Black Rim

by B A Fleming

  The invader was on him in a moment, with a dagger coming straight at him. Aryz Coun struck at the man in the back. Casperi saw the dagger inch towards his chest, going for the spot above the edge of his armor. Aryz Coun now kicked the assailant, causing him to roll back.

  Dralan stared at the Imuhagh who didn’t know him, although Casperi let out a breath.

  “Dralan!”

  Aryz Coun struck at him, realizing now who this soldier was. The strike bounced off Dralans’ arm again, as the invader grinned back at him. Casperi drew his sword. The Black Rim struck Dralan, and unlike Aryz Coun’s strikes, the black blade let out a blue flash, slicing a deep wound in his right leg as Dralan let out a scream. He turned, almost snarling at Casperi, before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke.

  King Daikin settled into the main bedroom of Bhagshau Castle. Trajunus had left and wasn’t expected to return. Gameard and Soze entered the room with Princess Thais. King Daikin waved the squires out. Thais nervously looked around. The last time she had visited this room it was the abode of King Edward.

  “There is no need for you to attend this meeting, Princess,” observed the King.

  “I thought I would support my friends, my majesty,” she answered.

  King Daikin looked at the young woman. He hesitated, then nodded in agreement.

  Daikin went to the assortment of chairs and stood in front of his favorite. All of the furniture had been replaced or re-upholstered during the past summer. He offered Thais a chair first, and then the others. They all sat.

  “Mordare, I wanted to thank you for your assistance,” offered King Daikin. Thais looked across to Gameard. Daikin smirked.

  “I’m sorry to inform you Princess, but your loyal guard also happens to be head of the Tullav.”

  Gameard smiled to her, slightly embarrassed. Soze chuckled.

  “You knew as well Soze?”

  “Well, I eventually worked it out,” he replied.

  King Daikin looked across to Gameard again.

  “I do have one matter I wish to discuss with you Gameard,” he continued. “It seems our visitors’ soldiers are not getting paid as regularly as they would like.”

  “Yes, your majesty. I imagine that they are not.”

  “I would hope that we can keep them in favor and think of other means to redistribute their wealth.”

  “I’m sure that we can,” he offered. The King looked at the two men for a moment.

  “I have thanks for both of you. I have fondness for our Princess here and appreciate your ongoing support for her.”

  Both nodded and all looked across to Thais.

  “Thais. Your skills are a great strength for us, but they need to be used strategically. I wish your battle to only be with the dragon. You defeat the beast and we will defeat our invaders.”

  Thais nodded. It was a simple though effective plan.

  “I have some ill-gotten supplies here in Bhagshau that maybe useful in our immediate concern,” suggested Gameard.

  “Go on, Mordare.”

  “Some hundred or so oil barrels, sire.”

  “Oil barrels?” questioned Daikin. “Of the flammable kind?”

  “Yes, sire.”

  “Then your contribution to the battle would be greatly appreciated,” Daikin nodded as he rose. The others followed his lead.

  “Please keep me informed,’ requested the King, as he shook Gameard’s hand, “and thank you both for your efforts. I believe that you may be somewhat responsible for tipping the odds in our favor.”

  Both bowed in turn. Thais stood slightly behind them. He approached her next.

  “They are loyal servants of the kingdom, my dear,” offered King Daikin. “Don’t feel badly of them.”

  *****

  Arthung swooped down into the last valley before the town, searching for potential victims in his path. Arrows and spears bounced off him without damage as catapults vainly tried to hit their moving target. His roars had alerted Thais and her men on their way through the corridors from their meeting with the King. Casperi was already on the wall with Nathe, Dwane, Vuvic and Aryz Coun as she made her way up to them. Arthung made the run and then sailed out a long curve over the swamps before his second.

  Thais arrived and looked out along the wall. She could see Norman leading the Catheridge soldiers moving through streets to the west, and Vasa soldiers further to the south. Casperi and Nathe had taken a combination of Catheridge and Anil soldiers themselves, taking turns on the wall and the street skirmishes. King Daikin had broken the soldiers up into three legions.

  Canute and Hacon led the Vasa troops, so she turned her attention to Norman, watching his men closely. She held her arrow downwards as she scanned. She recognized several of the men as boys she had grown up with. Her breath slowed as she glanced over the area in front of their cautious advance.

  A minute later, after adjusting her position several times, Thais let an arrow fly. The Narthal sentry, stationed to warn the main groups of advancements collapsed into the shadows. Arthung soared in the distance.

  The Vasa soldiers had already commenced engaging their enemy, as Thais could make out Hacon leading several of his men down a street for a flank attack on the Narthal. Four more groups of Narthal appeared more or less in front of her, several of which had broken through the garrison lines stretched across four streets away from her. She could hear Crixus yelling orders in the distance.

  Thais put her arm out straight, and only moving her hand, began spinning it in a clockwise direction. With her eyes closed and head bent forward her hair began to stand on end and the air began to twirl above her.

  Slowly a small tornado appeared from above the top of her hair and floated off in front of her. As it did she continued an incantation and slowly looked up, watching the zephyr grow in size and speed.

  She now bent her elbow, so that her hand was pointing directly upwards, and started spinning her whole forearm. The tornado now grew in even greater size so that it was over a hundred feet high. She looked forward, gently directing it with her mind towards the intended target. Hundreds of Narthal soldiers fell over as others flew into walls, although only a few seemed to die in the carnage of bodies and weapons that spun around them. Many of the valley troops stationed on the walls noticed the tornado and stopped to watch.

  A short time later Gameard appeared, rolling out the drums as Legati Caius directed a large group made up of garrison soldiers, Moreans, and Tullav. The men had set their differences aside for the moment and worked well together, either stacking catapults, or setting drums along the walls, ready for disposal on to on-coming troops. The catapults rolled forward as three men per item aligned them to the streets that fanned out from their positions.

  Gameard looked several hundred feet along the wall, watching the men organizing the loading as a battalion of archers managed cover fire, a percentage of them firing flaming arrows at the barrels as they landed.

  Frin’s troops slowly started to appear, disposing of those incoherent from the tornado and then the oil, before taking on a fresh wave of Narthal troops led by Wudi. A horn sounded and Hardular soldiers fighting north of the castle pushed themselves against walls or into doors as the oil barrels landed, splashing flaming oil through the streets, lighting enemy soldiers for more than fifty feet in any direction.

  Wudi and his soldiers retreated, many of them either dragging themselves or others still on fire along the cobblestones. The horn sounded again and the allied forces slowly stopped, carefully making their way backwards, whilst keeping their eyes out of the shadows around them.

  Down within the streets in the eastern quarter, Hacon turned to face a soldier running at him. It was one of his archers, who had been in a side alley, cleaning out. He fell a few paces from the corner, an arrow in his throat. Hacon held the man as he retracted the dart.

  Putting the same arrow in the fallen soldiers’ bow, Hacon let it fly at one of the three Warang who peered around the corner. It bounced off the stone wal
l near them. It was easy to see why he had hardly made the second round of archery in the Summer Games.

  He sent several men up to the corner, hoping that the invaders would duck their heads around again. His flank squad had better luck, taking out five Narthal soldiers closing in from behind. One of Hacons’ front men shot out with his dagger, stabbing another attacker in his armpit as they sought a second look.

  Hacon called out for re-enforcements across the streets and then for his fallen soldier to be carried away. As the two men disappeared into a safe alley further from the fighting, a barrage of arrows flew towards Hacons’ squad. His men dropped, either through injury or to take cover, several able to climb into doorways, which had been exposed after his flank men’s attack.

  The Narthal archers quickly reset their bows and resumed their bombardment on the increasing number of soldiers coming at them through the side streets.

  They had been surrounded, even as several of the Hardular troops were now facing resistance as they tried to get through to the invaders. The Narthal started calling out to each other, sounding a retreat. It seemed futile to continue firing arrows with the number of Hardular men coming at them from at least three directions.

  Hacon turned on his right foot, narrowly avoiding the slice that cut across his lower neck, as he swung up, taking out the assailants’ knee in one swift move. He gasped as the strike had knocked the wind out of his lungs. It would leave a mark although no blood seemed to have been drawn.

  He sat back into a doorway as the opponent laid a few steps from him, screaming as he held his knee. One of his captains came around the corner, kicking the mans’ sword away from arms reach, stepping firmly in the middle of his back to remove the dagger from the side of his belt. The Vasa soldiers had been raised to fight with integrity. The captain looked back once to make sure the Narthal soldier was not about to try anything as he helped Hacon down the alley.

  More skirmishes broke out as Hacon and his men retreated.

  Squires and some other brave townsfolk ran through the streets to retrieve injured soldiers. A few streets away, Frin slashed out with a flail at a rider with a blow that glanced off his leg. Although it did no damage, it distracted the man enough as Halsten jumped from the parapet above and brought the man down, landing heavily on him on the grey stone, and at the feet of Frin. The mans’ neck had broken in the fall, and Halsten rolled off him as they both turned to face more attackers.

  Through the chaos of skirmishes breaking out in random streets, Narthal troops seemed to be retreating and attacking within minutes of each other. Some of the Narthal had made their way up the wall. Gameard and Soze quickly jumped forward, cutting them down as they frantically ducked and swatted between opponents. Manchur skipped forward towards the sorceress, and knocked her to the ground.

  Lying on her back, Thais seemed to cower, and raised her hand as if in submission as Manchur lifted his blade, ready to strike. He was seized with pain and he staggered backwards, collapsing in agony as he fell back off the wall.

  Other parts of the wall had breached as well and many of the soldiers who had returned from the streets were directed up several flights of stairs to join in on the defense. Arthung swung in towards the castle as Thais let off several smaller bolts towards him. He took them on his chest, and although knocked a bit, only roared back at her.

  Thais was now almost to the point of falling over as she spun her whole arm wildly above her head. She was about to let out another bolt towards the dragon as ten invaders who had breached the wall charged towards her and her men. She had stopped incanting and with one deep breath yelled out a word. The full fury of a blast stuck down upon its targets, sending them flying over a hundred feet back over the outer stone wall. The wind also caught the dragon, who wobbled in his glide.

  Arthung continued to come at her and she drew her bow, firing a shot towards him. He ignored the oncoming arrow until it struck in the upper left leg, where the limb joined his torso. Arthung screamed, rising briefly, before letting out a ball of flames towards his attackers.

  Thais defended with a sphere of energy as the flames bounced off it. Arthung flew away in pain. Thais collapsed as Soze caught her before she hit the ground.

  Within the hour a guard had been set along the walls whilst surgeons and castle staff setup large pales of water, food, and bedding in the various courtyards of the castle. The battle had decreased momentarily as new troops seemed to move in to replace worn soldiers from the morning battles.

  Within the chaos, Gameard had given the signal for his own whistle withdrawal and Tullav scattered into tunnels, side streets, alleys, and shadows. Gameard had made his way around several crates and from behind a wagon in the main courtyard as he quickly assessed the movements of the soldiers, ensuring his men all disappeared as planned. Once he felt that they had all left he slowly made his way through the resting troops, passing on his congratulations to those he recognized.

  “What are you doing?” yelled Dralan, hobbling into the tent as Manchur discussed the next move of the battle with two captains.

  They turned and looked at him, stepping back, out of the conversation that was about to erupt.

  “I am gaining strategic position to give space for the Warang to strike again this evening,” he replied, without emotion.

  “You are merely wasting time. I don’t know why you don’t just throw an all-out assault at the north-east corner.”

  Manchur looked at him with a disgusted look. He knew that Dralan would eventually try to undermine him, knowing that all the men feared the dragon.

  “This is the best plan,” reassured Manchur, more to the captains, than to his brother.

  “Enough!” shouted Dralan, turning and storming out of the tent. He limped to the center of the clearing and took a knee. Others that had seen him transform ran to give space and the warrior bent his head down, closed his eyes and tensed his muscles.

  The straight arm that leaned to the ground seemed to crumble momentarily as it transformed. Black

  veins appeared through the skin as a wing broke out through their tattooed lockup. Within ten seconds

  Dralan increased tenfold in size with a tail almost instantly growing, as with the wings, the limbs thickening, scaling and black, sharp claws forming on all fours.

  He lifted his head, breathing a small flame as the final features of his face came to shape. Arthung looked around as soldiers stood half in fear and half in astonishment. He looked several of them in the eyes, and roared once again. He glanced at the tent, noticing no movement before springing into the sky.

  Minutes later the black dragon dove in low through the valley, flapping its large wings lazily as it let out fumes of fire to the left and then to the right, haphazardly targeting the valley soldiers. Several arrows bounced off his scales as he let out extra puffs at the archers that dared to shoot. Thais had been called back on top of the walls from where she had been resting, and now watched as the dragon came closer.

  She casually drew an arrow from her back and held her bow low, arrow cocked. She raised the bow, slightly adjusting the angle as the creature still seemed too far away for the arrow to possibly be effective. Thais breathed in, waited one moment, and then let it fly.

  She instantly dropped the bow, raising her right hand, whispering a spell to herself, as if under her breath. Four soldiers stood either side of her, ensuring cover for their princess.

  The arrow sailed through the air but kept its altitude, even slightly rising if anything. The dragon was distracted by his game of picking targets, sailing along the heated air he had created between the rooves of houses of the inner city. Thais continued to chant.

  Without warning the arrow stuck, piercing the right eye of the dragon. His flight waivered as he roared in pain dropping unevenly before turning off to head out over the swamp. Gameard and several of the soldiers cheered as they watched the arrow strike the eye of the dragon. Thais dropped to her knees, her fingers half covering her lips and nose as she w
atched the dragon. He protested in pain as he continued to circle back towards the tunnel camp. A few minutes later, Arthung slowed as he swung in, landing awkwardly, the dragon whimpered, lowering his head as several of the soldiers ran up towards him.

  “Get the surgeon!” yelled Eji. He was in the camp, looking over strategy for the afternoon onslaught.

  Several surgeons ran out to find the dragon kneeling on all fours, his face curled down, the arrow stabbing out of the half-closed eye. The horse surgeon looked at the others.

  “We can’t save the eye.” The others conferred.

  “Dralan, you need to remain in this form until the surgeons remove the arrow. If you change form, you will die.”

  Arthung nodded.

  *****

  Trajunus stabbed the goat five times. The animal had been dead after the first cut, but the current situation had nothing to do with its’ expiry. He was frustrated. This was the third farm in a day that he had arrived at to find the homestead empty, with only a few servants left to be slaughtered by the rampant Salararius.

  “Somebody must have warned them, my liege,” suggested Thargus. The thought of it had set Trajunus into a rage.

  Once the Despotate had calmed down, Thargus sat next to him at the fire whilst Lentulus, Thannon and Zador disposed of the few servants they had found.

  “Maybe, my liege, we could leave the others to head south and find these merchants on your behalf. If what Botan said is true, it may certainly be worth our while to visit with your uncle in Agrippa before we head to the palace.”

  Trajunus thought on his words for a few moments. He had calmed but was still not thinking logically.

  “I think you are right, but maybe one of the others should come with us to Agrippa.”

  “Of course, my lord. I would recommend Thannon, as I see he cannot be trusted not to take advantage of the girls. I agree with your concern on them. They will be needed to create new allies.”