Dragon Rule (Warrior Hearts Academy #9)

51. Riggs

51

Riggs

The instant the side of the island blew out, I spread my wings to shelter Bree, Tez, and Caliel.

Tyrez could shift faster than anyone I knew. He was already a Dragon, standing between our family, and whatever was going on.

A screech rang through the air.

Caliel peered around my wing. What is that infernal sound?

Are we under attack? Bree asked, lifting the sword.

It was Tez who connected the dots. I should have seen it—there’s only one reason Finn would leave him behind.

What was he talking about? But then, suddenly, I knew. Mykal. That bastard Torshin had done something to my son. And then left him behind for us to bring home.

Here. To the main base for our army.

Finn must have rigged the collar, Tez said . When they took it off, it triggered something.

My son . I crouched to take off, but Breana had sheathed the sword and jumped onto my forearm. She reached for my spikes. Tez and Caliel were right behind her.

Hope you can take off better than you land, Tez snarked, tucking Nemi closer to his neck.

You could stay here. Now was not the time for poking fun at me.

And leave you to handle this alone? Forget it.

I did my best to ignore him, crouched, and eyed the sky. Everyone hold onto something.

Tyrez was already aloft, winging for the far side of the closest island. I focused on joining him, rather than worrying about my ability to take off.

It was the right strategy. Three beats of my wings, and I’d lifted away from the plateau.

Not entirely smoothly—Tez yelped, and everyone clutched my spikes like their lives depended upon it. Which they did.

You did great, Breana said.

Okay, that’s an exaggeration, Tez complained.

As we are a few hundred feet above the ground, I vote for encouragement over derision. Caliel stated.

Having all three clinging to my spikes with their legs around my neck was a heady experience. But dark storm clouds churned, and the wind beat at us as we approached the island.

Another screech rent the air. I’d never heard anything make a noise like that—it sounded demented. Whatever was in there, it wasn’t a Dragon.

But Mykal was a Dragon…

We’d only just got to the point where I could see the jagged, torn crater in the side of the island, when something rose from within it.

It was massive, far larger than a Dragon. My first reaction was one of relief—it couldn’t be Mykal.

Tez dashed that hope to ribbons. That’s close in size to the dead creature I saw in the dungeon. Only it had three heads. But it’s Mykal, it has to be. Finn has altered him somehow.

My gut clenched. Because the creature did have my son’s scales, so similar in color to my own.

As we hovered, the massive beast flapped its enormous wings and climbed past us. A bolt of lightning as thick as a Dragon lanced from the sky, burning through flying forms to strike the farthest island in an explosion of lethal energy. Stone fractured and broke away, and smoke rose from the hole.

My vision blurred as the monster flew by us. I’d thought the head was spiked, like a Storm Drake, but now I saw that the muzzle was shortened…

It’s not your vision, Breana said. The head is changing.

She was right—one moment it had almost no snout at all, the face heavy and broad. The next, it widened, and the scales darkened, small spikes erupting from their centers. Then they fell away to reveal a brilliant orange.

But the color of the eyes changed while the expression remained the same. And there was no sanity left within them. My heart twisted as I veered away.

The creature banked and aimed for the beach.

Those who had gathered upon it scattered. Some ran in panic, others, like the troop of Centaurs and the squads of Sabres, moved off and regrouped in a more orderly fashion.

The monster that was my son thumped down on the beach in a shower of gravel, his taloned feet digging deep. Then he flung back a head dancing with orange scales—and blasted fire up at a small group of fleeing Dragons. It caught the last two, and incinerated them.

Fuck, Tez said. That’s three—the Fire Drake, the Earth, and the Storm, too, I think. Finn put all three in him. No wonder it’s driven him insane.

A group flew out of the hole in the island. Havoc, with Rafael on his back. Behind them flew Marcus in his Gryphon form, and then another—Aphostra, carrying Cara and Bess. Relief coursed through me that they’d all survived Mykal’s emergence.

Then a tall figure strode out onto the causeway, and the energy dancing around him turned my blood to ice.

Nikolai. The Perditor. And he looked pissed.

If we want Mykal in one piece, we’d better come up with a plan, Tez added nervously.

If the Perditor goes off, he will take the entire place down with him, Caliel said.

Nikolai’s steel-gray hair danced around his head as though it had a life all its own. Tiny bolts of red lightning radiated from him. Aphostra abruptly changed direction, landing on the causeway. As Cara dismounted and ran to the Perditor, two other figures emerged from the island to grab his arm.

His mates, and the Watcher—the disaster prevention squad in action, keeping us from being vaporized.

Havoc swung in beside me, and Rafael shouted over the howling wind. Something about control…

Control. Rafael could control others.

It is how they captured me, Caliel snarled.

Tez can control birds and lizards, Breana said. What about Dragons?

They’re a far stretch from birds and lizards. Tez sounded a bit panicked. And Mykal’s been turned into something else again.

The monster that was Mykal had a vast range—bolts of fire lanced through the fleeing army. Its attention was diverted when the Centaurs formed up, raised their weapons, and charged. They gained momentum with every stride as they bore down on Mykal.

Below us, Mykal’s face altered again, and the gravel danced as a massive earthquake shook the Centaurs clean off their feet.

How the hell could I ever control that? Tez demanded.

We have to do something. Breana sounded desperate. We have to try to save him.

If Rafael has access to Nikolai’s power, maybe he can help Mykal, I said.

We also have the sword. Breana grasped the pommel of it, ready to pull it from the sheath. We just have to get into position.

As I scanned the beach, looking for a place I could set down, Mykal’s head shifted again—to the distinctive spiked countenance of the Storm Drake. The wind bellowed, and lightning struck straight through a group of fleeing Dragons, taking several down.

“Marcus and I need to distract it while the others work,” Breana shouted.

What? Tez exclaimed. You’re not going anywhere near that thing!

Breana handed the sword to Tez. Riggs will take you guys in.

We won’t get close enough to that monster! Tez’s mindvoice was a mental shout.

We have the one thing that Mykal is sure to let approach him, Breana argued. We have his father.

Mykal’s lost his marbles, Tez argued. No way he’ll let anyone close enough to talk him down.

I privately agreed. Or thought I did.

Tez snatched the thought away. See? Riggs agrees.

Caliel and Aphostra will sing to him, Bree added. That will help.

Sing? They’re going to lullaby him into submission? Who’s insane now?

Marcus winged close, so close he had to match his wingbeats to my own. I kept mine steady as Breana stood up on my neck. Tez tried to hold onto her, but she pushed his hands off.

Fu—rick, he said, just as she jumped.

Marcus folded one wing and sideslipped to catch her. I sighed with relief when she was safely seated.

Havoc swung in close, and Rafael pulled his legs up to crouch on the huge red-scaled neck.

We were both so large that flying side by side didn’t get me close enough. Instead, I dropped below Havoc, and just a bit to one side.

Rafael jumped, and I almost didn’t move at the right time. Caliel took hold and hauled him onto my neck.

Think we need to practice this maneuver, Caliel said.

Or just not do it, Tez complained.

Havoc switched positions, flying below me.

Wish me luck, Caliel said, sprouting his claws.

I would if I believed in it, Tez growled.

Caliel leaped, and landed in a bit of a scramble on the red-scaled neck. But then his claws grabbed hold of a spike, and he stabilized.

As the humans say, easy-breezy, he said.

The sound of Tez grinding his teeth carried through the link as Havoc broke away from us. I banked toward the beach and looked down at the plateau. Three Unicorns flanked the Gryphon, Aphostra—Nikolai and the Watchers. The Perditor’s beast was impressive, jet black with a steel-gray mane and tail. His mates stood to each side of him, with a hand on his dark hide.

They all began to sing.

They’re really singing. Tez sounded unimpressed, despite the blue and green energy dancing around them. A chirp carried to me on the wind—the tiny bird still clung to his neck beneath his hair.

Even from where we soared, the music shivered straight through me, and then Caliel picked it up. His voice had deepened in his new form, and it lacked the eerie quality it had offered before.

Another voice joined theirs—from the rocks amid the crashing waves, Leah wove her siren song into theirs. Around the rocks on which she lay, I caught the gleam of Nar’s pale-green scales.

Great. Just Great, Tez snarled. We’ll sing it to sleep.

They are going to sing, I clarified. You and Rafael are going to control him.

Oh, yeah, right. The other part to this insane mission.

Stop complaining, Tez, and focus, Breana demanded. She and Marcus circled around the plateau to land on a rock jutting above the crashing waves.

Is that an order?

PLEASE stop complaining and focus, she amended. She slid off Marcus, whose Gryphon was transforming to the Storm Drake.

Mykal hissed and his head sprouted orange scales. I held my breath as he sent a burst of vicious Drake fire blasting toward them?—

Marcus brought the wind howling straight at Mykal. It halted the fire halfway between them and him, and held it there.

Mykal screeched and let it dissipate. Which was when I landed on the beach no more than fifty feet from him.

This close, the creature was terrifying. I was able to look directly into Mykal’s eyes—and I saw nothing of my son. Then the music rose off the plateau, and he blinked. For just an instant, I thought I saw something familiar flash through his eyes.

The energy pumping from Raphael—Perditor energy, filtered through him—radiated around me in an aura of seething colors. Blues and greens, shot through with much more sinister crimson.

From his location on the plateau, Caliel stated, Cara says the sword might help Rafael manage Nikolai’s energy.

I turned my head to focus one eye on Tez. Pull the sword, I told him. Get Rafael to put his hand on it.

He offered a long string of mental curses as he drew it, and holding the blade, he extended the hilt to Rafael, seated behind him. After an urgent whisper, the slim young man reached forward to wrap his hand around the hilt.

The dancing energy immediately changed—it swirled, and then blended together. But Mykal’s head had shot up when the sword’s light penetrated the stormy gloom. And now his eyes flared orange.

To distract him, I took a step forward.

“Mykal,” I said. “Do yous knows who I am?”

Wisps of steam came from his nostrils. But then his eyes flashed metallic purple, just for an instant.

Mykal’s eyes.

“Who am I?” I insisted.

His heavy jaws opened. “Dos I knows you?”

“Yes, you do.”

Rafael gathered the combined power of the sword and the Perditor, and sent it as a gentle wave toward Mykal. His voice rang out across the beach. “You do not want to do this, Mykal.”

The beast that was Mykal stiffened, blinked, and then tossed its head. His eyes began to flash—orange, black, silver, brown, purple.

Help him, Tez, Breana insisted.

I felt Tez’s distinctive energy add to the mix. Pushing, trying to get Mykal to listen, while the music swirled, and Rafael eased his net of control over him.

For just an instant, we thought it would work. But then Mykal shook it all off. His eyes spun chaotically as he flung his head to the sky, and screeched.

Forks of lightning descended from above, striking the islands, the plateau, the beach—but I noticed none of it came near me.

I turned, slowly, until my side faced the monster. And then I said, Get off, to Tez. Take Rafael, too.

What the fuck are you up to? Tez asked.

Just get off.

The tiny bird hovered around his head as Tez grabbed Rafael’s arm and slid down on the far side, so that my body was between Mykal and them.

The monster took the opportunity to send another burst of fire toward Breana. My reaction was almost instinctive—I sent a pulse of power toward her, and the waves rose in a wall.

Breana was fast—she raised her hands, and changed liquid to ice. The flames splashed against it, melting partway through, before dispersing.

Keep trying with him, I told Tez. And then I strode straight toward Mykal, stopped after a few strides, and embraced my human.

What the hell are you doing? Tez screamed through my mind.

Just focus on your own mission, I snarked back.

My transformation was much more ragged than normal, and therefore, more painful. I may have groaned a bit. But I finally stood before Mykal as a man.

Breana’s terror, not of Mykal, but for me, surged from her, and it fed into the desperation I sensed from Tez. And something changed. Tez’s energy shifted, ever so subtly.

I was suddenly hyperaware of what radiated from him. He had been focused on channeling the sword’s energy to Rafael, but now he moved his attention to me.

My footsteps slowed, and then, against my will, stopped. Like he was reaching out, and forcing me to do so.

I wasn’t sure where the impression came from, but there was no doubt I couldn’t take another step. But perhaps I was close enough. I looked up at my son. Now that I wasn’t a Dragon, he was massive, and the surrounding gravel was littered with scales—every time he switched to a new Drake, the old ones fell away.

Using resources like that would weaken him, eventually—just not anywhere near fast enough. I stood before him as my own scales chased along my human skin.

“Do you know me now, Mykal?” I asked.

Another surge came from Tez, this time oriented on my son. Mykal arched his neck as his head morphed rapid fire from one Drake to the next. Then, for just an instant, I saw the Dragon I knew among them.

His jaws opened, and he said, “F—father?”

“You are my son,” I affirmed. “A Sorcerer has altered you, made you into something you are not.” I swallowed. “And I am here to bring you home.”

“I—I ams a monster,” Mykal hissed.

“We can heal you,” I insisted. “But we need you as a human to do it. Do you think you can switch back?”

Mykal’s neck twisted, moving his gaze away. His head altered so fast I almost couldn’t follow it. The Storm Drake was there, and then, the Earth. And then, on another power surge from Tez and the sword, Mykal’s Dragon.

“I cannots finds my human,” he confessed in a tortured tone.

“My friends and I can help you, if you’ll let us.”

For a moment, I thought I’d lost him. But then Tez stepped forward and extended a hand that gleamed with metallic feathers.

I was suddenly seized by the crazy urge to kneel.

Mykal lowered his head to the gravel, and in his gaze, I saw my son. The music swelled and enfolded us, and the surrounding energy danced as I moved forward. I reached to lay a hand on his huge muzzle.

Rafael and Tez came slowly forward. And Rafael said, “Envision yourself as human…”

A hint of desperation entered Mykal’s gaze. “I am not the human I remembered,” he said.

Of course, that was true. He’d been artificially aged, and now had no idea how to get back.

“You can do this,” Tez said in a deeper-than-normal voice, and he followed it up with a surge of something that almost dropped me to my knees. “Show him how,” he told me.

I’d seen Mykal, and now I was his eyes, telling him what he looked like. Step by step, we walked through it. It was a process made even more tortuous by his size, and at one point, he screamed through gritted teeth as his bones contracted.

I was there every step of the way, until, finally, my son stood before me.

My son? He was as tall as me, although his big frame had yet to put on mature muscle.

I placed my hands on his shoulders. “Welcome back, Mykal.”

“Dad,” he said in a voice that shook. And then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed in my arms.

As I lowered him to the gravel, Tyrez landed in front of us with a “crack” of wind against wing. I looked up into his beast’s face, and what I saw there froze the blood in my veins.

“Sentries have just reported in from the academy’s realm,” he rumbled. “Dragons and mercenaries have been spotted in the mountains.”

My heart stopped. “How close are they to the academy?”

“They are gathering in the mountains, about a day’s march away,” Tyrez growled. “But it will take them a while to get the entire army through. Three sentries died to bring us this information.”

Just as I had envisioned, the war was coming to the academy. An attack here was a strike not only to the council, but an attempt to wipe out the talented students they were developing.

Fu—rick, said Tez. Fin had this planned. Insert Mykal to distract and destroy. And then attack.

Tyrez hissed, and finished it. “The war is upon us.”