“You should get some rest,” Rex suggested. “And get Amora to check your leg. These people may have something that will do it some good.”
Jed took his friends advice on the first suggestion but not on the second. There was no point going to the trouble of doctoring the leg when he was most likely going to be dead by this time tomorrow.
That night the chief sent them a jar of his own special brew. Jed figured it was the chiefs way of apologizing for making him fight a dragon he knew he had no chance in beating.
Rex was first to the jar and took a deep draft. “Whew.” He handed it to Jed before taking a few steps backwards. “I swear that stuff must be almost pure alcohol.”
Jed took a swig and had to agree, it certainly packed quite a punch.
Later that evening when the booze had lulled the others off to sleep he thought about the possibility that this could be his last night alive, and what it would mean for his companions. The chief would definitely take Amora for his woman, she wouldn’t get a say in the matter, and Jed couldn’t bear the thought of her being the woman of a man she didn’t love.
Rex and Jonathon’s fates were predictable enough. When he failed to slay Nadrog they would be sent one at a time into the gully to try their luck. Rex was plucky enough, and Jonathon had proved his worth the night they had attacked Montrose’s compound, but neither was going to be a match for the dragon. Jed was the only one who had any chance at all, and slim though that chance was he alone had the ability to think on the hop, to change tactics at a split seconds notice.
He must have drifted off eventually for he opened his eyes to discover Rex gently shaking him. “Wake up, Buddy,” he was saying sadly, “it’s time.”
Sitting up he took in the surroundings of the dingy hut. Jonathon was standing over by the window with his back to him, just silently staring out the window. Amora was hunched up in the corner with her head resting on her knees, and it sounded as if she was softly crying.
Rex helped him to his feet. “We’ll give you and Amora a few minutes alone together,” he said, then with Jonathon behind him slipped out the door.
“Amora…come here, honey.”
She was in his arms in seconds. “I don’t want you to go,” she whispered tearfully.
“I have to it’s my duty to your people to get to Chantros. If I defeat Nadrog then the chief will take us there.”
“Nadrog will kill you.”
He attempted a smile. “I’m a mighty warrior, Amora…remember?”
“No warrior is mighty enough to defeat Nadrog, not even you.” She looked at him through tear filled eyes. “I don’t want to live the next seven hundred years without you, Jed Rand. I could never love again you are the only man for me.”
“I must do this, Amora. So many lives are counting on me.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. “I know.”
“I’ll do everything I can to come back to you.” He did his best to sound confident for her even though he wasn’t confident at all. He would fight like a wildcat when the time came but there was only so much a man could do against a beast of that size and power. Kissing her gently he slipped out the door before she could say anything to him that might make him lose what little courage he had left.
The sacrificial beast was in place and the torch just lit as he made his descent to the bottom of the gully. The chief had given him a full length shield made of the lightest of steel which aided movement, and he also had Rex’s rifle slung over his shoulder.
Nadrog wasn’t long in coming, he must have been hungry. Jed tried his best to calm his hammering heart as he watched the black dot grow larger and more defined in the early morning sky. Positioning himself beside the burning torch he did a quick check to make sure the bucket of water was still in place and then planned how he would drop the shield to fire his rifle. It was going to be a problem, for he needed both his hands to aim and fire which meant shedding himself of the protection of the shield. That was going to open him up to Nadrog’s fiery attacks.
The dragon was not too far off now, and Jed could tell Nadrog had spotted him by the way he suddenly veered off to run a circuit of the gully, checking Jed out and assessing the danger the human posed to him. Finally, satisfied that he was more than a match for the lone man he began his descent.
Tossing the water onto the torch and picking up his shield a bolt of hot flame rocked him back on his feet, the heat scorching the hairs on his arm through the thin metal. “But the torch is out,” he said to himself in his bemused state. “So what’s igniting the methane?”
Another fiery blast broadsided the shield and sent him reeling backwards from the force of it. “So much for your theory, Rex Ferguson,” he muttered angrily.
When the dragon attacked again he knew it was the last time the shield would be of any use to him, it had become so hot he could barely hold on to it. He must retreat or die, and so he began a slow but measured withdrawal towards his escape route.
Nadrog was looking from Jed to the tethered bull and back to Jed again, he was obviously very hungry and was in a quandary as to whether he should deal to Jed or eat his breakfast. With Jed now moving away from him he must have decided the threat no longer existed, for he turned back towards the frightened bull.
“You have failed,” the chief said angrily, when Jed had climbed back up the gully to join the others.
“I have not failed,” Jed growled, with as much venom as he could muster. “I have discovered Nadrog’s weakness. Put a bull out again tomorrow and then I will slay him for you.”
The chief looked at him with intense suspicion. “Very well,” he agreed reluctantly. “But you must kill him tomorrow or you and your two friends must die.”
“So what was the weakness you spotted in him?” Rex asked excitedly, when they were back in the hut.
“I didn’t spot any weakness in him,” Jed said irritably.
“Then why did you tell the chief you did?”
“What was I supposed to tell him?” Jed exploded. “I can’t beat Nadrog for you so my friends and I will just be on our way?” He paced stiffly over to the window before turning back. “It would have helped if you hadn’t filled my head with that cock and bull story about Nadrog only breathing out fire if there’s a flame about.”
Rex’s head drooped. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that, I got that bit badly wrong.”
“That brute almost fried me down there.” Jed thrust out his reddened forearm, its skin peeling off in long strips. “There’s only so much of this that a man can take.”
Rex held out his hands in appeal. “What can I say but I’m truly sorry.”
“Never mind all this now,” Jonathon said, suddenly injecting himself into the conversation, “it’s past history. We have to come up with something that will beat Nadrog by the morning.”
“You think?” Jed gave him a withering look. “Thanks for that little insight, Jonathon, but I’m all out of ideas.”
“But I’m not,” Jonathon answered, not taking his friends rebuke to heart. “Each time Nadrog fired his flame at you I heard a loud click first. I noticed he had two long teeth on both his upper and lower jaws, and I think he strikes them together to create a spark which ignites the methane after it has left his throat.”
“But that’s not a weakness,” Jed said, trying hard not to explode again, “that’s a strength.”
“That is,” Jonathon agreed, “but what he does immediately beforehand most definitely is not.”
“I’m listening.”
“For at least five seconds before he huffs out the methane he opens his mouth wide, very wide. I guess he is drawing up as much methane as he possibly can.”
Jed’s frustration levels were reaching fever pitch again. “So?” he demanded. “How’s that going to help me?”
“You recall that booze the chief gave us last night…the stuff Rex claimed was nearly pure alcohol?”
Jed raced across the room and embraced Jonathon in a fit of excitement. “Yo
u’re a genius, Jonathon…you’re a certified genius.”
Jonathon chuckled at the sudden change in Jed’s mood. “I must admit, I do have my moments.” His face then changed to a more serious expression. “You’re going to have to time it to perfection though, and if you miss he won’t fall for it a second time.”
“I won’t miss,” Jed said with confidence. “You’ve given us all our lives back, Jonathon, I won’t ever forget this.”
Rex had been looking from one to the other as their conversation had unfolded. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” he pleaded.
“A Molotov cocktail, Rex,” Jonathon said simply.
“What? Make some sense man.”
“While the dragon has his mouth open Jed will toss a Molotov made from alcohol down its throat igniting the methane while it is still inside Nadrog.”
“Brilliant,” Rex gushed, finally getting it, “that’s brilliant, Jonathon.”
“There’s no guarantee it’ll work,” he pointed out.
“It’ll work with Jed on the job,” Rex said, oozing with confidence. “I can’t wait to see the look on the chief’s face when Jed kills that thing.”
“I just hope he keeps his promise if I do.”
Jonathon turned to Amora. “Can you see the chief about giving us some more of that alcohol? He’s more likely to give it to us if you ask him. Five or six cupfuls should be enough.” As Amora slipped out the door on her errand he turned his attention back to Jed. “How are we going to deliver this Molotov?”
“I was thinking we could soak a ball of cloth in the alcohol, light it, and toss it down the dragon’s throat.”
“How will you protect your hand?”
“Wrap some rag around it I guess. Anyway, my hand getting burnt will be the least of my worries.”
That night ripping up what remained of his shirt Jed kept a piece aside for a glove and rolling the rest into a tight ball left it to soak in the alcohol. Next morning he was up early, his brain systematically going over the procedure he was about to perform. By the time he was positioned in the gully he had the entire maneuver rehearsed many times over in his head, and all it needed now was for the dragon to do his part.
Searching the distant mountains with his keen eye he saw the dark shape he was looking for coming ever closer through the clear sky. Nadrog was on his way, and how he would react when he saw Jed there for the second morning in a row remained to be seen. Would he attack in the same manner as yesterday or would he try something different? The chief had warned him that the dragon was a very intelligent creature, so maybe he had learnt after yesterday’s encounter not only to think like the people of this world but like a Sky-God too.
Nadrog was almost to the gully, and already Jed could see by the way the wily creature was craning his head forward that he was planning what to do. With a sudden screech he veered off his flight path and ducked down behind one of the hills that formed a side of the gully.
“Where have you gone you cunning demon,” Jed muttered nervously, as he did a slow pirouette, his shield held at the ready as he waited for the dragon to reappear.
Suddenly Nadrog was behind him, coming in fast and low, and Jed only just had time to spin round and drop behind his shield before a sizzling blast enveloped it. Risking a quick peek to see what the beast was up to he witnessed Nadrog bank hard to the left before going into a steep climb. Jed was on to his plan in an instant; he would go into a straight dive and fire at him from directly overhead.
“You can think like a Sky-God,” Jed murmured, before kneeling down and holding his shield aloft testudo fashion.
The heat when it came was intense, not only was his already scorched arm taking another battering but he could now smell the acrid fumes of his own singed hair. He really needed Nadrog to land, as he couldn’t use the Molotov unless he did, and if the dragon kept up this blistering assault for much longer then Jed was finished, he couldn’t hold on to the roasting shield forever. An idea suddenly came to him. If he were to cut the bull loose maybe Nadrog would become more concerned about his escaping meal than he was about Jed, so racing over to the pole he slashed the tether with his hunting knife and watched hopefully as the bull galloped bellowing in fear down the gully.
Nadrog had noticed his runaway breakfast and was obviously deciding what to do about it. Would he deal to the human and let his meal get away, or would he see to the bull before killing Jed? To Jed’s relief he decided on the latter, and so as soon as Jed saw him wheel around to chase the bull he was off in pursuit also, determined to get as close as possible to the dragon when he landed.
Nadrog downed the young bull with one prolonged blast, and then landing abruptly beside it sniffed cautiously at the smoking carcass before turning to face Jed who had slowed to a walk and then came to a stop. Fumbling in his pocket he pulled out the piece of rag and quickly wound it around his hand before picking up his shield and advancing to within the dragon’s puffing range. Taking the alcohol soaked ball from inside his jacket he held it at the ready.
It was then that the realization hit him, he had moved away from the flaming torch and so he now had no way to light the Molotov. “You fool, Jed Rand,” he said furiously, aware that he had now rendered his only weapon against the almost invincible monster totally ineffective.
As Nadrog’s mouth opened wide Jed instinctively dropped behind his shield in anticipation of the torrent of burning gas he knew was about to come, barely suppressing a scream as the steel glowed red hot against his body. That was the moment it came to him what it was he must do, and so gathering what remained of his strength and jamming the shield tightly against his body he charged blindly at the dragon, all the while feeling the leather on his boots melt into the flesh of his feet and the skin of his hand dissolve before his eyes, and although the scream that came from his lips was sincere he was relieved to see that his plan was successful, for the dragon himself had ignited the weapon that was about to bring about his own death. Dropping the shield and raising his arm Jed took careful aim, and as Nadrog opened his mouth wide to reach deep for one last fiery load Jed threw a ball that even a major leaguer would be proud of.
A muffled explosion came from deep within the dragon; rearing up on his hind legs he released an ear shattering screech that filled the gully with terror from one end to the other. Jed sensed it was make or break time, if Nadrog recovered from this then he was a dead man.
Sinking back on all fours and stretching out his long neck low to the ground Nadrog began to retch. Seeing his chance Jed raced in and diving on the dragon’s neck stuck his knife into an unprotected eye. Nadrog was up on his hind legs in an instant, shrieking in pain and fury, his neck shaking violently from side to side to dislodge the Sky-God. Wrapping his legs as well as his arms around the slender neck Jed hung on for dear life until the dragon began to tire, and then swapping his knife to his other hand he plunged it deep into Nadrog’s good eye losing his grip as the dragon fell swiftly towards the ground.
Flung heavily to the floor of the gully, bruised and winded, Jed immediately sprang to his feet to confront his adversary. But the contest was over, for Jed’s blade had found its way into the beast’s brain and now Nadrog lay dead on the ground before him.
As an enormous cheer broke out on the cliff above the gully Jed walked gingerly over to the dragon and extracted his knife. He had won, but at what cost he wasn’t too sure yet. If he could make it back up to the village he would get his friends to check out his wounds.
The chief was waiting for him at the top of the gully. “The Noragin was right,” he said admiringly, “you are the mightiest of warriors. When you are ready I will guide you to Chantros.”
Jed nodded stiffly. “I will let you know when I am ready. But for now I must have my friends tend my wounds.”
“Of course,” the chief immediately cleared a path through the mass of onlookers and personally escorted Jed to the door of the hut. “I will fetch my healer,” he said, before disappearing.
<
br /> Inside the hut Rex and Jonathon immediately went to work on him as Amora stood by in anxious silence.
“His left arm is seriously burned,” Jonathon reported. “Right hand is going to need a lot of work to put it to rights.”
“All the skin on his feet is gone,” Rex added. “It’s stuck to the leather of his boots. He may have a couple of broken ribs too, that fall from Nadrog’s neck was a long one.”
“What about his leg?” Amora insisted, breaking her own self imposed silence. “How bad is his leg?”
Jed lay there passively as the two men undid his belt and rolling his trousers down stared in shocked silence.
“Oh, Jed,” a half sob slipped past Amora’s usually calm reserve.
Jed looked at Rex. “It’s not good, buddy,” Rex said gently.
Jed managed to prop himself up on his elbows long enough to get a good look for himself. The wound was black and festering and seeped evil smelling pus. But what concerned him the most were the dark red streaks that had gone beyond his knee and now reached almost to his hip bone.
He slumped back on the mattress with a dejected air. “Not good is an understatement,” he said despondently.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jed slept fitfully that night only dimly aware of someone wiping his burning face with a damp cloth, and occasionally he heard someone yell out but was not sure why. By the time morning had dawned he was in a bad way, and though he could dimly hear voices it was only now and again that a face would swim into focus.
“It’s about as serious as it could be,” a familiar voice said.
“We have no cure for a wound as bad as that,” said an unfamiliar one.
Through his dazed state he could feel not only the pain in his leg but also the burning heat that ran the length of his arm, and also the not unsubstantial ache in his ribcage. When he did finally come round he discovered his clothes were soaked in sweat.
“What’s happened?” he muttered sickly.
Amora knelt down beside him. “You’ve had a bad fever,” she said, gently wiping his forehead with a damp cloth. “But it has passed now.”
The Reluctant Warrior Page 21
