Ben supported Bayzog. They hobbled over to Balzurth, thinking he was Nath.
Bayzog said, in a gravelly voice, “I need my staff.”
“Keep going,” Rybek shouted. “The staff is mine to keep. Any tricks Nath, and your friends will be slaughtered out there by the phantom or the wurmers. I’ve seen to it there won’t be anyone to save them no matter what.”
Balzurth gave Ben and Bayzog one last look over his shoulder.
Ben nodded and said, “You don’t have to do this, Dragon. Our lives are ours to give.”
“Go,” Balzurth commanded in a voice that sounded like Nath’s. “I’ll see you soon.”
CHAPTER 28
On the path out of the Temple of Spires, Bayzog collapsed, dashing his knees on the stones. Ben scooped him up in his arms and continued, glancing back from time to time, eyeballing the stone giants that guarded the entrance.
“Stay with me, Bayzog.”
He shuffled down the path, grimacing. His legs were wobbling and his arms shook. The journey to the temple had been nothing short of harrowing. Bletver had carried the both of them over his shoulder at first, but then for fun he’d dragged them through the mud, laughing and saying he liked his food with a little muddy seasoning on it.
Despite the jostling trek, Ben had been relieved.
Bletver had thrown him against a wall so hard, Ben had thought he shattered his back. The stunning shock had faded barely in time for him to gather his senses just enough to tell his brother Jad about the gauntlets and the chest. He’d been urging Jad to find safety just when Bletver tore back through the house and scooped Ben up. Lucky for him, the paralysis had been only temporary, and he now felt his limbs again.
“Let me walk. Let me walk,” Bayzog said. The hollow eyes of the half elf burned with life, but his body was as feeble as a newborn baby’s. His skin was wrinkled, and the long strands of hair were ghost white. “I live. I live. I need my staff, but I live.”
“We aren’t going back for the staff. I’m getting you to safety.”
“Need to help Nath,” Bayzog rasped.
“I know, but there isn’t much we can do to help him right now. We’re just going to have to hope he can take care of himself.”
“Not right,” Bayzog said, shaking his head. “Not right.”
“I know it’s not right, but I can’t go back and fight all those wurmers and giants by myself now, can I? We need help.” He stumbled on a loose rock and fell to his knees.
Bayzog fell out of his arms.
Gasping, Ben said, “I’m turning out to be a fine help, aren’t I?”
From the ground, Bayzog pointed at something crawling behind Ben.
Head low, a wurmer came, moving slow but chomping its teeth.
Ben broke out in a cold sweat. “So much for Rybek keeping his word. That doesn’t look like an escort.” He crawled backward like a land crab until he bumped into Bayzog.
The feeble mage’s bony fingers plucked at his belt pouch.
Ben had forgotten about the potions. He fumbled through his own mud-coated pouch and produced two vials of yellow liquid. He popped the cork from one and handed it to Bayzog, then drank the other. The tantalizing nectarine flavor coursed new life through his body, washing away the aches and pains in his bones. “That’s more like it!”
Head lowered, eyes slit, and jaws slavering, the wurmer came.
CHAPTER 29
Water splashed on Nath’s eyelids. A storm cloud drizzled cold drops over his face. He sat up with a gasp. “Balzurth!”
Brenwar, Sasha, and Laylana lay fast asleep.
Going from one to the other, Nath shook them all. “Wake up! Wake up!”
First to his feet, Brenwar smacked his lips and with woozy eyes said, “I feel like I’ve woken from the dead.”
Rubbing her eyes, Laylana added, “My head aches.” She peeled off a leaf that had stuck to her face.
Yawning, Sasha asked Nath, “What happened? Where’s Balzurth?”
“He’s gone.”
“Gone?” Brenwar clawed his skeleton hand through his beard. “And where do you think he’s gone to?”
Judging by the sun’s position in the sky, it looked like they’d been asleep for the better part of a day. Balzurth had a long head start on them. He’d wanted it that way.
The horses whinnied.
“He didn’t take the horses,” Sasha said. “Can’t we track him down and catch up with him?”
Using his keen sight, Nath searched for footsteps or any other signs of his father’s passing. He circled the camp. There were only signs of his coming, but not his going. “It seems he’s abandoned us.” He kicked up the dirt. “How could he do that do us?”
“Now we know where you get it from,” Brenwar grumbled. He strapped his war hammer over his back. Looking above, he said, “Do you think he turned back into a dragon? Did he fly to the Temple of Spires?”
Nath’s nostrils flared. Certainly his father wouldn’t have risked the lives of his friends. No, Nath had to figure out what he would have done if he was in Balzurth’s place. While he thought, everyone else mounted up.
Brenwar opened his strongbox. “I’d say he got to the Temple of Spires hours ago.” He arched a brow. “Of course, that’s assuming we only slept through the night. If we want to catch up, these horses have some hard work to do. They’re going to need something.” He flicked a vial over to Nath. “Give each one of them a little bit of that.”
Nath poured a little bit in his hand and administered the potion to the horses one by one. They nickered and reared up.
“Whoa! What does it do?” Laylana asked.
“They’ll run hard and fast all the day long, so you’d better hang on tight. They won’t be stopping,” Brenwar said. There were only three horses though. Brenwar turned to Nath. “I’m assuming you can keep up?”
“No, you need to hope the horses can keep up with me. Let’s go.” Nath took off for the temple with fast and lengthy strides. His mind was racing. What had gotten into his father?
What’s his plan? If I were Balzurth, what would I do?
The answer smote him like the clapper striking a bell.
I’d do what I always do, show up as me.
Darting through the grasses, he sped up his pace.
CHAPTER 30
“It’s down to just the two of us now, Rybek, speaking from a general point of view of course. I’m not counting the flock of wurmers and giants at your disposal.” There were more stone giants backed into the shadows standing as statues against the walls. Wurmers snaked through holes in the ceiling, positioning themselves in the rafters. “What’s your end game? Or should I say Eckubahn’s end game?”
Rybek jumped off the end of the slab. “Certainly you know you’re the bait for taking down Balzurth. Eckubahn wants you alive, but I want you dead.” He swung his sword, and an arc of energy knocked Balzurth from his feet and skipped him over the stones into one of the pillars. “But if I can’t have you dead, I’ll turn you over to him severely damaged.”
Balzurth didn’t even try to stand. He said to Rybek, “Oh, you’re giving Eckubahn the glory. Why not the glory for yourself? You don’t need him. Go ahead, take me down all on your own.”
“Humph. You fight back with words and not fists. I’m surprised.” Rybek sheathed his blade. “It seems the cocky dragon is humbled.”
“Humility comes with age.”
“I’m no spring fairy. I don’t feel humble in the slightest, but I do enjoy humbling people. And by humbling I mean killing.”
“Get on with it, then,” Balzurth replied.
“As much as I hate you for destroying my brother, you and Selene both, I’m still a faithful servant of the new ruler of this world. I can wait for my reward.”
“Your reward, if you don’t change, will be fire when the end comes, one way or the other.” Balzurth took a look at his surroundings. The giants and wurmers began to stir. Something was happening or about to happen. “You stall, Rybek.
Why?”
“I don’t need to stall. I’m being wise with my time. Turn around.”
Balzurth did so.
Rybek bound his wrists behind his back with a silk rope that tightened with the power of a great snake. “You’re making this entirely too easy. I expected a fight, not such cooperation.” He spun Balzurth back around. “Still…” He punched him in the face. “Ah, that feels better.”
Balzurth spat a tooth out. “Well, at least one of us isn’t disappointed.”
“Tell me, Nath, before I turn you over, where is your father Balzurth?”
Balzurth wouldn’t lie, so he said, “My father is where my father wants to be.”
Rybek tossed his head back and let out a little laugh. “And Selene?”
“I can’t say, because I don’t know.” Both of the statements were true. It was important to Balzurth that even in the worst of circumstances, he still was honest. He just didn’t want Rybek to catch on.
The warrior head butted Balzurth, helm first, in the chin.
Disguised as Nath, the Dragon King staggered back and gave his head a hard shake. “Are you quite done with that? You won’t ignite my ire, if that’s what you’re attempting.”
From a pouch strapped to his side, Rybek produced and amulet on an iron chain. Its yellow stone was the eye of a cloudy storm.
“Jewelry for me? You’re vastly more thoughtful than you look. Vastly.” Balzurth tilted his head. “What does it do?”
Dangling the amulet by the chain and swinging it gently from side to side, Rybek said, “It teleports you to Eckubahn.”
Balzurth’s heart raced. His eyes fixed on the amulet. “Why hesitate? Give Eckubahn the prize he wants. Receive your glory.”
Rybek pulled the amulet back from Balzurth’s burning eyes. “No, something’s wrong. I sense it. There is no reason you should be so eager. What kind of fool rushes into certain death?”
“I’m bait. Eckubahn won’t kill me.”
“You don’t know that. I don’t know that.” Rybek swung the chain around his wrist and back. “What are you up to, Nath Dragon?” His boot kicked something white over the granite floor. He went over and picked up a tooth as big as his hand. It was Balzurth’s, the one he’d spat out. No longer a part of his body, it had resumed its normal dragon tooth size and shape. “What’s this?”
“Perhaps I knocked that tooth out when I walloped Bletver. You really shouldn’t let the little things distract you in the midst of a moment. Focus. The moment might slip away.”
Rybek glanced between Balzurth and the tooth. He bent his head down. “I don’t see the tooth you spat out.” He scraped his foot over the ground. “What treachery is this, Nath Dragon?”
Eyes transfixed on the amulet of teleportation, Balzurth said, “You certainly should be the one to lecture about treachery, but no one lectures me.” Balzurth snapped the cords that bound his arms behind his back. He lunged for the amulet.
Rybek jerked the amulet away and cradled it with his whole body. “This is madness. Why do you want the amulet?”
Balzurth wrestled the fighter to the ground.
Rybek, strong as a man can get and a seasoned fighter but no match for Balzurth in strength, squirted out of his grip.
“Give me that amulet!”
Rybek scrambled over the floor.
Balzurth snatched the man’s ankle and dragged him back. He punched Rybek in the chest, denting the plate armor.
With the amulet tucked tightly in his muscular arm, Rybek groaned, “No.”
Balzurth-Nath pinned Rybek’s face down by the helmet, holding him tight while using his free hand to fish out the amulet. A shadow fell over his shoulder. “Huh?”
Bletver had walloped Balzurth with an uppercut that practically lifted him out of his shoes. It sent him colliding into the legs of another giant. “That’s payback, Nath Dragon.”
Shaking off the blow, Balzurth lifted his eyes to the triant, who stood as tall as a tree behind him. The wurmers climbed down the walls. More giants stepped into full view. It was him versus an army. He snorted. “I’ve got bad news for you. All of you. I’m not Nath.” His hands and feet sprouted into dragon claws. “I’m Balzurth, and I’ll be having that amulet.”
CHAPTER 31
Ben picked up a rock and chucked it at the wurmer. The stone skipped off its snout. “Just run if you can, Bayzog. Run. I’ll hold it off as long as I can.”
The giant lizard streaked toward him on all fours. Its claws scraped over the stones, flicking up the dirt and moss between the path of flat rocks.
Energized, Ben braced himself to make his last stand. Man with hardly a stick of clothing on versus a monster fully covered in natural armor.
Jaws wide, the wurmer scuttled in and bit.
Ben bounded up over the beast, clearing its snapping jaws and landing on its back. He wrapped his arms around the creature—which was just as big as him—and held tight. “Run, Bayzog! Run!”
Man and twisting scales wrestled in the dirt.
The creature let out bestial hisses. It stretched its neck to bring its head around, snapping at Ben’s ears but missing.
Ben tucked his head down and held on for the ride of his life.
The wurmer’s tail flogged every bit of Ben’s body that it could hit.
Each lick brought the pain of a leather whip. Fighting the odds and the pain, Ben wouldn’t let go of the tireless monster. No, this was his last stand. He might lose his life, but he could save another.
Whap! Whap! Whap!
The tail beat him without mercy. The wurmer would twist one way and Ben, feet digging in the dirt, would twist the other. Pushing himself to the limit, hand locked over his wrist, he cranked up the pressure. “I’m going to squeeze you to death, wurmer!”
The monster spun in a version of an alligator roll on land.
Ben’s head cracked against a stone. His grip broke. The next thing he knew he was flat on his back with the wurmer’s claws at his throat. His strength was gone. He thought of Margo and his girls. He said to anyone that could hear, “Tell them I’ll miss them.”
Sssssrazzzzz!
A jolt of light struck the wurmer, sending shivers through its scales. Smoke came from its eyes, and it wriggled and jerked and collapsed on top of Ben, dead.
With a grunt, Ben shoved it off. Huffing for breath, he said, “I don’t know how I did that, but I knew I had it in me. I beat the smoke right out of it.” But then he noticed Bayzog leaning back against the rocks. The wizard’s withered skin had thickened after he drank the healing potion, and streaks of black were now layered into his greying hair. “So you did that?”
“I might have had the elf beaten out of me, but I still have my spells.” Bayzog closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oh, that wasn’t easy.”
Ben got up with a grimace. “Well, thanks.” His body stung all over. “I have a feeling I look as bad as you.”
“You do.” Bayzog opened his eyes. The violet fire had returned. Scanning the area, he said, “Odd.”
Following his gaze back toward the temple, Ben said, “What’s odd?”
“When we fight wurmers, we usually fight them all.”
Holding his hip, Ben said, “Well, I’m not disappointed.”
Loud noises came from inside the temple. Heavy booms and thuds. Angry howls so loud only a giant could be making them. “We’re going in there, aren’t we?”
“I need my staff,” Bayzog said.
“We need Nath Dragon,” Ben replied. He started forward. “Nath can’t handle all of them at once.”
“No, he can’t. But that’s not Nath Dragon in there,” Bayzog replied.
“Sure it is. I saw him for myself.”
“No, it’s someone else. That’s why I wasn’t so worried.”
The rocks shook at the top of the temple’s spires, and a piece of rock broke off. It bounced off the temple roof and slid, spinning, into the canyon.
“So if that wasn’t Nath, then who was it? Gorlee?”
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Making his way to the bridge, Bayzog replied, “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Ben was relieved to hear it wasn’t Nath in there, but he didn’t want to go back inside. The temple was filled with giants and wurmers. He and Bayzog didn’t stand a chance. And whoever was posing as Nath had made a great effort to save them in the first place. He held his hands up in front of his face and made two fists. “I guess these are going to have to do.”
Robes dragging the ground, Bayzog didn’t stop his trek back to the temple. “I have spells. I can handle this myself. You should wait.”
The word “spell” triggered a thought. Ben reached into his pouch and produced a vial filled with a sparkling orange liquid.
A raucous, painful sound echoed out from the temple’s entrance.
Ben said to the vial, “Bottoms up, ’cause they’re going down.”
CHAPTER 32
Slumped against the wall, Samaz’s head rested on Rerry’s shoulders. They’d been sitting in the same spot for hours. Feeling his brother’s forehead, Rerry said, “I don’t know how a person can be so hot and live. Of course, I don’t know anyone as stubborn as you. In this case, it’s a good thing.”
He eased his brother to the floor. Still weak and dying of thirst even after drinking some sour cave water, he pressed his eye to the keyhole of the door.
If only those iron eaters would have gnawed out this lock, we could be out of here by now. Look at those hinges. There’s plenty of good metal right there.
He slapped his forehead. “Aw, the hinges.”
His fingers worked at the pins. He cracked his nails with the effort, but none of the pins would budge. He needed a tool, but even after searching all the chambers in the strange prison, he didn’t find anything of use at all.
Eyes of the Dragon (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 4) (Tail of the Dragon) Page 11
