Roger Parkinson - Summon Your Dragons

“Azkun-”

“This is what I came for. Have you forgotten the Gashans already?” He walked towards the dragon. His knees felt weak and trembling but he tried to steady them.

“Hail, Great One,” he cried. “I am Azkun of Kelerish. I come to serve you.” He bowed low before the dragon. It stopped rending the beast and turned towards him, watching intently. Azkun waited with bated breath, his pulse pounding.

Suddenly the dragon threw back its head and gave a piercing whistle that was so loud it shook the hall. Then it lowered its bloody jaws to the carcass again.

“Please,” called Azkun more timidly. “You flamed me at Kelerish. You led me here to ask you for help. The Gashans, they are evil… I saw them myself.” A shudder went through him as the dragon swallowed a heap of entrails. This was wrong. This was not what he had promised, this was not what he had travelled so far to see.

“I saw them,” he continued, not knowing how to stop himself. “They live for murder and death.” He could hear his voice rising to an hysterical pitch. The dragon tore off a leg of the carcass and chewed it with a jerking motion while it held the leg in its jaws. “Can you not hear me? They were killing themselves and each other, they even made me kill one of them. You hate killing, you hate death! Why are you eating that thing?” As he spoke the dragon discarded the remains of the cow and reached behind itself to grasp another carcass. Azkun was silent as sick horror welled up his chest. It was the body of a small dragon. The big dragon began tearing it open with claws and teeth.

“No! You cannot, not that!” Azkun screamed. “Stop it, stop it!” He grabbed a piece of rock from the rubble on the floor, but before he could hurl it at the dragon Althak caught his arm.

“Stop,” he said quietly. “Let's go now.”

“But…” Azkun was trembling violently and there were flecks of foam about his lips. “I made promises. Dragons to fight the Gashans, dragon power and strength. I promised them… My gods are just beasts!” He clutched Althak and sobbed on his shoulder.

“There's no time for grief,” murmured Althak. “Come on.” He pulled Azkun back towards the arch they had just passed through. Tenari had stayed close to Azkun but Thalissa had cowered in the archway, too frightened of the dragon to enter its lair.

She let out a shriek of pain and terror as a huge claw caught her from behind and whisked her out of sight. Azkun mouthed the word ‘no’ as Althak dashed forward. A second dragon perched in the gaping hole they had seen in the next room, its wings flapping open and shut, its eyes glowing and a hideous blue tongue like a snake’s flicking in and out of its jaws. Thalissa lay between its front claws among the rubble. She lay quietly, one leg twisted awkwardly under her body and a bleeding gash on her arm. But she was alive. Already they could see her attempting to squirm from her precarious position as the dragon was distracted by the others. Althak saw all this in an instant. As he drew his sword he reflected on her presence of mind. No struggling and screaming, she was moving as quietly as she could. The dragon was watching him now, unaware that the victim it already had was slowly escaping. The wry thought that he was about to risk his life for a woman he had hated for years flickered in his mind and was gone, he would not waste her chance.

“Azkun, pull her free while I distract it.”

With that he leapt across the rubble and aimed a slash of his sword at one of the dragon claws. It moved faster than he expected. His sword struck stone and the jaws snapped at him just as he whirled out of reach.

“Do it, Azkun! She's your mother!” he yelled when he realised Azkun was still frozen in the archway. “Do it before it kills me!”

Azkun shook his head, trying to clear the panic that rose like death in his mind. But he could see what was happening. He started forward. Tenari clung to his arm but did not stop him.

At that moment the dragon rumbled like distant thunder.

Althak guessed what was coming. “Back, back” he shouted as he threw himself behind a pile of stones. Azkun did not dodge. It was dragon fire. The great jaws opened and blue flame gushed forth. Tenari threw herself in front of Azkun as fire engulfed them both, knocking them to the ground. Azkun screamed as pain sizzled along one arm and hot air blasted across his face. One of his boots caught fire.

For a moment thick, black smoke engulfed them. Azkun realised that Tenari’s clothes were alight. He rolled her over to smother the fire, wincing with the pain of his arm when he used it. His mind raced. He was burned! He was burned by dragon fire! He hauled Tenari through the thinning smoke, coughing and gagging at the acrid fumes, to where Althak had sheltered from the flames. He could see his arm. It was blackened and stinging. His boot was still smoking. Althak pulled them down behind the rubble. He was black with soot but unharmed. He coughed.

“Once more, my friend.” He climbed to his feet and tensed for another charge. Just then the smoke cleared enough for them to see. The dragon reached down with its jaws and, almost casually, nipped off Thalissa’s head. Her body collapsed in a gruesome death twitch and gushed blood.

Instantly Althak switched from charge to flight. He pulled the others to their feet and forced them across the great hall towards the small archway that led to the steps. Althak measured that journey in heartbeats. Any instant they could expect to feel the blast of flame or the slash of claws. There was no rubble on the floor here, nothing to hide behind. But the dragon was busy with Thalissa’s body. It was a high price to pay for their escape. They reached the arch safely, Althak was relieved to see that it was far too small for a dragon to pass through, and flung themselves down the steps until the gloom covered them. Then they collapsed in the exhaustion of fear and lay panting like frightened game. All they could hear were sounds of the dragon eating and their own breathing. Azkun sobbed quietly.

Presently Althak stood up and removed the water bottle from his belt.

Although he could not see well in the shadows he knew Tenari had received the full force of the dragon fire to protect Azkun. He shook his head as he examined her in the dim light from the top of the stairs. Her robe was in tatters, blackened and burnt away and her skin was covered with soot. He splashed water on the blackest parts of her back but it was difficult to see how badly she had been hurt. She seemed as oblivious to her pain as she was to everything else except Azkun. He pulled off his cloak and fastened it about her shoulders for she was no longer covered properly by her burned robe.

Azkun was still sobbing. He clutched at his arm and even in the poor light Althak could see a red weal along the black. He splashed water onto it, which made Azkun wince with fright. Then they sat silent for a while longer. Azkun let out a low moan and stopped sobbing. The dragon was quiet.

“We should go,” whispered Althak.

“Cannot… cannot. No light,” muttered Azkun. “They have eaten my mother.”

“Azkun, we had light when we came up. You made it. You must have. We need light again.” He spoke slowly and patiently as if instructing a small child.

“No,” moaned Azkun, still clutching his arm. “That cannot be. Is power my own to withhold or use? Then I killed Hrangil, I did not heal him. I could have saved Grath, I could have-” But as he spoke the globe of light flickered into existence above his head. “No!” he shouted, climbing to his feet and reaching for the light. But it danced away from his hands, just out of his reach. “Damn you!” he cried, shaking his injured arm towards the top of the stairs. “Do not taunt me! Be gods or beasts, but you cannot he both!” He swayed on his feet and Althak steadied him as he muttered plaintively, “They ate my mother. I thought they would forgive me.”