Elle stared at the person across the threshold. A fat little old man with an enormous stomach grinned at her behind his white whiskers. His mustache curled at the ends in two waked curlicue handlebars, a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles perched on his rosy round cheeks. This couldn’t be the wizard.
He looked like the closest thing to Santa Claus Elle ever saw, except he didn’t wear a red suit. He wore rough brown clothes with a length of hemp cord holding his pants up. He wore a tattered canvas waistcoat over his linen shirt, and rawhide boots laced up to his knees. He carried a long knife jammed into his belt, but from the doorway, it looked to Elle more like a skinning knife than any kind of weapon.
He beamed at her standing on his doorstep. “There you are. I was wondering when you would get here. Come right in. Tea’s on.”
He disappeared into the cottage and left the door standing open. Elle stared inside at the rustic furnishings. It looked exactly like a larger reproduction of Rufrout’s house, only much more comfortable and inviting. The only difference was a large shelf full of books against one wall and a rocking chair in front of the fire.
The old man puttered around the cottage doing this and that. He mixed something in a bowl on his work bench. When he finished, he turned a mass of white dough out on the board and kneaded it into a loaf. He put it in a pan and set it in the burning coals. He hummed to himself while he cleaned up the extra flour.
He cast a sharp glance at her over his spectacles. “Are you coming in or not?”
Elle stepped inside. What else could she do? She didn’t expect to be taking tea with this wizard—if that’s what he was. If he wasn’t as dangerous as everybody seemed to think, maybe he would be more inclined to tell her what she wanted to know.
“Take a seat,” he told her.
She sank into the rocker, all her resistance gone. She had to go through with this and find out where it all led. He took the tea kettle off the fire and poured the boiling water into two stone cups. He set one in front of her and cut a slice of cake onto a rough wooden plate. He set it in her hands and sat across from her on a wooden armchair.
Elle couldn’t stop staring at everything around her. What in the world was going on here? Was this the vicious, powerful mastermind Rufrout feared so much? Did the imps know all along Obus was a harmless old man drinking tea in his little house?
“Now then,” Obus declared after he swallowed a swig of his tea. “I know what you’ve come for. You’re here about that boy.”
Elle blinked. “Boy? What boy?”
“The younger brother. You’re here to find him. Am I right?”
She struggled through her confusion to understand what he was talking about. “Oh! You’re talking about Rob. Yes, I’m here to find him. Those things—the imps—they seemed to think you took him.”
“I don’t have him,” Obus replied. “The dragon’s got him. You can get him back, though. It won’t be hard.”
“Dragon! What dragon?”
“The dragon on the mountain. He’s caught that boy and he’s holding him captive on the mountain. You can get him back, though. You just have to make up your mind to go up there and get him. It’s as simple as that.”
“Wait a minute.” Elle shut her eyes against the onslaught. “Are you saying you didn’t have anything to do with taking him? Why would the imps say you did when you didn’t?”
“Oh, they’re always blaming me for everything that goes wrong in this forest,” Obus replied. “They probably wanted to roast you and eat you for their next feast. That’s the way they do it. If anybody comes into their territory, they drug them with ale and eat them.”
Elle’s mind spun. “They definitely tried to drug us, but they said they had to turn us over to you, that you would feed them to your pet monster. They said you captured Rob. They kept telling me how vicious and powerful and vindictive you were. I thought Rob must be dead or else I would have to fight you to get him back.”
Obus threw back his head and laughed to raise the roofbeams. His eyes danced, and his cheeks glowed bright red. “They’re always making up stories. They would say and do anything to stop anybody finding out what they’re really up to.”
“I can believe it.”
“Come on, lass. Eat your cake and drink your tea before it gets cold.”
Elle fixed her eyes on him. He called her lass. That name struck to her very guts. That was the name Robbie called her. It twisted inside her and woke forgotten emotions of connection and relationship she never had before.
Whatever else Obus was, he wasn’t the dangerous wizard Rufrout made him out to be. Elle started to trust him.
“Do you know Nerius?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. Nerius runs errands for me sometimes.”
“He told us you knew about the Phoenix Throne.”
Obus’s head shot up, and the happy twinkle vanished from his eyes. His face smoldered and flashed. “I know about the Phoenix Throne, and from the sound of it, so do you.”
“What do you know about it? Please tell me what you know.”
He set his plate on his knees. “You want to know about the Phoenix Throne? That boy and his brothers went to fight the witch. They had to defeat her and break the curse so the eldest could inherit the Throne.”
“Then it’s all true,” Elle sighed. “Everything he said about his brothers and Carmen and everything is true. They’re out there fighting somewhere, and he’s trying to get back to them.”
“Did you really think he would lie to you about that?” he asked.
“I should have trusted him,” she remarked. “I just couldn’t believe it, but I do now. Then it must also be true that Carmen and I and the others will go back to our own time when the curse lifts.”
Obus took another sip of his tea and murmured under his mustache.
Elle set her tea and cake aside. “I better go. I have to get back to the Throne to find the others.”
“There’s just one thing you have to think about,” he told her.
“What’s that?”
“You can’t free that boy from the dragon AND find your way back to the Throne. You have to choose.”
She spun around to face him. “I what?”
“You have to choose between freeing him from the dragon and finding your friends to return to your own time. You can’t do both. You probably think you’ll free him and then go with him to find your friends. Think about it. You could get killed fighting the dragon. You could fail to lift the curse. Anything could happen. You have to choose. What’s really more important to you? Do you want that boy, or do you want to go back where you belong? Granted, you might be able to do both. On the other hand, you might only be able to do one. Which is more important to you? If you can only accomplish one, which will you choose?”
She stared at him in horror, but she couldn’t deny the truth of what he said. If anything happened to her facing one of these challenges, she would never get around to the second. She had to decide which was more important to her.
She looked all around her without seeing anything. The wide world outside stretched before her mind’s eye. Robbie was in danger somewhere from some dragon that captured him. Far away, somewhere out of sight, her friends battled untold forces to reclaim the Phoenix Throne. That was the only way she could get back to her own home and her own time.
Which did she really want? How important was Robbie to her, anyway? If she didn’t free him, no one would. His brothers had no idea where he was. Elle’s friends didn’t know where she was, either, but at least they had some other people working to break this curse. What did Robbie have? Nothing. She was his only hope in the world.
She turned around to find Obus regarding her with his kind, deep eyes. He already knew what went on in her mind. His eyes told her he knew what she would choose.
“I’ll go find Rob,” she told him. “I’ll get him free from this dragon. Then we’ll focus on finding the Throne.”
Obus jumped out of his chair so fast he almost kno
cked over his tea. “Finding the Throne is easy. You just follow that line of peaks over there.” He pointed to a sharp outline of mountains lying purple and mysterious against the distant sky. “You follow those peaks, and it will lead you to the castle. You can’t go wrong.”
He put aside his plate and cup and busied himself around the cottage.
“You said finding the dragon and freeing Rob would be easy, too,” she pointed out. “You said that right before you said I might get killed doing it. Which is it?”
“It’s both,” he told her. “You could get killed crossing the street. You could get killed getting out of bed in the morning. Everything has its risks. You have to choose what you’re going to do, but that’s neither here nor there. You’re going to get that boy, so you’ll need a few things to take with you.”
“Like what?” she asked.
He didn’t answer right away. He rummaged around in his bookshelves until he pulled out a little cloth bag. He handed it to her. “You need this. It’s an amulet that robs the dragon of his power. That’s the dangerous part. You have to get close enough to the dragon to put this around its neck. Once you render the dragon powerless, you’ll be able to free the boy and take him away with you. That’s all you have to do. Nothing could be simpler.”
Elle opened the bag and drew out a smooth stone disk dangling from a thin leather cord. The cord ran through a hole bored sideways through the disk. The stone glowed deep green against her hand. It radiated power into her skin.
She looked up into Obus’s twinkling eyes. “Thank you.”
“Nothing to worry about,” he chirped. “I know you’ll find him. You’ll take him home to his people. I knew you would.”
“How do I find him?” she asked. “Do you know where the dragon lives?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Everybody knows where the dragon lives. He’s notorious. He lives in the smoking caldera at the top of that mountain.” He pointed to the same line of rocky pinnacles he indicated before.
Elle gazed up at the mountains. If Obus was right, she could get Robbie away from the dragon and then trek down the same mountain range to the castle. This might just work out.
The amulet sizzled in her hand. She glanced down at it and back up at Obus. He smiled at her in the kindliest way. He gave her everything she needed to continue this quest. All she needed was the strength and courage to see it through, and he couldn’t give her that. She had to find that within herself.
Chapter 10
Elle camped under the mountain. She lit a fire to warm herself and ate the few morsels Obus gave her for her journey. She finished them all in one meal. She would have to find some other way to feed herself on this trip.
She should have questioned Obus more about where to find game in these woods. She should have asked Robbie where he got that deer, although that wouldn’t help her now. She would have to spend tomorrow and maybe another few days hunting to get enough supplies to last her up in the mountains. She certainly wouldn’t find anything to eat up there.
She threw a few more sticks on the fire and leaned back against a tree to rest. She couldn’t see the mountain in the dark, but it hung there in space above her. It grumbled and groaned around its roots. Her destiny waited for her up there.
Why did this dragon capture Robbie? Had it already eaten him? Was Robbie suffering up there with every delay until Elle could free him?
She closed her eyes, but the mountain gave her no peace. She heard its guttural voice in her sleep. It growled and rumbled. The smoking caldera blasted stinking sulfur into the atmosphere to choke her. Did she really want to go near it?
Robbie compelled her to go. He was up there somewhere, and she didn’t want to go anywhere near the Phoenix Throne without him. What was the point of any of this if she had to face it alone?
She never really thought that way before. She never really cared about being alone until right now. He changed all that.
The amulet burned a hole in her pocket. How could she get near enough to a dragon to put something around its neck?
This was a Brer Rabbit moment. She could never defeat a dragon in an all-out fight, so she had to use trickery. She had to use flattery and guile to get close to the dragon. She might even have to use her body.
She didn’t care. She would use whatever means she could to accomplish her ends. She closed her eyes and imagined the dragon perched up there on the caldera. The smoke and lava kept it warm, and its scales scratched over the rocks when it slithered around.
For some reason, she didn’t see Robbie in her vision. He must be there somewhere. Maybe the dragon had him stashed in a hole somewhere.
She slept soundly, and when she woke to another morning alone, she didn’t give herself time to mull it over. She set off through the forest, but after a few hours of walking, she couldn’t ignore her hunger any longer. She had to find something to eat, and it better be something with a little extra she could take with her. This couldn’t continue, and she had a long journey ahead of her.
She kept moving, but she scanned the surroundings for any signs of life. Now that the sun shone through the thick mist, she saw more signs of animals, bugs, and birds. She moved into a part of the country with all the usual occupants, but no people.
She hiked almost all day before she found what she was looking for: a thin trail winding through the woods. Pellets dotted the ground at odd intervals, and toward evening, she spotted a cluster of deer in the distance.
She froze in her tracks. The animal in the very rear of the group turned its head to stare at her. Then they all bounded away into the dense forest, never to be seen again.
Elle stopped right there and didn’t take another step. She had to hunt them, but she didn’t have a weapon. She had a club and nothing else. She didn’t even have a pocket knife. She thought fast, but it didn’t take her long to decide what to do.
She couldn’t travel any further until she caught one of them. She wouldn’t be much good against the dragon on an empty stomach. Her hunger already drove her to insanity.
She set to work right away. She stowed her club under a nearby tree and selected a long straight pole from the forest. She ground the tip against a rock until she carved it into a sharp point. Then she climbed a tree above the deer’s path and settled herself into a crook of a branch to wait.
She steeled herself for a long wait, but she was in no hurry. Her hunger gave her icy cold determination. She wouldn’t take another step until she got herself some food supplies to replace the ones she took with her from the imps’ village.
Night fell a lot colder than it had in the mist. Stars sparkled in the frozen sky, and Elle huddled into a ball for warmth. The deer wouldn’t come out at night, but she would still be here in the early morning when they did come.
She closed her eyes and buried her head against her knees. The mountain, the dragon, the amulet—everything she had to do hovered before her eyes. It cast her into a dream. Inner tremors vibrated through the mountain’s insides. The caldera belched its hideous gases into her face. The dragon’s eyes sparkled deadly intent at her. Its rough hide scraped the rocks where its tail and belly dragged across the ground.
Whether she slept or not, she couldn’t tell. She jerked awake one time of many to find a glimmer of light peeking through the trees. She pried her gluey eyes open and forced herself to focus on the path below. She needed food, and in a few minutes, it would walk right past her on the trail below.
She waited for what seemed like hours. The sun rose against the mountain and filled the forest with birdsong and the click of distant insects. She started to doze off, but she dragged herself awake one more time.
A crack startled her almost out of her tree. She steadied herself and looked up to see the deer tiptoeing down the path toward her. She tightened her grip on her spear. Her heart thundered in her temples. This was it. All the survival skills she learned and practiced came to this moment. Could she do it? Could she really kill an animal for food?
> Her stomach screamed Yes! Her palms broke out in sweat, and she steadied her nerves for the final blow. She eased herself closer to the edge of the branch. She hung suspended right over the path.
The deer stopped to listen and look around. They swiveled their ears for any sound of danger. Could they hear her heart beating over their heads? She waited until the first big buck strode by underneath her. A few does came next, together with their fawns.
Elle spotted the deer she wanted in the very rear. He was a small buck, not as big as the others, but still big enough for Elle’s purpose. She tensed to spring. She would have one chance at this. If she missed, she would have to find a different deer trail to stake out. These deer would never return.
She waited until all the other deer moved off on their way. The little buck browsed right under the tree. He didn’t see her or hear her or smell her. He raised his head to look around. A fly landed on his ear, and he flicked it away.
Elle’s blood screamed in her veins. She had to strike now if she was going to do this. She leaned just a fraction of an inch farther out from the tree and plummeted like a stone. She hit the little deer with all her weight and knocked it to the ground. She recovered instantly, but so did the little buck. He flailed his head and lashed his sharp hooves to break free.
Elle pounced on him in animalistic fury. She threw herself on top of him and pinned him to the ground. She flung one leg over his shoulders and sat on him. She reared back and brandished her spear. She drove it into his neck with all her strength right behind his ear.
It pierced his skin and penetrated his muscles, but it missed the spinal cord. The deer screamed in terror, but he couldn’t escape the fatal blow. Elle seized him by the head. With a ferocious yank, she twisted his head around hard and broke his neck.
The deer’s body went into massive convulsions. Elle jumped clear. The deer thrashed and kicked, but it was all over. In a few moments, the tremors faded to twitching. The deer gave one more jerk and lay still.
Dragon Quest Page 6
