The Dragon Empress: The Dragonspire Chronicles Book 6 Read online

  The Dragon Empress

  The Dragonspire Chronicles Book 6

  James E Wisher

  Sand Hill Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 by James Wisher

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by: Janie Linn Dullard

  Cover art by: Paganus

  061420191.1

  ISBN: 978-1-945763-58-8

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Author Note

  Also by James E Wisher

  About the Author

  Prologue

  High Sage Kranic, no former High Sage thanks to that bastard Leonidas, paced and snarled to himself. He was in the main lab of his private citadel, a fortress built in the Central Mountains of matching stones fitted so well it was nearly invisible until you were right on top of it. Beakers bubbled over heat stones, filling the air with pungent, spicy smells that tickled his nose.

  He’d spent a small fortune and three years building the place so he’d have somewhere safe to plot his overthrow of Most High Black. And what had all that planning got him?

  Nothing! His spineless fellow high sages abandoned him at the first sign that Leonidas wasn’t going to just stand aside and let him take over. What did they think, that the most high was just going to roll over and play dead? Granted it was partly Kranic’s fault. He’d assumed the mind control potions he’d snuck into their meals would hold against the Black Ring’s power. That error had been a serious one.

  But not fatal since he’d managed to escape. To escape and flee like a bandit freshly broken out of jail. It was pathetic for a man of his stature. He wanted to break something, but the equipment in the lab was too valuable to waste. A single figure bustled around behind him, watching the chemicals’ progress and tuning the stone’s heat. His chief of research, a short, balding man in his fifties named Malcom, an alchemist of only marginally less skill than Kranic himself, had been working to solve the flaws in their weapon for years. And while the project was making progress, Malcom claimed it wasn’t ready.

  Kranic didn’t care. His spies had finally found out Leonidas’s plan. Unfortunately, they found out too late for Kranic to do anything to stop it. Leonidas now had the power to control dragons. Combined with the power of his ring, the man was virtually invincible. Only the weapon had any hope of defeating him. It might not be perfect, but it would have to do.

  “Malcom, wake it up,” Kranic said.

  “I beg you, High Sage.” Malcom trembled as he spoke. “I haven’t worked out all the flaws. It might be unstable or even nonviable. Hele—”

  “I told you never to speak that name in my presence.”

  Malcom quailed. “My predecessor burned all her notes before fleeing with the prototype. I haven’t been able to recreate them fully, much less fix the flaws in the original design.”

  Kranic stalked over so his massive frame loomed over Malcom. “You watched her working and have had nearly twenty years to replicate her work. If you haven’t done it by now, why should I believe you’ll ever succeed?”

  “Hel… She was a genius. A once-in-a-lifetime talent. I don’t sell my abilities short, but I am realistic. I may find the breakthrough tomorrow or it might be five years from now, but I will find it.”

  “Unfortunately, we are out of time. Five years from now we’ll all be Leonidas’s slaves. Win or lose, our time is up. Wake the weapon.”

  Malcom bowed his head. “As you command, High Sage.”

  Kranic followed him to the rear of the lab where a large cylinder covered by a dark tarp waited. Malcom tossed it aside revealing the thick, heavy glass underneath. Floating in the vat was a sandy-haired boy of perhaps thirteen years. His ribs showed clearly and his cheeks were sunken and hollow. Only a simple pair of cut-off trousers covered him. His eyes were closed, giving him the appearance of sleeping peacefully.

  That last was an illusion. The chemicals in the vat kept the boy unconscious just as the nutrients swirling in the liquid maintained his physical form. It was an incredibly complex balance that had taken years to perfect. Just the maintenance fluid would have been a discovery worthy of a career. Kranic couldn’t have cared less beyond the fact that it served his greater goal.

  Malcom dragged a three-rung ladder over and climbed to the top. From within his black robes he pulled out a small vial that dangled from a silver chain. He lifted it over his head, unscrewed the cap, and poured the contents into the cylinder.

  Soon enough they’d know if the work they’d put in over the past nineteen years was going to pay dividends or if they were doomed to serve as Leonidas’s lapdogs for the rest of their probably short lives.

  The boy’s peaceful-seeming slumber gave way to fits of twitching and muscle spasms. His thrashing grew strong enough the liquid sloshed out of the top of the cylinder.

  “What’s wrong with it?” Kranic asked.

  “The weapon has never been awake. The process of becoming conscious isn’t a peaceful one, much like childbirth.” Kranic grimaced but said nothing else. As long as the weapon worked, he didn’t care what it had to do to become functional.

  He was staring into the agitated fluid when the weapon opened its eyes and stared back at him. Then the boy smiled.

  That expression held not a hint of sanity.

  Kranic barely had time to step back before the cylinder exploded outward, showering him with glass and chemicals. He staggered, his skin stinging from exposure to the mixture.

  “Malcom, what…?”

  His chief assistant hung suspended from bands of darkness that wrapped his neck, arms, and chest. Matching power crackled around the weapon as it hovered six inches above the floor.

  Though it had Malcom trapped, it stared at Kranic, the same deranged smile twisting its features.

  “Do you know me, boy?” Kranic asked. “I am your master.”

  The weapon clenched its fist, crushing Malcom to pulp. “Master? What does that mean?”

  Kranic straightened to better show his full height. He towered over the weapon yet somehow felt like he was the smaller one.

  “It means you have to do what I say.”

  “Why?”

  Kranic’s heart raced. The obedience programming must not have taken. “Because I made you. You belong to me.”

  The weapon turned to look at what remained of Malcom before letting the mangled corpse fall to the floor. “He made me. I watched him when he thought I wasn’t looking.”

  Kranic swallowed hard. “He made you at my command. He served me the same way you must serve.”

  The weapon cocked its head. “I don’t think I want to. I think I want to crush you like I did Malcom. How much more blood will I get out of your giant body? Won’t that be an interesting experiment?”

  Kran
ic took a step back. This was a greater failure than he’d ever dreamed. At worst he imagined the weapon would be nonviable, like all the earlier efforts. He’d only vaguely considered that it might turn out to be a mad, uncontrollable monster.

  Black energy gathered around the weapon’s hands.

  With the speed of long practice, Kranic grabbed a vial from the pouch at his side and threw it at the floor in front of the weapon’s feet.

  It shattered, filling the area with thick smoke.

  Kranic ran.

  He dashed across the lab toward the exit. The door barely slammed behind him when it exploded into splinters.

  “Don’t you want to play with me?” The weapon’s mad laughter followed him down a long hall as he ran.

  Suddenly, being Leonidas’s loyal subordinate didn’t seem so bad. He stumbled on an up-curled corner of carpet, staggered into the wall, and darted down a side passage.

  He didn’t have far to go to reach his safe room. He’d enchanted the chamber every way he could think of. If he made it, there was no way even the weapon could force its way inside.

  Hopefully.

  Ahead of him waited the dark steel door. Behind him came more crashes and cackling. The weapon appeared to be enjoying smashing his few decorations. Kranic was happy to make the sacrifice if it bought him time to get out of sight.

  He grabbed the door and yanked it open. A foot of solid steel wasn’t easy even for someone as strong as him to move. When the gap was barely wide enough to squeeze through, he slipped inside and pulled it shut.

  Inside was a large wheel which he spun, throwing eight, four-inch-diameter rods into sockets bored into the wall, locking the room shut.

  Finally, he drew a deep breath and relaxed. He’d worry about how to escape later. For now it was enough that he was safe.

  Something grabbed his ankle and lifted him off the floor. A face made of dark energy appeared and laughed at him.

  “You didn’t think a door would stop me?” The weapon cackled some more. A pair of dark claws formed. “We still have to see how much blood I can get out of you.”

  Inside his safe room, no one could hear Kranic scream.

  Chapter 1

  Leonidas smiled as his flying ship soared towards the center of the ruined imperial capital. He stood beside Domina at the helm and let his gaze wander over to the master tower. Four powerful energy flows now converged on the central spire, confirming what he already knew: the four satellite towers were all up and functioning like they were supposed to.

  The crackling white lightning lit up the daytime sky in a stunning display of power. He couldn’t wait to see it at night. It must have made midnight feel like noon to the men and women living in the city. Did those ancient people look upon their emperor’s power with pride or fear? Probably a little of both.

  Domina reached out and touched his arm. “We’ve done it at last.”

  He took her hand in his. For the first time in a long time, Leonidas was feeling satisfied with his situation. Decades of effort had all culminated in this moment. Despite her many failures, he couldn’t have done it without Domina. She’d earned her place at his side.

  “We have indeed, my dear. The hard part is over. Now we need only bring the nations to heel. With dragons at our beck and call, I doubt we’ll have much difficulty. A year at most should see the empire secured. Then we can move on to making our rule eternal.”

  She sighed and brought the ship down into its spot in front of the tower. Shade, Jax, Rondo, and Polymus emerged from below deck with Ariel in tow. The immortal prince appeared to have his new body fully under control. It was quite an astonishing feat when you considered only days ago he’d been nothing but a head.

  “I doubted that I’d ever see the master tower crackling with life again,” Polymus said. “The many years had dulled my memory of its brilliance.”

  “It is a wonder.” Leonidas grabbed everyone and lowered them to the ground.

  Together, the group strode over to the door, where Leonidas touched the runes to unlock the tower. The moment they stepped inside, he noticed something different. There was a hole in the ceiling about eight feet in diameter. He looked up but couldn’t see where the passage ended.

  “That leads to the throne room,” Polymus said. “At the top of the tower you will witness the true seat of imperial power.”

  Leonidas could hardly wait. He marched to the center of the room and an invisible force tried to lift him. His ring absorbed the energy until he willed it to cease. The moment he did, he found himself flying upward at a slow, steady pace. At the top, a chamber with a single golden throne situated ten feet from the entrance waited. It was surrounded by a circle of runes colored a dull gold. Somehow Leonidas had expected more flair.

  He stepped aside and soon enough Polymus appeared, followed by the others. When Shade arrived leading Ariel by the hand the throne began to pulse with faint energy.

  “It’s reacting to the girl,” Polymus said in answer to his unspoken question. “You need to sit her on the throne. From there you can use her to control the tower’s various magical functions.”

  “It allows for more than controlling dragons?” Leonidas asked.

  Polymus nodded. “Much more. The runes can generate an impenetrable shield. You can also link the tower to a dragon’s vision so you can see what they see. Quite useful when you need more precise control. You can also seal this chamber and deactivate all the towers remotely should you wish to, though I can’t imagine why you would.”

  Leonidas couldn’t either, not after all the trouble he went through to get them operational.

  “What now, Boss?” Shade asked.

  There was still a day before his ultimatum was up. Perhaps a little practice using the tower and seeing the limits to Ariel’s power would be prudent.

  “Now we see what our little empress is capable of. Ariel, sit in the throne and contact the nearest dragon. When you’ve done so, will the tower to show you what it sees.”

  Like a little zombie, she shuffled to the oversized chair and sat. Her brow furrowed. Ten seconds later a rectangular window appeared in the air. Leonidas walked around so he was behind the throne. In the window was an image of blue sky and clouds rushing by. Not surprising given the sort of creature whose sight they shared.

  The rest of his cadre had joined him to get a better look, not that there was much to see at the moment.

  “Link to a second dragon, the next closest,” Leonidas said.

  “Can’t,” Ariel said.

  He looked down at the top of her head. The circlet was still in place, so she had to be telling the truth. If she could only control a single dragon at a time, that would limit his options more than he liked. Surely the emperors of old hadn’t been so constrained.

  Leonidas turned to Polymus. “Could your father only control a single dragon at a time?”

  “When he was a child, certainly,” Polymus said. “Even as an adult I don’t believe he could manage more than three. Grandfather only ever controlled two at a time and even then, only when he had them performing the same task. Flying side by side when strafing a village that had defied him for example.”

  “That seems very inconvenient. How did your father get around it?”

  “We didn’t speak a great deal after it became clear that I wasn’t to be his heir. I believe he instructed the dragons to perform various duties then severed his direct connection and moved on to the next.”

  That made sense. If the dragons obeyed the emperor’s commands even when he wasn’t directly linked to them, it would be simple to order them to guard a location or kill anyone that entered a particular place. Unless an enemy force gathered, there would seldom be a need to control more than a single dragon. Certainly one dragon would be enough to raze either of the capital cities should Rend or Carttoom prove stubborn.

  “Send two large dragons to circle Carttoom City and Rend City. That will give them something to focus their thinking.”

  With an
y luck, the sight of their doom flying overhead would help the kings make the correct choice. If it didn’t, well, no doubt whoever replaced them as rulers of their respective kingdoms would find the instruction valuable.

  Moz, Callie, King Rend, and his uncle the general were gathered around a map of Rend City that covered most of a large table. The king had ordered court canceled until further notice. Moz had only arrived two days ago, but the line of refugees he met on the road told him there was serious trouble in the city. When he met up with Callie, she filled him in on the situation. He couldn’t believe the Dark Sages expected the two largest kingdoms on the continent to simply swear allegiance to them, or to Most High Black specifically.

  Then again, maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised. With Ariel’s power at his disposal, the bastard probably thought he was invincible. And maybe he was. Moz knew better than most what a dragon could do. The one he saw in action wasn’t even especially large compared to the black one that had encircled the swamp tower.

  “We’ve moved catapults all along the top of the wall.” General Rend adjusted several tokens that represented the weapons to the correct position on the map. There were twenty-four of them ringing the city. “Those plus the ballistae should give even a dragon pause.”

  Moz restrained a laugh. Even the best artilleryman wouldn’t be able to hit a dragon as it flew by. They were simply too fast. Not to mention the line of fire that would precede them. He and Callie had done their best to convince the king to abandon the city and save his men for a fight they could win, but it was no good. They saw the city as too important to give up without a fight.