Dragon Aster Trilogy

10: SNOW SERPENTS



With Tenu’s grip on the Atrum, Kas had more or less been thrown out of his conquest of it by those loyal to the Order of Vanir’s reign. To Tenu, he was just a missing piece with the Sanctus’ Custos and his father’s blood. He had sworn that he would never ally with Vanir, but he had never expected that Tenu would put him right where his father had left off.

Kas was too used to being in charge, for he had never had to obey anyone or so much as be asked to—until now. But it gave him the chance to worry about his sister, which included taking the Curse as far away from her as possible. In all likelihood, Damek would find a way to make use of the Curse on his back in a different fashion than he had originally intended for Sybl. But he didn’t know how long he could hold out for, as the more Aragmoth died, the weaker he felt himself become. Aster’s Fate would be his own, only sooner.

“Lord Kas? Are you alright?”

Kas frowned at his mentor, Jru. He was not getting used to his new title very well.

“So many goddesses, so little time,” one of Helios’ sons laughed from where they continued their trudge through the snow towards the Efereal Mountains. “You have by far the best problems in the world, Master Kas.”

Kas wasn’t sharing the auburn phelan’s amusement by it all. It was one thing to pray to the caels for some help; it was another thing entirely to deal with them directly. He pondered if it might have been easier if they were all males, who didn’t make the simpler things so excruciatingly complicated.

“Lord Kas!” another of Helios’ Pack cried to him. Kas looked his way as a serpent shot up from the snow behind where the phelan ran back to them. Rener was quickly overtaken and pierced with the front canines from the giant snow snake and then dragged into the hole in the ice.

Kas’ Pack ran to rescue him, and he looked around for any more enemies. Serpents were smart enough to not take on a whole Pack of phelan alone. When Helios’ Pack dragged the creature onto the snow and tore it apart, its brutal death was proof to why. But everything was going to go from bad to worse, as the phelan who touched the blood of the serpent began to act odd. Even stranger was how Rener was now attacking them with snaps of teeth like they were the enemy. The blood of the serpent was poisoned with the Aeger, and now it was coursing through the veins of most of the Pack.

Jru quickly took up Kas’ side, as he called the untainted ones from the attack to him. Then he led the run away from the poisoned ones while they were still disorientated. The phelan exchanged attacks for a while between each other, before turning their rage towards where Kas and his uninfected party fled. “Master Kas, what’s going on?” Jru asked in worry.

“The Aeger in the chimera’s blood has poisoned them. We have to outlast it while it burns out of their system.” Kas ran faster, as a large shadow passed by from under the ice. But it wasn’t from one creature, as several snow serpents burst from the ice and directly into their path.

Kas dodged to the side as one emerged from under him. He let out an angry snarl as the serpents surrounded them, seemingly coordinating their next move to happen at once. In the least, it had the effect of keeping the vicious temper of the poisoned ones in his Pack occupied.

“I’ve never seen snow serpents do this before,” Jru panted, as his black phelan form took up Kas’ side.

Before they could count what might be their last moments, a howl went out from the direction of the Efereal Mountains. They looked to where several Custos ran to help them.

Kas sent his teeth for the serpent closest to him, as the Pack collided with the snow serpents. His prey whipped about violently, before Kas had torn enough flesh from the white snake to bleed it to a stop. Another came at him and its tail tripped his legs out from under him, dropping him to the snow. He pulled his black paws under him and scrambled out of the way as its tail came down like a club where he had been a breath before.

The rest of the Pack picked their targets, as their extra numbers helped to drive the maddened creatures off, leaving only the crazed ones of their own to be dealt with.

Kas looked to the Pack that had been poisoned as they began to recover from the tainted blood. He spat out the blood that he had taken from his target to the ground, realizing then that it didn’t seem to affect him at all.

Jru made sure he was alright, before going to the phelan who had come from the Efereal Mountains. “Where are the rest of you?”

“We left them in the mountains, hoping that you would come to escort us and not the other way around. But please tell me that the Caelestis is with you.”

“No, she is not,” Kas replied, but he alone was grateful that she wasn’t in harm’s way.

“There are many chimeras who need to be healed before they resort to killing us like these ones,” the phelan continued. “I think the only reason they haven’t already is because Nephena has taken control.”

Kas let out a long sigh, fearing that his peace made with the Tribe might not exist anymore without Xirel in charge.

The Callers they had brought with them slowly began to restore order to the phelan and some of them resorted to purring to create the calm they wanted. But they went silent when a lion-like roar went out from the direction of the Efereal Mountains.

“Oh that’s bad. I think Nephena is officially and irreversibly pissed,” a brown phelan said with a shudder.

“Nephena,” Kas confirmed. He feared that if she lost the fight against the Aeger, they might never return to Atrum City without the whole mountain coming down on them first. Just what extent of a mess has my sister made this time?