Battle of the Dragon (The Chronicles of Dragon, Series 2, Book 3) (Tail of the Dragon)

by Craig Halloran

  Twirling his swords, Liam said, “No, you aren’t. You’re dead already.”

  Halberd pointed at Liam’s chest, the orcen cyclops charged. “Raaaaah!”

  Liam shifted to one side and stuck the cyclops in the chest and belly with his swords.

  The huge orc moaned, “Urk!”

  Liam shoved the brute off the catwalk. “And that’s how you kill a giant.”

  ***

  Brenwar punched, but he couldn’t kick. His feet were still tangled, and the orcs were trying to pummel him to death. He socked orc after orc in the nose, ribs, and face. All the while, the nuurg fighter drew him in closer, hand over hand, link by link.

  “I smell a dwarf!” the nuurg would say. “A dead dwarf! Save his beard for me!”

  Brenwar bent an orc’s arm and twisted until it snapped. The orc let out a howl, startling its fighting kindred. It gave Brenwar some breathing room. He snaked a dagger out of an orc’s belt and poked over and over. The deadly jabs sent them away—dying and screaming. Still being dragged, Brenwar sat up again and chucked the dagger at the cyclops. It bounced off the cyclops’s chest.

  The cyclops smiled. “It takes a sharper blade than that to harm my flesh.” The cyclops hauled Brenwar up by his tangled feet, leaving the dwarf suspended upside down. The cyclops leered at Brenwar. “This will be fun.”

  “Fun!” Brenwar spat back. “I’ll show you fun.” He took a swing that wasn’t even close.

  Still holding the chain that held Brenwar up, the cyclops spun around. The momentum lifted Brenwar’s head higher off the ground.

  “What?” he said. “What in Morgdon are you doing?”

  The cyclops spun faster and faster. “I’m going to sling you like a rock into that wall.”

  Brenwar objected. “Nobody slings a dwarf! Nobody!”

  The cyclops let him fly.

  Brenwar sailed through the air, bunched himself like a cannonball, and smacked hard into the wall. The stones loosened under his stout weight and popped out on the other side. Shaking it off, he marched out from under the catwalk.

  The cyclops gawped.

  Brenwar lifted his arm up. “Liam!”

  On the catwalk standing above Brenwar, the elf replied, “Yes?”

  “Lend me your steel!”

  Liam dropped it right into the dwarf’s open mitt.

  Sword in hand, Brenwar stormed toward the cyclops. “I’ve had my fill of you!”

  The giant orc tossed aside his chain and rushed right for Brenwar. “I’m going to fill my pots with your hide!”

  With hundreds of years’ experience to his favor, Brenwar cut the cyclops to ribbons. The monster was dead in seconds.

  “Well done!” Liam yelled to him.

  “Aye.” Brenwar marched back into the fray. The rout was on. The orcs were dropping like flies, second after second.

  CHAPTER 24

  Cold, damp, and dark would describe the dungeon cellar Nath crept into. At the bottom of the steps under the hatch was a high and wide tunnel dug out of the dirt. Wooden beams held the earth in place, and oil lanterns hung on the posts, giving off a dim light. Nath sniffed the moldy air. A familiar scent wafted into his nose.

  Selene!

  He hurried down the tunnel and came to a stop at an iron door that barred his path. It was solid and without a portal for him to see through. He put his ear to the door. Something scraped on the other side. It was like the sound of a varmint clawing on a stone floor. He tugged on the handle, but there wasn’t any give. That’s when he noticed a set of keys hung on a peg nearby.

  The first key he tried turned the lock, and with a tug, the heavy creaking door swung open. A moth bigger than his head flew out. A strange raccoon-like critter bolted out of the room and vanished down the tunnel. Nath pulled the door open wide and went in. Steel bars and doors decorated both sides of the tunnel.

  Venturing into the dungeon, he noted some of the cells were empty, but not all. Locked up in one cell, a pair of halflings huddled in the corner. They were small, young, and shivering like leaves. A brown-haired male and female. Their round eyes fixed on Nath then looked away.

  “It’s going to be fine. Come on,” he said, unlocking the door and opening it up. “You’re free now.”

  The male halfling stirred and came his way. The female tried to tug the male back by his tattered clothing. Without looking at Nath, he grabbed the door and shut himself back inside. “Go away. You bring certain death upon us.”

  “The orcs will be defeated. You are free. The nuurg have fallen.”

  The halfling huddled back with his female and said as he tucked his head away, “They are not what we fear. Go, go away.”

  “There is nothing to fear here,” Nath said. “The path is clear.”

  The halfling said nothing.

  Nath unlocked the cell again and proceeded to the next. There was a skeleton with the bones picked clean. It was empty, and so was the next, but for more skeletons. The only living things he saw were the halflings. Otherwise the entire place was abandoned. At least it looked to be. There were still a few cells left at the end.

  Selene, you must be here. I can smell you. My nose doesn’t lie.

  Debris fell from above.

  Nath glanced up. The dirt in the ceiling was moving. At first he thought it was from the battle above, perhaps the giants shaking the ground.

  No, it’s not that.

  His hand fell to his elven sword.

  A mouth full of teeth burst through the dirt ceiling, swallowing Nath’s arm up to the elbow.

  “Gah!” Nath tried to shake the creature off. It was a ghastly huge centipede thing. Its sharp teeth chomped down on his scales. It continued to inch up his swallowed arm, farther and farther. “Sultans of Sulfur! Get off me!”

  The monster’s tail looked and shook like a snake’s rattle. It was one of the weirdest creatures Nath had ever seen.

  He started banging the creature into the metal bars.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  “Get off of me!”

  The insect held on. Nath kept on hitting it. Like with a tick, the harder he hit it, the deeper it bit. The only thing saving his arm was his scales. He grabbed it by the tail and started pulling it off. “Argh!”

  The insect wouldn’t give.

  “That’s it!” Nath said. On his free hand, he bared his claws. “Two can play at this game!” He plunged his fingers into the crunchy armor of the insect and ripped it off him, hunk by hunk. Finally, the insect’s jaws gave way, and Nath slung it down the corridor. Slinging the insect’s remaining muck off his arm, he said, “That was gross.”

  Eyeing the ceiling, he backed toward the last two cells at the end of the row. The one on the left was empty. The one on the right had a body. He grabbed the bars. “Selene!”

  Selene lay on the cell floor, huddled up but breathing. She was still in the deep sleep and otherwise unharmed.

  Nath tried the keys in the lock. There were several. None of them worked. “What’s going on?” Again, he stuck in key after key after key. Nothing worked. “Great!”

  The steel bars were thick. “If I could just breathe fire on them, I could melt them.” He clasped his hands around the bars. “I guess I’m going to have to try and get you out of there the hard way.” He tried to pull the vertical bars apart. Muscles bulged in his arms. Sweat dripped down the side of his cheek. “Come on!”

  The metal started to bend. It began to groan under his power. Nath took a breath, held it, and pulled with raw power. The steel stretched. The bars parted wide.

  “Yes!”

  He squeezed through the metal and picked Selene up in his arms. After brushing her hair from her eyes with his nose, he whispered in her ear, “Selene? Wake up, Selene.”

  Lips parted, she said nothing.

  Nath noticed that other than being scraped up a little, she was in good condition. He slipped himself and her out of the cell and headed back toward the main tunnel. The halflings were still in their cell. Nath kicked
the insect monster’s teeth toward them. “Are you coming? I don’t think there’s anything to fear now.”

  Eyes fixed on the teeth, the halflings squeaked. They looked at Nath, and the little halfling man said, “There are no more?”

  “No more.”

  The male halfling took the female halfling’s hand. “Lead the way.”

  Seconds later, they emerged topside of the tunnel and were back inside the stables. The wrathhorns were quiet. Perfectly still. Nath headed toward the exit. No sounds of battle were heard on the other side. He set Selene down, drew his sword, and—fearing the worst—he headed outside.

  Brenwar stood in the center of the courtyard along with Liam, Sansla, and the rest of the roamer elves. The orcs and nuurg had been defeated. The survivors were bound up and had surrendered.

  Crossing the courtyard, Nath called out, “Brenwar, where’s the celebration?”

  The dwarf’s bearded frown didn’t change. He pointed at the high walls and towers.

  Like a giant flock of scaled pigeons on the walls, parapets, and tower tops, wurmers perched side by side with each other by the dozens.

  CHAPTER 25

  Hovering above the middle of the courtyard for all to see was Lotuus the Fairy Empress. Her black eyes landed on Nath. “Hello, Nath Dragon. We meet again.”

  Nath sheathed his elven sword. “The pleasure is all yours.”

  “Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah. My, you have such a charming wit. Too bad it hasn’t done you any good.” She glided down in front of his eyes, bouncing the wand with his tassel of hair off her cheek. “You really should be more careful with that lovely hair of yours. This led me right to you. Well, it led the wurmers, anyway. They make excellent bloodhounds.”

  “If they’re so good, then why did it take you a year to find me?”

  “I think your little sword had something to do with that. Oh, that escape you pulled off at Urslay was really something. Eckubahn is still furious. Poof. You were gone.” She rapped him on the head with her wand. “But that will never happen again, now that your sword is in my possession.”

  Nath nodded in agreement, but his mind was racing. It was good news that Lotuus had Fang. That solved one of the mysteries. “You know, I don’t think you have it. It’s not possible. Fang doesn’t play well with fluttering foul ilk.”

  “Fluttering foul ilk?” She touched her chest. “Me? How unflattering for you to say.”

  “There’s more to come. It’s sad, though, you being such a beautiful fairy. One that I alone freed. Only to have you turn on me.”

  She flipped him in the head with her tassel again. “You are such a pawn.”

  Fastening his eyes on hers, he spoke in a sweet and gentle voice. “Lotuus, you are far too marvelous to be so evil. Why not side with the dragons? Why the wicked spirits of the titans? You are a creature of magic and dignity. You know that, yet you defy it. Why?”

  Long-faced, she said, “Because.”

  “That is not an answer. How about you and I talk? Just talk. I sense the hurt inside you. I want to help take it away.”

  “No!” Wings buzzing, she drifted backward. “I like my anger. It makes me strong. It reminds me that the fairies don’t have to rely on anybody—not you, not your father, nor even the titans. But at least they will destroy everything I hate.”

  “Like the living?”

  “Especially the living. They’re the ones ruining everything! They fight. They steal. They lie. Who needs them?”

  “It’s not the races stirring the pot this time, Lotuus. It’s the titans, and you know that. Now more people die because of it.”

  “No, the dragons caused this long ago. They imprisoned me and the titans. Wrongly. It is your kind that causes the problem, not mine.”

  “The titans destroy. The dragons preserve. Even an orc knows that.” Palms up and out by his sides, he pleaded with her. “Your kind are not evil. At least not all of them. They follow your lead. You can change their path.”

  Hovering around Nath, she replied, “You say your dragons preserve life? Then where are they? Hmmm? People fall prey to the titans every day by the hundreds, and not a single dragon has shown up to stop them. They don’t care, and I’m curious. Why do you?”

  “They care,” Nath said under his breath.

  Lotuus made a good point, though. Her captivating eyes and voice made her argument quite convincing. If the dragons cared about the people so much, then why didn’t they help them more?

  “The dragons did help the people. And the people turned on them,” Brenwar blurted out. “That’s why!”

  “That’s not how I recall it,” she said.

  “While you live, it’s never too late for redemption, Lotuus,” Nath said, offering his hand. He had to try to win her over. Be sincere. There wasn’t any other way out of the situation they were in. On a single word from her, the wurmers would strike and kill them all. “Why not change?”

  “I tried it the other way before, and it just didn’t suit me. I’m more suited for what I do now.”

  In a warning tone, Nath said, “You’ll lose. And this time you won’t be locked up again. This time you’ll be destroyed by dragon fire.”

  “What dragon fire? Yours? You don’t have any, Nath Dragon. And you don’t have that sword to get you out of this bind. No. You’re coming with me. We’re going to see Eckubahn.”

  Nath nodded at his friends. “And what about them?”

  “You and I are going to watch the wurmers kill them.”

  CHAPTER 26

  A shadow covered the fortress as if a cloud had rolled in above. Looking up, Nath said, “You might want to rethink that!” He pointed at the sky.

  Staying the wurmers with her hands, Lotuus peered above. Her lips curled into a sneer. “No, no, no!”

  Circling above them was a mountain of scales with wings. A flying fortress with claws and teeth. A dragon. And not just any dragon, a sky raider with horns on its skull the size of twisted oaks.

  “I’m guessing he’s here to help me, not you,” Nath said. “And judging by the look in his eye, well, he won’t be taking any prisoners. So what will it be, Lotuus? Do you want to surrender?” Nath hitched his leg up on a barrel of grain. “I tell you what, give me back my sword—”

  “And my war hammer!” Brenwar blurted out.

  “Yes, and that,” Nath continued, “and I’ll let you go free. See, I’m reasonable. No bloodshed. No violence.” He cleared his throat. Nath was buying time.

  Where in the world did that sky raider come from? His timing couldn’t have been better. Good thing she doesn’t know that. I’d better pour it on.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Lotuus. Certainly a dozen of your wurmers can take down the raider. But that would divide your forces. I don’t mean to brag, but more dragons are on the way. He just happened to be the closest one in the area.”

  Fists balled up at her sides, Lotuus replied, “You’re a horrible liar, Nath Dragon.”

  He shrugged and glanced up. “Am I?”

  A second shadow fell over the crowd of onlookers below. Another sky raider had appeared. Saliva dripped from the jaws of the wurmers. Their throats rumbled like rattles. Death filled their bright eyes. Their sharp teeth chomped and grinded together. They wanted to fight. They wanted to kill. It was their only purpose.

  “Impossible,” she said through her teeth.

  “Am I not the Dragon Prince? You shouldn’t be surprised.” He stretched his hand toward her and clasped his fingers in and out. “Return my sword.”

  Eyeing the sky, Lotuus chewed her lip. Her eyes glided between Nath and the sky raider dragons. She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I don’t have your sword.”

  “Now who’s the rotten liar?”

  “Well, not on me,” she said, displaying her lovely figure and spinning in the air. “Do I look like someone who would adorn myself so heavily?

  “Where is it?” Nath demanded.

  “Oh, you’ll find it.” She pointed. “It’s in the
woods, over there somewhere.”

  The two sky raiders started to descend.

  “I think you need to be more specific.”

  “Do I need to draw you a map?” she yelled.

  “Yes,” he replied. “And I want my lock of hair back.”

  Hugging it, she said, “But I’m so fond of it.”

  “Hand it over.”

  “Fine.” She threw it down on the ground. “Your sword is with the dead wilder elves a league that way. Just follow the stench.” She motioned to the wurmers. “Come.”

  She darted off into the sky, looking over her shoulder, heading north and away from Thraag. The wurmers took right in behind her.

  The sky raiders’ roars were louder than thunder. Their voices shook the walls like great brass horns. “MAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO! MAAAAAOOOOOOO!” The pair of great dragons gave chase after the wurmers.

  “They’re going after them!” Nath ran for the steps that led up the catwalk and watched from the walls. “Look!”

  The huge sky raiders tore through the sky and descended on the wurmers. The wurmers turned and attacked. Flames gushed out of a sky raider’s mouth, enveloping the wurmers in a great ball of fire. They screeched and burned. Tumbled from the sky. The second sky raider smashed through the wurmer ranks. The wurmers pinned themselves to its body, scratching, clawing, and biting. The sky raider took the dragon insectoids to the ground and ripped them to pieces with its claws. It gored them with its horns and tore them apart with its tail.

  The wurmers fought in a knot of fury. They spat balls of fiery energy. They dug in with claws and teeth. The sky raiders, mighty and strong, brought the heat. The entire valley turned into dragon flames. Pillars of black smoke went up in a huge plume.

  Nath lost sight of the battle in the all-consuming smoke and fire. Only the angry roars were heard, so loud that they seemed to shake the entire world. He could feel the searing heat on his face. He smiled.

  A minute later, the sky raiders burst out of the flames and let out a roar of victory.