The Dawning of Power

Chapter 12

In the deepest shadows, fire, both terrible and magnificent, can spring to life. -Casicus Mod, coal miner

Encumbered by the basket of fish he carried, Prios climbed the loose rocks with great care. Belegra had ordered everything he caught saved, but Prios filled his stomach while away from the archmaster's watchful eyes. These days they seemed to see only what they wanted to see, and Prios was determined to take every advantage.

Catrin was near; he could feel her presence. Despite Belegra's madness, he could not risk reaching out to her. The last time he had, Belegra had fallen on him, demanding to know what he'd been doing, full of suspicion and rage. Prios had endured the beating and stuck to his original tale: he'd been searching for their foes, keeping watch for danger. Belegra had not believed him, but other matters distracted him, and Prios lived in fear of the moment Belegra remembered his treachery.

Staring up at the heights, he prepared himself to play the role of faithful slave, though it sickened him more each time. Soon he would be free, all this but a memory. Reaching the ancient stone stair, which provided sure footing, Prios barely looked where he was going.

Waiting inside the gaping cavern, Belegra paced, impatience clear in his posture. "Is that all you've brought back? That is barely enough for half a day. When Vedregon returns, I'll have you flogged for your failure!"

Prios did not bother to tell him that Mark Vedregon was dead, along with all the other soldiers and the rest of the cadre. Those who had not been killed by the Gholgi or disease where taken by the sea. Prios had tried to tell Belegra the truth, but he refused to hear; instead, Belegra always claimed he would have Prios beaten or tortured when the soldiers returned.

Taking the basket of fish to the hole in the cavern wall, Prios prepared to feed Kyrien.

"He's too weak to come to you. Get in there and feed him," Belegra said. His eyes wild with fervor, he licked his lips.

Prios could not help feeling that Belegra wanted Kyrien to eat him instead of the fish. Leaving the basket right under the hole, he straddled it and pulled himself into the foul-smelling chamber. The hole was barely large enough to admit the basket, but he yanked it through. Kyrien cowered in the back of the chamber, his green-flecked gold eyes fixed on Prios, following his every movement.

Dumping the basket not far from Kyrien's head, Prios backed away. Kyrien sniffed the fish and snorted, then smacked Prios with his tail.

"Clean up while you're in there," Belegra said.

Prios did as he was told, despite every instinct telling him to flee the crowded cell. Kyrien hated him, and Prios feared the beast would rip him to shreds if he ever overcame his fear of Belegra. For now, Kyrien simply cowered in the back of his cell, and when the sun was high, he wailed.

Filled with horror, Catrin awoke, still leaning against the mass of granite. When she tried to rise, her body was sluggish. Slowly, she felt the blood returning to her limbs, and she stood. Echoing through the vale was a haunting call; like the cries of a wounded animal, it was filled with despair and, at times, an odd glimmer of hope. Hearing it made Catrin want to cry.

In a sudden rush, memories of the previous day overwhelmed her, and she looked down at her leg. Her leggings were tattered and missing the section she had cut away. Beneath were scabbed gashes where her open wounds had been. The flesh around them was pink and smooth, but she could move without a great deal of pain, and she wondered if her memories could be real. Had she truly healed herself?

Closing her eyes, she located her center then the wall that stood between her conscious and subconscious minds. No matter how hard she tried, she could not make the wall whole again. Always one stone was missing, and the mortar that filled the hole was riddled with cracks and fissures that allowed the brilliant light to pour through. With a deep breath, she made herself open her eyes. She was still alive, and she chose to treat every new moment as a gift. She should be dead-she knew it, and now she needed to make the best of what she had.

The keening wails continued, and Catrin firmed her resolve. She would find the poor creature and ends its misery. Even as the thought entered her mind, Catrin sensed a shift in the energy around her, and the vale was transformed. No more were the grasses littered with boulders; in their places stood dragons. Tall and proud, they surrounded her.

In awestruck fascination, Catrin watched the only remaining boulder, the one she had slept against, unfold itself. Granite-colored skin shifted and moved and began to take on a greenish hue, as if reflecting the grasses around it. A massive head on a serpentine neck moved in front of Catrin's face and oscillated back and forth in a hypnotic motion.

Free him.

Overwhelming compulsion came with the raw emotion of the message. It was not like the way Belegra controlled his cadre, it was more like a melding of intentions. The strength of the desire blended with Catrin's own desire, and her will to accomplish the task became one with the dragon she faced.

Raising itself up to its full height, standing on its two powerful legs, the majestic dragon spread its wings and moved its head back down to Catrin. With a touch more gentle than she would have imagined possible, it pushed her with its rock-hard maw.

Go.

The command was palpable, but Catrin refused to leave just yet. She remembered the sensations she had felt the night before and the messages she had perceived. Looking the dragon in the eye, Catrin drew herself up with all the courage she could muster. "Thank you," she said. "All of you."

The dragons all raised a keening wail to match that of the one she heard from above, and Catrin left them behind, determined to succeed. Following the sound proved difficult in a place where the echoes had a life of their own, but she moved with purpose, using her staff to provide stability in rough places.

As she drew nearer, sound overwhelmed her other senses, and for a time, she moved without seeing, only the call guiding her. Looking up, she saw the side of a mountain covered with winding stairs and crumbling roadways. At seemingly random intervals, grand entranceways dotted the rock face. The wails came from one such entranceway, high above where she stood. Squinting, she followed the stair with her eyes. From the high entranceways down to the winding terrace where all the stairways originated, she traced it. When she reached what she thought was the correct stair, it showed no evidence of recent use, and Catrin climbed with little confidence, not knowing if she were taking the right path.

Despite places where the stair was nearly perfectly preserved, there were places it barely existed. In one such place, Catrin came to a gap. Below was a sheer drop to the vale floor. Driven beyond reason by her desire to end this quest, she leaped across the divide. As she soared through the air, her arms windmilled. The heel of her staff struck rock before she landed. The impact sent her spinning, and she nearly lost her grip on the staff. Off balance, she struck the rock hard, driving the wind from her lungs. Her legs still hanging over the ledge, gravity began to pull at her, and she scrambled to find a handhold. With her left hand, she found a small crack and dug her fingers in, crying out from the pain. With her other hand, she drove the tip of her staff into another nearby crack. Using all her strength, she pulled herself up. When she finally gained the relative safety of the stair, she allowed herself only a moment of rest before resuming her climb.

Higher up, in a place where two sets of stairs came close together, Catrin saw parts of the other stair that were new and hastily constructed. That was the stair Belegra and his men used.

Trying to decide between stealth and a clear path, Catrin finally decided on a safe climb; she would have to face Belegra one way or another, and she doubted surprise would give her any substantial advantage. Climbing between the two stairs was dangerous, but she hoped the rest of the climb would be easier. Movement and shouting from above gave her a start, and she flattened herself against the rock, hoping not to be seen.

Whoever it was went back inside, and Catrin completed the climb to the newly repaired stair. Following it up, she was constantly alert for signs of movement, and she thought she saw something moving through the trees below. Perhaps, she thought, it was Belegra's men. Knowing she might have only a short time before the soldiers returned, she climbed with haste, throwing caution aside.

When she reached the top of the stair, the wails were like a physical assault, but as soon as she stepped toward the entrance, it stopped. With the light behind her and relative darkness within, Catrin stood momentarily blinded.

"So, the Herald Witch has come to witness my triumph!" Archmaster Belegra said, his voice grating and raw.

Stepping into the chamber, Catrin barely noticed the exquisite carvings that adorned the entranceway or the ancient sculptures that lined the walls. It was the object in Archmaster Belegra's hands that drew her attention: a chunk of dragon ore the size of a melon that sparkled even in the dimness of the mountain hall.

A foul smell filled the air, and Catrin turned to a place where a doorway had recently been walled in and reinforced. Only a small hole let her see what was within. Pinkish and sickly, the dragon looked very unlike those she had seen in the vale, but there was little doubt as to his true nature. As soon as she looked at him, she knew his name: Kyrien. It came to her like a song filled with joy and life, despite what her eyes told her. His eyes locked with hers, and in that moment, she knew what she had to do. With a deep breath, she drew power from the air and from her staff.

Quietly and humbly, another reason for her presence emerged from the shadows, his head down and his face concealed within the hood of his robe, Prios came. She knew him the instant he moved, and she turned back to face the one foe she had in the room. "You will enslave and corrupt no more, Belegra. Stand down now or I will attack."

Hysterical laughter threw him into a brief fit of coughing, but he regained his composure and faced Catrin with sudden clarity in his eyes, which narrowed as they beheld her. Disturbances in his energy field were so intense that it looked to Catrin as if his energy would collapse in on itself. "Burn," he said in a low and unfamiliar voice, as if he were a completely different person. His hands, gripping the dragon ore, sent ropes of fire and lightning sailing through the air toward Catrin, but she was not unprepared and created a shielding sphere around herself.

His attack struck her barrier with a violent impact that sent her reeling, nearly pushing her over the nearby ledge. Maintaining the protective sphere sapped her strength, and Catrin knew she needed to launch an attack of her own. Momentarily dropping her defenses, she hurled blue lightning at Archmaster Belegra, sending it with all the rage she possessed. Howling, she lashed out again and again, but he brushed her attacks aside as if they were little more than annoyances.

His laughter started as a deep rumble in his chest, but then he began to cackle, and in another moment of transformation, he spun and attacked. Balls of fire raced before bolts of fetid lightning, and a wave of nausea poured over Catrin as they approached. She hastily cast her defenses about her, but the onslaught threw her aside and pinned her to the chamber wall. Helplessly she watched as Prios joined the attack, his movements synchronized with Belegra's.

Inexorably, her sphere began to shrink under the pressure, and she could feel the heat on her face. Hot air burned her lungs as she sucked in desperate breaths, and still the attacks continued. Dizziness began to overtake her, and the world grew dark despite the flames that surrounded her.

The wailing drew Chase on, and he found himself in a rocky vale. When he saw grass stained with blood and a piece of the leather from Catrin's leggings, he was as frightened as he was relieved. There was too much blood, and he wondered how she could have walked away.

Turning to the mountain where the wails originated, Chase saw the stairways. He covered his eyes as he thought he saw a form moving up the rock face. Moments later, the wailing stopped, and Chase knew it must be Catrin. Taking off at a run, he climbed with abandon. Seeing flashes of light and hearing thunderous booms from above, he could only pray he got there in time.

Relent.

The command came just when the pain had reached its height, and Catrin was tempted to obey, tempted to just give up. It would be so much easier to let someone else be in control. She was so very tired. In the corner of her sight stood Prios, deep in the throes of compulsion, coerced to do that which was not his will. Kyrien, trapped in a tomb of stone, did not deserve such a horrid fate; she could not relent. They should suffer no more.

The pain began to fade, and her sphere slowly grew. Belegra looked spent, drenched with sweat and breathing hard, a wild look in his eyes. Prios looked worse, and Catrin knew Belegra would run him dry without another thought. Watching as a nimbus of power began to form around Belegra, who seemed to have found his strength, Catrin prepared a hasty attack. Prios lay, unmoving on the floor.

The nimbus grew brighter and more intense as Belegra drew an enormous amount of energy. The stone around his feet grew red hot, and he stepped back. Catrin launched her attack not on Belegra, but on the rock around him. Meanwhile, he cast a massive wave of raw energy at her, flames leaping out and forming the tortured faces of those she had lost, and they howled at her as they came. At the last moment, she cast up a sphere to protect herself, but it was insufficient, and she was thrown, tumbling, to the back of the hall.

Belegra howled in glee as Catrin fell before his attack, but he also took two steps away from the super-heated stone. As he raised his arms for the killing blow, his aura glowing like the sun, Kyrien struck like a massive viper. His head and neck shattered the wood and plaster that filled the doorway to his prison. Before the wood and stone hit the floor, he snapped Belegra up in his jaws and bit down hard. It was over in an instant, and Catrin could hardly believe what she had just seen. Consumed from within by blue flames, Belegra began to burn.

With only his head and neck freed, Kyrien gave Belegra's body one last shake then cast it aside. An instant later, Chase ran into the cavern. Seeing Catrin on the ground, smoking, he charged in, looking for someone to fight. His eyes landed on Prios, who was trying to stand, and Chase descended on him, howling. Even Catrin's screams could not pierce his blinding rage; only Kyrien's fierce visage kept him from killing Prios. Kyrien moved his head between Chase and Prios and locked eyes with Chase.

The sword dropped from Chase's hand, and he turned away from the dragon. Then he ran to Catrin. She was trying to stand as he approached, and he helped her to her feet.

"Anything broken? Are you hurt?"

"I'm bruised and burned and scraped, but I think I'll make it. Prios?"

He moved from behind Kyrien slowly. His face was still concealed, and he approached with his head down.

"Who is this?" Chase asked.

"Prios was one of Belegra's cadre. He was enslaved and compelled to attack me, but now he is free," Catrin said, and the hooded face snapped up at her words. Reaching up, Catrin pulled the hood back and looked on the face of Prios for the first time. He was only slightly younger than she, and to her, he looked beautiful.

I am free?

"You are free."

"Why doesn't he say anything?" Chase asked, suspicious.

"He speaks in my mind," Catrin said. "He has helped me in the past, despite the risks, and I trust him. He comes with us."

"What about the… uh… dragon?"

"We need to find a way get him out of there."

"The walls are really thick, Cat. It would take days to chip him out even if we had the right tools, which we don't."

"We're getting him out," she said in her most commanding tone, but then she remembered the others. "Where are Strom and Osbourne and Brother Vaughn?"

"I sent them back to the ship after the Gholgi attacked. Osbourne hurt his knee, and Brother Vaughn broke a few ribs, I think. Strom went with them so they would not be helpless in a fight. I came looking for you."

"I knew you would," Catrin said with tears in her eyes as she hugged him. "Thank you. You've always protected me."

"Who knows what kind of trouble you'd get yourself into if I wasn't around? I'm just saving myself the hassle. So how are we going to get this dragon out?"

There is water nearby, and I have a bucket, and this might be of use to you.

Prios approached, holding Belegra's dragon ore, and he handed it to Catrin. Even before it touched her skin, she could feel its power, far greater than anything she'd ever experienced before, as if the greater size allowed it to contain exponentially more energy. Even after the massive amount Belegra had drawn from the stone, it still held an enormous charge. Yet there seemed to be flaws. Something was simply not as it should be, and she was hesitant to use the stone.

Desperate for a way to free Kyrien, her mind reeled with possibilities, but then she remembered what Prios had said: There is water nearby. "Fill everything you can with water and bring it back here," Catrin said.

"What?" Chase asked. "What good is water going to do? We need tools, Cat."

"The water will be all we need. Please help Prios," Catrin said as Prios was already moving to obey her command. In that moment she made a vow to talk to Prios, to help him understand that he had to do what she asked only if he believed it was the right thing to do. He was free.

Chase looked smug when he and Prios returned, each with a large container of water. "Are we going to scrub the stone away?"

"Stand back and be ready to throw the water at the rock on my command," Catrin said. Chase still looked unconvinced. Using the same technique she had used against Belegra, she heated the rock until it glowed like a hot ember. "Now!"

Chase and Prios moved in unison, and a wall of water rushed toward the rock. It struck with a hiss and a series of loud cracks, and several chunks of rock fell away. "We need more water," Catrin said, and Chase did not hesitate. Kyrien huddled at the back of his cell, but Catrin sensed he knew what she was doing, and he occasionally bugled in what sounded like an expectant call.

Chase and Prios returned just as the rock began to glow almost white. "Again," Catrin said. More chunks erupted this time as the structural integrity of the wall began to break down. With each successive time they threw water on the glowing rocks, more of the wall fell, but the process took time.

Kyrien lost patience and roared as he charged from the back his prison and threw himself against the wall with percussive force. Brittle stone fell before his desperate need, and the chamber walls exploded. Catrin, Chase, and Prios fled before the dragon as he charged to the entranceway, seeing the sunlit sky for the first time in his life. Before Catrin could even say good-bye, he gave a triumphant roar, leaped over the edge, and disappeared from view.

Running to the ledge, Catrin looked down to see Kyrien falling like a stone. He struggled to fully extend his wings, and even when he did, he still fell at tremendous speed. Suddenly, the air below was filled with activity. Other dragons, most larger than Kyrien, flocked around him. One of the largest, who Catrin thought she recognized as the one she had slept against, positioned himself directly beneath Kyrien, straining his wings to hold his own weight and that of Kyrien. Perilously close to the treetops below, the dragons halted their fall and began to gain altitude.

Crying out to his brethren, Kyrien wobbled in the air as they left him to soar the winds on his own. Twice other dragons kept him from crashing to the ground, but he seemed to be gaining confidence as he got the feel for flight. Flexing his wings, he soared high into the sky. He gave one last cry before disappearing into the clouds.