CHAPTER 29
THE GREATEST SACRIFICE
A second claw appeared on the rim of the tower and then, between the two claws, the shiny black spikes that adorned the dragon’s head rose up from below the tower. Slowly, they ascended higher into the air, until at last the dragon’s head came into view.
Upon seeing the dragon, Ben despaired and all coherent thought left him. The beast’s head was broad and his elongated snout glistened with many teeth. He was even bigger than Ben had imagined. In fact, his head was larger than a car!
“Who are you, child,” Zoltan whispered, “that the elves should send you out to meet me? Are you a dragon slayer, perchance? Do you hide a sword beneath those cloaks? Or, are you a magic user, come to cast a spell upon me, as Merlin did centuries ago?”
Ben looked into the dragon’s serpentine eyes. The irises were dark gold in color and flecked with ebony. They looked much like a cat’s eyes. However, the pupils were red and flickered as the dragon spoke. Ben could feel the dragon searching his mind and he remembered what the Keeper had told him. Quickly, he looked down at the ground.
“I sense no magic about you, boy, and you are hardly big enough to wield a sword,” Zoltan taunted. Ben did not respond, but continued to stare at the ground. He did not have to put on an act for the dragon; he was truly terrified and speechless.
“It is as I suspected. You were sent here as a sacrifice. Poor stupid child. Bring me the staff!”
The staff! The plan suddenly came back to him! The spell of confusion was locked in the spell catcher on the end of the staff. All he had to do was hand the staff to Zoltan and then run. He could do this. He could do it. He screwed up his courage and took a step. And then everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
The Keeper’s flask held no magic potion; it was simply water. The Keeper allowed Ben to believe it was magic to bolster his confidence and give him courage. When Ben dropped the container earlier, most of that water had escaped. Although the blizzard was over, it was still bitterly cold and the water quickly froze, forming a thin sheet of ice where it had spilled. Ben stepped on this patch of ice and his foot shot out from under him. As he fell backwards, the staff was wrenched from his grip and clattered to the ground. The spell of confusion was gone. GONE! Ben looked up into the dragon’s eyes again and time froze.
Down in the forest, below the Faerie oaks, the dwarves were poised with their axes high above their heads. They waited patiently for the signal to cut the ropes. They strained their ears for the sound of Gabriel’s horn. They did not have to wait for long.
Vaaaaroooooooo-oooooooooom!!!!!!
In unison, all three axes descended. There was one solid thunk as the axes sliced through the ropes and bit into the stumps of wood that were positioned beneath the ropes and between each catapult. When the axes cut the firing mechanism, the Faerie oaks pulled away from the catapults with such speed that the snow upon the ground around them was sucked up into the air with a great whooshing sound. The catapults, now free of their restraints, launched the anchor stones into the air, snapping the chains up from their hiding place beneath the snow. The dwarves watched the stones sail toward the castle in a graceful arc, trailing the chains behind them.
Ben sat up and stared at the staff. It was over. The oracle was wrong. The staff had touched the ground and the spell catcher had released the spell. Suddenly, Gabriel’s horn sliced through the cold winter air and everything around him exploded in a flurry of frenzied activity.
Zoltan whipped around to face the south tower. The instant the horn sounded, the catapults that were hidden in the forest below launched their payload. In that same instant, Zoltan realized that Ben was not a sacrifice, but a decoy, and sprang from the castle wall, barely evading the trap. With a powerful leap and a single stroke of his immense wings, the dragon was able to climb high enough to escape the trajectory of the stones.
Ben watched in dismay as the huge slabs of granite sailed harmlessly below the dragon. The slack quickly played out of the chains and jerked the rocks back to the ground with a tremendous crash, sending great clouds of snow and dirt into the air. Zoltan banked sharply, made a tight circle, and then rolled into a dive that pointed him back at the tower. Ben jumped to his feet just as Zoltan landed on the edge of the platform. The enraged dragon towered over Ben and roared. As the hideous horned head descended upon him, and the jaws parted to devour him, Ben threw up his arms and covered his head.
Inside the tower, Marcus and Amos tensed as Gabriel’s horn sounded. Things were in motion now and Ben should be scrambling down the stairway at any moment. The seconds slowly ticked by.
“Something’s wrong!” Amos exclaimed.
At that moment, a small figure darted between the Keeper and the big man. The creature moved so fast that even Marcus was unable to identify it. A deafening roar, from up above, confirmed their worst fears; things had gone amiss and Ben was in grave danger. Amos transformed and bolted up the stairs with Marcus right behind him.
Ben had covered his head. The dragon was going to eat him. A million thoughts went through his mind in the split second before the dragon would consume him. He would not be going home. There would be no more Christmas presents to open, no more Easter Sundays, no more Fourth of July fireworks, and no more Thanksgiving turkeys. He would never learn to drive the truck, as Grandpa had promised, never get to read another book, never get to go swimming on a hot summer day, or enjoy a toasted marshmallow on a cold winter night. Worst of all, he would never get to see his family again. All of these thoughts occurred to him in a flash and then, abruptly, he was violently flung aside and found himself tumbling across the stone floor.
When he came to a stop, he glanced up, just in time, to see his friend Mueller standing where he had just stood. How did he get here? What was he doing here? He never got the chance to ask his friend these questions, because no sooner than he had thought them, Zoltan’s jaws snapped shut around the little gnome. In that fraction of a second, before Zoltan took him, Ben made eye contact with the brave little gnome, and Mueller smiled at him. Then he was gone.
Amos ran across the top of the tower and positioned himself between Ben and Zoltan. Marcus hunkered over Ben and watched in horror as Zoltan swallowed the unfortunate little gnome with one gulp. Although Marcus could not see future events where the dragon was concerned, he was certain they were all going to die. Ben was going to die, Amos was going to die, and he was going to die. In fact, many, many others were going to die here today. All was lost. All was lost.
Zoltan quickly devoured the creature that pushed the child decoy out of harm’s way. A large bear, followed by the elf that was called the Keeper, rushed out onto the tower to protect the boy. Zoltan laughed. He would burn them all. He would burn every living thing in the entire forest and then he would pull the stones down one by one. He stood on his hind legs, raising his head high above them so that he could dowse them all with his flames.
Ben, Amos, and Marcus watched helplessly as the dragon began to make fire in his belly. The creature’s countenance was one of rage and hatred. His stomach swelled with the flames he was brewing to destroy the Twilight and then a muffled explosion rocked him on his feet. The explosion came from deep within the dragon and the force of the explosion traveled up the dragon’s throat, snapping his head back and forcing his mouth open. A great cloud of black smoke billowed from his mouth as he teetered on the edge of the tower. Zoltan snapped his jaws shut and looked down at Ben. The red flames that flickered within his pupils winked out and the golden eyes glassed over.
Marcus snatched Ben up and ran. He and Amos barely escaped being crushed as Zoltan crashed down onto the tower and rolled toward the edge. The dragon’s tail and hind quarters slipped over the rim of the platform and slowly pulled him over the side. There was a dull thud from below, when Zoltan crashed into the ground and then; silence. After the all the commotion, the sudden silence was both eerie and d
eafening.
Amos transformed back into his human form. He followed Ben and Marcus to the edge of the platform where Zoltan had fallen. Zoltan was lying on the ground below, in a small clearing with Faerie oaks all around him. Ben watched in fascination as the trees moved closer to the dead dragon. Hundreds of great sandy roots shot up from the frozen earth and wrapped themselves around the dragon’s body. The roots began to constrict and the frozen earth began to part. Slowly, Zoltan was pulled down into the earth. The roots looked like a thousand writhing snakes and the dragon sank into the ground as if it were quicksand. In a few moments, Zoltan was gone and the Faerie oaks repositioned themselves to cover the spot where he had fallen. It was over.
“What has happened?” asked Amos.
“It was my friend, Mueller,” Ben answered. A tear trickled down his cheek. He quickly wiped his face with the back of his sleeve, but another tear followed the first. “He saved my life, Amos. He pushed me out of the way and now he is dead.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry, Ben. He shot by us so fast we couldn’t tell who or what it was!”
“Do you know what killed the dragon?” Marcus asked.
“It was rock busters. He always carried a bag of rock busters with him. They are rocks that glow when wet, but when you put a flame to them they will explode. The gnomes used them for blasting tunnels in the old slave mines.”
“Ah,” said Marcus, “when Zoltan made to burn us, the fires in his belly caused the rock busters to explode. That was what killed him. Your friend not only saved your life, Ben, he saved all of us from destruction. He saved many, many lives with his sacrifice and it shall never be forgotten. Come, let’s return to the keep.”
As they were walking across the tower, toward the stairway, Marcus noticed the sun glinting off something bright and shiny. He picked it up, examined it, and then handed it to Ben.
“I believe this is yours. It must have come loose and fell off when Mueller pushed you out of harm’s way.”
Ben took the necklace with the small gold leaf that had brought him here. The leaf had saved his life. It had transported him from beneath a frozen lake, back home, across time and space to the Twilight forest, here in Camelot. He didn’t know it, but this golden leaf, made in the image of a Faerie oak leaf, had saved his life not once, but twice; if he had not lost the leaf in the Crystal Cave, and had not befriended Mueller, they would all be dead. He clasped the necklace around his neck and followed Marcus and Amos down the winding stairs.
Back outside the castle walls, the three dwarves had seen Zoltan fall from the top of the tower. They watched in horror as the Faerie oaks pulled the dead dragon down into the cold frozen earth. When Zoltan was gone, they hurried out of the forest as fast as they were able. They wanted to get far away from the strange moving trees and they were also eager to see Ben and hear his story. Back within the castle walls, Gabriel came running from the south tower to meet them.
“Did you see it?” the elf asked, excitedly.
“Yes, we saw it. The chains missed him entirely and Ben had to kill him,” said Hob.
They spotted Ben, Marcus, and Amos coming out of the north tower and rushed over to see them. The three dwarves crowded around Ben, patting him on the back and congratulating him. They had always admired Ben and held him in high esteem. He had brought Gob back to life from drowning. He defeated the evil witch and foiled Mordred’s plans for escaping Pluton. He toppled Ringwald Stonebreaker’s kingdom and liberated the gnomes and now… Now he was a dragon slayer! Unable to contain their excitement, they fired questions at him, one right after the other, not giving him time to answer even one.
“How did you do it, Ben?”
“Yeah, did you use your inhaler?”
“What happened to the spell of confusion? He didn’t look confused at all!”
“Not until that explosion rocked him.”
“Hey, what was that explosion anyway?”
“Did you see what those Faerie oaks did?”
“Guys,” said Ben, holding his hands up for silence. “I didn’t kill the dragon.”
“Sure you did,” said Gob. “We saw him. He was deader than a lump of coal.”
“Yes, but I’m not the one who killed him,” Ben explained.
“Well, then who did?” asked Hob, yanking on his beard.
“It was Mueller.”
“Mueller Alderman? The gnome from Kahzidar?”
“Yes,” Ben answered. His eyes began to brim with tears again. It was hard to believe his little friend was gone.
“Well where is he?” asked Nob, looking back at the north tower.
“And how did he get here?” Gob added.
“Let’s all go inside,” said Marcus, “and we will explain everything to everyone. I’m sure Louise and Casey are very anxious to see that Ben is well and unharmed.”
*****
CHAPTER 30
PLANNING A