Late that same day, Brynn’s scouts came in, reporting that Yatol Bardoh and his forces were coming down from the plateau in the north, and Chezhou-Lei Shauntil and his were coming down along the route to the south.
“We will have the city pillaged before the dawn, then we can flee out to the open sands,” one of her commanders remarked.
Brynn shook her head. “Pillage the city and hide the supplies and the valuables out in the desert,” she did agree. “But we will not run. Not this time.”
That brought many surprised looks from those leaders standing about her, all keenly aware that somewhere around thirty thousand Behrenese warriors would soon converge on Avrou Eesa.
“Pagonel is not far,” the woman explained.
“We would still be sorely outnumbered,” one man observed.
“Only if we fight them as a singular, or even as half, of their force,” Brynn replied, a grin widening on her face as she thought of yet another way she might stick a pin into the eye of the Chezru Chieftain and his marauding people, and particularly into the eye of Yatol Tohen Bardoh.
“What do you know?” one To-gai-ru woman asked her.
“We can outride them. We can outrun them,” Brynn answered. She turned her gaze to the west, to the line of distant heights that marked the To-gai plateau. If the armies were filtering down the narrow passes out of the steppes, north and south, then she and Agradeleous could catch them in a vulnerable position indeed.
She nodded as she considered that her fighting that day was not done. She had to go out with the dragon, anyway, she knew, to go and inform Pagonel of his role in the upcoming daring battle.
“A large group of the fleeing Behrenese have camped just to the west of us,” another scout reported soon after, and beside the woman, Tanalk Grenk issued a low growl as threatening as any Agradeleous himself had ever grumbled.
“Leave them there,” Brynn replied, issuing that order to all of her fierce leaders. “Let them tell Yatol Bardoh of our approximate strength.”
“That he might overrun Avrou Eesa with complete confidence?” another man asked.
“That he will encircle Avrou Eesa to prevent any escape.”
“Your great dragon cannot fly us all out of here quickly enough, as it did to bring us down from the plateau,” came one concerned reply.
But Brynn only smiled all the wider, thinking that it was indeed time to take a gamble, and time to engage some Behrenese soldiers openly.
As dusk fell over the steppes, the desert already dark behind them, Brynn and Agradeleous saw the long line of torches, winding down from the To-gai plateau along a narrow and rocky descent to the Behrenese floor.
“He force-marches through the night, hoping to catch up to us,” Brynn yelled to the dragon. “The dog Bardoh is angry, and his anger will be his downfall!”
Agradeleous beat his wings more powerfully, speeding them along the plateau line, sweeping down from the north.
Brynn urged the dragon straight across that long and narrow line. The beast banked and swept past, breathing forth his fire, immolating those poor Behrenese who could not flee or find any cover behind the rocks. The dragon’s tail thrashed as he passed, splintering stone and sending men flying to their deaths.
Caught by complete surprise, it took the Behrenese a long time to organize their archers up high on the plateau ledge and for those caught along the narrow trail to find cover, or to scramble down among the massing defensive formations already on the desert floor.
Brynn and Agradeleous struck hard and struck repeatedly during that time of confusion and tumult. And then, as the organization grew stronger, as volleys of arrows filled the sky and great ballistae prepared their deadly shots, Brynn brought the dragon out from the plateau, and shouted down, “Avrou Eesa is mine!”
And then she and Agradeleous rushed off to the south, flying fast along the plateau line and repeating the destruction on the second Behrenese force, that of Shauntil. This army, under the crack command of the cunning Chezhou-Lei, organized more quickly and sent Brynn and Agradeleous fleeing fast for safety with little damage done and only a few Behrenese lost.
The ranger and her dragon flew to the south and then to the east, and eventually, they saw the distant fires of Pagonel’s force.
There, the dragon set Brynn down outside the encampment, and she went to her allies.
“It seems a desperate plan,” Pagonel warned her privately, after the gathering of commanders had dispersed so that the warrior woman and her friend could share some private moments.
“Every movement grows more desperate, with the pursuit growing more organized,” Brynn replied. “The Chezru Chieftain will send even more out against us. A third force will march from Jacintha, and then a fourth, I am certain, and they will catch us, and any one of the forces could likely destroy us, or at least weaken us enough to render us ineffective.”
Pagonel nodded grimly. “You knew from the outset that even if you organized all of To-gai behind you, you could not defeat the Behrenese in force.”
Then it was Brynn’s turn to nod, and grimly. “Avrou Eesa has fallen, and Yatol Bardoh will force-march all the way to the broken gates. Let us sting him again—I pray to Joek that I will find the chance to wet my blade with cursed Bardoh’s own blood.”
“Even if that opportunity costs you the greater war you have waged?”
The question made Brynn back off a bit, quieted her eagerness, and made her consider carefully her current course.
“These plans will work,” she said.
“Is it a necessary chance?”
“It is one that seems plausible, and that will afford us a great gain.”
“Great?”
“Great enough,” Brynn insisted. “Every victory will become more difficult as we draw the Chezru Chieftain’s power out of Jacintha. Let us take every victory as we find it. On my way here, Agradeleous and I struck at both Behrenese forces filtering down from To-gai. We did not kill many—a hundred, perhaps—but likely many more than that now desire to flee the army, for in return for their dead, they got nothing. No kills. No blood for blood. That is the most frustrating thing of all for a warrior.”
The mystic nodded his agreement. “If Chezhou-Lei Shauntil is as focused on his march toward Avrou Eesa as you presume, then he will not see us.”
“And then my plan …?”
“May indeed sting the Behrenese once again,” Pagonel admitted. “But we will be sorely pressed, and running fast with an angry army in close pursuit.”
“With Agradeleous, we can supply; they cannot,” Brynn insisted. “And To-gai-ru can outride Behrenese. How long will they chase us? How soon will we forge enough of a lead to flatten yet another city?”
“How soon will Chezru Douan send another thirty thousand out against you?”
The question was sobering, because Brynn understood that Douan could do just that.
But Brynn only nodded and accepted the possibilities. “You understand your role, and the timing?”
“We will be there,” Pagonel assured her.
Brynn smiled, and kissed him on the cheek.
Soon after, she and Agradeleous were gone, flying back to the north. Brynn didn’t strike at Shauntil’s force on the return trip, recognizing with a couple of high fly-bys that the Chezhou-Lei warrior had his army ready to strike back hard immediately. But they did indeed hit at the less-prepared army of Yatol Bardoh, swooping down from on high and scattering the final lines of soldiers making their way down from the plateau, for Bardoh had not even kept his earlier forces assembled below to provide cover, instead riding them straight out toward Avrou Eesa.
Agradeleous feasted on the weakened end of that Behrenese line, more than doubling his kills for the night. Brynn took great satisfaction in seeing many other Behrenese warriors turning from their assigned course, fleeing north and south, apparently deserting Bardoh’s army.
That was her strength, the ranger realized, the strength of To-gai, for she and her leaders
would never have left so many behind in pursuit of a goal. Yatol Bardoh cared nothing for his warriors, beyond the goals he desired; Brynn knew that her own warriors recognized that she did not subscribe to that losing philosophy.
Chapter 33
The Dragon Ruse
BRYNN STOOD ON THE WESTERN WALL OF AVROU EESA, STARING OUT OVER THE desert to a distant cloud of stirred sands. She questioned herself repeatedly, her decision to remain there, to try to sting again before disappearing into the open desert. Was it her hatred of Yatol Bardoh that was driving her? Was she hoping for a chance to avenge her parents’ murder? And if so, was she risking too much to find that chance?
She took heart that Pagonel and her larger army would arrive on time, as arranged. Given that, the plan didn’t seem so desperate, as long as her guess concerning Yatol Bardoh’s reaction to the loss of Avrou Eesa proved correct.
She was standing there, mulling it all over, when an unexpected companion walked up beside her. Brynn turned, startled, for she had not seen Agradeleous in his lizardman form in some time. She noted, too, that the dragon was limping a little bit.
“Their arrows sting you,” she remarked.
“It will take more than arrows to bring down Agradeleous,” the dragon assured her.
Brynn nodded and looked back to the sandstorm. “Our enemies,” she said.
“Our?”
The woman turned and studied the dragon, surprised by the comment, though when she thought about it, it made perfect sense. Agradeleous, it seemed, didn’t really care who or what he was destroying.
“I must soon ask you to go out through a hail of arrows again,” she said. “I will need you to convince Yatol Bardoh that we are attempting to flee to the east.”
The dragon nodded, seeming unconcerned.
“I plan to draw his line about the city,” Brynn started to explain, but her voice trailed off as she realized that the dragon wasn’t paying her any heed. “None of this matters to you, does it?”
Agradeleous’ eyes narrowed as he regarded her more closely.
“There is no difference between us—me and my people, and the Behrenese—is there?”
The dragon blinked, but did not otherwise respond.
“And if a Behrenese ally had found you in your lair and brought you out, you would be fighting for them, as you are now fighting for me. Correct?”
Another blink.
“Or is it that you are not fighting for me?” Brynn reasoned it through. “You are fighting for Agradeleous, and nothing more. I offered you a deal that you thought acceptable, and so your fires char the Behrenese soldiers.” She paused and stared at the dragon hard, waiting until she had his full attention. “Do you not understand why I wage this war?”
“I do not understand the wars of humans, nor do I wish to,” the dragon finally replied. “You fight for your freedom.” He shrugged, his great muscled shoulders rising up almost over his head. “It all makes so little sense to me, that humans would enslave humans in the first place. You are a curious race, and a lesser race, from all that I see.”
Then it was Brynn’s turn to narrow her eyes.
“You think me a creature of wanton destruction, and to an extent, you are correct,” the dragon went on. “When I care not at all about the creatures in the line of my flames, I find it exciting to breathe forth the fire. And I care not at all about humans.”
Brynn noted that there was something less than convincing in that statement, some subtle hint from the dragon’s tone.
“Behrenese, To-gai-ru … you are all the same. No dragon would think to enslave another dragon.”
“So if a Behrenese agent had found you, you might well be flying against me now,” Brynn reasoned, and again the dragon shrugged, as if it did not matter.
“Then thank your good fortune,” he said. “Or call it the ultimate justice of fate, the gods themselves shining upon your cause for freedom, if that brings you comfort.”
Brynn turned away sharply. “There is a difference,” she stated through gritted teeth. “A difference between what they have done to us, and what we now try to accomplish.”
“Indeed.”
“The To-gai-ru have never tried to conquer Behren,” Brynn remarked against that sarcasm.
“Because they have never been able to,” Agradeleous was quick to point out. “When you have the power, only then can you measure the relative morality of your peoples.”
Brynn wanted to argue, wanted to find some words to deny the logic of the dragon’s observations. But in truth, she could not. Would her people have acted any differently, had they been the conquerors? Had they acted any differently in their first large victory, when Dharyan had been overrun? Until she had intervened, the Behrenese had been subjected to many of the same injustices they had shown to the To-gai-ru.
But she had intervened. Brynn had to remind herself at that uncertain moment, with Agradeleous, of all people, laying bare her conscience, and with Yatol Bardoh and thirty thousand Behrenese warriors coming to destroy her relatively insignificant army.
“You are quite observant for one who does not know humans,” Brynn remarked.
Agradeleous gave a rumbling laugh. “Detachment allows for that.”
Brynn turned to face him once more, locking him with a serious stare. “Will you fly out against the archers?”
The dragon put on a perfectly awful grin. “With pleasure.”
The storm swept in across the blowing sands, thirty thousand strong, led by riders waving the huge curved swords favored by many Behrenese warriors. They charged at Avrou Eesa’s western gate, and for a brief moment, Brynn’s heart sank in the fears that Yatol Bardoh would abandon all caution and just overrun his conquered city.
But then the lead riders broke, left and right, their horses thundering about Avrou Eesa to encircle the wide city. With the discipline of a superbly trained army, the Behrenese soldiers filtered to their appropriate positions. By late afternoon, Brynn and her army were fully encircled, the enemy line secured like a hangman’s noose, and with the devastating war engines already assembled out to the west of the city.
The bombardment began soon after dusk, with balls of pitch soaring in to smash walls, splattering all about.
Brynn’s warriors let many of the ensuing fires burn, for they had no desire to save any more of Yatol Bardoh’s city than those sections they needed for defense.
The first charge came soon after, with infantry marching in from all sides, shield to shield.
Brynn knew that Bardoh was trying to draw her out, to see how much firepower she and her warriors could throw back at him. And so she did not disappoint, lining the walls, particularly the eastern one, with archers and meeting the charge with volley after volley of arrows.
And then she went out, upon Agradeleous, sweeping first to the south, scattering the terrified Behrenese before her, then turning to the east, where that line broke almost immediately and rushed back to the cover of their own archers.
Brynn banked Agradeleous sharply, putting the dragon in fast flight right over the city and beyond, sweeping to the west, flying right over the surprised Behrenese infantry and right over the reserve cavalry, all fighting to hold their terrified horses steady, and right through the hail of arrows the Behrenese archers launched their way.
Agradeleous bore down on the war engines with a vengeance, setting a catapult ablaze, then banking up to hover beside another, his great tail smashing hard against the supporting beams.
“Fly away!” Brynn cried out frantically. “Agradeleous, fly away!”
Too excited and enraged, the dragon didn’t even hear her, and so his surprise was complete when a ballista bolt smashed hard against his side, knocking him from the sky.
The Behrenese warriors cheered and charged, long lances flashing in the firelight.
“Up!” Brynn commanded. “Up and back to the city!”
The dragon spun about and charged into the coming line of soldiers, taking hit after brutal hit, but gi
ving out killing blows with great claws and chomping maw, beating others aside with his great wings and launching still more far away with his deadly tail.
Brynn kept urging him up, as more and more Behrenese soldiers charged in fearlessly.
The woman’s respect for her foes increased dramatically in those few minutes.
Finally, to Brynn’s great relief, the dragon leaped up into the air, his great wings beating immediately to send him flying back toward Avrou Eesa’s western gate. The pair set down in the courtyard just beyond the gate, Brynn leaping down from the dragon’s back to inspect his greatest wound, where the ballista spear had hit home.
The warrior woman winced, more at her own thoughts than at the wound—for she had allowed herself, for a brief moment, to hope that the wound would prove fatal. In the end of all this, whether To-gai was free or not, Brynn Dharielle would have to deal with the fact that she had been instrumental in letting a dragon loose upon the world, and though she had exacted the necessary promise from Agradeleous, she was not sure that it would hold.
“How bad?” she asked the dragon, moving around to face him directly.
Agradeleous growled and reached for the ballista spear with his foreleg, then tore it out. He reared on his hind legs, roared defiantly, and hurled the bloody spear across the sands, into the midst of the still-scrambling Behrenese far beyond the gate.
Then came the bone-crunching sounds as Agradeleous began his transformation to his bipedal form. All about him, To-gai-ru warriors blanched and retreated, as fast and as far as they could run.
But Brynn stood right there, before the dragon, grateful to him for his sacrifice that night. A necessary sacrifice, and one that had turned the Behrenese charge into a fast retreat.
Lookouts on the walls were even then calling down that their enemies had broken off, all about the city, had returned to the encircling perimeter and were striking camp.
“I will need you again in the morning,” Brynn whispered to the dragon. “When Pagonel arrives.”
DemonWars Saga Volume 2: Mortalis - Ascendance - Transcendence - Immortalis (The DemonWars Saga) Page 168
