Dragon Blade

by J. D. Hallowell

  “Not just yet. There are still enough Roracks on the field below that Warrick will feel too safe to come out. We will move soon.”

  Delno was pleased to see that, though the enemy Riders had risen as one, they had not regrouped well after Jhren’s crosswind had scattered them. They flew in mostly ones and twos. There was one group of five, but they were simply milling about as if unsure what to do next. Apparently, at least some of Warrick’s Riders had believed that all they would have to do was make an appearance and everyone in their path would surrender or run away. Those Riders were confused about their next move now that they faced determined foes.

  Meanwhile, the un-bonded dragons made a fourth pass. This time, they took their flame right up to the walls of the building itself. This opened a clear path all the way from the southern end of the plain to the old fort. However, the Roracks on the other side began running to fill the gap. Over half of the Roracks were now dead, and the remainder were beginning to break into smaller groups, but this was no easy rout. Those beast-men still alive were not separating because Warrick had lost control of them. They were breaking into smaller groups so that they would no longer be one large target for the dragons to flame.

  “Tell Jhren that the beast-men are preparing to begin counterattacks on the dragons. They have used arrows sparingly so far, but the initial surprise has worn off and they are regrouping. He must do what he can to help our un-bonded comrades.”

  “I have relayed the message, and Jhren says he sees it. He will use his magic, but he wants to hold some in reserve for when Warrick shows himself.”

  “I don’t like the thought of facing Warrick without him, but if we don’t make Warrick feel truly threatened, he will not show himself at all. Tell him to do what must be done to make those beast men either die or run away.”

  Geneva said nothing for a moment and then relayed Jhren’s response, “I will do what must be done to accomplish your orders, but I hope that doesn’t leave you swinging in the wind when Warrick comes out to play.”

  Delno was about to reply when a dragon screamed in agony. Two of the enemy Riders had gotten through and managed to flame an un-bonded dragon who had strayed from the group. She was burned badly and fell mercifully quickly to her death. As her last heroic act she managed to angle her flight right into a tightly-packed group of over a hundred Roracks. She crashed right in the middle of the beast-men, and her flame bladder burst, incinerating over half of them.

  Delno aimed a bolt of energy at the nearest pair of the enemies who had killed the un-bonded dragon. He used as much energy as he had used that day he split the small boulder outside Orlean while training under Brock. The dragon pulled up in obvious distress and then went completely slack. Her head hung and she fell, tumbling like so much debris. She was dead before she hit the ground, and her rider joined her when her body crushed him as they crashed. Their companion looked for the source of the attack but could see no one and retreated.

  Nassari’s group, which now included Paul and two others, charged at and killed two Riders who were also trying to attack the un-bonded dragons. The enemies were making a run at their prey and didn’t even look up to see if they were in danger. Wanda and Pina led the group, flaming one before they knew what hit them. The other saw the attack at the last second and tried to avoid it and ran right into the flame streams from Mariah and Saadia, while Terra and Raymond acted as rear-guard.

  Five other enemy Riders simply turned and flew away as fast as their dragons could fly. Apparently, they had had enough. Delno was actually beginning to feel that this might just go as planned when Geneva screamed a warning.

  “Two enemy dragons bearing down on us! Hold on!” she shouted as she folded her wings and dropped out of range of the other dragons’ flame.

  Delno chastised himself for not paying closer attention. He hadn’t even been maintaining a shield. He was far enough back that these two shouldn’t have found him.

  “They aren’t part of the original nineteen who rose up, Love. I don’t know where they came from, but they were apparently looking for us.”

  “Watch out, Geneva,” he said, “they’re trying to get above us.” Then an idea struck him and he said, “Slow down slightly; let them think they are going to make it, but make them work for it.”

  Geneva trusted him and slowed just enough that the other dragons started to pull up and would soon be ahead of her if they pushed themselves hard enough. Just as the lead dragon of the two was getting into position to try and flame them, she ran into an invisible wall. The sound of her neck breaking was audible even over the roar of the wind in Delno’s ears. She pitched forward and crushed her rider between her body and the shield that Delno had erected in her path. He had once used the same trick to save Rita’s life back in Palamore.

  The second dragon ran into the first. Though she wasn’t killed by the impact her wings tangled with the dead dragon’s wings, and they both fell. The live dragon struggled as she and her Rider plummeted. Finally, less than a hundred feet off the ground, she freed her wings. However, the effort to free herself caused the dead creature to pitch, and its head hit the live dragon’s rider. The man went limp and hung over his dragon’s neck. Delno didn’t know if the Rider was dead or just knocked out, but either way, his dragon withdrew.

  During this time, Jhren and the un-bonded dragons hadn’t been idle. The Roracks on the plain now numbered less than a thousand. The dragons had made seven strafing runs, and Jhren had used his magic to intensify the fires. The men on the ground were rapidly moving in to attack those beast-men who remained. The rest of the enemy’s Riders were engaged with Delno’s Riders, but they were heavily outnumbered.

  Just then three dragons rose above the walls of the old fort. Delno recognized Warrick and Hella, but had never seen the other two before. Apparently, when Delno had been found, his position had been relayed to Warrick. Warrick and his two companions quickly strove to gain altitude to pursue Delno.

  “Careful, Love, that one dragon is nearly as old as Leera. She and her Rider are not novices. I’m calling for help.”

  Before he could respond, movement on the hills caught his attention. Roracks were pouring out of hiding places like ants from and ant hill. He realized that there must be at least three thousand of them. He now understood Warrick’s strategy. He had used seven thousand of the beast-men as bait, and allowed them to be killed. The un-bonded dragons had made seven strafing runs, using up most of their fire. Some might be able to make as many as five more passes before their flame gave out, but most would be lucky to have enough chemicals left for three. The dragons would be doing well if they could get half of these new beast-men before they closed with the army of men who had already committed themselves to the fight on the plain.

  Delno was angry. He was angry that Warrick had so callously used his forces, but mostly he was angry with himself for being so easily duped into committing his whole force before he had made sure that his enemy had done the same.

  He redoubled his shields and was just about to direct Geneva to go after Warrick when a bolt of magic hit them. If he hadn’t just increased his shields, they might have been knocked from the sky. As it was, they had still been hit hard enough to knock Geneva back nearly as far as the length of her body. Geneva grunted, almost stunned by the impact, and Delno saw the older Rider frown in frustration. Apparently, this man had been sure that his magic would kill the dragon and thus the Rider, and was surprised when it didn’t. The man looked drained, and Delno was sure that he wouldn’t be able to repeat the trick for a while, though he was still dangerous.

  Delno called up a bolt of energy and aimed it directly at the Rider and not his dragon. The bolt hit the other Rider’s shield. The shield held, but barely. Apparently the man was better at the attack than he was at defense. He was rocked in his saddle, and there was a trickle of blood coming from his nose. The look of surprise on his face told Delno that the other Rider had expected Delno to attack the dragon like he had done to Geneva
. By going for the smaller target, Delno had been able to concentrate the bolt.

  The man grimaced and readied for another attack. Suddenly, there was a blue blur and the enemy Rider was nearly knocked from the sky as Leera raked his dragon’s wing with one set of her front claws. The Rider turned to go after Brock and Leera, but as he did, Fahwn hit them. This time the attack came from the other side, and Fahwn raked the other wing. Just as the Rider tried to turn to face the new threat, an arrow suddenly appeared in the man’s shoulder. Delno looked in the direction the arrow had to come from and saw Nat astride Marlo with a bow in his hands.

  The arrow had to penetrate the man’s shield before it hit, so it wasn’t in deep, but it was still a good distraction. The Rider turned to face the new threat, and Leera nearly decapitated him while he was occupied with Nat. The Rider, realizing he now faced an attack by three coordinated opponents, fled to get some maneuvering room.

  “Tell them to be careful,” he told Geneva.

  “Brock says you had damn well better do the same,” she responded.

  There was a younger Rider with Warrick; Geneva had said his dragon was one of Hella’s offspring about fifteen years old, and he hadn’t been idle. The dragon had closed the gap between them considerably and was now nearly close enough to flame Geneva. Delno could see her flame bladder expanding and was strengthening his shield when a light blue dragon appeared to materialize out of nowhere and flame the pair head on. The enemy dragon retracted her wings and dropped to safety, but not before getting singed. She screamed as she extended her wings and caught herself. She turned on Will, but Nassari and Wanda flew at her from the side and nearly got her. She managed to avoid Wanda by inches, but was almost hit by Pina. This pair, too, was force to abandon their original target and retreat. Paul and Raymond were hot on their tail as Nassari, Will, and Nadia circled around to get another chance at them.

  Warrick was so busy directing the other two he had apparently forgotten Delno and Geneva momentarily; it nearly cost him his life. Geneva dived directly at Hella trying to get the older dragon’s wing with her claws. At the last possible second, Hella noticed what was happening and swerved to avoid the collision. Geneva managed to rip a small hole in Hella’s wing, but it was nothing serious. She was still aloft and now she was doubly alert for such an attack. Delno put more energy into his shield.

  Warrick turned and aimed a bolt of energy right at Delno, just like Delno had done to the other Rider earlier. Delno’s shield, however, held fine. It also held as Hella suddenly turned and flamed them, though they felt the heat this time.

  He managed a quick glance and discovered that the un-bonded dragons were actually doing quite well against the new Roracks who were joining the fray. Apparently, they realized that they only had a very limited amount of flame left, and were using that only on the large groups that were massing in preparation of charging the men. Also, it looked as though the flames were burning especially hot, so Delno figured that Jhren was helping with the ground war. That was all of the time he could spare for such observations, and he turned back to Warrick.

  Warrick and Hella made another pass. This time Geneva avoided them and used her own flame as they went by. Warrick hadn’t been shielding as well as Delno had, but they weren’t in the flame long, either. Hella screamed, but it was more in anger than pain. The pair circled for another try, but Geneva matched them move for move. Again and again they made passes and flamed at each other. Again and again the flame burned harmlessly on the other’s shield, while Warrick and Delno both fired bolts of energy at each other while diverting enough energy to maintain their shields. It was a standoff.

  Delno had deflected so much energy with his shield that he was hard pressed to gather enough to reinforce it. He was forced on the last pass to use his own personal energy to shore up the shield against the joint attack of Hella’s flame and Warrick’s magic. He realized that his battle with Warrick would not be decided with this maneuvering for position. Both he and Warrick were getting fatigued, and neither could continue to maintain their shields and their attacks much longer. He had to admit, though, that the man had reserves Delno had not thought would be there.

  “Get above them, Geneva!”

  “Delno, you can’t; he’ll kill you.”

  “He may very well do that, anyway, unless we end this soon. I am running out of tricks, and you are running out of flame. Now, get me above them!”

  Geneva didn’t like it, but she realized that he was right. She tried to maneuver herself above Hella. Hella, of course, thought she was trying to get above to flame them, and kept maneuvering to stay on level. Just as it was beginning to look hopeless, there was a red blur that flew right between them and distracted Hella. Delno was about to tell Geneva to relay to Rita to keep herself and Fahwn out of this, when he saw Fahwn out of the corner of his eye helping Brock force their opponent down to the ground.

  As Geneva suddenly used the distraction to gain altitude without Hella compensating she said, “There’s more than one red dragon here, Love. Thank Sheila if this works.”

  “Thank her for me, Love, I’m too busy at the moment.”

  Saying that, he pulled the quick ties loose and launched himself at Hella’s back. There was a moment when he was suspended in the air between the two dragons that seemed nearly timeless. Everything moved in slow motion until he remembered to widen his field of view. The world returned to normal speed as his left hand neared his goal.

  The dark green dragon didn’t even see it coming. She had just realized that Geneva was above her and had started to move out of flame range when Delno grabbed Warrick’s collar and pulled himself into a crouch nearly on top of her flame bladder. Hella was totally unsure what to do and hesitated.

  Warrick wasn’t so easily shocked. Delno was on one knee, crouching just behind him. He quickly thrust Corolan’s Dragon Blade into Delno’s thigh. Delno felt the blade enter above his knee and travel along the bone and emerge out the back side of his leg just below his hip. Geneva screamed as the blade pierced her Partner. She dove at Hella’s face to keep her distracted, so that Delno would have time to recover and attack Warrick.

  The pain was incredible, and he wasn’t sure why he didn’t lose consciousness. He let loose of Warrick’s collar and grabbed the man’s hand in an iron grip. He could hear several of Warrick’s fingers break under the pressure of his dragon enhanced strength. Warrick yelled in pain, and, his right hand pinned in place by Delno’s grip, drew his dagger with his left hand and tried to swing it around behind himself and stab the younger man. Fortunately, Delno was positioned too far to Warrick's right, and Warrick couldn’t get the blade around as long as Delno was still holding Warrick’s right hand pinned to the hilt of Corolan’s saber.

  Delno drew his own Dragon Blade, and Warrick tried desperately to shift to prevent him from being able to stab or slash him. Delno realized that it was still a standoff, but in this standoff he was at a definite disadvantage. Even if Hella didn’t overcome her shock at suddenly finding him crouching on her back and roll to dislodge him, he would eventually bleed to death. As Delno looked for some way to end this, he saw the compelling stone hanging on a cord around Warrick’s neck, and he knew that this had to end. If it he didn’t do something decisive now, Warrick would kill him, and this could go on for years.

  Warrick was just beginning to get a look of triumph on his face, and he could feel Hella preparing to do a roll. He reversed the saber in his hand and raised it high. Just as Warrick realized what he was about to do and started frantically trying to get around to stop him, Delno plunged the blade straight down.

  Brock had told him months ago, that, in his hand, his Dragon Blade could break steel and even penetrate the scales of a dragon. Delno plunged the blade straight into Hella’s flame bladder nearly to the hilt. Warrick’s eyes went wide and Delno released the man’s broken hand from his grip. Warrick let go of the hilt of the Dragon Blade that was impaling Delno’s leg and Delno worked his own blade back and for
th, widening the tear in Hella’s flame bladder. Then, as Hella screamed in pain and anger, he yelled to Geneva, “Catch me, Love,” and launched himself from Hella’s back.

  As he pulled his own blade free of the dragon’s hide, a gout of flame erupted and his arm, shoulder, and the right side of his face blistered. Somehow, he managed to hang on to his own sword despite the pain from both the burns and the leg wound. He was free falling and wondering what it would feel like to hit to the ground when he felt clawed feet encircle his torso. The claws didn’t penetrate him, so he figured it must be Geneva and not an enemy dragon who had caught him.

  At the same time that Delno was pushing off, the flame that erupted from Hella’s flame bladder surrounded Warrick. He had tried desperately to rid himself of the safety straps that held him in place, but failed. He also couldn’t get a shield up in time. He was dead before the pressure let up enough to stop the jet of flame. Once the pressure let up, the gas burned inside the bladder and it exploded, but with so little of the gas left it didn’t blow hard enough to dislodge the dead body of the Rider. It did, however, cause the dragon to fall screaming from the sky. Dragon and Rider plummeted down and landed with a sort of muffled explosion inside the walls of the old fort. A reddish-green shock-wave traveled from point of impact out to the walls, and then shot into the air several hundred feet.

  Geneva set her semi-conscious Rider on the ground, and then landed a few feet away. Because Geneva had called to Marlo, Nat was already on the ground waiting for them. He quickly ran to Delno and began examining his injuries. Geneva, who had had to dampen down the contact between herself and her rider so that she wouldn’t be overwhelmed by his agony, had managed, despite her anxiety, to use magic to stop the bleeding. Nat pulled Corolan’s Blade from Delno’s leg and immediately started healing the wound. Once Delno’s leg was healed, he turned his attention to the nasty second-degree burns. Even after being healed, it was still nearly a quarter of an hour before Delno regained full consciousness.