Legends of the Lurker Box Set

by Richard H. Stephens

  The man who had taken her down spat on the top of her head and walked away. “Witches should be burned.”

  “Burned! Burned!”

  Reecah’s head snapped around. A welcome sight stared at her with beady, black eyes, from the branch of the tree inside the gap.

  The relative serenity on the slope outside the wall turned into pandemonium as three dragons, larger than she remembered, dropped from the sky.

  Massive claws latched onto archers by the head and shoulders, their talons puncturing armour.

  King’s men ran in all directions. Some screaming in terror, while others formed makeshift lines to offer a weak defense.

  Reecah’s lungs hurt so bad she couldn’t lend a hand, but the relief at seeing her friends put a smile on her face.

  Her grin grew wider. The faces of the guardsmen turned from bewilderment and fright to absolute panic as Tamra Stoneheart slid from Silence’s neck—her axes whirling before her feet hit the ground.

  The dragons chased down the bulk of the fighters who had abandoned the fight and were attempting to reach the boats, while Tamra took up a position over Reecah, daring those caught in between to come at her.

  Three men rushed Tamra from different directions.

  Reecah had never seen anyone thrust, jab and chop as fast as Tamra’s weapons cleaved the air—her weapons extensions of her arms; a graceful fluidity of motion as she met their charge with footwork so deft, she appeared to float. Reecah wasn’t sure she didn’t. Within moments, the chaos was replaced by the pathetic moans of the men who were unfortunate enough not to die immediately.

  The Maiden of the Wood wandered from one man to the next, systematically chopping their necks—offering no mercy. A couple of heads rolled down the hill to splash into the water before she finished the grisly task.

  Tamra strode back to Reecah, holding an axe handle out to assist her to her feet. “Where’s Junior?”

  “Taken.” Reecah’s voice was harsh and faint.

  “Where?”

  Reecah pointed to the gap where J’kwaad had disappeared. “They locked him in some place they call the hole.”

  Gathering herself, Reecah recovered her sword and dagger and fetched her discarded weapons from against the wall. “I think it’s this way. Follow me.”

  “Reecah, wait,” Lurker’s voice stopped her at the gap. “Can we fly you there?”

  Reecah gave Tamra a questioning look. She had never been here before.

  The tough woman nodded. “I know of this hole. It lies outside the main castle. I can take us there.”

  Reecah approached Lurker and hugged his head, ashamed she hadn’t thanked the dragons for their intervention. “I’m sorry. It’s good to see you.”

  “No apology necessary. Luckily Raver spotted you in time.”

  “In time! In time!”

  She laughed and released him. Kissing his nose, she greeted Silence and Swoop the same way.

  “So, can we fly you to Junior?” Lurker asked.

  Tamra nodded.

  Reecah climbed onto Lurker’s shoulders, a broad smile on her face, despite the dire circumstances. “I hope they get to him before the prince.”

  Before anyone could ask what she meant, Reecah added, “How many people can you carry?”

  “Why?”

  “Because, there will be five of us.”

  Reecah’s Gift

  The flight above Headwater Castle, though quick, filled Reecah with a surreal euphoria; the indescribable, heady sensation she experienced every time she soared through the sky on Lurker’s shoulders.

  The castle grounds were immense. Flying beyond the main keep, an ice-ball zipped past Silence. Tamra ducked to the side, nearly losing her tentative purchase to avoid the magical blast.

  Far below, the running form of Prince J’kwaad led countless knights and city guardsmen toward the eastern ramparts.

  “There!” Tamra’s melodic voice rang out as she repositioned herself on Silence’s shoulders and pointed.

  A large crater, walled in on all sides against the outside of the main battlement, sat between two wall towers in the centre of the courtyard. A metal-lattice grate lay discarded to one side.

  A furious battle raged around the crater. Two remarkably different sized dwarfs faced down a score of attackers—the guardsmen backing Anvil and Aramyss against the edge of the pit.

  Reecah gaped at the number of lifeless bodies sprawled on the ground, stretching from a small door in the outer wall of the main battlement, to where Anvil and Aramyss held the Watch at axe-swinging length.

  Reecah searched the grounds. “Where’s Junior?”

  The dragons banked over the pit.

  Tamra pointed with an axe. “There! In the hole!”

  Reecah marvelled at the keenness of Tamra’s elven eyes. Looking hard, she made out the form of someone at the pit’s bottom.

  The Watch looked up in alarm; their disciplined ranks failing.

  Before Reecah and Tamra slid from their mounts, Anvil and Aramyss made quick work of the distracted guards.

  Reecah ran to the edge of the hole, but jumped back to avoid Swoop as she dropped hind feet first into the deep pit—its diameter too narrow to allow her to spread her wings.

  “Swoop! You’ll get stuck!”

  Anvil and Aramyss backstepped away from the dragons—their axes held defensively before them.

  “It’s okay. They’re my friends.” Reecah placed herself between the dragons and the dwarfs. “We need to move fast. He’s here.”

  Anvil and Aramyss exchanged looks.

  “The prince! He’ll be here any moment. He knows about you two. We have to leave.”

  Anvil smacked his palm with his axe handle. “Stay with her. I’ll secure the door.”

  Anvil lumbered to the iron door and looked into the bailey beyond. A crossbow bolt and the remnants of an ice-ball shattering against the swinging door resounded in the small courtyard as he slammed the portal shut. He dropped an iron restraining bar into the brackets on either side of the door. “That won’t hold J’kwaad long.”

  The weapon master ducked into a small wooden guard shack and reappeared bearing Junior’s equipment. He ran back, his thick arms cradling his battle-axe, Junior’s chainmail hauberk and sword belt. Reecah estimated the load weighed more than she did.

  “Reecah?”

  Lurker’s inquiring voice drew her attention.

  “There are only three of us and five of you.”

  “You need to carry two.”

  Unable to hear Lurker, Aramyss and Anvil frowned at her odd statement.

  “We can barely get off the ground with one. There’s no way.”

  Flustered, Reecah scanned the unscalable walls and walked over to the edge of the pit. “Swoop. How’re you going to get out of there?”

  As if in response, the brown dragons’ front claws dug into the rock wall and pulled her bulk upward.

  “What about Junior?”

  “I have him.”

  “Just don’t drop me!” Junior’s muted voice was a joy to Reecah’s heart.

  “Look to the walls!” Tamra shouted and ducked as several arrows whistled into the courtyard, bouncing off Lurker and Silence’s scales; impaling the ground around her.

  “Send for the ballista crews!” The ominous words echoed off the courtyard walls.

  Reecah shrugged her bow free and dropped to a knee to make herself a smaller target. Sighting the closest threat, she dispatched a rapidly strung arrow, the missile shattering against a crenellation.

  The archer on the wall focused on her, raising his bow.

  Reecah’s second arrow took him between his nose and upper lip.

  Lurker and Silence manoeuvred themselves between the wall and Reecah; arrows ricocheting and splintering off their scales.

  It was only a matter of time before they took an arrow to the eye or their more vulnerable undersides. “Swoop! Hurry!”

  Brown claws crunched the stone lining the rim of the hole.
“Almost there.”

  Lurker drew her attention back to the courtyard. “Reecah, we have to leave the dwarfs behind.”

  Shaking her head, Reecah strung an arrow and stepped free of Lurker’s protective cover. “We’re not leaving anyone!”

  The arrow took an archer in the neck. He dropped his bow off the wall—his body hanging between two crenellations.

  “Unless they learn to fly, there’s no way. You’re our priority. My father’s spirit will never forgive me if I let you die. If only Scarletclaws had come with us.”

  She nodded. She had never known what had happened to the red dragonling from Dragon Home. Scarletclaws’ presence would have gone a long way to solving their predicament. “We have to try. Look at you. You’re bigger than before. You take Anvil and Aramyss. I’ll fly with Junior and Swoop.”

  “Whoa, bilge rat!” Anvil took refuge beside her. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say yer conversing with the beast.” He gave Lurker a wary look. “An’ I ain’t to be liking what I’m hearing. Dwarfs don’t fly dragons.”

  Swoop’s unfurling wings drew her attention as she emerged from the hole with Junior clutched in a back foot.

  Lurker’s voice pulled her back to their dilemma. “I know my strength, Reecah. I won’t risk you.”

  His words grated at her. “I order you! You’re honour-bound to obey a Windwalker!” As the words left her lips, they hurt her as much as she was sure they affronted her friend.

  Lurker’s head swung to look her in the eye. Such was his dark look, she fleetingly thought he might eat her.

  She hung her head. “Forgive me. I’m panicking.”

  Anvil must’ve thought she was talking to him. He winced and ducked as an arrow zipped past his head. “It’s okay. You get aboard yer dragons and be gone. Me brother and I’ll hold off the prince.”

  A loud bang resounded throughout the courtyard. Dust sifted down the wall over the small guard hut. Something had impacted the metal door.

  Reecah strung an arrow but her attention fell on the small door. Once it gave in, the fight would be over. “The prince will kill you. You have no choice. Fly or die.”

  Anvil glared. “Ye ain’t listening, rat. I’m not to be flying a lizard. I choose me own path.”

  The courtyard shook as another detonation hammered the door. The rusted metal bulged inward, straining the metal bar.

  Swoop’s voice barely registered as the brown dragon spoke to Lurker. “We should have convinced Scarletclaws to fly east with us.”

  “I agree, but she’s a stubborn one. She won’t leave until she’s certain no one else is coming back. If we survive this, we should go get her.”

  Angry at the stubborn dwarf giant, and distracted by the odd dragon talk, Reecah’s next shot missed her target. She leaned back against Lurker, beseeching herself to think. They needed more…dragons!

  A cold chill made her shudder. She gaped, craning her head to see Lurker’s face. “Scarletclaws is alive?”

  “She was the last time we saw her.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Lurker sounded sheepish. “I never thought.”

  Shouldering her bow, she wrestled her journal from her inner pocket, the action harder than it should have been because of the stress she was under.

  She flipped to the back of the book. Grimclaw’s spell stared her in the face. Had he meant for her to summon a dragon? Was such a thing even possible?

  Misgivings about her ability to enact such a complicated spell feathered her skin with tingles of doubt. If she wasn’t up to it, Scarletclaws’ life might be the consequence.

  Arrows thwapped against the dragons standing over their human charges. Reecah could tell from the way they flinched that the missiles were hurting them.

  “We better fly soon!” Junior shouted from where he cowered behind Swoop. “Ballista crews are setting up.”

  Anvil grabbed Reecah’s bow and pulled a handful of arrows from her quiver. He sighted and killed one of the nearest ballista crew members but two more took the man’s place.

  Silence took to the air, flying at the first ballista. As soon as she crested the wall, an ice-ball smote her backside.

  Careening into the battlements, she dropped to the earth on the hole side of the wall.

  “Silence!” Lurker and Swoop called out.

  Dragging her frozen hind quarter across the courtyard, she said, “I’m okay.”

  The courtyard shook. One of the massive stone blocks lining the doorway and holding an end of the crossbar bracket sat askew of its natural resting place.

  Aramyss peered from beneath Lurker’s chin. “They’re coming through!”

  Reecah forced the distractions from her mind, remembering Devius’ teachings. It wasn’t proving quite as simple as when they trained in the tower. Taking two deep breaths, it had to be done now.

  The words of Grimclaw’s spell flowed from her lips. Slowly at first, but as her confidence grew that she knew every rune, her cadence increased in pace and strength. Pausing to flip the page, she sensed the presence of her gift behind her temples pressing against her skull as if it was trying to escape. Oddly, the sensation was neither painful nor frightening.

  Arrows twanged into the earth. Men screamed from the battlements as Anvil’s marksmanship took out one guard after another.

  Without thinking what she was doing, Reecah stood up and stepped onto Lurker’s foreleg to hoist herself onto his shoulders. Her instincts urged her to get clear of the surrounding walls. There was something about the proximity of the Wizard’s Sanctum that called to her.

  Distantly, Aramyss pleaded with her to get down before she got herself killed.

  Oblivious to the distractions but conscious of Lurker lifting a wing to shield her, she kicked her heels into his shoulders much like she would direct a horse.

  In tune with his Windwalker rider, Lurker hunched down and sprung into the air, quickly rising above the chaotic scene below. His flight took him over the outer wall, avoiding J’kwaad’s line of sight. As if in a dream, the vision of Silence winging after them flitted at the edge of her mind and was gone.

  Using her heels, Reecah directed Lurker to the far edge of King’s Bay and hovered below Devius’ fortress on the rocks, the vantage point allowing her to visualize the bay area and Headwater Castle. Had she realized she did this without hanging on to Lurker with anything but her thighs, she would have been mortified.

  Flipping the last page of her diary, she stared across the bay to the Sea Gate Bridge and beyond.

  Unnatural clouds coalesced above, roiling with a sinister blackness. She struggled to complete the spell. A nagging dread made her hesitate. Fearing she was losing her grasp on the magical forces involved, she sensed a dragon fighting her summons—its presence flitting in and out of the boundaries of her gift.

  A sudden, violent storm boomed overhead—the black clouds unleashed a torrential rainfall; driven by a wind that should have blown her from Lurker’s shoulders, but the faithful dragon turned and dipped, keeping her firmly in place.

  Reality flooded her senses as she spoke the last word. Gasping in fright, she clung to Lurker’s neck, only now, fully aware she had taken to the sky. She clutched her journal against Lurker’s hide to keep it from falling and looked around.

  The sun broke through rapidly dissipating clouds over the Wizard Sanctum; glinting off the middle of the bay. A strange mist had formed around the rocks beneath her, obscuring the water.

  A shriek pierced the calm. The mist dissolved to reveal Silence flying above the rocks—the purple dragon giving chase to a stunned red dragon who was struggling to remain airborne.

  “Scarletclaws?”

  Scarletclaws flapped vigorously to gain altitude and tilted her wings to bank around Devius’ tower. “Who said that?”

  Reecah urged Lurker to her altitude and fell in beside the confused dragon, taking a moment to secure her diary.

  “You? The woman who ran through Dragon Home and brought th
e king’s men down on us?” Smoke billowed from Scarletclaws nostrils. Her eyes narrowed.

  Lurker recognized the danger and plummeted toward the bay.

  “What the—” Reecah’s stomach rose into her throat. She craned her neck to see Silence drop in beside Scarletclaws, the purple dragon’s voice barely audible.

  “Scarlet! Reecah is a Windwalker. She didn’t bring about our colony’s destruction. She tried to save us.”

  “How did I get here?”

  Lurker’s wings beat several times to match their altitude. “You’re here because of Reecah’s Gift. She used Grimclaw’s spell to summon you.”

  Lurker tilted his wings to veer back to Headwater Castle. “There’s no time to explain. We need you to transport two humans away from the castle.”

  Scarletclaws coughed, emitting a small burst of flame.

  “You got your fire!”

  “Of course. I’m a red dragon. What did you expect? We mature faster than you.”

  Lurker beat his wings faster than Reecah would have liked—the old part of Headwater castle, littered with the fallen bodies of king’s men, rushed by in a blur. She couldn’t help but choke him, fearing he was unable to avert a crash landing as the crenellated, eastern wall, lined with archers both alive and dead, zipped by.

  Wings turned out to beat rapidly, Lurker caught enormous amounts of wind. Reecah was sure her body would push through his shoulders. They hit the ground hard, his back legs absorbing the worst of the shock.

  Recovering her wits, she surveyed the situation.

  Swoop stood close to the pit, her body barely large enough to protect Tamra, the dwarfs, and Junior who had donned his gear. Dozens of arrows littered the ground around them, accompanied by several heavy spears, but everyone appeared unharmed.

  Silence raked the battlements until another ice-ball whooshed by her hastily pulled back head.

  Following close behind, Scarletclaws dropped from the sky, her body twice that of Lurker. She doused the ramparts with dragon fire before hitting the ground hard beside the other dragons.

  Two ballistae that had been close to becoming operational were devoured by flame.