The Dragon's Test (Book 3) (32 page)

Then Erik heard a thunderous ruckus from behind. He turned to see the cavedogs pouring in from the cavern. Their riders whooping and hollering madly as they brandished their axes.
Faengoril led the charge, winking at Erik as he sped past.

Shortly after
, the chamber filled with the sound of steel ringing against the dragon’s scales. Erik took heart and stood out from behind the column, awestruck by the sight before him. Lightning continued to blast the dragon from above, while the cavedogs and their riders worked feverishly under the fog. The boy smiled to himself, amazed that the end of Tu’luh was at hand.

Then a great quake shook the chamber
and shards of stone flew into the dwarves, knocking several of them from their mounts. The dragon dropped his sharp claws down, tearing many more dwarves apart. Then the dragon spun around and the column Erik was standing near burst asunder as if struck by the gods themselves. Erik ducked and somehow managed to avoid being crushed by flying stone, but he soon realized that none were safe. A crack appeared in the floor a few yards away from him and a great snap echoed from above as hunks of granite fell to crush any slow enough to be caught in its path.

“You shall all burn!” Tu’luh swore. His fire engulfed several dwarves and turned them to ash in the blink of an eye.

Erik felt his heart sink. They were so close! Now to have the dragon snatch victory from them was unthinkable. His mind recalled the images that Tu’luh had shown him. As he thought of the red dragon sitting upon the black mountain with an ocean of dead below him, he couldn’t stomach the thought anymore. His inner courage rose to the surface and he ran forward. He leapt over the widening crack in the floor, dodged a fiery hunk of stone from above, and sidestepped Tu’luh’s massive tail as it swatted down a pair of rider-less cavedogs. Then he jumped on the tail and ran up. It was hard to keep his footing, as the dragon was moving and in the throes of battle, but somehow he managed to move in between the spikes along the beast’s spine and make his way to the beast’s shoulder.

The boy let out a feral yell, and sent his spark of power with it, dispelling the thick smoke so he could see his target easily. Everything around him seemed to slow, as if each second was an entire minute. He saw the dragon spread its left wing and he lashed out with his sword, tearing a small gash in the leathery wing and forcing the beast to turn and look at him. Then Erik launched himself forward, sword high above his head as the dragon’s mouth came in for him, opening wide.

A flash of silver came up from below and slashed the beast across the snout. The dragon turned at the last minute, giving Erik the opening he needed. He brought his sword down, slicing through the dragon’s left eye as the steel shattered in a storm of sparks. The beast reeled back in agony, roaring and hissing fire all over the ceiling as it fumbled backward.

Erik let go of the broken sword and fell down. He looked up to the ceiling and the flames above him seemed to pass peacefully over the stone, as if they were nothing more than orange and red waves of water. The air beneath him felt cool as he descended and he closed his eyes, remembering the feeling of flight when he had been in dragon form. Then he slowed in what felt like thick air.

He opened his eyes and saw Lady Dimwater standing before him, holding her hand out. “Get up,” she scolded. “We aren’t done yet!”

Erik fell the last two feet to the ground and jumped up to his feet. He looked up and saw the mighty beast still convulsing and writhing in pain, slamming its head and tail into anything nearby, including the wall.

The entire chamber shook violently and then the dragon tore through the ceiling with its claws and ejected a column of fire up through the hole. Erik could hear gasps and screams from above and then the whole earth around them began to tremble.

Tu’luh then flipped from his back and beat his wings, launching himself toward the tunnel at the far end of the chamber. As he exited, he took down the last three remaining pillars with his tail for good measure and disappeared through the tunnel faster than a rabbit fleeing a pack of dogs.

“Come on!” Faengoril shouted from nearby. “This place is coming down, everyone out!” he bellowed.

Erik and Lepkin ran for the tunnel, following after the cavedogs and their riders. Lady Dimwater rode upon a cloud, using her magic to steady the ceiling as best she could until everyone was well into the tunnel. Then she flew out after them.

A great plume of smoke and dust erupted from the tunnel, carrying shards of stone and rock through the air. Erik shielded his face from the debris and then waited for it to clear so he could survey the scene.

As the dust settled, he barely saw Tu’luh flying toward the south. He wa
s already so far away that he looked no bigger than a falcon in the sky.

“He won’t be coming back for a while,” Lepkin said assuredly. “You gave him quite the sting.”

Erik turned and saw Lepkin sitting near him, breathing heavily. Marlin was coughing and shaking dust from his hair. Faengoril was counting his troops, and Alferug was tending to one of the wounded dwarves. Lady Dimwater was standing a few yards off, tending to a hole in her sleeve and mumbling something about exacting revenge on the dragon for tearing her favorite gown. Then the dark haired woman whirled around and pointed an accusing finger.

“And you!” she shouted angrily.

Erik’s heart jumped into his throat and he nearly squeaked like a mouse until he realized that she was marching up to Lepkin, and not him.

Lepkin jumped to his feet and started to open his mouth but no words came out. Dimwater jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

“Why have you been asleep this
whoooole
time?!” she shouted. Everyone shifted nervously away from her except for Lepkin. He was too dumbfounded to react. The woman then grabbed a fistful of Lepkin’s shirt and pulled him in for a long, hard kiss that made Erik blush and look away. When he looked back, he saw that Lepkin’s face was red as well.

“I—er—” Lepkin stammered as she pushed him away from her again.

She poked him again, hard enough to push him back a couple inches. “Don’t
ever
do that again!” she scolded.

“Awww,”
Faengoril smirked. A couple of dwarves laughed, but they all quickly looked away when Dimwater turned a glaring eye at them.

“Alright,” Lepkin said sheepishly.

Dimwater then pulled him close again and buried her face in his neck as she squeezed him close to her. The two held each other for a few moments and then Lady Dimwater let go and moved to Lepkin’s side, holding his left hand with both of hers and leaning her head on his shoulder with a tear falling down her cheek.

Erik smiled and turned away, trying to give the two of them what little privacy he could. He looked up to the right and
saw Jaleal, standing proudly on top of a boulder, spear in hand and shouting at Tu’luh in a foreign tongue.

“See,” Lepkin said as he nudged Er
ik in the back with his foot. “Heroes come in all sizes.”

Erik nodded and Jaleal turned around, spinning his spear and smiling as he bounded down to stand next to Erik.

“As I said,” Jaleal started. “I am here to help.”

“How did you know I would be in trouble?” Erik ask
ed. Marlin came in close as well, obviously eager to hear the story.

Jaleal blushed. “Well, after I was expelled from the temple, I was looking for a way to get back in.” He pointed to Lepkin. “I was trying to wake him up.”

“Sorry about that,” Marlin said.

“Don’t be,” Jaleal said quickly. “If you hadn’t expelled me, I never would have found this tunnel
.” Jaleal gestured to the opening where dust was still rolling out from the collapsed chamber. “The opening wasn’t as obvious as it is now. It was overgrown and hard to see, but we gnomes can talk with the plants, so I was able to find it easily enough. I went in, hoping to find a secret way back up to Lepkin. Instead I stumbled on the dragon’s lair.”

“But how did you know it was Tu’luh?” Marlin asked. “The dragon who was first there was a golden dragon name
d Hiasyntar’Kulai.”

Jaleal held a finger up in the air. “I heard two voices,” he said. “One was the dragon’s, and the other was a man’s. So I went in to investigate. When I did, I saw the apparition of a man dressed in black robes. I could tell it was magic, and not really an audience in any physical sense, so I crept in closer to see what I could see.” Jaleal’s smile faded then and he brandished his spear. “It was the same man I saw as a young child,” he said. “He torched my villages and murdered my grandfather.
”

“Who was it?” Erik asked.

“It is a powerful necromancer. He goes by the name of Gilifan, and has unnaturally prolonged his life with the use of the darkest magic.” Jaleal propped his spear on his foot and wrinkled his nose. “Once I saw who it was, I knew the dragon had to be an imposter. So I came to Lepkin as soon as I could.”

“Then, after he woke me, he told me what he just told you and he rushed out to get the dwarves wh
ile I went and told Marlin,” Lepkin added.

“And I went to fetch Lady Dimwater,” Marlin added.

Jaleal nodded. “Then we came for you as soon as we could,” Jaleal told Erik. The gnome then twirled his toe, digging it into the dirt and looked up to Marlin. “I should apologize for the two healers and the guards,” he said.

“Perhaps I should have listened to you,” Marlin replied.

“Perhaps?” Jaleal retorted sarcastically before he quickly covered his mouth and blushed a bit behind his silver beard.

Faengoril
came up and slapped the gnome on the back. “I really like this guy,” he said with a big grin.

Gilifan surveyed his room once more. All of the artifacts he no longer needed were piled in the room, each stored in a wooden box and sealed shut. He weaved a spell over the items to prevent them from being tampered with. Then he set a cohort of ten soldiers in front of the door and gave them the order to kill any who approached until he returned.

Next he sent a rider to Spiekery with a message for the village people there that they could come to the keep if there were any problems. What he didn’t tell the villagers was that the rest of his mindless army would be waiting in the keep’s courtyard with orders to kill everyone that showed up. He was meticulous like that. No reason to allow loose ends to dangle freely in the wind.

A dead mouth tells no secrets, that was his philosophy. Besides, he could always bring them back anyway.

At that moment he remembered he didn’t have the amulet anymore. He exhaled angrily and
silently berated himself for letting a kobold get the better of him. Then he shook the thought away and focused on the task at hand.

He finished the final preparations. He packed the lockbox with the treasure and sent it to the ship at the dock with his two best warriors. He also sent a coin purse with them to pay the ship’s captain the prearranged fare for his voyage south. Then he went to the dining hall for his last meal in the keep before heading out to the ship and watching the men load the master’s cargo.

As Gilifan stood on the ship, watching the men load the large crate onto the deck he couldn’t help but chew his lower lip nervously. They pushed the crate up the gangplank and nearly slammed it into the deck railing. “Be careful with that,” he warned. “The master will not be pleased if anything should happen to it.”

The mindless servants nodded blankly and carefully
slid the crate into place. Then they finished securing the pulley ropes around the crate. A series of short whistles sounded and then a group of men pulled on several different ropes, all attached to pulleys that hung from above to hoist the crate up and then lower it into the cargo hold below through an opening in the deck.

A heavy set man with dark skin came out from the captain’s cabin and approached Gilifan. “Will we be taking the men as well?” the captain asked.

Gilifan shook his head. “No,” he replied. “Except for the two down below, I will go alone this time.”

The captain rubbed the back of his neck and looked up from the dock to the long road winding up a green hill to the back of the great keep that had once belonged to Lord Hischurn. “Seems a pity to leave such a great home.”

The necromancer offered a polite smile and then walked over as the men closed the grate over the hold where the crate had been loaded. After they locked the grate in place he sent the men back to the keep. “Maintain order until I return,” he told them.

“Obedient lot,” the captain commented. “Where did you find them?”

“Why do you ask?” Gilifan questioned.

The captain shrugged and looked around his deck at his crew. “
I wouldn’t mind having men like that in my employ,” he said.

Gilifan sniggered to himself and then went below deck. He had arranged for a cot to be set up in the hold, next to the crate, and had purchased the use of the entire cargo hold as his personal quarters for the duration of the trip south. When he entered the hold, he found his two best men standing guard.

The necromancer gestured for the men to turn away from the crate. They did so and he went up to the wooden box and slid a hand over the front. The crate was as tall as his chest, and each side was four feet long. He slid a key into the lock and unhooked the latch. The necromancer gently pushed the lid up on its hinges to peer inside and check the contents. With his left hand he brushed away some loose straw to reveal the top of a massive, golden egg with red spots.

“Master Tu’luh will be happy to have you home, young prince,” Gilifan said to the dragon egg.