Black Dragon of Amber Book Two: The Road to Amber

by Barbara Bretana

  “You’re the Dragon Prince,” he said and bent his knee before me, offering his sword. I stood him up.

  “Jasra’s attacking Topaz as we speak. Princess Caldor is under Luke’s protection and mine. I’ve raised the Dragon Horde and we go to defend the City. Will you help us?”

  “With our last lives,” he assured me, rising.

  “How do you and your men feel about flying?” I grinned and to my astonishment, every one of them volunteered to fly on a dragon. The dragons agreed to carry them and each one told the rider his or her name. Some of their names were beautiful and all of them were magnificent beasts.

  Commander Algernon was the soldier that had given me his cloak; told me that the only reason he and his squad had survived was that they had been pursuing pirates at sea when Minsk had fallen returning only after Jasra and Secrest had abandoned the city. They had given the royal family a proper burial and taken what treasure she had left behind.

  “I see you’ve found our star stone,” he commented, looking at my new eye.

  “The Princess gave it to me.”

  “She’s alive? Safe?”

  “Yes. Would you prefer the Black Dragon or Moon Dancer?” I named the Horde’s leader. He looked shocked that I would offer to fly him.

  “You, my Lord?”

  “Name’s Raven or Blackbird.” I changed and he stepped backwards in fascinated alarm. “Don’t worry, I’ve never lost a passenger yet although I recommend you put a rope around my neck and chest to make a hand hold. It gets pretty intense when I dive or loop.”

  I dropped my head into his reach and he sheathed his sword as he pulled off his leather belt, cinched it around the lower part of my neck. “Ready? Murphy? Dragon Riders? We go to War!” I leaped into the air and the ground trembled with ten thousand pairs of wings as we darkened the skies.

  Murphy had me approach from the sea over the shore and from that direction, we came upon what was left of Gates Cove and Tethys’ navies and the impressive armada that was Jasra’s. Commander Algernon outlined strategy with Murphy and me, divided the Horde into smaller groups of ten and sent what he called a phalanx to destroy the ships before they could dock and disembark their soldiers. What worried me more were their battering weapons, they were using them to hit the shield and with each blow, it shook, cracks appearing in its structure.

  The Commander yelled a battle cry reminiscent of Marines and fifty men and dragons strafed the boats with flame and arrows, with whatever few weapons they possessed. I saw several dragons take direct hits but everything bounced off their scales. Not so their riders. Several men fell hit by stones or cross bolts and Murphy caught some of them only to let them go. I knew that meant they were dead.

  In fifteen minutes, nearly every one of her ships were ablaze or sunk and we’d lost seven men and two dragons with a lucky shot to their skulls that knocked them out in midair.

  I counted the ships and there were over 400 of them–surely Jasra hadn’t committed her whole fleet in one surprise attack. I sent a pale green dragon with emerald eyes called Morning Smoke to recon out to sea, she came back with a report that indeed, another flotilla waited behind what was left of the Sentinels. Murphy sent the Commander’s Second and his group to take care of them. I warned them of airborne missiles. The rest of us flew onto the city of Topaz.

  Chapter 43

  I flew on towards the city and it was terrifying. Bolts of magic constantly assailed the shield as it struggled to repair itself. Flying was an exercise in agility as I dodged and swooped like a bat after an insect to avoid fireballs and weapons. I wasn’t too worried about their lances and arrows, my dragon hide was tougher than that. What worried me more was whether Jasra had magicked a weapon to hit my weakened chest scales. The commander had offered a solution and now, I wore his shield on my chest like a horse’s breastplate and I’d scorched it black with Dragon fire so that you couldn’t see any difference between it and my hide.

  Our wings were more vulnerable – made of thin membrane so that they could catch the wind’s lift, they were the only part not covered by scales and quite delicate. My first pass over her troops scared me. I’d never seen so many men, machines and amassed mythical creatures. Magic bolts flared towards me as soon as they sighted me. I heard faint pops and tiny .22 projectiles with tracers hit me.

  “What are they shooting at us?” He yelled at me.

  “I can hear you if you speak normally,” I said. “Those are called guns. They shoot a small lead bullet with CO2 compressed air and they will kill you.”

  “Like a stone from a slingshot?”

  “Exactly. They pierce flesh, bounce around, break bones and mangle arteries. In your head, they turn your brain to mush.”

  “Let’s try to avoid them,” he said and pointed out the different divisions to me.

  “Where are Luke’s forces?”

  We scanned the field and saw very few. Either they were all inside the shield or still on the other side of the mountains. I sucked air in and blew a wide stream down on a group and as the flames near reached their ranks, they flipped metal shields over their heads like turtle shells. The flames licked off, set the grass on fire and did little damage. I banked and dodged a bolt of green magic from bursting up my butt and felt Algernon grabbed hold of my harness. “The ballistas!” He ordered. “Take them out!”

  “They’re covered in metal plates, too!” I growled as I just missed a huge net thrown by one.

  “Their ram isn’t! Set it on fire and they are no more than tall guard towers!”

  I scorched two of them, setting the log ram on fire and melting the brass head into rivulets that dripped on the soldiers below burning them horribly. The screams made me shudder and I burned them to charcoal to stifle their suffering. I still hadn’t seen Jasra or Secrest but I did spot his elite guards, specifically the one he called his second-in-command, Martinez. He was a Latin American, small, dark and wiry. He seemed to pay particular attention to me, tracking me with his eyes from behind the cover of a blind.

  I heard him shout and from six different directions, missiles fired with me as the center point of convergence. No matter which way I could turn, one would hit me. If I flew up, I would run into them, down waited a phalanx of spears. I stretched my neck up and hovered as I blew the hottest ball of flame I could manage, an incredible seething mass that burned incandescent white and rivaled the sun in its intensity. All six veered off and went after it instead of me. Small arms pinged off my chest plate and I heard Al yelp. Tiny holes appeared in my wings as I banked and soared upwards.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked craning my neck around and saw blood flowing through the fingers on his thigh.

  “Just a scratch,” he dismissed, digging in his pockets for a pouch. He dumped it on the wound, it sizzled and closed.

  I called the dragons in and the sky darkened as thousands of flying furnaces made bombing runs. Fear filled the air but the troops were disciplined enough to hold shields over their ranks so that the dragons’ fire slipped harmlessly over the metals.

  Those exposed were not so lucky, they burned to ash before they had a chance to scream. Dragons looped and swirled, forcing back the ballistas and the main group as we set the very ground on fire until a ring of flames circled the city of Topaz down to the shoreline. The enemy’s trumpeter blew a long chorus and waited for an answer. If they were trying to communicate with their ships, they were going to be disappointed.

  I saw a group of cloaked men standing well back from the front lines, dressed in black with hoods over their heads. Wizards by the looks of them. From their hands they conjured balls of wind that met our fireballs and sucked the flames out.

  Mounted warriors harried us, they were protected by both shields of metal and spells, their bolts of magic either froze our wings or stole the air from under us. I heard the cries of our dragons as they hit the ground and were consumed by Jasra’s men like ants on a dead insect. Cheers carried on the wind for every one they downed as our numbers de
clined.

  I ducked as Algernon yelled in my ear and the net thrown at my wings just brushed my rear legs, tangling in the ropes. I dragged the men, net and weights into the air struggling under the weight before I turned and burned them loose. They fell and didn’t bounce as the stone weights tore through their ranks with devastating effect.

  Other dragons got the same idea and began to hit the catapults and ballistas, breaking them into smaller pieces and tossing them into the shielded squadrons like missiles. Thousands died, crushed under their own equipment.

  I searched for her, for him, for his elite forces and I did not see them on the field. I looked through my blue eye and it exposed every wizard, spell and masking device upon the field. I saw men sneaking through tunnels designed to bring them under the city via the sewage system and the unit coming underwater from the sea to the river.

  Half of our forces left still mobile broke off and flew round behind the city, disappearing. Jasra’s forces cheered the louder and surged anew sending her mounted wing into the sky. Suddenly, I had twenty wyverns and another twenty harpies diving on me throwing nets that glittered with scarlet and gold wards. As they hit me, they stuck to my wings like a spider’s web and I could barely fly. A few quick breaths and the net burned into spectacular fire bombs yet one of the harpies managed to stick me with her barbed tail right under my breast plate and into the softened scales where it pierced my flesh. I dropped, pulling the barb free and slicing it off with my rear talons. Algernon gasped.

  “Prince, are you hurt?”

  “Just a scratch. Harpy poison doesn’t affect dragons,” I shrugged and blasted another flame on the troops’ shields. As I lifted off my strafing run, the dragons colored blue and nearly white hit the same group only these dragons were not fire lizards but ice dragons. Their blasts froze the entire mass of shields together and then the sirens let loose with a note so high-pitched that every one of them cracked as if dipped in liquid nitrogen.

  The ground trembled and shook, rippling under the men and their cries of alarm were the signals for which we were waiting. As the thousands of dragons left behind as our second wave emerged from tunnels dug underneath Jasra’s troops, they smashed, burned and disrupted the soldiers leaving them easy targets for us.

  I veered away from the winged troops and headed towards the far ridge where I’d seen the wizards knowing that somewhere within their ranks had to be Jasra and her cohort. The men below me were too busy trying to save their lives---those that weren’t crushed, frozen or burned were running for their lives. Running into Luke’s forces which had exited the city by the port and made their way around. Some were on horseback and others on foot. I knew Tegan, Pire and my grandfather would be among them just as I knew that Murphy was somewhere keeping an eye on me.

  “How are you doing, Al?” I asked and didn’t hear a reply. I craned my neck around and saw him slumped on my back, barely holding on. “Crap,” I said and banked, taking out two more harpies intent on flying up my ass. Just then, I saw the glimmer of red and spotted Jasra on a rearing red horse at the very edge of the field next to the tree line. She was screaming at her retreating men and killing those that didn’t turn back as they ran for the woods. I didn’t see Secrest but spotted Murphy.

  Yelled. His head swiveled and he approached me, he was unmounted. “Your dragon?”

  “I can fly faster on my own,” he shrugged. “Are you unhurt?”

  “Yes, but Al isn’t. I need you to take---” I paused to whack what looked like a griffin out of the air. “Take him to the doc’s.”

  “Yes.”

  I felt bullets pinging off the shield and spotted a tube-like weapon, saw the flash as a shell erupted aimed at my chest. “Murphy, go!” I shouted and ducked as he snatched the Commander off my back. The missile exploded before it reached me, I was expecting a boom and not the electric blue lines of magic that snagged me and burned like hot acid. In seconds, they had drawn tight clamping my wings and I fell to the ground where immediately, a score of men attacked me. The only things I could move were my head and tail, allowing me to smack a few away yet when I breathed fire, only a few puffs of smoke emerged. I was out of firestone. They whacked me with swords and lances, they hurt but didn’t do much damage against my scales. My weakened chest scales were underneath me covered with Al’s shield. None dared to brave my face after I bit several, strong enough to cut them in half and the taste of human blood made me even more hysterical to get free.

  I heard her yell and to my horror, felt myself shrink as the net shrank with me. I yelled the words to make me revert and nothing happened. Now, Secrest’s soldiers weren’t afraid of me. One of them threw his cape over me and the world darkened. I was tied and thrown over his shoulder struggling to get free as he ran for the wood line.

  I could smell blood, magic blasts and heard the clash of steel as the entire group massed around the one carrying me. He leaped over something, nearly stumbled, zigged and zagged as I smelled the ever increasing scent of pines and forest mold.

  He tripped finally and fell, tangling among bodies in a hole, one of which must have been caused by the tunneling dragons. I changed to my human body and was able to burrow under other bodies before he got up and frantically started searching for the cape. Felt him tugging on it as he slowly pulled me out. The metallic filaments on me slithered off as if they were confused, writhing and groping; perhaps having been spelled only for the dragon form. When the soldiers felt my feet, he pushed me aside and dragged out the cape finding it empty.

  He cursed in English and I had an irrational urge to giggle. Stifled it. “It has to be here somewhere! She said he can’t escape the net no matter what size he is. Help me look.”

  I slipped the shield off and slid it under the dirt, crawled deeper into the hole as corpses were dragged out. Another foot and I was nearly at the edge where I could enter the tunnel the dragon had made when someone’s warm hand clasped my ankle and heaved. I looked up into bright sunlight and the American soldier stared into my face. Before I could blink, he punched me in the jaw. My head snapped back, I literally saw stars and the last thing I heard was, “son of a bitch!”

  Chapter 44

  I woke when someone threw a bucket of cold water on me. Blearily, I opened my eyes and tried to groan but besides the tremendous ache in my jaw and the throbbing headache that made me nauseous, I couldn’t open my mouth. There was something stuck in it that tasted like rubber strapped all the way around my head. I fought weakly and felt the pinch of chains at my wrists and rope around my ankles.

  There was a small fire going in front of me but far enough away so that it didn’t warm me. I shivered. I was freezing and when I looked down, I saw that I was naked and tied between two trees like in those films I’d seen once in history of how the Romans dismembered their criminals.

  We were deep in the forest in a sheltered cove and men moved silently setting up camp, erecting shelters, taking care of horses, and tending the wounded.

  The soldier I knew as Martinez came up to me and stared into my eyes. “He’s awake, Cap,” he called over his shoulder and to my surprise, Jasra walked out of the groupdressed in camo and armed like the rest of them. Her smile promised endless torments and my saliva filled mouth suddenly dried up. My balls tightened up close to my belly in fear.

  “What a pretty child you are, Raven, Prince of Chaos, and Dragon Prince. You’ve cost me a major delay in this war, the lives of thousands of my soldiers and worse, you killed Ryan.”

  I’d killed her lover and didn’t even know it. She held her hand out and Martinez slapped her palm with a wicked K-bar. He cautioned her that if she wanted to kill me, the knife went in easily and usually fatally. She laughed. “I can see where it goes, I can see to avoid every vital part of him,” she smirked as she slowly drove it into my side just above the hip bone. It felt like a punch of ice in my guts and I held still even though I wanted to struggle. She left it in for a full minute watching my eyes cloud with agony. As she pulled it o
ut, blood gushed from the wound slowing to a trickle. It had a faint bluish iridescence in the firelight.

  “What do you want?” I tried to say but nothing came out but a garbled scream. She punched me in rapid succession, in and out flicks that barely punctured the skin but soon, my entire body was clothed in red blood. When the knife dropped lower to my balls and lifted the sac, Martinez stopped her.

  “No,” he said and his grip on her arm was like iron. “Don’t do that to him.”

  “It’s all right to torture him but not cut off his balls?” She sneered. “He killed Ryan!”

  “And you killed his girlfriend,” he said flatly.

  Girlfriend? But I’d left both Roelle and Lyndseye safe in Topaz. “The animal healer meant nothing to him or he would’ve saved her,” she retorted. Mallei had been alive after the shipwreck? But, I’d searched for her body and found none but Gordy’s.

  “That may be so, Jasra, but none of us will allow you to mutilate a man that way.”

  “Man? He’s just a boy!”

  “No,” Martinez said and his eyes were flat, black pools in the dark. “He’s a man.” The way he said it made me straighten and stare her in the eyes. Enraged, she punched me in the face and her blow was every bit as hard and as powerful as his had been. I passed out.

  *****

  The next time I woke, it was on the back of a horse, tucked against the man’s backside with my hands cuffed in front and a rope around my neck. My head had been lying on his shoulder and thumping with the rhythm of the horse’s gait. We were trotting on a trail up a ridge and the trees were so close that my knees kept getting hit. They felt as if all the skin had been scraped off.

  I was hungry but so thirsty that the rubber gag in my mouth stuck to my lips and my jaw throbbed with my heartbeat. I ached everywhere but the worst pace place was where she had stabbed me in the side, a hot vibrating pain that radiated all the way to my back. It felt like it was still oozing and the jar of the horse’s feet hitting the ground made me groan which he could feel vibrating against his back.