“Make that two,” Elenyr said, entering through the wall.
She turned corporeal and leaned against the wall. Blood stained her clothing from a host of wounds but her features were fixed and determined. She peered down into the dark shaft and nodded in satisfaction.
“Gendor is temporarily on our side,” she said.
“No,” Lorica scowled and jerked her head. “You cannot trust him.”
“For now, we can,” she said. “And we need all the help we can get.”
“Are you certain?” Shadow asked.
“As much as I can be,” she said. “We just need to find Mimic. Last I saw, Mind was in the Titan fighting Bartoth.”
I could use some help out here. Mind’s words entered Shadow’s consciousness, rushed and annoyed. He gave an image of his current situation, of Tardoq and the Bonebreaker in a frenzied duel with Bartoth, and Mind half carrying Moren toward the city gates. He managed to force a riderless horse to him and loaded the wounded mind mage into the saddle before helping the girl up as well.
“Looks like Mind has a girlfriend,” Shadow crowed.
“Shadow,” Elenyr warned. “Can we please focus?”
“I am focused,” Shadow said as they raced out of the house and back towards the conflict. “I’m focused on his girlfriend.”
Light began to laugh. “Shadow’s not wrong.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Elenyr said. “There’s one thing I need to do first.”
She leapt away in another direction, while Shadow, Light, and Lorica sprinted toward Mind. A dragon rose over the wall and roared. As he sought to fly, a kraka on his back plunged his sword into the beast’s spine. It crumpled, another dragon pouncing and engulfing the killer in dragon fire.
Arrows, catapult stones, and skorpian bolts filled the haze of smoke. Fiends shrieked and snarled as men shouted, the clang of swords and cracking glass a sharp counterpoint to the meaty thud of large bodies. Nowhere was the fighting more fierce than at the breach, where fiends and alliance fought for dominance. Shadow then looked skyward and spotted Water astride the great golden beast, and wondered why he was the one that got to ride a dragon . . .
Chapter 40: Defiance
Astride his dragon, Water surveyed the battlefield. The arrival of the dragons and Mind’s Titan had thrown everything into chaos, and the fiend charge had stalled. Aside from the one breach in the Ilumidora city walls, there had been no more breaks. Some of the walls were even repairing.
His dragon, Kinselithen, spoke into Water’s thought. I’m sending the reds to strike the north ranks of skorpians.
“A wise tactic.”
Water watched a dozen red dragons rise into the air before descending toward a group of thousands of skorpians. Sweeping above the giant creatures, the dragons rained dragonfire upon the fiends. Skorpians deeper in the fiend army retaliated, and the bolts darkened the air. The attack forced the dragons upward, but one was not so lucky, and a host of black spears pierced his scales. He landed hard, and fought with teeth and claws against the horde of fiends that swarmed his body.
I do not see Gorewrathian, Kinselithen rumbled, the anger evident in his voice. You promised me a chance to slay the coward king.
“He should be here,” Water said.
Do not make me regret my choice to join your war, the dragon growled.
“You joined us because it was the only smart choice,” Water said. “We both know that after Draeken finished with us, he would come for you. Our only chance was to fight together. And do not forget that your father was already killed because of this war.”
The throne is mine by right, Kinselithen said, his voice as hot as his fire.
“And if we survive, you have the oath of the Hauntress and the oracle that you will regain what belongs to you.”
We are allies of circumstance, the dragon replied. When the circumstance changes . . .
The implication was clear, but Water had known the danger when he’d agreed to speak to the dragons. Elenyr had wisely seen them as allies, if they could be convinced of the threat. It turned out that Draeken had done what no other in history had accomplished, and taught the dragons to fear. And that was why they had come, not because they wanted to conquer, but because they wanted to retain their freedom.
“Then let’s make sure we win,” Water replied.
Flames kindled in the dragon’s throat as he dropped from the sky, unleashing his breath on a charge of krakas. Water poured his own magic into the fight, deflecting skorpian bolts and striking at fiends attacking the dragon’s flanks.
He coughed in the smoke and haze that covered the battlefield, cringing when the shatter of glass indicated another section of wall had fallen. At the breaches, the fighting was the most intense, with blood spilled on both sides. But the fiends had blood to spare and gradually pushed their way into the city. Talinorian cavalry rushed into the breach, charging into the field of dead outside the wall before retreating.
The orb around the castle was cracked and broken, the abundance of black spears protruding from its surface. Fire had broken out inside, the flames licking at the limbs of Urindilial. Elves fought to extinguish the flames and save the castle, but Queen Alosia sent them to the defenses, abandoning the castle to its fate.
A skorpian bolt grazed Water’s side and he grimaced before raising a wave of water from a nearby stream, forcing the fiends into a funnel. His mount unleashed his fire, burning the focal point to a deadly inferno.
Elenyr appeared below. As the Hauntress, she passed through fiend and friend, turning to flesh just long enough to slice deep. Where the fighting was fiercest she burst from the earth, her blows so strong that even krakas died in fear. Many sought to kill her, their claws reaching for her body, but she leapt and twisted, avoiding attacks and somehow avoiding the bulk of the damage.
Water caught glimpses of Mind, Tardoq, and the Bonebreaker battling with War but could not offer aid. He and Kinselithen led the dragon charge, dropping into the thickest knots of fighting, and then flying into the air to search for more. Each conflict left them bloodied, but the city survived for a little longer.
He cast his gaze to the sky. Hours had passed, and the city looked on the verge of collapse. A third of the walls were destroyed, the people retreating into the upper boughs of the city. Could they last another hour? And where was Mimic? The thoughts were fleeting, his attention focused on survival and his brothers.
***
Tardoq flanked Bartoth and lunged, driving the heavy sword for the rock troll’s back. With impossible reflexes, the armored behemoth whirled and deflected the blade before spinning back and striking at Belrisa.
