Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (32 page)

Vera cursed behind me.

I was so happy to see her I could've thrown my arms around her and kissed her. And then Mercedes suddenly appeared, followed by Hawk and a whole slew of guards from Mosaque. In fact, I would've gladly kissed all of them. Mercedes glanced at me but just enough to note Alex's and my position, and then her gaze swept the cathedral as she yelled something in Saqai. Eris had materialized farther away and more guards began to emerge from the shadows—more Mortis followers.

And then there was chaos.

Shouts and cries, the clatter of metal and the thud of impact reverberating in the nave of the huge cathedral. I scrambled back to Alex, shoved my hands beneath his arms and started dragging him back and out of the way. He was so heavy! I grunted and strained with every pull, being forced to stop intermittently to ward off a guard or duck as an arrow whizzed by. Magic bounced inside the chamber, scorching everything in its path as if someone had set off the Fourth of July finale inside of the cathedral. Debris crumbled from the ceiling, and I draped myself protectively on top of Alex until the dust settled before moving him along.

A wet gurgle sounded right behind me, and I turned just in time to see the tip of a blade poking out from the neck of a guard, blood spluttering everywhere as he choked. Bile rose in my throat as he slumped to the ground, and then I noticed Vera standing a little behind him. I met her gaze; her expression was grim and then she went back to fighting. I pulled Alex forward, trying not to dwell on the fact that his skin was beginning to look a little translucent and that his lips were turning purple. There had to be something I could hide him behind. Somewhere out of the line of fire. And then my eyes settled on a newly broken column, compliments of the indoor fireworks.

I dragged and grunted and jerked and pulled and said words I'd never said before, but somehow they helped me find the strength to get him there. Once he was safely behind the huge chunk of marble, I gasped to catch my breath while squeezing his shoulders. "Alex!" I grabbed his face in my hands. "Alex, can you hear me?" His face was cold as death. "Don't you dare leave me!"

I peered around the column and desperation set in. Anyone who might be able to help him was much too busy, and we were completely outnumbered. And as I watched that hopeless battle, time decided to assert itself like it was so inclined to do, and everything suddenly progressed with the speed of molasses.

Vera stood, swords raised, facing enemy guards, the side of her face smeared with blood. I didn't know if it was hers. But there was one guard behind her—one guard bringing an axe down upon her head. Hawk stood in a corner near her, like Tarzan defending his Jane. There were a few Mosaquian guards engaged in battle, but many more had fallen. Hawk spun just in time to see Vera's plight, and even in the stillness of time I could see the dawning realization in his gaze: Vera would not survive the blow and he could not reach her in time. He could never stop the axe from bearing down upon her head.

Horror bubbled in my gut, as well as something else, some power that filled my entire body, and I was shaking uncontrollably, like my skin was a dam holding back a raging sea. And then it burst forth, flooding down my arms and through my fingertips, a hot vortex of steam, ripping across the floor and heading straight for the guard. It slid right through Vera without effect, but when it hit the guard, it ignited in a blanket of flame, wrapping itself around him. The guarded screamed as he caught fire, and within seconds he'd turned into a pile of ash. His axe clattered upon the floor on top of the ash pile.

Vera stood pale as a ghost. All fighting ceased and Eris stood still as a pillar. And in their hesitation, I redirected all of my fury toward Eris.

He vanished just in time, fire licking at the tiles beneath his feet, twisting and curling in the air like orange snakes. But my fire did not go away. It seemed to have grown a mind of its own, guided by the wind, and it was jumping from guard to guard, quickly setting them aflame. They ran and screamed, frantic to put out the fires, as the air filled with the scent of ash and burnt flesh.

I swallowed the bile back down. I had…I had killed a man, and quite possibly more than just one. With magic. I didn't have any more time to consider this, because Vera appeared. She stood over me and when she saw Alex, she paled.

I pulled my heavy thoughts from the burning men. "Eris poisoned him with dragon's bane. I gave him some of the tonic from his bag, but it's done nothing. Can you do anything for him?"

But I already knew the answer. I'd seen the fear well in her eyes the moment I'd said the words "dragon's bane."

"Veranna!" It was Hawk. He shoved off a couple enemy guards and towered over us. He looked at Alex, and I could tell that Hawk didn't think Alex was going to make it.

"Hawk, it's dragon's bane. Is there anything you can do?" I asked.

"No time." His lips tightened. "The portal is open."

I blinked in surprise. "It is? Good, because we need to get Alex to a healer…"

Hawk shook his head. "You must hurry."

I exchanged a glance with Vera, and we were both bending over to pick up Alex when Hawk swept Alex in his arms and threw him over his shoulder.

Okay. That worked, too.

"Thees way!" he yelled and charged right into the cluster of fighting.

There was a faint shimmer near one of the walls, like some kind of celestial door, and Vera and I ran ahead of Hawk and Alex to help clear the path. I fought with one sight in mind—that shimmering window. Nothing else mattered except getting Alex through that window, to Gesh. Then he might actually have a chance. I didn't know how they'd opened the portal, but they had. It was the only bit of hope I had left.

I thought I heard Mercedes yell something—good luck? Vera and I worked together wordlessly, pushing the remaining guards back. And when we reached the shimmering window, Hawk threw Alex through it, and Vera and I jumped through after.

And I kept falling…and falling…

Part Three:

Pendel

"By blood, an oath; with blood, defamed.

A breath, restored; the promise, reclaimed."

~ Excerpt from
Songs of the Bards
,

volume XIX.

Stefan

I
n my opinion, the northern wall was a symbol of man's arrogance. Gaia had created a world with natural boundaries of mountain and chasm, great lakes and forests, but man had decided he didn't agree with those boundaries, thus creating one of his own.

It had been built in an attempt to separate the Icelands from the mainland, divide winter from mankind, and keep out the vile creatures that had dwelled there ever since the Great War from Galahad's time. The mystical realms of the Icelands had become a refuge for the dark, a sanctuary for evil, where even the code and decrees of my grandfather could not reach.

We did not know what evils brewed behind the wall, nor did we care. The wall was a great and magnificent structure that reached toward the heavens and spread in either direction like some invincible shield against Mortis himself. Nothing could ever pass through without our sanction. We had built this, and it was our pride.

No, we did not care what lurked behind it.

For centuries, the men and women of Alioth patrolled this triumph of mankind. There were nine watchtowers all along the perimeter, though only three of them had gates. Men like to build walls. Men like to place perimeters around all they hold dear so that they may dictate who, or what, passes through. It gives them a sense of control—a sense of power. They show only what they want others to see and hide all the rest behind walls of insecurity.

The northern wall had been this. But a wall has two sides. There are always two sides.

Oh, the arrogance of man.

I glanced back down at the note in my hands.

Your Royal Highness,

The gate at the ninth watchtower has fallen. Alioth stands, but the shadowguard are ten thousand strong, led by Lord Tiernan. Pykans fight alongside them. I've received no word from Orindor.

Your loyal servant,

Sir Armand de Basco

I made a fist and slammed it on my desk.

"Your grace?"

The messenger stood in the doorway, fingering his hat in his hands, looking a little startled.

"When was this written?" I asked.

"Last night, your grace," the messenger continued. "I rode as fast as I could. Sir Armand de Basco insisted that I deliver it straight into your hands."

I inhaled slowly, fighting for calm. I had always thought making decisions would be the hard part, but I had been wrong. The hard part about leadership was upholding a visage of strength, even when all seemed lost.

"Thank you," I said. "You may leave."

The messenger bowed once more. "Your grace." He replaced his hat on top of his head where it belonged, and then he left.

Aegis Sonya Del Conte stood like an assassin in the shadows near the door. She had escorted the messenger to my chambers herself, since he had arrived in the middle of the night. Ever since Alexander and Daria had left, and even against her husband's wishes, Aegis Sonya had assigned herself to night watch. The other Aegises took this as one of the many signs of impending threat on the castle, but although they were right to be worried, I knew it had been about more than that. Sonya worried for her son and my sister, and the only way to quell her restless sleep was to put her mind and body to work. Though she did look a little worse for wear. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and her coppery skin had assumed more of a sallow quality.

This is my fault.

She waited, silent as the shadow. As my Aegis, she should have dismissed herself, but as a mother, she couldn't bring herself to leave. Her anxiety held her firmly in her place.

"The shadowguard are through the wall," I said.

Sonya's face was as blank as an Aegis', though her hand twitched at her side.

"Here—" I thrust the paper at her. "Read it. I don't care."

Sonya approached slowly, her lean and muscular frame moving with a familiar and deadly grace. It was uncanny how much Alexander resembled his mother—even more so as he had gotten older. Alexander had inherited his father's green eyes, but the rest was just a male version of Sonya.

She took the paper from my hands with deft fingers and looked it over, frowning. Once she was through, she handed it back to me and asked, "Any word?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." I hadn't told her that my bindingbook with Daria had suddenly caught fire a few days prior. I'd never mentioned we'd shared a bindingbook in the first place, so I didn't see how speaking of its sudden incendiary properties would be of any benefit, and it would only cause her further worry. Either way, I'd hoped Daria or Alex would have sent a letter by now, but I'd heard nothing, and it haunted me like a bad omen from a pixie.

I knew Daria was alive, though. I could feel it deep in my bones.

"Stefan, please…" Sonya hesitated. She was not standing before me as my Aegis; she was standing before me as a mother. Not a privilege she took often. "This is beyond opinions of betrothals." Her dark eyes pleaded with mine. "I must know where she and Alexander are headed. They must know what is happening. If they return and we are under siege, they'll never make it through alive."

Sonya was right, of course. I'd made certain Alex would be informed on the state of things before he had left with my sister, but I'd also planned on having the bindingbook available to keep him up to date. The last thing I'd wanted was for them to come back to Valdon in the thick of things, and through the bindingbook, I would have been able to warn them.

I sighed and turned away from her.

Daria, please forgive me, but I can't bear it anymore. If anything happens to you, I'll never be able to live with myself.

"They're headed for Pendel," I said.

"What?" Sonya's voice was a whisper.

I inhaled slowly and looked back at her. "She and Alexander left for Pendel so that she can find the box of the Pandors. She believes she can find it, and that it will have the answer to stopping Eris from using the shield of power."

Sonya went deathly still for a moment, as though she hadn't heard clearly, and then her face blanched.

"Sonya, I didn't know what else to do!" I threw my hands at my sides. "I couldn't force her into marriage, and if she'd stayed here, she wouldn't have had a choice. And without a marriage to Danton, our only other hope of surviving my uncle would be to somehow undermine his power. And even more than that, Pendel should be safe for her since it is so far from all of this—"

"Sweet Mother of Draconi…" Sonya put her face in her hands. "This is all my fault."

I blinked. "I'm not sure how you are to blame in this. If anyone should be blamed, it should be me."

She pulled her hands away and looked at me, her dark eyes filled with so many emotions. "I should have told her. I meant to, but…" She bent her head and shut her eyes again as if she could look away and erase the thoughts pummeling her mind. And then with resolve, her eyes opened and she looked back at me. "Pendel is not safe for her, Stefan. If she does this, they will die."

"But the games? Surely my grandfather wouldn't have rewarded the winner with Pendel if it weren't a safe place?"

Sonya shook her head, her shoulders sagging. "I did not say that Pendel was not safe. I said that it was not safe for
her
."

"I don't understand why it would be more dangerous for Daria than anyone else. And furthermore, if this is true, you knew this when she'd entered the games and you never said a word about it. Why?"