Dragon's Keep: The Complete Dracengard Series

by Christopher Vale

  “What is that?” asked Erec.

  “I am not sure,” Gwillym responded. “Be on your guard.” They moved forward carefully, realizing that whatever it was, was blocking their path. Gwillym stared at the poles as his horse continued to move forward. Then he finally recognized what it was. The poles were in fact lances and upon the ends of the lances were the scouts’ heads. The faces of Brice and Robert stared at Erec and Gwillym, eyes wide and mouths agape as the lance point shoved upward from below their bottom jaw and into their head.

  “It’s a trap!” shouted Gwillym, but it was too late. Before the words had left his mouth, drakmere emerged from both sides of the road with blood curdling shrieks as they attacked the caravan. The guardsmen quickly went on the defensive, surrounding the carriage and lowering their lances to point outward at the incoming draks. Gwillym and Erec drew their swords and readied for battle.

  Erec realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered as drakmere continued to pour out of the bushes. He glanced up at the guards driving the carriage carrying Terrwyn and Taite. Joss and Leon were ready to defend the carriage. “Get my sisters out of here!” he shouted to them. Joss nodded and as Gwillym and Erec moved out of the way, Joss cracked the whip urging the horses forward at a gallop. They did not need much prompting, indulging in the instinct to flee the drakmere surrounding the carriage. Erec watched as the carriage sped away with three draks in pursuit.

  “Go with them!” Gwillym shouted to Erec. But it was too late. At that moment, a large sword stabbed Erec’s horse in the chest and the animal fell over with Erec tumbling to the ground. Erec quickly regained his feet, his sword in hand. Gwillym was the only man still on horseback, as all of the surviving lancers were now fighting the draks on foot with their short swords. “Protect the Prince,” Gwillym shouted to the men as he trotted his mare forward. He rode over to Erec and reached down to pull him up onto his horse as the three surviving guardsmen rushed to protect the Prince. Just as Gwillym grasped Erec’s hand, a heavy blow from a large mace across Gwillym’s back knocked the knight to the ground. His horse ran off in fear.

  Erec helped Gwillym to his feet. The knight’s armor had been badly damaged by the blow, but he otherwise seemed unharmed. Erec, Gwillym, and the three surviving guardsmen fought an onslaught of draks from all sides. They would not last much longer.

  “You must run, Sir!” a guardsman shouted to Gwillym. “Get the Prince to safety. We will hold them off.”

  Gwillym nodded. He knew the guardsman was right. The most important thing was protecting the Prince and his sisters. Because Terrwyn and Taite were, hopefully, safely away from any drakmere, his primary duty now was to protect Prince Erec. “For Avonvale!” he shouted as he looked at the guards. He saw determination in their eyes and knew they would fight as hard as they could to hold the draks back as long as possible. The knight then grabbed Erec by the arm and pulled him into the woods.

  The three guards sliced at the draks attempting to follow the knight and Prince. The pocket of draks collapsed on the guards quickly. The first had his head smashed in by a drak’s mace. The second was grabbed from two different sides and thrown to the ground where he was stabbed by multiple weapons. The third lost his head to a drak’s battle axe. The guards did not hold the drakmere back for long. The creatures dashed into the woods after Erec and Gwillym.

  ***

  Taite stared out of the window of the carriage as it sped down the road, bouncing her in her seat as the wheels hit holes, rocks, or bumps. She could hear Joss in the driver’s seat shouting at the horses and urging them faster and faster. She glanced over at Terrwyn and saw calm on her older sister’s face. Terrwyn met Taite’s eyes and smiled reassuringly.

  Taite’s gaze returned to the window. She leapt back as a drakmere’s head appeared beside her. It was running on all fours, its sword secure in the scabbard slung over its back. It saw her and leapt up, snapping at her with its sharp teeth. It was about to strike again when Valko caught it by the ankle causing the monster to lose its footing and stumble, falling flat on its face. Taite stuck her head out of the window to look behind them. She saw the drak push itself up and turn to look behind it just as Valko leapt on top of the creature clenching its throat in his powerful jaws, green blood squirting all over his gray fur. She smiled, but her joy was short-lived as another drak was coming up on her side of the carriage. Terrwyn grabbed her and pulled her back into the carriage.

  “Stay inside,” she scolded. “They’ll bite your head off!” As if to emphasize the point, a large green arm reached into the window on the other side of the carriage and ripped the door right off. Terrwyn and Taite screamed in unison as they saw the hungry eyes of the beast looking at them as it ran beside the carriage. It was just about to leap up into the carriage when a long lance was shoved through the drak’s head from on top of the carriage. Terrwyn knew it was Leon’s and she breathed a sigh of relief as the monster fell to the ground dead.

  Leon stood atop the speeding carriage to survey the threats and fend off any draks that might get near them as Joss drove. Three drakmere had given chase. Thanks to the little princess’ wolf he only had to deal with two. One came up on the right side of the carriage and he stabbed it through the head with his lance, but unfortunately he lost his grip on the lance and it fell with the drak.

  The next beast came from directly behind the carriage leaping up on top. It landed on all fours and then lifted its head growling at Leon. The guardsman drew his short sword as the beast stood up on its hind legs. It reached over its shoulder and grabbed a mace which had been secured to its back. It hissed at Leon as it took a step forward. The creature stood at least two feet taller than Leon and towered over him. It swung its mace at the Leon’s head, but he was able to dodge the blow. Leon countered with a swing of his sword that was blocked by the mace. The creature reared back and swung another mighty blow at Leon’s head, which the guardsman barely ducked. Leon leapt forward with a slash of his sword, slicing the drak across the arm. More importantly, however, was that Leon had managed to switch sides with the drak and could now see the direction the carriage was riding and the drak could not.

  Leon’s eyes grew wide. “Tree!” he shouted as he dropped down to his hands and knees. The stupid drakmere fell for it. It turned to see and at that moment Leon reached out and sliced the beast’s leg. The creature fell down and Leon jumped on top of it and stabbed it through its open mouth as it roared at him. Leon rolled over onto his back and then used his legs to push the monster off the carriage. It bounced on the road in a cloud of dust. Valko, attempting to catch up to the carriage, jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by the drak’s body. Leon scanned the road behind them and saw no other draks. The only thing he saw was the wolf. He breathed a sigh a relief and then rolled over and slid into the seat beside Joss.

  “All clear,” Leon said to Joss. Joss glanced back over his shoulder just to be sure, then he pulled the reins to slow the horses. He did not want to run them to death if nothing was pursuing them.

  Inside the carriage, Taite huddled in Terrwyn’s arms. Terrwyn felt the carriage begin to slow. She let go of Taite and crawled over to the window. She stuck her head out and looked, but did not see any drakmere. She shouted up to Joss, “Why are we slowing down?” she asked.

  “There are no more draks following us, Your Highness, and I want to preserve the horses,” he said.

  Terrwyn sat back down in the carriage. She thought for a moment. Everything was happening so fast she had not had much of a chance to think about anything other than running. Erec was not with them. She knew that. It was just her and Taite and the two guardsmen.

  “Stop the carriage!” she shouted as she stuck her head back outside and looked up at Joss.

  Joss pulled the reins. “Whoa,” he said to the horses and the carriage rolled to a stop. Leon leapt down on the right side of the carriage. He peered inside at the two princesses through the opening which used to have a door.

  “What i
s wrong, Your Highness?” Leon asked.

  “We have to go back for my brother,” she said.

  Leon shook his head. “Our orders are to protect you and your sister and get you to the ship at Lattingham and then to Dracengard,” he said. “We cannot risk you by going back to the ambush site.”

  “Your orders were to protect all of us,” she countered. “My Father, the King, ordered all of you to protect all of his children and we are going back to find my brother.”

  “Your brother, Prince Erec, the Crown Prince of Avonvale, specifically ordered Joss and I to get the two of you to safety.” Leon said. “And that is what we are going to do. With all due respect, Princess, I didn’t just fight an eight foot drak to the death atop a speeding carriage just to turn around, go back, and hand you over to them.” He began climbing back up into his seat.

  Terrwyn stood and climbed out of the carriage. She stepped down into the road and began walking back in the direction from which they had come.

  “What are you doing, Your Highness?” Joss asked calling after her.

  “If you will not take me back, then I shall go myself,” she said without turning.

  “Bugger,” Joss mumbled. He climbed down and ran after her. He stopped in front of her and she tried to walk around him but he moved to block her path.

  “Get out of my way,” Terrwyn growled at him.

  “Just hear me out, Your Highness,” he said.

  “Very well,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest, cocked her head and stared at him.

  “I know you want to go back and try to save your brother,” he said. “I understand. The men that are with him are my brothers. But we cannot go back. It wouldn’t do any good if we did. Your brother is either safe or he is not. Our going back will not change that either way, but it will most likely put you and your little sister in further danger.”

  Terrwyn glanced back toward the carriage at Taite who was leaning out of the window watching.

  “Do you want to lose your sister?” he asked. “If we go back, there is a very good chance we will all be drak food. You and the little princess included. If your brother is captured then the monsters bested not only him, but Sir Gwillym and six of the best lancers in the kingdom. There is nothing we can do.”

  Terrwyn nodded. His argument was sound as much as it pained her to not go back for her brother. “Alright,” she conceded, “we will go on to Lattingham. But we shall have the captain hold the ship to give Erec and the others a chance to catch up and board.” She turned on her heel and walked back to the carriage where she stepped up and inside and sat back down. As it started to roll down the road again she closed her eyes and thought of her twin brother. She hoped Erec was alright. He had to be.

  The carriage continued south to Lattingham with Valko trotting along behind it. Joss looked over at Leon. “We will need to stop soon to rest and water the horses, but I think we can make it to Lattingham before dawn,” he said.

  Leon nodded. “Let’s move as quickly as possible,” he said the urgency apparent in his voice. “Draks are nocturnal. They hunt better in the dark.” Joss nodded in agreement. He knew there was very little chance any of the others had survived the ambush. It was up to him and Leon to protect the Princesses until they reached the royal ship. That ship would take them all to safety. They just had to make it there.

  Chapter 10

  Gwillym led the way through the woods toward the Ehren River as quickly as he could manage. Tree branches slapped him in the face and shrubs snagged his pants. Erec was right on Gwillym’s heels, glancing back over his shoulder, scanning the trees for pursuing drakmere. He knew that the draks were not far behind and could move a lot faster than he and the knight.

  Gwillym knew that their only chance was to reach the river. Hopefully, he and Erec could get into the river before the draks caught up to them and could float away, out of sight, while the draks searched for them elsewhere. It was a long shot, a real long shot, but it was the only plan Gwillym could come up with at the moment and on the run.

  Erec turned to peek over his left shoulder. He saw tree branches and bushes moving behind them and then glimpsed drakmere through the trees. “Draks are right behind us!” he shouted to Gwillym. The knight fought the urge to turn around and look. It would do no good. They had to keep moving.

  Suddenly, Gwillym and Erec emerged from the woods. The knight barely stopped himself from plummeting off the cliff at the edge of the river. They stood on the side of the cliff and peered over. It was probably forty or fifty feet into the water below. The river was running quickly. With a little luck they could flow with it out of the clutches of the draks.

  Gwillym turned to look at Erec. The Prince was in a battle stance, facing the trees sword at the ready. He knew that the draks would clear the trees any moment and be upon them. Gwillym admired the stance. It was a good one. Erec had become quite a good warrior, a far cry from the clumsy boy Gwillym had taught to hold a sword. He was a man now and could hold his own in a fight. But now was not the time for Erec to prove it. The knight grabbed Erec and pulled him back. “Into the river!” he said and shoved Erec over the cliff.

  As Erec fell, drakmere exploded out of the trees. The monsters always relied on their strength, size, and speed to defeat men. Sir Gwillym used his brain when fighting and that gave him an advantage over the slow-witted reptiles. The first drak reached Gwillym doing what they always did—swinging clumsily at its opponent. It did not have the brainpower to come up with a superior tactic. It did not know what its next move would be if it missed with the first blow. It simply swung its great sword at the knight with all of its might.

  Sir Gwillym spun and parried the blow away. Then as he came out of the spin, he swung low and upward, slicing the drak’s unprotected leg from behind the knee cap. The beast screeched in pain as the bottom half of its leg landed a few yards away and its body toppled to the ground. Sir Gwillym finished the drak by taking his sword in both hands and stabbing downward, piercing the monster through the chest.

  Meanwhile, Erec had sunk like a stone to the bed of the river. In his haste to save Erec, Sir Gwillym had not considered the Prince drowning due to the weight of his armor. Erec immediately dropped his sword and gauntlets and they sank uselessly to the bottom of the river. Then he began to unbuckle the breastplate from his torso. He unbuckled it over his left shoulder before sliding his fingers down to the two buckles on his left side. He unlatched the first buckle and his fingers quickly found the second. But it was stuck. He pushed but could not get the leather strap to move. He pulled at it as he began to run out of air. Finally, it moved and he was able to unbuckle it as well. Once the buckles were undone he simply slid the armor off over his right side and let it drop to the floor of the river.

  He pushed off and swam for the surface as hard as he could, but the steel greaves he wore over his shins still weighed him down considerably. Everything started to go black as he broke the surface of the water gasping for air. He struggled to remove the greaves and sank back down a little as he slid the left greave off and then the right. He broke the surface again, breathing deeply. He was flowing down the river, but keeping his head above water was very difficult. He somehow managed to look back at the cliff and saw Sir Gwillym kill the first drak.

  Sir Gwillym barely had time to pull his sword out out of the fallen drak, its green blood spilling onto the ground soaking the grass, before the next wave of three were on him. The first one swung down at the knight with a large mace, which Gwillym parried. The other two surprised the knight by running past Gwillym, dropping their weapons, and diving off the cliff into the rushing water below in pursuit of Erec. Sir Gwillym watched as they splashed into the water headfirst, but quickly turned his attention back to the fight at hand.

  Sir Gwillym blocked a second blow from the drak. As the third blow swung down at him in a long slow arch, the knight sidestepped it and the mace crashed into the ground with a thud sending dirt and rock into the air. Gwillym took that
opportunity to swing downward and slice off the hand that held the mace. The drak reared up, shrieking in agony, and Sir Gwillym stabbed it right through the throat. The beast fell to the ground with a thud, its body twitching, its lungs gasping as it bled out.

  Sir Gwillym stood up, sword at the ready, and scanned the area. There were no more draks. It appeared that only four had come after them. The rest were most likely too busy eating his men. Sir Gwillym pushed that thought out of his mind. He had to focus. He had to save the Prince. The knight had killed two draks, but two more had gone into the river after Erec, so the Prince was still in considerable danger. Sir Gwillym stepped over to the cliff and looked into the river. He saw Erec swimming toward a bank of the river on a beach without cliffs to worry about. At least he had not drowned. The knight then spotted the two draks swimming after Erec, their tails pushing them along while their heads and backs were exposed, like an alligator. Sir Gwillym had to get to the beach. It was clear that Erec had dropped his sword and would not be able to defend himself. Fortunately, neither of the draks carried weapons either, but they were much faster and stronger than Erec or any human for that matter. Sir Gwillym took off running along the cliff as fast as he could.

  Erec crawled out of the river on his hands and knees coughing up water. He was exhausted but alive. Erec had finally removed all of his armor, but the weight of his clothes had still made it difficult to swim. He had almost drowned and when he saw the little beach, he swam for it. It was the first place he had seen where he would not have to scale a cliff to get out of the river. As Erec coughed up more water, he heard a spine tingling growl behind him. The Prince turned and looked over his shoulder to see two draks slinking out of the water on all fours. The draks growled and hissed at him as they stalked him like prey.

  Erec gathered all the strength he could muster and pushed himself up to his feet. He stumbled once on the slippery rocks, but managed to stay on his feet, running away from the water toward the woods. Erec glanced back at the drakmere who quickly leapt after him, charging toward him on all fours as they hissed in delight at the chase. He knew that he did not have a chance to escape them, but he refused to give up and be taken easily. He longed for his sword which was now at the bottom of the river. As he tore through the bushes, he could hear the drakmere gaining on him. He was surprised they had not overtaken him yet and he suspected that they were probably toying with him. A few more steps and he was knocked down from behind. A drak galloped up behind the Prince, reached out and hit him with a large claw, slamming him to the ground. Then the other one stopped beside Erec, scooped him up, and held him in the air by his wrists.