The Dragons of Decay (63 page)

Authors: J.J. Thompson

“
There
you are,” Daniel said, his voice thick with relief. “Are
you okay? What happened? Several brown dragons fell from the skies
above the cave a short time ago, so I assume the primal is dead?”

“
It
is,” Simon said tiredly. “I'm fine. How are you and the
others?”

“
We're
good. When the primal arrived outside of the cavern, we beat a hasty
retreat but it ignored us. It nosed around the body of the lesser
dragon and then barreled off after you. I guess it picked up the
scent of Ethmira's blood. I saw her slash her arm to make a trail for
the dragon to follow.”

“
Speaking
of Ethmira, has she come back yet?”

“
No,
she's...”

Some
distant shouting made Daniel look up with a frown.

“
Hang
on,” he said as he got up and left the alcove. “This may
be her now.”

Simon
waited. He wondered how his friend and the others would react when
they learned that Liliana had died fighting the dragon while he
scurried like a rat through the portal.

He closed
his eyes, remembering the valiant warrior. She had been everything
that a paladin from an epic tale could be; brave, selfless, loyal.
And now she was gone, because of him. It was so unfair.

“
Simon?”
Daniel said and he opened his eyes to look at his friend.

“
She's
back. A little bedraggled,” he grinned at someone beyond
Simon's view, “but she seems to be fine. Here, I'll let you
talk to her.”

His friend
handed the cup over and now the elf was looking back at the wizard.

“
You're
alive!” she exclaimed with a broad smile. “I saw a brown
dragon crash through the forest canopy on the return trip. You
succeeded then. Well done, my friend. Very well done!”

“
Thanks
Ethmira, but I can't take much of the credit for it. Without you
opening the portal and Liliana's sacrifice, I never would have had a
chance to trap the primal here on my world.”

He
hesitated.

“
What
happened to her after I...ran. Did you...”

Ethmira
looked up and then moved aside as someone else took her place in his
view.

“
What
happened is that damned dragon ran away before I could take its other
eye!” Liliana exclaimed with an irritated scowl.

Simon
gaped at her.

“
Liliana!
But...but you're supposed to dead!”

“
Well,
sorry to disappoint you,” she said with a twisted smile. “Why
am I supposed to be dead?”

“
The
primal said, I mean it told me...”

His voice
trailed off and he just grinned at her.

“
It
lied obviously. Probably to throw me off a bit. It worked too, for a
moment.”

“
A
paladin is damned hard to kill, my friend,” Liliana told him.
“I did get hit with some acid; bloody stuff ate my shield! But
the few wounds I took were quickly healed. The primal was quite eager
to follow you, actually. Obviously its biggest mistake. So, how did
you defeat it?”

Simon
shook his head. Between his exhaustion and the relief of knowing that
the paladin had survived, he was practically speechless.

“
I'll
tell you later. Do me a favor, would you? Ask Virginia and the others
if they be willing to stay there for a little while, instead of
taking a portal back right away. I want to head over to Nottinghill
and get some rest. I think I have just enough energy left to Gate
myself there, but taking anyone else might be beyond me just now.”

“
I
can't open a portal for a few hours anyway,” he heard the elf
say. “Let him get his rest and he can call us when he's ready.”

“
You
heard?” the paladin asked and Simon nodded.

“
I
did. Tell her thanks. I'll call tomorrow. That will only be a couple
of hours your time anyway.”

“
Will
do. And Simon,” Liliana looked at him intently.
“Congratulations on a job well done. You are rapidly becoming a
legend, my friend.”

The wizard
snorted.

“
Only
in my own mind,” he replied and she laughed lightly.

“
Talk
to you all soon,” he said and with a wink and a smile at the
paladin, canceled the spell.

To know
that Liliana hadn't died was incredibly thrilling for Simon and he
simply sat for a bit, gathering his strength and relishing the
knowledge that no one had had to die for them to defeat the primal
brown dragon.

“
A
bloodless victory,” he said to himself as he used his staff to
help him stand. “Thank God for that. I don't need anyone else's
blood on my hands.”

He
stretched, shook the sand off of his robe, which was stained and
charred in a few places, and then gathered his strength. He chanted
the Gate spell, pictured the new town and decided to transport
himself outside the wall, just in case. Someone might be in the way
if he popped into the middle of town.

He took a
deep breath of tangy air, smiled a little and invoked the spell.

The void
covered him in blackness and a sense of a vast nothingness, as
always, and then he was standing just outside the gate of
Nottinghill.

He stared
at the town in confusion for a minute, not sure what he was seeing.
He could still taste the salty sea air on his tongue and then with
his next breath he was gasping and wheezing as thick smoke clogged
his nostrils.

Nottinghill
was...gone. The outer wall had collapsed into heaps of rubble and
billowing black clouds of ash and smoke rose into the air from inside
of it. Beyond the destroyed wall were piles of burning wood and a
mound of broken rock where the town hall had once stood.

“
What
the hell?” Simon whispered in disbelief.

The
drawbridge was scorched but still extended over the trench and he
walked carefully over the smoking planks, steadying himself with his
staff.

Inside the
ruined gates, he stopped and stared, looking for any sign of movement
and listening intently.

All he
heard was the crackle and pop of still burning wood, its acrid smell
pinching his nostrils. All he saw was devastation.

“
Hello?”
he yelled as he finally found the energy to move. He hurried into the
destroyed town, looking around frantically.

“
Hello?
Is anyone here?”

Simon
looked at the mounds of burned timbers that used to be small houses
and fearfully searched each one, pushing aside smoldering bits of
timber and destroyed furniture. He felt a growing sense of relief as
he found no bodies, no human remains.

Maybe they
all got away from whatever attacked the town, he thought with a
desperate hope.

Finally he
approached the shattered mound of stone that had been the town hall.
He stared at it from a few feet away, frowning in confusion.

It was
warded, he thought. It was warded from attack. How is this possible?

He stepped
forward through what had once been the main door. The walls were
mostly intact but the roof had collapsed in on itself and the hall
was open to the sky. He glanced up, shook his head numbly and then
stepped over a pile of ash.

And then
he stopped. It wasn't a just pile of ashes.

A few
scorched pieces of cloth, a seared boot, a sliver of blackened bone.

Oh God, he
thought and backed away hurriedly. It's a person.

Simon
stood in the doorway and looked around, leaning heavily on his staff.
Mounds of ashes. All scattered around the perimeter as if the
townspeople had been frantically trying to brace the walls against
whatever had attacked them.

Slowly,
reluctantly, his eyes drifted to the center of the room. The
collapsed roof was in pieces all over the place but strangely the
middle of the hall was clear. And there, inside a circle of ashes,
the remains of the adults who had desperately tried to protect them,
three little mounds were huddled together.

Simon
groaned out loud and turned away, tears washing clean trails through
the dirt on his face.

The
children, he thought with despair. Oh God, not the children.

He
stumbled out of the hall and into the open area, trying to process
what had happened here. He shook his head, tried to think.

What could
have done this? The walls were warded, the hall was warded. Had he
been gone that long? But no, the fires were still smoldering. The
attack was recent, maybe a few hours ago.

Through
his grief and rage, Simon suddenly felt a sense of menace. He spun
around, looking for any sign of a threat. But there was nothing, just
the sad remains of a once proud town.

Oh my
friends, he thought. I failed you. When you needed me most, I wasn't
here to protect you. I failed you.

Suddenly
that sixth sense made the skin on his arms rise in goosebumps. He
looked around yet again but there was nothing there.

“
What
is it!” he shouted at himself in anger.

This time,
there was an answer.

A
triumphant bellow pierced the air and he looked up, squinting into
the sun. Diving down at him, claws extended and jaws agape, was an
enormous red dragon. As Simon stared at it, stunned, the horned head
pulled back and then shot forward, sending a blast of white hot flame
earthward, directly at the wizard.

His last
thought was, so this is how I die. And then all he knew was fire.

The
End

Links

My List of Novels:

The
Titan's Legacy

Book:1
The
Return of the Titans

Book:2
The
Battle for Sanctuary

Book 3:
The
Hunt for Hyperion

The
Angelic Wars

Book 1:
Confronting
the Fallen

Book 2:
The
Rise of the Fallen

Tales
from the New Earth