Alexa wanted to kill Raya. Her world was swirling again as she touched Andrew. This time when she came to, she was in a forest, with high mountains all around her. She looked around at the flat circle of land and realized, there was no way out of this valley except over the impossible cliffs miles above her. Even the sun had a hard time reaching over those peaks.
As the world came into focus, the edges of her forest glen began to rustle with life. Animals of every kind lined the edges. There were large cats prowling beside huge bears. Birds of pray circled and dove toward her head. At the far end of the arena, as she supposed this area was, caves opened out of the cliff side. Ten of the caves showed movement and soon a rainbow of color burst forth as dragons of every color came forth. The largest, a gold dragon bellowed a roar that shook the foundations of the mountain. The whole area grew silent. A brilliant red stood to its left an
Alexa sat on a leather sofa waiting on Anika and Andrew. She looked around and realized they designers had made this into a huge library. Books lined the shelves from floor to ceiling. It was amazing to see so many books. When she had lived at the monastery, they had a lot of books, but not this many. She wondered where the servants had found them all. Had they raided local shops and stores for all of them?Anika and Andrew finally came out. Alexa felt a pang of jealousy when she realized Anika’s hair was wet as well. That explained the time anyway.“Ah, Alexa. Hope we didn’t keep you waiting too long. Oh, we have good news! First, the assassin was found, dead.”“Shame we cannot question him.” Alexa replied.“True. I have several creative methods I would have liked to have used on him. but it is what it is. That Landry fellow
Alexa sat on the sofa for a few minutes before asking a servant, “Is there a training hall?”“Of course miss. This way.” The servant led her down a hall near the bedrooms and into a huge exhibit room. the walls were lined with all manner of weapons. There were different size arenas with padded floors in every corner. She found a stave and took aim at a practice dummy. She began beating on it, feeling she was the dummy for even considering wanting Andrew.‘Odd jealousy for a young dragoness’ came a now familiar mental voice.“Raya?” she realized she still wore the medallion and had not given it back. She wondered if Andrew would come for it soon.‘Make him earn it if he wants it back.’ Suggested Raya.Alexa grinned to herself. Andrew may have trained in the dream world, but she would not be opposed to training more with him now. His daily training over the past few months
The next day, Alexa accompanied Andrew to the training ground. The men were downcast when they first saw Alexa. Several had seen the state Andrew was in and some had even doubted he would make it. For a normal person, such an attack could easily have killed them or made them permanently maimed. Seeing Alexa meant more hard training while they waited for news.As Andrew exited the car behind her though, there was a cheer from the men. Everyone was excited to see Andrew back on his feet.“Thank you, thank you all. For now, I am going to increase Alexa’s responsibility. She is going to be working harder on you all as we work to increase security around town.”A round of cheers met this. the men had a love hate relationship with Alexa’s training. They had taken a good break from her brand of torture while she was on tour with the Dragoness, but they were eager to see how they would do now.Andrew looked at Alexa, “show them
When the three were on the cargo plan heading the three hours to Ashai, Anika broke the silence.“Andrew, we are heading to Ashai. Your, umm, ‘ex’ isn’t going to be an issue is she?”“SHIT.” Andrew said, burrowing his face in his hands. “I had forgetting about that little twit.”“There is some talk that she may have had something to do with your assassination attempt.” Anika said.“I don’t think she is that stupid.”“You did try, simi successfully to convince her that the other fellow, Landry, was actually her intended. If she feels scorned by you… is there really any limit to what she might try? We saw what she was capable of with Roisin and Alexa.”“Well it will be a fine time to impress upon her father the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps after we handle Nash’s issue we will stop in on them on the way back.”
Alexa followed Andrew and Anika into the command bunker. Men in uniform rushed past in every direction. “Nash!” Andrew called out. “Here!” Alexa recognized the man from the rescue mission that had saved her from the commander. He was in a much more formal green uniform and was pouring over maps on a large table. He looked up when Andrew called out and broke out in a large smile. “Ah Andrew! Glad you are here. Anika! Sorry this reunion is not under better circumstances.” Anika smirked at him, pressing a manual into his chest, “Nash, you need to have your manuals rewritten. Your guardsmen think that only those of O-3 clearance are allowed in here.” “Hu? O-3 and above right?” “No, he said just O-3” Nash flipped though the manual and cursed. He grabbed a passing officer, “Rewrite the dam manual for the guardsmen. Make sure it says those of rank and above have clearance to various installations. Make sure its proofread this
Alexa went outside and was helping one of the wolves load up a transport. “Are you and the men ready?”“Alpha, we are always ready to follow you.”Their loyalty after such a short time was touching. Alexa nodded, “I want our best climbers with me on the ropes tomorrow. You know the men’s strengths as well. Get our best sharpshooters ready to join Jackson. Nash will give them access to the base armory. Have them raid it for whatever they can scrounge. He should have a stash of some of the best remaining rifles. Ammo may be in short suppy but he can grant us access to what is left for a mission like this. Make sure everyone else is armed with the best crossbows we can find and plenty of arrows. The ground teams each have their blades with them.”“Yes ma’am. Oh, The Dragoness, Mistress Anika, her aid found us before we left. These arrows are for you.” He handed Alexa and thick bundle.“Any ins
The convoy left the fort through the northern wall, and entered a wilderness that looked strewn with sharpened sticks and blasted trees. Gunpowder may be increasingly rare, but the railguns the tech guys were coming up with could send projectiles at high rates of speed and takedown full-grown oak trees in a single hit, blasting the trucks to toothpicks. The sight made Alexa sick to her stomach as she stared out the window. The countryside could have once been beautiful. As they passed out of the destruction zone, the ancient trees took over once more and a sense of calm returned to her. However, it was soon replaced with a sense of eerie foreboding as a dense misty drifted across their path. As the convoy made its way down toward the lake, the fog rose from just covering the ground to a knee high layer. The trucks had to slow dramatically because the road was no longer visible, only an opening between the trees. It took several hours to reach the rally point wher
As Alexa lowered into the fog her descent stopped suddenly. A hand materialized from the fog holding the rope and she heard a quiet voice. Whispers she had learned, could carry farther then a soft voice in fog like this.“Miss, the ground is just below you. Lower your legs slowly.”It was John (#3), one of her best wolves, who had gone with Gad to the north.“Status?”“The enemy was or is sleeping. We took out about fifteen sentries on the north end without anyone being the wiser so far. The fog is dense but it lifts near the lake. Keep an eye on your sensors. You can see about a foot off the ground if you crawl.”Anika came up beside them and handed Alexa a helmet with a thermal lens over one eye. “Nash managed to send us out with an extra one for you. Unfortunately, they are still rather expensive so we couldn’t equip everyone with them.”Alexa gratefully put on the helmet and fli