The entire group of troops watched the ensuing air battle begin and were amazed at the speed with which Venia flew. She was so fast that neither red dragon could come close to firing at her or grasping her. And Hilde rode in her seat as if she had been born in it.
Garlan looked down and saw the enemy troops had reached the base of the mountain and were starting up the trail that would bring them to the summit. He advanced a few yards along the edge of the cliff, until he was directly over the troops and cast a thunderball down on them.
He didn’t want to hit them until he was certain of their intentions, but he wasn’t about to just let them march right up the mountain.
The thunderball hit the path just in front of the troops and exploded, causing a massive crater in the ground, making the path nearly impassable.
The troops didn’t seem to care about the crater and started scrambling down one side and climbing up the other.
Garlan decided he needed to be a little more forceful with his message, so he cast a mild thunderball that hit the lead troops and knocked them off the path and down into the gully that ran alongside it. Having been on the receiving end of casts like that, he knew they wouldn’t be up and willing to fight again for a little while.
The remainder of the troops halted their march up the path, with a few of them firing arrows up at Garlan. He merely waved his hand and the arrows were swept away.
Taynor stepped up next to him and looked down.
“Persistent little cockroaches, aren’t they? I guess that answers the question of whether they are here to fight or join us.”
“As I said before,” said Garlan, “this doesn’t make any sense. These troops have no hope of taking this mountain top and trying is just foolish.”
He turned and looked back to the skies and saw that Hilde and Venia were having a bit of trouble with one of the red dragons. So, he raised his hand and cast directly at one red dragon, but his thunderball was blocked, probably by the same force that extinguished his illumination spheres.
Then the two red dragons quickly rose and broke back above the clouds, as if they had been summoned. The green dragon and her rider followed them, much to Garlan’s dismay.
He tried calling out to Venia to cease her pursuit and return, but he never got the chance. There were flashes of red above the clouds and more screeching. They had lured Hilde and Venia into a trap and the two of them went willingly.
At that moment the skies were shattered with more screeches and everyone on the mountain top whirled around to see two more dragons coming to join the fight. Morgath and Keeleth had answered Venia’s call and both had riders on their backs. They screamed overhead and flew up through the clouds, chasing after their friends.
Then all hell broke loose above the clouds.
There was a massive amount of dragon screeches and the blasts from dragonfire was almost continuous.
Garlan could feel his heart beginning to beat faster, knowing they could possibly lose three dragons and riders that morning if things went badly.
Next his hopes were buoyed when a red dragon broke through the clouds, falling to the earth and crashing in a massive explosion. That was one.
Then it occurred to Garlan they had no idea how many dragons were above the clouds. They had only seen two, but there were obviously more than that.
He looked back down at the troops that were trying to move up the mountain and they were commencing their ascent again.
Captain Taynor looked down at them and said, “Don’t waste your energy, sire. We’ll take care of this.”
He called for his troops and most of them followed him across the camp and then down the path that would take them to a confrontation with the enemy. Four bowmaidens took up positions next to Garlan, being his protection until they could figure out what was going on.
Another dragon broke through the clouds, this one flying with compromised control.
It was Venia and Hilde was barely hanging on as best she could. Garlan could see Venia had been injured and she was having trouble flying in a straight line.
As they got closer to the cliff, two of the bowmaidens grabbed Garlan by his tunic and hauled him away from the edge, giving Venia as much room as she needed to land. It wasn’t quite enough though, as she crashed near the edge of the cliff and slid right through the small cluster of tents that made up the camp.
Garlan broke into a run toward her. Hilde was climbing off the back of her dragon when Garlan reached them. Venia was barely conscious and Hilde was quite distraught.
“Help her, Garlan! Please!”
“Stand back and stand watch with the other ladies,” he told her.
He immediately went to work on the dragon, looking for her injuries and starting the healing process. He had healed Agoroth before, but he had never needed to heal someone as big as a dragon.
The four bowmaidens assumed positions around the dragon and Hilde just stood back and let Garlan work. She couldn’t do anything, but observe what was going on.
The battle in the sky raged on over their heads and it proved to be difficult for Garlan to concentrate on what he was doing.
Then, more screeches from the direction of Rosemoor and he looked up momentarily to see Sophia and one of the other dragons flash past and then up through the clouds.
Before he shifted his attention back to Venia, he saw half a dozen royal soldiers come running into the camp from the far side, having run full speed up from the base camp. He pointed toward the path down to the valley floor, without saying anything.
Captain Jong ordered two of the royals to stand guard with the bowmaidens near the dragon and he and the other three took off down the path toward the sound of battle.
It took about five minutes to locate all the injuries Venia had suffered and fix the most serious of them. Garlan could hear the battle still raging in the sky. He needed to finish as quickly as possible so he could return his attention to the fight.
As he continued working he heard some grunting and heavy breathing and smiled to himself. Only one creature could make that much noise just walking around. He opened his eyes to see Agoroth ambling toward him and the stricken dragon.
“Lord Agoroth, it is pleasing to see you.”
Agoroth looked at him, “It good to see you returned to duties.”
Garlan winced again at yet, another rebuke about his dereliction of duty. Was he ever going to hear the end of jabs at his time away from the battlefield?
“Can you take over here and help her so I can get back to the battle.”
“Yes, I can,” said the great bear and he started running his paws over Venia’s body.
Garlan stood up and went back to the edge of the cliff and the four bowmaidens followed him. They looked down and saw the royals had ended the battle with the enemy soldiers rather quickly. As far as Garlan could see, there were only a handful of Kerrick’s men that were still alive and they were being bound and hustled back up the path.
Agoroth continued working on Venia, Hilde stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Well, she tried to because Agoroth’s neck was larger than the biggest oak tree.
“Thank you for coming to help her.”
“For you, my friend, anything. Now watch over Garlan while I finish.”
Hilde kissed him on the snout and then left to join the others at the cliff’s edge.
As she stepped up next to Garlan, he looked at her and asked, “What happened up there?”
She gasped and said, “I’m sorry. I completely forgot with Venia being hurt.”
“Forgot what?”
“There are more than just two red dragons. There were six and Kerrick is on one of them.”
“Kerrick is up there?”
Just then another red dragon broke through the clouds and fell in a fiery blaze to the ground. That meant there were still four, along with one dark wizard.
Garlan looked around. He needed to be up there.
He called out to Golrath to find out wh
ere he was.
“I am on my way, master,” came the reply.
“Stop on the mountain top and pick me up. Kerrick is here.”
“Stand back!”
Just then the large, red dragon broke over the mountains from the northwest and headed directly toward Garlan and his companions. He landed next to Venia and looked at her as Garlan was running toward him.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked.
Agoroth looked up and said, “She be fine. It just take time.”
As Garlan was getting himself situated, Hilde ran up and asked, “Can you carry two, Golrath?”
Golrath wanted to make a comment about bears pooping in the woods, but looking at Agoroth, decided a simple yes was sufficient.
As she began climbing up, Garlan looked at her and asked, “What are you doing?”
She looked up at him with fire in her eyes.
“You promised. If this is the time that son of a pig falls, I want to be there to see it.”
Garlan wanted to shake his head and tell her to stay with Venia, but he knew better. He reached down and took her hand and hauled her up, to sit behind him. She didn’t like that and moved to be in front of him.
“I need to be able to use my bow, which I can’t do if I’m sitting behind you.”
Garlan half-laughed and said, “You just want to get the first shot.”
“So, he’s up there?” asked Golrath.
“Hilde said he is. Let’s go see what we can do about it.”
Golrath took two large steps and dove off the cliff and started rising toward the dark clouds. The clouds were still being illuminated with flashes of dragonfire and Garlan wondered what they were going to see when they broke above the clouds.
Hilde pulled an arrow and nocked it as they passed through the clouds. They could smell the sulfur in the air from all the volcanic activity in the valley. There was also the acrid odor of the spent dragonfire gas hanging in the air.
In an instant they cleared the clouds and broke into the bright sunshine of the morning. The scene that met their eyes was both terrifying and amazing. Eight dragons were in a battle with fireballs flying in every direction. The four Wyndweirian dragons with their riders were flying as fast as the wind and trying to take the battle directly to the one red dragon that had a rider on its back, but the other three did whatever they had to do to protect him.
Garlan guided Golrath directly toward Kerrick and his dragon and Hilde brought up her bow, taking aim at the menace that was the bane of her existence. As they closed on the battle, Kerrick saw them coming and turned his dragon to meet them.
Garlan reached behind his head and pulled Blaze and narrowed his eyes, concentrating on the dark wizard.
“Be careful with your energy, Garlan,” said Hilde.
“Yes, dear.”
Hilde released the arrow and Garlan was hoping it would have a chance, but he should have realized she wasn’t aiming for Kerrick. The arrow drove right into one of the nostrils of the dragon and caused it to screech in pain and throw its head from side-to-side, trying to shake the arrow free.
“That’s got to hurt,” growled Golrath.
The red crystal in the pommel of Blaze sprang to life. Garlan could already feel it sapping his strength, so he decreased the amount of power he gave to it. In a split-second, the crystal erupted with a flash of red and the ball of light screamed toward the red dragon.
Garlan knew it wouldn’t have a chance of hitting the dark wizard because Kerrick was just too strong and could defend against all casts he sent his way.
Hilde had no such worries. As the ball left Garlan’s sword, she followed it closely with another arrow. As Kerrick defended against the ball of light, he missed the arrow and it found its mark again. It drove into the left eye of the dragon, but missed the brain, leaving the dragon half-blind, but still able to fly.
The two dragons flashed past each other and Golrath let loose with a massive ball of dragonfire, but Kerrick saw it coming and cast a shield to protect him and his dragon.
“You’re not trying to kill Kerrick, are you?” asked Garlan.
“If I can kill that dragon, we can watch Kerrick fall a thousand feet to his death, screaming like a little girl every inch of the way,” said Hilde.
“Good plan, except every single time we’ve knocked him off a dragon, another one comes along and saves him.”
They looked around to see how the other riders were doing and it appeared they had the other red dragons firmly in hand. Sophia and Keeleth ganged up on one and ripped his wings to pieces, sending him spiraling to the clouds and out of sight.
That left just two more dragons besides the one Kerrick was on. Now it was two red dragons to four Wyndweirian dragons and they didn’t stand a chance.
Garlan searched around for Kerrick and his dragon and detected them skimming along the tops of the clouds just below them. They were trying to get into position to climb to the battle from below and surprise the four dragons, but Garlan turned Golrath toward them.
He was still feeling the effects of casting with Blaze the first time, so he reached back and put the sword away in the scabbard. He was going to have to do this with his hands and nothing else.
As they started to dive, Garlan dug his boots underneath the harness around Golrath’s chest and Hilde wedged her feet in on top of his. As the dive picked up speed, Hilde rose up with the wind pushing her back against Garlan. He put his left hand in the middle of her back and held her steady while he got ready to cast with his right hand.
She pulled another arrow and slotted it onto the string, pulling it back and sighting down the shaft toward the dark wizard. Garlan was right. It was time to stop playing games with this wizard and put an end to him.
“Wait until I cast before you release.”
Hilde nodded, knowing that Garlan’s cast would give her arrow some cover and it would make it more likely to find its target.
As they closed to within a hundred yards, Garlan cut loose with a sizzling, white fireball that appeared to be right on target. Hilde put the arrow in flight right behind it and then grabbed another arrow and sent it along, too.
Kerrick jerked the dragon to a different path and the fireball missed them, but just barely. The first arrow missed, too. But, the second arrow found a soft target. That of Kerrick’s left hand.
Kerrick shrieked in pain and turned the dragon immediately back to the northeast and fled the battlefield, but Garlan and Hilde weren’t about to let him run this time. They took off after him, leaving the other four riders to handle themselves.
As they broke through the clouds, they saw Kerrick was a few hundred yards ahead of them, but they were slowly catching him.
“I’m going to have to ask you to get serious about killing him, Hilde.”
“What?! You don’t think I want him dead?!” asked Hilde with a bit of agitation in her voice.
Garlan laughed, “It just seems to me that you’re trying to put arrows in every part of his body, but not the ones that will kill him.”
She giggled and said, “If that pig would stop moving I could get a clean shot at him.”
“I’ll make a note to ask him to hold still next time I talk to him.”
They heard a massive screech behind them and Garlan looked back to see another red dragon falling from the sky over the battlefield.”
“Looks to me like you picked some very amazing women to be riders.”
“Every last one of them is a warrior, through and through.”
“Thanks be to the heavens they’re on our side.”
They turned their attention back to the fleeing dark wizard just in time to see a ball of green-white light streaking toward them. Golrath saw it and jerked to one side and dove hard, almost unseating Hilde. When she finally regained her balance she found herself sitting on Garlan’s lap with one of his arms around her waist.
“I can remember a time when, if you touched me like this, I would have slugged you in the gut,” la
ughed Hilde.
“Don’t remind me,” said Garlan, as he helped to get her reseated in front of him. “I still feel the pain in my stomach every time I think about it.”
They looked ahead and found the sky in front of them empty.
“Where the hell did he go?” yelled Hilde.
Where he had been was completely devoid of dark wizard and red dragon. They flew a little further and searched the ground, hoping they would see his dead body lying near a dead dragon, but there was nothing to see.
“Do you feel him, Golrath?” asked Garlan.
“No, master. He is hidden from my senses. Probably the workings of the dark wizard.”
“Let’s be careful.” said Hilde. “He could be right above us and we wouldn’t even know it.”
With that, Garlan had Golrath start climbing and within a few seconds they were back above the clouds, in the bright sunlight.
There was no sign of Kerrick and his dragon anywhere.
They looked around for another minute or two and realized he was gone. Seeing that searching for him was fruitless, they told Golrath to get back to the battlefield. Flying back, in the distance, they could see four Wyndweirian dragons taking the last red dragon apart. As they got closer they could see the red dragon had at least a dozen arrows stuck in various parts of its head.
Finally, the four dragons let go of the red dragon and it fell to the earth in three bloody pieces, without a single screech.
As they got closer, Garlan and Hilde could see that Keeleth and Morgath had some deep scratches that were bleeding heavily.
“Alright, all of you back to the mountain top,” said Garlan. “Keeleth and Morgath, go straight down to the base camp and I’ll send Agoroth down to you immediately.”
Sarabel and Caroline nodded to him and turned their dragons back to the mountains separating them from the land of Wyndweir. The other two dragons followed Golrath to the mountain top and let Gwen and Emmilyn off. Then they flew to separate peaks around them to stand guard.
Golrath was able to land on the edge of the cliff and let Garlan and Hilde off and then he laid down. He was looking at Venia, who was up and about, but it was clear she was still feeling her injuries.
The Wrath Page 25