The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) (38 page)

CHAPTER 41

All my strength fled when I gazed at the small, white dragon lying still on the floor. Completely drained, I fought on, legs kicking, but the monster had its mighty paws locked behind my back.

“That’s it!” Finnius said with glee. “Ooh! Your face is awfully red, Dragon, but I think it will look even better in a nice dark shade of purple.” Finnius limped over, leering up at me, triumphant.

I felt it. I was defeated. I’d failed. Any moment, the winged draykis would crush all my bones, leaving me living but an invalid.

“Worm!” I managed to spit out.

My spit sizzled through his robes.

“Eh… What is this?” Finnius asked, fingering the hole in his robes. My stomach churned with fire, and the taste of brimstone charged inside my mouth.

The draykis licked its lips, said, “I’m hungry,” and squeezed me with all its might.

I felt something snap as hot smoke burst from my nose.

Eyes filled with horror, Finnius backed away. “NO! What are you doing, Dragon? Stop that! Make him stop, draykis. NOW!”

The draykis, jaws filled with long sharp teeth, opened wide.

I tried to scream, but a jet of flaming liquid erupted instead.

One second the draykis's horrible face was about to eat me, in the next it was a ball of fire. There was nothing left of its face but bone as it released me and fell to the ground.

I jumped up from the floor to chase Finnius down.

He slipped on the shards of ice and fell hard to the ground on his knees, saying, “Mercy, Dragon! Mercy!”

Evil shows no mercy. No mercy shall it receive.

“Where was your mercy when you killed my friend, worm?”

“Mercy! I’ll do anything! Please!”

I wanted to stop it, but I couldn’t. A geyser of flame shot from my mouth, coating Finnius from head to toe. In an instant, he was burnt to a crisp.

A new rush of power assailed me as I chased the other acolytes down. Some burned, some escaped, and some died before it was over.

The only ones left were me and the dragons. One by one, I freed them from their cages, and one by one they were gone, the long-tailed white as well. Exhausted, I fell to my knees and fought the tears coming from my eyes.

“Ben,” I moaned as I crawled over to the altar.

There he lay on the granite slab altar, pale as a ghost. His energetic face, once full of life, now as stiff as stone. I’d saved the dragons but at what cost?

I brushed the hair from his eyes and said, “Ben. I’m so sorry, Ben.”

“For what?” he said, blinking.

I stiffened.

“Huh? Ben?”

He yawned, stretched out his arms, and asked again, “For what?”

I stumbled backward, clutching my heart.

“BEN! You’re alive!”

“That seems to be the case,” he said, fanning the eerie smoke from his face. “Is that your breath that I smell? It’s awful.”

“I guess that’s why they call it dragon breath.”

Sitting on the altar, Ben said, “Is this place shaking?”

Shards of rock and debris fell on my head and his. The High Priestess. Was she still coming? I rushed over and grabbed Fang. But where was Akron―and the rest of my things?

“We need to get out of here, Ben.”

Something was coming through the portal, something big.

“Ben, do you see my bow?”

I swung Fang into the archway, splintering rock, but it held. I felt the urge to hew the thing down. I felt evil as great as I’d ever felt before.

“Found it!” Ben said, hoisting it over his head.

“Bring it over here.”

I snatched Akron from his hands and nocked it with a powerful arrow. I rubbed my spit into the tip and watched it glow.

Holding his ears, Ben shouted, “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I said as I let the arrow fly. It disappeared into the smoky archway. A split second later, a roar came out that shook the entire temple. I grabbed Ben by the arm and led us dashing through the corridors. The floors wobbled and the walls warbled as we rushed past the dust and debris through one winding corridor and another until we arrived outside in the courtyard. The night air was like ice in my lungs.

“We made it,” I said, leaning over and grabbing my knees.

Ben was lying on the courtyard grass, wheezing.

From inside the ruins of the temple came a mighty thud like someone closing the lid on a giant sarcophagus. I fell to my knees, rain pelting my face, and scanned the area. No acolytes, lizard men, or draykis. It was over.

For a moment, I took it all in. I was alive, but more importantly, so was Ben.

“Look,” Ben said pointing.

A group of small dragons flew across the moonlit clouds in the sky.

I wanted to hug Ben but didn’t. Smiling, I squeezed his shoulder instead and said, “Ben, why aren’t you dead?”

He shrugged.

“I think Bayzog’s potion did it.”

“How so?”

“Well, he said that I would know when it was time to take it, so I did.”

“And when was that?”

“Well, I was with the horses, like you said, guarding them like you told me. After you’d been gone a little while, the horses started whining.”

“Whining?”

“Yes, I’ve never seen such nervous horses before. And that’s when I noticed it.” He stopped, thinking.

“Noticed what?”

"A giant shadow circling in the sky.” He shivered. “I’d never been so scared in all of my life. And I knew, instantly, that it was coming for me. That thing, those eyes, locked on mine, and I knew I was dead. I grabbed that vial and swallowed the entire bottleful. The horses galloped off, and the next thing I knew I was face to face with it. I’m embarrassed, but I think I fainted in its arms. I awoke, and I was sailing across the sky like a bird. That monster was carrying me. That’s when I blacked out again. Next time I awoke, I was spinning in that room, surrounded by those clerics and beastly things. Then that man took your sword and stabbed me.”

He pulled off his leather armor, which was cut clean through. He ran his finger along the white scar on his chest. He shook his head. “It was cold, the blade going in. As if someone shoved ice in my chest. But I didn’t die; I felt strange, outside of myself. I just closed my eyes and played possum.” He put his armor back on. “What was in that vial, Dragon?”

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, grimacing.

I headed for the forest―limping, bleeding, and aching all over. I’d had enough of these temples.

“Well, what was it?”

“I can’t say for sure, because you can never tell with Bayzog, or any other wizard, for that matter, but I’d say what he gave you was Moments of Immortality. And that’s very potent magic.”

“Whoa… How many moments do you think I have?”

I socked him in the arm.

“Ow! Why’d you do that?”

“Do you feel Immortal?”

“No,” he said, rubbing his arm.

“Then I’d say your moments ran out. Now come on: maybe we can track down the horses by dawn if we run.”

“Run?”

I took off, but not as fast as I would have liked. My joints ached. My body was swollen like a watered-down log. I’d taken a pretty heavy beating those last couple of days. But Ben, despite his huffing, tried to keep up. I had to let him catch up.

“There should be a potion to make this running easier,” he wheezed.

“There is. Come on.”

We arrived back at the Crane’s Neck as dawn broke and began the search for the horses. Starting from where Ben had left them, I spotted the hoofprints in the dirt.

Kneeling and pointing, I said, “See these horseshoe prints, Ben? They left deep impressions after the rain, so they shouldn’t be hard to follow―unless another storm hits. And they won’t take off more than a mile. With any luck, they’re grazing somewhere. Why don’t you see if you can track them?”

His face lit up.

“Really, me?”

“Now’s as good a time to practice as any.”

“All right, then,” he replied, giving me a funny look. “Well, uh, Dragon, do you feel all right?”

“I’m fine. I’ve been in plenty of bad scrapes before. Why do you aaaaa—?”

I forgot what I was saying. My lids became heavy as Ben’s eyes filled with alarm. His mouth twisted like a pinwheel as he yelled, and his fingers stretched out like worms.
What’s happening?
The light of the dawn faded to black.

***

Inside the temple ruins, a magnificent woman surveyed the chamber where the battle had taken place. It was High Priestess Selena.

“Interesting.”

Hours earlier, she had been attempting to enter the portal when a magic arrow sailed through the smoke, struck a draykis, and blew it and another to pieces. Her chamber was half destroyed, and her roar wiped out most of what wasn’t already rubble. She’d gotten over it. Not all plans were perfectly executed, but the execution still had its rewards.

She stepped through a puddle of water, kneeled alongside the charred corpse of Finnius, and said, “The best pawns end up being dead pawns.” She grabbed the magic amulet from around his neck and pulled it free of his ashy remains. “Here,” she said, tossing it to a man among the draykis. He was big and armored, with many colorful tattoos on his head. A cruel-looking warrior's mace hung from his belt.

“Clearly, this was a job for a High Cleric, but...” She waded past the other burnt and broken bodies in the room. “I still think it will bear the results that I was hoping for. Humph. Nath Dragon evades traps with the cunning of a snake, but he’ll never escape the biggest trap of all.”

“And that is?” the deep-voiced warrior cleric asked.

“Himself.”

Before she stepped through the smoke in the archway, she commanded one more thing.

“And bring along all the corpses of the acolytes. The dead tell the most accurate tales.”

Chapter 1: Chronicles of Dragon 4

I felt like I’d gone days without water when I opened my eyes. A soft, soothing light was in my eyes, but I still felt weary.

“Uh… where am I? Ben?”

The smell of sweet ginger filled my nostrils, and someone placed a cold, damp cloth on my head.

“Sssssh. Rest, Dragon.”

The warm face of Sasha greeted me with a smile as she reached over and touched my face.

“Bayzog, he awakens again.”

Again? I didn’t remember waking the last time.

“It’s not time yet, Sasha,” Bayzog said. A faint image of him in his red wizard tunic caught my eye.

Her perfect lips started singing; the gentle, mystic words of an ancient lullaby churned in my ears.

“No, don’t do thaaaaaa—”

The soft lights turned dark again.

***

“Wake him up!”

Slowly, I opened my eyes, the thirst I remembered now gone. Then I saw Brenwar, as angry as I ever saw him before.

“What are you yelling for?” I said, shielding my eyes, squinting.

He whirled on me, so angry I could see the red behind his beard.

“WHAT AM I YELLING FOR?”

A large figure stepped between us. It was one of those Roaming Rangers.

“Shum?”

“Get out of my way, elf,” Brenwar growled.

“Brenwar,” Bayzog intervened, “now is not the time.”

“Oh, it’s the time, all right!”

Brenwar shoved past Shum, stuck his stubby finger in my face, and said, “Why did you leave me, Nath Dragon?” His voice cracked. “Why did you do that?”

I didn’t know what to say. I was feeling great, but I had the feeling I shouldn’t be.

“Why is everyone looking at me like that? Where's Ben? Is he all right? And how did I get here?”

Brenwar stood frowning and tapping his foot, Shum unmoving, Bayzog muttering, and Sasha twitching her nose.

“What?” I said.

Bayzog took a seat beside me and said, “I’ll catch you up. Ben led you back here on the horses after you fainted.”

“Ah, good, I knew Ben had it in him. I guess my wounds were much worse than I thought. So, where is he?”

“He’s with the Legionnaires, on a mission.”

“Huh, a mission. He couldn’t be on a mission already. Could he? Don’t they have to go through training?”

Brenwar stormed forward.

“Fool! He could have been on twenty missions already. He’s been gone for weeks. You’ve been asleep for weeks. I’ve been looking for you; my men have been looking for you, and we might never have found you if we hadn't come across that temple. And we might not have ever known you were there if we hadn't found this!” He held out a black dragon scale. “And this led us here.”

I grabbed the scale with my left hand and pinched it in my fingers. My black dragon fingers. I jumped off the couch.

“SULTANS OF SULFUR! I have two dragon arms!”

“You can say that again!” Brenwar shot back. “You foolish dragon!”

I touched my toes, my shins, my thighs, chest, and face.

“Am I—?”

“Just the arms, Dragon,” Sasha said. “You’ll be all right.”

“No, he won’t! He’d have been all right if he’d done as he was told. Dragon! What have you done?” Brenwar exclaimed.

“I saved dragons!” I yelled back. “And if I’d waited on you, they’d probably be dead!”

I gazed at my scales, my hands, my claws. A thrill went through me. I felt unstoppable! But there was something else. The white spot of scales was on both palms in the middle.

Brenwar poked me in the chest, saying, “I was at the temple. I saw what you did. And your new friend, Ben, confirmed it. You killed again! Now look at you!”

“You started it!” I said, pointing at Brenwar.

“You did this, not I, Dragon! You ran off on your own, like a fool, and now you have twice the problem!”

“Don’t call me a fool again, Brenwar,” I said, glowering down on him. I was ready to rip his beard off.

He rose up on his toes and said, “What are you going to do, breathe on me? Fool!”

I took a deep breath.

He laughed at me.

Sasha’s vibrant form stepped between us. “Please, everyone, stop yelling. You aren’t children; you’re men,” Sasha said, gentle hands pushing me into the sofa.

Calmness fell over me.

“We have to work together on this,” she said, eyeing all of us. “It’s that important. Bayzog, tell him.”

I slumped into the sofa, feeling incredibly angry and guilty, but I let Sasha’s charm calm me.

“Yes, Bayzog, Ben mentioned there was something you wanted to tell me. What is it?” I said, noticing my beard.
“Ugh! Really?”

Bayzog gave me a funny look.

I shook my head, which was beginning to ache, saying, “Go on, then.”

“Dragon, I can’t say that I, or anyone in the world, for that matter, can understand your unique constitution―well, excluding your father, of course.”

My headache intensified. What would my father think?

“I don’t think things are as bad as they look, however. I would venture that it was inevitable that you would start turning into a dragon eventually, and your scales, well, they aren’t a true reflection of your nature. Nath, we all know that you are good, as good a man as we all know, but there is darkness in all of us. No one person is perfect or without blemish; most just hide it better on the outside. That’s why it is difficult to tell the good people from the evil sometimes.”

“This isn’t helping, Bayzog,” I said, holding my head in my hands, irritated.

“Our deeds are what define us. Our actions. Our words. Not our garments, not our looks. What is inside a man, in his heart―his dragon heart―is what counts. Keep doing what you are doing.”

“But I want to get rid of it.”
Sort of.

“And what if you can’t? Will you stop being good altogether then? Will you join the Clerics of Barnabus?”

“NO!”

“So stop whining, then,” Bayzog said.

“I’m not whining.”

“You are whining,” Brenwar added, folding his arms across his chest. “Like a baby orc.”

“Fine, I’m whining, but I’m sure all of you would do the same if you had these.” I lifted my arms. “I’m not going to be wooing the ladies like I used to; that’s for sure. But I imagine I could be used in a carnival to frighten children.”

Brenwar harrumphed.

“I like them,” Sasha said, rubbing my scales, smiling. “I think they are marvelous.”

Her sweet words made me feel better; they really did. I guess I was just going to have to get used it, but I really needed to fix it.

“Bayzog, my father says there are many things in this world that can heal. Perhaps you can help me find some of those things. Maybe I just need a different Thunderstone or something.”

Bayzog walked over to his large table, opened his tome, thumbed through the pages, and threw his hands out. When he twitched his fingers, an image of a mystic amulet formed and hung in the air, gold and silver with a bright-green gemstone in the middle.

“The Ocular of Orray. The legend says that it can bring health, peace, and prosperity. Its powers have been known to cure lycanthropes and liches, and to restore the undead. Perhaps it can help.”

“So, where is it?”

Bayzog flicked his fingers. The amulet broke into several pieces.

“It was stolen from the elves in Elome a century after the last Dragon War, never to be seen again. According to the lore, the thieves broke it up into many pieces and spread them all over Nalzambor, for the Ocular cannot be destroyed.”

“So, who stole it? Who can go into Elome and steal anything?” I sighed. “It’s a fortress.”

“We’d have to ask the elves that,” he said, closing the book.

“So, I’m supposed to search the entire world for this Ocular? I’d rather just save the dragons.” I looked at Shum. “And what are you doing here?”

“I have an interest in the power of the Ocular as well. Remember my king? He needs the healing, too.”

“I see. And what about the dragons? I’m not going to abandon them for this quest.”

Brenwar shoved my sword and scabbard into my chest.

“We won’t!”

Bayzog and Sasha donned their traveling cloaks.

“Where are you going?”

“With you,” Sasha said, tying the neck with the magic of her fingers. “I’ve been needing to stretch my legs. Bayzog has kept me cooped up in here too long.”

It seemed everybody was ready for a trip but me as I shook my head and rose to my feet.

“So, now I need supervision everywhere I go?”

“And then some,” Brenwar huffed. “Let’s go!”

“Fine,” I said, buckling my sword around my waist as Sasha draped my quiver over my shoulder and handed me Akron. I was ready for anything. But before I closed my eyes, I said one last thing. “But I’m going to save whoever and whatever I want to. Agreed?”

Everyone shook their heads except Brenwar, who laughed.

“Well, let it never be said I didn’t consort with highly unreasonable people.”

As soon as I closed my eyes, the adventure began.