“We made it,” Brianna said. She was glad to be out of the caves but shivering with cold. She wanted to let fire dance across her body and warm herself, but she had to be careful. She was immune to the fire, but her clothes weren’t. If she let the fire get too close her clothes would be singed or worse, burst into flames. Then she would have nothing to keep her warm.
“Now we just have to discover where we are.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Work us some magic,” Brianna teased.
Chapter 16
The dragon felt the wave of magic as it washed over him. He recognized it, like the roar of some dreaded beast echoing off of the mountains. The beast hadn’t moved in over two days. It lay stretched across the rocky ground, pain and the constant call of the voice in its head driving the beast toward madness. But the magic wave meant that the wizard was coming, and the dragon had no delusions about what the wizard wanted.
It rose slowly, first rolling to one side so that it could move its large foot into position on its left side. Then it rolled the other way and moved the other leg. The beast’s powerful legs could stretch out behind it, which they did when the dragon was flying or lying down. Now the legs were centered just under its powerful loins and, by raising its head and tail, the beast could stand up. The strain on the dragon’s wounded leg was excruciating, but the magic the beast felt was feeding the fear that numbed the pain and motivated the dragon to move.
The dragon stretched its wings. At first the wound under its wing caused by the arrow was simply painful, but the pain soon turned debilitating. After the first week, just holding its wing out was agonizing, and now the muscles in the beast’s chest seemed to have atrophied. The wing trembled and then drooped. It was all the dragon could do just to pull the wing back to its body.
It started walking, its head moving from side to side, looking for any sign of danger. The wicked-looking, forked tongue licked the air, but down in the valley the air was tainted with mold and dust, rotting vegetation, and the excrement of scurrying animals. The dragon wasn’t sure, but the magic seemed to be coming from the south. How the wizard could have circled around the beast without it knowing was a mystery, but the dragon continued forward. There would be no running away. The beast was too weak to attempt to flee. Its mind too bombarded by the voice that called to it to come south. It knew that if it turned back the wizard would just hunt it down. No, the dragon thought, better to face the threat head on. If the wizard killed the beast, then the suffering would end. And, wizard or no, the dragon could not let anything stop it from going south now, from seeking out the voice in its head that was speaking so powerfully now.
If the dragon’s mind hadn’t been clouded by pain and hunger, it might have recognized that the mental commands had increased in power. Something was boosting the suggestive force of the voice, but the beast cared only about surviving now. The time when it might have flown to challenge the speaker was past; now it could only obey. It had to move south, to find the voice, to submit.
* * *
“It’s that way,” Zollin said, pointing northwest. “And pretty close, too. Bahbaz was as good as his word. I can’t believe we’re still ahead of it.”
Brianna merely frowned. She knew that hunting the dragon was their task and that nothing would turn Zollin from his sense of duty, but she was afraid. They had a plan and she thought it was a good one-it had been her idea after all-but still she felt a sense of trepidation. What if the dragon somehow hurt Zollin again? She had seen him battle wizards in terrible displays of magical power, and he’d always come through victorious. With the dragon, he had managed to drive it away twice, but always he had been just a hair’s breadth from death. She wished they could turn south and leave the beast in the mountains, but she knew it wouldn’t stay there. It had ravaged the northern villages before, and there was no reason she could think of why it wouldn’t do so again.
“Let’s find a place to fight from,” she said, trying to sound braver than she felt.
They walked through the winding valley they were in, and Zollin levitated himself onto a high ridge to look for a place where they could lay their trap for the dragon.
Soon Zollin floated back down beside her, smiling. The use of his magic until recently would have drained all his strength, but since the accident that had almost killed him, he’d been invigorated by the use of his power. He seemed to be full of life and excitement.
“I found a place that will work,” he said happily. “And I also found a small stream not far away. There’s even some grass growing, and a friend of yours is there waiting for you.”
“A friend of mine?” Brianna asked.
“Yes, and she seems none the worse for her vacation in the mountains.”
“Who are you talking about?” Brianna asked.
“Lilly, of course,” Zollin said, referring to the horse that he had won in a wager with a traveling illusionist after discovering his power in Tranaugh Shire.
Lilly was an older mare, but the horse had carried Brianna to safety when they fled the small village as the Torr pursued Zollin. She and the horse had formed a bond, and Zollin had led the horse from Brighton’s Gate all the way to Orrock when Brianna had been captured by Branock. Brianna had ridden Lilly from Orrock all the way into the Northern Mountains, but the terrain had become too steep, and they had been forced to turn the horse loose.
“What about your horse?” Brianna asked.
“He wasn’t there. Only Lilly, but one horse is better than none. Come on, we can catch up to her soon.”
They moved quickly through the rocky canyons. They grew chilled, but the physical exercise warmed them up. Zollin lifted them up steep inclines and down sheer cliff faces with his magic. When they came to the valley where the stream ran, Brianna was surprised at how emotional seeing her old horse made her. They were afraid that Lilly might shy away after almost a month alone in the mountains, but the horse raised her head and whinnied as they approached, then trotted to meet them. They tied their packs together and laid them across Lilly’s willing withers. They had no tack, not even a rope to lead Lilly with, but she didn’t need it. It was as if she had been waiting for them, and she followed them eagerly.
It took another hour and a half before they came to a wide valley that ran straight and long before them. The valley narrowed on its southern end. Several other canyons fed into the valley and two massive mountains stood like silent sentinels to the east and west. The mountains had steep cliffs with small terraces that rose like a stair case up the mountainsides.
“This is it,” Zollin said. “I’m almost certain the dragon will come this way. We can take a position on one of the ledges up there,” he said pointing up at the mountain to his right.
“It looks perfect, but what about Lilly?”
“We’ll need to lead her out of the valley. There should be a good place to corral her somewhere.”
“How long until the dragon is here, do you think?”
“A few hours,” he said. “Hopefully before sunset.”
“Okay, I’ll take Lilly. You find a good place for the ambush.”
Zollin retrieved his canteen and some food. They had refilled their canteens in the stream, so the the water was fresh and cold. Their only rations were some dried goat’s meat the dwarves had given them, along with onions and potatoes.