Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising (17 page)

This is
amazing
,
terrifying but amazing
, he
thought.

Karven neared the cliff’s entrance and
beat his wings hard to line up for a clean entry. A wave smashed
into the cliff face and sent water at them before they burst
through the watery wall and entered the caverns.

Makya took in the sight of the
breathtakingly beautiful crystals lighting up the caverns around
him.

“
I am impressed, great
dragon king,
very
impressed,” he shouted as he gestured to the glittering
walls, “And thank you sincerely for getting us here safely,” he
puffed with relief.

Karven snorted jets of fire to clear
the water from his nose, and smiled in approval.

Two patrol dragons near the entrance
flew to join their king’s side, visibly enthused by his return.
They were flying at amazing speeds through the tight caverns;
Karven was too close to saving Nymira now to possibly allow himself
to slow down.

“
I am here, your king has
returned!”
said Karven, sending his
message to every dragon on the island.

When they flew out of the tight
caverns into the underground home of dragons, the sound and heat of
dragons breathing fire in celebration was immense. Karven caught
sight of Vartan, Trisa and Leon waving to welcome them as he
flapped his giant wings and set the heavy crate down in the centre
of the cavern with a solid thud.

He took a quick moment to bend down,
allowing Mayka to dismount.

The trader wasted no time and released
his dishevelled bird Shanka from his coat and allowed her to climb
up to his shoulder before quickly handing the artefact to Karven.
The dragon king hurried to Nymira’s side. His scales rattled and
shook from exhaustion and desperation.

Nobody uttered a word as they all
understood what needed to happen and watched intently as the dragon
king approached Nymira lying helplessly before him. Karven placed
the artefact near the pool’s edge and beckoned for Trisa, who
quickly approached.

“
I need you to hold this as
close to her heart as possible. She and I cannot both fit into the
pool of water,” said Karven.

Trisa picked up the artefact with the
greatest of care and said, “Of course.”

It was heavier than she expected and
she grunted with the weight of it. The artefact appeared to be a
closed shell of a creature similar to a turtle, but the shell
appeared to be naturally fused together. It did not look
particularly special and for a moment she wondered how this was
going to help Nymira.

As she carried the artefact, Trisa
suddenly felt something. Thumping inside was what sounded like a
heartbeat, but it was unlike any heart she had ever heard. Its
beats seemed to echo inside the shell and the rhythm was as if two
hearts beat within. She could also feel it through the shell, as if
it was fighting against its confinement.

She whispered, “By the
gods.”

Not daring to give in to curiosity and
bring it up to her ear to investigate, she stepped into the pool of
water and placed the artefact beside the dragon.

“
Ex unus pectus pectoris ut
alius vos tribuo vires redigo mortuus,
”
Karven chanted eagerly.

The artefact didn’t appear to react to
the spell.

Everybody edged closer as they waited
for something to happen. Only the sound of water dripping off the
dragon and the faint thumping from the artefact answered
them.

The dragon king’s voice
darkened as he chanted the spell desperately, “
Ex unus pectus pectoris ut alius vos tribuo vires redigo
mortuus.
”

Still, nothing happened.

Blowing fire into the air with both
anger and hurt, he yelled with all his might.

“
Ex unus pectus pectoris ut
alius vos tribuo vires redigo mortuus!
”

Only the sound of silence answered him
back. Karven dropped his head and his voice rasped and quivered.
“It was all for nothing!”

Trisa approached the dragon king
cautiously.

“
You have done
all
that you can…” she
began, when Vartan cut through her words and yelled excitedly,
“Karven,
look
!”

Beams of yellow light shot from the
shell as it slowly opened and a shiny yellow orb rose into the air
above them. It appeared to be quite small in size yet it lit up the
caverns, twinkling like a star in the sky. A glowing line as thin
as a hair tethered it to the opened shell, holding the orb in
place.

Everyone stared at it silently, unsure
of what would happen next. Karven looked to the orb in both
disbelief and hope, remembering the next instruction.

“
Ostendo nos vestri verus
vultus
” chanted Karven.

The orb hummed in response and pulsed
three times before exploding into a new form. What appeared to be a
genderless being with large bird-like wings now hovered in its
place. The angel was made of sparkling light and yet it had no
features.

It looked around, confused as to where
it was and its face snapped to look at the king of dragons. It
tugged at the line holding it to the artefact but could not break
from it.

The dragons appeared to be entranced
by its beauty and were unable to shift their gaze. Its powerful,
yet wondrous form was unlike anything seen in Marithia.

Karven circled the being
and said quietly, “So that is what an
angel
looks like.”

“
Quare vos accersitus
mihi?” boomed the angel’s voice. The voice burst into every ear in
Trahoterra,

It wants to know why I
summoned it
, thought Karven, thinking back
to the instructions given to him by Valdorians.

“
Ego benigne scisco vos
susicivus nostrum regina ex nex. Commodo, servo suus, vestri animus
est non absentis quod ero reverto vobis quondam vestri negotium est
universa, “ answered Karven, asking the angel to save his queen and
reassuring it that its soul still remained in its higher
plane.

The angel looked at Nymira’s body and
turned back to Karven. It appeared to focus on Karven’s mind and
cocked its head for a moment.

It descended to Nymira’s side and
appeared to reach through her scales, holding her heart gently and
looking to a section of the caverns that appeared empty.

“
She is far from life, but
she is not far from here. I can save her for you,” answered the
angel in its newly learned tongue, retracting its wings.

The audience quivered at the power in
its voice and they held their breaths at the sight of what happened
next.

The angel stepped through Nymira’s
scales although there was not a mark or wound to be seen by its
entry. Yellow sparkles shined on her scales and everyone stared at
the dragon queen, anticipating a response.

The line from the artefact, leading
into the dragon’s body, snapped with a thundery noise far greater
than any storm had produced.

Trisa gasped loudly and stared in
disbelief when she said, “By the…”

The same heartbeat that came from the
angel now thumped loudly inside their queen. The sparkles
disappeared and Nymira slowly rose to her feet, extended her wings
and shook off the water that held her.

The dragons erupted in celebratory
breaths of fire and Karven ran to her side. The two dragons wrapped
their necks around each other and laid their heads on each other’s
bodies, closing their eyes and smiling.

“
My love, you have finally
returned to us,” said Karven.

“
You have no idea
how
long
I have
been watching and waiting for this moment, thinking that I would be
lost to Marithia, forever,” replied Nymira.

She nudged Karven lovingly and then
turned to Trisa, whose tears flowed with both joy and relief. The
dragon queen gently unwound from Karven’s embrace and approached
Trisa and Vartan.

She lowered her head beside Trisa and
affectionately rubbed up against her side.

“
Trisa, I owe you more than
words could possibly express. All of our kind is indebted to your
efforts. But I will always hold a special place for you in my
heart,” said the dragon queen.

Vartan beamed, and Karven approached
him. The man of prophecy stood taller than he did before, his
muscles had grown considerably in strength, and his eyes had
changed in colour from brown to blue.

“
Vartan, it is good to see
you back with us again. I see that you have changed and swam with
mother dragon. I also sense that one of the gods’ spirit lives
within you,” said Karven.

“
It is a pleasure to see
you too, great dragon king. And you are right, but when do we begin
training with my new powers? I wish to discover what the spirit of
water can do.”

Vartan looked to the king as if he
were a boy with new toys to play with.

“
The gods do not come with
a book of instructions. These powers are such that you need to
discover what they are on your own. There is no more training that
you need. Venture forth and discover your potential, you are now
ready,” said Karven.

Vartan nodded knowingly. Nymira
approached him and her face turned serious as she said, “Vartan,
when I fell to the ground at the battle of the Elven Woods, I could
see everything that was happening around me. Much like I could see
everything that happened here. I owe your father great thanks for
his efforts, but I owe you something else. I saw your soul plummet
from your body with the grip of Kassina’s spell and I have
something to show you.”

Open your mind,
said her voice in his head.

Vartan felt the familiar jolt as
Nymira’s mind connected with his, and she took him back to the
battlegrounds.

He watched as his body fell paralysed
under Kassina’s spell and her vicious attack. Trisa stabbed the
vampire sorceress through the heart and he watched as Trisa and
Helenia dragged him away. Vartan saw his own body go limp on the
ground as the battle neared its end.

The last She’Ma’Ryn artefact in
Vartan’s pack was a surprise to both Trisa and Helenia when they
found it. When the sparkly artefact shaped like a heart fell to the
ground, Helenia picked it up and her face contorted in confusion as
she asked, “Trisa, what is this? It feels as if it’s made from
bone! It looks like it’s covered in ice, but it’s not
cold.”

In the middle of the heart was a gap
where something had been cut out. Helenia held it close to her
chest as she sunk to her knees in front of the man she
loved.

Trisa worked furiously to save Vartan,
but Helenia broke down in tears. The warm water fell from her face,
some of it falling directly onto the heart, and luckily… one drop
landed in the middle of the heart, activating the magic
within.

The heart began beating in her hands,
and the sound was familiar to Vartan.

Nymira, is that the heart
of an angel? Like what saved you?
He
asked.

It may be, but it’s not
just the artefact that saved your life
,
she answered.

Vartan’s breathing had become almost
too shallow, and Trisa looked at a loss for what to do next before
she noticed the beating heart in Helenia’s hands. As it thumped,
the ice-like surface emitted glimpses of light from
within.

Trisa gently pulled the heart out from
Helenia’s hands and took it toward Vartan’s body.

Trisa’s voice broke as she cried, “I
don’t know what to do! This is unlike any artefact I have ever
seen!”

Her face turned from desperation, to
confidence. She picked up a nearby sword and to Helenia’s face of
horror, opened one of Vartan’s stab wounds far enough to fit the
heart into his flesh. Carefully, she brought the heart to the open
wound and inserted it as far as she could. When the artefact
touched his flesh, it quickly changed to a watery form.

Disappearing into his body, white
light burst from Vartan’s wounds and mouth. Before their eyes,
Vartan’s blood began to recede into his body. Once all the blood
had returned, the wounds healed themselves in the time it took to
draw a singular breath. A strong heartbeat began to pump in his
chest. His flesh had just received a burst of healing.

“
There is
much
more to do! We have
to get him somewhere safe,” said Trisa.

Vartan, if Trisa and
Helenia had not found that artefact and taken the risk to do what
they did that day, everything would have been lost. Although you
are fated to save Marithia, always remember these moments when you
fight and it will give you strength. Just as I will never forget
the sacrifice made by my angel.

The queen’s sad eyes met those of her
king and they shared the pain of what had been given to make their
reunion possible.

Vartan’s head pounded as the dragon
released his mind and he returned to Trahoterra.