An Angel’s Road to Hell

Cassandra Pendragon

I felt like a deer caught in the headlights, my body froze and all I could do was stare into its eyes. Huge, glowing orbs of gold with pitch black slits in the middle fixed on me and with the sound of breaking planks it pushed itself up and flared out its wings. It was snake like, maybe 10 meters in length and covered with scales that shimmered like molten gold, every movement of the huge muscles underneath sent ripples of light along the deck. It didn’t have a set of wings but rather a form of ruff that surrounded its neck and ran along its body on both sides. Directly behind the neck the ruff protruded maybe 4 meters out and became slimmer the further towards the tail it got. The last 3 meters of its body were said tail, sleek and agile like a huge golden whip. Its face was… beautiful I couldn’t describe it any other way. Predatory and alien for sure but also regal and elegant and I thought it had a feminine grace to its features. It had a protruding but rather slim snout and the tips of two fangs were barely visible under its lip. The nostrils shimmered with a golden glow from within and miniature tentacles formed a frill on the underside of its jaw. Atop its head 12 golden horns formed a ring or rather a crown and I could see specks of golden light lazily travelling from one horn to the other. It sniffed the air and the sound brought the rest of my surroundings rushing back along with the immediate desire to move as fast as I possibly could. But I remained still.

The deck was in shambles, small patches of the burned sails littered the planks and cracked boards and splintered wood showed where the dragon had landed and moved. The children were huddled together around one of the masts, the boy I had put in charge before standing between them and the golden predator. But that wasn’t what kept me in place, they were far enough away from the dragon that I could easily reach it before it got close to the kids. No, what made me hesitate was the overwhelming smell of blood mixed with molten gold. A sickly sweet but very faint undertone nearly made me gag. The dragon hadn’t been smiling but clenching its lips in pain and I saw several deep cuts across its body, most of them oozing a golden liquid but some were black at the edge as if a form of necrosis was setting in. It was the source of the smell and whatever it was, it was potent enough that my stomach clenched at the sick odour alone. Wherever the dragon’s blood touched the wood of the deck, the planks started blackening and smoke curled into the air but the tainted drops ate through the wood immediately. The beast was hurt, severely, probably even poisoned and it eyed me and especially my wings warily.

Carefully I moved my wings around my body, towards the children and away from the dragon and tried to rearrange my features into a less fight or flight like look. Without a warning a tremor ran along the length of the dragon’s body and it fell back, cracking even more planks in the process, I was starting to worry about the integrity of the whole deck. A warm wind blew my hair back as the dragon gasped in pain, smelling of molten metal but underneath I could detect the sweet fragrance from before again. It curled in on itself and its flanks were starting to shiver. I didn’t know what to do but with an apparent effort the creature turned its head towards me and its eyes, their glow had dimmed in the last seconds perceivably, fixed back on mine, as if they were searching for something familiar. Reflexively I sent energy into my eyes and a soft silver glow made its scales sparkle even more. The tattoo on my chest tingled for a moment before a young, female voice, soft and gentle like the first touches of spring fluttered through my mind, faint and trembling before it disappeared into the void of unconsciousness: Help me, please. Her tone and voice banished every thought of fighting or hurting her from my mind.

The dragon’s body relaxed and a golden haze of magic escaped her maw, covering her completely. Before I could react the shimmering cloud shrank in size and dispersed, leaving behind a naked girl, maybe 10 or 12 summers old with golden hair and porcelain skin. Her body was still covered in wounds and some of them retained their ugly colouration. I didn’t bother walking and with a thought I appeared next to her. Gently I lowered Ahri to her side and turned towards the children, their mouths hung open in amazement which had effectively stopped their wailing.

“Any one of you know some form of healing? Magical or mundane, it doesn’t matter.” They looked at each other for a moment and I already started to fear that I would have to rely solely on my less than perfect knowledge before the boy, Archy, I think, stepped forwards.

“One of my mentors was a healer and I know one or two spells that might help. I’d be willing to try, if you wanted me to. Are you sure she won’t eat us if she wakes up?”

My tension drained slightly and I had to smile. “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. I was more worried about how she had gotten in this state and if she had a pair of overprotective parents. I wasn’t an expert on dragons but I was relatively sure that the age of the girl before me would mirror the age of her dragon form. She appeared delicate and fragile, now. “But just to make sure I won’t leave your side.” That did the trick and he approached us. I crouched down and caressed Ahri’s cheek. “Could you look after my friend as well? She hit her back and head hard, I think she has a few broken ribs and a concussion.”

“Sure, I’ll see what I can do.” He kneeled down beside me and took the dragon girl’s hand into his own. A faint blush appeared on his cheeks when he couldn’t stop his eyes from roaming across her curves and I pinched his side. “Sorry, it’s just… sorry.” He closed his eyes and started to chant. I was tempted to watch, healing was the thing I wanted to learn the most but first I had to organise my new army. My rather short, underfed, dirty, frightened and undeniably young army. I got back up and motioned for the rest of them to come over. Their eyes were still full of concern but when the little girl from before squealed and rushed me to bury herself in one of my tails they took heart and shuffled over. At first I wanted to push the girl away but then again, she was a child and I didn’t think Ahri would mind so I allowed her to grab onto one of my tails and hold onto it like it was a fluffy teddy bear.

“I know you must have a million questions and I promise I’ll answer each one of them as soon as we have the chance but right now I need all of you to do as I say.” Again I felt my energy stir as another promise started to swirl around my core. I had to be careful or I soon wouldn’t be able to move without breaking an oath. The sensation made me shiver for a moment but I managed to hide it and smoothly continue: “my name is Cassandra Pendragon and I’m here to help. Your captors are dead but one of them hit the flying stone with a spell before I could stop him. The ship is heavily damaged and we need to find a spot to land as fast as possible. I think there might be something like maps or maybe books with charted courses in some of the cabins but I can’t leave the deck right now. I need you to quickly check the captain’s cabin below and the vaults besides your former cells for any thing we could use. It would be great if two of you could also go down to the lowest floor. Just stay outside the first door and make a lot of noise if you hear any form of sound from behind. Now, I know that some of you are too weak to do much so can you please raise your hand if your willing and able to help?” I was surprised how quickly most of the older children volunteered. A round dozen of them was willing to do as I asked, I would have judged them the oldest of the bunch, which suited me just fine. They were going to see more than just one corpse.

“Thank you, that’s really brave of you. If anything, and I mean even the smallest problem comes up, you scream, as loudly as you can. Is that understood?” They nodded and I thought I saw a glimmer of determination in their eyes. “Good. Then go, if you’re not back within ten minutes I’ll come looking for you, sooner if can manage.”

A rather tall girl with red hair and a cute red tail with a white tip nodded again and turned towards the others, shooing them along. “Let’s go guys, the faster we are, the faster we can be back. We’ll bring some food along, if we find any,” she added. Damn, I had forgotten that they probably hadn’t eaten their fill in a couple of days. “Thanks I forgot that, …” I said, hoping she would provide a name.

“Reia, I’m Reia,” she turned back to me. “And thank you for what you did. I hope that I can repay you one day.”

“That’s not…” but she had already left me and was heading towards the door, her tail wagging from left to right as she was excitedly spurring the others on. I was really starting to like her.

Most of the children were still with me and I didn’t have the time to give them the attention they deserved so I decided to keep them busy.

“Now, can the rest of you patrol the deck and watch the skies? Those of you who know one another are welcome to stick together but it would be best if you could cover every direction, I don’t need any more surprises and our guest might have more trouble following on her heel. I’ll stay here, just call me if you see something.” Judging from the teary and dazed eyes that stared at me it probably wasn’t the best idea but I just needed them out of my tails for a few minutes until I’d know what was wrong with Ahri and the dragon. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” I stopped myself from adding I promise just in time. “If you want, you can also stay with me, but I really need you to keep an eye on the sky. Is that alright?” Hesitantly they nodded and a few groups of two or three broke off and walked across the deck, but they never strayed too far and one of them always kept an eye on me. Most of the kids slumped to the ground where they were but they didn’t close their eyes. They remained vigilant and did what I had asked them to. A tug on my tail prompted me to look down and I saw the little girl motioning for me to come closer. I kneeled again and a sweet childish voice whispered into my ear, it somehow reminded me of the telepathic contact I had had with the dragon girl.

“My brother says he cured the kitsune, she should wake up any minute but the dragon is another matter. He doesn’t dare to stop his magic, he says it’s a wonder she managed to hang on for as long as she did.” Tears trickled into the fur around my ears and her voice started to tremble. “The poison has a magical component that’s attacking her life force, but he doesn’t know how. He says if you can’t help her, she’ll die within the hour, no matter what he does.” The way she was relaying what her brother thought made me suspect that she was a telepath which would also explain why she was crying for a predator the other kids had feared. She had probably had the chance to see her mind. It would also explain why it was the first time I had heard her talk and why she used her voice to speak to me, my immunities probably made me invisible to her mind. I curled another tail around her and squeezed her tightly. “Then let’s see what we can do, shall we?” My gaze travelled over the two women at my feet, Ahri had regained her colour and appeared to be sleeping. I exhaled and suddenly felt a lot more optimistic. I breathed a kiss on her forehead before I focused on the girl beside her. She was stunning, her graceful features and radiant colours made her remarkable but her skin was covered with a sweet smelling sweat and she shivered slightly. The wounds on her body had closed except for the ones that showed that nasty black along the edges, they appeared just as raw as before.

Archy was even paler than her and he was drenched, his face drawn into a mask of concentration while chants left his lips faster than I could follow. I wasn’t sure but I thought he appeared thinner, emaciated. An hour ago I would have been completely clueless on what I could do to help if I had been thrust into a similar situation but now I had an idea. Admittedly it was a desperate and possibly lethal idea but with a lot of luck it might just work. I knew I could feel the energy within a person and destroy or even absorb it. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume I could meddle with her life force and maybe, just maybe get a hold of the magical component of the poison. If I fucked up, I would most likely kill her outright. If I did nothing, she would die for sure, though… with everything that had already happened I couldn’t stop myself from wondering just how much better my day was going to get from here.

Hesitation surely wouldn’t help so I gently placed one of my wings above the girl’s heart while I wrapped four more around her limbs as carefully as I could. I didn’t need to but I closed my eyes anyways when I focused on my second sight and the radiant life in front of me. She shone brightly, not as brightly as Ahri but in a different colour. Nearly everything was silver in here but Ahri’s wings retained their fiery red and her core pushed energy through her veins, shining like flames. This girl had a subdued shimmer of gold around her and I could see the outline of a dragon formed by the edges of that aura. Streaks of black ran through her body and converged towards her heart where a gemlike formation of golden energy slowly pulsed, one black spot already anchored deep within. For the first time in a long while information flooded my mind. I was looking at her carbuncle, the seat of every dragon’s soul, life and mana. Evolution or their sheer prowess had crystallised their very essence into something physical, a gemstone that contained all of their energy, pretty similar to my core, now that I thought about it. They couldn’t form or control transcendent energies but everything else came to them as easily as breathing, fuelled by the nearly inexhaustible fountain of magic in their chests. The older a dragon was, the larger its carbuncle would become and the more energy would be stored within until they became an almost unstoppable force. I knew that a dragon’s colour determined how fast the carbuncle grew and added some innate talents to the mix but I didn’t have any specifics. But I didn’t need them for what I was about to try, the only question that mattered right now was if I could pierce her carbuncle and reach the poison without shattering the whole thing. Yet again I ushered a prayer to no one in particular before I moved more wings around her body to hover one over every streak of black and gently pushed the tips through her skin.

Immediately my vision collapsed into motes of golden light that formed a whirlwind of shapes and complex structures around me before they vanished again into the unending dance of sparks. I could feel them, trying to change me, to make me a part of them but they were repelled like a fly bouncing of a fortress wall and my perception changed back to what I was used to. Now my wings were inside her body, her energy curling around them without so much as touching them even once. Reaching the poison wasn’t difficult from there and it felt natural to draw it out of her and into me. I felt a mildly tingling sensation when it raced through my wings and towards my core but nothing happened and the dragon’s energies appeared cleansed to my vision, except for her carbuncle, I hadn’t managed to work up the courage to plunge a wing into it, but I couldn’t stall any longer.

It was easy, much too easy. With nothing more than a touch my wing pierced the conflux of energies and slithered towards the black spot, effortlessly absorbing it. The problems arose when I tried to extricate myself from the centre of her being. I had cut a hole into her walls and as soon as I removed my wing I could feel her essence bleeding out. I pushed my wing back in to smother the stream of energy but that was a temporary fix, at best. Somehow I had to close the wound. Well, if I could take I should also be able to give. With all of my might I tried to push some of my energy to the very edge of my wing, imagining it to slowly bleed into her. I knew I couldn’t control it outside of my body, not yet anyways, but maybe she could use it if I somehow managed to shove it out of my sphere of influence.