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kicked it open. Fire rushed out over him, feeding off the night air.
    Nath felt his energy fleeing him and despair moving in. The flames had him. His fingers hung off the edge of the wood, and he moved no more.
    Of all the ways to go.
    Something seized his arm and dragged him through the hole and away from the flames. He figured one of those dragons was ready to take him apart one limb at a time. He could see the inferno now, blazing high. He gulped in a lungful of sweet night air. The rain felt delightful on his face. Strength returned to his limbs.
    “Huh?” he said, looking back at the man that held his arm. “Ben!”
    Ben heaved him up to his feet and slapped him on his back.
    “You must weigh a ton!” Ben said. He reached behind his back and grabbed something.
    Snap. Clatch. Snap.
    Akron’s string twirled up along the bow. Ben slipped an arrow from the quiver and nocked it.
    Twang!
    The arrow buried itself in the chest of a gnoll attacker.
    “Are you finished resting yet?” Ben said, loading the string again.
    Twang!
    The arrow zipped into another.
    There was fire, fighting and screaming all over. Dwarves slugged it out with the gnolls, orcs and lizard men. Overseer Dormus shouted orders to his men. Nath sprang to his feet.
    “That’s the one we want,” he said to Ben. He took off at a run.
    Dormus caught him out of the corner of his eye and gaped. Then his face turned to rage.
    “Impossible!” the Overseer shouted. “Stop him! Stop him!” He wrapped his hand around the amulet and started chanting.
    Nath lowered his shoulder and drove Dormus to the ground. He snapped the amulet off of Dormus’s neck.
    “You can’t control it!” Dormus said. “It is I that controls the dragons. Dragons, come back to me!”

    A dragon dangled Gorlee upside down with its tail and swung him gently like a chime. The other pair sniffed and snorted at him.
    “Easy, dragons,” Gorlee pleaded. “I’m not worth killing. It’s those orcs—gah!”
    One dragon snorted a blast of hot steam in his face.
    Squawk!
    Squawk!
    Their eyes were intent on him. Intelligent. Murderous. One cocked its great neck. Ran its long tongue over him like wet fingers.
    “Ewww,” Gorlee shivered. They’re going to kill me. But I don’t have to make it easy on them.
    One dragon inhaled a great breath. Another stepped back.
    “No! No! Don’t roast me!” He summoned his magic. Started to change his skin and bones to hard stone.
    Whoosh!
    Fiery dragon breath engulfed him from head to toe. The heat was so intense it felt like he was baking alive.
    When the dragon finished, Gorlee crossed his arms over his chest. His stony skin smoldered and it hurt but he lived.
    The dragons growled. The one that held him slammed him in the mud. Up and down. Up and down.
    Smush!
    Smush!
    Smush!
    Gorlee’s breath left him. They were dragons and he was a mouse. Up in the air he went. He saw the sky, then the mud hole they made with him.
    Squawk!
    The dragon’s long-necked head popped up and looked back toward the town.
    Oh thank goodness!
    Something had their attention. Two of the dragons headed back for town. The one that held him snapped at him, then flipped him high in the air.
    I’m free! I’m free!
    When Gorlee stopped at the zenith, he managed to turn and look down as he fell. The dragon was still there. Its great black tail behind its back was poised like a giant cobra.
    “No, not again!”
    As Gorlee approached the ground, the dragon’s tail lashed out.
    Whap!
    Gorlee screamed and sailed, far and long, head over heels. “Aiiiyeeeeeee!”

Chapter 11
    T he tide had turned. The dwarves had routed the Soldiers of Barnubus. Nath had the Overseer by the throat and the amulet in his hand.
    “Send the dragons away,” Nath ordered.
    “Never!” Dormus said. “I’ll see our deaths first!”
    Nath took the amulet and smashed it on a stone. The stone cracked.
    Dormus laughed.
    Squawk!
    Squawk!
    Squawk!
    The dragons weren’t far and he knew they moved