The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) (148 page)

Assault on the Floating City

CHAPTER 45

“It’s over,” Gorn said. “Nalzambor will be mine forever!”

Nath, straining with all his might, gave one final heave against the dragons. The effort was futile. He glared at Selene. “You picked the wrong side.”

“Oh, did I?” she replied with a smirk on her face.

Fang flashed in the sun.

Selene spoke a word of power, and the Ocular of Orray burst with brilliant blinding light.

“Argh!” Gorn said, staggering back and covering his eyes in his elbow. “What are you doing, Selene?”

Tendrils of energy stretched out from the Ocular and ripped into the dragons that held Nath down. The dark dragons screamed and scurried. Others darted into the sky, and several suddenly died.

“Ultimate betrayer!” Gorn bellowed. “You shall pay for this!” Gorn blasted Selene with the fire of ten thousand furnaces. It buried her in the buildings, leaving her out of sight beneath a smoking pile of rubble. “Fool!”

Nath sprang to his feet and charged.

Gorn turned on him and swung. The blade sheared through Nath’s wing and into his side.

Nath screamed. “Argh!” He blocked out the pain. He kept fighting. He grabbed Gorn’s wrists and blasted him in the chest with his own dragon fire. He and Gorn butted horned heads.

Klock! Klock! Klock!

“You are no match for me!” Bigger and stronger, Gorn scooped the exhausted Nath up in one arm and slammed him down hard.

Fang’s blade flashed in the sun and came down.

Nath rolled to the side, avoiding a fatal blow that still sank into the meat of him. “Ugh!” He twisted his body around and swept Gorn from his feet with his tail and sprang up, clutching the side of his dragon body. It was bleeding. Bleeding badly. It burned, too. Nothing felt worse than being wounded by a friend. It angered him.

Gorn made his way back to his feet with ease and laughed. “Ha ha ha! Give up, Nath Dragon. I’ve too much power. I have your sword. The jaxite. Thousands of dragons under my command.” He lifted his chin and snorted smoke. “I have more than your father ever had. I am disappointed. It seems you are less of a fighter than he.”

“Maybe so,” Nath said, “but I’ll fight you to the end. This fight isn’t over yet.” He summoned all of his courage and all of his strength and charged. “Dragon! Dragon!”

Fang licked out faster than a snake’s tongue.

Nath stopped short of its tip, spun to one side, and countered with a punch to Gorn’s chin.

The Dragon Warlord staggered back and howled.

Nath unleashed radiant beams of fire from his eyes, striking Gorn in the throat.

Again the dragon lord fell back. “I see you learned one of my tricks,” Gorn said, “but it will take more than that to save you.”

Nath pressed his attack. He brought fire. Rays. Punches. Claws. He gasped in pain with every offensive blow but kept on swinging. He used his speed. All of his energy. He was a hornet stinging a larger enemy.

Gorn chopped one heavy swing after the other. He missed time after time. “Stand still!” Gorn roared. “You annoying fly!”

Nath filled Gorn’s face with his dragon fire, but then his inner fires went dim.

Guzan!

He’d used all of his breath up. His body became weak and wobbly.

“Tired,” Gorn said, leering down at him, “little dragon?”

Nath punched Gorn in the face with arms that felt like lead.

Gorn unleashed a final blast from his eyes.

Ssssraaaaat!

Nath’s body skidded down the street, stopping when he crashed into an ancient fountain. Everything hurt. Everything felt broken. He forced open his swollen eyes. Fifty feet of Gorn towered over him.

What happened?

He’d exhausted his powers and shrunk back down to the size of a man.

“I should squash you like a bug,” Gorn said. “But that won’t do.”

Gasping for his breath, Nath watched Gorn and Fang shrink in size, but he still stood a full ten feet in height.

Gorn reached down, grabbed Nath by the neck, and hoisted him up high. He squeezed Nath’s neck in his grip.

Nath kicked his feet, and his face turned beet red, almost purple.

“Oddly silent now isn’t it?” Gorn said with a hiss. “The lonely sound of death. Ah, but is that the distant screaming of your friends that I hear? I believe it is. They are dying. But don’t fret, Nath Dragon, I’ll give all of you a fiery funeral.” He rested Fang’s tip against Nath’s chest. “How nice. I can even feel the last beats of your heart in your chest.”

Nath tried to speak, but all he could do was squirm and think about his friends.

Keep fighting until the end.

He felt Fang’s tip begin to sink into his scales, but in the distance he heard something else.

Kah—Kah—Kah—Roooooooooom!

“Ah, it seems your friends got off one final shot before they died,” Gorn mocked. “A pity it will do neither them nor you any good.” He glanced up at the protective dome. “Let’s watch the final ricochet together, shall we?”

Nath’s golden eyes made their final glance. The magic torpedo soared overhead and kept on going, a shooting star in the night. His heart sank. They’d missed.

Kah—Kah—Kah—Roooooooooom!

A second torpedo skipped off the shield, making a blast of fiery sparks.

He heard another shot and closed his eyes.

“Oh well,” Gorn said, “at least they still fight. That’s more than I can say for you.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire Floating City shook so hard that it half tilted over.

“What?” Gorn cried out.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The city shook again, and he dropped Nath on the ground. Out of control, the city started rocking back and forth and spinning in a wobbling fashion.

“Impossible!” Gorn said, shaking his head. “No matter! The end of you is the end of this world.”

“You know what your problem is, Gorn?” Nath said, rubbing his neck.

“What might that be, foolish little dragon?”

“You talk too much!” Nath lunged for Fang and jerked Dragon Claw from the hilt. In a flash, he buried the blade in Gorn’s chest to the hilt. “And you’re too darn slow!”

“No!” Gorn cried out with widening eyes. “Impossible! Nooooooooooo!”

Gorn’s body crackled and fizzled, illuminated with light. An eerier cry went out.

Kah-Poooooooof!

Nath stared down at Gorn’s corpse, now turned to bone and ashes that the wind quickly took away. He took Fang from Gorn’s disintegrating grip. “I don’t ever want to do that again.”

Booooooooooooom!

Booooooooooooom!

Booooooooooooom!

Everything was collapsing all around him.

“Selene!”

***

He rushed over to the pyre where she had last been and dug his claws into the dirt. He found her out cold in the smoking rubble. He took her up in his arms, spread his wings, and took to the sky. His battered wings kept on pumping, barely keeping him aloft. He heard Selene gasp and cough. “Hang in there,” he said.

Teetering out of control, the Floating City careened toward the ground. An earth-shaking, horrendous crash smote the mountain tops. The city was destroyed, leaving only giant plumes of smoke and rubble.

Nath said to Selene, “Looks like we did it. We’re going to make it.”

Her eyes found his. “Of course we are. I had faith, did you?”

CHAPTER 46

The Apparatus of Ruune stopped firing. Bayzog’s shield collapsed. Dark dragons climbed all over them, the Apparatus, everything. Brenwar swung his hammer into a copper dragon’s nose.

Krang!

“Get off me, lizards!”

There was a blinding flash! A thousand bolts of lightning in one.

Booooooooooooom!

Booooooooooooom!

Booooooooooooom!

The dragon surge ended. The dark lizards shook their necks and flapped their wings. The glowing green lights in their eyes went dim.

“Direct hits! Directs hits!” Pilpin said, sliding down the ladder to the smoking barrel of the apparatus. “Look!” he said, waving his arms. “Look!”

The Floating City split into two massive hunks. It teetered and warbled in the sky, sputtering and smoking. Slowly, it drifted toward the earth, dragging the chained dragons down with it.

BAMmmmmm!

It crashed into the mountains with thunderous impact. Smoke billowed up in huge plumes of dust and rubble.

“I’ll be,” Brenwar exclaimed, mopping the sweat from his brow. “You were right, wizard!” He scanned the area around the apparatus. There were dragons everywhere, some dead, others alive. “Where are you, wizard?”

“Perhaps I can help,” Shum said. The giant-sized Roamer elf began picking dragons up from the pile and tossing them aside. Bayzog and his family lay underneath the pile, unmoving.

“Bayzog!” Brenwar jumped off the apparatus and rushed to his friend’s side. He scooped him up in his arms. “Wake up, elf! Wake up!”

Bayzog’s violet eyes fluttered open. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

“About what?”

“Shooting the jaxite.”

“It was my shot that did it, elf. Not your advice. Your words had little effect.”

Grimacing, Bayzog eyed him, starting to rise. “If you say so, dwarf. Ouch.

“Are you all right?”

“Just a few broken ribs, and possibly my leg. Hardly a wound of note.”

“Hah!” Brenwar said, slapping him on the back. “Glad to see I’m finally rubbing off on you. A wizard turned soldier! Too bad the war might be over.” He helped Bayzog to his feet, and together they gazed into the sky, where all the bright colors of the rainbow lingered.

Everyone seemed to be all right, especially Rerry.

“What kind of potion did you give me, Father?” Rerry said. “I was so fast!” He jabbed his sword. “Quick!”
Swish!
“My strikes were lightning-filled power! I want to drink that again. Please, please, tell me what it’s called.”

“In Elven,” Bayzog said, “It’s called
Cafleiyn
. And no, you can’t have any more.”

“Aw!”

Gazing toward the distant mountains, Brenwar frowned.

“Do you think he made it?” Bayzog said.

Kabooooom!

Kabooooom!

The Floating City exploded, shaking the ground beneath them.

“What in Nalzambor is that?” Brenwar said.

“The jaxite. Its energy is activated. The Apparatus of Ruune made it unstable.”

“We need to get Nath out of there,” Brenwar said.

“We need to get us out of here!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A dome of fiery light covered the mountains. Everyone standing fell from their feet. Dust and debris rained down on them, coating everything.

Coughing, Brenwar stood up and wiped the grit from his eyes, gaping. The mountains were gone. He swallowed hard, and through a cracked voice he said, “I guess that’s it then.”

Everyone stood in silence.

Tears streamed down Sasha’s cheeks.

Pilpin sniffled.

The dragons, of all sorts and colors, made sad honks and drifted away until all of them were gone. Almost an hour passed before Brenwar said, “I suppose we need to go and look for him. Come on, Pilpin.”

“Look for who?” someone said.

“Nath,” Brenwar grumbled. “Who said that?”

“I did,” a voice from above responded.

Every chin tilted upward. Nath hovered in the sky with Selene in his arms.

“You get down here, you … dragon!”