Dragon Lord

by Tyler Wild

  The mesmerizing chants entered my ears and soothed my brain. I felt the vibration run through my spine and throughout my entire body. My fingers and toes tingled. I felt warm and fuzzy inside, like I had imbibed several glasses of fine whiskey.

  Asgoth shouted again.

  Then I realized he had been shouting at me for quite some time. “What do you want?”

  “You are such a dumbass,” Asgoth said.

  My face crinkled, perturbed by the demon. “Look, if you’re going to continue to insult me, I will leave you here in this tomb and find another blade that’s not quite as mouthy.”

  “Look, dipshit. I’m trying to save your life. And by default, my own.”

  Now I was getting irritated. “What are you talking about?”

  “Beware the singing skulls!”

  48

  Kron

  “Cover your ears,” Asgoth said.

  I reluctantly did as he asked.

  I could no longer hear the singing skulls.

  The silence was unpleasant.

  My head throbbed, and my ears hurt. It was like a hangover. I felt hollow and empty. Depressed. Like an anchor was attached to my heart, dragging me down.

  “I tried to tell you this when they first started singing. But you ignored me.”

  The melodic chants were like some type of drug. With my ears covered, I was going through withdrawals.

  “The skulls have put you in a trance. You’ve been standing here for days.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. You’ve been staring at those damn things for days, listening to their evil voices. You would have stood there until you died of starvation had it not been for me.”

  “Bullshit. I’ve been listening for 15 minutes, tops.”

  “No. You haven’t. Are you hungry?”

  Now that he mentioned it, my stomach did twist with hunger. I felt weak. “Yeah, I guess I am hungry.”

  “It’s been three days since you ate those beans,” Asgoth replied.

  I glanced over at the others. They stared at the skulls with blissful faces, hypnotized by the melody.

  I moved to Cassandra and nudged her.

  She didn’t respond.

  “Cover your ears,” I said.

  She did nothing.

  I stood in front of her face and tried to get her attention, but it was like I wasn’t there.

  It took me hours to break through to her, and I quickly realized Asgoth was telling the truth. We had been here for days. And we would have been here for all eternity if it hadn’t been for him.

  It took some doing, but we managed to break the others from their trance. We left the deadly choir behind and continued through the tomb.

  The burial chamber was a large rotunda. Statues of stone warriors lined the walls, guarding a marble sarcophagus in the center of the room. The burial crypt had ornate etchings in the stone. Decorative columns lined the walls of the rotunda, dividing the statues.

  I moved to the sarcophagus and strained against the lid. It was heavy, and it took all of us to push it aside. The stone rumbled, and a plume of dust wafted into the air—along with the foul stench of the thousand-year-old corpse.

  Just as Phaedra had said, the ancient King Yertos lay in peaceful repose. His hands crossed his chest, clutching onto a rusted sword—the Ring of Ulnör on his withered finger.

  His clothes were tattered and covered with a thick film of dust. They were once vibrant garments, now muted with age. His mummified skin looked like a dried raisin, clinging against his bones.

  I didn’t particularly like desecrating a grave, but it needed to be done.

  I grabbed the king’s hand and lifted it away from his chest. The bones creaked and crumbled as I pulled the ring from his finger and dusted it off.

  The instant I held it in my hand, the gemstone began to glow. It gave off a red light that illuminated our faces from below. It made us look spooky and ominous.

  “Why is that ring glowing?” Sophia asked.

  “How about you tell us that story now,” Lily said to Asgoth.

  “I don’t feel like it,” Asgoth said in a snotty tone.

  “Pretty please?” Lily asked in a baby-doll voice that no one could refuse, not even a demon.

  “Fine,” Asgoth muttered.

  We were in eminent danger, but I didn’t notice it—I was too consumed by the ring’s luster.

  “Where was I?” the sword asked. “Oh, yes. I remember. Infidelity.”

  “Infidelity?” Sophia asked.

  “That is where the ring has its origins. Ulnör was a beautiful goddess. She was powerful, and a master of seduction. Her beauty was unrivaled. She was even more beautiful than Epheria herself.” He muttered aside, “But I wouldn’t kick either one of them out of bed.”

  Cassandra rolled her eyes.

  “Epheria caught Xerius in bed with Ulnör, and let’s just say she didn’t take things too well. She banished Ulnör to the ring and cast it out of Valinsmor. From there, it fell into the hands of man.”

  I was so mesmerized by the ring, I started to slip it on my finger.

  “Don’t do that!” Asgoth said. He was adamant, and the tone in his voice grave.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “That might be a discussion for another time,” Asgoth said. “We have a more pressing situation at hand.”

  I glanced around the rotunda. Specters emerged from the stone statues—ghostly warriors defending the tomb. At first, I minimized their significance. What harm could an incorporeal being do?

  Lots!

  The ghosts charged us, hacking at us with their translucent blades. I deflected the ghostly blows with Asgoth, and the clamor of metal echoed through the rotunda.

  These spirit blades were every bit as deadly as real metal!

  And we were severely outnumbered.

  To make matters worse, I couldn’t seem to inflict any damage upon the specters. I did my best to repel their advances, but when I stabbed one of them, my blade passed through its translucent form as if I was stabbing the air.

  We were trapped in this room.

  We couldn’t go back to the antechamber for fear of falling under the hypnotic spell of the singing skulls. And these deadly specters were on a mission to do more than just frighten us.

  49

  Kron

  Blades clinked and clamored as the ghosts attacked with fury. We did our best to defend from multiple angles, surrounded by six infernal warriors.

  I deflected one blow, then twisted to deflect another, then felt the searing pain in my arm as another ghost raked his blade across my bicep.

  It opened up a gash, and red blood spewed.

  I grimaced with pain. Growling through gritted teeth, I charged the specter to no avail, falling right through him.

  The ghost seemed amused by the futility of our efforts.

  “The statues,” Asgoth shouted. “Destroy the statues, and the ghosts will fall.”

  I spun around and hacked Asgoth through one of the statues. It split in half and crashed to the stone floor, shattering into hundreds of pieces.

  One of the ghosts vanished.

  Sophia and Cassandra joined in, demolishing the ancient sculptures.

  Lily grabbed the rusty blade from the sarcophagus and joined in the fray. She flew around the rotunda, hovering above the reach of the specters, lopping off heads of statues.

  The floor was soon covered with rubble and debris, and all the specters had vanished.

  I clutched my arm, stemming the tide of blood.

  Cassandra rushed to my aid and healed me within moments.

  As usual, it made her weak, and she almost fainted. I steadied her before she fell.

  I caught my breath and my heartbeat began to return to normal. “Is everybody okay?”

  Lily and Sophia nodded.

  “What about me?” Asgoth asked. “You never ask how I’m doing?”

  “That’s because you’re immortal.”

  “Oh y
eah, right.” Asgoth paused. “But sometimes it would be nice to know that you cared.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic.

  “You know you’re my favorite sword. There is no blade sharper. No weapon more deadly. No companion more loyal.” I stressed the last word.

  If Asgoth would have had lips, he would’ve been smiling.

  I felt optimistic. We had completed the first quest, and we were all still alive. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all?

  Then I noticed something disturbing.

  The fragments of the statues began to move. They rolled across the floor and re-formed. It would only be a matter of moments before the specters reappeared.

  My eyes widened with concern.

  What the hell were we going to do? We destroyed them once. But eventually, we’d tire, or they would get lucky. We couldn’t fight these ghosts forever.

  “We need to find a way out of here, and fast,” I said.

  Sophia staggered back as a specter emerged from one of the statues. She tumbled over a stone and fell against the wall. The impact triggered a secret passage to open. A doorway slid aside, and we wasted no time scurrying out of the burial chamber.

  The narrow passageway was only a few feet high and wide. Sophia crawled through on all fours and the girls followed. I brought up the rear.

  To my surprise, the specters didn’t follow. Their mission was to guard the burial chamber—no more, no less.

  We scampered through the passageway as it twisted and turned. It finally opened into a large room. This was the real entrance to the underworld. The temple and the tomb had been built on top of it.

  By this point, I didn’t trust statues, so I kept my guard up as we approached the sculpture in the center of the room. It was a life-size depiction of a voluptuous woman with the head of a goat. Black horns twisted from the sculpture’s skull. The breasts were perky and the nipples erect. A long tail curved from its sacrum. Its toned legs ended in cloven hooves.

  It was no doubt a depiction of Setia—goddess of the underworld.

  An inscription in the demonic language of the underworld was carved into the base of the statue. It warned of the pain and torment that lay ahead and stated that there was no escape from the underworld.

  It was a place of hopelessness, pain, and despair.

  We all exchanged a wary glance.

  A hot gust of wind blew into the room from a neighboring passageway as if beckoning us to enter. Backwards voices, carried on the breeze, swirled around my head.

  I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination.

  I couldn’t understand the words, but the voices were soft and seductive. “Does anyone else hear that?”

  The girls nodded.

  “I feel scared and excited,” Sophia said.

  The Ring of Ulnör continued to glow. It radiated energy, almost demanding attention. I felt compelled to put it on again, but resisted the urge.

  “Don’t do it,” Asgoth said.

  “I’m not going to put it on.”

  “If you think the singing skulls were bad, the ring is worse.”

  “How so?”

  “Just like Ulnör, it is seductive. Once you put it on, you will not want to take it off. It will double your power, but also shorten your life. Most do not have the strength to remove it. Once Yertos slipped it on his finger, it never came off. He died well before his time.” Asgoth paused. “Just like me, Ulnör is collecting souls. When she has enough, she can free herself from the ring.”

  I began to realize Phaedra’s plan. It was rather ingenious. Each quest led to the next and was essential for the completion of the overall objective. This ring would determine the success or failure of our coming adventure. “Phaedra said the ring is the only way to get into Valinsmor.”

  “This is true,” Asgoth said. “Xerius left the gate open for Ulnör in case she returned.”

  “Great,” I said. “So, all we have to do now is make it through the underworld, steal the Dagger of Onyx, use the ring to get into Valinsmor, and steal the daughter of the most powerful god. No problem.”

  “Something like that,” Asgoth said.

  We strolled into the next room with caution. There was a long banquet table covered in a mouthwatering smorgasbord of delectable culinary offerings—beef, chicken, turkey, an array of vegetables and fruits.

  It smelled amazing.

  My mouth watered, and my stomach rumbled with anticipation. Candlelight flickered from the table. The room was opulently decorated with antique furniture and fine works of art. The atmosphere was soothing and almost romantic.

  Sophia picked up an apple from a tray and surveyed it carefully. She sniffed it. It looked pristine. She was about to bite into it when I grabbed her wrist, keeping the apple from her lips.

  “What?” she asked. “It’s fine. I have a nose for this type of thing.”

  “Look again,” I said.

  She refocused her gaze, and this time saw the apple as it truly was—rotten and laced with maggots and worms.

  “Ew!” she cried, dropping the apple like a hot coal.

  “Nothing here is what it seems,” I cautioned.

  50

  Kron

  “You’re a demon,” I said to Asgoth. “ You know your way around this place.”

  “No, I don’t,” Asgoth replied. “The underworld is a unique and personal experience. It’s different for everyone.

  “This,” he said, referencing the surroundings, “is how we will experience the underworld. It is very different from how I experienced it before. Though, some things are the same, many are different.”

  He paused for a moment. “I suspect Setia herself will greet us at some point. She likes to welcome all new inhabitants. However, I don’t think she will be particularly fond of seeing me.”

  “Why? What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing,” Asgoth said, innocently.

  I shook my head, knowing Asgoth’s mischievous nature. He had never told me exactly why he had been banished from the underworld. But I suspected demons didn’t get kicked out easily.

  We left the banquet room and walked down a long corridor. The amber glow of wall sconces illuminated our faces. We reach the end of the corridor and found we were back in the banquet room.

  My brain couldn’t quite process how it was possible.

  This was the exact same room.

  We had walked at least 100 feet away from it, yet here we were again. The apple that Sophia had dropped was on the floor by the table.

  Everything was the same.

  I began to understand what Asgoth meant when he said the underworld was a unique and personal experience, different for everyone. It was as if the world conformed to our consciousness. On some level, we were one with the underworld. I began to wonder if it was all in my imagination. Perhaps it was? But that didn’t make it any less real.

  We left the dining room behind, and strolled down the hall again, only to find ourselves in the same situation. It seemed as though the underworld was not going to let us leave this room until we had first accomplished some task, perhaps?

  “How the hell are we going to get out of here?” Sophia asked.

  I frowned. “I have a sneaking suspicion that were not going to be able to leave this room until we eat something from the table.”

  “You wouldn’t want to refuse your host’s generous hospitality, would you?” a sultry voice said.

  An alluring female voice had emanated from behind me. I spun around to see the devil herself. Only this time it wasn’t a statue of Setia—it was the demon in the flesh.

  The statue didn’t do her justice.

  In reality, she was gorgeous. She didn’t have the head of a goat. But black horns did spiral from her head, juxtaposed against her porcelain skin. Her body was stunning. Toned and buoyant. Round breasts, flat stomach, and an ass to die for.

  Her tail wiggled, and her cloven hooves clacked against the stone floor as she stepped close to me. />
  A mix of fear and adrenaline swirled in my veins.

  This was the personification of evil.

  Every malicious and vile thing in the world stemmed from this being. Every reprehensible thought, every despicable action originated in her mind and was pushed out into the universe.

  It was hard to reconcile that fact with the stunning creature before me. She had raven black hair and lustrous eyes as red as the magma we had crossed.

  My pulse pounded.

  As she stepped closer, my soldier stretched.

  This woman oozed sexuality.

  Every word that slipped from her tongue slithered into my ears, caressed my brain, and stoked lascivious desires.

  “My domain is not for the living, but I will indulge your presence as long as it amuses me,” Setia said.

  “Thank you,” I said. “That’s very generous of you.”

  She smiled. “I’m known for my generosity.”

  Her voice was thick with sarcasm.

  Asgoth scoffed.

  Her eyes narrowed at the demon sword. “And you! I should melt you down in the very fires in which this blade was forged.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Asgoth said, trying not to sound desperate.

  “What part of banished from my kingdom have you forgotten?”

  “I am not here of my own free will. I am merely serving my master. As you can see, I have no control over my destiny.”

  Setia scoffed. “As if you can’t control the minds of the weak and feeble.”

  “Does anything about my master look weak or feeble?”

  Setia’s lecherous eyes surveyed me. “No. Indeed not.” She sighed. “I suppose I can’t stay mad at you forever. I mean, I could. But you two have provided me with plenty of fresh souls.”

  “Does that mean you will release me from my imprisonment?” Asgoth asked, hopeful.

  She laughed. “Not until you fulfill your quota. But I will allow you to continue to serve your master on his quest.”

  “Thank you, my dear mistress of the dark.”

  Setia rolled her eyes at the demon, then fixed her gaze on me. She smiled. “I must say, I’m impressed by your resourcefulness,” Setia said. “It’s not often the living make it this far.” Her eyes took in my form, impressed. “But I can’t let you proceed without first passing a challenge.”