Strife In The Sky (Book 7)

by Craig Halloran

  He’s bearded iron.

  Brenwar had stayed by his side during his best and worst days. Stalwart. Loyal. Nath had been with him so long, he’d taken his friend for granted. Had Brenwar ever taken him for granted? He couldn’t remember the dwarf ever doing so. There were times he wished he could be more like Brenwar. “Dwarves do what must be done.” Nath never understood why he couldn’t live by that motto. It might have put an end to all the orcs, if he had.

  Ah Father, it’s so hard to tell when I’m right and when I’m wrong sometimes. I guess that’s why Brenwar is here. To remind me. He rubbed Fang’s pommel. And you too. Make sure I get it right.

  CHAPTER 11

  The bugbear slung the axe over his head.

  Gorlee’s thoughts raced.

  They’re really going to cut off my hands! No! I can’t let that happen!

  The axe crested.

  Instinct took over. His body shrank and shifted.

  The axe came down in a flash.

  He jerked his wrists out of the shackles.

  Chok!

  The axe stuck into the block of wood.

  A collective gasp followed.

  Gorlee twisted from his aggressors and slipped his feet from his shackles. Gasps and exclamations followed.

  “What is this treachery!” the triant yelled. “Where is he?”

  Gorlee, smaller than a child, dove between the legs of one man and darted through another’s.

  “There he is!”

  “He shrunk!”

  “Get him!”

  “Kill him!”

  Dirty fingers clutched at him. Jabbed and poked at him. The frenzied throng piled on top of him, shouting and encouraging one another.

  “I’ve got him!”

  “No! I’ve got him!”

  Gorlee kept changing. Squirming. Growing.

  Figure this one out, you smelly warthogs!

  “I lost him!” Gorlee said. “I lost him! There he is!” He grabbed someone by the leg and pulled them down. “That’s not him!”

  Others murmured and groaned.

  “Where did he go!”

  “He’s gone!”

  One by one, the pile of the doomed people stood up and looked around. Their dirty faces were blank and confused. Gorlee stood among them, a lizardman now.

  The triant eyed each and every one of them. His face was confused and angry. He snatched Gorlee’s shackles and banged them on the floor.

  “Search this place! Every cave! Every tunnel!”

  All the prisoners scurried. Gorlee played along.

  It worked! At least for now it did.

  He followed the others and assisted in the search. Tunnels led up and down the catacombs. New faces turned up. Old dead ones too. There were tombs and bones. Many dark and unknown places. For hours they searched, but with every passing hour, Gorlee’s belly felt worse.

  What did that woman feed me?

  He found an abandoned cave that they’d searched earlier, crawled inside, and lay down. I just need to rest. His belly moaned, and his eyes became very heavy. Rest for a little while. He shifted his skin into a rocky form, yawned, and fell fast asleep.

  ***

  “Wake up!”

  Gorlee blinked his eyes.

  “Wake up!”

  He sat up straight.

  He was back in the large chamber, surrounded. The triant stood nearby with his arms crossed over his chest in triumph. Gorlee’s shackles were draped over his thick neck.

  “Did you enjoy your nap?”

  Gorlee rubbed his blurry eyes. He felt like he’d slept for over a week. And he didn’t feel right.

  “I could have used a little more time,” he said, gathering his feet under him. “What did you wake me for, anyway? Is it dinner time?” He eyed the crowd. The bugbear with the axe wasn’t around. That’s a good thing.

  “You’ve been either hiding or sleeping for days. We just found you, now that you turned.”

  Gorlee checked his arms. The dragon scales were gone. His skin showed: a hairless soft pink with tiny little scales like a lizard. Great Guzan! I’m me!

  “What are you?” the triant demanded.

  Did he say days? I’ve been asleep that long? And I turned?

  “I’m a triant,” Gorlee said. “I’m just not all brawny and big.”

  The triant stormed forward and flicked him in the head.

  Gorlee’s head rocked back.

  “I’ve had quite enough of your humor,” Bletver the triant said. “Now tell me what you are.”

  Gorlee eyed the mithril chains around Bletver’s saggy neck.

  “I said I’m a triant!” Gorlee yelled. He felt better. Whatever he’d eaten had passed. His belly no longer moaned, and he felt good, despite being a little hungry.

  The crowd made angry howls. He could feel them wanting to tear him apart.

  “Don’t believe me? I’ll show you!” Gorlee summoned his power. He started to grow and transform. Seconds later, he stood eye to eye with Bletver the triant. He was an exact duplicate of the monster. “Now do you realize how ugly you are?”

  Bletver gawped and stepped back.

  “How did you—”

  Gorlee drew back and punched Bletver in the face.

  Pop!

  Bletver’s head rocked back, and he fell to the cavern floor. He got up and snarled.

  “You dare!”

  “I do!”

  Bletver lowered his shoulder and charged.

  Gorlee caught the full force of the triant, and the two rolled around wrestling, punching, and kicking.

  The crowd of prisoners urged the two triants on.

  Bletver punched him in the belly and slugged him in the jaw.

  Gorlee drove an elbow into Bletver’s ribs, stood, and flipped the triant over his shoulder.

  It had been a long time since Gorlee was in a fight, but he knew plenty of moves. He side-stepped a punch and then countered.

  Crack!

  Bletver’s body shook. The triant’s strength was great, his endurance endless. Fires stoked behind Bletver’s beady eyes.

  “You think you can take me?” Bletver retorted. He closed in. His great arms flailed like hammers.

  Whop! Pow! Crack! Boom!

  Gorlee felt every bit of it and staggered around the floor.

  “You are no fighter!” Bletver said, throwing a haymaker.

  Gorlee blocked it with his arms and winced.

  “You are a hopeless imitator.”

  Wham! Wham! Wham!

  Gorlee dropped to a knee. The prisoners went wild. His chest heaved, and drops of sweat splattered on the ground. His chin dipped down in his chest. This fighting is exhausting. He huffed. I’m tired.

  “Don’t you know that the only way to stop a triant is to kill it?” Bletver said, gloating over Gorlee. “I’m putting a stop to you, Imitator.” He raised both fists over his head and brought them down with all his might.

  Gorlee’s hands shot up and caught Bletver’s wrists.

  “Still have some fight in you, I see,” the triant said, leering down at him. He drove his foot into Gorlee’s gut.

  “Oooof!”

  A second later, Bletver was on Gorlee’s back, wrapping the mithril chains around his neck.

  Gorlee was choking. He tugged at the chains.

  No! No! I’m not going to die like this!

  Bletver heaved on the chains.

  The prisoners went into a frenzy.

  Gorlee’s eyes bulged out of their sockets. He strained against his bonds.

  Enough of this!

  He summoned all of his power.

  “Eh!” Bletver cried out. “What’s this?”

  Gorlee’s body popped, cracked, and grew even bigger. His head almost hit the top of the cavern, and he slung Bletver off his back like a child. Twenty feet high he stood, and he was mad. Mad at the stink. Mad at the filth. But mostly he was mad at Bletver.

  Bletver raised his arms up and said, “Surely we can talk about this? Can�
��t we?”

  Gorlee raised his foot and stomped it down on Bletver.

  “NO!”

  He picked him up and threw him into walls. Grabbed him again and stuffed him in a cave that was one size too small. Then Gorlee turned to the stunned crowd and said, “Anyone else want to tangle?”

  They scattered like water off cats, leaving Gorlee alone in the great chamber. He nodded.

  That felt good. The snap of his fingers sounded like a clap of thunder. I have an idea.

  He left the chamber, headed back down the stairs, and followed the great tunnel below the well. He could see a faint light a thousand feet up. He peered around.

  No phantom at the moment.

  He hopped up into the tunnel with his enormous body and started to shimmy toward the top. Halfway up, darkness fell from above, and he found himself face to face with the phantom. He kept going anyway.

  CHAPTER 12

  Rerry frowned at his brother, and his brother frowned back.

  “Please,” Sasha said, taking each by the arm, “can’t the pair of you get along? For your mother? You’ll ruin the mood of such a pretty day.”

  They walked through Quintuklen. The streets were busy, the faces and voices filled with tension and worry. Sasha tried to ignore the dire comments, but it wasn’t easy. It was part of the reason she stayed inside so much.

  “It’s not me, Mother. It’s Toad Face over there,” Rerry said. “He makes sunny days seem like rainy ones.”

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Sasha said. “He’s just quiet is all, and there is nothing wrong with that.” She squeezed Rerry’s brother’s arm. “Nothing at all, Samaz.”

  The part-elven boy beside her had his head downcast. He was meaty and round-faced like a butcher’s boy. He wore heavy olive-green robes that dragged on the ground, and his thick fingers were locked together. His eyes were deep and spacy, but he still looked a little elven. Sweat dripped on his brow.

  “It’s hot,” Samaz said.

  “You need fresh air,” Sasha said. She reached up and stroked the thin brown hair on his head and gave it a tussle. “You work too much.”

  Samaz didn’t reply, staying intent on putting one foot in front of the other. Samaz was a quiet and peaceful boy, while Rerry was a spry as a pixlyn.

  “Mother,” Rerry said, “just let him go home and study his scrolls. He’ll be exhausted before we make the wall to Quintuklen.

  “No I won’t,” Samaz said, coming to a stop. “I just don’t want to go.”

  “Why is that?” Rerry said with a flare of drama. “Are you afraid a dragon might get you?”

  “Enough of that, Rerry,” Sasha said. Rerry, the younger, always wanted to pick a fight with his older brother, but Samaz never took the bait. Over the years, Rerry had always resented him for it, not so much because he was mad, but because he never had a brother to play with. “Your brother is your brother, and you are what you are. He can’t change what he is.”

  “He could show some courtesy. I do the same for him.”

  “Yes,” Samaz said.

  “Yes what, you talking toad stool,” Rerry said.

  “Rerry!” Sasha exclaimed. “Stop with the insults.”

  “It’s just a little one.”

  Sasha pinched his arm.

  “Ouch!” Rerry said, wincing. “Mother?”

  “I warned you,” she said, eyeing him.

  “See what you made Mother do, Samaz?”

  “Rerry, don’t be incorrigible,” she said, trying to pinch him again.

  Rerry slipped away and said, “Alright. I’m sorry, Mother.”

  “Good,” she said, turning her attention back to Samaz. “Yes to what, Samaz?”

  “Yes,” Samaz said, looking up into her eyes. “I am afraid that a dragon might get you.”

  Goosebumps raised on her arms.

  “No dragon is going to get you, Mother. Not when I’m around,” Rerry said, scanning the skies. “Samaz, you should know better than to say that.”

  “Why do you say that, Samaz?” Sasha said, barely able to contain her breath. “Did you have a dream? A vision?”

  “No,” Samaz said, staring up into the sky. “Just a really bad feeling.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Nath cut through the forest like a black stag. He’d spent the last several days scouting ahead for his friends. He could feel every creature. Small critters. Bears. The birds nested on high. He could sense their fear. They were as troubled as he was.

  He padded through a clearing, pushed through a thicket, and nearly slipped down the side of a cliff. The valley below him was deep, green treetops mile after mile with rippling rivers flowing right through them like blue-green snakes, weaving around the bends. He traced the river to where it disappeared. Something else caught his eye.

  “I’ll be,” he said, putting his clawed hands on his hips. “Didn’t think I’d ever notice natural beauty again. It’s something.” He took a moment to take it all in. The bright sun and wispy clouds made for quite a setting over the lush valley. It was so big and peaceful, it was hard to believe that war had taken over the land at all.

  Ben burst through the brush and barreled toward the ledge.

  “Whoa!” he said, arms flailing like windmills.

  Nath snatched him by the arm and gently pulled him back.

  “Careful,” he said.

  Ben huffed and dashed the sweat from his eyes.

  “You sure are something to keep up with,” Ben said, with his hands on his knees. “You move like a ghost. But I kept up with you. Whew!”

  “I let you keep up with me,” Nath said, “but you did well, considering.”

  “Considering what?” Ben said, rolling his big shoulders and stretching his back.

  “Do I really need to answer that?” Nath said.

  “Well, I still did better than most men ever could … have …” Ben’s eyes fixed on the enormous object that hung in the sky. “Is that …?”

  “A city? Yes. Yes Ben, that’s a city.”

  “But, it floats?”

  “Why do you think they call it the Floating City?”

  “I just figured it was some sort of expression. I didn’t really think it’d be floating.” He squinted his eyes and shuffled back a little. “But it does. How’s that possible?”

  “Magic. Lots of magic.”

  The city floated in the air like a cloud atop a rocky moon. Below the rock, bright blue shards of crystal glowed with brilliant life. Nath could count hundreds of rocks suspended in the air, some small and some huge, but only one hosted a city.

  “And we are to go there?” Ben asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “And how do we get up there?”

  Even miles away, Nath’s keen sight could make out catwalks and bridges that went from rock to rock once you got to the city, but there was no answer how to get up. He shrugged.

  “We’ll let Bayzog think of something.”

  “Do people live there?” Ben said, rubbing the whiskers on his rugged chin.

  “They did once, but that was long ago. Long before my time.”

  “What happened?”

  “It’s cursed,” Nath said, “Abandoned.”

  “Haunted?”

  “I don’t know about that, but it’s foul, they say.”

  “There looks to be some life. Look at those birds flying from the spires,” Ben said.

  “Those aren’t birds,” Nath said, gazing their way, “those are dragons.”

  “Dragons? So many? Are you sure?”

  Nath eyed him.

  “I don’t think we should venture where so many dragons are about. They’ll find us for certain.”

  “I’m not worried about those dragons,” Nath said. “Those are small ones. They roost. They sleep. There are ways around the dragons. It won’t be a problem.”

  “If you say so.”

  A dragon roar echoed down the valley.

  Ben looked at Nath. “That didn’t sound so small.” He peered over the edge, into th
e valley.

  Nath did the same.

  A red-orange dragon glided over the river. With a beat of its great wings, it soared upward into the sky.

  Ben gulped and hunkered down. His eyes enlarged when another dragon burst through the clouds and crashed into the other. The titans roared and clashed, filling the valley with thunder. The great monsters spit fire and clawed at one another.

  “Are they fighting?”

  “No, they’re sparring. Dragons do that, too. Hone their battle skills. Test one another.”

  Shards of fire scattered in the sky and drizzled toward the ground.

  “What kind are they?” Ben asked.

  “Bull dragons.”

  “They seem awfully big. Are they a problem?”

  Nath looked down at him and nodded.

  “They’re a problem times ten.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Bayzog got off his horse and let it drink from the river. All the others in the company did the same. Hours earlier, Nath and Ben had come back to share what they had discovered. When he found out the Floating City hosted dragons, his stomach had sunk into his toes.

  “Do you really think it’s that bad?” Nath said ironically, wading into the waters. He scooped up a drink. “What’s a few dozen dragons? … Including a couple of bulls.”

  Bayzog slumped on the Elderwood Staff.

  I feel old. I should not, but I do. He rubbed the pendant under his robes.

  “You miss her, don’t you?” Nath said. “I would too. Well, I do. After all, I’ve not seen her in twenty-some years.”

  Brenwar stormed over.

  “So, do we have a plan? Or do we wait to become dragon toast?” He eyed the sky. “I don’t think it’s the best idea to be in the wide open.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” Nath said. “Take a moment and relax, Brenwar.”

  “Do you see a barrel of ale around here?”

  Nath shook his head.

  Ben walked over with his thumbs hitched in his belt and said, “Do we have a plan?”

  Bayzog liked to plan. He lived for it, but at the moment he was at a loss.

  Giving it a shot, he said, “We’re here to find out who mines the crystal shards. And I’m not so sure angling for the Floating City is the best route.” He pulled the shard out of a pocket in his robes. “But I think a visit to the citizens of the River Cities might garner some answers.”