by Philip Blood
There were several doors leading off of the entry hall to the left and right, and a passage which continued on along the left wall, but on the right was a stairway hugging the wall, and then turning left after about twenty steps up.
We all headed toward the stairs by some unvoiced decision. This was a tower, so you naturally wanted to go up.
I noticed Ziny was clinging to my side, one hand touching my hip. I could feel her little hand shaking.
“It’s all right,” I said with a reassuring smile down toward her terrified little face, “it’s just an old tower, there aren’t any ghosts.”
Right then the ghosts attacked.
There were many sudden howls which sounded like something coming from a long tunnel, something bestial, primordial and definitely insane. A massive wind-swept into the chamber below us, coming from the doors and hallway. Then small tornadoes of wind started up around the corpses, and these small vortexes lifted the old bones and remaining armor and weapons up, swirling around furiously, before slowing and then assembling into skeletal warriors, with blue glowing translucent bodies of some kind of ectoplasmic display.
“Run for the top of the tower!” Hydan exclaimed right as Myrka yelled, “Kill them all!”
“Up,” I seconded Hydan, and Myrka took one step down toward the assembling monsters, but then turned and followed my order. We all scrambled up the stairs.
The skeletal shades followed, coming up the stairs after us, and several of them seemed to run right up the walls.
We crested the stairs onto a balcony rimmed platform, which had doors and halls branching off into the second floor of the tower and the stairway kept climbing to the left. I could see we weren’t going to outrun the skeletal shades, so I barked, “Toji, Myrka, turn and hold the stairs, Hydan, lead the way further up, Ziny, stay with me in the middle.”
Myrka turned and said, “It is about time we stood to do battle!”
“Fine, fight, but keep backing up the stairs, I want to get to a better place to defend, higher up,” I noted.
She had no time to argue, the first of the skeletal shades had arrived.
Then Myrka let loose.
Up until this moment, I wanted to get rid of the cold sorceress, but I had to say, she saved our bacon. If there was one thing which Myrka could do, it was pure destruction.
She lit up the first three skeletal shades coming at them with quick beams of that blue light. Upon hitting the creatures, they exploded into bones and bits of armor and weapons.
Then two closed on her from the walls, swinging their old weapons.
But nothing reached Myrka, as the weapons got close to her body they dissolved in a cloud of rusted particles as if aging a million years in one split second.
Then her hands touched two of them who got too close and they changed into stone statues, falling backward, and tumbling down until they hit the first floor and shattered into a thousand shards.
Toji was a whirling tornado of death. He spun and dodged while backing up the stairs, and each time one of his slashing tantos connected with a skeleton, it cut it in pieces like a cleaver cutting a paper doll.
Both of them kept retreating up the stairs, cutting down adversaries left and right.
But what they didn’t see were the small tornadoes which were the shades reassembling their bodies each time they were struck down. Toji and Myrka were mowing them down, but they were only damaging the bodies, not the Shades which made the bodies.
Four of them bypassed Toji and Myrka, coming up the wall like spiders.
Hydan saw them, and when they got near he gestured and they turned into large saeran style fish, like ones we had seen at the bottom of the river, though these ones were only skeletons of those fish. They fell back, wiggling, well, like fish out of water. They had no hands to grab with or hold onto things, or legs to stand on, so they fell, going all the way to the bottom floor, where they shattered on the stones far below.
“Don’t you just love snogfish!” Hydan bellowed with a huge grin.
“Shades of snogfish, you mean,” I replied.
He just laughed.
In a few more flights of stairs, we reached a door at the summit of the stairway. Hydan opened the latch and swung it wide. Then he, Ziny and I ran inside.
Hydan turned at the door, so he could help cover Myrka and Toji.
Myrka yelled to Toji, “Go!”
Toji turned and ran through the door opening, which left Myrka out on the stairs, alone.
Right then the skeletal ghosts made a concerted attack, with many of them coming from Myrka’s sides, having run up the walls and stairs. They all converged on the Tarvos sorceress in an attempt to overwhelm her defense.
Hydan saw them attack and made a quick gesture with his right hand. Four of them fell, turned into snogfish, but the rest were coming from Myrka’s other side.
Myrka let loose a barrage of beams, spinning and gesturing swiftly in many directions with both hands, striking almost faster than you could watch. She took out eight of the approaching skeleton shades in less than three seconds. The remaining six leaped at her and she had to fire unthinkably fast to get them all, but she did it somehow, and only bone dust settled around her.
But then she staggered, and Hydan reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her in through the door, which he immediately slammed shut.
He looked at the door and it turned into a stone wall.
Myrka fell and then lay still on the ground.
Ziny came over and held her hands over Myrka’s body.
“She used all her power,” the young sorceress said softly.
Hydan spun in shock, and exclaimed, “All of it?”
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
Hydan shook his head, “Using the Derkaz takes a toll of your true magic in order to focus that dark power. Your true magic comes from your soul, so if she really used all of her true magic then she drained her soul, and she will die.”
But Ziny had a look of concentration on her face.
Myrka’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw the young girl working on her, and managed to say softly, “I’m sorry I tried to kill you.” Then her eyes slowly closed and her breathing stopped.
But Ziny was still concentrating, and she muttered, “There is a tiny thread left, I found it.”
Hydan watched, not wanting to disturb the small girl lest she lose the connection.
Suddenly Ziny toppled, falling to her side like a sack of potatoes, but right then Myrka sucked in a breath.
I dropped to Ziny’s side, and lifted her small limp body in my arms, looking for signs of life.
That’s when Myrka opened her eyes again. She looked toward me and saw me holding the limp little girl. Then Myrka whispered, “She saved me, but it took everything she had.”
“Is she…”
Hydan put a hand on my shoulder, “No, she’s alive but just barely. She is only a Sixth, and she poured what she had into Myrka to replenish her power and bring her back from the brink of death.”
“Why would she do that?” Myrka said while staring at the small girl draped across my arms.
“I guess she saw something in you which the rest of us, or even you, don’t see,” I noted. I got to my feet and carried Ziny over to an old bed before gently putting the little saeran girl down.
I sat there for a while, looking at her slack face, this little alien girl, with her fish scales, dark eyes, and little fins over her eyes. A girl who had given everything she had to save a foreign person who had tried to kill her earlier this same night. It gave me hope that in all this insanity, there was something worth saving. There was at least one little girl worth the struggle.
Outside the wall, which had been a door, we could hear the shades howling.
I looked up and spoke to Hydan, “What is keeping them out? Is it that stone wall?”
He shrugged, “Partly, at least those bodies they constructed, but I don’t know what is keeping those shades from coming through the c
racks and then trying to manifest in here.”
“What are Shades?” I asked.
“Dead mages who deemed it worth staying near the place of their death for some great purpose, and denying themselves the return to their origin. Not many souls have the will to manage this and those who do become a ghost. But it gets worse, the longer they stay, the greater the chance they will eventually go insane and become the shades you saw out on the stairway. Once that happens they become insanely angry, and attack the living.”
“Can they travel away from the place where they died?”
Hydan shook his head, “No, their power stems from the end of their existence in that place, and they are bound to that location, their soul can still move on if they choose… or until they become too insane to even remember how to depart this existence.”
I looked at the wall and said, “There were a lot of them, why would so many mages die here, and choose to linger?”
“That is a very good question,” Hydan replied.
And then we heard a new and ghostly voice from the far corner of the room, near the window opening which looked out over the lake and countryside, it said, “I can answer that.”
I spun around, and Toji went into a crouch with his tantos ready. Even Myrka attempted to raise her hand, though she was still too weak to actually manage it. Hydan just raised the small fin over his right eye in curiosity.
When I looked I didn’t see anyone standing or sitting from where the voice had issued, but as soon as I thought that, I changed my mind, there was something there, a very dim shape… the shape of a saeran male, wearing a long blue robe. He was completely translucent and seemed more like moonlight than reality.
“Who are you?” Hydan asked pleasantly.
“The ghost of a wizard, the very wizard who these sorry fools died to end. They chose to stay here and keep my soul from escaping. Together they have enough power to hold me here.”
Toji frowned, “So you killed them, and their souls choose to stay and hold you here?”
He shrugged, “I killed some of them, yes, but the rest committed suicide so there would be enough of them to hold me.”
Hydan spoke, “But that means you had to be much more powerful than any of them!”
“I am a Third of my House, and they were mostly fifths and lower before they became shades.”
Toji tilted his head, and then asked, “Why would a bunch of Fifths, Sixths, and Sevenths throw themselves at a Third, knowing they would likely die in the attempt?”
The ghost moved slightly, going to the window. When the moonlight passed through his ethereal body it became brighter and more visible. He turned to face us and I got the first clear look at his Glyph; it was a winged dragon, hovering in air.
“A DRAGON!” Myrka hissed, and tried to get to her feet, but collapsed weakly on the ground, though she kept trying to get up.
“Rest, Tarvos, for I am a ghost, and I am not going anywhere. I am Abraxas, Third of House Dragon! I have been here now for many hundreds of saeran years, bound here by the shades who slew me.”
“I would have been one of them, had I been here!” Myrka stated angrily.
I noted Toji facing the ghost with his tantos held in both hands. Even Hydan had taken a step backward. I was the only one who hadn’t reacted to the declaration of his House.
“OK,” I said, “what is the big deal? You know, I should have asked this earlier, but things just kept getting in the way, but I’m going to ask now, what the hell is a Dragon? From his Glyph, I assume it is one of the Houses. In fact, Toji, earlier you said the Dragon Archimage was thrown out of the Ring of Ten. And Fiona Albus said that The Dragon was coming for me, who IS The Dragon?”
It was the ghost who answered, “The Dragon is the Archimage of House Dragon, ruler of the world Sheol!”
Myrka scowled at his proud proclamation and said, “Let me enlighten you further, The Dragon is the only one of the Ten to break the Archimage Accords, and he did so twice. The second time was an attempt to murder another Archimage while he was on neutral territory. That alone was grounds for his expulsion from the Ring of Ten. From that moment on he and his kind were hunted, and his line was marked for extinction!
“That’s when he went on a reign of terror, doing unspeakable things across all the Worlds. He betrayed every ally, murdered innocents, tortured mages for their secrets and made them betray their families. His power grew as he stole secrets from every house. He is now the most hunted of all beings in the ten worlds, but he is cunning, ruthless, powerful and purely evil. He is the Dark One, the master of lies, and his names are many, but he is most often called The Dragon.”
I swallowed and then said, “And… really, this person is after me?”
Hydan raised his shoulders slightly and said, “I’m not sure ‘a person’ is sufficient to describe one of the primordial ten Archimages. But it does seem like The Dragon is hunting you, Nick.”
The ghost spoke, “If my Archimage is seeking you then he will find you!”
Great, that's all I need.
The Ghost was looking at me imperiously, and then I wondered why he was really here, so I asked, “Tell me, Abraxas, why did these Sivaeral ghosts hold you in this tower? What did you do, help Morgain against her Archimage?”
“I did nothing of the sort! My House Glyph was seen by one of these mages, who then foolishly gathered others of his House and hunted me across their world. I took refuge in this tower, and they threw themselves at me, dying when I had no desire to do them harm! Then, when I fell, the remainder of these misguided zealots tragically ended their own lives to trap my soul in this tower.”
“And it seems to have worked,” I said.
Myrka nodded, anger brewing on her face. “I am sorry I slew some of these guardians; I did not know what evil they held at bay. If I but had the power I would…” but she was too weak to even speak, and trailed off.
I’m not sure what she would have attempted, or what you could even do to a ghost.
Suddenly Abraxas smiled, and said, “At last! My time of imprisonment is coming to an end!”
Hydan suddenly looked attentive, “What was that?”
“My Archimage draws near, I feel his power, my master is coming!” the ghost exclaimed with rapture in his voice.
Hydan swiftly moved to the arched opening and looked out, and then said, “May the Silent Mother help us, he’s right, I think The Dragon is coming.”
Toji and I joined him and looked out. Far in the distance, we could see some kind of flaming flying creature streaking our direction, a bright glow of yellow and red fire in the night a few miles off.
The ghost laughed aloud, and cried out, “I am FREE! There are not enough of these shades to hold me now, not when my Archimage draws near!”
Then his ghostly form flew out the window and streaked away into the night, headed toward the approaching glow of flames.
“You know, this just can't be good," I decide.
Myrka struggled to gain her feet but failed. Then she said, “I must Five Point travel to a portal, and tell my Archimage of the coming of The Dark One!”
Hydan shook his head, “A Traveling Star takes power, which is something you don’t have right now, it would kill you.”
“You could make one for me!” she exclaimed.
Hydan stared at her for a moment, and then started gesturing at the floor, but the familiar red fire did not appear.
Hydan stopped gesturing and said, “The Dragon has put a StarWard around this area, he must be getting near! We cannot use a Star for travel now.”
Myrka snarled, and struggled to get up, as she said, “Then I will fight! I will not go down cowering on the floor of…”
Hydan suddenly gestured and Myrka slumped back to the ground, unconscious.
“What did you do?” I asked.
Hydan shrugged, “I just gave her a nudge, she was about to pass out anyway, and this way she is healing rather than passing out from taking herself over the brink int
o possible death.”
I looked around the room, “And, what do we do now?”
“We get out of this tower, or did you want to wait around for The Dragon?” Hydan asked.
I didn’t even bother to answer, but I said, “What about the shades?”
Toji went to the wall and put his ear there to listen, and then he said, “I can’t hear them howling anymore, I think they have departed, they have no reason to stay now that the ghost of the Dragon Third has fled. It was to keep his soul trapped in this tower which made them stay. Perhaps now they can move on out of this dark existence.”
I pondered that and asked, “Why worry about a soul? I mean, he was dead.”
Toji replied, “There are ways of speaking with the dead, perhaps Abraxas knows something they wanted to keep from The Dragon? Besides, The Dragon has stolen secrets from all the Houses, and now Morgain is bringing back dead mages and necromages. Who knows, perhaps The Dragon is the one who gave her that secret!”
“Ah, good point,” I answered. I then wondered which of his secrets I knew, I wish I remembered.
“I will carry Myrka if you will carry Ziny, Nick,” Hydan said and picked up the unconscious Tarvos sorceress.
“All right,” I answered, but added, “But if I were you, I wouldn’t want to be very close to Myrka when she wakes up, she’s going to be very pissed with you!”
“I’ll deal with her at the time,” Hydan noted. Then he added, “Toji, if you would be so kind as to make an opening, let’s get out of this foul tower.”
Toji went to the wall where the arch had been, raised a hand when he was about a foot away, and then the stones vanished and became an arched opening again.
We made it down to the bottom of the tower without incident. This time, we followed the path to a quay, though there were no boats moored there. We got rid of our armor and then slipped under the water. It turned out to be even easier to tend to Ziny and Myrka in the water, where their unconscious bodies were weightless.
We swam tiredly for two hours and finally reached the far shoreline. When we surfaced I could see a glow coming from the Tower. It seems The Dragon, and his firey mount were causing quite a fire. I just hoped he had no way of sensing us.
