Chapter Nineteen

“My dear Turrok. It is you. After all this time.” Asahni’s voice grew soft and caressing. “How wonderful that you’ve returned to me now. Just when I need you most.”

Vadin shuddered, torn between warring impulses. To see her again in the flesh was astonishing. She looked even more splendid than he remembered, a goddess incarnate. And yet, he couldn’t ignore what she’d become.

This was the empress who sent troops to demolish the eldrin settlement, slaughtering women and children in the process. Even if she claimed to have valid reasons, could anything justify such an act?

Who was she now? Surely not the fair-minded mentor he’d known in a bygone age. Her current actions reminded him more of the dragon lords, with their cruel and single-minded ambition.

“You have come far, Turrok.” Asahni continued to speak lovingly, smiling all the while. “Impressive, that you opened a portal between worlds to find me. Even I, with my vast power and knowledge, have not been able to do such a thing.”

“It was a dangerous gamble. One I should have resisted.”

“Nonsense. You did well. And now you’ll open another portal, so we may return home together.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why ever not?” She looked genuinely surprised.

“I fear you hunger for conquest, for ways to expand your dominion into new lands.”

She laughed, a sound like tinkling bells. “How harsh you make it sound, when all I’ve ever sought is peace and order.”

He grimaced. “I saw what you did to the eldrin settlement.”

“Ah.” She nodded, a knowing look entering her eyes. “So it was you, who defeated my forces. I should have guessed.”

“I couldn’t stand by and watch innocent lives taken.”

“Innocent lives? You show your ignorance of the situation. Huranthir and his people have plotted against me for many years. They are traitors, each and every one of them.”

“Even the children?” He couldn’t keep bitterness from his voice.

She laughed again. “Such a soft heart you have, Turrok. I didn’t recall that about you.”

“Perhaps I remember your lessons on kindness and balance, better than you do.”

“So you seek to tutor me?” She raised one perfect blonde brow. “Such arrogance. With a lesser man, I’d find it intolerable. But in your case, I’m inclined to be lenient. You’ve a pleasing appearance, this lifetime, and there is much we can accomplish together.”

“I don’t want any part in your plans.”

“Don’t you?” Her eyes narrowed, lips thinning. “Then let me make the choice simple. You can join me, returning home in glory, as my consort and champion. Or you can do my bidding as a slave. Either way, you’ll serve my purpose.”

“You might not find it easy, shaping me to your will.”

“Easy or not, it can be done.” All semblance of gentleness slipped from her face, like a cast off veil. “There are many ways, including using your companions as leverage.”

Asahni glanced away from him, toward Valla. “Perhaps I’ll start with the dark-haired one.” She raised a hand and sketched a symbol in the air, preparing to toss a spell.

Vadin had only a moment to react, but it was enough to spare Valla’s life. Throwing himself in front of her, he caught the full force of Asahni’s magic. The spell sliced into him, like a razor-edged spear.

Poisonous sorcery spread from the point of entry, bringing searing pain and loss of movement. He collapsed, using his last reserves to cast a protective shield around himself and the three dragons. It wouldn’t hold for long.

Valla knelt by his side, feeding him healing energy.

“No.” He tried to push her away. “You’ll need your strength.”

“I need you,” she answered, keeping a grip on his shoulders. “Don’t you know I love you?”

How could he have known that? It was the greatest gift possible. He wished desperately to tell her how he felt, but Ashani’s magic continued to spread, now stealing his ability to speak.

Soon his vision clouded and his hearing grew muffled. He was trapped inside a useless husk, a spell-snared body that couldn’t lift a finger to save the she-dragon he loved. Agony and helplessness strangled him.

But even as he struggled in sensory-deprived darkness, a light began to build. Valla flooded him with energy, Hathos and Oliana joining her. He could feel their desire for him to live, their forgiveness of his past mistakes. Such generosity was nothing short of miraculous.

How could he have judged their race to be cruel and heartless, reviling his own dragon soul? The dragon within him might prove to be his best and truest aspect. All this time, he’d tried to deny its power, when he should have been seeking it out.

Diving deep, he searched his core for the spark of his dragon soul. Though it had been dampened by Asahni’s spell, each passing moment it grew brighter, responding to the energy flowing from his companions.

Valla’s energy shone like sunlight, vibrant with love, while Hathos directed his with the skill of a practiced healer. Oliana’s flowed through the others like a stream of clear water. Combined they offered potent magic, strong enough to break the bonds of Asahni’s sorcery.

Vadin’s dragon soul woke fully, bursting into white-hot flame. It surged through him, burning away the last vestiges of prejudice and misplaced blame. Dragons weren’t his enemies. Quite the opposite. They were his kin!

Reservoirs of power, he hadn’t known he possessed, burst open, as he shifted to a silver drake. The transformation felt incredible, every cell in his body tingling and wonderfully alive. He raised his massive spiked head and roared, causing the cavern to shake around him.

As the shield he’d cast disintegrated, Asahni shot a spray of venomous acid at him. He met it with a blast of white fire and lightning, crackling out of his silver scaled throat.

She might be an immortal empress, but he was a centuries-old dragon sorcerer. On this day, Asahni had finally met her match.

****

Valla watched, ecstatic, as Vadin shifted to drake form. She hadn’t known he could do such a thing. He probably hadn’t known either.

What a glorious sight he was, silver scales flashing in the torchlight, eyes fiercely ablaze. Rocks flew as his serpentine tail lashed out, and the ceiling cracked at his roaring.

However, there wasn’t time to fully appreciate his transformation. The protective shield had failed, and now soldiers and overseers alike charged forward. The space looked too tight for all four dragons to shift, so she relied on her weapons and close combat skills. Hathos and Oliana would be safer as drakes, but she was a warrior in any form.

As she engaged with the first wave of foes, Vadin and the empress locked together in a battle of magic against magic. Valla had little chance to worry about him, as she fought to keep her own skin intact.

There were too many adversaries. Just as she killed one, three more came at her. It wouldn’t be long before her luck ran out, and what a rotten time to go. Life had so much left to offer her. She couldn’t die now!

Snarling, she leapt forward, hacking into a pair of reptilian soldiers. They fell before her blade, but more filled the gap.

The empress loosed a hair-raising wail, the sound like a chorus of banshees. Everyone stopped and looked at her, the entire cavern gone still. For a moment she stood, body rigid, eyes wild, brilliant sorcery spinning in a storm around her. Then she transformed into a crystal pillar and broke into a thousand shards.

The tattoos on the overseers’ faces flared with purple light, as they fell motionless to the ground. At the same moment, the cavern and surrounding hill rocked with a mighty earthquake. The ground split open, all the way up through the shattering castle.

Valla spied a window of open sky and shifting to drake form flew upward toward safety. Vadin, Hathos, and Oliana followed, their wings whipping up a gale. The hillside crumbled away, the crystal castle toppling to ruins.

Soon the landscape shrank to the scale of a miniature diorama, as Valla soared higher and higher, Vadin close beside her. Joy enveloped them both, as they linked minds, delighting in their first flight together.