The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) (37 page)

CHAPTER 38

Inside his cage, the male pixlyn fought against the bars. His mate sang encouraging words that filled him with power. With his straining, the bars began to bend. Exhausted, the pixlyn squeezed free. He flew over and grabbed a ring of keys that hung from a peg on the wall. Seconds later, he unlocked his mate’s cage, and they were free. Tossing the keys on the floor, neither looked back, and they were gone. From a lone cage in the corner, a little white dragon saw it all.

***

The temple was a series of catacombs that wound from one room or corridor to the next. I passed shelves, tombs, and altars but nothing undead. In pain, I trudged forward as fast as I could, worried, exhausted.

“Nath!” a voice cried from out of nowhere. Stopping, I turned and saw a familiar face in an ancient mirror bigger than me. It was Ben, bleeding and beaten. “Help me, Nath!”

All my hairs stood up on end as the haunting voice faded and the image disappeared.

I stood staring at the mirror and gawped at myself. I’d never looked so bad before. My face was swollen, my nose broken, and my ribs felt like scattered pieces from a dwarven puzzle. “Ben,” I muttered, touching the glass. I had to save him. I had to find him fast.

I turned my back to the mirror and yelled.

“Enough, Finnius Worm, show yourself!”

Nothing.

I decided to renew my search, and I was heading toward another tunnel when I heard Finnius say, “So close yet so far, fool.”

Now Finnius’s image was inside the large oval mirror, taunting me, mocking me. “You’ll never find your friend in time, but I thank you. He’ll make a fine meal for the draykis. Even monsters get hungry.”

Finnius’s words went straight through me.

“Noooooo!”

I charged across the chamber in two leaps, lowering my shoulder as I crashed through the mirror.

Glass shattered as I passed from one side to the other and kept going. Fear assailed me. I spiraled downward, free falling through the darkness before hitting the hard ground with a thud. I could have sworn I had broken every bone in my body when I tried to rise to my feet.

“Welcome, Nath Dragon. How fine of you it was to join us.”

Finnius stood on the other side of thick metal bars, gloating.

“My, I never imagined you would have fallen for that one. You actually ran through the mirror and fell into the pit. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. And coming from you, Nath Dragon, one of the greatest warriors of all. Tsk. Tsk. I can’t begin to express how disappointed and elated I am.” He drummed his chin with his fingers. “Then again, maybe I’m just, oh, I almost hate to say it… Brilliant!”

My prison was solid steel, corroded, but solid nonetheless. High above me, a trap door was being pulled up and into place. I wasn’t going anywhere, not without help.

“Where’s Ben?”

“Oh, the young man whom you have doomed? Why, he’s over there, dying,” Finnius said, pointing.

I felt my heart stop in my chest. Ben spun in midair, surrounded by acolytes muttering a spell. Ben’s eyes were watery with terror as his unmoving lips seemed to cry out for me. We locked eyes, but he couldn’t even blink.

“What are you doing to him, Finnius?” I shouted through the bars.

Finnius lifted his finger and said, “Ah, well, you are going to like this, really. You see, when the High Priestess arrives, she is going to teach me how to create a draykis. You see, Nath, all we have to do is add dragon parts.” He pointed farther back in the room. “And dragon blood.”

I could see several cages with coiled dragons inside. One was a yellow streak, the other two evergreens inside eerily glowing cages.

“That’s not going to happen, worm. I’ll see to that.”

Finnius let out a creepy, bubbly laugh as he walked over and grabbed my sword from one of his acolytes.

“I wouldn’t draw that blade if I were you.”

“What is the matter, Dragon? Are you afraid I’ll kill you with it?”

“It doesn’t like evil,” I said, pulling myself up by the bars. “You'd best let go of that.”

“Hah. Nice try, Dragon. But I believe I’ll be all right. Oh, and don’t worry: as I said, I’m not going to kill you. The High Priestess will do that. But, I will at some point, have to kill your young friend, Ben. And won’t it be agonizing to watch him die by your own blade? Hmmmm?”

“He dies, you die, worm.”

Holding Fang by the scabbard, Finnius eyed me then the sword and said, “Acolyte, withdraw this blade.”

“Again, Finnius, I wouldn’t do that unless you want another man dead,” I warned.

The acolyte's fingers stopped inches from Fang’s hilt. He widened his eyes on me.

“Withdraw it, servant, or die anyway! Draykis!”

Several hulking figures stepped out of the shadows, two of which limped and had busted faces. It seemed all of my valiant efforts from earlier had been deflated. One stepped over the acolyte and wrapped its clawed fingers around his neck.

Sweating profusely, the acolyte wrapped his trembling hands around the hilt. Taking a sharp breath, he slid Fang from the sheath, holding my sword out in his robed arms. Fang’s steel flickered with life in the lantern light but was otherwise dim. I sagged. I hadn't really expected Fang to do anything, but you never know with him.

“Huh, I see your bluff has failed you, Dragon. Perhaps you should have stayed in bed. You look awfully tired. Maybe you should just sit down and rest.” Finnius jerked the sword away from the acolyte and pointed it in the acolyte's face. He clipped one cheek, then the other. “Next time, it will be your neck with a large hole in it.” Finnius whirled toward the others and said, “Lower him.”

Ben’s body slowly drifted over next to a large stone altar, where he sat upright, listless and catatonic. They had done something to him. His eyes flickered between me, the draykis, and the ceiling.

“Don’t give up, Ben. I’ll save you!”

“No, Dragon, no you won’t,” Finnius said, stepping over toward Ben and stabbing him in the chest.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

CHAPTER 39

I didn’t feel a thing when my buttocks landed on the cold stone floor. I was dead inside. Worse, Ben was dead! The only thought racing through my head was, “It’s your life to throw away, not mine.” I'd tried to warn him, yet guilt overwhelmed me. It mixed with something else: anger. It was all my fault. I had failed.

“Good, Dragon,” Finnius started, “you should rest, as you look absolutely horrible. I hope the High Priestess doesn’t mind when she arrives any minute now.” He clapped his hands. “Acolytes, begin the summons.”

Listless, I watched the Clerics of Barnabus gather around an archway off center in the chamber and begin their moans and mumbles. I felt my heart explode in my chest when the draykis hoisted Ben’s body onto the slab altar.

“I’ll kill you, Finnius,” I muttered.

Finnius cupped his ear, saying, “What’s that?” He jabbed Fang into the stone floor by the altar. “A fine weapon, a fine-fine piece of steel. Is it made of jaxite? I didn’t even feel it go in or slide out.” He turned his attention to the archway and looked back at me. “Won’t be long now, Dragon. And I can’t wait to see what the High Priestess has in store for you.”

Smoke of many colors swirled inside the archway, pulsating with life and energy. The sound of the acolytes chanting increased in volume and tempo. I didn’t care. Whoever the High Priestess was and whatever they wanted to do with me didn’t matter. I’d failed. I’d abandoned one friend, only to see another one dead. Huffing for air, I rose to my feet. I wrapped my hands around the metal.

“I’m going to kill you, Finnius!”

I wasn’t supposed to kill anybody unless it was life or death.
What about Finnius’s death for Ben's life?
It was more than fair.

Finnius leered at me, wringing his dirty hands together and saying, “Not even in your wildest nightmares. It’s over for you, Nath Dragon.”

The draykis, no longer two but ten, sprang into action as something small and white skittered across the floor.

“What is it?” Finnius cried out as a small, white dragon leaped past his face and into the corner. “Who let it out? I’ll kill one of you! Acolyte, get me those pixlyn!" One broke from the group and dashed off. “Draykis, capture that dragon!”

It was a long-tailed white, the same one I’d seen in the cage on my way in here. It was quick and fierce, and the draykis were no match for it. One sealed off the other way out as the other three chased it around the room. It scurried, hissed, snapped, and slipped through the claws of one then the other.

“Get it, draykis! Kill it!” Finnius screamed. “It doesn’t matter how!”

I jumped to my feet, pulling at the bars, fuming.

“I’ll not see any more of your murders, Finnius.

“You’ll see many more before this day is over, I assure you.”

The acolyte rushed back into the room.

“Well?” Finnius snapped.

“Gone, Cleric Finnius.”

Finnius wrung his hands and tugged at his robes, screaming at the draykis, “You idiots! Why did you abandon those cages?”

The draykis at the door replied, “We did as you requested.”

The long-tailed white flew from one side of the room to the other.

Finnius stomped his feet.

“Catch it! NOW!”

The long-tailed white locked eyes with me, and I felt a connection. It wanted the dragons free, and so did I.

Finnius howled. He saw us.

The dragon darted across the room toward me.

“Stop it!” Finnius yelled.

Lunging, two draykis collided with each other, but a third caught the end of the dragon's long tail and jerked it to the ground. The dragon screeched, tiny claws digging into the stone floor, straining toward me. I reached through the bars, my arm inches away.

“NO!” I screamed as another draykis, wielding a sword, rushed over, swinging it.

“Kill it!” Finnius shouted. “Kill it!”

CHAPTER 40

The white dragon's eyes glowed with green fire as the draykis swung the sword. A jet of white smoke shot out of its mouth, filling the room in an instant. I couldn’t see a thing, but I heard a blade chopping into flesh and stone. Something let out a nasty grunt, and I could hear Finnius hack and cough while I tried to fan the smoke away. As the smoke dissipated, I could hear him scream.

“Did you kill it? Where is it? Find it!”

Through the thinning smoke, a draykis rose from the floor, staring at the stump of his arm. The other with the sword was looking around, and that’s when I felt it. The tiny dragon had squeezed through the bars and was crawling up my back and onto my shoulder. His extra-long tail coiled along my waist and arm.

“Ahem,” I said.

Finnius turned my way. His face reddened and his chin quivered when he said, “Give me that long-tailed white, Dragon. Or I’ll kill the rest of them.”

“If you want this dragon, worm, why don’t you come and get it?”

The dragon’s tail tightened around my arm and waist. A surge of power raced through me like never before. Every muscle in my being pulsated as the purring dragon filled me with awesome power. I wasn’t a man any more. I felt the strength of a full-grown dragon. I grabbed the bars, and the metal groaned as I pulled them apart like noodles. Finnius’s jaw dropped to the floor when I stepped through the gap I'd just made.

“Unless you can bring my friend back to life, it’s time to die, Finnius!”

I knocked the first draykis that came at me from one side of the room to the other. I ducked under another blade that almost took my head from my shoulders. I was fast. Faster than ever before. Stronger than ever before. The power the little dragon was giving me was unbelievable!

“You’re dead!” I said, rushing Finnius.

He had turned to run before I closed in when two armed draykis jumped into my path. A sharp blade tore past my stomach, and a large hammer ripped an inch away from my head. I was faster and stronger, but I wasn’t impervious to metal. I did a backflip toward the altar and landed in front of Fang. I ripped him free.

“Now it’s even, uglies,” I said. I could feel the dragon's power flowing from my shins to my neck. Fang’s blade hummed with life. “Who’s the first to pay for the life of my friend?”

“You cannot kill us,” said one draykis, holding a sword. “We are already dead.”

“We’ll see about that,” I boasted, knowing full well the odds were against me. I’d never faced such a formidable force of warriors before. So be it. I felt like I could fight an entire army now. I felt even better than when the crowd had cheered me on, “Dragon! Dragon!”

Faster than sight, I drove Fang into the nearest one's chest, drawing forth a groan as it fell. I chopped another one in the arm and kicked another one in the face. Another parried my strike and countered with a deep cut across my leg. On they came at me with the skill and precision of hardened soldiers, forcing me backward to parry again and again.

“NO!”

I knocked a blade free from one and stabbed another in the shoulder. Another fell as I hacked through its knee. Fang sizzled through the air like a living thing, cutting, blocking, and chopping. But all my strength and speed didn’t stop them from coming. Limping, snarling, and slashing, they pressed.

“Gah!”

One ripped its claws through my arm. Little dragon or not, I couldn’t keep this up much longer, and if I died, the dragons would all die as well.

Without thinking, I said, “Fang! Do something!”

Fang flared with brilliant icy light.

Striking like a snake, I jabbed a draykis that wielded a sword.

It stopped in its tracks, its scaled body turned to ice. I struck another draykis and one more. Instant statues of ice they’d become. I cut one in the arm and another in the leg with the same effect. Weapons poised high over their heads, the last two charged.

Slice! Slice!

They crystalized into pure ice.

There I stood among seven frozen horrors, feeling almost as astounded as they looked. Fang throbbed in my hand.

“What’s that, Fang?” I saw the tip flare up. “Ah, I see.”

I struck Fang’s tip on the stone floor.

KRAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The vibrations of the perfect metal resonated through the chamber like a giant tuning fork.

One by one, the icy figures of the draykis exploded into a thousand shards of ice.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Finnius screamed from right behind me.

I whirled just in time to catch a long dagger plunging at my chest. I twisted it free from his wrist, punched him in the face, and sent him sprawling to the floor.

“You’re going to pay, worm!”

Crawling backward, he shouted back, “It’s too late, Dragon. She comes.”

The mystic smoke in the archway was filling the room, but all the clerics but Finnius were gone. Eeriness covered me like a blanket. I shook it off.

“Great, then she’ll be here just in time to make arrangements for your funeral.” I raised my sword and closed in. I didn’t ever want to see this man alive again. “But there might not be much left to bury once I’m done with you.”

“Go ahead! Kill me! My High Priestess will just bring me back,” Finnius said, chuckling. “But that’s much more than I can say for your friend.” His eyes twinkled with darkness as his lips curled in a smile. “Come, Dragon, avenge your friend.”

“I’ll do more than that!”

The dragon on my shoulder hissed out a warning.

Crack!

It felt like a large mallet collided with my skull, knocking me to my knees. Finnius seized my wrists and shouted.

“AZZRHEEM-KAH!

It felt like lightning exploded inside me as I lay on the ground, hair smoking, every fiber of my being throbbing in pain. My eyelids hurt as I opened my eyes to witness a winged draykis reaching for me. Bigger than the rest, it scooped me off the floor like a doll and crushed me in its arms.

“Break his back!” Finnius yelled from somewhere. “I want to hear it snap, draykis!”

It didn’t have lips, but it smiled.

“Certainly, my lord.”