by Scott King
"I got it covered," he said. "I'll free them."
For the rest of the night, they flew in silence. In his head, Carter practiced the spell the Sisters gave him. He repeated it over and over again. Each time, he tried to clear his mind to gather his will. It never came, and he had to trust that eventually it would.
Carter knew they had reached Elene when he saw smoke sprouting from the mountains on the horizon. The city looked like a smoldering hive, but instead of bees, dragons swarmed it. Dozens of smoke tendrils backlit by fire leaked into the sky, twirling, mixing, and forming a black cloud.
"We are too late." Alex buried her head between Carter's shoulder blades.
"No," Doug yelled back to them. "They are still fighting. I can see movement on the walls. Humans."
"Do it." Alex prodded Carter. "Cast the spell."
"I can't," Carter said. "Not from the air like this, moving so fast and maybe not from so far away."
"Bring us in perpendicular to the mountains," Alex yelled to Doug. "There are low plains, but enough foliage that in this light we will be impossible to see."
Doug banked left and descended, dropping hundreds of parses over the course of a league. They skirted a forest, and its top branches made a light brushing sound while rubbing against Doug's scales.
Across the grassland were farms and other outbuildings. None were damaged or showed signs of being burned. That was good. At least the local people weren't paying directly for their failure to get here sooner.
As they got closer, bits of ash fell from the sky like snow, and the foul, sulfurous smell was twice as strong as what had plagued them on Kale.
Doug opened his wings, slowing himself so he could land, but abruptly flapped them again, jerking into the sky so hard that Carter had to hold on with both hands to keep from falling out of the saddle.
"What was that?" Carter asked.
Doug curved west, moving away from the city.
"Doug?" Alex yelled.
"There was a body ahead," Doug said. "It was on the plains. It was too dark for you to see, but I couldn't miss it."
"I expect there to be more," Alex said.
Doug slowed again, as if to land. "I think this might have been Gideon."
Carter felt Alex's knuckles jam into his waist. "Take us back," she ordered.
"I don't think that's–"
"Take us back."
Slowly, as if reluctant, Doug tilted his wings and looped around. He settled on the ground, his feet crunching on the dry earth.
"Where?" Alex jumped off Doug's back. She had her agyl orb ignited before she hit the ground.
"Ahead, that way." Doug tilted his long neck to the right.
Carter unhooked his safety belt and chased after Alex. He had known Gideon for only a short time, but one thing that had been clear was that Gideon was family to Alex. If this was Gideon, it could break her. He hoped for Alex's sake that Doug was wrong.
Rivets scarred the ground, deep gashes where something big and powerful had sliced away the dirt as if it were soft sand.
"Alex wait," Carter said. "You don't need to do this."
"I need to know." She pressed on.
Blood stained the earth. Not a pool, like Carter would have expected, but strings of splatter, dotting and weaving across the ground.
Alex gasped and put a hand to her mouth.
The body, or what was left of it, didn't look human.
Raw flesh, pulled apart. Clumps of hair, skin, and muscle thrown about, haphazardly as if the dead person had been shucked like a cob of corn.
The mess and tangles of flesh were so unruly that Carter couldn't identify the body parts. The vulgarness of it overwhelmed him, and he tasted bile in his mouth. Why would Doug think that this carrion had been Gideon?
Alex dropped the agyl orb.
It hit the ground and bounced.
Light flickered against the still-wet meatpile, and the orb chinged, stopping as it hit a large rock.
An oblong chunk of sandstone, two parses high, stood upright. Gideon's decapitated head lay jammed onto the rock's peak. Scraps of skin flapped where his neck should have been and trails of crusty blood ran down the stone, seeping into the earth.
Alex hadn't moved since dropping the orb, and Carter wasn't sure how he should react. Was he supposed to offer her comfort, or would that make her angry? He didn't know what she needed.
"I didn't want you to see this," Doug said.
"What is this?" Alex's breathing took on a gasping quality. "This wasn't a death done in battle. This isn't how a person dies in war. This is murder. Flat-out murder."
Intestines lay sprawled ten parses from clumps of hair. Bones in a heap were piled on top of shredded leather. The ferocity of the death suggested that it had been quick. This was not a slow, drawn-out torture. At the same time it was overkill.
Gideon hadn't merely been murdered. He had been torn to pieces and then played with as a cat might throw a mouse into the air, not realizing it was dead.
"He didn't suffer long." Carter reached out and put a hand on Alex's shoulder.
Whipping around, she knocked his arm away. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"I..." Carter looked to Doug for help, but Doug was looking at the sky toward Elene. "I don't think there is anything I can say to comfort you. This is a terrible vile thing, and no matter how many times I try to tell you I'm sorry, it won't fix it. All I can say is that we will find Medrayt and make him pay."
Alex sniffed, sucking a glob of snot back into her left nostril. She wiped her cheeks, but within seconds, fresh tears rewetted them.
"I failed him," she said. "I didn't get here fast enough."
"We did the best we could," Carter said.
"Did we?"
"It's not over." Carter pointed to the city. "The fight is still going. It might be too late for Gideon, but your father..."
Alex inhaled a wobbly breath. "You need to make him pay. You need to cast the spell. Right now. Stop Medrayt. Stop the killing!"
Carter wanted to. He wanted to be able to snap his fingers, to let loose some magic and end this madness. That wasn't how magic worked. For starters, other than Doug, he couldn't see any other dragons. The night hid the land, and they were still leagues away from Elene.
"I can't," Carter said. "We have to be closer."
"How close?" Doug asked.
"In the city."
Doug swore in dragon tongue. "I can outfly a few dragons, but I've been pushing all night to get us here. There is a chance with them being controlled that they can't maneuver or fly as well as I can. If that's the case, I'll get you into the city, but once in the air above the city, there will be too many of them for me to dodge."
Carter didn't know how large the radius of the spell would be. He might need to cast it once for every dragon, or once for all of them.
He had been arrogant when the Sisters gave him the spell. It was magic. He was a magician. It would be simple. He should've thought it through. He should've asked questions instead of assuming he could handle whatever was thrown at him.
"We will have to get closer," Carter said. "It should be in a place where I can see as many dragons as possible."
"The reservoir." Alex held one hand notably higher than the other. "It's on the peaks above the city. It should be untouched from the battle and offers the best view of Elene."
"If I land with that many dragons, they will rip us to..." Doug's glare shifted to Gideon's head, still resting upon the sandstone slab. "We won't survive."
Alex followed Doug's look. Her lips drew together, tightening.
She crossed the broken ground and stopped at the rock. New tears ran down her cheeks. She kissed her fingers and used them to close Gideon's eyes. Reaching behind Gideon's head, she grasped his dreadlocks.
"Alex," Carter said. "Let me–"
"No." Alex jerked the head off the rock. Stinky cords of blood spun, wetting her travel cloak.
Alex sobbed.
Carter's ow
n eyes watered. He had never lost someone close and seeing the pain... the way Alex's bottom lip quivered, the way her hands shook, or the way she struggled to keep her breath. It hurt.
Alex took off her cloak. As if swaddling a baby, she wrapped Gideon's head in it. She tied the top in a neat bow and laid it on the ground. "No one will tear us apart like they did to Gideon. We are going to fight, and we are going to end this."
"I understand your determination, but I am one dragon," Doug said. "I cannot fight off hundreds of other dragons."
"You don't need to," Alex said. "You and I are going to be a distraction."
"How is that going to work?" Carter asked.
"We are going to leave you at the reservoir." Alex kicked over the bloodied sandstone slab. "As much as I want to be a part of the action and to be there when you end this, Doug and I can do more good, keeping the other dragons from noticing you. We already know Medrayt wants me. So, I'm going to tempt him and give him what he wants."
"No, if anything..." Carter was going to say that she should wait here, but he knew her well enough to know that would never happen. She would be a part of the fight, even if she was there only to distract Medrayt's attention from him. He had no choice in the matter. "Alright."
"Alright?" Alex's eyes went wide with confusion.
"If this is what you think is best," Carter said. "Let's go save your city."
"Doug?" Alex asked.
"I'll fly. I'll fly faster than I ever have. Tell me where to go. I'm with you."
Alex used the back of her hand to clear snot from her upper lip. "Let's kick some ass."
45
High Magic
Eldsday, 29th of Winewen, 1162.111
Less than a league away from Elene's walls the companions passed dozens of dead dragons. Their bodies lay broken with the fire of the burning city reflecting off their scales.
"They didn't deserve this," Doug said.
Carter was amazed that those defending the city had managed to bring down so many dragons, and he wondered what the price they had paid for those deaths. How many human lives had been spent in a pointless war?
"I think we are spotted." Alex kicked Doug's right side.
Carter looked to see an orange dragon with a peach-speckled underbelly. It was flying parallel to them. Watching, but not reacting. Surrounding its head was a purple aura that matched the color of the Dragon Lotus. Vibrant, like a band of lightning.
"What is it doing?" Alex asked.
The aura shifted to a darker hue, and the dragon suddenly snarled.
"Medrayt knows we are here," Carter said. "I think he took full control of the dragon."
Doug shot straight up, giving them no warning. If it weren't for the safety strap, Carter would have fallen off.
Doug's wings flapped hard, outpacing the other dragon. Carter thought they were free, but then he saw ten or so dragons that had been circling over the city turn their way.
"So much for stealthily getting Carter to the reservoir," Doug said.
The reservoir was twice the size of the lake around Owen's cottage. It had an oval shape that was too perfect to be natural, and as they got closer, he could see aqueducts flowing from it, down to the city.
"We can make this work." Alex tapped Carter on his side. "As Doug flies past, you jump."
"I'll break my neck," Carter said.
"I can get you low." Doug brought in his wings, preparing to dive. "It will be less of a fall than when we jumped off the Saundra."
Doug broke into a spin, almost throwing Carter off his back a second time. Doug pulled up, dodging a blue dragon and then a green one.
"I don't think I can do this," Carter whispered.
"Then we will all die, and Gideon will have died for nothing." Alex put a hand on his shoulder. He thought it was for comfort, but then she jerked him backward, undoing his safety strap.
She kissed him on the cheek and pushed him.
Carter fell stomach up. He saw her face. Red eyes and lips parting to speak.
"Save my city," she mouthed.
Then she and Doug were gone.
Cold water slammed into Carter's back, knocking the air from his lungs.
He sunk, struggling to right himself.
When he surfaced, he scanned the sky for Doug and Alex, but in the chaos, he couldn’t find them or the two dragons that had been chasing them.
Carter crawled onto the rocky shore. The raining ash clung to his skin and clothes, and when he tried to wipe it off, it smeared, leaving streaks.
Standing on the cliff at the edge of the reservoir was like being in the heart of a storm. Layers of mindless dragons flew in a circular pattern above the city, seemingly waiting for Medrayt's commands. He could see faint auras around each of their heads.
The dragons walking the walls of Elene and fighting the soldiers had darker auras. They moved in erratic ways and breathed fire, scorching stone.
Enough stalling. He had to try and end it.
Carter unhooked the pouch from his belt. He had left it sealed shut after the last time he read the spell. He had the thing memorized, but he didn't want to risk screwing it up.
Days old, the Dragon Lotus petal still looked fresh, not showing any sign of wilting. Carter had avoided touching it, for fear of harming it, but now he was surprised to find that it felt velvety between his fingers.
In his other hand, he held the spell.
He could feel his magic. It was there. It hadn't gone away, yet it still felt muffled, as if a wall was keeping it at bay. He focused on that wall. He focused on tearing that wall down and allowing his magic to rush free.
The Dragon Lotus petal called to him. Like a beacon in fog it demanded his attention. The amount of power it contained was overwhelming. With it he could do anything. He could turn Elene into a crater. He could summon the sun. He could kill every single dragon with only a thought.
His magic might be gone, but the Dragon Lotus's magic could be his.
Carter pushed the thoughts away.
He was here to free the dragons. That was it.
Carter read the spell.
The Dragon Lotus grew warm.
He glanced to the sky, hoping it had worked.
Nothing. The auras still clouded the dragons.
Over the wreckage of the east wall, Carter spotted Doug. His plump form with Alex on his back was impossible to miss. Three dragons flanked his sides and rear, while two others soared below and above.
Carter was sure Doug and Alex were only seconds away from death, but then Doug pulled his wings in close, falling into the dragon beneath him.
Doug and the dragon grappled with each other, or at least it looked that way. After a moment of falling, Carter realized Doug was pulling the other dragon down, using his superior weight to keep it trapped. The other dragon fumbled, trying not to break free, but to claw at Doug's face.
Waiting, till they were less than ten parses off the ground, Doug kicked off the dragon, propelling himself and Alex back into the air. The dragon struck the ground. It didn't get back up.
It was another unnecessary death that was Carter's fault.
Carter took in a deep breath, slowing his heartbeat. He cleared his mind and focused on the Dragon Lotus and its link with the dragons.
He repeated the spell, this time saying it from memory.
Nothing.
He was about to try a third time when he heard splashing.
A black and silver dragon skimmed the surface of the reservoir. It landed on the shore. Perched on its back was Cooke. "Now why would you be up here all alone?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a finger, stopping him.
"Don't say a word," Cooke said. "I've seen what you can do and have you covered. If you so much as use an ounce of magic, there are six dragons that are going to drench this entire cliff with fire. Not even you and your magic can stop that."
He pointed to his lips and held up an open palm.
"Go ahead," Cooke said. "
But remember we are not alone."
"I don't want to fight you." Carter said. He meant it too.
"Good, I don't feel like fighting you either. This would be much easier if you don't resist."
"If you are going to kill me, then why bother talking to me? Why not have the dragons do your dirty work like you did with Gideon."
Cooke squinted as if trying to read Carter.
"That was you, wasn't it?" Carter asked.
"Not me. We aren't alone." Cooke motioned to the dragon's head.
Carter wondered if she could see the aura or if she only meant the gesture figuratively.
"I wouldn't care if you died," Cooke said. "But Medrayt has other plans for you."
"What?"
"Plans."
"And if I refuse?"
Cooke tilted her head up. Circling over them in a holding pattern were six big dragons. "Will you submit and allow me to restrain you, or are you going to fight?"
"Can Medrayt hear us?"
"Yes and no. If he is actively controlling this dragon, then yes. It depends." Her dragon's aura was a dark purple. The same color of the aura of the orange and peach dragon he had seen earlier. Carter bet Medrayt was listening.
"I demand an audience," Carter said. "Let me speak to Medrayt, and once I have said what I have to say, you can do whatever you wish with me."
"And how am I supposed to–" Cooke's dragon leaned its head down, forcing her to grip its spine to keep from falling off. "I guess Medrayt is listening."
Carter's instinct was to tell Medrayt to go suck an ollip's tit and then to try and take out Cooke before the watching dragons had time to use their fire. That seemed stupid though. He knew if Alex were here, she would tell him it was stupid. He needed to play this a different way. "I was on Kale, and I saw the shoel."
"Lies." Cooke rolled her eyes. "We cleared Kale. It will be months before they return."
"We were deep in the island. At a great pit. There we saw not only the wormlings, but shelled monsters impervious to fire. The mere sight of them made my skin crawl and caused an unnatural sense of terror. It took all my will to not run from them."
Cooke's dragon snarled.
