Star Mage (Book 5) (26 page)

Why did he have to help Talis and Mara? What did they possess that was needed by the Nameless in his pursuit of the Starwalkers? But he knew better than to question the priest, and realized that life was far better than death, and it was the Nameless and the blood magic of the priests that had brought him back to life.
But then again they killed you in the first place,
thought Rikar.

He stared at his hands and felt the intermixing of power from the ring and the new, strange and foreign energy coursing through his body from the Starwalker’s essence. As the priest cast a spell and flew off over the desert towards the southwestern hills, Rikar let the rage surge inside himself and he shot like a shooting star after the man. He laughed freely as the wind whipped over his face, relishing in the feeling of power and finally being free from that constricting tomb. And no more was he a ghost; he was alive and filled with the magnificence of life and liberation.

Once he gained favor with the Nameless, Rikar was sure that he would secure claim to the rulership of this world. And then, without hesitation, he would kill Garen Storm and ensure that no blood rites were made for the man in the Temple of Zagros, and doom Talis’s father to the endless torture of the Grim March.

After he helped Mara and the pathetic fool in his fight against those so-called Dragons of Carvina.

With a wild and wonderful feeling of violence pulsing through her heart, Mara found a grim smile forming on her face as the dragon-scaled figures stalked towards them. She tensed and waited, eying Princess Devonia and her cat-like movements as she strode across the marble floor. The daggers poured power into Mara’s body and she could see herself fade into a green, ethereal glow.

“Mara?” Talis shouted, and he whipped around to try and find her. She giggled and whispered that she was ok, and he relaxed a bit as he realized that she was invisible.
 

Master Goleth put out his hands as if trying to stem the flow of blood. “There is no need to fight, we came here to talk—”

“Move aside, Builder,” shouted the deep, booming voice of the Emperor. “If you ever want to see your wife and children again, you will stay out of this fight. The time for talking with these young, arrogant ones is over. The girl made the first move of violence against us, and now blood must be paid for in blood.”

There were at least twenty of the Dragons threading through the tall pillars and stalking towards Talis, their armored joints smooth as they strode silkily in a pack dog formation. Master Goleth shuffled away, his eyes hesitant and sorrowful as he stared at Talis. And the Emperor still sat bemused upon his throne, with several of his knights studying the Dragons approach.
 

“Father,” said Princess Devonia, “you might want to leave the chamber and find protection elsewhere. The morbid-looking fire mage is likely to set the palace on fire. I suspect that Master Goleth and his allies will have quite a time rebuilding. Tis a shame, really, to have to destroy something so lovely.”

But the Emperor made no movement to leave, and instead stupidly chuckled as Talis bent down and pressed his palms out. Mara took advantage of their distraction, and stalked around the throne dais. If the Dragons demanded blood for blood, them she needed to start spilling some. Old blood, noble blood, Emperor’s blood. Regardless of what Master Goleth had said about the Emperor, Mara hated his haughty expression as he watched Talis, like a boy expecting a circus show for his birthday.
More like a horror show
, she thought.

At the throne there were three Stelan Knights guarding Emperor Ghaalis. And they were scared. Ever since she’d vanished the knights wore tense and worried faces, and their leader kept whispering warnings to the weak Emperor.
Pop the blood bags
, was what Elder Relech had said when he’d commanded Mara to kill innocents on their dark outings together. But in the case of the Emperor, it was more like slice the pig’s throat and let the beast drain dry until it’s dead.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” the lead knight was whispering, “I must insist that we leave. The girl is invisible, and she could attack you at any moment.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Mara could see Talis send a burst of testing wind against several Dragons who’d ventured too close, and the strike had sent them skittering over the marble floor and slamming against the hard pillars. But in response to the attack their skin hardened to a shiny sheen that seemed to make them invincible from the hammering impact of hitting the stone.

“Wind magic will do nothing to harm a Dragon,” Princess Devonia said, her voice self-assured and calm. “And burn the whole palace down if you like, I really don’t care, but flames won’t harm us either. Our skin protects us from magic.”

How about my blades
, Mara thought, and stretched out her hand and sliced the soft neck of the Emperor. A spray of blood shot from his throat and painted the face of the shocked knight in a pretty red fan. The twin daggers raged in her hands as she stabbed the kidney of the closest knight on her right, and ducked down behind the throne as another knight twisted his sword around and sheered the upper part of the Ebony Throne in a vain attempt at lopping off her head.
 

As Mara stabbed the soft spot behind the knight’s knee joint, she heard a gruesome, wet
whoomp
as something soft exploded and sent a shower of blood and bits of bone into the shouting, collapsing knight, knocking him back onto his ass. Mara found a vile laugh escaping from her mouth as she spotted a splinter of bone protruding from his eye socket. Was Talis spoiling all her fun?

A pain surged through her scalp and she screamed in agony as someone yanked her up by her hair and left her dangling to gape in horror as a knight brought around his massive blade to slice her in half. She shrieked and slashed her daggers at the knight’s steel plate armor, but it did little to stop him. As Mara felt certain that her death was near, a green light blossomed around the raged-filled eyes of the knight, and the world went weak and distant, as if she were a drunk viewing the slurred scene, with time racing randomly and slowing suddenly, and even going silent and still in a timeless eternity.

The daggers twisted and turned, and in a torrential rage burst alive as if awakening from an ancient slumber. Eerie green fire poured out from the blades and rushed into the knight’s mouth and filled his body with wave after wave of demonic-headed fire. Excruciating screams sped from his shivering mouth as Mara could see the demons eating away the man from the inside. A quick flood of blood streamed down his eyes as the demons consumed his brain and the soft tissues of his skull. Mara wrinkled up her face in disgust as she found herself falling from the knight’s now limp grip.

She scrambled up to her feet and spun around the throne expecting another blow from the knights, but only found bodies bleeding on the red rug. Talis cast several wind magic spells to knock a group of Dragons away from him, and Mara realized that many more adherents of the Order had appeared, numbering at least a hundred Dragons protected in their weird, scaly armor and brutal claw-like fists and feet. But the way Mara felt, fear melted away in a wash of crazed laughter, and she charged after a Dragon sneaking up behind Talis.

Green shadows enveloped her as she vanished and raced after the man clad head to foot with dragon scales gleaming in the fiery remains of the burning Dragons. She tried to pierce the weak point under the Dragon’s arm as the man went to smash Talis in the head. The Dragon growled in fury and spun around from the glancing blow and smashed her in the face. The instant the blow was about to land, the daggers fired in fury and a kind of green shield soared up and subdued the blow, causing Mara to only feel a slap sting her face.
 

She ran forward and climbed up the scales of the man’s chest until she stood on his shoulders, and twisting around, she clenched her legs around the Dragon’s neck, and caused them both to tumble backwards to the ground. As the man beat at her legs in an attempt to break free, she pulled both daggers in a quick stab underneath his scales, and the blades bit and broke though and punctured his heart.

Shoving his heavy body off of her, Mara stood and scanned around at the countless Dragons threading around bodies and blood, advancing on them with their cool, deliberate eyes studying Talis and Mara. They raised no hand to cast a spell, and moved in a madly precise formation, fanning out in clear attempt to surround them.

A quiet command to her daggers brought invisibility to her once again. In the cool calm of their advance, Mara studied the Dragons and spotted Princess Devonia stalking around with another Dragon that had a similar face as the Emperor. Was this her brother? Why were the children Dragons but the father only a weak Emperor with no power? Then Mara remembered the mention of the Empress, and Talis knew that she was a Dragon. But where was she hiding?

Talis caught Princess Devonia’s approach, and he furrowed his brow at her and said, “Can’t we end this? I’ve found your weakness and have it in my power to obliterate your entire Order until every single one of you is burned up from inside. We’ve come here seeking peace…can we end the fighting once and for all?”

“Never,” hissed the Princess, and aimed her clawed fist at Talis. “As much as I enjoyed your pretty fire magic show in the square, I know you’ll never be able to sustain that amount of power against our entire host.”

“Try me,” Talis said, his tone challenging and curt. “Perhaps you’ll be next, Princess. Would you like to feel the heat of my fire boil you up from the inside?”

Princess Devonia scoffed and flourished her hands in quick snapping movement, forming a crystalline shield around her figure. “Good luck trying. Not all Dragons are as susceptible to that spell. You’ll need to try another approach. And the only answer for the violence you’ve wrought here will be for us to rip your flesh from arm to leg and paint the walls with your blood. We’ll make a memorial out of the display, and add the blood of every single person in Naru to adorn the shrine. Our dragon gods will be pleased with the sacrifice.”

Mara was glad to see that the Prince had failed to raise a similar shield, and instead he chose to hide himself behind his sister in a cowardly move. He was a handsome boy her age, but his eyes held the raw cruelty of the overly privileged and the seldom punished. She already knew how to slip her blade up under his scales and let her daggers kiss the soft skin underneath. Wasn’t it the Prince’s time to die? Surely she was hearing the voice of Zagros call out to her?
Slay the tender mortal and feed me his royal blood. I’ve more demons to spawn and release unto the world…

Who was she to disobey the Lord of the Underworld? With several stealthy steps she darted over and in a raspy whisper said, “My prince, my love, come to me,” and as he turned his horrified eyes to face her, she jumped into his arms and snaked a hand around his head, and kissed his mouth with her dagger. Blood gushed from the wound and his sister screamed in a wild wail that echoed across the chamber walls as they fell to the ground in a rush. Such pretty eyes he had, blue as the summer sea.

A clawed fist smashed into her shoulder but the daggers once again flared out and shielded the blow, but the force was strong enough to send Mara tumbling across the ground. Now the furious Princess seethed with rage and ran after her, but a quick shot of wind magic from Talis sent the girl flying a hundred feet across the chamber, knocking over several Dragons in the process.

She looked up in time to see Talis facing three Dragons, and to her horror found his body radiating with the red light of overheating fire. How had she not noticed this before? As he tensed his palms together, the middle Dragon exploded in a brutal burst of blood that catapulted his allies off to the side in a somersaulting spin across the marble floor. After the last attack, the color of Talis’s skin had risen up another feverish shade of red and he panted from the exertion.
 

“Talis!” she screamed, and darted over to him, picturing the girl wizard who’d exploded at the top of the Order of the Dawn. “Change form, Talis. Do it now!”

His head lolled about and he looked over at her in a feverish, glassy-eyed stare. As she shouted another insistent command for him to change into dragon form, a flicker of realization flipped on in his eyes. He flourished his hands weakly in what seemed like the last movement he could make, and Mara found herself stepping back as his figure bubbled and expanded and transformed into beautiful, gold dragon.

Their attackers stopped their advance, faces frozen in fear, eyes wide in terror and awe. Some Dragons even prostrated themselves and chanted weird, wild words in jubilant tones, as if Talis were their savior and god come to save them. In the serenity and shock of the distraction, Mara ran over and jumped onto Talis’s back, and his long, sinewy wings beat in a furious rush as he lifted high above the stunned Dragons.

Fire poured from his dragon’s mouth and he bathed the cathedral-like chamber in a hot flash of orange and golden light. The flames were so intense that Mara winced and hid herself against his warm, scaly body, imagining that the fire released now would have killed them both if he’d stayed in human form only seconds longer.