Serpent Kings Saga (Omnibus Edition) Read online

  HOT PURSUIT

  When I reached the more populated portions of the palace I smelled of smoke and sweat. Every eye took notice of me; likely because I had not bothered to stop running. They knew who I was and that I belonged, but couldn’t decide if they should join me in fleeing from some danger, or if I should be stopped for questioning.

  However it did not take long to convince them that I was the least of anyone’s troubles. Belial roared ferociously, but he was no longer contained within his private chamber. The great red dragon was loose and hunting me.

  As I looked out through the windows of the hall I was running in, I spotted him there just on the outside. Belial had seen me as well. A huge red claw smashed through the marble wall, shattering the windows and scattering the bodies of his priestesses in every direction. I was already running again, only narrowly escaping the powerful appendage swiping back and forth like a cat pawing after a mouse in a hole.

  I came to another intersection splitting right and left. I cut left. The roof caved in behind me. I glanced back and saw Belial’s head ramming down through the structure. Shattered marble and glass rained down upon the women running in every direction for their lives.

  I spotted the cafeteria and sped through it. I heard Belial bounding across the palace above trying to head me off. The great dragon smashed through the cafeteria after me as I leaped over the far balustrade. I felt like a rabbit with a fox on my tail. This chase could not go on much longer without me losing my life.

  I shot across the manicured lawn and through the hedge. A stream of flame followed after me devouring everything in its path. Behind me a large section of the palace lay in ruins with Belial planted in the rubble. The greenery was burning and the smoke rose into the air above it all in a great gray plume.

  At this point I had no idea where I was going. I was simply running for my life any way that took me away from the pursuing dragon. I heard him roaring again and felt the wind whip up around me. On the ground all around me his shadow grew to monstrous proportions. Belial had taken to the air in order to keep track of me.

  I passed through buildings, businesses and homes without worrying about the people dwelling within. None of them were likely to question a wraith dancer anyway. I bolted through open doorways and launched my body through open windows; whatever the need to keep away from Belial. Shouts and curses followed me wherever I interrupted someone’s business or home. But it all began to fade quickly as the realization of the dragon’s fury began to dawn upon everyone.

  The streets were now full of people searching for the source of the disturbance. Had a storm come up suddenly? Were the rebels attacking again? No. The High Serpent King was on a rampage destroying everything and everyone in his path as he sought me out.

  Buildings and homes crumbled as he pounced down upon me running through the streets. But his efforts at catching such a small target among so many screaming citizens were clumsy at best. I was thrown among the storm of debris and bodies, but got back to my feet quickly, using the resulting plume of dust to get away from him again.

  This went on for minutes that seemed like an eternity. It was only the gifts that had allowed me to keep going this long and I was losing ground fast. My breathing was ragged and my muscles ached throughout my entire body. The adrenaline high couldn’t keep me running much longer. I had to figure some way of escape before he pounced again to end my meager life.

  In my desperation I did something that I had never done before. I prayed to Elithias asking Ezekiah’s god to save me from Belial. It was quick and inconsequential, or so I thought.

  Suddenly Ezekiah was there in the streets ahead, his eyes locked upon Belial in flight. I saw Tobias with him, standing by the prophet’s side ready to run if they had to. Finding them here in Babale was so totally shocking to me; especially after I had just prayed to Elithias for the first time, that I stopped dead in my tracks wondering at them.

  At first I supposed that they must be a vision, some mirage manifesting the desires of my heart during my desperate hour. I was vaguely aware that I was smiling and calling out to them. Tobias turned his head and pointed directly at me.

  I couldn’t have been hard to miss dressed as I was in the robes of a wraith dancer. Certainly I must have stuck out like a sore thumb there in the streets standing still while nearly everyone else was running for their lives like ants fleeing a broken mound.

  Belial overshadowed me and I knew that I was going to die. His fire would fall upon me and devour me like so many dry leaves. Then I noticed something I hadn’t expected to see. Quite a few men were coming out from the screaming masses to stand in the street. They had weapons resembling long tubes that rested upon their shoulders. All at once the heads of the tubes shot away from the rest trailing fire and smoke behind them.

  Ezekiah and Tobias were still very far away trying to make their way through the frantic crowd rushing between us. I tried to follow the weapons the men had fired, but lost them in the ensuing smoke. However, I heard Belial scream furiously as the weapons exploded upon him. His wings stirred up even more dust in the streets as he tried to escape the onslaught.

  I smiled, knowing that my chances of escape were much greater now. Ezekiah and Tobias had somehow come to rescue me. I would leave with them and learn the truth I had never known before. Something pricked me in the back. I almost knew what it was, but my mind was turning fuzzy very quickly. With my last reserve of cognition I called out again to Ezekiah.

  Something slipped over my head blocking out most of the light. I tried to fight against unconsciousness, but it was going to win, and I knew it. Strong hands caught my body as I began to lose my balance and fall. I heard muffled voices around me. But everything quickly faded to nothing in moments.

  FRENZY

  Ezekiah watched the palace. Tobias stood with him, but they were not the only believers present in the patron city of Belial. Over the past month, since they had been attacked on the bridge by Moloch, everything in the kingdom had been turned upside down. The Believers from Thorn Mountain had traveled back to their families still living within the patron cities of Babale, Tarris, Urth, Caanan and Jerecho. They had brought their witness of the girl’s resurrection and the other signs of Elithias’ coming.

  Some of the people living in the cities had already experienced the animal attacks or death walker sightings. Many others at least knew someone who had been attacked or had seen these things. Rumors had already been spreading like wildfire before the believers arrived. Their further witness of the miracle and ability to tie it all together to the prophecies of Elithias’ coming had sent the normal state of society at large into a tailspin.

  Death walker attacks had intensified on farms and urban areas outside the cities. Accounts of bears, wild dogs and even lions pillaging livestock had become almost common in the last two weeks. As occurrences intensified the people grew more fearful that the prophecies preached by Believers might just come true.

  Calls from citizens to the High Priest for something to be done went without sufficient reply. They attempted to offer the people easy answers, but no one believed what they were being told. Tension was growing and unrest was stirring in the hearts of those who had once dwelt carefree in the dragon’s utopia. Times were changing.

  Ezekiah had assumed Babale would be the appropriate place to start his search. Against all reason he knew that he had to find her; this assassin who had come to Thorn Mountain seeking his life. The vision of the future he had seen charged him with her safety.

  Still, there was the matter of how Moloch and the wraith dancers had known where to find her. They had been in transit. The journey had been planned last minute, but somehow they had known precisely where to go in order to rescue her. Clearly someone had communicated that information to the dragons or their spies. Someone among his people was not who he appeared to be.

  “How long do we have to wait before we actually do something?” Tobias asked as he fingered the grip on his father’s pistol.<
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  Ezekiah smiled. “I’m anxious to find her too, Tobias, but we’re not even sure that she has been brought to Belial’s palace. Our contact within the palace will meet us soon. She promised to be in the market as soon as possible.”

  A terrible roar broke through the noise of the crowded market. All eyes searched the skies for a dragon, but the sound had come from the palace. Marble columns crumbled above them on the splendorous hill where the palace stood. Belial the Glorious in all his fury erupted out of a crumbling dome of glass and stone.

  Ezekiah and Tobias remained frozen, watching the spectacular scene unfold. No one in Babale had ever seen anything like this. No one in Babale, except one person, could understand why it was happening now.

  A plume of fire consumed part of the grounds including a wide swathe of perfectly trimmed border hedge. A woman shot through the hedge running for her life. But she was too small and insignificant in comparison to be considered by the wondering crowd. Everyone remained focused on Belial as his massive wings spread wide. He was monstrous even when compared to his palace.

  The great red dragon beat his wings furiously. Ezekiah could feel the displaced air blowing all the way down the hill into the marketplace. He rose into the air threatening to block out the sun. No one knew why he was destroying his palace. And as he began to descend toward the city no one cared.

  The multitude, which had moments before been so curious about the destruction of the palace, was now running for their lives. Belial was blasting down fire upon the buildings and stalls around the marketplace.

  “Shouldn’t we run?” Tobias asked. His father’s pistol was out in his hand now.

  Ezekiah remained tense but still. He glanced at the gun in Tobias’ hand. “Do you expect to slay him with that, or just make him angrier?”

  Tobias looked at the dragon soaring overhead then at his gun. He put it away. As the crowd parted before him he spotted someone familiar. She was looking right at him.

  “It’s her!” Tobias yelled.

  Ezekiah searched the frantic crowd. After a moment, he spotted Gwen standing one hundred yards away. She was smiling at him, looking hopeful despite her ragged appearance. Ezekiah couldn’t imagine how she had come to be there, but he was glad for it. Then everything went terribly wrong.

  From the crowd, a group of soldiers rose up carrying rockets from among the weapons Ezekiah’s father had put into storage. He recognized them immediately because no one else had anything like them in the kingdom. He had assumed Varen had attacked Moloch with the same kind of weapon. Now he knew.

  He had not seen Varen, but that didn’t matter. The rebel leader had come to fight against the High Serpent King and somehow Belial had appeared. The soldiers fired their rockets in unison, striking the dragon with every shot. The explosions nearly crippled Belial in flight. He spooked unexpectedly and tore away from the scene. So much for the almighty Serpent King.

  “Someone has her!” Tobias screamed.

  They were trying to get to Gwen, but the crowd had spooked as badly as Belial under fire. As quickly as the soldiers appeared they dropped their discharged rocket tubes and melted back into the crowd.

  Gwen had disappeared suddenly. Tobias was frantically trying to tell what he had seen when a woman stepped out of the crowd before them. She was dressed elegantly, but not as a wraith dancer would be. Still, she carried herself gracefully; her every movement fluid and purposeful.

  She approached them with a slight grin on her face. “So, you are Elithias’ prophet?”

  “I am,” Ezekiah said.

  She barely contained a laugh. “Funny, I was expecting more.”

  Ezekiah worked to contain his anger. “What does Varen want?”

  She smiled more genuinely this time. “Figured it out did you? All you need to know is what you have to do to get the girl back.” She proffered a piece of parchment.

  Tobias drew his pistol pointing it at the woman’s face. “What have you done to Gwen?” he screamed.

  By the time his question had been asked, the woman had disarmed him and was holding the gun on him. “You’re a funny little man aren’t you?” she teased.

  Ezekiah blinked then took the parchment. “Something tells me I’m looking at the person who killed my friend and stole my map.”

  The woman only grinned. “Don’t be late.”

  She walked away from them and soon disappeared into the crowd again. They had been watching, but she vanished before them anyway.

  Ezekiah opened the parchment and read the writing. After a moment he stood staring down the street with the piece of parchment clutched tightly in his hand.

  “What does it say?” Tobias asked.

  “Varen wants me to know he has Gwen,” Ezekiah said. “He says she won’t be harmed as long as I cooperate.”

  “Cooperate with what?”

  “I don’t know, Tobias, but we’ll find out when we meet with him tomorrow.”

  Belial laid in the deep recesses of a massive cavern within the mountain his people called Doom. A magma river running beneath the crust of the earth kept the cave of the dragons hot and dry. His wounds were mostly superficial, but the explosions had done some internal damage as well.

  He growled within himself as his brothers crawled within the cave they shared. “What malicious act has befallen our brother?” Baphmet asked. His green scales reflected the dim light filtering through the crystals that lined the walls.

  “Our High Serpent King has been attacked,” Daimon said more seriously. “The humans have risen up as the prophecies said.”

  “He is coming soon,” Asteroth said.

  “Shut up!” Belial roared.

  “It is true whether you like it or not, Belial,” Asteroth hissed.

  “We must destroy them now!” Daimon demanded.

  “While Moloch is still licking his wounds in Tarris?” Baphmet asked. “And Belial is no better?”

  Belial’s head rose. “Our time is not yet finished,” he rumbled. “We must destroy the rebels. We will build our army quickly and destroy them all.”

  The other three dragons hissed with pleasure.

  Belial clutched a boulder in his claw and crushed it to powder. “When the humans are dead there will be nothing for Elithias to return for.”

  The Serpent Kings Saga Part II: Wraith Dancer

  CONCIOUSNESS

  I heard the sound first, to my left; the scraping of metal driven fast into stone. I heard the sound again next to my right ear. This time it was so loud that I immediately opened my eyes. Startled, I gasped as my surroundings began to pour in with consciousness.

  The first thing I noticed was a woman standing directly in front of me. She was very beautiful, but I saw cunning in her eyes as well. The room around me was made of rough gray stone; concrete that had been thrown together haphazardly. I quickly realized that what I was seeing had been the result of a cave-in sometime in the past.

  I called upon the gifts to heighten my senses and strength. I tried to pull my arms to my body defensively. But chains held me secure by manacles fastened to my wrists. I was chained also at my ankles; the other end of my bonds bolted into the concrete. My limbs were stretched so that I could not move at all.

  I smelled the dank odor of many years of moisture and earth around me. We were underground. The lack of sunlight filtering in seemed to support my guess. I could hear the low thrum of people moving high above.

  The woman was dressed in the plain beige garments of a kingdom citizen, but she was more. She grinned, producing a silver dagger in her right hand. Her hand blurred toward me, releasing the dagger. To anyone else her movements would have been almost invisible, too fast to see. I, on the other hand, saw everything in terrifying detail.

  The silver dagger whirled through the air as if in slow motion to my heightened senses. It passed slightly to my left and bit into the concrete below my left ear. The power of her stroke drove the blade into the rock nearly to the hilt. I slowly released the breath I had be
en holding. “Who are you?” I asked.

  She strolled toward me into better light emanating from a lantern hanging on a peg nearby. Smiling, she said, “I’m the person who killed Ezekiah the Prophet in Babale today.”

  Immediately, I remembered seeing both Ezekiah and Tobias standing in the marketplace. I had waved at them, and they had seen me and started toward me through the crowd. But soldiers had emerged from the crowd and had fired their weapons at Belial. I had been drugged and captured as Belial retreated for Mount Doom.

  But how had it happened? Ezekiah had been killed? I lashed out with my words as the woman came to stand before me. I would have bitten her, or spat in her face, but she stopped me. Her hands flew over my body with a flurry of precision nerve strikes that riddled me with instantaneous pain. My jaw locked halfway open while my arms and torso went into spasms.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d been struck with a nerve attack. Many times Zora had made me endure nearly the same pain I was experiencing now in order to teach me how to deal with it. I immediately relaxed my body. To anyone watching I would have appeared to faint, hanging limply from my manacles. In reality I was allowing my muscles to lose the tetanus caused by the attack. It wasn’t easy, but with the help of the gifts I managed.

  The woman chuckled to herself. “Very good,” she said. “I see you’ve been well trained.”

  As soon as I could manage, I lifted my head so that I was looking into her eyes. “You’re a wraith dancer,” I proclaimed.

  “Figured that out all by yourself, did you?”

  “And you’re a traitor!”

  The woman smiled devilishly. “Because I killed Ezekiah the Prophet?”

  Immediately I thrust out against the chains holding me to the wall, straining my entire body trying to break free. I wanted her throat in my hands. I wanted her dead.