by Simon Archer
Dragonmancer
Simon Archer
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
18. Gadlina
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
28. Gadlina
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Author’s Note
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1
I’d never seen a road change colors before. Most of the roads where I lived were either dirt or pot-holed, single-lane pavement. Sometimes when the Arizona heat hit the paved ones, there would be a weird optical illusion thing that happened, but never on the dirt roads like the one I was speeding down. Pushing my beat-up Honda to its limits, trying to get home as fast as possible, was the only way I could think of to make my day better.
I’d just endured the absolute worst interview possible and wanted to forget all about it. I had been so excited to land an appointment, but when I got there, it turned out to be one of those group interviews for door-to-door commission sales positions. I was so pissed I flipped over a desk, flipped off the interviewer, and stormed out in the middle of the welcome speech when I realized what was going on.
Even going sixty-five miles per hour, my little car didn’t have the life left in her to go fast enough for me to speed away from my troubles, unfortunately. The fact that rent was due last week, I still didn’t have a job, and even my ramen noodle reserves were running low still loomed ahead of me. It was almost a welcome distraction when I saw something weird on the road. Well, at least that’s what I thought it was. As I lifted my foot from the gas and my car slowed, I saw that there wasn’t anything on the road. It was the road itself that was odd. I pushed on the brake and leaned forward, trying to get a better view through my dust-covered windshield. I was having a hard time believing I saw a yellow strip grow brighter as I approached. Actually, it seemed to glow, not just grow. It stretched from the right shoulder to just past the middle point of the road and was getting brighter the closer I got.
I glanced at my speedometer and pushed on the brake harder. The needle plunged from fifty miles per hour, to forty-five, then to forty. Looking back at the road, I saw the glowing strip extend further across the road. The first chill of ‘what the fuck is that?’ ran through my entire body.
I pushed even harder on the brake, and that’s when the rest of my bad luck showed up. The tail end of my car swerved sideways as my rear passenger tire exploded. The pop was loud enough to make me jump in my seat, which was unfortunate because I was holding onto the steering wheel when I did. The wheel jerked the same time I did, and before I could send up a ‘fuck you’ to the universe for its cruelty, the ass end of my car was jacking sideways. I whipped my head around to survey each side of the road. If my tires caught grip, I’d head for the side with an eight-foot deep ditch. If I could correct, the other side of the road had a nice, broad shoulder that led out to flat desert.
I yanked my foot off the brake and turned the steering wheel hard. For a moment, I slid down the middle of the road almost completely sideways. Then the front tires caught grip again, whipping the steering wheel out of my hands and flinging the back end around the opposite way. Grabbing for the steering wheel, I locked my hands tight around it and tried to figure out what position it was in. I didn’t figure it out fast enough, not that it would have mattered. The rim of the wheel that no longer had a tire cut into the dirt road at just the wrong angle, and the car started to roll.
That first full roll seemed to take forever. My body weight shifted towards the door beside me, and I saw the ground approaching the window. I threw my arms around my head and leaned as far the opposite way as I could. Regardless of how time felt, the car took that first roll so quickly that the driver’s side wasn’t on the ground long enough to even break the side window. My weight shifted again, this time towards the roof of the car. I instantly praised my quick thinking for laying sideways as I landed on the ceiling which was now below me.
I’d also never been more thankful to not be wearing a seat belt, although I wasn’t certain why. I’d never been in a rollover accident with one on. Perhaps that would be a better experience? Strange, the things that run through your mind as you are being rolled like cotton candy inside a vehicle.
After three complete flips and losing count of the places I’d have to check for broken bones, something happened. I’m not sure if the car struck the road a specific way, or if some weird law of physics took hold, but suddenly, I was midair inside the car, and the car turned around me.
Now, I headed into my first end-to-end flip which threw me into the top of the dash, slamming into the windshield as the trunk-end of the car raised. I was quickly reminded of the g-force ride at an amusement park I’d gone to as a kid. I couldn’t have lifted a single part of myself off that dash if I’d wanted to. That fact became increasingly concerning as the crunch of the failing glue on the windshield grew louder.
Finally, the front end of the car was on its way up, and I waited for gravity to pull me out of the dash. What I hadn’t planned on was the car gaining momentum as it flipped. Not only did I not fall away from the dash, but I was also still being pushed towards it, and even harder onto the windshield. The final crack of the glue sounded through the air, and I finally felt my weight move. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because I was falling to the back of the car. Instead, I was being flung out the hole the windshield left as it became dislodged.
The panic was paralyzing, yet somehow I was flailing my arms and legs as I flew through the air. I was reaching, but for what, I have no idea. I hadn’t realized I had squeezed my eyes shut until I opened them. I was certain what I saw would make my heart stop. The weird yellow split in the road was not only glowing brighter than it had been, but it had also grown up like a ray of sun coming out of the ground, and I was headed straight for it. There was something of substance to the light, though. It was more like a lemon-jello that was glowing, and it terrified me. Praying with everything in me that I would feel my body hit the dirt road, I closed my eyes again and curled myself into a ball as I flew through the air.
2
The next moments of my life made me believe I must know what a bug feels like when it gets stuck in tree sap. I hadn’t hit the road, but I’d hit something. It was soft, squishy, and slowed me down instantly without any pain.
Somehow knowing I’d hit the lemon-jello-looking ray shooting out of the ground, I opened my eyes once again. Sure enough, the gel-like substance suspended me in mid-air as it fully engulfed my body. The goop completely surrounded my arms, as well as my feet and half my legs. All my childhood years of cartoon quicksand skits came flooding to my mind. Should I struggle? Should I stay still? I chose to struggle. There wasn’t anything for me to grab, though, and the gel was so thick that I couldn’t get my arms ou
t of it to grab anything, anyway. Looking down, I saw the gel start to encase my torso and creep up my chest. It wasn’t stopping, and my fear shifted from not wanting to be stuck, to not wanting to suffocate.
Next came the strange part, as though it was possible to get in a stranger situation. My heart rate calmed, and my panic vanished. My entire body relaxed even though my mind was still searching for a logical explanation for what was happening to me. As the gel slowly made its way over my chin, I held my breath and closed my eyes once more.
For the first time, I noticed how cool and soothing the substance felt on my skin. It covered my mouth, then nose, and eyes. At last, it covered the rest of my head, and it completely encased me. My lungs started to burn, reminding me that I was holding my breath longer than I had in many years. Yet, I still didn’t panic. In fact, I found the burning interesting, and it almost felt good in a way. My body relaxed even further, and I felt as though I was drifting off to sleep.
The question whether I was dying from suffocation or not crossed my mind, but it was no more concerning to me than a passing intrigue. I had the sudden need to see the gel that was my captor one more time and tried to open my eyes, but the ooze pinned them down. Even that didn’t concern me. I simply resigned myself to suffocating, with my eyes shut, stuck in an impossible yellow gel that had grown out of a dirt road in Arizona. Blackness closed over my mind, even though I was still slightly conscious. It was exactly like that sweet spot when you are falling asleep but can still hear the world around you. It only lasts for a moment, and then you are fully asleep.
I didn’t get to the passed-out part, though. Instead, I jerked back to alertness when I began to fall. My movement was slow at first, and once again, I pictured a bug sliding down a tree, encased in sap and unable to control its body. My heart sped up, and the burning in my lungs intensified. Just that quick, all the panic I’d lost came flooding back and punched me in the stomach. I started falling faster, feeling the ooze glaze over my skin but still being unable to open my eyes. I’d heard of some horror-movie worthy ways to die, but nothing ever that terrifying. The burning, my heart wanting to explode in my chest, my lack of sight, and my inability to move made me wish for death at that moment, just so I could end the panic.
Then I was free. I was free of the ooze. It was like I’d sank through it and slid right out. The problem was, I was also free falling. I finally could open my eyes and instantly wished I hadn’t. All I could see was puffy-white clouds, and solid land far beneath them. How my brain didn’t shut off from fear is beyond me, but it didn’t, and I had to continue on to the realization that instead of suffocating to death like a bug on a tree, I was going to end up more like a bug on a windshield when I hit the ground.
The upside was that I could finally move my limbs again, although flapping like a maniac didn’t help my situation at all. It was still nice to have some type of control back, though. I fell through one cloud after another, tumbling and twisting through the air. I’d catch glimpses of the ground beneath every so often as I hurled towards it. I had no idea how much time I had left to live. Some of the best memories of my life started playing in my mind, and I knew my end was near. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and made the conscious decision to watch the replay of my short twenty-three years before my demise.
The memory of my father sitting me on his knee to read to me started to form in my mind’s eye. I was finally comfortable, and the rushing of air past my ears faded.
“I’ve got a special book for you tonight, son,” he’d said with a smile.
“What’s it about?” I’d asked him, wonder in my eyes. He reached to open a book he was holding that looked very old. I snapped my eyes open right then and gasped. That wasn’t a good memory. That was the moment before the boat my family had been on when I was a boy had capsized. I was the only survivor. Anger flared at my mind's cruelty. How could my last thoughts as a living human be about the death of my family? I didn’t have time to answer my own question before my dire situation got a bit weirder, if that was even possible.
Something flew by me like a white bolt of light. I twisted midair to see what it was. I didn’t have time to, however, before I felt a scraping up my back. The very next moment, my shirt slid up and caught my entire body weight, as though it had caught on a hook. The sudden change from falling to not falling sent my stomach into a lurch. Then I felt myself being pulled up. I craned my neck to look up but couldn’t see anything. All I knew is that I wasn’t falling any longer, and then I started moving sideways through the air, and then slowly started descending towards the land beneath.
While equally grateful to no longer be plunging to my death, and terrified of why I wasn’t doing just that, I heard my shirt start to rip. Before I could yell out in horror, my shirt tore clean in two.
“What shitty luck,” was all I could think as I began to fall, belly-first, to the land below once again. Before I had a chance to try to reengage with the fact I was going to die, I felt something grab me by the belt of my pants, slowing my descent once again. This time when I craned my neck to see what had me, I saw more than I bargained for, or could believe.
Directly above my head was the white underbelly of something. I had no idea what, but it was huge. It wasn’t a bird, as there were no feathers. Its scaly skin shone the brightest white I’d ever seen. I realized then that I could hear the flapping of wings above me, just out of sight from my unusual position. Something huge, white, and winged was carrying me through the sky, slowly lowering me to the ground. For the umpteenth time in the last five minutes, I wasn’t sure whether to be terrified, happy, or just resign to being thoroughly confused.
When the ground was only a mere five feet away from my belly, the thing released my belt from its grip, and I fell. I would’ve rated myself a negative one on form for bellyflopping onto a pile of sand. As I lay there, I made the executive decision not to get up. Nothing good could come of me getting up at that very moment, so I lay there, face-down in the sand, just enjoying the fact that I was still alive.
I don’t know how long I laid there before my brain started whirring about. Being alive was great and all, but how was I alive? What happened when I flew from the car? Where was I now? What had caught me when I was falling?
Still, when the realization that whatever caught me was huge, and could still be around somewhere sank in, I bolted up out of the sand and to my feet. I nearly fell right back down, as my legs were incredibly weak from fear and trauma. Once I had my balance, though, I twisted in all directions, looking around me.
The air was full of dust, decreasing visibility. I could only see a couple of feet in front of my face. The grit in the air stung my eyes, making me squint. It was like I was in the Arizona desert in the midst of a sandstorm. I made several circles where I stood before the dust started to settle, and I caught sight of a vague form about fifteen feet away. As the dirt fell back to the ground, the figure grew cleared, and my eyes widened. In less than a minute, I found myself staring through clear air at what I couldn’t believe was a huge, white dragon!
3
There was no doubt in my mind that the creature I was staring at was what had lowered me to the ground when I was falling, but that didn’t slow my panicked heart rate.
I stood, frozen in shock, sweat beading up on my forehead, and my mind raced a million miles per hour. The dust continued to settle, making my view clearer with each passing moment. The dragon grew brighter, nearly luminescent, at the same time. It was sitting on its back haunches and had its front legs straight, not unlike a dog sits. Its legs were muscled but slender and ended in claws the length of my torso.
Huge, white scales covered the creature’s chest, layered in such a way that it looked as though there was a ridge right down the center. The ridge went up the dragon’s neck and finally tapered off just under its head. When my eyes focused on its face, my heart pounded even harder. It had two horns extending off the back of its head and a large ridge on the forehead that taper
ed into a beak-like mouth. Its eyes were set on each side of the head, just under the forehead ridge. When I saw them clearly for the first time, I sucked in my breath in awe. They were a glowing amber color and absolutely mesmerizing.
The creature turned its head to look down beside itself, and I noticed another figure for the first time. It was a girl, or young woman rather, standing with one hand on its leg. Her stance was mildly defensive in nature, and I instantly got the notion that she wasn’t to be messed with, even though she couldn’t have been taller than five-foot-five-inches.
She was a vision with her flame-red hair cascading over her shoulders. There were two black streaks right at the front that she had pulled back, keeping the rest of her hair off her face. Her light green eyes cut through the remaining dust like there was the light of the milky way behind them. I ran my hands over my face, brushing dirt from my eyes to make certain I saw things correctly. When I refocused, she was still there, and she was staring directly at me. Awkwardness flowed over me as I was afraid to move or speak. Hell, I didn’t even know if I was truly conscious, or if I’d simply conjured the most beautiful woman possible in a dream as I lay passed out on the side of the dirt road I’d flipped my car on.
The woman patted the dragon on the leg and stepped in my direction. Standing there, frozen in place, I swallowed hard and waited. As soon as she was a good length ahead of the dragon, it laid down and wrapped its long tail around itself, flicking the huge, plated spike on the end as though to make certain I saw it before resting its head on the ground. When the woman stood directly in front of me, the light scent of rose petals drifted to my nostrils, somehow calming me slightly. She cocked her head to the side, putting a hand on her perfectly curved hip. She had clothed herself in flowing, mint green chiffon held on by a myriad of leather straps that only barely covered her breasts and lower half.