Thomas looked at bulging intestine, horrified, “Yeah, no problem.” He let the crystal hang from its chain and was about to do as Ophelia had asked when Saaja rushed into the tent. Thomas glanced up expecting to see another seriously injured soldier being hauled in, but Saaja was alone and out of breath. “Out!” Saaja shouted at them. “All of you get out now!”
Rune shook his head, “What’s the meaning of this!” he demanded.
“Dragon!” Saaja shouted while running toward them.
Thomas looked to Ophelia and Rune; their faces had gone pale. He knew that without their skills many more people would die.
“I won’t leave my patients,” Rune said, but the burly Saaja had taken a firm hold of him and was pulling him to the tent wall.
“Thomas, hurry!” Ophelia shouted, waving at him to follow Saaja.
Thomas looked toward the tent door then down at the sapphire. I can do this. I can save them with the crystal, he thought. “Go! I’ll fend off the dragon,” he said to her and ran to the tent door.
Saaja cut through the side of the tent, dragging Rune with him. Thomas didn’t wait to see if Ophelia followed. As he neared the tent’s door flap, he clutched the poudrettite crystal and stopped abruptly. The ground shook as he held the sapphire in his hand and raised his arm in front of him. It’s now or never, he thought, trying desperately to summon the stone’s magic and use it to beat the dragon back. He focused with all of his mind and felt like he was actually connecting with the crystal’s energy when the dragon’s head tore through the door.
Thomas dropped the sapphire loose on its chain around his neck and ducked forward, the dragon’s head brushing over his back. Struggling to keep his balance, he was pushed forward when the dragon’s jaws fell open. The underside of its jaw hit him in the rear, sending him tumbling out of the tent and directly under the dragon. An explosion of fire ignited the tent and he instantly felt rushing waves of heat billowing around him. Gritting his teeth from the pain slamming into his back, Thomas tried to crawl out from under the dragon.
As the dragon reared, Thomas tried to stand but the pain on his backside was too great. He curled into a ball on the ground trying to make himself as small a target as possible. The dragon stomped and bucked around him. Why didn’t I run with Ophelia? he wondered while expecting the crushing weight of the dragon to fall on him at any moment.
Suddenly, Thomas heard a grunt as someone thudded to the ground. He opened his eyes to see Inama picking herself up off the ground. She glanced at Thomas and shouted, “Get out of here!”
Thomas tried to stand again, but his back and legs felt as though they were still on fire. Inama rushed out of sight and a second later a group of Lumbapi followed. Thomas felt someone grab him under the armpits and lift him up. He groaned from the pain and hobbled along with the soldier who was helping him.
“Hurry, Thomas,” he heard the familiar voice say.
Thomas’ pain seemed to subside slightly and he grabbed the Lumbapi’s shoulder more tightly. “Wren!” he gasped.
“We must hurry, they won’t be able to hold the dragon back for long,” the Lumbapi lad who Thomas had spent time with said.
“I didn’t think I would see you again,” Thomas said as they hobbled toward the wrecked buildings where the dragonriders had tried to make a barrier to protect the army from being flanked.
Wren hauled Thomas around a half-demolished adobe wall. “Let me see your burns,” he said to Thomas.
Thomas turned to let him examine his back and legs. Wren’s tall, narrow Lumbapi frame had grown haggard from war. His once colorful clothes now shown brown with dirt and dried blood. His nappy hair was a mat of grime. Thomas could hardly see Wren’s tattoos through the blood that had dried over his skin. His dark eyes rimmed in white searched Thomas’ legs and frowned. Seeing the young man’s narrow face frowning for the first time since they’d met when the Lumbapi people came to Brookside, Thomas tried to reassure him by saying, “It feels much better than it did at first.”
“I don’t get it, your skin should be melted,” the young man said.
Thomas saw that the sapphire around his neck was glowing and knew it had saved his life. An explosion of fire sprayed the rubble near them and shattered Thomas’ hopes for a moment of feeling safe. “Puco,” he heard Wren say and watched him climb over the rubble and run back toward the Lumbapi who were still trying their best to drive the dragon back.
Thomas ran after him, catching him. Thomas pushed him into an opening behind an intact building. “What are you doing?” Thomas panted.
Wren looked around Thomas and peered out at the dragon. “My people,” he said, worry in his voice.
Thomas looked at the Lumbapi who were left. He recognized Inama but none of the rest. A group of them were trying to hold the dragon’s attention and lure it back out into the plains, away from their army. Thomas spotted Rune, Ophelia and Saaja running out while the dragon’s back was turned. They were carrying wounded from the staging area near the torched tent to the city.
“My people are in danger,” Wren pleaded.
“Inama has the crystals. She should be able to kill it,” Thomas said. He watched as the dragon came after the group of Lumbapi who were out in the open. Inama charged in at the dragon, leading a squad in the attack. He waited for her to use the magic sapphires. Why doesn’t she use them? he wondered. Thomas heard Wren gasp a second before the wingless dragon sent a jet of fire out at them.
“No,” he said, running out from the building.
Thomas tried to grab him, but he couldn’t get hold of him. Thomas stepped out to chase after him again and stopped. The dragon had turned back around, a Lumbapi soldier with a spear clung to its back, but the black earth was scorched where the rest of the Southland soldiers had been earlier.
The dragon rushed at them. Thomas heard Ophelia shout for him to come to her. He stood out in the trampled grass and glanced where she and Rune stood. They’d returned to collect more of the wounded.
Thomas watched the dragon’s chest swell with fire. All of a sudden, Wren came out of nowhere running directly at the dragon with his sword at the ready. Thomas broke to his left and sprinted toward Ophelia and Rune. He heard the rushing gust of dragon fire and knew the young Lumbapi soldier had been taken.
He skidded to a stop behind the building where Ophelia and Rune hid.
“Thomas, you’re alive,” Ophelia said.
“What are we going to do?” Thomas asked, his mind rattled at the sudden way in which the dragon had caused so much death.
“We have to kill it,” Rune said.
“But how?” Thomas asked. “We don’t have magic.”
“Dragons have weaknesses,” Rune said calmly. “Just under its wings, where they attach, and through the mouth. They have holes where their ears are, or through their eyes.”
Thomas jumped as a spear clattered to the ground just beyond where they hid. The dragon’s spiked tail whipped into the side of the adobe wall. Thomas ducked.
“I won’t let that beast go rampaging through to the rest of our forces. It could decimate them,” Rune said as he peered out around the edge of the building.
“You can’t go,” Ophelia said. “The wounded need us.”
“There won’t be a need for us if that creature gets behind the army,” Rune said. He put his hand on Ophelia’s shoulder, “Protect them well,” and he darted out from the rubble.
Thomas’ ears filled with Ophelia’s cries to have him stay. Thomas looked out to see Rune, Saaja and Inama running at the dragon’s back. Thomas stepped out and retrieved the spear Inama had dropped. He gripped it in his hand and looked back at Ophelia. She shook her head at him, tears running down her cheek. “Ophelia, you’re going to need help healing up those wounded,” he said, taking off the sapphire necklace. “Catch!” Thomas tossed the healing sapphire to her. A moment later he headed toward the dragon at a full run.
