Tears of a Dragon (28 page)

Billy shivered. He raised his hand and caressed his father’s ruddy neck. Could it really be true? Was his father really in there now . . . and he remembered? “D—Dad? . . . I mean, Clefspeare? You’re . . . You’re bowing to me?”

A sort of chortling rumble emanated from the dragon’s throat. “Call me ‘Dad,’ and yes, I am bowing to you, and to another king. But explanations must wait. I have been watching the battle, and I see that Morgan is ready to attack again.”

A new foul breeze drifted through the air. Billy gazed windward. Morgan was huddling with Samyaza and one of the snake demons in the field not far from the forest edge. Across the field, the skirmish with the snake demons had almost ended. A few black wigglers remained, but the pendant dragons were mopping them up with the help of the girls. Nearby, Walter knelt next to Carl as he tended to the professor.

Billy whistled a shrill note. “Walter! Get ready for an attack!”

Walter stood and spread his arms. “I was born ready!”

Billy straddled the base of Clefspeare’s scaly neck and grabbed a spine. The dragon raised his wings, then drove them downward against the ground, sending out a wall of wind. Again and again he beat his wings, faster and faster, as if rejoicing in the glorious freedom. Billy felt the joy, warmth radiating from his father’s glowing scales as his magnificent body lifted into the air.

As they rose, he saw Carl talking to Bonnie. She turned and gazed up at Billy, pain twisting her face.

A shiver crawled along Billy’s skin. “Is Prof all right?”

“He’s alive,” Bonnie shouted. “That’s about all I know.”

Clefspeare spiraled upward, increasing the speed of his ascent. As the humans shrank below him, Billy cupped a hand to the side of his mouth. “Mr. Foley! Check on my mom and Ashley and Sir Patrick, okay?”

Carl flashed an “Okay” sign and ran toward Ashley.

As Clefspeare leveled off, Billy searched the skies for the other dragons. They had to be battling Watchers, but he couldn’t find a trace of fiery jets anywhere. A cold breeze buffeted him, drying the blood on his sweater and making it stick to his chest wound. When he pulled it free, it smarted like bees stinging, but he didn’t want to take the time to check for new bleeding. He tightened his grip on the sword. It was time for battle.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted another set of fluttering wings. Bonnie hovered close, holding Excalibur’s scabbard and belt. “”You forgot something,” she said, smiling.

Billy patted the spot behind him. “You up for another adventure?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” She settled onto Clefspeare’s back and strapped the scabbard around Billy.

Clefspeare’s neck curled, and his head swung around to face his riders, a widening smile exposing a row of sharp teeth. “Hang on for the ride of your lives!”

The dragon widened his wings, slowing his body to a smooth glide. The sensation was like cresting the top of the first dip in a mile-high roller coaster. A snort of flames shot out of Clefspeare’s nostrils, then another, like a steam engine stoking its furnace. Finally, from both his mouth and nostrils, a river of flames burst forth, and the great dragon angled his body downward.

Billy held his breath and grasped the spine with both hands. Bonnie’s strong arms wrapped around his waist. Clefspeare pulled in his wings and dove, plummeting toward the enemy lines. The rush of wind stole Billy’s breath away, but he didn’t care. With the ground zooming toward his eyes, his drumming heart rising into his throat, and Clefspeare’s fire singeing his eyebrows, it was a mind-numbing, hair-raising, gut-wrenching blast!

Like a video game played at triple speed, a hundred different images flashed by every second. First, the ground leveled off. Then, Samyaza came into view, as if Clefspeare had locked onto him, like a radar-equipped jet honing in on its target. Finally, Morgan’s grotesque face appeared, shocked and horrified as she backed away from Samyaza.

Zooming ten feet off the surface, they careened toward the Watcher, Clefspeare’s inferno-like breath even thicker and brighter than before. Samyaza leaped to one side. Clefspeare’s blast missed, but another stream caught the demon, snaking around his body and riveting him in place.

Clefspeare shut off his jets and swerved, beating his wings furiously. Billy glanced back. Another dragon was diving from above, her fiery salvo locked on Samyaza. Her rider waved his fist in the air and let out a Texas-style war whoop. “Yeehaw!”

“Sir Newman!” Billy called out. “And Hartanna!” He slapped Clefspeare’s neck. “Dad, she’s got the Watcher pinned. Let’s circle back and blow him to smithereens!”

Bonnie trembled and pulled closer to Billy. “Mama’s alive! Thank God!”

As Clefspeare and his riders made a wide turn, they zipped by their allies at the forest edge. With the help of several pendant dragons and their electricity balls, Walter and Carl fought off a new wave of snake demons encroaching on Professor Hamilton and the women.

“Walter!” Billy shouted. “Cut Morgan off! Careful, though. She might just be a ghost.” That was all he could manage before Clefspeare zoomed out of range.

As Clefspeare realigned, Hartanna glided in a circle around her victim, bending her neck to keep her stream of flames on target. Her fire had already engorged Samyaza to twice his usual size. Lightning shot from his clawed fingertips, and darkness streaked from his eyes.

Morgan raised her arms as if preparing some new bit of sorcery, but she suddenly toppled to the ground. Walter stood over her like a conquering prizefighter, the broken broomstick in his hands and a foot planted on her wrist. A pendant dragon stood on the opposite side and pinned her other arm. “She’s plenty physical right now,” Walter yelled, “but I don’t know if it’ll last!”

Clefspeare shot out another volley of flames, slamming it into Samyaza’s massive chest. The Watcher roared, spreading out his arms and aiming his lightning-charged fingers directly at Billy. He ducked under the first shot, but the second one caught Clefspeare just below Billy’s foot. His dad groaned, but kept up his assault. Billy hunkered low. That blow wasn’t Clefspeare’s only wound. The deep gash in his belly must have been bleeding terribly. How could he keep flying with an injury like that?

Sir Newman rose on his mount, almost standing as he blew a shrill whistle into the sky. “Now!” he shouted.

Another dragon zoomed into the mix, nailing Samyaza’s head with a volley of fire. Billy raised a fist. “Yes! Thigocia and Edmund!” In the distance, more dragons approached, diving toward the action with their wings folded in.

The Watcher’s fingertip blasts suddenly stopped. Now at four times his original size, and with three dragons pumping energy into his body, he couldn’t possibly hold out much longer. Less and less like an angel, he continued to bloat into a grotesque parade balloon.

The wind whipped against Billy’s face, stinging his eyes. He shielded them as best he could and stared ahead. More Watchers zoomed up from the horizon. Pointing, he leaned back and shouted to Bonnie. “Things could really get dicey now!”

Suddenly, Samyaza exploded, sending flaming gobs of blackness hurtling through the air. One gob splattered across Sir Newman’s face, knocking him off Hartanna. Another slapped the pendant dragon guarding Morgan and spread a coat of darkness across his sparkling body. Walter dodged a third gob, rolling away on the ground across three snake demons. With several lightning-fast swings of his broomstick, he smashed their slimy heads.

Hartanna shut off her flames and swerved back toward Newman, catching him with her claws as she passed. The pendant dragon teetered and fell across Morgan. She threw him off and leaped to a ghostly stance in a single motion. Walter jumped up and charged her with his broomstick, but she raised her hand and threw a swirling ball of blackness at him. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards.

Clefspeare fired cannonballs of flames at Morgan. She raised her hands and enveloped herself in a black shroud. Each fireball splashed against the shroud, coating it with a thin layer of glowing embers.

Six more dragons arrived and shot rivers of fire at her cloak, circling around her like scaly merry-go-round horses. With most of the snake-demons now destroyed, the pendant dragons joined the assault, but their energy blasts arced around her cocoon, making it look like an electrified dome of burnished coal.

As the dragons concentrated on their blitz, eight Watchers lined up several hundred feet in the air and attacked, hurling darkness in a barrage of sizzling black bombs. One smacked Legossi in the face and spread across her entire head. She hurtled into the ground near the forest edge, throwing Sir Barlow into the trees. The darkness swarmed across her body as she lay writhing on a patch of bare earth.

Firedda fell from the sky, covered in a blanket of black goo, then a third dragon and a fourth, their riders tumbling and sliding as their mounts crashed. A bolt nailed Hartanna’s back, sending her spinning downward. Newman fell from her claws seconds before impact, slid to a stop in the tall grass, and lay deathly still.

Billy fumed. The scales under his backside radiated broiling heat. His biceps tightened into steel bands, and he slapped Clefspeare’s neck and shouted, “Dad, we can’t let them do that to Bonnie’s mom! Let’s end this fight here and now! You’ve been filled with energy from Excalibur’s beam. I know you can do it!”

With a great flurry of his wings, Clefspeare vaulted higher into the air and charged directly at the eight flying Watchers, trumpeting an ear-splitting battle cry. Billy held on for dear life. Bonnie’s grip squeezed his lungs. The torrent of fire that spewed from Clefspeare’s mouth was like a volcanic eruption, so wide and powerful it engulfed the four closest Watchers in a flood of raging flames. Each demon clutched his chest, a brilliant light flashing from his eyes, as if he had swallowed Excalibur’s beam and become engorged with energy. Like over-filled water balloons, they exploded in a dazzling eruption of black lava.

Clefspeare turned his body, and his momentum hurtled him sideways. He crashed through the other four Watchers, scattering them like humongous bowling pins. As they staggered in the sky, he blasted them one by one with his newly energized, volcano-like stream, bursting them into millions of black droplets.

Clefspeare glided slowly on a rising stream of air. Billy shook his head, trying to recover from the wildest ride in history. As he gazed at the empty sky all around, a chill of excitement ran up and down his spine. He pumped both fists and shouted, “Yes! You did it! Dad, you were awesome!”

Bonnie trembled against Billy’s back, bringing his emotions to earth. He looked down at the scene below. Her mother had fallen, and there was no way to tell how badly she was hurt.

But something else was weird. As Clefspeare floated over the forest, a sparkling stream fell from his body to the trees. Billy gulped. Dad’s blood! Had the wound opened wider?

Clefspeare sank lower. His wings faltered. The powerful canopies flailed aimlessly as he pitched downward. Seconds later, he dove straight for the ground.

“Hang on!” Billy shouted. The wind snatched his breath away. Every organ squeezed toward his throat. As they plunged, Clefspeare tried desperately to stop their descent, but he only managed to put them into a slow spin.

Suddenly, something tugged at Billy’s waist. He glanced over his shoulder. Bonnie, holding onto him with a death grip, flapped her own wings, straining to keep the huge dragon in the air. Although the spiral smoothed out slightly, the forest still hurtled toward them.

Billy hung onto Clefspeare’s spine with all his might. If he didn’t come up with a new plan immediately, all three would be smashed to bits. Only one choice came to mind. His only choice. Clenching his teeth, he let go of the spine.

Bonnie’s wings launched Billy upward. His body skimmed the needled tops of a stand of evergreen trees as she struggled to fly clear. Clefspeare crashed to the ground, twisting his frame into a huddled mass at the base of one of the largest evergreens.

Bonnie dove to where the dragon lay and set Billy down between the dragon and the tree trunk. Clefspeare sprawled in a pool of sparkling blood, another stream of red pouring from his mouth, his long neck angled fiercely back toward his body.

Billy and Bonnie knelt at his side. Billy put his arm around Bonnie and laid a hand on Clefspeare’s back. His scales had cooled. Their sheen had vanished. The sun’s setting rays cast beams of light through the trees, painting a golden mantle on the dragon’s motionless body.

Billy’s stomach tightened. A sob heaved from his chest, but he sucked it back. As he clung to Bonnie’s shoulder, she shook under his hand, and a single tear trickled down her cheek.

Billy bit his lip. He didn’t want to cry. No. It wouldn’t be right. He had to have faith. There had to be a way to heal his dad. So many others had been healed. Why not Clefspeare?

Bonnie’s tears turned into sobs, and she covered her face with her hands, her body rocking back and forth.

Billy finally let his own tears flow. Could this really be the end? After all the trials and tortures to save his dad, could this victory over the Watchers be his final mission? Could that be why God put him in Dragons’ Rest, to prepare him to defend his family and the entire world?

Billy tightened his fingers into a fist. It wasn’t enough. He knew there had to be more. Sure, the prophecies said the dragon must bow and die, and he had, but Billy’s heart and mind screamed for justice. God couldn’t let it all end here! His father had come too far to simply crash and die in the forest, to leave a widow suffering and grieving for years to come, to bring a tragic end to this story of renewed dragon faith.

Billy laid his head on his father’s back. While he prayed for a miracle, the pendant hanging from his neck bumped against his arm. He grabbed hold of it to keep it still. A strange vibration shook the octagonal frame, increasing in strength by the second. Billy raised his head and released the pendant, letting it dangle against his chest. The rubellite suddenly flashed from white to red. A sunbeam struck its surface and cast a crimson reflection across Clefspeare’s body. The red glow darkened and stretched away from Billy and Bonnie, like a shadow lengthening at the end of the day. The shadow took on a human form, a tall, masculine shape.