Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption

Smoke billowing from the battlefield blocked out the light from the setting sun. Fires burned all over the mountains and valleys, reducing the forests to nothing but smoking charcoal. A large castle sat on the peak of the largest mountain. A multitude of large silhouettes flying around the castle were barely visible through the smoke. Two silhouettes, draconic in shape, hovered in the air just above the castle. One of the silhouettes had its head bowed towards the other.

“Sir Reiverd, we can’t just ignore the situation anymore,” one voice said in a pleading tone. “The other races have allied and are mounting a full-scaled attack on us as we speak. Please, give us the order to fight back; I can’t stand to see another one of our kind fall to those greedy races.”

The other silhouette shook its head. “I will give no such orders, Captain. Our goal is to reconcile with the other races, not to kill them. We can’t show our willingness to take a diplomatic approach if we fight back.”

“But, sir! At this rate, there won’t be anyone left to agree with! The other races have no interest in speaking with us; all they want to do is to hunt us down and make use of our blood and bones! We can’t reach a peaceful conclusion if the other side only wants a bloodbath!!”

The second silhouette remained silent for a moment before an audible sigh was heard. “I’ll admit, you do have a point. We might have lost too many dragons to support my cause. There may be no true way to come to peaceful terms with the other races.”

“So, will you allow us to fight?”

“Negative. Get the word out to all of our troops to retreat inside the castle within the next few minutes. Find every dragon you can and make sure to get them sheltered inside.”

“Sir, do you intend to sacrifice all of us to the races?!”

There was a loud snorting sound. “Of course not. I don’t intend to sacrifice my own race. I’m simply going to remove us from the equation.”

The first voice stuttered for a moment before stopping. The first silhouette bowed his head deeply before departing, leaving the second one alone in the smoke plumes. The silhouette remained motionlessly in place as the minutes crawled by.

Without any warning, a large explosion rocked the air as a large column of fire rose from one of the valleys below. The faint, dying screams of many creatures reached all the way to where the lone silhouette hovered. The smoke was blown away by the shockwave from the explosion, revealing the figure of a large, golden scaled dragon with sapphire blue eyes, pale yellow underbelly scales and white wing skin. A rack of white horns sprouted from its forehead, and a large mane of blonde hair blew around in the wind. A gold necklace with a large ruby stone set into it hung from his neck.

“What was that?!” Reiverd cried.

“Sir Reiverd!” A small scout dragon flew up from the panic below and hovered before Reiverd. The scout gasped for air for a few moments before he could form any more words.

“I-it’s Vinkex, Sir Reiverd!” the scout gasped. “He ignored your order to retreat and went down the mountain to attack the advancing forces!”

Reiverd sighed and rubbed a white talon against his forehead scales. “I suspected he might do this,” he groaned. “He’s more aggressive about this ordeal than I am; I’m not surprised to hear he ignored an order to retreat.” Sighing again, Reiverd glanced at the scout. “Has everyone else retreated inside the castle?”

“Sir!” The scout stood at attention and saluted. “Everyone we’ve been able to account for has taken shelter inside the castle! I’m simply out here to give you word of Vinkex’s insubordination!”

“Very well,” Reiverd sighed. “Go ahead and get inside the castle. I’m going to take action now.”

The scout nodded and flew up above Reiverd and over the courtyard walls of the castle. Reiverd glanced back down into the valley below. A solemn expression filled his face as more pillars of fire rose from the earth.

“Vinkex, you fool…” he muttered under his breath, shaking his head in disappointment. “I was hoping you’d learn to see the bigger picture, but you remained selfish and prideful to the very end. I hope that you can somehow find peace down here alone.”

Reiverd lifted one hand above his head, palm outstretched. He muttered something under his breath, too softly for anyone to hear. A bright flash of golden light pierced through the smoke. With a loud, metallic creak, an enormous, transparent greatsword, taller than the mountain below it, cut through the smoke, dispersing it. The greatsword, shimmering with weak, golden light, swung through the air. Its blade reached the mountain where the castle stood and dug into the earth. Slicing through the mountaintop like butter, the greatsword cleaved the mountain peak away from the rest of the mountain before cracking like glass and shattering into millions of pieces of light. The fragments of light rose into the air with the very castle itself, until it rose above the clouds and out of sight.

With a groan, Draycos slowly opened his eyes. His surroundings were completely dark, but it was warm and humid, as if he was laying in a dark sauna.

What the hell happened to me…? Draycos’s head was fuzzy, as if he’d just woken up from a very long nap. His head gradually grew clearer as his drowsiness faded away. Draycos shuddered as the memories of his fight with Vinkex surfaced in his mind and he tried to sit up. He immediately flinched as pain radiated from his back in waves. Draycos tried to twist around to see what was causing the pain, but he found that he was stuck in place. His lower body was completely immobilized while warm, slimy restraints were placed on each of his wrists and around his neck. Draycos struggled to break free for a few minutes, but the restraints showed no sign of giving. He eventually gave up with a sigh before deciding to take a better assessment of his surroundings.

A very faint red light radiated from the walls surrounding Draycos, affording him a very poor view of his surroundings. The walls seemed to shift and squirm as he continued to stare at them. The surface his back laid on seemed to pulse at a steady tempo. As his awareness continued to return, Draycos realized his ears were picking up on a loud sound that he simply failed to register. Draycos felt goosebumps rise over his skin as the constant noise rang out in unison with the pulsing behind his back.

“Don’t tell me this is what I think it is…” Draycos murmured. The memory of Vinkex’s open maw as he dropped Draycos into his mouth flashed before Draycos’s eyes, and he groaned. Deciding to test his theory, Draycos twisted his head to the side as much as possible and bit the spongy wall as hard as he could. Draycos immediately stopped and spat furiously in an attempt to rid his mouth of the foul taste. The wall tasted like a rotting carcass; the taste alone caused bile to rise up inside Draycos’s throat. The bite seemed to have been effective, though, because the moment he bit the wall, a shrill, unearthly scream shook the air, and the steady tempo of the pulsing wall and the accompanying sound grew unsteady for a few moments.

The wall behind Draycos shifted for a brief moment before two thin protrusions stretched out of the wall on either side of Draycos’s head. The protrusions bent and wrapped themselves on Draycos’s forehead, twisting his head until he was facing forward. The protrusions ceased movement, and Draycos could feel them harden as they locked his head into place.

The fleshy wall in front of Draycos shifted and squirmed violently before protruding forward slightly, forming two slight bumps on the wall. The raised surface shuddered slightly before opening from the middle like eyelids. A pair of blue eyes stared unblinkingly at Draycos, the sclera of the right eye completely back. The entire space trembled violently for a moment as a low growl filled the air.

“I was wondering what was causing me such uncomfortable pain,” a deep voice rumbled. “So, it was you after all, Draycos. I’m truly astonished that you managed to regain consciousness in your current state.”

“What are you trying to do, Vinkex?” Draycos questioned, ignoring the dragon’s comments. Draycos couldn’t tear his gaze away from the right eye with the black sclera. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as a possibility came to mind.

A loud laugh rang out, causing the entire room to rumble. “I see you’re still defiant as ever, even after waking up from a coma.” The laughing stopped as the pair of eyes stared at Draycos intensely. “Like I told you before, I’m using you to stave off the after effects from breaking that cursed seal placed on me by the other races a millennium ago. I can’t very well have you getting away from me, so I’m in the process of assimilating you completely into my body.”

“Do you honestly think things will go that smoothly for you?”

Another laugh shook the small chamber. “I do. Try as you might, you’ll find you’re unable to use magic, so long as you’re connected to my heart. And I don’t plan on getting anywhere close to that damned Theravor or anyone else who may be capable of removing you.” The pair of eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of Theravor’s name. “I’ve already underestimated that bastard more than once; I’m not taking any more chances with this battle.”

“Battle?” Draycos echoed. His eyes narrowed to no more than slits as he stared at the eyeballs. “What the hell are you doing, Vinkex!?”

There was a loud snort. “I don’t have any more time to waste speaking with you. You’ll be completely assimilated in another hour, at most. But if you want to know what’s going on, I guess it can’t hurt too much to show you.” The color from the eyeballs faded until they were completely white, but then a moving image filled the empty space. Draycos saw an image of Dragonspire Castle jutting out above a thick cloud of fog. The castle was quickly growing clearer, as if the point of view was moving closer to it. Realizing that he was seeing what Vinkex saw, Draycos continued to watch as Vinkex flew out of the fog bank and through a crowd of dragons fighting one another just outside the fog. Every few seconds, one dragon would fall out of the sky, wearing the royal blue armor of the Royal Guardsmen of the castle more often than not.

What the hell is going on out there!? Did Vinkex start a war with the Dragon Council and Theravor?!

The image suddenly zoomed in on one spot of the castle as Vinkex focused his gaze on that particular point. Perched on the highest turret of Dragonspire Castle was the current Dragon King, Theravor. His gold-edged crimson scales glittered softly in the weak moonlight, and his golden eyes were locked with Vinkex’s as the enemy flew straight at him. A rather calm expression sat on Theravor’s face, but his emotions were betrayed by the violent twitching of his tail.

Theravor....

Vinkex continued flying until he was about a dozen or so yards away from Theravor and came to a halt, hovering in the air at the same altitude as the Dragon King. The two remained silent for a few moments as they stared at one another, observing each and every slight movement their opponent made. Eventually, Theravor broke the silence.

“Looking at the right eye of yours, I assume that Draycos is somewhere in your body, correct?” he asked in a low voice.

Vinkex said nothing and simply sneered at Theravor.

“At least tell me if the boy’s still alive or not.”

Vinkex’s lips curled in a savage smile at that point. “Oh, he’s alive, alright.” He pointed at the middle of his chest with his thumb talon. “If you want to call ‘assimilation’ being alive, that is.”

“I see. Well, I suppose that will be good enough for now.”

Vinkex cackled at this remark. “What do you mean by that? Don’t tell me that you think you can rescue the brat at this point in the game!”

“I do.”

Vinkex’s laughter ceased at the king’s response, and he glared at Theravor with an intense light in his eyes. “Why do you even care what happens to one, measly human half-breed? The other races tried to wipe dragonkind out for their own benefit! We should only have to look out for our own kind!”

“No, you’re wrong about that,” Theravor responded, shaking his head slowly. “You don’t understand at all, do you? How boring life would be if dragonkind lived all alone on this world?”

A furious expression filled Vinkex’s face. “T-that’s your r-reason for trying to reconcile with those r-races?!” He was so enraged that he couldn’t speak properly. “For something as meaningless as boredom?!”

“It’s just my personal opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless.” Theravor lifted his head and gazed at the half moon hanging above. “Diversity means there will always be different ideas and beliefs. When those different ideas and beliefs clash, it may sometimes be a bad thing that could lead to much suffering and strife, like a war. But on the other hand, if both sides took something away from the other, learned from it, and applied it to their own lifestyles, wouldn’t we be improving ourselves constantly?” He lowered his head and stared down Vinkex. “Even if we suffer, if we can all make ourselves better by learning from each other, then I believe it’s worth coming to peaceful terms with the races below.”

Vinkex stayed quiet as he digested what Theravor said. Chewing the inside of his mouth in thought, he suddenly turned his head and spat.

“What an utter load of nonsense,” he growled, turning to glare at Theravor again. “I can’t believe I wasted my time listening to that garbage spewing from your mouth.”

“Garbage or not, it’s a belief I’ve shared with many of our kind over the years. It’s now something that the majority of us yearn for.” A low growl rumbled in Theravor’s throat as he unfurled his wings, sending gold dust scattering through the air. “And I will not stand by and do nothing as you mock our belief.”

“The dragons of this era truly have grown weak,” Vinkex growled, raising his right hand to prepare for a spell. “It’s disappointing how far my kind has fallen. I intend to remedy that after I knock you down from your coveted throne.”