With a bellow, the enraged serpent instead spewed a crackling, hissing ball of fire into the runnel. Aurora, who had turned to flee as soon as her spell was cast, was slightly singed at the tip of her tail. Like her blood-colored foe, however, the gold dragon could suffer no great harm from the normally deadly inferno of a dragon’s breath.
She raced through the lightless passage with all the speed of long familiarity and keen, dark-sensitive eyes. After a hundred steps she entered the expanded section of the cavern, turning about again to face the narrow bottleneck. She felt the approach of her enemies, evil surging down the narrow cave.
But still it was not the time to fight. Instead Aurora whispered the incantations of another potent spell, felt the magic flow from her body, infusing the very bedrock of the mountain. That surface flexed and buckled, then churned upward from the floor and down from the ceiling, merging to form a wall of stone completely blocking the passage. The gold dragon listened for long heartbeats, hoping for the sound of a heavy body crashing into that wall, that the red’s fury and headlong flight would cause it real harm.
Instead she heard a bellow of frustration and felt the wall grow warm under the onslaught of fiery breath. No matter, that-Aurora knew that the wall would withstand any heat the crimson serpent could belch forth.
And two of the Dark Queen’s wyrms were thwarted, at least temporarily. The circumstance might give her enough time to deal with her other enemies, if she reacted quickly-and was blessed with good luck. Assuming that the green and blue still winged along the deep canyon, Aurora tried to picture their exact location. Her teleport spell was a simple word, uttered sharply, and before the echo returned from the enclosing cavern walls the gold dragon was poised in midair, high above a churning river that gouged ever deeper into the bedrock.
Immediately before her, and some distance below, the green dragon soared on widespread wings, unaware of his enemy’s sudden appearance. A quick glance showed Aurora that the blue was far ahead, and, like the green, apparently hadn’t noticed the gold’s instantaneous arrival. Aurora plunged, wings swept far back for maximum speed-and to minimize the sound of her purposeful flight.
Nearing her target, Aurora saw a spot of pearly light floating above the green dragon’s tail, like some kind of large, flying gem. As she opened her jaws for a breath of killing fire, she felt an uncanny tingle of alarm-there was something unnatural about the bauble, something strongly suggestive of magic. Closer still, the gold saw the staring pupil in the circled whiteness of the magical orb, and knew that she’d been observed.
The green’s curling turn was startlingly quick, emerald jaws darting back to face the onrushing Aurora. Warned by his wizard eye, the reptilian flyer twisted through a steep, desperate loop, roaring around as fiery pressure welled in the gold dragon’s belly, spewing from Aurora’s jaws into a blast of searing, hissing flame. At the same time, she felt a cloud of noxious vapor surround her, toxins stinging the membranes of eyes and nostrils, cutting into tender nerve ends with jarring pain.
Amid the cloud of fire and gas, the two mighty serpents collided. Choking and gagging, Aurora sought to fasten her fanged jaws around the green’s neck. Her enemy’s charred wings cracked away, turning to ashes under the raking slash of the gold dragon’s claws-but then she recoiled in sudden pain as emerald claws ripped her own flesh. Aurora twisted, barely avoiding the rending belly-slash of her enemy’s fangs. Finally the golden jaws found their target, closed around the neck, and with a crushing bite, ripped away the green dragon’s life.
Releasing the bleeding, charred corpse to tumble toward the river, Aurora extended her wings and stroked for altitude. She blinked remnants of gas from still-bleary eyes, trying to locate the blue. She saw that the azure serpent had wheeled about at the sounds of battle and now winged toward her, closing the distance fast.
Abruptly the blue dragon vanished, and Aurora wondered for a precious second if her enemy had used a spell of invisibility. The truth came an instant later-but that delay was almost fatal. The gold whirled with instinctive speed, seeing that her foe had copied her own tactic, teleporting into perfect attack position. Shrieking at the image of the blue diving straight toward her, Aurora tried to draw a breath through the choking remnant of the green dragon’s gas, to again fill her belly with the killing fire of dragonbreath. A spasm of coughing was the only result.