Martin Hengst - The Darkest Hour

He managed to fixate on that one action so well that he was on his way down the far side of the arch when he realized that Tiadaria was on the island, waiting for him. A few more steps and she was almost near enough to touch. Just as he was about to step onto the island, there was a mighty crack and the ground dropped out from under him. Wynn threw himself forward, slamming his chest into the edge of the bowl, his hands scrabbling for purchase and finding none.

Tiadaria, acting purely on instinct, slipped into sphere sight. Wynn’s fall slowed to a glacial pace. She pulled one of her scimitars free and drove it deep into the ice. She clung to it with one hand, and with the other wrapped her fingers around Wynn’s wrist. Every muscle in her body strained and she called on the power of the sphere to pull him up next to her. They both collapsed, shaking. Tiadaria with exertion, and Wynn in horror.

The deep ache in her chest told Tiadaria that the sphere had once again claimed payment for her remarkable abilities. Her hands burned, as much from the contact with the steel of her sword as with the bitter cold. She managed to push herself to her feet and offer Wynn a hand.

“We need to go.”

“I know.”

Wynn took her hand and struggled to his feet. His staff, fortunately, was still slung in the holster across his back. He pulled it free now, using it to steady his still wobbly legs. Tiadaria shrugged out of her pack and dropped it to the ice. Wynn gave her a puzzled look.

“We won’t need them for the fight, and if we live, we can come back for them.”

He nodded, slipping out of his pack and leaving it next to hers. As they jogged into the thickening mist in the center of the cavern, Wynn paused and looked back over his shoulder. The bags sat abandoned by the base of the ruined arch. He wondered if they’d ever see that place again. Putting the thought out of his head, he followed Tia into the unknown.

The deeper into the chamber they went, the thicker the mist became. They could walk off the edge of the island and never know it until it was too late, Zarfensis thought. The warriors clustered around him, following his lead. It took a moment or two for the High Priest to realize that though the mist was thickest here, there was a subtle violet glow emanating from below them. He dropped to his knees, brushing a light layer of snow off the ice. The brilliance of the purple light magnified considerably.

“Here!” he called to the warriors triumphantly. “We dig here!” Without waiting for the rest of the war party to heed his cry, Zarfensis unsheathed his claws and began chipping away at the ice. The source of the light appeared to be only a few feet down. With the help of the others, they should have the relic uncovered before the vermin could catch up.

The excavation was furious. Each of the warriors moved out of the others way so they didn’t risk cutting each other with their razor sharp claws. This allowed them to uncover several large patches, all converging into a center area where Zarfensis had been digging. Zarfensis plunged his claws into the ice and was surprised when they broke through a thin shell of ice into a pocket of air beyond.

The air space under the ice allowed them to get a better grasp and they began pulling up large chunks of the stuff, tossing it away. A moment later, a Xarundi size hole was broken into the hollow chamber and Zarfensis could gaze with equal parts reverence and horror on the relic they had just uncovered.

The relic was ancient and powerful indeed. So powerful that Zarfensis knew they had no hope of controlling it, but rather asking it to acknowledge that the Xarundi were the ones responsible for freeing it from its icy prison.

“ I know. ” The voice echoed loudly from inside his head.

Zarfensis looked down at the violet eye, the size of a small buckler, as the slit lengthened and turned its intense stare on the High Priest. A rush of air swept past the war-party and the ground under them trembled. The warriors stepped back and Zarfensis followed.

As the massive dragon took air into its lungs for the first time in who knew how many hundreds of years, the thick neck expanded with the support of the breath. The ice around it exploded outward, carving a channel down toward where the massive body lie immobilized. There was an explosion of shards and the Xarundi shielded themselves from the projectiles. As the massive lungs filled, the chest expanded, sending large fissures racing in all directions across the surface of the island. For a moment, the entire surface of the bowl seemed to explode upward, then settled.

Slowly, the beast’s neck, long and thick as the tallest ironwood tree, freed itself from the ice. The head followed, the violet eyes blazing in the mist. The body came next, swaying to and fro on unsteady legs as the dragon found itself upright on limbs that hadn’t been used in centuries. Finding its footing, it spread its snow-white wings, blocking out the light from the broken ceiling above. It turned its pinions, flexing the wings to their full extension before folding them across its back.

It reared its head, looking skyward through the ceiling and took another deep breath. The brassy roar that exploded from the dragon shook the island to its foundation and forced the Xarundi to their knees. The head swung down again, one huge violet eye fixing its gaze on Zarfensis.

“ You seek to control me, dog? ”

Zarfensis tried to find words to reply and found that he couldn’t form any. He had thought that the relic would be an object of power, something to be wielded in battle against the hordes of vermin. A dragon! They couldn’t hope to control a dragon.

“ No, mongrel, you will not, ” the dragon said, responding to the frightened Xarundi’s thoughts. “ However, you freed me from my prison. That is an act to be repaid in kind. Therefore, you will have your lives and your freedom. Leave this place. Leave it and spread the word that the threat of your feeble empire is nothing compared to my might and power. ”

Suddenly the massive head whipped upright, peering into the mist. A moment later it had opened its titanic jaws, allowing a miniature bolt of lightning to steak across the cavern. There was an explosion of ice and Zarfensis heard the terrorized bleating of the vermin. If nothing else, at least the dragon had done them that favor.

“ That is the last such boon you will receive, mongrel. Remember. ”

The dragon spread its wings and leapt into the air. It seemed for a moment that the huge wings weren’t strong enough to hold the creature aloft, but it lurched upward on the down stroke, the rush of air wafting away the mist so that everyone in the cavern could see its awesome size. It flew up to the jagged hole in the ceiling, crashed through its rough edges, and was gone.

* * *

Tiadaria and Wynn lay sprawled on the ice. The lightning strike hadn’t been near enough to singe them, but it had knocked them flat and left them with the purple afterimage of flash blindness. Though neither one of them could make out detail, they saw enough to know that the dragon that the Xarundi had freed was enormous and not to be trifled with.

Though they hadn’t been able to hear the Xarundi’s side of the conversation, the dragons had reverberated in their heads. It seemed not to care whose minds it touched, or what information it conveyed while it was there. At least they had the satisfaction of knowing that the Xarundi, for all their speed and maneuvering in getting to the relic first, had ultimately failed. They had no weapon with which to battle humanity. At best they had gained nothing. At worst, they had gained an incredibly powerful and cunning foe.