A Bitter Brew

by Greg Curtis

  She wasn't alone. Even as they began hurrying to the portal, Hendrick risked a look back at the city and realised that things had changed. The war had paused. Or at least the ghost dragons had stopped attacking. They'd heard that sound too he guessed. And for them without the protection of the shields of air or even the simple fact of being hasted so greatly that the sound muted to thunder, it must have been terrifying.

  The ghost dragons were wheeling around in the sky, circling one another in what looked like blind panic. They looked like a gigantic upside down volcano that was completely black simply because of their numbers. And how many light grey half see-through ghost dragons did it take to completely block out the light and form an inky blackness he wondered? What could have so terrified such an army? Until now he had not thought they even knew what fear was.

  Half way to the portal, Hendrick stopped and turned. And then he ran for Sana, realising that she was still standing there, a beatific smile on her face. She thought this was wonderful. He knew better.

  When he reached her he simply grabbed her up in his arms, turned and ran for the portal as fast as he could. She didn't even try to resist. In fact, she didn't seem to notice that he was manhandling her.

  But before he made it back another cry ripped the sky apart, and then a flash of light left him blinded. Suddenly the ground shook violently, lifting them up and hurled Hendrick and Sana several feet in the air before they smashed into the ground.

  When his vision returned he could see that the ground had been torn apart as if a thousand people with a thousand horse drawn ploughs had spent centuries simply turning the soil over in every direction and for as far as the eye could see. And all of that had happened in a few short seconds, and been done by something that wasn't even there.

  Something else had changed he slowly noticed. His spell of haste had ended, though he hadn’t let it go. So had Marnie's green light. And every other spell they had been using. The portal remained – the magic for it had already been cast – but no one was launching any more spells at the horde. Not among them, and not in the city.

  Had peace been declared? Somehow, he didn't think so as he staggered to his wobbling feet and reached for Sana. This didn't feel like peace. It felt like something very bad.

  This time when he ran, his heart beating like thunder in his chest, and trying to leap over each rut and furrow in the ground, Sana fought him. But she couldn't. She didn't have that sort of strength anymore. And though the ground was broken and he had to jump and leap with every second step, terror was lending him more than enough strength to overcome hers.

  “You don't understand!” Sana yelled at him.

  But he did understand. In fact as he finally reached the others gathered around the portal and safety, he understood only too well. Whatever she had called was dangerous. And when he finally put her down and she tried to run for the city, he grabbed her and held her tight. No one was going anywhere near that place.

  Sana struggled harder, kicking and punching him with all her strength. But Hendrick ignored her as the next blast of light and sound tore at the ground again and he had to concentrate on remaining on his feet.

  But this time the cry was answered.

  White lightning was answered with red. Thunder in the sky met with thunder in the ground. Once more Hendrick went tumbling. But this time when he hit the ground, he stayed there, one arm wrapped tightly around Sana's waist, making sure she couldn't get away. There was no point in trying to stand he knew. They were all on the ground by then, and everyone looked pretty happy to remain there. There was no point in even trying to speak. They couldn't have heard one another even if there wasn’t a cacophony of thunder to compete with. By then his ears were ringing so loudly he couldn't have heard anything at all.

  Had war between the gods been declared? It was the only thing Hendrick could think of as he lay there that made any sense.

  Then, in the space between one heartbeat and the next, the warring sides arrived.

  “Sweet Vitanna!” It was so fast. A streak of iridescence flashed overhead, leaving him with an after image of a long, slender rippling body, scales and wings. And then a torrent of white hot fire blasted into the heart of that black tornado of ghost dragons. Hendrick was again momentarily blinded by it, even as far away as he was, and yet still he saw the ghost dragons exploding into a glorious discharge of flames, streaking through the skies before slowly beginning their graceful descent to the ground. Thousands of them.

  Out of the explosion of fire soared a massive shape. A dragon shooting for the heavens as the ghost dragons fell away from it in showers of fire. And this really was a dragon! Hendrick recognised that glorious rainbow of sinuous scales streaking for the heavens for what it was. Just as he knew it couldn't be. There were no dragons.

  But the dragon didn't seem to care about that. Neither did the others who quickly joined the first one in sending streams of fire into the black tornado, incinerating thousands more ghost dragons in seconds.

  The ghost dragons struck back. Tens of thousands of them launched themselves at the first dragon, climbing for height as fast as they could. But they simply didn't have the speed or the agility to follow it. In fact, it almost seemed that even as they gave chase to that first dragon, that it was laughing at them. Mocking them with its speed and grace. It even flew upside down above them for a time.

  Then it dove, straight at them, and the ghost dragons tried to scatter. But they were far too slow, and the dragon was upon them, sending a flood of fire straight through the heart of the flock, incinerating thousands more of them in mid-air.

  The ghost dragons tried to defend themselves as the dragon dived through them. But it was as if they were slow moving midges attacking a lion. Annoying, but so small against the dragons that they had no impact. They couldn't so much as scratch the dragons’ iridescent scales. And their strangely distant shrieks seemed to have no effect at all.

  Despite their numbers there simply weren't enough of them. But it wouldn't have mattered if there had been millions of them. It would have just taken longer for them to have been killed. And even as he watched, more dragons arrived, shooting torrents of blindingly white fire at the ghost dragons. And despite their immense size the dragons were incredibly fast and agile. They bent and twisted and rolled through the skies, and everywhere they aimed their fire, the ghost dragons exploded in their thousands.

  It wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter. The ghost dragons didn't stand a chance. And soon even they realised that. The last of them, a few thousand at most, scattered and fled. But the dragons weren't about to let them escape. They hunted them down, streaking across the sky like lightning bolts, and in short order that last few thousand became a few hundred.

  One thing was certain Hendrick realised; the war was over. Unexpectedly and impossibly, but still over. But he had no idea what the dragons were going to do once they'd finished with their ghostly counterparts. And if they couldn't even defeat the ghost dragons, what chance did any of them have against the real ones? None at all. No one could fight such a creature.

  “You summoned the dragons?!” He yelled it at Sana once the noise and the ringing in his ears had died down enough that he could hear himself – at least when he yelled.

  “Called. I can't summon a dragon!” she corrected him.

  Sana's point was made abundantly clear as one of the dragons streaked by above them, and he found himself lost in wonder as he tried to gauge just how large it was. Five hundred feet? More? And it moved at the speed of a musket ball, but bent and twisted like a contortionist. It also blew great torrents of white hot fire and undid magic almost as an afterthought.

  It was glorious and terrifying, and most of all Hendrick knew as he lay there, it couldn't possibly exist. Dragons were myths! Except for these ones apparently. But he supposed if there were unicorns, there could also be dragons. What he hated most though was that the dragons had left him completely helpless. He felt vulnerable without his magic. And yet it had
still left him with his portal he realised. Why? So he could escape?

  Sana however, didn't seem to share any of those concerns, lost as she was in sheer joy. She was still trying to wriggle free from him. And since by then the battle had all but ended, he saw no point in trying to stop her. If the dragons decided once they'd finished with their ghostly cousins to move on to killing them, they would kill them all no matter where they were, or what they were doing. So he let her go.

  Sana never looked back as she got to her feet and started running. And he noticed, she didn't have her staff with her. She just ran.

  After that Hendrick just lay there like everyone else, watching. Things were quietening down as the battle came to a close. Every now and then though the ground would shake as a dragon flew too close and Hendrick opted to remain on the ground for the moment. Meanwhile Sana was off and running, heading for the city, and occasionally falling down when the ground shook too violently. But each time she got up and started running again. Soon she was nothing but a tiny spec in the distance.

  Why was she running so desperately for the city? He wondered about that idly as he lay there. Did she have friends that she was worried about? A home perhaps? Or did she have to meet with the Mythagan? If this was indeed a Mythagan city. He suddenly realised that he didn’t actually know. But he did know that she was running to be with the dragons. It was madness, and he almost couldn't believe anyone could be so crazed. Yes, they were glorious. But they were terrifying and utterly deadly. It was like running into a tornado. And yet that was why she was running.

  “Is it over?” Marnie was the one who finally broke the shocked silence of the group. She had to shout though, because even though the battle seemed to be at its end, the thunder hadn’t stopped.

  “I don't know,” he answered her. Because he didn’t know. Nor what would happen next. Or even what they were supposed to do. He imagined everyone else was the same.

  He imagined even the beast’s plans were in disarray. Not the beast itself. It might not have been harmed, but it had just lost its army – or at least a large part of it. That had to be years of planning now destroyed. Because every one of those ghost dragons had required a host to grow in. A woman – who was now dead. And yet that was one hallmark of her, or his or its, attacks. They required years and years of planning. How many decades, even centuries had Erohilm spent with the seven wizards, building them up, just so she could break them and in turn destroy Malthas? She seemed to have unlimited time. Which told him that even if her army was defeated, she wasn't finished. This defeat would only slow her revenge.

  Eventually Hendrick risked sitting up, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he could. The ground was still shaking, but not nearly as violently as before. And he thought the thunder had subsided a little more, though it was hard to be sure. All he really knew was that the battle had ended and no one was trying to kill him. Others around him were also sitting up, though no one apart from Sana was willing to try and stand, let alone run.

  And then finally as he was sitting there, someone asked the question he'd been both expecting and dreading.

  “So what do we do now?” The question came from a man sitting off to his right.

  Hendrick shrugged helplessly as he stared at the impossible spectacle in front of them. He didn't know. And then he prayed to Vitanna that when the dragons had finished with their ghostly imitations, that they didn't come after them. Actually, he prayed to all the gods he knew.

  Chapter Fifty One

  It was late by the time someone came to see them. By then they'd been sitting on the broken ground for a good four or five hours, waiting. For what – they weren't quite sure. But they didn't know what else to do. Should they continue their advance into the city and try to help with the recovery? They could but they didn't know how they would be received. Or should they simply leave? Most of them were still exhausted and they had done what they'd come to do. But if they left it might look as though they simply didn't care.

  So they sat, rested, recovered and waited – all in silence. The healers moved among them, treating the injured. A few returned to Burbage to speak with Tyrollan and tell him what had happened. No doubt he knew but he would still be worried – and frustrated because he could not have helped with the battle. He had no warspell that would be effective against the ghost dragons.

  Marnie was mostly waiting for Sana to return. She desperately wanted the girl to tell her what had happened. If the battle was over. Or if the beast had another army just waiting to be sprung on them. She didn't think he could have. The one he had unleashed had already been enormous. How could he possibly have two? But then she wondered, how could he have created the one he had? It had been vast. She also still didn’t know how he could have transported a volcano across worlds? As everyone kept saying, you couldn't fight a behemoth. You just tried to manage them. Which as far as she could tell meant staying as far away as you could.

  She also wanted to know where the dragons had gone.

  Hendrick she suspected, was waiting for Sana as well. He simply sat there, staring at the distant city in silence. But she wasn't going to ask him. Just then the quiet seemed perfect and to break it would have felt wrong.

  Meanwhile the city in front of them burned. It was vast, and even what she could see of the city that still stood, was wondrous. But for all that it had burned. Sana had been right. The people of the Vordan Empire had been defenceless. Though to be fair, everyone would have been defenceless against such an enemy.

  How many were dead? Marnie looked at the destruction in front of her and tried to guess. Thousands? Millions? Tens of millions? It was a huge city. Secretly she worried that the reason that no one was coming to see them was that there were so few survivors. That even though the attack had been repelled, the cost had been horrific. She knew it had to be terrible, when more than half of the glistening spires that had once crowned many of the buildings, had fallen. When flames were rising from every part of the great city. And when smoke, thick and black, was settling down like a blanket over everything.

  It was already bad when they were surrounded by bodies. Not just those of the ghost dragons. Everywhere she looked there were bodies. And all she could think was that either they had been caught out in the open and running for the safety of the city, or fleeing the city and running for the portal. Thousands upon thousands hadn't made whichever destination they were heading for.

  “A carriage!” One of the others suddenly cried out.

  Marnie looked at where he was pointing to see one of the floating carriages emerge from the burning city and head their way. Seeing it she knew a moment of relief. At last someone was coming to tell them what they should do next. When she sharpened her vision to look more closely though her relief dimmed. It was Darnial Marn. The woman was not her favourite Mythagan and she wasn't that fond of them to begin with.

  The carriage hurried towards them, but still had to steer a meandering path around the bodies of the ghost dragons which slowed it down. Apparently they were too big to float over. Even in death it seemed they were a problem. But that was alright as it gave Marnie a chance to get to her feet and neaten her clothes. Hendrick she noticed, didn't. He remained sitting where he was, waiting.

  In time the carriage slowed as it drew up in front of them, and Marnie watched as the driver rushed to lower the steps for Darnial Marn. Whoever she was to her people – and she'd never actually said – she was clearly an important woman.

  “Darnial Marn.” Marnie greeted her politely though she didn't bow. She'd had enough of that for the moment.

  “Miss Holdwright, it is a pleasure to see you again. And to know that you came to help when we were in difficulty.”

  Difficulty? Was that what the woman would call it Marnie wondered? Because she would have described it as being all but doomed. Still she guessed, the woman had her pride.

  “We were glad to come when Indle sent word.”

  “Indle?” Their visitor seemed surprised.


  “Yes. He came through the portal and said you were all in terrible danger and needed every warspell we had. That your wards weren't working. So we came.” How could Darnial Marn not know that she wondered? Though in fairness, things had probably been very confused.

  “So he redirected the great portal to your Guild.” A frown found her face. “Words will have to be spoken.”

  “But he was right to ask for our aid! In the face of this sort of attack, it had to be done. I only wish he could have called earlier and we could have done more.” Marnie was caught off-guard by the woman's annoyance.

  “No. He was wrong. We were defending ourselves. There were difficulties but we would have won though until our allies came. And in the meantime he has fiddled with a precisely calibrated and delicate magical instrument. He could have done irreparable damage.”

  Marnie stood there staring at Darnial Marn, wondering if she had really just said what she had. Had they just watched the same battle? Had she seen the city behind her?

  “So, you called the dragons?” Hendrick asked.