by Victor Kloss
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.
Doing the same as Dagmar had earlier Joshua amplified his voice with a spell and, after guiding his dragon closer, told her what had happened.
“We had a scare. Ben’s wiped, Natalie is out cold, and I can barely keep control of this thing as its shoulder is badly burned, but we can’t land as now we know they obviously have troops on the ground. Is there anything we can do?”
Dagmar and Abigail put their heads together, and then Abigail answered him. Her voice came into his mind, tinged with concern. “Joshua, the dragon is hurt worse than you realise. If you don’t heal it soon, no matter what you do it will dive for the sea.”
Joshua tried to lean over to the damaged shoulder to get a better look, eyes wide in alarm. “Well that’s just great! What am I supposed to do?”
He felt annoyance briefly, before Abigail spoke again. “Well, if you will listen instead of cutting me off! It’s a water dragon and has highly advanced healing abilities. But you’ll have to suffuse it with water for that to take effect. Get Charlie to use a basic water spell immediately, and hopefully that will do the trick.”
Joshua turned to Charlie and saw that he was pulling himself up next to him. Evidently Joshua wasn’t the only one who could hear her voice in his head.
Charlie leaned over the side and pulled out his spellshooter. Aiming carefully, he sent a stream of pure water at the burnt shoulder. The dragon gave a roar, and Charlie just about hung on.
Joshua shouted from above him. “Charlie, what’s happening down there? You almost got us thrown off!”
Charlie, hanging on for dear life, kept the water going. “I’ve got no idea! I’m just doing what I was told inside of my head!”
After a few more hair-raising moments the dragon’s flight started to smooth out.
Abigail’s voice again came through clearly in Joshua’s mind.
“Wow, that was close. Charlie, I think Ben’s rubbing off on you. Somehow you’re going to have to stay there holding the water steady on that injured spot. In the meantime we are going to have to fly right next to each other. It’s dangerous because if they do spot us, we could all be wiped out in one go. On the other hand, it is easier for me to conceal us all that way. Just follow right behind.”
Joshua nodded and fell back a bit so he could bring them directly behind Dagmar’s dragon.
The next hour was one of continuous suspense. Ben sat there, knowing that at any moment they could be found out, while at the same time trying to keep an eye on Charlie. He was amazed by his friend’s courage, and also felt a little surge of pride in the way they were banding together as a team in this dangerous situation.
Finally, Abigail’s voice came to all of them. “We are past any guard points. From what I can tell it’s wilderness until we are over the sea again, and then it’s a short trip to Erellia.”
They sped over the rest of the island without any incident. With that behind them, soon a much darker and rockier island loomed ahead.
“Erellia,” Ben said, trying to swallow past the sudden dryness in his throat. “Suktar’s home.”
They had finally made it.
— Chapter Fifteen —
Under Water
Of course, Ben knew that approaching Erellia and reaching Suktar’s palace to confront the dark elf king were two wildly different things with a whole world of difficulty between them. Natalie had come around after Charlie had used a few healing spells on her and Ben, and despite being a bit groggy she had insisted on taking over the reins again. It was she, with her keen elven eyes, who noticed a dark shape appear on the horizon from behind the island’s jagged skyline. Then another. And another.
And another.
“Guards!” she shouted at the top of her voice.
Krobeg on the other dragon leaned forwards, squinting, and could just about make them out. He raised his fist. “But only a handful. We can handle them!”
As the strangers flew closer, Ben kept revising his estimate of their size — and that of their mounts. It was only once he could clearly make out the dark elves themselves that he gasped, the truth finally dawning.
“Those aren’t wyverns,” he shouted, locking his legs more tightly around their own steed and tightening his grip on his weapons. “Those are dragons!”
They were black dragons, the biggest and fiercest of all. Two water dragons and seven of them against four dark elves and four wyverns was a fight Ben agreed they would most likely win. But four black dragons? Even one would most likely overpower them. How could they possibly hope to match four?
As if reading his mind, Dagmar yelled, “Ride!” and wheeled her dragon to the side, in a long, swooping dive that took it down out of the approaching defenders’ flight path. Natalie shouted at Charlie to clamber back up while immediately diving after Dagmar. The two water dragons raced towards the possible shelter of some cliffs and peaks that loomed up ahead. There was no way they would make it with Charlie hanging off the side, so they could only hope that the dragon’s shoulder had healed enough to put up with the burst of speed.
Shrieks of protest and angry curses told Ben they’d already been spotted and their hasty departure marked, but he was too busy clinging to the water dragon to dare glancing behind them. Black dragons were big, powerful and fast, but their water dragons seemed more graceful, more agile, and Ben desperately hoped that would be enough to let them outrun their pursuers.
The bellow that filled the sky told him that at least one of the black dragons had been unwilling to let its prey escape so easily. The rushing sound that followed confirmed that they had at least one of the massive creatures stubbornly giving chase.
“We need to get down below the tree line!” Ben shouted to Natalie, who nodded and stroked the water dragon’s neck just below its long jaw. It responded to the touch by dipping still lower, descending at such a steep angle Ben was sure they were about to smash head first into rocks. Somehow the water dragon managed to level out, its claws nearly scraping the ground as it came out of the dive. Now it was racing along barely ten feet off the ground, which Ben found a lot more disconcerting than when it had been high among the clouds. Down here it was easy to tell just how fast they were really going by how quickly the trees and bushes whipped past.
Dagmar had let Natalie take the lead after their initial descent, and was now matching them perhaps thirty feet to the side. The trees here were scraggly and sparse, with stunted limbs and flimsy leaves. They barely provided shade, let alone cover, and a dark shadow suddenly loomed above them.
That gave Natalie and Dagmar just enough warning to yank hard on their dragons’ long, fluted ears, causing the two beasts to split apart as each curved away. Just then the black dragon struck, its powerful claws digging deep into the ground where the Guardians had been mere seconds before. With a shrill scream of pure frustration the black dragon pulled its talons free and rose slightly, seeking a second attack. Now the two water dragons were a hundred feet apart or more, which meant it would have to pick one to target.
Ben made the mistake of glancing up and gulped as heavy-lidded, slit-pupil golden eyes homed in on him, spearing him in place with their gaze.
It was obvious which lucky member of their little group had just attracted the black dragon’s attention.
“Get us out of here!” he urged Natalie, and she responded by leaning in and whispering to their mount, driving it to ever greater speeds. But the black dragon stayed right on their tail, snapping its long jaws and grasping with its massive talons, eager to catch them once and for all.
“I can
’t shake it!” Natalie yelled. “I need something to give me an edge or we’re never getting out of here alive”
Ben frowned, his mind awhirl but coming up empty. What could give them an edge over the bloodthirsty behemoth right behind them? Then Charlie tapped him on the shoulder.
“Look!” His best friend pointed past them both, past Natalie and the dragon’s head, off to the side where the trees stood a bit taller and prouder, and a long ribbon of silver stretched across the ground before vanishing from view.
“Whoa.” Ben nodded sharply. “Charlie, you’re a genius. Nat, take us to the river!”
She directed their dragon, and Dagmar followed suit, the two of them angling towards that inviting gleam. The black dragon was right behind them, its claws and teeth still clamping down on nothing but empty air, but the strikes close enough that Ben could feel them slice or clamp shut mere inches from his head. This had better work.
They flew up over a shallow ridge and there, stretched out before them, was the river. Ben barely registered the beauty of the river, reflecting the sunshine and glimmering like silver. The two water dragons crested the ridge and shot forwards, the sight of the water reinvigorating them.
They reached the river’s edge perhaps forty feet ahead of their pursuer. The water dragons did not hesitate as they dove for the water and pierced it cleanly, carrying themselves and their riders deep below the surface.
Even as they dropped into the water Ben could hear the black dragon bellowing in rage, splashing and thrashing at the water. But it could not dive the way they had. It could not reach them down here, near the very bottom of the river, where its bed narrowed.
They were safe.
But for how long? The water dragons could breathe under water, but they could not impart that skill to their riders. Ben had gulped air quickly just before they’d plunged into the river, and was certain his friends had done the same, but how long could they hold their breath?
They were gambling that their dragons were too fast in water for the black dragons to keep pace, and hoped they could lose their bulky attacker here in these waterways quickly, before being forced to resurface for more air.
Ben clung to the dragon, shut his eyes and tried not to think about how his lungs were already burning, his head beginning to throb and his limbs to twitch. Or how that black dragon could be hovering in wait for them wherever they did eventually emerge. He thought about anything and everything he could besides those concerns in order to take his mind off them.
Finally, just as he was beginning to feel lightheaded and was starting to notice black spots around the edges of his vision, Ben felt the water dragon begin to edge upwards, slowly and cautiously. Its head crested the river, peering about, and then the rest of it followed, dragging its riders back into the light and the air. Ben gasped gratefully for the latter, and all around him his friends did the same. Only once his head had stopped spinning did he think to look around, scanning the sky for their recent hunters.
Up above he saw nothing but blue touched with the occasional cloud.
“Looks like we lost them,” Abigail reported, the artefact in her hand indicating that she had not been searching with eyes alone. “But they’ll be back. And a lot more of them, too.”
“I know.” Ben frowned, patting the glistening green hide of the creature they rode. “Which is why I think it’s time for a change of plans.”
— Chapter Sixteen —
The Tunnels of Erellia
“Explain to me again how this makes sense?” Charlie said as he shouldered his pack.
Their water dragon shook itself, gave Natalie a parting brush of its long cheek, and then slipped back under the water without a sound, vanishing at once into the river’s shadowy depths. The second dragon was right beside it, and an instant later it was as if they had never been there at all.
“Our biggest, strongest force,” Charlie continued, “and there it goes.”
“There it goes,” Ben agreed, hefting his bag. “And when they pop out somewhere well away from here and start flying like mad, all those dark elves and their dragons will go after them. But they’ll dive back underwater to lose them. They don’t have to worry about protecting us anymore, and they can hold their breath a whole lot longer than we can, I’m sure.” He shrugged. “It’s a risk, sure, giving up their strength and the ability to fly, but I think in the long run we’ll be better off distracting the dark elves so we can make it that much farther before they figure out where we are or how to get to us.”
Charlie continued to grumble, but his complaining was mostly under his breath.
Ben took a second to look around, studying the steep, dark stone walls that surrounded them.
Tightening the straps around his shoulders, he turned to his friends. “Everybody ready?” he asked. They all nodded. “Okay, let’s go. Dagmar?”
She stepped forwards, Elizabeth’s Boots gleaming on her feet. “Right,” she declared. “Follow me.” And immediately took off at a quick pace, her feet rising and falling in a steady rhythm and shining with each step. Ben fell in behind her, as did the others, and in no time they were marching through a narrow, twisting passage that circled one of the peaks. The river disappeared behind them, and Ben couldn’t help feeling a pang knowing that now there was no way the water dragons could return for them.
They were on their own.
But even as Ben questioned his own decision they heard a loud, heavy flapping from above.
“Up against the wall - quick!” he shouted, throwing himself against the cool stone of the cliff they were skirting.
The others did the same, pressing themselves along that side of the path as a large, dark shape blotted out the sky overhead. A harsh screech struck next, descending upon them like an avalanche and echoing throughout the cliffs and peaks.
Had the black dragon found them?
But its second shriek, an instant later, sounded more querulous, more hesitant. And when it cried out a third time it sounded so confused, so forlorn that Ben realised with relief that it didn’t actually know they were here. He nudged Dagmar and she started edging forwards, at first moving at a crawl but gradually picking up speed until they were marching along the pass as quickly as they could without tripping over themselves. The dragon bellowed again, but now its roar was behind them, and falling farther back with every step.
Still, it wasn’t until they rounded a bend and left the dragon well behind that Ben felt he could gulp air once more. He’d been too afraid to breathe, terrified that any noise might give them away.
“Okay,” Charlie muttered behind him. “So maybe leaving the dragons behind was a good idea.”
Ben chuckled before catching himself. “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he told his best friend, but he was smiling when he said it. And with the black dragon falling farther and farther behind, Ben felt lighter and more optimistic with every step.
Which still didn’t mean this was going to be easy.
*
“We can’t shake them,” Josh pointed out. “There’s just too many of them all over the place. They’re like rats.”
They had paused for a few minutes to catch their breath and eat a hasty meal of dried meat, cheese and bread from their packs. They didn’t have any real shelter, but the path had widened enough for them to at least gather in a rough oval and the cliffs to either side were not quite as steep or as smooth as they had been earlier, allowing places to lean or even sit. Ben had nearly groaned with relief when he’d perched himself on a small outcropping and took the weight off his aching feet. Between that, the food, and a few sips from his waterskin, he was practically in heaven.
They did have to keep their eyes open, however, because Josh was right, the dark elves were everywhere. Already, in one day of travel, they’d had to hide from at least three different patrols. And that wasn’t counting the black dragon, which was clearly still circling the region, hoping to spot them. The need for constant wariness was leaving all of them tense
and wound up, but they all knew it would be a terrible idea to attack any of those dark elves. Not unless they knew for certain they could take out those patrols without a sound, otherwise they risked drawing others.
So for now Ben and his friends snuck through the mountains like thieves in the night, determined to make as little noise as possible.
But it was getting harder and harder to escape notice.
Nor were the elves themselves the only threat. A flock of birds that looked similar to ravens but with talons and beaks more like eagles had attacked them earlier, and fled screeching only when Ben and the others began firing spells at the airborne predators. A few minutes ago Abigail had tugged on Ben’s sleeve and pointed over a nearby ridge, where he spotted several sets of upright triangular ears and several matching pairs of glowing yellow eyes. They weren’t cats, however. They were dogs or wolves, he guessed from the shape. Given the distance, they had to be far larger than normal; at least his own size if not bigger. Just what they needed right now.
“Which way from here?” Ben asked Dagmar. But, much to his surprise, she frowned and shook her head.
“I am not certain,” she admitted. “The boots are telling me conflicting things,” she said slowly, glaring at the offending footwear as if it might somehow hear her. “I believe they are attempting to convey that all roads from here are equally fraught with peril.”
“Huh.” Charlie looked fascinated despite himself. “So they normally show you just the one way to go, and right now you’re getting several all at once?”
“Something like that,” Dagmar agreed. “The boots will show me the best route to reach my destination as quickly as possible, and often several landmarks along the way. Right now they are showing me several different routes instead.”
“All roads lead to Rome,” Charlie offered. “If Rome is, you know, covered in dark elves and monsters.” He kept glancing up to where the cliffs still allowed a small patch of blue sky between them. When Ben did the same, he caught sight of several dark shapes hurtling back and forth. Was all of that to search for them or was some of it just regular soldiers on patrol and perhaps dark elves carrying messages to and fro right over their heads? Either way it was certainly enough to keep him on edge.
