When Golmarr reaches the lake’s edge, only his dark head emerges from the water. He looks left and then right, and slowly, bit by bit, creeps out of the water, right in front of the sand pathway. His sword reflects firelight as he uncurls to his full height.
Behind me, I hear the snap of fabric catching the wind—the same sound I heard when I was looking down the well of light—and a gust of searing air pushes against my back, creating ripples on the lake’s surface. I whip around and look over my shoulder and forget to breathe.
A massive dragon is soaring in the air behind me. Its body shimmers like glowing orange jewels catching the light from the fire. Giant feet are tucked up beneath it, tipped with curved gray claws. It flaps its wings of tattered gold, sending another burst of blistering wind through the cave that makes the fire sputter and dance. I gasp a breath of air to yell a warning, but it sears my lungs and silences me. I swallow and force my voice to scream, “Golmarr! Run!” Ducking behind the stalagmite nub I’ve been holding, I tremble as I watch the great beast soar over my head. The dragon glides on the air, its wings barely fitting between the stalagmite columns, and swoops toward Golmarr. “Run!” I shriek again.
Golmarr does not run. He turns toward the dragon and lifts his sword. His bare arms flex with muscle as he swings the sword around, slashing at the air with the grace of a warrior. “If you have any honor, you will land and fight me!” he yells. The dragon flies over Golmarr but turns in the air, circling back the way it came. “Fight me,” he yells again.
The dragon turns to Golmarr once more and soars toward him. He raises his sword, ready to charge, but before the dragon is close enough for him to use his weapon, a deluge of white fire bursts forth from its mouth, engulfing the horse lord. The fire passes him, hits the cave wall, and goes out, but Golmarr is covered in flames. They lap at his skin, cling to his clothing, and curl around his hair. He screams, and the sword drops from his hand. He falls to his knees, his scream replaced with silence. “Get in the water,” I cry. His body crumples to the ground, and he lies there, a smoldering pile of flesh and clothing.
I dig my feet into the ground and start pulling myself through the water, clawing against it, and finally slosh out of the lake. Stumbling onto shore, I throw my dripping body onto Golmarr’s. His flesh sears my skin, and steam hisses out between us as the flames consuming him trickle to nothing and die. I roll him onto his back, and his vest burns my hands. I gasp and pull away. The vest’s metal plating has burned the leather to white ash. I yank it open, and the metal squares fall out of the leather, sizzling against his chest. With hardly a thought for my fingers, I knock the plates off his body. Beneath them, his shirt is ash, and his skin is blistered. He smells much like a piece of meat that has been too long on the flames: burned to a crisp. I turn away and gag.
A gust of searing wind slaps me in the face. Sparks rain down from the nearest fire and singe my skin and burn tiny holes into my skirt. I look up, and then up some more, at a beast easily as tall as two houses stacked on top of each other. The fire dragon is perched atop the pile of rocks beside me, and the fire is blazing around it so it looks like a creature made of flame…yet it is immune to the fire.
I grab Golmarr’s ankles and start dragging him down the sand path, to the only exit I can see, but an arm of fire slithers across it and fences me in.
You think I will simply let the two of you walk away? You are the first living human beings I have seen in half a century. Entertain me for a spell before I eat you. I drop Golmarr’s legs and press on my forehead, wondering where that thought came from. Foolish girl. Surely you are not the one the wizard spoke of before I ate him.
Those words, spoken in my head, in my very voice, are not my words. Despite the heat making the air ripple, I shiver and look back up at the fire dragon, and then step between it and Golmarr’s unconscious body.
The beast is studying me with eyes that gleam like polished copper. Pearly, pale orange scales cover its body, scales twin to the one hanging on my necklace, and for the first time I wonder how this dragon scale became separated from its owner.