Jean Rabe - The Lake of Death

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…”