Crimson Shadow, The - R. A. Salvatore Page 0,52

to the water and the loose end of the rope. Luthien’s eyes widened as well when he saw the spectacle: Brind’Amour had somehow transformed that end of the rope into a living serpent, which was now swimming toward the far bank and the wizard.

The water then churned under the companions—they had almost forgotten about the turtle!

The snake/rope crawled onto the shore and, following Brind’Amour’s frantic directions, looped itself about a rock and began to tighten, pulling the companions up at an angle away from the water and the turtle.

Oliver looked back and nearly fainted dead away, staring into the evil and angry eyes of the dragon not more than a dozen feet away. The halfling tried to speak, but got his lips all tied together, and instead began tapping Luthien frantically on the shoulder.

“HELLO, THIEF AND LIAR,” Balthazar said calmly. Luthien didn’t have to look back to know that he was about to become lunch.

The dragon jerked suddenly; there came a huge splash from below. Oliver looked down as Balthazar looked down—to see the snapping maw of the turtle tightly clamped on the dragon’s great leg.

The rope was taut, then, and Luthien began half crawling, half sliding toward the far shore.

Hot water splashed over the companions as the behemoths battled in the lake. The dragon roared and breathed forth and a new cloud of steam joined the first, and the agonized shriek of the startled and wounded turtle cut the air. Luthien finally let go of the rope altogether as they neared the shore and dropped onto the beach, Oliver still clutched tightly to his back and neck.

“Run on!” Brind’Amour prodded them. The wizard understood that the turtle would not last long against the likes of Balthazar. He looked back to the lake one final time, sent forth another black-crackling bolt of energy, and ran after Luthien. Then he produced a magical light, for Oliver had left the still-burning torch on the far bank.

The three had barely exited the chamber, climbing back into the corridor strewn with broken stalagmites, when they heard Balthazar splash ashore, calling out, “THIEVES!” and “LIARS!”

Now the landscape favored the wyrm, with the three companions having to scramble over and around the tumbled blocks. Luthien finally spotted the fist-sized swirl of blue glowing energy, but he heard the dragon right behind them and did not think he had any chance of making it.

Brind’Amour, chanting wildly, grabbed the young man’s shoulder suddenly—Oliver’s, as well—and all three took off from the ground, flying, speeding for the wall.

Balthazar roared and loosed another line of flames. Oliver screamed and covered his head, thinking that he would smash into the stone. The lights of the tunnel expanded, as if to catch them, and the dragon’s breath was licking again at their backsides as they entered the wizard’s tunnel.

CHAPTER 12

TALES FROM BETTER DAYS

SMALL WISPS OF SMOKE ROSE from their clothes as they tumbled back into the wizard’s cave, all three in one ball. Brind’Amour, showing surprising agility, extracted himself first and rose laughing.

“Old Balthazar will be steaming about that one for a hundred years!” the wizard roared.

Luthien eyed him, stone-faced, his stern gaze diminishing the wizard’s howls to a coughing chuckle.

“Young Bedwyr,” Brind’Amour scolded. “Really, you must learn to laugh when the adventure is at its end. Laugh because you are alive, my boy! Laugh because you stole an item from a dragon’s hoard . . .”

“More than one,” Oliver corrected, producing several gemstones from his seemingly bottomless pockets.

“All the more reason to laugh!” Brind’Amour cried. Oliver began juggling three of the stones, admiring their glitters in the flickering torchlight, and Brind’Amour raised his fist in a salute to the halfling.

Luthien did not crack the slightest hint of a smile. “Balthazar?” he asked.

“Balthazar?” Brind’Amour echoed.

“You called the dragon Balthazar,” Luthien explained. “How did you know?”

Brind’Amour seemed uneasy for just a moment, as though he had been caught in a trap. “Why, I watched you through my crystal ball, of course,” the wizard replied so suddenly and exuberantly that Luthien knew he was lying. “The dragon named himself—to Oliver, of course.”

“He did,” Oliver remarked to an obviously unconvinced Luthien.

“You knew the name before the dragon declared it,” Luthien pressed grimly. He heard a clinking sound as Oliver stopped his juggling, one gem falling to the stone floor. And Brind’Amour stopped his chuckling, as well, in the blink of an eye. The atmosphere that only a moment ago seemed to Oliver and the wizard to be a victory celebration now loomed thick with tension.