The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10)

by Craig Halloran

  He journeyed through the massive cavern, surveying all the atrocities. Decades of death as far as his keen eyes could see. A graveless tomb for the unburied. The lurker, whatever it might be, was detestable.

  He stopped. A disturbing sound tickled Nath’s ears. Sucking. Long, slow, slurping draws. His irritation for the gnomes rose. It seemed they’d been truthful about everything. He started onward. The sounds became clearer. More distinct. More terrible.

  Snap. Crack. Pop.

  Ahead, bones were being snapped like branches. Slurping came in deep gurgles. A satisfied moaning followed. He heard bones tossed onto bones.

  “Mmmmmm…” something completely alien to him said. “It seems I’ve an eager guest to dine with. Come…” It made a sucking sound. “Come … I yearn for a new flavor.” It sniffed at the air. “A sweet fragrance unlike all before. Come…”

  Nath’s legs moved with a will not his own. He felt dreamy and light. He didn’t feel his toes touching the ground. The voice. The disconcerting voice was irresistible. His arms hung at his sides. Fang dangled in his clawed fingers.

  “Come,” the lurker said, growing in strength. It sounded like many in one voice. It inhaled, making a great sniffing sound. “No fear in this one. So, so delicious. Strong. Powerful. We must have it. Come,” it commanded.

  Nath’s eyes rolled up. His eyelids fluttered. Fang flared to life in his hand.

  We?

  The recesses of his lulled mined begged the question.

  We? Is there one lurker, or are there many?

  Nath waded through the bone piles, dragging Fang behind him.

  “Come,” it said, so strong, soft, and soothing. “And release your shiny toothpick. We won’t require that. Come… ”

  “What are you?” Nath said, forcing out the question. Curiosity assailed him.

  “I am all that I consume,” it said. “Now, come … gaze upon me.”

  Nath’s languid eyes lifted. His gaze tilted upward. A monstrosity lounged on a throne of jaxite many times the size of him. Its wide face was terrible and ever changing. He saw men, dragons, and orcs in its burning eyes. A rack of great horns rested on its head. Its arms were many, of all the races. Its many legs were hooved, scaled, and taloned. Tentacles writhed like hair around its neck with little mouths hissing like snakes. Coarse hair and scales covered it all over. Its jaws were wide and filled with great sharp teeth. The lurker was the abomination of all abominations.

  Nath’s knees locked when it opened its enormous mouth and said, “Come, make this easy. Hop in.”

  A startled cry escaped his lips. Fang slipped from his fingertips.

  CHAPTER 38

  Nath had no sensation in his arms or legs. His heart thundered in his chest. He felt like a child who’d been told the most terrible of stories. Horrors that struck in the night, leaving children terrified of the dark. Yet there was no darkness. Only desolation. He stepped toward the lurker’s gaping mouth.

  Come. Come. Come.

  The suggestive words repeated in his head, driving him forward.

  The long, snake-like tentacles spread about its head like a glorious raiment. The lurker pushed up off its throne and came forward. It had no neck, no chest, just a body with a head, arms, and legs. Its face shifted between dragons and ogres. Dwarves and orcs. Curiosity and suggestion compelled Nath forward.

  Come. Come. Come.

  The recesses of his mind became fuzzy. Unclear. There was something welcoming about the gaping maw and writhing tentacles coming toward him. He took a long step forward.

  Come. Come. Come.

  “Be part of my oneness,” it said. “Join the others and feast on bones forever.” Its arms stretched outward. The rows of fangs glistened in its mouth.

  Nath’s thoughts were lost. His will was not his own. It bothered him. He took another step and stopped.

  This is not right. This is not right at all.

  “Come,” the lurker urged him. “Come now. There is no turning back. It is inevitable, friend.”

  A black-bearded dwarf appeared in his mind. Words followed.

  “If it eats people, kill it.”

  Nath stumbled backward. He tore his gaze away. Covered his ears with his paws.

  “So be it, then,” the lurker said, scurrying like an insect from side to side. “I never tire of executing dragons.” It pounced.

  It covered Nath with its bulk. Tendrils tied him up. Punching fists assaulted him. The lurker slammed him to the ground and slung him across the floor.

  “Hmmmm,” it said, “seems your bones don’t break so easily. The tougher the bone, the more delicious the marrow.” A great tongue rolled out and licked its lips. “A feast of the delicious.”

  Nath scrambled to his feet, sucked in his breath, and shot a ball of fire from his mouth. It struck its cheek and sizzled out. I’ve nothing left.

  Its laughter was awful.

  “Oh, how I like that fire in dragon bellies.” Its face turned into that of a dragon, and it sucked in and blew out. Roaring flames gushed out, enveloping Nath.

  He cried out.

  The lurker stormed into the flames, jerked him out, and dangled him in front of its eyes.

  “I don’t like my dinner roasted!” It opened its mouth wide, stuffed Nath in, and chomped down. Nath squirted out.

  Its teeth clattered, and its angry yell was deafening.

  “Quick you are! But nothing is quicker than me!”

  Nath dashed through the cavern and bolted for the nearest tunnel.

  I don’t care how many legs it has, it’s not faster than me!

  The lurker charged after him and slammed into the tunnel. Its ear-splitting yell caught up with him. “None escape me!”

  Nath kept running. Aching all over, he bore one thing in mind. Sultans of Sulfur! What about Fang? He churned through the tunnels until the echoes of the lurker’s screams died out. He stopped and rested against the cave wall. Took a breath and gathered his thoughts. He found relief in his thought that the hex it had put his mind under was broken, but the rest of him hurt. The jaxite was harder than metal, and he’d been slammed several times into it. He sucked a painful draw of air through his teeth and staggered onward.

  How can I beat that thing without Fang?

  Every creature had a weakness. If it had been a dragon, he could have coped, but the lurker was many things in one. It fed and grew in stature and was made of so many creatures. Each weakness was masked by the other strengths.

  I have no choice. I’ll have to think of something.

  He tried to think of what Brenwar or Bayzog would do. It wasn’t so long ago that they had defeated a larger creature—the hull dragon. But they’d had magic and worked as a team on that one. Now it was only him. One dragon against a bizarre thing that became everything it had beaten. It was like fighting all those creatures at once.

  Certainly it can be wounded.

  Nath retraced his steps. Find the gnomes. Maybe they have a clue. But he was lost. He took another turn and gasped. He was right back inside the lurker’s lair. The tunnel he’d just come through disappeared. There across the room, the lurker sat with a disturbing smile on its face.

  “Welcome back,” it said, holding up Fang in two of its many hands. “Looking for this?” It waggled the sword and passed it through its hands. “It’s a hot thing. I don’t like that.” Fang went from one tentacle to another. “I can handle this pretty little thing. It will make a nice trophy to go with your skin and bones.” Its tongue licked out over its teeth. Its arms and tentacles fanned out. “Come now. Why don’t you take it?”

  Nath shrugged.

  “Why don’t you just give it to me and save me some trouble? Once I take it, you’re dead, you know.”

  “Ha!” it said. “There is nothing that can kill me.”

  “Nothing that you know of.”

  “I just get bigger and stronger. Once I finish dining on you, I’ll be stronger than ever.”

  “Once I kill you, I’ll be strong
er, too,” Nath said, coming forward. He noticed Fang being passed from hand to hand more quickly. The lurker’s face showed frustration. Fang’s blade glowed with dark, angry light. “I’d drop that sword if I were you.”

  It jammed the sword into the ground behind it and snarled.

  “There it will stay forever!” It skittered forward, blocking Nath’s path to Fang. It towered over him, arms and tendrils ready. “And today your fate is forever sealed.” It charged.

  Nath dashed right.

  It cut him off.

  He went left.

  It cut him off again, laughing.

  Nath zigzagged through the cavern. The lurker crashed through the piles of bones, following him like a shadow. It was the biggest and fastest thing he’d ever seen. But it made a miscalculation. Nath caught a glimpse of the pathway to the sword.

  You might be fast, but I’m not moving my fastest.

  Nath juked to one side.

  It lunged.

  Nath twisted away from its clutch and sprinted for the sword.

  Its yell was awful. It bore down after him. Thundered over the stone.

  Nath bounded away, making a straight line for the blade. He glanced back.

  It’s gaining!

  Its legs churned beneath its girth, propelling it forward at an impossible speed. Its tendrils lashed out.

  Nath dove for the blade. His fingers wrapped around the hilt and gripped it tight. The tendrils snagged his feet and pulled him. He now hung parallel to the floor between the lurker on his feet and his own hands on Fang, who remained stuck in the floor. The lurker towed back, stretching Nath’s spine, laughing.

  “Almost,” it said, snapping its hideous jaws. “But it’s time to be eaten.”

  Nath held on with all his might and tried to yank the blade free. He had no leverage. His muscles groaned and popped. More tendrils wrapped around his legs and body.

  “Say goodbye to your burning sword, Dragon.”

  The powerful monster jerked him all at ounce.

  Nath’s fingers ripped free. The lurker stuffed him inside its mouth, and its jaw clamped down forever.

  CHAPTER 39

  There was darkness. There was pain. Nath felt hands and fingers clutching at him. Pulling him deeper into the inner core of the creature. His mind ignited with the stark realization that he wasn’t going into the belly of some beast but rather of something horribly supernatural. He screamed in his mind. His surroundings suffocated him with the thoughts of the fallen. Their existence was angry. Miserable.

  Nath squeezed his eyes shut. Tried to block it out. The terror tore at his mind.

  There must be a way! There must be a way!

  Fear squeezed him. His breath was lost. He hung suspended in a blanket of darkness, struggling fiercely against unseen bonds.

  “Don’t fight it,” the lurker said from within. “You’ll soon be one of us now.”

  NEVER!

  Nath felt something beating. Pulsating. A heart of some sort.

  Pulling those who held him along for the ride until one by one they fell away, he swam through the dark muck right toward it. A green light glowed in the murk. He spiraled toward it. Scratched at it. It was hard as stone. Tougher than steel. Powerful magic encircled it.

  “The essence of all,” the lurker said all around him, “Thousands of hearts beating as one, controlled by my thoughts. Embrace it.”

  A vision of him being part of this monstrosity formed. His glorious mane on its hideous head. Nath pulled something out from concealment within his clothes. Dragon Claw’s light cut through the darkness.

  “Where did that come from?” the Lurker roared.

  More bodies that were there but not there swarmed him, grabbed onto him, restrained him.

  Nath sent his thoughts to them. He could sense their torment and pain.

  Be free.

  The essences of the beings that held him struggled with one another. Their good essence got the upper hand and released him.

  “Nooooo!” the lurker said.

  Nath struck. Dragon Claw buried itself in the heart of the monster. It shook like an earthquake.

  “I gave you everlasting life!” it roared. “You betrayed me.”

  They didn’t want everlasting life. They wanted peace.

  Nath twisted the blade.

  The heart exploded. Thousands of voices cried out, some in anger, others in joy.

  The lurker spoke no more. Its inner core collapsed around him.

  Nath struggled to breathe. To rise. To do anything. But he could move no more. His thoughts were rattled.

  Where am I?

  He passed out.

  ***

  Nath felt something on his face. It was cold. Icy. His mind was foggy.

  Please tell me the dragon sleep didn’t hit again. Last time, I lost twenty-five years. Now would it be fifty?

  He shot into an upright position and opened his eyes.

  Snarggell was there along with the other gnomes. He had a bucket of water in his hand.

  “You’re dirty,” he said in Gnomish. “Alive, impossibly. But dirty.”

  “Where’s the lurker?”

  “Where you left it. Dead. We had to fish you out of it. Now we’re all dirty. Don’t like it. We’re not dwarves or orcs. You got muck all over us.”

  “Shouldn’t you be glad it’s dead and I’m alive?”

  The gnome sighed.

  “Now more trouble comes.”

  EPILOGUE

  Sasha rested in one of the gardens, enjoying the view and fresh air. She needed to get out now and then. Time to think and ease her thoughts. Rerry and Samaz were driving her crazy with worry, and she’d made it a habit to slip out from time to time, drawing their angst. But she always came here. There were people. Life. Not all the sorts she liked, but it was close enough to normal to hold her.

  “Pardon me,” a woman said. She was tall, pleasant faced, and adorned in black robes that covered her from toes to the top of her head, leaving only her face open. “May I sit?”

  “Certainly,” Sasha said, scooting over on the bench. “It’s too lovely a day not to share.”

  The woman sat down and eyed the white clouds in the bright azure sky.

  “Aye, it is. It’s so nice when all those horrible grey clouds are gone. I don’t like them.”

  Sasha said, “I love the warmth that it brings. It just seems like it’s been so long.” She looked at the woman. “But aren’t you hot in all that black? That’s heavy cloth you have on.”

  “No,” the woman replied, with a light giggle. “It absorbs the sun and warms me to the bones. I chill easily.” She eyed Sasha. “Is something bothering you? For such a pretty woman, I can see so much trouble on your brow.”

  Sasha leaned away and looked at her. Is it that obvious?

  “Please, no offense, dear. I’m just a good judge of character.” The woman’s voice was warm and soothing. “I spend a lot of time with a lot of people.”

  Sasha found comfort in the woman’s voice. She’d been so isolated, she’d almost forgotten what it was like to converse with another woman. It excited her.

  “No, it’s all right. I just haven’t been out much.”

  “Well, I can understand why,” the woman said, eyeing a spire that hosted a dark-green dragon. “And as much as I hate to say it, I’ve almost gotten used to it. That’s dreadful to say, isn’t it?”

  “No. You sound like someone who’s found peace amidst the chaos. I think that’s commendable.”

  “Well, thank you,” the woman said, smiling “And what about you?”

  For reasons unknown, Sasha started talking. A dam inside burst open. Her troubles with age and being human with part-elven boys spilled out of her mouth.

  “I’ll die before they even grow up. And look,” she pointed, “look at these crow’s feet decorating my eyes.”

  “Is that all that bothers you?” the woman said. Looking around, she spread her arms wide. “This is Nalzambor. It has answers to ever
ything. You’re a sorceress, are you not? You should know that.”

  “I cannot reverse time,” Sasha said with a sigh.

  “Well, maybe not,” said the woman, “but you can lengthen it.”

  Sasha was intrigued.

  “How do you know this?”

  “I’m a woman,” she said, “But I’m well over one hundred.” She whispered in Sasha’s ear. “But how far over the century I will not tell.” She rubbed Sasha’s shoulder. “But I like you, and I’m willing to tell.”

  Sasha started to pull away. Something wasn’t right about the woman.

  “Easy now,” the woman said, rising to her feet. “I’ll be here the rest of the day and all day tomorrow, but after that I must go.” She started to walk away. “And I felt as you did once, but today I’ve never felt better.” She walked into the gardens and disappeared.

  Sasha stood there gaping. There was truth in the woman’s words.

  I’m tired of feeling old.

  She followed after the woman.

  ***

  Otter Bone gasped, and his eyes popped open.

  “What is it?” Bayzog said. It had been days since the old man had even spoken.

  Brenwar and Ben came forward.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  Otter Bone smiled.

  “Your friend lives. But he needs our assistance.” He got up. “Come.”

  Horse Neck guided him toward the mouth of the cave, but something blocked the exit. It was a dragon, but not Nath Dragon. Copper scaled, vicious, with a long, sharp tail that matched its teeth. The dragon struck, its speed blinding and the blows precise. The dragon’s jaws clamped down. Its tail lashed out. The river folk fell in heaps.

  Brenwar rushed forward and smote the dragon in the skull with his hammer. It recoiled and dashed outside the hole. Brenwar chased after it and shortly came back.