Chapter 34: Chapter 34
The sun was rising outside, the light filtering in through the intermittent windows as Slate and Nya raced down the hallway. Nya knew, as soon as they rounded the corner ahead of them, not only would they be in an interior hallway, there would be soldiers waiting. “Four,” she told Slate, and he nodded in understanding. That’s how many soldiers they’d be facing initially.
There would be more coming.
They turned the corner and caught four troops walking in pairs, minding their own business. It took the men a moment to realize they were being faced by hostiles. Those few seconds was all it took for Slate to run his sword through the gullet of the man on the right as Nya moved to knock the one on the left to the floor. He staggered back into the man behind him, and she drew her sword, leaving her shield hanging on her back as she ran both of the men through. Blood splattered up into her face, she swiped it away, leaving a crimson smear on her hand and sleeve. She had never killed anyone before, even though she’d spent her whole life training for this day. It didn’t feel good at all, but she knew it had to be done.
The fourth soldier was backing away, raising a ruckus as he screamed, his footsteps heavy on the floor. Slate caught up to him in a matter of seconds and pulled him against his chest as he used a knife to slit the man’s throat. Again, blood bubbled everywhere, but they needed to hurry if they were to get to the room where the gem was being held before the loud troop’s friends came running.
It was too late. Nya knew that already, even as she and Slate continued down the hall. She saw the mass of troops coming to investigate. There were at least a dozen of them clustered at the end of the hall, gathering numbers from branches from this main hallway as others came to investigate. She saw the hall she needed up ahead on the right. They would meet the troops just about at the intersection.
Nya knew what she had to do.
As Slate’s sword met the leading components of the attack, Nya didn’t pause to help him. Instead, she sprinted down the hall to the right, the one she knew led to the room where the gem was located. One of the soldiers screamed after her, “Stop that girl!” which let her know she was certainly on the right track. Slate would be able to hold them off in time for her to reach the room, though she knew there would still be obstacles. Still, she’d seen it in her mind’s eye enough to know she would hold the stone in her hand, command the powers of magic, and have a choice to make because she saw something else in her mind’s eye, too.
A dragon in chains.
As Nya neared the door she needed to enter to access the gem, the sounds of fighting in the hallway behind her, a group of soldiers appeared before her, clearly stationed to guard the door that led to the chamber where the stone was kept.
All of them reacted as one, coming toward Nya in a fluid motion. They were large, wearing chainmail, and carrying longswords, knives at their sides.
Nya could see their movements before they even came at her. She brought her sword around, her knife in the other hand, stabbing through the weak points in the chainmail of the lead soldier as she flew up into the air, her legs kicking out. She caught the man next to him in the gut, knocking him backward as she brought her arms around and hit the next two soldiers.
With four of them out of commission from one movement, she moved on to the next row of soldiers, these equally caught off guard as she evaded all of their blows. She drove her elbow into one bastard’s jaw, lifting her knee to catch another one while her sword thrust behind her to catch one of the first men who was up and recovering until the hilt of her weapon hit him squarely in the face.
One of the men in the back had a longstaff that he thrust in her direction. Nya grabbed the end of it, ratcheting it around as she spun, yanking it from his hands. She then used it to pummel him in the stomach, blocking a blow from another of the men she’d already attacked, and driving the end of the staff into the next troop to confront her. Once they were all on the ground, Nya jabbed each of them in the throat with the staff and then used it to pluck the keys from the belt of one of the men in the middle.
“That was a lot easier than I would’ve imagined,” she muttered to herself, knowing her ability to see their movements before they made them gave her all of the advantage she’d needed. Down the hallway, she heard Slate continuing to battle on and imagined there had been even more troops arrive down there. She needed to hurry.
Nya knew which of the several keys she needed to unlock the door, so she quickly thrust it into the keyhole and turned the handle. It clicked open, just as she knew it would.
What she saw next took her by surprise to such a degree that she felt let down by her own third eye.
The Heart of Magic stood encased in a glass protectorate in the middle of the room, but it was difficult to see it as, in front of the treasure, a large form rose from the ground to block her view.
A black and red dragon--in chains.
***
Visions flashed in front of Nya’s eyes as she tried to rectify what she’d been seeing for the last several days with the scene before her now. All along, she’d thought she’d been seeing Slate in his dragon form in chains, but that wasn’t what she’d been seeing at all. It was this other dragon, the one rising up in front of her now. He looked anything but happy as his nostrils began to flare, and it was quite obvious this dragon’s duty was to protect the Heart of Magic, which Nya could no longer see as it was hidden behind the dragon’s large back.
“Hi there,” Nya said, her voice quivering as she moved slowly in front of the door. She’d planned to bar it, but now she felt it would be better to leave it open. Something told her anyone who knew exactly what was guarding the gem would think twice before coming into the room. “Take it easy now, big fella,” she said, glad her shield was on her back and slowly reaching for it.
The dragon snarled at her, but he was still being cautious, trying to determine who she was and what sort of threat she was to him and the stone.
Nya cleared her throat, trying to determine which path to take. Trusting her third eye was problematic at the moment because she wasn’t sure she could be certain that what she saw was what would play out in front of her. It was one thing to use her skills to perceive what a soldier might do in battle and clearly something else to use it to determine which path to take.
Nevertheless, this dragon looked so much like Slate, she had a feeling they must be related. Not that she’d seen so many dragons in her day to assume that they didn’t all look similar. Deciding that she needed to take the chance on them being related, or at least from the same thunder, she said, “I’m here with Slate. Do you know him?”
The dragon tipped his head to the side, as if he were pondering what she’d said. She knew that dragons could understand spoken word in their dragon forms. He didn’t seem angry that she knew Slate, so she decided to take him further down that road. “Are you part of his thunder?”
The dragon seemed confused for a second, and then, with no warning, he opened his mouth, and fire shot out of his mouth. Nya grabbed the shield from behind her back and swiveled it around, dodging out of the way, but it was only after she moved that she realized the dragon wasn’t aiming the fire at her. Soldiers wearing Beelzanborg uniforms poured through the door as she moved. The dragon ignited several of them on fire before they could get their shields up.
Nya took the opportunity to move toward the Heart of Magic, letting the dragon keep the soldiers at bay. Whomever had placed this dragon here to guard the gem hadn’t thought about the dragon not wanting to keep the stone safe. Perhaps the King of Beelzanborg had always assumed it would only be humans trying to steal the gem and not the rightful owners. Either that, or he thought he could keep Slate and his forces back with his human forces. Clearly, he had thought wrong.
Dodging around the side of the dragon, Nya saw some of the soldiers doing the same, using their shields to keep the fire off of them as they followed her. The dragon was held fast by his chain and didn’t have much range of motion. Drawing her sword, Nya used all of her might to slam the blade down against the chain holding the dragon’s left leg in place. The metal ricocheted off, but it made a large dent. A second blow severed the chain so that the dragon was able to turn and hit the men behind her with the fire as she slid around and attacked the chain on the other side.
She’d passed the gem in her haste to release the dragon, but now that he was free and was using his fire to keep the attackers back, Nya ran toward the glass case holding the Heart of Magic. She could see that there was some sort of magic spell on the glass itself because tiny specks of light were dancing around the container. There had to be some way for her to knock the gem free of the case without touching the glass under the spell.
The dragon’s tail came around as he fought against the attackers. Nya saw what she needed to do plainly in her mind. If she touched the case, it would shock her and knock her unconscious, but the dragon’s scales were able to absorb such a blow without him being hurt at all. “Hey, dragon!” she shouted, leaping out of the way. “Can you knock this over?”
He turned and looked over his shoulder at her, a puzzled expression on his face, but then, he used his tail to strike the stand the gem’s container was sitting on. It tipped over, toppling to the ground. The glass shattered into a million pieces, freeing the gem.
Nya had to trust her mind’s eye again. Seeing that she could pick the gem up now without being harmed, she reached down and picked it up.
The moment her flesh touched the Heart of Magic, a jolt of power radiated through her, and Nya knew then she commanded all of the magic in the universe.
She turned to see what was happening behind her, and just as her eyes met the door, it opened again. This time it wasn’t a soldier from Beelzanborg coming in to stop her.
It was Slate, and his eyes were wide with wonder as he saw what she held in her hand.
As a smile broke across his face, Nya realized it was time for her to make her choice.
Would she choose power or love?