by M. H. Bonham
“Yeah,” I said, realizing that despite having a good friend who was a dragon back on Earth, I really didn’t know all their powers. These dragons kicked ass. Or Nightmares. Or whatever. Within a few minutes, all the riders and their Nightmares and Night-stallions were down and the dragons were happily munching away. I guess if you’ve been starved the way the Drow starved Darkfire, I couldn’t blame him for eating the Drow.
“Where’s Vindar?” I said looking into the giant mosh pit of dead Dark Elves.
One of the other dragons looked at me and her nostrils started to smoke. She was a smaller red dragon who looked healthier than my friend. The other dragon was a male silver dragon with massive claws. He was as big as Darkfire but had a lot more mass because he hadn’t been starved. Darkfire put his claw on her snout. He’s a friend.
Friend? A Drow is your friend?
He isn’t Drow. Smell him. He is a wizard.
She looked hard at me and then snuffed the air. Not Drow, but the female is. And they have a demon.
“They’re both with me,” I said. “They’re here to help.” I turned to Darkfire. “You found other dragons in the tunnels?”
Darkfire looked pleased. I found outside and found my people. Lady Flamewing and Lord Silverstar decided to come to help me out. They hunt well.
I half bowed. “It is a pleasure to meet such amazing dragons.”
Li’alla’s eyes were huge with fear, but she quickly brought it under control and rolled her shoulders out before giving a half bow as well. “Welcome. Thank you for helping us.”
Darkfire considered her for a moment. You are welcome, Li’alla, child of Nana Ironspell. You may call me “Dark.” Ironspell told me about you when he summoned me. I know you are friends.
Tuzren flew over to them and raised his hand. “Hot shit! You guys were awesome!” Darkfire high-fived him with one claw that caused the demon to tumble backwards in the air a few yards before getting control of himself.
I looked over the dead and I didn’t see Vindar. Had he escaped? I turned to Darkfire. “Do you know who Vindar is?”
Darkfire shook his head. I dealt with the handlers and the butchers, not the military.
Sorry, you all look alike to me, Flamewing said.
“He was leading the Dark Elves.” I looked around, but I saw nothing of Vindar. He must have been a cat, because it looked like this guy had nine lives.
“Did you see where they might have stored the Elfshot?”
The dragons looked nonplussed. Li’alla cleared her throat. “Ask them where the armory is or stacks of arrows.”
You can speak to me directly, Darkfire informed her between crunching a soldier in his dragonscale armor. Crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.
I laughed and Li’alla smacked my arm. “Oww. Well, have you seen either?” I said.
Darkfire shook his head, but Silverstar nodded. I know where it is. I’ve seen it on one of our raids. The arrows you’re looking for are in a complex miles away from here. The safest way to get there would be to fly. We will carry you since you have rescued my cousin’s son.
“Wow!” Tuzren grinned manically. “I never rode a dragon before.” He flew up to Darkfire and rubbed the dragon’s neck as he ate. Darkfire smirked as he chomped into a Nightmare.
I gulped. Riding a dragon sounds impressive, but I had done it before. And it is about the most dangerous and uncomfortable transportation imaginable—and that includes teleportation. Dragons aren’t made for riding. You can’t just sit on the back and hang on. No. They can’t carry you on their necks, because of the balance problem. You can’t ride behind their wings because of the air buffeting you around. You have to ride kneeing to avoid those wretched spine spikes that look impressive. And you have to hang onto them to prevent you from falling off. So, you basically hang on with spine spikes pointed at your private parts, where if there is any bump, you either get tossed or castrated. I’m pretty sure I’d prefer getting tossed.
Not only that, but add my terror of heights, and well…you get the idea. I had ridden my friend, Smog, at the Denver Zoo once to stop a deranged sorcerer, but I didn’t take him up on any other rides. Okay, so I’m a wuss. Sue me.
I planned on riding Darkfire out of the tunnels because while he was on the ground, despite the potential castration, we wouldn’t be flying. “Is flying the only way to get there?”
It is the fastest and less dangerous than these tunnels. You don’t want to meet up with feral Nightmares, Orcs, and rock ogres.
“Rock ogres?”
Li’alla nodded. “There are tunnels which connect ours. The rock ogres use them to raid on us.”
“Marvy.” I took a deep breath. “Okay. How far are we to the outside?”
We’ll take you. Silverstar said.
“Maybe we should try opening a Gateway,” I said stubbornly. “You’ve been there before, haven’t you?” I glanced at Li’alla, who shook her head. I scowled. One of the problems with portals was you needed to have someone who knew where you were going or who had a map to be able to use a portal. It was sort of like hyperspace in Star Wars. Making a jump through a portal wasn’t like dust crops. To paraphrase Han Solo, without knowing precisely where we were going, we could take a wrong dimension, end up inside solid rock, or in the belly of a dragon, and that'd end our trip real quick, wouldn't it? My bounce into Denver was planned, but even that got screwed up and I appeared years later off my mark. Only I had a sneaky suspicion that Verthandi had hijacked the portal to show me the consequences of my actions. Either that, or that much time had really passed on Earth because of the differential. I couldn’t afford to think about that right now, because we still had the Elfshot to deal with.
We decided to go back to the Dark Market and take what we needed while our dragon ride finished their meal. I didn’t like stealing, so in spite of Li’alla’s objections, I left some gold as payment. Now, I wasn’t too concerned if Vindar brought a whole Drow battalion; three firedrakes were enough to destroy anything.
I figured we were good against Nightmares and Orcs, but I had no idea what rock ogres were. Knowing my luck, they were the supersized version of the regular ogres, which were pretty supersized already. Just once I’d like to see a special version of monster that was actually smaller and weaker than the normal garden variety of monster. I’m just funny that way, I suppose.
We both climbed up on Silverstar when he had finished eating, not wanting to be an extra burden to Darkfire. Darkfire nuzzled me gently—or about as gentle as a dragon could—and said, Call me “Dark” when speaking to those who do not know my true name, Namer.
My eyes widened. Not at his request to call him by a nickname around others but the title he bestowed upon me. Namers were rare among wizards, let alone humans, and a dragon calling you a Namer was akin to giving you the power to do it. “I would’ve given you a more glorious name, had I been thinking straight.”
Perhaps you still can. I do not have any legendary exploits to boast of, so you may have to think of something.
“I think you are legendary as it is,” I admitted. If a dragon could blush, Darkfire looked like he would have.
We rode forward on Silverstar, my hands gripping the spine spikes and Li’alla clutching me around my waist. Tuzren sat on my shoulder, wearing of all things, goggles as he faced into the ambient wind. I didn’t bother to ask where he had gotten them. I could barely feel Li’alla’s arms since I still had the dragonscale armor on, but by her grip, I suspected the ride was as unpleasant for her as it was for me. Civilian Dark Elves fled the dragons as they made their way through the main tunnel. The dragons, sated on Drow soldiers and Nightmares, ignored them for the most part, but any of Vindar’s soldiers were quickly snapped up and chomped, if they didn’t get away.
I tried not to feel sorry for them, but they were Elves with families. Perhaps they joined Vindar in hopes of a better future, or maybe Vindar conscripted them. But I didn’t speak out either because these soldiers followed
a vicious sociopath who would bring about the deaths of billions of creatures instead of simply compromising. Maybe the Light Elves wouldn’t compromise with them, but humans surely would once the other Dark Elves shown that they weren’t complicit with Vindar. Sure, humans had their hatreds and their prejudices, but cooler heads would eventually prevail. We humans knew what was right and wrong, even if we didn’t act on it from time to time. The other races were less flexible.
Humans, for all our flaws and faults, didn’t deserve to be wiped out.
And having seen the future if Vindar won made me more resolute than ever to not see it come to pass.
We made it to the underground entrance and I renewed our air conditioning spells as the dragons leapt into the air. Guards and civilian Elves scattered in terror as the three firedrakes came barreling out of the darkness. The main entrance to the tunnels sat on a rocky cliff, overlooking a plain which had large rivers of fire cut deep ravines beneath it. The heat was intense and the bare ground strewn with rocks had no life on it.
To my surprise, Darkfire could fly, even with that damaged wing. I felt the familiar tingle of magic—magic I had felt with my friend, Smog—around Darkfire’s wings. I suspected that either Darkfire’s magic, or magic from one of the other two dragons, was holding him aloft. He seemed genuinely thrilled to be able to soar above the hot valleys.
The dragons flew higher than I felt was truly necessary, but the higher we flew, the cooler the air was. Despite the clouds acting like a hothouse, we received some reprieve from the relentless heat. I felt Li’alla’s death grip through the armor, but said nothing. I was trembling and forced myself to simply stare at the spine spikes rather than trying to imagine what falling into a lava river felt like from thousands of feet up. Okay, maybe I imagined a little bit.
“Whee!” shouted Tuzren. “Isn’t this fun?”
I didn’t deign a response.
I tried to focus more on Silverstar’s head and where we were going, but found myself getting sick and staring back at the spine spikes. So, it came as a surprise when we started our descent towards our destination. I looked up from the silver dragon’s back and saw a flat plain ahead. Like the mountains we had been in, it had great chasms filled with rivers of lava running through it. Unlike the mountains, the plain actually had grasses growing on it, and even some trees. That surprised me, but life often thrives in the oddest places. I remember reading about bacteria and other organisms that lived in volcanic vents under the ocean. Life adapts to just about any environment, given enough time.
The dragons circled once and then landed on the plain. We’re here, Darkfire announce.
Chapter Nineteen
I looked over the volcanic plain. “Where the hell are we?”
On the plains of Runa, Silverstar replied.
“I thought we were finding the Elfshot.”
You are—this is a safe place to land. You’ll have to walk to the cavern, Darkfire said.
“You’re not coming with us?” I slowly crawled to my feet and carefully slid down off the dragon’s back, gripping scales to arrest my fall. Which is to say I half climbed down and half fell. But I did land on my feet, much to my relief. Tuzren had enough sense to abandon me as I made my way down the dragon in case I actually fell and took him along for the ride. Li’alla climbed down much more gracefully than I could have ever done. Elves. They made everything look good. Yeah, I hated them at this moment.
Even though I was part Fae, I was still mostly human, which made it tough to look graceful compared to any of them. Li’alla, despite some distant human genes looked all Dark Elf. So even though we were related by blood, she was still very Dark Elf.
We have fulfilled our debt to you, Silverstar replied. Good luck and be careful. Vindar is an evil sorcerer, even though he failed to harm you, he won’t make a second mistake twice.
Darkfire nudged me in a way that told me he wanted to speak privately to me. I will come to your call if you need me, Namer.
I looked at Darkfire. I should have given you a better name.
I like my name, but if you want to give me a longer name, I would not object.
I can do that? I was surprised by the revelation.
You are a Namer. You can change the names of any creature at will.
Darkfire’s words sunk in and I stared at him. I thought he had been polite calling me a Namer, but apparently I had power over names. Had I always had this power? I stared at the dragon. I had read a few pieces about Namers, but there wasn’t much really to go on. Namers could summon anything at will, making them master summoners and could control creatures whom they named. The type of power I wielded would be incredible—assuming I was really a Namer. “Are you sure?” I blurted out.
“Sure about what?” Li’alla asked.
Silverstar nudged her gently. Wait for them to finish their conversation.
Thank you. Darkfire turned to her. We are discussing his magic. He turned back to me. Quite sure. One thing dragons understand is magic. Will you give me a more powerful name?
I looked at him. I was really crummy at coming up with names. I mean, look at the only pet I had: Fluffy the vicious not-chicken but looks like a chicken. Yes, but did I always have this power?
It may have been latent. You are young. Some wizards don’t grow into their full potential right away.
I thought about that some more. I had been a pretty decent spellslinger most of my life, but I didn’t think of myself as extraordinary despite being from two powerful wizarding houses. My victory against Bailey was lucky, wasn’t it? If I hadn’t had Tuzren and Elryn to back me up, we’d probably be looking at most humans dead from the poisonous alchemical gas and the Drow taking over the Earth. Even with their help, millions had died. Okay, so what do I do to change your name?
Tell it to me and tell me to own it.
What if I pick a really sucky name?
You won’t. The dragon reassured me. Just concentrate on me.
I stared at the black dragon, unsure of what I was supposed to do. I took in his face, his eyes, his massive size, and his potential. My vision blurred and suddenly I saw Darkfire as a magnificent firedrake. His body was muscular and he looked like he had twice as much muscle on what was now his emaciated frame. I saw him flying over the Rocky Mountains, his shadow crossing over Mount Evans. And other dragons were following him including Silverstar and Flamewing. I smiled at the vision and it dissipated, leaving me looking at the ragged, bony creature in front of me. I felt magic surge in me and it seemed as though someone else spoke through me. Your name is Darkfire the Majestic, King of the Rocky Mountain Dragons. Will you own this?
Darkfire blinked. Is that a prophecy?
That is what I saw.
Darkfire lowered his head to me. I reached out and stroked his nose. I own this name. I will not forget this.
The other two dragons watched impassively as he raised his head again. He joined them and without a word, they took to the skies, leaving us alone again. Tuzren flew to my shoulder and lightly landed on it. “What did he tell you?”
I cocked my head. “He called me a Namer.”
“Seriously? Wow!” The demon looked impressed. “I knew there was more to you than just being a cop.”
Li’alla looked between both of us. “What’s a Namer?”
I was relieved that I knew more about it than most. “Namers are the ones who give actual names to things. They are powerful mages with the ability to summon creatures as well as rename them.”
“Can you use this power against Vindar?” she asked.
“If I were trained to use it, then I’d be pretty formidable.”
“But you’re not.”
I sighed. “No.”
She shrugged. “If you can use the Namer magic, so much the better, but we shouldn’t rely on it.” I must have looked relieved, because she smiled. “Let’s go find the Elfshot and destroy it.
~ * ~
We walked across the hot volcanic plateau, Tuzren flying n
ext to us. To my surprise, grasses grew on this tableland and seemed to be able to thrive even though the climate was hellish. Our walk, however, was not a straight shot. Too many crevasses cut through the plain, forcing us to walk around them. We would walk one direction, only to have to trace the crevasse to get around it, sometimes going back the way we came. It was infuriating.
After several hours of walking, we decided to stop and rest as the twin suns dove below the horizon. As the first stars came out, I was reminded how foreign this land was. Were we really in another universe or were we simply in another part of my universe?
“Are we resting here?” Tuzren asked.
I unlimbered my pack and set it on the ground. There was an oddly shaped tree here with dark and twisted branches as well as gnarled roots. Instead of leaves, it had thorns that looked as long as a person’s hand. I stared at it, wondering what kind of hell created this thing and how it survived the inhospitable environment.
“Ironthorns,” Li’alla remarked, seeing my curiosity. “They were the only trees that survived the great Cataclysm here.”
“How long ago was it?”
“Thousands of years ago, although I have heard that time runs differently in your world and what was thousands of years for us is a much shorter time. Most Dark Elves don’t remember a time before the two worlds collided. Most died here. Most Dark Elves and Dwarves that managed to survive lived in other worlds. Nana remembers, but Nana was one of the few who survived the Cataclysm.”
“She lived here when it happened?” I couldn’t imagine anyone living through the devastation. “How is that even possible? When Earth was hit by an asteroid one hundred and sixty five million years ago, it wiped out most life. And you’re telling me some Dark Elves actually survived it?”
She smiled sadly. “Nana and the other Elf mages managed to shield and then transport our people out of there. Some went to Alfheim where the Light Elves murdered them. Others came to Earth, where some humans welcomed us, but most looked on us in mistrust. Our human ancestor met Nana during that time and married her. She stayed on Earth several years before returning to our land.”