by A. Giannetti
“What a stalwart companion, she would make,” he thought to himself as he straightened up with a pack in each hand. With a sigh, he reluctantly pushed away Anthea’s image, for their danger was still great. After withdrawing his ring’s invisibility spell from the limb, Elerian looked toward Geminus. He felt vindicated for insisting that they swim across the river when he saw that they were now less than a mile from the city gates. Guessing that Ascilius was out of sorts from being in the water; however, he did not press the issue, merely thrusting Ascilius’s invisible knapsack into the Dwarf’s right hand.
After settling their wet packs on their shoulders, the two companions climbed up the barren west side of the gorge, which was not nearly as steep or high at this point as it was near the fallen bridge upstream. Once they reached the top, they walked to the road that ran north to south along the west bank of the river. Scorched black in places, it was easily twenty-five feet wide, made up of large, flat pieces of granite fitted tightly together on top of a bed of crushed rock. The massive trees that had lined both shoulders of the road had been reduced to little more than blackened skeletons by Eboria’s fiery breath.
With Ascilius leading, the two invisible companions began to run toward the city gates, for they were anxious to gain the protection of the mountain before the dragon returned. They constantly scanned the bright blue sky overhead as they ran, but there was still no sign of Eboria.
“We shall make it after all,” said Ascilius in a relieved voice when they were only a few hundred yards from the gates of the city.
At that moment, Elerian looked up and saw a flash of green high in the sky above them. The long, lean body of the dragon was stooping down on them at terrific speed, like an enormous bird of prey. Always fearful of intruders stealing from her hoard of gold, Eboria had returned early from her hunt. Beneath the golden cloak of Elerian’s invisibility spell, her third eye had immediately detected the pale golden shades of Elerian and Ascilius as they approached the city gates.
“Faster!” shouted Elerian urgently to Ascilius. “Eboria is right above us.”
Redoubling their speed, the two companions ran up the broad ramp that led up to the main gates. Elerian had a quick glimpse of massive, half-melted steel doors twisted off their hinges, and then, they were inside the mountain. Without slackening their pace, they dashed down a passageway that was at least twenty-five feet wide and twenty high. Elerian ended his invisibility spell since it no longer offered them any protection. In the dim light filling the passageway, their golden shades would be plainly visible to the dragon's shadow sight.
As they ran, Elerian had brief glimpses of polished walls and an arched ceiling overhead. The passageway, which was about sixty feet long ended at another set of gates which were wide open and had a twisted, half-melted appearance like the outer gates. Beyond the second set of gates was a great hall lined with rows of massive pillars that supported a high, vaulted ceiling. As Ascilius and Elerian entered the hall, the Dwarf lit a small mage light to illuminate their way, for the floor of the hall was treacherous, strewn with smashed wagons, scorched weapons, and dented armor. Minding their footing, Ascilius and Elerian sprinted across the chamber, finally dashing through another set of massive, open doors on the far side.
Ascilius’s dim light showed Elerian that they were now running down a large passageway. Barely sixty feet into it, they ran across a second tunnel about thirty feet high and forty wide that intersected their passageway at a right angle. As he crossed this second tunnel, Elerian saw that it curved away out of sight on both his left and his right. On the far side of the intersection, the arched passageway they were following ran straight away from them.
“Straight ahead,” shouted Ascilius, his furiously churning short legs carrying him down the tunnel at a tremendous rate of speed.
“Nothing like the threat of being roasted alive to bring out one’s best efforts,” thought Elerian to himself as he followed Ascilius, his light steps carrying him effortlessly over the debris strewn floor of the passageway. Behind him, Elerian suddenly heard a tremendous roar, made horrific by its volume and low cavernous notes that seemed to make the very floor vibrate with its power. The scrabbling of steel hard claws on stone came clearly to Elerian’s ears when the sound died away. Eboria was now right behind them, and the situation suddenly seemed hopeless.
“What have we got ourselves into?” Elerian wondered grimly to himself. “The monster behind us could crush an entire army if it was minded too.”
Elerian had barely formed the thought when Ascilius suddenly spun on his right heel, dashing through an arched entranceway on the right, an opening about ten feet high and twelve feet wide. They had come to a second intersection, but the intersecting tunnel was much smaller than the first one.
“Too small for Eboria,” thought Elerian hopefully to himself as he ran after Ascilius.
They were barely a hundred feet into the smaller passageway when a massive form suddenly appeared in the arched entryway behind them. Fortunately for Elerian and Ascilius, Eboria was too large to fit more than her head, neck, and a bit of her shoulders inside the tunnel. As the dragon spread her enormous jaws, Ascilius, who was still slightly ahead of Elerian, abruptly dove into an open doorway on his left. As Elerian leaped after him, he saw a flash of crimson light and felt a brief, searing blast of heat on the left side of his face and shoulder. An instant after he passed through the doorway, red flames roared by behind him, and the air around him suddenly became hot and stifling.
Ascilius and Elerian threw themselves flat on the ground, seeking cooler air near the floor. On hands and knees, they crawled deeper into the room they had entered, away from the doorway.
“We will be cooked alive, like bread in a stone oven,” thought Elerian to himself as he and Ascilius crept through the withering, searing heat around them. The air scorched their lungs, and the stone under their hands and feet began to warm. Then, abruptly, the flames roaring by the doorway behind them died away. Ascilius, who still led, bumped his head into a stone wall. Turning slowly around, he sat down with his back against it, his breath coming in great gasps, torrents of sweat coursing down his craggy face.
Elerian, who was in a similar state, sat down next to him on the Dwarf’s right. The room they were in must have had some source of fresh air, for Elerian noticed that the air around him was already noticeably cooler. An unpleasant metallic smell lingered in the room, however, as if he sat at the brink of a large furnace. Looking around the chamber, which was illuminated by Ascilius’s small mage light, Elerian guessed that it might once have been a storeroom, for it was lined with empty shelves.
“Someone stripped this room and left the door open,” thought Elerian to himself, amazed at their good fortune. “If they had locked it, Ascilius and I would be nothing more than charred cinders now.”
“That was cutting it close,” gasped Ascilius, still breathing heavily. “If Eboria had returned two minutes earlier, she would have had us for dinner. We are out of her reach now, however,” he said, his voice filled with satisfaction.
“Do not count yourself safe yet my good friend,” said a deep, wonderfully resonant voice that seemed to make the air in the storeroom tremble. “I cannot reach you just now, but do not think you will escape me for long.”
Elerian started at the sound of that voice, for he had not known that dragons could talk. In spite of the frantic motions Ascilius was making to be quiet, he felt an almost irresistible urge to reply. Taking that as a warning, he cast a protection spell over both Ascilius and himself.
The compulsion to speak vanished, but Elerian’s curiosity remained. Before Ascilius could stop him, he sprang easily to his feet and walked to the entranceway, stopping just inside the room.
“We have escaped you twice,” he said loudly so that his voice would carry down the passageway to the dragon. “What is to prevent us from doing so again?”
“Yes, of course,” said the dragon with a comfortable, friendly laugh. “By you
r scent you are the two who slipped away from me on the plains. I did not take you for robbers at the time. You should have gone in the opposite direction, you know, for you have trapped yourself now.”
“That remains to be seen,” said Elerian. “I would keep an eye on that stolen treasure of yours if I were you,” he taunted.
There was a sudden rumble of anger from the dragon, but Eboria recovered her composure quickly. “Why do you not show yourself?” she asked mildly. “You need not be afraid. I cannot reach you in this small passageway.”
Out of the right corner of his eyes, Elerian could see Ascilius shaking his head no and practically jumping up and down in his extreme agitation. Ignoring the Dwarf, he stepped through the entranceway into the tunnel.
A TROUBLING CONVERSATION
Eboria was lying down before the entrance to the tunnel with just her head and front paws protruding into the opening. Her green eyes glowed like lamps in the darkness that filled the passageway as her great head rested on her paws like that of some enormous hound. Now that he saw her up close, Elerian was struck by how lean and spare her frame was, with muscles like tempered steel lying close beneath the surface of her gleaming hide, which was covered with small green scales that gave it a metallic appearance. A faint reddish glow emanated from her body, as if there was a fire burning behind her emerald scales.
As Elerian stared at her, fascinated, Eboria’s luminous eyes seemed to grow and fill the whole tunnel. A subtle command to walk closer for a better look played about the edges of his protection spell, like a restless wind seeking a crack through which it might enter some stoutly built home. Failing to find any weakness in Elerian’s counter spell, Eboria discarded any attempt at subtlety, increasing the power of her command as she sought to break through Elerian’s shield spell, crushing his will to resist.
“Fool,” screamed the cautious part of Elerian’s mind. “You should have listened to Ascilius. She will eat us now!”
Elerian barely heard that voice. The capricious, sometimes rash part of his nature had propelled him into the passageway. Now, he must deal with the consequences of his actions.
“I must stand fast,” he thought with iron determination, as the pressure against his counter spell grew and grew until it seemed that some enormous weight pressed down on his body, which began to tremble from the strain of resisting Eboria’s attack. Just when he felt that his strength was almost gone and that he must give in, the assault on his shield spell ended, so suddenly that he almost fell.
With steely resolve, Elerian held himself erect. “Give no sign of weakness, or she will renew her attack,” he cautioned himself.
Seeing that brute strength had failed to overcome Elerian, Eboria now turned to subtler methods.
“You have unexpected strength within you,” she said in an admiring voice. “Beneath your illusion spell, I see the form of an Eirian, but I sense that you also have the power to change your shape. Become like me and stay by my side. Serve me, and in return, I will bestow on you gifts of power, wealth, and knowledge beyond your wildest dreams. You can take whatever you wish like a conqueror instead of begging for scraps at the table of kings like a vagabond.”
An image was suddenly born in Elerian’s mind. One moment, he was an invincible, shining gray dragon flying through the skies, the next moment he was in his natural form with Anthea by his side and countless men and women bowing down before him in homage.
“You can have us both,” Eboria said in a low, seductive voice. “Come to me and receive my gifts. Even Torquatus will fear you then.”
In that moment, Elerian could not have said whether Eboria had actually spoken or whether her thought had subtly insinuated itself in his mind. He stared into the dragon's great, luminous eyes for a long moment, weighing her offer.
“He will bend to my will now,” thought Eboria to herself, basking in the warm glow of a hard-won victory, for it seemed to her that the half-Elf must give in at last to the mesmeric charm of her wonderful voice.
“No! I have no wish to be allied with someone like you,” said Elerian clearly and unexpectedly. He shook his head in denial as if to emphasize his decision.
Instead of becoming upset that Elerian had refused her offer, Eboria laughed, a rich, melodious sound that filled the tunnel like the rumble of thunder.
“Why do you judge me so harshly?” she asked in an amused voice. “I am ageless, wise, powerful, and beautiful.”
“You have despoiled an entire countryside, killed who knows how many Dwarves, and it has not touched you at all,” said Elerian harshly. “I sense not the least bit of remorse in you for what you have done.”
“Why should I be concerned with the fate of lesser creatures and their insignificant works,” replied Eboria indifferently. “They are prey or sport for me, nothing more.”
“Every creature must eat, but it is wicked to destroy things because it amuses you,” said Elerian angrily.
Eboria looked bored now. Raising her long, horned head, she yawned, exposing her narrow, forked tongue and a cavernous maw lined with long white teeth, sharp as daggers. Elerian was sure he saw the red glow of hidden fires at the back of her throat.
“I am powerful enough to do what I wish,” said Eboria lazily. “Notions of right and wrong are for the weak and helpless. I am ruled only by my own desires, and I order the world around me as I wish.”
Elerian tensed every muscle as Eboria suddenly thrust her head forward, eyes narrowed from the intensity of her emotions.
“Your mage powers will not save you from me! Join me or your strange flesh, never encountered in all my long years in this world, will serve as my supper like the excellent mare you have already provided for me.”
“Empty words,” said Elerian coldly. He stepped suddenly back into the entrance of the room where Ascilius was waiting, for he was done talking. He half-expected Eboria to launch a plume of flame in his direction, but she laughed again, seemingly not upset at all by his defiance and sudden disappearance. He sensed an undertone of smugness in her laugher that worried him.
“She is concealing something from me,” he thought worriedly to himself, “something which she thinks will give her an advantage over me.”
“Come back. Lecture me some more on the errors of my ways,” called Eboria in an amused, opulent voice.
At that moment Ascilius seized Elerian’s right arm with his powerful left hand, drawing him away from the doorway.
“You just took a terrible risk,” he said angrily, keeping his voice low, his dark eyes gleaming in the faint glow of his mage light with the intensity of his anger. “One should never speak or even look at a dragon. It is almost impossible to resist the subtle fascination of their eyes and voice. They sound so reasonable and their magic is so strong that before you know it, you are walking right into their jaws.”
“I was able to resist her with my shield spell,” said Elerian with a shrug of his shoulders, refusing to admit to Ascilius how close he had come to submitting to Eboria’s will.
“Then you are luckier than many others,” said Ascilius gruffly. “I would not chance it again if I were you.”
“She is more than a beast, you know,” said Elerian, thoughtfully. “She can talk and there is an ancient knowledge in her eyes.”
“Beast or not, you cannot reason with a dragon, only avoid or kill them,” advised Ascilius harshly.
“I agree,” said Elerian to Ascilius’s surprise, for the Dwarf had thought Elerian dangerously enamored with the dragon because of her beauty. “We should distance ourselves from here,” continued Elerian. “I believe Eboria is up to some deception! At the end of our little talk, it seemed to me that she wanted to delay me with her conversation.”
“She cannot squeeze in here,” said Ascilius, shrugging his shoulders to show his indifference. His mercurial nature had undergone another sudden change, for against all hope, he and Elerian had reached and entered Ennodius alive and uninjured. All his doubts and uncertainties had vanished, for h
e was confident now that he would be able to carry out his plan of rescuing his people and gaining the treasure that Elerian needed to wed Anthea.
“We can ignore Eboria now as long as we stay in the smaller tunnels,” he said unconcernedly, as if the dragon no longer mattered or presented any further danger to them.
Elerian did not voice them, but he still had doubts as to how safe they were from Eboria. Her lack of anger and the amusement he had heard in her voice were strong evidence that she was up to something, but he could not imagine what it was.
Peering cautiously around the right side of the entryway, Ascilius saw that Eboria had vanished. Motioning silently to Elerian with his right hand, he entered the tunnel and turned to his left, walking deeper into the passageway whose walls were clearly visible to both their eyes, illuminated by the dim rays of Ascilius’s minuscule mage light.
“This tunnel serves as a service road for the workshops on both sides of us, allowing the delivery of raw materials and a way of sending out finished goods,” said Ascilius quietly to Elerian, who was walking like a shadow by his right side. “These smaller passageways alternate with larger tunnels, which serve as the main roads of the city. The whole, if it could be viewed from above, would resemble the concentric rings caused by a stone cast into still water. Cutting across the circular passageways are avenues that run to the ramp at the heart of the city, like the spokes of a wheel that run from the rim to the hub. These straight passageways, by design, also alternate in size, with smaller service roads running in between the larger boulevards.