The Wrath

by D Glenn Casey

  Hilde could feel the anguish in his voice as she looked across the table at him.

  “Well, you better figure something out because he will be here in a couple of days.”

  Symon took a drink and nodded. That was a reunion he was not looking forward to.

  “So, you have kids?” she asked.

  “Yes, two boys and a girl. When this war started up, I sent them back to the east.”

  “So, I’m an aunt, beside being a sister to you.”

  “That’s not all. You’re also a sister to our two sisters and a daughter to our parents.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “Yes, Hilde, they still live. Way down south in the tip of Wyndweir, near the ocean.”

  Thoughts were crashing through her mind. Not only did she now have a new husband, she had a brother, a couple of sisters, nephews and nieces and a mother and father. All this since this morning when she kissed Jarell goodbye and climbed on the back of a dragon and flew north. The size of her family had just exploded within minutes.

  Symon smiled at her and said, “Kind of a lot to take in, isn’t it?”

  “More than you know.”

  Then they stood up and headed out of the pub, with him putting his arm around her shoulder.

  “Welcome to the family, Hilde.”

  Chapter 6 ~ A Warrior Falls

  As Gwen and Lianna flew high over the valley below, the armies from Gallyneer came into view. They were both disheartened to see it numbered at least a thousand, maybe more.

  What scared them even more were the five red dragons flying over the army, providing cover. They both hoped their presence would go unnoticed by the dragons and troops below.

  They made quick, mental notes on the size of the army and their location and then turned their dragons to the south. They wanted nothing more than to retreat and let the others know what they had found.

  The silence of their flight was broken by a screech and they turned to see three of the dragons rising up to give chase. The two dragon riders urged their dragons to greater speed, hoping to outrun those that chased them, but after a few minutes they could see it wasn’t going to work. The red dragons were closing in on them and they knew they would never make it back to their friends without confronting the enemy.

  Gwen looked over at Lianna, who was the older of the two by about a hundred years. Lianna displayed no fear in her eyes as she pulled her bow from her back and an arrow from her quiver.

  “This is what we’ve been training for Gwen. Let’s show them we won’t be bullied!”

  She urged her dragon, Keeleth, to turn and charge the incoming red dragons. Gwen and Koranth followed close behind. The two dragon riders and their dragons dove on the three red dragons with lightning speed.

  Gwen reached forward, just underneath the armor Koranth wore and ran her hand over the base of his neck. She couldn’t help but feel a great amount of fear welling up in her chest. They may have trained for this, but these weren’t targets sitting on posts in a valley. She and Lianna had not been present in the Eastern Desert, so they had no taste of war yet. That was about to change.

  “Relax, little one,” said Koranth. “We shall deal these evil ones a great blow, right in front of their army’s eyes. Just hold tight.”

  As the five dragons came together, Lianna let fly with her first arrow and it found its mark without fail. It embedded itself through the eye of the lead, red dragon and drove straight into its brain. Without even a small screech of pain, the dragon cartwheeled out of the sky.

  There was no time to celebrate that victory though. The other two dragons had flown past and were now behind the two Wyndweirian dragons.

  Gwen turned in her seat and fired an arrow backwards and had hopes it would find its target, but it glanced harmlessly off the red dragon’s forehead.

  The red dragon let loose with a ball of fire and Gwen yelled for Koranth to turn. He turned just as the fireball screamed past and narrowly missed his head.

  Gwen just barely had time to see that Lianna and Keeleth doing battle with the other dragon before she turned her thoughts back to her own fight.

  Koranth threw his wings straight out and Gwen was almost launched into the air as they came to a stop in mid-air. She struggled to push herself back upright, from being flattened against the base of Koranth’s neck.

  The red dragon struggled to keep from running into the large, yellow dragon and as he flew past, Koranth raked his claws along his back, ripping great strands of dragon flesh from his spine.

  As the red dragon screeched in pain, Gwen used the opportunity to fire three quick arrows through the wounds that Koranth had created. One of the arrows found the dragon’s heart and pierced it, stopping it completely.

  As this second dragon fell from the sky, Gwen looked around for Lianna and Keeleth. She found them fighting the third red dragon a few hundred feet below them, almost at the treetops.

  She urged Koranth into a dive, wanting to get there and end this fight quickly so they could leave this valley. As they closed on the two battling dragons, Gwen could see Lianna was doing everything she could to stay in her seat.

  The two dragons were going face-to-face and claw-to-claw, leaving Lianna no target to shoot at. She was just along for the very bumpy ride.

  Gwen pulled another arrow from her quiver and nocked it. As she sighted on the head of the red dragon, she slowed her breathing and relaxed her heart beat. In her mind she could see the arrow flying through the air and driving into the eye of the red dragon.

  As they got closer to the battle, Gwen began relaxing her fingers, with the release of the arrow just seconds away.

  A screech of a dragon shattered her concentration and she snapped her head around just in time to see a fourth dragon had come from the army and was right on top of her and Koranth.

  She had no time to react, as the attacking dragon slashed his claws along the back of Koranth, opening up great wounds, spilling dragon blood from the sky.

  As the red dragon flashed past, his wing smashed into Gwen and ripped her from her seat. She fell screaming toward the ground below as Koranth fell from the sky, just a few yards away. Just before she was about to hit the ground, she wasn’t sure if she was screaming for herself or because she saw her friend falling from the sky.

  Lianna saw the whole thing and as the two of them disappeared into the tree covered landscape below, she cried out in anguish and felt like time had been frozen.

  A fireball from the third dragon forced her back to reality and she looked to her left and saw the fourth dragon bearing down on her and Keeleth. She couldn’t get a good shot at the dragon battling with her dragon, but she could certainly see the dragon that had just killed her friend.

  An arrow flew with razor sharp precision, into the open mouth of the fourth dragon and drove up through the soft tissue of the roof of his mouth and straight into his brain. Lianna followed with a second arrow that sliced through the dragon’s left eye and finished him off. He spiraled to the ground and crashed with an explosion of gas and flames.

  She turned her attention back to her own battle just as Keeleth clamped his jaws down over the neck of the red dragon. Lianna held on as tight as she could as her dragon shook the red dragon like a stuffed toy. She could hear the bones in his neck snapping and breaking and after a few seconds, Keeleth let go and the red dragon fell to the ground below.

  Lianna urged Keeleth a little higher to see where the fifth dragon was and could see it was still flying over the army that was still miles away.

  Then she asked Keeleth to fly over the spot where Gwen and Koranth had gone down. They found the body of Koranth, laying on a rock outcropping, smoking and burning from the inside. Keeleth screeched in remorse for her brother.

  They searched around, but couldn’t find Gwen. She wasn’t on the ground anywhere. There was no place to land and Lianna knew they couldn’t stay in the area for very long. They had information that needed to get back to Hilde and couldn't take the c
hance of being found by the enemy troops.

  “Oh Gwennie, I am so sorry,” cried Lianna as she turned Keeleth away from the battlefield and headed south.

  ~~~~

  As the sun began setting in the west, sixteen-year-old Martin and his father, Stefan, stalked quietly through the woods, hunting for dinner for their family. They had been at it for a couple of hours and hadn't seen anything, not even a scroungy looking rabbit. They carried homemade bows and arrows and were quite ready to kill any small game that presented itself.

  Stefan was beginning to think the family was going to be eating thin, potato soup again and it caused his heart to drop. This wasn’t the life he had promised his sweetheart when they joined fifteen years ago.

  Why she stuck by his side was a complete mystery to him. She was a beautiful, young woman and could have had her pick of any of the young men in Deanburg.

  Then Stefan mentally smacked himself because he knew that was what Clarissa would do if she knew he was thinking like that.

  He and Martin climbed over a mound of boulders and they both caught the scent of burning meat.

  “What is that, dad?”

  “Shhh. Quiet.”

  They moved soundlessly to the top of the mound and their eyes just about leapt out of their heads. Right there in front of them, was the burning carcass of a yellow dragon. It was obviously dead, but this was the first time they had ever seen a dragon. Stefan wasn’t sure whether he believed dragons even existed, but it was kind of hard to argue with what he was seeing now with his own eyes.

  “Is that a dragon, dad?”

  “I don’t know, son. It sure looks like one”

  They moved down the rocks and stopped right next to the body of the beast. Its flesh was beginning to turn black from the flames and the smell of the burning meat was overpowering.

  “I don’t know what to think, son, but I’ll tell you this, we are going to eat good tonight.”

  He pulled out a knife and moved to a place where he could carve off a slab of dragon meat to take home for the family. As he reached for the body of the dragon, an arrow sliced through the air and embedded itself right next to his hand.

  He jumped back and whirled around to see a young woman pointing a nocked arrow right at his chest.

  “You will not eat him,” she said. “He is my friend.”

  Stefan held up his hands and then put his knife away. Then he saw the woman was injured and bleeding. She was wearing what appeared to be a military uniform with a gold lion emblazoned on her chest.

  “We meant no disrespect, miss. It’s just we haven’t had meat in weeks and my family is starving.”

  The arrow wavered and she let the bow fall to her lap. Stefan moved to her and knelt down.

  “You’re injured. Quite badly from the looks of it. We will take you to the village and find a healer.”

  She reached up and clutched his collar and gasped, “Is your village loyal to the dark wizard?”

  “Nobody in Terranasia is loyal to the dark wizard. There has been an air of celebration since his troops left.”

  She said in a feeble voice, “I won’t be safe in the village and neither will the people there. The dark wizard’s army is coming this way and is less than a day away.”

  Stefan hung his head and mumbled, “No no no.”

  The woman reached up and placed her hand on his chest and said, “The village needs to be warned.”

  Stefan thought about it for a moment. Martin was standing right behind him, looking at the woman. He couldn’t believe someone so young and beautiful could be dressed in a soldier’s uniform and had clearly been in a battle.

  “We can take her home, dad. Mom can tend to her.”

  Stefan looked down at her and then turned to Martin and said, “I will take her home. You run to the village and find the elders and tell them what she just told us.”

  Martin nodded and turned and began running back through the woods.

  Stefan picked up the bow and the woman grabbed at it.

  “I am only taking it to sling it over my back so that I can carry you out of here.”

  The woman nodded and released her hold on the bow and Stefan put it over his head and one shoulder. Then he reached his arms underneath the woman and lifted her off the ground. She groaned from her injuries and he hated causing her more pain, but he had to get her out of here.

  As he stood, he turned and looked one last time at the burning dragon.

  “He was your friend, was he?”

  “He was. His name was Koranth,” she said weakly.

  “My name is Stefan and I will take you to my wife, Clarissa. She will know what to do to help you. What is your name?”

  “Gwen,” said the small woman as she fell into unconsciousness.

  Chapter 7 ~ Being A Leader Is So Hard

  “Lianna, you were told not to fight with them!”

  “But, m’lady ...”

  “Don’t but me! You were foolish and now Gwen is dead!” yelled Hilde.

  “Hilde!”

  Hilde turned to Symon and saw a look of surprise and hurt in his eyes. Then she looked around the pub and saw that all activity had stopped and all eyes were on her and the little Guildenian.

  When she looked back at Lianna and saw the tears streaming down her face she was completely undone. Lianna had her head down and her eyes closed.

  “Oh my god, Lianna. I am so sorry.”

  She stepped forward and put her hands on Lianna’s shoulders. At her touch, Lianna stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Hilde’s body and buried her face into her tunic. Hilde wrapped her arms around Lianna’s shoulders and held her tight. She could feel the little woman sobbing.

  After a minute, she heard Lianna’s small voice say, “We tried m’lady. We stayed high near the clouds, but we were seen and chased. When it became apparent we couldn’t out run them, I turned back to fight and Gwen followed. I’m so sorry.”

  Hilde squeezed her even tighter. She would have given anything to be a wizard at that moment so she could use magic to calm her friend and comfort her.

  By this time the activity in the pub had returned to normal and Hilde turned Lianna around and sat her down at the table, next to Symon. One of the young girls that worked in the pub walked over with a cloth and handed it to Lianna and set a mug of water in front of her. Lianna used the cloth to hide her tear-streaked face as she wiped the wetness away.

  Hilde sat down across the table from her and was silent, waiting for her to compose herself.

  “I can’t believe she’s gone,” started Lianna. “I’ve known her since the day she was born.”

  Hilde and Symon just sat silently. When she was ready to talk, she’d talk. It didn’t take long.

  “We were flying just east of Ashwick when we saw the dark wizard’s army. They number in the hundreds, maybe a thousand. They had five red dragons flying with them.”

  “How many dragons do they have now?” asked Symon.

  “One.”

  “You took down four dragons?”

  “No sire, I took down two, Keeleth took down one and Gwennie took down one herself, with Koranth’s help. At first, only three of the red dragons attacked us, but right after Gwen killed one, a fourth dragon attacked her by surprise, killing Koranth and her.”

  Hilde tried not to show any excess pride in the fact that two of her bowmaidens had taken down four dragons, because this was not a time for celebrating.

  She looked at Symon and asked, “If they are still east of Ashwick, how soon can we expect they will reach Strafton?”

  “If the ogres are pushing them hard, and I can assure you they are, we’ll see them by mid-day, day after tomorrow.”

  Hilde shook her head and said, “It’s going to be a race then. We might see our troops by then, but we can’t count on it.”

  “If I know my brother, his troops will think he’s an ogre by the time they get here. I’m sure he’ll push them just as hard.”

  “But, we don’t
know that for sure. Not until Caroline returns with news.”

  “I think it would be shrewd to clear the villagers out of Strafton starting tomorrow.” said Symon. “We can’t ask them to stand and fight an army of one thousand.”

  “Tomorrow we’ll make plans to get them on the road to Weston. I’m sure they’ll meet up with the Wyndweirian troops somewhere around there.”

  Lianna stood up and the other two looked up at her.

  “I’m going back to the dragons to spend some time with them. Koranth was Keeleth’s brother and she’s hurting right now.”

  Hilde nodded and said, “I’ll be along shortly.”

  “Yes, m’lady,” said Lianna as she turned and headed out the door.

  After she left, Hilde looked at Symon and said, “If you ever see me acting like that again, throw something at my fool head.”

  Symon smiled and said, “Learning to be a leader is much more difficult than being a follower. You’re doing fine.”

  Hilde sat back down and drained her mug of ale. She promised herself she would never tear into one of her friends like that, ever again.

  ~~~~

  “They won’t leave, m’lady.”

  “What do you mean they won’t leave.”

  The young lieutenant shifted on his feet as he looked into the fiery eyes of Hilde.

  “They said they wouldn’t leave their homes this time. They are ready to stand and fight.”