Chine opened his wings, flapped them twice, and rose.
As Chine flew into the brightness in the sky, Alex saw a green flash, and everything disappeared.
Alex woke up, gasping for air. All of Boundless surrounded her, Chine’s wings over them all. Jim grabbed Alex and held her tightly. “Oh, my God, we didn’t think you were going to make it!”
He helped Alex to her feet while Chine pulled his wings back to give Alex space to move. “What happened?”
The dragonriders looked at each other. “We don’t know,” Gill said. “We saw the flame vortex. In space. That shouldn’t be possible. It must have been magic, or something else. But whatever it was, once the flames died, we came through. Both you and Chine were covered in black fire. Chine’s breathing apparatus was broken, and we assumed yours was too. You were both unconscious. Then his came back online, and you woke up.”
Gill handed Alex her dragon anchor, and she slipped it back on. An alert said she was at a dangerous level of draconic fluid. “I-I think I used the draconic fluid without the anchor. Straight from Chine.”
“Maybe that was enough to jump-start the whole system. But who cares how it worked? You’re alive.”
As the dragonriders crowded around Alex, she saw Vardis walking toward them. He held a red rod in his hand, not very different from the black rods that had been used to disable the dragonrider’s anchors earlier. “So, you got your weapon?”
Vardis held it up for everyone to see. “Yes. We do.”
Alex reached out. “Give it to me so we can get going.”
Vardis halted, looking from the stone to Alex. “What do you mean?”
“Boundless was tasked with getting this. You were supposed to lead us to it. We’re the ones transporting it for safekeeping, so it should be with me, right?”
Vardis handed the rod to Alex. “That seems right.”
Alex took the weapon and her anchor absorbed it. She looked around the moon’s surface. “Let’s go. I’ve had enough of the moon for a lifetime.”
No one from Boundless disagreed, but Alex could see Vardis was still watching her as if he expected her to give the rod back. She didn’t, instead leaping onto Chine and rising into the sky.
Boundless swooped around the moon and headed for Earth. Alex wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but she knew Myrddin needed the rod as soon as possible. He also had to hear what had happened.
Jim’s voice came over the comm. “Okay, guys, we have a real big problem. Incoming bogies—”
Before he could finish speaking, a portal opened a few thousand miles from Boundless. Vrosks and harpies flew out, followed by a black cloud that distorted space around it.
A deep voice screeched through Alex’s mind. Judging by the scream of her teammates over the comm, they all heard it as well.
“Alex Bound, you heard what my master said. Will you help me destroy the weapon, or will I have to kill you to keep it from destroying all of reality?”
There was silence as creatures poured out of the open portal.
Alex stared at the sheer number of creatures coming through the portal, at the mass of tendrils and tentacles stretching out. Something like a ship that seemed to be more flesh than machine was making its way through.
The portal grew, stretching to accommodate the living ship, a cylinder covered in all things that creep and crawl through the worst dreams humans could create. It was from a place beyond madness, and the voice was coming from it.
Alex stared into the blackness of space, quickly filling with dark creatures, and watched the tendrils of the Dark One extending toward her.
“I have come for you, Alex,” he said.
Alex could barely hear his voice over Boundless’ screams. The movies were wrong. You could hear screams in space.
Sometimes your worst enemy is also the voice of reason. And when the Dark One shows Alex something unexpected, Alex is forced to wonder if the Dark One is telling the truth or not. Because if he is telling the truth, then all live everywhere is at risk of annihilation.
Author Notes Ramy Vance
May 2, 2020
It finally happened. Dragons in space!
And that’s how this whole thing started to begin with. Michael had asked me what I wanted to write about and the first thought that came to mind was: Dragons in space.
Damn… I just love saying that: Dragons in space. It doesn’t get old. And seeing the wide image of this just blows me away. Jake Caleb – the cover designer for ALL the Middang3ard books – really broke the mold with this one.
As soon as lockdown is over (we’re in the throes of Covid-19 for those of you reading this down the line), I’m going to print shop and turning this into a poster for my wall!
Which brings me to my next point – would you also like a high-rez image to make your own poster? Well here you go, loyal fans!
CLICK HERE to get the image
You don’t have to do this, but we’d really appreciate if you helped us get the word out about the series. Post the image on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – you’re local community board. Add #DragonsinSpace on the post and a link to Book 1 in the series. You’d be doing us – and Team Boundless – a solid!
Thank you!
And thank you, Michael Anderle! We did it. 10 months and 9 novellas later, we did it!
Dragons in friggin’ space!
Author Notes Michael Anderle
May 3, 2020
THANK YOU for reading our story!
We have a few of these planned, but we don’t know if we should continue writing and publishing without your input.
Options include leaving a review, reaching out on Facebook to let us know, and smoke signals.
Frankly, smoke signals might get misconstrued as low hanging clouds, so you might want to nix that idea…
And that’s how this whole thing started.
Ramy’s author notes: “Michael had asked me what I wanted to write about, and the first
