Ascension

by Selena IR Drake

  “I concur.” Kkaia flicked her tail in agitation.

  “Hmm…” Kitfox knelt and stared at the water.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He looked up at me. “It has been over three minutes. They’ll be frozen to death by now.”

  “I doubt they were that easily defeated,” Teka muttered.

  I nodded and glanced sideways at Thera. She had collapsed to her knees and held her head bowed toward the water. Her ebony wings drooped, and her silver hair shrouded her face.

  “Thera?”

  She turned away from me. “We should find Atoka’s nest.” Thera sounded miserable.

  I looked to Teka for help. She sighed and shook her head then walked over to Thera. I barely heard their murmured conversation as I joined Kitfox and my dragons at the water’s edge.

  The Fox Demon sighed and stared out across the water. “The Feykin on that raft was her sister, huh?”

  “Yes,” Vortex answered plainly.

  “May her soul find peace in her mother’s embrace when she arrives at the Gates of Havel.” My fingers gently touched the water as I spoke the prayer aloud. A tear fell and rippled the water’s mirrored surface. “Atlidmé, watch over her.”

  Kitfox gently laid a hand on my shoulder. I wiped my tears away and looked into his somber, amber eyes.

  “I see why you can befriend Dákun Daju, Feykin, Demon, and Hume alike. You are passionate and honorable, even to your enemies.”

  “Many would see that as weakness,” Kkaia said.

  Kitfox looked up at the dragon of earth with a frown.

  “It isn’t a weakness,” he said firmly. “It is strength, pure and simple.”

  Kkaia snorted and lowered her head so she could stare straight into Kitfox’s eyes. “Your versions of strength and weakness are backward, Demon.”

  “You are wrong, dragon.” Kitfox growled. “A mother’s love for her children or husband may be her weakness, yet she would lay down her life to protect them if need be because of that love.”

  Kkaia stared at him and remained silent. With a grunt, she rose to her full height. “I like you, Kitfox. You have a strong heart.”

  Kitfox gaped at Kkaia then looked at me.

  I could only shrug. “I have no idea what that was about, but I tend to agree with her.”

  “Oi!” Teka called. “Let’s find Atoka so we can leave this frozen wasteland.”

  I glanced at Thera as I got to my feet. She seemed calm, almost numb, yet I could see misery swimming in her eyes.

  I sighed and looked up at Kkaia and Vortex. “You two staying here or returning to the eye?”

  “I am certain you do not need us to help you find our sister.” Vortex stood and began to fade away.

  A moment later Kkaia followed his example. Wind and earth swirled around me and was absorbed into the amulet. The jewels marking the places of both dragons sparkled with the power of their elements.

  “So…where is this dragon exactly?” Kitfox asked with a shiver.

  I closed my eyes and focused on the pull emanating from somewhere on the island. A moment later, I knew where to find Atoka.

  “Follow me.” I took off at a brisk walk, following the pull of Atoka.

  I could hear the ice and snow crunching under the feet of the others as they walked with me. Moments later, we were carefully treading across the slippery surface of a long-frozen lake.

  “It doesn’t make sense!” Thera cried.

  I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at her.

  “Pox could have easily blocked all of those spells I cast against Dimitri’s team. She did not even try! Why didn’t she try?”

  Teka sighed and moved to comfort the young Feykin. I watched for a moment as they whispered to each other in Kinös Elda. Then I turned my attention to Kitfox. He shivered while he watched the scene before him.

  “You’re cold,” I muttered.

  He finally looked at me. “Don’t worry abo—” His ears twitched.

  An instant later, he spun around just in time to block the blow from Godilai as she crashed into him. Half a heartbeat later, Dimitri smashed into me. The four of us fell to the ice hard enough to crack it. Before any of us had a chance to do anything, the ice gave way, and we plummeted into the darkness below.

  I groaned as I forced myself to sit up. Kitfox was already on his feet and standing guard over me. Godilai and Dimitri were sprawled out a little ways away and were quickly recovering from the fall.

  “You okay, Xy?” Kitfox extended a hand to help me to my feet.

  I took it gratefully and surveyed our surroundings. We were in some kind of cavern under the ice. It was warmer here than on the surface, yet drifts of snow and huge icicles were in abundance all around us. Sounds of a battle echoed down from the surface.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You won’t be for long,” said Dimitri. His crimson eyes twinkled with malice.

  Kitfox snarled back and flexed his claws. “You’ll have to get through me first, Hume-aju.”

  “Don’t waste your life protecting that weak fool, Demon.” Godilai hissed and released her swords from their sheaths. She sunk into her fighting stance.

  “I’ll throw those words back at you.”

  “Wait!” My shout echoed off the walls of the cavern we found ourselves in.

  “What do you want?” Dimitri hissed through his teeth.

  “I just want to know why you are so bent on freeing the Shadow Dragons.”

  He looked stunned at my question.

  “Tell me why you want to release that kind of evil on everyone!”

  “No.” Dimitri shook his head. “Not everyone. Just those responsible for causing this misery I’ve found myself in.” His hands turned to fists. “You Humes took everything away from me! You destroyed my father…my mother…my home. I will unleash evil on every Hume and annihilate them all!”

  “That happened centuries ago!” Kitfox shouted back. “Get over it!”

  “Never!” Dimitri lunged for Kitfox.

  The Demon was much faster, blocking Dimitri’s feral attack and slamming him into the floor. While Dimitri wheezed for air, Godilai lashed out. Kitfox managed to push her away. She stumbled to the floor and somersaulted past him. Kitfox snarled and grabbed her by her hair. He yanked her back, tearing a scream from her, and slammed her into the wall.

  “You will pay for that, Demon!”

  Kitfox snorted. “It will take much more than a Dákun Daju and a half to make me pay for anything.”

  I laughed when Godilai remained silent, glaring at Kitfox.

  “I like you more and more, Kitfox.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “Heile suahk!”

  Kitfox cried out as Dimitri’s spell struck him and sent him flying into the wall hard enough to crack it.

  Godilai wasted no time and lunged for me. I barely managed to avoid her swords during the initial few seconds, when her attacks were wild and driven solely by rage. She swung her swords in obvious hopes of taking my head off, but they were so easy to avoid or deflect that I felt like I was dueling a clumsy child, not a proud Dákun Daju Assassin. I dipped under another of her wild swings and moved fast, closing the distance between us. I do not know what compelled her to turn her back to me, but I took advantage of her position. Using just the tips of my fingers, I quickly jabbed her spine in several locations. She cried out as if kissed by a hot iron poker, and she went limp and fell to the floor in a heap. While I kicked her swords out of her reach, I looked at my fingers in shock—trying to remember where I had learned that paralyzing technique.

  Dimitri shoved himself off the cavern floor just enough to perform a sweeping kick. Distracted from trying to recall the memory of learning that bizarre technique, I did not have time to react. Mere seconds later I found myself laid out on the ground, wheezing for air. Dimitri did not grant me any time to recover, and brought his dual sword down for a crippling blow. I stopped him the only way I knew how—a hard kick to the groin
.

  His face flushed red and he fell away with a groan. As he fell, he clocked his head on an icicle and was rendered unconscious. I took a moment to finally recover from my fall, and then quickly flipped to my feet. I rushed over to check on Kitfox, and managed about half the distance before a small knife whistled past my ear. It sunk deep into an icicle, and flakes of snow showered down. I turned to glare at Godilai just as she prepared to throw another of her knives. I closed the distance between us in a few strides and stole the small blade from her hand. I stared down at her, watching her struggle to get up and return to the battle. As much as I hated this woman for killing Ríhan, seeing her so helpless made me feel… feel sorry for her.

  I sighed and buried the blade of the knife in the wall. “Stop this, Godilai.”

  “N-Never!” She struggled even harder to get to her feet.

  “If you don’t stop, you will die.”

  She laughed darkly. “A w-weak Hume… like you… could never…”

  “Shut-up.” I hissed in annoyance. “I could kill you right now if you weren’t so pathetic.”

  “Whatsss stopping you?”

  I shrugged, though I doubted that she could see the action from the floor. “I guess it’s because I’m not without compassion. I don’t attack people who are weaker than me, and I certainly don’t kill people in cold blood.” I glanced sidelong at Dimitri as he finally started to stir. “And I definitely don’t kill because someone else orders it.”

  She rambled something in a language I did not know, and then was still.

  I sighed, both in relief that she had finally passed out and to expel some of the built up stress. Then I turned to deal with the more pressing task at hand—stopping Dimitri permanently. I had not even taken two steps before Godilai exploded from her slumped heap with a roar. Taken aback at her sudden recovery from that crippling technique, I did not have time to defend myself as she lashed out at me with a barrage of punches and kicks. Several of her blows landed to my face and torso before I began to defend myself.

  As before, her technique matched that of a child’s, and it was easy for me to overwhelm her. She tried to kick my feet out from under me, but a quick jab to her stomach made her think otherwise. I followed that punch with several others to her midsection and even one to her chin despite having to jump to reach. Before long, I had her bested yet again.

  I heard Dimitri groan, and caught a glimpse of him moving. Before I knew it, he rejoined the fray. It was then that Godilai’s sloppy technique turned graceful and deadly accurate.

  Had she just been toying with me this whole time? I wondered as I struggled to fend the duo off.

  “Now you will pay for Luna’s death!” Godilai kicked me in the chest so hard I barreled into the wall, cracking it further.

  I slumped to the ground beside Kitfox and gasped for air. My mind swam in and out of awareness. Dimitri sneered and bent over me. I felt him rummaging through my hip sack and finally pulling something out of it. I could barely make out my dragons screaming at me to get up.

  “N—No…” I tried to take back the book he stole.

  He scoffed and slapped me before turning away. He paused to skim over pages in the book and laugh darkly. I felt tears sting my eyes.

  “Now you can kill her, Godilai.”

  Kitfox erupted from his position and smashed into Dimitri. The book was dislodged from Dimitri’s grasp and landed at my feet. I listened to the battle as I stared at the book, trying to regain my strength. My dragons were whispering to me, trying to urge me to do something.

  Everything in the cavern suddenly grew quiet. I looked up as someone knelt before me. My vision slowly cleared to reveal Kitfox, worry clearly evident on his features. He gently stroked my sore cheek. I did not have the strength to do or say anything. He backed away, and I let my eyes drift shut.

  ◆◆◆

  I returned to consciousness some unknown time later. Thera was standing over me, healing all my wounds, while Kitfox and Teka looked on. We were still in the cavern, I realized. I felt an excited buzzing at the back of my mind, and I could tell Vortex and Kkaia were relieved to see me well. A minute later Thera sighed and backed away.

  “Done.” She sounded exhausted. “You were lucky, Xy. A few minutes more and you would have been beyond my help. Thankfully Kitfox sent Dimitri’s team running away screaming.”

  I looked up at Kitfox. Half of his tunic had been torn away, revealing burnt flesh and dried blood. Other smaller wounds were evident all over him. I met his amber gaze. He winced as he shivered.

  “You should let Thera take care of that for you,” I muttered, pointing to the deep wound on his ribs.

  Kitfox smirked. “She didn’t have enough energy to heal the both of us. And you needed her attention more than me.”

  “Kitfox told us that Dimitri managed to get his hands on Dragon Diary,” Teka said as she moved to kneel beside me.

  I felt my stomach sink at her words and immediately searched my hip sack for the book.

  “I managed to get it back from him, but I think he found the page with the riddles on it,” Kitfox said. He winced as he held the diary out to me. I grabbed it and hugged it to my chest.

  “Thank you, Kitfox. Thank you so much.”

  He smiled at me and nodded. I quickly stuffed the book back into my hip sack.

  “You feeling up to finding this dragon or do you need to rest more?”

  “I’m feeling just fine, but I’m worried about you,” I said as I got to my feet. My legs wobbled and gave out.

  Kitfox caught me and grunted in pain.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” He made sure I could stand on my own before letting me go and stepping away.

  I caught a glimpse of the wound before he hid it with his hand. Blood had started gushing from it, staining his belt, pants, and what was left of his tunic.

  “Please let me heal that for you.”

  Kitfox looked at me. “I don’t think you have the strength to.”

  “Xy might not, but I do,” Teka said, stepping closer to the Demon.

  Kitfox sighed and moved his hand away from his wound. Teka made a face and gently touched her fingertips to the deep gash in his side. He yelped and dug his claws into the wall to keep from lashing out at her.

  “Medícté!”

  I watched as the wound slowly healed itself. Before it was completely closed, Teka stopped and dropped to her knees in exhaustion. “I’m sorry. That’s…that’s all I can do.”

  “Yeah.” Kitfox grunted and rested his head against the wall. A minute later, his ears perked up. He quickly ripped his claws from the wall and backed away with a growl.

  “What’s wrong?” Thera and I were at his side a moment later.

  “I heard a heartbeat,” he said, looking at me. “It was very faint and slow, but it was there.”

  Teka looked up at me. “Is it Atoka?”

  “Deep in ice, Atoka I bound.” I smirked and glanced about the frozen cavern. “This is about as deep in ice as we can get.”

  “All right. So how do we free the dragon from the ice?”

  “Simple.” Kitfox grinned. “We break it.” He slammed his fist into the ice. The impact cracked the ice but left no damage otherwise.

  “That will take a while.”

  Kitfox looked over his shoulder at me. “How about we try it your way then?”

  I smiled at him as he moved away from the wall. Vortex, Kkaia, please lend me some of your energy.

  Take all that you need, hatchling.

  I felt a wave of serene energy wash over me. “Gaia Semít!”

  A spike of earth erupted from the ground. Before it could sink back from whence it came, I cast another spell.

  “Levítum!”

  The spike of earth levitated, and I flung it toward the ice wall. It struck with a resounding crack and stayed there.

  “That didn’t work out so well,” Kitfox muttered.

  I walked up to him and
laid my hand over his wound, making him yelp in surprise. A moment later, the gash was fully healed. By the time I finished healing him, the spike of earth had dissolved into sand. It left a gaping hole in the ice wall big enough for all of us to crawl through.

  Teka’s jaw dropped as she gazed into the room beyond. “Wow.”

  Thera, Kitfox, and I moved around so we could see through the hole. A pale-blue dragon stared back at us from atop a bed of snow and jewels of ice.

  “I was beginning to wonder when you would appear again, my Keeper.” The dragon rose to a sitting position and flicked her spiked tail happily. “I must say, you did make an awful racket out there.”

  “It’s good to see you again too, Atoka.” I smiled and crawled through the hole in the wall. “How have you been?”

  “Completely and thoroughly bored out of my mind.” Atoka watched as the others crawled through the hole. “You seem to be traveling with quite a strange menagerie of people. Who are they?”

  “Not…what I was expecting,” Kitfox muttered.

  Atoka snorted and craned her neck so she was eye to eye with the Demon.

  “And just what were you expecting, Fox?”

  Kitfox glanced my way before answering the dragon. “I always imagined you dragons were as wise as you were powerful. You, Atoka, are more like an impatient cub.”

  I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing as Atoka stared Kitfox down. Vortex and Kkaia, on the other hand, guffawed so loud I felt I would go deaf.

  Finally Atoka laughed. “What is your name, Demon?”

  “Kitfox Latreyon.”

  “You are the son of Freya?” Atoka’s liquid voice was full of surprise.

  “Not exactly. She adopted me when I was a cub.”

  “I see.” Atoka finally stopped scrutinizing Kitfox to move on to Thera. “You look like—”

  “Thernu.” Thera smiled sadly. “She was my mother.”

  Atoka nodded in understanding. “She was mine, too.”

  “What?” Kitfox’s expression made me laugh.

  “Thernu Onyx was the Necromancer who brought the Dragons of Light to fruition.”

  “Oh! Right. Right. I forgot about that.”