Azure bonds - Kate Novak [34]
The monster raised her up to its temple and held her against its head so that she stood next to Dragonbait's crystal cell. The lizard gestured to himself, a motion that caught her attention. She took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself while she watched him miming the same motions over and over. First he would raise his hands together over his head, then pound them against the transparent wall of his trap, then slap himself on the forehead.
Huh?
Raise, pound, slap. Raise, pound, slap.
The creature of earth tugged its other arm from the soil The newly freed fist held a gemlike twin of Dragonbait^ prison. The earthen giant brought this second crystal up to where it caught the blue rays from Alias's sigils and scattered them into the dark night. Then the great stone cracked and split along its center. The blue light of her cursed runes revealed a clear, rippling slime within the crystal's open heart. Any moment she would become another bug in amber.
Raise, pound, slap.
Why does Dragonbait keep slapping himself on the head? she wondered.
Dragonbait pointed at her. She slapped herself on the head. He shook his head furiously and pointed at the crystal over his head.
"Not my head!" she yelled excitedly, finally understanding. "The creature's head!"
Clenching both her fists about the hilt of Dragonbait's weapon and twisting her body, Alias smashed Dragonbait's sword against the lizard's crystal prison.
Steel screeched on rock, and the force of the blow traveled up Alias's arm, leaving it numb. The crystal split like an eggshell, and Dragonbait spilled out of the jagged hole, followed by a mucky ooze that poured down the monster's face.
The monster shrieked, a baneful cry that carried leagues on the wind and seemed to set off a gale that bent large pines and snapped their heavy branches. A moan issued from the earth, echoed by the rocks of the stone circle, and then the huge beast's shoulders slumped and began to flow back into the ground.
Patting her hand gently, Dragonbait took his sword from her numbed grip. He slashed at the rock hand that held her, and the stone flowed away from her legs like sand. They were free, but there was a forty foot drop from the monster's head to the ground, and Alias was reluctant to make the leap.
She spotted Olive Ruskettle below, throwing daggers at the behemoth. The halfling's weapons buried themselves in the monster's chest. The tiny blades couldn't possibly hurt the monster more than a bee sting would harm a human warrior, yet the monster cried out again like a feral child.
More goo oozed from the shattered crystal on the monster's head. The wound was undoubtedly mortal, but Alias worried now that she and Dragonbait might be crushed by the monster's death throes. Dragonbait tugged on Alias's arm and forced her to half-leap, half-slide to the rock monster's shoulders.
Akabar's voice rose in a chant, and a lance of rainbow fight struck the creature in the chest above the dimming rune of interlocking circles. The rainbow broke into a thousand small motes, spreading across the creature in a dancing, swirling pattern.
With one arm about Alias's waist, Dragonbait began climbing down the monster's back, using his hand and foot claws to keep his grip. Dragonbait jumped the last ten feet just as Akabar's magic consumed the creature's torso and slid up its head and arms. The moon shone through the stone wherever the rainbow light covered it.
The creature gave one last plaintive groan and faded into the night. Even the torn earth where it had risen fell neatly back into place. Akabar and Olive ran toward Alias, shouting victory cries. Behind her, she smelled the woodsmoke scent that seemed to cling to the lizard. A clawed hand squeezed her numbed shoulder gently, and Alias felt warmth flow into the limb. Dragonbait looked up at her, and she felt sure there was concern in his eyes, though they looked as dead yellow as ever. The lizard drew back as the halfling and the mage reached Alias's