Sky Warriors: Poleuthan's Thief (Sky Warriors Saga Book 1) (19 page)

Ange snarled as a burning pain clawed at her chest and palm, she glanced down to see her birthmark glow a fiery red.

As quickly as the intense pain had arrived, it vanished, leaving her birthmark to glow a dim blue. The cut on her hand was gone as the blood lashed away from her like a startled snake.

Puzzled she looked back up to see the red glow also leave the crystal, the stream of her blood twisted and twirled around the sword’s cross-guard, accompanied by Showl’s blood. Ange shivered as she gazed at the crimson liquid as it began to fold and dance around the blade, slowly making its way to the ground.

As she followed it her eyes darted to the ground were a small depression was cut into the smooth stone floor. Her eyes trailed from the perfect circle and followed marks across the tableland that she had failed to notice before, delicately carved into the perfectly circular clearing.

The blood mixed together before pouring into the small imprint, the carvings engraved throughout the clearing suddenly glowed from below them in brilliant red. Ange snarled as a painful twisting filled her chest, in her heart, and quickly crawled throughout her body, her head burned as an echoing void seemed to break and chasm throughout her silent thoughts. A cool energy lapped in through the gap, swirling and frosting over the burning and quickly flowing throughout her mind and body. The opening solidified in state, permanent, and through it, Ange could sense another presence, encouraging her to be calm, that the pain was over, and that it was there to protect to her always.

She sighed feeling comforted by the reassurance, more than certain that the presence was none other than Showl, just like in her earlier vision. At the same time, she felt like she had been intruded, like everything private about her person was out in the open to be seen and judged.

Ange snapped her eyes to Showl before her eyes involuntarily tore her attention to the floating ice as it trembled in the air around the blade the fragments merged into one another to form ten large gleaming ice spikes that paused in their rotation around their point of origin as beams of light rose up to surround them.
Suddenly and violently they plunged to the stone floor, among ten circle contours that ringed around the sword.

They merged into the light, changing the light’s crimson shade to a celestial blue, flowing the
markings with new and vigorous light that curled throughout the plateau slowly.

Ange gazed about feeling more bewildered then before, rings and lines spun into brilliance as claw-like glyphs upon the floor began to glow fiercely as if blue fire glowed from beneath them. The chanting that had pervaded throughout the ritual thus far grew in strength till it sounded like a storm raged within the dome of light and magic.

Glyphs around the pool of blood grew brighter and slowly other characters from the center of the ring pulsated with the same light down to the outer ring of enchantments. Ange flinched as a cone of light imprisoned her over the ring she had been floating over. She reached out and met a solid barrier as her fingers touched the strange light, a static charge stung around her fingertips where her skin met magical resistance. She could barely see past the glow of magic to see the blood pouring climbing out of its pool in canals carved toward her ring. As she looked across she noticed Showl was also wrapped in a wall of light.

She looked back down, her eyes fixed on the blood that rushed towards her, lapping the stone floor with its deep ruby
substance. It flowed into the ring around her feet, slipping through the barrier without resistance, the smell of rust and salt hit her nose strongly.

She grimaced frustrated and wondered what more she had to endure before the ritual was complete.
She intake shocked as drops of blood rippled up as if gravity had vanished, hovering up to her. Soon the remaining amount of blood was hovering around her body in specific coordinates over her skin. As she gazed closely to the drop of blood floating before her eyes she noticed that the ruddy liquid was encircled with frost. Delicate ice crystals formed astonishing patterns around the droplets, something the naked eye should not have been able to see.

“
Ack!” she hissed as an itching razed across her chest, she snapped the rest of the buttons away and gazed down at her birthmark. She froze as the blue marking began to move.

That’s impossible!
She thought with mental rejection.

The five designs in between each
segment that split the pentagram shifted. Claws extended and heads arched toward her, stirring and opening their jaws and twisting their bodies. Each one was a unique dragon, she could distinguish specific elements tied to each dragon as they curled and slid across her skin away from the birthmark’s center. Blue patterns took shape and curled around the dragons’ body as they glowed cerulean.

The first dragon brimmed with lively energy, at the edges of its figure leaves and blossom seemed to flourish and die as it climbed up to her neck and she felt its spiritual energy trail over her skin as it rested on her forehead. The second dragon clockwise to the first rippled with liquid and ice as darkness licked from its sinuous length and it curled around her arm with an icy touch as it came to rest on her left palm. The dragon that followed burned across her skin and blazed with flames and light while it thrummed with violent energy as it thundered across her skin to her left foot.

The dragon that continued was dense with matter, earthy stones and crystal decorated its body as it walked over her body with warmth and strength as it crawled to her right foot. The last dragon wisped with air that curled in delicate curves, stars seemed to twinkle where is flowed over her arm with a cool sensation to her right hand.

A jarring shock surged through her body and limbs as she felt her body snap in response and lock as her head jerked up and her arms flew out straight, away from her sides, her legs seized and she realized her body had taken the rigid shape of the lines within the pentagram. The song in the air grew frenzied and electricity seemed to hum in the air.

She could not move, not even if she wanted to.

The
coagula blood hovering over her body rushed forward, she winced and shut her eyes expecting it to splash across her skin.

Sensations of warmth and cold began to collide across her skin as ripples of energy began to
dilate outward where each drop touched, even under her clothes where she had thought the cloth would have protected her.

Burning began to race across her skin and she gasped, opening her eyes in the momentary shock that grasped her. Across the clearing she heard Showl bellow in pain.

Focusing her eyes straight forward past the sword as Showl’s previously void expressing was suddenly contoured, his golden eyes were slits in his face. Echoing in the darkness of her thought she felt disembodied pain, it lanced through her with a shock like lightning, causing her to flinch.

She felt the pain recoil as if it was being suppressed and she realized with a pang that she was feeling Showl’s agony as it were her own and that he was desperately trying to spare her of his suffering.

She gasped and looked down to her left hand as blue coils, symbols, and lines began to draw across her skin in shimmering light. Even with her little knowledge of magic she could sense their purpose.

Seals.

Binding contracts that where being imprinted even as deeply as her soul. She could feel their energy creep deeply under her skin, stroking her bones with a wintery chill and frisson through her mind. She could feel each individual line trace itself across her face and as she watched them glow under her clothes she frustratingly wondered what the words said.

Slowly they drew themselves back to the origin over her chest, each dragon crawled across her skin, leaving patterns of lines behind them as the intricate seals followed them to her chest. Swiftly the lines finished in elaborate forms and glyph that marked all the way to her birthmark. Another jolt passed through her body, seeming to originate from her chest yet from no particular area in her body. Something inside her body snapped, like a bone had broken only without the pain, a chilling and electrifying energy began to tingle throughout her body, trapped under her skin. She recognized the sensation in an instant.

Mana.

It was free of its prison where she had never known it had even existed and now
sought to be free of her mortal vessel. The energy grew to an overwhelming volume, she felt as if her body was going to burst from holding it in.

Suddenly, she felt acutely aware of the moister in the air, the chill in the wind, the water under the earth, the sea far to the north to her left, the snow on the peaks, and the clouds in the sky. They all called to her,
beckoned for her attention and thirsted for her desire.

The power slowly subsided with the newfound sensitivity to the liquid in the world, reminding her that that was fluid could also be solid with just a little cold...

She was baffled she could sense her power and the water around her and understand it like her instinct to breathe. Its importance, and its connection to her, like it had always been a part of her, even if she had never realized it till now. She had been born with the power, it was hers to use.

The knowledge was
gratifying and she smiled and let out the breath she had been holding in at the realization that she had been born for something greater.

She felt that it was just at the edge of her fingertips to cap over the entire world in ice if she wanted to. She held the power to freeze over everything and turn the world into a barren landscape in the blink of an eye.

She sensed Showl’s concern at the direction her thoughts were taking and she giggled, giddy and amused by his disquiet.

Great, body tattoos now too.
She thought with a grimace as she looked at the decorative lines over her hand and fingers, losing her amusement.

The lucent markings stopped glowing and quickly faded as the five dragons settled in their original places under her collarbone and grew inanimate.

Ange gazed bewildered and relieved as the lines faded and her birthmark stopped emitting light as she regain mobility of her limbs. Slowly she fell to the earth, her feet touched the packed stone beneath and the prison of light vanished in a flash like the setting of the suns.

The stone floor’s etched markings dissipated as the light vanished from their depths, circling in reverse to the source of their energy source.

The sword continued to float above the ground, the mist residing and the chanting grew silent. The world was silent as the clouds above continued to twirl about the barrier. Ange grimaced and wondered where Sora was hiding behind the clouds waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce.

Thinking of the dragon she returned her gaze back to Showl, realizing she could no longer sense pain pouring through their connection. He sat crouched, panting, his skin lucent with sweat and through their new bond she could sense his fatigue and worry as his eyes scanned the clouds as she had done a second ago.

Ange didn’t feel any different, Showl had explained her body would undergo change. But nothing seemed to have manifested. She felt exactly the same as before, except now she could feel Showl and power sleeping deep within her body, she had only but to reach for it and set it loose. Though she didn’t have the slightest idea how.

Suddenly nervous, she realized Sora and her
Dragonbound were still a threat, hovering just over the cloud cover. Ange’s magic was free but that didn’t mean she was a match, she knew that well as her instincts quaked with fear.

She took a step towards the sword and Showl, feeling slightly relieved the barrier around the clearing still held as she flashed her gaze back to the sky for a second before she froze as she watched her sword hover towards her.

She gazed at the splendorous blade as it slowly twisted in the air, presenting its grip as it hovered closer to her.

Unbidden, her hand reached up as the sword drifted closer. Her hand clasped the cool material and everything in the world around her suddenly
snapped.

Nothing made sense, everything was suddenly happening too fast and it escaped her understanding. She hadn’t been ready.

The barrier above dissolved in a heartbeat as the light in the sword’s pommel flashed for a brief second and a final lock clicked inside Ange, soldering her new role as a true Dragonbound. For a single moment she could feel nine pairs of other minds exist tenuously in her body. Each burned with a unique life force, suddenly aware of her as she was of them and she felt overcrowded, overwhelmed as her breath caught. Then they were gone.

The roar of a furious and triumphant beast rang in her ears like thunder as a massive force shuddered the ground underneath her feet and making her nearly fall over. Sora had landed in the clearing.

Showl’s body shattered into a void as his figure turned into clear crystalline ice and broke away into shards of swirling snow and ice, twisting together to make a new form. The body of a mighty dragon suddenly existed in the clearing as the soft snowflakes mantled his scaly hide with iridescent white feathers as his jaws parted into a roar of his own as his long body launched over Ange, casting her in his shadow.

The clouds vanished, twisted and violently pushed away by a gale of lashing wind.