A Dragon Born (37 page)

Ariana reached out and touched one of his arms, gently pulling his hand away from his ear.

"Listen to him," she said. "He is yelling because you won't hear him."

"I don't want to hear him," Borrican said, shrugging her hand away and putting his hand back over his ears. "My brother is right, he's terrible."

"No," Ariana said, touching his arm again. "He is trying to make you hear him. Just listen. What harm can it do?"

Borrican looked at her with the expression one might see on the face of a child who had wandered away from its parent and had just discovered them missing.

"Just listen," Ariana said.

Borrican stared at her in the darkness and slowly took his hands away from his ears and let them fall to his lap. She could see him gritting his teeth and she gently took his hand and held it. Borrican seemed to calm from her touch, and Ariana knew it had something to do with the knowledge his father had given her.

"He is so angry," Borrican said, "and lonely. He is very alone. I don't want to be alone like him. Who would want to be with a monster like that?"

"Your mother did," Ariana told him.

"She is dead," Borrican said.

"And before that, she was alive and she loved your father. She gave him two sons and she raised both of you for many years. Was she ever afraid of him?"

Borrican thought about it for a moment. "No, she wasn't."

"And she knew, didn't she?"

"Yes, she must have. She knew."

"And yet she loved him."

"She did," Borrican said and he remembered his parents together, that they always seemed happy.

"And he loved her," Ariana said, "and he still does, even though she is gone."

"He is very alone," Borrican said.

"He has no one to talk to," she told him. "Listen to him."

Borrican sat silently and she felt him relax and his breathing calm. Ariana felt his skin grow warm under her hand but she continued holding his hand even though his eyes had begun to flicker with deep flames and his entire body radiated heat. Eric told her the fire would not touch her, she reminded herself, so long as harm was not intended. She trusted the visions Eric had given her and she trusted Borrican, he would never mean to do her harm.

Eric soared over the droves of dead soldiers, satisfied that he had incinerated enough of them that their numbers could not overrun the city walls so easily and he was about to go looking for Cerric when he felt something sharp pierce his leg and a jolt of energy coursed through the muscle where it had hit. He adjusted his wings and turned, then felt himself being pulled by whatever had hit him. Eric looked down and saw a metal spike sticking out of a thin part of his skin, on the inner part of his leg and it was attached to a long chain that was anchored to the ground. Whatever energy it had was now spent and it had barely affected him, but it was irritating to be anchored to the ground. He reached down with a clawed hand and tried to pull the spike out of him but it would not budge and the pull from the chain was making it difficult to stay in the air. He beat his wings and felt the chain begin to groan and finally he pulled free and lifted higher into the air again, but his leg still felt heavy.

Eric looked down and saw a large chunk of rock the size of a house swinging from the end of the chain that was attached to his leg. He reached down and picked up the rock then, with his other hand he crushed the chain between his sharp claws, breaking it close to the spike. He threw the boulder toward the area that looked like the sort of place where Cerric and his commanders might be and he started to fly in that direction when another spike pierced him on the inside of his forearm. Like the other one, the spike would not pull out, so he snipped the chain and pulled free of it, then circled around looking for who was shooting at him. In the smoke from the fires, amid the burning bodies of dead soldiers, Eric saw them. The lizard men were scattered among the regular soldiers and several of them were holding what looked like oversized crossbows.

Eric breathed a blast of acid fire at them and the Darga scattered, quickly dodging out of the way. Foolish creatures, he thought, believing they could fight an Akandar. His sharp eyes picked them out easily and he dropped from the sky, landing heavily on top of several of them, crushing them underfoot and swinging his armored and spiked tail, knocking them into the air. Two more spikes flew at him. One glanced harmlessly off his armored scales and Eric caught one mid-air and sent it flying back at the Darga who had fired it. The spike smashed through the giant bow and impaled the Darga who stood behind it.

Draxis was irritated that the spikes he had made were having little effect on the giant creature and, now that he saw it up close, he knew just how fearsome the dragon really was. He had been caught by a splash of one of Eric's blasts of acid fire and his left shoulder screamed in pain from the burn. Draxis ignored the discomfort in his shoulder and focused on the task at hand. This monster had the power that Draxis dreamed of possessing and Cerric knew how to take it. All he had to do was capture it. He signaled his Darga to open fire and two dozen metal spikes were released at once, speeding toward the dragon.

With his keen dragon sight, Eric saw the metal spikes flying toward him from all directions and he realized that he had sprung a trap. He spun around, swinging his tail around to knock more of the Darga away, while putting his heavily armored outer scales in the path of as many of the spikes as possible. Most of them fell away but five of them stuck, all of them releasing more energy in to him. A single spike was a mere irritation, but five at once proved exceptionally painful and Eric roared as the parts of his body that were hit spasmed as the energy coursed into his flesh. This time they did not stop and Eric realized that there were mages at the other ends of the chains attached to the spikes. He sprayed acid fire and three of them were engulfed in flames.

The pain subsided and he was able to move a little more freely, though the chains still held him in place. He snapped one of them with his claws then he lunged toward a small group of Darga, working with one of the two remaining mages, baring his rows of sharp teeth at them. The mage died in an explosion of sparks as Eric's teeth cut the man's body in half and several of the Darga narrowly missed being chewed by the dragon. He snapped the chain and felt himself being pulled toward the ground as the other three chains that were lodged in his neck, the front of his shoulder and his right arm were pulled tight by groups of Darga.

Draxis ran forward with the giant axe he had taken from Boric and leapt high into the air over the dragon's head as his Darga warriors dragged the creature lower to the ground. He smashed the axe down hard, but instead of connecting with the dragon's skull, Draxis was hit hard from the side and thrown to the ground by one of Eric's thick, curved horns. He pushed himself to his feet and ran toward the dragon, swinging the giant axe at its forearm, which was reaching toward the Darga who were pulling on one of the chains. The axe cut through a thick scale and bit into flesh and the dragon roared and swatted at him, but Draxis yanked the axe free and jumped out of the way. He ran back along beside the dragon and swung the axe underneath it, aiming for its less heavily armored belly and the axe cut a deep gash in the creature.

Eric roared again as the axe bit him and he reached forward and crushed the Darga who were holding the chain attached to his right arm. He swatted at the strange half-Darga who had the audacity to use his brother's axe, but the creature was quick and he dodged away, leaping over Eric's back and attacking his left let. Eric managed to shift his knee around just enough that the axe came down on a heavily armored patch. It glanced off and Eric saw the half-Darga take a step back. Eric reached over and clawed at the chain that was in his left shoulder, cutting it in two, then he pulled the spike that was in the softer skin of his neck and ripped it out, causing acid blood to rain down on the Darga and soldiers who were unlucky enough to be below him.

Draxis knew he was out of time when he saw the last chain cut and saw the dragon rising up from the ground. He darted in toward the creature's stomach, swinging the giant axe but he felt himself being snatched right out of the air by a giant, clawed hand. The pressure of the dragon's claws felt like it would crush him, but Draxis felt himself being carried up into the air instead.

"You are the half-Darga, Calexis' whelp?" Eric growled as they soared through the air.

"I am Prince Draxis of Xalla, leader of the Darga tribes," Draxis told him, defiantly.

"Not for much longer," Eric told him. "You dare to use my brother's axe?"

"It is my right as the victor," Draxis sneered.

"You don't look victorious to me," Eric growled. "Let us see how Cerric and your mother, the Xallan Queen feel about who is the victor."

Eric flew toward the command tent, where he saw Cerric standing, calmly staring at him, with Calexis nervously stepping behind him as the dragon approached. Soldiers scattered in all directions as he landed before them.

"Cerric, you dare to break the peace with Kandara and you send this whelp to kill my brother," the dragon thundered as he held Draxis out for them to see. "You will pay for these crimes. Now order your soldiers to leave this land, or I will crush the life out of your wife's ill gotten whelp."

"I see you have failed in your duty, Draxis and I have little use for failure," Cerric said, looking at the half-Darga clutched tightly in the dragon's grasp. He looked up at the dragon and smiled."Go ahead, Akandar. Kill him."

"Cerric, please," Calexis said, behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at her.

"He killed the Duke. Do you expect this monster would let him live after committing such an act?" Cerric spoke calmly but made sure his voice was loud enough for the dragon to hear him. He shrugged then turned back to the dragon. "Eric Akandar, surrender your power to me, and I will let the people of Kandara live. At the request of my lovely queen, release Draxis and I will forbid the Darga from having their way with the people in the city of Kandara. Kneel before me and I will let your people live."

"You are a fool, Cerric," the dragon laughed. "Akandar kneel to no man."

"You will kneel before a god," Cerric told him.

Eric snorted and his deep laughter filled the air with great puffs of smoke. He sniffed at the man who stood before him, then blew a gust of wind and smoke.

"I can smell the power on you, Cerric. It is no doubt some trick you have played with these mages of yours, but even if you truly possessed the power of a god, I would no more kneel to you than I would to the cowardly man who could do no better than to envy his brother. If you were a god, you would know I will never kneel. Dragons do not kneel."

"You are correct, Akandar," Cerric said. "I never expected you to kneel before me."

"Then why would you make such foolish demands?"

"Curiosity," Cerric said. "I wished to know if the dragons had changed over these many years. It seems you are as arrogant as ever."

"You are one to talk of arrogance. Enough talk. I will roast you and your Xallan whore to ash and be done with you."

Eric drew in a deep breath and unleashed a river of fire directly upon them. Flames spilled out upon the ground as the dragon's acid fire spread out over the camp, incinerating everything in its path, but amid the flames, Cerric and the Xallan queen remained unharmed. Eric stared at the usurper king of Maramyr and he realized that the power he had smelled upon the man was no trick. Somehow Cerric had become powerful enough to survive even the raging fire of a dragon.

Calexis shuddered as the flames raged around her, but she felt little heat from it, only the warmth one might find sitting near a hearth. It was as though she and Cerric were cocooned in a blanket of cool, dry air. Her hand rested on the back of his shoulder as the flames roared around them and she felt something. It was as though he was growing larger in size, and her hand suddenly felt small and slid further down his back as the fabric of his shirt become coarse as even the threads from which it was made grew thick as ropes. She stepped back from him as the dragon fire turned to normal flames and smoke. The cool, air that had protected them dissipated and now Calexis felt the heat of the fire, though she knew it would not burn her, thanks to the changes that had come from birthing her Darga children. Cerric continued to grow in size and she looked past him and saw her son, Draxis, still held, helpless in the dragon's claws, but she knew there was little she could do for him. She used what little power she had to create a protective barrier around herself and she stepped away from her husband and the dragon, knowing their battle was about to begin.

Cerric leapt at the dragon with blinding speed and smashed his fist into the side of the creature's head. Eric roared in surprise and stumbled backwards, recoiling his neck away from another fast strike that narrowly missed his jaw. Cerric continued to grow and stood almost as tall as the dragon as he stepped forward and swung a fist at the creature's chest. Shocked at the power of Cerric's strike, Eric barely noticed when his claws reflexively opened and the half-Darga was thrown from his grasp. In furious rage, Eric snapped at the giant king but Cerric jumped back, just beyond the powerful jaws and the giant dragon teeth. He felt the dragon take in more air, and he laughed.

"Flames as weak as those will not touch me, Akandar," he said then he leapt forward and grabbed the dragon by the horns as Eric unleashed another blast of liquid fire, this one even hotte than the last.

Cerric felt the heat, but it was only flame and it washed over him, barely even singing the clothes on his back. This dragon king was as arrogant as his ancient brethren, but his power was pathetically weak in comparison. Cerric held tight to the dragon's horns and twisted in a hard, sharp motion, rolling the creature over onto its side. He put out his knee and smashed the dragon's neck against it and he felt the crunch of bones breaking.

Eric gasped as he felt his neck break. How Cerric could be so powerful was beyond comprehension, unless what the usurper king had said was true and somehow he had gained the power of a god. Even so, it did not explain how he could have beaten him so easily. Dragons had fought with gods many times in the last age, and though the gods were powerful, the dragons bested many of them. Cerric let go of his horns and Eric fell to the ground, unable to move, and he realized that perhaps it was he who was not strong enough. Breathing was becoming difficult and Eric could feel the fire within him beginning to cool. As the god-king stepped away from him, he reached out one last time to his sons and, for the first time, he heard it.

"Borrican?"

"Father?"

"Son." Eric smiled.

"What is happening, father?"

"I am dying, my boy. I have fought Cerric and he has won."

"How? How could a man such as him defeat a..."

"A monster?"

"That is not what I meant."

"It is what you meant, Borrican. Your thoughts are not so tidy as little words, but it is no matter. I am dying, and I do not have long. I am glad we can finally speak to each other, son, though it saddens me that we have so little time. There is much that I would share with you, but there are other things that are more urgent."

"Yes, father."

"Cerric claims to have become a god, and that may be the only truth he has spoken. Everything else about him is a lie, but he is powerful, too powerful. You cannot fight him and win. Not yet. You must do what you can to get the people to safety. Beg of the Elves. They are old rivals to our kind but perhaps the old hatreds will not extend to the people. They answered the call for aid, so perhaps there is some hope. You cannot save them all. Cerric seeks the power of Akandar. He must not have it. He is too powerful already, and I fear the balance has been lost. It is clear now that the oath has been broken, but do what you can for the people and try to honor the spirit of the oath. Do this not for me, my son, but because it is right. I must leave you now, Borrican."