by Marc Secchia
“On your back!” she gasped, even as Jakani rose onto his hind legs, turning to dive into the pit.
“Can you fit?”
“Now’s when you choose to argue, you thick-brained lizard?” snarled the prize in his paw.
Jakani was too busy making sure they didn’t get eaten alive, to care. “Fine!” he snapped, slapping her ineptly against his shoulder. Gaah, his sternum ached … “Find a spot and cling tight. We have to protect that lot.”
His fore-talon waved generally at their slew of comatose allies. Not a great deal of aid incoming.
Her throaty chuckle near his ear canals caused a shiver to run down his spine. “Alright. You protect the sleepers. I’ll protect you.”
“How?”
“Like this!”
* * * *
Tytiana knew she would always wonder how this incredible inspiration struck. Jakani’s order to cling tightly to him. The realisation that she could not fit between his spine-spikes to take a seat, without impaling herself. A desperate need to do more; to be more. To not be the worthless daughter she clearly was in her ex-father’s sight. To embody the very protective love that surged in billows of melancholy rage within her as she realised that what they had just declared for each other might last but a fleeting moment this side of eternity.
She was not losing him again.
Flame enwrapped the Dragon. She flowed along his spine and poured down his lean, muscled flanks. She caressed his scales and whispered along his wings. Up over his skull, encasing his jaunty ruff of skull-spikes, she breathed in the bold, brassy scent of a young male Dragon. She didn’t need to ride her Dragon when she could be this close. No danger of falling off because of her missing lower leg. Stretching downward, she safeguarded his strong chest and stone-muscled belly with her fire. Intimate as thought itself. Rippling now with readiness as he briefly touched their fallen allies – or erstwhile captors – before he turned to face the wave of bodies pouring over the rim of the pit. Jakani sank into his ready stance.
Then, the peal of his thunder was, FRA’ANIOR!!
From his throat rose a song like a volcano’s bubbling laughter. The Onyx-Gold flared incandescent as they leaped to meet the incoming avalanche, together.
Tytiana felt her being stretching in the unfamiliar patterns of the dance she had once accused Jakani of; the spinning, swirling, flowing art that she now recognised as battle-craft, and he struck out with talon and fang, wingtip and tail, and even the hooks upon his wings became weapons. Everything they touched, they burned. His fluttering wings cut like knives, edged with the white-gold of her fires; the white of her fury and the gold of her love somehow intertwined. His breathing came in sharp spurts. Dragon hearts thundering in his chest, describing the rhythm of her own fire-life. They were struck and wounded, torn and bitten more times than she could count, but her healing magic drew deep and somehow in this new togetherness, its immediate effects and endurance seemed multiplied. Meantime his paws struck out to all sides, leaving a trail of blazing wounds in their wake, yet inexorably, by sheer tonnage and determination and numbers, they were driven back toward Adazara’s flank, where the Teal Dragoness lay slumped atop Excorion.
Jakani somersaulted over Flicker to divert an attack aimed at the fallen Princess, but at the cost of a grievous blow that jarred right to the bone of the upper right shoulder. Stretch over him! Draw the wound closed; pour relief in to muscles already tiring due to the inordinate demands placed upon them both! The assault was relentless. The Onyx-Gold shuddered beneath a bite that shovelled his entire head and upper torso down a Blue Dragon’s throat, and for the first time his fire billowed forth, spurting down the ridged inside of a throat and gullet in waves of gold-chased crimson – and Tytiana wondered how under the suns she was seeing anything in this form, and was his fire somehow onyx as well?
The Dragon who had tried to swallow them, convulsed and fell away in a smoking heap.
As the pit turned into a charnel-house, the stench of scorched flesh pervaded all. Again and again the incensed pirates tried to pin them down, but every time a talon touched or a jaw champed, there was a ghastly crackle of her flame that even leaped across gaps now, spitting and spurting and flailing like a living thing. At one point Jakani was buried beneath a pile of bodies, only for their combined heat to burn right through a Dragon’s tail and up into the body above them. The howling and bellowing of injured Dragons filled the cavern, reverberating back and forth above the bedlam of battle.
Strange how tides turned. Even in the furious clash of battle, there was a moment almost like a collective inhalation, when even the most aggressive, fire-crazed creatures had an inkling of mortality, and perhaps took stock of the carnage they beheld all around. When they saw a double-fire Dragon rising, shaking ashes off his blazing back to leap once again upon a beast three times his size and burn patches of scales right off of her, exposing the gleaming blue bones of a ribcage – that was when they took stock, and perhaps wondered if all the treasure in the Island-World were worth this price.
Suddenly it was Jakani, stuttering and stumbling, who was driving the pirate Dragons backward, his full-throated bellowing crackling about the cave like thunder.
Tytiana yelled, “Excorion! Come on, wake up!”
The huge Brown was stirring, blinking, then suddenly squirming and trying to throw Adazara off of him. That woke the Teal. In a fury!
“Enemy!” she roared, snapping at his left hind paw.
“Get off me, you slack-jawed fool!” came the inevitable response. Excorion shoved her away.
To her own shock, Tytiana formed her fires into a rumbling roar as she yelled, “You’re allies! Now start fighting!”
Two pairs of fire-eyes gawped at her, perhaps because crimson-gold flame was speaking from the region of Jakani’s upper hindquarters, or maybe the Dragons were more dazed than they had thought. Above the pit and around its edges the pirate Dragons massed, licking their wounds, eyeing the purported victims with hungry and confused eyes.
Adazara squirmed to her feet. Princess! Princess, wake up!
Tytiana felt that! Startlement rippled through her fires, causing Jakani’s entire body to pulsate visibly; the crimson-gold radiance lit the faces of the watching Dragons as if a bonfire had flared up. They baulked collectively. Much muttering and discomfited wing-ruffling afflicted the pirates. Meantime, prodded or perhaps aided by Adazara’s adroit mental touch, the Immadian Dragoness and her mysterious cohort also squirmed to their paws.
For her part, the sensation was as if something unlocked within her mind; had Adazara’s touch changed her, too? Suddenly some of the sounds began to resolve in her awareness as speech, and she became conscious of a mental babble like a great crowd speaking all at once. The Dragons? What was this?
Excorion touched Adazara with his wingtip. Allies?
For now, said she.
We were both duped by that festering Dramagon’s-lackey, he added. What manner of magic so twists and debases a Dragon’s true fires?
Adazara hissed fire between her fangs. Bitter the aftertaste of betrayal!
The Princess said, Save your rancour for that lot. We’re about to get overrun, if I’m not mistaken.
She was right. Despite the many injured, well over a hundred enemy Dragons still surrounded the pit and many of them were smarting – badly. The notes of their sonorous growls deepened and increased in volume, filling the cavern with a sound like an incipient earthquake. Aggressive. Inflaming. Heightening of rage and malice, inciting one another on as if by standing shoulder to shoulder, the crowding Dragons drew together into a single, savage organism. They began to bell out their battle-roars, beast after beast after beast, until she could barely hear herself think.
Jakani? she said.
I’m alright. Sort of. About to keel over, he admitted at last. His chest and ribcage ached abominably. Any – hey! You’re speaking Dragonish too?
Ummm … she chuckled softly. Now there’s a droll outcome.
; Despite the thundering, when the white dragonet turned to the Princess to speak, she heard his voice as clear as a bell. Say, sparkly-lips, I have a most excellent idea! Shall we break the power of these pirate cabals – forever?
AYE!! Tytiana thundered, and her fires exploded toward the cavern roof. Huh? Was that me? What’s going on?
You’re a Dragoness, Jakani laughed. Tytiana the Radiant, in the flesh!
* * * *
Flicker made a circling gesture of his paw. Jakani plus the extra … phenomenon … you’re wearing, would you care to hold them all off for a moment whilst Shalanya and I make some arrangements over here?
Hold off a paltry hundred Dragons? No problem, he returned wryly.
What of me? Excorion asked suspiciously.
You’re coming with us. We’ll need your especial expertise, and yours likewise, Adazara the Teal, the dragonet stated flatly.
We’re taking orders from dragonets now? Adazara sniffed incredulously.
Flicker drew himself up. Silence, whippersnapper! I am none other than the famous Flicker, and tales of my mighty deeds do fill many a scroll –
Flicker who? she asked.
Companion to Hualiama Dragonfriend, that’s who! At the speed of thought, this mental exchange took a mere fraction of a second. Adazara narrowed her eyes. Flicker said, Want to stay alive? Listen to me. Jakani! Hop it!
Hop it? Well then. Extending his wings, he took off inexpertly, slewing toward a few of the pirate Dragons clustered together at the side of the pit nearest the ablutions area. They held their ground, but he noticed not one paw rose to try to stop him. Ha. Apparently they valued their hides.
He flicked his wings dismissively. So, who wants to be the first to die?
Scary insults, Tytiana whispered in his mind.
True.
Skimming around in an inept and lopsided circle, he flew as close to the array of muzzles and bared fangs as he dared. This could be bad. If they decided to just shoot him and Tytiana down, he was not sure they would survive.
Suddenly, he felt a shiver in his bones. Then, Flicker cried from outside the cavern, Jakani, the portal, now!
Whirling at once, he dived without looking toward where he knew it must be. Gone! All four of their companions had vanished, leaving only a puff of pink sparkle-magic produced by Shalanya, and he and Tytiana were mere feet away when a massive, lava-infused fireball detonated against his flank and smashed them sideways. They missed the dissipating magic by a paw’s width. Skidding along in a shower of sparks thrown up by his hide and spine-spikes, they smashed through the ablutions partition and sizzled against the paws of a Morazi Brown.
“Suffering caroli!” he groaned.
The Brown reared, and stamped. Roll! Rock shovelled him sideways as the Brown tore up the cavern floor in his rage; dimly, close by, he heard a different commotion – was that at the doorway to the cavern? Still rolling, he flicked upward to avoid a barely-seen bolt of lightning, but a sharp pain scored deep across his belly. What were their allies doing? Where were they?
Shalanya – can’t hold much longer …
The Princess cried in his mind, The door! Quick! And whatever you do, don’t hit my sparkle-trail!
Go, Jakani! Tytiana cried.
Dragons swarmed toward him from every quarter, even hacking at each other in a bid to reach the flying Onyx-Gold, and he heard Tytiana cry out in pain rather than fury, but he held on, barrel-rolling and jinking and dodging with every instinct at his disposal. Fireballs whistled past. One detonated against his throat, another spun him about as he tried for the doorway. Again! Fight harder! Three times he angled for the door and was rebuffed or dragged down, and by the time he gathered himself for a fourth attempt, he saw Shalanya’s pink mist spraying into the cavern in a long, thin stream, and he roused himself to a last, despairing effort. Pumping his wings hard, he rebounded off two clashing Reds as they tried to grab him, slapped one in the face with a flaming wing, and then shot upward to run along the ceiling, using his wings for balance and his lithe reactions to avoid several chasing fireballs. Unholy caroli, those Reds could spout fire like living volcanoes, and the flaming noose that slipped over his neck now was another matter altogether. He cut it loose frantically with his talons, slicing his own flesh in the process.
Tytiana was guttering. Rallying. Come on, Jakani! Faster! she cried. Flinging herself in the way of a raking orange paw. They dropped dangerously, but she flicked out ethereal wings to stabilise the flight as he corkscrewed up and over that long stream of shimmering pink, past Excorion’s startled muzzle, over Adazara crouching next to Shalanya as they worked together to direct her special magic inside the cavern, and landed in a heap behind them all, right where the narrow cavern entrance let in the starlight. Three pirate Dragons lay here, unmoving.
Good boy, Flicker growled. Boy? Ha ha. Take this and guard it with your life.
Jakani caught the egg with a gasp of surprise. He swung about. Excorion was closing the entrance by degrees, rumbling low in his chest as he manipulated the grey rock portals. Trapping the pirates! Wow, now there was a tactic … except one could not bury a live Brown, could they?
The dragonet stalked up to Shalanya, clearly livid. Right, Princess. Ready to receive my mental image?
Aye.
Now he understood!
Beyond them, through the narrowing entrance, he saw the pirates charging them; a few were laughing cruelly, clearly having worked out that the Albino Shapeshifter’s unique power apparently could do no harm. He begged to differ. Suddenly the thundering of Dragons was being cut off mid-bellow; roars of disbelief resounded from those further back as the cavern filled steadily and Dragon, he saw in his mind’s eye, vanished into thin air. Shalanya groaned and slumped onto her belly, but Adazara, Excorion and Flicker were all around her, lending their strength to the effort. She gritted her fangs and held on.
More wind, the dragonet ordered.
Adazara gestured with her paw. Jakani could see that she was just as exhausted as he. Did wielding magic cost that much?
A minute later, there was silence inside the cavern.
Dead silence.
Shalanya sighed softly. A terrible but necessary deed, Flicker. I never – she sobbed softly – I hate my power. I never want to use it like that again.
Peace, he said, touching her cheek near her left eye most tenderly. It was my decision. I sorrow with thee at this loss of fire-life. Three cabals have been destroyed, and this is a great and worthy deed. A mighty good has been done.
At what cost? The Princess seemed stricken.
Jakani felt Tytiana sliding off his scales. A different kind of loss. He understood Shalanya, but had no words to express his feelings. He said, Where did you send them, Flicker?
“Send them?” his girl asked, clutching his wing for support. Wow. She had reformed herself into Human guise. She was nude – gloriously so. Oh dear. Don’t look!
He had never been very good at not looking. In fact, he was terrible at it. One lingering glance …
Tytiana elbowed him sharply. “Dirt Picker!”
“Temptress,” he snorted.
“You could try to peel your eyes off me, Mister Lecherous Dragon.”
“O Choice Tytiana, I am but a weak-willed mortal.”
“You two are so cute together,” Shalanya said, twizzling her neck to kiss Jakani’s knee. “Nice work rescuing your girl, noble Jakani – and might I be the first to say what a fine catch you have made? So, Shapeshifter Tytiana –”
“Shapeshifter? As if!” Her glare at Shalanya threatened imminent destruction. Most probably that was due to the kiss.
Flicker hustled his way between them. “Tytiana – Shapeshifter, Choice of the House, potential royal of Immadia – whatever you think you are or are not, please shut your immoderately pretty mouth before it fills with flies.” Jakani had never quite seen Tytiana silenced like that before. “Let me explain. I despatched the pirate cabals to a delightful location I first visited many years
ago. It’s deep in Herimor, and it’s called the Suald-dak-Doon, the scene of one of Aranya’s great triumphs. Basically, it’s a bottomless pit beneath the Cloudlands, which I felt would be a perfect resting place for the bones of murderous pirates.” He pretended to dust his paws. “So done. Deposited seven leagues deep. Any complaints?”
Jakani let out a slow breath. Wow. Justice served Dragon-swift.
Excorion said, “Aye, I have one complaint, noble Flicker. Juzzakarr is getting away.”
Turning along with the rest of them to gaze out into the night, Adazara narrowed her eyes. “Wrong, noble Brown. I do believe he’s readying the Helyon fleet to come back and attack us. Not a man to give up easily, or that stone is driving him past the point of reason.”
“I can’t lift a paw,” Shalanya groaned. “Jakani, you’re bleeding everywhere, and Tytiana –”
“Oh. So I am.”
Flicker said, “Have your Specialists check the cavern for survivors but be sure only to use the pipe-scopes, Shalanya. Alert our Dragonships. Adazara, do you think that between Shalanya, you and I, we can combat the influence of that stone?”
“Aye,” she nodded slowly. “Maybe.”
Shalanya said, “One thing’s for sure, I can’t shift anyone anywhere else today. I’m depleted.”
“You are woefully unfit,” Flicker growled. “I’ve been lax in your training. Jakani, don’t you dare try to transform back to Human form until you’re bleeding less. It’s dangerous; I’ll explain later. Tytiana. Can you walk? Or will you ride, rather? With Shalanya.”
Tap-tap-tap, went the egg.
The large dragonet’s eyes whirled with curiosity. “Well, someone over here refuses to be left out of this battle. What shall we do with you, my darling eggling? Throw you at Juzzakarr? Ouch!”
“What was that?” asked Jakani.
“Apparently, she has mastered the psychic slap. Typical fem – ow! Honestly?”
Chapter 27: A Dragon’s Revenge
WHAT BOTANIST HAD ever imagined dragging herself into battle in this kind of shape? Tytiana barely had strength left to haul herself up onto the Princess’ back. Never mind that she actually had to ride Miss Sparkles. She would much rather be kicking her past the ninth day of the week! Kissing Jakani. The incredible nerve of this entitled royal brat!
