by Blair Drake
“That’s why I’m here,” Jervis said. “I’ll be the liaison. Now, Portencia, you go to your corner. Gaanne, over there.” He pointed in the opposite direction. Then to Riata he said, “And King, you stay put.”
“I’ll not take orders from a troll,” Portencia said as she moved to where Jervis pointed.
“He’s a general, so you will listen,” Riata said.
From there, Jervis went on to give directions to everyone standing at the bridge, and everyone listened as if compelled. It seemed as if Jervis was not only in charge, but he’d done it before.
“Woli, stick with the king,” he said. Woli nodded and stepped closer to Riata.
Dylan waited for his orders, but Jervis never even looked in his direction. It was like being picked for teams in dodgeball, and he was the last player. No one wanted the new guy on their team. He looked down at the dirt and kicked it with his foot. How embarrassing.
“Dylan, come with me,” Gaanne said. “We’ll work well together. You’re a rookie, but I can feel your strength.”
He knew she was just trying to spare his feelings, but he appreciated it all the same.
Jervis pulled a large roll of paper from his trousers. By the time he had the whole thing out and in front of him, it was taller than he was. Dylan looked at the troll. How did he do that? Before Dylan could contemplate much more, Jervis said, “Take that corner,” as he handed Dylan the open end of the roll.
Dylan hesitated, knowing where the paper had been, but he took it. Grabbing both corners, he held tight as Jervis unrolled the scroll of paper. It was a map.
Three trolls Dylan didn’t recognize stepped forward and each held a corner of the map to the ground. Dylan continued to hold his corner as Jervis got down on his hands and knees and started pointing to different places on the map and giving orders.
“We have a three-pronged attack. But we need to be flexible, in case everything goes sideways. In battle, sideways happens.” He looked up at his people. “Are you listening?”
Everyone, including Dylan and the three trolls, nodded.
“The king and I talked about this many times over the years. We go in full force with water...actually, water and air to form ice. This way, we can freeze the darkness in place.”
“But that won’t hold. As soon as we turn away, it will melt,” Portencia whined.
“Please, Princess, let me finish.” Jervis went back to looking at the map. “We start here, here, and here.” He pointed to the far reaches of the territory and then dead center. “Ice is the least energy draining for the elementals and mages. The rest will be coordinated with the dragons. We’ll need to work in conjunction with the dragons and mages that have control of fire.”
He looked up again to make sure everyone was paying attention.
“Where are the dragons?” Gaanne asked.
“They’ll be here,” Portencia said.
“Back to the map,” Jervis hissed. “The rest will require good coordination, as we want to use the air to split apart the melted water and blow it back where it came from. If we do this correctly, it will take a very long time for the darkness to regroup and come back at us. Does everyone understand? We will use air to push the darkness away as soon as the fire has melted the darkness from its frozen state.”
“I’m not sure I understand why we have to freeze it first,” Gaanne said.
“You don’t need to know why, you just need to know it will work. This battle could take hours, or it could take days. We’ll have to rotate our troops, because elemental magic can be draining.”
Jervis continued to speak, but Dylan stopped listening. He’d heard it all from Riata. They’d apparently been planning for this day for a very long time. Though Riata didn’t go into details Jervis had, it was obvious they were in the same ballpark.
But the reason Dylan stopped listening wasn’t because he felt confident, it was because he was distracted by the massive dragons flying toward them. There had to be two dozen or more, and when they landed, the ground shook.
“Jervis, my man.” The largest dragon fist bumped with him.
“Opus, good to see you again. Sorry for the circumstances.” Jervis clapped hand to paw.
“I overhead the plans as we were flying in. Hingus had me wired in. Who’s riding with me?” Opus looked around.
Jervis began pairing creatures with the dragons. When he had them paired, he said, “We’ll rotate out in waves. When your magic starts to falter, get out. We have plenty to keep a good rotation.”
Jervis started to say something else, but just then a bolt of lightning struck the bridge and the force knocked them all off their feet.
Opus said, “Let’s go. Let’s get ahead of this shit storm.”
Terrified as he was, Dylan laughed. The dragon just called the darkness a shit storm.
Chapter 18
And what a storm it was. The dragons used all they had just to get into the air. The wind blew so hard everyone leaned into it, and the trolls were knocked over and rolling on the ground. So far, Dylan counted the score as Darkness = 1, Craydusk = 0.
The last command from Jervis before he flew away on Opus’ back was for the ground crew to stay huddled near the banks of the river but not near the house. Should the house tumble, he didn’t want anyone to become trapped. They had enough to worry about without search and rescue.
And off Jervis went into the sky. Dylan did as he was told, waiting for his turn to be called, and dreading it at the same time. The veteran fighters went up in the air with the dragons for the first round, and then more dragons appeared on the horizon. Dylan thought he could see them conferring in the air, then the new dragons swooped down and paired up with the troops.
They took off as soon as they had a partner on their back, and Dylan wondered how they stayed on. He’d find out soon enough.
He covered his ears as the storm rained down upon them. Riata wasn’t exaggerating when he said the thunder could blow out your eardrums. He was glad for the protection he was forced to wear, and glad the others had protection, too. He was surprised he didn’t feel more panic, even as a bolt of lightning hit the tree next to him, split it in two, and shook the ground like an earthquake stronger than he ever felt before.
He finally got up the nerve to look to the skies and watch the fighting. The attacks by the Craydusk and River Ruin folks, along with the dragons, seemed calculated and persistent. He was sure he could see the darkness retreating, but he’d blink and the darkness would double its efforts.
“Isn’t this incredible?” Woli said as she sidled up next to him.
“It’s scary as hell.”
“I can’t wait to ride a dragon. I thought I was going to have to fly and use my dusts at the same time. Having a dragon will make it so much easier.” She stared at the sky.
It was working. The ice turned the black to a dull gray, and then the dragons breathed fire as the fighters on their backs used their air to blow the water away. It was then Dylan realized the darkness wasn’t made of water and air. That’s why they had to freeze it. But in the sky, they couldn’t drop in to break it into pieces, so the drops of water contained the darkness and broke it up. This should have been clear to him from the beginning, but he had to see it in action. He could see the particles of darkness floating away in small bands. The edges of the darkness were no longer a smooth rolling fog encroaching on them, they were now jagged and looked like a rock face being torn apart by the forces of nature.
He didn’t know how long he watched, or how many rotations they went through, when he heard his name. Gaanne called to him from her dragon.
“Dylan, let’s go. Get on.” She reached down and pulled him up onto the dragon’s back.
What a story he’d have to tell when he returned home. He’d fought a war on darkness from the back of a dragon.
“How do I hang on?” he asked.
Gaanne handed him a strap that looked like leather. “Hold this with both hands when you take off. Once you are a
t the edge of the darkness, slip your legs under the strap. It will hold you. You’ll need both hands to work your magic. Are you ready?”
He wasn’t, but he nodded anyway.
Gaanne let go of the dragon and floated to the ground. Before his dragon took flight, he noticed Gaanne was exhausted. If she was of this magical world and exhausted, he didn’t think he’d make it through one round.
As they took flight, Dylan heard a voice in his head. “Don’t tell me your name, and I won’t tell you mine. We are warriors, not friends. When I get back to the edge, you need to spray as much ice as you can while I recharge from the flight. Then I’ll set the ice on fire. At that point, you’ll need to pay close attention. Got it?”
Dylan held on for dear life. He nodded.
“I said, got it?” Apparently, the dragon didn’t see him nod.
Dylan didn’t know how he could hear the dragon, or the dragon could hear him, but he said, “Got it.”
There was no mistaking the edge of the darkness. It was like an abyss. The air went from fresh and easy to breath, to thick and dry.
“Now,” the dragon commanded.
Dylan did as he was told. He put his feet and legs under the strap, then let go. It was surprisingly stable. He felt the dragon shake and realized he was taking too much time. He used both hands the way Riata taught him and worked both sides of the dragon at the same time.
“That’s fine for ice, but you’ll need to alternate for air or you’ll run out of magic too soon.”
Riata hadn’t told him that. As it was, he had no idea how much magic he had inside. Were weanling mages stronger and more powerful because they were younger, or did that come with time and experience? He’d soon find out.
He continued to use water and air at the same time to freeze the darkness. It was difficult to see how much progress he made, but he kept going even though he felt ready to pass out.
“My turn,” the dragon said.
Relieved, Dylan stopped. They said the ice was the easy part, and he was already exhausted. He huffed and puffed but couldn’t catch his breath. Fire engulfed the darkness in front of them, and he could see it ebbing away.
“Go, go, go,” the dragon yelled.
Just then, a thunderous clap knocked Dylan hard. His right leg came loose from the strap, and he grabbed it with both hands to keep from hurling to the ground. He grabbed and pulled himself back up, hooking his right leg under the strap again.
“You okay?” He didn’t sound concerned so much as impatient.
Dylan didn’t waste any energy answering. He just put his left hand up and threw an air ball as hard as he could. He followed it immediately with one from his left hand. This was the only time an air ball was ever a good thing.
He continued to hurl air at the melting darkness, but it didn’t even look like they put a dent in the black mass before them.
He could barely breathe, much less hold on with his legs when the dragon hung a left and nosed dived toward the ground. Dylan’s legs were still in the straps, and he held on with both hands, not sure where he pulled the energy from.
When the dragon landed, two cats had to crawl up and drag him down. He didn’t even have the energy to get his legs out from the straps.
He crawled on all fours back to the edge of the river, pain wracking every cell in his body.
Woli jumped up and down. “You’re back. How was it? Oh, this is so scary and exciting.”
Dylan couldn’t even lift his head to answer. He’d never been so exhausted in his life. He wanted to look up from their spot and see the progress, but more than that, he wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep. He’d wake up and be back in his bed, and this would all be a crazy nightmare.
He rolled into the embankment next to Woli and curled into a ball.
“Are you okay, Dylan?” She patted his back.
He wanted to ask her not to touch him, but when she did, somehow he felt better, stronger. He reached out, took her hands, and held them in his. An energy flowed through her and into him. He no longer hurt, but he was still tired.
“I’ll be okay. Thanks.” He tried to push her hands away. “Stop. You’ll need your energy. I’ve never done anything so exhausting in my life.”
Woli held tight. “Don’t worry about me. They won’t ask me to go up there. I’m on ground duty. We rotated out while you were in the air.”
“That was fast,” Dylan said. “I couldn’t have been up there more than a few minutes.”
“Dylan, we’ve been fighting for almost two days.” Woli looked at him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Two days? How is that possible? I wasn’t up there that long, and I’ve only done one rotation.”
“Don’t worry about the time. Just rest. Your next round will be coming soon. I saw the queen go up recently. You’re next behind her.”
Dylan collapsed into the dirt. He didn’t even care it was uncomfortable and wet. He couldn’t feel the wet anywhere but his face anyway. And after all the fire, the wet almost felt good. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the battle. As he listened, he was sure they were losing.
Woli was right. Dylan would swear he just caught his breath when Gaanne was back and helping him onto the dragon. At least this time, he knew what to do. He’d conserve his energy so he could fight longer.
On the flight to the darkness, there were explosions, and the dragon was rocked off his path several times. Dylan held tight, knowing he had to do his part and be strong so he could eventually go home. This was the first time he was ever really part of a team, and he was elated, scared, and determined all at the same time.
Smarter this time around, Dylan alternated his magic, not using both hands at the same time. It didn’t matter; he was exhausted in no time, but his dragon didn’t seem to notice because they kept working away at the darkness with a vengeance.
Dylan almost tapped out when he finally was able to see progress. The horizon was a purplish pink. They were winning. From the light of the horizon, he could see the particles of darkness blowing away like raindrops on the wind. That’s exactly what it was. He made raindrops of darkness and blew them back to where they came from.
Instead of tapping out, Dylan reached down and patted his dragon on the shoulder. “Thanks. We couldn’t have gotten this far without your help.”
He saw the dragon nod his head. “You could, but it would be much harder, and you’d be here for years instead of days.”
Either way, Dylan was grateful for the reinforcements. But it wasn’t over yet.
His dragon shivered, then dove left, not warning Dylan of the move.
Not expecting it, Dylan didn’t have a grip, and he found himself flopping off the side of the dragon. The dragon didn’t seem to notice him as he dove toward the ground at dangerous speeds. Dylan’s foot moved and came loose from the strap. He was now in the air, dropping at a rate too fast to be alive when he hit the ground. So was the dragon.
He blacked out. All the better, since he was going to be dead in a matter of seconds.
Chapter 19
What? He was still in the air. He looked to see Woli holding him around the waist, carrying him like a sack of grain under her arm as she floated back to solid ground. When she landed, she placed him gently on the grass next to the river.
He heard Gaanne’s voice. “What happened?”
“I think his dragon was hit by lightning or something. He just fell out of the sky, and somehow Dylan was knocked loose and freefalling. I’m sorry I left my post, but I couldn’t let him splatter on the ground.” Woli’s voice cracked with tears. “He was going to die, and this isn’t even his battle to fight.”
Gaanne’s soothing voice sounded edgy. “This is how battles work. Not everyone makes it out alive. He chose to come with us.”
Woli cried out. “No, he didn’t. He’s stuck here because his grimoire was stolen. If everything went as planned, he’d be back in his own world by now. Yet here he is, fighting for your land, for our
territory, as if it was his, too.”
Gaanee calmed a bit. “Yes, he’s a brave soul. And he’s done enough.”
“What do you mean?” Woli asked.
“Look at him. He’s beyond exhausted. He’s never worked magic before, and we’ve asked him to fight for days on end. We are already five days into this battle, and we have many days to go. But we are seeing progress.”
Dylan could hear them speaking, and he wanted to protest, but being grabbed out of the sky knocked the wind out of him, and his stomach hurt like hell. He couldn’t catch a breath to say anything. He wanted to help them. He wanted to continue the fight.
“Grab one of the trolls. Go find Strix’s car, and get to the underground. It’s the only safe place for now. I’ll send someone for you when the battle is done.” Gaanne’s words left no room for argument.
A troll climbed up from the embankment. “I know where Strix’s car is, Your Highness. I can take them.”
That was the last thing Dylan heard, saw, or felt as the world shook and everything went black.
When he came to, he was no longer near the bank of the river, and he couldn’t see the sky. He couldn’t see much of anything, except the dim light emitted from Woli’s wings.
He tried to sit up, but the pain was overwhelming. He could barely move. Even breathing hurt.
“Where are we? What happened?” Dylan croaked.
Woli bent down and petted Dylan’s head. “We’re in the underground. You’re safe now.”
“Why are we here? Why aren’t we fighting?” He looked around to see who else was with them.
“There is no more fight. We won, but not without casualties. It was hard fought, and the darkness retreated, but there is still evil in the air. King Riata and Henry think the evil is looking for you.”
He tried to sit up. “What? Why me?”
“I only heard part of the conversation before they sent us away. But the evil tried to swoop in and grab you as it blew away. King Riata said it needs you to die. Then you can’t get back to your world. The darkness there may be related to this darkness. You learned to use your magic, and now you’re a threat.”