They were approaching Iselin, with Feena trotting right in front of them. Iselin was standing stone still, and he felt a drop of rain on his cheek as he reached her side.
“Will we fight in the rain?” he asked.
She answered in their minds, as all dragons did. “No, we won’t fly in rain, nor will the Iumenta. It will be a big storm. We will wait it out.”
“Sash, give me the store. I will hold it,” Legon said.
“It’s not too heavy. I’m ok.”
“I know you are, but it feels like a small rock to me.”
She took off the pack that held the store crystal and handed it to him. He slung one of the straps over his shoulder. The rain was starting to come down much harder now and he too saw that this was going to be a bad storm. This land was hot and muggy, making the rain warm and not refreshing in the least. He was on the verge of placing a spell over Sasha to keep her dry when Iselin extended her wing out over them. The rain sounded like it was hitting canvas as it struck the pink membrane. She craned her neck down and winked at them.
“This won’t wear out your wing, will it?” Legon asked.
Legon heard a deep growl, but Iselin’s mind felt playful. “I am fine. This is like standing around for me.”
He looked behind him to see water flowing from the back of her wing like little waterfalls. He noticed that all the Elven dragons were doing the same. He saw this on the other side as well. But whereas the Elves let anyone who was nearby stand out of the rain, he noticed there were only Iumenta under their dragons.
The downpour helped clear his mind. The sound of rain on Iselin’s wing acted as white noise that quieted all of his worries and apprehension. Sasha was now sitting next to Iselin’s front leg resting against it. Water was running under the massive armor and streaming out over Iselin’s pearl claws and gemstone scales. When he thought about it, he never really had seen anything so beautiful in his life as Iselin. Maybe Sasha was right to try and set them up.
“No, don’t think about that now,” he thought.
Still, the thought of either of them getting hurt bothered him profoundly. It felt like only a few moments had passes, but it must have been longer. The rain was now starting to slow, and as he looked out over the landscape he saw large burlap sheets over both sides protecting them from the rain, and a steady stream running in the middle of the soon-to-be battlefield.
* * * * *
A sound woke Sasha from a shallow sleep. There were chills running along her spine. Her eyes were still closed, but what was that sound? She opened them and listened to the eerie sound more intently. It sounded like animals, all small ones, all angry. She was still batting the mental fog away when she noticed the loudest one. It was a cat yowling. She looked to see Feena with his fire fur raised, teeth bared, yowls coming from his open mouth. She looked around to see other familiars in the forms of many different animals and elements, some bear cubs, some dogs, some cats—all predators. Then she realized the din was also coming from the opposition as well. All of the Iumenta familiars joined their cries, begging their masters to let them loose on the enemy.
Sydin joined her thoughts, directing her to go stand with the other spotters. These were the spouses of Elven Venefica; they too had stores slung across their backs. They would all stand along the top of the hill, looking and directing their Venefica. All of them would network their minds and in turn the command would do the same. Everyone’s perspective was figured into commands. She started to let the Mahann take her, but before she did she walked over to Legon, kissed his cheek, and hugged him. There were no parting words that she could think of, so she took her position. She saw him and his guards walk to the frontline. She saw from her eyes and his. She felt scared, but then the Mahann calmed her and emotion left as she connected with the others.
The Dragons started to roar and a few took off and hovered above them. The Iumenta were doing the same. Both armies were mobile and forming into ranks. Legon connected with her and she felt the wards that he raised around his men and Barnin’s unit. There were the flickers of wards over both sides, and then large ones from the dragons, designed to defend against the other dragons and siege weapons.
She was in Legon’s head now, seeing the front line. They looked down out of the same eyes to Feena, who was all but screaming now. That’s when she saw it. Feena screamed, but as he did it changed from a scream to a roar. As the sound changed so did the cute little yellow cat. His canines grew, extending down past his bottom jaw. His tail vanished into a stub. Huge muscles rippled under the fiery fur and his eyes glowed bright with intensity. Feena was far from a cat. His new form was some sort of animal, but what was it? She reached in her mind. Years ago Arkin had showed her a picture…what was it called? It was some kind of tiger, she thought. Now that she listened there was no longer the barking and howling of small animals. All on both sides were now full-sized predators. She looked to her left and caught Mantic’s eye. He winked at her; now she knew what familiars were for.
She looked to the sky above the Empire forces to see the Iumenta dragons roaring and shooting flames across the sky. She saw and felt the fire above her and she looked up to Iselin and saw a jet of fire ripping from her mouth, stretching hundreds of feet across the sky. It reflected off her armor and she felt the mental presence of many dragons pushing hope out to the ranks.
She couldn’t feel much of her own emotions with the Mahann, but she felt Legon’s as he stared across the field at a group of gray-skinned Iumenta. The hate was so strong. His body was vibrating, begging him to rush at them. Then her eyes caught a flash of color that shot across the sky from an Iumenta dragon. The ball of magic was deflected by Sydin. She felt Legon prepare to use magic as she looked at Sydin. A gray-black light ran down his tail and he flung it at the Iumenta. As he did she was blinded with the light of hundreds of Venefica sending curses across the lines.
She clapped her hands to her ears as she heard the thunder-like claps of curses hitting wards. The field was covered in flashing light in every shade and color, like some nightmare thunderstorm on the ground.
Above them it was the same. All of the dragons were sending spells at one another. Every time she closed her eyes there were new little spots of light. She felt Legon penetrating the wards of a human Venefica, saw him slash apart a few of their frontline men with a spell, and she closed the visual connection with him, not wanting to see anymore. The armies would charge soon; she could feel it. The other spotters were directing their spouses to different parts of the Empire’s frontlines and she realized that even though she wasn’t aware of sending commands to Legon, the rest of the network was sending them for her. She engaged the Mahann more and more fully joined the network and soon lost herself in the vast sea of minds.
* * * * *
Legon felt his body wanting to rush forward. Feena’s roars next to him echoed his feelings. An Iumenta Venefica stood across from him with a large blue wolf with raised fur next to him that was pacing agitatedly, growling at Feena. Then, mercifully, the order came. He heard Feena’s claws digging into the ground as he charged forward. He felt the wind against his face as he flew across the open landscape.
Soon Barnin’s unit was falling behind them as he knew they would. The sound of boulders crashing shook the ground, and he looked up to see an orange Iumenta Dragon and Iselin collide in the sky. Both flew through torrents of fire to crash together, letting their chest plates take the force of impact. He looked forward and saw the Iumenta closing, choosing targets; he squared off with a raven-haired one.
As the space closed he dropped close to the ground and leaned his left shoulder in. The Iumenta did the same. Pain erupted all over his upper body as he hit the Iumenta. The two shoulders plates made a horrible grinding sound when they hit.
In the moment of impact he felt the Iumenta’s shoulder buckle. Like Iselin had said, he was heavy for an Elf, and his body continued forward, his momentum too much for the smaller Iumenta. His shoulder plate sl
id off the Iumenta’s and he turned himself, bringing it against the base of his opponent’s neck. There was a crack as the Iumenta’s neck broke. He dropped, rolled on the ground and up, not needing to look back at the filth that was now dead.
he drew the fenna and fell upon an Iumenta that was getting to his feet after hitting one of his guards. The Iumenta had his own fenna out, and soon Legon was consumed by the fight. The Iumenta Venefica held back, waiting for Legon to lose strength before he engaged him at close range, but his familiar and Feena were rolling around, biting and clawing at each other.
One of Legon’s guards joined him in his fight against the Iumenta. Legon’s early kill gave them an advantage that they fully planned on taking. Soon the Iumenta was down, and Legon saw that his guard was winning. He turned to his left to see one of his men go down, a giant gash across his chest and through his lungs and heart. He heard Barnin’s unit behind them and saw two Imperial cavalry units approaching. Barnin’s men were outnumbered, but the Iumenta fell back to let the horses do their jobs.
* * * * *
Barnin raised his shield and felt a blade hit it. Poison was kicking and biting the other horse and he was doing his best to kill the other man, but they were outnumbered two-to-one and good armor or not, that wasn’t good odds. The rider to his left slashed at him, hitting him across his back. He felt whip-like pain where the blade hit. Thank goodness Legon had given them chainmail and plate armor. The armor would keep them from getting cut by other humans for the most part, but it didn’t protect against them getting bludgeoned to death.
The Iumenta were retreating, letting the clumsy mortals hack it out for awhile, but Legon and his guard turned on the enemy cavalry. Barnin watched with detached horror as they attacked.
It was one thing watching the Elves and Iumenta fight each other. It was fast and difficult to follow, but he hadn’t seen them attacking humans before. The Elves, his friend included, were jumping from horse to horse slaughtering the men, who were screaming in terror and agony. The Iumenta Venefica would be giving them strength just like Legon did for them, and he noticed that the men and horses were starting to get faster now. The Iumenta Venefica were able to dump more energy into their remaining charges, making them formidable, to say the least. This meant that Barnin was now losing the fights that he was winning before. The enemy was getting faster and stronger. He wasn’t sure how long it would take, but soon they would be able to cut the armor with their new power. Warm liquid splashed across his face and he turned to see Ankle removing the head of a man next to him.
“I had that one!” Barnin roared.
“Yeah, that’s what it looked like, sir. Sorry for saving your…”
He didn’t hear the rest of Ankle’s retort as he turned his attention back in front of him. The Iumenta were back, and this time they were on the side away from the Elves, tearing their way through his men. He saw one, two, and then four men go down. He had a faint connection with Legon and he tried to communicate, but it was Sasha’s voice that answered in his mind.
“He knows. I am directing them to the Iumenta.” She sounded detached, the Mahann making her calm and unemotional.
Barnin saw Legon turning to them and they moved quickly through the battle. He was putting away his fenna. Why on earth would he do that? He jolted suddenly as he felt the spell hit. There was a flick of purple around him as Legon’s ward took the blow and he moved just in time to have a blue bolt of magic fly by his head. The other Venefica was joining the fight.
Barnin yelled for his men to fall back and as he did, Legon ran by him, drawing the fenrra. One of the enemy’s cavalry got in the way and Legon slashed up with the fenrra, hitting the horse’s midsection and slicing up through the animal and the rider’s legs. The man screamed. Blood and organs gushed out of the horse, covering the ground as Legon hit the rear half of the horse with his shoulder plate and moved it out of the way.
Something wet hit Barnin’s face and he wiped it with his fingers. It was blood. Then another drop. He looked around him. It was like rain now. What on earth? He looked up. The pink dragon and the gray Iumenta dragon were above them. They were slashing at each other, their claws dripping with gore. Their tails swung out to be caught by the armor on their opponent’s feet. Their glittering armor was all but gone now. Only the real stuff remained, and he saw as they bit and scratched that they were wounding each other deeply, causing blood to pour from the cuts. It fell like scarlet rain in great drops from the gray sky. Almost at once the injuries healed. The dragons didn’t seem to notice that they were bleeding all over the field. An involuntary chill ran along his spine, and he looked to see Legon start to engage the Iumenta Venefica.
* * * * *
Arkin felt his lungs burn as his broad sword severed a man’s spine. This was not his kind of fighting. He was more used to playing hide-and-seek before he killed someone. The constant exertion was getting to him. It was getting harder to stand as well. This area was all rock, and neither army was making any headway. The ground was littered with bodies and, even worse, their entrails. It slopped on his boots and made the flat rock slippery. All his wards were also being pushed to their max. He was losing people left, right, and center. The Empire had a higher Venefica to normal soldier ratio than the resistance, and that meant casualties on a large scale. He was doing everything he could to keep his people alive, and sadly the more men he lost the easier it got.
Arkin ran up to a man in all black wooden armor with some sort of cheese cloth over his face. Arkin swung at him and the man raised his sword with surprising speed.
“He must be trained in the Jezeer,” he thought.
This whole unit that they were fighting was like this. They all had the cloth over their faces and each was amazingly fast, and they didn’t back down. Their skill was formidable, but they weren’t Iumenta. His opponent was gaining ground and Arkin had to duck so as to not lose his head. He tried to change his style and trip up the soldier. Nothing. The soldier countered him easily, almost playfully. Arkin knew the man would be protected with wards form the Iumenta, so he couldn’t use magic.
Pain erupted across his chest as the enemy slashed a shallow wound across him, slicing his pectoral muscle and vein beds. He staggered back as blood rushed out of his chest. The man was coming up fast now, not wanting to waste time. He clutched his chest and tried vainly to stop the onslaught. He fell back landing on his tail bone, feeling it crack as it hit. The man was over him now and raised his sword for the death blow. In that moment he saw the flick of light, the flick that said that the Venefica protecting the soldier was dead. Arkin shot his hand forward and sent a fire spell at the man’s head. It evaporated in a cloud of blood, bone, and brains that spattered his face. There was a metallic taste in his mouth; he had forgotten to close it before the spell hit. He rolled on his side and retched, seeing the blood from his chest soak the ground. He blacked out.
* * * * *
Keither took in the field before him. It was an epic story gone horribly wrong. His ears cringed at the sound of grinding metal from the dragons. There was no progress being made there. Then there was the sound of spotters gasping or shrieking, then falling dead as their wives or husbands were killed in battle. The river in the center of the field no longer appeared to be running with water, but he knew that it was foolish to think that it was all blood.
Both sides were taking heavy casualties. They had gotten their wish. The forces were equal and as such neither gained ground. This battle would not have a true victor. His eyes were getting used to the flash of magic, and as he looked through the seeing glass he saw Legon fighting an Iumenta Venefica. He was using that large sword and both were sending spells in rapid succession at each other, but it looked like Legon was slowly winning.
Barnin’s unit was with Legon. The tall one, Ankle, was fighting a man. The soldier fell and tried to get up, but Ankle thrust down, stabbing the man in the chest. Keither saw the tip of the sword exit the soldier’s lower back instead
of his chest. He saw another of Barnin’s unit on the ground, holding his hands up futilely as he tried to keep a horse from trampling him. The horse was trained well and reared up on its back legs and drove its front hooves into his chest and abdomen again and again. Keither shook his head and looked away. He noticed Sara and the Elves’ chief medical officer standing by them.
Sara was a medic, and most of those were busy at the moment, but she only knew how to fix things with magic and even then only minor wounds. She would learn more over time, but for this battle she was going to be most useful at the end when men returned with scratches and other small injuries.
He reconnected with the rest of command. The problem was dragons. They were evenly set, but with the somewhat tight air space they were being forced to fight in, only about half could engage at any given time while the others circled over their sections of the army, strengthening wards. It was rare for dragons to die in battle, but often they would get hurt and have to retreat. This wasn’t a problem in this fight; all they had to do was get close to being truly hurt and then fly back away from the fight and rest.
Sara interrupted him. “The lights from the magic are something else, aren’t they?”
He nodded his agreement.
* * * * *
Sara knew she shouldn’t be bothering Keither, but she needed to get her mind off the battle. It was so gruesome and Sasha would have been no help since she was too busy helping Legon. The Elves’ chief medical officer was next to her and she was feeling a little uncomfortable. She couldn’t remember his name but he had remembered hers, of course.
He spoke to her. “Are you ok? You look a little nauseated.”
“Oh, I’m fine, thank you. It’s just the flashing light from the fight, and the blood, and the flying colored things in the air. Ok, well, I guess everything.”
He nodded grimly. “It has the ability to turn one’s stomach. The light especially. They can make epileptics have seizures just by looking at them.”
Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series Page 35