Omensent: Revealing the Dragon (The Dragon Lord Series)

by Barry Gibbons

  It was several hours later and the sun had just began to set when Ignan, who had been carefully watching the fleet for any sign of activity, suddenly stepped back from the wall, his face an odd shade of grey. "T-They're doing s-something!" He stammered at the others, who hurried forward to look out at the fleet.

  "It looks like they're preparing for their next attack." Captain Harper grumbled. "I guess they've finally decided how they are going to proceed."

  "Ready the men," Sly ordered Langsten and Juco. "and make sure all of the siege machines are prepared to fire upon the fleet once they're in range."

  "It looks like most their planning on throwing everything they have at us." Garth murmured, standing on a crate so he could watch the fleet without standing on his tiptoes. "Almost all of the ships are raising their sails."

  "I guess we've run out of time." Ignan sank down into a chair with a defeated expression. "We're doomed."

  "What are you talking about?" Captain Harper asked, a look of excitement in his eyes. "This is when all of the fun actually starts!" He grasped the frightened looking merchant by the arm and dragged him to his feet. "Come with me. We'll get you outfitted with some weapons and armor."

  "I-I can't f-fight!" Ignan stammered in terror. "I've n-never so much as h-held a sword, let alone k-killed a man!"

  "There's a first time for everything." The extravagant old captain laughed, dragging Ignan towards the stairs.

  "Some men just aren't cut out for this type of work." Juco grunted, watching as they disappeared down the stairs.

  "He's actually been far more useful than I would have believed." Sly defended the frightened merchant. "He is one of the most efficient man that I have ever met. It's too bad that he doesn't have any experience in battle. I bet he'd make a great strategist."

  The sun finished dropping behind the horizon as they continued to watch the Etazk prepare to attack. Damarius stepped forward when it finally grew too dark to see the fleet and once again used his magic to created a blazing ball of light, which flew out to hover high above the churning sea, illuminating the enemy fleet.

  "Here they come!" Garth warned, watching as the distant ships slowly began to move towards the harbor's opening.

  The trebuchets suddenly lashed out, sending a dozen bundles of flaming pots hurling towards the fleet. The bundles suddenly burst open, raining the burning containers down onto the ships below and setting several ablaze.

  Everyone suddenly stopped in place as an ear splitting shriek shattered the night, and every single set of eyes turned to stare at the incoming fleet. Another shriek pierced the air, and then another, and another, until an entire chorus of shrieks was echoing through the night, sending chills running down their spines.

  "What is that?" Garth asked Damarius, yelling at the top of his lungs in order to be heard over the strange sound.

  "I have no idea," The old wizard watched the incoming fleet intently. "but we'll soon find out."

  Another volley of bundles was fired at the fleet, spreading out to rain down and set dozens of ships aflame, then the shrieks suddenly fell silent, and for a long moment, everyone was left staring in confusion.

  A sudden pulse seemed to vibrate out from the Etazk ships, and a fierce wind began to blow in from the sea bringing with it the sickly smell of burning flesh.

  "This can't be good." Juco grumbled as dozens of huge bat-winged creatures launched themselves into the sky from the decks of the incoming ships. They immediately started towards the city emitting the same shrieking cries that had pierced the night moments before. "What are those things?"

  "I haven't the foggiest idea." Damarius shrugged, squinting to get a better look at the strange beasts. "They must be something conjured up by the priests."

  As the beasts drew closer, the companions were able to get a better look at the beasts. They were huge, standing at least ten feet tall, with immense leathery wings and heavily muscled bodies the color of stone. Their faces were the stuff of nightmares, with long tapering snouts that were bristling with wicked looked teeth. Their eyes burned with a fiery orange light as they stared down at the defenders on the harbor wall, sending chills up their spines, and causing many of the men to cry out in terror.

  "Archers to the ready!" Garth roared, grabbing his heavy battleaxe from a nearby table.

  The archers quickly took aim and loosed a barrage of arrows at the creatures, but the beasts merely ignored them as they bounced harmlessly off their hide.

  "Any ideas?" Sly asked, watching as the beasts started to swoop down from the sky towards the city wall.

  A bolt of pure energy suddenly leapt from Damarius's staff and struck one of the creatures full in the chest, exploding with tremendous force. "They're gargoyles!" He exclaimed in surprise. "They're made of stone!"

  "Stone?" Sly stared at the beasts in shock. "I've never seen stone fly like that!"

  Another volley of bundles fell among the fleet as the catapults suddenly leapt to life, hurling dozens of flaming pots down at them Etazk ships. The screams of the dying joined the chorus of shrieks from winged creatures as the men packed aboard the burning ships threw themselves into the churning sea in order to quench the flames.

  "Watch out!" Garth roared as one of the winged beasts crashed down onto the top of the wall and began ripping through their men, who fought valiantly to drive the beast back.

  Damarius rushed over to look down at the rampaging beast, then leveled his staff and sent another bolt of energy sizzling at the beast, blasting it to bits, and showering the nearest soldiers with chunks of stone.

  The entire sky was now alight as the burning ships began to drift aimlessly. The churning sea sent several of them careening into other ships, setting them alight, while others merely broke apart, sending their occupants to the depths. The rest of the Etazk ships continued forward towards the harbor's entrance, the men crowded on their decks roaring in fury.

  The archers positioned inside the towers began to shower them with wave after wave of arrows, mowing down hundreds of men, and sending several of the ships careening into the shoals around the harbor walls. The pounding waves quickly took control of the helpless vessels and bashed them to pieces against the submerged coral.

  "Prepare to activate the defenses!" Damarius roared, blasting another winged beast into rubble as it swooped in towards the catapult, its glowing eyes locked on the huge siege machine.

  Garth rushed down the stairs and yanked back one of the levers, releasing the combustible fluids to rain down on any incoming ships.

  There was a sudden earsplitting shriek as one of the winged creatures suddenly dropped down from the sky and crashed through the steel tube which spread the flammable liquid across the harbor, mangling the tube and ripping free from its mounts. It plummeted down into the harbor, leaving the foul smelling liquid to spew down into the water from the sides of the towers in huge arcs, where it began to spread across the surface with an oily shimmer.

  "Not yet!" Sly stopped one of the dwarves as he went to toss a torch into the liquid below. "Wait until they start to enter!" He watched as several ships began to enter the harbor. "Now!"

  The dwarf tossed the torch over the wall, then covered his ears as an enormous explosion suddenly shook the tower.

  "How long will that stuff burn?" Garth asked Damarius as he rushed back up to join them on the top floor of the tower.

  "I'm not sure." The old wizard replied, leaning against his staff and breathing heavily. "An hour or so after we finally run out of the supply that we have stored in the tanks, I'd guess."

  They watched as many of the Etazk warriors began to abandon ship as their crafts drew closer to the flames. They struggled against the powerful current for several moments before vanishing beneath the waves, unable to swim to safety due to their heavy armor. Their ships sailed uncontrolled into the flames and vanished, instantly consumed by the roaring inferno.

  The catapults and trebuchets continued to fire volley after volley of the containers filled with na
phtha and pitch, which rained down onto the invading ships like miniature meteorites falling down from the sky.

  The entire harbor tower suddenly shook violently, throwing them all to the ground.

  Sly quickly scrambled back to his feet and looked out at the fleet. Standing on the deck of one of the oncoming ships, he saw several robed figures standing together in a semi-circle. As he watched, a huge ball of fire formed in the air before them. It hung suspended before the priests for several seconds before suddenly streaking forward towards the tower. It struck the heavy granite and exploded, throwing everyone from their feet once again.

  "The priests have come out to play!" The little man bellowed to Damarius, who was busying trying to untangle himself from his robes.

  "Target their ship with the catapult!" The old wizard roared to the dwarves as he scrambled to his feet.

  The dwarves leapt into action, aiming the large machine at the ship carrying the priests, but an instant before they fired, one of the winged gargoyles suddenly swooped down and slammed into the catapult with tremendous force, reducing the stone creature to rubble, and sending the catapult toppling off of the side of the tower, crushing several of the dwarves that had been preparing it to be fired. It crashed down onto the wall below and splintered into pieces, spraying dozens of their own men with jagged splinters of wood.

  "Those beasts are crashing into your machines!" Sly roared, lurching back to his feet and rushing over to check on Damarius, who had been knocked from his feet yet again.

  He helped the old wizard back to his feet, then turned to see another beast as it crashed down onto the opposite tower, destroying the other catapult. "You had better do something soon, or those things are going to destroy all of your machines!"

  "Oh no they're not!" Pushing the little man aside, Damarius leveled his staff and blasted three of the swooping beasts from the sky in rapid succession, then steadied himself as the tower was suddenly shook by another blast from the priests. Cursing viciously, the old wizard leveled his staff at the ship carrying the priests and sent a sizzling blast streaking forth, reducing the vessel to flaming rubble, and sending the priests hurtling into the sea.

  He dropped down to one knee, his breath coming in great gasps, and his face dripping with sweat.

  "Watch out!" Garth roared as one of the stone beasts swooped down towards the exhausted old wizard, its glowing eyes locked on his prone form. The sturdy little dwarf rushed forward and heaved his heavy battleaxe with all his strength, sending it whistling end over end, striking the beast an instant before it reached Damarius. The heavy steel bit deep into the creature's head, reducing it to dust, and shattering the rest of its body into tiny pieces, which rained down onto the startled old wizard.

  "Thanks for that." Damarius murmured to the dwarven king as he brushed bits of rubble from his from his robes.

  "Don't mention it."

  They watched helplessly as another one of the flying creatures crashed into a trebuchet, sending it toppling off of the harbor wall and crashing down into the shoals that surrounded the harbor, sweeping dozens of men to their deaths as it fell. The remaining trebuchets fired yet another volley of containers out among the fleet, raining flaming death down onto the Etazk, who continued to push forward relentlessly.

  More Etazk priests appeared on the decks of the oncoming ships, returning the flaming volleys with their own balls of fire, causing the granite walls to tremble alarmingly.

  "More ships are trying to enter the harbor!" Langsten reported, running up the stairs to rejoin them.

  They all rushed over to look down at a group of approaching ships.

  "What are those priests doing?" Garth asked, pointing down at several robed figures standing at bows of the approaching ships.

  They watched as the ships started fearlessly into the flames that still raged in the mouth of the harbor, seemingly unconcerned by the inferno. As the ships entered the harbor's mouth, the priests suddenly raised their hands to the sky, using their magic to part the towering flames, and allowing the ships to pass through unharmed.

  Damarius cursed, then rushed down the stairs to the platform that overlooked the harbor's opening.

  "They're going to make it through!" Langsten warned.

  "That's what they think!" The old wizard yanked one of the control levers, releasing a set of heavy stone weights which dangled outside of the tower, causing them to drop into the sea below, and bringing a huge submerged log that was covered in hundreds of steel spines surging to the surface. It crashed into the bottom of the two lead ships, driving the steel spikes through the vessels' hulls and pinning them in place, completely blocking the harbor's entrance. Several more of the approaching ships crashed violently into their rear, trapping them all in the fiery inferno.

  "They're stuck, but they're still alive!" Sly reported with a frown. "They're using magic to hold the flames at bay!"

  "Just wait." Damarius assured him with a knowing look. "They can only hold the flames at bay for so long. It can be exhausting to use magic to do the simplest of things, and they're attempting to shield an entire ship! They won't able to hold out much longer."

  They watched the trapped men scramble back and forth in panic as they searched for some way to free themselves, while the robed priests standing at their bows quickly began to wilt under the strain of using their magic to shield themselves.

  "There one goes!" Garth cheered, watching with a satisfied expression as one of the priests suddenly collapsed to the deck.

  The wall of flames instantly surged forward and engulfed the ship and its occupants. The Etazk warriors screamed in pain and horror for an agonizingly long moment, then their cries faded away, leaving their ship to quickly burn away into nothing.

  They watched with a kind of savage satisfaction as another ship was consumed, and then another, until every one of the trapped vessels had been burned away to nothing.

  "Where is Juco?" Sly asked Langsten as the tower violently shook around them.

  "The last time I saw him, he and some of his men were down on the wall bashing one of those flying beasts into tiny pieces."

  They suddenly saw a bright flash and heard an enormous crash, and turned to see the top two floors of the opposite tower completely engulfed in flames. It burned for several long moments, then began to crumble in on itself, sending the men on the wall below scrambling for their lives.

  "I think we had better fall back now." Sly advised the others, grabbing Damarius by the arm as he blasted another flying beast into rubble. "It's only a matter of time before they take this tower out too."

  They all hurried down from the tower and emerged out into the chaos that raged along the top of the harbor wall. The screams of the dead and dying were almost deafening now as their men tried to fight off the winged gargoyles that were decimating their ranks.

  One of the beasts, which had been rampaging along the top of the wall, suddenly rushed towards them, its glowing eyes narrowed in fury. Before any of them could react, nearly a dozens dwarves appeared and swarmed the beast under, their hammers swiftly reducing it to rubble.

  Another explosion suddenly rocked the wall as a huge chunk of the harbor tower was blown away, causing the rest of the tower to lean dangerously.

  "Fall back!" Sly roared, pushing the others ahead of him. "Get everyone back to the dockside wall!"

  They quickly made their way through the chaos until they reached the large granite wall separating the docks from the city.

  "It looks like we abandoned the tower just in time." Sly grumbled to the others as they entered the guardhouse above one of the gates leading into the city and saw the tower crash down into the harbor's mouth.

  The heavy granite blocks destroyed the submerged logs which had been holding the Etazk fleet a bay, and cut off the flow of the flammable liquid that had been trickling down into the water, feeding the roaring inferno.

  "This isn't good!" Juco snarled, hurrying into the guard house with a worried expression on his face. "As
soon as the rest of those flames die out, the Etazk are going to start pouring into the harbor!"

  "We're just going to have to try and hold them off for as long as we can." Sly's told him in a grim tone. "We have to give buy Damion some time to get the rest of the army here."

  "Well, he had better get here soon," Damarius murmured in a weary voice as he slumped against the wall in exhaustion. "I'm not sure how much longer we can keep them at bay."

  They watched with grim expressions as the flames in the harbor's mouth finally died away, and the Etazk ships slowly began to make their way into the harbor.

  Chapter 18

  "I can't believe they left me behind!" Leia raged in an indignant tone as she, Slither, Dar, Lady Skie, and Shirk sat outside of the Serpent's Keep enjoying the cool night air. "They dragged me all the way across the continent and back, then ditched me when all the excitement begins!"

  "They didn't ditch you." Lady Skie told her in a reproving tone. "They went to try and stop the Etazk. They didn't want to leave you behind."

  "But they did!" The young girl scowled angrily. "I could have helped fight the Etazk!"

  "Yeah, you would have sent absolute shivers down their spines." Shirk snorted sarcastically. "One look at you and the Etazk would have fled screaming back into the arms of their god!"

  Leia slowly turned to fix the old bandit with a withering stare. "I'm sorry," She growled at him in a dangerous tone. "Did you say something?"

  "Uh," Shirk's chuckles abruptly stopped beneath her scornful stare. "No. No, I didn't."

  "That's what I thought."

  "Stop being ridiculous." Lady Skie chided her with a disapproving frown. "You know your parents couldn't take you into battle with them."

  "Why not?" Leia demanded. "Father has been teaching me how to use my magic ever since we left Kainpre, and I'm getting really good at controlling it! He says I'm almost as skilled as he was at my age!"

  "That doesn't mean you're ready to go charging off into battle. Damion spent years honing his skills with my father and Sly before he even thought about trying to run off into battle."