Old Dark (The Last Dragon Lord Book 1)

by Michael La Ronn

  “So?”

  “They only come out in the presence of magic. The question is why it’s here now.”

  “There must be something magical around here,” Lucan said. “Luckily, we’re just passing through. Earl, let’s get that tire changed.”

  Miri clucked her tongue. No point arguing with Lucan, but she couldn’t stop thinking of questions.

  Earl was already at the trunk. He lugged out a tire and a jack and started replacing the flat tire.

  Miri kept studying the dead monster. She circled the body, cocking her head at the cracked shell.

  “Why the hell are you so fascinated with that thing?” Lucan asked.

  “It’s just unusual, that’s all.”

  “We’ve had a Magic Eater problem for decades, long before you and I were born.”

  “They normally live underground,” Miri said, thinking out loud. “They have claws at the bottom of their tentacles that they use to burrow into the dirt. They eat vegetables and are generally herbivorous, but have been known to be aggressive and will eat dead carcasses if there’s nothing left. But their favorite food is magic. In a shortage, they can live for two years without food. The magic they eat calcifies into their shells.”

  “Thanks for the history lesson,” Lucan said, rolling his eyes.

  “This one’s shell isn’t very developed,” Miri said. “It cracked easily, which means it must have just emerged from underground, where the dirt and moisture softened it.”

  Miri traced a path through the grass. Lucan followed her to a burrow that looked as if it had been ripped into the dirt by several claws.

  “It came from here,” Miri said. “Strange.”

  She picked up the dirt and ground it in her fingers. “The dig is fresh, Lucan.”

  But Lucan wasn’t interested. “Earl, how are we doing?” he shouted, irritated.

  Earl was tightening the lug nuts on the spare tire. “Ready, sir.”

  “After you,” Lucan said.

  Miri started back to the car, stealing glances at the hole several times. She had just started to open the door when they heard another shriek. On the side of the road, something was digging its way out of the dirt. Clods flew in every direction and yellowish claws emerged.

  They heard another scream.

  And another.

  And another.

  Another.

  Another.

  A group of Magic Eaters pulled themselves out of the ground and slithered onto the road. The monsters surrounded them, leaving a trail of gray slime as they moved.

  “Not good,” Lucan said.

  Earl grabbed the shotgun and fired several more rounds. The bullets cracked several Magic Eaters’ shells, but they kept coming.

  “I’m out of bullets, sir.”

  “So you were onto something after all, Miri,” Lucan said.

  Miri hid behind him. “What do we do?”

  “Professor, you act like you’ve never seen a monster before.” Despite the impending danger, Lucan was calm. He threw a white card into the air. It flashed as a pink wheel of light radiated in front of his face. It looked like a clock, with runes inscribed on it instead of numbers.

  He navigated through the wheel with his finger, rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise like a rotary phone. As he did, the wheel spun two runes into the center, and they glowed brightly.

  He pushed at the runes with his open palm, and a wave of fire flew from the wheel and engulfed the Magic Eaters. The beasts yelled in pain and writhed in the flames.

  Lucan cried out. His arm was on fire, and he patted it frantically.

  “You’re hurt!” Miri cried.

  “Miri, use your grimoire!” Lucan shouted. “First spin, two runes clockwise!”

  Miri tossed her card into the air. The pink wheel flashed in front of her face, illuminating the area.

  She recognized the some of the runes, but many were unfamiliar.

  “Faster!” Lucan said.

  The flames subsided and the Magic Eaters shook them off.

  Miri touched the wheel and it pulsed at her fingertip. She dragged her finger clockwise and the runes spun with it.

  Two runes clockwise.

  She picked the one she thought was correct, a scrawling slash mark. She dragged the rune into the center of the wheel.

  She hesitated.

  This was pure magic. It would have a cost.

  “What should I expect?” she asked.

  “Just cast the damned spell!”

  A Magic Eater jumped into the air with its teeth ready to sink into her arm.

  She pushed the rune with her palm and closed her eyes.

  The air grew cold. She heard a great shimmering sound.

  Then cracking.

  Then shattering.

  She opened her eyes.

  The Magic Eaters were lying on the ground, frozen in a layer of ice, their shells in pieces across the road.

  “Nice work!” Lucan said.

  Earl smashed several of them with the shotgun, crushing them and creating an opening for the car to pass.

  “Get in!” he ordered.

  He stomped on the accelerator and barreled through the hole he’d created.

  Miri’s heart was still beating hard, and she didn’t even remember running to the car. As they drove farther away, she breathed in deeply and braced herself against the seat.

  Then she felt cold. Her arm.

  A long, red burn was plastered across her inner forearm. It was cold, yet it burned, and she grimaced.

  “Freezer burn,” Lucan said. “That was the cost. Not as bad as it could have been.”

  He held out his arm—his suit jacket was charred and he had a black mark on his arm. The interior of the car smelled like smoke. “You’ll live. Small price to pay.”

  The pain radiated through her entire body and made her want to throw herself to the floor. She grimaced and patted her arm.

  Lucan opened a compartment on the side of his seat and pumped a liberal amount of lotion onto his palm. He took her arm gingerly and rubbed it on. “It’s an organic salve. No cost. It’ll ease your pain.”

  After a few seconds, the pain subsided, replaced with a dull tingling that was easy to ignore.

  Exhaling, she rubbed her arm.

  “That was a grimoire from my Classic Collection,” Lucan bragged. “Twenty spells. The wheel is patented. It feels smooth, like luxury.”

  Miri nodded. “It was ... nice.”

  She couldn’t get the image of the Magic Eaters out of her mind.

  “We’ll be far away from whatever they were searching for,” Lucan said, noticing her anxiety.

  Ahead, the dark tree line of the bog loomed near.

  Miri settled into her seat. They rode in silence until Earl broke it a few minutes later.

  “Sir.”

  Lucan was on his phone and didn’t acknowledge Earl.

  “Sir.”

  Earl pointed to the side of the road. Shadows gathered there, green eyes glinting in the dark.

  “There are more of them?” Lucan asked, incredulous.

  They sped past a cluster of Magic Eaters, who were all sludging slowly down the road in the same direction.

  “What do you think they’re going for?” Lucan asked.

  “Magic Eaters can sense magic up to twenty miles away,” Miri said.

  “You don’t think—”

  Earl pointed ahead.

  There were hundreds of snails in the fields ahead.

  They were headed for the bog.

  XVI

  Celesse and Tony stood back-to-back as a cluster of Magic Eaters slithered toward them.

  “Got a grimoire?” Tony asked.

  “I-I can’t cast,” Celesse said. “I’m mostly human.”

  “Damn.”

  He was drenched. He had cast a wind spell to blow the monsters away, but it had been a poor choice. They came back in bigger numbers than before, and the blowback from the spell had knocked Tony in the water.
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  Celesse glanced back at the white claw. The magical force field was still glowing.

  She wished she could call Lucan.

  As the monsters groaned and slid toward them, sickening the air with a rotten, fetid smell, she gripped the stake and swung it.

  Nothing. They kept coming.

  A Magic Eater jumped into the air. She screamed and put her hands in front of her face.

  But the beast didn’t land on her.

  It landed in the water, where it pedaled its tentacles and began to swim toward the magical wall.

  Other monsters passed her and eased into the water, swimming slowly, making furious ripples in the water as they splashed their way across the surface.

  “They’re not after us,” Tony said. He laughed at the revelation. “We’ll be okay!”

  The first Magic Eater reached the wall. A giant white tooth protruded from its mouth. It sunk its tooth into the wall, then slurped at the pink magic, breaking bits of it off and swallowing as its throat glowed.

  Celesse wondered what the magic tasted like …

  BOOM!

  The Magic Eater’s body exploded, sending gray slime everywhere.

  Tony and Celesse covered their faces and backed away as more Magic Eaters assaulted the barrier.

  And one after one, their bodies exploded.

  More and more came out of the woods. And still, the barrier destroyed them.

  “What should we do?” Tony asked.

  “We watch,” Celesse said, not taking her eyes off the tomb.

  XVII

  Lucan opened the door and jumped out of the car as soon as Earl skidded to a stop on the bog road.

  A group of bulldozers and backhoes were parked in the dirt. Lucan had seen their bright work lights from two miles away and was glad they weren’t too late.

  A rugged man in a denim shirt and jeans climbed down from one of the bulldozers.

  “Sure took you long enough,” the man said. “We damned near had to plow our way through these Magic Eaters to get here.”

  “Thanks for coming, Penrose,” Lucan said. He pointed to the forest. “That way, about a mile into the forest you’ll see it.”

  Penrose studied the trees. “Gonna have to tear down some trees to get there.”

  “Whatever you have to do,” Lucan said. “Just get your machines in there.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  Lucan dashed into the forest and motioned Miri and Earl to follow. He pushed through the thicket, ignoring the stinging branches against his face. He ran around Magic Eaters, jumped over them.

  “Keep up!” he said.

  He heard frenzied footsteps following him. Miri and Earl weren’t far behind.

  They broke through to the water’s edge and slid across the mud.

  There was slime everywhere. A great slurping, burping, and popping sound combined with a smell like a mixture of rotten fish, spoiled eggs and oranges made him sick to his stomach. The Magic Eaters were still feeding on the magic wall and exploding.

  “Celesse!” he cried, looking around.

  “We’re here.” She and Tony climbed down a tree.

  “We’re okay,” Celesse said quickly, approaching him.

  “Good, babe. I—”

  SLAP!

  Celesse’s hand felt hot on his face and his cheek stung.

  “Ow!”

  Celesse slapped him again.

  He nursed his cheek. “I guess I deserved that.”

  “Don’t you ever leave me alone again,” she said. “You could have just as easily found me dead.”

  “I had no idea this would happen, okay?”

  Celesse noticed Miri. The professor was watching the whole exchange, at a loss for words. And Celesse was watching Miri.

  Uh oh. Not good.

  The women exchanged glances, sizing each other up.

  “We’ll talk later, Lucan,” Celesse said.

  Miri extended her hand and introduced herself, but Celesse pointed at the wall. “They’ve been at it for a while. The wall’s weakening.”

  “It’s a curse,” Miri said.

  “What?” Celesse asked. “I can’t hear you over the slurping.”

  “The tomb is protected with a curse,” Miri said louder. “If the Magic Eaters break through the wall, they’ll break the curse.”

  “That’ll save us some effort,” Lucan said. “And here I was trying to figure out how the hell we were going to get in.”

  Miri walked to the water’s edge and studied the tomb, her mouth agape.

  “So, what do you think, Miri?” Lucan asked.

  “I’m speechless.”

  “As in?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this. It very well could be ... authentic.”

  They watched as the monsters sucked at the wall.

  A new wave of Magic Eaters approached.

  The ground shook.

  The trees rustled.

  And with a great flash, the magical wall crumbled, spilling pink liquid across the water. The light faded, and they watched in awe as the tomb lay before them, ready to be explored.

  “The curse is broken,” Miri said.

  Lucan was the first into the water. He didn’t care about the dirty water or what could be lurking under the surface. He pushed one arm in front of the other, stroking as fast as he could.

  “Lucan, wait!” Miri cried. “There could be another curse.”

  But he ignored her. He wasn’t going to waste any more time.

  He made it to the island with the claw. Miri and Celesse were swimming after him. He waited for them, panting.

  Tony started to jump into the water as well, but Lucan told him to stop.

  “You can’t come in, kid,” Lucan shouted. “Too dangerous.”

  Tony frowned and cursed at him.

  The Magic Eaters had forgotten about them. They fought over the remnants of the pink magic, which curdled on the surface of the water.

  Lucan shook his head and wondered how genetics let these monsters survive.

  They approached the white claw. Its marbled texture glistened like bone, and it was taller and wider than it appeared from the shore.

  Miri stopped at the bronze emblem in the shape of a coin on the wall. The dragon head on it was baring its teeth. Under a dark patina, an inscription read:

  HERE LIES THE ROYAL FAMILY OF DARK

  “Don’t have any doubts, do you, Professor?” Lucan asked, running his hand over the bronze.

  “None, Mr. Grimoire.”

  Lucan stood in front of two giant wooden doors sealed with chains. The doors dwarfed them, clearly designed for something much, much bigger.

  Across the water, the ground rumbled as the bulldozers tore down the trees and arrived at the water’s edge.

  Lucan put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. “Penrose! Throw me a bolt cutter!”

  Penrose reached into a toolbox on the seat of his bulldozer and tossed a bolt cutter. It narrowly missed Miri and landed in the dirt.

  Lucan cut the rusty chains and they clanged to the ground. He pushed the doors, throwing all his weight into them, and they creaked open.

  “Wow,” Miri said. “This is really happening.”

  “We’re grave robbers now,” Celesse said with a smirk.

  “You ladies aren’t used to breaking the law, are you? Stick around me and you’ll forget what it’s like to be an upstanding citizen.”

  “Says the man who’s running for governor,” Celesse said.

  Lucan laughed devilishly and slid a flashlight out of his pocket. He entered, and Miri and Celesse followed.

  The inside of the mausoleum was stale and hot. Cobwebs lined the walls, and fat spiders crawled into the shadows as they passed. The walls were black and it was hard to see clearly, even with the flashlight.

  Lucan intuited his way around. He shone the light down a long, dark hallway. Then he shone the light on the floor.

  No spikes or holes that he could see.

  He start
ed forward, and Miri and Celesse followed, so close to him that he could feel their breath. Someone held onto his jacket coattail, but he couldn’t tell who.

  Their steps echoed down the hallway.

  The air changed, and he sensed an opening.

  They came to some large stone steps, nearly twenty feet wide and five feet deep. Runes were engraved on them.

  “You could break an ankle on these steps,” Celesse said as they climbed down.

  “They’re dragon-sized,” Miri said.

  They descended into a catacomb with a vaulted ceiling. The room stretched for a quarter of a mile, with another double door at the end.

  Burlap sacks lay scattered around them.

  “What’s with all the sacks?” Lucan asked.

  Miri picked one up and ran her hand through it. She emptied it and turned it inside out. Her hand was rimmed with golden dust.

  “These were full at some point. With gold.”

  Lucan’s eyes widened. “Then why is it gone?”

  Miri shook her head. “Someone’s been here.”

  Lucan cursed. “You said this place was authentic!”

  “It’s exactly as the history books described,” Miri said. “But it’s always possible it was robbed.”

  “I don’t understand,” Celesse said. “If the Magic Eaters just broke the curse, how could someone have gotten in before?”

  “The curse could have been broken before, and re-cast.”

  “Great,” Lucan said.

  “The actual tomb is ahead. The hallowed chamber fit for eternal rest,” Miri said.

  Lucan ignored her and pushed forward. He wanted bodies. Bones. He didn’t care about money or history.

  They reached the double door and he pushed it open. A golden glow washed over them.

  The room was a rotunda made of gold; the walls and the floor glistened.

  On the wall was a mural of five black dragons. Their wings were outstretched, their postures regal. Under them, their names shone in chiseled gold:

  GREGARIUS

  SMIRNATESSA

  ALSATIUS I

  SMIRNAGOND

  ALSATIUS II

  On the walls were large crypt slots, twenty feet long and wide. The names were also printed on the slots.

  As they reached the center of the room, Lucan’s eyes widened.