“He is taking us to the dragon towers. They wanted to do that with me before I left, but I convinced them to let me go find you. It seems they have been tricking me all along.” Her words were almost lost to the wind yet they still had enough meaning to chill Cero to the bone.
“What do they intend to do with us there?”
“Keep us safe, I think.”
“What? I have to find my father. I can’t sit around in some old towers waiting.”
“You had best convince Bani to grow up quickly so you can ride him out. Other than that, we don’t have much of a choice.” Inadar bit her lip to avoid screaming something at Onwier when he glanced back at them.
“I think we are supposed to be here for some reason. I don’t know what it is, but Skeln and Sarina were the ones that got us captured. Torroth arrived just in time to help the dragons rescue us.”
“If that makes you feel any better about it. Our alter ego’s helped the dragons kidnap us by getting us captured by our biggest enemy first.”
“That isn’t what I intended… It can’t be that bad. They are your friends and they did rescue us.” Cero looked down to where Bani was comfortably curled up and partially under one of the large spinal scales. The fact that he wasn’t agitated was enough to calm Cero. The little dragon was usually extremely sensitive to any perceived threat to his friend, but was now appeared to be sleeping.
“It remains to be seen as to whether I want to still call them friends.”
“Bani is sleeping. I think he trusts Onwier.”
“That is odd. Usually he is willing to gnaw the face off anyone that insults you. I saw what he did to Onwier when you were trying to get away.” Cero started as he turned back to Bani and saw one green eye fastened on him suspiciously. Cero tried to meet that unwavering gaze, but he found that he had no choice except to turn away. He discovered that he was flexing the fingers on one hand and made an effort to calm himself.
“I don’t know. I just have a feeling that everything is going to work out.” That feeling of loss came again, only stronger.
“Like I said, whatever makes you feel better.”
***
“That is a big dragon.” The woman paused at the top of the wall looking down. The blue dragon they had been tasked with guarding lay curled up in the middle of what had once been the ceiling. Rubble was piled around him from the excavations along the edges of the room. It gave the appearance that the dragon was simply napping in a nest of his own making. Spirion appeared a moment later and nodded.
“Not as big as the gold one. Come on. There are a few weapons scattered around here. Pick some up if you would like.” Spirion kicked some rubble off of a standard issue, military style sword. He gave it a few swings before tossing it to the side.
“Don’t like the balance of it?” One of the shorter men picked it up and tossed it from hand to hand. “It is cheaply made and the metal isn’t of the highest grade, but it isn’t too bad.”
“I have never held a sword. It feels clumsy. This is something I can fight with.” Spirion sized the mace laying on the crumbled stairs.
“Suit yourself. Being able to see the wings on a fly from the other side of a room has its advantages, but doesn’t help so much in a fight.”
“Oh don’t be modest Sjad, I have seen you kill flies from the other side of the room with a pebble.”
“Whatever. Not everyone can call fire like you.”
“Just think of what I could do if I could see my target from the other side of the Braebach.”
“Kliven, I told you that I can’t see that far. Everything gets blurry after a few thousand feet. It is worst during hot weather like today. It is like when you are doing that burning thing and the way it warps the stuff behind it.”
“Well, I think that this might be an easy task. I don’t see anything that might be a risk to the dragon. Do you think that the gray one will really let us into their village?” The last guy picked up a battle hammer and began swinging it around. He stepped to a boulder that had once been an ancient statue and bore down on it with all his might. Chips of stone flew in all directions along with the head of the hammer. Staring at what was left of the handle with an abashed expression, Elgis endured the laughter until he noticed that there was one voice that wasn’t joining in.
“What is it Samir?” Elgis realized that he wasn’t likely to get a reply as he saw the blank expression and the dilated pupils in her eyes. Touching her shoulder brought her back to the worried assembly with a start.
“Did you see anything?” Sjad inquired when Samir had finished adjusting to the sensations of existing in her body rather than as a mental projection.
“I saw soldiers. They are relief for the castle guard, at least I think they are. They have a wagon full of supplies. I watched until they saw the castle. They are coming.”
“Elgis, look what you have done now.” Sjad scowled as he twirled the blade in his hand before climbing up to the edge of the wall and looking down at the fast approaching horsemen.
“What did I do?” Elgis whispered as he crawled up to join Sjad.
“You said that this was going to be easy. I hope the dragon wakes up soon. There are nearly two dozen of them.” Kliven snapped his fingers and a ball of flame appeared a few inches above his hand.
“Not now Kliven. We can do better by catching them by surprise. Elgis, Sjad, you two and I will take the hole where the great doors used to be. Kliven, you need to find a spot where you can keep out of the fighting. Use your fire to keep them off of the three of us. Samir, can you attack with your projection?”
“I can't do much except distract them. I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to fight.”
“That is all right. A distraction can always be helpful. Kliven, help Samir up there with you. If you can get to the corner of what is left of the balcony, you should be safe. Keep low and the crossbowmen shouldn’t notice you. Keep them away from the dragon, but don't forget about us.” Spirion hefted his mace and shook out his shoulders.
“Who made you a general?” Sjad demanded as he approached the main entrance to the ruined hall with Elgis. The back wall that they had originally climbed over was on the other side of the dragon. It had been a harder climb to get over that way, but it was still a viable escape route with the soldiers approaching from the other direction. He apprehensively glanced at the crest silhouette against the skyline.
“Do you have a better plan?” Spirion followed Sjad’s line of sight and narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Yes, we could just run before they get here. We don’t owe this dragon our lives.”
“You heard them. They have a village where Reigns has no power. We could be safe there.”
“We are Gifted. We won’t be safe anywhere.” Kliven hissed from his vantage point with Samir.
“Think about it. They attacked and destroyed this castle with a couple men and dragons. Do you honestly think that they aren’t Gifted? On top of that, they broke into the dungeon and freed us all. You saw the two that they saved. You felt what happens when you looked into that boy’s eyes. This Dragon’s Hamlet that they speak of must be a refuge for Gifted like us, you would pass that up?” Spirion shook his head sadly for Sjad’s benefit.
“I never thought of it like that. I just don’t know how we can hold off two dozen soldiers.” Sjad took a place opposite Elgis in hiding at the edge of the gaping hole in the wall that had once been the castle doors.
“Well, now that you have thought about it, do you still have a better idea than defending the dragon?”
“Shut up. They are close enough that they might hear us.” Sjad evaded the question and peered around a jagged piece of wood as the first of the troops appeared in the outer courtyard. The men were dismounting and staring in stunned silence at destroyed castle.
“Careful men. If the prisoners managed to revolt and did this, then there might be some left in the area.” The guard with the fancier helm and cloak broke the silence. He sent a couple of th
e soldiers to secure the horses while he set about ordering the rest to search the area. The hidden watchers flinched as he sent four of the men to secure the dungeon entrance.
When the four had passed through the busted doors, they stopped on seeing the dragon. He was partially obscured by a heap of broken masonry, but one didn’t have to see more than a patch of scaly hide to guess what it belonged to. They didn’t have the chance to raise the alarm before Elgis and Sjad tore into them. In the process of passing from one side of the ruined door to the other, each attacked two of the soldiers. Spirion didn’t have a chance to lend a hand as they viciously ended the lives of the men. Bone cracked and popped as Elgis delivered resounding blows with his bare fists. Sjad, it seemed, was as much an acrobat as a swordsman. The surprised soldiers he chose to engage only managed to loose their swords in their sheaths before he ran up against a wall and somersaulted over their heads. He was hardly on the ground after his aerial display before he had run his sword through the lacing that held their armor together at the sides. With their lungs filling with blood and unable to do more than gurgle, Sjad wiped the blade off and peered back out into the courtyard. Fortunately the courtyard was wide enough and the men were distracted enough by the destruction around them that they didn’t notice their comrade's demise.
It wasn’t until one of the soldier still in the courtyard spied a dark cloak fluttering in the breeze that anyone paid any attention. He, on drawing closer, was more cautious than his late friends and saw their bloodied bodies before nearing enough for the men in waiting to take action. Momentarily stunned by the atrocity, he began yelling incoherently on seeing the patch of blue scales that had cost the proceeding men their lives. At the first coherent shout of dragons, all the soldiers hastened to the courtyard. The officer in charge edged close enough to see the dead men and the little bit of the dragon hide. He unfortunately guessed correctly that the dragon had no hand in killing the men. Reaching into a pouch that hung at his waist, he withdrew a round vial filled with a yellowish powder and hurled it through the doors, against a rock.
“What the…?” Sjad and Elgis began coughing and gagging as a cloud of the powder filled the air. Spirion seemed unaffected except for a fit of sneezing brought on by the fine particulates that made up the cloud.
“Ha, bet you didn’t know about that one. Now we will have the dragon that you managed to bring down. I should thank you for that. Men, kill them. Don’t worry about the dragon or their Gifts. The dragon is most likely dead or he wouldn’t be sitting so still right now.” The officer led by example courageously stepping towards the breach in the wall.
“You think a little dust is enough to stop the people that killed a dragon?” Spirion stepped into sight.
“What are you doing?” A semi-translucent replica of Samir, carrying short fighting knives, appeared at his elbow. Spirion glanced over his shoulder and saw that Sjad was standing but seemed to be having trouble seeing. He was blinking and rubbing his eyes as if trying to dispel some sort of haze. Elgis was leaned against the wall and only shook his head. He looked hardly able to hold himself up.
“Well, well. What do we have here? You must not be Gifted. The people in Cercha just got this stuff perfected and they say that it affects anyone that is Gifted. The two of you must be something special to have killed a dragon without any Gifts… Now!” Spirion darted to cover just in time to escape the half dozen crossbow bolts that were fired. They passed harmlessly through Samir’s apparition. The officer had unwittingly explained what was happening to Elgis and Sjad.
“You are in no shape to handle this.” Samir appeared to take a deep breath before charging towards the advancing men. From the sounds of cursing and surprise, she was doing a fine job of distracting them. Spirion risked peeking around the corner and saw that she was brandishing her illusionary blades and drawing attacks from all sides. By virtue of the fact that she was able to shift the location of her apparition at will, none of the blows meant to kill her managed to land. She even was able to trick the men into striking one another with their wild swings a couple times before they caught on to her deception.
“Something is wrong. I can’t see. I mean I can see, but it is like I am a long way from anything I am looking at.” Sjad, bereft of his Gift, was terrified.
“It sounds like you are seeing what the rest of us see. Can you still fight? Elgis is worse off than you from the looks of it.”
“Watch out!” Sjad answered Spirion’s question by shoving him out of the way and swinging at a soldier that was still ten feet away.
“You had better work on your depth perception, and quickly.” Spirion engaged the soldier with his mace. It was mildly surprising to notice that he was stronger and a little faster than the man behind the sword. With only these two advantages to support him, he beat at the sword with a fury fueled by a lifetime of mistreatment at the hands of men wearing the same sigils. The first man was quickly joined by a few of his compatriots, making matters much more difficult for Spirion. He gained a momentary relief when a flash of flame forced the soldiers back long enough for Elgis to stagger away from the fighting. When the strain of maintaining the wall of flame overcame Kliven, he took to setting anything on the soldiers afire that would easily take flame. This distracted them until they cut the cloaks loose and attacked again.
This time, Sjad had figured out how to deal with his disability and joined Spirion at the battle front. With his help they were only forced back slowly. Spirion got lucky and managed to fell one of the attacking men with a crashing blow to the side of the man’s helm that left it dented and the man twitching on the ground. Sjad followed a moment later with a shout of accomplishment when he managed to stab his sword tip though the slot that permitted the men sight through their helm. He almost misjudged the next nearest soldier’s distance and only managed to yank his sword free and evade the vengeful sword swung at his head.
Samir’s illusion helped ease the advance, but the men soon learned that they could neither harm or be harmed by the apparition. However, they were unable to decide which of the double images of Sjad that appeared might be the real one. He, on understanding how Samir was helping, was able to take advantage of the confusion and strike down a couple more men before they figured out who to ignore. Spirion had the good fortune of his opponent tripping on a loose stone and falling to his hands and knees. It only took one vicious swing of the mace down on the man’s spine to remove him from the fight and in all probability this life. Kliven was doing his best to help, but he was unable to do more than cause discomfort through the armor the men wore. He changed tactics and was able to be of more assistance by summonsing fire in the faces of the soldiers. Between the shock and the momentary blindness, they fell easy prey for the two fighters.
Sjad seemed to be regaining some of his old skill when, with the sound of shattering glass, another cloud of the yellow dust filled the air. Sjad staggered back, heaving for breath, leaving Spirion to hold off the men with only his mirrored illusion at his side to help. Kliven was furiously calling fire against the helms of the men while trying to even the odds a little when the officer spied them hiding on the ledge at the side of the chamber. He wasted no time in sending another bottle of the cursed concoction smashing into the wall over their heads, enveloping them with the vile stuff. Spirion heard them coughing behind him and didn’t have to spare the glance over his shoulder when Samir’s projection failed and the men pressed forward without fire impeding their vision.
Recovering from his fit of coughing enough to rejoin the hard pressed Spirion, Sjad furiously hacked at the wall of men that now bore down on them. His recent experience with normal vision and an exceptionally short learning curve made him a man to contend with, even without his Gift. Spirion realized that the effect of the potion was short lived, hence the fact that the officer had been forced to re-dose them. If he could get to the man, then keep his friends safe long enough for them to recover, they might have a chance. The problem was that the remaining soldi
ers were in between him and the officer who held another of those foul yellow bottles in hand. In the hope that there was only one bottle left, Spirion focused on fending off the eager advances of the men that were beginning to flank him.
Backing up, Spirion was forced to abandon Sjad who was swinging his blade wildly. It was too late for him. He was already surrounded on all side. It wasn’t until he caught sight of the screaming officer as he passed overhead that the tide of the battle shifted minutely in their favor. Elgis had recovered and had not been caught in the second doses. After emerging from the crevice he had crawled into, he had smashed his way to the officer and removed him from the equation. In the resulting confusion, Spirion was able bring his mace down on the shoulder of one soldier. The man fell to the sound of bone being crushed.
Elgis was making up for lost time. His fury was verging on that of a berserker. One soldier came at him with a sword intent on skewering the unarmored warrior, but he found his sword blade seized in one hand and shattered at the cross piece with a blow from the other fist. A moment after, the broken blade was jammed through the breast plate into the shocked soldier’s heart. Elgis didn’t seem to notice the blood that streamed from his lacerated palm, but he surged onward hailing blows left and right in the close proximity the soldier’s found themselves to the brute. The tide was turning now against the soldiers until Spirion caught sight of a yellow bottle in the hand of a nearby soldier a moment before he hurled it at the ground. Despair filled his heart as he realized that each of remaining soldiers had a similar pouch at their waist.
For the third time, Spirion found himself alone against the soldiers. There were still more than a dozen remaining. Knocking back the one at his left, he spun and smashed his mace past the sword into the breastplate of the one at his right. It did little beyond knock the soldier back a step, but it bought him a moment to return his attention to the one at his left again. A sudden searing pain in his shoulder flooded his consciousness with memories. Countless hours of torture endured to see to how far his elven blood imparted healing abilities extended. The full transformation had not yet happened at that point so the fiends wielding the instruments of pain had thought him only human. Now the men he faced felt the unbridled fury evoked by those images. In a crazed red fog he methodically smashed his bloodied mace through shield and buckler alike. He was considerably stronger as an elf and felt no further pain but what had been experienced in the dungeon below all those times before. Even that faded as the razor sharp edge of insanity began serving his nerves. Nothing but his mace and the soldier directly before him existed at this point
Chronicles of Den'dra: A land on Fire Page 36