The Sorcerer's Scourge (39 page)

“Because I prefer to meet the ground on my own terms. Once one gets in the air, their relationship with the ground becomes rather uncertain!”

“Oh, I see. You’re scared.”

“I am not scared!”

Wolf waved a hand dismissively. “No, I understand completely. Chickens have wings and they don’t fly either. I just didn’t realize you were that closely related to a chicken.”

“I am not a chicken,” Sandy growled slowly.

“Maybe we should call you a chicken dragon. No wait! A sand chicken because all you do is stay on the ground pecking at bugs, or whatever chickens eat,” Wolf taunted and began making clucking noises and moving about like a chicken.

“I am not a chicken!” Sandy roared loud enough to send every bird for a hundred yards flying away in fear.

“Bawk, Bawk, BawwwwK!” Wolf crowed back.

“I’ll show you chicken!” Sandy shouted again and began running.

The dragon took several long strides, leapt as high as she could into the air, and flapped her wings. She made about three full flaps before nosing down hard into the ground, creating a furrow in the dirt with her snout.

Wolf howled with laughter. “You’re right! You’re not a chicken. Chickens can fly farther and land with much more grace!”

Sandy bellowed in rage, found a steep slope, and charged down its face for extra speed. She poured all of her strength into pumping her wings and felt herself lift off the sloping ground.

“Ha!” she shouted triumphantly just before the ground started rising towards her once again. “Oh no!”

Sandy struck the ground once again only this time with far more velocity. She nosed down and went into a tumble, all flapping wings and glittering scales, before crashing upside down against a stand of trees. Sandy watched in humiliation as Wolf and Ghost rushed down the hill towards her.

Rolling back onto her feet, she looked at her wing and began shouting. “My wing! I thing I broke it!”

“Where? Let me see!” Wolf cried out as he got near.

“No, you stay away from it!”

“Let me see! Maybe I can splint it or something!” Wolf insisted as he grabbed for it.

Sandy lifted the allegedly injured appendage out of his reach. “No! It might be cut and you’ll infect it with your filthy hands!”

“It’s not cut. Now let me see it, you big faker!” Wolf shouted as he leapt onto her shoulder and grabbed onto the bony edge of the wing.

“Hey! Get of me, you pointy-eared little tick!” Sandy demanded as she tried to shake Wolf off. “You are in my personal space! Now get off me!”

Sandy sent Wolf flying through the air nearly twice as far as her first attempt at flight. Wolf tucked into a roll as he struck the ground and looked at the dragon when he came to stop.

“I think you’re wing is all better,” he said accusingly.

Sandy looked at her wing then back at Wolf. “I guess it was just twisted a bit. I should still stay off it for at least a few days in case there is some structural weakness I do not yet realize.”

“You are such a liar.”

“Dragons do not lie! Nor do we take chances where our wings are concerned.”

 “What if that thing suddenly decides to detour to the ocean? How well do you swim?”

Sandy narrowed her eyes. “Sand dragons do not swim.”

Wolf grinned evilly and said, “Too fat to swim too? There is an awful lot of things sand dragons don’t do. But then I guess with the amount of time involved in eating and sleeping it’s pretty hard to diversify your hobbies.”

“I am not too fat to swim! Sand dragons are solid muscle and we tend to sink!”

“Uh huh. Whatever you say,” Wolf teased.

“At least I have an excuse to avoid water! What’s yours?”

“The dirt helps keep bugs away.”

“Yeah, well it does a good job of keeping everyone else upwind of you too,” Sandy informed him.

“Better suck in your gut, there’s a pinecone in the middle of the trail. I wouldn’t want you to scratch your belly scales.”

“Shut up,” Sandy fumed.

“Stop being such a big baby! Ellyssa needs our help and the only way we are going to help her is if you fly us to her! I think you just need a steeper hill. C’mon.”

Sandy followed Wolf for about twenty minutes before he found what he was looking for.

“Here it is. This should be perfect for getting you into the air,” Wolf declared.

Sandy peered out into the empty space beyond the ground. “This is not a slope, it’s a cliff!”

“Even better.”

“I’ll fall to my death if I jump from this!”

“No, you’ll fly or we’ll both fall to our death. Now hold still,” Wolf ordered as he wrapped his rope around her neck and under her front legs.

Wolf climbed onto Sandy’s back once again and pulled the ends of the rope up and around his legs before tying them off. This held his legs tightly against Sandy’s back as well as giving him something on which to hold.

“Ok. Get a good run and jump as far as you can when reach the edge.”

“I know how to fly! I don’t need some wilding without wings to tell me how to fly!”

“Of course not. You have done such a great job so far,” Wolf shot back.

“I know all I need to know right up here,” Sandy proclaimed, tapping her skull with a claw.

“Yeah, but all this back here is keeping you planted on the ground,” Wolf returned and patted her stomach.

“It might be worth it to let gravity sort this all out for us just to see you squished,” Sandy muttered angrily as she backed away from the ledge.

Sandy took several deep breaths then charged the cliff with a roar of defiance. She coiled her legs and dug her claws into the rock and soil for purchase as she sprang out into open air—and plummeted like a stone.

“Straighten out your wings!” Wolf shouted in terror.

“I’m trying!

Wolf reached back with his hands and pressed down on the wings joints. Sandy’s wings locked into place with a satisfying pop of leathery membranes and the two of them shot out across the treetops at a fantastic rate.

“Yahoo!” Wolf cried out ecstatically. “Now tilt them up and start flapping to get us some lift!”

“Will you stop telling me how to fly?” Sandy demanded but did so anyway.

Wolf had to hold on as Sandy clumsily beat her wings but managed to put more clearance between them and the ground below. Sandy’s egg memories and instincts kicked in and she gained more control with every beat of her enormous, leathery wings.

“Can you see Ghost from up here?” Wolf asked as he scanned the distant ground.

“Of course I can. I can practically count the fleas that you probably gave him from here,” Sandy called back.

“Who gave whom the fleas is still an open debate, but that’s not important right now.”

Sandy said, “It looks like he picked up the golem’s trail.”

The construct had yet to deviate from its southward progression, which made it rather easy to locate. It took over a day, but Sandy and Wolf spotted the golem at several hours before Ghost would be able to catch up with it. Sandy was worried they might lose Ghost but Wolf assured her he would catch up eventually.

Wolf cried out as Sandy banked sharply and began a rapid descent. “What are you doing?”

“Getting something to eat, I’m starving!” Sandy explained.

“After eating nearly two entire deer a day ago?”

“Flying is exhausting work!” Sandy defended.

Wolf had no time to pursue the argument as Sandy locked onto a large antelope grazing in an open field. Like an enormous bird of prey, the dragon tucked her wings in, angled her body downward, and dove down with her legs and claws extended. Wolf’s belly felt like it was in his throat as they struck—far too fast. Sandy hit the antelope and the ground with a bone-jarring impact that propelled Wolf out of his makeshift harness.

He struck with enough force to drive the air from his lungs and prayed there was nothing broken. Wolf shook off his daze and pain and looked around. Just above the tall, yellow grass of the plains, he spied Sandy lying in a heap unmoving.

“Sandy! Are you ok?” he shouted and half-ran half-crawled towards her.

“Ow. Did I get it?”

Wolf staggered over the spot they had struck and looked at the damage. “I’ll say. Oh man, you really did a number on that thing.”

Sandy pulled herself up and looked over. “Do you think it suffered?”

“I don’t think it even knows it’s dead yet. Its spirit is still probably trying to munch grass and not understanding why it can’t chew it.”

Sandy walked unsteadily over and looked at what she had done. “Apparently diving on prey takes some practice. Do you think you can skin it?”

Wolf sighed. “I guess. Half the job is already done.”

Sandy had to suffer eating her meal raw since they did not want to take the time to clear a large enough space in the dry grasses to make a fire big enough to cook the entire antelope. Wolf was able to churn up a small area of ground big enough to roast himself a few chunks of meat. He cut up the rest and wrapped them in a large square of soft leather so he could drop them to Ghost.

“It occurs to me that there are no cliffs for me to jump off of,” Sandy informed Wolf.

“I guess you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.”

 It took several attempts, but with Sandy’s recent familiarity and flying practice, she was able to return to the skies. They flew back and found Ghost, who was now only a few miles behind the metal juggernaut. As she swooped down lower to the ground, Wolf dropped the remains of his and Sandy’s meal to him.

Wolf leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Sandy’s neck as she raced upward, her powerful wings propelling her through the air with each beat.

“I think I see now why Hati decided to keep her wings. Flying might just be the greatest thing in the world ever!” Wolf shouted.

A broad smile crept onto Sandy’s scaled face. “Yeah it is.”

CHAPTER
16

Zagrat plodded down the cold, lifeless hall in answer to his master’s soundless summons. The shaman had been working tirelessly to create his ragman army, something in which he had once taken great pride and pleasure. Now there was simply a cold emptiness that nothing could ever warm or fill.

The lich lord took that pleasure from him when he made him one of his undead minions. He was not entirely without emotion, not like the lesser creatures his master created. Nevertheless, the passion, the pleasure, and even the madness that once drove and defined him were but a shadow of its former self.

“Zagrat,” the lich said as his slave entered the vast ritual chamber, “my great plan is nearly complete, but our enemy approaches. Take the ragmen and my minions and destroy them, or at least slow them down.”

“You believe I might fail?”

“They are strong, I can feel it, and they have those accursed elves with them. It does not matter. They will be too late to stop me. Even if you fail to stop them, you will weaken them and then I will deal with them when they arrive—arrive too late to do anything but die. Then they shall become part of my army.”