Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 68: The Portal

I scrambled to my feet as a bolt of magic shot from the ceiling to hit the dagger. The energy was absorbed as if it had never been there.

"The two living mages may continue," the Voice said, sounding calmer now.

A section of the wall across the cavern lowered to reveal a second chamber beyond. We crossed the cavern and went through the hole in the wall. The second chamber was smaller than the first. A stone ring the size of a katalni stood on its end in the middle of the room. It rested on a raised stone platform with several steps leading up to it. A pair of hand-prints was carved into the base of the stone ring.

"Open it," Farot ordered.

I crossed the room and knelt at the base of the stone ring, but I hesitated to do anything. Even having gotten this far, Farot couldn't possibly open the portal without me. If I did what he wanted, I would be handing over control of all the dragons. If I refused to do what he wanted, he would threaten my friends until I changed my mind. I wished I had the selfless courage to destroy the portal then and there, but I didn't want to doom my friends—and myself—to death. There had to be some other way out of this.

The dagger seemed to agree. It showed me flashes of memories—entire katalni flocks flying free over the mountains, katalni art and culture, their advanced magics. Dragons would never enjoy those things again if I destroyed the portal. Worse than that, I saw a worrying trend in the dagger's memories. Katalnis were huge and strong, with large clutches of healthy hatchlings. Modern dragons were smaller, weaker, and struggled to birth one or two healthy hatchlings in their life. If clutches continued to shrink, dragons would eventually die out entirely. I couldn't let that happen.

I placed a hand on the base of the stone ring. "Open the portal."

Cold blue flames appeared swirling in its center.

"You go through first," Farot told Oren.

The elent-cinem seemed exceptionally terrified of the portal, but he was apparently more afraid of Farot. He climbed up onto the stone platform and jumped into the flames. We waited for a minute, and when nothing happened, Farot nodded at the portal.

"Go through."

After the cold of the portal, the scalding heat that followed made me flinch. As my eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight, I stumbled down from the stone platform supporting the portal.

I was in the middle of a sandy desert. Piles of glowing mindstones of all sizes littered the ground. Some nearby piles were barely knee high, but the ones in the distance towered over me. Many of the stones in the farthest piles lived up to their namesakes, looking more like ashy rocks instead of glowing crystals.

I stepped toward the nearest pile, feeling an overwhelming desire to come closer with the dagger. The mindstones seemed to be whispering in my thoughts.

[Release us, mage.]

[Yes, release us. Free us from our confinement.]

[Return us to our katalnis.]

[Save us.]

They spoke in a myriad of voices, men and women, young and old. I peered closer at them. The surfaces of the mindstones shimmered with enchantments. When I tried picking up a pebble and tossing it at a pile, it sailed off the pile before it could reach the mindstones.

"Give me the dagger," Farot said from behind me.

I turned to face him but was reluctant to hand it over.

He grabbed his sliver call and shook it at me. "This is a black sliver call. It is powerful to reach through a portal. I can still tell my men to kill your friends."

"Close the portal," I said.

The blue flames disappeared from the stone ring.

"Now you can't call anyone." Sure that I'd just signed my death certificate, I had to clench my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.

"You cannot stay here forever."

I glanced around and found that he was right. The heat of the desert might not bother me, but I could still die of thirst or starvation way out here.

"I won't let you take the mindstones." It was the only thing I was sure of right then.

"You have no choice. Oren, handle her."

Oren looked quickly between me and Farot. "I'm a water elent."

"And?" Farot bared his fangs.

He waved his wand around. "This is the desert. There isn't any water in a desert."

"Then use your sword, idiot."

I held the dagger tighter and tried to remember every sword fighting lesson Sarafin had beaten me in. Those memories of failure didn't make me any more confident, especially since I only had a dagger and not a real sword.

Oren charged without warning and swung his sword at my head.

"Stop," Farot shouted as I dodged out of the way.

When Oren glanced back at Farot, I kicked him in the shins and took off.

"Do not kill her, or we will die in this desert," Farot bellowed.

I heard Oren running after me as I dodged around piles of mindstones. Suddenly, it sounded as if Oren had stopped following me. Before I could glance over my shoulder to see why, something heavy and hard hit me between the shoulder blades.

I flew forward and crashed into the nearest pile of mind stones. They were just as hard as they looked. The enchantments around them didn't stop me from touching them, unlike my experiment with the pebble. I stored that information for later use and tried to stand.

The dagger seemed to be stuck like a magnet to the mindstones. It took all my strength to yank it off just as Oren collided with me and threw me to the ground. My back hit the sand, and he pinned me with his knee in my stomach. Wrestling the dagger out of my hand, he hit me so hard with the hilt of his sword that I blacked out.