The Dragon Realms Saga

Cade stirred awake sitting against the cold stone wall. His head pounded like a marching band. He massaged his brow until the pulsing stopped.

I must have been knocked out.

Cade peered around his surroundings. Thick iron bars trapped him within a small cell. A disheveled wool blanket lay in a rumpled pile of tattered cloth and rat shit. The musty air of rot and hopelessness filled the halls of the dungeon, lit only by the flickering of a small brazier.

Despite the lone flame, the shroud of darkness still left within the prison would have engulfed a man or harekin in utter fear, but darkness never bothered an elf, especially a shadow elf. His vision pierced through the dancing shadows, clear as daylight. Better than a cat's eye.

A body laid in the neighboring cell across from Cade's own. He recognized their black leather vest, scarred, flesh covered arms, and dirty blonde hair as Elucard. From his slow breathing and occasional leg twitch, he was still alive.

Alone. They were both alone with nowhere to escape. A hope—a chance to reach him.

"Elucard, can you hear me?"

Silence.

Cade rose to his feet and swayed to the cell bars. His headache pulled him back from Elucard. His aching body pulled him back from Elucard. The world pulled him back from Elucard.

"Elucard, please wake up."

Silence still.

Cade leaned his head against the cool iron and closed his eyes. At first only a whisper choked from his throat. Quiet, softer, then loud enough for even a mouse to hear. A song. A song from his heart. From his pain. From his passion, but for his love. For Elucard and only him.

'How I wish I could reach out and touch

Your trembling lips and your beating chest

You cry at night, waiting for a gentle hush

When we embrace, I know that I'm blessed

For when we both feel pain

We both feel love

Although blood leaves a stain

It all makes sense—It fits like a glove

You and I are connected

So let us remember Abyss

A lifetime protected

By that magical kiss.

A moment I will cherish forever

A memory to always share

A tie that no one can sever

When you need me, I will always be there.'

The last words fell to another whisper. Quiet. Softer. Silent

A haunting stillness stagnated throughout the cell, almost like a toxic smoke…then a meek voice broke to the surface.

"Cade."

He snapped open his eyes. A hope—a chance.

Elucard lifted his head, half his face veiled by a black mage's magic, the other vulnerable and frail from sorrow.

"Cade," he croaked again. His voice echoed, layered by Wraslyn's own, but Cade knew Elucard spoke unbound by the vampire. He could feel it in his gut, his heart, his soul. This was Elucard speaking to him.

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He let him continue. "Help…me. I don't want to go…back. The black wolf. Endless dreams…I'm trapped in endless dreams…"

"Tezhok," whispered Cade. Wraslyn's sadistic familiar. He knew of him, but never saw him work. If he tortured his love, he would pay with his life. I will make sure of it!

"The light…grows dim…I'm losing control…Cade…"

Cade reached his hand out, still barred by his prison. He couldn't touch him, but he tried. He strained his arm more, pressing his shoulder against the bars until he bore bruises.

With a quivering hand, Elucard stretched his fingers between the gaps of the bars.

Still so far, Once again, still so far apart.

"They watch, They always watch us…" Elucard lowered his face flat against the grainy floor. Now mute and frozen like a lifeless doll.

Cade leapt to his feet. With frustration grinding his mind to a nub, he threw a side kick to the bars. They jostled! "

Cade growled in desperation and lashed kick after kick at the bar. Soon the iron buckled and bent. Foot grew sore and his leg tired, he slammed his fists into the breaking bars. Over and over and over again. Blood spattered across the ground as his bare knuckles tore apart. He was close. Closer than ever before.

He grunted and winced in pain, but his hand broke before bars did. Even with all his strength and all his power, he could not save Elucard.

Cade collapsed to his knees, panting through labored breaths. He cradled his fraction hand in the other. I…I can't. I can't get to you.

A fuchsia blade of crackling magic sliced through the darkness and tore a gateway between space and time.

Cade widened his eyes. Panic and dread batter his shoulders like a blacksmith's hammer striking steel.

A set of golden eyes like the harvest moon appreciated from the portal. Then a slender coal colored man sporting a pair of goat like horns stepped into the cell. Patches of snake-like scales covered his thin cheeks. A long spaded tail whipped as he walked, only curling when he stopped over Elucard.

"Calsoon, wait!" Cade called out.

The demon lifted his gaze to the shadow elf. A playful smile cut across his face. "My friend, it has been so long!"

Cade gave back a faint grin. "Please. Can you help me escape with Elucard?"

Calsoon squatted down and with a short grunt, heaved the unconscious elf onto his shoulders.

"Calsoon, please?" Cade begged. "Don't take him away."

Calsoon's smile vanished into a frown, "I've always liked you, Inle, but I have my orders from Wraslyn."

"He doesn't belong to him!" roared Cade.

"Calsoon gently passed Elucard's limp body through the portal. "I see that he is taken care of."

"I-I can't live without him anymore…" Cade hid his tears beneath his long purple bangs. "He is all I have in my life now…don't take him…please don't take him…"

Calsoon sank within a pool of shadows and appeared again, now in Cade's cell. The demon bent a knee and softly put his slim fingers around the dampening collar.

"I can not give you what you want, my dear friend, but—" With a light tug the collar slid through Cade's neck like a spectre through a wall. "I can still help you escape."

Cade leaned his buster hand on the demon's shoulder and let out a deep sigh. "You don't belong with them; with Wraslyn."

Calsoon patted the injured hand. "There is still work to be done, but someday my services will no longer be needed by him."

"Find me when they do." The soothing touch of ice swept around his hand. The pain subsided. Cade looked up to his friend again, but the demon and his portal were gone.

He rose to his feet and walked to the most damaged of the prison bars. A whirl of frost snapped and inched over the iron until it froze solid. Cade forged a blade of rime in his other hand and with a quick strike, shattered the cell door like glass.

***

"Look, as much as I admit we need him, we can't just send an unsanctioned Black Ops mission to rescue him," said Wiccer. He pulled up his collar to block out the freezing winds biting at his neck. "We are on a diplomatic mission to secure the seals, and any misstep in diplomacy can jeopardize that, Mave"

Mave scanned the coalition's small encampment below. Wiccer words struck true in Mave's pleas for the return of Cade, but in the end, Wildeye only had the Anti-Rogue Operatives as protection and other than Arrelion and the two Silent Ones, no one else. They just couldn't risk losing more men. "Then we are just going to leave him to die in that mountain?"

"I said, forget it. That's an order, Mave."

"No need." A familiar voice turned Mave's head. Cade dropped onto the ledge that Wiccer and Mave stood on. "I've already rescued myself."

Wiccer's mouth gaped open. "How?".

Cade tapped his nose. "Black Rabbit secrets."

Mave gave him a hearty slap on his back that nearly bowled him over. "Good to see you in one piece, mate."

"Not quite." Cade lifted his fractured hand, now wrapped in cloth around an icy make-shift splint.

Wiccer carefully inspected the hand. "It's most definitely broken. We'll have Essie take a look at it."

"I'm sure she has some more runecloth laying around," chipped Mave.

Cade brought eyes up to Wiccer. "Elucard needs us."

"I know, Inle—Cade. I know that." Wiccer squeezed the shadow elf's shoulder. "But this seal needs us more right now."

"How long do you plan on waiting?"

Wiccer gestured to the massive crater. "Once we've set up a fortified position we can send ARO on a rescue operation."

Cade lowered his head.

"You'll need to show a little trust, Cade." Mave said in a gentle tone.

"Fine," said Cade. "I'll show trust, but you better not let me down."