The Sorcerer's Scourge (38 page)

The golem burst through the hidden door and emerged from the ground a hundred yards beyond the northern wall near the base of the mountains. Upon reaching the tree line, it turned south, its long, tireless strides eating up mile after mile.

Wolf cursed bitterly as the rabbit he was about to shoot darted off. He felt the subtle vibration in the ground an instant after the rabbit apparently did and turned towards the source of the disturbance. It was dusk and already dark within the long shadows beneath the canopy of trees. Despite this hindrance, his keen vision picked out the dark form plodding steadily through the forest.

“What is that thing?” the half-elf asked Ghost.

Of course, Ghost did not answer, but his lack of apparent concern told Wolf a great deal. Wolf loped after the strange being and caught up to it in moments. The huge, steel construct seemed oblivious to the half-elf and his wolf companion and never altered its pace or direction.

“Hey, you! Where are you going?” Wolf shouted. “Are you the thing that’s supposed to go find Ellyssa when she’s in trouble?” he asked, remember what Azerick had said when he had given her the necklace.

The golem did not respond in any way, having no orders to do anything except find the owner of the necklace and defend her with its “life”.

Wolf picked up a stick and bounced it off the back of the golem’s head. “Hey, I’m talking to you!”

This time he did get the creature’s attention. Deciding that the puny flesh creature was attacking it, the golem stopped, turned towards Wolf, and raised the arm that ended in a massive sword.

Wolf held up his hands and backpedaled quickly. “Whoa there, big guy! No need to get upset. I’m just worried about Ellyssa.”

Sensing no further hostilities from the small creature, the golem turned back south and resumed its ponderous jog.

“What is that thing?”

Wolf nearly tripped over himself a he spun around to face the voice.

“Dang it, Sandy! You are too big to be sneaking up on people!”

“It’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention. What is that thing?” she repeated.

“I think it’s the thing Azerick was talking about that is supposed to go after Ellyssa if she breaks that necklace he gave her,” Wolf explained.

“She has been gone a long time. Should we go tell someone?” Sandy asked.

Wolf thought a moment and replied, “I don’t think so. By the time we got back to the school, that thing will be fifty miles from here. Miranda has had half the city looking for her for almost two weeks. Someone will notice a huge metal man missing and can probably follow it with magic. If they can’t, they’ll need us to follow it and tell them where it ends up.”

“All right, but we better catch back up to it. It does not look like it is going to wait for anyone.”

Wolf, Sandy, and Ghost broke into a jog and caught up to the construct within minutes and kept pace with it for over two hours before Wolf’s considerable stamina began to flag. After following it for half the night, the trio had slowed to the point that they had not caught sight of the golem for more than an hour.

“Sandy, it’s no use. I can’t keep running like this. You need to let me ride you,” Wolf told her in gasping breaths.

Sandy skidded to a halt and looked at the half-elf as if he had suddenly grown a second head. “Ride me? Like some common nag? I am a dragon, not a horse to carry some lazy person about because it is convenient!”

Wolf braced his hands on his knees and pulled in a lungful of air. “I know, but only you and Ghost can keep running forever. I’m too tired, and if it gets too far away even Ghost won’t be able to follow it. If that happens, we’re going to lose that thing.”

Sandy gave in with a curse and allowed Wolf to climb onto her back just in front of her wings and straddle her neck. Wolf was probably her best friend in the world, but even letting him on her back was a powerful blow to her pride. Dragons were not mounts! Unless your other best friend is possibly in mortal danger then she supposed she could make allowances as long as no one ever talked about it again.

“Heeya, dragon!” Wolf shouted and kicked his heels into Sandy’s thick neck.

 Sandy twisted her head around, nostrils flaring, and eyes narrowed to glare into Wolf’s grinning face. “If you ever spur me again, I will find the nearest creek, scrub you clean, and then eat you.”

Wolf looked at the peeved dragon sheepishly. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

Sandy huffed forcefully then resumed chasing after the golem. Ghost led the way, casting his head back and forth along the trail to keep the construct’s scent. It was not terribly hard to follow, as it seemed to keep to a nearly straight line unless the terrain forced it to deviate.

The sun was rising when Sandy realized they were falling behind once again. With the growling of her stomach, it was not hard to figure out why. Even dragons had their limits—especially hungry dragons.

“We have to stop for food,” Sandy told Wolf.

“I don’t have any food. Can’t you go a day without thinking about your stomach?”

“Not when I’m chasing a stupid metal man with a grubby half-elf on my back I can’t!” Sandy told him shortly.

Wolf was worried about Ellyssa and did not want to spend the amount of time it would take to track and take down enough game to feed a dragon, but he knew Sandy was right. He slid off the dragon’s back with a sigh and started looking around for signs of game. With Ghost’s excellent sense of smell, it did not take long.

After nearly an hour of following the tracks left by a small herd of dear, Ghost froze in place, lowered his body to the ground, and perked his wedge-shaped ears forward. Wolf immediately froze and squatted, intensely staring ahead. The half-elf subtly motioned for Sandy to stay put as he and Ghost crept forward and spotted the small herd of deer next to a stream. The buck continually lifted its head from the water in search of predators while the five doe drank.

Wolf slinked silently back to where Sandy waited, mimed six deer, and for her to lay in wait here while he and Ghost circled around to the far side. Sandy could move with exceptional stealth for a creature her size, but that skill paled in comparison to the absolute silence of Wolf and Ghost. She was also very fast for short bursts, much like a crocodile. If Wolf spooked the herd and the deer came anywhere near the dragon, a successful kill was all but guaranteed.

Wolf circled the deer from nearly a hundred yards away while Ghost did the same except in the other direction. Even if the animals spooked, being caught between the two predators should flush them towards Sandy. It took Wolf twenty minutes to get to the far side of the herd. He slowly stalked nearer, picking his way through the light underbrush to get a clean shot. His feet seemed to move with a mind of their own, sensing and avoiding any sticks or dry leaves that would alert the nervous animals to his presence.

He stopped when he approached within fifty or sixty yards. Any closer and he risked losing the element of surprise. The buck was already twitching its ears in every direction, sensing that a predator was lurking invisibly nearby. All six deer bolted almost the instant Wolf released his arrow, but for the buck it was already too late. The shaft struck true just behind the animal’s left shoulder with enough force to pierce one lung and his heart. He took maybe a dozen bounding leaps before crashing heavily to the forest floor.

Ghost exploded from the cover of the nearby bushes and chased after the fleeing doe, herding them towards Sandy. The deer dashed back along the path until the dragon erupted out of the foliage, uprooting plants and snapping limbs from trees in her haste. The deer instantly broke to their right, but one slipped for just an instant on the loose floor of detritus. That split-second falter was all it took for Sandy to close the few yards separating her and her prey.

She hit the poor animal with the weight of a small horse and the ferocity of a lion. Sinking her long claws into its hide, Sandy pulled the doe to the ground and ended its struggles with a powerful bit to its neck. Ghost padded up and received a hiss of warning from Sandy, for which she promptly apologized.

Lifting the carcass in her jaws, she and Ghost trotted towards the creek where they found Wolf already stringing up his kill by its hind legs using a length of rope and a low tree limb. He used his knife to expertly gut and skin the deer in less than fifteen minutes.

Sandy dug a large fire pit and filled it with fallen branches while Wolf went to work on her kill. In less than an hour, Wolf’s buck was roasting on a spit over the flames while he cooked smaller strips of meat from Sandy’s kill on makeshift skewers. Wolf and Ghost ate their fill from the doe long before the buck ever finished cooking, but Sandy was far from satisfied. Deciding she had waited long enough, she pulled the entire carcass from the fire, gripped the ends of the spit in both paws, and ate it like a huge piece of corn on the cob.

“I think you have reached a new height in gluttony, Sandy,” Wolf said as he watched her bolt down a long strip of flesh.

“I am going through a growth spurt right now, and I need the extra food to have the energy to keep up with that stupid golem,” Sandy said pointedly.

“Yeah, you’re growing all right. Mostly in the middle,” Wolf replied with a grin.

Sandy glared at the half-elf, huffed indignantly, but kept eating. There were few if anything that could ruin her appetite. When she finally picked off the last strip of meat and sucked out the last bit of marrow from the bones, Sandy tossed away the skewer with a belch.

“So, did you want to start after that metal monster again?” Sandy asked.

Wolf wagged his head as he doodled in the dirt with a stick. “No. We’re all tired and it’s so far away by now it I don’t think it really matters. We’ll rest a few hours and then set out first thing in the morning.”

Sandy needed no convincing and curled up close enough to the fire to burn most any other creature. “Sounds good to me.”

Morning came with the abruptness of an avalanche. It was on them before they even realized they had fallen asleep. It was far less jolting for Wolf since he had been rising with the sun for years.

“Sandy, wake up.”

Sandy grumbled and opened her eyes. The night had turned to a deep blue as the sun approached the eastern horizon.

“Morning already?”

“Yes. I’ve been thinking.”

Sandy groaned, “Great. That phrase always ends in something I don’t like.”

Wolf ignored her complaining and continued. “We’ll never keep up with that thing on foot. It has been maintaining that fast walk for nearly twelve hours while we have sat here. It has probably nearly reached Southport by now, and if it keeps on going south we are going to have to stop to eat and rest again.”

Sandy narrowed her eyes, not liking where the conversation was going. “What’s your point?”

“We need to fly.”

“Unless you suddenly sprout feathers, I don’t see that happening.”

Wolf amended, “You need to fly.”

“Sand dragons do not fly.”

“You have wings,” Wolf pointed out.

Sandy flexed a wing as she turned and looked at it as if discovering something new. “I do not fly.”

“Because you can’t or because you won’t?”

“Take your pick!”

“Is it because you’re too fat to fly?” Wolf needled, knowing that the best way to get the contrary dragon to do something was to poke at her enormous ego.

“I am not fat! Sand dragons are naturally stocky!”

“Do they call you sand dragons because your stomach is nearly drag-in the sand?” Wolf asked as he held his stomach and howled with laughter.

“I am not too fat to fly!”

“Then why won’t you?”