by Riley Storm
“What I don’t understand, is how it managed to remain open,” Damien said. “The dragons that opened it needed to focus in unison, all concentrating their powers together.”
Anna nodded. He’d told her of the process, of how it had taken twenty-four dragons working in concert to open it up and stabilize it. To the best of her knowledge, any spell that operated that way would collapse when one link was taken out.
Yet somehow, the dragon portal hadn’t collapsed. Not completely. Of course, it was unlike any spell she’d ever heard of before. Travelling to other words? Preposterous. Even the Abyss was but a parallel world of Earth itself, existing in the same region of space, but on a different plane, one made from magic.
This though…this was something else entirely. It screamed more of technology than magic. Of course, dragon magic was innate.
So is ours, I suppose. We’re born with it, latent talent that we must train. But we have to actively learn it, whereas the dragons just seem to…to know it.
Anna didn’t understand it.
“You’re back.”
They both turned to see Rane and Altair standing in front of one of the buildings.
“Yeah,” Damien said, speaking up. “We are. We need to find a way to close this. It’s our only hope to get us out of trouble.”
Altair nodded, while Rane looked bothered by the statement.
“Do you want us to deal with the others?” Rane asked cautiously. “To give you time to work.”
Anna scoffed. “No, of course not. The others aren’t going to fight us. They just want to stay out of it entirely, I’m sure. No, we should be fine to do this on our own.” She sighed, pacing along the front of the portal. “If I could just feel this thing, get a sense of it, then maybe I could close it. But it’s invisible to me.”
“Invisible?” Damien asked.
Anna shrugged helplessly. “I can feel earthly magic. Like this,” she said, holding up her staff. “Here.” She chucked it to Damien, who caught it smoothly. “Now, if I feel with my magic, I can sense that, I know it’s there, and even if I were blindfolded, I’d be able to tell you that something magical is over there. But with that—” She spun to point directly at the little hovering portal, “—well that just doesn’t exist to me. So, I can’t get a sense of it, can’t learn its patterns. I can’t unravel it if I can’t feel it. Do you understand?”
She glanced at the other two dragons first. Both of them nodded. Then she turned to Damien, looking for final confirmation that what she’d said made sense. But the storm dragon wasn’t staring at her. He was staring at the portal itself.
“Damien? I asked you if you understood,” she said.
The storm dragon didn’t respond at first. When he did, he spun to face Altair. “You put the posts in around it, correct?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday, before the storm hit.” Altair shrugged. “Why?”
Damien began backing away from the portal. “So why are there tracks in the snow?” he said quietly. “Tracks that only lead away.”
Anna’s gaze swung down to the snow, and she saw them there too. Partially obscured by the snow, but still visible if one looked for them. They led past her and the others.
“Toward the outpost,” she said quietly. “Something came through during the storm.”
“And it never went back,” Damien confirmed, reaching her side, handing her staff over.
They linked up with Altair and Rane, the quartet slowly approaching the outpost. It was several hundred feet back from the portal, the witches wisely having decided to keep some distance from the unknown magic. But that meant it would take them some time to close the distance.
“We need to warn them,” Anna said quietly, speaking of the other four witches that had come with her. “So that they can prepare themselves.” She was scared. One of her best friends was up at the outpost, unaware. Vulnerable.
“If we do that, then the Infected will know that we’re alerted to its presence, and strike at once. The closer we can get before that happens, the better,” Damien said cautiously. “We can stop one of them. Between the four of us, that shouldn’t be an issue.”
What Anna noticed Damien carefully avoid saying, was whether only one of them had come through. She steeled her nerves as best as possible, determined not to fall behind the dragons as they advanced, following the tracks as best they could.
This is what you’ve trained for. What you’ve been working toward for your entire life. Something has come through to harm humanity. You are one of the few who stand between them and the unknowing masses. This is your duty. Now do it.
She inhaled sharply, spine straightening. Magic came easier and she gripped her staff, ready to put its deadly spells to good use if she had to. Anna had never struck in anger before, with intent to harm, but this time…this time she would.
“Anna,” Damien said quietly. “I want you to—”
The first attack came without warning, exploding among their midst.
Chapter Thirty-One
Damien
One moment, he was about to tell Anna something he desperately wanted her to hear.
The next, he was smashed up against a thick tree trunk, agony drilling into his brain as he fell to the ground, the snow cushioning his limp body as he wheezed a breath.
The strike had been devastating. Damien pushed himself to his knees just in time to see the infected frost dragon erupt from a pile of snow. His brothers were nowhere to be seen, likely flung away as well.
Only Anna was still there. A greenish haze surrounded her, a protective magic that had blunted the strike.
“Sisters!” she shouted, her voice amplified to reach the outpost. “We are under attack. We must fight back!”
“Anna, no!” he shouted as the infected dragon swept in on her, its eyes red, jaw hanging open. Icy scythe-like blades formed across the infected dragon’s arms and torso. If he got close to Anna, they would open her fragile skin to the bone and beyond. She didn’t stand a chance.
Orange light shot from the tip of her staff as she thrust it forward with a shout. Wind billowed back her robe as the flames struck the frost dragon in the upper chest. The infected creature spun away under the impact, losing its footing and going down. The blast wasn’t strong enough to have caused any real damage; the creature had reacted more out of panic than anything else. But it had bought her time.
Anna wasted no time, conjuring a magical steed from air and racing toward the outpost where the other witches were slowly emerging from their tent, unsure of what was going on.
Damien snarled to himself, seeing that she was safe for the time being.
This was his problem to deal with. His people had brought the thing to Earth, and they would send it back. The clear sky rumbled dangerously, black clouds billowing in from over the mountain behind the outpost.
Damien wasn’t the only one calling upon the skies to aid him, and the air grew dark swiftly. Both Altair and Rane were coming to their senses now, though Damien didn’t pay them any attention. This Infected had tried to strike at his woman. The person he cared for the most.
“You’re mine,” he roared savagely, lifting a finger as the pale-skinned creature got to its feet, focusing on the sound of Damien’s voice.
As it looked up, a lightning bolt flicked from his finger to its face, catching the Infected full in the nose, flipping it over and onto its back.
Snows closed in over it and suddenly, it was gone from sight. Damien lashed out with another lightning strike, his blue-white bolt hitting home a split-second before two others laced the area in energy.
The snows evaporated and blew away, but there was nothing below them. The Infected creature was gone.
Damien looked around wildly for any sign of it, noting both Altair and Rane nearby as well, back on their feet and looking mad.
“Where did it go?” he bellowed, but nobody had an answer.
A sudden cold thought occurred to h
im.
“Anna, it’s coming for you!” he bellowed, trying to get the attention of the witches.
But it was too late. Snow flew everywhere as the dragon shot out from one of the deep snowbanks, where Damien’s fellows had piled the excess as they cleared the outpost out from the storm.
The massive creature spread its wings wide, claws forward as it tried to grab a pair of the witches with its hind legs.
Damien stared in horror, noting Anna was one of the ones it was going for. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
The silvery-white claws stretched forward to the group of witches, while the blood-red dragon eye on this side of its skull looked at Damien. Taunting him.
But the witches weren’t helpless. The same green-colored magic that had protected Anna earlier formed around the quartet, but this time it was brighter, stronger, surrounding them in a jade dome.
The dragon’s claws struck it and the creature screamed in agony, a wordless noise. Then it recoiled away, and Damien gaped, noting the tips of the claws themselves were burned free.
Wings beat ferociously as the dragon hovered in air over the witches. Damien called to the storm forming above, dark clouds reflecting the brilliant green light from below. The dragon inhaled.
Damien released his blast, Altair just ahead of him and Rane’s a split-second behind.
The dragon breathed, and a storm of ice blasted away at the shield, shrinking it and then blowing apart the witches, scattering them as it struck in the middle.
The trio of attacks from the storm dragons struck the Infected before it could follow up its attack, hurling the infected dragon around and down, the earth shaking from the tremendous impact.
Damien was up and charging in seconds. They needed to put the creature down, and fast. He thought about changing, of taking it on in his dragon form, but he didn’t want the witches to get confused in the heat of battle. They might think him another one of the enemy, and the last thing he needed was friendly fire.
Thunder boomed in the sky above and he readied a killing blow that would hopefully fry the Infected’s brain, or at least stun it long enough for the three of them to finish it.
Before he could strike, fire blossomed from his left.
Only Damien’s swift decision to fall flat on his face saved him. He fell into the snow as fire washed over, the heat singeing the skin on the back of his head before he fell out of the attack.
A second Infected had come through!
The fire dragon struck again, and the three storm dragons scattered, launching counterattacks but trying to split up so they wouldn’t all get caught in the fiery attacks.
Once Damien was clear, he looked around for the frost dragon, eager to finish it off, but once again, it was gone. Two of the witches nearby were stirring. He recognized one as Genna, Anna’s friend, but the other wasn’t Anna.
“Damien, look out!”
He glanced over his shoulder to see the fire dragon lining up an attack on these new prey, the witches still recovering their senses from the frost dragon’s attack and for the moment, completely vulnerable.
“No!” he roared, throwing himself in front of the unknown witch. Crossing his arms in front of him, he pushed the storm’s energy into his blocker.
Fire hit the lightning and heat washed over him, but it went no further.
“Get up,” Damien grunted, unable to keep it up for long. “Get up now!”
The witch saw what was happening and shock spurred her back to her feet. “Thank you,” she said with a gasp, and then raced behind one of the buildings to safety, helped along by Genna as the two of them sought a moment to recover and reorganize.
Of Anna and the other witch, there was no sign.
Damien held on a split-second longer, then he launched himself in the other direction, narrowly avoiding the stream of fire as it burned a hold through the snow down to the ground.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. Altair and Rane came at the fire dragon, distracting it. Damien used that momentary respite to call to his other side.
Clothing ripped and tore. His body swelled in size, giant humps forming on his shoulders moments before wings burst forth from his body, stretching wide as Damien landed on all fours, bright blue scales dulled in the darkness as the storm clouds blotted out the last of the sun’s light.
His flanks expanded as he sucked in breath, and then a massive lightning bolt thicker than his human body’s girth lashed out, melting scales and sizzling flesh along the neck of the fire dragon.
It belched flame in return, but Damien was ready, and winds tunneled the flame around in a circle, directing it back at the fire dragon.
He leapt at the creature and the two tumbled around in an awkward fight, aerial creatures battling on the ground. His claws sliced open the Infected’s belly, scales and blood coloring the snow bright red. A return slash ripped open his front right shoulder, blue scales breaking up the growing sea of red.
Damien shouted and backed away, letting Altair and Rane move in close.
The fire dragon shot flame at Rane, who dove out of the way a hair too slow, fire washing over the backs of his legs, bringing a cry of pain from the youngest storm dragon.
Fire billowed in a huge cloud, forcing all the storm dragons back, and when it was gone, so was the Infected.
“They’re working together!” Damien snarled, realizing that the creature had shifted and dived into the snow, the frost dragon using its powers to conceal their movement as they slid through the white powder without a trace.
He went over to Rane, protecting his friend while waiting for the attack to resume, but it never did.
Genna and the other witch came out from around the building, but that was it.
“Where are the others?” Damien asked, panicking at no sign of Anna. Where was she?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Anna
The ice attack flung her backward.
Anna didn’t have time to do much more than curl into a ball and hope for the best. She hit the snow and plunged in deep, the snowbank swallowing her up.
Her staff.
Where’s my staff? She tried to feel for it, but everything was still blurry, and her brain was trying to catch up with everything that was going on. An Infected had come through the portal and attacked.
Which meant she had to kill it before it infected others, creating a new army that would take over this planet too, like it had Damien’s homeworld of Dracia.
Not while I’m still living, she thought to herself, viciously digging a path out of the snowbank. Getting to her feet, she saw a big crimson-scaled dragon rear up just as another massive creature with sky-blue scales slammed into it. She had only seen him take that form once before, but Anna would recognize Damien anywhere.
The two dragons went down, the huge mound of snow blocking most of her vision of the fight happening on the other side of it.
Nearby, she heard a groan. Looking around, she saw a foot sticking out of a snowbank. Rushing over, she helped dig Initiate Lowry out of the snow.
“Are you okay?” she asked hurriedly, watching the two dragons out of the corner of her as limbs and occasionally a wing were visible over the snowbank.
“I think so.” Lowry stood up, snow cascading from her hair and shoulders as she shook herself. “That hurt, but yeah, I’m all here.”
“Good.”
Initiate Lowry frowned. “Hey, wasn’t the dragon that attacked us white?”
Anna whirled to look at the two fighting dragons. Neither of which was white. Her brain returned to normal as that fact registered home. The one that had blasted the witches with its icy breath had scales of a blinding white, like snow reflecting the sun’s light. It had been unmistakable.
So, where had the red dragon come from? More importantly, where had the white one gone?
As if answering her question, the snow mound in front of the two witches moved, and an oval section opened to reveal a bloodshot eye.
Anna y
elped as the snow dragon slithered free, keeping itself low to the ground, snow moving of its own accord to keep it covered.
“Run!” she shouted, pushing Lowry off to one side.
The other Initiate fled, but the dragon kept coming, its eye focused solely on Anna. Helpless before its strength and power, she turned and ran, arms churning as she dug through the snow as fast as possible.
It wasn’t going to be fast enough.
In her headlong flight, Anna tripped over something in the snow, banging her shin hard against it as she fell. Reaching down to see what it was, magic surged through her hand as she wrapped it around the object.
Her staff!
Getting up, she ran onward as the giant monster came after her, one red eye or the other always visible as it came on like a snake through grass. Anna rounded the corner of the main building and then spun back the way she’d come.
The dragon head appeared in the snow, and she unleashed the spell she’d been building.
Orange flame spat forward, catching the creature right in the eye. The white of its lid snapped closed and it recoiled in what she assumed was pain. Anna pumped her hand in victory when the eye didn’t open up again.
But the dragon kept coming. She fled again, rounding the far corner of the sleeping cabin and booked it for the edge of the forest. The dragon was large, and among the trees it would have a hard time keeping up, forced to wind its way between the trunks, theoretically giving her an advantage.
“Come on, Anna. Think!” she muttered, dodging between a particularly thick cluster of trees, glancing over her shoulder.
The dragon just went straight through most of them, only avoiding the larger trees. Branches and pieces of trunk went everywhere as the white dragon just mowed them down.
There was nothing she could do about it. No way that she could stop the dragon, not with her strength. It was going to catch her, and eat her, or worse, turn her into one of its own. Anna nearly broke into tears at the thought, surprised by the strength of her own feelings.
