Witchbreaker (Dragon Apocalypse) (47 page)
“Is he alright?” asked Rigger. “I didn’t even know he’d made it back onboard.”
“Avaris dropped him as we passed between realms,” said Sorrow. “I can’t tell if he’s breathing!”
She pulled off Slate’s helmet. He had a knot on his forehead the size of an egg. Blood was caked around his nose. She held her fingers over his lips and felt no air.
She pressed her cheek to his chest, but couldn’t hear a heartbeat through the thick glass. She tried to will the glass to dust, but it didn’t respond. She was truly powerless.
Except...
She’d always had the power of bone-weaving. She didn’t know exactly how to access these powers. But perhaps there was a reason why, in storybooks, curses were always lifted with a kiss.
And so she kissed him, placing her lips tentatively against his at first, then more firmly. Long seconds passed as she felt heat grow where their faces touched.
And yet... with their lips pressed together, there was no mistaking the fact that he wasn’t breathing. She placed both hands upon his cheeks and opened his mouth, breathing into him as her tears flowed.
The air she filled him with left his lungs as a soft groan. She pulled her face away, uncertain if she’d heard the sound at all. At last he inhaled on his own. His eyes fluttered open as he lifted his fingers to touch where Sorrow’s tears trickled down his cheek.
His eyes focused on her face, still only inches from his. To her great shock, he placed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his once more. Her eyes grew wide.
He opened his eyes as well and she pulled away. “Forgive me,” he said. “I’m just overjoyed to see that you’re human once more!”
“No apology necessary. I’m happy to see you too. But... we perhaps should celebrate our mutual joy someplace a bit more private?”
She looked around to find all the Romers gathered round them, illuminated by the light from Brand’s locket. Brand and Gale were holding hands; was it just to comfort each other, or had Brand finally won Gale over?
“Don’t stop on account of us,” said Jetsam.
Gale slapped him on the back of the head.
Mako turned and walked off into the shadows.
Slate rose to his elbows and looked around. “It’s quiet. I take it we defeated Avaris?”
Sorrow nodded. “We sent her running home with her tail between her legs.”
“I’m not sure
we
did much of anything,” said Rigger. “Stagger did all the work. I guess it pays to have friends in high places.”
“But Stagger’s in a high place because I put him there,” said Sorrow. “We wouldn’t have won if not for steps I’ve taken in the past.”
“You can’t pretend that Stagger’s intervention was part of some master plan you had,” said Rigger.
Sorrow shrugged. “I planted the seed that brought us victory. I don’t see why I can’t take credit for the harvest.”
“Good to see your ego hasn’t taken a hit just because you’re powerless,” said Brand, staring at Sorrow’s scalp.
“I’m hardly powerless,” said Sorrow. She ran her fingers along Slate’s stubbled cheeks and said, with a gentle smile, “I’ve everything I need to take up bone-weaving.”
Brand’s eyebrows shot up.
“And what’s more,” she said, standing and helping Slate to his feet. “I’m human again. I’ve a sound body and a keen mind, and that makes me one of the most powerful forces of nature imaginable. I’m ready to take whatever life throws at me.” She held a clenched fist before her face to illustrate her words. She lowered her hand as her eyes drank in the unending blackness that engulfed them. “Not that this does me any good in limbo.”
“Limbo?” asked Slate, looking around at the surrounding dark.
“We didn’t make the leap between realms cleanly,” said Sage. “We’ve wound up literally nowhere.”
Slate shook his head, looking forlorn. His shoulders sagged. “In seeking to protect the One True Book, I’ve placed it in even greater danger.”
“We’ll think of something,” said Poppy. “We’re Romers! We get out of tight spots for a living.”
“But we’re not in a tight spot,” said Sage. “We’re in no spot at all. I didn’t see things ending like this.” She sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the one who made the jump,” said Gale. “Long ago, mother warned me she could only find her way across to the spirit realms at night. Sunlight blinds her to the path. I pushed her anyway.”
Sorrow snapped her fingers. “Sunlight!”
She marched toward Brand and grabbed the locket at his throat. She thrust her lips inches from the glorystone and shouted, “Stagger! We’re in limbo! Help!”
Brand looked at her as if she’d gone insane.
“The glorystone is part of the sun,” she explained. “Just as Greatshadow can see through every candle, Stagger, in theory, can see through every glorystone. But, there are thousands of little fragments like this. I just want to be sure we catch his attention.”
“There’s only one sure way to catch Stagger’s attention,” said Bigsby. He tugged on Brand’s shirt. “Bend over.”
Brand did so, and the dwarf cupped the locket in both hands and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Battle Ox has just tapped a fresh keg and I’m buying ’til it’s dry!”
Bigsby looked around. Everyone was quiet. The dwarf sighed. “I thought for sure that would work. Anytime similar words were spoken at the Black Swan, he’d fly through the doors so fast he’d knock tables over.”
Everyone jumped as wood banged against wood all around the deck. The ropes overhead began to rattle in the pulleys.
“Rigger?” Gale asked.
“It’s not me!” he called out, spinning around to see who had hold of the ropes.
Sorrow’s jaw dropped as she saw horned demons flying in from the edges of limbo to light upon the deck of the
Circus
, where they grabbed at the rigging. They were monstrous creatures, with skeletal human bodies and animal heads. They were dressed, curiously enough, in sailor uniforms identical to the ones worn by the Romers.
“You might need this,” Rigger said as he thrust the Witchbreaker into Slate’s hands.
“Someone’s at the wheel!” Gale shouted, racing into the shadows. Sorrow gave chase, though Mako beat them both to the wheel, cursing as he tried to grasp the pale, wraithlike form he found there. Sorrow squinted in the darkness, seeing a short, light-colored head just behind the wheel. Bigsby? As Brand approached, the light fell upon an albino pygmy who smiled at Sorrow with a familiar grin.
“Walker!”
“Sorrow. I’m happy to have found you at last. Stagger’s guidance was most helpful. It’s a shame you waited so long to call to him.”
“Not that we’re ungrateful, but why were you looking for us?” Brand asked.
“Because you’ve created an atrocious mess,” said Walker. “It would be unfair to task others with cleaning up your mistakes, not that many haven’t tried.”
“What mistakes? What are you talking about?”
“Twenty years ago, you robbed most of the world of their faith in the One True Book. The Silver Isles have sunk into outright despotism in their attempt to maintain order. War, famine, and pestilence are daily life for most men now. But as bad as the material world has become, your greater error was to provide Tempest a doorway to a place he did not belong. The dragon has used the intervening decades to craft a new empire, one with a far larger population than his old one. I’m weary of hearing my demon friends grumble about the new management, and have persuaded a few of the more rebellious ones to join me in rescuing you.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Brand said, “Twenty years? We’ve barely been gone twenty minutes!”
“I informed you earlier that time isn’t constant between the various realms,” said Walker. He spun the wheel hard to the left.
“Where are we going?” shouted Gale.
They splashed into a broad river between smoking black banks of gravel. For an instant, given the horrid heat that wrapped around her, Sorrow thought they were riding on a lava flow back on the Isle of Fire, and expected the boat to burst into flames. The sky above was a writhing mass of angry clouds, crackling with lightning.
“The river!” Jetsam called out as he leaned overboard. “It’s pure blood!”
“Nonsense,” Walker said with a giggle. “Nothing here is pure.”
“This isn’t blood,” Sage said as she looked around the landscape. “It’s memories!”
“You’ve good eyes,” said Walker. “What else would fill the rivers here? Nothing burns its way down a parched throat like memories.”
Sorrow went to Slate’s side and took his hand. He squeezed her fingers gently as he stared down into the red currents lapping the hull.
“I’ve never felt such thirst,” he whispered. “Even knowing all that I now know of my origins, I still ache for memories.”
She placed her fingers on his chin and turned his face toward her. She stood on tiptoes to kiss him gently. “We both have a fresh chance to make new memories.” She looked across the wasteland. “Though, I admit, making good ones in a place like this might prove to be a challenge.”
Bigsby climbed up the rigging for a better look. “I give up,” he said. “Where the hell are we?”
Walker’s fingers slipped from the wheel as he fell to the deck, laughing as tears ran down his cheeks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Maxey lives in Hillsborough, NC with his lovely bride Cheryl and a clowder of unruly cats. He is the author of the
Bitterwood
fantasy trilogy,
Bitterwood
,
Dragonforge
, and
Dragonseed
, as well as the superhero novels
Nobody Gets the Girl
and
Burn Baby Burn
. His short fiction has appeared in dozens of anthologies and magazines such as
Asimov’s
and
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show
. The best of these stories appears in the collection
There is No Wheel
. For more information about James, visit dragonprophet.blogspot.com.
The warrior woman known as Infidel is legendary for her superhuman strength and skin tough as chain mail. She’s made few friends during her career as a sword-for-hire, and many powerful enemies. Following the death of her closest companion, Infidel finds herself weary of life as a mercenary and sets her eyes on one final prize that will allow her to live out the rest of her days in luxury, the priceless treasure trove of Greatshadow.
Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire. His malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every flickering candle, patiently waiting to devour victims careless with even the smallest flame. The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the quest who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who dream only of Greatshadow’s vast wealth. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?
Greatshadow
is the first book in an exciting new adventure series from a master of dragon fantasy.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
