Flameheart soul of the frozen King

The Dragon's Pulse

To save a dying soul, you must first burn your own.

"Soren!" Kaelen screamed, her fingers digging desperately into the slick ice as the bridge cracked beneath them.

"Stay back!" Soren shouted, his voice barely cutting through the deafening roar of falling ice and wild magic.

The wooden wagon disintegrated into splinters beneath his feet. Slabs of blue ice measuring thirty feet wide groaned, tipped sideways, and plunged down into the foggy bottomless chasm. Below them, remaining Iron Clan guards tumbled into the white abyss with terrifying cries, their heavy armor dragging them into the mist.

"Kid, grab my hand!" Varek roared from a remaining stone ledge, reaching out his thick, scarred arm as the gap widened. "Jump now!"

"I cannot leave the egg!" Soren called back, his eyes locked on the falling black sphere floating in mid-air right over the center of the chasm.

The shattered containment unit was gone, and the raw ancient magic leaking out of the black dragon egg was surging out of control. Violent waves of black and gold energy rippled through the cold night sky, threatening to explode a second time and blow the remaining ledge to dust.

"Soren, it is going to blow!" Kaelen yelled, trying to scramble across the collapsing slope toward him. "If that energy detonates, it will wipe out the entire canyon!"

"Get off the bridge, both of you!" Soren ordered, stepping off the last solid piece of ice and dropping straight toward the floating egg.

"Is he out of his mind?" Varek gasped, his boots sliding near the edge as another section of the arch gave way.

Soren fell three feet through the empty air, reaching out with both hands to wrap his bleeding fingers around the smooth, freezing shell of the black egg. The moment his skin touched the black surface, a massive electrical shock fired straight up his arms, burning away his linen sleeves instantly.

"By the blood of the first king," Soren chanted, his voice echoing through the deep gorge like thunder. "By the soul of the ancient flame, bind to me!"

"He is forcing a soul bond in mid-air!" Kaelen screamed, shielding her face from the blinding gold light illuminating the abyss. "His body cannot take that much pressure!"

"Soul of the royal line, open!" Soren roared his second line, forcing his weak mana channels wide open.

The exploding black magic stopped expanding outward. Like water being sucked into a whirlpool, the massive cloud of unstable dragon energy reversed its path, rushing straight into Soren's open chest.

"Agh!" Soren let out a agonizing scream that shook the remaining canyon walls.

The power was too immense for his seventeen-year-old vessel. His internal organs felt as if they were being bathed in liquid ice and liquid fire at the same time. The skin on his neck and hands turned pale white, becoming almost translucent, showing dark blue veins glowing like lit fuse wires beneath his flesh.

"His heart is stopping!" Varek shouted, grabbing Kaelen's shoulder to hold her back as another massive slab of ice broke loose. "If he absorbs any more of that void magic, his body will shatter into ice dust!"

"Soren, stop!" Kaelen yelled, tears of anger and fear welling in her eyes. "Release the egg! You are killing yourself!"

Soren heard her voice through the violent ringing in his ears, but he did not let go. This egg was the last living link to his true family line. It was the ancient soul of his past life, preserved through thirty-five years of cold silence. He would rather burn his own soul to ashes than watch his legacy shatter against the canyon floor.

"Yield to your king!" Soren screamed the final ancient phrase, driving his royal hand mark straight into the center of the black egg.

A final, blinding shockwave of pure gold and shadow erupted outward, pushing back the howling snowstorm for three hundred yards in every direction.

The blast threw Varek and Kaelen backward onto the safe stone ledge of the cliff. The remaining ice arch collapsed completely, crashing down into the foggy depths below with a sound like a mountain falling apart. Thick white mist and snow dust swirled up into the dark sky, blocking out all vision.

"Soren!" Kaelen cried out, pushing herself up from the snow and rushing to the broken edge. "Soren!"

Silence returned to the gorge. The howling blizzard had stopped, cleared away by the force of the magical blast.

"Did he... fall?" Varek asked in a low whisper, his rough voice shaking as he looked down into the dark abyss.

"No," Kaelen said, her eyes widening as she pointed into the center of the gorge. "Look down there!"

Rising out of the foggy dark mist, sitting sixty feet below the cliff edge, was a single, narrow pillar of blue ice that had somehow survived the collapse. Kneeling flat on top of the narrow frozen spire was Soren.

His clothes were ripped to shreds, his pale skin was covered in deep frost cracks, and his breathing was so slow it seemed nonexistent. He was completely motionless, kneeling on the narrow pillar like a frozen statue.

"Soren!" Kaelen called down, her voice trembling. "Can you hear me? Are you alive?"

Soren did not move. His hands were still clasped tightly together over his chest, trembling slightly in the freezing night air.

"Kid! Move a muscle!" Varek shouted down into the chasm. "Do not die on us now!"

Slowly, very slowly, Soren lowered his bloodied hands.

The heavy, black eggshell was gone, reduced to a pile of fine black dust resting in his palms. Sitting in the middle of the dark powder was a tiny creature no larger than a mountain hawk.

The hatchling had sleek, pitch-black scales that absorbed the moonlight, small curved horns on its head, and two tiny leather wings folded tight against its back.

"It... it actually hatched," Kaelen whispered, her hands flying to her mouth in absolute shock. "A black dragon."

The tiny black beast shifted in Soren's hands, shaking the dark dust off its smooth scales. It slowly lifted its small head, opening its eyes for the very first time. Its pupils burned with a sharp, brilliant crimson flame that pierced the darkness of the chasm.

Soren let out a weak, raspy breath, a faint smile appearing on his pale, frost-cracked lips. "Welcome back," he whispered softly.

The black hatchling tilted its head, looking up at Soren's face with clear recognition. It opened its small snout, pulled cold air deep into its tiny chest, and let out a high-pitched, piercing roar.

The sound was small, but the magic within it was ancient.

A visible ring of crimson shockwave energy exploded upward from the hatchling's tiny mouth, shooting straight into the clouds above. The red wave cut through the heavy storm clouds, lighting up the entire night sky in a brilliant red flash that was visible for hundreds of miles across the northern continent.

High on the cliff edge, Varek looked up at the red sky in absolute terror. "Oh, by the gods. Every clan lord in the north just saw that signal."

Kaelen looked down at the boy kneeling on the ice pillar with the roaring dragon in his hands. "He did it. He actually woke the black flame."