The Confliction: 2016 Modernized Format Edition (Dragoneers Saga Book 3)

by M. R. Mathias

  The alien loped south, in long ground-eating strides. It leapt and hopped and jumped through the mountainous terrain as if it had lived there all its life. Soon it came to the valley that sheltered the place the humans called Kingsmen’s Keep. There were men outside standing guard, but they were nothing. Neither was the thick, half-buried block structure that formed the place.

  The alien commanded its unseen followers with a shift in the pitch of the noise it emitted. Soon the men outside the keep were battling with a Sarax, and then a band of trellkin came out of the forest and joined in. Not far away, a pair of ogres were attacked where they were halfheartedly standing guard over the human stronghold. It was a rout. The three men who didn’t make it into the closing doors were killed by the Sarax and then consumed. Antlered trollish creatures came wandering around aimlessly, with little idea how to get at what was inside the manmade structure.

  Inside the keep, there is an elevated lookout loft. From outside the mostly underground structure, the position is undetectable. From inside, Ranger Malvin Woodholm, the sentry on duty, could see in the cardinal directions and across the valley. Malvin was pressed to the viewing slot as he tried to see what was happening outside. The commander was yelling, the old Camille mother was yelling at him, too. They wanted to know what was outside, but he couldn’t see what the men were all riled up about. Then a Sarax swept past his limited rectangle of vision and a cold gust stung his eyes. He blinked and ignored the chaos in the room below, and then looked again. At first he thought a giant snow ball was rolling at them, or perhaps it was an avalanche. Then a long thin strand of whatever it was shot out and latched a hold of something. A moment later, Malvin saw an ogre go across his field of vision as if it were flying. The big green-skinned thing was pulled into a huge undulating maw. He realized then that the massive white bulk he was seeing was no bank of snow. It was something terrible. He would have rung the alarm bells, but they were already ringing on their own. This stopped him cold for a heartbeat. The ground was shaking.

  He looked around and called down to the commander, but the ranger captain and the old Camille woman were moving away. He looked back out the embrasure and all he could see was the white, milky behemoth; then the whole keep began to quake, and a sound so low and terrible that it shook his guts wailed forth.

  Part of the keep went tearing away in a sky-revealing crumble. Bitter-cold air came rushing in. Men screamed, and the few women left at the keep huddled in fear. Below the lookout, people were scrambling about trying to avoid the falling blocks and masonry.

  Nothing had ever breached the keep before, and now it was only half there. Above, a massive bulk of pale-fleshed monster looked down with bright, fiery eyes that reflected the clear blue of the sky in their depths. Then it began to feed. Like leg-thick vines, tentacles came reaching into the opening and plucked squirming men right out of their tracks.

  Mother Camille stepped back into view and Malvin felt a bit of hope as he remembered her boy was one of the Dragoneers. Surely they would come and put an end to this. The old woman called up at him. “Get on, man. The keep’s not a safe—” Then a stark white rope wrapped around her face and she was lifted and twisted violently into the sky by the neck. Malvin watched helplessly as she was crushed, and then thrown into the terrifying thing’s great mouth. Malvin crumpled to his knees as the trolls and Sarax came storming into the opening. He reached for a weapon, but it was no use. He knew that in a matter of moments, he too would be consumed.

  As it munched down the remains of Rikky’s mother, the master alien decided that human flesh tasted far better than Sarax meat. It wanted to seek out the centers of population now. It wanted to satiate a centuries old hunger. It wanted to gain control of man, as it had the Sarax, and harvest them. It stayed there at the keep, pondering these things, and how to go about them, as it fed long into the night.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When word came to Delton of a massive Sarax attack on Indale, Aikira was overcome with grief so powerful that she was unable to function. Everything and everyone she had ever loved, save for her dragon and her fellow Dragoneers, was there. Only after Rikky urged her out of the city proper, and they were mounted on their dragons, did she start to get a hold of herself.

  “We’ll fly east and scout Indale for the witches and the council.” Rikky made up the excuse they would use if they had to explain their absence to anyone. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt as if Mysterian and King Blanchard were his superiors again. He knew Jenka would disagree. Jenka would even be defiant about it, but he wasn’t Jenka.

  “I can feel it, Rikky.” Aikira sobbed out loud for the first time. “He’s dead, my Weldon. My parents, too. You and me both are shrouded in the Taker’s gloom.”

  Rikky didn’t like hearing that, but he had no one in Indale to lose, so it didn’t hit him deep. “Let’s stay close,” he called as Silva carried him into the sky. Aikira and Golden were right behind him.

  They didn’t have to fly long before they saw the pillars of dark smoke that marked the burning city. There were hundreds of Sarax, and twice as many trellkin, including orcs, goblins, and ivory-antlered alien pupae. There were so many that the Dragoneers both veered away and put a distance between themselves and the feeding swarm. The city looked like a carcass being devoured by carrion. Only after they felt they were safe did they land and gather themselves.

  Aikira was weeping loudly, and Rikky was feeling sick to his stomach. They’d just left a trove of death and destruction behind, and the fear that had taken hold of him didn’t sit well in his guts. He wished Jenka were there. He wished he hadn’t just seen what he had. There were hundreds of people just waiting to die, with no way to get to them. “Do we go back and search, or not?” he finally asked.

  “We make a pass high above so that we can report to Mysterian, but they are dead, Rikky.” Aikira’s voice broke again. This time she sobbed and let the tears flow. “They are all dead. We couldn’t have helped them had we been here.”

  “I’m sorry, Aikira,” Rikky mumbled. “I really am.”

  After flying over the ruined city of Indale, Rikky and Aikira went directly back to Delton and told the witches of the Hazeltine and the Outland councils that remained exactly what they had seen. There may have been knotted groups of survivors down amid the carnage, but there were too many Sarax to attempt anything. Rikky’s deep feelings of helplessness showed through as he described the creatures and the way they were roiling over Indale.

  “We’ve got barrels full of seawater rolling in from Avlron and Pvurn as we speak,” a kaffee-skinned council man said in a baritone voice after Rikky was finished.

  “We’re building a catapult to launch ‘em,” added another.

  They were crowded in the common room of what was now called the Witch Queen’s Inn. Out in the slushy streets, hundreds and hundreds of Outlanders all huddled and waited. Most of the women and children had already been loaded into wagons and sent west toward the ocean, but some were stubborn. Many were arming themselves to fight. It saddened Rikky to know this, because they stood no chance against the hungry alien beasts that were coming. The only effective weapon they had was seawater.

  Seawater!

  “I need to go back to Clover’s castle,” Rikky blurted out to Aikira right in the middle of a particular silence. The whole crowded room heard him.

  “Is there time for that?” Mysterian asked him sharply. “What do you need, Rikky Camille? I see a glint in them eyes.”

  “There is a bladder design that has a hollow line attached to it. You squeeze it and it forces the liquid through the line and out.” Rikky knew he was making little sense, but he didn’t have the words to say what the contraption was. “The thing is made to spray seawater a good distance. Tkux’s ogres were building several of them for trial.” He reached back and squeezed Aikira’s slumped shoulder. “We have saddles waiting, too. There is a chance that Jenka, or even Marcherion will return with us.”

  “We need to see about Zahr
ellion too,” Aikira said as she traced a triangle on her forehead to convey her concern to the witches. She is probably scared and confused.

  Mysterian and Queen Alvazina shared a look.

  “So be it.” Mysterian glared at Rikky for a long moment. “Don’t be dallying boy, or I’ll go get your mama from the keep and have her switch yer arse. We need you Dragoneers here to guard the evacuation.”

  “Evacuation?” one of the council members said. “We’re not evacuating. We’re going to fight.”

  “You’re a fool, then,” Mysterian cackled. “You’ll end up no more than scat in the cobbles.”

  “We are not leaving,” another said defiantly.

  “Well then, have enough sense to make your stand near the sea.” Rikky hadn’t intended his voice to be so harsh and final, but there it was. Even though he was just a boy, he held his chest puffed out and met the man’s gaze with enough conviction that the message was conveyed.

  A heated argument ensued, but Rikky paid it no mind. He took Aikira’s hand and led her through the streets to the outskirts of town where their dragons were waiting. They stayed well south of Indale, avoiding the swarm as they flew home to Clover’s castle.

  Jade was winging north against a steady wind of substantial force. It was a laborious flight. It was damp and cold. Jenka was sure his teeth were frozen. He had already forgotten about his ears and fingers, save for when he tried to move them. Then he felt the wrath of the bite clenching his bones. He was worried about the state of things. Marcherion and Zah were still recovering at the castle when he’d left, and he had no doubt that Crimzon could keep them safe. The big red wyrm had helped build the place and knew all its secrets, but he couldn’t help but feel like the Dragoneers weren’t trying hard enough.

  What was bothering Jenka was the fact that they weren’t standing against the alien creatures. They were not standing against the Confliction either. They were reacting to events, letting what happened control them. Sure, they had defeated the druids and gotten Zahrellion back, but the Sarax were all free now. They were terrorizing the populated areas. They would feed on the innocents as if they were berries to be plucked. He grew angry at himself for letting it all get so far out of hand. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he knew he could do much better as a leader. He decided that when he returned he would gather the Dragoneers and together they would make a plan and try to follow it.

  When he looked ahead, across the vast mountain range he was flying over, he saw one of the distant behemoths that stood apart from the rest. It was midafternoon and the day was bright, if a bit cloudy. The mountain wasn’t as big as the mountains around it, but it was still huge and distinct.

  Jenka was marveling at the way it sat prouder than the rest, as if it were the rightful master of the world. Then Jenka saw the mountain shift.

  He blinked his eyes and wiped at them, but there it was again. It was still a good distance away, but Jenka was overcome with excitement and some fear, too. He had no idea what he was going to say to an ancient Mountonian.

  Part V

  The Confliction

  Chapter Nineteen

  When Zahrellion told Rikky what happened at Kingman’s Keep, Rikky was devastated. It was all secondhand information, but it came from one who had witnessed the terrible event. A single ogre, one who was resting in a snow burrow after his long watch, had escaped the master alien’s attack on the stronghold. Rikky knew his mother hadn’t gotten away. Aikira’s grim feeling was spot on. No one, save for the ogre, had survived.

  Lemmy seemed beside himself with grief and guilt. He had just left the keep a week earlier and said he couldn’t imagine it happening like the ogre reported. The ogre described the creature as gargantuan and ferocious. It was as big as a dragon, and as hungry and devastating as a whole horde of Sarax. He said it had dug up the entire keep like a rabid dog searching for a bone. Lemmy said he wanted to see it for himself.

  “I’m going.” Rikky seethed through his tears. “I’m going after that fargin’ thing. It killed my ma. I don’t care what it is.”

  “You’re not,” Zahrellion argued, but he was already clop-clop-clopping to the landing stair.

  “Arghh,” Marcherion groaned from his stiff-legged seat in one of Rikky’s rolling chairs. “I want to go with him!”

  Zahrellion rose from her bed and started after Rikky, but Lemmy stopped her. I’ll go, he said knowingly. I’ve known him all his years.

  “When you return to Delton, Aikira, I am going with you.” Zahrellion’s tone was firm as she walked back to her bed. “My wounds have healed both inside and out.”

  “You’ll be thinking that until you get a lungful of that icy stuff out yonder,” one of the Hazeltine witches cackled. “Even now you’ve lost all your color.”

  “You’d all just leave me here?” Marcherion’s voice was intense.

  “Don’t follow me, Lem,” Rikky said harshly as he started across the rotunda. You’ll not sway my thinking, he finished in the ethereal.

  You sound just like ol’ Kember, Rik. Lemmy stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. They were just at the base of the stair that circled up to the landings.

  Are you coming?

  I relish the opportunity. Lemmy’s eyes conveyed the conviction that would have been in his voice, if he had one.

  That’s what I hoped. Let’s bundle up and go hunt that thing down.

  I’ll get the heavy bow, was Lemmy’s response.

  “I can’t believe he just went traipsing off like that.” Zahrellion sighed. “But that’s what Jenka does. Rikky is just like him.”

  “Crimzon sent Jenka away, Zah,” Marcherion reminded her. “He didn’t go on a lark.” He paused for a moment and squeezed the bridge of his nose, as if concentrating. “Blaze is going with Silva and Rikky.”

  “Going? What? I thought Lemmy went to talk Rikky out of it!” Zahrellion’s skin was angry, red and splotchy now. She was suddenly trembling.

  “Lay it back down, lass,” a witch said. “Them boys been roaming them hills since they was pups.”

  “Lemmy’s never been a pup,” Zah shot back. She relented, though, and let the old crone lay her back down and tend her. She felt like there was a giant stone inside her chest. Breath was hard to draw, but after a moment the tightness and pain eased away.

  “Should I go after them?” Aikira asked as she started strapping her plated shin-guards back over her boots.

  “Don’t waste your time,” Zah groaned. “When will you walk again?” she asked Marcherion. Then she turned to one of the witches. “Has Herald gotten any better? Any better at all?”

  “I can stand now,” March said, and stood up in his splints.

  “Herald is too stubborn to just die, Zahrellion,” the witch answered. “He hasn’t gotten any better, though. Barely clinging, that old cuss. This one won’t be walking till spring.” She pointed at March, who was gingerly easing back into Rikky’s wheeled chair. “Riding his dragon, though, with Tkux’s help, might be he could manage that soon enough.”

  “If you are returning to Delton with me, Zahrellion, you should prepare your things,” Aikira said. “Mysterian and the king will be peeved at Rikky and me for staying away as long as we have, and now Rikky’s gone off.”

  “We don’t serve Mysterian or King Blanchard, Aikira.” Zahrellion looked at the ebon-skinned girl sympathetically. With Indale in ruins, and Aikira’s family lost, she was probably searching for some sense of order. Zahrellion understood. “We need to get there, though, and tell them of the newest threat. The beast that destroyed the keep will find the Outlands soon enough. I hope the kingdom folk that remain are holed in good. The horde of antlered trolls Lemmy saw, and all the Sarax that escaped when that cold pitiless thing had a hold of my mind, are out there, too.”

  “We need to make a plan,” Marcherion said. “I can’t believe Jenka just went off like that.”

  “You just defended him for it.” Zahrellion rolled her eyes.

  “I know he had to g
o.” March sighed in frustration. “I don’t have to like it.”

  Suddenly, Aikira slid down the wall and collapsed into a heap on the floor. “Ohhh, mama,” she sobbed desperately. “And now Rikky’s mama, too. Oh no.”

  Zahrellion went to her side and ended up hugging her close while fighting off a fit of coughing. March turned his chair away before the tear forming in his eye had a chance to spill. He didn’t bother to wipe his cheek as he rolled over to the far wall and touched the symbol that opened the upper portion of the barrier to the world.

  The temperature in the room went from cozy to frigid in seconds. Aikira sobbed away her anguish, and Zahrellion fought to breathe, but both were thankful for the feeling of the wind. March had only felt this helpless once. It was back when he first touched Brendly Tuck’s cold dead skin that morning, before the elf came and took that world away from him. Many times he had wondered how that small impish creature and a human could have bred and birthed an offspring that looked like golden-haired Lemmy. It was a curiosity he pondered as he watched his own eager dragon following the half-elvish woodsman and Rikky, who were both riding Silva. He wanted to be with them. He wanted to exact some revenge for the two women he loved who were crying on the floor. Most of all, he wanted to be seated in the saddle Tkux had built for him. Even with broken legs, he could strap himself in.

  He wanted to fly with Blaze.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jenka urged Jade out and around the massive mountain man. Andoal was rising up from a hunch into a standing position. Huge castle-sized chunks of stone and earth fell away to come crashing down around crudely formed granite feet. The Mountonian was impossible to behold. Jenka and Jade both were trembling because of their proximity to the elemental creature. A fist with fingers as big around as ancient oaks clenched and unclenched; shoulders rolled and stretched away the ages. Smaller rock fragments broke off, leaving a fairly well-defined gargantuan man formed of stone.