by Chris Bunch
Kailas was vaguely aware of the sound of the siege engines getting louder, more frequent, and, dimly, the shouting of soldiers from below.
The attack had begun, but he had no time for that.
The walls of Aude loomed up, and Tregony went over them, skimming the battlements.
Hal was just behind him, reaching for his crossbow.
Tregony glanced back, realized he was out of time, and steered his dragon toward the flat roof of the main keep.
He brought his beast in roughly, and jumped from the saddle, running toward one of the two closed doors that led down into the keep proper.
Hal reined Storm in hard, and the dragon's wings flailed.
Kailas fired, and the bolt took Tregony in the leg. He screamed, fell, came back up.
Hal, red rage dimming his vision, rolled out of his saddle, dropped ten feet to the roof of the keep, his dagger coming out.
Tregony turned, pulling his sword.
"Good," he said, "good. Come on, you damned peasant, with your hogsticker, and see what a real nobleman can do."
He lunged at Hal, and Hal barely parried with his long knife.
Again he struck, and this time his blade scored Kailas' ribs.
Hal spun, and whipped his dagger across Tregony's face, slicing it to the bone.
"Remember the last time, Tregony," he hissed. "Remember that piece of wood I scarred you with, back in Caerly."
Tregony screamed incoherent rage, dove at Hal in a long lunge. The man was very fast, but now time slowed for Kailas.
He brushed the lunge aside with his knife, smashed a fist into Tregony's face.
The man staggered back, sword clattering away, hands coming up in protest.
His mouth was opening to say something, but there was no time, as Hal's dagger drove up, under his ribs, thudding home in his heart.
Tregony mewed like that dragon kit he'd tortured long ago, fell.
Some measure of sanity came back to Kailas, and he realized where he was. There'd be Roche soldiers on the roof within moments, not likely seeking a prisoner, nor would Hal allow himself to be taken.
He had Tregony's sword in hand, and then Storm slid in, not a dozen feet away, and there was safety.
He was in the saddle, Storm needing no command to get away, and they were just clear of the roof when a shadow flashed overhead.
Hal had a moment to look up, saw Ky Yasin's pennon, his dragon, and the man glaring down at him.
The dragon's talons took Storm in the wing, tore it, and gashed his back, almost grabbing Kailas.
Storm howled in pain, turned, wing going out from under him, and they slammed down on the keep roof once more.
Hal rolled off, grabbing his crossbow, recharging it as one of the keep's doors came open, and two spear-carrying soldiers ran out.
Hal fired, worked the forehand, reloading, fired again, and both men were down, motionless.
There was a dragon flying toward him, and he took aim, saw Farren Mariah in its saddle.
He brought his mount down.
"Let's be gone! There're those about tryin' to kill us!"
Hal started toward him, heard Storm, keening in pain.
He stopped, stood still.
"Come on, man!" Mariah called.
Hal remembered Storm saving his life on that desolate beach, helping him time and again, and once more that red rage came.
"No!" he shouted back. "Both of us go, or none of us!"
"You're godsdamned daft!" Mariah called, and then there were three more soldiers at the stairs.
Hal spun, shot one, then the other was on him, and he dropped the crossbow, parried the man's pike, spitted him, looked for the third man.
He was stumbling toward Hal, a bolt sticking out of his guts, and then he toppled.
"You stupid bastard," Mariah growled, coming up beside him, reloading his crossbow. "Sir."
"Get your ass out of here," Hal said. "There's only room for one damned fool."
"Shut the hells up. Sir," Farren said. "Get another rack, and get over by that door, and don't make 'em come to us like we was ballroom dancers.
"I'll take the other one."
"Stupid!" Hal called, obeying.
He had a moment to pat Storm, say something meaningless, comforting, he hoped, then ran toward the open door.
Stairs led down, and there were men coming up. Hal shot three times, quickly, and the stair was blocked for a moment by bodies.
He saw Farren, at the other door, pressed by two swordsmen, and shot one out of the way, and Farren killed the other.
Hal heard screaming from above, looked up, saw two black dragons being swarmed by Deraine monsters, like owls in daylight being savaged by crows.
They dove, flapped away to the east, and the sky, at least for the moment, was Deraine's.
"Block the door," Kailas shouted, running back for his flier's dagger, pushing the door closed and ramming the blade into the jamb and kicking it home as a block.
Mariah was doing the same, using a Roche sword.
Then, for a moment, there was peace, except for the slam of the siege engines, the shouts of men attacking the walls, and the screaming of men hurt and dying.
Hal's panting slowed, and the world speeded up to reality.
Storm was looking at him, mouth opening, closing, like a stranded fish. But Hal could see his wounds, and knew, though ghastly, they wouldn't be fatal.
If he could get the dragon off this roof, and out of the enemy redoubt.
Which none of them would be able to do.
"Thanks," he shouted to Mariah.
"Fer what?" the small man asked. "Provin' there's more'n the one damned eejiot in the flight?"
Hammering sounds came from behind one door, then the other.
"Where's your dragon?"
"I slapped the silly git's butt," Mariah answered. "No need for everybody to die.
"And I damned well hope, when this is over, and they start handin' out the medals, there'll be a nice posthumerous one for Mrs Mariah's favorite boy."
"I'll be sure and write the citation myself," Hal said. "But it won't be posthumous."
Mariah stared at him.
"Yer actually thinks yer gonna live this one out?"
"Surely."
Mariah shook his head, and the hammering got louder.
Hal heard the sweep of wings, looked up, and saw Mynta Gart's dragon coming in. Behind Gart was Limingo and an assistant. Both of them carried bundles of gear.
Gart landed, and the two wizards slid out.
"Had I known you planned this," Limingo said, "I would've designed my spell differently."
He went to the edge of the keep, ducked back as arrows shot up.
The Roche soldiers had been cleared from the walls, and there were Deraine and Sagene soldiers between the outer and inner walls.
But they were still barred from entrance to the city, and there was a host of Roche milling around the keep's base, filing into it, toward the stairs.
"Unfriendly sorts," Limingo said. "I think we'll not need corrosion, this close. A nice melting will do fine."
His assistant nodded, began digging through their clutter.
"We'll need," Limingo went on, "a double triangle. Use the blue and the orange markers. Some flax—"
"No flax, sir."
"Hmmph. Well, then, fireweed of course, moonrot, and let me think now…"
Hal saw two more dragons coming in, Sir Loren and Chincha flying them, their backs loaded with an impossible number of soldiers. Both dragons sagged in for grateful landings.
"Grabbed all the spear-tossers we could," Sir Loren called. "Thought you might need them."
Hal felt for a moment as if he might actually live.
Then one door was smashed open, and Roche soldiers were on them.
There was a swirl of fighting, and a man stumbled toward Hal. Kailas was about to spit him, when the man's mouth opened, blood poured out, and he fell.
For a moment, the surge up
the stairs stopped, and Hal heard the steady chant from Limingo:
"Burn and build
Grow, take strength
Feed on what you have
On what you are
On the memory of the casting
When all flowed, poured together."
A wave of nausea struck, and soldiers went to their knees. The Roche magicians were moving against them.
Overhead, three black dragons dove down at the roof. Hal saw Yasin's pennant in the fore.
He knelt, having all the time in the world, seeing nothing but that huge black dragon coming at him, then the pennant, then Yasin, grinning in anticipation.
He touched the trigger, and the bolt shot home, burying itself in Yasin's shoulder. The man jerked, almost coming off his mount, slumped forward.
Hal had a moment of triumph, hoping he'd killed Yasin, then the man sat up, shouting at his dragon, and it banked away from the roof, away from Aude, his two fellows guarding him.
Hal swore. It would have been perfect if he'd been able to kill the man responsible for the black dragons, and end the threat to Deraine… But the last bit of luck hadn't been given him.
Once more, there was a swirl of dragons overhead, and again the Roche attacked up the stairs.
This time, it was a steady stream, and Hal was attacked by two men. He wounded one in the arm, and felt pain tear down his leg.
He swore, lunged, and took the second soldier in the throat.
Hal looked across, saw Mariah down, clutching his arm, a Roche soldier about to spear him. One of the Deraine soldiers hurled a shield, taking the man in the head, and he jerked like a broken-necked chicken, fell on top of Farren.
"And there we have it," Limingo said in a calm, satisfied voice.
There was a great booming sound and Kailas, heedless of danger from the archers below, had to look over the keep's edge. One of the huge main gates was falling inward. Hal saw molten metal dripping down the stone wall.
It crashed down, and Kailas thought the sound filled the universe.
Then the other gate tottered, and creaked across to lie at an angle.
But the way was clear, and lines of soldiers came out of their hiding places in rubble, turns of the earth, and ran through the hole in the city wall.
Roche soldiers came to meet them, but they were no match, and Kailas heard cheering start.
The Roche on the keep roof realized what had happened, that they were now outnumbered, pelted back down the stairs.
Hal, ears sharpened, heard another sound, the sound of Whispering Death, and dragons plummeted down, sweeping the roofs clear of the enemy.
A dark wave beyond the wall grew, rolling toward the breach, and Deraine and Sagene cavalry crashed through their own troops, into the city streets, lances down, shouting their battle cries.
The last Roche lines broke and ran, into the heart of Aude, and the battle was won.
Hal Kailas, suddenly feeling the pain of his wounds, limped to Storm, stroked him, and the dragon's keening grew quiet.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was dusk, a day later. Hal Kailas uncomfortably sat a horse in the middle of a victory parade, through the shattered streets of Aude.
Now there would be an absurd ceremony, the keys to the destroyed city gates handed to the Sagene and Deraine Lord Commanders of the Armies.
Kailas had heard it took most of the night to bring the looters to bay, for few soldiers took kindly to a siege like this one had been, and had wreaked bloody revenge on the women and shops of Aude.
Windows were smashed, emptied wine casks were scattered here and there, and there were bodies, still unburied, sprawled and beginning to stink.
But that was the way of war, though Kailas despised it.
At least he'd gotten Storm off the keep's roof, and under an animal chiurgeon's care. He would heal, and fly again.
As would Hal Kailas.
Trumpets blared, drums thundered, and soldiers cheered.
But this was but one battle.
The might of Roche lay unbroken.
Kailas heard a faint noise, looked up, and saw, far above the city, a circling black dragon.
Perhaps it was Ky Bayle Yasin.
His, and Roche's, debt to Hal Kailas was still unpaid.
The Dragonmaster knew the war, and the killing, had only begun.