81

Knightfall

Bryn

I opened my eyes, staring up through the water at the white light above. I sat up and took a deep breath. I had no idea how long I’d been under, but my Skojare blood meant I was capable of being underwater for a very long time.

My eyes adjusted, and I saw everyone scattered throughout a cave with pools of hot water and several small steaming geysers. Wendy, Noomi, and Sumi sat nearby at the edge of the water, coughing and getting their bearings. Farther down, Ulla and Sunniva were sitting while Dagny paced through the shallow water.

“Where are we?” I asked as I stood up. The pool of water only came up to my knees.

“The hot springs are under the indoor gardens. The floor gave out”—Sumi motioned around to the chunks of floor and overturned plants littered around us—“and now we’re trapped in a steamy cave while a dragon burns down the world around us.”

“Doesn’t this water feed into the well?” Ulla asked, and she pointed to the darkest end of the cave. “Is the well down there?”

“The ladder!” Sumi and Noomi shouted in unison.

Dagny got the torch lit, and Sumi took it from her so she could lead the way. The springs ended in a small stream that passed through a narrow gap in the stone. We followed it through. The well was a stony tunnel up toward a green sky, and a mossy ladder ran up along the wall.

Sumi went up first, climbing up the slippery ladder without hesitation, and I went after her. It took about ten frightening minutes, moving upward with a small dot of light guiding us up.

Not that things were bright on the land. The air was all a green haze, and it smelled of ash and death, and it burned my nose and lungs.

From where we came up, I could see the serpentine dragon writhing around in the ashes of the stable and the bones of the elk that blocked the entrance. Only a portion of the tail was still out, as it used its head like a battering ram, taking down the winding staircase. The stairs were a narrower width than the massive room, so it had to tear down brick walls to get through.

“Ulla, how strong are you?” I asked as she climbed out of the well behind me.

“Pretty strong, why?” she asked uncertainly.

“Do you think you can pull that thing out?” I pointed to the wyrm tunneling its way underground. “Or at least pull on its tail enough to piss it off?”

She thought for a second, chewing her lip, then nodded. “Yeah. I can piss it off, at least.”

“Great, because there’s no way you’re getting through those scales,” I said. My hand was still bruised and throbbing from when I broke my sword over it. “You’ll have to aim for the eyes, so we need to get its head out before you take your shot.”

“You get the wyrm out,” Sumi told Ulla. “As soon as you do, then you and Dagny need to get to higher ground. The tower ruins are the closest. Me and Bryn can go south to distract the wyrm while you two get in place.”

“Wendy and I will lead the wyrm back so Ulla and Dagny can take their shot,” Noomi said.

“Are you ready, Ulla?” I asked.

She took a fortifying breath and nodded. “We’ve got this.”

Then she turned and ran over to the wyrm. She winced when she grabbed the tail, covered in spiky scales, and dug her heels in the ground.

As Sumi and I ran around to the south side of the stables, I looked back and saw Ulla straining. Her face was already red and sweaty as she pulled the wyrm with all of her considerable might.

Sumi and I took cover behind a burnt-out snail shell. She immediately took her sword and used it to break off a large section of the shell in the shape of a lopsided diamond and handed it to me.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

She flipped it over, and on the underside she used her ankle dagger to quickly take out a small chunk. She picked it up, using the gouge as a hand grip, and held it in front of her. “Etanadrak shells are fireproof. They make a great shield.”

Then she held it out to me. “Here. You take this one. I’ll make another.”

“Thanks,” I said, and glanced around. A smoldering kuguar corpse lay a few feet away. The one good thing about the wyrm’s rampage of killing every living thing was that that included the kuguars and the murder snails.

Ulla still pulled at the wyrm’s tail. The ground rumbled as the wyrm wriggled and fought. It whipped its tail, yanking her through the ash and dirt, despite her best efforts to keep her footing.

The wyrm was scooting backward out of the stairwell, and with more of its body out, it was whipping her around with more and more force. Until finally it threw her, and she landed in a pile of rubble.

“Ulla!” I shouted, and started toward her, but she sat up, coughing, and I stopped short. “Ulla! The wyrm’s almost out! Go with Dagny and Sunniva to the tower! Sumi and I will take it from here!”

She nodded, then took off to where Dagny and Sunniva were waiting by the tower.

I looked back at Sumi. She held up her fractured snail shell shield with her left hand and her sword with her right.

The wyrm suddenly burst through the ground right in front of me. Dirt and stone exploded from the earth, and I was sent flying backward. The beast instantly turned its rage on me, and I curled up in a ball, hiding as much of my body as I could under my shield just as the wyrm unleashed a green fiery blast at me.

The snail shell held, but it got hot enough that it scorched my fingertips. I squeezed my eyes shut and buried my face in the dirt, and my skin felt sunburnt. All the hair stood up on my body, like I was consumed by static electricity, and my teeth ached.

“Hey!” Sumi shouted, and I peered out from under the shield to see her throwing broken elk antlers and bones at the wyrm.

The wyrm roared—right above me at earsplitting decibels—and then it slithered after Sumi. I crawled out from under the shell, and then I was on my feet, charging after the wyrm before it killed Sumi.

She held her own against it, dodging out of the way of its fiery attacks in the nick of time. I came up behind the giant beast, and in a quick motion, I slid my sword under the thick scales, stabbing at the tender flesh again.

The wyrm whirled around me, screeching and coiling itself up. I looked around to see Wendy holding her hands up palms out at the wyrm, and it abruptly took flight.

“Ulla’s up in the tower,” Noomi yelled at me from where she stood a few meters away from Wendy. Then she looked up at the dragon, circling above us. “It’s time to send it back.”