Cormyr_ a novel - Ed Greenwood [16]
Iliphar managed a small smile. "With the winner getting the forests, and the loser promising not to hunt the winner's race. I challenge you, Thauglorimorgorus, by the ancient rites of your people."
The black dragon looked at the gem-encrusted skulls of his subjects. "Agreed. Neither side uses his spells or wands, and neither uses his, eh, breath weapons. Are you prepared?"
The elf lord took a deep breath, as if the difficult part of his task had been completed. "I am as prepared as I ever shall be." He began to take off his flowing cope and cumbersome cassock, to reveal a fine mesh of silvery mail beneath them.
The dragon leapt upon him immediately, like a fox leaping on a field mouse. Yet Iliphar was ready for the sudden attack, and in midleap, Thauglor realized his error. The elf whipped the capelike covering upward across the outstretched claws of the black beast.
Thauglor roared and pulled his claws back. The hem of the elf's cope was studded with some impossibly sharp crystals that cut into the thick, fleshy pads of the dragon's claws. The crystals were coated with something else as well, for the shallow wounds stung. It was akin to grabbing a giant porcupine.
Iliphar made use of the dragon's momentary distraction to divest himself of his robes and toss aside his belt of wands. Now he stood on the steps, facing the dragon. His entire body, from neck to ankles, was encased in the thinly spun chain of the elves. Iliphar drew his sword as well, a slender, whiplike blade, perfect for digging beneath the dragon scales into the tender flesh beneath them. In his other hand, he still bore his golden staff.
"You did not tell me your coat was a weapon," said the dragon, now crouching low. The other two dragons backed to the edge of the clearing to give their liege room to engage in battle.
"You did not tell me you would not allow me time to remove it," replied the elf, gracing Thauglor with a wide, calculated smile. The smile was taunting, but the dragon saw that the eyes above the smile were cold and hard.
The elf took two steps forward and lunged with his staff. Thauglor easily beat aside the blow with a swipe of his taloned claw, but again Iliphar had thought beyond the dragon's reaction. As the staff's blow was caught and struck aside, he stabbed hard with his slender blade, driving it deep into the shallow wounds carved earlier.
It felt as if a hot sliver had been driven into the dragon's flesh. Thauglor bellowed and convulsed. Iliphar cursed as the blade was ripped from his grip, clanged once on the stone, and went skittering down the steps to stop at the feet of the dragon.
Almost immediately Thauglor reacted with a sharp blow from his other paw. The blow was weak and clumsy, but it still knocked the elven lord sprawling from his feet. His mail made a serpentlike whisper as he slid across the flagstones, dropping the staff as well.
The dragon snaked his head forward and grasped Iliphar by one leg in his heavy jaws. Iliphar felt the ragged daggers of fangs cut through the mail and into his soft flesh. He held back a scream beneath tight lips.
The dragon then whipsawed his neck upward and let go, flinging the elf in a short arc that ended back on the steps. Iliphar bounced against the flagstones and felt something sharp give along the muscles of his ribs. His head was ringing from the force of the landing. It would clear if he had a moment's rest…
But Thauglor gave him no rest, instead repeating the maneuver, grasping the elf tightly in his jaws and flinging him up in the air once more. This time something snapped in Iliphar's leg, and he screamed from the sudden stabbing pain.
A third time the dragon's jaws flung him aside, and Iliphar landed on his shoulder, enough to dislocate it but not enough to strike him senseless. His sword was beneath the dragon's claws, but his ornate staff lay just a few feet away.
The dragon was now playing for the crowd, Iliphar realized, both for his own two young minions and for the elves in the tower. See how easy it is! See how inconsequential and weak these elves