The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) (106 page)

CHAPTER 9

“I know there have been many battles,” Shum had said, “but the one coming might be the most important of all.”

The Elven Steeds cut through the woodland with the ease of a straight path. Ben found himself hanging on for his life. He’d never ridden on a horse so fast, let alone with two people on it in the darkness. It assured him of one thing … the Roaming Rangers were good company, and he was glad to be among them.

I need one of these horses.

An hour into the ride, they slowed and came to a halt. He squinted in the dimness. Bayzog and Shum strolled along at his and Hoven’s side. Bayzog had a weary look in his violet eyes.

“Are you well, Bayzog?” Ben asked.

“Well enough, just weak.” Bayzog grimaced. “This riding jars my legs, but I’ll make it. Much better than walking so far.”

Brenwar reared his horse around and said, “Why are we stopping fer? Time’s wasting.”

Shum held up his hand and tilted his head, saying, “I heard something.”

“Over all the riding?” Ben asked.

“A moment of quiet please,” Shum said.

The Elven Roaming Rangers sat poised in their saddles like dark statues. Unmoving and stony. If he didn’t know they were there, he’d probably walk right by them. He noticed Bayzog perk up and bend his ear toward the sky.

Am I missing something?

He cupped his ear and closed his eyes. It bothered him, the better senses the other races had. They could see better in the dark and hear trickles and scuffles where none could be heard. He continually had to find ways to improvise.

A minute went by, maybe two, and when he was about to pull his hand from his ear, he heard something. East, farther downriver, a howl, maybe a roar erupted in the woods. His heart started pounding. It sounded big. Huge perhaps. Goosebumps rose on his arms.

“That’s where Nath is,” Brenwar growled.

“How do you know?” Ben said

“Only Nath could make something
that
mad.” Brenwar wheeled his horse around. “And we better get over there before that monster kills him. Ee-Yah!”

CHAPTER 10

Still dazed, Nath felt something stir inside him. Outside of him, something else stirred. The dragon had him wedged inside its mouth. Its great teeth ground at his scales. The pressure was building, and his body popped and cracked. He screamed.

The dragon shook him.

Nath punched its nose with all the power he had. He could feel the dragon’s throaty laughter.

I can’t go like this. I can’t!

His stomach buckled and knotted. Something inside him grew and stirred. He let out an awful bellow. His limbs popped and stretched.

The dragon’s bone-splintering pressure eased.

Nath felt magic course through him. The potion had ignited and was rushing through his blood. He expanded. Head, torso, and limbs groaned and enlarged. He caught the second dragon’s bewildered look and watched it back off.

“What trick is this!” the first dragon thought, releasing Nath from its jaws.

Nath convulsed and thrashed.

The dragons backed away.

Finally, the stretching stopped. He gathered his feet under him and stood erect.

“Sweet salamanders!”

He was a tower. A great wall. He grabbed a tree and ripped it from the ground.

“COME, DRAGONS,” Nath beckoned, looking down in their eyes. “THE BATTLE ISN’T FINISHED YET.” His voice thundered. “AND WHEN IT’S OVER, PERHAPS
I’LL
EAT
YOU
.” He swung the tree like a club into the haunches of the first dragon. It scurried and hissed.

Nath laughed. He was bigger than them. Taller by a head. He was a man fighting two giant lizards.

A geyser of flame erupted from the second dragon’s mouth, burning into the scales on Nath’s legs. He couldn’t contain his scream. Angered, he spit his own larger geyser of flame right into its face. It thrashed in the flames.

The first dragon’s great tail swept Nath’s feet out from under him. The pair of giants wrestled back and forth. Trees fell. Rocks crumbled behind their bulk. It wrapped its tail around Nath’s neck. Nath locked his claws around its throat and squeezed with all his power.

“You cannot kill me,” it thought in his mind. “You don’t have the willpower. Just like your father, who spared us once before, you are a fool, Nath Dragon.”

Nath released its neck and started punching. Harder and harder. He loosened its jaw. Dotted its eyes. He walloped it in the soft spot behind its wings. Its tail around his neck slackened. Nath tore the tail away, scooped up the dragon, and slammed it to the ground. His next blows were a thunderous flurry that shook everything in the forest. He beat the dragon to death. It lay still with its tongue hanging from its mouth.

Nath drew his arms across his busted mouth with his chest heaving. His giant limbs quivered, and his closed-paw fists had dragon blood on them.

“What have you done!” the second dragon said. “Impossible!”

“I did to it what I’m going to do to you,” Nath said, turning to face it.

It beat its great wings, lifting its body from the ground, and a whoosh of flame came out. Nath balled up under the searing fire at first, and then slowly he rose. All around him, the forest burned. Turned to char and cinder. He gazed up at the dragon, shrugged off the blistering heat, and jumped high in the air, grabbing the dragon by its paws and jerking it to the ground.

Whoom!

He pinned it to the ground by the neck and unleashed the full fury of his dragon fire. Its claws raked at his scales. Its thoughts cried mercy. But nothing could save it from Nath’s wrath-filled heat. It died with its own eyes scorched inside its sockets.

Nath slumped over. He lay on the ground shaking. The night sky wavered. Smoke and firelight made an eerie look in the sky. He hurt. He bled. The dragon’s claws had torn through his scales into his flesh. There were even black blisters in many spots. He clutched his queasy stomach.

I’d be dead if not for that vial.

Getting on his monstrous hands and knees, he searched for Fang, lifting up burning trees and tossing them toward the river. But there was no sign of Fang.

Sultans of Sulfur! Could I have lost him?

Perhaps being bigger was the problem. Maybe he just needed to wait until he got smaller.

He can’t be far.

He stared into the sky at the Floating City that hung above. He could see the dragons, still perched on their roosts. Not a single one had moved. He beckoned for them.

Come. Come and play.

Thumping his chest, he coughed a little. At his feet, the first bull dragon lay still. Wings broken. Nath wondered what it had meant when it spoke about his father. Why had his father spared them the first time? How do you spare something that wants to kill you?

He’d spent the majority of his life saving dragons, and now several had died by his hands. He wasn’t supposed to kill. He’d been told it was different when a war was going on, but he couldn’t make sense of the difference.

Isn’t the war between good and evil always being fought?

He felt sadness. Despair. He stroked the bull dragon’s horns. Despite the dragon’s ferocious and terrible nature, it was still a beautiful thing. A spectacular mix of power and beauty. A shame it had been corrupted. A shame for them all.

Nath let loose and bellowed. After that, he pushed through the burning woods and located the crystal gnomes, who still formed a lump of stone. He picked them up with a grunt and walked back into the woods. He set them down and renewed his search for Fang. Perhaps the gnomes could help, if they ever thawed out, so to speak.

He tossed more burning trees toward the river, stomped and patted some fires out. Others he made into a huge bonfire until all the flames were under control. But there was no sign of Fang. Even with his excellent dragon vision, things were still harder to find in the dark than in the light.

He yawned, stretched his arms high into the sky, and sat down. Horses galloping through the forest caught his ear. They were coming his way. Seconds later, the riders emerged. Three of them had astonished looks. It was Brenwar, Bayzog, and Ben. The others were stone-faced Wilder Elves, and to his surprise one of them was Shum.

“What have you done to yourself this time?” Brenwar bellowed.

Nath kneeled down in front of them with his eyes fixed on Bayzog. His heart swelled.

“You’re alright then?” he said.

Looking a little squeamish, Bayzog climbed from his horse and said, “Never better.”

Nath slapped his hands together in a clap of thunder.

“Will you contain yerself!” Brenwar yelled. “You’ll wake our dead enemies with all that racket.”

“Oh, they’re awake alright,” Nath said, lowering his voice. He pointed back at the Floating City. “Green eyed and bony tailed.” He smiled. He was so happy to see all his friends alive and well. He pointed at Ben.

The strongly built man held Akron in his hands and offered an approving nod.

Nath continued. “Seems we have some things to sort out. I suppose we should start with you, Shum. How is Sansla Li—”

Nath’s vision spun, and a moment later everything went black.

CHAPTER 11

“I can barely stand this place anymore,” Rerry said to his brother Samaz. “Look at all of these melon heads. It’s revolting.”

“Keep your voice down,” Samaz said. The big-shouldered part-elf sat on a bench beside him, head low, eyes up. They’d been sitting for over two hours, looking for any sign of their mother, Sasha. “You know their ears are as big as their heads.”

Rerry rose up in his seat a little, violet eyes bright.

“Was that a jest?”

“More fact than jest,” Samaz replied, adjusting the sleeves on his robes, “any fool can see that.”

“Watch what you say, Brother.”

“Watch how loud you say it … Brother.”

Rerry eased back on the stone bench and started drumming his fingers on the hilts of his swords. He had the steel frame of a man but the grace of an elf. They sat in Quintuklen’s Gardens of Worship, in the favorite spot of their mother. Over the years, it had become the lone spot among hundreds that was their favorite spot to share. There had been a time, years ago, when Rerry ran away, only to be found by his mother, sleeping on this very bench.

“This will be our safe spot,” she had said to him. “If there is any trouble, this is where you come. But when we get home, you’ll have to do all of Samaz’s chores and some others.”

It was one of the few times Rerry didn’t bother to disagree. He hadn’t wanted to run away, but pride hadn’t let him go home either. He was just glad his mother found him. Plus, he’d been hungry.

“So you sense anything?” he said to Samaz, back in the now.

Samaz shook his head, his pale eyes flashing a little. The deep-chested part-elf rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I told you it doesn’t work like that.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Rerry said. “Find a way to make it work. You’re just sitting here doing nothing.”

“And you’re just sitting here doing nothing as well, aside from the bickering.”

A very tall man walked by, glowering at him. He wore a dark robe, was bald-headed with tattoos all around, and had a crow-like quality about him.

Rerry hoisted up his boot on the bench and tugged on the laces. “Good day,” he said to the crow-faced man. “How’s the weather up there?”

The man lifted a brow, shook his head, and vanished into the gardens.

Rerry scowled.

“Bald-headed tattooed freaks,” he muttered under his breath. “Need to stick a sword in all of them.”

“Watch what you say,” his brother warned under his breath.

“Who’s listening? The plants? The trees?” He grabbed a sunburst daisy and spoke into it. “Hello, flower, I want to skewer all the Clerics of Barnabus. Now run along and tell them about it.” He released the flower. “Sheesh.”

“Your silly mouth isn’t doing Mother any favors.”

“Pah,” Rerry said, turning away. He didn’t care. Every year, more people joined the ranks of Barnabus. They shaved their heads and got tattoos. They filled the gardens with chanting, praying, and pestering. They filled the streets with horrible singing. Rerry had friends once, but now most of them had fallen into the clutches of the disturbing acolytes of Barnabus. They made his stomach crawl.

“How much longer should we stay?” Samaz said, dashing sweat from his brow. “She could be anywhere by now. Perhaps one of us should wait at home in case she returns.”

“So you can read more scrolls?”

“I might find something useful. You never know.”

“You tried that,” Rerry said, frowning, “and it didn’t bear any fruit whatsoever. We wait here until the next crowing.”

Samaz pulled his legs up into a cross-legged sitting position and closed his eyes.

“Oh great,” Rerry said, shaking his head, “sleeping upright will help.”

He waited. Watched. People of all sorts were milling about, babbling about Barnabus and the war. They said the same things they always did.

Barnabus will overcome evil.

Barnabus will crush the dragon hordes.

Barnabus will win the war. Save us all. Hail Barnabus.

It was lunacy. The last dragon Rerry saw had been chasing people through the city with a bald rider on its back shouting commands while it wrought havoc. He knew which dragons were good and which were bad. His father Bayzog had told him how to tell the difference between good and evil.

“Just watch and listen to the things they do,” Bayzog had said. “Evil cannot hide its nature for long. It always outs itself. Just be careful that you don’t get too close to the web it spins. If you get caught, you might not ever get out.”

He rested his head in his hands.

Aw Father, I wish I were fighting at your side. I wish Mother would hurry back, too.

“Excuse me,” a pretty voice said.

Rerry’s head popped up. A mature woman of stunning beauty stood before him. Her lustrous black hair was peppered with white. Her peach gown clung to the generous curves of her body, and her features were elven. Rerry swallowed hard, and his heart started racing.

“Yes?” he said, coming to his feet. He smiled. “Can I help you?”

“I don’t believe so,” she said, taking his hand, “but I believe I can help you.”

“How…” Rerry started, blinking. Her beauty filled his eyes. Her touch was so soothing, and a strange melody tickled his ears. “How can you help me?”

He didn’t notice, but Samaz stood by his side, just as entranced as he was.

“I’m going to take you to your mother, Sasha.” She brushed her fingers over his ears. “Would you like that?”

All Rerry wanted to do was nod, and that was all he did.

She led them both by the hand, deeper into the gardens, underneath the overhanging tulip vines into a tunnel encircled in flowers and thorns. Rerry took a quick glance back. The city he’d known as home had vanished. He didn’t care one bit.