Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (24 page)

“Sure,” said Jim, taking the jug from his father.

Billy watched his son go back upstairs and then he sat in his favourite chair again. The dwarf’s bottle of ale sat beside him. His glass, unfortunately, was still upstairs. “Who needs a glass?” muttered Billy, grabbing the bottle. He put the bottle to his lips and drank.

Next thing he knew it was morning. The smell of fresh coffee greeted his nostrils and he smiled softly. “Ah, that smells good.” He rose and headed for the kitchen. “Son, you make a sweet smelling -” his voice trailed off as soon as he entered the kitchen. He blinked several times before he could believe his eyes.

He had expected to see a tall man dressed in a lieutenant’s uniform. What he actually saw was a frail, emaciated woman in a nightgown. Billy’s lips moved but he couldn’t speak.

Jim entered the kitchen a moment later. “Dad, did you -?” His voice trailed off like his father’s.

Elsie turned to face the two men in her life. Her eyes were sunken and her face was pale. “Good morning, boys,” she rasped. A thin smile played across her lips. “That’s potent ale Henry concocted, isn’t it?”

Billy and Jim Farnsworth exchanged surprised looks.

Elsie burped.

Chapter 19

A
few more rocks bounced off the hastily erected shield that Vera had magically generated and fell into the black abyss below them. Then all was still.

The orb on Kazin’s staff still glowed, lying a few feet to his right. He tried in vain to reach for it but was bound fast. He looked down at the sticky white substance that held him in place. He and the others lay on a vast, white net, stretching into the darkness.

“Where are we?” asked Vera fearfully. She was entangled not far from Kazin’s feet.

“It looks like we’re in some sort of net,” said Kazin. He noticed one section to the left that had several large holes, obviously made by the falling rocks from above.

“Cyril?” said Vera suddenly, looking around anxiously. “Cyril, where are you?”

“I’m here,” said the cyclops a short distance away. He was lying on his back, barely visible in the staff’s light.

“Are you O.K.?” asked Vera.

“Yes, thanks to your shield,” answered the cyclops.

Vera breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I wasn’t sure my spell could protect us all.” She canceled her shield spell now that the rocks had stopped falling.

Kazin struggled with the binding strands of the net again with no success. “I can’t get free.”

“Me neither,” said Cyril. “Maybe …,” his sentence was cut short when Vera let out a blood curdling scream. Not far away from her, barely visible in the gloom, a large black object approached her trapped form.

As it got closer, Vera shrieked, “A spider! It’s a - a giant spider!”

Kazin needed no further urging. He struggled frantically to reach his staff, while Vera tried in vain to crawl away from the giant creature.

Cyril, seeing that Vera was in danger, surged against his bindings with a super human strength he never knew he had. Wrenching his arms free, he tore the bindings from his legs and rose awkwardly to his feet. Strands of the white stuff clung to his body as he forced his way to Vera’s side, balancing precariously on the bindings. He stepped between the spider and Vera and faced the creature. “Look into my eye!” he intoned in the typical mesmerizing chant of a cyclops.

The spider had either never encountered a cyclops before, or it forgot what a cyclops was capable of. It looked into Cyril’s eye and froze in position.

Cyril stared at it for long moments before determining that it was indeed paralyzed and not pretending. Then he turned to free the cleric from her bindings, ripping apart the white strands with his bare hands.

“Thank you, Cyril,” said Vera gratefully, hugging the big one-eyed man warmly. “Now we’re safe.”

No sooner had she said this when there was a screech to Kazin’s left. They all looked in that direction but saw nothing.

“There are more of those things?” said Vera tremulously, her voice quaking in fear.

“Where is it?” asked Cyril as he approached Kazin.

Kazin caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. “It’s below us” he cried. A black tentacle with razor sharp claws running along its length reached up toward him from below. The mage braced himself for the assault when some strong arms ripped him from his bindings. The black tentacle slashed the open netting where Kazin’s body had just been. The owner of that arm shrieked in rage.

“Thanks, Cyril,” whispered Kazin as he lunged for his staff. He instantly turned to confront his assailant with magic, but Cyril already had it under control. The spider was paralyzed. The cyclops ripped the netting that its legs were attached to and it fell silently into the darkness below.

Vera screamed again and Cyril and Kazin spun around. More spiders were approaching them from behind.

“This is a giant web!” exclaimed Kazin in disbelief. Instinctively he made his staff light up brilliantly to illuminate their surroundings. Dozens of spiders shrieked in the brightness and recoiled in agony. The light was unbearable to them.

Kazin made his staff even brighter and some of the spiders retreated a short distance. The mage briefly wondered why some retreated from the light while others were unaffected. Then he realized that Cyril had paralyzed them by looking them in the eye.

Vera fearfully grabbed Cyril’s arm. “Should -should I shield us from them?”

“No,” said Kazin finally. “We need to get out of here. The shield will just trap us here.” Some of the spiders were overcoming their fear of the light and were inching closer. Kazin chanted and blasted them with fireballs. Their bodies were engulfed in flames and they screamed in agony as they died. One spider was boldly crawling along underneath the web and Kazin barely had enough time to blast it with a lightning bolt.

“Which way do we go?” stammered Vera.

“Follow me,” said Cyril confidently. He led them away from the largest concentration of spiders.

The going was slow, as they often became tangled and stuck to the web. The spiders followed eagerly, and Kazin had to shoot fireballs and lightning bolts at them a number of times when they got too close. The companions finally reached the wall and stopped. The cliff face loomed before them, a vertical wall extending both up and down as far as the eye could see in the staff’s light. There was no way anyone but a spider could climb those walls.

“Now what?” said Vera, turning to look behind her at the slowly approaching spiders. The spiders had them trapped and they knew it. They made hissing and clicking noises in anticipation.

“There’s only one choice,” said Kazin. The others looked at him questioningly. “Stay close to the wall,” ordered the mage. “When I call for you, come to me at once.”

Vera and Cyril nodded.

Kazin approached the spiders, casting spells left and right. The creatures scurried out of his way. When he was far enough away from the wall, the mage chanted a spell to light up his staff with a brilliant green light. It was so bright it forced even the bravest of spiders to back up in fear. Then a transformation began to take place. Kazin’s body grew in size, and his human features disappeared. His countenance took on that of a dragon. Scales, claws, and wings grew out of his body.

Cyril and Vera watched the transformation in awe. Though they knew about Kazin’s ability, they had never seen it for themselves before.

“Incredible!” exclaimed the cyclops. Vera was speechless.

Suddenly, the web began to sag and Cyril and Vera clung to the sticky web to maintain stability. The dragon soon became too large for the spider web to support it and it began to give way.

“Kazin!” cried Vera.

The dragon opened its wings and a fantastic fireball emerged from its giant, gaping maw. The flame instantly incinerated the front ranks of spiders, and seared the next few rows of spiders with intense heat and flame. The shrieks of pain and agony were deafening, echoing loudly off the canyon walls. The web between the dragon and spiders gave way and the spiders on the far side that survived scrambled to maintain hold.

The dragon looked behind him as his side of the web sank. “Hurry! Get on my back!”

Cyril grabbed the trembling cleric and jumped down to the dragon, who was by now below them on the falling web. They landed on the dragon’s back and barely managed to hang on. Fortunately, the strands of webbing that clung to them also helped them to stick to Kazin’s back.

Kazin leaped free of the webbing and opened his wings wide, allowing the air beneath him to lift them up and away from the canyon’s unknown depths. Some spiders, who had been trapped on the same side of the web as the cleric and cyclops were, tried to save themselves by jumping onto Kazin’s back. Most of them missed and fell to their doom. But two succeeded. One landed squarely on Kazin’s back and clicked and hissed angrily at the cyclops and cleric.

As Kazin flew, belching flames to light his way, Cyril quickly climbed atop the dragon’s back. He swung at the spider with his club. The spider jerked back and raised its front legs to do battle.

Meanwhile, Vera was having a little more difficulty. A spider had landed on Kazin’s tail and was approaching her cautiously.

The cleric had a hard time standing up on the back of the flying dragon, and had to fight from a kneeling position. “Kazin, shake your tail!” cried Vera as she jabbed at the spider with her staff. Kazin did as he was told and Vera almost lost her own balance. The spider paused but did not lose its position. Vera could see that Cyril was busy and knew she was on her own. A spell came to her mind and she wasted no time gathering the spell components in her pouch. The spider was moving toward her and she chanted hastily. When the ‘weakness’ spell was complete, the spider stopped its advance. Vera grabbed firm hold of the dragon’s back this time before shouting, “Shake your tail again, Kazin!”

Kazin complied, and this time the spider toppled over the side and disappeared.

Vera turned ahead to see Cyril still trying to land a blow on the spider. But the spider’s reflexes were quick and it easily avoided each of the cyclops’ attacks. It was also intelligent enough to avoid the cyclops’ gaze. It was concentrating so hard on its fight with Cyril that it didn’t notice Vera sneaking up behind it.

Vera carefully gathered some spell components from her pouch and chanted the ‘stun’ spell. The spider froze in place and Cyril successfully landed a blow to the spider’s head. The spider staggered under the impact and one of its eyes burst open, emitting fluorescent green ooze. Vera made a face but helped Cyril roll the stunned creature off Kazin’s back.

The dragon looked back over his shoulder. “Are you guys O.K.?”

Vera nodded. “Now we are.”

“Good,” said Kazin. “I’ve spotted a place where we can land. Hold on.” Kazin landed on a ledge at the entrance to a cave and let his companions climb off. Then he transformed back into his human form. “Whew! That was close!”

Vera shuddered. “Those spiders were huge!”

A shriek sounded above them and a giant spider whizzed past them to the depths below.

“Let’s get out of here!” said Kazin. They entered the cave, anxious to leave the canyon behind. Three tunnels led from the cave. The decision of which tunnel to take was made for them by a faint gust of wind. “It’s not as strong as before,” said Kazin with concern. “We’d better hurry.”

Vera followed the black-cloaked figure in front of her with newfound respect. Kazin was indeed a powerful mage. The stories she had heard about him were almost too fantastic to be believed, but now she believed them, having seen for herself the majesty of his transformation. She longed to learn more about him. Several questions formed in her mind and she was about to ask him something when he suddenly stopped walking. The cleric bumped into him and looked past him to see why.

The first thing she noticed was that the tunnel they were in had just ended, but another tunnel ran to the left and right at ninety degrees. In both directions, the tunnel was much narrower than the one they were in. The other thing that grabbed her attention was the sudden change in Kazin’s staff. The green light the orb emitted was replaced by a bright orange one.

“Hmm,” murmured Kazin. “Interesting.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Vera.

“We are at a lizardman portal,” said Kazin. “This is the way into the lizardmen’s realm.”

“Which way?” asked Cyril.

Kazin turned to face the others. “Directly ahead. But for now, I think we’ll go this way.” He chose the left tunnel and led the others along the narrow path. His staff returned to its light green glow. Vera gave Cyril a curious glance but the cyclops turned his gaze away in time.

They walked for what seemed like eternity. At last they came upon a mid-sized cavern that contained some elevated alcoves along one wall.

“I think this will be a good place to rest,” said Kazin. “We could all use some sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

Cyril yawned and stretched. “That’s the best advice I’ve heard all day. I was wondering when we were going to stop.” He pulled a blanket from his pack and proceeded to one of the alcoves to lay it out. Wrapping himself up in it, he was soon asleep judging by the sounds of his snoring.

Meanwhile, Vera and Kazin had chosen their alcoves and prepared their resting places as well. Kazin then set wards around the perimeter of the cavern and returned to the center of the cavern to begin his vigil. He found a flat rock and sat down.

Vera was about to turn in when she changed her mind. So as not to disturb the soundly sleeping cyclops, the cleric padded over to the mage in her bare feet and sat down in front of him. She stared up at him like a pupil eying her teacher.

“You should sleep,” said Kazin.

“I’m not that tired yet,” said Vera. “I have too many questions floating around in my head to be able to sleep properly.”

“What would you like to know?” asked Kazin quietly.

Vera’s eyes betrayed her adoration for the arch mage. “How do you do that - transformation - into a dragon?” she blurted. “I didn’t see you cast any spells or anything.”