The Compass Key (Book 5) (27 page)

“Shoot her in the leg!” Vile orders the archers before a bolt of lightning strikes the deck. The blast blows a hole down to the hold, which causes Vile to curse into the wind. “Forget her! Fire at the griffins
, patch that hole, and get us out to sea!”

Boosted by Fizzle’s spell, Kira is able to race along the bowsprit and launch herself off the ship. They have already pulled several yards away, so she swings her weapon to slam it into a
wooden post for cast lines. She crashes into the stone of the dock and hangs above the water, watching the ship pull out to sea. Kira pulls herself up and stumbles to the safety of the nearby buildings while the sounds of griffins screeching and thunder roaring fill the air.

*****

“Forget that ship!”
Luke in griffin form shrieks above the storm. She hovers over the battlefield watching the fifty griffins attack.
“If we drive them back to the open ocean then that’s good enough!”

Lightning runs across the blackened sky and drives down to hungrily lick at the churning ocean. The older griffins soar into the lightning, using their wings to absorb it and fire it at the enemy ships. Within minutes, the main masts of the three remaining ships have been shattered, the sails and rigging covering the decks. The chaos elves continue to fight with fire arrows launching into the air. Two griffins are shot down and the
y crash into the ocean where sharks are already gathering for a meal.

“This was too easy,” Luke
mutters while Gracewing turn toward one of the ships and blast a hole in its hull. “Maybe they weren’t ready for this type of attack.”

“It is possible, but I sense something else,”
the griffin spirit announces, turning their body toward the ocean.
“Do you feel something?”

Luke focuses on the horizon and gets a
chill like something is on the hunt. “They left something to keep us busy while they escaped. How else would they get away with the Compass Key? If anything, my friends and I would have destroyed their ships.”

A series of high-pitched screeches draws
the griffin’s attention to the far ship and she is momentarily terrified at what she sees. Fire and ice blast into the sky, injuring several beasts and killing one that came too close. At first, the griffin is scared that Trinity has entered the fight, but she soon sees that the caster is a male chaos elf. The barely clothed enemy is using a pair of wands that he aims at the aerial attackers around him. His movements are fluid and well-practiced as he keeps the griffins at bay. When a lightning bolt is fired at the chaos elf, he puffs out his chest and lets a bronze amulet absorb the attack.

“That’s not what I sensed, but he is a problem,”
the griffin spirit mentions. She is about to dive at the caster when Gracewing cuts her off.

“I will handle him,”
Gracewing announces before rising higher into the storm.

The large griffin disappears into the rolling clouds, lightning crackling through the angry sky. With a shrieking roar, he returns with lightning racing along his wings. Gracewing dives at the caster and begins a dizzying spin, his body turning into a sparking cyclone of fur and feathers. The chaos elf fires several blasts of fire and ice at the approaching griffin, but several
loyal griffins block the spells with their own bodies. The injured griffins remain as a barrier until Gracewing is a few feet behind them. They disperse to give him a clear path to smash the chaos elf through the deck of the ship. An explosion of fire, ice, and lightning bursts from the ship and tears it in half.

“
Gracewing!”
the griffin shouts as she dives toward the sinking wreckage.
“Dammit! That wasn’t the major threat!”

She sees the flock master
unconscious on part of the deck, his hind legs in the water and sharks already circling him. Swooping down, she calls out to the other griffins to help her lift Gracewing out of the ocean and onto the dock. The griffins that are too injured to continue flying surround their unconscious leader, prepared to defend him against any of the armed chaos elves that are in the area. Though the panicking enemies are more interested in escaping into the sewers than fighting the griffins.

“I still don’t like that this was so easy,”
Luke whispers out loud causing the other griffins stare at her expectantly. “Take him back to the mountain and nurse your wounds. Call back the others when the remaining ships are destroyed. I’m going to check the ship that got away while it’s still nearby.”

She
takes to the air and flies low over the ocean, giving herself time to dodge the lightning, which is now striking every few seconds. She can still see the chaos elf ship in the distance, the small form getting shoved and tossed by the angry ocean. The whipping winds start to weaken as she catches up to the vessel on the outskirts of the storm. A volley of fire arrows cause her to fly higher than she would like, the dangerous projectiles forcing her to follow them at a safe distance.

The beast
can see a gnome and a halfling at the helm, neither of them paying much attention to her. The gnome limps over to the shirtless halfling, waving his arms as if they are arguing. She tries to fly over the ship to catch a few words, but she is driven back by the archers again. The halfling finally looks up at her and nods his head to his companion. The gnome in ugly clothes limps down the stairs and toward the railing of the ship, leaning over it to do something that she cannot see. With a grin, the gnome leaves the railing and takes a seat on a nearby crate.

“I think we should return to Gaia,”
the griffin spirit declares, fear dripping from her voice.
“There’s a dangerous predator here.”

The ocean next to the ship bubbles and churns as a huge beast
rises out of the salty depths. Bronze wings beat at the water until they lift the limbless monster into the air. Its wide head shakes water and seaweed from the curved, spikey frill that protects its thin neck. With a gigantic body that resembles wood, but is really forged metal, the Crossbow Dragon looms over the griffin. Four reptilian eyes stare at her, their green light glimmering with the desire to destroy every living creature they see. The beast hacks and coughs while the emerald in its forehead shimmers.

“Fly now!”
the griffin spirit screams.

The Crossbow Dragon spits out a barrage of poisonous stakes that
she barely manages to avoid. The stakes hiss when they strike the ocean and a few unfortunate sea creatures float to the surface, their bodies already bloated by the poison. Angry at missing its prey, the dragon flaps its wings to begin moving forward. One large flap sends it hurtling forward, its eyes locked on the retreating griffin.

She
rockets toward Gaia with the Crossbow Dragon roaring and screeching behind her, the large beast gaining. The storm rages around them with lightning bouncing off the dragon’s metal wings. One bolt passes in front of the griffin, forcing her to slow down and fly around the blast. The dragon catches up to her and opens its wide mouth to swallow the beast whole. With a defiant shriek, she spirals out of the side of the dragon’s mouth, shattering some teeth before the mouth can close.

“That was close,”
Luke whispers, wheeling around toward the dragon’s wings.

“What are you doing?
We should fly to the mountain and get the others for help.”

“I can’t out fly this thing and most of the griffins are injured
. I need to find a way to do this by myself. If I screw up and get us killed then you can scold me later.”

“That makes no sense
.”

Luke transforms back into his true form as he nears the tail, drawing his sabers before he lands on the flailing beast. As soon as his feet touch the Crossbow Dragon’s metallic hide, the monster screams and thrashes.
The half-elf jams his saber into the dragon’s hide, the blade scratching along the wood-like metal until it slips underneath a seam. A mixture of oil and blood oozes out of the wound, enraging the dragon even more. It flips in the air, hoping to dislodge the forest tracker, who hangs onto his saber until it slips free.

Looking down, Luke can see
the Crossbow Dragon’s movement has put the middle of its back underneath him. Straightening his body, he plummets toward the beast before it can get out of the way. He twists and aims his sabers at the dragon at the last moment, driving them deep into the area between the massive wings. The roar is deafening and soon turns into a disgusting hacking while the dragon turns its head to glare at Luke. It opens its mouth to spit another swarm of poisonous stakes.

“Can I survive that poison?” Luke asks, dislodging his sabers and sheathing them.

“No. Your blood only heals others.”

With a sigh of resignation,
the half-elf sprints up the body and leaps at the left side wing. He grabs the edge and swings himself to the underside of the wing, using all of his strength to press himself against the smooth metal. The poisonous stakes bounce off the Crossbow Dragon’s hide, one of the stakes striking dangerously close to Luke’s arm. The wing flaps rapidly in an attempt to shake him off and he uses the motion to pull himself up. Still holding the edge of the wing, the young warrior gets into a crouch and uses its movement to help him leap onto the body.

Drawing his blades in mid-air, Luke lands on the dragon and sprints
toward its head. The twisting, thrashing monster struggles to throw him off, but he continues running and moving with it. With a guttural yell, Luke leaps at the back of the dragon’s frill, the beast ducking down and letting him slide onto its face. He stabs his sabers into one of the large eyes, causing the Crossbow Dragon to roar in pain. Shaking its head, the monster slows down and circles toward Gaia.

A chorus of roaring shrieks catches his attention and
he risks a glance at the group of griffins flying towards him. Gracewing is in the lead and already firing a blast of lightning at the dragon’s open mouth. The attack sends sparks up the monster’s head and into Luke’s sabers, making his arms shiver and go slightly numb.

“Don’t hit its head!” Luke shouts, praying the griffins can hear him. In response, the
beasts send a volley of lightning that batter the dragon’s body and wings. “Gracewing! I’m going to need to be rescued in a minute or two!”

Biting his lip and letting out a long breath, Luke braces his feet against the dragon’s eye socket.
He frees his sabers and leaps toward the emerald in the monster’s forehead. His arms pull back and he swings for the gem, but the dragon moves at the last second. The swords clang off the solid skull as Luke hits and rolls down the frill, slipping over the edge. He avoids falling by impaling his sabers into the dragon’s thin neck.

“I have one more idea, but I need the truth,” Luke tells the griffin spirit as he dangles over the ocean. “If Gracewing hits my sabers with lightning while I’m holding them, will I die or will I absorb it like a real griffin?”

The half-elf can feel her thinking and pushing on his mind.
“I don’t know for sure. It depends on how integrated we are. You will learn more of my abilities as our journey continues, but I cannot give you a clear answer. Perhaps if you attempted a partial transformation, you could gain my limited resistance.”

“I’ve survived worse,” Luke says with a nervous chuckle. He scans the sky for Gracewing, noticing the large griffin is flying above the dragon. “Use your sky strength to hit my sabers
, Gracewing! Then, for the love of every god, catch me!”

The flock master
swoops toward the warrior and fires an immense bolt of lightning at the Crossbow Dragon’s neck. At the same time, Luke grows fur along his arms and back, but stops himself from going too far. The blast strikes his sabers, causing the half-elf to scream in pain while making sure the blades stay in place. With a choked scream and a vicious snap, the dragon’s head ejected from its body and topples into the ocean. Luke withdraws his sabers and falls before the metallic remains slam into the griffin mountain. The half-elf smiles when he feels Gracewing catch him by the shoulders and carry him to solid ground.

“Are you alive?”
the flock master asks as he gently puts the warrior down.

“A little numb and achy,” Luke answers, falling to his knees. He looks around as all of the griffins land around him. “So, what’s the griffin version of going out for drinks to celebrate a victory?”

*****

Trinity taps her foot on the stone floor, enjoying the rhythmic sound that irritates her jailers. Unable to move from the magical chair, the chaos elf has spent the last few hours making life difficult for Cyril and Willow. Both masters are standing on the other side of the room after neither of them had any success getting answers from Trinity. Willow scowls at the grinning prisoner, her tender features twisted by frustration. Cyril refuses to look at the chaos elf, the mere sight of her making his blood boil.

“Are you two still mad about me trying to kill Nyx?” Trinity asks. She tries to lean forward when the magic chair snaps her back, forcing her to continue sitting straight. “This thing would be great for teaching proper posture. I noticed the dismantled crib and a few toys. The walls are brightly colored too. Was this Nyx’s nursery?”

“Why don’t we kill her, dear?” Willow asks in a low voice. “She threatened our daughter and blew holes in our home.”