Dragon Rise

by D. K. Holmberg

  His sword met a dragonglass sword.

  The man holding it glared at him, hatred burning in his eyes.

  They were Deshazl eyes.

  Fes almost faltered again, but the dragon roaring spurred him to action.

  He fought, twisting and turning, trying to create some separation between himself and the other attackers, but there were too many. There was a limit to how much he could push them back. When he unsheathed the other sword, he spun, crossing the blades and pushing outward with that Deshazl connection, trying to explode it away from him.

  Would it even work?

  Fes didn’t know whether or not it would or whether the Deshazl would be immune to it, especially when they were in numbers like this.

  Power exploded from him, but it wasn’t nearly as much as it had been before.

  It gave him some room, and he swept the swords out in front of himself, extending the space. He twisted, lunging forward and attacking, and was met by a skilled swordsman. Each time he turned, twisting through the motions, the attackers met him, blow for blow.

  With sudden certainty, Fes knew he was outmatched. He would die here. The dragon would be Called. Friends would be attacked.

  Fes didn’t have many friends, not before all of this. The few had consisted of Tracen in the city and Indra. Did he count Azithan?

  Not many friends. Or he hadn’t, not before finding the Deshazl.

  If he fell, and if the dragon fell, the Damhur would continue to come. They would Call the Deshazl, and they would force them into servitude, turning them into slaves. How many of the boys that Fes had rescued would be forced to become soldiers? How many of the women would become something else—possibly worse?

  They deserved more.

  He continued to fight, but he wasn’t fast enough. As much as he wanted to overpower the soldiers attacking him, Fes fell back, trying to put a building behind him rather than more soldiers.

  They recognized what he was doing and kept him in the middle of a circle of soldiers. Someone’s sword slid down his blade and nicked his arm. Fes winced, ignoring the pain. He tried pulling on the connection to the Deshazl, searching for that power, but it wasn’t there.

  As much as he wanted to fight, he was spent. He had given too much of himself trying to escape, and now… Now he had nothing left to give.

  He stumbled and barely managed to bring his blade up to block.

  I’m sorry.

  It was meant for the dragon, sadness that he wasn’t able to help, that he hadn’t been enough, but what did the dragon care?

  A roar echoed, reverberating off buildings and filling Fes’s mind. Heat scorched over him, reminding him of what he’d felt when confronting the Damhur, trying to get to the dragon pearls.

  Were they performing a Calling on him again? Were they somehow convincing him that he couldn’t move? It was possible that they were.

  Even if they were, there wasn’t anything that Fes could do to ignore it.

  He would fight to the death. He would bring down as many as he could and hopefully buy time.

  Fes roared, leaping to his feet, spinning his blades.

  He lunged forward, no longer mindful of himself or his safety, sweeping the blades at anyone near enough to reach. He missed, and though he attempted to attack, none of the blades connected.

  He was forced back.

  As he fell back, knowing there were attackers behind him, he thought he heard a commotion on the opposite side of the street.

  More of the Damhur were coming.

  Even if he somehow managed to defeat these, he wouldn’t be able to overcome all of them.

  The fighting pressed closer, and soldiers that had been attacking Fes turned, giving Fes an opening. He didn’t hesitate to stab them in the back, bringing them down.

  He fought with renewed energy. Maybe the distraction would be enough, and he would be able to take down a few more. Even if he did, it was unlikely to matter, especially as there were more coming at him.

  Fes roared again, and it seemed as if the dragon circling roared with him.

  He knocked back a line of soldiers. Bringing his sword back, he was ready to strike when he realized that they were Dragon Guard.

  It was a Dragon Guard he recognized, the man he had come across when he’d first come to the city.

  “You,” the man said. He looked around at the bodies strewn around Fes. There were ten other Dragon Guard with him, and they finished bringing down the rest of the attackers, giving Fes a needed respite. “I thought you were with them?”

  Fes shook his head. “I told you that I was not.”

  “Who are they?”

  Fes shook his head. “They are the Damhur. I don’t know where they are from.”

  “They are skilled fighters.”

  “So it seems,” Fes said.

  “You are a skilled fighter.”

  “I’m only doing what I need to for my friends.”

  “There are more,” the Dragon Guard soldier said.

  Fes nodded. “There are hundreds. I tried to warn you that they were coming, that they wanted to attack the city, but no one wanted to listen.”

  “The mages are planning something,” the Dragon Guard soldier said.

  Fes looked up, and now that he was no longer fighting, he had a chance to focus on what he could detect of fire magic. It flowed around him, and he realized that Elorayne must have reached the temple and begun to work with the fire mages. Their magic flowed out from them and swept into the city. There might not be any intent behind it other than a desire to prevent the Damhur from controlling the dragon.

  Would it be enough?

  Fes had to hope that it would be.

  “What will you do?” the soldier asked Fes.

  “The same as what I have been doing. Fighting.”

  Fes wondered if the soldier might invite Fes to join him, but he nodded and made a motion, and the Dragon Guard continued down the street, marching on.

  It was probably for the best. What would he have done anyway had he been given the opportunity to fight alongside the Dragon Guard? They wouldn’t trust him, and he wasn’t sure that he could trust them, either.

  There was something that he could do that others might not be able to do.

  If he focused on the Calling, he might be able to use that connection to search for more of the Damhur that he needed to remove, the threat that would be dangerous to the dragons. That was something the Dragon Guard would not be able to assist with.

  Fes tried to ignore the sense of fire magic flowing over him. Instead, he shifted his focus, trying to find that sense of power that Called to him. There had to be a Calling still in the city. He knew that there had to be, especially as they would be using it on the dragon.

  As he focused, he detected that sense.

  It was faint, but he followed it, meandering through the streets and not finding any more soldiers. Fes wasn’t surprised that he didn’t find any. They would be protecting whoever was performing the Calling.

  He began moving faster, tracking the sense of the Calling. At one point, he came across a cluster of soldiers, and he hacked them down before they had a chance to pay attention to him. He continued on, ignoring the sense of the fire magic that pressed on him. It was powerful, and he was impressed by what Elorayne had managed to do. Maybe that was the reason that the Calling felt so faint.

  Hopefully it would protect the other Deshazl, as well.

  He turned a corner and found the Damhur.

  They weren’t in the city, not like the rest. Dozens of them stood on the hillside, far too many for him to overpower easily. At their center was a woman who looked much like the one Fes had faced before.

  How many of the men surrounding her were Deshazl?

  For some reason, that made him pause more than anything else. He didn’t want to hurt Deshazl, especially as he had felt the influence of the Calling and he understood what it was that they must have gone through. If they had lived their entire lives controlle
d, they might know nothing else.

  Fes remained on the outskirts of the city, looking out at them.

  What could he do?

  There might not be anything to do, not unless he somehow managed to find people who could fight with him. Fes turned and headed back into the city. He ran and skidded to a stop when he saw a dozen Dragon Guard. Jaken was among them.

  “I need you to come with me,” he said.

  Jaken glared at him. “And why would I come with you?”

  “Do you see that?” he asked, pointing to the sky.

  Jaken looked up. “It’s kind of hard to miss.”

  “These others intend to control the dragon. If they manage to do so, I doubt that you or the fire mages have any experience controlling a violent dragon.”

  Jaken frowned. “How are they able to control it?”

  “Just know that they can.”

  Jaken looked at the other Dragon Guards with him. Finally, he turned his attention back to Fes. “If this is some sort of trap—”

  Fes shook his head. “It’s no trap. I need your help.”

  He wasn’t sure whether or not Jaken would help. If he did, they still might not have enough men to combat the Damhur and reach the woman at the center, but at least they had a better chance than if Fes went alone.

  “Where?”

  Fes breathed out a sigh and guided them back to the edge of the city. They paused, looking out at the line of others. From here, Fes could feel something more than just the Calling. They were using some sort of fire magic along with it, and the combination was potent, almost as if they were somehow attempting to overpower what the fire mages were doing in the temple.

  Fes glanced over at Jaken. “Can you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “Can you feel what they’re doing?”

  Jaken said nothing, but the slight tension around his eyes suggested that he did. From the way he had managed to cut through a fire mage spell, Fes had thought him Deshazl and wasn’t surprised he could feel this, too.

  “They will be skilled soldiers, but if we can reach her,” he said, motioning to the woman, “we can stop them before any sort of attack occurs.”

  “She controls them?”

  “I think so.”

  “Think? They outnumber us three to one, so if you only think that they do—”

  There was movement near them, and Fes jerked his head around to see a trio of dark-robed fire mages appearing.

  “Jayell?”

  He thought that he imagined it. He had wanted to rescue her for so long that having her suddenly appear felt almost more than he could believe. How was it that she was here?

  And she looked unharmed. Fes was pleased that, other than the fire mage robe, she looked no different than the last time he’d seen her. He had worried that she’d be beaten or bruised or any number of other things, but she wasn’t. She was unharmed.

  “Fes? When Elorayne said—”

  Fes ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. “What did they do to you?”

  Jayell shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What’s going on?”

  He looked at the other two fire mages. From what he could tell, they would be older, likely higher degrees, possibly similar to Elorayne. “She sent you here, didn’t she?”

  Jayell nodded. “She thought you might need help. I’ve been looking…”

  Fes turned his attention toward the grouping of others out on the hillside. “You three need to focus on a shield for us,” he said.

  Jayell frowned at him. “Wouldn’t it be easier to attack?”

  “Your attack won’t work on them.” He raised the sword, and her eyes widened. “A shield will help protect us until we can reach them. I don’t know what they’ll throw at us before then.”

  And he didn’t know whether they would be powerful enough to maintain the shield. Elorayne was a first degree, and she had barely been able to maintain it. Then again, Elorayne had fought against the effect of the magic that they tried to use to raise the dragon.

  Jayell and the other two fire mages took a position in front of Fes and the rest of the Dragon Guards. From there, power began to surge, curving around them in a shield that Fes felt. He glanced over at Jaken, and the clenching of his jaw told Fes that he could feel the same thing.

  They started forward.

  Power began to explode around them, but the shield the fire mages held prevented them from being struck. Regardless, Fes ducked with each attack, knowing it wouldn’t matter but still unable to help himself.

  “Faster,” he said.

  “There is resistance,” Jayell said.

  “I know there’s resistance, but we have to fight against it. Do everything you can to ignore that resistance.”

  Jayell nodded, and they continued pushing forward. Every so often, he could feel how their shield faltered. How much longer would they have before it failed completely?

  At least this time, there was more of them to fight. At least this time, he wouldn’t be confronting the entirety of the Damhur army. When they were ten paces away, soldiers of the Damhur split off from the woman and surged toward them.

  “Now,” he said to Jaken.

  Fes raced forward, sliding around the shield and darted forward in an attack. He unleashed everything that he had remaining. There was the power of the Deshazl flowing through him, and he pulled on it, strength that had been fading suddenly surging within him. He wasn’t certain what he did, or how he did it, but he did it. It had to flow through him. He needed that power to fill him.

  Fes screamed.

  He hadn’t realized it, but there had been a slight effect of the Calling on him.

  The scream released the effect.

  He plunged forward, stabbing with his sword, hacking, his movements brutal, with none of the careful swordsmanship that he barely glimpsed from Jaken and the other Dragon Guard. They were sword masters. Fes was something else. He was a brute, and he used his brutish ability to continue to fight, to carve through the Damhur, and as he did, he found himself nearly to the other woman.

  Much like the last, she had a thick braid of golden hair. Her face was beautiful, but the power she yielded was horrific. She turned toward him, seemingly aware that he was near, and for a moment he froze.

  Fezarn.

  His name echoed in his head, and it released him from her hold.

  He brought his sword up, preparing to drive it down and destroy her, but his sword blow was blocked by Jaken.

  “Jaken. Fight this.”

  The Dragon Guard Captain’s eyes had gone blank, the same as he had seen from Nick. Fighting Nick was one thing. Nick had no real skill, and though he was strong, it was a simple matter for Fes to overpower him.

  Jaken was a trained soldier. He was a skilled swordsman. And Fes should have known better than to bring him into this, especially with the risk that he could be Called and controlled.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” the woman said. “The others have failed to collect you, but I will not.”

  Fes blocked a pair of attacks from Jaken. What must the other man be feeling? Likely he was motivated by a desire to please, the same motivation that filled Fes when seduced by the Calling. Somehow, Jaken had to fight that desire off. Somehow, Fes had to get to this woman.

  He was forced back. Jaken was too skilled, and in this mindless state, controlled by the woman, there was almost nothing Fes could do. His movements were a blur, almost as if he summoned every bit of Deshazl power that he owned.

  “Jayell!”

  Would she know what he needed?

  She had helped him before when he had faced Jaken, and because of her, he had managed to escape, but would it be enough this time? He pushed out with that part of him that was Deshazl, but there was very little remaining. There was a slight burst of energy that exploded on Jaken, sending him back a step, but he darted forward with renewed focus. Hatred burned in his eyes and Fes suspected that the woman controlled his emotions, using th
e hatred that Jaken had for Fes against him.

  And it would work. Fes had little doubt that she would be successful with this.

  Another few steps back, and two more of the controlled Deshazl joined Jaken, fighting alongside him. Where were the rest of the Dragon Guard?

  He jumped backward, surveying the battlefield on the edge of the city. Bodies littered the ground all around him. Was Jayell among them?

  The woman watched Fes. “I will have you. But first, I will have the creature. You can watch as I do.”

  He darted forward, but Jaken slapped at his sword. It went flying from his hand, dropping to the dirt. The three Deshazl circled Fes, who waited for the killing blow, but it never came. They stopped, swords held out as they pointed at him, and he stood helpless. There was nothing that he could do.

  The woman smiled, practically sensing his thoughts.

  Fes couldn’t reach her. If he were to move, the Deshazl and Jaken would make short work of him.

  The dragon roared. He looked up, a strange nausea twisting his stomach.

  As he feared, the dragon continued to circle wider and wider. Fes could feel the effect of the Calling and the way that this woman was working on the dragon. There had to be some way for the creature to fight the effects, wouldn’t there?

  And yet, Fes barely knew how to fight it.

  The dragon roared, flames erupting from its nostrils, and it circled closer and closer.

  As it did, shadows loomed over the ground. When it became apparent that the dragon intended to land, Fes wondered what he would face. What did she planned for the creature? Would the dragon destroy him?

  It dropped to the ground with a thunder of wings. Power radiated from it, the kind of power that Fes had never known. It reminded him of what he had felt in the dragon plains, when he had faced Reina surrounded by the dragon relics. There were no relics here. There was only the dragon.

  And when she controlled it, war would begin. The empire would fall.

  There was nothing Fes could do. As much as he wanted to fight, as much as he wanted to oppose her, there was nothing that he could do without dying.