Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

of an Architect. Baldr, or Ororgael or whatever he calls himself: he knows that the Drachan’ll kill him too, right? If we can’t stop them?”

“I... don’t think he does,” I said. “Judging from what we just heard, he’s batshit insane and is living in some alternate reality where he’s the hero and I’m some kind of evil virus.”

“Tyrants are apt to create their own realities and their own version of the truth,” Mehkhet replied, sourly. “I am glad all is well.”

“Withering Rose isn’t ‘well’. She’s fucked.” Suri got to her feet. “We have to go see how much damage Ororgael did to her, Hector. Where’s Karalti?”

I closed my eyes and concentrated, sensing out along the Bond. “Karalti? You manage to find something to eat?”

“Sure did!” She chirped. “Why? Is something wrong? You DEFINITELY sound stressed out now.”

“We just watched the footage from the fight with Bal... Ororgael,” I said. “It’s not good. He called some kind of fucking orbital strike on Withering Rose. We need to go scout her out, as soon as possible.”

There was a pause. “What if Ororgael’s still there?”

“After four days? I doubt it.” I shook my head. “Either he cheated and found a way to magically move eighteen-hundred tons of metal to Ilia already, or it’s still there and we’re in a race with Ilia’s navy to retrieve it.”

“Right. Well, I can teleport twice more today, but after that I’m going to be really tired,” Karalti said. “My stamina is bleh after Lahati’s Tomb. Meet me out in the courtyard when you’re ready. Oh! And don’t forget! Today’s potion day.”

“I know. I haven’t had time to check with the Masterhealer and see if she got any more King’s Grass,” I replied. “Give us fifteen. We’ll be out and ready to fly.”

“Okay!”

My eyes flickered open, and I looked up to see Suri waiting expectantly.

“She’s back,” I said, getting to my feet. “Let me go see if I can scrounge some better armor from Captain Vilmos. As soon as I’ve got some protection, we can go back to the Bashir and see what we find.”

Chapter 14

Twenty minutes later, we were in the air and ready to jump back to Dakhdir. I hung on to the saddle without any tie-downs, as relaxed as a surfer kneeling on his board. Suri, who hated flying, was strapped to the saddle with her chin down and her shoulders hunched.

As my dragon beat her wings and gravity pushed down on my shoulders, I felt my breath catch. Karalti had gotten stronger and faster with her last level. She always did, but this time it was like going from a 650cc street bike to a 1000cc road hog. I could feel the magical radiation of her body through the saddle, the incredible muscular power driving each wingbeat. The earth fell away with dizzying speed, giving us a phenomenal view of Kalla Sahasi.

“Ready?” Karalti’s sweet voice broke through my distracted wonder.

I pushed down the visor of my borrowed helmet. “Always, Tidbit.”

My teeth hummed as Karalti summoned her mana. The dragon let out a piercing bellow, straightening out into a gentle glide. That was the sign for me to lock my hands under the saddle grips. I did just that, and braced in anticipation of the frigid darkness that enveloped us as my dragon Teleported.

For several long seconds, we hung in a rushing void of empty space. That was normal. There was always a pause in the game when Karalti jumped. But this time, something about the space around us set my teeth on edge. Normally, the only thing I ever felt was the triple-beat of our hearts, mine and Karalti’s. But as we passed through, it felt like someone—or something—was staring at the back of my neck. Before I could work out what or who it was, we burst out of the cold into a screaming cloud of whirling black sand.

The sandstorm blasted us with such force that Karalti was blown violently to one side, her wings filling with hot air and gravel. Suri screamed a warning even as I slipped and crashed against my dragon’s back. Time slowed as I scrabbled along the leather, then activated one of my Mark of Matir abilities, Spider Climb. The Mark flared with cold fire, and just before I tumbled off into the air, I slapped my hands down onto the saddle. They bonded to the rough leather like Velcro.

“Arrgh! What the hell?!” Karalti’s wings flapped like wet laundry in a hurricane, threatening to snap. She gave up trying to beat them after a few seconds of heedless tumbling, rolling with the wind and diving to regain control. “Hold on! We have to break through this!”

With a snarl of effort, I pulled myself up, arm over arm, until I grasped the saddle grips once more. I was so stunned I barely even felt scared. The sand slithering through the cracks in my armor looked like ground pepper, and it was gritty and sharp. And even weirder, the searing heat of the desert was gone. It was cold. Lightning flashed inside of the cloud. An eye-watering metallic smell clung to everything.

[Warning: Extreme Stranged terrain. You are immune to Stranging, but may take damage.]

[Warning: this area is contaminated with nnnnnggghhrrrrrrrrrrvvvvvvvvvvv-]

The HUD’s narration blurred into an error, then abruptly cut.

“Urrgh!” Karalti snarled with effort. “Get in close, guys! I’m going to dive!”

“Roger that.” I flattened down, hooked my feet under some straps, and put my head down. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Suri bracing with her head between her arms.

Karalti’s wingshoulders pitched us like a rollercoaster as she navigated the crosswinds, weaving through them like a boxer dodging punches. When she found the eye of the storm, she tucked her wings in, curved her body, and dropped into a sharp hairpin dive. The wind drew claws over us,