The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  That realisation made me smile with an almost maniacal glee. Don't over-think. I just had to make a mess of his little spell to start with and then go from there. No people to leech the life power from, no Bridging. I was still going to be doing my best to save every Tayne warrior out here but I knew what chefs the world over said about breaking a few eggs so couldn't get hung up on it. As long as I was mathematically 'up' at the end of the day, we'd call it a win.

  I angled myself to my right and banked into a massive arc, swinging my giant Dragon back the direction it had come and casually let my mind relax away from my human self and allowed the beast to come out and play.

  "In for a penny …"

  34

  The Tayne all followed on after me with that same detached zeal. The single creature which had managed to land on me had climbed up along the ridges on my tail and had seemed to be making a bee-line for my wings. On its own it wasn't going to be able to bring me out of the air but that didn't mean that I shouldn't be taking steps to remove it.

  As I'd hoped, the cloud of bodies didn't follow the same circuitous turn I made, most of them instead just altering their direction to intercept. My first task was to get passed them.

  I was going to just fly straight through them. My massive, armoured bulk would act as the perfect battering ram and I'd be able to minimise the death toll rather than just burning my way through. I was going to tear my way through that swarm and make my way back to Leatherpants and save the day.

  When I hit the first of the Tayne, all I could comprehend was the burning need for combat. I was being driven by that fire energy and I was going to make sure that these things were going to feel the fullest force of what a Guardian of The Circle could do at close quarters. The impact of something the size of my Fire Dragon would be bad enough on its own but when the object doing the impacting is also swinging heavy limbs with serrated claws, the likelihood of getting injured climbs rapidly. Tayne bodies exploded away from me like water parting to welcome a diver’s entry. The hooting continued in some far off quarters but they had mostly been replaced by a more deep rooted panic at the fight they were all tumbling into against their will.

  I kept on pushing on, my wings beating as hard as I could make them, all the while I was snapping and biting at anything which dared get in my way. Inside my head, my Dragon was screaming and roaring in an animal ecstasy as it just tore through any and all flesh that dared to get in its way. My human mind sat casually on the sidelines and watched.

  Still moving forwards, the cloud of bodies was showing no sign of being dissipated as more and more of the tiny winged creatures flocked in on me. I was still pushing as much effort into my momentum but I could feel that my wings were getting really heavy, beyond simply being fatigue. Back inside my head, my human mind called out, 'They're going to bring you down in the same way as in Argentina.'

  Argentina.

  They'd done the exact same thing when they'd attacked in Argentina. I'd overlooked the basic point. The Tayne weren't attacking me, Leatherpants was. I stopped my wings dead and folded them back as best I could. I could recognise the clumped Tayne around my limbs now they were folded away, stopping me moving as fluidly as I would have liked. I couldn't shake the image of being covered in blood-leeching ticks at the sensation but this wouldn't last for much longer.

  There was no grace as I fell out of the air but when I hit the dusty rock surface, I tucked my shoulders under my body and risked as huge a forward roll as I could.

  Lifting from the floor of the cavern as I bounced from the rock, I did my best to roll hard onto the full expanse of my back rather than just hit on one point, thereby spreading the weight of the collision, but it also gave me the chance to just use gravity to crush those Tayne clinging like limpets to my wings. The crunching sound their bones made, coupled with the shrieking and squelching sounds of the death of those Tayne baited my monster again and my fury flared behind my eyes. Scarlet rose back into my vision and as I came up to my feet, I clawed into the stone floor to anchor myself for any impending attack.

  The Tayne didn't hesitate in their response. A handful of the creatures had survived our landing and those who were still able to move began to power through the remains of their companions which were now slowly oozing down my back to spatter in pools and mounds at my feet, all of them aiming at my head. Others which had been lucky enough to avoid the initial engagement began to rise in several tendril bodies in the air, forming together for a combined attack, no doubt guided by their far off controller wanting to solidify their power. I scanned quickly, violently, around me and tried to keep all of them in my eye-line. I was stood on a relatively shallow fissure in the ground, as wide as any major motorway but flanked by more large black stone chunks.

  I was calling the shots here. Rather than let the Tayne / Leatherpants dictate how this was going to play out, I was going to go on the offensive. Picking out the best possible option, I settled on the boulder nearest to my right side, one the equivalent size of a normal family car, heaved it from the ground and with as much shot putter power and skill as I could channel, I launched it at the largest of the Tayne clusters which was directly ahead of me. It sailed through the inky atmosphere and the Tayne just held their position and watched it come. It hit the centre of the cloud and passed effortlessly through, the eddying air causing the tendrils constituent parts to scatter. There would have been Tayne bodies caught by that rocky missile but the tendril was forming again in exactly the same place. I swear it was tilting its head in the same way Em did when she was trying to work out the nuance of something.

  Roaring again, I wrenched another massive lump of stone free and took aim at a different target, this time the tendril on my left hand side. As I framed my intended victim and prepared to launch my missile, that ever present hooting sound which the Tayne had been making since the very start of this chase began to grow in both volume and location.

  I stood at the ready with my boulder weapon and did my best to understand what was taking place around me. Where was the extra sound coming from? Was it just a trick of the cavern that made sound echo oddly? I swiveled around three hundred and sixty degrees as I scanned and checked for any kind of sign that something else was about to attack me and it was with a sinking heart that my eyes finally settled on a point back towards where Leatherpants was still working his magic.

  High up, above the rough terrain of the cavern floor but moving closer at incredible speed, was another vast cloud of Tayne warriors, hooting and screeching as they came. There was a brief second that not even my animal mind couldn't quiet comprehend what was taking place. Where had these Tayne come from? I'd thought that all of the Tayne had come through the roof of the cavern at the call of Leatherpants. It hadn't even occurred to me that I was fighting against a fraction of the total force rather than the whole.

  I just stood and watched, rock still hefted and ready for action, as a mass of Tayne several magnitudes larger than the one I was currently facing off against spread out to fully fill my eye line.

  As the distance closed in a dizzying clutch of breaths, I let my monster do the talking. I expelled two volleys of flame from my nostrils and unleashed my rock in the direction of the newcomers. It whirled gracefully through the air but this time all of the Tayne were fast to evade it, swooping left, right and up to leave a perfect void for the stone to pass through harmlessly before it crashed apart on the cavern floor. The Tayne just kept on coming. Starting to panic, I took hold of another stone and loosed it at them but despite the one I'd chosen being greatly smaller than the first two, the extra speed had no effect on the Tayne. They again just shifted from the path and carried on.

  I was out of options. I couldn't use a Cascade Bridge and just jump back to Leatherpants and the others, but even if I had, the Tayne would just follow me back there and I wouldn't be able to do any kind of fighting there if I was continuously having to run away before coming back. Leatherpants would just surround himself with a wall of the Tay
ne and I'd be stuck again. I'd have to truly fight fire with fire, regardless of the number of Tayne I destroyed.

  Digging my claws deeply into the stone below me I lifted my arms into as much of a ready stance as I could muster. Roaring and snapping at the Tayne all around me, I lanced out a jet of flame at the first tendril I'd been faced by, rapidly followed by blast after blast at the others tendrils and then towards the onrushing horror. Readying myself for the impact and violence, I bellowed out my defiance as the new wave of Tayne closed for the kill.

  But they missed.

  Rather than just swamp me with their vastly superior numbers, they just peeled past me or shot overhead and began ripping into the tendrils of Tayne warriors instead. The violence which erupted everywhere was startling because of the sheer surprise value it had come with. Hoots became chittering screams, clicking and clacking as Tayne fought Tayne around me, all thought of attacking me gone. Em must have beaten Leatherpants down and taken control of The Drake Stone, compelling the Tayne to come to my rescue. Blowing out a mightily relieved breath, I just stood and watched in awe as the now Em commanded Tayne struck a ruinous blow against their Leatherpants controlled kin.

  But wouldn't that mean that Em would be in control of these Tayne as well so wouldn't need to send anyone to rescue me?

  Perfectly timed as the panic filled my chest, the Tayne I'd performed that surgery on earlier swooped down before me, landing clumsily before prostrating itself at my feet.

  "My most powerful Lord, rescuer of the Tayne race, please forgive my retreat. I explained what had happened to us all to the one you sent me to free as you did me and we thought that freeing the rest of our clan would give you more value than just our freedoms. Please forgive me mighty one." Its voice had started as a purposeful call but as it finished speaking, it had become much more reedy and pleading. It had given amazing help to me and having seen how all thought of warfare practically brought them all to a standstill, the actions of bringing a Tayne army to my aid was bravery far in excess of any I'd been able to see up to this point. I couldn't, wouldn't, let that fact go unnoticed.

  With as much pomp as I could drag together, I responded.

  "I thank you greatly for what you've been able to do here. I thank you and so does The Circle as a whole."

  It lifted its eyes from the floor and seemed to consider what I'd just said. The slightest crease settled in on its misshapen forehead but I just didn't have the time to ease it through the strange lands it was traversing, trying to work out if I was truly thanking it.

  "What is your name please? I will not forget what you have done for me today." Again, make it sound authoritative.

  "I am Greyas, Handmaiden to my Lady Queen." The voice came immediately, almost relieved to be in the familiar position of dealing with someone thought of as a better. Greyas bobbed her head in as formal a gesture as she was able but her swollen frame was moving in ways that she just wasn't familiar with. Since she'd been warped by Leatherpants, she'd almost completely lost herself.

  "Thank you Greyas, but I must now move to end the one who did this to your people." She bowed shockingly deeply again before, with much more grace than I would have thought possible from that mutilated frame, and she took to the air and headed back into the fight which was still raging all around us.

  There was no way I was going to risk the flight back to where everyone was, I just couldn't risk that I'd be too late. Instead, I concentrated on the picture of all of the people in that central hub of power, back where Maria and all of the others so desperately needed me, and brought a Cascade Bridge into existence directly ahead of me. I just had to take the risk and step across the path through Yondah. Rolling my shoulders and readying myself for the worst possible conflict, I snorted and charged through as fast as I could move my giant frame.

  I'd felt the nausea of the energies in the place when the bridge had opened but as I passed through the gateway, I was almost driven to the floor by the diseased energy which was swirling in all directions, whipping and bucking against any and all attempts to cage it. My senses filled with an enveloping pressure that dulled everything, leaving me to struggle to even identify where I was jumping myself. The sticky, cloying mass within the Cascade seemed to adhere to every square inch of my body and for a terrifying second, I thought that I'd been held solidly in place. Happily, the grip from within the ring of power faltered and I was able to escape back to the cavern.

  Ahead of me stood the rocky platform that Leatherpants had set up what was going to be his seat of new power, still with him frantically wrenching at the casing frame around the Drake Stone. Its runes and symbols pulsed with an oddly cadenced beat, as if showing that whatever he was doing was only partially correct and more subtle than I'd first considered, but that he was getting closer. The yellow light was growing in intensity as more and more power was drawn from all those around Leatherpants and the Drake Stone was beginning to pulse with newly reclaimed life.

  There was no sign anywhere of Em but Maria was still next to him. Her tiny body was splitting and breaking away but I could see that now the very edges of her where starting to dissolve slowly, as if burning away to dust, drifting through the air. The power within her was destroying the vessel that wasn't prepared to hold it. She wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.

  Leatherpants' eyes were wild with mania as he manipulated that cage device. Different segments of the runes and glyphs were scorching with life as he moved and moved the blocks within the arms of the cage. Maria reacted to some of the actions, bucking and writhing at some and sagging at others, while I could feel the not so subtle alterations in the atmosphere as he went about his business. I roared and spat fire at him on pure reflex. Considering that Maria was still trapped next to him, the flame splashing against whatever kind of energy barrier he brought up in defence was a huge relief. He didn't take his eyes away from the Drake Stone despite my arrival. He was utterly engrossed with the thought of taking that Dragon energy.

  Maria was still coming apart under the weight of the power in her but now I could see that all of the others were in just as much danger. The energies were still being dragged from them but now the effect of that theft was written deeply on all of them. All of their features were wizened and sallow, their skin hanging limply on what was being left behind. Every ounce of magical power was being taken from the four people who'd come on this mission with me, hollowing them out for the brutal insanity of Leatherpants' jealousy.

  My Dragon took over and I just threw myself headlong at Leatherpants. There was no finesse in my thinking, just the desire to be the righteous deliverer of retribution for what he'd done to all of us. The shield of energy he'd raised ahead of him stood firm as I slammed into it. Sizzling fingers of energy danced across the shield in response, bathing Leatherpants in a flickering blast of light. That did make him look up. He took in the detail of the Dragon trying to break its way to him with a detached air, as if he were just lifting his eyes from his labour for a break. That indifference added more fuel to my fire and I rained down blow after blow on the barrier, roaring and growling for all I was worth.

  "Ah, the animal returns." He turned back to the caged Drake Stone and resumed his dextrous manipulations. "Keep on banging if you wish but you aren't strong enough to break through. It's the same as that which surrounds the prisons you seem so obsessed with defending, with just a tiny addition from me. No Dragon will make it through." I didn't care and just unloaded my aggression on that wall but, despite every effort, it remained in place and resolutely powerful. Leatherpants lifted an eyebrow when I finally admitted defeat and took a step backwards to reassess my plans, all the while breathing deeply.

  "I told you, you mindless beast." His words were like rods of steel being slowly inserted under my giant claws. "No Dragon will be able to cross the shield."

  Had he just given away a secret? No Dragon was going to be able to cross the threshold he'd brought up but did that mean something other than a Dragon would? I loo
ked around the area I was stood in until I settled on to what I was looking for, balled up my fists and began to batter away at the nearest edge of the huge boulder opposite where Leatherpants was. After several impacts, a section of stone as big as my head was cracked away from the rest to land at my feet. In one smooth movement, I'd lifted it from the floor and using every ounce of knowledge I had of the shot putt, I swiveled and launched the stone at Leatherpants. I'd aimed as far away from Maria as I could so if this did work, it at least would only hit that grinning loon.

  The massive rock tumbled through the air before hitting the shield hard and splitting in half with an ear shattering clack which made me wince. The shield was still very much in place but the impact had at least caused the ground to shake wildly, jarring Leatherpants and causing the Drake Stone cage to lurch on its platform. It was only thanks to the steadying grip of Leatherpants that the thing didn't topple over but that was as much effect as I had had. My shoulders sagged. I couldn't help it. I was being out-thought and I just couldn't see a way to break the hold Leatherpants had on everything which was going on. Dust and smaller fragments were still raining down, the remains of the previous missile strewn at my feet. I just stalked back and forth amidst the rubble and fumed my anger at my impotence while my enemy was almost within my reach behind his spell cast haven. He could have been on the other side of the planet though and I knew there was nothing for me to be able to do. Looking at Andrea and the others just shone an even brighter light on that awful truth. In sheer frustration I slapped away at the fragments of stone on the cavern floor with my tail, just to show that I could at least affect them. The pieces flew away and crack-crack-cracked on the shield as their big brother had done, but this time, a couple of the larger pieces didn't stop there.