The Blood Stone Read online

  Every day that went by, he always thought of Etain. Her disappearance soon after Alushia’s birth, which he missed while on the hunt, was another needle stuck into his spine reminding him of his failure as a husband. He couldn’t protect the most precious gift he’d ever had. Etain’s kidnapping played in his mind as though he were there, and whenever he had the chance to run his sword through a dragon, he knew he was one step closer to securing her freedom. One day, he’d free her from dragon captivity.

  “Is that it?” Driano asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  Lailoken placed his hand above his eyes to block the sun’s glare. “Yeah, I think that’s the cave.” Despite his antics and constant moaning, Lailoken believed Indrar when he shared information about the cave. At the time, the dragon-boy had no reason to lie. His choice was either tell the truth or die. Driano believed his old friend from Woodpine as well.

  They may be walking into a trap, but if there were dragons in the cave—trap or no trap—they’d at least have the opportunity to slay the enemy and thin their ranks.

  If it truly held the Blood Stone…

  Tozgan moved slowly and refused assistance, gritting his teeth when the pain overwhelmed him. Unlike Indrar, he kept it to himself. Darlonn helped him through the dangerous passes, draping his arm around the man to hold him steady.

  Jor was the last of the slayers, deep in thought and walking slowly behind Driano, Belthos, and Lailoken. She’d been that way since they left the cavern, a wary eye cast on Driano.

  They climbed up Dragonfire Peak toward a black hole in the side close to halfway up. By Lailoken’s calculations, it would take nearly an entire day to reach it. At their current speed, it might be longer.

  “When we get there, be prepared for anything,” Lailoken said.

  Wind whipped through the mountains, carrying with it the scent of rain. An eagle flew above them, circling and leaving, its actions reminding Lailoken of a dragon. “If we come upon the enemy, all of you must be ready to carry the fight. I have no intention of allowing any dragon to gain the best of me,” Lailoken said. “This might be the most fearsome dragon we’ve ever encountered. I know not what kind it is, whether a Garnet or Onyx or something else, but I expect it to be the fight of our lives.”

  Jor growled. “I’m done playing nice. Any scaly beast dare show itself will find death at the tip of my blade.”

  “No dragon will be left alive if I can help it,” Darlonn said, earning raised eyebrows from Lailoken. The man hadn’t been one to boast, but the attitude was welcome. They’d need that kind of spirit to counter what may lay ahead.

  Fighting the fierce wind that grew stronger the closer they got to the cave, they finally made it to the entrance.

  “In there possibly lays the greatest gift we can imagine. If the Blood Stone is hidden within, we will soon rule over all Rowyth. Myrthyd’s plan will be fulfilled and we shall finish the Drakku forever. Can you imagine a time when our crops finally yield something useful?” Lailoken said.

  Driano grunted.

  “What is it, Magus?” Jor asked. Her tone suggested she was ready for a fight.

  “The problem, as I see it, is what happens when Myrthyd gains this power? What’s to stop him? There’s a reason the Order hid this gem. It’s too powerful to control.”

  “It works on dragons, right? And the halflings?” Lailoken asked.

  “Aye, that’s what I’m told,” Driano said. Belthos shifted his feet, eager to say something. Driano addressed him. “Yes, what is it?”

  The boy’s eyes widened.

  “Well?”

  “The Blood Stone is a farce. It doesn’t exist. It’s a tale told to scare Tregaron into submission.”

  The group was stunned, silence filling the void.

  Jor burst out laughing. When she recovered, she smiled at Driano. “Let’s not delay. I want to play in dragon blood today.”

  The day wore on and they neared the cavern. Ori unpacked the torches, lighting them, and handed one to Darlonn. “Here, we’ll need these.” He gave another to Jor and the last to Belthos.

  “Let’s see what’s inside, shall we?” Lailoken asked. They followed him into the shadowy cave.

  Not long after entering, something moved rocks ahead of them as though shuffling across the packed dirt.

  “What’s that?” Driano asked. “Did you hear that noise?”

  “Be careful. Could be a trap,” Jor replied.

  Two steps further and they found the source of the sound.

  Two Jade dragons twice the size of the slayers crashed toward them. They tossed a human arm and leg to the floor and ran, howling and spitting their poisonous venom at them.

  “Run! Don’t let that get on you!” Lailoken yelled. Belthos dropped his torch. He and Driano scattered, attempting to avoid the thick lines of poison, When they were hidden, Lailoken felt the warmth of protection come over him.

  Lailoken flung himself to the cavern’s wall and withdrew his sword, the fury of the hunt overcoming him. Darlonn and Jor did the same on the other side of the cavern while Ori ran back toward the mouth of the cave, dragging Tozgan with him.

  “Split them up. We stand a better chance of surviving if we take them one at a time!” Lailoken commanded.

  “Come on, you sick beasts! Have at me!” Jor yelled. One of the dragons raced her way, its arms flailing, and poison shooting from its mouth.

  Lailoken rushed at the other dragon, ready to endure whatever it had for him.

  “Die!” he heard Tozgan yell as a crossbow bolt slammed into the dragon’s side, piercing its thick scales. The dragon howled, clutching for the bolt. Lailoken smiled and sliced at it, swooping downward and catching it along the leg. His blade sliced open the thin skin near its knee. The beast roared and another bolt struck its neck, entering near the back and hanging off it like a feather. Lailoken lunged forward, using his sword like a spear, and forced the blade into the dragon’s belly. The dragon howled and swung its arms, knocking him to the ground and forcing him to let go of the sword. It pulled the blade free and flung it on the cavern floor out of Lailoken’s reach.

  “Got a few brains in you, eh?” Lailoken jumped up and rolled away from the poison the dragon spat at him. Tozgan shot another bolt, this one piercing the chest of the dragon. Its eyes widened and it stumbled. A few awkward steps to the right and it fell to the ground. Lailoken found his sword and rushed back to the flailing dragon. He raised his sword above his head with both hands and brought it down on its neck, nearly severing its head from its body. Blood splattered on his face and chest. He pulled the sword free and did it again, this time finishing the kill and separating the head from the body. Its legs and arms thrashed about for a few moments before ceasing. Its head rolled to the far wall and stopped, its face frozen in a mask of surprise with its tongue hanging out.

  When he checked on the other fight, he saw Jor struggling and Darlonn attempting to help. The dragon backed up and kicked the head of its companion. When it saw it was lifeless, the dragon roared and disengaged from the fight, spitting poison in all directions to keep the slayers back. When it got near the entrance, it spun on Tozgan, swiping at his face. Tozgan fell to the ground to avoid the blow, giving the dragon enough room to run past him and out of the cave, scrambling down the mountainside howling as it left. Ori fired a shot and cursed when it went wide.

  Lailoken turned and watched as Driano and Belthos knelt near the dead dragon. Driano’s hands were inside the dragon, blood running over the stones he held there, the stone around his neck glowing. When he was done, he handed the stones to Belthos, who wiped them clean and stuffed them back in his bag.

  “We’re fortunate to have emeralds on us. When we return, those Verdant Magus will fight each other to get the prize,” Driano said.

  Lailoken wiped his forehead, brushing the hair from his face. He turned back to the darkness ahead of them. “Grab the torches. We have a gem to find.”

  CHAPTER

  Twenty-Six

 
From dark crystal once hidden now found

  Comes power unchecked, unbound.

  Fill the blood with a dragon’s soul

  And own the dream, the dreamer whole.

  Find the crystal among a dragon’s back

  Within a cavern, dark and black.

  Slay the keeper and take the gem

  Power eternal, over dragon, over men.

  The dragon soul you will bind,

  A Nightwraith to destroy the mind.

  The living will live among the dead,

  When you control the visions within their head.

  Vile offspring of a dragon’s lie

  Controlled by the onyx eye.

  Within the fatal dragon fate,

  Power of yours, a Nightwraith.

  Since the council’s failed attempt to overthrow him, Myrthyd spent much of his time in his room studying the ancient tome. No longer needing to hide his deeds from the rest of the Magus, he openly read aloud from it, causing more than one audible gasp from innocent novices.

  As he sat in his chair reading over the Nightwraith spell once again, the apprentice charged with cleaning his bedroom piped up. The boy was raw and new to the order and knew no better.

  “Kull Naga, is the spell referring to a halfling?” he asked from the other room.

  “You will speak when spoken to—” A halfling? Had it been in front of him all this time?

  Vile offspring of a dragon’s lie

  Controlled by the onyx eye.

  “A halfling!” he shouted, jumping from his desk. “Boy, you’re right! A halfling!”

  The dragon soul you will bind,

  A Nightwraith to destroy the mind.

  The living will live among the dead,

  When you control the visions within their head.

  “The Nightwraith, the dragon trapped within the gem, destroys the dreams of the living. In turn, it makes them…undead?” Myrthyd said

  “I’ve heard of that, sir. Back in my village.”

  “What village is that, son?” Myrthyd’s elation tempered with the fact that he’d need to kill the boy to maintain the secrecy of this particular spell. Only he would know the truth of the spell.

  “Esheron, along the eastern coast. My pap told tales of strange people that were dead but alive. They feasted on the flesh of the living. Called them undead, he did. I didn’t pay no attention to his words, though. A story to scare us little ones straight, if you ask me.” The apprentice, Davron, was half Myrthyd’s age, yet his fortuitous hearing of the spell opened the mystery he’d failed to solve all this time.

  “Davron, what else does this spell tell you?”

  The boy entered the room, his face grimy and hair disheveled. His large brown eyes were tinged with innocence and his missing front tooth spoke to his upbringing and poor family. Like many in the streets of Kulketh, his eyes were sunken and his cheekbones had a thin layer of skin stretched over them.

  “Well, sir, I mean Kull Naga,” he clenched his fists at his side, scolding himself. “I believe the spell tells how the Magus controls the soul of a dragon by trapping it inside some gem, and that dragon can eat halfling dreams. That last line about ‘the living will live among the dead when you control the visions within their head’ kinda seems like whoever controls the dragon soul will, in turn, control the undead.”

  Myrthyd leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “How did you get to be such a wise young soul?” He’d been reading the spell over and over again for months. The section about the living will live among the dead confounded him. Menos must be looking down on him to send the boy his way.

  Davron shifted his feet. “Pap taught me how to see things that was hidden. Part of my talent when we—”

  “Go on, boy, I asked you a question. When the Kull asks an apprentice a question, he better be prepared to answer it.”

  “I understand, sir. Kull. I understand, Kull Naga. It’s just that my pap was poor and we needed food to live. I meant nothing by it.”

  Myrthyd tilted his head to the side, not understanding what he meant.

  “I’m sorry, Kull. I used my talent to steal things, to trick others when we needed what they had. I learned to see past the lies people told us so we’d be able to con them out of food and money, and one time, I even got a cat. But we ate him.”

  Myrthyd’s stomach rolled. This boy would never be missed. His ‘pap’ probably sent him to the tower to earn a few dracs off the boy’s enhanced talent when he returned. This was the symptom that pointed to the Drakku. Hunger and thievery brought on by the Drakku curse upon their lands caused this boy to be what he was. Unfortunately for Davron, he would never make it back to that dirty hovel of Esheron.

  “I see. What else can you tell me about the spell? What else do you see?”

  The boy twisted his mouth and looked up at the stone ceiling as though in deep thought. “Not much, I guess,” he finally said. “Sounds like you’ve got a way to trap dragons and control the undead. Pretty neat powers, if you ask me.” The boy smiled. Myrthyd patted him on the head.

  “Good lad. Now,” he said with a wave of his hand, “go up to the third-floor study. The window is unlocked. If it isn’t, try the fourth floor and so on until you find an open window. When you do, jump. You’ll be able to float. I promise.”

  “I will?”

  “Of course,” he replied with another wave of his hand. “It’s part of all Magus training. I think you have the power already. You only need to test it out to make sure it works. We all have.”

  The boy’s eyes lit up and excitement made him quiver. “Can I go now? Can I try my powers now?”

  “Yes,” he replied in a slow, menacing tone.

  “Thank you, Kull! I won’t let you down.”

  “You couldn’t if you wanted to. Go along now. Test those powers.”

  The boy ran from the room to the nearest window. Myrthyd’s skill with compulsion had been growing stronger as he used it. Now, instead of enhancing someone’s natural desire, he was able to make them do things they’d never do, such as jump from a window to their death. The boy had served his purpose and knew too much. He was better off dead anyway. He’d never make it to novice.

  Not too long after, Myrthyd heard screams coming from within the tower.

  Apparently, the boy had found an open window.

  He returned to Drexon’s tome, unconcerned with the activity going on inside the tower and the screams and wailing of Magus when they realized what happened.

  “How does the most powerful Magus in Tregaron fail to see what an uneducated oaf of a child can see?” he said out loud. “Is the boy right?” He read over the spell again and everything the boy had said made perfect sense. If he possessed the gem and somehow trapped a dragon soul within, he’d have dominion over the thing—the Nightwraith, as the spell called it, and that Nightwraith devoured the dreams of halflings. And if it ate enough, it destroyed their mind, making them ‘undead’ and completely under his control as master of the gem. It was all clear to him. The power of the gem was more than he imagined when he sent the slayer after it. To possess it meant absolute power. He had to have it at all costs.

  “Should I send more?” he asked. If he sent more seekers after it, he’d have a better chance to find it. But then if he did, he also had more loose threads to clip. He wanted the gem, but he didn’t want more attention to his plans. He’d conquer Rowyth on his own if he had to. The heathen of the south would submit or die. Either way, all the Drakku would suffer at his hands. Dragons, halflings, and now…Nightwraiths. All would be subject to him.

  A knock on his door snapped him out of his thoughts. “Kull Naga Myrthyd, I apologize about interrupting your studies,” a novice named Peekon said through the closed wooden door, “but we have a crisis, sir. One of the apprentices jumped from the fifth-floor study to his death. The entire tower is in a panic.”

  “I’ll be there in a moment.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation of holding the Blood Stone, the source
of his soon-to-be conquest and end of the Drakku. Then, he’d heal the lands of the disaster they brought and return Tregaron to its former glory.

  CHAPTER

  Twenty-Seven

  When Alushia left the homestead with Brida, she packed a backpack with supplies and hired a boy from Kulketh to send a message to her uncle to look after the farm. She waited until she was ready to leave the city before having the boy deliver the message in case her uncle came looking for her. She didn’t have time for that.

  After her most recent dream and conversation with Avess, her mind swirled with thoughts she never would have considered months ago. Now, she was opening her mind to the reality that maybe…just maybe, she was a halfling.

  Growing up with an absent father, she spent much of her time alone, with only Brida to keep her company. Early on, her uncle would often spend the time with her, watching over her and the farm, but he was an aloof man and not much for children even though he had three of his own. Watching over her was more a chore and he made it known. Instead of clinging to him like a father, she avoided him and went off on her own through the fields and played in the wooded areas near the homestead.

  More times than she remembered, she found herself playing with random animals that were unafraid of her. It was as though she understood them and they her. A special bond connected her to the animals, but at the time she didn’t think much about it. Recognizing it now, however, she thought it was because of her halfling nature; of the dragon blood within her that the animals sensed and accepted her as one of them. She previously understood it to be her gentle nature appealing to the animals, but now she doubted that was it.

  Once, she was playing by a stream and didn’t see a young snowcat sipping from the cool water when she approached. Normally, those large cats were aggressive and often mauled people to death. When she startled it, the thing hissed and raised its nose in the air, audibly sniffing. Then the hiss turned to purring and it approached her. She was afraid it was going to strike her, and knowing she’d never outrun it, she stood stiff, hoping it would pass by. Instead, it stepped closer and sniffed her face. She shivered, still expecting the thing to maul her. It purred louder and rubbed its head against her side, nearly knocking her over. She giggled and it purred louder, rubbing its head along her other side. Stroking its chin, the giant white cat rolled over onto its back while she gently and carefully rubbed its belly. The snowcat acted like the housecat she had back at the homestead. She thought it strange at the time, but it gave her a sensation of comfort.