FOUR
We rushed past building after building, moving impossibly fast due to Myrik’s dragon-strength and endurance. At first I recognized my surroundings from my many walks with the Prince, but eventually those faded until it was entirely new territory.
Gone were the perfect structures and carefully cultivated landscapes. Instead there were barely hewn walls and uneven ground. Stalagmites and puddles of water. It was clear we were at the very edge of their civilization and somewhere I had never been before.
We didn’t slow until I saw the forms of several others standing on an outcropping of rock. It was Dwyllverys, the Queen, another, older dragon called Brannen, and Jayne. I had never spoken to Brannen directly, but Myrik had made sure to drill into me all the names of the Court of Champions. He had meant to go onto their political stances and family histories but we didn’t get far before…well, today.
“Our lookouts see no one,” the Queen stated as we slowed and Myrik set me on my own feet once more. She didn’t say it in an accusatory way, or even a doubtful one. Merely a statement of a fact that she knew would cause her trouble when the rest of her unruly children arrived.
“Nevertheless, they are coming.”
“And you know this for certain?” That last question was not directed at the Advisor, but rather at me. Once more I found myself dead in the sights of possibly the most ancient being I had ever met. But instead of fearing the fear and intimidation I normally did in her presence, resolve flowed through me. She was counting on me to be honest to do what was best for her people.
“Yes,” I answered as confidently as I could.
“Very well. Seal the entrance.”
“You can do that?” I blurted.
The Queen nodded gravely. “Unlike others, I did not take your warning lightly. You were sent to us for a reason and I intended to listen. We have spent the last half-moon setting up a way to collapse the front half of the tunnel leading to the heart of our kingdom.”
For a moment I felt hope pipe up in me, encouraged by the possibility of herding off the troops entirely, but my mind quickly supplied why this was a last resort type of idea.
“But what of all the dragons still on the outside?” Like Gael. Especially Gael.
“They will have to return to one of our nesting grounds, or other strongholds until we clear the path once more.”
“But Myrik mentioned a retreat, places we could escape through. Surely they could sneak past through there?”
“Those exits are meant only to be exits. They are designed not to allow someone to pass the opposite way.”
“Well, that seems a bit overconfident now.”
The corner of her mouth went up again, and I was beginning to think that the sliver of an expression was the equivalent to full out laughter for the royal. “Perhaps so.”
“So how do we trigger the landslide then?”
“That’s the crux of the matter,” Jayne murmured. “We didn’t have a chance to finish. It was supposed to be enchanted with words of power to release upon our command, but we didn’t have time to gather the necessary ingredients.”
“Not to mention the structure wasn’t even completed. Even if it released perfectly, currently only one or two layers of rock would crumble onto the invading force. It would do damage, that’s for certain, but it wouldn’t stop an armada.”
The wheels in my head spun, trying to figure out the best option. “We retreat then?”
“Yes. That looks like the best option.”
There was the sound of flapping wings in the air, and several more dragons dropped around us. Smoke filled the small hilltop we were on, and soon we were surrounded by very angry, very shouty Champions.
“Your Majesty! Why has the alarm been sounded?”
“Because we are under attack. Why else?”
“Then why haven’t our scouts come flooding in with reports of their number and weaponry? Something is amiss here, what are you hiding?”
“I hide nothing, my children. And perhaps you have forgotten that, but I do not have time to prove myself to you. We retreat. Now.”
I had always thought the phrase ‘eyes bugged out of their head’ was a saying, but the dragon was literally displaying the phenomenon while turning a deep purple. There were more shouts, and the wall of noise was almost physically painful.
“Leave our home? The last true city we have? On what! The word of a human who hasn’t managed to accomplish anything for us other than destroy one of our most ancient of temples?”
“This is lunacy!”
“This is my order!” the Queen said, her voice bellowing through the malcontent. “Truly I have been lenient with your impertinence, but do not mistake my love for all of you as acquiescence. My word is your law, or have you forgotten entirely!”
“Well perhaps your law is no longer the right law for our people. You’ve stopped listening to us, the children that have been at your side for centuries, and have fallen in with a soothsayer from Ilse that is obviously a spy! We love you, we respect you, but we cannot stand by why you ruin what few chances we have!”
My mouth dropped open and fear clutched at me. I had seen plenty of these angry, scared dragons argue with their Queen, but not a one had ever defied her. I watched, frozen, as the dark-skinned royal stepped forward, towering over the men who dared to challenge her. “What are you saying, Ilvis?”
“I’m saying that you have ruled us with your full heart, but it is time for you to step down. You are too lost in the old ways and unable to adapt to the challenges we face now.”
“It is you who refuse to adapt, youngling,” she countered, voice graveling and layered with a power that I could barely understand. “And if you want my throne, you will have to wrest it from the very bones of my body.”
“If that is what I must do to save us, then I will.”
“Do you challenge me then?”
“I do.”
A look settled onto the woman’s face that I had never seen before. “Good. I was hoping you would say that.” She lunged forward, and a skeleton almost seemed to burst from her flesh. It was almost completely unlike any other dragon transformation that I had ever seem. While Gael, Myrik and others had rippled and bucked, their forms growing rapidly, there was a clear transition. With the Queen, one moment she was the seven-foot goddess that she was, the next she had exploded into an ancient creature three times her original size.
While all of the dragon forms I had seen so far aligned themselves with the imagery I was used to, the Queen was something else entirely. Her jaw was much longer, and her fangs stuck up on either side like a saw. Her wings were massive, and the skin between the expanses were tattered with holes and slashes. Her back was lined with crests that looked sharp enough to decapitate anyone who dared challenge her, and she rammed point blank into the still-transforming Ilvis.
They went tumbling off the edge of the hilltop and everyone crowded after them, anxious to see the clashing of these titans. I knew from Myrik’s teachings that no one would interfere. To do so was the upmost treaty and whoever attempted to would find them ripped apart by the rest of the Champions and their family lines erased from all nurseries.
As much as I wanted to see the beautifully destructive force that was the Queen in her true form serve this upstart exactly what he deserved, a plan hatched in my head. I caught Dwyllvery’s wrist as she rushed past, and pulled her close to me as the rest of the Champions rushed past us.
“What is it, Lady Mercedes?”
“While they’re distracted,” I whispered hotly, “I need to know if you save sulfur and saltpeter.”
“Yes, of course I do, in my apothecary supplies.”
“I need them. As much of them as you can get. And some coals, or even a really burnt log.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“Something I read on the internet.”
I knew that wasn’t really an answer at all, but I didn’t have the time to explain. I rushed towards the entrance I could see a small distance away. I heard Dwyllverys let out several choice words, but still transform and fly off.
As I pelted across the expanse, I tried to remember the proportions I needed. It was difficult, what I was looking for had been in a top five article that I had been reading while procrastinating on writing my final paper. It had been just entertaining enough to waste my time on but topical enough not to devote much brain power to it. But I would have to figure it out. If I didn’t, then the dragons were sitting ducks, too focused on their infighting to care about their own destruction.
I shuddered when I thought of the Queen’s displayed corpse that I had seen again and again. I couldn’t let that happen.
I was breathless by the time I reached the slit in the rock face. Indeed, it was only really big enough for maybe four men at a time, but that was four men too many. Clambering up over the small ledge, I pushed myself farther into the dark.
I could still hear the screams and roars of Ilvis and the Queen as they battled when someone called my name. When I looked back, Dwyllverys was running after me, her arms laden with several baskets.
“I got what you asked for.”
“Perfect!” I cried, elated. “Do you know where the edge of the new preparations are? The ones that are set to collapse?”
“Of course. I helped with most of the construction.”
“Take me there.”
“Only if you tell me what you’re planning.”
“Exactly what you said earlier. I’m going to make the roof collapse and slow them down enough to let us get away. It’s clear now that the idiots that are supposed to be the Champions of your people aren’t going to do shit.”
“How? With fillers for medicines and poisons?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” I kept pushing myself onward, although it was becoming more and more difficult to see in the faint light trickling through from the entrance far behind us. “I figured you dragons would already be familiar with the principle of gunpowder, but I guess it’s not something you would really have a need for.”
“Gunpowder? What’s that?”
“Hopefully the very thing we need to save the day. If it doesn’t, I sure am going to look stupid.”
We ran for a couple more minutes, and just as Dwyllverys slowed to a stop and pointed, a teeth-rattling horn blared through the entire tunnel we were in.
“What was that?” I asked, once the sound faded but my ears were still ringing.
“The scouts have sounded the horn. They see the enemy on the horizon.”
“Should we wait for them to come in?”
“Normally I would say yes, but we’re not planning to stick around so anything they tell us is a moot point anyways. We’re running with our tails tucked behind our legs, we don’t need to know the exact specifics of the crowd that’s chasing us off.”
“Good point. Let’s get this going then. We should set up at least three different piles along the edges. Generally, gunpowder is better for ballistics and not really the best explosive for blowing up rock, but I have no idea how to make TNT. Each pile needs to be about three parts saltpeter, then the remaining should be fairly even portions, with the charcoal having a bit more. Got that?”
“I once poisoned an entire species over a four-course meal. I think I can manage.”
“You’re just going to shoe horn that in wherever you can now that I know, right?”
She nodded. “Hey, I won’t have anyone to carry on my legacy, so I figure I better talk about it while I’m still around to do so.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Despite our banter, I was still running about, dumping the powdery substances over the chunks of coal that she had brought. I had no idea if this was going to work or not, and I knew it was a gamble that Myrik would not be pleased I had taken.
I wondered if he had even realized I was gone yet. While normally nothing slipped past the Advisor, I had a feeling that seeing his Queen engage in battle was more than a little distracting.
Once the powder was all arranged, I was breathing harder than ever, but the faintest flicker of hope was still going within me. My last step was to create a trail of the powders far enough away from the blast that we would have time to run. “Alright, I need a light.”
“What do you mean, a light?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Set this stuff on fire. That’s what makes it go boom.”
“Really? Your grand plan to save us all involved useless powders that can’t even combust on their own?”
“Can you stop arguing with me? This is not exactly the time!”
“Well how am I supposed to assume my ancient form when there’s not enough room? I’ll be crushed into a paste! A very scaly one.”
“Oh, well…I guess I didn’t think that far.”
The dragon let out a very long sigh. “If there weren’t a massive force about to violently bring about the extinction of my people through this very tunnel, I might slap you.”
“Lucky me then.” I quickly ran through all my options. “I guess we can go back to the edge of this tunnel and have you shift? Or do you have a piece of flint?”
“Why would I have a piece of flint?”
“Just answer the question.”
Suddenly the entire path shook. Looking back to the entrance, I saw that the Queen had full body tackled Ilvis into the rock wall. Her roar echoed all around us, followed by an ominous huffing sound.
“Oh no,” Dwyllverys gasped. “I know that noise. We both need to run.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t know we’re in here, so she’s not going to hold back. We need to get as far away as we can right now!”
I saw the flash of orange and finally got it. I turned on a dime and ran right past the piles that I had been so careful to proportion correctly. It didn’t take long for me to feel heat at my back, and I put everything I had into an all-out sprint.
I wasn’t going to make it.
The sound of thunder filled the tunnel as the Queen’s plume of fire flashed virulently down the passageway, filling the entire space. I was going to burn to a crisp before I could even be buried by the rocks that were about to collapse. I had thought I was going to die several times since I had arrived, but sublimation had not been on my list of most likely possibilities.
Suddenly sharp claws were wrapping into the back of my dress. Before I could crane my neck, or ask what Dwyllverys was doing, I was physically thrown forward.
I went sailing several lengths, and slammed into a rock wall with enough force to make me see stars—as well as full on constellations. Gasping, I tried to right myself.
I rolled onto my back, and sat up, to see the fire engulfing the albino dragon and where I had just been standing. Was she still fireproof in human form? Did I just see her die?
No. I couldn’t have.
I didn’t have much time to debate whether I had just missed her untimely demise, because several sharp percussions sounded through the tunnel, and then a low rumbling vibrated the ground.
Looks like my explosions had worked after all.
Too bad I was right under the very same roof I was trying to collapse.
“Shit!” I scrambled to my feet, but the world was tilting and spinning cruelly. I stumbled, picked myself up and kept going, only to stumble again.
But I couldn’t stop. I could hear the roof rippling and buckling, and gravel was raining down all around me. Did Myrik know where I was? Did any of the dragons? Would they realize what I had done for them, or would they assume that I had run off to be with my kind?
I hoped not. It would suck to sacrifice my life for those scaly bastards only to end up going down as a bad guy in the history scrolls.
Another deep horn sounded, adding to the cacophony of sounds around me. It was like a competing symphony of doom that I had become an unwitting participant in, and I wished Dwyllverys was still here to tell me what those sounds meant. But I kept on, driven by my will to survive. I didn’t slow, until a faint flickering of light caught my eye and I looked up.
I wasn’t alone.
The first line of soldiers had entered the tunnel, far ahead of me. They were just like my vision had portrayed them, just with actual faces this time. Seeing them, this approaching line of death, chilled me to my very core.
I was trapped.
The cave rocked violently again, and that was the final straw. Rocks began to fall behind me in a wave, and I could hear them approaching ever closer.
Cave collapse in the back, approaching slaughter from the front. I didn’t see a lot of options here. But I didn’t want to die a coward, so I stood and stared down the men as they stepped closer, and closer.
And then the final pile must have combusted, and I was thrown forward. I didn’t have time to recover, before rocks came raining down all around me. As my back was pinned, and then my limbs, I found myself thinking of the last time I had had dinner with my Abuela. The pain, the claustrophobia couldn’t reach me there. No, I was safe at her table, laughing about some novella or another that she was addicted to.
With my mind safely nestled in happy memories, the darkness swallowed me.