Dragon Sacrifice (The First Realm Book 3) (23 page)

That perked them up. For everyone else the Empire was a legend. It had fallen almost a thousand years ago.

“I’m not going to say it was a golden age,” he said. “I’m not senile. People then weren’t bigger or wiser or anything like that. They were just people.”

“Were things better?”

Serrato shook his head. “Oh, the infrastructure was better. Can’t have a military empire without roads and such. But our people were arrogant. We treated everyone abominably.”

He put his glass down. “In those days you’d never find a group like us sitting down for drinks.

Ha! In those days you’d never find me in a dress.”

“That’s right, they were less tolerant of your, er, people.”

“Am I the only one here living an unconventional life?” He looked around the table. “A human abolitionist, a dwarven princess turned adventurer, and you, Meerwen. The soldier who fights with empty hands.”

“What about me?” Tamril asked.

“You?” Serrato said. “You are a born diplomat!” And they raised their glasses at each other.

“The Northlander attitude toward homosexuality is far from perfect.” Dianne was tracing figures with a bit of spilled wine. “To even hint that a man loves other men is to make bloodshed inevitable. But once a person passes a certain age, society cares little.”

“Most halflings would be dead by that time,” Serrato said. “Although I think Elsa is more than old enough. Where is she, by the way?”

“Can’t say I’ve been keeping track,” Meerwen said. She paused. “I did notice her talking to

Angrod before he stepped out.”

Meerwen sighed. “Knowing him, he’s probably hip-deep in trouble.”

“Elsa was Jarl Vidar’s spymaster,” Tamril said. “She is an expert at seduction and interrogation.

She may at this moment be pumping him for information.”

Serrato frowned. “I can’t tell if Angrod is in trouble or having a good time.”

“Let’s check on him.” Meerwen stood up. “We have to be sure.”

Elsa gasped. “Thunder...”

I raised my hands and curled my fingers, gathering energy into my body.

“Thunder...” she said.

I visualized the energy lighting up my skin, heating it, electrifying it.

“Thunder...” Elsa grit her teeth, tried to resist.

Sparks jumped from my fingers. My hair stood on end. I thrust my hips and channelled a bolt of power.

“Thundercock!” Elsa said.
“Ooooooooh!”

The door shattered inward. I turned my head. “What—”

Meerwen and Mina burst into the room. Tamril and Dianne were right behind them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.

“We heard screaming,” Meerwen said. “Sounded like someone being murdered!”

“Does this look like I’m killing them? Get out!”

I knelt behind Elsa, who was on top of Hertha. We were all naked and in bed.

“What are you still doing here?” I said. “Get out!”

I shot lighting out my fingertips, forcing them out the doorway. I scorched the far wall and set blew out part of the doorway.

“And stay out!” I said.

Elsa and Hertha were breathing hard. Hertha had dug her fingers into the sheets. We were all sweating.

“So... formidable,” Elsa said.

Hertha only groaned. I was about to suggest we continue when Serrato ran in.

“What is it now?”

“Can’t you hear the alarms?” Serrato said. “The monster has attacked the city!!”

Chapter 21: Heronimo

I swept my blade, scattering the assassins down the stairs. I had the advantages of reach and high ground. They had the advantage of numbers. Also bows. An arrow brushed past my ear and I ducked behind a wall. The last flight of stairs was covered on both sides.

An assassin poked his head around the corner. I thrust as hard as I could and drove my sword into his mask. He crumpled, but two other assassins stepped over his body. Now it was close-quarters work. I gripped my sword halfway and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed. I short sword swung at my neck and I grabbed it with my bare hand.

“Aaagh!” I said. The blade cut into my palm. I held on. I pulled my sword out of the other assassin’s guts and swung it at the one with the short sword. He fell, leaving his weapon arm with me.

Two assassins with shields stepped into view. Behind them were a pair of archers. They drew their bows even as their comrades raised their shields.

Nothing else to do. I ran down the steps, sword high.

“Rhaaaa!” I said. I kicked at the shield on my right and swung at the sword on my left. I crowded them, keeping the bowmen from getting a shot. A sword cut into my leg and I rammed a shoulder into the shield on my left. The assassins slashed and stabbed me all over.

An archer loosed his arrow. I bent my neck and the broadhead passed an inch from my nose. I bulled my way through the shield-bearers, picked the archer up by the neck, and threw him off the rail.

Elendil assassins fought in silence. This one didn’t even scream as he fell into the courtyard below. Brave, in their own way. I stabbed at the other archer but he stepped away and the two shield-bearers closed in. They forced me against the rail and thrust their swords. I parried one, took the other in the side. The floor was suddenly too slick and too red. I cut at a shield-bearer and lost my footing.

I caught a shield-boss in the forehead. All lights went out in my head and then came crashing back. When I could see again, the assassins loomed over me. I reached for my sword but it was nowhere near my hands. The shield-bearers reversed the grip on their swords and prepared to stab down. I struggled to stand.

The blades flashed down.

Angrod

“Put your armour on,” Meerwen said.

“Got it,” I said. Elsa and Hertha had already ran to make their own preparations.

“I thought we already killed the monster,” I said. “Seems there were two monsters.”

“Or what we killed wasn’t the monster at all.” Meerwen had shrugged out of her dress and was pulling on her armour. “I thought it was a little too easy.”

“That wyvern almost killed you!”

“But it didn’t. And only one person died. Why haven’t you put your armour on?”

“It wouldn’t do any good,” I said. “Not at close quarters with a wyvern. I’d rather stay light and attack from a distance.”

“At least take that hat off.”

“I’m supposed to be some kind of freaking wizard!”

Cruix looked in. “Mister Grand Wizard! Ready to make with the monkey magic?”

“Yes!” I said. “I mean, what?”

The sky was darkening but the smoke was visible enough. We followed it until we heard the screams.

The monster tore through a market, scattering people and wooden stalls. It was like a dragon, but more massive. It was thirty-five feet long and built like it didn’t need to fly. It couldn’t—it had no wings. What it had was a pair of snarling heads.

A human with a cleaver charged it. His meat stall was in the monster’s path, in a place where two buildings met. The butcher’s family huddled behind the stall, cornered. The man swung at the creature’s right-side head, which recoiled. He raised his cleaver but the left-side head caught him in its mouth and crunched down.

“Nooo!”
a little girl said. She must have been the butcher’s daughter.

The monster’s right head tracked her. The creature moved to spring. I stepped forward without thinking and threw fireballs.

“Get! Away!” I said, hurling blast after fiery blast. But the monster’s hide was armour: the flames licked harmlessly along its back.

Meerwen picked up a brick and threw it. It struck like a bullet, knocking the monster on its side.

“We need to get these people to safety!” Orvar said.

“Where’s Ardel?” I asked.

“My father wouldn’t let him out. I command the palace troops!”

The monster roared with both mouths. The sound slammed into our chests and made us all retreat. Except Sandy, who stepped forward with her rifle. The oversized gun fired, hitting the creature above one eye. No effect!

“Even its eyelids are bulletproof,” I said. “Orvar, I recommend you take your men and evacuate as many people as you can.”

I turned to the rest. “Everyone! You each get one chance. If your attack does little, join the evacuation!”

The little girl screamed again. Her mother and brother shielded her. The monster lunged. I reached out with my mind—

—and the family vanished. I looked behind me and saw that they had reappeared far behind us.

I grit my teeth. “I can’t do that forever, people.
Attack!
”

Magnus ran forward, the exoskeleton he wore multiplying his strength. He punched the beast with one oversized gauntlet, then fired a bolt of power in its face. One of its faces, anyway. The other one reached around and caught him in its teeth.

“Father!” Mina said. She charged.

The monster bit down. The exoskeleton broke into pieces. The reactive mail held. Magnus became as stiff as a statue and the creature snarled.

“I’m coming, Father!” Mina said. The monster turned, swatting Mina with its spiky tail.

Magnus was like a toy in the monster’s mouth. It couldn’t bite through his armour so it started shaking him. It would have shaken him to pudding but Arawn drove a lance into its side. The explosion did no damage but the monster’s free head snaked toward him. Hafgan detonated another lance in its side.

The wind blew my hair to one side. A storm was coming.

Mina picked herself up from the ruins of a market stall. She drew her pistols and fired. Nothing!

“Icer!” Magnus said. “Give me the icer!” His assistants ran up and began working on him.

Hertha had transformed and found a log. She swung it like a club into the monster’s rear leg. She didn’t break the leg, but the monster stumbled.

Meerwen leaped, shattering the pavement. She went high into the air before falling. When she hit, she hit like a boulder. The monster was driven into the ground.

Magnus stepped forward. His left arm was now a nozzle that sprayed a gel of some sort. The gel it stuck to the monster’s hide and cooled until the skin cracked. He directed the stream toward its other rear leg, trying to disable it. Meerwen dodging the creature's claws at the other end.

Elsa leaped, screaming her battle cry. Her sword would be a two-hander for most people but her lion form allowed her to wield it in one hand. She slashed at the monster’s neck but the skin there was as obdurate as anywhere else. Her two wolf-men leaped on its back and Hertha pounded away with her club.

“Keep it busy till Cruix gets here!” I said. I turned to Heronimo. “Where’s Cruix?”

“I don’t know!”

“Find him! He’s our best hope!”

The monster roared and swatted Meerwen away with one paw. It snaked its head around and bit a wolf in two.

“Audun!” Elsa screamed.

The monster’s other head turned toward her. The other wolf leaped on it, biting. The creature roared and clawed it off but Elsa was able to get clear.

“Everyone, get down!” I said. I brought my hands together and clapped fire. The blast threw the monster into a brick house.

“Try not to burn down the city!” Orvar said.

Right. Much of it was made of wood. But what was I to do? Fire magic was where I had all my best offensive spells.

The wind started picking up debris in the market square. Gray clouds were forming overhead. I had an idea.

“Keep it busy!” I said. “But whatever you do, don’t engage it in hand-to-hand!”

With my mind I reached out and up, to the thunderclouds. They were heavy with rain, charged with energy. Even now it jumped from one end of a cloud to another, from one thunderhead to another. The storm pulsed with light. Inside the clouds, ice and water collided and collided again, building up a fearsome static charge. It only needed a suitable bridge to flash through the sky and strike the ground. Even now tendrils of ionized air reached down, searching for a suitable spot.

Reaching up to them, I led them to the monster.

The thunderbolt slammed the creature to the ground. It disappeared as the world turned to light. I felt the heat on my face. For a moment we were deaf as well as blind. Then the thunder echoed down the streets. Sparks and burning wreckage flew in all directions. The air smelled like metal.

The monster stood up. Its hide was smoking but unburned.

“Impossible,” I said.

Once more I called down the lightning. And a third time, to be sure. For a short time, the creature stood on the deadliest spot on earth. Not bad for a mere grey mage.

Then the smoke cleared and the creature leaped, its claws dripping molten glass. It roared toward me.

Meerwen landed on one of its heads.

“Get out of here, Angrod!” she said. “I’ll keep it busy!”

“But—”

“Just go!”

We fell back toward the fort. Orvar had gathered as many people as he could and was leading them toward the gates. Those of us who could fight covered their retreat.

“I can’t find Cruix,” Heronimo said.

“What will we do without him?” I said, casting a fireball. “Meerwen can’t slow it down forever.”

“Can’t we just break its bones?” he asked.

I shook my head. “This isn’t just a wyvern with unbreakable skin. This thing is as tough as the dragons of legend.”

“I have an idea,” Conrad said. “My man Yang is a hedge wizard. If he can get close, he believes he can open a hole in the beast’s hide.”

“How big a hole?” I asked. “Big enough to jam something conductive into the wound?

Something metal? Conrad, if you can wound the beast, then we have a chance of my lightning hitting something vital.”

The monster swiped at Meerwen with a massive paw, sending her flying into the distance.

“Send your man in, Conrad,” I said. “I’ll provide cover.”

Conrad nodded. Then he was running toward the creature. Sandy fired her rifle into its mouth.

This drew blood, but only a little. Dragon mouths were as well-armoured as the rest of them.

Zukaldi swung his hammer and Conrad slashed with his sabre. This distracted the monster enough for Yang to step close and lay a hand on its side. I turned on my Sight and saw that he was glowing.

A lump formed on the monster’s skin.

“Almost there,” Yang said. The half-elf was sweating. “Just a little longer!”

The monster raised a massive paw and brought it down on Zukaldi’s head. The dwarf disappeared in a froth of blood.

Arawn exploded a lance-tip in the creature’s neck. Hafgan followed with another lance. Orvar had his bow in hand but didn’t dare shoot. Neither could I risk throwing a fireball or magicking the ground beneath them.

The lump grew. It grew until it split and green leaves started to sprout.

“Almost there!” Yang said. The monster bit its head off.

“Yang!” Conrad said.

“We have to make the hole bigger!” Sandy said. She stuck her rifle in the breach and pulled the trigger. Bits of flesh and bone blew outward, mixed with bits of plant matter. The rifle barrel split.

“Yes!” Sandy said.