“Don’t need dragons around here,” said the redheaded woman. “Or their keepers either.”
“I’m here to trade for supplies,” Brianna said, feeling equal parts anger and disappointment.
“We don’t want your goods. Move on,” said the redhead.
“You’re ungrateful,” Brianna said, her anger getting the best of her. “I hope the pirates do come back and rob you all blind.”
The people in the crowd were getting worked up; there was shouting from people in the rear of the group. Then came the piece of rotten fruit. It sailed through the air and hit Brianna right between her shoulder blades, splattering across her back. She could smell the rotten stench immediately and she turned, but more trash came flying toward her. She knew there was no way she could remedy the situation, so she ran.
The crowd parted before her, but curses were shouted and spit was hurled at Brianna as she fled. She wanted to burn the entire city to the ground. It crossed her mind to come back with Sorva and teach the townsfolk a lesson, but she saw children hiding behind their angry parents. She knew she couldn’t kill people with her power, or she would be exactly what they feared her to be—a monster, or some wicked sorceress. That wasn’t who she was or who she wanted to be. Helping the city had been her motivation, but she realized too that she longed to be recognized, even lauded for her powers. Not that she didn’t deserve such recognition, but she felt dirty for using her powers to try to save people just for their gratitude.
Brianna was crying by the time she reached Sorva. The dragon was perplexed, and Brianna didn’t know how to explain how she felt or why she was upset. They could see the Walheta mountains to the south. They were tall, pine covered mountains, not barren and jagged like the Northern Highlands. Brianna climbed onto Sorva’s back and let the black dragon take her away.
They settled high in the mountains near a small lake. The water was cold, but Brianna scrubbed herself clean, then washed the clothes that had been soiled in the town. Sorva went looking for food, and Brianna built a fire, settling in to rest. Her mind kept going back to the way the mob had treated her, not like a hero, but like a villain. She told herself that she should have known people wouldn’t understand. The people in Brighton’s Gate still resented Zollin, despite the fact that he had saved them numerous times and healed their sick. People naturally feared what they didn’t understand. Brianna’s name and achievements in the Witch’s War had been mostly overlooked. A wizard people could understand, even if they couldn’t fathom what Zollin could do, or how he did it. But Brianna was a mystery. She wasn’t just a powerful person who could control fire. She had been changed when the dwarves gave her the bright red ruby as an act of gratitude. That gem, given for Zollin’s help with the plague that had struck the Jaq clan and was beginning to spread, had unlocked a power deep within her that she hadn't known she possessed. Her body was much lighter than it had been before, even though she was a thin girl to begin with. Brianna’s bones were hollow, allowing her to float on strong updrafts and leap higher than anyone normally could. She had a connection to dragons that was almost like true kinship. She had given the dragons she created part of herself, and even Bartoom, the ancient black dragon that had ravaged northern Yelsia, was almost like a distant relative.
Solitude was something she would have to get used to, she supposed. And it would be better to keep her skills and abilities a secret if she could. She didn’t like the idea of pretending to be something she wasn’t, but it would do her no good to terrify the people she was trying to help. Tears filled her eyes, but she brushed them away. She didn’t want to give in to her feelings of loneliness for Zollin. He was the only one who really understood her, and she feared that perhaps she had rushed away too soon, but she refused to admit she was wrong.
Her resolve to go south and find Bartoom only hardened as she drifted off to sleep. She could come back after that. She could see if things might possibly work with Zollin, but not before she had accomplished her task. She was a dragon keeper, a Fire Spirit, and one of her kind was out there somewhere. She wouldn’t rest until she knew Bartoom was free.
Chapter 28
Zollin had never felt so completely exhausted in his life. Destroying the oremite tunnel had nearly wrecked him, and since then he’d been constantly on the move. He did his best to keep up with Reenah and Moss, whose short legs worked tirelessly, carrying them through the tunnels at a fast pace. Zollin knew he needed rest, food, and preferably some good wine to drink. Instead, he was given a small, clay jug of water and a raw potato. The food had been pushed into his hands as they hurried from the fortress, leaving by the same door they had entered.
Reenah led the way, taking Zollin around the bodies of the fallen oremites. Those that had been burned up by Zollin’s energy blast lay smoking. Their carcasses reeked, reminding Zollin of overcooked cabbage. The trio went past the remains of the tunnel the oremites had created. From the light of Reenah’s lantern, which was no longer shaded but shining brightly all around them, Zollin could see that digging the tunnel again would be more trouble than it was worth. Zollin’s magic had filled the tunnel with loose rock and probably destabilized the entire section of mountain. He hoped it would buy Grenda enough time to lead her strike against the queen.
It crossed Zollin’s mind that if the dwarves failed in their attack, he would eventually be chased down and killed. He knew he couldn’t run forever; in fact, he knew he couldn’t keep moving much longer. Reenah had promised to take them to another cavern where they could wait for the swarms of insectoids to find them. Zollin only hoped he would have enough time to regain his strength.
The tunnels seemed to stretch out forever. Zollin’s stomach was so empty it grumbled loud enough to be heard over their hurried footsteps through the narrow tunnel. His head ached, and the fiery reservoir of magic was like acid burning through the center of his body. The Star Stone continued to feed his magic, but the strain on his physical stamina was undeniable. The last thing Zollin wanted was to lose the magical gemstone, but if he couldn’t keep up, the dwarves would take it from him and lead the oremites away from their loved ones. He couldn’t fault them for that, but he couldn’t stand the thought of losing the stone either. So he doggedly followed on. His feet felt like heavy stones, his legs burned, and his side ached with a deep, sharp pain.
Kelvich had pushed Zollin, forcing him to build his physical body to keep pace with the magic he wielded, but that had been before the Witch’s War. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and over the past year he had lost much of the physical stamina he’d built up. He was breathing hard and sweating freely, but he focused on the little dwarf just ahead of him and kept moving.
Eventually they came to a large cavern. The natural formations of stalactites and stalagmites had grown together, forming a forest of sorts in the otherwise open space. They stopped near a section of wall where two tunnels converged on the cave.
“Time for a little rest,” Reenah said.
“Thank you,” Zollin said, as he slumped down against the wall.
Moss took Zollin’s potato and sliced it with a sharp knife. The potato didn’t have much taste and the texture was so fibrous that Zollin’s jaw ached from chewing, but he ate ravenously, almost emptying his small jug of water.
“Any idea how long before they reach us?” Zollin asked.
“It’s impossible to tell,” Reenah said. “We can only hope your magic stone draws them away from Kelladoon.”
Zollin nodded. He felt bad for the dwarves, and his guilt for the part he had played in their misfortunes loomed large in his mind. He had asked the dwarves to leave the safety of their caverns and fight with him in the Witch’s War. And he had carried the Star Stone to their secret fortress, drawing the oremites right to the last stronghold of the decimated clans. Perhaps, had he listened to Brianna and left the forest, the dwarves could have survived a little longer.
He was just nodding off, his guilt starting to twist his thoughts into nightmares, when Moss sho
ok him awake. Zollin was on his feet and moving before he was fully aware of what was happening.
“What’s going on?” he complained.
“They’ve found us,” Reenah called back to him. “No need to be quiet, Wizard. Just keep moving.”
Zollin looked over his shoulder, but the lantern light only cast his own shadow back into the darkness behind him. He was so tired he couldn’t help but be angry. All he wanted was to sleep, but even that was denied him. The food had eased the pain that had erupted in his stomach when he worked strong magic, but his weariness seemed even more potent than before.
They moved quickly through a long, winding tunnel, eventually coming to one of the bridges that Zollin had repaired. It was in a large cavern with a fiery lake of molten rock at its center. The bridge rose up, near the ceiling of the cave, and crossed safely to the other side where another tunnel led away from the molten lake. Running up the incline in the terribly hot cavern sapped the last of Zollin’s strength. He almost made it to the bottom on the far side of the bridge before he stopped and fell to his knees.
“What are you doing?” Reenah demanded. “We have to keep moving.”
“I have an idea,” Zollin said.
He was panting, with one hand pressed hard against his side. Sweat ran down his face, plastering his hair to his forehead and stinging his eyes. He brushed the sweat away and waited.
“This is madness,” Reenah said. “They’ll overtake us if we don’t keep moving.”
“Or they’ll realize we’re leading them on a wild chase and return to their hive,” Zollin argued. “We have to give them a little hope of catching us.”
“They will catch us,” Reenah said angrily. “They’re faster than we are, and they don’t rest. They’ll run until they drop dead from exhaustion.”
“Yeah, well, I’m almost at that point. You need to trust me.”
“Give us the stone. Moss and I will lead the crynods away. You can return to the southlands and your own kind.”
Zollin could tell that Reenah was trying to be civil, even though she was angry. He even detected a hint of compassion lurking in her voice, but he shook his head.
“I have a plan,” he said.
Reenah started to argue, but the sound of tapping feet reached them from the far side of the cavern. The oremites had spiked feet that allowed them to climb high on even vertical rock walls, and then hold them tight while they dug for minerals and gems. They came rushing into the bright cavern, the molten rock casting an orange glow through the large room.
“I told you,” Reenah said angrily, but Zollin ignored her.
He waited until he saw the first of the oremites cresting the arching bridge, then he went to work. The bridge was nothing more than stone. He had levitated the molten rock from below, molding it like clay with magic, then cooling it so that it hardened into stone once more to repair the bridges when Babaz of the Oliad clan had led him through the mountain tunnels. The bridges were simple structures, and Zollin had repaired many of them, allowing the dwarves to travel more freely through their domain. With a single sudden action he destroyed the arc of the bridge, sending his magic into the stone and then blasting it apart.
The oremites fell, along with the upper portion of the bridge, into the molten rock below. The oremites burst into flame before they hit the molten rock. It was a terrible way to die, but Zollin had no compassion for the insectoid creatures. The molten rock splashed in all directions, leaving hot globs of liquid rock along the sides of the cavern. It was possible to circumvent the lake at the center of the cavern, but the resulting splash had made crossing the room almost impossible.
“That should slow them down a while,” Zollin said.
“Perhaps,” Reenah said. “Let’s not stick around to find out.
Moss grunted, pointing up, and Zollin saw that the oremites were already beginning to climb the walls. Fortunately, they moved more slowly across the sloping walls. It was only a minor victory, Zollin realized, and would not give him the respite he’d hoped for, but he did his best to stay positive.
They rushed from the room, and Zollin was thankful as the heat from the cavern behind them faded. His body was soaked with sweat, his clothes clinging to him, but as they moved through the narrow tunnels, the sweat cooled his body. His magic was churning inside him, stoked by his wildly changing emotions, but it wasn’t leaching away his strength. He had reformed his magical containment, and with the added strength of the Star Stone’s magic, he felt better than before.
Two hours passed before exhaustion forced Zollin to stop. Reenah and Moss were tired too, and they drank the last of their water while they waited in a narrow section of tunnel. Reenah looked worried, but Zollin did his best to reassure her.
“Grenda will slay the queen,” he said. “This will all be over soon.”
“Not if the crynods catch us,” she argued. “They’ll be on top of us any minute now.”
Moss grunted and hefted his hammer.
“So we should keep moving,” Zollin said, even though he was so tired he would almost rather die that take another step.
“We need to rest,” Reenah said. “We need to buy a little more time.”
“So what are you thinking?” Zollin asked.
“The tunnel here is narrow,” she said. “They’ll be forced to come at us one at a time. “We’ll make a stand here.”
“They could dig around and flank us,” Zollin argued.
“Perhaps, but that is a chance we’ll have to take.”
“Let me fight them,” Zollin said. “The two of you can rest.”
“You have spirit, Wizard,” Reenah said, a rare smile lighting up her bearded face. “But you have no strength left. Moss will fight them. Then I will take his place. Then you can hold them back while we make our escape.”
“It’s not really much of a plan,” Zollin said. “I could bring the tunnel down, that would slow them.”
“It might also weaken all these shafts,” Reenah said. “I don’t like the thought of being crushed by the mountain.”
Zollin didn’t like that thought either, and his foolhardy idea sent a tingle of fear down his back. He slumped against the tunnel wall and waited. There was nothing else to do. His breathing was just getting back to normal when the fighting started. The oremites marched through the tunnel single file, raising their shovel-shaped blades to attack Moss, but the dwarf was a deadly fighter. His long-handled war hammer smashed bodies and broke limbs. The oremites had a longer reach than Moss, but his smaller body and shorter limbs were not as restricted by the narrow tunnel, and soon a pile of dead insectile bodies clogged the tunnel.
Zollin, Reenah, and Moss fell back as the oremites removed the bodies of their fallen hive mates. They acted without any outward sign of concern for the comrades they had lost, or of their own safety.
“They don’t seem too distraught by their losses,” Zollin said.
“They have no conscious mind,” Reenah said. “They are controlled by their queen.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” Zollin said. “Their heads are mostly thick bone.”
Moss grunted and Zollin realized the mute dwarf was laughing.
“They are like extensions of their queen, which is why they fight so fiercely," Reenah explained. "They are not burdened with fear or remorse. They have no qualms about murdering the innocent, or wiping out entire clans. They are a blight on the mountain, weakening it as they consume the minerals. It is said that if left unchecked, they will destroy entire ranges of mountains.”
Zollin couldn’t help but shudder at the though, but then more of the strange creatures were coming at them. This time they crawled along the roof of the tunnel, which while narrow, was tall—Moss and Reenah wouldn’t be able to reach them. He took the lead and sent a wave of fire rushing through the tunnel. The screams of the burning oremites sent chills down his back.
Once more the trio retreated down the tunnel, stopping this time at a place where the ceiling lowered. Zollin
felt slightly ashamed standing back and letting Reenah take the fight to the oremites, but his feelings changed as he watched the dwarf maiden wage war. She was faster than Moss and absolutely ruthless. She wielded a smaller hammer than her companion, holding it with her left hand and stabbing with a heavy hax knife in the other. Dwarves usually preferred war hammers to swords, but most carried hax knives, which were more tool than weapon. The blade ran straight from the handle for several inches, then angled slightly, and was used for everything from cutting food, to prying rock loose when digging for gems or precious metals. The way Reenah used her hax knife, it was obviously useful in hacking off limbs as well.
The oremites had thick black blood, which soon spattered the tunnel walls. The long, thin limbs were severed easily, and as Reenah fell back step by deadly step, she filled the corridor with the dead insectoids. Eventually she tired, and Moss took her place. The oremites were becoming skilled at removing the bodies of their fallen comrades as they fought, so the dwarves were forced to keep up their onslaught. When Moss faltered, Zollin stepped in again. This time he sent a bolt of magical energy as far down the tunnel as he could manage. Many of the creatures were killed instantly, while others were burned. The spell left him gasping for breath, but it gave the trio the time they needed to retreat once more.
“What now?” Zollin asked as they hurried through the tunnel.
“We’ve reached the lake at Erendruss,” Reenah said. “We’ll make our final stand there.”
The words final stand struck Zollin hard. He realized that unless the attack on the hive queen was successful soon, he and the dwarves would be slaughtered. It was a jagged pill to swallow, and Zollin’s mind rejected it completely. He refused to think about death, refused to accept that there was no alternative. He just needed to find a way to overcome the thousands of oremites that were bent on his destruction.
Then they came to the cavern called Erendruss, and Zollin was dumbfounded by the paradise of the dwarves.
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