Dragon Moon (36 page)

33

Chloe's color still hasn't returned. Every movement she makes causes her to wince. It will take hours more before she can mend all the damage to her body, before she regains most of her strength. I don't want to leave her, not yet, not ever.

Another crunch of something breaking above resonates through the house and I look at Chloe. {
I need to get ready for him outside,
} I say.

My bride nods.

{
Do you have any idea how much potion I should drink?
} I say. {
How long it will take to act?
}

{
No,
} Chloe says. {
All I know is that Undrae warriors took it to grow as large as the Zal.
}

{
How large was that? Twice as big? Three times?
}

She shrugs. {
No one ever said. Look at the pictures on the boxes.
}

I hold them up and compare them. The picture of the Zal warrior is no more than half as large as the Undrae. But was size dictated by the amount of potion taken? Could too much potion prove fatal?

In the absence of any answers, I can only act from my own guesses. I thin my body, shrink my size so I can haul two sides of beef at the same time through the passageway to the outside door. {
To grow that much must require a tremendous amount of energy,
} I say to Chloe. {
I'm going to put this meat outside, so it will be there for me after I drink the potion.
}

{
Why don't you take the potion first?
} she says.

I shake my head. {
We don't know how quickly it acts. If its effect is immediate, I'll grow too large for the passageway.
}

Leaving the two vials with Chloe, I carry the meat to the door. The winds outside have intensified and I have to push my shoulder against the oak door, use all my strength to force it open. Wind lashes at me as soon as I go outside. Rain slams against me. I calculate it must be near midnight now, the storm building toward its full strength.

The wind tries to tear the sides of beef from my grasp but I manage to hold on to them. I carry them to the dock, lay them down near the foot of the veranda stairs, where the storm's fury is partially blocked. Then I return inside for the vials and to say good-bye to my wife.

{
Stay here with me,
} she says.

I shake my head. {
You know better than that.
}

{
We could go away together. Forget about my father and Derek.
}

{
I'd no more run than your father would. If I did, I wouldn't be the man you married.
}

{
But we haven't had any time.
}

{
We've had enough to make me sure I love you,
} I say.

{
And I you. Wait at least until I'm strong enough to help.
}

{
No,
} I say, stroking her face with my foreclaw. {
Don't forget. I have the potion now. If anyone will have an advantage, it will be me.
}

{
If it works. It must be older than the millennium.
}

I laugh. {
A fine thought to send your husband as he leaves for battle. It will work and I will be back.
}

Chloe presses the side of her face against mine and we stay that way for a few moments before I break away, take the vials and head for the door — and for the storm that waits for me outside it.

34

Wind pummels me, rain blinds me as soon as I emerge from the house's protection. I shift my body back to its normal full size and feel my way through the bushes, turning to where I left the meat, not twelve paces away. A lightning bolt cuts its way through the sky overhead, illuminating the night for an instant. The flash shows the image of the large dragon nearby, hunched over a side of beef, feeding.

Dark returns almost instantly, but too late to prevent my discovery.
“Peter. How good of you. I came out to begin destroying your boat and I found you set out this food for me. How kind of you to make yourself so available too,”
Charles says.

“Are you finished destroying everything in my house already?”
I say, holding both vials in one hand, trying desperately to remember which one is which. In the dark, in the rain, it's impossible to tell green from amber.
“I'd hoped you'd be busy a little longer so I could eat before we began.”

Charles Blood laughs, tears a huge chunk of meat with his teeth.
“Come join me, boy. Feed as you wish.”

“Possibly yes, possibly no.”
Charles laughs again.
“You'll have to decide if the food is worth the risk.”

“I thought you believed in being sporting,”
I say, transferring one vial into my left foreclaw. Deciding to chance it, I hold it up to my face.

Charles says,
“But not on being foolish.”

Another flash of lightning lights the island and I see Charles has changed his position to a crouch, like a cat ready to pounce. Thunder rolls over us and a second flash makes the amber fluid in the vial in my left hand momentarily glow yellow. I gasp, throw it toward the bushes and leap into the air.

The wind catches me, throws me up, drops and tumbles me. I try to gain altitude, fumbling with the cork stopper sealing the vial of green potion, as I beat my wings, straining to fight the wind, but finding myself flying sideways.

“Isn't this a grand night?”
Charles says, passing me in the dark, slashing out, missing any vital part of me, engaging only the tip of my tail, ripping it.

I bellow, as much from the surprise as from the pain. Enough, I think. I put the vial to my mouth and bite down, ignoring the pain of the broken glass as it cuts into my lips and tongue, swallowing every bit of the potion.

It tastes rancid, spoiled, like fish oil left out in the noon-day sun. My stomach revolts and I struggle to keep it down, gulping air, swallowing rainwater to dull the taste.

Nothing happens. My tail still throbs. The storm still batters me. The wind still pushes me where it wishes. Even worse, I know Charles Blood is somewhere in the night, close, waiting for another opportunity to strike.

I work at gaining altitude, search the sky at every burst of lightning. See nothing.

The air around me crackles with static electricity and I prepare for yet another lightning bolt. It shoots through the air so near to me that I can feel its heat. Its brief light reveals the beast hurtling toward me from above.

Folding one wing, I tumble out of his path. I fold my other wing after he passes and plummet after him, falling a thousand feet in seconds, catching him, ripping through his back with my rear claws. Roaring, I finally spread my wings and shoot away from him.

He bellows, soars off in the other direction into the dark.

Once again, I beat skyward.

“You think this is fun?”
I say.

Another lightning bolt illuminates the world, but I see nothing. Charles hits me from the side, folds his wings over mine and sinks his teeth into the back of my neck as we fall. Howling, I thrash and twist to break his grip. His claws dig into my side and I twist even more, ignoring the pain as talons rip through my flesh, finally grabbing his side with one of my foreclaws, slashing through it.

We hit the water, Charles on top of me, and the momentum of our fall carries us deep below its surface. The older dragon kicks free, swims away.

Pain rages through me. Unable to move at first, I can only drift upward as quickly as my buoyancy takes me. I slowly force my muscles back into action, barely paddling until my lungs begin to burn, taking stronger and stronger strokes after that.

Breaking through at the crest of a wave, I gasp a breath, then another. My heart pounds so much that I fear heart failure. I breathe in again, tread water as one wave after another lifts and drops and tosses me.

I doubt whether I can survive another attack. The pains from my wounds sicken me and leave me weak. My heart hurts. My lungs beg for more air. My muscles ache. My stomach churns and rumbles and begins to burn. How can I hope to face Charles again?

My head throbs with each beat of my heart. As many gasps as I take, my lungs still beg for more air. I've never felt this way, no matter how injured. I consider mindspeaking to Chloe, saying my last good-byes.

My entire stomach and chest feel as if I've swallowed hot coal. I open my mouth and a small flame shoots out. I gasp, swallow a gulp of salt water to diminish the heat. It doesn't help. But my pains begin to diminish, replaced by the familiar pangs brought on by growth.

I flex my wings in the water and smile at their new strength. I stretch my shoulders and growl in pleasure at their increasing bulk. The potion! I think. Finally, it's begun to work. I burst out of the water, take to the sky and roar out a challenge.

“Peter? Is that you?”
Charles Blood says.
“Are you ready for more already?”

I'm amazed at the strength I feel coursing through me, the size I've grown to, the fact I'm still growing. My blood pounds in my veins and arteries, my lungs pump great quantities of air. Heat continues to grow within me.
“More than ready,”
I say.

This time Charles chooses to attack from below. I see him coming, do nothing to avoid him. Just before he hits me, he says,
“My God! You're as large as a Zal!”

Blocking his attack with a rear claw, I tear his face with it.
“Yes, I am,”
I say.

Charles sinks his teeth into my leg, slashes at my underbelly with his foreclaws. I shake him off, like a Great Dane pushing away the nuisance of a Cocker Spaniel's attack.

“Give it up, Charles,”
I say.
“This is no longer a fair contest.”

He drops away from me.
“I've never given up in my life. I don't know how you did this, but nothing, bloody nothing is over. DEREK!”
he mindspeaks.
“I NEED YOU!”

“And I thought you were an Undrae,”
Charles says, flying away from me.

If I wanted, I know I could catch him before his son can join him. But I let him go. Roaring, I beat my wings, fly higher, faster. The storm rages around me. Gusts of wind try to stop me and I roar again. I am too strong to be deterred by a mere hurricane, too powerful to worry about the combined attack of any two ordinary beings, even if they are People of the Blood.

Let Charles and Derek worry about me. I roar again, continue to climb. My heart shudders with each mighty beat. My muscles continue to swell. I climb, piercing angry cloud after angry cloud, flying upward until I finally emerge into clear, dark sky, sprinkled with stars and overseen by a silver splinter of the moon. Breathing cold thin air, I coast over the black blanket of storm clouds below me.

My size amazes me. I must be more than twice my natural size by now and, although my growth seems to have stopped, my heart continues to beat faster, harder. My wounds no longer bother me, but hunger overtakes me and with it, exhaustion. I think of the sides of beef lying by the dock on my island and my saliva almost drowns me. Folding my wings, I sigh and drop into the storm again.

I descend so rapidly that when I finally open my wings, I shoot past my island. Banking, I circle back, land on the dock near the meat. Thankfully, it's still there, one carcass untouched, the other only partially consumed by Charles.

Rushing forward, I tear a chunk from the untouched side of beef and swallow it almost whole. I bite another piece, then another, desperate to fill the void inside me. It takes half a side of beef before my hunger begins to subside. Even then, I continue to gorge, my heart still thumping too quickly, aching as it shoots blood to my tired muscles.

I bite into the frozen carcass again, rip another chunk of meat and chew it — more slowly this time as I begin to concentrate on mending the wounds Charles inflicted on me.

Something, someone? slams into me, landing on my back hard enough to force the air from my lungs and send the meat shooting from my mouth. Another beast crashes into my head and neck, dazing me. Teeth bite into me, claws rip through my scales.
“In the old days, Zal warriors were sometimes defeated by the Undrae,”
Charles Blood says.
“All it took was teamwork and surprise.”

Roaring, I twist under them, flailing my tail, raking the air with my claws. A clawed foot appears before my face and I bite into it. Derek howls and loosens his grip on my neck. I push up against their combined weight and force myself erect. Standing on my hindquarters as they rip and bite me, I knock Derek away, then Charles.

Bleeding in more than a dozen places, aching in a hundred more, I leap into the air, the other two creatures in close pursuit. Flying low, I skim over the island, race above the crashing waves, beating my wings as fast and hard as I can, finally climbing skyward in order to gain enough room to whirl and attack.

“What's the matter, boy? Must you run? Have we been too rough with you?”
Charles Blood says.
“Turn and face us. It's just a matter of time before we catch you and finish this.”

Each beat of my heart sends jolts of pain into my shoulders and foreclaws. My lungs already hurt again. My burning stomach feels as if it will burst. I open my mouth to relieve the pressure and a blast of flame erupts from it, turning the raindrops before me into steam.