The Royal Dragoneers: 2016 Modernized Format Edition (Dragoneers Saga) Page 32

  Mysterian had called forth the radiant shell to save the fool King’s Ranger from his death. She had grown fond of Herald. The spell would have normally protected a ten stride dome of area, but the tear's power had magnified her casting, and the result was spectacular. Herald and two of his men had been saved, but barely. More importantly to Herald, the dragon gun had been saved. It had been hauled into place near the docks, so that when Mysterian’s shield faded away it could be put to proper use.

  Herald’s body had been brutally munched on in places, and he had lost a barrelful of blood. Mysterian used every bit of concentration and Dour that she could muster, and had cast a healing to stave off his bleeding. Now some apprentice spell workers were tending to him and the other wounded men. It hadn’t been easy casting one spell while maintaining another, but with the power of the dragon’s tear fueling her, and an iron hard determination, she managed it.

  The cowardly Duke, who had locked those people out of the city, had been found. He was now gagged, lying in the corner of the modest, semi-crowded, second story living quarters where Herald had been placed. Commander Hawlkin had gone off to start organizing the troops as they disembarked from the ships. Mysterian was still standing in the window from where she had cast her spell. She hadn’t moved in hours. If she did, the shield would fail. Soon she would collapse from exhaustion, but she would hold out until she could hold out no more, or so she intended. Everything changed when she heard Zahrellion screaming out to her in the ethereal.

  “It comes! The nightshade is approaching!” Zahrellion screamed with her mind. “Oh Dou, it has the stuff Jenka warned us about in a basket, and Rikky…Rikky’s wyrm is right on its tail.”

  “How long till they are over the city?” Mysterian asked as she let the shield dissolve away. She didn’t wait for an answer. “Where is De Swasso?” she asked quickly. She moved through the startled people who had been standing around her. In a voice that they could hear, she commanded, “The protection has passed. Make sure that there are men on the dragon gun to guard the harbor.” She had to get to the rooftop.

  In her mind she continued her conversation with Zahrellion, “If you don’t see Jenka, then you must lead it here to me. Near the tip of the harbor, girl! Do as I say! And warn the other Dragoneers away.”

  “They are almost there, witch!” Zah returned. “It won’t chase me. It doesn’t even acknowledge the silver that’s right on its tail!”

  Zahrellion wasn’t surprised that there was no response, but she was surprised when Gravelbone, on the back of a mid-sized, red-orange-scaled fire wyrm, dove on her from above and behind her field of vision. The next thing she knew, she was nearly jerked backwards off Crystal’s back. The Goblin King’s new mount hooked its claws into Crystal’s hindquarter and opened her flesh. A jet of flames shot over Zah, but just as quickly, Crystal’s head snaked around and a blast of glacial frost bit the fire wyrm severely. It flapped madly away, leaving Gravelbone cursing and calling forth the words of some dark spell.

  A distinctive roar filled the sky then. Royal, with the steel-armored crown prince riding purposefully on his back, came out of nowhere and bathed the Goblin King and his red wyrm in a swath of sizzling, liquid lightning breath.

  Gravelbone’s spell erupted in an explosion of lavender static that radiated outward and rippled nearly everything that it passed over. Zahrellion recognized the effect of the demon’s foul magic, and it made her gnash her teeth together in anticipation. She found herself tumbling with Crystal, Zah half-mounted between spinal plates. Then they impacted into the edge of the forest with a deep, lung-emptying concussion. The last thing Zah saw before she was flung limply off her stunned and possibly mortally-wounded dragon was a band of trolls charging at them through the undergrowth. After that, all she could see was the back of her eyelids as she fainted away from the pain.

  Prince Richard urged Royal at Gravelbone’s mount while they had the advantage, but a cold ember-red glare from the ivory-horned demon troll froze their courage before the sparkling blue could do any damage. Royal banked away and winged his way back toward the great circular wall encompassing the city. The power of the tear Royal had cried for him would fade soon, then Royal would really be dead. Richard could tell from the moment his bond-mate sucked in the first unnatural breath that it wasn’t the same Royal he had grown to love. Then again, he wasn’t the same Prince Richard either.

  He decided they should go after the nightshade. The sun was well up in the sky and the harbor full of armed men now. If what Jenka had told the others was really true, then it wasn’t carrying more goblins in that basket. Rikky’s silver wyrm was only half the nightshade’s size. The crown prince figured that, if he couldn’t muster the courage to attack Gravelbone, then maybe they could at least save the people of Mainsted from the stuff the hellwyrm was carrying.

  A glance back revealed that some of the pike men he had heard Zah talking about earlier were coming out of the forest to defend her and Crystal. He doubted either was alive. If they survived, the men would keep the trolls off of them for a time. Rikky and his swift-flying silver mount could return and check on her. He and Royal were beyond recovery, and he knew it. The sparkling blue was already dead, and he himself corrupted to the point of cowardice by the foul Goblin King. They would do the deed. They were already doomed, but they had to hurry.

  Royal flew with all the strength his own dying tear could provide him which, at the moment was considerable. They gained on the other two wyrms, but not before the nightshade neared the wall. A quick scan of the sky showed that Gravelbone didn’t want to be near his hellborn companion when the poison was dumped. He was circling wide on the slightly-wounded fire wyrm, watching and waiting.

  It amazed Prince Richard that Rikky had survived after a troll had eaten his leg. The last time, the only time he had ever met the young hunter, was when Royal had carried Rikky’s wagon and dropped it onto the kingdom side of Midwal. That was when Rikky’s wound had been fresh. That was before Gravelbone had seeped into his marrow and tainted him. Had it not been for Royal’s dying wish, for him to find the good in himself, he would have been lost to the demon completely. As it was, he wasn’t fit to call himself a man, much less a future king of the realm. He could barely stand himself.

  Ahead, he saw Rikky’s silver dragon lunge and latch its jaws onto the nightshade’s tail. He shouted out across the ethereal for Rikky to let it loose, but for some reason his voice couldn’t be heard in that way. He would have voiced an opinion when Mysterian and Linux had started arguing about his current condition had he been able to. He would have agreed with the druid, he needed to die, but he wouldn’t make anyone have to order his death. He would die saving the people he had been raised to rule.

  Royal felt his rider’s intention and responded unemotionally. The sparkling blue was closing fast on the now slower flying nightshade. It was almost over the wall, and Silva was back-flapping his sizable, pewter-colored wings, holding its tail, trying to keep it from getting the basket over the populace. The nightshade was struggling to keep itself moving forward while not dropping the basket of pestilence that it carried. Even the nightshade feared the wrath of Gravelbone if it failed in this task.

  Prince Richard had Royal corkscrew behind, and then just over Rikky and Silva so that Royal slid over them like a streaking snake. Slithering through the sky at an impossible speed, it went between the hellwyrm's leathery black wings and came down, snapping his jaws tight on the base of the nightshade’s skull.

  “Flee!” the crown prince yelled as loud as he could at Rikky. The sparkling blue wyrm had startled Silva so badly that she had already let the nightshade's tail go. They backed up and away on panicked wing strokes and narrowly missed a stirred-up cloud of the poison as it was slung around and out of the basket. The stuff fell like a handful of dropped flour down into the edge of the city.

  There had been no need to hear the prince’s voice call out the warning to flee. A deep repulsion was radiating from the sparkling
blue. Rikky hated it, it was vile. “It’s flying dead,” Silva told him, but didn’t elaborate. Rikky hadn’t felt so awful in his life. Not even the pain from his missing leg had hurt so badly. The big blue wyrm hadn’t caused the feeling when he had crossed paths with Royal before. Now all he and Silva could do was try to get away from the tainted beast, and they couldn’t do that fast enough.

  From a good distance away, a direct, wire-straight line of crackling, blood-red energy shot forth from Gravelbone’s open palm. Such was its potency that it was plainly visible in the early afternoon sun, but where the ray touched the smoke from the smoldering buildings was brightest. The sensation it caused when it passed briefly across the skin of Rikky’s exposed arm could only be described as having the marrow of his bones boiled. Had he a lesser tolerance for pain he might have just fallen away from his dragon. As it was, Silva tried to avoid crashing into the partially-standing remains of a building just outside the wall. The ray of demon power had touched Silva, too, and she was having a hard time recovering. Silva could do nothing to keep Rikky seated, but he held on somehow. How Prince Richard and what was once Royal were able to take the torturous feeling was beyond Rikky. The beam of demon magic followed them, scorching into their skin almost continuously.

  Silva tried to get some air between her and the ground so they could rejoin the fight, but when they got turned back around, the nightshade was winging away and Royal was roaring and trying to stay aloft with most of one of his wing membranes scorched away. The Goblin King's beam found Royal again and this time he went down, flailing into the cobbles at the edge of the city.

  Rikky urged Silva to chase the nightshade again, but Royal came surging up out of the lane with nothing less than vengeance in his dead eyes. “Find Zahrellion!” Prince Richard yelled as they cut in front of Silva’s path. “She’s down!” His once polished steel armor had a black line across the front where Gravelbone’s ray had slid across, and the redness of his eyes was visible across the distance. Prince Richard barely looked human any more.

  Rikky didn’t bother to respond. All he could see now was the crown prince’s back and Royal’s flittering tail. As he called out to Zahrellion in the ethereal, he realized the hellborn wyrm was low over the northern part of the city now. If it dropped the basket of poison it would impact and billow out in a roiling cloud that would probably engulf an entire quarter. Rikky knew that if the basket was dropped from a higher altitude the powdery stuff might corrupt a much larger area. Apparently the nightshade knew this, too, for it started circling up and around, leaving Royal and the crown prince struggling to gain on it.

  A few moments later, Rikky realized that Zahrellion hadn’t responded to his call yet. Reluctantly he started after her, at least until he heard Jenka reply in his mind.

  “She and Crystal are downed to the northeast by a strand of forest,” Jenka informed coldly. “Go and see if they need your healing magic or stay and help Prince Richard. One way or another, this will be done soon. I’m almost there.”

  Jenka was lying. The nightshade had responded to Rikky’s ethereal call earlier so he figured the hellwyrm could hear him now. Jenka and Jade were already high above them all, riding a powerful river of wind. Jenka was about to oblige Mysterian and force the nightshade down low when it passed near the tip of the harbor. He could only hope the old Hazeltine would take care of the rest. He had found faith, though. His mother had sent him to her, and Mysterian had the power of the great emerald dragon’s tear filling her. Maybe it would be enough.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Far below Jenka and Jade, down in the streets of Mainsted, a battle raged in the cobbles. Trolls and goblins alike fought to get through the masses. From the outskirts of the city, Gravelbone was directing them toward the harbor. They would die when the poison came out of the sky, just like the humans would. Gravelbone didn’t care. He just wanted man away from his land for he hated humanity. He had no concern about the cost in lives it took to achieve his goal. His confidence in his plans faltered when he saw the young green wyrm and its Dragoneer diving at his unsuspecting nightshade again. He tried to call out a warning to his wyrm across the ethereal, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  Just like before, Jenka and Jade started into a sharp dive at the hellwyrm. It was nearing the tip of the knife-shaped harbor, and Jenka knew that was where Mysterian would be. It was gaining altitude, and Jenka was going to try and drive it back down. He didn’t dare crash into it here; the poison would go tumbling right into the heart of the city. Prince Richard and his big sparkling blue were coming at the nightshade too, but lower in the sky. Royal’s wing looked damaged, but he was still flying with determination.

  Like a hawk coming down on another bird; a far larger bird. Jade dropped in fast, snapping his wings out into a stall. He raked a claw across the startled hellwyrm’s wide-open, cherry-red eyes before the beast knew what was happening. Then, like a striking snake, the young green shot his head out and bit down on the long bridge of the nightshade’s snout. He didn’t let go, not even when the hellwyrm snapped its head back and forth trying to sling them away. Jenka was slung away from Jade’s back. He saw as he fell that the two dragons were falling, too. He hoped Mysterian was ready. Jade wasn’t going to let go, and the nightshade couldn’t fly with the young green latched onto its head. Jenka knew from experience that the only way to go was down. The dragon and the nightshade glided into a slow arc at first, but then went into a spin that had them corkscrewing downward almost as fast as Jenka was falling. Jenka looked up at them; he didn’t want to see his death flying up to greet him. He was proud of Jade, and he was proud of himself. His death would be swift. When he hit the ground it would be over, and if Mysterian did whatever she was going to do, then the people in the city would be saved. Jenka fell far longer than he thought possible. When he couldn’t take the suspense of when he would hit the earth any more, he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impact.

  Royal stopped trying to gain altitude when he and his Dragoneer saw Jade dragging the nightshade out of the sky. They altered their course to meet it in the air. Prince Richard wished that he could warn Jade away, but his ethereal voice hadn’t worked since Royal had died. Prince Richard saw Jenka falling, but he thought the swiftly approaching silver might just be fast enough to catch him. It was undulating through the sky like a dolphin swimming through the air. It would be a close thing, but he couldn’t afford to worry about Jenka. He had to get that basket away from the city. Already it was sloshing great puffs of its contents out into the air.

  A loud, crackling sound drowned out everything, including the savage roars of the dragons. From a rooftop below, a great swath of sea-green energy shot upward and engulfed Jade and the nightshade. Amazingly, they disappeared from the sky completely. The basketful of poison fell away from claws no longer there to hold it, and Prince Richard urged Royal into a streaking swoop to try and grab it from the sky. It was slowly rolling over and about to dump its contents over the city. From across the ethereal Gravelbone laughed out giddily. He had been prepared for this contingency.

  Mysterian screamed out miserably at the terrible mistake she had made. The spell that had sent the hellwyrm, and Jade, a dozen miles out over the sea hadn’t worked on the poison or its basket. She had no idea why, other than the possibility that Gravelbone might have enchanted them for just that very reason. She was an old fool. She should have expected this. The demon was meticulous. It looked like Prince Richard and Royal were going to try and grab the stuff from the sky. That was a good thing for the people in the city, but the crown prince would surely get infected, for already there was a faint stream of powder tailing up as it was whipped around and out of the basket.

  Mysterian saw Jenka then, and her heart fell. He was falling limply, about to crash into a rooftop a few streets over. Herald would be crushed if Jenka met his end out here. Just as quickly as her heart fell, it shot back up into her chest and hammered out in both amazement and sorrow.

  The very s
ame instant the silver dragon came streaking over the rooftops to try and save Jenka, a great cloud of poisoned powder splashed up out of the basket. Royal had caught the container, but he was flying right through a cloud of the poison and Prince Richard was in it with him. She couldn’t tell if the silver wyrm had caught Jenka or not, but she knew that the mighty blue dragon and the boy she had come to love had both just been poisoned. They flew south toward the sea. She imagined that the crown prince knew he was doomed. He had sacrificed himself to save the people of Mainsted a horrible fate. Linux had been wrong; Gravelbone hadn’t completely corrupted him.

  Mysterian was blasted out of her sorrowful state by a searing pulse of Gravelbone’s crimson magic. She flew across the rooftop and only stopped when her head slammed into the parapet. The Goblin King was furious and had tried to kill her as an impulse, but now he was calling out to Royal with his dark magic. The undead wyrm couldn’t help but respond. It was a creature of his domain now. So was Prince Richard, for that matter. He commanded them back over the city and grinned with delight, when he saw the sparkling blue start into a slow banking turn at the edge of the sea.

  Royal was soon winging his way back out over the city, answering a call he couldn’t refuse. Prince Richard yelled and pleaded with his dragon to stop. He felt the demon troll’s call, too, but was determined not to succumb to the foul thing.

  “You told me, Royal,” the crown prince called at his dragon out loud. “Find what is good in me and use it! I did that. I brought you back for a time, and now we have the chance to thwart him. Find what is good in you Royal. Let us go out over the sea and die as heroes! It is the best revenge we can hope for.”