Deadly_The Odyssey of Nath Dragon

by Craig Halloran

Sigourney stood back on her feet with four elves right behind her. Her eyes burned like shimmering lightning. The elves’ eyes did as well. Like a woman possessed, she said, “Now you have angered me.” Her face turned ugly. It contorted, flexed, and pulsed, changing into some unknown monstrosity. A crown of waving tentacles came out of her hair. Her voice amplified a dozen times. “I’m going to rip you all apart one bit at a time!”

  CHAPTER 69

  “What in Nalzambor is that?” Nath said with awe. Sigourney continued to transform into a larger, hideous version of herself. Her clothing stretched and ripped. The skin on her face turned slimy. Nath’s stomach twisted into knots. The gorgeous woman had become some sort of abomination that looked like it had crawled out of some subterranean netherworld. Her skin was fleshy. Her hands became talons with three fingers and one thumb. Her eyes were large, slanted orbs, pulsating with power. As the tentacles on her head grew out like waving snakes, her head bulged. “Darkken? Maefon?”

  Darkken punched a goblin unconscious. He took up his sword. The moment his gaze fell on Sigourney, his jaw hung open. “That explains a lot.”

  Pushing off of her belly and onto her feet, Maefon said, “What are you talking about?” She got a good look at Sigourney. “Ew. I didn’t see that coming.”

  “Neither did I, but I should have.” Darkken stared at Sigourney with a wary eye. “You are awfully far out of your element, aren’t you, flayer?”

  “Flayer?” Nath asked. As he did so, the Caligin drew their swords. The goblins and gnolls stared at their grossly transformed leader with confusion in their eyes. They murmured with one another.

  “What’s a flayer?” Nath asked.

  “One of the greatest abominations to see the light of day. Creatures spawned in the depths of the Faalum Sea, the sailors say, while others believe them to be otherworldly.” Darkken crossed his sword in front of his chest. “They are not magic but beings that control the wills of others by thought. They are mind erasers. Will benders. Thought destroyers. Body possessors.”

  “So, Sigourney is possessed?” Nath said.

  “She probably didn’t even know it,” Darkken replied. “The flayers lurk unknowingly in a body, empowering them for their own desires, only to reveal themselves when needed. They are infiltrators, subtle, very much like the Caligin.”

  “You are very knowledgeable for a human.” Sigourney’s toes lifted off the catwalk. She floated several feet high. “I’m curious to understand how you know so much about my kind. We kill those who learn about us. Now it’s time to find out what you know, Darkken, and how you know it.” Her eyes brightened.

  Darkken dropped his sword, clutched his head, and cried out in pain. The hair on his head stood on end. “Get out of my head, star fiend!”

  A twisted smile came across Sigourney’s distorted face. With a triumphant voice that echoed in every living person’s thoughts, she said, “Hunters, poachers, and elves, kill the others while I peel open the mind of this one.”

  Nath and Maefon exchanged a quick glance. Maefon dove for Darkken’s sword, scooped it up, and bounced back to her feet. Nath grabbed the bow while snatching a handful of arrows out of a quiver. The tips on the arrows all glowed a different color. “Do you know what these tips do?” he asked.

  The goblins and gnolls, weapons in hand, encircled them.

  Gripping Darkken’s sword with two hands, she said, “I have no idea. Just shoot them!”

  A pack of goblins rushed Nath. He notched three arrows on the bowstring. The tips of the arrows burned blue, green, and red. He pulled back the string and fired into the rushing goblins. The green-tipped arrow punched right through one hunter after another, hitting the wall behind them. The red-tipped arrow sailed high, hitting the portcullis at the main gate. A thunderous explosion boomed. The wall shook. Wood and rock debris showered the courtyard.

  A sharp whistle cut through the air. The blue-tipped arrow moved through the bodies of the enemies in a stream of vibrant blue light. It passed through goblins and gnolls, penetrating armor, flesh, and bone. It curved through the air, cutting a circle of death through the ring of surging bodies. The goblins and gnolls fell down, clutching the holes that burned through their chests. Several of them, seeing the massacre of the magic missile, fled toward the smoking remains of the front gate. The arrow left almost a hundred dead poachers in its wake. It chased after those that fled on foot, zigzagging and popping through body after body. The goblins and gnolls bled out in a staggered line. Dead. The blue-tipped arrow vanished into the forest.

  Maefon looked at the ring of dead bodies surrounding them. “Good shot.”

  Suspended in the air above them, Sigourney and Darkken were interlocked in a tangle of limbs. A shield of golden energy surrounded them. The tentacles in Sigourney’s hair engulfed Darkken’s face. His arms and legs kicked and flailed.

  Nath snaked another arrow out of the quiver and fired at the flayer. The arrow skipped harmlessly off the globe of energy. He drew another and pulled the bowstring along his cheek. The tip of the arrow was fiery red.

  “Nath, look out!” Maefon shouted.

  A Caligin blindsided Nath with a side arm chop into his body. The blow derailed Nath’s aim. He released the string, sending the arrow streaking into the sky, missing the globe by a half dozen feet. Nath spun around the elf, shoving the attacker away. Now two Caligin flanked him. They carried a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Their fiery eyes were locked on him. One of the elves, with hair longer than the other, darted at Nath and slashed. Nath parried the blow. The sword cut deep into the hard ashwood that made up the bow. The elf kept hacking into it, taking chips out of the wood.

  “This is not working!” Nath said.

  The second elf, blades poised to kill, pounced right at him.

  CHAPTER 70

  With eyes shining like lightning, two Caligin attacked Maefon. She parried one sword and ducked underneath the swing of the other. Part of being a Caligin was being able to sell a good fight and make it look real. However, these Caligin were possessed by the flayer’s powers. Backpedaling in the heaps of the dead, she batted their attacks aside. The skilled fighters were quick, but their movements were mechanical. She looked for an opening with elven steel colliding in loud clashes and bangs.

  If I only had my power, I could end this right now!

  Something seized her by the leg. It was a goblin that had fallen to the arrow. It had survived. With yellow eyes full of pain and hatred, it jerked on her ankle. With a quick downward slice, Maefon cut the goblin’s hands off. She dashed over the piles of bodies away from her relentless attackers. Stealing a glance at the sky, she witnessed Darkken’s arms and legs spread eagle and shaking. Her heart quavered.

  What manner of monster can handle Darkken?

  The flayer clearly wasn’t anything that she’d even imagined before. Its powers of the mind were awesome. It controlled the wills of men and scrambled the sharpest minds. Its abilities were foreign to Maefon. Worst of all, it surprised Darkken. The unflappable man had been unseated. Now he appeared to be dying. In Maefon’s heart, she knew that this wasn’t a game. Darkken’s scream was the sound of something having its soul ripped out. He was suffering.

  Maefon parried a sword aside then released a counterattack. She thrust Scalpel into the meat of the elf’s exposed shoulder. The second elf made her pay, sticking a dagger into the back of her thigh. The elf raised its sword over its head. Maefon took one hand from her sword grip, yanked the dagger out of her thigh, and a split second before the sword descended, punched the blade into the attacker’s heart.

  The elf’s sword fell from his fingers. As the blade hit the ground, the elf with a nasty wound in the shoulder slashed at Maefon’s neck. She flicked Scalpel up. The blade, light in her hand, caught the heavy-handed blow. The dull back end of her sword cracked her in the forehead. Warm blood ran down her nose. The blood in her eyes sent a fire right through her. Taking Scalpel in both hands, she put her back into a mighty swing and u
nleashed it. The lengthy sword blade whistled through the air.

  The Caligin parried. Scalpel slipped past the blade and ripped into the elf’s flesh, cutting it clean through the abdomen.

  Sucking for breath, Maefon looked at the long-handled elven sword. “Thanks, Scalpel.” Limping over the dead, she added, “Let’s go help Nath.”

  CHAPTER 71

  The longer-haired elf chopped through Nath’s bow. Nath flung the bow and string at the shorter-haired elf rushing him. The elf chopped at the broken bow and string, but the busted bow tangled around his sword. Nath jumped away from his first attacker, searching for a weapon. Not seeing anything of use, he said, “I’ll just be my own weapon.” He stopped and faced off with his attackers.

  Both elves ran right at him. Two swords and two daggers were one step away from cutting him down. There was something labored about their movement. Nath dropped and rolled underneath the thrusting blades. He knocked the legs out from under one elf, and the other hopped over him. He grappled with the one on the ground. They rolled over the dirt, wrestling over the blades. Nath clamped his hands on the elf’s wrists. He was stronger, bigger, but the elf was no weakling. He twisted out of Nath’s grip, punched Nath in the jaw, and scrambled away.

  “No you don’t!” Nath dove for the elf’s legs, driving the elf down. The elf turned underneath him and stabbed hard into Nath’s belly with the dagger. The breastplate sent the elf’s weapon skidding aside. “Enough!” Nath punched the elf squarely in the jaw. The elf’s eyes rolled up inside his head. The rest of his body went limp.

  The scuff of soft footsteps caught Nath’s ear. He snatched up the fallen elf’s sword and turned. The longer-haired elf cocked back to thrust. A sword tip burst out of the front of the elf’s chest. The elf’s glowing eyes went out, and he fell dead on the ground.

  Maefon stood behind the elf with the blood-stained sword in hand. “Nath, are you well?”

  “I am.” He looked up. “It’s Darkken I’m worried about.” The globe of energy that encased Darkken and Sigourney had risen twenty feet high. Darkken’s face could no longer be seen. His upper body was covered by growing tentacles like slimy strands of hair. “It looks like that thing is eating him. We have to help him!”

  “I don’t know how to help him!” Maefon said.

  Eyes sweeping the fort, Nath looked for any weapon that could help. He saw the quiver on the ground, but there was no bow. He spied the yellow streak dragon hanging by the rope. “Cut that dragon down,” he said to Maefon. “I’m going after Fang.”

  Maefon nodded.

  Nath raced up the catwalk and stood by the throne. He noticed his small backpack lying underneath the throne. He grabbed it, reached inside, and found the Gauntlet of Goam. Stuffing his fingers into the leather, he watched Darkken’s body quake inside the globe. The tentacles were eating him. On the other side, underneath the catwalks, Maefon cut free the yellow streak dragon. Its tail whipped out, striking Maefon full in the chest. She fell back on her rear, clutching her chest. The dragon darted into the tunnels where the dungeons were and vanished.

  Nath went after Fang. He pulled the sword free from the wall. “Fang, see that thing up there? We have to kill it and save Darkken. Are you with me?”

  The steel of Fang’s blade hummed. With Darkken trapped in the globe just ten feet away, Nath backed against the wall. With only ten feet of runway, he sped forward, leapt off the edge, and shouted, “Dragon! Dragon!” He chopped hard at the bottom of the mystic bubble. Fang’s steel ricocheted off, and Nath landed feet first on the ground. Fang’s shining blade dimmed. Nothing happened to the globe. There was no scratch, slash, or dent. Darkken and the thought flayer slowly ascended.

  Holding her side, Maefon limped alongside Nath. “What are we going to do?”

  Slowly shaking his head, Nath replied, “I have no idea.”

  Tugging on Nath’s arm, she said, “Look.”

  The yellow streak dragon emerged out of the tunnels. The burlap sacks that held the fledglings were inside her mouth. She spread her wings, raced over the ground, jumped, and took flight. The dragon cleared the top wall of the fort. Without looking back, the yellow-scaled dragon disappeared over the forest.

  “At least you saved some dragons. Now all we have to do is save Darkken.” Maefon snapped her finger. “Grab that quiver. I know where another bow is. I left one on the ledge.” Maefon led the way back, limp-running, inside the tunnel and up the stairwell to the natural balcony on the hill. She picked up a bow that still lay there. “Something has to work. Let me see those arrows.”

  Nath pulled the arrows out of the black quiver. There were many colorful tips that glowed inside the arrowheads. Emerald green, citrine yellow, fiery red, orange, volcanic blue, and purple. She took out the red-tipped one. “Try this one,” she said. “I’m certain it explodes on impact.”

  “Why don’t you fire it?”

  “No, if something goes wrong, I don’t think I could live with myself.” She handed Nath the bow. “Please, do it for me?”

  Nath nodded and notched the arrow. Pulling the bowstring along his cheek, he took aim and fired. The red missile streaked through the air. It hit true to the mark. Darkken and the monster flayer shook inside the globe. The ball of energy quivered, blinking in and out. It began to slowly sink toward the ground. “It’s working. Ha ha! It’s working.”

  “Fire another one,” Maefon urged. She placed another arrow in Nath’s eager hand. He fired again. The explosion rocked the fort, but the orb held. “Impossible. It still stands.”

  Darkken’s hands came to life. The strong arms of the big man wrapped around the monster. Suddenly, black smoke filled the globe. Strands of coppery lightning spider-webbed all over the inside of the globe. Inside the smoke, the tentacles of the flayer batted around wildly.

  We have to get down there!” Maefon said. Together, she and Nath rushed back into the courtyard, jumping over the dead, and raced toward the center. A screeching blast wave of mental energy knocked them both flat on the ground.

  A loud, endless scream tore at Nath’s mind. He covered his ears, rolling over the dirt, yelling, “Make it stop! Make it stop!” Maefon curled up into the fetal position. He couldn’t even see her face. Her body shook like a leaf. Forcing himself to his hands and knees with the awful shrill sound tearing at his brain, Nath crawled toward the descending globe. Inside the ball, two forces battled like raging storms. The screaming became louder and louder. A coppery spiral of energy spun inside the black smoke. Two figures and countless tentacles thrashed back and forth. On trembling arms, Nath crawled on. The Gauntlet of Goam’s gem burned brightly, feeding new strength into his numb limbs. The globe touched ground right before Nath’s eyes. He leaned back on his knees, drew back, and hit it with all of his might.

  Ka-pow!

  The globe fell away. A bed of black smoke drifted over the courtyard like tar. Nath found himself buried underneath that blanket of smoke and flat on his back. The jarring screaming inside his head was gone. Teeth clacking together, he rose above the smoke. In the haze, he saw the strapping figure of a large man standing, stoop shouldered, with a woman in his arms. “Darkken!”

  CHAPTER 72

  By the time the smoke cleared, everyone was sitting in a circle with numb looks on their faces. Darkken had dried blood underneath his nostrils. His eyes were cracked and red. He twisted the rings on his fingers. Sigourney lay on the ground, breathing in hard, rapid breaths. Maefon had her knees to her chest, and the lone surviving Caligin who Nath had knocked out had been bound up but was sitting up and wide awake.

  Darkken spit. “I don’t know why, but my mouth tastes like metal. Perhaps that’s the result of a near-death experience.”

  Nath shrugged. “So, you killed that thing. How?”

  “I assure you, it’s dead, in flesh anyway.” Darkken squeezed his eyes shut and scratched the top of his head. “I learned something when it tried to pick apart my mind. The flayers have flesh and a spirit. It hosted in Sigourn
ey’s body, but when we threatened it, its physical body manifested through hers. And this isn’t magic, either. It’s an alien power. That was my mistake. I thought that medallion Sigourney wore was the source of her power. Instead, it was a darker power that resided within, and not even she knew it.”

  Maefon moved closer to Darkken and snaked her arms around his own. “I’m glad you survived. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Darkken touched heads with her. “Your quick thinking saved me. And your bravery too.”

  “But how did you kill it?” Nath asked. “I know you are a fine swordsman, but now you wield powerful magic too. Enough to kill that monster that could split our heads in two with its thoughts.”

  “You seem disappointed, Nath,” Darkken replied.

  “No, I’m confused. It’s just been an extreme turn of events. And you even knew what a flayer was.”

  “I was fortunate to identify what is was from my studies in the past. As for beating it, once I knew what my enemy was, I had a way to combat it.” Darkken sighed. “There’s three forces in this world. The mind, magic, and the flesh. The flayer attacked my mind, but I beat it with magic and flesh. But only because you intervened. Your attacks shook loose its concentration. That was the only way I could get a grip on the host body and unleash the magic I had left within. Perhaps I can teach you more about magic later, Nath. Being what you are, I think you would be very adept at it.”

  “Nath, we all live when we could have died,” Maefon said. “Why all of the suspicion?”

  “I just don’t like all of the lies and deception. It bothers me.”

  “He has risked his life for you! We all almost died saving your dragons, and some of our brothers did,” she said. “You are ungrat—”

  Darkken put a hand to her mouth. “Please, we are all we have left. Let’s not argue with one another. The reason I have not revealed my powers is, as I said, I didn’t want to tip off the Caligin. The less they know about our resources and powers, the better.” His eyes drifted over to the Caligin prisoner. “Speaking of which. We need to deal with this one. I bet he knows where Chazzan is.”