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What did the elf think about when he faced this? I asked myself. The dragon was coming on fast, but I still seemed to have plenty of time. There was even time for me to feel amazed at how calm I felt. I accepted the outcome… as long as I could reach it with the fortitude that the elf warrior had shown.
"Steady, lad. Keep your wits about you," sounded right next to my ear. It was Parthet's voice, but he was still standing on the castle wall. I glanced that way. The same sort of alteration of perspective that had made the Dorthini wizard appear close let me see Parthet up close too. Then I recalled-from our first ride east-that Parthet had said that there had been so much magic used around Castle Thyme that it was unpredictable.
"Put on a good show, Uncle," I whispered. He nodded as if he heard me. I turned and stared at the Dorthini wizard and made a short cutting gesture with my sword-something like drawing a bow sharply across a violin-as my whistling reached a peak. The Dorthini wizard frowned and clutched his medallion tighter. I felt a trickle of exhilaration. I could reach him, touch him. I remembered that Parthet had suggested that I might have some gift toward wizardry. And there were the magics of the sword and the Hero that I still didn't know everything about…
… in an arena where magic wasn't predictable anyway.
What do I have to lose? I asked myself. The answer was an easy nothing.
I attempted to use magic that I didn't know I had-that I didn't know that anybody had. While the dragon folded his wings for a fast glide, I concentrated on the Dorthini wizard, trying to superimpose my image over his, hoping to confuse the dragon and deflect it toward the wizard who-so far-appeared to be controlling it. The wizard fought back, stabbing deeply into my mind, loosing a flash of light in my head that made him invisible for a dangerous moment.
I blinked over and over. There were spots in front of my eyes… spots large enough to hide a dragon. I looked up quickly, squinted against the light and the sky.
The dragon wasn't deflected even for a second. It swooped toward me, suddenly appearing to be as fast as a jet. Its talons were stretched open, its jaws gaping wide. It had all its weapons ready, just like the dragon in Fairy. I thought back to the way the elf warrior had met that dragon's attack. I replayed it in my mind-except for the way it ended for the elf.
And then the dragon was on me.
I swung Dragon's Death and dove to the left, rolling and coming back to my feet in time to take a whack at the dragon's tail. I co
No mortal can kill a dragon and live! Those words burned themselves into my mind the way the hinges had burned into Thyme's postern. No mortal can kill a dragon and live! The Etevar's wizard showed his face-and a malicious grin-behind the words.
As I turned to keep facing the dragon, I beamed, I have killed one dragon and lived! straight at the Etevar's wizard with all the force I could muster. I felt Parthet strengthening my boast. The Etevar's wizard wavered in an instant of doubt. And I turned the Elflord of Xayber out of Varay! I added.
The dragon's second pass was a carbon copy of the first. Dragons didn't seem to have a very wide repertory of offensive moves. This time I saw an arrow blossom from the dragon's forehead, so I knew that A
Odds and evens.
Something new came over me then. I'm not sure I can describe it. Maybe it doesn't need any more than to say that I became fey-deathbound and crazy with it, manic. A new power seemed to settle in me, or waken. I felt as if I were growing inside my skin, but I wasn't turning into the Incredible Hulk or anything like that. It was all-I don't know-just a sensation within my mind. I moved a few steps toward the watching Etevar and his wizard. I drew the wizard's eyes to me again, somehow forced him to meet my stare.
I am Vara returned! my mind screamed at him.
I had no idea at all where that boast originated, certainly not in my brain. Sure, I had been told that the magic of Varay's Hero was supposed to include some of Vara's strength and skill, but I hadn't been idling away at that kind of musing. With a dragon coming at me? The boast just sprang from my head. I didn't even have time just then to look around to see if Vara and Dad were there with me.
When the dragon dove at me this time, I planted my feet and held my sword at full reach over my head-just the way I had seen the elf warrior do it. I didn't duck to either side this time either, and that was sheer madness. I just brought Dragon's Death straight forward with all of my strength, and then some, I guess, as if I seriously thought that I might be able to split that dragon fore to aft.
The shock of the collision could hardly have been worse if I'd been hit by an out-of-control semi. The dragon knocked me down, dragged and bounced me along the ground, and finally ripped the elf sword from my hands. I didn't even have the wit to let go of the sword. As soon as I slowed down enough to get some control over my own movements, I rolled left, fast, to get out from under the collapsing body of the gargantuan beast. Pain stabbed at me from every part of my body. The dragon's wing and leg pummeled me. I felt skin and muscle tear, my skin and muscle. The wing's trailing edge bounced me forward again and finally pi
"We're here, son." I heard Dad's voice as plainly as I had ever heard any sound in my life. I couldn't move. For a time, I couldn't even get my eyes open.
Am I dead yet? I wondered. Mentally, at least, I shook my head. I hurt so much that I had to be alive. My heart was still pounding. I inhaled. That added to the pain.
It won't be long, I decided. If I wasn't already mortally wounded, the dragon would finish the job soon enough.
"We're here, son," Dad's voice said again. "We're waiting for you."
More than anything, that was what forced me to keep trying.
I got my eyes open. They burned. I saw sky above me… and dragon to the side. I was flat on my back. I rolled over on my side, facing the dragon. Everything seemed willing to move, though not without complaint. My chest hurt. More than one rib had to be broken now. My arms were both bloody, but I could make fists with both hands. I could move the fingers.
The dragon didn't fly off for another go-round. That didn't feel like much of a victory, though. The damn thing was a mountain next to me. The tail was moving from side to side, not all that fast, but enough to keep anyone from coming close. The neck and head were swaying too-not as much as the tail.
I didn't see any people, just dragon.
The feeling of power-or whatever I had felt before-had deserted me, been dragged out of me. I had to finish rolling over, onto my stomach, before I could start to get up. I got up on hands and knees… one knee. My left knee didn't want to bend in the middle. And the foot felt as if it had been crammed into a boot that was only half as big as it needed to be. I tried to reach for my hip pocket to get the silver flask that Mother had given me, but the flask was gone. So was the pocket. No painkiller.
I retched, threw up. No blood in it, I told myself. I thought that might be a hopeful sign.
The dragon bellowed in what I hoped was intense pain.
"Get up," I told myself. "Get up and finish the job while you can."