Dragon Aster Trilogy (52 page)

“I see that. I see how you do
nothing,
” she finished in a hiss, stopping a foot away from Sybl’s face. “You are as useless as your own mother. I was there, you know, when they found Serena dead in her room. I never remember being so happy.”

“My mother was a good person. You would have to be a witch to wish for death for her.”

“Witch? Oh yes, those magic-casters you once had on Earth. No, Sybl. We are not of magic and tricks. We are very real and very full of emotions. To think that I was once so close to what I am now, stalled only by Serena. After Alexia had died, all that was left was to find the right Novaist for Simera’s bed. It feels so long ago that I was the one he looked at. The one his eyes watched when we sung. The one who everyone believed would soon be his Bond and Queen. A Bond who would give Toria an heir and a future. But no, your mother had to take his heart and leave not one demon behind, but you as well.”

“I know what you’re trying to do and it won’t work,” Sybl replied, forcing the anger within her away.

“As the High Priestess, I merely wish to see the great Asil for myself. I want to see that glow in your eyes and murderous intent that nearly conquered the whole world three hundred years ago. I could be executed with my soul in peace then, knowing that there remained behind some hope of saving this world. But I don’t see any hope. You’re just a pathetic human like your mother who has no right to be here.”

“I feel sorry for you, Yri. Just when did you heart turn into black ice? Do you so much as feel anything?” Sybl asked.

“When all the world turns its back and faith on you, you too will understand. Your heart will become the same ice that mine has, and it is then that my spirit will rest knowing that there is some justice in this life. For now, there is no hope of survival for anyone. The griffins have betrayed us, and they alone have the last door to escape oblivion.”

The last door?
Sybl pondered.
So that’s what she was given in turn for betraying Toria to the Falls; a chance to escape to Earth.
“What were you hoping for? To escape to Earth and live out the rest of your days hiding from the sunlight?” Sybl almost laughed. “Do you know what Earth’s scientists would do with something like you? They would cut you apart piece by piece like a lab rat, until the only magic left of your kind was the way your blood burned on the floor when the rays of light reached it through the window. Or they would lock you in a cage fit for a dinosaur, you know, those giant, ugly lizard-like things? And all day kids would walk by and admire the magical creature that isn’t supposed to exist. They could make a fortune like that.”

Yri’s eyes narrowed with her hate.

“Whatever the griffins promised you is nothing but lies. They don’t die from sunlight, and if I were them, I sure as hell wouldn’t keep you around for your company.”

“Do you really think that I would die so easily? Or give into your threats? You are not Queen, yet. Have you so much as told Cirrus that you cannot have his heir?”

“You can’t see if I can or not.”

Yri laughed, and Sybl felt like strangling her with her bare hands. “You would have to have the senses of a daoran to be able to see for yourself. Such a waste. But you were born as nothing and once your usefulness passes with Cirrus, you will become nothing once again.”

“Goodbye, Yri.” Sybl turned and left the Room of Light, shutting the door behind her as she did. While she held onto its handles, she willed the tears, hate, and the sheer emotion that made her eyes glow to calm back down. She had to be strong for hope to stay alive. There was so little of it left now.

Kas braced himself to dodge a direct hit from Mersael’s gun, but his chances of surviving looked slim.

“If you kill Kas or myself, a mere thought from me will set the power generators to self-destruct. For I will not leave my city to a monster. I should have put you down the moment you opened your cold eyes to the world,” Exoir threatened Mersael.

“Always the loving father, aren’t we? But your somn will do you no good when it is very much gone.”

Kas looked to the wall as two other energies came at Exoir’s somn in the thick wire and collided with it, snuffing the spark out. Then they raced through the wire and took out the somns of Exoir’s two assistants. Kas didn’t waste a breath charging at Mersael after Exoir collapsed in his chair. The griffin somnus fired on him, striking him in the shoulder with the bullet. Before Mersael could get another shot off, a different spark collided with the two in the wall. Both were snuffed out like Exoir’s and Mersael’s soldiers dropped to the ground. Then the spark expanded and hurled itself like a ribbon of electricity at Mersael, throwing him across the room.

“Kas!”

Kas didn’t believe he heard right until he saw Gwa when the door opened. His friend ran into the room and kicked the weapons away from Mersael and the dying griffin somnus guards. “How did you…?”

“Find you? Get in here? It’s a long story.” Gwa went over to pick up one of the guns, and after looking at Exoir’s body, he took aim at Mersael.

“You wouldn’t shoot…your own father,” Mersael said with certainty in his yellow eyes.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t shoot someone who I considered a ‘father.’ But the monster who shot my mother has to be put down.” Then he fired on his heart, and Mersael collapsed to the floor.

Kas wasn’t sure the real Gwa was before him now.

Gwa went over to Exoir as the old griffin still breathed. Countless wires and sparks dangled over him, and Gwa dodged to the side when a wire fell. Exoir’s eyes suddenly opened and looked directly at his grandson.

“Gwa…”

“Grandfather.”

Exoir smiled a toothless smile, but even in his decaying state, it didn’t stop Gwa from hugging him. “You have…your mother’s spirit. How…miraculous.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner—I should—”

“There was no way for you to know. I am…the one at fault for trusting Mersael. I was wrong…now this moment is all I get with you. But it is…enough.”

Gwa forced himself not to cry as Exoir closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

“Hold it right there!” Five guards appeared at the door and aimed their guns at them.

Gwa turned his fury and sadness on them, as his somn sparked angrily through the wires and shut the door on the guards, locking them out. Then he sent it around the room in search of another mechanism to channel his anger through.

“Gwa, is there another way out?” Kas asked.

The griffin somnus looked around the room, before looking at the body of his father. He reached into Mersael’s pocket and pulled out a mini version of his own panel. After Gwa had turned it on, his face turned a paler shade of white.

“What is on it?” Kas was answered in part when the whole volcanic crater shook.

“Exoir was telling the truth—he must have had something hooked up to his vitals. This entire place is going to blow. We have to get out of here.”

Kas picked up a blade from one of Mersael’s guards, then stood on the side of the door. He used the moment to take out the bullet from his shoulder with his nails. Then he healed the wound with his aeri before he could lose anymore blood. “Take cover and open it.”

“That’s a lot of guards,” Gwa said, unsheathing his own blade.

“Open it!” Kas shouted this time, both from the pain and anger he felt.

Gwa used his somn to move the mechanisms that opened the door.

The first two guards were met by the full speed and power of the blade Kas weld, as Gwa took out two on his own. The remaining one fled down the shaking metal walkway.

Kas grabbed the banister when the shaking got worse. He looked down to the water below that glowed red. The generators hadn’t exploded yet. Hell, it would seem, was in the minds of the builders of this dead volcanic city that would very soon come back to life.

He looked to the side as three griffin somnus soldiers came to a stop on the walkway and cocked and aimed their guns at him. Gwa appeared behind them and cut them down with his sword, and Kas focused his attention upwards. A thick net of metal trapped them all inside. “Any way you can shut off the electricity in the net?”

Gwa looked up with him. “The generators have to blow, or I need another griffin somn—there’s too many wires to it.”

Kas began to think quickly. “Four generators. We each take two.”

Gwa touched a panel on the wall, pulling up a map. Just as he did, one of the generators exploded and the cries of those caught in range followed. “Seems like everyone is trying to do the same thing to escape.” They split up from each other then, and raced towards their targets below before the lava could catch up to them first.

Kas jumped several broken walkways and stairs, as everything continued to be shaken free from the sides of the crater. Before he could decide what to do with the soldiers that demanded his surrender before him, Aragmoth did first. The first of the dozen of waterfalls that powered the city of Tech began to flow lava. The soldiers lowered their weapons and turned and fled, as their cries were matched by the civilians who ran from and through the white domes of the falling buildings. Many were no longer under cascading waterfalls—but liquid fire.

Kas reached the hallway that led to the generator and quickly unsheathed his blade. Looking around at the wires connected to the giant box of a Tech, he found the ones that Gwa had instructed him to cut. He ran for them and struck his blade through them, one by one, until they sparked and the machine began to overload. Then he ran for his life and ducked to the side of the tunnel when the explosion followed him.

Kas ran back the way he had come as Gwa was already in the air. The griffin grabbed the netting that shielded the city with several other griffins and with enough force they were able to bring it down. Kas stepped back and pressed himself against the wall as a piece crashed down, crushing several griffin somnus who weren’t expecting it in the process. Then he looked back up as the griffins flew from their cage of a home like an ascent of white angels, while their falling feathers were burned and drowned in the blood of Aragmoth.

“Kas, let’s go!” Gwa shouted at him.

Kas looked across the walkway, and he ran to the edge of it as it fell. He jumped off the side and Gwa caught him in his talons, then followed the rest of the masses out of the volcano. Once they were clear from the destruction, Gwa set him down on the ice. Or what was ice for now, as the lava from the Falls continued to spread and melt it.

Kas looked up into the dark sky as it was both star and moonless, which meant that Aragmoth didn’t so much as have the strength left to keep his illusions visible to his world. There were no more illusions now just as very soon there would be no world left.

Gwa ducked when another loud explosion sounded off from the direction of the Falls.

“There is very little time—” Kas stopped when he felt a stabbing pain go through his chest.

“Kas?” Gwa quickly unsomned and caught his friend before Kas could hit the snow.

Sybl looked at the broad sword in the armory of Toria for a long while, as she recognized it as Lintrance’s. She guessed that they had brought his possessions back to Toria, including all of his weapons, and added them to their current armory. Possibly even Loki had done so himself. A memory flash went through her mind with him attacking her while infected with the Aeger, and she turned her head to the side, trying to get it to leave her mind alone. She hadn’t killed Lintrance, but she might as well of with how her presence had brought his somn into the physical so that Kenshe could. She had sat down to try and think of other things when the door to the armory opened, and Cirrus walked in. He closed the door behind him and then leaned against it. He looked upset, and she had a good idea why.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sybl looked back at the stone floor. “About what? The part about you being King, or my inability to give you an heir?”

Cirrus opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and looked away. “We don’t know that. But I’m finding out all this now when I’ve come back here utterly blind to find everyone addressing me as ‘Your Highness.’”

“There was no way to tell you without hurting you.”

“We just came from a funeral of a dragoon who I thought was my father. At what time would you have thought it appropriate to fill me in that I was the only one who didn’t know? That my real father could very well still be alive on your world?”