“What does Elizabeth have to say?” Hayden asked.
“She has a question for you.” The rider said. He kept having to turn left and right to see Hayden because the horse kept moving.
“She wants to know if you have gotten tired of trying to set our city ablaze, or did you run out of barrels?” The rider laughed and sent his horse galloping as fast as it would carry him back to the gates. The horse was more than happy to comply, anything to get away from the dragons.
“Should we kill him?” One of their guards asked.
“No, he will die soon enough,” Hayden replied dryly.
They moved back to where they had been as the rider made it back to the city. The gate, however, remained shut tight and did not move.
The rider and horse paced around the gate. Hayden could tell the rider was yelling but he could not make out what he was saying.
“It seems our friend is not welcomed back,” Kirin said.
Hayden smiled beneath his helmet as the rider rode around the city, obviously seeing if one of the other gates would let him in.
The rider disappeared around one of the bends of the wall and out of their sight. Hayden turned his focus back on the city and what should be their next move.
A few minutes passed before Draek gave Hayden an update.
No movement on the other sides of the city. Klarack said a lone rider came their way but they took care of him. Draek told him. Hayden didn’t know how to respond to the news, but he knew that Durgen was going to be upset, he wanted to fight first.
“How long until they do something?” Kirin asked.
“It won’t be long. She has shown that her defense is impenetrable, now she will show her strength.” Hayden explained.
“She is probably cheering with her people now, getting them ready,” Hayden said.
“So, we wait?” Kirin asked.
“We wait,” Hayden said. He tried to get comfortable, but he knew there was nothing he could to be relaxed before the fight.
Hours passed with nothing. No other rider brought messages. The gates did not move again, and there was no other sign of life from inside the city.
“The troops are exhausted,” Kirin complained. Hayden knew she was right, but they couldn’t just go back to their tents.
“I know,” Hayden replied.
“We need to do something,” Kirin said. “They have lost any morale we had.”
“What do you think we should do?” Hayden asked.
“I don’t know. There has to be something though, anything.” Kirin said.
Hayden was trying to think of a way to help them, to get their fire back. Anyway they could save the day.
The same, low grinding sound filled the air as the gates began trembling back to life. Hayden watched as the gate opened completely. There would be no lone rider this time.
The streets on the other side of the gate were empty, and there was no sign of movement.
“What are they doing?” Kirin asked. Hayden could feel the shift in the troops behind him. Something was finally happening.
“Now, we see her power,” Hayden said. Something inside of him knew what was about to happen.
After the sound of the gate moving died down, Hayden could hear the echo of the other gates around the city slamming open.
“Prepare to march!” Hayden shouted. He quickly told Draek to make sure word got to all the dragons that they were about to push forward.
“March?” Kirin asked. “Are we marching into the city?”
“No, Elizabeth is about to send her armies out to fight us,” Hayden said. We need to march with them a little. We need to lead them. Hayden told Draek.
Draek nodded and began moving forward. The noise of thousands of footsteps and armor clinking together sounded behind him. Their men and women were tired from standing all day in armor. They were exhausted from anticipating a battle that had yet to come. Elizabeth had done well to tire them.
She didn’t anticipate that they were far more tired of how her nation had treated them all these years. They were exhausted from the day, but they were ready for the fight.
“Hayden, are you sure about this?” Kirin shouted over the noise. Hayden looked to his side and saw one of the Frost Fangs Klarack had picked to lead part of the ground troops.
“Don’t charge until they are all out of the city,” Hayden said. The Frost Fang nodded and kept pace with the other soldiers. Men and women were shouting around them, getting everyone excited and riled up.
I don’t want us too close to the city in case they use war machines they have hidden. If all their troops are out, they won’t fire on their own people. Hayden explained his motives to Draek. He could tell his dragon was wondering why they wouldn’t rush yet.
They had made it almost twenty paces when the gate began expelling out troops.
“Stay in line!” The Frost Fang barked as the troops came into sight. Their numbers kept growing as their lines of soldiers stretched out further and further.
Hayden was confident they had more soldiers but not as many as he would have liked. He also couldn’t help but notice how quickly they fell into place and how all their armor matched. They seemed far more organized then they were. Even the sound of their marching was in unison.
“Prepare to charge!” The Frost Fang yelled as they neared the halfway point in the clearing. The enemy was standing their ground and had not started marching yet, but they seemed to be all out of the city.
“Not yet,” Hayden yelled at the Frost Fang.
“Charge!” The man yelled and took off running. Leading the way like a lone arrow loosed from a tight bow.
Hayden tried to shout and command him to come back, but the soldiers took up the yell and rushed to the enemy that was still a couple hundred paces away.
Hayden was about to have Draek fly in front and stop them from running when they heard another loud, metallic creaking sound. This time it came from the Metallic Pyramid as every door on the pyramid started opening.
Chapter Nineteen
“Oh no,” Kirin said. Hayden was thinking the same thing, but Kirin beat him to it.
Get in the sky! Hayden shouted at Draek. They had been leading the ground troops and were hoping that they could stop them before they rushed into the fight, but it was too late now.
The dragons had joined the battle.
Draek didn’t hesitate and shot into the air, climbing as fast as his wings would allow him. Hayden knew that all around Celestial City their dragons were doing the same thing. They didn’t wait for the doors to fully open, they didn’t even try to watch to see the dragons coming out. They needed to get as many dragons in the air as soon as possible.
Bone Thieves, Frost Fangs, dwarves, elves, Sea Serpents, and one human were taking to the air together for the first time to combat an enemy.
Draek leveled out in the sky, and all their dragons fell in line with them. Hayden could finally turn a watchful eye on the Metallic Pyramid, but nothing more was happening.
Hayden heard a sound he had not been expecting, it was the sound of the giant war machines groaning to life. He looked all over the city, but from his vantage point, he couldn’t see any of the Metallic Nations weapons.
I don’t see them Draek, where are they? He asked. Hayden did not have to explain what it was they were looking for. The noise was unmistakable, and he knew they were all looking for its source. Draek was looking all around, but he stopped when he saw their own catapults and trebuchets moving.
They wouldn’t fire now; we are in the air. Hayden thought. He was about to ask Draek to talk with Farius when the war machines opened fire on the Metallic Pyramid.
Draek pulled his wings and fell out of the sky, narrowly missing one of the flaming boulders that went hissing over his head. Hayden felt the vibrations in the air as the boulder seemed to hum as it flew. Just as before they arched their way into the air until they made a halo above the city.
Draek, tell Rimney to stop them! Hayden shou
ted in his mind. He looked up and saw that most of the projectiles continued on the path, but a few collided with dragons and sent stone remains scattering across the sky.
What do you think I am doing? Draek shouted back. Hayden could feel the frustration in Draek’s voice, but he couldn’t understand what was happening. He couldn’t figure out why they were attacking with their own dragons in the air.
The boulders and barrels of tar slammed into the Metallic Pyramid, setting it ablaze. The flames ripped across the metal shell of the pyramid and added a red glow to the openings on the sides. A few of the stones and flaming barrels seemed to fall into the openings, but most of them simply damaged the landing pads.
Hayden, they are about to fire again. Draek said. Draek was trying to figure out how best to avoid their own weapons. He wasn’t looking at the Metallic Pyramid which is where Hayden was staring. The smoke was quickly getting thicker above the city again, and soon they wouldn’t be able to see or breathe well.
He watched the flames dance and move across the now ash covered sides of the pyramid and he saw another movement. A movement he knew was not the fire.
He watched as several copper dragons unraveled themselves from within the darkness, their shimmering copper scales giving the faintest of glows like the embers of a fire being stoked.
“DRAEK!” Hayden shouted. The copper dragons began slowly moving forward until just their heads were clearly visible through the flames. Their heads seemed to float on their own with their bodies still partially hidden behind the fire.
It was terrifying but more so because they were all looking at him and Draek. We are trying to burn dragons with fire. Hayden said. The point of the war machines was too damage the city, not the dragons.
Dragons are fire. Draek agreed. While a dragon could be burned, it would take a lot more than a few hungry flames to hurt them.
Draek shot back, doubling over himself as he tried to drop to his left to avoid the next volley. After the next barrel went screaming by and Draek righted himself, he was finally able to look over to the Pyramid.
Draek loosed a roar that echoed across all the armies and Celestial City.
Draek’s roar was not out of fear, it was not out of anger. This roar was loud enough for all to hear and caused almost all eyes to look up at him. This roar was a challenge.
“Get them!” Hayden shouted as Draek challenged all things flying and walking to come and fight. The dragons in the Metallic Pyramid lunged into the sky and flew at Draek, happy to meet his challenge. Their wing beats sent the fires around them dancing as they took flight. Embers flew in the air and seemed to trail behind the flying dragons, almost as if they wanted to be part of the fight.
Draek pulled in his wings and began the angled dive to meet them in the air. Hayden reached behind him and pulled out his sword that was hissing with heat. Smoke trailed off his blade as he pointed it at the dragons rushing to meet them.
All fear and nervousness had left him. He was not scared of the unknown because there was no longer an unknown. The fight was here, and the time had come. Hayden pointed his sword at the nearest copper dragon and screamed a war cry that he felt he had kept buried inside for too long.
He blinked and saw Fendrel smiling at him, telling him to wake up, that it was time to get a move on if they wanted to make it to Celestial City before they chose the new riders. He opened his eyes, and the copper dragons were closer now.
He blinked again, and this time he was in Fendrel’s home with Cass and Shane, and they were laughing at one of Fendrel’s jokes. There was so much joy and life in the old man’s eyes.
He opened his eyes again, and he could almost see the rider of the first copper dragon clearly. His sword never failing or wavering. Draek pulled his wings a little closer and went even faster. Hayden felt tears being pulled from his eyes and streaming to the back of his helmet.
One more blink sent him rushing through all that he, Cass, and Shane had been through. He saw all the late-night conversations, the fights, the hugs. He saw the kiss with Cass on the Ice Keep. He saw the pain in Shane’s eyes as he left them to come back to Celestial City.
He saw the moment he learned that Cass had left him as well. He opened his eyes, and instead of seeing the copper dragons he saw Erskine burning all around him. His home, his friends, Rob, and Marge.
Through the light of the fire, he saw his own reflection. But he did not see himself as a child or even as the man he had become. He saw a warrior in silver with a flaming sword and a dragon upon his head.
He screamed again and saw the copper rider holding onto his dragon’s saddle, fear seeping off of him as their dragons neared. The rider wasn’t carrying a weapon, and their shield was rattling behind them, strapped to the saddle.
Hayden and Draek were not afraid of the small copper dragon. They were ready, they were eager, they wanted this. Draek opened his wings, as did every dragon that had flown in behind them, and together they slammed into the dragons.
Draek spun upside down in the air, flying over the copper dragon’s back. Hayden was able to cut at the first copper rider. The rider raised his dragonaut covered hands to block the blade, but even his shield wouldn’t have been enough to stop him. Hayden cut clear through, and the first of the enemy’s stone dragons fell to the ground below.
Dragons slammed into each other, and the next volley of projectiles flew into the air. Wings flapped as bodies collided with the sound of thunder. Some blew fire, or ice while others slashed and bit at anything that moved. Riders hacked away with weapons or sent arrows hungrily seeking targets.
Chaos and fire engulfed the sky.
~
“Sir, the scouts are saying that there is movement at the Metallic Pyramid.” One of the soldiers wearing leather armor said as he ran up to where the three commanders of the war machines stood.
“We need to prepare for the next volley, have the men load the machines. Now!” Kurt, one of the commanders, shouted. He was the only human of the three, the other two being Sea Serpents that worked on Rimney Sky’s ship.
“We need to wait for orders from Captain Rimney.” One of the Sea Serpents replied, looking to the other for support.
Kurt couldn’t remember their names, and he wasn’t about to start trying now.
“If we load up now than when Rimney gives the order, we will be ahead,” Kurt said. He tried to sound convincing, but he was growing impatient. These two were ship hands, not leaders, and it showed. They couldn’t make a decision, and all they wanted to do was follow Rimney’s orders.
“But, Captain Rimney told us to wait.” The other Sea Serpent said.
“Sir, the Metallic Pyramid is opening, their dragons are going to be coming out soon.” Another messenger shouted as they tried to make their way up the hill to them. This messenger’s fear quickly caught on the men and women working the war machines around them.
Kurt could even see a speck of fear in the two Sea Serpents eyes. They all knew that they were ants in a war of giants. The dragons were the real ones fighting.
“Load the machines. Now!” Kurt barked. They sent the signal out around the army so that all the war machines would be loaded at the same time.
“But, Captain Rimney.” One of the Sea Serpents started. Kurt cut him off.
“There goes your captain.” He said as he pointed out Rimney and her cursed blue dragon leapt into the air and flew away to chase the silver rider with the false human. Or at least Kurt thought he was false because no human in his right mind would try to help the other races of Arvain over their own kind.
“And the rest of your dragons too.” Kurt watched them all fly into the air as the sky became crowded with dragons of all colors and sizes.
Some of the troops around them cheered as the dragons flew overhead. Kurt didn’t care about them, any of them.
If there were no dragons in Arvain, then man would rule the land, and that’s the way it should be.
“Prepare to fire!” Kurt shouted. The war machin
es creaked and groaned to life as ropes were pulled and levers worked.
“What are you doing? You can’t fire now.” One of the Sea Serpents shouted. “You could hit some of our dragons.”
“I might, but I will hit a lot of theirs.” He replied snidely. “Light the fires!” He ordered. It wasn’t as spectacular as the first time they had lit the boulders and barrels, but he smiled none the less.
“Good riddance to you all.” He said, looking at the Metallic Pyramid first and then allowing his sight to fall on the giant silver dragon leading the charge in the air.
“Fire!” At his command, the war machines launched their flaming projectiles into the sky and right at their own dragons.
“No, you must stop!” The Sea Serpents yelled. Rimney had put the three of them in charge. The two Sea Serpents because of their expertise with the massive war machines and because they could listen to orders. She picked Kurt because a large portion of the men and women they were using were humans and he was a natural leader.
One of the Sea Serpents lunged at Kurt just as the projectiles cut through a few of their dragons and slammed into the Metallic Pyramid. The pyramid went up in flames as the cheers grew louder around them. Everyone had forgotten about their own dragons they hit, almost everyone.
Kurt tried to duck from the Sea Serpent but wasn’t fast enough. A fist collided with his nose while pain shot through his side as a stab from the retched Sea Serpent’s dagger found its mark.
A group of humans that had been with them saw what happened and fell upon the two Sea Serpents, wrestling them to the ground and disarming them. Someone broke free from the commotion to check on Kurt and help stop the bleeding from his side.
Kurt was hurt, but he would survive. All eyes fell on him as the attackers were subdued. Everyone around them had seen their own leader attacked by would be friends. It was the worst and best thing that could have happened to him at that moment.
He stood up, blood dripping from his face and side as he tried to slow the bleeding from his stab wound. Rags and shirts quickly soaking up the red blood, it wasn’t life-threatening, but it hurt.
The Fire Within Page 17
