How to Slay a Dragon (28 page)

“BUT I AM THE LAST OF MY BREED. DO YOU THINK THE MEN OF THIS KINGDOM OF YOURS KNOW THAT?”

“No,” Greg answered quickly. “I mean, um, I doubt it.”

Still the dragon looked uncertain.
“BUT WHO IS EVER GOING TO BELIEVE A BOY LIKE YOU WAS ABLE TO DEFEAT A POWERFUL DRAGON LIKE MYSELF?”

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” said Greg.

Ruuan regarded him doubtfully.

“I know it sounds crazy, but everyone around here has been convinced I was going to defeat you from the start. I think they’d actually be more shocked if I didn’t slay you.”

“HMM, I STILL DON’T KNOW,”
said Ruuan.

Greg groaned. “Now what?”

“WELL, JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE WILL THINK THE PROPHECY HELD TRUE DOESN’T MAKE IT TRUE, YOU KNOW. THERE’S STILL AN ISSUE OF INTEGRITY HERE. WE DRAGONS HAVE ALWAYS LIVED BY A STRICT CODE OF HONESTY AND ETHICS.”

Greg’s mind raced. “That’s very admirable,” he said, “but I think I can help you there, too.”

“REALLY? PRAY, TELL ME HOW?”

Greg wasn’t sure if Ruuan had said ‘pray’ or ‘prey’. Either way he knew he better come up with something good. “Well, as I was telling my friend Lucky earlier—”

“WHO’S LUCKY?”
Ruuan interrupted.

“The boy you brought up here with me.”

“DOESN’T
SOUND
LUCKY. BESIDES I DON’T RECALL SEEING ANOTHER.”

“Well, there was. He’s right in there,” Greg said, pointing toward the cell where the others stood in the shadows, watching helplessly.

“REALLY? TWO OF YOU? MY, YOU HUMANS ARE TINY THINGS.”

“Yes, well, as I was saying, I was telling Lucky that I have, in a sense, already slayed you.”

“OH, REALLY. HOW DO YOU FIGURE?”

“Not slay, s-l-a-y, but sleigh, s-l—well, whatever. I hit you with a sleigh down at the bottom of the tunnel and knocked you out.”

Ruuan’s expression darkened.
“SO, THAT WAS YOU. YOU KNOW THAT REALLY HURT.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I ASSUME IT WAS AN ACCIDENT?”

“Yes, of course.”

Ruuan nodded, leaving Greg with a disturbing sense of vertigo.
“SO, TECHNICALLY YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE ALREADY FULFILLED THE PROPHECY.”

“All except for rescuing the princess,” Greg said.

“AND I CAN HELP YOU THERE,”
Ruuan whispered. The dragon seemed to ponder for a moment.
“IT MIGHT JUST WORK. YOU WOULD JUST NEED TO GIVE THE SPIRELINGS BACK THEIR AMULET SO THEY COULD CONTINUE TO GUARD THE PASSAGEWAY—”

“Hold on,” said Greg. “I can’t do that.”

Fire blasted from Ruuan’s nostrils.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, CAN’T?”

Greg barely dodged the flames. “I-I promised Witch Hazel I’d bring the spirelings’ amulet back. It was part of my agreement with her for letting me live. If I don’t—well, I don’t know what she’ll do, but she’s a witch. I’m sure she’ll do something.”

“THAT WITCH!”
said Ruuan.
“SHE’S BEEN A THORN IN MY SIDE AS LONG AS I’VE KNOWN HER. TELL ME, WHAT WAS YOUR EXACT AGREEMENT WITH HER?”

“My exact agreement?”

“YES, THINK BACK. WHAT WERE THE EXACT WORDS YOU BOTH USED?”

“Well, I don’t know that I can remember the exact words.”

“TRY,”
Ruuan said, allowing a wisp of smoke to drift out one nostril.
“PRETEND YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.”

“Oh, right. Well, let’s see . . .” Greg found it difficult to concentrate with a three-hundred-foot-tall dragon looming overhead. The fact his life depended on it did little to help. Still he tried his best to remember. “She told me to get the amulet from the magical passageway,” he said, “and then I was supposed to take it and the one she gave me back to her shack in the Shrieking Scrub.”

“ARE YOU SURE THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAID?”
Ruuan asked.
“THINK. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.”

Greg closed his eyes and tried to remember Hazel’s exact words. Ruuan’s putrid breath drifted across the cavern, lifting Greg up on his heels, but he managed to stay focused all the same. He pictured Hazel’s cold, dark eyes and her sallow skin. He recalled the way she rocked back and forth in her old, wooden chair by the flickering candlelight, and the croaking sound of her voice when she spoke.

“Wait,” he said. “I think I remember. She asked me to do her a favor.”

Ruuan’s eyes brightened.
“GOOD, GREGHART. WHAT FAVOR?”

“She wanted me to bring back her amulet ‘when I was through.’” Greg’s voice slowed. “I have to die, don’t I?”

“RELAX. I’M SURE SHE JUST MEANT WHEN YOU WERE THROUGH WITH YOUR BUSINESS HERE. THAT SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER AMULET, THE ONE YOU STOLE FROM THE SPIRELINGS?”

“Right, let’s see. She asked me to bring ‘something else as well.’”

“THAT SHOULD BE EASY ENOUGH.”

“No, wait. She said the fourth amulet was the most powerful, that the spirelings used it to control the Passageway of Shifted Dimensions, and that you gave it to them.”

“SHE TOLD YOU THAT?”

“Yes, why? Isn’t it true?”

“THE LESS YOU KNOW ABOUT THE AMULET, THE BETTER,”
the dragon advised him.
“WHAT ELSE DID SHE SAY?”

Greg’s eyes widened as he recalled the witch rising from her chair, straightening her crippled back and growing into something—else. “She threatened me. She said, ‘You will bring me the amulet from the Infinite Spire, and in exchange I will give you the things you asked for,’ which included my life, although I never really asked for that.”

“WAS THERE ANYTHING MORE?”

Greg tried hard to recall. “Yes, she told me not to disappoint her. She said, ‘If you do not return directly with the Amulet of Ruuan, or if you do not bring me the other amulet from the Infinite Spire, you will not live to see your home again.’”

“AND YOU’RE SURE THOSE WERE HER EXACT WORDS?”

“I think so.”

The dragon shot him a disapproving look.

“Okay, I’m sure.”

“SHE NEVER SPECIFICALLY SAID YOU HAD TO BRING HER THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET?”

“I see where you’re going.” Greg thought back. “No, she always referred to the ‘other amulet’ or the ‘amulet from the spire.’ If only I had another amulet to give her.”

The dragon’s mouth pulled into a wide grin.
“AH, I CAN HELP YOU THERE.”

Ruuan swung his long neck behind him and deftly picked through the huge pile of treasure with his tongue until he found a rusty amulet on an iron chain. He plucked it from the pile as easily as Greg might have done with his fingers, whipped his head back around, and offered the trinket to Greg, the chain looped over one tip of his long forked tongue. Greg reached for the chain as eagerly as he might have reached for a shaken wasp nest, plucked the amulet from Ruuan’s tongue and yanked back his hand.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I can’t give Hazel
this
.”

“LOOK AGAIN, GREGHART.”

Greg did as he was told. Before his eyes the amulet transformed into a pie-shaped wedge about the size of a quarter, a perfect match to the three others he’d been given and the one he stole from the spirelings.

“Wh-what’s this?” he gasped.

“A SPELL, GREGHART. THE AMULET HAS NOT CHANGED, ONLY ITS APPEARANCE.”

“And this will fool the witch?”

“NOT FOR AN INSTANT,”
said the dragon.

Greg groaned. “Then I’m right back where I started.”

“NO,”
Ruuan said,
“BECAUSE IT WOULD FOOL YOU.”

Greg stared up into the dragon’s eye. “You’re not suggesting what I think you are?”

“IF YOU RETURN THIS AMULET TO THE WITCH, TECHNICALLY YOU WILL HAVE FULFILLED YOUR PROMISE TO HER. ALTHOUGH SHE WILL INSTANTLY KNOW IT’S A FAKE, SINCE IT LOOKS JUST LIKE THE OTHERS, THERE IS A CHANCE, ALBEIT A SMALL ONE, SHE MIGHT ASSUME YOU WERE UNAWARE IT WAS NOT REAL.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I WILL NOT LET YOU LEAVE WITH THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET. YOU CAN EITHER TRY TO TAKE IT FROM ME,”
Ruuan said, rising to his full height,
“OR YOU CAN TRY MY PLAN INSTEAD.”

Greg swallowed hard and strained his neck to keep Ruuan’s head in sight. “I’ll try the plan.”

“THOUGHT YOU MIGHT.”

Greg stared, speechless, as the dragon’s head dropped like an elevator back down to ground level and Ruuan’s reptilian jaws once again pulled themselves into a grin.

“HOWEVER, I WAS LYING TO YOU WHEN I SAID I WOULDN’T LET YOU TAKE THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET OUT OF HERE. ACTUALLY I WANT YOU TO PUT IT BACK FOR ME.”

“Really?” Greg asked, amazed.

“WELL, I CAN’T DO IT MYSELF. THE PASSAGEWAY IS FAR TOO NARROW.”

“But aren’t you afraid I’ll keep it?”

“NO.”
The dragon’s tone cut off all doubt as cleanly as a machete. He was obviously not the least bit concerned that Greg might disobey him.

Greg was not surprised. Who would be crazy enough to double-cross a dragon? But then Ruuan said something that caught him completely off guard.

“YOU HAVE GIVEN ME NO REASON TO DISTRUST YOU . . . ASIDE FROM COMING HERE TO KILL ME, THAT IS. FURTHERMORE YOU SHOWED TRUE HONOR IN ATTEMPTING TO RESCUE YOUR PRINCESS WHEN, AS YOU HAVE TOLD ME YOURSELF, YOU NEVER BELIEVED THE PROPHECY WAS TRUE. YOU MUST HAVE BEEN SURE YOU WOULD PERISH HERE TONIGHT, YET STILL YOU CAME.”

Greg didn’t know what to say. Indeed the dragon spoke the truth, but Greg also knew a large reason he did what he did was because he never really felt he had a choice.

“AND THERE IS ANOTHER REASON,”
continued Ruuan.
“WHEN I GAVE YOU AN OUT, ALLOWING YOU TO LEAVE FREELY WITHOUT THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET, YOUR FIRST INSTINCT WAS TO FULFILL YOUR PROMISE TO WITCH HAZEL, AGAIN AN HONORABLE ACT.”

“But—”

“OH, I KNOW YOU’RE THINKING YOU WERE JUST AFRAID TO BREAK A PROMISE TO A WITCH, BUT THERE WAS MORE TO IT THAN THAT. YOU ARE FAR BRAVER THAN YOU THINK, YOUNG GREGHART. AFTER ALL, THEY DON’T WRITE PROPHECIES ABOUT JUST ANYONE.”

“No,” Greg said uneasily. “Of course, they don’t.”

“BESIDES,”
Ruuan added,
“UNTIL YOU RETURN WITH THE TWO AMULETS ENTRUSTED TO YOU, I PLAN TO HOLD ON TO YOUR FRIENDS.”

Promise from the Hart

Greg tried to wipe his sweaty palms on his tunic, with little success.

“IT WAS INCREDIBLY BRAVE OF YOU TO COME HERE.”
Ruuan shook his head, and Greg had to jump back to avoid being flattened.

“What’s wrong?”

“I WAS JUST THINKING, YOU MUST HAVE FELT YOUR CHANCE OF SURVIVAL TONIGHT WAS NEXT TO NONE.”

“Well, none, actually.”

“YES, WELL NOW I’M IMAGINING YOUR CHANCES WITH HAZEL WHEN YOU RETURN WITHOUT THE SPIRELINGS’ AMULET.”

Greg felt himself blink.

“THEY WON’T BE AS GOOD,”
Ruuan clarified.

At least Ruuan wasn’t sending him out to face the witch alone, exactly. Greg had asked the dragon to carry him to Hazel’s, and to his surprise, Ruuan agreed. At least he would carry Greg as far as the edge of the Shrieking Scrub. Just as Ruuan’s powers were strongest here in his lair, he said Hazel’s were greatest at the center of the Shrieking Scrub. Besides, the Molten Moor was the only spot in the area big enough for Ruuan to land.

“How will I get back?” Greg wanted to know.

Ruuan craned his neck toward his mound of treasure again and dug through it with his tongue.
“TAKE THITH,”
he said, when his huge jaws returned to face Greg. Except for the lisp, it was the kind of thing Manny Malice always said right before he swung a punch.

At first Greg didn’t see anything to take, but then he spotted a tiny gold ring slipped over one tip of Ruuan’s tongue. “What is it?”

“A VEWY SPETHAL WING,”
Ruuan said.
“WUD YOU JUTH TAKE ID?”

Greg removed the ring so Ruuan could speak.

“WHEN YOU WANT TO RETURN TO MY LAIR JUST INCANT THE MAGIC WORD, AND THIS RING WILL BRING YOU HERE. YOU NEED NOT WORRY. THE MAGIC WILL PROTECT YOU AGAINST THE HEAT.”

“What’s the magic word?” Greg asked.

“
TRANSPORTUS
.”

“Transport us?”

“RIGHT, ONLY WHEN YOU SAY IT, IT SOUNDS LIKE TWO WORDS. IT’S ONLY ONE. TRANSPORTUS. NOW, I HOPE YOU HAVE IT, BECAUSE IT’S TIME TO GO.”

Ruuan’s jaws drew open like a rising drawbridge and beckoned Greg inside. Greg was understandably reluctant, and not just because of the putrid stench of dragon spit that wafted out at him. “That’s not your back,” he noted.

“THE TUNNEL IS TOO NARROW FOR YOU TO RIDE OUTSIDE. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN CARRY YOU SAFELY DOWN.”
When Greg did not immediately climb in, Ruuan added,
“IF I INTENDED TO EAT YOU, I WOULDN’T NEED YOUR COOPERATION.”

Greg supposed the dragon was right, but still he hesitated. “What about the spirelings’ amulet? You wanted me to take it back to them, remember?”

“IT CAN WAIT. NOW, CLIMB INSIDE.”

Greg continued to stare into the gaping maw, unable to will himself forward, until Ruuan helped him to it with a gentle nudge of his tongue.

With a snap the dragon’s jaws clamped shut, closing off all light. Greg’s stomach flipped as Ruuan’s head lifted. He heard the familiar whoosh of air as the dragon jetted down the spiraling tunnel, and then he smacked into Ruuan’s front teeth when the dragon came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the Infinite Spire.

“SORRY. I FORGOT THE SPIRELINGS WERE CAMPED OUT HERE.”

Greg took advantage of the gap between the dragon’s teeth and leapt free. Everywhere he looked, spirelings lay about under the moonlight, still asleep with purring shadowcats nestled at their sides. Fatigue hit him like a baseball bat. His gaze sank to the ground, and there at his feet, amidst the debris of the splintered sleigh, lay Nathan’s staff. He stooped to retrieve it and couldn’t find the energy to straighten up again.

“CLIMB UP ON MY BACK,”
Ruuan instructed.
“WE MUST FINISH THIS BEFORE THE SUN RISES.”

Greg peeked up from beneath his armpit toward the dragon’s back, which although Ruuan had crouched to help, still stood some fifty feet off the ground, and his knees began to melt. Ruuan’s tongue lashed out, coiled around Greg’s waist and jerked him high into the air. Before Greg could so much as scream, he found himself lodged between two gold spikes jutting from behind the base of the dragon’s neck. Next thing he knew, he was airborne, soaring miles above the dark countryside, just moments from plunging to his death.