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- Herausgeber: Dragonfire Press
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Serie: Dragon Riders of Osnen
- Sprache: Englisch
The shadows hide a secret.
With Maren bound to the ferryman’s boat by a powerful enchantment, and magic all but gone, Eldwin must find another way to free her.
Beneath the Terranese school lies a possible answer, but a sinister creature lies in wait — one that even a dragon is no match for.
Escaping alive isn’t the only problem. A wicked man is gathering strength using the dead, and he has his vengeful gaze set on Katori.
Getting magic back isn’t an option now … it’s a necessity.
Fans of Sarah K.L. Wilson’s Dragon School, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern will feel right at home.
Smoke and Shadow is the ninth episode of the series Dragon Riders of Osnen.
Dragon Riders of Osnen series:
Book 1: Trial by Sorcery
Book 2: A Bond of Flame
Book 3: The Warrior's Call
Book 4: The Coin of Souls
Book 5: Wings of Terror
Book 6: Eyes of Stone
Book 7: Tooth and Claw
Book 8: The Servant of Souls
Book 9: Smoke and Shadow
Book 10: The Dark Rider
Book 11: The Song of Bones
Book 12: Sword and Crown
Book 13: Tides of Darkness
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 106
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Smoke and Shadow
Dragon Riders of Osnen Book 9
Richard Fierce
Copyright © 2020 by Richard Fierce
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the express permission of the publisher.
Cover design by germancreative
Cover art by Rosauro Ugang
Contents
Darkness surrounded us, thick and impenetrable.
The torches that Domori and Haruna wielded helped a little, but the shadows seemed to slowly close in, suffocating the light. We stood in what appeared to be a small antechamber, which was ringed with pillars of stone, all of them crumbling with age.
“That doesn’t look good,” I whispered.
“No, it does not,” Katori agreed.
I can’t fit through the doorway. Sion’s voice filled my mind.
I turned around and walked back to her, retrieving the collar and a robe from her saddle. I slipped the collar around her neck and waited as her massive body transformed into a human. She took the robe and covered her nakedness, then we joined Katori. She was holding her torch up to one of the pillars.
Despite the derelict appearance of the stonework, it was obvious that they had once been magnificent pieces of art. Here and there, lines in the stone revealed intricate patterns that had been lost to time.
“Were the people who built this place dragon riders?” I asked.
“No,” Katori answered. “They were worshippers of Ho-musubi. If the legends are true, they were not good people. I suspect that is why the enenra was created. The victim was probably a sacrifice.”
I couldn’t imagine people doing something so horrid to one another. It was unconscionable. Katori moved away from the pillar, and I stayed close to her side. Since dragons had such amazing eyesight, I wasn’t worried about Sion being outside of the torchlight.
Do you sense anything now that the wards are down?
I smell magic, Sion said. Lots of magic.
Good. The more items we can collect, the better.
“Sion says there is a great deal of magic down here. Should we let her lead the way?”
“Yes, but she must use caution. We don’t know where the enenra is, and I would rather not run into it ill-prepared.”
I am not afraid of this enenra creature, Sion said. Yet I will do as Katori asks.
“Haruna, you will stay here and guard the doors. Unless it is one of us, do not let anything pass by you. Shut the doors, if you must.” Katori pulled the pendant from around her neck and handed it to him.
The Curate accepted it and offered a bow.
“Come,” Katori said. “Let us be quick. This place gives me a bad feeling in my stomach.”
Sion took the lead and disappeared among the shadows. I walked with Katori, and Domori followed behind us. The light of their torches illuminated a small area around us, but the gloom seemed to snuff the light from existence. I peered ahead, trying to see Sion. I could hear her footsteps, but the light didn’t stretch far enough to glimpse her.
Slow down, I told her. I can’t see you.
I’m not moving fast, she replied. I’m barely a few feet in front of you. This darkness is unnatural.
Is it caused by magic?
Yes, though I don’t know why anyone would want perpetual darkness.
The antechamber had three doorways, all of which were missing the doors. We went through the center one, an arched entrance that took us into a short hall. The walls were covered with cobwebs, and some hung down from the ceiling. I shivered several times when my hand and face inadvertently touched their silky strands.
At the end of the hall, we entered another doorway. Sconces were affixed to the walls beside the entrance, and Katori lit them with her torch. The darkness was pushed back and revealed what appeared to be a prayer garden. The floor was covered with smooth river stones arranged in a swirling pattern, and two large statues of armored men stood guard from either side of the room. Their armor resembled Domori’s, with the faces of the statues also covered with demonic masks.
“There’s an inscription,” Katori said, drawing my attention to where she was looking. Set against the far wall was a large stone that had a flowing script engraved upon its surface.
“What does it say?”
“‘Here in silence you will find the flames.’”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Perhaps it is a reference to the god of fire.”
“There’s something over here, too,” Domori said.
He was on the opposite side of the room. Katori and I joined him, and I saw what he was talking about. A small pool of clear liquid sat within the depression of a square stone, but the liquid flowed out in thin trickles along what appeared to be a miniature version of a waterway.
“It looks like water,” I said as I reached down to dip my fingers in it. Katori’s hand snatched my wrist aside, startling me. I looked at her and she shook her head.
“That is not water. At least, not natural water. It flows away from the pool of its own accord.”
I knelt in front of the stone and looked closer. She was right. The liquid moved up the stone, away from the depression.
“It must be directed by magic,” I said.
“Yes, but where does it go?” Katori asked.
She brought the torch closer to the stone and followed one of the trickles. It flowed along the waterway and disappeared under the wall. The torch flickered as if moved by an unseen breeze and the liquid caught fire. The flames raced across the surface of the stone and the entire room lit up.
“That’s definitely not water,” I muttered.
Whatever it was, it was flammable. And it saturated the walls, though they didn’t erupt in flames as the trickles did. The magic in this place was odd. Sion leaned down and sniffed the burning liquid.
“It is not water,” she confirmed through trembling lips. “It is dragon saliva.”
“Dragon saliva is flammable?”
“How do you think we breathe fire?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I assumed it was by magic.”
“Not everything is magic.”
“Since when did you learn to speak in your human form?” I asked.
Sion smiled but didn’t reply.
“She is correct,” Katori said. “In the mouth of a dragon, there are two sacks located on either side of the upper jaw. When they excrete the liquid contained within them and it touches their saliva, it creates a chemical reaction that makes fire.”
“Truly?”
“Truly.”
Perhaps I’d missed that in my studies. Or perhaps I had read that and simply forgotten it. Either way, I was surprised. I’d always assumed that a dragon’s ability to breathe fire was powered by their magic. Especially since some dragons had more than one breath weapon.
Sion looked to the doorway across the room and her brow furrowed. “There’s magic in there,” she said. “I can feel it.”
“So can I,” Katori muttered. “I feel it thrumming in my veins. It must be a powerful trinket.”
“Then let’s go find it,” I said.
I strode through the doorway and entered the room. The walls glowed with the same light as the prayer garden, and it became apparent that the entire temple must be illuminated by the strange light. I didn’t see anything that looked like a magical item to me. There was an altar with a golden bowl atop it, and along the far wall was a table covered with dried sheaves of some kind of plant.
“Incense,” Katori said, nodding toward the table.
“Is that what’s humming with magic?” I asked.
“No. It’s that.” Katori pointed to the bowl.
Sion walked over to the altar and examined the bowl, but she didn’t pick it up.
“It has powerful enchantments woven into it,” she said. “Though I do not know what they do. The magic is different from anything I’ve seen before.”
“The spells are confusing,” Katori chimed in. “They seem to contradict each other, yet they flow in harmony. It is a mystery.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we don’t need to know what they do,” I said. “We just need the magic to power a different spell.”
A cloth bag was on the table, full of the incense sheaves. I picked it up and dumped the contents onto the table, then grabbed the bowl and put it inside the bag. Katori stared at me in silence for a moment.
“This feels wrong,” she said.
“I’m sure it does, but it’s the only way to free Maren and restore magic.” I paused. “Please don’t back out on me.”
We stared at each other in silence, and Katori finally nodded.
“I will keep my word, but that doesn’t mean I have to like what we are doing.”
“Fair enough,” I replied as I slung the sack over my shoulder. “Do you sense anything else?”
Sion nodded. “Yes. It’s coming from the altar, but the altar itself is not the source.”
“It’s inside the altar,” Katori said. “Clever.”
“How do we get it out?”
Katori nodded at Domori. The man drew his blade and spun around, striking the front of the altar with his sword. The façade cracked, revealing a hidden compartment. Katori removed the broken pieces and reached into the partition. She struggled for a moment, then pulled her arm free. Gripped in her hand was a scepter.
“It’s heavy,” Katori said.
“And powerful,” Sion added.
“Yes, the magic is making my arm tingle. Open the bag.”
I did as Katori asked and she dropped the scepter in with the bowl.
“If our luck continues like this, we’ll—”
An ominous sound echoed off the walls, cutting off my words. We all exchanged looks, and the noise faded.
“What was that?” I whispered.
“A cry of death,” Katori answered.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I don’t think we’re alone down here.”
“Did someone follow us?”
“That isn’t likely. It must be the enenra. It’s probably wailing to itself.”
Katori tilted her head and listened, but there was only silence now. We waited a moment longer, but the stillness remained.
“Let us continue,” Katori said. “I want to leave this place.”
I looked at Sion. “Anything else?”
“Not in here,” she replied. Sion closed her eyes and sniffed the air. “This way.”
She walked over to the table of incense and paused.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s a door here,” she replied.
I didn’t see one. There was only a solid wall behind the table. I looked at Katori, who shrugged.
“I can’t feel any magic except for those things in the bag. Sion, do you know how to break illusions?”
“No.”
“Let me try to help you, then. Picture the door you sense to be there within your mind. Then push against it with your willpower. Use as much force as you need to.”
I watched the wall and must have been subconsciously holding my breath. My lungs started burning, and I exhaled as Sion broke the enchantment. The wall rippled like water, and then a wooden door became visible.
“You learn quickly,” Katori complimented.
“It wasn’t difficult,” Sion replied. “Thank you for your help.”
“Aside from wanting to hide something, why else would someone use an illusion to hide a door?” I asked.
“To keep others from opening it,” Katori replied.
A chill ran down my back, but I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t afraid. At least, I didn’t think I was. I’d faced a dracolich, a necromancer, a basilisk, and the wrath of the Assembly. Potentially facing an enenra, whatever that truly was, seemed inconsequential in comparison.
I pushed away my doubts and walked past Sion, grabbing onto the door handle. It didn’t budge.
“It’s locked,” I said.
Domori motioned with his hand. “Move aside.”
We cleared the way and Domori sheathed his blade, then took a few steps back before sprinting ahead. He lowered his shoulder and collided roughly with the door. There was a loud crash, but the door held firm. Domori staggered back and grunted.
“It didn’t give at all,” he said.
Katori knelt before the door and eyed the keyhole.
