Swords of the Six (3 page)

"Mighty prophet," the king bowed his head. "Welcome to my humble hall."

The king and all in attendance waited.

At last a dragon's roar pierced the quiet. It shook the hall to its foundations, bringing everyone except the king to their knees. The creature roared again and Brian felt the pain wrenching at its noble heart. The dragon emerged then, its pure white scales pulsated with light as it angled its bony head downward. Its pink eyes focused on the king.

"My dear friend and ally." The dragon growled as tears flooded down its face. It opened its maw as if to continue, then ground it shut. Its wings unfolded from its sides, unveiling the body of a youth wrapped in them. The dragon set the body on the stone floor in front of the king and withdrew its wings.

The king's knees shook as he looked at the body. He sank to the floor, burying his face in the corpse's chest. His hunched shoulders shook and his crippled form wept. Then the king turned his face upward as if seeing through the rafters to the heavens . . . and he screamed with rage.

And the dragon looked on and his tears flowed like a flood around the king. Brian's heart broke at the sight and he tried to approach his father to comfort him, but when he looked at the body his father held he fell back. For the body was his own.

The crippled king screamed again with strength born of pain beyond reckoning. And the dragon, that noble white creature, roared with such terrible power that the walls cracked and began to crumble, falling toward the king's courtiers.

* * *

The prince fought with his nightmare and at last awoke. The light of the moon had waned; perhaps due to moisture accumulation in the atmosphere. Mist roiled over the ground, veiling it.

Whatever the cause he thought he detected movement on the slope. Could it be a trick? Valorian was cunning. Maybe the black dragon intended to slip his agents into Brian's cave by hiding them in the mist.

Not on my watch.
The prince closed his fingers around the handle of his sword.

A human figure rose out of the mist not ten feet away. "Brian, is that you?"

"Kesla?!" Relief washed over Brian like a warm blanket. The man was like a second father to him. Four other warriors stood in the mist behind the first. "Thank God you have come!" The prince relaxed his hand, let go of his scimitar and stood.

He beckoned them into the cave and led the way to Xavion. "The captain is . . ." He stopped outside the cavern sheltering the wounded warrior. "Well," he said, "you will have to see for yourself."

One of the other men strode faster and looked down at the prince. "
He
is wounded? Where is he? Let me see him
now!
"

Kesla's arm smote the man solidly in the chest. "Speak out of turn again, Letrias, and I will make certain you regret this trip."

Letrias laughed and looked up at Kesla. "Watch your tongue, warrior. The future belongs to me."

"Kesla?" Xavion's weak voice sounded from the dark chamber.

"Yes, my captain. It is me." Kesla drew his sword from its sheath. Its blade glowed, illuminating the cave and the bloodied body of the revered warrior as he lay on the stone floor. To his right the Art'en's eyes glowed like a cat's.

"What is that doing here?" Letrias demanded. He too drew his glowing blade from its sheath and behind him three other blades split the darkness.

Auron, Hestor, and Clavius formed a half-circle behind Kesla, Brian, and Letrias. Brian smiled down at his captain. "They have come, my master."

Xavion's mutilated face slowly wandered over each of his men. Then his eyes closed as if lacking the strength.

The men let out long breaths as Kesla knelt next to Xavion. Then Clavius and Hestor joined arms with Letrias and Auron, forming a human litter. Brian and Kesla hefted the captain into their arms and watched them walk out of the cave.

Brian tried to tell Kesla how relieved he was to see him, but the man averted his eyes. "Kesla, what is wrong?"

"Darkness has fallen, young prince," the warrior said. "And I do not expect to see the return of light." He lifted the Art'en with ease and left the cave. The prince followed.

Dawn's first rays of light glowed in the east, but clouds hung in the sky.

The warriors dropped Xavion on the stony ground. His eyes popped open and he screamed with pain. Brian drew his sword and ran to assist his captain. But Letrias stood in his path and laughed, pointed his blade at the prince's chest. "Do it, Kesla."

Brian heard the Art'en shriek and glanced over his shoulder just as Kesla pulled his blade out of the creature's heart. Kesla gazed back at Brian, his eyes downcast.

"What have you done?" The prince took a step away from Letrias. Auron, Hestor, and Clavius encircled him. Kesla cut off his escape. They drew their crystalline swords.

But a figure rose behind Auron and Letrias. "Traitors!" Xavion's bleeding fists smote the men in their backs, sending them to the ground. The captain stumbled but drew his sword and stabbed Clavius in the leg. His disfigured face could not cry, even as he grabbed Brian with one arm and shielded him with his body.

The warriors attacked and Brian begged Xavion to release him. "You can't face them alone! Not like this! Please, Master, let us fight together!"

Xavion looked down at him, held his gaze. Brian knew that the captain could read rage in his eyes.

As Xavion released him, Brian swung around, letting loose his whip and cracking it in Hestor's face. The warrior's face cracked open and he covered it with both hands, dropping his sword.

Xavion bellowed at Letrias as the man thrust his sword at Brian. He battered back the handsome, thinner man with his sword and punched him in the chest, sending him panting to the ground.

Clavius and Auron converged on Brian. Expertly they thrust and parried, staying ahead of his sword maneuvers. He dropped his whip. It would do him no good in close combat. His already tired body refused to move quickly and his white blade faltered against the crystalline ones wielded by the two warriors.

"This is madness! Why? Why are you doing this?" He saw Xavion stumble under Letrias's fresh attack. "Why?" the old warrior repeated. And blood ran from his eyes instead of tears. "Why?!"

"Oh, please." Letrias spat on the ground, stood back to catch his breath, and brushed the dirt from his garb. "Isn't it obvious old man? The time of the white dragon is drawing to a close. A new era is coming and
we
want to be part of it." He smiled sardonically and gestured to Kesla. "And now watch your prize pupil show you what he is learning.

"Kill him, Kesla!" Letrias laughed. "Do this deed or the agreement my master offered you is nullified. Kill the captain!"

Brian dropped to the ground as Clavius and Auron struck at him with their swords. He rolled to the side, picking his whip off the ground and then standing. Without hesitation he loosened it and snaked it around Letrias's legs. The man fell, weightless. Brian pivoted on his foot, snapped the whip. Letrias flew through the air like a rag doll and struck a boulder before sliding down its face, landing on the hard ground with a dazed expression on his face.

He turned, looking for Xavion.

Tears ran down Kesla's face. He had engaged in a duel with Xavion. Their movements were blinding fast and their blades rang against each other again and again. The sun rose in the east. Its first rays glinted off a brass ring on Kesla's finger.

Auron and Clavius rushed into the fray and Hestor, snarling through his bleeding face, struck Xavion from behind. Even as the aged man fought for his own life he pleaded with them to spare the prince's.

"Cowards! What have you become? Why are you doing this?" Soon sobs rocked his shoulders.

Dropping his whip, Brian rushed to Xavion's aid. He slashed his white blade everywhere the traitors' crystal ones appeared. He gazed into the faces of the men, their blades poising to kill. Dark-featured Auron had once fought with him in battle against the wizards. Hestor and Clavius? They'd been brothers and uncles who'd taught and defended him. Now they wanted to kill him and Xavion.

Why? Why? Why?
He felt the tears fill his eyes and heard himself repeating the question aloud over and over again. "Why? Why?
Why
?"

“Stop it,” Kesla sobbed. “Stop it! I can’t stand this anymore!” He swung his blade, Brian parried and his eyes locked for a moment with the traitor's. In that instant Brian saw regret, anger, and confusion in the man’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” Kesla choked out.

Somehow Brian believed him. Perhaps it was because he needed to, and because he wanted to. During that moment he found the courage to forgive Kesla for the ghastly crime he was committing, even as he fell under the weight of Kesla's swing . . . and felt his back split open, his insides twisted, another crystal sword of the Six impaling him.

He saw Letrias stumble up to Xavion from behind and grasp his charred shoulder. “You’ve failed, old man!” Letrias drew back his sword arm and thrust his captain through his back. The sword’s point protruded through Xavion’s chest.

Xavion fell to his knees, sliding off the blade. His blood, on Letrias’s sword, spread from the point all the way up to its handle, then drained off, leaving rust in its wake. Hestor and Clavius gasped and dropped their weapons. The swords sank into the crimson pool forming around Xavion. The blood covered their weapons as it had Letrias’s, leaving them covered in rust.

Choking on his own blood, Brian fought for air. He could hear Auron laughing, as if this were all a joke, but the sensation of the blade sliding painfully out of his back proved that it was not.

The white-bladed scimitar slipped from Brian’s fingers and he fell forward in a kneeling position. He knew now . . . he knew that death was coming, but he smiled to himself in spite of it. What was death but a threshold; the threshold to eternity with his Creator.

“My poor boy, please . . . please forgive me.” He heard Kesla’s voice plead into his fogging mind. He tried to reply that yes, he was forgiven—but he could not. Blood had flooded his lungs and clogged his throat.

A roar filled his ears. With his last strength he pulled his sword toward himself and broke it, broadside, across his knee. The enemy would never use it.

The ground shook violently and, as his vision darkened, he saw a flash of white dragon scales dispelling the darkness and knew that salvation had come . . . too late.

PART I

SEEDS OF SALVATION

Chapter 1: Shizar Palace

Albino the dragon took another powerful stride and the marble floor trembled beneath him. Nearly one thousand years had passed since the fall of his famed and beloved Six; the warriors in whom he had placed utmost confidence. But only one had stayed true. He felt a growl build in this throat. "It may have been better if I had killed Letrias, too." He dipped his head beneath one of the white arches supporting the vaulted ceiling and his horns merely grazed it.

The white-bearded man alongside the dragon shook his head. "That would have solved nothing. The roots of wizardry had already spread too far." He tapped his hooked shepherd's staff on the shiny floor and straightened his hooded, white robe. "If Letrias had fallen, another man would have risen to take his place, leaving Subterran no better off than it is now."

The dragon turned and his claws sparked against the palace floor. "You are right, Patient. But ever since that fateful day when the Six fell . . ." He sighed. "I wonder how things would have turned out if I had done things differently."

"Albino, my friend." The shepherd's ocean blue eyes looked up at him with naked honesty. "The past is passed. Let it remain so."

"Yes . . . the past is behind us." Albino's claws scraped the marble. He flared his nostrils. "But the future has not been written. Letrias will pay for his treachery . . . in time."

Gesturing with one clawed hand at an opening in the wall, Albino waited for Patient to precede him through the large doorway. The shepherd's sandals whispered over the floor, his white robe draped comfortably around his shoulders as he took long strides into the spacious room.

The man turned his head ever so slightly to gaze around the room. Patient bore himself with the sureness of a king.

The dragon flexed his white wings. His palace was in no way small to other beings, but for his nearly seventy-foot-length it sometimes felt cramped. He pulled himself through the doorway. He stood to the side of the oval room, curling his bone-hard tail around his legs, leaving the rest of the room's marble floor clear for Patient.

Sunlight filtered through stained glass windows set high in the chamber walls. Rays of light streamed down, warming six eggs against the back wall, surrounded by fresh-cut, golden straw. The smell of the straw was pleasant, clean. It filled the air with a dry, grassy scent reminiscent of a warm spring day.

Casting a silent, questioning glance at the dragon, the shepherd crossed the room and laid his hand on the egg closest to him. The white, reflective shell speckled with blue, stood level with his chest. Slowly he looked back at the dragon. "May I assume that these eggs are the reason you brought up the fall of the Six?"

Albino growled. "War is brewing. Out of distant lands the wizard, Letrias, gathers followers. Corrupt men, and a few women. I have seen the might he will wield and he will soon bring it to bear on the lands of the dragons, the lands of Venom-fier."

"Yes, I too have seen it." Patient pulled his hand away from the egg. He fixed his undeniable gaze on each of the remaining eggs. "Letrias has grown powerful," he said, his eyes pausing on the egg farthest from where he stood. "But you and I cannot intervene. You know the consequences if we do.

"War is harsh, but I would rather its cruel lash strike Venom-fier than that he become less of a dragon than he is." His sandals stirred small clouds of dust as he walked through the straw, approaching the egg farthest from him. He glanced up at the dragon. "We cannot interfere this time, my friend."