Dragon Quest Read online

  The Urlu soldier recovered in a heartbeat. He launched himself to his feet and confronted Elle. His eyes burned and sweat streamed down his contorted face. He stalked toward her with his sword ready. Could she really do this? She had to. She had to get away from him and stop him interfering when she went to Ushne’s assistance.

  He lunged for her, and his sword clanged against her blade. Every stroke cost her strength until she could barely lift her weapon to defend herself. One of these times, she wouldn’t be able to block him. He would split her head in half, and that would be the end. It would probably be the end for Ushne, too, and that would mean the end of the Phoenix Throne.

  She thought fast. She had to disable this man. The minute that thought crossed her mind, she made her decision. She deflected one more vicious cut. The moment their sabers separated, she acted on pure adrenaline. She dropped to one knee and slashed her weapon across the mans’ legs. She sank her blade into his knee and hit bone. She dragged her sword out as hard as she could and cut deep.

  She didn’t give herself time to see whether it worked. She wheeled and slashed back the other way. The man groaned in agony, but it was too late. His knees buckled. Elle rocketed to her feet, swept her saber back the other way, and severed his neck in one stroke. His head rolled aside, and his body fell forward onto his chest.

  Elle whirled around. Across the field, Ushne still struggled on his back under the overpowering bulk of the dragon King. The black shadow curved its wings around Ushne and hid him from view. Only his head and the green tip of his tail remained visible. Blood stained his scales, and his screams touched the skies.

  Elle raced toward the two dragons. She dropped her sword and groped in her pocket. She withdrew the amulet on its thong cord. She held it out in front of her and ran for all she was worth. “Ushne!” she cried. “Ushne, look!”

  She ran at him with the amulet extended in front of her. If she could only reach him in time, she could throw the amulet over the King’s head. He would lose his power, and Ushne could destroy him with no trouble.

  Ushne turned his head. Their eyes met. He saw the amulet, and his eyes popped open in sudden understanding. The dragon King saw her at the same moment. Without letting go of his fallen enemy, he brought his spiked tail around and snapped it at Elle. He flicked her off her feet and sent her catapulting backward.

  Elle hit the ground, stunned. The amulet flew out of her hand. Her head slapped back, and stars exploded in front of her eyes. She tried to sit up, but her head swam. Her vision hauled into focus to see Ushne rear off the ground in furious rage.

  He threw the King off and levitated off the ground. He extended his wings and screeched to the heavens in holy fury. He soared a few feet off the ground and came down on all four feet to face his murderous foe.

  The two dragons faced off in matched hatred. Their eyes narrowed to burning slits. Smoke and sulfur billowed from their nostrils, and they rustled their wings in menacing threat. They circled back and forth. Their heads wove to and fro, and they darted in to snap their jaws at each other.

  Elle watched in amazement at the two monsters preparing to battle it out. All the weeks of preparation came down to this moment. Ushne had to defeat the Urlu King if he wanted to reclaim the Phoenix Throne for his family.

  The King outweighed him by a mile, but Ushne matched him in sheer fighting power. He returned the King’s threatening bites, but neither landed a blow. Each dragon blocked the other’s head and sent it slithering back before the deadly teeth could close.

  The two dragons pranced in and out. They feinted and struck, retreated, and closed again in a catastrophic explosion of one armored hide against the other. In a split second, they rolled over and over on the grass. No one could tell which leg belonged to which dragon or which neck held which head. Their tails cracked over the grass, wound around each other’s limbs, and whipped off to break flesh from bone.

  This time, the King had to work hard to overcome Ushne’s berserk rage. Ushne wrestled him to the ground more than once. He wrapped his tail around the King’s neck and choked the breath out of him. He clamped his teeth into the King’s shoulder and drew a spine-chilling scream from the larger dragon.

  The King thrashed to free himself, but to no avail. Ushne spread his wings and clenched his talons around the King’s body. He cinched his tail tighter and stopped the cries in the King’s throat. Another instant, and he would triumph.

  At the last possible second, the King recovered. He brought his own tail around and struck Ushne a stinging blow across the face. Ushne’s head whipped back. The tail struck again and again. In the interval before Ushne could recover, the King freed himself from Ushne’s tail. He loosened it just enough to get his breath, and that was all the reprieve he needed to turn the tables.

  The King’s tail howled through the air for another blow, but he didn’t hit Ushne with it. He looped the tip around Ushne’s neck and jerked him sideways. Ushne’s grip slackened, and the King fought his way out from under the green dragon. He rolled Ushne onto his side, and the King grappled with him across the grass.

  Elle floundered to her feet. She groped along the ground to the amulet. She had to get it around the King’s neck before he killed Ushne. She had to. She staggered forward, but she couldn’t get near enough to the two dragons to do anything. Tails and wings and claws slashed every which way.

  She dashed forward, but a black tail cut across her path. She jumped over it just in time, but Ushne’s tail got in her way next. She had to fall back to avoid getting her legs broken and her head smashed.

  The moment she got near the two fighting monsters, they wrestled off somewhere else. The King saw her coming. He tried to get up and come after her, but Ushne yanked him back down. They wrestled with each other, but neither could get up or gain any advantage.

  At last, the King let out a roar. He slithered his head around and feinted. He clapped his jaws on empty air near Ushne’s chin. When Ushne ducked to miss the blow, the King swooped in low under his wing. He clamped his teeth down hard on the tender joint where the wing met Ushne’s green body.

  Ushne shrieked in pain, but the King already rose up to his full height and landed all his weight on Ushne’s chest. He struck the green dragon down and slashed his talons across Ushne’s throat.

  Ushne fell back, stricken. The King hopped off and took a menacing step toward Elle. Elle stopped in her tracks. The amulet dangled from her fingers. Her blood screamed in her veins. She could do this. Even if he killed her, she would still have a few seconds to slip the amulet over his head. That’s all Ushne needed to kill the demon once and for all. Nothing else mattered now.

  She eyed her quarry in clear calm determination. She had the only weapon she needed to defeat him. He knew she meant something to Ushne. That made her irresistible to the King. He wanted to destroy Ushne by killing Elle. That same driving hate would deliver him into her hands. She waited for him. He slowed his pace coming closer. He lowered his head so his eyes hovered in front of her face.

  All at once, Ushne collided with the King at lightning speed. He let out a feral screech that set Elle’s nerves on end. The two of them thrashed and contorted right in front of her. In front of Elle’s eyes, Ushne forced the King over on his back. He whipped back his head and sent it shooting forward faster than she could follow. He slammed his hard snout into the King’s eye socket.

  The King drooped under him. Ushne followed up the blow by leaping on top of the King. He dug his claws into the dragon’s hide and slashed him to bloody ribbons down the midsection. The King tried to rally, but deadly rage fueled Ushne’s strength to a murderous frenzy.

  He strapped his tail around the King’s body and pinned his forelimbs and his wings to his sides so he couldn’t fight back. Ushne darted in with his head, and this time, he closed his jaws around the King’s face. He yanked his neck back and forth in wild insanity until the King groaned in agony.

  Ushne spread his wings to rise above his prostrate enemy. He f
lailed his head against the sky and let out a triumphal shriek. Then he slammed his head one last time into the soft spot under the King’s chin, and the black dragon collapsed back on the grass.

  Ushne writhed and seethed in all his lethal power. He roared his challenge to the whole battlefield. He bent his smoldering eyes on the form at his feet. He took aim at the King’s throat to rip his life out when, all of a sudden, the enormous black form started to change.

  The glistening body dwindled to nothing. The spikes retracted along the King’s back and head, and his pointed snout sank in on itself. The whole magnificent dragon imploded and shrank to the shape of a man.

  Ushne stepped off him. The green dragon stared down at the form of a sturdy, muscular man with sandy blonde hair. He wore a dark green kilt and a circlet of gold around his forehead. The man’s eyelids fluttered, and he gazed up at Ushne towering over him.

  Ushne folded his wings against his back and stood upright. He changed into a man, and Robbie Cameron knelt over the fallen King. He clamped his hand on the man’s shoulder and whispered into his face. “Angus!”

  Chapter 27

  Angus blinked up at Robbie’s startled face. The two brothers stared at each other in wonder. Angus opened his mouth. He formed the word, “Rob!” but no sound came out.

  Robbie’s face twisted. He couldn’t contain the emotion welling up inside him right now. He never thought he’d survive that battle, and here he was, staring his own brother in the face. He almost killed his own brother, and his brother almost killed him.

  Angus’s throat cracked. “Rob!”

  Robbie squeezed Angus’s shoulder. He couldn’t stop himself. He pulled his brother off the ground and flung his arms around him. Angus howled against his neck and slapped him on the back. Tears ran down Robbie’s face. It was Angus! It was Angus all along. He had his brother back.

  He pushed Angus back. He couldn’t stop smiling through his tears. Everything made sense now. All the uncertainty and misgivings he entertained since he first met Alan Munro on the road congealed in one unshakeable understanding. He knew who his friends were and he knew who his enemies were.

  He jumped to his feet and pulled Angus up. He slapped Angus once on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get rid o’ these pests once and for all.”

  Angus laughed out loud. “Aye. Let’s.” He turned around and called across the battlefield. “Now, Urlus!”

  At his word, every Urlu on the ground changed into a dragon. One and all, they took wing and streaked across the field toward the ridge where the Munro forces camped. Angus turned back to face Robbie. “Ye ready, Rob?”

  “I’m ready.”

  In the blink of an eye, Angus launched himself into the air. He spread his wings, and the black dragon King joined his people pursuing the Munros into the mountains. Robbie rounded on Elle. “Now, Elle!”

  He bent forward from the waist and changed back into his dragon form. He stooped low to the ground and crooked his leg so she could climb on his back. He didn’t want to take any chances of her getting caught in the crossfire.

  The minute she settled into her seat, he took off. He didn’t have to tell her to hold on tight. She lay down low on his neck and hugged him for all she was worth. He bent his wings and raced across the battlefield after his brother and his people.

  His people! He knew it all along in his deepest being, but he never let himself acknowledge it. Now it was all true. Angus was King. He sat on the Phoenix Throne, and these rotten Munros tricked Robbie into attacking the Urlus for their own purposes. They probably realized only another Urlu could defeat Angus in battle.

  Thousands of dragons lifted off the ground. They whizzed back and forth across the battlefield and rained their fire breath on their enemies. The Munro forces scattered in confusion. They couldn’t fight the dragons from the ground.

  Robbie’s heart raced. The exhilaration of flight couldn’t match the sheer elation of finding his brother alive and well after thinking Angus was dead. Dragons soared all around him. They fought together against a common foe. Robbie had found his place. His long quest came to an end, and joy lifted his wings to the heavens.

  Only one minor detail remained to attend to. He had to punish these Munros for tricking him and almost killing Angus for real. All the vindictive revenge he once felt toward the Urlus he turned against his former friends—especially one.

  The Urlus attacked the Munros all over the field. Angus tilted this way and that. He blasted companies of knights to smithereens and scorched the infantry in swaths. Robbie soared past him on a bee line for the ridge. The one man he wanted to confront still waited for him up there. Robbie couldn’t rest until he dealt with that man and that man alone.

  He zoomed up the mountain. Elle pressed her face against his scales. She didn’t dare raise her head, he was going so fast. He swooped up the slope and hung suspended over the ridge. There sat Alan on his horse. Robbie fixed his eyes on his prey and opened his mouth to unleash a wicked blast of blazing fire.

  At that moment, the fabric of reality shimmered and bent. Lightning cracked out of the sky, and thunder rumbled from the faraway corners of the world. Alan and his horse smeared in front of Robbie’s eyes. They almost disappeared, and when they reformed so he could see them, he didn’t recognize them.

  The horse’s lips curled back from gnashing, curved fangs, and its head contorted into a disgusting caricature of a skeleton. The animal reared and floated off the ground toward Robbie. Alan let go of the reins and threw back his arms. The sword in his hand changed to a lightning bolt, and he threw it at Robbie.

  Robbie caught one glimpse of the man’s face, but he wasn’t a man anymore. A horrible ghoul, half skeleton, half slobbering monster, glared out from under Alan’s helmet. The whole picture of horse and rider shivered and blinked somewhere between this world and a hazy layer of being behind a curtain of confusion.

  The next moment, the lightning bolt ripped out of the ghoul’s hand and hissed toward Robbie. It cut across his shoulder and sliced his scales like they were never there. Pain and terror rocketed through him. The rider pulled back his arm one more time, and another lightning bolt materialized in his hand.

  Robbie turned tail and fled back down the mountain, but he had nowhere to run. The whole Munro army—or whatever it was—transformed at the same time their leader did. The clear blue sky turned iron grey, and every man fighting on the ground rippled and changed into an eyeless, formless ghoul from Hell.

  Robbie raced down the slope to the plane. He only dared look back once to see Alan gaining on him. After that, he bent all his concentration on flying as fast as he could. He could never outfly that thing. He knew in the marrow of his bones.

  One streak of lightning after another scorched past him. One of them ripped through his wing, but he kept flying through the pain. He had to get out of here. He couldn’t let himself get shot down. Elle was on his back. He had to save her if he did nothing else.

  He cast his eye all over the battlefield for any avenue of escape. Every ghoul on the field turned on its dragon pursuers and fired lightning at them. Dragons screamed and plunged to Earth all over the field.

  Robbie caught sight of Angus locked in combat with one of them. Angus shot a stream of fire at the ghoul. The ghoul threw a lightning bolt at him, and the two forces met in mid-air. The lightning drove the fire back into Angus’s throat and blew him out of the sky.

  Robbie banked and headed to his brother’s aid, but no one could fight these things. Robbie stooped at the ghoul, even as Alan came up behind to destroy him. Robbie flew straight through the ghoul attacking Angus, but he didn’t dare stop for an instant. He wheeled in the air and headed for the castle. That was their only hope.

  The Munros might harbor this mysterious power, but they couldn’t use it against the castle. They couldn’t fight Angus on their own. That was clear. They had to use their human form, and they had to get someone else to defeat the King. Maybe they couldn’t enter the castle for some reason
.

  Angus must have had the same idea. In the few seconds Robbie won for him, he turned around and headed for home. He screeched out to the remaining Urlus, and they all flew back to the castle. Angus circled overhead while his people landed in the courtyards below. He and Robbie dodged and distracted the ghouls to give the people cover.

  Robbie surveyed battle scene, and his eye came to rest on Alan. The ghoul Prince still rode his disembodied horse. As soon as the Urlus got into the air space above the castle, the ghouls retreated. They flew in circles around the castle walls, but they couldn’t attack the castle itself.

  Angus and Robbie pulled back to the safety of their own place. Robbie still carried Elle safe on his back. He didn’t care about anything else right now. He didn’t care if this battle turned out to be a disastrous defeat. He had her and he had his brothers. He didn’t need anything else.

  One by one, the Urlus landed and disappeared into their citadel. Angus nodded to Robbie, and he descended to the courtyard. He set Elle down, and he resumed his human form. He looked around at the castle he left so many long weeks ago. It looked different now. People and fowls and horses crisscrossed his field of view. Voices floated out of doorways and windows. The place breathed life, even as the Urlus mourned their tragic defeat.

  Chapter 28

  Elle sat by a darkened window in a lonely keep. Black night closed off all the castle’s windows so she couldn’t see beyond the glow of her own lamps. She hugged her knees to her chest and shuddered.

  A door opened behind her and closed again. Footsteps crossed the floor and stopped next to her. “Here. I brought you something to eat. Robbie says you haven’t eaten since this morning.”