Fortress of Radiance

by Marc Alan Edelheit

  Karus’s gaze was drawn ahead and to the right. A walled city came into view. With each passing moment, it grew as they flew nearer. The city was spread over a series of small rolling hills. A haze of blue-gray smoke hung above the city. Karus figured the city was almost as large as Carthum and, judging from the smoke, was clearly inhabited. As they drew nearer, he could see smoke trails from tens of thousands of cook fires and hearths lazily drifting upward, joining the haze that clung just above the city like a dirty raincloud.

  Cyln’phax gently banked to the right. Kordem began making a turn at the same time. It was clear both dragons were adjusting their course away from the city so they would not have to fly over it, but instead around it. After their leisurely turn, the dragons straightened out, with the city now squarely on their left. Cyln’phax craned her neck slightly to gaze upon the city, then returned her attention to the front.

  Karus imagined that those below looking up would have no difficulty spotting the two dragons making their way slowly across the sky. What would they think? Were dragons common in these parts? Or would they gaze up in fear, or perhaps even wonder? Karus thought back to his own feelings at sighting the dragons for the first time. It had been a mixture of wonder, shock, fear, and deep concern.

  He continued to study the city as they came nearer and began to pass it by. Neatly cultivated fields crowded in upon the city and spread outward. Single family farms dotted the landscape in a random manner. Karus could not see any indication of large-scale plantations with their telltale housing blocks for slaves or hired workers. Many of the fields were brown with wheat and, by their color, were near ready to harvest. Others were green with some other sort of crop. They were too high up and far away for Karus to tell what was being grown in these fields. It could be anything from beans to cabbage or more than a dozen other crops, some of which there was a good chance he’d never seen before.

  A series of dirt roads expanded outward from the city’s walls, working their way through the intricate network of fields and traveling off into the distance. Karus saw several wagons crawling along the roads, either toward or away from the city. They seemed to move at a snail’s pace, painfully slow.

  A blue river glittered with reflected sunlight, at times flashing brilliantly. The river snaked its way around the far side of the city and then away off into the distance. Karus could see a number of large boats navigating its waters, their gray sails a contrast against the blue.

  He continued to soak in the city. Next to Carthum, this was only the second city he’d seen on this world and the first he’d ever seen by dragonback in daylight. They were too high up and far off to make out very many details of the individual buildings, but he found it fascinating to see the city from above. He spotted what he thought was a palace and perhaps a handful of temples atop one of the larger hills.

  The temples had large white marble columns that reminded him of those he’d seen in Rome. On another hill, there was a solid-looking, square-shaped stone fortress, with walls and a central keep. It appeared as if the stone of the keep had been painted a dark, dull red, giving the fortress an ominous look. Beyond that, the rest of the city had a jumbled appearance to it, as if the other buildings had been built on top of each other by a mad builder.

  That is Lyre, Cyln’phax said as she glanced back at him with a single eye. It is an enemy-held city.

  “Really?” Karus called back, surprised. He could see no damage or breached walls. He would have expected the Horde to destroy all in their path. The High Father had shown him the enemy overrunning cities and entire worlds, spreading destruction wherever they went. Neatly cultivated fields and an intact city were certainly not what he had expected from the masses of savage orcs working their way across the face of this world.

  The Horde took these lands nearly a decade ago, Cyln’phax continued, in a tone that seemed filled with regret. Lyre was once a beacon of learning, with a great library known as the Well of Wisdom, or just the Well for short. It was a beautiful place, devoted to the accumulation and spreading of knowledge. Sadly, the library was destroyed by the enemy. Karus sensed a heavy mental sigh from the dragon, followed by a touch of bitterness. The library’s guardians saved what they could …

  “But much could not be saved?” Karus finished the thought, sympathizing with the dragon. Karus was one who enjoyed good books, especially those that dealt with history. His own meager collection, which had taken years at great personal expense to accumulate, was lost to him, left behind in Britannia.

  Correct. Much that was irreplaceable was lost forever.

  Cyln’phax let out a huff of breath, which Karus took to be a sigh. A tongue of flame curled outward from the dragon’s nostrils. Karus felt a puff of heated air on his face for a moment, then the cold returned.

  It was a tragic day when the library was brought down, Cyln’phax said. The books and scrolls that could not be moved were burned.

  Karus shook his head at the dragon’s words. He found it hard to believe the lands below were held by the enemy, let alone that a great library had once stood within that city. He would have loved to have seen it. The dragon’s words reminded Karus of the great library at Alexandria. Though he understood the fabled library was reputedly not what it once had been, he still had long wanted to see the famed store of knowledge. Upon his retirement, Karus had intended to travel to the library. He felt another wash of sadness. He forced it aside, for it was best not to dwell on things that couldn’t be changed. Karus returned his attention to the city.

  Lyre and the lands around it looked peaceful enough, almost serene. They were too high up to make out much detail, other than groups of animals in the surrounding fields that appeared more antlike than anything else. Karus thought they were perhaps the shaggy teska, but was far from certain. He rubbed his jaw as he considered the dragon’s words. Something about them bothered him.

  “You read?” Karus shouted back at the dragon as it hit him. Cyln’phax was pining away at the lost knowledge of the library. It meant the creature most probably was capable of reading. It was the only explanation, and one he would never have guessed at in his wildest imaginations. He wondered for a moment how the dragon had learned to read. Or, for that matter, how such a large creature could manage it. The dragon’s claws could not possibly hold a scroll or book, let alone opening one without damaging it.

  You ignorant savage. Cyln’phax’s condescending tone changed to one of hostility. Of course I read. Don’t you?

  Karus was about to reply when movement caught his attention, and he squinted to better see. Just outside of the city walls, his eyes were drawn to what appeared to be insects taking to the air, one after another, six in total. Karus knew that couldn’t be right. Bugs would be too small to be seen at this distance. They weren’t birds, either. Karus sucked in a startled breath as an icy sensation slithered down his spine.

  “Are those dragons?” Karus shouted above the wind that was buffeting his face and rushing through his helmet. He wasn’t sure he’d been heard, for there was no immediate reaction from Cyln’phax, so he shouted even louder. “Are those dragons down there off to our left? Do you see them? They appear to have just taken off.”

  Cyln’phax turned her long neck slightly and tilted her head to the side as she gazed down toward the city. Karus felt the massive creature beneath him stiffen in what he took to be surprise, perhaps even shock. It lasted but a heartbeat. She then began beating at the air with her powerful wings. Kordem was doing the same. The two dragons angled upward toward the clouds above. Beating at the air in an accelerated rhythm, they began picking up speed as they climbed higher into the sky.

  Karus understood there was something wrong.

  Those aren’t dragons, Cyln’phax said after a moment as she gazed back down toward the city. Disgust laced her tone. They are wyrms.

  Wondering what a wyrm was, Karus decided that whatever the creatures were, they were enough to alarm the dragons and therefore should be considered a deadly threat
. The dragons had said that traveling over enemy lands would be dangerous. He looked back toward the wyrms, trying to make out what they were. Was this the danger the dragons had warned about?

  “They are with the enemy?” Karus shouted back. “Is that right?”

  Yes, Cyln’phax confirmed, a grim hardness to her tone that alarmed Karus even more. We will try to lose them in the clouds. However, that could prove difficult. Wyrms are known to be tenacious and unrelenting hunters. Should it become impossible to shake them, we will set you down. If we do so, you must get off as quick as you can so that we can fight them. Do you understand me? Kordem has told Amarra the same thing. You have to get off as quickly as possible. Tell me you understand.

  “I do,” Karus said, becoming seriously worried. “Do you stand a chance against them? Six against two?”

  Not good odds, Cyln’phax agreed and titled her head slightly to keep an eye upon the enemy. Still, they risk much coming after us.

  Karus looked back down toward the approaching wyrms. They had closed the distance with surprising speed. The wyrms appeared quite fast. As the enemy grew nearer, Karus was able to make out their features. Squinting, he felt they looked very much to him like dragons.

  The wyrms were not brightly colored, like Kordem or Cyln’phax, but black as midnight. Other than skin color, and being perhaps slightly smaller, he did not understand the difference between the creature he was riding and the enemy rapidly approaching from below. He was about to ask when Kordem screamed in his head.

  Noctalum!

  There came a deafening roar that shattered the air. It seemed filled with an impossible mind-crushing rage and came from above. It was close, too close for comfort. Karus’s gaze snapped upward toward the puffy white clouds a handful of yards away that they were headed into. A massive gray shape emerged from the nearest of the clouds, almost on top of them.

  Cyln’phax twisted and rolled violently to the right, banking away. Karus was grateful that he was tied down, for he suddenly found himself upside down and looking straight down at the ground as Cyln’phax twisted again and then rolled completely over. A heartbeat later, Karus found himself right side up again, with Cyln’phax pumping madly at the air for all she was worth. He could sense and almost feel the desperation of the dragon as she worked to get away from whatever it was that had emerged out of the cloud.

  The gray shape flashed by them, so close that Karus could feel its passage as a momentary disruption in the blast of air against his face. It was gone from view as quickly as it had appeared. He was about to turn to look when another terrible cry of rage cut over the rushing wind whistling through his helmet. A second massive gray shape emerged from the clouds just off to their left, less than thirty yards away. Before Karus could get a good look at what it was, Cyln’phax tucked her wings in, aimed her head downward, and dove for the ground.

  They dropped like a hefty rock tossed off a cliff. Karus held on for dear life, a white-knuckled grip on the nearest spike as they plunged downward out of the heavens. His stomach rose up into his chest as the feeling and terror of falling fully grabbed hold. It intensified, for he saw the ground rushing up to greet him, getting closer and closer by the moment. They were traveling so fast, the wind stung his face. It took all of his effort to keep from crying out. Had he not been gritting his teeth, he might have screamed in terror.

  Karus thought of Amarra. Was she okay? With some effort, he tore his gaze from the ground that was rushing up with shocking rapidity and looked around. It took him a moment to locate the other dragon, but he finally spotted Kordem just behind them and slightly above. Kordem was diving for the ground as well.

  There was a brilliant flash of light, almost like lightning. It was followed instantly by a powerful thunderclap that set his ears ringing. Karus felt a funny tingling run over his body that made his hair stand on end.

  Cyln’phax violently twisted again in midair, as if desperately dodging some sort of attack. He turned back to his front. The ground was impossibly close. They were diving straight for one of the neatly cultivated fields. It loomed large before them. They plunged closer and closer.

  Just when he thought they would hit, Cyln’phax spread her wings and leveled out. Karus grunted as he was violently pressed down against the dragon’s back. For several heartbeats it felt as if he weighed as much as a horse, or perhaps even a supply wagon with a full load. The pressure rapidly eased and then passed.

  The ground flashed by in a dizzying blur. They were moving at a frightful speed, skimming along a mere twenty feet above the field. They passed over a stone row fence and then another field full of brown wheat. Ahead was pasture surrounded by a wooden fence, this one full of cow-like creatures that began to run in all directions, madly fleeing the dragon. Then they were over and by the pasture. A farm with an overly large barn flashed by next, the dragon angling her wings and turning almost sideways to avoid hitting it. Once past, she straightened out.

  Karus saw humans working a field. They dove for cover as the dragon passed them by. Ahead was a large hill, and Cyln’phax skimmed up and over it, flashing by another cultivated field on the far side. Karus had a fleeting glimpse of people below, frozen in the act of working the field, looking up in shock and amazement.

  He turned and looked up behind them, scanning the sky. Shockingly, the wyrms had scattered and appeared to be flying away as fast as they could, fleeing, just as Cyln’phax and Kordem were doing. One of the wyrms was falling out of the sky, limp as could be, and twisting in a spiral as it dropped from the heavens. The two gray shapes turned out to be dragons as well, and massive ones at that. They were easily twice the size of Kordem and Cyln’phax. The wyrms looked puny by comparison.

  The two grays were magnificent, fearsome, and dreadful to behold. Karus felt a stab of fear gnaw at him as he took them in. He watched in horrified fascination as one of the massive grays caught a fleeing wyrm. The dragon, just above, reached out and grabbed the smaller wyrm with its claws. At the moment of contact, the wyrm twisted around and the two creatures locked in a death grip, ripping at each other with their claws and teeth. They twisted, seeming to almost wrestle in midair, tumbling and falling toward the ground. The struggle was a terrible thing to behold. The two dragons continued to rip and tear at one another as they fell out of the sky. The wyrm blew a jet of fire upon the gray and then screamed before biting the larger dragon along the neck.

  There was a brilliant flash of light that seemed to emanate from the gray dragon. Karus blinked, momentarily blinded. When his vision cleared a heartbeat later, he saw the wyrm was limp in the larger dragon’s grip.

  The gray released the wyrm, unfurled its wings, and began correcting its uncontrolled tumble for the ground. Once it had righted itself, the dragon began flapping at the air, slowing its descent. A moment later, the limp wyrm slammed into the ground with frightful force, kicking up a shower of dirt and crops. Over the rush of the air, Karus could clearly hear the deep thump of the wyrm’s impact.

  The dragon hovered over the wyrm’s body a few moments, flapping its wings in steady, measured beats. It arched its head and breathed a long jet of reddish fire over the body as if to make sure the wyrm was finished. When the stream ceased, the dragon let loose a roar of what seemed like satisfaction. Then, it began slowly climbing its way back up into the air, moving after another of the wyrms that was now some distance off and closely pursued by the other massive gray dragon.

  Karus shook his head in amazement, not quite sure he believed what he had just witnessed. At that moment, another roar of pure animal-like rage sounded from above. He looked up and spotted two more large gray dragons as they emerged from the clouds, diving downward and traveling at great speed. Would they turn and come after Kordem and Cyln’phax? Karus desperately hoped not.

  Cyln’phax and Kordem were not taking any chances. They had not slowed their flight. They continued onward and away, flying just as fast as they could. A large tree-topped hill rose up before them. Cyln’phax turned
slightly, wings extended, and coasted around the hill. The tops of the trees flashed by bare inches beneath them, leaves and limbs disturbed by their passage.

  We are lucky today, for they hunt the wyrms and not us, Kordem said with evident relief.

  Very lucky, Cyln’phax agreed and turned her head to look behind, eyes searching the sky.

  “The wyrms are of the Horde,” Karus shouted over the powerful rush of the wind. “Those dragons were attacking the wyrms. They fight the Horde, like we do, do I have that right?”

  The noctalum no longer take sides, Cyln’phax said. They are best avoided, for they are dread creatures from the age of creation. All with any bit of sanity or sense should fear and avoid them.

  Noctalum are unpredictable at best, Kordem added. We are most unlucky a few of their kind are trapped upon this world. They make our struggle that much more difficult, for their objectives are unknown to us and sometimes they interfere.

  “But they are dragons, like you,” Karus said, not understanding the difference.

  We are only distantly related to the noctalum, Cyln’phax said. You could consider them cousins, but nothing more. They are certainly not to be counted as family, nor in any way trusted.

  We are of the taltalum, Kordem added, as if that explained things. The noctalum view us as little better than the wyrms, the araltalum. That is likely why they went after the wyrms instead of us. They hate them more.

  Both dragons began climbing back up into the sky once again, gaining altitude. The danger seemed past, and they slowed their speed a hair. Karus could feel Cyln’phax’s lungs filling and expelling air beneath him at a rapid, labored pace, like a runner out of breath.

  “I don’t understand,” Karus said.

  You don’t need to, Cyln’phax said. I grow weary of making words with you, human.

  Karus felt his anger surge once again, but kept a tight leash on it. He glanced behind them, searching the sky. It was clear. The city was lost from view, now far behind them, as were the wyrms and the noctalum. Below were rolling hills, interspersed with small farms and pastures filled with herd animals. Ahead in the distance was another vast forest, a dark green smudge of a line that appeared to take up the entire horizon. Karus found his heart was racing, hammering away. Their brush with death had seemed a close thing. Had the wyrms not been there, would the noctalum have come after them? Karus suspected they would have.