Many thanks to everyone who reviewed, you made my day.
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Chapter 22
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"MARLUCK!"
Everyone in Akren was awakened shortly before dawn by the roar that shook the school. Doors smashed open and curious sleepy faces peered down the halls. People called question to each other across the hallways.
"MARLUCK!"
"What was that?" Silas asked, leaning out his door to look up and down their hall. Rahkesh, who's rooms were between Silas and Daray's, shrugged and turned to look at the other vampire. Daray shrugged back at him.
"Someone's angry at profesoor Marluck?" He suggested.
"MARLUCK YOU DERANGED BRAIN-DEAD HORSE'S ASS." The voice shouted again, now recognizable as Professor Namach, a very, very, angry Professor Namach, who was channeling the full force of the power accumulated over his three thousand plus years into his voice. "GET YOUR DISEASED FREAK OF A NEWT OUT OF HERE!"
"I think he's referring to Professor Marluck's two headed fire salamander." Ally said when their ears had stopped ringing. Up and down the halls of Akren students were dressing hurriedly and running down the halls to watch whatever was happening.
"Oooh. This could be fun." Silas said, coming out of his room again dressed. "Sorry Nuri, you'd better stay here." He added, pushing the panther back inside, Nuri whined in annoyance."You three coming?" Rahkesh, who was already dressed, shrugged and joined him, Ally and Daray joined them a few minutes later.
"WHAT IN ALL HELL'S WERE YOU THINKING?" This time Rahkesh recognized where the voice was coming from.
"He's at the corridor to the bloodmagic chambers." Rahkesh said, leading them down a shortcut.
"DO YOU HAVE A SIGNLE VIABLE BRAIN CELL? YOU WORTHLESS MORON!"
Rahkesh choked trying not to laugh as Namach's roars rolled down the corridor, the telepathic rage driving them making his head pound until he shut down all awareness outside his own mind. He could see the more telepathic students wincing and grimacing. The fae Justin, appearing beside him, looked murderous.
"Stupid vamps, can't remember to control their power. That fucking hurts." The fae growled. They reached the crowd and found a way through to where they could see. Behind them students were levitating themselves to look over the heads of those in front.
Professor Marluck's two-headed giant fire salamander, a creature nearly seven feet long noses to tail-tip, was crouched in front of Namach in the doorway to one of the bloodmagic chambers.
Professor Namach was standing right behind it, blocking the entranceway. The salamander was giving off bursts of fire from its two heads and flammable skin to keep Namach at bay. Namach looked angrier than Rahkesh had ever seen him. He had let go of his powers and air around him was shimmering with built up magic.
The crowd parted suddenly and Professor Marluck came running through. The tall silver-haired man took one look at the situation and sighed.
"What have told you about wandering around at night?" He asked the salamander, ignoring the outraged Namach.
"The pathetic mentally deficient newt was in one of the bloodmagic chambers." Namach hissed at Marluck, who winced. The salamander turned and breathed a jet of fire at him. Namach waved it aside effortlessly.
"He's not a newt." Marluck protested.
"I DON'T CARE IF HE'S THE GOD TAIMAT COME TO EARTH! YOUR SILLY LITTLE NEWT AND HIS FLAMING SNOT STAY OUT OF MY ROOMS!" Namach roared. Making everyone wonder who the god Taimat was and when he had existed. Probably not very recently.
"If you hadn't left the doors open – "
"If your slimy little pet-"
"Are you threatening him?"
"Damn right I am!" Namach snapped. The salamander threw another fireball at him, Namach returned it, times a hundred, engulfing the beast in blue flames, forcing Marluck to throw himself out of the way.
"NAMACH! You retarded shithead!" The irate weapons teacher snarled. The conversation from there quickly deteriorated into insults.
"Gutless spiv!" Namach shouted, drawing more raised eyebrows from the students, and other teachers. Who were now all wondering what a spiv was.
"Deluded whoreson!" Marluck's insult was probably wasted on someone Namach's age, Rahkesh thought. Since the vampire probably couldn't remember his mother anyway.
"Wart on pig's ass!"
"Ratty little scumbag!"
"You piece of criminal garbage!"
"Sleazebag!"
"Hopeless nong!" Once again the students traded quizzical looks at Namach's insult.
"Mangy maggot!"
"You imbecilic piece of offal!"
"Rancid jackass!"
"Stunned mullet!"
"Half-wit!"
"And what have you got for brains? Sponge cake?"
"Calling you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!"
"You are a pathetic scumbag! Your parents were scum and you're doing a most glorious job of following the tradition!" Apparently this last insult from Namach was a bit more than Marluck's salamander was willing to hear. The animal let out a sound between a whine and a roar and attacked Namach.
Suddenly Namach's pet giant frill-neck, Eli, appeared from a doorway and, without the slightest hesitation, launched himself at the fire-salamander.
"Aw crap." Marluck muttered before both he and Namach lunged, trying to drag the two animals apart. Both of them got a face-full of venom from Eli for the trouble, and burns from the salamander. Students scattered away as the two animals let out a discharge of magic massive enough to pick both teachers off the ground and fling them against a stone column.
Eli's tail flared, growing massive spikes, one of which he planted right through the foot of the salamander. The fire-salamander lashed out with claws and fangs and fire, Eli spat venom, curled his tail over his head in a most un-lizard-like fashion to stab at the salamander with the barbed tip, extended his frill to stop and collect the fire, and send it right back.
"Now look what you've done!" Marluck snarled. Namach turned, the air around him beginning to glow as he prepared to attack.
"ENOUGH!" The voice that came from behind the crowd stopped everyone, accompanied as it was by rush of such intense magic that Rahkesh began to feel light-headed. All other sound seemed to dim and fade away as the speaker continued.
"I do not find it amusing, Tristan, Steve, to be awakened before dawn by your squabbling." The crowd parted and the headmistress, Nvara Aelfly, walked into view.
Rahkesh had only seen the headmistress of Akren once, the day the new students had arrived. She looked much the same now as she had then, tall and thin with long grey hair going white done in two braids down her back. She was wearing a deerskin jacket with silver and blue beads designs and deerskin pants tucked into high boots. She also had several throwing stars and knives tucked into her belt and sheathes on her arms, and a pair of swords sheathed across her back. All the weaponry gave her the appearance of a walking armory.
"Students, please go back to your rooms, or to breakfast. You two," she continued, turning to her two errant staff members, "get those animals out of the hallway."
Despite the professors best efforts no one was able to even approach the two battling creatures, much less calm them. Namach stormed off to his rooms, Marluck went down to the gym to beat the stuffing out of a few punching bags, and for the first day of school Rahkesh's wandless magic, bloodmagic, and weapons classes ended up cancelled since that section of the school was considered too dangerous to go near. The headmistress ordered it closed off until the two animals had stopped. Throughout the day the ground shook and waves of magic sent people stumbling and falling to their knees in the hallways.
"Oh never mind," Professor Strawlime said after attempting to teach potions, only to find that the cauldrons couldn't stay steady with the magical backlash and shaking floor and ceiling. "Go do something useful with your day, and make sure any potions stored in your rooms are in strong containers and not on high shelves!"
"Of course professor Marluck ought to be fired." Saul said as they left the room, leaving Strawlime to try to stabilize the rocking shelves of potions. "Talking back to vampire like that."
"Saul, if you had another brain, it'd be lonely." Rahkesh said, shoving the vampire aside as they passed. "Oh I hope Namach kills him soon." He muttered to Ally, "because if he doesn't I think I will. I really can't stand much more of this."
"In the auditorium, and tell me when so I can sell tickets." Ally replied. Drawing snickers from the entire rest of the class. Word that Namach had decided to kill Saul himself had spread, somehow, faster than a prairie fire after a drought. Though no one had mentioned it to Saul yet. "Though how is it possible for Namach to kill him in the valley?"
"He won't just kill him outright." Daray said as they gathered in Rahkesh's rooms for lunch. "There's not much point in doing that to a vampire you know you can kill. He'll drain Saul's blood, repeatedly, probably for several days, beforehand. It'll heighten Namach's power, though by such a small amount even he probably won't notice. And vampire blood tastes better than mortal blood. And it's so much fun to kill another vampire." He added with a sigh, "that's why so few of us survive for long, killing those weaker then yourself is so enjoyable that its almost addicting."
Daray was right. That very day Saul disappeared. Rumor had it Namach was keeping him in a cell in his rooms. But whatever had happened Saul wasn't seen for the next week.
It was Rahkesh who found him. He had gone down to examine one of the bloodmagic chambers, trying to choose which one was optimal for his next set of runes. The hallway had been repaired after Eli and Marluck's salamander had finished their battle, with no clear winner. Though of course each owner thought his pet had won. Personally Rahkesh sided with Namach. The holes in the walls had been made when Eli had rammed the two-headed fire salamander into them, with enough force to crack rock. Though the salamander appeared only bruised.
Rahkesh arrived at the bloodmagic chamber he wanted to examine, to find it in use. Interested to see who had ignored Namach's orders not to use the rooms today, he went around to the wall that was actually a window to look in.
There was a crumpled form lying in a heap on the floor, magic sparked over it, and the flesh appeared to be melting. Rahkesh grabbed the rope hanging from the wall and pulled, three hard tugs, overhead the bells rang three times. A series of booms and clangs loud enough to send birds up from feeding at the other end of the valley.
Even coming just from his rooms it would take a few seconds for Namach to arrive. Rahkesh opened the waiting room and ran inside. He made a half-circle cut on his hand, followed by two more interlocking half-circles. He pressed the cuts to the handprint on the wall, and the door opened.
It took him several minutes to undo the rings of bloodmagic, and Rahkesh realized belatedly that Namach was out of the valley today. That was why the bloodmagic corridor was shut down. He finished undoing the runes and race dot the side of the person lying on the ground.
It was Saul. And it wasn't magic sparking over his body; his body was actually actively decaying. Rahkesh watched in horrified disgust as the body before him decayed at a rate impossible without magic.
Saul was already dead. And the magic was ripping him apart through accelerated decay, and it was doing the same thing to his soul it was to his body. By the time it was done Saul wouldn't only be dead, his soul would no longer exist. But before all the skin had vanished Rahkesh saw the marks on Saul's neck. Fang marks, more precisely, vampire fang marks. Then he realized what Namach had done to get around the magics that prevented any of the people in the valley from killing each other. Saul had been alive, barely, when Namach had left him that morning in the middle of the ring of improperly laid bloodmagic runes. Namach had drained him first, as Daray predicted, then left him here. Namach knew more about bloodmagic than anyone. He knew exactly what mistake would produce this decaying result. The physical evidence would be gone from Saul's neck, and no necromancer alive can call up a soul that doesn't exist. All evidence was gone.
People were running down the corridor. Rahkesh began casting healing spells, knowing they wouldn't work. A half-dozen students arrived, all of the older students studying bloodmagic. Then several teachers.
"You sounded the alarm?" One of the teachers Rahkesh didn't know asked.
"Yes, I was coming down to figure out which room I would need for my ritual next week, and found him in here." Rahkesh answered finally sitting back. "What's happening to him?" he asked, as though he didn't know.
"His soul and body are both decaying," the professor answered. "Come away Rahkesh, he's gone, and we need to clean the room before the magics get completely out of control."
Rahkesh left the room with them, the professor, who he now recognized as Xanthius, the soul magic professor, and the only elf in Akren, closed the doors and washed the room clean of the last of Saul's remains and blood. Rahkesh looked around to find most of the school present – everyone knew what the bells meant.
"I will inform Namach when he returns, you might want to be there as well." Xanthius told him. Being an elf Xanthius was almost seven feet tall with silk-like white hair and unnerving purple and green eyes, which Rahkesh didn't bother to meet when he nodded his agreement. Knowing that if he did the professor would be able to read his mind and tell that he knew exactly what had really happened to Saul.
"What a lovely way to start the second week of school." Daray said approvingly once the professors had left. There were chuckles from the remaining students. Rahkesh didn't comment, wondering why Namach had decided to get rid of Saul's soul as well as his life. What possible use could that have served?
When Namach had left that morning he had posted a note on his door saying he'd be back at seven p.m., Rahkesh arrived five minutes after that to find professor Xanthius already there, chatting with Namach. Eli was sitting at the elf professor's feet, purring like a cat. Apparently the irritable lizard didn't hate everyone. Though he opened his frill and hissed when Rahkesh walked in.
"Still the rate at which the soul deteriorated matched the body exactly." Professor Xanthius was saying, neither of them having seen Rahkesh. "If those specific runes can achieve such an effect…"
"But there is also the effect that that particular chamber might have had, each one is different." Namach said. Eli hissed loudly and they both turned. Rahkesh walked in and had to immediately sidestep a spiked tail lashing out at him.
"Always hostile eh?" He asked the enormous reptile, Eli hissed again.
"Xanthius tells me that you could tell that Saul's soul was decaying." Namach said. Rahkesh blinked, how had the professor known that?
"I'm an elf." Professor Xanthius said simply by way of reply to Rahkesh's unspoken thought. Rahkesh decided it didn't really matter if the professor could read his mind or not, and shrugged.
"Yes I could tell." He agreed.
"How?" Namach asked.
"No clue." Rahkesh replied. "I'm guessing that I shouldn't have been able to tell?"
"No, a mortal with no training in soul magic or necromancy should not have been able to tell." Professor Xanthius replied, "which is why I asked you to come here tonight. Professor Namach tells me you recently survived a massive ingestion of dragon blood."
"Yes I did." Rahkesh replied, wondering where this was leading. As they spoke he was sealing his mind again, putting layer upon layer of thought and memory between his two mind reading professors and things he didn't want them to know. He finally shut down his telepathic presence entirely and began closing off all thought, creating a shield that would hopefully keep even professor Xanthius out.
"I had hoped you were joking." Professor Xanthius muttered to Namach. "Tell me, how long have you been training yourself at mind magics?"
"Um, about three years?" Rahkesh guessed, not including his time with Snape, though that had taught him a few things.
"Before your time travel how good was your telepathy and occlumency?"
"Not very good. I could sense things, and I could shield my mind, but only minimally."
"Two years then." Xanthius said, "and just now you managed to shut your mind off so far that even I would have trouble reading it without eye contact. How did you do that?"
"I built a shield, guided by your basic magical signature." Rahkesh replied.
"In fifteen seconds? Having never tried to test a creature's basic magical signature before? Without the actual spell for sensing a magical signature?" Xanthius asked incredulously.
"Your basic telepathic magical signature." Rahkesh clarified. Then he thought it over. "I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing, but that seemed like it would work." The two professors traded unreadable looks.
"Why were you in the bloodmagic corridor this morning?" Namach asked finally.
"I was hoping to figure out which chamber would be best for my next ritual." Rahkesh said.
"That early in the morning? Everyone was at breakfast."
"I thought that that would be a good time."
"Why?" Xanthius asked. Rahkesh shrugged, not really knowing what they were looking for.
"It seemed like a good time to go there." He said finally. He was surprised when both professors nodded and traded grins.
"Rahkesh, we're going to run some experiments to see if you are developing the ability to detect other people's souls and bloodmagic. Naturally or as a result of the dragon's blood. Before I left I placed wards on that hallway so that even Xanthius here wouldn't sense anything, yet you probably did. I don't believe in coincidences and your coming to the right chamber at that time was too unusual to possibly be chance." Namach told him. "And I'm going to call in a vampire friend of mine. She knows a lot about dragons, I want you to tell her everything you can remember about the dragon that gave you that blood."
"Why?" Rahkesh asked.
"Different types of dragons exhibit different powers when around humans. Different dragons have different telepathic abilities. It is possible that you are only now beginning to show some of the changes the blood caused, after it had had time to fully join with your magic." Namach explained. Rahkesh nodded slowly, wondering just what he'd gotten himself into.
XXXX
You filthy flying mouse, try that again and I'll add bat to my menu. Rahkesh looked over his shoulder to find Sygra coiled on top of the backrest of the couch, hissing at Daray's magical vampire bat. Satan had apparently challenged her for the back of the couch and Sygra, coiled in the last pool of sunlight, wasn't keen on moving aside.
The bat was unhappy about the loss of his usual perch, and not about to back down. That bat and his owner, they had some sort of obsession with the couch. Perhaps he should suggest a psychiatric evaluation, Rahkesh thought.
Do you even know what a menu is? Rahkesh asked.
No. Sygra muttered, swaying her head from side to side to follow the bat's flittering movements across the room. Rahkesh chuckled, his pet was picking up a wide vocabulary, even if she hadn't the faintest clue what half the words meant. And even if he told her it would have little meaning to a snake. Though at least this time she'd used her new word in the correct context.
I wouldn't eat him, he might taste bad. Rahkesh warned, I could just transfigure him into a mouse for you.
Please. Where are you going?
Gathering Yeck fur, then I have a meeting with some teachers.
Can I come with you to the Yeck caves? I'm bored.
Very well. Rahkesh said, casting a warming charm on the air around the snake. Sygra had just shed another skin, and she was always hyper active for a few days after that, even if it was midwinter.
Mr. Fleming had kept in contact with Rahkesh over the continued amazing rate at which people were buying the Yeck fur. Snape had made two appearances in three weeks to gather more of it, and now another person, presumably a death eater, was also stopping by. It interested Rahkesh that there would be two death eaters buying it, when one of them (according to Mr. Fleming) didn't know shit about potions ingredients. Was Voldemort trying to be discrete, or was the unknown man working alone? Was he even a death eater?
Rahkesh used a levitation spell to get to the valley entrance, he really needed to learn how to make portkeys for that, then he made sure Sygra was secure about his neck. The serpent was very frightened of falling off, but she wanted to see the Yecks. He nudged the flaming horse into a run and headed through the tunnel out of the valley.
Rahkesh was not pleased to have Snape buying his yeck fur, he didn't like helping Voldemort or Snape in any way. However is sales of yeck fur had also put him in a position to possibly harm both of them. He had had a long talk with professor Strawlime and the old potions brewer had given him a list of ingredients that reacted violently to yeck fur. Three of them were clear-drying substances that were fairly easy to make. Rahkesh had made all three potions with the hopes of covering the yeck fur in them. Add heat in a cauldron and they would create an explosion.
It was a good plan but the possibility of retaliation against Mr. Fleming worried him. So Rahkesh found another potions ingredients dealer. A man no one would miss, Mr. Dowchin in Knockturn Alley. A man arrested for beating his wife to death who had gotten off because everyone involved with the case were death eaters and Mr. Dowchin had been a supplier to Voldemort before Snape was recruited. Rahkesh had contacted him and started selling him small amounts of yeck fur. He had then hired one of the Knockturn whores to watch the potions shop and find out who was buying the yeck fur. It hadn't taken long for Snape to discover the source of yeck fur closer to home. He'd bought four of the small batches of yeck fur from Mr. Dowhcin in two weeks. Rahkesh already had the other three potions, now all he needed was the yeck fur.
It was getting dark out and the setting sun was turning the snow gold and red. The fire horse knew the way to the yeck caves by heart now and Rahkesh let the horse get them there while he watched a pair of phoenixes gliding around some mountains, probably hunting. If he had the time it would be nice to map out the locations of all the magical creatures in the valley.
The yecks, it turned out, had scheduled their breeding season so that all the young were born in midwinter. Why exactly they did that was a mystery, but with new young the adult were hyper alert. They stood guard in shifts around their young, who resembled furry snowballs. With the yecks so on edge there was no way he'd be able to approach and retrieve the fur gathered in the combs without disturbing them. The yecks were also sensitive to magic, so he couldn't summon it either. He didn't want to upset them, the yecks knew he came by every week or so and in the past had ignored him, but with their young around he'd probably be considered a threat. The fur, and the potions, would have to wait. And he'd have to send letters to Mr. Fleming and Mr. Dowhcin that they would have to wait for the next package. Hopefully the yecks would relax quickly and he'd be able to sneak in.
Are the little ones tasty? Sygra asked, peering out from the collar of his coat.
I don't know. Probably not, all that fur.
Hm, to bad.
You can't be hungry already, you just ate two moles last week.
Next time I eat. The snake replied. Sygra only ate once every three to four weeks, but she had food on the brain.
Probably not a good idea, the adults may look harmless but they're not.
I'm more dangerous than they are. Rahkesh didn't reply to that. The little yecks were kinda cute, like fluffy white kittens.
Do you hear something? Sygra asked. Rahkesh listened, he could hear only the wind. But when Sygra said hear she often meant feel, since she could feel certain vibrations in the ground he couldn't.
No.
I do. I sense magic, strange magic. That way. Sygra pointed her nose to the east. Rahkesh squinted, trying to see anything unusual. There was just the forest of snow covered trees and white ground. Then he sensed something too. A vibration of sorts, along the edge of his senses, a strange tingly feeling. He hadn't felt magic like this before, it felt sour, but not unpleasantly.
Shall we go? He asked.
Yes. Sygra said at once. Rahkesh went back to the fire horse and they rode east. There was no trail but they were soon down in the valley where the earth was flatter and more stable than the steep slopes. The fire horse seemed to have no difficulty finding footing. And a lot of wind and sun recently had kept the snow level low enough that the going wasn't difficult. The horse chose a trail made by elk or moose and followed it; the already broken snow was easier to travel through.
They traveled out the far side of the valley through a thin gap between the mountainside and some cliffs. Sygra was scenting the wind and directing him with soft hisses. Rahkesh carefully reached out mentally, searching as well. There was someone ahead, but he couldn't pinpoint them.
It was luck that saved him, the horse stumbled in a pothole.
Thud. Rahkesh jerked aside and kicked the horse into a jump, knowing without having to look that the arrow had hit the tree beside him. The fire horse leaped, from standing still, away around a massive rock. Rahkesh twisted and brought the horse around, the horse wheeled, rearing, and landed. Rahkesh peered around the rock cautiously.
The second arrow missed his nose by inches. Rahkesh jerked back, but he'd had time to catch the angle it had come from. It had come from above. The archer was hidden on the mountainside in the valley.
Behind Rahkesh the valley's flat area ended in an abrupt slope, too steep to safely ride down. Going back into the valley wasn't an option. He couldn't head right; cliffs rose straight up nearly a hundred feet. To his left was the steep mountainside, too steep to ride up. Flying wasn't safe, he made too easy a target and flying was never safe here, too many predatory winged creatures. There had been reports of lyras, garudas, and stymphalians lately. In addition to the usual dragons, griffins, and rocs. And it was the new moon; it would not be too absurd for marauding gargoyles to be about.
Rahkesh dismounted and picked out a large pinecone. He transfigured it into a human shape and sat it on the horse. He then transfigured a cloak for it. In the dark it would do well enough. He asked the horse to remain still and began to climb the mountainside as silently as he could.
Rahkesh used levitation charms to get to the top of the ridge quickly and began to move along it a crouch, trying got keep from being too visible against the sky. Fortunately the aurora began to sparkle and waiver across the sky soon, twisting the shadows so it was hard to see shapes well.
Three of them. Sygra told him. Left and down. Rahkesh followed the directions, he finally spotted on man, crouched behind a rock. But he couldn't find the others. Farther away, but they're coming closer. Rahkesh dropped off a ledge and landed softly in the snow behind a tree. He moved forward, keeping just below the edge of the trees.
Whoever he was he had the largest crossbow Rahkesh had ever seen. This made sense since one of the former Akren headmasters had enchanted the mountains so that gunpowder wouldn't ignite. Apparently he hadn't believed that guns took enough effort to kill someone with.
Rahkesh lashed out, two knives thrown simultaneously, and a wandless invisible stunner.
The hunter was well trained. He turned faster than Rahkesh could see and caught one knife and knocked the other one away with the bow. He then batted the wandless spell away. Rahkesh felt a massive blast hit him, knocking him off his feet he allowed himself to fall, and rolled. Coming up he caught the knife thrown back at him and snapped out a bone breaking curse.
His opponent responded with a spell, invisible, sent form his wand. Rahkesh ducked just in time. Behind him the tree branch split cleanly off and fell.
Rahkesh whipped out his wand and, concentrating on invisible spells, cast a vomiting hex and choking curse, a heart splitting curse and a weakness hex.
The other man returned with several spells Rahkesh didn't know and a deafness curse, a blindness curse, a magic draining charm and a bone shattering spell. Followed by a spray of acid that Rahkesh had to conjured wind to fling away.
This fighter was good, really good. The spells were nasty, curses to rot the blood and disembowel him accompanied by knives and darts. Rahkesh fought back with equal curses and weapons, but as he ducked another poison dart and used a wandless spell to repel a vial full of exploding acid, which then melted a rock, he realized that he wasn't going to win this.
He heard the sound before he felt the spell, his arm bone snapping, a sharp crack against the otherwise silent air. The ripping curse caught his lower leg. Rahkesh snapped his teeth shut so hard he heard them crack as he tried not to scream. He could feel the tendons in his foot come apart. Desperate he tried one last thing. A summoning spell.
But he directed it at the man's braincells. Summoning his brain.
And agonized gasp reached his ears the same time the arrow impacted his thigh, hitting the knife sheath rather than his leg, but bruising nonetheless. Rahkesh poured everything he had into the summoning spell. There was a cracking sound and ripping sound, and then the brain splatter across the tree beside Rahkesh with a wet thud.
Rahkesh rolled away, the snow stained red around him, brains dripped from the tree branches. He pulled out two vial form a pouch on his belt and poured one across his foot, which had been half ripped off. The second part he drank, following it with a spell to his arm. Rahkesh leaned into the snow, gasping as quietly as possible, as the shredded skin and bone and tendon of his foot merged again. He felt his broken arm slide into place and slowly the pain faded.
Two more? He hissed softly. Sygra, who had gotten thrown off and halfway up a tree earlier, slid to the ground and wound around his neck.
Yes. Next one's mine.
Rahkesh lay still, drinking a third healing potion and casting healing spell, before he rose and retrieved his weapons and those of the man who had shot at him. The fight hadn't alerted the other two so he had time, he thought.
They're coming. Sygra warned him, Rahkesh grabbed the last knife and magicked a pile of snow onto the body to hide it, banishing the bloodstained snow to the other side of the ridge.
The first man arrived and he also carried a crossbow and an assortment of weapons. Rahkesh started to rise to attack, and then paused when he sensed something. Someone else was coming; Rahkesh sensed them even before Sygra's whispered alarm. The second man arrived beside the first and they spoke softly before standing and moving towards the end of the valley Rahkesh had fled around.
"Two mil. But God it's cold out here. My ass is numb." One of them complained. Two million. So the assassins had found him.
"MOTORUS TERRO!" The second man flung the spell at the ground at Rahkesh's feet in a movement too fast to see. The earth bucked and rolled. With a deep thundering sound the mountainside collapsed and pitched and bucked, flinging Rahkesh to the ground and sending Sygra flying off the edge of the mountain.
Rahkesh watched in horror as the black snake went flipping into the air and over the ridge edge. There was no way Sygra would survive the fall.
Without thinking he turned and summoned all the power he could and hurled it with all the destructive power he could give it.
The magic manifested itself as a massive bolt of lightning, so bright that it could be seen for hundred of miles blocking out everything else in a wave of light. The thunder shook the earth, and the mountainside collapsed away.
The mountain suddenly dropped away just behind his two attacker's feet. One moment the earth was there, the next it wasn't, falling away and leaving a massive cliff behind and the soil and rocks collapsed the valley floor.
On man died immediately, the other was picked up and thrown twenty feet straight up. He hit the earth hard and bones snapped audibly.
With a scream of rage and grief Rahkesh attacked him. Two knives hurled at the still form.
But despite his injuries he wasn't unconscious, and he rose and flipped the knives away with a burst of magic. Rahkesh lashed out with boils, strangulation curses, nerve shriveling cruses, a heart stopping hex and a combustion spell.
His opponent was very well trained; he deflected or dodged everything and retaliated. Rahkesh ducked a curse and rolled, coming up and ramming a knife into the man's stomach. Or where his stomach should have been. The other man anticipated the move and leaped away, sinking a knife into Rahkesh's back as he did.
Rahkesh stumbled, but the knife had gone in sideways and missed anything important and he yanked it out. His back hurt horribly, the knife had gone in along a shoulder blade, tearing the muscle apart.
From behind a wave of magic lifted him from the ground. Rahkesh cast a skull-splitter, forcing the man to drop the spell. Rahkesh landed on his feet and turned around to find the crossbow pointed at him. He readied himself to dodge.
An enormous set of jaws leaned down from the sky and picked the man up. The crossbow discharged harmlessly into the air. Rahkesh froze and watched in shock as the reptilian head rose, and crushed the man in huge jaws, grinding the teeth and ripping him to pieces, and then swallowed him and the crossbow.
The creature looked like a dragon, but it wasn't, it had no legs. Massive wings beat the air as it rose over the ridge, blocking out the sky. It was black, black with its scales edged in silver. A silvery pattern dragged across it and along the ridge that ran down its spine. The fangs when the mouth opened were bright white. It was big, though not so big as the dragon Enireth but plenty large enough. Rahkesh watched, awed and a little frightened as the wyvern rose high above him, then settled the long snakish coils of its body along the ridge and lowered its head to look him in the eye.
He knew those eyes.
Sygra? He asked incredulously. The thin snake lips rose a little showing fangs in a grin.
Yess.
How?
You think I know? Rahkesh stared, and then lifted a hand to scratch the wyvern over one eye. It hissed and leaned into caress. Rahkesh felt himself begin to grin. Sygra was alive. The elation sweeping through him made him giddy.
I thought you were dead.
I don't kill so easy.
I still thought you were dead. Rahkesh hissed. Sygra tilted her head and watched him, then wrapped a neck coil around him and rubbed him with her nose reassuringly. Rahkesh sighed shakily and patted the wyvern. So, can you go back?
Yes. Maybe. I think.
Sygra?
Well…its like I didn't really change, like this is natural.
It probably is.
Yes but, it feel right. I can change back, I'm sure of it.
Perhaps you should try to make sure. Rahkesh asked. Sygra thought, and then shivered. As she did the wings joined to the body and she shrank. Seconds later Sygra was wrapped around his neck again. It's nice to have you back. Rahkesh whispered.
I'm fine master.
You are a wyvern.
I am?
Aren't you?
I don't know. Rahkesh thought about that. He knew nothing of wyverns. Just their form. Not how they were born or matured. Could Sygra be a young wyvern? A hybrid?
I'll have to do some research. Rahkesh told her. He needed to consider this development. Thank you.
I said I'd look after you. Sygra hissed in his ear, Rahkesh laughed.
Lets go back. I still have a meeting to attend.
Shall we fly? There's little that would challenge me.
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Whew. I had hoped to get right back into the killing Voldemrot (yes I spelled it Voldemrot on purpose) plot but the thing with Sygra needed to be put out there at some point.
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Important plot point – Saul's death. The only reason that character is in the story is because I needed someone I could kill off in that particular fashion.
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For those who are wondering about Malfoy, I'll be pulling that tie into the story next chapter.
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