Stephen Sullivan - The Dragon Isles

“She needs to reach the diamond to destroy the Veil,” Mik said urgently to Trip. “We have to keep her away from it.” He parried the thrust of a dragonspawn and kicked the creature in its gut. The minion screamed as it soared over the edge of the temple courtyard and fell into the molten crater of the volcano.

“Clever man,” the dragon hissed, her voice echoing up from the stairs below. “Perhaps, out of gratitude, I’ll let you live long enough to see my triumph.

“Once I rip the Veil from the heavens, my minions will swarm the Dragon Isles. We will scour the oceans and pick clean the bones of our enemies. I will make myself equal to any dragon overlord on Ansalon. Those who do not bow down before me shall die-just as the remainder of your friends shall die.”

The monstrous creature smiled. “All this, you have given me.”

“No!” Mik yelled. He flung his dagger at the transformed dragon, but Tempest merely batted the insignificant blade aside. It clattered onto the stairs at her clawed feet.

“Foolish,” Tempest hissed, mounting the final step to the temple courtyard. “Perhaps I shall slay you now, after all. Or perhaps I’ll slay your pet kender first.” She raised the coruscating key up before her. Pale lightning flashed across the artifact’s intricate surface.

Two dragonspawn had Trip pinned against a temple pillar. The kender was fighting so hard that he didn’t even see the dragon turning toward him.

Mik parried a blow from Mog, as a shadow moved on the stairs below Tempest.

Ula Drakenvaal strode up from the plaza below and hurled the coral lance at Tempest’s exposed back.

Mog leaped away from Mik and shouted a warning. Tempest turned just in time to avoid a mortal blow. Yet the coral lance traced a long gash up the dragon’s human-like arm. Tempest shrieked, her hand flexing open. The key fell from her grasp and tumbled off the mountain into the surf.

Ula cursed as the lance ricocheted off a pillar and clattered back down the stairs, landing too far away for her to retrieve it.

Tempest whirled to face the sea elf. A deadly spell formed on the transformed dragon’s scaly lips.

Mik leaped with all his might-across the rain-slick courtyard and into Mog, knocking the dragonspawn onto its backside. Mog skidded over the wet surface into Tempest, cutting her legs out from under her.

The dragon’s spell blazed into the sky as she toppled down the stairs. Tempest shrieked with rage and indignation. Mog rose, but Mik was on him before he could recover.

The sailor slashed down. His scimitar sliced across Mog’s reptilian face, staining the wind with a misty spray of blood. Mog staggered back and stepped off the edge of the temple plaza. The dragonspawn tumbled down the mountainside, screaming. He hit the cliffs several times before being swallowed by the raging surf below.

Enraged, Tempest’s human form rose and refocused her lethal spell toward Ula. Energy blasted from the dragon’s clawed fingertips, but the sea elf dove off the stairway. Ula arced over the cliff face and sliced into the storm-tossed sea.

Tempest bellowed her fury, and the temple shook. “It seems I must slay you all before I can recover the key and destroy die Veil,” she roared. In an instant she swelled to three times human size. Armored scales sprouted from her skin. Her neck became long and sinuous, her muzzle grew pointed like a crocodile’s.

Growing larger by the second, the sea dragon lumbered up the stairs toward the temple, deadly steam pouring from her jaws.

“Dive for it, Trip!” Mik yelled. He jumped with all his might as Tempest swiped her huge claw across the terrace. The claw smashed and scattered her remaining dragonspawn. Their bodies bounced lifelessly down the cliff face.

Mik and Trip barely avoided the deadly talon. They arced over the volcanic cliff face and sliced cleanly into the surging waters at the mountain’s base.

The dragon’s flipperlike hand smashed into the great diamond-the cornerstone of the Veil. Lightning flashed from the artifact, wracking the sea dragon’s body. Tempest screamed as the scales of her forelimb caught fire. Howling in pain, she turned from the ruins and dove into the pounding surf to extinguish the flames.

One bleeding man met another on the landing below the temple. Lord Kell looked up from where he sat, oozing blood, with his back against a pillar. The breath wheezed raggedly in his lungs; blood coated his lightly armored body. He smiled wanly as Shimmer lurched over the top of the stairs and into the plaza from below.

The orange eyes of the dragon-man met the gray eyes of the human lord. They nodded at each other. The rain washing over their bodies mingled their blood in pools on the marble flagstones.

“We have much to make amends for, you and I,” Shimmer said.

Kell nodded and coughed up blood. He glanced up the stairway to where his coral lance had fallen. “Perhaps for one of us, at least,” he said, “there is still time.”

Trip leaped high into the air as the dragon surged after him. Tempest belched boiling steam at the kender, but he ducked back below the waves just in time. The dragon lunged after him.

Moments later, Mik and Ula surfaced together. “I found the key,” she said, “and a couple of the dragonspawn’s spears too. Do you want one?”

“No,” Mik replied. “If I’m going to die, I’ll die with my own scimitar in my hand.”

Ula nodded. “Let’s try not to die, though.”

“You’re more agile in the water than I am,” Mik said. “Feel up to helping Trip keep the dragon off my back?”

She looked at him skeptically. “What are you planning?”

“I’m going for Kell’s lance. If it can kill Shimmer, maybe it can kill Tempest as well.”

“Shimmer’s not dead,” she replied. “At least, he wasn’t when I pulled the lance from his side.”

“Can he help us?”

She shook her head, sadness flashing across her green eyes. “I’ll be surprised if he lives.”

“It’s up to us, then,” Mik said. “Give me the key. We’ve seen its power. Maybe between it and the lance, we can kill this bitch.”

“It’s worth a try,” Ula said. She undid the chain fastening the key to her waist and gave them both to Mik. “Good luck,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.

“Stay alive,” he replied.

Tempest surfaced a hundred yards away and scanned the waves for her enemies. Mik and Ula ducked under the surface as the dragon’s baleful yellow gaze turned in their direction.

Trip’s small form leaped from the breakers. Tempest lunged at the kender, her massive jaws snapping shut mere inches from the hem of his sea serpent cloak. The two of them dove out of sight again.

Mik swam as fast as he could toward the Isle of Fire. He surfaced only a few yards from the silver stairs. He felt bone-weary, and his muscles ached as he paddled the last strokes to the volcano’s rocky face. Fighting against the pounding surf, he dragged himself out of the water and onto the silver stairway.

Instantly, his chest felt as though someone were sitting on it. Mik gasped for air, but none came. Something cold squeezed tight around his neck, choking him. He brought his hands to his throat and felt the pockmarked metal of his enchanted fish necklace.

He pulled the necklace off, and it crumbled in his hands-its magic finally exhausted. Mik drew a deep breath and forced his legs to carry him up the stairs to the plaza below the temple.

When he arrived, he spotted Shimmer and Lord Kell sitting to one side, their backs against a pillar. A huge pool of blood lay on the flagstones beneath them; both the bronze knight and the brass lord appeared dead.