Chapter 580: Kylma

“It is really mad,” Lexi said from safely behind me.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if it knows I killed its master or not,” I said, letting out a long sigh. It really was a beautiful creature with ivory-colored scales that blended seamlessly together. “Let’s go tell the others.”

“The room has changed,” I announced on reaching the safe room.

Alhur looked up, his face briefly showing shock. “That is not possible. The dungeon told me nothing on this level has been altered since you last entered.”

I shrugged. “There is an ice drake in the next room instead of the blizzard lizard, and it wants to kill me. It was Traeliorn’s pet,” I revealed since Alhur might recognize it anyway.

Castile and Konstantine gave me worried glances, and Alhur tilted his head in thought. “Kylma? Kylma is alive?”

“Not alive. The beast is chained to the dungeon for eternity,” I answered.

Emotions played on Alhur’s face that he couldn’t restrain. “Kylma wasn’t a beast or a pet, she was Traeliorn’s friend,” Alhur said irritably. “She is a bit of a pompous nit, but she saved me once.” Was that sympathy and respect in the assassin’s voice? “I am going to talk with her,” he announced suddenly.

“You can’t talk to drakes,” Castile disagreed.

A slight smile appeared on the elf’s face. “I agree. Kylma understands Elvish, but she cannot talk back. Traeliorn could read her body language and mannerisms, and I will do my best to interpret them. I need to talk with the dungeon as well. They are not supposed to be able to lie to us.” Alhur stormed off down the corridor toward the ice drake. Castile nodded to Konstantin, and he followed the elf assassin. I felt a brush of the presence of the dungeon, but it was gone just as fast as it appeared. I think it was enjoying the discord in our group.

After the pair had vanished, Castile turned to me. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t see the ice drake as a threat. It’s large for its kind, but it’s just a single creature with a weak breath attack,” I said. Since Lexi hadn’t studied bestiaries, I educated her. “Ice drakes inhabit high mountain areas where it’s cold most of the time, with ground covered in ice and snow. Their white scales help them blend into the surroundings perfectly. They mainly eat fish, which they catch at night from rivers and lakes near their mountain nests. Although their bite and claws are formidable, they can also release concentrated blasts of freezing cold to incapacitate and preserve their prey.”

“Not about the drake, Eryk,” Castile hissed.

I replied after quickly sorting out her meaning. “Raelia already knows I killed Traeliorn. I am assuming Alhur knows as well.”

“Are you sure about that? It appears the two were close friends by his reaction. What if the drake tells him you killed Traeliorn?” she retorted back.

“Then he will be spending the rest of his time in my dimensional space,” I said calmly. “He knows I am a good man, and we were at war at the time.”

Castile shook her head. “If someone killed Konstantin in war, and you met them after the war was over, would you stay your hand?”

I almost answered immediately. It was a more difficult question than I could answer. Raelia had done just that. She knew what role I had played—and that Blaze had shot her down over Macha. She had gotten over it, and was even friends with Blaze. “It would depend on the character of the killer,” I said at last.

Lexi was looking back and forth between Castile and me, expecting an argument to break out due to the tension in the air. Lepidus sat uninterested as a bystander. Castile shook her head, “I hope you are right.”

It had been almost an hour, and I was getting ready to check on the two when I saw them returning. Their voices echoed and were unintelligible until they reached the room. “The dungeon didn’t lie to me. Kylma was added after she told me nothing had changed on this floor.”

“That is not reassuring. What else has changed?” I asked. This dungeon really did not like me.

“The dungeon has stopped talking to me. It has gone quiet, and I don’t think it wants to help me while I am with you. Before it went silent, I learned it can only change rooms if delvers are at least three rooms away. But it didn’t tell me if it changed any others.” Alhur replied somberly.

“Dragon shit. And you told it what we wanted, and we are following its directions to get there?” I said snarkily.

Alhur shrugged helplessly. “I did talk to Kylma as well.”

“You talked to the white drake?” Lexi interrupted the tense exchange. I think she was trying to mediate. She also seemed enthralled at the prospect of talking to the beast by her tone. “What did it say?”

Konstantin answered for Alhur, “He asked questions, and the drake hissed, roared, and growled.”

Alhur gave him a side eye. “It was enough. She understands her predicament. I understand that she would have to attack me if I entered the room. I don’t think Traeliorn is alive—at least she doesn’t think he is alive inside the dungeon. I tried to explain you were not the enemy,” Alhur said, looking at me. “But I don’t think I got her to understand.” Running into Alhur was actually making this more difficult, but there was nothing to do about it now.

“I will kill the drake, and we can descend to the third level,” I said, stepping toward the corridor.

Alhur moved in front of me, and I tensed. “Can’t you free her? Put her in your space and take her out of here,” he asked, and I relaxed.

I hadn’t told anyone about the dryads in my space, but I suppose Alhur knew what I had done to Raelia. I shook my head sadly. “I don’t have enough space for a drake, and I don’t think she would cooperate. Maybe the dungeon will let her go in a future release and she can make her way out of the Endless Dark.” Alhur looked about to try to continue to convince me, but walked away instead. Castile gave me a look that suggested she didn’t trust the elf.

Konstantin made to follow me. “I don’t need your help, Konstantin. It is the final room on the floor, and once I enter, I will be sealed inside with the drake.” I didn’t say he would be a liability, but he probably understood. He grunted, said something incoherent, and sat.

I walked down the corridor to the ice drake’s room alone. This time, the ivory drake was curled in front of the archway, clearly expecting us to return. She lifted her head, and her icy blue eyes showed intense hatred of me. I could see her scales flexing as she clenched the muscles underneath. I stopped before entering the room and looked back to confirm that no one had followed me. I turned back to the drake.

“So, your name is Kylma?” I said in Elvish. She tilted her head like a dog hearing a familiar word.

“Do you understand me?” I asked. It took a moment, but her head bobbed slightly. At least that was how I interpreted it. “You clearly recognize me. I am sorry I had to kill you before,” I said, trying to force empathy into my words.

Her reptilian lips curled slightly, showing her predators' canines, and a growl-hiss emitted from her throat. “Still mad about it, I see. Well, I have to kill you again because we need to save the world, and you are in the way. Alhur said you are smart, so I will make a deal with you.”

The throaty growl stopped, and maybe she did understand Elvish. Her eyes held an intelligence, and the anger had faded, though it now looked more like suspicion. She held me with an inquisitive gaze. “My deal is if I don’t die saving the world, I will come back and get you out of this dungeon. Freedom.” The Elvish word had many different meanings depending on the context, but as a stand-alone word, it meant self-agency, and not taking orders from anyone.

I gave the drake time to process the words, as I was not certain it understood my offer. I repeated my offer and then gestured to her to back up. “I cannot take you this time, but when I return, I will give you freedom.” The drake seemed to eye me suspiciously before taking to the air and flying over the water to the other side, blocking the stairs down. There was another corridor to my right, but Maveith and I had not explored it.

I was curious if the drake actually understood. I wasn’t sure I could make good on my promise, but if it made this fight easier, I would take it. The drake would need to curl into a ball to fit in my space, and my space would also need to be completely empty. It was a problem for another time, and I hoped that karma wouldn’t come back and bite me in the ass if I didn’t fulfill it.

I stepped into the room and confirmed I had been sealed in with the drake. I expected it to attack immediately now that it could, but instead it just stared at me. I hoped it didn’t misinterpret my words and think I was freeing it now. Now that I was locked in the room with the drake, it’s imperative to attack me could occur at any time. A tickle on my senses told me the dungeon was liking watching the encounter.

There was a narrow ledge all the way around the center pool, and I started to move along it. The drake’s body remained still, while its head followed my movement. When I was a quarter of the way around the chamber, with the drake focused on me, I teleported behind the drake. Its bulk tensed, and it started to rise. The tail lashed reflexively and slammed into my aether shield, bouncing me into the wall, knocking the breath from me. My aether bottomed out, and I said aloud, “sorry. Next time it will be different.”

The ice drake was in a panic, knowing something was very wrong inside of it. I suspected it couldn’t breathe as it felt its heart stop and its lungs were mostly missing. It slipped off the ledge into the water, and its body went rigid after brief death throes. Thankfully, it didn’t sink, but it floated slowly away from me. The reward chest that appeared in the center of the room with a small splash.

I was about to curse the dungeon, when the stone chest bobbed back to the surface and floated there. Blood started to cloud away from the drake’s mouth, drawing the eels from the depths. All three exits from the room had reappeared, but the others had not left the safe room yet. Using my air shields I walked out to the drake and used the collector on the body. I felt a little guilty tricking the creature, but maybe I would return for it one day—but would I really be freeing it? The dryad had been remade by Venere and the dryad didn’t realize she had a clone. Maybe when I brought out both dryads, one would be dead, or they would attack each other.

The apex water essence would noticeably increase the power of the thick air spell, so I wasn’t going to pass it up. I stepped over to the small chest and rescued it from the water. The last time we were here, we got a ring of warmth from this room; it felt like another small object, mixed in with dungeon coins. 

I looked at the unexplored corridor for a moment, but decided to get the others first. I remembered there were a lot of stairs to descend, and there was a safe room at the bottom. Once I was on solid ground, I shattered the stone box, scattering the silver and gold coins. A single matt-black bracelet was in the box. A pulse of aether told it was made of stone and had an aetheric resonance. It was an artifact, but I was not certain whether I would ask Lepidus to identify it or try to figure it out on my own. I took one last look at the floating corpse and went to get the others.

They all looked at me as I returned. “That was quick,” Alhur said a bit solemnly.

“The room is clear, and we can descend to the third floor of the dungeon,” I said. Without preamble, the group returned to the room with me. The ice drake’s corpse had sunk, but you could see the white outline at the bottom. The normally stoic assassin looked remorsefully into the pool, but I don’t know what he expected us to do. This was a dungeon and you needed to kill the challenge beasts to advance.

Konstantin kicked the stone fragments of the chest into the water. It was his way of asking what was in the chest. Instead of answering him, I pointed to the unexplored passage. “I don’t know what is down there, but those stairs will take us closer to our goal.” It didn’t take much discussion before we agreed to skip the unknown room and were descending the corkscrewing stairs.

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