The Dragonstones Trilogy
Chapter 34

“No!” Sara shifted back into a human and sank to her knees. She felt the pain James felt, but even that dulled, until it disappeared entirely. James was dead. She looked down at James’s dead body, ice cold from the dark magic. “You can’t leave me too! That magic was for me! How could you!” She buried her face in her hands and let the tears run freely. All around her, the battle raged, but it was nothing compared to what was going on inside of her.

Behind her, Sara heard Cole stop moving. “He’s dead,” he said in disbelief.

Sara cried harder. Cole tried to help her up, but she stopped him. “No! Leave me alone!” She let herself cry. She didn’t care what others thought. She didn’t even care if her side won anymore. James was dead, and that was all that mattered.

Someone slapped her, hard. “Sara, pull yourself together. You can grieve later.” Sara looked past her tears to see Cole standing over her. His eyes were dark, but not black, proof he was not being controlled by Aevill. “I can’t,” Sara said.

“You have to. James wouldn’t want you to die along with him.”

Sara looked at Cole in disbelief, and he continued, “Which is what you’ll do if you stay here. You are the only one that can stop Aevill. Don’t let James’s death be for nothing.”

Sara nodded dumbly. “Okay,” she said, standing up. She wiped the tears from her face. She vowed to herself that she would avenge James, no matter what it took.

Sara could feel him behind her. She could feel the evil oozing off of him. Sara turned to see Aevill right behind her. “Last chance to give up, Sara,” Aevill said.

“Never,” Sara snarled. She lunged at him, both the Dragon Stones, and the Lightstone glowing. She shifted back into a dragon and fought with the strength of hundreds, even thousands of dragons. The Lightstone shone brightly, and added warmth and energy to Sara, and light to Aevill, blinding him.

Sara fought with the fury of only one who has lost someone important to them, a loved one. Sara had lost three to Aevill, and she was going to make him pay.

Sara glanced down at Aevill’s wrist. The Shadow Stones were still there. She lunged with her teeth, trying to get them. She missed, and Aevill pulled back. From wherever it was, the Lightstone seemed to sense the Shadow Stones.

Sara shifted back into a human, and watched with interest as the Lightstone and Shadow Stones were drawn, as if magnetically, to each other. Aevill seemed to notice this too. He tore the Shadow Stones off of his wrist, trying to get them to stop moving. Instead, the bracelet went flying toward the Lightstone. Sara grabbed the Shadow Stones before the two stones touched. She put it onto her wrist, away from the Dragon Stones, and the Lightstone. She didn’t know how, but she knew that she couldn’t let the three Stones touch.

Sara looked down at the newest addition to her Stone collection. “And how can I use you?” she asked the Shadow Stones. As if in response, shadows poured out of the bracelet, surrounding Sara in a cocoon of darkness.

Sara heard Aevill’s voice scream, “No!”

And then she was gone.

Sara shot down a shadow tunnel, like the kind she and James had gone through to get to Cole’s house. Even though this tunnel didn’t hurt her, Sara felt pain slice through her as she thought about James. She still couldn’t believe that he was gone. It was a brave thing he had done, but even as Sara felt the tears coming back, she knew she wished he hadn’t saved her life and sacrificed himself. The Lightstone flared angrily, as if it, too, were thinking of James’s untimely death.

Sara landed suddenly on something hard with a grunt. She got up quickly, and looked around. She was in an almost endless valley. Everything was black. The mountains, the gravel, the rocks and boulders. Even the sky was black, blacker than night, with not even a single star.

Sara heard someone whisper behind her. She suddenly turned, but there was nothing there. Someone else whispered this time, to the side of her. Once again, Sara turned and saw nothing. Faraway, a child laughed, though Sara saw no one.

Something was in front of her, but Sara couldn’t tell what it was. She strained her eyes in the darkness, and was able to make out a shadow, a person’s shadow, she realized. Next to it, was another, then another, and another. The entire valley was full of these shadows. Each shadow moved, as if it were alive, as if it were controlled by a real person. With a start, Sara realized that was exactly the case.

Every shadow acted as if it were fighting something, which Sara believed they were. They were fighting for Aevill, whether they wanted to or not. On an impulse, Sara walked past these shadows. She jumped when she heard someone scream, and had to remind herself that there was nothing there, nothing but a magic shadow. In front of her, a shadow fell suddenly to the ground, convulsing as if on the verge of death. Confirming her suspicions, the shadow suddenly fell still, then dissolved. The magician was no more.

Sara shuddered, then walked on. One shadow stabbed a sword into what looked like empty air, but Sara knew that sword had hit something, or more accurately, someone. Sara heard someone yell, like they were in battle. She didn’t know which shadow it came from.

Sara passed more and more shadows, old and young, male and female, alive and dying. Sara didn’t know how long or how far she walked, but she guessed that distance meant nothing in this place anyway. Abruptly, the shadows ended, and a giant castle began. Like everything else in the valley, the castle was of the blackest stone, and reeked of darkness. In this place, darkness had a distinct odor, one Sara could have gone her whole life happy she didn’t have to smell again.

Sara took a deep breath, and walked toward the castle. She approached the two giant doors, and they opened for her. The castle had an eerie, empty feel about it, and Sara had to force herself to go on. Remember James, finish this for him.

Inside the castle was one large room, big enough to take up an entire castle. On the walls were black and silver tapestries and paintings depicting dark magic and magicians. In the middle of the room, floating above a kind of pillar just shorter than Sara, was an orb, made of shadows darker than Sara had ever seen.

As if in a trance, Sara walked toward the orb. She reached for it, then stopped. She had never been meant to use this orb. It was made of dark magic, and she had light. Dark magic had ruined so much in her life, and countless others as well.

In her pocket, the Lightstone glowed, urging her to reach for the shadow orb. Seeing light in such a dark place gave Sara the confidence she needed so desperately. She took a deep breath, and grabbed the shadow orb. Suddenly, shadows surrounded her.

Sara felt like she was in the mind of every living shadow magician at once. She could feel Cole’s guilt at attacking Sara. She could feel the happiness killing others brought some magicians. She could feel one girl, who was at home, sick in bed. She could barely move, and yet the pull to be where Sara and the others were was so painful, she had no chance but to try. Sara could feel the girl’s confusion at what was happening, and Sara could relate.

Finally, Sara reached the darkest mind of all: Aevill’s. She had imagined what his diseased mind was like a few times, but never could she have foreseen this. Aevill thrived off of evil deeds, done by both dark magicians, and evil humans. Aevill encouraged humans to do evil because humans were the race that produced magic according to their deeds. If they did good, there was more energy for the light magicians. If they did evil, more energy there was for Aevill, allowing him to live longer because of dark magic.

Aevill feared Sara, because of what a young dragon, Smolder had said. Smolder had told him that one day, his reign would end, that he would die at the hands of a dragon. Sara was that dragon. Aevill was certain of it, and so was Smolder. Aevill could not stand the thought that a young girl, barely older than a child, could kill him, an immortal sorcerer.

Aevill was happy he had killed the boy, James. He had rejoiced more than any other when he had seen the pain it had brought Sara.

Sara felt more than heard a question in her mind. The Shadow Stones were hers now, and how would she use them? Somehow, Sara knew that she could not kill Aevill just by using the Shadow Stones. She could kill every dark magician in the world, except for him. He was too ancient, too powerful.

Sara thought for a moment, then thought about how she could limit the dark magicians’ powers. The shadow orb grew, and seemed to get darker as it showed her how to do it. Sara closed her eyes as the Shadow Stones showed her what to do.

She opened her eyes, and immediately got to work. She kept a firm hold on the shadow orb, and pictured the shadows leaving every magician, including Aevill. She had to do it individually, one magician at a time. Sara started with the weaker ones, then gradually worked her way up. When she reached Cole, Sara paused. She knew that she couldn’t rid the world of dark magic entirely. She knew now that dark and light were simply two parts of life. What the magician did was up to them. The shadow orb grew darker as Sara realized she could not take away the magic from every dark magician, but she could leave it with people she trusted.

Sara ignored Cole, and went on, taking magic from all the other magicians. Sara paused once again. Cole couldn’t be the only dark magician in the world. She needed to replace others like Cole, others who wouldn’t abuse that power.

Sara closed her eyes, and searched for someone who had no evil intentions, yet knew how to control that power. She searched with her mind, brushing the other dark magicians’ while doing so. Finally, she found it. There were very few in the world that would use dark magic for good, but they were there, and they were the ones Sara gave the magic to.

Sara opened her eyes, and took the power from every shadow magician, except for Cole, a few others, and Drana, James’s sister. Those were the only people Sara knew she could trust, even if she had never met some of them. Sara shuddered at the amount of power she was giving to those individuals, but it couldn’t be helped. There had to be some dark magic in the world.

Sara continued on with her work, until she was done with everyone except for Aevill. In her mind, she saw the valley of shadows she had passed through earlier. She didn’t know how she had missed it earlier. Aevill’s shadow was enormous, towering over every other shadow there, darker than any other shadow there.

She took a deep breath, then imagined all the dark magic from Aevill’s shadow going into the Shadow Stones, where it rightly belonged. It took much longer than Sara would have expected, but Aevill’s magic had been there for more years than anyone could count. Of course it would not leave quickly, easily.

Sara didn’t know how long it took, whether it was a matter of seconds or days, but finally it was done. Aevill’s powers were gone, his shadow the size of a normal man. Seeing that shadow in her mind, Sara nodded with satisfaction. Her work was done, almost.

Sara released the shadow orb, letting it go. “Thank you,” she said to it as she left the castle. As she entered the valley, Sara looked around and noticed the distinct lack of shadows. In a sudden burst of insight, Sara understood. This valley was reserved for the shadows of dark magicians only, and now that Sara had taken the dark magicians’ power, those shadows would no longer reside in the valley. Sara looked, but only saw very few shadows. She recognized Drana’s, along with Aevill’s.

Seeing that last shadow filled Sara with fear. She would still have to fight, even kill Aevill. She wasn’t sure that she could. Aevill was much older, much more experienced than she was. Sara shook herself. She had to kill him, if she wanted to rid the world of its greatest evil, if she wanted James to not have died for a lost cause.

Sara looked up at the black sky, now full of gray clouds. “I’m ready to leave,” she said, trying to reach the Shadow Stones. She must have succeeded, because shadows surrounded her once again, sending her through another shadow tunnel.

Sara hit the ground, hard. She took a moment to look around, and catch her breath. The battle was still going, but the dark magicians had either fled, or died. The remaining dark magicians still fought the light creatures, though they seemed confused and worried now that their powers weren’t working.

Sara felt his presence behind her, just as malicious as it had ever been, but somehow not as powerful as before. Sara turned to see Aevill behind her. His eyes were dark, yet vacant, and his skin had an unhealthy pallor about it. He looked like he had aged years in minutes.

“What are you waiting for? Kill me!” His words seemed to take all the energy he could muster, but a crazy look had come into his eyes, or maybe it was a glimpse of sanity that Sara had never seen before.

Sara shifted into a dragon, her claws shining with her bright green venom. Aevill spoke again, this time he seemed to have regained at least some of his sanity, insanity, whatever it was. “All that power, all for me, but only if I destroyed everyone else, but it felt so good. It felt like it was meant for me, but it wasn’t. It never was. My life is over. I know that now.” As Sara tried to make sense of Aevill’s babbling, she thought back to when she had first met James, how he had explained how dark magic worked. Most dark magicians weren’t born evil. Cole was proof of that. Instead, their magic was tainted, giving them power when they used it for evil. The more magic they used, the darker they became, the harder it was to resist the urges to do something they normally wouldn’t have done. Some very powerful dark magicians never turned crazy, much less evil. Aevill was simply a case where he was strong, but not enough to resist the magic he had been born with.

Aevill aged again, much faster than was natural for anyone. In a matter of moments, Aevill went from age 50 to 80.

Remorse flooded his next words. “All those years, of killing, trying to be immortal, when that is not the way of life.” Aevill’s gaze became distant. “All that time, wasted.” He looked at her now, completely serious. “Kill me now. Make that young dragon’s words come true. Avenge that boy over there!” Aevill pointed to where James had fallen, but where James had been, there was a dome of bright white light.

Even as a dragon, Sara felt the tears in her eyes as she thought about James. Aevill spoke in a whisper, “Remember James.”

After those words, Sara took a deep breath, then tried not to think about what she was going to do. I’m sorry. She told him as she backed up to get a running start. She could have imagined it, but she thought she heard Smolder’s voice. One day, Aevill will die, and it will be at the hands of a dragon. Sara paused, then ran straight at Aevill, trying to ignore the sickening squelching noise she made when her claws dug into Aevill’s flesh, leaving bright green, steaming wounds.

Aevill’s face contorted with pain, but his eyes were grateful. “Thank you,” he whispered, as the venom spread throughout his body, making his veins an eerie green color. In a matter of seconds, Aevill was dead, killed by the last dragon.