Begrudgingly, Brenwar spilled out a disturbing story about giants tricking Nath in the nearby village cluster at the site of the old city of Harvand.
In this case, Selene agreed with Brenwar. She would have left the fate of the people in those villages to the giants in exchange for keeping Nath. Why he fought so hard for people that were far inferior she didn’t quite understand. “I see.”
“So glad your eyes are open and that you can see, Selene.” The annoying little dwarf glanced over his shoulder. “So, you’ve tracked the wurmers here?”
She relayed what she had encountered in the fishing villages. “Seems there is quite a nest here. So, should I wait here while you go in and rescue Nath?”
“You know, you’re as funny as you look. But I’m doing just fine without you. Still, if you want to come along, I won’t stop you.”
“Oh, thank you for your generosity. A smallish escort is just what I need.”
“Smallish?”
She gave him her best condescending smile.
Obviously choosing not to notice, Brenwar took the lead, making a wide trail through the snow, until they were less than a mile away from the first tower. “We need to be wary. There’s no telling what kind of eyes are in those towers.”
“Those are dragon towers,” she said.
“How do you know that?”
“I know. This is Urslay, place of the giants, though it was fairly dormant during the time of Gorn Grattack. We sought their aid in the Great Dragon War, but they weren’t interested. Giants aren’t a race that wants to be unified with dragons ever. Those towers go back to the last battle the dragons fought against the titans and the giants. I know that much. They are there to watch the skies, not the ground. I don’t think they’ll be looking for us.”
“Don’t you think you should have mentioned this place before, back in Quintuklen?”
Uh, I didn’t know it was active back then, stupid.
“No.”
The little dwarf huffed, turned his eyes forward, and plowed through the snow.
Good, we’ve found a use for you: snowplow!
In the night, they could see silhouettes against the fires burning at the tops of the towers. Two people were within each hundred-foot-high tower, manning the ballistas that were mounted up there. To shoot at flying dragons.
Brenwar led them midway between the closest tower and the next tower. The wind blew his beard straight up in a very undignified way when he turned to speak to her. “Since you aren’t very forthcoming, tell me, have you been inside Urslay before?”
Selene bit the insides of her cheeks so she wouldn’t laugh at the funny picture he made.
No sense getting him all riled up. That will waste time that Nath may not have.
“Yes.”
But the pesky little dwarf got all riled up anyway, running ahead of her as if he could leave her behind. He was such a child.
“You long-tailed giant-loving witch!”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. I didn’t have much of a choice then,” she said, catching up to Brenwar, who was only a few steps from the canyon’s edge. “And I only had a glimpse. Show some mirth. Who would have thought it would be something that could serve our cause now?”
Brenwar hurried, apparently thinking she couldn’t pass him, came to a stop at the rocky edge, and leaned his head down. “That’s quite the canyon.”
Selene found her place by his side. “Yes, a very unique city.”
The canyon was hundreds of feet deep and went on for miles. There was firelight coming from the small and large stone carved alcoves that made up the strange city. Tiny figures shuffled over the roads, and livestock in mass quantities were herded into pens.
Selene could smell everything. Hay, orcs, humans, halflings, cooked meat, coal, and wood smoke.
The last time she was there, it had only been giants, and not so many. For the most part, it had been abandoned, but now it was quite different. There were hundreds, maybe a thousand people, and they thrived. Their voices lifted up over the rocks with wild songs of praise.
“What are those people so happy for?” Brenwar asked.
“The titans have a uniting effect on weaker people.” She started down the side. “Stay here. I’ll take a look.”
Brenwar seized her arm. “You’ll do no such thing. I’m not going to sit here like a yeti while you go and reminisce with old friends.”
She jerked out of his grip. “So you’re coming, then.”
“No.”
“Then what do you propose we do, sit here and wait for Nath to greet us?” She searched Brenwar’s hard eyes. “Brenwar, you will need to trust me.”
His eyes pierced hers. “I don’t.”
She had tried to be nice. She had even called him by his name. Aggravated, she fired back, “And what was your plan? Did you think a dwarf could infiltrate the giants? They would sniff you out as soon as you set foot in there.”
“I’m not worried about putting my life in peril.”
“I’m not either, but you can’t just go waltzing down there with me. It would be stupid.”
“Are you calling me stupid?” he growled.
She shook her head. “No. I think you are well aware of your limitations already.”
“I’m going to cut your tail off!”
“Try, and I’ll strangle you with your own beard!”
Red-faced, Brenwar replied, “Leave my beard out of this.” He drew Mortuun back. “Go ahead, say it one more time!”
“Will you keep your annoying voice down? The guards are distant, not deaf!” Finally, she sighed, leaned over, and kissed him on the forehead.
Brenwar shuffled in the snow, his temper cooled. “What was that for?”
She shrugged. “I just realized I’d do anything to shut you up.”
“Ho ho ho!” Brenwar rumbled. “I don’t like you, but I like your spite.” He lifted his brows, reached into one of his pouches, and pulled out a colorful potion vial. “I have an idea that should satisfy us both.”
CHAPTER 31
Hours were usually like minutes to a dragon, except now. No, now the minutes felt like long, agonizing hours as Nath’s insides gnawed at his outsides. He was hungry. He was angry. Typically, a dragon would sleep through a wait like this, hibernate like a bear. Instead, Nath paced and fought to keep his weary eyes open. Something had to give.
He yelled through the bars.
“Hello? Hello!”
His loud voice echoed down the hall.
Nothing replied.
He banged his fists on the bars and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“HELLO, I SAY!”
He followed it up with a roar so loud it rattled all the locks in the dungeon.
“RAWWWWRRRRrrrrrr!”
He shuffled backward and touched his throat.
Was that me?
He let out another cage-shaking roar.
“RrrrrrrAAAWWWWWRRRrrrrrrrr!”
Huh! It was me! Seems I still have some dragon pipes in me.
Suddenly he belched. “Urp.”
A puff of grey smoke rolled out of his mouth. There was a charred taste on his tongue. His golden eyes lit up.
He blew smoke from his nostrils.
Can it be?
Stomach growling, he eyed the bars that caged him in. He rubbed his chin.
Hmmm, if I can summon my flame, then I can melt these bars. Hah! Wouldn’t that be something?
He focused and concentrated on his fires within.
Come on, Dragon. You can do it.
His stomach burned like fire and surged up his throat. A blast of hot, smoky air spilled from his mouth. The plume of hot smoke filled his dungeon cell and the hall. Within seconds, the air was thicker than dwarven stew and he couldn’t even see himself. He fanned away the vapors, coughing a few times.
“Well that was pointless!”
He coughed some more and screamed. His muscles ached, and weakness assailed him. Whatever he had done had sucked the
life out of him. He sagged down onto his knees and stretched out on the floor. His heavy eyelids felt like they were filled with sand.
Maybe I should try and take a nap until the smoke clears. What a useless trick for a dragon. Who needs a dragon that blows smoke instead of fire? Such a joke.
Nath was drifting into slumber when the scuffle of soft feet caught his ear. He lifted his weary head, cocked his ear.
I must be dreaming that I have a visitor coming.
He lowered his head again and shut his eyes. Again, the scuffle came. Footsteps were making their way down the dungeon hallway. He sat up and peered through the dissipating smoke.
A man appeared in the smoke just outside the bars. The build of the man was very strange, thick, but with gingerly moves.
Am I dreaming?
“Where did all this smoke come from?” the man said in an irritated but friendly tone.
The sound of the man was very odd to Nath’s ears, not rough and husky like most of the over-sized people.
“And what was that racket I heard? It sounded like a dog choking.”
Nath made his way to his feet, rubbed his gold eyes, and sauntered over to the bars. There, he got a better look at the man, who was broad and round faced. Nath blinked his eyes and said to the unique man, “Are you a halfling?”
“What?” the man said really loud. He pushed his frosty locks from his eyes, fanned more of the smoke away, and stared at Nath. “Yer that dragon fella they talk about above, ain’t you?”
“Are you a halfling?” Nath repeated with astonishment.
“You say that like you’ve never seen a halfling before.” The giant halfling wore navy-blue trousers with a maroon shirt. He stuffed his long and slender fingers into a big pocket in the middle of his overall and withdrew a pouch. He loosened the strings and removed a pinch of snuff and snorted it. His eyes brightened. “Woo Wee! Now that is dandy!”
Gently shaking his head, Nath said, “Who are you?”
“What?”
Nath spoke louder. “I said, who are you?”
“You heard a moo?”
“No!”
The old halfling reached behind his back and brought forth a brass horn with a bend in the smaller portion of its neck. He held it to his ear and tilted it toward Nath. “Speak into my good ear.”
“What is your name?” Nath asked.
“Pepper.” His forehead crinkled, and his button nose sniffed. “Where’d all this smoke come from?”
Nath didn’t want to lie, even though his first urge was to say, ‘I don’t know.’ Instead, he changed the subject. If there was one thing he knew about people, especially halflings, they liked to talk about themselves. “How’d you get so big?”
“Speak up, flame mane.”
Nath huffed and spoke directly into the earpiece. “Why are you so big?”
“Well, you don’t have to yell! My name’s Pepper.”
“You told me that already. Sheesh. Pepper, why are you so big?”
“Oh, I see,” Pepper said. “You want to know why I am so big. We are all big in my family. Well, most of us mostly.” With soft eyes he stared down at Nath. “I just remembered. I can read lips. Go ahead and speak at your common loudness.” He lowered his ear horn.
“Pepper, halflings are half as big as men. Why are you and so many others in this city so big?”
Rubbing his chin, Pepper studied Nath’s lips and replied, “No, you can’t marry my daughter.”
“I didn’t ask to marry your daughter!”
“Oh, so you are asking me—wait a minute, you’re that dragon fella everyone is making a fuss about, aren’t you?”
Unable to restrain himself, Nath slapped his forehead. He was dealing with an eight-foot-tall elderly halfling who was nearly deaf and enfeebled. Nath’s claws dug into his long locks of hair and pulled on it.
Pepper cocked his head sideways. “What are you doing? Does your flame hair burn? Must you pull it out, eh? Oh, you want to put it out. Yes. Put the fire out. I’ll fetch some water.”
“No!” Nath said, trying to snatch Pepper through the bars.
Pepper scurried down the hall, weaving right, then left, then right again and out of sight.
Nath banged his head on the bars.
By the time he gets where he’s going, he’ll forget I’m here!
CHAPTER 32
“Will you put that away, Dwarf? What is it, anyway?”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Brenwar said as he put the potion to his lips.
Selene snatched it away and resealed it. “You’re being hasty. I thought your kind were better planners than that. I think it will help if you at least tell me what this is going to do.”
“Gimme my potion!” Brenwar leapt up for it.
Selene, much taller, dangled it over his head.
Ha ha! Dwarves are horrible jumpers.
“I’ll bring you down to my level if I have to!”
“Potions don’t last so long. We might be in there for days. Maybe longer.” She shook the liquid in the vial. It swirled with a twinkle. “What are you hoping to accomplish?”
“It’s a changer. I’ve taken it before. I’ll blend in down there.”
Fat chance, the way you stink! Ugh!
“Oh, and what were you going to change into?”
“Human, I suppose. And how exactly were you going to blend in with that tail and those scales?”
“I can control that.” She held out her arms and concentrated, turning her scales to skin and making her tail vanish under her robes. “See?”
“And how long can you keep that up?”
“Long enough. Listen, you need to trust me, and I need to go it alone.”
But the little dwarf just glowered at her. “No.”
Such a little child! Even if I do leave without him, he’ll just follow me on his own later. And get caught. And Nath won’t leave here without him…
She dropped the potion.
Brenwar snatched it in his skeleton hand.
“Have it your way,” she said, “but I’ll be curious to see if it conceals that.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”
She lifted a brow. “Really, so you have more magic at your disposal? That’s odd for a dwarf.”
“Well, I’m no lover of magic, but on occasion it’s served me well.”
“Oh, you like it, do you? How exhilarating.”
He does like magic! He’s trying to conceal it, but there’s a glimmer in his eye! Ha! He needs magic to keep up.
She filed that information away for future use.
As Brenwar put the vial to his lips, she held up her hand to halt him.
He started to draw back his fist, but she rushed to explain.
“Why don’t you hold off until we hit bottom and enter the city? We’ll need every second of time that potion can last. I’m certain.”
“Agreed.”
CHAPTER 33
Sitting in the back of the cell, Nath watched a steady drip of murky water splatter on the floor. He’d counted five hundred and sixty two drops. Each just as annoying as the last. He focused on that water.
Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat.
Water. That was what Pepper had said he was going after hours ago. There hadn’t been any sign of life in the dungeons since he left. There was only the drip of water. It wasn’t just in Nath’s cell either. It was all over the place. A steady, unrelenting, tormenting harmony.
Everything in his life was out of order. Everything he knew had been twisted upside down. Giant-sized orcs, lizard men, and halflings.
“Ugh, how can this be?”
Nath wanted to sleep. To wake up in a better time and place. Even Dragon Home perhaps.
The mountain home of the dragons wasn’t really that bad. He just didn’t fit in. The dragons didn’t like him. That was supposed to have changed, which, to some degree it had, but other than Selene, he still hadn’t really bonded with any of the dragons.
He rubbed his nose and yawned.
Why is that?
He studied his scaly hands and long fingernails. Not so long ago he could have torn this entire dungeon apart. Not that he’d ever have been caught to begin with. In dragon form, he would have ripped those stone giants to pieces.
I have to have more power than just these clawed hands.
His stomach growled.
If only being hungry was a power! I could destroy anything!
He clutched his head.
Come on, Nath. Get it together and think. I have to have more powers. I have magic, because Selene has magic. I need to explore it. Let’s see.
Twirling his finger in his hair, Nath made a mental list of things he could do.
I can grow gorgeous hair. Hah! Oh, am I not the envy of all dragons. Let’s see, what else? I can yell really loud. And I can blow smoke. Yes, blow smoke. Such a terror I can become. Beware of the terrifying smoke-blowing dragon. I can complain. Be hungry. Oh, I’m useless without Fang!
He snapped his fingers.
Maybe I can summon the blade.
He closed his eyes and envisioned the magnificent blade. His stomach moaned. He slammed his fists on the ground.
Oh, this is useless! I can’t even concentrate!
He stood up and eyed the metal bars that caged him in.
I can bend those. I know I can. I just have to believe that I can.
Stomach rumbling, he walked over to the bars and wrapped his fingers around the hard steel.
Clatch.
Somewhere, a door opened. Nath pressed his face against the bars.
Coming down the hall from the direction opposite where Pepper left, something rolled on squeaky wheels. It was coming straight for Nath. The loud, annoying sound would have woken up anything that slept. Wheels rattled and clanked over the cobblestone floor.
Nath’s nostrils widened. His mouth watered.
Food!
Pepper the giant halfling came into full view. He was pushing a cart filled with huge amounts of food. Roast turkey. Baked hams. Hot rolls and steaming potatoes.
“Chow time,” the halfling said to Nath. “You are lucky. There are no other prisoners to be fed. You can eat all of this.”
Claws of the Dragon Page 11