Chapter 34 #2
There was no way she was being associated with wyrmocs. Now he was adding insult to injury. ‘Fuck you!’ she spat, her outburst falling on deaf ears, as the king continued to rejoice in the madness he had created.
The cracks in the ground were getting wider, the sky darkening, the brine in the air overpowered by an odour of soot and burnt metal.
Scarlen pushed back the pain of betrayal, as she couldn’t display hurt or fear, nor could she concentrate on her father any longer.
It was the War Zone, and she needed to have her wits about her.
She needed to survive. Just wake me from this nightmare.
It was something she would say when dumped in a sandy forest by her father as a child, but no one came to help her then. Why would they now?
Within the next flash from up above, the figure of a huge brown bear leapt in front of her, his teeth bared, his growl as earth-shattering as the magick below.
Rain clouds came from nowhere, and the hiss of the sea sounded closer, then they came. Wingless, serpent-like dragons the colour of iron, the scent of decay, as big as a stag, a deadly saliva coating their dagger teeth.
They slithered and snaked across the sandy clifftop as others rose from the beach below, and muffled screams in the distance came from the people attending the ball, along with a shrill from the throats of the beasts.
Scarlen had her own battle cry, one she’d not heard before.
Ripping up through her chest, violent and sore, a burning sensation stirred acid and bile, her stomach feeling torn in two, her heart pounding too fast, her skin itching, her body quaking with the cliff.
‘Argh!’ she yelled, clutching her throat, and to her utter amazement, a whoosh of fire shot out of her mouth.
With eyes wide, she slapped a hand over her warm lips, but before she could move again, her body contorted, and the next thing she saw was the black arrow tail of a dragon that seemed to be hers.
The wyrmocs wriggled back, the deep dark sockets of their eyes locked on their enemy.
Bear turned to human and grabbed two daggers from his boots, his nostrils flaring, his peripheral vision on the large silver dragon to his side, his main focus on killing the wyrmocs before they could flee.
‘Are you trying to destroy me?’ he roared at Scarlen, who cocked her head.
‘I don’t mean because you’re a dragon. You left me, Scars.
Fucking upped and left.’ He banged the hilt of a dagger into his solid chest with a thump.
‘My heart can’t take it, you hear me in there? ’
Overwhelmed by her own problems, she glanced down to see thick silver scales made her four legs, and big claws poked out from her feet. She wanted to scream, but only fire shot out with no aim or control. Bear had to duck, and one wyrmoc exploded on impact.
The king yelled and waved for her to stop, but Scarlen had no idea what she was doing. ‘Control them.’ He motioned at the beasts. ‘They are mine.’
Her black tail swung around, making her jump, certain it was going to whack her in the face, and as her body spun, more of the deadly creatures rose from the sand.
Renwah held both arms aloft, ordering the wyrmocs to bow to him. ‘I am your master. I brought you here before your time. Join me in taking this land.’
One of the beasts approached him, inhaling his scent, tilting its head, inquisitiveness on display.
‘Yes,’ said the king. ‘I invite you to work for me. To—’
The wyrmoc bared its fangs and lunged at the king, biting his head clean off his neck. The king dropped at once, then turned to ash, and Scarlen roared and ran at the creature on instinct, fire spitting out in all directions.
Bear yelled his own cry as he started to fight a wyrmoc with his daggers, swinging and ducking, aiming for any sign of weakness, his growl vibrating through each flexing muscle.
Before Scarlen knew what was happening, she was human again, her frenzied state reaching for her father’s ashes as they blew in a breeze.
‘No. No,’ she cried, frantically snatching at grey dust that did nothing but fall through her fingers.
She turned to the witches for help, but they both darted inside, leaving a trail of purple smoke behind them.
Bear pinned a wyrmoc, its saliva singeing the material at his shoulder as the thing spat out, its shrill ear-splitting.
He pulled back, then plunged a dagger across its throat, severing its head, and the beast exploded, leaving guts and black gunge splattered across the ground and all over Bear, who froze with a moment of disgust before having to fight another approaching.
Scarlen ran for the potion room, thinking the book might hold the answer to bring her father back, kill the wyrmocs, do something.
She couldn’t think straight, her stomach was clenched, her body on fire.
It was all too surreal, as though lost deep in a dream, unable to wake, unable to control what was to happen next.
Browsing through the last pages did no good, as the ink just told of the fight taking place with two knights.
Perhaps if she chanted the Order the correct way, it might reverse the spell or something.
She was no witch, but it was all she could think of, so clutching the leather-bound to her chest, she ran back outside.
‘From the fire I rose …’
Gusts of sand clouded the clifftop, the outline of Bear in battle just about showing through, the shine from his weapons glimmering in between the lightning bolts.
Scarlen tried to read the Order, but sand swept across the pages, sinking into the groove of the book. Blinking away the particles blowing in the wind, she moved further into the legion of wyrmocs, her head light, body weightless.
‘I battle to save …’
‘Scars!’ Bear yelled, but his voice was muffled.
She looked his way, then dodged a lurching creature, slamming the book into its face before running.
If she could get to Bear, she could use one of his daggers, then they’d both be armed.
Stumbling over her own feet, she cursed as the book escaped her and another beast came.
She scrambled forwards, her fingertips deep in the sand, her lips covered in the grains, choking, forcing one hand across her mouth and nose.
Grabbing the book, she outran the wyrmoc, then slammed into the sandstone wall that crumbled on impact.
‘Let them die. Let them die,’ she continued to read aloud.
‘Scars!’ Bear’s voice, so near yet so far. ‘Get to the boat.’
Barely able to see as the wind whipped up more golden granules, she turned sharply, holding the book for dear life, and ran in the direction of the rocky steps that led down to the beach, but her footing slipped, and she felt nothing beneath her but air.
Everything slowed as she descended towards the wild waves smashing into the coves below. She could just about see Bear’s eyes wide with fear in the golden mist and hear his faint cry on the clifftop, and she wanted to reach for him, hold him not the book.
The book.
It heated, then started to glow, and Scarlen could do no more than plead as she fell to her doom. ‘Save me. Please save me.’
A spark flew out of the pages, diving beneath her to open up into a large ring of fire, roaring, deafening, its flames intense, deadly, sucking Scarlen through its wide middle, where she disappeared.