Bargain

by Riley S. Keene

  “I, um, I...” Athala tried not to flinch back from the gaze of the dragon. “I don’t know.”

  To her side, Athala saw Ermolt stood tall again. He bellowed in challenge before he reached into the pouches hanging from his belt and whipped out the pair of axes he’d bought. He called them lohar axes. They unfolded with a flick of his wrist. Athala shouted wordlessly as he charged back towards the dragon.

  Sirur swung its head towards the charging barbarian. “It is rude to interrupt your betters, mortal.” The dragon’s chest swelled up as it audibly inhaled, despite its voice booming through the room. It opened its mouth and a bright light erupted from its throat.

  A pure white flame—mystical dragonfire—shot across the room, enveloping the barbarian in an instant.

  “Ermolt!” Athala shrieked in terror.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Dragonfire erupted across the Temple and Elise screamed in rage and fear.

  The flame was pure white, like sunlight made solid. There was no texture or flicker to it like natural fire. It did not flow across and lick at the stone of the temple like a wizard’s fire spell. Dragonfire was not a stream or a torrent of fire.

  The movement of the flame defied description.

  It was like a solid brick of light sliding across the space it occupied, consuming everything in its path.

  The stories that called dragonfire ‘fire’ were wrong. It was not fire. Elise could clearly see it was magic. Magic in its purest form, unleashed from the throat of a beast of divine power, for the express purpose of destruction.

  Elise screamed in rage and started pounding on the dragon’s scales with her mace even harder. She knew it was already too late. Her frustration was just too great.

  She was the only person in the room moving. Athala was locked in place, screaming as Ermolt faded behind the destructive blast. Elise was even aware of the halt to the sounds of combat behind her. She knew all eyes turned towards the dragon. The legendary dragonfire was a sight to behold, and a sight that had not been seen by human eyes in centuries.

  But it wasn’t enough to stop Elise’s grief. She screamed once more, hammering against the beast even though she knew there was likely nothing left of Ermolt already.

  She tried to get Sirur to stop. To undo what had been done.

  But there was no chance. It was done.

  The stream of fire ended as the dragon’s lungs finally emptied. The end of the blast was like a physical wall sliding down its path, unveiling the destruction the dragonfire had caused. Elise couldn’t help but turn to look.

  The stone was burnt pitch-black in a path that led from where the dragon had been standing all the way to the far wall. The ground here no longer wavered with the illusion of grass. The illusory night sky was gone from the section of wall where the dragonfire had hit. Its magic interrupted all else.

  In the middle of the path was a blackened lump. A small patch of illusory grass still wavered directly behind it. Ermolt.

  A cry caught in Elise’s throat.

  “Your misguided quest is doomed.” Sirur’s voice boomed through the dome, but even this couldn’t tear Elise’s eyes from the lump that had once been her friend. “Your God has sent you to die by my claw.”

  The lump moved.

  At first, Elise thought it was the pile of soot that remained of her friend, collapsing in on itself.

  But it didn’t look like it was collapsing.

  It was expanding.

  Elise gasped as Ermolt stood up.

  Confusion and joy mixed together to form an emotion so powerful she actually shouted in triumph. From her perspective, it looked as through Ermolt had dropped to a crouch and raised his arms to protect his face, his ridiculous armor turning him into a wall of stone. The oflum stone was now as burnt black as the stone of the Temple. Flakes of stone fell away from the armor as he moved, the lamellae cracked from the heat. He still gripped the lohar axes in his hands, the metal of the axe heads cooling from red-hot to dull orange.

  The oflum had done exactly as he said, protecting him from the dragonfire. Elise regretted thinking his armor was silly.

  A relatively large amount of his hair was singed off, and his skin was bright red from the heat he was exposed to, but he was alive.

  Ermolt’s face was twisted into a rictus display of rage. He bellowed and resumed his charge as though nothing had happened.

  Elise felt a surge of pride and she shouted once more to match his fevered battle cry.

  “Abandon your quest!” Sirur’s voice echoed through the room once more. “You toy with forces no mortal living understands, and it will lead to nothing but ruin!”

  “No ruin but your own!” Elise shouted back. “We are the heralds of Ydia! We’re here to end the tyranny of Gods! We will vanquish you!”

  The dragon’s eyes flashed, but Athala shouted the words of her hesitance spell without delay. Again the dragon blinked, unable to assemble its spell against whatever mental impediment the wizard threw at it.

  The creature lowered its head, shaking it vigorously as if to clear its thoughts. Elise took the opening and charged.

  Elise hadn’t had any luck smacking her weapon against the scales of its leg, but perhaps its head would be a softer target. The creature’s head alone was enormous, larger than any home she’d ever lived in.

  But she refused to back down.

  It had tried to kill Ermolt.

  It would kill everyone in the room without a second thought.

  So she had to try.

  Elise smashed her mace into the beast’s jaw, and the creature actually flinched, purple blood leaking from between its teeth from Ermolt’s first strike. The dragon snarled and opened its jaws, looking to snap its teeth together on her.

  With a cry, Elise threw herself to one side, the enormous jaws clipping her shield. The force sent her stumbling away. She swiped her mace at the creature again, and one jagged tooth shattered under the blow. Sirur recoiled from the pain of the shattered tooth, bringing its head up too far for Elise to follow.

  “You will bring more tyranny than you end, mortals!” Sirur bellowed, its tone shrill. “You think your God is blameless? You think your God has done no wrong? That She has not tried this before?” It snarled deep in its throat as it stared down at Elise. “Why do you think we dragons were sealed?”

  Before Elise could process the dragon’s words, Ermolt collided with its other forelimb. His weapons were raised and he bellowed in rage. The blades of his axes punched through the dragon’s scales as if they were paper and they slid into the flesh below. Elise could see that they didn’t penetrate as far as the pila did. Ermolt yelled in effort as he threw his whole body into a downward motion, ripping the weapons down along the dragon’s leg. The weapons left two jagged rents in the flesh that poured purple blood. Sirur tried to withdraw its forelimb out of reach of Ermolt, but the motion only tore the gashes wider. It kicked out with a leg and caught the barbarian in the chest of his armor. He was sent sprawling, sliding across the floor from the impact.

  The barbarian threw himself to his feet once more and charged again. The dragon fixed its eyes on him and they flashed, but Athala screamed out her spell again. The dragon snarled in frustration. It turned its attention on the wizard and began to inhale again, but Ermolt leapt into the air and slammed his weapons into the creature’s side. The dragon bellowed in pain instead of unleashing its fire. The bellow became a scream as gravity took hold and Ermolt’s weapons ripped down the beast’s side, fountaining blood over the grinning barbarian.

  Elise ran back to the leg with the pila jutting out, and smashed one of them with her weapon. It sank another rhen or two into the flesh and drew a new roar of pain from the beast. The knobby joint of its wing descended on her again, and she ducked around the leg underneath the beast, making it punch itself. Its own blow snapped the wooden haft of one of the pila and caused its leg to shake with pain.

  Ermolt appeared next to Elise and slammed both axes sideways in
to the leg. He threw his entire body into circling the appendage, dragging both weapons along the limb. Blood poured from the wounds as the creature roared again.

  Its eyes flashed and Elise felt the air around her grow warm and still at the same time. Athala screamed the words of her spell again. Her voice was starting to sound hoarse. The air calmed around Elise and Ermolt and the dragon snarled in a frustrated rage.

  “Your dear Ydia has plans beyond your years.” Sirur sounded tired, although the voice still echoed through the room. “And plans beyond all mortal lives. You think She cares for you? You think the purpose She has given you is Her true goal?”

  The leg Ermolt was ripping into lifted up and the creature began to charge towards Athala. It dragged its bulk toward the unprotected wizard and it opened its jaws not to breath fire, but to snap shut around her as soon as she was within reach. Elise had to run to keep up with the beast to avoid being crushed under it. Ermolt only growled and sank his weapons into the beast’s side as it went by.

  The beast snarled as Ermolt’s weapons bit deep, but it kept charging. The act of pushing forward ripped the weapons across its side as it refused to give up its target. Blood poured from Sirur’s side freely and the barbarian let loose a bellowing laugh as he held his position, holding tight to his weapons and leaning against the pull of the dragon’s movement.

  “Athala!” Elise yelled, fear for her friend giving her the speed to outpace the weakened dragon and she started to pull ahead. “To me!”

  At the start of Sirur’s charge, Athala had frozen in primal terror, but Elise’s shout broke her free. Instead of remaining frozen or bolting in panic, the wizard ran, charging towards the dragon to meet her friend.

  Now if only Elise knew what she planned on doing once they met.

  The dragon’s neck twisted up, rearing back as Elise and Athala nearly collided together. Elise grabbed the wizard around the waist with her shield hand and threw her mace straight up into Sirur’s throat. The dragon’s jaws snapped shut at the sensation of something striking its throat, and it blinked for a moment at the unpleasant sensation of swallowing a tiny piece of metal. The creature shook its head and lunged again, determined to devour the wizard that was giving it so much trouble.

  “Athala! Jump!”

  Both women jumped.

  The dragon’s jaws snapped shut around them, teeth meeting just below their feet.

  The whole world whirled as the dragon turned its head upwards to swallow them. Athala was screaming and grabbing at Elise desperately. In the blackness of the dragon’s maw, Elise could only reach in a direction she hoped was up and pray to Ydia that she would find what she sought.

  Her hand closed around a metal nub. Ermolt’s pilum. The wooden haft had burned away from the dragonfire, but the iron part was still sticking out of the roof of Sirur’s mouth. She grabbed on with her free hand and held on as tight as she could.

  The dragon tried to swallow. The muscles around both of them tried to sweep them down its throat.

  But Elise held on.

  The dragon’s strength—even for something as simple as swallowing—was nearly a match for her. But Elise refused to give up. Her will to live was too strong to let go, and her will to protect Athala was stronger still.

  The metal in her hands shifted, and she felt hot liquid pour over her.

  Suddenly Elise and Athala were out in the open air. Sirur screamed in pain. Blood poured from its mouth like a river. Elise and Athala hit the ground together. Elise tried to cushion Athala as much as possible as they landed. The wizard landed across her midsection, knocking the air from her lungs.

  They were both covered in a mixture of dragon blood and saliva.

  Elise shoved Athala away as gently as she could. She staggered to her knees. Ermolt was still hacking at the dragon’s limbs. He looked focused, enraged even, and he likely hadn’t even noticed that they’d almost been swallowed.

  “Fools!” Sirur’s voice boomed in the room even as its roar of pain still ripped from its throat. “Why are you doing this? How can you not see that you are being used?” It shook its head, sending a fresh river of purple blood across the floor.

  Some part of Elise knew that the dragon was speaking the truth.

  Elise always assumed that the Gods wanted more than they let be known to mortals, but she hadn’t considered what Ydia actually wanted out of all this. Not really.

  Similarly, she didn’t really think of herself as a pawn, but knew that her God probably did.

  But Sirur was trying to kill them. Whatever truth it was speaking was twisted in whatever way it could manage to convince them to stop trying to kill it.

  Right?

  Chapter Forty

  Ermolt was consumed by the thrill of battle.

  At first it had settled over him slowly, like a light snow. But now he was buried beneath it.

  Whatever rational part of his mind usually controlled him was buried beneath the raging avalanche he had become.

  That rational part of his mind knew he needed to protect his friends. He needed to slay the dragon before it could hurt them. Words were happening around him. The dragon’s voice boomed. Elise’s voice yelled defiance back at it. Athala shrieked magic words. But buried within the squall as he was, he didn’t understand what was going on.

  He didn’t know what they were saying.

  What he did know was that he was holding pieces of sharp metal. It felt good to feel the metal punch through the dragon’s scales. It felt good to tear its flesh. It felt good to hear it scream in agony.

  It felt good to make it hurt.

  He dug his weapons in and ripped down. The rents he tore into the creature’s flesh crossed perpendicular to a pair he had left earlier. Blood poured from the deep wounds, and the ground vibrated with the dragon’s bellow of pain. He leaned back and drove his foot into one of the spots where two wounds crossed, and the whole beast recoiled from the strike. It made Ermolt feel powerful. He was distantly aware of the sadistic laughter rolling out of his throat.

  The beast tried to back away, great wings flapping to help it put space between Ermolt’s weapons and its scales. He bellowed and charged. The dragon tried to say something to him. Ermolt just heard noise. There were bright lights. Athala yelled something, and the dragon made an angry noise just before Ermolt caught up to it.

  It was facing him now, and so he threw his charge into a leap. He threw himself into the air to reach Sirur’s chest. His weapons punched through the scales into the flesh beneath. A shiver of joy ran through his body as he felt the vibration of the creature’s scream of pain resonate through his weapons.

  Gravity dragged his body down, and his weapons ripped downward through the dragon’s flesh. They opened a pair of deep wounds through the softest part of its body. His feet hit the ground and he withdrew his weapons just to slam them against the scales again. And again. His weapons punctured deeply and ripped across the creature’s body again.

  There was an impact that felt like it was kren away, and Ermolt was hurled away.

  The dragon had swiped him with its massive claw, but Ermolt was far more concerned with the distance that was now between him and the dragon than he was with having been struck. He wasn’t sure if he had landed on his feet, or if he just returned to standing that quickly, but as soon as he was aware his feet were under him, he was running. His only thought was to get back to where he could keep on sinking his weapons into the dragon over and over again.

  The giant creature made the last mistake it ever would.

  It turned away from him.

  Its lungs swelled as it inhaled deeply, but it was facing the wall. Elise was yelling something, but Ermolt was too concerned with charging the beast’s back while it was turned to try and interpret what she said.

  The beast loosed its breath before he closed the distance, pounding the magical energy against the illusory sky with its mouth barely more than a few fen away from the wall. It directed its flames around in a spiral, and wher
ever it hit, the stone cracked and scorched. The dragonfire disrupted the illusion, resulting in a disorienting shimmer across the whole dome. As its breath expended, it slammed the horn in the center of its face into the blackened stone. The section of the wall cracked and collapsed, leaving an opening in the wall large enough for the dragon to fit through.

  It was trying to flee.

  But Ermolt was there to stop it.

  Ermolt reached the dragon as it put its claws on the edge of the escape it had made. He leapt up onto the back of its tail, and dug in with his weapons, using them to climb up onto the creature’s back. The dragon snarled something that was probably a threat, but the barbarian paid no attention to it. He ran up the creature’s back alongside the row of spikes that ran down its spine.

  It unfurled its wings to escape the temple, and Ermolt threw himself down, smashing both of his weapons into Sirur’s back. One of the weapons was driven in right next to the spine. He felt it strike bone, and the creature bucked at the pain.

  Ermolt withdrew his weapons and slammed them down again, this time both aimed towards the dragon’s spine. One of them struck bone once more, and the creature bucked again, almost throwing Ermolt off. But the other... the other one sank in between the vertebrae.

  He used it to hold on even as he felt it tear through the flesh it had sank into. The dragon wailed in pain and Ermolt wiggled the handle of the weapon, tearing the blade around between the vertebrae. Beneath his feet the creature writhed in agony and Ermolt laughed. He drove his other weapon between the next two segments of the spine, ripping and tearing whatever was between them.

  Sirur sagged back into the Temple as its tail and rear legs twisted and writhed in reflex to the pain rather than in an effort to hurl Ermolt off of its back. Ermolt ripped his weapons out of the creature’s flesh as it fell.

  The wounds poured purple blood.

  Ermolt leapt off of the creature’s back as it crashed to the floor of the Temple’s dome. It rolled on its side. The spikes that studded its body punched into the floor where its earlier breath had weakened the stone. When Sirur tried to rise, its body was stuck fast into the stone by its own curving horns.