Chapter Forty-Three
The Coral Lance
Lightning flashed as Mik and Shimmer dived out of the rain toward Tempest’s exposed back. The sea dragon cast her gaze across the surface of the sea, seeking the bodies of her foes, or perhaps Mik himself.
In the pulsating light of the storm, she spotted Shimmer’s shadow streaking across the surging waves toward her. Tempest turned just as the sailor and the bronze dragon closed in—but she couldn’t avoid the allies’ desperate charge.
Sparks shot into the rainswept air as Mik drove the coral lance deep into the sea dragon’s throat, just below her long neck.
Tempest squealed in surprise and pain, then bellowed with rage.
Mik and the bronze dragon lunged forward again, driving the coral lance deeper into the wound. Mik twisted the lance, trying to hit some vital area; the key dangling at his neck glowed, adding its power to the magic of the lance.
The enraged sea dragon wheeled and smashed her fin-like foretalon into Shimmer’s side. Her claws ripped through the scarred and battered membrane of his wing. Shimmer roared in pain. Scintillating magical energy blazed from his mouth and shook the air with the sound of thunder.
The electricity blasted through Tempest’s mane of Turbidus leeches and scarred and burned her titanic scales. She toppled back into the water, nearly pulling the lance from Mik’s hands.
Tempest’s body smashed into the sea at the base of the silver stairs. Her stupendous weight sent a huge wave surging across the ocean’s surface. Floundering off shore, Red Wake tipped and almost rolled over. Brine splashed high into the rain-clotted air, nearly reaching the Temple of the Sky. The sea dragon rolled across the base of the volcano, thrashing like a titanic beached fish.
Tempest’s black blood dripped from Kell’s lance, spattering Mik’s face and arms. Hanging over his heart, the bejeweled key glowed brightly. He grabbed onto a bronze spike in front of him as Shimanloreth wobbled in the air.
Shimmer struggled to stay aloft. The wind whistled through the tears in his wing, and his wounds filled the air with a fine spray of blood. Mik clung precariously to the bronze dragon’s scaly back. Bracing themselves for a final attack, they spiraled down toward their enemy on the mountainside below.
Ula thrust her head above water. Every bone in her body ached, and lights danced before her eyes. The entire world seemed distant and unreal—some nightmare reality unconnected to her.
Lighting crashed into the sea, and the waves heaved up like mountains. Red Wake, not so terribly far away, listed horribly, as though it might sink at any moment.
From the sky above, Shimmer fluttered down toward Tempest, who writhed upon the steep slopes of the Isle of Fire. The bronze dragon looked worse than Ula had ever seen him, but somehow he persevered. And was that Mik on Shimmer’s back?
Yes, it was! The sailor held Kell’s coral lance in his hands, poised to strike Tempest’s black heart.
As Ula’s friends drew near the sea dragon, though, Tempest turned toward them, steam leaking from between her hideous teeth.
“Look out!” Ula cried, though the crashing of the waves and the din of the storm smothered her warning.
Tempest threw her jaws wide and belched a cloud of boiling steam at the bronze dragon and his rider.
Shimmer thrust the remnants of his tattered wings wide, trying to shield Mik from Tempest’s scalding blast. The bronze dragon’s eyes and scales blistered, and the membranes covering his wings sizzled away, but his stratagem worked.
Mik gasped for breath, and his skin scorched, but he held on. “Shimmer!” he cried, but the bronze dragon could not hear him. Blindly, Shimanloreth fell toward the Isle of Fire.
Tempest snapped at them, but missed, as they passed her awful head.
Shimmer crashed heavily into the plaza below the Temple of the Sky.