“With your permission, Lord Reishi,” Jataan said.
Alexander nodded.
Jataan slipped around the corner and sprinted down the hallway toward the three men. He’d covered thirty feet by the time they noticed him coming. A javelin appeared in his hand, then leapt into the chest of the man in the middle. Jataan reached him a moment later, taking hold of the javelin and transforming it into a short sword. He flicked his blade at the man on the right, cleanly slicing his throat, then whipped it back and stabbed the man on the left through the heart. His blade vanished before he even pulled it out of the man’s chest. None of them even managed to clear a blade, much less raise an alarm.
Several staircases and another series of hallways led to another staircase. Again, Alexander stopped at the top, looking around the corner at the enemy.
The hallway was twenty feet wide and just as high. Across from Alexander was another staircase leading down. To the left, a hundred feet down the hallway, stood a gate, seven feet tall and four feet wide, made of steel bars spaced at six-inch intervals. It glowed slightly of magic.
Two bunkers were built into the bedrock stone on either side of the gate, providing the fortress’s defenders with excellent protection. Each bunker housed a ballista and crew.
Beyond the gate was a short corridor leading to a forty-foot-diameter circular room with one other exit, directly across from the entrance. The walls were lined with arrow slits manned by dozens of archers.
This kill chamber was one of a handful of choke points limiting access from the lower levels to the middle levels of the fortress island.
Alexander described the enemy, weapons, and defenses.
“We have to break this gate and defeat the defenders so our soldiers can get through here unhindered,” he said.
“What do you have in mind?” Jack asked.
“The direct approach,” Alexander said. “Once I open the way, assault through.”
He stepped out into the hall and ran toward the gate. It didn’t take long before the soldiers saw him and shouted the alarm. He raised his light, bright enough to blind his enemies and thwart their ballistae.
As he closed the distance, he drew the Thinblade, stabbing into the bunker’s firing port and slicing into the thick stone, drawing a U-shape through the granite. He put his foot against the block and pushed it forward until gravity took hold and toppled it into the ballista room. He moved quickly to the other side, slashing the gate into several large pieces on his way before cutting a hole in the other bunker’s stone defenses.
Alexander stepped through, finding a three-man fire team, all struggling to shield their eyes from his light. He killed them quickly and moved into the hallway surrounding one side of the kill chamber. Over a dozen archers seemed surprised as he swept into them, killing with each stroke, taking them so quickly and violently that none even loosed an arrow. The witches cleared the other side of the choke point. Down a short hall and through another door brought them all to a small room with a door in each wall. One led to an empty barracks room, another to a bath chamber, the third to a staircase going up.
Alexander opened his Wizard’s Den, sat down in his magic circle and sent his mind into the firmament before looking at the entire battlefield from high above.
The sky was just beginning to show color on the horizon. He found his forces, Sky Knights, and fleets. The assault was under way.
Captain Targa and his troop transports were already docking at the seawall and offloading their cargo of soldiers, who were moving to secure the lower levels of the fortress island.
Bianca led her wing of witches toward the outermost ship. Cassandra and her Sky Knights stayed high, circling and waiting.
Raisa was driving his fleet hard, pushing to get into position to strike at just the right moment.
Dawn broke, sunlight washing over the ocean.
Bianca tipped her flight into a dive, coming down toward the giant ship at a steep angle. She loosed a ball of blue magical force that hit the ship’s shield, draining it just a bit. Each witch in her flight followed suit, draining the shield one spell at a time until it flickered and failed. Each wyvern pulled up a moment after their rider’s spell was cast.
The crew on Zuhl’s ship was in turmoil, scrambling to respond to the sudden attack.
Captain Raisa came next, a dozen of his ships launching firepots with heavy ballistae. The missiles trailed streamers of smoke in a long arc across the water. Ten hit, splattering fire across the decks and sails. Another volley of nearly two dozen firepots went up as more of Raisa’s fleet came into range. Zuhl’s ship took hits all across its flank and deck, sails and rigging. Within moments of the second barrage, the ship became engulfed, an enormous torrent of flame rising off the water, spewing black smoke into the sky like a beacon.
Alexander appeared on Captain Raisa’s deck.
“Well done, Captain,” he said. “Proceed to your secondary objective with haste.”
“Aye sir,” Raisa said with a curt nod.
Alexander backed off, taking in the whole battlefield once again.
As predictable as the sunrise, the drakini launched from the nearest bay high on the side of the fortress island. Fifty of the unnatural dragon-men took to wing, moving in a cluster toward Raisa’s fleet.
Alexander watched his plan unfold flawlessly. He was starting to become a bit nervous because nothing had gone wrong yet. Cassandra led her flight out of the clear blue sky from above the drakini. The first javelin volley was devastating, killing or wounding over half of the drakini before they even knew they were under attack.
The cluster broke and scattered, drakini going in every direction with squads of wyverns giving chase. The drakini were quick and agile, strong and vicious. One came around, charging a Sky Knight from below, a decided position of weakness. It breathed frost on the wyvern’s wing, then tore into it with hands and feet, before breaking the engagement and letting the wyvern spiral into the water.
The battle became a swarm with Sky Knights struggling to maintain formation and order in the midst of two dozen drakini attacking at random. The drakini moved erratically, abruptly changing direction, making it difficult for the wyverns to track and engage, but there were many more Sky Knights than drakini.
The battle turned decisively when Bianca and her witches rejoined the fray. Alexander scanned the battlefield, seeing Zuhl’s remaining two ships break and run in opposite directions along the Reishi coastline.
He shifted his focus to Abigail and Magda riding on Zora’s back. The dragon was diving fast, having waited just a few minutes past dawn to make her move. She aimed with unerring precision for the large entrance on the side of the fortress island that opened into an interior road running straight to the birthing chamber. Her arc carried her with fluid grace and terrifying speed into the road, where she swept her wings back and coasted on inertia and magic with Abigail and Magda clinging to her back for dear life.
***
Abigail hung on to one of Zora’s back spikes with all of her strength, leaning into the dragon to present the lowest possible profile. She could feel the ceiling moving above her only a few feet from her head. Zora was stretched out, her wings swept back but still spread wide enough that they nearly touched the walls, her head and tail elongated and held straight, the world passing by all too quickly and so dangerously close.
She reminded herself to breathe. Then they reached the birthing chamber and Zora violently flared her wings, breathing a gout of frost into the room the moment she saw Zuhl. Abigail was crushed against the dragon’s back, her breath pushed from her lungs.
“Get off,” Zora said, pausing just long enough for their feet to hit the ground before she launched into battle, springing forward like a cat, pouncing toward Zuhl. But Ixabrax hit her broadside and they went tumbling across the enormous domed room.
Abigail landed hard on the chamber floor, still struggling to regain her breath, but she caught her balance quickly, drew an arrow and sent it a
t Zuhl. It bounced harmlessly off his shield. Magda sent a blue sphere at him. It flew straight and fast, hitting his shield and causing the bubble of protective force to flicker.
He eyed them with a humorless smile and raised his staff. A shard of ice, six feet long and a foot wide at the middle, formed before him and streaked toward Magda. She threw a force-push at it, narrowly deflecting the attack, sending the shard into the wall behind her hard enough to shatter it into a thousand pieces.
The dragons broke from their catlike wrestling match, and Ixabrax launched toward the apex of the dome. Zora turned her breath on Zuhl, spraying frost and cold so frigid that it could literally freeze a man solid where he stood.
Zuhl raised his staff, projecting a second shield in a half shell toward the icy onslaught. A coating of ice built quickly on the shield, forming six inches within a few moments, dispelling the shield but leaving a dome made of ice twelve feet at the base and almost ten inches thick at the apex.
Ixabrax crashed into Zora again and they whirled across the floor into the wall, a clawing, roaring mass of moving death.
Abigail did her best to ignore them as she took aim at Zuhl, having carefully selected one of the shafts with blue feathers—a force-bomb arrow. Her aim was quick and true. The arrow leapt from her bow and covered the distance in a fraction of a heartbeat, hitting the ice dome surrounding Zuhl with enormous force, a bubble of magical energy exploding from the point of impact in a blink. The ice shattered and Zuhl was tossed twenty feet across the birthing chamber, coming to rest against a wall, still a bit dazed.
Magda sent five force-shards at him, but he managed to raise a shield before the magical blades reached him. He shook his head, seeming to regain his bearings and power very quickly. He sprang to his feet, as if his body were on wires and he’d been pulled into place, brought a new shield up around himself with a few words and then began to cast another spell, holding his staff as he chanted.
***
Alexander raced past a guard post, startling the three men sitting in the little alcove off to the side of the corridor. Jataan kept pace with him. Anja stopped only long enough to quickly and violently deal with the three guards.
Up two more flights of stairs, then down a corridor, Alexander ran onward, his mind fixated on the battle taking place in the birthing chamber, running with all of his strength to get there in time to make a difference.
He burst into the room, breathless and nearly at the end of his strength, his legs trembling and weak. Leaning on Luminessence, he lit the room with his light, filling the chamber with magical brilliance that clarified his friends’ vision while blinding his enemies.
Zuhl erected a wall of ice in front of himself, blocking Alexander’s light. Magda hit his shield from the side, draining it again.
Ixabrax tossed Zora across the room, then pounced after her.
“Focus on the dragon!” Alexander shouted. “Hold him down!”
The five witches joined hands, four of them lending Dalia their magic. She formed an amber ball of energy and sent it at Ixabrax. It hit him on the side of the neck, spreading amber light across his scales, stunning him momentarily, giving Zora an opening. She sprang into him, clamping down on the collar around his neck, driving him to the ground and leveraging her weight to keep him pinned.
Abigail sent a red-feathered arrow at Zuhl, hitting the wall of ice shielding him from Alexander’s light. It hit, exploding in a conflagration, orange and red and yellow fire expanding brilliantly, boiling the wall of ice into steam in moments. He screamed, shielding his eyes against Alexander’s light as he tried to escape the scalding steam.
Alexander dropped his light, running as fast as his exhausted legs would carry him toward the contest of dragons.
The witches all turned on Zuhl, casting light-lances and force-shards at him in unison. He took a force-shard in the shoulder before raising yet another shield and pouring his will into it to defend against the barrage. The moment the witches’ spells ran their course, Zuhl dropped his shield and pointed his staff at them, sending a cone of frost, quickly engulfing them in frigid air, swirling and crystallized. When the fog cleared a few moments later, all five were on the floor coated in frost.
Alexander reached the dragons, drawing the Thinblade as he ran, dancing to avoid being hit by their thrashing tails. He waved Jataan back, moving into position, timing their movements, listening to his magic with every scrap of his attention, waiting for the moment.
And then it came.
Zora adjusted her grip on Ixabrax’s collar, presenting a clear target. Alexander slipped forward and severed the slave collar. Ixabrax thrashed free of Zora, hitting Alexander and sending him flying across the floor, before launching toward Zuhl, breathing a gout of frost at him in midflight.
Zuhl’s shield took the frost. Before Ixabrax could reach him, Zuhl hit him with a force-push powerful enough to send the dragon crashing into the wall.
Anja had worked her way around behind Zuhl, her blade raised in both hands. She was within a few steps of throwing her broadsword when Zuhl opened a door in the world of time and substance and stepped through it, vanishing from the battlefield.
Ixabrax tipped his head back and roared, fury reverberating through the fortress island and into the ocean air beyond.
“I feel the same way!” Anja said. “I was just a few steps away.”
Jataan went to Lita, who lay curled on her side, shivering and shuddering along with her four sisters.
The battle mage looked up plaintively at Alexander and said, “Can you help them?”
Alexander opened his Wizard’s Den and they carried the five witches inside, bundling them in blankets. Magda cast a few spells to warm them and they stoked the fire in the hearth, putting on a kettle to boil.
While his friends tended to the witches, Alexander sat down in his magic circle to find Zuhl. He was atop the plateau, his next spell just reaching fruition. Alexander watched as the wizard grew rapidly, his arms transforming into wings, his pale skin changing into blue scales and his nose growing into a long and powerful snout—Zuhl had just transformed into a blue dragon about half Zora’s size.
Cassandra saw him take off from the plateau, roaring for his remaining drakini and priests to follow.
Drakini poured out of the fortress island, and priests all across the plateau began to transform into small blue dragons. Within a minute, Zuhl was leading a significant force toward the coastal encampment, abandoning his men and the fortress island.
For a moment, Alexander thought Cassandra was going to go after him, but she didn’t, instead turning her attention to the regiment on the plateau. The battle that followed was brutal and efficient. The enemy soldiers that remained had no magic.
Alexander settled in for a fight.
Seeing the entire battlefield, he appeared before a startled and frightened platoon leader with twenty men about to round the corner into a defensive position. Alexander stopped them and showed them a way around so they could attack the position from behind.
Then he backed out again to see the whole fortress island, every enemy, every friendly. His strategy seemed to form naturally, dictated more by the deployment of forces and the terrain than anything else. He appeared in front of another platoon leader, this one on the other side of the island, and told him where to move his platoon, where he would encounter a two-man post, where he should take up a position to make a larger attack later.
Out quickly and then back in, reappearing before the next platoon leader he needed to direct. He sent the man and his soldiers in a long route that would avoid a guard post and bring them into position to attack a main choke point leading to the upper levels.
It wasn’t long before Alexander had his entire force engaged according to his direction, using his magic to keep his people perfectly aware of the enemy’s position, strength, and armaments before each engagement. He guided his people into attacks that caught enemy soldiers between two forces. His men systematically killed or pushed
all of Zuhl’s men back and up onto the plateau. By late that evening, the only place that Alexander’s forces hadn’t taken was the top of the fortress island.
All of the paths to the plateau surface were barricaded, guarded, and generally over-defended. The Sky Knights had landed inside the fortress, taking over the unused landing bays and beginning a rotation of attack runs that focused on keeping death raining down from above into the enemy on an ongoing basis.
“We have plenty of rocks,” Bianca said. “No sense risking engagement when we can just kill them from the air.”
“I could use a meal,” Ixabrax growled from his place against the wall of the giant landing bay. Zora looked up, seeming to wake from her nap at the mention of food. This bay was empty of wyverns. Alexander had chosen it because he wanted to include the dragons in his plans.
“If you two want some of Zuhl’s barbarians for dinner, now would be a good time,” Alexander said. “As far as killing all of them, I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.”
“Speak for yourself, Human,” Ixabrax said, stretching his wings before launching out into the darkening sky. Zora followed a few moments later, shaking her wings out before taking flight.
“What are you suggesting?” Magda asked.
“We leave them here,” Alexander said with a shrug. “Why bother with a bunch of thugs? Besides, they don’t have any ships.”
“This fortress could be a valuable position,” Bianca said.
“We’ll come back to it later,” Alexander said.
“We don’t really need it right now,” Abigail said. “And we already got everything we’re going to get here.”
“I was really hoping to get Zuhl,” Jack said.
“Yeah, but we got Ixabrax,” Abigail said, “and this time, he wants a war.”
They spent the night loading troops and shipping them out under cover of darkness to protect them from the enemy high above on the plateau. By dawn, all that remained were Sky Knights and witches … plus two well-fed dragons.
Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept Page 35
