by Bill Allen
“LIAR. YOU STOLE THIS FROM THE SPIRELINGS DIDN’T YOU? DIDN’T YOU?”
“No!” Greg shrieked. He fumbled for the loose amulet in his tunic and thrust it in front of Ruuan’s eye. “This is the amulet I stole from the spirelings.”
In his terror he didn’t realize his mistake at first. Ruuan’s pupil expanded to the size of a basketball. He inspected Greg’s second amulet with one eye, then pivoted his head around, causing Greg’s stomach to lurch, and inspected it again with the other. A puff of scalding steam erupted from nostrils the size of doorways. Greg pressed his back against the cave wall. In spite of the protective magic the dragon’s hateful glare burned into him.
“YOU WILL OF COURSE DIE FOR TAKING THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET. BUT FIRST YOU WILL TELL ME HOW YOU CAME ABOUT THE OTHER.”
“I-I told you,” said Greg. “Witch Hazel gave it to me.”
The dragon offered him a scolding look. “I KNOW THE WITCH. IT IS NOT LIKELY SHE GAVE YOU ANYTHING.”
“No, I swear. You’ve got to believe me.”
“AND WHY WOULD SHE DO SUCH A THING?”
“Uh . . . because I gave her two others like it?”
The dragon scowled. “NOT A VERY SKILLED TRADER, ARE YOU?”
“But she was going to kill me if I didn’t,” Greg insisted.
“HMM. THAT SOUNDS MORE LIKE HAZEL. SO, TWO AMULETS FOR A SINGLE AMULET AND YOUR LIFE, THEN.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“STILL NOT MUCH OF A TRADE.” Ruuan looked somewhat uncertain of himself.
Greg didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but he did remember Ryder’s advice to him quite clearly: The more you can keep Ruuan talking, the less he’ll be shooting flames at you. “I had to trade with the witch. It was the only way I could get the things I needed to come here.”
“NORMALLY I WOULD NOT BELIEVE YOU, MORTAL, BUT I HAVE REASON TO QUESTION IF WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE. SO TELL ME, WHERE DID A TINY BOY LIKE YOU GET TWO OTHER AMULETS LIKE THESE?”
“King Peter gave me one,” Greg said, “and the other belongs to Marvin Greatheart, the famous dragonsla—er—it belongs to Marvin Greatheart.”
“MARVIN GREATHEART?” said Ruuan. “THE SAME MARVIN GREATHEART WHO SCAMPERED THROUGH MY LAIR A MOMENT AGO?”
Greg cleared his throat. “That would be the one, yes.”
“HMMM.” Ruuan appeared to debate the truth of Greg’s words. “KING PETER MUST THINK VERY HIGHLY OF YOU IF HE GAVE YOU HIS AMULET.”
“He didn’t exactly give it to me,” said Greg. “I have to give it back.”
“OH. SO HE DID NOT KNOW YOU WERE COMING HERE WITH IT.”
“No—I mean, yes, he knew.”
The dragon frowned, an expression hard to miss on someone with a ten-foot wide mouth. “AND WHY WOULD GREATHEART GIVE YOU HIS AMULET? HE IS ONE IN PARTICULAR I WOULD THINK WOULD NOT GIVE IT UP EASILY.”
“Well, he didn’t exactly give it to me either,” explained Greg. “His mom did.”
“GREATHEART’S OWN MOTHER GAVE AWAY HER SON’S MAGICAL AMULET? YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THIS?”
“It’s the truth, I swear. But she expects me to bring it back too.”
“DON’T TELL ME SHE ALSO KNEW YOU WERE COMING HERE?”
Greg stood trembling, his eyes diverted to the ground.
“WELL?”
“You told me not to tell you.”
The dragon scowled and blew another softer blast of steam. “I MUST ADMIT YOU ARE A CONUNDRUM.”
Greg didn’t know what a conundrum was, but he hoped it was a good thing. But then he noticed the dragon’s frown had returned.
“WHY, PRAY TELL, WOULD BOTH KING PETER AND MRS. GREATHEART EXPECT A HAPLESS LAD LIKE YOURSELF TO RETURN FROM MY LAIR ALIVE?”
Greg gulped. Would Ruuan understand about a prophecy? Especially one that ended with his being slain by the tiny boy who stood before him?
“WELL?” the dragon prompted.
“Because of a prophecy,” Greg ventured, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“A WHAT? SPEAK UP, BOY.”
“A prophecy,” Greg repeated, though try as he might, his voice was no stronger than before.
Ruuan’s jaw dropped open in obvious astonishment. The opening reminded Greg of the cave mouth he’d entered earlier of his own accord. What had he been thinking?
“DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE THE FAMOUS GREGHART?”
“You know about the prophecy?” Greg asked, amazed.
“OF COURSE. DRAGONS AND PROPHECIES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN INTIMATELY LINKED. YOU CAN”T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER. WHAT I DON’T KNOW IS HOW SIMON SEZXQRTHM COULD HAVE WRITTEN ONE ABOUT YOU.”
Greg quickly explained how he believed the prophecy to be in error, how it was supposed to be about Marvin Greatheart, and how Ruuan’s lair was the last place in this world he wanted to be. Amazingly, the dragon adopted a pondering expression.
“HMMM. THIS IS QUITE DISTURBING.”
“Imagine how I feel,” Greg said.
“I WOULD NOT BE SO QUICK TO DISREGARD SIMON’S PROPHECY AS WRITTEN. WHILE IT MAY SEEM UNREASONABLE TO YOU—AND I CAN CERTAINLY SEE WHY IT MIGHT—THE SEZXQRTHMS HAVE NEVER BEEN WRONG IN THEIR PREDICTIONS BEFORE.”
“No, you can’t just dismiss a prophecy,” Greg was quick to agree. “Believe me I’ve tried.” This was the first time everyone’s unwavering belief was actually working in his favor, and he thought he better take advantage of the moment while he could. “You said dragons and prophecies are intimately linked, that you can’t have one without the other.”
“YES, SO?”
“So, if I fail to fulfill my destiny, people will stop believing in prophecies. And you know what that means.”
“THEY’LL STOP BELIEVING IN ME.”
“Worse. They’ll stop bothering to predict the future. Prophecies will no longer exist.
“WHICH MEANS DRAGONS WILL NO LONGER EXIST,” the dragon whispered, though even then his voice echoed throughout the chamber. “I’LL DIE IF THE PROPHECY IS WRONG.”
“And you’ll die if it’s right,” Greg added in a whisper of his own that barely reached the dragon’s ear. He noted the look of sadness in Ruuan’s eye. “Sorry . . . I guess this isn’t working out so well for you, is it?”
“PERHAPS IT IS TIME,” said Ruuan sadly. “DRAGONS HAVE RULED MYRTH FOR MILLENIA, BUT NOW I AM THE LAST OF MY KIND, AND THE END OF AN ERA, AS WELL.”
“Then you’ll actually let me slay you?” Greg asked incredulously.
“GOODNESS, NO, BOY. AS WITH ANY RESPECTABLE DRAGON, WHEN I GO I INTEND TO TAKE AS MANY MORTALS WITH ME AS I CAN. NOW, WOULD YOU PREFER TO BE ROASTED, MAULED, OR EATEN?”
If ever there was a question that deserved to be rhetorical . . . “Are those my only choices?”
“UNLESS YOU CAN THINK OF ANOTHER DEATH YOU WOULD PREFER.”
Greg thought again about the plunge from the portals inside Ruuan’s storage locker. He shook away the image. “Why do I have to die at all? Or you, for that matter. Maybe there’s another answer.”
“I’M LISTENING.”
“What if we just told everyone you were dead?” said Greg.
The dragon frowned. “IF I TOLD PEOPLE I WAS DEAD THEY WOULD PROBABLY SUSPECT SOMETHING WAS UP.”
“No, I mean, what if I told everyone you were dead?”
Ruuan paused to consider. “NO,” he finally said, “IT WOULD NEVER WORK. AS SOON AS THEY THOUGHT I WAS DEAD, EVERY FORTUNE HUNTER ON MYRTH WOULD BE UP HERE ROOTING THROUGH MY THINGS.”
“No,” Greg said. “No one can climb the tunnel. It’s too far. And the secret passageway I came up is heavily guarded by the spirelings.”
“YOU MANAGED TO GET THROUGH IT.”
“Only because the entire spireling army is camped outside and lulled to sleep by shadowcats. How often is that going to happen?”
“HMMM,” said Ruuan, flames licking out the corners of his mouth. “THIS PROPHECY HAS WORKED OUT QUITE WELL FOR YOU SO FAR, HASN’T IT?”
Greg worked hard to clear his throat. “The point is, no one
would have to know you were still alive.”
The dragon considered for a long moment. “I DON’T KNOW,” he eventually said. “I WOULD NO LONGER BE ABLE TO GO OUT TO HUNT . . .”
Greg hadn’t thought about that. “How about if you waited until a really dark night, then slipped in and out without anyone seeing you? Once you’re clear of the spire, no one will know it’s you. I can’t speak for everyone on Myrth, but all dragons look pretty much the same to me.” Greg had never actually seen another dragon but was sure if he did, it, too, would look like something he should run from.
“BUT I AM THE LAST OF MY BREED. DO YOU THINK THE MEN OF THIS KINGDOM OF YOURS KNOW THAT?”
“No,” Greg answered quickly. “I mean, um, I doubt it.”
Still the dragon looked uncertain. “BUT WHO IS EVER GOING TO BELIEVE A BOY LIKE YOU WAS ABLE TO DEFEAT A POWERFUL DRAGON LIKE MYSELF?”
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” said Greg.
Ruuan regarded him doubtfully.
“I know it sounds crazy, but everyone around here has been convinced I was going to defeat you from the start. I think they’d actually be more shocked if I didn’t slay you.”
“HMM, I STILL DON’T KNOW,” said Ruuan.
Greg groaned. “Now what?”
“WELL, JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE WILL THINK THE PROPHECY HELD TRUE DOESN’T MAKE IT TRUE, YOU KNOW. THERE’S STILL AN ISSUE OF INTEGRITY HERE. WE DRAGONS HAVE ALWAYS LIVED BY A STRICT CODE OF HONESTY AND ETHICS.”
Greg’s mind raced. “That’s very admirable,” he said, “but I think I can help you there, too.”
“REALLY? PRAY, TELL ME HOW?”
Greg wasn’t sure if Ruuan had said ‘pray’ or ‘prey’. Either way he knew he better come up with something good. “Well, as I was telling my friend Lucky earlier—”
“WHO’S LUCKY?” Ruuan interrupted.
“The boy you brought up here with me.”
“DOESN’T SOUND LUCKY. BESIDES I DON’T RECALL SEEING ANOTHER.”
“Well, there was. He’s right in there,” Greg said, pointing toward the cell where the others stood in the shadows, watching helplessly.
“REALLY? TWO OF YOU? MY, YOU HUMANS ARE TINY THINGS.”
“Yes, well, as I was saying, I was telling Lucky that I have, in a sense, already slayed you.”
“OH, REALLY. HOW DO YOU FIGURE?”
“Not slay, s-l-a-y, but sleigh, s-l—well, whatever. I hit you with a sleigh down at the bottom of the tunnel and knocked you out.”
Ruuan’s expression darkened. “SO, THAT WAS YOU. YOU KNOW THAT REALLY HURT.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“I ASSUME IT WAS AN ACCIDENT?”
“Yes, of course.”
Ruuan nodded, leaving Greg with a disturbing sense of vertigo. “SO, TECHNICALLY YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE ALREADY FULFILLED THE PROPHECY.”
“All except for rescuing the princess,” Greg said.
“AND I CAN HELP YOU THERE,” Ruuan whispered. The dragon seemed to ponder for a moment. “IT MIGHT JUST WORK. YOU WOULD JUST NEED TO GIVE THE SPIRELINGS BACK THEIR AMULET SO THEY COULD CONTINUE TO GUARD THE PASSAGEWAY—”
“Hold on,” said Greg. “I can’t do that.”
Fire blasted from Ruuan’s nostrils. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, CAN’T?”
Greg barely dodged the flames. “I-I promised Witch Hazel I’d bring the spirelings’ amulet back. It was part of my agreement with her for letting me live. If I don’t—well, I don’t know what she’ll do, but she’s a witch. I’m sure she’ll do something.”
“THAT WITCH!” said Ruuan. “SHE’S BEEN A THORN IN MY SIDE AS LONG AS I’VE KNOWN HER. TELL ME, WHAT WAS YOUR EXACT AGREEMENT WITH HER?”
“My exact agreement?”
“YES, THINK BACK. WHAT WERE THE EXACT WORDS YOU BOTH USED?”
“Well, I don’t know that I can remember the exact words.”
“TRY,” Ruuan said, allowing a wisp of smoke to drift out one nostril. “PRETEND YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.”
“Oh, right. Well, let’s see . . .” Greg found it difficult to concentrate with a three-hundred-foot-tall dragon looming overhead. The fact his life depended on it did little to help. Still he tried his best to remember. “She told me to get the amulet from the magical passageway,” he said, “and then I was supposed to take it and the one she gave me back to her shack in the Shrieking Scrub.”
“ARE YOU SURE THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAID?” Ruuan asked. “THINK. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.”
Greg closed his eyes and tried to remember Hazel’s exact words. Ruuan’s putrid breath drifted across the cavern, lifting Greg up on his heels, but he managed to stay focused all the same. He pictured Hazel’s cold, dark eyes and her sallow skin. He recalled the way she rocked back and forth in her old, wooden chair by the flickering candlelight, and the croaking sound of her voice when she spoke.
“Wait,” he said. “I think I remember. She asked me to do her a favor.”
Ruuan’s eyes brightened. “GOOD, GREGHART. WHAT FAVOR?”
“She wanted me to bring back her amulet ‘when I was through.’” Greg’s voice slowed. “I have to die, don’t I?”
“RELAX. I’M SURE SHE JUST MEANT WHEN YOU WERE THROUGH WITH YOUR BUSINESS HERE. THAT SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER AMULET, THE ONE YOU STOLE FROM THE SPIRELINGS?”
“Right, let’s see. She asked me to bring ‘something else as well.’”
“THAT SHOULD BE EASY ENOUGH.”
“No, wait. She said the fourth amulet was the most powerful, that the spirelings used it to control the Passageway of Shifted Dimensions, and that you gave it to them.”
“SHE TOLD YOU THAT?”
“Yes, why? Isn’t it true?”
“THE LESS YOU KNOW ABOUT THE AMULET, THE BETTER,” the dragon advised him. “WHAT ELSE DID SHE SAY?”
Greg’s eyes widened as he recalled the witch rising from her chair, straightening her crippled back and growing into something—else. “She threatened me. She said, ‘You will bring me the amulet from the Infinite Spire, and in exchange I will give you the things you asked for,’ which included my life, although I never really asked for that.”
“WAS THERE ANYTHING MORE?”
Greg tried hard to recall. “Yes, she told me not to disappoint her. She said, ‘If you do not return directly with the Amulet of Ruuan, or if you do not bring me the other amulet from the Infinite Spire, you will not live to see your home again.’”
“AND YOU’RE SURE THOSE WERE HER EXACT WORDS?”
“I think so.”
The dragon shot him a disapproving look.
“Okay, I’m sure.”
“SHE NEVER SPECIFICALLY SAID YOU HAD TO BRING HER THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET?”
“I see where you’re going.” Greg thought back. “No, she always referred to the ‘other amulet’ or the ‘amulet from the spire.’ If only I had another amulet to give her.”
The dragon’s mouth pulled into a wide grin. “AH, I CAN HELP YOU THERE.”
Ruuan swung his long neck behind him and deftly picked through the huge pile of treasure with his tongue until he found a rusty amulet on an iron chain. He plucked it from the pile as easily as Greg might have done with his fingers, whipped his head back around, and offered the trinket to Greg, the chain looped over one tip of his long forked tongue. Greg reached for the chain as eagerly as he might have reached for a shaken wasp nest, plucked the amulet from Ruuan’s tongue and yanked back his hand.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I can’t give Hazel this.”
“LOOK AGAIN, GREGHART.”
Greg did as he was told. Before his eyes the amulet transformed into a pie-shaped wedge about the size of a quarter, a perfect match to the three others he’d been given and the one he stole from the spirelings.
“Wh-what’s this?” he gasped.
“A SPELL, GREGHART. THE AMULET HAS NOT CHANGED, ONLY ITS APPEARANCE.”
“And this will fool the witch?”
“NOT FOR AN INSTANT,” sai
d the dragon.
Greg groaned. “Then I’m right back where I started.”
“NO,” Ruuan said, “BECAUSE IT WOULD FOOL YOU.”
Greg stared up into the dragon’s eye. “You’re not suggesting what I think you are?”
“IF YOU RETURN THIS AMULET TO THE WITCH, TECHNICALLY YOU WILL HAVE FULFILLED YOUR PROMISE TO HER. ALTHOUGH SHE WILL INSTANTLY KNOW IT’S A FAKE, SINCE IT LOOKS JUST LIKE THE OTHERS, THERE IS A CHANCE, ALBEIT A SMALL ONE, SHE MIGHT ASSUME YOU WERE UNAWARE IT WAS NOT REAL.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I WILL NOT LET YOU LEAVE WITH THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET. YOU CAN EITHER TRY TO TAKE IT FROM ME,” Ruuan said, rising to his full height, “OR YOU CAN TRY MY PLAN INSTEAD.”
Greg swallowed hard and strained his neck to keep Ruuan’s head in sight. “I’ll try the plan.”
“THOUGHT YOU MIGHT.”
Greg stared, speechless, as the dragon’s head dropped like an elevator back down to ground level and Ruuan’s reptilian jaws once again pulled themselves into a grin.
“HOWEVER, I WAS LYING TO YOU WHEN I SAID I WOULDN’T LET YOU TAKE THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET OUT OF HERE. ACTUALLY I WANT YOU TO PUT IT BACK FOR ME.”
“Really?” Greg asked, amazed.
“WELL, I CAN’T DO IT MYSELF. THE PASSAGEWAY IS FAR TOO NARROW.”
“But aren’t you afraid I’ll keep it?”
“NO.” The dragon’s tone cut off all doubt as cleanly as a machete. He was obviously not the least bit concerned that Greg might disobey him.
Greg was not surprised. Who would be crazy enough to double-cross a dragon? But then Ruuan said something that caught him completely off guard.
“YOU HAVE GIVEN ME NO REASON TO DISTRUST YOU . . . ASIDE FROM COMING HERE TO KILL ME, THAT IS. FURTHERMORE YOU SHOWED TRUE HONOR IN ATTEMPTING TO RESCUE YOUR PRINCESS WHEN, AS YOU HAVE TOLD ME YOURSELF, YOU NEVER BELIEVED THE PROPHECY WAS TRUE. YOU MUST HAVE BEEN SURE YOU WOULD PERISH HERE TONIGHT, YET STILL YOU CAME.”
Greg didn’t know what to say. Indeed the dragon spoke the truth, but Greg also knew a large reason he did what he did was because he never really felt he had a choice.
“AND THERE IS ANOTHER REASON,” continued Ruuan. “WHEN I GAVE YOU AN OUT, ALLOWING YOU TO LEAVE FREELY WITHOUT THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET, YOUR FIRST INSTINCT WAS TO FULFILL YOUR PROMISE TO WITCH HAZEL, AGAIN AN HONORABLE ACT.”
