Thank you to everyone who reviewed. The response to the last chapter was wonderful. I really appreciate it. Four hours after I posted that chapter I had fifteen reviews! Thank you so much!
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Chapter 15
"Rahkesh I'm not sure if these traps are going to work right, how about you test one out?" Xeri asked innocently. Rahkesh snorted and carefully stepped over the trip wires she'd just laid out.
"Do I look like I was born yesterday?" He asked, studying the ropes the trip wires ran to, ropes that were holding several large boulders in place. When the wires were pulled the boulders would swing down across the trail, effectively killing anyone they hit. Xeri shrugged and grinned, her scars making the effect a little strange.
"Always worth a try." She said.
"Tell me something – if the Inca do get past all of the obstacles we can come up with, how are they going to get into Vailape? The enchantments-" she cut him off.
"The Inca have sorcerers of their own." Xeri said, "in all the years our cities have been hidden away the Inca are our only real enemies. Other tribes have been a problem because they know we're here, but the Inca might actually get in, despite being mostly non magical."
"How would their sorcerers know how to break the enchantments?" Rahkesh asked curiously.
"Magic. They kill people and use the power created by the death." Xeri said shortly, and Rahkesh sensed he wouldn't get annoying else from her. So the Inca had a rudimentary mix of blood magic, soul magic, and necromancy that they were using to bring down the powerful magics that hid the Chachapoyaro cities. Xeri turned and headed back to where they were regrouping for the evening meal, Rahkesh, not having been into the forest before and being very poorly oriented, followed closely. It was dark under the thick canopy, with very little sunlight actually reaching the ground. But it was hot and humid and the smell of the plants and flowers assaulted his nose. And every trail looked the same as the last one.
"Okay, how do the Inca move so fast if they don't have roads?" Rahkesh asked.
"The Chachapoya. Our non-magical kin. They built an amazing system of roads, much like what we have up in the mountains. The Inca are using them to move around." Xeri replied, "this way." She added, pointing out a near invisible trail that led back to the camp they were using just below the walls.
"Why haven't the Chachapoya fought with them?" Rahkesh asked, their hosts were very close-mouthed about their origins and their non-magical cousins.
"They are our ancestors, they started with leave the area not long ago. Their numbers have been steadily decreasing. The Inca cannot pass the Chachapoya stronghold, and so they won't try until they know the Chachapoya have withdrawn completely from that area. While they wait their sorcerers have discovered us and decided that they ought to try to conquer us. They don't know we're all magical. They haven't fought with anything larger than a patrol; well they hadn't until a few days ago. And now that they were defeated they know what we're capable of. But the army coming after us here isn't in communication with the other army. The Xuelhuala have removed all their messengers. So this army doesn't know what to expect." Xeri grinned again, "I expect this will be fun."
Rahkesh chuckled at that; they certainly had planned a lethal welcoming party. He sidestepped a thorny bush and tried to follow the trail. Nic and Xeri had been teaching them to track in the forests closer to Vailape, but the trails there were better defined than these. And easier on the feet. Being barefoot for three months had produced some amazingly tough calluses, but the Chachapoyaro had "foot pads" as Silas called them, and frequently walked right over sticks and thorns that made Rahkesh's feet hurt.
The river gurgled softly a few yards away. It was too wide to jump, but there wasn't much current except in the middle and swimming across wouldn't be too hard. But it would be very painful. The Xuelhuala warriors had a sadistic streak a mile wide. So did the Vailape guards, and so did the vampires. The three groups had spent the past few hours trying to outdo each other with the sheer nastiness of their creations and ideas. The Xuelhuala had gathered over a hundred venomous water snakes, and Rahkesh had given the snakes orders to attack any human they could get. In addition to the snakes there were also several dozen electric eels waiting in massive wooden tubs to be dumped into the water. Electric eels grew to about two meters in length and would happily apply a five hundred volt shock to anyone who got in their way.
The Vailape guards had released snapping turtles, which were native. They had also rounded up whole schools of piranhas, hundreds of them, also in holding tanks until the Inca appeared. Rahkesh had scoured the river for miles and come up with a dozen massive anacondas.
But in the nasty things to put in the river competition the vampires had won hands down. After all, it was hard to compete with giant leeches and candirus. The candiru was also known as the carnero, and the urethra fish, because of its tendency to enter the urethra of human bodies and, with its sharp spines, get stuck there, feeding on flesh and blood. The vampires had transfigured several hundred pebbles into candiru and had them in a holding tank. The Chachapoyaro had been so horrified when the snickering vampires showed them what they'd come up with that Daray suggested that all they would have to do was threaten the Inca with the parasitic little fish and they'd run away.
For the land-based nasty surprises competition the Chachapoyaro were determined to win over the smug vampires. Nic had taken a group of guards earlier in the day and come back that evening to say that they had created acid-spraying devices that could be triggered by trip wires. They were really just wooden tubes filled with acid, with a heavy rock on top. When the wire was tripped the rock would fall into the tube, forcing the acid out the dozen or so small nozzles at the other end. The acid was used for engraving metal and the tubes had to be enchanted to withstand it.
Not about to be outdone by the guards and their students the Xuelhuala had created tiny darts filled with water that had cholera and other deadly bacteria in it. They had tested puddles and water in ditches on their prisoners until they found some that killed them. The water had then been placed into the darts so that they could be shot from blowguns into cooking pots. They had also rigged darts on bowstrings in the woods, to fire when an arrow from atop the wall cut the rope that held the darts back. The Xuelhuala had also somehow come up with enough spiders to sink a ship. Apparently dangerous spiders were cleaned out of the cities once a year, and kept, alive, for use in situations like this. Brazilian wandering spiders, and yellow sac spiders had been fairly abundant for years, and so the Xuelhuala released all that they could find.
The vampires picked out, surprise surprise, vampire bats. They also gathered scorpions from the mountains and the forest, to put on the other side of the river so that the Inca would have to get through them before they could cross.
Aside from the living dangers everyone tried to out do each other with various non-living traps. Snares, trip wires, pit traps, dead trees rigged to fall on people, acid sprayers, swinging boulders to drop from the trees, and nets covered in poisoned needles were so thick in the forest it would be amazing if any of the first two or three hundred Inca made it within a half mile of the wall alive.
That evening they settled around some campfires, eating and comparing notes on the day's work. It would have been a tossup as to who had the nastiest idea, until Rahkesh presented his idea – powdered glass. Or, more precisely, glass ground between two rocks until the glass shards were almost too small to see, but glass shards of any size could cause serious harm, especially if they were inhaled. Rahkesh would scatter his into the wind from atop the wall. An enchanted wind, a wind that would take the glass directly to the Inca army, and only to them. The glass that wasn't inhaled could be summoned back to be reused.
"Memo to self, never anger snake boy here." Silas muttered as he stared at the sacks filled with powdered glass Rahkesh had been grinding up. Rahkesh grinned wolfishly.
"So, did I win?" The warriors and guards staring at him in a sort of sickened, stupefied, horror started to respond.
"I should think so, you are one twisted young man."
"Evil.
"Inhaling glass shards…that's just gruesome."
Rahkesh shrugged, in truth he didn't much like the idea, but he liked the Chachapoyaro and the Inca had already utilized biological warfare when they sent in the infected, contagious man to the city, knowing he would be interrogated and get close enough to the Chachapoyaro to infect them. The death toll had hit four hundred that day, and he wanted revenge.
"Knew you were a true sadist." Daray chuckled, "can we send it off now? Hit them while they're still on the other side of the river?" The vampire's enthusiasm for horrifically painful destruction made everyone wince.
"Whenever the people creating the enchanted wind are ready." Rahkesh replied, "and this is way beyond sadistic. The effects of this glass are going to be grisly; they'll get into the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the skin, and the lungs. They'll swallow it in their food and breathe it in through the air. Sadistic isn't a strong enough word."
"No I suppose not, and who is going to be enchanting the air?" Daray asked. He and Silas had yet to recover from the effects of drinking contaminated blood while testing the Chachapoyaro for the deadly disease. All three vampires had been weak and feeling ill ever since. The effects of the bad blood would wear off, and could be cured by replacing the bad blood with good blood. All three had been draining their own blood, by slitting their wrists, and then hunting to replace it. Daray had wanted to go after the Inca, but the others had decided that they should wait. In fact there was nothing stopping the Inca advance as they neared the city. The hope was that the psychological impact of a long march through unfamiliar forest, nervous and jumpy and looking everywhere for enemies, would tire the Incas before they arrived.
"Nycahalia said that Kalahimran and a few of his students were coming to help, the ones that are left anyway." Nic said. None of the four sorcerers who were going to help send them home had fallen ill, but they had lost most of their students, the ones that were being trained in only magic.
With the city now separated into two groups, those that were sick and those that weren't, those that weren't sick were beginning to get ready for war. With the Xuelhuala army still several days away and the Inca approaching rapidly thanks to the old Chachapoya roads it seemed more and more likely that the city would face the initial attack with no more than what was available right then. Fortunately the Xuelhuala did indeed take their responsibilities very seriously and, quite literally, forced the cities under their protection to be ready for war at any time. Hundreds of thousands of arrows were stored in the city armory, along with bows, shields, staves, blowguns, millions of darts and knives. They even had some small trebuchets and sharpened rocks to fling from them. The staircase that usually led down the walls was removable, hidden holes in the solid rock had held metal bars upon which the stairs balanced. With the stairs and bars gone, and the holes hidden by rock bars the wall was impossible to scale. The Chachapoyaro engineers who had built the city and wall had been amazingly skilled. The rocks had been cut and smoothed out so perfectly that, even without the aid of mortar, it was still impossible to stick a knife blade in between the rocks, anywhere on the wall. And, if by chipping away at the rock, anyone did manage to climb it there was another defense. Near the top of the wall there were certain tiny stone blocks that could be pulled back into the underground rooms behind. From here things like hot vegetable oils, boiling water, melted metal, and arrows could be flung down into the faces of those climbing. In addition the ground near the wall-top was kept clear of any plants that grew to be more than a foot or two tall, leaving open space for the defenders to move around. Behind the major wall, but before the city, and Xuelhuala warriors had erected a smaller wall that had to be climbed, with razor sharp downward facing spikes that were twisted about and sharpened until they closely resembled barbed wire. This stuff was, of course, painted with the most deadly poisons available.
In the defense mechanisms, as with everything else, their hosts showed a level of advanced abilities that no one would ever expect from such an ancient culture. Deep in the city there was a shaft cut through the solid rock that led directly downwards. At about a hundred feet below the surface the shaft was filled with water. To descend they had climbed into a small, birdcage like, apparatus that had been lowered down the shaft and into the water. Airtight glass had kept them dry all the way down. The shaft slowly narrowed and at the bottom the elevator had fitted into the shaft so well that the seal was airtight. Then the water below had been drained away by opening a drain that let the water out several hundred feet lower near the river, leaving the exit dry. They had opened the elevator door and stepped out and down one step into a damp but dry area. Then they had opened a well-sealed door, after it closed the elevator had been brought up again, letting the water back to the bottom. It was impossible to enter without being in control of the elevator, and that control was in the most secure spot at the center of the city. A truly ingenious creation that provided an entrance or exit to the city that the Inca would never discover, or if they did, drown trying to enter.
Outside they had set up a small campsite for a few days. Once the Inca attacked those in the city who the vampires had proclaimed healthy (and who were now in isolation) would join them to help fight. The final piece of genius the Xuelhuala had come up with for defending their cities was really fairly simple – everyone was trained to fight and required to keep in reasonably good fighting shape until they were too old to do so.
Dinner was fish and a few plants whose names Rahkesh couldn't recall. Two of the guards had brought wooden flutes with them and were playing, the haunting notes ringing out over the forest. Rahkesh relaxed by one of the fires with Xeri, Nic, Silas, Daray, and Xeri's older sister Vey. The Chachapoyaro teaching them to play one of the Chachapoyaro board games with small fresh water seashells and wooden circular board. It was a bit like mancala except it was played by up to ten people. As the sun was setting a low growl from among the tall grasses startled them. Moments later a black furry face poked through the plants at the edge of the forest that surrounded the city.
"Nuri?" Silas asked, shocked, as the young panther pushed his way through the thick plants and walked over to them, sniffing curiously at the fire, and jumping back when sparks flew from it.
"I thought you left him inside the city?" Daray asked.
"I thought I did too." Silas replied, standing from where he had been lying between Vey and Daray and walked towards his panther familiar. "Nuri how did you get here?" The panther nuzzled his hands and promptly lay down in Silas place between Daray and Vey by the fire. "Nuri!" Silas complained, Nuri began to clean his claws, pointedly ignoring his master. Silas flopped down again, using Nuri for a pillow and resting his legs over his cousin's. "If you're going to take my spot it's the least you can do." He told the panther when Nuri nudged his head. Nuri sighed audibly and rolled over a bit, and dropped his head onto Vey and purred. Vey laughed and scratched him under his chin and rubbed his ears. The panther purred and reached up to rest a paw on her cheek.
"He's such a flirt." Silas complained, "and everyone spoils him rotten for it." Vey glared at him over the panther.
"He is not rotten. He's adorable." She told Nuri's owner sternly. Nuri nuzzled her hand and purred again. Vey cooed softly at the big cat. Silas rolled his eyes and gave up.
From around Nuri's neck Sygra unwrapped herself and slithered slowly around the panther and vampire, past Daray and Vey, over Nic (who was lying with his head on Rahkesh's legs) to Rahkesh.
Sygra. Why did you come out? Rahkehs hissed softly as he picked the snake up and held her to his shoulder; Sygra wrapped herself around him and settled her head on his shoulder. The others watched with interest as he rubbed the back of the snake's head and hissed softly to her.
Nuri was trying to get out. So I came too. I got bored.
There will be a war soon.
Oh good. I haven't bitten any humans in a long time. Who can I kill?
You really are a vicious creature. I'll let you know who you can attack as soon as I know.
Vicious is good.
How did Nuri get out?
I got out. He came with me.
Oh. I thought the walls of the city were too enchanted for you to go through.
I thought they were, they're not. Not anymore. Haven't been since I shed my last skin.
Interesting. You're powers grow with each skin you shed. Anything else new? Rahkesh asked, once again wishing he knew exactly where Sygra came from and what species she was.
I'm developing a second set of venom sacks.
Another type of venom? You've got three!
Yes, apparently I'll have another soon.
You never cease to amaze.
Thank you.
"Rahkesh? Did she tell you how they got out?" Nic asked.
"Yeah, Sygra…well she can go through solid walls." Rahkesh admitted, resigned to giving up another secret that he'd kept hidden for safety's sake. The more surprises he had the better. Oh well, he would leave three of them behind soon enough and the vampires…he trusted them more than he trusted even Moody. Odd how that had happened without his realizing it.
"Through walls?" Xeri asked.
"Yes, and apparently the enchantments on the city weren't enough to stop her. Don't worry, she didn't damage them." Rahkesh said. Sygra hissed softly and gave the impression of preening, as much as a snake could anyway.
"And what does this gorgeous creature do?' Vey asked, still petting Nuri. The great cat was looking up at her with his patented (aren't I just gorgeous?) look. And Vey was falling for it, as everyone seemed to.
"He isn't magical. Or if he is he's never shown any such ability." Silas said. There was a shrill cheeping and Daray's fire-breathing vampire bat swooped down to land on Daray's shoulder on all fours.
"Is that a vampire bat?" Vey asked.
"Yes. He breathes fire too, and he's not the sort you find around here." Daray said. Satan was larger than the South American vampire bats and he had less fur, and a scale-like skin along his back with hard ridges like a dragon. Why non-magical vampire bats were found in South America, and the magical ones in Australia, was a very good question that no one even in their time had managed to answer.
Satan rubbed his head against Daray, then bit into his owner's ear and began to lap at the blood. Daray ignored the surprised looks he was getting and let the bat do as he would.
The wooden flutes continued to sing their eerie notes, the group lay back watching the stars, the game forgotten.
XXX
Late that night, or early that morning, depending upon whom you asked, the elite Xuelhuala patrol that had followed the Inca arrived in the camp at a loping run. Having taken a back route through the mountains they had avoided the walls and city and gone straight to the fighters camped outside. Rahkesh, on the morning watch with Nic, watched them run into the camp. Despite three hundred miles of rough travel alongside their foes the patrol was moving at a steady loping run and looked alert and ready for anything.
"They'll be at the river by the time the sun gets above the trees." One of the warriors told them.
"We will need to have people down there to observe." Someone behind them said. Rahkesh and Nic turned to see Kalahimran with three of his students. "Rahkesh we will save that glass of yours for later." The one-eyed sorcerer told him. Rahkesh nodded.
"Daray, Silas, and I all have the ability to become invisible." Rahkesh told him, the three had discussed it during the night and decided that it wouldn't hurt if their hosts knew about the ability given to them by the Yeck caps. The Chachapoyaro warriors were shocked.
"Invisible?" Kalahimran said softly, his single eye staring at him, Rahkesh nodded.
"We could go an observe them, but we don't know our way around too well. Sharahak has the ability to use his telepathy to avoid notice. He could come with us, and one or two others." Rahkesh suggested. Sharahak had woken up and nodded his agreement.
"Nic, you will go with them." Kalahimran decided. "Find a place not too far from the river where you can see everything. And do not get caught."
"Their sorcerers are getting unstable. They'll kill any prisoners, and they're trying to develop magical rituals by killing prisoners in the most horrific ways they can think of." One of the patrol told them. "Take poison with you so if they do capture you you'll die before they can start."
Rahkesh had his trunk with him and he had poisons in his backpack, he handed Nic one, the vampires wouldn't be killed by them. Nic led them into the forest and down a trail that took them in an arc around the area where most of the traps were and to the river.
"There are trails here so the Inca will likely cross here." Nic told them.
"Nic why did they choose you instead of one of the warriors?" Silas asked.
"Two years ago I helped create all of the trails and hiding spots in this part of the forest, I know my way around and the team I was working with are all dead." Nic replied
Up ahead the brown colored water sparkled in the early morning sun. The opposite bank had been cleared a bit and the spot Nic had chosen was halfway up a small hill where they could see a large stretch of the river that the Inca were likely to cross. There were trees right in front of them with thick leaves, but Nic pulled a few of the branches around until they could see clearly, without being easily visible themselves. The sun was rising and the air was getting hotter, it was going to be a sweltering day.
Below the Inca appeared on the opposite riverbank. One of them was shaking and slowly collapsed, a snake slithered away from around his ankle. Up stream there was a series of splashes as all the various creatures were released.
Now more Inca warriors decked out in snakeskin, cloth, and gold with red and white tattoos ran forward carrying canoes. They put the canoes into the water, just as Rahkesh saw his anacondas enter the river. More and more canoes, hundred of them, the water was so thick with canoes people were walking across. Then the anacondas struck.
Thick coils looped around canoes and crushed them like dried leaves, loops of thick muscle dragged the Inca, screaming, into the water. In moments the hundred or so canoes were gone down river, leaving the Incas floundering about.
Then the screaming began. Horrible, horrible screaming like nothing Rahkesh had ever heard. Even with the cruciatus curse he didn't believe he'd ever heard such screams. The piranhas had arrived first and after days without food they were eating the Inca alive.
Some tried to swim across, and few almost made it, but then the electric eels arrived with the poisonous snakes, leeches, and candirus close behind. The Inca had no choice but to cross, if they wished to reach Vailape, and the ones in front were being pushed in by the crush of the army behind. They had charged at the river at a run, and now they couldn't stop in time. Urged on by their commanders warriors dove into the water and were immediately attacked.
Eventually they would overwhelm the creatures in the water, there were just too many of them, but the first dozen or so that they watched make it across were killed almost instantly by the traps and creatures waiting on land.
Watching the Inca in the hot air, having charmed all the biting insects to leave them alone, listening to the horrific screams Rahkesh began to get the impression that they were being watched. Had they missed something? Had Inca crossed earlier and were now somewhere nearby?
"Shrahak, how about we go up the hill to get a better look?" Rahkesh asked. The older vampire nodded and rose silently. Rahkesh went invisible and followed him up the hill. There was only one trail and it had not been walked in a long time. They had to push the thick forest growth aside, trying not to move anything tall enough to be seen above the trees. At the top of the hill they turned to look back. The hilltop had been burned a few years before in a lightning storm and the growth was only a few feet tall all around them. Rahkesh became visible again they stood out clearly against the blue sky, but the Inca were too far down under the thick canopy to see them.
There was something moving in the trees, something very big and definitely not human. For a moment Rahkesh thought that the long winding thin form was a massive snake. Then it rose and a massive set of wings and a reptilian head lifted above the trees.
A dragon. The Incas had a dragon with them. How had they managed that?
"A dragon!" Sharahak gasped. Rahkesh watched as the jungle-green creature turned, and then lifted it wings and flapped. It had to be visible from the wall top, but not from where the other three were.
"Sharahak, we don't have much cover right here. It can see us." Rahkesh warned. Too late. The dragon was lifting into the air and it was headed right for them. It wasn't nearly as large as the Hungarian Horntail he had fought, but it's shrieking scream was loud enough to make Rahkesh's ears ring and hurt.
They both ducked, throwing themselves flat as a wave of fire shot at them. Sharahak cried out and grabbed his shoulder as his shirt was scorched and turned to ash. The smell the charred skin and hair and bone filled the air. Through the blackened shreds of skin turned to ash Rahkesh caught sight of the white of bone. Sharahak rolled to put the fire out and then looked up. Rahkesh was already standing again, wand out, ready. The dragon wasn't more than thirty feet long from nose to hip, with another twenty feet of tail, and a bright green with dark purple. It was much more snake-like than any dragon he had seen, indeed its head bore a remarkable resemblance to that of a Basilisk. Fairly young, and probably unused to battle.
The dragon circled once, screaming and roaring, flying so low its tail almost dragged along the hillside. Then it turned sharply, bending nearly in half, and dove at them. This time there was no avoiding the fire. Rahkesh threw up a massive shield and dragged Sharahak down with him. The vampire screamed as his ruined shoulder hit the earth. The fire washed by them on all sides. And the dragon was gone, going high up and turning for another attack.
This time the fire was followed by claws, four sets of them. Rahkesh's shield held just long enough to save them from the fire, though the heat was physically painful. Then the claws hit, Rahkesh's seeker reflexes saved him, though his backpack was ripped off and landed several feet away. And immediately burst into flames on the charred burning ground. But Sharahak was already badly burned on one shoulder and didn't move fast enough. The meter-long claws ripped into Sharahak.
The vampire didn't scream, he didn't make any sound at all as one massive claw went all the way through him from front to back, and the point of another nearly ripped his arm off. It went through the muscle, and Rahkesh could hear bone snap. Then it slipped from the arm, and as the dragon rose the other claw slid out of Sharahak and he crumpled, still soundless, to the ground.
"Conjunctivitis!" Rahkesh said softly, putting everything he had into guiding the spell. It hit on of the dragon's eyes, prompting a roar of rageand a huge blast of fire. Clearly that wasn't going to be enough.
"Incendio!" Rahkesh's silent fire spell met the dragon's fire, creating a massive burst of flame. The dragon redoubled its efforts and Rahkesh poured everything he had into the fire spell. Across the hilltop the dragon landed and continued its flames, Rahkesh matched it with his own fire.
The ball of fire produced where the two sets of flames met grew, glowing so brightly Rahkesh was forced to close his eyes. The ground was burned, charred, turned to ash, and slowly began to melt and vaporize with the intensity of the heat.
When a breeze blew through the flames leaped into a wall of fire stretching across the hill. From the wall top the guards could see the center of the fireball changing color as it grew hotter and hotter. The fire was so bright that down below the canopy even the Incas could see its glow and feel the waves of horrible heat emanating from it.
Rahkesh's clothes began to singe and he could feel his hair crackling and beginning to turn to ash from the intense heat. His face hurt, his whole body hurt. Silently and wandlessly Rahkesh brought up a shield to keep him and Sharahak from being burned. Freed from the pain of the intense heat he could concentrate better.
And slowly he began to win. An older more experienced dragon would have disengaged and attacked again, but this one didn't know that and kept up its jets of flame until they had been burned back almost all the way to its mouth. Finally it dodged and stopped. Rahkesh stopped his own spell and rotated to face the dragon again.
The dragon's claws tore up huge chunks of soil and plants as it clawed the ground and roared. Trying to intimidate him. Rahkesh planted himself beside Sharahak's unmoving body and waited. The dragon screamed at him. Rahkesh snapped his wand out and threw a single bolt of lightning at it. The dragon ducked and shook off the lightning that hit its wing. The air crackling and thunder rumbled dully.
Rahkesh waited, facing the dragon. Carefully he kept from meeting its eyes; that would be considered a challenge by any predatory creature. But he didn't back down either. The dragon stood still and watched him in the same manner, eyes just slightly averted, but not going anywhere. Finally something had to give, Rahkesh relaxed his posture and sighed, and glanced at Sharahak before looking over at the city high above on the mountainside.
The battle momentarily paused the dragon took the moment to examine its wing where the lightning had struck, and then to carefully, delicately, rub its eye with one wing claw. The spell refused to wear off and eye remained closed.
The young dragon had scars, a lot of them. And the scars weren't made by other dragons. Rahkesh hadn't noticed before, but its scales were covered with long ugly scars. The Inca had had a difficult time controlling it then. Perhaps it would not want to go back to captivity with them. Rahkesh caught the dragon's eye briefly, and then bowed. The dragon watched, appearing vaguely confused, then it stepped forward.
Aware that Sharahak was dying at his feet and needed help soon. Rahkesh waited, watching the dragon, eyes again slightly averted, as it approached. It lowered its massive head and Rahkesh very slowly raised a hand, the dragon backed away, then moved forward again. When it got within reach Rahkesh undid the spell. The eye snapped open and the dragon froze.
"I am not your enemy." Rahkesh spoke softly. "I won't harm you." The dragon made an unusual sound. Rahkesh, going on a hunch, tried again. In Parseltounge.
I am not your enemy. He hissed, putting as much soothing power as he could into the words.
The dragon reared back with a scream of shock. Rahkesh didn't flinch. The dragon quieted and leaned forward. Unsure if it had understood or not Rahkesh took a chance and very slowly moved forwards, then reached up to heal the scorched skin at its nose where his fire had hurt it. Since it didn't react he then moved beside it and began to rub it just above the eye.
The dragon purred. And Rahkesh felt a vague pressure on his mind. Closing his eyes his took a claming breath and began to open his mind the way he did when he was trying to sense the vampires.
Enireth>
Rahkesh nearly fell over in shock at the voice that suddenly rumbled through his mind. He realized almost immediately what had happened. It had spoken to him. But dragons couldn't speak, everyone knew that. But this one had. But only after he had opened his mind and listened. Had he done something that had allowed him to hear it without realizing what he was doing? Wondering if perhaps it could hear him Rahkesh slowly reached out, it felt odd, like he was actually reaching with his mind searching for another presence.
Rahkesh.> He projected, the dragon raised its head and turned to focus both pale green eyes on him.
Humans do not speak.> This time Rahkesh heard him much more clearly.
This one does.> He replied. At his feet Sharahak moaned distracting both of them. My friend is hurting. I need to help him.> Much to his surprise the young dragon looked a bit guilty.
My apologies.> He said, but offered no explanation. Rahkesh didn't need one. Rahkesh knelt and examined the vampire. Sharahak wasn't healing.
He's going to die.> Rahkesh thought, without realizing he'd done so. The dragon watched the vampire, who wasn't breathing, and sensed Rahkesh's distress.
Here.> Rahkesh turned and the dragon carefully use done claw to cut into the soft tissue between two scales near one of his wing claws. Blood dripped out. The blood of my kind has amazing powers. My masters use it in potions. I think it heals injuries.> He sounded uncertain. Rahkesh conjured a small phial and collected the blood. Unsure of how to use it, but willing to take it anyway.
Suddenly all the hairs on the back of Rahkesh's neck stood on end, then he felt the approaching spell.
"Protego!" Too late to duck all he could manage was a shield before the blast of power from within the forest slammed into him.
The magic was like nothing he'd ever felt. It roared around him with an anger that was physically painful. Someone was screaming, many people were screaming, his whole body hurt. Images of blood and torn flesh flashed through his mind. Searing pain raced through his senses and a voice began to chant. Forcing himself to focus Rahkesh shut down his mind.
And the magic vanished. He was on his knees in the charred scorching hot earth beside Sharahak. Enireth was roaring and screaming as massive purple bolts of light hit him repeatedly. The Inca sorcerers wanted their dragon back.
Then the wet, bloodstained, ripped, poisoned, and battered Inca warriors breasted the hill at a run and charged, holding spears aloft, screaming war cries. Rahkesh had other priorities than fighting them. Sharahak needed help. The writhing dragon was still between them and the Inca; Rahkesh cast a charm on Sharahak and ran, the vampire floating behind him.
The Inca flooded into the forest. Rahkesh knew he wouldn't make it too the wall, so he didn't try. Nic had showed him a small hidden cave down at the base of the hill the day before, and he fled there now. Using wandless magic to move the boulder from in front of the entrance he tossed Sharahak inside and crawled in. With another touch of wandless magic the boulder rolled back into place across the entrance and dead leaves leaped up from the dirt to cover most of it.
The vampire was bleeding heavily. Not yet recovered from checking the blood of all the remaining people of Vailape the vast vampiric healing abilities were failing. Most of the internal damage had been healed, but not enough of it. In the glow from the conjured lights Rahkesh could see shards of broken bone hanging from Sharahak's arm, and his ripped guts showed far too much blood and intestines for the vampire to be able to heal. Sharahak was going to die if he didn't do something fast.
He still had the phial of dragon blood. But he didn't know much about any of the uses of dragon's blood. Though he knew that one of the twelve uses of dragon's blood was for a healing potion he didn't know what healing potion could possibly be brewed with it or how to make it. And he didn't have the time. What was he to do? Pour it on the injuries? But raw dragon blood had unusual effects. The least of which was that it could be lethal to vampires, it was one of the few things that was.
Sharahak needed blood, powerful blood. Rahkesh knew his blood was extremely powerful. But was it enough? He looked back at the phial of blood. Dragon's blood glows, he thought absently as he tried to think of something to do. Again his instincts presented an answer, and Rahkesh was learning to listen to them. He lifted the phial and drank it.
It felt like he had drunk acid. His throat and mouth hurt horribly, his teeth hurt, then the pain descended into his stomach, and then quickly spread all over his body. Unable to even scream Rahkesh felt all his muscles helplessly stiffen and lock. He couldn't move he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see. Pressure built behind his eyes until he was sure they would explode. He could feel his heart rate speeding up until he thought for sure it would burst. The pain was worse than the cruciatus curse, a hundred times worse. His bones felt like they were on fire, he could feel his pulse pounding, each beat sending waves of fire through his body. His lungs hurt from lack of air. His skin felt hot, he was glowing, lighting up the small cave. There was light under his skin. Dimly he realized he was vomiting everywhere. There were tears running from his eyes, he could feel them on his cheeks, but he couldn't see. Everything hurt, his body started to relax, but when he touched the ground his hands were to sensitive and he drew back shaking with pain. Then the seizures began. Rahkesh felt his head swing around and hit the wall, his legs and arms were jerking, and he had no control over them. He still couldn't see, and he couldn't hear anything. But he could feel the magic as the dragon's blood sank through the tissues of his stomach lining and merged with his blood.
Finally he managed to scream, his throat tearing as the sound forced its way out of him. Unknown to Rahkesh the sound was not even vaguely human. More like a cross between the roar of a dragon and the screech of a mortally wounded wyvern. The horrible scream that echoed up out of the ground could be heard far off in the depths of the city so loudly that the residents covered their ears to try to block the hideous noise. The Inca, hearing the sound of some creature roaring beneath the ground, fled into the forest, leaving the guard and warriors standing, hands over their ears. Every living creature in the rainforest capable of hearing fled in terror.
Then the pain was gone. As quickly as it had come it was gone. Leaving Rahkesh to slump to the floor, heaving as he vomited repeatedly and sobbing in reaction. He was shaking so badly he could hardly move, and his limbs felt too weak to support him. Rahkesh rolled, managing to stay clear of the vomit, to Sharahak. The vampire was nearly gone, but Rahkesh could sense life there. He pulled the vampire to him and drew a knife with a shaking hand. He shook so badly it took several tries to get the knife to his skin, then he cut into his palm, his battered nerves not even reacting, and dripped the blood into Sharahak's mouth. Dropping the knife Rahkesh waited, until finally the vampire instincts kicked in and Sharahak swallowed.
A few minutes later Rahkesh ripped a piece of cloth from the leg of his pants and wound it around his hand. Then he drew Sharahak up to his neck. The vampire sensed blood and lunged, skinning his fangs deep into Rahkesh's throat.
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Hmm. This was a fun chapter to write. Intense eh? More coming soon.
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Please review. Opinions, ideas, and general feedback from readers is what makes writers enjoy writing.
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