The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) (88 page)

CHAPTER 6

The walls were stone and the corridor long. The green torches didn’t flicker, and the howls were like banshees in the night. One foot at a time, Gorlee stepped forward. He’d never been so deep in the ground before in all his decades. Not even with a dwarf. He’d never felt so small, either. Above, in the light, he felt confident and invincible. Now he felt like a child frightened by the howls of the night.

His stomach groaned. The fullness he had experienced earlier at Selene’s table had dissipated and been replaced by something else. Fear.

Be brave. She won’t keep you down here forever. Will she?

Gorlee’s chains rattled when he stopped. He hadn’t thought about that. Maybe she knew he wasn’t Nath Dragon. Maybe she knew what he was and had abandoned him down here forever.
No. Can’t be. Please, it can’t be.

He jumped.

A white rodent scurried over his toes and disappeared into the wall.

A cry echoed down the tunnel, sending a chill down his spine.

Get it together, Gorlee. You’ve never met anything you couldn’t handle
. He took a breath and continued forward. The tunnel was murky and damp. Water dripped down the slime-coated walls, forming many small puddles. He covered his nose.
What is that?

An angry cry rang out. The sound of a scuffle ensued. Gorlee kept going. Ahead, a light glowed beyond the torches. Shadows flickered in its essence.
What kind of place is this? Are there prisoners? Do they all run free?

He thought about Selene. So far as he knew, she was the most powerful woman in the world. Beautiful. Dark and exotic, she was. Beyond human, and different. He could picture her in his mind and see her as if she were right there, smirking and toying with him.
She knows I’m not what I appear to be. But she said this was a test.
His stomach gurgled. He felt uncomfortable.
That’s odd
. It gurgled again.
What was in that food she gave me?
He looked at his black-scaled hands. They shifted and changed a little.
Control it, Gorlee. Control it.
His hands seemed to solidify once more, but he had a feeling something was at work inside him. Probing what he was all about.

A bend in the tunnel started. The murmuring of many voices assailed his ears. Onward he went with his hand on his stomach, fighting down the fear inside him.
Is it possible that I missed another phantom?
The smells got stronger, the voices louder, and steps led …
upward
?

Up he went, chains dragging over the stones. All the mumblings went silent. Gorlee looked at his shackles.
How can I defend myself in these things? I could make myself smaller. Change to something lither and slip out of these things.
He shook his head.
It’s a test, remember. It’s a test.
On heavy legs,
he followed the light up the long rows of stone steps. He took fifty of them and came to a stop on a broad marble platform. Ancient runes and symbols covered the floor, but most were covered by the wet murk.

“COME,” a cavernous voice said.

Gorlee remained frozen in place.

“COME,” the voice said, “and I don’t like to repeat myself.”

“Come,” other voices chanted. “Come,” all sorts of voices said.

Gorlee’s legs seemed to move of a will that was not his own. Toward the lights. Toward the voices he went. A great chamber opened up. Hundreds of eyes blinked and sought his from the shadows of ledges and side caves. A great figure stood in the middle with its arms crossed over its chest.

I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Its long, large fingers beckoned Gorlee forward.

“COME,” it said, calmly, “let me have a better look at you.”

Gorlee made his way into the chamber and took a glance back over his shoulder. He could hear all the voices say:

“Nothing leaves the Deep.”

CHAPTER 6

Nath ripped Fang out of the ground. His fingers felt like fire, but he held on. His head beaded in heavy drops of sweat.

“I will not let go!” he said, fighting the agony.

Fang’s blade shimmered and winked with life. Orange and blue colors swirled in the metal of the blade. It hummed. Moaned. Angry. Urging Nath to release it.

“I will not!” Nath said. He staggered in the grove. “You’ll have to burn my fingers off first!”

Water. Nath wanted water to douse the blade in to cool his fingers. But no stream or any creek trickled nearby.

Don’t think about water. Think about control.

Fang! You are mine! A gift from my father. You serve me. I do not serve you!

The blade flared with mystic fire and let out an angry moan.

Nath could feel the scalding heat up to his elbows. His great arms juttered. His teeth clenched.

Fang! Listen to me! Stop this! Stop this madness now!

The blade shook in his hands from a force of its own.

“I will not let go, Fang! Not until you succumb to me!”

The dragon heads on the hilt started to move. Streams of smoke poured from their nostrils. They let out tiny roars.

Nath’s hands started to smoke. The white scales on his palms burned.

“Fang! Enough of this!”

Nath’s body trembled. His great muscles convulsed. He fell to his knees with his scales sizzling. His own mind screamed. His fingers begged to recoil.

I cannot! I will not!

Nath fell on his back screaming. Birds scattered from the trees. Branches shook. He held on, fighting the pain until his mind began to black out.

“Fang,” he whispered. “You are my friend. I need you. But you must trust me.”

The bladed metal swirled with scintillating colors and heated up in one great burst. Nath felt every ounce of its power rush through him like lava, and it swept him across the ground. He held on and on and on. Everything hurt from head to toe, but he held on.

“Fang,” he managed to say, “trust me again.”

The blade winked out. The metal cooled in his hands. Nath let out a long, sweaty sigh and said, “Thank you, my friend. Thank you.”

He rolled to his knees and pushed himself up with the blade. He peeled one hand away.

“Uh.”

His hand was swollen, and it trembled like a leaf, but there was no burn on it. He checked his other hand, and it was the same.

“Whew,” he said, dashing the sweat from his eyes. “I’m glad you got that sorted out. And I’m gladder to have you by my side. I never would have made it this far without you.”

He hefted Fang over his shoulder, picked up the scabbard, and searched for his horse. Minutes later, he was riding back toward his friends. When he got there, doubtful faces greeted him, but he was all smiles.

He stretched Fang out over his head and let the steel blade shine in the sun.

“Saddle up. It’s time to vanquish evil.”

***

Bayzog rode easy, studying a piece of mystic shard in his hand. The bright fragment’s powers were gone, but some mystery remained. How did the forces of Barnabus harness its power? The crystals were almost impossible to mine and shape, but somehow they managed to do it. It was a grave concern.

“Worried, I see,” Nath said, riding up alongside him.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Well,” Nath said, “you always look concerned about something.”

“It’s that bad, is it?”

“For an elf, maybe, but for a man, maybe not so bad. So, tell me, what are you thinking?”

Bayzog wanted to ask the same thing, but Nath had made his plans quite clear. He was heading straight for the River Cities to find out what was going on with these crystals. Not a subtle strategy but a bold one instead.

“I’m thinking only one person is capable of making these things,” Bayzog said. “Maybe a few, and the more we close in, the more heavily guarded they will be.” He glanced back at the forest and fields behind him. “Not to mention, we are most likely being pursued from all angles, thanks to your efforts at the bridge.”

Nath sat tall in the saddle with a calm look in his eyes and said, “The path is broad to where we go, and we won’t be so easy to find.”

“And when we get there?”

“We’ll come up with something.”

Nath pulled his horse to a stop and craned his neck toward the sky.

Bayzog scanned the sky but heard nothing.

“Get into the woodland,” Nath said. He made a sharp whistle ahead.

Brenwar and Ben turned in their saddles.

Nath pointed toward the woods and mouthed, “Quickly.”

They all led their horses deep into the edge of the forest, where Nath stopped and waited.

***

Bayzog peered up through the pines. A distant sound caught his eyes and came closer.

Whump. Whump. Whump. Whump. Whump.

Wings beat against the wind in the sky, dragon shrieks called out in the air, shadowy forms glided over the branches, and his heart beat in his throat. It sounded like more than a dozen of them. He turned back at Nath.

Nath held his arm out and finger up.

Splintering shrieks were like bells in his ears. The horses shifted, snorted, and stamped. Bayzog rubbed his horse’s neck and whispered in its ear. The fine beast calmed.

After the dragon shadows passed, the shrieks faded. Bayzog heard Ben sigh.

“Noisy things, aren’t they?” Nath said with a smile.

“That was awfully close, wasn’t it?” Brenwar remarked.

“True,” Nath said, “but I’ll always hear them coming.”

“Is that so?” Brenwar said.

“Yes, yes it—”

A shadow circled above and dropped just outside the tree line with a
whump
. A dragon crept toward them with its long neck swaying back and forth. With its piercing eyes locked on Bayzog’s, it charged forward.

CHAPTER 8

Gorlee stood flat footed, looking up. The monstrous figure looked down on him from twelve feet above. Its head was bald, and its broad face rested on a thick neck like an ugly troll’s. Its chest was broad and hairy, and its grey skin was clammy like a fish. Its arms were long and thick like an ape’s, and its knuckles almost clawed the floor.

What are you?

“What am I?” it said. “I know you wonder.”

Gorlee shrugged and tried to ignore the stench of its breath.

“Confident this one is, ah ah ah,” it said. It pointed a fingernail tipped like a spear at him. “Perhaps you think me a troll, but trolls don’t speak like me and you, do they?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Gorlee said. “The only trolls I’ve ever known are dead.”

“Ooh,” the creature said with a smile of broken teeth, “I like that. Hmmm … maybe you think me a giant?”

Gorlee gave the monster a closer study. He knew the races. He’d spent his entire life mimicking them, and he thought he’d seen all of them. But this thing was different. The eyes of trolls were dull and stupid. This thing’s eyes showed cunning. He’d seen plenty of giants, too, but none with arms so very long before, either. Its legs were short, and there were strange ridges in its skin, but its mouth looked a mile wide.
Maybe it’s cursed. Maybe it’s a demon from the depths.

“I don’t care what you are,” Gorlee said.

Its pinkish eyes widened and blinked.

Gasps and hisses could be heard among the other voices. Slowly, they came forward from the shadows into the cavern’s light. Most of them were long haired and unkempt, but normal in size. What was left of their clothes was in shambles. Men mostly. Orcs, gnolls, and goblins were among them.

It poked him in the chest.

“I am a triant. My name is Bletver. My mother was a troll and my father a giant.”

“I think that is one of the worst things that has ever been bred, er, I mean said.” Gorlee yawned and covered his mouth. “I guess that explains the present company of scary faces you keep. He yawned again. “And what a fine establishment you have set up. How much to rent one of these caves?”

“Oh ho ho,” the monster said, “I’m going to enjoy you.” It crept closer and eyed his chains. “My, you must be special.” It flicked Gorlee’s shackles. “I’ve not seen moorite in an age. Take a look at this, boys.”

The faces crowded in.

“Indeed, you are special. Very special, as the phantom did say.” It huffed and leered at Gorlee. “Who are you, and how did you get those scales?” It brushed its arms with the back of its fingers.

Gorlee felt ill, and his stomach was still turning. The multitudes were pressing in and tugging at his chains. It took everything he had to not take a swing at them. To not change and escape the chains. But the desperation in their eyes left a feeling of pity in him. These people were condemned. Some of them might have been soldiers that fought against the forces of Barnabus. Others might have been failed enforcers of the same. The monstrous humanoid was their warden, and he probably already had his henchmen scattered among the crowd, feeling him out. And the phantom, that was the gatekeeper of the deep.

“I’m just one of you now, it seems,” Gorlee said. “When do we eat?”

The monster clapped his hands.

“You are a delight to my dungeon.” It laughed. “A man of wits and games. Well now, let’s see what we can do to make our guest more comfortable. Let’s get you out of those chains.”

“That would be kind.”

“Bring an axe and block!” it shouted.

The crowd parted, making a pathway for a large humanoid that approached. Its head and shoulders were covered in shaggy black fur, and it stood taller than the others. Broad and muscular, it came with a large block of wood tucked under one arm and a great axe slung over its shoulder.

A bugbear. They have all the worst down here. How quaint.

It dropped the heavy block of wood on the ground with a snort and clutched its axe in both hands.

“I don’t think that blade is of much use against moorite,” Gorlee said. He laid the chains across the block. “But you are welcome to take a whack.”

The monster’s chuckle was low and wicked.

“Oh, we know our plans can’t break those chains. But removing your hands from your wrists? That’s another thing.”

Gorlee jerked his hands away.

“What?”

“Grab him!”

A surge of bodies seized him, pinned him down, and held his arms in place. “Aw, don’t worry,
Nath Dragon
, with any luck, your dragon skin will hold.”

No it won’t!

“And,” the monster continued, “you will have passed your test. Of course if you fail, you’ll be doomed like the rest of us.” He signaled to the bugbear.

The axe flashed up over its head.