Page 37 of The Dragonrider and the Void
“What’s causing this?” he whispered, edging farther into the frozen chamber.
Movement caught his eye. Governor Rodjex stepped out of the shadows. Instantly Hardin recognized that this wasn’t the same man who’d been coaxed by Thorgan to take a bribe. That initial crime had resulted in the debt that beset the first curse on his hometown. Before, this man had resembled the image of perfect health with taut muscles, sharp features, and a thick hairline. Now the governor appeared alien and sickly. His skin was nearly translucent, almost glowing a faint green like that ebbing from the dragon egg. His hair had thinned to the point of near baldness, the wrinkles on his skin sagged to soften his once handsome features. The pattern of black lines crawling over the dragon egg also crawled across his skin. Though it was frigid in the frozen cave, Rodjex wore an open robe exposing a blue amulet that bore the curse. This was fused in a swarm of black tendrils at his chest. The tainted magic wormed from this amulet out through his veins.
“You shouldn’t have come back, Hardin,” he said through blue lips. “You should’ve taken these people’s money and started a new life.”
“I’m not like you, Rodjex. I’m not selfish enough to prey upon the town’s good will,” Hardin replied.
“Now that you’re back, I can’t let you leave. They won’t allow it,” Rodjex said, almost sadly.
“Who won’t? Thorgan, The Warlock King?” Hardin said, trying to stall so he could think of what to do next. He now had the potential to use magic, but he lacked the training. If it came to a fight, he was only trained in Dor Bishdo, which taught him purely defensive tactics, and he didn’t possess a weapon. Theflaws in his naïve plan to free his home of the curse came into harsh focus.
“Thorgan is a mere tool of an Entity much larger than us. We’re servants following the Lady Sanj’s directives that are meant to bring a new race into power here in Sataran. A race that is far greater than any human, mage, dwarf or elf alone. We do as the rimeshade do and pray our preparations will coax the Void Drinker from its prison and bring forth a new era,” he said. The temperature in the chamber plummeted as Rodjex raised his hands. Behind him, the egg pulsed darker, the corruption spreading visibly across its surface.
Though he couldn’t see her, Hardin sensed Quinthara’s alarm. She had recognized a clue hidden within her ancestral memories. This giant egg was no ordinary dragon egg. With the taint of rimeshade corruption transforming it, the egg would bring forth a creature that hadn’t been seen before on Sataran. A variant of the dragons that had served the enemies who forced dragons to flee into Sataran. This knowledge came to Hardin in a flash of visions, and finally, ended with the resounding sensation that the creature within the egg was stirring. It was about to hatch.
The amulet around Rodjex’s neck swelled with light. A dark vine of corruption rose from the egg.
“The first dragonriders were right to fear their power,” Rodjex said, his voice distorting further. “But they were fools to think it could be contained forever.”
Hardin felt Quinthara’s urgency as she rumbled toward them in the cave.
Are the people safe?he checked with her.
She sent him a vision of those who had been in the cave now safely placed in the square, but none had regained consciousness.
“Rodjex, look at what these powers have done to you,” Hardin said, searching for a way to get the amulet out of Rodjex’s control. After seeing how a skilled magician could wield power through an amulet once a person was cursed, Hardin was sure it was the source of what was devouring his hometown. “You used to be a person our people respected. A model citizen. Then you betrayed us by gambling our taxes away and caving in to Thorgan to cover the losses. Now you’re a tool for an even greater evil, the rimeshade and this entity you speak of? You are not yourself.”
“Myself?” Rodjex laughed, the sound sharp as breaking icicles. “I have not been under my own control for years. But this vessel,” he gestured to the egg, “is how I get my life back.”
He’s completely lost. There is no redeeming himself,Hardin realized.
“When it hatches, those who are worthy will?—”
Hardin didn’t let Rodjex finish. He darted forward, plucking the egg off the pedestal. He felt the protective wards around it bend as his arms wrapped around the egg.
“No!” Rodjex roared. Dark veins lashed out from the blue amulet like a dozen arms attacking Hardin.
The tendrils burned with frostbite as they wrapped around Hardin’s leathers. He screamed and an instant later a harmonic roar echoed through the cave. Quinthara was there at the chamber entrance. The runes buried beneath the ice flickered, their rhythm disrupted in the same way they’d been disturbed before.
Rodjex staggered, losing control over the arms of darkness. Their hold over Hardin, quivered, loosed, then let go.
The egg’s glacial green surface cracked. Hardin stopped, heart pounding at the thought of holding whatever creature was trying to hatch from this tainted egg. What would it do in his arms? But the green scaley surface of the egg didn’t break openfrom the evil trying to escape. Rather, the pressure from his arms was cracking the exterior.
How?he thought.
The answer came from Quinthara. The corruption had made the shell unnaturally brittle. Whatever was inside, no longer stirred to break free.
Through the tones Quinthara used to disrupt the flow of dark energy, Hardin hoisted the fragile egg away from the pillar. The veins of darkness peeled away, resisting him. They lost their grip like elastic arms unable to keep hold, snapping off and making it easier to haul free with each passing moment. Quinthara roared louder, the waves of magic disrupting further, ice cracking, tendrils whipping wildly away from the egg. Hardin almost had the egg completely free.
“You can’t take it away from us. If it’s not brought into this world correctly, the preparations won’t last. You’ll doom us all!” Rodjex thrust both hands forward, making to grab the egg from Hardin.
“Quin, now!”
Hardin passed the egg off to his dragon. She caught it gently in her claw while Rodjex fell onto Hardin. Rodjex’s hands burned as his icy grip closed around Hardin’s neck. Hardin braced against the man, his own grip landing on the prize that had fallen right into him. Hardin clutched the amulet containing the curse. Flaring a pulse of energy through their bond, he ripped the amulet free. The chain broke, the cursed amulet broke away from Rodjex’s neck.
The frostbitten hands dropped away from Hardin’s throat as Rodjex’s face turned haunted at the sudden and abrupt change. The man’s body fell to the ground, broken veins spreading under his opaque skin. Hardin held the amulet, feeling a surge of darkness tearing through it. In that moment he understood. The curse had been corrupted too, altered by the darkness that hadchanged Rodjex, changed the people of his town, and changed the conditions of the curse.
With all his force, he smashed the amulet against the stone pillar. The amulet shattered like ice, light and darkness rushing out. All at once the power funneling in through the veins and the runes of the cave ceased. The darkness retreated, fleeing back into whatever unearthly plane of existence it had come from.
