Cursed Bones: Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Five (25 page)

“I don’t actually prefer humans,” he said, chewing, “but you’ll do in a pinch.”

“I suppose that’s good to know,” Anatoly said, dumping the contents of one man’s pouch onto the frozen ground. “Hey, what’s this?” he asked, holding up a vial of slightly blue liquid.

Magda frowned, shrugging and looking to Ixabrax.

“Dragon draught,” he said. “It’s made from the filings of dragon scales. When consumed, it will render you virtually immune from the effects of the cold for several hours.”

“I like the sound of that,” Anatoly said, working the stopper loose and drinking half of it before handing the vial to Magda. She quaffed the rest.

“Perhaps others are carrying more,” she said.

Anatoly nodded and went to work searching the men more thoroughly as he removed their armor and weapons, piling them to one side. He found five more vials of dragon draught.

Once they’d finished searching the dead, and Ixabrax had eaten his fill, Magda cast a spell over the pile of equipment. A dagger began to glow softly.

“Ah, this might be useful,” she said, retrieving the well-made blade and attaching it to her belt.

“What’s it do?” Anatoly asked.

She shrugged. “I’d have to cast many more spells to determine the effect of its enchantment … or I could simply stab someone with it.”

“Fair enough,” he said, chuckling. “Are we ready?”

Ixabrax belched, the noise reverberating down the narrow canyon.

“It’s nearly nightfall,” the dragon said. “We should attack soon.”

Alexander appeared in their midst.

Ixabrax reared back, slightly startled.

“Sounds like you’re ready to go,” he said.

“Indeed, Human,” Ixabrax said. “You have a habit of appearing from nowhere.”

“I’ve been watching and gathering information,” Alexander said.

“I don’t pretend to understand the scope of your wizardry, but I’ll accept your guidance … for now,” Ixabrax said.

“Good,” Alexander said, motioning to a small patch of empty ground. An image of
Whitehall
appeared. “I’ve been working on this all day. At first I couldn’t even make a ball of light appear but I find the more I use my illusion magic the more capable I become, though I’m still fairly limited in duration so I’ll make this quick.”

He pointed to a tower near the middle of the sprawling marble fortress. “Abigail is in the topmost room of this tower,” he said. “Breach the wall here on the north side. Make sure you hit it from this side only. If you strike from a different angle you could hurt her. She’ll be hiding behind some furniture and ready to go when you get there.”

“Understood,” Anatoly said. “Once we have her, then what?”

“Retreat into the wilds and hide while we formulate a plan to free Ixabrax’s family,” Alexander said. “I haven’t had time yet to scout their aerie or the surrounding defenses. Besides, Abigail’s going to need some time to get her bearings.”

Ixabrax eyed him suspiciously.

“Do not consider reneging on your word, Human,” he said.

“Not a chance, Dragon,” Alexander said. “Freeing your family will hurt Zuhl’s military capability more than anything else … and it also happens to be the right thing to do. Your enslavement is a profound violation of the Old Law and I intend to set it right.”

“We shall see,” Ixabrax said.

“Given your experience with Zuhl, your suspicions are understandable but unnecessary,” Alexander said. “It’s nearly dark … you should begin your attack soon. Once you have Abigail, I’ll lead you to an empty cave farther north where you can rest and prepare for the next strike.”

He faded from view as Anatoly and Magda climbed onto the dragon’s back.

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.”