Wrath of the Dragon King

by Brandon Mull

  “Then get off our road,” Kendra ordered. “We have as much right to this road as you do,” Amulon said. “By tradition, by proximity to the Herdlands, and by Celebrant’s authority.”

  Seth drew his sword. Nobody seemed to notice. He wondered how Amulon would handle a bolt of lightning. Would it electrocute some of the other nearby taurans? The rest would surely attack.

  “Off the road,” Amulon said, stepping forward, leading with his shield.

  “What gives us the best chance?” Seth asked. “Taurans or leaving the road?”

  The back row of taurans nocked arrows.

  “What about your bow, Kendra?” Seth asked.

  “They have bows too,” Kendra replied. “And big shields. And they are ahead and behind. And we have no armor.”

  “Forward!” Amulon called, increasing his pace and swinging his mace. Hoofbeats rumbled from ahead and behind.

  Almost involuntarily, Seth scampered off the road, away from the charge. The others moved with him. Seth studied the foliage. What if the dreadwolves were nearby? Or some dragons? Kendra looked panicked. The fear made sense! They were exposed.

  Amulon and the taurans lined up along the near edge of the road. “You are no longer welcome on the road. We will defend it to the death. Find your own way.” He raised his mace high. “Warning shots!”

  As Amulon lowered his mace, arrows hissed from bows, thudding into the ground in front of Seth and the others. One landed hardly a step away from Seth’s foot.

  “Begone,” Amulon commanded.

  “They’re all facing the same direction now,” Kendra said, unslinging her bow and pulling back the empty string.

  Seth looked from her bow to the taurans. Did she have the guts to let the arrow fly? Was it the wisest choice?

  “One hundred,” Kendra muttered, releasing the string.

  A cloud of arrows zipped through the air, spreading wide as taurans ducked behind their shields. Dozens of arrows thunked against shields. Amulon’s looked like a pincushion. One of the rumitaurs and one of the cervitaurs staggered, arrows having pierced their legs. An alcetaur had an arrow in his meaty shoulder.

  And then Seth found he could not move. He could see and think, but his muscles refused to respond. A shadow fell across him as a huge green dragon plopped down behind him, crushing bushes and undergrowth beneath its bulk. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t budge! From the corner of his eye, he saw the head whip forward and the huge jaws clamp shut around Kendra, totally engulfing her.

  Seth tried to scream. He tried to reach for his sister. The dragon fear held him utterly paralyzed.

  Then Seth tipped and felt himself being dragged. Though aware of the hands supporting him, he could make no motion to help.

  The green dragon sprang upward, taking flight, wind ruffling the surrounding vegetation as enormous wings heaved. Two other dragons, a black one with large spikes down the neck and the one from the feast with a face full of tentacles, dropped from the sky, landing nearby, the ground quaking at the impact.

  Seth could not blink. He could not bend his legs or his waist. Eve was dragging him, stiff as a board, diagonally away from the road, into the cover of heavy bushes. Eve dropped him flat on his back and rummaged through his satchel. A flask came to his lips, and she was pouring fluid into his mouth.

  For a terrifying moment Seth worried the liquid would drown him. But suddenly he could swallow, and he gulped down the rest. It was the courage potion! Control over his body returned. He sat up, furious.

  “That dragon ate Kendra,” he said, staring up at the green dragon rising higher into the sky. What was the range of his lightning sword?

  “Not here,” Eve whispered, dragging him to his feet. “Not now. Run!”

  The other two dragons were both biting at something. Tanu, perhaps? There was no time to think. Seth followed Eve. Her pace felt slow. The boots were helping him.

  Seth was in shock over Kendra. He could barely process what he had seen! Kendra had been gulped down before she had any chance to react. And now Tanu was perhaps getting killed too.

  There was no time to absorb it. He had to survive. For the good of the sanctuary, and for the hope of any payback, his first job was to escape. Was that even possible? If the dragons were going to get him, shouldn’t he turn and give them a fight to remember?

  “Dragons are great hunters,” Eve said breathlessly. “I’ll only be able to cloak us for so long. Right now we look like fleeing deer. You should hide.”

  “Let’s stick together,” Seth said.

  “We’re both more likely to die if we’re together,” Eve said. “Do it for me. Do it for you.”

  Seth knew he could run faster without her. But how much did that matter against dragons? Wasn’t her ability to disguise them more important? Was she trying to use him as bait to lure the dragons away from her? If she was, he would do it, and kill both dragons singlehandedly if he had to.

  “Where do I go?” Seth asked.

  “Try the cave in that hillside,” she said. “They might pass it by. Or it might run narrow and deep. Maybe you can escape.”

  He saw the dark cavity in the steep, rocky slope. It might go back only a few feet. At least it would provide some cover, and the opening was much too small for a dragon to enter.

  “Do it,” Calvin advised from his pocket. “Splitting up is smart.”

  Seth broke off from Eve toward the hillside, upping his pace to a full sprint. Amazed at the length and speed of his strides, Seth doubted he had ever run half this fast.

  Behind him, dragons roared. As he slipped into the little cave, his last glance back showed the dragon with the tentacled face rising into the sky. Seth rushed deeper into the cave. It was more than an indentation, but it narrowed to a dead end after about twenty feet. At least the space looked empty.

  Seth kept still, holding his breath.

  “Come out,” a slithery voice called, like many voices speaking at once, all of them with too much saliva in their mouths. “I saw you enter, caretaker. Surrender.”

  Holding his breath, Seth pressed back against the rear of the cave. Hopefully Eve was escaping while this dragon was distracted. Of course, there had been two.

  What were his assets? The sword in his hand could shoot a bolt of lightning. He also had the vial of horrors. Was now an effective time to try the vial, cornered in a cave? Against a single dragon? Who would be more scared? Would the courage potion help protect him?

  A head snaked into the cave, mostly filling the tunnel, and a mass of squirmy tentacles writhed toward him. Seth felt fear but was not overpowered. He slashed his sword through the grasping tentacles, severing at least four, the blade passing through them cleanly. Ichor fountained and the head withdrew.

  “Good one,” Calvin encouraged.

  “For Kendra,” Seth muttered.

  “You’ll pay for that,” the dragon threatened. “Out you come or I roast you.”

  “Too scared to fight me face-to-face?” Seth cried.

  “You dare insult my courage?”

  “I always heard Wormface was the most cowardly dragon,” Seth yelled. “Fights human children from a distance.”

  “Orders or not, you die now,” the dragon declared. The head wriggled back into the cave, and Seth held his sword ready. Suddenly the head flopped to the floor and stopped advancing, tangled tentacles squishy and limp, the severed ones still oozing juices.

  Seth stared, wondering if it might be a ruse. The dragon seemed weirdly still for how angry it had sounded.

  “Hurry, boy, come quick,” a deep voice boomed.

  “Who’s there?” Seth asked.

  “Your Dragon Slayer,” the voice replied.

  Now Seth recognized the voice! It was the Somber Knight! Stepping on mushy tentacles, Seth scrambled around the dragon’s head and past the somewhat narrower nec
k until he exited the cave. The huge knight had to be at least ten feet tall, and he stood beside the spot where the scaly neck had been cleaved in two. The gigantic body of the dragon lay lifeless. The knight clutched a sword with a blade longer than Seth from head to foot.

  “Eve,” Seth said, anxiously looking for her.

  “We must aid her,” the Somber Knight said. “And your sister.”

  “A dragon ate Kendra,” Seth said, mildly surprised he could spit out the dreadful words.

  “No,” the Somber Knight said. “Your sister lives.”

  Captive

  In the moist, humid enclosure, Kendra sat on a damp, muscular tongue surrounded by meaty walls. She could only faintly see the cruel fangs and the mucosal surfaces, which meant there was no light. Mysterious fumes and gurgles issued from the clenching tunnel at the rear of her prison. The environment gently rocked, bobbed, and swayed, evidence that they were flying, but also that her captor was trying to keep her level.

  Covering her nose, Kendra attempted to ignore when the tongue rippled beneath her. She tried not to get saliva on her bare skin, because it burned and tingled. What was going to happen to her? If the dragon meant to swallow her, why not get on with it?

  Her captor was obviously taking her somewhere. What if it intended to feed her to baby dragons? The image came too vividly to her mind. Or maybe she would be dropped from a great height? Or tortured?

  She still had all of her gear. The sack of gales was an option. But did she want a windstorm inside of a dragon mouth? Not when flying through the air. Anything that might make the dragon spit her out would not end well for her.

  And so she sat as still as possible in the uncomfortably warm, rank air, trying very hard not to overanalyze what might come next. She paid attention to acceleration tugging on her as they turned or sped up or descended.

  Suddenly Kenda felt like she was inside a plunging elevator, followed by a rush of forward movement. And then she came to a halt. A moment later, her enclosure tipped forward and opened, dumping her onto a rocky floor.

  Her hair had spilled over her face, temporarily screening her view. Knees and elbows smarting from the tumble, Kendra pushed her hair back and stared up at Celebrant, he on his dais in his cavernous hall, she on the floor like a mess coughed up by a giant cat.

  “That did not take long,” the Dragon King said contentedly. “Hardly an hour past midday.”

  Having seen only the inside of the mouth of her captor, Kendra looked back at the dragon behind her. Emerald-green scales covered a creature nearly as immense as Celebrant.

  “She offered no trouble,” said a voice that sounded like dozens of women speaking together. A pair of fins just behind her head fanned out and then retracted.

  “Excellent, Jaleesa,” Celebrant said. “And her brother?”

  “Numrum and Chiro were right behind me,” Jaleesa said.

  “And the manservant who desecrated the corpse of Madrigus?” Celebrant asked.

  “He was with the boy,” Jaleesa said. “They had no chance for escape.”

  “Were Numrum and Chiro following you here?” Celebrant asked.

  “Not that I could see,” Jaleesa said.

  “Berzog, Luria, go investigate,” Celebrant ordered.

  A dragon covered in quills and an amber dragon took flight, exiting the vast room.

  “Jaleesa, congratulations on delivering the girl unharmed,” Celebrant said. “You are dismissed.”

  The green dragon moved away. Kendra got to her feet, her clothes gooey with dragon spit.

  “Don’t hurt Tanu,” Kendra said.

  “Your manservant is already dead,” Celebrant said. “I want your brother alive for now.”

  “You won’t get away with this,” Kendra said.

  “I will accomplish so much more than this, you ridiculous girl,” Celebrant said. “I’m just barely getting started. You can make things easier on yourself and your brother—and on all of your allies at Blackwell Keep.”

  “How?” Kendra asked.

  “Unconditional surrender,” Celebrant said. “Relinquish the caretaker’s medallion. Name me sole caretaker of Wyrmroost. In return, I vow to see you safely delivered to the borders of the sanctuary to depart with any of your allies who care to join you.”

  Kendra clutched the medallion. “You are no caretaker. You care only about yourself, and maybe the dragons. This sanctuary is meant for all who live here. And it is meant to protect the world from you. I won’t give it up.”

  “I can slay you at my leisure,” Celebrant said casually.

  “I guess you can,” Kendra said.

  “Foolish girl,” Celebrant said. “Do not tempt me.”

  “Was this the plan Ronodin gave you?” Kendra asked.

  Celebrant narrowed his eyes. “What did he tell you?”

  “He told you how to win the war,” Kendra said.

  “The dark unicorn did bring some information that will aid our cause,” Celebrant said. “I lay my own traps. Catching you took less effort than a yawn.”

  “What did he tell you?” Kendra wondered.

  “You will know soon enough,” Celebrant said. “If you live to see it. I will give you some time to think. Perhaps once I have your brother, you will be more persuadable.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Kendra said, secretly worried she might do anything to save Seth’s life.

  “She’s alive?” Seth asked. “You’re sure?”

  The Somber Knight gave a nod. “First, we have another dragon to punish.” He waved an arm, and a huge bull came plodding up to him. The animal was made of tar, with horns carved out of stone, and the tall knight had to reach up to pat the neck. Pulling with one arm, the Somber Knight leaped astride the bull—a feat that should have been impossible in his heavy armor. The bull turned and charged in the direction of the black dragon with spikes down the neck.

  “Chiro!” the Somber Knight called, his voice booming. “Come face your doom!”

  The black dragon had been moving away from Seth and the knight, presumably still hunting Eve. But now the dragon turned, eyes flashing. Chiro sprang into the air and glided low toward the Somber Knight.

  “Butcher!” Chiro called out, her voice a soprano choir. “Today your atrocities end.”

  Seth considered ducking back into the cave in case the dragon sprayed fire or worse. The Somber Knight stood up on the back of the bull, still racing straight for the dragon, and started twirling a chain with a grapnel at the end. As the dragon’s mouth opened, the Somber Knight hurled the grappling hook, which caught hold of Chiro’s lower jaw.

  The dragon tried to swerve away, but the Somber Knight leapt from the back of the bull, chain tautening in one hand, sword gripped in the other, and began a wide swing. His weight jerked Chiro’s head down, and the Somber Knight curved swiftly into the air. Crashing into the dragon’s side, he plunged the sword up to the hilt.

  With a shriek, Chiro lost altitude and plowed into the ground, tumbling and tearing up huge chunks of earth. Sword in hand after it ripped free from the dragon in the landing, the Somber Knight rolled to his feet and began hacking at a wing as he dashed along the body. Wheeling around, the bull of tar lowered its horns and rammed the far side of the dragon.

  As the Somber Knight sprinted toward the base of the neck, Chiro arched her head around and exhaled bubbling dark-blue liquid all over him. The fluid sizzled on the ground, acrid fumes rising, and though the knight was drenched, he charged forward and slashed the base of the neck.

  Chiro tried to bite the Somber Knight, but he bashed her head aside with his shield and plunged his sword into her eye. Tail flailing, wings spasming, the dragon withdrew her head, and the Somber Knight opened the base of the neck wider with a mighty swipe of his sword. Dark-blue fluid fizzed from the wound as Chiro slumped to the ground, twitching but no longer trying to rise.
The Somber Knight stomped over and chopped off the head.

  “You got her,” Seth said, drawing closer.

  “Stay back, lad,” the Somber Knight said. “Her corrosive bile could eat right through your boots.” He removed the grapnel from the dragon’s mouth and started winding the chain.

  “It didn’t ruin your armor,” Seth said.

  “Not much can harm this armor,” the Somber Knight said, coming to Seth.

  “That was amazing,” Seth said. “You killed two dragons.”

  “It’s my job,” the Somber Knight said. “You made the first one easy. Dreadwolves sometimes shelter in that cave. Lucky for you it was empty today. The second dragon took some effort.”

  “You cut off her head,” Seth said.

  “Best way to be sure,” the Somber Knight said. “Dragons can be resilient.”

  The Somber Knight whistled, and his bull came plodding over.

  “Is it made of tar?” Seth asked.

  “Mostly,” the Somber Knight said. “I have ridden to battle on Umbro many times. He’s a dullion, kind of like a golem. He’s fast and tireless.”

  “I got attacked by a dullion once,” Seth said. “It was shaped like a big person.”

  “They come in many forms,” the Somber Knight said. “No real life in them. No personality. Umbro just follows orders. Which makes him much more useful than many people I have met.”

  “How did you find me?” Seth asked.

  “I had a tip from Lord Dalgorel,” the Somber Knight said. “I sensed when the dragons declared war. I’m in tune with the treaties and boundaries of Wyrmroost. As I was preparing to depart, Dalgorel came and told me where you, Kendra, Eve, and your manservant were heading.”

  “We need to find Eve,” Seth said.

  “Right here,” she said, seeming to appear at his side out of some wisps of steam.

  “You were still hiding,” Seth said.

  “Can’t be too careful,” Eve said. “Nice work, Ryland.”

  “Few have bothered to learn my name,” the Somber Knight said.

  “I like the old stories,” Eve said.