by LJ Davies
"What…?" I whispered, the word scratching at my throat. "What do you want me to do?"
His ghostly image pulled back and the glow of his staff appeared before me. The purple flame grew brighter, so bright it seemed to pierce my tormented mind, leaving me without pain or fear. That final memory closed in a flash and a swift blow of crushing darkness.
*
The harshness of my head hitting the floor shook me from unconsciousness. As my blurred vision returned, I observed the snow settling into small white banks against the walls of what I began to recognise as a cell. My full alertness snapped back when a flurry of freezing air blew across my face, followed by a thud as something landed beside me. Swaying like a new-born fawn I stood, only to fall over my tail, and be met by the sound of a door slamming. Sitting up, my wings ruffling awkwardly to balance me, I looked to see who'd been thrown into the icy dungeon alongside me.
Risha sat up, frantically surveying her new surroundings. The moment I realized it was her, my eyes fell to the floor as I attempted to block out the world.
I can't face her, not after what I just did. Her calls to stop echoed through my memory. Did I just condemn the world to death?
I wanted to close my eyes tight, to vanish. My trembling forelegs fell out from under me, I just wanted to melt into the ground and disappear.
What happened, why are we here? Are we still alive? I felt a soft nudge against my side.
"Blaze? Blaze?" Risha repeated, her voice trembling as she nuzzled me. "Get up."
It's really her, she's here? The stark realisation only served to make me more afraid of facing her. Still, at least she's alive.
Although I could neither hear nor see Boltock or Ember, it was a small relief she was still with me. The realisation broke my mind free from the shackles of despair and the sudden comprehension of our situation allowed the truth of what had transpired to return.
My mind reanimated into a weak grinding action; every thought crunching against the next like rough stones. Still too weak to support me, my unstable paws slipped away. Risha’s wing caught me, steadying my fall as she leaned against my side.
"Blaze! By the creators, are you okay? I saw them take that thing, that... that sphere, and, and…" she continued frantically.
Her jumbled words were a chilling reminder that she had no idea what Acrodan had done, what I'd done! She had no idea what I'd just sacrificed for them.
Is she going to think it's worth it? Her life for just a few days more, before Acrodan's master destroys us all anyway?
I could see the horror in her eyes, but I'd no idea what to say. I couldn't just tell her that the world we knew was doomed, that I'd chosen her life and those of the others over everyone and everything. I doubted even Acrodan knew what he was doing. After all, he seemed to be no more than a shell.
Did I even talk to the true necromancer that schemed and plotted all those centuries ago?
I was kidding myself if I thought I could do this; the essence of whatever power lay within the sphere had escaped long ago through those who swore to protect it. It was patient, smart, powerful and cunning beyond all comprehension; who was I to oppose it?
In the end, all I could say was the one thing she'd asked me so many times.
"Are you okay?"
For a moment she gave no response.
"I am now," she murmured, her eyes closing tight, her mind seemingly resting on something she was unable to conceal. "But that…" Her words were broken as she sniffed. "That... thing, that sphere, I only got a glimpse of it, but it felt like forever. It showed me things, terrible things: fire, death, destruction, darkness!"
Her frantic words escaped as an uncontrollable torrent, her voice trembling with terror.
"Risha!" I shouted, shaking her free from her panic and draping a wing over her before she collapsed.
She must have looked into the sphere from the balcony. I concluded, anger swelling at what it may have shown her. I should never have let it come to that!
"They were lies, an illusion, I saw it too – they aren't real."
My attempts to comfort her were just as futile as hers had been weeks ago. A thin layer of water filled her eyes and she stared at me like I wasn’t real.
For the first time I could remember, even a smile failed to form on her trembling muzzle, and without a word she drove her weeping head against my chest. I froze as my thoughts exploded with a conflicting storm of emotions, paralysing me from wing tip to wing tip.
The depths of my consciousness became distorted, the feelings flooding in to replace my woes completely alien to me. I'd never cared for another so much. Only my loyalty to Tarwin came close. I'd seen people this upset before, but never one of my own kind, especially not Risha. In the brief time I'd known her I came to believe she was the best of us, the one to look up to. Her fall was unexpected, and now she looked to me for comfort just as I did her.
What would she say in a situation like this? What would she tell me if I lost hope? The memories of such occasions gathered as I kept my wing over her back.
"Risha, it's going to be fine. What you saw, it’s not real, it’s all lies – we can still beat it," I said as tenderly as I could manage, trying to mimic her soft tone.
I was sure my efforts wouldn’t be as influential as hers, but as the calming words escaped my mouth, her head rose back to meet mine. Her waterlogged eyes cleared, the stream of tears slowing.
"Sorry," she whimpered softly, coughing slightly as her eyes and throat cleared.
How can she still believe she needs to apologise?
"It’s... it’s just that I never thought anything like this could happen," she admitted, wiping her eyes with a wing.
I really couldn't think of a way to explain it. I also wondered what the foul sphere had revealed to her.
Did she see her family? Her brother if he'd died in Storm Peak? Something happening to Dardien?
"You don't need to be sorry. I... I never wanted any of this either," I admitted, before my brow furrowed.
I have to fix this; I have to stop Acrodan.
I glanced around the chamber, and the reality of our predicament became clear. We were imprisoned in a small rectangular cell. Three walls made from the same ice as the fortress. Reaching from ceiling to floor, several equidistant bars of ice ran parallel to each other, filling the gap where the fourth wall would have been.
'Slam!'
The sound of another rapidly closing door echoed through the hallway outside the cell. My eyes shot to the source, immediately pinpointing Boltock and Ember. The relief to see they were also still alive was incredible, only tempered by the fact that they too were locked in the confines of another cell. A pair of skeleton guards trudged back down the corridor, muttering in their grisly voices.
For a moment I hoped that the chattering corpses might provide some insight as to how I could engineer a quick escape, if escape was even worth it. Except their strange language was just as alien to me as their animated bodies. Then something other than the guards captured my attention. I felt Risha slowly slip away from beneath my wing, pressing herself up against the bars and focusing on her brother.
"Are you hurt?" she asked as she poked her snout through.
"I don’t think so," Ember replied, checking herself for injury, while Boltock head-butted the bars.
His efforts were in vain, the ice didn’t even chip. Instead it rattled, reverberating like the strings of some icy instrument. He tried a few times more, before swaying back to be caught by Ember, while Risha persuaded him to put an end to his ineffective attempts.
Acrodan's got to have locked us up for a reason? I concluded, noting he'd even left me with my amulet. There must be a way out.
The sound of a faint whimper calling my name distracted me from the commotion. I glanced at Risha, but realising it wasn't her, I looked towards the back of the cell. My eyes shot open; I knew that voice better than any other. My body surged with adrenaline, a small spark of hope instantly blossoming i
nto a roaring fire when I realised, to my delight, that it was Tarwin. She was curled up in the corner of the chamber, unravelling from a cocoon of thick brown furs.
"It... it is you. You’re here... you're really here," she murmured in disbelief. "You came, for me," she added, wrapping her arms and woolly fleece around me.
"Yes, of course I..."
She looked at me without responding. All my life I'd been happy with the bond between us, and now the realisation that she couldn't understand me hit hard. The conversations with my new friends, the time I'd spent away from her had changed me more than I realised.
When she finally released me from her grip, I hid my disappointment, avoiding her eyes like a timid puppy.
"You're the best friend I could ask for," she gushed.
She looked to be okay, with the only notable injury being a scabbed wound above her eye. Another thing that concerned me was the blow she had taken to the back of her head when the wyvern's wing had struck her. Thankfully, her speech and movements seemed to be limited by the cold more so than any injury.
Even so, with my eyes averted, I glanced back towards Risha. What is she going to think or do at the sight of a human?
I made no attempt to hide Tarwin from her, expecting the worst.
The dragoness slipped away from the bars, standing motionless in the centre of the cell, her wide eyes free of tears. I gave no verbal response, just a smile. She'd been the only one who'd known what Tarwin was from the start. I knew deep down she had every right to despise the ones who ruined her life so long ago and my heart began to race more than it had in Acrodan's presence.
"So, this is the human?" she eventually asked.
She walked cautiously to my side, looking at Tarwin and waiting for some sort of response. I realised from her words that she'd probably never seen a human up close, I also expected she knew nothing of the language barriers. Tarwin gave no response, though the amazement covering her face was clear to see.
A second reminder of the inevitable force of change hit me. Despite what any of the old stories told, for all my life with Tarwin we'd lived believing that I was the only one of my kind. Tarwin shook her head, rubbing her eyes before realising that her vision wasn't fooling her.
"There's... there are more of you!" she exclaimed, barely able to speak. "So, the legends are true? Blaze! You're not the only one!"
Her eager attention returned to Risha, who shuddered at being subjected to a human's stare. Tarwin’s gaze hung on the blue dragoness for a moment, her perplexed face contorting.
"I knew you couldn't be the last," she said softly.
Risha flinched, instantly glancing to me for reassurance. The smile I gave in return felt far more like those she'd offered me for the past few weeks. Meanwhile, Tarwin continued babbling about how no one would believe this, oblivious to the past experiences of the creature standing before her. Risha simply seemed proud to face her fears, breathing slowly and confidently.
"She talks a lot, doesn't she?" she observed.
"Oh, you have no idea," I retorted with a roll of my eyes.
She giggled, before rushing off to the bars. I watched as she peered out to the opposite cell, where Ember was assaulting the ice prison with flames, confirming that neither force nor fire could break open the frozen doors.
"Fire and flames, what in the creators’ name is this stuff!?" The fiery dragoness cursed.
Risha’s gaze wasn't claimed by Ember's attempts to escape, but by her brother. Surprisingly, he wasn't helping his fiery companion. His head hung low, his disapproving eyes peering out towards his sister like a scowling hound. It was then that the full gravity of the situation hit me.
I've managed to persuade Risha, albeit I think she's open-minded enough to do it on her own, but what of Boltock?
The sight of him filled me with dread and guilt. After all he'd been through, all that had been stolen from him, he’d every right to view Tarwin with disdain.
"A human?" he muttered, straightening himself up and shifting his good wing.
Risha's confidence waned and her head drooped. His eyes seared like hot beams and even I had to turn away from their disapproving glare. In all that was going on I'd hardly considered that he didn’t know anything about Tarwin.
"Do you...?" He shuddered, clearly hurt.
I ducked further from his sight, draping my wing in front of my head and backing away towards Tarwin.
"Do you remember what they did?" he barked; his fury-filled eyes fixed on his sister. "Do you remember what they did to us?"
Risha's head remained bowed, her eyes closed tight. I peeked over my wing at her, ironically thankful for Acrodan's bars between Tarwin and Boltock.
Who would I fight to protect her? Would I really do it?
Risha trembled like a branch in a storm. Yet after a few moments, she took a deep breath and rose up.
"Boltock, what’s happened to you? Are you that bitter?" she asked.
Her words instantly chipped away at his anger, her raised tone countering his words. I'd seen Boltock persuade his sister otherwise a few times, but this time he seemed to know he was defeated from the start.
"Yes, of course I remember, but this isn't them." She jabbed a wing back at Tarwin.
"You know all dragons aren't the same, is it really so hard to believe the same for them? This is an innocent young girl, she... she didn't do anything to you."
Boltock and now Ember froze in shock.
I felt their anguish. Risha was siding with a human, against her own brother. The sheer astonishment doused his anger, leaving him completely lost for words.
"Look at yourself, is this really what they would want?" she continued, provoking more shock amongst us all, except for Tarwin, to whom this must have sounded very strange.
"Haven't you seen what's happening? That litch is the real enemy, not anyone here," she concluded.
Risha almost collapsed, as her brother dropped to the floor in a huddle of scales. I trusted she knew what she was doing, though to see them driven so far apart because of my relationship with a human, was crippling. Boltock slowly turned away, rejecting any attempts of comfort from Ember. Deep down, as much as he might disagree, he must have known she was right. There were far greater threats mounting against us, a reminder made all too clear when the room shook violently. Shards of ice and white dust fell from the roof as the structure groaned painfully.
Risha met my eyes; we both knew where the tremors were coming from. Boltock, who sat defeated in the corner of his cell, was the only one who didn't seem to care. He was so caught up in what he'd just endured that he almost seemed to forget the world, when, without warning, he unleashed his torment in a burst of anger by lashing out at the frozen bars with his horns. Risha jumped back like she'd been bitten; watching him strike the bars again and again, until he inevitably slumped back down to the floor.
"We have to get out of here," she whispered.
I nodded. She was looking to me now, I had to be the leader they all needed.
My eyes scanned the bars. Their material seemed to be the same as the walls, coated in a thin layer of frosty crystals. It didn't look strong, yet the use of force had no effect. I raised a paw, gently rubbing its cold surface, the frail crystals melting into a cold dew on my claws. Next, I rammed the bars hard with my horns, in the same way Boltock had done, hoping my superior strength may prove strong enough to break through. Inevitably, the force of the blow only rattled the bars into a vibrating frenzy, shaking the frost free.
Staggering back, my head pounded with painful echoes as the ice settled.
"Blaze!" I heard two panicked voices cry in union.
In my daze I stumbled round to see both Risha and Tarwin. The moment the dragoness realised her concern wasn't alone, she glanced at Tarwin in astonishment, though the human showed no sign of hearing her cry.
"It's no use, I've already tried, it's too hard," Tarwin offered. "They've had me in here for weeks. I’d be dead, but they gave me food, water,
and this," she added, ruffling frost from her thick fur coat.
"Apparently I'm worth something alive."
It wasn’t difficult to figure out why she was still alive or, in fact, why any of us had been spared. I could only assume we were beyond Acrodan's right to destroy. His master seemed to desire my personal demise, while the others were still ransom to keep me under control.
"She's right," Risha added, "That's blizarium. Not even fire can get through it," she continued, glancing at Ember, who huffed a breath of smoke.
Tarwin paced between the walls at the back of the cell, kicking up the icy dust at the edge of the room without a clue about our conversation. Risha had told me blizarium was almost unbreakable.
Almost!
No known force or material can easily break it, not fire, water or earth.
There was nothing to say something unknown couldn't smash it. For a moment I realised how ridiculous it sounded.
Surely Acrodan's not that stupid?
Although his arrogance was great, the chances of him underestimating me were low.
"Can you do anything to it?" I asked Risha, but she appeared unsure.
"Hardly, I only ever learned a few things about the craft, not enough to influence this much," she admitted.
"Okay, but... At least weaken it, if your kind used to forge it, surely they'd have to make it more malleable," I reasoned, and she paused.
"I... Maybe, I could try, but something strong would still have to break it," she responded, and at the expression, she seemed to understand, then smiled.
I nodded, before sticking my snout between the bars. I knew the guards must be close by, but I couldn't see or hear them. I was sure I could deal with them as effortlessly as I'd done before, I was willing to take that chance, even if they decided to use their blizarium blades. Tarwin was still pacing behind us, muttering quietly to herself while I took two steps and glanced over to Risha.
"Okay, do what you can."
Risha responded instantly, elemental markings lighting as the bars began to vibrate, buzzing as if singing a symphony.
"Step back!" I ordered.
Collecting my thoughts, I closed my eyes and emptied my mind. Power welled up inside me, no longer spewing out in an uncontrolled rage as my glowing amulet flickered.
