Aeryk roared over the rugged hills and tree-lined slopes of Yamanashi Prefecture like a devastating typhoon. Two of the five lakes, Motsosku and Shojiko, flashed by on either side, while to the south the White Spirit’s shining towers soared above Aokigahara like small mountains. Several miles east, Mount Fuji’s smooth neck climbed into a curtain of blazing fire. A pair of huge shapes hurtled away from the volcano, closing on the spot where he’d recently fallen.
He stared at the area, unable to recall what happened, amazed by the perfectly circular mound that covered the blast crater. Explosions hammered the dome from beneath, and a large section in its center looked as if it had started to melt. His Searching took him below ground and into a cavern sealed and protected with spiritual energy.
Fiyorok raged inside, pounding the roof with fire, overwhelming Roarke’s power, breaking it.
Aeryk swore under his breath. Once free, Fiyorok would turn on the incoming guardians. If Vissyus’s dragon killed either Kirak or Akuan, the odds of victory turned against them. He had to call them off before it was too late. Already, Kirak neared the withering dome, Akuan’s cool shield visible several hundred yards back. Aeryk’s thoughts screamed toward both, surging through the tortured sky with the force of a hurricane. His mind shredded smoke and blasted through storms, and just when he thought Kirak readied a strike, the great serpent changed course and sped toward him.
“Lord Aeryk!” Kirak called. “I’m happy to see you alive.” It slowed to a stop a hundred feet from him.
“I could say the same to you, considering.” Aeryk’s eyes shifted to Akuan. Seirin’s new guardian wisely kept its distance. “I suppose this means Seirin’s forgiven you. You’ll have a harder time with me. Let me be clear, Akuan. I don’t know if I can trust you, but I do need you. Earlier today, you breached my shield. Can you do it again?” He didn’t know what the Unbinding had done to Akuan’s memory. He didn’t know too many things.
“Lord Vissyus conducted the attack,” Akuan replied, not even trying to defend itself. “His mind drifted in and out of my body. I saw what he did; I can replicate it.”
Aeryk’s eyes widened. Vissyus. How was that possible? He pushed the thought aside. “Good. When I tell you, I want you to use it on Fiyorok. Do you understand?”
“Yes, lord, though I can’t see what good it will do. I used your storms against you. With Fiyorok…” Akuan shrugged. “None of us can wield fire.”
“We won’t have to,” Aeryk said. “Fiyorok’s shield knows you. Send your thoughts through. I’ll handle the rest.” He studied the skies. “The air’s too thick here. We’ll need to go above the storms where it’s cleaner.” The sound of sliding rock rolled over them like an avalanche. “I’m afraid I’ll need you to cover us, Kirak.”
Kirak nodded grimly. “I expected as much. A coordinated assault gives us the best chance. The affinity between the twins will do the rest.”
“Agreed,” Akuan said. “But I need to be close, within a few yards. Any farther and Fiyorok’s shield will not be fooled.”
Kirak paused, its cerulean eyes stormy. “And that is the only way? You are certain?”
A fiery rope exploded out of the shaking hill, bathing Akuan’s face with flickering orange light. The guardian lowered its massive horned head and nodded.
“Unfortunately so.” Aeryk thought it sounded more apologetic than fearful. “I’ll use what I’ve learned from Fiyorok’s battle with Lady Yui. My attack on you, Lord Aeryk, will serve as a foundation. I know how to pierce its shield. Fiyorok will fall.”
“You’re putting Seirin’s life in danger,” Aeryk interrupted. Doubt gnawed at him. He studied the dragon, Searching for deception. “We have to find another way.”
“This is the only way,” Akuan’s eyes were bright in the firelight. “Payment, I’m afraid, for an evil life.”
“She’ll never let you go. Don’t you understand what will happen to her?”
“Of course I do. I’ve known all along. Why do you think I left the Bonding unfinished?”
“You what?” Aeryk swore and glanced at the volcano. An unfinished Bond meant she didn’t have complete control. Aeryk’s unease increased. This was madness.
“A broken heart is easier to mend than a broken body,” Akuan said. “This is my choice, Lord Tai-Banshar. I’ve committed unspeakable crimes; I need to pay for them.”
Aeryk ground his teeth. How much was he willing to risk? Akuan sounded sincere, but he’d seen the dragon as an enemy for a very long time. Feelings like that didn’t turn quickly. He closed his eyes, but couldn’t concentrate. Faith often meant deciding against reason. Another flaming spear exploded out of the Earth. Rock melted, and sand turned to glass. Aeryk’s Searching haunted him. He saw Fiyorok’s horned head rise from the ruined ground like a demon.
“All right, Akuan.” He couldn’t believe he was saying this. It felt wrong. “Head for the anchoring storm. I’ll come in from the west while Kirak buys us the time we need.”
“We’re not going together?”
Aeryk shook his head. “Splitting up adds uncertainty – not much, perhaps, but it’s the best we can do.” He moved aside and motioned Akuan past. “Go! And don’t stop until you’ve cleared the thunderhead.”
As if in a dream, he watched Akuan fall away from him. Sunlight broke through the clouds, and the guardian’s sapphire scales sparkled magnificently as it flew from one pillared ray to the next. Far below, Fiyorok climbed out of the pit and took to the sky – searching as it flew.
Akuan noted Fiyorok’s approach and headed for the storms in a blur of blue and green. Steam burst from its nostrils to cover its flight, the huge, pluming clouds building between them, cutting visibility, blocking it from Fiyorok’s sight.
Against any other guardian, the strategy might have been effective, but Fiyorok was too experienced with Akuan. Immediately, the older dragon vaporized the fog with a massive burst of fire. Clouds boiled, and the mist lifted. Exposed, Akuan sprayed another layer of fog into the air, only to have Fiyorok blast it away.
Kirak wheeled in from the southeast, but even with its assistance, Akuan wouldn’t shake Fiyorok without his help. Aeryk tested the atmosphere, Searching, probing. Akuan’s clouds gave him an idea, a risky one, but one that was passive, nonthreatening. Heart pounding, he sent his thoughts into the skies. The air aloft plummeted, fed upon the warmer surface atmosphere, and refueled Seirin’s storms. Hurricane-force winds swept in from the northwest, accompanied by macrobursts and massive dust clouds.
Debris, caught and carried within the gales, confounded Fiyorok’s Searching enough to prevent the guardian from locating the three incoming Kami. The red dragon’s expression became a portrait of frustration, its response wildly reckless. The slightest movement prompted atomic fire – here incinerated boulders, there liquefied steel and cindered wood.
Aeryk smiled as smoke and refuse added to the airborne clutter. He wondered if Fiyorok understood the enormity of its mistake. Lost in a cloud of its own making, unable to see or read its Searchings, Fiyorok flew on blindly. From above Kirak dove and began a new battle to buy some time. Climbing away, Aeryk headed for the cool shield waiting for him above the storms.
“Are you ready, Akuan?” He focused on the dragon’s eyes to avoid looking at its face – a face he’d always hated.
“Yes, lord, but be quick. I don’t care to face Fiyorok unshielded.”
Aeryk’s eyebrow climbed, but he stayed silent. If Akuan could breach Fiyorok’s shield, then the reverse was also true. Didn’t Akuan realize that? Head shaking, Aeryk threw his thoughts into the air’s moisture. The memory of his first success brought a sharp pang: his waterspout, Seirin’s pride-filled hug, her light, flowery scent.
“Try not to move. I have to alter the air around you to build a weapon. If you don’t hold still, you won’t capture it. Do you understand?”
Akuan nodded, and Aeryk continued to work, feverishly separating air into hydrogen and oxygen and then adding methane and other explosive gases. When done, he positioned the mixture in front of Akuan’s shield.
“Let go of your shield,” he ordered.
The icy globe vanished, and he moved the weaponized gases into place. Sweat beaded his forehead, exhaustion working into every muscle and bone.
“All right,” he grunted. “You can reform the shield.”
Sapphire scales shone vividly against the lighter blue of the sky until a new barrier, a nimbus of glowing energy – emerald touched with cobalt – blazed to life around them.
“Wait as long as you can to fill your lungs. When you attack, the air will do the rest.”
“As you command, Lord Aeryk.” Akuan bowed.
Aeryk wanted more time to test the weapon, but with Fiyorok rippling through the clouds like living heat, he knew they’d exhausted what little they had.
I mark Fiyorok at roughly six thousand feet and climbing, Kirak reported from the overcast skies. The bright fireballs flying from Vissyus’s guardian gave its position away as well as any Searching.
Aeryk’s eyes locked with Akuan. “I won’t forget this. I’ll make sure Seirin knows what you did for her. She’ll be very proud of you.”
“I can’t let you destroy a guardian,” Akuan said, turning away. “You’ve suffered enough and neither you nor my mistress should live with any more pain.”
Akuan’s sapphire scales disappeared into the turbulent storm just as Fiyorok vaporized its covering clouds. The two welcomed each other with orange-sheathed flame and razor-sharp ice, arctic blue met yellow fire, the mist around them evaporating.
Heat struck Akuan’s shield and skittered away, drawing a relieved exhalation from Aeryk. Charged air surrounded Akuan, air imbued with his power. Fiyorok might be able to strike through Akuan’s shield, but as long as he controlled the air inside, he could protect the guardian. For a little while.
The dragons passed each other in midair, and for a moment, it looked to Aeryk as if a single dragon moved in front of a mirror, flying and pivoting before breaking away to leave its reflection behind. The two came apart, looped around, and accelerated back together as if caught up in some deadly dance.
A quick Searching showed thousands of frozen lances spewing from Akuan’s gaping mouth and racing toward Fiyorok’s shield faster than wind-driven snow. Harder than diamonds, the projectiles broke through the other guardian’s fiery shield. Ice appeared on red scales, hundreds of shards covering Fiyorok’s hide, each driving through the golden armor, each seeping into muscle, tissue, and blood. Melting, they joined the other liquids in Fiyorok’s body, and, once inside, heat and pressure ignited the whole. Heartbeats pushed the explosion on, each pulse blowing a piece of Fiyorok apart from the inside.
Somehow, the great dragon still had enough control to whip its head around and face Akuan. Fiyorok’s eyes bulged grotesquely. “At least I have the pleasure of taking you with me,” it snarled. Spittle dripped from its mouth in bright, blazing sparks.
Akuan said nothing, just hovered in place as Fiyorok’s head came apart. Burning flesh splattered its shield, blood painting the inside red as a growing fireball overtook the rest of the viscera.
Horrified, Aeryk watched waves of elemental energy hurtle across the skies. Akuan stood against them, neither moving nor trying to run. At last, Akuan’s shield shattered. Light flared and overcame the proud body. For a moment, Akuan’s shadow floated proudly within the fires. The guardian tipped its head first at Aeryk and then at Fuji and Seirin. A final blast of power roared from the wreckage and flew to the mountain, where it then blended with the air’s moisture before fading to nothingness.
The image seared itself into Aeryk’s mind. He bowed his head and swallowed bitterness. He’d sent Akuan to slaughter a guardian he’d known and loved for a very long time – before the madness changed Fiyorok forever.
With Fiyorok down, he turned his attention to Vissyus. He tried to think, but grief muddied his head. Once, they’d been inseparable; friends, comrades, and brothers. The task that always seemed so noble now tore his soul apart. Murderer – that’s what he’d become. A coldblooded killer.
He lifted his eyes to the mountain. He and Seirin wanted to share their dreams with Vissyus, but now they had to live with their nightmares. Seirin was right: this was their fault… all of it. They should have been more careful and less self-absorbed. Images of Vissyus passed before his eyes, of his boundless energy and infectious happiness. He hated himself for what he was about to do, but he’d hate himself even more if he allowed Vissyus to destroy the world. With a regretful sigh, he sent his shield into a dizzying climb.
He slowed to a stop near the top of the Boundary and stared into its shimmering, flame-encircled prison. He wished the Boundary would hold as it always had, but as he stared into the light, he felt the layers open for his thoughts. Reluctantly, he sent them in. Air thinned and dissipated at higher altitudes until, finally, none remained above twenty thousand feet. He’d created a vacuum, a perfect void, within which no fire would burn.
Aeryk lowered his head and began his lonely vigil.