The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) by J.J. Thompson Read Free Book Online

and leap into the air to
ascend directly at him with her fangs bared.
    Well, this isn't going as well as I'd
hoped, the elemental thought as he tried to ignore his pain and
collect himself.
    It took a few seconds, but Incendus was
both ancient and powerful, and the veteran of many a battle. He
gathered his wits and shot off at right angles before either dragon
could reach him to attack again.
    All I want is one stupid egg, he felt
like shouting at the enraged pair as he raced away with the dragons
in hot pursuit. You'll have plenty more, I'm sure.
    He doubted that the monsters were in
any mood to be reasonable though, so he would have to do things the
hard way.
    The problem was, red dragons were
mostly immune to fire attacks. Incendus could certainly hurt them by
slamming into them at high speed, but attacking one would leave him
vulnerable to the other. As his aching body reminded him, the dragons
could most definitely harm him in return.
    He looked back and saw the dragons
slowly falling behind. They couldn't match his speed and would
probably give up the pursuit fairly quickly to return to protecting
their eggs.
    Incendus slowed down enough to allow
them to get closer; but not too close. If he couldn't win his prize
in battle, he'd use his wits instead.
    And the other elementals say my people
are flighty, he thought with some amusement. Well, perhaps we are,
but we can be shrewd when the need arises.
    He let the pair of angry dragons close
to within a hundred feet or so and then increased his speed to stay
just ahead of them. He started to rise, leading them upward into the
pale afternoon sky.
    “Come on,” he muttered.
“Come on. Stay with me.”
    The dragons followed him with
single-minded ferocity, bent on destroying this perceived threat to
their eggs, and this pleased Incendus immensely.
    As stupid as they are dangerous, he
thought. Without their primal to direct their actions, these lesser
dragons were just beasts. Perhaps the war to come wouldn't be quite
as hard as he had feared.
    Below him, one of the monsters drew
back its head and breathed a stream of dragon-fire at him. He dodged
effortlessly, unconcerned by the attack, but chastened nonetheless.
The dragons could still be formidable opponents, whether they were
clever or not. He would have to remember that.
    Minutes passed and Incendus estimated
that they were several thousand feet above the ground. The dragons
were slowing a bit, showing the first signs of fatigue, and he
decided that it was time to act.
    The elemental switched his direction
abruptly and shot straight back at the pursuing dragons, catching
them completely off guard. He flew between them and they
instinctively turned as well, trying to attack him. What happened
instead was that the beasts slammed into each other, tangling up
their wings and necks in a mid-air collision.
    They roared and screamed in rage and
confusion as they immediately began to fall like stones. They tumbled
and twisted, trying to disentangle themselves and Incendus laughed to
himself as he shot off at full speed back toward the nest.
    Dangerous or not, they really were
quite stupid, he thought merrily.
    The pair would recover quickly and be
back in hot pursuit, but the elemental should be long gone by then.
    He streaked downward, blazing like a
falling star. He spotted the nest and was soon hovering above it,
staring at the mottled, leathery eggs.
    There were six of them, each as large a
human baby. Heat waves rose out of the sand around them and the
ovoids baked in the intense desert sun.
    Incendus assumed a man-like body of
flame, reached down and stroked one of the eggs. He frowned and
tapped on it, hearing a dull thud as if he was tapping on some hard
mineral.
    Damn it, he thought angrily.
    He had wanted to destroy the eggs that
he didn't need but now he doubted that he would have the time.
    A distant scream told him that he was
right. The dragons would be on him before he could do much damage to
the thick-shelled