The dragon now let fly a volley of small, rapid puffs of fire, blanketing the nearby ground in flames.
There was a long silence, then. The dragon looked around cautiously, sniffing the air. He had no scent of the wizard now. Had he won? Had it been that easy? He didn’t think so. He wouldn’t believe it, at least until he found some charred remains of the wizard. Cautiously, he picked though the smoldering landscape. There was the burnt husk of some rodent here. Had the wizard transformed himself into that and died? The dragon took a cautious sniff. No.
He made more elaborate signs on the ground now. A creature, a demon with the body of a panther and the wings of a bat, emerged.
“What is thy bidding, Master?”
Just then, the dragon heard something and turned around. The wizard was back, emerging from the trees with four water elementals in hand.
“Kill him!” the dragon just managed to mumble before the first water elemental struck it in the face.
For a moment, the dragon had all it could handle with the water elementals. They swirled and swarmed around it; one of them wrapped itself around his throat with surprising strength while another tried to drown him by leaping down his throat. The dragon had to teleport to the side to escape the grasp. He managed to obliterate one of them with a blast of fire. The others kept coming. He breathed a wall of fire. One of the elementals hurled itself down on a spot, allowing the other two to charge though the gap and attack the dragon. The dragon jumped and rolled down among the burning embers. The burning embers wouldn't destroy the elementals, but at least they would weaken them. Finally, it gave a mighty blast of its wings and leapt into the air. When it reached a couple of hundred feet, it was able to finally shake off the elemental clinging to it and send it towards destruction on the ground. The other it sighted and with a gesture was able to dispel.
Tiberius had his hands filled with the leaping, flying panther. He ducked out of the way of its initial leap; then, cloaking himself in shadow, he and the creature did battle, flaming staff against icy claw. He felt a sharp pain as the creature’s claw ripped through his shields and armor and gave him a series of three cuts across his left arm. He countered with a rib-shattering strike across the creature’s back which imperiled the use of its right wing. It leapt again; Tiberius countered with a glittering force wall crossed with blue diamond shaped lines. The creature bounced off of this, but nimbly rolled to the ground and kept charging. Tiberius sent a flaming disk flying at it. He hit the demon and sliced off a forelimb. The creature gave a yelp, rolled to the ground, and exploded as Tiberius hit it with a fire blast.
He turned just in time to see the dragon approaching and sent an ice bolt towards the creature. The bolt grazed the dragon's chest but he kept coming, and Tiberius had to roll out of the way, narrowly missing a slash from the creature’s tail.
Maci peeked over the protective rocks she hid behind, wishing she could do something useful. On the grounds below, a flickering shadow she knew to be her godbrother was engaging in mortal combat with the dragon. They were close to each other now, the dragon and Tiberius fighting at arms length. The shadow narrowly dodged and spun around the dragon. Sometimes it split in two, sometimes it shifted to the side via teleport. The dragon rolled, spun, slashed, and lashed out with its tale. It shot breaths of flame everywhere. She couldn’t even tell who was winning. Once in a while she saw a flash as some part of the dragon made contact with Ti’s protective spells. Other times she saw a spark where Ti’s staff or one of his spells impacted the dragon. She had no arrow, rock, or knife that would even so much as distract the dragon, so for now she stayed quiet and unnoticed on the sidelines, waiting. Waiting for what, she didn’t know. She’d find a way to help before the end; she knew it. For now, all she could do was pray.
A well-aimed claw sent Tiberius flying across the ground. He rolled with the blow as Michael Okubo had taught him, but it still hurt. This was getting him nowhere; the dragon seemed to regenerate as quickly as he could inflict damage, at least with the staff. Time to try something different, if risky.
“Menso punado!” he said, pointing and making deliberate eye contact with the dragon.
The dragon stopped and staggered in mid-step. Tiberius had launched a direct mind to mind psionic attack and that had at least been unexpected. That any mortal would dare match wills with a dragon was unthinkable. Barcharosias gathered his will and pressed back. Maci, in the distance, could only watch and wonder what was happening as the two of them stood and stared at each other.
Tiberius felt a massive headache as the dragon’s will pressed back, but he steadied himself and kept up his own pressure. The staff trembled in his hands and sweat poured from his brow but he kept his eyes ahead and locked. The dragon took a step back. This was working at least. Then the dragon made another gesture. Tiberius felt the pressure collapse. The dragon had drawn a wall around its mind. Tiberius tried again, but he felt his mental blow just slide off the dragon’s mental defenses.
The monster flew into the air again; gesturing, it breathed again, but this time ice, not fire. It had as little effect on Tiberius as the fire had. Tiberius fired back with a spray of whistling silver blades that homed in on the dragon’s chest, looking for a weak spot. Barcharosias at least paid attention to that, rolling out of the way and casting another defensive spell of his own. Then Barcharosias tried another breath; this time a dark green poison gas emerged. Tiberius was glad it hadn’t breathed near Maci with this one. His own defenses held. He cast a truthlight spell aimed at the dragon's chest. There was a crack there in the dragon’s natural armor. It was heavily protected by the dragon’s own spells. Still, it was something to work on. If he could dispel even some of the dragon’s defenses, he might be able to open a path for a deadly bolt though the dragon’s chest.
Barcharosias took to the air, climbing high. As the dragon circled around overhead, Tiberius had a moment to think. Physically, he was still largely undamaged. He had some cuts and bruises. That demon’s claw had been the worst, but he’d managed to heal that. He had a headache and a number of first and second degree burns, but none of it was serious. His own regenerative spells were coping. His defensive spells had held so far. The trouble was that he had not seriously hurt the dragon either. They were evenly matched. Unfortunately, the dragon showed no signs of fatigue. If they just kept hammering at each other with spells like this, Tiberius would lose. Eventually the small cuts and bruises that got through his shields would wear him down and the dragon would win.
He needed to find some weakness he could work on. That crack in his chest was a possibility, but Tiberius had his doubts. It was an obvious weak spot and the dragon had woven his darkest spells to defend that spot.
The dragon made another pass. It was also hurt and the hit and run attacks from the air were giving it a chance to heal. At least it could fly better than the wizard. Tiberius sent a metal dart in its direction on the next pass. He grazed a wing, but he was sure it wasn’t serious damage to the dragon.
At least this flyby attack pattern of the dragon gave Tiberius a second to think. There had to be a way to defeat this creature. Dallen had confidence in him. He wouldn’t have taken his rest without complete confidence in his ability to win this fight. So what was he missing? The only other real ‘weaknesses’ anyone had ever mentioned about dragons was catching them sleeping. What then? He’d tried fire, lightning, cold, metal, gas, wood, psionics, and kenetics. Nothing seemed to slow this creature down.
“Any ideas?” he called out to Maci.
“Not really, you’re doing fine. What about Dallen’s riddle?” she shouted back.
Dallen’s riddle. “Why does a dragon fly?” Should he be attacking the wings? That couldn’t be it. Should he be flying? Was it only vulnerable when flying? Did the dragon only regenerate when in contact with the earth? What? Why did Dallen think that question was so important? It seemed to have nothing to do with fighting a dragon at all.
The dragon circled around in the sky.
/>
“Why does a dragon fly?” Tiberius spoke aloud. What could he have meant by that?
“Just answer the question will you?!” Maci said. “You make everything too complicated.”
The dragon laughed at him. Dragons have excellent hearing and it heard his question. “You want to know why I can fly, Magus? It’s because I am the strongest! I fly because I have the strength to bend the very elements to my will!”
Tiberius gave the dragon a disgusted glance.
“Well, that’s not the answer,” he thought to himself. “You can fly because of the difference in air pressure going over your wings.”
“Let me show you the power of a dragon’s flight!” Barcharosias said. Climbing up into the sky, it readied itself for a powerful diving attack. Flight, power, might, that was its edge over the magus. No doubt Dallen had tried to warn him about that, but the magus had caught on a little too late. Barcharosias gave a mighty roar and then turned and went into his dive. He smiled as he felt the wind rushing over his wings. Even Tiberius could not survive this next blow.
Suddenly, a thought hit Tiberius. “Of course! Now I understand! A difference in air pressure.”
The fifteen-year-old girl was right. Like most riddles, the answer was perfectly plain once you knew the answer. The question wasn’t about dragons at all. It was about him, Tiberius, and being a better magus. He stood up, straightened his shoulders, and turned to face the approaching monster.
“The true power of the magi is knowledge,” he thought. “The study of God and his works. I’m a magus; I know the secret of flight! A dragon can fly because it has wings, and a difference in air pressure between the top and the bottom of the wings gives it lift. Such a little thing,” he thought, “and so easy to change.”
“Egaligu aerpremo!” he said, pointing his staff towards the rapidly approaching dragon. A simple spell equalized air pressure around the dragon. It was not a combat spell at all, but a spell he’d learned from Greentree while studying basic science. It wasn’t a spell he needed to hurt the dragon, it was the knowledge of how to apply it.
For an instant, everything seemed to move in slow motion. With the air pressure equalized around the dragon, he lost all lift from his wings. Tiberius saw just the slightest departure of the dragon from his intended flight path, and he knew he could win this fight. The dragon started tumbling in the sky, completely out of control. To correct the problem it frantically flapped its wings, confident that its strength would save it. It didn’t need more strength, it needed lift from its wings. Maybe the dragon could have worked something out in time, but unfortunately for him, he was in a power dive when he departed from controlled flight. He had built up a good bit of velocity, though. His dive continued straight into the ground. There was an enormous crash as the dragon hit the earth.
Unsteadily, it tried to stagger to its feet. Its head was ringing. That hurt! Not only was that painful, but how had the magus inflicted such a blow? The dragon sensed that something had changed. Something dramatically not in its favor.
For Tiberius it was all crystal clear now. He knew exactly what old Dallen had been trying to tell him. He couldn’t fight a dragon power to power. He had to fight with the weapons of the magi: wisdom, knowledge, the love of God. These were the real sources of power in the universe. It was against these and only against these that the dragon could not stand. It wasn’t enough for a magus just to command the elements. He must fight with a true understanding of the world and its interactions.
The dragon was getting up; it was a dragon; it would probably try breathing fire again.
Well he knew the true name of fire, didn’t he? Fire burned things.
The dragon saw Tiberius give off a feeble blast of electrical sparks around him. Good, the magus was running out of power. The dragon breathed another blast of fire at Tiberius, but the first spark of flame caused a massive explosion as the air around the dragon exploded.
“I thought you might enjoy a bit of hydrogen about you,” Tiberius said. “For all your years, you never even tried to learn the true name of fire, did you?”
The dragon hauled himself forward; its movements were painful and slow, but it hauled itself closer, nevertheless.
“I have no need of your simple tricks, wizard. I’m not beaten yet. You’re clever; I grant you that. But there is still one thing that separates a mere mortal from a dragon. Power. Look at me, mage. Beaten and battered I may be, but I am still a dragon, the mightiest creature on earth.”
The dragon raised itself up. Its eyes seemed to glow faintly. Tiberius held a hand in front of him.
“That’s right, wizard; cower behind your puny shields. They won’t help you this time. I’ve been too subtle with you. So let me now pronounce your doom. I am going to put all of my energy into one pure blast of destruction. Conjure whatever shields you wish for from this attack; there is no escape. This will be a question of raw unbridled power. And I will finally crush your puny mortal form once and for all.”
“I don’t suppose you’d like to reconsider that. It isn’t really raw power that runs the universe, it’s the logos, the living word of God. Maybe you’d like to hear a bit about prisms before you do anything rash,” Tiberius said.
“I’ve no time for silly children’s toys. Are you ready wizard? Your doom is at hand.”
“Oh, I’m ready, but I wouldn’t if I were you,” Tiberius answered.
“Behold the secret fire of the dragons!” he said with a mighty roar. Then, gesturing at Tiberius he let loose with a mighty blast of fire. This was something beyond mere flames: an incredibly intense blast of heat energy, focused, indomitable, and quite deadly. But the dragon had not understood the ways of the universe, that even the mightiest powers can be redirected, given the right sort of lever. The Prismatic Shield that Tiberius had been strengthening as the dragon readied its final attack neatly reflected the energy back in the direction it had come from. Tiberius felt an incredible blast of heat, enough to give him some minor first degree burns, but this was nothing compared to what the highly efficient complex conjugate reflection shield directed back towards the dragon. The reflected beam went right into the dragon’s chest. It cut a hole clean though the dragon. It gave a gasp of surprise and pain and then fell down, breathing its last.
Tiberius approached the dying dragon. “Understand the universe and you can command it. That’s what Dallen’s riddle meant,” he said. “A simple child’s toy can be the key to unlock the universe. A prism is the key to the perfect mirror.”
The dragon wasn’t listening, though. It had just one powerful thought left. With superhuman strength, it managed to lift its head slightly for one last gasp, one last thought.
“My … my treasure…” was all it had left to say. Tiberius didn’t give a damn about the dragon’s treasure. He already had more than enough money for his needs. But the dragon’s last thoughts were intensely powerful. They flashed though Tiberius' mind. It was sad, really, that gold was the only thing it loved in the world. But Tiberius now knew exactly where it was.
∴
Tiberius lifted Maci out of the rocks where she’d been hiding. She came up coughing slightly.
“I suppose you know how insanely dangerous and idiotic it was following me out here?” he chided.
“This from the man who attacked a dragon with a stick. How were you going to solve Dallen’s riddle without me?” she said.
“I’d have figured it out. Are you alright?” he said, frowning at her coughing.
“No, I think I burned my lungs sometime during that last fire exchange,” she said.
He pushed a bottle towards her. “Drink this; you’ll feel better.”
“Is this magic?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Oh, good,” she said, taking a drink. Meeting his questioning glance, she added, “I thought you were going to say I’m too young or something.”
“You’re too young to be here; you aren’t to young to get well. If you’re feeling b
etter we’ll go have a look at the treasure.”
“What? You know where it is?” Maci said, surprised.
“It’s near here, about a half-mile away. The dragon gave it away with its dying thoughts. Or it might be a last trap, so stay behind me.”
“Right.”
Maci looked over the corps of Barcharosias. “What are you going to do with the body?” She asked.
Tiberius stopped, and gave a puzzled look at the smoldering body of the dragon, then he glanced at Maci. “I don't know.”
Maci smacked him in the shoulder. “You've been studying dragons for how long and you never had a plan for what to do if you won?!”
“It was hard enough to figure out how to kill him. I guess I should burn the body; we don't want the spiders feeding on it,” he said.
“Are you sure? Don't you turn its skin into a shield or something?” Maci asked.
Tiberius shrugged. “I don't want to haul bits of Barcharosias around with me. But maybe you're right.” He stopped, pointed his staff and said a few words. A moment later the dragon's corpse was encased in ice. With another spell and he cast an illusion on the ice bound corpse, making it look like a small hill.
“There that should hold it for a while. I'll send a note to Salina and Russ. If anyone can make use of that thing they should be able to. I did promise the head to Pastor Adams. You don't think he meant that literally do you?” Tiberius said.
Maci thought for a moment. “He was pretty sore about having his garden toasted. I don't think he'd mind. It would be good for the city to have a trophy.”
“Let's take a look at the treasure; then we can finish with dragon disposal,” Tiberius said.
They walked along the hillside until they came to a flat place along the hill. It looked like a solid wall of rock, covered by a few bushes and some ivy. The plants were real, but the wall of rock, that was another matter. Letting his staff give off a bit of light, Tiberius pushed past the illusion.
“Remember, stay close and don’t touch anything. I got a pretty good feel for his usual method of walking down here at the end, but I don’t trust him. He likely was trying to trick me. A form of revenge.”
Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) Page 43
