The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (51 page)

“
Sir wizard, it
comes!” one of the earth elementals called out. They all looked
up and Simon felt fingers of fear crawling up his spine.

An enormous shadow, vague
and monstrous, could be seen through the red haze of the circle in
the sky. Vast wings flapped slowly and then folded close to the body
and out of the Gate shot the overwhelming figure of a dragon,
hurtling earthward like a gigantic bird of prey.

Simon and Kronk exchanged
looks.

“
Here we go,”
the wizard said and he raised Bene-Dunn-Gal.

Yeah, he thought. Here we
go.

The green dragon was not
built the same way the black had been and Simon was taken aback
slightly. It looked more serpentine, writhing in the air like a
winged serpent. Its body was hundreds of feet long but narrow and
snake-like, with glittering green scales the color of pond scum.

Around the diving dragon,
a toxic cloud of emerald-colored gas seemed to seep out of its body
and leave a trail like smoke behind it.

“
All of you, get
underground, right now!” Simon shouted at the elementals.

They all stared at him for
a moment and he made a savage gesture downward.

“
You can't help me
in this. Get to safety.”

They disappeared into the
earth as one, except for Kronk, who hesitated.

“
Go, my friend,”
Simon told him gently. “Just wish me luck, and go.”

“
Good luck, master,”
Kronk said in a little voice and bowed before he slipped into the
ground.

Freed of all distraction,
Simon watched the dragon winging toward him. When the huge body was
no more than a hundred feet above the clearing, the monster extended
its wings and halted its dive toward the earth, hovering on lazily
flapping wings as its horned head dipped down to scan the ground
beneath it.

Simon had no idea if a
dragon's vision was all that good, but he guessed that it was.
Probably as keen as a hawk's, at least.

The dragon seemed to take
in the entire scene at a glance. Heather's ashes were still scattered
on the ground, moving a little in the wind blowing down from the
massive wings.

It looked from side to
side, perhaps looking for tricks or traps, but finally the head
pointed straight down and huge yellow eyes caught Simon's own in a
hate-filled gaze.

“
So you are the
wizard,” roared a voice like thunder. Simon staggered at the
sound, but drew himself up and held that draconic glare as best as he
could.

“
I see you have
destroyed my servant,” it continued, the head turning slightly
to look at the ashes. “Well done. You are more powerful than
you seem, I think.”

Simon didn't answer. After
all, what could he say?

“
Did she, perhaps,
make you an offer before you took her life?”

The wizard nodded
silently.

“
Ah, I see. Then the
answer was no, I assume. That is unfortunate. We could use a talent
like yours.”

A light whiff of chlorine
slipped by Simon's face and he turned away, coughing violently. Over
his head, a hissing laugh echoed down from the dragon.

“
Ah yes, I am rather
difficult to approach for you little humans. My breath is
rather...toxic, I believe is the word.”

Simon waved a hand in
front of his face and looked up, eyes streaming with tears.

“
That is why I have
not come down to see you, tiny wizard. My very presence would mean
your death. And now, we are at an impasse, aren't we? I presume you
have some little surprise in store for me, a trick perhaps, like the
ones you used against my sibling?”

The dragon's gaze
intensified and Simon could feel its power beating down on him.

“
Vile, ignominious,
cheating way to destroy such a noble being. Instead of matching power
for power, you used subterfuge to claim victory. Well, such tricks
will not work on me. I am above them and I intend to stay above
them.”

My God, this thing loves
the sound of its own voice, Simon thought. But he also realized
something else. The dragon actually sounded cautious, nervous. Was it
possible that the huge monster was
afraid
?
Afraid of a human? He wished he could believe that.

“
Well,
I have things to do, wizardling. Places to go, humans to kill. You
know how it is. After all, you've just killed one yourself, haven't
you?”

The
dragon chuckled deeply in its throat, a wet, satisfied sound. It was
as if it could feel Simon's guilt over Heather's death and was using
it against him.

“
I
don't kill innocents!” Simon finally roared up at it.

“
Ah,
the wizard speaks. How gratifying. You don't kill innocents, hmm?
Well, neither do I. Neither do any of my kin. Your people raped and
pillaged this planet for their own selfish needs. Our return has
actually saved your world from you! We are not killers, we are
saviors. Think on that, little one. Oh, and while you do that, allow
me to give you something to pass the time. Consider it a gift, since
you seem eager for battle.”

The
dragon dipped down and approached the open field. Simon raised
Bene-Dunn-Gal.

“
Shield,”
he barked and an opaque globe surrounded him, immediately purifying
the air of the stink of chlorine and allowing him to breathe freely.

He
waited for the dragon to attack, thinking of the spells he had imbued
his staff with; would any of them be effective against...that?

But
the dragon only dropped to within fifty feet of the ground, its
monstrous, writhing body blocking out the sky. It seemed to shiver
along its length and Simon backed up so quickly he tripped and fell
over. He pushed himself back along the ground, moving like a crab on
his hands and feet as he realized what was happening.

The
green dragon wasn't covered only in scales. Pieces began to flake off
of its body, pieces that Simon recognized, not as scales but as
drakes.

Horrible
miniature versions of the dragon, these wingless mini-dragons looked
like their host but their serpentine bodies were only ten feet long.
They slammed into the ground at the far end of the field and Simon
pushed himself to his feet frantically, thinking of a spell he could
use against the creatures.

When
a dozen drakes had been shaken loose, the dragon flapped its wings
strongly and rose up again to hover at its original height,
apparently watching the battle with interest.

The
drakes were slow to get to their feet, seemingly dazed from their
fall from the dragon. While he had time, Simon wracked his brain for
a proper defense.

He
scanned the field, looking for some sort of inspiration. A boulder,
half buried and too large to have been removed by Heather, stuck out
of the ground near the cottage and Simon nodded to himself.

Good
enough, he thought. I need to get off the ground for this to work.

He
raced toward the boulder, his shield moving with him, and leaped to
the top of the rock. He was now about three feet off the ground and
he turned just in time to see the drakes form up and move as one
toward him.

They
moved like snakes, their sinewy bodies pushed along by their
vestigial legs. They were hissing with the sound of high-pressure
steam vents and small puffs of chlorine trailed along behind them.

Okay,
this better work, the wizard thought. If it does, I'll thank Kronk
later. It was his idea, after all.

He
pointed Bene-Dunn-Gal at the ground in front of the boulder and felt
the staff bite deep for its tribute of blood. With a shudder, Simon
shouted, “Quicksand!”

The
ground leading from the base of his perch out toward the rapidly
approaching drakes began to bubble and steam, ripples of water
suddenly rising from deep underground to loosen the hard earth. The
drakes either didn't notice or didn't care about the ground in front
of them. They were all staring hungrily at Simon, shooting toward him
like mindless missiles, their hisses rising in volume until they were
almost ear-splitting.

The
swampy earth kept radiating outward, approaching the drakes who
continued to race forward.

When
the snake-like monsters hit the wet, soft dirt, for a moment their
momentum carried them forward and they seemed oblivious to their
suddenly precarious situation.

But
dumb creatures or not, they finally realized that something was
wrong.

All
of the drakes stopped moving at once and looked around in confusion.
The expressions on the snaky faces was almost comical, until they
tried to move forward again and found themselves trapped and sinking
in sticky, loose mud.

The
resulting chaos was deafening. The drakes shrieked and roared. Trying
to pull their limbs out of the quicksand only made them sink faster.
They bit at the mud, blasted it with their poisonous breath, leapt
upward as if trying to fly. But it was all useless.

One
by one, hissing, screaming, they were pulled beneath the sucking
muck, their cries turning to loud bubbling and gurgling. A few
moments later, all that was left were patches of foam on the wet
ground and the occasional pop of a muddy bubble. The drakes were
gone.

Simon
had watched impassively, but he was disgusted by the whole thing.
Killing, even these evil brutes, was not something that he did
lightly. When he was certain that the drakes were deep enough to
remain trapped, he canceled the spell. The ground shook and cracked,
drying out almost instantly until it looked arid and sere, dessicated
like soil after a drought.

He
transferred his staff to his left hand and wiped the blood off of his
palm. Then he switched it back to his right hand and looked up at the
watching dragon.

There
were no roars of anger from the green, no immediate attacks. It
didn't seem to care that Simon had just destroyed a dozen of its
minions. But the wizard wasn't fooled. He remembered how enraged the
primal black had been when he had killed a handful of its drakes.

Simon
squinted up at his foe. This one is tricky, he thought. Cunning. Sly.
Just like a snake in the grass, it's biding its time, looking for a
weakness, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

I
have to get it down to ground level for the plan to work. He grimaced
to himself. If it works. Odds are I'll be smashed to jelly or get
poisoned to death.

But
if he was going to exploit the monster's weaknesses, he had to get
the damned thing out of the sky. Surely something with such puny legs
and long body would be more awkward and clumsy on the ground.

Simon
ran his eyes along the sinewy, two hundred foot length of the dragon.
It seemed to almost swim in the air currents.

Clumsy,
he said to himself with a snort. Yeah, right.

He
jumped off of the rock and moved to stand in the center of the field.
Then he planted the end of Bene-Dunn-Gal firmly in the ground and
whispered to it.

“
Okay,
my wooden friend, I'm about to do something really, really stupid.
I'm going to try to piss off a dragon. Wish me luck.”

The
staff quivered in his hand.

“
If
you're calling me an idiot, I have to agree,” Simon said to it.
“Okay, here goes.”

He
sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the green dragon.

“
Hey!
Ugly! Are you just going to hang around all day or are you going to
get on with this? I just slaughtered your little friends. Now it's
your turn!”

The
massive head ducked down below the body and the dragon glared at him.

“
Are
you that eager to die, little human? I was just enjoying the cooling
winds up here. So refreshing after the sticky heat of my jungle home.
You should be making the most of your last moments of life, should
you not?”

“
And
this is where I push the crazy button all the way in,” Simon
muttered to himself. He jerked his staff straight up, pointed it at
the green and shouted: “Fireball!”

A
blazing orb of flame streaked down from above the dragon and slammed
into its left wing, knocking it to one side. It almost flipped over
and, with a bellow of rage, adjusted its wings quickly to right
itself again before it tumbled from the sky.

“
You
dare!” it roared at him. “After all of my courtesy, you
dare attack me? Very well then. Feel my wrath!”

The
green dragon flapped its huge wings faster, gaining height with
tremendous speed and Simon guessed what it would do next.

It
was going to arrow down on him like a comet and smash him flat,
probably breathing poisonous chlorine gas just to make sure he was
dead.

Okay,
I have to keep it unbalanced, he thought frantically. He stood and
watched helplessly as the dragon rose higher and higher above him. It
was too far away for him to cast any spells at it.