by Dante King
I bit back a reply as the the wyrm stopped, reared up, and snapped at me with jaws full of sword-like teeth. I dodged backward and just avoided having a leg bitten off.
Vesma reached the rear of the wyrm and sliced at its tail. Her spear was unable to penetrate its hide and glanced off. She jumped onto the tail and ran along it, stabbing as she went, probing for weaknesses.
As the wyrm twitched its tail in protest, Kegohr caught up. He swung his hefty mace and slammed it down, but it bounded off the wyrm without leaving any sign of damage.
The monster reared up, let out a piercing screech, and flexed its tail. Vesma was flung threw the air but managed to control her landing and came to a stop on the upper set of stairs. Kegohr, hit by the end of the tail, got the worst of the blow and shot back to the bottom of the stairs.
“Keep going!” I shouted as the wyrm started its ascent again.
Vesma and I ran up the stairs with the monster hot on our heels. Bowls of clear water and torches of sputtering flame lined our path toward a plateau on the mountain.
The stairs took a second turn. I stopped to attack the wyrm while I had the high ground. I reached into my dying pool of Vigor and birthed spear-like Plank Pillars underneath the wyrm with as much force as I could muster. The huge snake reduced them to splinters with a single movement of its monstrous body. Vesma focused and hurled an Untamed Torch at the serpent’s face as it drew closer to us at a frightening rate. Water blasted free of the Wyrm’s mouth and dissolved the flames.
Vesma stared at it in horror. “Just snuffed it out like a candle.”
The mountainside was clear of loose stones, and I couldn’t drop a huge boulder on the creature’s head. I wasn’t going to get lucky a second time by using the ‘drop something massive from above’ again. Vesma shoved me up the stairs as the wyrm reared back and fired another jet of high-pressure water. The monster hissed in rage and redoubled its efforts to reach us.
We finally reached the plateau. Water streamed in from a gap in the rocks to one side, became a river that split the open space in two, and fell from a dizzying precipice at the far end of the plateau. A bridge spanned the river and lead to an altar up against the rock wall.
“What now?” Vesma asked, looking back down the stairs. The wyrm writhed upward with Kegohr in pursuit.
“The eyes and mouth,” I said. “They’re the only gaps I can see in its defenses.”
“So, we face it head on?” Vesma looked dubious.
“I’ve got another idea. Get behind the altar and wait.”
I ran across the plateau and stood on the precipice of the waterfall. Qihin City opened out behind my back. We’d come far higher than I’d first realized.
I turned and readied myself to face the wyrm My sword shone in one hand as fire flickered in the other.
The wyrm shot over the top stair and onto the flat ground of the plateau. It reared its head as it had done when it first entered the temple, and its forked tongue tasted the air in search of its prey.
“Ethan,” Nydarth began. “What are you—”
“Come and get some!” I shouted at the monster.
I launched an Untamed Torch at the wyrm’s face for added effect. It was one of the hottest fires I’d summoned, a blazing ball of yellow light that I’d hoped might blind the beast. But it reared up at the last moment and caught the fireball against the scales of its throat. The wyrm screeched in shock and lowered its head to stare straight at me.
The beast writhed across the plateau as its huge mouth widened to swallow me whole. The bridge collapsed beneath a flick of its tail, and water flew as its coils hit the river. It was 20 feet from me. . . 10. . . 5. . .
I jumped toward the creature. The wyrm’s jaws snapped over empty space as I landed on its head and drove the Sundered Heart into its eye.
The wyrm let out an almighty snarl and reared its head up as it tried to throw me off. I clung tight to my sword and twisted the blade until it was firmly lodged in the creature’s skull.
The wyrm’s momentum carried us to where the waters dropped over the cliff. The world twisted around us as the wyrm lost its balance and tumbled over the edge.
The two of us fell into a watery abyss toward the city. I held on for dear life with one hand while I used the other to pour as much Vigor as I dared into the stone wall in front of us. Plank Pillars erupted in front of the tidal wyrm. The huge monster shuddered as it smashed into the wood barricades and filled its mouth with splinters. I used my free hand to twist my sword and drive it deeper into the wyrm’s skull.
We crashed into a pool at the bottom of the waterfall in a misty explosion that almost tore away my grip on the Sundered Heart. The cold water on my skin and the lack of air were a shock to my already-strained body, but I clung on tight as the wyrm slammed into the bottom of the lake and struggled to swim back up. I emerged through the surface of the water and gasped for air as the tidal wyrm continued to thrash beneath me.
I called on the power of wood, swung to the other side of the wyrm’s head, and gave the beast’s uninjured eye a handful of Stinging Palm thorns. My arms burned as the monster beneath me screeched, twisted, and almost threw me straight from its back. The huge serpent’s movements slowed as I twisted my sword ever deeper into its skull.
I needed to finish this. I hauled myself to the snout of the wyrm and used my free hand to pull the lures from my belt. I smashed them against the Sundered Heart, broke open the cage, and thrust the glowing orbs into the wyrm’s splinter-filled mouth. I wasn’t exactly sure what they’d do, but the wyrm bit down on them, and a nova of blue light exploded from between its teeth.
The wyrm recoiled and swam toward the bank with incredible speed. I clung onto my sword as it reached the edge of the pool and wriggled out. Its huge form gasped and groaned around its mouthful of blood and shattered planks.
“What the fuck will it take to kill you?” I asked. Pieces of its skull had been blown apart in the explosion, and its scales hung limply from its battered head.
I jammed my feet against the wyrm’s lower jaw and shoved its huge mouth wide open. Blisters had already formed on the roof of its mouth, and parts of its brain were visible through the shattered bone.
The stupidest idea I’d ever had formed in my mind, and I was too low on Vigor and time to think of another one. I removed the Sundered Heart from its eye and swung into its gaping mouth. I landed on its tongue and steadied my balance. The interior of the wyrm was even more unpleasant than the exterior. It had the stink of a saltwater marsh combined with the distinct aromas of rotting fish and old blood.
As the wyrm’s jaws started to close, I thrust the Sundered Heart through the roof of its mouth. The blade slipped through a crack in its bone and skewered its brain.
The wyrm’s jaws continued to close down on me, but its movement only pushed my sword further into its skull. I grimaced and summoned more Plank Pillars with the last of my Vigor. I built up the wooden walls so that the monster wouldn’t be able to crush me in its jaws. Standing on its tongue felt like surfing a massive wave, but I couldn’t move or stumble; if I did, I’d be impaled on its sword-like teeth.
The monster clamped down even harder, and my Plank Pillars were crushed to dust. I released the Sundered Heart and dived so that I was stomach-down on the wyrm’s tongue. Its jaws closed completely, and I figured I was one big swallow away from being inside its stomach. Instead, the monster gave a final twitch before it spewed out a torrent of water. I was thrown from the beast’s mouth like a chunky bit of food in projectile vomit. I landed on the dry bank, and the Sundered Heart slammed point-first into the ground beside me.
I groaned as I lifted myself to my feet. I reached for the Sundered Heart and pulled it out of the ground. When I turned to face the wyrm, it crashed into the pool. A giant wave of water rolled over me, but I stood my ground. When the water cleared, the wyrm was floating in the pool, lifeless.
“You did it!” Vesma yelled from atop the waterfall.
“Effi
n is the man!” Kegohr roared. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Not yet,” I said with a grimace. “There’s something I need to do first.”
I prepared myself for yet another venture inside the giant snake as I waded through the shallows. The wyrm’s slack jaws were wide open, and I crawled inside. I forced myself down the wide throat and used both my physical senses and my Augmenting channels to detect a sign of my prize.
Fortunately, the core wasn’t too deep inside the wyrm. After a few minutes of exploration, I found a soft fleshy area not far down its body. I dug into it with the help of my dagger and discovered the solid, familiar presence of the core. I dragged it out in a gushing river of blood and ichor.
I emerged from the monster’s maw and blinked at the daylight to find that Kegohr and Vesma had made it down to the ground. They laughed as I crawled out of the wyrm, and Kegohr gave me a huge slap on the back as I held up the monster’s core.
“That was insane,” Vesma said as she shook her head. “How did you survive that?”
“I had to. Simple as that.” I placed the core in my pouch. “We should find the king and tell him what happened.”
Vesma frowned. “Maybe learning that his daughter was kidnapped by a guild member will wake him from his stupor.”
“Doubt it,” Kegohr said. “What’s that?”
I turned to where Kegohr was pointing and saw a procession coming toward us. A pair of palace guards with long, curved swords led the way. Behind them, eight muscular servants carried a palanquin on which King Beqai sat. A ceremonial scepter laid across the king’s knees. Labu and his companions brought up the rear. A cluster of guards, scribes, and other palace officials lingered behind the prince and stared at me.
The palanquin came to a halt in front of me, and the bearers set it down. Beqai looked around with his familiar air of distant tranquility. None of the carnage around us seemed to bother him. The ruins of the temple, the dead tidal wyrm at the edge of the pool, the toppled statues, and the gore that soaked my side? The old squid-man didn’t even blink.
“Your Majesty.” I stood and bowed. Vesma and Kegohr followed suit.
King Beqai nodded, and his seaweed hair rustled across his chest and shoulders. He peered at the wyrm’s corpse, and his mouth twitched on one side for a moment. A jolt of anticipation raced through me. Had he finally woken from his slumber?
“Where is my daughter?” he asked.
I clenched my fist at the thought of Cadrin and how he’d taken Kumi. We needed to go after him. Now.
“She was taken,” I said. “Kidnapped by Cadrin of the Resplendent Tears Guild. We would have gone after them, but he used a lure to draw the tidal wyrm and cover his escape.”
Beqai’s tentacles flared out around him. He gripped the arms of his seat as he leaned forward. Thunderous waves of fury rippled through his whole body.
Then he stopped, leaned back with closed eyes, and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, his serenity had returned.
“I am sure that all will be well,” he said.
I stared at him. Beqai lived in willful ignorance and refused to let the chaos and the violence of the world intrude upon the reality of peace and meditation he desired. Some of the courtiers around him shifted uncomfortably or gazed at their own feet, but none showed any sign of speaking up.
“Your Majesty, your daughter is gone,” I said. Then I remembered another important detail of our trip. “The Depthless Dream has been taken as well. Cadrin and his people stole it and turned the temple into a trap for us.”
“Blasphemy,” Beqai whispered.
Anger flooded me. “And a number of the temple guards locked us inside the inner shrine.”
“It cannot be. My people are loyal to me.”
I found it hard to believe that a populace would be loyal to a king who so clearly shirked his duties to them.
“Your Majesty, we can’t allow them to get away with this.”
But the king’s meditative state washed over his features once again. “I was like you once,” he said with a vacant stare. “A young warrior, bold and eager, constantly looking for opportunities to prove myself. When one’s blood flows with the tide of youth, it brings a deep current of certainty, a conviction that what you believe is absolute truth. But I have seen the truth of battle, and it is a place of chaos. It is easy to confuse the patterns seen in those crashing waves.”
“I’m not confused,” I snapped. “I saw it with my own two eyes—Cadrin holding a trident and dragging Kumi away. The others saw it, too. And if the Depthless Dream is as important as you say, then that’s probably the one Cadrin had to your daughter’s throat.”
I’d assumed that this would draw some sort of response from the king. I’d hoped for fury at Cadrin and a change of views. Or, at least, for the old king to wake the fuck up. Instead, he remained still and just smiled at me from the comfort of his throne.
“We have to rescue Kumi,” I said. “No one kidnaps a princess with good intentions.”
“Let us not scour the mud flats before the tide has passed.”
“What?”
Labu stepped forward to take a place by Beqai’s side. “My father means that we should not act until we can see what is happening. As anyone familiar with this region and its way of life would know.”
Fury at the impotence of these royals washed away the aches of my fight with the wyrm. Kumi’s own father and brother didn’t seem to care as much about her safety as I did. Labu even preferred point-scoring against me to looking to the safety of his own flesh and blood.
“We’ve got to do something.” I watched Labu, his face expressionless. He’d seemed smitten by Cadrin, willing to do anything to win the other man’s favor. Could he have had some hand in the disaster that had come to Qihin City? I couldn’t exactly accuse him without proof, but someone had ordered the temple guards to lock us inside the shrine. And an order from a prince would be obeyed.
I banked the thought for later as the king shifted a little on his throne. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to know that he would, at least, do something about his daughter and the stolen trident.
“And we will act,” Beqai replied. “I will send Labu to the Resplendent Tears guild house to see whether Kumi is there and ensure that she is safe.”
“She won’t be in any danger,” Labu said. “Even if she has been taken against her will.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked. It seemed odd that Labu would be so confident about how the guild might treat his sister, and it further confirmed my suspicions.
“Taking Kumi is a bold move for the guild,” he said. “But I believe Cadrin is solely responsible for capturing her.”
“And the trident?” I asked.
“Horix might have desired it,” Labu admitted. “He has always had his eyes on the spirit.”
“What spirit?” I asked.
“The Depthless Dream is bound to the dragon spirit, Yono, whose existence you have clearly missed despite fighting your way through her temple. Yono is an ancient protector of our clan and a powerful source of water magic. That’s a power that Horix might want to tap into—if he really is behind any of this.” Labu snorted a little, as though such an accusation was baseless.
I had seen only a fraction of what the Sundered Heart made available, and the thought of such power in the wrong hands was chilling.
“The guild is a source of strength and guidance,” Labu continued. “They provide us with the power and the skills we need. They are our allies, not our enemies.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Vesma demanded. “They kidnapped your sister!”
“You do not speak here,” Labu snarled and turned back to me.
I slapped the side of the tidal wyrm. The courtiers recoiled at the sharp sound of flesh against scales and stared up into its black and bleeding eye. “Because this looks like a declaration of war to me.”
“Enough,” Beqai said, holding up his hand. “Your concern does you honor, E
than Murphy lo Pashat, but squabbling here does not. If you are so intent on action, then you and your companions can go with Labu to the guild house.”
Labu glared at his father but didn’t object. “We can travel to the guild house tomorrow morning. Once some order has been asserted here.”
“No,” I said. “We go now. If Kumi is in danger, we shouldn’t delay. If, by some miracle, she’s not, then quick action does no harm.”
Labu looked from me to his father and back again as he weighed his options. His face seethed with resentment when he looked my way, and with barely less resentment when he looked at Beqai. I felt sure that he was going to protest. A battle of torn loyalty warred in his eyes.
“You speak the truth,” he said finally. “Follow me, outsiders.”
He strode off through the city without a second word. Vesma, Kegohr, and I hurried after him. I wiped my weapons clean on a corner of my clothes and sheathed them as we went. My robes were already bloodstained all down one side, so there was nothing to lose. I’d learned a long time ago that not maintaining your weapons could get you killed.
We strode through a city devastated by the attack. The bodies of monsters lay on street corners and in the shallows of streams. Blood coursed into the water and toward the sea as the locals dragged them off the streets. Other bodies were laid respectfully out in front of houses with sheets thrown across their faces. If the whole guild had been behind the attack—and I was just about damn convinced that they were—then they were going to pay for it. And Cadrin was at the top of my list.
We reached the docks, and Labu let out a shrill, warbling whistle. Something stirred on the waters, and a boat drifted in. It was a small junk, painted green and without sails or crew. Labu whistled again, and it stopped at the quay in front of him. He leaped on board and immediately turned to glare impatiently at us.
“Hurry on, outsiders,” he spat.
We climbed down into the boat, and it rocked alarmingly beneath the weight of Kegohr. Labu whistled a different tune, placed his hand on the seahorse carving at its rear, and the boat pulled out into the delta.
