Spell Fade

by J. Daniel Layfield

  If one failed to follow the path to the left, you were afforded little other choice than a climb up the rocky wall or a sheer drop, plunging down hundreds of meters. It was from this cliff, Dartan now realized, the cries of the creature (for beast he had decided it must be) originated. It was also, he noted with concern, exactly where Logan was now sprinting. Cloak flying behind him, Logan reached the edge, and without hesitation leapt into the air.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The feeling as he fell was sheer … terror? No, that’s certainly what it should have been, but terror didn’t describe it. Below him a fifty foot serpentine form emerged from a cave in the cliff wall, just as he knew it would, but there was still no terror. The beast sensed him and turned its tooth-filled mouth upwards, ready to receive this tiny morsel from the heavens. Surely now, there must be terror.

  Logan opened his own mouth, ready to release the scream he felt in his throat, the final sound before his certain death. What escaped instead was a laugh. It was loud, strong, and followed by a scream more akin to a battle cry than anything else. Logan drew the two short swords from his back and bared his own teeth at the beast.

  Man and monster both knew the blades would be harmless against the dragon’s scales, but it was the dragon who flinched. It turned, preparing to launch itself from the small rocky outcropping on which it perched, but Logan wasn’t surprised. Picking through the dragon’s thoughts was proving easier than picking up barmaids in local taverns. Both seemed to be almost thrown at him. The beast had yet to be able to break into his own thoughts, but he could feel it scratching.

  As the dragon rolled and began to ascend, Logan managed to land himself astride its back. His arms thrust downwards with the swords, one of which glanced harmlessly off, while the other bent into a U shape.

  He landed almost exactly in the “saddle”, at the base of its neck, between the wings. The spot seemed made to hold a rider, and Logan could feel the dragon’s disgust, betrayed by its own bones, as he dug his knees in and held on tight.

  How could something he had never done before feel so natural? He admitted, even he had thought his father crazy at times. The training and teaching seemed ridiculous, and calling himself a slayer was laughable. There were times he even thought of himself as a fraud and common swindler. With that first screech, though, everything changed. He knew what was stirring below, and he knew what he had to do even as he charged for the cliff and felt the first trickles of dragon thoughts mingle with his own.

  He had lost count of how many towns, villages, communities, and forests he had settled in, but none of them felt more like home than the back of a dragon. The wind whipped past as the dragon under him twisted and turned in exactly the way he expected.

  The thoughts didn’t come as actual words, but more like pictures, or even simple feelings. Whatever it was, it allowed him to close his eyes, move with the beast, and remain in the saddle. It was like trying to throw himself to the ground. The dragon climbed straight up into the air and a smile spread across Logan’s face as he felt the dive coming in three, two - wait. Something else. Unexpected. His eyes opened just in time to see a boulder sail past the dragon’s head, narrowly missing his own.

  ENOUGH! The word echoed through his head, the first one from the dragon. It had been over three centuries since it had to deal with a rider, but it was starting to remember why they revolted. Suddenly, Logan’s mind was flooded with hate, images of his body plummeting through the air, and his friends as burning black stains against the snow covered valley.

  Logan closed his eyes and shook his head to clear it. When he opened them again he found his view rotating between sky and ground, with three small dots on the ground growing ever closer with each turn. Even closer to him at the moment were dragon teeth and claws. He may have a clear vision of where each strike would be, but he still had to dodge them, while trying to remain tight in the saddle. That was when he finally felt the terror.

  * * *

  Even more alarming than the sight of Logan disappearing over the cliff’s edge, Dartan decided, was seeing him reappear moments later astride a dragon. He pulled his hand away from the gateway, barely noticing the slight resistance, and stood slowly as he watched man and beast rise into the air.

  “Would you look at that,” Marcus remarked quietly.

  A disturbance at Dartan’s side drew his attention. Aliet was staring wide-eyed into the sky. She grabbed Dartan’s arm. “Do something,” she whispered as she squeezed.

  She was right, he should do something. Since coming within sight of the gateway he felt like everything around him was blurred, secondary. But now a dragon? Nothing could claim precedence over a dragon. He gave her a firm nod and reached out to touch the creature.

  He felt everything around him – the snow on the ground wanted to fly again, the rocks wished to give in to their inevitable defeat against gravity, even tiny dormant seeds under the frozen soil hoping one day to burst free and live. Everything. He had spent an entire day learning to filter out the noise, concentrating on just touching what he wanted, but that fifty foot, bright red dragon flying above his head was completely silent. It might as well have been a patch of empty sky. No, it was even less than that, for even empty sky had desires.

  He shifted his focus to Logan, but the result was the same. It was as if he didn’t even exist. “That’s not good,” he mumbled, watching the dragon spin through the air, expecting to see Logan fly off at any moment. Would he be able to catch him? How far away from the dragon would he have to be before Dartan could touch him?

  Aliet was growing anxious at Dartan’s inaction. “I said, do something,” she insisted a bit louder this time, with a harder squeeze. She was still right, but what could he do to something that wasn’t there? Then he spotted the large boulder.

  “How about this?” he asked, sending the rock hurtling towards the dragon … and Logan.

  By the time he realized the possibly disastrous consequences of the action, it was too late to stop. His mind couldn’t move fast enough to catch the projectile. All he could do is watch, and hope Aliet couldn’t squeeze much harder.

  It missed. Barely. Aliet and Dartan both let out a sigh of relief, but it didn’t last long. The creature let out a screeching roar that echoed through the valley, threatening to trigger another avalanche. Small bits of rock and snow tumbled from the mountain on either side of the valley, but they barely noticed. For their attention, there was no match for the twenty foot plume of flame erupting from the dragon’s mouth into the pale blue sky.

  “I think you made him mad,” Marcus noted using the same tone he might use to announce his intent to go for a walk. Dartan could only look at him, speechless. “Here it comes,” Marcus added, finger pointed to the sky. Dartan turned and saw not only was it diving straight towards them, but it was fighting Logan at the same time.

  What could he possibly hope to accomplish? The realization he couldn’t touch the dragon was bad enough, but now he wondered if his magic would be able to even defend against it. If he couldn’t protect himself, what hope was there for his friends?

  Even if the three of them somehow managed to survive the attack, he knew Logan had no chance at all. Their fate was rushing to meet them impossibly fast, and Logan seemed likely to fall at any moment. That was when he felt the terror.

  * * *

  The three of them on the ground didn’t stand a chance. The dragon would be upon them in moments, and between dodging tooth and claw he could see they still had not moved. The dragon’s plans for them were all too clear in his head, as were the scenes of his own grisly demise.

  “Not today,” Logan said through gritted teeth. He tightened his grip on the bent sword he still held in his hand and loosened the clasp on his cloak as he added, “And definitely not by you.” The dragon’s head came close again for another try at tearing him apart, but he had already seen it, and was ready for it.

  Only going to get one shot at this, he thought as he stood and leapt straight
towards the dragon’s head.

  “Remember, Logan,” his father’s voice echoed in his head, a lecture from long ago. “Sight is a dragon’s most valued sense.” The cloak he spread out behind him like a cape as he dove over the beast’s head, and the lesson played on. “Take it from him, and he will panic.” He landed on its outstretched neck, the cloak now wrapped tightly around its eyes. “And a panicked dragon … ”

  “Will make mistakes,” Logan finished as the monster let out a roar of surprise.

  “And a dragon who makes mistakes … ,” Father’s voice prompted.

  “Is a dragon we can kill.” Logan hooked his sword through the cloak, pining it into place.

  The dragon’s thoughts became jumbled and erratic as it tried to eject Logan while at the same time remove the blindfold he had secured. A task made much more difficult to perform while flying and trying not to scratch out its own eyes at the same time. The dragon’s course changed, and Logan smiled when he saw they were no longer headed for the three figures below. It quickly faded though when he saw they were now on a collision course with the mountainside ahead. Time to get off this ride.

  * * *

  “What’s he doing?” Dartan wondered aloud as he watched Logan leap onto the dragon’s neck.

  “Is that his cloak?” Aliet asked.

  Both questions went unanswered, and practically forgotten because of what followed. The dragon’s head swung wildly back and forth, and its dive towards them levelled off as it fought with both the blindfold and Logan. There were feelings of relief as its shadow passed over them, but as their eyes traced its new path, alarm quickly followed.

  They all watched silently, and helplessly, as the pair closed in on the mountainside with no sign of slowing. Dartan’s mind raced, but he would have had a better chance of moving the mountain than touching the dragon. The only noise from any of them was a small gasp from Aliet when, just before impact, they saw Logan leap from the dragon toward the sloped mountainside.

  He disappeared for a moment into a deep bank of snow, which began a slow slide towards the valley floor. Only a moment later the dragon slammed into the solid rock face with the unmistakable crack of bone and rock. It slid, along with a shower of stones, into the hidden depths at the bottom of the cliff.

  “Logan!” Aliet called, running with Dartan to where his body had come to rest. They hadn’t seen him move, and his eyes were closed when they reached him. “Logan?” she repeated. “Are you alright?” His eyes twitched, then opened, and blinked a few times.

  “Yeah,” he said, a little breathless. “I think so.” He sat up slowly - stretching, wiggling, and patting his body for any injuries. Dartan helped him to his feet, at which point he gave a small shiver. “You know,” he said as he rubbed his hands together, “I am actually a little cold.” He looked around where he had been laying, then added with a small grin, “Has anyone seen my cloak?”

  Dartan groaned. “Technically, it was the crash that killed the dragon, not your cloak.”

  “If you say so,” he replied, grin still solidly in place.

  “It is dead, isn’t it?” Aliet asked.

  Logan closed his eyes for a moment. Silence. Even the pull was nearly gone. Nearly.

  “Dead,” he said with a firm nod. She breathed a small sigh of relief.

  “I can’t believe you did that,” she said quietly, pulling him towards her for a small hug.

  “You had your chance, sweetheart,” he said. Then, in a lower tone, added, “And it’s a little awkward to throw yourself at me right in front of Dartan.”

  Aliet’s cheeks reddened, then she pushed him back down into the snow. “Yeah, he’s fine,” she announced. “Just as delusional as ever,” she added as she stormed back towards Marcus.

  Logan lay in the snow and chuckled once or twice. Dartan offered a hand to help him back up.

  “She’s right, you know,” Dartan said, pulling him up. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I’m a dragonslayer,” he stated. “I did exactly what I was born to do.”

  “But you didn’t have to do it alone.”

  Logan waved off the argument. “What’s done is done,” he said. “Besides, if I hadn’t jumped on that dragon’s back, I wouldn’t have found out what we’re here for.”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  All four of them stood at the cliff’s edge and peered over.

  “I still can’t believe you jumped off this,” Aliet mumbled, stepping back from the edge a tiny bit.

  “Believe it,” Logan answered, though, truthfully, he barely remembered the actual jump, and the narrow landing on which the dragon had been perched seemed much farther down now.

  “If you don’t mind,” Marcus said, tossing ropes over the side. “We’ll take a different route down this time.”

  “But you feel free to jump again,” Aliet said with a pat on his back.

  “It’s just not the same without a dragon to land on.” He took hold of one of the ropes and started down.

  The cave opening was large and a warm breeze blew out steadily.

  “So, it’s in there?” Dartan asked.

  Logan thought for a moment, recalling the image from the dragon, then closed his eyes and felt for the pull. It was there. It was faint, but definitely there. He nodded slowly.

  “After you, then,” Dartan said with a bow.

  The closest thing to a cave Dartan had ever been in was the well on his farm. It had been on a dare, and while the prospect of it housing a dragon had been essentially nil, it still had not been a pleasant experience. At least this cave was larger than the cramped walls of that well, then again, none of them was a fifty foot dragon. It was fairly linear, following a path back under the valley above. Dartan lit the way with what he called, “Something I’ve been working on.”

  They moved steadily through a series of caverns, until Logan abruptly stopped. “This is it,” he announced as they gathered around him. At the far side, on a raised stone platform, sat a box. It wasn’t large enough to be called a chest, and laid almost directly beneath the gateway above, Dartan reckoned. As they drew closer they could see it had a textured covering, like overlapping tiles of stone. The light from Dartan’s spell bounced and glittered off the box, throwing dancing shadows into the far corners of the cavern.

  “Are those dragon scales?” Aliet asked hesitantly.

  Logan was nodding even as Dartan reached out, trying to touch it with his mind. It didn’t exist.

  “Yes,” both men affirmed simultaneously.

  “What do you suppose is in it?” Aliet asked. They all turned instinctively to Logan, who could offer little more than a shoulder shrug.

  “All I can tell you is what the dragon showed me. It was bound here to protect that box, and the gateway.”

  “And we assume it was Alain who did the binding?” Aliet inquired.

  “Who else?” Dartan answered. “Not that he’s bothered to show up to offer any help or guidance,” he added in a louder tone, hoping Alain might be eavesdropping. He stepped forward and examined the box. “Like, for example, how to open the box. Or even if we should open it.” Aliet put a calming hand on his arm as she stepped past him. She reached out and touched one of the white handles on the side of the box.

  “Bone?” she asked, looking back. Dartan and Logan slowly nodded. “Of course it is,” she said with a grimace as she wrapped her fingers around it and gave it a cursory lift. She released her grip and wiped her hand on her pants. “Well, it’s not heavy, and it isn’t stuck. I say we deliver it to Alain.”

  Dartan nodded. “The only instruction we have is to keep it from the Northern soldiers,” he reasoned. “We can’t just wait around down here until they find us.”

  Marcus pushed forward, grabbed both bone handles, and lifted the box from the stone platform. “Let’s get moving,” he said, already headed out of the cave. Aliet and Dartan exchanged a quick glance, then both turned to follow him. Only Logan remained.

  Logan stared
at the empty platform as shuffling footsteps took the box further away from him. He closed his eyes and slowly turned around the room. There it was.

  The pull.

  He opened his eyes, expecting to see the retreating backs of Marcus, Aliet, and Dartan. Instead, he was facing a deeply shadowed wall.

  “There’s still something in here,” he mumbled. He took a step forward, and felt it increase. He spoke louder this time. “There’s something else down here.” Everyone froze.

  “And by ‘something’ you mean?” Aliet asked.

  Logan shrugged. “Just something. Smaller than a dragon, but bigger than that box,” he clarified. “Give me some light over here, Dartan.” The wall was instantly lit, revealing an opening just large enough for a dragon to squeeze through. “In there,” Logan pointed as he walked towards the hole, followed closely by the others.

  Dartan’s spell illuminated the entire adjoining chamber, but none of them moved past the entrance.

  “How many do you think there are?” Aliet whispered.

  “Hundreds,” Logan answered. Spread out before them in neat rows reaching all the way to the back wall of the cavern were two-meter tall dragon eggs. Each one stood on end, propped in a nest of rocks, which Dartan noticed, included what appeared to be spellstones.

  “What do we do?” Aliet asked after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

  “We don’t do anything,” Logan said. “You all are going to get that box out of here, and I am going to take care of this.” He pulled his remaining sword from its sheath and stepped forward. He was stopped by Aliet’s hand.

  “You can’t do this alone,” she said softly.

  “What other choice do I have?” He lowered the sword and faced them. “I can’t ask you to drop that box and help me. Whatever is in it is too important.”

  “Then we’ll all come back together,” she implored him.