With a Single Spell

CHAPTER 29

On the afternoon of the sixth of Snowfall, in the year 5221, Tobas of Telven and Karanissa of the Mountains were married on a deserted hilltop somewhere in eastern Dwomor, in an improvised ceremony invoking whatever gods might hear, with Peren the White as their only witness and with the required document inscribed on a piece of tree bark.

“This is silly,” Peren said as they scratched their names on the inside of the bark. “You could have waited until we got to Dwomor.”

“I didn’t want to wait,” Tobas said. “Karanissa might have changed her mind again.”

“Or you might have,” she retorted. “You might have decided to marry that princess of yours, Alorria of Dwomor.”

“Instead of you? Never!” Tobas replied, hugging her.

“Besides, Alorria’s probably married to some big, brave dragon hunter by now, and getting tired of him already,” Peren said as he started down the slope from the hilltop where they had performed the little ritual.

“If she’s not, maybe she’ll marry you, now that I’m taken,” Tobas suggested as he followed, his new wife at his side.

“Oh, maybe; I think I’d rather have her sister Tinira, though,” Peren replied, smiling.

“You never did have any taste,” Tobas retorted.

“Why not marry both of them?” Karanissa suggested.

“Well, I suppose I could,” Peren said. “But I didn’t kill the dragon.”

“Details, details!” Tobas laughed.

Karanissa smiled, but then shivered slightly. “You don’t suppose that we’ll run into that dragon, do you?”

“No,” Tobas reassured her. “I’m sure somebody must have killed it by now and probably married all the princesses as well.”

“Too bad,” Peren remarked. “We could use that gold.”

“True enough,” Tobas agreed.

Peren moved on ahead, allowing the newlyweds a little more privacy; for a moment they all walked on in silence, but then Tobas could restrain himself no longer.

“Why did you change your mind?” he asked Karanissa abruptly. “I asked again because you had said you wouldn’t marry me until we were out, and we were out, but I didn’t really expect you to agree yet.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just, when we saw the whole World spread out around us yesterday morning, and I heard Peren talking about his adventures, I felt so alone. Things are so strange here. I wanted to have something safe to hold onto, something secure and permanent, something I could trust in, and I wanted it to be you. I wanted to know you’d always be there. The first time I ever saw you, standing in the castle gateway, before I knew anything about you, I liked you better than I think I could ever like Peren. I don’t think I could face the world alone after so long; and with you beside me, I’m not alone. I’m a witch, and witches are taught to know things without knowing how they know them. Once I saw you out here, in the World, I knew that I could trust you to stay with me. I do trust you, and I love you, too. I do love you, I know that now, and I don’t think that will change, after all.”

“Oh,” Tobas said, embarrassed. “Well, that’s good, then, because I love you, too. I know I do, even without witchcraft to tell me.”

After a moment of silent affection Karanissa asked, “When will we reach the cottage where you left the tapestry?”

Tobas considered. “Probably this evening,” he said. “If I remember right, it’s just past these next two hills and across a little valley.” He looked ahead at the landscape. “I think that’s right, anyway.”

The distance was actually less than he had remembered; the weight of the tapestry had made it seem far greater than it was. They topped the bare rock crest of the second hill within an hour, and saw the cottage on the far side of the valley.

Peren had let the two catch up to him. “Where did you see the dragon when you were here before?”

“Over there,” Tobas said, pointing to the remembered rocky hilltop just a few hundred yards to their right.

“Where that smoke is?”

A sudden uneasiness swept over Tobas as he saw the smoke Peren indicated, a thin, pale wisp rising from behind a high, jagged heap of stone and thinning out to nothing in the crisp autumn air. “Yes,” he said, reaching for his athame.

As he had feared, an instant later the dragon’s head reared up from behind the jumble of rocks. It was looking directly at them; even as they realized this, it clambered out of concealment, spread its great wings, and took to the air, flapping clumsily toward them.

“Gods!” Karanissa hissed; she stepped back, tripped over a break in the stone, and fell down, landing awkwardly on one hip.

Tobas reached back to help her, but before his hand reached her, Peren yanked him upright again. “Tobas,” the albino shouted, “do something! It’s coming right for us!” He pointed at the approaching dragon.

“I know that!” he shouted back, still trying to reach his wife. “Let go of me!”

“Do something!” Peren insisted.

“Do what! All we can do is run for it!” He pulled his arm free.

“You stopped it before with that spell of yours!”

“I didn’t stop it, and that only worked when its mouth was open.” He turned and saw that the dragon was much closer and coming much faster than he had realized; already it seemed almost upon them. Even if he could get Karanissa to her feet, even if she were unhurt and able to run, they had no chance at all of making the shelter of the trees, more than a hundred yards away. “Oh, gods!” he said, as he found a pinch of brimstone.

The dragon’s great blue-green wings seemed suddenly to block out the entire sky as it swooped upward over their heads, apparently intending to drop down right on top of them. Petrified, all three of them stared upward, certain they had come to the end of their adventures.

The monster opened its mouth in what looked almost like a mocking grin.

Tobas guessed it was probably just baring its fangs for its final lunge, but the reason didn’t matter; knowing this would probably be his only chance, he flung his spell.

The dragon’s face erupted into yellow flame, and it screamed with fury, but this time it did not stop, nor even slow its attack; it folded its wings and plunged toward them, still screaming, fire dripping and spattering from its jaws.

Tobas, with a sudden inspiration, remembering what had happened in old Roggit’s shack when he had tried to put out the fire there and what Derithon had written in his Book of Spells, scrabbled desperately at his belt for more brimstone, meaning to fling the spell again.

The creature opened its wings again, breaking its fall, catching itself in midair; the sudden downrush of air knocked Tobas and Peren off their feet, and Tobas felt the heat of the flames he had kindled washing across his cheek.

The entire sky was filled with the metallic gleam of blue-green dragon wings and the yellow glare of its uncontrolled fire as he finally found his little vial and poured part of its remaining contents into his hand. The beast craned down its neck, mouth agape, saliva sizzling and flame flickering wildly as it considered which of its three stunned victims would be the tastiest morsel.

Tobas struggled to calm himself; if he stammered while speaking the spell’s single inhuman word or if his hands shook too much during the passes, the magic would not work. He forced his hands to steady, made the two simple gestures, then called out the incantation and threw the Combustion upward at the dragon’s still-burning jaws.

Instantly, the dragon’s mouth and throat exploded violently, the flash and roar blinding and deafening all three of the humans; blood and red-hot scales spattered hissing across the rocks. Fragments of the lower jaw sprayed like bloody hail in one direction, rattling on the exposed stone, while the rest of the fearsome head tumbled wildly in another. The great body slumped to the ground, collapsing with a loud, sodden thump only inches from its intended victims. An outstretched foreclaw smashed Peren flat on his back, raking his chest, and gory scraps of dragon flesh battered Tobas and Karanissa. All three were drenched in smoking, stinking red-purple blood.

The wings thrashed once, then were still; the huge crimson eyes above the shattered jaw blinked once, then slowly glazed over in death.

Tobas found himself sitting atop the hill, Karanissa lying on one side, Peren on the other, all three of them soaked to the skin in the monster’s ichor and surrounded by the thing’s scattered remains.

“Ick,” he said, looking about in disgust.

Then he fainted.