Serpent Kings Saga (Omnibus Edition) Read online

  “We must work together to save Haven, of course,” he said.

  Thurl considered the problem for a moment then began to pace. “We can organize our forward rocket placements and the cannons we have,” he said. “We also have quite a bit of explosives.”

  Ezekiah looked at Thurl and Marco. “You cannot save this city with conventional weapons,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?” Marco asked. “We must do something.”

  “You must convey me to the Temple of Elithias as quickly as possible,” Ezekiah said. “Only with the help I find there can anything be done to stop the Serpent Kings and their army of death walkers.”

  “We haven’t got time for myths!” Marco said, losing his patience.

  “Prince Marco,” I interjected, “It would appear myths are about to wipe out your city.”

  The prince stammered for an answer then seemed to accept the truth. “Take this man to the temple,” he ordered Marson. “See that he gets inside as quickly as possible.”

  Marson looked at us incredulously, but did as he was bidden by his prince. “At once, my lord.” He called for a carriage to ferry us to the temple posthaste.

  Ezekiah turned to the rest of us. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen at the temple. It’s probably a good idea that I go alone. Everyone nodded...everyone except for me.

  “I won’t leave you,” I said.

  “Gwen,” he began, but I interrupted him.

  “Has Elithias shown you that I must not come?” I asked.

  “Well, no.”

  “Then how do you know he hasn’t led me to come?”

  He smiled. “I suppose I don’t.”

  “Good, because I feel that he has,” I said. “I won’t be dissuaded in this, Ezekiah.”

  Instead of trying to argue with me, he simply smiled and gestured toward the stair that had brought us to the roof of the bridge outpost. “Your carriage awaits, my lady.”

  I turned to Tobias before leaving. “Stay with Andrea and Donavan. They’ll keep you safe.”

  Tobias gave me a disapproving look. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

  I grinned. “Good. Then help them watch out for one another.”

  The boy nodded, seeming to take this sentiment better. Ezekiah and I followed Marson down the stairs and out of the outpost to the horseless carriage waiting for us on the street. We entered, and the driver set off at speed; the engine whining beneath us.

  “Amazing what you can do with electricity,” Ezekiah said, smiling. Despite the battle looming ahead of us and the Temple of Elithias to face, the prophet showed no fear. I saw in his eyes a man eager to see what his God would do with these circumstances. In spite of my curiosity, I was still afraid. I didn’t know what to expect. I had nearly been killed when standing before a false god. What would happen when we came before the true?

  DERAILED

  General Thurl had immediately gone into military command mode, ordering soldiers about to get done what needed doing. The civilian population was to be evacuated, while every able-bodied male of adult age was to take up arms and report for duty at the palace. Ammunition and weapons that had been stored by King Riven against such a day were retrieved. The streets were cleared of all pedestrian traffic not associated with any of these tasks. The city transformed under Thurl’s watch and, for his part, Prince Marco deferred to his leadership.

  Tobias watched the exchanges between the two men. Clearly their breach remained. Marco had assassinated his father, the king. Thurl would not forgive him his crime. Yet, he did not have the power to make him pay for what he had done.

  Marco had seized control of Haven, taking the king’s illness for his own advantage. He had manipulated the military so that he controlled Haven’s fighting force and all of its weapons. Yet, he was not a military commander; had no experience in such matters.

  The Serpent Kings and their army of death walkers had placed him in a precarious position. What good was a throne, or a people to rule over, when everyone was dead? How could he make Haven the shining jewel of the world when it was utterly destroyed by monsters he had dismissed as legend long ago?

  He needed Thurl’s experience, his cunning in battle. The man had proven himself a master tactician during his father’s campaign to control the region. And he had been rewarded well by the king since that time. Marco would use Thurl, and then hope to be rid of him once the battle was over. That is if they all survived.

  Thurl turned to Donavan and Varen then. “We have to put some time between us and that army,” he said.

  “Can we destroy the bridge?” Varen asked.

  “It would take too much time,” Thurl said. “The structure is too strong for simply lobbing charges onto it.”

  Tobias thought for a moment. He watched the horizon where the dragons were still specks against the blue sky; their army marching somewhere beneath. His eyes fell upon the locomotive they had traveled in to Haven.

  “If we can’t blow up the bridge, maybe we can blow up some death walkers,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?” Thurl asked.

  “We fill the train with explosives then drive it right through them,” he said. “Where can they go with a locomotive barreling down on them?”

  “Either they jump off, or they’re smashed by it,” Donavan said.

  “But it’s too far away to ignite by fuse,” Thurl insisted. “It would blow far too soon.”

  “Then we’ll just have to drive the train closer,” Andrea said. “I’m willing to go.”

  “Me too,” Tobias said.

  “Absolutely not,” Donavan said. “Ezekiah and Gwen would kill me for letting you go on such a dangerous mission.”

  “Practically every waking moment has been dangerous since we left Thorn Mountain,” Tobias protested. “Besides, with Arthur gone, who else can drive the train?”

  “I hate to admit it,” Andrea said, “but he has a point.”

  Thurl considered the matter for mere seconds. “We’ve no time to concern ourselves with what’s dangerous. An army is headed this way. If we die, we die fighting to live.”

  Thurl clasped Tobias’s shoulder. “Brave lad,” he said. “My men will load the train with all of the explosives you will need to make a good run of it. You’ll have a long cord of fuse to work with as well. Now, let’s be about our work before these devils descend upon us.”

  Jillian pulled Varen aside before he could volunteer for some task in General Thurl’s initiative. He reluctantly followed her, apparently eager to offer his own experience in the fight against the dragons. She pulled him behind a nearby wall, blocking his exit with her body.

  “What are we doing?” he asked.

  “I know that you want to fight Belial and the Serpent Kings, my love, but we’ve done this already. We were nearly killed in Babale when they struck back at us. They cannot be killed.”

  Varen’s face became firm. She could see that his mind was already set. He might resent her for it, but she had to save him from this fate. She could not lose him.

  “Look around,” she said. “What more do we have to fight with than we had before? Guns, swords, explosives? We had these and more when we made our assault on Babale. It was not enough.”

  His face softened. He was considering her logic.

  “Then we faced only the five dragons,” she continued. “Now, we face the dragons and thousands upon thousands of death walkers, my love. How can Thurl and this prince ever hope to defeat them? Will Ezekiah save us? Not even the combined forces of wraith dancers were able to stop this onslaught. This fight is lost already, and I refuse to lose you to it.”

  She ran her fingers through his hair, kissing his lips, his face, pleading with her affections for him to listen to reason. He closed his eyes, allowing her to draw him in.

  “Come away with me,” she said. “Let us leave this terrible fate behind while we still have our lives to live together. There is a new land here for us to explore. We can make our liv
es together in it, raise children and be happy.”

  Varen opened his eyes again, staring into hers. “If the dragons win here then they will set their sights upon anyone else settled in this new land.”

  “Then we stay ahead of them,” she reasoned. “Perhaps, with Ezekiah dead, they will lose interest and go back to their kingdom lands.”

  “Perhaps,” he said. “But we don’t know that Ezekiah will fall.”

  “How can he not?” she asked. “Do you believe in his God?”

  “I admit I don’t know what to believe,” Varen said. “But I will leave with you nonetheless.”

  A brilliant smile lit her face, as a tear escaped down her cheek. She kissed him more passionately now, throwing her arms tightly around his neck.

  “We must hurry,” he said.

  “We’ll take rations for our journey and a couple of horses from the palace stables,” she said. “We can leave this cursed place behind us within half an hour.”

  Varen smiled then kissed her again. They never emerged from behind the wall to where Thurl was busy giving commands. In the barely ordered chaos taking place throughout Haven, no one even missed them.

  Tobias stepped up into the engineer’s cab as the soldiers loaded the last of the explosives into the coal car hitched up directly behind the engine. The furnace had been filled to capacity with coal, besides several buckets left sitting in the cab. The coal in the car had been mostly dumped already to make room for the crates of explosives now piled within it.

  Donavan carried a roll of fuse cord with him as he helped Andrea up into the cab. Tobias noted the useless gesture with a smile. She was a wraith dancer. What help did she need? He turned back to his work at the controls.

  “We’re going to be a little weird on this run,” he said. “We’ll be traveling backwards the entire time since there’s no rail yard to turn the train around.”

  “We can stop well ahead of them and light the fuse,” Donavan said. “We’ll give ourselves enough time to get back ahead of the survivors.”

  Tobias operated the steam controls and the throttle as Arthur had taught him, making sure that the pistons would be moving in the reverse of normal. The train started backward along the tracks slowly then built more speed as they left the outpost and Haven behind them.

  “I’ll go up to the passenger car and keep an eye out for the death walkers,” Andrea said. “Using the gifts, I’ll be able to see far ahead down the tracks.”

  “If you don’t mind the company, I’ll come with you,” Donavan said.

  Andrea smiled. “I wouldn’t mind at all.”

  She turned, starting her trek over the lip of the coal car, now laden with crates of explosives, showing no fear at the prospect of it all going off. Tobias shook his head, realizing they were all technically crazy since, if anything exploded, the entire train would be engulfed, not simply one car.

  “Do you think you can handle things up here?” Donavan asked.

  Tobias grinned at him. “No problem. I’m sure Andrea will be much nicer company anyway.”

  Donavan’s face flushed red then he returned the grin. “That she will, Tobias. That she will.”

  Andrea was already seated inside the passenger car by the time Donavan managed to make the climb around the explosives in the coal car then across the link between cars into the door. The tracks came at them, falling beneath the car as they sped toward the dragons and their army. Donavan walked the length of the passenger car and took a seat next to Andrea on the faded couch fastened to the wall.

  “What can you see?” he asked.

  “Nothing has changed,” she answered. “The dragons fly in formation above the death walkers while they continue their steady march on the bridge.”

  “I don’t understand how there could be so many; I mean I know most people worshipped the dragons and that the dragons transformed them somehow. I guess I just don’t understand why they would do this to so many of their followers.”

  “I had questions about the dragons during my time with the wraith dancers,” Andrea said. “I used to be Captain of the High Guard in the city of Tarris.”

  “What happened?”

  “I failed to accomplish the impossible for Moloch. But the dragons don’t accept human frailty as an excuse. I was banished from among my sisters in the priesthood. They sent assassins soon after.”

  “I guess they were no match for the Captain of the High Guard?”

  “No,” she said. “But it was my Elder Mother who prepared me for such eventualities. She taught me several gifts that are not widely known, even among the greatest wraith dancers.”

  “What did you do after leaving the priesthood?” he asked.

  “I served Felonius in Tarris,” she said.

  Donavan simply nodded, his expression turning somewhat grim at the name of Felonius.

  “I gather you’ve heard of him?”

  “His name has gotten around.”

  “I’m not ashamed,” she said.

  “I didn’t mean to—”

  “Felonius allowed me to begin again when my entire life had been stripped from me by the dragons. I don’t know what might have become of me had he not been piteous toward me.”

  “If you’ll pardon my saying, he’s not well renowned for his pity toward others,” Donavan said.

  “I know what he is, Donavan,” she said. “When the death walkers destroyed Tarris, I found out all too well about Felonius’s compassion. He left me for dead while he fled for his life. I suppose it was to be expected. After all, I was his bodyguard. I just thought he might have cared more for my life after I saved his so many times.”

  “Well, that’s all over with now,” Donavan said, offering her a smile. “I’m glad you’re here with us.”

  “Thank you, Donavan, it’s nice to be wanted somewhere.”

  “Oh, you are wanted,” he offered. Then he thought about his statement and blushed.

  Andrea laughed at him.

  “What about you?” she asked. “How did you arrive here?”

  “I’ve been with Ezekiah for years, living on Thorn Mountain,” Donavan said. “I preach the coming of Elithias.”

  “After my time with the dragons, I’ve been unsure what to believe,” Andrea said. “I did hear that a wraith dancer had been killed on Thorn Mountain and then raised from the dead. Was that Gwen?”

  “Absolutely,” he confirmed.

  “I knew she was on her way to kill him with another priestess, but I hadn’t known whether she ever made it.”

  “Oh, she made it. She very nearly completed her mission.”

  “What stopped her?”

  “Believe it or not, Tobias shot her,” Donavan said, thumbing toward the engineer’s cab.

  “Really?” she said, smiling back toward the engine. “He seems a good shot. What happened after that?”

  “Gwen was killed; shot her right through the heart. She was dead for four days. Then when we were about to light the pyre, Ezekiah came to her and raised her from the dead. None of us knew what to think when it happened.”

  “Ezekiah has this power?”

  “No,” Donavan said. “Elithias was behind it. He simply used Ezekiah as an instrument in his hand. Ezekiah would be the first to say so.”

  Andrea paused, considering the story. “Most men would have used such an event to promote themselves.”

  Donavan grinned. “Ezekiah isn’t most men. As long as I’ve known him, he has always served Elithias. The prophecies foretell all of these things coming to pass prior to his return. Elithias will save us from the dragons.”

  “You really believe that?” she asked.

  “I do,” Donavan confirmed resolutely.

  “But so many have died believing it, and Elithias did not save them.”

  “Saving us from the dragons doesn’t mean we won’t experience death. However, we are forgiven for our trespasses against Elithias and our worship of these false gods. We’re given everlasting life with him.”


  Andrea smiled. “It certainly is a nice thought.”

  Donavan shook his head, correcting her. “It’s a reality waiting for you to believe it, but real whether or not we ever do.”

  “You make it all sound so simple.”

  “Shouldn’t the most important decision we ever make be simple?”

  “I suppose so. I just don’t understand why he would accept someone like me. You’re so nice, and you’ve not lived the life I’ve lived.”

  “It’s not about what I‘ve done or what you‘ve done. It’s about Elithias showing compassion upon those who don’t deserve compassion. He wants to receive all who are willing to accept him as their God.”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away, embarrassed.

  “Will you trust Elithias, Andrea?”

  She peered into his eyes then answered. “Yes.”

  Donavan smiled, nodding his head. He took her hands in his. “I’m glad for you.”

  And then tears were rolling down his cheeks as well. They started to laugh together. Andrea wiped his tears with the sleeve of her shirt.

  “Thank you for sharing this gift with me,” she said.

  “You’re very welcome.”

  An explosion shook the train. Andrea and Donavan jumped to their feet, running back toward the engine.

  “The explosives?” she asked.

  But the coal car was intact between them and the engine. However, smoke was pouring from the cab. They ran through the door, jumping across the gap to the coal car, climbing over to the engine where Tobias was busy at the controls trying to resolve the problem.

  “What happened?” Donavan shouted over the grinding of metal coming from the locomotive.

  “I’m not sure,” Tobias called back to them.

  Black smoke billowed around him as he tried to read the information conveyed by the instrumentation.

  Another loud bang erupted.

  “She’s losing steam pressure!” Tobias shouted above the din.

  The train quickly lost speed beneath their feet. The locomotive chugged and spluttered, black smoke rushing from its forward stack like an old warrior bleeding out on the battlefield; its energies utterly spent. The train gradually came to a complete stop. The sea rolled beneath them on every side.