by Jada Fisher
“She deserves to be punished,” he hissed before Estelle’s screams filled the air.
“Hey, Krisjian! What are you doing? Let her go!”
“No! She hurt you! She hurt your family and she’s not even sorry. She needs to be sorry.”
The two dwarves looked at us in alarm and, I hated to do it, but I placed my hand on Krisjian’s back and snatched all the energy from him that I could.
“What?” He swayed and stumbled back in my arms. I actually felt pretty awful as he looked up at me with the most wounded expression that I had ever seen on his face. “Why did you…?”
“Look, I know it’s tempting to use our powers to make bad people pay, but that’s not how we go about things, okay? I haven’t been the best example lately, but we are not judge, jury, and executioner.”
“Uh, are things going to be alright?” the dark-skinned dwarf asked, looking between us nervously.
“Yes,” Mickey answered with a sigh. “Just get the weapons. We’ll have the prince rally his forces.”
“His forces,” Marilyn remarked with a smirk. “An awfully kind word to describe what would barely be enough for an afternoon tea.”
“Well,” I said, returning Krisjian to his feet and straightening myself. “We’ll make do with what we have.”
8
Six in One Hand, a Whole Lot More in the Other
“They’re closing in!” I heard one of the dwarves call over the walkie talkie strapped to my chest. We’d only had maybe five minutes to grab things before the other dragons realized where we were and started to close in, but it was enough to get some swords and guns into our hands and wrap some gauze around the cut in my palm. It was way deeper than I had expected it to be, but just like everything else, it got put into my later tab.
Tomorrow was going to be one heck of a day—assuming I lived to see it.
Bronn began to rise, great wings flapping slowly. As we lifted and my view increased, I saw about twenty or so drakes closing in on our little circle, covered in blood and dust and other signs of completely ransacking a city. I knew their plan was to surround the building and then overwhelm it as their aerial brethren closed in from above, and it was a solid plan.
Too bad they didn’t know we had some tricks up our sleeves.
The rest of the dragons rose with us. It had taken a whole lot of arguing, but Mickey and Krisjian had agreed to stay on the ground, even if I was only able to convince them that the humans needed protection besides Marilyn. In reality, I knew they were exhausted and completely tapped out of power—mostly because I was the one who had used up all of theirs.
Of course, they had tried to argue that I was just as used up to, but I reminded them that I had a habit of finding new little pockets of abilities within myself and a connection to every oracle that had ever lived or died. That had definitely swung things in my favor, and that was why I was on top of Bronn and they were left behind.
Of course, at the moment, I didn’t know what a very small shield or a vision was going to do to help things, but at least I could still go stab-stab with my spear. I liked spears. They made me feel pretty cool. And if I had to die in some battle over the city, at least I would go out in style.
And with all the dragons moving in on us, I definitely felt like I could very well be making my return trip to the land of the dead. While most of our allies had made it to us after Bronn’s roar, the wyvern and several of the drakes were missing.
And Mal.
It was easy to think the worst, to be sure that yet another person who was close to me was dead, but I just ushered that off to the later tab along with everything else. The upside was, if I did indeed die, I would never have to deal with the long to do list. I’d been dead before, after all, and the break had been kinda nice.
Except this time, I would be really dead, and not that sort of in-between area I had ended up. A place I had never meant to be, and yet somehow had been swept up in just like everything else.
“Hold steady,” I said into the walkie, closing my eyes and just letting myself feel for a moment. The tension was building, working itself up into a true furor of energy. All I needed to do was wait until the perfect moment, that one instant where everything would work out, then I would give the word.
But… What if there wasn’t that kind of moment? What if it never came because we were in an unwinnable battle?
No. I couldn’t afford to think that way. We would win.
We would.
So, I waited and waited. I heard the uncomfortable mutterings of the dwarves over the walkies. I waited a bit more until, finally, I felt that snap inside of me.
“Now!” I cried.
The response was almost instantaneous. There were two resounding booms, and then a pair of missiles shot out into the oncoming horde of dragons.
They very clearly didn’t expect that, pulling up short. The first dozen or so were able to get out of the way in time, but the ones behind them had no idea what was coming for them. The rockets hit, then exploded in a burst of energy and debris.
That was when Bronn took over, ever the tactician. Letting out a mighty roar, he surged forward into the fray.
After everything I’d seen since we’d erupted into the city, I’d realized that Baelfyre had brought his best to the castle estates, meaning to stop any dragons from ever getting to the city. I had no idea how Bronn and his few subjects had made it past what was undoubtedly an insane front line, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. It was quite obvious to me that the dragons around us were all young, completely untested by battle. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were recruits on their first jaunt out, given little orders besides to raze the city to ash.
But that worked entirely to our advantage. Although these guys had energy and fanaticism on their side, it was clear that they only thought of battle as an exchange of brute force. They didn’t understand the rhythm of it, or how a simple position or the element of surprise could change everything.
They also had no idea what it was like to fight a prince with one pissed-off seer on his back.
We cut through the entire throng, their formation reduced to a shambled mess by the missiles. Once we made it completely to the other side, two more rockets fired.
It was so satisfying to watch the explosions hit their backs as they rounded to face us, and pandemonium erupted once again.
Another one of Bronn’s roars sounded and that was when the other dragons made their move, closing rank in front of the oncoming beasts so they were triangulated in our range. It wasn’t exactly an intimidating front, but when one accounted for the three dwarves on each of their backs, all armed to the teeth, it was certainly an arsenal.
We just had to count on the dragons underestimating them.
A massive bolt of wood flew through the air, spearing through two of the attackers in one fell swoop, and they spiraled to the ground, leaving maybe only two dozen or so for us to take down on our own.
Right. I had forgotten about the harpoon. Why a school had a harpoon, I didn’t know, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. The thought of a dwarf hauling it there in the middle of a city-wide assault was almost enough to make me laugh in the middle of battle.
Almost.
Now that most of our sky surprises were spent, it was time for outright battle skill. I knew the folks on the ground with the drakes had some additional tactics to play out, but I couldn’t see or spare the focus on them. My job was to help Bronn as best I could.
And maybe get, like, the teeniest amount of revenge.
Bronn sped forward, grabbing a dragon that was still spinning from the second round of missiles in his hind legs and using it as a bludgeon against another dragon. As the two tangled together, squawking and hissing, Bronn let out a massive jet of fire that engulfed the two of them.
It was still so strange to see fire work against dragons, but I guessed even they had limits on what they could endure, and the bigger the beast, the more air they could draw into their lungs, a
nd the hotter their flames could become. And Bronn was very big compared to most of the dragons. The only one I had seen close to his size was Baelfyre and one of his advisors.
I didn’t have much time to enjoy the cookout, however, because another dragon was coming in toward Bronn’s neck, teeth snapping. It was like it didn’t even register me, a puny human, but I was all for using that to my advantage. It figured that Baelfyre hadn’t warned these minions about me; he assumed that I would be safe behind my shield at the castle.
But the joke was on him, I just made another shield.
I allowed myself one cackle at the ridiculousness of it all, thrusting my spear forward at the same time. While it didn’t get the oncoming dragon in the eyes like I had hoped, I did manage to catch it in its open mouth, the tip sinking into the pink flesh just below its curled lips.
That was enough to make it howl, and stop short, which also gave Bronn enough time to whip his tail around and cleave through the attacker’s wing. While it wasn’t quite shorn in two, there was enough damage to the leathery thing that the shifter couldn’t stay in flight anymore and fluttered toward the ground.
Three down.
Bronn delved further into the tumult, his claws slashing at hides and flanks as we sped over several recovering enemies. He pulled off several other moves, converging with his two allies then wheeling around in a broad sweep. I assumed that this was something they had practiced in their many years of training and fighting, but I didn’t quite understand the purpose of it.
But that was alright. My job wasn’t to understand. My job was just to stab things. It was a pleasant change from constantly using magic and turning my soul inside-out over abilities that I didn’t quite understand. Simple even.
Simple was nice.
My world devolved into a whole lot of holding on, then sitting up to stab, then hunkering right back down again. We spun this way and that, taking out one dragon after another. It was almost easy, if anything about battle could be easy, so I was pretty shocked when I sat up and saw there were still at least half of the dragons left.
Huh, I’d thought we’d nearly wiped them out already. I wasn’t sure if Bronn was just as surprised as I was, but he certainly didn’t seem prepared when four dragons set on us at once.
Two came from the front and the other two came from either side. To his credit, Bronn did tuck his wings in and drop, flipping over so that his claws were facing up and his jaw had a broader range, but while that let him hold the two front ones off, the side ones had nothing to stop them from sinking their teeth and claws into his flanks.
Nothing except for me.
One spear, one me, two dragons. I could do that. I mean… I had no idea how, but I had to. It just would have been a lot easier if I wasn’t below Bronn, holding on with only my thighs and a single hand. When all of this was said and done, we were going to have to look into building a saddle.
The spear was in my right hand, so I picked the right dragon and drove my spear up toward its bottom jaw as it approached. I hit the scales wrong and my weapon rebounded, nearly knocking itself from my grip. I barely managed to recover, but when I did have it solidly in my hand again, I tried once more.
This time, I adjusted my aim enough to get right into that sweet spot in its gums before its teeth locked into Bronn’s side. It let out a shriek and jerked back, but unfortunately, the left dragon got right where it wanted to be.
Hearing Bronn’s wounded bellow made my heart sink. I was supposed to be protecting him. He was doing so much, trying to make sure that I survived all of this, and I couldn’t even keep a couple of dragons off his back.
“Let him go!” I cried, letting go of Bronn with my second hand and switching my grip on the spear. With all the strength I had in my upper body, I thrust the weapon forward, aiming for the weakest part at the underside of the jaw. Something I only knew because Mal had taught me.
I felt it hit flesh. I felt it pierce through the small gap in the scales. I felt the creature jerk as it realized what was happening, and I still shoved it harder.
“I said let him go, you son of a—”
It was hard to say what happened. All I knew was that suddenly, the world winked out and there was only a dull kind of pain. Once more, I felt like I was floating, but instead of being weightless, it was like I was too heavy and had just sunk into black water.
I had no idea how long that lasted, but when the world flooded back in, it was followed by several urgent throbs of pain. Ow. Ow! I could hardly think, and I was only vaguely aware that something cool and sticky was streaked across my face.
Oh, and I was falling.
Blinking, I saw Bronn still dealing with the two dragons that I hadn’t gotten stabbity with. He was letting out panicked, rageful sounds, but they barely reached my ears. Or had someone just stuffed cotton into them? Hard to say. Everything was so fuzzy and detached. Hazy.
Oh… Right. I was falling.
That was bad, but I couldn’t really bring myself to care. My head hurt. It hurt so much. It was like—
Before I could figure out what it was like at all, I saw a dragon tail come whipping toward me, hitting me right in the ribs and driving me further toward the ground. How long until I hit now? How long until I was spattered across the pavement?
Gasping and retching, I saw that my attacker was the left dragon that I had speared, my weapon still hanging from its mouth. Oh yeah, that was lodged in there good. At least, after I died, it was going to remember me for a long, long time.
But the beast didn’t seem contented to just let me fall. It rounded on me once more, jaws open wide as it descended on me. It almost seemed a bit too fantastical that the creature was going to eat me, and I let out a little bit of a laugh before grounding myself.
No. It wasn’t funny. I didn’t want this. I wanted to fight!
I raised my arms, kicking my feet up just as its mouth reached me. It was like being hit by a wrecking ball, and for a moment, both my legs and arms buckled. But I managed to maintain my hold just enough to not end up right inside the mouth of the dragon. No, instead I was just braced with my feet against its lower teeth and my hands gripping its upper lip, just outside of its mouth like a mouse in the grip of a cat.
The dragon actually stopped short for a moment, clearly surprised that I wasn’t down its gullet, but it recovered much more quickly than I would have liked. Its tongue lolled out, wrapping around my waist and trying to tug me in. That… That was a new and very uncomfortable sensation.
But I wasn’t about to give up now. I reached down with my good hand and raked my nails along the slick, bristled tongue as hard as I could. I wished I had my spear, but that was still lodged in the underside of the jaw I was currently standing in.
Its tongue withdrew as it seemed to realize that tactic wouldn’t work, then suddenly the mouth snapped closed. Now that did the trick, and I fell backward once again.
Or at least I started to.
“Hold on!”
No. It couldn’t be. I knew that voice.
With the last of my strength, I grabbed onto the handle of the spear still stuck in the dragon. I must have hooked that thing in there good, because it held my entire body weight as I hung.
Naturally, my enemy didn’t quite appreciate that, squealing and whipping its head this way and that. The movement did send both me and the spear flying, but as I toppled upward, I saw none other than Mal standing on the dragon’s head, tire iron in her hand.
“Gripless!” she cried, pointing to me.
Gripless? I had no idea what that meant until I was once more jerked to a stop by clawed feet grabbing me. Craning my head upwards, I saw the missing wyvern.
Oh. Gripless. Because it had no arms.
Wow, that was bad. Even for Mal.
Speaking of Mal, the girl raised her weapon and brought it right down on the crest of the dragon’s skull. Once. Twice. Three times. Each time, it rolled or bucked, but she held on for dear life until the last blow.
&
nbsp; And on that final hit, the beast let out a shudder before suddenly going limp. Like a stone sinking into the water, it began to fall, and Mal launched herself upwards.
Gripless, since apparently that was what we were going to call the wyvern now, caught her in his tail and gently lifted her to his back, where she perched with a whoop. I was content to stay in his grip where I was, but I figured that wasn’t exactly good for a fight, because I was abruptly thrown upward and the beast pulled off a move that somehow had me end up on his back.
And did I mention I was dizzy? I was so dizzy. And cold.
“Whoa there, friend. You alright?” I could feel her small hands on me, steadying me as she looked me over. “I’m not gonna lie. When I saw you take a full dragon tail to the head, I was pretty sure you were a goner. He cracked you good, didn’t he?”
“A tail? To the head?” I repeated slowly. Now that the adrenaline from falling and almost being eaten was gone, I was reminded of how much my head hurt. It was like someone put it in a vice and cranked that sucker as tightly as they could.
“Yeah, when you were on Bronn’s back. You were being real impressive, spearing them upside-down and all that, but that left one really slammed ya good. Hey, can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?”
She held her small hand in front of my face, but her fingers swirled so much I thought I might be sick. “I’m fine,” I said, knocking her arm away. “We’re in the middle of a battle.”
“Right you are, but we’ve fallen pretty far below it. Here, let me at least wipe some of the blood away from that face of yours. Make you look a little less dead.”
“Blood?”
Before I could quite comprehend what she meant, she lifted on the bottom of her shirt and spit on it, raising it to gently dab at my face. I flinched away at the sheer grossness of it, but she held my chin firmly.
Surprisingly, it actually felt kind of good. I didn’t realize that one of the sides of my face felt crusty and tight with gunk. I drifted for a minute, lost in the comfort, until she pulled away and I saw how much red was now covering the bottom of her shirt.