by Jordan Baker
"Perhaps one day you can travel to the dragon lands," Ariana said. "If you have a chance, you might ask Storm about dragonkind, if you don't mind his sense of humor."
"He makes jokes?" Lexi looked confused.
"Yes," Ariana said, laughing a little. "Except he says them in a serious way."
"The two dragons, they are very angry," Lexi said. "They do not seem like they would make jokes."
"Dragon rage is different from normal anger," Ariana explained, then she thought about it for a moment. "I suppose normal isn't really normal anymore, but don't be afraid of your emotions, Lexi, for it is where dragons get their power. Dragon rage is what brings dragon fire."
"But I don't want to be a beast," Lexi said.
"You won't," Ariana assured her. "That only happens to the male dragons."
"Is that true?"
"Do you not have any memories of your line?"
"My line?" Lexi seemed confused and Ariana realized that she had no idea what she was talking about.
"You really should talk to Storm," she said, then she flinched as her stomach tightened painfully. "I wish Vale or her mother were here."
Ariana felt another spasm of pain run through her body and she nearly fell forward but Lexi caught her and helped steady her on her feet.
"Are you hurt?" Lexi asked.
"I don't really know," Ariana said, and this time she was the one with tears in her eyes. "It does hurt, quite a lot." The pain shot through her again, and Ariana felt her flames begin to burn. "Lexi, please move away, I can't control my fire."
"Fire will not hurt me," Lexi told her as flames began to dance around Ariana, and she continued to hold her up. "What do you need?"
"Inside," Ariana gasped as she tried to suppress her fire. "The healers are prepared."
Lexi helped her walk toward the structure and one of the healers happened to emerge from the archway.
"Help her," Lexi said as the healer rushed over toward them.
"Rene, it's time," Ariana told her.
"Quickly," she said, then she moved back as Ariana's flames erupted around her again. Rene looked at Lexi, noticing that she was unaffected by the fire. "There is a room inside for her. Princess, do you think you can make it there?"
"I don't think so," Ariana stammered as she doubled over in agony.
"Where is the room?" Lexi asked.
"Inside, past the main room, on the left side there is a passageway made of stone that leads to some steps below the ground."
"Clear a path," Lexi told her, and Rene nodded and ran back inside.
Ariana felt her body tighten and her legs buckled beneath her, but she felt Lexi holding her, keeping her from falling, and through the pain she could tell how strong she was.
"I will carry you," Lexi said. "It will be very fast, so do not be afraid."
"I can try to walk," Ariana said, feeling the pain subside for a moment, but then it returned again and she cried out, and her flames burned even higher.
Lexi saw Rene appear in the archway and she shifted her grip on Ariana and slid an arm behind her legs, then as gradually as she could, she moved with the speed of her power, doing her best not to let it touch Ariana. The healers inside the wooden palace at the base of the great tree had cleared the way expecting the princess to pass through, but all they saw a blur of flame and lightning streak by and disappear into the passage at the far side of the room. At the bottom of the steps, Lexi stopped found a kind of room with walls of wood and stone, with bright beams of light that filtered in through open slits in the high parts of a lofted ceiling and glistened on fountains of water that ran from the walls into pools upon the floor.
At the center of the room, was a kind of platform, like a bed, but made of polished white stone and wood, which curved in the center almost like a raised bath. Lexi saw two women, one of the healers and another she recognized as the elven queen, Laurana, and she carried Ariana to them, then laid her down on the smooth stone bed. Laurana pressed upon a stone and a river of water began to flow around Ariana, quenching her flames and filling the room with steam, which rose through the vents in the high ceiling. Ariana moaned, her eyes rolling back in her head, then she looked up at them, with an expression of fear.
"It hurts so much," she gasped, then she cried out, writhing backwards on the stone as another spasm of pain tore through her body. Lexi noticed the water that ran down the white stone slab turned red with blood and she turned to Laurana and the healer.
"Will she be all right?"
"We can only hope," Laurana said, her eyes fixed on Ariana as the healer covered her hands and arms in some kind of viscous fluid, then reached through the flames and touched her belly. "Thank you for bringing her."
"What can I do?" Lexi asked, then shouts and screams suddenly filtered in from outside the room, and Lexi could see the conflict on Laurana's face, and she sensed that she wanted to know what was happening and was worried for her people. Lexi now knew what she could do, and she nodded to the queen and lowered the elven mask over her face. "You help her and I will fight. That is what I will do."
In a blur of energy, she disappeared from the room and reappeared a moment later at the entrance to the small wooden palace. Outside, she saw several elves running toward a massive creature that tore through the trees, its giant axe smashing the branches and people in its way, and its reptilian jaws dripping black acid and fire. The creature looked almost like a dragon and Lexi saw the deadly gleam in its eyes and she knew exactly who it was.
"Draxis!" she yelled as she ran forward and transformed, remembering Ariana's words and letting her anger well up inside of her.
Draxis pulled back his axe, getting ready to swing at the blue dragon that leapt toward him, but she moved far faster than he remembered and, before he knew it, claws had sunk into his shoulders and he was lifted from the ground and thrown through the trees, away from the place where the elves were gathered. He crashed through branches and landed on his back, but managed to twist around and jump out of the way as the blue dragon unleashed a blast of energy at him. Draxis readied his axe, waiting for Lexi to attack, but she had disappeared.
He growled, looking from side to side through the empty trees, listening for the sound of wings or branches, but the forest was eerily quiet, then he felt a strange heat on arm, and black blood poured forth from a deep cut. Another line of searing pain ran along his leg, and he bled again, feeling suddenly weaker. Draxis saw a flash and a streak of light moving, and he moved his axe, catching Lexi's sword before it reached his neck. He flung her away from him, then he swiped at her with his axe, but she was too fast and she dodged out of the way. Lexi leapt from a branch, attacking him again in a blur, but Draxis was ready and he smashed her with his powerful, clawed fist. She hit a tree and fell to the ground, and Draxis laughed as she slowly pushed herself back to her feet.
"You continue to surprise me, little sister," he growled, laughing through his fanged teeth and dripping flaming pitch upon the forest floor. "But I am greater still, as I have always been. I will always be more powerful than you."
Lexi stared at her brother, and she knew that no matter what he looked like, no matter how powerful he was, he was a monster and he had always been a monster. It was not his strength, or even the shape he took, but his vicious cruelty that made him so, and she now knew that she could never become like him, no matter what she looked like.
"I will kill you and take your power," he said. "Then I will destroy the rest of these pathetic forest creatures."
"No, you won't," Lexi growled, thinking of all the cruel things Draxis had done, and she felt something growing within her, like the spikes of anger that she had felt before, when the power had come from her throat, but this was different. It was something deep within her, that grew into a powerful flame, fueled by her anger, and Lexi finally knew the truth of her rage. She took a step toward him, and shifted to her dragon form once again, then she let out a powerful roar, sending a blast of fire and energy toward him.
Draxis held up the flat of his axe blocking the powerful flames and energy that engulfed him, and he felt the scaled flesh on his clawed hands begin to itch and burn. The axe grew hot in his grip and felt something strange, a feeling he did not like, and he leapt into the air, scrambling up through the branches and away from the fire. Draxis glanced beneath him and saw Lexi chasing after him, her dragon form coursing with energy and her eyes glaring at him with white hot anger.
He reached the tops of the trees and leapt into the sky, beating his powerful wings, and flying out toward the clearing between the trees, where he saw the black and white dragons thrashing upon the ground, swarmed by his Darga warriors. Draxis could already feel his burned flesh begin to heal, but when glanced down, he saw that the heads of his axe were curved in an odd way, warped by the heat of Lexi's fire. She was more powerful than he had imagined, but Draxis was not alone, and he knew his Darga warriors would help him destroy her. Lexi had almost caught up to him, but he tightened his wings into a dive, heading straight for the battle on the ground. Draxis saw that many of his winged Darga were almost completely transformed into shapes resembling dragons, though they were still much smaller than he, and he let out a bellowing roar as he landed among them and turned to face the blue dragon.
A blast of heat scorched across the ground, killing several Darga at once as Lexi let loose another powerful roar. Others fell to the ground, snarling in pain as the flames burned through their scales and scorched their flesh. Draxis leapt up into the air, over the flames, and he brought his axe crashing down upon Lexi's horned skull, smashing her into the ground, and the Darga leapt atop her and began hacking at her with their weapons. Draxis landed on the ground and snarled when he saw that his axe had done so little damage and he realized that the blades were completely dull, their edges melted by dragon fire. Lexi rose to her feet, shook her head and shook off the Darga that had climbed atop her, then she dashed toward Draxis, who prepared himself for another attack. With a speed that was beyond her size, Lexi flashed from view, and seemingly from nowhere, she crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. Draxis scrambled to get up, but before he could move, Lexi shifted her form and, in another flash she drew her jeweled blade and had it pressed it to her brother's throat before he even realized it.
"Die, Draxis," she said, her voice quiet and calm, and her eyes blazing with fire and lightning, then she shoved the tip of the jeweled sword into his neck. Energy ran up the blade into Lexi and she was engulfed in blinding light, then a wave of energy exploded across the clearing, knocking the hundreds of Darga to the ground. Lexi looked down at her brother, and his form begin to shift beneath her, reverting to what he once was, and she saw the confusion in his eyes as the last of his essence was taken from him, and his lifeblood spilled out over the blade of the sword.
Lexi pulled the blade free, then she turned around, sensing something strange from the Darga. Like a receding tide, the lizard men and their winged brethren turned and began to flee from the field, retreating back the way they had come. No longer under attack, Borrican and Storm leapt into the sky and circled overhead, and they watched as the hundreds of Darga ran through the stand of trees, across the clearing, then disappeared into the forest beyond.
Not far from where Lexi stood, Quenta stopped at the edge of the trees of the red forest, his sword dripping black with Darga blood, and he stared at the girl who had defeated the creature that had killed so many of his people. A part of him seethed at being denied its destruction and the chance to take its power, but he realized that it was that same hunger that had driven the creature, the lust for power that had caused the deaths of so many, and he let his sword fall loosely to his side. He turned, and walked back through the trees in a daze until he came to the place where he had fought so many of the Darga, their reptilian bodies strewn about the forest floor and he sat down among them and placed the jeweled sword upon his knees, contemplating what he had done, and wondering what it was that he had become.
In the sky above, Borrican and Storm were about to head back to the center of the forest, both of them worried by the thoughts they had felt from Ariana, which told them she was in great pain, even though she was trying her best to hide it, but they held for a moment when they saw a shadow at the edge of the stand of trees. A second wave of enemies, led by a force of the dead and rotting soldiers that had fought at Kandara, appeared from the stand of trees and marched into the clearing, directly toward Lexi, while another much larger group of soldiers stopped at the edge of the trees.
Lexi stared at them and her nose rankled at the stench of their rotting flesh, which carried the familiar scent of the dark power that surrounded her mother. They stopped just short of where Lexi stood, over the fallen body of her brother, and one of the soldiers stepped forward and walked out toward her, his dead eyes glowing with dark power.
"Lexi," the soldier said, his voice a strange combination of the dry rasp of a dead man and the rich seduction of Calexis. "What have you done?"
"I killed him," Lexi said. "And I will kill you too."
"You had your chance," Calexis told her. "And you ran away like the scared little child you always were."
"I am no longer a child," Lexi said.
"You are nothing," Calexis told her. "You think you have won? None of this matters, for I will have my prize, and you will know the full extent of my wrath."
"I do not fear you, mother," Lexi said.
"Then you are a fool," Calexis said, then she laughed. "You always were a foolish child. Of course, what should I expect from an abomination, bred of those mindless Darga beasts."
A shadow suddenly appeared, and Storm snatched the soldier from the ground in one of his powerful claws. He flared his wings and landed, then he held up the soldier and looked into his dead, glowing eyes.
"You say foolish things," he said, then he took a deep breath, opened his claws and burned the soldier to ashes.
Another soldier walked forward toward Lexi, its eyes glowing with Calexis' power, and Borrican landed heavily on the ground between them.
"Your lies are not welcome here," he said, then he drew in a deep breath and blasted white hot fire at the soldier and the many hundreds that stood behind him. The dead soldiers tried to fight, but Storm and Borrican breathed the last of their fire, burning almost all of them to charred corpses on the ground as Lexi watched in silence. Panting, and out of breath, Borrican turned to her with a toothy dragon grin.
"You fought well today, Lexi," he said. "The people of this land, and those of Kandara and Maramyr, who shelter in this forest owe you their thanks. You have done a great thing."
Lexi tried to smile at him, but she was still focused on the thousands of soldiers, who stood at the edge of the clearing, staring blankly ahead, and she could see that a few of the dead soldiers had escaped the fire and were heading toward a man who stepped down from his horse as they approached.
"Berant," said one of the soldiers under Calexis' thrall. "Why haven't your soldiers attacked?"
"I no longer serve you, Calexis," Berant said, gripping the jewel in the pommel of his sword. "And this army may be under your spell, but it appears that without the greys to order them around, they are no longer yours to command."
"Fool," she said as she drew the soldier's sword. "Your defiance will be your greatest mistake."
"My greatest mistake was following that fool, Cerric, in the first place," Berant told her as several of the dead soldiers closed in on him, drawing their weapons.
Berant left his hand on the pommel of the sword at his waist and closed his eyes, but the feeling of sharp steel never came. He heard the sound of steel meeting flesh and bone, followed by that of bodies hitting the ground, and he opened his eyes and saw a girl with pale blue skin blazing with light, staring at him. She tilted her head and sniffed the air, then Berant felt a pain in the side of his head and the world seemed to spin around, and everything went dark.
*****
Calexis cursed as she st
ormed into the temple and found the young man hanging where she had left him. Aaron lifted his head and stared at her with a smile on his face and a defiant look in his eyes. In no mood for insolence, Calexis flew up to him and smacked him in the face, the force of her blow nearly snapping his neck.
"Your time is up, my young darling," she said. "You will give me what I want."
"You seem upset," Aaron said, spitting blood from his mouth, and doing his best to smile through the pain. Calexis hit him again, harder this time, and Aaron choked as blood ran down the inside of his throat. He coughed and wheezed, gasping for air, then he felt the magic that held him to the crystal let go of his arms and legs, and he fell to the floor. Calexis turned to the mages.
"Heal his face and get him cleaned up, then bring him to the palace" she told them.
The mage priests nodded obediently as Calexis turned and stormed out of the temple. Aaron looked up at the mages as they gathered around him, their eyes hollow and seemingly vacant, staring down at him, but deep inside of them, he could still see the faintest glimmer of life, that tiny spark of defiance that was in every living being. That knowledge strengthened his resolve to endure for a little longer. No matter what torments Calexis might have in store for him, he already knew they would pale in comparison to the dark power within him, which was but a sliver of the shadow within Calexis, a power that would consume all life, if he should fail.
CHAPTER TWENTY
High above the world, standing among the clouds, Ehlena felt her power beginning to wane as she commanded the great vortex in the sky, whirling the wind over the vast elven forest, drawing as much of the poisonous smoke up and away from the trees. The damage done by the winged Darga and the poison gems was already extensive, and now she faced another problem, for the poison had infected the clouds, and now that her control over the skies was beginning to falter, she could feel a front of cool air moving toward her, which she knew would cause the clouds to empty, dropping poison water onto the forest below. Frustrated that she had only delayed the problem, Ehlena tried to draw the dark, poisonous clouds together, hoping she at least limit the damage to one area, but no matter where she looked, there was a stream or a river that would spread the poison once more. Nearing exhaustion and so focused was she on the task at hand, that she did not notice the disturbance of wings in the sky, moving toward her, until they were almost upon her. With her own power disturbing the sky, Ehlena did not know how many there were, and she was barely able whisper a call for help.
