Tail of the Dragon (14 page)

CHAPTER 38

It took over a week on foot to find the tall hill grasses that surrounded Quintuklen. Nath stood shirtless, waist deep in a pond, with a long stick whittled down to a spear.

“What’s the matter, can’t you catch them with your hands anymore?” Brenwar said. The salty old dwarf stood on the bank running a rugged comb through his beard.

“You can always swim in here and fetch dinner yourself, you know,” Nath said.

“You volunteered, not me. I said I could wait until we made it to Quintuklen anyway. It’s you that has the growling tummy, not me. Pah.” The dwarf picked up a smooth stone and skipped it over across the ponds and right by Nath’s head.

“Watch it, Brenwar! My head isn’t as hard as yours.”

“It’s gotten soft. I can attest to that.”

Spying movement in the murky green waters, Nath jabbed his spear quicker than a striking snake. He pulled a fish bigger than his head out of the pond. Its big tail flapped back and forth and caught Nath in the face.

“Oh ho ho!” Brenwar laughed, holding his gut. “That fish has more fight in it than you!”

Nath waded out of the waters. “You keep holding that big gut of yours, because this fish is going to feed me and Selene.”

“Gut!” Brenwar slapped the breastplate over his belly. “An iron gut, lad!”

“Lad!”

“Aye, lad! A big, scaly, flame-haired one. What are you going to do about it, strike me with that mighty fish?”

Nath swung the fish full into Brenwar’s face.
Slap!

Brenwar’s eyes became big angry moons. “Never hit a dwarf with a fish!” He dropped his shoulder and charged.

Nath came off his feet and tumbled to the ground. “Blast it, Brenwar!”

Brenwar stuffed Nath’s face into the soft bank. “Quit yer bellyaching, Nath Dragon!” He locked Nath’s arm behind his back and pinned him half in the water and half in the sand.

“Have you gone mad? You’ll pay for this!” Nath struggled against his friend’s iron clutches. He didn’t have any idea what had happened to Brenwar. They’d been bickering for days. Brenwar didn’t have anything to be mad about, either; Nath did. He’d lost his power. Found his mother only to lose her again. Not to mention that he’d unintentionally turned a new menace loose on Nalzambor that he hadn’t meant to. With a heave, he flung Brenwar over his shoulder and slammed him into the cattails and reeds. “Get off of me!”

Brenwar sprang to his feet and launched his head hard into Nath’s chin.

His teeth clacked together and he saw stars exploding in his head. Staggering back, he felt his knees wobble, and he plopped on his butt into the water. While he sat shaking his head, his eyes became flame. “You’re going to regret this, Bolderguild!”

Brenwar spat in the water. “Pah! I don’t think you’ll do anything with those tears in your eyes. Here, let me get a handkerchief. Maybe Selene will wipe them away for you.”

Nath exploded into motion. His fists became striking hammers, fast and powerful.

Brenwar fought back, landing bone-jarring shots on Nath’s ribs and chin.

Not holding back, Nath busted Brenwar hard in his breastplate, creating a dent.
Bang!

Brenwar let out a wail. “Yer gonna fix that!” He rammed his elbow into Nath’s groin.

Seeing red, Nath snatched Brenwar up high over his head and stuffed him head first into the waters. He held him down, ignoring Brenwar’s flailing boots.

Zap!

Nath’s hairs stood on end. His bones juttered from pure shock. His grip loosened on Brenwar.

Brenwar popped up out of the waters and dashed the water from his eyes with both hands. “What kind of trickery was that, Nath?”

“Have you two gone mad?” It was Selene. She stood on the bank. Her face was hot with confusion and rage. “Get ahold of yourself!”

Sitting in the water with his hands over his knees, Nath started laughing uncontrollably. He stopped abruptly and rubbed his jaw. “Oh!

Brenwar held out his forearm. “Feeling better?”

Rising to his feet, Nath said, “Thanks, Brenwar.” It had been a long time since the pair romped. They’d done it plenty when Nath was younger. Brenwar had taught him all about fighting, clean and dirty. Nath’s charging blood had him feeling better again. “I needed that.”

“You both are mad,” Selene said in astonishment. “But you are men, after all. What’s next, hugging?”

“No thank you,” Brenwar said, sloshing out of the water.

A dark shadow soared overhead and darted north toward Quintuklen.

“Shades!” Selene said. “You too buffoons distracted my intentions. I came to warn you: Quintuklen is under attack!”

CHAPTER 39

Hoofing it over the grassy knolls and hillsides, Nath sprinted as fast as he could, with Selene only a few strides behind him. Ahead, Quintuklen, at least what was left, was smoking. Dragons, flying above, were pelting it with fire.

“Those are wurmers!” Nath said, legs churning even faster.

Quintuklen had been all but destroyed in the last dragon war against the Clerics of Barnabus and Gorn Grattack. But now, from the distance, he could clearly see that it was being rebuilt. The stone walls that surrounded the town were almost entirely intact. Pulleys, bulwarks, and scaffolding had popped up all over the city. New stone buildings and wooden apartments. Fresh paint. The old roads were no longer mud and grass but filled with stone. And there were people. Throngs here and there, gathering stones and makeshift spears and hurling them at the dark-scaled dragons.

Fire came down on the valiant defenders.

Claws from the skies snatched people up and dropped them from high in the air.

“Nooooooooo!” Nath screamed.

He fought the helplessness that boiled inside him. If he could fly, he could rise into the air and battle the wurmers. Instead, he was stuck on the ground, racing over the expansive distance hoping he could get there in time and somehow help.

“Selene, have you any thoughts?”

“I was hoping you did!”

They made it to the first barrier wall that protected the city. It was more than ten feet tall. Rather than race down to the next gateway, Nath leapt clear over it. Five walls later, he was on the road that led straight into the city. A bright gleam of steel caught his eye. The midday sun shined off the breastplates of a squad of Legionnaires.

“What can I do to help?” Nath said, jogging up to the highest-ranking officer.

The commander had a long and wispy moustache that hung down past his chin. Stout and durable in his plate-mail armor, he looked Nath up and down and said, “Find some steel, and if one of those things lands, start swinging. Go for the wings. Their hides are as thick as, er,” he looked at Nath’s arms and said, “a dragon’s.”

“May I borrow a spear?” Nath said to the commander.

“Anything for you, Nath Dragon,” the commander said. “Lieutenant, give this warrior your spear!”

Nath pulled back his shoulders and took the spear the soldier offered him.
They know me. They don’t fear me. A good thing!
He scanned the faces of the Legionnaires. There was more duty than fear in their stern expressions. And there were less than twenty of them. All survivors who had returned to rebuild their city. Their determined looks filled Nath with greater courage. “Get those crossbows ready. We need to get their attention. Aim for the biggest one.”

Counting the dragons, he noticed most of them were only about fifteen feet long.
Not too big, but still plenty deadly. If I can take the leader down, hopefully the rest will flee.
“Selene, can you bring some light? We need a distraction.”

Selene’s hands flared with bright purple light. “Like this?”

“It’s pretty, but not exactly the attention getter I was looking for.”

“Oh,” she smirked, “you want something more like this.” Lavender shards erupted from her fingertips and made bee lines toward a dragon latched onto one of the tower walls.

It let out a roar and crashed to the ground.

The legionnaires let out a triumphant cheer.

“Show-off,” Nath said.

The dragon popped up off of its back. Snarling, it charged straight toward Nath and Selene. Nath lowered his spear and raced right into the face of the dragon. Finding a soft spot in its neck, he jammed the spear into its throat.

The dragon shrieked and thrashed. The spear shaft snapped in half. Its tail flicked out, catching Nath in the heel and pulling him off his feet. The fifteen-foot monster’s head recoiled, and its chest filled with fiery breath. Nath started to roll.

Boom!

The wurmer exploded into scales and pieces.

Getting back to his feet, he found Selene and said, “Did you do that?”

“No. It wasn’t me.” She pointed toward one of Quintuklen’s towers that was being rebuilt. “It was him.”

Nath twisted his head around. A tall, rangy warrior stood at the top of a rebuilt staircase. Long brown hair with gray streaks flowing through it billowed in the wind. He took the arrow out of his mouth and fired again. The sound of the bowstring’s snap was one of a kind.
Twang!

The arrow caught a sky-cruising wurmer in the belly and turned it into dragon chunks with another thunderous
Boom!

“Ben!” Nath screamed.

Holding the bow Akron high over his head, the old warrior saluted and cried out, “Dragon!”

Suddenly, a pack of three wurmers, wings beating, surrounded Ben. Their lungs filled with air, and fire gathered inside their jowls.

No, he’ll be incinerated!

Nath looked for something to grab. Something to throw. There was nothing. “Let loose something, Selene! Soldiers, unleash those crossbows!”

“They might hit Ben,” Selene warned.

Helpless and with bated breath, Nath watched Ben about to die. Without notice, the air crackled with new energy. From somewhere below, a streak of energy shot into the sky and struck the wurmers hovering over the tower. One beast turned to ash, and the other two let out startled cries. A fork of lightning rocked into both of them. They twitched, smoked, and plummeted hard into the earth.
Thud! Thud!

With no more dragons in sight, the Legionnaires and city folk erupted into cheers. Coming down the street and heading straight toward Nath and Selene, two figures emerged. Ben, looking as tough and rugged as chewed leather, strolled, arms swinging, with a smaller person by his side. Bayzog was violet eyed, green robed, and looking calm and serious both at the same time.

With a broad smile on his scarred lips, Ben put Akron away.
Clatch. Snap. Clatch.
He gave Nath a hug. “Dragon, I never thought I’d see you like this again. Or at all again, for that matter. I can only imagine that something bad is going on.”

“Thanks to you, nothing bad is going on at all here, Ben. You sure took it to those wurmers and saved my scales again.”

“What did I miss? What did I miss?” It was Brenwar, rushing up to them, Mortuun ready, and huffing for breath. “Tell me I didn’t miss all of the fighting.”

“Of course you did,” Bayzog said to him. “If we had to wait for you, we’d miss out on dinnertime.”

“Watch it, part-elf.”

Elderwood staff in hand, Bayzog patted Brenwar on the head. “I didn’t miss you either, friend. Eh, nice hand. What happened, did you run out of hide jerky?” He gave a quick nod to Selene and then turned to Nath. “What have you done now?”

“Me?”

Selene interrupted the moment, pointing at the sky. “Look.”

A white dragon, no horns, small legs, and with a very long body and tail soared high above.

“Strange,” Nath said, “what would an ivory slider be doing here? They are messengers,” Nath said

“Fascinating,” Bayzog said. “It’s quite a treat seeing a breed I have not seen before. It looks to be carrying something in its paws.”

The ivory slider released something with a nice bright shine and disappeared in the backdrop of clouds in the sky.

“What was that?” Ben said. “Why did it drop it on the other side of the walls?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Nath said. He took off at a trot.

“We don’t have to run everywhere, you know,” Brenwar said.

“Fine,” Nath said. “We don’t have to complain everywhere, either.”

“You know, Brenwar, I could make you some boots that will make you walk faster,” Bayzog offered.

“Why don’t you make yourself some boots that will take you back to your homeland, part-elf.”

“I love reunions,” Ben said to Selene. “How about you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had one before.”

Eyes feeling a little misty, Nath started to round the gate at the outermost wall. There was no feeling quite like being around the friends that had fought for you again and again.

No feeling like it at all.

He came to a stop and gawked at the object sticking up out of the field. A beautiful sword pommel with dragon crossguards winked at him with gemstone eyes. “Fang!”

“I’ll be,” Brenwar said. “We really must be in for it.”

Upon snatching the sword up, Nath began twirling it around in strokes that looked like lightning. New energy coursed through his veins. The handle was warm as an old friend’s handshake. He kissed the grand and shiny blade.

“Looks like the pair of you have been reunited just in time,” Bayzog said, eyeing the storm front coming from the south.

“Really, Bayzog, why do you say that?” Nath asked.

Everyone pointed where Bayzog was looking. Wurmers, wingless and big, were snaking through the tall grasses.

Nath raised Fang high, and with the fierce bellow of a dozen embattled warriors he yelled, “Dragon! Dragon!”