Trial of the Dragon (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 6 of 10) (Tail of the Dragon 7)

by Craig Halloran

  Nath drew his sword. Fang’s blade glowed like blue flame. “I’m going to help.”

  But Slivver hooked his arm. “And insult our kin? I think not. It is our kin’s fight, and his fight alone.”

  “What do you mean? That’s ridiculous. He could die, and I’m not going to let another dragon die.”

  “Have you forgotten yourself? Sky raiders have too much pride to accept help. If you help him win, he will turn on you. He’ll turn on all of us.” Slivver shook his head. “It’s one on one. Let them have at it and see what happens.”

  “I don’t like it.” Nath lowered his sword, watching them pound away on one another. The ettin wrestled with the ferocity of a wild ogre. The humongous man had moved. The ettin slipped out of the dragon’s tail and put the dragon in a headlock. The dragon let out a roar that scattered the pouring rain. “I can’t just watch this!”

  “You must!” Slivver said.

  The sky raider shook and shivered until, with the burst of a kicking mule, he shook the ettin clear off his neck. The ettin landed flat on its back. The dragon pounced on the ettin’s chest, pinning it to the ground. The dragon’s jaws opened. The armor-like scales on his chest glowed with lava. Fire spewed out of the dragon’s mouth, coating the ettin and sizzling the rain. The ettin was flayed. Its fists hammered the ground. It let out a moan so horrifying Nath almost turned away. Finally, the ettin twitched and spasmed no more. Its body became a pyre of flame. Smoke billowed. The air stank. The dragon let out a roar of elation.

  Nath caught his breath.

  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that again.

  “Next time we find a giant, I had better get to fight it!” Brenwar pounded Mortuun’s handle on the ground. “I mean it.”

  “We heard you,” Ben said as he hobbled up to see the battle site. “Great dragons, that thing is big. What kind of dragon is that?”

  “A sky raider,” Bayzog answered. “Otherwise known as a flying fortress.”

  “You can say that again,” Ben said, watching the sky raider stamp out the burning pile of giant with his tail. “Why’s he doing that?

  “Part of the celebration,” Slivver said.

  “Great Guzan, we could all ride on him, couldn’t we?” Ben asked. “Dragon, why don’t you ask?”

  “We’d better wait until his temper cools before we say anything. I might be the king, but I still respect my kindred’s privacy. Let’s give it a moment. And by a moment, I mean it’s probably not going to happen and we need to get moving. He knows what he’s doing.”

  The sky raider caught a glimpse of them. His bright-green eyes, like burning emeralds, locked onto Nath. He gave a nod, let out a roar, and took to the sky.

  Watching the dragon go, Nath said, “At least he said hello. I wish he’d given me time to say well done.”

  “I think he understands,” Slivver said. And then the expression on his face changed, and he pointed somewhere else in the air. “Look.”

  One of the seekers buzzed down, landing on Nath’s shoulder. The raccoon-sized thing chattered in Nath’s ear.

  Nath’s golden eyes turned to saucers. “He’s found Rerry and Samaz!” His excited tone sank. “But the dwarves have captured them. They march for Morgdon.”

  Sasha came right up to Nath and said, “How far away are they?”

  “Not far enough, if we make haste. Slivver, you know what to do. Just don’t let the wurmers see you. Go!” Nath ordered.

  Slivver saluted. “We’re gone.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Selene and Sansla slunk into the cavern, keeping their bodies hidden in the grooves and fallen hunks of rock. The hairless, solemn-faced stone giants tossed the boulder back and forth. They goofed and rumbled in their strange language to one another. The giant with long steel hoops in his ears picked up a second hunk of stone while the other one wasn’t looking. Hurling the object like it had been launched from a catapult, the one giant crashed the rock into the other giant’s head with a notable thud.

  The smitten giant rose up to his feet with a snarl on his face and grabbed a handful of rocks. He flung them with all of his might, pelting the one with rings in his ears. The friendly game of catch had turned ugly.

  “Now’s our chance,” Selene said. Using the natural cover for as long as she could, she snuck toward the entrance to the side cave. The giants beat on each other like drums. Bellows echoing all around, they had turned their backs, which were each broad as a trout stream. She and Sansla dashed for the mouth of the cave, but her foot clipped a stone, rolling it into a crevice with a loud clatter.

  The tussle of the giants ceased. Like the trained soldiers they doubtlessly were, they bounded over on loud footsteps to investigate.

  Selene and Sansla slipped just inside the confines of the cave entrance, but the floor was irregular, so they had to slow down. Backs pressed to the wall, they hunkered in the shadows as they carefully made their way.

  The giants snorted and sniffed, saying, “I smell something. Do you smell something?”

  “Aye, something is amiss. I smell dragon. I smell,” sniff-sniff, “elf?”

  The giants moved toward the cave entrance. All Selene could make out were their pillar-like legs. She shoved Sansla deeper into the tunnel. They rounded the edge, and just as she looked back, she saw one giant lowering itself to peek in. Clear as a bell, she heard the giant say, “What goes in must come out. We’ll wait!” Sniff! “We’ll see.”

  “I don’t think we fooled them,” she said as she crept deeper into the catacombs.

  “Giants aren’t smart, but their instincts are rarely fooled.” Sansla skulked after her. “At least we made it this far.”

  She silenced him with a hand signal. They hadn’t made it very far inside the catacombs when she all but stumbled on a nest. The eggs of the wurmers covered the lair like the grass of the open steppes. They had an eerie glow. Small wurmers the size of cats crawled among the eggs on the floor. Many of them were hatching. Selene felt her heart pounding inside her ears. She’d found nests before but none as big as this one.

  There must be a queen in here.

  She crept deeper into this new cavern with Sansla right at her heels.

  Slow and quiet, Selene. Slow and quiet.

  She understood enough about the wurmers to know they weren’t yet ready to attack when they were this young. That came later. Once they imprinted on the older wurmers, they would seek and kill what they were trained for. Staying as far away from the eggs and wurmers as she could along the outside edge of this second cavern, she made her way deeper and deeper. All she saw were eggs and baby wurmers, scraping over the rocky floor with their mouths opening and closing.

  Right in front of her an egg split open. A wurmer squirted out covered in a sticky purple goo. Her lips puckered.

  The long minutes had turned into an hour when she heard the sound of a large dragon slithering over the cave floor. A long, thick tail snaked by in front of her feet. It was every bit as big as Balzurth’s. Just as the tail passed, she edged in closer. There, with its head on a long, scaly neck reaching the top of the cavern, stood a wurmer more than thirty feet tall.

  How did that thing even get in here?

  The wurmer queen was one of a kind among the rest of the insect-like dragons. Her scales were the color of black iron. Her wings were those of a hornet, and they buzzed from time to time. Clinging to her massive frame were dozens of tiny wurmers with their claws fastened between the scales. Underneath the monster, fresh eggs were being laid one at a time. Other tiny creatures picked them up and moved them out of the path.

  Selene knew what the hairy little people were the moment she saw them: black gnomes. They moved with purpose, carrying the eggs in the crooks of their arms and moving them to safety.

  “Creepy,” she said.

  “I didn’t think any of them still lived,” Sansla replied.

  The black gnomes were hard workers but mute. They made the perfect slaves for a task such as this.

&
nbsp; “I would have suspected goblins.”

  Somewhere beyond the wurmer queen, a gas-like steam released into the air. Selene covered her nose and fought back a cough. The pungent, tangy smell lingered. The coolness of the cave heated up. Whatever the gas was, it clung to her like a nasty fog that did not rise. She caught Sansla rubbing his watery eyes and gave him a nod.

  The queen moved deeper into the cave and out of sight.

  Selene led them deeper toward the steam. Cutting through the yellow fog, she came across a small crater that boiled with a colorful and angry light. Deep inside its translucent goo, a gemstone the size of her head beat with fiery life.

  Selene swallowed. “This is what we came for. That gemstone, a life giver, is the source of their beginnings. It is the heart of the queen. No life stone, no wurmers. That’s how the ancient wizards set it up. That’s what we must destroy.” She pulled her satchel around to the front of her waist and unbuckled the leather straps. She was reaching into it when a voice filled the cavern.

  “Welcome, Selene and Sansla. I’ve been expecting you.”

  Before she could blink, the black gnomes had them surrounded.

  The queen wurmer returned, and the voice spoke again. “Don’t look so surprised. I know all.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Nath left his friends behind. It wouldn’t be possible for them to keep up with him by any stretch of the imagination. He did see to it that one of the seekers stayed with them to guide them. Running at full speed, his dragon heart didn’t falter. His lungs were as strong as ever, and so was the rest of him. As best as he understood it, the dwarves that marched with Rerry and Samaz were only a few leagues away.

  Barring any unforeseen encounters, I should be able to cut them off in time.

  With his fleet feet traversing the steppes, he followed the first seeker dragon, who flew in front of him. The little black and gold dragon seemed annoyed, flying back and forth and making little roars at him.

  “I’m going as fast as I can. It’s not my fault I don’t have wings, speedy one.”

  The dragon buzzed ahead, only to zoom back again. It made Nath feel like he hadn’t moved at all.

  I’ve got to become a dragon again! This is getting old.

  Another mile into the run, he crossed into a thick patch of woodland filled with briar bushes and low-limbed trees.

  “Great dragons! Why’d you take me this way?”

  Nath forged on, hurdling or tearing through every obstacle in sight. He broke free of the woodland and found himself standing on an overlook. A few hundred feet below him, twelve dwarves were huddled up on the road between one patch of woodland and another.

  Slivver and the other silver dragons had the dwarves surrounded.

  The dwarves reminded him of Brenwar, but they had a slightly fiercer look. Wearing a black breastplate and carrying a long-handled mace with a studded ball of iron on the end, one dwarf yelled up, “You! Nath Dragon! You’re coming with us!”

  Nath had a clean look at Rerry and Samaz. They were on their feet, with their arms bound behind their backs. Other than being scraped up and smeared with dirt, they seemed fine. He yelled down to them, “Rerry? Samaz? Are you well?”

  “Aside from being very hungry, we’re fine. It’s good to see you, Nath.”

  “Quiet, prisoner!” The dwarven leader pointed his mace at Nath. “You’re coming with us. Now be wise and surrender.”

  Noting the other dragons with his eyes, Nath said, “I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands. I respect your skills, but you are no match for dragons.”

  “So you seek to rob us of our charges, eh?” The dwarf stroked his beard. “We’ll die first. And that will prove you are the murderer of Uurluuk, as accused.”

  Nath wholeheartedly believed the dwarves would die before they released their prisoners. I need to figure out a way to extract them without hurting the dwarves. Well, maybe I can hurt them a little. He started down the hillside and came to a stop a few dozen yards from the road. He could see in the hard eyes of the dwarves that they were ready to fight to the bitter end. “Perhaps we can negotiate their release?”

  “Dwarves don’t negotiate.”

  “You most certainly do. Everyone does.” Nath went into a historical tirade of all the negotiations that the dwarves had been involved in. More than an hour later, the dwarves hadn’t given an inch.

  The leader said, “You presume to give me a history lesson on my own people? Again, Dwarves don’t negotiate. Now if you know what’s good for you, you’ll surrender.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  The dwarf gave his troopers a command in Dwarven. Four of them fell from the ranks, brandishing battle axes. They marched up the hill, spreading out to flank Nath.

  The leader came right at Nath.

  Brenwar, Ben, Bayzog, and Sasha appeared behind him. Brenwar jogged down the hill, passing Nath and barring the path between Nath and the dwarf.

  The dwarven leader’s eyes widened at the sight of Brenwar, and he stopped. “Out of the way, Father. I have orders.”

  “Out of the way? Don’t you dare speak to your father that way, Glenwar. You’re on the wrong side of things!”

  “Glenwar?” Nath exclaimed. “I thought there was a similarity, but he was so young last time I saw him.”

  “Oh great, there’s two of them,” Ben commented.

  “No, Father, it is you who are on the wrong side of things. You stand by the side of a murderer.” Glenwar took another step up the hill.

  “Don’t you dare, Son. Don’t you dare.”

  Glenwar stopped. “What would you have me do, Father? I have my orders. I shall follow them through. Wouldn’t you do the same?”

  Brenwar paused. Pawing at his beard, he replied, “Glenwar, I was with Nath Dragon the entire time. It’s not possible that he did what he is accused of. The dragons have been allies since before you or I ever existed. Certainly you can see that?”

  “Nevertheless, he is accused. There have been witnesses. Piigliin was one of them.” He pointed to a dwarf among the ranks with a soft yellow beard. The dwarf nodded, pointed at Nath, and said, “He’s the one I saw. For certain. I’ll never forget those scales and that flaming hair.”

  Glenwar eyeballed his father. “Have you ever known a dwarf to lie about such a thing?”

  “Things are not always as they appear,” Brenwar said. “Do you not know that the evil spirits have been released into the world? The titans have returned. War is waged in air, land, and sea. People are amiss. Even the blind squirrel can see it. You’ve been taught better than this.”

  “I’ve been taught to follow orders. As for those spirits, I’ve yet to see them. I believe what I see.”

  “You believe what you want to see. That’s dangerous, Glenwar. I’ve always told you about that, but you never wanted to listen. There’s a war going on.” Brenwar’s bony thumb went over his shoulder at Nath. “We need Nath Dragon. We can’t afford to have him locked away in the dungeons, not for any amount of time. We all need to engage the same enemy.”

  Glenwar stood toe to toe with his father. “I have my orders. Step aside, Brenwar Bolderguild, or be dealt with.”

  CHAPTER 26

  With the air rife with tension, Nath broke the silence. “Glenwar, don’t cross your father. You’ll regret it.”

  “I have to follow orders. Father should respect that and step aside.”

  “I’ll step aside when you come to your senses, Son.”

  With intent in his dark eyes, Glenwar said, “It will be the hard way then.”

  A high-pitched whistle sounded from the woodland on the other side. Elven archers dressed in brown and ivy-colored leather woodsman’s garb emerged. There must have been a hundred of them that Nath could see lined up in the trees. Many of them came forward, quiet as ghosts, fanning out until all the dwarves and dragons were surrounded.

  Glenwar backed off. “Sound our horn, Piigliin!”

  Piigliin put a brass horn to his l
ips and blasted out a call as loud as a dragon’s roar. The sound blast must have carried for leagues.

  Brenwar shook his head. “They’ll hear that all the way to Morgdon. You’ve really done it now, Son.”

  “I’ve done my duty. You should expect that.” Glenwar lowered his weapon. “It’s only a matter of time now, Father. A host of dwarves is only a league away.” He turned his back. “Let’s see what these elves have to say.”

  The elven commander made his way front and center on the road, wearing the same garb as the rest of his elves. The only noticeable difference was a pair of golden bracers on his arms. He called up the hillside, “Glenwar Bolderguild, you have done well. The elven avengers of Laedorn are here to aid you in your endeavor.” He gave a courteous bow.

  “Well met, Axillis,” Glenwar said. “Your aid with the fugitives is welcome.”

  “Taking aid from elves? Pah!” Brenwar said. “Can you not see what isn’t right with this?”

  “Nath Dragon is the enemy of both races. He—”

  “He is the enemy of no one but the titans and all who oppose freedom in this world!” Brenwar pulled Mortuun around. “I will not fight my fellow dwarves, but I won’t hold back against the elves. How do you know they aren’t behind all this?’

  “Why would they be?’ Glenwar asked.

  “Why would Nath Dragon be? Or any of us!”

  This reminded Nath of an old proverb: Duty is blind. As Brenwar and Glenwar went back and forth, memories of his father swelled up inside his chest. Arguments with his father had been similar, but this smelled different to his dragon senses. Something about Glenwar’s body language made Nath uncomfortable. The son of Brenwar didn’t seem himself. Judging by his shifting feet, he wasn’t one hundred percent behind what he was doing. But he was a dwarf. Stubborn. He would do it anyway, even if it killed him.