Cursed Bones

chapter 21



Abigail was pacing. The sun had just slipped past the horizon on the last day before the winter solstice. Tomorrow was the day Zuhl would perform his yearly sacrifice, giving over her life to the darkness in exchange for another year of life without aging.

She knew Alexander was working on her rescue. She trusted her brother to do everything within his power. What she wasn’t sure about was whether he would be able to help her. He was so far away with only his newly discovered and untested magic at his disposal.

“Hi, Abby.”

She spun around at hearing the familiar voice.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t you?” she said.

Alexander shrugged. “I had to make some preparations.”

“Not to sound ungrateful, but Zuhl’s going to sacrifice me tomorrow,” Abigail said. “Any chance you have a plan to get me out of here before then?”

“They’re coming right now,” Alexander said. “Push your bed over to the south side of the room, then tip it over and hide behind it. Hurry, you don’t have much time.”

“Now you tell me,” Abigail said, going to work on moving the bed. As she shoved it into place, she heard the muffled roar of a drakini from outside her tower. Moments later the temperature of the room fell precipitously, ice forming on the northern wall. She glanced back before turning her bed over and scurrying around behind it.

Seconds later the frozen wall shattered, sending stones flying across the room in every direction and opening the tower to the sky. A horn sounded in the distance and was immediately answered by another. The alarm had been raised.

Ixabrax landed on the breach, extending his head into the room as the door was thrown open and guards started to enter. The first man to cross the threshold stopped in his tracks and stared at Ixabrax eyeing him from a distance of only a few feet. He backed away slowly.

“Abigail!” Anatoly shouted from his perch on the dragon’s neck. “Hurry!”

She was up and running in a blink. Anatoly caught her outstretched hand and hoisted her onto the dragon. Two drakini flew behind them, both breathing frost that fell harmlessly on Magda’s shield.

“Go!” Anatoly shouted as soon as Abigail was seated between two of Ixabrax’s back spikes.

When the dragon launched into the sky, two drakini attacked, attempting to tear his wing membranes. Ixabrax tucked his wings in and fell into a steep dive toward the battlements, freeing himself of the drakini and forcing them to break off or risk plummeting to the ground. At the last moment, Ixabrax pulled up hard and turned north.

Abigail felt the crushing pull of gravity as Ixabrax thrust against the air to gain altitude. Behind them, a number of drakini were taking flight in pursuit. Farther behind, the roar of a dragon echoed from the battlements.

“My sire,” Ixabrax said.

Abigail would never have believed that she might hear a hint of fear in a dragon’s voice.

“Fly north,” Anatoly said. “Head for the cave where we found you.”

Ixabrax adjusted course without a word.

While Magda was focused on casting a spell, Anatoly handed Abigail the Thinblade. She looked at him with a fierce smile, then slipped her hand through the thong on the hilt and strapped the belt around her waist.

A dozen or more drakini were in pursuit, but they couldn’t keep up with Ixabrax. The other dragon could, however. Abigail looked back and saw a blue dragon almost half again as big as Ixabrax flying higher and faster, gaining on them with every stroke of its enormous wings. Riding atop the terrifying beast was Zuhl, although Abigail was certain it wasn’t the real Zuhl but another simulacrum. She suspected that the reclusive mage hadn’t actually set foot outside of Whitehall in centuries.

Zuhl released a spell, sending a shard of ice six feet long and a foot thick toward them with frightening speed. It struck Magda’s shield with such force that it exploded, sending splinters of ice in every direction and collapsing her shield in the process but harming no one.

She finished her spell a moment later. Dozens of blue orbs appeared nearby, floating around Ixabrax in a dizzying array of erratic orbits.

Zuhl sent another shard of ice at them but one of Magda’s orbs broke off from its orbit, streaking toward Zuhl’s spell and meeting it in the open sky, shattering it into powder.

Ixabrax narrowly dodged a jagged mountain ridge before diving sharply to evade the onslaught from above. Zuhl unleashed another spell, or possibly expended some enchanted item, tossing a stone into the air and pointing toward Ixabrax. When the stone reached its apex, it burst into dozens of crystalline splinters, exploding in all directions before arcing toward Ixabrax, each trailing a streamer of unnatural black smoke.

Magda’s protective orbs rose to the defense, streaking toward the incoming barrage of missiles, each orb targeting a stone splinter with unerring precision and shattering it into powder … but there weren’t enough orbs.

The rain of missiles crashed into Ixabrax, several punching through his wings, leaving tattered holes in the flesh membrane stretching between the bone struts, several more glancing off his scales. Two struck Anatoly in the back, shattering against his dragon-plate armor as he hunched over Abigail to protect her from the sudden attack. One pierced Magda’s shoulder, driving cleanly through her body and ricocheting off Ixabrax’s scales, trailing a streamer of blood in its wake. She gasped in startled agony, losing the focus necessary to finish the spell she’d begun casting.

Ixabrax dove for the chasm, narrowly escaping the unnaturally cold breath of his own sire as he crashed into the opposite wall of the rift in the glacier and fell, slowing his descent with a combination of his unfurled wings and claws against the frozen wall, creating a spray of powdered ice that served to both obscure their position and lower the temperature even further.

Abigail held on for dear life, the cold penetrating into her bones, her lips and knuckles turning blue while her mind raced, formulating a strategy to defend against the coming assault.

They hit hard, jarring them all and eliciting a gasp of pain from Magda. Ixabrax wasted no time carrying them into the cave, away from the threat of falling ice or an attack from above.

Abigail quickly dismounted while Anatoly helped Magda to the ground. She muttered a few words and a pair of glowing orbs appeared above them, softly illuminating the cave. She was bleeding seriously and looked to be nearly at the end of her strength.

“What now, Human?” Ixabrax growled.

“Now we’re in a confined space where we might have a chance against whatever Zuhl sends against us,” Anatoly said, wrapping a bandage around Magda’s shoulder.

“I cannot best my sire in single combat,” Ixabrax said.

“You don’t have to,” Abigail said, drawing the Thinblade. “All you have to do is give me a chance to cut that collar off.”

Anatoly finished bandaging Magda and helped her to a place behind a large rock before he spun his axe up into his hands and faced the cave entrance with Abigail and Ixabrax.

The air grew cold and still, tension rising as they waited for the assault, but it didn’t come.

“I don’t understand,” Abigail said. “He was right behind us, why isn’t he attacking?”

“Might have something to do with that sword of yours,” Anatoly said.

A moment later they heard drakini coming down the chasm.

“Dragon draught,” Magda said. “Drink it, quickly.”

Anatoly tossed a vial of the magical liquid to Abigail and trotted back to Magda with another, drinking a third as he took up a position at the side of the cave entrance opposite Abigail.

The drakini came quickly, several rushing into the cave and breathing frost in all directions at once. The temperature fell dramatically but the dragon draught tempered the numbing chill of the unnatural beasts’ breath.

Abigail cut the first drakini in half. Anatoly cleaved the wing from another. Ixabrax lunged into the fight, snapping at the next and crushing it with his powerful jaws while simultaneously whipping his tail over his head and stabbing another through the chest.

The next crashed into Anatoly, driving him to the ground and pinning him with its weight. Anatoly gained leverage a moment later and heaved the beast off of his chest, rolling over on top of the drakini and taking its head in his hands. The creature clawed at him frantically as Anatoly repeatedly beat the back of its head into the frozen ground.

Another rose into the air in an arc that would bring it down on Anatoly’s back, but just as it reached the apex, Magda’s light-lance burned a hole through its chest. It died in midair, falling on Anatoly and pinning him atop the dead drakini, brains oozing from its shattered skull.

Abigail charged the next drakini. It swiped at her with a taloned hand but she ducked under the attack, slashing back and up with the Thinblade, taking the drakini’s arm at the elbow, then bringing her sword back across the beast’s body diagonally and cutting it in half from shoulder to hip.

Ixabrax lunged past her, crushing the next two underfoot as he clamped his jaws down on the final drakini.

Anatoly regained his feet and surveyed the scene.

“Well fought,” Alexander said, appearing in the middle of the room. “Zuhl has retreated. He sent the drakini instead, and there are more forces on the way, probably half an hour out. Can you move?”

Magda staggered to her feet, her face ashen white from loss of blood. “If we are to leave this place, then we need to move now, before the dragon draught wears off.”

“I don’t understand,” Abigail said. “Why didn’t Zuhl come after us himself?”

“Cowardice and evil are character traits that are invariably bound together,” Ixabrax said.

“I think Ixabrax is right,” Alexander said. “He didn’t want to risk a fight in such tight quarters. Besides, he has a sacrifice to prepare for.”

“Whatever the reason, let’s take advantage of it,” Anatoly said.

“Agreed,” Ixabrax said.

“Several dozen miles to the north is a cave with a warm spring nearby and a grove of trees,” Alexander said. “It’s the best place I’ve been able to find for you to hide while we plan our attack.”

Alexander opened his eyes, ignoring the slight pain behind his forehead, and turned to Jack who was nodding off in the chair next to his bed. “You awake?”

“Sort of,” Jack said. “Anything new?”

“Anatoly and Magda managed to get Abigail out of Zuhl’s fortress.”

“So she’s safe,” Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Alexander said. “Magda’s hurt and they don’t have much support, especially considering what they’re planning.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, sitting forward, completely awake now.

“It was part of the deal,” Alexander said. “Now that Abigail’s been rescued, they’re going to try to free the rest of the dragons that Zuhl has enslaved.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jack asked, surging to his feet. “Hasn’t she been through enough?”

“It was the only way I could get her out, Jack. I needed Ixabrax, and he wouldn’t help us unless we agreed to help his family.”

“So now that she’s free, you expect her to waltz back into Zuhl’s stronghold and cut a bunch of dragons loose?”

“Pretty much,” Alexander said.

“When does this get to be too much for you, Alexander?” Jack asked, walking out of the Wizard’s Den before Alexander could answer.

Chloe buzzed into sight. “He’ll come around, My Love.”

“I know. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s held it together for as long as he has. I know how hard it is to be away from the ones you love, especially knowing that they’re in danger when you’re safe.”

Anja stuck her snout into the Wizard’s Den. “I don’t understand why he’s mad at you. Isn’t he your friend?” In recent days she had discovered how to make human words while in her true form and was ever eager to make use of her new talent.

“Yes, one of the best friends I’ve ever had,” Alexander said. “But he’s in love with my sister and she’s in great danger right now and there’s nothing he can do to help her. It’s hard for him.”

“Is it not hard for you?” Anja asked.

“Yes, but I can go to her and talk with her and help her,” Alexander said. “Jack can’t. He’s stuck here with me, knowing that Abigail’s life is at risk, and it eats at him.”

“I can see how he would feel that way,” Anja said. “If you were elsewhere and in harm’s way, I would be distraught.”

Alexander closed his eyes but didn’t respond.

“I still don’t understand how you do that,” Anja said. “Be somewhere other than here, that is.”

“Honestly, neither do I,” Alexander said. “The best I can do is to call it magic.”

Anja snorted. “I guess I can understand that, sort of. I don’t really know how the shapeshift spell made me into a young woman, but it did.”

“Magic is like that,” Alexander said. “Some wizards understand the principles they’re using while others, like me, just wield the power at our disposal.”

Anja was silent for several moments before she spoke again, this time much softer, almost timidly.

“Where will we go when you’re healed?” she asked.

Chloe buzzed into a ball of light and vanished.

Alexander took a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking Anja in the eye. “Your mother and I have spoken of this and we agree. You will stay here when I leave.”

“No!” Anja said.

“Yes. Where I’m going you wouldn’t be safe.”

“I don’t care. If you’re in danger, then I want to be there with you.”

“Anja, you can’t. You’re just a child.”

“I’m a dragon! I can go where I choose.”

“Yes, but you won’t be safe,” Alexander said. “More than that, you sort of attract attention. Where I’m going, I’ll need to be able to hide. I can’t do that with you.”

“But I love you,” Anja said.

“I know, and I love you, too,” Alexander said. “That’s why I want you to stay here where you’ll be safe. I can’t protect you out there.”

“I don’t need protecting … I’m a dragon. But I could protect you.”

“I know you think that,” Alexander said, “but danger isn’t always something you can confront directly. I have a lot of very powerful enemies and they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you to get to me.”

“Not if I hurt them first,” Anja said.

“Anja, you’re so young,” Alexander said. “And for all your youth, you have great power, but you don’t yet possess the wisdom to wield that power well.”

“What if I shapeshift into a woman again?”

“You’d be even more vulnerable,” Alexander said. “Anja, I’m going to war. The moment I can walk without a cane, I’m going into enemy territory. As a human woman, you would be far too vulnerable, and I would be far too worried about your safety to do what I need to do.”

“Alexander, I can’t stand the idea of you being in harm’s way while I’m safe,” Anja said. “Please don’t put me through that.”

“I’m sorry, Anja, but I’d rather put you through that than see you get hurt,” Alexander said.

“I’m a dragon, I can take care of myself,” she said, withdrawing from the Wizard’s Den and launching into the evening sky.

Jack returned a few moments later, looking rather sheepish. “I’m sorry, he said.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Alexander said.

“But I do,” Jack said. “After all we’ve been through together, I have no cause to doubt you. I know you’d move the world to save Abigail. I just feel so helpless here.”

“I know,” Alexander said, “but I’m really glad you’re here.”

Jack smiled and sat down, nodding. “Me too. So what’s next?”

“Isabel. It’s about time I got back to helping her,” Alexander said.