Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness
The Warden

Draycos slowly regained consciousness. His eyes remained closed as he became aware of voices speaking around him, and soon recognized the voices of Theravor and Vertex. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, though. A gust of strong wind hit his face, and he half opened his eyes to see Theravor, Damrabe, and Reothad fly out of the grotto.

“Now then, let’s get this place cleaned up,” he heard Vertex say. There was a soft thump, and then the whole grotto began shaking. Alarmed, Draycos’ eyes flew wide open as all presence of the throne, the stadium, and everything else, excluding the restraints on him and the chain attached to his neck, shattered and vanished. Soon after, the support columns on the outer edge of the grotto began to burst. His heart began to race as more pillars shattered. It wasn’t until then that Draycos noticed that his feet had stopped touching the ground a few seconds prior. A second, stronger gust of wind slammed into his face as Vertex shot forward like an arrow that had been let loose from its bow and flew out of the cave. A loud crash was heard behind them, and Draycos could only guess that it was the grotto collapsing on itself.

“Whoa?!” Draycos shouted as bright light and strong winds assaulted his eyes, immediately tearing them up and rendering him momentarily blind. Blinking rapidly to clear his eyes, he observed the bright blue sky stretching out before him. They were already surrounded by pearly white clouds.

“Why are we flying?!” Draycos yelled, thrown about by the wind as he dangled by the chain. Vertex turned his head to look at Draycos but said nothing. Instead, he suddenly dipped into a steep dive and dove into a cloud, accompanied by Draycos’s unpleasant scream. Vertex pulled out of the dive and ascended to their original altitude, dripping wet from the condensation. Each one of his scales sparkled in the sunlight when he craned his neck to the side to view Draycos hanging limply from the chain in a state of half-consciousness, completely soaked and slightly foaming at the mouth. Vertex let out an amused snort.

Draycos shook his head violently and glared at Vertex. “What did you do that for?”

“No reason in particular,” Vertex replied. “I’ll admit that it was amusing to hear you scream like that just now, though.”

“Shut it. Why are we so high up in the air?”

“Most of the government-associated business that the dragons deal with happens up here,” Vertex explained as he turned to look forward, his voice carried back to Draycos by the wind. “We can easily replace or create spots to deal with our business in all the floating rocks above the kingdom, and it’s easy to guard because only dragons can fly up this high, and anything that does get close is spotted fairly quickly.”

“Does that mean the prison we’re going to is also in a floating rock?” Draycos questioned.

Vertex glanced back at Draycos, mildly surprised. “You catch on quickly,” he observed. “By the way, weren’t you extremely angry with the king’s verdict before I knocked you unconscious? Where’s that anger now?”

Draycos grimaced. “Oh, I’m still angry, all right,” he said darkly. “I’m absolutely furious, to be honest. But I realize that nothing I say will change the situation. I might as well wait until something changes the situation.”

“Smart man,” Vertex commented, looking forward again. They flew in silence for a few moments, then Draycos spoke up again. “You know, you’re speaking and acting a lot more relaxed than you were during the trial. Any particular reason for that?”

“Not really,” Vertex snorted. “But when you’re part of a big trial with the King of Dragons involved, you kinda want to be professional about things, right?”

“Solid point.” Draycos spotted a large floating island, larger than the one that the trial had taken place in, peeking out of the clouds ahead of them. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Correct, that is the prison up ahead,” Vertex answered. Even from this distance, Draycos could make out the numerous figures of humanoid dragons flying at attention around the rocky floating island. When they got closer, he could see that they were all carrying vicious-looking two-handed lances with small silver dragon heads on the butts of each lance. There was a crest over their chest plates that looked like a silver kite shield with blue trimmings with three lances exactly like what the guards were holding criss crossed behind it.

Vertex flew closer to the rocky wall of the island until he stopped short just in front of the rock face. He exchanged glances with a nearby guard, who nodded at Vertex and flew farther away. Returning his attention to the rocky face before him, Vertex lifted his right hand in the same gesture as before when he created the throne Theravor sat on during the trial. A square section of the wall lit up and turned white before dissolving into the air, revealing a passageway easily large enough for a dragon to fly through. Vertex proceeded to enter, and the opening in the wall closed behind them, leaving him and Draycos in complete darkness. However, that was only the case for a few seconds, as the walls, ceiling, and floor surrounding them began to light up in beautiful shades of greens and blues. The light was apparently coming from crystals that were just barely showing out from the rock. Draycos couldn’t help but to be amazed by the sight.

“Wow, now that’s beautiful,” Draycos admired. “What is this stuff?”

“It’s a rare mineral that reacts in the presence of magic,” Vertex told him as they flew down the corridor. “Not only does it light up from nearby magic, it’s also incredibly resilient from it, too. It’s the perfect material to use to build a prison where almost all the convicts use magic.”

They flew down the passageway for about thirty seconds or so before another rock wall blocked their progress, this one made entirely of the glowing crystal. Vertex landed on the ground before the wall and dispelled it in a similar fashion as before, and bright sunlight rained through the opening left behind.

“How’d you dispel that wall if the stuff is supposed to be highly resistant to magic?”

“Why should I have to give a convict that answer?” Vertex replied. But something on his right hand sparkled at that moment in the sunlight, and Draycos noticed a silver ring on Vertex’s index talon that he hadn’t noticed before. What sparkled was the gem set in the ring that appeared to be made from the same material as the crystal.

So that’s how he did it, huh? Draycos thought as Vertex stepped through the opening.

Once Draycos’ eyes had readjusted, he could see that a massive cavern opened before him, about five hundred yards wide and tall and a thousand long. There were many creatures milling around on the open ground before them, most of them being dragons, although Draycos spotted a human or another race every now and then. The ceiling was completely hidden by stalagmites of the glowing crystal, and holes of various sizes pocketed the walls of the cavern, ranging from human size to dragon size. Most of the human sized holes appeared to be close or level to the ground. At the other end of the cavern from Vertex, the cave opened up to the open sky. At first Draycos was puzzled by this opening, as any dragon could just fly out through there, but he then spotted a metal ring wrapped around one of the dragons closer to their position, pinning its wings to its back.

I get it. Draycos realized. Nothing but a dragon could probably fly out of here, so by restricting their wings, the guards here don’t have to worry about someone trying to escape through there. Any fool dumb enough to try it will fall to their death.

The wall closed behind them with a loud thud, and all the criminals in the vicinity turned to look in their direction. Hundreds of eyes fell upon Draycos. Uncomfortable due to the glares directed at him, Draycos squirmed slightly in his chains.

Without warning, Vertex unfolded his wings once more and took off, flying towards one of the larger caves about a hundred yards up from the ground. Landing at the entrance, a short hallway greeted them, lit by torches burning with sea-green flames. At the end of the hallway was a large, plain metal door. Vertex drew close and knocked on it with the back of his hand. “Poseidon, it’s me, Vertex.”

“Come in,” a voice croaked from the other side of the door. Vertex turned the handle and opened the door.

Behind it was a room with eight high walls, shaped like an octagon, lit up by a warm fire burning brightly with the same sea-green flames as before to the left. Six of the walls were covered with bookshelves crammed full of scrolls, books, parchment, and ink bottles. Jutting out of the ceiling was a huge formation of the luminous crystal, adding its soft glow to the room. In the middle of the room was a large desk sagging under the weight of the books and scrolls piled on top. A dragon sat behind the desk, writing on a piece of parchment with a claw tip wet with ink.

The dragon was humanoid, and by far the oldest Draycos had seen yet; its dark gold hide was leathery and wrinkled. Its underbelly scales and wing skin was parchment colored, and a pair of spectacles identical to Damrabe’s sat on the dragon’s snout, in front of a set of gold colored eyes. Also, like Damrabe, its head was like that of a Chinese dragon, and a mane of white hair extended from behind its horns, and a tuft of it tipped its tail. It sported a short, white beard.

Poseidon wiped the ink on his talon off on a cloth tacked to the table, took off his spectacles, and looked up at Vertex. “Welcome back, Vertex. In charge of transporting the new prisoners again?”

Vertex grimaced. “You know perfectly well that your grandson should be doing that,” he growled.

“I do,” Poseidon responded. “And where would my grandson be this time?”

“Took off with the king to watch his son in action,” Vertex snorted. “I think he just wanted to get out of seeing you again.”

The aged dragon sighed. “Yes, well, that brat still has more than one problem he needs to sort out, including his own heritage.” Poseidon finally noticed Draycos hanging at Vertex’s side. “I assume this is the new convict?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘convict’ as much as ‘supervised suspect’, but yes, he is. This is Draycos.” Vertex held the chain holding Draycos out in front of him so the old dragon could get a better look. Draycos finally spoke up for the first time since entering the actual compound.

“By grandson, would you happen to mean Damrabe?” Draycos asked.

“Oh, so you already met the lad?” Poseidon responded in surprise, putting his elbows on the table and putting his hands together to rest his large head on.

“I wouldn’t say ‘met’ as much as ‘saw’ him at the trial, but yes, I have,” Draycos answered, intentionally mimicking Vertex. Vertex glared at him while Poseidon unsuccessfully suppressed a laugh.

“I can only imagine how the trial went with this spitfire’s attitude,” he guffawed.

“You have no idea,” Vertex groaned. “He even got smart with the king.”

Poseidon’s hearty laugh filled the small room. “Well, there’s nothing to be done about it now. Still, it’ll be entertaining to have someone with this much sass around in my office for the foreseeable future.”

“Wait, what?” Draycos was thoroughly confused by this comment.

“You heard him,” Vertex told him, lowering Draycos to the ground. “Starting today, Poseidon will be keeping you under watch at all times from now on.”