War of Dragons

by Andy Holland

  "None escaped," Prince Gerald declared proudly. "The town's population was only a few hundred; they never expected to find so many of us waiting for them."

  "Just repeat that ten thousand times and we'll win the war," Lord Nicholas sneered sarcastically.

  "I'll take any victories we can get," Lord Robert said. "However small. They're slowly claiming all of our lands. Anything we can do to stop them should be considered."

  "Provided we don't throw away our troops," Prince Henry argued. "We need to be able to defend Furnace when the attack comes."

  "We won't throw them away," Lord Robert replied. "Lord Daniel, I suggest we try a similar tactic. We both have many troops that escaped with us; rather than spread them thinly I suggest we group them together, in sufficient numbers to wipe out the raiding parties they encounter."

  "How long will that work?" Lord Thorne asked. "A day or two at most? And then you will have conceded all of your lands to them and at some point they'll work out what you're doing and send a large enough force to destroy your troops."

  "We will lose those lands anyway," Lord Daniel argued. "Furnace is where we will be able to make a real stand; if we can chip away at their numbers while we retreat, that will make defending Furnace much easier."

  "Yes, the plans for defending Furnace," Prince Henry began, changing he subject. "Have these changed at all?"

  "Not at all," Lord Karl replied. "If the Blues thought Newcastle was difficult to attack then they will have a real surprise when they come here. We could repel an enemy twice our size here. Prince Gerald is right; here is where we'll defeat them."

  "Perhaps," Lord Robert commented, "although they may have more than that anyway. Lord Daniel and I will proceed with our plans, cautiously, so that they don't take too many of our troops with them, but we have to reduce their numbers or even Furnace will fall. Lords, Princes, we have much work to do. If you need me, you'll know where to find me."

  With that, Lord Daniel and Lord Robert left to begin planning how to defend what little they had left of the East and the South.

  Chapter 24 - The Circle of Death

  All was quiet when they awoke in their dark cave in the Circle of Death and the small company of Red and Golden Dragons emerged cautiously into the cool morning sunlight. Evidence of their unwelcome visitor was all around them, from the wreckage of the cave entrance to the huge footprints outside. Crystal stood inside one to get a better measure of the creature's size.

  "This is huge!" she said in awe. "Do we know how big this thing is?"

  "Shhhh," Mark hissed. "Carry on like that and you'll see it close up again."

  "Why didn't you warn us to be quiet when we arrived yesterday?" Seth whispered. "We were making a lot of noise."

  Mark glared at him. "I didn't know about the True Dragon then. If I had done I'd have insisted on absolute silence."

  "That would have been unnecessary," Noah commented pointedly. "I'd sent Jude and Joseph ahead on the way here, so we knew where it was when we arrived. This morning however, we don't know where it is yet, although I doubt it's that close. Jude has taken all of the scouts to search for it."

  "What will they do when they find it?" Daisy asked.

  "Try to lead it to the east," Noah replied. "We will be flying to the north-west and carrying you so we won't be able to dodge or outfly it."

  "I thought you said it was faster than you," Seth pointed out. "How will they avoid being caught?"

  Noah nodded. "It is a dangerous task. They'll have to rely on their agility rather than their speed. But the scouts are our fastest dragons. They won't be caught easily."

  A loud angry roar broke the silence and everyone turned to face north, where the sound had come from.

  "Into your bags," Noah instructed quietly. "They've found it, or it has found them. Either way it will be pursuing them to the east. We should move now while we can."

  He transformed while Mark, Levi and the other three tasked with carrying the five helped them into their bags. No one had to ask for quiet now; they all took off silently and swiftly, heading to the north-west. They could still hear the creature's angry roars, but could not see it, much to their relief. The convoy of Golden Dragons flew as low and fast as they could, hoping to pass by unnoticed, all the time listening to the maddened creature's roars as they slowly faded away.

  They continued their journey across the Circle of Death, more confident now that they knew the danger was far away from them and they slowed to conserve their energy. They were cutting straight across the creature's territory to make the trip as short as possible, hoping to enter the Blue Dragons' territory well before midday. Unencumbered by passengers, the other five would be able to fly high and fast and catch up with them after losing the True Dragon.

  They no longer flew so low and Crystal was able to gaze down at the scenery that unfolded below her. It was very pretty, with meadows covered in a variety of colourful flowers and small patches of trees in bloom. Although the scenery was glorious, she could sense something was wrong but couldn't put her finger on what. Then it came to her: it was the complete lack of noise. There wasn't a single animal call or bird song; despite the lush greenery and numerous streams and ponds, there were no signs of animal life. It hadn't been like this all the way through the Circle, but was so just here. There was no easy way to alert the dragons, as they couldn't communicate with her.

  "Levi," she said, "something is wrong. Listen, it's too quiet. Do you understand me?"

  Levi nodded, but continued to fly regardless and she just hoped that she was wrong about this.

  Suddenly, erupting from the ground beneath them, appeared something from a nightmare. A huge black head with gaping jaws and terrifyingly large teeth was approaching them incredibly fast. Crystal screamed in alarm, but the Golden Dragons reacted too slowly. The jaws closed on the Golden Dragon next to her, engulfing it completely in the monster's mouth. She watched behind as the monster dropped back to the ground, chewing its victim as it fell and landing with a crash in the thick forest. It had remained completely silent as they had approached, but now let forth a terrifying roar after finishing its meal and with astonishing speed leapt into the air and chased after them. Crystal saw four dragons peel away from the group as Levi descended, flying as fast as he could. Two of them flew straight at the approaching monster and actually fired a stream of fireballs at the creature's head. It let forth its own fire, a river of flames that filled the air and which she assumed must have hit its targets, but when the air cleared she could still see the two Golden Dragons, which were now behind the monster, still trying to attack it.

  It flew on, ignoring the two attackers and concentrating on the main group. Another two Golden Dragons dived at it, hitting its eyes with fireballs before pulling out of the dive just before it snapped at them, barely missing them with its huge jaws.

  It was still not deterred from the chase. The creature's huge dark eyes were wide and there was a look of excitement and malice in them; it was keenly anticipating its next meal. The Golden Dragons acted again, this time the group splitting into two, with half of the dragons going left and half going right. Crystal was not able to hear what they were planning on doing, but assumed that they had resigned themselves to the fact that some of them weren't going to make it and were now just trying to minimise their losses. She looked back and realised in dismay that the monster had opted to follow them and was still gaining on them. It was completely black, covered in spines and looked powerful and heavy, far too heavy to be able to fly as fast as it was doing. Again the group split and she found herself in a group of four going to the left again with the monster still heading after her. She was the only passenger in the group and therefore Levi would be the one least able to dodge the attack when it finally came. She was amazed how fast he was able to fly while still carrying her.

  The Golden Dragons realised their predicament. Two of the other dragons slowed slightly, as if they were tiring, before splitting into two groups again, with Lev
i and another dragon going to the left, still flying as fast as they could, and the two dragons who were slightly further behind going to the right. The monster took the bait, following the other two and ignoring Levi. It was just in time as Levi's strength was almost exhausted and he was forced to slow down. He passed Crystal over to the other dragon with them and the two of them changed direction, heading back to join the rest of the group and flying away from the monster. In the distance she heard she monster roar, hopefully with fury that its quarry had evaded it rather than with delight at having another meal.

  Crystal found that she was still trembling with fear and was damp with perspiration. She tried to slow her breathing to help herself calm down, hoping that the danger was over. Levi and the other dragon were both flying very low, presumably to avoid being detected again. There were just two of them now, the others being far ahead and were unlikely to slow till they were near the edge of the Circle. Crystal wondered who it was who had been killed and whether any others had been caught as well. The one consolation she had was the knowledge that none of her friends were being carried by the Golden Dragon when it was killed. The huge creature was terrifying; so large and powerful yet fast and agile at the same time. She found it hard to believe that such a creature could exist, let alone live not that far from their Kingdom.

  A few minutes later two dragons pulled up alongside them and Crystal was sure it was the two that had been chased at the end. They stayed with them briefly before flying ahead and the feeling of panic returned, knowing that they couldn't outfly the beast if it came after them again. How had it managed to get ahead of them after being led away by the first group? It must have been able to fly unnaturally fast. What if it managed to do the same again? Crystal looked out of her bag and scanned the scenery ahead of her, half expecting to see a monstrous black shape lying in wait for them.

  But the attack never came. They didn't rejoin the group until they were near the border and Crystal was momentarily alarmed to see they were flying towards Blue Dragons, before realising that they were carrying her friends. The dragon carrying her flew beside one of the Blue Dragons and without warning turned to the side and passed her over to the other dragon. Crystal yelped in surprise and twisted to right herself. She had barely composed herself when she found herself looking at Mark, who was dangling from a Blue Dragon flying very close to her.

  "Hi, Crystal. Are you alright?"

  Crystal started in surprise. "Mark, what are you doing being carried? Are you alright? Is Daisy hurt?"

  "I'm fine, I'm here to talk to you." His face grew serious. "Look, we're about to enter Blue Dragon territory. Jude flew ahead, and has confirmed that there is a massive army ahead of us. He thinks we should be able to fly through them safely though. Apparently there are loads of them in the air carrying things to the north-east, so they may be relocating part of the camp or preparing for an attack, or something, but anyway, carrying bags should probably look fairly normal."

  Crystal shrugged. "Sounds like a terrible idea. But I'm guessing we don't have any other options."

  Mark shook his head. "All you need to do is stay hidden in your bag, and stay as still and as quiet as possible. Do not look out whatever you do. We can't allow anyone to see you in there."

  Crystal nodded. "What about the True Dragon? Are we safe from it here?"

  Mark nodded. "I don't understand why, but they rarely leave their territory. The Circle is the limit of how far it will venture. If sufficiently provoked, they'll leave, but never for very long. It won't follow us further than this."

  Crystal nodded, then asked the question she didn't want to know the answer to. "How many did it kill?"

  Mark looked down sadly. "One that I know of. Two of the scouts haven't been seen for some time, so it may be more. We have no idea how it managed to get ahead of us and wait for us. Look, I need to transform now. I'll see you soon." Mark tapped the Blue Dragon's leg, who released him, and he transformed as soon as he began to fall, emerging as a Blue Dragon beneath them. Crystal tucked her head inside the bag and pulled the drawstring to close the top above her. She tried to relax, knowing that she wouldn't be able to see where they were going or what was going to be around them for a very long time.

  Chapter 25 - Succession

  Kanesh admired his reflection in the mirror, wearing his new uniform that singled him out as a general. He didn't really care for the long dark jacket, being impractical for both the warm climate and for quick transformations, but he did treasure what it signified: that he had finally attained his goal, to become a general. He was very old for a newly-promoted general; most of his new peers would have reached these lofty heights many years before the age of forty and in the case of Perak and Tarek, in their early twenties. Many would have doubted that he was going to ever get there but Kanesh's confidence was never shaken. Those destined for leadership were almost always placed on a fast-track promotion path, starting as a flight leader and promoted rapidly without gaining much real experience at the junior ranks. Wing commander by twenty, division commander by twenty-two and colonel by twenty-five; any on the fast-track route that failed to achieve promotion by those milestones was unlikely to get any further. Of course, that didn't matter to many of them; five years at division commander or above and they were almost guaranteed a senior governmental position with all of the perks that accompanied it. It mattered to Kanesh though and having risen through the ranks without ever being on the fast-track program made the accomplishment even greater. Tarek may have become the youngest ever general, but Kanesh was the first to have done so without being fast-tracked for over two hundred years.

  "General, it's time for the meeting—"

  Kanesh silenced his aide merely by rising his eyebrows at him. He didn't need to be reminded of the time. He marched past the flight leader, wondering whether he should demand more senior staff now that he had been promoted. It had been two days since his promotion, but there were more pressing matters at hand so he put the thought out of his mind.

  He walked the short distance from his residence to the grand house that General Zygar was using as his centre of operations. Kanesh was a little surprised at this; Zygar was generally unimpressed by extravagance and was keen on the age-old Blue Dragon approach of levelling all foreign buildings and rebuilding according to Blue Dragon styles, yet he had allowed this building to stand. Kanesh rather liked it; an attractive, sandy coloured old building, but knew better than to say anything positive about it. Praising anything of the Reds would be considered akin to treason. He spied a familiar face on route to the meeting.

  "General Perak, it's good to see you," Kanesh said in greeting. "I trust that you had no difficulties moving your prisoners?" Kanesh had recommended two of his former direct reports to assist in relocating all of the prisoners Perak had taken during the initial attack; two very experienced division commanders that were very familiar with the prisoner program, being from the Army of the Interior.

  "None at all," Perak replied. "Your men handled the whole thing admirably. Two excellent recommendations." Perak opened the door for Kanesh and followed him in. Perak was too clever to have failed to realise that Kanesh had manipulated him into joining the attack on Obud, but if he was irritated by this he didn't show it. "I take it you've heard about the loss in the south-east?"

  Kanesh nodded. "Very unfortunate. Some losses were to be expected, but that camp was thought to be safe. So many prisoners lost; still, your efforts have more than compensated for their loss."

  Perak nodded curtly. Kanesh knew that despite how much he had contributed to it, Perak was not a fan of the breeding program, which Kanesh saw as one of his failings. Not his distaste for the program—no, that was something that Kanesh shared. It was his inability to hide it which let him down. The program was a pet project of Zygar's and open hostility to it was unwise.

  The two generals were ushered into a large room that had been hastily renovated for Zygar's use. The changes were not aesthetic improvements, Kanesh no
ted, noticing the faded patches where paintings must have stood. He wondered what they would have looked like, and whether he would be able to locate them and spirit them away to his own, secret collection. Perak would not have noticed this sort of detail; at least had he noticed he wouldn't have given it a second thought. Utilitarian type, not that different to Zygar and without any vices that Kanesh knew of. A mistake that, Kanesh thought to himself. Perak would wake up one day and realise that he had reached old age without ever having enjoyed himself.

  General Zygar burst into the room, followed by Generals Farak, Xanot and Tarek. He nodded briefly to Perak and Kanesh before impatiently waving them back into their seats as they began to rise. He had barely sat down before beginning the meeting.

  "So, General Farak, are you ready to present your plan?"

  Kanesh glanced around the room at the attendees. Zygar had gathered together just five of his generals; Farak, a veteran and celebrated general who was now responsible for leading the attack on the Red Dragon's capital city; Perak, as the new Commander of the Army of the North-West and the architect of the surprise attack on the numerous smaller settlements surrounding the Reds key strongholds of Obud, Black Rock and Newcastle; Tarek, youngest ever general in the Blue Dragon's history and brains behind the highly successful and innovative bombing operation that had enabled the capture of Obud and Black Rock; Xanot, Commander of the Far West Army that had defeated the Reds in their Southern Principality and taken Black Rock, and a recognised expert on the region; and Kanesh, who was wondering why he had been included, before recalling that he was now one of their peers. Farak rose to his feet and approached the large map that covered the wall behind him and cleared his throat before beginning.

  "The plan is a relatively simple one and has, in effect, already begun. Colonel Nabegar's dragons have begun to clear the way to Furnace, flushing out any Reds still remaining in the Eastern and Southern Principality. Xanot has concentrated his men on the north-west of the Southern Principality, ensuring the Reds don't try and attack from their Western Principality. I intend to attack their capital from the south; flying through their Eastern Principality near the border with the Southern Principality. Colonel Nabegar will lead the first wave and clear the skies above the city and then Colonel Sadik will lead the bombing mission, as he did so successfully on Obud and Colonel Tiam will finish them off on the ground."