A Shadow Flame (Book 7) (31 page)

"You don't know that," Lexi said. "What if I hurt him?"

"He has already withstood the combined fire of several dozen dragons and the mage, Zachary," Borrican said. "We need your fire to stop the shadow, Lexi."

"I don't know," Lexi said, shaking her head, and tears gathered in the corner of her dragon eyes.

Ariana stood up on Borrican's shoulders, then she suddenly leapt across the gap between him and Lexi, landing on the wing of the powerful blue dragon, and she marched across her shoulder and grabbed onto the scales on the back of her neck, then she leaned forward and Lexi looked back at her.

"The shadow is destroying him, Lexi," Ariana said. "If you do nothing, then Aaron will surely die. If you do something, then maybe he will live. Those are the choices. Aaron needs your help, and if you do nothing, then it is the same as killing him."

"I can't do it," Lexi said.

"Yes, you can," Ariana told her. "You said Aaron helped you, that he saved you. You have to save him now."

Lexi looked down at the growing darkness that was beginning to spread across the city once more, and she wished there was something she could do that would not risk hurting Aaron. She closed her eyes, wishing that it all could have ended when she had killed Calexis, and at first, she did not notice the tiny set of talons that latched onto the scales on her head.

"It's like the poison, Lexi," said a familiar voice, and she opened her eyes to see a Kestrel staring down at her from above one of her eyes. "When Aaron took the poison from you, he took it in himself and it made him sick. It's the same. He has taken the poison, but he needs you to help him burn it away."

"Tash," Lexi said. "It is too dangerous for you here."

"Don't tell me it's too dangerous," Tash told her. "I came to help, just like you, and that's what I'm going to do."

Tash spread her kestrel wings and leapt into the air, then she shifted her shape into a small dragon, barely the size of Lexi's head, then she dove straight down toward the swirling flames and darkness below.

"Tash!" Lexi roared, then she dove after her and Ariana was barely able to hang on.

Borrican angled downward and beat his powerful wings then tucked them tightly to his side, speeding after them both, and he could hear the thoughts of the young dragon, who he could tell was one of the Ansari. The sound of her thoughts as a dragon was both upsetting and angering for her sadness and frustration screamed at Aaron as she dove toward him. Borrican caught up to Lexi as she flashed out of sight, using her power to move like a giant bolt of lightning, and Borrican plucked Ariana from the air, just before they reached the flames and the shadows. As he angled his flight away, he saw the tiny dragon dodge Lexi as she tried to snatch at her with her powerful claws and pull away, and he watched as the tiny dragon flew directly toward Aaron.

"Stop it!" Tash screamed and fire burst from her dragon mouth as she crashed directly into Aaron. Strangely, she did not hit him, but was stopped almost immediately by a sort of wall, and the breath rushed out of her from the impact. Choking and coughing from flames that burned her throat, and reeling from how hard she had hit whatever it was, Tash barely noticed at first that she was caught in the grip of dark shadows that curled around her.

"Let her go!" Lexi roared as she landed heavily on the courtyard.

Aaron moved his hand and the dark tendrils that held Tash lifted her up.

"You send baby dragons to fight me now?" he laughed. "Pathetic."

"She is a fool," Lexi said. "A fool who cares about you and wants to save you."

Aaron looked at the little dragon and he could not remember ever having met such a creature, though countless memories flooded through his thoughts of killing dragons of all shapes and sizes, memories from an ancient time, when fire and darkness raged throughout the world.

"A nuisance," he said with a shrug, and the black tendrils he commanded crushed the bones of the tiny dragon with a terrifying snap, then he tossed the creature aside.

Lexi was shocked that Aaron would do such a thing and she stood there, wide eyed, as her stomach began to churn and lightning crackled over her scales.

"Oh, now there's a power I know," Aaron said, his eyes narrowing at the blue dragon.

"What have you done?" Lexi growled.

"Come, Lexi," Aaron said to her. "Give me your fire."

"Who are you?" Lexi roared, and Aaron smiled cruelly at her.

"I am the one god," he said, and the tendrils of darkness that danced around him, almost like flames shot forward toward her.

White hot light flickered in Lexi's eyes and she let out a powerful bellow of searing fire that cut through the tendrils of shadow and hit Aaron directly. His eyes widened at the unexpected heat as it burned him. Shadows of power moved to block the river of fire but they were burned away in the blink of an eye.

In the darkness, deep within the shadowy chasm of oblivion, Aaron's eyes shot open and he saw a flicker of white light and felt a searing heat cut through the icy cold that surrounded him. Visions flowed through his thoughts, things seen by his own eyes, that he had not witnessed, and he felt a strangeness fill him, like an emptiness that could never be filled, yet it sparkled with countless points of lights, like the sky on a clear night. He saw the dark clouds swirling beneath him, and the flames of his power flickering as they were consumed by the shadow, and something snapped when he saw the shape of a small dragon and saw who it was that had taken its form.

Strangely, he felt no rage, no anger, only sorrow, and a hard, cold determination rose within him. Aaron looked up toward the mouth of the chasm, far above him, then he looked down and saw himself standing at the center of a dark cloud, with flames spilling over him. All around, he saw dragons, breathing fire, their anger raging hot, attacking the darkness below, and he saw a blue dragon struggling against dark tendrils that had taken hold of her. As he floated downward, toward the madness, Aaron saw the small dragon, with Tash's form inside it, her bones broken and her neck twisted at a horrible angle, and he could tell that her breathing growing faint. Aaron felt his feet touch the ground next to her and he knelt down and gently turned her head straight, then he moved her limbs back to the way they should be and placed his hand upon her chest. He could feel the pain in her and he took it into himself and let her have some of his essence, letting it flow into her bones, fusing them back together. Aaron felt her cough, and her breathing became easier, so he took his hand away and rose to his feet, and as he turned away, he did not notice her eyes open a crack and look up at him.

Aaron stared at the battle that raged all around him and it was as though everything was moving slower than it should. Lexi breathed fire and shot lightning upon the snaking arms of shadow that gripped her by the throat, trying to choke her. Truefire that was as hot as Lexi's, enough to burn the shadows, but without the crackling energy that somehow combined in her dragon form, shot from Zachary's one hand as the flames within his core consumed him. Brian knelt on a pillar of stone, changing the ground itself, turning it to molten fire, sending streams of it toward where Aaron saw himself, another him, surrounded by dark power, standing and fighting them all. He looked up as a dragon descended from the sky in a sharp dive, and he saw Kasha's glittering green eyes slowly turn toward him as she flew past in the strange delay of time, then she snatched Tash from the ground.

Aaron caught a glimpse of something shimmering in the air, and he saw Ehlena appear, staring straight at him.  She walked toward him, moving normally while the world around her remained slow, and as she drew closer, her form became more solid. She swung her hand at him, as though she intended to slap him, but it passed right through him. Aaron turned and stared at her, as she turned around, and there were things he wanted to say to her, but for some reason the words would not come. It seemed that she had nothing to say either, but he could see the look of confusion and disappointment on her face, and he could also see the shadows within her that were slowly stealing her essence. He tried to smile at her, wishing he could reassure her in some way, but it felt painful somehow, and Aaron knew that he could not tarry here for much longer, for there was something he had to do, and he leapt up, off the ground and floated over the lip of stone and the molten rock that ringed around his other self. He pushed past the dark shadows, sending them scattering as he approached the center of the fire and darkness.

Aaron was not surprised when his other self turned and stared at him, with eyes flickering with darkness and a scowl made of flesh that smoldered, seared by fire. He knew that while he was looking at his own face, what was beneath it was not him. It was something else, someone else, the same dark figure that had sent him into the deep chasm and had stolen the fire from within him. The eyes that stared at him were first surprised then furious when they looked at him, and they glimmered with a kind of hatred that he had seen before. It was strange to Aaron that this being would despise him so much and yet it has lusted after him for his entire life, always there, waiting, wanting, and searching for him, but he saw the power of his fire swirling within the darkness and he understood why. It was the hunger of the shadow, the insatiable lust for power that became greater and more difficult to sustain every time its own power grew. It was a weakness that Aaron already understood when he had come to Calexis, to tease her with his power, though he now knew that it was the shadow that he had been taunting by drawing it to him without letting it have what it wanted.

"You are nothing," Aaron said as he reached out and grabbed himself by the throat. The shadows that held Lexi released, recoiling slowly and they began moving toward Aaron, as he felt the power of his fire flow into him. His hand burst into flames and he felt it burn his neck where he gripped his other self, and the darkness that surrounded him, that shielded him from the dragonfire above and the attacks from Zachary and Lexi, now plunged inward, toward him, trying to pry him away, but Aaron moved closer until he was face to face with himself and the rest of him began to blaze hot with blinding fire.

"I am the one," his other self rasped through the grip on his throat as the shadows descended into him, flooding him with shadows so dark that it pulled the flames into it.

"No," Aaron said and he closed his eyes as his fire engulfed them both. "You are nothing."

The shadows streamed toward Aaron as he floated above the center of the pool of molten stone, his entire being turning dark, as though he had been cut from the world. He was like a missing piece in the fabric of existence itself, a void of nothingness, then a flicker of flames appeared in the center of the darkness, and his mouth opened and a voice howled. It was not his voice, but something else, empty and hollow, ancient and powerful, and it filled the air with echoes that seemed to shake the world itself.

In the sky, Ehlena appeared at the center of the dragons, who were circling around, sending blasts of fire toward the dark figure below as Kasha flew up toward them, having rescued the young dragon that had ventured into the fray. Ehlena could tell that the fire of the dragons was not enough to destroy the shadow, and with her power, she created a vortex beneath them, then she whispered in their ears.

"Now," she said, and she let her voice carry to the dragon, the mage and the warrior god who stood below. "Let your fires rage."

"Ehlena, no!" Ariana yelled when she saw the young goddess appear at the center of the battle, using her power to whirl the fire in the air, for she could plainly see the strain she was under, but Ariana's voice was drowned out by the dragons as they screeched and bellowed fire that combined together into a stream of blazing heat, made even hotter by the powerful winds Ehlena had summoned.

Upon the ground, now free from the shadows that had held her, Lexi let her fury blaze with crackling flames and they blasted into Aaron, and Zachary matched her while Brian, with Kroma's power, sent dark, burning strands of molten stone that flickered with truefire, flying from the earth toward him. Aaron screamed as the flames hit him from all sides, and the shadows reached upward, trying to consume the fire, but they were pushed back down toward him as a swirling vortex of fire came streaming down from above. Suddenly the flames became even hotter still, and the sky blazed with burning light as the vortex grew larger and spun faster, concentrating the flames into a sharp point that tore through the darkness.

From her perch upon Borrican's back, Ariana looked up and saw dozens of dragons, many that she recognized from the northern lands, suddenly appear in the sky, breaking through the dark clouds and adding their fire to the swirling flames that crashed down upon the darkness below. As Borrican took in another great breath, she glimpsed Aaron's face through a gap in the fire and the shadows, looking up at her, and she thought she saw his eyes change back from black pools of darkness to flickering flames, and she could also see that the shadowy darkness that had taken over his body had begun to recede. Borrican let out his blast of flame and Ariana lost sight of what was happening below as Aaron disappeared into the flames.

On the ground, Lexi stopped as she saw Aaron begin to turn from the shadowy version of himself to the way he had been before, but she could see the darkness was still covering parts of him, swirling within the flames that burned inside of him. Through the fire that raged all around him, she saw Aaron turn his head and look toward her with a kind of sadness in his eyes that flickered with flame and shadows, then something in them suddenly changed. It was as though his power was gone, and he was just Aaron, without the magic of truefire and without the curse of the shadow, and for a moment, Lexi thought she saw him smile at her, then his eyes shifted again, and when she looked into them, it was as though she was looking up at the night sky and she felt as though she was somehow being drawn toward it.