“I don’t see a sliver of life in there,” he said, fading away from the edge of the overlook and standing alongside Selene. “What about you?”
“Though my vision is not what it was, I still see a few things that scurry.”
“You do?” Holding his hand over his eyes to shade them from the bright sun, Brenwar leaned forward on the overlook. “My eyes are as good as any. I see nothing.”
“Look closer. Scorpions crawl along the sand underneath that archway.”
Brenwar scowled. “Poor eyesight, my hide. Pah!” He marched back and grabbed his gear. “You still see better than the eagles.”
“I would hope so,” Nath said. He had the urge to pick up a weapon, but there was nothing to grab. He and Selene had nothing on aside from their commoner garb. It was odd. The clothing itched a little. It was nothing like being covered in dragon scales. He sat down, took off his boots, and dumped debris out. His feet were swollen, pink and tender. He started to rub them. “Sultans of Sulfur! Is that a blister?”
Selene giggled. “Exciting, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s horrible. My feet hurt, and I swear there’s a kink in my neck. And I can only imagine that my hair is a mess.” With a sour face, he eyed the blister and extended his index finger’s claw. Wincing, he sliced the blister open. “Ow!”
“Oh my, that’s embarrassing, you scaly child,” Brenwar huffed. “Perhaps I should get out a healing potion for you.”
“Would you please?” Nath said, more ordering than asking.
“Absolutely not! That’s not a wound.”
“But it could get infected,” Nath whined. “Great Guzan, what am I saying? I’m worried about a bloody blister. Shame on me.” He punched the ground he sat on. “Shame on Nath Dragon!”
Playfully, Selene said, “I could carry you.”
“No, we’d better make a stretcher and drag him,” Brenwar offered.
“Be silent, both of you. Blast!” Nath got up and hopped away from the pair of them until they were out of sight. Being smaller and weaker was a horrible thing. He missed the grand power he’d had. The ability to fly. The power to take on anything. He’d been the most powerful creature in all of Nalzambor, and now he felt like nothing. “I can’t believe I did this to myself.”
Selene appeared from underneath the low-hanging branches and said with a guilty look on her face, “Having regrets?”
“Yes,” he said.
Selene frowned. “I see.” She turned away.
“No, wait, Selene,” Nath said, hustling over and grabbing her arm. “Not about you. Certainly not about that. But losing all of that power. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“You know, Nath, the first time I met you, there wasn’t an ounce of doubt in you. You weren’t scared of anything. And you were less powerful than you are now. Ask yourself, what is different?”
“About five tons of brawn and scales.”
“Seriously?”
“Come on, Selene. Certainly you should understand. Don’t you feel weaker?”
“Physically, yes. Mentally, no. I still have my wits. Have you lost yours?”
He kicked a fallen branch. “No. But I liked being a dragon. Now I might not ever be one again.”
“You’re still a dragon, Nath Dragon.” She brushed her long locks behind her back. “Just a little smaller. You’ll get used to it.” She extended her hand. “Now let’s go find your mother.”
He took her hand in his. It was warm to the touch. Invigorating. The bounce returned to his step. After thinking things through, he came to a simple conclusion.
I’m a man once again. I have to live with the decisions I make.
Brenwar had already begun to forge ahead. He’d slid halfway down the steep hillside and had begun a determined trek into the valley.
The Lost City of Borgash was lost from sight and the wind picked up, howling through the half-dead trees. The area surrounding Borgash was eerie. It was heavy in overgrowth. Vines and roots jutted up like massive snakes, shooting from the ground and twisting around the trees. The berry bushes were barren. The leaves brown. The mosses weren’t green but rather a sickly yellow. Soft and spongy on the ground.
Nostrils flaring, Nath broke the silence, “I’m not so sure about that smell. Not to be crude, but it smells like a giant defecated.” He covered his nose. “It’s foul.”
“It’s no more offensive than your words to my ears,” Brenwar said, climbing into a corridor of fallen boulders. “Yer giving me a headache.”
“Mind your tongue. I’m still—”
Selene tugged on his arm.
“What?” Nath stopped and looked at her.
“You might want to let that argument go,” she said. “Things have changed, remember?”
“But I’m still the—”
“King? Prince? Does that really matter now?”
“I suppose not. It’s just that—”
Selene pressed her finger on his lips and gently shushed him. Her nose twitched. Her eyes darted from side to side. “Let it go. We have more important things to worry about.”
“Like what?” Nath asked.
Brenwar let out a yell. “Goblins!”
CHAPTER 26
Having snaked their way into the path between the rocks, Nath and company found themselves pinned in now. Brenwar stood face to face with a knot of goblins pressed into the path.
Little taller than the dwarf, they stood brandishing crude swords, spears, hatchets, and knives. Their dark hair was matted and greasy. Carved bone jewelry rattled on their chests and necks. Their yellow eyes were wide with evil.
“Perhaps that’s what I smelled,” Nath said, lifting up his foot and standing on one leg.
“Uh, are you going to stomp them?” Selene said.
Nath put his leg down and gave a shrug. It was instinct. He’d gotten used to crushing many things under his powerful legs. Now all he had was muscle and claws. “Brenwar, let’s see if we can come out of this encounter peacefully.”
“Never,” Brenwar said back over his shoulder. He held Mortuun out in front of the goblins’ eyes. “If you value your lives, you dirty things, you’ll be stepping aside.”
The goblin in front, a small, hunchbacked knot of muscle, licked his lips and showed a mouthful of jagged teeth. “Dwarf. Mmmm. Lots of meat under that beard. Should be fun to kill. Delicious to eat.”
“We’ll see about that,” Brenwar said, raising his war hammer high over his head.
Nath turned his ear upward. Scuffling clamored off the rocks that hemmed them inside the path.
Several more goblins appeared. Spears were poised in their sinewy arms. Their beady eyes hungered to attack. “I don’t suppose you are open to negotiation?” Nath said in Goblin.
The lead goblin spat a wad of dark juice, wiped his mouth, and said, “We’ve not eaten in days.” It set its eyes on Nath, then they shifted to Brenwar. “This dwarf should suffice. Leave him and you may pass.”
“Let me think about that.”
“What?” Brenwar said.
Nath made a quick count. There were ten goblins that he could hear and see. Their eyes were feverish with hunger. Desperation was in the leader’s voice. Hearts pounded behind their bone breast-plated chests. I can’t believe I’m wasting my time with this. If I was still a dragon, they’d be fleeing into the hills. This is beneath me. Summoning the authority in his voice, he said, “Tell you what, goblins, let us pass and I’ll let you live.”
The lead goblin made a face like he’d swallowed a large bug. In the next instant, his expression darkened and a rage-filled order burst forth from his sweaty lips. “Attack!”
Brenwar ducked underneath a slicing sword and charged straight into the leader.
Behind Nath, Selene’s tail licked out and swatted two goblins across the face at once. Both tumbled headlong into the path.
“Nice move,” Nath said, spinning around and snatching a spear that was flying toward his neck.
The goblin t
hat threw it gaped, wide eyed. It went for the knife tucked into its belt.
Nath spun the spear around and busted the goblin’s hand. “None of that, now!”
Clutching its hand, the goblin cried out in pain.
Nath slugged it across the jaw with the butt of the spear.
It stumbled into one of the boulders, knocking its metal helmet off. “That will … oof!”
A pair of goblins flung themselves into Nath and drove him headfirst into the ground. One wrapped around his legs and started biting. The other goblin locked one arm around his neck, squeezed, and started stabbing at Nath’s chest with his free arm. The blade bit deep.
“Argh!” Nath twisted the knife free from the goblin, dipped his shoulder, and, with a heave, slung it off his neck. He turned his attention to the one latched onto his leg and biting it.
Its teeth sank deep into his calf.
Now realizing he still had his boot in his hand, Nath started beating the goblin with it. “Get off of me, you dirty tick!”
Selene’s tail coiled around its neck and jerked it free. She hoisted it high in the air and slammed it into one of the nearby rocks. Thud!
Ahead, Brenwar had a goblin pinned down by the neck. He hammered it in the face with his fist. “Eat me, will you? Eat this!” Wham! Wham! Wham!
Chest heaving, Nath caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye.
Above, on the rocks, a goblin and its spear were poised to attack.
Nath sprang high in the air, landing right beside the slack-jawed goblin.
It made a desperate lunge.
Nath caught the spear and ripped it away. He cracked the goblin upside the head with the shaft, breaking the spear. Whap! Whap! Whap!
The goblin fell to its knees and begged for mercy. “Please, stop! Please stop! No more hungry. Please!”
Nath picked it up by its ragged armor and trousers, and with a heave, he tossed the goblin far into the woods.
The party of goblins that survived quickly grabbed all the fallen weapons and fled in all directions, leaving Nath, Selene, and Brenwar alone once again in the crevice.
Looking up from the path at Nath, Selene said, “You’re bleeding. Are you going to cry about it?”
Blood pumping through his battle-charged veins, Nath smacked his fist into his palm and replied, “Let’s go find some orcs.”
***
The Lost City of Borgash was anything but lost. However, it was a wasteland. Nath and company entered from what was left of the main gate that led into the city. A rusting portcullis—big enough for giants to enter—was torn asunder. The rocks that held it were half rubble, but many still stood firm. There were markings. Carvings in the stone.
Nath ran his fingers over the edges. “What do you think, Brenwar?”
“Well before my time. Not much in the dwarven archives, either.” He ran his hands over a fallen stone column. “Clearly not made by dwarves, or it never would have fallen. Har. Probably elven or orcen.”
“What about you, Selene?” Nath asked. “Any ideas?”
She ran her hands up and down her arms and shivered a little. “It’s eerie. It’s always been my understanding that there was an invasion and the people just disappeared. But that was hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago for all I know. I don’t think anyone really remembers. Besides, there are several cities that have come and gone just like this.”
“This was no small city,” Brenwar said. He climbed up a pile of vine-covered rubble. “It rivals the likes of Quintuklen. If there is a clue about your mother here, it will take days, maybe weeks to search it out. And with the air so foul, it will take some getting used to.”
“At least we’re here, so let’s get started. Perhaps we should split up,” Nath suggested.
“There’s danger here, Nath,” Selene said, covering her shoulders with her hands. “I’ve no doubt we aren’t alone. And there’s a reason not many venture too deep into Borgash.”
“Really, why is that?”
“Because most that go in don’t come back out.”
CHAPTER 27
Borgash was big indeed. The abandoned city stretched for miles in all directions. Most of the city was nothing more than part of the landscape, but in places there were remnants of once-thriving stone buildings.
Nath climbed up a series of vines where dead-looking trees sprouted up like massive pylons. The bark was petrified and swallowed up by the prickling vines. He sauntered out on one of the branches and spied on his surroundings.
Not too far off in the distance, Brenwar stood on the ground, moving large rocks and boulders back and forth.
That should keep him happy. Well, “content” might be a better word.
Selene was nowhere in sight. Nath felt a little guilty about that. He’d insisted they split up. They didn’t need to watch over him anymore, dragonman or not. If anything, Selene needed an eye kept on her. After all, her roots had once been steeped in evil.
They’ll be fine. This place seems harmless enough. He reached up, dug his claws into a branch, and pulled himself up to greater heights. From his perch up in the dead and leafless tree, he could see all around, and so far as he was concerned, there wasn’t much to look at.
I can see why no one leaves. They die of boredom.
He stretched his arms out and spread them wide. Oh, if I could only fly!
You can.
Nath froze with chills going up his spine. Finally, his lips moved. “Eh, is someone there?”
There was no reply. Just the soft howl of the wind. Nath spun around on the branch and looked everything up and down. There was nothing in the tree. No birds. No nests. But there were some holes bored into the wood. He shook his head. “I must be hearing things. My own imagination, perhaps.”
Glancing back down at the ground, he noticed Brenwar was gone.
A chill wind slid over Nath’s neck, standing his nape hairs on end. His body tingled, but not in a good way. He felt unseen eyes all over him. The warmth of the setting sun on his face began to fade. Shadows from distant mountains changed the look of Borgash’s landscape. Nath rubbed his neck. Perhaps splitting up wasn’t such a good idea.
Too impatient to scramble all the way down the tree, he hopped down the last twenty feet and landed soundlessly on the soft ground.
Not bad. Couldn’t have made such a subtle landing before, I’ll admit that.
He was headed in the direction he’d last seen Brenwar when Nath tripped and fell. “What in the world?” Glancing down, he noticed his feet were tangled in some vines. He started ripping the vines from his boots. “Stubborn things.”
Finally, his feet were free, and he carefully backed away. Glancing up, he noticed the tree he’d just climbed from was different. The branches were bent downward, seeming to come right at him, but still stiff and frozen.
“Odd. Very odd.” He took off at a trot, traversing the jagged landscape of the fallen city, and found himself standing where he’d last seen Brenwar. There was no sign of the dwarf. No tracks, either. “Oh, I’m not losing you again.”
By taking in a whiff of air, Nath found that Brenwar’s dwarven musk lingered. On cat’s feet, Nath picked his way through the foliage and growing shadows. If Brenwar had passed through the direction Nath was headed, there wasn’t any sign of him.
I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.
Nath stopped and turned. Behind him, the grasses he had trodden on didn’t show the slightest sign that he’d passed through there at all. He squatted down and pressed his palm into the moss- and grass-covered ground. After he lifted his hand there was an impression. It lasted only a moment, and then the grass and moss had returned to their prior places. “That’s new.”
Glancing up at the setting sun, he noted there was little light left in the day. With a twitch in his nose, he hustled after Brenwar.
Great Guzan. What if this place has eaten him?
Pushing through the overgrowth, Nath noticed that every fiber of life he touc
hed seemed to scrape and pull at him. His boots got stuck in between some more vines, and he ripped his foot clean out of the leather. He reached down only to find the ground and foliage swallowing his boots up. “Sultans of Sulfur!” He grabbed them just in time and hopped over more vines while he put them back on.
Keeping to the trail of Brenwar’s scent, Nath sprinted away.
I’ve got to warn Brenwar! Find Selene!
Jumping over fallen stone after fallen stone, he emerged in a barren spot of land and came to a sudden halt in front of a living and gaping hole.
His eyes were locked on Brenwar’s.
The dwarf was bound up in the new tendrils of a vine just outside a monstrous maw in the hole, encircled with teeth. On the other side of the expansive monster, Selene was corded up and being dragged into the gurgling hole.
“Selene!”
CHAPTER 28
The gaping hole of vegetation groaned. Deep in its middle, a ring of teeth chomped up and down. The vines gripping Brenwar and Selene dragged them downward toward the bone-crunching hole.
“Hold on!” Nath yelled.
There were no replies. Selene and Brenwar’s mouths were encircled by vines. Their eyes were pleading and filled with desperation.
“Blast! If I was bigger, I’d rip this thing out of the ground!” Nath’s eyes searched for something, anything that might aid his friends. He dashed around the rim of the monster. “Selene! Give me your tail!”
Her tail whipped out. Nath stretched his fingers as far as he could, but there was still a considerable gap around him.
Suddenly, more vines burst forth from the monster’s mouth. Like venomous snakes, they came right for him. He backpedaled. His feet were snagged by a tangle of vines and grasses. “Blast!”
Selene and Brenwar continued to descend deeper into the hole. All of their struggles were in vain.
“No!” Nath ripped free of the foliage.
The tendrils from the mouth reared up and encircled his arms. The vines tugged at him with tremendous force.
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