Claws of the Dragon (12 page)

CHAPTER 30

“Are you lost, Dwarf?” Selene stared down at Nath’s pet dwarf. At first she had thought he was drunk, the way he stumbled around in the snow so far away from everything. But no. The little bearded ape was just spying on the giant city. Like she was. Interesting.

Brenwar kicked at her tail. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any colder, you show up.” He got up. “So, what brings you here?”

“Wurmers. You?”

“Nath.”

Oh no! Does he know where Nath is?

Keeping her worry off her face, Selene just lifted her brows in what she meant to look like curiosity. “So, he’s lost and so are you, it seems.”

“No one is lost.” He eyed her as he dusted the snow from his armor. “Let’s hope anyway.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“You don’t trust me, do you Dwarf?”

“I didn’t say that. But I will say this, I don’t like you much.”

“Perfect, I don’t like you either.”

“Good.”

It was an awkward moment. Selene actually was happy to see Brenwar, but sad that Nath wasn’t with him. “Tell me what happened.”

Begrudgingly, Brenwar spilled out a disturbing story about giants tricking Nath in the nearby village cluster at the site of the old city of Harvand.

In this case, Selene agreed with Brenwar. She would have left the fate of the people in those villages to the giants in exchange for keeping Nath. Why he fought so hard for people that were far inferior she didn’t quite understand. “I see.”

“So glad your eyes are open and that you can see, Selene.” The annoying little dwarf glanced over his shoulder. “So, you’ve tracked the wurmers here?”

She relayed what she had encountered in the fishing villages. “Seems there is quite a nest here. So, should I wait here while you go in and rescue Nath?”

“You know, you’re as funny as you look. But I’m doing just fine without you. Still, if you want to come along, I won’t stop you.”

“Oh, thank you for your generosity. A smallish escort is just what I need.”

“Smallish?”

She gave him her best condescending smile.

Obviously choosing not to notice, Brenwar took the lead, making a wide trail through the snow, until they were less than a mile away from the first tower. “We need to be wary. There’s no telling what kind of eyes are in those towers.”

“Those are dragon towers,” she said.

“How do you know that?”

“I know. This is Urslay, place of the giants, though it was fairly dormant during the time of Gorn Grattack. We sought their aid in the Great Dragon War, but they weren’t interested. Giants aren’t a race that wants to be unified with dragons ever. Those towers go back to the last battle the dragons fought against the titans and the giants. I know that much. They are there to watch the skies, not the ground. I don’t think they’ll be looking for us.”

“Don’t you think you should have mentioned this place before, back in Quintuklen?”

Uh, I didn’t know it was active back then, stupid.

“No.”

The little dwarf huffed, turned his eyes forward, and plowed through the snow.

Good, we’ve found a use for you: snowplow!

In the night, they could see silhouettes against the fires burning at the tops of the towers. Two people were within each hundred-foot-high tower, manning the ballistas that were mounted up there. To shoot at flying dragons.

Brenwar led them midway between the closest tower and the next tower. The wind blew his beard straight up in a very undignified way when he turned to speak to her. “Since you aren’t very forthcoming, tell me, have you been inside Urslay before?”

Selene bit the insides of her cheeks so she wouldn’t laugh at the funny picture he made.

No sense getting him all riled up. That will waste time that Nath may not have.

“Yes.”

But the pesky little dwarf got all riled up anyway, running ahead of her as if he could leave her behind. He was such a child.

“You long-tailed giant-loving witch!”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. I didn’t have much of a choice then,” she said, catching up to Brenwar, who was only a few steps from the canyon’s edge. “And I only had a glimpse. Show some mirth. Who would have thought it would be something that could serve our cause now?”

Brenwar hurried, apparently thinking she couldn’t pass him, came to a stop at the rocky edge, and leaned his head down. “That’s quite the canyon.”

Selene found her place by his side. “Yes, a very unique city.”

The canyon was hundreds of feet deep and went on for miles. There was firelight coming from the small and large stone carved alcoves that made up the strange city. Tiny figures shuffled over the roads, and livestock in mass quantities were herded into pens.

Selene could smell everything. Hay, orcs, humans, halflings, cooked meat, coal, and wood smoke.

The last time she was there, it had only been giants, and not so many. For the most part, it had been abandoned, but now it was quite different. There were hundreds, maybe a thousand people, and they thrived. Their voices lifted up over the rocks with wild songs of praise.

“What are those people so happy for?” Brenwar asked.

“The titans have a uniting effect on weaker people.” She started down the side. “Stay here. I’ll take a look.”

Brenwar seized her arm. “You’ll do no such thing. I’m not going to sit here like a yeti while you go and reminisce with old friends.”

She jerked out of his grip. “So you’re coming, then.”

“No.”

“Then what do you propose we do, sit here and wait for Nath to greet us?” She searched Brenwar’s hard eyes. “Brenwar, you will need to trust me.”

His eyes pierced hers. “I don’t.”

She had tried to be nice. She had even called him by his name. Aggravated, she fired back, “And what was your plan? Did you think a dwarf could infiltrate the giants? They would sniff you out as soon as you set foot in there.”

“I’m not worried about putting my life in peril.”

“I’m not either, but you can’t just go waltzing down there with me. It would be stupid.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” he growled.

She shook her head. “No. I think you are well aware of your limitations already.”

“I’m going to cut your tail off!”

“Try, and I’ll strangle you with your own beard!”

Red-faced, Brenwar replied, “Leave my beard out of this.” He drew Mortuun back. “Go ahead, say it one more time!”

“Will you keep your annoying voice down? The guards are distant, not deaf!” Finally, she sighed, leaned over, and kissed him on the forehead.

Brenwar shuffled in the snow, his temper cooled. “What was that for?”

She shrugged. “I just realized I’d do anything to shut you up.”

“Ho ho ho!” Brenwar rumbled. “I don’t like you, but I like your spite.” He lifted his brows, reached into one of his pouches, and pulled out a colorful potion vial. “I have an idea that should satisfy us both.”

CHAPTER 31

Hours were usually like minutes to a dragon, except now. No, now the minutes felt like long, agonizing hours as Nath’s insides gnawed at his outsides. He was hungry. He was angry. Typically, a dragon would sleep through a wait like this, hibernate like a bear. Instead, Nath paced and fought to keep his weary eyes open. Something had to give.

He yelled through the bars.

“Hello? Hello!”

His loud voice echoed down the hall.

Nothing replied.

He banged his fists on the bars and screamed at the top of his lungs.

“HELLO, I SAY!”

He followed it up with a roar so loud it rattled all the locks in the dungeon.

“RAWWWWRRRRrrrrrr!”

He shuffled backward and touched his throat.

Was that me?

He let out another cage-shaking roar.

“RrrrrrrAAAWWWWWRRRrrrrrrrr!”

Huh! It
was
me! Seems I still have some dragon pipes in me.

Suddenly he belched. “Urp.”

A puff of grey smoke rolled out of his mouth. There was a charred taste on his tongue. His golden eyes lit up.

He blew smoke from his nostrils.

Can it be?

Stomach growling, he eyed the bars that caged him in. He rubbed his chin.

Hmmm, if I can summon my flame, then I can melt these bars. Hah! Wouldn’t that be something?

He focused and concentrated on his fires within.

Come on, Dragon. You can do it.

His stomach burned like fire and surged up his throat. A blast of hot, smoky air spilled from his mouth. The plume of hot smoke filled his dungeon cell and the hall. Within seconds, the air was thicker than dwarven stew and he couldn’t even see himself. He fanned away the vapors, coughing a few times.

“Well
that
was pointless!”

He coughed some more and screamed. His muscles ached, and weakness assailed him. Whatever he had done had sucked the life out of him. He sagged down onto his knees and stretched out on the floor. His heavy eyelids felt like they were filled with sand.

Maybe I should try and take a nap until the smoke clears. What a useless trick for a dragon. Who needs a dragon that blows smoke instead of fire? Such a joke.

Nath was drifting into slumber when the scuffle of soft feet caught his ear. He lifted his weary head, cocked his ear.

I must be dreaming that I have a visitor coming.

He lowered his head again and shut his eyes. Again, the scuffle came. Footsteps were making their way down the dungeon hallway. He sat up and peered through the dissipating smoke.

A man appeared in the smoke just outside the bars. The build of the man was very strange, thick, but with gingerly moves.

Am I dreaming?

“Where did all this smoke come from?” the man said in an irritated but friendly tone.

The sound of the man was very odd to Nath’s ears, not rough and husky like most of the over-sized people.

“And what was that racket I heard? It sounded like a dog choking.”

Nath made his way to his feet, rubbed his gold eyes, and sauntered over to the bars. There, he got a better look at the man, who was broad and round faced. Nath blinked his eyes and said to the unique man, “Are you a
halfling
?”

“What?” the man said really loud. He pushed his frosty locks from his eyes, fanned more of the smoke away, and stared at Nath. “Yer that dragon fella they talk about above, ain’t you?”

“Are you a halfling?” Nath repeated with astonishment.

“You say that like you’ve never seen a halfling before.” The giant halfling wore navy-blue trousers with a maroon shirt. He stuffed his long and slender fingers into a big pocket in the middle of his overall and withdrew a pouch. He loosened the strings and removed a pinch of snuff and snorted it. His eyes brightened. “Woo Wee! Now that is dandy!”

Gently shaking his head, Nath said, “Who are you?”

“What?”

Nath spoke louder. “I said, who are you?”

“You heard a moo?”

“No!”

The old halfling reached behind his back and brought forth a brass horn with a bend in the smaller portion of its neck. He held it to his ear and tilted it toward Nath. “Speak into my good ear.”

“What is your name?” Nath asked.

“Pepper.” His forehead crinkled, and his button nose sniffed. “Where’d all this smoke come from?”

Nath didn’t want to lie, even though his first urge was to say, ‘I don’t know.’ Instead, he changed the subject. If there was one thing he knew about people, especially halflings, they liked to talk about themselves. “How’d you get so big?”

“Speak up, flame mane.”

Nath huffed and spoke directly into the earpiece. “Why are you so big?”

“Well, you don’t have to yell! My name’s Pepper.”

“You told me that already. Sheesh. Pepper, why are you so big?”

“Oh, I see,” Pepper said. “You want to know why I am so big. We are all big in my family. Well, most of us mostly.” With soft eyes he stared down at Nath. “I just remembered. I can read lips. Go ahead and speak at your common loudness.” He lowered his ear horn.

“Pepper, halflings are half as big as men. Why are you and so many others in this city so big?”

Rubbing his chin, Pepper studied Nath’s lips and replied, “No, you can’t marry my daughter.”

“I didn’t ask to marry your daughter!”

“Oh, so you are asking me—wait a minute, you’re that dragon fella everyone is making a fuss about, aren’t you?”

Unable to restrain himself, Nath slapped his forehead. He was dealing with an eight-foot-tall elderly halfling who was nearly deaf and enfeebled. Nath’s claws dug into his long locks of hair and pulled on it.

Pepper cocked his head sideways. “What are you doing? Does your flame hair burn? Must you pull it out, eh? Oh, you want to put it out. Yes. Put the fire out. I’ll fetch some water.”

“No!” Nath said, trying to snatch Pepper through the bars.

Pepper scurried down the hall, weaving right, then left, then right again and out of sight.

Nath banged his head on the bars.

By the time he gets where he’s going, he’ll forget I’m here!