The Dragon's Champion (30 page)

Dimwater focused
her energy. The golden head of her staff glowed as it prepared to let loose a
powerful ball of magical fire. Small, snaking electrical bolts writhed along
the growing sphere of green and white flames. She could see that the wizard was
preparing his staff as well. She knew she would have to time everything
perfectly; otherwise this would be Erik’s first and final joust.

The two clouds
closed in on each other. Erik prepared to jump on Dimwater’s command. He
focused in on the reason he needed to win this battle. The wizard was after the
book, he knew. The book would consume everyone in the realm that he cared
about. Lepkin, Dimwater and Marlin were powerless against the book. They would
be the first victims to fall to its power. Then, it would take the whole land.
His mother and father would be turned into demons and forced into serving the
underworld. Erik’s rage boiled up inside of him. He could feel power coursing
through him. He would not lose this fight.

“Now,” Dimwater
shouted.

Erik came out
from behind her. It took only a few seconds, but it all seemed to move in
ultra-slow motion. Erik saw the wizards growling face. He was only a few yards
away on his cloud, and they were sailing closer with every passing instant. A
blinding ball of white and green flame shot forward from Dimwater’s staff. A
ball of orange and red jumped from the wizard’s staff to meet Dimwater’s fire.
Erik ran forward, holding on to Dimwater’s cloak until he leapt from the cloud.

He held the
sword high with his right hand. As he began to swing the mighty blade, fire
seemed to leap from Erik’s hand and cover the Telarian steel. The white flames
dwarfed the two magical fireballs in magnificence, and felt as hot as any kiln
Erik had ever been near. The wizard lifted his staff to block Erik’s chopping
attack, but it availed him nothing. Dimwater swung in low with her staff,
catching the wizard in the groin. The wizard stumbled forward on his cloud.
Erik’s sword cut through the upraised staff as a knife through a bowl of cream.
The white flames of the sword engulfed the wizard as Erik brought the weapon
down to finish the swing. The wizard turned to a pile of ash on the cloud.

Erik landed on
the cloud, but quickly fell through it as it dissipated. He fell down toward
the ground, flailing his free hand up to Lady Dimwater. He looked to his left
and noticed that Lepkin and the nightwing were almost parallel with him as they
also descended. The beasts tumbled and turned until Erik caught Lepkin’s eyes.
Erik noted that the eyes looked sad. He knew that Lepkin didn’t expect to live
through this.

Erik looked up
and saw Dimwater diving down on her cloud for him. “Save Lepkin,” Erik shouted.
“The book is safe, save him!” But she did not heed his words. She maneuvered
her cloud under Erik and caught him in its pillow like substance and then
reached down fast as a snake to grab him by the wrist.

Erik watched,
horrified as Lepkin and the nightwing closed the distance to the ground below.
The earth shook and rumbled as the beasts collided into it. Lepkin and the
nightwing both roared and snarled as a cloud of dust erupted around them.

“Come,” Dimwater
said. “We must be sure the nightwing is dead.” The two of them flew over to the
downed beasts. Both forms stirred. They wrestled with each other, wriggling and
clawing free of each other.

“They survived,”
Erik said breathlessly. His joy quickly turned to fear though. Lepkin’s left
wing was broken and hanging limp at his side. The nightwing was almost free.
Erik knew that if it was allowed off the ground, there would be no chance of
stopping it. “Take me above it, and keep it down if you can,” Erik shouted.

Dimwater nodded
and concentrated her energy. The nightwing slammed the side of its tail into
Lepkin’s head, knocking Lepkin back. It then jumped up and flapped its wings.
Dimwater thrust her left hand forward, casting the most powerful psionic blast
she could muster. The force of the blow knocked the nightwing back to the
ground, and tore a gash in its chest. It hissed at her, and fixed its eyes on
the cloud. It recoiled and blew a stream of fire just as the cloud came over
it.

Erik jumped
before Dimwater could warn him. His magical sword was still covered in white fire.
Dimwater quickly chanted a protection spell and encircled Erik in it as she
maneuvered the cloud out of harm’s way.

Erik felt the
heat licking and swiping at him. Sweat poured all over his body. He had never
felt like this before. His head was dizzy and his vision was quickly shrinking
in a field of blackness. He focused his mind on his reason for fighting. He
used his power to keep his senses about him. He couldn’t fail now.

Suddenly the
flames stopped and Erik could only see a gaping maw gnashing fangs as long as
his sword. The nightwing was leaping up for him. Erik’s eyes went wide. There
was no way out. He flipped the sword upside down. He decided that if he was to
go down this beast’s gullet, he would go down sword-first. He would be the last
thing the nightwing ever ate.

The nightwing
jolted and the gaping maw turned away from Erik. Erik could see Lepkin down on
the ground, clawing at the nightwing’s exposed belly. The nightwing went to
make a strike for Lepkin’s neck, but in doing so it exposed the back of its own
neck to Erik. Erik gripped the sword as tightly as he could and let out a
mighty yell as he came down hard. He drove the sword through the nightwing’s
neck, where the bone connected with the skull. The intense, white fire burned
through the hard scales and bone as though the nightwing was made of cloth. The
beast let out a final half screech before slumping to the side.

The force of the
nightwing’s fall flung Erik from the beast to land on the ground with a hard
thump. Erik heard a crack and felt a horribly sharp, fire-like pain rip through
his left leg as he tumbled across the ground. He cried out in pain and darkness
threatened to close in on him again.

Dimwater set her
cloud down next to Erik and knelt by him. “I am here, Erik,” she said. She
waved her hands over the boy’s leg. “It is a bad break, but I can lessen the
pain.” She weaved her magic and blocked the pain away from Erik. Erik nodded
through teary eyes and whispered something that almost sounded like “thank
you.”

A mighty roar
startled them both and they looked back to the nightwing. The black beast was
dead. Lepkin’s sword was still stuck inside of it, and Lepkin was standing on
top of the beast with his head arched back to the sky in a mighty victory cry.

“It’s over,”
Dimwater said reassuringly. She looked to the wall of the temple. There were
flames along part of the wall, but the temple guards were already finishing off
the last of the Blacktongues and rushing to put out the fires. “It’s all over.”

Erik propped
himself up on his elbows and smiled weakly. “That wasn’t so hard,” he said
garishly. Lady Dimwater flicked his nose and then stood to her feet. Heavy
footsteps approached from behind. “Why hasn’t he turned human again yet?” Erik
asked.

Lady Dimwater’s
face went pale. Lepkin should have changed his form back immediately after it
was all over. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t risk the power
of the book twisting him. Had it already been too long? Was it too late to save
him? She turned to face Lepkin. “Come out of your dragon form, Lepkin.”

The dragon
hissed and shot out a forked tongue. The appendage stopped just short of raking
Dimwater’s face. Its eyes looked her all over and then moved on to look at
Erik. Dimwater stepped between them. The dragon hissed. Swirls of smoke snaked
out of its nostrils along with bright yellow sparks.

“Erik, he has
been turned by the power of the book,” Dimwater said. “He must be put down.”

“No,” Erik said
horrified. “I can not do that.”

“Erik, we must,”
Dimwater said. “I will use what energy I have left to buy you time. Get to the
sword, if you can.” She knew it wasn’t going to work. Erik’s leg was broken and
she was exhausted. All she could hope for was that she could wound the twisted
Lepkin before it finished with them and turned its fury on the temple.

The dragon
roared and shot a fireball at Dimwater. She held her left hand out, the hand
that another dragon had burned the thumb off of, and gathered all of the
magical energy she could. The flames seared her hand and coursed around her
magic, touching and grazing her sides. The heat was so painful that she cried
out and wept. She fell to her knees, trying her best to maintain the spell that
protected her.

Then the flames
stopped.  She looked up and saw Erik standing between her and the dragon.
His hands were empty and all of his weight was on his right leg. He stared at
the dragon and hopped closer to it, almost falling to the ground more than
once. Dimwater felt horror grip her stomach. She couldn’t let this happen. She
tried to weave a magical attack but Erik turned back to her with his hand out.
His eyes were no longer blue, but white. They emitted a burning light, similar
to the flame that had engulfed the sword when he wielded it.

“Stay your hand,
Lady Dimwater,” Erik said. “I can see Lepkin inside the dark energy that binds
him. I can free him.”

Lady Dimwater
watched in awe as Erik hopped on his one good leg to the dragon. The beast
hissed and recoiled from Erik, but it did not try to attack him. Erik put out
his hand fearlessly and reached for the dragon’s snout.

“Master Lepkin,”
Erik whispered. “I know you can hear me. Focus on the reason you fight. Think
of Lady Dimwater, think of Marlin, and think of all the other people of the
realm. They are depending on me to save them from the darkness that threatens
to take you now.” Erik leaned in and stared directly into one of the dragon’s
eyes. “I depend on you, Master Lepkin.”

The dragon
jerked its head, knocking Erik to the ground. Erik cried out as pain shot
through his body from his broken leg again. The dragon sprang atop Erik and
pinned the boy down with a claw on either side of Erik’s neck.

“Master Lepkin,
fight it,” Erik shouted through the tears of pain. The dragon breath was so hot
on Erik’s skin that it felt as though he was burning. The dragon brought its
snout closer and snapped its teeth together twice. Erik wriggled an arm free
and placed his hand on the dragon’s snout, right between the flaring nostrils.

Blinding white
light erupted from behind and washed the dragon and Erik in its brilliance.
Erik focused on his power, harnessing it as best as he could. The pain in his
leg grew more intense, threatening to break his concentration, but Erik pushed
it out of his mind. He focused only on Lepkin. He could see his master inside
the darkness that wrapped itself around the dragon form. Erik knew he could
banish the dark power. Something in his gut told him that it was possible.

Erik screamed in
pain as the light grew more intense. The white light took in all of the
dragon’s body and extended out for several yards beyond. Finally, Erik heard
the dragon’s breathing slow down. A rumbling started in the beast’s belly and
then the beast shrank away. Erik let his hand fall to the ground and the white
light disappeared. His body was limp and ragged. He had not the strength to
even move his head. His eyelids fell shut.

Lady Dimwater
covered her mouth with her hand as the light vanished. She couldn’t believe her
eyes. Lepkin lay next to Erik in the field. He was no longer in his dragon
form, but his human form. They both lay motionless. She jumped to her feet and
rushed to their sides.

“Don’t touch
them!” Marlin yelled from a ways off in the field. Dimwater looked up to see
the new prelate running at a dead sprint, followed by scores of temple guards.
“Back away!” he shouted.

Confused she
stood on her feet and went to meet Marlin. She didn’t know what to say to the
man, but the look on his face told Dimwater that he knew what had happened.
“What did Erik do?” Dimwater asked.

Marlin looked at
her and smiled gently. “He has saved Lepkin’s soul.” Marlin motioned for a few
guards to tend to Erik. “He needs to be taken straight to the healers.”

“Will they
live?” Dimwater asked.

Marlin glanced
at her and then looked back to Lepkin. “Erik will live, though it will be a
couple weeks before he will recover from the strain of what he just did.”

“And Lepkin?”
Dimwater was scared to hope. “Will he live?”

“Not only will
he live,” Marlin said as he finished scanning Lepkin’s aura. “But Nagar’s
Secret no longer has any claim on him. When he wakes, he will be as before. I
can see no taint in him. The boy has managed to banish every bit of it.”

“How is that
possible?” Dimwater asked.

Marlin shook his
head. “I knew the boy was strong, but even I am not sure how he managed this.”
Marlin placed a hand on Dimwater’s shoulder and smiled warmly at her. “I think
we have found the Champion of Truth,” he said.

“It is not over,
though,” Dimwater said, suddenly looking off to the west. “Only four warlocks
of the Order of the All Seeing Eye have been slain. The wizard was a member of
the Wyrms of Khaltoun, but he was only a low ranking member.” Dimwater looked
back to Lepkin, who was now being picked up by a group of temple guards. “We have
only managed to slow down the enemy,” she said.

“Then hopefully
we have slowed them enough to give Erik a chance to better prepare for the
fight to come,” Marlin added.

Dimwater
frowned. “I am afraid that this was easy compared to what is coming.” She
looked to Marlin’s cloudy eyes and smiled gently. “But you are right. Let us
hope that we have enough time to prepare. Perhaps the Gods will bless us. We
will need to find the other book,” Dimwater noted

Marlin nodded
hopefully. “For now we will rest, and then we will see if we can’t track down
the last warlock of Tukai’s order. Perhaps we can yet turn the tide of darkness
that threatens the realm. I have been doing some studies about Allun’rha. 
I think I may have an idea where to look for The Illumination.” The two of them
hugged briefly and then Marlin led Lady Dimwater back to the temple. There was
much work yet to be done.