The Lake of Death

24

The great black dragon had risen from the lake, with at first only her huge eyes visible, like an alligator surfacing slowly in search of prey. Then the entire head, massive and midnight black, scales liquid, overlapping, and gleaming in the pale light of the waning sun, burst from the water. When Sable’s eyes locked onto Dhamon’s, they sparkled with malevolence. The black overlord snorted in derision at her hated foe, the water around her snout bubbling and hissing.

Then she breathed a gout of acid that raced across the surface of the lake toward the shore. Steam rose from the water. The lake surged as the water boiled furiously and a heavy stench like rotten eggs cascaded through the air.

Sable rose higher, revealing her back spines and serpentine tail. She breathed again, the acid creating a wall of steam that all but obscured her. The incredible stench made all of them choke and gag, even Dhamon.

Sable swam effortlessly toward him, spewing acid into the lake until the surface was like a fiery cauldron. She reached the shallows and stood, regally revealing her full size. Sable dwarfed Dhamon, easily three times larger than him.

Her legs were as thick and tall as the giant swamp trees. Her muscles rippled and her tail twitched with nervous energy. She clacked her jaws and stretched her neck forward, the breath from her cavernous nostrils blasting the smaller trees into scorched earth and withering leaves, branches, and plant life.

The great dragon was larger and more sinister than ever, Ragh thought, gazing at Sable in horror. The dragonfear that pulsed outward from her made his knees shake. He glanced at Dhamon, who also appeared to be affected; he was bracing himself, however, for the coming fight. Not Ragh, who struggled to flee, though his legs were rooted. “Run, damn you,” the sivak urged himself. “Run. Run. Run.”

Behind him Feril threw back her head and laughed hideously with a cackle that belonged to Sable. The Kagonesti dropped the scale and twirled her fingers in the air, and in response, the grass spiraled up to ensnare the sivak’s legs.

“You’ll die in good time, sivak,” Feril said in Sable’s voice, “slowly and with great pain, but first she will kill the Dhamon-dragon. I will bathe in his black blood, and we will bless you, sivak. We will let you watch.”

Ragh struggled against the plants as vines whipped down from the trees and twisted tightly around his arms. He barely could see anything now as the vines were starting to cover his face. What little he saw made the situation look hopeless. Dhamon had reared back on his hind legs and was beating his wings to buffet Sable. The force of his wings sent tree limbs and water flying, but the overlord’s acid breath shot back and caused a noxious cloud to blanket them all. The draconian, choking and gasping, closed his eyes and waited for the end.

Dhamon roared his anger, the sound deafening. “Monster!” he bellowed at Sable. “I have long wanted this battle! I want to feel my teeth sink into your flesh!”

Dhamon lashed out with talons as he let loose with his own formidable breath. It was a stream of gray lace shooting through the noxious cloud. Up and toward Sable’s snout it arrowed, hanging momentarily suspended there before striking.

Sable flinched. Gagging and retching, the black overlord lurched back toward deeper water. She whipped her head, her barbels striking the water and sending out a spray in all directions. Acid dribbled from her mouth, causing great billows of steam. The entire lakeshore was drenched in heat and moisture.

Rearing up on her hind legs, the Overlord retaliated, breathing a gout of acid that flew across the water to batter at Dhamon’s legs. Again the water roiled, the steam and the foul stench exploded everywhere. The scales on Dhamon’s legs burned. He howled in pain. He plowed forward into the water, which bubbled furiously from the acid dribbling from the overlord’s mouth. She opened her maw wide, showing teeth as long as pillars, stark white against her black insides, her tongue lolling out, lips curling up, acid shooting forth and hitting Dhamon squarely on his snout.

He didn’t howl this time; he gritted his teeth and, as much as he feared water, dived under the steaming lake. He swam toward Sable, feeling as though he was being boiled alive, opened his mouth underwater, and let loose. His poisonous breath lanced into her, and propelling himself with his tail, he slammed into her, his teeth closing on the scales of her abdomen, biting down with all his strength.

Her scales cracked as he sank his teeth into tough flesh. He felt the warmth of blood in his mouth, the taste vile and acidic, scorching his tongue and throat.

Sable gave a great roar, more in surprise than in pain. She spread her wings and beat them furiously, rising above the lake with Dhamon clamped onto her for a brief moment before he fell back into the water and vanished below the surface. She shot up high in the sky, trailing blood and scales, still roaring. Then she turned in midair, angled her head steeply down, and breathed her worst acid breath.

Dhamon was just emerging from the depths, obscured by billowing steam. He ducked under again to escape the worst of the poisonous wind, while all around him hundreds of dead fish floated up and washed against the shore.

The reek of sulfur was so thick that Ragh felt he was suffocating. Even the Kagonesti covered her mouth with her hands and blinked her eyes, trying to clear them.

The draconian had doubled over, entangled by vines. He couldn’t speak; his mouth was parched and filled with the deadly stink of Sable, but the black overlord wanted him to watch Dhamon’s death. A vine wrapped around his waist and brought him around just as Dhamon came out of the water again, bursting up through the steam and flying like a missile straight toward the overlord.

Scales were slipping off Dhamon, and Ragh could see gaping sores on his friend’s head and neck where Sable’s acid breath had taken its toll.

Run, Ragh tried to say. Fly away from here. Get away and live.

Now Dhamon met Sable in midair, lunging at the overlord, maneuvering under, then dropping down to stay out of the reach of her deadly claws as he swept back up and behind her. She twisted to breathe more acid at him, showering the sky with her deadly poison, bursting into steam as it struck the lake.

“I lured you here,” Feril taunted Ragh in Sable’s voice.

Ragh worked up some saliva. “Go ahead…gloat.”

“I hate you, but that is nothing compared to how much I hate the Dhamon-dragon. I…” Feril paused, glancing up with a rapt face to watch Sable wheel around and attack Dhamon, using her tail like a whip. The black overlord cut a gash in Dhamon’s right wing, sending him off balance and careening down toward the lake. “He took too much of my land, so he will die for it—die horribly.”

Dhamon tucked in his wings as he plunged into the lake. The waters heaved and pitched as more dead fish and alligators bobbed to the surface. After a heartbeat, Dhamon burst up out of the water, streaking impossibly fast toward Sable. More scales fell off Dhamon, but the black dragon was also wounded and losing scales. Sable’s tail had begun to twitch uncontrollably.

“You’ll die, Dhamon-dragon!” Sable screamed as birds screeched off in every direction. Then she spun in the sky, still surprisingly nimble despite her great bulk and her nagging injuries. Her snout and talons were aimed against Dhamon, rear legs kicking him away and into the uppermost canopy of the trees. Branches broke as he collapsed into the weave, and Sable howled in pleasure.

“No one challenges me,” Feril taunted Ragh. “I lured you here using the pathetic ghost from Beryl’s lake. This elf body is useful, sivak, and I expect to be Sable’s greatest puppet ever.” Feril brushed past Ragh, gazing up reverentially at Sable.

The entwined plants continued to hold the draconian captive no matter how much he struggled, yet between thin vines he could watch the battle and Feril.

“I tried to kill you all in the Kharolis Mountain pass,” Feril said over her shoulder, in Sable’s voice. “I tried to bring the walls down on all of you, but you eluded me. Then in the mines, I tried a different tactic. I took the elf’s body and used her to bring you here…to this spot. Fitting that I should kill the Dhamon-dragon right here in my own realm, in the place I first landed when I came to Krynn. The swamp will record his death and ensure that no other creature challenges me! No one ever again will challenge my rule. No one will…”

Dhamon had disentangled himself from the canopy and was back aloft, streaking toward Sable again. He came at her hard, lashing out with his tail, catching hers and holding it fast as he buffeted the Overlord with his huge wings.

“You can’t win, Dhamon,” Ragh whispered. “Become a shadow and run from here. Nothing can beat such a foe, my friend. You can’t do it alone, not by yourself.”

“True. It took a cunning trick and an entire army in the Qualinesti forest of Wayreth to take down the Green Peril.” This voice was thin, lacking strength. The sivak was surprised to hear it again, coming from behind him. “No, your friend cannot beat the overlord. I fear the Black is even more formidable than Beryl was.”

“Obelia? So you are still here. Well, you’ll soon die, me too,” Ragh told Obelia. “Dhamon can’t save himself, so he certainly can’t save us.”

The ghost drifted past the draconian’s shoulder, lingering there as he gazed at Feril, her attention still riveted on the battle in the sky.

“Did you know about Feril?” Ragh asked Obelia. “Feril and Sable?”

“Ah, my poor, poor elf-fish,” murmured Obelia distractedly, addressing Feril and not answering the draconian directly. “This should not be your fate. I thought you were destined for greater things than serving a vile dragon.”

Feril inhaled sharply, barely glancing at Obelia. “This elf body,” she sneered in Sable’s voice, “is destined to serve me for as long as she is useful! That is her great destiny. What is yours, dead one?” Her back rigid and her arms held out straight, she splayed her fingers and aimed at the trees on the far side of the lake.

Sable and Dhamon were locked in struggle above the canopy. The overlord’s weight slowly bore Dhamon down toward the trees. Suddenly, the branches whipped and unfurled, grabbing at his limbs and wings. Vines wrapped around him. Dhamon was caught, and Sable’s talons flashed in the light of the setting sun.

“Poor, poor elf-fish,” Obelia repeated as he stared in dismay. Ragh saw that the specter was barely visible now; he was more like a vague shimmering disturbance in the air. His form inched slowly forward until he stood just behind the unsuspecting Kagonesti, then Obelia put his arms around the elf and embraced her, merging with the elf’s body. Feril shuddered. Her lips trembled as Ragh saw Obelia’s ghostly fingers reach deep into the elf’s heart.

“Be quick, Ragh! There is little, so very little left of me.”

Momentarily, Ragh felt the vines relax around him. He tugged at them until he was free.

“The scale,” Obelia whispered. “Get the scale.”

Not entirely certain what Obelia meant, Ragh rushed toward the skull totem and snatched up the scale Feril had used to shatter some of the magical baubles. He grabbed the scroll tube and pulled the stopper off with his teeth, then raced back to the Kagonesti. He could see the wispy Obelia, inside Feril, gesturing.

“Break the magic of the scale,” Obelia whispered, his voice softer than ever.

“How? What do I…” Ragh’s eyes widened. He understood. The sivak cursed in an ancient language and quickly began to read from the scroll he had flattened on the grass. Obelia appeared over his shoulder, floating, and reading the same words along with him. Feril, Ragh saw at a glance, was in a kind of trance.

Ragh tried to bend Sable’s scale. He threw all his strength at it, straining his muscles from the effort. He was enveloped by incredible noise—Sable cursing through Feril’s lips, Sable howling in triumph during her battle with Dhamon, trees snapping, the air filled with dragon breath and beating wings.

Finally he heard a loud snap as the scale in his hands cracked. That was followed by a keening wail coming from Feril and from Sable across the lake.

Ragh looked up to see the Kagonesti fall to her knees, hands holding her stomach, her head pitched forward. Looking around, he couldn’t see Obelia.

“Feril?” Ragh sucked in air. “Obelia? Feril!”

Slowly she raised her head, tears streaming from her sweat-streaked face. Her breathing was ragged, her palms were red with her blood where she’d gouged herself. She struggled to stand as Ragh edged warily away.

Then he saw her familiar blue eyes, flecked with bits of gold and green; all the harshness and severity had left her face.

“Ragh…by Habbakuk’s grace…forgive me, I meant to kill you. I used the trees to trap. I couldn’t help myself, I…” She turned to stare across the lake.

Dhamon and Sable were high above the canopy, twisting in air, locked in a death embrace. The last of the sun’s rays caught scales from both of them, falling from the sky. Sable was raking Dhamon with her claws. He hung limply in her grasp.

“She’s killing him,” Feril cried. “By all the gods, she’s killing him!”

A determined Ragh picked up the scroll again, seeing that the words were faint but still legible. He hurried to the lakeshore, wading in, dead fish swirling all around him, reaching and searching for something. “There!” Cradling the scroll under his right arm, he pulled out a scale the size of a small shield. “Hope this is one of Sable’s,” he said to Feril, who had rushed to join him. “Don’t have time to be sure.”

Then he was out of the water and rushing to the base of the skull totem where he scooped up a few trinkets Feril hadn’t destroyed. He spread them on the scale and said a quick prayer to any god that would listen. Then, reading from the scroll, remembering everything Obelia had whispered to him before, he held the scale.

Feril knelt at his side. “Do you know what you are doing, Ragh? If he becomes human now, she’ll kill him instantly. Is that what you…”

Ragh shook his head, reading faster. Feril took Obelia’s part, adding her voice to his and directing all of her inner magic into the shield-shaped scale.

All around them the swamp roiled and shook. Sable and Dhamon plunged into the canopy then rose again. The ground shuddered. The creatures of Sable’s territory—the natural and the perversely transformed— wailed their panic.

“Now,” Ragh said, whispering urgently.

Together, he and Feril, with an effort that depleted all their remaining strength, smashed at the scale, breaking it. They looked skyward.

Dhamon slammed into Sable, giving her a jolt that sent her tumbling end over end toward the lake. She opened her wings in the last instant and hovered. Dhamon, bleeding from dozens of wounds, struck her again, diving forcefully into her from above, with all his weight slamming her down under the water.

The water exploded, steam blasted forth, and the air filled with sulfur. All the remaining creatures of the lake popped, floating and bloated, to the surface. The grass that rimmed the bank receded and turned brown, and the trees lining the shore died.

Ragh and Feril backed away from the lake as a great bubble formed, then erupted, with Dhamon and Sable soaring skyward one last time. Blood and scales dripped from the two dragons. The sky turned the color of dark blood.

It may have been hours or minutes that the two dragons fought on. Sable was the larger, but now seemingly the weaker. Her movements had become slow and jerky, and she had to exert herself merely to stay aloft.

Once, it appeared to Ragh and Feril, she tried to slip away, but Dhamon clamped his jaws on her throat and slashed at her underbelly. His tail twisted around hers to grip her tightly as his wings beat furiously to keep both of them in the air. His wings looked like battered sails, shredded in places. Still, he fought on.

Blood and scales rained down. The world was filled with horrible noise and the poisoned breath and hideous screams of dragons. Sable hissed and spat, twisting and contorting, trying every means of staving off Dhamon.

Feril clutched Ragh’s hand. “They are killing each other.”

“Pray,” Ragh answered. “We can only watch and pray.”

Lunitari and Nuitari were starting to rise above the canopy.

Sable screamed deafeningly, lashing out one last desperate time. Then she and Dhamon, clutching each other violently, plummeted into the lake. They fell into the shallows, with the overlord’s body cushioning Dhamon’s fall.

Ragh and Feril stumbled toward the two dragons as they twitched slowly, almost automatically unraveling from each other. The Overlord bore hundreds of slash marks that glistened with blood in the moonlight. The draconian and the Kagonesti waded out into the water to meet the one crawling wearily onto the bank.

“Dead,” Dhamon pronounced, his eyes dazed. “Sable will corrupt nothing again.” Blood dripped from his teeth and jaws. His lower lip hung loose and a great gash across the side of his head spilled thick blood into the water.

Feril climbed onto his snout and peered with concern into his massive eyes. “Dhamon, you are magnificent. A dragon like no other. Ragh and I know how to work the spell now! With scales from Sable we can make you human!”

He shook his head, nearly unseating her.

“No!” she wailed, her trembling fingers moving over the small scales around his eyes.

Ragh saw in the same instant that his friend was mortally wounded. His black blood continued to spill into the lake, his breathing growing shallower.

“I can heal you!” Feril searched for the spark inside. Quickly the warmth rushed from her chest and down her arms, into her fingers. “Be strong. Be well….”

Dhamon looked long and hard at her. She briefly caught an image in his huge eyes. It was a face she well remembered from long ago—all angular and handsome with wheat-blond hair and sparkling eyes. Then the great dragon eyes closed as a last wisp of gray lacy breath escaped from his nostrils.

“By all the gods, no!” Feril cried in anguish and anger. “No! By Habbakuk’s grace, no!”

Ragh tugged her down and held her, his own tears streaming down his face and onto her shoulder.