“Vixra tells me we are to leave for Dragonsbane?” she asked Pythias as he stepped into the room that had been assigned to her. She had been provided a red dress, boots, and a black cloak, it had fit like it had been made for her. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror as she admired it.“I should thank the queen for the clothes,” she added, speaking mostly to herself than to the wizard who stared at her through the mirror.“You do not seem pleased,” he said.“I am, ecstatic even!” she beamed and turned around to face him. “But you had said I wouldn’t be able to leave for another week or so, because of Ryder.”“Well, things happen and plans change. Ryder was here yesterday looking for you.”Her smile faded. “He came here? How would he know to come here?”“He is a desperate man and desperate men do desperate things.”She could feel her heart beating rapidly. “Does he know I am here?”Pythias shook his head. “No, but we have to leave now.” he tapped his staff on the floor once. “Are
She shook her head, not wanting to believe it. “No, I don’t…”“If Ryder were to sacrifice you to that god, it would quiet the rumbling and quakes for another six hundred years,” he said to her. She pulled on the reins of her horse and eased it to a stop just a few feet away from Pythias’ horse.“The quakes are caused by this Osyron?”“And he is not dead, Lyra, he is very much alive. Just trapped by the blood of Khione women sacrificed in the years before.”“But what would happen if Osyron were to be set free? Would that not spell doom on Astaroth? He would seek vengeance!”“I am a worshiper and believer of Osyron, and it is my duty to see him rise again, so I cannot let the sacrifice happen.”“That is why you have taken me, that is why I have come to you. For protection, to be kept away from Ryder and the sacrifice.”“Yes, but it seems that is not enough anymore,” he said with a sigh.She fidgeted. “What do you mean?”He looked her straight in the eye and responded. “I know Ryder, of
He knew Lyra could not have gotten very far on her own, though she was Khione, she was an inexperienced one, and the only magic she could do was the healing magic, she had not even mastered the ability to summon and control fire.She was still within Erstonia, that much he knew, but where?Somehow, something about the Erstonian castle worried him. He had the ability to pinpoint Lyra’s exact location but he could not, it could have been because she was not in the castle but he knew that was not it, because while in that very room with the queen and Pythias, he could not sense them even though he could see them. He knew his senses had been blocked.Blocked to keep him from locating a certain someone. He just had not realized it then.“Every female that is not a citizen of Erstonia, with white or silver hair should be killed on the spot, and I want her body brought back here to me.” - He knew the wizard had said that to throw him off, Lyra was already in the castle before he came, Pythia
“It’s been a day,” Iris spoke out. The blizzard was gone now but the snow still fell somewhat heavy so the horses could not run in the deep pile up of snow.“Fang Peek is not a stone’s throw from Erstonia,” Xanth replied to her from the front of the line where he led the group. He turned slightly to face her. “You should know this.”She rolled her eyes at him, wondering how it had come to be that she would be taking orders from him, even when Ryder was here, she still did as she pleased.“Plus there are tons of snow covering the ground, the horses can only go so fast.” Kye chipped in. “But it is time-wasting.”“If any one of you has a flying contraption you can pull out of your pocket, I would absolutely love the change of style right about now,” Xanth replied, he was already getting impatient with those two.“You don’t have to be sarcastic about it,” Kye said and rolled his eyes. “Our complaints are completely justifiable.”“Our?” Xanth asked and turned to face Kye and Iris. “Our? An
She felt pain, and then fear, an extreme amount of fear that caused her heart to shudder and her bones to freeze. She found herself alone in a dark place, an unknown place, and she could hear nothing. It was absolutely silent here.She got down on her knees and hugged herself, shut her eyes, and crashed to the floor, whimpering and crying silently. Then the voices came, at first they sounded far, like from a distance, but they got close quickly and it was not voices she was familiar with.The fear gripped her strongly again, she brought her hands to her ears to block out the voices that were now screaming at her, and she screamed back that they be quiet. She screamed and shook and trashed and bolted up…“No!” she screamed and held her hands against her ears, eyes tightly shut, she snapped her head from left to right, trashing about on the bed. “Quiet! No!”Ryder rushed to her side and held her hand, prying them away from her ears as he tried to calm her down. “Lyra! Easy Lyra, I’m rig
“It has been five days since we got here, and yet, no sign of Ryder, don’t you think he should have gotten here before now?” Syrana asked Xanth.They had arrived at Fang Peek five days ago and had taken shelter in the warm caves of the mountains. Fang Peek was just past the cold Zagaroth mountains of Erstonia but they differed with sharp contrast in temperatures.The place, Fang Peek, had gotten its name from the tooth-like structures that had been affixed to the roof of most of its caves by nature, and underneath its mountains was silent hot lava that kept the place hot and prevented snow from staying on its ground. The lowest of the caves was the hottest, and it was in there the sacrifice would take place, for it was within the boiling lava, that Osyron and his army of undead warriors had been trapped and sealed off.“He will come,” Xanth replied to Syrana, sounding very assured. “And he will come with Lyra.”“He’s not coming,” Iris said. Her expression was cold and her heart held n
“There has not been any earth tremor for days now, has Ryder completed the sacrifice?” General Mavrek asked Iris as she crashed into a chair in his tent, gulping down cup after cup of water. A day’s journey in the cold and snow-covered land had nothing on her, as her body could withstand some levels of extreme temperatures, but her body could not go on without water. She had not thought of that really.She had stumbled into Mavrek’s camp as they were making their way up to Fang Peek, and Mavrek had been shaken, expecting to see Ryder coming up a distance away with Xanth. But after a couple of hours with no sign of either men, he began to relax a bit.Iris looked away after her last cup of water, she had heard his question but what could she say in reply? That the girl they had all their hopes on was dead? That they should go home and prepare for war, promising death by the hand of the bloodthirsty god, Osyron? “We encountered some complications on the way.”“Complications?” that conf
The night was long. Long and quiet.Tonight she had been made to sleep in her own tent instead of having to share one with General Mavrek, the warrior that had delivered the message to her had said it was because the General would be having an all-night meeting with the men in command of each section of the troop, but she knew it was because he had just killed someone in there and the blood was still fresh on the ground, and the smell of blood was still very heavy in the air. She was sensitive and would pick up the scent in an instant.But she was grateful she had not been made to stay with the General in his tent tonight because it might have been more difficult sneaking out of his tent. She didn’t wait for the morning, she didn’t even know what time it was, all she knew was that she had waited for everywhere to be quiet. It was easy staying awake as sleep had eluded her after finding out Mavrek’s plans for her.She felt heartbroken and betrayed because truly, she did love the Genera
“Ryder…” Xanth called calmly as he quietly approached Ryder who was kneeling down by the edge of the ledge. The fiery pit had grown cold and was quiet now and the cave was slowly losing the heat, welcoming the cold.“She is gone,” Ryder said softly and lifted his head up to the cave ceiling. He let out a sigh, folded his lips, and raised his eyebrows, his eyeballs darting from left to right as he felt tears coming. His heart ached terribly and his body shivered. “She is gone,” he repeated with another sigh.Xanth turned around when he heard footsteps running, only to see Syrana and Tezani. Syrana looked at him asking him questions with her gaze, but he just blinked once and looked away from her. She sucked in a breath and her body crashed into the cave wall, she clutched on to her dress around her chest area and slowly fell to the floor as tears pooled out of her eyes.“Lyra…” she sobbed. “My baby girl.”Ryder turned his head to see who had just come into the cave and he saw the white
His wound refused to heal and he was losing blood fast, he groaned and leaned on the horse as it slowed down to a gallop, approaching the mouth of the cave. His body felt extremely weak and he wondered what indie must have applied on that sword she stabbed him with that was stopping his body from regenerating.He groaned as he fell off the horse and onto the hard, hot ground. Never in his life had he felt this way, and he hated it, the feeling of being vulnerable as he was now. He knew that if anyone was to come for him, to kill him, they would succeed in that, he couldn’t even muster the strength to use his powers.He managed to get on his feet, leaning against the cave walls, he stumbled further into the cave where he found Borox, sitting up and propped against the cave wall with a small knife wedged into the side of his neck.“Borox,” Ryder called and went to him, crashing on the ground on his knee beside him, he took the man’s hand and had genuine pain in his eyes. The pain of see
They had all heard the noise, the loud bang from far behind, toward their far left and they had turned just in time to see a mushroom of fire rise up and then die out. The noise had spooked the horses and they stopped riding.“What was that?” Tezani asked no one in particular.“The wizard maybe,” Xanth replied. “But a blast of such magnitude? What is he doing?”“Practicing spells?” Syrana chipped in. “Prepping for a battle.”They both turned to look at her and Xanth’s heart fell, if they could not find Ryder in time and get him to perform the sacrifice with Tezani, then Osyron would break free of his prison and it would be bye-bye to the world as they knew it to be.“What if we can’t get to Ryder in time?” Tezani asked Xanth as if she had been reading his mind.He let out a breath. “Can you go back to Mavrek?”She shook her head and looked down at her horse, she didn’t want to go back to him. She couldn’t. She hated herself for still loving him when all he had ever done was lie to her
“They are close now,” Vixra said as she galloped on her horse. She had Pythias riding beside her, Royn and the rest of the warriors rode just behind. “I can sense the girl.”She pulled out the bow hanging on the horse behind her and an arrow, she let go of the horse’s reins but still managed to stay perfectly positioned on the horse. She positioned the arrow in the bow and drew it as far back as she could, closed her eyes and whispered a spell then released the arrow to fly. Without delay, she drew another arrow, whispered the same spell, and let it fly as well.She flung the bow to the side and gripped the horse’s reins, taking control of the animal’s movements. Within seconds, Ryder and his team were within sight. Vixra smirked when she saw that Lyra had been knocked down to the ground, one of the arrows had pierced the horse she had been on, and the other arrow had struck Ryder in the shoulder, causing him to fall off his horse as well.“Do not let them escape!” she yelled out the c
The group traveled in silence with Lyra at the forefront, Ryder just tagging behind her, Borox and the rest of his men followed behind. They had ridden way past the city of Beor and were far away from the Erstonian castle so it was safe for them to just allow the horses to walk for a bit.The landscape was slowly changing the further they journeyed, the snow here was lesser, and from a distance, she could see mountains different from the ones she had been used to seeing in Erstonia, these had no snow covering them and nothing grew in the ground around them.“Fang Peek,” she whispered and felt a chill run down her spine. Fear engulfed her as the weight of what she had agreed to do rested on her heavily. In only a couple of hours, she would be dead, Ryder would head on back to Astaroth and life would continue for them just as normal.She thought of Xanth, the man was softer than Ryder, and a lot more understanding, and yes she would miss him dearly. The last time she had seen him was we
The girl is still alive.The thought rang in his head as he entered his chambers in the castle, one wave of his staff and he had his doors locked with a spell.“The girl is still alive!” he yelled and flung his staff away, it collided with the wall without making a noise and came back to him, floating in the air beside the wizard. He took in a deep breath but was unable to calm down, he thought he had dealt with everything that would hinder Osyron from rising. He thought it was finally all over.He paced the length of the room, from the window to the door, back and forth, deep in thoughts. He stopped abruptly and walked to a part of his room where a he curtain was hung over a wall, he reached behind the heavy curtains and slid out a huge, ancient mirror. The mirror held no reflection and was just black, he reached for his staff which was floating beside him and placed it to rest against the mirror so that the red jewel touched it.With a pin he pricked his index finger, placed that o
“So,” Borox walked up to Ryder atop his horse and took hold of the reins. “No detours anymore, I’m guessing?”Ryder glanced over at Lyra, who was being helped to mount her horse. She had agreed to the sacrifice and with that, he knew a part of him had died. He shook his head to respond to Borox. “No, no detours.”She sat on the horse and picked up the reins, adjusting the fur cloak she had requested for to protect herself from the cold. They all stood by the cave’s entrance, looking out, she, Ryder, Borox and about a dozen of his men were ready for the long ride to Fang Peek.“Erstonia lies in between this place and Fang Peek, is that correct?” Lyra asked Ryder as they eased their horses outside of the cave, behind them, Borox followed with his men.“That is correct,” Ryder answered her question. He could feel her coldness towards him and he hated it, the not caring attitude she had now developed was something he was sure he would never get used to. But then he sighed, he would not be
The night was long. Long and quiet.Tonight she had been made to sleep in her own tent instead of having to share one with General Mavrek, the warrior that had delivered the message to her had said it was because the General would be having an all-night meeting with the men in command of each section of the troop, but she knew it was because he had just killed someone in there and the blood was still fresh on the ground, and the smell of blood was still very heavy in the air. She was sensitive and would pick up the scent in an instant.But she was grateful she had not been made to stay with the General in his tent tonight because it might have been more difficult sneaking out of his tent. She didn’t wait for the morning, she didn’t even know what time it was, all she knew was that she had waited for everywhere to be quiet. It was easy staying awake as sleep had eluded her after finding out Mavrek’s plans for her.She felt heartbroken and betrayed because truly, she did love the Genera
“There has not been any earth tremor for days now, has Ryder completed the sacrifice?” General Mavrek asked Iris as she crashed into a chair in his tent, gulping down cup after cup of water. A day’s journey in the cold and snow-covered land had nothing on her, as her body could withstand some levels of extreme temperatures, but her body could not go on without water. She had not thought of that really.She had stumbled into Mavrek’s camp as they were making their way up to Fang Peek, and Mavrek had been shaken, expecting to see Ryder coming up a distance away with Xanth. But after a couple of hours with no sign of either men, he began to relax a bit.Iris looked away after her last cup of water, she had heard his question but what could she say in reply? That the girl they had all their hopes on was dead? That they should go home and prepare for war, promising death by the hand of the bloodthirsty god, Osyron? “We encountered some complications on the way.”“Complications?” that conf