The group of citizens looked at them expectantly, and Michael signaled for Diego to speak for them.
Diego nodded. “Whether you could fight them is moot, my friends.”
Michael was surprised that his normally abrasive colleague spoke so gently. Diego, however, had grown up in a rural community like this one. Though they were strangers, these were his people.
“The solar trains are very fast,” Diego reminded them. “You don’t have transports capable of catching up to them.”
Quiet curses rippled through the group, and a man Michael sensed was a very old soul stood. “Tell us how we can help.”
“The Collective Council has heard the cries of your hungry children, and a special army has been called to deal with this. We’ve been training at an encampment not too far from here,” Diego said. “Spread this word.”
“The strange screams and bright flashes we have seen in the nighttime?” The woman’s question was a mix of fright and hope.
“You have nothing to fear. It’s only training maneuvers,” Diego said, smiling.
“If that was your racket, you’ll at least scare those believers so badly they’ll be filling their pants with their own dung.” The old man’s gruff observation drew chuckles despite the serious nature of the meeting.
“How long before the supply shipments are restored?” The woman who asked was quietly nursing an infant in the corner of the room.
Diego pointed to the shattered screen of his IC, so Michael activated his to project a holomap of the area. He touched the map to mark the valley where the dragon-horse army was based.
“That is where our army has been training,” Diego said. “We have little fresh food left, but we’ll share our ample supply of protein chow. You can help by putting the word out to the other communities. Each can send one transport with a list of any critical medicines they need and a count of citizens they need to feed.”
“And what will we eat when you have no more?”
Michael touched his IC to transfer the information to one worn by a man who stepped forward, then looked up to share a feral grin with Diego. At Diego’s nod, Michael stood and faced the citizens. “You’ll eat from the supplies that will be returned to you after our warriors raid that train and soil the pants of a few of those so-called believers.”
*
Although they’d left at dawn, any fatigue from the monotony of their journey was forgotten in anticipation of the bonding. They’d met at the base of the nest mountain with the other two groups by mid-afternoon, and Second had the temporary camp well in hand. Trusting her cousin to handle the logistics of setting camp for nearly two hundred, Jael could no longer resist her persistent thirst for Alyssa’s presence. She was exactly where Jael anticipated, helping Tan organize the largest of the temporary structures.
While the faces milling about the campsite were filled with eagerness, those setting up the field hospital were solemn. By dawn, the beds they were preparing would likely be filled with wounded and dying.
Heedless of the people working around them, Alyssa wrapped an arm around Jael’s waist and pressed into Jael’s side. She spoke quietly. “Do we really need this many beds?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Jael said. “There’s never been a mass bonding like this that I’m aware of. The confusion when the candidates rush the herd will either give them an advantage or spell disaster. There’s no way to predict how the herd will react.”
Alyssa shuddered, and Jael pulled her into a full hug. She kissed her on the forehead and wished for the millionth time that this uprising would suddenly melt away so they could fly off to the privacy of her meadow of flowers and mountaintop home.
“I’m thinking there’s a reason Specter is the only horse you brought with us.”
“I didn’t want to draw the herd’s attention before the bonding by bringing all the others, but Specter and I will engage the stallion so he won’t interfere.”
Alyssa tightened her arms around Jael. “Please, please be careful.”
Jael smiled down at her. “No worries. The wild stallion is impressive, but he dines on sulfur rubble and his flame is no match for Specter’s.”
“You won’t hurt him, will you?”
“Only if I’m forced to. Judging from the size and quality of this herd, he’s a strong sire. We want to cull his herd but leave him and enough mares to replenish their numbers.”
“Alyssa, excuse me.” Nicole set down her end of a long box she and Furcho carried between them. “This box isn’t marked, except for these numbers. I’m not sure where to put it.”
Alyssa scanned the huge, open room and waved Toni over. “Toni’s a whiz with the inventory program, and she set up most of the labeling.”
Toni approached warily. “Yes, First Advocate?”
Alyssa grasped her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake. “What did I tell you?”
“Alyssa.” Toni blushed as she corrected herself. “How can I help?”
“This box apparently is only partially labeled. Can you consult the inventory and tell us what’s in it?”
Toni’s gaze flicked from the numbers on the box, to Alyssa, and then to Jael. “Pyres,” she said softly, referring to the lightweight but heat-resistant metal frames on which bodies were laid for cremation. “I thought it best to only number that box in case it might freak out some people.”
“Very good thinking,” Jael said. This recruit did have potential. The low marks on her performance records didn’t match up with the intelligent young woman who apparently was blossoming under Alyssa’s tutelage.
*
An afternoon shower made returning to the rendezvous clearing before dusk much harder than the previous night. Michael slipped in the mud and then blinked at the hand Will held out for him. He hesitated, then accepted the offer. Will was strong and his grip firm. His intentions seemed pure, but Michael had been fooled by people before—people who were friendly until they discovered he was third gender. Maybe they were being fooled now into taking a spy right into the heart of their army. No matter. Alyssa and Jael would be able to decipher his motives before he could harm their mission.
They had been detained in Potrerillos much longer than anticipated. The citizens had many questions, and Will had supplied them all with much-needed information about The Natural Order.
Also, the two believers were given a proper cremation so they could start their next life with a cleansed spirit. One man had died from a head injury caused by a rock thrown during the train riot. The other had suffered a heart attack when the stun stick shocked him. Neither was a deliberate killing, but the citizens regretted it just the same. Michael and Diego had each lit a pyre, giving the citizens a glimpse of their powerful gift. Some still weren’t convinced.
“What good is magic against guns?” one man asked.
“These gifts manifested with the rise of The Collective,” Diego said. “Just as The Collective is stronger than the fractured society centuries ago, these gifts are stronger than the guns and other weapons of mankind’s violent past.”
“Rock, paper, scissors,” Michael added, referring to an old children’s game. “Our flame will melt bullets before they can touch us. Our empaths can discern their true intentions, and our telepaths can hear their thoughts before they act. These are the weapons of peace.”
“And if they want war?” another asked.
“We’re armed for that, too,” Diego said.
The citizens nodded. “Stronger together,” they chorused, their voices ringing with confidence. The citizens had nothing to offer except their support as The Guard departed on their quest. Michael thought it better than food or weapons.
Now, dusk had turned to twilight and twilight to dark as they waited in the damp meadow. Will stiffened beside him when the dark shapes grew larger as they neared and the eerie swoosh of the dragon horses’ wings moved the air around them and sent small denizens of the hillside scrambling into the undergrowth for cover.
“Jum
ping stars, giant bats?”
Michael laid his hand on Will’s forearm to steady him. “No. Dragon horses. Our transport back to camp.”
Bero screamed and landed with a thump, shooting flame with each exhalation. His wings, still unfurled, twitched with irritation. Diego immediately stepped out to meet him, but Bero shot a blue stream of flame at his bonded. Diego stopped it with a fireball of his own. “I’ll clip your wings if you scorch my good boots, hombre.” The affection in his tone softened his threat. Bero’s tail swished, but his wings folded and he roughly pressed his forehead to Diego’s.
“You can ride with me,” Michael said. “Bero can be temperamental and probably won’t accept a second rider tonight.”
“They can fly with someone riding them?” Will’s eyes were silver in the moonlight. “We’re going to fly to your camp?”
Michael smiled at Will’s excitement. He didn’t smile often and it felt…different. Will’s boyish enthusiasm warmed him. He quit smiling. Will seemed open and friendly now, but that would change when Will learned his secret. “Yes, unless you’re afraid of heights. If you are, we’ll have to leave you here to help pick coffee beans or find your own way back to the Third Continent.”
Will didn’t acknowledge the edge in Michael’s declaration, because Apollo picked that minute to land lightly and trot toward them, his golden hide shimmering in the diffused light.
“Stars, he’s beautiful. I’ve never seen such an animal. What’s his name?”
“This is Apollo.” Michael pressed his forehead to Apollo’s, pictured him carrying both him and Will back to camp. When he stepped back, Apollo eyed Will, then sniffed him.
“Does he belong to you? Is that some kind of greeting—pressing your forehead to his? He won’t buck me off up there in the sky, will he?”
Despite his caution, Michael chuckled as he leapt onto Apollo’s back. It was hard not to like Will. He extended a hand to help Will swing up behind him. Diego and Bero had already launched into the sky. “One question at a time,” he said as Will’s arms curled firmly around him. “Hold on tight.”
Chapter Twenty
The sun’s last rays were fingers of pink and orange, slowly lessening their grip on the surrounding mountains. The warrior candidates were dark, silent shadows standing downwind among the trees that ringed the huge plateau where the wild herd spread out to graze and snooze. Alyssa, Uri, and Nicole joined hands in a meditative circle and closed their eyes.
“Picture with me a calm sea, gently lapping against the side of a boat,” Alyssa whispered.
Uri snorted. “Are these sea horses we’re looking to calm?”
Nicole stifled a giggle and Alyssa opened her eyes to glare at him. His eyes, also open now, twinkled back at her. She shook her head and smiled. She sometimes forgot that her assistants were empaths, too, and he could sense her nervousness. His bit of humor, indeed, broke the tension and soothed her nerves.
“Okay. Let’s try again.” She closed her eyes and traveled mentally to Jael’s meadow. “We are in a mountaintop meadow that is thick with juicy grass and tasty clover. Wildflowers, a myriad of colors, wave in the gentle breeze.”
She had no idea if her projected calm would affect the wild horses. When she tried it with Specter, Jael confirmed that his mind held the picture Alyssa was projecting, but so did Jael’s. So they didn’t know if he was mirroring the picture from Alyssa’s mind or from Jael’s because she, too, was picking it up from Alyssa. It was just too confusing.
Still, they agreed that she should try. Even the slightest advantage as the bonding candidates rushed the herd would be helpful.
The horses would be vulnerable only while their wings sprouted, bony spurs emerged along the ridge of their necks, and rock-crushing teeth formed. Each warrior would have only a minute, maybe three, to creep among the herd to find the bond that called them. Then the warrior had to grab that animal’s ears to pull it down and touch foreheads as its dragon ascended. If they were a minute too late and the transformation was already complete, the animal would attack rather than bond.
Incineration by one of The Guard steeds would be mercifully almost instantaneous. Without fire rocks to supplement their diets, the flame of the wild horses would burn their target slowly but severely.
So she and Jael hoped Alyssa could project a calming emotion that would slow the herd’s reaction and give the warriors a fraction of a minute longer to find a bond.
If Alyssa couldn’t affect the herd, at least she would soothe the men and women preparing to risk their lives to bond with a dragon horse. She breathed deeply, pulling strength from her connection to Uri and Nicole. The breeze rustled the flowers of the meadow in her mind. Or was it the movement of the candidates as they crept out of the shadows? A hawk’s cry split the air. Tan’s signal. She struggled to stay in the meadow, but the scream of the wild stallion’s dragon and Specter’s answering challenge snapped her out of her meditation. She ran to the edge of the plateau, Uri and Nicole on her heels.
The next fifteen minutes were the longest and most shockingly chaotic she would ever witness.
The great stallion stood over the seared bodies of three downed warriors and held a fourth in his rock-crushing teeth as he spewed a red-yellow flame around the helpless warrior. Another scream of challenge from Specter, closer than before, and the stallion launched into the sky to intercept.
The moon had yet to rise and the night settled like a suffocating blanket, bursts of flame rending its dark fabric to reveal macabre scenes. Alyssa struggled to fix her mind with meadows and wildflowers while her vision was filled with human torches stumbling, some rolling in the grass in agony. Their battle skins—fire-retardant unitards—were no match for direct flame. Blue-white fireballs met red-yellow flame as warriors scrambled among the herd. Tortured screams of the wounded blended with the enraged calls of the horses that transitioned, unbonded, into dragons.
Great wings fanned the scent of scorched grass and sizzling flesh as the dragon horses, fully transformed, lifted off. Some carried warriors. Many did not. A dark shape fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a muffled thud. Alyssa covered her eyes when a second plummeted to the ground, and she realized they were warriors who had lost their hold as their beasts plunged skyward.
“Alyssa.” Uri spoke gently, his large hand squeezing her shoulder. “We’re needed on the field.”
She lowered her hands. The moon was rising and sporadic fires still illuminated the plateau. Tan stood in the middle of the field, Phyrrhos glittering like a copper penny next to her, as she directed the medical team and stretcher-bearers. If Phyrrhos was on the field, where was the wild stallion? Where were Jael and Specter? Her heart jumped a few frantic beats.
“Alyssa?” Nicole’s face was wet with tears but her voice and emotions steady as she held up Alyssa’s med kit.
As much as she wanted to find Jael and wrap herself in Jael’s strength, she had others depending on her. She took the kit and gave Nicole’s hand a quick squeeze. “Thank you. Let’s check in with Tan.”
The battlefields she’d witnessed when Jael had shared images from past lives came to mind as they crossed the plateau. The stench of blood and bowel and burning flesh was nauseating, and Alyssa realized the fires scattered about were bodies, human and equine. Medics knelt next to wounded warriors, while Furcho and Raven grimly incinerated the animals too badly damaged in the fiery chaos to fly away.
“Why are they killing the horses?” Uri asked.
“If they don’t kill the damaged ones, their own herd will turn on them and do the job when they return,” Tan said, never taking her eyes from the moaning man she knelt beside. “Our flame is much hotter and merciful. They flash-burn the brain so that death is almost instantaneous. It just takes a bit longer for the body to completely incinerate.”
Tan helped her patient sit up and motioned for Uri to take over for her. “You’ve lost an ear,” she told the warrior, “but you’re lucky your other burns aren’t that bad. This
is Uri. He’ll bandage your head and get someone to help you to the temporary infirmary.” She stood and turned to Alyssa. “I need to be aloft. Second can’t handle all those newly bonded alone, and we’re shorthanded with Diego and Michael still gone.”
“Jael. Do you know where she is?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” Tan said.
Alyssa wheeled around, scanning the field. No Jael.
“No.” Tan tapped her temple. “With your mind. She’ll hear you.”
“But I’m an empath, not—” Before Alyssa could finish, Tan sprinted to Phyrrhos and they leapt skyward in one smooth movement. “—a telepath. Daughter of a dung beetle!” She’d never understand Tan. What was she supposed to do? Just close her eyes and think Jael?
I’m here.
She jumped at the voice in her head, and it took her a minute to decide if she’d imagined it. Are you okay?
Behind you.
She turned and fell into Jael’s arms. I need you.
I’m here.
After a minute, she released her hold on Jael. She ran a shaky hand over her face. She was surprised to find her cheeks wet with tears. “When I saw the other Guard, but not you—”
“I was looking for the wild stallion. I’m afraid he’s injured somewhere in the forest, but it’s impossible to find a black dragon horse when there’s only a quarter moon. He blends right into the shadows.” Jael touched her cheek, catching a remaining tear. “Are you okay?”
Alyssa nodded and offered a weak smile. “I am now. I just needed to see you, touch you.” She caught Jael’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I need to get to work.”
“First Advocate.” A male medic stood at her elbow. “I’m sorry, but we need your help over here, quickly.”
He led them to a dark figure on the ground. Jael opened her hand and held a fireball aloft to push back the night. Alyssa choked back a gasp. The torso and face were so burned, the wounded warrior was unidentifiable. Still, she sensed something familiar in the desperate emotions that washed over her as the warrior struggled to breathe. She at least was sure her patient was female. She dropped to her knees beside the suffering warrior. “I need a portable ventilator,” she barked at the medic. He should have already done this.
Dragon Horse War Page 21