“Maybe you should have him take you back in time then?” Brenwar suggested.
“I thought about that. No, I can assume that would only make things worse. Believe me, I wanted to try. I thought maybe by going back, I could save Father.” He grabbed his head. “Oh, Guzan. Father’s been lingering in the Dark Realm all of this extra time.”
“What do you mean, Nath?” Ben asked.
“In The Deep, Father called out to me. He told me to save him. He’s alive. Or at least, his spirit is. He’s in a place where he is hiding from his enemies.” He shook his head. “It’s going to take some time to get my head wrapped around this.” He scanned the massive corridor that looked to have been hollowed out with fires that melted stone. The surfaces were smooth and shiny like glass. “Walk with me. I’d like to see Mother, and perhaps Bayzog can help with this. The Sultans know that if anyone can wrap their head about this, it would be him. Where is he, anyway? Please don’t tell me Narmum. He’s always so far away when I need him.”
Walking alongside him, Brenwar, Ben, and Slivver came to a stop.
Nath’s fingertips tingled as he faced them. “What?”
Brenwar cleared his throat. “Bayzog died.”
CHAPTER 20
With misty eyes, Nath stood gazing at Bayzog’s sarcophagus. His heart ached.
Selene stood with him, holding his hand. “Sorry, Nath. I know how dear he was to you.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Brenwar, what happened? It was Tylabahn, wasn’t it.”
Brenwar recounted the story of Ben and Selene returning to them as they waited outside of Narnum. Tylabahn had possessed Gorlee and used that power to her advantage, taking on the form of an orc and then Selene. The first chance she got to strike, she went after Bayzog. “None of us saw it coming, Nath. Once she sprang her trap, it was too late. The wound was mortal.”
“We saw it coming, but I guess it was wishful thinking on my end. Selene and I figured that Tylabahn duped us.” He looked at Ben. “I was mostly concerned you wouldn’t make it.”
“I wish it had been me. Bayzog was capable of much more than I am.” Ben’s eyes traced the silvery outline of Bayzog’s figure. “I led that monster right to him. We all almost perished. I should have perished.”
“At least we’re all here now. Bayzog would understand. He would have given his life to save any one of ours. All of you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, but it still hurts,” Ben replied.
“So where are Sasha, Samaz, and Rerry? I assume they’re still here?”
“They are, and no doubt all of them will be glad to see you.” Brenwar shoved the sarcophagus back into the tomb. “When we saw the disturbance outside, we didn’t know it was you until I heard from your lips for myself. It’s time we notified them.”
“What about Sansla? Where is he?”
“He departed through the murals, looking for his rangers. That’s been some time ago, and we haven’t heard from him since.” Brenwar marched back into the main corridor. Everyone followed.
The wide roadway spiraled upward into the great mountain. They passed dragon den after dragon den on their way up, along with a variety of dragons, who would stop and bow as Nath passed them.
He acknowledged them all. He was king. Being home again felt good.
Even with hallway tunnels big enough to march an army through, the journey to the top made for a lengthy trip. It gave Nath some time to think. He’d missed three years, and there wasn’t any telling how many more had died during that span of time. All of the dragons and the races had to be reeling. He wondered how people had even survived. Now that he was here, he had to find a way to end it. He needed to find his father, locate Eckubahn, and kill the titan once and for all. He had hoped Bayzog could give some insight on that. Now that opportunity had passed.
Maybe Mother will have some advice on where to start.
They entered a dragon chamber that was as grand as any. Discs of wild energy were flying around the room. Rerry, with sword in hand, struck at the discs, which exploded in the air when he hit them. Samaz stood on the other side of the room from Rerry. He carried the Elderwood Staff in one hand with the gemstone glowing with warm light. Energy disks filled his hands one after the other, and he slung them at Rerry. The lightning-quick strikes of Rerry’s sword chopped right through them.
Nath interrupted their training. “You swing steel like a striking snake. Well done, Rerry.”
Soaked in sweat, Rerry turned. His eyes popped open wide. “Nath! Samaz, it’s Nath! Nath’s back!” He tossed the sword aside and rushed right over and hugged Nath. “I thought you were in The Deep! Haha! Welcome back!”
Samaz came over as fast as Nath had ever seen the older brother move. He poked Nath in the arm. “It really is you.”
Rerry’s and Samaz’s faces were a little fuller than the last time he’d seen them. Rerry had packed on more muscle that showed well underneath his leather jerkin. Samaz had puffed a little more, but an even deeper intelligence glimmered in his dark eyes. “I’m sorry about your father.”
“Thank you, Nath. But we will be avenging him in due time. We train every day for it.” Rerry’s gaze landed on Fang. “You found him!”
“More like he found me,” Nath replied.
“I told you, Samaz. I told you Fang went to find him. I know how smart Fang is.”
Samaz shrugged his eyebrows.
“It seems like there is a celebration and I wasn’t invited. How rude.”
Nath twisted around to face Sasha. She looked splendid in her lemon-colored and snow-flecked sorceress robes. His face lit up the moment he saw her warm smile. He clasped her hands in his. “I’m so sorry about Bayzog.” He choked up. His body shook. He wrapped her up in his arms. “Forgive me.”
“Sssh, sssh, sssh, Nath.” Sasha hugged him back while stroking his hair. “We stopped mourning years ago. When we think of him, we celebrate the life that we lived with him. I’m not saying I don’t cry from time to time, but my yearning for vengeance keeps my sheets warm at night.” She pushed back. “I’m so glad you’re back, Nath. Your presence alone fills all the empty rooms.” She caught Selene looking at her. They hugged. “What happened? How did you escape?”
Nath filled her in.
“I suggest you make haste to see your mother, Nath,” Sasha said, averting her eyes for a moment. “Uh, she’ll be very excited to see you.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s been spending a lot of time in the throne room. I’m certain you’ll find her there.”
Nath gave everyone a quick goodbye before leaving the chamber.
Slivver caught up with him.
“Something bad is going on, isn’t it.”
“It’s best that you hear it from Mother.”
CHAPTER 21
Nath embraced his mother for the longest time. She was in full dragon form, but the same size as him, much like Slivver. Slivver hung back, waiting for him outside the throne room doors.
“I missed you so much, Son. I’ve been worried.”
“I can hear it in your voice.” He held her hands. Grahleyna was a most beautiful dragon, white scales accented with flecks of cinnamon. She walked, talked, and spoke like a true queen. “Everyone seems more troubled than they’re letting on. Tell me what I need to know.”
“I will.” She led him through the glinting piles of coins that rustled beneath their feet to the base of the throne. “I sense you have something to share with me as well.”
“It’s Father. His spirit is alive. He reached out to me while I was in The Deep. He says I need to free him.”
“Are you certain, Nath? It could have been the spirits playing tricks.”
“No, it was him. I can tell the truth from a lie. Certainly in Father’s case. But Fang took me forward three years. Father’s been trapped in the Dark Realm that much longer.” He scooped up some coins and gems and poured them back onto the floor. “It’s tearing me up inside.”
“Ti
me in the Dark Realm is not as we know it here. It resides on another plane. I had a fleeting hope that your father’s essence might have escaped to it.”
“You knew Father might be alive?”
“No, I hoped.” A warm smile crossed her face. “And hope prevailed.”
“Mother, I don’t know the first thing about traveling from one realm to the other. I hardly understand where the Dark Realm is. Speaking honestly, I’ve not heard any stories about it since I was a child. How can I be the Dragon King and still know less than anyone about all these things?”
“So long as your father remains, all the knowledge you need will not be fully yours. Consider that a good thing. You’ll only have it all when your father passes into the next mural, or when you learn about it for yourself.”
“Sometimes I feel like an infant. How can I fight things I don’t know anything about?”
Grahleyna draped her wing over his shoulders. “Tell me, what do you know about the enemy now that you didn’t know when you first crossed paths with them?”
“Hmmm…I suppose we know how to wipe out a spawn of wurmers with the life gems. Some of the titan spirits are too powerful to host a normal body. That’s why they use the giants and wurmers. They need a host strong enough to hold them. If they can’t find one, they perish, or perhaps they go back to the realm from where they came.”
“You see, you’ve loaded some very deadly arrows into your quiver. Your experience has given you a powerful weapon: knowledge. With that, any enemy can be defeated.”
“I just wish I had all my powers back. As a full dragon, I’d hunt down Eckubahn and tear him in half.”
“Your size and powers are not what matters, Nath. That is all relative. It’s your spirit, your heart that counts most.”
Nath had heard a similar speech from his father at least a hundred times. Every time, it had pricked his scales, but it had never really sunk in. “I thought when I beat Gorn Grattack I’d mastered everything.”
“You grew in mind, body, and spirit. That is all. You have to put it all together and use it to handle the next enemy that steps out of line.” She sighed. “They will always come, Nath, always, until the end of times.”
“Selene mentioned that Gorn Grattack might still be alive in the Dark Realm. Do you believe that’s possible? He’d be trying to kill Father. Wouldn’t he be more powerful in that realm than this one?”
“It’s too hard to say, but we can search the libraries to see what we can find to help us out. In the meantime, as good as it is to see you, there is more troubling news to be shared.”
“I guess I shouldn’t expect any good news.” He looked right at her. “Who else that I adore has died?”
“So many have passed. So many more will. We can’t prevent the inevitable for much longer. The titan army is very close to penetrating Dragon Home.”
Nath stood. “We can’t let that happen! It’s not possible. Certainly we can block every tunnel they build.”
“You don’t understand, Nath. They’ve been digging for three years. Once they penetrate the core, there won’t be any stopping them. So many dragons have died plugging their holes and waging war in the skies. Our ranks are depleted. There are far more of them than of us.”
Nath crouched low and clutched his head. “Ugh, this is my fault!” Quickly bounding back up on his feet, he paced through the mounds of treasure. “Look at this. All this wealth, and it won’t do us a bit of good, will it? I don’t suppose we could bribe them?”
“Nath, you know better than to barter with our enemies.”
“Why do we store all of this up then?”
She swished her tail through the piles with a glint in her beautiful eyes. “You know it’s because we like it. I remember times when your father and I would roll in it. There is just something about dragons and treasure. The colors are so radiant and so perfect. Besides, we are not invaders who stole it.”
Nath never really thought of where the treasure came from before. It had always just been there. His head tilted when he said, “Where did all this treasure come from?”
“Didn’t your father ever tell you?”
“No.”
“Ah, I suppose that’s why you lack so much knowledge that you should have had. Bear in mind, I was manning the Great Dragon Wall when your father was raising you. If I had been here, I wouldn’t have let you venture into the world so early.” She scooped up a small diamond chandelier with her tail. With a soft breath from her, its stones burned with mystic light. “I’d say you needed at least another fifty years of training.”
“Tell me then, where did all this treasure come from?”
“The world is old, Nath, and every sparkle you see in this room was a gift.”
“From who?”
“The races.”
CHAPTER 22
Nath and Grahleyna spent hours talking about things. She explained how dragons and men had once been close allies. In some regards the gold and silver were gifts, and in others, they were tributes. Then too, dragons were notorious for creating their own gifts. They loved their kings that came over millennia and gave with cheerful hearts.
“There was a time when the throne room was filled with nothing but the murals and the thrones. But that time was long before me,” Grahleyna said. “The dragons never asked for any of it. Eventually though, the dark times came. The races who came and saw the vast wealth became jealous. Word of the treasure spread throughout Nalzambor, and the men, dwarves, elves, and others stopped coming. To make matters worse, they turned against the dragons, thanks to the legions of evil. There came a point where we just decided to stay out of their way. In return, they decided to hunt us.”
“So, there used to be peace in the land?”
“For the most part, yes. Men and dragons were united for the common good, but it only takes a grain of evil to tear the very foundations apart.”
“That’s sad, Mother.”
“That’s life. We live it by fighting to do what is right. I hate to admit this, but I was beginning to lose hope. I should never let that happen. But now, you are back, and the word from your father has lifted my spirits again.” She let go of the chandelier. It floated toward the cathedral ceiling. “Nath, we are going to need to evacuate Dragon Home.”
“What? We can’t do that! The dragons would rather die first! I’d rather die first.”
“Come now, Nath. You’ve hardly spent any time in this mountain. Would you miss it so much?”
“But this is a place of sanctuary for us. It’s a testament to our power. As long as Dragon Home stands, the world has hope.”
“Men call it the Mountain of Doom. They’ve done so for a very long time.”
“No, Dragon Home needs to become a beacon of hope again. We need to change that. Mother, we have to hold off their forces. Just long enough to stop the wurmers and the giants. I just need more time. I can do this.”
“We’ve waited long enough, Nath. We need to evacuate while we still can.”
“But how? Wurmers fill the skies. We can’t leave without some kind of battle.”
“We can use the murals. As a matter of fact, I’ve already been dispatching many of the dragons through them.”
“Where?”
“All over Nalzambor. They’re hiding.”
Nath couldn’t believe his ears. “Mother, we need an army. There is strength in numbers! Now we have nothing, after summoning them back here to begin with.”
“I’m sorry, Nath, I had to do what I thought was best—”
“No more dragons leave!”
“Almost all of them are already gone.”
For the first time in his life, Nath almost pulled his hair out. An army numbering in the thousands was ready to invade, and they didn’t have any forces to fight it. A skeleton crew wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop the giants. Grahleyna might as well have given them the keys.
“Mother, they will have control over the murals. They’ll be able to see everything. We can’t g
ive so much up.”
“No, I’d never leave such a powerful tool under their control. We will destroy the murals, but someone must be left behind to do so. I volunteer for that.”
The conversation was becoming maddening. Nath stormed out of the throne room, where he found Slivver waiting. “You knew all about this?”
“I’m ashamed to say that I did,” Slivver said with his head cast down. “I tried to plead the same case that you probably did, but to no avail. The dragons were lost without a king. Mother did what she thought was best, and to be truthful, I’m not so certain she was wrong.”
“But Dragon Home will be overrun with evil.”
“It’s a mountain, Nath. A pile of dirt that we call home. Perhaps we should let them have it?”
“I can’t believe my ears! Let them have our home and all of that treasure! It is not theirs to take. They are invaders!”
“Our dwarven friend Brenwar had an idea.”
“Good. I’m sure he wouldn’t abandon Dragon Home any more than he’d abandon Morgdon.”
“Yes, about Morgdon.”
“Don’t tell me it has fallen?”
“No, but the dwarves are fighting for their lives from within. They don’t have any way of escape. Their ranks thin, and quite possibly they are starving. We bring them what we can through the murals, but that’s about to end. They are so stubborn they refuse to let us fly them out. Nath, the titan army has grown every day since you’ve been gone. The people turn from their ways like a plague. If things were bad then, they are ten times worse now.”
“I need to see this for myself.” Nath didn’t take his time. He ran up the corridor to the Chamber of Murals. There, he gazed at everything that was going on that he could see. Thousands of orcen soldiers boldly battled against the walls of Morgdon. The elven fields of Elome were in the midst of a similar invasion. The rich lands burned. Death and decay were rampant from one corner of Nalzambor to the other.
Wrath of the Dragon: (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 8) (Tail of the Dragon) Page 7