Dragon Forged, page 24
part #1 of Blood of the Ancients Series
“You didn’t destroy him?” Serena asked.
“He is a dragon heart.” Griffin looked at the doorway. “You found it.”
“This is what the book claimed was here, but I don’t know what else we might find. Let’s get moving,” she said, and motioned for Rob.
He looked into the darkened doorway. “We need light,” he said.
“I can help with that,” she said.
She took a deep breath and her entire body glowed more brightly. It had an orange, almost yellowish hue to it, and it radiated beyond her clothing, carrying with it a hint of warmth and a bit of power. Surprisingly, given the cold that still burned in Rob’s belly, it was not unpleasant. He wasn’t sure if it would’ve bothered him without the cold, but the warmth carried some aspect of power to him.
She started forward.
There was supposed to be a weapon in there. If they could find it, maybe it would be enough to defeat Vasin.
The air was stale.
Serena’s glowing body illuminated the inside of what looked to be a large cavern. The walls were curved, reaching to a point overhead. All along the walls were symbols and markings, but not score marks like he had seen outside the cavern. They were something else. Rob turned, frowning to himself.
“Why would there have been claw marks outside this room and outside in the valley?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Rob looked around. Everything had a strange layer of dust over it, and other than the symbols, he saw a chest near one wall, a shelf near another, and a trunk. There was nothing else.
Serena headed over to the chest. She started pulling it open, but the wood crumbled, collapsing into nothingness. She stepped back and held her hands out, the light within her flickering for a moment before fading.
“I don’t think that’s your fault,” Griffin said. “This place is old. I don’t know how old, but it gives off the sense of an impossible age.”
“It’s supposed to be here,” she said.
“But maybe it’s not,” he said. He looked around and turned his attention to the shelf. “There’s nothing on the shelf, and the only other place is that,” he said, motioning to the trunk.
“Can you open it?” Serena asked Rob. “You had to open the door.”
He crouched down in front of the trunk, the sprite alongside him. Rob held out his hand, tracing along the trunk and wiping a layer of dust free. He detected something in it. Maybe it was energy.
It was possible the weapon was there. Something as powerful as it seemed, and having to be hidden away, would have to be dangerous.
“What will it be?”
“A dragon killer,” Serena whispered.
A dragon killer. That would be enough to stop Vasin.
And then Serena could take it back to her mother and they could protect their kingdom, however she thought was necessary.
Rob took a deep breath, and the sprite touched his leg. When he touched the trunk, lifting the lid, it crumbled.
There was nothing inside.
He looked up at Serena. Her face fell.
“This was supposed to be the place. This was supposed to be where we would find it. This was supposed to be—”
“Where is it?” Vasin called from the darkness.
Rob stumbled back and found the sprite shivering. She stretched an arrow from her hands and he grabbed it, freezing and nocking it. He didn’t know how many shots he might have, and he would have to surprise Vasin before he attacked.
The other man’s darkened form loomed in the doorway, ground thundering beneath him.
As soon as he appeared, Rob released the icy arrow. It streaked toward him.
Vasin didn’t even bother to do anything. It struck his chest, crackled, and fell into mist.
He looked at Rob. “Perhaps not so helpless as I believed.”
Rob tried to grab another arrow, but the ground trembled and he couldn’t move.
Vasin stepped into the room. Between Serena, Griffin, and Vasin, power exploded.
Serena looped bands of golden flaming rope around Vasin and jerked on it. Nothing changed. He stood motionless, the stone holding him. Griffin used exploding wind power, a fiery blast that streaked away from him. Vasin deflected.
Another shape appeared in the doorway. It wasn’t one of the demarl.
Rob was thankful for that. He didn’t know if the demarl could swim, but he knew if one of them would make it there, they would struggle.
Instead, it was another of the dragon skin warriors.
Their attention was on Griffin and Serena.
Rob glanced at the sprite, who formed an arrow for him. He hurriedly grabbed it, ice forming along its surface, and he drew and fired. It streaked at the man before striking him in the eye. He crumpled.
Rob looked down at the sprite, who readied another arrow.
Another dragon skin warrior appeared in the doorway. Rob fired. The arrow flew straight.
One after another, dragon skin warriors appeared in the doorway. Each one fell under Rob’s arrows, blocking the door to the point where no others could enter.
Griffin and Serena still battled with Vasin.
Griffin and Vasin were both supposedly dragon heart, so they should be evenly matched, with Serena giving them the upper hand, but somehow Vasin withstood every attack. He was too powerful, and they needed the weapon.
Serena had believed it was in the chamber. The dragon killer.
Rob studied the symbols written along the wall, but there was nothing he could make sense of.
Finally, Vasin roared and brought his fist down. The ground trembled beneath him, quaking, and it then looped up, swirling around both Serena and Griffin, collapsing around their legs.
Serena tried to send power out, but whatever stone magic Vasin commanded was too much for her. Griffin tried the same thing, trying to use his power, attempting to send it lashing outward, but that didn’t work.
Vasin stepped into the middle of the room. The ground trembled, and it prevented anyone other than Vasin from moving.
“Where is the weapon?”
Serena looked up at him, defiance in her eyes.
“It is here, isn’t it? This is why you came to this place. And you must’ve thought I can’t swim?” He laughed. “It’s not a matter of swimming so much as it is a matter of controlling the stone.”
Rob wondered what he meant by that, but suspected he must’ve used some control over the stone to open it up and allow him access to the cavern.
Rob couldn’t move. He didn’t have any arrows, but even if he did, they didn’t work on Vasin. He didn’t have enough power to overwhelm the other man. He would be one more victim of Vasin’s attempt to attack the kingdom.
Vasin turned his attention to Serena. “Where is this dragon killer?”
“I don’t know,” she finally snapped. “It was supposed to be here, but there’s nothing here.”
He cocked his head and looked around the inside of the room, laughing at himself. “You made me chase you all this way for nothing?”
He continued laughing, his voice carrying, and there was an edge within it, something that made Rob want nothing more than to fire an arrow into his throat. There was an edge of rage in it.
“I suppose it was worth it, though. Had I not chased you the way I did, I wouldn’t have found my own stores of essence. Thankfully, I can now build my army. Your mother will not be able to stand before me without bowing.” He laughed, and the stone around him quaked. “And to think she dismissed the stone essence.”
“She didn’t dismiss it,” Serena said.
“The Dragon Queen does not believe the stone sect is worth her time. She believes it’s useless, at the edge of the valley. She will see otherwise. I don’t even need the dragon killer to overwhelm your mother now. I have more than enough. I will have more than enough. And soon…”
He stepped around and stood in front of Griffin. The stone coalesced around him, building upward. It rose around Griffin’s legs, rising into a cage that held him.
“Do you see what happens when you evolve? Eventually, you gain a true understanding. Much like I gained a true understanding. But then, you will never learn, will you, Griffin?”
Griffin glowered at him. “When the stone collapses—”
“You will be dead,” Vasin said. “The stone will collapse otherwise. And you might think you can wait until I fade, but you will wait until you die,” he said, laughing again. Vasin turned to Rob. “And you. I suppose I should have you to thank for finding me the essence, but we will make do with your death.” He started laughing. “And to think that there was a dragon killer in here? A place like this could kill no dragon. Certainly no stone dragon, which is what it must’ve been. Look at the walls. The stone dragon probably tore its way in here.”
Rob frowned. That was it.
He’d been trying to figure out what made the score marks on the walls. Why the score marks had been in the valley. There was something here. There had to be a dragon killer.
But how?
He looked around the room. There was nothing other than the faded and failing furniture. No weapon. Nothing other than the markings on the walls.
He glanced at the sprite. She stayed behind him and was quiet, but he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe she could help him now. “Is that it?” he whispered.
Vasin’s attention was focused on Griffin and Serena, and he was still taunting them.
The spite looked at him, and for a moment, there was an expression in her eyes, like she was trying to get his attention, trying to tell him something, but then it faded.
She didn’t know.
A dragon killer.
He thought about what he’d seen on the symbols on the dragon wand, and the same symbols on the dragon tears. That had to be significant, didn’t it?
They were symbols Serena used, symbols that helped her create items were like what she claimed the ancient artifacts were like. But he had to have some answer.
The sprite touched him, and though there was a wave of energy through her, it wasn’t enough. She was not as strong as she had been before. She might not even be strong enough to form another arrow. Perhaps she had been using too much strength creating arrows or even if she had been responsible for his dragon forged body.
He looked over at the symbols on the wall. Somehow, that was it, wasn’t it?
But he was trapped. For the moment.
His father told him about dragon forging. How it caused the dragon forged to expand.
He had to use that. It was coiled within him. He could use that, and though it was bundled deep within him, he wondered if he might be able to push outward, letting that power expand.
Vasin turned toward him.
Rob focused on the cold within him, tried to bulge it outward, flexing it against the stone.
Something cracked. He flexed again.
This time, he squeezed as hard as he could, pushing against that cold buried within him.
The stone holding him in place shattered. Rob leaped forward.
Stone moved again, trembling, trying to surround him, but Rob knew he needed to get to the wall.
As he raced ahead, something tripped him. He rolled and the sprite was there, touching him.
He tried getting to the wall, but stone surrounded his leg while Vasin came toward him. He could feel the stone and could feel the pain constricting him.
The sprite stretched out her hand and they connected.
“Touch the wall,” he said. “Activate it.”
The sprite stretched her hand out and touched one of the symbols, and everything glowed.
It started slowly, but then it built. The glowing worked around each of the walls before bouncing from wall to wall in a regular pattern. It was almost as if the sprite touching the wall had activated some ancient machine.
The dragon killer.
With that thought, Rob knew they could not be in there when it fired. He had to get out.
He was trapped, though. Vasin wrapped his power around Rob’s legs and prevented him from moving.
Rob focused on the cold within him and flexed outward. As before, he bulged, and then there was a surge. The stone shattered. He was free.
He ran, staggering toward the stone that surrounded Griffin. Rob slammed into it, shattering it, and spun, grabbing for Serena and pulling her. She was still locked into the stone.
Behind him, Vasin laughed.
“Do you really think that you can run?”
Griffin looked over at Rob, who shook his head, flicking his gaze past him. “We can’t be here when it fires,” he said. “If it is what she says it is…”
Griffin looked up. His eyes widened.
Rob yanked on Serena. The light glowing near the ceiling flickered again.
The sprite touched him and cold surged.
It flowed out of Rob and into the stone around Serena.
And he pulled, shattering the stone, freeing her, and they staggered back.
They reached the door. It was Griffin who used a surge of wind-fueled fire that exploded forward, creating an opening in the bodies.
The light inside the chamber glowed even more brightly.
“Close the door,” Rob said.
“We had better hope this works,” Griffin said.
“Close it!”
Griffin slammed the door closed.
The ground trembled. It was building quickly, almost too quickly. The cave shook. Everything seemed to quiver. Light flashed from beneath the door. There was a howl, something awful and terrifying.
The sprite held onto him, cold waving through him.
Then it stopped. Everything went still. Griffin held his hand up to the door, and he pulled it open.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rob looked over Griffin’s shoulder, peering into the room. It was dark again and there was a strange energy within, along with an odor that drifted outward, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was. A glowing built, emanating from Griffin, and it radiated into the room brightly enough Rob could see. The room was empty. The symbols were intact, almost as if they were waiting to be activated once again, but there was no sign of anything else.
“Is he still there?” Rob asked.
“I doubt it,” Griffin said. “You activated the dragon killer.” He turned his attention to Rob. “I’m not sure you were supposed to.”
He didn’t know if it had been him or the sprite. Either way, one of them activated it. And perhaps neither of them should have been able to.
Serena pushed past and a beautiful, blinding, golden light built from her and swept through the room. The stone was completely smooth and there was no sign of Vasin. The symbols in the chamber were marked on the walls and no longer glowed the way they had before.
“It was a dragon killer,” she said. “Much like I said,” she added, looking over at Griffin.
He grunted. “I wasn’t debating it was a dragon killer,” he said. “Only that we shouldn’t look for it.”
“Perhaps,” she said and swept her gaze around the inside of the chamber. “I had seen the symbols before.” She closed her eyes. “They were in the book. I didn’t realize what they were, but…” She opened her eyes and looked over at Griffin. “They were here all along.”
“So this is the dragon killer,” Rob said.
She nodded. “The ancients knew considerable power and control. We have always known the ancients had a better understanding about storing dragon energy. It’s how I learned to make the dragon tears and the dragon wand. There are other similar items, but nobody really tries anymore. Most people want to use their own dragon power to call upon. Few people care to use the ancient techniques. But this…” She shook her head, looking around. “Whatever they made was powerful. They knew how to create something greater than what we know. And if we can capture it, it might be enough to save the kingdom.”
“This won’t help,” Griffin said.
“But if we can understand what they did here,” she said, sounding more excited, “if I can learn the symbols, I could recreate it, and maybe we can simplify it.”
Rob looked over at her. “You would replicate this?”
“Not exactly like this. It’s too large, but we need something mobile. If we could do it the right way, we might be able to protect the kingdom.”
Griffin regarded Serena. “That will be between you and your mother. I will have nothing of it.”
“You don’t care about this?” She sounded hurt.
Griffin glowered at her. “I care,” he snapped. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have come all this way with you instead of forcing you back to the palace if I didn’t care.”
“It worked,” Serena said. “It was here.”
“It worked, but what if it wouldn’t have?” Griffin took a step toward her, and she didn’t move away. “What would have happened had you fallen here? You could’ve died, and to someone who was little more than a dragon touched before he came to these lands. What would happen to the kingdom then? What would happen to me?”
Serena looked over at him before looking down. “I’m sorry.”
Griffin took a deep breath, letting it out. “I will bring you back to your mother and that will be the end of it.”
Rob expected her to argue, to say something, but she didn’t. Instead, she nodded. They headed through the tunnel, into the water, where the sprite grabbed onto him again, and they swam, emerging on the shoreline.
He crawled out and they headed along the shoreline until they reached the campsite. When they did, Rob collected his quiver and Serena collected her book. There wasn’t anything else the others had taken from them.
“Is this all of them?” Rob asked, looking around. “Did they all die?”
“You killed them,” Griffin said. Then he softened. “You did well.”
“I don’t even understand what I did.”
“You—”
Griffin cut off as a steady growl built.
Serena reacted. She glowed, power emanating from her. As she did, Rob caught sight of the demarl. It was the last one.
Rob knew how useless the ice arrows were against it and he had only one regular arrow left. He pulled it out of his quiver, brought it to his mouth to blow on it, and readied it.
