Heir To The Nova (Book 3)

by T. Michael Ford

  A shadow moved into my line of sight. Owl! I ducked and tried to roll, but came up against another whiskered one. It was sister again, nose to nose with me; twitching, always twitching.

  “Close your eyes and trust in me.” I did as she commanded even though, in my current form, I definitely had trust issues. But I had to do what she said. Hey, she still owes me fish heads, dammit!

  Again, my head swam oddly; and that’s when I found myself back in my nightgown, barefoot, crouching fearfully in the middle of a patch of overgrown raspberry bushes. Jules, Lin, Ryliss, and the twins were all standing around me with evil smirks on their faces.

  “A sorry way to treat a Queen,” I grumbled, standing up straight and brushing the dirt and twigs off my clothing. “After that, I’ll never complain about Alex taking me through a portal again.”

  Julia grabbed my arm. “C’mon, Maya, Bel is right across the park. You did great, by the way.” They hurried me through the wet, dewy grass to a small, red wooden barn at the edge of a clearing. Next to the barn was a large, heavy wagon hitched to a team of four draft-style horses. As we approached, I caught a glimpse of several shadowy figures stepping back deeper into the dark spaces around the place–no doubt Belrothe’s people.

  Ryliss raced ahead and pulled one of the big double barn doors open just far enough for us to slide through. The barn had a straw-covered floor; and hay and tools were stacked along the walls, but was largely empty otherwise. Near the back, a lone figure stood, shrouded in a cloak and backlit by a single glow orb sitting on a shelf. Belrothe turned and threw back her hood to reveal her attractive face.

  “Well met again, Queen Maya.” She grinned, the tips of her incisors just peeking above her cherry red lower lip.”

  “Hello, Lady Hornalde.”

  Belrothe walked around gracefully, looking us over and spending a few extra seconds on the twins, who had come out of their transformations back into their scary dark elf visages.

  “You always surprise me, daughter of Renalla. This is quite a retinue. These two,” she said, indicating the dragons, “I have not encountered before.”

  “Forgive me, this is Dawn and her sister Dusk; they are my very capable handmaidens.”

  Belrothe snorted humorously. “Oh, I’m sure they are much more than that, my dear. Again, most impressive.” Her expression changed, and frowning, she turned back to face me.

  “I’m sorry, I heard about the attack at your parents’ home. Kalah was such a dear, sweet girl, barely more than a child. I thought she would be safe here, but it seems I was wrong. Lifebane has killed most of my family and is now after what few friends I have left. I cannot stand idly by as he murders them.”

  Not sure where this conversation was going, I opted for conservative formal. “Kalah was a loved and valued member of my parents’ household. I am sorry for your loss, Lady. I confess I didn’t know her well; but she and Alex seemed to have bonded over cooking, of all things, and I know he liked her immensely.”

  Bel smiled, a single tear running down her cheek. “Ah, yes, Sir Alex. He would have been the first I would have expected to see past the fangs to the heart of gold beneath.” She paused and reached out to put a tentative hand on my shoulder. “I hope that someday you realize how fortunate you are to have found one such as him in life. Even a span of twelve hundred years is not enough time for most of us to find a soul like his. I am very grateful he was her friend.” She took another breath and released my shoulder gently. “Forgive an old woman for rattling on, my dear; you no doubt would like the reason for my visit. I was hoping you would like to join me in avenging poor Kalah’s death.”

  “You know who’s responsible?”

  “Oh yes, the dark elf perpetrators are holed up in a walled compound less than an hour’s ride outside the city, very secure in the knowledge that they have gotten away with murder. They are also the ones holding my dearest friends prisoner.” She smiled, revealing a lot of fang and her eyes glittered hungrily.

  “Your friends?” I echoed, confused.

  “Yes, your parents, dear girl; they are very much alive!”

  I felt Dawn’s hands steady me as my knees weakened and nearly failed me. Emotions rocked and buffeted my mind from all sides at once. My father and mother were alive? I was suddenly bombarded by long-dormant memories of my mother wrapping me in warm blankets, my father telling stories, and holding me in front of a crackling fire. The connection with my kin that had been so recently re-awoken and then slammed shut came rushing back. I had a second chance, a second chance to tell them both what they meant to me. In my reverie, I felt a slight mental nudge from Winya that reminded me of something else.

  I could have my life back…most importantly, I could have Alex back! Joy, anger, and fear came and went, but the one that lingered was regret. Regret for the reasons that I sent Alex away, regret for what I put him through and, most of all, regret for having done it when I didn’t have to.

  “What are we going to do?” Winya questioned.

  The course was clear. Regret washed away and was replaced by sheer determination. We could fix this mess, we could fix it now!

  “I’ll need my armor, and my parents will require their weapons from the house. There is the matter of honor when we release them,” I gritted, already starting to think ahead.

  “What do you think is already in that fine large wagon outside?” Belrothe smirked. “Although, I still say armor that takes five adult vampires to carry is really excessive.”

  “Not as excessive as the bloodshed I’m planning…”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you!” The vampire licked her lips and purred.

  Chapter 3

  Alex

  I picked my way through the shattered stone strewn over the walkway of the tunnel leading from the vault door to the main chamber while Nia finished her ‘Combat Pixie’ enchantment. Spinning around, she drew out her two small swords and performed a practice aim complete with a squinty-eye effect, then silently sheathed them again. I looked at her and nodded, and I could see something was on her mind. Before I could take another step, Nia flew in front of me and landed on the top of my tower shield, facing me.

  “Mister Alex, I have something to say if it’s alright.” Sealed up as I was in my armor, she couldn’t see my expression, but she knew me well enough to know what I would say. Tilting her head to the affirmative, she continued, “Master, I know you feel a lot like dog poo right now. And I think there might even be a small part of you wondering if it wouldn’t be best if whatever is inside this vault just went ahead and ate you and was done with it. But I hope you don’t let that happen, because that would mean the end of everything magical on this planet, and we need you.”

  She took off and circled around me tossing glittering sparkles into the air that settled lazily on my armor. Finished, she returned to her seat on the shield with a satisfied smile.

  “There!” she beamed.

  “Pixie dust?”

  “Yup, my special blend.”

  “Ok…what does it do?” I questioned warily, thinking back to the tournament and what she had done to the fire wizards.

  “Nothing much; it’s just pretty and magical,” she said with wide-eyed wonder. “But it will help you remember why we are here. Ok, let’s go find that rock so we can get away from these crazy dwarves and back to some decent food–I’m starving.”

  The vault itself was roughly rectangular in shape with the narrow end facing us and a very high cathedral-arched ceiling. The walls and ceiling appeared to be hewn directly out of the bedrock. However, down the middle were two rows of ornately carved stone columns depicting dwarf rulers of old. At least that was my interpretation; the dwarves depicted were bigger and brawnier than any I had seen on this trip and, of course, all the people in the carvings wore ornate crowns and carried fearsome weapons. Closer to us were a number of display tables that had probably held the best treasures, many of which radiated magic. Most of these had already been torn asunder and thei
r contents strewn across the hand-fitted stone floor. I would have liked to gaze at the artwork more, but my attention was drawn by a loud crash from somewhere in the rear of the chamber.

  We walked closer, navigating around piles of gold and gems, even some weapons and bolts of cloth. I’m sure it was all unique and priceless, but at the moment, it looked like so much trash. Finally, walking around one of the massive pillars, we caught our first glimpse of the beast responsible for all the rummaging around and damage.

  First impression…big, very big! It was at least twenty feet tall and probably thirty feet long, not counting the long lizard-like tail. The front half of the creature had the body of a lion, but was way bigger than any natural lion. The back half? Well, I couldn’t see it that well from this angle, but it looked sheep-like. It had a pair of red dragon wings on its back and three heads, as expected. One was the lion, another a ram with curled horns, and the third was a formidable looking red dragon head.

  Most people, I’m sure, would take one look at this thing and run. But Nia and I were just dumbfounded…were the heads bickering with each other?

  “This has got to be it!”

  “That’s not it.”

  “And why not?”

  “It’s supposed to be a triangle.”

  “It is a triangle.”

  “Made of stone, you fool.”

  “It is a stone!”

  “An emerald is not a stone.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Actually, he’s right on that one.”

  There was a loud, crashing sound. “Hey, why did you throw that away? It was expensive looking.”

  “Because I’m in control of the front legs. And what possible use do we have for an emerald of that size, huh?”

  “Well…we could trade it for some flea powder…that, we could use.”

  “Get some perfumed soap while you’re at it; you both stink!”

  “Well, we can’t exactly take luxurious baths, now can we, Miss I’m-afraid-of-the-water!”

  I looked at Nia as she looked down at me. “These guys have got to be the stupidest creatures on the face of the earth!”

  “You would be correct,” said a female voice. We both looked in the direction of the voice and found the massive dragon head looking right at us. “And you two aren’t even attached to them. Imagine what I have to deal with every day!” Startled, the other two heads looked in our direction and the beast started to walk over to us. With it closer now, I could see that there was some damage already done to it and its left wing looked like it was partially shredded.

  “Look what we have here; a human and a pixie? Didn’t we wipe all of them out already?” said the ram head.

  Nia pointed her swords at the sheep. “You were the ones who killed my people? Why? Why would you do something so cruel?”

  He snarled, “Orders. But I won’t say it wasn’t fun anyway!”

  “I had no part in that,” said the female dragon head.

  “Liar! There were burn marks on everything in that forest!” screamed Nia.

  “Actually, the bitch is right; she wouldn’t help us at all,” the lion complained. “I’m the one who did it! But right now, I am wondering what we should do with you.”

  The dragon head came closer to me. She took a few sniffs before her eyes widened and she pulled away, but said nothing.

  “I say we roast him and eat him,” said the ram.

  “Excellent idea!” said the lion before he shot a blast of fire out of his mouth. Nia cleared the area and flew high into the air with no trouble at all, and my shield blocked the flame effectively for me.

  “Well, that didn’t do squat,” the ram laughed, the odd shape of his mouth not really wrapping around human words very well. It still looked like he was chewing cud when he talked.

  “Then you try if you think you are so smart.”

  Something else hit my shield. I didn’t really feel anything, but the air around me was suddenly filled with static electricity and a sharp after-the-rain smell.

  “Huh, why didn’t that work?”

  The dragon sighed and answered, “Fool, your lightning breath won’t work on him. That metal armor of his takes the hit and the lightning just runs into the ground he is standing on, not him.” The dragon head reared back slowly and winked. Oddly, somehow this gave me the impression that I should dodge this one. Green, slimy liquid blasted out of her mouth, spraying the area with green goo. I dodged the best I could, but still ended up getting gobs of the slime on my armor and shield. Fortunately, it just beaded up and slid off like rain on a window; the stone floor around me wasn’t so lucky. It was sizzling like hot meat on a grill, sending up small clouds of putrid white vapor and melting away the rock itself. Even she looked impressed, and puzzled.

  The lion just looked aggressive and pissed. “Well, that didn’t work either–imagine that! Fire, lightning and acid won’t work, so I guess we just rip you apart!”

  I dodged out of the way as the beast charged at me. It was surprisingly fast for such an awkward-looking creature. Nia went into her aerial darting and evasion tactics, peppering the monster with increasingly larger fireballs. She was targeting the hindquarters so that I wasn’t caught in any of the blast. Even though it probably wouldn’t hurt me, it could still distract me at a bad moment. From what I could tell in a fleeting glance, the detonations were just fizzling inches from their target.

  That second of inattention was enough for the ram head to clip me pretty good with one of his horns, and the sheer mass of the thing was enough to send me flying into the wall. The impact jostled my insides intensely, but just as in the fight with the demon, the armor wasn’t punctured and kept me alive to fight on.

  I pried myself out of the several inches of stone wall I had collapsed and readied my hammer for a shot at one of the heads. Nia was continuing to blast away from above, but it didn’t look like she was even scratching it. Every once in a while, the dragon would pick up a small treasure chest or piece of art with her long tail and lob it in the pixie’s general direction. It was more to give Nia something to think about than an actual attack with intent. But the other two heads were starting to notice as well and I saw the lion head begin to track her flight.

  “Mr. Alex, I think this thing is immune to my magic!” Nia screamed, as she frantically harassed the heads like a sparrow chasing a hawk from its nest. Even distracted, I could tell my pixie was weakening. Days of poor food and bad emotions were taking its toll, and I cursed myself for letting my personal funk interfere with the mission and possibly endangering my best friend’s life.

  Desperate to take the pressure off Nia, I activated the ice enchantment and slammed the hammer head down into the rock floor. As always, the hoar frost effect radiated out from the area of impact, turning the floor white with crystals and spreading like a tidal wave toward the beast. The ice flowed around and past the beast’s legs, and I waited for it to climb up and do its work, but for the first time, it failed me. The floor was a sheet of ice, but nothing touched the chimera. I wondered what it was going to take to kill this thing, and I was uncomfortably reminded of my experience with the demon.

  “I don’t know what you just did, little man, but it didn’t work,” snarled the lion and he led another charge at me.

  The ice did have one unintended effect, however. The three-headed horror wasn’t immune to bad traction, and the charge stalled when the ram’s hoofs in the back couldn’t keep up with the clawed feet of the lion in the front. The entire creature slipped comically, feet flailing, and crashed to the ground in a pile. Sadly for me, that didn’t seem to hurt it in the slightest as it dragged itself back up. The lion was beside himself with rage, but the dragon seemed to be watching me with some detached respect.

  The lion opened its mouth and a huge river of flame poured out across the floor; and for a short while it looked like a standoff–his flame versus my ice enchantment. But he continued to pour on more and more heat, and I couldn’t replenish my ice. Eventual
ly, the frost gave up the ghost and dissipated into vapor. Grinning evilly, the lion made a big show of sharpening his claws on the stone surface, and then charged again.

  My experience with the bull demon did train me well for dodging out of the way of bull rushes. Unfortunately, this monster was on an order of ten times larger. I did manage to bash one of the ram’s horns in the attack, and while it looked like it hurt, ultimately there was no real damage. Before I could process that information fully, one of the wings caught me and sent me flying backward into an already badly damaged pillar.

  Impacting the stone column, I felt like it gave a little too much and a few seconds later, I realized why. Previous hits had partially shattered the top of the pillar where it attached to the ceiling, leaving it free-standing and wobbly. When I crashed into the base, it destroyed what little structural integrity the stone had, and I found my legs pinned under a substantial chunk of granite. My legs didn’t feel crushed; the armor had done its job superbly again. But at the same time, I couldn’t move them either. Compounding the problem was my war hammer resting twenty feet or more away and out of reach, and I couldn’t even see my shield.

  Moving confidently toward me, the lion head chuckled as he hovered over me.

  “I believe you’ve run out of tricks, little man.”

  From somewhere above, I heard a cry of despair as Nia made another futile dive down in front of the monster, but she was too slow and weak to dodge effectively. The lion reached up and swatted her away with its huge paw, sending her tumbling far across the room to impact a thick tapestry. It promptly fell off the wall on top of her, and she was silent.

  “Now to peel you out of that pesky shell of yours,” he growled, extending a paw with five-inch razor sharp claws.

  The dragon head reared back as if she was going to hit me with another blast of acid. But as she let loose the blast, she abruptly changed targets. The gout of slime hit the ram head, and after a brief look of disbelief, his features–horns, face, and bone–all dissolved in a few seconds. With the ram head gone, she snapped her huge jaws on the neck of the lion, seven-inch daggers piercing hair and flesh. Shaking him like a rag doll, she twisted. A loud gristly crack sounded throughout the chamber, and the light slowly went out of the lion’s eyes. The huge head hung limply, a bloody mess.