Gamearth

by Kevin J. Anderson

  They had traveled the distance of a full hexagon in barely four hours.

  According to the map, from the Sitnaltan docks to the closest shore of Rokanun was only two hexes if they navigated correctly, but they intended to use the speed of the Nautilus as long as they could, trying to circle half the island to reach the dragon's lair on the opposite end ¯ if the sub-marine boat continued to function that long.

  They cruised through a second hex-line just after morning light turned the dark ocean a murky green. They had altered their course to follow alongside the island, and the ramparts of the rising volcanic ocean floor stood like blocky shadows in the wavering distance off to their right.

  "We'd better rise closer to the surface," Vailret said. "No telling when we'll pass the technological fringe, or when this machine will stop working."

  Paenar took the controls and brought the Nautilus nearer to the surface at a gentle angle. The sounds of the engines made a stuttering pop, then resumed smoothly.

  The Nautilus began to break apart late in the afternoon. Twice during the day the engines had stalled, but the two men managed to start them again after several tries. The sounds of the screws were more sluggish, whining and clunking, but neither Paenar nor Vailret knew anything about the workings of the Sitnaltan engines. The Nautilus labored on the surface of the ocean, crawling forward.

  Thick oily smoke oozed around the sealed door of the engine room. At the same instant some of the floor panels split apart, popping rivets and letting harsh seawater squirt up through the deck. The ship lurched sharply to the right, toward the brooding island.

  The engines sounded as if they were shredding themselves in howls of torn metal. The hot propellers churned the water around the tail of the Nautilus into a steaming froth.

  Sea water gushed through breaches in the hull. Smoke from the dying engines made breathing and seeing impossible.

  "This machine has served its purpose," Paenar shouted over the noise and stood up to unfasten the hatch over their heads. He turned his face to Vailret, peering through the smoke with his mechanical goggle-eyes. "We must swim to shore. By the sound of those engines, the Nautilus might explode."

  Vailret cried out, choking. " ¯ reef!"

  As Paenar stuck his head out the hatch, a powerful blow struck the ship, throwing him back to the floor. Vailret half-caught the other man, keeping him from dashing his head against the instrument panel. A black elbow of rock punctured the hull of the ship. The Nautilus groaned to a halt.

  Paenar clambered to the hatch again as foamy water spurted into the compartment. He peered outside, wiping sea spray from his goggles. "We've caught on a reef. It will be tricky going, but I think we'll be able to walk to shore."

  Vailret coughed and struggled out of the hatch, dropping to the rugged rocky shelf. Choppy water washed over his boots. Rokanun lay not far from them, but a careless blow from an incoming wave could easily sweep them away.

  "The Dragon Siren!" Paenar scrambled back into the ship. Vailret crawled back to the top of the hatch, leaning inside. He urged the other man to hurry and helped him lift the Sitnaltan device out of the hatch. Paenar tossed up a coil of rope, and Vailret caught it, wondering how the other man could be calm enough to think of such details.

  Panting, they struck out as fast as they could, dodging the crashing waves on the slippery rock, lugging the Siren between them.

  With a small explosion, the engines of the Nautilus started themselves again. The powerful screws drove the armored ship relentlessly forward, ripping open its side against the rough rock and sending it plunging into the deep water again. Vailret turned, watching as gouts of smoke spewed into the air from the open hatch and the breaches in the sides. The heavy hull split wider, and the Nautilus slipped beneath the waves, struggling to right itself, like a dying prehistoric beast. Then it vanished completely from sight, leaving only a circle of froth, like a wound on the water's surface.

  Vailret and Paenar heaved themselves up on the rough and rocky beach, panting. The crashing waves knocked both men to their knees as they tried to scramble out of the surf. They somehow managed not to smash the Dragon Siren.

  Vailret shook out his stringy blond hair and looked up at the huge cinder cone looming over them. He coughed and spat warm seawater out of his mouth. "Look how far we've come."

  Paenar turned to him, but didn't quite look at the young man. The expression on his face was plaintive and forlorn. "You'll have to describe it to me, Vailret."

  He tapped his goggles, but the lenses hung dead in the colorless oils sandwiched between the thin glass. "The Nautilus was not the only mechanical thing here. I'm afraid I am quite blind again."

  Tryos dared not swallow, afraid that he might send one or two gold coins into the furnace in his gullet. He flew steadily, leaving the zigzagged outline of Rokanun far behind and striking out over the honeycombed surface of the world. The dragon kept his eye on the different colors of the hexagons below, trying to match it to his dim memory of the route. But often he forgot.

  He struck out over land, flying south until he stumbled upon the ocean shoreline again. He followed the shore until he came upon the mud-choked delta of the Barrier River, frothing and still cutting its channel through the forests and plains of the south. He thought he remembered the river, but the surrounding landscape did not look familiar.

  The dragon continued westward. His wings felt tired enough to drop off.

  Anger and discouragement bubbled up inside his chest. He had tried to ask the little humans for detailed directions before he departed, but they had kept him from speaking. Were they anxious to get rid of him?

  Tryos snorted because his laden mouth would not allow him to voice the comments he had in mind. He swung around. He'd just have to ask them for directions again. Though he could not find the Stronghold, he was not lost.

  Dragons could always find their way home.

  After only five hours of flight, Tryos flew back toward the volcano on Rokanun.

  *14*

  Battle on Rokanun

  "RULE #13: All monsters were created during the old Sorcerer wars. Each monster has its own set of limitations, its own vulnerabilities. Some may be obvious, some may be well hidden. No monster is invincible, but its weaknesses can be very difficult to find."

  ¯ The Book of Rules

  Vailret and Paenar worked their way up the volcano's steep side. In places they had to crawl on hands and knees over the broken-glass terrain of lava rock, cutting and scraping themselves. Darkness fell, making things worse. The stars scattered tricky light on the uneven ground. The two men climbed higher, hauling the Dragon Siren after them.

  Paenar's mechanical eyes flickered on and off intermittently. "They function only about one fifth of the time, I would guess." He turned to Vailret, then stopped. "There they go again."

  He set off, taking the lead, but Vailret caught up to him and walked alongside.

  "I can see flashes of the landscape. I'm used to it now. I just memorize what I see during that instant and keep going until my eyes flicker back to life again."

  Vailret didn't know what to say.

  "I can endure it, so long as it doesn't ruin my chances of fighting the dragon." Paenar shrugged, but did not look at anything. "I have to strike at least a symbolic blow for all those times when I refused to do anything."

  They had traveled two thirds of the way to the lip of the cone when Vailret heard a whooshing sound in the silence of the dark sky. Paenar wedged the Dragon Siren beside a massive outcropping. Both men took cover under the overhang, hiding in the shadows.

  Vailret looked up at the star-spattered sky and saw a black shadowy form swoop low over the mountain ¯ immense pointed wings, a long tail, a jagged reptilian head. Orange-tinted smoke from the volcano drifted into the night, swirling when Tryos flew through it and descended into the yawning mouth of the cone. The shape of the dragon ducked out of sight below the rim.

  Vailret's eyes glinted wide in the quiet starlight. "He's go
ing to be very upset if he finds Delrael and Bryl in there!"

  Instead, the dragon was upset because he did not see them.

  Tryos sat back, his mouth full of treasure in the dark and humid chamber. He grunted, trying to call to Delrael and Bryl. He sniffed but found the human scent was cold. He plodded deeper into the cavern ¯ the scent of the men disappeared into the narrow tunnel leading up and out of the mountain.

  Then he looked frantically around: one of his treasures was missing, the daughter of Sardun, the last remaining Sorcerer woman ¯ more valuable than any of his baubles. Tryos let out a roar of rage and betrayal, spraying the gold jammed into his vast mouth in a molten starburst on the grotto walls.

  "Tricked! Tricked!" the dragon roared. In his fury he intentionally set fire to one of the stolen Sorcerer tapestries. He forgot how Delrael and Bryl had led him to Rognoth, he forgot how they had shown him a vast new land. The only thing that mattered was their trickery.

  Tryos surged out of the grotto and into the night sky. He wheeled around to the opposite side of the cone, picturing in his mind how he would make the two men writhe as he crisped them with his fire.

  Delrael, Bryl, and Tareah traveled two hexes by night fall, when the Rules forced them to stop. They had skirted lava rubble and crossed a hex-line that separated the perimeter of the volcano from the surrounding grassy-hill terrain.

  Delrael stayed close beside Tareah as they traveled, seeing to her safety. The wind whipped in his face, fluttering Tareah's long hair in front of his eyes. Delrael carried his old Sorcerer sword again and his hunting bow, neither of which would help at all against Tryos.

  "My bones hurt." Tareah rubbed her arms and elbows. "I think I'm growing too fast. I don't know why."

  On the top of a tall rise they stopped to rest. They had crossed a hex of grassy hills and waited on the black edge of thick forest terrain. In half an hour or so it would be midnight, and they could push on for another day's allotment of distance. Delrael turned back to see the outline of the stark volcano etched in the haze from its inner lake of fire. Then his mouth went dry as a winged and monstrous form flew up against the fiery glow. He heard a distant outraged cry.

  "Bryl! Look!" he said.

  Tareah fell silent, rigid with her own fear. "Now he's come back for us." The dragon came after them, blasting the countryside with his flames.

  Bright orange pinpoints of fire made him appear distant, but Tryos flew at them fast.

  "We have to get out of here!" Bryl turned around in panic.

  "We can't go into the next hex until midnight," Delrael said, standing in a fighting stance but feeling helpless.

  Tareah kept her despair in check, making Delrael proud of her. "You won't have another chance to talk with him. You tricked him, and he'll want to blast you to ashes. He'll be more intent on destroying you than he'll be on keeping me from harm."

  "I'll protect you," Delrael vowed quietly. "I just wish I knew why he came back so soon."

  They searched for a place to hide, a place they could defend ... although they had nothing to fight with. Tryos moved erratically across the sky, searching. Delrael felt alone and exposed on the clear grassy hills.

  "Is it midnight yet?" Delrael stared up at the stars. Bryl stood at the black hex-line, pushing against it ¯ but he could not force his feet to move.

  In the distance they heard Tryos roar again. An orange tongue of flame flicked out to destroy a few lone trees.

  "What are we going to do?" Tareah asked. "Have you planned for this?"

  Delrael just put a hand on her shoulder. He looked at his hands, at his sword and bow.

  Bryl shouted. "Now ¯ now we can go!" He danced on the other side of the hex-line. "Hurry!"

  They ran into the dense forest. The black shadow of Tryos had come much closer.

  "We can't outrun him. We'd better look for a place to hide."

  They found an area with a few skewed blocks of stone surrounded by thick trees. They crouched under a smooth overhang of rock. Bryl held his two Stones with sweaty hands, whispering to the gems as if praying.

  "Are the Stones going to help?" Delrael asked.

  "Not likely." He sighed.

  "The Water Stone belonged to my father," Tareah said. "He used it to try and save me." Tareah closed her eyes and mumbled a lesson her father had told her many times. "But the old Sorcerers created dragons to resist magic, so that they could attack and leave the enemy helpless."

  Bryl stared at her, thinking. His eyes were red and watery. "It makes the most sense for me to keep the Stones ¯ if I hold both, then I get a spell bonus. After I've used up my five spells, then I'll give you both Stones and you get the same bonus ¯ that way we'll have ten spells between us instead of eight. It's a loophole in the Rules."

  "My father let me use the Water Stone." Tareah did not take her eyes from the blue facets of the six-sided sapphire. "Once."

  Her answer did not much comfort Delrael.

  After only a few minutes of hushed waiting, they heard the coming of the dragon. Tryos rained fire down on indiscriminate patches of the forest as he bellowed roars of rage and challenge.

  Bryl rolled the Air Stone on the ground and closed his eyes. "There, we're invisible now," he whispered. "Tryos will be able to see through the illusion if he makes the effort and if he knows where to look. But he might pass us by and never know it."

  The wings sounded like the heartbeat of an immense giant, pounding the air. Tryos skimmed over the ground, sharpening his anger against the human characters who had tricked him and stolen his treasure.

  Delrael held Tareah, staring up at the night sky in utter silence, too frightened to breathe. Tryos casually belched out a river of fire near them, then flew on into the darkness.

  "He passed us by!" Delrael said.

  "Maybe..." Bryl whispered.

  A moment later, when the dragon realized he had lost their scent, he bellowed and wheeled around, backtracking. They heard him returning seconds before he soared back into view.

  "Now we're doomed for sure," Bryl said. He stared at the blue Stone and the white Stone in his hands.

  Tryos backflapped his wings, thundering the air. He hissed at the three crouched under the shelter of the overhang. "Now I sssee you! You tricked me!

  Ssstole my treasure!"

  Bryl winced and tossed the Water Stone at his feet. He rolled a "2".

  The dragon let loose a missile of fire.

  The half-Sorcerer used the spell to hurl up a wall of water as a shield, feeding it with his own powers. Steam boiled from the surface of the water wall. The dragon flame struck, spattered outward, and continued to bombard the shield.

  Bryl's protection held until Tryos stopped his assault to draw another breath. The half-Sorcerer sank to his knees. "If I miss a single roll, we're dead."

  Another gout of dragon fire struck at them, and Bryl barely had time to roll again and get the water wall up before the flames could incinerate them.

  A puff of super heated air squeezed in, and Delrael felt his eyebrows singe.

  The water wall strengthened, but Bryl looked drained when the dragon finally backed off again.

  "I've only got two more spells left ¯ then it's all up to Tareah." He panted with exhaustion. "I don't know if Tryos has any limitations with his fire."

  "Then it's time for us to take the offensive," Tareah said. She looked at Delrael and raised her eyebrows. Her color was returning, and vigor had appeared behind her eyes, a quick-thinking intelligence forced upon her now that she had to fight. She had studied so many battles, so many legends. Now she could put it into practice. She plucked the Water Stone from Bryl's hand and stepped out from the overhang of rock.

  The dragon reared back, recognizing his treasure. Delrael wanted to yank her back into the shelter, afraid the dragon might blast her for coming between him and his intended victims. But Tareah did not wait long enough for the dragon to overcome his own surprise. She held the sapphire Water Stone in front of her like an eleme
ntal talisman, then she rolled a "6".

  She looked like a powerful Sorcerer queen of ancient days, swelled with magic. Balls of blue static danced in her hair as she summoned the Sorcery her forefathers had left inside the gem.

  Tareah called forth a storm, blasting Tryos with gale winds, buffeting his wings and bending them back so that they almost snapped like firewood. The dragon roared, and the force whipped at his sinewy neck, twisting shut his windpipe. He tried to blast fire, but the flames came back in his face.

  Outraged words were torn from his mouth.

  Tareah summoned lightning bolts to skitter over the dragon's scaled hide, leaving blackened intaglios on his armor. Tryos strained his wings and made a small headway against the hurricane winds. Sardun's daughter exhausted her reserves of strength. She had been sustaining herself with magic for too long. The storm started to weaken.

  Delrael stepped out of the rock shelter and shot three arrows at the dragon, but they proved useless against the reptilian armor.

  "Bryl, what about the Air Stone?" he said.

  The half-Sorcerer shouted over the howling winds. "What can I do? Tryos will see through any illusion I can make to hide us. Wait!"

  Just as Tareah dropped her storm and collapsed, Delrael caught her. He pulled her back to the rock outcropping. Bryl snatched up the sapphire Stone from the ground.

  Tryos hovered in the air, stunned at the ferocity of her attack, but then he surged forward with renewed anger.

  Suddenly, an illusion Rognoth appeared in the air ¯ fat, with stubby wings, flying clumsily but looking terrified of his vengeful brother. Rognoth spurted past Tryos's face, and the large dragon's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "Rognos! You, too!"

  Rognoth flapped his little wings and buzzed away. The larger dragon plunged after him, forgetting his other victims.

  "Come on, we've got to get out of here!" Bryl said.

  Tareah seemed groggy and drained from summoning the storm, but she soon regained her strength. Delrael looked at the rock overhang sheltering them. It was bubbly and molten from the dragon fire.