by A. Giannetti
“No weapons and nowhere to run to,” whispered Ascilius grimly. “We are dragon bait for sure this time.”
THE DENTIRE
Ascilius looked desperately down the passageway ahead of them, but every door within view had been forced open and damaged. Trying not to make any sudden moves that would goad the creature behind them into attacking, he and Elerian continued to walk down the tunnel, listening intently for the scrape of claws on stone behind them. They both tensed when, they heard a faint snuffling sound behind them, as if something was testing the air for scent.
Focusing his mind, Elerian prepared to cast a killing spell. It was unlikely to strike a fast moving creature like the dragon, but it was all he could think to do. Several hundred feet behind them, a deep bubbling growl welled up from the darkness that rose up like a dark wall just beyond the range of their mage lights. Elerian whirled around, right hand upraised to cast his spell. He stayed his hand when he saw the silvery gleam of two eyes in the dark, for they were too small and close together to belong to the red dragon.
Ascilius took a step forward with an expectant look on his face, at the same time emitting a strange, high-pitched whistle. A moment later, an extraordinary creature stepped out of the darkness into the dim pool of mage light that surrounded them. Elerian was sure that it was a dog, but he had never seen its like before. The creature’s head was huge and its jaws massive. It head stood at least four feet above the ground, and even though its belly was pinched with hunger, its bones were massive, and great ropy muscles were draped over its stout frame. Short, sleek fur of a light tan color covered its powerful body, but its sides were barred with thin black stripes like one of the great cats that lived in the far southeastern lands. An old burn mark covered a good portion of its rib cage on its right side.
Fixing its small, fierce eyes intently on Ascilius, the dog approached the Dwarf. Despite the pronounced limp in its right front leg, it walked with a light, springy step that seemed out of place in such a massive creature. Elerian held his breath when Ascilius slowly held out his left hand, palm side up. The dog carefully sniffed Ascilius's hand with its broad wet nose before gravely licking the Dwarf's open palm. It then turned its oddly intelligent gaze on Elerian, who felt at once that he was being judged.
Elerian looked long into the dog's fearless brown eyes with a steady, gray-eyed gaze. Apparently satisfied with what it saw, the dog abruptly sat down and yawned as if it was weary. The white teeth suddenly exposed in its powerful jaws were short, stout, and exceedingly sharp, built for shearing rather than tearing.
“This,” said Ascilius impressively to Elerian, “is a dentire.”
“He looks like he could take a hand off in one bite,” replied Elerian. “Hungry as he looks, I am surprised you took a chance and offered him yours.”
“It was my left hand,” said Ascilius coolly. For the first time, Elerian noticed that there were beads of sweat on the Dwarf's brow. “It was a risk, for these creatures have an uncertain temperament away from the side of their master, but he will be a great help to us if he is willing to accompany us,” said Ascilius.
Turning around, he began walking again, followed by Elerian. The dentire fell in behind them without being called. When he glanced at Ascilius, Elerian noted that the Dwarf seemed more at ease.
“With this dentire by our side, we will have some warning now if we come near the dragon again,” said Ascilius to Elerian, as if he had sensed his thoughts.
They both fell silent as they cautiously resumed their explorations, depending on the dentire to warn them of any approaching danger. As on the second level of the city, they found that room after room had been broken into and plundered. There were no workshops, but they found many inns scattered amongst shops where finished goods or food had been sold. All the meats in the storerooms of the inns and food shops were gone, as well as most of the other provisions.
“Between the dragons and the dentire, everything seems to have been eaten up,” thought Elerian to himself, but they did eventually find some dried fruit, cheese, chestnuts, flour, and honey sealed in glazed earthenware jars and stored on a high shelf where they were not easily accessible. There was also found a small cask of wine and several jars containing a hard biscuit that Elerian found rather tasteless, but which Ascilius claimed would keep for a long time.
“We could use them for weapons in a pinch,” said Elerian as he hefted one of the dense, rock hard biscuits. I am sure they would dent even a dragon's scales.”
“You may be glad to have them a few days from now,” said Ascilius sternly as they both filled their empty packs to the bursting point with the food stores they had found. Ascilius tucked the wine cask protectively under his right arm, carrying it with him until they finally found a shop with iron doors that they could bar. The store appeared to have been a place where jewelry was made and was well plundered, almost every item in it torn apart in the search for valuables.
After barring and locking the doors, Ascilius and Elerian climbed the narrow stone stairway that led to the second floor. There, they found an apartment with the usual arrangements: a kitchen, a bathroom with running water, a sitting room, and two small bedrooms. After they had washed and refreshed themselves, Elerian hung a thick blanket over the one window in the outside wall. Ascilius, meanwhile, righted a table and two chairs which had survived the destruction of the apartment relatively unscathed.
“Let us eat before we rest,” he said wearily to Elerian. Neither one of them had any idea how much time had passed since their last meal, but they were both very hungry. While Elerian set out biscuits, cheese, dried apples, and raisins from their packs onto plates that he had found in a cupboard, Ascilius filled two large, chipped mugs with wine.
Although he was obviously starving, the dentire did not seem much interested in the food that was being laid out. Lying motionless with his great head on his paws on the floor near the table, he stared blankly straight ahead, a look of sadness in his dark eyes.
“Living under the shadow of the dragon in this great empty tomb of a city has taken its toll on him,” thought Elerian to himself. “He looks as if he has lost the will to live.”
Cutting a generous portion of cheese from a large wheel, Elerian placed it on a third plate along with several of the biscuits they had found. He set the plate on the floor near the dentire’s head, but the dog ignored it.
“You must eat,” said Elerian gently. “All of us in this room have suffered great losses, but we must go on as best we can.”
The dentire raised its head and cocked it to one side, appearing to consider his words. Finally, it licked the cheese. The taste seemed to awaken its hunger, for it wolfed down the wedge in a few bites. Elerian then watched in amazement as the dog easily crunched the hard biscuits between its powerful jaws.
“What power it has in its mouth,” he thought to himself as sat down at the table to eat his own meal. Elerian supped sparingly, limiting himself to one glass of wine, but Ascilius ate heartily and made serious inroads on the contents of the keg.
“I am done in,” he said at last to Elerian in a mellow, tired voice, his face flushed from the strong vintage he had consumed. “I must rest a bit even if Eboria and her whole brood come knocking at the door.” Retiring to one of the bedrooms, he lay down on a bed with his blankets and cloak wrapped around him.
Elerian tidied up while Ascilius slept. The dentire lay on its left side now, watching him with its fearless brown eyes as he cleared the table and washed the dishes and cups they had used.
“It is a shame you cannot talk,” said Elerian to the dog. “You could at least tell us your name and history.”
Raising its head, the dog suddenly said in a deep, rough voice, “I can speak as well as any Elf or Dwarf although I often choose not to. My name is Tonare.”
Elerian, who had started and nearly dropped the dish he was drying, stared at the dentire in surprise.
“Why did you not speak up before?” he asked.
&nbs
p; “It is best to be cautious among strangers,” replied the dog. “Now that I have been in your company for a time, I feel that I can let down my guard. I smell no fear in you or your companion, and your voices ring true in my ears, free of lies or deceptions.”
Lowering his head, Tonare suddenly whined involuntarily, for the motion had disturbed the injury in his side.
“How did you come by that burn?” asked Elerian.
“The red dragon gave it to me when I tried to save my master,” replied the dentire. Dragons are one of the few creatures that I cannot overcome. Their scales are too hard for even my teeth.”
“Let me heal your injury for you,” said Elerian. “I see that it still causes you to limp.”
“It does not matter,” said Tonare, indifferently. “My master is dead, and I shall soon follow him. I no longer wish to live.”
Raising his head, the dentire suddenly uttered a long, plaintive howl that echoed eerily in every corner of the apartment. Ascilius straight away burst out of his bedroom. There was a wild look in his dark eyes, and his hair and beard all disordered. Elerian noticed that his left eyelid was twitching again.
“Have the dragons found us?” Ascilius asked groggily, for his wits were still clouded by the wine he had drunk.
“There is no danger,” said the dentire to Ascilius. “The grief that I have held in so long slipped beyond my control for a moment. I did not mean to disturb your rest.”
Ascilius did not seem at all surprised to hear the dentire speak. “You must not do that again,” he said sternly. “That howl could have led the red dragon right to us.”
Tonare accepted the rebuke in silence. Grumbling to himself, Ascilius went back to bed. Elerian, meanwhile, knelt by the dentire.
“You must excuse Ascilius,” he said, his eyes gleaming with laughter. “He is a bit high strung you know.”
“With an Elf for a companion, that does not surprise me,” said Tonare gravely. “The Eirians are notorious for their capricious natures.”
“How do you know that I am an Elf?” asked Elerian quizzically.
“My eyes may deceive me, but my nose never lies,” replied Tonare. “I cannot see past the illusion that covers you, but even after all this time, I remember well the scent of an Elf.”
“Are you that old?” asked Elerian in surprise.
“I remember back even into the times before the Great War,” replied Tonare.
“Well, you are only half right ancient one,” said Elerian with a slight smile. “I am only part Elf. What the other part may be no one seems to know. Now, with your permission, I will heal this old wound.”
Pushing aside the thought that Tonare could tear him to pieces in an instant if he became upset, Elerian gently laid his left hand on the dentire’s half-healed burn. He was surprised to find that the dog's flesh was almost as hard as stone beneath the ridged scar tissue that covered his side.
“We dentire are hard like Trolls,” said Tonare, guessing Elerian's thought. “Teeth, claws, and weapons will not penetrate deeply into our flesh, but we have no defense against fire.”
Sending out a healing spell into the wound, Elerian watched with his magical third eye as a flow of golden light issued from his fingertips, blanketing the disfigured flesh beneath them. While the spell healed the wound, his mind harkened back over the years to the time he had healed Carbo, his foster grandfather’s faithful dog, of a massive wound inflicted by a lupin.
“I miss you both,” thought Elerian sadly to himself as he pictured Balbus and Carbo in his mind as he had last seen them, old but still hale. Pushing aside his memories, he returned his attention to the task at hand. When he was done, pink, healed flesh had replaced the ridged scar on Tonare’s side.
“I do not think the fur will grow back,” said Elerian regretfully. “There are limits to my powers.”
“It is good enough,” said the dentire, rising and stretching. “At least the limp is gone. I can fight properly now.”
“Are you a changeling?” asked Elerian curiously as he stood up, for in his experience, most of the animals he had encountered that could talk had once been people of some sort.
“No,” replied the dentire. “My race came from Outside. There are not many of us, for we have few young ones, but we live for a long time. For this reason we choose to live among the Dwarves, who are also long lived and have a sober temperament that is suited to our own. We pick one master and stay with him until we die. It was a good life here,” he said sadly, “until the dragons came.”
“What happened after Eboria arrived?” asked Elerian.
“With the help of her dragonets, she destroyed all of the ramp gates, leaving the entire city open to her and her offspring. When the people of the city realized that there was no place that was safe from the dragons, there was widespread panic at first. Then, the king slowly restored order. He ordered the small ramp doors locked, forcing the small dragons to use the main ramp when they wished to move from one level to another. Then, while small groups of brave Dwarves created diversions to draw the attention of the dragons, he sent all the survivors down the smaller ramps to the stables where there is a doorway to the castella that stands behind the mountain.”
“How many were saved?” asked Elerian, thinking of the skeletons piled high in the ramp chamber of the second level.
“That I do not know,” replied the dentire, “for no one came back to give any report.
“Why did you remain behind?” asked Elerian curiously.
“My master, who was the captain of the king’s forces, was the last to try and leave this level. Unfortunately, he was slain by the red dragon before we could flee down one of the ramps,” said Tonare sadly. “Since I have neither the hands nor the magical skill necessary to open the ramp doors, I remained trapped here on the third level, for the central ramp is under constant watch. The dragons know that I am here. Having failed to catch me after all these months, I think it is their intent to starve me out.”
Falling silent, Tonare, who evidently felt an end to the need for speech, picked a corner of the room and curled up into a ball to sleep, leaving Elerian to stay awake by himself.
“I must pass Tonare’s news on to Ascilius when he wakes,” thought Elerian to himself as he walked over to the window at the front of the apartment. With his right hand, he pulled back a corner of the blanket which concealed it, looking out into the pitch-black street below for a time, but nothing stirred in the darkness. Feeling restless, he went back down the stairs to the room below. Lighting a tiny mage light for illumination, he explored the wreckage which littered the room. There was little to interest him, but in a corner, he found a timepiece barely half the size of the palm of his right hand that was still whole. It had three ornate posts and end pieces made of burnished brass inlaid with fine threads of argentum. The two interconnected globes between the posts were made of clear crystal, filled with tiny grains that sparkled in the faint mage light. Elerian suspected that they were made of gold, and he wondered how the dragons had missed the small treasure. Some charm had gone into the construction of the timepiece, for Elerian found that no matter what position he held it in, even upside down, the grains continued to trickle in the same direction from one globe to another. They flowed slowly, so Elerian knew that he held a day glass, not an hourglass. Pleased with his find, he put it into his pocket, thinking it might be useful to mark the passage of the days while he and Ascilius remained below ground in the city.
Returning to the apartment above him, Elerian righted a padded armchair. Extinguishing his mage light, he sat quietly in the dark.
“I wonder how Dwarves can stand to live underground like this year after year when they could be out in the open under the sun and stars,” he thought to himself as he listened to the deep silence around him, broken only by the heavy breathing of Tonare and Ascilius.
A deep longing to see Anthea again swept through him at first, but gradually, Elerian’s mind drifted down the paths of memory. Eyes open, ale
rt to all that went on around him, he appeared awake, but his body rested while his mind traveled down paths that were distant in time and space. When Ascilius awoke, hours later, and emerged from his bedroom, Elerian immediately sprang out of his chair, feeling refreshed as if he, too, had passed the night in true sleep.
“I spoke with Tonare after you went to sleep,” he said immediately to Ascilius. “He has been on this level since Eboria took the city and is certain that no one else is left alive in it.”
“Why did you not say so before?” asked Ascilius angrily of the dentire who had also awakened.
“You did not ask, so I said nothing,” said Tonare, his brown eyes taking on a red glint in response to Ascilius’s angry tone. For a long moment, the dentire and the Dwarf glared at each other, the air fairly crackling with tension.
“Let us not argue among ourselves,” said Elerian quietly. “Instead, we should decide what we will do next.”
Ascilius took a deep breath, taking his ready temper in hand once more.
“Is there anyone left alive on the fourth level, Tonare?” he asked quietly.
“I do not think so,” said dentire sadly. “The king and his queen returned to search it one last time while my master waited here, but neither of them ever returned.”
“The king’s quarters are well guarded,” muttered Ascilius to himself, hope warring with grief on his face and in his voice. “They may still be alive.”
Turning to Elerian, Ascilius said firmly, “I will enter the fourth level of the city even if I must fight the red dragon to do it. I cannot leave Ennodius until I search the king’s quarters.”
“I will come with you, of course,” said Elerian.
“I will come, too,” said Tonare in his rough, snarly voice.
“Let us eat first, then,” said Ascilius gruffly. “Then we can be on our way.”