The Dragonswarm by Aaron Pogue Page A

at the monster.
    It rolled its shoulders, acres of leather wing rustling uneasily, and then it turned its head away. I can find her when I need her , it said.
    Before I could answer, it lashed out at me. With nothing but its will, striking only in my head, it buried me beneath an agony as bright and hot as forgefire. I screamed and screamed and screamed.

    Some time later I felt its attention come pouring over me while I was washing my face in the bitter pool. This time I was better prepared, and I raised my defenses quickly. I knelt there, unmoving, waiting for the attack to begin, but for a long time nothing happened. The monster hung dark and heavy in the back of my mind, but it made no other move.
    At last I growled deep in my throat. " What do you want of me ?"
    Only what is mine.
    I started to rise, to turn and face the monster, but it hit me with a stab of perfect agony in the back of my left knee, and I fell hard to the stone floor. The first pain began to fade, but another stabbed down just beneath my left shoulder blade, as though someone had pinned me to the earth with a broadhead spear. Behind that came pain in the arch of my right foot, then stabbing sharp across my throat. Blackness hovered before my eyes, but I never passed out.
    The pain went on and on while the monster toyed with me, and behind all the agony I felt its interested curiosity. It was amused, and patient, and pleased.

    When at last the monster tired of me, I crawled back to my hole. I dragged the stone back over its top and lay broken in the darkness. In time exhaustion overwhelmed the lingering pain, but I held sleep at bay. I pressed myself up into a crouch and carefully erected the walls within my mind.
    It was easier without the monster hammering at them. Weariness slowed me, but I could not afford to sleep. I could not maintain my concentration asleep, and after the monster's meticulous torture I dared not let it have complete control. I mastered my fragile emotions. I mastered my body's pain and my mind's exhaustion. I mastered the hunger and the sapping sick warmth of this place. I closed my eyes in the darkness and focused on my breath.
    And then it was there again. A whimper escaped me as I felt another presence in my head. I tried to lash out at it, throwing every shred of my will at the intrusion, but all I got for my effort was a flash of amused surprise and condescending pity. Then a voice of stinging authority shouted, Get up!
    I frowned. Without really meaning to, I slipped into my wizard's sight and flexed invisible muscles. The stone door to my prison drifted aside. I felt a tearing pain in my legs and back, but it was nothing against the agony the monster had thrown at me before.
    Get up! the voice commanded again, and I obeyed. I rose and heaved myself up out of the pit. A handful of drakes turned baleful eyes my way and began moving lazily toward me. A few always followed me like old retainers whenever I left my cage. I spotted the gold dragon too, banking out of its high, gliding halo to swoop down closer. That one seemed to keep a careful watch on me.
    But this time I had no more idea what I was up to than my watchers did. I moved slowly, my body still protesting at the pain it had recently endured, but I moved unstoppably across the smooth stone toward the wide pool. Out of habit I knelt down at the pool's edge, cupped a hand to the acrid water and raised it to my lips. Then I heaved a great breath, and some force shoved me hard from behind.
    No, no force outside. My own legs, my own strength hurled me forward into the water, and I hit its surface like one of the fiery adults. I half expected to feel the heat and hear the angry boiling hiss of the water, but there was only cold darkness. I looked with my wizard's sight and saw the deep, uneven bowl of earth cupping the billowing sheets of water. An impulse drew my eyes toward the outer wall, tracing down and down, deep beneath the surface, searching for some seam, some