The Rite Read online

The archers scattered, but they weren’t all quick enough. The fang dragon pounced in among them and started killing. It struck so fast its motions were a blur, and every snatch of its talons, snap of its jaws, flick of a wing, or lash of its tail left at least one man mangled on the ground.

  A party of lancers charged it. Their course carried them in front of the drake that was blazing hot, casting them briefly into vivid silhouette, enabling Igan to pick out Dragonsbane galloping a pace or two in advance of the others. The youth smiled, anticipating the deadly blow his master was about to strike, for how could it be otherwise? The king’s very name bespoke his skill at slaying wyrms.

  Then the greatest champion in Damara swayed like a cripple in his saddle. The point of his lance flopped down to catch in the ground, and the pressure tumbled him backward over his horse’s rump. The knights riding closest to him hauled on their reins to keep from trampling him, and veered into the comrades on their other flanks. Other lancers, focused on the fang dragon, raced on without realizing anything was wrong.

  “Ilmater’s tears!” Igan cried. “What happened?”

  “A dragon struck him down with a spell,” the sergeant answered. “They’re sorcerers, you know.”

  Igan did know, but he still wasn’t sure the older warrior was correct. It was his impression that all the drakes had been busy with other targets at that particular moment.

  Something implored him to act. It might have been the whisper of a god or merely the urging of his own folly, but either way, he meant to heed it. He dropped the long, heavy lance—a good weapon for fending off a dragon but otherwise awkward for a combatant afoot—drew his broadsword, wheeled, and strode toward the illusory cart. The sergeant called after him, but Igan ignored him.

  The interior of the phantasm resembled an artist’s palette, but with all the dabs of luminous, multicolored paint twisting and crawling around one another. Fortunately, the space was only a few feet across. Two more strides carried Igan out the other side before he could lose either his bearings or the contents of his stomach.

  When he emerged, a single glance confirmed the worst of his suspicions. One of the mages lay dead or at least insensible on the ground. After striking him down, his companions had proceeded to the real point of their treachery.

  Pulling as if it were a garrote, Sergor held the end of a thin black cord in either fist. In the middle, the tight coils cutting into it, hung an entangled rag doll. Though the figure was crudely fashioned, its tinsel crown, fringe of yellow beard, and the golden chalice emblem stitched to its torso made it plain it represented the king. The other two traitorous warlocks stood facing it, crooning to it in some sibilant, esoteric language, weaving their hands in cabalistic passes. Their fingers left fleeting smears of deeper blackness on the night.

  Igan rushed in. He wanted to kill Sergor first, but the wizard saw him coming, squawked a warning to his fellows, and scrambled backward out of range. Igan had to content himself with a thrust at a different target. The traitor was still turning when the point drove into his side. He crumpled.

  As Igan yanked his blade free, Sergor’s other comrade jabbered a rhyme. Something flickered at the edge of the squire’s vision. He pivoted in time to see the jagged length of conjured ice fly at him, but not in time to dodge. The missile exploded against his chest. Though the shards failed to pierce his breastplate, a pang of ghastly cold stabbed through his torso and doubled him over.

  As he struggled against shock, he heard both magicians chanting, and realized with a surge of dread that he couldn’t reach either one in time to stop his conjuring. He would have to endure two more magical attacks.

  Then, however, the sergeant strode out of the illusory cart. Judging by the way he goggled, he hadn’t realized anything was amiss. He’d simply come to drag an errant squire back to his assigned duty. But he only needed an instant to recover from his surprise. Then he lowered his spear, ran forward, and rammed it into the belly of the mage who’d produced the dart of ice.

  That disrupted the one casting, but Sergor finished a split second later. He thrust out his hand and a bolt of yellow flame leaped from his fingertips. Igan tried to jump aside, but the fire brushed him anyway, searing him.

  Refusing to let the pain balk him, Igan charged. Sergor scrambled backward and commenced a rhyme. His hands swirled in a complex figure. Power howled through the air. But the whine died abruptly when Igan’s sword smashed through the warlock’s ribs.

  As soon as Sergor collapsed, Igan felt the fierce heat gnawing at the left side of his body. He dropped and rolled until the fire went out. By that time the sergeant was standing beside him.

  “What is all this?” the old warrior asked.

  “A rag doll … we have to find it … Sergor must have dropped it so he could throw other—”

  Igan saw the doll and snatched it up.

  The black cord still cut into the cloth figure even though no one was pulling on the ends. Igan hauled off his steel gauntlet so he could use his fingertips more deftly, and with considerable difficulty, stripped the binding coils away. Then he ran back through the illusory cart to survey the battlefield.

  He cursed when it appeared that the king was as crippled as before. Some of his retainers were trying to hoist the big man in his heavy plate over the back of his horse so they could take him to safety. Others had positioned themselves between the fang dragon and the stricken monarch. The gigantic reptile, still cloaked in its shimmering aura of protection, lunged, raked, and bit amid a shambles of shredded human and equine corpses.

  A rider on the wyrm’s flank chopped at its foreleg with an axe. In response, the drake simply shifted the limb and brushed the axeman and his mount. An armored knight and charger might have been able to withstand such a comparatively light bump, except that the edges of a fang dragon’s scales were as sharp as blades. They stripped away the steel and leather layers of protection to flay the flesh beneath.

  The dragon snatched up another warrior in its jaws, chewed, swallowed, then pounced at the knot of men surrounding the king. Its bulk smashed through the final rank of defenders, reducing the scene to chaos. Men dropped, pulped and shattered. Horses bolted. The wyrm was within easy reach of Dragonsbane, and those who’d hoped to remove the king from harm’s way had no choice but to turn and fight.

  Igan looked around, hoping to see other men-at-arms rushing to the king’s aid. Nobody was. They were busy fighting the other wyrms.

  Igan snatched up the lance he’d dropped and ran for Rain, still tethered among a dozen other horses to the twisted steel stake his rider had screwed into the ground. The sergeant scrambled after him. They untied their mounts and swung themselves into their sadles, but the older warrior’s steed balked at going any closer to the dragons. Igan was on his own.

  As he galloped onto the field, the fang dragon steadily obliterated the king’s defenders, one every heartbeat or so.

  “Steady, Rain,” Igan crooned. “Steady, good boy, don’t be scared, just do it the way we practiced….”

  The closer he rode to the dragon, the better he could see it, and the more hideous it became. Its hide was dark and mottled, and bony spurs projected from its joints. The tail forked into two long, bladelike projections, and the orange eyes smoldered. Resisting his swelling dread as best he could, Igan galloped to within several yards of it, and it turned its glittering gaze on him.

  Rain whinnied in terror as some magical force the wyrm had invoked heaved him and his rider twenty feet into the air. It slammed them down again a second later.

  Igan lay on his side. For a moment, he couldn’t remember why, where he was, or what was happening. Then he realized that when the dragon had dashed him and Rain to the ground, it must have knocked him unconscious for a time. He was lucky it hadn’t done worse than that, almost certainly luckier than poor Rain, who sprawled motionless, his weight pressing down on his rider’s leg.

  Igan kicked his feet out of the stirrups, then awkwardly squirmed and dragged himself out from u
nder the destrier. By the time he stood up, the dragon, intent on other foes, had pivoted away from him. Still, he had to take a steadying breath, gathering his courage, before he could bring himself to poise the lance and run at the creature.

  It sensed him coming, swung back toward him, but not quite quickly enough. By more good fortune, the lance punched through what must have been a thin spot in its scales and jabbed deep into the base of its neck. The drake let out a weak hiss, stamped, reached in a shuddering, faltering way to seize Igan in its jaws, then flopped over onto its flank.

  It occurred to Igan then that he likely had won his spurs today, but he didn’t even care. Only Dragonsbane mattered. He scurried to his master, helped to carry him from the field, and stayed with him for the remainder of the battle, watching as various learned folk attended him. At first the clerics worked alone. Then, when their efforts proved unavailing, they sent for wizards to help them.

  That was no use, either.

  Out on the heath, the company slew the last surviving dragon, and Drigor turned to the onlookers and announced what everyone already realized: “I don’t understand. His Majesty isn’t dead. He isn’t even wounded. But neither Master Kulenov nor I can rouse him.”

  Cloaked in the diminutive form of an aged gnome with nut-brown, wrinkled skin, Lareth, King of Justice, sovereign of the gold dragons of Faerûn—indeed, of all metallic wyrms, until the present crisis passed—sat on an outcropping, watched the morning sun creep higher into a clear blue sky, and wondered about the taste of human flesh.

  He’d never sampled it, of course, or the meat of any sentient creature, even a slinking goblin or brutish orc. No metal dragon had. It was against their laws, to the extent that such proud and independent beings could be said to have any.

  He’d never questioned the wisdom of such a prohibition, but now he didn’t see the point of it. Naturally no dragon of goodly character would eat a human of similar inclinations, but if you had to kill a wicked man to stop him from doing evil, wherein lay the harm of devouring the body afterward?

  Was the meat so succulent that the wyrm might develop a compulsion to eat it on a regular basis? Lareth tried to imagine a feast as delicious as that, the sweet, warm, bloody flesh melting on his tongue, the dainty bones cracking between his fangs and giving up their marrow—

  And avidity gave way to a surge of nausea. Lords of light, what was the matter with him?

  Of course, he knew the answer. It was the Rage, madness and bloodlust nibbling at his mind. He needed to rest, but first he’d have to wake another sentinel to take his place.

  Knowing he’d sleep better in his natural form, he swelled into a gleaming, sinuous creature with a gold’s characteristic “catfish whiskers,” twin horns sweeping back from the skull, and wings that sprouted at the shoulders to extend almost all the way down to the tip of the tail. He turned, spread his pinions, and leaped upward. Below him, in a valley nestled among the frigid peaks called the Galenas, dozens of his kin lay slumbering, their scales—gold, brass, silver, bronze, or copper—glittering in the sun.

  Furling his wings, Lareth landed beside a fellow gold nearly as huge as himself. It was Tamarand, first among the lords. Tamarand was snoring, an odd little puff and whistle that made Lareth smile for a moment. Then he recited the incantation Nexus, greatest of all draconic wizards, had taught him. Power groaned through the air, and tufts of coarse mountain grass caught fire.

  Tamarand’s blank, luminous amber eyes fluttered open. He heaved himself to his feet, then inclined his head in a show of respect.

  “Your Resplendence …”

  “I need you to take over for a while,” Lareth said. “I … the frenzy was …” He realized he didn’t need or want to explain the shameful impulse that had crept unbidden into his mind. “Just take over.”

  Tamarand eyed him. “Are you all right?”

  Under the circumstances, the question shouldn’t have annoyed Lareth, but it did anyway. It even made fire warm his throat and brought smoke fuming out of his maw and nostrils before he stifled the emotion.

  “I’m fine. It’s just … you know what it is. This is why we take turns standing watch. Because it’s dangerous for any of us to remain awake for too long at a stretch.”

  “Of course.”

  “Lay the enchantment on me, and—”

  Lareth heard wings lashing overhead, and peered up at the sky to see Azhaq swooping lower. A member of the martial fellowship of silvers called the Talons of Justice, Azhaq was one of the few metallic drakes who enjoyed Lareth’s permission to stay awake and wander abroad.

  Lareth should have greeted Azhaq with the decorum befitting their respective stations, but he was too eager to hear what the shield dragon, as silvers were often called, had to say. Before Azhaq’s talons even touched the earth, the King cried, “Give me your news. Did you find Karasendrieth, or any of the other rogues?”

  Smelling like rain as his species often did, the broad argent plates on his head reflecting the sun, Azhaq folded his wings and inclined his head. “No, Your Resplendence. The Rage has plunged the North into madness. Flights of our evil kindred lay waste to the land. The Zhentarim and other cabals of wicked men strive to turn the chaos to their own advantage. Suffice it to say, amid all the terror and confusion, it’s difficult to pick up a trail.”

  Lareth bared his fangs in a show of frustration. “Then why have you returned,” he asked, “if not to report success?”

  Azhaq lowered his wedge-shaped head with its high dorsal frill in a rueful gesture. “I had to come. The frenzy has its claws in me. I need to sleep, and perhaps it’s just as well. On my flight north, I saw something you ought to know about. The creatures of Vaasa have breached the fortifications in Bloodstone Pass. They’re pouring into Damara.”

  “Impossible,” Lareth said. “They could never take the Gates, certainly not without the Witch-King to lead them, and Zhengyi is gone.”

  “I don’t know how they managed it,” Azhaq said, “but they did, and Damara was already in desperate straits, fighting off dragon flights. I don’t know how the humans can deal with hordes of orcs as well.”

  “It’s a pity,” Lareth said, “but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment.”

  “With respect, Your Resplendence,” Azhaq said, “I think there might be. Surely the dragons sleeping here can withstand the Rage for just another day or two of wakefulness. That could be all the time we need to turn the goblins back.”

  “No,” Lareth snapped. “Too risky. We stick to our plan.”

  “Plans must sometimes change to fit changing circumstances,” Azhaq said.

  Lareth’s fire rose in his throat and warmed his mouth. “Wings of our ancestors,” he snarled, “why didn’t I see it before? You and Karasendrieth were comrades in your time.”

  His eyes like pools of quicksilver, Azhaq blinked in what was surely feigned confusion. “What? No … never.”

  “Since the day I sent you to deal with her, you’ve caught up with her twice—”

  “No, only once!”

  “—and she ‘escaped’ both times. It can only be because you permitted it! You’re her accomplice, working to undermine me from within my own court.”

  Lareth reared to blast forth his flame. Realizing he was in actual danger, Azhaq crouched, his wings unfurling with a snap, as he prepared to spring.

  Tamarand lunged between the two combatants. Lareth scrambled, trying to reach a position from which he could expel his fiery breath without hitting his meddling fool of a lieutenant, while Azhaq attempted a corresponding maneuver.

  Wings spread to their fullest to make his body a more effective screen, scuttling to keep the king and the Talon separated, Tamarand bellowed, “Llimark! Llimark! Llimark!”

  Angry though he was, the shouted name finally registered with Lareth, and he understood he’d been confused. It was Llimark, one of his own golds, who’d been Karasendrieth’s friend, and Llimark who, at his monarch’s behest, had attempted to bring her
to heel the first time. Just as he’d maintained, Azhaq had only caught up with the dragon bard on a single occasion, later on.

  The Talon was no liar, and likely wasn’t a traitor, either. Lareth abandoned his combative posture and stood still. When Azhaq discerned as much, he too dropped his guard. Tamarand warily edged out from between the other two wyrms.

  “My friend,” Lareth said, “I’m truly sorry.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” Azhaq replied, albeit somewhat stiffly. “It was the frenzy prompting you.”

  “Yes,” said Lareth, “and it shows just how close to the edge all of us truly are. This is why we don’t dare fly to the aid of Damara.”

  Azhaq grimaced. “I suppose.”

  “Gareth Dragonsbane is a great leader. He saved his people once, and he’ll do it again, even without our help. Now lie down and sleep until someone wakes you to take a turn at watch.”

  Once the silver was asleep, Lareth turned to Tamarand.

  “Thank you,” said the king. “You saved me from a terrible mistake.”

  “It’s always my honor to serve you,” Tamarand said. “I’m just glad I was able to react quickly enough, because I certainly didn’t foresee the need.”

  Lareth felt a pang of annoyance. “What are you getting at?”

  “You know Llimark quite well, and you’ve invested countless hours reflecting on Karasendrieth and all reports concerning her. For you to become muddled in that particular way …”

  “Must mean the Rage has crippled my mind? That it’s time for the first of my Lords to take my place? Is that what you’re implying?”

  “No, Your Resplendence. By no means.”

  “Our folk elected me King of Justice because I’m the oldest and thus, the strongest, not only in body but in mind and spirit. I can withstand frenzy better than anyone else.”

  “I know that. It’s just that you’ve stood almost as many watches as the rest of us put together. Perhaps the strain is telling on even you. Perhaps you should rest for a good long while.”

  Lareth did his best not to feel doubted, mistrusted, and betrayed. He struggled to believe Tamarand meant well.