by Jekka Jones
The longer Landon used the power, the easier it became. All he had to do was look and the power responded instantly. It surged across groups of soldiers like a wave, destroying any metal on their persons into a thick cloud of dust. He disarmed hundreds of men in seconds.
Sri’Lanca’s faith in the Nircanians hadn’t been in vain. As soon as Ti’Luthin took to the air, the Nircanians acted. Men and women, youths, adults, and elderly did not hold back with their picks, hammers, and any other tool they held. They turned on their captors and attacked until they were down, either dead or unconscious. Many went against the guards before Landon could destroy their weapons and armor, and he had to divert the power from disarming his own people.
Sri’Lanca and Ti’Luthin flitted and dived overhead, breathing fire and knocking over the enemies’ catapults and ballistae. As planned, the two dragons picked up weapon carts and dropped them among the Nircanians. They swarmed over these, distributing weapons and then rushing to defend the cages. Despite being emaciated, the Nircanians moved with speed and purpose.
While Landon and a large Nircanian force attacked, the rest heeded Myra’s cries and ran to those in the cages. They carried or supported family and friends to safety, hastening children to the skeletal buildings. A group showed up pushing the carts that had once held the work tools. These were filled with bodies and rushed towards the construction site. Some had even stolen horses that were still harnessed to wagons, and people piled into them.
The surprise attack was effective, but these were men of war. The guards recovered their surprise and retaliated. Those who still had weapons fell upon the Nircanians closest to them—regardless of age—or ran into cages to slaughter the weak. If Landon managed to destroy their weapons, then they used their fists instead.
Screams filled the air. Those being attacked by the soldiers tried to fight back, but they were too weak. Nircanians began to fall, clawing away from their captors. Landon saw a group of Borikans fall upon a woman, and he remembered Angen beating him so long ago. A righteous fury rose in Landon, fueled by the Seal’s thirst for destruction. He didn’t hesitate; there was no time to dwell on morality. He turned the power directly on the men.
He didn’t bother to destroy their weapons, Landon simply killed them. He willed the power to sweep through their bodies, breaking necks and crushing their windpipes. Once the group of Borikans were down, the woman looking around in shock, Landon turned his attention to the next group. Guards toppled, eyes rolling in sockets or clawing at their throats.
It didn’t take long for his enemies to realize what was going on. Every soldier in the vicinity turned to Landon on top of the cage. Their eyes widened as they saw a small metal object clenched in his fist. They began to flee.
“That’s right, run!” Landon hissed. Power roiled inside him. It was amazing! After being hounded and discouraged for so long, it was wonderful to be the attacker. Landon relished the moment, enjoying the cries of fear and pain that emanated from the guards. His heart soared as he saw hope shine from the sunken eyes of the prisoners and bony arms bear frail bodies to freedom.
“Landon!” shouted a familiar voice. “Are you causing all this mayhem?”
Landon looked down at Morgan’s gawking face. His right eye was swollen shut, and his left arm hung uselessly at his side. Morgan was leaning against Juan, who looked equally battered, with one ankle black and swollen. The sight of them, beaten and barely able to stand, infuriated Landon.
“Get to the buildings,” Landon shouted. “You can defend yourselves from there.”
“Got that, Lan, but where’s Myra?” Juan shouted. He was gazing at Landon in wonder and fear. Morgan wore the same expression.
Landon waved his hand. “Somewhere. She’s trying to help get the wounded to safety. Make sure my parents get out too, will you?” Morgan and Juan’s expressions troubled him, and he didn’t know why.
Morgan said something, but Landon was distracted as a catapult from the Caborcan horde launched a boulder into the camp. The power seized on the boulder, and it vanished into a cloud of dust. A thought, a surge, and the catapult itself exploded, killing a few soldiers and wounding many.
“Thank you,” called Ti’Luthin, as he swooped overhead. He was thin and flapping harder than usual, yet his eyes burned with fury. The smoky gray dragon plowed into a ballista, reducing it to tree-size splinters and clawed his way back into the air. Arrows flew after him only to bounce harmlessly off his scales.
“Any dragons yet?” Landon shouted.
“No, but don’t stop,” yelled Sri’Lanca. He zipped past Landon, kicking up a cloud of dust with his wind stream. “Keep destroying their weapons. If the nations have nothing to attack or defend with, then we can drive them out of our country!” The dragon’s voice sounded strained, as though he wanted to weep but was holding back. Landon suspected it was because the Seal was dampening their bond. That should bother him but he was too powerful to care.
Landon turned his attention on the armies, excitement coursing through him. He could barely see them through the rows of cages. He would have to get closer. . . .
He made one last sweep of the construction site, confirmed that only the dead and dying guards remained in the area, and bellowed to his dragon. “Sri’Lanca, I need to get closer to the armies!”
“I will take you there!” cried Ti’Luthin. He swooped and snatched Landon in his forefeet. They coasted to a row of cages that were nearest to the armies, passing the streams of fleeing guards. Landon swept the power through them, making sure they had no metal on their persons.
Ti’Luthin dropped him onto a cage in the second row, giving him a full view of the armies. The fleeing soldiers’ screams increased when they saw him. They stumbled to a halt, moved to double back, and saw the Nircanians racing towards them. The sight of their prisoners, faces twisted with determination and wielding blood-splattered tools, drove them forward. Landon ignored the soldiers, allowing them to escape, and focused on the armies.
The armies scrambled to organize themselves. Captains and generals shouted for men to get into formation, for archers and the war machines to fire in waves. Landon interfered with that. The power leapt at his will, destroying any glint of metal that caught his eye. Saddles and riders tumbled from horses’ backs, carts fell apart, horses reared as their horseshoes vanished, and men stumbled as the weight of their armor disappeared. He willed bows and quivers to explode, blinding and wounding the archers.
To fuel the soldiers’ fear, Landon killed a few of the captains and generals at random. As the chaos increased, he wondered where the kings and Seers were. He wanted to search for them, but there was no time. With so many men wielding weapons of all kinds, and trying to attack him, he had to focus.
Landon, Sri’Lanca, and Ti’Luthin continued to their attack. The dragons warned Landon of a missile or soldier, sometimes moments before it would have struck him. He had to jump aside from an arrow or projectile several times, the armies hoping to overwhelm his attention before he destroyed their weapons. Landon thought he heard Myra’s voice amongst the shouts, but he couldn’t look. His attention was all on the armies.Nircanians shouted directions to each other, taking up defensive positions around the cages, or helping the wounded get to safety.
“Keep it up, boy! We’re almost out!”
“Northwest quadrant is clear!”
“This one’s alive! Careful of her neck.”
It wasn’t until Landon blasted the last catapult, and the earth was littered with bodies, that several horns of different pitches rent the air. As one, the armies began to pull back. Soldiers in their under-armor clothing stumbled over each other as they fled. His, Sri’Lanca, and Myra’s hastily thrown together plan had worked!
“They’re running!” Landon bellowed. His words were met with a resounding cheer. He expected his people to run after the soldiers, but they didn’t. They knew what was most important. The Nircanians kept their focus on guarding the stream of people fleeing the cages and g
ravesite.
“Leave our home and never come back!” Landon shouted, willing the Seal to amplify his voice.
His words rang through the air, spurring the soldiers to run faster. Within moments, a large stretch of broken machinery, tents, carts, and bodies lay between him and the armies.
“Nircana! Nircana! Nircana and freedom!” roared thousands of voices. The armed Nircanians brandished their weapons. Those holding the permiter to the construction site stayed put in case the armies turned back.
A resounding screech sliced through the noise, deafening and shrill. Landon threw his hands over his ears. The hot metal of the Wizard’s Seal touched his temple, and the power neutralized the screech. Landon looked around, and then up.
A horde of dragons descended out of the sky. Landon didn’t have time to count, but it did look to be around thirty strong. He searched for their riders, but the dragons carried nothing save their teeth and claws. A high-pitched whistle started as the dragons folded their wings and dove.
Right at Landon.
“Landon, run!” screamed Sri’Lanca, whirling towards the oncoming horde. Ti’Luthin twisted in the air, screaming a challenge that was answered by thirty roars.
Landon ignored him. He was unstoppable. He had killed hundreds of men without breaking a sweat, he could stop these dragons. He willed it to constrict their wing muscles. Instead of seizing their muscles, it tried to break their wings or backs instead, which would cause them to crash to their deaths. Sri’Lanca had forbidden him to kill any dragons. Even though the Seal dulled his sense of morality, the bond freezing his chest reminded him of that promise: incapacitate, not kill.
Landon wrestled with the power, fighting to make it bend to his will. The dragons wobbled.
“He still has the Wizard’s Seal!” shouted a mottled green dragon. “Stop him before he destroys us!” The dragon surged forward with a giant sweep of his wings.
“Landon, go!” Sri’Lanca bellowed. “This is our fight now! Help our people get to safety!”
Landon wanted to argue, angry that the Seal would disobey him now, but new his dragon was right. Swearing, he ran to the edge of his cage. The ground was at least fifteen feet below. He didn’t trust the power to slow him if he jumped. He lowered himself over the edge, hooked his legs and arms around one of the bars, and slid down the shaft. He hit the ground, staggered, and looked up.
Sri’Lanca and Ti’Luthin were fighting a battle against impossible odds, yet they were doing a magnificent job. They spun through the horde of dragons like a bird through a cloud of insects, snapping their jaws and whipping their tails in all directions. For two dragons, they managed to break apart the swarm. Two-thirds flew after them, and the rest came for Landon.
He tried to constrict their wing muscles again but the power wanted to kill or severely wound. Trying to force the power to do otherwise would take more concentration and precious time. Landon gave up on the dragons and ran. He pelted as fast as he could towards the worksite, weaving among the cages. Between the bars, he saw the line of Nircanians protecting the construction site. They yelled at him and waved their weapons, urging him to safety.
“Cut him off from the others!” shouted a golden-maned dragon. His words were met by a furious scream from Sri’Lanca. Faintly, almost indiscernibly, a small portion of Sri’Lanca’s fear pushed through the torrent of power. It lasted for only a second and was gone, but it was enough to spark a bit of fear in Landon.
He was less than a hundred yards from the worksite when a wall of flames sprang up in front of him. He plowed through it, willing the power to smother the flames and clean the air as he ran. Another wall of fire. Then another. And another until Landon was forced to stop. He ducked into a cage, but it was reduced to ash within minutes, drenching him in fire and soot.
He tried to dispel the flames, but it was in vain. He was trapped in a blazing cocoon, with the occasional glimpse of dragons hovering overhead. Fire poured from their mouths onto Landon like waterfalls. He would have been dead if it wasn’t for the Wizard’s Seal.
He was trapped. If he ran towards the buildings, the fire would follow him and kill his people. The dragons were determined to capture him and they would burn anyone or anything that got in the way. Unless he ran towards the armies. . . . Would the dragons burn their allies?
Hope blooming through the freezing cold in his chest, Landon spun on his feet and ran the opposite way.
Right into the claws of a waiting dragon.
The moment Landon’s eyes took in the dragon, he knew it was Fey’Neran. Having not seen the emperor’s dragon yesterday, Sri’Lanca had described her to Landon. The dragon’s features were far more feminine than Sri’Lanca’s. She was a beautiful, silver-colored dragoness with an elaborate gold chain around her neck—marking her as royalty. A fine crown of horns swept back from her head, and she had a thin, pointed snout much like Sri’Lanca’s.
Her four-fingered foot enfolded him, and the next thing Landon knew he was rising in the air.
Pressure in his ears built and popped with the rapid ascent. Landon’s vision blurred, and he thought for sure he would pass out. The Wizard’s Seal kept that from happening however. It was trying to draw Landon’s attention to the dragoness’ feet, offering to remove them. Disoriented, Landon almost willed it, but stopped himself. If he had been unsure about the Seal protecting him from a fifteen-foot drop, he had no faith in it hundreds of feet in the air. He kept the Seal from touching the dragoness’ scales, holding it close to his chest. He was not going to test her resilience to pain, and risk being dropped.
A squat, purple dragon glided up to Landon, studying him with dark green eyes. “He still has it!” The dragon shouted and veered away.
They were still afraid of him. Landon twisted his head around, noting ten dragons circling him. Fey’Neran had her head cocked to the side, keeping an eye on him.
This gave Landon hope. He raised his right hand, showing his fingers intertwined with the Seal’s loops. He smiled and yelled as loud as he could, “Take me back or—”
“Hot rock!” The dragoness cried and released him.
Landon hung in the air, his words swallowed by the realization that his body wasn’t secured. The dragoness receded from him, slowly at first then faster and faster. The other dragons had dove, spreading out in a wide circle with him in the middle.
Not even the Wizard’s Seal could hide his terror. He was falling. Landon wanted to scream, but his voice wouldn’t work. He could barely breathe. He tumbled through the air, his right hand locked around the Wizard’s Seal, useless in his hand. He couldn’t think, couldn’t will the power to save him because he was falling! He heard Sri’Lanca scream in despair and saw a dragon streak towards him, but it was waylaid by the other dragons.
“Get off me! Landon, the Seal! Use the Seal!” bellowed Sri’Lanca.
Landon couldn’t reply. How far had he fallen? Two hundred feet? A thousand? The ground was rushing towards him, and his eyes fastened on the construction site below. That was where he was going to die. A bloody splatter on a rock, just like Eli.
Something wrapped around his middle, and he was jerked upwards. Landon cried out from the whiplash and felt his wrist crack backwards. It didn’t break, but the shock numbed his hand. The Seal started to slip from his fingers. He tightened his grip and strained to see what had caught him. He saw he had been grabbed by an orange and red dragon’s tail.
“Almost!” it shouted, its golden mane bristling with joy. The dragon twisted in the air, and launched Landon towards the sky. Landon flew upwards, slowed, and then was free falling again.
“Sri’Lanca!” he cried. He saw his dragon fighting to reach him, dodging and weaving amongst the dragon swarm. Ti’Luthin was trying to help, but it was easier for the Dragon Guard to get in the way than fight. The dragons rammed into Ti’Luthin and Sri’Lanca, sending them spiraling out of control.
“Keep his dragon away!” shouted the silver dragoness. She was coming at Landon from the ri
ght. She snatched him out of the air and rocketed into the sky.
Landon pounded on Fey’Neran’s scales with the Seal, screaming at her to stop. She roared in pain and dropped him. Another dragon wrenched him from the air only to throw him again. He was caught and released by another dragon. And another. And another. Landon waved his hands and kicked against the air, but it was useless. The dragons were playing keep-away, and he was the ball. He wanted to will the power to break their wings, but he was forced to use it to support his spine and ribcage. It was the only way his body could endure the jerks and twists of being caught repeatedly.
At one point, Landon was thrown to Fey’Neran. She snatched him in her claws, jerking him upwards. Landon cried out as his neck and back muscles strained against the sudden reversal of momentum. The force was enough to disorient him and his concentration wavered. The fingers on both hands went numb and the Wizard’s Seal slipped off.
Pain and Sri’Lanca’s terror slammed into him. He choked on a scream, and became limp in the dragoness’ grip. The ice in his chest vanished, leaving him exhausted and cold. His vision swam, yet he managed to cling to consciousness. Landon watched as the silver and amber amulet spiraled to the earth.
“No. . . .”
“He dropped it!” bellowed the golden mane dragon.
“Find it,” ordered Fey’Neran, “and meet us at the pavilion. If you can bring Sri’Lanca then do it, otherwise leave him. Kill the traitor. Let the slaves deal with his tamer.” With a surge of her powerful wings, the dragoness sped forward, flanked on either side by the remaining dragons.
Landon wanted to scream for help, scream for Ti’Luthin to flee, but the words wouldn’t come. He hung paralyzed in the silver-scaled foot, terrified that he would be dropped again. He tried not to notice the empty air around his feet. One arm was free and the other was stuck in the dragoness’ fist, digging something hard into his side.