The Hidden Realm: Book 04 - Ennodius (32 page)

A DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER

Following one narrow service tunnel after another, Ascilius led the way to the northern edge of the city where the back gate lay. The Dwarf kept a close eye on Tonare, who walked beside him on his right, his toe nails clicking softly on the stone streets. The dentire stopped often, his broad, wet nose testing the air around him for the scent of any danger, his small, triangular ears straining to catch the faintest noise in the darkness that lay beyond the pool of faint radiance cast by Ascilius’s and Elerian’s minute mage lights. One dark, silent street after another passed beneath the feet of the three companions without Tonare raising any alarm, but Ascilius and Elerian remained wary, for Eboria’s dragonets might be hidden almost anywhere ahead of them, waiting in ambush where they could not be seen or scented. Whenever they crossed one of the larger boulevards that intersected the smaller tunnels, they were especially careful, for their near disastrous encounter with the red dragon remained fresh in their minds.

 “It is not far now whispered Ascilius to Elerian as they approached yet another intersection. When Tonare stopped to sniff and listen at the edge of the larger passageway, Elerian suddenly heard the scrape of claws on stone from a balcony on his left. Looking up over his left shoulder, Elerian heard Tonare bark a warning as a dark, sinuous shape leapt over the rail of the balcony. Spreading its leathery wings, the dragon soared toward the three companions, mouth gaping wide to reveal the fiery inferno in its gullet.

“I have one chance to save myself and my companions,” thought Elerian to himself as a plume of red suddenly shot out of the dragon’s jaws. Lifting his right hand, he watched with his third eye as a golden orb flew from his fingers, striking the fiery torrent roaring toward him and enveloping it instantly in a golden film of light. A veil of red fell over Elerian’s eyes as the plume of flame swept over him, but he felt none of its scorching heat for his spell held back the heat of the flames. Abruptly, the dragon fire vanished, and a dark form hurtled toward Elerian. He leaped to his left, drawing Acris from behind his back at the same time. Ascilius and Tonare leaped to the right at the same moment so that when the dragon completed its pounce, its claws closed on empty stone.

When Elerian turned to face the dragon with his shield on his left arm and Acris in his right hand, Elerian saw that its scales were black not red, gleaming like oiled jet in the rays of his mage light. Furling its wings, the black dragon darted its long, horned head toward Elerian, jaws parted to expose long, dagger shaped teeth. When Tonare sprang at its exposed throat, the dragon suddenly whipped its powerful, scaled tail forward, striking the dentire heavily on his right side. The powerful blow sent Tonare flying through the air past Elerian’s right shoulder. As the dentire fell to the stone floor behind him, the dragon lunged at Elerian for a second time.

Elerian immediately raised the shield on his left arm to protect himself. He heard a clang as the dragon’s open jaws struck the shield, followed by an impact, powerful as a hammer stroke, which numbed his left arm and shoulder before sending him flying backwards. As he lay on his back, the dragon drew its supple neck back, its maw gaping open. Over the rim of his shield, Elerian could see a flickering, ruddy light at the back of its throat, lighting up its long teeth one moment and casting them into shadow the next.

Before the dragon could release its inner fires, Ascilius leaped high into the air, Fulmen raised high over his head in a two handed grip, delivering a mighty hammer stroke to the beast’s spine behind its shoulders. The flash of white light from the argentum inlaid in the hammer lit the vaulted intersection like a lightning stroke as the mighty hammer crushed the strong bones beneath the creature’s glistening scales, paralyzing its hindquarters and deadly tail. Elerian saw Ascilius stagger when his feet touched the ground again, momentarily weakened by the drain on his power from the hammer stroke he had delivered. Ignoring the pain of its broken bones, the dragon whipped its head back toward Ascilius. Like a scaled club, the horned head struck the Dwarf across his broad chest, sending him flying backward through the air.

The right side of the dragon’s neck and chest were now exposed to Elerian’s view. With his shield dangling useless on his numbed left arm, he sprang lithely to his feet. Rushing at the black dragon, he thrust Acris point first into the hollow where the dragon’s snakelike neck joined its chest. There was a blinding flash of white light from the threads of argentum inlaid in the sword as the blade sheathed itself in the dragon’s flesh, its cross guard finally coming to rest against the scales covering the dragon’s chest. Feeling as if a hammer had struck him on the back of his head, Elerian fell to his knees, his right hand slipping away from Acris’s hilt. Even though it was mortally wounded, the dragon still had the strength to swing its head, striking Elerian heavily in the chest with enough force to lift him off his knees and onto his back again. Drained by Acris, momentarily stunned by the powerful blow dealt him by the black dragon, Elerian lay on his back, gasping for air, for all the breath had been driven out of him. Raising its head high, the dragon looked down on him, its large eyes glittering like green emeralds. Eboria had destroyed without malice, like a force of nature, but Elerian sensed a malevolence in this dark creature that was frightening.

“If this beast grows to maturity, it will be a sad day for the Middle Realm,” thought Elerian to himself as he groped blindly at his belt for the hilt of Rasor.

Dragging its injured body forward with its front legs, scimitar claws gating on the stone of the street, the dragon finally positioned its long head above Elerian, who was still too stunned and weakened to escape.

“This is the end,” thought Elerian to himself. He felt the dragon's hot breath on his face as the dark head suddenly darted down toward his head, jaws gaping wide to seize and crush. Then, in the last instant before the mighty jaws closed, Tonare suddenly clamped his strong jaws around the dragon’s throat, muscles bulging as he braced his powerful body to stop the downward motion of the creature’s horned head. Elerian heard the dentire’s sharp, hard teeth grating on the dragon's impenetrable scales as the dragon lifted the heavy dog off the ground with its powerful neck muscles. It shook its head, trying to free itself from the dentire, but weakened by the mortal wound Elerian had dealt it, the dragon was unable to break Tonare’s iron grip. Its long head sank to the ground, coming to rest on the street not three feet away from Elerian’s face. Tonare’s jaws were still firmly clamped around the wyrm’s throat, squeezing tighter all the time like some mighty vise.

 “Do not think you have won,” gasped the dragon, its voice filled with anger but no fear as Tonare relentless crushed its throat, depriving it of air. “My mother and brother will avenge my death!” With those last words, the green fire slowly died in the creature’s eyes like embers going dark.  

Scarcely able to believe he was still alive, Elerian slowly rose to his feet. A stream of black blood flowed down the dragon’s glittering scales from the wound Acris had given it, forming a steaming pool on the floor of the chamber by its right shoulder and under its long neck. The only sound in the passageway was the grating of Tonare’s teeth as, eyes tightly shut, the dentire continued to grind and squeeze his mighty jaws against the black dragon’s throat in a grip that only death could break.

Dreading what he might find, Elerian turned to his right, where Ascilius had fallen. The Dwarf lay unmoving on his back with his dark eyes closed. His hammer lay on the tunnel floor by his right hand where it had slipped from his grasp.

“Is he is dead,” wondered Elerian to himself as he recalled the heavy thump the dragon’s head had made when it struck Ascilius’s chest. At the very least, the heavy blow should have broken the Dwarf’s back and crushed his ribs.

Limping painfully over to Ascilius’s side, Elerian bent over him, looking for some sign of life, but the Dwarf’s rough hewn features, lit by the dim glow of his mage light, remained still as death.

“Farewell old friend,” said Elerian sadly as he looked at his longtime companion. He was about say something more when a gleam of light suddenly issued from beneath Ascilius’s eyelids. Elerian’s eyes instantly narrowed with suspicion, for it seemed to him that a faint breath stirred the mighty chest of his fallen companion.

“He is awake, listening to everything that I say!” thought Elerian to himself, most likely with the intention of turning it against me later. There is only one way to serve such treachery.”

“Well, life goes on,” Elerian said briskly out loud, a bright gleam in his gray eyes. “I suppose that I should dispose of Ascilius’s body so the spadix do not get him.”

As Elerian raised his right arm, a most remarkable thing happened. Ascilius suddenly leaped to his feet and began backing away as if he had never received any injury at all.

“I knew it,” he roared. “You are just waiting for some opportunity to roast me. Put your arm down, you treacherous Elf!”

“I thought you were dead!” said Elerian, pretending to be offended by Ascilius’s words.

“A likely story,” shouted Ascilius holding his shield protectively in front of his beard.

“I thought you were dead also,” said Tonare, who had finally left off throttling the dragon.

“You stay out of this,” said Ascilius, throwing the dentire a wounded look. “You are supposed to side with me not this fire mad Elf.”

The acrid smell of burning flesh suddenly interrupted the altercation, causing all three adventurers to turn toward the slain dragon. The creature’s body began to glow as if lit from within, for with its death, its internal fires had begun to burn out of control. Elerian hastily ran to the right side of the dragon, vaulting lightly over the creature’s outstretched neck. Holding the heat of the mage fires away from his hand, he withdrew Acris from the dragon’s body before quickly backing away, for red tongues of flame were beginning to eat through the dragon’s hide. Elerian was pleased to see that the Acris had survived the dragon’s corrosive blood, gleaming as brightly as ever after the dark, viscous liquid covering its blade dripped away to steam and bubble on the stone at Elerian’s feet. In front of Elerian, the black dragon’s scaled form slowly began to collapse into a pool of red fire.

“We need to move on,” said Tonare in his rough voice. “It is not safe to stay here in the open with the scent of burning flesh filling the air.”

“He is right,” said Elerian to Ascilius. “Are you hurt at all? Your bones must be as hard as those of an old Troll to survive the blow the dragon dealt your chest.”

 “I feel as if a mountain has fallen on me, but I am only bruised thanks to my backpack and the quilted shirt under my mail,” replied Ascilius in his deep voice.

“I also suffered only bruises,” replied Tonare in his rough voice.

“I will deal with our injuries later, then,” said Elerian, “after we have distanced ourselves from this place. What will happen to the fire if it is left alone?” he asked Ascilius, for the red flames that had consumed the dragon still licked hungrily at the air.

“It cannot spread, so it will sink into the floor eventually,” replied Ascilius. “When the liquid rock closes over it, the fire will go out, but there is no sense in taking chances.”

Ascilius extended his right hand, and with his magical third eye, Elerian saw a small orb of golden light fly from his fingertips. When it struck the flames, it spread, covering them in a cloak of golden light. When the fire beneath the golden film abruptly died, Elerian walked up to the roughly oval patch of glowing rock that had lain under the flames. A gleam from the ground near the edge of the hot stone caught his eye. Stooping over, Elerian saw two round scales the size of gold coins lying on the street, gleaming like black jewels in rays of his mage light. Gingerly, he touched one, finding it cool to the touch.

“Leave them,” said Ascilius harshly when Elerian picked up the scales and put them in a pocket. “No good will come of them.”

“That remains to be seen,” said Elerian. He had the feeling that the scales be useful to them.

“At least I am revenged on one of these creatures,” said Ascilius in a cold, satisfied voice. “I would like to see how Eboria takes the loss of one of her own for a change.”

“And I would not,” said Elerian. “She would never cease to seek our deaths.”

“I do not care,” said Ascilius grimly. A wild light suddenly appeared in his eyes. Lifting the forefinger of his right hand, he pressed his fingertip into the street near where the dragon had died, his finger sinking into the stone to the first joint. With quick firm strokes, the Dwarf drew the outline of a hammer in the floor of the tunnel, the stone flowing like water around his finger.

“Dragons cannot read, but Eboria will know the face that goes with that symbol,” said Ascilius. “From the scorched stone of the floor, she will guess what happened here. Leave those two scales and she will not have to guess at all.”

“I will keep the scales,” replied Elerian firmly. He had deep misgivings about what Ascilius had done, but he knew better than to argue with the Dwarf when he was in one of his fey moods.

By the time he retrieved Fulmen, Ascilius’s wild mood had passed. “I hope we do not encounter Eboria,” he said gloomily to Elerian. “This was only a young dragon, but even with our new weapons, it took all three of us to overcome it. I do not think we will stand much chance if we must battle with Eboria, herself.”

“Let us hope we will not have to fight at all,” replied Elerian as he followed Ascilius across the boulevard and into the service tunnel on the far side. Tonare followed along behind him, his fierce little eyes glittering in the dim light cast by Elerian’s mage light.