Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [160]
The sword glowed red, as hot as if it had come from the forge fire. Skylan dropped it with a cry. The smell of hot steel mingled with the stench of burning flesh.
Skylan wrung his hand and swore. He glared at the draugr and then ran toward the ladder, intending to follow Wulfe. The trapdoor slammed shut. Skylan beat on it and shouted for Wulfe to open it.
The trapdoor did not budge.
Cold and clammy sweat ran down Skylan’s neck. He turned slowly to face the draugr. The hold was dark, but he had no need to light a lantern. The draugr gave off a ghastly light.
She pointed at the board.
Skylan walked slowly back, sat down.
“Why are you doing this to me, Draya?” he asked, his voice ragged. “Why are you tormenting me?”
The draugr pointed at the dragonbone. Slowly, his hand shaking, Skylan picked up the bone in his burned palm. Wincing at the pain, he moved the bone along the path, hardly looking to see where he placed it.
That game did not last long. Skylan was not a very good dragonbone player at the best of times. As Garn was always telling him, Skylan was too rash, too reckless, too eager to win. Now, his mental processes clouded by horror, Skylan made one unfortunate move after another, and the draugr soon swept away all his bones. Skylan prayed to Torval this would be the end of the game, that the draugr would release him from the nightmare. Instead she indicated she wanted to play again.
Skylan gave a groan.
“We will make a wager. If I win this game, we quit,” he bargained. “You will go away and leave me in peace.”
The draugr gazed at him with her lifeless eyes and said nothing. Skylan did not know if they had a bet or not. He could only hope. His terror was starting to wane, and he forced himself to concentrate on the game. He faced the draugr defiantly and rolled the first bone. Marking where it fell, he placed his bone on the path.
The draugr picked up five bones in her withered, bloodstained hand and made ready to toss them.
“What are you doing? That’s cheating,” Skylan said angrily. “You can’t start by putting five bones into play.”
The draugr threw the five bones onto the board. She picked them up, one by one, and moved them into position, then reached her hand across the board toward him.
Skylan shrank back from the horrible touch. The draugr picked up five of his bones and held them out to him. When he hesitated, unwilling to take them, she thrust them at him. Skylan held out his hand, shuddering as the draugr’s icy nails brushed his skin.
He was apparently to throw five bones. He did so, and he placed them according to the fall. Play proceeded, with Skylan scrambling to try to figure out the new rules.
The dragonbone game had many variations. Every clan played by its own rules, some versions actually taking on the names of the clan that originated them, such as the Torgun Bone-Toss, the Heudjun Triple, and the Margen Cliff Fall. Skylan could only assume the draugr had made up her own variant, which, sadly, made the game exceedingly more complicated.
Competitive by nature, with a warrior’s need to win, Skylan almost forgot he was battling a corpse. He took his time, thought over each move, and played an extremely good game. The draugr was skilled, as well. The game ended in a draw.
The draugr rose silently and walked into the darkness.
Skylan collapsed, falling onto the board, scattering the pieces. He was too exhausted to move, and Wulfe found him asleep like that.
The next night, the draugr came to play the game again.
The dragonship sailed on through the unrelenting fog. Skylan could not see the sun, and he kept track of the days by carving marks on the rail. The draugr came every night, and though Wulfe was terrified of the draugr and wished she would go away, the boy was at least consoled by the fact that Skylan no longer made him play dragonbones. After three nights of playing with the draugr, Skylan threw the board and pieces into the sea.
The next night the board and pieces were back in their usual