Azure bonds - Kate Novak [126]
Wounded, the lizard made a sloppy landing. The scaly flesh around his eyes crinkled in pain, but he spun his oddly shaped, toothed sword over his head and sliced at Akabar from behind.
The outer diamond tip of his sword struck at the back of the mage's neck right where the sucker-tendrils clustered in a main bundle before they trailed back in a thick vine to Meander's heart. Most of the cluster was severed neatly without a scratch on the mage's scalp. Dragonbait put his foot against Akabar's back to keep him in place and yanked the remaining vine-bundle from Akabar's head.
Just then, Mist breathed a mighty exhalation of flame and brimstone that caused her belly to flex deeply inward. The fire traveled down the side of the tether about her neck and turned the side of the god into a jungle inferno. The wet vegetable flesh alighted again, and the outer layers of the snare vine were reduced to ash.
Akabar's and Meander's mouths screamed, but their voices were no longer in hellish synchrony. They were separate entities. Akabar fell to his knees, gasping, his hands clutching the wounds made from the sucker that had been ripped away. The tendrils surrounding him and Dragonbait wavered and then closed in.
The lizard grabbed the mage by the arm and yanked him to his feet. He lopped off a few more tendrils on the living mound, tugged the mage with him, and jumped.
Warrior and Turmishman tumbled down the slope, resisting the impulse to stop their fall by grabbing hold of the overhanging vines and tree stumps that stood out from Meander's lower flanks. They fell in a heap at the base of the monster.
Moander burned and crackled. Plumes of acrid smoke billowed up from his body. Moander tired of this battle-it was dangerously exhausting his life energies. The Abomination desired a retreat, but if he loosed the dragon, the beast might yet find the strength to breathe again and destroy the god's earthly form. The tendril snaring the dragon was almost burned through. Moander had to damage the wyrm first, and damage her badly.
The god played out an additional length of the tether vine. Mist felt the line slacken and, believing in her exhaustion that the line had finally broken, pulled back with a frantic beat of her wings. She succeeded in snapping the line even more taut. Moander gave one last great pull, and the weakened vine snapped apart.
Mist, with the halfling clutching for dear life to her ears, pitched over backward and crashed among the trees.
The huge god-hill, burning and mostly blind, shifted one way then another before plunging deeper into the forest. Smaller trees were plowed underneath, but now Moander flowed between the larger trees, unable to snap them.
Dragonbait pulled Akabar from the Abomination's path. The mage oozed blood in scarlet ponds from half-a-dozen shallow head wounds. He moaned softly and began to cry.
Dragonbait pulled the mage's curved dagger from his scaly calf and examined the gash. His hands glowed softly in the dim woods, and the cut grew less deep but did not close completely. His healing ability exhausted, Dragonbait tore his ragged new shirt in two to use as bandages.
Akabar sat in a shocked silence as the lizard bound his head wounds. He did not respond to the warrior's touch or his tug on his robes or his prodding. He would not move. Dragonbait slung his sword over his shoulders, hefted the Turmishman in both his arms as if he were a child, and began moving in the direction of the dragon's crash. The time had come to regroup his forces, such as they were.
23
Akabar's Recovery, Moander's Offer,
and the Second Rescue Attempt
When Akabar awoke it was dark, and the light of a nearby fire played across the ground. The firelight glittered on the scales of an immense dragon. The bulk of the beast lay in shadow, but Akabar could see Dragonbait napping, curled up on the great beast's snout. The rune-marked lizard had a green bandage tied about one of his legs. Between the mage and the fire loomed a huge shadow. The towering form knelt