The Road to Death: The Lost Mark, Book 2

by Forbeck, Matt

  “Ready, Drakyager!” a dwarf called out from somewhere ahead. A chorus of voices joined in a wordless cry of approval.

  “No!” Duro shouted from behind. “Hold back! Wait, damn you! Wait!”

  Kandler heard something wet gush forth and splash out below, and acrid fumes chased up past him, stinging his eyes. He heard a strange sizzling noise and then a dozen screams.

  Some of them lasted longer than others. A few gurgled into silence right away. Others wailed on for long seconds until Kandler reached the death chamber.

  In the entryway, the justicar paused and peered into the room beyond. It was large, carved out of the living rock of the mountain, but barely worked, other than a floor that sat covered under inches of water bubbling and releasing a greenish mist. A door-sized hole appeared in a rust-colored wall opposite him. It looked like much of the rust had been removed recently, perhaps by the thunderous force of the dragon’s rage, and Kandler could see ancient dwarven runes carved into the wall’s iron surface.

  Dwarf skeletons lay scattered about the room, some obviously decades or more old, their bones long since picked clean by whatever creatures prowled these darkened depths. Others, though, bunched closer to the portal in the iron wall, were fresh. The flesh had been melted off the front of them. The backs of their heads still bore skin and hair, although these boiled away from their skulls in a greenish paste as Kandler watched.

  “Acid!” Duro shouted as he tried to push his way past the others. “The dragon spits acid!”

  Kandler stepped into the room and felt the heat in the water as it combined with the acid, bubbling away into the acrid steam that burned at his skin and eyes. He coughed once, and a glowing orange ball appeared at the doorway, seemingly floating there in the darkness beyond. It bore a slit that ran straight up and down on its surface, and the slit contracted as Sallah pushed into the room as well, her blade blazing with light.

  “They send knights to foil me now, do they?” a voice outside the doorway rumbled. “Knights? As if I were some hatchling to be dispatched with a magic blade? The world above has lived too long without my presence! They have forgotten how to fear me. It is a lesson I shall relish teaching again!”

  With that, the globe in the portal disappeared, only to be replaced by a humongous scale-covered snout. A wet black tongue flickered from between rows of swordlike teeth framed in the rust-coated rectangle.

  “Prepare to join your precious Flame,” the dragon said. Its noxious breath almost made Kandler gag, but he was able to choke out a few words as he shoved Sallah and the others back the way they’d come.

  “Move it!” he said. “Get back! Now!”

  The others turned and fled before him, and Kandler followed right behind them. As he reached the dry part of the stairs leading down into the room, he heard the dragon inhale a breath so ferocious, it seemed to suck all of the air from the room.

  “Go! Go! Go!” he shouted.

  The blast of acid sprayed into the room behind him, but Kandler didn’t dare look back. He felt tiny drops of the stuff fall on to the back of his arms and legs, burning their way through his clothes and skin. They stung like a cloud of red-hot embers, but he ignored the pain and kept running until they managed to turn a corner at the top of a long flight of stairs.

  “How in the Host’s hallowed names are we supposed to fight that?” Duro asked. The shaken dwarf stood shivering in the corner of the niche at the end of the stairs.

  “Got a point, boss,” Burch said, his own eyes wider than Kandler had ever seen them. “That’s one angry dragon in there.”

  “You’re not afraid of it, are you?” Kandler tried to keep the fear from his own voice and hoped his sharp-eared friend didn’t notice.

  Burch shook his head, denying his emotions, even to himself. “It’s not fear to know we can’t take that critter toe to toe.”

  Kandler grimaced. “We need an edge, something to balance the scales in our favor.” He glanced at Sallah’s sword.

  “I’m ready to give my life to rescue Esprë,” the lady knight said, no trace of irony in her voice. “I pledge this sword and my arm to that cause, but …”

  “But?”

  “It won’t be enough.”

  “What about that?” Burch said, pointing at the rune-covered bolt in Duro’s crossbow. “What’s that do?”

  The dwarf’s hands shook so hard that he had trouble prying the bolt from his weapon. Once he managed it, he handed it to Burch. “It’s a shockbolt,” he said. “Release it at something, and it blows up. The dwarves of Clan Drakyager have made them for centuries. My whole patrol here had only five. Up until today, I’d never seen one fired.”

  Duro reached into a case of bolts slung under his shoulder and pulled out two more of the rune-crusted bolts. He handed them to Burch. “These are all that’s left.”

  “What happened to the others?” Kandler asked.

  “We used them on the Karrnathi airship.”

  “Knight!” the dragon’s voice bellowed from below. “Have you run off with your tail between your legs? Have you realized the extent of your folly?”

  Burch slotted the shockbolt into his own crossbow.

  “I will charge into his maw and cut him open from within,” Sallah said, raising her flaming sword and preparing for a charge down the stairs, “or die trying.”

  Kandler put a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. “We’re not quite ready for that,” he said. He looked into his old friend’s eyes. “You ready?”

  The shifter blew out a long breath as he sighted down the length of his crossbow. “Never more.”

  When Burch looked up, Kandler saw that he had put his fear behind him. All business now, he pulled back the winch on his crossbow and started down the stairs.

  As Kandler watched Burch creep back down the stairs toward the angry dragon below, he felt Sallah lay a hand on his arm. “That is a true friend you have there,” she said to him.

  “None better,” Kandler said.

  He held his breath as he saw the shifter reach the bottom of the stairs, poking the tip of his crossbow out in front of him.

  “Is that you, knight?” the dragon said in a low, mean rumble. “Did you drop your burning sword in the water as you ran?”

  Kandler saw Burch crouch down and creep forward until his feet touched the edge of the bubbling pool on the floor of the entry chamber.

  “Ah,” the dragon said, “a shifter sent to do a knight’s job.” It laughed, a low horrible rumble. “Have the others all died? Are you all alone? If you leave now, it might amuse me to let you live.”

  “Burch!” Esprë’s voice screamed from somewhere beyond the dragon.

  Kandler launched himself down the stairs before Sallah could stop him.

  “Let the kid go,” Burch said as Kandler reached his side. He heard the lady knight come down right behind him.

  “You are here for the elfling?” The dragon snorted, and Kandler felt the room tremble. “You waste your breath and my time if you think I will relinquish the bearer of the Mark of Death. She is mine forevermore.”

  Burch stepped forward and leveled his crossbow at the dragon’s glowing eye, still framed in the portal.

  “You think you can hurt me with your weapons?” A transparent eyelid flicked down over the dragon’s eye, protecting the soft tissue beneath. “The temerity of mortals …”

  Burch smiled at the dragon, showing all his sharp teeth. “Watch this,” he said, as he loosed the shockbolt at the creature’s eye.

  The magic bolt struck right in the center of the slit that ran vertically down the center of the dragon’s eye. It exploded with such force that it knocked Kandler and Burch back off their feet and splattered acidic water on every wall in the room. The noise deafened Kandler, and it took him a moment before he realized Sallah was trying to talk to him.

  He ignored her for the moment to stare back at the portal in the iron wall. In the flash from the explosion, the dragon’s eye had disappeared.

&nb
sp; “You got him!” he shouted to Burch, clapping him on the back. The justicar could barely hear his own voice from the ringing in his ears, and he suspected the shifter was deaf as well. Still, he wrapped his old friend in a bear hug and whooped for joy.

  Sallah slapped him on the back of the head then, hard. He turned around and glared at her, bothered that anyone could interrupt such an amazing moment. She jerked her thumb back over her shoulder as she grabbed him by the collar, mouthing something he couldn’t yet make out. All he could catch was the word “go.”

  Then the stairwell shuddered, and Kandler could hear something that seemed as loud as the explosion had been, although a bit farther away. Some wounded beast screeched at the top of its capacious lungs for bitter revenge, and the justicar knew.

  The dragon was hurt but not dead.

  “What about Esprë?” Kandler shouted, trying to stagger toward the portal. He shrugged off Sallah’s efforts to haul him back up the stairs. He knew she was only trying to save him, but he wasn’t about to leave there without his daughter.

  He stumbled across the shaking ground toward the portal. As he reached it, he saw a crowd of skeletons standing in front of the doorway, cutting him off from what lay within. Somewhere in the darkness, the dragon trashed and crashed his way against every bit of the cavern, bringing large chunks of it crashing down into the churning waters of an underground lake.

  Ibrido stood to one side, shouting at the dragon, trying to calm it down, but without success. The dragon-elf was near hysterics, but the black-scaled dragon paid him little heed.

  Two skeletons stood near Ibrido, just opposite him from Kandler. In the darkness, the justicar couldn’t be sure, but he thought they held someone between them, someone about Esprë’s size.

  Just then, Kandler’s hearing cleared a bit, and he heard Esprë screaming at him at the top of her lungs. “Kandler! Kandler, I’m right here!”

  The justicar leaped forward, but a pair of Karrnathi skeletons rattled into his way. He reared back to charge at them when the roof came tumbling down upon them, burying them under tons of rock.

  Burch’s firm hands snatched Kandler back into the entry chamber, keeping him from sharing the skeletons’ fate. The falling rocks sealed off the doorway, though, separating Kandler from his daughter once again.

  The justicar charged forward and threw himself against the rocks. They were too many and too heavy, though, and he knew after a moment’s effort that there was no way he could move them on his own.

  Kandler cast about desperately, looking for some means of removing the rocks. His eyes fell on Burch’s crossbow.

  “Use one of those shockbolts,” he said, pointing at the wall. “You can blast those rocks out of the way.”

  “Not a very good idea,” Duro said as he ran his hand along the tumbled rocks. “This entire area is unstable now. Even if you blast these out of the way, more will just fall in to take their place, and you could bring the roof down on us here too.” He looked up at the ceiling of the entry chamber and took in a faceful of dust for his efforts.

  “We have to try something!”

  “After a cave-in like that, you don’t even know if she’s alive,” Duro said. Kandler saw the concern etched on the dwarf’s face was real. “It could take days to dig her out safely even then.”

  “We know someone who can tell us if Esprë’s alive,” Sallah said, pointing her sword back up the stairwell.

  “The changeling,” Kandler said. He nodded at the lady knight. “She’s our only hope now. Let’s move!”

  The trip back through the mountain seemed to take twice as long, even though Kandler knew they were moving faster than before. The way the entire place kept shaking kept him on his toes. It was hard to tell when a large chunk of the ceiling might decide to break loose, and Duro saved him and the others more than once by steering them away from unsafe regions just before they gave way.

  When they reached the exit, Kandler couldn’t remember a time he’d been so thrilled to see the sun. It was low in the west now, heading toward a handsome sunset over the plains of Karrnath.

  Leading the way, he charged down the narrow path until he reached the wide shelf underneath Keeper’s Claw. As he ran, he shouted out, “Monja! Monja!”

  He spied the halfling’s head popping up over the gunwale of Phoenix. She didn’t bother to shout anything back. Instead, she ran over and found the ship’s rope ladder and pitched it over the railing. It tumbled out, falling toward the shelf and landing directly in Kandler’s path.

  The justicar held the end of the ladder down and waved the others on to it. Burch went first, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder and scrambling up so fast he reached the top before Sallah grabbed hold of the bottom. The lady knight hustled up next, climbing steadily, hand over hand.

  When Duro reached the ladder, he stopped. “Where are you going with this contraption?” he asked.

  “What’s holding you back?” Kandler asked. “Everyone else is dead.”

  Duro considered this for a moment, then reached out and started up the ladder. “Good point,” he said, as he passed Kandler by.

  Once Duro was aboard the ship, Kandler launched himself up the ladder too, the bottom end swaying wildly underneath him. When he cleared the gunwale, he glanced around. The first thing he noticed was that Te’oma was missing. The changeling’s chains lay empty on the deck.

  Where is she?” Kandler asked Monja as she greeted him at the top of the ladder.

  “I’m glad to see you’re all right,” the halfling shaman said. “The mountain shook so hard we thought it was an earthquake.”

  “The changeling,” Kandler said. “Where is she?”

  Monja pointed up at the bridge, and Kandler spun about to stare at Te’oma waving at him from behind the wheel.

  “It turns out I’m not as good at flying this airship as I’d hoped,” Monja said. “I decided to release Te’oma in case we needed some fancy flying.”

  Kandler stared down at the halfling. “Are you insane?” he asked. “Wait.” He knelt down in front of her and peered into her eyes. “Did she use her psionic powers on you? She’s a telepath, you know.”

  Monja beamed at the justicar. “My mind is stronger and sounder than yours,” she said. “Have you spoken with her? She’s a charmer.”

  Kandler shook his head. “For a kidnapper and a killer.”

  “Have you not killed plenty of people?” Xalt asked from Kandler’s other side.

  Kandler did not want to have this conversation. “She kidnapped my daughter. She tried to kill me. I don’t think I’ll forgive that soon—especially since Esprë’s still in danger.”

  “She’s alive!” Sallah shouted as she sprinted over to where Kandler stood to greet her. “Te’oma says she’s in contact with Esprë, and she’s alive. Ibrido still has her, and he’s protecting her while Nithkorrh—that’s the dragon’s name—tries to batter his way out of the mountain.”

  A muffled bit of thunder sounded from the middle of the mountain to punctuate Sallah’s report.

  “I want that changeling back in her chains,” Kandler said as he strode up to the bridge. “We can’t trust her. She’s not safe.” He turned to glare up at the changeling behind the wheel, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You’re dangerous.”

  Te’oma frowned down at Kandler. “Right now, I want what you want: Esprë out of that dragon’s hands, safe and sound. Isn’t that enough?”

  Kandler considered this for a moment. “I can’t concentrate on saving my daughter if I’m worried you’re going to stick a knife in my back.”

  “I got a solution to that, boss.” Burch stepped up from where he was holding his crossbow trained on the changeling’s back. “We got two airships here. Sallah’s the only other decent pilot we got. Let the chameleon here take the other.”

  Kandler goggled at his friend, sure that Te’oma had somehow altered his brain. “That can’t be you talking, Burch. You’d give her a Karrnathi warship to pilot all by herse
lf? What if she grabs Esprë and runs off again? What if she decides to ram our ship?” He frowned. “This is a bad idea all around.”

  Burch patted the side of his crossbow and said, “I’ll go with her.”

  Kandler climbed up on to the bridge and stared into his friend’s deep, black eyes. The shifter met his gaze without flinching.

  “It’s me in here, boss.”

  Kandler stared a moment longer, then broke into a grin and clapped the shifter on the back. “All right,” he said, throwing his arm around Burch’s shoulders. “All right,” he called to the others. “This is what we’re going to do.

  “Sallah, come up here and take the wheel.”

  The changeling stepped aside as the lady knight made her way on to the bridge and took hold of the wheel. Sallah showed Te’oma what she thought of her by putting her back to her.

  “Bring us over the Karrnathi airship. We’re going to drop off a couple of passengers.” He nodded at Burch, and the shifter took the changeling by the arm and escorted her over to the rope ladder. Kandler followed them as Phoenix moved into place.

  As they reached the gunwale, Kandler pulled Te’oma around by the shoulder and looked into her blank white eyes. “Keep in contact with Esprë. If something happens to her, I want to know right away.” He paused for a moment. “How is she right now?”

  “Still terrified, still in Ibrido’s care.”

  “And the dragon?”

  “He’s making progress. Esprë thinks he’ll break free soon.”

  Kandler nodded. “I want you two on point for this,” he said. “Your ship is expendable. If the dragon tries to fly off, I want Phoenix ready for pursuit.” He looked to Burch.

  “How many of those things do you have left?”

  The shifter held up two fingers.

  “Make them count.”

  Te’oma went down the ladder first, with Burch sliding down right after her. Kandler watched as the changeling strode over to the Karrnathi bridge and took the wheel. The shifter prowled around the bow of the ship, scouting out the best spots from which to loose his crossbow.