Book 5: The Heart of The Eruption

    “The core of this eruption? Where the Dark Heart would be?” Brixaby repeated, visibly shocked. “Are you certain that’s wise?”@@@@

    That took Arthur by surprise. He had expected he would have to physically hold Brixaby back the moment he mentioned it. He couldn’t even remember the last time his dragon asked for caution.

    “Brixaby, what’s wrong?” he asked slowly.

    His dragon’s tongue flicked in and out, and he seemed to be at war with himself. “The air is more than foul here. It is . . . damaging to you especially, and your arm is already bleeding. I do not like the scent of your blood,” he said. “Also, I can see that map just as well as you can. The very center complex is on the edge of how far you could safely travel using your Phase In, Phase Out card.”

    He lowered his voice. “Why do we not come back when you are more rested? Perhaps we can harvest other nests. I will have a chance to make more weapons, and you will not be hurt.”

    Brixaby did have some good points, but . . .

    Arthur shook his head. “We don’t know if we’re going to get another chance to leave the hive. I’m not sure if I can trust a secret like this to stay secret. The leaders have pointed out they pay attention to what’s going on in the hive. This might have been our only chance to get away. Plus . . . Brixaby, this is a golden opportunity. If there are any clues as to why eruptions are happening more and more often, it would be at the heart.”

    “More frequent eruptions make it easier to pay off the blood price.”

    “I don’t care about the blood price! It’s nothing in the long run.” Arthur slashed his hand through the air. “Look, I know it’s on the edge of the safe zone, but I can make it to the core.”

    “Yes,” he said dryly. “That is if the card is providing you with an accurate map.”

    Arthur stared at him. He had never known Brixaby to turn away from a source of power like this, and he suspected Brixaby didn’t particularly care about the blood price, either. Other than avoiding it. He had just used it as an excuse. No, there had to be something else.

    “What’s really bothering you?” Arthur asked.

    For a moment, he wasn’t sure if Brixaby was going to reply. But then he let out a long gusting breath. “Even if you do not run out of time and reappear within the rock, it will still take me some minutes to portal in after you. I do not know what is in the core of the eruption—and I do not know what you will face alone. Surely, whatever’s there is more dangerous than a simple nest that hadn’t managed to mature in time. And,” he said, very reluctantly, “I don’t believe I can follow you if I were to use the Phase In, Phase Out myself. Humans are generally faster at short sprints than dragons are on the ground. It is not as if I can fly through solid rock.”

    For the same reason Arthur could not picture himself swimming through it. There was a limit to his imagination.

    Arthur was oddly touched. He knew his dragon’s greed for power and new cards generally didn’t have any boundaries. Now he knew that line ended with the singular exception of himself.

    Arthur took a different tack. “I don’t know what I’ll face there, but I’m good at stalling for time. And look at the map, Brixaby. There are several nests along the way to the center of the eruption. There’s one really close. If I can’t make it, I’ll go to one of those nests. Then I’ll stall with the nest tenders.”

    Normally, he would be up for taking his time and harvesting as they went, getting closer and closer to the center with every new nest. Except the bad air would eventually become too much for his healing card and Brixaby’s draconic resistance.

    Also, Arthur needed to get his wing back to Blood Moon Hive before anybody in charge started asking pointed questions. Or worse, launched a search.

    Brixaby wavered, shifting his weight from foot to foot in an outward display of his inner discomfort. Finally, he said “I agree,” though he did not look happy about it.

    “Okay, I’ll go in when I have a full charge again on the Phase In, Phase Out.” That was at least twenty minutes away. Meanwhile . . .” He gestured to the still-unharvested ovoids and the nest tenders.

    Brixaby immediately brightened. This cavern was smaller than the previous one, and it didn’t take as long to harvest it. Though they ended up with thirty-three more Uncommon shards for their effort.

    For lack of anything else to do, Arthur sat down, crossed his legs, and sank into his Meditation skill. He used it to clear his mind and focus on every step he would need to make before he headed to the center.

    “We must destroy this,” he said. “This is evil.”

    And Arthur realized that a part of him didn’t want to. He wanted to study the heart, and he felt . . . weirdly protective of it?

    That snapped him out of a half trance he hadn’t even realized he’d fallen into.

    “Yes,” he croaked. His voice was rusty, as if he’d been screaming, but it was just this toxic air. He cleared his throat and tried again. This time, he sounded a little better. “Yes, but there are shards in that thing. I think if we detach it from the veins we’ll kill it, but I have to harvest it now. If we don’t, those shards will be lost.”

    He wasn’t quite sure how he knew that, and Brixaby didn’t seem to be in the mood to ask. He just nodded once and buzzed forward, pulling out his ridiculously big chopping sword.

    Arthur lurched toward the heart. Luckily the cavern was narrow, and he was able to place one hand to the wall to steady himself, because he couldn’t even feel his legs.

    He took one stumbling step after another, and as he grew close, his skin began prickling with needles.

    Grimacing, he reached out to gesture for the shards, but somehow, his hand fell into the heart without meaning to. It had the consistency of wet butter. The prickling redoubled, and when he yanked his hand back . . . his skin was red as if it had been sunburned.

    But his fingers clutched a handful of shards. Some stuck into his skin, the points drawing pinpricks of blood.

    There was something different about these shards, too. They were smaller and oddly shaped, but he didn’t have time to figure it out. His Master of Cards seemed to sing. He just grabbed a bucket from his Personal Space, and some gloves, though he wasn’t sure how much they would help, and tossed them in.

    Then he reached for more. Again and again.

    Meanwhile, Brixaby buzzed back and forth, cutting the core free. With every slice, his chops immediately went dark.

    With the extra sense granted to him from the Master of Cards and Shard Insight, he felt many of the shards inside go dark, too.

    I can’t lose them, he thought desperately, and thrust his hand in again, grabbing more and more. Even as shards popped out of existence within the heart, the ones that Arthur removed in time were safe.

    He managed three more handfuls before Brixaby yelled, “Arthur, I have one more left!”

    Arthur looked up. Brixaby had managed to neatly snip through all of the supporting veins except for the last: the largest and main vein that went straight up. Many parts of the heart had gone dark, and the cavern was in half a shadow.

    Arthur resisted the urge to get one more handful—he couldn’t feel his fingers, and that couldn’t be a good sign. He backed up a few paces. “Do it.”

    Brixaby flew in, wielding the sword, and cut. The heart fell.

    As it landed, it exploded into a blue fire blast. Arthur was struck and flung back against the far wall. The terrible air was knocked out of his lungs.

    But worse, far worse, was the strike to the inside. It was like a blow to his very soul, an explosion both inside his head and heart deck.

    And he knew no more.