Jed hadn’t missed the flicker of admiration in the chief’s eyes and knew he was thinking about Amora’s account of her man’s prowess. It appeared that Jed had just confirmed it in the primitive man’s estimation and Jed wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not. Would he now be pitted against the chief’s greatest warrior to really prove his worth? Or did they have plans to torture him like the Iroquois used to do to see how much pain he could handle and so prove his mettle in that barbaric fashion? Neither options appealed greatly to him, all he wanted to do was to get away from these people and get to Chantros so he could secure the weapon he needed to defeat Montrose. All this delay was achieving was to give Montrose the extra time he needed to find the caves.
“So…do Sky-Gods make war on other Sky-Gods in your land across the ice?” he asked suddenly.
“Yes, they do,” Jed said plainly.
“Why?”
Jed thought for a moment. How could he give an answer that this man would not only understand but also accept as the truth? “Sometimes some of the Sky-Gods turn bad,” he began, “like Montrose and his men have. The good Sky-Gods are then forced to make war on them to stop them from hurting everyone.”
He nodded. The concept seemed to satisfy him. “And there are many wars between the Sky-Gods?”
“Yes, I’m afraid there are.”
“So there are many bad Sky-Gods then?”
Jed didn’t like the direction this conversation was heading. He must convince him that not all his people were evil or all trust between them would vanish. “No,” he said cautiously, “it’s just that a few bad ones cause a great deal of trouble and sometimes it is difficult to stop them.”
The chief went quiet for a moment. “Montrose and his men are few in number,” he conceded, “but they have caused much trouble for our world.”
“Yes they have.” Jed was sensing a breakthrough. “That is why we must stop them. If we don’t they will cause a lot more trouble than this world can handle.”
“So you believe the Chantros will help you to defeat Montrose?”
“I’m hoping they will. But I don’t know the Chantros and so I’m not sure if they have any weapons that will be of use against Montrose’s thunder-sticks.”
“But you have thunder-sticks too.”
“We have a few, but Montrose has many, too many for us to defeat him.”
“Montrose’s thunder-sticks have cut down many of our warriors,” the chief said sadly. “That is why we are now living in the Forbidden lands. His Sky-Gods do not come here.”
Jed decided the time had come to chance his arm a little. “Do you know the way to the city of Chantros?”
“I have been there many times,” he said, matter of factly. “But it is pointless to go there now. The Chantros will not be able to help you.”
Jed felt a surge of alarm course through his body, “why not?”
“Many years ago they shut the door to their city and no one has seen them since.”
“Why did they do that?”
“No one knows. They used to allow people of every tribe into their city once. But one day they shut their doors and they have been shut ever since.”
“How long ago was that?”
“It was over sixty-four years ago now. It was a sad day when they locked us out for we could have learned so much from them. We were like babies compared to the Chantros. They had machines for everything you could think of, good machines, machines that would make our lives so much easier.”
“Would you still be able to find the door to Chantros?”
“Yes, but it is no use, there is no way through it. It can only be opened from inside the city.”
“We must at least try,” Jed said with determination. “The Chantros are our only hope in defeating Montrose.”
“I am not fully convinced you are to be trusted yet. You must prove to me you can be before I will give you my help.”
Jed stopped walking and looked him squarely in the eyes. “And I suppose I am your prisoner until I do prove myself?”
“Of course, but if you are as mighty a warrior as the pretty Noragin claims you are then it won’t take you long to gain my confidence.”
“Why do I get the impression you already have a task in mind for me to gain that confidence?”
A wry smile escaped the chief’s lips. “You are very astute. I don’t doubt you have given Montrose much trouble already.”
Jed was beginning to feel the first pangs of impatience. “And are you going to tell me what this task is that I must complete?”
“Not yet, we will discuss it later.” They continued walking. “So, does the Noragin woman belong to anybody?” he asked suddenly.
“She is mine,” Jed said firmly.
“She is your wife?”
“She has been promised to me.” Jed didn’t like the feel of this whole business. It had been obvious from the outset that he was attracted to Amora and now he was obviously sounding Jed out about her. Possibly he was hoping to take her for himself.
“She is a very beautiful woman,” he continued. “No warrior would wish to part with her easily.”
So the fellow did have plans for Amora, and they involved taking Jed out of the way first. Most likely the task he spoke of would be one that would cost Jed his life. With Jed dead he probably figured Amora would be glad to take up with him. “I won’t be parting with her at all,” Jed said adamantly.
“We are here,” the chief said, before calling two of his warriors over. “Take the men to the guest hut and place a guard on the door.” He looked over at Amora. “Bring the woman to my cabin.”
Jed stepped forward and blocked the men from carrying out the order. “She stays with me.”
The chief’s face darkened. “You are my prisoners and I shall decide your fates.” He turned back to his warriors and repeated the order.
“Amora stays with me,” Jed said, much more firmly this time.
“I have the power to end your life right now,” he warned. “You would do well to submit to me.”
“I submit to no man,” Jed said boldly. “And I do not fear death, so your threats mean nothing to me.” He returned the man’s cold gaze with equal intensity. “Bring us weapons and we will fight to the death, for you have insulted my honor.”
The chief was taken aback. “It would be an uneven contest.” He pointed to Jed’s leg; obviously he had picked up on the way he had been favoring it as they had walked along. “You are already nursing a wound.”
“Wound or not I will still fight you here and now,” Jed said bravely. “When I have defeated you I will take some of your warriors with me to find Chantros.”
The chief seemed dumbfounded by his prisoner’s outburst. “You cannot defeat me when you are wounded, you would just be throwing your life away. Why do that? Save your efforts for Montrose.”
“I can defeat any man here including you, it makes no difference that I am wounded. Bring the weapons.”
The light of admiration came on in the chief’s eyes again. “I will not fight a wounded man. Such a thing is beneath my dignity. So I will grant your request. The Noragin may stay with you for the time being.” His eyes travelled down to Jed’s leg. “When it is healed, if you still wish it so, then we will fight.”
“What were you playing at out there?” Rex growled, after they had been taken to their hut.
“I’m supposed to be this mighty warrior so I figured it was time I started acting like one.”
“What do you hope to gain out of that?”
“Respect … to gain his respect…if I’d just let him take my woman then all respect for me would have disappeared. Do you think he would have allowed any of us to get out of here alive then?”
“If you’d fought him he would have killed you. He would have picked weapons of his choosing too you know. Weapons he’s skilled with but you are not.” He shook his head at Jed. “He would have killed you for sure.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybe about it,” Rex spluttered. “It was foolish.”
“Where’s Amora now, Rex?” Jed asked calmly. “And where would she be if I hadn’t challenged him?”
Rex flung his hands up in a gesture of defeat. “All right, all right, you pulled it off this time. But next time you mightn’t be so lucky.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Jed said, with more than a hint of irritation at the suggestion. “It was a calculated risk.”
“A calculated risk…” Rex stared at him in disbelief. “How’s a man meant to calculate a risk like that?”
“I picked up early on that he was a man who admired and respected courage. I figured he was a man who also operated from a certain sense of fair play, and wouldn’t fight a man with an obvious disability for fear of losing face in front of his warriors.”
Rex sat down, and resting his back against the wall stared up at the rafters of the hut. “You’re a man who plays his cards mighty close to his chest is all I can say. But I guess I shouldn’t doubt you, you’ve got us all safely through this war so far.”
Amora waited for Rex to finish saying his peace before breaking from the shadows of the hut to snuggle into Jed’s chest. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I would have had to kill myself if he’d tried to take me.”
“Try not to worry,” he said tenderly. “I won’t let him touch you.”
She seemed reassured at his words and as she burrowed in closer he felt his heart go sick with the knowledge that it was a promise he might not be able to keep. If the fellow was determined to have her then he would take her, and there was really nothing much Jed could do to stop him. He had staved off his first attempt but he wouldn’t be thwarted forever. Sooner or later he would be coming for her and Jed had better have a workable plan in place for stopping him.
As he settled down for the night with Amora under his arm he felt the hopelessness of their situation wash over him. They were prisoners to a tribe who should be their allies against Montrose, he had some task he had to either complete or die trying to, and he now faced the very real possibility he was going to lose Amora to another man. Yes, he had to admit it, but boring old humdrum New York life was beginning to look mighty good right about now.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Come, there is something I want you to see.”
Jed heaved himself up from his mattress and crossed the floor to where the chief’s head was peeping in at the door. “What is it?” he asked gruffly.
“Come and see what your task is.”
Jonathon and Rex joined Jed outside. “What’s this all about?” Rex asked.
“He wants me to see what my task is,” Jed said, as they followed the chief to the edge of the village.
“Down there.” The chief pointed to a small gully where a half grown bull was tethered to a stake, and a flaming torch was inserted in the ground a few feet away.
“What am I supposed to do, beat the bull to death with the burning stick?” Jed asked, unwilling to hide his sarcasm.
“You will see what you must do when Nadrog arrives.”
“Who is Nadrog?”
“That you will also see,” the chief said cagily. “He will be here soon.”
“I’m sick of all this cloak and dagger nonsense,” Rex complained. “Just tell us who this Nadrog is.”
The chief turned his face towards the sky. “Nadrog comes now.”
Jonathon squinted into the distance. “It’s a Pterodactyl.”
“No it isn’t.” Jed had it well within his sights now. “It’s too big for a Pterodactyl.”
“It’s enormous.” Rex had his binoculars trained on the creature. “That thing is huge.”
They watched as Nadrog swooped down into the gully and came to a hovering stop twenty feet above the bull. Opening his mouth wide he released a torrent of white hot flame that engulfed the hapless bull within seconds, and uttering one pain filled bellow the poor beast dropped scorched and lifeless to the ground.
“It’s a dragon,” Jonathon said in astonishment. “Nadrog is a dragon.”
Rex’s face fell. “I thought dragons were just fairy tales.”
Jed watched as the dragon dropped, and picking up its prey turned gracefully in the air before flapping its enormous wings and flying off the way it had come. “Obviously not,” he said quietly.
“That is your task,” the chief said somberly. “Kill Nadrog and I will take you and your friends to Chantros. Fail and you will never see the domed city.”
“Why don’t you fight the Dragon?” Rex snapped angrily.
The chief unbuttoned his tunic to reveal the flesh of a burns victim. “I lasted no more than a few seconds before he did this to me. If I hadn’t held my shield over my head for protection he would have killed me.”
Jed was still watching the dragon’s rapid departure towards the distant mountains. “What makes you think I’ll do any better against him?”
“You are a Sky-God. You think like a Sky-God while Nadrog thinks like one of us. He is used to our weapons and our methods of fighting only. Maybe you have a chance against him.” He turned his head to watch Nadrog who was not much more than a distant blob in the sky now. “He is very clever that one, more intelligent than any of the other creatures of our world.”
“I suppose he speaks too,” Rex said flippantly.
The chief turned to look at Rex. “I have never asked him,” he said, taking the remark seriously. “But it would not surprise me if he did.”
“Surely you are not seriously considering tackling that demon?” Rex said when they were back in the hut.
“What choice do I have? You heard him. If I don’t kill that dragon none of us will make it to Chantros. The Noragin are counting on us to bring back that weapon, or have you forgotten that?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten, Jed,” Rex said, calming down considerably. “But what can you do against a fire breathing dragon?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve got until tomorrow to come up with something.”
It was later that afternoon that Rex came back to him with an idea. “Look,” he said tentatively, “I’ve been thinking. It doesn’t seem possible that a creature can actually breathe out fire.”
“Well this one did, Rex,” Jed said irritably, “I saw him do it with my own eyes.”
“Just hear me out,” Rex insisted. “You saw that torch they had left in the ground next to the bull?”
“Yeah, the chief says they light that as the signal for Nadrog that his meal is ready. Apparently his eyesight is so good he can spot it from his lair in the mountains.”
“Well I’m thinking that torch is the key to making the contest between the two of you just a little more even.”
“I don’t follow you.” Jed could feel the irritation begin to creep back.
“I think the dragon is breathing out methane.”
“Okay,” said Jed, struggling to catch up with his friend’s line of reasoning, “so apart from giving Nadrog very foul breath, what is your point.”
Rex sighed, a little disappointed that Jed wasn’t taking him as seriously as he had hoped. “The flame from the torch is igniting the methane.”
Jed just stared at him for a moment before answering. “I think you just might have something there partner,” he said eventually. “I think you’ve just hit on a way of disarming that brute.”
Rex grinned contentedly. “I think I’ve told you before that I’m not just a pretty face.”
Jed was already thinking it over. “We need that torch to signal Nadrog to his meal though, or he might not come.”
“I’ve thought about that too. We’ll douse the torch with a bucket of water before the dragon gets within puffing range.”
“We…?”
“Of course, you didn’t think Jonathon and I would let you take on Nadrog alone did you?”
“You and Jonathon can’t come with me, Rex.”
“What’s to stop us?”
“The chief, he’s told me I must do
this on my own.”
“That’s crazy,” Rex roared. “How does he expect you to kill that dragon on your own?”
“I don’t think he really does expect I’ll be able to do it. But he has made it clear that I must do it on my own or nobody goes free.”
Rex plonked himself down in an air of defeat. “Even without his firepower Nadrog would be a formidable opponent for a small army. But for one man?”
“It must have been a dragon we saw the other day out on the Plain of the Giant Lizards.” Jed was remembering how they had watched something big and black fire a bolt of flame before diving suddenly groundwards. “What would have ignited the methane though?”
Rex considered the question for a moment. “Maybe a campfire,” he suggested.
Jed didn’t remember seeing any puffs of smoke, but then they had been a long way off. It was possible that someone had been cooking over a campfire. That must be it, and the fire had attracted the dragon to its meal.
“He’s got wicked teeth and claws this Nadrog,” Rex recalled. “And I’m willing to bet he could use that massive tail as a weapon too if he had a mind to.”
“Mmm, he’s going to be no pushover that’s for sure. But he must have a weakness somewhere.”
“Will the chief let you use a rifle?”
“Yes, but I need to find a vulnerable spot on him for a bullet to be effective. I was thinking maybe the throat?”
“It should be the softest spot on him. It’s going to take precision timing though and I doubt he’ll give you much time to take careful aim. One shot is all he’ll give you.”
“I’ll only need a split second. My real concern is will one bullet be enough to drop him.”
Rex didn’t answer, and Jed knew he was thinking the same thing he was, that several bullets wouldn’t be enough to drop a creature the size of Nadrog.
The Reluctant Warrior Page 20
