The Dragons of Ice and Snow (59 page)

“
Enough talk!”
she shouted. “The world will be a cleaner place once you are
dead.”

“
Said the ant to the
mountain,” the primal laughed. “Come then. I will allow
you the first blow.”

Liliana dropped her head
and her hands twisted on her sword hilt. And then to Simon's
amazement, her sword began to glow a brilliant silver. A low chime,
like a church bell, echoed across the plateau and the paladin bent
her knees and glared up at the primal's horrible, grinning face.

“
For my people!”
she screamed and leaped forward.

Simon could barely see her
move, she was that fast. Like a streak of light, she shot toward the
primal and then jumped at the last moment. Her sword slashed; once,
twice and then she had passed the monster and stopped, her sword
resting point-first on the ground.

She fell to one knee,
unmoving and the wizard looked back at the primal to gage its
reaction.

“
Well, that was very
pretty,” it said with amusement. “However, I do not think
you accomplished much.”

It began to turn and then
a leg buckled beneath it and it fell to one knee, in almost the same
pose as Liliana after her attack.

The primal bellowed in
pain and Simon saw buckets of green blood running from its slashed
leg. The paladin had hamstrung it.

Ear-shattering screams of
rage replaced the dragon's mocking laughter and it tried to push
itself to its feet. As it began to rise, still roaring with anger and
pain, Liliana turned and leaped toward it again.

The primal reacted faster
than Simon believed a being that large could. It swung its massive
hand and swatted her away like a man would a fly.

From where he was
crouched, the wizard heard the thud of the blow and winced. Liliana
flew back and hit the ground hard, rolling at least twenty feet
before she ended up sprawled on her face, motionless.

Simon looked from his
friend's body to the dragon and back again. The primal was still
struggling to stand and seemed to be ignoring his victim, so the
wizard took a chance and renewed his shield spell. Then he raced
across the broken ground until he reached Liliana, keeping one eye in
the monster as he went.

He gently rolled the
paladin over on to her back and hissed as he saw her face.

She was scraped and
bruised. One eye was already swelling and a trickle of blood ran out
of her nose. He felt frantically under her jaw for a pulse and
finally found one. Her heart was beating too fast, but at least she
was alive.

“
Liliana? Can you
hear me?” he whispered, forgetting about the monster that was
still growling and cursing behind him.

He shook her lightly,
afraid to do more in case she had broken bones or internal injuries.
There was no response.

I have to get her to Clara
as soon as I can, he thought desperately. I should have sent her away
with the others and faced this nightmare on my own, as always.

He gently pushed a strand
of hair off of the paladin's face.

“
Don't worry,”
he whispered. “You'll be okay, I promise.”

Suddenly his shield
collapsed in a shower of sparks and Simon was lifted off of his feet
high into the air. His arms were pinned to his sides and his staff
fell to the ground far below. The dragon had simply reached down with
one horny, scaled hand and picked him up.

His hair whipped across
his eyes as he was turned and found himself only a few yards from the
primal's hideous face.

The creature was scowling
with pain but managed a twisted smile.

“
Never turn your
back on an enemy in battle, little wizard. Don't you know that?”

It breath was foul and
stinking and Simon turned his face away, trying to breathe.

“
Ah, what is it,
insect? Not pretty enough for you?”

It laughed and then the
enormous yellow eyes narrowed. The vertical slits in the center
widened as it turned him this way and that, examining him closely.

“
Strange,” it
mused to itself. “You do not look any different than any of the
other humans I have seen. How could such a puny specimen of a weak
species like yours defeat not one but two primal dragons? It is a
mystery.”

“
Maybe I know a
secret, monster,” Simon said loudly, trying to sound braver
than he felt.

“
A secret? What
secret is this, little wizard?”

Simon just returned its
gaze as steadily as he could.

“
Oh come now,”
the primal said in a jocular tone. “We both know how this is
going to end, do we not? You never stood a chance against me. But you
are brave. You and your paladin friend. Very brave. I admire that. So
let us make a bargain, shall we? You tell me the secret of how an
insect like you destroyed two primal dragons and I will make your end
quick and painless. And hers as well. Now how's that for a fair
trade, hmm?”

“
And if I don't tell
you?”

Simon groaned as the
fingers around his body tightened. He actually heard his ribs creak
and for a moment he couldn't breathe. Then he gasped as the pressure
was released.

“
Well, if you
don't,” the primal said in a mockingly sad voice, “then I
shall have no choice but to make you suffer. I will pull off your
limbs one by one, the way a man would pull the wings off of a fly. If
you do not die at once, well then I think you will eventually tell me
what I want to know. Either way, I win, so why choose the hard path?”

Simon was thinking
frantically. There was no secret, of course, and if the primal's mind
hadn't been twisted by its transformation, it probably would have
seen the ruse for what it was; the wizard playing for time. But he
knew that his time was almost up.

A breath of wind blew past
his ear and a whisper of a voice, barely audible, said “Now.”

“
Okay then. I guess
since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well tell you. Who's it
going to hurt, right?”

“
Exactly!” the
primal said with a broad smile. “What difference will it make
in the grand scheme of things, hmm? The dragons will wipe out your
species anyway and you won't be there to try and save them. May as
well save yourself some pain.”

“
Yes. Fair point.
Let's see now. It has to do with a name.”

Simon frowned as if
thinking deeply.

“
A name? What sort
of name? A magical word perhaps?”

The primal pulled him
closer eagerly and the wizard found himself only a few feet away from
its gaping maw.

“
Yeah, a magical
word. That's it. And the word is...”

He smiled at the enormous
face staring at him.

“
Incendus!” he
cried.

“
What? What kind of
a word is that?” the primal asked blankly.

A burst of red light
straight over their heads made both Simon and the primal look up. A
streak of fire shot out of the sky and down toward them. At the last
moment, it spun at right angles, turned and slammed into the injured
leg of the dragon.

The primal bellowed and
fell back, flinging Simon high into the air. He began to fall toward
the plateau below.

Oh, this is going to hurt,
he thought grimly and then he found himself floating, skipping across
the sky like a leaf in the wind.

“
I've got you, sir
wizard,” came a familiar voice.

“
Aethos?”

“
Of course. Sorry
for the delay. Are you all right?”

“
For now. Liliana is
injured though.

Simon reached the ground
and was deposited gently on to his feet. The air elemental appeared,
a misty man-shape that glowed in the darkness.

“
Not to worry.
Kassus has transported her to safety below.”

Another bellow from the
primal made Simon spin around.

The monster's knee was
shattered. The wizard could see bone peeking out of the smoking flesh
where the fire elemental had slammed into it. And yet the creature
was once again getting to its feet.

“
You tricked me,
wizard!” it shrieked as its blazing eyes spotted him.

“
What can I say,”
Simon yelled up at it. “It's what I do.”

“
Now you die!”

The wizard chanted quickly
and threw up his shield just as the primal pointed a clawed finger at
him. A bolt of lightning smashed into the shield, driving Simon to
his knees, but the barrier held.

“
Hold strong,
wizard,” Aethos said. “I go to direct my forces.”

“
Good luck!”

The elemental disappeared
just as the primal pulled back its head. Simon heard it drawing in a
great breath.

“
Crap, it's going to
hit me with a blast of frost,” he said to himself and began to
run for the shelter of the nearest boulder.

A sudden gasp from the
creature made him stop and look over his shoulder. And then he
grinned.

The rocky ground beneath
the feet of the primal was climbing up its legs like a living thing,
holding it fast. The monster roared and began battering at the rock
with it fists. But as soon as it shattered one layer, a new one would
form.

And then things began to
happen quickly.

To Simon's right, a stream
of incandescent missiles shot from the ground and slammed into the
primal's left arm. It roared and twisted to face the new threat just
as jagged bolts of lightning hit the creature's right arm.

The wizard squinted into
the darkness, which was rapidly getting thicker as the air was filled
with smoke and dust. More magic missiles hit the primal and Simon
could finally see their source. It was Tamara.

Her hands were raised and
the brilliant bolts of energy shot from her palms. Her expression was
dreadful; a mixture of pain and pleasure and the wizard shivered a
bit when he saw it.

More lightning splashed
against the dragon and Simon could see that Sebastian was casting on
the far side of the beast. Unlike his sister, the flashes from his
spells showed him looking calm, almost reflective as he attacked.

What an odd pair they are,
Simon thought fleetingly.

Streams of blood were
coursing down the primal's arms and legs now, but it didn't seem to
be weakening it significantly. They needed more firepower.

At that moment, a burst of
flame appeared several feet away and hovered over the ground, raising
steam from the frozen rock.

“
Thank you for
coming, Incendus,” Simon said to the living fire.

“
A pleasure. Now,
meaning no disrespect, but it might be a good time to summon my
brethren to join in the fight.”

“
Oh right. I'd
almost forgotten about them.”

“
Focus, wizard. We
are in the midst of a battle here and our victory is hardly assured.”

“
Got it, got it.”

Simon fished a sheet of
paper from inside his robe and squinted, trying to read.

“
Um, could you
brighten up a little bit. It's a bit hard to read here.”

The fire elemental's flame
turned from a deep red to a bright yellow, and Simon felt a wave of
heat wash over him.

“
Ah, thanks so
much.”

“
My pleasure,”
Incendus replied dryly. “I do not believe that I've ever been
used as a light source before.”

“
Uh yeah, sorry
about that. Here we go.”

Simon stared up at the
primal and marked the position in his mind where he wanted the
elementals to appear. Then he read out each name quickly and clearly
and slipped the paper back inside his robe.

“
Thank you, wizard.
I go to join the fight.”

The flame disappeared with
a loud thump and Simon stood alone, blinking into the darkness.

He had focused on the head
of the primal as the target for the fire elementals. He hoped that a
concentrated attack on its head would bring the monster down more
quickly. Unfortunately, he was mistaken.

The streaks of fire rained
down on the monster in rapid succession. For all of its size and its
many wounds, the primal was much quicker than Simon gave it credit
for. As the elementals shot down at it, the dragon twisted and
turned, ducked and weaved and was only struck twice, each blow
slamming its head to one side or the other, but doing little damage
to its scaled hide.

Fireproof, Simon thought
as he kicked himself mentally. He should have had the elementals
attack the creature's open wounds instead.

Nevertheless, the fire
elementals streaked around the primal, smashing into it again and
again. They were doing some damage, but it was taking too long. And
the monster was fighting back.

As he watched, the primal
whipped its arm around and backhanded a fire elemental that was
shooting toward its chest. The elemental disappeared in a shower of
sparks and embers and Simon heard a single shriek of despair. The
primal had destroyed it.