Tail of the Dragon (4 page)

CHAPTER 9

Nath’s tail lashed out quicker than a snake just as Mortuun the Crusher came down. He was a split second too late. The war hammer smote the strongbox with all powerful authority.

Krang!

The burst of sound slammed into Nath and everything else in all directions around the strongbox.

Nath’s claws dug into the dirt.

Brenwar was knocked off his feet and tumbled head over heels.

Trees buckled and branches snapped.

Nath’s ears were ringing, but other than that, he was unaffected. “Brenwar, what did you do that for?” He surveyed the devastated landscape. “Brenwar?”

“Up here,” said a gruff voice. Brenwar was hanging upside down from a tree with his feet caught in the branches. Angry and somehow with Mortuun still hanging in his grasp, he started chopping with fury. “Let go of me, leafmaker!”

Nath started to make his way over.

The branches gave way.

Crack!

Brenwar tumbled down through the air and hit the ground hard. “Oof!”

“Are you all right?” Nath said, brushing aside the bushes his friend had landed in.

“I’m fine,” Brenwar said, rolling up to his feet.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” said Nath. “I was talking to the bushes.”

“Hah.”

Nath turned away and returned his focus to the chest. Someone or something sat on top of it.

Brenwar stopped in his tracks.

Nath froze.

It was a woman of sorts. Beautiful. Exquisite. No bigger than a child human’s, her lithe body was adorned in pink, white, and black fabric in marvelous patterns that flowed with nature. There were wings on her back, transparent, that caught the light. Her eyes were black, her face expressionless. In a soft but strong voice, she spoke in a language that Nath did not understand.

“Pardon?” he said in Common, somewhat mesmerized.

“Who are you?” she asked in the same tongue.

“I’m Nath Dragon.”

She rubbed her head with her dainty hands, tousling her long white locks. “And who is this one that smote me?”

“Brenwar,” Nath said, edging closer. He eyed her up and down. He’d never seen anyone like her before. Her loveliness rivaled that of the most winsome dragon. “And may I ask who you are?”

She scoffed. “Hah.” She fanned out her pretty pink nails and yawned. She hopped off the chest and started shoving it across the ground until it dropped back in the hole. A loud bang echoed up out of there.

Bang! ang ang ang ang!

Nath glanced at Brenwar and found the dwarf staring back at him. They both turned back to the winged woman, and Nath said, “Are you a fairy?”

“Hah!” she said. Her fingers began dancing in the air. Suddenly, the cover to the portal lifted up over the ground and dropped back over the hole, sealing the portal. She spoke indistinguishable words. The round cover glowed with hot light, and its edges sealed. She dusted off her hands and turned back and faced Nath and Brenwar with her hands on her hips.

“You’re drinking in my beauty, aren’t you.”

“I’m just wondering who you are,” Brenwar said.

“I am whoever I want to be.”

“Why were you imprisoned in there?” Nath asked, narrowing his eyes on her. If she was a fairy, then she was a very powerful one. And fairies often tricked one into doing their bidding.

Approaching Nath, she rolled up on her toes and stood as tall as one of the claws on his dragon-clawed feet. It should have been funny, her being so small, but somehow it wasn’t. “You should have gotten the answer to that before you freed me.” She showed a smile full of bright white teeth. “But, still, I am grateful to be free from my bondage. So much so, I will share my name with you, and with it comes the answer to any one of your questions.”

“You know the answer to everything? Hah!” Brenwar said.

“I do.” Her eyes shifted up to the right. Her face creased in concentration. Her toes sank into the ground. “Ah, that’s better.” She faced Brenwar. “Yes, I do, Brenwar Bolderguild. Five hundred and seventy-five years young, is it? Son of Ballor Bolderguild the Forgekeeper. Shall I go on?”

Brenwar looked like he had swallowed his beard.

“It’s not often I’ve seen you stumped. Ha-ha!” Nath laughed. “And dare I ask what you know about me?” he said to her. “Oh, and what is your name, as you mentioned sharing it before.”

“I am Lotuus, Nath Dragon. The Fairy Empress.”

“Empress?” Nath lifted a brow. “That sounds important. I imagine there are many that have been missing you.”

“In due time, I’ll know.” Her transparent wings fluttered and she rose up from the ground, coming to eye level with Nath. “Ah, you’re the son of Balzurth. Seems I’ve been imprisoned longer than I imagined. It’s so hard to tell the passing of time when I’m in a suspended state.” Now her dark eyes gave him the once over. “You certainly are a magnificent dragon. It seems much has happened since I’ve been gone. So, please, ask me a question. I can sense something deep is on your heart.”

“It was Brenwar who freed you, not me,” Nath said, eyeing his friend. “Answer a question of him.”

Lotuus chuckled. Her laugh was as light as feathers. “Oh, no, no, no. It was your touch, not his, that lifted the seal from me. You are magical, Nath Dragon. You are power without end. It was you who freed me. Not him.”

“And you can tell me anything I want to know?” Nath withheld the suspicion from his tone.

She nodded.

He didn’t want to insult her, but he doubted she could tell him the answer to any question. He didn’t even think his father could do that. Hm. Come to think of it, his father had long ago told Nath there was a spirit world that couldn’t be trusted.

Balzurth had said, “Be wary of their tricks. Seek wisdom, not shortcuts. The key to knowledge comes from the paths less taken.”

Lotuus seemed harmless enough, though. What harm could come from playing her game? Nath thought he had nothing to lose and only something to gain. At least this was entertaining. She was so marvelous and pretty.

“Give me a moment,” Nath said, putting his clawed paw to his huge dragon forehead to indicate he was thinking of a question.

CHAPTER 10

Lotuus huffed.

Brenwar scowled. “Nath. Come.”

Nath walked his monstrous frame over. “What is it?”

“I smell treachery.” Noticing Lotuus spying on them, Brenwar turned his back to her. “Maybe she was imprisoned for the right reasons.”

“Maybe she was imprisoned for the wrong reasons.”

“I can sense your doubt,” Lotuus said. “As the Fairy Empress, I find it a bit degrading. I tell you what. I’ll let the dwarf have a question and you as well. After all, how hard can a dwarf’s question be to answer?” She floated closer and stared down at Brenwar. “I bet I can guess your question myself. Let’s see. Aha! You want to ask which ingredients make the best ale!”

Brenwar shuffled back. His expression was priceless. “No I don’t. No I don’t.”

“Come on, dwarf, then ask me something,” she said.

“All right, fine then. Where is Nath’s mother?”

Nath’s heart pounded in his horns.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Lotuus said, drifting back down to the ground. “She’s in Nalzambor, of course.”

Brenwar slapped his face with his bony hand. “Gah! Sorry, Nath!”

Nath’s excitement deflated. His swaying tail came to a stop. “Way to go, Brenwar.”

“She could’ve answered more than that,” Brenwar whined. “She’s a clever one, she is. They all are. I say don’t waste your breath, Nath. She doesn’t know where your mother is.”

Feet barely touching the ground, Lotuus walked through the forest and sat down in a small bed of flowers. She plucked a purple flower and gave it a sniff. “Any second now.”

Be smart, Nath. She might be the Fairy Empress, but you’re the King Dragon.

He started to weigh the pros and cons of his question. Perhaps asking where his mother was would be a selfish question. Maybe there was something more important that he should ask, such as “What or who is the greatest threat to Nalzambor?”

That wouldn’t be a bad one. I could just take them out now, before they expected it.

Nath reflected on what his father had told him about his mother again: “What you seek is in the peaks.” He glanced over at Brenwar.

The grumpy fighter slowly shook his head.

Just because you blew it the first time, that doesn’t mean I’ll blow it the second time. Besides,
we’ve been searching for a year. This is the best opportunity we’ve had. Just don’t waste it, Dragon. Ask your question carefully.

He cleared his throat.

Lotuus looked up at him. “So, the King Dragon, ha-hah, is ready to ask the question.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, how I can’t wait to hear it.”

“I am ready,” Nath said in a strong and confident voice. He lowered his massive horned head and came face to face with her. “Are you ready?”

Lotuus’s black pupils enlarged. “Oh, certainly.” She rose to her feet and shuffled back in the flower bed. “My ears are to hear. My lips to assist. It would be an honor, King Dragon. Please, go ahead.”

Nath fanned out his huge claws and studied them with admiration. Each claw was about as big as Lotuus. He caught her eyes on his paw. He saw her swallow and drift back a little farther. “Come closer, Lotuus,” he said.

“Uh, why?”

“I want to make sure you can hear me. I wouldn’t want my question to be misinterpreted.” He opened up his paw and lowered it to the ground. “Hop on.”

“My hearing is excellent. I’m fine right here.”

Nath took in a deep breath. The furnace inside his chest started to glow. He put a little thunder in his voice. “Hop on!”

Head down, Lotuus floated over, saying, “Yes, Majestic Majesty.”

Nath raised her up to eye level and said, “I like the sound of that. Now, I think you were about to reanswer my companion’s question. A lot more specifically.”

“I was?” Lotuus said.

Nath’s eyes narrowed. His claws started to close around her. “I’m certain of it.”

She made a pleading look toward Brenwar.

His stern expression was the same as a petrified stump.

“Southern Nalzambor?”

“That’s awfully vague,” Nath said, closing his claws around her even more. “Perhaps a landmark to go with it.”

Eyeing the claws that had closed around her like a cage, she said to Nath, “Am I being threatened?”

“No, you’re being protected,” Nath said with deadly reassurance. “Very dangerous creatures lurk about. And I’d hate to see anything happen to you, Fairy Empress.”

“I see. And I thank you, but I am quite capable of taking care of myself.” She placed her hands on his claws. “And I doubt any hostile forces would dare threaten me with you around.”

Nath’s dragon lip curled back. Not by his own will but rather as a reaction.

There was magic power in Lotuus’s touch. Formidable. Mysterious. It was said the fairies and dragons were the earliest creatures in Nalzambor. Both came long before the other races. And Lotuus was much older than he was.

But he was a dragon and she was just a fairy. He turned up his inferno within.

Lotuus’s hands jerked back, and she winced. “Borgash,” she said.

“I beg your pardon,” Nath said, “I didn’t quite hear that.”

“The lost city of Borgash. What you seek is in there.” Shoulders slumped, she said, “May I go now? I long to see my kin.”

“You’ve answered his question, but you have not answered mine,” Nath said.

“But,” Lotuus stammered.

“But,” Nath said, raising a brow. “If you agree, then I’ll hold my question for you to answer when I summon you later. Agreed?”

Her little body stiffened. Finally, with a scowl she said, “Agreed.”

Nath opened up his claws. “Be well on your journey.”

Lotuus spread out her transparent wings and said with a sneer, “Good luck staying well on yours.” Her wings buzzed, and up into the air she went, disappearing into the sunlight.

“Clever,” Brenwar said, toting Mortuun over his shoulder. “I hadn’t seen that side of you before.”

“You don’t think I crossed the line, do you?”

“With a fairy? Har! There is no such line with them. I think you did well. And she still owes you one. I bet she hates that.”

I bet she hates me, too.

CHAPTER 11

“How about we get you a horse, Brenwar?”

“No.”

“Aw.” Nath shook his head. He’d spent the last three days slugging through the lands with Brenwar in tow. He could have flown back and forth to Borgash ten times by now. Easy. “Well, you can’t blame me for being eager. If you’d never met your mother, wouldn’t you be anxious to get on with it, too?”

“Sire, er, I mean Nath…” Brenwar stopped along the edge of the stream and began refilling his canteen. “Don’t put your faith in fairies. Trust in what you know and see.”

“Are you saying since I haven’t seen my mother, I shouldn’t believe she’s there?” He dipped his head in the cool waters and gulped in some water and a few small fish. “I’ve heard of many things that I’ve never seen, yet I still trust that they exist.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Brenwar put the canteen to his lips, gulped down the water, and started refilling it again. “Just enjoy the journey. Like you used to. Sometimes there are clues along the way. You might have great eyes, but you still can’t see everything from up there.”

“I think it’s best that I maintain a low profile. I can’t exactly pass through forests like a cat anymore.”

“You could if you’d change,” Brenwar argued. “Pah! Forget it. Tell you what, if you want to go on forward as fast as you can, then go ahead. I’ll catch up. Eventually.”

“No,” Nath said, wading into the stream. It was almost deep enough in the middle to cover his entire body. “Hmm, maybe this is a good way to travel.”

“Humph.”

Nath pushed up the stream. Brenwar followed along on the bank.

I do want to hurry on ahead, but I won’t. I’ve learned my lesson.

Nath certainly had the authority to get Brenwar to do whatever he wanted, but he wouldn’t use it. For one thing, Brenwar wasn’t a dragon, so he didn’t really have to listen to the Dragon King. But the dwarf had given an oath to serve Balzurth, and that oath had been passed on to Nath. And at the same time, Nath felt obligated to keep an eye on Brenwar. The dwarf had a noticeable hitch in his step that hadn’t been there before Nath’s last long sleep. Brenwar’s pace was almost a half step slower than it used to be. The dwarf, though just as formidable as any that lived, was so much more fragile than Nath.

“What are you staring at?” Brenwar said, glaring at Nath.

“Oh, was I staring? Sorry, Brenwar. I was just admiring your hand. I think your kin will glorify it.”

Brenwar’s shoulders lifted. He held his hand high and gazed at it. “It is something. Ha! I can’t wait to show them. I bet they start a statue of me right away.”

“I agree.” Nath had a thought. “You know Brenwar, Morgdon isn’t so far away. Why not stop by for a visit? You haven’t even been home since Gorn Grattack has fallen. For all you know, they have a statue of you already. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Pilpin jumped right on it.”

Brenwar came to a stop on the bank. His boots sank a little in the sands. Hard eyes fixed on Nath’s, he said, “What are you getting at?”

“Nothing. I just thought maybe you, or we, should celebrate, before we dive too deep into other things.”

A swarm of pink-feathered swans swam by and honked at Nath.

Haaaank! Hank hank hank!

“I’m certain what we’re about to get into will be treacherous. You had one really close call already.”

Brenwar’s eyes narrowed into slits. His good hand became white knuckled on Mortuun’s shaft. “You’re coddling me.”

“No, never.”

“You are!” Brenwar set his shoulders and marched away from the stream and back into the woods.

Under his breath, Nath said, “Well, maybe I was.” He eased his way out of the stream and spread his wings. He yelled after Brenwar, “Well, I could use some fresh air anyway.” After gathering his legs underneath him, he launched himself into the air. In seconds he was hundreds of feet up and soaring like a big scaly bird. “That’s better.”

Below, he couldn’t see Brenwar, but he knew the dwarf’s scent all too well. He was never hard to find, and Brenwar never tried to hide from anybody, either.

Nath spent hours up, traveling miles at a time, back and forth. He scanned the horizon and the landscape, too. He was very in tune with Nalzambor. More so than he used to be. His intuition was incredible. His senses were so acute he could tune into activity inside an ant hill.

Ah, it’s great to be me.

He widened his circle, staying just within the belly of the clouds. He didn’t want to terrify any townsfolk or farmers. They’d been through plenty, thanks to the likes of the armies of Barnabus. They were just getting their lives in order. Nath was privy to that. He could hear their hammers pounding. Saws cutting through the fallen timbers.

And stew was cooking somewhere always, not to mention the buttery biscuits. His mouth watered. Drool fell from his lips.

Now that, I do miss. I wish someone could make biscuits big enough for me. And it wouldn’t be so bad gulping down a river full of stew sometime. I have to hand it to humans: they make the finest dishes.

A glimmer of movement caught his eye. A dark wink. A nasty twinkle. A small flock beat their wings nearby in a V formation. Thirteen of them.

Those aren’t birds. Birds aren’t that big, and they don’t have tails like that!

Nath flapped his wings harder.

They have scales. Not the likes of which I’ve ever seen before, either. Great Guzan! What are they?

Closing in, Nath let out a squawk.

HrrAWk!

The dragon in the rear, the size of a long-tailed pony, turned its head. It was flat like a snake’s, hornless, with slanted ruby eyes that glimmered with hate. It opened up its mouth and let out an angry hiss.

Hhusssssssssss!

A pair of forked tongues snapped in and out of its mouth. It turned away and squawked up to the others.

Hrawk.

I don’t understand what it’s saying.

One by one, the other dragon heads turned and stared at Nath. Their pulsating red eyes bore into him.

Brash, whatever they are.

The dragon in the rear let out another frightening squawk.

Hrawwwwwwk!

In the blink of an eye, they stopped in midair in attack formation. Claws and teeth bared, they made straight for Nath Dragon.

Sultans of Sulfur!