Elgan shouted, “There! Straight up, in the sun, diving for us. He’s dropping-closer-closer-Gods, his claws-”
Koryon shouted, “Hang on.” Curving the front edges of his wings into his body, he turned his downward velocity upward, a slingshot effect of his own. He clutched his claws tightly to his body as though shielding himself in panic.
Jaegendar, directly over him, flexed his huge claws and roared with anger and pleasure as he dropped-
“Catch!” Koryon lifted his head, revealing the lance he had hidden under his body, and tossed it back to Elgan. Elgan deftly caught it and threw it forward like a spear, using all their momentum and his full strength.
The air whistled around the lance as it struck Jaegendar in the breastbone, sailing in as easily as if it had struck a black cloud.
Jaegendar fell, end over end, slowly, crashing on a pinnacle of rock. The impact alone should have killed him. Koryon dropped lower, grateful that the trick had worked-
*****
“Would a trick like that work, sirs? Specially against another dragon?” Brann was asking for information, not objecting.
Gannie regarded him coldly. “Against a stupid, arrogant one who hadn’t been challenged in a long while? It was easy.”
Brann subsided quickly, putting a cup to his mouth as much to hide behind it as to drink.
Gannie went on, “Or at least it worked as well as they could expect. Koryon flew low …”
*****
Koryon flew low to see if Jaegendar were dead.
His body, on the cold grass, raised a mist like a hot spring or water on a fire. The lance, passing through his body, pinned him to the earth.
“We did it,” Koryon said with relief.
There was a rustle as the contract dropped from Elgan’s forearm and crumbled to ashes. The breeze caught the ashes and sent them swirling past Jaegendar’s nose-
Where they rose suddenly in a quick puff. Jaegendar, breathing heavily, opened one eye. “Very good,” he said coldly.
Koryon and Elgan, on the ground, froze.
“It nearly worked. A better throw and I would be dead”-he glanced down-“instead of in great pain.” Know,” he said in a low hiss, and coughed. “Know this. I will heal. And I will find you.”
Elgan said with barely a tremor, “You’ll never find us.”
Jaegendar took the lance in his wicked talons and snapped it off, barely above the entry wound. “I will find you, whatever form you take, and I will burn and destroy every place you have been, until the day I catch you. You will wander the earth, and death and misery will follow you nightly.”
Elgan opened his mouth, closed it and strode off quickly. Koryon changed to human form and followed. They paused only to pick up their knapsacks before leaving the smoking valley. As he put on his, Elgan looked thoughtfully at the huge black figure. “I wonder how fast he can heal.”
The two of them walked down the first of many roads.
*****
“-the first of many roads.”
The fire was reduced to embers, the lamps out. The inn was shadowy and seemed suddenly as cold as the night.
Kory finished, “And so the two took on human form and fled from town to town, from inn to inn, seeking to hide among humans and pursued nightly by the healed dragon Jaegendar. And everywhere they went, they were followed shortly by flames and destruction. To this day, wherever they go, few survive.”
No one said anything for a long while. Finally, Brann asked in a quavering voice, “And did he ever catch them?”
Gannie, all smiles gone finally, looked out the window for the twentieth time. “Not yet.”
“But he’s destroyed every place they’ve been.”
“Completely.” Kory watched Gannie’s expression anxiously. “Not one stone on another. Refugees, blood, and tears.
“So there are two dragons fleeing another, forever?” the herdsman asked plaintively.
Kory spread his hands. In the firelight, the shadows of his outspread arms flickered like wings, hanging over the table. No one moved until he dropped his arms. “I’m afraid it’s the end.”
Kory coughed discreetly. “If you all remember,” he said earnestly, “our bargain was that if our story frightened you, you would pay us.” He stared at each of them one by one; several of them flinched. “I think we’ve earned our reward.”