by A. J. Walker
“Why has Merglan changed his focus so suddenly?” Ivan asked his mentor Selleya, as they flew alongside the other riders toward Nagano’s border to the east of the Everlight Kingdom.
“The reasons for his sudden change in tactics aren’t fully known to us,” she began. “All we know is that Ormond and Isabella, the two riders tasked with keeping an eye on Merglan’s movements, have announced his change in strategy. They’ve reported that young dragons are being tricked into serving Merglan. He’s convinced them that the human race is evil, aside from himself, and even though they haven’t seen humans for themselves, they’ve decided to join his cause. The younger generations of dragons aren’t wise to Merglan’s deceptions and have been engorging the counsel of their elders, casting the older dragon’s warnings aside and believing Merglan’s deceits. They’ve been siding with Merglan, and in doing so, tensions between the elder dragons and the younger dragons have grown to hostile reactions. Last night, three younger dragons attacked an elder dragon known for speaking out against Merglan and his war. This is the first time in history, that we know of, where dragons have attacked each other without the aid of a bond’s influence on them.”
“What’s our objective?” Ivan asked.
“We’re to meet with Ormond and Isabella near the Nagano border. From there we’ll create a scouting party to fly out and observe Merglan’s gathering. We aren’t sure how many dragons he’s converted, but we need to know in order to decide what actions are necessary for dealing with the threat,” she said.
Ivan and Jazzmaryth flew in silence for the remainder of their flight. Upon their arrival, Ormond and Isabella, the two riders tasked with watching Merglan’s movements, introduced themselves.
“Welcome,” they said, acknowledging the five instructors they’d clearly known prior to this meeting. “For those of you we haven’t met,” Ormond nodded to the nine new riders among them. “I am Ormond, and this is my wife, Isabella.” He motioned to her and she stepped forward.
“Good afternoon,” Isabella greeted them. “You should’ve already been briefed on the situation we are dealing with here,” she began. “Merglan’s aims were largely focused on his conquest of the human nations. As you may know, after his conquest of Southland’s capital, he set out to take over Westland and the Rollo Islands.
“We’ve been aiding in their fight against him, but the enemy is cunning and growing more powerful as time passes. For reasons unclear to us, he’s suddenly turned his focus on the Eastland Territories and the northeastern reaches of Kartania. In the last week alone, he’s acquired the kurr of Eastland to fight for him. This is the first time in history that anyone’s been able to negotiate with them. The kurr forces have attacked Mount Orena and the dwarf kingdom is under siege. Last night Merglan had a ranking elder of the Nagano community attacked by three of his young converted dragons. This has outraged the elder dragons and stirred conversations of a civil war among their race.
“Our job is to see how many dragons Merglan has recruited to his side. We’re on an observation mission only. We are not to engage them in battle unless it’s absolutely necessary for self-preservation.” As she finished, several of the new riders looked to their swords hung at their hips, longing to get a chance to use them.
“Is that understood?” Ormond barked at them.
The two were met with a resounding, “Yes,” from the fourteen riders.
“We’ll leave at dusk. You have some time to prepare,” Ormond said.
During the remaining hours of the day, Ivan and Jazzmaryth went over the spells they’d learned in order to cast a concealment cloak from other sorcerers. Once Ivan was sure they had gotten it right, they worked on fortifying their minds from potential attacks.
When the sun sank low, touching the western horizon, Isabella and Ormond led their flight. The group of dragon riders took to the sky, climbing high over Nagano. The chill of the darkening sky sent shivers down Ivan’s back as they glided silently out over the land of dragons. Several hours passed as they flew toward Merglan’s dragon encampment.
Ivan looked down. He combined his mind with Jazzmaryth’s and, using her keen eyes, they were able to view the dragons below. Prepared for a mental attack, Ivan felt the powerful force of Merglan’s mind searching for them, hunting for a way into one of their minds. Nearly losing his grip on Jazzmaryth, Ivan struggled to keep the sorcerer’s mind from entering his. He looked to the other riders and could see from the expressions on their faces that they were also under attack.
Barring the mental attack, Ivan counted the young dragon army’s numbers to be in the hundreds; far more than he was anticipating.
Looking to his mentor, Selleya motioned with her hand for them to leave. Ivan and his dragon banked to the left and began to follow Selleya away from the place in the sky where Merglan’s mind was trying to break through each one of their mental walls. Feeling the pressure of Merglan’s grip relaxing, he looked back to see two riders still circling over Merglan’s camp. At a closer glance he saw they were descending, flying closer to the dragon encampment.
“Wait,” Ivan shouted and spun his dragon around.
Isabella and Ormond turned to see what was happening. Noticing the two riders spiraling downward, they too directed their dragons back to help.
“Ivan, no!” Selleya shouted, but he and Jazzmaryth were already speeding toward the entranced riders.
Catching up to him quickly, Ormond flew close along his side, “We’ll take on Merglan. You focus on getting your fellow students out of there.”
Ivan nodded and they dived down toward the descending students, caught in Merglan’s mental grip. Ivan could see a dozen young dragons, like Jazzmaryth shooting up toward the sky after them. He focused on blocking his mind from Merglan’s influence and reaching the students in time.
It was Aslorin the elf and Barelign the dwarf. Ivan could tell that Ormond and Isabella were locked in an intense mind battle with Merglan, because he felt the pressure on his own mental walls lessen. He looked to see them twisting and jerking in strange motions as they engaged the powerful sorcerer.
Ivan dived faster, taking the opportunity to catch Aslorin and Barelign. They too seemed to come out to the trance they’d been held in, and upon seeing how low to the ground they were, became frightened. The dozen dragons that had taken flight after them were almost upon them. Ivan had no choice. If he were going to help them escape, we would have to use magic.
The first two dragons streaked toward his fellow students. Ivan released a burst of energy toward them, deflecting their trajectory around Aslorin and Barelign. The two dragons they rode were frantically trying to escape as Ivan flew past them, continuing on downward toward the enemy dragons. Drawing his sword from its sheath, he placed his palm on the blade and spoke the words that would make the blade’s energy extend outward toward the dragons. He sliced through the air with the blade. A bright streak of energy extended from the tip and mimicked the blade’s motion, cutting through five of the young dragons before the others dodged out of its deadly hue.
Opening her wings and pulling up, Jazzmaryth looped back and joined the other two students and their dragons in their escape. Ormond and Isabella remained locked in a mental struggle with Merglan. The seven remaining dragons chased down the three fleeing students. As they caught them, the dragons engaged in dragon-on-dragon aerial combat. Jazzmaryth clawed and bit ferociously against two dragons while Ivan leapt off her back, landing on a third attacker. Slicing with the sharpened edges of his sword, he quickly removed the dragon’s head and leapt off its neck, managing to grab hold of the tail of one of the dragons that was attacking Jazzmaryth.
The dragon attempted to flick him off its tail, but Ivan held on tightly. Unable to remove the latched human, the dragon removed itself from Jazzmaryth, allowing her to defeat the other attacking dragon with a powerful blow, while Ivan faced an irritated dragon with a human clinging to its tail. The dragon swatted at Ivan who slashed and stabbed at the dragon’s claws
with every pass. As the dragon released a primal roar, Ivan could sense the fire building within its chest.
It’s going to roast me.
With a final act of desperation before the dragon expelled its flames down on him, he reached above his head and cut the tip of the dragon’s tail off. As he fell through the air, Ivan felt the flames of the dragon’s breath pushing down on his leather breastplate. His act of desperation had worked; the dragon’s flames licked against his body, but did not engulf him.
Jazzmaryth descended upon the dragon as it released its fire. She dug her hind legs’ claws deep into the skull of the dragon, extinguishing its light and continued on past it as it fell lifeless through the sky. Tucking up under Ivan as he tumbled downward, Jazzmaryth scooped Ivan up as he came to land on her back. Ivan situated himself and she looped back up toward the other dragons.
Aslorin and Barelign each battled two dragons simultaneously. Barelign had managed to cleave one to death with his battle-axe, while Aslorin defended himself from the two dragons. Ivan and Jazzmaryth helped dispatch the remaining foes, and together the three students returned to a safe distance along with the other fleeing riders.
Ormond and Isabella eventually broke the grip of Merglan’s mind and escaped, but not before Merglan was able to read into their thoughts. Later that night, Ivan overheard Ormond saying that their children were no longer safe from his reach.
Back at the eastern border of the Everlight Kingdom, Selleya scolded Ivan for his reckless behavior. “What were you thinking? You could’ve been killed!” she shouted.
“I’m sorry, but Aslorin and Barelign were going to be captured or killed if we did nothing,” Ivan protested.
“Ormond and Isabella were more than capable of retrieving them,” she said. “Do you understand that the young dragon army sees this as an attack on their forces and will likely engage in civil war against the own kind.”
“Did you see how many dragons Merglan had recruited? There were hundreds of them!” Ivan shouted. “They had their minds made up that the war had already started. They tried to kill an elder before we even arrived here!”
“It was strictly an observation mission only!” she urged him.
“Merglan was going to kill them,” Ivan said.
“We were trying to prevent this war from happening, not start it,” Selleya said, dejectedly. She left him before he could say another word.
Later that night, Aslorin and Barelign approached Ivan and thanked him for saving their lives. They told him Merglan tried to extract information from their minds. They’d been able to protect their secrets from him, but had lost control of their bodies while he slowly brought them in. Luckily Ormond and Isabella were able to distract Merglan long enough for them to escape.
Over the next several months, Merglan lead the attack of the young dragon army against the elder dragons. The fighting was grueling and many of the riders fell during the struggle. The only student riders to survive the Dragon Wars were Ivan, Talia, and Barelign. Ty, Freaweny, and Ders also fell in battle, slain by Merglan himself. With the help of Ormond, Isabella, Selleya, and the three students, they drove back the young dragon army, eventually forcing Merglan to flee from Nagano.
During his last encounter with Merglan before he fled, the sorcerer learned of Ivan’s newly born child and threatened to kill the baby before the war was over. After driving him from Nagano, however, Ivan viewed the threat as a desperate act of intimidation by a defeated leader and not as a viable hazard.
Returning home to his wife and four-month-old child, Ivan continued his studies of magic and training with Selleya and Rova. After Merglan vacated Nagano, the younger dragons’ minds, purged of his poisonous influences, realized how insignificant their reasons were to create such a long and bloody war among their race. They settled their differences with the elders peacefully and reformed their alliance with the elves in attempts to rid Kartania of Merglan. Many, however, wouldn’t seek the powerful sorcerer out in battle, because they feared how easily he’d been able to manipulate their minds. Eventually, the dragons largely gave up the fight and viewed themselves as detached from the trifles of humans, elves, and dwarves.
Ivan learned Merglan’s influences even reached the elves, and several of them attempted to assassinate the remaining riders. In one instance they were successful. An elf spy convinced Barelign that his people needed help driving back the kurr army along the Eastland Mountains. Barelign didn’t know that the dwarfs had already driven the kurr army back successfully. Barelign and his dragon flew out to meet his fellow dwarves for battle. Upon seeing his people were safe he began to return to the elf kingdom. Merglan placed airmines on his path. Flying into one, the mine’s explosion knocked him from his dragon. Merglan killed the wounded dwarf rider and his young dragon before he ever reached the elven border.
Word of Barelign’s death shocked Ivan and the remaining riders. Their numbers were dwindling and Merglan’s strength seemed to be growing with each rider’s death. It was in this hour of darkness that Merglan’s forces attacked the elven borders for the first time. King Asmond sent his army along with the remaining riders to defend his kingdom.
Meglan’s orc and kurr armies attacked with great force, but the elves were able to hold them at bay. Merglan had busied himself with hunting down Ormond and his family while the army of orcs and kurrs distracted the other riders. One evening while Ivan and the others were considering calling on the aid of the human armies to defend the Everlight Kingdom, they learned the horrible news. Ormond had been slain. Merglan hunted Ormond’s family down and trapped his wife in a deadly engagement. Ormond saved his wife by sacrificing himself to distract Merglan long enough for her to escape with their two little girls. Upon hearing this news, Rova and Selleya left to meet Isabella in secret. They ordered Ivan to stay behind and take command the elf army.
Ivan called on the aid of his fellow human armies. Just before their arrival, he learned from Selleya that Isabella had died from the wounds she obtained battling Merglan. One of their daughters had gone missing, but the other was safe back in Cedarbridge.
Ivan cursed Merglan for his evil ways and prepared for battle with Merglan’s forces. They’d driven the orc and kurr army all across the borders of the Everlight Kingdom. He’d decided the best place for them to meet the humans would be near the Glacial Melt Bays. Ivan knew Merglan’s navy couldn’t match the force of their human counterparts, the Rollo Islander’s Navy. He knew they could hold the orc and kurr, with the help of the humans, at the bays.
With the help of King Asmond and the three other remaining riders, Ivan led the elven forces to join with the humans near the Glacial Melt Bays.
Chapter Eight
─
Reunion
THEODOR STOOPED HIS HEAD as he rode on horseback through the drizzling rain. He’d received orders to lead his cavalry troop from the Bareback Plains to the border of the Everlight Kingdom and rendezvous with the elven army near the Glacial Melt Bays. Since he’d become a member of the cavalry, Theodor had risen through the ranks of his troop, earning lead commander. After reporting in Kingston at the cavalry’s headquarters, he’d been assigned to a reconnaissance-based division. The four hundred men that composed the division were tasked with carrying out special missions separate from the bulk of the King’s Armed Forces. Often the division was divided into smaller troops, carrying out separate missions and tracking Merglan’s forces throughout the human nations of Kartania. His troop had spent the last several months hunting and killing orc and kurr that still held factions among the vastness of the Bareback Plains.
Since he reported for duty in Kingston, Theodor had spent the last two years stationed in the nation of Westland. The closest he’d been to the elven border was a battle that took place just east of the Sharpstone Mountains, still two or three days’ ride to the Everlight border. Ever since he was a boy, Theodor longed to one day see the Everlight Kingdom. After the battle near the Sharpstones, he could’ve commanded his troop
to a detour and see the mysterious lands of the elves. Theodor was, however, bound in service to the crown, and under oath to place his duty before personal desires. Now that a mission to the elven border had arisen, he relished the chance to make the journey. Though the endless orc and kurr hunts among the plains wore his crew thin, the urgency written in the letter gave Theodor even more incentive to hurry them to the elves’ aid.
When reporting back to the military base just outside Equine—the Bareback Plains’ only city—Theodor received the letter. After his first read through of the letter, he thought the way in which it had been written reminded him of his old friend—Ivan.
No doubt Ivan has risen through the ranks more than I. At the rate he was going, I’d expect he should be in charge of the whole army by now, Theodor speculated before breaking the news to his troop.
Recalling the warning written in the letter that the area they’d be riding into was dangerous, Theodor drew in the reins, bringing his horse to a halt. He could see where the edge of the Bareback Plains meshed with the forested tree line of the Everlight Kingdom. Whoever had written the letter spoke of this area as being overrun with orc and kurr forces. The letter bore no mention of a specific location where they’d meet up with the elves. It had only urged them to come to the border near the Glacial Melt Bays area.
Laying eyes on the elven forests for the first time, Theodor could see that inland from the Glacial Melt Bays grew a thick forest covering the rolling foothills of the Frozentip Mountains. The area was quite expansive. After reading the letter for a second time, Theodor thought that leaving such a vague meeting location was odd, but speculated the exact location had been left out on purpose due to the off chance that Merglan’s forces would intercept the message.
Scanning the plains’ abrupt end before him, Theodor began to worry that an attack might be waiting for them just inside the darkened tree line. The troop lagged behind slowly, following their commander who’d ridden ahead in order to scout out their path. Most likely there would be no ambush, but Theodor didn’t make it this far in the war by just assuming everything would be okay.