“Damn,” Zollin said softly.
“It was a noble sacrifice. We don’t have time to mourn now.”
“You’re right,” Zollin said. “Is there any chance the army can make it back to the coast before Gwendolyn’s forces overtake them?”
“I don’t think so,” Brianna said.
“Then we have to slow them down. You get started healing the dragons. I’ll get us some supplies and make sure that the army moves as quickly as possible.”
Zollin went first to a supply wagon. He hurt all over as the adrenaline from the battle wore off. He was so tired he thought he could lie down on the ground and sleep for a week, but that simply wasn’t an option. He got food, water, and a change of clothes for Brianna. Then, he levitated himself to where General Tolis was meeting with the commanders of the army.
“Zollin,” the commander said deferentially.
“General, I’m sorry to interrupt but I must press on you the urgency of our situation.”
“What exactly are we facing?” asked one of the commanders.
“An army of magically enhanced people,” Zollin said. “I don’t know how they will fight or how hard they will be to kill, but the witch that has transformed them into her army is deadly. I would expect nothing less than ruthless efficiency from her minions.”
“How much time do we have?” Tolis asked.
“They don’t sleep,” Zollin said. “They don’t need rest, and probably don’t even eat. They were less than a day away a couple of hours ago.”
“There’s no way we can make it back to the coast before they reach us,” said one of the commanders. “We have no choice but to form up in a defensive position and make a stand.”
“No,” Zollin said. “We have to get you to the Walheta Mountains. That’s where we will make our stand. It’s the only chance we have of defeating her army.”
“But there isn’t enough time,” the commander argued.
“So I’ll buy us some time,” Zollin said. “The dragons and I will delay the evil army as long as we can. If we fail, we will send word to prepare your defense. But you must march through the night. Don’t stop until you reach the coast. Get your men and your supplies loaded as fast as possible. You can rest on the voyage north.”
“How long should we wait for you?” Tolis asked.
“You shouldn’t. Brianna and I will move north with the dragons once you all are safely on the ships and sailing north.”
“You’re sure this plan will work?” asked one of the commanders.
“I’m not sure of anything, except that if we fail now, all is lost.”
“Alright,” General Tolis said. “You heard the man. Our King is in the mountains. We will go to him with all haste. Get your troops moving as quickly as possible.”
“General,” Zollin said as the other commanders turned away. “I have to know who was controlling the dragons and how they did it.”
“I have no idea,” Tolis said.
“Don’t lie to me now,” Zollin said. “We can’t go into battle and have the dragons pulled away by some unseen force.”
“I know the King sent someone to Ebbson keep to find out how to control the dragons. But I was never included in the discussions when the scholars were brought back.”
“Who was?”
“General Corlis for sure, but I don’t know who else.”
“Was the King close to anyone else besides the general?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Tolis said.
“Okay, well we’ll just have to hope for the best.”
Zollin started to leave, but Tolis grabbed his arm.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for doing what we should have done.”
“There’s no need to thank me,” Zollin said. “I only want to ensure that Yelsia has a bright future.”
“You be careful,” Tolis said. “We need you.”
“Thank you, General, but the truth is we need each other. I can’t do this alone.”
“You won’t have to, Zollin of the Five Kingdoms. I’ll get these bastards to the Walheta Range if it’s the last thing I do.”
Zollin smiled and General Tolis snapped him a perfect salute before turning back to his troops. Then, Zollin began the long walk back to Brianna. She had moved to Ferno first and after a few minutes, she was covering the thick, muscular dragon with pure white flames. Zollin went first to Selix, but the golden dragon closed its eyes and would not look at Zollin.
“I’m sorry,” he told the huge beast. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
The mental image of Selix killing Embyr flashed in his mind and the dragon moaned mournfully.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Zollin said.
The dragon couldn’t be consoled, and he moved on to Tig. Along the way he found the king’s crown. It was a simple gold circle, thin along the bottom edge and thicker at the top so that it would rest securely on a person’s head. He picked it up and slipped it into the pack of supplies without looking at it, and then he turned his attention back to Tig. The smaller blue dragon lay panting for breath, the pain evident with each wheezing breath.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you,” Zollin told the blue dragon. “Brianna will be here soon.”
He sat with the dragon who suffered in silence. Zollin guessed that their shame at having been controlled and forced to turn on Brianna and their fellow dragons was hard to deal with. He hoped in time that the shame would diminish. He remembered how difficult it was for Mansel to live with his actions while he was under the influence of Gwendolyn’s enchantment.
Zollin ate quietly, watching Brianna work. Healing a dragon was much different than Zollin’s power to heal. What he did in quiet concentration, Brianna did with bright, billowing fire. He wanted to sleep, but he knew there was no time to rest. Once Brianna finished healing Ferno, Zollin and the massive green dragon took to the air, flying southwest to meet Gwendolyn’s army.
Zollin could see very little of the dark landscape far below them, but Ferno could see almost as well at night as in the daylight. They flew for two hours before catching sight of Gwendolyn’s army. There was no torchlight, no camps, just a sea of lumbering flesh.
Ferno sent Zollin mental images, and he was horrified. It would be difficult to kill people he knew were no longer in control of their actions. They had been physically and mentally altered by Gwendolyn’s evil power. Zollin guessed that at the rate they were moving, they would reach the King’s Army shortly after dawn.
Chapter 34
Brianna put her hands on Tig’s face. The blue dragon’s body was broken, the right front leg was shattered, the thin bones of the dragon’s wing were snapped in several places, but most disturbing were the broken ribs which were causing the dragon to bleed inside. Blood was slowly filling the dragon’s lungs.
Brianna had no idea how she could know so much about the dragon just by touching it, but somehow she knew. She also knew that her fire could heal the dragon; the only question for her was how long it would take to heal the little blue dragon. She knew that she didn’t have much time and if the witch’s army overtook the dragons before they were well enough to fly, they would be killed. Brianna simply wasn’t sure she had enough time to heal both Tig and Selix.
“I’ll be right back,” she told the blue dragon. She hurried to where Selix lay prone on the ground, the soft soil piled up around the huge body where the impact had carved a massive crater in the ground. She put her hands on Selix’s head and the dragon moaned. Selix was blind; many of the dragon’s iron-like scales were marred by the lightning and were now brittle as clay. The tip of the dragon’s left wing was burned away, and most of the leathery wing was scorched and burned; there was no way it support the huge dragon in flight. Worst of all, the dragon’s eyes were ruined.
“Damn,” Brianna said.
She was so angry that the dragons had been under someone’s control and that whoever it was had so little regard for the life of her pride mates. She made a quick deci
sion, even though she felt guilty about it. Tig needed her help more than Selix, but the bigger dragon was more of an asset than the little blue dragon. If she only had time to heal one, she decided it had to be Selix.
“Hold on,” she told the dragon.
Then she stepped back and let her fire rage. She didn’t have time to do things slowly. She needed to heal the dragons as quickly as possible. Selix moaned as the fire washed over the golden scales. Brianna couldn’t see through the white flames, they billowed out and over the Dragon’s body, but she could feel the subtle magic of her kind. There was a feeling of mending happening to the dragon, and she trusted it was exactly what Selix needed. The only question now was would it happen fast enough?
* * *
Zollin knew he didn’t have a lot of time to waste. Still, he decided he needed to know more about the massive army below him before he attacked. Even with his limited eyesight in the darkness, he knew that the army was too big for the combined forces in Walheta to stop. If the evil army didn’t split up and go around both sides of the Great Sea of Kings, Gwendolyn’s wicked army would eventually overrun the Yelsian forces.
There were more Leffers than he wanted to see. The big, horse-like monsters with their insect wings, scorpion tails, and human upper bodies were a horrific sight. They led the army, which meant the first casualties would eventually be the very monsters the survivors would have to fight. Zollin knew that the Leffers were vulnerable to fire and his electric magical energy. He could hurt them; he knew that, but what about the others? And did they know he was there, high above them, circling and studying them?
Finally, he decided that there was nothing more to be learned from observation alone. He let his magic flow down, but his magic was rebuffed by the dark magic that animated the army. The Leffers were evil creatures that acted as if they were controlled by a single consciousness or hive mind. But the army was actually supported by Gwendolyn’s magic. The witch had to empower her monsters, and Zollin couldn’t imagine the strain. Either Gwendolyn was stretched to her breaking point, or she had become immeasurably powerful. It made Zollin shudder to even contemplate what facing her in battle would be like. In the pit of his stomach, he felt the inevitability of that conflict. If they were to stop Gwendolyn, at some point he would have to face her and defeat her.
“Well, Ferno, we have a job to do,” he said, rubbing the dragon’s neck affectionately. “We better get to it.”
Ferno roared, the sound seemed to make the very air quiver with fear. Then the dragon dove. They went straight down, Zollin using his magic to hold him tight to the dragon’s back. Ferno unleashed a torrent of fire on the army below. The fire ignited the grass around them, and the rags that were what remained of the peoples’ clothes before they were transformed by the witch’s dark magic. Their skin shriveled, and the monstrous beings screamed in agony. Those consumed by the flames fell; their bodies burning up. Those on the fringe of the attack were burned, but they kept moving, as if they didn’t even feel the pain.
“Not bad,” Zollin shouted.
They could see that the army had stopped marching and were glaring up at them.
“Looks like we slowed them down,” he added.
Ferno sent an image of the Leffers flying up toward them.
“Well, here we go,” Zollin said.
Ferno turned in a tight loop and then charged at the Leffers who were flying upward slowly to engage him. The Leffers had powerful wings, but their bodies were so heavy and ill-suited for flight that they were neither fast nor agile. Ferno blew fire at the Leffers and then swooped away, never getting close enough for the creatures to engage him. For the next hour they flew hard, Zollin blasting any of the creatures that came close with molten magical energy. He didn’t want to use his electrical magic, since the dragons were so frightened of lightning.
They fought hard, but there were so many Leffers that after a couple of passes, they were forced to flee the horde of monsters. Once they were far enough away, the Leffers would fly back down to their position at the front of the army and resume their trek north. Then Zollin and Ferno would begin the attack again.
It was a slow, tiresome process, and hardly efficient, even though the number of creatures that were slain grew with every pass. They seemed to be in limitless supply, and Zollin found it hard not to become discouraged. He could tell they were being pushed further and further north. He focused on the western flank of the evil army and had successfully slowed the monsters on that side, but he couldn’t stop the entire line.
They landed near a stream a couple of miles from the horde of monsters moving north. They drank and rested for just a few minutes. Zollin couldn’t shake the feeling that Brianna was in danger. He kept expecting to see her with Selix and Tig flying up to them at any minute, but they were nowhere to be found. He had flown southwest, knowing that the King’s Army was marching west and so he didn’t need to stop the entire body of the marching monsters, only the western flank. But did that leave Brianna in danger? He wasn’t sure. He had thought she would join him as soon as she healed the dragons, but she had yet to arrive and he couldn’t help but worry.
They attacked again; this time trying a new tactic. Zollin moved on the ground, waiting until the Leffers rose up to fight Ferno. Then he rushed forward and blasted the grotesque army with his powerful magic. Dozens fell, never to rise again, but the others just stepped over the fallen and kept moving. Zollin blasted them again and again, but was forced to move back as the horde drew near and the Leffers began returning to the ground.
The sun was starting to lighten the sky, and Zollin’s only relief was that they hadn’t yet caught up to the King’s Army. Zollin and Ferno were both exhausted. Zollin’s magic was almost too hot to wield, and he was lightheaded and shaky. They landed once more and Zollin ate. There wasn’t enough food in his pack to curb Ferno’s hunger. The dragon drank his fill from a swiftly running stream but then they took to the air again.
An image of Brianna on Selix flashed in Zollin’s mind, and he was filled with a questioning wonder.
“I don’t know where they are,” Zollin said. “I only hope they’re alright.”
* * *
Brianna finished healing Selix an hour before dawn. Her head was spinning from the exertion, and she wondered how she had worked for days in the mountains creating dragons with no food or rest. Now all she wanted was something cool to drink and a chance to close her eyes. She found the supplies that Zollin had left for her as Selix took to the sky. She gulped lukewarm water from the canteen, and then poured some over her head. The water felt cool on her scalp. She scrubbed her face and carried the supplies over to where Tig was waiting. The blue dragon was unconscious and barely breathing. Brianna felt a wave of guilt for taking a moment to herself while Tig lay on death’s doorstep.
She immediately began work on the blue dragon, but the long process was soon interrupted. Brianna saw an image of the monster army coming toward her. She cursed herself for being so slow and doubled her efforts, but Tig was simply too wounded to heal quickly. The sun rose and the warm rays added their strength to Brianna’s efforts, but soon she could hear the heavy footsteps of the horrific army that was approaching. Selix was worried, but Brianna refused to stop working on Tig.
The smaller dragon was coming around, but was far from being able to fly. At Selix’s urging, Brianna glanced over her shoulder and saw the monsters less than a mile away.
“Tig, can you hear me?” Brianna shouted over the flames. “I don’t have time to finish. We’re in danger. We’ve got to move you, I’m sorry.”
Brianna let her flames die. Then she stepped forward and put her hand on Tig’s head. The dragon’s internal bleeding had stopped and most of the blood had drained from the dragon’s lungs, but its leg was still shattered and the wing ruined. There was no way for Tig to escape the evil horde that was approaching without help.
Brianna quickly pulled on the clothes that Zollin had left her and pulled the strap of the pack
of supplies over her shoulder. Selix swooped down just as the Leffers moved forward to attack Brianna. She sent a wall of fire blazing toward the monsters, and then she jumped into the air, flipping over backward and landing on Selix’s back, just as the golden dragon snatched up Tig with its huge talons.
Tig had been asleep, but the jolt from being snatched by Selix woke the poor beast, as waves of pain from its leg and wing rolled over the dragon’s consciousness. Tig roared, but it was more of a high-pitched wail of agony. Brianna had to put the thought out of her mind as she watched the Leffers rise up after them. She threw balls of fire at the monsters. It reminded her of throwing snowballs with her sisters when she was just a child, only this time the effects were horrific. The balls of fire would burst much like a snowball when they hit, only they spread the fire to whatever they touched. The Leffers’ screams made her blood run cold. A hit to the head of one of the creatures would kill them, but a hit to the body only wounded them. The sight of the hideous creatures following her, their bodies blackened, blood and puss oozing from the hideous wounds, was enough to almost paralyze her with fear.
As each monster drew near she found the courage and the strength to drive it away. Finally, Selix turned and spewed a gout of flame that drove the horde of flying horse-like creatures back to the ground. Then Selix swooped forward, locking its wide, leathery wings and rising up on the air currents.
“We must go west,” Brianna said. “We have to find Zollin and see that the army escapes.”
Selix turned and flew. After an hour of flight, the monster army started to thin. Brianna could tell that Zollin was being effective, her only question was how effective? It took another hour to reach the army. They were not in danger yet, but they still had half a day’s journey just to make the coast. Brianna and Selix dove down and gently laid Tig in one of the wagons. Brianna jumped off of Selix’s broad back and landed near the officers.
“I must ask your help,” she said.
Five Kingdoms: Book 06 - Evil Tide Page 32
