“It would be a waste of your breath anyway.” Ben wore a suit of armor made from links and plates of moorite. He held a folded-up Akron in his hand, and the quiver on his back was full. “I’m finally healed up from the last battle, years ago. I’m ready to fight again. Besides”—he petted the dragon on his shoulder—“this little dragon has put a spring in my step I lost years ago. My knees aren’t aching.”
“Mine are over five hundred years old, and they never ache,” Brenwar said.
“You wouldn’t know it if they did.”
“Dwarves don’t ache.”
“Of course not, Brenwar. Sheesh.” Ben unfolded Akron. Snap—clatch—snap. The string twirled up the bow and strung itself in the notches. “Ready when you are.”
Nath raced through his options. It was unlikely they would miraculously beat the horde back. There were too many. But that was only the first option. Perhaps they could fight them, use some surprise, and defeat them. The last option was to fall back into the mountain and fight the titan army within. To lead in as many as they could. Ideally, they’d retreat into the columns and spring the trap. The problem was whoever sprung the trap would be caved in as well. It was a sacrifice that had to be made—and most likely made by him.
“Mother, I want you to stay within the mountain. I hope you understand, but you will be more of a service within.”
She spoke to him, mind to mind. “I can guide you from here, Nath. I will be your eyes. It’s a shame the murals only take us far, far away. Otherwise, we could jump that titan from right here.” Her eyes glared at the titan, Isobahn. “I certainly would like to rip him into pieces. But I understand. I must protect the secrets of the murals.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Fight with the fury of fire and the speed of the sultans.”
Nath kissed Selene, hugged all of his friends, and departed the chamber. He climbed once more onto the back of the drolem. With help from Slivver, Brenwar scrambled onto the back of Nath’s bull dragon, Waark. “Just drop me off at the nearest giant. I can take it from there.”
The dragon army led by Nath marched to the top of the mountain, where a portal to the sky opened that was once concealed by magic. He crested the top of the mountain cap. There were dragons there by the dozens, guarding the spire from the wurmers that soared the skies at a distance. The dragons moved quickly behind him and onto the surface. The portal closed again. He said to the golden flares who guarded the spire entrance, “Wait for my signal.”
The wurmers locked eyes with the dragons. Snarls and roars erupted from the dragon army.
The wurmers attacked.
Nath let out his battle cry, “Dragon! Dragon!”
CHAPTER 29
The jaw of Carthage dropped open. Sansla strained against the viselike grip of the titan. Just as his entire body was about to be shoved into the gaping maw, the sharp swing of elven steel whistled through the air. Steel bit through the giant’s flesh and bone at the wrists on both sides. The fingers fell open. Sansla fell.
Hoven and Liam had sprung into action. The leathers and skins they wore were in tatters. They fought on against the screaming giant whose hands were turned to stumps.
“What are you waiting for, Sansla?” Hoven cried out just as he skewered a pair of wurmers and slung them away. “It’s time to kill these things! All of them!”
“I agree!” Liam said. It looked like part of his arm was torn off. “It was an awful fight getting back in here!” He batted one of the titan’s lunging hands aside and sprang away like a deer. His blade stabbed one of the other hands a few quick times.
“FOOOLS! You cannot defeat me!” Carthage said. “You are the mouse. I am the great cat! I strike!”
Two hands came together so fast and big, Hoven didn’t have time to jump aside. Hemmed in with nowhere to go when the hands smashed together, Hoven teetered on wobbling legs. The woozy elf’s sword dragged through the mist. He hefted the blade up for one final swing. The clumsy swing cut the air. Wurmers raced up his body, attaching themselves in all places.
Sansla dove under the bite of the queen wurmer and dashed for Hoven, scooping the elf up in his arms just before he took flight and slipped through the titan’s swings.
“Come back, little fly! I’ll dine on you yet!” Carthage chased after Sansla.
The savage wurmer queen followed, leaving Liam behind to fight off the smaller creatures.
Wings flapping and head scraping the ceiling, Sansla beckoned them on. “Come, Carthage! Scaly queen! Try to stop the Roamer King!”
Carthage and the wurmer queen hemmed him in with his back to a dead end in the cave. “Where will you go now, boastful one?” The titan’s ugly face showed a mouth of rotting teeth. “We have you now!”
“I’m right where I want to be, monster.” Behind the giants, he saw the banged-up and bloody Liam crawling out of the well. The elven roamer held a glowing life gem that pulsated in his hand. Wurmers attacked from all over.
Liam shouted. “I have the life gem, Sansla! Hurry!”
“You’re finished now, titan!” Sansla said. “The gem will be destroyed with the orb of destruction.” He slung the orb of destruction through Carthage’s reaching arms. The titan missed it by a stump. The wurmer queen snapped at it. The orb sailed in a perfect arc into Liam’s awaiting hands. “Ignite it, Liam! Ignite it now!”
“You’ll slay us all!” Carthage shouted with his faces drawn up in worry. “Don’t be a fool! We can bargain!”
“Death is the only guarantee for you!” Sansla said.
The wurmer queen and Carthage raced at Liam with the titan screaming, “Nooooooooooooo!”
Sansla lost sight of his friend behind the broad body of the titan. He saw the eyes on the back face of the giant widen. He dropped to the ground with Hoven still in his arms and punched through the wurmers into a cleft in the rock.
KAAAAABOOOOOOOOM!
***
Sansla woke with a painful ringing in his ears. The world around him was black. He coughed dust from his mouth. A heavy weight was on his back, and something softer was underneath him. He knew it was Hoven. There was a heartbeat too.
On all fours, he pushed upward. The rock and stone gave. He burst out of the grave, chucking huge hunks of stone aside. There was light above him coming from a hole made in the cave ceiling. The stars were out. A few roamers stood high above, around the rim. One of them waved his hand and called down, “King Sansla, are you well?”
“I move. Always a good thing.” He reached down and lifted Hoven from the rubble. Ragged breath came from the young roamer. The heartbeat was strong. He stirred in Sansla’s arms. Stone dust caked the blood on his face and ravaged body. “Save your energy.”
The remaining roamers climbed into what was now a sinkhole. Dead wurmers were strewn all over with their bodies blasted apart. The queen wurmer’s head was nowhere to be found. The body had been ripped apart. Acid-like ooze dripped from the body all over. Carthage’s body lay prone on the ground, charred hunks of flesh over a humongous skeleton.
The sea breeze whistled out of the massive sinkhole. Sansla snorted. It did little to carry the stench away. He meandered to the spot where he’d last seen Liam, hoping to get a glimpse of the brave roamer’s remains. There was no sign of the roamer. Nothing. Sansla sighed.
Aside from Sansla and Hoven, only four roamers were left, and they made their way down. Using their swords, they made quick work of any surviving eggs. Some wurmer spawn struggled long enough to find the edge of a blade.
Determined to find some evidence of Liam, Sansla began moving the rocks. A burial was important to all of the rangers that had fallen. He would honor that. There was some sticky goo on some of the rocks, the ick that coated the life gem. He squatted down, got his hands under the rock, and with a tremendous heave, he shoved it aside.
“Finally. I was beginning to think I’d be living my last days in this dark and gooey place.” Liam was neck deep in the goo of the well. “Sansla, if it’s not too much trouble, I could use
a hand. This goo is worse than quicksand. Not that I’ve ever been in quicksand. Well, there was one time, I was very young and tracking a bugbear.”
“You live!” Sansla reached down and ripped Liam out of the pit. “How?”
Slinging the muck off him, Liam said, “I stuck the orb and gem together and tossed them into the queen wurmer. Its mouth was so wide I was certain it required a treat. I thought it was over, but in the last moment, I jumped into the well full of goo. It protected me from the blast, but my head hurts. Not that I’m complaining.”
“Enough, enough, you’ve done well.” Sansla hugged him. “Your father will be proud. Let’s go find him.”
CHAPTER 30
Riding on the back of the drolem, Nath flew down the face of the mountain. Brenwar, on the back of Waark, flanked him with his grizzled beard billowing in the wind. Behind them, the dragons came in a silent sheet of brilliant colors. The wurmers that caught sight of them gave chase, shrieking a warning through the skies.
At the base of the mountain the titan army came to life. Eyes widened like saucers, they scrambled from their work stations and picked up arms.
Across the moat of lava, huge siege machines and weapons of destruction groaned. Ballistae mounted on tall giant-made towers fired steel bolts thicker than ten spears. The massive needles of metal ripped through the air. Several hit the mark. Dragons skipped down the mountainside with metal protruding from their hearts.
Catapults launched nets into the sky. One whistled over Nath’s head. “Brenwar, aim for the workers! Knock them away from the ballistae. I’m going right after Isobahn!”
Isobahn stood his ground, barking orders and commanding his troops. There wasn’t an ounce of worry in his eyes. If anything, there was victory. The titan expected the last desperate stand of the dragons. The look in his eye told Nath Isobahn thought they were playing right into his hands.
Think what you want. I’ll destroy you anyway!
Nath closed within one hundred yards. Fifty. Thirty.
Why is he smiling at me?
The titan vanished.
“Pull up, drolem!” Nath ordered. The metal dragon’s belly scraped the ground. He plowed into a wall of giants. “Attack!”
The drolem’s mouth opened, and white-hot flames came out. Two giants swinging wooden hammers caught fire and turned to ash. But where two of them fell, three more appeared. The drolem brought his spiked tail around. With a crash, the tail crushed the giant’s chest. From all directions the giants and oversized men, ogres, and orcs came. The drolem went right at them. Huge and merciless, the metal beast crushed the smaller ones beneath his talons. Flames shot from his mouth, setting the side of the mountain on fire. From his throat came a roar so frightful, many ogres covered their ears and dropped to their knees. The drolem was a wild thing. A mindless, savage machine of destruction.
Nath gripped a horn with one hand and swung Fang with the other. Any enemy that got too close, he slew. There was no holding back. This was life or death. Survival. He could kill with a clear conscience. An orc scrambled up the raging drolem’s back. Nath swung. The orc died in two pieces.
The drolem juggernaut ran roughshod through the work camp. For the most part, he did all the work. Nath took a moment, eyes searching for Isobahn. The titan was key to it all, but the titan had slipped away and vanished. Where are you hiding, titan?
There was no sign of Isobahn across the lava moat. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It set off alarms in Nath’s body. Using his thoughts, he called out to Grahleyna, “Mother, do you see Isobahn? I’ve lost him.”
“Nowhere. Nath, there are too many. You’ve only hit a small pocket. Check the skies. It’s day, but they blacken.”
“I know, Mother. I know.”
The dragons formed a wedge of destruction. Spitting flames, lightning, and strange fires, they flew in a single formation. They torched siege machines. Burned men. Scorched tents. A cry went up from the titan army as they scrambled to put one another out. The wedge took back to the sky, wings beating, and slammed into the flocks of wurmers. Balls of energy sizzled. Lightning streaked. Smoking bodies tumbled out of the sky. The dragons’ impact was devastating. They dropped out of the sky and soared over the ground army again, setting flesh and earth on fire.
“Yes!” Nath called out. “Be victorious!”
But as charged with energy as he was, uncertainty lurked within. It was hard to stop an army without killing the leader. The scales on his arms tingled. Isobahn was out there, ready to strike, but where?
He fought on, strike after strike. The drolem wrought more devastation.
The giants rallied. Their huge weapons pounded into the great metal body in loud bangs and clangs.
The drolem reared up on his hind legs. He unleashed a bolt of lightning. It smote a giant full in the chest, passed through it into another, and kept going from giant, to ogre, to orc, to man. They all fell with their chests smoldering. Nath cheered the drolem on. “Let them have it! Let them feel chaos!”
***
Brenwar rode on the back of Waark, howling a dwarven battle cheer. The bull dragon plowed into two giants at the same time. Fire erupted from Waark’s massive jaws, turning the giants into flames. The huge men fought on a few moments then crumpled like burning debris.
A giant swung a hammer into the side of Waark’s head. The next giant up ran a massive sword through the dragon’s wing. Taking no notice of Brenwar, the giants and dragon battled in a ferocious tussle of limbs and scales slamming together.
“Nobody ignores a dwarf!” Brenwar wound up Mortuun in a huge circle. “Nobody!” He flung the hammer at a giant that caught his eye, standing on the edge of the moat. The hammer sailed true and smote the chest of the giant with a clap of thunder.
BOOOOOM!
The giant pitched into the moat. The huge man screamed and splashed in the lava and finally sank into the steaming red murk.
Brenwar rushed to retrieve Mortuun.
An ogre carrying a spiked mace stepped into his path. “What’s the hurry, bearded pig?” The ogre slammed the mace down.
Brenwar dove to the side, rolled back to his feet, and tackled the ogre in the legs, yanking it to the ground. Using his flesh fist and his skeleton fist—and strengthened by the mystic bracers of power—he pummeled the ogre to death. Whap! Whap! Pow! Strong as a giant, Brenwar picked up the five-hundred-pound ogre and hurled it into the moat then marched over and picked up his hammer.
Ogres and giants paused their advances for a moment. All of their eyes were wary.
With the charge of battle coursing through his veins, Brenwar said, “What are you waiting for? Who wants to fight next?”
A giant in full plate armor stepped forward. He carried a hammer in each hand. His eyes glowed behind a great iron helm. He banged the hammer heads together. “I’m next, little dwarf. I’ll grind your bones into the dirt.”
Brenwar charged. “For Morgdon!”
CHAPTER 31
The fierce battle raged on. Back and forth the dragons and giants went. Fire and steel clashed. The skies flared with magic and rained drops of blood. Nath rode the drolem over every foe, crushing men and orcs beneath its feet. The ball on the end of the tail smashed rib cages and legs with devastating effect. The enemy fell in heaps, but more continued to swarm and gather.
Ogres carrying ballistae fired bolt after bolt at Nath. Most of them skipped off the drolem’s metal. He knocked one aside with Fang. Another he snatched out of the air and hurled into an ogre’s chest. It died and fell on two orcs.
The drolem reared up again, took several shots in his silver chest from the giants, and brought down another wave of fire. The burning giants fought on for moments before succumbing to the flames. Using his great horns, the drolem swept them aside.
“That’s it, drolem! You take the big ones, and I’ll take the not-so-big ones!”
“Nath,” Grahleyna said in his mind. “You need to return. There are too many. The dragons are depleting.”
/> The ranks of the dragon wedge flying through the sky had thinned. The regiment of dragons was now half the size that it had been. He saw more bodies than he could count, lying on the ground. A golden flare fell from the sky with mindless wurmers all over it. With his blood up, the last thing he wanted to do was stop fighting.
“Yes, Mother. We shall return.”
A monumental BOOM exploded from one of the mountain tunnels. Consecutive world-shaking booms followed. The titan army let out a cheer. Isobahn emerged from one of the tunnels and started waving the army inside. He yelled. “The mountain is breached! Fill its belly, brethren! Fill it with slaughter! Kill everything inside. The mountain is ours!”
“Mother, the army comes! Be ready!”
“Get inside, Nath! We need you here!”
“I’m coming!” He spied the army pouring over the stone bridge. We need to slow them down. Nath guided the drolem to the bridge. “Unleash the fire!”
The drolem let loose another geyser of flame. Some humanoids burned. Others were driven back. Nath searched for Brenwar. There was nothing but a knot of battle all around. He didn’t see Brenwar, but he saw Waark goring a beastly earth giant. “Waark,” Nath said in the bull dragon’s mind, “get Brenwar and get out of here! Take him back inside.”
Waark responded with a roar and a snap of his cedar-like tail that sent two ogres sailing off their feet and crashing hard into stone.
Between bursts of flame from the drolem’s mouth, the army continued to advance. Three giants, shoulder to shoulder, marched forward with shields as big as a small barn roof. Flames from the drolem engulfed the hard steel shield. The giants marched on, carrying long spears. They jabbed at the drolem. Their spear tips skipped off the metal.
“Ha!” Nath said. “Nothing can stop the drolem, fools!” Nath earnestly thought if given the time, he and the drolem alone could defeat the entire army. Nothing in the enemy’s arsenal slowed or hurt the drolem. The more the enemy attacked, the more dangerous the metal dragon became. “Show evil the same mercy it shows us, drolem. None!”
Wrath of the Dragon: (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 8) (Tail of the Dragon) Page 10
