Chapter Twelve:
Dragon Killers
The blood rushed in my ears as the sound of my footsteps bounced off the black ice. Soren was one pace behind me, checking back over his shoulder to make sure the lindworm wasn't preoccupied with its now-running prey.
The immense power from the monster squeezed the breath from my lungs until every breath was a gasp. Soren's power, the Erlking's, they had nothing on this creature. This was the type of power, a crimson wave that lingered in the peripherals of my vision, that could level cities, kingdoms. This was the power of a predator unrestrained by any earthly or personal ties.
So why were we running?
"Wouldn't killing this thing give us a significant boost?" I shouted, following Soren's sharp left turn into a narrow tunnel the lindworm wouldn't fit.
He paused, catching his breath. "Are you mad, Janneke?"
"Think of the power that thing has," I said. "We're just going to run?"
"Yes," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me down the pathway. "We're going to run and hope that Lydian and his retinue are enough of a feast so that we're not followed."
For the first time there was a tremble in his voice.
"Are you afraid of it?" I asked, incredulous. I didn't think Soren could be afraid of anything.
"You aren't?" he said, "My nursemaid told me stories about those things before I started walking. You'd have to be an idiot not to be."
We hurried through the passageway, the walls constricting. My lungs heaved in my chests as the walls closed in. They were so close together, if they collapsed we'd be buried under a mountain of rubble. I forced myself to breath normally. Calm down. You're not going to smother to death.
"Your species has an odd idea of what constitutes as a bedtime story." Soren shoved me through an opening in the tight passage and I tumbled to the ground, landing in a mess of feathers, moss, and bones. The iridescent crystals from before formed piles high to the ceiling and stalagmites shot up from the ground.
Soren slid down after me, stopping before he fell face first onto the rough earth. But as soon as he got his bearings his eyes widened at something in the corner of the large cave.
Along the floor, littered with the leftovers of prey, among the swirling feathers and little lights that shone from the sky above were giant eggs. Their rich golden color swirled with soft cream and sleeping soundly beside them was another lindworm.
Its massive body curled around itself, the blue sheen of its scales glittering against the lights from above. Five wickedly sharp claws lay at the end of its massive front legs and sharp fangs slid out from over its lips. Even its snoring shook the walls until pebbles rolled to the ground.
Soren swore softly, eyes scanning the area for another way out. His hands trembled until he clenched them into fists, fighting for control. The nervous, panicked look on his face, his darting eyes, the way he stood frozen on the spot was alien to me.
"Let's just climb back up the way we came," I offered, looking at the hole we dropped from. Smooth stone surrounded it but both of us were strong enough to give each other a leg up and if it came to it, we'd find another way. Otherwise we were dragon food.
Soren cast one more glance at the sleeping lindworm, then up at the hole. The tips of his ears sharpened as he cast out his power and heard beyond the normal limits. Then he jumped back, pulling me with him, and unsheathed his double swords.
"Hey! What are you—" I stopped midsentence as Lydian and four other men tumbled from the hole. His once-blond hair was plastered to the side of his face with blood and more blood seeped from a large gash on his shoulder. A dark stain covered one of his men's trousers and yet another through a tear in his jerkin. The other two looked dazed, but they weren't bleeding. Yet.
From above there was an eardrum shattering roar as the pursuing lindworm clawed at the opening and the melodic snores of the sleeping dragon before us came to a stop.
"Are you an idiot?" Soren hissed, slowly backing away from the waking monster.
"Idiot?" Lydian spat. "I wasn't the one who found the nest in the first place."
"Yes! But you were the one who followed me into it." Soren's teeth clenched as the lumbering dragon stood and stretched, then gazed down at us with beetle black eyes.
From above, the earth shifted and moved in spirals as stones rained from the sky. Cold dread formed a hard pit inside my stomach as the second lindworm descended on us, its fangs dripping red from its maw.
"So," one of Lydian's men said in a rather cheery voice. He looked younger than the seasoned men surrounding Lydian and his dark hair was cropped short around his ears, showing tattoos that spiraled his neck and scalp. "Who wants to slay a dragon?"
Lydian hissed. "This is not the time to be funny, Seppo."
The goblin, Seppo, just smiled. "Nonsense, it's always time to be funny." He unhooked a feather staff from a holster on his back, shaking the decorative metal shaft until three wickedly sharp prongs slid out from the top.
"You keep strange company, dearest uncle," Soren said, almost to himself.
"I could say the same of you, beloved nephew," Lydian said.
Then the lindworms attacked.
I rolled out of the way, back into an open area where my bow might be of more use. Odin's Ravens, how am I supposed to kill these things? To think I wanted to hunt them.
The red one lashed out at Lydian, its jaws dripping with venom. Lydian swung his greatspear, once, twice, backing the creature away from him. His eyes narrowed and I shuddered as his body changed, adapting from inhumanly beautiful to a monstrous predator. As his proportions lengthened I swallowed down my terror. The last time he was like this did not end well for me.
One of Lydian's men—the one who had blood all down his leg—stood with Lydian, swords out, trying to goad the monster into a corner. But the lindworm was smarter and whipped its tail around, smashing the goblin against the stone wall. The goblin fell to the ground, twitched once, and then lay motionless.
Another earthshattering roar filled the chamber as the blue one raged at me. The blue one is a girl. I skidded far away from her nest. The red is her mate. The blue one would be more dangerous then. The first rule of a hunter was to never get in between a mother and her children.
My arrow, still notched and ready, shot forward at the blue lindworm, but it broke into pierces upon contact with her scaly armor. Instinctively I reached down for my holster only to remember that my axe was somewhere on the mountain side, far away from here.
"It's no use." Seppo materialized beside me. "You need something stronger to pierce through the scales."
I grunted. "Thank you for the information. Now if you'll gladly excuse me," I said, lunging forward. The blue dragon was after Soren, who agilely jumped between the rocks that burst from the ground like a hunting cat. We shared a glance and understanding flashed through his eyes. The lindworm's scales would stop any blade but they didn't like the dragon's belly, throat, or forehead. All we needed to do was take advantage of the weak spots.
My blood roared in my ears. My arrows really were useless but there had to be something I could do. From the corner of my eye, the red dragon was ripping into the body of one of Lydian's goblins, tearing hungrily into the meat. Bile rose in my throat at the screams of the dying man. Evil or not, I couldn't help but pity the goblin as he was eaten alive.
Soren was still hopping across the rocks, the blue lindworm swerving back and forth as she tried to get to him. The lindworm's snake-like body rose, then crashed down again on the floor with every grab. One claw snagged at his tunic and Soren brought his sword down, cutting the claw clean off and taking part of his tunic with it. Blood dripped steadily from his side. The claw rested on the floor across from me, where the dragon, now enraged, was shrieking loud enough to wake the dead.
I had an idea. It was crazy. It was insane. But each swipe of her claws and each gnash of her teeth were closer and closer to where Soren was before. Blood dripped from a gash in his side, soaking his tunic. If he kept this up by himself then the dragon would catch him. I had no choice. I took a deep breath, hooked my bow and quiver across my back and sprinted toward the lindworm.
I dropped to the ground and skidded underneath the dragon's belly as she rose for another swipe. Frantically, I grabbed her missing claw. One second too late and she would smash me to bits. As the dragon crashed back down I stabbed her underbelly. There was a screech of rage and the weight of the dragon pressed down against my body, forcing me onto my back. The monster rose to crush me.
She didn't get the chance.
Seppo was there, his feather staff cutting thick slices into the dragon's underbelly. He sighed in relief, then grinned at me, "Told ya you needed something sharper." The lindworm roared and ripped herself from Seppo's blades, stumbling away to regain her bearings.
I gripped the claw in my hand. "Come on!"
The dragon was turning, her fangs dripping with venom, saliva pooling at her lips. Her eyes burned with the fury of a thousand hells, the hate in them almost palpable. Soren stood atop an ice-and-rock ledge, looking down at me with horror in his eyes as she charged forward.
Seppo eyed the dragon's oncoming fangs. He cupped his hands out before me. "Give me your foot, I'll boost you up."
"Onto what?"
"Her back, of course," he said like it was completely obvious. It struck me that Soren may not have been the oddest goblin in the Permafrost. The lindworm coiled as she prepared to strike. Her claws made furrows in the stone, five on one side, four on another.
"Are you insane?" I hissed.
"Yes," Seppo said. "Unless you have a better idea?"
I scowled, but put my foot into Seppo's cupped hands, and braced myself for the dragon's strike. It would be close, so close. Seppo was with Lydian and Lydian wouldn't stop until he killed me. For all I knew, he would plunge me directly into the lindworms mouth.
"Also," Seppo said, "before I forget anything, here." He thrust something sharp into my hand, just as the gaping jaws of the lindworm came for us. With his leverage, I sprang up into the air and onto the monster, stepping on her elongated snout and running across the flat of her head toward her neck.
The dragon swung her head around to throw me off. I tumbled to her spine as she curled beneath me, shaking with monstrous force. Compared to this, the battle on the cliffsides was child's play. The sharp spine of the lindworm threatened to skewer me if I fell on them wrong, but I wrapped my arm around one and hung on.
Balling my hands into fists, I yelped when a blade cut into my palm. Seppo had placed a stiletto in my hand. The blade was small and slender but the dark metal had a wicked gleam to it. I hoped to the gods it wasn't poisoned.
With blood dripping from my hand, I clutched onto one of the dragon's spines as it reared up to claw at Soren. He jumped to a higher ledge just as claw pierced his calf and pulled him back down. Somewhere else the red dragon was screeching with fury and another goblin screamed as it was ripped apart. A dark, dark part of me prayed that it was Lydian.
Soren lay still, the wind knocked out of him. "Get up!" I screamed. "Go!" He pulled himself to his feet, blood flowing from a deep puncture in his calf. His eyes widened at the sight of me on the dragon's back.
"Don't just ogle like an idiot!" I screamed. "Go!"
The dragon reared to strike and I tumbled down her back. Before I hit the ground I wrapped my arm against one of her spines and caught myself. Her neck was far away but the soft flesh between her eyes sparkled with silvery skin. I can do this.
Seppo danced back and forth around the lindworm, weaving in and out of her legs and belly, darting underneath her for quick stabs, then skipping back to avoid being caught in her claws. Blood ran down from a cut in his forehead and sweat glistened on his face. The dragon managed to back him against the far side of the cave, away from her mate, her eggs, and the other goblins. He narrowed his eyes as the monster descended for the kill.
That was my opening. I pulled myself forward using the dragon's spine and raced up her back, gripping her with the balls of my feet until I was on her neck, staring into her eyes. The lindworm's dark eyes bore into mine with rage, then fear, then sadness.
Her feelings washed over me. We were intruders, bent on destroying her family and home. Soon her babies would be without a mother to warm them; she would never see them grow to her size. We'd come here, foolish beings set on ruining her life. We had no right to punish her for protecting herself and her family.
They were not the monsters. We were.
We all are monsters to something, somehow, someway. "I'm sorry," I whispered and drove the blade between the lindworm's eyes.
Dark blood spurted between my hands as the giant body of the dragon crashed to the floor for the last time. Soren jumped out of the way as the body hit the cliff face, shaking the iridescent stones from the ceiling.
The dark power I sensed before from the male dragon rose as the power inside his mate vanished and he screeched in agony but she was still. Her power swirled around her before hitting me with the force of a stampede.
I'd absorbed power before. It wove its way into the body like a foreign virus, seeping into my pores and flowing into my mouth, hitting me over and over until it broke through the barrier that was my skin. I remembered in crisp detail the stinging of Aleksey, the burn of the young lordling, and the absolute agony of Helka's power as it forced its way inside me.
The power of the lindworm stole the breath from my mouth and tunneled through my throat until I choked, gasping for air. It hit my body again and again, pummeling it until little by little it sunk in. My cells were on fire and each muscle was screaming with agony but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even twitch a finger.
I lay strewn on the floor with my mouth open in a breathless scream. The dark blue power wrapped around my throat and pulled at my limbs until I was sure my body would rip into pieces. My blood was fire, it was ice and lightning and steel. Blood ran down from my eyes and nose, dripped from my ears as the power fought its way inside of me, each push more agonizing than the last.
My body might've been paralyzed, but the fight still raged on. Three goblins still stood; Seppo, Lydian, and Soren. They were panting hard, their features turning more and more animal-like by the second as they drew on their power. All besides Seppo, who despite his slightly pointed ears, otherwise remained the same.
The red dragon roared in rage as the last of his mate's power left his body. His red eyes burned with rage and then he tipped his head back and sang a low, mournful note. While it was distracted, Lydian lunged. But not at the lindworm.
Soren caught Lydian's greatspear between his two swords, twisting to throw the weapon off course and move out of harm's way. Seppo's eyes widened as he watched the two of them duel. Lydian snarled while a fierce growl bubbled from low in Soren's throat.
"I don't know if you realized," he said darkly, "but there's still another dragon!"
Lydian laughed. It was a cold, tinny sound, like a spoon banging on the inside of a metal pot. "You think that matters to me? We're all doomed anyway, my beloved nephew."
Soren narrowed his eyes. "I will kill you."
Seppo raced forward only for Lydian to knock him back with one hand. "Stay out of this, Seppo. Don't taint your future, don't get in the way of fate."
"You think it's your fate to kill me?" Soren ducked another swipe of the spear, his blades sending it the opposite direction.
"It's my fate to stop you from ruining everything!" he shrieked. "If I have to kill a thousand young goblin girls and burn a thousand villages to the ground and kill a thousand competitors to my power then I will if it means the future is secure!"
The blue dragon's power still held my muscles captive, sinking into my skin with agonizing slowness. My body burned with the desire to fight, to stand back to back with Soren and finish the blond monster in front of me once and for all. There was something about his words that sent a chill down my spine. The goal of every goblin in the Hunt was to be the Erlking, but there was something different in the tone Lydian took; sheer desperation clung onto his words as he spit them out, wild-eyed.
The flash of his blade caught my eye; the great spear's point gleamed a wicked green with Lydian's poison of choice. I didn't know what it was, only that it was agonizing and slow; the type of death he preferred to give his enemies.
Soren side-stepped another bow, his movements as graceful as any dancer, though much more deadly. His swords slashed, his body spun, his muscles quivered with effort.
The red dragon stopped howling and turned his gaze on me, then at the lifeless body of his mate at my feet. The grief burned away from his eyes and he charged with his fangs ready to rip into my flesh. I fought to move, to run, but my body was still held captive by the blue lindworm's power. This is it. Separate from all the pain was a twinge of disappointment. This wasn't the way I wanted to die, not when I'd just chosen to live.
Lydian and Soren were moving too fast for a human to see. The dragon opened his mouth, his gaping maw dripping with the blood of the goblins he'd already killed. Soon it'd be dripping with mine.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain, but it never came. The smell of copper and the tang of metal wafted around my head and someone grunted as they held up a weight too heavy to bear. I opened my eyes to see Soren, his sword stuck through the lindworm's mouth, one of the monster's fangs embedded deep into his arm.
"No," he growled, his body shifting back to his regular form. "She is mine." He pulled his sword from the roof of the dragon's mouth and thrust the dead body aside.
"Janneka," he said. "Janneka, can you move?"
The grip of the blue power was releasing me little by little. "I think so."
One of his arms went around my body and he picked me up as easily as a mother would a babe. "Your arm," I said, touching the oozing wound. "It's—"
"Never mind it," he said. "Just never mind it."
Lydian stood by, grinning from ear to pointed ear. "It's a pity," he said, walking slow steps toward us. "I was mistaken to believe you'd last longer than this. Though I suppose it's only a pity for you two. Though I am saddened, I could've had great use for you, dear nephew. But I guess fate likes to fool all of us." He shook his head. "I suppose it would be a kindness to kill you both now. Don't you think that would be kind of me?"
Soren bared his teeth. "Go ahead and try." But his breath was sour with sickness and his arm green where the fang punctured it.
If we die, we die fighting. We die together. The blade Seppo gave me shook in my hand. Overhead, the stone dome surrounding us crackled like thunder. There had to be millions of more layers of stone and ice lying above it.
A sharp, eerie whistle echoed through the dome, growing louder as it bounced off the rocks. Cracks grew like searching fingers across a section of stone and a mass of boulders fell down to us below. I squeezed my eyes shut as they came crashing down.
When I opened my eyes again, blinking away the grit, a massive barrier of fallen rock blocked Lydian's way. Through the cracks, his face was reddened with rage.
"Seppo! You little bastard!" he screamed. "Where are you?"
The dark-haired goblin was gone. His voice came from somewhere, laughing. "I dunno! Where are you?" Lydian answered with a snarl. Unlike most goblins, Seppo's laugh wasn't a cackle but came deep from his belly. "I'd leave if I were you, my lord, you're standing on the wrong side of the barrier. When those beautiful eggs begin to freeze—which they will shortly—the babies come out early to devour as much as they can before they die. You really wouldn't want your reign to end before it began, wouldn't you?"
Lydian snarled one last time and then he ran, feet pounding against the earth. Pushing his way out of the mix of stone, Seppo gave Soren and I a bow. "Seppo Satupoika," he said. "At your service."
AN:
I introduced a new character! Tell me what you thought of Seppo! Is he good or evil? What do you think of the Lindworms? Also, Lydian and Soren are pretty similar in some ways, aren't they?
If you want more cool monsters, check out my other story ASHES COME DAWN