“Never,” Sansla agreed.
“Pity. We’ll just have to tear you to pieces and feed you to the wurmers.” Tylabahn’s shaggy hands clutched in and out. “Of course, if you kill me, then you’ll be set free. I see that dangerous twinkle in your eye, Selene. You want to run that sword right through me. The problem is, the only way to stop me is to kill your friend Gorlee.” She threw her head back in evil laughter. “This body is worth all the gold in Narnum. I’m unstoppable.”
Selene sheathed her sword.
Tylabahn’s eyes brightened. “Oh, you’ve come to your senses and decided to surrender. A wise choice. Nuurg, bind them up.”
“Did you not hear me when I said ‘We don’t surrender’?” Selene summoned her magic. “I thought I was perfectly clear.”
Tylabahn gave Selene a funny look. “But you put your sword away.”
“I did, because with it, I can only attack one foe at a time. With my magic, I can strike many.” Her violet eyes flashed. Her fingertips glowed with mystic fire. “Let the battle begin!”
Tylabahn’s jawed dropped.
Selene fired off a bolt of power that sent Tylabahn flying into the wall.
CHAPTER 20
Marching into the stiff winds of the changing season, Nath said to Ben, “How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling good, but the last three decades of fighting, I have to admit, are catching up with me. These long marches don’t come as easy as they used to.” Ben drank from his canteen. “But don’t worry. The older you get, the tougher you are.”
“You aren’t that old, Ben. How old were you when we met anyway, sixteen?”
“No, I was seventeen, thank you. I just looked young for my age back then. Now I look old for my age.”
“You don’t look old. If anything, you look as old as you really are, in your forties, I guess. And look, your hair is as rich and brown as ever.”
“Have you not seen the gray hairs in my chin?” Ben scratched at his jaw. “I shouldn’t make a fuss about it. Margo likes it. You know, my father’s was mostly gray as long as I remember. It must run in the family. Dragon, why do you think men don’t live as long as the other races? I just don’t understand that. It doesn’t seem fair.”
The discrepancy in age expectancy of the various races was one of the topics Nath felt guilty about. Humans, pure humans, didn’t live very long, and Ben was right. It didn’t seem fair. Some elves lived a thousand years, dragons a few thousand, and even dwarves into their late hundreds, but most humans didn’t live to be a hundred. “I don’t know, Ben, but if I ever figure it out, you’ll be the first to hear.”
“I guess I shouldn’t complain. At the rate I’m going, I probably won’t make it much longer anyway.” Ben stopped, took off his boot, and dumped the grit and pebbles out of it. He did the same with the other before stuffing it back on. “Ah, that’s better. It shaves a year off at least. Do your feet ever ache?”
“No, I can’t say they do, but sometimes my ears ache.”
“Your ears?”
“Yes, whining does that to them.”
Ben made a perplexed look. His eyes suddenly brightened. “Ah, I get it. I suppose I am being whiny. It’s just that I like doing this, and you’ll be doing it much longer than I will. I really want to be around to see all the marvels that happen.”
“Our marvels have been filled with nothing but danger and treachery. You enjoy it?”
“Well, I can’t say I enjoy it in the moment when I might perish, but at the same time, I never feel more alive than then. When the fighting stops, I miss it. It makes me restless. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to set out and hurt anyone, but at the same time, I can’t stand the thought of sitting around and not fighting the good fight. The time will come when, if I survive, I won’t be able to fight anymore. I’ll just be sitting in a rocking chair growing old.”
“You have it all wrong, Ben. You’ll have something that young warriors never have: wisdom. There is no greater weapon than that.”
Ben’s brows lifted, and he nodded. “You know, Dragon, that actually does make me feel a little better. But if wisdom comes with age, can you explain to me what happened to Brenwar?”
They both laughed.
Out front, Brenwar—who still led the way—slowed and turned. “What are you two roosters clucking about? I’m certain I heard my name.”
“We were just talking about all your years of wisdom,” Nath said.
Ben covered his mouth while holding in a laugh.
“Years? You mean centuries,” Brenwar corrected.
“Exactly,” Ben said, laughing.
“I don’t see what’s so funny about it.”
“No, nothing is funny at all, Brenwar, we were just admiring you, so to speak.” Ben sealed his lips shut.
Brenwar’s freshly scarred black brows lifted. “None are wiser than the dwarves. As a matter of fact, I know a song about that. Perhaps I should sing it to you.”
“No!” Nath and Ben objected together.
“I see, but you’ll hear it soon enough, the ballad of Onaar Cleeven.” He cleared his throat and marched away, singing under his breath.
“Well, he still has his hearing. That’s for certain.” Ben said.
“Agreed.”
“So Nath, I’ve been meaning to ask you something for quite some time.”
“What is it, Ben?”
“Well, dragons live a very long time, and I imagine a relationship like the one we have might be difficult, because we humans pass away so young. I just wonder, have you lost many friends like me? I mean, I can only assume you’ve had many. I couldn’t be the only one, aside from Sasha, that is.”
“Boy, Ben, you’re really on a morbid streak today, aren’t you?”
Ben eyed the sky. “Maybe it’s the weather.”
Nath’s thoughts drifted back to his past. He didn’t reflect on it often, because he wasn’t proud of it. For decades, he hadn’t been even close to the person he’d become now. He had walked the world with good intentions but had been young and self-centered. He’d had many friends back then, but none as close as those he cherished now—aside from Brenwar and Slivver. He had been more of a loner in his younger days, full of bull with a chip on his shoulder. There had been good times but just as many bad.
“You know, Ben, I had friends, but most of them were just acquaintances. Some of them are still around, but most of them have long since passed away.” He pictured many faces from his past in his head. “I don’t think you would have cared for me so much then, Ben. I was cocky.”
Ben grinned, “More so than you are now?”
“Oh, much worse. I was more man than dragon. I was obsessed with saving the dragons and myself, but looking back, it was more about myself. It took me a long time to learn my lesson—at least a century, I’d say—before I woke up and realized how selfish I was being.” He lifted his arms. Even in the dim light of day, his black scales had an oily shine to them. “Actually, this happened right around the time I met you. That’s when I realized I was on the wrong path. I like to think I’m on the high path now, but sometimes I’m not so certain.”
“If you always thought you were on it, then I’d say you weren’t. I bet that’s how you felt in your younger days.”
Nath gave Ben a friendly shove. “You couldn’t be more right. You, Ben, are going to be a walking and talking fountain of wisdom. I can feel it in my scales. So—” He stopped in his tracks.
Slivver and the handful of silver dragons darted through the dark skies toward them. Slivver landed as the other dragons circled in the air. His ice-blue eyes were filled with warning. “We have trouble.”
CHAPTER 21
With a pair of nuurg closing in on him, Sansla Libor set his feet for the charge. The armor-laden monsters swung their steel right into his chest, but their blades skipped off of his coarse hair. Sansla gave them a smile. The nuurg fighters recoiled and gave one another blank stares.
“He doesn’t bleed,” o
ne nuurg said to the other.
“Not from the likes of those old blades, but I’m certain that you do. Let’s see.” Sansla drew his legs up underneath himself and pounced. Both of his fists collided with nuurg jaws. Their thick legs became noodles. They fell down in two heaps. On instinct, Sansla ducked.
Whoosh!
A studded club just missed his head.
Sansla grappled with another nuurg with a ring of brass in his nose. Breast to breast and equal in size, they grappled back and forth with the club. With wide jaws slavering and murder in the nuurg’s eyes, the monster matched Sansla’s own savage power. They rolled over the muddy ground and smashed into the rubble.
The nuurg’s head butted Sansla square in the nose.
With a snarl, Sansla head butted the nuurg in the bridge of his own nose.
Crack!
The nuurg let out a pained howl and lost his grip on the club.
Sansla wrenched it free and slung it away. He unloaded on the nuurg with punches so hard that the force broke ribs.
The nuurg’s hard body sagged. His ugly face became a painful grimace.
Sansla hit the helpless nuurg again and again until it flopped to the sloppy ground and moved no more. Sansla’s chest heaved. His temper flared. He snorted through his nostrils.
The elven roamer king within—cool and in control—began to fade away. The curse of the monster Sansla fought so hard to control came out. He made an animal-like growl. His fists pounded his chest.
A nuurg with a sword stepped into Sansla’s path and attacked.
Quick as a snake and more powerful than a lion, Sansla charged into the sword-wielding nuurg.
The nuurg’s sword came down hard on his shoulder.
Sansla didn’t feel a thing except rage. He snatched the nuurg up off the ground and hoisted it over his head. With a savage howl, he hurled the nuurg into a stone wall with ram-like force and broke the small giant’s neck.
***
As soon as Selene unloaded her bolt of power on Tylabahn, she drew her sword. Just as the steel snaked out of the scabbard, she parried a two-handed chop from the closest nuurg. The blow jarred her arms, sending sharp pain up into her shoulders.
“Pretty woman going to die,” said a one-eyed nuurg with a long black beard and a bald head with a second eye tattooed over his real eye. He cocked back the sword over his shoulder.
Selene sliced deep into his leg.
Howling “Aaarrggh!” the nuurg chopped at her, as durable a fighter as any orc but bigger and quicker than it looked.
She sidestepped the sword tip that bit into the ground. Jabbed her steel deep into its knee.
The nuurg enemy towered over her.
Selene used her smaller size to outmaneuver the monster. She slipped in behind it and stabbed it in the back.
Its back arched. Its arms flailed behind it. “You will pay!” the nuurg screamed as it dropped onto both knees. Its head twisted back over its shoulder and found her preparing to strike. “No, wait,” it pleaded.
Selene hesitated.
A nuurg soldier riding a wrath horn stormed into the fortress and trampled her.
Elbow deep in the mud, Selene pushed herself up out of the muck, spitting mud from her mouth, just as the nuurg prepared for another charge. With her bones aching beneath the scales that had saved her body from certain death, she faced her aggressor.
The wrath horn and rider charged.
She raced right at them with her sword high. At the last possible moment, she leapt high, clearing the wrath horn’s head. She kicked the nuurg rider in the face with both feet, knocking it from the saddle.
The nuurg splashed onto the soft ground.
Selene landed beside it. Her tail slithered over the giant’s shoulder and coiled around its neck.
“Urk!” the nuurg clawed at her tail until its screams were silenced.
Selene’s eyes searched over the battlefield. There had been nine nuurg fighters to start. She’d fought two, and right before her eyes, Sansla was fighting all of the others. She’d never seen him like she saw him now. He fought like a caged animal. The blue in his eyes was molten lava. He killed without remorse. It sent a chill through her.
His curse has awakened.
She started forward to aid him but froze in her tracks when Tylabahn said, “You! You dare!”
Selene spun around.
Tylabahn stood with her back against the wall, rubbing the scorch marks on her chest. She’d grown from eight feet to every bit of twelve.
“I see you’ve given me a bigger target.” Selene spun her sword around. “I thank you.”
“You would kill the changeling just to kill me?” Tylabahn’s lips curled back. “I don’t believe you have it in you!”
“I know the changeling well enough to believe he would rather die than be a device of evil.” She twirled her sword and started forward. “If I have to kill my friend, then so be it.”
Tylabahn snatched up a hunk of stone and hurled it at Selene. “You fool, you cannot kill me!”
Selene dodged the boulder. “With this enchanted sword, Spirit Slicer, I can destroy anything in any form.”
Eyes on the sword, the titan woman said, “You are lying. Your entire life is a lie. You are not good. You are bad. A killer.”
“If you think I’m lying, then come closer, and we shall see.”
“I know you’re a liar. There is no sword known as Spirit Slicer. If there were, the titans would know of it.” Tylabahn clacked her teeth. “I will have you, Selene. You are outnumbered. And I have no desire to part with this body. It can be used for so many terribly clever things. Who knows, maybe I’ll take your form so I can entrap Nath Dragon.”
Selene charged.
“Wurmers! To me!” Tylabahn ordered.
The wurmers dropped out of the sky like bats, covering Selene.
Fighting for her life as the monsters tore at her scales, she caught a peek at Sansla. Apparently, rage could only feed the elf king-turned-flying ape’s awesome strength for so long. The nuurg hit him from all directions with clubs, swords, and chains. He sank to his knees. It was the last she saw of him. She ran her sword through a wurmer’s ribs. With a chop, she took the head off another. Hungry jaws clamped down on her sword arm. One by one, they locked up her arms and legs in their jaws. Only her scales saved her. She wriggled and screamed. They stretched her out.
Looming over Selene, Tylabahn stood with her hands on her hips. “Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! You have plenty of fight in you, but not enough.”
“Believe what you want.”
Tylabahn made a crooked smile and leaned down. With her massive fist, she walloped Selene in the face.
The sky went black.
CHAPTER 22
Nath ran, leaving all the others behind except Rerry, who managed to keep pace with him for about two miles before he finally faded back. With the tall grasses and wildflowers licking his waist, Nath raced after Slivver, who led him from the sky. For a moment, he lost the silver dragon in the pouring rain, but he found him again once he entered the storm.
Slivver’s news had been dire. He’d come across the seeker dragon who’d found Selene. As Slivver understood the information conveyed by the little dragon, Selene and Sansla had been in a great fight with the nuurg, a host of wurmers, and another strange creature. Not wanting to risk being caught by the wurmers, the seeker had sought out Nath and Slivver as the battle raged.
Hang in there, Selene! Hang in there!
The details were vague, but based on what Nath had heard, it sounded like Selene and Sansla were severely outnumbered. That was the bad news. The good news was that they were close, only a few leagues away.
Sultans of Sulfur! If I could only fly! I would rather have my wings than my fire!
He ran with all his heart. Slivver sent the silver dragons ahead to give aid. Nath hoped they would be enough to fend off the wicked forces. He knew how formidable Selene and Sansla could be.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit i
f those nuurg got more than they bargained for. I wouldn’t want to tangle with either one of them, not again.
In lengthy strides, he rushed through the pouring rain, leaping small gulches and creeks. The running stint seemed to take forever. Finally, he followed Slivver up a steep hill that was slick with mud and pine needles. He lost his footing once, only to snag a branch and keep surging forward without slipping. The rain had died down to a drizzle, and a fog rolled in. Nath reached the top of the hill but had lost sight of Slivver. He stood in front of an abandoned outpost. He could smell fresh blood in the air. The stench of nuurg sweat too. On the ground were the massive hoof prints of wrath horns.
He placed his hand in a muddy print. There are so many.
Slivver called out for him. “In here, Nath.”
He made his way through the doorway. His jaw dropped. Nuurg soldiers lay dead on the ground. Their bodies were busted up and broken. A sword lay on the ground, bent. One nuurg had a chain wrapped around its neck. They weren’t alone. There was a handful of wurmers that had been sliced up with a sword. The only dead he saw were the enemy.
The four silver dragons were perched on the four parapets. Nath eyed Slivver, who milled about the dead like a man.
“The battle was long over when they arrived here, Nath. I’m sorry, but the enemy is gone.”
“The enemy is never gone.” Nath picked his way through the battle scene. His keen eyes absorbed all the details. He noted a spot on one of the walls that had a new crack in it. Something or someone as big as a nuurg must have hit it. There was a strange set of footprints too, different from the others. Plus, there were Selene’s, which he knew for certain by the size. He sniffed the air.
She was here. And fighting for her life.
Nath noticed another set of tracks moving away from the battle. A person or beast of some sort had crawled through the mud and grass and into one of the storehouses. Nath caught Slivver’s attention with a soft word in Dragonese. He pointed at the storehouse. Drawing Fang, he crept toward the facility. With Slivver following behind him, he stopped just outside the door frame. His nostrils flared. He didn’t catch the scent of anything. If it were a nuurg or something else, he would have known it. He put away his sword.
Judgment of the Dragon (Book 7 of 10): Dragon Fantasy Series (Tail of the Dragon) Page 7
