by Victor Kloss
Ben nodded. He ran a hand through his hair. He suddenly remembered Dagmar saying something about eating. His stomach rumbled in agreement.
Charlie either heard that or guessed at it, because now his face relaxed into a grin. “Come on,” he said, leading the way farther onto the island. The dragon that had been dozing pulled itself up in one smooth motion, large eyes following them; after they were a few metres away it followed, meeting up with its mate in the nearby shallow water.
Following Charlie away from the water’s edge, they walked up the shallow sandy beach to where the others waited. They’d built a small fire with driftwood, and were currently roasting slim, rose-hued fish they’d impaled on long sticks.
“Ah, our fearless leader finally awakens,” Joshua announced as Ben and Charlie joined them. Ben didn’t hear any rancour in the other boy’s voice, however. The bitterness between them was gone like it had never existed. “Enjoy your nap?” Joshua teased.
“Don’t listen to him,” Natalie cut in, her green eyes twinkling. “He’s not telling you that I practically had to toss him into the ocean to get him to wake up.”
Ben had to laugh. So did the others.
“Yeah, sorry,” he said as he sank down onto the sand beside Natalie, and Charlie took his other side. “Guess I was pretty wiped.”
“We all were,” Abigail assured him, though she looked bright-eyed and well rested. “We just thought we’d let you sleep a little longer.” She lifted a stick from the fire and offered it to him. “Fish?”
Ben accepted the meal, and carefully bit into the cooked fish. Its scales proved to be extremely thin, barely noticeable as he chewed the white, flaky meat. He had his canteen with him, and hauled that out to take a quick swig. Eating and drinking something made him feel worlds better, and wide awake at last.
“We’ll need to refill those,” Charlie commented, eyeing the canteen. “Hopefully they’ve got streams somewhere nearby, otherwise we’ll have to boil sea water.”
“Well that wont be hard, I’ve got some light fire spells we can use to bring it nicely to boil,” Natalie said with a grin. She patted her spellshooter.
Charlie smiled. “Sure wish I’d had that on our last family camping trip,” he muttered, and Ben laughed with him. It felt good to relax for a few minutes with his friends, and right now, on this quiet beach, it was easy to forget what was going on in the world and pretend they were just taking a nice little ocean holiday.
Which reminded him of something. “What exactly were the two of you doing at that fort in the first place?” he asked, though he couldn’t help grinning as he did.
“Following you, obviously,” Natalie replied without an attempt to hide the fact. She smirked. “And it’s a good thing, too. We would’ve caught up sooner, but some of us walk faster than others.” She directed a mild glare at Charlie, who shrugged.
“I’m not built for speed,” he protested, patting his belly. “But I get there in the end.”
“You’ve been following us the entire time?” Ben asked. “That explains it. I knew somebody was watching us!”
“We were,” Natalie agreed. “We took the next dragon after yours. It wasn’t hard to figure out which way you were going, and we stayed far enough back we wouldn’t be noticed, but close enough to keep you in sight. Most of the time.”
One thing didn’t make sense to Ben, and he looked over at Abigail. The younger girl was blushing, and wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“You knew,” he said. “You sensed them when you put on the helm!”
She nodded. “Yes, I knew,” she admitted, finally looking up. “I actually knew when we left.” A smug expression crossed her face. “I’ve gotten better with the helm, enough so I can use it a little even if I’m just holding it. I sensed them there.” Now she looked a bit guilty. “I did my best to help hide them from you.”
Ben wanted to be mad at her. He had made the decision that Charlie and Natalie wouldn’t go, and not only had they disobeyed him, a Guardian had helped them. But he found he couldn’t be mad. After all, he had hated leaving them behind, and it turned out to be a good thing they hadn’t listened.
“Don’t disobey me again, please,” was all he said in the end, and Abigail nodded quickly, looking relieved.
“So, now what?” Natalie demanded, hands on her hips. “Are you going to try sending us back? Because it looks to me like you need us.” True. Without her help, they wouldn’t have the water dragons, and Ben wasn’t sure the creatures would continue to help them if Natalie left.
But that wasn’t really what made up his mind. “No,” he said finally. “I think it’s too late for that, and you would probably just follow us again the second we turned our backs.”
She grinned at him. “Of course we would! So we can stay?”
Ben ignored the concern on Dagmar’s face, and the faint disapproval on Joshua’s.
“Yeah, you can stay,” he said and wasn’t surprised at how happy that decision made him, as Natalie beamed and Charlie smiled. Even though tactically it might not be the best choice, and even though it flew in the face of cold logic, he still couldn’t help feeling like this was the right decision.
“We should get moving again,” Dagmar commented, her tone as dry as ever, but Ben thought he caught a twinkle in her eye. “We don’t have a lot of time, and the longer we stay the more we risk a patrol spotting us.”
Ben nodded. “That makes sense.” He finished off his fish and tossed the stick back into the fire. “Abigail, can you use the helm to see if we’ve got any company nearby? No sense being surprised.”
“Sure thing,” she agreed. She pulled out the helm, tugged it on, and immediately her eyes unfocused. “No one near,” she reported a minute later, removing the artefact and tucking it away again. “Nearest dark elf patrol is halfway across the island.”
“Great,” Ben told her as he rose to his feet.
He walked over to the dragons with Natalie. “You really have a way with them.”
She smiled at him. “They are amazing creatures,” she replied. “I wonder if, after this is all over, the Institute would let me keep her.”
Ben laughed. “Good luck trying that,” he told her. But he was glad to hear her thinking about life after their mission, after the war. He hadn’t even really contemplated that yet. He was too busy trying to make sure they succeeded at their mission first.
He was still wrapped up in those deep thoughts, and in his new cloak, when Natalie whispered something to the water dragon and it unfurled its wings and took to the sky once more.
They landed twice more, each time on small islands, to stretch and eat and take care of other necessities. Each time they had Abigail use the helm to check before they got close, making sure they weren’t flying directly into a dark elf patrol. The second time they would have, but thanks to her warning, Natalie and Dagmar were able to bring their dragons around to the other side of the island, where they were able to land, take their break, and depart without being disturbed.
In between those stops Ben dozed, as did most of the others. Only Natalie and Dagmar needed to stay alert, and they quickly learned that they could nap as well; they just needed to wake occasionally to make sure they were still on course. The water dragons proved to be intelligent but playful, and more than once had to be chided for deviating from the intended path in order to buzz over an island or circle a water spout, or just skim low waves.
Bit by bit, hour by hour, they drew closer to their destination. Ben tried not to let that thought overwhelm him. On the one hand, he was looking forward to finally completing the mission for which Elizabeth’s Armour had been squirreled away all this time, the mission that had been entrusted to him down through the centuries.
On the other hand, the thought of facing Suktar in battle was utterly terrifying. Even with the armour, and his friends by his side.
But Ben knew there was no turning back now.
— Chapter Fourteen —
A Close Call
> “Land!” Josh’s shout woke Ben from the half-doze he’d been in, and he sat up hastily, then had to flail a bit to keep from toppling off his perch. He’d been asleep enough that he’d apparently forgotten he was currently on the back of a dragon.
“Wha…?” he asked, scrubbing at his face with one hand to force away the last bits of slumber. “Where?” Peering ahead of them, it took a minute before he realised that what he had thought was a distant shadow on the water was actually land, as Josh had suggested.
“Is that?” Charlie started to ask from right behind Ben. He didn’t sound much more awake than Ben felt.
“Vemjella,” Ben finished for him. “Must be.”
He shivered as a chill passed through him, though it was less about the rapidly expanding island than about what its proximity meant. Vemjella was Suktar’s oldest conquest because the island nation was the nearest neighbour to Erellia itself. If they were approaching Vemjella, it meant Suktar’s own island could not be much farther.
A rustling, whipping noise signalled the approach of the second water dragon as Dagmar manoeuvred her steed closer. She had one hand flat on the dragon’s neck, as if she were communing with the massive creature. In her other hand was her spellshooter and, as Ben watched, she raised the weapon — and shot herself in the face.
She then opened her mouth, and Ben heard her voice as clearly as if she were sitting beside him.
“We need to be on our guard,” Dagmar explained. “Even with most of his forces elsewhere, Suktar is not so foolish as to leave his homeland unprotected. If even one of his sentries sees us too soon….”
Ben nodded his understanding. They wouldn’t have to worry about stealth as much once they were in Erellia, but they needed to get at least that close without being spotted. Otherwise Suktar would be able to marshal his forces and bury them in dark elf troops, Elizabeth’s Armour or not.
“We’ll be careful,” Ben half said to himself.
“Easy for you to say,” Natalie muttered from in front of him, where she was sitting behind the dragon’s head and guiding its motion with gentle hand pressure and soft words. She patted the steed’s neck reassuringly.
The island grew larger and larger, and now it very clearly had shape and mass and substance. And smaller shadows flitting about above it.
“Sentries,” Ben guessed, pointing them out to the others. “Looks like a lot of them.”
“Yeah, Suktar’s not stupid,” Charlie admitted. “If I had a house, I’d put a fence out in front, too.”
Ben nodded, but his mind was already elsewhere. How were they going to get past all those dark elves? They weren’t exactly inconspicuous on these water dragons. He fidgeted absentmindedly, his hand tugging at the top edge of his hood, and after a second, realising, he smiled.
Or were they?
“Everybody,” he shouted. “Pull up your hoods! Then lie down flat as you can, face down, quick!” Ben waved his hands to get Dagmar’s attention, and mimicked pulling up his hood and ducking low. Thankfully she got it straight away and they all quickly covered up. Vemjella was right in front of them now, and the sentries were close enough that he could make out the shapes of their steeds’ wings. Any second now they’d be visible and all hell would break loose. Behind him, Ben heard rustling as Charlie and Josh hurried to follow his instructions, and in front of him he saw Natalie doing the same. Then Ben couldn’t see anything, because he had his hood up and his face pressed down against the ridge in the dragon’s back, the same one he’d been clinging to for support.
Time seemed to stretch on, and just as Ben was about to look he heard a screech. His heart sped up and he clung on hard, hoping desperately that those guards would somehow not see them. How effective were these cloaks? He knew that they allowed the wearer to blend into his surroundings so well he was practically invisible, but maybe the dark elves could look through them? Or maybe the wyverns would see them somehow?
Flapping wings buffeted him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a dark, winged beast. Over the din of wind and the screech of the wyverns, he heard a dark elf command.
He put his hand on his spellshooter. One thing was for sure: they wouldn’t go down without a fight.
A sudden gust of air almost dislodged Ben, but he clung on. Out of reflex he looked up, and to his intense relief saw the back of the dark elves as they flew back to their posts. He hunkered down for several more minutes before he dared risk another peek. Carefully looking around, he sighed in relief.
“Okay,” he called out. “We’re clear.”
The others quickly returned to sitting upright. “How did you know that would work?” Josh demanded. “What if somebody had seen us?”
Ben twisted around so he could grin at the Guardian of the Shield. “I didn’t, but I knew there was a chance, and sometimes you’ve just got to gamble! In the end, all they saw were two water dragons out for a nice long flight together.”
Charlie threw up his hands. “Great, another master plan smoothly executed by our fearless leader.”
Ben grinned.
Thanks to Dagmar, they all had elven cloaks. Ben had seen what one of those could do in terms of hiding its wearer. He made a mental note to himself, only realising now how effective they were; in truth he’d been sceptical, but now he knew these things might play a major part in keeping them alive.
“The trick with the cloaks will get us past some of them,” he pointed out. “When that doesn’t work, we’ll run — or fight. But we’ll try to sneak our way across first.”
Behind him, Charlie snorted. “I’m good with sneaking,” he said. “Whatever gets us out of this place and into Erellia, and then back home safely.”
They continued flying, Dagmar pulling ahead a bit so there was more of a distance between them. They’d decided a while ago that it would be better to separate so if they were taken unawares, they couldn’t be wiped out in one swoop. A grim outlook, but necessary.
They passed over Vemjella, a land of rolling but barren fields and desolate landscapes. From what Ben remembered of what he’d read, it had been green and full of life before it had fallen to the dark elf kingdom.
Vemjella was only a few hours from Erellia; Ben felt a flutter in his stomach as he realised they were almost there. It would be no simple task traversing the dark elf homeland, of course, but just getting there was no mean feat.
As his eyes scanned the bland scenery, a flicker caught his eye. He squinted, looking hard at the point where he was sure something had moved.
“Natalie, you’ve got sharper eyes than me. Can you see anything down—”
Before he could finish his sentence, something shot like a bolt from where he had been looking and slammed into their dragon’s right shoulder. Ben flew backwards, sending Charlie rolling. They both frantically grabbed hold of something and managed to hang on. Ben looked up, checking on his friends. The dragon had righted itself but was obviously hurt, its normally smooth flight now ragged.
“Charlie, you alright?”
Charlie nodded frantically, but pointed to the right. Ben looked, and saw with horror that Natalie was lying unconscious but somehow still on the dragon. Just as he saw this, she started sliding off.
“No!”
Joshua had also managed to hang on, but was too far away to help. Ben pulled himself along fast, grabbing scales and harness where he could, eyes locked on Natalie’s silent form.
“Natalie, wake up!”
He was only a few feet away now, and then it happened. The dragon hit an air pocket and lifted with a sudden jolt. Natalie slid right off the side.
“No!” Ben turned to Joshua. “Your shooter — now!”
Joshua didn’t even pause. He pulled it out and threw it in one motion. Ben snatched it out of the air.
“Ben, what the?” Charlie started.
But Ben wasn’t listening. Instead he threw himself after Natalie.
Arms behind him, spellshooters in each hand, Ben shot like a rocket straight towards Na
talie. There she was, falling fast, tumbling with no control. Ben moved his own spellshooter forward, aimed and fired. A long line shot out, streaming ahead.
“Come on!” Ben screamed in desperation, this being the most important shot he had ever made. Bang! The line hit Natalie dead on and enveloped her. Ben twisted and looked up, only to see the dragon speeding towards him like an oversized arrow. Pointing Joshua’s spellshooter up, Ben fired, another line flying out. His heart sank as he saw his only shot miss, passing just to the right, but then suddenly it drew tight, almost pulling the gun out of his hands.
Ben was pulled so hard in both directions, the strain made him scream. Pain lashed through his arms and back, but he held on. Concentrating through the pain, he forced the spells to contract, pulling Natalie towards him, and himself towards the dragon.
Joshua came into view, both hands wrapped around the spell line. “Charlie, you’re going to have to pull them in!” he shouted.
Charlie’s eyes were wide with shock. “Are you kidding me? I’ve got a better idea.” Focusing, he selected an air spell in his spellshooter and fired. The spell slowly but definitely moved down the barrel, sweat starting to form on Charlie’s forehead.
“Come on Charlie!” Joshua, nowhere near as proficient as Natalie with the dragon, was barely keeping the creature under control. Ben gave a cry of pain.
Charlie doubled his effort and with a final cry the spell shot out and spun around both Ben and Natalie, creating a small cloud of air. Charlie used it to lift them both up and finally onto the dragon. Holstering his spellshooter, he went straight to Ben and secured him, and then to Natalie.
Despite the pain, Ben sat up. “Is she alright?”
Charlie nodded. “Ben, do me a favour. Never, ever, ever do that again.” He then gave Ben a rough hug. “I thought you were a gonna there. Scared me out of my wits.”
Joshua continued flying, the dragon no longer able to keep a smooth ride due to the injured shoulder, but he still managed to guide the huge beast close to Dagmar. Ben gave him his shooter back, then settled down as comfortably as possible. He ached all over, and felt like he had run a marathon.
