“Dhamon…” She raised her head. “I feared you had abandoned me. I feared you were lost or captured by the ghosts. I’m ashamed. I might have left you down there.” She laid her head back down, letting exhaustion claim her.
“I was with you, Feril, but I didn’t dare reveal myself, and I couldn’t break free. I wanted to help you fight the ghosts, but I trusted you would find a way.”
He was frightened of the depths of the lake too, he would have admitted if he was being entirely honest. His voice rumbled through the sand. “I’d never felt so helpless. There were no shadows down there, and…” He suddenly jerked his head around, hearing something and suddenly remembering Ragh. He didn’t see the sivak in his usual resting place, but just beyond, a line of goblins with a Knight of Neraka towering behind them was emerging from the trees.
“The beast!” the knight leader shouted.
The goblins issued their guttural war cry as they attacked, waving their weapons.
“Kill it!” the knight shouted above the din. “Slay the creature and be rewarded!”
In a thick wave they poured across the clearing. Dhamon shook Feril, then he didn’t give her another glance as he turned and thundered toward his foe. He released the full brunt of his dragonfear, expecting to see the goblins freeze, whirl, and flee into the trees. Though they looked briefly shaken, not one of them quit the fight. They yelled all the louder, coming at him brandishing their heavy weapons.
Dhamon batted wildly at the first to close with him. These goblins flew off into the skies as he waded into the front ranks. He tried to reach the Knight of Neraka shouting orders, but there were too many goblins between him and the human. Across the gap the knight cursed at Dhamon, an odd smile playing on his lips.
Dhamon brought a clawed foot down on a dozen goblins, but a dozen more shoved forward, pricking at his feet and legs with their weapons, though the wounds were nothing more than fly bites to Dhamon. He raised another claw and trampled his torturers, then leaped forward close to the Knight Commander.
The knight didn’t budge, using two hands to swing a greatsword in a high arc, not quite close enough to strike Dhamon, only taunting him perhaps. In the same instant the knight barked more orders in goblin-speak, and droves of the hideous little creatures streamed out from the woods to attack Dhamon.
They were no more than ants to him, however, and he swatted some away with his claws, squished others beneath his massive frame, slapped more down with his thrashing tail. Some he swallowed, chewing on the disagreeable creatures just a little before spitting them out. There seemed to be hundreds of them, Dhamon guessed. The crude symbols on their shields and on the bits of armor they’d cobbled together marked them as Being from the same region. He wondered briefly if Feril was all right, if she was even conscious.
Glancing over his shoulder, he couldn’t see her, but she must have collapsed on the beach, or else she would be here. The Kagonesti never shrank from a fight.
The Knight Commander backed away, still issuing orders in the goblin tongue, keeping his eyes locked on the dragon’s, while grasping a feathered talisman that hung from his belt. There was no trace of fright on the knight’s face. Too late, Dhamon wondered if his fear aura had been diminished somehow, as not a single goblin had panicked and the knight wasn’t even trembling.
He had crushed and killed goblins galore, but the reinforcements continued to defiantly prick him with their small spears and swords. They’d drawn a little blood here and there.
“Pests! An annoyance,” Dhamon muttered. “I’ll not save any of you for Ragh.” That reminded him—where was his loyal draconian friend?
“Ragh!” His roar vibrated through the earth and pitched several goblins right to the ground. The vibrations raced outward in all directions, even jarring Feril awake. The Kagonesti opened her eyes wide and a minute later struggled to rise.
She looked toward the trees and saw the goblin army. “Dhamon!”
“Ragh!” Dhamon bellowed over and over. “Ragh, where are you?”
Feril shakily got to her feet, nurturing her inner resources and sending her senses into the tall grass around the forest. “Aid me,” she murmured to the plants and trees lining the beach. “Snare the creatures that assail the dragon.”
Meanwhile, Dhamon was distracted by a new mob of goblins rushing to confront him; he lashed them with his tail, clawed and snapped at them as they swarmed him from all sides. As the minutes passed, however, the grass around him began to grow to unusual lengths; nurtured by Feril’s magic, the tall grass whipped around the legs of the goblins, holding them in place and making them easier to trap and kill. Ferns and wildflowers spiraled up and twisted around the creatures’ flailing arms, keeping them from using their weapons.
Feril! She has recovered? he thought gratefully. The grass grabbed at him, too, but he was too large and powerful to be pinioned. With a massive swipe of his claws, he finished off the last group of goblins still managing to mount any offense, then cast his gaze about for the Knight Commander.
The Knight of Neraka had disappeared. Dhamon knew he must be proving his cowardice by hiding somewhere in the woods. He sniffed the air, picking up the scent of wildflowers, goblin blood, and his own rank-ness. He didn’t scent the knight or the draconian. Again Dhamon wondered about his friend.
“Ragh!” Dhamon’s serpentine throat had gone hoarse. “Ragh?”
He scanned the still-rustling foliage, peered through the mounds of goblin corpses for a glimpse of the cowering Knight Commander or Ragh. The tall grass and ferns, spreading evergreens and bushes were swaying hypnotically. It made his head spin.
“Ragh!” Though he had won the day, he felt spent, defeated. “Ragh…”
Had the goblins killed him? If they had, where was the body?
The tall grass was wrapping around his talons and twisting around his tail. His head felt so heavy that he lowered it, feeling the tendrils of flower vines ensnaring his barbels. He rested his head on the ground, his collapsing jaw crushing goblin bodies. Long blades of grass edged over his lip and entwined his teeth.
Dhamon closed his eyes and let out a great sigh, feeling almost comforted and cocooned by the enchanted nature.
“Dhamon?” Feril stepped over dropped weapons and dead goblins, feet slipping in the copious blood. She stilled the grass with a silent command and peered ahead, looking for goblins or worse.
She didn’t see anything moving, though with her elven eyesight she saw better than the dragon, and under an old white oak she spied the prone form of the sivak. He was pinned to the ground with spears, and she thought him dead.
“Dhamon?” She hurried to the dragon, tripping over dead goblins. Slender fingers traced the scale pattern on his snout. She gagged at his odor, made a hundred times worse combined with the stink of all the slain goblins. “Dhamon!”
She shook off the fatigue from her journey in the lake and stared wide-eyed at Dhamon. It didn’t make any sense. The dragon wasn’t breathing.
From deep in the woods, the Knight Commander surveyed his decimated army. Despite the massive bloodshed, it was total victory. Though all but a handful of the goblins had died, goblins were cheap fodder to the Knight Commander, and he had managed to slay the dragon called Dhamon.
“Mistress Sable will be greatly pleased.” He imagined she would bestow a magnificent reward on him. True, he wouldn’t be able to bring the dragon’s head to her as he’d originally planned—he didn’t have enough goblins to cut if off and carry the heavy head—but he would do something to show proof of his success.
The draconian was also close to death, but sivaks were hardy creatures and this one might survive. If he did, the Knight Commander would drag him back to Sable’s lair, a witness to this evening’s triumph who could testify about the knight’s genius and the dragon’s momentous death. Then he would end the sivak’s suffering in front of Sable or maybe let her dissolve the draconian with her acid breath. Sable would have to reward him then. Hadn’t he killed the great Dhamon and his pet? He would be so terribly, terribly rich.