Invasion and Dragons

by Jekka Jones

  “What?” Myra asked, but then hissed. “It’s clear again.”

  “We have a dragon and his tamer—that’s Liliana—on our side now.” Landon said, trotting to the nearest tent and peering around the side. “She and her dragon’ve been watching the armies’ movements. That’s why I’m here: to rescue you, Morgan, and my parents. Somewhere in this place is Will, your dad and brothers, Morgan’s dad, Judge Temmings and Rickins, and a bunch of peacekeepers.”

  “The judges? You found them?”

  “Yep,” Landon said. “Oh good, the soldiers are—”

  A scream rent the night. It was high and shrill but deep and thunderous at the same time. A thumping sound filled the air that kicked up dirt and caused the tents to flap. The soldiers, who had begun to drift back into their own tents, grumbling about being woken up for nothing, stopped in their tracks and looked towards the sky.

  “That’s Ti’Luthin,” Landon cried. “Time to run, my love!”

  “Lead the way,” said Myra. She coughed and raised an arm against the dirt.

  The dragon screamed again and spoke. Its voice reverberated through the camp and startled dumbstruck soldiers into motion.

  “Murderer! I know you’re here!”

  Landon stumbled and turned to the sky, unable to believe what he was hearing. Sri’Lanca materialized from the dark, swooped over the tents, and screamed to the inhabitants below. “I know you are here, murderer! I can smell the stink of your sweat. Show yourself, or I burn everything before me including the ones you love!”

  “Landon, is that your dragon friend?” Myra asked. Her voice trembled.

  “Nope. Not Ti’Luthin.” He didn’t try to explain but pulled her along.

  They broke into a run. Landon and Myra swerved around samurai and soldiers, many of which were throwing leather jerkins over their half-naked bodies and snatching up swords. Landon tried to keep his feet as the enraged dragon’s wings swept strong gusts through the camp. Despite the danger, he was glad that he had given Myra the time to change. He couldn't imagine her trying to run in that large dress.

  “Come out, come out, murderer,” Sri’Lanca roared. “Mercy and judgement cannot spare you!”

  Landon glanced over his shoulder to see the dragon spit a fireball at a nearby tent. It became a flaming inferno, and all the surrounding tents caught on fire. Screams and shouts of men filled the air, and the dragon laughed.

  Landon turned his attention back to where he was going, and he slammed into a body. He and Myra fell. He scrambled to his feet, trying to pull Myra up as well, but he was knocked to the ground and his helmet was ripped off. Landon clawed for the helmet but a bare foot kicked it away and a katana was at his throat.

  “Hello, Dayn,” Takeshi said. He wore nothing but a loincloth and a leather jerkin. His dark eyes glared at Landon. “I knew it was you. Who else would insist a woman dress in men’s clothes but leave such beautiful slippers on her feet?”

  “Myra, get out of here!” Landon shouted. He swatted Takeshi’s katana aside and rolled to his feet, drawing his sword.

  Takeshi surged forward, swinging his katana. Landon deflected the blade and went on the defensive. It had been so long since he’d fought with a sword that in seconds his arms were screaming for rest, his muscles unused to the exertion. It took all his concentration to keep Takeshi’s sword from slicing into the gaps in his armor.

  “Takeshi, are you crazy? There’s a dragon attacking! Go fight him instead!” he shouted.

  “The men can take care of it,” Takeshi growled. “I am not allowing you to slip away, Dayn. This war ends to—”

  A knife zipped out of nowhere and sunk into Takeshi’s heart. The samurai gave a cry of pain and fell to the earth. He convulsed once and lay still. Landon whirled to see Myra standing two paces away with her arm outstretched. She was white and shaking.

  “Is he dead?” she asked. Tears beaded her eyes, but her voice was calm and controlled.

  “I don’t know,” Landon lied, “but thank you.” He planted a quick kiss on her lips, hoping that would distract her from the body. Sheathing his sword, he then twined his fingers into hers and pulled her into a sprint.

  He knew they were close to the edge of the camp. He could see the dark forest ahead, waiting to welcome them to safety. Almost there . . .

  Sri’Lanca released an earsplitting cackle and fell on a cluster of tents in front of them. Poles snapped, and men who had been grabbing their weapons screamed as the dragon’s weight crushed them. Landon veered to his left, but Sri’Lanca’s tail whipped at him, catching his feet and sending him and Myra into the side of a tent. It collapsed around them, enfolding them in thick fabric.

  “If we get out of this alive,” cried Myra, flailing about as she tried to remove the canvas, “you are not allowed to go anywhere until you explain why a dragon wants to kill you.”

  “Noted,” Landon shouted. He rolled out of the fabric and pulled Myra free. They turned, Landon’s muscles bunching to run, but Sri’Lanca blasted another fireball at him. He threw himself and Myra to the ground, grunting as he hit the earth. He heard four more blasts of fire from Sri’Lanca and felt the heat blaze over them. Landon got to his feet, pulling Myra up with him.

  “No. . . .”

  They were trapped. All around them, tents burned, filling the air with poisoned smoke and the screams of the dying. Before them was Sri’Lanca, crouched with his wings spread as if to embrace the fire. The dragon’s mouth split into a malicious grin, baring the pointed teeth to the gums. He looked like a devil with the horns and fire curling around him.

  “I have you now, Landon Dayn.” The dragon’s great yellow eyes glinted with madness. “My tamer will be avenged tonight! I will enjoy stripping the flesh from your bones.” He pointed a talon at Myra. “Pay attention, woman, and you will see how I will eat you.”

  “Leave her out of this,” Landon said. “She didn’t kill your tamer, I did!”

  “She is your woman and that is good enough for me,” said Sri’Lanca. He lunged.

  Time seemed to slow down, and Landon watched the giant maw come towards him. The neat rows of teeth sparkled in the firelight. He felt the dragon’s hot breath on his body. Myra screamed, and tugged at his hand but despair kept him paralyzed.

  Sri’Lanca’s head was only feet away when a second scream split the air. His and Landon’s eyes flew to the sky just as Ti’Luthin slammed into him. The force of the two monstrous bodies colliding sent Landon and Myra to the ground. The resulting gust blew out all the fires and kicked dirt into Landon’s eyes. He rubbed the grit from them and stared at the terrifying sight before him.

  It was like watching two giant cats fight. Both dragons bit and swiped their tails at each other. Unearthly howls and screams ripped from their throats, and their pupils were thin black slits. Anything that lay in their path was flattened. There was no one left alive in the vicinity save Landon and Myra. They clung to each other, rooted to the spot as the dragons fought.

  Sri’Lanca tried to take to the sky, but Ti’Luthin seized one wing and dragged him to the ground. Sri’Lanca roared, twisted his neck, and sank his pointed fangs into Ti’Luthin. Ti’Luthin retaliated with a swipe of his tail, and almost hit Landon and Myra. Landon’s eyes met his and he shouted, his voice gargled and distorted from Sri’Lanca’s hold. Landon couldn’t understand a word he said.

  Ti’Luthin managed to shake off Sri’Lanca, blood flowing from his neck. “Flee now! They are waiting for you! Go!” He then pounced on Sri’Lanca and the two became a tangled ball of fangs, claws, and wings.

  Landon snapped back to reality and lurched to his feet. Myra got to hers, pale-faced and shaking, and they ran. They jumped over fallen tents, stumbled into crates, and swerved around bodies. Tsuregans swarmed everywhere, but they did nothing to apprehend Landon and Myra. Survival was more important when two dragons were locked in battle ten feet away.

  The tents abruptly ended, and trees appeared all around. Although it was dark, they didn’t c
hange their pace. They pelted through the forest until the camp was nothing more than a glow in the distance.

  Chapter 12

  Landon’s breath rasped in his chest as he raced through the forest. Beside him, Myra gasped for air. They jostled into each other as they ran, their terror driving them further from Sri’Lanca.

  After minutes of running, Myra staggered to a halt. “Lan . . . I’m sorry . . . we need . . . I can’t . . .” She panted, and sagged against a tree, her legs trembling.

  “We’re almost to the hideout,” Landon urged. He was equally tired, but he wanted to have several feet of earth and rock between himself and the chaos happening in the Tsuregan camp. He glanced at the bright orange glow, shivering from fear and the resounding roars from the two dragons. “Just a little further, Myra, come on.”

  “Let’s walk, please. My side’s going to burst.”

  “Myra, it’s not far,” Landon repeated, panicked. He tried to take her hand, but she moved it away. “Myra, please!”

  “A couple minutes, Lan. I think I got a lungful of that smoke, both dragon and regular.” As though to prove her point, she coughed. “Let me catch my breath and then we can keep running to the ends of the earth.”

  “We’re not running to the ends of the earth, Myra, just another half mile.”

  But it was no use. Myra set her jaw and pushed away from the tree to set a brisk walking pace. Landon tried to encourage her to jog but she stared him down. The orange fire mixed with her blue irises to make her eyes purple. Sighing, Landon matched her pace. Adrenaline continued to course through his body, giving his trembling muscles strength to continue.

  Myra looked sideways at him, her expression slightly apologetic. “While we have the chance, care to explain why a dragon wants to eat you? Especially since it has no qualms about adding me to the menu too.”

  Landon glanced back at the orange glow behind them. Between gulps of air, he told her what had happened after Morgan and Ryoshin had snuck him out of Tsuregi. He kept it short and succinct, anxious to save his breath as much as possible. He summarized the treaty, pleased that Myra was also furious at the prospect of Landon exiled to Dagnor. He confided his capture by the Dagnorians, tweaking his story so it sounded as if he had been merely imprisoned, not drugged and interrogated. If Myra suspected he wasn’t telling the whole truth, she didn’t let on.

  When he finished, she shook her head. “That’s insane, Lan. It’s one thing having every soldier hunting for you, but a dragon? How do you stay hidden from a dragon?”

  “Not as hard as you would think,” Landon replied. He checked the forest behind them, the orange glow barely visible through the trees. “They tend to fly more than prowl through the forests.”

  “Do you have any plan as to how to deal with this dragon?”

  Landon shrugged. “Keep running and hope Sri’Lanca gets taken out by one of the other dragons before he catches me.”

  There was a roar, louder than the ruckus the two dragons had been causing. Landon and Myra whipped around towards the army. Two dark dragonish shapes took to the sky, colliding and separating repeatedly. From their distance, Landon couldn’t tell which dragon was which, but one peeled away from the other and flew towards them.

  Without a word to each other, they bolted. Myra stayed on Landon’s heels, following him as he weaved through the trees. Within minutes, the dragon’s wingbeats could be heard.

  “Is that Liliana’s dragon?” Myra yelled.

  Landon sucked a breath to answer, but an earsplitting screech shot from the approaching dragon.

  “I’ll find you, murderer! No tree or forest can hide you from me!”

  “Nevermind,” Myra said.

  The boulders seemed to pop out of nowhere. “Here!” Landon cried, and led the way to the entrance of the hideout. They skidded down the steep incline, bouncing off rocks and each other as they tried to control their descent. Even then, the bottom leveled out suddenly, and they both fell in a rumpled heap at the foot of it.

  “Ow,” Landon groaned, hugging his side where the hilt had jabbed him again. He unbuckled his sword and threw it aside. It clattered against the wall.

  “Landon, we—” Myra began, but a sudden roar cut her off. It wasn’t a dragon roar, but the roar of something catching on fire. It reminded Landon of the burning wagon he had started in the camp. A gust of wind as hot as an oven raced into the cave. Landon and Myra scrambled out of the way, shielding their faces against the heat. Orange, flickering light appeared on the walls.

  “Oh skies,” Landon breathed, “he’s burning the forest. Everyone . . . everyone’s heading here. We were supposed to meet here.”

  “They won’t come,” said Myra. “They’re not stupid. They’ll know to go somewhere else.” Yet her tone was unsure. Landon knew she was thinking of her father and brothers, and he thought of Will. He tried to say a prayer for them, but he was too scared to form sentences. The cave became uncomfortably hot from the dragonfire, and he pulled off the armor for respite. The damp air became tainted with the sulfurous poison. It wasn’t enough to choke them, but it made breathing uncomfortable.

  They clung to each other, listening as Sri’Lanca raged overhead with his fire. Many minutes later, Landon heard the familiar sound of other dragons arriving, screaming at Sri’Lanca to surrender.

  “Not until the murderer is dead!” crowed Sri’Lanca, and then the dragons’ noise abated until only the crackle of burning wood was heard.

  Landon couldn’t take it anymore; he started to laugh. A half relieved, half hysteric cackle that brought tears to his eyes.

  “That was a close one!” he managed to say.

  Myra’s head rubbed against his chest as she agreed, shuddering with sobs. She said nothing, yet her grip on Landon’s shirt tightened. He rubbed her back with one hand, whispering comforting words to ease both their minds.

  Slowly, her body relaxed. Landon’s heart rate and panicked breathing slowed as adrenaline gave way to exhaustion. Myra nestled her head into his collar bone, and her grip loosened. His eyes drooped, and he had a fleeting thought that it must be dawn by now. His head sagged onto Myra’s and nothing else mattered but sleep.

  Natural sunlight shone into the cave when Landon awoke. Several flies buzzed around his ear. He batted them away and sat up, looking around. Myra had rolled off him in her sleep and was curled up on the ground with one arm under her head. Landon brushed away a strand of her hair and kissed her temple. She stirred, mumbled, but didn’t wake.

  Quietly, so as not to disturb her, Landon made his way to the cave entrance. He left his sword next to her but picked up a knife from beside one of the firepits. He climbed up the incline as quietly as he could and hesitated at the entrance. He knew he should stay out of sight, but a large part of him wanted to see the destruction. He knew it was rash, and he risked being spotted by man, dragon, or both, but he had to see. Pressing the sleeve of his shirt to his mouth and nose, Landon stepped from the safety of the boulders.

  It was like he had stumbled across the tortured body of a loved one. Where once there had been trees, bushes, and other woodland foliage there was now burnt earth. Bits of ash floated from the sky and dusted the blackened rocks like snow. Scraggly black pillars that used to be trees pointed to the heavens. A few had branches that were burning, but many others had been reduced to broken and scorched twigs. The small spring that had been the Nircanians’ water source was clogged with ash. A thin trickle of water slithered from the outlet like a black, poisonous slug. Next to it, Landon saw a misshapen lump of a small animal that had not escaped in time.

  Landon stared in horror, turning on the spot at the sight around him. He wanted to scream, to cry, to do something to show his distress, but he was too shocked. He sensed the land whimpering like a wounded animal, and he wondered if, like his wounds, this black scar would mar the land forever.

  Landon stood, trembling, until the residual poison irritated his lungs to the point he started coughing. He retreated to the safe
ty and fresher air of the cave, clearing his footprints from the ash as he went. His body felt weak and empty, but he didn’t want to sleep. Instead, he busied himself with gathering supplies. He collected the canteens lying around the cave and combined the water until he had filled four. He grabbed two large packs and packed as much of the food as he could into them. Those that wouldn’t fit, he placed by the fire pit for him and Myra to eat. Landon worked silently, stopping only to clench his hands into fists and suck in deep breaths. He couldn’t stop trembling, and he couldn’t get the image he had seen of the forest out of his mind.

  Once the packs were near bursting with food, hunting tools, and bedrolls, Landon woke up Myra.

  “Wha’ time izzit?” she asked, and she yawned until her jaw cracked.

  “Almost noon,” he answered, scooping up his sword and propping it against the packs. “Brunch is ready.” Landon indicated the food.

  “Thank goodness. I’m starving,” she said and moved to the fire pit. She grabbed a half-eaten loaf of bread and bit into it, frowning at the packs. “How long have you been awake?”

  “A while,” Landon answered. “I couldn’t go back to sleep once I woke up, so I figured I’d get a head start on packing.”

  Myra nodded and then cocked her head. “Are you okay?”

  Landon was about to say he was fine, thought better of it, and said, “I went outside. The forest is pretty much burnt logs and ash.” He tried to keep his voice carefree, but it came out high-pitched and strained.

  Myra smiled sympathetically. “It’s a shock, isn’t it?”

  Landon stared at the piece of jerky he had in his hands. “I felt like I came across a corpse.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Myra. “It took all of my self control not to cry when the army passed through a burned stretch. That’s not the worse of it. A lot of the armies have been chopping our trees for fuel. They take way more than they need. Your dad—Eli—started swearing up a storm and fighting with his guards when he saw a group of Tsuregans heading to the forest with axes.”