The Flames of Dragons (29 page)

Melwar tapped his stomach with his hand, signaling that he was solid. “Not a bad shot,” he admitted. “Too bad you cannot hurt me with it.”

Iren frowned. Of course. Shadow Form was like smoke, and smoke could take whatever shape it desired. When Melwar became solid again, Shadow Form would remake him in an unharmed state. Even if Iren managed to hit Melwar, the man could heal as quickly as Iren could. Shadow Form was an amazing ability, on par with Rondel’s Lightning Sight.

But it wasn’t invincible. There was one way to defeat Melwar: a lethal, one-hit strike.

No holding back, then. Iren fired off a quick beam to put Melwar in Shadow Form, then charged forward to attack at close range. The Muryozaki stabbed, but after that, Iren switched to kicks and punches with his open hand. Melwar let the blows pass through him. All the while, Iren kept the Muryozaki in reserve.

Iren paused in his assault, and as expected, Melwar countered. His shadowy sword sliced horizontally at Iren’s side.

Even as Iren pretended to block it though, he backflipped over the attack. He landed just as the blade passed through where he’d been standing. He thrust the Muryozaki at Melwar’s face. It was over.

Then the ice beneath his feet exploded into shrapnel.

Iren staggered back, bleeding from both legs. Where had that come from? There’d been no ice when he’d left the ground. The weather was too warm for it anyway. Melwar used shadow magic, so he couldn’t have created it. What was going on?

He was still puzzling out the ice when a wall of water appeared to his right and smashed into him like a tsunami. Though he and Melwar fought in a field, the wave from nowhere pulled Iren off the ground and sent him tumbling.

Iren broke free with a blast of light magic, but before the grasses stopped spinning, the next attack hit him. A burst of fire erupted from Melwar’s hand, and it engulfed Iren’s torso. He raised his arms to shield his face, and his skin peeled off as the tremendous heat burned away his shirt.

This was insane. How could Melwar use shadow, ice, water, and fire magics all at the same time? No one Iren had ever met, not even Rondel, could use more than one or two kinds of magic.

Iren retreated. He needed a moment to heal and come up with a new plan. Melwar had abilities Iren hadn’t thought possible. Shadow Form was difficult to deal with by itself. Combined with all these other spells, it was beyond what Iren could handle.

Melwar must have known that, because the Maantec lord charged. A ball of flame and a spike of ice launched from his hands at the same time. Iren barely managed to dodge them. He ran for distance, but then he slipped on a patch of ice. He struggled to his feet and looked about in dismay. Similar frozen spots dotted more than a third of the field. Without careful maneuvering, Iren’s high-speed runs would land him on one and send him skidding.

Iren frowned. Melwar had figured out that Iren’s only advantage was his superior speed. With one spell, Melwar had neutralized that strength.

There was only one hope for victory now. Iren would have to run Melwar out of magic. Melwar wasn’t a Dragon Knight. As impressive as he was with four magic types under his control, Melwar was drawing from the same well to create them. All those spells, especially the ice patches, had to require a lot of energy. By contrast, Iren had used little. If he could keep forcing Melwar to cast spells at this intensity, the Maantec lord would exhaust himself.

It was going to be a painful fight, but it was the only way. Iren took up a defensive stance and prepared for Melwar’s onslaught.

Melwar raised his unarmed right hand and pointed a finger at Iren. A drop of water sprouted from the finger’s tip. Iren cocked his head, confused. What could a drop of water do?

A shockwave reverberated across the field. Iren felt a fast, sharp pain, and he dropped to the ground. Blood poured out of parallel holes in both his chest and back.

Melwar approached. Water droplets formed on all his fingers. Then, one after another, they shot into Iren.

Iren opened his mouth to scream, but his lungs were full of blood. The dirt around him was soaked with it too. The Muryozaki tried to heal him, but Melwar fired the water shots faster than the sword could keep up.

Iren’s vision grayed. He was going to die.

The ground around him shook. The water shots stopped, and with those extra seconds, the Muryozaki healed him.

Raising his head, Iren saw a pair of trees swinging their limbs at Melwar. They couldn’t hurt the noble with Shadow Form activated, but at least they had forced him to stop attacking.

Minawë rushed forward. “I’ll take it from here,” she said.

Iren struggled to his feet. Even though the Muryozaki had removed his injuries, he felt exhausted. He’d never come that close to death. It had taken more magic than he’d expected to recover.

“You can’t,” he replied. “I have to see this through one on one. It’s the only way the Maantecs will accept me.”

“They won’t accept you if you’re dead,” Minawë retorted. “Besides, do you think I’m going to stand back and let Melwar kill you?”

Bursts of flame shot from Melwar’s hands and caught the trees alight. From those small fires, he turned them into a pair of infernos. They dissolved to ash.

Minawë next created a barrage of vines to attack the shogun. Brown seeds covered them, and when Melwar attacked them with flame, they didn’t burn. Instead, they burst into still more vines that wrapped around him. Minawë closed her fist, and nine-inch spikes sprouted all over the green mass.

Melwar walked through the vines into the open. He smiled. “Seeds that respond to fire,” he said. “That was clever. I wonder how well they handle cold.”

A frozen patch of ground beneath the vine cluster erupted and covered the plants in ice. Melwar lunged with his sword and struck the vines a horizontal blow. They shattered.

Minawë grimaced, and Iren made the same expression. Melwar was beyond anything either of them could have expected.

Melwar raised his hands above his head. A great fireball formed between them, expanding until it was more than fifty feet across. Iren’s eyes widened. Melwar planned to kill Iren and Minawë in one shot.

Iren grabbed Minawë by the arm to run away, but then he felt cold gripping his legs. Melwar had raised ice from the ground to trap them. Neither of them could move.

“Now die,” Melwar said. He launched the fireball.

There was no time left. The inferno engulfed them.

When the flames passed, Iren and Minawë remained standing. Iren felt over his body. He was unharmed. So was Minawë. It was impossible. How had they been saved?

Iren looked toward Melwar, and then he saw what had happened. Melwar must have entered Shadow Form, making his attack useless.

He’d entered that form because of the new arrival on the battlefield. Iren had never seen her before. Dressed in a Kodaman leather outfit similar to Minawë’s, she stood with her back to Iren midway between him and Melwar. She was the same height as Rondel, but she looked no older than Minawë did. Her dark brown hair was tied in a ponytail, and her tight curves against the leather suggested a fast, powerful body.

“Who are you?” Iren asked.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you recognize me?” The woman turned her head and looked at Iren with emerald eyes. Sparks danced across her irises. “I expected more from you, slacker.”

Minawë’s arms hung at her sides, and her jaw had fallen equally loose. Maantecs couldn’t restore their biological magic. Only Kodamas could do that.

“How, Mother?” Minawë asked.

“Iren Saito,” Rondel replied. “Thanks to him I found out who I am. My father was a Kodama. It’s why my family was murdered.”

Rondel paused. “For twelve hundred years I tried to forget the past. Now I remember it, including the most important part: the dream my parents had for the future. They dreamed of a world where Maantecs, Kodamas, humans, and all the species of Raa could live together. I want to make that dream real. I healed Serona. The fires are gone there, and I ended the storm. Now all that’s left is Melwar.” She locked eyes with the Maantec shogun. “If you insist on getting in the way of my parents’ dream, then I won’t show you any mercy.”

Iren stepped forward. The ice trap couldn’t restrain him and Minawë now that Melwar was back in Shadow Form. “Stay out of this, Rondel,” he said. “Melwar and I are fighting a duel of champions.”

“I don’t care what you’re doing. I told you to wait two days, slacker. It figures you’d show initiative at the worst time. Now sit back and stay out of the grownups’ way.”

Melwar rolled his eyes. “I hate to interrupt the reunion, but—”

Rondel vanished. She showed no sign of movement. One instant she was standing in the field, and the next she was at Melwar’s throat. Her dagger quivered an inch from his windpipe.

“You ended Shadow Form to speak,” Rondel said. “Then you realized your mistake and recast it just in time. Lucky for you.”

Iren whistled. “I thought she was fast before. I trained myself to move as fast as she could, to be able to respond at that speed, and I couldn’t even see her just now. Could you?”

Minawë shook her head. “I always wondered about Mother. She had such strength, but she seemed insecure. I couldn’t understand why, but now I do. It’s because she knew how much she’d lost when she gave up her biological magic.”

But more than speed gave Rondel the edge in this battle. Her aborted attack had made her other advantage clear. Lightning Sight could see Shadow Form. It could pick up on the tiny inconsistencies between Melwar’s solid and non-solid appearances.

Iren smirked. “This fight’s over. Melwar can’t do anything against her.”

Across the field, Rondel shook her head. “Underestimating Melwar isn’t wise.”

As if in response to her words, Melwar’s Shadow Form lowered to the ground, and he disappeared. Rondel’s gaze tracked across the landscape, and Minawë could tell her mother was following the Maantec lord’s movements. Wherever he popped up, Rondel would have him.

A hundred yards away Melwar rose, but Rondel didn’t chase after him. Minawë strained her eyes, and she saw shadows dancing in circles around Melwar’s body.

“What are those?” Minawë asked.

“Shadow Knives,” Iren replied, “like the ones he used against me. Since he can’t attack while in Shadow Form, he’s using those knives to protect himself instead. They’re spinning close to his body, so even with Rondel’s speed, they would cut her apart before she could land a blow.”

“We should help her!” Minawë said. “Mother relies on fighting up close, but we have long-range spells. We can get through those knives.”

“No,” Rondel said. Her voice was low and terse. “This is my fight now. Stay out of it.”

Iren gulped. “We can’t help her.”

“Why not?” Minawë demanded. “With all of us attacking together, Melwar won’t stand a chance.”

Iren shook his head. “We’d only get in her way. Besides, I get the feeling she has something personal in this.”

Minawë scowled. “Yeah, well, she should get in line.”

Iren smiled at that, but he didn’t reply to it. Instead he called out, “Hey, Rondel! You’re still an old hag to me, no matter what you look like. But if you insist on showing off, do us all a favor and end this quickly!”

Rondel half-smiled. “I intend to.”

Melwar stretched out his hands. Jets of fire and ice shot toward Rondel. She flickered once, and then she vanished.

Less than a second later she reappeared behind Melwar. He whipped his right hand around, and three bangs signaled that he’d launched another round of the water projectiles he’d used to defeat Iren. Their speed was greater than anything Iren or Minawë possessed, and they put even the finest Kodaman arrows to shame.

Rondel dodged them with ease. Melwar fired dozens of shots, but Rondel avoided them all as she flashed across the battlefield.

“Amazing,” Iren said. “She can see and maneuver around the ice traps even at that speed.”

Minawë folded her arms. “She’s only defending. She should end this fight with a bolt of lightning. I’m sure in that form she could summon one. She did it against Feng, and that was before she regained her biological magic.”

Iren frowned. “You’ve never fought Rondel. I have. She doesn’t make unnecessary moves. She’s drawing this out for a reason.”

Minawë wondered what that reason might be. Against Amroth, Rondel had used a similar delaying tactic to wear down the king’s magic. That might be her ploy here, but Minawë wasn’t convinced.

“She doesn’t know what Melwar can do,” she said at last. “She hasn’t seen him in more than a thousand years. And while most mages can only control at best two kinds of magic, Melwar’s using four. If she attacks, even when victory seems assured, it could lead her into a trap.”

Iren nodded. “My thoughts exactly. But it doesn’t make sense. How can Melwar control four elements at once?”

Rondel and Melwar’s fight brought them closer to Iren and Minawë. The Maantec lord paused in his assault, and Rondel halted immediately afterward. She kept Lightning Sight trained on her foe.

Melwar wiped his brow. “You are as I remember you,” he said. “If anything, you are stronger now than you were the last time we fought.”

“Credit yourself for that,” Rondel said. “You came closer than anyone else to defeating me back then. Even Saito would have lost had he not resorted to a failed Muryoka. That’s why I spent thirty years developing Lightning Sight. It was because of you and Shadow Form. I needed to see through it.”

“You worked for decades to find a way to defeat me. I am honored and humbled. It took me more than a millennium to figure out how to overcome you.”

“Oh? What did you come up with?”

Melwar grasped his plum-colored shirt and flung it aside. It shredded to pieces in his spiraling Shadow Knives. He next removed his white undershirt, condemning it to his blades as well. Bare-chested, he smiled. “This is how.”

For the first time since she’d arrived on the battlefield, Rondel looked taken aback. Minawë shared her astonishment. Attached to Melwar’s skin were three gems—a ruby, a pearl, and a sapphire. Two rings of kanji symbols surrounded each of them.

“Melwar,” Rondel breathed, “what madness is this?”

“The ultimate power!” Melwar roared. “With this I have surpassed any Dragon Knight. I have the magic of four dragons at my command.”

Iren frowned. “Am I missing one? I only see three gems on his chest.”

“Here is the fourth one,” Melwar said. He held up his sword. It twisted and smoked. “This is the Yaryozaki, the Darkness Dragon Sword. Within it rests the ninth dragon, Shadeen.”

Rondel reeled back. “A ninth dragon? Then all this time, you were—”

“A Dragon Knight,” Melwar finished. “One of the Melwar clan is always the Darkness Dragon Knight, and whomever Shadeen chooses leads both the clan and the Akushi.”

In an instant Rondel switched from astonished to furious. “You . . . then it was your bigoted allies who murdered my parents!”

Melwar shrugged. “I was an adult before I learned the truth about your disgusting origins. It was no surprise to me that you betrayed us to the Kodamas. I argued with Saito not to let you be the spy, to let me do it instead, but he insisted on you. He always favored you.”

Melwar had sounded calm up until then, but he snarled those last four words. “You were always better,” he continued, “even though you were a filthy half-breed from a low-class nothing. It was unthinkable. I had to get rid of you, but I could not surpass you in battle. I needed a more creative approach.”

Rondel’s arms quivered. “No . . . are you saying you cursed the Kodamas to get at me?”

“So you know about that,” Melwar said. “You were everything to Saito. I knew that when he saw you with the enemy, his resolve would evaporate. My spell did what he lacked the courage to do: defeat the Kodamas. But yes, I had hoped it would kill you as well. Somehow you escaped it.”

“It passed her over,” Iren cut in. “I was able to remove your curse from Minawë because I cared about her. You say you despise Rondel, but the truth, deep down, is that you admire her. Your hate-filled curse couldn’t act on a person you respected so much.”

“What would a child know about it?” Melwar snapped. “You are as bad as her, a half-breed who would lead our race to extinction. I will unite us. I will—”

He grasped at his chest. “What? No, it’s too soon!”

Rondel’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t. You’ve been using magic all this time to keep those Shadow Knives whirling . . .”

Melwar was on his knees. He spoke in rushed tones, “I could not defeat you myself. It took me a thousand years, but I found an Akiyama and gave her the Enryokiri. Their clan has always been skilled in earth magic. I thought in Hana I had found a way to kill you, but she could not. I thought if I controlled four dragons I could kill you, but I could not. Now I see the truth. Only a dragon can kill you. And it is just about time. I can hear Shadeen’s voice in my head. I can hear all their voices. They have taken their chance at freedom and joined forces against me. I do not mind. Shadeen and his brethren will win me the world.”

The shogun screamed. His body stretched and bulged. His hands and feet morphed into long claws with wicked talons. His torso elongated into that of a great serpent, and his head became blocky and angular. Great black horns sprouted from above his eyes. His skin blackened as well, as though he had been charred. Great, batlike wings sprouted from his back. Last of all, his eyes turned a sulfurous yellow, glowing from within like a Yokai’s.

Shadeen roared his triumph and took to the sky. From beyond where Minawë could see came the gasps and cries of the Maantec army as they watched the monster rise.

As the dragon flew higher, it changed yet again. Just ahead of its front legs, three new necks and heads sprouted. One was white, sharp, and glistened. Another was blue and fluid, twisting its shape as it desired. And the third . . .

The third was one Minawë had hoped she would never see again. Orange and red flames formed it, and its head narrowed into a pointy beak like an eagle’s.

“Feng,” Minawë murmured. “That’s Feng.”

“The other two are Yukionna the Ice Dragon and Mizuchi the Water Dragon,” Rondel said. “To think he would go this far. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The four-headed dragon rolled in midair so that it pointed southeast. Shadeen opened his fang-filled mouth, and a black ball appeared before it. The ball grew to fill the space between his teeth.

Then he fired. The ball arced across the landscape and fell to the horizon. An explosion blasted into the air, a mushroom-shaped cloud miles high. Then, several seconds later, the ground shook and knocked Minawë, Iren, and Rondel off their feet.

Iren struggled to stand. “That must be the Darkness Dragon Flame,” he whispered in awe, “Yaryoka.”

Rondel focused Lightning Sight in the direction of the blast. “That was Kataile!” she breathed. “The plateau is completely gone. Shadeen destroyed it in one shot!”