Searching around, the anxious spellcaster sought any sign of Vereesa. Neither she nor Falstad were to
be found. Rhonin thought of countermanding his order again, but he knew hehadto reach Khaz Modan.
Surely the dwarves could handle this pair of monsters. . . .
Surely they could.
Molok's gryphon had already begun to pull them away from their former adversary. Rhonin again
contemplated sending them back.
A vast shadow covered them.
Both man and dwarf looked up in astonishment and consternation.
The second dragon had come up on them while they had been preoccupied.
The gryphon tried to dive out of reach. The brave beast almost made it, but talons ripped through the
right wing. The leonine beast roared out its agony and tried desperately to stay aloft. Rhonin looked up to
see the maw of the dragon opening. The gargantuan horror intended to swallow them whole.
From behind the dragon soared a second gryphon, Duncan and his dwarf companion. The paladin had
positioned himself in an awkward manner and seemed to be trying to direct the dwarf to do something.
Rhonin had no idea what the knight intended, only that the dragon would be upon the wizard and Molok
before he could cast a suitable spell.
Duncan Senturus leapt.
“Gods and demons!” Molok shouted, for once even the wild dwarf astounded by the courage and
insanity of another being.
Only belatedly did Rhonin understand what the paladin sought to do. In a move that would have left
anyone else falling to their doom, the skilled knight landed with astonishing accuracy on the neck of the
dragon. He clutched the thick neck and adjusted his position even as both the beast and its orc handler
finally registered exactly what had happened.
The orc raised his ax and tried to catch Lord Senturus in the back, just barely missing. Duncan took one
look at him, then seemed to forget his barbaric opponent from there on. Instead he inched himself
forward, avoiding the awkward attempts by the dragon to snap at him.
“He must be mad!” Rhonin shouted.
“No, wizard—he's awarrior.”
Rhonin did not understand the dwarf 's subdued, respectful tone until he saw Duncan, legs and one arm
wrapped tight around the reptilian neck, draw his gleaming blade. Behind the paladin, the orc slowly
crawled forward, a murderous red glare in his eyes.
“We've got to do something! Get me nearer!” Rhonin demanded.
“Too late, human! There are some epic songs meant to be. . . .”
The dragon did not try to shake Duncan free, no doubt in order to avoid doing the same to its handler
The orc moved with more assurance than the knight, quickly coming within range of a strike.
Duncan sat nearly at the back of the beast's head. He raised his long sword up, clearly intending to
plunge it in at the base, where the spine met the skull.
The orc swung first.
The ax bit into Lord Senturus's back, cutting through the thinner chain mail the man had chosen for the
journey. Duncan did not cry out, but he fell forward, nearly losing his sword. Only at the last did he retain
his hold. The knight managed to press the point against the spot intended, but his strength clearly began
to give out.
The orc raised his ax again.
Rhonin cast the first spell to come to mind.
A flash of light as intense as the sun burst before the eyes of the orc. With a startled cry, he fell back,
losing both his grip on his weapon and his seating. The desperate warrior fumbled for some sort of hold,
failed, and dropped over the side of the dragon's neck, screaming.
The wizard immediately turned his worried gaze back to the paladin—who stared back at him with what
Rhonin almost thought a mixture of gratitude and respect. His back a spreading stain of deep red,
Duncan yet managed to straighten, lifting his sword hilt up as high as he could.
The dragon, realizing at last that he had no reason to remain still any longer, began to dip.
Lord Duncan Senturus rammed the blade deep into the soft area between the neck and skull, burying his
blade halfway into the leviathan.
The red beast twitched uncontrollably. Ichor shot forth from the wound, so hot it scalded the paladin. He
slipped back, lost hold.
“To him, damn it!” Rhonin demanded of Molok. “To him!”
The dwarf obeyed, but Rhonin knew they would never reach Duncan in time. From across the way he
saw another gryphon soar near. Falstad and Vereesa. Even with so much weight already upon his mount,
the lead rider hoped to somehow rescue the paladin.
For a moment, it seemed as if they would. Falstad's gryphon neared the teetering warrior. Duncan
looked up, first at Rhonin, then at Falstad and Vereesa.
He shook his head . . . and slumped forward, rolling off the shrieking dragon.
“No!”Rhonin stretched a hand toward the distant figure. He knew that Lord Senturus had already died,
that only a corpse had fallen, but the sight stirred up all the misgivings and failures of the wizard's last
mission. His fear had come to pass; now he had already lost one of those with him, even if Duncan had
invited himself along.
“Look out!”
Molok's sudden warning stirred him from his reverie. He looked up to see the dragon, still aloft despite its death throes, spinning wildly about. The gargantuan wings fluttered everywhere, moving almost at
random. Falstad barely got his own beast out of range of one, and too late Rhonin realized that this time
he and Molok would not escape a blow by the other.
“Pull up, you blasted beast!” roared Molok. “Pull—”
The wing struck them full force, ripping the mage from his seat. He heard the dwarf scream and the
gryphon squawk. Stunned, Rhonin barely realized that, for a moment at least, he flew higher into the sky.
Then, gravity took over and the half-conscious wizard began to descend . . . rapidly.
He needed to cast a spell.Somespell. Try as he might, however, Rhonin could not concentrate enough to
even recall the first words. A part of him knew that this time he would surely die.
Darkness overwhelmed him, but an unnatural darkness. Rhonin wondered if perhaps he was blacking
out. However, from the darkness suddenly came a booming voice, one that struck a distant chord in his
memory.
“I have you again, little one! Never fear, never fear!”
A reptilian paw so great that Rhonin did not even fill the palm enveloped the wizard
0 Comments