Rubbing his chin, Azorath said with sad dark eyes, “They formed a barrier to keep the titans within. Never to escape again.”
“Didn’t they kill them all?” Nath said.
“The dragons showed mercy in hopes that one day the titans might redeem themselves.” He sighed. “There was a time when they served the world for good, not evil. At least some of them. That is how I remember it, anyway.”
Eyes fixed on the dragon wall, Nath said, “The price is too high. These dragons have lives to live. Certainly there must be a better way to seal those foul monsters within.”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Azorath said, “but dragons live a long time. And I’ve seen dragons take other dragons’ places.” He walked up to the wall and touched the face of a red rock dragon. Running his hands over its curled tail, he said, “See, this one is new. I’d guess he came here not fifty years ago, when another one left.”
“You’re telling me the dragons know about this, but I don’t? How can that be? Selene?”
“I don’t know either, Nath. It’s a mystery to me,” she said.
“It’s a big world, and it’s full of surprises.” Azorath placed his hand on the wall. “How sad, I don’t feel what you feel. It just feels like a wall to me. Interesting.”
“You were a shade before. Have you ever been on the other side?” Nath asked.
“No, not possible. Nothing can pass through it. No shade, spirit, titan, nor dragon.”
It made sense enough to Nath. Staring at the dragons, he began picking out the details of their faces. He knew every breed. Beyond the color of their scales, each dragon breed had a unique design to its claws, horns, and even the flecks of their iron-hard scales. There wasn’t any type that he didn’t recognize. “I have no idea what my mother looks like or what type of dragon she is. Have you seen her, Azorath?”
“I’ve seen many dragons come and go.”
“You said my mother was here. How would you know that if you hadn’t seen her?” Nath’s brow furrowed. “Show me which one she is.”
“Ask them yourself. It might take me years to sort through all of them. I’m not so bored that I note every detail.”
“This smells, Nath,” Brenwar said. “Smells really bad. This Azorath is a liar. A stealer. I wouldn’t trust another word he said.”
“Don’t be such a dwarf,” Azorath said. “I haven’t done anything you wouldn’t have done given my situation. Again, I’m grateful. I have flesh again, but I do miss my people.”
Nath spread his arms out, held them in front of the wall, and said, “I’m going to ask them.”
“Be patient, Nath,” Selene said, walking in front of him and staying his arms. “We need to learn more about what we’re dealing with. Let’s study the histories and research it.”
“You felt it, too, Selene. We can’t just let them live like this. We must see what they need. Maybe we can help them.”
“They might not want help,” Selene said. “It seems they made their own decision.”
“That’s only a guess.”
“It makes no difference to me. You wanted to find your mother. I care not if you find her or not. But if I could find my mother, I’d probably venture the extra step,” Azorath said, stretching his arms and yawning. “Oh my, did you see that? My limbs tire. What a feeling!”
Nath glanced at Brenwar. The dwarf’s stern expression didn’t offer any advice. He found Selene’s eyes. Beautiful and mysterious, there was doubt lurking deep within. It wasn’t like her at all. Perhaps it was guilt. She’d unleashed something terrible with the wurmers. Sounding as reassuring as he could, he said, “It’s only a question.”
“Then I hope you are prepared for the answer.” Selene stepped away and found a place behind him. “You might not like it.”
Nath placed both hands on the wall. Life flowed through the structure like a living stream. A powerful network of dragons forming a cohesive unit. It was a marvel the likes of which he’d never seen. Without hesitation, he spoke to it with thoughts instead of words.
“Brothers and sisters, I am Nath Dragon, and I am searching for my mother. Is she here?”
The wall trembled. Dragon thoughts assaulted his mind. They probed. They questioned. Nath felt every bit of them. Patient and strong they were. Formidable. Dedicated. His body shook.
“Go away, Son of Balzurth,” they said. “Go away!”
Nath felt them holding back. They protected something. Something that wasn’t beyond the wall. He didn’t back off. “I want to know where my mother is,” Nath fired back. “I am the Dragon Prince. I demand it. Is she here or not?”
Boom!
The dragon wall shook, juttering Nath’s arms. Something had slammed into it from the other side. Nath grimaced. He could feel the dragons’ pain.
Boom!
The wall shook again.
“Go, Nath Dragon, go. We cannot afford this distraction,” they said with fierce desperation. “We must stay focused.”
Nath held on and said again, “Is my mother here or not?”
“I am, Son,” said a female voice.
Every fiber of Nath’s being came to new life. The warmth of her voice enveloped him.
“Mother?” he said, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Son, you must go. You endanger all of us. You’ll see me when the time is right.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Something raged on the other side of the wall. It was fierce. Unrelenting.
Nath sensed confusion among the dragons. There was pain and worry. How often did the dragons have to endure this?
“Mother! Let me help you! Let me see your face!”
“Nath, you must go before it’s too late. Trust me!” Her words were no longer soothing but worried. “Flee this place with urgency!”
“I cannot let you suffer!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Brenwar rammed into him, knocking him away from the wall. “We have to go! This entire place is coming down!”
“Noooooooooooooooooo!” Nath screamed, clutching at the wall. Selene and Brenwar hooked his arms and dragged him backward. Gaping, Nath watched the entire wall of dragons come to life. Their colors returned. They moved and shifted. Eyes snapped open. Dragon jaws grimaced. They squeezed into as tight a knot as they could.
Boom!
The entire wall buckled.
“Perfect,” Azorath said. He found Nath’s eyes. “We thank you for the long-overdue distraction.”
Boom!
The center of the wall of dragons burst open. Dragons were flung from the air. Something evil and colossal emerged.
CHAPTER 35
The titan was the biggest man Nath had ever seen. His head had two faces: one in front and one in back. The massive man was chest and shoulders on both sides, his body bronze and brawny. One face sneered. The other was shouting, “I am free!”
Nath’s mother shouted an order. “Dragons, attack! Force Isobahn back behind the wall!”
Hundreds of dragons converged, coating the titan.
The huge man—so big he held a bull dragon in the crook of his arm like a pup—slung them off one by one.
The dragons released fire. Lightning. Everything shook. They flung themselves into the titan, driving him back inside the wall.
Nath watched the battle in awe. The dragons, with all their skill and grandeur, were no match for the titan’s relentless power. His massive fist swatted the dragons down like flies. His feet stomped them between his toes. Isobahn was no man. He was pure monster.
“We have to help!” Nath said.
“Aye!” Brenwar said, spitting in his hands and rubbing them together. “Step aside. That giant is mine!” After a few seconds of winding Mortuun in a huge windmill circle, he released the hammer with all his might. The hammer flew and struck the titan between the eyes. A clap of thunder rang out.
Kapow!
Isobahn the titan teetered backward.
The dragons rallied with triumphant roa
rs.
“Push him through, brothers and sisters. Push him through!” Nath’s mother said.
Moved by his mother’s words, Nath, little bigger than the titan’s finger, charged. He hurled himself along with the throng of dragons and scaled up the titan. Clawed hands digging into its coarse flesh, he raced up its belly, up the shoulder, and launched both fists into one of its eyes.
The titan groaned and fell like a collapsed tower.
“Get out of there, Nath!” he heard his mother scream.
Fire and lightning blasted into Isobahn. The titan rocked and reeled. Dragons by the hundreds, all shapes and sizes, piled onto him.
Catching friendly fire, Nath dove away.
Guzan! Where am I?
The other side of the cavern glowed with a burning red light. Streams of lava flowed from the deep. Steam and sulfur tainted the air.
Nath’s eyes watered and burned. Blinking, he watched the dragons reforming the wall.
“Run, Nath! Quickly!”
Nath sprinted for the wall. The dragons were reforming it with incredible speed. He took a quick glance over his shoulder. The titan was back on its feet. Its massive hand reached down and scooped Nath up from the ground.
Nath cried out. “Ahhh!” Pain exploded through his body. His breath fled. His face purpled.
The titan opened up its mouth and started to shove him in.
Sultans of Sulfur! I’m being crushed and consumed. Nooooo!
A gold dragon appeared. It slipped into the jaws of the titan’s mouth and unleashed a firestorm down the titan’s throat.
Nath slipped free of the titan’s loosened grasp. He hit the ground with a thud. Reeling, he forced himself up to his feet, cried out, and fell. His leg was broken. He spat blood and clutched his sides. His ribs were busted.
How many bones did that monster break?!
Setting his jaw and ignoring the pain, Nath hopped on one foot toward the wall.
Behind him, the gold dragon, the most magnificent winged serpentine he’d ever seen, continued to let the titan have it. The monster’s head was nothing but flames.
Still, it fought on, swatting oversized fists at the dragon. None of the heavy blows hit the mark. Roaring, it lowered its shoulder and charged for the wall.
Hobbled, Nath hopped as fast as he could.
The titan’s foot overshadowed him and came down.
I’m going to be goo!
A golden streak whizzed in and scooped him up just as the giant foot came down.
Whoom!
Nath found himself being sped toward the small hole that was left in the wall and whisked through. The golden dragon gently set him on the ground and turned to face the wall. The dragons filled it in with their armored bodies. The final link was set. Their colorful skins and hides began to harden just as the titan on the other side rocked against it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“We are safe now,” the golden dragon said. “The wall is secure.”
Finding Selene and Brenwar back by his side, Nath used them to get back on his feet. Then, gazing up at the dragon, he said, “Who are you?”
“I am Grahleyna, Nath. Your mother.”
Three horses tall, she towered over him. She was wondrous. Her pearl-white horns curled over her head, and long black lashes flicked over her golden eyes. Scales twinkled at the subtle movements of her muscles underneath. Nath reached over to touch her. Limping over, he wrapped his arms around her massive leg.
Grahleyna chuckled. “Oh, Nath, let me make this easier for us.” With an utterance of mystic words, she began to diminish in size. Standing gold eye to gold eye with him, she said, “This is better. Is it not?”
She was a fair-skinned, golden-haired woman with a pearl crown on her head. Trembling, Nath reached over and hugged her with tears swelling in his eyes. Her embrace was warm as a campfire. “I was never sure if you were real until just now.”
She stroked his hair. Tears ran down her soft cheeks. She sniffed. “I’m sorry, Nath. I never meant to leave. And I never intended to be gone so long, but I had to do what needed to be done. It was my turn, and the timing was bad. Besides, I didn’t have any way of knowing that you were the one.”
He eased back. “What do you mean?”
“There were many eggs. Some hatch in days, others decades. You certainly know that you have brothers and sisters.” She squatted down and put her hands on his broken leg. “They just hatched dragons, and you a man.”
Nath’s leg tingled with tiny charges of fire. The pain eased. He shifted his weight on it and said, “It’s better, but wait a moment. You said hatched.”
“Yes, why?”
“So, I was born in an egg?”
She combed her fingers through his hair and said, “Certainly. How else would you be?”
“Hah! I knew you were hatched!” Brenwar said. “I knew it!”
Nath didn’t want to think about it. Even though he was a dragon, he didn’t care for the idea of being hatched. He never had, for some reason. Moving on, he asked his mother, “So, can you come with us? Or do you have to stay and help form the wall?”
Boom!
“Oh,” she said, glancing over her shoulder, “Isobahn is secure. He’s not the one we need to worry about. It’s the others.”
CHAPTER 36
“I didn’t see anything else,” Nath said to his mother. Brenwar and Selene looked around with wide eyes, too. “Azorath? What has become of him?”
There was a shuffle of movement underneath one of the dragons who had fallen to the wrath of the titan. It was a gray scaler, little bigger than Nath. A hand stretched up and around its belly. Brenwar jogged over and rolled the dragon over. He jerked Azorath’s haggard form up to his feet. “Here is the wretched deceiver.”
Clutching his chest, Azorath said, “I need to get used to this mortality. I think parts of me are broken. Weee! Ow! I hurt.” His spacey black eyes drifted over to Grahleyna. “I see you found your mother. I told you so, Nath. Giving me life was worth it, now. Wasn’t it.”
“You took what wasn’t yours, Azorath.”
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” he said in his mysterious way. “Besides, with the titans free, you probably shouldn’t plan a life of longevity. But I’m certain yours will be fuller than a hundred lives, for a spell.”
Nath stepped toward Azorath and took ahold of his neck. “What do you mean?”
Grahleyna took his arm and pulled him back. Resting her hands gently on his shoulders, she said, “Finding me came at a price, Nath. You see, Isobahn was a bodyguard of the true threat. Now, the others escape. Crafty spirits they are. They couldn’t penetrate the dragon wall, but little more than ethereal in form, they easily escaped when the wall was breached.”
“So we can’t see them?”
“They are harmless until they take host in other bodies, and that could be anybody,” his mother said. “They prey on the weak. Divide and conquer. The threat they pose is not easily seen. That’s why Borgash fell. The men and women were so divided that even after we vanquished the titans, they still fought among themselves. Once you plant the bad seed in men, it doesn’t take long for their lives to unravel.”
“How did you trap them before?” Nath said.
“In this last case, we trapped them, body and spirit, behind this barrier. Several brave dragons fought them on the other side, hoping to wipe them out of existence, but their valiant efforts failed.” She rubbed his shoulder. “It’s difficult to destroy evil. A remnant always remains.”
Nath’s throat tightened. Did Gorn Grattack still exist? Had Nath not wiped that monster out entirely? “Mother, there has to be a better way than this.” He stretched out his hands toward the wall.
“Don’t,” she said, “else you’ll have Isobahn trying to bite off our heads again. It’s best such darkness lies in the deepness from where it came. Nalzambor’s bowels can hold them without help. And the dragons understand their sacrifice, but a time may come when it has to be made permanent. That is
a fate they must choose on their own.” Grahleyna put her arm around Nath’s waist and led him away. “It was destined that they should be let loose for a season anyway.”
“Let loose? Why?” he said, incredulous.
“It’s just the times we live in.”
Long faced, Nath felt his blood seep into his toes. Finding his mother should have been a time of celebration. Instead, he’d loosed more menaces into the world. It didn’t help that he wasn’t in the full grandeur of a dragon, either. He was much weaker.
Selene found her way to his side. “Don’t be hard on yourself, Nath. You couldn’t have known.”
“Your friend is right. Selene, is it?” Grahleyna said, fastening her eyes on Selene’s.
“Yes, your majesty,” Selene said, taking a knee.
“Oh, there is no need for that, my dear.” She helped Selene up to her feet. “You have a great understanding of this darkness, don’t you.”
Frowning, Selene said, “More than I care to admit.”
“Use that knowledge. You’ll need it.” Grahleyna turned back to Nath. “What led you here anyway?”
“Father gave us a hint: ‘What you seek is in the peaks.’”
Grahleyna laughed. “Oh, and that was it. So like him. He gives you just enough information so it will only take one thousand years to find me. But here you are.”
“So does father know that you have been here all along?” Nath said.
“Certainly.”
Angry, Nath said, “Why wouldn’t he tell me that? Why would he just leave you here like this? It’s a terrible thing!”
“And boring, but it’s mostly sleeping, so it’s not so bad.” She poked Nath’s chest. “And don’t you judge your father. It was my choice, not his. He didn’t like it one bit. He had a fit like a one-hundred-year-old about it. He started stomping around and shooting up big puffs of fire. I was embarrassed for him.”
“Father did that?” Nath said. He’d never seen anything like it from his father.
“Oh, don’t be disenchanted. He’s temperamental because he loves me.” She checked her nails and pushed her hair up a little. “And that’s probably why he endorsed your search.”
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