The Darkness of Old; The Ancient Crown; The Winged One

by Hans Bezdek

“We want to work with you and the Collective,” said the female. “Consider it our way of showing you we’re serious about it.”

  “You do?” asked Dhot, lowering Helga but keeping it at the ready.

  The big dragon nodded. “Ulrich is reckless and is proving to be heartless. He’s going to lead the Dar’Ka to its doom, and bring all of the red and black dragons down with him.”

  “I’m only working with them because they said they’d kill me if I didn’t,” said the female. “They killed several of my friends before they got to me… I decided to betray them the first chance I got, and this is it.”

  “What do you say?” asked the big one. “Do you think the Collective will have us?”

  I shared a smile with the others. “I think we can arrange something…”

  Chapter 13

  The flight back from Chundar was much less tense than the journey there. For one, we more or less knew where we were going. For another, we had two red dragons flanking us as escorts. It’s the little things.

  On the way, we learned that the big one was named Lukas and the female was Cecilia. While Cecilia was recruited by force, Lukas had been somewhat sympathetic to the Dar’Ka since he was young. However, after interacting more with the other races in some of the tent towns around Ra’Chok, he began to wonder if the mandate to subjugate all of them was really necessary. Ulrich’s actions over the past few weeks had pushed him over the edge to no longer wanting to be apart of the Dar’Ka.

  “I really wanted to see what the mainland was like,” explained Lukas toward the end of our flight back, flying close to me so I could hear. “I’ve never been there before.”

  “There are nice spots and others not so nice,” I called back over the wind and rain. “It’s like anywhere else. A bit more vegetation than here.”

  “I’ve heard,” nodded Lukas. “It’s too bad that I’ll never get to see it.”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” I asked. “There are black and reds that venture into the rest of Yaerna.”

  “And they’re welcomed with open arms?” asked Lukas, smiling sadly because he already knew the answer.

  “Not exactly,” I admitted. “But they still come.”

  “I have a feeling that once this war is over, we’ll be looked at with even more suspicion,” said the red dragon. “I doubt it’ll be safe to go to the mainland anymore, even if we keep to our human forms. People have a way of finding out the truth.”

  “You’d be surprised how long dragons can trick others,” I said, thinking back to Varinia and myself. Granted, I eventually did have to start outing myself as a half dragon. “And I wouldn’t be so pessimistic about it. We’ve gotten help from some other dragons on the island, and with you two helping us, I bet there will be some good will toward your people. Not all of you are evil.”

  “We’re nearly there!” Dhot shouted back at us. Even though a lot of the mountains looked more or less the same, it was starting to look a little more familiar.

  “It’s probably for the best if you two hang back a bit when we land,” I said to Lukas. “We wouldn’t want them to mistake the two of you for-”

  The sound of roars echoed around the mountain range, cutting me off. I quickly spun around, searching for where the dragon shouts originated.

  “A welcomin party!” shouted Braun, pointing up ahead. “We’re finally safe again!”

  I followed the dwarf’s finger to see roughly twenty blue dragons heading for us.

  “Looks like we passed Kiera’s time limit,” added Cassandra, glancing my way. “She must’ve been counting down the seconds.”

  “And it looks like she’s mad about it!” laughed Dhot. “Maha!”

  I couldn’t see the blue dragons’ expressions as well from this distance as the goblin could, but the group of them were certainly moving quickly. Really quickly, actually. Their heads were down and they were flapping their wings as rapidly as they could. It was almost like they were about to enter into a fight…

  My eyes widened and I shouted at the others. “They think Lukas and Cecilia are chasing us! We’ve got to stop the blues before they kill them!”

  “W-Why can’t anythin ever be easy?!” groaned Braun.

  Lukas and Cecilia shared a nervous look as the rest of my friends urged their griffins forward.

  “That would be preferable,” agreed Cecilia. “We’ll slow down and let you talk to them.”

  The four of us hurried to meet with the blues. It wasn’t long before we reached them, but most of the blues weren’t slowing.

  “Stop!” I shouted, waving my hands over my head. “Don’t go for them!”

  “You’ve been followed!” shouted one of the blues. “We can’t let them report back to Ulrich.”

  “They aren’t going back!” called out Cassandra, moving her arms back and forth in an X. “They’ve come to help us.”

  “They lie!” roared a voice I recognized as Kiera’s. “You can’t trust Dar’Ka dragons!”

  I couldn’t let them kill the two dragons. We hadn’t gotten any information about Chundar out of them yet, and it wouldn’t be right to let them die after they had just saved us from that scarred red dragon. While I wasn’t sure if it would work, it was time to try throwing my weight around some.

  “Enough!” I shouted as loudly as I could. “I command you all to stand down!”

  This seemed to get the blues’ attention, even those that had flown past us. They all floated where they were, looking at Kiera for confirmation that they shouldn’t hunt down the two red dragons. She gave me a hard look.

  “Trust me,” I said softly. “I know what I’m doing. Those two saved our lives earlier.”

  Kiera let out a frustrated breath then nodded. “No one harms the red dragons unless they attack you first. We’re escorting everyone back to camp.”

  I thanked Kiera then waved at Cecilia and Lukas to come join us. The two red dragons hesitated at first, but ultimately glided to us. I thought about explaining what had happened to the blues, but decided to save my breath and explain it to everyone once we landed. It certainly made for a tense flight down, but no one made any aggressive moves toward Lukas or Cecilia.

  As I expected, the mass of our soldiers seemed nervous as we circled down and landed back on top of the mountain. I noticed that the elven archers in particular had their weapons ready, but none were pointing them in our direction. While no one seemed happy to have two red dragons landing in our camp, the large number of blues that surrounded them eased their concern.

  “What is this?” asked Emerich as we got off of our griffins. “Did you manage to capture two red dragons on your own?”

  “Do we really need more prisoners?” asked Laurinaitis.

  “They aren’t prisoners,” said Cassandra. “They’re allies.”

  The gold dragon rolled his eyes at that. “It’s not enough to just accept that there might be some black and red dragons that don’t actively want to kill us, but now we’ve got to work with them?”

  “We definitely brought them here just to prove a point,” said Dhot dryly.

  “More importantly, did you find Ulrich’s castle?” asked Antonius.

  The four of us filled everyone in on what had occurred. We described the location of Chundar, and how the castle appeared to have five levels. Then we told them about the run in we had with the red dragons, and how Cecilia and Lukas had come to our aid.

  “Without them,” I concluded, “it’s entirely possible one or all of us would’ve been killed.”

  Kiera, who had shifted into her human form along with the other blues, turned to the two red dragons and bowed. “I apologize for assuming you were enemies.”

  “No apologies necessary,” said Cecilia, smiling down at her. “It’s wise to be on your guard. Under normal circumstances, you would’ve done the right thing.”

  “Have you been inside the castle?” Antonius asked them.

  “We have,” nodded Lukas. “I’d be happy to tell you all that we know about Chund
ar and Ulrich’s plans.”

  “Excellent!” grinned Antonius. “This has turned out even better than I imagined!”

  “I wouldn’t be too excited,” said Cecilia. “When they realize that the three of us are missing, they might suspect that we defected or were killed. They could change some of what they were planning if they correctly guess how close the Collective is.”

  “Would the two of you mind shifting into a human form?” asked Emerich. “I believe it’ll put the rest of our army at ease if they don’t constantly see two red dragons walking around the camp. I hope you can understand.”

  The two nodded and changed. Lukas’ human form was of a burly man with a long beard, while Cecilia turned into a homely looking woman wearing peasants clothing. Both of them initially had red eyes, then shifted them to brown.

  “What can you tell us about Chundar?” asked Laurinaitis.

  “Ulrich has gathered as many Greeners as he could into the castle,” explained Lukas. “He’s even got them sleeping in the courtyard, and there are explicit instructions for them to not leave. He believes that you will eventually find out where he is, thanks to the ‘traitors’ as he calls them. The Greeners are to be the first line of protection.”

  “Nothing surprising there,” mumbled Dhot. “My people always have to be the ones sacrificed first. No idea why they think following the Dar’Ka is such a good idea…”

  “Ulrich is also hoping that it’ll take you all several more days to reach him,” continued Lukas. “He plans to abandon the castle with the majority of the dragons, sending them all out to the remaining towns he hasn’t hit yet in order to recruit every remaining black and red dragon.”

  “Whether they want to help him or not,” nodded Cecilia.

  “We should hold our ground then,” said Laurinaitis. “We wait until the dragons leave, then chase after them. There’d be no need to take the castle.”

  “No way,” I said, shaking my head. “I can promise you Ulrich will make sure it’ll be impossible to find him after he leaves, at least until he gets the rest of the red and black dragons to follow him. We can pick off as many of his followers as we’d like while he does that, but the new recruits will quickly replenish whatever he loses. It won’t be long until his army will surpass our own.”

  “We could try and split our army and go to the separate towns before he gets there,” offered Kiera. “There wouldn’t be enough dragons to overpower us.”

  “I don’t like the idea of breaking our forces up,” sighed Cassandra, shaking her head. “They can just as easily bring their dragons back together. Getting our ground forces to gather again would take much longer, and then we’d lose valuable fighters.”

  “What’s the answer, then?” asked Emerich.

  Everyone was silent as we thought this over. I could only think of one idea, and it wasn’t necessarily a great one. After a few minutes of no one offering anything, I realized we’d have to give it a shot.

  “We leave immediately,” I said. “We get to Chundar and launch an attack on the castle. Ulrich and the other dragons will still be there, which means it’ll be a hard battle, but it’s one that we can win.”

  “Our ground forces won’t be thrilled to hear that we’ll be marching through the night,” said Emerich.

  “It’s in their best interest,” I said. “If we can attack early in the morning tomorrow, the Greeners might still be asleep. They’ll be fighting groggy.”

  “Do we know an easy way there?” asked Antonius. “Or are we going to have to scale more mountains?”

  “Once we get down this mountain, we can lead you through a path that won’t require us to climb anymore before we reach Chundar,” said Lukas.

  “That sounds like quite the trap to me,” muttered Laurinaitis.

  “Enough, okay?” I hissed at him. “Ulrich’s first goal is killing me and my friends. He wouldn’t purposefully let us escape just so that they could ambush the whole army. He had us in his grasp, whereas an ambush still leaves the opportunity for us to come out on top.”

  Laurinaitis opened his mouth to argue. He took a few seconds to process the logic of what I said, then shut it.

  “Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll go rally the troops.”

  “Do I finally get to use me stone?” asked Braun.

  I nodded. “You’ll want to use it before we launch our attack. Might as well do it now so we can fill your other side in on what’s happening before we get there.”

  “About time!” smiled Braun. The dwarf dug his rock out and paused. “If we don’t make it outta this alive… just wanna say it’s been a blast.”

  “Same here,” I smiled, patting him on the back.

  Cassandra gave him a quick hug, as did Dhot.

  “Well… best of luck!” grinned the dwarf, wiping a tear from his face.

  Then Braun passed out, landing hard on his face.

  “Oh...” grimaced Dhot. “We really should’ve caught him that time.”

  Chapter 14

  Sneaking an army made of elves, dwarves, humans, and dragons across a hostile island was not a simple task.

  Surprising, I know.

  Everyone was already tired from a mixture of all the fighting and marching they had done over the past several days, but at least they got to rest some while we had been away scoping out Chundar. We also didn’t have to worry about walking uphill anymore, thanks to Lukas and Cecilia guiding us. The rain even let up somewhat as we pushed our way east in the middle of the night.

  Unlike before, we couldn’t risk anyone noticing us and racing back to Ulrich to let him know we were coming. Whenever we spotted some Greeners watching us from afar, we dispatched a small hit team to take them out. It was a risk, but we had to take it. Thankfully, they hit teams always came back unharmed and confirmed that no one had gotten away.

  We reached the base of Chundar in the early morning, although it was hard to tell. The sun wasn’t breaking through the dark storm clouds anytime soon. As quickly and quietly as a large army could, we climbed up to within a few hundred feet of Ulrich’s castle.

  “That it?” asked Braun, excitement in his voice. This form of the dwarf was happy to be summoned for the fight but could’ve done without all of the walking. He had been grouchy most of the trip, but finally seemed to be in good spirits.

  I nodded. “Ulrich and the rest of the Dar’Ka should be in there.”

  “Hopefully sleeping,” added Cassandra.

  “We’ll be waking them up soon enough! Maha!” laughed Dhot.

  Lukas and Cecilia came over to us, looking pleased. Laurinaitis, Antonius, Kiera, and Emerich hurried to join us, none of them wanting to miss out on any new information.

  “We haven’t seen any scouts,” said Cecilia. “That should mean they haven’t spotted us yet.”

  “It also doesn’t look like they’ve changed anything,” added Lukas. “There had been talks of stationing some dragons out in a few cave opening near the base of the castle, but the two of us just checked and no one is in there.”

  “Sounds like we might have the element of surprise after all,” smiled Kiera.

  “I’m glad to see we weren’t led into any traps,” said Antonius, nodding with approval. “If you two would like to stay back from the fight, we understand. You’ve done more than enough for us.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” said Lukas, nodding his thanks. “Cecilia and I want to fight, too. If the Collective falls in this fight, we’re as good as dead anyway.”

  “We’d rather control our own fates,” agreed the female red.

  “That works for me,” I said, wanting to get this fight started. While we might not have been spotted yet, the longer we stood around talking the more likely we’d ruin any slight advantage we had. “Everyone know their roles?”

  There were nods all around. We had discussed the plan multiple times on our way to Chundar, but there was no harm in checking one final time. The other leaders dispersed, heading to their designated groups. I waited
for everyone to get situated.

  “Think this will work?” asked Cassandra.

  “No,” I admitted. “But this is our best shot.”

  Cassandra smiled and patted me on the back. Dhot was shaking with excitement and Braun looked ready to sprint for the castle. It was time for our final fight.

  I raised the Time Shield and my dagger, then banged them together.

  All of our dragons transformed, each one flying off in a different direction but keeping low to the ground. One by one they returned with the largest boulders they could find from the surrounding area, most of them requiring all four legs to carry them. When all of them returned, they bolted up into the sky, heading for the castle. At the same time, my friends and I led the charge for the gates, our ground forces following us with loud shouts.

  The dragons made it past the wall and dropped their boulders. Even over the battle cries of the people behind me, I could hear the panicked shouts of surprise from the Greeners on the other side of the walls. As the dragons released their rocks, they spun back around and flew off to get more. A handful of them let loose a fire breath or two before leaving, causing more Greeners to cry out.

  The elves caught up and passed us when we were about halfway to the castle. Their standard arrows flew through the sky as green and gray shapes appeared on top of the walls, many finding their targets. The Dar’Ka forces must’ve slept with their weapons in their hands, because almost immediately they fired back. Darts, stones, and arrows of their own came down on our advancing army.

  A handful of elves at the front of the line were hit, those that could still move pulling back as others rushed to fill their spaces.

  Bang!

  For once, no one shrank back as Dhot fired Helga at the top of the wall. The goblin continued to fire over and over as we ran, somehow keeping up with us.

  “Maha! Just took out three with one shot!” boasted Dhot.

  “Keep it up!” I said, summoning magic into my hands.

  Fireballs, bolts of lightning, and spiked rocks flew from the Collective up at the Greeners on the wall. The magic users we had were sprinkled in among the rest of the army so that the Dar’Ka couldn’t easily pinpoint them, plus we were able to strike multiple points along the wall. I summoned a few balls of fire to my hands and chucked them at one of the gates, lighting it on fire near the top.