The Coldstone Conflict Read Online Free Page B

who’d appeared at the mouth of the alley, and was waving a heavy-looking length of timber. He swung the wood over his shoulder, then turned and made straight for the North Gate. The dragon soared and turned on the air; unfortunately for Nazz, it was upon him before he got halfway toward the gate tower.
    Effigy, holding back both tears and anger, made a determined effort not to watch the confrontation; instead, he made for the alley Nazz had emerged from … and found the girl cowering behind a stack of dustbins.
    “On your feet! Quick!”
    The girl peered up through streaming eyes. “He saved me!” she said, in what Effigy couldn’t help recognizing was a remarkably well-spoken voice. “He saved my life and now he’s going to die!”
    Effigy grabbed the girl by the hand and dragged her to her feet.
    “Yes, and if you don’t keep up with me now, it will all have been for nothing. What’s your name?”
    “Vanya.”
    “Right, Vanya; I’m Effigy Spatula. C’mon!”
    The girl rushed along beside him. Soon they emerged onto Laker Street, where Effigy quickly snatched hold of Vanya’s arm and dragged her in the direction of the palace.
    “Where do you live?”
    “I—my family are from Spittle.”
    “Well? Where do you live when you’re here? ”
    The girl shook her head and tried to get her bearings.
    “At a boarding house on Stainer Street,” she said. “B-but I’ve finished for the term; I need to get to my father’s ship!”
    Effigy almost breathed a sigh of relief. “Perfect!” he managed. “Maybe I can leave with you. Now stay close to the walls. If that dragon catches up with us, we’re both finished.”
    Back at the gate, Nazz staggered. He’d put up a valiant fight, but he was no match for an obsidian dragon. The beast had been toying with him, striking terrible wounds with claws and teeth, but not using its fiery exhalations.
    The dragon struck out again, ripping a terrible gash in the ogre’s stomach. Nazz faltered, and dropped the timber he’d been carrying. His strength was deserting him. If he could just manage one final burst of speed …
    Sensing the deterioration of its prey, the dragon spread its mighty wings and landed in the street, folding the great leathery appendages behind it. Then it reached back and bellowed forth a red-hot spew of flame.
    But Nazz had gone.
    The ogre ran faster than he’d ever run before, the dragon flapping fiercely behind him. He led the beast in a merry dance: over the junction with North Gate, through into the top end of Tanner Street, along Royal Road and down into Palace Street, where he quickly ducked into the Church of the Wormridden.
    An acolyte, who would usually have homed in on potential worshipers like a torpedo, watched him with an eerie detachment.
    “How do I get out of this place?” the ogre boomed, shoving the acolyte against the wall, hard. “What’s wrong with you? Speak! I need help: how do I get out—”
    The largest stained-glass window in the entire city imploded under the immense bulk of the dragon, showering glass shards in every direction.
    The great beast crashed onto the pews, which seemed to turn into so many fragile dominoes.
    Nazz spun round and hurtled back toward the great double doors, but he hadn’t got halfway down the aisle when they too crashed to the ground, revealing the second dragon.
    Nazz cursed under his breath; it must have spied its sibling across the city and decided to assist the hunt. Oh, well …
    The ogre leaped up onto the back of a remaining pew and dashed along it, diving for the far aisle when two colossal jets of flame spewed toward him.
    Nazz half crashed, half rolled onto the stone floor, the heat streams pouring into a fireball above him. Struggling to his feet, he managed to reach the font in three strides and, wrenching the great stone basin from its mount, hurled it at the nearer of the two beasts. It bounced off the creature’s armored scales and hit the floor. The dragons