Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1) (12 page)

Chapter 12

T
he five of them charged for the dragon at once. Maybe it was the success against the dead things, or maybe it was just that she didn’t feel like staying nicely in front of something that could breathe fire, but Gem didn’t even think of standing back and using her bow. Instead, she drew her dagger, thinking that the silver blade might find its way into some vital spot on the great beast.

Her dagger clutched tightly in her right hand, Gem leapt for the dragon’s back. She landed lightly, gripping the edges of the dragon’s scales in an effort to gain purchased. A few feet ahead, she could see Sparks doing much the same thing.

“Must be like riding a horse for a ranch boy like you!” she called over.

“Horses mostly aren’t trying to kill you.”

Gem looked up then, and saw that the dragon’s three heads had curled round so that the thing stared at the spot they had landed like a cat trying to work out where a flea was. She saw Sparks draw his sword and bring it down in a mighty sweep of steel.

It bounced off.

Gem tried her own weapon, aiming for one of the gaps between the dragon’s scales. The dagger didn’t make so much as a dent. Below, she saw Kat dart beneath its belly with her sword stabbing upwards, Rio hacking at the thing’s clawed leg and Jack trying an in expert blow with a knife. None of it seemed to make any impact.

The dragon chose that moment to shake itself like the largest wet dog the world had ever seen. It was like being in the middle of an earthquake, and Gem saw Sparks shaken loose and flung across the cavern, landing awkwardly and not managing to stand. It was all Gem could do to cling on herself, and even then she had to drop her dagger and grab hold with both hands.

The moment the hand wearing Goolrick’s ring touched a scale, of course, Gem found herself flooded with the dragon’s wants, so that she had to fight almost as hard to concentrate as to stay on the thing’s back. Images came to Gem, of anger, and of destroying the intruders invading her home. Not her home, the dragon’s. Gem struggled to keep her thoughts separate as the dragon thrashed.

She saw something else then. The reason the dragon was so furious. It wasn’t just that humans were here to attack it, though that was bad enough. It was trying to protect something… an egg. Gem clearly saw an image of a pearl white egg, bigger than a paving slab. She felt a fierce, protective love for it. Gem also felt confusion, and the ache of loss. Something had been into her cave. Taken her egg. Something that smelled of feathers and blood. An image came to her of a wooded place. She’d fly there just as soon as she’d dealt with these tiny things…

Gem threw herself from the dragon in an effort to separate herself from the strength of its desires, managing to land better than Sparks had. She scrambled over to him and tried to drag him backwards from the fight, away from the dragon. Sparks made a pained sound.

“Some tough guy I am.”

“I don’t know,” Gem said, gasping with the effort of dragging the larger boy, “I think it’s kind of cute for a boy to have a vulnerable side.”

“This is more of a broken leg side. Convergence”

When Sparks used it, the ruler word seemed obvious, though Gem doubted she would have been able to risk using it on someone when she wasn’t sure what was wrong. Sparks bit back a scream as the bones in his leg knit, but then forced himself to his feet.

“I’ve got to get back to the fight,” he declared.

“Sparks, wait-”

“There’s no time.” He ran off before Gem could tell him what she had seen. She could understand his urgency. The dragon swished its tail, catching Kat before even she could dodge. It knocked her sprawling, and Rio had to pull her out of the way before a great claw could pin her to the rock. Jack barely dodged a jet of flame from one of the dragon’s heads. Gem heard him yell, “emulate”, and suddenly there were three of him. The trouble was, that just meant one for each of the dragon’s heads. They darted down at him, making Gem gasp as two of them plunged through versions of him. The third image, the real Jack, managed to avoid being bitten in half, but was still smashed aside by the middle head.

Goolrick and his men waded into the fray then, and again the wizard swung his sword in calm, thought out blows. They rang against the dragon’s skin like a particularly persistent door-to-door salesman hammering on a door, and to even less effect. Sparks and Rio joined him in a furious assault on the hide of the thing, but even with all of Goolrick’s men joining in, they couldn’t break through the dragon’s scales.

It was at that point that things got worse again.

The dragon beat its wings once, creating such a downdraft of air that those closest to it were blown back several steps. It reared up on its hind legs, until its heads nearly touched the stalactite encrusted roof of the cavern. Three pairs of eyes focused on the knot of men containing Sparks, Rio and Goolrick. Three capacious mouths opened simultaneously.

“Get down!” Gem cried out.

Afterwards, she would feel guilty at the surge of relief that hit her as the wizard and the two boys fell flat. It wasn’t right to feel relieved that white-hot flame burned through the men behind them, and not them. It wasn’t right to be glad that they’d escaped unscathed when others beside them burned and fell like human candles.

Not entirely unscathed, as it happened. Rio and Sparks both scrabbled at their armor, heated by the closeness of the dragon flame, but while Rio got his clear in time, Sparks wasn’t quick enough. He cried out in pain as he tossed the gently glowing armor away, and when Rio and Goolrick stood, he couldn’t rise above his knees.

Gem hurried forward, ducking under a horizontal swipe of the dragon’s claws as she worked her way closer. When she was close enough, she grabbed Goolrick by the sleeve, forcing him to pay attention.

“Nothing’s working. If we stay here, we’ll all be killed. We need to retreat.”

As if to substantiate what she had said, a jet of flame came perilously close. Gem would have preferred a slightly cooler sort of proof, but she took what she could get.

“Goolrick, order your men to retreat, or I will.”

The young wizard nodded, and yelled for his remaining men to retreat. Above them, the dragon swayed, as though trying to decide which of them it should incinerate next. Gem hoped that they would get out of there before it realized that, with three heads, it could easily kill all of them at once. Kat was still, unmoving, while Jack moaned softly where he had fallen. Spark’s was more or less at Gem’s feet, so she knelt beside him, trying to work out how best to get him up to his feet.

“Rio, help me,” Gem instructed. Maybe it was because it was her doing the asking, but Rio didn’t hesitate. He hauled Sparks to his feet, not very gently, in Gem’s opinion, and gave a bitter laugh.

“Guess I get to be the hero here, farm boy.”

“You want to be a hero? Help the others. I can make it.”

Sparks didn’t look very steady as Rio let him go, but he staggered towards the tunnel quickly enough. Gem turned to Rio, not daring to risk a glance up at the still swaying dragon.

“You grab Kat, I’ll get Jack.”

Without waiting for an answer, Gem sprinted for the red-haired boy. It was like her movement was a trigger, because the dragon chose that moment to flame again. Gem dodged left and right, trying to keep clear of the blowtorch-hot fire. Only when a transient break in the flame came, the dragon pausing for breath, Gem guessed, did she dare to grab Jack and try to haul him to his feet. Jack groaned in pain as she did it.

“You’re heavier than you look,” Gem complained, but a thought struck her. “
Fortitude
.” Strength flooded her, and it was easy to move him then. Even so, to move quickly Jack had to help, and that clearly hurt him with every step. They’d gone two paces before Jack put his hand to his now bare face.

“My glasses.”

Gem didn’t hesitate. Spontaneously, without thought, she shoved him towards the exit, then whirled back, snatching at the glint of glass and wire among the bones. She dodged back, just as a scaly foot came down where she had been, then ran, almost sweeping up Jack as she did so. Behind her Gem could hear the dragon taking another breath.

They hit the gap in the rocks an instant before the flame came. The heat was tremendous, and Gem kept running, deeper, heading for safety. Only when the others caught her did she stop.

“Going back for those… objects?” Goolrick gave the glasses in her hand a pointed look. “There is, even for you, a point where an intrepid spirit spills over into an impetuous one.”

“Jack needs them to see.” Gem handed them to the boy, who put them carefully back in place.

“Thanks.”

“Where are Kat and Rio?”

“Right here.” They were further along the tunnel. Kat had come round from being knocked out, but was still leaning against the wall. She was also staring at Rio. “He actually saved me.”

“Well, yeah.” Rio looked almost embarrassed about it, then glanced at Gem. “If you hadn’t gone back, you’d have beaten us here.”

“Just so long as we’re all here,” Goolrick said. But they weren’t. How many men had died in the cave? Gem didn’t know for sure. She did know that it wasn’t over though. Looking back, she could see the faint yellow glow of eyes behind them, pressed against the gap in the rock.

“It knows we’re in here.”

“Then let’s not be here,” Rio suggested. It was a good suggestion, and one they followed readily. The remainder of their group walked, staggered, and occasionally limped its way back along the tunnel, out into the hall where they had fought the zombies.

They didn’t stop there. Maybe it was because everyone could remember the jubilation they had felt after facing the dead, but no one wanted to linger inside. Instead, they made their way out into the light and the air. There, they checked their wounds. Some of them were far from pretty. Sparks’ back was red and blistered from the heat.

“Try the “
renovation
” ruler word,” Gem suggested. Sparks did it. It seemed to make a difference, and he certainly didn’t seem to be in as much pain, but it didn’t heal everything at once as Gem had been half-hoping. Then again, her parents had had some renovations done to their apartment once, and that had taken weeks, so she should probably just be grateful it wasn’t taking that long.

Their efforts were interrupted by the sound of the dragon’s roar, followed by the beating of leathery wings. Gem looked up, and found the dragon circling above them like some great reptilian bird. One of its three heads stared down at them, while the other two stared back the way they had come. Gem tensed, wondering if it would swoop down to attack them once more.

It didn’t. Instead, the dragon wheeled once more before setting off on a great, gliding flight along their former path. Gem let out a sigh of relief. Goolrick didn’t seem so happy.

“Men, gather your weapons. Prepare to march. We must hurry.”

“What is it?” Gem demanded. Goolrick pointed. From their vantage point on the mountain it was just about possible to make out Anachronia’s castle. The dragon was heading straight for it.

Goolrick
led the charge back towards the castle. He didn’t care that it had taken them more than a day to get this far. He only cared that soon, a dragon would be terrorizing his people.
His…

Sparks struggled to keep up, with the pain in his back, but he didn’t let that stop him. If he had been stronger, if he had been able to kill the dragon, they wouldn’t have had to run at all…

Kat didn’t much feel like going another round with a giant, fire-breathing newt, but she didn’t really have much choice. With Goolrick’s men running around her, all she could do was try not to be crushed in the press…

Jack was still a bit groggy from being knocked about, but he didn’t let that stop him. He was so grateful to Gem for saving him. Now if only he could
tell
her that. Come to think of it, where was she…

Rio loped at the back of the group, conserving his energy. It was a long way back to the village. He was pretty surprised when Gem grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the trees. “Trust me, Rio,” she insisted, and Rio let himself be pulled from the path…