The Roar of a Dragon (16 page)

Tears still streaming down my cheeks, I waited for Garridan to make his move.

Finally, Garridan came at me, swinging his sword in diagonal backhand arc. I leaned to my right to avoid it, then lunged with the sword in my right hand to stab him through the abdomen. But Garridan was ready for that move; he blocked it with his shield, then used it to shove me backward. Garridan didn’t hesitate — he came straight at me with an overhead swing of his sword. I dove straight past him into a somersault, then spun to face him. Again, Garridan didn’t hesitate — he went to stab me, but instinctively, I parried his swords with mine, then spun along his shield, ending up behind him, and before he could react, I swung my right hand sword as hard as I could.

Garridan’s head fell from his shoulders and onto the floor, as did his body.

It took me a moment to absorb what had truly happened, but when I did, I fell to my knees and sobbed.

Other than the sound of my crying, the huge circular room was silent for several moments — then Sirak let out a low growl of anger.

‘Ther-lor! Attack!’

Sirak had betrayed me, which was no great surprise. I was about to be mauled to death by a thousand Ther-lor — but I didn’t care.
Let them take me
…what did I really have left? My life was already long gone an eternity ago.

I remained on my knees, my head down, as the Ther-lor flooded into the room.

Just then, the ceiling exploded.

‘Aidan!’ The familiar voice sounded very distant to me.

Then there was the roar of a dragon, followed by Sirak screeching, ‘Attack the dragon!’

I didn’t even look up — my mind was too consumed with trauma. Somewhere, deep inside, my conscience was screaming at me to get up and help, but my limbs wouldn’t obey. I heard crashing, fighting, chanting, fire, and the next thing I knew, I was in the grasp of a giant dragon’s claw and a moment later, the Dead Citadel was disappearing behind us.

But I remembered very little of this — I only remembered the face of a person I had known who was no more, a person who had taken my father’s place after his death, a person who had made my dreams come true, a person I was forced to kill, lest he kill me.

The next thing I remember is sitting on hard jagged rock, hearing all kinds of voices around me. I couldn’t make out any of what was being said — my mind just wasn’t there. All I could think of was Garridan, stalking me, sword raised — me, begging him to stop — decapitating Garridan, his head hitting the ground.

Stop it!

I shook my head, trying with everything I had to focus on the situation at hand, but I couldn’t.

‘We don’t have much time —’

Crimson eyes…

‘They could come looking for us,’ Iskandor breathed.

‘Please, Garridan — don’t —’

‘Sirak will be in no condition to be giving orders for a short while, and the Ther-lor won’t move without his command. We have a little time.’

‘Sirak’s not dead?’ I asked in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.

Iskandor (now back in his human form) and Timor looked at me in shock, as if they didn’t know I was there. They looked back at each other, then back at me. I suddenly felt as if I was a six-year-old who had walked in on his parents having an adult conversation that I was not supposed to have heard. I didn’t need that feeling right now. I immediately became irritated.

My eyes went wide as I looked back and forth between them. ‘Well? Do you two suddenly not understand Common? What are you two looking at?’ When neither of them answered, I snickered. ‘Have it your way then.’ I turned and started to walk off.

‘Aidan —’

Iskandor — my injured dragon friend —
damn
him. No other voice could have stopped me at that point.

I turned halfway around.

‘Forgive us. We just…We truly feared that your mind was gone, Aidan. After everything that’s happened to you — your betrayal and exile, your death and resurrection, your inner turmoil — and then, after you were forced to kill Garridan, you wouldn’t respond to anything…’

Iskandor fell silent, and Timor took over. ‘When Sirak called the Ther-lor in to attack us, you did nothing. From the moment of Garridan’s death, you’ve had this glassy, faraway look in your eyes. I’m sorry, Aidan, I’m not criticizing you. I’m just —
we’re
just very concerned.’

I faced them, now completely annoyed. ‘Is that it? You both think I’m crazy?’

Iskandor sighed. ‘We do not believe you are crazy, Aidan. But the human mind can only take so much, and your mind has endured so much in such a short period of time. It would be no surprise if your brain had reached its limit, Aidan.’

‘I. Am. FINE,’ I said through clenched teeth, even though I knew it was far from the truth. ‘Now, let’s just get out of this wretched time.’

At that point, Nydel approached us, and I realized we were back in the Balas Malator mountains.

‘Congratulations on your safe return,’ she said, bowing.

Timor bowed in return. ‘Thank you, Nydel, but we come bearing ill news.’

Nydel’s smile faded slightly. ‘Oh?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ Iskandor said. ‘You’re about to be under attack, within the next few days.’

Nydel’s expression became determined. ‘The Ther-lor?’

Iskandor nodded.

‘What do they want?’ Nydel asked.

‘Access to the time portal,’ Timor answered. ‘That’s why Sirak wanted me — to go back through time to retrieve a magical artifact for him. I refused to help him, so now I suppose he plans to do it himself.’

‘I see,’ Nydel mumbled. Then her voice rose in fear. ‘But what happened in Delmar —’

‘No need to fear that,’ Timor said quickly. ‘His clerics are long dead, and he has nothing to perform the ritual with. Without them, he will have no choice but to fight.’

Nydel breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Well, that surely works to our advantage. On the battlefield, we will have military strategy and the height of the mountains on our side. How long do we have?’

‘Likely, a few days,’ I answered.

Nydel nodded. ‘Then I shall begin preparations right away. Will the three of you be fighting alongside us?’

Timor shook his head. ‘I am afraid we cannot, Nydel. We must return to our time as soon as possible — and we will be destroying the time portal behind us when we leave.’

I looked over at Timor in astonishment; that hadn’t been discussed.

‘Sirak,’ Iskandor elaborated. ‘We can’t risk him following us through the portal.’

‘Precisely,’ Timor said.

‘I understand,’ Nydel said. ‘Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my leave so I can prepare the army. Will the three of you be leaving now?’

‘Actually,’ Timor said, ‘if we may ask one more boon of the elves, we’re going to need a night of rest before we leave; I need to be at full strength before I cast the time travel spell.’

Nydel smiled. ‘Of course, Timor! The three of you are most welcome — you may find rest anywhere you like.’

I stepped forward and bowed low to the military leader. ‘Thank you, Nydel — for everything you have provided for us. I’m only sorry that we have nothing to offer you in return.’

‘That is where you are wrong, Sir Aidan,’ Nydel responded. ‘The three of you are going back in time to save our world. If you can stop the Dyn’osi, I assure you that will be reward enough.’

***

‘Have you ever seen anything like that, Garridan?’

‘It happens very rarely, Aidan. Minotaurs and ogres make a very destructive force when they manage to form an alliance. We have two things to our advantage: first, their force isn’t very large, and second, they won’t be very organized. When they attempt to siege the army at Fairmont Castle, our army will attack them from the left flank.’

‘This will still be a brutal, arduous battle…we will lose many men.’

‘We may well, Aidan, but all we can do is handle it the best way we can.’

I smiled. Garridan’s words were always comforting to me, no matter how grim the situation. I looked at him to tell him as much
.

Garridan’s eyes were blood red, his skin obsidian black
.

He lifted his sword and swung
.

‘Sir Aidan! Timor! Iskandor!’

I sat up with a gasp and my dagger in my hand, Timor woke up wide-eyed, saying, ‘What, what?’, and Iskandor merely sat up as if he was waking up on a normal day.

‘The Ther-lor march on us!’

The three of us exchanged glances.

I couldn’t believe it. ‘How is that possible?’

Iskandor sighed. ‘Wondering how is pointless — they are here, and we must make ready to leave before they have a chance to stop us.’

I nodded in agreement, saw Timor do the same.

‘How many Ther-lor?’ I asked the elf from the military.

‘It looks to be around five thousand,’ the elf answered. ‘They are less than a mile away; we have a great vantage point from the mountains.’

‘We have time to take a quick look,’ I said to Iskandor, who nodded in agreement.

And so we hurried out of the cave where we had rested the previous night, north and then east, and before long, we saw soldiers gathered on a cliff face, watching the approaching enemy. We spotted Nydel at the very edge of the cliff, giving orders to her lieutenants in a calm, but determined manner. She saw us approach.

‘Sir Aidan! What are the three of you doing here? You should be heading for the portal!’

‘I had to see,’ was all I could say, and I looked out into the valley below.

Down there, the valley was framed by hills on both sides, to the east and west, and a river ran jagged southeast to northwest — and from the north, came Sirak and the Ther-lor. The elf who warned us was right: though there was approximately a thousand Ther-lor at the Citadel, now there were somewhere in the vicinity of five thousand, perhaps more. The river apparently wasn’t very deep; the Ther-lor ran across it like it wasn’t even there. From there, the army angled to the east, toward the Valley of Amity where Timor had been abducted.

‘What do they do, multiply like rabbits?’ I quipped. When no one responded, I watched the Ther-lor head towards the valley. ‘Why are they heading that way?’ I asked Nydel.

‘It’s the only known path into this part of the mountains,’ she answered. ‘Now, the three of you need to get to that portal — I will check on you if I get the chance. If I find the three of you messing around, I will drag you to that portal and throw you all in myself.’

‘Well, it doesn’t really work that way.’ Timor mumbled.

‘She knows that,’ I said, shaking my head and bowing to Nydel. ‘Thank you, Nydel…farewell and good luck.’

‘Farewell, Aidan of Delmar,’ Nydel said, bowing in return. ‘And farewell to you, Timor and Iskandor…may the gods be with you and our world.’

Timor and Iskandor bowed back, and we were off in the direction of the portal.

***

The three of us ran west down the road, Timor taking the lead, since he was the only one who know where he was going. Before too long, the path angled southwest, and there was a cave visible at the end of the path.

‘The time portal is in that cave,’ Timor said. We rushed inside, and then Timor stopped us and pointed to the symbols on the wall, which would have been barely visible in the dim light to normal eyes, but not to mine.

‘This large circle and the rune inside it are the portal,’ he explained. ‘When I chant the words to the spell and use the necessary hand gestures with the right spell components, the portal will open up. It will take a little time for me to complete this…Aidan, I need you to watch the entrance.’

I nodded, and was moving to comply when a ghastly, but amused voice sounded in the cave.

‘I trust you have room for one more?’

There he was; Sirak, his hands clasped in front of him, looking relaxed, like he was just coming home from a dinner party. I started to question in my mind how Sirak had gotten past the elves, and so quickly, but I was reminded of what Iskandor had said just an hour or so earlier.

‘Wondering how is pointless…’

I drew my swords, knowing it was probably going to be all up to me to somehow stop Sirak; Iskandor was injured so I had no idea what he was capable of, and Timor was going to need all of his concentration to cast the time travel spell. What I was going to do against a powerful sorcerer, I had no idea — especially in a narrow cave with no room to maneuver.

‘So…planning to go back in time and alter the past?’ Sirak said. ‘Fools! How do you plan to stop us? Do you even know when we infiltrated Delmar? Do you know how or when we obtained the Rod of Therl? You know none of this, do you? What hope do you have?’

I was barely listening to him; I was attempting to form a strategy. My only hope was to charge right at Sirak — if I did that, one of three things would happen:

One, I would be able to get a good slash at him;

Two, I would somehow get past him and out of cave where I would have many more options;

Three, he would cast a spell on me and burn me to a piece of toast.

No time to think — I charged right at Sirak, who was still ranting. Timor started chanting the spell, Iskandor shouted my name. I blocked all of that out, concentrating on my target. Sirak, taken completely by surprise, cast a lightning spell, apparently not a very strong one, and I dodged it easily. But Sirak wasn’t to be caught unaware for very long — his second spell was right on target. Another, stronger lightning spell knocked me right back where I came from.

‘Aidan!’ Iskandor was right there. ‘Are you alright?’

Shockingly — no pun intended — I was. ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ I struggled to sit up as Timor continued to chant behind us.

Sirak apparently decided that he was done with words; he began chanting and weaving his hands together, ready to cast the spell to finish us once and for all.

I don’t know exactly what I was thinking at this point — maybe I just wanted to protect my friends, perhaps I just had a death wish. I’m not sure, but I jumped up to my feet, ran a couple of steps to stand in front of Iskandor, knelt down to one knee, put both fists on the ground, bowed my head, and concentrated with all of my might. I heard Sirak finish the chant, unleash the spell, and I fully expected to be disintegrated or blown into a thousand pieces. I felt the impact hit me like a boulder, and I was flat on my back again.

I opened my eyes, and Iskandor was standing over me, a look of complete amazement on his face.

‘What happened?’ I asked him.

‘I…don’t know.’

I sat up, and saw Sirak, with a wide-eyed look of shock on his face, which quickly changed to a look of utter rage. He clenched his fists, and it seemed that it was all he could do to keep from screaming. But he contained himself, and his expression then changed to one of contentment.

‘That was quite impressive, Aidan. So impressive in fact, that I’m going insist that you try and do it again. I doubt your ability to do so, but — UGH!’

Wide-eyed, Iskandor and I exchanged glances for a split second, and then I jumped back up to my feet, retrieving my swords that I had dropped, and we turned our attention to the events that were transpiring.

Something — or someone — had hit Sirak from behind.

Sirak turned around, and there was a dagger stuck in his back. Standing outside the cave, in plain view, was Nydel.

Sirak was enraged. ‘Elven whelp! You’ll have to do better than that! I’ll teach you to meddle in my affairs —’

I was about to rush in and help her, but at that moment, Iskandor put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Don’t, Aidan. We have to wait for the portal to open.’

‘But we have to help her!’ I whispered back loudly.

‘She is creating a distraction for us, Aidan,’ Iskandor said. ‘We have to go.’

I knew exactly what Nydel was doing, but that said, I didn’t like her chances against Sirak.

I hesitated a moment longer, took one last look at the battle unfolding before me, then I silently wished Nydel luck, and stepped through the portal, leaving the sounds of battle behind.

I was heading back to my own time.