by Alan Marble
The door seemed to rush him all too quickly, and before he knew what was happening he had crashed into it headlong. It would not give, and the impact sent him reeling, all but bouncing right off the wall, a sudden loud ringing buzzing in his ears. He rolled once, gaping up at the ceiling, and then came to a stop splayed out on his stomach, struggling to focus, struggling to banish the dizziness that was bouncing between his ears.
When he finally managed to shake it off, he immediately became aware of two things. First, all of the occupants in the room - Jenna, Rebekah, every last one - had turned and was now staring at him in disbelief. But he also spied the sight of a leathery wing draped on the ground at his side, heaving lightly with his own breathing.
He had changed.
In an instant Jenna’s expression transformed from one of bewilderment to one of stark determination and focus. Her eyes fixated on him in a commanding stare, and she pointed in his direction, shouting. “Move. Now!”
At the same time, she leaped forward. Her body twisted slightly in the air, stretching and expanding, wings suddenly extending outward where there was none before, and within the blink of an eye Jenna was standing there in all her glory, an emerald green dragon whose size rivaled that of Carolus, and was in fact too bulky to fit comfortably in the room, her back pressed against a ceiling that was now straining to keep itself intact. Her jaws opened wide and she inhaled deeply, and Jonah found the strength to pull himself out of the way.
Hardly a second afterward she exhaled sharply. There was no gout of flame, however; instead, a sharp crack filled the air, and the door simply burst outward, not only tearing it free from its hinges but separating the door frame completely from the wall and blowing an enormous gash in the side of the room. The sound in his ears was like an enormous booming, as if a shotgun had been fired off next to his head.
She did not hesitate in repeating the gesture, breathing in deeply before exhaling all at once, the entire wall in front of her tearing to shreds and exploding outward with enough force to penetrate the outer wall beyond, blowing open into the brilliant daylight outside. Jonah thought he saw a pair of bulky, crumpled bodies flying outward like so much detritus. The sight made him go wide eyed.
“Go,” Jenna shouted again, clawing her way forward through the wreckage of the wall and toward freedom, tearing away whole chunks of the ceiling as she went. Others sprinted past her, leaping to freedom beyond and shifting as they did, immediately taking flight and soaring upward, out of sight. It was mesmerizing to watch them flocking outward like that, so much so that he nearly forgot to escape, himself.
His head still rung from the impact against the door but it wasn’t enough to keep him from scrabbling his way to his feet and darting for the newly created exit, spreading his wings as soon as they tasted the air outside of the compound. “North,” he shouted as loud as he could, hoping the others would understand what he meant. “North!”
Jenna seemed to lead the charge. She was obviously the largest of all the dragons now in flight, joined at her side by another green dragon, slightly smaller. Her brother, perhaps. She wheeled around overhead once, turning back to fire off another bone rattling shout at the building behind her, the force of her voice punching an enormous hole into the roof with all the efficacy of a wrecking ball. The roof began to collapse in on itself around the gash, and the big green dragon wheeled around once more and pushed her way northward.
She had understood. They had all understood. The flight of dragons was rapidly beginning to make its way across the valley, speeding toward the ridge line ahead, speeding toward freedom. In that moment he felt his heart beginning to soar on the wind.
His moment of elation was cut short by the sight of a massive dragon rising up from behind the ridge, covered in ash gray scales and a series of menacing spikes along the ridge of his back. Carolus.
“Turn back,” the big dragon growled threateningly in front of them, spreading his wings wide to make himself look even larger. “Turn back, and there may yet be a chance for you to beg for forgiveness.”
Jenna did not bother with any kind of comeback. Instead, the big green dragon reared her head back, her chest puffing out as she inhaled deeply and prepared to fire off one of those shock waves at Carolus. Jonah did not know what effect a force like that would have on a dragon of Carolus’ size, but he still could not help but to imagine broken bones being the least of the dragon’s worries.
Carolus, however, was faster. He did not have to breathe in so deeply, did not have to exhale in a gust of force. The big dragon simply spoke a few words in a harsh, unfamiliar language, and instantly Jenna shuddered. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her wings ceased their steady beating, and all at once the green dragon began to fall out of the sky. Two others dived after her, trying to get under her and keep her from crashing into the valley floor below.
The other dragons paused in their exuberance, falling back as if they had hit some kind of physical wall in the air. Jonah watched with a sense of foreboding as the big gray dragon just kind of hovered in place, menacing the others with his mere presence. “As I have commanded you. Return and you may find some mercy yet.”
“Carl!” The voice from behind him caught them all off guard, again, as a large crimson colored dragon came zipping in from the direction of the compound, passing overhead with enough of a rush of air that his wake nearly knocked Jonah off course.
Carolus growled angrily at the approaching drake. “Ibrahim. You fool.”
Abe wasted no breath on any further speaking, any further taunts. He was zeroing in on Carolus with that same frightening speed, not slowing down in the least until he was mere seconds away. At the last he threw his wings open to clutch at the air, rearing up and grasping with the talons on all of his legs, not giving the gray dragon enough time to evade or fight back. The two big dragons began to tumble downward, grappling as they went in a flurry of wings. “Fly! Fly!”
The remaining dragons were somewhat scattered and disorganized. “North,” he urged again, pushing his way through the middle of them all and taking the lead. It was something he didn’t even have to think about, and he didn’t even care what anyone might think about it, but at least he knew to pick a direction.
A low, resonant rumbling from behind him shook him deeply, and he whipped about to try and see what it was. Several shapes were rising rapidly from the partially collapsed compound, four, five, and then six of them. All dragons, and all very large - larger than Jenna, larger than Abe or even Carolus.
Someone shouted. “Bull drakes!”
The approaching bulls left the dragons in disarray once again as they started to scatter in multiple directions. Far below he could see Jenna’s green form splayed out on the ground, attended by two other dragons who had landed at her sides, but from here he could not tell if they had succeeded in slowing her fall. There was no sign of what had become of either Carolus or Abe, the pair having somehow vanished completely out of his awareness.
It was a dismal, disheartening sight, but he did not have much time to think about it, for the bull drakes were closing fast.
Now he understood what was meant when they were said to be a different breed. They all looked fairly similar in color, a sort of dark olive, and their shape was similar to one another but different from all the rest. Their bodies were thicker, more massive, their skulls boxier and more menacing. They each wore numerous spikes, and the ends of their tails were studded with yet more of the sharp appendages, already swinging them around like wicked clubs.
One of them was headed straight for him. The sight of it practically made him freeze in his tracks.
“Jonah!” Before he could look for the source of the voice, a brilliant fireball erupted right between him and the bull, enough to force the big male to veer off course. A flash of glossy black darted across his field of vision, another heavy gout of fire lighting up the air. It was Rebekah.
She had succeeded in diverting the bull drake away, the big male changing c
ourse and now wheeling around in hot pursuit of her, instead. Out of the corners of his eyes he could see similar chases going on in the air around him, the big bull drakes plowing through the air in pursuit of the smaller dragons. Some of them spat fireballs at their enemies, others tried to evade them with all manner of aerial acrobatics to keep out of their clutches.
It looked like a rout.
Rebekah’s voice tore him out of his brief reverie. “Jonah! Don’t just sit there, damn you … help!’
While she was certainly more nimble than the big bull dragon Rebekah simply could not outpace him, and he was starting to close fast. Jonah silently cursed the fact that he had not discovered any kind of powers that he might have, no gouts of fire, no ability to crush things with a sonic boom. He wasn’t helpless, though; tucking his wings in, he darted straight for the big dragon, intending to use nothing more than his weight to try and return the favor, knock the drake out of course.
It must have seen him. Seconds before he was able to reach out and grasp, the bull flicked his spike studded tail, whipping it in Jonah’s direction. He barely had enough time to react and jerk his body out of the way, those dangerous spikes whistling in the air right in front of his face. It had caught him off guard enough to make him miss his mark.
Rebekah and the bull drake pulled away from him as he readjusted himself, pulling hard on his wings to gain a little altitude and go for a different angle. Whether Rebekah had seen him or not, whether she knew what he was doing she seemed to be reacting in just the right way, coming about and back in his direction, keeping just out of the drake’s reach.
Jonah could not hope to match the bull’s speed, but here he had the benefit of altitude. He waited until they were close enough, until the angle was just right before he tucked his wings in and dove, coming at them from above and ahead. Out of reach of that deadly looking tail club. He mimicked what he had seen Abe do only moments before, waiting until the last second before spreading his wings wide like sails, splaying his talons to grasp on.
The bull drake was quicker once again. When it seemed like there was no time left to react it whipped around and came face to face with him, snarling, its own talons stretched out wide. Jonah crashed into the dragon’s bulk as quickly as he had meant to, but now it was the bull who was clutching and grasping at him, pulling him in. Trying to fight back, he scrabbled his claws against the bull’s thick scales, his talons lodging between them but failing to penetrate, failing to do any real damage.
Once more the bull whipped his head around and before Jonah knew what was happening he felt razor sharp teeth latching on to the base of his neck, biting down and piercing right through his softer scales. A sharp pain ran right up through his spine, leaving him to cry out a painful roar into the air, desperately trying to pull himself away from the bull but failing. The male was simply too big, too strong, too fast.
A powerful jolt rocked the both of them with enough force that the bull lost his grip. Seizing upon the opportunity, Jonah pushed himself free and away from the creature’s clutches. He ached where he had been bitten, was vaguely aware of blood seeping from the wound but it didn’t seem to be serious. He was still airborne.
Rebekah must have crashed right into the bull, tumbling several feet away before regaining her attitude and pulling up into a tight loop. The bull roared in anger at having been robbed of his prey, turning his ire on the black dragon once more, powerful wings scooping at the air to close the distance.
Trying to keep up, Jonah willed his wings to move faster, cutting through the air quick enough to make him hurt. “Rebekah! Behind you!”
She must have heard him. Whipping her head back she belched out a pair of fireballs at the pursuing bull, but he seemed to have grown more determined in his anger. Instead of evading the gouts of fire the creature simply flew right through them, and the effort had quite the opposite from the intended effect. It had slowed her down so that the bull was just beyond reach.
With one terrific gasp, Jonah pushed himself hard to try and intervene, try to push the drake out of the way, tried to do something to help.
He was too slow. Unable to do anything to help, he could only watch with a creeping sense of horror as the bull drake pushed himself forward, closed the gap, driving himself forward and snapping a pair of heavy jaws at Rebekah. She evaded the first, the second, and even the third snap of the jaws before her luck ran out. The edge of her wing got caught in those jaws, her body shuddering while she let out a cry of pain, but the drake was undeterred. Another powerful lurch forward and he was atop her, clutching her smaller frame to his body, wrapping his limbs around her, and then the pair fell out of the sky.
Jonah tucked his wings and tried to follow but he simply could not keep up. It didn’t take long for him to realize there was nothing he could do save watch them plummet toward the earth. A mighty roar in the direction of the compound was only just enough to tear him away from the sight, the sick, hopeless feeling lingering in his craw.
Winging in their direction was yet another dragon, the largest he had seen. Twice his size and then some, larger than the bull drakes, this new dragon was a dark midnight color, little flashes of deep blue iridescence to its scales as it flapped its wings. A thick pair of spiral horns jutted from the sides of its skull, chipped and weathered, matching a generally worn down look; its wing membranes were tattered at the edges, its scales pockmarked and uneven. The great dragon seemed to tire as it flew toward them, the wind heaving around it.
Instinctively he knew that it was their clan elder. The old dragon seemed to survey the sight, dire indeed; the bull drakes had succeeded in grounding two more of them, only a handful left to dart in and around and try to evade the four remaining pursuers. Jenna was still splayed out far below on the ground, having not moved from the spot where he had seen her before. Rebekah and the bull drake had tumbled away, out of sight.
The elder bellowed out another mighty roar that shook Jonah’s bones, and this time his call was answered. The four remaining bull drakes immediately forsook their targets, turning on the oversized newcomer and were on him in an instant, swarming about him. The elder rumbled deeply at their approach, the air around him seeming to swell and twist, a weird kind of distortion that made it hard for Jonah to see what was going on. The elder was the largest, and probably most powerful of them all, but it was still one against four.
Abruptly a flash of crimson erupted from beneath him, Abe flying into view from wherever he had fallen with Carolus. The dragon looked to have been fairly badly injured, several gashes visible on his side and his motions were unsteady, choppy, as he bellowed out to the others. “Quickly! To the north!”
The other dragons who were still airborne flapped around, one of them crying out, “But the others! The elder! He is being attacked!”
“He purchases our escape with his own capture. Quickly. Let us fly!”
Jonah looked down at the floor of the valley for some sign of Rebekah but still could not find one. The dragons around him chattered in a brief argument, and he could see movement around Jenna’s fallen form, one dragon he did not recognize trying to drag along a recalcitrant Jason.
Again he glanced back at the elder, confused by what he saw. The big dragon, as well as the bull drakes, had grown somehow indistinct, their forms blurring together in a sort of writhing mass of motion in the air, taking on a form of its own. Sharp cries and bellows emanated from the unnatural looking fight, reverberations that struck out and caused his bones to rattle in his body, the earth to groan beneath them.
“Enough arguing! We remain at our own peril. Don’t let his sacrifice go in vain, we must escape,” Abe shouted through the air.
“We cannot abandon him! We cannot abandon any of them!”
The red dragon growled, looking quite miserable with his wounds. “Nor can we assist them now. We fly, so that we may come to their aid again in the future. We are doomed if we remain any longer.” At that he began to flap his way to the north, limping away
from the scene of the battle.
It was, indeed, a rout. Slowly, reluctantly, the other dragons fell in behind Abe, hunching away from the sight of the elder fighting behind them. Far below, the other dragon had succeeded in getting Jason airborne, the green dragon flying with his head low, his wings limp, looking utterly defeated. Half of those remaining, Jonah included among them, were wounded.
None of them wanted to leave, but none of them could stay.
The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach had returned. Jonah cast one forlorn look back at the wreckage in the valley behind him before turning back to an unknown and somewhat unwelcome future.
NINETEEN
Hours after they had escaped the Syndicate compound, the small company that remained looked anything but victorious.
There had been no way that they were to return to the vans they had parked in the mountains and use them for an escape. Abe had told them that while he had successfully battled Carolus to a standstill the older dragon was still alive and well; as Abe had put it, somewhat grimly, “We’re still going to have to deal with Carl again down the road.” The dragons had winged their way westward to the edge of the mountains, as far as they dared and risk being sighted. They had hiked the rest of their way to a highway before hitching a ride in the back of a rancher’s truck into Bishop.
Exhausted, they had rented a few rooms in an old but clean motel in town, gathering in one of the rooms to sit together and lick their wounds, decide what course of action to take, but no one really had the energy for talk. Abe was in particular exhausted from his struggle with Carolus and the walk down the mountain, his crisp suit somewhat frayed at the edges and dusty, lending him a somewhat absurd appearance. Jason was despondent; though it turned out that Jenna had survived the fall thanks to his and Ryan’s efforts, they had been unable to rouse her and were forced to abandon her on the valley floor.
