“Never!” Dhamon pushed heroically, managed to get to his feet. He stood, woozy and weak. And still the invisible force pushed down on him, pinning him.
“You are beginning to understand, aren’t you?” Nura’s tone was almost sympathetic as she tipped her head back. “You understand it all?”
“Aye,” Dhamon croaked. His voice sounded stranger and stranger. “I am the one, right? The only vessel your bloated master could find to change with his magic?”
Her smug expression wavered almost imperceptibly.
“The only one. What? How many others did he try? How many others did he manipulate, fail to create, destroy with his foul ambition?”
She gave him a curt nod. “Our tests proved you were the only one strong enough to handle the magic, Dhamon, thanks to the dragon magic already inside you.”
Because of the blasted scale from the Red that had been thrust upon him a few years back. Dhamon understood. Because of the magic the shadow dragon and the silver dragon had used to break the Red’s control. Oh yes, he had plenty of the accursed dragon magic inside of him.
Nura smiled as she watched him struggle under the pressure. “The master always said your mind was stronger than your body. I disagreed, though you are indeed perceptive and clever. It is a pity that your mind won’t be yours any longer. A pity that all of that cleverness—”
Her words were swallowed by the shadow dragon’s mighty roar, as the cavern trembled. The spell was completed, and the magical treasures became a mass of pale, colorful light before dwindling to nothing. The cavern burst with brightness, with the force of the new magic, and Dhamon felt a wave of energy surge through Nura’s invisible wall, washing over him.
Chapter Twenty
Shadow Play
Dhamon felt himself spiralling down into a suffocating darkness.
The heat centered in his chest spread all over his body and threatened to consume him.
“Mal?” Dhamon called out.
There was no answer—only the darkness and the swirling sounds and the great heat.
No part of him was spared. Daggers of fire jabbed into him from every direction. He felt pulled apart, stretched on a torturer’s rack. His arms and legs were being torn from his torso, even as they were burning up with pain.
Dhamon gasped, sucking in as much air as his searing lungs would permit, trying to shut out some part of the acute pain and see… something…anything.
All he could detect was a break in the darkness that was jet black.
“What? Mal? Are you there, Mal?”
A throaty growl was the only reply.
“Strong!” Dhamon heard himself say aloud. “I am strong, Nura Bint-Drax!” The words followed the beating rhythm of his heart. “Nothing is stronger than me, you damn snake! I’ll stop your magic!” But her spell was already done.
The pain and fever deepened, so extreme Dhamon expected—hoped—to perish before he could draw another breath. He screamed. His scream became a roar, then trailed off when the heat started to abate.
He screamed again just to be sure he was still alive, then stole a deep breath and found the will to resist a little longer.
“The heat,” he whispered. “It was cleansing me!” The heat was chasing all the weakness from his once-human body, leaving only power and force. “I will live, Nura Bint-Drax! And I will keep a promise I made to Ragh. I will see you dead.”
His body was still changing, growing larger perhaps. He thrust a hand in front of his face but saw nothing except the darkness. He heard a popping sound and felt his chest broadening and swelling, but this time he felt no pain. Where was the pain and heat?
He didn’t actually feel anything now, he realized with a start. An unwilling participant, he waited as he sensed his body double in size, then double again.
“Fiona!” Somewhere in the darkness Maldred was calling to the Solamnic Knight.
So Maldred was still here. Why was he calling Fiona? Was she here, too? Dhamon wondered. How did she get here, so far below the earth? The darkness was finally receding. The depths of the cave come into focus. He could see himself.
My eyes, Dhamon heard a voice inside his head say. You are seeing with my eyes now, Dhamon Grimwulf, but soon you will see and sense nothing ever again.
The shadow dragon’s consciousness was thoroughly embedded in his mind—two beings sharing one body.
What vile magic could take away someone’s soul? he thought.
“Ragh! Fiona! Hurry!” Again he heard Maldred’s voice.
So the draconian and Fiona were here, somehow had managed to follow him. Had they gotten Riki and the baby away from the hobgoblins? Was his child safe? He tried to call out to them, but he couldn’t work his voice. He wasn’t even able to open his mouth.
“Fiona!” Maldred’s voice echoed and echoed.
It didn’t matter if they were here, Dhamon thought. They should leave. Maldred should tell them to flee while there was still time for them to save themselves. Again he tried to shout to them, warn them to run. He centered his thoughts on opening his great mouth and shouting for them to run away as fast as they possibly could.
What about the dragonfear? Dhamon wondered. They should be running away. The aura of dragonfear exuded by the shadow dragon should be repulsing them. But it wasn’t, nor, come to think of it, had the dragonfear been present when he entered the chamber. In fact, he realized, he’d felt not even a twinge. Had the shadow dragon become so weak it couldn’t generate its magic? Had it thrown everything into its spell to control Dhamon?
“That’s Dhamon? Is that really Dhamon?” This was the draconian’s familiar hoarse whisper. “By the first eggs! He’s not turning into a spawn. He’s turning into a dragon!”
All of a sudden Dhamon knew that was true. He could sense his size—legs as thick as ancient, sturdy oaks, claws massive, talons long and deadly. The nubs on his shoulderblades were gone, replaced by wings that were tucked close to his sides, unable to stretch very far because Nura’s magical barrier was still in place. His neck was long and serpentine, his head wide and his eyes large—now they saw everything with great clarity.
The shadow dragon turned its head, and Dhamon saw Maldred, fists still pounding against the invisible wall. Fiona slashed against it with her accursed sword, crying out something… something about being cheated? She screamed her ire, and this time Dhamon heard her clearly through the rumbling cavern and his forcefully beating heart.
“Damn you, dragon!” Fiona cried shrilly. “It’s my destiny to kill Dhamon Grimwulf! Me! I want to make him pay for Rig! To pay for all of them!”
“Ragh! Help me with the barrier!” Maldred shouted as he pounded.
Curiously, Ragh did nothing. Instead he spoke so softly to the ogre-mage that Dhamon couldn’t hear what was said—despite his dragon-sharp hearing. The ground was rumbling too loudly, Fiona was shouting wildly and Nura Bint-Drax was talking too, speaking more of her arcane words. Another spell!
She must be working to keep up her invisible barrier, Dhamon guessed, working to keep his companions from breaking through and saving him and fighting the shadow dragon.
If Nura was so intent on her spell, that meant the shadow dragon’s magic was not yet final, that the monster did not yet have full control over Dhamon’s dragon body.
And if you don’t have full control, I might yet be able to stop you, Dhamon thought. My companions and I will stop you.
It is far too late for that, Dhamon Grimwulf, the shadow dragon mentally taunted him. My enchantment is finished. I own this body now. I should have never sent you after Sable. I should have kept you close. I didn’t need Sable’s death energy after all. I just needed the magic from all of these wondrously enchanted items… and your inner magic. I needed you. Nura was right all along, Maldred too. You are the one I will live through.