“That’s not good,” Yumo-Rezu muttered, staring in horror at the changing sky.
“No,” I said, turning to face the western horizon. “But that is.”
She turned, followed the direction of my gaze, and saw a magnificent sight: raging hurricane winds blowing in, carrying my army of harpies, and the rest of my party.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“It’s almost time,” I said. “We have to get to the ship. Rhuz and Sun Boy, you’re in charge here until we get back. Organize the assassins, werewolves, and whatever Church of Light troops are still loyal to Sun Boy here into a small army. Do your best to save as many civilians from the rampaging Blood Demons as you can. My party will be arriving soon; they’ll provide reinforcements for you.”
“Where are you going, God of Death?” the Lord of Light asked me.
“We’re going to resurrect a dragon,” I said with a grin. “And when you see me next, I’ll be riding it over these plains. Elandriel and the Blood God won’t know what hit them. Just keep the bastards occupied until then!”
I grabbed the Dragon Heart from the zombies who’d carried it while escaping the city. “I’ll be needing this,” I said as I took the vessel in which it was contained.
The lone harpy that had stayed with my ship and pirates now came flying from the sky above. It picked up me, Yumo-Rezu, and Friya in its claws.
The harpy whisked us off in the direction of the ship, where the dragon skeleton was. We arrived there soon enough, and Percy and his pirates were waiting on the deck. Even from many miles out at sea, they could see the ominous pillar of red light.
“Thank goodness you’re finally here, Cap’n Chauzec!” Percy said when we landed. “Looks like the bloody world’s ending, it does!”
“It will end if we don’t get this right,” I said. “Hurry, down below deck to the dragon skeleton! Friya, I hope you’re ready for this.”
“I’ve been ready for this my whole life.” She smiled with eager anticipation.
I stopped for a moment, swept her up in my arms, and we shared a passionate kiss. “Since it’s the last time I’ll ever see you in your human form,” I said, grinning.
“I’m glad we got to share that one last time,” she said, temporarily weak at the knees from the intensity of the kiss. “But no more, as amazing as it was. I have a new form to take.”
We hurried down into the hold of the warship, where the dragon bones were.
On the ship, the crew had started the process of resurrecting the dragon. Friya was sitting inside the assembled skeleton wearing nothing but the Cloak of Change, and she was chanting the incantation that would bring about the permanent shifting of forms, where her body and soul would blend with the dragon’s skeleton, its heart, and its soul. The latter I would bring down from the Sea of Stars, to become a living dragon. Yumo-Rezu was standing by the dragon skull, working her own magic on it, which would imbue the resurrected creature with the wild and potent essence of a dragon born of natural means.
Focusing my mind and spirit on the skeleton before me, I gripped one of the dragon’s huge ribs in my left hand, feeling a jolt of Death energy ripping through me as I did. I let Grave Oath lie flat on the palm of my right hand. The Death dagger sought out the soul connected to this massive skeleton, spinning madly around on my palm as it searched the Sea of Stars. Grave Oath soon found it, pointing up at the exact location of the dragon’s soul.
I launched my spirit upward, rocketing through the sky and into the stars beyond. I tore through the billions of souls drifting peacefully through the Sea of Stars, following the arrow-straight line coming from Grave Oath’s tip, until I reached the soul of the dragon. It was barely visible, a mere hint of a ghost, about to vanish forever. I grabbed it and held it tight before it could disappear.
“Oh no you don’t,” I said. “Your time down there isn’t done just yet. You’ve got one more battle to fight before you can have your eternal peace.”
Then, gripping the dragon’s soul tightly with my ethereal hands, I plummeted back down through the stars, tumbling through the dome of the sky and hurtling downward until I slammed back into my body. Still gripping the dragon’s soul with my spirit hands, I shoved it into the skeleton before me, melding it with the dry bones like a metallurgist blending metals.
When I did this, both Yumo-Rezu and Friya gasped and shuddered as a jolt of intense energy tore through both of them. Now that the dragon’s soul was here, Yumo-Rezu took over, weaving the spell that would bind Friya’s soul to the dragon’s. Friya began to cry out and writhe inside the dragon skeleton, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether her cries were of agony, ecstasy, or both.
“Are you ready for the Dragon Heart?” I asked.
Yumo-Rezu shook her head. “The process. . . will take some more time.” It sounded like she was in the middle of an intimate moment, with her searching for a climax.
“All right,” I said. “I guess I better make myself busy then.”
I figured I could be participating in the battle while this ritual went on. So, I cast my soul into the actor’s body, to lead the fight now that he and the rest of my party had landed on the plains near the Lord of Light and Rhuz. Through my doppelganger’s eyes, I saw the awesome yet horrifying sight of
