Yes, it was movement! There was a dragon head coming through from the warrens. I felt hope swell up inside me and drew in a breath of relief. I was just about to cheer when I heard Jalla make a sound like I’d never heard before. The surprise and horror of it drained every sliver of excitement from me.
I turned to look just in time to see a dozen figures rising up from the dust of the earth, spinning, like a dust devil kicking up. Black light poured from them and little slivers of fire seemed to peek out as they were built dust layer by dust layer from the ground up.
In every place where the blood of Jalla’s soldiers had been spilled in the dust, an Ifrit was rising.
And suddenly I realized why one Ifrit had been left behind. He’d been there to trigger the ultimate trap.
Chapter Thirteen
YELLS IN BAOJANG FILLED the air and I felt helpless on Raolcan’s back. He was frozen here again, his mind busy at the controls of the hub, but even if he wasn’t busy, I would be useless in this conflict.
Ifrits filled the platform, as the tiny figures of humans tried to dodge and weave around them. Jalla slashed at one with her sword, flying through a series of intricate swordplay poses that would have impressed me and reduced an enemy to tiny shreds – if that enemy wasn’t a demon made from dust.
I blew the Pipe, worry filling me as Kyrowat skidded in front of me, trying to protect Ahummal and Renn. The dragons were coming - I could already see them flying into the main hub area, one by one – but by the time they made it here we would be dead, and they would be trapped here with the Ifrits.
I’m trying...
Soldiers of Baojang flew through the air as the Ifrits tossed them out of their way. Screams and the scuffling of feet filling the air. Somehow Jalla was still on her feet, her eyes blazing as she slashed and danced around the Ifrits.
A fiery mouth crashed toward me. Kyrowat leapt in a single jump, darting between me and the Ifrit. The Ifrit swiped at him, sending him careening away into the dark. Hubric!
I screamed.
As if my scream had triggered it, the glyph sprang to life, flooding the platform with purple light for only a second before disappearing again. But with it went Jalla, Ahummal and Renn, a dozen injured soldiers, and half the Ifrits.
I gasped.
Almost had it there.
The last Ifrits turned on me, racing forward. I blew into the Pipe, but I knew this was the end. My final moments. At least I hadn’t died a coward. At least I hadn’t died alone.
The closest one was inches away, his scream shredding my hearing, his open mouth burning me with the intensity of the fire within. I braced for the violence, my eyes closing involuntarily. I took a breath.
There was a shriek and a scuffle and then I opened my eyes again.
A dragon passed inches from my face, scales flashing as he passed. I sucked in a breath at the nearness of him. It was easy to forget how massive a dragon was. Easy to forget until they almost knock you over.
Which dragon was this? Those scales were red!
As soon as he passed, I gasped as the scene in front of me unfolded. Dragons tore into Ifrits on every side, flaming and snapping and roaring. Showers of dust flew through the air as one Ifrit after another burst into dust. Hundreds of dragons of every color, size, and texture swirled through the air, dominating the battle.
I remembered Jalla’s words, ‘Our people should be mounted on dragons by the hundreds. It has always been our destiny.’ This is what she wanted. And now I could see why. The sheer power and dominance of the dragons... wait! This was what the other nations wanted. They wanted our dragons. They wanted this power.
The words of the Ibrenicus Prophecies filled my mind:
Tide of the north rushing, rushing,
Longing for sea to meet sky and conquer,
Longing to take to wing,
But by blood they grasp,
And the innocent fall with the guilty.
But one shall rise,
To stand in the place of the other,
to bear the debt of nations,
to give up the breath of life to dispel the dust of death.
But the dragons weren’t ours. They belonged to themselves. It didn’t matter that the nations of the north wanted them. They weren’t ours to give.
I knew you’d get there on your own eventually.
Purple light flared as the glyph sprang back to life, but now it wasn’t illuminating Ifrits. There wasn’t a single one left. The dragons on the platform glanced at us before diving toward the glyph.
I managed to lock it open this time. They can go through without me concentrating on it or staying in place.
I scanned the darkness looking for the one purple dragon I’d lost track of.
“Why are you staring into space?”
He was behind me. I spun in the saddle.
“Hubric!”
“We don’t die so easily, do we, Kyro?” He was battered and dirty – and so was Kyrowat, but they were still whole. “Where’s Jalla?”
“Through the portal.”
“I don’t trust her out of my sight.”
“Hubric?” I asked. I needed someone else to know.
“Yes?”
“I know why the nations are fighting us. I know why they planned together to destroy the Dominion – to feed the rebellion of the Dusk Covenant and turn the hearts of the Magikas and attack us on every side.”
“They want the dragons,” Hubric said, smirking when my eyes went wide. “Tell me something we don’t know. It’s why the dragons give us some of their own – why we have our own side of the bargain to keep. We are part of their buffer against humanity – part of what keeps the world from a dragon - human war. The nations can’t steal the dragons. But they could extinguish them from the earth. The pact between Haz and Haz’drazen was made to prevent that. The story gets twisted into something about how the Dominion Sky People were established to rule this land, but it was really a pact between two desperate groups to save each other. And that’s still what it is. See these dragons flying free and strong? That’s why Raolcan and Kyrowat and all the others live their lives as slaves and it’s why you and I live our lives that way, too. Or haven’t you noticed that is what we are? We live to serve the people and the prophecies and the dragons.”
I stared at him, letting the words sink in.
We’re proud to serve.
And so was I.
“Enough introspection. The battle has only just begun.” Hubric grinned and Kyrowat ran to the glyph to join the stream of dragons darting one after another into the portal.
Ready?
I was still reeling with the knowledge of why we were fighting.
Reel later. We have work to do.
Chapter Fourteen
RAOLCAN WAS ALREADY leaping toward the bright glyph before I could answer and as soon as his feet hit the pattern, everything changed. We were still standing on a glyph on a pattern, but where we had left dragons darting into the portal, here they were rushing from the central hub and through a dark entrance on the other side of the bridge. I didn’t know exactly what I’d expected, but I think it had been light and the outside world, not more portals. I didn’t remember what had happened last time – I’d been unconscious – but I knew it wasn’t like this.
We’re below the base of Leedris City.
Raolcan flew after the stream of dragons, pausing for a moment beside Ahummal who was slumped beside the statue. Around the statue, bodies were piled. When Jalla and the Ifrits came through the portal, they must have surprised the Baojang soldiers here. Renn sat beside him, head in his hands.
“Renn?” I asked, “Are you hurt?”
“My head is ringing. I just need a rest.”
I shouldn’t leave him here, but I felt torn. I didn’t trust the army of Baojang near a Dominion city.
“Where is Jalla?”
“She went on ahead. I just need a rest ...” his voice faded but my guilty feeling was interrupted by Hubric.
<
br /> “We’ll come back for him,” he called to me as he and Kyrowat raced forward.
I sighed, not sure what to do, but Raolcan was already dashing after Kyrowat. Maybe when the Sentries followed they would pick up Renn and Ahummal.
Do you really want Jalla loose in Leedris? Who knows what she’ll do next.
Who knew whether I could stop her if she tried to hack or slash her way through the city? We flew on, across the bridge and through the dark entrance. A pair of Baojang soldiers stood on either side of the opening with grim expressions, but they made no move to stop us.
“Jalla?” I asked, and they motioned into the door.
We flew through, directly on Kyrowat’s heels. No Ifrits so far.
The dragons that went through before us dispatched them.
I blinked at the light as we exited the cavern. It was late afternoon here. Had we been in the warrens so long?
It was bright compared to the caves. I grabbed the light from Raolcan’s saddle and extinguished it. No need to let anyone know where we were. And where was that, exactly?
We were in the base of a skycity, I realized. It was hollow and wide at the bottom, the woven human-thick threads of skysteel that supported the city surrounded us, woven into an impenetrable basket of strength – inaccessible by the outside world. Up above the structure supporting the sky city narrowed to a slender stem and through the center of the stem were a series of steel baskets on a thick cable. I watched as three dozen men and women in Baojang armor worked a huge pulley and crank system that was marching the baskets up the line – like a watermill of sorts, but for bringing people and supplies high up in the air to the sky city. Behind them, other soldiers waited for their turn.
Around the baskets, the dragons flew upward, outstripping the human warriors in their speed of ascent. The entire center of the skysteel structure was clogged with bodies moving upward like a spurting fountain to the city above. I shivered at the thought of what was to come.
Raolcan didn’t even hesitate.
Hang on. Lie as flat on my neck as you can.
I crunched forward, leaning out across Raolcan’s neck and clasping my arms around it. His launch was so powerful that I felt my belly tense as we shot through the air.
Don’t look up.
I thought I felt something scrape across my back. I shut my eyes tight and pressed my cheek against his scales.
Just reminding everyone who leads this expedition.
Isn’t that Jalla?
It’s Raolcan, Prince of Dragons.
He was as arrogant as a Baojang war leader.
Oh, I’m far worse than that. Prepare yourself!
For what?
For battle. I know you don’t like it.
Warm air burst across my face suddenly and I opened my eyes to chaos. We launched through a small room packed with soldiers helping others out of baskets and onto a platform to the side. This must be a sub-floor room of the city.
Someone – a dragon most certainly – had torn the entrance from the room into one above that was a lot larger. Teeth and claw marks bit into the crumpled scrap left at the edges.
I barely had time to take in the details of the tight room before we were pushing past other dragons and humans through what had been the floor. The humans were still using the stairs, but the dragons had burrowed upward like groundhogs in a farmer’s field, tearing holes through one floor up to the next and through that floor again. We burst up through it with at least a dozen other dragons and into a courtyard. We were finally at city level.
Pandemonium reigned.
Dragons swirled above us – some the free dragons who had come with us, others the Blacks stationed here to guard the city. Fire lanced from one group to the other, but in the chaos, the exact battle was hard to follow. Around us, Baojang soldiers marched in steady streams to the surrounding walls and towers. Burn marks and limp bodies told me we were late to arrive.
Habrida, the Serpent Prince, had arrived much too far ahead of us.
Raolcan gained height over the courtyard, giving me a chance to survey what was taking place below.
I’d say he has conquered half the city, but the battle is far from won. Even the skies are in contest. Look.
On one side of the city lines of Magikas were assembled on every wall and tower, taking aim at the wild dragons around us. Why did it seem like every Magika had chosen our enemies over us?
That’s an answer for another day.
That’s where we needed to be – directing and coaching them to do the least harm while still gaining victory.
This force seems much stronger than I’d expect, even defending a city the size of Leedris. There are armies spread out across the plain. And look! There are Ifrits in the sky city and all around the city!
I saw what he meant – clusters of the dust demons fought in the cramped city streets and out over the plains around the city there were lines of dust clouds that I had come to recognize as Ifrits on the move.
I bit my lip nervously. I didn’t want to think about the battle below, about the innocents hiding in their homes, about collapsing cities and digging people out of the rubble.
If we don’t do it, things will be just as bad – worse. The Dominion ruled by Ifrits and the Dusk Covenant won’t care about those children. The neighboring nations won’t care when they enslave or kill every dragon they can find. You must choose this path because the other one is so much worse.
But I didn’t want to choose any path if both were full of violence.
Amel, you can’t control everything. You can’t save everyone. If you try to opt out, all you do is strengthen the enemy. You must choose to do all the good that you can and limit as much evil as you are able to do. Be courageous.
I took a deep breath. Okay. Assess the situation. Figure out a plan that didn’t end with a burning or toppled city...
But where was Jalla? She had been only a little ahead of us and she didn’t have a dragon to ride with Ahummal injured.
No time to think of her.
But he was wrong. Because wherever Jalla was, that would be the main event. And if I wasn’t there to rein her in, there was no telling what she would do.
We need to focus on the wild dragons. With the Pipe, you are their leader.
But I wasn’t, really. Raolcan was. I tried to listen to him, scanning the sky for dragons to pick out where our dragons were and figure out what to tell them to do, but my eye was caught by a lone purple – riderless – but saddled. He flew toward us with a gait so familiar that I felt my forehead wrinkle as I watched.
Realization dawned on me and my eyes went large. Raolcan...?
Ahlskibi!
Chapter Fifteen
HE FLEW TOWARD US AND I sensed a shift in Raolcan’s flying, as he moved upward and into an observing arc, waiting for the other dragon. As we soared there, Hubric and Kyrowat joined us.
Ahlskibi is riderless.
Did he mean...?
Leng is not dead. Not yet. But he needs help within the Castel.
The dragons out here needed direction but now I wanted nothing more than to dive into the Castel and find Leng hiding behind a tapestry or doing whatever other thing was going to get him caught.
Blow your Pipe to get their attention and I will pass authority to Kyrowat to lead them while we storm the Castel. I didn’t expect... but no, just blow the Pipe and I’ll tell you on the way.
I signaled to Hubric, asking if he understood the plan and he signaled agreement and gave me a firm nod. That was as close to a blessing as he gave. I nodded back and blew my three-note tune on the Pipe. The swirling dragons below took on a more certain look before Kyrowat dove into their ranks to lead from the front.
My hands shook as I tucked the Pipe back into my belt. Where was Leng and what was happening in the Castel? Ahlskibi reached us, his expression agitated. He plunged past and then dove toward the Castel just off to the east side of the center of the city.
From above, it was easy to see
that the Castel remained in the hands of the Dominion – or rather the Dusk Covenant who had seized our empire when Iskaris took power, but Baojang pressed against the edges of their defense. Likely, it would be the last part of the city to be conquered.
As we raced toward it I saw a swirl of Baojang soldiers rush around one side, attacking a slowly retreating group of soldiers in Dominion uniform. It bothered me to see them dressed as loyal soldiers, knowing their strings were pulled by the Dusk Covenant. The Serpent Prince was at their head, fighting with the same chilling precision with which he’d made his threat to me. I didn’t think I should want people to die, but would it be so bad if he just got sick of the Dominion after this and went home?
Almost there. I can’t land on the battlements.
That was an understatement. The battlements bristled with archers and Magikas. A pair of Ifrits were on the uppermost portion. Why were there battlements on a Castel in a sky city?
The Dominion has always feared dragon attack.
They were right to fear. But if we couldn’t land there, where would we land? I ducked as a fireball was lobbed toward us.
See that balcony?
I did. It was very close to the fireball-lobber.
I’m going to fly at it full speed and hope we can squeeze through the wide window.
It was big. But was it big enough? And what if we got stuck halfway through?
There are no defenders there besides a single pair of guards. It’s our best bet.
Why the urgency?
Ahlskibi says the Dominar is here.
Shonan? Was he in trouble?
The other Dominar.
Iskaris! A flare of heat rushed through me. Stopping Iskaris was worth the risk of diving through that balcony.
I’m glad you think so.
The window was getting closer. I hunched low over Raolcan’s back as fireballs and arrows from the battlements above us crashed and smoked around us. I could hear the yells and screams below, smell the sulfur in the air, and see the window growing closer.
Dragon School: Dust of Death Page 5