Dragons of the Dawn Bringer: The Goddess Prophecies Fantasy Series Book 5

by Araya Evermore

  Even if they were able to take this city, would they be able to hold it against legion of enemies? Even if their armies successfully took the coast, there was no running water and no food. Maybe there was ground water somewhere. The Orb of Water would help her find it. And they would have food from the supply ships, and more would be brought from Davono and Atalanph. She sighed. It wouldn’t be easy. She’d have to rely on experienced officers and commanders knowing what to do. All she had come here for was to scout the area, and now it was time to go.

  She turned west into the wind. At the coast, she would have the rest of her biscuits and prepare herself for the return trip. The wind had picked up and blew so strongly against her that even getting to the cliffs was slow going. She scouted along the bluffs but couldn’t find the shallow cave again. Instead, she was forced to land beside a pile of rocks a little back from the cliff’s edge.

  She felt exposed here, with the wind gushing up the cliff and tearing at her feathers. Ehka wedged himself between two boulders, his eyes constantly darting left and right, evidently feeling as uncomfortable as she did. It took a long time to convince herself to drop her raven form. When she did, the feeling of unease intensified.

  ‘Just a short rest and some food,’ she said, more to herself than Ehka, and pulled out her biscuits. As they ate she looked west. Out there, far away on the horizon, was the barest sliver of light. The lighter sky in the distance lifted her spirits. There would be no sunset here on Venosia, only a growing red sky with the same dark, thundering clouds. Neither the sun nor the moons had risen here for hundreds if not thousands of years. If they retook the land, would it push back the Under Flow and the overcast skies? She imagined the blue moon rising here, cleansing everything with its light.

  Perhaps it was the sound of the surf drowning everything out, or the wind and the sea whipping away the foul stench of the Black Drink, but neither she nor Ehka heard the footfalls until a great cold hand clasped over her throat, lifting her into the air and pulling her backwards.

  A meaty fist punched into her stomach knocking the air from her lungs. Issa doubled over, gasping for breath. A Maphraxie’s arms wrapped around her in a crushing vice. The smell of the undead made her gag. Ehka cawed loudly, only just making it into the air in time as another Maphraxie swung a black iron axe at him.

  Issa kicked and bucked uselessly. In her throes, she glimpsed the hidden doorway in the ground just a few yards away. A tunnel disappeared into the blackness, confirming her fears that the whole place was riddled with them and infested with dark dwarfs. She sighed. None of this was ever going to be easy.

  Lifting her feet, she booted the Maphraxie looming before her in the stomach, using the one clamping its arms around her as leverage. The surprised Maphraxie gasped a putrid breath and its watery white eyes widened. Ehka attacked the head of the one holding her, his talons and beak gleaming.

  Feeling its grip slacken, Issa yanked her right arm free and managed to reach her sword. She pulled it free and stabbed down into the grey flesh of an exposed calf. The Maphraxie grunted and dropped her. Rolling to her feet, she just dodged the other Maphraxies’ axe.

  The Maphraxie laughed, a choking sound, and hefted its axe, its sharp edge jagged like a saw. Issa pursed her lips. She had to kill these two. Even if she managed to get away, they couldn’t be allowed to live to alert the others, although eventually they would be found to be missing. She was an idiot for not finding a better resting place. Now there was even less time to return to Davono and bring the army. That element of surprise was all they had.

  Ehka squawked loudly but she couldn’t take her eyes off the enemy in front of her. She feinted left, spinning to avoid the axe and allowing her a glimpse of Ehka’s predicament. He was scratching at the eyes of a howling Maphraxie who was trying to swat him and at the same time pull out his mace.

  Issa lunged at her opponent, hoping to drive it back but it just stood there and parried, jolting her arm. She pirouetted back from its axe towards the other Maphraxie, daring to drop her gaze and glance back. The other Maphraxies’ fleshy grey throat was exposed while Ehka attacked. Issa entered the Flow then remembered where she was. She couldn’t use magic here; it would attract Dromoorai.

  Her opponent ran at her. She ducked around the other Maphraxie and stabbed at its throat. Her sword sunk sickeningly deep into its flesh and black blood oozed. She stabbed again. Ehka leapt off its head. It gurgled and its hands uselessly grasped at the blood spilling from its neck. Issa would have vomited had the other Maphraxie not been running towards her, axe raised and howling at the demise of its companion.

  She ran, dodged under its swinging axe and jumped at the other, wounded Maphraxie, planting both feet into its chest. The Maphraxie staggered towards the cliff edge, then toppled off, howling. Issa rolled to her knees. The move cost her time and she barely turned her chest away from the other’s falling axe. It sliced across her left arm with sickening ease.

  Battle fury kept the pain away. There was no agony yet just hot blood and weakness. Her fingers tingled but she still had her arm. There was no woozy feeling and she thanked the goddess it wasn’t her sword arm and the blade wasn’t poisoned.

  Growling, she drove her sword forward. It clanged uselessly off the Maphraxie’s armour. She ran back as the enemy pounded towards her. Ehka swooped to attack. She screamed as he narrowly missed its swinging blade. Stepping towards the cliff’s edge, she glanced at the waves crashing far below. The fallen Maphraxie was nowhere to be seen. Pure white surrounded black rocks reminding her of the Shadowlands. The Maphraxie followed her, utterly fearless.

  The axe swung. She ducked under it and leapt up, flinging herself onto the Maphraxie’s chest. She grappled with its breastplate, pain bursting in her injured arm as she struggled to hold on. Clinging to its chest brought her out of range of its axe. With her good arm, she sliced her sword down, severing its left hand at the edge of its bracers. It only grunted, making her wonder if these beasts felt pain at all.

  Awkwardly lifting herself off its cuirass, she swung her whole body towards the cliff edge, groaning against the fire in her arm as she tried to hang on. Ehka attacked its eyes again, and it stumbled and lurched. Finally, it dropped its axe to swat at the bird. For a moment the edge came into view and the frothing white waves crashed against black rocks far below. Then they were falling together.

  Issa shoved herself off the flailing Maphraxie, closed her eyes against the rushing, tumbling world and embraced her raven form. Wind filled her wings thrusting her upwards. The Maphraxie fell fast and splattered upon the rocks, black blood oozing over them to stain the sea dark. The pain in her arm, now a bleeding wing, was unbearable. It took all her concentration to stay airborne and not fall out of the sky.

  She cawed for Ehka. He was nowhere to be seen. Frantically, she searched the sky above and rocks below. Swooping lower, she spied a black speck struggling to stay atop a rock as the sea surged around it. She dropped towards it. Ehka looked up and cawed. His wing hung down but he was alive. Waves were almost crashing over the top of the rock he was on trying to sweep him into the sea.

  She landed beside him and released her raven form, shivering as sea spray soaked her and stung her injured arm. Carefully she put him on her lap and touched his wounded wing. It was hot. He couldn’t fly. Only magic was going to get them off this rock. Dropping her curses, she decided to use magic and entered the Flow. She lightly held his wing and closed her eyes, feeling out the injury. It was fractured in two places. Drawing on the Flow, it was pitifully weak in this place anyway, she moved the barest magic through her palm, spreading it into his wing, hoping to make it strong enough so he could at least get off this rock.

  Issa opened her eyes. His wing was still hot but it drooped less. Hopefully he could fly a short way. Using the same technique, she held her palm against her own wound. It was wet with fresh blood though the dragon scale tunic itself had mended together.

  Edarna’s enchantments, she thought. What a blessi
ng. The wound was too deep for the enchantment to heal her fully. Ely’s bracelet was surely helping to stem the blood flow, otherwise she would have been in a worse state. Still, she needed rest and to tend it properly. She stared up at the cliff, searching for somewhere safe that they could reach.

  ‘Ah, I recognise it now,’ she said, and pointed up and to the right. ‘Fly to the cave, it should be there somewhere.’

  Ehka dipped his beak and launched uneasily into the air. Embracing her raven form, she overtook him and flew ahead, hunting for the shallow cave. Spotting it, she landed inside and released her form, immediately glad to be out of the cold wind. Ehka skidded besides her, listing weakly. It wasn’t much of a shelter, but it beat sitting next to a dark dwarf tunnel filled with Maphraxies.

  Carefully, she undid her armour and slipped it over her shoulder. Blood trickled from her wound but it was trying to close and ached dully now rather than with raging pain. She pulled from her pouch a tiny pot of potent healing ointment that Naksu had given her. With just two drops, she set about cleaning the wound then bound it with a strip of gauze Naksu had made her keep in her belt. She did up her armour then sat still, thinking. She couldn’t rest, not just yet. That doorway to the tunnel had to be closed and the Maphraxie had dropped its weapon somewhere meaning it was just waiting to be found.

  ‘Stay here,’ she said to Ehka in Daluni mind-speak, resumed her raven form and launched back into the air, her wing protesting painfully.

  Cautiously, she returned to the tunnel the Maphraxies had emerged from. There were no Maphraxies and no smell of the enemy near so she dared to land beside it.

  Inspecting the rough entrance revealed no obvious door. Perhaps it had been a magical door opened by dark dwarven runes. If things worked in her favour, the enemy would think one of their own had left it open. It was a weak hope.

  She hunted for the Maphraxie’s weapon. There, on the ground beside the cliff was the dropped axe. She hopped towards it. Looking left then right, she resumed her human form and kicked the axe off the edge. It spun into the sea with a giant splash. Now there was no obvious sign that anything had happened up here.

  She returned to the cave finding Ehka shivering and huddled against the floor. She sat down beside him and held him close, trying to give him warmth. What did they do now? His wing was temporarily better, but there was no way he could make the return journey home. She couldn’t stay here in this hellhole until he was healed.

  She felt his mind press upon hers and with it came images of the open ocean and sunlight.

  ‘No. I’m not leaving you so don’t even think it,’ she said aloud and chewed her fingernail. ‘But we can’t stay here. Soon, they’ll know two of theirs are missing and will send out a search party. Already our cover might be blown.’

  An idea came to her—it was the only way out of here she could think of. Picking up a stone, she scraped the symbol of the Murk into the rock. With her knife, she nicked her finger and clasped her fist around it to catch the blood.

  Carefully lifting Ehka, she stepped onto the symbol and let the blood fall, holding her intention to reach the Murk clear in her mind. The symbol flared green, then smoke and rushing wind became her world.

  29

  Demon Magic

  THAT moment between places, between dimensions, when everything was dark and fragmented and a rush of noise, wind and confusion, lasted longer than Issa remembered.

  She felt the connection waver as if it wasn’t as strong. It didn’t last long enough for her to panic and in the next instance, she found herself swaying before the green crystal shard, wanting to throw up the biscuits that now seemed lodged in her stomach.

  ‘Is it time?’ the voice was so deep and gravelly it took her a while to realise the words were Frayonesse, not Demonic.

  She blinked up into the huge, ugly, flat face of Gedrock. Yellow eyes with slitted pupils narrowed.

  ‘Issy!’ squeaked a voice and then something smacked into her calf and wrapped its arms, legs and tail around her. Ehka squawked in her arms.

  ‘Maggot?’ She reached down and scratched his head, but the movement made her so dizzy she stood back up and leant against the wall.

  ‘I tried to come, but I couldn’t reach you!’ Maggot said, his yellow eyes wide and pupils mere slits.

  ‘The connection was strange,’ she said, catching her breath and wondering.

  ‘She smells worse than usual.’ Gedrock’s advisor came to stand beside the king, heavily relying on his staff as he walked. His face wrinkled in disgust.

  ‘She does. Where have you come from?’ asked Gedrock.

  ‘I come from behind the enemy line. Could that be why the translocation was weak?’

  ‘It’s the Other Magic,’ said Wekurd to Gedrock. ‘I can smell it all over her.’

  ‘The Under Flow? Yes, it must be,’ Issa said. ‘No, King Gedrock. In answer to your question, it is not time and we are not at war, yet. I was scouting enemy-held lands and we were attacked. Ehka hurt his wing and we became trapped. We cannot stay there nor can we make the long journey home until his wing is stronger.’

  ‘You have the spear. With it you can get to safer places other than the Murk,’ said the King.

  ‘Marakon has the spear. He is far away. Listen, I must leave Ehka here in your care until he can return to us. It will only be a day or two with the magic I have used. Water and maggots will suit him fine.’ She smiled at Maggot. The little demon frowned, his skin wrinkling up on his forehead so he looked a hundred years old. Clearly, he didn’t want to share his maggots with anyone.

  Gedrock rolled back his muscled shoulders. ‘We do not like… ravens.’ He bared his fangs at the bird.

  Ehka gave a defiant squawk, opening his mouth wide and sticking out his tongue.

  ‘You will remember that it was he who risked his life to warn you about the greater demons.’ Issa reminded him.

  Gedrock eyed the bird suspiciously. ‘Hmm, I suppose it is rather small. Perhaps it can stay for a short time. But I cannot vouch for his safety should any of our kind think it edible.’

  ‘Ehka has ways in which he can look after himself,’ Issa said, though she knew that Gedrock or Maggot would do whatever they could to protect the bird.

  Gedrock turned his gaze upon her. ‘And what about you?’

  ‘I must return immediately.’

  ‘Alone? To enemy lands? It is dangerous. All wizards can sense a portal being opened, whether from the Murk or anywhere else. Necromancers especially.’

  ‘Too dangerous,’ echoed Maggot still gripping her leg.

  Issa chewed her lip. They were right, but she had to get back to the others. It would take her half a day to fly, even with Weather Magic. The battle could not wait, not when she had potentially triggered the enemy’s suspicion. They could already be hunting for their missing Maphraxies. What if their death hounds could smell her presence?

  Despite those worries, extreme tiredness nagged at her and she found herself saying with a sigh, ‘All right. I’ll rest here for a couple of hours.’ Maybe Ehka would be stronger by then but she doubted it.

  ‘Great. We shall have a banquet,’ said Gedrock and bellowed. Wekurd snickered beside him, his long, red tongue lolling out.

  Issa grimaced at the thought of a demon banquet. ‘No offence, King Gedrock, but I don’t think I’ll be joining you. I’m too tired and it’s probably not for humans.’

  Gedrock considered this, his ears twitching, then nodded. ‘So be it.’

  ‘Maggot,’ said Issa lightly, glad to have escaped eating with demons. ‘Why don’t you show me something interesting about this place?’ She looked around the giant chamber. It was further illuminated by hundreds of smaller green crystals hugging the rock walls. This was the first time she had been in Carmedrak without fearing for her life.

  ‘Maggot, show her the view from the turret,’ said Gedrock. ‘Humans enjoy views and it will keep her out of the way. I don’t want her smell spreading everywhere and getting the de
mons excited.’

  He wasn’t being unkind and she found herself hiding a smile, especially when she struggled to cope with the rank, fleshy smell of the demons themselves.

  The little demon looked excited. He flapped into the air, grabbed a lock of her hair and flew towards a huge arched doorway, pulling her somewhat gently along by it.

  She glanced back at Ehka. He seemed quite happy dozing beside Gedrock’s huge clawed feet. Gedrock eyed the bird with a frown. Issa tried not to giggle.

  The view from the turret was breath-taking. The half-moon of Zorock beamed down upon the vast landscape. Miles below them, the Black Sands stretched in all directions to the base of the mountains several leagues away. Their black craggy peaks ringed the plane, protective and foreboding.

  ‘Over there is where we came and you arrived with Demon Slayer,’ explained Maggot, pointing.

  Issa recalled the moment she had raced atop Duskar across the Black Sands, Pit Demons chasing her, and thrown the spear to Marakon.

  ‘Have all the demons from the Pit gone now? Did any return?’

  Maggot shook his head. ‘No. They all disappeared when Demon Slayer closed the tunnel. King says none will ever be able to break through again. There is trouble with some Grazen though. They do not like having a Shadow Demon king and want their own.’

  Issa sighed. Demon troubles appeared to be similar to human ones.

  Issa rested in the corner of a chamber with several small crystal shards casting an eerie green light. She tried to find it relaxing. Ehka and Maggot slept beside her. Her arm hurt quite a lot, but she knew it was healing pain. To take her mind off it, she thought about the coming invasion, where best to land, how to overcome the Devil’s Horns and retain their surprise attack—all of which made it even harder to sleep despite her throbbing shoulder.

  She pulled the rank-smelling blanket they had given her closer, thankful at least for the warmth it provided. After a moment she surprised herself and fell asleep.