Mary Herbert: Legacy of Steel

How many more are there, she wondered. The stench of the dead goblin filled her nose. Her throat, irritated by the smell, tickled a warning.

"Cobalt! Goblins!" she yelled before a sneeze could give her away.

A loud squawk and a squeal erupted from the blackness in the cave. All at once the darkness was splintered by a crack of lightning, the blue dragon's breath weapon In that flash, Sara saw three goblins caught in the brilliant explosion of light. They stood immobile, frozen in the blinding radiation.

The light flicked out. The goblins yelped and bolted for the entrance. Sara waited as they charged past her then she fired at the nearest fleeing form. It toppled face first into the sand. A second blast of lightning arced out of the cave and caught one more goblin in the back. The other vanished into the night.

Sara hurried into the cave. A terrible stench hit her like a blow. "Cobalt, could you start the fire? I want some light."

Another bolt of lightning seared from the blue and ignited a roaring fire in her fire ring. The flames illuminated the front of the cave, revealing the source of the horrid smell. A goblin Sara had not seen before had caught the full force of the dragon's lightning. It lay sprawled on its back, its short, red corpse smoking gently.

"Ugh," Sara managed to gasp. She did not bother to say more until she had hauled all the dead goblins away from the cave and left them where the tide would carry them away.

She came back wiping her hands and looking disgusted. "Well, the mule is gone, and there are several tracks leading up into the hills," she said. "That must have been a small raiding party."

Cobalt huffed a cloud of steam from his nostrils. "Little thieves probably thought I had treasure or something in here. As if I'd ever let any of them have it!"

The woman dropped her bundles by the fire. "But now we have a problem. At least one escaped and probably made it back to the main camp. If he didn't get a good look at this cave, he may convince the others to come back here to check it out. Goblins can be very tenacious."

"I can handle goblins," Cobalt said with a ring of derision his voice.

"Of course you can," Sara responded, patting the big dragon on the neck. "When you are healthy and strong and not trapped in a small cave. But both of us are familiar with some of their nastier weapons. What if they threw a pot of scavenger mold in here? Neither one of us could escape it."

Cobalt looked thoughtful. "I am too weak to fly yet. What if I walked? We could find another cave."

Sara examined his splinted foreleg then climbed up to look at his back. The lacerations were healing nicely. "I know of several near my home," she told him. "I could take you there to recover your strength until you make up your mind what you want to do."

He grumbled deep in his throat. "I do not like to run before goblins. It is not seemly."

Sara said with a laugh, "Then consider it simply an expedient move. I should be closer to home anyway. I have crops to plant and things to do."

She fixed his soup with the rabbits and ate her own meal of cheese and bread. Before she went to sleep in her blankets, she strung a trip wire across the cave's entrance and added extra wood to the fire.

Despite her casual tone to Cobalt, the presence of goblins in the vicinity of the cave worried her deeply. Although goblins were minions of Takhisis, they would not be reluctant to kill a blue if they realized the dragon was injured. And they'd certainly have no compunction about killing her for her blankets or her bow or the bits of gear she had in the cave. She needed to get Cobalt back on his feet and strong enough to travel soon!

She roused the dragon at dawn and urged him outside to walk in the sand while she fished for his breakfast. This time she did not have to cook the soup; she simply tossed the fish to him, and he scooped them up as fast as she unhooked them. When he was finished eating, she urged him into the water and had him swim back and forth until he was so tired he could barely stand upright She left him basking in the sun and went to hunt for meat. Wary of goblins, she stayed near the cave and hunted in the hills nearby.

She found more goblin tracks and considered following them to see if her hunch about a larger raiding party was right. Then common sense returned, and she veered off the path to stay close to the bluffs. One woman wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of goblins.

She brought down a wild cow for Cobalt and, cursing the theft of the mule every step of the way, butchered the beast and dragged it, piece by piece, back to the dragon.

Cobalt devoured every scrap, belched his thanks, and went to sleep.

Sara settled down on the sand and leaned back against the dragon's warm shoulder. She was so tired after her exertions to feed the big lummox, she also promptly fell asleep in sun. She hadn't napped very long when a sound intruded upon her peace.

"Sara" whispered a faint voice. "Sara, they're back."

The woman stirred, startled awake by the urgency in the voice. Her eyes flew open.

"Don't move. They think I am still asleep. They're in the rocks by the waterfall. They do not see you."

Sara stayed still and slouched lower behind the dragon's back. She glanced around, saw it was late afternoon. The sun's rays slanted nearly horizontal across the white-tipped waves. "Are they moving?" she hissed.

"Not yet. They are just watching. I think there are only two"

"Scouts."

"do I blast them?"

"I think you'll have to. If you tried to move from here, they would see immediately that you are hurt."

"With pleasure." Cobalt leisurely lifted his head and looked in the general vicinity of the lurking goblins. A fierce blast of lightning seared from his mouth and exploded on a cluster of rocks midway up the waterfall. Pieces of rock and debris flew everywhere. Something shrieked, and a small reddish figure bolted out of the cloud of dust and scrambled up the glen.

Cobalt loosed his lightning again. Another thunderous blast exploded into the hillside. When the dirt and rubble settled down, the glen was still.

The dragon heaved himself to his feet and limped slowly over to the creek to examine his accuracy. Sara hurried after him and climbed up among the shattered rocks to make certain the two scouts were dead. She found them-or what was left of them-and after a cursory check, she hurried back down.

"They're just like the others. Flat faces, pointy ears, sharp teeth, and all. And look at this," she said, thrusting something under Cobalt's nose. "They all had bits of stolen armor and old clothes, but every one of them had this badge on his chest."

The dragon tilted one eye to study the patch she had torn from the goblin's uniform. It looked black, with a red hatchet crudely painted in the center. "Only a large tribe with a recognized leader bothers with badges," he remarked. "They are going to be curious when their scouts do not return."

"Yes," Sara affirmed. "We don't have much time left How do you feel?"

The dragon stretched his wings out as far as they would go and gently flapped them in the evening breeze. "I am stiff and sore, but I feel stronger. You feed me well."

"Do you think you will be able to leave in a day or two?"

"Yes." He suddenly bobbed his head and rumbled a dragonly chuckle. "Think how disappointed they will be when they find only an empty cave."

The next day was a repeat of the previous one. Sara spent the morning fishing for Cobalt and accompanying him while he swam, then she hunted in the afternoon. They saw no goblins that day and Sara went to sleep that night hoping fervently that the goblins had decided the dragon in the cave was not a good prospect for looting.

On the following day, though, Sara realized they would have to leave the cave, goblins or no. When she returned that afternoon with a hunk of freshly killed deer, she looked out over the ocean and saw storm clouds massed on the western horizon. Her heart sank.