Chapter 1

Far North of the Storm Sea Kingdom

City of Asthera, Ice Spine Capital

The man-shaped being entered the halls of the Queen’s Egg chamber. Its scaled lizard’s tail dragged behind the messenger with a quiet rasping on the smooth stone floor, the only sound he could hear. Usually, the wind could be heard whistling through the halls and chambers of the citadel. Today, the air was still and silent. The messenger wasn’t happy about the news he carried. The queen would most likely have his corpse ground up and sent to the butcher for what he brought. He looked up at the female of his species and shuddered in lust. The males were only slightly larger than the humans. The females were many times the size of any male. Since their arrival in this pathetic world, the present queen was the largest recorded ever. She lay on a platform, covering dozens of feet in height and many times more in length. He stopped at the line on the floor and bowed to her. He waited as she completed expelling an egg from her lower torso. It was quickly collected by several waiting attendants and carried away.

She had seen this one enter and knew he was sent to die with the news he carried. “Stop with the formalities. What is the news you carry?” she demanded in a preemptive tone. He remained bowed, refusing to look up as he spoke. “My queen, I have word from the southern mountain cuts. The flooding has blocked the entire wall, from the eastern ocean to the west.”

“I am aware of this. Continue,” the queen said.

“Something has gone wrong in the breeder camps, my queen. None of the human women are making it to delivery. All have lost every food child for the last two moon cycles. The men are making them with child, but all lose them by the end of a moon cycle.” He wanted to back away, but he knew trying that would shorten his life even more. “Without new sources, the meat supply will run short in a little over a year.” The Lizard Queen lifted her eyes, looking directly at the messenger. “Has any attempt been made to find out the cause of the failed birthings?” demanded the brooder queen.

“It seems the flooding has released a spore or toxin that we can’t identify. It has caused miscarriages at all of the camps.” He waited, but the killing blow did not fall.

When she next spoke, it was in the slow, deadly, cold speech of their kind,

“How long until the mountain roads are re-opened?” she demanded, squirming on her platform. Her rage was building to the point that she would kill anyone close to her. She had to resist the urge on this one. The messenger had to deliver her orders to the camps.

“My queen,” he took an involuntary step back from the raging snake woman. “The desert cuts report they will have theirs opened in approximately four more moon cycles. The rest have reported that the collapse was so long and deep, it will take up a full year to re-open the passages south.” He waited, and still, the blow did not fall.

She remained silent, thinking, shivering in rage over what was happening to the breeder humans in the camps. Her race had arrived in this world after encountering a species of tremendous power and technology. The memories carried by the females of her species laid it out plainly. They were defeated, cut down to a single queen and a handful of breeder males. The Vampires had driven them off every world they had previously conquered.

This new species they had encountered was building a new colony world to move to. The world builders had other problems, though. The star of their home was dying. They had several worlds they had built for the migration to safety. Several flaws had crept in during construction that made Gardallen unsuitable for them. They consigned her race to this world, a prison they would never escape. The being ran a finger across the map, raising a wall of mountains across the entire length of the continent. “North of the wall is yours; don’t stray south, or you will regret it.” As he traced the line on the map, a wall of energy appeared in the northern mountain ranges. “To attempt to move to the southern range, you will die.” The creature waved a hand before the queen and her few workers.

The queen blinked; now, she was standing on an icy plain with the remainder of her people. ‘A bit warm,’ she thought, ‘but it could be worse.’ They began building the first nest on this new world, a world that would be home and prison. Sometime in the distant future, they could escape and swarm out among the stars.

When several things happened in rapid succession, the Ice Spine had only begun to recover, ten queens and a few thousand males. A Bridge portal opened, and thousands of humans and other races poured through it, fleeing the destruction of some different universe. Another event was the sudden activation of a door. The door that led to the mythical Star Walk. The problem with the door was that it was half a world away, sitting on the ice sheets of the south. This proved to be useless to them. Her race could not stand saltwater. Saltwater dried the skin under the scales. Also, the warning of certain death to move south of the wall of mountains prevented them from traveling south. The first queen had sent an elderly worker to the mountain to cross. His body exploded in a flash of white light.

She snapped her thoughts back to the present. “Take word back to the nearest cut, tell them to clear it, and send gatherers out to bring as many breeders as possible. Bring the males as well; they will also serve as food. Go.” She dismissed the messenger with a sharp snap and wave of her tail.

He didn’t say a word; he just backed away until outside her tail’s range. He turned and ran as fast as his legs would go. He was still living, an unheard-of thing when bad news was delivered.

Weena

Weena was still a blank slate from the drug she had been forced to ingest. Yet she would see and hear things from far away occasionally. She would have thought she would be free of this nightmare in those brief moments. She knew she had lost a third child, but she didn’t understand the real meaning of these events. Her mind was clouded, and thinking was barely possible. She worked hard, pulling the cart each day. Her back always burned painfully from the whippings she would receive if the drivers felt she wasn’t pulling hard enough.

She had just been released from the breeder stalls. The mark had changed again, showing she was with another child. Those in charge were disturbed by events. The continued loss of infants was causing fear in those in charge. Weena would know in a few days if she would carry the child. She had begun noticing that the drug had started to wear off. Occasionally, she began to recall places and faces, but she couldn’t understand them. She worked hard for the masters, servicing the men as they demanded. She was digging and hauling stones from the tunnels when not in the pens. That was her world for now, but somewhere deep inside, a faint, tiny voice cried in despair, a voice that was once her own. Today was different. Today, Weena remembered her name.

Far across space, in another realm.

An Ancient Wizard was looking out into the space between worlds. His silent reverie was shattered when a sudden flash of magical energy blinded him for a second. He did not panic, nor did he hurry. He looked at the shelves that held several hundred tomes of magic spells he could cast. He pulled down a smaller magic spell tome, placed it on a reading stand, and began flipping through the pages for what he needed. Once he located the spell, he gathered the ingredients needed for the casting. He noted the danger markings in the spell. He would need the air mask to protect himself from the fumes as the powders burned. The spell was long and complex to cast. His apprentices would assist him for the three hours it would take to prepare the casting. He made sure the others had their own protection from the fumes. They began casting a spell at sunrise, allowing him to track the unknown energy source. When the casting was completed, locating the source of the level ten flash of energy he had witnessed took little time. He searched his records and did not find any reference to this world. He began to study it from his tower and soon began to see what had transpired. He was searching for anything useful when he spotted two energy signs. One he understood right away. It was an old bag of holding from a long lost and destroyed world. The other, though, sent shivers of fear down his spine. It was a living weapon. This weapon was known in the oldest tomes he had read. A vampire sword, a weapon of terrible power. He wrote down everything he could find and prepared the documents to be sent to the council. He knew he was too old for that kind of adventure. Let those greedy fools try and recover the sword. He knew what would happen to anyone who wanted to take that weapon in hand.

The Star Walk

The flash of energy had been a shock to the ancient Vampire. He recovered and studied the situation and how things had changed in Gardallen. As he looked out across the world with the power now available, he found something that made him shiver in terror. The sword. The one weapon that could kill him with a single touch. The vampire sword. He closed the door and continued to prepare his forces from the world he had enslaved.

The tools were nearly ready to begin cutting through the wall of ice. The ancient Vampire had a new worry. He would open the door every few days to look at the situation when the message from his minion finally reached him. ‘Ice Spines on this world.’ was all that was sent. He closed the door. This was the worst of all the information he could have received. The sword would have to wait until this new threat was dealt with. He needed to reach his brothers and sisters, to gather them for another war against their worst enemy. He began the sending.

Aco

Aco sat before Master Poe, telling him what she had done once while attempting to go to the Ice Spine. “I was in one place, then there was a brief blur, then I was across the room blocking the door.” She sagged, “I have tried repeatedly to duplicate the move, but I have been unable to so far.” She glanced around the gym, wondering if others were listening to her story. If so, they must have thought she had lost her mind. As Aco glanced around, she noted that all the old oil lanterns had been replaced with the new pin lamps Ledger had designed. They gave off an even, bright light. They also eliminated the danger of a fire starting in the old building.

Master Poe sat silently, considering what Aco had told him. He had expected new talents to begin showing after restoring the Weave. “You have an untapped talent that came out at a time of great need.” He rapped his knuckles on the wooden arm of the chair he was sitting in to focus her attention on him. “Aco, you need a stronger incentive to bring it out again.” He stood and motioned for her to follow as he turned to leave this small practice room. He led her back to the main training hall, where dozens of students were attending class and sparring. Master Poe removed his wood-soled sandals and bowed to one of the smaller training mats. He bowed, turned, and moved to the center to wait for Aco to do the same.

Aco was hesitant. She was not dressed for sparring. She had come in one of her dance suits for comfort. This one was the whole-body stocking. It was made of fine, black silk with silver threads woven to give it a shimmering effect on stage. The arms had wide, loose sleeves that held any masks she might have needed for the act. She had brought the big smile, the rage, and the dragon with her for this meeting.