Key of Living Fire (The Sword of the Dragon) (47 page)

Ombre stood and took a step around the creature. The dragon snapped its jaws in his face, trailing particles of light in the air.

“This paradise is not for thee. Your path lies east of the Hemmed Land, and out of that land thy people must soon go. For the Creator’s will is bending nature against the Hemmed Land’s borders. As thy people multiply, the land can no longer contain you.” The dragon roared and spread its wings.

Oganna glanced away.

“Do not think me harsh, my children. I have heaped more blessings on thee than you yet know.” His wings beat against the air, blasting their faces. “You cannot linger here.” The great dragon’s clawed hands grasped each of them and pulled them into the air. As the ground fell away beneath them, Oganna felt her eyes water. She had failed her father, and this trip had been an utter waste.

Suddenly the land beneath and the sky above streamed in a myriad of colors and light. Faster than seemed possible, the dragon shot into the east. Almost as abruptly, the scenery reconstructed itself into a forest beneath them and the sun overhead. The dragon settled into a woodland clearing, releasing Ombre and Caritha from his claws. The pair rolled on the ground and looked about—they had been returned to the Hemmed Land. They gazed up at Oganna as the dragon pulled her another couple hundred feet into the air.

Albino held her before his magnificent face and hovered, his wings beating a slow, powerful rhythm. She smiled at him and reached out, touching his scarred face. He closed his pink eyes for a moment, rumbling deep in his throat. “It is a great temptation for me to keep thee with me, my precious one,” he said. “But I cannot.”

She nodded, feeling that somehow he could never hold anything but her best interest in his heart. “I think I understand.”

“Hmm, I believe you do. But do be strong in the days ahead. Your trial will come upon thee with great suddenness.” He glanced south, and she followed his gaze to the Resgerian desert. “Thy father has not returned from his test. Pray, pray, pray for him. I fear the place to which I have sent him is full of all-consuming hatred and bloodlust. But he is strong and I have sent Specter to assist—”

She threw up her hands and laughed to the heavens. “Then Specter survived the battle for Ar’lenon! It is all as I had hoped.”

“It seemed appropriate for me to tell thee, for he did valiantly fight to save thee.”

“Oh, he did,” she said.

The dragon sighed and pulled her to his chest, whispering, “I love you, child.” The dragon descended toward the woodland meadow and set her between Ombre and Caritha. The clearing resounded with the might of his wings as he crouched and sprang into the sky, shooting into the west.

“What should we do now?” Caritha asked as she watched him depart.

“We wait for father to return.” Oganna touched her sword’s pommel at her side. “And we will pray that, in his travels, God’s hand will be with him.”

26

THE ENDLESS CORRIDOR

W
hat could he do? Without his armor and with the sword lying beyond his reach, Ilfedo found himself defenseless. Regulus, the extra-powerful black Megatrath, leaned over him. Gradually the creature shifted his weight onto his hind feet. Ilfedo felt his ribs break, and his vision flashed blinding white. He was being crushed alive.

In that moment he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, and his sword shot through the air and stabbed the Megatrath’s leg. Regulus roared and pulled back with a look of horror plastered on his reptilian face. The sword paused above Ilfedo’s reddening chest, hovering with its blade pointed at him. The sword’s blade flashed red and yellow. Tongues of fire gathered from its metallic surface, swirling around and around it until it was all that could be seen.

His body throbbed with pain, and he retched blood—just as the Living Fire exploded from the sword and slammed into his chest. His torn chest healed, the flesh coming together where it had been torn and coloring pink where it had been a raw red.

Ilfedo shook his head, spitting some more blood from his mouth as he picked himself up. The sword flipped to present its handle, and he took it. In a moment the flames enveloped him and then returned to the sword. The pure white armor, with the fire dancing beneath and through its surface, covered his body once again. He adjusted the helmet on his head and ran his finger along its baby-soft surface.

He let the weapon reenergize him and closed his eyes. Regulus would no doubt be staring, stunned, at this sudden shift in fortunes. Ilfedo kept his eyes closed and focused on the sword, losing himself in it and being drawn inside it. He could see Regulus as if he were watching him from inside the sword’s blade, and he moved the weapon at the creature. It left his hand, stabbing at Regulus’s head and arms, then his body.

Blood soon drained from multiple wounds. Regulus growled. His massive hands grasped at the sword as if to try to stop it, but he missed every time.

Coming back into his body, Ilfedo opened his eyes and took the sword in hand. Sending a swath of fire down Regulus’s forelegs, he advanced and stabbed up into his chest.

The Megatrath turned its back to him and loped away. “We’ll meet again, human,” he said, glancing over his black shoulder. “I’ll make certain of it!”

“You are going nowhere, Megatrath. As I understand the rules of Megatrath combat, you now owe me your life and your authority. Surrender that, and I will let you depart.”

“I have spent a long while fighting your kind, human. I will not be subjected to one.”

“Then, for the sake of the people of Dresdyn—”

The creature stopped and roared. Its wounds began to heal; its muscles bulged as it turned and lumbered toward him. “How could you know that?”

“Because they are my people, and I will soon return to bring them out of their underground world.”

“You? You could never!”

“Surrender to me, Regulus.” Ilfedo pointed his sword at Vectra. “Declare your loyalty to this strong and wise Megatrath. Give your might over to her. Do this, and I will hold you to only one thing more.”

The creature growled; yellow vapor billowed from its jaws. “Yes?”

“Leave Dresdyn alone.”

“Ha! How little you know, apparently.” The creature roared with terrible power and sorrow. “The war began not with me but with them! It was they who took my son.”

“Arvidane?”

With a swift swipe of its mighty hand the black Megatrath pinned Ilfedo to the desert floor. The sword of the dragon hovered a foot over the ground, but the beast pinned it with its foot. Regulus lowered his voice to a whispered growl. “You know of him.”

Ilfedo pictured the young Megatrath and its valiant fight against Brunster Thadius Oldwell. He laughed and began to tell of how he entered the city, of the demons that haunted it, and his discovery of Arvidane. He told of the monks who expelled the spirits from the young Megatrath’s body. He spoke of the people’s loyalty to him and of Arvidane’s valor when he attacked the possessed Bromstead and disarmed him. Then, with a tear in his eye, he told of his ring. How it had abducted him from the battle and pulled him into the dark bowels of the desert.

When Ilfedo finished his tale, Regulus released him and took several steps back. “For some reason, human, I believe you. Oh, my son is alive! He is safe.”

Ilfedo shook his head. “I can only hope Brunster did not recover in my absence.”

“My allegiance will never be given to Vectra, human. But I admire your heart. Never have I met a man like you.” The black creature lumbered toward the stands and roared for all to hear. “Peace there shall now be between me and Vectra. This day an alliance I propose, and an exchanging of representatives.”

The Megatraths of all colors shook the arena with their roars. Vectra lumbered forth and butted heads with Regulus. “Peace there shall be; an alliance begins.”

Regulus turned to Ilfedo, his feet falling heavily upon the sand. “Call when you have need of passage to Dresdyn, and I will grant it. You are welcome in the deep places that the black Megatraths call home.” The creature lumbered up the embankment to stand with its host upon the arena’s rim. He gazed back into Ilfedo’s eyes. “I will protect your people until you return for them, human.”

Ilfedo stood and picked up his sword. “Then tell them that I will soon return.”

The Megatrath bowed ever so slightly, and its eyes gleamed in the failing light. “Who shall I tell them will return?”

“Ilfedo of the Hemmed Land.”

“Fare thee well, Ilfedo of the Hemmed Land.” The black Megatrath ushered four of his assemblage onto the arena floor. The creatures soberly bowed before Vectra, who in turn summoned a pair of grays. As the gray Megatraths climbed out of the arena, they dipped their heads to Regulus. He didn’t even acknowledge them, but he did point a claw at Vectra. “The pact is sealed.” In a chorus of roars and thundering feet, the black horde raced out of sight.

Ilfedo and Vectra climbed the arena’s sloping wall with many of her fellow Megatraths. They stared after the cloud of sand making its way south. “Ilfedo,” Vectra growled, “are there things about your journey that you have not shared with me that you wish to now?”

With a sigh, Ilfedo sheathed his sword and faced her. “Yesterday I needed rest, and last night I received it. Today was filled with duels. But tonight I will tell you everything—and request a favor of you.”

Vectra opened one eye wider than the other and scratched her head. Together they walked back into the arena toward the entrance to the caverns. The milling Megatraths that followed them erupted into deafening applause. Wide-eyed meglings slipped under their elders, getting close to Ilfedo. The older ones smiled at him, and a few expressed congratulations on a battle well fought.

“Make way! Clear the way, all of you.” Vectra punched several creatures in the sides and sent meglings running. “Our guest needs to get his rest. Now—go! Before I make you.”

With grumbles, the crowd dispersed and made its way into the tunnel. “Evening will fall soon,” Vectra said as Ilfedo watched the lengthening shadows. “We will go inside and discuss things over a large meal.”

“I know not why a prophet would send you to the Tomb of the Ancients, Lord Ilfedo.” Vectra lumbered ahead of him down the smooth tunnel. Flames played in the channels along its descending length. The stone walls and floor had been compacted by ages of use. “There is nothing to see but the things I revealed to Oganna. Yet I can see that you will not be dissuaded.”

“Yes, I will not be dissuaded. And thank you for letting Seivar stay among you during my absence. That bird has been a faithful companion, but I was instructed to do this alone.”

“Would you favor me by again reciting the final portion of that letter?”

“Certainly, to the best of my ability. The letter ended with ‘Come alone to the Tomb of the Ancients in the Megatrath realm, one day hence. I will await you on the other side of the portal (your doorway to an ancient realm). When we meet, your dragon ring will prove that I am the one the great albino dragon has sent. Together, we must find the Key of Living Fire and give it to the prophet for safekeeping.’ ”

The Megatrath lazily zinged her claws along the wall, the sparks flaring in her eye. “You are long overdue for that appointment. Surely the prophet’s agent, this Starfire person, is long gone by now.”

“The delay could not be helped.” Ilfedo fingered the baby-soft pommel of his sword. “Nor could the loss of the dragon ring. I am hoping that this sword will lead me to Starfire; otherwise I must find the key on my own.”

“I still think your trip into the tomb will be fruitless; nevertheless, we have arrived.” The Megatrath knelt, and he knelt beside her as a silver disk rose out of an abyss before them. Both of them lowered their heads, and the stone beneath them glowed pink to form a beautiful rose. “Thank you for keeping your head bowed, Lord Ilfedo,” the Megatrath rumbled. “Your daughter did not keep her eyes lowered—such was the curiosity of her youth—and I feared the ancient spirit would not grant her access.”