The Lost Runes Saga [Epic Fantasy]

FORTY-EIGHT

More shadows were converging, stumbling out from alleyways, slithering along the ground, and even drifting on the wind. Four of them, all attempting to reach the dragon's corpse.

"I thought I told you to get lost!" Vidar shouted, raising his palm and drowning the shadows in a torrent of dragon fire. Like last time, they winked away, giving Alvarn a little more time.

The dragon charged again, each step like the rumble of a house collapsing. Vidar threw himself to the side without looking and reached out with the staff again, the styrka rune connecting with the dragon's leg. Vidar spun the staff around and secured the butt against the ground before triggering another thrust of the stakra rune.

This one hit, but the dragon's skin was too tough. Still, the thrust created from dragon's essence was enough to push it off balance, and the dragon tilted while the rider on top screamed, pulled on a leather strap, and kicked the dragon.

It careened into a building, then righted itself, its tail lashing out at Vidar. With his algiz runes almost depleted, he thought this would be his end, but algiz runes on the staff held enough to buffer the worst of it. The barriers cracked and collapsed, and the impact threw Vidar through the air and into the dragon's corpse right next to Alvarn.

He glanced up with a grunt. "Almost done, just a little more."

His face was pale, and Vidar saw he'd completed the symbol. Once the circle, which he'd started, was done, that was it. "Give me a little more time."

The dragon approached again, its tail whipping back and forth like a predator's, its wings flapping to give it speed. Using the last of the dragon's essence in his heartwell, Vidar rejuvenated a few algiz runes, hoping Alvarn would find a way for them to escape once he drained the corpse and infused his heartwell, because Vidar was out of tricks. Well, almost out of tricks.

He pulled two sowilo runes from his satchel, triggered them, and threw the pair at the dragon, intending to repeat the attack that saved him from Vatrfjall. The dragon opened its jaw and released a gush of flames, catching the runes and detonating them far too close to Vidar and Alvarn. Algiz barriers from the staff saved them, but that attack depleted the last of their defenses.

What sounded like a long stream of curses from the rider on the dragon's back followed. The dragon first screeched in defiance, held itself tall and proud, and moved back a little with a huff, turning to its side, showing the dragon rider again.

"You! Destroy! Shadow!" she shouted, pointing at Vidar and Alvarn.

Vidar looked around, then nodded with wide eyes. "Yes!"

"Destroy! Shadow! Good!"

"Yes!" Vidar shouted again, raising a fist over his head.

She pointed up into the air over the dragon's corpse. "You! Run!"

Then she spurred the dragon on and shouted a command, setting the beast into motion. It lumbered forward and threw itself into the air, its long tail swishing close enough to almost take Vidar's head off.

"Done!" Alvarn croaked as Vidar turned to follow the dragon with his gaze. His eyes widened, and he grabbed Alvarn, pulling them both to the ground.

Alvarn yelped. "Why?"

But Vidar just grabbed his hand and pressed it against the dragon's corpse. "Do it now, hurry!"

Alvarn closed his eyes, and then his whole body began trembling. The blue-scaled dragon swooped low, its massive body writhing in the air right above them. Vidar watched as it continued straight ahead, then whipped around in the air with a flap of its wings, turning to face them.

"My chest," Alvarn breathed, touching his hand to his heart.

"Not now," Vidar hissed. "Up! Run!"

Alvarn opened his eyes and paled as he saw the massive monster, larger than a house, come hurtling back toward them. With the help of Alvarn's staff, they got to their feet, ran a few steps, and threw themselves into an alleyway just in time to escape the dragon's claws. It was too big for the street, and the top floors of houses framing the street crumbled as it descended, rock and timber crashing down. If not for Alvarn's algiz rune, the building materials would have crushed them. Instead, the remaining brunt of the force threw them to the side, close enough to the lip of the alley to see the dragon take its smaller, dead kin in its claws before rising into the air again with one flap of its giant wings.

Vidar couldn't take his eyes off its massive bulk, so he pulled his arm away when Alvarn tugged on it. "What?" he breathed.

"Logiz," Alvarn coughed, getting to his feet and pointing through dust and debris. "Shadows."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Vidar turned and groaned. More of them were coming through the alley. He cleared his throat and spat in their direction, getting the worst of the dust out of his mouth. "What are you?"

None of the approaching shadows replied. They just kept coming.

"I'm all out of dragon's essence," Vidar said, taking a step back. "Don't you have a logiz rune?"

"I don't," Alvarn said.

Vidar held out his palm to Alvarn. "Then rejuvenate mine with your dragon's essence."

Alvarn reached out and put his thumb to Vidar's logiz rune, then shook his head. "It's not working."

"Damn it," Vidar cursed.

"What do we do?" Alvarn asked.

"We run!" Vidar shouted, pushing himself up by grabbing the wall.

They left the alley and half ran, half hobbled up the street. The blue-scaled dragon came back for another swoop above their heads, still carrying the smaller, dead green dragon in its grip.

Vidar and Alvarn ducked and cowered, but the dragon did not attack. Something thumped to the ground, and Vidar grabbed it before they resumed their running. It was a thick cloth bag with leather straps to tie around the waist and shoulders. Its size was just small enough that Vidar could shove it into his satchel as they ran, glancing up into the sky.

Two dragons circled high above Halmstadt, too far away for their fires to reach the ground, and out of range of the ballistae below. It was the massive, white one and the other, smaller, green dragon.

"Where are the other two?" Vidar asked.

Alvarn pointed off into the distance, where the blue-scaled dragon with Rend and the other rider atop it, and the still living green dragon flew beside it.

"They're leaving," Vidar breathed.

"Not all of them," Alvarn said.

"Do you think they are going back to wherever they came from?" Vidar asked, glancing back at the shadows spilling onto the street.

"Wherever they are going, we can't follow. They're too fast, flying like that," Alvarn said, pulling his coat tight and buttoning it closed against the cold.

Vidar opened his satchel and then the cloth bag, rummaging through it as they walked.

"Maybe we don't have to catch up if we know where they're going." He drew out a rolled-up skin and opened it. "A map."

It didn't match the maps he'd seen of Sveland before, but it was near enough to see the resemblance. He handed it over for Alvarn to look. "Why is this map so weird and distorted?"

"It is because it is more accurate than the maps you've seen," Alvarn said. "I'm thinking if the dragon riders made this, that means they mapped the land from above, rather than from the ground, like our cartographers surveying the land."

"Makes sense," Vidar said, turning to make sure they were safe. The shadows remained on the street, looking this way and that, but they did not follow. The dragons above didn't look like they were coming back down, either. Perhaps the initial attack was over.

"There are more," Vidar said, pulling out three smaller skins. He opened them. "Dennerland and Noriland. Why do they need all these maps?"

Alvarn looked at each. "I don't know why. But I suppose this means they're scouting an enormous area."

He put his finger on the first, larger map. "I think they are coming from here, judging by the topography and how the different maps are laid out."

"You're a map expert now?" Vidar asked.

"Traveling merchants have a deep respect for maps."

Vidar dipped a finger in ink and made a small smudge where Alvarn indicated. "Then this is where I have to go."

Alvarn stopped. "What? Why would you want to go there?"

"Rend threw this down to me! He talked to the rider and couldn't make them stop. Don't you see? He needs me to follow and talk sense into his people," Vidar said.

"He could have just dropped it."

Vidar shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Look at this." He pulled the bag out of his satchel, holding up a cut leather strap. "He took this off that older rider."

"How are we even going to get there? It's all the way up north, in the middle of a mountain range."

"I'll think of something," Vidar said. "You don't happen to have another one of those carts, do you?"

Alvarn chuckled. "No. But seeing that flight... was something else."

"Hold on a moment," Vidar said. "Did you say we?"

"Of course. I'll come with you," Alvarn said. "I've been on the road far more than you."

Stopping, Vidar put a hand on Alvarn's shoulder. "I need you to stay here, Alvarn."

"Why?"

"Someone has to keep an eye on the thieves and the steward, and protect people when the dragons return, not to speak of the shadows! I've never seen them in broad daylight before. They're getting bolder, and something is connecting them to the church, I think. Someone needs to investigate."

Alvarn looked thoughtful as they turned onto another street, looking this way and that to make sure no more shadows appeared. "So you get to go on an adventure, and I will stay here and investigate the most powerful organization in all of Sveland, not counting the crown, while also dealing with thieves and protecting Halmstadt from dragons."

Vidar grinned. "That's right."

"I should have just gone to my father," Alvarn grumbled.

"That wouldn't have been much of an adventure now, would it?" Vidar asked, letting go of Alvarn's shoulder. "You have dragon's essence now, and I can't wait to see what you make of it."

"Oh, I have some ideas," Alvarn said. "But if you're going to Rend to talk them down... what happens if the two dragons that stayed are killed?"

"That would hamper negotiations," Vidar said. "Please add that to the list. Don't let the dragons die."

Alvarn sighed. "This list is getting long."

"Well, I'm glad I'm leaving it in competent hands," Vidar said as they set their steps toward Fjodor's compound to get a sense of what sort of damage on the lower city the dragons managed in their initial assault, and how well the styrka-algiz combinations worked in protecting their part of Halmstadt from going up in flames.

One dragon was dead. Two were leaving from the looks of it, which left two more. Add the writhing, almost alive shadows to the mix, and the nefarious priests, things were growing complex. Despite the onslaught of different factions, problems, and paths forward, Vidar just knew he'd only begun understanding the whirlpool of currents running through and under Halmstadt in both the past and the present. He'd now need to go beyond the walls and find Rend's people in search of answers and the knowledge he needed.

Vidar couldn't help but grin. The chaos was an adventure, and he couldn't help but look forward to this next step.