The lake rippled with a wall of flames, as if someone from above had poured them directly onto the water. Maria was helpless, as the boats, still holding barrels of fuel and containing more Dragon Tongue, exploded in an array of destruction. Some of the men jumped over the sides of the other boats only to be met with a burning demise.
Heat baked the wanderers where they stood. Maria began to sweat.
Worst of all, Hunter began to read from the book.
“ ‘Nesir unde glorifica! Reis! Reis! Reis! Nesir unde glorifica! Reis! Reis! REIS!’ ”
The ground shook. Gramps gripped Maria’s arm harshly. She looked to him and, for the first time, saw true fear in his eyes. Large waves broke the lake’s surface, throwing what was left of the boats toward the shore. Some landed with an epic splash, while the others hit the ground and shattered, splintering into a thousand pieces of burnt wood.
“What’s happening?” Maria asked breathlessly. But she knew. They all knew.
Hunter dropped the book as Maria turned back to him. She was ready to run through the flames, to grab him by the throat and demand that he take back whatever he had done.
But she knew if she did, Gramps would follow and could be hurt or worse. Killed.
By then, it was too late anyway.
Water spewed from the middle of the lake, sending a tsunami wave in their direction. They should’ve run, but they couldn’t. Even if Hunter weren’t protected by a wall of flame, Maria didn’t think she could muster up the strength to fight him, for what she saw zapped the breath right out of her lungs. Her legs went weak; her head felt light. In her hand, the sword’s hilt shook violently.
She was awestruck.
From the water, a great winged beast rose, causing the lake to part like the Red Sea. It was brilliant white; its eyes, as big as the distant moons, burned a bright red—with hate, with malice, with death.
Maria couldn’t believe it. The dream she had had only a night or two ago was becoming real. The dragon’s wings seemed to stretch the length of the sky. The beast’s great body, shiny with white and gray scales, blotted out the light from the moons. It flapped its wings as it got higher into the air, and a great, roaring wind whipped toward them, fanning the flames and the heat. Bodies and wood were caught in the tornado of its wings, and were flung this way and that. Maria grabbed Gramps and Frieda and pulled them down before their heads were taken off by a piece of charred wood the size of a Chevy truck.
The dragon looked down on them and opened its mouth. Jagged teeth gleamed in the waning firelight. They were huge and protruding; the type of teeth that could chew tree trunks and eat giants whole.
Beating its wings again, the dragon lurched forward and landed on the beach with a resounding thud, shaking the ground all the more. In the distance, Maria heard glass breaking, buildings toppling over, and the screams of townspeople and Dragon Tongue alike.
Beneath the dragon’s scales, a red glow illuminated. The dragon’s chest shook and its head extended as the sound of broiling fire prepared to exit its body. With a roar, the dragon’s mouth unhinged.
A thought crossed Maria’s mind; one so stupid and pointless she was ashamed she had ever thought it. Maybe I can absorb the dragon’s fire with my sword, like I’ve done with the Dragon Tongue.
Luckily for her, Gramps was thinking straight, and he gripped Maria and pulled her and Frieda out of the way of the dragon’s burning breath. Flames washed over the beach , and the noise was enough to make her ears ring. The back of her shirt singed and caught flame; she beat it out before it could consume her.
Once the dragon’s roar subsided, Hunter’s screams of joy could be heard over the low crackling of the burning brush and scattered bodies of the Dragon Tongue.
“My Queen! I have freed you from your underwater prison. It is I who will worship you until the end of time,” Hunter swore, still protected by his shimmering wall of fire.
Maria poked her head up from the outcropping of rocks currently protecting her from becoming a charred piece of meat. She saw black specks moving through the hazy smoke in the distance.
A loud bang echoed from near the front gate, which in turn shuddered and creaked forward.
Hunter turned his head in the direction of the sound. No matter how excited he was, there was no escaping such a raucous noise.
The great ivory dragon whipped its long neck in the same direction, and its tail followed suit, sending a spray of sand toward the road. It came down like rain on a rooftop in the dead of night. Maria was reminded of the old Native American rainstick that Gramps kept in the corner of the living room. Why she would associate such a pleasant thing with this hellish beast, she did not know.
The gate banged again, harder. Through the gap between where the two gates met, Maria could see the world beyond. Whatever was out there wanted to get in very badly, and they would not stop until they did.
Even if there was a dragon inside.
The gate banged and shuddered a final time,. A giant fist bulged through the dark iron, and with a groaning creak that hung long in the air, the gate toppled over.
Please let it be allies, Maria silently begged. She held her sword tighter. Her grip was firm despite the nervous sweat coating her palm and
