Azure bonds - Kate Novak [132]
The mound seemed to become aware of them as soon as they spotted it, for it began to speed up.
Mist circled from a safe distance. The forward edge of the moving hill was a sharp angle, literally plowing its way through the forest.
As they flew toward the front of the Abomination, a volley of black-barked trees shot out from the hill, trailing long streamers of vines. The god was trying the same tricks as before, only now he was using fifty-foot duskwoods instead of zombie soldiers to weight his snare vines.
The larger size of the missiles and the redundancy of the attack made it easy for Mist to dodge the assault. The catapulted trees fell in the tangle of woods, smashing down other trees and carving huge divots where they landed.
"Any sign of Alias?" Akabar shouted to Dragonbait.
The saurial shook his head. Just as Akabar suspected. If Alias was in the mess, she was probably well hidden beneath the surface, something they had discussed before they left camp, with Mist translating.
The dragon continued to circle Moander without attacking. The mound fired another volley of tree missiles. Once again, Mist dodged them with ease, until a particularly large one passed in front of her face. She pulled up suddenly, as if alarmed; and plummeted toward the ground. Moander lost sight of her behind the tree line.
Moander chuckled with the arrogance of a god. It might have considered telling Alias of the failure of her friends if only it had not bragged of killing them earlier. It trained some of its eyes in the direction the dragon had gone down, while it continued its crawling march south. Myth Drannor, and the powers held within, awaited it.
Dragonbait exchanged positions with the halfling and sat on Mist's head. He kept the party waiting in the clearing where Mist had landed for a quarter of an hour. The lizard could sense the distance between them and the evil god. When he gave the signal, Mist rose and, skimming low over the trees, circled away until she had reached the tree break Moander had left behind. Along this trail she made her attack run, moving in on the god's rear.
"They're going to have to call this 'Moander's Road,'" Olive shouted to the mage as she took in the devastation.
Akabar nodded wordlessly, awed by She destruction around them. Moander apparently no longer needed to absorb more bulk; it just plowed up the great trees, pushing them aside and leaving them to die on the forest floor, half buried by the great mounds of dirt it also overturned.
The dragon flew on unfazed by the rape of the Elven Wood. She kept her eyes forward, ignoring the great trench beneath her and the shattered trees at her flanks.
The mage closed his eyes, trying to shut out the sound of the heavy wings beating, the rush of air on his face, and the rise and fall of the dragon's back as she flew. He concentrated on his magic.
Olive nudged him and pointed. Akabar opened his eyes. Mist was less than twenty yards from Moander. No duskwood bombards fired from the hill. The god was oblivious to the dragon's proximity. Akabar allowed himself a brief smile when he spied the mass of duskwood trees and deadwood woven into the Abomination's mass, the perfect materials for their plans. His spell was prepared; he awaited only Dragonbait's signal.
The lizard waved, and Mist rose above the hill, spouting a long, heavy stream of fire as she did so. Like an assassin's knife, flames ripped into the greenery where the creature's spine would be if it had one. Moander screamed just as Akabar triggered his pyrotechnic spell. The red streams of the dragon's breath exploded in a further cavalcade of twisting yellows, spiraling oranges, and lancing azure blues. In the process of transforming the dragon's fiery breath to explosive fireworks, Akabar's spell snuffed the upper flames issuing from her maw, but the fireworks pierced deeper into the heart of the hill.
New shoots cropped up