Venk had just pushed aside a heap of fabric, wondering belatedly if some traveler had lost the clothes off their back, when he saw a wooden chest. It had been lying concealed beneath the fabric.
“What do you have?”
Venk looked up to see his brother approach.
“Just found a chest. I was going to see what was in it.”
Together they pried the chest open. Both gawked in amazement. They had found the Zweigelan’s stash of jewels.
“Wonder how many of these once belonged to dwarves?”
Venk reached into the chest to pull out a sapphire the size of his clenched fist. He moved into one of the last beams of sunlight and held the jewel out. It sparkled radiantly, casting bits of light all about the cave.
“Is that the one we’re looking for?” Athos asked.
“Give it to Lukas and see what he says.”
Athos grunted and took the jewel, disappearing behind a pile of armor. He reappeared moments later and shook his head.
“Nope.”
With a sigh, Venk dropped the gem on the ground and began digging through the chest of jewels, much like he would if he was searching for a specific tool through his tool chest.
There it was! Without a doubt he knew he had found what they were searching for. It was a ruby a little smaller than his fist, but unlike any ruby he had ever seen before. It was a spiraled jewel! The helix shape was cool to the touch and caused the hairs on his arm to stand up. Venk excitedly turned to his brother.
“Look at this! This has got to be it. Now let’s get out of ...”
Venk trailed off as he suddenly got the impression he was being watched. He and his brother nervously eyed each other. Then they both noted that the nest had gone eerily quiet.
Clutching the spiral gem tightly in his hand, Venk swallowed nervously.
“It’s behind us, isn’t it?”
Chapter 6 – What in the Whorl?
They had been caught. Somehow, and they didn’t know how, the Zweigelan had snuck back into its nest and ambushed them from behind. How was it possible that no one had seen it arrive? Why hadn’t Rhamalli warned them?
Both brothers slowly turned to face the nest’s owner. Not only had the Zweigelan managed to get the drop on them, but it had also found a way to slip by them and flank them from the rear of the cave. If the dragon continued its approach, and it gave every indication it was going to do just that, then the dwarves would be forced off the ledge and end up plummeting to their deaths.
Venk dropped the jewel into his pocket and pulled out his crossbow. He quickly cocked his weapon and loaded a bolt, clenching several more of the mini arrows in his left hand. Just in case. Athos had not only pulled his own axe out but had also grabbed a second axe from a nearby stash of weapons. The Zweigelan sneered at them.
“What have we here?” Left Head ran a forked tongue over its many teeth. “I do believe lunch has arrived!”
“We’ve never had a meal delivered to us before,” Right Head observed. A glob of drool spilled out its gaping jaws and trickled to the ground. “We are grateful.”
“We are not lunch,” Athos said through gritted teeth.
“How did you slip by us?” Venk asked, hoping to stall the dragon. For what, he didn’t know, only he had to try. If he and Athos could keep the dragon distracted long enough then perhaps Lukas would be able to slip away. Somehow.
“Never left, did we?” Left Head grinned. It clacked its teeth a few times, as if in anticipation of its upcoming meal.
“You were here the whole time?” Venk asked, not bothering to hide the exasperation in his voice. “Where? We didn’t see you.”
“We were disguised,” Left Head gloated. “No one could see us.”
“On the ceiling, we were,” Right Head added.
“Be silent,” Left Head snapped. “Our lunch does not need to know how we are able to camouflage ourselves.”
Irritated, Right Head took a deep breath and prepared to let loose an enormous jet of flames. Left Head instantly ducked down low and came up rather abruptly under Right Head’s open jaws, snapping its mouth closed in the process.
“Still your flames! You’ll damage the nest, just like last time.”
Disgruntled, Right Head looked down at the two dwarves and licked its chops. If it couldn’t enjoy its lunch cooked then at least it could enjoy it raw. Right Head’s jaws opened and it readied itself to lunge forward.
A spinning red axe suddenly swooshed by the two brothers and collided with a row of shields resting on the ground. Mythryd cut through two of the shields as though they were made of paper; the rest of the shields skidded across the floor and crashed noisily into a pile of plumed helmets, which tipped over several in the process. The Zweigelan screeched with rage.
Venk looked down at a helmet that had come to rest against his foot. Inspiration struck. He gave the helmet a swift kick and watched it fly out over the edge of the cave and drop out of sight.
“What are you doing?” Left Head cried out, as if enmeshed in the throes of sheerest agony. “You mustn’t disrupt the nest! It took us years to organize our collection!”
“Years!” Right Head echoed.
Venk smiled maliciously. “Indeed? So you probably would prefer if I didn’t do this?”
He gave the signal to Athos, who turned to the nearest pile and gave it a swift kick. A stack of gauntlets were sent tumbling across the cavern floor. Several fell off the edge.
The Zweigelan roared in anger. It rushed towards the closest intruder, which happened to be Breslin. Intent on ripping him to shreds, it reared both heads and prepared to strike. Breslin ducked behind one of the many piles of debris in the cave and vanished. Left Head stretched its neck up and over the pile Breslin had disappeared behind, expecting to find the dwarf crouching on the other side. It ground its teeth in frustration. No dwarves were hiding there. Both heads quickly scanned the nest as it searched for other potential targets. Left Head spotted Venk at about the same time Right Head located Athos. Athos was brandishing an axe in each hand while Venk took aim at Left Head. Much to the dragon’s chagrin, both dwarves were standing next to several piles at the edge of its nest, closest to the drop off. Athos swung his axe like a club, using the flat of his axe head to smash through a huge stack of books, quills, and parchment.
The stack virtually exploded. Sheets of paper and books went flying everywhere. Since Athos had deliberately aimed for the nest’s entrance, most of the contents of the pile went sailing over the edge of the nest.
The Zweigelan roared in agony. Defilers had entered the nest and were destroying years upon years of hard work. The dragon singled out one of the invaders, the smallest which was hiding near the entrance, and advanced. Deftly maneuvering its sinewy body amongst its collection, the Zweigelan approached the tiny biped.
Detecting movement in its peripheral vision, Left Head swung to its right and stared at the rapidly moving object. Confused, Left Head tracked the yellow object as it flew around the perimeter of its cave before it curved inward and glanced off its nose, leaving a stinging welt in the process. Left Head roared with frustration and watched the spinning object disappear behind a pile of armor. It didn’t reappear.
The Zweigelan took several threatening steps towards its collection of armor when two more tiny flying creatures appeared, taking off in opposite directions. The yellow creature spun as it flew, circling around from the left while its green counterpart spun through the air as it approached from the right. Too surprised to move, Left Head watched as both creatures curved again and once more leapt in to attack. The Zweigelan finally regained its senses and ducked low. It watched with a satisfied smirk as the yellow object passed harmlessly over its head. Its green twin, however, flew directly into Right Head’s left eye.
Right Head roared in pain. It glanced down to see that the green creature had dropped to the ground, apparently lifeless. The Zweigelan retrieved the object from the ground. It was a piece of metal! One of the nest’s
desecrators must have thrown it. It must be a weapon!
Too angry to realize it didn’t have a weapon as unique as the one it as holding in its collection, the Zweigelan flung the curved green piece of metal out of its nest.
Watching from his hiding place, Athos scowled. “Blast it, Two Heads just tossed my green orix over the edge!”
“I’m sure we can get it back,” Venk whispered back to him.
The Zweigelan located the tiniest biped once more and lunged forward.
Venk saw what was happening and dove over the large stack separating him from his son. Pushing Lukas back towards his brother he turned to face the dragon. That was the final straw. Venk was tired of all this junk. He was tired of this smelly cave. And more importantly, he was tired of the Zweigelan threatening his son’s life.
“One more step, dragon,” Venk warned, “and so help me I’ll smash through every pile there is in here and send everything over the edge. Do you hear me?”
The two headed dragon paused as it stared at the larger intruder.
“Back away from my son. Right now.”
To make certain the dragon understood he was serious, Venk smashed his crossbow through a pile of leather armor. Gauntlets, greaves, and cuirasses tumbled out into the nothingness beyond the nest’s border.
“I have three other piles within range,” Venk calmly told the dragon, shifting his body slightly to his left so that he could easily reach a nearby pile of shields. “Look over there. Athos is ready to send your collection of swords over. See Breslin there? He has your chest of jewels. He’s ready to throw the whole thing over the edge. You have five seconds to move to the back of the cave. Now.”
The Zweigelan’s twin necks began swaying back and forth. Was it ready to strike or was it contemplating whether or not it should comply with Venk’s order? The dragon shifted its weight forward, as if ready to take another step.
“Last chance. Take a another step. I dare you.”
The seriousness of Venk’s voice, along with his rigid body language, finally brought the dragon to a halt. With extreme reluctance, the Zweigelan took a step backwards.
“That’s right. Keep moving.”
The twin-headed dragon took another step back.
“Better move faster than that,” Breslin snarled. He had dragged the chest of jewels out from under the piles of fabric and was now resting a foot on it as the chest teetered over the edge. “If you ever want to see these gems again you’ll do as we say.”
Both heads growled angrily at Breslin as it continued to retreat further into its cave.
“We are leaving,” Venk informed the dragon, still using an eerily calm tone. “And we are taking our things with us.”
“Your days are numbered,” Left Head hissed angrily at them. “We’ll find you, that we promise you. You failed to solve the riddle. Your things belong to us.”
“Thieves!” Right head screeched at them. “Insolent thieves deserve to die!”
Nodding, Venk pulled the spiral gem out of his pocket.
“I am sorry, but we need this more than you do. This will be coming with us, too.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Breslin added, “we really didn’t lose the bet. We know the answer to your riddle.”
“We do?” Venk asked, turning to Breslin.
“I highly doubt that,” Tristofer scoffed, appearing next to Lukas. “I didn’t know the answer and I’m the scholar.”
“Liar!” Left Head exclaimed, jerking upwards.
Right Head was twisting and turning as it tried to locate all five of the intruders. At that present moment, it was directly over its twin. Left Head collided with Right Head resulting in a rather hollow popping noise.
“No one has ever correctly answered the riddle!”
Breslin looked at the two headed dragon in pity. “Then find some smarter victims. The answer is ‘sunshine’. My father taught that to me when I was a boy. He told me that my grandfather told it to him many years ago.”
The Zweigelan was speechless as it stared at the dwarves.
“I had a feeling you wouldn’t hold up your end of the bargain,” Breslin casually explained, “so we came up with a backup plan. Just in case.”
Pleased, Venk turned back to the dragon and started ticking off points on his fingers.
“Alright, let’s see. Riddle answered. Possessions reclaimed. Jewel found. I do believe it’s time to depart.”
“NEVER!” both heads screeched in unison. The Zweigelan lunged forward, covering a frighteningly large distance in a short amount of time.
With their weapons at the ready, both Breslin and Athos plowed through several stacks of shields and swords. The dragon was horrified that even more of its collection had been lost. Spying a golden shield that was just starting to tip over the edge, Right Head darted out to snatch it in its jaws before it was lost.
Not one to waste an opportunity to create a distraction, Breslin rotated Mythryd so that the dual cutting blades were facing away from him. He scrambled up several stacks of books and leapt towards Right Head, swinging his axe like a war club.
Mythryd connected with the gold shield held tightly in Right Head’s fangs and generated an impressive clang which caused the entire dragon to vibrate uncontrollably for several seconds.
“Now’s our chance!” Breslin told his companions. “Venk, you’d better be ready. Jump!”
“Excuse me?” Tristofer sputtered in shock.
The scholar began backing away from the cave’s edge, but before he could take more than a few steps Athos and Breslin each hooked an arm and pulled him over the edge. At the same time, Venk looped his arm through his son’s and leapt out of the nest, following the others.
Venk didn’t know which noise was louder: the howling wind or Tristofer’s screams. Retrieving Shardwyn’s spell from his pocket, he invoked the levitation spell and fervently hoped it was strong enough to protect all five of them.
Venk squeezed the sphere as hard as he could as they fell. How was the blasted thing supposed to work?
“What are you waiting for? Slow us down!” Breslin hollered.
“You tell me how to get us to stop falling and I will!”
Everyone slammed to a stop, causing Venk and Lukas to crash into Athos and Tristofer. Venk covered Lukas’ ears as numerous curses were thrown about.
“It worked!” Tristofer exclaimed, his aches and pains forgotten. “I didn’t think that... you do realize we’re still hundreds of feet from the ground, right?”
Everyone turned to look down. Sure enough, the distant treetops were visible at least five hundred feet away. They were floating, motionless, in mid air. Breslin suddenly cursed again.
“Venk, get us on the ground. Hurry!!”
Alarmed, Venk looked up. The Zweigelan’s twin heads had appeared over the rim of the cave and was staring down at them. A split second later it had launched itself out of its cave and was plummeting straight towards them. Wings partially extended, it rapidly closed the distance separating them. It would be over in just a few seconds.
“Nothing is happening!” Venk angrily told Breslin. “Damn all the wizards and their blasted spells! Why won’t it take us down?”
The white sphere grew warm in his hand. Whatever force that was holding them suspended in the air disappeared, dropping the dwarves like stones from the sky.
“Don’t drop us!” Breslin bellowed. “Just take us down gently!”
“There are no blasted instructions for this thing or I’d be more than happy to stop us!”
Once more the falling dwarves slammed to a halt. Everyone braced for the inevitable, as the dragon had been so close that they could smell its rancid breath. Incredulously, the Zweigelan veered to the left and sped by them a split second later. It crashed through the green canopy far below and disappeared. However, sounds of thrashing began as the dragon had either injured itself after crashing through the trees or else something had foolishly decided to engage it on the forest floor.
“What is it?” Lukas asked as he peered around his father’s body and watched many of the tree tops shake and sway uncontrollably.
“Sounds like the dragon is fighting something,” Venk answered. “What it is, I don’t know.”
“Will you please take us down?” Breslin asked. “Slowly this time? I don’t think I can take any more sudden falls.”
Venk glared at the spell in his hand. What was the trick to making it work? Didn’t Shardwyn say it could be used to raise or lower something should the need arise? Why would he make it difficult to use?
“We want to go down. Slowly.”
They all dropped another hundred feet before Venk managed to stop their progress.
“The next time I see that wizard I’m personally going to break his kneecaps,” Breslin grumbled.
“It’s a good thing we don’t need to go the other direction,” Tristofer said, glancing nervously at the sky.
“Which direction?” Venk asked, turning to face the scholar. “Up?”
The band of dwarves rocketed skyward as though they had been shot out of a trebuchet.
Athos hauled off and smacked his brother on the arm. Hard.
“Tell it to stop, you fool!”
“Stop!” Venk yelled.
Their brief ascent was abruptly cut off. Once more they hung motionless in the air.
“Do you not see what’s going on?” Athos angrily asked his brother. “Every time you say up, or down, or stop, it responds to you. Be careful what you say!”
“Why wouldn’t Shardwyn have told us that? I think the old fool needs to retire.”
“You think?” Athos tugged his beard, hoping the pain would help clear his head. “Now tell it to lower us to the ground. Slowly.”
Venk eyed his brother and then glared at his closed fist. “How am I supposed to do that? It’s clearly worked so well before. Now, take us gently down, you lousy excuse of a spell.”
A few seconds passed while the dwarves anxiously looked at each other.
Lost City Page 13
