Burn Me Deadly

TWENTY-NINE

The words cut through my reverie, and suddenly I was back in the moment. I jumped in surprise, and my sudden movement made the dragon huff a little, sending a small pop of blue flame from its mouth. The burst of heat assured me I was wide awake. I got slowly to my feet, aware that the animal watched every move and could incinerate me instantly.

Behind the dragon, the moonlight had turned into the gray half illumination of pre-dawn. I must’ve been wandering through my own head for hours. In all that time the dragon had not appreciably moved until I spooked it. Now it was entirely focused on me.

My hands shook, and I was chilled despite the heat. Everything depended on how well I pulled off this next bit. And even then a lot of things could go wrong. I pulled the cloth down from my face.

“Hey,” I said. My voice was dry and croaky from disuse, exactly as it needed to be. “Is someone there?”

The dragon snorted again. The puff of blue flame was larger, and got much closer to me before consuming itself with a pop. I winced at the heat.

“You know who’s here, asshole,” Candora said. “I’ve got somebody else here, too. She’s been running behind my horse, so she’s a little beat. Had to drag her in places when she couldn’t keep up.”

The dragon very slowly turned its head so that one eye watched me, the other on the tunnel entrance. In profile its skull was eerily familiar; it was a smaller, less-formed version of the one Tempcott displayed. The horns of this dragon’s ancestor were only nascent knobs.

My mouth really was too dry to speak. Did I honestly think this was a good plan? “You gotta help me; my leg’s broken,” I called pitifully.

“Give it a rest,” Candora said. “I’m not falling for that.”

The dragon pulled one foot out from beneath its body and shifted its weight onto it. Its claws sounded like daggers scratching across the rock.

“I’m not kidding. Please, I’m bleeding; the bone’s sticking out.” I used my nervousness to make my voice quiver.

The dragon turned toward me again. The egg’s red glow reflected from the surface of its eyes.

“Tough. Drag your fat ass up here anyway, or I start throwing your girl down piece by piece.”

“I’ve got the eggs,” I said, as pathetically as I could.

The dragon’s neck drew back and arched, like a snake preparing to strike. At me. For a long moment the only sound was the wind and the soft crackling of the dragon’s fire.

“You do not,” Candora said at last, like a disbelieving child.

“Uh-huh,” I said in the same manner. “They’re really here, just like Laura said. But I can’t move. Please, help me out of here. I did what you wanted.” If I sounded any more pitiable, I’d have to change into short pants and a ruffled shirt.

Slowly the dragon’s lower jaw fell open. The blue fire danced as it waited for the breath that would send it to envelop me. It didn’t come.

More silence. “You actually have the eggs?” Candora said at last, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

“Yes,” I said with desperation. “Right here in front of me. Two of them.”

“Okay, then… what do they look like?”

I closed my eyes and sighed with relief; he’d taken the bait. Now I had to set the hook. I turned to the egg on the blanket, and suddenly the dragon spread its wings as much as the tunnel allowed, blocking most of the light. I had to swallow hard before speaking. “I dunno, they’re, like, a couple of feet long, they have shells that are all multicolored, and they’re hot, like something inside them is burning. You can see something moving inside one of them.” I added more whine. “Please, man, I’m dying in here.”

Still more silence, but not so long this time. “Crawl out where I can see you.” The voice was stronger and clearer, telling me he stood right at the edge.

“I can’t crawl; my leg bone’s poking out and I’ve been bleeding for hours.”

“You better manage.” He was trying to sound firm, but the excitement in his voice gave him away.

“All right,” I said, just loud enough for him to hear. “I’m…” I had to risk a scream, or at least a cry of pain. It echoed through the short tunnel and sounded truly wretched. The dragon did not seem to notice, remaining poised with its mouth open and wings spread.

“Oh, God, I can’t move; it hurts,” I said, letting my voice tremble. “Please, get me out of here; I don’t want to die like this. …”

“All right, hold on; shut the hell up. You sound like a damn schoolgirl. I’m sending your honey down; she can drag your wimp ass out.”

Every muscle I had was gathered for action now.

“Oh, hell, not you, too,” I heard him say in disgust. “Come on; get up. Your boyfriend’s down there; don’t you want to see him?” There was a pause. “Do you hear me? I’m not kidding, I’ll cut your damn tits off if you don’t get-”

Suddenly he yelled, and past the dragon I saw him fall into the hole. Yes! Liz had understood and played it perfectly, pretending to be too weak to move until she could catch him off-guard.

Candora rolled nimbly to his feet. “You bitch, I’ll-”

He never finished the sentence. The dragon, startled by his loud and sudden appearance, forgot me and rushed from the shadows toward him. It hissed like a dozen pots of boiling water and rattled its wings like canvas in a windstorm. When Candora saw it, his eyes opened wide and he went for his sword, but his broken thumb interfered. Then it didn’t matter, because the dragon engulfed his whole upper body in a ball of blue flame. His hair and clothing combusted at once, and his skin made a meaty sizzling sound that I’ll never forget. His scream, high and girlish, died in a wet gurgle as the fire scorched down his throat, melting all the tissue it touched.

I had no time to gloat or enjoy. I whipped the knife from my boot, ran down the short tunnel and threw myself on the dragon’s back. My weight knocked it flat, and its wings tangled beneath and around me. Its feet clawed at the ground, scratching like spear tips against the stone. If it threw me off, I’d be just as toasted as Candora.

I pinned its neck just behind its head, the way you would a poisonous snake. Its wiry, squirming form was impossible to hold for long, but luckily I didn’t have to. I slipped my knife under its neck and, with all my strength, ripped it up through flesh and muscle and bone, severing its head.

The head rolled away into the light, where its mouth continued to work as if it could still spew fire. The body thrashed for a moment, then went limp. Past it, Candora lay smoldering, his legs moving weakly. From the waist up he was blackened, and the smell of his cooked flesh mixed with that of the dragon’s flames. I gagged and tried to breathe only through my mouth.

I climbed off the dragon, my heart pounding. I wanted fresh air more than anything. I crawled over the carcass and up the soot-covered rock. Candora made a sound I’ll hear in my nightmares and reached one knobby, burnt extremity toward me.

The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, but the clouds were ablaze with its promise. Liz lay facedown on the ground just beyond the hole. She was still naked, her wrists tied in front, and except for the wind blowing her hair she didn’t move. I knelt beside her and turned her over. Bruises distorted her face, and her eyes were closed. “ Liz! ” I cried, and this time I didn’t have to fake the panic.

Her eyes opened. I wanted to cry. Her lips were dry and cracked, and the corners of her lips were flayed where the gag had rubbed them raw. “Can we have a better plan next time?” she croaked.

“Promise,” I said, and kissed her all over her face. I tasted tears, not sure if they were hers or mine.

“I feel terrible,” she said when I let her speak again.

I spotted my jacket on the ground where I’d thrown it earlier. I retrieved it and wrapped it around her. “We’ll get you to the moon priestesses; they’ll fix you up. Is anything broken?”

She slowly, laboriously shook her head. “I don’t think I can walk, though.”

“That’s okay; I’ll carry you.”

She managed a small smile. “All the way back to town?”

I felt like I could at that moment. “If I have to.”

She reached one hand up to my face, moving slowly because of her injuries. “Not yet. I have to know, Eddie.”

“Know what?”

Something grew young and sad and hopeful in her eyes. “Were there really dragon eggs down there?”

I nodded.

“You’re not just telling me that because you think I’m about to die, are you?”

“No. Because you’re not about to die. There were eggs down there. One hatched.”

I’d never seen a look of such sad eloquence. “What?”

“It hatched. There was a dragon down there. I had to kill it.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “A real dragon?” she said in a small voice.

I nodded.

“And it’s dead?”

“I had to, sweetie,” and felt myself unaccountably wanting to cry, too. “It would’ve killed me, and maybe you, too.”

Her lower lip trembled. “Can I see it?”

The second-to-last thing I wanted to do was climb back down in that hole and drag the dragon carcass out. The very last thing I wanted to do was cause Liz any more pain or distress. So I did climb down in the hole, tossed the surprisingly light headless dragon over my shoulder and was about to climb out again when a thin voice, barely audible, said, “Don’t leave me.”

At least I think that’s what it said. Candora was moving, his arms-if you could still call them that-reaching imploringly for me. His face was completely gone, with only a gaping orifice through which his distorted voice emanated.

I didn’t say anything. He couldn’t see me, or probably even hear me. At best he felt my movements through the ground; maybe he just hoped someone was still there.

“Don’t leave me,” he repeated.

Burns from dragon flames never heal.

I remembered Laura Lesperitt, and Nicky. I remembered Liz hanging in the shack.

I turned away and climbed out of the hole.

The sun had now officially risen, blasting us with its golden light. The morning wind stirred, and crows announced their interest in the cooked meat down in the hole. Liz sat up now, clutching the jacket around her. She coughed and trembled, but when she saw what I carried a look of such heartbreak filled her face that I could say nothing. I gently stretched the headless carcass out before her; in death it appeared far more delicate and fragile, and in the sun its black scales shone with the same rainbow pattern as the eggs.

I stood over it. Liz just stared with a look I could not identify.

“There’s another egg in the cave,” I said quietly. “It’s still in one piece, and I think it’s about to hatch. I need to go smash it before it does.”

She didn’t look up, but reached one hand out to gently touch the creature’s shiny skin.

“Did you hear me?” I asked gently.

She nodded without looking. “This is no time for the fire dreams are made of,” she said, and in those words I heard the little girl who’d once believed in the divinity of dragons. “No time for gods you can touch.”

I went back down in the hole, retrieved Candora’s sword and used it to smash the last remaining dragon’s egg. The smell was awful, and the mostly formed creature that spewed forth writhed for a few agonizing moments before I mercifully cut it in half. Then I drove his own sword through Candora’s heart, an act of mercy that most of me argued against. But I was too weary to be a total bastard.

I speared the severed dragon’s head on my knife and brought it up with me. I placed it beside the rest of the corpse. The eyes were still open, still black, and the teeth gleamed white. Liz sat just as I’d left her, one hand on the dragon.

“She’s a female,” Liz said between gulping breaths. “You can tell by the coloring.”

“Lumina,” I said.

She nodded. “Lumina.” Then she sobbed the way people do when they’ve lost something precious. And I guess she had.