by Jordan Baker
Borrican braced himself, ready for an attack, and he stepped back when Aaron leapt from atop the steps, his sword high overhead. He landed heavily on the stone courtyard and raised his sword, then dashed forward with a quick slash. Borrican deflected Aaron's attack and stepped neatly out of the way, a little surprised at how clumsily he was fighting. Borrican brought up his blade as Aaron struck again, pressing him back, away from Crag, who lay broken and bleeding upon the ground.
"What are you doing with her, Aaron?" Borrican asked as he parried and blocked one attack after another.
"You should not be here, Borrican," Aaron said. "The shadow is too powerful for you alone."
"And you would side with the darkness?" Borrican asked as he struck back, his blow deftly blocked by Aaron's blade.
"There is no side with the shadow," Aaron said, and he slashed with his sword, yet another clumsy attack. "There is only emptiness and the promise of oblivion."
"Why are you doing this?" Borrican blocked then stepped forward, throwing a quick succession of slashes at Aaron, which he neatly blocked and dodged once again.
"I wanted to save them, but soon it will be too late," Aarons said as he swung his sword in a manner more befitting a stable boy than a swordsman.
It was becoming clear to Borrican that Aaron was not fighting him properly, for he had traded steel with him countless times when they had trained together at the Academy and never had his friend fought in such a slow and obvious way, and yet his defensive movements remained lightning fast, quick as they had ever been. Borrican glanced past Aaron and saw Calexis place her hand on Crag's head, and, as much as he wanted to find out more about what Aaron was trying to tell him, he knew had to act quickly if the young dragon was to be saved. If Calexis had taken the power of the god, the power that Cerric had possessed, then she was exceptionally dangerous.
"I'm sorry, Aaron," Borrican said. "I can't talk with you right now."
There was a flicker of something in Aaron's eyes, almost the glimmer of a smile, as Borrican swung hard at him, with a powerful blow that Aaron chose not to dodge but took with the flat of his blade. The strike knocked him backward and he stumbled, and Borrican took the opening to run toward Calexis, sucking in a great breath of air as he shifted form. Calexis looked up from the wounded dragon at her feet as a blast of blazing hot fire shot toward her, and she screamed as the heat of it caught part of her arm. Truefire, burned her skin, eating away to the flesh underneath, and she leapt backwards, out of the path of the flames as the black dragon flew toward her. Calexis stumbled over a piece of chain and noticed that the circle of fire had burned right through the iron links, and before she could react, the chains slid from the ground as Borrican grabbed the younger dragon and climbed up onto the palace wall, then he leapt into the air and flew off into the night.
"You were supposed to capture him," Calexis growled at Aaron, who walked up beside her, his sword hanging limply in his hand.
"The Prince of Kandara is a powerful adversary," Aaron said blandly.
"Insolence," Calexis hissed. "Perhaps you would like for me to punish you again. You will submit to my will, Aaron, and soon. I can feel it."
"Yes, of course," Aaron said, his expression blank.
Calexis cuffed Aaron across the face and sent him flying across the courtyard, into the palace wall. The stone of the wall cracked from the impact and he fell to the ground atop a splintered bolt thrower and several broken Darga. Aaron slowly rose to his feet, dusted himself off and returned his sword to its scabbard, then he walked across to courtyard to where Calexis stood glaring at him.
"I am losing patience with this little game," she growled, and she walked toward him and shifted into a form that was part reptilian and far larger than he was, then dark black and purple energy began to crackle around her and she swung a clawed fist at him, smashing Aaron to the ground and pummeling him repeatedly, with a word for every blow. "You will do as I say. You will fight me or you will die."
As he flew out into the night, Borrican sent a great blast of fire toward the winged Darga that were fighting the other two dragons, Raz and Kaz, in the sky just beyond the wall of the city. The fight scattered and he let his thoughts free, echoing to the others to leave off fighting the Darga for now and return across the lake. At first, Borrican sensed their irritation at being pulled away from the fight, but when they saw Crag's body limp and dangling in Borrican's grasp, they each blasted fire toward the Darga that were circling nearby, then they turned and followed him back toward the army. Borrican landed heavily upon the muddy ground, the weight of the dragon wearing on him, and the pounding rain making his wings heavy. With several short bursts of his fire, he melted the ends off the iron rods and began pulling them from Crag's body, and dark pools of hot dragon blood spilled out of the gaping wounds, further drenching the already rain-soaked ground.
"Crag," Raz snarled as he landed heavily on the ground and, a moment later, Kaz landed next to him.
"I warned you of this," Borrican growled as he pulled another rod free. "It was a trap by Calexis and her Darga."
"Will he live?" Kaz asked.
"I do not know," Borrican said, then he felt Ariana touch his thoughts, and he turned and saw her and Keira approaching.
"We must stop the bleeding," Ariana said and she called her fire.
"Wait," Keira said. "Let me see."
"Do what you will, and quickly," Borrican said. "I can see his fire beginning to cool."
Keira placed her hands on the fallen dragon and she used her power to feel the places where he had been wounded, especially the place where the iron bolt had pierced his shoulder. A large vein that ran into Crag's neck had been almost completely severed, and Keira was not sure if what she hoped to try would work, but she sent her power into the place where the vein was torn and willed it to heal. It was easier than she thought, much like coaxing the trees and plants to grow, and as his flesh knit itself together, the bleeding began to slow.
"Use your fire on his other wounds," Keira told Ariana as she continued healing the wound in Crag's neck. After a few more moments, she pulled her hands away. "Now close this one as well."
Flesh and blood sizzled and burned as Ariana's fire scabbed the open wounds, and just as she stepped away, Crag moved slightly and opened his eye a crack.
"Why are you all staring at me?" he asked.
"Blasted fool, you almost got yourself killed," Borrican growled.
"The iron spikes," he grunted. "I didn't listen."
"Can you take your other form, Crag?" Ariana asked. "It will make it easier for us to care for you."
Crag closed his eyes and slowly he shifted to his form to more closely resemble that of a human, and Ariana took of her cloak and placed it over him. A team of Kandaran guards who had been tasked with caring for the wounded came running with a plank of wood and they moved Crag onto it, then they carefully bound him in place and retreated back to the woods. As Kaleb and Nathas approached, Borrican scanned the skies for a moment, to be sure the winged Darga were not returning, then he shifted form, as did Raz and Kaz.
"There is a large force of Darga waiting on the main bridge ahead, blocking our way across the river," Borrican said. "I caught sight of them when I went after Crag."
"How many?" Nathas asked.
"Hundreds, I believe," Borrican said. "Perhaps even a thousand."
"So many?" Ariana was surprised. "I thought most of them were killed at Elvanar."
"There are many of these Darga," Nathas said. "When we were at Elvanar, I spoke with the goddess and she told me that there were many villages of these creatures scattered across the swamps of Xalla. I think we would be wise to expect more of them."
"Once we leave the cover of these trees, we will be wide open to attack, with no cover whatsoever," Kaleb commented. "And if I am not mistaken, these rains may threaten the main bridge over the river. Perhaps it would have been better to have taken the route around the lake."
"Worry not, Kaleb," Borrica
n said. "We will destroy these Darga."
"Yes, I would love to kill them," Kaz said, his anger piqued.
"I will help with such a plan," Raz added. "Most pleasing to kill them."
"Our priority is to get the army safely onto the other side of the river," Nathas said, and he glanced over at the iron rods and chains that lay in a heap nearby. "I would suggest that you three dragons could clear a path, but in the darkness we have no way to see if the Darga have set up any more of those oversized crossbows. It might be best if you were cautious about making yourselves into large targets."
"Something is happening," Ariana said as she felt a strange presence around her that was strangely familiar despite being a sensation she had never experienced before. "There is a power here."
A moment later, a thick fog began to roll across the land, filling the air and making it almost impossible to see.
"This is an unnatural fog," Nathas said, looking around at the others and unable to see very far past his own eyes. "In all my years at Maramyr, I have never seen it like this."
As though it was coming from far away and yet somehow close, a rushing sound filled the air, that was almost like a waterfall, but deeper, followed by a strange rumbling. Ahead, in the direction of the river, they heard the distinctive snarls and growling of Darga, and it was obvious that something more than just strange weather was occurring.
"Can you see what is happening, Borrican?" Ariana whispered.
"I will try to get above it," he said, then he walked away and moments later the sound of his powerful wings could be heard, flying up into the sky.
Borrican climbed until he finally broke through the fog to discover that it was rolling across the land like a giant ocean wave, almost as high as the palace walls and covering much of the city itself. As the cloud of fog moved across the lake, he noticed that the water level had risen substantially from when he had seen it earlier in the day, and he circled around and tried to see if the bridge was still intact. With his dragon sight, the cold water of the lake and the river allowed him to see things that were warmer as shapes behind the fog, and in the place where the bridge was supposed to be, there was only rubble on either side of the river, and Borrican realized what the rumbling sound had been. The water of the river had taken down the bridge, cutting off the army from reaching the city, but it also appeared to have taken the Darga with it.
Borrican circled around again, watching the fog continue to drift over the vast lake that was now much larger than it had been as the water continued to rise, and he knew it would now take even longer for the soldiers to make their way around it. Even though the fog offered the advantage of cover, there was also the possibility that it could dissipate as quickly as it had appeared. He made one more wide pass over the southern tip of the lake, looking to see if he could find any sign of the Darga, who had been waiting on the bridge, but it appeared that they had been washed away, although with their reptilian scales and the coolness of the fog they would be difficult to see if they were in the water or the mud. He was about to return to where Ariana and the others waited when, in the corner of his eye, Borrican caught a glimpse of something very strange moving up the river where it met the lake. In his dragon sight, it was like a blinding light in the shape of a man, and he seemed to be floating across the water. To be sure, he shifted his vision but he found that whatever it was could not be seen through the fog.
Borrican shifted his sight once more and circled over the light, trying to get a better look at it, and he realized that it was in the shape of a man, and all around him were countless other shapes, warm against the cool fog and the cold water below them, gliding into the lake from the river, with larger, elongated shapes that were pointed at one end around them. He realized that somehow, a fleet of ships had sailed up the river and entered the great lake Mara. Curious about the man who blazed with fire, Borrican resisted the urge to fly in close, unsure whether he would be faced with friend or foe, and he made his way back to the others and landed nearby then walked back toward them through the fog.
"What did you find?" Ariana asked.
"Three things, one not so good, one sort of good, and another very strange," he said. "The first one, is that the bridge is gone, which means we cannot get the army across the river. The good part is that the Darga appear to be gone, at least for now, and the strange part is that a fleet of ships has entered the lake from the river."
"Ships cannot traverse that river," Nathas said. "Small boats perhaps, but you say they have sailed up from the river to the lake."
"I know little of ships of the sea or even lakes and rivers," Borrican admitted. "But they were ships, and a man made of truefire stood at the front of one of them. That was the other strange thing."
"A man of truefire?" Ariana was confused, and her hopes rose for a moment. "Do you think it might be Aaron? Ehlena told us he was fighting the shadow."
"No," Borrican said. "Aaron is at the palace, with Calexis."
"With Calexis?"
"So it seemed," Borrican told her, not wanting to say more. "I saw him there."
"Aaron attacked you?" Ariana's flames began to smolder as his thoughts slipped through. "Why would he do that? Has he fallen under Calexis' power?"
"I don't know about that, Ariana," Borrican said. "He wasn't fighting very hard, and he let me beat him, so I don't think so."
"What is he doing with her?" Ariana was worried and frustrated. "Has he fallen under her power?"
"Let's worry about that later," he said. "Right now we have no way across the river, and there may be another enemy that we must face."
"You do not face an enemy, Akandar," a voice spoke, deep and rasping from nearby as the air began to warm and a radiant light glowed in the fog. A man appeared, his body wrapped in a tattered cloak, with flames dancing in the air around him.
"I know you," Nathas said. "You are Zachary, the mage."
"Forgive me if I do not remember you," Zachary said, staring at Nathas with his flickering gaze. "You appear to be someone important, so I bid you greeting."
Ariana suddenly walked forward, her own fire blazing in the air around her, overwhelmed with anger, and she swung her hand and slapped the mage in the face. He looked down at her and several tears fell from the corners of his eyes, only to sizzle away as they dripped down his cheeks.
"I suppose I deserved that," he said, then he sighed and smiled at her with a wistful look behind the fire in his eyes. "You look so very much like your mother, and you slap like her too, though I think you have Gregor's temper. Well met, Ariana Coromay."
"I neither approve of you nor do I wish to meet you, mage," Ariana said.
"I will take that slap as fair greeting, regardless," Zachary replied, then he bowed and stepped aside as three more figure appeared in the fog behind him. Two women and a rough-looking, bearded man with enormous arms approached and Ariana immediately recognized Ehlena, and she walked briskly past the mage and rushed to greet her.
"You have returned," Ariana said, relieved to see the young goddess who had saved so much of the elven forest. "And you have brought friends."
"I have brought friend and allies," Ehlena said, glancing over at Zachary, then she turned to the woman beside her and gestured to both her and the man who had accompanied them. "This is Carly, and this is Toren, the King of Aghlar."
The woman smiled at Ariana and something about her looked strangely familiar, and the Aghlar took Ariana's hand, grasping it gently in his rough fingers.
"Queen Ariana," he said. "The ships of Aghlar are at your command. We offer our aid in reclaiming your lands."
"You have my gratitude, King Toren," Ariana replied, glancing over at the woman with the dark hair, and then she remembered who she was and she turned to face her. "We met at Rivergate, a long time ago, at an inn. You helped me escape, and then I was attacked by the mage, Dakar."
"Yes, I remember. I am sorry that I failed you, Ariana," Carly said. "I saw what happened and we searched for you. I wish I
had been more myself then, for you would not have been lost so easily."
"Nathas told me everything," Ariana said, not sure what Carly meant about not being herself. "It was not your fault what happened, and I am grateful for your help, and for the help you gave Aaron. It was generous of you to take such a risk, and here you are, once again, traveling with our allies."
"It seems no matter what I do to stay away, I find myself caught up in the events of the world," Carly said, with a sigh, then she smiled. "I do like what you've done with your hair, and the gemstones are very pretty."
"That is very kind of you to say," Ariana said. "Many things have happened."
"I long for quieter times," Carly said. "But such is simply wishful thinking, and we must deal with a fool of a queen and that far more dangerous fool of a god."
"You speak as though they are familiar to you," Ariana commented.
"Calexis?" Carly shrugged. "Never met her, but that fool Kenra, who goes around calling himself the one god, let's just say that I owe him a few things, whether he is a she or not, the scoundrel."
"Well then, if everyone has met everyone, let's get to it," Zachary interjected.
"There is a battle to plan, and we have not yet met," Borrican said. "I am Borrican Akandar, Prince of Kandara. I am a friend to Aaron, who I understand is a relation of yours."
"Akandar?" Zachary squinted an eye at him. "You are Eric's boy?"
"Yes," Borrican said. "He was my father."
"I always like old Eric," Zachary said, with a wistful smile. "Now, about that fool of a son of mine. What is he doing up in that palace?"
"Right now, I believe he is distracting Calexis," Borrican said, and Ehlena nodded.
"Well then, let's see what we can do to help," Zachary said.
"We have many soldiers, ready to fight," Borrican told him. "We must plan our attack if we are to retake the city and rescue its people."
"This is the plan of the little lady goddess," Zachary commented, glancing over at Ehlena.
"I believe it is Aaron's idea," Borrican replied. "It is why he went to Calexis."
