Straining to get a better look at his surroundings, Nath searched the faces in the crowd.
What’s going on? What made them sit down like that?
He understood the spirits had taken over some of the people, and he knew the fairies had used food and wine to weaken the minds of many others, but something else was happening. There was another powerful force at work. He could sense it.
What is it?
In Lindor’s hand, the gavel—an obsidian ball with flecks of stardust that faintly twinkled—caught his eye.
That’s it! I’m not sure what it is, but it is controlling them!
Nath called out, “Laylana! Laylana?”
His elven defender was nowhere to be found.
Lindor closed the tome, and the judges took their seats. Lifting his arms high for all to see—aside from the view being blocked by the gallows—the high elven judge cleared his throat. “Ahem.” He took a sip of wine and remarked, “That’s better. Now, according to the annals of law, if the accused fails to die by the first method, then another method will be tried, and so on, until death is final. We will now deliberate as to what that method will be.”
The dwarves and elves started shouting out suggestions.
“Stones!”
“Swords!”
“Bury him alive!”
“Guillotine!”
Over the rising chaos of suggestions, Nath said to the judges, “Can you at least cut me down while you decide?”
Lindor looked right at him with coal-black eyes and said, “No.”
CHAPTER 4
Nath strained against the moorite shackles that held his arms fast behind his back. His temper rose.
I’m surrounded by a sea of idiots. I’m not going down like this.
He’d faced an unfair trial and an absurd hanging and still lived. Now, the possessed judges were trying to decide how to kill him again.
I’ve held back long enough.
There was sadness in his heart, mixing with anger. Lotuus had Bayzog’s staff, and he figured that meant his half-elf wizard friend was dead. He had to move on if he could.
Bayzog would have understood. I’d want him to do the same.
He flexed his arms while twisting and turning his wrists. Moorite was the toughest steel in Nalzambor, but nothing was unbreakable.
There’s a weak link in every chain. Find it, Dragon. Be bigger. Be stronger!
Lindor caught him fighting against his bonds. “Stop doing that. You’ve been sentenced to death. You must accept it!”
Still fighting against his shackles, Nath felt the infernos deep in his bowels begin to ignite. “I’ve been judged by dwarves and elves, but I am a dragon! I am the Dragon King!” His voice got louder as he spoke. “You have no right to judge me!”
Lindor pounded the gavel. “Stop! Stop what you’re doing!”
Nath ceased to struggle. He wasn’t able to break the chains. His body slackened. He could feel the power of the sphere in Lindor’s hand trying to subdue him. However, it was too late. The inner inferno within started to leak out. Staring down Lindor, Nath let the smoke steam from his nostrils.
“Stop doing that!” Lindor ordered. His elven features became dark and angry.
“What’s the matter? Do you have a problem with me smoking? I like smoking!”
“Cease your efforts!”
“You know what they say, Lindor. Where there’s smoke, there will be fire!” Feeling the inferno within that he’d missed so much, Nath spat a stream of fire upward out of his mouth. The bright orange flames raced up the rope fibers of his noose and incinerated them. Nath’s feet hit the gallows. As soon as they did, in a gust of breath, he set the gallows on fire. It didn’t burn him. “Sultans of Sulfur! I have my breath back! It feels great!”
Many of the elves screamed. The dwarves barked orders, rushing from the stands and searching for pails.
With the flames of the wooden gallows roaring all around him, Nath hopped high in the air, knees high. In the same motion, he looped his cuffed hands from his backside under his feet to the front side. “That’s better.”
With the gavel in his hand raised high and an elven face contorted into an evil grimace, Lindor shouted, “Seize him, soldiers! Seize him!” The orb came down. It cracked on the stone like a clap of thunder.
Nath pounced onto the judges’ table. Wrists still cuffed, he wrenched the gavel from Lindor and shoved the elven judge into the others.
Lindor shrieked.
“This trial’s over,” said Nath, “for good.”
He could feel the power of the orb pulsating beneath his fingers. All the while, the soldiers crowded him. He hit the orb on the table and said, “Back off!”
The forces kept coming.
From out of the sky, Lotuus landed. She was in elven form, with fairy wings sprouting from her back. She let out a wicked chuckle. “You cannot control the Orb of Command. It doesn’t know you, fool! Now what will you do, Nath Dragon? Fight all of these elves and dwarves to the death? Tsk, tsk, you wouldn’t want that on your conscience.”
A spear careened right at Nath. He slid his head out of the way, all the while staring at the black sphere.
An Orb of Command. Hmmm, I’ve heard about these things. Very powerful indeed.
He spewed out flames, making a circle that separated him and the judges from the soldiers. The wall of flame rose ten feet high.
“Fool! The dwarves and elves will rush right into your flames. They follow blindly!” Lotuus said.
Behind her, the elderly elven judge came back to his feet with the spryness of a young man. He cackled. “You’ll have no victory here, Nath Dragon. Your efforts are temporary. The titans have already taken measures to thwart any extraordinary circumstances.” Possessed by an evil spirit, Lindor’s body jumped from the bench into the flames.
“No!” Nath cried out in horror as Lindor’s body perished in his inferno.
“Oh, boohoo,” Lotuus said with a smirk on her face. She still hovered over the ground. “Surrender, Nath Dragon. Accept your death, or even more of them will perish in your flames!”
“The only one going down in flames here is you!” Nath filled his lungs with air and let out a gust of wind. No flames came, only a stream of smoke.
Lotuus fanned the smoke from her face, coughing a little. “How pathetic. The little dragon is out of fire.” She flew upward out of his reach. With a wave of her hand, she ripped the Orb of Command free of Nath’s grip. It sailed right into her palm. Her other hand held Bayzog’s staff. “After what’s about to happen, Nath Dragon, you’ll wish you had died. Maybe these weakling elves and dwarves can’t kill you,” she pointed the staff high into the air, “but I’m pretty sure they will.”
High in the air, wings beat, circling like a storm. For the first time, the droning ree-rah sound of the wurmers caught his ears. They flew by the thousands.
He said to Lotuus, “Is that all? I can handle that batch all by myself.”
“Maybe you can, Nath Dragon, but none of the rest can.” She tossed her head back and laughed. “Not even you can save all those dwarves and elves.”
“If you just wanted to kill me, why go to all this trouble? Why the charade?”
“I wanted your death to be amusing. Life, death—it’s all entertainment to me.”
“You’re a monster, Lotuus.”
“No,” she held out the staff and orb, “I’m a winner. And you, dear golden-eyed Nath, are a loser.”
CHAPTER 5
Selene jammed her sword under the stone giant’s kneecap. The blade slid right into the stone-hard skin, drawing forth a pained howl.
Gorlee slipped out of the giant’s grip and splashed into the water.
Selene unleashed her fury on the giant, chopping at the exposed leg like a lumberjack hewing down a tree.
The tremendous hand of the giant lashed out. Its log-sized fingers sent Selene sprawling into the water.
With her hand buried in the soft sand of the stream, she p
ushed up, twisted around, and emerged. Water cascading over her body, she stood in the fog with the water swirling around her. The giant was gone. The sound of the monster’s angry voice and huge legs sloshing through the water was not. The giant was close but moving away.
“Selene!” Sansla called out from beyond the fog. “Help me!”
Sword bared, she walked through the stream, eyes searching through the cloudy bank of fog. Catching sight of Sansla, she froze where she stood. The pair of giants had Sansla’s arms locked up between them. They tugged him like a rope. Agony filled the great ape’s face. She rushed right for him.
The titan Tylabahn, whose spirit was hosted in the other stone giant’s body, stopped Selene in her tracks. “You seem awfully eager to watch your dear friend’s arms get pulled off. I’d be more than glad to do it. Just give me an excuse, Selene.”
She eased back. “Just let him go and we’ll leave you alone, Tylabahn.”
The titan leered at Selene. “Oh, I doubt that. After all, you are trying to be a hero, aren’t you, dark-hearted Selene. No, no, no, I’m not fool enough to take you at your word.” She pulled hard on Sansla’s arm. It popped from the socket. Sansla groaned. “I’m not fool enough to let this cursed roamer king cut off my mission, either. No, I’ll be clear: I’m going to kill you all. But if you like, you can run, Selene—and you won’t have to watch his blood run through the waters.”
Selene tensed. Her stomach turned over. Tylabahn wasn’t one to make veiled threats; she was a killer. The only life that meant anything to the titan was her own. “Would you be willing to exchange my life for his? I’d make a fine prize for Eckubahn.”
“I don’t see the point in it. You are worthless. As I said, I’m going to kill you both.”
“Nath Dragon would come for me.”
Tylabahn’s eyes widened to the size of wagon wheels. She hissed through her teeth. “Tempting, but no. The more dead heroes, the better.”
Selene held out her sword. Crafted of the finest steel and blessed by powerful magic, the fine blade was right out of Balzurth’s throne room. The blade shimmered like living lightning. The gilded pommel pulsated in her hand. “This sword has a name: Stone Cutter, the slayer of giants. Forged by the hands of Balzurth himself to take down the giants. Look at your limping friend.” She eyed the giant’s dripping knee. “If you kill my friend, I promise you, I’ll turn you both into lumber.”
Eyeing the blade, the wounded giant took a half step back.
Tylabahn leered at him. “Don’t be a coward. Live like a giant, die like a giant.” She turned to Selene. “Besides, you cannot kill me. I’m a spirit.”
“You’re a spirit in need of a willing body, and if you don’t have one that can hold you, Tylabahn, then what happens? You fade away, like sand washing away from the riverbank. Now, wouldn’t that be a fitting end?”
“Neither fitting nor likely. I’ll never go out—and even if I do, it will be in a blaze of glory.” Her eyes flared up with an angry emerald green. “Say goodbye to the roamer king, Selene.” She put her back into it.
Sansla wailed.
“No!” Selene cried out. She rushed through the water, watching agony take over Sansla’s face.
Out of the water behind Tylabahn, a monstrous figure emerged. Rising twenty feet tall and covered in plate-like scales, spikes, and horns, the gigantic humanoid walloped Tylabahn in the jaw.
She lost her grip on Sansla.
Quick to react, Selene sliced into the wounded stone giant’s wrist.
The giant jerked his hand away and dropped Sansla into the waters.
Selene pressed the attack. She raced up the giant’s chest, wrapped her tail around his neck, and held tight.
The giant hammered at her with flailing fists, screaming, “NO! NO! NO!”
Selene struck the giant point first in the skull, right between the eyes. The stone giant’s body seized up, making a loud splash. She pulled the sword free and raced toward Sansla. The lifting fog revealed him wading knee deep in the water. He held his damaged shoulder, eyeballing the battle that raged right before their eyes.
“What is that thing?” Selene said as she watched Tylabahn, in a stone giant body, exchanging thunderous blows with the other monster. A waterfall splashed them both.
Sansla replied, “I can only assume that’s Gorlee, but he’s taken an awfully large form, the likes of which my own eyes have never seen.”
“That makes sense. Perhaps he can turn into whatever he wishes now.” She moved straight toward the battle. “But he’ll still need help.”
Sansla caught her by the elbow with his good hand. “Selene, I could use your strength. Please take my bad arm and hold it fast. Quickly, now.”
She hugged his arm like it was the trunk of a tree. She planted her feet firmly in the water the best she could by wedging her feet against the rocks. “Hurry up then. The battle rages!”
“I don’t want to miss it either.” Sansla jerked back. His shoulder popped into place. “Ah! That’s better. Thank you, Selene. Now, let’s finish this titan.” He took to the air, wings beating, and flew right into Tylabahn’s face, covering her eyes.
Gorlee’s fists looked like spiked anvils in his colossal form. He pounded the stone giant’s body with devastating bone-jarring blows.
Selene cut through the water. The smallest of the four of them, she hacked away at Tylabahn’s legs, shins, and knees.
“Nooooooooo!” Tylabahn yelled. She swung wild haymakers.
Gorlee rocked her with a punch so hard that her entire body shook.
Tylabahn went down into the water in a shambling heap.
Sansla darted aside just as the changeling jumped right on top of the titan.
Gorlee held her head under the water by the neck.
Massive limbs kicked, clawed, and slapped at skin and water. A big shudder came, and then Tylabahn, in the stone giant’s body, moved no more.
CHAPTER 6
The dragon flames that broiled inside Nath’s body might have been extinguished, but his fiery will hadn’t. Eyebrows knitted together, muscles knotting in strain, he made the moorite cuffs that bound his wrists groan. The metal links started to give. Flexing the muscles in his back and shoulders, Nath took a quick breath and let out his fury.
“Huuuuuuuuuuurk!”
The chains gave way to his growing strength with the sound of snapping metal.
Chink!
Drifting in the sky above, Lotuus’s eyes popped wide open.
Nath got his legs up underneath him. He sprang high in the air, with his clawed fingers reaching for her toes.
She lifted out of harm’s way in the nick of time, laughing as Nath descended to the ground. “Hahaha, an impressive try, Nath Dragon,” she gloated. “If only you could fly, then maybe you could catch me. If you did, I might even give you a kiss.”
Chest heaving, he replied, “Why don’t you just come down here and kiss me now? You know you want to.”
“I think I’ll watch you die first. If there’s anything left of that handsome face of yours, I might just keep it. I’ll definitely save your hair, and those golden eyes will make an excellent source of illumination for my lanterns.”
With the fires roaring all around, Nath noticed the wurmers diving. The elves and dwarves were oblivious to the slaughtering horde descending on them.
I have to do something!
A shadow rose up behind Lotuus. She didn’t even notice the form closing in on her. She caught the flicker in Nath’s eyes and whirled around in midair. She found herself face to face with Bayzog. The part-elven mage locked his hands on the staff.
“Bayzog!” Nath yelled with delight.
If his friend heard him, he didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, the Fairy Empress and Bayzog spun through the air in and angry knot of fury and faded beyond the flames and out of Nath’s sight.
“Let her have it, Bayzog!” He stood flatfooted for a moment, gathering his thoughts.
The ree-rah sound of the wurmers inc
reased. The entire brood circled down from the sky like a pinwheel of living death. As the circle of flames that surrounded him started to diminish, the elves and dwarves prepared themselves to strike at him.
“Wake up!” Nath yelled. “Wake up!”
Wurmers dove and plucked unsuspecting elves and dwarves from the ground.
“Sultans of Sulfur! I need help!” Nath filled his lungs with a gust of air and let out a mighty dragon call. His voice amplified a hundredfold. Ten giants couldn’t have been louder.
A streak of silver slipped through the sky and landed right beside him. It was Slivver. He stood beside Nath and said, “I was beginning to think you would never call. You really are pushing it.”
“So you’ve been keeping an eye on things?” Nath said.
“As you said, it’s been very amusing. I really liked the part when they tried to hang you. Hang a dragon?” Slivver snorted. “Who does that? It gave me a chuckle.”
“You could have stepped in a little sooner, you know.”
“Again, it was your call. So, have you vetted the enemy?”
“Yes,” Nath said, watching the circle of flame extinguish. “Slivver, these dwarves and elves need to snap out of this. How can I wake them from the delusion?”
“Use the same voice you used to call me. Deliver the truth to their ears, quickly!”
Facing his aggressors, Nath let out a roar that rattled the flag poles in the stands. The fires extinguished. The advancing elves and dwarves stopped in their tracks. A moment of silence fell. Blinking eyes were rubbed. Heads were shaking.
A bold voice cut through the silence. “What’s all this yelling about, Nath?” It was Brenwar. He moved through the dying fires toward the judges’ platform.
“You had better come to your senses, Brenwar. Look!” Nath pointed to the wurmer-filled sky.
“Morgdon’s peaks! Where did they come from?”
“That hardly matters now. Rally the dwarves!”
“Glenwar! Glenwar! Fetch my Mortuun now!” Brenwar hustled into the quickly forming ranks of his dwarven kin.
“Speaking of weapons, where’s Fang, Slivver?”
Judgment of the Dragon (Book 7 of 10): Dragon Fantasy Series (Tail of the Dragon) Page 2