The Dragon Rider (The Alaris Chronicles Book 2)

by Mike Shelton

  “Get back!” Erryl yelled at them. But they had taken things into their own hands now, tired of being slaughtered while defenseless. If they died now, at least they would die fighting. Many of them did.

  Then Gorn made his way to Erryl and moved behind the tree. He struck his sword against the ropes, and Erryl slumped to the ground.

  “Ahhhh!” Erryl cried out as the blood rushed back into his hands and feet with such pain. “You cut things awfully close there, Gorn.”

  “Rub them,” Gorn suggested, referring to Erryl’s hands. “We were attacked by a group of Kanzar’s men. Luckily, there were only two wizards with the group. The protectors and the few elves with us fought well. We lost a few of our fighters but captured most of the attackers and then came in search of you and the other guardians.” The wizard then turned, looking behind him, and took down another soldier. The men and elves from Celestar were outmatched in numbers, but not in skill.

  Erryl drew himself back up and began hopping up and down a bit to get the blood flowing again to his feet. He wiped blood off the side of his mouth with the back of his hand.

  Suddenly, he was knocked over, from the side, by one of the enemy men. He rolled to the side and, by only a slim margin, missed a sword coming down on him. Before Erryl could move again, one of the elves from Celestar took the other man down. Erryl nodded his thanks and grabbed the man’s sword.

  A dozen feet away, the governor had beat off one of the Celestar protectors and now stood facing Erryl once again.

  “This is your fault, boy. I promised you I would kill you if you didn’t give me what I wanted.” He took a step toward Erryl with his sword held high. Thankfully, Gorn arrived in time to bring down his own sword, knocking the governor’s sword out of his hands.

  Standing defenseless now, all the governor could do was watch the next thrust coming from Gorn. The swift stroke into his gut surprised him, and a look of alarm spread across his face. He collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from the wound.

  The battle slowed as those with the governor realized the fight to protect him was now over. Gorn turned back around to survey the scene. As he did so, he missed seeing the governor’s slight movement, but Erryl had not.

  Time seemed to slow for Erryl as Governor Ellian, renegade elf, reached into his boot and, with a smooth motion, grabbed out a small dirk and threw it, with his last ounce of strength, toward Erryl.

  He noticed the etching on the knife’s handle as it flew, end over end, directly at him. He took a deep breath, breathing in the sweet forest air—towering pines, broad oaks, and small ferns and bushes—it felt wonderful to him and overwhelmed his senses, pushing out the stench of blood and battle. Turning his head, Erryl found his father looking back at him.

  “Father!” he began to cry out as Gorn jumped forward to help. Then the world came back to life, yells and shouts filling Erryl’s ears as the knife slammed into his chest, digging deep into his internal organs.

  Blood started gushing out instantly, and Erryl dropped the sword he was holding and slumped to the ground. A crimson stain spread across his white guardian robes, and everyone shouted at once, but Gorn and Erryl’s father were the first to reach him.

  “Bakari,” Erryl mouthed in barely more than a whisper. He leaned closer to Gorn. “The book…the book…” Blood filled his mouth. “Under the garden gate fence post.”

  “What book?” Gorn tried to put his hands over Erryl’s chest.

  Erryl felt a small tingling—his organs trying to heal themselves—but it was not enough. “Tell Bakari, he is…” Erryl coughed up blood and closed his eyes. Then he felt his father’s hands on his arm. Opening his eyes, he tried to continue, knowing he must tell Gorn what he had discovered, “Bakari is not just the dragon rider…”

  “Yes, Erryl?”

  He felt Gorn remove his hand from his chest, as if knowing he could not heal Erryl. Moments passed, Erryl’s mind growing foggy. He couldn’t think.

  “Bakari is the…”

  Erryl felt his life force leaving him. Not only his but also, for a brief moment, he felt himself once again connected to Abylar’s and knew immediately that the deaths of the guardians were affecting the poor dragon. He sensed the might of the great dragon, its intelligence, but also its pain. Oh, so much pain!

  “Abylar!” Erryl opened his eyes and screamed. Everyone stopped and stood looking at Erryl, who had given up so much to protect those he admired. His eyes closed one last time, and he saw a light coming for him.

  “Oh, Abylar,” he said. Then, in a final sigh of breath before he would let his head loll to the side and would leave everything he had ever known and loved, Erryl said, “Bakari, my friend, I am sorry.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Soaring over the city of Corwan, Bakari and Abylar flew down closer to the fighting, trying to find where they could be the most useful. The gate was still being overrun. Maybe he could stop more from entering the city.

  Pulling two discs out of his side bag, Bakari considered a new idea for a moment. Running his hand over the first disc, he infused it with two spells. Then he directed Abylar down and threw the disc against the outside wall at such an angle that the wooden disc skidded along the wall, spitting out fire at everyone within ten feet of the wall. That was the first spell.

  As Kanzar’s fighters screamed and backed away from the wall, Bakari stuck his hand out, and the disc flew back to him, having used up its flames. That was the second spell. Casting it would ensure that he didn’t use up and lose all his discs. They each took a long time to be carved and sanded by the men of Mahli.

  Alli arrived at the top of the wall and waved up at Bakari. “Nice trick,” she said loudly enough for him to hear her. “Where did you learn that?”

  “I’ve been practicing,” Bakari called back down.

  Bakari swooped again and threw out another disc, a roller on the ground, and it cut a path of fire farther out from the wall, pushing Kanzar’s fighters back even more. At the same time, Alli jumped down and stood in the opening of the gate itself. Then she spun, around and around, her arms extended with a knife in each hand. As she spun, faster and faster, fire gushed forth from her knives, cutting down the enemy and pushing them back out farther from the gate.

  Now the enemy found themselves trapped between the fire of Bakari and Abylar and the danger of Alli. Alli then turned and ran inside the city to continue cleansing the area of the enemy.

  Abylar flew up higher so Bakari could see more of what was happening. A few blocks in from the gate, a significant group of Kanzar’s men and women, led by Alana, were pushing through the city’s defenses. So he flew down to meet them head-on.

  Coming in quickly, Abylar was preparing to spit out a flame of blue fire, when instead, he tipped to the right and hit into the side of a building. Bakari was thrown off-balance and fell to the ground. In a daze, the young dragon rider stood up and ran toward Abylar, who was breathing hard.

  What’s wrong?

  My power, Abylar said into Bakari’s mind. My power is leaving me. I don’t know what’s wrong.

  A few men jumped out at Bakari. One of Kanzar’s wizards also threw fire at Abylar, hitting him on his delicate, newly formed scales. The dragon hissed out a breath of fire that consumed the wizard, but it also started a fire behind him on the ground.

  Alana arrived and prepared a spell to throw at Bakari, but Abylar moved a wing in front of Bakari in time to intercept her fire. He howled in pain. Alli also arrived on the scene, looking at Bakari and then at Alana.

  “Abylar, fly away and stay up higher,” Alli said. “I will watch out for Bakari.”

  So Abylar lifted off from the ground on unsteady wings.

  Then Alana turned toward Alli and flipped a knife at her. Alli dodged this easily and then ran up the side of a building, coming back down behind Alana. She let go a bolt of fire, hitting Alana’s armor so that she stumbled back a few steps.

  Then Alli motioned Bakari to follow her, and they headed deeper into
the city. Coming around the corner, they found a man that had fallen to the ground, blood seeping from his side. A hooded figure was kneeling over him, trying to stop the bleeding. Alli leaped over the two, but Bakari stumbled as he was running around them.

  Picking himself up off the ground, Bakari gasped. Under the hood was a face that he thought he might never see again. Unbidden tears came to his eyes.

  “Bak,” Alli yelled. “We need to get back to the castle and regroup.”

  When Bakari didn’t move, Alli turned and ran back toward him, then stopped mid-stride.

  “Kharlia?” Bakari’s heart lurched. “You are alive. How did you get here?”

  “Bak?”

  The young woman’s soft, dark skin and intelligent brown eyes were exactly how Bakari remembered them. Her hood fell back as she stood up. Her black hair hung behind her, tied back into a ponytail, its tips reaching below her shoulders. He reached out and touched her face. Kharlia shivered with the caress. As another enemy fighter came around the corner, Alli stepped forward to meet the man’s charge. “Come on, you two lovebirds, we need to go.”

  Both Bakari and Kharlia blushed, but Bakari didn’t care. Kharlia couldn’t keep from smiling as she leaned back down and quickly finished tying up the soldier’s gashed side. Then she stood up and faced Bakari. In mere moments, his long-submerged feelings came rushing back to the surface, and Bakari embraced Kharlia in a fierce hug. Her tears soaked his shoulder as she sobbed with the joy of their sudden rejoining.

  Alli grabbed Bakari’s right hand and pulled them away. With his other hand, he held on to Kharlia and pulled her along with them. He promised himself that he would never let her go again.

  Running through twisted alleyways and streets, Alli held back any attackers with one hand and pulled Bakari and Kharlia along with the other. Overhead, Abylar flew over Corwan with a loud wail, spewing blue fire forth toward the ground, heedless of which fighters he hit—friends or foes.

  “Abylar!” Bakari screamed upward into the sky and in his mind at the same time. “Stop!”

  The dragon had a crazed look in his eyes. As he wobbled in the air, trying to right himself once again, fire sprayed down over the city.

  Dragon Rider! Abylar answered Bakari. What is happening?

  “Bak, who is that?” Kharlia said—her first words since saying his name earlier.

  “My dragon.” Bakari tried to swallow away a sheepish grin.

  “Well, he’s going to kill us.”

  “She’s right, Bak,” Alli said as she continued to direct them to the castle.

  Once there, they ran up the side stairs to the roof to get a better look at the battle. The Mallek elves were fighting valiantly at the riverbanks, pushing back Kanzar’s fighters and lighting their ships on fire with burning arrows. The city’s front gate seemed to be pulsing back and forth between the city’s defenders and Kanzar’s troops. And, looking west, Bakari spotted Azeem’s forces, entering the battle just outside the city. He realized they would indeed push back Kanzar’s troops.

  Then he saw Abylar. The dragon was heading down lower, but then stumbled in the air. Flapping wildly, Abylar tried to right himself, but he wasn’t able to. Through the bond, Bakari felt Abylar’s fear, terror, and loss.

  Bakari tried to comfort the mighty beast, but Abylar was falling faster to the ground than he should have been, and his mind was spinning in frenzy. As Bakari tried to grab a hold of his dragon’s mind, Abylar growled loudly, spitting out a wall of blue fire, and then Abylar fell.

  “Bakari!” Alli screamed above the din. “What is Abylar doing?”

  Bakari shook his head and tried again to gain control. Abylar? Men and women from both sides of the conflict were nearly burned by Abylar’s fire once again and ran screaming down the streets. Abylar! Digging deeper into the dragon’s mind, Bakari pushed through the magic there and took control of the dragon’s mind.

  “Noooo!” Bakari screamed out, feeling the pain within his dragon’s mind. He stood on the edge of the rooftop and grabbed a hold of an iron railing to keep from falling. He could hardly withstand the pain and the loss himself. His vision darkened, but Bakari delved deeper, to the core of control for the young dragon. Pushing aside the despair, momentarily, Bakari forced Abylar’s body to straighten out and fly to himself, on the rooftop of the governor’s castle.

  Bakari hated controlling his friend this way, and the dragon’s mind pushed back against his own. Abylar hit the roof hard, knocking a railing into the street below, while Bakari pulled Kharlia away from the rolling dragon.

  Abylar’s mind fought Bakari’s for control of Abylar’s mind. Finally, Bakari let go, letting Abylar roar again.

  Stay here, Bakari commanded, brooking no disobedience.

  The guardians, Abylar said. The guardians are dying.

  Bakari put his hand on his dragon and jumped fully into their bond: feeling what the dragon felt, but not controlling him anymore. Part of who Abylar was—part of the life force given to him willingly by the guardians when he was in his egg—was being drained away now.

  Then an unexpected lapse in power jolted Abylar’s mind, knocking Bakari to the ground. His head throbbed with pain, and his heart almost burst.

  “No, no, no!” he yelled. “It can’t be.”

  As Kharlia and Alli came to Bakari’s aid, Kharlia kneeled down and put her soft hand on Bakari’s chest and said, “Bakari, what’s wrong?”

  Bakari shook in agony, his mouth open wide and tears pouring down his face. For only a moment, through Abylar’s mind, Bakari had seen it all happen as if he was Erryl. He had seen the knife flying toward himself and hitting himself in the chest.

  The pain! Abylar groaned and rolled over on his side, shaking even the foundations of the building.

  “Bakari!” Alli shook him now, tears in her eyes. “Come back! We need you!”

  Bakari pulled himself back from Erryl’s last moments, but then the dragon lifted his long neck and roared a screeching and painful wail that filled the city with a tone of despair and grief. Fighting stopped on both sides as the wave of pure anguish and sorrow filled the entire city. The magic from the dragon’s pain brought all to their knees.

  “He’s gone,” Bakari wailed with his hands over his ears. “He’s gone and it’s all my fault.”

  Feeling blackness creep into his vision, Bakari laid his head down on Kharlia’s lap.

  “Bak, who’s gone?” Kharlia asked as she stroked Bakari’s hair. Tears ran down and over the side of his face. With slow blinks, Bakari opened his eyes and peered up at Kharlia. Alli was on her knees next to them. “Erryl!” he gasped. “They killed so many guardians, and then they killed Erryl.”

  Alli moved her hand to her mouth and let out a groan. “No, Bak. No, it can’t be.”

  “Who's Erryl?” Kharlia asked, clearly not understanding what was going on.

  Bakari tried to speak, then shook his head, for the words choked in his throat.

  “A brave young man who helped Bakari free the dragon,” Alli offered as a short explanation.

  Bakari sent his mind back to Abylar and tried to comfort his dragon. Then another, faint voice echoed through their thoughts. It was Miriel’s. She shared in Abylar’s pain. She also sent her comfort to her dragon kin, and Bakari felt it. It was amazing for one so young to hold so much power and empathy.

  After a moment, his tears slowed, and then Bakari took a deep breath. Turning back to Alli and Kharlia, he sat up. “Miriel. Abylar and I can feel her,” he said with amazement. “She is so wonderful.”

  “She?” Kharlia said with a tinge of jealousy in her voice.

  “Who is Miriel?” Alli asked.

  Bakari laughed through his tears, putting a hand on Kharlia’s arm. “She’s Breelyn’s dragon.”

  Alli opened her eyes wide. “Another dragon rider?”

  “Dragon rider?” Kharlia spoke. Turning to Bak, she grabbed his hands in hers. “Seems like all I have been doing is asking questions, but what is a dragon ri
der?”

  “He is.” Alli pointed to Bakari. “The first in over one hundred and fifty years. He freed the dragon from the Orb.”

  Kharlia’s eyes lit up, and she wrapped an arm around Bakari.

  “And there will be more,” Bakari said.

  “More what?” someone said, and the three of them turned to see Mericus walking over to join them. “More destruction by this beast?”

  Abylar turned his head and growled at Mericus.

  “Be careful, Judge,” Bakari said.

  “That dragon killed some of our own men down there.” Mericus stood with one hand clenched over the pommel of his sheathed sword. “If you can’t control him, you shouldn’t be here.”

  Alli stood up and walked in slow but even strides toward Mericus. The man stood a good foot taller than she, but he took a step back as he noticed the look on her face.

  “Mericus, don’t threaten the dragon or his rider,” Alli said. “They just suffered a vast blow to their growing power. Some of their guardians were killed.”

  Mericus glanced at Bakari with a confused look on his face. “I don’t know about what you are saying, Alli. All I know is that his dragon went crazy and sent out a wave of terror across the city.”

  “Has the fighting stopped?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Mericus said, holding his lips tight.

  “Then the dragon and its rider did what was needed. No more lives will be lost.”

  Bakari stood now and strode the few steps to Mericus while holding on to Kharlia’s hand. He wanted to never let her hand go again. “These deaths are on your head, Mericus, not ours.”

  Mericus jerked straighter. “What are you saying?”

  “You were one of Kanzar’s fighters. You and Kanzar and maybe even Onius. Any deaths here today are on your heads. If I had my way right now, I would take you captive and try you for your crimes.”

  “You…you can’t…” Mericus said, stumbling on his words.

  Then Abylar stood back up and took a giant step toward the humans. His eyes were full of pain, mirroring Bakari’s own.