Delno started to make a heated reply, and Geneva growled both in his mind and audibly. He looked back, and she glared at him without saying a word. The flash of anger he had felt growing abated completely, and he said to Brock, “You are right. I do need to delegate more. If I recall, it was your group that saved my arse when I overextended myself this morning. And it was Nassari and his group that kept the Roracks busy on the ground while you were doing it. I will remember that next time. I can’t fight this war alone; we are a team, and I am only one of the leaders.”
“That’s better, Love,” Geneva said.
“I’m glad we’ve settled that, then,” Brock replied. “Now we had best get ourselves to that meeting.” He strode forward toward the central camp fire.
As Delno joined the group, Walker said, “First, let me apologize for being rude and ignoring you all when we first met,” he waved in the direction of where the southerners had met them by the dragons. “I haven’t seen my cousin, Nathaniel, since the last time he visited the Elven lands with his father. I was so surprised and happy to find him here that I forgot my manners, and now I must beg your forgiveness.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” Nassari said. “We all understand.”
There were nods all around the group, and Walker smiled. “Very well, then,” he turned to Delno and said, “I have traveled extensively throughout the lands. I have even made it into Corice on occasion.” Delno was taken aback by this news, but Walker continued as if he didn’t notice. “It isn’t easy for an elf to disguise himself well enough to travel in human lands undetected, but I am fairly good at it. While in Corice, I heard of the exploits of Delno Okonan. I must say that I am impressed. If you were Hunting Clan, you would have your name for your deeds in the war between Corice and Bourne, and now I find that you are a Dragon Rider and traveling in such prestigious company,” he bowed to Brock. “I am glad we have found you and your group.”
“I must say,” Delno responded, “that I am not familiar with the elves and their ways. I wasn’t suitably impressed with you, Walker, when we met, because I didn’t understand who you were and what you had done. Now that I know, I am also glad that we have met here. Perhaps when the trouble in Horne is settled, and I have put paid to accounts in the North, I can travel to the Elven lands and learn of your people and their ways.”
Walker laughed, “Well said, Delno Okonan. I accept that and offer to be your guide when you visit my homeland. Perhaps you can even persuade my cousin to join us and visit his relations who miss him so much.”
“Done,” Delno replied. “I look forward to it. But for now, we must deal with this unpleasant business here.”
“You are right, my new friend. I bring seventy elves; all from my own Hunting Clan. All have traveled with me in the beast-men’s territory and all are well blooded, though not all have earned their names yet. We bring our skills with bow, sword and long knife; as well as our tracking abilities. We are quite capable of supplying ourselves as we go and will require no provisions other than what we can gather.” He turned and bowed to Rand.
Rand stood and said, “I am Rand Ard of the Iondarian Elite Forces. Traditionally, we are the King’s Guard and don’t leave our own borders. However, our king has decided that he will keep his main army in Iondar and has sent two hundred of his best warriors in response to Brock Ard’s call for assistance. We travel light but bring most of our own supplies. We could use some fresh food to augment the hard rations we carry, but won’t complain if those we join have none to spare.”
Rand bowed to Delno, and, when Delno hesitated, Brock nudged him. He stood and said, “I am Delno Okonan, Rider to Geneva, lineage holder of her line.” Everyone was suitably impressed with both Geneva’s name and her title. Apparently, Corolan was well known in both Iondar and the Elven lands. “I bring a dozen Riders and their dragons as well as nearly forty un-bonded females who have offered their aid in this war. I also bring over six hundred seasoned veterans from the north. We are provisioned and need no supplies. We offer to share what we have and will forage with everyone else if the need arises. We are moving to join forces with other soldiers, who number in the thousands, many of whom are known to us and are counted among our friends.”
“Very well met, indeed,” Rand said. “Now we simply need to work out a suitable chain of command and how we will coordinate with each other before we can get this army of ours back on the move.”
“If we are going to do that,” Delno replied, “we should include Geneva, Sheila, and Wanda.” He nodded almost imperceptibly to Nassari. “As lineage holders, they have authority with the dragons and will be vital in coordinating air assaults, and support for ground troop activity.”
It was well past midnight when the commanders’ meeting ended. It had been decided that each commander would retain command of his own forces. The Elven forces would be the lead shock troops since they were so skilled at tracking the Roracks, and had such good, first-hand knowledge of the terrain. The Iondarians would be their immediate back-up since they were also elite and the two groups knew each other and had worked well in cooperation thus far, even though they hadn’t actually fought together yet. Finally, the Bournese troops would be the backbone of any operation, supporting both elite groups while moving in to hold any ground that was taken.
The job of overall commander again fell to Delno. He had been willing to give the job to Walker or Rand, but it was pointed out that he had done quite well so far, and, being high in the air on Geneva, he would have a much fuller picture of everything that was going on in a battle. He accepted as graciously as he could, and then they adjourned for the night.
Later, Delno once again found himself in the Dream State standing on a ledge with Geneva looking out over the landscape and shifting clouds.
“Hella is here with Warrick, Love; they wish to talk.”
Delno had thought something like this might happen now that they had dealt such a crushing defeat to Warrick’s forces, but he was still shocked. “You seem rather blasé about this development, Love. Aren’t you concerned at meeting them here?” He was thinking about how Warrick had attacked him the last time the two met in a psychic realm.
“Hmph,” she snorted. “Warrick may have some control in his own realm, but here he is more of a guest than you are. The other dragons have only allowed him because I thought you might like to talk with him now. If you prefer not to have this meeting, they will eject him and Hella without a second’s hesitation.”
Delno thought for a moment and then asked, “Could you pull Carra and Jhren in and let them witness this meeting without Warrick and Hella knowing they are here?”
Geneva was quiet for a time and then answered, “I can do it with the help of the other dragons. Many of the un-bonded dragons are supporting us even though they have chosen not to get directly involved. They have decided that what we are doing is important enough that they are bending the rules of the Dream State to accommodate us. Jhren and Carra are here, but Warrick can’t see them. Unfortunately, neither can you for the moment.”
“Very well, Love, I don’t need to see them anyway, not until this meeting with our enemy is over. Me not being distracted with their presence may keep Warrick from suspecting that they are here. Let Warrick through.”
Warrick was soaring on Hella. Once he could see Delno, the pair glided down to land on the ledge. Delno was keenly aware that he couldn’t physically touch Warrick in this place and was a bit frustrated to be so close and not be able to do anything to end this other than talk with his enemy.
Warrick looked as if he hadn’t slept in a week. Even in his psychic persona, he was disheveled and his eyes were sunken. He was looking around as if expecting enemies to jump out and attack him at any moment. Through it all, though, he still had that same haughty look of someone who just can’t imagine himself losing at anything.
They stood regarding each other for a moment, and finally Delno said, “Well, Warrick, you requested this meeting. What’s on your
mind?”
“What is on my mind, youngster, is that I may have been hasty with you before now. You obviously are more resilient than I thought you would be, and I see now that I should have done more to bring you into my camp rather than try to eliminate you. I have come to again offer you the chance to join me. If you do, you will be second only to me.”
“Second only to you,” Delno said thoughtfully, and Warrick smiled. “Let me see now. Paul has told me that Hella has laid a total of twenty one eggs in the last six years, counting the last clutch this year. That means you started with less than two dozen Riders and their dragons that are under Hella’s control, and three of them are still immature. Even if you have managed to get another half dozen or so from outside your little group, that still means that you had less than thirty bonded pairs after we defeated Simcha.” Warrick’s smile faltered as he began to suspect where this line of thought was going. “Paul left your side when he came to realize what you had done to him and Mariah.” At Warrick’s sneer he said, “Oh, you didn’t realize that I was able to figure out your little talisman and project our conversation so that all of those present, including Paul, heard every word you said? I’m sorry, Warrick, you really should learn to watch what you say; it can get you into no end of trouble.”
“You should take your own advice, whelp!” Warrick said angrily and the fabric of the Dream State wavered.
Delno said to Geneva, “Try to hold the contact, Love. Apologize to the others, and make them see that it is in their best interest to allow Warrick to stay for a little while longer.”
He looked back at Warrick and continued, “Let’s see, where was I . . . ? Oh yes, Paul deserted because he came to realize that you were megalomaniac who cares nothing for the people he uses. He has convinced his brother of the same. So that is two Riders lost from your camp to defection. Then there was the un-bonded dragon who killed those two idiots who attacked her and her sister for no reason when they should have kept to their mission of delivering your letter to Torrance of Bourne. He won’t receive that letter, by the way.” Again Warrick looked angry enough to kill, but Delno continued before the man could explode and get himself ejected. “Then there are the five we killed outright yesterday morning, not to mention the nearly four thousand Roracks who died.”
Warrick regained a bit of his composure and said, “At least one of your Riders was killed also.”
“Yes, that is, unfortunately true. Of course, he was one of your former troops who was flying under Simcha’s wing. He was so eager to get clear of you that he was willing to sacrifice himself to save one of us.” Warrick looked as though he might explode, so Delno pressed on quickly. “Add to those numbers the magic user you sent to help, who I killed in Bourne,” Warrick paled visibly, “and that brings the number of your important troops that have died or defected up to ten. That means that you may have less than twenty left. I, on the other hand have recruited the un-bonded dragons you failed to control. They augment our forces quite well, and we greatly outnumber you. Your control is beginning to slip, Warrick; it shows on your face. Give up this madness, and you may live through this. Return the compelling stone and the books you have stolen from the elves and surrender before more people die on either side.”
“You are quite mistaken,” Warrick shouted. “My control is not slipping. My control is absolute, and you will be the one who will die. I won’t even use my Roracks to kill you. I will enjoy doing that deed myself.”
Warrick raised his hand as if to strike like he did in his own psychic realm, but nothing happened. He stared at his hand as he had never seen the appendage before. Then he again pointed at Delno, and again nothing happened.
“As I have said before, Warrick, your control is not as absolute as you think. I am done with you, be gone.”
Warrick started to protest, but was ejected before he could get a word out. Geneva reported that Hella was trying desperately to get back into the Dream State but was being blocked. Once Geneva was certain that Hella could not see what was going on, she opened the contact with Carra and Jhren.
“Well, Old Wizard,” Delno said to Jhren “what are your observations about all of this?’
Jhren considered his answer carefully and then said, “Well, as you have most likely figured, he has greatly overextended himself. He’s so far gone that he can’t even maintain a better psychic image; he just doesn’t have the energy to spare. He is gaunt and hasn’t slept. He is also starting to lose his hold on reality; not that his hold on reality was all that strong to begin with. However, all of that only makes him more dangerous for us. It’s possible that he will simply kill himself trying to maintain control of the beast-men and his dragons, but I doubt it. When his control falters to the point that it is an immediate threat to his life, he will most likely give it up, and fight like a cornered animal. If he does that, he will go directly after you because he has focused on you as his main antagonist to the point that doing so has become an obsession. You had best be careful, Delno; that man wants you dead, and when the time comes, he won’t care what it takes to accomplish the feat, even if it means he dies with you.”
Delno smiled sardonically and said, “That’s what I like about you, Jhren; your cheery disposition and your upbeat advice.”
Chapter 44
The village was unnaturally quiet, and Walker knew that meant trouble. He held up his left fist as a signal to halt. The nineteen elves with him stopped instantly, alert for the slightest sign of danger. If the village had been taken, there should be Roracks present. If it had not, then where were the villagers? Every instinct told him that this was a trap.
His arm was still bent at a ninety degree angle, and his fist was still closed in the sign for STOP. He spread his fingers as a sign to spread out to five yards apart: close enough together to come to each other’s aid while separated enough to prevent being targeted en masse. Then he held up two fingers before gesturing back over his shoulder with his thumb, meaning that he wanted them to fall back by two’s. He and his team partner, being the pair in the lead, began to move back the way they had come as everyone else nocked arrows to cover them.
As the elves began the retreat, the beast-men, who had been hiding in the buildings, began swarming out of the shadows through the doors while screaming out their fierce war cries. The elves at the edge of the village suddenly found themselves outnumbered nearly seven to one. Those who had readied their bows now loosed their arrows and each missile found its mark. A dozen beast-men fell dead, some with more than one arrow piercing its hide.
The Roracks seemed not to notice that their fellows had fallen, and continued to charge. It was only due to the fact that they had to come out of the buildings one at time because of the constraints of the doorways that they hadn’t closed the distance yet. They saw twenty elves and were sure they had lured easy prey into their trap. However, more elves jumped up from the sandy ground. As they rose, they threw off the dun colored cloaks they had been hiding under. Their camouflage was so good that from a distance it looked as if they had sprung out of the earth itself in a shower of dust. They all began firing arrows at the beast-men.
Walker and the elves nearest to the buildings were close enough now that they were forced to drop their bows and draw their swords because those Roracks who had made it out of the doorways alive were nearly on top of them. The elves cut their enemies down like scything wheat. For a moment, it looked like an easy victory for Walker and his clansmen. Then over two hundred Roracks appeared at the end of the village’s main street, and began to run headlong at the elven Hunters.
Before the Roracks could get close though, a light blue dragon appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and flamed those that were at the head of the main group. Saadia’s flame not only killed the beast-men in the front, but also set the buildings on either side of the street on fire. The Roracks had no choice now; if they wanted to continue to attack the elves, they would have to come right down the middle of the pathway, which was just what Nassari had
in mind when he had given Will the order to flame them.
More dragons appeared in the sky. Three bore riders and six more did not. The dragons quickly closed the distance to the village, and the large, orange dragon in the lead flew directly along the main street and began flaming as she reached the Roracks who were just beginning to regroup after avoiding Saadia’s breath. Right behind Nassari and Wanda came Nadia and Pina, followed by Raymond and Terra. The bonded pairs were quickly followed by the un-bonded dragons. By the time the last dragon had made her first run, most of the beast-men were dead or dying.
The elves hadn’t been idle while the dragons had been about their task. They had killed so many of the initial group of Roracks who had been hiding in the buildings that those left were having trouble getting through the doors over the dead bodies of their fellows. The dragons flamed the buildings to kill the Roracks inside while the elves finished off those who escaped the fires. Within minutes of the start of the battle, there were none of the foul creatures left alive.
Wanda landed and Nassari dismounted. “It worked just like we planned,” he said to Walker.
“Yes, my friend, you and your dragons did a fine job. We had a feeling that there was an ambush waiting, and your plan worked flawlessly. We had no injuries on our side, and there are nearly four hundred beast-men dead.”
A large shadow passed over them, and they both looked up to see huge bronze dragon gliding down to land. Once Geneva was on the ground, Delno dismounted quickly, and joined them.
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