Deke Brolin Rhol (33 page)

“Follow me and stay close. I can still hear the Chumpralas which means danger is still near.”

Mary began climbing up through the hole followed by Deke. Delca and Deo followed behind him. When Deke’s head poked up through the ground he could see Mary standing just in front of him. Her eyes were transfixed directly to the front of her.
He could see her legs slightly shaking as she stood there staring straight ahead. He didn’t have any trouble seeing what made her so petrified. Phanthus was hard to miss.

Before climbing out to join her, he waited until he could feel the top of Deo’s head with his foot and then kicked him, sending both he and Delca tumbling back down the hole.

With that part of his makeshift plan completed, he climbed out and stood beside Mary, holding her hand.

“An
d so we meet again, young human,” Solharn’s voice boomed from the mouth of Phanthus.

“I am looking at Phanthus, yet you sound much more like Solharn?” Deke questioned.

“Then once again you can see the power I hold. Phanthus was, how should I say…hmm, too outspoken? Yes, those were the words I was looking for. So, much like your friend, I decided to, well ...embody him,” Solharn began to laugh loudly at his play on words.

“Did you re
ally think I could not smell you, girl? I simply needed you to lead me back to where this boy was. Now, where are your two soul mates?” Solharn laughed again.

“Laugh all you want, Solharn. You may have found
us, but you haven’t defeated us,” Deke shot back. “Our soul mates, as you put it, are not here.”

“It matters not. All I really need is to destroy you
, boy. With you gone, my plan will fall back into place. I will not have to waste all the energy I have gained to finally destroy this world. I must say, you had me wondering, but in the end you never stood a chance against my power.”

Deke still grasped Mary’s hand tightly. His other hand slowly inched toward the amulet.

“Please boy, do not insult me. I have seen you use what little power you have before. You will die before that prized amulet of yours can do you any good. It is over, boy. Your quest to save Elissa has failed.”

“Perha
ps,” Deke said grabbing the amulet.

Smoke began to bellow from Phanthus’s mouth as Solharn prepared to reduce both
Deke and Mary to ashes. But as he slowly moved his head toward the pair he received an unexpected blow from behind.

Solharn turned in surprise and jumped back. He was looking into the eyes of
a dragon and behind that dragon stood a Kruntulla. It took Solharn a few seconds to comprehend what was happening but all at once it came to him. The boy had managed to transform his paladin into a mirror image of Phanthus, and somehow was providing the girl with enough energy to transform her paladin into a Kruntulla.

“You are not strong enough to co
mmand your paladin as a beast this size, human,” Solharn screamed as he flew along the ground crashing into Deo. The two dragons rolled through the forest taking out several hundred trees.

Solharn ended up on top of Deo
, but was quickly flung to the side by the Kruntulla that had come to Deo’s aid.

“Delca, how did you transform?” Deo asked.

“Deke must have figured it out. By physically touching Mary, he enables her to feed off the power of the amul…” She had no time to finish her sentence as Solharn grabbed her with his massive claws and hurtled her several feet through the air.

Deo immediately took flight all the while breathing a ball of
fire toward Solharn. It was a direct strike, but it was ineffective against the other dragon. The flames simply bounced off his scales causing everything around him to combust.

Solharn flew toward him in a rage. Their wings entwined as their claws ripped and tore at each other’s bellies. Their fierce jaws snapped to and fro
, but both were too fast to cause any real damage.

Deke and Mary had made it back to her underground house. They were safe from the carnage around them
, but Deke was already feeling weak and he knew Mary could not be much better. Her breathing was already raspy. He would have to let go of her hand. It would be over for Deo if he did. He could not take Solharn by himself.

Delca looked up from the ground. Using all of the strength she could muster
, she uprooted a burning tree in an effort to throw it at Solharn, but she was unable to determine which dragon was which. She stared at them rolling and fighting in the sky trying to get some sense as to which one was Deo. She knew time was of the essence. In a matter of moments both she and Deo would become their regular selves.

All at once she saw it, the weaker of the two. One of the dragons was drastically losing its
strength. Its wings had failed it twice. It had to be Deo. Deke must be losing his strength. She would have to take the chance. She sent the tree hurtling through the air. Solharn didn’t know what hit him and plummeted to the ground. The mighty dragon possessed by Solharn was defeated.

Deo immediately landed. By now Deke had long since relinquished Mary’s hand and climbed up through the hole. Delca ran to his side
. “Is Mary alright Deke?”

“Yes, she is resting.”

Delca ran to look after Mary as Deke looked over toward the dragon.  Deo, now himself again, was standing over the dragon’s head with a sword pointed directly at its eye. This was the only part of the dragon that was not protected by armored scales. Solharn was taunting him.

“You have only delayed the inevitable. Deke will die. So will you along with everything else on this world. It is the way it
is. There is nothing you can do,” he laughed.

“I know one thing, Solharn. This dreaded beast will not be helping you
any longer,” Deo yelled as he raised the sword high above his head.

“Deo stop!” Deke yelled.

Deo paused, looking over at Deke. “It is not Phanthus, Deo. That is Solharn!”             

“What does it matter Deke? Do you not remember that Phanthus has been trying to kill us since we arrived in Rhol?”

“I remember, Deo. But this is the last living dragon on Rhol. We will not be responsible for their extinction.”

“Deke, this dragon
, by all accounts, assisted Solharn in capturing Queen Elissa! He is far too powerful a foe to just leave out here!”

“Perhaps
, but when the Kilto elder visited me, he said something that I could not quite figure out until now. He said, ‘Your journey is to prevent the extinction of a world, but do not forget that the extinction of any single living thing can bring an end to what we fight for. To renew a life that can be saved is a step forward in completing the quest you were sent on.’

“Deke, I do not think he was referring to Phanthus. He is as much an enemy
to us as Solharn is!” Deo shot back.

“I can think of no other creature in that predicament, Deo. I believe he was speaking of this moment and he has yet to be wrong on any advice he has give
n.” Deke reached for his amulet and motioned his hand toward Phanthus.

“Deke, stop! There is something I didn’t tell you
. When you tried this with Delc...”

But it was too late. A thick blue stream of light flew from Deke’s hand and attached itself to Phanthus. Almost immediately the core of the blue light turned black, slowly draining the essence of Solharn from the great dragon. It took much longer than it had with Delca. Phanthus was enormous in comparison. Deo had seen how it had
affected Deke the first time with a much smaller subject. He was unsure if Deke would be able to withstand the power of Solharn this time, but he could do nothing about it, aside from watch and pray.

Ω

Deke’s mind was wandering off to a dark lonely place. His body was slowly being filled with blackness. He no longer had any comprehension of where he was or, for that matter, who he was.

A low raspy voice boomed out from within his head
. “Join me, Deke Brolin. It is your legacy. You are me and I am you. Together we can rule the worlds as one...join me.”

Dek
e was not afraid of the voice. In fact, the clearer the voice became, the better he felt. He could now see a dark form standing alongside a large lake. He could not recognize what it was. It was simply the silhouette of a shadowy figure. As its hands moved up and down, so too did the waves of water within the lake, sometimes reaching hundreds of feet high.

“Come, Deke. Together we can create our dynasty. A dynasty that will last forever, one that you and I control, a new existence, a new way, a better way.”

Deke moved closer to the strange form. He could see it quite clearly now but it still had not turned to face him. He felt more at ease than he could ever remember being. A feeling of power coursed through his veins. Deke slowly stretched out his hand. The figure turned in response and reached out to him. Solharn grinned as his long bony fingers slowly extended toward Deke’s. At last the boy had realized his true destiny.

Ω

Deo tried everything he could to snap Deke out of it, to no avail. Deke’s eyes were completely black, and he continually moaned a strange language that seemed to be based somewhat on ancient Lealian. Deo could only make out some of the words that flowed from his mouth in a monotone.

He talked about souls becoming one, of a black pool of darkness and power, the power of evil. Many of the words rang back to him, words vaguely familiar to him. All at once it came to him ….the
rhyme that Mary in her crazed state had repeated to them. The poem was about Deke…and Solharn…the power of evil…souls becoming one, intertwined together, through the power of darkness. The poem was about what could happen should Solharn persuade Deke to join him.

In desperation, Deo ran at Deke tackling him to the ground. The stream of light connecting him and Phanthus broke at last. The dragon rose to his feet and stared down at Deo who was now lying across Deke. Deo covered
as much of Deke’s body as he could, and turned his face toward the ground in anticipation of the flames that would soon envelop them.

Ω

Deke tried to run toward Solharn, but the faster his feet moved the farther away he got. Every second that passed created a greater distance between them, until eventually, Solharn was a mere speck in the distance. All at once Deke found himself face down in the dirt. He screamed with rage and flung Deo through the air as he sat up, crazed with anger.

Ever so slowly, things began to focus again. The memory of where he had just been disappeared as the memory of where and who he was returned. He had still not noticed the dragon. He was too concerned about Deo who was lying motionless on the ground a few feet from where he was sitting. Deke crawled quickly over to his friend.

“Deo! Deo are you alright?”

Deo’s eyes fluttered slightly
. “Deke, behind you…!”

Deke turned quickly to see
Phanthus staring down intently at them. Several moments passed until the dragon finally broke the silence. It was not the voice of Solharn that they heard, but that of Phanthus.

“The last thing I remember is Solharn betraying my confidence
, and now I stand here before you human, the one thing that Solharn fears the most. I do not remember how I came to be here. Perhaps you could enlighten me,” he snarled.

Deke mustered up all the courage he could as he spoke to the mighty dragon
. “Solharn took over your body, just as he had done to my friend, Delca. I don’t know how, nor do I know when. Solharn spoke to me through you and then tried to destroy me. Delca and Deo fought you in order to protect me and my friend Mary. You lost the fight and fell from the sky. I had learned, quite by accident that I had the power to reverse Solharn’s possession of people, and I decided to free you of his hold. That is all I know,” Deke explained.

“And why would you bother to save me
, human? It is me who has been trying to kill you since you arrived here.”

Deke answered the dragon in a loud steady
voice. “For a couple of reasons, firstly, I have heard many stories about the dragons of Rhol. I know you are the last one that lives. Dragons must have been put on Rhol for a reason. To kill you, the last of your kind, would be a travesty. And that leads me to the second reason. I believe you have something to give this world, to help it survive.” 

“And what might that be?” Phanthus asked.

“I don’t know, Phanthus. What do you want out of this world, your world?”

“Redemption!” the dragon bellowed.

“Then maybe that is your answer. Perhaps you haven’t found it because you have been searching for it from the wrong side. Fight with us Phanthus, with the people of Rhol, and you will find your redemption.”

Phanthus did not say anything for several moments
. “I have never had any reason to trust anyone in Rhol, but you put your beliefs before all else. You believe in preserving life, not destroying it. You trusted that I would understand what you were doing and in turn, help you in your quest to save Rhol.”