Darkest Deception, page 15
part #4 of Rise Of The Dragons Series
I caught Dot’s eye and widened my legs into a standard security pose. She mimicked me and fingered her standard issue crossbow. The figures paused at the edge of the crowd, staring directly at us.
“Return to your celebrations please,” I used my authoritative voice, projecting it loudly over the few feet between us.
One of them smiled nastily in the pre-dawn light and lifted his hands. I clocked the floor length robes. Deep red. That was never good. Brown ropes snaked from his hands towards Dot. She disappeared into a blur, dodging them easily.
“Vampire! Watch your necks!” I heard one of the figures shout in warning.
I used the distraction to fire my crossbow at the nearest sorcerer. The sorcerer raised a magical shield to block the bolt headed for his chest. While he was focusing on magic, I ran. Shifting into my lynx form, I zigzagged around his shield and leapt. He staggered under my weight. I dug my claws in. I felt the fabric rip. He cried out. I dug deeper into his flesh. His eyes fluttered shut. Light weight. Confident he was out, I turned my attention to the other two. Dot’s speed was keeping them busy but I saw one start to murmur an incantation. That was never good. I snarled and used his friend’s body as a springboard, forcing myself off with force. The robed figure heard me coming and shifted his attention to me. I twisted in the air, dodging the bolt of magic. I felt the force of it whistle overhead. Another bolt hit my foreleg with a fiery burst. I roared in pain and anger and powered through. I landed hard on my three uninjured legs. Nearly there. I feinted right. He took the bait and fired off another blast of magic followed by more brownish ropes where he thought I was going to be. I cannoned into his legs with a snarl. I raked my claws deep into his thigh. He summoned up another spell. I clamped my teeth hard onto his hand. His cry of pain interrupted the incantation. Troll blood filled my mouth. I spat it out as best I could. Other members of the crowd were staring at us. I felt a crackle of magic from the other side of the henge.
“Solstice is sacred!” boomed a voice from the same direction. The same direction that Lorandir and Amethyst were in. I turned my head to see if my supernatural senses could pick up anything. The troll used my distraction to pull a cruel, serrated knife. I caught his movement just in time and twisted out of the way. It was a desperate stab. I leapt and my claws ripped through his shoulder. He rolled to the floor. I felt the bloodlust rise. The urge to finish him off. I fought it back. The bitter taste of troll blood was already making me gag. I didn’t want any more of that. Besides, we’d need to question them. Do things by the book. I glanced over to where Dot was leaning over her assailant. She was tying him up with his own conjured ropes. I nodded. Very neat.
He rolled suddenly and thrust upwards. A sharp knife glinted towards Dot. I bunched my muscles, grunting at the pain in my injured leg, springing forward. Green magic arced from the crowd towards us. I was forced to the ground. The robed attacker struggled against the crackling magic as it pushed his hand back to the floor. Dot was down too. What the dzrak? The magic stayed, pinning us down for a few seconds. Then it was gone. Dot recovered first and delivered a swift punch to the man on the floor, knocking him out. I got to my feet and looked around. I couldn’t see who had cast that powerful magic. Ropes snaked out of mid-air and bound the robed figures tightly. Dzraking wizards. Dzraking Stonehenge. Dzraking Solstice. I snarled in frustration at someone doing my job for me.
I padded back to the speaker and sat on my haunches, considering. Could I really hear anything underground or was it a trick of the vibrations? The single stone set in front of the standing circle of Stonehenge began to glow pinkly as it caught the light of the sunrise. Dot joined me after binding the other two with the ropes. I admired her deft fingers as they work and wondered where she had learned to tie knots like that.
Light footsteps approached. I turned. The elf, Lorandir, was racing towards us. His elven speed and soft tread meant he had nearly reached us before I’d clocked him. Amethyst, the shorter half-dwarf in need of some cardio training, was running behind him.
He stopped and began talking. Barely out of breath. Amethyst panted as she arrived alongside him, her small wyrm pet in tow, and took in the figures on the ground. I watched her turn and stare at the speaker as Lorandir was filling us in on the sounds they’d heard. She handed her wrym to her gnomish friend, Aloora. She hefted her large double-headed axe and destroyed the electronic equipment with one blow. Her technique was shoddy but effective.
“No!” Maxi cried out. He fell to his knees and cradled the broken pieces of the speaker. I knew he loved his gadgets, but this seemed excessive.
Amethyst took out some energy on the largest remaining piece of the speaker. I watched her slam the axe into the broken device again and again. I let it pass. Sometimes we all needed to let off some steam. She leant on her axe after she’d finished, panting hard at the exertion.
“What?”
I shifted back to my human form, “Right, now that Amethyst has got her anger issues out. We need to cut out the other speaker. Maxi, Dot, disconnect it.” They raced off. Dot blurred slightly as she used her vampiric speed.
“Did you make anything out while you were listening?”
“No. But you’re a shifter? How…?”
I ignored Amethyst and turned up the force of my glare. The elf replied. “It might have been words but I didn’t understand the language.”
“Aloora, you’re the language expert. Get rid of that wyrm and get your ear to the ground. Lorandir, tell her any sounds you heard.”
I felt rather than heard Madam Mim approaching with an elderly man sporting a close cut beard and a druidic robe. He carried a twisted staff in one hand like a weapon. Merlin. I nodded to them both.
“It is worse than we feared,” Madam Mim spoke grimly without preamble. “I can feel the energies shifting, we don’t have long.”
“Can you contain it?” I was blunt.
“I don’t know, but we will do our best.”
I nodded in reply and the two figures stood either side of the smaller standing stone directly aligned with the sunrise and raised their arms, gathering magic to them. I watched, narrowing my eyes.
“What’s going on? Who’s he? What are they going to do? How are you a shifter? What is happening?” Amethyst interrupted my thoughts.
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to weigh up how much to tell her. I sighed. She had as much right to know the truth as anyone. “It looks like someone’s trying to waken the dragon we think is underneath Stonehenge. Merlin and Mim are going to try to use their magic to put the dragon back to sleep. I’m a shifter in the normal way, but you can’t sense me because of this.” I pointed to my wrist and the gold band with a lynx’s head carved into it. The magical dampener that let me pass for human to those with magical senses, including the steampunk style goggles the half-dwarf favoured.
“Merlin and Mim?”
I nodded, glad we weren’t going to focus on my being a shifter. I turned my attention to the magic users, who now had green and blue light streaming from their hands as they cast their spells. Their hair and clothing whirled around them in their vortex of power. The stone circle was now empty of all bar the last stragglers, who were clamouring to get out of the area.
A magical field settled over the stone circle. It was suddenly strangely silent after the racket of the Solstice celebrations. Even the birds were quiet, their dawn chorus stopped out of respect for, or fear of, the magic expended.
I stopped tapping my foot in the silence and settled for glaring at the gnome and elf stretched out on the ground. Amethyst’s small wyrm growled on her shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at it. Aloora finally lifted herself up from the ground and walked over.
She shrugged apologetically. “I think there are words there but no one has heard Draconic spoken by dragons themselves in millennia. I’m relying on Lorandir’s interpretations of the sounds and Draconic is a contextual language…I’d only be guessing.”
“Well what’s your best guess?” I pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. I needed my employees to get answers not guesswork.
“My best guess is that it’s not good. The rumbling is getting stronger and I think it’s awake and confused.”
The wyrm was bobbing up and down now, alternately whining and blowing small flickers of flame at the henge. “Er, I think Errol agrees with your guess. He’s pretty agitated,” Amethyst chimed in.
I turned and narrowed my eyes at the wyrm. I stepped closer and held out my hand. He sniffed it but continued to look over my shoulder to where Mim and Merlin were standing.
Dot materialised at my side in a blur of speed. “Speaker destroyed.” I nodded. I could trust her to handle things.
Errol let out an anguished roar. Amethyst swore and I resisted clutching my own sensitive ears. The ground shook. I planted my feet widely, trusting my reflexes to keep me standing. The half-dwarf looked like she was having trouble keeping her footing.
Mim and Merlin swayed slightly, still pouring magic into the stone circle. The shaking stopped. Then the ground reverberated forcefully. The two magic users staggered backwards as they were forced out of the circle.
Amethyst ran over to help them get clear of the stones, I was close behind her.
“We can’t hold it,” Mim breathed.
The stones began to tremble, the magic field dissipating as the force from beneath the ground increased. The monoliths quaked as the ground imploded. The earth crumbled down and a gaping hole appeared. I jumped to avoid the opening.
There was a sighing sound as if the planet itself was holding its breath and then, slowly, swaying slightly and blinking in the dawn light, a huge crested head appeared. Its pale white scales reflected the light, making it seem like it was the embodiment of the Solstice sun.
It opened its huge jaws, threw its head back and roared to the sky. I scrunched my face at the force of the roar on my keen ears. Its clawed front feet gripped the edge of the hole and it slithered upwards out of the ground. Once out in the open, its true scale was enormous. I craned my neck upwards to try to take it all in. Its long tail still trailed into the dark cavern. I knew a predator when I saw one and every instinct was telling me I was on the bottom of the food chain here. It beat its wings several times. My nose twitched. The smell of it reminded me of the wreckage of Cardiff Castle after the first dragon was awoken, but different. It reminded me of the crocodiles at a zoo I had visited once. Crocodiles crossed with snow and something else, something ancient.
“The white dragon has risen.” Merlin spoke in a strained voice. The hairs on my arms stood on end as Merlin gathered power to him and a blast of magical lightning shot from his hands towards the creature. The dragon roared again as the bolt of magic connected with its chest.
It flapped its large wings and took flight, gusts of wind hitting us with each down stroke. The temperature cooled. Suddenly, instead of the growing heat of a summer’s day, the smell of the air changed. It felt like a crisp winter’s morning. I shivered and considered shifting to stay warm under my thick layer of fur. I took a deep breath and a second to assess things. Something was off. I hadn’t been present when the first dragon was unleashed upon the world but I’d seen and smelled the aftermath. It had been…destructive.
As it hovered above us, its jewelled green eyes alit on Merlin with hatred and it opened its mouth and breathed ice directly at him. An ice dragon! I hadn’t even known such things existed. Amethyst was already in front of the ancient mage with the shield from her axe’s rune activated. The icy blast buffeted the shield.
“Move!” she yelled. The magician staggered away.
The shield gave way and the half-dwarf was encased in ice. The gnome yelled something guttural. Everyone ignored her. I caught the flicker of flame inside the icy tomb.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen!” Maxi wailed.
I wanted to shake him, “What?!”
“The speakers, they weren’t meant to do this!”
I felt my teeth lengthening as I fought to control my anger. “You did this?”
His eyes boggled in fear as he took in our frozen teammate, the huge dragon floating above us and my temper. I turned away before I did something I would regret. Enough watching. Time to take charge.
“You!” I pointed to Aloora, the newest member of my team and the least trained in combat, “take his sword and guard Maxi! Film everything! We’re going to need it for evidence,” I muttered. I narrowed my eyes at Maxi and raised my voice again, “I’ll deal with you later! Don’t cause any trouble!” Maxi surrendered his enchanted sword and they raced off to hide behind one of the large stones.
“Get her out of there!” The rest of the team responded to my order. Dot was there first with her sword. She spoke the Dwarfish word for fire and pressed the blade to the thick ice.
I focused on the dragon. I cried out. Its vision focused on me. I lifted my crossbow and shot a bolt directly at one of its jewel-green eyes. I didn’t have time to reload as it drew breath. I leapt to one side and shifted as it let loose another blast. In my lynx form, I dodged and dived, keeping its focus. Mim and Merlin saw what I was trying to do from where they were sheltered behind one of the, now leaning, stones. They let off their own bolts of magic at its thick, pale hide. It roared in annoyance. Good. Keep it distracted. I saw the elf standing there, trying feebly to help free Amethyst. Irritated, I shifted back.
“Lorandir! I need your speed.”
His keen ears heard me, but he still looked undecided. I didn’t have time for this. The dragon shot out acid green poison from its mouth. Great. I leapt to one side but the splashback hit my tail. I let out a cat-like growl of annoyance. I expected the dragon to press its attack. Instead it turned and shot off another poison blast towards one of the large lintels. I saw the elf leap off it and respond with his own blast of magic. Finally.
We wove right and left, distracting the creature. I dodged an icy blast then sprung up to claw at its shoulder. Its scales were hard armour. I couldn’t get any purchase and slid down. It raked its talons over its body, trying to get rid of me. I used its leg as a springboard and pounced away. I immediately leapt again to avoid its stamping feet. Close combat wasn’t going to work with this enemy. A bolt of magic to its jaw caused it to turn sharply. I was forgotten for now.
The smell of magical flames stung my nostrils. An ear-splitting roar came from the dragon. It whirled around and I saw a burn mark on its scaly tail. Dot blurred into vision at my side, her enchanted sword burning brightly. The dragon rushed upwards, beating its wings strongly to get away. The downdraught rippled across my fur. I risked a glance over at the icy cave. The half-dwarf was free. Good. Now to try to get us out of this without any major casualties.
The dragon narrowed its eyes at the cause of its minor injury and sent a blast of ice towards Dot. I dived to the side. She jumped and rolled, avoiding the main impact. I heard her sharp intake of breath and smelt the metallic tang of blood. One of the icy crystals had pierced her leg.
Rumbling thrummed up my legs. I tensed to keep my footing even in lynx form. The others were struggling as the vibrations grew. I heard Amethyst’s exclamation.
“What the dzrak?”
I tilted my head. There seemed to be a rhythm behind the vibrations. A pounding, thumping noise that shook the ground every second or so. Footsteps. Of a large creature.
Another dragon’s head, smaller this time, peeped from the cavernous hole in the ground. It gave a small barking noise followed by a chirp. The larger dragon swooped down and perched on the edge of the hole. I leapt slightly, in time with its landing to avoid the jolt that sent the others staggering.
I heard a creak. One of the larger upright stones started to tilt precariously. Lorandir was in its path, his back to the danger as he stared at the dragon. I raced forward to push him out of the way. Amethyst got there first. She launched herself towards the stone and stood between it and the elf. She raised her hands as if she could stop it from falling. I watched it in slow motion as I ran to try to save them both.
My fur stood on end as power coursed around the half-dwarf. Purple light pulsed from the axe she still held. The rock stayed leaning at an impossible angle above her. I slowed, instinctively not wanting to get close to that power. It smelled earthy and old. My eyes widened as the stone ground back into an upright position, reversing its fall. Oblivious to us, Amethyst patted the standing stone before turning. She began to blush as she realised we were all staring at her. Even the dragons were looking at her curiously. She raised her hand towards them. What the dzrak was she doing?
The large dragon took flight again with a shriek and the smaller one followed it. Great. They had interpreted her as a threat. They dived in tandem and delivered short icy blasts across the field, turning their heads from left to right as they peppered the ground with ice crystals. I ducked and dived as I avoided the rain of ice. I heard a cry of pain. Amethyst had been hit.
I tried to think. The large dragon stopped its attack suddenly, hovering above us. The smaller one did a loop around it and beat its wings to stay close to its side. Both creatures turned their heads in a westerly direction, ignoring us all. I strained to hear what had distracted them. Not even my excellent hearing could make it out.
The large dragon made a strange sound, a cross between a growl and a croon, then it beat its wings strongly and flew west, away from the morning sun. The smaller dragon flying in its wake. We watched the creatures as they climbed, quickly gaining altitude. They flew out of sight rapidly, glinting gold as their pale scales reflected the light.
The summer’s heat hit me as quickly as it had left, promising to be another scorching hot day. I padded around the crystals that were already starting to melt now they were out of range of the white dragon. The crisp smell of snow left my nose, replaced by cut grass, meadow flowers and blood.
