The Dragon's Prize (19 page)

So, they’d have to find the dragon and kill it.

Easy.

Sandra hoped they could get down into the lair to do that.  She didn’t particularly relish the thought of a pitched battle on the exposed mountaintop.  The weather was deceptively calm, they knew from the night before that soon the winds would pick up and then it might not even be possible to stand straight up against its power.

To the hole.  Good thing they brought a lot of rope.

“Okay.  I think if we fasten this to that outcropping over there, we should be able to get down safely.”  Sandra made a loose loop with the rope and tossed it over a craggy bit of rock at the top of the path, a few feet down from the flat top of the mountain.

“You think?”  Mira considered the rope skeptically.

“I’ll go first, since I’ve got all this extra metal.  If it holds me, you should be fine.”

“You’re not really inspiring confidence.”  Mira went over to the loop of rope and turned Sandra’s loose tie into a real knot.  She gave it a couple of experimental tugs to test the strength.  “Have you done this before?”

“No.  You?”

“No.”

“Great.”  Sandra got out a second rope and a couple of harnesses they’d purchased from town.  With Mira’s help she attached the second rope to a different outcrop, then hooked it up through a pulley.  They would climb down the first rope, which was knotted every couple of feet to improve grip, but in case of slipping the second rope would keep them from plummeting to their death.

At least, that was the theory.

Sandra got into her harness, checked the fastenings, then helped Mira with hers.  After five minutes of tightening buckles, checking and rechecking fastenings and generally obsessing over the flimsy piece of equipment which would be the only thing between them and death, Sandra nodded.

“No time like the present.”

“Right.”  Mira gave each harness one last test tug, then nodded.

Sandra approached the hole to the dragon’s lair and peered over the side.  She couldn’t see the bottom, not even the bottom of the rope.  Darkness swallowed it up over a hundred feet down.  Could she really climb that far?  At least she had the harness.

Swallowing her fear, Sandra gripped the knotted climbing rope and gave it another test tug.  No slipping, no cracking of rock.

“Aren’t you two cute?”  A male voice, dark and rich and full of danger, cut through the tense silence preceding Sandra’s descent.  Both women jumped and turned in the direction of the sound.

Standing on the altar was a richly dressed man with handsome features.  His eyes sparkled in the fading daylight, and his clothes seemed to shimmer as he moved.  He wore a thick trench coat of red leather, almost black sometimes and almost crimson others, and under it he had garments which could only be made of fine silk.  Belted at his hip was a sword in a jeweled scabbard, and his hand rested lazily on the hilt.  Dangerously.  He moved like a warrior as he stepped down from the altar, confidence oozing from every shift of his muscles and every step of his booted feet.

Sandra had her sword out and pointed at him before he finished the question.

“Harnesses?  Pulleys?  You’re really prepared for this.”  The man grinned.  It was not a pleasant expression.  “Where is your backup, hmm?  Who else is here to claim my prize from me?”

“Your prize… you’re the dragon?”  Sandra put the pieces together, even though they didn’t quite fit.  The dragon was a thirty foot long lizard, not a snarky nobleman.

“Bingo!  Yes.  Thank-you.  I am Daro, the dragon who has taken your prince.”  The man bowed obsequiously after introducing himself.  “M’lady…?”

“Sandra… this is Mira.”

“Hi.”  Mira waved shyly with one hand, clutching the crossbow in the other.  While the dragon was busy talking they both removed their harnesses and stood ready.

“Wait.”  Sandra interrupted before the dragon could continue.  “Daro?  Really?”

“What?”  He looked taken aback.

“I mean… what’s your last name?  N-something?”

“Ooh, Daro N. Sneaky.”  Mira giggled.  “I think it’s Norbauer.”

“I got it.  You’re Daro G. Notadragon!”

“What are you two talking about?”  Daro looked angry and confused at the same time.

“Your name.  It would be like someone naming me Humanetta.”  Sandra had her shield out now, but was having fun with this and couldn’t help laughing.

“Daro S. Scaleyface.”  Mira grinned.

“Ah ha.  Daro B. Princecapturer?”

“Look, you two should tremble before me!”  Daro approached a step and struck an intimidating pose.  Lightning crackled loudly in the clouds around the mountaintop.  “Compared to you, I am like a god!”

“Actually, you’re more like a petty bandit.”  Sandra shrugged.  “But who’s counting?”

“Listen.  Are you two the only ones who came?”  Daro opted for changing the subject.

“Yeah.”

“Looks like.”

“Really?”  The dragon’s face fell.  “A warrior and her squire are all that came to rescue the prince?”

“They were scared.”

“You were pretty scary.”  Mira nodded solemnly in agreement.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.  Setting the courtyard on fire was a nice touch.”  Sandra considered it.  Now that she was saying it, she realized she was right.  If Daro's intention was to draw a rescue force out to his mountain he’d been going about the entire thing wrong.  “I think the captain soiled himself.”

“Snrrgh.”  Mira choked on some laughter.  “Really?”

“I was standing right beside him when we were talking with the queen.  I think so.”

“Well.  This is disappointing.”  Daro deflated, looking weary.  “I was hoping for a grand battle with a force of grizzled royal guards intent on rescuing their prince.”

“And you got me instead.”  Sandra shrugged.  “You could just call the whole thing off and let him go?”

“I should have asked for more money.”

“You really should have.  You know, if your intention was this big battle you’re talking about.”  Sandra was skeptical.  The dragon had gone through all of this just to have a big fight with a bunch of guards?  He could have done that back at the castle.

“Anyway, I guess I’ll kill you two now.”  He looked downcast.

“Yeah.  That’s a shame.  Why don’t you just let the prince go and we can forget the whole thing?”

“No, I don’t think so.  You came all the way out here, after all.”

“It’s really not a problem.”

“Tell you what?  I’ll give you a fighting chance and stay in this form for the fight.  Okay?”

“Generous.”

“I thought so.”

“Mira, get back off the mountain.”

“I’m going to kill her, too.”  With a flourish, Daro drew his sword.  After the jeweled scabbard, it was unimpressively plain.  It glowed faintly, about the same amount as Sandra’s sword, which also seemed off.  She appreciated the magic hers had, but a creature like a dragon should have much more powerful artifacts lying around.  Well, she’d take it.  If she won because he was too cocky, it didn’t matter.  She still won.

“I can help!”  Mira considered the path down, then considered the two warriors squaring off on the mountain.

“I know, hon.  Just try to take cover, you don’t want to be collateral.”

“Oh… oh!  Sure, right!”  Mira retreated until she could only just see over the top of the mountain, and sighted her crossbow at the dragon. “Like this?”

“Yeah, that’s good.”

“You’re just delaying the inevitable.”  Daro danced forward.  His feet moved fluidly, but Sandra could pick out the forms as he came.  He likely didn’t spend a lot of time fighting in human form, so he fell back on training from long ago.  She hoped that her experience in battle would give her the edge over his speed.

“Ready?”  Sandra ignored his taunts and fell into a counter-rhythm to his footwork.  She kept the shield up and between the two of them, hoping it would provide some protection.  From the way he moved he looked not only fast, but strong too.  She didn’t know what he’d done to look human, but he seemed to have kept the strength of his dragon form.

That could be a problem.

*

After the fight with Daro, Sandra fell.  Wind rushed past her face and howled in her ears.  It chilled her nose and exposed skin and frosted her metal armor.  Darkness enveloped her, and it seemed that it would be nothing but darkness forever.  How far did this hole go?

The middle of the world?

The end of the world?

It was so dark she couldn’t even see the walls around her, and there was no indication it would ever get brighter.  Was the lair in darkness?  Would she die without seeing the light again?

Wait.

There.

What was that?

Just out of the corner of her sight, a wink of light.  She turned her head but it was gone.

There!  Another.  She whipped her head around, and this time caught sight of it.  A dim, golden light floated in the air near her, falling with her.  Was it a feather?  Another appeared, then a fourth.  Then dozens.  All around her, glowing feathers appeared.

She looked down, and instead of endless darkness she saw endless feathers.  They started to crowd up around her, putting a welcome pressure on her chest that slowed the fall.  Feathers tickled her skin and brushed past her nose.  They fluttered around her hair, and now it was clear that they were cushioning her fall.

What was going on?

Ground!

Even with the help of the feathers, she bounced off the ground when she hit it.  The shining golden feathers sprayed everywhere in a shimmering burst, and she rolled along the hard stone until bumping up against a pillar of rock.  She blinked twice to clear her vision of the blinking lights, swiping her hand through the air to brush feathers away.

What happened?

As she batted at them, the feathers started to disappear as fast as they came.  In the dying light of their passage, she noticed that the wings on the ring on her finger were flapping furiously.  The queen’s ring!

“Ha!  Ah ha!”  Sandra laughed out loud.  “Feather fall!  It’s a Ring of Feather Fall!  Brilliant!”

The darkness closed in around her quickly, choking out the light and leaving her alone at the bottom of an extremely deep hole.  Alive!  At least she was alive!

“She could have mentioned that.”  Sandra shook her head.  How could the queen know she would even have the ring on?  Well, that was unfair.  It never once occurred to her not to wear it.  The queen wanted her to succeed, so anything she gave would be useful.

Still.

A little heads up would have been nice.

Saved from imminent death, Sandra pulled out a sunrod she’d taken from the mayor’s house and cracked it on her knee.  About a foot long, it was made of a stiff yet pliant outer shell filled with a normally opaque liquid.  When you cracked the outer shell, exposing the liquid to air, it started to give off a bright light that needed no fuel and did not burn.  Normally she wouldn’t carry something so extravagant with her, but since the mayor was paying…

She stood up and had a look around the bottom of the hole she found herself in.  Now that she could see, it was filled with a variety of stone pillars like the one she’d bumped up against.  They all reached about five feet in the air and ended in wicked points.  At the bottom of a hole like this, she was pretty sure they weren’t natural, which meant the dragon built them.  Several of them had aged, broken rib cages wrapped around them and dry bones littered the ground.

“Classy.”  Sandra shook her head.  If the fall didn’t kill you, the spikes would.

One wall of the hole opened up into a very wide, very tall passage which seemed to lead deeper into the mountain.  It had to be at least fifty feet tall, and as much as twenty wide.  Well, it was a dragon’s lair, there had to be a way for him to fit inside, right?

Shrugging, she walked forward.  There was nothing else for her to do right now, although she could stay at the bottom of the hole and worry about Mira.

Tempting.

However, without a weapon, she stood absolutely no chance when the dragon showed up, so her only option was to head deeper and try to find something.  Hopefully his armory was unguarded.  After all, who could be expected to survive that fall?

The wide tunnel wound around for perhaps two hundred feet before Sandra started to notice coins on the ground.  They clinked and tinkled under her feet, and she brought the sunrod around to look at them.

“Copper?”  Mixed in with the copper pieces were a few silver.  Platinum?  Sandra picked one up and examined it in the light of the rod.  She bit it.  “Silver.”

Shrugging, she dropped it back on the ground.  She wasn’t here to loot the place, at least not yet.  There was still the problem of a very live and angry dragon to deal with.  Once that was done, she could move on to assessing the value of its hoard.

At the end of the tunnel, it opened up into a large circular room filled with stuff.