The Wizard And The Dragon (23 page)

I
had to wonder what was coming for me. I was certain that I couldn’t possibly
leave on my own. Something had to have come to take Tower away from me, just as
I was sure now that I wouldn’t abandon the boy to live in the tower alone.
Perhaps the changes were that answer. Had too much of the past changed and
Tower had simply ceased to be? I tore out the page where I had written the
thought. It didn’t make sense.

My
mind settled on those changes. I realized that I had forgotten to bring the
bottles to fill with water. That had been a good memory, one that I cherished.
I clutched the bottle of heat and light as though it was my own personal piece
of magic. I had found comfort in it. That was another memory I had denied my
young self. Had my Tower forgotten things in the same way?

They
were small changes, I reasoned. Still, I slept poorly that night. The pieces were
all around me, but they didn’t start to come together until we went down into
the tunnels. It was only then, after there was a big change, that I began to
understand.

There was one
final warning from Tower that I had not yet remembered as we went down into the
mines. In all fairness, it was difficult to remember so much after fifteen
years. I kept Candle in my pocket as we walked through the tunnels.

Although
the first farren had never attacked, I felt relaxed in the mines for those
days. I had accepted the small changes that kept happening but was confident
that the larger events still remained the same. I knew my barriers would hold
and that we wouldn’t be attacked. Looking back, even though I was right, I
wonder if that thought was foolish.

Bryce
was nervous whenever we were in the tunnels and I let him learn from his fear.
I knew all too well how useful that paranoia would be when he was down here
alone. Still, it was not pleasant to see him jump and gasp as he thought he saw
something crawl along the edges of the light. I remembered all too well how my
eyes played tricks on me back then.

We
collected the rocks and gems for winter. We ate lunch in the mines. We dragged
the bags back to the cellar and I taught him how to grind down the stone and
extract the gems. They were long days, made longer by how miserably I was
sleeping at night. Something I was missing was bothering me and keeping me
awake. Something important.

The
final day arrived and I knew the trip would end with us breaking into the
spider’s nest. I had been careful not to dig too deeply at any one spot in the
wall. On the final day I attacked at it, knowing it was necessary to cause the
breach. When the first bag was filled I suggested we take our lunch early to minimize
the clutter when we had to deal with the spider.

“Will
we have to replace the gems on the roof soon?” Bryce asked between bites of
food.

“Probably.
We’ll need to use more when it gets colder. That’s part of why we’re mining so
much now. We’ll need the gems to last us through winter. You’ll see,” I
answered.

“Why
winter? Couldn’t we just come down here and get more months from now?”

“We
could,” I said, and then chewed my way through a piece of chicken. “This place
is more lively during the colder months. I’m not certain why. You’ve noticed
how it’s warm down here, even though there’s no sunlight? It gets even warmer
during the winter, and I think the creatures try to go up where it’s cooler.
I’m not sure why. I’ve only explored a small area down here.”

“You
went exploring here? You’re brave. I would never do that.”

I
couldn’t stop the laugh before it shot out of me. “We’ll see,” I added after I
was finished.

We
set our plates down and I resumed digging into the wall. I remembered the
collapse happened after our meal but I couldn’t remember how many hits it had
taken. I started striking with the pickaxe at slower intervals, and listening
closely to the sound it made. As the sound of the strikes changed I braced
myself for what was about to happen.

The
blast came like a bolt of lightning and I dived back away from it. Bryce stood
still as the wall fell away from us and was caught in the dust and debris that
was vomited out. I stood and watched the scene unfold, loathing that I knew he
had to take the brunt of the spider’s attack.

I
saw the cobwebs as the dust cleared and watched the boy peer curiously inside
at the nest. The giant spider looked like a shadow at first before it jumped
out at Bryce. My legs shifted as I watched them struggle, knowing that it was a
few more seconds before I intervened.

Bryce
rolled out of the way from the spider’s bite and it failed as it smashed itself
down into solid rock instead of the boy’s soft flesh. I knew that was when I
stepped in.

“Bryce!
Get away from it!” I roared, with an urgency in my voice like I had been trying
to work out what was going on the entire time.

I
stepped forward as the boy scrambled behind me. I shot a suspension spell at
the spider. It left my hand as a red beam, more radiant than usual in the
darkness of the tunnel, and was deflected by one of the spider’s legs. It
hissed at me and began backing up.

The
spider’s hind legs began to press around the hole to its nest and I shot at it
again. It swatted at the beam and continued shuffling back, protectively
covering the hole with its body. Its legs were outstretched to hold itself up
and that was its mistake.

I
slung both of my arms out together and sent two streams to still the monster.
The spider lashed its arms out but they were stretched too far. One of the
beams connected and latched onto the spider. The spell spread out over its body
and it squirmed only for a moment longer before freezing in place and falling
forward. It landed on its back and toppled over, moving as one solid object
like it was made of stone.

I
was already at the breach before the spider stopped moving. I pulled out a
clear gemstone and sealed the hole just before the smaller spiders covered it.
Seeing their mass of tiny, furry bodies would have made me shudder if I didn’t
know we had little time.

We
dragged the spider back to the cellar. I pushed it into the jail cell and then
turned, leaving Bryce with only a warning about running out of the tower if the
spider began to move. It was only then, when I ran back into the tunnel and
pulled Candle out of my pocket, that I remembered the final warning. I stopped
and looked at him in my hand.

This
was when Candle died for my Tower.

I
kept him in my hand and held him close as I ran. I couldn’t go back to the
cellar without sealing the nest but I wouldn’t let Candle die either. Did my
Tower know about this happening like I did now, or was it something new like
the farren coming from the cellar? Could I prevent it? Was I allowed to prevent
it or was that too big of a change?

I
tripped as I neared the spider’s nest and Candle launched from my hand. I
watched as he flew through the air and landed at the gemstone barrier. I looked
up from the floor into the nest and that’s when I saw it through the barrier.

The
same monster that had chased Tower out of the mines when I had been the boy.
The same kind of monster that had nearly killed me two years ago. It was much
smaller than that one had been but I knew it would still be resistant to magic.
It was covered in thick streams of the spider’s webs but it was quickly
breaking loose. It must have been in there all along. The giant spider had been
keeping it trapped while they prepared it as a meal.

The
krogoth was rolling its massive legs underneath the webs. Young as the monster
was, those legs still looked formidable. It was breaking out quickly now that
the spiders had retreated away. I didn’t have much time.

I
pressed off the floor and quickly onto my feet. The monster must have seen me
moving and that only enraged it to struggle faster. It saw me as a threat and
thrashed free from its confines and charged at me. Candle was only a few meters
from me but it was much closer to the spider’s nest.

The
barrier would be no match for the heavy monster and it would be shattered
easily, not even slowing the krogoth as its fierce legs clawed into the stone
floor, launching itself faster with each step. It would consume Candle easily
in its charge and his core would be lost. This was how Candle died. This was
what Tower went through. To save Candle would mean I would be run down in the
monster’s charge. It was too big to change.

I
refused.

I
slammed one foot down in front of me and put all my weight on the front leg. I
had no time for gems. I snapped my arms violently in front of me, drawing all
the strength I could muster from my body as they moved.

We
moved as if we were underwater now. I needed the extra time. The monster’s head
made contact with the barrier and it crumbled like glass, shards of the magic
gemstone glittering in Candle’s light as they fell through the air.

A
small blast gathered under Candle, ready to pop and catapult him toward me.
Another blast, a larger one, was coalescing above the krogoth’s head. That one
took most of my energy. I was risking too much. I knew that I only had enough
to safely do one of those spells, not both. Time released and I unleashed an
inferno in the tunnel.

The
explosions happened all at once. Candle soared through the air and was then
punched faster by the second, larger blast. I saw the monster’s jaws, too many
rows of teeth, close around his core and then snap down on nothing, only the
empty space where Candle had been a split second before. I caught my familiar
as the tunnel ceiling collapsed onto us.

The
monster kept coming through the blast. It had been moving too fast to be caught
in the cave-in. It collided into me and kept running, propelling me down into
the tunnel along with it.

My
feet scraped along the floor as I pushed back with my body and my magic. My
energy waned against the brunt of his charge, threatening to shatter if it was
strained too hard. The monster’s face was a hair’s breadth away from gnashing
at my hands as I concentrated to hold the distance. It wasn’t enough to keep
him back and so with each pulse forward that the monster pushed with, I was pushed
back farther.

Its
milky eyes and dragon-like face were all that I could see as it pressed against
me. We were nearing the fork and I knew that my body was seconds away from
being completely drained. It was then that I reached out for the power around
me. The gems began to glow in the walls and I let myself go, drawing wildly
with no consideration or regard for my safety. I had always drawn from a gem
with physical contact out of fear that I would otherwise burn my body from
holding too much power at once. I had decided to change something and this was
the price of that choice.

The
tunnel filled with light and the rocks around us began to redden with the heat
of the energy vibrating through them. The monster swatted helplessly at the
power I was funneling into the air between us. I was a conduit for more power
than I ever thought I could possibly hold.

Kinetic
energy had always been a clear, physical force made real without contact from
my body. As more power seethed through me that changed. It was if the air was
filling with energy between us and I knew it was too much. Too much to control
and enough to burn me up if I released it at the wrong time. I could feel the
heat from it on my face. The monster in front of me felt it too and was
shrieking in pain.

I
cut off the flow of energy from the wall and held all I had drawn in front of
me for just a second. My arms and hands felt like I was bathing them in lava. I
drew one last time from my body, pulling from reserves of energy I didn’t even
know I had built over the years, to engulf the monster with that energy.

The
magic flared up as it caught the beast’s flesh and I ran. All at once the
monster finished its charge, smashed into the wall, exploded, and I ran. It
wasn’t just the entrance to the cellar that I had collapsed. The stretch of
tunnel from the fork to the tower was coming down above me. A wall of air
caught me from behind and rushed me forward through the tunnel and I landed on
my back, sliding into the cellar as the mines kept collapsing.

I
saw the boy in the cellar when the dust cleared. I was panting and coughing,
both from the exertion and polluted air. The boy was covering his mouth with
his shirt. My hand went to Candle’s core and he was still there, still with me,
still alive when he should have died. I felt like I had just done the
impossible. I looked back at the rocks spilling into the cellar and then down
at my singed hands. I felt that the price had been worth it.

The
giant spider was in a frenzy in its cell, stirred up from the explosions. I
must have lost my thread on its suspension when I focused all of the energy on
the krogoth. Bryce took a step toward it, fascinated by the huge monster. I
remembered how I felt both scared and curious at once when I had been him, and
how the spider had been so tame after Tower nearly killed it.

But
I hadn’t done that. Candle hadn’t died. I hadn’t came back in furious. I hadn’t
lashed out at the spider in blood lust. It hadn’t been tortured into obedience.
And Bryce was standing too close to it.

The
spider’s legs shot out from between the bars before I finished my thought. They
wrapped around Bryce and yanked him toward the cell. He stuck out his arms as
if to shield himself but it wasn’t enough. His right arm was locked along the
bars while his left stuck through it, between the bars, and toward the spider’s
mouth.

I
snapped my focus into place and sent too weak of a surge at the spider’s head.
I had used too much of my own energy. I stuffed my hand into my pocket and gems
scattered all over the floor as I pulled some out. I didn’t care or look to see
how many I had.

The
time it took was enough for the spider to bite. I heard something crunch and
break and Bryce screamed louder than any child I had ever heard, magnified as
the sound bounced between the tight walls of the cellar. The sound rattled
through me, chilling me from my skin right down to my heart and I raged with
the power in my hands, crushing the spider against the back of the cell and
snapping it away from Bryce.

Its
legs receded and its body crumpled. I didn’t know if I had killed it and I
didn’t care. I rushed to the boy and swept him up in my arms. His left hand was
bloodied and mangled. There was so much blood that I couldn’t tell how many
fingers he had lost and how much was just missing chunks of flesh.

I
raced up the stairs and he screamed the entire time. I swept away the food,
plates, and cups from the table and they clattered onto the floor. I laid him
out on the table and looked down at his hand. His middle finger was gone. Bits
and pieces had been torn from the surrounding part of the hand. The bone of his
knuckle was exposed.