“Leaving so soon?” The Grey Hunter grinned as he shifted the crutch beneath his arm. He’d sustained a bad second-degree burn to his leg during Riamod’s attack, but he would heal.
“Some of us have to do more than just lie around the palace enjoying the king’s wine all day,” I said as I gave the man a smile and shook his meaty hand.
“It’s a tough job,” Adath said, gave a little shrug, and squeezed my fingers in return, “but someone’s gotta do it. Quality control and all.” He winked.
“Just make sure to save me some, eh?” I replied with a laugh.
“No promises.” Adath shook his head as his grin faded, and his expression grew somber. “In all seriousness, Ethan, I pray the Goddesses smile on your journey. Emroth is a wily beast, and I fear you will find him more than you reckoned with. Even with … help on your side.” He shot Irenya and Arieste the same suspicious glance that everyone else in Whitespire did.
“I’ll be fine,” I told him, and then our handshake turned into a farewell hug. “I’ve got two dragons to face one. I’ve got the upper hand. Besides, you’ve got bigger things to worry about than me. The king and Sir Galfred will need all the Grey Hunters to help train the army.”
“Aye,” Adath replied once we ended our embrace. “Already, riders have been dispatched to every corner of the kingdom to summon the able-bodied men to war.”
“Hey, you turned me into a pretty badass fighter.” I gave him a wry grin. “I’m sure if anyone can turn farmers into an army to fight dragons, it’s you and the other Grey Hunters. Just don’t let Grendis shoot any of them, eh?”
Adath drew me into a fierce hug, then broke away. “Goddesses be with you, Ethan.”
“And you, my friend.”
The bearded Grey Hunter gave Arieste and Irenya a respectful nod before limping away. I watched him go and realized that I would miss the man. We’d spent a lot of time together on the journey to hunt Frosdar, and it would have been good to have him at my back as we faced Emroth. I’d have to make do with Arieste and Irenya. Yet, with what little remained of their magical abilities, they were more powerful than any soldier.
I turned to the two women. Irenya eyed me with hunger in her eyes, and I knew she was aching for me to give her the magic I’d taken from her the previous day. Arieste was far less hungry, but I could sense her desire for the power. They had spent centuries in the form of a dragon, and they had to be feeling powerless and uncomfortable in these human bodies.
A stunning human body, I noted as Arieste stripped out of her dress. She removed everything until she stood in the simple, gauzy lace shift I’d found her in. Then she smiled at my appreciative look and gave me a wink that promised more later.
I pulled the pale white gemstone from my pocket and held it out to Arieste. She took it with a smile and placed it against her forehead. I rested my right hand against the gemstone, closed my eyes, and drew in a deep breath. I felt the magic roaring inside me, like an icy waterfall that wanted to be set free. I gasped as the ice-cold power coursed through my veins, toward my finger, and through the gemstone into Arieste’s body. I no longer fought it as it sucked the power from within me.
I’d witnessed the transformation before, but it still shocked me to see the way her narrow face grew wider and broader until it became a long, serpentine snout with horns. Her pale flesh hardened into icy scales as white as snow, and her hands and feet elongated into talons at the end of thick, heavily muscled legs. A tail burst from the base of her spine, and leathery white wings snapped outward from her ribs. A chill wind washed over my face as the massive dragon breathed out, and exhilaration sparkled in those white-blue eyes.
I turned to Irenya as Arieste lowered her head and right shoulder. “Get on.”
Disappointment replaced the hunger in the red-haired woman’s amber-colored eyes. She wanted to be transformed into her dragon form, too. But until I could trust her, I wouldn’t risk giving her the power. After all, when I used the magic to turn the women into dragons, it sucked up most of my power. The icy torrent that had raged in me now felt like a trickling creek. It would be enough to defend myself if necessary, but nowhere near as much power as I could wield at full strength.
Irenya clambered onto Arieste’s back and settled between the spines at the base of the dragon’s neck. I stuffed Arieste’s discarded clothing into her pack, strapped all three of our packs to one of her spines, then took a seat behind the red-haired woman. As soon as I took my seat, Irenya leaned back against me and wiggled her hips to snuggle closer.
“She knows a way to a man’s heart,” Nyvea purred.
“It’s going to take more than that to make me trust her,” I replied, though the stiffness in my crotch made it hard to ignore the warmth and softness of her skin. The smoky scent of her hair only made me more aware of her presence, and I felt my mouth water.
“Arieste, fly!” I called out before a more rebellious part of my anatomy drew Irenya’s attention.
I felt the dragon’s muscles bunch beneath me as she crouched, then she leapt high into the sky. Her widespread wings beat at the air as she fought to gain altitude, and I glanced down as the palace of Whitespire grew smaller beneath me. Sir Galfred raised his sword in salute, and I let out a whoop of joy in response.
Arieste picked up speed quickly until we were hurtling through the air at breathtaking speed. King Obragar’s palace passed out of sight in a blur, and the city of Whitespire soon fell far behind us. The farmlands seemed to stretch on forever into the distance, a mixture of yellow, orange, green, and dusty brown. Yet we flew so fast that I could hardly see Whitespire when I glanced back after just fifteen minutes of flying.
The sun peeked over the eastern horizon and filled the sky with a soft golden glow. A cold morning wind whistled past me and ruffled my hair and clothing. It felt like I was on top of the world as Arieste sped north toward Windwall. A ribbon of blue threaded through the landscape far below, and the sunlight glittered off the splashing water of the Crystal River. Forests met rolling hills and endless grassy fields, and still we flew.
Then the landscape of pristine green ended abruptly, replaced by a cracked and scorched black desert. I knew we had traveled far enough from Whitespire to reach the northern border of Riamod’s land. I’d passed over the red dragon’s terrain only once, but I’d been so focused on the exhilarating feeling of flying that I hadn’t noticed how utterly barren and empty of life it was. No trees or green plants grew. Everything was black and dead as if scorched by fire. The wind brought the smell of ash and smoke, and it was thick enough to make breathing difficult. Even though the dragon was gone, the effects of her magic remained.
We flew for hours before the flat, burned land gave way to craggy cliffs, then high mountain peaks that Arieste had to fly higher to get around. White snow glistened on the rocky tips, and the air grew cold around us. Thanks to the ice magic, the chill didn’t bother me, and Irenya used what little remained of her fire magic to keep her body warm.
The landscape reminded me of the one time I’d flown over the Rocky Mountains. I had to be very high up to appreciate the harsh and rugged beauty, but that was what riding on the back of a dragon gave me. The sensation was amazing, and I knew that flying on the back of a dragon would never get old.
Arieste let out a little growl as we came around a tall mountain peak, and I caught my first sight of the Windwall that gave the city its name.
It looked like someone had dropped a black stone wall the size of the Hoover Dam into the middle of the Grand Canyon. Arieste was flying too low to see the city behind it, just the looming mass of impenetrable and unbroken stone. Nyvea had explained that the founders of the city built the wall to protect the people from the hurricane winds that blew through the canyons. The moment Arieste dipped to fly lower, I could feel the piercing wind and hear its shrieking in my ears. It brought a lump to my throat as it reminded me of Chicago.
Arieste banked sharply to dodge a rocky outcropping, then snapped her wings t
ight against her side as she flew through a hole in the canyon wall. Adrenaline coursed through me as we “threaded the needle” like a fighter jet. I felt like a pilot from Top Gun, and I loved every minute of the exhilarating ride.
Something at the base of the wall drew my attention. It looked like a squirming mass of ants, and I saw tiny black figures that surged from cracks and holes in the mountains to swarm toward the black stone wall.
“What’s that?” I asked. I had to shout to make myself heard over the wind.
“Emroth’s minions,” Arieste rumbled.
My eyes went wide as we got closer and I realized they weren’t ants. We’d been flying so high they looked tiny, but they were actually man-sized creatures. They had skin a sickly gray color, and they were so emaciated they looked like the zombies I’d seen on TV back home. Long pointed tongues flicked between jagged fangs, and their fingers and toes ended in sharp claws. As we swooped down toward them, they turned glowing red eyes toward us. The gurgling, grunting cries of thousands of the creatures echoed off the canyon walls.
“What the fuck are they?” I asked.
“Ghoulins,” Irenya shouted back. “Creatures of death, twisted by Emroth’s magic of darkness.” There were anger and disgust in her voice.
“There’s so many of them!”
“Emroth makes more of them every day,” Irenya continued. “She will not fight until she is sure she can defeat her foes, so she has grown adept at producing creatures to battle for her.”
I counted at least five or six thousand though I couldn’t be sure. We were still a mile or so from the base of the Windwall, and the ground was thick with the bastards. No wonder the army of Windwall had suffered defeat. Emroth had an enormous army on her side.
“Time for us to do something about those assholes!” I shouted. “Arieste, let ‘em have it.”
My heart leapt into my throat as the white dragon swooped down toward the creatures. The gemstone on her forehead brightened, and a six-foot dome of ice surrounded a handful of ghoulins. The tattoo on my right shoulder grew suddenly hot as I tapped into my fire magic. The power wanted to be used, and it surged through my veins with blistering force. A pillar of fire twenty feet long shot from my hands as we passed over the ghoulins. Then the ice dome turned to steam, and the ghastly creatures were boiled alive in their own skins before they turned to ash.
“Wahoo!” I shouted. Exhilaration thrummed through my chest as Arieste dipped low and lashed out with her tail. The sweeping attack knocked twenty or thirty of the creatures from their feet with enough force to crush bones and shred skin.
I counted six thundering heartbeats, then accessed the fire magic again to produce another massive pillar of flames from my hands. The thrill of battle coursed through me as I watched the horrible monsters burn, and the stink of charred meat filled the canyon.
“Look out!” Irenya shouted.
I had to cling to Arieste’s spine as she banked sharply to the right to avoid an enormous wooden crossbow bolt that whistled two feet above my head. I glanced toward the Windwall and found a loaded ballista pointed right at us. My heart slowed as a thunderous twang split the air, the ballista arms snapped forward, and a second black missile of death hurtled right at Arieste’s head.
Chapter Two
Arieste banked and spun in the air like a roller coaster, and it took all my strength to grip her spines and keep Irenya from falling off her back. My stomach churned from the violent dodging as she evaded the storm of bolts flying toward us, and I twisted my neck around to make sure that there wasn’t another massive crossbow bolt flying at us.
There were.
“What the fuck?” I shouted as the white dragon dove.
“It seems we are not welcome,” Arieste growled.
More and more of the huge ballista bolts flew from the siege engines on top of the Windwall and rained down around us. One glanced off Arieste’s wing, and the dragon let out a growl of fury and pain. I quickly summoned an ice shield to encase my body, and I threw a protective arm around Irenya.
“Get out of here,” I told Arieste. “Double back until we’re out of range.”
Arieste snapped her right wing out, which brought us hurtling around in a sharp arc. She kept dodging and twisting until the last of the missiles clattered onto the canyon floor behind us.
I glanced backward. The ballista bolts had plowed destruction through the ranks of ghoulins, killing at least thirty of them. But the swarm of monstrous creatures kept moving toward the base of the wall like an ocean wave of death and destruction.
“Get up high,” I shouted.
When Arieste had gained altitude and banked toward the city, I caught a glimpse of Windwall from above. The city was built on a broad, flat plateau that spanned the top of the cliffs. The massive wall faced the canyon to the south, and the buildings and streets radiated outward like an amphitheater on a city-wide scale. It looked as if the city had been carved from the mountainside itself.
Jagged terrain spread out from the city to the north and west, while off to the east were even taller cliffs that cast a shadow across the city of Windwall. The only way in and out of the city was a single highway that ran east from the city and snaked through the cliffs to disappear in the distance.
Atop the massive Windwall, I could see heavy fortifications. There were at least five catapults, twenty smaller ballistae, and a number of other siege engines I’d only seen in history books. An army of black-armored men ran to and fro, and they made wild gestures at us. Most of the weapons were pointed down toward the horde surging through the canyon, but a few of the ballista turned up toward us as we approached. The city of Windwall was clearly more prepared for a dragon attack than Whitespire.
“Arieste,” I shouted, “we’ve got to stay out of range and find somewhere to land. There, on the highway to the east. The ghoulins looked to be contained to just the canyon far below. We ought to be safe enough on the high road.”
With a growl, the dragon turned away from the city and soared to the east. She swept around behind a distant mountain peak, then dropped low to skim less than a hundred yards above the highway. Finally, she set us down on an empty stretch of road just out of sight of the city.
Her claws dug into the hard stone surface of the road, but she managed a graceful landing. I leapt from her back, helped Irenya down, and then strode around to Arieste’s head. After a single heartbeat, she lowered her neck to allow me to remove the gemstone. I gasped as the power coursed through the gemstone and back into my body. The tattoo on my left bicep shone brightly, and I gritted my teeth against the sensation of icy needles pricking my skin. Finally, the surge of magic faded, and I returned to normal.
Arieste was once again the tall, stunning, platinum-blonde she had been, and she rested her head on my shoulder with a sigh. Once she’d recovered, I helped her to sit on the ground as I went to get a dress from her pack. The tattered dress she wore, the remnants of her scales, concealed very little of her lithe, beautiful form, so she needed to cover up to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention in Windwall.
I pocketed the white gemstone as I rummaged in Arieste’s pack, but I caught Irenya’s eyes fixed on the pocket where I’d hidden the stone.
“When will it be my turn for some of that love?” she asked in a breathy whisper.
“When I know I can trust you,” I replied in an equally quiet voice. “Arieste has proven herself to me. Do the same, and I will share my power with you.”
Her smile never wavered, but I caught a flash of anger in her eyes. She’d gone from terrifying dragon to human woman in the space of minutes, then for the sake of survival sworn to serve the man who defeated her. At the same time, she didn’t know if she could trust me, or if I would take advantage of her. If I was in her position, I’d probably put up a front to conceal the truth of how scared I was.
“As long as you keep up your end of the bargain to teach me magic and help me defeat the other dragons,” I told her, “I swear you have
nothing to fear from me.”
“I gave my word,” Irenya said with that same fire in her eyes. “And I will prove it.”
“Good.” I nodded. I really did want to trust her. I needed her help if we were to defeat the two dragons that were coming to attack Whitespire. But I wouldn’t risk giving back her powers until I was absolutely certain of her loyalty. The two women had both been honest with me about their personalities when they were dragons, but I didn’t want to make a mistake and give Irenya her power back too soon.
“So, what now?” Irenya asked in a normal voice. “These humans don’t seem eager to have us join them.”
“What do you expect?” I said with a shrug. “They’ve been fighting dragons for a long time, so I’m not surprised they are suspicious. We’ll just have to go on foot and get into the city like regular humans. King Obragar’s letter will explain everything to the Council of Four. But until we can talk to them, we’re just going to act normal.”
“Which means we have to walk?” Irenya gave a disdainful sniff.
“Yep,” I said with a grin. “How human is that, right?”
She had been Riamod until the previous day, so she’d probably need a bit of time to get used to being in this limited, two-legged form. I might not understand what it felt like to go from being dragon to human, but I could empathize with the feeling of being thrust into a new role. We were both outsiders in a new world governed by rules we didn’t fully understand.
“How are you feeling?” I asked as I turned to Arieste and held out a hand.
“Surprisingly tired,” she answered as I helped her up. “Even though it has only been weeks, it feels like years since last I stretched my wings so.”
“Are you up for a bit of walking?” I gave her a grin. “I could always carry you if you want. Return the favor and all.”
Dragon Slayer 2_A Pulp Fantasy Harem Adventure Page 2
