Eric pulled them apart, casting a sharp look at Ryan as he asked Anna, “Are you alright?” She only nodded, and he wondered aloud, “I wonder why it went for you.”
“The medallion,” she said. “It saw the medallion. Something about it attracted its attention.”
“What was that you did there?” Ryan asked.
“Talk about it later.”
Eric said, “Yeah, we don’t have time for this.” He took her by the arm and they mounted the steps. “Then let’s go before something else shows up.”
Anna gazed at the whirls of smoke on the Dragon Gate’s surface. They were already one world removed from Earth and now it would be two. Aside from Matt’s assurances that little probably awaited them on the other side, no one wanted to go through. The gate’s lock lay right there and all they had to do was seal it and this would all be over, which caused a brief argument. Ryan just wanted to go home to Daniel. He and Matt tried to persuade Eric to forget about Raith, but it was Anna who finally made them do it. Whether they wanted it or not, they had a responsibility despite the risk of Soliander appearing and locking them on Soclarin forever.
“I guess I’ll go first,” Matt volunteered despite his concerns, “just in case the staff wards off anything over there.” Even as he said it, something seemed to occur to him. “I know what’s over there,” said the wizard, looking surprised, “and why Soliander opened the gate in the first place. He did it to lure whoever stole the scroll there, not to get more soclarin. The gate being open is a trap, and stepping through it sounds an alarm, but as long as the staff is present, it doesn’t do anything. That’s how he sets up spells to affect everyone but him. He obviously wasn’t expecting a duplicate of his staff to exist.” The wizard indicated that the staff no longer alerted him to the presence of magic, which meant what he’d felt last time had been Nir’lion’s traps, not the gate itself.
Anna cast a final glance about the room and noticed the tower from which they’d come was visible through the hole in the ceiling. Hopefully, Queen Lorella would be fine up there. “I think we should all go through at once,” she suggested, taking Ryan and Eric’s hands so they were all touching. They agreed, steeling themselves for the unknown as they stepped onto the surface.
Nir’lion reveled in the destruction she had wrought. Buildings lay in ruins around her, towers had collapsed like dominoes, and only shattered windows remained in castle walls. Amidst the inferno ran screaming people frantic to save their lives. Their desperation healed the wound in her heart. Their suffering had only begun. She’d eaten the Prime Minister who had so often gotten on her nerves, but so far Sonneri had eluded her. He could run, but he’d not be able to hide forever. Now she had other things to attend to, however, and rose back into the sky, signaling other dragons to continue with their onslaught now that she’d taken the best prizes for herself.
The smoke disappeared behind her as she glided to Castle Darlonon on powerful wings, other fires raging on the horizon, where her kin soared in the rain-filled sky. All of Honyn must tremble, she knew, and the fear that preceded her arrival anywhere was like a red carpet thrown before a gala affair. She had missed that terribly, for her only joy came in the anguish of others, and as the mountains grew larger before her, the anticipation of tormenting those false champions grew and grew.
On arriving at the ruin, she roared to the heavens and dug her claws into the tower, sending blocks tumbling to the ground while she held onto her perch. One great eye looked in through the windows but saw no sign of champions or queen. The door stood open, the guards unconscious on the floor. Her nostrils flared in anger, and that’s when the fresh scent of fear caught her senses. Someone was still here.
A spoken magic word later and the truth stood revealed, a frightened Queen Lorella flattened against the far wall and edging toward the open door. Nir’lion snarled and sent one razor sharp claw smashing into the room, grabbing the screaming queen and pulling her from the now crumbling prison, blocks of stone tumbling into the trees below. The dragon pushed off into the sky, sending the tower swaying dangerously as the top collapsed in on itself, half burying the room Lorella had been in.
“Where are they?” the dragon demanded, tossing her through the rain-drenched sky like a rag doll. Lorella screamed as the jagged peaks rushed up to meet her, but Nir’lion snatched her from the air, baring bloody teeth as she snarled the question again.
“The gate!” Lorella cried out. “They are at the gate!”
Nir’lion had suspected that. “How long ago?”
“An hour,” the queen blurted, slipping.
Nir’lion snorted a puff of smoke as she turned toward the tower. An hour was enough time to have closed the gate, so either they were unable to do it, or they’d gone through for the ore. In either case, she knew what to do.
“I’ll deal with you later,” Nir’lion warned as she deposited the queen in the crumbling room. Then she leapt away and soared up, giant golden wings beating the air as Queen Lorella lost sight of her. Moments later a great rush of air signaled the dragon hurtling toward the gate.
The crumbling walls of Castle Darlonon disappeared into blackness that slowly faded, revealing forest-covered mountain slopes all around the champions. In a small valley, another Dragon Gate sat alone, tilted up at a sky where two suns shone. Many of the trees stood burnt to cinders, some long ago, some so recent they smoldered even now, as if the dragons had taken one last vengeful blast at their prison on the way out. Scorched and blackened earth surrounded the gate and nothing moved anywhere. It looked both new and familiar to Matt, who eyed the sky for dragons but saw none.
Ryan hefted his lance and stepped off to the top step first, nudging the wizard. “Which way?”
Matt looked for the faint path where he expected it to be. “There.”
Like Raith before them, they followed the trail to the ravine, the sight of the young wizard’s broken and battered body greeting them. Matt suspected he knew why and the golem that emerged from the rock wall confirmed it. As it approached, he went forward, unsure what to do but sensing this was his battle. He held the staff before him, intending to summon fire, but the golem abruptly stopped and bowed.
They stared in silence for a moment.
“It thinks you’re…” Eric started before stopping himself. “Soliander, why don’t you ask your servant here to recount what happened for us?”
Mat nodded. This impersonation thing had its advantages. “Of course. Golem, tell us what happened to this man.”
The golem straightened, looking at him and ignoring the others. “But master saw,” it said. Its voice sounded like stones grinding together.
Matt felt his skin crawl at the confirmation that the arch wizard had been here recently, their encounter still fresh. “Tell me.”
“Him came,” it said, indicating Raith. “You said so. Hurt him. You said so. Left him alive! You said so!”
Digesting that, Matt quietly muttered to the others, “When he comes, hurt him but don’t kill him so he can be questioned. Those were the orders.” Turning to the golem, he said, “Very good. You have done well,” he reassured the monster. “What happened next?”
Looking confused, it replied, “You saw. You spoke.”
The wizard glanced at Raith’s body but didn’t see any obvious signs of spell craft. If Soliander’s words had been magic, the golem likely wouldn’t have understood, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “What did I say? What did we discuss?”
“Scroll. Ore. Stealing!”
They exchanged looks before Eric said, “Raith stole the scroll and came here to steal the ore, as we suspected.”
“No surprise there,” remarked Ryan.
Matt turned to them, eyes narrowed. “So if he opened the gate and left it that way to lure whoever stole the scroll here, why is it still open? He could’ve closed it.”
“He could close it with us inside, so we should go,” Ryan said, looking toward the trail.
Anna put a hand on h
is arm. “That’s true, but Raith’s been dead about a week, I’d say, so Soliander got what he wanted and could’ve closed the gate by now and didn’t. I don’t think he’s intending to.”
Matt frowned, unable to scrounge up a motive from his connection with Soliander. Maybe the decision to leave the gate open had come after their encounter.
Ryan asked, “When do you think Soliander came here? It had to be after the fight with the dragon because Raith went through during that and that would’ve set off the alarm, but we didn’t see Soliander go through after him, so he had to do it after we left.”
“Right,” said Eric. “He must’ve known the gate wasn’t really closed despite the illusion that it was.”
Anna observed, “Which means he knows we never completed the quest and are therefore still on Honyn, or were until coming here.”
Ryan asked, “Do you think that’s why he left it open? To keep us from leaving?”
Eric looked at him pointedly. “Or is it to keep us from returning to Earth?”
Matt grunted. “I suspect you’re right. All of you. Because he wanted to know how we took the champions’ place and that obviously happened on Earth. We could be there now but we’re stuck here.”
Ryan said, “That’s got to be it then. He’s trapped us here, not on Soclarin, but on Honyn, by leaving the gate open. We have to get home.”
Eric nodded. “And quickly, though I’m not sure how much we could do back on Earth.”
“True,” said Matt, turning to the golem. “What else happened?”
It shrugged. “You take. You leave.”
“What did I take?”
“Scroll.”
“Ah,” said the wizard. “Of course. He wanted the scroll back so no one would know of the ore. He probably doesn’t know there’s a copy.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” suggested Ryan.
“Right,” said Matt, not intending to communicate with the arch wizard again. Once had been bad enough. “Maybe we should get some of this ore while we’re here. We can’t take it to Earth, I don’t think, because we can’t bring anything back with us, I assume, but the elves can hold onto some. Items made from it have already proven useful.”
The others weren’t so sure about that and a brief conversation led to a compromise. They took no more than a few pounds of soclarin, putting it into the magic bag Matt found on Raith’s body. Like all magic items, the bag had continued giving off a magical vibe after its possessor’s death, alerting him to this and other items left on the dead wizard. He didn’t know what the other things did but would give them to Lorian or Sonneri. It was too bad he couldn’t take them to Earth or start creating his own private stash.
They made their way back toward the gate, intending to end this quest for real, but as they left the trees to see the gate gleaming in the sun, a golden dragon burst through it and spread its wings, soaring up and arcing to view the ground. Nir’lion turned sharply. They had been seen.
“Run for the gate!” Ryan yelled, running with the lance. “We don’t have to fight her, just seal it!”
Eric ran after him. “No! We’ll never make it!”
Matt yelled, “No, Eric! Stay with me! Ryan is fireproof and I can block her fire and anything she throws at us at least once.”
Eric swore and came back to stand behind him with Anna. Ryan stopped a dozen strides from them, looked back, and then stayed where he was, hefting the lance and loosening his sword. Matt nodded to himself. It gave the dragon two targets instead of one. Three problems for her was even better.
“Eric, get a knife to throw, even if you miss. She might, too, because of it. Ryan!” he yelled, seeing Nir’lion closing fast, “be ready with the lance. Even if you can’t hit her, make her think you can.”
The dragon opened her mouth. So did Matt, words of magic, and fire, erupting with equal fury. He saw Eric’s knife fly over their heads from behind and heard the rogue get closer to him after throwing it. Nir’lion rolled slightly to evade the blade as she neared. The shield went up around them moments before the flames arrived and blinded Matt to everything else. A roar of flames. A loud shriek of pain. A whoosh of air buffeting them. The dragon breath stopped, Nir’lion having passed them. Matt glanced in concern at the knight, who stood unmolested, the lance on the ground ten paces from him. The dragon rose back into the sky and banked, blood dropping from a gash in her side. Ryan picked up the source of her wound, red on the end. His eyes met the wizard’s.
“Got her,” he yelled in satisfaction.
“How bad?” asked Anna.
“Not enough. Just pissed her off, I bet.”
“She’s coming after you this time,” predicted Eric. He ran for the tree line.
“What’s the plan?” Ryan yelled to them.
“The same,” said Matt, wondering what the rogue was doing but trusting him, “but expect her to go for you. She knows about the armor. It will be a blow, not the fire. Dodge to the ground.”
Ryan nodded. They all looked for Eric and saw him keeping out of sight, two throwing knives ready. Nir’lion was approaching lower this time, as Matt expected if she intended to physically strike any of them. Would she use more than her fire on Ryan?
“Watch for the claws and tail!” he yelled.
The knight didn’t react, the dragon headed straight for him. As she reached the clearing, mouth agape with flames swirling within, first one and then another knife from Eric flew toward her. The first bounced off into the trees. The other pierced her side. The dragon breathed fire all over Ryan, but at the speed of her passage, it didn’t last long. A claw didn’t lash at him. Neither did the tail as she passed, but suddenly it slammed into Matt’s shield as Anna cried out. The shield held firm.
“Didn’t expect that,” Matt observed, feeling weaker. Did Nir’lion know that every blow took some of his strength away? Probably. And every spout of fire at Ryan weakened his armor’s fireproofing. Eric changed positions near the trees, closer to Ryan.
“We have to attack, not just defend,” he yelled.
The knight threw his lance to the rogue and drew his sword. Eric moved to the tree line as if to hide from the dragon, who was circling again.
Matt asked, “Anna, does the goddess have any ability to protect us with a shield of some kind?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think so.”
“Eric’s right. We need to attack. I can’t as long as I’m protecting us. If you could do it, that frees me to do a spell.”
“Okay, let me try. I need to concentrate.”
“Right. I’ll shut up. Maybe close your eyes. Hold on to me. You don’t need to watch.”
“Easier said than done, closing my eyes to this.” But she put one hand on his shoulder.
Nir’lion appeared to be focused squarely on the knight again. Had she realized Matt was no danger with his shield up? They needed Anna to succeed in shielding Matt herself so the wizard could nail the unsuspecting dragon with something.
As she soared just above the low trees and reached the clearing, Ryan yelled, “Now!”
With one hand on the butt and another on the shaft to guide his aim, Eric threw the lance upward at Nir’lion’s unprotected belly, his entire body behind the motion. Matt thought it couldn’t possibly reach or do much, but it must’ve been lighter than he thought for how high it went. Even as Nir’lion blasted fire toward Ryan, the thrown lance flew high enough to strike, the angle causing it to puncture her belly. The fire abruptly stopped as Nir’lion grasped it with a hind leg and yanked it out. Her tail fell low enough as it passed Ryan that the knight slashed with the sword and cut a gash near the tip. Nir’lion roared as she rose into the sky, throwing Ryan’s lance far into the trees, blood cascading from belly and tail. She spoke a few words and the bleeding stopped.
“Lower your shield,” said Anna.
Matt turned in surprised. “You’re sure?” She nodded. “Because if you’re wrong – ”’
“I’m not. Trust me.”
When the flames vanished, Matt retaliated as the dragon soared away, a focused beam of fire bursting from the staff’s crystal to burn deep wounds in the dragon’s back and one wing. She roared and nearly flipped over in the air to plummet toward the clearing, rolling in the sky to land on all fours with an incredible thud. Nir’lion took a few steps forward, swung her backside around, and then kicked out at Ryan, clobbering the knight so that he flew into a nearby tree and didn’t move again. She looked back and sucked in a breath. Flames appeared in her open mouth, eyes on Matt and ablaze with fury. Even as the fire began to rush forward, a knife from Eric struck her neck and she swung the tail across the ground at him. He leapt over it. The flames hung in her mouth. The tail came back and he rolled under it, then threw another knife that bounced off her head. Mouth agape, she brought forth the flames toward the rogue, who ran for the trees.
The Dragon Gate (The Dragon Gate Series Book 1) Page 26
