Return of the Dragon (The Dragon's Champion Book 6) (28 page)

Marlin watched
,
confused for
a moment why Aparen was failing to attack. Then he studied Aparen’s aura and
realized that Aparen was confused. Only then did Marlin understand that
Salarion had used an illusion spell. She made it appear as though all of the
soldiers around her were her. Now Aparen had to guess which the real Salarion
was.

Marlin called out to Dimwater upon the wall, “Do you
see Salarion, the dark elf?”

“There
are
hundreds of her,” Dimwater
replied

Marlin tried to shout to Aparen and identify the
correct image for him, but Aparen was too far away to hear him. Aparen became
locked in a great battle as the entire enemy army turned on him. Marlin knew
that Aparen had been wounded in his dragon form when he had fought with Tu’luh,
therefore he was not likely to take the dragon form again as it would leave him
without the option of retreat. Marlin decided that he would lend a hand to
Aparen, hoping that his magic would help the young warlock wade through the
enemies until he finally found Salarion and could take the amulet from her.

Marlin caught a glimpse of something on the southern
horizon. When he focused on it, his heart sank in his chest. Aparen would not
have enough time to find the amulet, for Tu’luh was coming. Marlin could see
the dragon’s aura as clearly as if it had been the noon day sun. He glanced to
the battlefield and saw that as quickly as Aparen slayed the enemy, the amulet
resurrected them. The battle was all but lost.

Despite his best judgment, the prelate decided to act.
He leapt from the tower and called upon the grasses below to catch his feet as
he landed harmlessly on the ground. He ran forward, ignoring Lady Dimwater’s
shouts. Using his magic, he disguised himself with a spell that made him appear
like a rabbit. He picked up a javelin on his way through the battlefield and
ran for Salarion. Aparen was obviously not trained well enough to find the real
Salarion, so Marlin would do it for him. He knew not to come too close to the
amulet. He came within throwing distance and let loose with the javelin, using
his magic to make it invisible and help guide its trajectory. The javelin
struck true and Salarion took the point in the neck. She fell back off her
mount crashed to the ground. Marlin watched as the energy in her aura faded and
disappeared. Now, those who fell in
battle,
remained
dead. The amulet still held the spell, but without either a slave or a master
to direct it, the amulet neither resurrected the dead nor enslaved the living.

Marlin looked up to Aparen and shouted, “Do not let
the enemy take the amulet.”

Aparen dove down, bathing the area in brimstone and
fire. Lightning crashed all around, thundering as it created an electrical cage
of blue and yellow and white. The enemy turned from Fort Drake, concentrating
fully on retrieving the amulet. Marlin and Aparen fought side-by-side as they
kept the enemy at bay. Arrows and catapults continued to fire down upon the
enemy. For a moment it looked as though they might succeed in destroying enough
of the enemy army to capture the amulet.

Then there was a great thunder. The ground shook.
Marlin lost his footing and fell. He looked up in time to see a massive, silver
tail sweep through the electrical cage that Aparen had created and smack the
shadowfiend through the air. Aparen sailed over the walls of Fort Drake and out
of sight. Marlin stretched out his hand to grab the amulet, but it was too
late. A silver talon slipped through the amulet’s gold chain and picked it up from
the battlefield. Marlin looked up into the great and terrible aura of Tu’luh
the Red, and his spirit filled with dread. The dragon smiled and great pain
crept into Marlin. The sensation of thousands of burning needles pierced
through Marlin’s head and heart. He fought the spell with everything he had in
him, but it was no use.

“Don’t do this!” Marlin pleaded. Marlin’s gift of
sight was taken from him as the spell ravaged his mind. In a fluttering moment,
his normal vision returned. Instead of seeing Tu’luh’s aura, he saw the silver
scales on the dragon’s snout. A strange numbness took hold of Marlin’s legs and
spread up through Marlin’s body. The last thing Marlin saw before the spell
completely captured his spirit was the evil grin on Tu’luh’s wicked face.

A moment later, every corpse within a fifty yard
radius was resurrected. The amulet was placed over Marlin’s neck, and Salarion
was commanded to guard Marlin as he wielded the amulet. Tu’luh used his fiery
breath to destroy the arrows coming down toward his army. He used his claws and
tail to bat away the large rocks hurled by the catapults. Tu’luh leapt into the
air, sending a great wave of fire over the remaining few archers that had not
fled. He did not bother to resurrect them. Instead he opted to turn them to ash.

“The fortress is mine,” Tu’luh said. “I will give you
two hours to surrender. Submit to me and there will be no more death. You know
you are already defeated, but I do not wish to rule a graveyard. I want only to
prevent this world from falling into the chaos that mine did, which led to its
ultimate demise. The great prelate of Valtuu Temple is now fallen, never to be
seen nor heard from again. I have taken not only his life, but also his soul.
This is the end that awaits all who oppose me now. Join with me, and you shall
live a normal life. Fight against me, and I will destroy body and soul.”

Tu’luh watched as a large man moved on to the wall
next to the sorceress,
Tu’luh eyed the man
and waited for him to speak.

“You know me, dragon,” Lepkin said “I am the Keeper of
Secrets. There will be no surrender. Not to
you,
or to
anyone else who wishes to use that despicable curse upon the Middle Kingdom.”

Tu’luh
snarled,
wisps of
smoke snaking out from his nostrils along with sparks of blue fire. “You are a
fool. Even if you could defeat me, you cannot defeat what comes behind me. The
life I offer is the only way to save this dying world. I will give you two
hours to reconsider your fate.”

“Come at me now
dragon,
and I
will show you who will die.”

The lady next to him gathered a great spell and sent
it forward. Man and orc started to writhe in pain and agony as their bodies
twisted and contorted. At first, Tu’luh was unaware of what was going on. Then
he saw the truth of the dark magic that was being used. The sorceress had sent
soul fire down to the army and it was devouring not only the enemy’s bodies,
but also their souls. It was a spell that would leave their souls and bodies
unusable again. Not even the amulet would revive a body from such a spell.

Tu’luh did the only thing he could do, he reached out
and snatched Marlin and Salarion into his talons as he turned and fled from the
battlefield. Soul fire was as effective on dragons as it was on other
creatures. The only way to escape it was to flee. He glanced over his shoulders
and wings as the last several hundred soldiers were consumed by the soul fire,
screaming in agony and dropping dead on the ground.

“That was clever, witch,” Tu’luh snarled to himself.
“But, I will be back. You need to rest for quite a while after such a spell,
while I can return before the next sunrise with an army just as large, and
ready to use my spell to ensnare you and everyone else inside Fort Drake. Even
after you have recovered your energy, you cannot use that spell again for at
least a week. ”

*****

When Tu’luh arrived at the city of Grobung he took his
two riders to the graveyard on the western side of the city. This is where the
veterans of Fort Drake, as well as many other honored dead had been buried for
centuries. Their bodies were in different stages of decay, but most were not
beyond saving. The amulet could raise even the worst cases of skeletons or
rotting corpses, so long as something remained of either body or soul. He sent
Marlin out into the graveyard and commanded his new slave to raise another army.

A great, black cloud appeared over the land as the
tombstones began to quake and tremble. Caskets cracked and corpses began to
claw their way out of the dirt. Hands of bone ripped through the earth and
pulled up skeleton bodies. Some wore armor that they had been buried in, while
others wore nothing. The fresher corpses had skin covering their bones and
other than their bloated faces and the pale green and purple coloring of their
skin they looked fairly normal by human standards. They all bowed to their new
master ready to do his bidding. Row after row came alive in the graveyard as
Marlin walked through using Nagar’s spell to wake all of the dead.

While Marlin worked to create an army of zombies,
Tu’luh flew a bit farther to the south. He sought a secluded glade from which
he could contact his other servants. He summoned
imps,
sending them out to Verishtang and having them call upon the drakes and other
monsters that waited for Tu’luh’s call. The monsters would fly with great
haste, arriving before midday on the morrow. Tu’luh could wait that long. Then,
he would have his victory. The Middle Kingdom would fall at Fort Drake.

Lepkin stood in the room, his arms folded and his head
leaning against the doorjamb. He watched Lady Dimwater feed their newborn son.
“I want you to leave,” Lepkin said.

“And I wish to find that cabin in the woods, where
everyone leaves us alone and we can live together in peace.”

“I have to stay here, but you don’t. Take our son, go
north.”

Lady Dimwater shook her head. She gently rocked their
son back and forth as she sat on the edge of their bed. “In life or in death,
I’m not leaving your side again.”

Lepkin rubbed a hand over his face moved toward her.
He knelt down in front of her placing one hand on her left knee and one hand on
their son’s back. “You saw what the magic did to
Marlin,
”
Lepkin said “He’s gone. There is no way for us to make him come back. It is one
thing to die, but it is another thing to lose your soul. I want you to leave.”

“I said no.” Lady Dimwater readjusted their son on her
lap so that she could take Lepkin’s hand in hers. “I can send our son away, but
I’m not leaving.”

“Where would he go?”

“I can send him to Njar, the satyr.”

Lepkin stared at their child. He wasn’t sure what he
thought about that. He trusted Dimwater, but he had never heard of Njar before.
Up until the time he saw Aparen in Stonebrook, he had no idea that any satyr
existed within the Middle Kingdom. What he did know, was that he had no better
ideas. “If you trust him, then I suppose I can as well.”

“Doesn’t really matter if you trust
him.
If we both die in this battle neither one of us are going to be
having any say in what happens to our son.” Dimwater offered a half smile. A
flash of silver appeared in the room. The two of them looked over to see
Silverfang, Dimwater’s wolf, standing before them. “If you prefer I can send
our son to Silverfang’s realm.” A sarcastic smile crossed her lips.

Lepkin shook his head “No, but perhaps you could send
Silverfang with our son to Njar.”

Dimwater nodded her head.
“That I
can do.”

The two of them watch their son for the next several
minutes before Lady Dimwater finally opened a portal to a strange land inside a
beautiful forest vale. She pointed at several cottage style houses in the vale
and assured Lepkin that their son would be safe there. She explained that with
the amulet’s limited range, and the fact that Njar’s home always moved and was
covered by a magical spell that concealed it, it would be one of the last
places Tu’luh could ever reach.

“Then let us pray that Erik is able to return and
defeat Tu’luh before the dragon can find Njar.” Lepkin frowned as he bent down
to kiss his newborn son’s forehead. Dimwater caressed Lepkin’s cheek with her
palm and then sent their son through the portal on a magical cloud. Silverfang
also went through the portal and then it closed.

When the two hours was over, Lepkin bent over to kiss
Lady Dimwater’s cheek. “The dragon will return soon, and I should be out there
to meet him. You should continue to rest until the last possible moment.”

Lady Dimwater pulled on Lepkin’s arm and struggled to
stand on her feet. “I told you
before,
I do not intend
to leave your side.” Lepkin opened his mouth to chastise her for being
pigheaded, but she flicked his nose with her index finger and then leaned into
a hug. Her embrace took the fight out of him, and he agreed to let her come
with him.

The two of them left their room, walking out through
the courtyard and up the stairs onto the south wall. They saw their friend Al,
the king of the dwarves, already standing upon the wall with Commander Nials.
No one said a word. They stood in the night and waited for any sign of the
dragon and his army. They waited for hours, but no sign came.

Sometime around midnight a young soldier came up the
stairs on the southern wall and handed a letter to Commander Nials.

“This just came in by messenger falcon.”

Commander Nials nodded, thanked the young soldier and
then sent him back to his station. He opened the message and leaned to his
right to get a better angle on the light from the torch nearby.

“What does it say?” Lepkin asked.

“I will be there before noon.” Commander Nials looked
to the bottom of the small message and smiled wide. “I found the Immortal
Mystic.
Signed, Erik Lokton, the Champion of Truth.”

The four of them shared a smile, but none of them
shouted for joy. Instead of yelling and shouting and cheering, their relief was
evident in the silent tears that fell from their faces. Even Al was unashamed
to let the water roll over his cheek and into his red beard.

“So, we only need to hold out until lunch tomorrow,”
Lepkin said.

“We can do that,” Lady Dimwater said.

Al clapped his hands and looked down to the courtyard,
filled with a renewed sense of hope. “I will see if my dwarves can’t dig a few
tunnels, traps, and surprises for the dragon. Maybe we can slow him a bit
more.” The others nodded and Al ran down the stairs on his short, stubbly legs.
Lepkin watched him go down the stairs then turned to put an arm around his wife.

Commander Nials smiled, “go and get some sleep. Your
wife needs her rest, for tomorrow we have a battle to win.”

“And if the enemy comes tonight?” Lady Dimwater asked.

“Then the alarms will wake you,” Commander Nials said.
“Until then you should rest. You will be of more use to me after you have
rested than if you were to stay up all night for nothing. Perhaps that is what
Tu’luh had in mind -making us wait all night so that he could vanquish us in
the morning when we are exhausted.”

“That is an astute observation,” Lepkin said.

“If he is to raise an army, it could take him a little
longer,” Dimwater said. “He won’t be able to raise any of the men he brought
against us today.”

“Yes, I must say that I do not entirely approve of
your method,” Commander Nials said. Before Lady Dimwater could respond,
Commander Nials put a hand in the air and smiled softly. “I understand it was
likely the only way to save us in that moment. Had your spell been able to
consume the dragon as well, then you would hear no complaints from me
whatsoever. It is just that I knew some of the men down on the field.”

“Those men were not the men you once knew,” Lady Dimwater
said. “Their souls were already twisted and warped by the curse Tu’luh placed
upon them. My spell only devoured that which was already corrupted beyond
recognition and salvation.”

Commander Nials nodded his head and ceded the point.
He then gestured back toward the main keep. “Go, and get some rest. If the
enemy arrives early I will sound the alarm.”

Lepkin and Lady Dimwater nodded and left the wall.

*****

The warning bells sounded shortly after the morning
meal. Lepkin looked to Lady Dimwater and they shared a somber frown. Erik had
not yet arrived, but it was apparent that Tu’luh had. Soldiers ran to and fro,
gathering weapons and armor as quickly as they could. Lepkin and Dimwater moved
to their position on the wall, standing next to Commander Nials again.

The gates opened and the army marched out.

Within a few minutes Al the dwarf king bounded up the
stairs and stood next to Lepkin on the wall. He reached up and smiled. “The
enemy gave me enough time that I prepared a great welcome for them.”

“What did you do?” Commander Nials asked.

“Just keep an eye to the south,” Al replied.

The four of them watched as an army of skeletons and
grotesque zombies walked forward over the road in the south. Master Lepkin and
Commander Nials kept glancing to Al. The stocky dwarf grinned and fidgeted with
his fingers, but he did not reveal what was about to happen. The farther the
enemy army advanced, the bigger Al’s grin became.

All of a sudden there was a commotion.
The sound of breaking bone and clattering armor.
Lepkin
spotted an area where as many as a dozen skeletons had fallen into a large pit
that had been covered loosely with straw and moss to appear as though the grass
and ground beneath was solid. Several more pits opened underneath the army’s
feet.

“Those pits are fifty feet deep,” Al said proudly. He
put his hands on his hips and nodded with a great grin that stretched his mouth
nearly ear to ear on his face. “I would love to see those zombies climb out of
there anytime soon.”

The enemy army maneuvered around the open pits,
quickly discovering additional tricks and traps. Al moved forward on the wall
and started fidgeting with his fingers again. The enemy army came in another
fifty yards, and then a great trench, which must have been at least a quarter
mile long, opened up and burst into flames. The flames swallowed several ranks
of the enemy army.

“I noticed yesterday, that the corpses that burned to
ash were unable to be resurrected by the curse,” Al said. “So I devised a
special pit for some of these abominations with that in mind.”

“You are a devious one, dwarf king,” Commander Nials
said.
“Devious indeed.”

The enemy army was nearly halted by the great wall of
fire. The force had to split in order to maneuver around the edges of the
trench. Archers from Fort Drake assaulted the dividing army. Unfortunately,
they found the arrows were not as effective against the skeleton warriors as
they had been against the army the day before. The arrows either passed through
the skeletons without harming them, or they would bounce off the bone without
damaging them enough to stop them. The catapults, on the other hand, were able
to hurl massive boulders that crushed many skeleton warriors beneath them.

A volley of arrows flew over the trench of fire from
the enemy army toward the men of Fort Drake. Lady Dimwater acted quickly
sending a whirlwind through the air to sweep away the missiles. On the whole,
the spell worked rather well, but it did not divert all of the missiles. Many
of the arrows fell down to find their mark, slaying several good soldiers.

Then a strange noise rose in the air, like that of a wailing
banshee. The four heroes atop the wall strained their eyes to find its source.
When they found it, they all gasped in unison. There were hundreds of creatures
coming in from the southeast. There were gorlung beasts, fire drakes, and great
tusked mammoths charging toward the fort.

Al reacted quickly, grabbing his battle horn and
giving a long below. In answer, cavedogs emerged out of covered holes in the
ground, with their riders atop them wielding bows, spears and axes. The dwarves
charged out to meet the ghastly creatures while the humans continued to do
battle with the skeletons and zombies. The fighting became fierce. The dwarves
clashed against the great creatures in a thunderous clap of metal, screams, war
cries, and screeches. The mammoths trampled many of the cavedog riders, while
the fire drakes blasted dwarves with fire. The dwarves answered by firing
crossbows, hacking at their enemies’ feet, and letting their giant lizards bite
at the monsters’ legs.

While the dwarves fought, locked in a bitter battle,
the humans came face-to-face with their skeleton enemies. Swords and axes
hacked through bone and rusted armor, beating out the strange, obscene melody
of death and war. Lady Dimwater lent what aid she could by sending lightning
and fire from the sky. Still, she was not rested enough to do much. Her spells
managed only to slay a few dozen of the enemy skeletons.

Aparen moved out to help the dwarves. He ran toward
the wall from inside the courtyard and shifted into his shadowfiend form,
jumping into the air as he did so. He flew gracefully over the wall and down
toward the battlefield like a great raptor hunting a rabbit. He tore into a
fire drake with his talons and teeth, ripping the beast’s right wing from its
back while simultaneously biting its neck. He then flew on to save a pair of
dwarves just before they were trampled by a great mammoth. A lightning bolt
struck down from the sky, burning a hole through the woolly mammoth and
dropping the beast to the ground.

“I do believe he is more powerful than you, Lady
Dimwater,” Commander Nials said.

“You may be right,” Lady Dimwater agreed. They watched
as scores of beasts continued to flood onto the field. The battle raged for
more than three hours before there was any sign of Salarion or Marlin. When the
four of them finally caught sight of the two that held the amulet, they
wondered where Tu’luh might be. The dragon was nowhere near them.

“Surely Tu’luh would not let them come alone this
time, would he?” Commander Nials asked

Master Lepkin shrugged. “I do not know.” Master Lepkin
moved to the edge of the wall and placed his hands upon the crenellation.

“What are you thinking?” Lady Dimwater asked.

“That maybe it is time for me to take my dragon form
again.”

“If you do that, you will be turned by the spell.”

Lepkin nodded his head. “But maybe I will have enough
time to steal the amulet. If I can reach it, I can throw it back to Fort Drake
and one of you could destroy it.”