Crossroads 04 - The Dragon Isles (40 page)

Tempest Triumphant

 
         
Slowly,
the humanlike Tempest climbed the stairs toward the ancient temple. She moved
with deliberate, measured steps, as though she were unused to walking on human
legs. Magical energies from the glowing key danced around her. She laughed, and
the island trembled.

 
          
“She
needs to reach the diamond to destroy the Veil,” Mik said urgently to Trip. “We
have to keep her away from it.” He parried the thrust of a dragonspawn and
kicked the creature in its gut. The minion screamed as it soared over the edge
of the temple courtyard and fell into the molten crater of the volcano.

 
          
“Clever
man,” the dragon hissed, her voice echoing up from the stairs below. “Perhaps,
out of gratitude, I’ll let you live long enough to see my triumph.

 
          
“Once
I rip the Veil from the heavens, my minions will swarm the Dragon Isles. We
will scour the oceans and pick clean the bones of our enemies. I will make
myself equal to any dragon overlord on Ansalon. Those who do not bow down
before me shall die—just as the remainder of your friends shall die.”

 
          
The
monstrous creature smiled. “All this, you have given me.”

 
          
“No!”
Mik yelled. He flung his dagger at the transformed dragon, hut Tempest merely
batted the insignificant blade aside. It clattered onto the stairs at her
clawed feet.

 
          
“Foolish,”
Tempest hissed, mounting the final step to the temple courtyard. “Perhaps I
shall slay you now, after all. Or perhaps I’ll slay your pet kender first.” She
raised the coruscating key up before her. Pale lightning flashed across the
artifact’s intricate surface.

 
          
Two
dragonspawn had Trip pinned against a temple pillar. The kender was fighting so
hard that he didn’t even see the dragon turning toward him.

 
          
Mik
parried a blow from Mog, as a shadow moved on the stairs below Tempest.

 
          
Ula
Drakenvaal strode up from the plaza below and hurled the coral lance at
Tempest’s exposed back.

 
          
Mog
leaped away from Mik and shouted a warning. Tempest turned just in time to
avoid a mortal blow. Yet the coral lance traced a long gash up the dragon’s
human-like arm. Tempest shrieked, her hand flexing open. The key fell from her
grasp and tumbled off the mountain into the surf.

 
          
Ula
cursed as the lance ricocheted off a pillar and clattered back down the stairs,
landing too far away for her to retrieve it.

 
          
Tempest
whirled to face the sea elf. A deadly spell formed on the transformed dragon’s
scaly lips.

 
          
Mik
leaped with all his might—across the rain-slick courtyard and into Mog,
knocking the dragonspawn onto its backside. Mog skidded over the wet surface
into Tempest, cutting her legs out from under her.

 
          
The
dragon’s spell blazed into the sky as she toppled down the stairs. Tempest
shrieked with rage and indignation. Mog rose, but Mik was on him before he
could recover

 
          
The
sailor slashed down. His scimitar sliced across Mog’s reptilian face, staining
the wind with a misty spray of blood. Mog staggered back and stepped off the
edge of the temple plaza. The dragonspawn tumbled down the mountainside,
screaming. He hit the cliffs several times before being swallowed by the raging
surf below.

 
          
Enraged,
Tempest’s human form rose and refocused her lethal spell toward Ula. Energy
blasted from the dragon’s clawed fingertips, but the sea elf dove off the
stairway. Ula arced over the cliff face and sliced into the storm-tossed sea.

 
          
Tempest
bellowed her fury, and the temple shook. “It seems I must slay you all before I
can recover the key and destroy die Veil,” she roared. In an instant she
swelled to three
times
human size. Armored scales
sprouted from her skin. Her neck became long and
sinuous,
her muzzle grew pointed like a crocodile’s.

 
          
Growing
larger by the second, the sea dragon lumbered up the stairs toward the temple,
deadly steam pouring from her jaws.

Dragonriders

 
         
“Dive
for it, Trip!” Mik yelled. He jumped with all his might as Tempest swiped her
huge claw across the terrace. The claw smashed and scattered her remaining
dragonspawn. Their bodies bounced lifelessly down the cliff face.

 
          
Mik
and Trip barely avoided the deadly talon. They arced over the volcanic cliff
face and sliced cleanly into the surging waters at the mountain’s base.

 
          
The
dragon’s flipperlike hand smashed into the great diamond—the cornerstone of the
Veil. Lightning flashed from the artifact, wracking the sea dragon’s body.
Tempest screamed as the scales of her forelimb caught fire. Howling in pain,
she turned from the ruins and dove into the pounding surf to extinguish the
flames.

 
          
* * * * *

 
          
One
bleeding man met another on the landing below the temple. Lord Kell looked up
from where he sat, oozing blood, with his back against a pillar. The breath
wheezed raggedly in his lungs; blood coated his lightly armored body. He smiled
wanly as Shimmer lurched over the top of the stairs and into the plaza from
below.

 
          
The
orange eyes of the dragon-man met the gray eyes of the human lord. They nodded
at each other. The rain washing over their bodies mingled their blood in pools
on the marble flagstones.

 
          
“We
have much to make amends for, you and I,” Shimmer said.

 
          
Kell
nodded and coughed up blood. He glanced up the stairway to where his coral
lance had fallen. “Perhaps for one of us, at least,” he said, “there is still
time.”

 
          
*
* * * *

           
Trip leaped high into the air as the
dragon surged after him. Tempest belched boiling steam at the kender, but he
ducked back below the waves just in time. The dragon lunged after him.

 
          
Moments
later, Mik and Ula surfaced together. “I found the key,” she said, “and a
couple of the dragonspawn’s spears too. Do you want one?”

 
          
“No,”
Mik replied. “If I’m going to die, I’ll die with my own scimitar in my hand.”

 
          
Ula
nodded. “Let’s try not to die, though.”

 
          
“You’re
more agile in the water than I am,” Mik said. “Feel up to helping Trip
keep
the dragon off my back?”

 
          
She
looked at him skeptically. “What are you planning?”

 
          
“I’m
going for Kell’s lance. If it can kill Shimmer, maybe it can kill Tempest as
well.”

 
          
“Shimmer’s
not dead,” she replied. “At least, he wasn’t when I pulled the lance from his
side.”

 
          
“Can
he help us?”

 
          
She
shook her head, sadness flashing across her green eyes. “I’ll be surprised if
he lives.”

 
          
“It’s
up to us, then,” Mik said. “Give me the key. We’ve seen its power. Maybe
between it and the lance, we can kill this bitch.”

 
          
“It’s
worth a try,” Ula said. She undid the chain fastening the key to her waist and
gave them both to Mik. “Good luck,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.

 
          
“Stay
alive,” he replied.

 
          
Tempest
surfaced a hundred yards away and scanned the waves for her enemies. Mik and
Ula ducked under the surface as the dragon’s baleful yellow gaze turned in
their direction.

 
          
Trip’s
small form leaped from the breakers. Tempest lunged at the kender, her massive
jaws snapping shut mere inches from the hem of his sea serpent cloak. The two
of them dove out of sight again.

 
          
Mik
swam as fast as he could toward the Isle of Fire. He surfaced only a few yards
from the silver stairs. He felt bone-weary, and his muscles ached as he paddled
the last strokes to the volcano’s rocky face. Fighting against the pounding
surf, he dragged himself out of the water and onto the silver stairway.

 
          
Instantly,
his chest felt as though someone were sitting on it. Mik gasped for air, but
none came. Something cold squeezed tight around his neck, choking him. He
brought his hands to his throat and felt the pockmarked metal of his enchanted
fish necklace.

 
          
He
pulled the necklace off, and it crumbled in his hands— its magic finally
exhausted. Mik drew a deep breath and forced his legs to carry him up the
stairs to the plaza below the temple.

 
          
When
he arrived, he spotted Shimmer and Lord Kell sitting to one side, their backs
against a pillar. A huge pool of blood lay on the flagstones beneath them; both
the bronze knight and the brass lord appeared dead.

 
          
Mik
spotted Kell’s coral lance on the far stairs, where it had fallen after
striking Tempest. It lay close to the landing. Mik sprinted across slippery
stones and seized the weapon in his aching hands, looking around for the sea
dragon. Lightning flashed, casting the pounding sea into sharp relief, but
Tempest was nowhere to be seen.

 
          
A
cold chill gripped Mik’s heart. Had the monster found and killed his friends?

 
          
Lightning
flashed again and, in the plaza below, the bronze knight’s eyes flickered open.
“Vardan . . . !” Shimmer whispered.

 
          
Mik
skidded down the steps and ran to the wounded dragon’s side. “I thought you
were dead.”

 
          
“Not
quite,” Shimmer replied. “Not yet. Dragons are hard to kill. Apparently
you
are as well. Kell, though ...” He
pointed wanly toward the unmoving brass lord. “His spirit was strong, but his
body . . .’’He took a ragged breath. “Where’s Ula?”

 
          
“Below the waves somewhere, trying to distract Tempest.”

 
          
“Not dead, then.”

 
          
“No.
Not yet.”

 
          
Slowly,
the dragon in human form struggled to his feet. “We must help her, then.”

 
          
“The
best help we can give her is killing Tempest,” Mik said. “Can you fly?”

 
          
Shimmer
nodded grimly. “One last time, I think.”

 
          
A
hard smile cracked Mikal Vardan’s bearded face. “Then let’s take that sea
dragon down.” He pulled the key from his belt and fastened it around his neck
with the chain from Ula’s waist. The key glistened in the storm- clouded
darkness.

 
          
Out
to sea, Tempest surfaced once more, chasing the slender form of Ula Drakenvaal.

 
          
Shimmer
groaned and stretched his arms out to each side. Fresh blood oozed from his
wounds as his body grew and lengthened. Tangled, misshapen muscle piled up on
his shoulders as his wings sprouted. His jaws became long and pointed, showing
row upon row of sharp fangs.

 
          
The
bronze dragon gritted his teeth and suppressed a scream. His entire, scaly body
shook with pain. He swelled up to his full size—huge, but not nearly as huge as
the sea dragon.

 
          
Tempest
had her hack to them as she focused every evil fiber of her being upon
destroying Ula. She didn’t notice the bronze dragon growing on the temple
stairs, or the man with the lance standing at the dragon’s side.

 
          
Shimanloreth
gasped and extended his right forearm to Mik. The sailor scrambled up onto the
dragon’s back. He perched himself in front of the shoulders, just above
Shimmer’s deformed wing. Shimmer winced as Mik got a good grip on the bronze
dragon’s rain-slick back.

 
          
The
sailor hefted the dead lord’s coral lance. “Let’s save our friends,” he said.

 
          
“Yes,”
Shimmer hissed through gritted fangs.

 
          
Lightning
crashed, and thunder shook the ancient island.

 
          
Slowly,
painfully, Shimmer took to the air.

 
          
* * * * *

 
          
Trip
burst out of the water directly in front of the enraged sea dragon. He fastened
his tiny hands on Tempest’s mane of Turbidus leeches and yanked hard. The
snakelike creatures squealed in pain. Their enormous mistress shook her head to
free herself of the annoying kender.

 
          
She
turned just enough that Ula avoided her deadly plunge. As the sea dragon passed
by, surging into the deep, the Dargonesti drove one of her two spears into the
monster’s magic-scorched shoulder.

 
          
The
spear pierced the dragon’s blackened scales, and Tempest howled in pain. She
plunged into the swirling darkness with the kender clinging to her mane and Ula
hanging tightly onto the spear. The water around them swirled as Tempest
twisted back on herself, snaking her reptilian head toward her shoulder.

 
          
The
sea elf planted her feet against the dragon’s scales and reeled back with the
second spear—the bronze one Mog had once used.

           
As Tempest lunged toward them, Ula
threw the bronze spear into the dragon’s yellow eye.

 
          
Tempest
roared and shot to the surface once more.

 
          
She
breached, arcing high into the sky and shaking her head like a wounded dog.

 
          
Several
of the Turbidus leeches clinging to her neck came loose, and Trip lost his grip
along with them. He sailed into the air, only to have Tempest’s flailing skull
smash into him.

 
          
The
kender cartwheeled end over end, hit the water hard, and disappeared below the
raging surf.

 
          
Ula
regained her footing on the dragon’s scaly hide. She pulled on the shaft of her
spear,
then
shoved it back in, putting all her weight
behind die blow.

 
          
Tempest
roared in pain, and dark blood gushed from the wound.

 
          
Ula
stabbed her again. Tempest writhed through the waves, sending spray high into
the rainswept air, faying to shake the elf from her back.