Wrath of the Dragon
The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 8
By Craig Halloran
Wrath of the Dragon
Book #8
By Craig Halloran
Copyright © 2017 by Craig Halloran
Amazon Edition
TWO-TEN BOOK PRESS
P.O. Box 4215, Charleston, WV 25364
ISBN eBook: 978-1-941-208-96-0
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-941-208-97-7
www.craighalloran.com
Edited by Cherise Kelley
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Publisher's Note
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
MAP 1
Nath Dragon Logo
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES
OTHER BOOKS AND AUTHOR INFO
MAP 1
Nath Dragon Logo
CHAPTER 1
“Noooo!” Rerry screamed. His eyes were locked on the impaled form of his father with Selene’s dagger poking out of his chest. Blood dripped down her hand.
Bayzog’s violet eyes dimmed. His eyelids fluttered. Before his body sagged to the ground, Samaz caught him in his arms.
Sasha rushed over and helped Samaz lower Bayzog to the ground. His eyes were glassy. “Bayzog, my love, stay with me. Stay with us.” Her hands caressed his peaked face. Her head turned over her shoulder. “Someone get a healing potion!”
Brenwar stormed at Selene with Mortuun gripped in his hands. “I knew you were a traitor! Hold her fast, Sansla! I’m going to end this one.”
Sansla seized Selene in his powerful arms. The winged ape held her in a bear hug from behind. A grave expression ran through the wrinkles of his face. He said, “How could you? How dare you? Why?”
Ben’s stomach churned. His knees weakened. He staggered back into the cave wall.
Selene dropped the blood-wet dagger on the ground. She laughed. “The wound is fatal!” Her face filled with triumph and glee. “It’s delightful!”
Brenwar’s fist smote her in the belly, knocking the wind from her lungs. “There’ll be no laughing, witch!”
“Get a healing potion!” Sasha screamed.
Listless, Ben’s fingers found the healing potion in his belt pouch. He walked it over to Rerry’s awaiting hand.
Rerry put the potion to Bayzog’s lips. “Drink this, Father.” Tears streamed from the young part-elf’s eyes. “Please.”
Bayzog sputtered and spat. If he got any of the potion down, it was hard to tell.
“Just pour it on the wound,” Sasha ordered.
Rerry complied.
Selene huffed in Sansla’s vice-like grip. “It won’t do any good. That strike was the strike of death. See the glaze over his eyes? He is taken. Ooomph!” She doubled over beneath the power of Brenwar’s hard fist.
“You murderer!” Brenwar’s eyes were ablaze. He puffed the whiskers of his long moustache. “Your end will be just as swift! You’d better pray that he lives!”
“Why would I do that? I want him dead. I want you all dead.”
“No, Bayzog, no, no.” Sasha cradled her husband in her arms. She was hysterical. “You can’t die! You can’t die like this!”
Looking into Sasha’s eyes and taking his sons’ and her hands in his, Bayzog’s last words were, “Be strong. Be faithful. Where this life ends, another begins.” Bayzog expired.
Rerry sat on his knees with his hands covering his face, crying.
Samaz remained by his brother’s side, stark, sad, and silent.
Sasha’s sobs echoed in the cave as she clutched Bayzog to her chest. “Why?” she whispered. “Why did you do this, Selene? He was your friend.”
“None of you are my friends. All of you are fools. I delight in your misery. I always have.” Selene tossed her head back. “Besides, Bayzog only bought you time. Without him, your doom is inevitable.”
“Your doom is inevitable,” Brenwar said, poised to strike her with Mortuun.
“I hardly think so. Look around you. Not here, per se, but outside. The wurmers will come. The titans and the giants will come. They know you’re here. Nothing but death awaits all of you out there.” Selene’s sneer grew. “I’ll enjoy seeing you all devoured.”
“How could you do this?” Ben yelled in her face. “Dragon and I risked everything to save you, and this is how you repay us!” He was mortified. His skin was clammy and cold. He hadn’t seen this coming. No one could have. The entire event was bizarre. “I thought you were one of us.”
“I stand with the true victor. I always do, once I see the handwriting on the wall. You see, this is your problem, all of you so-called heroes. You think you can do anything, but at what price?” She stuck out her chin at Brenwar. “Death. Your pitiful little band has reached its limit in the department of good fortune. How long did you think you could slip bad fortune’s grasp, forever? Hah! If anything, I did Bayzog a favor. I ended his prolonged misery of a life on Nalzambor.”
Rerry jumped to his feet and pointed at Selene. “You won’t fare any better! You’re a murderer! What you’ll face will be far worse than death!”
“I’ll take my chances,” she said.
The cave quieted. The dirt walls closed in. Ben struggled to breathe. He couldn’t make heads or tails of what Selene had done. The titans had tortured her, and now she was siding with them. This is madness! With watery eyes, he walked up to her. “How could you do this to Nath after he gave up all of his powers for you? No one can be that sick!”
“You’d be surprised what one can do in the interest of self-preservation. None of you are any different.” She glared at Sasha. “You’ll wish that you shared a grave with him before it’s all over. Of course, once you are truly pressed by the likes of Eckubahn and his forces, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if all of you switched sides. Narmum is full of people not so much different than all of you, who caved to Eckubahn quicker than they caved to me.”
“Speak for yourself, not me!” Brenwar said.
“Not any of us, you black-scaled fiend!”
“You’re such a stupid dwarf.” She looked away from Brenwar. “And your stupidity has worn off on the others.”
Brenwar turned to his comrades. “Listen to me, all of you. We witnessed this black heart committing murder.” He spun his war hammer in his hand, revealing the bladed side. “I’ll deliver the execution myself. There is honor in it, both dwarven and elven. But we cannot let Selene live a moment longer. It’s too dangerous.”
Selene chuckled. “You won’t kill me. You’re too noble. And what would Nath say? Do you think he would approve of you killing me?”
Glaring at Selene with hot eyes, Sasha said, “I know he would. You have my support, Brenwar.”
“Mine too,” Rerry said.
Samaz nodded.
Ben stepped away from the wall. “None of us can speak for Dragon, but he’s not here. So what he thinks doesn’t matter. She’s too dangerous to keep alive. Execute her.”
Brenwar looked up at Sansla Libor.
The winged-ape said, “As the king of the roamers, I concur.”
Selene’s eyes popped wide open. “But…”
CHAPTER 2
“I don’t expect anyone to watch,” Brenwar said as he thumbed the edge of the war hammer’s back blade with his skeleton thumb, “but what must be done, must be done. Sansla, hold her fast.”
“You’re really going to go through with this!” Selene gasped. “I almost admire you, dwarf. You aren’t as feeble as I presumed you to be. I’m shocked you’re willing to kill a woman.”
“You aren’t a woman. You’re a monster.”
Selene struggled inside the grip of Sansla’s mighty arms. She kicked her heels back into his shins. “Let go of me!”
Sansla lifted her off the ground. He squeezed harder.
Selene’s eyes bulged. “Gah!”
Brenwar brought the edge of Mortuun to her neck. “Any last words, Selene?”
Selene’s violet eyes turned black. Her lips curled. “You are fools! Every last one of you! I cannot die! I never could!” The black scales on her neck pulsed and stretched. She flexed her arms.
“She’s getting stronger, Brenwar,” Sansla said. The powerful ape’s joints cracked. “Make it quick!”
Selene’s body lurched and convulsed. Grew. With her feet now touching the ground, her toes dug into the dirt like claws. Her shoulders widened until she reached Sansla’s own great girth. She let out a shrill cackle as her black hair spread out over her shoulders in a rich shade of gray. Breaking free of Sansla’s grasp, she hip-tossed the winged-ape over her shoulder.
Brenwar dove out of Sansla’s path. Lifting his beard off the dirt, he yelled, “Stop that thing!”
Selene transformed into a towering hag. With a swipe of her long, powerful arm, she knocked Ben into the wall. “I’m not toying with you little wretches any longer!”
Coming to his feet, Brenwar growled, “Who in Nalzambor are you?”
“It’s Tylabahn!” Sansla replied. “I knew something didn’t smell right.”
Rerry burst in front of Tylabahn and stabbed her in the chest with his sword. “Vengeance for my father!”
Tylabahn staggered back. Gripping the sword buried in her chest, she said with dramatic flair, “Oh, you got me!” With the back of her hand on her forehead, she swooned and dropped to a knee. “I’m dying, I’m dying! My strength flees me. The light grows dark within.”
“Good,” Rerry said as the room fell quiet.
“I confess, I’m, I’m so sorry for what I did. Eckubahn made me do it. I had no choice in the matter. I never wanted to be evil. Really.” Tylabahn sagged a little farther. “This elven steel in my chest burns me. My heart fails.” Slowly she pulled the sword from her chest. It was a small thing, more like a wand, in her hand. She tossed it at Rerry’s feet. “Take it, brave young elf. You will need that special blade to vanquish Eckubahn. It’s the only way.”
Rerry’s head tilted. “Huh?” He glanced back at the others.
Seeing a dangerous flicker in Tylabahn’s eyes, Brenwar said, “Rerry, watch out!”
Striking fast, Tylabahn’s clawed fingertips ripped through Rerry’s back and spun him completely around. The part-elf hit the deck screaming, “It burns! It burns!”
Brenwar and Sansla sprang into action. The pair of men stormed Tylabahn with hammer and fist swinging. A strike from Mortuun sent Tylabahn sailing out of the mouth of the cave. Her body bounced over the ground and smacked into a tree.
She rose to her feet, clutching her side with one hand. “Is that the best that you can do?”
Sansla flew into her face fists first, rocking her jaw.
She let out a howl. Now out of the cave, her body expanded even farther. The trees became saplings beside her. Standing at twenty feet, the all-powerful titan hag scooped Brenwar up with one hand and smashed him into the ground.
“Brenwar!” Sansla called out. He pounced onto the titan’s neck and put her in a choke hold.
She lurched back, gagging.
Brenwar pushed up and spat the grit from his mouth. “Dirt never tasted so good.” Hammer in hand, he charged, unleashing a deadly strike to her knee.
Whack!
Tylabahn let out a furious howl. She grabbed ahold of Sansla. “Get off me, you furry tick!” She flung him into the treetops.
Brenwar hammered her in the belly. A second sharp blow from Mortuun cracked her in the face.
She stumbled backward. Eyeing Brenwar, she scowled. “I’ll have you skinned alive, you little bearded pig.”
“Nobody skins a dwarf!” He charged.
Tylabahn fled on foot, swift as a giant stag. Birds burst from the treetops at the sound of the shrieking wail she made as she disappeared out of sight.
Sansla hopped down out of the tree. “I can go after her.”
“No.” Brenwar eyed the sky. Through the tree limbs he spied large flying creatures high above. “Wurmers. She’s alerted every last one of them. We need to get out of here.”
Ben and Rerry were standing in the mouth of the cave, grimacing.
Eyes squinted, Ben said, “So you scared her off?”
“Only to scare up other things. We need to get out of this forest before it’s too late.”
Ben held Akron in hand. He nocked an arrow. “I’m more than prepared to make my final stand. In a way, I’m just relieved that wasn’t Selene. Which means she and Nath are still inside that city somewhere. I failed. I was supposed to bring back at least one of them, and I lost both of them.”
“If you want to sulk, go sulk somewhere else,” Brenwar said.
“I wasn’t sulking. I’m mad at myself. Can’t I be mad at myself? Aren’t you always mad at yourself?”
“No, I’m a cauldron of joy inside.” Brenwar turned at the sound of huge bodies crashing through the branches.
Several wurmers landed. With fierce glowing eyes the wurmers scurried straight for them.
Brenwar squeezed Mortuun. “It’s time to dance.”
CHAPTER 3
Wurmer after wurmer crashed through the branches like a plague of giant insects. Sansla snatched up a pair of wurmers by the necks. He crushed their heads together. Beside him, Brenwar was up to his beard in them.
Ben fired moorite arrows into them, one by one. The first shaft zinged through the hearts of two of them. “Top that, Brenwar!”
Grunting, Brenwar replied, “Nobody tops a dwarf!” With the flat of his hammer, he pulverized a wurmer’s skull. With a backspin of Mortuun, he broke the back of another. The foul creatures writhed like worms. Brenwar stopped them. “I hate these things as much as the giants!”
Many wurmers spat glowing fireballs at them. The spitballs singed the fur on Sansla and burnt Brenwar’s beard. At the mouth of the cave, the bold men and Rerry fought them off with deadly swings.
Rerry’s elven blade that was once Scar’s sheared through the hard scales of the wurmers like wheat. Gutted open, their acidy innards spilled and bubbled on the
ground. The brave part-elf had smoking flecks all over him. “And I hate these creatures more than I hate orcs!” He hacked a small wurmer in two with a double-handed chop. “And titans!” He cut again. “And Tylabahn!” He swung away. “I will avenge my father!”
The wurmers continued to fill the forest like falling leaves.
Ree-rah! Ree-rah! Ree-rah!
The hollow, disorienting sound was deafening.
Sasha’s voice cut through the horror. “There are too many, Brenwar! We must flee!”
“There’s nowhere to go except fight!” Covered in burning wurmer grit and busted scales, Brenwar pounded away. “If we all go to the grave today, so be it. I’m certain that Bayzog misses my company!”
Sasha’s amulet glowed with a radiant pink fire that shimmered like rose blossoms. It traveled down her arms and rose on both of her hands. Her eyes glowed white-hot. She marched into the throng where flesh met scales, metal, and meat.
“Get back in the cave, Sasha,” Brenwar ordered. “Find a way out of here for us, if there is one to be had.”
“NO!” Her voice was amplified. The amulet hanging around her neck became a beacon of angry starlight. “I am angry! They will feel it!” A blast of power burst from her hand. The burst tore a hole clear through the wurmer ranks. She then unleashed one ray of power after another. Wurmer wings were singed and blasted apart. Scales flaked from their bodies. Holes of light were punched clear through them.
“Yes, Mother! You’re doing it! Have at them!”
Brenwar blinked for a moment, as a path cleared. The wurmers fell under Sasha’s power in heaps. “You’ve got an awful lot of fight in you, lady.”
“I’ve been saving up!” She hit the next landing wave of wurmers. Some of them burned. The trees caught fire. Smoke filled the air. Tears streamed down Sasha’s angry face. “Burn, demons! Burn!” The rosy-pink flames firing from her fingertips ripped through the scaled masses. And then as suddenly as Sasha’s fire had started, it went out. Her shoulders sagged. Her body swayed.
Wrath of the Dragon: (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 8) (Tail of the Dragon) Page 1
