Dragonforge (47 page)

As Adam landed hard in the sand, the third long-wyrm rider reloaded. Before he could take aim, Bitterwood drew another arrow. He saw the skittish look in the long-wyrm’s eyes. He released the bowstring and the man toppled from his saddle, an arrow jutting from his heart . The long-wyrm panicked as his rider fell, turning in a nearly perfect arc and darting once more into the forest.

Trisky’s head was beneath the surface of the lake now. Water boiled up around her, white steam rising into the air. Her body was wracked with spasms as Bitterwood vaulted over her. He looked toward the first worm he’d killed. The rider was back on his feet, his sword drawn. Bitterwood fired his bow once more and the man fell to his knees on the black sand, a confused look on his face. Then his body sagged, and he fell to his side.

Bitterwood let out a long, slow breath. There was only one foe left. By now, Adam would be recovering from his abrupt dismount. Bitterwood clenched his jaws, contemplating the unpleasant task before him.

Jandra expected to
land in the familiar rooms of the palace. Instead, she emerged from the rainbow back in the clearing where Bitterwood and Hex had been held captive by the vines. The same place she’d departed from to reach the Nest.

“What?” she asked. “How did we—”

“I don’t know how to open a gate into underspace,” Zeeky said, still pulling on her hand. “But once you’re in the warp, the villagers can push you out anywhere a gate has ever been opened. I don’t understand how they do it, but it works; it’s how I got you to find me. I couldn’t leave Jazz’s prison, though, because I couldn’t reach a gate.”

“But we’re still on Jazz’s island,” said Jandra. “If you wanted to escape, the palace would have been further from her grasp.”

“This is where the villagers say we should be,” said Zeeky. “This is where your friend will be.”

“Do tell,” said Jazz, now standing in the clearing before them, a rainbow closing behind her. “So, you can talk to your family inside. You’ve been holding out on me.”

“I’ll never help you!” Zeeky screamed. “You’re a bad woman!”

“Oh, screw this,” said Jazz. Lightning wreathed both her hands as she lifted them. “I’m through playing nice. You’ll do what I tell you, girl, once I get rid of your would-be protector.”

Jandra suddenly felt as if millions of tiny hooks dug into her skin. She gasped as the hooks began to tug, ripping molecule from molecule. In seconds she would be torn apart, shredded to her component atoms by Jazz’s nanites.

She lifted up her hands and watched her fingernails fly off into the breeze, carried by flecks of silver dust.

Bitterwood dropped his
bow as his son climbed onto Trisky’s corpse. Adam had his crossbow loaded. His visor had been knocked loose when Bitterwood had thrown him to the sand. His eyes burned with rage as he screamed, “Why are you doing this? What can you possibly gain by defying the goddess?”

Bitterwood asked, “What can you gain from obeying her?”

“I owe everything to the goddess! My mother was gone. You abandoned me! If she hadn’t showed me her divine mercy, I’d have died as an infant.”

“Everyone dies eventually,” said Bitterwood.

Adam growled as he took aim. “I’m weary of your mockery. To be smiled upon by the goddess is like being smiled upon by the sun. There is no better joy than to serve her.”

“Huh,” said Bitterwood. “It’s been a long time since joy motivated me. But I remember it. I remember the last time I felt happiness. You were there.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked, still staring down the shaft of the bolt.

“Back in Christdale. I had two daughters by your mother, Recanna. You were my first son. I loved my daughters. I was happy. But the first time I ever held you in my arms, I felt something greater than happiness. You were my hope and my future, Adam. I could see myself in you. I looked forward to teaching you as you grew: how to fish, how to hunt, how to plow. I wanted to teach you everything I knew.”

“And what have you taught me now? Blasphemy? Hatred? Revenge?”

“This wasn’t what I planned to teach you. I used to think of Christdale as Eden, even though times weren’t always easy. We were farmers working fields full of stones. Most years, we didn’t get enough rain. Other years, we lost the crops to storms and floods. Yet we endured as a community. We shared our food. We worked together to feed the children and care for the aged. I wish you could have grown up there. But then the dragons came. They ruined everything. I thought they’d killed you.”

“Earlier, you said you wished they’d killed me,” said Adam, lowering the crossbow.

Bitterwood nodded. “I was angry when I spoke those words.”

“You’re always angry!” Adam snarled. “You’ve been hostile since the moment we met!”

“I know. And, I also know I could have killed you just now,” said Bitterwood. “You were my first target.”

“I know you had me in your sites. Why didn’t you fire?”

Bitterwood sighed. “I almost died not long ago; I think I caught a glimpse of heaven. I don’t know. It may all have been a dream. Still, your mother was there. When I cross over to the other side, if there is another side, I don’t want to tell her I was the man who killed you.”

“I’ve already been assured of my place in heaven,” said Adam, aiming the crossbow once more. He stared down the length of the weapon to look Bitterwood in the eyes. “Why shouldn’t I kill you?”

“I can’t think of any reason you shouldn’t pull that trigger,” said Bitterwood. “If you spare me, I’m going to kill your goddess, or die trying. I’m the antithesis of everything you hold as good in this world.”

“You’re nothing like the man I used to dream about, the great dragon-slayer.”

“I’m not the man I used to dream about either,” said Bitterwood. “But maybe today I found out something I didn’t know about myself. Something that makes me think I might yet have a hope of heaven.”

“Go on,” said Adam.

“In twenty years, I’ve never changed my mind about a target. I’ve only aimed at what I hated, and I’ve always let the arrow fly. For twenty years, I thought that hate was the only thing left in my heart. But, Adam, even though time and fate have left us on opposing sides, I don’t hate you. You’re brave, you’re reverent, you’re merciful; you’re everything I failed to be. One day something’s going to kill you, son… but it won’t be me.”

Adam stared at his father. He let out his breath, and lowered his crossbow.

“Despite all you’ve done, I don’t hate you either,” said Adam.

“What about the fact I still plan to kill your goddess?”

“You only risk your own life. If you seek out the goddess, she’ll surely destroy you.”

Bitterwood leaned over and picked up his bow.

“No man lives forever,” he said.

Jandra’s battle with
the goddess unfolded on a microscopic level. She imagined her skin was a sheet of iron, too hard for the tiny machines to penetrate. She focused the nanites that swam within her to her blood, to resist the invading molecules and repair the damage as quickly as Jazz inflicted it.

“Ah, you’re a little more advanced at this than I thought,” Jazz said as she flicked away the butt of her cigarette. “I figured you’d be reduced to dust in five seconds. Maybe you’ll hold out for a few minutes. But all it’s going to take is one stray thought to distract you, girl. Then your epidermis will peel away. Your hair will fall from disintegrating follicles. You’ll be able to watch it all because your eyelids will be vapor. Panic will set in, and before you know it, poof, you’ll be nothing but a pink cloud, drifting off in the breeze. Kind of a lovely image, if you think about it.”

As if the warning of a distraction made it so, Jandra’s attention was captured by a shrill squealing sound. It was the cry of an enraged pig. Poocher charged up behind Jazz, a furious one-hundred-pound torpedo of black and white fur. For half a second, Jandra’s mind lingered on the sight. Instantly her skin began to crack and flake. Poocher plowed into Jazz, clipping her at the knees. The tiny hooks that tore at Jandra vanished as the goddess’s feet flew into the air.

Jazz landed on her back, shouting out a string of obscenities.

Jandra took the brief second of respite to repair the skin that Jazz had torn away. Then, she summoned twin balls of Vengeance of the Ancestors around her fists.

Jazz sat up, rubbing the back of her head. “Ow,” she said.

Jandra threw the fireballs. The raging plasma crackled toward the goddess. As the flaming orbs reached her they fell apart, transforming into a cloud of rose pedals that fluttered down onto Jazz’s lap.

“Come on, Jandra,” Jazz taunted. “The pig did better than that.”

Poocher now stood next to Zeeky. Jazz glared at him.

“You know, I’ve been vegetarian for a thousand years. But I always did love the smell of bacon.”

The petals in her lap rose in a small tornado, coalescing into a ball of red flame once more. Jazz gave the glowing orb a slap and it raced toward the pig. Poocher darted aside, but the orb seemed to suddenly possess intelligence. It turned, pursuing the pig. Poocher squealed and darted off into the underbrush.

Zeeky charged toward Jazz with her left fist clenched. She still cradled the crystal ball in her right hand. She shouted, “Don’t you dare hurt Poocher!”

“He started it,” Jazz said, kicking out, catching Zeeky straight in her gut. Zeeky flew backward from the force of the blow, landing breathless on the grass. She curled up in pain, yet never released the orb.

As Jazz climbed back to her feet, Jandra concentrated. She could sense the radio waves Jazz was emitting to command her nanites. They were the same sort of waves her own genie emitted. She couldn’t understand the signals Jazz was transmitting, but a mental map formed in her mind pinpointing the origin of the radio waves. Unlike Jandra’s genie, Jazz wasn’t using an external device. Her genie was buried in her torso, below her rib cage, right where her heart should have been.

Jazz brushed back her hair and grinned. “Been a while since anything’s got my adrenaline flowing like this,” she said. “My combat skills are a little rusty, maybe. Now it’s time to show you an attack that always works!”

Jandra braced herself for the next assault of nanites. Instead, Jazz sprinted across the ten-foot gap that separated them, drawing her arm back. She swung with a loud grunt, her fist hammering into Jandra’s chin. Stars exploded in front of Jandra’s eyes as she fell backwards. Her brain felt like it rattled in her skull as she hit the ground. Jazz landed on her, delivering another punch to Jandra’s left brow. Jandra’s vision doubled. She felt herself fading out of consciousness as Jazz ran her fingers behind Jandra’s neck, feeling for the genie that clung to her skin there.

“Since you’ve locked this, there’s no way to take this off your spine without ripping your clothes off,” Jazz said, giggling. “Hope that doesn’t offend your sense of modesty. I’m not normally this aggressive, but, girl, you were asking for it.”

Jandra arched her back in pain as Jazz peeled the metal away from her skin. The genie resisted as if it had a mind of its own, stimulating Jandra with a mild shock that jolted her back into full consciousness. She remembered the important thing she’d learned just before Jazz had punched her. And, she remembered Zeeky’s words:
This is where your friend will be
.

“Hex!” she shouted, grabbing Jazz’s wrist. “It’s inside her! Near her heart!”

Jazz looked up to see who Jandra was shouting at. Thirty feet away, the air exploded into a thousand shards of silver. Hex materialized from the center of his invisible hiding place, his open jaws shooting toward the goddess.

“Motherf—” Jazz said before Hex clamped his teeth down on her ribs and tore her away from Jandra’s chest. He whipped Jazz back and forth in his jaws like a cat shaking a mouse.

Seconds later, Jazz’s entire body erupted in flame. Hex spat her out, jerking back, his teeth smoking, black burn marks on the roof of his mouth. Jazz landed on the grass, on her hands and knees, shaking her head as if she was dizzy. The vegetation beneath her withered and charred; she radiated more heat than a furious bonfire.

“I can’t figure out why y’all don’t like me,” Jazz said. She chuckled as she found her footing once more. “Most people think I’m pretty hot.”

Jandra raised her hand to shield her face from the inferno. She scooted backwards, still on the ground. The goddess roared into an even brighter heat. Jandra’s hair curled and singed. The soles of her boots were smoking. Her hand fell on Zeeky’s ankle. Zeeky was still curled up from the blow she’d taken.

Hex growled as he shook off the pain of having his mouth catch fire. He lunged toward the goddess. She lifted a hand toward him without even looking, and suddenly Hex’s head was once more enwreathed in flame. With a howl of agony Hex shot skyward as fast as his wings could carry him. An instant later, there was a loud splash. Apparently, they weren’t far from the lake.

Jandra willed her nanites to fly around her. Heat was only another form of light; if she could form a shield of invisibility, she could form a shield to deflect heat. She rose to her feet, grabbing Zeeky as she stood, hugging her to her chest and backing away from the goddess. Her shield was working; she could breathe again without the air searing her lungs.

“You don’t know what you’re facing, girl,” Jazz said, taking a step toward Jandra. Jazz grinned and Jandra jumped backward, wary of her next move. “You thought just because we use the same technology that you were my equal? You have all the artistry of a kindergartener with a box of crayons. I’m Michelangelo! I’m Da Vinci! You stand no—”

Suddenly, there was an arrow jutting from Jazz’s left temple. The bright green leaves that fletched it curled and blackened as the wood burst into flame. Jazz looked annoyed as she reached up and plucked the burning stick free. She closed the hole into her brain with a touch of her fingers.

“That was unpleasant,” she grumbled, looking in the direction from which the arrow had flown. Suddenly, a second arrow whizzed from the brush. Jazz raised her hand and it crumbled to ash in mid flight. A third arrow flew, then a fourth. Jazz turned her full attention to the missiles, crisping them before they reached her. Jandra noticed that, despite her powers, Jazz possessed at least one human weakness—she only focused on one thing at a time. If she could somehow distract Jazz… Jandra put Zeeky down, eying the fist-sized crystal globe still in her grasp.