His eyes looked haunted as he remembered his past. What would it take to choose to bear that burden? What sort of big heart would you have to have to accept it, knowing there was no way out, knowing it would be so lonely?
On an impulse I hobbled over and hugged him. “We won’t make you do this alone.”
He seemed stunned when I pulled back, his arm still open as if he were reaching to hug me back but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.
“See?” Leng said with a chuckle. “You’ll even get surprise hugs sometimes.”
I felt my face heating. I wasn’t used to displaying my emotions so clearly, but I guess I was infected by the same sense of foreboding that he was. For some reason, this battle on the horizon felt different. Maybe we were all cracking just a little under the pressure.
Chapter Ten
We’d been circling for two hours and I was feeling antsy. I didn’t like waiting.
At least you have something to watch.
Leng and his dragons were putting the final touches on the rubble-filled bridge. No human was going to cross that any time soon – definitely not on horseback and definitely not with dragons in his way. Ahlskibi straddled the center of it like a dragon from lore sitting on a pile of gold.
On the south side of the bridge, Shonan had finished arranging his own dragon troops and cleared the top of the highest nearby hill of brush and stones. I wasn’t sure why.
He’s preparing a stage for battle. If Iskaris slips by him today he will have failed the Troglodytes.
I returned to my Ibrenicus prophecies, reading over and over the same passage.
“When the people of the earth sound horn of battle,
And the land trembles and is torn,
When the skies are rent in sorrow,
And the depths bring help no more,
Then the lame and the blind shall lead them,
And guide them from the storm.”
I found it unsettling. How could the lame and blind lead? What did it say about the destruction of a war if there were only lame and blind left to do that? It made me nervous. Over and over again these prophecies had been fulfilled. I’d seen it. I’d relied on it. I’d found guidance in the words and thoughts of them. I was as certain of their truth as I was of my own name. What did I do with one that made me feel so off-kilter?
I chewed my lip, watching the horizon. There was a small black blip too far out for me to see what it was. A bird? No. There was a trail behind it of smoke. Strange.
I tucked the book away in my pocket and leaned forward over Raolcan’s neck, trying to strain to see the figure. There was something familiar about it ... was that Hubric already?
A burst of light surrounded the figure – flames? And then I noticed two other small dots. They moved too quickly for me to make out what they were doing. If they were flying in formation, then they were very bad at it.
As they grew closer, I began to make out details. Three dragons with riders. Two of them flamed at the third as he ducked and wove. His tail smoked as he flew, as if it were on fire.
Raolcan reared back suddenly, and then a fist of our own dragons – positioned on the north side of the bridge – launched. They rocketed toward the three dragons and my heart raced as I watched them quickly meet the others in the air.
Hubric on Kyrowat, both blackened and battered, dropped as the other dragons formed a shield to protect them, taking the full fury of the pair of silver dragons on themselves. We should have sent more scouts. We shouldn’t have sent Hubric alone.
Kyrowat flew erratically to the hill where Shonan was stationed while the dragons Raolcan had sent attacked the Silvers. I shut my eyes when a big Black dragon bit down on the slender arching neck of the lead Silver, severing it so violently that I could almost hear the crunch.
I wouldn’t look at what happened next. I swallowed, willing my belly to calm down. With trembling hands, I tightened the scarf that held my hair back from my eyes.
It’s done now.
I glanced to where Hubric and Kyrowat had landed on the tallest hill to speak to Shonan.
Iskaris is with his army. The Ifrits and dragons are in the vanguard. Hubric estimates them an hour out. He should have just looked and returned, but he was tempted by curiosity and took too long watching them. When he was on his return route to us, their own scouts – those two Silvers – attacked him and Kyrowat. They are battered but fine.
Hopefully, Shonan was persuading him to rest.
Even as I thought that, Kyrowat leapt into the air, heading north by northwest back to the Dragon Snout mountains.
Shonan has sent him to bring word to Jalla of where the ambush is set and that it will spring today. We need her army to hurry to form the other side of the pincher. We won’t be able to hold them otherwise.
But he was hurt!
Better hurt than dead. He sends a last message to you – stay alive.
I should be sending that message to him! Why had he been so curious that he had lingered near the enemy?
The Magikas were assembled. They were performing a magic unusual for them. Hubric was curious.
What sort of magic?
He thought they might be able to make their own bridge.
I looked down at the bridge we’d so carefully blocked and arranged for defense and my heart stuttered. We were in real trouble if that were true.
Chapter Eleven
There should be more things we could do to prepare. Surely there was something left undone that could be done ahead of time – some kind of preparation that would make all the difference.
You’re just terrible at waiting.
But I was great at worrying and as the hours ticked by to noon, I felt worry burning as hot in my belly as the sun burned on my back.
That’s life I’m afraid. Days, months, even years of anticipation all burned up in a few hot minutes of the final action. It leaves nothing but ashes and dust behind and maybe ... if you are very lucky ... success.
But what was success?
Continued love. Love that hasn’t died. Isn’t that why we fight? So that tomorrow the people we love will still be here for us to enjoy?
I glanced down to where Leng sat astraddle Ahlskibi. I’d be gutted if I lost him. I laid a hand on Raolcan’s neck. And Raolcan, too.
Can I assume then, that all is forgiven?
I shouldn’t have had that outburst. I just felt so cornered lately. This – everything – was such an enormous task and sometimes it felt like I had no decisions in it, like it was driving me instead of me driving it.
It is driving you. It’s like we were in a river and when we chose to swim down the branch we did it narrowed and narrowed and now it’s rushing around us, too fast to stop and too angry to fight. We can only let us take us over the falls and hope we all survive.
I swallowed, watching the horizon and thinking about what he said. I hoped we survived. On the road to the north, I thought I saw the first movement all day. It was strange that there hadn’t been any casual travelers.
Heading toward a war? Anyone with half a grain of sense would be heading away from Dominion City or hunkered down in a place where they think they can survive.
True. Which meant that movement was certainly the army of Iskaris.
It is. They will arrive this afternoon.
And before them was a cloud of smoke with flashes of silver. It broke off from the main army as I watched, speeding toward us.
They know we are here now. They are trying to hit us with a hammer of force rather than wait for us to spring a trap. Dividing an army is usually a bad tactic, but in this case, it makes sense. The army on foot can’t cross this chasm until we are dealt with and only the Ifrits and dragons can deal with us.
My belly clenched at his words. I hated battle. I hated the results. I hated Ifrits. Thank goodness there were no innocents here and nothing that could be set on fire.
Raolcan felt tense, too, his wide circles narrowing and his mind distant as he gave orde
rs to the dragons around us. A group of Reds swooped up, swirling in the air above the bridge in time with us.
I felt like every inch of my skin was reporting to my brain, like my eyes were flitting from one thing to the next, like my breath was coming too quickly.
It is. Calm down.
I focused on long slow breaths as the Ifrits went from faraway smoke to clear shapes swarming toward us. What were they carrying?
Magikas. Uh oh. They have a plan, too.
I held on tight as Raolcan led the first charge with the Reds. I knew the plan. We would fly along the road, flaming along the right side of the army to keep them hemmed in on the road beside the forest.
We dove toward the line of Ifirits and I held on tight, trying to stay flat across Raolcan’s neck.
This is the fun part! See us roar, Ifrits!
We swept beside the leader of the Ifrit horde. He towered, mountainous in size, swirling flames dancing in the caverns where his eyes and mouth should have been. His arms were full of Magikas. They looked almost as if they were hanging in swaths of black smoke, but their eyes were closed and their hands glowed with light. What exactly were they planning? What sort of nerve would it take to let one of those monsters carry you?
Raolcan flamed as we swept by the first Ifrit and then flaming again and again as we passed dozens more. His flight path was erratic, dodging and weaving to avoid any defense they might mount.
They ignored him and the Reds who followed us in the flaming charge. I heard cries from some of the Magikas, but the Ifrits were intent on their goal – the raging river and the bridge that crossed it. They didn’t slow or stop. What would they do when they got there?
Raolcan pulled up before we reached the end of the line, somersaulting backward the way we came. I held on tight, eyes clenched against the dizzying roll and the spinning landscape. I tried not to take too big of breaths. All I could smell was burnt cloth and flesh with the overpowering smoky smell of Ifrits mixed in with everything else.
Their sheer numbers worried me. In every other Ifrit encounter, escape had been our main goal. There was no escape here. Here we must meet them head on and win.
We will!
But as they rushed toward the tumbling river set in the cradle of Autumn fields, I didn’t share his good spirits. There were simply too many of them, and what possessed these Magikas to allow dust demons to carry them to the edge of the river? They had a plan and I didn’t think that bridge building accounted for it.
I stole a glance over my shoulder as we hurtled toward the river, trying to count the Ifrits, but my mental count stuttered to a halt as the Silver dragons rose above their heads, picking up speed now that we were close to the river. I was certain that I saw the glint of a silver mask on one of the riders.
Chapter Twelve
We reached the river and wheeled to face the enemy. Somehow the current below us looked angrier, stronger, as if in reaction to our enemy.
The first Ifrit hit the bank of the river the moment we turned, tossing the Magikas he carried to the ground. He placed himself in front of the Magikas as the next Ifrit quickly imitated him, depositing his cargo and forming up along the bank. So. They would serve as a shield, ignoring the current bridge entirely.
Raolcan roared and then every dragon with us rose from the ground or poured in from the surrounding forest and hills. The roars joining his made the earth below us tremble. Ahlskibi scrambled up into the air from the bridge as the smaller rocks they’d piled on the bridge trembled and fell to the river below. Leng kept his seat with a calm expression. He held a short sword in one hand, ready to defend our bottleneck on the bridge.
I clamped my hands around my ears, bracing against the sound. When it was over, twenty Ifrits faced us, shoulder to shoulder along the riverbank. Behind them, more rows of Ifrits formed. I tried not to shudder at their sheer numbers.
The first one opened his cavern mouth and laughed. Or at least, I thought it was a laugh. The sound – like roaring flames and breaking branches – gave me chills.
I clenched my jaw, preparing for the response. I was not wrong to brace myself. We were hurtling forward before I had time to realize what was happening and then it was all I could do to hold on as Raolcan swooped in among the Ifrits, dodging arms and roaring mouths, blazing his own fire into one smoky monster after another.
The world was flame and smoke, spinning horizons, choking dust, and acid fear. It was my heart in my throat and my mouth gasping for air. It was twenty dragons pulling an Ifrit from the fray and shredding it to pieces in their powerful jaws.
Another Ifrit was drawn out the same way. I saw glimpses of him being shredded as Raolcan barrel rolled out of an engagement.
There was a knot of Magikas below – maybe twenty? – they linked hands in a circle, light filling the circle and bubbling up like a spurting fountain above their heads. Didn’t they need to be near one of those power wells to do that?
Remember, we are not far from the Feet of the River, a place of great power.
I remembered that place. I swallowed, thinking about how much power it was rumored to have. Raolcan dove toward a group of Magikas but was batted aside by an Ifrit, sending us into a deadly spin. I gripped tightly to him, bracing for the impact of the ground. It didn’t come. I opened my eyes to see he’d pulled us out of the tumble and was gaining height.
It was hard to keep up with the action – I didn’t know how Raolcan stayed on top of everything, guiding an army as he fought and fending off attacks with only one eye to watch for them.
Beneath us, the battle swirled, lines of colorful dragons diving in arcs into a mass of dust demon clouds and flower-like patterns of Magikas holding hands and pulling up golden fountains of light. As I watched, the light from the seven flowers rose, linked and rushed toward the river. I was expecting the bridge to form so they could race across the water.
I didn’t expect it to hit the existing bridge with the force of a thousand dragon fires. Ahlskibi leapt from the rubble just in time, Leng clinging to his back. A flurry of other dragons took flight like a startled murder of crows. Beneath where they had crouched, the bridge cracked, split and then broke into a thousand shards, spilling through the air and plummeting into the canyon, choking the river.
I gasped as the water rose for a few moments before boiling over the make-shift dam and thundering onward down the river.
The bridge was gone.
But why? Shouldn’t they be building a bridge of their own?
A second spurt of light began in one of the flowers but was extinguished as a line of Red dragons burst through the Ifrits guards, flaming the flower of Magikas. Men and woman fell to the ground, their robes aflame and their screams silent in the clash and chaos of the battle.
It wasn’t enough. The other six flowers were already working, purple light bubbling up around them. It met in the middle, swirling as it coalesced into a glowing rope of thousands of light strands. Wind whipped up around us, pulling toward the flowers and one of the Ifrits was whipped off his feet, swirling into the mass of woven light until he disappeared. All around them, on the ground, spiderwebs of darkness pulled from the ground into the circles of Magikas, leaving the ground behind it dull and lifeless as if something had been sucked out of it.
The rope of light spurted upward, swirling as it stretched across the river so suddenly that it might have been a rainbow springing to life. The end of it slammed into the ground, making everything nearby shudder and then coalesced from light into a thick bridge that looked like metal.
Sky steel, unless I am mistaken.
The Magikas stood utterly still, their hands still linked, their light still feeding the bridge.
And now we see their plan. With our bridge gone and theirs in its place, they control who crosses on it. Not only can their army cross, but our Baojang reinforcements will arrive to find their trap sprung and their way blocked. I suspect that once the Magikas leave, this temporary bridge will leave, too.
We ha
dn’t trapped them. They’d trapped us.
I felt the blood draining from my face.
Across the river, enhanced by magic or some other trick, Shonan’s voice rose, filling every ear.
“Come to me, Dominar. Come and claim a final victory, or lose your mask in defeat!”
Didn’t he realize the situation we were in? This wasn’t the time for a one on one battle. We were in the throes of defeat!
Not quite yet.
And if he was locked in battle, there would be no escape.
There is no escape for any of us. We win today, or we die trying.
Chapter Thirteen
Raolcan spun as the silver dragons streaked by. He dove, suddenly, with a furious flapping of wings and his neck shot forward, his mouth opening and biting down on the neck of the Silver. His victim thrashed against the hold, knocking his body into Raolcans and bringing his rider side by side with me.
My eyes widened as the man in ornate silver-trimmed armor narrowed his eyes. His helm was an open-mouthed dragon and an angry scar ran down his cheek. I’d never been so close to a dragoon when he was flying. The look on his face froze my blood. He reached for his sword and I scrambled to free my crutch from Raolcan’s saddle.
It was tied too tightly. It wouldn’t pull free. I worked at it, almost feeling the blade of my adversary plunging through me. Any moment now it would. Any moment...
The crutch pulled free and I gripped it in both hands, spinning to defend myself. My eyes widened when I saw an empty saddle where my enemy had been. What ...?
I looked from dragon to dragon around me. It wasn’t Raolcan. He was still shaking the Silver dragon as its wing began to droop and the added weight made us sink toward the ground.
Sink.
Whoever had helped us must be above us now. I looked from the empty saddle and the torn leather straps, my gaze following an invisible line upward. I grimaced when I finally saw the rider, limp and broken in Ahlskibi’s mouth. Leng was leaning forward in the saddle, his mouth a grim, determined line.
Dragon School: Troubled War Page 4
