by S. G. Rogers
“Efysian will have to find another inspiration, won’t he?”
“No, Greggoran is the last great wizard of Yden. When he fades, Efysian will fade, too,” Lialia said with a pout.
“I'm sure Dr. Hansen is a great doctor, but a wizard?”
Lialia cocked her head as if listening to something far off. “My master approaches,” she said. She punctuated the end of her sentence with a giggle.
“Help me escape before he returns,” Brett pleaded.
“I cannot. I am Lialia, the Guardian.”
“Okay, I see your problem,” Brett said, although she didn't understand Lialia at all. She picked up a strand of blond hair and twirled it around her finger. “I think you're right. Efysian is a babe. The longer I stay, the more he grows on me. Maybe we do have a future together. You don't mind if you and I share him, do you?”
Lialia grabbed Brett by the elbow and hustled her through the cavern. As they drew near the wall, Brett could see no opening.
“Er…where are we going?” she asked.
“Out, of course.”
Lialia and Brett passed through the rock and emerged in a tunnel. Brett put her hands on the wall behind her, but the rock was unyielding. “That's a good trick,” she said to Lialia, impressed. “How'd you do it?”
“It’s a trade secret.”
Brett glanced over at the passage on her right and did a double take. Piles of the most gorgeous designer shoes beckoned to her. “Ooh, goody. Do you have any size seven?”
She started forward, but Lialia held her back. “Go the other way,” she scolded. “Don't you mortals know anything? You’d fall for any old illusion.”
Lialia gave Brett a little push into the left-hand passage, filled with mist. “Follow this passageway to the outside and do not return.”
“Conundrum!” Efysian called from far up the rock tunnel.
His echoing voice filled Brett with a sincere desire to flee, but she cast one last, longing look at the shoes in the opposite corridor. Lialia made a noise of frustration and passed her hands in front of Brett’s eyes. “See? It’s a guise,” Lialia said.
The piles of shoes blurred, revealing a jumble of unremarkable rocks.
“Wow. I guess designer labels aren't everything,” Brett said, bewildered.
Lialia flapped her hands, as if to shoo her away. “Be gone, child.”
Brett hurried along the passage, feeling her way in the mist. For all she knew, this odd, deluded woman could have just pushed her into some kind of trap. But it seemed she had no choice. Unable to see in the dark, she fervently hoped the floor would continue to remain smooth. When the passageway took a sharp turn, she was relieved to find a torch. She loosened it from its sconce and held it out in front of her. The torchlight pierced the mist, and with one hand on the wall of the tunnel to guide her, she quickened her pace.
****
As Efysian drew near, Lialia fluffed her hair and moistened her lips. “Come in and relax for a while,” she crooned.
Her heart lifted when the wizard stopped, but then she realized his face was etched with weariness and his black hair was streaked with gray.
“Have you seen my wolf?” he asked.
Lialia’s shoulders slumped with disappointment. “I couldn't say.”
He brushed past, prompting Lialia to stomp her foot in frustration. She pouted and dissolved into the mist. Oblivious, Efysian passed through the rock wall and strode into his lair. He moved toward the dragon claw cage, chuckling to himself.
“Kira, you'll be delighted to know the Nomads have allied themselves with Mandral,” he called out. “You have been forsaken.”
The Wolf Clan wizard stopped in his tracks, stunned to see the cage empty. Snatching Brett's bloody, torn sweater from the ground, he shook it in rage.
“Conundrum, you greedy wolf!”
Wolf Mountain quivered. In a dark crevice along one of the numerous mountain passageways, Conundrum ducked his nose under his paws and whined.
****
Fred stared at Adam in horror. “You're not getting me to ride on that thing. No way.”
“You're right,” Jon replied, as he rummaged in his knapsack. “There are four of us and only one dragon. Every Adam needs an Eve, right boy?”
Adam launched himself high into the air and did a backflip. Gasps and shouts rose from the soldiers on the ground below as they saw the enormous red dragon for the first time. Some men fell to their knees and a few appeared to faint.
“What a bunch of sissies,” Fred scoffed. “Haven’t they ever seen a dragon before?”
The dragon landed on top of the central turret and wagged his tail. He watched with eager anticipation as Jon used a green marker to sketch out a female dragon.
“When you draw, it doesn't seem to take much of your energy,” Casey observed.
“It doesn’t take any effort at all. It feels like breathing,” Jon said.
Fred stood off a few paces, sullen, as the new drawing shimmered and took shape. “This stinks. I'm not going.”
Eve solidified into a gorgeous green dragon with a more delicate head and neck than Adam. She trumpeted the air with a blast so loud even Fred covered his ears. The two dragons took off together for a short flight, crisscrossing one another like two aerial otters. Casey noticed the ensuing panic in the encampments below.
“Why do the soldiers act afraid?” he asked Kira.
“What you see isn’t fear. They are overcome with emotion. The Dragon Clan was thought to have died out,” she said.
“You mean they were killed off,” Jon said. “But now that I'm here, things are different.”
“Why do the Nomads care what happened to the dragons?” Casey asked.
“Before I was born, the Dragon Clan and the Nomads had an alliance. The Dragon Clan championed the Nomads so they could live free.”
“Freedom,” Casey said.
“Yes,” Kira replied. “We never knew what we had until it was lost.”
As Adam and Eve touched down on the turret, their beating wings caused Kira’s hair to whip across her face. The dragons tilted their heads toward Jon, as if waiting for instructions.
“We must find Efysian,” Jon said. “When we do, we'll find Brett and my dad.”
“Well, does the dude have a post office box or something?” Fred asked.
“Unfortunately, no one knows the exact location of Efysian’s lair, except Dorsit,” Kira said.
Fred groaned in response. “That’s great,” he said. “Dorsit’s out to lunch just now.”
“But he did tell me it was somewhere inside Wolf Mountain,” Kira said.
“Okay, Wolf Mountain it is,” Jon said.
****
A barrel-chested muscular man, heavily armed, barged into Mandral's throne room unannounced. “Why didn’t you tell me the Dragon Clan had arisen?” he demanded. “Our alliance is ended.”
“The Dragon Clan hasn’t arisen, Rampen Szul,” Mandral said. “Have some wine.”
Tyrg poured the wine, wiping the rim of the decanter with a silken napkin. As he handed the goblet to Szul, Tyrg managed to drop the napkin over the spyball to conceal it from view.
“Whatever you saw was merely an illusion,” the warlord told Szul.
“My daughter just flew away from this castle on the back of an illusion! Explain that!” Szul exclaimed.
“Mischievous magic. Efysian is obviously trying to deceive you into breaking our alliance,” Mandral said.
Szul's hand fell to the haft of his sword. “Efysian is here?”
“Efysian is capable of trickery from afar,” suggested Tyrg.
“Then it is true Efysian grows in power,” Szul said, shaking his head. “He is like an eternal flame that never burns out.”
The Nomad leader took a deep, bracing drink from his goblet.
“Even Efysian cannot stand against the armies of three territories,” scoffed Mandral. “When we discover the exact location of his lair, we shall be rid of him at last.”
“There are rumors Efysian can sustain himself forever,” Szul said.
“Such a thing isn’t possible. Efysian may be the most powerful wizard on Yden, but he’s still a mortal man,” Tyrg replied.
“Efysian made it known he’d killed the wizard Dorsit of the Leopard Clan,” Szul said.
“So?” Mandral asked.
“Dorsit was seen wandering the territory, drained. He claimed Efysian had imprisoned him and fed off his energy. Efysian believed him to be dead, and that is how Dorsit escaped,” Szul replied.
“Dorsit is lying.” Mandral said. He gestured to Tyrg. “Find the wizard Dorsit and bring him here for questioning.”
“The Leopard Clan wizard has disappeared without a trace,” Szul said. “But if what he claims is true, no one will be able to defeat Efysian until the last wizard on Yden is gone.”
After a long, pregnant silence, Mandral roared with laughter.
“Let me send some of this good wine to your Nomad warriors, Rampen, and tell them not to be led astray by magic tricks and gossip. Warlord Mandral shall be their champion now.”
Rampen Szul allowed himself to be escorted out. As soon as he was gone, Mandral's merriment ceased.
“Now I know how Efysian remains vital,” he muttered. “The game has now changed.”
“Perhaps you should have allowed me to kill the boy wizard when I had the chance?” Tyrg suggested.
Mandral's head whipped around to lacerate Tyrg with a glare. A moment later his expression softened. “Tyrg, I want the names and locations of every wizard on Yden. I shall eliminate all of them, one by one.”
Tyrg nodded. “Very clever, Warlord. With a little patience, there will be no need to fight Efysian outright.”
Mandral uncovered the spyball. He and Tyrg watched as the two dragons sped over the countryside.
“We must kill Jon Hansen before he reaches Efysian. Tell me as soon as Warlord Gnoam arrives,” Mandral said.
“He has already arrived with a brigade of warriors and Gnoamian Imps,” Tyrg said.
“Inform Gnoam's wizard—”
“Aeltin of the Falcon Clan.”
“Inform Aeltin privately I wish to see him. I’ll induce him to send the Imps in pursuit of Jon Hansen. I shall enjoy taunting Efysian with his body—assuming there is any flesh left on the bones.”
“The Imps are difficult to control, Warlord,” Tyrg said. “What if they kill Kira as well?”
“That will be…regrettable.”
Chapter Seventeen
The Damsel in Distress
Efysian found Conundrum cowering in a small pocket near the entrance of the mountain tunnel. He hauled the wolf out of the shadows by the scruff of his neck. Conundrum offered his master a feeble lick, but Efysian shoved Brett's bloody sweater at him. “How dare you eat my hostage!”
When he buried his nose in the sweater, the wolf stiffened. Howling in excitement, he bounded down the tunnel, tracking a scent. Efysian's eyes narrowed in anger. Several minutes later, Lialia gaped as Conundrum and Efysian approached.
“Back so soon, Efysian?” she asked, flustered. “Do you fancy a game of 'Hide in the Mist'?”
Conundrum howled and pointed his nose at the entrance of Lialia's tunnel. Efysian tossed the sweater to her. “Keeping secrets, Lialia?”
Her eyes grew wide when she saw the bloodstains.
“I don't know what you mean,” she squeaked. “Has there been some kind of accident?”
Efysian nodded to Conundrum. The wolf clamped his fangs around Lialia's wrist. Blood began to seep down Lialia's fingers. “Please, Efysian,” she whimpered.
“Conundrum will rip you to pieces, and that will be no accident,” Efysian said. “Now, have you seen the girl?”
“Yes! She came this way,” Lialia cried. “The girl is a powerful sorceress. I could not stop her.”
Conundrum tossed Lialia to the ground. Efysian stepped over her prone body. “I'll deal with you later, nymph,” he snarled.
****
Lialia nursed her wounds as she watched him follow Conundrum into the murky passageway. “You'll deal with me now, wizard,” she muttered.
She gathered mist in her bloody hand and blew on it. The tunnel became so filled with a thick, red-tinged fog that Efysian cursed.
Lialia giggled. “Oops.”
****
Brett inched along, her progress slowed by the appearance of a sudden thick fog. The reddish mist was so dense she could barely see the light from the torch. A stab of fear went through her as the distant echo of a howling wolf reached her ears. Pressing ahead, she came to what seemed to be a dead end. With the help of the torchlight, Brett realized the passage had split. Unfortunately, she had no clue as to which way to go. A few steps to her right revealed a downward slope. When she pointed the torch into the left-hand passage, however, the flame flickered, pulled by an air current.
“Finally, the way out!” she said.
Edging into the left-hand tunnel, she felt the stone beneath her feet sloping up. She was certain she was headed the right way, but then she found herself teetering on the edge of a grotto even bigger than Efysian's lair. With no easy path down to the bottom and Conundrum's howls growing closer, she was trapped.
Lialia's fog hung like a whisper in the air. Brett noticed the mist flowing toward the opposite side of the grotto, where the darkness appeared to lessen. The challenge would be to get across without falling to her death. The cavern had no floor, only small platforms of rock thrusting up here and there like miniature buttes. The distances between most of the rock islands were too great for her to jump, but she could climb sideways along the craggy rock wall. She was suddenly grateful she’d taken a rock-climbing class in summer camp last year.
“Stay calm, move slowly, and maintain focus,” Brett told herself. “You can make it.”
She wedged the torch into a crack in the wall to free her hands for climbing. Light reflected off the minerals in the rock and made the cavern sparkle. It would have been rather pretty except for the fleeing-from-danger aspect of the moment. The wolf’s howling was almost upon her, and Brett knew she had to commit. Leaping onto a rocky outcropping, she found a handhold in the uneven cavern wall. She edged along a narrow ledge for several yards and then pulled herself up on a small plateau to rest. So far, so good, she thought.
****
Kira and Jon rode on Adam, with Casey and Fred on Eve. Although it would have been possible to ride the dragon barebacked, Jon took the precaution of drawing a harness into which they could hook their hands and feet. He also drew a scabbard for Kira’s sword so she could carry it on her back.
As he flew toward Wolf Mountain, Jon discovered he could talk quite easily while riding a dragon. The sensation was akin to floating, so he could carry on a conversation with his friends without too much trouble. After they’d been airborne for about an hour, Casey erupted in excitement. A herd of horselike, single-horned creatures were running wild in a forest clearing below. He nudged Fred with his elbow and pointed. “Unicorns!”
“Mmm,” Fred grunted.
Casey glanced over his shoulder to discover Fred’s eyes were squeezed shut and he seemed a little green. “Are you afraid of heights?” he asked.
“No,” Fred said. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Carsick.”
“You should open your eyes,” Casey said. “It’ll help.”
“If you don’t want barf down your back, leave me alone,” Fred muttered.
Casey fell silent for a few moments.
“Look, Fred, a pepperoni pizza bush!” he exclaimed.
Fred’s eyes popped open and he looked around. “Where?” He paused. “Gee, Casey, that was cruel.”
“Are you still carsick?”
“Er…no. Hey, you were right!”
A couple of minutes later, Fred’s stomach began to growl. “Jon, are there any fly-through joints around here? I'm hungry.”
“I guess we can take a break,” Jon replied.
He directed Adam to land in a grassy field next to a wide, rolling stream. Eve followed, tracing a graceful spiral downward. Jon, Kira, Fred, and Casey slid off the dragons with somewhat wobbly legs.
“All I have are cereal bars and chocolate,” Jon said. He glanced toward the stream. “At least there’s water.”
Casey opened his backpack. “They're cold, of course, but I've got burgers.”
“Huh?” Jon said. “How'd you do that?”