The Black wing (d-2)

by Mary Kirchoff

  Horak restrained any signs of flinching. It was an abrupt but necessary symbolic shift of allegiance from the Red to the Black Wing. The human forced a look of eager pride to his freckle-flecked face. Slipping the banner's loops over the tip of his pike, he waved it over his head. The humans and ogres who had gathered behind Maldeev whooped joyously.

  Behind Horak, the draconians seemed unmoved, which momentarily surprised the highlord. Catching his expres shy;sion, Horak said, "Don't be concerned, Highlord. They are loyal servants of the Dark Queen. Draconians are devoid of emotion, except for hate … and love of ale."

  Maldeev shook away his dismayed look, annoyed at him shy;self for showing his lack of knowledge before this new com shy;mander. The dragon highlord squinted at the troops, evaluat shy;ing them. "Which are the baaz, and which are kapak? Tell me, how do you make such creatures without magic?"

  "The brass-tinged ones in the front with the hooded capes and short wings are the baaz. They were the first made. A hardening liquid is injected into the eggs of Good brass drag shy;ons, which remains in their adult bodies. The liquid hardens to stone if they're killed, which also traps any weapons inside them."

  Horak pointed directly at a baaz near the front of the legion. "You may notice that some of them look vaguely human, like Gorbel. With a minor mask over his snout and a long, bulky cape, he makes a fairly convincing man-I fre shy;quently use Gorbel in particular as a spy."

  Maldeev nodded his appreciation.

  "All in all, baaz are small but exceedingly powerful, nearly two-thirds of the assembled troops."

  Horak removed a gauntlet and pointed a finger. "Behind them are the kapaks, made from copper dragons." He shook his head wistfully. "Unfortunately, they're neither as smart nor even as tolerable to look at as the baaz, with that strange hank of mane dangling from their jaws. They also refuse to wear clothing of any sort. Those large, leathery wings make them fair gliders, though they would be considered pathetic compared to dragons." The red-haired commander gave an appreciative look to Jahet and Khisanth, who were listening and watching with silent but scarcely concealed disdain.

  "Fortunately," continued Horak, "kapak respond well to orders from humans. They'll even listen to the more intelli shy;gent of the baaz. Their hand-to-hand skills are matchless in combination with the venom of their saliva."

  Maldeev rocked back on his heels, arms crossed tightly before him. "Very impressive," he breathed.

  "You should see the newest draconians," Horak said abruptly, his tone conversational. "The gold auraks have magical abilities that rival a dragon's. They can't fly, but their intelligence more than makes up for that.

  "And the sivaks …" He whistled. "Their skills are bound shy;less! Their silver wings spread in flight are a sight to behold! As strong as giants, perhaps, they can shapechange at will. In fact, when someone does manage to slay them, they automat shy;ically change into the form of their slayer for three days, then burst into flames and destroy all around them. Wonderful effect!"

  Horak sighed wistfully. "Dragon Highlord Ariakas just received five hundred of each. What I wouldn't do to earn command of some of them one day…."

  The tips of Maldeev's ears burned red. He was receiving Ariakas's rejects! His moment of triumph had dissolved into degradation. "When can I expect my allotment of auraks and sivaks to replace these wretched abominations?" he asked through gritted teeth.

  Horak seemed at last to sense his error. "Sir, baaz and kapaks are still far superior to humans in sheer physical strength and fighting ability. They have served Highlord Ari shy;akas well. With their help, the Black Wing will surely rise in status and-"

  "Ariakas has arranged it so that he still has the greatest fighting force, while the rest of us struggle along, looking like pathetic imitations of highlords in his shadow!" Maldeev slammed one gloved fist into the other. "Well, I will not accept his charity, or his rejects!"

  Jahet stooped slightly to squeeze her highlord's shoulder in a possessive gesture that suggested caution. The very last thing Maldeev needed now was to appear unhinged before a newly reassigned commander. The dragon closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Maldeev struggle to regain his composure and shake off any outward signs of rage.

  "You're right, Horak," said Maldeev smoothly. "We'll use these draconians to fight for the Queen of Darkness. With them, the Black Wing will surpass even Ariakas's perfor shy;mance in the upcoming war!"

  "Yes, sir." Horak was knocked a bit off balance by Mal shy;deev's extremes of behavior, but recovered quickly. "My troops and I are fatigued from the march from Neraka. Where will we be quartered?"

  Maldeev hastily gave directions to his adjutant to place the commander's and his human officers' belongings in quarters within the inner curtain, near his own high-ranking soldiers.

  "As for the draconians," said Maldeev, "we've made preparations for the construction of tents." The highlord drew an arc in the air with his finger to indicate the area where Horak's troops now stood. "They'd better start build shy;ing, if they wish to rest anytime soon."

  Horak gave a brief salute. "Very well, sir," he said. The commander pulled on his gelding's bit and headed off on foot to establish a camp for his troops.

  Jahet dismissed Khisanth, who was not unhappy to take wing for the warrens.

  Watching the other dragon in flight, Jahet herself turned to leave. "I'd better get started on my recruitment of dragons," she said to Maldeev.

  "I am very pleased about Khisanth's turnaround," Mal shy;deev said, almost to stop Jahet from leaving.

  "If s good news, but I predicted it would happen."

  "You don't sound as pleased as I would expect," observed Maldeev. "Don't you trust her motives?"

  High above Maldeev's head, Jahet's wings shrugged, but her eyes were contemplative. "No more or less than ever. She's a black dragon." Jahet's eyes narrowed slightly. "But she is different. Something-the battle, perhaps-has changed her."

  It didn't settle Jahet's concerns to see the look of undis shy;guised admiration in her highlord's eyes as they both watched Khisanth's dark form in flight against the backdrop of deep green pines.

  Chapter 21

  Sighting the overwhelming urge to nap, Khisanth absently picked with a sharpened talon at a shred of carrion lodged between a knifelike incisor and her black-spotted gums. The newly pro shy;moted second-in-command dragon of the Black Wing was squeezed into the meager late-afternoon shade of a lone oak tree on the crest of a bluff in the mountains southwest of their destination: Lamesh Castle. Even during years of endless drill and preparation for battle, Khisanth had not realized how truly tedious war could be.

  It isn't a war, yet, Khisanth reminded herself. The Black Wing was preparing to launch an isolated offensive against the Knights of Solamnia who had, just months before, brought the fledgling wing to its knees. For nearly four days, the dragon had been flying as an advance scout for the north shy;bound army.

  The assignment had proven to be a tedious exercise: fly north for a half hour, wait for a half day for the plodding dra-conians to bring up the rear, fly north for another half hour. It frustrated Khisanth that, unfettered by the army, she could have flown the distance from Shalimsha to Lamesh in less than three hours.

  The second-ranked dragon of the Black Wing knew exactly how far it was to Lamesh, because she'd been flying recon shy;naissance there every other day since Khoal's death. Her shapechanging ability was no longer a secret after her battle with the ancient dragon, so Khisanth used it freely on her missions for the wing. Her form of choice was a big black raven, which allowed her to fly directly into the Solamnic compound and closely monitor the rebuilding of its forces.

  The decision to retaliate against the knights at Lamesh had been made months before, when Khisanth was able to consis shy;tently report that the knights had not regrouped to any sig shy;nificant extent. They appeared to have replaced very few of the patrician warriors, and acquired, at best, seventy-five mercenaries. That low number was co
nsistent with the Black Wing's own difficulties in recruiting many new sell-swords in the sparsely populated, isolated region.

  All of this was fine with Khisanth. It meant there would be fewer bodies to wade through when the time came for her revenge. The knight who had broken her nose at Needle Pass and then slipped from her clutches at Shalimsha would not escape again. The dragon looked forward to the day when his sword and skull jangled on her necklace with the rest of her trophies.

  Looking to the south with heavy-lidded eyes, Khisanth realized that the wing had made more progress in the last hours than she'd expected. They'd picked up the pace signifi shy;cantly after rounding the Hand of Chaos, a sharp southern leg of this isolated section of the Khalkist Mountains. The procession was perhaps a quarter league away, down the southern slope of the bluff upon which Khisanth was perched. Jahet hovered just above the ground at the head of the impressive file of troops. Airborne behind her, prodding troops along, were two newly recruited black dragons.

  There were three dragons under the ranking black dragon's command now, due to Jahet's active recruitment in the Great Moors. Khisanth had suggested that any uncommitted black dragons would gravitate to that swamp upon awaking from the Sleep, as Khisanth herself had. The two very young, "green" dragons, a male who called himself Lhode, and a female known as Shadow, were a refreshing change from their predecessors. Lhode and Shadow looked up to the older, seasoned dragons; the relationship came as near to kin shy;ship as black dragons could. Unfortunately, they simply weren't as adept at flying and fighting as those they had replaced. That would come with time and experience.

  The battle against the Knights of Solamnia had brought another important change: the dragons were no longer an autonomous division. The reorganization made good sense. Everyone knew Maldeev had divided the dragons to prevent the concentration of power that had made the betrayal of Khoal, Dnestr, and Neetra so possible and so devastating.

  Each dragon was now assigned to a specific fighting unit, to provide the ground troops with focused air protection. Not coincidentally, the leader of each unit was also the dragon's soul mate. As Dragon Highlord Maldeev's mount, Jahet was to oversee the entire army. Lhode would control the ogres with his ogre rider, Volg. Shadow and her rider and soul mate, Horak, were in command of the draconians.

  As for Khisanth, her promotion had come at a price. She had all but promised Maldeev to take his lieutenant as her rider, in exchange for allowing her to fight this one battle unfettered. If she had not yet grown used to the idea of the very logical union between equal counterparts, she had accepted its inevitability. Once her scouting assignment was completed, Khisanth was to coordinate her efforts with Salah Khan and the ranks of humans.

  The front ranks of the wing were now close enough for Khisanth to clearly see Maldeev in gleaming plate mail, his horse, as well as those of his officers, decked out in dress black-and-white skirts. Khisanth could see only flashes of the

  highlord behind the waving folds of the Black Wing's ban shy;ner, which he insisted on bearing on the tip of his own pike. The commander's joy at being in the field again was evident in his eyes through the holes in his horned helm. The wing's first offensive was obviously a moment Highlord Maldeev had long awaited.

  Riding closely on his left flank was the black-masked Salah Khan, newly promoted to dragon highmaster and sec shy;ond-in-command to Maldeev himself. He had been Wakar's adjutant, having risen to his post after the former second-in-command's death. A coldly efficient tactician, Khan was notorious for a temper easily ignited by underlings. Most everyone was already intimidated by Khan's ever-present black head wrapping; it was rumored that the cloth covered a featureless face, destroyed long ago in a duel with a wiz shy;ard. Salah Khan was an introspective human whose long, pensive silences frequently appeared to unnerve even Dragon Highlord Maldeev.

  Behind the leaders, the black dragon could see the small number of horse-mounted calvary, to be used in the event of a rout. Maldeev had made it clear he would take no prison shy;ers. Behind them strode the remainder of the human merce shy;naries, archers, and swordsmen. Next in line, Volg prodded his ogre troops from behind, Lhode coaxing them along by air. Bringing up the rear were Horak's charges. He led his draconian troops by horseback, using the Black Wing banner Maldeev had given him as a focusing point for the dull-wit shy;ted creatures, with Shadow hovering overhead.

  The exact date for the attack had been set after the arrival of the draconian forces. The monstrous reinforcements had visibly boosted the morale of the wing, at least those who were not asked to live with the abominations.

  While they were an annoyance and an insult to the drag shy;ons, it was the ogre troops who suffered the most from the nearly mindless draconian killing machines. Certainly, no one had any love or sympathy for the brutish ogres. Ironi shy;cally, the draconians had replaced ogres as the most distaste shy;ful forms of life in the army of the Dark Queen. Volg, the ogre's field commander, complained frequently in his halting ogre accent, to Horak, the draconian field commander, but Horak seemed to encourage competition between the units; neither did Volg receive help from their immediate superior, army commander Salah Khan.

  Drills for the entire army had become more frequent, spe shy;cific, and intense. Humans, ogres, and draconians all scaled ladders in preparation for a siege; arrows were made, and weapons polished. The ogres protested loudly on the latter score, seeing no value in expending energy on something that didn't make them fight any better.

  Waiting now for the front rank of officers to close the gap, Khisanth nibbled a blade of grass, much greener here than the drought-parched region around Lamesh. Angry-looking, black-limned clouds were beginning to form in the western sky, suggesting rain. The hot afternoon had already turned muggy.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Khisanth saw Jahet flying toward her. Pulling back her wings, the highlord's dragon dropped gracefully to her hind feet with nary a hop.

  "Maldeev is considering launching an immediate attack."

  Khisanth looked to the darkening sky and arched a brow. "Is that wise?"

  "Salah Khan and Volg are trying to talk him out of it." With a sigh, Jahet settled herself into the shade next to Khi shy;santh. "If s quite comfortable here. While Lhode and Shadow and I have been securing Shalimsha with just a handful of useless soldiers, you've had it pretty easy these past days," she said with mock jealousy.

  "Easy? You mean boring," growled Khisanth, struggling to her feet. "Let's go."

  Standing almost reluctantly, Jahet took wing mere heart shy;beats after Khisanth. The two of them made an impressive sight, gliding effortlessly, enormous shadows skimming the land beneath. The highlord had stopped the procession in a small gully on the spine of a neighboring bluff. They dropped within a length of Maldeev. "We attack immediately, while there's still a chance for

  surprise," the dragon highlord was saying.

  "There is that school of thought, Highlord," Salah Khan said diplomatically. His voice was muffled by the black wrapping around his head. "There are also those who believe that surprising the enemy at any cost is unwise, particularly in a battle of this size, when we so outnumber the enemy. If this were a small ambush, then, perhaps …"

  "Ogres bushed," Volg cut in rudely. He'd stomped his way to the front ranks after the procession halted.

  Horak, too, had ridden up from his position back with the draconians. Beads of sweat glistened on the brow of the newest of Maldeev's officers, curling his copper hair into tight ringlets. He'd heard Volg's comment and was twisting his red mustache confidently when he said, "My draconians are ready to follow you instantly, Highlord. Unlike the other, uh, soldiers," he stumbled with a pointed look at Volg, "they need little sleep or food."

  Volg scowled. "Darkness come!" He pointed a warty fin shy;ger to the east before adding slyly, "Ogres see fine, but humans not."

  "There's another very real problem, Sir," interrupted Khan, getting his first good look down the slope toward the citadel known as Lamesh. "
No one mentioned a moat." His eyes, the only things visible in his face wrap, suddenly nar shy;rowed with surprise and concern. "It would appear that the moat feeds a waterfall over a cliff, as well. If 11 be much more difficult to breach than our plans have allowed."

  Maldeev looked with irritation at his number two dragon, the only one among them to have seen Lamesh. "Well, Khi-santh? Didn't you notice these things?"

  "Yes," she said without guilt. "I reported that they were digging a trench at least two fortnights ago. In itself a trench would not change the method of attack. However, the water is a new development." She gave Maldeev a wry look. "Per shy;haps they've been expecting us."

  "We'll wait until morning!" snapped the dragon highlord. Spurring his horse, Maldeev cantered off and stopped a short distance away to gather his thoughts alone.

  Maldeev's advisors would all have been surprised to learn that their highlord had actually made the decision to delay the attack after Horak's pandering. Not that the highlord was immune to bootlicking. Actually, it was one of his favorite benefits of rank.

  The problem was Horak. The very capable human com shy;mander didn't know he was the least trusted of Maldeev's officers, even placing behind the vulgar ogre, Volg, solely because he'd been under Ariakas's command.

  Nourished by Horak himself on his first day at Lamesh, Maldeev's hatred of the Red Wing commander had swelled, running so deep and silent, like the roots of a fast-growing willow, that even Jahet could not guess its full measure. Mal shy;deev would take Ariakas's leavings and turn them to gold for the greater glory of himself.

  He was Takhisis's chosen.

  Maldeev would seize every opportunity, take any chance, to align himself more closely with the Queen of Darkness.

  "Orders, Highlord?" Khan cut into his thoughts.