Death's Mistress

CHAPTER 69

As Brom heaved himself up from a pile of bones and volcanic rock, Thistle backed away, her eyes darting, searching for shelter. Throwing herself forward to face the gray dragon, Nicci dug within herself to find magic she could use against the huge beast, sure the girl would be incinerated any moment.

Bannon and Nathan both drew their swords and stood ready, as if they might terrify or intimidate Brom. The wizard seemed defiant, but Bannon was clearly awestruck and terrified.

The gray dragon kept rising from the rubble of skeletons. Dust, boulders, and bones pattered off of his wrinkled hide. Smoke and sparks curled from his mouth as his jaws yawned wide. “I thought I was at my end,” Brom rumbled, “but I am still the protector of this place.” The great wings flapped back and forth; the thin membranes were blotchy and discolored, and small rips gave the wings a tattered appearance. Nicci doubted the beast could fly anymore.

Brom was unspeakably ancient. Scales fell like loose coins from his hide. Summoning a roar from a bottomless pit of great weariness, the dragon bellowed at them. “Thieves! I must guard the bones of my kind.”

When Nathan raised his ornate blade in challenge, he looked laughably insignificant. “We meant no harm to you, dragon, but we will defend ourselves.” He swept his sword high, cutting through the air. Bannon followed his mentor’s lead, waving Sturdy in an attempt to scare the huge creature.

The gray dragon turned his head and squinted, as if he had trouble seeing. “You are not like other dragon slayers I have encountered. You are much punier. Easy to kill.” His serpentine throat swelled like pumping bellows as he coughed gouts of smoke, cinders, and sparks at them.

Just in time, Nicci released a wave of wind that deflected the dragon’s sputtering exhalations. She reached the terrified girl and pushed Thistle away from Brom. “Run—find shelter!”

The gray dragon lunged toward them on unsteady limbs.

Foolishly, Bannon leaped forward, and with a great yell, swung his sword down on Brom’s foreleg. Sturdy’s keen edge cut through the loose, displaced scales and the parchment-thin hide, sinking in to the bone, as if the reptilian leg were nothing more than a fallen log.

Brom let out a roar, sparking more fire from his throat. The ancient dragon thrashed his barbed tail and knocked bones and volcanic rock aside in an explosion of anger and pain. He thrust his long neck forward, questing and snarling, as he squinted his slitted eyes.

Nicci pushed the girl along as they ran, ducking behind pumice towers and huge bones. Even a feeble, decrepit dragon was a formidable opponent. Rattling dry ivory bones around her as she climbed, Thistle reached the giant skeleton of another black dragon just as Brom came up behind her and Nicci.

The beast heaved back his long head and inhaled, building up smoke and cinders. Knowing she had to protect the girl and herself, Nicci tossed Thistle inside the petrified dome of the black dragon’s skull and dove in beside the girl.

The gray dragon’s blast of smoke and flickering fire pelted the skull, and Nicci felt the shudder of the impact, the wave of forceful wind rocking their shelter, a throb of intense heat. Thistle curled up against her, holding tight as they weathered the attack.

As soon as Brom’s blast was over, Nicci heard Nathan call out, “Fight someone your own size, dragon!” He let out a rude laugh. “But since no such opponent is available, you will have to battle us. Today, Bannon and I will become dragon slayers after all.”

The young man added his shout, deliriously and foolishly brave. “Come on, old thing—or are you too weary? Is it time for your nap?”

Snorting at the insult, Brom wheeled about, sprinting away from the blackened skull that still sheltered Nicci and the girl. With a roar that sounded more like a trembling sigh, the gray dragon staggered after the two swordsmen. Nathan and Bannon darted about, hacking and hammering at Brom’s hind legs and tail, gouging the scales and skin. Thick, dark blood oozed out of the wounds.

Brom snapped his jaws, but Nathan rolled out of the way amid a clatter of long-dried vertebrae. Though the ancient guardian dragon seemed intimidating, many of his teeth had fallen out. Because of his titanic size, Brom toppled rock spires and struck Bannon a glancing blow, knocking him among the debris.

As soon as the dragon had turned away, Nicci pressed Thistle down. “Stay here. You’re sheltered, at least for now. You’ll be safe enough.” Then she emerged to face the ancient dragon herself.

“Be careful, Nicci!” Thistle called after her.

Her normal magic would not be enough against even this weak and decrepit behemoth, and she was forced to draw upon elements of both Additive and Subtractive Magic. In the gray smear of clouds that had closed over the high valley, thunder cracked like an explosion. Nicci pulled down skittering lashes of blue-black lightning. The jagged bolts were wild and rampant. One crashed into the curved rib cage of a sprawling skeleton, but two other branches of lightning struck Brom, ripping through the membrane of his right wing and scoring a deep black wound along his side.

The old dragon let out a smoke-filled roar and thrashed his head from side to side. “No! I am the guardian.” Brom stormed toward Nicci, though he could barely see.

Nicci held both hands out in front of her, curling her fingers. She could unleash a ball of wizard’s fire and throw it at the dragon, but she had another idea. Better to summon fire within the dragon, burn it from the inside out. She could find Brom’s heart, and explode it.

In previous battles, she would summon heat and dramatically raise the internal temperature of an object, as she had done with the giant lizards near the lair of the Lifedrinker. Now, searching with her mind, she found the dragon’s heart. She could burn it to a cinder.

Facing the giant beast, she remained calm, focused. When Brom lunged, Nicci released her magic, filling the dragon’s heart with fire. She would give the ancient beast a swift and merciful death.

Her magical blaze ignited Brom’s heart into a furnace—but still the dragon didn’t stop.

Instead, as the fire continued to rage within him, building inside his chest cavity, Brom actually flourished, grew, swelled. Losing control of the magic she had triggered, Nicci realized her terrible mistake.

Fire would not burn a dragon’s heart to ash. Fire was intrinsic to the very being of such a creature. The intense heat had reignited Brom’s heart—not killing him, but rejuvenating him, infusing the dragon with a renewed power. His thin skin and rows of ribs became flush again. His wing membranes crackled and healed. His enormous reptilian body grew more threatening.

Fully alive again, Brom flapped his wings to create a gale of wind that knocked Nicci backward. Bannon and Nathan scrambled out of the way, diving for shelter among the volcanic boulders.

The gray dragon turned his head to the sky, spread wide his jaws, and let out a river of bright, intense fire. When Brom swung his head around, his eyes, which had been previously dimmed with age, blazed with a golden intensity.

“Now you have made me strong enough to defeat you!”