Spine of the Dragon

by Kevin J. Anderson

  The blankets were dark and wet, as if someone had poured oil over them—but it was blood, his father’s blood, spilled everywhere. Both of Conndur’s eyes had been gouged out and sat like small round fruit next to a lantern on the writing table. They stared at whomever might come in and discover the body.

  The konag’s arms and legs were spread-eagled, but his hands had been cut off and lay beside him on the bed. His hair was burned away, leaving only a black mass scorched onto his head. His chest had been split open, the ribs pried apart to remove his heart, then the red bloody mass stuffed down between his legs as if it belonged in his crotch.

  Mandan realized that he was shrieking. His vocal cords burned as he screamed and screamed, but the crashing thunder drowned out his wail. He no longer knew where he was or what had happened. His thoughts, his vision, everything had shut down. A new kind of thunder boomed inside his head. This was infinitely worse than the stormy night when he had found his mother dead. He screamed again.

  Before long, he felt someone shaking his shoulders, powerful hands gripping him. He turned away from the bloody horror and saw Utho standing beside him, his face ashen and shocked. The Brava grabbed him. “I have you, my prince. I’ll protect you. You are safe.”

  Mandan clutched the big man’s strong form, then lurched away, doubling over as he spewed vomit across the floor to mix with the wild splashes of blood everywhere. Utho held him, steadied him. The Brava’s voice came out in a growl. “The Isharans … are animals. And now they’ve shown us all that there can be no peace between us.”

  93

  HOOVES thundered back toward where Thon lay in wait on the shore of Lake Bakal, building his magic, feeling the instinct rise inside him. A clear thrill vibrated through his veins, and he knew he was actually looking forward to this. A clear purpose.

  He saw King Kollanan and his fifty light soldiers racing back across the frozen lake, and a pursuing party of wreth warriors came after them wearing heavy armor and riding enormous white beasts. The frostwreths let out an unearthly cry like wolves closing in on a wounded stag.

  Kollanan and his fighters put on a burst of speed, racing across the ice … coming toward Thon.

  In a moment of dizziness, he realized how much faith—the fate of this entire mission—the humans had placed in his magic. Elliel trusted him. She loved him. He wouldn’t fail her.

  Crouching, Thon leaned over the surface of the lake and spread his hands. He placed his palms firmly on the ice, pressing down. He could feel waves of power trembling from his body, making the air crackle. His hands melted the ice and his arms sank in up to the elbows.

  The frostwreth riders came closer. On their shaggy white mounts—huge wolf steeds with wild fur and the paws of a snow bear—they crossed the ice at an unbelievable pace.

  Kollanan and his fighters rode hard, hunched over their swift, light horses. Their iron-shod hooves with hard gripping screws clattered and cracked on the ice.

  Rokk and his frostwreth warriors closed in. Thon sensed that they relished the chase, the audacity of the human gadflies. Koll the Hammer had chosen to be a stinging wasp, but like evil children, the frostwreths would enjoy pulling the wings off that wasp.

  Thon closed his eyes, clamped his jaws together, and pushed.

  His hands glowed scarlet beneath the murky shield of ice as he forced heat into the lake. A wave of intense energy shot through the water and vaporized the ice, tunneling out until the surface cracked and split. Steam shrieked out, and geysers of hot spray roared through the broken ice.

  Even though Kollanan and his riders knew what Thon intended to do, they shouted in alarm. But the surge of heat that flash-melted the ice wasn’t directed at them. He controlled it, sent it past the humans. And then upward.

  Rokk and his armored companions thundered ahead, voicing battle cries, sweeping their weapons in the air. Their wolf steeds reared as the ice cracked around them like a breaking pane of glass. Steam spewed up in a blinding mist. The frostwreths turned their wolf steeds about, and their shouts echoed across the lake, all but drowned out by the tumult of escaping steam and boiling water and the roar of grinding ice blocks as the center of the lake began to churn.

  On his black warhorse Kollanan led the fighters in a blind dash to the shore where Thon waited. The bright flame of Urok’s ramer signaled the tail end of the war party, and the frozen lake bucked and heaved behind them.

  “Here!” Thon raised his voice, exhilarated. “To me!” He continued to pour energy into the lake, blasting the ice from the bottom up.

  One of the horses in Kollanan’s party lost its footing and fell. The animal tumbled, and the ice cracked around it. The rider scrambled to his feet, but a fissure opened beneath them and boiling water gushed out. Kollanan turned back, trying to rescue his man, but rider and horse were both gone in an instant.

  “Ride!” the king shouted to the rest of the raiders. “Ride!”

  The sounds of the frostwreth pursuers had changed from taunting battle cries to screams of anger, then disbelief. Rokk’s voice rang out, commanding his riders. “Use your magic! Summon the ice again.”

  Thon smiled. It would not be enough—not against him.

  Steam and mist swirled around the frostwreths in a cold cyclone as they tried to freeze the lake, but on the far shore Thon leaned farther forward. His arms sank up to his shoulders, and he released another burst.

  The ice around the frostwreths and their shaggy predatory mounts buckled. Slabs of ice tilted upward, dumping the warriors into the roiling water. With an angry cry, Rokk fell from his mount and plunged into the lake, and the wolf horse sank after him. The trapped frostwreths tried to swim, but steam whistled around them. The water bubbled. Ice chunks surged.

  Thon opened his eyes and slid his arms back out of the water. The residual heat in his hands flash-dried them.

  The frostwreths scrambled for purchase among the bobbing chunks of ice.

  With a thin smile of satisfaction, he clenched his fists and pounded the surface of the lake. A wave of intense cold crackled out, like a storm wind of frost that expanded in a crystalline flood—sealing the melted lake around the bobbing slabs, freezing Lake Bakal completely solid again.

  The white shock wave rushed toward Rokk and his scrambling warriors, encasing the frostwreths in the lake ice. The thundering boom kept rolling all the way to the far shore, where it slammed up against the ruined gate of the wreth fortress. This freezing wave must be like the chill that had swept over the town here, killing all of those innocent villagers.

  Exhausted, Thon collapsed back onto the shore rocks. He felt surprisingly weak, and wished Elliel were here. She would take care of him.

  But he was alone, at least for now. His long hair was damp with sweat, and he shuddered—then realized that his shuddering was laughter, overjoyed laughter! Though he couldn’t remember who he was, Thon was amazed by what he had done. He held up his hands, spread his fingers, and studied them. He couldn’t wait to tell Elliel that he had achieved exactly what she asked of him … exactly what King Kollanan needed.

  He hoped she would return soon.

  Thon gathered his composure as the raiding party closed the remaining distance to shore. By now, Elliel and Lasis should have had a chance to find the boy.

  If not, he might have to tear down the entire frostwreth fortress for her. Right now, Thon thought he could do it.

  * * *

  The three drones hurried ahead, leading the Bravas deeper into the ice fortress. With her ramer blazing, Elliel still tried to get some response from the eager creatures as they ran down the passageways. “A human boy? Is he held somewhere in one of these chambers?”

  Turning a corner, she and Lasis surprised two tall frostwreths, not warriors or nobles, but a lesser caste. They carried large tomes in their thin arms. Startled by the unexpected Bravas, the wreths dropped their heavy books and grabbed for white knives at their belts.

  Elliel and Lasis moved together as if they had choreographed their
actions. They struck the wreths with their ramers, cleaving them into smoking halves. As the bodies fell, Elliel didn’t pause to think, but pushed the stunned drones faster, not knowing where they were going. “We have to find the boy!”

  Past the next intersection, another male wreth emerged from a large, well-lit chamber. He looked like an administrator of some sort and held himself in a pompous manner. He looked from the three drones to the Bravas with their ignited ramers. He roared in indignation, but before he could form words, Elliel slashed across his abdomen, burning all the way to the spine. He collapsed, still trying to articulate his rage.

  “We should interrogate the next one,” she said. “We’ll never find the boy in time.”

  A wreth mage emerged from the well-lit chamber wearing a garment made of frozen skins and wrapped in an aura of intrinsic power.

  Lasis stepped closer to Elliel. “The wreth mage will know where to find Birch.” They faced the ominous man.

  The mage’s expression grew stormy as he recognized Lasis. “You are the Brava we captured before! Do you remember me? I am Eres, and I defeated you easily the first time. I thought Queen Onn had killed you already.” His icy eyes gave Elliel a withering look. “And now you have brought me another one. Is she a better fighter than you were?”

  Lasis crashed his ramer blade against the wreth mage, but the man deflected it with a shield of shadow. Elliel struck him at the same time, and Eres pushed back her blade with a cold wave. A chill ran through her bones, a weakness in the power that thrummed through her. Her ramer fire flickered.

  “We came to free the boy, the hostage Rokk took from Lake Bakal,” Lasis said sweating and straining. “Where is he? Tell us where he’s being held.”

  “The boy?” Eres sneered. “Queen Onn still has him in the northern palace. Rokk did not want to be bothered with such a burden.”

  Elliel groaned in dismay and attacked again with her fire, but the mage deflected it. The three drones seemed paralyzed with fear.

  Lasis staggered back. “The queen commanded Rokk to take him back to Lake Bakal! I heard her.”

  “Rokk was too impatient and Queen Onn feared he was likely to kill the boy as a nuisance. She changed her mind and decided to play with the child, to see if she could shape him.” He laughed. “He is not here!”

  With a cry of anger, Elliel hammered the mage, but Eres smacked her back, as if this entire battle were a waste of his time. Her flailing ramer cut a deep gouge in the frozen blocks of the wall.

  Then, as if by some strange silent communication, the three drones scuttled toward the mage with unexpected speed. They held small ivory knives that looked like bits of sharpened bones. Eres wasn’t expecting them, and the drones stabbed him in the calves and thighs, leaving small wounds.

  The mage cried out in annoyance and clapped his hands together, summoning magic. A ripple of cold shuddered out, freezing all three drones solid. They shattered into heaps of flesh-colored ice crystals on the floor.

  But that moment was enough, and Elliel and Lasis did not waste the drones’ sacrifice. In tandem, they lunged in and brought their ramers down together, lopping off the mage’s head, leaving only a smoking stump of neck on his shoulders. Eres’s face looked appalled as his head dropped to the frozen floor. With a follow-through stroke, Lasis cleaved his chest in two. The dead mage collapsed, and the blood from his wounds turned to smoke.

  The two Bravas exchanged a look of weary disappointment. Lasis said, “If Birch is in the northern palace, there’s nothing more we can do here.”

  Elliel looked at the still-frozen debris of the murdered drones. “But at least the boy is still alive. We will need to go north.”

  “But not tonight,” Lasis said. “Now, we must inform King Kollanan.”

  Keeping their ramers ignited in case they had to fight their way out of the fortress, they rushed back through the corridors and made their way outside to freedom.

  94

  DRIVEN by the sandwreths, the augas loped across the desert in pursuit of the wounded dragon. Queen Voo rode hard, her topaz eyes gleaming, her face filled with obsession and joy. She commanded Adan and Penda to also mount the reptilian creatures and follow the hunting party. “No place is safe out here. I insist you join us, so that I may protect you.”

  She didn’t seem to give them any choice.

  The augas churned up dust and sand as they raced across the desert pan, following the arm of dark mountains. Overhead, the dragon roared, flying high even though the damage to its wing and barbed tail caused it to fly erratically.

  Penda said, “The beast is torn between its need to get away and its desire to come kill us all.”

  Adan said, “The wreths will never let it get away.”

  “Cra, the wreths may not have any say in the matter—unless their magic is greater than I suspect.”

  The dragon let out an echoing bellow ripped from the acid in its lungs. The wreth mages raised their arms and drew upon the magic in the desert, sending starbursts into the air. The monster tried to dodge the blinding flashes of light.

  “Rally!” Voo cried. Her wreth warriors spread out, racing their augas in an arc across the sand.

  Adan gripped the saddle as his mount bounded along. He drew his sword, and Penda pulled out her fighting knife. Why had Voo brought the two of them along at all? Was it just to make the humans feel insignificant? How did she expect them to help fight against such a creature? If Voo was trying to judge human fighting ability in the upcoming war, Adan feared she would be very disappointed.

  The dragon plunged down, stroking enormous tattered wings and extending its talons. Adan was sure the beast would seize one of the wreth warriors and rip him into the air, but as the dragon descended and opened its jaws, the sandwreths sprang a trap.

  With defiant laughter, Quo and Voo leaped from their augas onto the ground and pounded their fists into the heated surface. A pillar of sand and dust rocketed up directly at the dragon, and the blast engulfed and blinded the creature. Two wreth mages did the same, stamping on the desert surface, pulling magic from beneath the world, and launching another sand geyser that pummeled the great beast.

  The dragon rebounded in the air, backflapped its wings, and curled its serpentine neck. Shrieking in fury, it headed toward the shelter of the nearby black mountains. The sandwreths were off in pursuit again, racing on their augas.

  As the dragon retreated to the shelter of the rugged cliffs, Axus stood out on one of the outcroppings. He sent a thrumming vibration through the mountain itself. Stones flaked and exploded from the cliffside, bombarding the dragon with a barrage of rock splinters. Broken stones pierced its wings and hide, greatly wounding the creature. To Adan, its blood looked like black oil.

  Two flying boulders crashed into the support vanes of one wing and broke the hollow bones, which sent the dragon flapping and tumbling. Unable to keep itself aloft, the beast flailed its wings. One fluttered uselessly, and the other drove it in a downward spiral until it crashed into the desert at the edge of the mountains.

  Adan shaded his eyes against the heat shimmers and disturbed dust. He thought he saw pieces of the dragon break away and dissipate into flying shadows, dark fragments that darted off like strange birds.

  Queen Voo raced at a breakneck pace on her auga toward where the dragon had slammed into the ground. Flopping, struggling, the dragon lifted its serpentine head, snapping huge fanged jaws at unseen enemies.

  Adan kept Penda at a safe distance, but the wreths had no caution whatsoever. Two mages approached the broken beast and stopped just out of its reach. When they summoned their magic, shimmering green lines streaked out of the sand, looking like ropes of light that connected and crisscrossed to form a net that trapped the dying dragon.

  The creature’s broken wing had crumbled, the leathery flaps disintegrating.

  Penda urged her auga forward. “We have to witness this, Starfall. Think of what we can tell our child!” She seemed to have been infected by Queen Voo’s lack
incautious eagerness.

  Adan joined her. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Voo approached the defeated dragon, holding her obsidian-tipped spear and black sword. She plunged the spear deep into the heaving, scaled chest. The dying beast struggled against the binding energy threads that tied it down. Stepping closer, she raised her black sword.

  Quo bounded in to join her, lifting his own blade. “Wait for me, Sister!” Without pausing, he swung the sword down to hack the base of the beast’s long, scaly neck. Voo plunged her sword under the dragon’s chin, thrusting into its head.

  The monster shuddered, twitched, and collapsed.

  Adan and Penda hurried up on their lumbering mounts, awed to be so close to the magnificent dragon. The reptilian body writhed, then boiled, as if it had come alive in a thousand different parts. Adan thought of a corpse swarming with maggots. Pieces of the dead dragon squirmed and flowed away, burrowing into the sand as if the beast were decaying before their eyes, leaving only hollow remains.

  By the time Adan and Penda dismounted from their augas, the dragon’s carcass was little more than a framework of curved bones and green scales mottled with black stains. The corpse crumbled in on itself, leaving little but a skull and scraps of horns, teeth, and many scales.

  The glowing green webwork of bonds faded into a mist of sparkles.

  Putting her sharp-nailed hands on her hips, Queen Voo planted a foot on the remnants of the dragon’s large skull and crunched down with her heel. The eggshell-thin bone broke easily, and she kicked the skull aside. “Dragons are fragile things, though they think they are fearsome.”

  Her brother waded into the carcass, yanked out a rib bone, and waved it in the air.

  “What happened to it?” Adan asked. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Queen Voo’s ivory-and-gold hair flew about in the breeze, unmarred by perspiration or dust. “Do you humans remember the legends? Do you understand what a dragon is?”