The Hidden Realm: Book 04 - Ennodius (15 page)

“Why do they trouble Dwarves more than the other races?” asked Elerian curiously.

“Treasure,” replied Ascilius quietly. “Dragons lust after treasure. They do not mine so they must steal their wealth. Of course, once they have it, all they do is sleep on it, which seems a waste of effort to me.”

Elerian immediately thought of Durio, the changeling they had met in the Broken Lands, caught in the spell of his treasure and thought that he understood the dragons’ lust for gold, even if Ascilius did not. Behind them and to their right, Eboria suddenly issued another of her earth shaking roars.

“That is for our benefit,” said Ascilius to Elerian. “Few creatures have the courage not to panic and stay hidden once they hear the sound of a hunting dragon.”

“I wish that I had given some warning when I first saw her,” said Elerian regretfully. “I might have been able to save the poor mare. It was as if I was in the grip of a spell.”

“Almost certainly you were,” replied Ascilius. “It is perilous to stare directly at a dragon that old. To look at her closely is to fall under her spell. I regret the death of the mare, too, even though, twice now, she was nearly the death of me, but I regret the loss of my pack even more. Half our supplies are gone now and our money, too.” Ascilius had not failed to notice that his winnings were resting on the ground by the dragon’s left paw.

“It was money well spent,” replied Elerian. “Had the gold and silver not distracted her, I think we would never have made it to the safety of the trees.”

“Still, it seems like adding insult to injury,” grumbled Ascilius. “Eboria has no doubt robbed my city and now she has robbed me personally.”

“She was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen,” said Elerian, thinking of the dragon and not really heeding Ascilius's words. “She looked like a great green and gold comet shooting across the sky.”

“Beauty can hide great evil,” replied Ascilius brusquely. “Consider the Urucs. At first glance, they are fair seeming, but underneath, they are wicked creatures. Dwarves, on the other hand, are plain featured folk, but we have noble characters.”

“You must have one of the most splendid characters of the whole Dwarf nation then,” said Elerian with a gleam in his eye.

Ascilius frowned, trying to work out if Elerian had just poked fun at him again. Finally, he shook his head as if in despair. “It is impossible to have an intelligent conversation with you. I do not know why I even bother.”

“We must think of some way to evade Eboria,” he said after a moment in a more serious voice. “She is probably hunting us already. We will be lucky if we escape her claws tonight.”

“Let us take to the water again,” Elerian suggested to Ascilius. “If she tries to track us, it may throw her off the scent.”

Ascilius could not think of a better idea, so they descended the steep slope on their left until they reached the east bank of the Catalus. There was no level place to walk along the shore, but Elerian saw that the swift flowing water was barely knee deep near the bank.

“We can follow the river if we stay near shore,” he said to Ascilius as he stepped into the cold, green tinted water.

“I have come to hate water with a passion and yet I cannot seem to avoid it,” grumbled Ascilius to himself as he reluctantly followed Elerian into the river. Enias splashed into the water behind Ascilius.

Fortunately, the river bottom proved to be mostly hard packed gravel, which allowed all three of them to keep their footing well enough. As they waded through the knee-deep water, Elerian looked thoughtfully at the foothills on their left.

“Do you think we should try for the cover of the forest across the river?” he asked Ascilius.

“I do not think we should chance it,” replied Ascilius at once. “It is a good ten miles to the edge of the hills. If Eboria overtakes us in the open, we are done for.”

They continued wading through the river, staying under the branches of the willows, whose long, drooping branches hung far out over the watercourse. They had not traveled far before Eboria soared silently overhead like a great, dark cloud. She turned immediately, returning to circle lazily above them.

Elerian watched the dragon for a moment through the screen of leaves over head, and then said quietly, “I think she can she can see us, Ascilius. She must have mage sight as you suspected.”

“That means there is no place nearby that will hide us from her,” said Ascilius grimly. “She can see our shades moving under the trees.”

“If we can last until the sun rises, her mage sight will not help her,” replied Elerian. “Our shades will grow dim under the light of the sun, too dim for her to see them easily.”

“We will not see this dawn or any other, for sunrise is hours away,” said Ascilius hopelessly. “We cannot run from Eboria all that time.”

At that moment the dragon roared again, causing the leaves overhead to quiver. Elerian drew his sword, and Ascilius held his knife ready in his right hand. Apprehensively, they waited for the great beast above them to hurtle down and destroy them as she had Ascilius’s poor mare.

A NEW SPELL

The attack Elerian and Ascilius were dreading never came. Instead, Eboria continued to circle above them, gliding through the air on her broad, leathery wings.

“She is playing with us,” said Ascilius softly and bitterly to Elerian. “She has fed and now she requires sport. She wants us to run.”

Elerian did not reply, for he had finally thought of a plan which might save their lives if all went well.

“Close your eyes,” he whispered to Ascilius. Extending his right arm, he watched as a fist sized golden orb flew from his fingertips. Speeding through a gap in the willow branches above his head, it flashed toward the dragon, blossoming into a great ball of white light barely three feet from the end of Eboria’s long nose.

The mage light caught Eboria by surprise, for she was not expecting magic. She immediately snapped her eyelids shut, but the white rays had already pierced her eyes like knives, momentarily blinding her. With a roar of pain and anger, Eboria extinguished the light that was now following her through the sky, maintaining exactly the same position near the end of her nose. Once the light was gone, Eboria blindly beat her great wings to gain altitude. 

“Stay close to me,” said Elerian to Ascilius and Enias. When he raised his right hand, a stream of golden light, visible only to his magical third eye, spilled from his fingertips, enveloping all three of them. Beneath the film of light, their shapes began to change, flowing into new forms as if they had suddenly become liquid. Moments later, three great green and gold fish swam against the current where Elerian, Ascilius, and Enias had been standing a moment before. Elerian’s metal embossed tunic, his pack, and all his weapons along with Ascilius’s tunic, knife, and steel cap lay in the water next to them, for he had not the power to send any of them away through a portal to join his spell book.

Elerian had been a fish before, so the cool water of the river flowing over his body and through his gills did not alarm him. He gave Ascilius and Enias a moment to adjust to their new shapes before leading them across the river. Nosing along the rocky shore, Elerian discovered an overhang cut by the current beneath the far bank. When he dove into the underwater cave, his two companions followed him into the dark water under the bank. Using their unfamiliar fins and tails to hold themselves steady against the current, Ascilius and Enias they took up a position on either side of Elerian. To the great eyes of all three, the dark water in front of them appeared clear as glass in the starlight, allowing them to see the sky and the far bank of the river.

By now, Eboria had regained her night sight. Her huge, bat like shape cast a dark, moving shadow across the river as she patrolled the skies above the place where she had last seen three golden shades standing in the shallow river. Eventually, flattening the branches and trees in her way, she landed on the far shore, directly across from the hiding place Elerian had selected. He moved deeper under the cut bank until his tail fin brushed the stony bank of the river, Ascilius and Enias crowding close beside him in the underwater cave.

On the far side of the river, Eboria snuffed the air with flared nostrils that showed a sultry orange glow in their depths. Her third eye was open, but she saw no sign of the three shades she had detected earlier. She leaned her great horned head over the bank. The river resembled a flow of molten silver when seen with her mage sight. In its depths, she saw the golden flash and spark of the small creatures that lived in its depths, but there was no sign of the larger shades that she sought. Twisting her long, sinuous neck, she looked upstream and down, but she did not see the shades of the three large green gold fish holding together deep in the darkness under the bank on the far side of the river. Closing her third eye, Eboria looked at the river again with her everyday sight, but even though her night vision was excellent, there was nothing to be seen in the glass clear water flowing past her.

“They were here,” thought Eboria to herself as she distastefully reached out her great, clawed foot right paw, retrieving the gear left behind by Elerian and Ascilius. When everything was heaped up on the bank next to her feet, red flames suddenly spouted from Eboria’s mouth, incinerating the pack and turning the steel into twisted, blackened fragments of metal.

She then searched up and down the bank, forcing her way through the trees with a great cracking and snapping of limbs that left a tangle of wreckage in her wake. Her frustration grew by the moment. Returning once more to the place near the riverbank where she had last seen the shades of her prey, she stared intently at the bank on the far side of the river.

“Where have they gone?” she wondered angrily to herself. “At least one of them is a mage. Has he somehow used his magic to conceal himself and his companions? They have not swum away, for I would have seen their shades from above before I landed on the bank.”

Finning against the current in his underwater cave, Elerian thought furiously of what he might do to drive off the dragon before she discovered their hiding place. Like an echo in his mind came the voice of Tullius, his old mentor.

“There are three elements which can be controlled by a mage, Elerian, for they have their own magical energy. They are fire, water, and wind.”

Elerian had never tried to control water, but he thought at once of his ever-useful transformation spell. Improvising feverishly on his charm, he opened his third eye, looking out at a river that now resembled a great, shining flow of molten silver. Apprehensively, he cast his altered spell, wondering if it would work at all. With his mage sight, he saw a small golden orb fly from his toothy jaws, expanding to encompass a large expanse of water in front of him. Within that golden sphere, which remained tethered to his body by a slender golden thread, Elerian saw silver liquid flow into a fixed shape.

In front of Eboria, the river suddenly began to boil. A transparent form closely resembling a large dragon suddenly erupted out of the water, glistening wetly. Streams of silver light, visible only to Eboria’s third eye, flowed into the water elemental from the river as it drew on the power of the river to animate itself.

Startled by the apparition, Eboria roared in anger and drew her head back before spouting a plume of red mage fire from her mouth. In response, the elemental spread its own watery jaws and met her fire with a stream of clear river water. A great hissing sound filled the air, and a huge cloud of steam rose up like a cloud as fire battled water. Abruptly, Eboria broke off her attack.

“I cannot burn off all the water in the river,” she thought angrily to herself as she dipped her head down to the right to avoid the endless stream of water gushing from the elemental’s jaws. Springing lightly into the air, Eboria rapidly beat her powerful wings to gain altitude, casing a storm of wind to buffet the trees below her.

Like every creature, she drank water, but she avoided it otherwise, for it was inimical to the fires that she carried inside of her. As she hovered over the victorious elemental, which had ceased spouting water, the creature turned its gleaming head to follow her movements with clear, shining eyes.

Eboria did not like being bested, but she had learned to be patient over the long years of her life. Heavy and sluggish from all the flesh she had consumed, she felt disinclined to exert herself any further. There was also a new treasure to be added to her hoard, for Ascilius’s winnings were firmly grasped in her left hind paw.

“Let them have their little victory,” she thought to herself. “The three I seek will have to leave the water eventually. When they do, I will be waiting. Once I have slept off my meal, I will patrol the skies to the south with ceaseless vigilance.”

Secure in her fearsomeness, Eboria expected her prey to flee away from her like any sensible creature would. It never occurred to her that Elerian and Ascilius might be traveling toward Ennodius.

“They will not escape me a second time,” she thought to herself with a last look at the river below.

After effortlessly flapping her leathery pinions to gain altitude, Eboria suddenly sped off the northwest, toward Ennodius, supremely confident that she would eventually find the prey that had escaped her.

Beneath the cut under the riverbank, Elerian was so entranced with the elemental that he had created that he hardly noticed that Eboria was gone. A bump on his left shoulder from Ascilius brought him back to himself. Reluctantly, he let the water dragon slip back into the river.

Once he saw that the skies were clear, Elerian led Ascilius and Enias out from under the riverbank and back into the shallow water on the far side of the river. Opening his toothy jaws, he watched with his third eye as a flow of golden light spilled from his mouth, enveloping him and his two companions in a golden film. Beneath that shining cloak, their fishy bodies began to change; flowing into new shapes. Soon, all three of them were standing in the shallows in their native forms. Elerian and Ascilius were clothed, for the spell had brought back their garments, but they were soaking wet. Ascilius looked especially unhappy as clear river water ran out of his hair and beard in streams, further soaking his clothes. Enias snorted and shook his head, spraying water in all directions as he shook his mane dry. 

“Of all the places I would have chosen to hide, the river would have been the last,” said Ascilius grumpily as he raised his hands to shield himself from the spray of water thrown out by the stallion.

“We escaped the dragon. Surely that is worth a little soaking,” Elerian pointed out.

“That is true,” said Ascilius, brightening a bit, for really, he was quite amazed to find himself alive and in one piece after their encounter with Eboria. “I apologize for underestimating your powers,” he said sincerely to Elerian as he waded toward shore. “Raising that water elemental was a clever way to drive off Eboria.”

“It was nothing,” said Elerian modestly. “Since she was no longer hungry, she was probably more than willing to play with us a bit longer. She also had our gold and silver to add to her hoard. I think she suspected we were in the river, however. She spent a quite a bit of time staring at the water.”

“She is sure to come back,” said Ascilius as he waded onto shore. “You took her by surprise tonight with your mage light and your elemental, but the next time we meet, she will be better prepared to counter any magic you might use against her. We must travel north as far as we can while she is resting. Hopefully, we will find a good place to hide before she returns.”

 Elerian waded after Ascilius, promptly collapsing against a willow trunk when he reached dry ground. He suddenly felt terribly weak, and his shoulder ached horribly where Malevolus had thrust in the septilire.

“You overspent your power again,” said Ascilius at once in a concerned voice.

“I just need to rest a bit,” said Elerian. “Enias will carry me when we are ready to travel.”           

“We will not get far without food or weapons,” said Ascilius, his mood souring again as he examined the remains of their gear. “Even our leather armor is gone.”

“Those could have been our ashes instead of those of our gear,” Elerian pointed out dryly.

He remained sitting against the tree until his strength returned. When he finally rose to his feet, Enias knelt in front of him, making it easier for Elerian to climb onto his back. When Enias stood up, Elerian found that he had barely enough strength to maintain his seat. Ascilius reluctantly climbed up behind him to hold him steady.

“It is a strenuous business being a mage,” said Elerian ruefully to the Dwarf.

“Indeed it is,” replied Ascilius. “Magic exacts a heavy price and is best used sparingly.”

“If you had a master ring it would not matter,” whispered a voice in Elerian's head, causing him to start.

Once again, he could not tell if it was his own thought or someone else whispering inside his mind. He shook his head to clear it.

“Perhaps it is only my weariness that is affecting me,” he thought to himself as he guided Enias back into the river. Staying in the shallows by the bank, they continued north under cover of the trees which shaded the river. The swift flowing water carried away their scent trail, affording them some protection from any pursuers, whether dragon or Goblin, who might come looking for them.

“If the Goblins did escape from Eboria the other night and come looking for us, they may get a nasty surprise if she comes across them first,” thought Elerian to himself.

After about three miles by Elerian’s reckoning, the river began to angle to the north west, entering a deep gorge that ran through the rugged foothills that were now directly ahead of them. Inside the gorge, the riverbanks disappeared, merging into the steep rock walls on either side of the river. Forced up onto the right hand shore, Enias sure footedly climbed the steep slope in front of him, making light of his double burden. Once the stallion reached the summit, Elerian guided him to the edge of the wood growing along the margin of the gorge.

They were facing east now. In front of them were the open plains of Tarsius, the sun just breaking above the horizon in a blaze of orange and red. On their left were rugged foothills covered with oaks, ash, and chestnuts.

Electing to go on rather than rest, they traveled north, skirting the edge of the wood but staying under cover of the trees. There was a well-developed canopy here, for this was an old forest. Many of the trees rose over a hundred feet into the air and were thicker than a man was tall.