Oarly was standing against the wall beside the entryway. The dwarf threw a rope over the top of the dragon’s neck to Master Biggs, who was waiting on the other side. With the precision of a veteran seaman, the Deck Master pulled the end of the rope through the buckle of the great collar that was laid out across the floor and took off running with the rope in tow. Hyden saw the collar leap from the floor as the rope pulled it up. It looked like the noose was going to close, but he never had a chance to see the rest of what happened.
A huge spray of hot liquid washed over Hyden as the dragon unleashed its acidy spew. His vision was wiped away and the breath pulled from his lungs, but, to his surprise, a pulse of radiant energy erupted from the medallion at his chest and engulfed him. He heard Phen scream out in anguish and was thankful to know that the boy had survived.
“For Doon and Brady!” he heard Oarly yell.
Then the dragon’s gigantic roar filled the chamber. A moment later Hyden’s head slammed full of chaotic thoughts of hate and destruction. The dragon was more than a little angry. Hyden commanded the thoughts to cease and sent out a shocking reprimand to their source to establish control.
A muffled roar erupted then, a long howl from Oarly that seemed to pass over Hyden’s head. The dwarf’s yell ended in a tinkling crash of coins and a sharp, “Ooof!”
As the bright dancing sparkles of energy that had engulfed Hyden twinkled out of existence, he found himself on his knees before the seething maw of the young black dragon. All around him metal and rock hissed and smoldered.
He looked around the room and saw Phen huddled in a sobbing crouch over Oarly’s splayed body. The Deck Master was standing as still as a statue, as if he were frozen in place. His mouth was a perfect ’O.’ The rope he had pulled the dragon collar closed with dangled limply from his hand.
“You didn’t have to kill my friends,” Hyden said to the dragon harshly.
The sound of his voice caused Phen and the Deck Master to gasp in surprise. They thought Hyden had been melted by the dragon.
“You tricked me,” the dragon growled more into Hyden’s mind than aloud.
“You tricked yourself with your eagerness to destroy us,” Hyden spat. “Now go skulk around in the bigger cavern and think about your new situation.”
The dragon hissed and hesitated. Through the smaller collar on Hyden’s neck he sent a sharp shock of persuasive punishment through to the beast. The dragon trembled visibly with the sensation, but resisted the urge to roar out. The idea of the dragon’s collar sickened Hyden, but after what this dragon had done to Brady and the deckhand, he found he could stomach using it. Reluctantly, the wyrm withdrew its big head from the chamber and eased back out of the tunnel.
“How did you survive that?” asked Phen. He started to say more, but the memory of Brady’s fate, and the sight of the puddle of remains of the deckhand overwhelmed him. “Get up, Oarly,” he sobbed and shook at the dwarf’s shoulders.
Oarly groaned, and Phen hugged him fiercely. A pudgy fingered hand came up and patted Phen’s head reassuringly. “I’m all right, lad,” he said. “Was that Sir Hyden Hawk I heard ordering the dragon about?”
“Yeah,” Phen said. “But Brady didn’t make it.”
“Aye,” Oarly sighed. “Sometimes this be the way of things, lad.”
“Aye,” Phen sniffled and helped Oarly to his feet. Tears flowed freely down his face.
Hyden learned from Phen that Oarly had leapt onto the dragon’s back to fasten the collar and had been slung across the chamber during the skirmish. Battered and bruised, the dwarf was content to haul out the dead seaman’s bucket of jewels instead of the encumbering statue.
Master Biggs hadn’t spoken since the dragon blasted his man away. He was alert, though, and answered the enquiries about his condition with grunts and nods. He started to leave his bucket of wealth behind, but thought better of it. Too many slaves could be freed for him to just abandon it.
The three men and the dwarf made their way out of the lower tunnel warily. As they emerged into the great cavern, the dragon was lying up on the scalloped shelf with its head hanging down glaring at them. Hyden shifted the weight of the Silver Skull to one arm and put the other around Phen protectively. Through the collar he told the dragon to lie still until they passed. He kept a mental thumb on the beast’s neck until they were well on their way into the long passage that led toward the camp.
When the light of day could clearly be seen ahead of them, Phen hurried toward it. Hyden didn’t stop him. He couldn’t blame the boy for wanting to be out in the open again. He was glad the ordeal was over, and for the first time since the dragon attacked, thoughts of Brady filled his head.
All of Hyden’s life, death had been near him. Hardly a year passed that one of his cousins or uncles hadn’t fallen to their deaths from the hawkling nesting cliffs where his brother had found Talon. Then Mikahl’s friends, Lord Gregory, and Loudin the hunter had been mauled by the hellcat up in the Giant Mountains. His friend Vaegon had been killed by the Choska in the battle of Xwarda. He found that he couldn’t shed a tear for the Wildermont King’s Guard, but he held a place of respect for the man in his heart. Brady had traveled across the continent warning people of the demon-wizard’s army of undead, and the final stand he made had gained them the time they needed to set their trap. Hyden knew that King Jarrek loved Brady like a son. He didn’t relish the idea of telling the Red Wolf of Wildermont of his man’s death.
Talon’s fierce shriek broke Hyden’s reverie and the alarm his hawkling familiar sent through him grabbed his full attention. Intruders in the camp, he gathered from the sound. “Come on, Phen’s in trouble,” he said as he took off at a sprint toward the cave mouth ahead of them.
Master Biggs followed, but Oarly couldn’t find the strength to run. His body had been bruised to the point of breaking when the dragon slung him into the wall. The dwarf set his bucket to the side and took off in a hop-step after the other two. Oarly decided that, if young Phen was in trouble, he could suffer the pain of a short jog. The scene he found when he emerged out of the tunnel was startling, and a little confusing.
Oarly had never seen a breed giant before, and the pale bald man wearing wizard’s robes looked eerily like the demon-wizard Pael. Oarly soon saw why Hyden Hawk and Master Biggs weren’t trying to fight the new arrivals. Another giant had Phen by the collar and held a wicked looking blade to the boy’s throat. Not too far away lay the bodies of the two seamen who had been posted to watch out for them. Oarly could see, by the way the blood still oozed from the stumps where their heads had once been, that they had only just been killed.
“I’ll take the skull,” the bald wizard said in a menacing voice. “And the controlling collar,” he added before Hyden could command the dragon to come to their aid.
Hyden sat the skull down in the thick grass before him and started to take the collar off.
“Let him go,” Hyden indicated Phen, before he loosened the collar. “Or there is no bargain.”
Flick made a miniscule gesture with his hand and half a dozen crossbow bolts came whizzing down among them. One of them hit Master Biggs in the back and sent him sprawling to the ground. Oarly looked back and saw a scattering of lizard-men high up on the hill. Some were reloading; some had their weapons still trained on the group.
“You’re in no position to bargain, Hyden Skyler,” Flick said. “My queen ordered me to kill you, but I grew to respect your brother before his demise. For that reason alone I’ll spare you.”
“Take the skull and the collar,” Hyden pleaded. “But leave him. He’s just a boy.”
“He is our guarantee that you’ll not pursue,” Flick said. “But as Gerard’s friend, I give you my word that once we are on our ship I will let him go. Once I put on the collar, the dragon will keep you from following us.”
“And if I refuse to give you the collar?” Hyden asked. The last thing he wanted was for that bitch Shaella to get control of another dragon. It was bad enough that she was going to get the Silver Skull. Hyden could only imagine what sort of trouble she would cause with it.
“Then you order the dragon to attack,” Flick speculated. “You’ll all die in a flurry of arrows and steel long before it can get here.” Flick’s voice was smug and impatient. Hyden could tell he was nervous. “By the time it arrives, I will be wearing the collar.”
“Who do ye think you are?” Oarly barked angrily. “Some sort of imitation of that madman Pael?”
The jibe struck a nerve in Flick. He had apprenticed under Shaella’s father and had idolized the ambitious wizard.
