Dragon Aster Trilogy (20 page)

“Vanir?”

“You would betray us all by siding with our enemies?” Cirrus asked in disbelief.

Lintrance looked at Cirrus as he was posed to grab and strangle the treachery out of their aunt himself. Many of the High Guard had fallen into their own whispers between each other. “It all makes sense now. That’s where that Awl came from. Vanir wouldn’t send someone incompetent to do his dirty work—he doesn’t keep such company.”

Yri’s chin rose higher in defiance to them both.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Lintrance said.

“You will still die for killing my brother,” she snapped back.

“An Awl would make it possible to break through the defenses of the best dragoon. I’m willing to bet that your newest ally had a part in it. I’m going to drag that evidence to my innocence back as allowed by our Laws, that you would sooner forget.” Lintrance somned and took to the air at that.

Cirrus somned and gave a threatening low growl at her closest family of the High Guard.

“He’s a murderer, Cirrus!” Wyr, a younger red dragon who was Yri’s nephew shouted at him. “You will be a traitor as well if you follow him!”

“No more a traitor than the rest of you who serve a Priestess who would see us become slaves. I’m going with Lintrance, and if you try and stop us, be warned that I won’t.” Then he sprung into the air in a fury of wind.

Kas came to a stop in the Keol as the lava river he followed began to slow. It wasn’t long before it stopped moving altogether. Not knowing what to make of it, he walked closer as its frozen state started to spread across the ground. Soon he was no longer standing on hot ashes and fire, but snow and ice. He looked around for what of Aragmoth’s will could be powerful enough to freeze Hell.

‘You will stop here.
’

Kas’ blood froze to match the once-fiery desert around him, as the psi had pierced through the defenses of his mind like a sharp icicle. He quickly scanned all directions, before looking up in time to dodge the black, bat-winged pluma as it came down on him.

It touched down on the snow unsuccessful in its attack, and spun around to face him. Only its shape remained that of a cat. Its feathers and fur had burned completely off, leaving the shiny, wrinkled, black skin of its demon form behind. It spread its wings at its sides and caught some of Kas’ life Threads between its claws.

‘A servant of the gods you call yourself. If that is so, then hand over the Fay you carry.
’

Kas had seen such tragedies before. The Aeger, left unattended long enough in an Ancient or Eminor, could drive the creature into complete madness. This one had reached a whole new level of it in thinking it was a cael. “You have been infected by the Aeger and your mind is corrupted. What you want is not yours to have.”

‘The cure is who you carry. Give her to me, or I will take her by force.
’

“Try it!” Kas snapped back at the pluma with a snap of teeth, though he knew it would be hard to take on the Awl and protect Sybl at the same time. He felt the Threads to his heart tighten as the demon fiddled with them between its claws. But Kas was no ones puppet. He lay down with his paws before him, as if to pounce without any kind of momentum. The Awl was confused. It pulled on Kas’ Threads to kill him, but Kas evaporated into a dark mist, leaving Sybl on the ground.

The Awl let out a low growl, as it tried to make sense of it. But it was smart and didn’t take the bait. It tried to regain the Threads it had of Kas, but they had evaporated as well.

Kas waited till it grew just a bit more angry, before coming out of his Eminor’s spirit form and going straight with his teeth for the cat’s neck. The Awl expected an attack and jumped back and slightly into the air by its wings. It tried to grab his Threads again, but just as easily as before, Kas turned into a dark mist.

“You are no cael. You cannot so much as grasp the spirit of a Priest.”

The Awl was now agitated when it made a move towards Sybl. Kas met him halfway with his claws, until the Awl suddenly vanished on him. Confused, he looked around. It could only be an illusion to his eyes by manipulating the Threads. But with everything frozen, nothing vibrated in clue to where the demon was. The Awl had frozen all the Threads to its command.

Kas went to Sybl and unsomned. He pulled her over his shoulder as she began to wake up, but before he could somn back, the pluma caught her Threads instead.
He won’t kill her.
It wouldn’t serve the Awl’s purpose, he tried to convince himself. But it wasn’t working as she woke from a jolt of pain and a gasp.

There was nothing he could do but react by instinct, and he somned to stop the Awl in the direction it held her Threads. But he was predictable against nature, and the Threads to his legs, lungs and heart were cut by the bitter razor-edge of the Awl’s control on them now.

He collapsed to the snow and ice, unable to do anything to regain control over his body.

“Kas…?” Sybl asked as she was able to breathe again and sat up. Then she shook violently from the cold around her.

“Sybl…you have to run.” Then the pluma cut the Threads that propelled him unconscious and against the snow.

She looked from where Kas was to where a black, furless pluma hovered overhead; its bat-like wings beating like drums of a war front. “What the…?”

The pluma set its full attention on Sybl as she shivered again from both its terrifying form, glowing green eyes and the cold at the same time. It landed before her and folded its wings to its sides.

Sybl looked around, but there was nowhere to go. She went to Kas and crouched down. She tried to shake him awake, but it didn’t work. Lintrance wasn’t here to save her a second time, and Kas was now unconscious. This creature was a demon, just as she already knew in her mind.

‘You don’t fear death even when it stands before you. You are very foolish.
’

“I’m not scared of you!” Sybl staggered back as the demon began to expand, until its flesh and bones were stretched to the absolute limit an unliving thing could take. As she looked closer, it could almost be a dragon.

The dragon who saved her once…

When she backed away from Kas, it came down on her with its bloodied claws. Sybl dove and rolled out of the way. She pulled herself back to her feet and brushed the stinging snow out of her eyes. But everything had been made into a blur.

Unable to see clearly, she stumbled back as the dark monster came at her again. Before it could strike her, something else hit it with the force of what might have been a small train to its side.

Her sight returned, and she looked to see her rescuer who she could only pray was Cirrus, but it wasn’t. It was a unicorn that had pierced the creature in the side with its horn. Then it pulled back and slashed and kicked at the demon as if it had lost all its senses to keep itself alive.

Kas came back around at the kyrie’s shattering cry, then looked to where it was. His Aeger kyrie was cutting the Threads that held him down with its sharp hooves and horn, while it dodged and charged the demon dragon. He never thought such a simple creature to have such a fighting determination. But it was clear it wouldn’t be able to hold off much longer, as one of the dragon’s strikes landed across its side in a fury of blood.

He somned and went teeth-first for the demon, landing them in its neck and bringing the full force of his weight and estus energy down to try and hold it. But it only grew more enraged by his attack and whipped him across the snow of the Keol with an uncanny strength, sending his world spinning on the edge of blackness.

Daath’s teeth went for the kyrie again as it caught its shoulder blades and forced it to the ground. It tried to lift the creature, but it remained firmly grounded and refused to be tossed anywhere, even as its flesh was ripped from its back.

“What are you doing, Asil?
”

Sybl didn’t know who was talking to her, until she looked at the kyrie as its suffering purple eyes focused directly on her. But before she could be entirely certain, the creature disintegrated into the snow through a black pool and away from the dragon’s fury of teeth and claws. It left behind its horn that now looked like a festra.

She ran around the dragon as it looked for her, then made the mad choice and went for the weapon. Sybl caught it in hand and scattered out of the way as the demon’s claws hit the snow, before stopping at a breathable distance and taking a stance with the weapon in hand. It seemed to work to intimidate the monster, as it stepped back.
All the names of the Eminor are in this—what is this one’s name?
She panted the question to Kas from her racing thoughts that threatened to derail altogether.

‘Try Daath,’
Kas replied to her psi, having pulled the name of the demon from its blood that soaked his mouth, as he tried to shake its sting off.

Sybl could almost taste the blood from his thoughts alone.
Try?
Now wasn’t the time to
try
anything. “Daath,” Sybl repeated from Kas. The dragon took another step back.
Isn’t he supposed to be Damek then?

“Clearly he lost his soul somewhere! Sybl get away from him!”
Kas shook the pain out and charged for the dragon again, but a swipe of claws struck his face and the next set of them threw him back. Then they came down on his chest.

“I know who you are, now leave us alone!” she shouted in demand.

The demon seemed to think for a moment.
‘That was not part of our agreement.
’

“I didn’t agree to do anything for you!
”

Daath brought more force down on Kas’ ribs, even as they started to snap.

“Stop it!”

‘You are in agreement, then?
’

“Yes, just stop hurting him!”

Daath left Kas as a partially crushed ruin and went straight for her. He expanded in his estus energy, before enveloping her in it and melting into the Keol as a Rift.

“Sybl!” Kas got back to his feet against the pain of his broken ribs, but it was too late to save her. “No! Sybl!”

“That one.
”

Cirrus opened his eyes to the memory, and looked up at the stars he floated under, just between the world and the further reaches of space. He looked to where Sybl had in the past at the white-lit moon. Only in this memory it was darkened by an eclipse.
Hey, I said star. I’m not big enough to carry that one back.

“Who says it’s not a star?
”

The Texts. The simple fact it doesn’t glow by itself...

“Well, if this moon is just a reflection, then everything is a reflection of light up here, including the stars and nothing is glowing entirely by itself or has any weight of its own.
”

Well in that case I’ll have to come back for it.

“Don’t think I won’t hold you to it.
”

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sybl’s desperate cry for help was the last thing he had heard before it was silenced entirely. She was somewhere in the Keol under him. He could feel the monster that took her begin to consume his thoughts in turn. But his impending madness was refusing him when he needed it most. When he needed a way to save her.

When a demon smiled, the world burned. Cirrus was left to drown the monster within him with sorrow. He didn’t want to be alive, not if he had to endure it alone. Cirrus could stop now and leave his body to become colder and die, and left adrift in the vastness of space for all eternity. Then he would be able to share his loneliness with the stars. Maybe there, he could feel her again. Maybe she was already waiting for him.

‘Cirrus, the storm isn’t dying down,’
Lintrance said in concern.
‘How long can you keep us breathing up here?
’

Cirrus brought his mind out of memory and looked at his cousin.
I can’t feel her anymore.

‘She isn’t dead. Sybl can’t be dead. Even if that is Vanir’s Awl, a pluma one would answer to her first.’

How can you be so sure? How do we know that this is a pluma? It’s in the Keol and plumas burn up in there.

‘I saw it when I had found Sybl before you did. It’s because I’ve been ignoring this agent of death that it has been causing nothing but one tragedy after the other. Plumas are descendants of Iynx, who were once Sentry. Iynx are soulless, but the way this one looked at me would suggest otherwise. I can’t help but think it might be something else entirely.’