Strife In The Sky (Book 7) (3 page)

Nath Dragon was gone again.

“He said he’d be back,” Ben said, turning a spit of elk meat over the fire. “And at least he left us dinner.” He smiled at Brenwar. “Lordy, that was something.”

Brenwar huffed and chewed on a hunk of meat.

The dwarven warrior looked like he’d fought a thousand battles in a day. His black beard was raggedy, and his chest plate was dented and beaten. The remnants of his clothes were in tatters, and his boots had holes in them.

“What are you staring at, Man?” Brenwar said, ripping off a hunk of flesh with his teeth from the bone. “You don’t like what you’re seeing. Don’t like my boots? They’re two years old, you know, and just worn through.”

“Don’t
Man
me, Dwarf,” Ben said. “I don’t want to hear all of your fussing. You should be grateful Dragon is alive. I know I am.”

“Ah yes, you’re just so giddy. A child playing with fire.”

“What are you talking about?” Ben said. He wanted to shake Brenwar.

“I see that look in your eyes, Human,” Brenwar said, slipping his hand onto War Hammer’s handle. “You think you can tangle with me? Do you?”

“I’m just making conversation,” Ben said, getting to his feet. “But if you want to—”

“I think that is quite enough,” Bayzog interjected. He’d been sitting quietly, eyeing the flames. “We have to focus on our enemies, not making enemies of one another.”

Ben resumed his seat on the grass, eyeing Brenwar.

“Don’t you stick your lip out at me,” Brenwar growled.

“Brenwar, you’d bicker with a tree,” Ben said, fixing a piece of meat.

“And I’d win.”

“Only a dwarf would claim to win an argument with a tree,” Bayzog said.

Brenwar glared at him.

Bayzog raised his palms.

“And I see nothing wrong with that.”

Bayzog rubbed the amulet under his robes. It was times like this he missed Sasha and his sons the most. He hadn’t seen them in a long time, and that wasn’t so bad for the elf in him, but the human inside him missed his wife. Every time he got to see her, she had changed so much.
Focus, Wizard. Focus.

“Brenwar,” Bayzog said, “why don’t you finish telling me about Nath’s father?”

“No.”

“Well, tell us about Dragon Home.”

“You mean The Mountain of Doom?” Ben said. “Brenwar, you’ve been in it? And you’ve seen the King Dragon?”

“Of course I have.”

“All these years and nobody tells me anything,” Ben said, frowning.

“Stop complaining,” Brenwar huffed. “And you didn’t ask, did you?”

“Well, it would have been nice to have known,” Ben said.

“Dwarves don’t gossip.”

“It’s not gossip! It’s just conversation among friends. I’d like to have some understanding of who and what I’m fighting for.”

Brenwar stiffened.

“If you don’t know what you’re fighting for, then you shouldn’t be fighting.”

“Well,” Ben said, “I’ve been fighting so long, I guess I’ve lost track of all of that. Please remind me.”

“Wizard,” Brenwar said, tossing an elk bone away, “you fill him in. My mouth is too sore for this chatter.”

“But it’s not too sore for eating,” Ben said.

Brenwar got up, clenched his fists, and disappeared into the woods.

“You’d think,” Ben said, “given his years, he’d be less temperamental.

Bayzog opened his mouth to speak, but Ben cut him off.

“I know, he’s a dwarf.”

Bayzog liked Ben, but he envied the man too. Ben had faith in Nath. Much more than he did. Bayzog had doubt. Concern. And those were not good things.

“Ben, evil destroys love, joy and peace. Wouldn’t you agree, based off what you’ve seen?”

“I know,” Ben said, shaking his head. “I know. It’s not patient or kind or good, so to speak.”

“And it lacks self-control. It lies. It twists. It digs at each and every one of us.” Bayzog sighed. “But we have to resist those temptations it offers. Ben, I miss my family. I love them more than anything, and there is nothing I’d rather do than go home and huddle with them and let the world end how the world ends. But I can’t.”

Ben bobbed his head.

“Well, you could,” Ben said, “But I understand. I had a family too, only to see those minions take them. If I’d been there, then maybe I could have saved them. It eats at me every day. I miss them.”

“So why do you fight?” Bayzog said. “Why do you go on?”

“Because I don’t want other families to go through what I went through. I want to help end this. I want peace on Nalzambor again.”

“Then you do know why you fight this war. Your reasoning is sound and wise. You are a good friend, Ben.”

“Do you think we’ll win?” Ben asked.

“All I know is that we have to.”

CHAPTER 6

The walls were stone. The corridor long. The green torches didn’t flicker, and the howls were like banshees in the night. One foot at a time, Gorlee stepped forward. He’d never been so deep in the ground before in all of his decades. Not even with a dwarf. He’d never felt so small, either. Above, in the light, he felt confident and invincible. Now he felt like a child frightened by the howls of the night.

His stomach groaned. The fullness he had experienced earlier at Selene’s table had dissipated and been replaced by something else. Fear.

Be brave. She won’t keep you down here forever. Will she?

Gorlee’s chains rattled when he stopped. He hadn’t thought about that. Maybe she knew he wasn’t Nath Dragon. Maybe she knew what he was and had abandoned him down here forever.
No. Can’t be. Please, it can’t be.

He jumped.

A pale white rodent scurried over his toes and disappeared into the wall.

A cry echoed down the tunnel, sending a chill down his spine.

Get it together, Gorlee. You’ve never met anything you couldn’t handle
. He took a breath and continued forward. The tunnel was murky and damp. Water dripped down the slime-coated walls, forming many small puddles. He covered his nose.
What is that?

An angry cry rang out. The sound of a scuffle ensued. Gorlee kept going. Ahead, a light glowed beyond the torches. Shadows flickered in its essence.
What kind of place is this? Are there prisoners? Do they all run free?

He thought about Selene. So far as he knew, she was the most powerful woman in the world. Beautiful. Dark and exotic, she was. Beyond human, and different. He could picture her in his mind and see her as if she were right there, smirking and toying with him.
She knows I’m not what I appear to be. But she said this was a test.
His stomach gurgled. He felt uncomfortable.
That’s odd
. It gurgled again.
What was in that food she gave me?
He looked at his black-scaled hands. They shifted and changed a little.
Control it, Gorlee. Control it.
His hands seemed to solidify once more, but he had a feeling something was at work inside him. Probing what he was all about.

A bend in the tunnel started. The murmuring of many voices assailed his ears. Onward he went with his hand on his stomach, fighting down the fear inside him.
Is it possible that I missed another phantom?
The smells got stronger, the voices louder, and steps led …
upward
?

Up he went, chains dragging over the stones. All the mumblings went silent. Gorlee looked at his shackles.
How can I defend myself in these things? I could make myself smaller. Change to something lither and slip out of these things.
He shook his head.
It’s a test, remember. It’s a test.
On heavy legs,
he followed the light up the long rows of stone steps. He took fifty of them and came to a stop on a broad marble platform. Ancient runes and symbols covered the floor, but most were covered by the wet murk.

“COME,” a cavernous voice said.

Gorlee remained frozen in place.

“COME,” the voice said, “and I don’t like to repeat myself.”

“Come,” other voices chanted. “Come,” all sorts of voices said.

Gorlee’s legs seemed to move of a will that was not his own. Toward the lights. Toward the voices he went. A great chamber opened up. Hundreds of eyes blinked and sought his from the shadows of ledges and side caves. A great figure stood in the middle with its arms crossed over its chest.

I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Its long large fingers beckoned Gorlee forward.

“COME,” it said, calmly, “let me have a better look at you.”

Gorlee made his way into the chamber and took a glance back over his shoulder. He could hear all the voices say:

“Nothing leaves The Deep.”

CHAPTER 6

Nath ripped Fang out of the ground. His fingers felt like fire, but he held on. His head beaded in heavy drops of sweat.

“I will not let go!” he said, fighting the agony.

Fang’s blade shimmered and winked with life. Orange and blue colors swirled in the metal of the blade. It hummed. Moaned. Angry. Urging Nath to release it.

“I will not!” Nath said. He staggered in the grove. “You’ll have to burn my fingers off first!”

Water. Nath wanted water to douse the blade in to cool his fingers. But no stream nor any creek trickled nearby.

Don’t think about water. Think about control.

Fang! You are mine! A gift from my father. You serve me. I do not serve you!

The blade flared with mystic fire and let out an angry moan.

Nath could feel the scalding heat up to his elbows. His great arms juttered. His teeth clenched.

Fang! Listen to me! Stop this! Stop this madness now!

The blade shook in his hands from a force of its own.

“I will not let go, Fang! Not until you succumb to me!”

The dragon heads on the hilt started to move. Streams of smoke poured from their nostrils. They let out tiny roars.

Nath’s hands started to smoke. The white scales on his palms burned.

“Fang! Enough of this!”

Nath’s body trembled. His great muscles convulsed. He fell to his knees, with his scales sizzling. His own mind screamed. His fingers begged to recoil.

I cannot! I will not!

Nath fell on his back screaming. Birds scattered from the trees. Branches shook. He held on, fighting the pain until his mind began to black out.

“Fang,” he whispered. “You are my friend. I need you. But you must trust me.”

The bladed metal swirled with scintillating colors and heated up in one great burst. Nath felt every ounce of its power rush through him like lava, and it swept him across the ground. He held on and on and on. Everything hurt from head to toe, but he held on.

“Fang,” he managed to say, “trust me again.”

The blade winked out. The metal cooled in his hands. Nath let out a long sweaty sigh and said, “Thank you, my friend. Thank you.”

He rolled to his knees and pushed himself up with the blade. He peeled one hand away.

“Uh.”

His hand was swollen and it trembled like a leaf, but there was no burn on it. He checked his other hand and it was the same. 

“Whew,” he said, dashing the sweat from his eyes. “I’m glad you got that sorted out. And I’m gladder to have you by my side. I never would have made it this far without you.”

He hefted Fang over his shoulder, picked up the scabbard, and searched for his horse. Minutes later, he was riding back toward his friends. When he got there, doubtful faces greeted him, but he was all smiles.

He stretched Fang out over his head and let the steel blade shine in the sun.

“Saddle up. It’s time to vanquish evil.”

***

Bayzog rode easy, studying a piece of mystic shard in his hand. The bright fragment’s powers were gone, but some mystery remained. How did the forces of Barnabus harness its power? The crystals were almost impossible to mine and shape, but somehow they managed to do it. It was a grave concern.

“Worried, I see,” Nath said, riding up alongside him.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Well,” Nath said, “you always look concerned about something.”

“It’s that bad, is it?”

“For an elf, maybe, but for a man, maybe not so bad. So, tell me, what are you thinking?”

Bayzog wanted to ask the same thing, but Nath had made his plans quite clear. He was heading straight for the River Cities to find out what was going on with these crystals. Not a subtle strategy but a bold one instead.

“I’m thinking only one person is capable of making these things,” Bayzog said. “Maybe a few, and the more we close in, the more heavily guarded they will be.” He glanced back at the forest and fields behind him. “Not to mention, we are most likely being pursued from all angles, thanks to your efforts at the bridge.”

Nath sat tall in the saddle with a calm look in his eyes and said, “The path is broad to where we go, and we won’t be so easy to find.”

“And when we get there?”

“We’ll come up with something.”

Nath pulled his horse to a stop and craned his neck toward the sky.

Bayzog scanned the sky, but heard nothing.

“Get into the woodland,” Nath said. He made a sharp whistle ahead.

Brenwar and Ben turned in their saddles.

Nath pointed toward the woods and mouthed the words, “Quickly.”

They all led their horses deep into the edge of the forest, where Nath stopped and waited.

***

Bayzog peered up through the pines. A distant sound caught his eyes and came closer.

Whump. Whump. Whump. Whump. Whump.

Wings beat against the wind in the sky, dragon shrieks called out in the air, shadowy forms glided over the branches, and his heart beat in his throat. It sounded like more than a dozen of them. He turned back at Nath.

Nath held his arm out and finger up.

Splintering shrieks were like bells in his ears. The horses shifted, snorted and stammered on their hooves. Bayzog rubbed his horse’s neck and whispered in its ear. The fine beast calmed.

After the dragon shadows passed, the shrieks faded. Bayzog heard Ben sigh.

“Noisy things, aren’t they?” Nath said with a smile.