That is one nasty creature.
Nath crouched behind the pylon. His heart beat in his temples. The basilisk’s head slowly swiveled side to side. The foul creature was all scales with hard muscle rippling underneath. It moved with purpose, and no need for grace. Gobs of saliva dripped from its jaws. It tossed its short powerful neck backward and let out a loud birdlike call.
Guzan! It’s hungry!
Nath knew that there was a possibility that the basilisk might be sleeping. He’d hoped for it. The giant lizards were hunters though, and when they were hungry, they would be more than fierce.
The monster lizard weaved its way through the courtyard with its tail swishing over the snow behind it. Its body didn’t touch a single statue. It stopped in front of the petrified woman that held the clay jug. Its tongue flickered over Nath’s prints in the snow.
It knows I’m here!
The basilisk’s black eyes swept over the courtyard. Its gaze turned Nath’s way. He crept farther behind the pylon with his eyes averted toward the ground.
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.
Nath squeezed his eyes shut. It took all of his willpower to not take a look at the scaly, eight-legged brute. All he could hear was his heart thumping inside his temples and chest. It was so loud he swore the basilisk would hear it. Doubt crept into Nath’s mind. What if the basilisk did smell him? Its tongue went into his footprints; it had to know he was there. In his mind, he could see the saliva dripping from its jaws. It would rip him apart if it found him.
I should run. Ruffle will just have to find another son.
Clutching the hammer in an iron grip, Nath took a deep breath. He’d wrestled with dragons before, but none of them were so big. They didn’t want to kill him or eat him either. He recollected Master Elween’s instruction.
Calm yourself. Have a plan of action.
His thundering heartbeat quieted. Using his ears, he listened to what the basilisk was doing. There was a crunch of heavy footsteps in snow. He heard the sound of its mouth stretching open. He opened his eyes and peeked around the pylon. The basilisk’s jaws were wide. Rows of small, sharp teeth filled its mouth. A fine mist came from its jaws, coating the statue of the woman.
What in Nalzambor is it doing?
The basilisk had a gaze that would paralyze with a glance. The lizard’s breath would petrify the body. If they didn’t devour the body at first, they would drag it off and eat it later. Perhaps it had to keep them petrified with its breath by coating them every so often. It was difficult to tell.
The spines on the basilisk’s back glowed. Its eyes shone like stars.
Nath squinted.
That isn’t normal! There was a sinking feeling in Nath’s stomach. Oh my, I believe it ate the Star of Unity. What else could cause that?
The statue of the woman holding the clay jug blinked.
Nath tensed.
Her body slowly sagged to the ground.
Oh my goodness, she’s alive!
The lizard’s scales stopped glowing. Its teeth clacked together. The twinkle of starlight in its eyes went dim. It slavered over the awoken woman and opened its jaws wide again.
Without thinking, Nath ran at full speed toward the beast with his hammer raised up high. His lips were sealed, but his mind was screaming, “Dragon! Dragon!”
CHAPTER 35
Nath closed the distance between him and the basilisk in two seconds. He aimed at the hindquarters of the lizard. At the last second, the basilisk looked up. It turned its body away from Nath just as he unleashed his swing. The gem on the top of the hammer sparkled, making an arc of light in the air as he swung. He clipped the lizard’s hindquarters.
The basilisk jumped off of all eight of its clawed feet. It scurried back into the temple, dragging its tail between its legs. Panting, Nath watched as it vanished into the darkness. His instincts were on edge.
That was easy. It can’t be that easy. I might have scared it, but it will be back.
The woman lay on the ground with her teeth chattering. She shivered all over. Her eyes were spacey. Nath helped her to her feet. “You need to get out of here. Do you understand me?”
She shook her head as she shivered. “What happened?”
“I’ll explain later, but now you need to go.” He hurried her toward the entrance to the temple, taking quick glances over his shoulder. “Listen to me, get on the road, and keep going down. Don’t stop no matter what you hear. You should find help along the way.”
“But, what—”
“No time to explain, just go!” He gave her a little shove. “I’ll help the others.”
A terrible roar erupted out of the temple’s inner sanctuary.
The woman took off, running frantically through the snow and out the front entrance. The moment she was gone, Nath rushed across the courtyard, back behind the overhang, fully expecting the basilisk to come back out. He considered two courses of action. Climbing above to the overhang and hoping he could get a clean shot on it from behind with Stone Smiter, or taking his chances in the temple within and trying to find Blust and slipping out of there.
He waited, considering all options. He’d hoped to not encounter the lizard monster at all, but now, minutes into it, he’d attacked it. Things couldn’t have gone worse. Now, it seemed that the basilisk was even more than a terrible beast, but enhanced with powers that might come from the Stone of Unity. It was a theory, but it was the only one that made any sense. In addition to that, the people who were petrified, through some strange anomaly of magic and beast, could be revived. Nath wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. This compounded the problem. Not only did he need to find Blust, he needed to free them all, if possible.
If I can kill it, will that wipe out the chances of saving all of them? It’s not my problem they are cast in stone. They should have been paying better attention! Heh, of course, who’s going to remember people that don’t have any names?
That’s an awful way of thinking, Nath.
An unfamiliar sound caught Nath’s ears. He lifted a brow. There were many dragons known for singing, not as people do, but with a gentle harmony that came from their throats. A similar sound permeated the air and the surrounding rocks. If Nath were to guess, the lizard was singing a song of its own. It was soothing and softened Nath’s grip on the hammer. His rapid breathing eased. He remembered what Ruffle said about the Star of Unity. It could change the way people thought and take their violent intentions from their hearts. Nath’s knees bent. The falling snowflakes became something from a dream. He lifted his hand and caught them.
This isn’t so bad. It’s pretty.
Nath wandered into the courtyard, dragging the hammer behind him as he caught a few snowflakes on his tongue. “Mmmm… snowflake. I guess snow isn’t so bad. How can something so pretty be bad?” he said languidly.
Deep in a chasm within him, Nath’s fighting spirit screamed, “Wake up, you fool! There is a basilisk out there that wants to eat you!”
“Oh, I’ll be fine,” Nath said to himself. He stubbed his toe on something buried in the snow. He dug the snow away and saw another person buried under the flakes. It was a little man that looked like a hedgehog, little bigger than a toddler. “My, your eyes are big. Are you Blust?”
His inner voice said, “Pick him up and run! Pick him up and run!”
As the airy harmony permeated the air, Nath set the sledgehammer down on its head, burying it in the snow with its handle sticking straight up. With misty thought, he reached down and tried to pick up the little man. Blust’s body was frozen to the ground. “My, your backside must be awfully cold.” He bent at the knees, lifted, and put his back into it. “Hurk!”
The husky little body ripped away from the frozen grasses. Nath held the young hermix up like a baby. “That’s better,” he said with a warm smile. “I think your father is missing you.” He spoke with moony cheerfulness. “I’m going to take you back to him and free the others.” He ha
d an idea. “Say, perhaps I can have the basilisk unthaw you right now. And the others as well. Wouldn’t that be grand, little fella?”
Nath’s inner voice shouted once again. “Run, you fool!”
With the hermix held up right before his eyes, Nath started to slowly turn. “I’m certain we will find him.”
The dreamy sound of music ended. Nath’s dreamy thoughts began to clear. Blinking, he stared at the hermix in his hands. His nostrils flared. A fetid breath was upon him. Something dripped and sizzled in the snow. He lowered the petrified hermix. Tucking it under his arm, he found himself face to massive face with the basilisk. Its hypnotic eyes fastened on Nath’s.
“Grab Stone Smiter!” his inner voice said.
Nath’s carnal reflexes acted. His hand grabbed the handle, but his eyes were locked with the basilisk. Terror gripped his heart. His limbs stiffened like stone. He couldn’t even blink.
Nooooooooooooo!
CHAPTER 36
The basilisk roared in Nath’s face. The inside of its mouth was a tunnel into a rank blackness. Rotted flesh and bone were wedged in its teeth. Nath, though paralyzed, could still smell, feel, and hear everything. The smell was awful as waste. Tiny little flies buzzed on the inside of the monster’s mouth. It snapped its jaws shut with a loud clack of teeth.
Nath felt the wind on his face. His heart beat fast. The icy wind gave him hope as the terror caused by the monster’s glaring eyes that sent his heart jumping began to wear off. So long as the monster didn’t breathe on him, he wouldn’t be petrified like stone. So he hoped. The basilisk’s black, soulless eyes devoured Nath. Its tongue licked over his body, smacking his face, hair, and hands. If Nath were to guess, the giant reptile was confused about what he was.
I might look like a man, but I bet I taste like a dragon. His only hope was that he somehow confused the monster by being what he was. If anything, it gave him time. His fingers tightened on the handle of the hammer. Unlike mortal men, whose bodies would freeze under the deadly gaze of the basilisk, Nath recovered more quickly. The basilisk surprised him, but strength started to flow into his rigid limbs.
I just need a little more time. Please, don’t breathe that mist on me!
As the basilisk inspected him, Nath couldn’t help but think about the horrors of being eaten whole. Or alive for that matter. It seemed that the basilisk had been feasting on the people it had petrified for quite some time, and he didn’t want to become one of them. Nath needed a distraction. He had to throw the monster off its game. There was only one way he could do it, and that was by doing what tripped him up in the first place. He needed to look into the eyes of the reptile again.
It snorted in his face.
Come on, look at me!
The basilisk fixed its soulless eyes on Nath again. Its probing stare locked on Nath’s consciousness and sent slivers of terror underneath his skin. The monster’s stare bent his will, trying to push it over like a tower of blocks that would fall and sink into a pit of despair. Deep inside, Nath let the anger within him unfurrow. He’d been enslaved, tormented, beaten, and abused. Everything that happened to him had been the fault of one monster or another. He pulled up the faces of his enemies. He saw them in the basilisk’s eyes. The Black Hand. Prawl. Foster and even Ruffle had angered him. It fed fire into his veins, and something else came to mind in his thoughts of rage. He glared back at the monster. I am the son of Balzurth! I am the Dragon Prince! And you, vermin with scales, are nothing!
The basilisk reared back. Its mouth opened wide.
Nath thought for certain that a petrifying glaze would spew from its slavering mouth. Instead, a frustrated roar came out. That’s it, let it all out, monster! Nath’s powerful constitution, fueled by the dragon blood in his veins, restored the strength in his body. He remained still, channeling all of his focus into the hammer. Still eyeing the basilisk, he caught the hammer’s gem glowing out of the corner of his eye. The handle warmed in his hand.
A gurgling sound came from inside the basilisk’s gaping mouth. Back inside its throat were nodules of flesh that pulsated. A steaming mist burst forth.
Nath brought the hammer up out of the snow in an underhanded swing. The head of the hammer crashed into the lizard’s bottom jaw. Its mouth clacked together. Chips of ivory-white teeth flung into the snow. Nath sprang backward just as the lizard’s tail swiped right at him. The tip of the tail clipped his chest, spinning him halfway around. Using the momentum, Nath kept spinning, bringing around a defensive two-handed swing.
The basilisk moved fast with its head low.
Stone Smiter hit it flush in the side of the head. Its neck rocked left. All eight powerful legs wobbled. It staggered through the snow, moving in a slow circle, like an old dog chasing its tail. It shook its neck side to side. The lids on its black eye blinked. Then, sudden as a crashing wave, it charged Nath.
With the hammer over his shoulder, Nath brought it up and thrust it down like he was busting stone in the quarry. The lizard skidded in the snow, pulled back, and watched the hammer bust into the earth. It charged before Nath could lift his swing. The full weight of its body bowled Nath over. It crushed Nath into the snow, its front claws ripping at his chest. It bit at Nath.
Nath rolled his head aside. Mouth wide open, the monster struck again. He stuck the entire length of the sledgehammer in the monster’s mouth, wedging its jaws wide open. The reptile reared up on its four back legs, shaking its head with fury. Nath rolled aside and scrambled to his feet. His eyes swept over the courtyard, looking for a weapon. Anything. The beast trampled recklessly through the courtyard, knocking the statues over as the ground quaked. Nath slid out of the wild beast’s path time and again, hurdling urns and skidding over the snow.
What I wouldn’t do to have Fang at my side.
With a hard shake of its head, it flung the hammer out of its mouth. The hammer flew end over end and landed squarely in Nath’s awaiting hands. He gaped.
Zounds! What are the chances? Somebody somewhere must still like me!
The wild lizard tilted its head and lowered its belly to the ground. The spiny ridges on its back rose with a glow. Its dark eyes turned into the bright stars of the night. With a tongue flickering out of its mouth, it snorted in Nath’s direction.
Brandishing his hammer with the gemstone aglow, Nath said, “I suppose it’s too late to talk about this?”
The basilisk charged.
Nath ran at it swinging.
CHAPTER 37
The melee went back and forth with Nath fighting with everything he had in him. The hammer struck into the lizard’s flexible iron hide, only to see the basilisk recoil briefly and spring back again. The hammer flashed. The eight-legged juggernaut of a monster hissed and roared. Its claws scraped over Nath’s breastplate. Its tail slapped Nath to the ground. Rolling and spitting blood from his mouth, he bounced back up and rushed at the lizard.
Stone Smiter busted into the monster’s hide. Hard bone snapped. The frenzied lizard tore into Nath with claws and teeth. He skipped and twisted away from the tips of nails and teeth. Nath’s quickness saved his neck time and again. The monster, though not slow by any means, couldn’t keep up. It chased him. Nath moved like a jackrabbit, evading its lethal swipes and biting jaws. Nath hit it again with the hammer, striking it above the tail. The blow skipped off.
Even this hammer cannot harm its hide!
With arms as heavy as lead, Nath kept swinging, keeping the brute at bay. A sword would be a more formidable weapon that could slice through its armor and pierce its inner flesh. Hitting it with a hammer was like beating a rug with a broom. All it did was knock the snow off it. And Nath didn’t have time to put it all behind his swings. I heard a crack though! I know I broke a rib. Or two!
Nath and the basilisk went back and forth, exchanging blows and swipes. Its eyes still glinted like stars. The spikes on its back were ridges of mystic fire. Nath had no doubt that something was protecting and nullifying Stone Smiter’s heavy-handed blows. Face-
to-face, the lizard spit poison at Nath. He jumped aside. The poison burned into his arm. “Aaaugh!”
The behemoth charged.
Nath leapt. He struck it square on the tip of its nose. As the beast turned aside, Nath drew back and took another hard swipe into the ribs he hit before. The lizard moaned. Its eight clawed feet scraped up the snow and dirt. The glowing ridges on its back flickered. Nath gave chase, hitting the basilisk in the same spot again and again. More bone snapped inside its body. Its legs gave way.
It lurched forward, slinking toward the entrance into the temple, moaning a deafening, painful roar the entire way. Its spiny ridges flickered out. It pulled itself forward at an agonizing pace.
Nath climbed on the basilisk’s back, straddling the upright ridges, lifted the sledgehammer high, and brought it down with all of his might. The hammer’s head came down in a flash like lightning. The metal hit the skull, making a thunderclap. Bone caved in to the unyielding head of metal. The basilisk fell dead with its tongue halfway out of its mouth.
On shaking legs, Nath hopped down. He poked the beast a few times in the back with his hammer. “Thank the dragons that’s over.” He collapsed to a seated position in the snow. Steam came off his sweaty body. His arms and legs were caked with blood. He pushed his matted hair out of his eyes. “I can’t believe I killed it. I didn’t think it could be done. Even with this hammer.”
He respected the monster and had no desire to kill it, but what had to be done, had to be done. It just didn’t turn out the way that he hoped it would. But it was a basilisk. There was no good in them. All they did was kill, terrorize, eat, and move on once they’d destroyed everything and had no food left.
Enslaved: The Odyssey of Nath Dragon - Book 2 (The Lost Dragon Chronicles) Page 11
