Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) (17 page)

He decided he must have been unconscious for a while as the blood around the orc corpses had thickened. “Will she be all right?” Jenka asked Marcherion.

“She was talking,” he replied. “That was at least half a day ago. It’s hard to say.”

“I’m alive, Jenka,” Zah said softly.
“Rest.
It’s Rikky’s turn to watch.” She shook Rikky then, bringing both him and Aikira awake. “We can find the lair when we wake.”

Jenka decided that she was right. He was dizzy just standing there, and knowing that Zah wasn’t dead or maimed was enough of a relief that he was able to drift back into oblivion.

***

After waking they traversed the roughly hewn shaft deep into the mountain. Several cobweb-filled rooms and off-shooting halls led away from the main shaft, but Marcherion’s dragon tear medallion and the tear in Jenka’s sword pulled them ever forward down the wider of the corridors.

It was clear that orcs, trolls, and even a cave bear or two had called the various nooks and crannies of the strange tunnel home over the years. There were several rooms that looked to have been made for smaller folk to use, with rotted wooden tables and chairs built for a child-sized frame. Strange carved characters that none of them had ever seen before designated some of the rooms.

A heavy banded door creaked ahead of them and everyone went tense, but it was only a draft of warm air that was venting from some unseen place that had caused the door to move.

“It’s getting warmer in here,” Rikky said. “It’s almost hot.”

“It is hot,” agreed Jenka.

The lair was just ahead of them now. The tear in Jenka’s sword was emitting a tingly warning vibration. He glanced at Marcherion, but the long-haired foreigner didn’t seem to be feeling the same thing. The shaft dead-ended in a small oval chamber. A soft red glow wavered out of a series of arched openings along one side of the space. As they approached they saw that the portals looked out over a vast cavern. It was as if they were standing on a balcony. Heat radiated up into their faces, forcing them to squint away tears of relief. A river of molten fire churned slowly along one wall of the immense, mostly open cavern, and lazing in the shadows, at the farthest reach of the sluggish infernal glow, was a large red dragon with bright lime swords for eye slits in his otherwise deep amber orbs.

“Crimzon,” Aikira whispered softly.

Yesssss,
the dragon’s response startled them, for it cut through the ethereal into their minds like a thunderclap. The century old dragon uncoiled himself and rose until his great head was at the same level as the Dragoneers. He was a well named wyrm, for his scales were the deep color of blood. When his brows narrowed he took on an angry scowl.

“Long and with little certainty have I waited in thisss dismal dwarven flue,” Crimzon growled. “For Clover I did thisss, for her sson.”

For a long time nothing happened. Rikky finally elbowed Jenka, who glanced at the others and could tell that none were going to be able to speak. He could understand their fear. Crimzon was a large dragon, frightening to look upon, with tree-trunk horns and teeth as long as a man’s leg, but at just over a hundred years old he was relatively young.

In truth Jenka wasn’t as bold as he seemed. Some of his boundless courage was a side effect of all the Dour magic that went coursing through him when he was fighting the orcs. He took in a deep, shaky breath. “Vax Noffa sent us to fetch Clover’s tear.”

All of the Dragoneers, save for Rikky, looked at Jenka reverently. It was no small thing to speak to a strange dragon, much less a dragon big enough to eat them all in one bite.

“Yesss, but it isss too late,” Crimzon gave a sad shake of his head. “The encasement is failing even now. Already Sarax are loossse.” The dragon shook his big horned head sadly.
“Vax Noffa isss dead.
Those terrible things will sssoon find the populousss and feed.”

“We need Clover’s tear to keep that from happening,” Jenka said cautiously.
 
“What of Lemmy? Is he alive?”

“I know not of any Lemmingsss.” Crimzon’s rebuke was deep and concussive, but what started as a scary growling boom turned into an obviously ironic chuckle. “Vax Noffa needed the tear to fortify the encasement. You’ve not any idea how to manage the power of the tear you already possess, much less one the size of your fissst. It would consssume you if you even touched it.”

“What do we do then?” Jenka’s tone showed his irritation. “We are here. The Dragoneers came to finish what you and Clover started. If it’s too late, then spare us the riddles. If there is something we can do, tell us so we can get it done.”

By the time Jenka was finished speaking Crimzon was chugging out clouds of sulfurous smoke from his nostrils as he growled and grunted. The other Dragoneers were wondering if Jenka had gone mad. Aikira and Rikky, who were supporting Zahrellion between them, stepped reflexively away to protect her from the coming blast.

The blast never came. It turned out Crimzon was laughing at Jenka; laughing because he was pleased beyond understanding with the nerve and grit of the Dragoneer standing boldly before him.

Chapter 21

The great red wyrm directed the Dragoneers to a stairway that led them down into his lair. To their surprise they found that the back of the cave elbowed around and was open to the sky near the shore of a lake that was fed with lava-hot spring water. The steam that rose from the surface was so thick that it was impossible to see beyond a few paces. The hard curve of an amber moon could be made out, a brighter shade of yellow than the rest of the fog. Oddly, as Crimzon ushered them near the shore, the Dragoneers could see, through the swirling mist, their own dragons resting just outside the mouth of the chamber.

Jenka knew it was impossible for them to have traveled all that way down into the mountain to end up back near the steamy lake where they had first landed, but that is what it seemed. To reinforce the truth of it, Jade lifted his head and made a growling mew that Jenka knew was a curious welcome query.

“How is it so?” Aikira asked as her dragon noticed her, too.

Crimzon was still chuckling mildly over Jenka’s boldness and disregarded her question as rhetorical.

Try the ethereal
, Zahrellion spoke into their minds.

“He must have warded this place,” Aikira said aloud.

No, it isss only the proximity of my Dour that allowsss you the ethereal.
Crimzon loomed his head down among the Dragoneers and their cautiously non-aggressive dragons. Of the wyrms, only Blaze dared raise his head and take in the elder of his kind.
The Ssarax are psssionic creaturesss. It takesss great Dour to overcome the noisse they use to wakesss their pupaesss.
While they are loossse you will be disssadvantaged.
Crimzon turned to settle his bulk. Unintentionally, he let them see that along his back several chunks had been bitten out of him.
One of them very near his wing joints.

“It doesn’t matter,” Zahrellion mumbled, loud enough to turn the dragon’s head. Jenka wasn’t the only one bold enough to speak his mind. “We don’t need the ethereal to stand.”

“Ten will meet the Confliction; they will stand or fall,” Rikky said, as he figured out her meaning.

“Five, dragons, with five riders, must defend the fate of all,” Marcherion and Aikira finished at the same time.

Yesss
, Crimzon hissed.
Your firssst task must be to ssslay the freed Sarax. I will take my mamra’s tear to the ssstar ssship and use it to fortify Clover’sss encasssement. Without Vax Noffa, I am the only one to do thisss.

“I thought it was Clover’s tear,” Rikky observed the discrepancy out loud. “You said it was your mamra’s.”

Crimzon hissed his displeasure as he thought about things long forgotten, things that were best left that way.

Before I met Clover, just after I left the shell, my mamra left
uss
in the nest to hunt.
The big wyrm started into the story.
We were days old and had just started eating meat. Of course we wanted more. Treasure sseekers came, thinking they’d found a lair. They killed my hatch-mate.
Crimzon shifted his body again as he went on.
When my mam returned and ssslayed
them
, ssshe took wounds that were fatal.
Crimzon went on to tell them about how he was forced to feed on the flesh of those men for the long weeks his mamra lay dying. Seeing that the great red wyrm was wing-wounded only made the story that much more sad. The
Dragoneers,
and their dragons too, listened to the heart-wrenching tale. When Crimzon sang a few verses of the sorrowful song that his mother had sung as she died, a few other teardrops were shed. Aikira, Zahrellion, and even young Rikky cried unashamedly, but to everyone’s great surprise, a tear fell from a dragon’s eye too. Silva’s tear plopped like a pebble onto the shore and rolled into the hot shallow water where it glimmered like the magical amber jewel that it was.

The Dragoneers watched in amazement as Rikky hobbled over and quickly retrieved the tear from the hot water. Silva’s tail came round and found his shoulder for balance when he teetered. He looked at the gem curiously for a moment,
then
the rush of the Dour filled him, forcing him to rely on his dragon to keep upright.

Let it flow through you, young one,
Crimzon suggested.
The feeling will lesson soon enough.

“How will you get to the star ship?” Jenka asked, before he could stop himself.

Crimzon’s slow intake of breath displayed well his dislike of the question.

Does it matter?
Aikira asked.

I will get there,
Crimzon’s tone was harsh.
I will do my part in the stead of Clover’s son.
Will the Dragoneersss slay the Sarax that have essscaped?

Yes, we will,
Jenka answered brazenly
.

You must stay together, and fight together. If you separate they will devour you. The Dragoneers, all of you, must know this.
Crimzon reached out a foreclaw and touched Rikky’s head. The wide-eyed boy looked at his companions drunkenly at first, but his eyes finally focused on Jenka, then he turned and stared at the massive red dragon among them.

Using all of the tear dropsss, and all our Dour combined to fortify the encasssement may keep the SSSarax trapped for half a decade, but not much longer. You mussst find a way to annihilate them before that time comes.

“There’s not much more to say then.” Marcherion spoke for the first time. His voice betrayed his unease, but he didn’t falter. “Let’s go find out what these Sarax are all about.”

“Let’s,” Rikky agreed eagerly.

“Zahrellion’s in no shape to travel...”

“No, Jenka.” Zahrellion’s tone was hard and loving at the same time. “Your concern is touching, but Crystal can carry me anywhere we must go.”

You are brothers and sisters now,
Crimzon said, sensing the tension between the two.
You are Dragoneers. Do not deny your humanity. Love and live with fire in your hearts, but do so knowing that, until the ssSarax are eliminated, until this confliction is resolved, there will be no permanency. You have no one else but each other. Never betray that and nothing else matters.

“I think I’m going to mount it in a ring,” Rikky said after a long moment of silence. He was talking about the fingernail-sized bit of Dour his dragon had shed. “Or maybe by the handgrip in the bow Mysterian gave me.”

At the same moment, Zahrellion said,
The Temple is the closest cluster of humanity.