“There are none that can hold me. It takes many.” He glided forward. “I don’t believe you. Your scent is sweet like the saplings that gather by the rivers. No, you are not one of us. You are one of them.” His glowing eyes narrowed. “That item winking in your hand cannot kill me. Nothing can.” He extended his hand. The fingers were wurmers that gnashed and spat.
“I warned you,” Selene said. She struck out with Dragon Claw. The blade hit home in the meat of a wurmer that made for a loud crackling sound. Ice spread out over the knot of bodies. The ice spread up the arms and over the chest, up to the neck and down the abdomen.
Many bellowed, “Nooooooo!”
Ice over took his mouth and face. He crystalized from top to bottom.
But at the same time, the wurmers that weren’t part of his body attacked. More of them popped out of the eggs. The floors and walls were alive with the writhing creatures.
“Get that gem out, Nath!” she yelled.
The titan began to crack out of his ice-crystal trap.
She blasted away a small knot of wurmers with a flick of power from her fingertips. “Quickly!”
Nath tugged and tugged. The blade didn’t budge. The life gem continued slowly sinking. While Selene fought off one wurmer after the other, he pleaded with Fang. “I’m going to need a little help here. What do you want me to do?” Nothing came to light. The blue glimmer in Fang’s steel went cold as if the blade was suffocating. With muscles bulging underneath his scales and rippling all over, Nath gave another tug with all of his might, spitting and groaning.
Shards of ice cracked away from the guardian titan’s mighty frame and crashed to the ground. “You have made me angry! You will suffer much for your insolence!” His entire head burst out of the ice.
Wurmers swarmed Selene.
Fighting for her life, she yelled out, “Nath!”
He gave another heave. A hot bit of dragon saliva shot from his mouth, hitting the gel. The material warbled as if in agony. “I’ll be!” Nath said. He spat a small ball of fire into the well. The gel sizzled. In its own living way, it screamed. He unleashed a full stream of fire. Fang was freed. The gem sizzled, lurched, and bucked. The flames reached another level of intensity. The well went up in a whoosh!
Nath fell onto his back. Wurmers climbed all over him, biting and clawing at his body.
Covered in wurmers so thick she could barely be seen, Selene cried out, “Get the gem, Nath. Destroy it!”
With the horde latched onto just about every square inch of his body, he surged toward the mouth of the well. Fang in hand, he crawled inside, falling deep toward the bottom. There, twenty feet deep now, rested the life gem. It throbbed and beat like a hardened heart. Wurmers poured into the well, filling it like a busted dam.
“Noooooooooooo!” the voice of Many screamed. “Stop it!”
Straining against the wurmers that tore at his flesh, Nath lifted Fang high. He stabbed the blade down.
Chink! Boooom!
An undertow of energy erupted all around and exploded out of the hole. Wurmers were incinerated. Others flopped and died.
Nath shook his head. His body was smoking, and his iron limbs trembled. “Selene?” he called up with his ears ringing. He wriggled his jaw. “Selene?”
“Yes?” she said, leaning over the upper lip of the well. Her frazzled hair hung in her eyes.
“You really need to do something about that hair. It looks horrible. What kind of a queen goes out of the castle looking like that?”
“As if your glorious mane looks any better?” She sighed. “They’re all dead. Congratulations, but we’ll still need to track that spirit. He’ll be looking for another host. Let’s hope he doesn’t find one.”
Nath sheathed Fang and climbed out. The cave walls, floors, stalactites, and stalagmites were splattered in the debris of the wurmers. “Yech.” Nose crinkling, he added, “They smell as bad as they look, don’t they?”
“You’re one to talk.”
“I don’t smell. I never smell.”
Selene rolled her eyes and headed toward the other tunnel. “I saw his essence go this way.”
Nath shuffled after her. The blast had been ten times as concussive as it would have been outside of the well. It hurt to walk. He winced when he breathed. “Don’t walk so fast. No need to be hasty.”
The tunnel made a steep slope upward, where the enormous mouth of the cave waited. So did the cave’s guardians. Huge white yeti growled and hopped in a lather.
CHAPTER 14
Selene looked back at Nath. “Looks like friends of yours.”
Nath’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t remember loaning any yeti money. I don’t suppose you’ll be able to reason with them with that silky tongue of yours? You did such a great job with Many.”
“We’ll give it a try.”
“No, I’m not going to toy with them. It’s been a bad enough day.” Brandishing Fang over his head, he took off at a full sprint, yelling, “Dragon! Dragon!”
The hungry-eyed yeti waited for him with clacking teeth and sharp claws. Each of the four bestial snow monsters stood at least fifteen feet tall, layered in white fur over packed muscle.
The first yeti pounced right into Nath’s path with great arms stretching out.
Nath chopped clean through the beast’s wrist. He dove underneath the yeti’s leg and stabbed the exposed gut of another.
Savage as animals can be, the burly brutes howled. Each of them flailed at Nath.
With Fang’s keen edge, he removed fingers and toes.
The monsters didn’t flee. Instead, they went into a greater frenzy. Striking from all directions, the frenzied horde climbed over one another like a pack of wild dogs.
A fist smashed Nath in the back. The blow sent him sprawling on the hard, cold cave floor. Before he could turn, a yeti landed on top of him. It hammered his body with giant fists that sent shockwaves through his body. The yeti whose one hand he had turned into a stump got ahold of Nath’s hair. The monster jerked him off the ground and smacked him into the wall.
“Guzan!” Nath yelled.
The yeti pummeled him with heavy blows. The one-handed yeti continued to yank Nath by the hair. The beating he took came with the power of angry mules kicking. They walloped him blow after blow. One of the yeti got in his face and tried to bite his nose.
Nath let out a stream of flame, turning the yeti’s head to fire. It fled through the mouth of the cave only to collapse in a ball of flame. Nath loosed the rest of his fire on the others. Their thick fur ignited. They hopped and bellowed while desperately trying to pat the flames out. The almighty fires turned them into stinky bonfires of crispy flesh and bones. Nath stood up from the ground he’d be plowed into, saying, “Nobody touches my hair!”
Selene stood by with a satisfied look on her face. “Does that include me?”
“Yes!” He shook his head. “No! You know what I mean.” He covered his nose. “Guzan, that smoke is awful. Have you been watching me fight them the entire time?”
“Of course. I enjoyed it.”
“And you didn’t help?”
“I didn’t think you needed any. They’re normal creatures. I don’t think their claws could hurt you.”
Holding his side, he said, “Yes, well, tell that to my ribs that are floating over my innards. They might not be able to cut me, but that doesn’t mean their hits don’t hurt.”
“Oh, poor little dragon. Do you want me to kiss your wound?”
“Yes.”
She slapped him in the chest with her tail. “You’ll be fine. Come on.”
Once outside of the cave, they were surrounded by gray skies, snow-capped mountains, and waist-deep snow. It wasn’t nice, but it might as well have been.
With frosty breath, Nath said, “I’m not certain where we are, but it’s above the ground not in. I like it. What do you think?”
Selene stood inside some tracks that looked to have been made by a yeti in the snow. “I think Many took up a ne
w host. We need to catch up with him before he alerts the titans to our presence. We have a clear advantage being out here when they think we’re still in The Deep. We must press the advantage.”
Nath glanced back at the smoking cave mouth. “Too bad we won’t be able to revel in our victory. This time. I’ll lead, you follow.”
“After you.”
Nath took off at a sprint. The yeti’s tracks were easy to follow, but there was a problem. It was snowing, and it came down heavily. If they didn’t catch up soon, the tracks would be buried. At least he doesn’t have much of a start. He plowed through the waist-deep tracks.
The titan’s tracks led down the mountainside, beyond the icy hard rocks and into a rift in the snow that disappeared into darkness. Nath kept his eyes on the tracks, fighting through the slippery, troublesome footing, until they hit the next mountain’s downward slope. Ahead through the downpour of snow, he caught a glimpse of a beast trudging through the snow. The lumbering brute’s head swiveled back for a moment before continuing on. It disappeared into the folds between the mountain peaks.
“Selene! I see him. We’re closing in! Can you keep up?”
“Of course I can,” she said, slipping for a moment before regaining her balance. “Hurry!”
Nath moved as fast as possible, given the treachery of the terrain. He slipped and slid a little with every step. Before long he caught up to the spot where he’d seen the titan that called himself Many. The tracks followed a snow-covered ledge that plummeted into a steep hillside whose bottom was nowhere in sight. The natural road was plenty wide enough for the likes of Nath but would be troublesome for a yeti. He pressed on to a place where the tracks came to a stop then paused.
“What?” Selene said as she settled in behind him.
“His tracks are gone.” He looked over the edge. “I’ve a feeling he might have leaped.”
“Down there?”
“Well, the snow would make for a soft landing, especially for a yeti.”
Clots of snow slipped down off the ledge above them.
Nath looked up. “Selene!”
Many the yeti stood on the icy ledge. His feet stomped the snow-cake. A huge bank of snow broke free from the rock. Inescapable, the avalanche hit the flat-footed Nath and Selene flush. The momentum carried them off the ledge. They plummeted into the icy abyss.
CHAPTER 15
There was a long free fall and then a few hard bounces followed by a feathery drowning under tons of snow. Nath was face-planted upside down in icy blackness. His limbs were pinned under the mass of the avalanche. Barely able to breathe, he wriggled. He managed to pack the snow around him, giving himself just enough space to begin moving his fingertips. He didn’t fare well. Even worse, what about Selene? She’d be trapped underneath the snow as well.
I’ve got to get to her.
Nath had seen the effects of avalanches before. Entire parties of people had been buried in either snow or earth. It was a foul trick of the giants’, and of the ogres in particular. They were notorious for using such traps. Cruel and crafty, they’d set up prey time and again, by luring them into this deadly demise.
Gaining some arm room, Nath punched his fist into the snow. The problem was, he didn’t know how far down he was.
This might take forever. I need to try something else.
After a moment of thought, he decided to summon his flame. He drew in a difficult lungful of icy air and blew. Eye-watering steam came up, but no fire. His inferno had extinguished in the battle with the yeti.
Great. Looks like I might be here for a while, but I have to get to Selene.
Strong hands punched through the snow behind him. Strong arms yanked him out of the snow. He shook the snow out of his hair and gazed up at Selene.
“What were you doing, taking a nap?”
“Huh? I guess I was facing downward. And not so deep either. It’s a good thing you came around. I might have dug myself back into The Deep.”
Selene stood there shaking her head. “I worry about you.”
“Well, it’s not as if I was stuck in there for hours. I’d have figured it out.”
“I don’t know about that.” She stood on a mountain of snow looking up at where they’d fallen from. There was nothing but black mountain above. “I don’t think we’re going to find that titan now. And I thought you had him. You should’ve seen that coming.”
“Me?” Nath thought about it. “Yes, you’re right. I should have. It happens, though. Let’s just head for the bottom of the mountain. After all, he’s a yeti. It’s not as if he’ll be able to hide from anyone.”
“Catching up to him won’t do a lick of good once he crosses with others. Once he communes with another spirit, word will travel back to Eckubahn faster than the wind.”
Nath pulled his foot out of the snow. “There’s no reason we can’t still at least try to catch him. Will that make you feel better?”
She gave him a look.
Nath shrugged and started moving again. Based off where they had landed, he gave it his best guess as to where Many might be going.
If I were an evil, smelly, stupid yeti, where would I go?
His journey had angled him in the direction they’d been traveling before. The mountaintops were much like the area that surrounded the giants’ home, Urslay. At first Nath thought that might be where they were, but he was relieved they weren’t. The possessed yeti would have a direct path to that. He surged on, with Selene right behind him. The icy winds bit into his cheeks. Snow coated the small red beard he’d begun to grow in The Deep.
He caught an odd sound in the wind howling through the channels. He paused his trek.
“What is it?”
Nath held up a finger and cupped his ear. Somewhere on the mountainside, creatures growled and groaned.
Selene pushed his finger down. “I hear it too.”
With knees high, they tromped through the deep snow and climbed the rocky ledges. Sure enough, the farther they went, the louder the sound became. They raced up a ridge until they found the source of the sound. The yeti-titan, Many, was locked up in a battle with a full-sized white dragon who blended in with the snow.
“She’s a blizzard fury!” Nath said with a smile as wide as a barn. “I’ve never seen one so big before.”
The dragon and yeti crashed over the ground, bouncing from berm to berm. One was just as fierce as the other. The yeti’s hands choked the dragon. The dragon’s claws scratched hunks of fur from the yeti’s chest.
In normal circumstances, Nath knew the snow dragon would be more than a match for a single yeti, but this yeti was more powerful. It was enhanced by the titan’s spirit, making it a far more dangerous foe. The battle was still far away. The snow-colored dragon appeared to be losing. Under the grip of the yeti, the dragon began to sink in the snow.
With the wind whistling past his ears, Nath sped on. He pulled Fang free, and once he hit the higher ground, he moved in leaps and bounds. As the blizzard fury fought for her last breath of life, Nath cocked back and hurled his sword.
Fang sailed through the air like a javelin. The wondrous weapon slipped right into the yeti’s ribs.
The monster arched back, jaws wide and roaring in great pain.
The blizzard fury acted. She coiled back her magnificent horned head, opened up her great jaws, and blasted out a cone of ice. The frosty attack covered the lurching yeti instantly. Its entire body turned into a block of ice. For a moment, Nath saw the yeti, Many, frozen inside, with eyes filled with horror, but then the blizzard fury unleashed her tail, striking the block of ice with a resounding crack.
The yeti burst into hunks and pieces. A wavering spirit hovered above the broken body, like an angry mist in the sky. The dragon hissed at the spirit. Without a serviceable host, the spirit moved on.
Selene caught up to Nath. “That might just do it.” She kissed his cheek. “You did well.”
He eyed the beautiful dragon and nodded. “No, we did well.”
CHAPTER 16
At the bottom of the mountains, Nath sat before the campfire he’d started with some dry branches and a ball of his fiery spit.
“Are you really cold?” Selene said, standing back and away from the fire.
“I don’t know that I’m cold, so much. Not with the furnace that churns within me, but there’s something about a campfire. There’s more to it than the warmth and the wavering flames. It’s the memories that come to mind from all of the adventures I’ve had.” He patted the frosty ground next to him. “Come sit. Let’s make some memories of our own.”
“I think we have plenty to recollect. Much of it not so pleasant. You have to admit, our time together has been nothing short of difficult.” She crinkled her nose. “I can’t imagine why you’d want to recall any of it.”
“We live a life that most people can only dream about. I’m thankful for it. Certainly, being a hero isn’t a bunch of fun and glory as the bards tend to say, but nothing worth doing was ever easy.” He rubbed his hands together over the flames. “Ah, to jump in the fire only to hop out unscathed. It never happens that way, does it?”
“No, I suppose not. I guess I’m not very accustomed to the role of the hero.” She sat down and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Nath, you’re my hero.”
His heart pounded in his chest. He hadn’t thought he was cold, but the compliment warmed him from head to toe. That admission from Selene was astounding. He put his arm around her waist. “Thank you.”
They kissed until the campfire dimmed.
“Whoa,” Nath said, with a broad smile on his face. “And that’s another reason why men want to be heroes.”
Then with a playful look dancing in her eyes, she rose up. “Just imagine how much better it will be once Nalzambor is free.”
“It can be better?”
“Maybe I was holding back.”
Wrath of the Dragon: (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 8) (Tail of the Dragon) Page 5