Silurian sensed Helleden’s presence growing stronger. The dragon had turned and started back with incredible speed.
“Alhena, Mel. Ready your spells,” Silurian instructed stepping between them.
In unison, the two Wizards of the North brought their staffs to bear, preparing to join forces against the evil that had threatened Zephyr for centuries.
The dragon tucked in its wings and dove at them, its great mouth spewing a swath of fire. Everyone on the hilltop stopped to take notice lest they be incinerated in its path.
Melody and Alhena conjured a thick shield of ice vapour, bolstered by Silurian’s blade.
The dragon doused them in a field of fire so thick Silurian was unable to see anything beyond the flames. The inferno seemed to last a long time, but in reality, they were only besieged for the brief moment it took the dragon to soar past.
Silurian grabbed both wizards by the shoulders and dragged them to the ground, barely avoiding the dragon’s trailing claws—the wind of its passing fluttering their cloaks.
Silurian jumped to his feet, keeping his eyes on the winged nightmare’s course over the battle scene.
Sadyra tracked its flight and fired an arrow.
The missile barely missed the top of Helleden’s shoulder, striking the dragon’s scaled neck and bouncing harmlessly away.
Helleden shouted at the dragon, yanking hard on the collar around its neck.
Silurian reached for his throat, gasping for breath. An excruciating pain shot through his brain. His fingers clutched his sword hilt tight to the side of his head as he writhed in the blackened dirt.
Melody screamed and knelt beside him, searching him for an injury. “What is it? What happened? Silurian, talk to me!”
The pain eased.
The dragon shrieked again, far out to sea. Helleden’s stain diminished along with it.
Catching his breath, Silurian let Melody pull him into a sitting position. He shook his head, wincing at the residual pain.
Melody stared at him. “What happened? I thought you were dying.”
Silurian gulped. “I don’t know. My head felt like it exploded. I couldn’t breathe and…” He trailed off, getting slowly to his feet; staring after the dragon.
“What is it?” Melody asked brushing the dirt off him for no apparent reason considering they were in the middle of a battle.
“I-I don’t know. It’s like…”
“Like what? Sil, talk to me.”
Their conversation in the hut came back to him. “It’s like the dragon is trying to talk to me.”
“What?” Melody’s voice raised in pitch.
“Ya, I know. Crazy, huh?”
The dragon wheeled around to begin another pass.
“I don’t think it wants to hurt us,” Silurian said to no one in particular. He stepped down the trail toward the oncoming nightmare.
Melody and Alhena ran to him, chanting quickly and erecting a shield moments before the dragon tried to boil the blood in their veins. Silurian didn’t attempt to assist with the earth blood magic.
“You need to help us,” Melody screamed at him, but he ignored her.
Dragon? Can you hear me? Silurian focused the thought, attempting to clear everything else from his mind.
A jolt of pain pierced his neck but not as agonizing as the last one.
The dragon veered to the north to avoid the archers. As it turned, Silurian felt its gaze bore into him and a word came into his mind in the form of a question.
Windwalker?
Silurian stared after the beast. What did that mean?
Pollard cried out in pain. The big man went down under a rash of demons—claws and weapons pummeling the Songsbirthian giant.
Sadyra shrieked and leapt from the rock, abandoning her position—her small form disappearing in the flood of horned monsters. As soon as she did, the flanking demons made headway around Karvus.
Larina fired arrow after arrow into the masses attacking the emperor but it wasn’t enough. She expended her last arrow and spun to crack her bow over the head of a demon scrambling up the side of the boulder. The heel of her boot smashed its face, driving it backward into the demon climbing up behind it.
Olmar fought with a massive trident he must’ve confiscated from an unfortunate demon but his fighting prowess was greatly hampered by the unfamiliar discipline required to employ such an unwieldy weapon.
Silurian ran toward the fray. His companions were being overrun.
“Silurian, no. We need you,” Melody shouted after him.
He slowed his pace, unsure what to do. If the demons got past his colleagues’ meagre line of defense, they would fall on him and the wizards. If that happened, the dragon would surely make quick work of them. And yet, if he left Melody and Alhena to their own devices, their magic would fail under a steady barrage of dragon fire. Either way, the dragon would make quick work of the rest of them.
He wanted to go to Olmar who stood near where Pollard had fallen. The sailor had a demon impaled on the end of his trident and was struggling to wrest the weapon free of its victim to face his next assailant.
A demon rushed at Olmar’s back, wielding a hatchet. It leapt into the air, screeching victory.
“No! Olmar!” Silurian cried out.
A spear pierced the leaping demon’s face, knocking it sideways, bouncing off Olmar’s shoulder and dropping into the layer of bodies around the giant’s feet.
The strangest battle cry Silurian had ever heard sounded above the slaughter. He didn’t know what to make of the gaff hook bearing, fish spear toting, serrated knife wielding villagers that charged into the demon ranks.
The dragon shrieked, its emerald eyes on Silurian as it dropped out of the sky. Standing by himself, he was stuck helplessly between the fighting and the wizards.
The dragon opened its fearsome mouth, exposing an inferno of roiling flames.
Silurian held his sword before him, as if the thin piece of metal would be enough to divert a swath of dragon fire. He steeled himself and thought, Dragon, I feel your pain. Let me help you get the parasite off your back.
The dragon shrieked. Its head retracting in preparation to expend its flames.
Helleden’s greasy black locks flew around his pale face, his small mouth open, laughing hysterically.
Silurian bent low to minimalize himself as a target.
Alhena and Melody discharged ice spells at the beast to little effect.
The dragon disgorged a torrent of fire so hot the ground burned and plant life withered several paces away from the path of the flames.
Melody’s cry of absolute terror had her companions on the battlefield looking her way.
The dragon turned abruptly, slowing its flight. With a great whoosh of beating wings it dropped to the ground and faced the Wizards of the North.
Helleden slipped from its neck and straightened his robes, showing no fear of the magic users standing in his way—his rings and the amulet around his neck gave off wisps of arcane activity. “With Silurian out of the way, it is time to rid the world of wizards once and for all. How I have longed for this day, Phazarus.”
When the Axe Falls
An old townsman, his nose broken and bald head covered in blood, pulled Sadyra away from the pile of bodies. Demons still fought in small pockets but for the most part, the secondary battle had been put to rest.
“Sadyra. Allow me.”
Sadyra glared at the man, her fist cocked, ready to pound his broken nose, but she stopped herself.
“Gitch?”
The man smiled at the unsavoury nickname Sadyra had labelled him with in her youth working amongst the grizzled fishermen.
“Aye, my dear. I still curse the day you landed in my best net and cut a hole in it big enough to sail a brig through. It’s been a long time.”
Gitch helped Karvus and Olmar toss demon bodies off the bloodied, mangled form of Pollard Banebridge—Pollard’s skin ripped and torn, his brass cuirass dented and gouged be
yond repair.
Sadyra pushed Karvus and Gitch aside and knelt against Pollard’s massive bulk. She placed her tiny hands on his blood covered cheeks, moving his head from side-to-side. “Pollard,” her frail voice squeaked.
The big man lay unresponsive to her touch.
“Hey, ho!” Olmar declared, his attention on the dragon landing in front of the smoldering remains of her family home.
Olmar, Karvus and Gitch ran off.
Larina bent close and gave Sadyra a squeeze, whispering softly, “Come on, Sadie, we’re not out of this yet,” and bounded away, picking up stray arrows along the way.
Tears fell from Sadyra’s cheeks to Pollard’s handsome face. Although the battle was only half won, she couldn’t bring herself to leave him lying in the field amongst the vile demon corpses.
Wracked with painful sobs she laid across his hard cuirass and buried her face into his neck. “Don’t leave me. I need you.”
The Songsbirthian wheezed, “Then get off me and make us proud.”
Sadyra’s head poked up, her freckled face smeared with blood and dirt. An incredulous smile dimpled her cheeks. She cried even harder with happiness. “You’re alive! Oh, my love.” She smothered his face with quick kisses.
He tried to laugh but a wracking cough clenched his features. “Sadie, dear. They need you. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when you get back.”
She looked at him, his pale face barely visible through her wet eyes. “You better be.” She leaned back and found his sword wedged in the torso of a demon nearby. There was no way she’d be able to remove it, so she placed her old dagger in his open palm and helped him wrap his fingers around it.
“Take that.” Her voice broke. “Don’t you let anything get you.”
He forced an agonized smile, his own eyes tearing up. “Go.”
She didn’t think she had the strength in her legs to stand up but she did. Stepping over the corpse of a mangled demon, she looked back. Pollard’s eyes were closed.
She stumbled over the next body and slipped in the gore, falling to her knees.
An ear-piercing shriek drove a hatchet through her frail nerves. The dragon’s head reared up high and darted forward, a blast of fire aimed at the wizards.
Pops and Melody stood firm, their staffs ablaze with blue light, deflecting the flames around them.
Olmar and Gitch ran at Helleden, the fools hollering at the top of their lungs, alerting the sorcerer of their approach.
Helleden spun to face the threat. Red wisps of magic coalesced from his talismans, swirling into a ball of static, crimson lightning.
The sorcerer was in the process of hurling the deadly sphere but jerked sideways at the last second, a throwing knife embedded in his hip.
The lightning ball crackled harmlessly past Olmar as the giant tackled Gitch to the ground. The static charge impacted the trunk of a large tree, exploding in a shower of splinters and a myriad of arcing tendrils.
Sadyra ran toward the chaotic scene, her apprehension rising. She didn’t know where to direct her attention.
Helleden faced Larina standing off to the side, raising her bow.
Sadyra’s eyes flicked to the gargantuan beast spewing fire, its onslaught collapsing the ice shield the Wizards of the North powered with failing intensity.
Where was Silurian?
Her fear for Larina brought her concentration back to Helleden. He conjured another ball of crimson death, his attention focused on her closest friend.
A blur of motion crashed through the smoldering ruins of her old home. She gaped. Karvus swung his axe through the air to pummel the unsuspecting sorcerer.
The flaming pass of the dragon hit the ground behind Silurian and continued up the hill toward the wizards and the burnt-out hut. The concussion of the blast threw him forward to the ground, away from the fire, knocking him senseless. In his state of delirium, he couldn’t help thinking the dragon had missed him on purpose.
A woman screamed. He thought it might be Melody but his addled brain struggled to focus. He fought hard to keep from blacking out.
He tried to roll over to see how everyone was doing but his mind wallowed in confusion. He put a shaking arm on the ground and tried to push up only to fall back on his face.
The noise of the land battle lessened. Had his hearing suffered? He turned his head to witness a bunch of unarmoured men and women of all ages hacking and poking at Helleden’s remaining minions. He blinked several times, trying to make sense of it all.
An eerie shriek jarred his attention to something happening behind him. The roar of flames pulled his mind from its haze. The dragon!
He sat up.
Olmar’s charging hulk crossed his vision. The crazed sailor roared as he and another man Silurian had never seen before ran at a black-robed…Helleden!
His mind cleared. The sorcerer. The dragon. The fire. His sister!
Melody and Alhena were bent behind a diminishing ice shield.
Silurian located his sword in a patch of burnt grass and got to his feet, stumbling a couple of times. He needed to help them.
The inferno faltered. The dragon’s eyes narrowed at his approach but he never wavered. He pulled up behind the wizards, wary of coming into contact with their shield.
Reaching out, he extended his dull sword, touching its tip to the edge of their power. The sword’s runes flared to life, reinforcing the wizard’s spell with its touch.
The dragon fire ceased and the beast tilted its head.
Windwalker?
The question reverberated in Silurian’s mind so clearly, he was sure the dragon had spoken it aloud. He glanced at Melody and Alhena who dropped their shield for a moment’s respite. “Did you hear that?”
Melody gave him a quick hug, relief in her eyes. Neither wizard answered him though, their attention was divided between the dragon and Helleden.
The sorcerer discharged a crimson blast at Olmar, his accuracy thrown off when he suddenly jerked sideways.
A tree erupted in spectacular arcs of crackling energy.
Helleden’s pendant flashed and a chunk of ground beneath the charred remains of the hut exploded, sending Karvus flying through the air to land amid the smoldering wreckage, his battle-axe spinning on its own and landing with a clang and a thump on the path before the hut.
Free me.
Helleden spun on the dragon. “What are you doing? I command you to burn them!” Red wisps jumped from his rings, intertwining with the wire collar around the dragon’s neck.
The dragon shrieked.
Silurian dropped to the ground in exquisite agony. He released his sword to grab at his head and the pain subsided.
Melody knelt beside him. “Again? It must be Helleden.” She straightened and discharged an ice ball at the sorcerer. The blast should have frozen him solid, but his trinkets flared to life, absorbing her magic.
Silurian went to pick up his sword and noticed the ruby tang stone glowing softly of its own accord. The recent events pieced themselves together. The significance of the gemstone they had taken great pains to collect from the Gimcrack became clear. The key to their salvation—the secret their mother had died to protect.
Wrapping his fingers around the hilt, he opened his mind and sensed the dragon—the Tang Stone a magical conduit enabling its bearer to speak with dragons.
He crouched down and closed his eyes, shutting out the outside world. What must I do?
Free me.
Another blast of pain paralyzed him. He dropped his sword and severed the link.
Helleden confronted the dragon with outstretched arms—a steady stream of crimson wisps filtering into the wire collar.
The dragon turned its head on Helleden, immense pain in its emerald eyes. Silurian thought for sure it would eat the sorcerer. Instead, it retracted its neck.
“The collar controls it!” Silurian shouted and grabbed his sword, trying to ignore the pain in his head. He fell to his knees but refused to relinquish his hold. Hi
s sister’s life depended on it.
The dragon prepared for another blast, the knowledge transmitted to him as if he had thought it himself. “Mel, ice shield!”
I’m sorry. Came the dragon’s sad words before opening its mouth and throwing its head forward—a great gout of flames incinerating everything lying between them.
Melody and Alhena stood over him, their staffs radiating a thinner shield than before.
Silurian fought through the debilitating hurt and joined the earth blood magic with their waning power.
The shield solidified momentarily before it wavered again.
His sister’s desperate voice reached him above the deafening roar of the flames, “I can’t hold it much longer!”
“Breathe deep, my child. Remember our lessons,” Alhena’s steadying voice coached her.
Slowly at first, their combined magic solidified the shield and they pressed forward into the path of flames.
A pain more acute than anything Silurian had ever experienced wracked his body. In the brief interval it took the dragon to reload its breath, he felt the inhumane torment Helleden’s psionics were inflicting on the majestic creature. I feel your pain. You are not to blame.
A brief sense of gratitude filled Silurian’s tortured mind but the sentiment turned bleak.
Your magic is waning. You will be lucky to survive my next breath. Please forgive me.
Silurian couldn’t breathe—the dragon’s despair too much to bear.
The dragon retracted its head, preparing its killing fire. Its great head came at them, exhaling a firestorm that made everyone still alive fall back—even Helleden.
The ice shield flickered and condensed under the intensity of the discharge. Silurian reached deep, channeling every ounce of earth blood into the defensive shell but it wasn’t enough.
Flames licked around the edges of the shield, scorching the wizards’ fireproof cloaks.
Alhena yelled and Melody screamed, expending everything they had in one last, futile push, but it wasn’t enough. Wrapping their cloaks around Silurian, they fell to the ground.
Sadyra backed away from the raging inferno, the conflagration so intense she couldn’t see the wizards or Silurian anymore.
Into the Madness Page 31
