Dragonia- Dragonia Empire series Box Set

by Craig A Price Jr

  She unsheathed her sword and waited as they broke through. Naveen refused to give up without a fight. But how much could she really do? She was still a novice with a blade.

  Her fist opponent approached her. His blade slashed at a downward arc toward her left shoulder. She curved her blade upward, slamming the sword aside. He followed up with three swift mid-strikes toward her abdomen. She blocked two of them with down-handed swings before stepping backward to miss the third. Growling, he rushed toward her, two strikes to her right side, one to her left, then an uppercut toward her belly. She parried each strike with ease. Naveen could feel the wind surrounding her. The purple scale on her necklace glowed. She wondered if she were actually using magic, or if it somehow had protected her. Naveen couldn’t remember her defensive blocks, yet, she still stood. She pushed her blade down, forcing the man’s uppercut to fall toward the ground. He was left defenseless. She stepped forward, slid her blade backward, then swung hard over her right shoulder to his neck. It hit hard. His head didn’t fall off like she’d thought it would, but he fell nonetheless.

  Naveen glanced back to the gate. Shadowmen entered the city. She saw almost a hundred of them. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. They couldn’t fight against so many shadowmen. Naveen could barely see them. The sun had set, and shadows blended into the darkness.

  She backed away. Fear overcame her. She couldn’t fight this. No one could fight this. She backed away into an alley. A shadowman saw her and approached.

  Naveen barely raised her sword in time to block a blow. She didn’t know how she saw it, but she held a defense against a shadow blade. He struck again, and her sword moved on reflex to her right, again intercepting the strike. She felt the air around her, and trusted it to guide her. Every molecule around her body pulsed with energy as she struggled to defend herself against the shadowman. His blade came again, and her sword moved to intercept the strike. She felt her arms being pulled more than her doing the blocking. Her eyes tried to focus, but a shadowman inside of a dark alley was impossible to see. Three more strikes came, and she blocked each in turn, one of them she felt she blocked herself without the aid of magic. Gaining a little confidence, she pressed an attack on the shadow. Left, right, left, left, uppercut. The shadowman grunted at her last strike. She’d struck him. Before she could appreciate her small victory, he came at her fast. His slashes were so fast that even with her magic aiding her, it wasn’t enough. After the tenth straight strike, her sword flew from her grasp to clatter onto the ground. A deep gash poured blood from her forearm. She clutched it with her opposite hand as she backed away. The shadowman approached. His face was blacker than any shadow she’d ever seen. His eyes were black as well, and the grin that split his face in two was also black. He enjoyed his victory, and he’d enjoy his kill. His sword rose in the air. Naveen closed her eyes as she dropped to the ground on her bottom.

  After several seconds when nothing happened, she heard gurgling. Naveen shivered as she opened her eyes. A sword pierced the shadowman’s heart. Black blood stained the blade. The man crumpled forward, falling off the sword.

  Cederic stood behind the shadow, her sword in hand. His face showed no emotion. He stabbed the sword into the ground and held out his hand. She grabbed his hand cautiously, and he helped her to her feet.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  Naveen shook her head.

  He grabbed her arm to inspect her wound. Naveen flinched, her teeth clenching with the pain. Cederic cut a strip from the front of his cloak with a dagger, then wrapped it around Naveen’s arm. He tied it securely as he grabbed her sword out of the ground.

  “Come on, we need to get out of here,” he whispered.

  “Where?”

  He shrugged. “Inside.”

  She tried walking forward, but she stumbled. Her head was fuzzy.

  “Can you make it?” he asked.

  “I—”

  Cederic stepped up to her, grabbed her, then lifted her over his right shoulder. He held her sword with his left hand as he carried her out of the alley.

  Everything around Naveen looked blurry, and she had a hard time concentrating. Cederic was careful as he rushed onto the main road, then opened a door and slipped inside. He gently set Naveen on the ground. She leaned against the wall as she took in the room they had entered.

  Hundreds of bubbling vials of different colors filled open crates in the room. The leader of the resistance, Ellisar, stood in the center of the room. He held a bubbling blue vial in his hand, twirling it between his fingers. After a deep breath, he turned to look at them.

  “Ellisar, the city is being overrun!” Naveen screamed.

  “I know,” he whispered.

  “Are you going to do something?” Naveen demanded.

  He turned to face her. “What? What would you like me to do? I am one man. There are thousands of them.”

  “Our warriors are out there, fighting and dying—for you! For your purpose, for your skewed idea of freedom. We can’t be free if we’re dead.”

  Ellisar closed his eyes. “I hoped for so many years that this would turn out differently. But, it seems, they found us before we could build enough of a defense.”

  “There has to be something we can do.” Naveen wept.

  “I only have one idea, and I don’t know if it will work.”

  “What is that?” Cederic finally spoke.

  Ellisar held out the vial. “Naveen saw men drinking vials of dragon blood to turn into shadowmen. What would happen if one of us drank this wyvern oil?”

  Naveen’s eyes widened.

  “Would we turn into our own variation of shadowmen?” Ellisar continued. “Or would it kill us from the inside out?”

  Silence filled the room. No one spoke. Everyone stared at the vial of blue oil in Ellisar’s hand.

  “I’ll try it,” Cederic said.

  Ellisar and Naveen turned to him.

  “What?” Naveen asked.

  “I’ll try it,” Cederic repeated.

  “No,” Naveen said, her voice shaky.

  Cederic spun to look at her. “What would you have us do? Hide in this room until all our warriors are dead? After that, they’ll come for us. We need to do something. We have to try it.”

  “But … it could kill you.”

  Cederic knelt in front of her. He touched her face, gently rubbing his thumb against her cheek. “If I do nothing, we all may be dead anyway.”

  He stood, turned, and strode toward Ellisar. He snatched the vial from the leader’s hand, popped off the cork, and drank the entire vial in one gulp. Cederic looked back to Naveen. Tears fell along Naveen’s cheeks as she stared back at him. He smiled at her, then his body went rigid. The vial dropped from his grasp, shattering on the ground. His body trembled, convulsing furiously as he dropped to the ground. He was having a seizure. A blue haze covered his skin. Fog filled the room, coming from Cederic’s body. The room grew cold as frost formed around Cederic’s body. His eyes closed.

  “Cederic!” Naveen screamed.

  She tried to get to her feet, but Ellisar rushed to her. He held her back. She sobbed as she clutched at his leg.

  Something scraped against the ground. Naveen wiped her tears and looked up. Cederic sat up. His face was no longer pale white, but it was as blue as the sky, and even his hair was blue. He smiled at her as he pressed his hands on the ground at his sides and rose to his feet. His steps were slow and steady, and he took one last glance at Naveen, then shuffled toward the door. He raised his hands in front of him. Blue ice escaped his fingertips, slamming into the door and blasting it from its hinges. He grinned, grabbed Naveen’s blade leaning against the wall, and stepped outside.

  36

  Zaviana’s hands glowed purple as she held the energy surrounding her at bay. Time was running out. Several hundred men from the empire’s army rushed toward them. As they neared her range, she let go of the energy. A silver light blazed through the air to zap into the first man. Electricity trave
led through his body and into the next. The magic traveled through fifteen of the warriors, and they lay on the ground, clutching their stomachs in pain as they vomited. Two of them died shortly after.

  The attack paused the next line of men for only a moment before they gained courage and continued toward her. Zaviana wondered how long her strength would last before she’d be depleted. She held her breath and began to focus on the elements surrounding her again.

  Rest, little one, Yasmirah said.

  Zaviana turned to look at her new friend. The wyvern stood tall, stretching its legs, its damaged wing hanging limply by its side. Her massive jaw opened, and Zaviana clutched the rock by her side. Wind more powerful than any storm rushed from the wyvern’s mouth. It collided with the first hundred men, throwing them all up into the air nearly a hundred feet and throwing them back into the main army. The men screamed all the while as they fell to their deaths, many of them injuring or killing others in the crowd.

  “Well done, Yasmirah,” Zaviana whispered.

  Zaviana hoped it would deter the rest from approaching, but all it did was grant them more bloodthirst. Hundreds more men took their place as they charged toward Zaviana and Yasmirah.

  Unsheathing her sword, Zaviana sighed. The first men approached, and she swung her sword to the left, then right, using the dancing butterfly sword form. She spun around time and time again, stabbing her sword through one victim’s stomach to the next. Her skill outmatched theirs, but she also felt the magic surrounding her, guiding her movements. An extra sense took over her moves, her mind, showing her where the next attack would be. She moved, guided by the power to block, strike, and kill. Another three down, two slashed across the throat and the third stabbed through the heart. Her senses tingled with danger to her side. She reached her left hand in the air, and it glowed blue as ice trickled from it to freeze three men in solid ice to her left.

  Yasmirah roared into the sky, then blew again, tossing another hundred men into the air to crash hundreds of feet away.

  Zaviana was growing weak as she battled, and she knew Yasmirah was as well. Maces fell toward her face, and she slipped to the ground. Her sword arched up in time to deflect the two weapons. She jerked her elbows backward, then slashed at their knees. The two men collapsed onto the ground. Zaviana didn’t have time to end the two injured men as two more took their place with swords swinging low. She deflected both strikes, then stabbed one in the gut while blasting the other away with power guided by her left hand. Yasmirah blew into the wind again, tossing another dozen men away. They didn’t fly hundreds of feet anymore, but only half the distance. They were growing weak, too weak.

  “We won’t last much longer,” Zaviana whispered.

  Then we give it our all. We die with as many of them as we can.

  Zaviana nodded.

  Another hundred men rushed forward, weapons held high. Zaviana screamed into the air. She used her weapon to steady herself. Fatigue overtook her. Her muscles ached; her hands shook. She spread her feet further apart to keep her knees from collapsing.

  A roar tore through the sound of battle. It came from above; it came from behind. The charging men halted, skidding their heels against the dirt. All of them looked up into the sky, eyes wide, jaws dropped, weapons falling to the ground or held high in defiance.

  Zaviana turned around and looked up. A giant blue dragon flapped its wings in the sky behind her. The dragon’s mouth was spread wide as it roared again. As it neared, blue mist sprayed from its mouth onto the unsuspecting warriors. They didn’t cry out or scream as they instantly became entrapped in solid blue ice.

  Zaviana’s eyes grew wide as the dragon passed them. It circled around again, exhaling another breath of ice from its mouth. In a matter of seconds, everyone who’d charged Zaviana was frozen in ice. The dragon and its rider turned their attention to Zaviana as they approached.

  Who is that?

  “Derkas,” Zaviana whispered.

  Who? I thought only Ellisar befriended a blue dragon.

  “There was one other.”

  The dragon landed in front of them. Her body tilted to the side to allow the dragonrider to climb down a ladder that rolled out. Derkas climbed down, a wide grin across his face.

  Zaviana’s cheeks heated, turning an even darker brown. Shivers created bumps across her arms as she took a step back. Her breath caught as she watched him approach.

  What is that gooey warm feeling you’re expressing?

  Zaviana flinched. “Get out of my head,” she whispered.

  “Zaviana.”

  “Derkas.”

  “Did you think you escaped me?” he asked.

  “Escaped? If I escaped, then was I truly a free woman?”

  He grinned. “You’re always free, Zaviana. I just wanted to protect you.”

  “You can’t protect me from everything, Derkas.”

  “Clearly.” He laughed.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “What for?”

  “Saving me … yet again.”

  “I ought to be good for something.”

  “I thought you were going to stay out of this conflict,” she said.

  Derkas shrugged. “You needed me. You know how much I hate to disappoint.”

  Zaviana’s eyes shifted from left to right. “Too many people saw you. They will know you attacked the empire. He will know.”

  Derkas’ shoulders arched. “Nothing can stop that now. The most important thing is that you are safe.”

  Zaviana’s skin tingled as his hand touched her cheek. She closed her eyes as she welcomed his touch. He was warm, inviting, and everything she needed at that moment.

  “It’s good to see you again, Zaviana.”

  She opened her eyes and smiled. “You too.”

  “I take it you won’t run away with me?”

  Zaviana shook her head.

  Derkas sighed. “Well, what can I do to help you?”

  “They know you are the one who gave them up to the empire,” she admitted.

  He nodded. “You told them, I suppose.”

  She pressed her lips tight and closed her eyes. After a deep inhalation of breath, she said, “I had to. I had to warn them. They had to be given the chance to defend themselves.”

  Derkas raised his eyebrows. “Lot of good it did them.”

  “They’re stronger than you give them credit for, and I’m not abandoning them.”

  “Very well. How can I help you?”

  Zaviana glanced to the city. The gate was broken, and hundreds of men from the Dragonia Empire flooded into the city.

  “My wyvern is injured. Help me take her into the city through the gate. Then help me seal it.”

  His eyes widened. “Seal the gate?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you want me to do that?” he asked.

  Her eyes twinkled. “An ice wall.”

  His chin touched his chest as he glared at her with eyes wide. “Even if Chalce could make an ice wall, it won’t hold. Their dragons have fire. Fire melts ice.”

  “We don’t have to stop them. We just need to slow them down. Trust me.”

  Derkas took a deep breath. He held his hand out, palm up, toward the gate. “After you.”

  Zaviana smiled. “Come, Yasmirah.”

  They ran toward the gate. Derkas mounted his dragon and flew into the sky. Zaviana looked back to see him one last time as she continued on. The gate was flooded with hundreds of soldiers as they marched into the city. Derkas flew over them. His dragon breathed ice over the direct line of soldiers, freezing them all solid. With another pass, a large span of men was frozen in ice outside the gate. Men yelled with frustration. Chalce landed in front of the gate, shattering several of the ice statues into pieces. Her tail slammed around to crush dozens more. The men behind the frozen statues ceased moving as they watched with horror. Chalce continued to pulverize the frozen men into dust with her tail and paws.

  Zaviana and Yasmirah reach
ed them through dozens of frozen men. She tried her best not to look at the ground at the hundreds of shattered ice particles that had once been humans. Her foot crossed the threshold of the city, then she was jerked backward. An arm wrapped around her bicep. Derkas looked into her eyes.

  “I will go no further,” he said.

  Her mouth parted, and her eyes widened slightly.

  “They will not welcome me in there. You know that. If I enter the city with you, I will be seen as an enemy. I will have to fight the empire and the resistance.”

  “I can speak to them, I can—”

  Derkas’ finger pressed against her lips. He shook his head. “No. This is where we part.”

  Zaviana fought back tears. “Will we see each other again?”

  “I hope we do. I will seal this entrance, and I will do what I can out here to disrupt their attack, but I dare not go inside.”

  “Derkas … I—”

  He kissed her. His lips were warm against hers. A spark traveled from him to her, sending shivers down her spine. His hand reached to her face, where it swept her hair behind her ear. She melted into him, clutching at his shirt with her long fingernails.

  He pulled away. “Now, go.”

  She opened her mouth to argue.

  Derkas shook his head. “You’re needed. Go.”

  Zaviana wiped her eyes before rushing into the city. She tried not to look back, but she did one last time. Derkas wasn’t clear anymore. She saw him through thick blue ice as it grew in place of the shattered gate. Zaviana gulped, unsheathed her sword, and ran into the city.

  37

  Devarius stood in Saefron, horrified by the scene playing out before him. He’d joined the resistance to stop the tyrannical rule of the empire. He’d found the wyverns, siphoned their oil, and given the resistance hope. Now, as he looked around, he wondered what hope was left. They were overrun. The battle in the sky was failing, and the battle on the ground was nearly lost. He wanted to do something, but there was little he could do.