:But—: Wylan didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence because on the heels of the elves and their gryphon mounts came another contingent.
Dwarves.
They rode on the backs of beasts Wylan had never heard of before. These creatures didn’t have wings, but their cloven hooves held their bearing wherever the beast placed paw, whether that be the side of the mountain, scaling a tall building, or standing on the ground like any other creature known to her. Like the gryphons they weren’t all the same. They were the size and build of a mountain ram, and while some had opalescent scales that shimmered the length of their bodies, other’s had fur in bright colors Wylan had never seen hair have.
Their mains drifted around their heads as if in a constant wind, upon their chins they had a long beard that mingled with the hair on top of their head, swirling around them. Upon their head were giant antlers, upon their backs sat stout dwarves with massive, cruel looking weapons.
:Qilin,: Josef whispered in awe. :I thought they were a myth.:
“For High Haven!” A dwarf roared before launching himself from the back of his qilin and onto the back of a smaller green dragon that flew by. The dragon screeched, twisted around, trying to dispatch the dwarf, but the dwarf held on for all he was worth, his axe hacking into the dragon’s maw when it turned to dispatch him. The lower jaw tore free and fell to the streets below with a wet plop. The dragon spiraled down, and the dwarf road him to the cobbles. He continued hacking at the dragon until it stopped moving.
His qilin jumped from the mountain face, landing gracefully beside him. It was less like the shimmering green-scaled beast had jumped, and more like he’d floated down. The dwarf jumped on his back, and the qilin was off, racing up a tower toward a cluster of other dragons.
The gryphons and elves joined the fray as well. The gryphons flew high, grappling with dragons, clutching them in a close embrace, tearing at them with talons, claws, teeth, or beaks, whatever they had available to tear with.
It took Wylan a moment of studying one battle to realize the gryphon was distracting the dragon and tearing away scales. When enough scales were torn away, the elf on the back of the giant bird struck true, the spear lancing deep into the dragon’s body. The yellow dragon stiffened, its wings going slack. And then it fell. The gryphon and elf disengaged from the dragon, and on they went to another wyrm.
“They must have come from High Haven,” Millie said. “How’d they know to come here?”
:Who cares?: Josef asked. :I think we’re lucky they came!:
Wylan agreed. The elves and dwarves were certainly turning the tide. The remaining wyverns took heart, and helped out the other races as well as one another. Soon the skies were filled with another sound—the pain filled shrieks of dragons. Wylan wondered if they’d flee, but the dragons seemed to be here for a reason, because they were staying.
A shout sounded from within the infirmary and moments later rainbow light oozed from the portals as if a fog pushed forward by a gentle, insistent wind. The light eddied and swirled about their feet, slipped over the edge of the path, and wound its way through the streets. It shimmered in ways Wylan hadn’t seen it shimmer before, but it was just as hypnotic as she remembered it being. This time there wasn’t a feeling of tranquility to it, but a call to attack, to protect the city. It filled her with fire. It bolstered the wyvern soul to do what she needed to do, to do what she was called to do and fight back the wyrms above.
The light didn’t stop with the streets, but climbed higher, twisting around buildings, snaking around towers, climbing higher and higher. It was like fog, or mist with a mind, with a goal. If there was one thing Wylan knew about that light, it was meant for the dragons. The light was nearly all she could focus on, but there was something else drawing her attention across the street.
A large blue dragon spiraled out of the sky to rest on the broken domed top of a tower close enough that Wylan knew she could have reached it with a gout of fire if she so desired.
The sapphire tail wrapped around the tower, as if to hold the dragon in place, and its face was turned away, surveying the battle that raged around it. There were scales missing along the length of its body, and Wylan hoped it was the blue she hunted. It would make this so much easier if it was. She could kill it quick, and then maybe lend her aid to the dragon guard.
:Now you think killing it will be quick, huh?: Lissandra asked, her talons closing tighter on her bundle of gear.
:It’s stopping the water wyverns,: Josef said. :The power of the dragons are much greater than ours, they can control it if they so desire.:
Wylan shivered in her scaly skin.
:We need to help,: Millie said. Wylan hadn’t even noticed she’d shifted until she spoke into her mind.
:You’re right, you help by getting into the hospital,: Josef commanded.
Wylan was of a different mind. Just then the dragon had shifted enough that she could see a scar low on its back near where the tail connected. Scales missing as if something had stabbed through the protective armor.
A spear, she thought. That was all the confirmation, and goading, she needed.
She jumped high in the air, her wings snapping open, but she didn’t fly up, she glided across the street to a jagged opening in the tower. She landed on the stairs, her claws scraping for purchase among the rubble.
She shifted back, forcing Lissandra’s spirit down. Wylan quickly dressed, tightening the weapon belt around her purple tunic. She drew the broken blade with one hand, and her sword with the other. She wound her way up the stairs, her feet unsure on the crumbling stairs. From outside she heard the chaos of screaming people, trumpeting dragons, and screeching wyverns. Something heavy slammed into the tower, and Wylan listed to the side, barely catching herself on the broken railing before her feet slipped over the worn edge of the stairs. She dangled for a moment, her hand gripping the railing awkwardly, as her sword slipped from her grip to tumble and clang down the length of the tower. With a groan of effort, she pulled herself back into place, and worked her way closer to the top, holding the railing wherever she could find it, so she didn’t slip again. She shifted the broken blade to her dominant hand, and kept going.
When she reached the top, Wylan wanted nothing more than to race out and attack the dragon, but the golden eye she hadn’t damaged was dangerously close to seeing her. She wanted the element of surprise, and she soon had it.
Another great weight slammed into the tower, making the building rock. Wylan had been worried about such an attack after nearly losing herself to the crumbled abyss over the edge of the stairs, so she’d been holding tight and barely moved when the tower groaned on its foundations.
When the great blue looked away, Wylan stepped out onto the floor. The dragon wasn’t close enough, she couldn’t reach it with the sword.
She called to her magic, reached out with her left hand, and launched a volley of fire at it. She knew it wouldn’t hurt the dragon, but it got the reaction she wanted. The blue dragon stumbled back, nearly losing its footing, and turned to look at her, its healthy eye squinted, the other was milky white, and lidded with the membrane of its two inner lids.
“Do you remember me, wyrm?” Wylan put as much disgust into the word as she could. “You destroyed my home”—another blast of fire, the blue didn’t shrink back this time—“you killed my father.”
The great blue snaked its head closer as rainbow mist crested the top of the tower, slithering nearer the combatants. The dragon sniffed at Wylan, then sneezed out a huff of water as the rainbow light tried to infiltrate its nostrils.
His water splattered Wylan’s cheek, but absorbed into her skin before she could dash it away.
:I remember you, plague bearer,: the blue rumbled in her mind.
She lashed out with another gout of fire and didn’t let up until it completely wreathed his head. The dragon chuffed out a spout of water, soaking Wylan to the bone. Her feet slipped on the grimy floor, but she caught herself with the sword, stabb
ing it down into the floor like a cane to keep her balance.
:Your father was tasty,: it taunted her.
Before she could launch another fiery attack, the dragon opened its mouth and water showered down on her. It was scalding, steaming at her skin, burning her. Lissandra rose to the surface, neutralizing the heat of the water with heat of her own. The water no longer burned. Wylan burned with an inner heat she knew she could tap into if she needed.
But thoughts of another attack fled from her mind as her grip on the sword failed, and she slipped through the water, sliding toward the edge of the broken tower. Her legs flailed, her arms reaching out for anything her hands might be able to clasp. There was more water than Wylan had ever seen in her entire life, and it carried her swiftly to the edge of the tower. In a rush of water, she shot from the tower and saw death waiting for her in the streets below.
But she didn’t fall. The water surrounded her, hardened into an orb, and she hovered above the streets. Her heart hammered in fear, her hands clawing at the water, as if she could swim through it, or tread water to keep herself and the orb from cascading to the streets below. Memories of people flung from the rooftops by dragons to shatter on the streets filled her mind. She didn’t want her blood added to theirs.
The orb moved through the air, carrying her up and to gaze into the eye of the wyrm. He surveyed her with a wondering eye.
:So you’re the one we’ve been hunting,: it said. :You’re the one who brought this plague to the Dar Desert.:
:No, dragons brought the plague the day they returned,: she threw her thoughts back at him.
The blue chuffed in laughter and pulled away from her as if she’d told the world’s best joke. Wylan was losing her control of breath. She needed to breathe, but she knew to do so would result in death. Her heart raged in her ears, and her chest burned.
:The draconian returned because we felt you born. We returned to stop the plague.:
Wylan shook her head, and she couldn’t control herself, she gasped for air and water flooded her lungs. She coughed, inhaled more water, and clutched at her throat, her legs kicking, trying to swim free of the orb.
Then something strange happened. The water didn’t drown her—in fact she found she could breathe it rather easily. Her skin seemed to open, drink in the water and in moments the orb rippled, shuddered, and then burst apart. Water rushed to the floor of the tower, and Wylan fell with it afraid she was going to slip over the edge once more with the sluicing water. She grabbed for the sword, managed to get hold of the hilt, and held on until the water had cleared.
She stood, and the dragon stared at her in amazement.
:How did you…?:
She yanked the sword free of the floor and pointed it at him. “Dragons brought this upon us.”
The blue dragon opened its mouth wide, coughed, but no water came. Fear dilated his pupils, and just then Wylan shot fire into the wyrms open mouth.
The dragon staggered back, its wings snapping open as he lost his footing. He glided around the tower and made to flee.
:Change, we can take him together!: Lissandra demanded.
:No,: Wylan said, pushing her away. She ran with all of her might, slipping on the floor, but as she reached the edge, her feet dug into the floor and she launched herself from the tower. The sword clutched in her hands, Wylan fell. When she landed, it was on the neck of the dragon, the sword jammed deep between his shoulders.
The great blue roared, snaked his head around and latched powerful teeth over her shoulder. He snapped Wylan from his back and she screamed out as her arm tore from her body. Then she was falling. She barely registered her severed arm tumbling from the blue’s mouth and the dragon slamming into a building before she crashed to the street and knew only darkness.
The rainbow fog drifted higher and higher like tendrils of smoke creeping toward the heavens. Then it struck out at random, like snakes defending their lair, skewering multitudes of dragons to pull them lower. The dragons circled around Darubai, and rushed through the streets, urged closer by the rainbow light.
:My children,: a sure, steady voice spoke into their minds. :I am your queen, and you will protect me!:
The dragons landed all around the mountain, clinging to the face, perching high above on the peaks of lower hills, and in the streets before the caverns. A reverent silence hung over the dragons as they bowed low. Their eyes closed, all three lids slipping shut one at a time.
There were so many colors that Josef was confused by the light that glittered from their scales to dazzle the eye. It seemed a representation of all the colors in the dragon spectrum, minus black, white, and gray.
:Go now, rid the imperial city of this threat. Protect your queen!:
The dragons bowed lower, their wings fluttering out around them, their arrow-shaped heads, touching the earth. And then they leapt, took wing, and aimed for the skies, for the other dragons who were already confused with dwarves and elves.
Josef broke his gaze away to the fight on the tower across the street and watched in horror as the dragon tore Wylan from its back and threw her to the hard ground. The blue smashed into a tower, debris raining down on the street and flailed several times before falling still.
Josef shifted before he realized what he was doing and sailed over the streets, coming to roost beside Wylan. He gathered her in his talons, and rushed her to the mountain side.
:Millie!: he cried out.
The healer rushed out of a portal moments later, surveyed the broken, bloody form of Wylan and scowled. She motioned to two men beside her, who gently gathered Wylan from Josef’s claws, and rushed her back inside.
:Can you fix her?:
“Maybe a green dragon could regrow her arm, but I’m a wyvern…I will try. Find her arm and bring it to me.”
Wylan stood on grass. It was soft beneath her feet, the blades tickled between her toes. The smell of earth was strong around her, and the ground was moist beneath her. She stretched out her feet, her toes digging deep into the earth to come away brown and wet.
She smiled, and the sound of rushing water made her look up. But it wasn’t water, it was a great forest that stretched out before her. Trees danced in a happy breeze. Leaves and needles in more shades of green than Wylan could ever have imagined dazzled her eye. The trees, though firm and unyielding, seemed to dance in the wind as if they were playing with it.
“So you’ve come to visit me,” a woman said beside her. She knew it was Lissandra, she’d heard the voice so many times before. She wasn’t ready for the vision, though.
Lissandra was magnificent, though decidedly human in shape and size. She was naked, but her body was covered in small, glimmering red scales. Her hands tipped with black fingernails, and her hair long, silky, and orange like the raging flames of a bonfire. The wind tossed her locks about, giving an unsettling image of fire.
“Where is here?” Wylan asked.
“Your imagination,” Lissandra said.
“But why am I here?”
“Don’t you remember the fight?” Lissandra asked, her golden eyes studying Wylan’s face.
Wylan nodded.
“You’re very hurt,” Lissandra told her.
Wylan was aware of a green mist that hung just at the edge of her vision, but when she turned to look, it was gone.
“Don’t try to catch the mist,” Lissandra told her. “It’s Millie’s healing.”
Healing, Wylan thought, and looked down to her arm. It was missing.
“Yes, you are missing your arm,” Lissandra said. “I’m afraid you and I won’t be able to work together much without it.”
“Why?” Wylan wondered.
“How are you supposed to shift and fly without one wing?”
No flying… The thought hit her like a blow to the stomach. For a moment she couldn’t breathe. All she’d wanted since knowing she could turn into a wyvern was to learn how to shift. Wylan looked to her feet, tried to count the blades of grass so she wouldn’t think about it.
“Are you here to tell me what you want?” Wylan asked her.
Lissandra nodded.
“Good, because I have no idea what you mean by unity or family and protection.”
“I want unity with dragons, wyverns, and humans,” she told her. “A family of races to protect and care for one another.”
“And I can manage that in the dragon guard?” Wylan wondered.
Lissandra nodded.
A mournful sound swept through the forest, like children crying. Dark clouds clung to the edges of the forest and the landscape darkened as if night were falling.
“What’s that?” Wylan asked.
Lissandra frowned. “Don’t worry about that.”
“So how am I to manage the other stuff? Family of races and unity?” Wylan asked.
“With patience and knowing that not all races will act as you want them to,” Lissandra told her. Though she’d told Wylan not to worry about the darkness encroaching on them, the wyvern soul certainly was.
“The blue called me the plague bearer,” Wylan said.
“That is something you have to explore on your own,” Lissandra told her.
“Why can’t you tell me?” Wylan asked.
“Because I don’t know,” Lissandra said. “But it feels like he’s right.”
It did.
“What do we do now?” Wylan asked.
“Enjoy the forest, and let Millie work.” Lissandra turned to her. “But first, let’s see if we can help Millie.” Lissandra placed her scaly hand on Wylan’s empty shoulder and heat filled the void.
Millie crouched beside Wylan and cleared her mind. What she was about to attempt was harder than anything she’d ever done, and that included leaving her home and friends to burn in Dulasan. Her energy was running low. There had been so much wrong with Wylan—cracked ribs, a broken leg, a fractured skull, and internal bleeding.
Dragon Plagued: Chronicles of Dragon Aerie Young Adult Fantasy Fiction (Plague Born Book 2) Page 18