Part IV (the end)

Zmiana imienia wzieta pod uwage

- - -
The commander caught some movement with the corner of his eye. Several of the creatures were all headed in one direction. Some were limping and trying to sneak by, others rushed straight across the courtyard. He pushed down on the sword finishing off the creature that just a moment ago was wheezing for air at his feet. He would not let any get away. They didn’t come so far to leave survivors. A familiar warmth spread from the tattoo on his chest.
There weren’t many creatures left outside and most seemed engaged by one of his men. He spotted another group and decided to quickly follow it. They were heading towards the centre of the village were the large ivory tower loomed over some sort of a temple. Chasing after them he didn’t pay much attention to the decor of the building. The beast were agile, even the ones that were hurt, so he had to focus and run quickly to keep up with them on his stubby legs.
Staying on their tail he navigated through a maze of mostly empty hallways. At one point they started to slope down and soon turned into what looked more like burrowed tunnels than a man made structure. His dwarven senses confirmed that they were going underground and deeper with every step.
After the last turn, the tunnel he was running down opened into a large cavern at the end. He was getting close to one of the hurt beasts in front of him, treading carefully not to slip on the trail of blood it left. As he left the tunnel his sword swished through the air narrowly missing the creature. It was then he realized that it took a leap into the empty space that filled the cave.
He almost fell in there as well. With arms waving at his sides he managed to regain balance, and only a few pebbles tumbled down instead. He watched the beasts spread their wings and fly, spiraling down to the bottom of the giant pit.
A quick check of the surroundings revealed narrow stairs carved into the wall of the cavern. Not wanting to waste time he started a fast decent to the bottom. He looked down every few steps to see what his pray was up to and if they weren’t running away into more tunnels. The way down was not short; he was only half way through and sweat was already soaking his clothes. Another group of creatures passed him, as they dove to the bottom, but he just smiled hearing more dwarven voices at the top of the stairs. They had the Draphonys cornered now.
“This way boys!” he shouted out to them and kept descending.
All the creatures formed a circle, or in fact several - one within another. There was easily over twenty of them. Facing inwards they all stood with their back straight and heads raised high. Each had a knife in one hand, and together they fell to their knees chanting something he did not understand. With one swift move they pierced their hearts with the blades.
“Mother avenge us!” their cry echoed through the pit, as they took their last breath.
The commander did not understand this call. To him it sounded like savage gibberish, a strange, primitive language. As he reached the bottom, and waded through their blood soaking into the floor, he felt angry. His heart pounded from running and his whole body sticky from sweat. He felt cheated out of an opportunity to kill this dragon seed himself.
He kicked one of the bodies, and only then noticed a row of alabaster statues decorating the bottom of the pit. The sculptures represented the creatures in various poses. The commander looked at them and could swear they were mocking him. Poking at the fact that he was too late. Needing to vent the rage that was gathering inside him he punched the closest one straight between the eyes.
As the head shattered, bursting into tiny pieces the statue bled. Pleased with himself he destroyed every single one of them with his bare hands. The tattoo on his chest pulsed with satisfaction.
* * *
Urim was quite annoyed with the commander. It was obvious that those from the scouting expedition would have a guaranteed spot in the battle. He didn’t argue with the straw drawing for the rest of the army. With the small numbers of the enemy it was logical to surprise them with a smaller attack squad, then to blow their cover and send everybody in. After all Lady Ducilla could only power so many crystals. He could live if it was the fate deciding for him that he had to stay.
Instead he was left in charge, chosen to supervise the ship in the commander’s absence. On any other day he would consider it an honor, but at that moment it was such an anti-climax to the whole journey for him. No dragon and no fight for him. They didn’t even unpack some of the more powerful weapons buried in the hull. He remembered the commander mumbling something about not using an axe to kill a fly.
He stared longingly towards the island. The attack had been going or for a while, the battle horns mixed with a strange gong sound that the creatures must have used. Every now and then he could even hear the faint echos of screams and battle cries if the wind blew his way. He wondered how they looked up close. Sure he saw the sketches and read the notes, but it never was the same as meeting a beast face to face. Especially as this was as close to a dragon he could hope to encounter. At the same time he couldn’t but feel disappointed that they came all this way just for some sort of Draphony cult, a bit peculiar subset of Draphonys, but still far from a real dragon.
Something must have been set on fire, as smoke rose above the island and a yellowish glow rose above the treetops. After a while the noises started to quiet down and the gong sound stopped. He was expecting victory horns soon.
Instead the air started vibrating as if with heat, but the temperature didn’t change. All of a sudden everything got a bit brighter. It took him a few moments to realize that the light was not coming from the moon, nor the village. It was the water below him that was glowing with a pinkish light that grew stronger with every second. The clear water soon turned into a golden violet shade. He could see the dark mass forming the bottom of the island. The shimmering light seeped through cracks in the rock which disappeared in the depths, way beyond where even his eyes could reach.
Then it came, like ten thousand thunders all at once, a roar so deafening, that he saw the cloaking bubble around the shver-ship burst as if it was made of soap. He turned around and looked up to find Lady Ducilla on her knees with her hands over the ears. He could see blood dripping down her arms and her face twisted with pain, as well as her open mouth, screaming her lungs out. As Urim was always hard at hearing and had spent plenty of time near battle horns, the damage to his ears wasn’t as bad.
He turned round towards the island again, slightly disoriented by the pounding in his ears. All the hairs on his body stood up as a wave of Tempest washed over him and he realized the rock under the island was no rock at all. He was staring the beast straight in the eye, a golden eye that was the size of a ship. It was piercing right through him from the depths of the water.
As the Tempest rippled through space, a storm formed out of nowhere and surrounded the island. Rabid thunder and lighting blended together with another roar. The whole island shook at it’s core, cliff pieces fell off into the water, flocks of birds fled in panic as trees collapsed like dominoes. Vicious rain whipped the ship and the sea rocked it despite the ballast that kept them in place the last few days. Urim had to hold on tight to the ship railings to not fall over board, a few other dwarves flew right past him. Then the shver-ship tilted back into a level position.
Tempest was everywhere around him, thick, sticky, grasping at any living thing or object. Strange things started to happen. He noticed some nearby pipes shift into snakes and disappear in the depths of the shver-ship. The sword at his side turned to sand and softly landed in a pile at his feet. His sight suddenly worsened, his vision became blurry. His ears told him though there were more strange things still going on.
“Urim.” Something whispered his name, as if calling him. He scanned his surroundings trying to locate the source. Confused, he found no one.
“Urim!” the voice grew angry and loud, accusing. But it wasn’t just his name. Now that the voice was louder he heard what seemed a whisper of other names. It was addressing every single person on the ship. Or at least the ones that were still on board and alive.
“Urim!” they were all named, personally held responsible in front of this invisible wild rage. It was that golden eye beneath the water that stared straight into his soul.
He tried to turn around and run away. Run anywhere but here. Then the third roar came. His abused ears started to bleed giving in to the damage. A ghostly, milk white woman appeared in front of him. Her eyes glowing like pure gold at noon, Tempest was swirling around her, almost radiating from the figure. “Urim!” the deep, thundering voice did not suite the ghost, he thought as it howled his name. But she did not wait for him to respond, her hand, impossibly quick, punched straight into his chest. It went right through his tattoo of a dwarf slaying a serpent. With his blurry vision he noticed several others on the deck, including Lady Ducilla, facing an identical ghost, each with a hand elbow deep in the chest of the person in front of them. Then the ghosts all at once squished the beating hearts with their bare hands.
* * *
All her children gone. Morea Erregina swung her tail with spite, plunging it into the middle of the dwarven vessel. Murderers. Like a toy she sent it crashing into the ocean’s bottom. Filled with anger, rage and inconsolable sorrow she was ready to unfurl her wings, break out from underneath this land and declare war on the whole world. Ungrateful mortals, after all she has done for the Crimson and Azure world.
The memories of fights she had with her own kind rushed to the surface of her mind. They were pessimistic, defeated before the war even ended. They told here there was no point to saving the mortals or maybe even the world. She argues fiercely then, tried to make her case. They blamed her optimism on her young age and inexperience. What could she know after only a few centuries, they used to say.
Maybe they were right all along. She was shaking with fury and the whole island shook with her. How could she have expected to make those simple beings realise their mistake. But soon her anger started to turn into anguish and sorrow. She brought her children into this. Still, she would not leave things like this.
She was getting ready to take the first angry beat with her wings, but right then she sensed something. Could it be possible? Was all not lost? She felt a faint connection, coming from two opposite directions, it was weak and frail. She missed it at first as they were separated, which she was not expecting.
She calmed down a bit - three little ones must have survived, they could still come together. Although she could barely sense their sleepy young minds Morea gently reached out to them and sent a short message filled with warmth “Stay strong.” She closed her wings under the water sending a tide across the ocean. As the storm raged above her head she decided to give the world one more chance. She shut her eyes, and went to sleep dreaming of the time when she would reunite with her children. Maybe the elders weren’t right after all.
* * *
Thorar almost fell as he reached the end of the strange passage way. His companions followed shortly behind him. They were back in the Southern Lands, near the edge of one of the forest tribes. He would recognize these weird, shifting lands anywhere. The creature didn’t get far, he quickly spotted it running towards the trees.
Burkin’s axe flew right past him, as the other dwarf took a shot at the beast. He missed. For a moment Thorar thought he saw something in the bushes nearby. His companions were already running towards the creature, so he ignored the feeling and caught up with them.
Saghal tried to take a swing at it, but the creature turned around swiftly and grabbed the sword in its hand. Blood dripped down the blade from the cut. Thorar noticed its blue eyes lighting up. Almost immediately ice covered the blade spreading from the hand of the beast. Saghal quickly let go of the sword, while Burkin was going to slash the creature from the other side. Yet again it was quick to grab the blade. With both arms of the creature occupied Thorar charged straight at its heart, his sword went through the first time. The light in its eyes dimmed and as the frost disappeared it fell to the ground.
Thorar looked at the body. If not for the wings and tail it could pass for a pretty woman. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something didn’t feel right. As if they missed something. Then a shine caught his eye, he bent down to find a crystal around her neck. Seeing as he dealt the final blow he was quick to claim his prize.
“Maybe we should split this?” Burkin stared at the jewel almost whisking it out of Thorar’s hand with his eyes.
“Give it a rest Burkin, he killed the Draphony, it’s his to keep.” Saghal said picking up his sword.
Thorar’s thoughts exactly, but glad that someone else said it out loud he remained silent. Lost in thought he was staring at the shrubs growing nearby. Something rustled inside and for a moment a pair of light blue eyes stared right at him. They were gone once he blinked. It was probably a child, like the others he couldn’t save earlier, he thought.
“Was that the only one that came through?” Burkin asked.
“Yes” Thorar lied.