“No,” Hayden responded. “I am saving this for another.” Hayden broke into a sprint and ran at Giles. Puddles of water splashed with each of Hayden’s footsteps as he ran. Giles stopped walking and stood his ground, allowing Hayden to shorten the distance between them.
Giles swung his sword at Hayden’s shoulder, but he used the back of the golden dragonauts to slap the blade away.
Giles tried to backtrack and get out of Hayden’s reach, but he kept sliding in the standing water. Hayden punched and slashed at Giles, but the dragonauts seemed to do little damage against the scale armor.
He was able to leave scratches on his armor and even dislodged a single scale. Hayden punched Giles’s helmet and caused the rider to stagger, but he did not go down, and he did not stop.
The two locked arms, Giles holding the hilt of his sword and baring down on Hayden with all his might while Hayden held on to his forearms. They both growled and yelled at each other as they stood in one spot, neither yielding to the other.
Giles shot his knee into Hayden’s stomach, his armor protected the blunt of the strike, but it still doubled Hayden over. Giles brought his sword down on Hayden’s back as hard as he could. The blade didn’t break through the silver dragon scales, but it felt like Hayden had just been struck with a stick.
Hayden reached out and grabbed Giles by his foot and yanked as hard as he could, sending him to the ground on his back. Hayden heard the wind get knocked out of him over the sound of the rain and dragons fighting above them.
They both struggled to get back on their feet. Hayden knew Giles was having a hard time breathing, but Hayden’s entire body seemed to hurt.
Hayden stood up first, but Giles was the first to attack. He lunged forward, holding his sword with both hands and tried to run Hayden through. Hayden stepped out of the way and slashed at Giles’s face. The dragonauts dug into his cheek and ripped his helmet off.
It wasn’t a bad wound, but it was bleeding. Giles raised his hand to his cheek and saw blood on his fingers. The helmet slid off the side of the pyramid and fell from view.
“You will pay for that!” He shouted. He ran back at Hayden, slashing and stabbing like an untrained wild man. Hayden had regained control of his body, but his hands were still shaking.
Giles tore through the falling rain, and Hayden backed up, matching him step for step. He ducked and leaned back, avoiding the blade instead of fighting back. The rain was washing the blood from his face, and his dark hair was getting in his eyes, blocking his view of Hayden.
Hayden kept stepping back until his right foot found the edge of the platform. Draek and Kurok made another pass around the pyramid, neither dragon taking an interest in their riders fighting.
The dragons shot back into the clouds and disappeared from view as Giles tried to push Hayden off the platform.
“You should have died here!” Giles shouted. “If you would have just known your place, none of this would have ever happened.”
“Someone else would have stood up to you,” Hayden shouted back over the sound of the rain. Giles lunged again. This time Hayden punched him in his face instead of stepping out of the way.
With no helmet to protect him from Hayden’s stolen dragonauts, the strike was devastating.
Giles collapsed at once and almost fell off the side of the pyramid. Hayden grabbed him by the back of his armor and yanked him from the edged, sending him sprawling out on the platform. The water was still trying to wash away all the blood.
There was a flash of lightning above their heads, close enough that the thunder knocked Hayden back and dazed him. It was the first bolt of lightning in the storm, but Hayden knew it wasn’t the last.
As the light faded and the sound of rain filled their ears again, Giles erupted in screams of pain as he reached for his back. Hayden didn’t know what was going on until he saw Kurok falling out of the sky, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. Draek was right behind him, still giving chase, but Kurok was missing one of his wings.
“The lightning,” Hayden said to himself as the two dragons raced towards him.
Hayden walked over to Giles and took the fallen silver sword from him. He held the blade in his hand, it was the same as his old sword. Giles was able to regain control of his mind long enough to realize that Hayden had his sword and that his dragon was hurt, badly.
“Please, call your dragon off.” He said in between breaths of pain. His nose and lips were in ruin, and he still held his left side.
Hayden knelt down and looked at Giles’s ruined face. He wasn’t sure if Giles could see Hayden’s eyes, but he assumed he could because Giles dropped his gaze.
“You killed a lot of good people on the ships you burned,” Hayden said.
“You have hurt a lot of people, Giles.” Hayden reached out with his right hand and grabbed Giles beneath the jaw, the dragonaughts pinching his skin.
The Metallic Pyramid shook as Kurok slammed into it. The dragon’s head rested on the platform as he tried not to slide down the slick metal sides. Somehow, he had survived the fall but only by a thread.
“Please,” Giles said without emotion.
“Even now, you don’t apologize for what you did.” Hayden turned Giles so he could see his dragon.
Draek fell out of the sky like a bird descending on its prey. Draek bit Kurok’s neck, just beneath the head as Hayden held Giles.
“You failed me,” Giles said to Kurok as Draek snapped, and they both turned to stone.
“No,” Hayden said. He pushed the stone remains of Giles off the edge of the Metallic Pyramid and watched him break into countless pieces. “You failed.”
Hayden walked over to Draek, putting Giles’s sword in his scabbard. The sword was loose, but it would stay, and climbed back into the saddle.
We need to get back up there. Draek said.
Good to have you back. Hayden said. But we need to get the gates open. Draek watched as several stone dragons fell out of the sky and smash into the city and fields around them. The darkness of the storm fully engulfed the fighting dragons, hiding all of them from their view.
By the looks of the stone dragons, they seem to be losing now.
Call the Bone Thieves, and the reg dragons that stayed behind to protect them. Hayden said as Draek took off towards where the remaining dragons had been hidden away.
They are eager to join the fight. Draek replied. Hayden looked over to where the ground troops were fighting and hoped that they were going to be ready.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Hurry, we need to get those gates open!” Hayden shouted. Draek slid in the mud as he landed. The grass had turned into a swamp of dark mud that Draek sank into, leaving large footprints as he walked.
Some of the Bone Thieves and dwarves were fighting in the sky somewhere above them, but Hayden had asked for a few to stay behind for his plan. They didn’t need all the dragons, just enough to get the job done.
The Bone Thieves that were charged with opening the gates quickly climbed onto the dragons that were going to be getting them into the city. They latched on wherever they could and waited for Hayden’s orders.
“Our time has come!” Durgen shouted from the back of his red dragon.
Kne sat on the back of the black dragon by the same name, silent but ready. Bone Thieves swarmed Kne’s dragon as Durgen spoke. Rain splattered all over them, and lightning continued to flash overhead.
“This is not going to be easy. I know this is not the way you wanted to fight. I know you wanted to be up there.” Hayden pointed into the sky and saw that all the dragons had disappeared in the storm.
“What you are about to do, what we are about to do is what is going to win the city,” Hayden shouted.
“They will sing songs of us,” Durgen shouted, a crazed smile on his face. Other dwarves nodded in excitement. Hayden looked back over the city and saw that most of the smoke had died down and the rain was even washing away the soot and ash from the metal buildings.
�
��They will sing songs!” Hayden agreed. “They will sing, they will shout, they will drink, and they will dance as they remember the day that a handful of dwarves, thought defeated, with a small group of Bone Thieves took Celestial City! When they saved the day, when they saved Arvain!” Draek roared and jumped out of the mud, leading the small group of dragons to the city.
“For Arvain!” A dwarf shouted, others echoing their call.
“For Bureg! For all those that we have lost!” Durgen yelled. With that, the group flew low to the ground and made their way to the gates.
The archers along the wall continued to fire down upon the fighting troops outside their city, hitting anything and everything that moved. They noticed Draek leading a group of dragons flying at them. The archers turned to fire their arrows at the oncoming threat.
The dragons flew over the fighting troops, Draek’s wings dipped low enough they almost touched the people fighting beneath them. Some cheered, some shouted in fear, but most continued to fight. Not noticing what others were doing.
The arrows fell around them or bounced off of Draek’s scales, a harmless nuisance. They made it to the wall, and Draek set fire to the tops where the archers had been. He hovered in place and slowly made his way closer to the gates, burning everything in his path.
Hayden held his shield up just in case an archer got lucky with an arrow.
Hayden took a chance and looked past his shield and saw that all the archers were running, none stood before the dragons.
The black dragons landed on the rooftops of the building closest to the gates, and the Bone Thieves climbed off like insects ready to infest the city. They scaled down the walls and quickly found their way to the gates.
Hayden smiled and thought that they were going to get away with his plan when a stone dragon fell out of the sky and crashed into one of the black dragons, killing it instantly. Draek roared his frustration, but Hayden looked up and saw that a copper dragon had followed the dragon out of the storm. Hayden assumed it had followed the dragon to make sure it was dead, but it was now looking right at them.
Draek, we are about to have company. Hayden said. Before Draek could look up two silver dragons and several copper dragons dove out of the darkness and flew right to them.
Draek had landed on the walls and was about to take off when the red dragons shot past them, flying to intercept the new threat.
“Hurry!” Hayden shouted to the Bone Thieves and pointed at the dragons flying at them. Kne looked up and saw what was happening. The Bone Thieves hadn’t gotten off Kne, the dragon, but the black dragon still took off to help fight with the red dragons and dwarves.
What are they doing? Hayden asked. He didn’t know how many Bone Thieves had unloaded and were making their way to the gates, but he wanted to make sure they had enough.
Kne says it has been an honor, but the tribe must live on. Draek replied.
What is Kne talking about? Hayden said as the black dragon caught up to the red dragons. Hayden saw Durgen nod to the Bone Thief before lifting his ax above his head and shouting a war cry that Hayden couldn’t hear.
Hayden and Draek watched as several Bone Thieves let go of the black dragon and lowered themselves so that they were hanging behind the dragon on ropes. They looked like wind chimes from where Hayden was.
The black dragon flipped in the air when they neared the first silver dragon, and the Bone Thieves that had been hanging underneath were sent flying through the air, wrapping around the silver dragon and landing on its back.
A copper dragon latched on to Kne, and the two quickly tumbled to the ground in a tangle of fire and scales. The Bone Thieves on the back of the silver dragon made their way to the rider who didn’t stand a chance to fight them off.
The silver dragon turned to stone the same time Kne did, but the black dragon had wrapped around the copper dragon so that it couldn’t fly away before crashing into the ground, right in the middle of the fighting ground troops.
The stone silver dragon fell into the city with the Bone Thieves still on its back. Hayden lowered his head as the echoes of the crash died away. “For the tribe,” Hayden said.
The red dragons slammed into the Metallic Dragons, but they tried to push through the red dragons to get to the gates. The Bone Thieves scrambled down the sides of the buildings as fast as they could. As soon as a black dragon was clear of its passengers, it jumped into the air to fight off the Metallic Dragons.
Let’s go Draek. Hayden said. Draek jumped off the wall, sure that the archers were not coming back, and flew at the silver dragon.
A giant block of ice broke through the storm and came plummeting to them. Draek saw it, but the silver dragon did not. At the last second, before the two dragons were about to meet in the air, Draek rolled to the side.
The silver dragon flew past them, but the giant block of ice slammed into the dragon’s back, killing the rider and sending the pair crashing to the city. The ice shattered as it struck the dragon’s back and Klarack’s dragon broke out of the ice and started flying back up to the storm.
“Klarack!” Hayden shouted as the white dragon was about to pass them. Klarack’s fur cape that was draped around him was covered in frost that was being melted by the falling rain.
Klarack looked over to Hayden at the sound of his name.
“What was that?” Hayden shouted.
“We have never seen rain before, didn’t know that would happen,” Klarack shouted with a shrug. Hayden could already see ice building up on the white dragon as they started to fly off. They flew into the darkness of the storm clouds, disappearing from view.
Hayden and Draek helped fight off the remaining dragons as the Bone Thieves worked their way to the gates and slowly opened them.
Hayden saw more giant ice blocks falling out of the sky and breaking apart as white dragons escaped the ice.
With the last copper dragon downed, Draek and the other dragons did a few passes over the ground troops that were not their own. They brought chaos and fire to the soaked soldiers and within a few seconds had changed the tides of the fighting to their favor.
We have done all we can, let us join the real fight now. Draek rumbled as he turned upwards and dove into the storm. Hayden couldn’t see anything around them, and he knew Draek was just as blind.
~
“The dragons have done their part, let's do ours!” Gerian shouted as she pulled her Utahnen back into the group of horses that were trying to run away. Her Utahnen were throwing the terrified animals around like a child with a broken toy.
The giant shadow cats were just as deadly as the Utahnen and possibly a little faster, but Gerian would never admit it. The gates had sluggishly opened after the black dragons had landed and they didn’t know how long that was going to last.
The giant silver dragon had made a few passes near the rear of the enemy’s army and burned nearly half of their troops.
That had caused their archers and ground troops to finally start moving forward again and help Gerian with the stragglers.
Her Utahnen slipped in the mud as it started taking off again, a little sluggish at first.
“The gates, to the gates!” She shouted. Others fell in behind her as they began the trek forward. Stone dragons were still falling out of the sky as well as giant horse size clumps of ice. Gerian didn’t know what was going on in the storm above, but it was meant for dragons to settle that matter, not her.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she glanced up as they were moving forward. There were only a few enemies directly in front of her, and they were all trying to run into the city.
She couldn’t see anything in the dark storm clouds until there was a flash of lightning and an ear-splitting thunderclap. The sky lit up for a split second, and Gerian cursed in a moment of awe.
The sky was still dark, but for a split second, she could see the outline and silhouette of hundreds of dragons flying in the darkness. The very moment the light died, the sky was on fire as the dragons attack
ed the shadows nearest them.
Dozens of stone dragons fell to the ground below before the sky went dark and silent again. Silent except for the constant rain. After the fires died down, and the darkness continued, the stone dragons stopped falling.
Gerian pushed her Utahnen faster even though it was struggling in the mud. As many of them as possible needed to make it into the city and they were so close now. The gates and were right in front of them.
Gerian saw the Bone Thieves fighting soldiers on either side of the gate, but they seemed to be holding their own.
She didn’t know how long that was going to last, so she steered her Utahnen into the men they were fighting. Her Utahnen found its ground when it got out of the mud and hit the metal streets of Celestial City.
Gerian quickly ended the guards that were fighting the Bone Thieves, and she watched as her cavalry came flooding into the city, the ground troops and archers close behind them.
Gerian didn’t know what to do next. All her planning had been to get her to this point, and she knew that the chances of it all working out had been slim. She watched as their men and women continued to pile into the city and surround her.
They looked up to her for what to do next, what the next step was.
She turned and looked to the Metallic Pyramid. That is where the silver rider had said their leaders were.
That was where they needed to be.
“With me!” She shouted and urged her Utahnen again.
“One more time, with me!” She held her ax over her head. She knew her Utahnen was tired, she could tell by its sides heaving as it ran. The rain made the metal roads a little slippery but not as bad as the mud had been.
The weirdest thing was the sound the rain made when it hit the houses and streets. It echoed and sounded, unnatural.
Their cavalry pushed its way through the city streets and to the looming pyramid that seemed much bigger now that they were in the city.
It seemed almost too large and that something that big shouldn’t exist. It seemed to be the size of a mountain and yet it was entirely manmade.
The Fire Within Page 22