Temple of the Dragonslayer (19 page)

After several hours of traveling through the forest, the companions came to a small creek. On the other side of the creek, the trees appeared to thin.

Raedon stopped. “This is it, little ones. All you have to do now is cross the creek and continue heading northeast. You should have no trouble finding a place that will make a good campsite
for the night. Assuming you don’t sleep late tomorrow morning, by noon you should reach Heaven’s Pass, a trail between two high hills. It’s the entrance to the valley that houses the temple. Once you are through the pass, you will have but a short journey to reach the temple itself.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Nearra said.

Raedon hesitated, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do. But finally he said, “I’m afraid I must go, Nearra.” It was the first time he had called any of them something other than
little one. “I
have been away from my lair too long and need to return and check on my treasure. One can’t be too careful, you know.” He gave Elidor a look. “There are thieves everywhere.”

On impulse, Nearra dashed forward and threw her arms around the dragon’s scaly neck and hugged him.

“We’ll miss you,” she said.

Raedon twisted a bit then relaxed into her embrace. Nearra wondered if this was the first time he’d ever been touched by a human.

When she pulled away, Raedon said, “Goodbye, all. I hope the rest of your journey is brief and uneventful.” And then he jumped high into the air. Just as he began to drop, he unfurled his wings and flew off to the northwest, toward his lair in the Vingaard Mountains.

“I’m sorry to see him go,” Sindri said.

Nearra turned toward the kender, glad that someone besides her was going to miss Raedon.

“Now I’ll never get to hear the end of that joke,” Sindri said.

“If it’s a joke you want,” Elidor said, “I have one for you. How many kender does it take to wield a hoopak staff?”

“I’ve heard that one before,” Sindri said, scowling. “And you’d better not finish it!”

“But I thought you didn’t like leaving jokes unfinished,” Elidor said, smiling innocently.

“I do when the joke is as insulting as that one!”

The elf ignored the kender. “The answer is three: one to hold
the staff, one to annoy everyone in the vicinity, and a third to steal everything he can lay his hands on.”

“I told you not to finish it!” Sindri ran at the elf, but Elidor jumped gracefully over the creek. Sindri splashed through the water after him, and Elidor fled, laughing all the way, with Sindri in hot pursuit.

“When I catch you, elf, I’ll turn you into a toad with pointed ears!” Sindri shouted.

Catriona followed, smiling and shaking her head. Nearra was surprised to hear the normally humorless Jax chuckle.

Davyn gave Nearra a smile. “Come on. We’d better catch up to Sindri and Elidor before they get too far ahead of us.”

Davyn and Nearra easily stepped over the small creek and headed after the others, but not before Nearra gave one last glance up at the sky to see if she could still see Raedon. She watched as the dragon became nothing more than a copper-colored speck in the distance, then she turned and followed her companions.

Raedon loved the feeling of wind beneath his wings. Though he was a creature of both land and sky, he felt more at home in the air than anywhere else.

He felt a bit guilty about leaving the little ones—especially Nearra. He sensed a strange sort of bond with her that he couldn’t explain. It was almost as if he wouldn’t have been able to leave the little ones if she hadn’t let him.

Some dragons—both chromatic and metallic—seemed to have a special attraction to humans. Perhaps he was one of those dragons. If so, it was a quality he had been unaware of in himself. But then he was young as dragons went. It only made sense that he would learn new things about himself as he matured.

Raedon had only told the little ones the partial truth about why he was so anxious to check on his lair. Since all dragons
used magic to one degree or another, they often collected mystic items for their hoards along with more mundane treasure. Wizards and thieves were known to risk entering a dragon’s lair in hope of finding and taking such magic objects.

Raedon was worried that once Ugo had shaken off the effects of the slow gas, the ogre would tell Maddoc how a copper dragon had come to the aid of the little ones. Once Maddoc was aware of Raedon’s existence, the dragon feared the mage would seek out his lair in order to steal the few magical items he’d managed to gather so far.

From what the little ones said, it sounded as if Maddoc might not be a white-robed wizard after all. And if this was the case, Raedon couldn’t allow his magic items to fall into the wizard’s hands.

And so, though he normally took his time when he flew—the better to spot little ones on the ground to play with—he poured on the speed, flying as fast as he could toward his mountain home. But he’d only flown a couple miles when he became aware of another presence in the sky.

Instinct took over and Raedon banked sharply to the right. He saw a flash of green out of the corner of his eye. Then he was buffeted by a blast of wind as something large dove past him, nearly slamming into his wing. He understood at once what was happening.

It was Slean.

All dragons that inhabit a given area are at least acquainted with one another, and he knew that Slean—though roughly the same age as he—was larger and extremely vicious. She was also a highly skilled flyer, and he knew that he couldn’t hope to best her in aerial combat. And as a green dragon, she was immune to slow gas, Raedon’s most powerful weapon. Since Raedon was smaller and more agile, his best move would be to land and draw her into the forest, where he could—

“Raedon!” Slean’s voice rumbled across the sky like thunder. “I do not wish to fight! I only want to talk!”

Raedon turned in the direction of her voice. Slean flew in a circle a dozen yards above him. One of her eyes was squinted closed from a recent wound.

“Is that why you tried to knock me out of the sky?” he said. “Because you want to talk?”

Slean laughed. “I was merely saying hello.”

Raedon also began circling, but he didn’t fly any closer to the green dragon. He knew better.

“Assuming I believe you—which I don’t—what do you want?”

“To deliver a friendly warning. Today you interfered with matters that do not concern you. Do not do so again.”

Raedon felt a chill ripple down his spine, but he tried to keep the fear out of his voice. “How do you know, and more to the point, why do you care?”

“Why do
you
care that
I
care?” Slean said in a mocking tone, and then faster than Raedon could react, the green dragon angled downward, flapped her wings, and came streaking toward him.

Raedon thought she intended to crash into him, and as fast as she was moving, there was no way he could avoid a collision. But at the last instant she veered off and Raedon felt a wave of relief.

Just another of her “warnings,” Raedon thought.

But as Slean passed him, her claws lashed out. Raedon barely managed to dodge to the side in time to avoid having his right wing shredded.

“I thought you said you just wanted to talk!” Raedon shouted.

Slean turned and soared upward. She flashed him a grin as she passed by.

“I lied.”

Raedon could see no advantage in staying to confront Slean, so he did what any other being in his situation would do—he turned and fled.

Slean roared in fury, and Raedon didn’t have to look back to know that she pursued him.

He beat his wings furiously and stretched his head out before him as far as it would go in order to make himself as streamlined as possible. He was smaller than Slean, and therefore faster and more maneuverable—provided that he maintained his lead. If Slean managed to catch up to him …

He put on a fresh burst of speed.

Raedon had fled without regard to direction, so he risked a downward glance to check his location. If a human could see from this vantage point, the forest below would look like an unbroken canopy of green. But a dragon’s vision is far keener than a human’s—or an elf’s or a kender’s, for that matter. Raedon saw an infinite variety of greens, their shades all merging to form a pattern as easy for him to read as a map. He knew at once where he was: not more than fifteen miles from his lair in the Vingaard Mountains. If he could reach his home before Slean could catch him, he would be able to hide from her in the maze of tunnels. All he had to do was keep flying as fast as he could. Faster, faster …

He sensed the ripple in the air at the last instant, far too late to do anything more than realize his mistake. When he’d looked down to get his bearings, he’d slowed just a little. But a little was all Slean needed.

A streak of green shot past him and Raedon felt a searing pain in his wing. Slean’s claws had found their mark this time. He wobbled, unable to maintain control of his flight with an injured wing, and he tumbled toward the ground, Slean’s mocking laughter following him all the way down.

T
rue to Raedon’s word, the companions approached Heaven’s Pass almost precisely at noon.

After they’d crossed the creek, they’d emerged from the forest and made camp for the night. The next morning, they had set out through the rolling fields of grassland. Within a few hours, they’d found the trail Raedon had called Heaven’s Pass, a narrow depression between two high hills.

The companions stopped and considered the trail ahead of them.

“Looks cramped,” Elidor said. “Barely room enough for two of us to walk through shoulder to shoulder.” He glanced at Sindri. “Or in the case of our kender friend, shoulder to kneecap.”

“Very funny,” Sindri said. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

The kender started running toward the pass, but Jax grabbed him by the arm and lifted him off the ground.

“Hold a moment, small one,” the minotaur rumbled. “We might wish to take a different route.”

Sindri kicked his legs in the air, looking like an impatient child.

“Why?” he demanded. “Raedon told us to go through the pass.
That means it’s safe. Probably boring, too.” Sindri muttered this last comment in a tone that indicated boredom was the worst fate imaginable.

But despite his protests, Sindri stopped thrashing his legs. Jax lowered him to the ground, but the minotaur didn’t let go of the kender’s arm.

“Jax is right,” Catriona said. “Considering everything Maddoc has done so far, we can’t afford to assume that anything is safe.”

Sindri made a face as if he’d just tasted something bitter, but he nodded and Jax released his arm.

Nearra wouldn’t have been surprised if the kender had made a dash for the pass anyway, and indeed, Sindri did look longingly at it, but he remained standing where he was.

“Could we climb over the hills?” Sindri asked. “That might be fun!”

Davyn regarded them for a moment. “I suppose. But we have no way of knowing how steep they are on the other side, and we didn’t bring any climbing gear with us.”

“Besides, there’s a reason they call it a pass,” Elidor said. “It’s usually the only way through.”