by N. M. Howell
Kent and Lilja journeyed all the way across the Old World and returned to Noelle from the east. From there, they began tracking the battalion, taking out as many as they could before finally disguising themselves and joining the ranks. The two climbed their way up. They’d both had engineer training and so they put their skills to use, working on the suits for the battalion and connecting them all to the same network. The enhancements for the suit were real, but Kent and Lilja installed new programming that allowed them to disable the suits remotely, just as they’d done to the four soldiers who tried to turn on their camouflage. They hadn’t brought back the dragonborn reinforcements, but they had come home able to shut down the battalion’s suits, leaving Ashur and his men with nothing but some very expensive pieces of clothing. The only catch was they didn’t have the clearance to get access to a level of the network high enough to have a trickledown effect. They would need to capture either Lucas or Ashur and plug into their suit.
“Looks like we’ve got a few secret weapons after all,” Raesh said, holding Andie.
By then, everyone else was asleep and Andie and Raesh curled up in a corner of the main hub, exhausted.
“It’s still going to be a longshot,” she said. “We have to coordinate all these groups perfectly.”
“And fight. Are you ready?”
“I never have been. Never will be.”
“Me neither.”
“So… we don’t need to have one of those emotional and uncomfortable conversations about our feelings, do we?”
“Nope. I know how you feel about me.”
“Good. I know how you feel about me, too.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The next morning, Raesh finally gave Andie the thing he brought from their apartment. It was her armor. They were outside, in front of the University, surrounded by all the professors, students, and citizens who chose to fight with them. The dragonborn were there, too, beside their dragons, their hands on the hilts of their swords. Saeryn, Gordenson, Lymir, Yara, Bonhaus, Kent, Lilja, and even Murakami were there. Andie had never put the armor on before. She has been afraid of it and of the terrible things she might do inside of it. But a look from Raesh and Saeryn reassured her. She nodded and Raesh and Saeryn helped her put it on.
The armor fit perfectly. The smooth contours of the scaled metal fit her muscles and curves as if it were cut from her very own body. It felt incredible. In her head, Andie couldn’t think of any way to describe it other than that it felt like home. The dragon scales glistened and changed color in the sun, and there must have been some powerful, beautiful magic flowing through it because she felt stronger, braver. Or maybe it was simply being surrounded by so many friends and allies in that short, rare moment of peace.
She tried to hold back the tears, but gave up and let them fall. She knew they were good, not tears of shame or weakness, but tears of joy and pride. She looked around her at all the hopeful faces that looked back. She knew how much they were depending on her. She was just shy of twenty-four years old and never completed even one year of higher magical academic training, yet she and the Queen of her people were about to lead a force into war.
The people around her were hoping, praying she could save them, and she understood just then what Saeryn had been trying to tell her since the day they met. Being a Queen was sometimes about making difficult choices and sometimes about playing executioner, but it was always about protecting your people, no matter the sacrifice to yourself. Andie felt the burden take hold of her as she witnessed every emotion passing over the faces of the crowd around her. She was surrounded by everyone and everything living in the world that mattered to her. And it was time to protect it.
A path cleared for her to a dragon. Andie gasped when she recognized the beautiful creature. It was Ronen, Oren’s dragon. Ronen met her gaze as she gazed into the stunning emerald depths of the dragon’s eyes. A single tear formed in the dragon’s eye, and Andie stepped forward to gently wipe it away. She placed her hand on Ronen’s neck, and the creature craned her head to press against Andie’s side.
Saeryn went first and mounted up. Andie turned to face her people, more determined than ever, and the people reached out to touch her as they crowded around. Something happened to her as she stood there, looking out over her people and the beautiful dragon who had lost her life-long companion. Something changed. She realized, for the first time with any true gravity, that she may never return. She thought to herself that that was okay, so long as the city and everyone in it were safe. She reached the dragon and turned to Raesh. She kissed him as if the war were over and they were staring into the face of a lifetime of peace.
“You still good on that conversation?” he asked.
“Yeah. You?”
“Still good.” He smiled.
Andie levitated up into the air to see the crowd. She had never been prouder.
“I have only one thing to say to you,” she called out. “So long as you can, fight.”
With that, she settled onto Oren’s beautiful green dragon, and all of the dragonborn rose into the air as one. Andie watched as Raesh, Yara, Lymir, and all her friends disappeared beneath them. Then with a ferocious roar, Saeryn’s new fierce green companion began its dive down the mountainside, with all the other dragons following. Their descent was strong, straight, true. The city rose before their eyes as the dragons dashed for the foot of the mountain. As they neared the bottom, Andie could see the train station was crawling with soldiers who were guarding the portal that Marcus set up. This was what she’d hoped for. She sent a byzantium ray of light into the air as a signal to Raesh up on the mountain. He’d know what to do.
The dragons reached the bottom of the mountain and leveled out, heading into the city. They sprayed fire down on the soldiers, and, even at their incredible speed, Andie could still hear them screaming. The dragons wove through the streets, throwing their full weight into the enemy army’s makeshift bunkers and wrapping their great powerful jaws around the posts supporting the army’s watchtowers. As they came around for another pass, some of the dragonborn dismounted and ran ahead to fight on foot, allowing their dragons to target the enemy as they please. Saeryn brought Ronen around for another pass through the streets, this time targeting the supplies the enemy has stockpiled along the streets for easy access.
After wiping out nearly all the visible supplies in the area, Saeryn brought the dragon high above the city to get a view of their surroundings. Andie could see the Thabians and the Thabian ships pulling into the city docks, hundreds of them racing into the city to attack the enemy from the western edge. She turned and saw a series of explosions going off in a very tight, precise pattern from the opposite side of the battle. The miners. The explosions made her think of the trap she had set the night prior.
When she met with the miner yesterday, they gave her some explosives to take with her. It was a small amount, but the man said they were the most powerful in Noelle. Perhaps even in all of Shaeyara. Andie and her friends loaded those explosives onto the train last night and cut the breaks. Her purple light in the sky was the go-ahead for Raesh to release SKY 6. Just as she turned to look, the train came barreling into the station unable to stop. It jumped the tracks, plowed through the crowd of soldiers, and collided with the train station.
The explosion was both magnificent and terrifying. The combustion blew the windows out along twenty blocks of the city. The smoke and flames rushed into the air and reached even higher than the tallest skyscraper. The sound of it was something no one would ever forget. The train station was irrevocably obliterated and all that was left of where the massive crowd of soldiers stood was a monumental crater. Andie did not relish that such violence and death were the result of her planning, but she knew she had to defend her people. What made her feel better was the sight of their forces rushing out of the white dome, having just gotten off EARTH 1.
Saeryn brought them down again and they took a survey of the city. Their secret forces and the miners ha
d come up from the shelters to fight, and the enemy army looked unpleasantly surprised. The miners had explosions going off all along the eastern edge of the city, and, though it was hard to tell from where she was, she thought the Thabians had made quite an entrance on the other side. She and Saeryn did a last pass to burn up some more of the enemy’s supplies and then they dismounted to fight on foot. They touched down just in front of some battalion soldiers and got to work.
The war had begun.
The fighting raged all day and night. From the moment they soared down over the precipice of the mountain, the dragonborn hardly had a chance to rest. The professors and students, too, had proven themselves beyond valorous, fighting until they thought they couldn’t, and then fighting some more. The fighting covered the entire city, from the foot of the mountain to the northern edge of the city, and from the Spider Sea all the way across to the String Fields. The dragons swooped in to catch an enemy in their claws or teeth, and sprayed their fire when they could, but they had sat the fight out for the most part so as not to hurt the good fighters who were battling in such close quarters with the enemy.
The two armies went after each other with everything they had. The streets rang with the deafening sound of gunfire and screaming. The air was thick and brilliant from endless spells and hexes being hurled through space and glass. Colors and collisions of all kind flashed in the air and against buildings as the armies cast simultaneously. Buildings were shaken and some even collapsed as the expression of magic filled nearly every street of Arvall. The sun rose in the east beyond the fields and set in the west against the horizon made by the shimmering sea, and still the fighting raged on without stop, without mercy.
Many were wounded, some gravely so. Many were dead. Those who were wounded were dragged far enough out of the fray to safety, until they could rest and recover and then take to the streets again. In some parts of the city the fighting slowed as the armies cast across boulevards from their hiding places. In other places, the stench of death was overpowering as soldiers from both sides collided in a close, furious brawl for the city and its soul. There was even fighting inside the buildings as soldiers chased their enemy inside and upstairs. The destruction and hatred knew no bounds, no limits.
Andie and Saeryn fought side by side, so elegant and powerful that they were almost never hit, not even by the battalion. On the rare occurrence they were hit, it was only a momentary wound, for the dragon blood healed them quickly—though the wounds they sustained from the Beautiful Dead in the Black Grotto still pained them. To conserve the magic in their blood, they did as much fighting as they could with their swords, though it was truly a magnificent sight to see them effortlessly cast a spell that could take out a dozen men. Andie went from casting spells, to using her sword, to hand to hand combat, and back again. Andie’s arm ached from swinging the sword so much, so wildly. A part of her conscious just wanted the fighting, the inevitable death, to be done with, and she knew Saeryn felt the same way. She also knew what she was doing was right. She continued protecting her people.
Raesh, Yara, and Bonhaus fought in close quarters all day. Raesh’s pearlblood magic was as wild as ever, and during the battle it served him well. Most of the enemy had never even heard of pearlblood magic, let alone seen it in action. Bonhaus was at his best, mixing his superb combat skills with his precise casting abilities. Yara’s capabilities had grown remarkably since the last time she faced the battalion. She brought with her now all kinds of spells and hexes she picked up during her self-imposed exile, but her most lethal method was fighting with her wind daggers, which cut and flew back simultaneously. She was fantastic and undeniable. She, Bonhaus, and Raesh could be found wherever the fighting was thickest.
The Thabians and the miners managed to keep the battle contained on both sides. Some soldiers tried to flee across the sea, but they couldn’t break the line of the Thabians who, for all their disdain for modern technology, were such skilled fighters that not even the battalion could break their formation. Their weapons, crafted in their beautiful secluded isles, were strong, true, and deadly. Soldiers laughed to see their bow and arrows, but their laughter did not lasted long. The miners, though lacking training and even rudimentary military skills, proved themselves a great help. They spent the night laying out mines along the border of the String Fields, horrifying traps for any enemy so bold as to try to escape that way. They had weapons that created both far-reaching jets of flame and multiple combustions. They were also incredibly skilled at localizing fire and manipulating it to their will.
Kent and Lilja spent the day seeking out battalion soldiers. They knew they didn’t have the strength, even combined, to take down Ashur, but if they could find and defeat Lucas, they’d be able to hack his suit and send a command through the battalion network to make all of the suits useless. They hunted down battalion members wherever they could. They could still shut down the suits of any battalion soldiers in their immediate vicinity, and their work went a long way in helping to even the playing field. Many had forgotten just how powerful the battalion suits were. Kent and Lilja had to give the battalion the impression that they were helping them, so the enhancements were real, initially, but they were programmed to return to normal function the minute they came through the portal.
Even functioning at a normal level, however, the battalion was still incredibly dangerous. They were already combat specialists months ago, but their time among the Dead made them even more lethal. Their suits amplified what they could do naturally, which essentially meant they didn’t need to stop and rest, a considerable advantage in a battle that lasted days.
Though Ashur was not yet fighting, Lucas had been on the streets of Arvall since before even Andie. His training was impeccable, precise, deadly. He was molded by Ashur, the commander himself, and thus he felt no remorse or pity, only a thorough hatred for the dragonborn and anyone who sided with them. Many died by his hands.
Lymir and Murakami fought long and hard, despite their age. They moved from shelter to shelter, helping to protect those who could not protect themselves. They also got on the radio and called out positions and patterns, giving their forces the best possible chances. Between fighting in the streets and their broadcasts, Murakami and Lymir made sure the supplies of all the shelters were still good, and they organized scavenging missions for their forces to steal supplies from the enemy.
The council fighters were as strong as ever, fighting in formations and varying the patterns so the enemy couldn’t learn them. Despite their high numbers, they fought as a single unit, one well-trained and powerful body. They, like everyone else, fought thinking of all they had lost because of motions the University set into play centuries ago. They fought thinking of all they knew they would have to sacrifice before this war was over. With magic, fists, and guns they moved through the city, giving the battle everything they had.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The war raged on. The Dead still hadn’t shown their faces, but Andie knew they were simply waiting for the most opportune moment. Morning became day, day became night, and in the darkness the fighting continued. The city was lit by the deranged flight of a thousand perilous spells.
“You...”
“Seem.. .”
“To...”
“Have...”
“Lost...”
“Heart.”
“Will...”
“You...”
“Simply...”
“Watch...”
“From...”
“Safety?”
Beladorion turned slowly to the priests and looked down at them, so much smaller and less intimidating than himself. But he knew better than to compromise the plan.
“It almost sounds as if you question my courage,” he said. “One might even think you question my ability. I would advise against that. I have not underestimated you and I would suggest you not underestimate me. I know exactly what this looks like, as if I fear the blood traitors and only want to face them when they�
�re weakest. That is half true. My people and I have no interest in fighting, at least not for very long. I’ve realized we can take no glory from this battle whether the traitors are fresh or exhausted. All we want is to kill the Queen and princess and drink of them. It will not hurt our pride if we have to take them at their lowest. Our aim is to evolve. Still, fear not. These blood traitors are strong and when the sun comes out again in the morning it will rejuvenate them. The morning will also be the day that we have waited for. And then we will descend upon them.”
“We... “
“Shall...”
“Go...”
“Down...”
“At...”
“Midnight.”
“Six priests in robes against this army? You’re either extremely brave or much more naïve that even I believed. I suppose I understand why this is personal for you. The traitor princess is the first person to ever escape from your clutches. It is a total embarrassment. Have your fun priests. I will watch from here.”
“Just...”
“Watch...”
“For...”
“The...”
“Red...”
“Sand.”
The night wore on and the hours fell away. The war shifted its way around the city, winding through the streets, its fronts changing. The thickest fighting breaking apart, the thinnest converging, the city fell to pieces everywhere. Whole buildings collapsed and fires raged too big and too numerous to be extinguished. There had been heavy losses on both sides and some streets were impassable because of the bodies, but neither side wavered in its resolve.
As the night wound to its close, to the point where it became yet again morning, Andie came to a shelter for water and a moment’s rest. She was also listening to the radio for news of Raesh and her other friends on the other side of the city. As midnight struck, a kind of wave passed through her. She felt awkward for a moment, but the feeling passed. Having heard neither good nor bad news about Raesh, Andie cleared her head and rushed back outside. On the street, she found Saeryn, who seemed a bit woozy.