The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) (21 page)

When Rikky told him about the massive alien, King Richard believed the youngest Dragoneer wholeheartedly. He didn’t conceive, though, how huge the thing was. Nor did he understand how it could shift shapes so swiftly. Like some giant tentacle-waving tree trunk, it had gotten hold of Rikky and Silva, and several mudged dragons. It almost got the Nightshade, and the hell-born creature was so repulsed by the alien that it sped away from it.

King Richard didn’t feel like running, and he got the Nightshade back under his control and turned around. He saw a yellow flow of wizard magic that grew bigger as it shot up from the rubble and hit the huge alien. The blast blistered its skin raw over a large portion of its pale form. A knot hole like a mouth opened up and roared out, and the deep thrumming vibration was terrible. Tentacles flew, and mudged fell from the sky, and soon all Richard could see were Sarax. Some of them were about to converge on the ebon girl who’d just scorched the alien.

Richard was angry. Gravelbone’s madness, the madness of death, thrilled him to no end. With Rikky down and all of his mudged scattered, Richard really felt he had no business risking himself. He still had three islands full of people to protect. Then he saw Linux carrying his mother through the wreckage. It was his father in Linux’s body, he knew. And as much as he didn’t want to have a confrontation with the man who sired him, he still wanted to protect his mother. When he came near them, the druid’s body looked up, the lines on his face blackened like cattle-branding scars. The man who stood there didn’t resemble Richard’s father at all. He really didn’t resemble Linux that much either, but the eyes flared with recognition. The druid dropped the queen as the Nightshade landed smoothly on the cobbles before them.

“It knows all, son,” the pitiful-looking body before him said. “It read my mind, Richard. It knows. It knows about the islands. It can swim.”

It enraged Richard, and filled him with some fear. The huge alien hadn’t been affected by the saltwater he and Ricky had been slinging around. It hadn’t been affected at all. It had to be stopped. Just a few days south of here lay Three Forks and Port, and beyond that there were thousands and thousands of people still in Mainsted. Not to mention three islands full of helpless folk.

The Nightshade stepped forth and plucked Queen Alvazina’s unconscious form from the cobbles with a claw. King Blanchard moved back with more than a little fear showing on his burned face. “Save the kingdom, son. Save it,” he said. He began backing away then, but before he turned and ran he added, “And don’t forget you’ve a brother.”

Rikky was strapped to his saddle, so when the huge alien’s tentacles latched hold of Silva he was right there. He was slung and whipped around as his dragon fought with tooth and claw to break the grip around its lower midsection. He saw the mighty frost wyrm trying to carry Zah away from the area. He wanted to help Zah. He owed her his life for what she’d done out on that distant island. She’d heedlessly dived on the unicorn-serpent to save him. There was also the sense of loyalty he felt toward Jenka. He had to try and save his best friend’s love. Zahrellion was their sister by a bond stronger than blood.

He blasted at the alien using the dragon’s tear clenched in his fist, but couldn’t seem to hit the thing. He grew frustrated and was worried for his dragon. Some gooey juice was secreting where the tentacle was touching Silva’s skin. The pewter-colored dragon was in terrible pain.

Rikky finally popped the teardrop into his mouth and pulled the bow Mysterian had given him over his shoulder. He used the foot stirrup to hold one end and pulled down on the other to allow him to string it. This was no easy task because the alien was now pulling them in toward its mouth.

Rikky got the string in place, and then pulled the bow up to a firing position, just as the alien’s weird blue-fire eyes came into view. He couldn’t believe his luck. He had the shot and there was plenty of time to make it before he and Silva were carried into that harsh alchemical maw.

He reached for an arrow and his heart fell. The quiver of fine crafted long shafts wasn’t there anymore. Now the maw was opening into an undulating tunnel of dark stains and bloody mucus. Silva’s last struggles had lessened into twitches and sudden jerks.

From somewhere below, a humming blast of powerful magic struck the alien. This stalled the thing from tossing Rikky and his wyrm into its massive mouth just long enough for King Richard’s Nightshade to streak past and use its hot sizzling eye-rays. The powerful hell-born magic amputated the tentacle holding Silva.

The tentacle was still wrapped around the dragon, though, and they went tumbling down the side of the alien like food falling from a slobbish man’s chin. Only at the very last moment did Silva shrug off the burning rope of alien limb and get her wings open. They skimmed the ground and went sweeping past the golden-helmeted ebon goddess that was Aikira.

A man was with her, and Golden was stretched down the lane warning away vermin with her growl. Aikira had been the one who blasted the alien to save them. He owed her one now, too, he decided.

“Are you all right?” he called down.

“Golden’s wing-wounded!” Aikira called back up. “There’s nothing you can do here. Get away from the Sarax, Rikky. Get away from that thing.” He was relieved when she threw her pointing finger east. “Zahrellion!” He heard her sing the name so that it was clear in his ears, and with that he and Silva were off.

King Richard came around and blasted at the ever-swelling alien again. It had grown monstrous in size. The Sarax were thinning in the sky. The alien’s tentacles were getting longer, and as the thing bloated and shifted it was feeding on more and more of them.

The Sarax had dropped the fire drake called Blaze, with his rider strapped in, to the cobbles. The black thresher-mawed things were satiated and probably wanting to cocoon, so they were becoming less and less of an immediate threat. Richard wanted to keep the master alien where it was, so that it didn’t set its unsettling eyes on the kingdom, but the ebon girl and the druid were downed in the wreckage. He decided to lure the thing north out of Delton by flying just out of its range and taunting it. Unlike the dragons, the Nightshade could do this. Something about the hell-born wyrm dulled the alien’s senses. But in turn, something about the alien filled the Nightshade with fear. Soon he had the angered thing far enough away from the golden-scaled dragon that he flew back and had the Nightshade set his mother down with them.

“Protect her with your life, Linux!” Richard shot the command. “You owe me a life, for you took my father’s from him.”

“I do,” Linux dropped his head. “I will.”

The Nightshade hissed something at Golden and the dragon’s eyes lit up.

“Gather close to the wyrm,” Richard said. “My mount gave her a spell. She will shield you from the scavengers.”

As Richard lifted back into the sky and peeled away, Linux, in Rolph’s body, carried Queen Alvazina and laid her gently next to Aikira. When Richard looked back again they had vanished.

Aikira looked and saw the Nightshade circling and agitating the alien. She could see the world just fine, but she couldn’t see herself, or the others huddled against Golden with her. She didn’t dare lose contact with the wyrm, for that would break the spell that was protecting them. She wished she could see the queen so that she could tend to her. She hadn’t looked well. She was bleeding for the few moments Aikira had seen her.

In the sky, several Sarax were attempting to harry the Nightshade into the range of the tentacles. The Sarax were under the master’s control and unable to keep from getting snatched themselves, and yet they still did the humongous thing’s bidding.

The hell-born wyrm went too low and close to the alien. A new appendage shot out, this one more like an arm. It slapped the Nightshade down even farther, causing it to skim the rooftops and then tumble to a halt right before the beast.

In a matter of seconds, several tentacles wrapped around Richard and his mount. The Nightshade screeched out with psionics. This hurt the alien, but it squelched the call with a powerful squeeze.

Sticky goo that hissed against Richard’s armor oozed forth. The chemical smell burned his eyes and stung his skin. He tried to squirm away but couldn’t. The Nightshade roared out in a keening, pain-filled wail. The juicy digestive sap was eating through its hide.