by Hans Bezdek
I heard another dragon crash down further away as I shook my head. She had been with Ulrich before even Cassandra and I got involved. Talk about planning ahead with your plot to take over the world. I guessed that wasn't something you should rush into.
"B-But we worked and traveled together for months!" said Laurinaitis, apparently having problems processing the betrayal. "I thought... I thought we had grown close!"
Varinia looked disgusted. "You've no idea how horrible it is having to spend so much time with someone like you. To top it all off, you hardly had any actual value! I could barely give the Dar'Ka anything they didn't already know."
Laurinaitis looked truly hurt. "But I'm one of the key Councilors!"
"So you think," she said, rolling her eyes. "Everyone is kind to you because of your father, which puts you in a higher position than you ever deserved, but no one tells you anything that actually matters. You're so conceited that you haven't even noticed. You're a joke that isn't funny."
"Now you're just being hurtful..." I mumbled.
"Ah, there it is," sneered Varinia. "Always having to make everything light when things get too real or difficult."
Yeesh, hadn't she already done enough by betraying the Collective? No reason to rub salt in the wounds with character assassinations.
"This still doesn't make sense," said Laurinaitis, shaking his head. "You've actually helped Reimar and his friends. Not only did you convince the Council to prepare for war, but you've been instrumental in planning this battle."
"Of course she would," I sighed.
Laurinaitis turned back to me. "What are you talking about?"
I had to give it to her. She had really tricked us by being so helpful, when in reality it was all for the battle going on over our heads.
"If Ulrich wants to rule all of Yaerna, obviously there would be forces working against him," I explained. "By making sure she was in on the planning, not only was she able to notify the Dar'Ka about when and where we would prepare our defenses, but she would have almost complete control in spreading out our forces."
Laurinaitis gasped and turned back to Varinia. "You're not saying this is all part of her plan!"
"I'm so looking forward to not having to hear your stupid and slow realizations anymore," sighed Varinia.
"The strength of our dragons were split in half," I continued. "By having only half of them down here, she was able to have the black and reds come and fight with their full force. What might've been a tough fight suddenly becomes incredibly easy."
"I can see why Ulrich initially wanted to work with you," said Varinia. "Not only do you fight well, but you've got a mind for this sort of thing. Even if you are a little chatty."
"Y... You're the chatty one," I mumbled.
"Good one."
"Do you really think Ulrich is what's best for the black and reds?" I asked, seeing if there was some way I could try and turn her against him the way I turned the two dragons chasing me. "Or are you just helping him because of some bond you have?"
"That's not it at all," she shrugged. "He's got Ludek's Crown, as you've said. All good black and red dragons should follow him until their deaths. I won't pretend that he's going to be flawless in ruling, but I can assure you he's the best that we've got at fulfilling all of the Dar'Ka prophecies."
I sighed and shook my head. She was just as crazy as Ulrich. It sounded like turning her was out of the question.
Two more dragons crashed near us, causing trees fairly close to us to come down as well. Varinia gave the trees and annoyed look then shifted her attention back to us.
"It seems that time is running out," she said. "I was hoping to keep this facade up a little longer, and perhaps I still can."
"Yeah, right," I laughed. "We're obviously going to tell everyone."
Varinia's smile expanded as dark scales grew across her body. "Not if you're dead."
Not content to wait around for her to finish her transformation and kill us, I came up with a quick and possibly flawed plan.
"Leaving time!" I shouted as I grabbed Laurinaitis. Kicking up, I shot into the sky again toward the fighting dragons.
"W-What are you doing?!" screamed Laurinaitis.
"We've gotta get out of here before she gets a chance to catch us!" I said, passing by brawling dragons as quickly as I could. "Your job is to shout for our dragons to retreat while I do my best to keep us alive!"
I heard the gold dragon mumbled something under his breath, but a few seconds later came his comforting cries of "Everyone run! We're all going to die! Flee for your lives!"
Flying through the battle had a few positives. It let the remaining gold and silvers hear their fearless leader giving them orders to retreat, which would hopefully save a few of them. It also let us get some cover as we tried to escape Varinia. We were bound to be harder to track this way than if we stuck flying through the forest.
One slight con, however, was all the black and red dragons that suddenly had us in their crosshairs. I risked a glance back when we were a little over halfway through the mass to see five of them flapping hard after us. Doing my best to lose them while still moving towards the north, I bobbed and weaved past dragons of all colors. Seeing their leader being followed, a few loyal gold and silvers broke away from who they were fighting with to pounce on the ones trailing us.
We broke out of the large cloud of dragons and continued toward Vorova, flying as fast as I had ever gone before.
"Run!" croaked Laurinaitis. "Run for your lives!"
"Okay, you can stop now!" I shouted at him. "We're way out of range and I'm pretty sure the whole battlefield heard!"
I dug around in my pocket, pulling out Dhot's black communicator box.
"My whole life has been a lie," said Laurinaitis, quite dramatically. "I've been a fool to give everything I know to Varinia."
"Can you shut up for a minute?" I asked, clicking the button. "Hello? Dhot? Can you hear me?"
"Reimar!" came a crackly version of the goblin's voice. "You've only been gone a few hours and you already miss us? Maha!"
"Something like that," I said, glancing behind me. I could see nearly a dozen dragons flying after us, but I couldn't make out their color. "Have the Greeners attacked again?"
"No sign of them so far," he replied. "I'm getting a lot of wind on your end. Are you flying?"
"Listen, Dhot," I said, focusing on the city of Vorova up ahead. "This has been a trap. Varinia was a black dragon all along."
There was silence for a moment.
"Dhot?" I asked, clicking the button again. "Dhot, did I lose you?"
"Sorry, Reimar," came Cassandra's voice this time. "It must be the wind, because we could've sworn you just said Varinia was a black dragon."
"You heard him right!" shouted Laurinaitis.
"She's tricked us from the beginning," I said. "She was working with Ulrich from before we even met. This was a trap, and the Dar'Ka have wiped out the southern dragons."
There was some rustling on the other end.
"Reimar, this is Braun!" came the dwarf's voice. "Should we evacuate the city?"
"I don't see any other option," I sighed, shaking my head. "The Dar'Ka know everything we've planned up to this point. We're playing into their hands if we stay."
"There's no time to do an evacuation," said Cassandra. "The Dar'Ka won't let us retreat now. We'd lose hundreds of soldiers."
"She's probably right," said the gold dragon. "Although the two of us could just keep flying to safety..."
I let out a frustrated roar as Laurinaitis adjusted and nudged my wound. Even if my group led everyone out as quickly as they could, there's no way the caravan would be able to escape the black and reds. That would mean a huge loss of life, plus we'd lose Vorova and effectively all of Truska. They couldn't do that. Their best bet for survival not just that day, but in the future, was to fight within the walls of the city.
"I guess our hands our tied," I said.
"So we're sticking with t
he plan that we've got?" asked Cassandra.
"Unfortunately. I should be back in Vorova shortly with Laurinaitis," I said, glancing back again at the dragons following me. They were much closer this time. I could see the setting sun reflecting off of their gold and silver scales, making me feel slightly better. "I've got a dozen or so survivors with me. We'll have to make our stand in the city."
Laurinaitis groaned.
Chapter 14
I touched down in Vorova to a not-so-warm welcome. Around thirty humans quickly circled around me with their weapons out.
"Put him down!" shouted one of the women, her bow stretched back.
I unceremoniously dropped Laurinaitis. The gold dragon made a surprised yelp then used my leg to help himself stand up. The soldiers waved at him to quickly come join them, but he shook his head.
"Lower your weapons!" he demanded. "He's on our side!"
The humans looked uncomfortable with this, but being told a direct command they didn't have much choice. They sheathed their blades and loosened their bows.
"Reimar!" came Cassandra's voice. I looked to my right to see my friends pushing through the crowd.
"Yer injured!" noted Braun, rushing up to my side and holding his hands out. "Lemme take care of that."
"I won't fight you on it," I smirked. "Has there been any movement on the Dar'Ka's part since we last talked?"
"Not from what we've seen," said Cassandra, shaking her head.
"Although no one in this town knew the Greeners were coming last time until they knocked on our door," pointed out Beatrix. "I offered to summon some gargoyles to act as sentries, but we were worried it would freak out the soldiers too much."
"Probably for the best," I nodded.
As the dwarf finished healing me, he went to heal Laurinaitis' face and I transformed back into my human form. There was no point in spooking the rest of the city and constantly having to explain who I was. The soldiers backed up as I finished.
"Now you back away?" I asked, shaking my head. "What, do you think I'm scarier as a human?"
Then ten gold and silver dragons touched down in the newly opened space.
"Oh. Nevermind."
Each of the dragons were bleeding, several of them nursing an arm or a wing. Laurinaitis hurried up to them, examining their wounds.
"What happened back there?" asked a silver dragon. "It was like they knew where to look!"
"We were betrayed," said Laurinaitis, looking greatly pained.
"By who?" asked a gold dragon. "Was it one of the people in Vorova?"
"Varinia," I said. "She's actually a black dragon."
The surviving dragons all looked astonished, looking to their leader to see if I spoke the truth. Laurinaitis nodded, not meeting their eyes. These dragons had likely worked alongside Varinia for many months and had trusted her as much as any of the others. That didn't mean much when it came to political maneuvering, of course, but for war? They were supposed to stand strong together.
"I can help ye," said Braun, moving over to one of the gold dragons. "Gettin a bit tired, but I should have enough to fix anything too serious. How many more of ya are comin?"
"None," said the original silver dragon. "We were the only ones who were able to escape in time. There were a few others that initially broke away, but they were too injured to out run the Dar'Ka. We were lucky to escape at all."
The mood turned somber. We had lost practically half of our dragon forces, as well as the element of surprise. Not that it ever really existed. All of our plans were known by the enemy, and for all we knew we were surrounded. There was nowhere for us to run to. The only thing left was to wait, and hope.
"I'd like to talk with the Vorovan leaders," I said to my friends. "Laurinaitis should come, too."
"About that..." said Cassandra, glancing away and itching the side of her cheek. "I'm afraid we've got some more bad news."
"You've got to be joking," I sighed, running a hand over my face. "What now?"
"The only Vorovan leader left is Nicole," said Beatrix.
"I thought you all said you weren't attacked again?!"
"We weren't," said Dhot. "When we told them that Varinia had been a black dragon all along, the other three excused themselves. When they didn't come back after a few minutes, we found out that they were spotted running away to the north. Maha! Can you believe it?"
"Unfortunately, I can," I nodded. Those three weren't going to amount to much in the upcoming battle, but I figured having some sort of presence would help the Vorovans fight harder. This could have been a blessing in disguise, though. It was also likely that they would've run away when the fighting got rough, which could've hurt morale even more. "Let's go talk to Nicole and her Red Rattlesnakes."
"Gray Adders," said Beatrix and Cassandra.
"Whatever."
We left Braun to his healing duties and walked to the eastern part of the city. Since the Dar'Ka would likely attack there first, Nicole had decided to take over one of the abandoned buildings on that side of town. With Laurinaitis dragging his feet, it took some time to cover any distance.
There were plenty of soldiers stationed around the walls of the city. There was hardly a section that wasn’t being watched over by someone, as opposed to before The Republic arrived. I couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t just humans manning these posts, but quite a few dwarves, as well. Vorova surely had a decent dwarven population, but we saw a number of sections of the wall that had nothing but them.
“I don’t remember seeing so many dwarves before I left,” I mumbled.
“What do you have against dwarves?” asked Beatrix, giving me a curious look. “Strange to be racist toward them at a time like this.”
“N-No!” I practically shouted. “I’m not racist toward dwarves! I travel with one!”
“Ah, the old ‘I have a dwarven friend so I can’t be racist’ play,” nodded the gnome, giving Dhot a knowing look. "We gnomes and goblins never hear that one."
“Maha!”
“I’m not saying that!” I argued, although it did kind of sound that way. “I just meant I didn’t see this many dwarves earlier. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”
“King Julfr sent some troops down and they arrived right after you left,” explained Cassandra, taking her time to save me. “With finding out about Varinia and everything going on here, we forgot to mention that."
"By all means tell me any good news when you get it!" I said. "I thought this was all going to be bad. Is King Julfr with Nicole?"
"He stayed up north for now," said Dhot. "Told us to let him know when we plan to go on the offensive and he'd be there, though."
"We can think about that if we survive here," I said, not wanting to plan too far in advance. I had no idea how launching an attack on Ra'Chok would go, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be easy. "How many blues?"
"Kiera sent six," said Dhot. "She wasn't happy that she didn't get to hear from you. We told her you were a bit busy planning a surprise attack, and that seemed to do the trick."
That was six more dragons than I thought we were going to have. I was regretting telling her not to come down with all of the blues before we left Jiezvall, but there was no way to know something like this was going to happen. I really thought the gold and silvers would be enough. I'd have to learn from this and not hold back when it came to fighting with the Dar'Ka anymore. Assuming we survived and were able to reach Ra'Chok, we'd do it with all of the Collective there.
"We told the blues to go warn The Republic's dragons to the north," said Cassandra. "They should be back with them soon, assuming the Dar'Ka didn't also send a large force there."
"I doubt it," I said, shaking my head. "I'm pretty sure the black and reds that attacked us were all that they had. There'd be no point in splitting up their dragons if they were trying to wipe us out before the battle."
"As if we stand a chance, anyway," mumbled Laurinaitis.
"He seems in a good mood," said Beatrix dryly.<
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"You've really got to snap out of this," I said, giving the gold dragon a hard look. "The Republic needs you now more than ever. You can't let them down."
"I already have, haven't I?"
"If this battle is a success, that is what the history books will remember," said Cassandra, trying to reassure him. "There was no way for you to know Varinia would betray us. She tricked everybody, remember? Not just you."
"I still should've known," pouted Laurinaitis.
"Do you want me to smack you again?!" I asked.
Laurinaitis shrugged, but he quieted down.
We reached a stone two-story building with several armed orcs and humans in front of it. The Gray Adders nodded for us to enter, and we did so. We found Nicole in what must have been the living room, with a detailed map of the city spread over a table. She had small objects placed over the map, moving clusters of them occasionally.
"We've returned," I announced, collapsing into a nearby chair. I wasn't sure if it was because I was exhausted or not, but it was the most comfortable chair I had ever been in.
"I'm sorry to hear about what happened," said Nicole, sounding oddly sympathetic. "How many of you made it out?"
"Twelve," I said, nodding my head to Laurinaitis. "Including me and him. He's the leader of the gold and silvers for the Dragon War."
"Pleasure," smiled Nicole.
Laurinaitis didn't respond, staring pitifully at a wall instead.
"Have you thought of any creative solutions to get us out of this?" I asked the orc.
"Not particularly," she replied, turning back to her map. "The Dar'Ka shouldn't know about the dwarves or blues, but there aren't that many of them. They did come with those nasty arrows that'll take down the dragons more easily, which is something."
"The Zorikium arrows weren't extremely helpful in Jiezvall," warned Cassandra. "The black and reds wore armor to protect against them."
"None of the dragons that jumped us wore any," I said, thinking back. "They could always be putting some on as we speak, but there's a chance that they don't think we have any. Varinia certainly didn't know we did."