Chương 55: All Red

In the hour before dawn, they woke from blessed sleep and prepared for war. Burbak had a remarkable feeling, one he'd never had before a battle. Somehow he'd risen above all his sorrows. All his hurts remained, but nothing could touch him. At long last, he was truly at peace.

"I'm the luckiest dwarf alive." He realized. Cinnabinathi only smiled. They readied their weapons; it would not be long.

"Ready to fight a god?"

"Just one? Bring them all." Burbak hefted his axe. There was no sound better than her laughter. Dawn stole over the east and the Tizypr Peaks turned molten. There was tension in the sky, at odds with the great calm Burbak felt within. Oslune had warned them the wyrm would likely come from the north. They took a high perch on a spire of stone and watched the horde muster in the valley below. Burbak wondered if his strange peace came from the artifact.

King Hymionier had gifted them a relic of the first Rune King, the Talisman of Insignificance. The ancient amulet was forged from meteoric nickel and engraved with rings of ever-diminishing runes set around a seven-pointed star sapphire. Hymionier believed it might allow Burbak and Cinnabinathi to remain unseen, long enough to strike the first blow. It was old, old magic. The Rune King warned them he was not certain if it would work against such a powerful foe, especially with a Dwarf so close at hand.

Burbak never put much stock in trinkets anyway. He could not wait to fight another Drake. The shadow approached, and their breath stopped. There was Sy! The Red Lament was gargantuan; three times the size of Aravitrimore. As the crimson silhouette flew over, their necks prickled with primordial dread. There was an ancestral memory hammered deep into every living being: the red one meant death. A shiver ran through Cinnabinathi.

"How glorious this will be," Burbak said. He squeezed her gauntlet in his. Trusting the talisman, the heroes took wing. The Red Lament flew ahead and circled the valley. Screams ripped through the Goblin encampments and panic spread in all directions. Some tribes ran for the hills, some ran for the river, and they trampled each other in the glare of dawn. Abandoned, the monsters of the great menagerie broke free from their chains and rampaged through the madness.

At the southern mouth of the vale, Sy swooped low over the Old Marrow Road that wove down from Wintermore Wall. The narrow, switchback path was packed with a caravan of plundered supplies. Sy swooped low and blew a crimson plume over the wagon train. The guards managed to loose a volley at the Drake but their shots fell short. As the useless arrows fell to the ground, the archers were already there, gasping and thrashing. Everything the red dust touched ceased to be.

The few Goblins who managed to flee only spread the Red Death. Unbothered, Sy flew west to the Tinir Gap. The passage to the west was packed with stragglers. A tribe of Jagasher Goblins scrambled forward after an all-night march, desperate to arrive before the battle began. They were just in time to meet the Red Lament. Crimson breath turned the canyon into a bloody graveyard. Burbak saw the Drake's aim: to bottle the Bla'Claw Horde into the Valley of Six Mists. Now, there was no escape.

Far below, Blackabaa Ba'ah assembled his sorcerers and shamans into a ring and led them in a thousand-voiced prayer to the Great Leerer. Across the valley, the panicked Goblins stopped in their tracks and lent their voices to the wail. All the fears, dreams, and mad energy of the horde channeled into an unholy howl that shook the valley. It rang, on and on, until the last voice gave out. The answer was a profound silence. The Green God dared not face the Red Lament.

The prayer turned into a pandemonium of shrieking terror. Cinnabinathi shadowed the Drake, careful to stay out of his sight. Bobbert wanted them to wait until Sy fought the Bla'claw, then attack him when his energy was spent. Sy never took the field. He loomed high over the panicked Horde, far from their archers and warlocks. Sy flew three great circuits around the Goblins, each tighter than the last. With each pass, the Bla'claw fled closer to the banks of the Viridian River.

At last, the Red Lament turned tail and flew away.

"We've been betrayed!" Burbak groaned. The amulet and the wind made his voice seem tiny and distant. Cinnabinathi beat her black wings and lifted them higher, back to the Sky Iris. The wyrm was gone. Then, they saw a red sheen upon the lake. A great shadow surged beneath the surface and the water turned blood red in its wake. Graceful in the water as on the wing, Sy swam round the Mote in a sinuous rush. At an incredible speed, he rammed into the southern edge of the lake with all of his weight.

Thunder shook the vale.

"No!" Cinnabinathi gasped. Burbak could not believe it. No Dwarf would ever have dreamed of cracking the Sky Iris. The southern edge was a wide stretch of banded granite and basalt that had contained the lake for time untold. It would take a thousand years to dig through. To a World Drake, all of creation only waited to be undone. Sy rammed the edge again and cracks raced along the lip. Once more, Sy swam around and smashed into the wall. The impact was even greater; Burbak could feel it in every bone.

Below, the blue water had turned into an opaque vermillion. Sy took a last loop around the mote with all his strength. The swell built into a tall wave. The final note shook Burbak and Cinnabinathi as if they'd been hammered against an anvil. Sy burst from the churning water and took wing. The deed was done. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. With a roar like nothing since the world was forged, the Sky Iris split open and wept for Sparfydl.

The lake was three leagues wide. Pressure parted the granite like drapes and tore off the south face of Blagg Mountain. A titanic avalanche of bloody water and broken stone swept down the river. Herded onto the banks like sheep, the bulk of the Bla'Claw Horde was caught in the torrent and annihilated. The roar of the shattered mountain rolled on and on. The Red Lament flew over Sparfydl and reveled in the devastation. The Valley of Six Mists was a bloody lake where corpses bobbed above the treetops.

Everything the flood touched glistened with crimson poison. They heroes fought to stay aloft, battered by cyclonic winds. Spafydl was lost but Sy was not finished. He flew back to the Mote and landed. With a sweep of his tail, he shattered the ring of sacred spruce. Blood-red claw-prints befouled the shrine of the ancients. The Red Lament spread his wings and roared in triumph.

"NOW! Come, you winged worm! You cannot hide, I can smell you! Look upon what I have wrought! It is only the beginning. Fight me, if you dare!" The Drake's long neck twisted as he scanned the sky with his blood-red eyes. Directly overhead, Cinnabinathi set her lance and dove. She aimed for the dragon's horned head, but the Drake heard them coming. Sy's head darted up with serpentine quickness and his red teeth snapped together with a thunderclap. Cinnabinathi diverted.

She was a stone's throw away, but the impact still dazed her. She swooped low and banked up. Burbak pawed at the straps and flew free as she rose. He sailed almost thirty paces before he thumped against the Drake's neck and dug in with his axe. Sy craned his horned head to see what had hit him, but just then, Cinnabinathi struck. With all her might, she drove her lance into the underside of Sy's jaw. To a lesser Drake, the blow might have been fatal. Sy's impervious scales turned the lance.

He whipped his head to bite the impudent Angel in two. Cinnabinathi flew through Sy's beard of spines and hovered right between his blood red eyes. She was dwarfed, like a dragonfly before a crocodile. She flashed forward with the lance, but a diamond membrane blinked over Sy's eye and blocked her strike. Sy cracked a wicked grin as Cinnabinathi pirouetted and fled. Eager as a hound, he beat his wings and chased the sprite. The hunt began. As Sy flew in pursuit, Burbak clung to his massive neck.

He dug in like a mountaineer and clawed his way up. The talisman was spent, but it did not matter; to the Red Lament, the Berserker was less than a grain of dust. Burbak buried his Unbreakable Axe to the helve but it merely scratched the crimson scales. Red dust burned his lungs like hot embers, but he climbed on at a crazed pace. He had to stop the monster before it could catch Cinnabinathi.

"Why run, little one?" Sy thundered. The Drake's voice boomed with mirth as he pursued the swift-winged Angel. For all his size, Sy was fully in his element, a master against a novice. No matter how Cinnabinathi strived, Sy was always just behind her. His long, crimson neck flashed forward and his jaws snapped, ever closer to the Black Angel. It was clear he only toyed with her. Burack tore forward with all his might, pushing aside the wrenching feeling in his guts. It was a long way up.

"You'll live longer if you talk. Why did Abaxios send you to distract me?" Sy demanded. His voice echoed back from the mountaintops. When Cinnabinathi did not answer, Sy drew a deep breath and blew a spray of Red Death in her direction. Cinnabinathi pinned her wings and dove beneath the gout, just as the Drake intended. He threw back his great wings and beat with all his might. The wind flung Cinnabinathi into a wild spiral. She would have crashed into the Sky Iris, but the waterline had dropped fifty paces.

She beat her black wings and recovered, a moment before she struck the poisoned water. Sy blew another gout over the lake and cut off escape. There was only way out, through the roaring rift. Cinnabinathi shot over the surface and darted through. The Drake was waiting on the other side. Sy snatched her up in his claw and guffawed in triumph. He climbed to the edge of the Sky Iris with his prize while the mountainside buckled under his bulk.

"Now! Answer me!" Sy demanded. Cinnabinathi tried to dart free, but the Drake pinned her against his palm with the tip of a crimson talon. She thrashed with her lance but it could barely scratch his skin. Sy brought her close to his face so he could hear her tiny voice.

"Answer me carefully, false angel. What is Abaxios' design? Why did he sacrifice you?" Sy pressed down with his talon and Cinnabinathi's ebon breastplate shrieked. With the tiniest twitch of his finger, the Red Lament could cut her in two.

"To buy time," Cinnabinathi gasped.

"Yes, obviously. But why? What could Oslune possibly do against me? Look upon me, Elf. I am supreme. I was your Tyrant before time began. The onus to serve me is written in every mote of your being. Now, this mountain is mine and everything the river touches will die. In one stroke, I destroy the Bla'Claw and the Empire of Men. Oslune is no fool. He knew this would happen and still set me free. Why?" Cinnabinathi stiffened. Worried he'd done too much, Sy lifted his talon. It was a ruse!

Faster than he could blink, Cinnabinathi sprang forward and hurled her lance. The point sunk deep into Sy's left eye. The crystal membrane cracked down, too late. The black lance ripped a deep gouge into the red jelly. Wide with surprise, Sy's other eye was blinded by a flash of cerulean. Cinnabinathi drew Fahflets and smote Sy's right eye. The Drake's scream rang on for leagues. As Sy thrashed, Burbak clung tight in a froth of cold sweat.

He reached the thick disc of tympanic membrane that covered the Drake's ear hole. With his Unbreakable axe, he hacked his way through and burst into Sy's head. Inside, all was blood. Burbak was blinded. He could not breathe and his limbs spasmed. Only the thought of Cinnabinathi drove him forward. The Black Rage offered an escape. Burbak let it have him. New strength surged into his limbs. Great shocks knocked the Berserker about as Sy beat at the sides of his own head with his claws.

Mad as a badger, Burbak burrowed deep into the World Drake's brains. He tore with his axe, his jagged armor, and even his teeth. The world whirled as the great Drake spun and thrashed. With a final convulsion, Sy went rigid and tumbled over the ridge. He fell into the Sky Iris in a column of red froth. It was the end of The Red Lament. The sun climbed over a realm forever changed. The first of the World Drakes was slain. The Sky Iris turned to blood and the Viridian River would run red forevermore.

Nothing it touched could survive. On trembling wings, Cinnabinathi landed on the ruined altar and wept. Burbak Breakbow was gone. He died a glorious death.