Argentium's eyes dimmed as he spoke and he dipped his noble head down to look at the distant nest.
“It is a hard thing to speak of destroying the last of my kind; even though they are destined for evil. I have been informed by an agent of Law that these eggs are a last desperate effort of the queen's; and the dark gods, I suppose. She will be unable to lay any more. I suppose that these five primals will have been given the ability to create their own offspring, for she could not do so. An odd feeling, to know that you are about to be the cause of your own species' extinction.”
Aeris looked at Brethia and Orriss, but they both seemed to be at a loss for words. What could one say to comfort a being as ancient and powerful as the argent dragon?
“Well, enough of that,” Argentium said after a moment. “Time is not on our side this day. Now, will you aid me, little ones? I cannot order you to do so.”
“Lord argent,” Aeris replied hesitantly. “What will you do if we say no?”
Orriss hissed an objection but Aeris ignored him, watching the argent dragon closely.
Argentium flapped his wings steadily as he narrowed his sapphire blue eyes, seeming to pin the elemental in place in midair with their power.
“Do? I will do what I have to do. I shall descend upon that nest like a storm and shatter as many of those accursed eggs as I can before the queen tears me apart. With luck, I will succeed in destroying all five of them. If not, your master and others of his kind will have to track down and eliminate any survivors. At the very least, I will give them fewer targets to worry about.”
The elemental and the dragon continued to stare at each other for a moment before Aeris smiled widely and bowed.
“I thought that you might say that, lord argent. Thank you for your candor; we are at your command.”
The other elementals gasped in relief at his answer and the dragon nodded in approval.
“I appreciate that. And now, my command is simple; you must work together to draw out the queen and then lead her away. One of you would not hold her attention for long. But three elemental threats? Oh, that will stir her anger greatly. Remember though, as you have just seen, she is extremely quick and agile for a creature of her size. More so than even I would be in similar circumstances, because she is earthbound. She is used to traveling both on top of and beneath the ground and can move like lightning even below the surface.”
“We have done this before, lord argent,” Brethia assured him. “To aid in the spell that resurrected you, in fact.”
Argentium's eyes widened.
“It was the three of you who stole a dram of her blood for the ritual? I had no idea. Thank you for that. But then you know what you face. Take heed though; protecting her eggs will bring out a fierceness that you did not encounter before. Do not underestimate her just because you have dealt with her in the past.”
“We won't, my lord,” Aeris said with a quick look at his companions. “I assure you, we will not.”
“Good. Then I leave the manner of drawing her away to the three of you. I will remain up here poised to strike and will do so the moment that I believe she is far enough away. Please, do not take any unnecessary chances. I do not want to be the cause of any of your deaths.”
“You won't be, lord argent,” Brethia told him with respect. “We were going to choose this course of action regardless. But now, instead of snatching the eggs away to let our master deal with them, or attempting to smash them ourselves, you are here to do it instead. And we will happily divert the queen while you do so.”
“Very well. I will wait here. Good luck to you.”
The elementals bowed as one and began to descend toward the nest, leaving the magnificent silvery dragon to begin circling in the skies above them again.
“I can't believe our luck!” Orriss exclaimed, obviously excited. “The argent dragon himself is going to help us. How amazing is that?”
“We're about to risk our lives on an insane venture,” Aeris reminded him dryly. “Amazing isn't the word I would use. Stupid sounds closer to the truth.”
“You aren't sure about this?” Brethia asked him.
“No, I'm sure that it must be done. But it's still insanely risky. Argentium is right; the queen is even more dangerous now that she is protecting her eggs. Much more so than when we confronted her the last time. We'd better not underestimate the monster or we'll all be sharing Corriss' fate.”
“Well, at least we know that the great Astrandamus will take notice if we fall,” Brethia said fatalistically.
As Aeris' incredulous look, she giggled.
“Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”
He forced a smile.
“Okay, consider it lightened. Now, how do you want to proceed? I think that Orriss was about twenty feet up when the queen attacked the last time. I wonder if she sensed him coming from farther away but waited until he was that close to attack?”
They stopped descending and considered the nest about a hundred feet below them. Brethia tapped her chin as she examined the ground surrounding the circular depression.
The mound of dirt that had been thrown up when the queen had erupted out of the ground was mute evidence of the danger that lurked just out of sight.
“Possibly she did,” Brethia said thoughtfully. “As powerful and huge as she is, the queen is still wingless. It must take a lot of effort to lunge upward when you weigh countless tons. Or that may actually be the extent of her reach above the ground. Beyond that distance, it could be perfectly safe to approach.”
“You'll forgive me if I don't put that to the test,” Aeris replied dryly. “We cannot assume anything in this case. Instead, let's err on the side of caution, hmm?”
“You? Cautious?” Orriss said with a nervous grin. “Well, now I really have seen everything.”
Aeris almost looked amused.
“I have chores to do at home. I wouldn't want to die and leave them undone; our dear wizard would be disappointed.”
“The argent dragon is waiting,” Brethia reminded them as she looked up quickly. “Whatever we are going to do, we had best get on with it.”
“Right. Okay then, if you both agree, this is what I think we should do.”
Aeris spoke quickly while keeping a cautious eye on the nest below them. There was no sign of movement and that only made the situation more ominous. Like a shark lying in wait beneath a calm sea, the three elementals knew that the queen was only biding her time and was poised, ready to strike.
Brethia and Orriss agreed with Aeris' plan, which was essentially a repeat of what the three of them had done once before, when they had stolen some of the dragon queen's blood. Their logic was simple enough; if it worked once, it should work twice.
Of course, when dealing with a creature that they were fairly certain was insane, such logic didn't necessarily apply.
“The clearest path away from the nest is that way,” Aeris said and pointed almost due east. “Not much brush, a few low hillocks and a good field of view. You two go out about a hundred yards and wait, just like before. I will draw her out and bring her to you. I'm guessing that once she sees the three of us together, the queen will become even more enraged and chase us far enough from the nest for Argentium to have his chance to destroy the eggs. Any questions?”
The others shook their heads and Aeris nodded.
“Good. Go on then and I'll begin once you are set.”
Orriss glided away but Brethia hesitated a moment.
“Aeris, don't take any chances. The queen is unpredictable and may do something you do not expect.”
He smiled at her concern.
“My friend, life is unpredictable. Besides, as large and powerful as she is, the dragon queen is not as fast as we are. That is our one advantage. So let's use it, shall we? Go ahead and catch up with Orriss. I'll be fine.”
She gave him a final, inscrutable look and then turned and flew off.
Aeris watched her go and waited until he was sure that she an
d Orriss had had enough time to get ready.
“Okay,” he muttered. “My turn.”
He began to descend slowly, giving the hidden dragon ample time to sense him. Aeris guessed that it would also infuriate her to see him casually approaching her eggs and, he hoped, would draw her out more quickly.
As he dropped to within thirty feet of the ground, he proved to be correct. He was also almost swallowed whole.
The ground on the north side of the nest blew apart and the dragon queen's immense yellow body shot out of the earth directly up at him. Brethia had been mistaken; the monster could definitely leap higher than twenty feet: much higher.
But Aeris had been waiting for her to appear and wasn't frozen in shock. He immediately shot off to the side, evading her snapping jaws and flew away at top speed to the east and his waiting friends.
Come on you beast, he thought, a feeling of reckless joy mixed in with his fear. Follow me. Get away from that nest.
The thunder of her massive body behind him told Aeris that the queen had landed on the surface of the desert, and the high-pitched squealing sound of her scales scraping across the dirt let him know that she was in hot pursuit.
He wanted to look back but it would have been foolish to take his eyes off of the ground ahead. Besides, he knew what he would see; a monstrous face with blazing eyes red with rage and a gaping mouth lined with daggers eager to taste his ethereal flesh.
As a magical beast, the dragon queen could tear into him, as Corriss' death proved, and Aeris had no intention of giving her another bite of air elemental to chew on.
The ground flew by in a blur and Aeris only had to dip and dodge around a few dead plants as he raced toward his companions. It only took a moment to cover the distance between them and then Brethia and Orriss were suddenly flying along with him, one on each side.
“Well, that was quick,” Brethia told him, speaking loudly over the rush of the wind as they flew.
“It was, wasn't it? I'm guessing that she expected Orriss to return and was lying in wait. Doesn't matter though; now we have her attention and we'd best keep it for as long as possible to give the argent dragon his chance.”
The three flew like the wind, but the wind had a hurricane chasing it and the trio focused on their path, careful to avoid any sudden shifts in direction that would slow them down and give the queen enough of an opening to strike.
“How far do we need to get?” Orriss asked after they had been fleeing from the dragon for several minutes.
She showed no signs of giving up her pursuit and it was obvious that she was in a blind rage and determined to destroy them at any cost.
“We may be far enough away by now,” Aeris replied. “I can't tell. Do you think that you can keep her attention if I peel away and go back to check? If Argentium has already destroyed the eggs, I'll return and let you know.”
“I think so,” Brethia told him, her body beginning to glow as she expended more energy to stay ahead of the queen.
In fact, all three elementals were heating up and Aeris was well aware that it was a sign that their reserves were rapidly depleting. They couldn't keep up this pace for much longer.
“Go straight up and back,” she continued. “As long as the dragon has us within reach, she'll most likely keep chasing us rather than waste her time on a target that's out of reach.”
“Okay, I'm off. If I haven't returned in two minutes, give it up. We've more than done our part for the argent dragon.”
“Stop talking and go already,” Orriss told him in a strained voice. “I can feel myself starting to fade.”
Aeris didn't hesitate. He shot straight up a hundred feet, spun around and headed back toward the nest at top speed. He felt a sudden sense of panic, knowing that Orriss was the weakest of the three of them. If he faltered for an instant, he would meet the same fate as his brother, and that would be on Aeris' head.
They had managed to lure the queen miles away from her nest and it took Aeris a minute to return to it, even at top speed. As he did so, he saw a streak of light descending from the heavens like a shooting star. Argentium.
He has his chance, the elemental thought excitedly. We did it!
But when he reached the nest, Aeris stopped and hovered in confusion. Instead of tearing into the ground to destroy the eggs, the argent dragon had carefully excavated the ovoids and was now cradling all five eggs in one of his huge front paws.
“Argentium?” the elemental called out. “What are you doing? The eggs have to be destroyed.”
The dragon swung his heavy head around to stare at Aeris, his sapphire eyes oddly mournful.
“The destruction of these small vessels means the end of my race, little one. Do you understand that?”
Aeris slowly flew closer.
“I do, yes. But what other choice is there? The life inside of those shells is the spawn of evil; you know that. If it is allowed to live, eventually an entirely new generation of Chaotic dragons will be unleashed upon this world. Is that what you want?”
“No. Never. But dragon hatchlings are not evil in and of themselves. Perhaps if they were to be raised by one who is not evil, they would become the world's salvation, not its nemesis.”
“A noble sentiment,” Aeris replied cautiously, worried about the strange gleam in the argent dragon's eyes. “But surely just a dream? Their blood is tainted, their souls corrupt. Better a quick death now than another war later.”
The dragon reared back and his silvery wings snapped out to their fullest extent. Even in his sudden fear, Aeris couldn't help but admire Argentium's magnificence.
“A quick death?” the dragon roared. “These are my people! Unborn children. And you would have me slaughter them like so much cattle? Ask me to slay myself; it would be an easier task.”
“My lord argent, I...”
“Enough!”
Argentium made a quick motion with his empty front paw and Aeris found himself smashed to the ground by an unseen force.
“What I do now, I do for the future of my race,” Argentium said heavily as the elemental squirmed futilely against the hard-packed earth.
“Tell your master, little one, that I am truly sorry. He is betrayed by me and mine a second time. But also tell him this: do not attempt to find me. Do not try to stop me. If you truly care for him, elemental, warn him. Because I will defend my new charges with all of my power, and not even your wizard will be able to withstand me.”
A blast of air covered the scene with a cloud of dust and grit and Aeris was blinded as the dragon took flight. With the sound of a single mighty flap of his wings, Argentium disappeared into the pale sky and the force that held the elemental against the ground faded in an instant.
Aeris rose up and scanned the skies frantically, searching for any sign of the dragon. But he was gone and the elemental had no idea what direction he had flown off in.
With a crushing feeling of despair, Aeris could only stare at the empty nest numbly. He could not believe what had just happened. Was Argentium so delusional that he believed he could raise a brood of eggs laid by the dragon queen? And that he could instill his own values upon them? It was madness, that's what it was. Sheer madness.
“Aeris!” someone called from above him.
He looked up to see both Brethia and Orriss floating a dozen yards overhead.
“Move!” they both shouted.
“She's coming back!” Brethia added and pointed to the east.
Aeris instinctively flew upwards toward the others and managed to just avoid the dragon queen's jaws for the second time that day. She had leapt at him as she returned to her nest, apparently having given up the pursuit of the other elementals. She'd spotted Aeris and moved to strike. Luckily for him, he was faster.
“What's happened?” Brethia asked as Aeris joined them.
The trio continued to rise until they were well beyond the queen's reach.
“The eggs are gone,” she continued as they watched the dragon poke her head toward h
er nest, searching for her clutch.
“So Argentium managed to destroy them,” Orriss said with relief. “Excellent. Then it was worth the risk we took.”
Before he could answer, Aeris was struck dumb by an incredible scream of rage and loss. The dragon queen had realized that her eggs were gone and she had thrown back her head to glare up at the elementals, obviously believing them to be the cause.
“Uh-oh,” Orriss commented. “She's angry at us.”
“You don't say?” Brethia said with a roll of her eyes. “But Aeris, where are the remains? I wouldn't have thought that Argentium would be so...neat about things.”
“He wasn't,” Aeris told them, still shaken by what had just happened.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he didn't destroy the clutch. He took them. All five of them. The eggs survived and the gods alone know what will come of that choice.”
Chapter 6
By some strange cosmic coincidence, both Kronk and Aeris returned to the tower at almost exactly the same time.
They met up in the yard in front of the steps leading into the building, Aeris appearing with Brethia and Orriss accompanied by a rumble of thunder while Kronk popped out of the ground in a shower of loose dirt.
“Hello there,” the little guy said brightly to the three air elementals, who were floating six feet off of the ground. “This is a stroke of luck. How did the hunt for the queen go?”
“You heard about that?” Aeris asked as he landed next to Kronk.
“Of course. Lady Tamara mentioned it. You succeeded?”
“You could say that. I'll wait and tell you and our dear wizard about it at the same time.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume Two Page 125