“And here we find one, chained up, and you have some kind of, of connection with it,” Hern added. “That doesn’t strike you as a little odd?”
Well, now that you mention it. “I’ve been hearing voices for months,” Khollo reminded them. “I’ve been having visions. None of that struck you as a little odd?”
“When it’s put that way, he does have a point,” Hern muttered thoughtfully.
“But you’re planning to set it free?” Sermas persisted. “It could torch us just as easily as it did all of the vertaga.”
“Or easier,” Hern mused.
“Thank you for that assessment,” Sermas said icily. He turned back to Khollo. “Well?”
Khollo sighed. “The dragon is the enemy of vertaga. We are enemies of vertaga. I can understand it, hear its voice, and I may be the only one capable of that. I plan to free it. The dragon will not harm us, and it will help us against the vertaga.”
“And after we take out the vertaga here? What then? Will you take it back to the West Bank?” Sermas asked.
Khollo could picture the results of that. Villagers screaming and running, confusing and frightening the dragon, fire sweeping the courtyard.
“We’ll figure that out later,” he temporized. “First, we have to get out of this fortress. Are you with me?”
Sermas and Hern exchanged troubled glances. “Yes,” Sermas said finally. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Khollo snorted. “Wait here and keep an eye out. I’m going to free our new ally.”
The young warrior made his way back to the cell the dragon was kept in. The dragon lifted its head as Khollo approached, sniffing curiously and nudging the bars.
Freedom? it asked plaintively.
Khollo nodded. “Yes. As soon as we find a way to get through these bars and remove the shackles. The door,” he added, tugging at the metal grille, “Seems to be locked.”
That one relocked it after this one entered, the dragon informed him, jabbing his head at two separate vertaga. One lay in the dragon’s cell, the other was fetched up against the bars. Both were terribly burned.
Khollo knelt and examined the vertag the dragon had indicated. It had been badly burned, and the sight of charred flesh and singed bone was nearly too much for Khollo to stomach. The smell wasn’t much better. Gritting his teeth, Khollo reached out and tried to pry the brute’s fist open. After a brief struggle, Khollo managed to remove a small, slightly-melted key.
“I hope it still works, he muttered. He inserted the key into the cell door and turned it gently. There was resistance for a moment, then the cell door screeched and swung forward. Khollo hurried into the cell, casting about for the shackles.
The lock is in the floor, the dragon told him.
Khollo searched quickly, and found a massive lock securing the thick chain. This one required a much larger key than what he had. “The key won’t work,” Khollo told the dragon. “Different lock. Can you melt the chains?”
I have tried, but chains hold, the dragon replied miserably. Metal glows, then fades.
The beginnings of an idea were forming in Khollo’s mind. “Flame it here, close to the lock,” he said, gesturing with his hand.
The dragon eyed the links in question then, after Khollo had moved out of the way, opened his maw and let forth a yellow-white stream of flame. It was not the raging inferno Khollo had expected, but a careful, controlled stream. As the dragon had predicted, the chain began to glow.
The dragon cut off his fire abruptly. No good, it said sadly. Chain will not melt.
“No, but we might be able to break it now,” Khollo muttered, scooping a discarded axe off the floor of the cell. “Stretch the chain tight.”
The dragon shifted so that the chain was taut, and Khollo smashed the glowing links with the axe. They held, but two or three deformed slightly, flattening under the impact.
The dragon’s eyes glittered with excitement. Chain is breaking. Again!
Khollo smashed the axe into the chain again and one of the links cracked.
“Heat it again, please,” Khollo said, stepping back.
The dragon flamed the chain again, setting it glowing, then yanked against it. It held, but the links were stretching and twisting noticeably. Khollo raised the axe one more time and smashed the weakest-looking link.
The chain snapped and the dragon roared in triumph, shaking its freed leg. Khollo grinned up at the beast, then frowned as a crash and raised voices sounded overhead.
“Oh no,” he muttered. “Looks like we’ve attracted the attention of the rest of the guards. Sermas! Hern! Get over here.” He turned to the dragon. “These two are friends, they will help us break the rest of the chains.”
Friends. I will not eat them, the dragon promised. Break chains.
Sermas and Hern joined Khollo in the cell. “I think the guards are coming to check on their prisoner,” Sermas reported. He recoiled as the dragon thrust its head forward and inspected him with one glittering eye. Hern froze as well, seeming utterly terrified of the large creature.
“He won’t hurt you,” Khollo told them gently. “He just wants to be free.”
Sermas and Hern nodded. Then, Sermas bowed slightly, keeping his eyes on the dragon. Hern followed suit quickly. The dragon cocked its head, then snorted, satisfied.
I like friends, he decided. Now, break chains?
“Yes,” Khollo agreed. “Let’s finish this. Sermas, Hern, take the chains on his rear legs. Dragon, heat the chains, but don’t torch us in the process.
The dragon arched its neck and poured forth a brilliant gout of flame. He heated the chain closest to Khollo first, waiting until it was glowing, then switched to the chain by Sermas. To his credit, Sermas did not flinch but watched in fascination as the links began to glow red
