Merlin nodded. “Go ahead and pick out a good spear for yourself while I undertake the most difficult task yet.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Leonard.
“I, good knight, am charged with trying to convince a nearly grown dragon to willingly walk into this stone and come down here.”
Leonard’s expression grew serious. “Oh, I see. Well, I don’t envy you, Merlin. That will be a challenge.”
“Why?” asked Sir Ronald, innocently.
“He’s strongly concerned about what may lie beneath his feet,” whispered Merlin while pointing discreetly at Eater’s mouth pit.
“Oh,” mouthed Sir Ronald.
“Anyway, after I persuade him, I’ll put a protective charm on the horses and send them home.”
Leonard smiled. “Thank you.”
Merlin pulled the ring with the large black gemstone out of his pouch and held it up. “This, I believe, was fashioned by the same Welsh witch who made your fly bracelet, Leonard. It’s rather cumbersome, which tells me it’s one of her earlier efforts.”
Leonard moved closer to examine the stone. “What do you think it will turn you into?”
“Dunno. Let’s find out, shall we? I hope to return soon.” Merlin slipped the ring on his finger and was immediately transformed into a small green beetle which hovered in the air for a moment before shooting up toward the cavern’s ceiling.
**
After what Leonard guessed was a couple of hours later, Eater announced that Merlin was ready to return. The air pressure began to build, and Eater’s longest tentacle snaked up toward a hole in the ceiling surrounded by sand. Several moments later, the tentacle emerged from the hole with Merlin in its grasp. After Eater set him gently on the cavern floor, Merlin shook his hair and brushed his clothes, trying as best he could to rid himself of as much sand as possible.
“Well, I did it, and I must tell you it was not easy to get Taddy into this stone,” said Merlin, tapping the magical crystal that hung from a leather strap around his neck. “Dragons are easily the most stubborn and difficult creatures in all nine of the Norse worlds, as well as in any of the other worlds where they happen to be found.”
Leonard joined the old wizard, a wooden shield strapped on his back and holding a sturdy-looking spear. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. What do you think?”
Merlin took the spear and examined it. “The shaft is fine English yew, strong and flexible. The tip is honest steel, free of rust and pitting. I think you have found an excellent weapon.”
Leonard was pleased with Merlin’s assessment. “So do I. I must confess that I do feel a little guilty about borrowing these burial items. It feels, in no small way, like I’m a bit of a grave robber.”
“Speaking as a dead person,” said Sir Ronald, “I don’t think the former owners of these items would mind. I’ve found that once one has passed beyond the veil, you are deeply uninterested in the items that fascinated you on the earthly plane.”
Leonard shrugged. “If anyone here should know, Sir Ronald, it’s you. Well, Eater, goodbye and thank you for your hospitality and good company. It was really a pleasure to see you again.”
“And I, you, Leonard. Merlin, please don’t be a stranger. An in-person visit now and then wouldn’t kill you, would it?”
Merlin raised an eyebrow, then waved his hand over the staff, causing the tip of it to glow. “I suppose that depends on how hungry you are at the time.”
“True. Goodbye, all.”
And with that, Leonard, Merlin, and Sir Ronald headed toward the back of the cavern and entered the tunnel that would take them to Helheim.
Chapter Seven
Don’t Lose It
T he tunnel, which started out low and narrow, got wider. Merlin straightened, causing every bit of his spine to pop.
“At last!” said Leonard, leaning backward to take a good stretch. “That was brutal. I’m not sure my back will ever be the same.”
“Nor mine,” said Merlin. “I do believe that’s the farthest distance I’ve ever walked in a hunched over position.”
Sir Ronald chuckled. “Well, I suppose one of the benefits to being deceased is that you don’t have a body to feel pain anymore. Actually, as silly as this will sound, I miss the sensation of pain. To go from feeling most everything, in one way or another, to not feeling anything at all is quite disconcerting.”
Merlin nodded. “I can imagine that to be true.”
“Then there’s this odd sensation that I should feel cold due to the lack of any body heat, but I don’t even feel that. It’s a nagging annoyance more than anything.”
“Do you have a sense of smell?” said Leonard.
“No, which turned out to be to my benefit back in Eater’s cave, I suppose.”
Leonard snorted. “That’s for sure.”
“In truth, I think I miss breathing the most. Odd isn’t it? I can make the motions . . .” Sir Ronald breathed in and out several times. “. . . but the subtle satisfaction of drawing air into my lungs and pushing it back out again is completely gone.”
“So, the only senses left to a ghost are sight and sound?” asked Merlin.
“In a word, yes.”
Leonard glanced at their surroundings. The widened tunnel seemed to go on indefinitely, its walls vanishing into a haze just past the edge of Merlin’s light. “There’s no way Taddy could’ve made it through that tunnel, as small and tight as it was, but, from the looks of it, he should do just fine from now on.”
“Goodness! I’m glad you said something, Leonard. I’m fairly sure Taddy’s about to lose his mind by now.”
Merlin reached into his robes and pulled out the glowing stone. Bringing it close to his lips, he whispered a few words, then held it at arm’s length in front of him. Almost immediately, the stone started to jangle at the end of the strap, until it squirted Taddy out. The young dragon hit the tunnel floor with all four feet then madly spun around to get a sense of his surroundings.
“Where is it? Where is it?” he called out in a high-pitched, panicky voice that almost made Leonard laugh. And he would have had it not been for the fact that his good friend was deathly afraid.
Merlin stepped forward and waved his arms to get the dragon’s attention. “Taddy! Look at me.”
The dragon stopped his frantic movements and stared, wide-eyed, at the old wizard. “Where is it?” he said in a quieter voice, although still breathing heavily.
Merlin lowered his arms. “As promised, there are now miles between us and the creature that causes you so much concern.”
“But what if it followed us?” said Taddy, now even calmer.
“Impossible,” said Leonard, pointing back toward the smaller tunnel’s exit while he moved a few steps closer to the dragon. “Eater is a very large creature that could never, in a million years, fit through a tunnel that tight.”
“But what about its fleshy worm arms?”
Leonard took several more steps forward and gently reached out his hand. “His tentacles? Too short. They’re, what would you say, Sir Ronald, fifty feet or so in length?”