to be fifteen minutes. Prime was flying back and forth in what served as demon book pacing, when the door swung open and in walked a tall, willowy woman in all white, her long blond hair swirling around her face in a breeze Conryu couldn’t feel.

  She looked at him with pure white eyes that sparked with lightning. For a moment he could easily believe she was a real saint, fallen from Heaven.

  Then her stern expression broke into a smile. “You must be Conryu Koda. I’ve heard so much about you, most of it good.”

  “Who said something bad?” Conryu had a pretty fair idea, but was curious to see if she’d tell him.

  “Mrs. Alustrial, the first-year light magic teacher. She said you were too arrogant for your own good. I found her critique quite amusing given the source. She’s had her nose out of joint ever since the midterm last year.”

  Conryu grinned. He and St. Seraphim were going to get along fine, he could feel it. That reminded him. “Is it Mrs. St. Seraphim?”

  “No, just St. Seraphim. My mom named me that when she saw my eyes. She believed she gave birth to someone more than human. She hung herself the day after she brought me home from the hospital.” St. Seraphim got a faraway look. �
��To this day I have no idea why.”

  Conryu stared for a moment. Why would she tell him something so personal five minutes after meeting him? “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I never knew her so I didn’t get very upset when I found out. So, what do you want to learn?”

  The abrupt change of subject jarred him a bit. “Healing. Of all the skills I lack, that’s the one I regret most.”

  “Oh, good. Most of my students want to learn to throw lightning or showy things like that. Healing is really the most important skill a light magic wizard can learn since it’s what we’re best at. There are plenty of other elements that are good for killing people.”

  Wasn’t that the truth? “I healed my friend Kelsie using just willpower. The headache from the backlash wasn’t nice.”

  She blinked her strange eyes. “You’ve already channeled light magic? How perfect. That should make it much easier for you to use it again. I think I’ll just teach you the strongest healing spell I know. Only one in ten light magic wizards has the potential to cast it. It’s called Touch of the Goddess.”

  They spent the next three hours practicing and when their time was up Conryu had successfully cast the spell twice. Prime never so much as fidgeted. It seemed light magic didn’t bother him after all. Not that Conryu imagined that would stop Prime from complaining later.

  After a day of gathering supplies and two days of nonstop hiking, an exhausted Yarik stood on a hill overlooking the wizard’s academy. If he never had to walk through the woods again it would be too soon. At least the worst of the summer heat had passed, not that you’d know it from the sweat soaking his undershirt.

  His discomfort was irrelevant; they’d made it and nothing else mattered. For some reason he’d expected something more out of the ordinary. While the two large buildings looked nice enough, certainly far nicer than most of the buildings in the Empire, nothing about the campus shouted “magic.” Perhaps the builders intended it that way, he didn’t know or care.

  From his pack he pulled a pair of binoculars. A group of students stood on the lakeshore watching an older woman conjure a serpent of water. He shifted his line of sight to the ruins of a small bungalow sitting at the water’s edge. Nothing much left, just a foundation and short dock stretching out over the water.

  A frown formed and deepened as he continued to study the campus. He’d never spot Anya from here. His only hope lay in watching the flow of students and hope he could figure out where she’d most likely go if something happened.

  Yarik swapped his binoculars for a red crystal the size of a hen’s egg. He peered through it and everything took on a red tint. A bright yellow line ran around the school. The witches had only given him the most rudimentary explanation of how the crystal worked, but one thing they stressed was that magical defenses would appear yellow. He had to assume the line served as some sort of early warning system.

  “What do you see, Agent?” Hedon asked.

  “Not much. We need to get closer, but there’s some sort of protection in place.”

  “What sort of protection?” Victor asked.

  “That’s what we’re going to find out.” Yarik left his position at the edge of the hill and started around toward its base. The defensive line ran just ahead of it. He doubted it would be anything lethal. From what he’d observed, this country took great pains to safeguard its citizens’ lives.

  Twenty minutes later he checked the crystal again. The line ran just a few feet ahead of them.

  Yarik raised his hand and eased forward, bracing himself in case he’d made a mistake about the softness of his enemies. His fingers broke the line and nothing happened, no zap, tingle, or change in the line when he viewed it through the crystal. Yarik shrugged and stepped all the way across.

  Still nothing.

  He turned and motioned Hedon to join him. The moment the dragon-blood broke the plane a jagged burst of energy shot toward the school.

  “Hide!” Yarik said.

  The three of them ran for a clump of boulders that had fallen from a cliff face years ago. Five minutes later a woman in a pale-blue robe hovered in the sky above them. She looked all around, shrugged, and flew away.

  Yarik let out a sigh. The ward reacted to magical beings, but not normal humans. That complicated things, but not too badly. A plan was quickly forming. For the first time since he arrived in the Alliance, Yarik saw a path to completing his mission.

  5

  Attack on the Academy

  For the next day and a half Yarik observed the school. He figured out which building was the dorm and which the lecture hall and had a rough idea of what time classes ended. When Sunday morning dawned his plan of attack was clear in his mind. Whether it would work or not time would tell, but if he failed he doubted he’d get another chance and he shuddered to think what might happen to his wife back home. No, he had to succeed. If he’d known how obsessed the czar truly was with Anya, he wouldn’t have let her go in the first place.

  When he lowered his binoculars for the last time Yarik found Hedon and Victor gnawing on beef jerky. The dragon-bloods ate a remarkable amount of meat every day. Yarik’s stomach was too twisty to even look at the remains of their food supply.

  “Are you two ready?”

  They finished the last of their breakfast and nodded.

  “Okay. I’m going to sneak onto the grounds and activate the distraction. The moment I do you two need to break for the train platform. Seize the conductor and wait for me. We’ll escape with Anya in the chaos. If you don’t have control of the train when I arrive we’re done. Questions?”

  They’d been over the plan half a dozen times already and both warriors shook their heads. Yarik took a steadying breath and nodded. He was as ready as he could be. From their pack he removed a pocket knife, a revolver and a cylinder. That was all he took with him.

  Yarik made his way through the forest toward the school. The supply train wasn’t due to arrive until midmorning so he felt no need to rush. Instead he focused on the mission, getting his mind zeroed in on what he needed to do. The trickiest part would be finding Anya in a sea of girls. His chance lay in the hope that there weren’t any girls of Imperial descent at the school. That might help her to stand out. It was a thin hope, but the only one he had.

  Two hours later he reached the edge of the woods. From his position he couldn’t see anyone moving around. Hopefully no one would spot him either.

  Yarik popped open the cylinder and four mottled brown spheres rolled out onto the grass. He’d never seen the eggs before, but he’d read about the monsters that hatched from them. The process seemed simple enough. He took out his pocket knife and nicked his finger. A single drop of blood dripped down on each egg, soaking into the shell. The witch that gave him the eggs explained that this was the most important part of the process. His blood waking them would ensure that the creatures wouldn’t attack him once they reached full size.

  The first crack ran through one of the eggs. Soon the other three showed signs of life. A small dragon head surrounded by a scruff of dark fur emerged. The tiny talons of the baby dragon mane ripped the egg away revealing a scale-covered body the size of a gecko with withered wings on its back. Not the most awesome sight Yarik had ever seen.

  Soon the creatures began moving around and growing. In seconds they were the size of house cats, then mastiffs. A minute after they hatched, the dragon manes had grown to the size of bulls and their wings spread over twice their height.

  The four monsters each looked at him like a cat looks at a mouse. Yarik dearly hoped the witch hadn’t led him astray with her instructions for waking them.

  The dragon manes grew until they doubled in size again. The monsters continued to stare at Yarik through the transformation until he finally understood what they wanted.

  He pointed toward the school. “Attack.”

  The first Sunday of the year meant Club Day. Conryu stood on the steps with Anya and Prime and looked out over the sea of tents. The alch
emy club had roped Maria into helping drum up new members. They said since she was sort of famous after the attack this summer it might help them draw a crowd. She hadn’t been thrilled with their reasons, but she agreed to help out anyway.

  Kelsie had joined the cooking club the day they arrived at school, much to his surprise. When he asked why she said now that she wasn’t rich she needed to learn to cook. That seemed as good a reason as any to join a club so he wished her luck.

  Though he had joined the golem club last year, Conryu didn’t know if there was even going to be a golem club this year. He also wondered what they did with the Blinky mobile, but that was a whole other issue. Their leader and driving force graduated last year, leaving him and Crystal as the only members. Speaking of the tall earth wizard, he hadn’t had time to talk to her yet what with watching over Anya every spare minute.

  “So do you think you’ll join a club?” Conryu asked. If she did, it might give him a little more free time.

  “Only if it’s one you’re a member of.” She adjusted her drab brown robe. It seemed almost a crime for the gorgeous freshman to have to wear the ugly, shapeless garment. “Still, there’s no reason not to have a look around.”

  He agreed and they walked down the steps and over to the nearest tent. It was the crafts club. They made candles, incense, and other items useful in magical rituals. A spicy aroma drifted out of the tent. Whatever they were burning, it smelled nice.

  Anya sighed. “I love cinnamon. It reminds me of a treat my mother used to make for me. Have you ever eaten baked apples?”

  “No, but I’ve had apple pie.”

  “Same idea, but the apple bakes whole and without a crust. The inside gets soft and almost melts in your mouth.”

  “Sounds good.” Conryu moved away from the crafts tent and toward the center aisle.

  “I miss home sometimes. Mostly I miss feeling safe.”

  Conryu didn’t know what to say to that. His parents were safe in the city and no one had tried to kill him in weeks. “You can relax a little here. There are a ton of powerful wizards around. Anybody thinking of attacking the academy would have to be insane.”