<< Go Back

The Last Dragoneer (The Chronicles of Susah Book 3)

By CD Sutherland

Order Now!

CHAPTER 1 – A SEA OF BLOOD

I NEVER IMAGINED a hell like this. Struggling to keep my balance on the back of a dying sea turtle awash in an endless sea of slippery blood, I watched myriad tormented souls bobbing up and down in the churning current. Barely glowing, like dimly lit lanterns using their last bit of fuel, they’d abandoned all hope. Sadly, I knew them all. Many of their faces matched those of the dragoneers and soldiers who had once foolishly trusted me to protect them. Others were those of the citizens I had seen during my few visits to Sethopolis. The worst of it was they all knew me. Amidst the continuous groaning, they called my name.
“Susah, Susah, Susah please help me.”
Each cry was an individual plea for assistance. They either lacked concern for each other or they somehow knew only I had the ability to help them. Why me? What could I do? There was not enough room on the turtle’s back to hold anyone else. Where else could they go? As far as I could see, everywhere was an infinite sea of undulating crimson. The sky offered no clues. A scattered mist of pink and rust broke the fuchsia canopy. Death was in the air, assaulting my nostrils. With some regularity, a short-lived flash from somewhere way up high would spit a stream of amaranth-red into the crimson sea. After each bloody plume had collapsed, yet another familiar voice was added to the wailing chorus.
“Susah, please help me.”
How did they know I was here? I was just a small dot being tossed about in a vast ocean. My plight wasn’t much better than the one they found themselves in. I was powerless to help myself. Why would they call to me? From their perspective, I supposed I appeared secure. Struggle as they did, the slippery blood prevented them from gaining a firm grip on my precarious refuge. With each new pulse of the current, they were flushed away from me, leaving only their wailing as they disappeared behind the moving ridges of the choppy sea. But I was never alone. The vanquished were quickly replaced with a new crust of sorrowful souls scratching at the edges of my sea turtle.
“Susah, please help me.”
I knew the woman calling to me. Her face was familiar, but I couldn’t remember her name. I said, “I will try.”
“Will you?” said a silky smooth voice from behind me. I turned to discover the towering neck of a leviathan. Tilting my head back, I saw the face of Lorus, but it wasn’t him. He batted his eyes and moved his head lower. “Are you lying or do you truly desire to help them? You can’t help anyone, without my help.”
I pivoted on the unsteady shell and faced the immense sea beast. Fearing the worst while hoping for the best, I said, “What does a leviathan know about anything?”
“Nothing,” he said with a hiss. “But Abaddon knows everything.”
“No!” I shouted as I raised my fist. “It is too soon.”
“You couldn’t even explain such a simple concept as the power of my disembodied spirit to a stupid sea serpent. From your confused expression, maybe you still don’t understand it, which only proves angels, fallen or not, are clearly your superiors. Why do you bother resisting me?”
“You are powerless,” I said, more wishful than certain.
“Wrong again, Susah.” The beast wagged his head, and pushed his huge scale-covered snout close enough for me to touch it. Sulfur assaulted my nostrils. “I am most powerful. You should join me.”
“Never!” I folded my arms in defiance as tormented souls bumped into and bounced off the turtle’s shell. Fear of Abaddon caused their eyes to swell to the size of saucers and hushed their moans.
“Yes you will, Susah. And it’s easy, so very easy. Just worship me, and I’ll free you from all this struggle.”
“I’ve already won,” I said, waving my left hand at him. “You’re just a false vision, haunting my dreams. Right now you’re stuck in the belly of Lorus. He’ll spit you out on a sandbar somewhere in the Southern Sea in a day or two. It is there the ogre’s body you’ve possessed will starve and die. You’ll die alone. If you’re lucky, your dying carcass will attract a hungry fly or maggot, which can house your spirit for a while, but eventually you’ll just dissolve into the divide. From there, you can go to hell, which is where you belong.”
“Susah, my confused little dragoneer, all of that is over. So much time has passed, and you don’t remember it at all. Probably for the better as it wasn’t so nice for you.”
“No, I didn’t miss anything. I must be sleeping back in Skipper’s cabin, now mine. You’ve invaded my sleep with a deceptive vision. None of this is real.” I brushed my hand over my arm and noticed that the fine hair had clumped together where blood had spattered and partially dried. When I pulled at those clumps, some of the hairs plucked out of my flesh. It sure felt real.
“Poor Susah. You don’t remember. My navy’s warships intercepted your ship. Those soldiers you trusted surrendered without a fight. Colonel Rek switched sides as Cainites always do. They subjugate themselves to those with strength as they have none of their own. Unfortunately, my overzealous ogres treated you too roughly for you to survive. After languishing from your wounds, you died seven days ago.”
“No,” I whispered. Was he telling me the truth? I looked down at the large bruises covering my legs. Maybe I had been savaged. If so, I didn’t want to remember.
“It’s true.” The thick scales around his powerful mouth pulled back into a smile. Leviathans don’t smile, but this was no longer a simple sea monster. It was Abaddon’s new body. “But don’t give up all hope. In your own way, you gave me this new body. What was his name? Oh, I remember, Lorus, silly name. I’m using his soul as a footstool until I release him, which will be never. I like this new body, so strong, so invincible so much better than my previous husk. It’s only fair that I return the favor, providing you do one small thing for me.”
“Just one?” I asked. “What would that be?”
“Worship me.”
An eerie silence fell over the seascape. The stoic souls bobbed in a soundless sea. In contrast, my whisper was as a shout, “No.”
“Worship me. I can make all this pain leave you. Just surrender. I’ll give you a new body and a new life. I’m going to win anyway. Why would you choose pain, when you can have comfort?”
“You’re not going to win,” I said.
“You can’t stop me.”
“God will,” I said. “I know He will.”
“Why do you choose to believe in the invisible man in the sky? He doesn’t exist.”
“You know He exists, and you probably trembled when He cast you out of heaven along with Satan and those other angels who rebelled. Only a fool says in his heart, there is no God.”
“You’re assuming I have a heart.”
“Without a creator, there could be no creation,” I said. “You might as well say that we don’t exist.”
“Your belief comforts you, good for you,” he said. “But you can’t really see Him? Can you?”
“After my soldiers removed your head, you were invisible as you roamed looking for a new body. Visibility isn’t a requirement for existence.”
He lifted his towering scaly neck back up and away from me as he said, “Oh, Susah. You’ve been confused. There are many gods. There are other worlds with other gods, but I am the one assigned to this world. You must worship me.”
“There is only one Creator. He didn’t need any help. He won’t surrender His kingdom to you or anyone else. He wouldn’t want me to worship you.”
“Susah, you’ve been influenced by many well-meaning people. Maybe they missed something. Such as, where your God is now?”
“You know He is in heaven, but He sees all, knows all, and you can’t beat Him.”
“Silly girl, I’m not trying to beat Him. Who could hope to achieve such a lofty goal? What about you? Have you noticed how so many unfortunate events occur in your life? If God knows all about these things, then it must be that He doesn’t really care much about what happens to you or your friends. Why has He rejected you?”
His words caused me to pause. Had God rejected me? Looking at my plight, awash in a sea of blood, common logic would suggest I wasn’t exactly in the good graces of God. Why would He let this happen? The answer came to me in something like a whisper.
If God had rejected you, then you are without value. If you have no value, then why would a fallen angel bother with you?
Then I knew it. God had not rejected me.
“What about you?” I said. “Have you noticed how many unfortunate events occur in your life?”
Abaddon pulled back from me and said, “What do you mean?”
“Your army of giants folded like cheap paper when humanity took a stand against them. Do you think that was fortunate, and don’t you consider the time invested into creating the race of giants as wasted?”
“Not at all,” he said. “The Nephilim race was pure genius on my part; however, the ogres were disappointing, too much free will in them.” He tightened his countenance and showed me his teeth. “Does it please you to hear me admit a mistake? Rest assured I won’t repeat that folly.”
“Didn’t it hurt?”
“Didn’t what hurt?”
“When your head was shot off. At the time, you appeared quite surprised,” I said with a smirk. “It did hurt. Doesn’t that suggest you might be on the wrong side?”
Abaddon churned about in the crimson tide, rocking my turtle from side to side. His discomfort made me feel bolder. He said, “I’ve been caught on the wrong side before. Following Satan was a mistake, but I’ve compensated for that. Now what about you? How do you like God’s will for your life? It’s bloody hell, isn’t it?”
“I refuse to question God’s will.”
“Eventually,” he said. “You’ll question everything.”
“Eventually,” I said. “You’ll burn in hell.”
His eyes tightened, then he smirked and said, “Susah, I am the fire of hell. Look around you. Know where you are? This is Hell.” He lifted his head upward and spewed a burst of flame high into the sky. “I am the only one who can help you. As the god of this world, I can forgive you for your disobedience and return you to a pleasant life. All you have to do is worship me.”
I dropped my head and gazed about. The bobbing spirits were filled with fear and were devoid of all hope. A moment of doubt scratched at my heart. Abaddon was good at lying, but I’d been lied to by worse than him. This wasn’t real, but it wasn’t just a dream. I took a deep breath, trying to force myself to relax, then another, and another.
Must relax.
Between the layers of sound and textures, I felt something clinging to my ears and eyes. I caught a little glimpse of vapor-like tendrils stretching from beyond the bloody horizon to me. I grasped the ones attached to my eyes and pulled at them. Pulses of energy were flowing into my body, into my mind, and altering my perceptions. Rubbing the scar on my chin, I remembered the last time I’d been fooled by a fallen angel. Believing I was wiser than I had been, I vowed this time would be different.
By breathing slowly, I forced myself to relax. I whispered, “If you are the god of this world, then you probably have some of my friends. Do you?”
“I have them all.” Abaddon smiled broadly and said, “If you worship me, I’ll let you take some of them with you. Do you want one or two?”
“So generous of you,” I said. “Have my friends worshipped you?”
“Yes, they all bowed and sang my praises.”
“Did they surrender all to you?”
“Everything.”
“So, you know everything about them?”
Abaddon didn’t answer. I sensed his suspicion of my question.
“Is Advac here?”
“Yes, but she’s busy with a few of my spirit servants right now. I’d hate to slow their fun.” He laughed. “Would you like to give her a message?” He batted his eyes and forced a mocking smile at me. His effort to enrage me was a distraction. I placed my dragoneering gift at the ready, anticipating his imminent attack.
“No message for her, but I do have a question for you.”
“Question?”
“Advac told me she had a dream. Tell me what it was.”
He showed his teeth as a low growl rumbled inside of him. In response, my power swelled inside of me, and I became impatient for his attack. With something akin to a suicidal impulse, I wanted to battle him.
“If Abaddon is all powerful, then certainly he’d know the answer to such an easy question. Tell me the dream.”
He arched his neck, glared down at me and blew sulfur-laden smoke out of his nose.
“Tell me,” I said with a smirk.
He whipped his head back, and then lunged down at me with a blast of fire. Anticipating his attack, I summoned my dragoneering power to create a barrier above me. The fire swirled all about my protective shield, bouncing off the turtle’s shell and igniting the wailing souls in the crimson sea around me. Their screams were nearly deafening, but I felt no heat from the fire. I sliced at the tendrils on my eyes and ears, and the bloody hell around me faded in and out. Abaddon roared, but as the tendrils fell off my ears the noise left me.
Abaddon’s massive tail slammed the sea turtle out from under me, knocking me into the air. Before I plunged into the swirling sea, I extended my dragoneering power to form a small boat to catch me. The unholy tendrils flailed about trying to reconnect with me as the leviathan swatted my mental fusion boat. I knew the tail was just a distraction as the real threat was those vaporous tendrils.
With each failed attempt to connect with me, the vision faded more and more.
“You’re just a stupid dream!” I shouted. “You’re just a false vision, a weak attempt to fool me from your prison in the watery abyss. Abaddon, you’ve failed.” The tendrils pulled away from me, withdrawing toward the horizon. Abaddon’s real world plight was too much for him to continue his assault on me.
But the dream did not end. The mighty leviathan roared so loudly, I feared my eardrums might burst. After lifting his head high into the inky sky, he slammed his snout down upon my boat causing it to tilt so steeply that I feared it would capsize. I struggled to keep my balance, hoping it was all a dream. It had to be a dream. With the tendrils gone, the dream was entirely my own mind assaulting me. Why would I do this to myself? Again he struck my boat with a resounding thud that shook my body.
Escaping my bloody nightmare’s grip, I sat up in the darkness, drenched with my own sweat. Wiping the salty sting from my eyes, I found myself on top of an oversized bunk. When I had claimed Skipper’s vacant bed, I’d been cold. I’d gone to sleep wearing my dark green, long-sleeved cloak over my collarless pullover and canvas trousers. Evidently, I had discovered warmth. I wiped more sweat from my face and pushed my hair back. What a dream that was.
Abaddon was nowhere to be seen. Good. The dream had seemed so real. It had left the sensation of many deaths still lingering near my soul. Bile burned the back of my throat. My neck and shoulders were cramped from tension, and my heart raced. I had hoped I would have conquered fear after surviving my epic ordeal, but fear is a foe not easily vanquished.
Common logic suggested I should be governed by bravery after defeating Abaddon’s army of Nephilim, ogres and trolls. They’d done their worst to me. I had endured them taking me prisoner, killing my comrades and torturing me. Facing my own death gave me a greater appreciation of all life. Providence spared me, but my overconfidence and bungling resulted in the death of many of my rescuers. Making matters worse, the Cainites took advantage of my naivety and robbed my comrades of their freedom. All of this was under the shadow of Abaddon’s unholy spirit as he body-hopped amongst the unaware.
Notwithstanding all that trouble, I managed to make a new ally. Colonel Rek, who had originally deceived me, eventually joined forces with me to defeat Abaddon. For a short while, I found comfort thinking I had one person I could trust.
Colonel Rek not only explained my dragoneer power to me, but he was also helpful in capturing the ship. My Sethican soldiers and I weren’t knowledgeable of the ship’s navigation and propulsion technologies. I wondered how long it would have taken for us to figure it out. Even the foul ogres, who had controlled the ship for centuries, depended on Cainite contractors for those functions. Back in Sethica, I’d been taught the Cainites were my enemies, but once Abaddon was defeated, they quickly behaved as friends. I wondered if we’d misunderstood them all along.
After our victory, everything had stabilized and was under control before I retired to the lower decks to shower and sleep. My soldiers were celebrating with the Cainite fighters as the good ship Methuselah sped northward to the Gihon River. Yawning, I realized I couldn’t have been asleep more than a few hours. That liar, Abaddon told me a week had passed. As sure as my victory seemed, I feared I wasn’t completely done with him.
Rejoicing that the bloody sea of my vision was gone, I noticed the wobbling motion of the waves persisted. Something was wrong. Why had the ship stopped its forward motion? More than I needed sleep, I needed to know why the ship had stopped. Who had ordered this? Did we have an engine failure?
I stepped off the bunk. The metal floor was cold on my feet, so I slipped back into my buckle boots before moving toward the door. They were tall enough to reach my knees, but I always folded the tops down to make them mid-calf tall.
I needed some answers. And I needed to get away from the sensation of death, which was lingering too long for it to have been just a dream. Reaching for the door, something exploded.
BLAM! I jerked my hand back. Was this just another dream? I grabbed the air in front of my eyes and near my ears, searching for foreign tendrils. I was relieved to find none. For a moment, I’d thought Abaddon might have hidden a vision within a vision. If this weren’t a vision, what was that explosion? What happened? Did the ship strike something, but how could it? Since we weren’t even moving, maybe something else had hit us, but what?
BLAM! Louder than the last one, something struck the door to my cabin. I sensed the hallway was filled with people. Were my soldiers playing some stupid game with me? They’d been drinking heavily when I’d left them on the top deck. Why would they bother me? Maybe someone had the bright idea to wake up the general. It wasn’t funny, and I planned to convince them of their folly once I opened the door. Every now and then, most soldiers needed a good beating to maintain their discipline. I heard them whispering in the hallway. The light under the door told me they were charging for another strike.
The hardest strike of all tore the heavy door off its hinges. I was just barely able to avoid being hit by the splintering wood. A deluge of helmeted soldiers stormed through the opening, charging me with determination. Their pressure points flashed like a swarm of colorful fireflies. The first man carried an extra helmet. He caught my initial wrath. If I’d known they weren’t my soldiers, I would have killed him. Even so, I don’t think I would have prevailed as stopping one man didn’t slow the surge coming from behind him. I didn’t have enough room to maneuver away from them.
Bounding over the unconscious man, they quickly trapped my arms and pulled them taut. After lifting me upward, they slammed me backwards and down onto the bed. Those short men were very strong, and their combined weight pressed down on me, making it quite difficult to breathe.
“Give me the helmet,” shouted the man closest to my face. The pressure points flashed to me as he turned his head to the side. I was trapped like a bug under a boot, and squirming didn’t help at all. I managed to lean forward and strike him with my forehead. He went out like a light. As much as I enjoyed doing that, it was a poor performance overall. I’d only knocked out two of the invading Cainite soldiers before they put that power-sapping helmet on me.
Somehow it robbed me of my gift. All the pressure points vanished along with their emotions and life energies. Whatever technology existed in that helmet, it negated all my dragoneer power. The shackles binding my hands behind me negated my physical power. I was trapped and powerless. Once again, I was a prisoner.

Order Now!

<< Go Back