Fueled by Dragon's Fire (Return of the Dragonborn Book 2)

by N. M. Howell

  Andie glared at the man before her. “You talk too much.”

  She cast right at his face but it was blocked by the battalion. The chancellor and Ashur raced into the next car. They were followed by all except two soldiers. Andie didn’t have time for anymore pleasantries.

  “Saeryn, forgive me.”

  Andie channeled her power into a ball of black fire so hot and so powerful that it melted one of the soldier’s armor. Her magic always amazed her, and even still, she hardly believed she was capable of the things she had managed these past few months. She stared after the black fire with wide eyes, a strange mix of sorcerer’s and dragonborn magic. Her own strange brand of whatever it was. She wasn’t exactly sure what to call it, apart from terrifying.

  She tried to ignore the screams as the suit melted onto his skin and he collapsed. Not dead, but certainly wishing he was. She swallowed back the bile that crept up her throat at the smell of burning flesh as she pressed forward. She couldn’t allow herself to be affected by such thing. Not when the survival of her entire race and the entire city of Arvall relied on her succeeding at her task.

  The other soldier began a panicked attack that betrayed his fear and Andie easily avoided his incompetent display. She began to swirl her hand around and around, focusing her energy on the soldier. Soon a vortex began to gather behind him and in a matter of moments he had been lifted and was spinning and tumbling out of control.

  Andie spun her hand faster and faster until the vortex was a miniscule tornado, whipping everything in sight into a fury. She flung the soldier and the tornado over her shoulder and the man hit the back wall so hard Andie heard his spine crack. She’d never wanted violence, not really. But if trouble was what they wanted she was going to give them as much as they could handle.

  As she burst into the next car, the group of villains was just moving through the door at the other end. She cast a bolt of lightning and hit one of the soldiers, but only succeeded in knocking him into the next room and closing the door. She rushed across the car and flung open the door. The man she’d hit was already up and running. She chased him down easily, as his wound was slowing him, and at the same instant her hand met his back she sent her magic into him, paralyzing him totally. He hit the floor and Andie never stopped moving.

  In the next car, the first thing she did was throw a wall of magic. All the furniture, fixtures, appliances, and other objects in the room were hurled forward ahead of the chancellor. The great field of debris collided with the door and totally blocked off the escape. But the chancellor was quick on his feet. He spied an emergency ladder leading to the roof and he and Ashur quickly went up and out, followed by three of the soldiers. That left two soldiers she hadn’t seen before, obviously already stationed on the train.

  Her spell with the furniture had broken all the lights in the car and so, with the exception of the moonlight and other sources flashing by outside, the car was totally dark. In fact, all Andie could see were two glowing pairs of hand. They began casting immediately, terrible and deadly spells that only served to further remind Andie how ruthless the University was. Her advantages were the dark and her ability to stay calm when her opponents were clearly frantic.

  She used her stealth to close the distance in the dark and then cast a low spell at one of the soldiers’ legs. He leapt to his left to avoid it and landed right where she wanted him. She got in close and took him with hand-to-hand. During their months in the tunnel, Marvo and Raesh had taught her much. The soldier was stronger and faster because of his armor, but Andie had the better training. She laid him out flat in less than two minutes. When she turned to the other soldier, he crouched down and threw up his hands in surrender.

  She rushed past him and jumped on the ladder, but just as she was about to climb up to the roof, the soldier grabbed her. Unfortunately for him, she’d figured it was a trick. In one deft movement, she kicked him off and threw herself up on the roof. As soon as he stuck his head up through the hole, Andie caught him with a hook in the center of his face. He went crashing back down.

  She was using her magic to hold herself upright, but with the incredible speed of the train it was a difficult job. Not to mention the train was traveling vertically at that point. She started walking forward and could already see the chancellor and his battalion ahead. As soon as she stepped onto the next car, she disconnected all the ones behind her and the train soon left them behind.

  “You’re very good,” the chancellor called through the night. “If only you weren’t dragonborn, and fought for me. Ah well. Disappointment abounds.”

  “Why?” she screamed through the violent wind that lashed her hair across her face. The roar of the train flying through the cold air muffled her cries. “What possible good will come of all this bloodshed? They’ll never accept you now, never give you the power you want so badly. You’ve killed so many people, and for what? To keep spreading a lie?”

  “I want what all men with power want, Andie. More power. You are part of the new generation that wants nothing, does nothing, is satisfied with sand when you could have diamonds. But not me. I’ll never stop, I’ll never have enough.”

  “It’s power you don’t need! You’re the chancellor of western Noelle. Half of this entire continent is under your control. Why can’t you—”

  “The world has lost its way! We’ve stopped trying, stopped striving! I want it all! Everything!”

  He and Ashur continued on, leaving the final three battalion soldiers in Andie’s path. She looked around and saw that they were nearing the end of the line. Soon the chancellor would be in the city and if he made it that far there would be no stopping him. The three soldiers looked skittish as Andie approached, no doubt wary of her power now after seeing her plow through all their friends.

  Andie stopped, eyed them fiercely. “This man is on his way to suck the life out of Arvall. That means that in a matter of minutes everything and everyone you know will be gone. They will be dead. Your friends, your family. All of them.”

  They froze in place as they listened to her speak. She took it as a sign to continue.

  “You don’t need to do this. You owe him nothing,” she pleaded. “Are you really going to stand between him and me? Your lives are worth more than this.”

  The soldiers looked at each other and even with their faces covered, Andie could tell they were reconsidering. She took another step forward and they took one back. One of them removed his mask and relaxed his battle stance.

  “We’re not from around here,” he yelled over the sound of the rushing wind. “None of the battalion is. We don’t know these people. They mean nothing to us.”

  “I’m not from around here, either. I’m from Michaelson, a small farming village near Gordric’s Pain. But these people... they mean something to me. If the chancellor sees that he can only get his way by mass murder, how long do you think he’ll stay calm? How long before it’s your cities and your people that he’s massacring? I’m going to stop him and I’m going to do it now. The only question is, do I take you down with him?”

  The larger soldier looked at Andie and then back at his peers. They each nodded to him and he put his helmet back on and charged his suit. Andie clenched her fists and prepared to attack, but just as she raised her hands the soldier nodded to her, and he and his friends jumped from the train, covering themselves in bubbles of protective magic to break their fall. Andie let out a long breath she had been holding, turned her attention forward again, and carried on.

  Tarven and the chancellor had reached the front of the train and run out of places to run or hide. Andie finally caught up with them and nearly had her head taken off by a white bolt of lightning thrown back by Ashur. The bolt missed her by an inch and hit the car behind her. It split the entire roof apart. He had come a long way since she last knew him.

  Everything about him was different. His expressions, his body, his energy. She sensed he had done terrible things since the last time they saw each other. A lot of terrible
things. What shocked her most was his power. Before, he had merely been talented with hortological magic, but now his speed, power, and casting ability were off the charts. Even better than his comrades. He must’ve been good, because he was the last line of defense between the chancellor and Andie, and the chancellor didn’t look worried at all.

  “You truly are a marvelous thing, Andie Rogers,” Chancellor Mharú called. “I’ve never seen anything like you. Well, almost never,” he said, patting Ashur’s shoulder.

  Andie couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “You’ll have to do better than that to impress me, I’m afraid, Chancellor.”

  He ignored her. “I’m feeling rather ecstatic, and so I’ll offer you your life this one time. Join me. Come over to my side and see what real power feels like. Touch it, possess it, relish it. If you were ever to put on this armor there would be nothing on this earth that could stop you.”

  “Are you out of your mind? You’re trying to eradicate my people! You killed my friends, tried to kill my father, and have proven yourself to be nothing but pure evil.”

  “Those are just people, Andie, and the world is full of them. Find a new home, adopt a new culture, reinvent yourself. Take the things you want. Don’t let anything stand in your way.”

  “Take,” she repeated, beginning to almost glow with rage. “Take. Like you took my mother?”

  “Fine, Andie. You want to be a martyr, then let us help you die.”

  Ashur began moving forward toward her. The train began to gradually level out as they neared the bottom of the mountain. This time, Andie cast first and although her aim was perfect, it only caused Ashur to stumble a little.

  He retaliated with a spell that wrapped her in super-cold air, and she had to catch her breath quickly in order to defend against his next attack. He cast again, but she caught it and flung it back at him, bringing him to his knees. As he stood again, he conjured a long chain in his hands, but instead of steel, each link was made of freezing energy. He lashed out and missed her twice, but the third time the chain wrapped around her arm and caught her, and the pain was so intense she wanted to scream.

  Ashur pulled on the chain and the armor gave him such strength that Andie was pulled off her feet. As soon as her feet left the train, Andie flew up and away. The train was still traveling at an incredible speed. The only thing that kept her from flying away was the chain wrapped around her arm. Using her magic, she cut the chain and brought herself back to the roof. But before she could stand, Ashur lashed out with the chain again and this time it wrapped around her body, pinning down one of her arms. She steadied herself, but the freezing cold was draining the energy right out of her. Ashur was strong, so much more powerful than she’d imagined.

  But she couldn’t fail. She accessed a deeper part of her magic and released it, engulfing herself in flames and melting the chain right off. Ashur lashed out again, but Andie burned so hot the chain evaporated before it reached her. She almost melted through the roof. When Ashur discarded the chain, Andie returned to her normal state and cast a flurry of spells at Ashur that even his armor couldn’t block or absorb. When they hit, she heard his arm and his ribs break.

  She had assumed the fight was over and began walking past him to get to the chancellor. The train levelled out completely as it began to slow and pull into the station. Andie was only a few steps from the chancellor when a hand grabbed her and flung her back twenty feet. She very nearly slid off the train entirely. Ashur was back on his feet and moving his arm as if nothing had happened. Andie couldn’t believe it.

  “That’s impossible,” she said. “I heard the bones break.”

  “Did you really think the University wouldn’t figure it out?” he asked. “They’ve been experimenting on people with dragon’s blood for years. They finally figured out how to mimic your healing abilities. This suit will never work as well as an actual dragonborn body, it’s a lot slower and can’t heal completely, but it does the trick. You can’t win, Andie.”

  “I have to.”

  “Then you’ll die trying.”

  “This isn’t you, Tarven.”

  Tarven glared at her, a fiery light illuminating his piercing gaze. “Tarven is dead. My name is Ashur.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Andie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She cried out and shook her head, her eyes clouded with angry tears that threatened to spill from her lids. Tear of rage. “No, you’re wrong. Your name is Tarven and this isn’t you! I know you wanted to impress them, to be accepted by them, but I can’t honestly believe you’re this evil. Think about what’s happening around you. He’s about to go into your city and take innocent lives. Are you honestly okay with that?”

  “I am completely loyal to him. I swore my allegiance and I will do nothing, nothing, to jeopardize the work that he is doing. He is building an empire greater than anything you can imagine. A continental kingdom governed by a single, infallible power. And he chose me to lead his battalion, and, one day, all of his legions. The future is now, Andie. The future is Myamar Mharú.”

  “What happened to that boy who tested me my first day at the University? That cocky, but sweet boy who spent all those afternoons teaching me, helping me, showing me magic I’d never even dreamed of? Where is he? All he wanted was to show the world how special his plants were. What happened to him?”

  Ashur was silent then. He seemed to be trying to think of a suitable response, but couldn’t. Something about his expression then made Andie pause; she couldn’t quite tell what was happening inside of him, but the expression on his face was almost one of regret. She thought then, seriously, that he might not truly be loyal to the chancellor, or the University, or any of it. He might be just as trapped and threatened as Lilja was. He might just be another pawn in the chancellor’s vast and ever adapting game.

  But Ashur clenched his fists and the suit began to glow, and Andie knew that either he was too brainwashed to stop himself or he truly had gone over the edge of reason. He flung another bolt of lightning at her, this time grazing her side. Behind him, Chancellor Mharú was jumping onto the platform, as the train had almost completely stopped moving. They’d arrived at the station.

  “So, you want to trade lighting?” Andie asked. “Let’s see what you can do.”

  Ashur cast another white bolt and Andie met it in the air with a black one. And back and forth they traded lightning, black and white, hot and cold, like a miniature copy of the Hot Salts of Mithraldia. Ashur was well trained, methodical, precise. Andie was organic, intuitive, powerful. The bolts flashed through the air with a terrible sound as loud as any real lightning in the sky. As the bolts sailed by, they hit the train, the platform, various parts of the station, and anything else in their path. Andie and Ashur were destroying everything around them. Andie looked for the chancellor, but he was already gone. She needed to move, fast.

  Ashur reached back to conjure his next bolt and Andie did that thing she only did in times of great distress: she reached into the deepest reaches of her magic and released it. A black bolt of lightning erupted from her chest and shot out with such force that she slid back on the train. The bolt was so wide it seemed more like a stream of energy that was wrapped in violent purple flames. Ashur was blown away so hard and fast that Andie couldn’t see where he landed or if he was even still alive. She leapt off the train and ran to find the chancellor.

  She cleared the station and was running down the nearest boulevard when she stopped. She had no idea where he’d gone. The city was huge, sprawling, and he’d gotten a considerable head start and could have been anywhere by then.

  Andie wracked her brain trying to think where he could go to get the quickest access to a large, dense population, but there was no end to the possibilities. The arena, the pier, any of the six boulevards in the publishing district, the financial district, the baseball stadium—Andie could hear them cheering from the train station—and on and on. She was at a total loss. For all she knew he had already started his mass sacrif
ice. She looked up toward the mountain and saw a tiny dot of light that was almost invisible from so far away. The tear. It had grown.

  Just as Andie was about to lose her mind, the screaming began. She turned and began running toward the sounds. She could hear cars crashing and explosions as complete and utter chaos spread in the distance. She ran as fast as she can, wishing the entire time that she had a dragon who cut the air and have her in the area to save people. The closer she got, the more she heard, the more she feared, the more she pushed herself to run faster and harder. When she finally reached the intersection where everything was happening she was met by two things: fear and death.

  There were bodies everywhere. There were far too many to count and even the people running were tripping over the corpses that littered the road in every direction. Even as she looked up at the buildings, Andie could see bodies collapsed in the windows. As the people ran, fled, they were killed in midstride. Andie turned and turned, trying to find any sign of hope or salvation, but there was nothing there except carnage and sheer terror.

  The chancellor was moving down the street ahead of her. He was standing on a section of the pavement that he had ripped up and it was floating him along at an increasing speed. Andie began chasing him, but he was moving too fast. She could hear him laughing as the bodies continued to fall all around him. As he turned to watch the destruction, he saw her.

  “You simply won’t die, will you?” he asked. “No matter, the spell is already begun. It’s self-sustaining now. All I have to do is wait.”

  “You’re killing the entire city! This is madness! Please, stop!”

  “It’s too late for your pleas, little girl. Although, if it makes you feel any better I was never going to stop. The plan was always to get rid of the dragonborn by sacrificing the city and then blame the mass destruction on your people. Then the world would be in a constant state of fear, hiding from a threat that didn’t even exist.”