Wrath of the Dragon, page 21
The animal was undeniably cute, and I could understand why Cyra was so desperate to help it. I looked around to try and see what had injured the creature, but I couldn’t see any hints of wire.
The starlet started to tremble as it bled more, and Cyra winced.
“Ryan,” she pleaded. “It’s bleeding out, we have to help it! Maybe the wound is from the wires, and it just dragged itself here.”
“There’s no blood on the ground,” I said as I looked down at the gray stone. “I haven’t heard anything big moving around, either. So there must be a trap…”
I trailed off as I stared at the starlet, and it reached its fluffy hands up to me as it cried in the most heart-breaking way.
“That is the trap,” I realized and lowered my voice to a whisper. “The starlet is the trap.”
“They aren’t dangerous,” Cyra insisted. “I’ve held them before, they’re claws aren’t even sharp.”
I narrowed my eyes as the animal moved, and I noticed it didn’t cast a shadow. There was something wrong with the cute creature.
“It’s not a starlet,” I said slowly. “Is there anything in this world that can shapeshift? Besides me, I guess.”
Cyra gasped and stared at the little creature as it wailed persistently.
“A Shadow Mover,” she whispered. “It doesn’t have its own shadow. We can’t let it know that we know. Act like you’re still looking for a trap.”
I quickly looked away from the angel and pretended to study the floor as the creature watched me. It was eerie that it didn’t cast any shadow no matter which way I looked, and its pitiful wails would’ve broken my heart if not for how creepy the situation had just become.
“We’re going to come back for you,” I said to the starlet. “I just want to double back and check there’s nothing coming, okay?”
The little animal sniffed like a human baby and blinked up at me with its big, watery eyes. I had to admit, it was a good disguise. There weren’t many people that would look at the crying creature and not pick it up.
I hurried back around the corner with Cyra as the starlet cried and cried, and she gave it a little wave before we disappeared out of sight.
“What the hell is a Shadow Mover?” I hissed. “Can we kill it?”
“It’s like a shapeshifter,” Cyra said quietly. “It’s pretty much useless in its shadow form, but it can quickly possess any animal it touches.”
“Why did it choose something so small?” I asked. “You said starlet claws aren’t even sharp, so it’s not going to do much damage.”
“Because it wants to trick us,” the angel said. “If we pick it up, then it’s touching us.”
“And then it could use our bodies,” I said as a chill ran up my spine. “Shit. Why don’t we just walk around it? It’s not big enough to do anything if we jump over it.”
“They’re fast,” Cyra whispered. “If it knows that you know what it is, then it will come after you. They want to be powerful. That’s why they’re so finicky. Shadow Movers get easily frustrated with any creature that has a bigger shadow than it does.”
“So, what does it do?” I asked. “If it got into one of our bodies, what would happen?”
“It would kill the host,” Cyra said. “A body can’t survive being taken over by a Shadow Mover. It’ll own the body until it abandons it for one it wants more. That’s why we--”
The angel clamped her mouth shut, and I suddenly realized the crying had stopped. Then I looked down to see the starlet had shuffled around the corner.
It looked up at us with wide eyes and held its hands out to us.
“Hey, little guy,” I said calmly. “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you help, okay?”
I pretended to fix Cyra’s cloak and leaned into her ear so only she could hear me.
“Fly over it,” I whispered. “I know you can’t go too far up, but you can go high enough to not touch it. I’m going to attack.”
I stood back, and the angel gave me the smallest nod to let me know she had heard me.
The starlet still wasn’t crying, and its wide eyes narrowed as I took a step closer. My dagger was still clutched in my hand, and the little beast snarled as it gestured to the weapon.
“Don’t worry, little guy,” I said. “This is just to help with any bad animals we find along the way. Let me help you get that nasty wound fixed up.”
I took another step toward the starlet, but then I quickly slammed my dagger down at its head. The creature screamed and rolled out of the way just in time, and Cyra shot into the air as high as she could before the starlet could grab her. The angel was just a few inches too high to be touched by the beast, so it turned its attention back to me.
“Don’t let it touch you!” Cyra cried.
“Easier said than done,” I growled as the starlet charged.
I jumped out of the way just in time, and the small animal rolled to a halt as it smacked against the marble wall. Then it stumbled to stand back up, and I dove down with my dagger and slammed the blade into the creature’s head.
For a moment, it felt wrong to be killing something so small and cute, but then the starlet’s body began to shake and hiss as smoke poured from it.
The furry animal started to crumble apart like it was made of ash, and there was a faint wailing scream as a long shadow appeared and drifted up the marble wall. It didn’t have any particular shape, but it began to quickly fade as it got higher and higher, until it finally dissipated into the air.
“You killed it!” Cyra cheered as she landed next to me.
She threw her arms around me and planted her soft lips on mine. I kissed her deeply as I stroked her hair, and then we stood back to look at the crumbled pile of ashes.
“I really thought I’d killed an innocent animal for a second there,” I said.
“The starlet was already dead,” Cyra said sadly. “It died the moment the Shadow Mover infected its body.”
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’m worried there was enough noise to draw attention to us.”
We left the pile of ash behind us and hurried off down the pathway. Now that we knew there were traps everywhere, we kept quiet as we walked. Then, after a few minutes, there was a sudden blackout.
The orbs all went dark, and there were screaming snarls and howls from the demons.
“What the fuck?” I hissed. “Why are they blacking out their own lair? You said they wouldn’t want to throw themselves into darkness…”
“They know we’re here,” Cyra breathed, and her voice shook. “They must know someone is nearby.”
“Shit,” I said. “Okay, take my hand. We need to wait this out until they turn the orbs back on. We can’t navigate this in the dark, we’ll fall into some kind of trap.”
“We can’t just sit here!” Cyra hissed. “They know we’re out here! They could be heading here right now!”
It was an impossible situation. If we kept going, we would undoubtedly stroll into some kind of deadly trick. If we stayed put, we would be right in the middle of the maze when the demons came to look for us. There wasn’t anywhere to hide within the marble walls.
Then I heard a noise that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Something was making a slow, dragging noise across the stone floor of the maze.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, and I felt Cyra’s palm grow cold in my grip.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Which way is it coming from?”
“Can demons see in the dark?” I asked.
“No better than most beings,” Cyra said. “That’s why they have the orbs.”
“And there aren’t any wings flapping, so I’m guessing this all means there aren’t any above us,” I said hurriedly. “Otherwise, we would see their torches. So use your palm to light the way for now.”
The angel held her hand up, and her palm began to emit a soft orange glow. It was just enough to light the path just ahead of our feet, but not enough to cast our shadows onto the walls. She held her other hand over her palm to dim it slightly, and we hurried forward.
The dragging sound was just as loud as we walked forward, and it was seriously fucking creepy to hear in the darkness.
“How long will they keep the lights off?” I asked as I glanced over my shoulder. “I can’t work out where that noise is coming from.”
“I don’t know,” Cyra hissed. “It’s probably to try and get the dragon to appear visible. Remember, they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for other than something that can fill the sky with light.”
There was a sound of flapping wings above us, and it was the same sound of the leathery wings we had heard before. I could still hear the shuffling sound in the maze, but it was clear that more flying demons were approaching, probably getting into position to scour the maze the moment the orbs were relit.
“You need to dim the light,” I hissed. “More demons are going to fly over any second.”
“But there’s something else here!” Cyra said desperately. “We can’t just put ourselves in the dark!”
“We have to,” I said. “Stay with me. We’ve got this.”
Cyra doused the light of her palm and quickly clutched my hand. Then we leaned against the wall and listened to the sounds of the approaching creatures.
The demons’ wings flapped heavily above us, and I could hear them screeching as they flew over the Night Maze. Without light, they must have been struggling to see anything, and I figured they were just looking for any hint of a light source.
Cyra was right, they would be searching for a dragon or something equally as bright.
We could have just stayed still until they passed over, but the noise in the maze was getting louder. It sounded like something was crawling toward us in the dark, and the sound started to echo off the marble walls.
It was eerie as hell, and I strained to hear which direction it was coming from. The shuffle got closer and closer until I was sure it was coming from our right. I pulled on Cyra’s hand, and we hastily moved along the wall in the other direction. I knew we couldn’t go far because we would risk running into more traps, but I hoped we could get far enough away until the orb lights came back on.
“Come baaack,” something hissed in the darkness.
I froze, and I felt Cyra’s palm start to sweat.
What the fuck was that?
“Staaaay here,” the voice rattled. “Stay in the darkness with meee.”
The voice was breathy and old-sounding, and my whole body shuddered. The dragging noise carried on, and I could hear the heavy breathing drawing closer to us.
“Ryan,” Cyra squealed, and the shuffling stopped.
“I found youuuuu,” the voice breathed, and the crawling sound sped up.
I began to run, and I held my dagger out to hopefully stop the damage of any traps we passed. Cyra clung to my hand, and the sound of hurried crawling kept up behind us.
“I see you,” the voice hissed. “I see youuuuu.”
“Light your palm!” I said. “I can’t hear the demons anymore.”
Cyra didn’t need telling twice, and her palm lit up with orange embers. Then we swung around, and the gentle light illuminated the most horrifying creature I had ever seen.
It looked like a person who was halfway rotted. They were on all fours, and their legs looked broken as they stuck out at odd angles. It was impossible to say if it was male or female because its face had mostly melted away to leave an exposed skull with bits of flesh hanging off it. But the eyes were sunken and hollow, and it had straggly tufts of hair that stuck out of its head.
“A Dark Eater,” Cyra breathed. “Ryan, run.”
“We can kill it,” I said. “It already looks half-dead--”
“It can’t die,” Cyra hissed. “You can stab it as much as you want, but you cannot kill it.”
Her words sent another shiver down my spine, and the Dark Eater suddenly began to shuffle toward us in a horrific, Japanese-movie spider crawl. Its head flopped from side to side as it dragged its broken bones over the ground, and its every breath rattled loudly.
“Go!” Cyra pleaded, and we started to run down the maze pathway.
I glanced over my shoulder and was horrified to see the undead creature scuttling along at an alarming speed. Its bony hands dragged it over the gray stone with ease, and it called out to us as it followed like a rotten, human-sized rodent.
“I found you,” it hissed. “I fooound youuuu.”
Then the orbs suddenly flickered to life above us, and the maze was illuminated with purple once more. I was able to see the path ahead clearer, but we had to slow down if we wanted to make sure we avoided any more traps.
“The potions!” I said as we ran. “Will those work on it?”
“Maybe,” Cyra gasped. “Which one?”
I rummaged in my bag and pulled out both bottles.
“Well, it can clearly see in the dark,” I said. “So it might be able to see from inside the smoke bomb, too. I’m going to use the sleep spell. What do I even do?”
“Just throw it!” Cyra said urgently. “Turn around and throw the damn bottle down! Now!”
Turning around to see the Dark Eater was the last thing I wanted to do, but I skidded to a halt and spun on my heels just as the beast turned around a corner.
Its teeth chattered as it scurried along the ground, and I held the pink bottle up high as it approached. My entire body crawled at the sight of it, but I held my ground and threw the potion bottle down onto the gray stone floor.
The bottle immediately smashed into pieces, and a cloud of pink mist drifted out.
“Cover your nose!” Cyra yelled as she pulled me backward, and I pressed my arm to my face.
The potion mist engulfed the Dark Eater, and the horrific creature started to slow down. It stopped crawling and started to sway on the spot as its mouth hung open. Finally, the undead beast made one last hissing noise, and then it crashed onto its side with a slow, rattling gasp.
It started to breathe much slower as it laid still on the ground, and its limbs stayed sprawled out at awkward angles like a dead spider.
“It’s asleep,” I breathed. “Holy fuck, that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.”
“They’re awful,” Cyra said as we stared at it. “Come on, let’s go before it wakes up. We don’t know how long that potion is going to last.”
I dragged my eyes away from the corpse-like creature and turned around to continue on through the maze. The sound of demons was so loud that it seemed like we were moments away from running into them. Still, I knew we couldn’t just rush through the final stretch of the maze, and I made sure to keep my focus on searching for any hidden dangers. The Dark Eater’s voice rattled around my mind as we walked at a clipped pace, and I wondered if there could possibly be anything more horrific in this world.
I had thought the mermaids were bad, but there was clearly a whole arsenal of hellish creatures here.
And this was only the Night Lands. Cyra had said there were a multitude of other crazy lands in Dracoria that the gods had contained, and what if each one was crawling with even more beasts who were the stuff of nightmares?
I swiftly shook that thought from my mind as we turned around a corner, and we were suddenly met with a large archway that opened out onto a rocky hillside.
“We fucking did it.” I grinned. “We made it through the maze.”
“Yes!” Cyra hissed as she punched the air, and we hurried forward.
The sound of the demons was everywhere now. Screeches, hisses, and howls filled the air, and the flapping of leathery wings echoed around the marble walls and rocky lands beyond the exit.
We crept toward the archway and kept against the walls just in case. I was pumped full of adrenaline as we finally reached the end of the maze, and I peered out at the final destination of our journey.
The rocky hill led up to a gray stone castle, and it might have been beautiful if it hadn’t been crawling with demons.
I gripped Cyra’s hand as we stared up at the demon headquarters.
Somewhere inside, a Throne angel just like Cyra was being held captive, possibly even being tortured. I didn’t know her, but I knew she meant everything to my own angel, and no matter what we found in that castle, nothing was going to stop me now.
It was time to save the Throne angel of the night.
Chapter 15
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It wasn’t a long climb to reach the castle, but we would need to choose our path carefully. There were four flying demons that circled over the building, and multiple underlings patrolled around the turrets. One wrong move, and we would be spotted. It could be game over before we even set foot in the castle, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“She’s in there,” Cyra said quietly. “I can’t tell where… but she’s alive. She’s here.”
“Can you sense her?” I asked with wide eyes.
“Something like that.” The angel nodded. “It depends on the distance, but Throne angels have strong bonds to each other. Especially since she was so close and important to me. Ryan, we need to get there fast. Nisha is trapped in that demon-riddled castle.”
“Not for much longer,” I said with determination. “We’ve come so far. This is where it’s going to become really fucking difficult, but I know we’re ready for it.”
The angel nodded and scowled up at the flying demons.
I studied the rocky ground that led upward and spotted a pathway that was mostly covered by overhanging rocks.
“That looks like a good route,” I said as I pointed it out. “It leads up to the back side of the building, too.”
“What if we can’t get in that way?” Cyra asked. “I know we can’t exactly stroll through the front door, but how are we going to get inside?”
“Let’s solve one problem at a time,” I said. “Our first task is to get up to the castle without being seen, okay?”
