Six young voices began shouting “Glory to Mars!” followed by a man’s voice shouting, “What in Janus?” The guard raced into the talisman room just as Janus cloaked himself, but his eyes were focused on the glowing stones floating where the Spear of Mars should have been. He quickly glanced around the room before exiting and yelling, “Thief! Thief! Someone has stolen the Spear of Mars! Stop those thieves!”
Janus heard the guard’s voice echoing into the distance as the man began his pursuit and used this opportunity to attempt to shrink the real Spear of Mars. He wanted to inspect it and enjoy its pure flow of power but knew he only had a few moments before reinforcements arrived. The talisman contained such a massive amount of magical energy that it required all his strength and magical abilities to shrink it to souvenir size. He stuffed it into his bag once it was about eighteen inches long and turned toward the door.
He heard footsteps running up the stairs to the talisman room, realized he was trapped and saw only one escape path. He illuded himself to look like one of the kids who regularly played outside and ran towards the receptacle. Guards charged in to find him arriving at the vandalized stand pointing at the dragon stones and crying, “It’s gone! The Spear of Mars is gone! What are those?”
One guard grabbed him while another rifled through his bag, but handed it back when all he found was a toy replica of the spear like the ones the neighborhood kids had been playing with all morning. The dragon stones were starting to emit a throbbing hum and a low “whump” sound, which was more felt than heard.
“Everybody out!” yelled a guard as he grabbed Janus and thrust him toward the door. “It’s going to blow!”
A second “whump” rippled through them when they reached the door followed by a third and a fourth with increasing frequency as they ran across the courtyard. Janus did not look back as he ran as fast as he could until he heard a massive explosion behind him. He turned around for the briefest of moments and saw what he had wrought.
The receptacle had clearly exploded and started a fire. The damage to the castle didn’t appear to be significant, but there seemed to be a stain, which was growing in an ever-widening area across the ground and up the castle. The receptacle’s collapse had created a massive magical well, orders of magnitude stronger than the checkpoint by the bridge. Every magical illusion and enhancement dissolved as the horizon of the expanding sphere passed. The smooth, paved courtyard became a muddy field. Ornate iron lampposts toppled as they returned to being simple wooden posts stuck in the mud. Most importantly, the tall, impossibly constructed Admian castle reverted from gleaming marble to waddle and daub. The entire structure was now on fire and about to collapse, and Janus was still beneath its tall, arching canopy.
Janus tore his eyes off the destruction unfolding behind him and ran for his life. He barely made it past the castle perimeter before the entire structure collapsed mere yards behind him. The shock wave of the magic well blasted over him a moment later and knocked him to his knees. He groaned as it occurred to him that the magic well, which had formed as Saiph had predicted, would also eliminate his magic. Any time now the spear would revert to its original size and an Admian guard would arrest him. However, Janus saw that the talisman was still shrunk and a brief wave of his hand to remove the dust from his clothes proved that he, alone, still had his magical abilities. Possessing the talisman evidently protected him from the effects of the well!
Janus picked up his pack and ran down the slope toward the fairground. Crowds of people were starting to come up the hill, so he took a side road that wove along the eastern and northern edges of the steep hill. He paused at an overlook and saw the cause for the flood of people running toward the castle remains. Janus wasn’t sure how large the magic well would continue to grow, but it now extended far beyond the fairgrounds. The dragon aviary was in ruins, and Saiph was blasting her fiery breath at everyone and everything.
Saiph’s destructive wrath was limited because she was still chained in place. Janus collapsed on the ground as he watched the horrific scene below. Saiph had promised to protect the heroes, but Janus could not see any sign of them through the flames and smoke. All he could see was a gigantic dragon filled with bloodlust who was destroying everything in sight. He would still go to the meeting place by the fairground entrance and wait for Stavius but, for now, he sat and stared at the horror unfolding below.
He had succeeded in stealing one of the seven talismans, but the cost was too terrible to bear. They had not rescued the girls and his friend, Stavius, was surely lost as well. Janus hung his head and sobbed while cursing whoever had created this stupid prophecy and then entrusted it to teenagers. It just wasn’t right.
THE DRAGON AVIARY, MEARTH
The four girls and two boys were thrust into the aviary precisely at noon, and the gate was locked shut. A dozen ten- to fifteen-foot-long dragons immediately began to circle them. All six of children froze in fear and then collapsed in terror as the earth shook when Saiph burst out of her cave. She was more than double the size of the next-largest dragon and a single mighty roar drove the other dragons to the far side of the aviary. She stomped to the center of the cage, which was as far as her chain would allow, and stared at the children.
The crowd drew back and screamed when she emerged, which let Stavius gulp a deep lungful of air. He quickly shouted, “Run to the dragon!” The crowd liked his sentiment and was ready for their promised show. Their screams changed to a chant of, “To the dragon! To the dragon! To the dragon!” Guards around the cage prodded the children toward Saiph with long pikes.
Stavius concentrated his thoughts towards Saiph to say, “Protect them, Saiph. I have the horn, and it’s fully charged.”
“I heard you before,” snapped Saiph. “And don’t worry, I’ll protect them as long as I can, but there isn’t much I can do until your friend steals the talisman.”
“I know,” thought Stavius. “Don’t worry. I know he will succeed.”
“You had better be right, young man,” thought Saiph as she paced back and forth in front of the girls. “Tell me about my dear sister, Bellatrix, while we wait.”
“Uh, she wasn’t around, so I had Juice help me,” thought Stavius.
Saiph snapped her head around to face Stavius and roared as she thought, “What!? You asked that idiot for help! I specifically told you to not go to Betel!”
The crowd behind Stavius fell over themselves trying to flee the angry dragon, even though she was chained and caged. Stavius, however, stood his ground and thought, “Hey, I didn’t have a choice! Besides, Juice seemed to be a pretty nice dragon, once I got to know him.”
Saiph roared a plaintive groan and returned her gaze toward the other dragons and the prisoners, who were slowly being prodded in her direction. “He’s an idiot with an unbelievable opinion of himself. I understand why you needed to go to him. I just hope he didn’t screw up and please do not encourage him by calling him Juice!”
Saiph looked up at Mount Admian and roared her mightiest roar yet. “He did it! The magic well has formed! Tell your friends to get over here now!”
Stavius looked up toward the castle behind him and saw the magic well flowing towards them. It almost looked like someone had poured an anti-magic sauce on top of the hill. A thin line was rushing towards him, and every structure and illusion behind it was crumbling and collapsing. The wave blew through him like a hot wind, and suddenly all the delusions of grandeur around the fairgrounds disappeared. Flagpoles, banners and the viewing stand all trembled before collapsing onto the ground in heaps of sticks and twine. The iron aviary cage became a fragile wooden lattice which was incinerated by a single blast of Saiph’s now-active fire. The only structures remaining were the families’ stone viewing pavilion and Saiph’s chains.
The girls finally heeded Stavius’ pleas and ran to the gigantic dragon. The boys could not be convinced and, instead, ran through the now-destroyed aviary and joined the panicked crowd as they trampled each other fleeing from the
vengeful dragon.
Saiph bellowed again and again as she belched fire at the crowd in general and at the stone pavilion in particular. The smaller dragons had happily abandoned the six scrawny children protected by Saiph in favor of fat, slow-moving members of the audience. They each grabbed a squirming, screaming meal and flew off to eat in privacy for the first time in decades.
The crowd behind Stavius had fled, and a few soldiers were tentatively approaching to try to control the dragon. Saiph turned toward them and thought, “Duck, Stavius!” as she blasted them with her fiery breath.
Stavius reached into his pouch and withdrew one of the horns. Saiph thought, “Do it! Free me now, Stavius” but Stavius hesitated.
“Saiph, I can’t control my battle magic. It comes out like lightning bolts and goes everywhere.”
“The horn will direct it. Just aim at my chains and free me!” thought Saiph.
“But your collar is next to your heart. I’ll kill you if I miss,” pleaded Stavius.
Saiph leaped at Stavius and roared as his chains tethered his charge. “Do it now, Stavius. I would rather die by your hand than live another day as their prisoner.”
Stavius thrust the horn at Saiph’s collar as she lunged and a brilliant, beam of light blasted straight out of the horn. The beam struck the link that connected the chains to the collar and Saiph was suddenly free. She leaped into the air and made one circle around the fairgrounds before swooping down to grab all three girls into her massive talons.
“I am too weak to carry you too, my friend,” she thought to Stavius as she rose up into the air again, “but perhaps this will aid your escape.”
She flew another low lap and blasted fire to clear a path for Stavius to escape from the fairgrounds. He charged after her down the flaming escape route as people fled to either side. It was a desperate plan with little chance of success, and he was tackled from behind near the stone pavilion. He knew he was not getting away this time as someone pushed his face into the scorched earth.
Another soldier grabbed his sword, and two more dragged him into the blackened, stone pavilion where he was forcibly pushed back onto the ground and ordered to, “Kneel before the King!” Stavius looked up to see an older man, perhaps in his fifties, taking Stavius’ sword and leveling it at him. The man appeared unfazed by the commotion outside and had a commanding and regal bearing even without any magical enhancement. Stavius had no doubt that he was staring at the head of one of the seven families.
“I am King Ringheld,” proclaimed the king, as he leveled Stavius’ sword at his head. The tip of the sword was mere inches from Stavius’ eyes, and he stared at the tip dancing in little figure eights as the blade flexed, ever-so-slightly in the king’s steady grip.
“I know who you are and I saw what you did,” growled the king.
Stavius struggled to keep from crying. He and Janus had stolen one of the talismans and rescued the other heroes. He had succeeded where countless other heroes had failed but fulfilling the rest of the prophecy now rested with Janus and the three girls.
The small, stone room trembled as Saiph made one last fiery pass.
“You now belong to me,” said the king. “State your name before I do this.”
Stavius was still staring at the blade tip. He was almost hypnotized by it and was overcome by the most unexpected feeling. At that moment he no longer feared his own death but cried inside at the thought of how it would affect his parents, friends and even his little sister back on Earth. He just hoped that King Ringheld would grant him a quick execution by decapitating him rather than by plunging the sword through his heart.
The thought of having his head cut off reminded Stavius of that poor chigon he accidentally killed when Mark first appeared in Staven’s head. Remembering the destruction that headless dragon caused while randomly running around the fields back home suddenly seemed funny. He softly chuckled as he looked into King Ringheld’s steely gaze and answered, “I am Stavius.”
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Staven
Chapter 2 Marius
Chapter 3 Staven & Mark
Chapter 4 Stavius
Chapter 5 Illusions
Chapter 6 Magic Lessons
Chapter 7 School
Chapter 8 Separation
Chapter 9 Battle Magic
Chapter 10 Leaving the Valley
Chapter 11 Prairie
Chapter 12 Awakening
Chapter 13 Equous
Chapter 14 Satyrsday Night
Chapter 15 Jarius
Chapter 16 Journey’s End
Chapter 17 Clothton
Chapter 18 Septumcolis
Chapter 19 The Marketplace
Chapter 20 Preparations
Chapter 21 Hosts
Chapter 22 Luna Fest
Stavius Page 27
