The Dragons of Decay (61 page)

Whatever
the paladin was going to say was cut off as a ear-splitting roar tore
through the still air. A deafening crashing shook the ground and the
three companions turned as one to look back the way they had come.

The bright
sunlight of the glade made it impossible to see into the shadowy
reaches of the forest, but then they all knew what the sounds meant.

“
It's
coming,” Simon said as he and the paladin backed away from the
edge of the clearing.

“
Oh
really?” Liliana said sarcastically. “Thank you for the
update.”

“
Ethmira?
Start opening the portal!” the wizard said urgently.

“
I
am, Simon,” the elf replied tersely. “Just keep that
thing off of me for a minute.”

“
I
intend to,” the paladin growled.

And then
the forest gave way to the immense head of the primal brown dragon.

Almost
long as a lesser dragon in length, the scaled head of the dragon was
grotesque. Brown, slimy scales covered it, each a yard across or
more. They were cracked and twisted, looking like split, dried mud
and almost the same color. The yellow eyes, slit like a cat's, were
as large as Simon's body. They blazed with evil intent and the
grizzled maw, dripping black liquid that smoked and ate away at the
growth on the ground beneath it, was filled with rows of greenish
fangs, some broken, others black or missing entirely.

The
monster breathed and Simon covered his nose and mouth as the foul
breath, stinking like rotten eggs, rolled over him. His stomach
rebelled and he turned away and retched, dry-heaving because his
stomach was empty.

Liliana
seemed detached and unaffected by the primal. She reached out a
mailed hand and steadied the wizard until he got his stomach under
control.

“
You
okay?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the dragon.

“
Yeah,
good. Thanks.”

Simon
watched the primal as well, but turned his head slightly.

“
How
are you doing?” he murmured, hoping that Ethmira could hear him
over the loud breathing of the dragon.

“
Almost
there,” came her quiet response.

“
So,”
the voice of the primal echoed around the glade and made Simon
stagger back a step.

“
So,”
the creature repeated. “I have found the killers.”

The head
rose up and up again until they were craning their necks back just to
keep it in view.

Branches
snapped off and fell thickly around the dragon, leaves and twigs
fluttered to the ground. The monstrous body was still hidden in the
forest and Simon couldn't understand how the primal had managed to
force its enormous bulk through the ancient trees.

“
Hmm,
an elf and two humans. A strange combination.”

The head
tilted down and this globules of tarry acid continued to dribble from
its mouth. Somehow the yellow eyes caught Simon's gaze and seemed to
burn into his soul.

“
Before
I crush you like the insects you are, tell me how you killed one of
mine. If you do, perhaps I shall make your ends quick and painless.”

It threw
that insanely huge head back and let out a bellow of laughter that
sent even more branches and leaves raining down on them.

“
But
probably not.”

The dragon
dropped its head down so quickly that the leaves and debris in the
clearing flew up in all directions as it created a massive
displacement of air. And suddenly the primal's face was at
ground-level, its chin almost resting on the grass. The eyes were
still twenty feet above them.

“
I
shall have to punish you, you see. Others of your kind must not
believe that they can rebel against us. Against me. I have wiped out
your 'elders' and now the only thing to threaten my servants
is...you!”

Those
egg-yellow eyes, flumey and jelly-like, widened as if in surprise.

“
Imagine,”
the primal boomed, making Simon wince. “Three of you killed a
dragon! What weapon did you use? What magic? I know that elf,”
it snorted contemptuously, “has no spells, but humans? Yes,
humans have magic again, don't you? What did you do? And how are you
even here, in this realm, hmm? Tell me. You know you want to.”

That voice
was almost mesmerizing. Simon had the sudden urge to tell the primal
everything. Why not? They weren't going to beat it anyway, were they?
It was hopeless. The thing was larger than the biggest jumbo jet ever
built. They had no chance.

He opened
his mouth to answer and then staggered to the side as Liliana gave
him a sharp shake that almost knocked him off of his feet.

“
It's
using its voice on you, Simon!” she snapped angrily. “Pay
attention! That's part of their power, their voices.”

The wizard
shook his head, trying to clear the fuzz that seemed to be packed
between his ears. Then he glared at the dragon, embarrassed that he'd
let down his guard.

“
Oh,
a wise one,” the dragon said, tilting its head slightly. “What
are you, I wonder? Cleric? No, no. Not a cleric. A paladin! Yes. A
holy warrior.”

A
deep-throated chuckle escaped its twisted maw.

“
You
chose the wrong side, paladin. If you had followed the gods of Chaos,
your powers would have been unimaginable. But now? Now you shall die
in a nameless forest on a conquered world. No glory, no songs of your
deeds, nothing to mark that you were ever here at all.”

“
Ready,”
Ethmira said from behind them.

“
I'm
not the one that's going to die, monster,” Liliana yelled
angrily.

The
dragon's thin lips pulled back to expose its twisted fangs.

“
I
admire your spirit. And what about your companion? The robed one.
Surely a magic-user of some sort. Come now, speak up while you can,
little human.”

Simon felt
sweat trickle down inside his robe and could almost feel the elf
straining to hold the portal open. Strangely, the primal didn't seem
aware that she'd opened a conduit to the Earth.

“
You
primals claim to be the strongest and smartest of your kind,”
he shouted, knowing his young voice was squeaking weakly.

“
Of
course we are,” the dragon rumbled. “And I, I am the
strongest of all of my siblings. Even the red dragon cannot claim to
be mightier, though he tries. Fool.”

“
Then
how is it, oh wise one, that you don't even recognize the wizard that
killed your brothers?” Simon said, trying to give his voice a
sarcastic twist.

This is,
he thought fleetingly, the craziest thing I've ever done.

The
primal's cat-like eyes narrowed and he pushed his snout forward, his
gaze almost as blinding as headlights.

He sniffed
loudly causing the robe to swirl around Simon's ankles.

Then that
hideous head reared up high again and the dragon bellowed in fury.

“
Now
I know you!” it screamed, acid spraying in all directions.

Simon
hastily stepped back and rattled off his shield spell. It snapped
into place just in time to block the acidic rain, which ran off the
translucent barrier in all directions.

He looked
over his shoulder in a panic, afraid that Ethmira had been caught in
that corrosive shower. But no, she had retreated to the far side of
the glade. Her arms were raised and he could see the distortion in
the air where the portal flickered and wavered.

“
Time's
running out,” she shouted at him and he nodded his
understanding.

“
You
dare to come here, to my domain!” the primal screamed with
insane wrath. It dropped its massive head and spread its jaws.

“
Now
you die!”

“
Simon,
get through the portal!” Liliana shouted at him. Around her, a
nimbus of white, like and yet unlike his own shield, had protected
her from the dragon's acid breath.

“
I'll
keep it off of you until you are clear!”

She turned
her head and glared at the dragon, which was ignoring her completely
as it sucked in a huge lungful of air.

“
I
may not be remembered, monster,” she screamed as she began to
run right at the dragon. “But neither will you!”

And then
she launched her body in a leap that Simon would not have believed
was humanly possible.

She
cleared those gaping jaws, landed on top of the primal's snout and
plunged her glowing sword into one of its blazing eyes.

The bellow
of pain from the dragon was so loud that Simon was knocked off of his
feet. He rolled over several times and then looked up in disbelief.

The dragon
had reared back again and its head was so high that the wizard could
not even see Liliana any more. He pushed himself to his feet and
gaped upward as the dragon's head whipped from side to side, trying
to dislodge the paladin and the sword that was buried deep in its eye
socket.

“
Simon,
get through the portal!” Ethmira shouted at him. “I can't
hold it much longer.”

“
What
about Liliana? I can't just leave her!” he yelled back at her.

“
Damn
you, wizard! Do you want to dishonor her sacrifice? Get through the
portal and ready your trap. The dragon will be hot on your heels. Now
move!”

Simon
stared at her and then looked up, torn by his loyalty. Then with a
cry of frustration and grief, he ran as fast as he could toward the
portal, locked eyes with Ethmira for a fleeting second and then dove
through.

There was
a moment of complete darkness and then he tumbling through low brush
and grass. He stopped rolling face down, tears of frustration
streaking his dirty cheeks.

With a
huge effort, he heaved himself to his feet and looked around.

He was
standing on a flat plain with scrub brush, small trees and grasses
blowing in the wind. On the horizon he could see the flicker and
whitecaps of the ocean crashing on the shore.

I must be
back in Florida, he thought vaguely. He turned in a circle and saw
with relief that the new town was nowhere to be seen. At least they
wouldn't be in the line of fire.

The portal
was easy to see, like a wall of water rippling uneasily. It grew and
shrank, grew and shrank and he could tell that it wouldn't last much
longer.

What
happens if it fails before the primal comes through, he thought
frantically. Worse still, what if the dragon doesn't follow me at
all?

He
couldn't think about that. Simon turned and ran as fast as he could
away from the portal, his breath coming in loud gasps and his head
swimming with fatigue.

When he'd
run perhaps a hundred yards, he whirled around, blinked sweat out of
his eyes and stared at the ground in front of him. He opened his
mouth to speak and then with a roar of earth-shaking rage, the primal
brown dragon stepped out of nothingness and stood there, glaring down
at him with one good eye. The other was a ruined mass of running puss
and green blood.

“
I
have you now,” it rumbled and stepped toward him.

Simon stared up at the enormous
beast. Without the forest to shelter its body, the creature was so
huge that he couldn't quite comprehend it.

It blotted out the sky and, as it
spread it massive wings, a foul stench blowing from it as they
unfurled, the wizard felt a sense of despair.

How the hell could I ever believe
that this behemoth could be defeated, he wondered hopelessly. It was
like a confrontation between a man and an ant. He wondered that the
dragon had even bothered to follow him. It couldn't possibly conceive
of him as a threat.

He looked up at the snarling, glaring
visage and at its ruined eye and saw it hesitate before striking.

Maybe it did think he was a danger, a
small voice of wonder said from deep inside of him. After all, he'd
killed three of the dragon's siblings. Not all alone, of course, but
he was involved in all three defeats. Was it possible that the primal
brown was just a tiny bit frightened?

A gigantic clawed foot slammed down
on the ground and sent shudders across the plain, creating its own
earthquake. Fifty feet above him, the dragon shook its head, gore and
acidic goop flying everywhere.

“
Your puny attempt to surprise
me has failed, as you can see,” the dragon rumbled. “Your
little paladin wasted her life for nothing.”

A hissing laugh as shrill as a train
whistle assaulted Simon's ears but he barely heard it.