DragonCrown Saga - The Grand Crusade Part 48

Alexia caught a black shadow out of the corner of her eye. She pointed to the dam. "Maroth, clear that dam." In an eyeblink the metal dragon vanished, but she did not see him reappear at the dam.He'll come through. He must.

She reined her horse to the left, then ordered a signalman to blow orders. She commanded the cavalry and heavy infantry on the left to head into that gap even as more Aurolani moved into the trench. As her troops moved, she had another bugler call on the troops in the center to s.h.i.+ft west, which opened a gap in her line between the center and Erlestoke's formation.

That sort of opening would be fatal to her if exploited, but unless Nefrai-kesh's troops could battle past Erlestoke's army, they'd never get to it. If they did...If they can do that, the battle is long since lost.

Crow rode over, armored in dull grey mail with a green Oriosan tabard over it. "Things have changed.

What's the new plan?"

Alyx's violet eyes half shut. "We s.h.i.+ft to the west, and when Nefrai-kesh turns his dragonels to the action on the east and the west, we smash right up the center."

Crow stood in the stirrups and took another look at the battlefield. "That will take hard riding and a lot of luck."

"But it will be a surprise."

"So it will." He smiled. "When it's time to go, promise me one thing?"

"And that is?"

"In the race to kill Nefrai-kesh, you won't lag too far behind."

Something else moved in the smoke through which Chytrine advanced. The fleshless Panqui leaped at her, splas.h.i.+ng her scales with his blood. He grabbed her lower jaw and pulled himself onto her muzzle, holding on tight. She shook her head, spattering the rest of them with his blood. The Panqui's claws scored a scale, then tore it away.

It clattered on the ground, and Chytrine howled. She jerked her head more violently, upward this time, which the Panqui had not expected. The bleeding creature lost his grip and flew up, then Chytrine snapped him out of the air and devoured him in a gulp.

"Lombo, no!" Sayce reached a hand out, then drew it back and sat down hard. Tears glistened on her cheeks and cut trails through the soot.

Chytrine looked down at them and started to speak, but Resolute's right hand flicked forward. The poisoned bladestar hit the corpse-white flesh beneath where the scale had been torn off. She shrieked sharply, shook her head once, then delicately raised a paw to pluck the tiny weapon free.

"I have seen these many times before. Alas, your poison has no effect on me." The dragon shook her head. "What did you think you would do when you got here? Did you think I would let you kill me? I have lived for centuries-far more time than you have known combined-and I have learned so much more than you. I am so much more powerful than you, too. Do you have magick there you want to employ against me, Resolute? Please, do your best."

The Vorquelf shook his head and raised Syverce. "None of us are fools."

"No? You're here. In my lair, about to die. That is foolishness by any reckoning."

"We believed a prophecy would come true."

"It didn't." Chytrine raised her head, stretching her long throat, and snorted flames into the Grand Hall's vaults. Then she brought her head back down, and looked along her serpentine snout at him. "Your champion is dead. To the south your army will be shattered. I will go from here to Vorquellyn, get those pieces of the Crown, collect the others, then the dragons will give me what they possess. It is over, though you did well."

Trawyn crouched beside Sayce, resting her hands on the woman's shoulders. "So you reward us by making ussullancirP."

"Some of you, perhaps. Resolute will be magnificent. To have the fruit of Sayce's womb born of a sullanciri, that will also be spectacular. The rest of you will die."

Resolute felt his flesh crawling and pulled the point of his sword around to hover over Sayce's heart. "I can guarantee you won't get your wish."

"Silly elf, you can guarantee nothing." Chytrine raised her right paw and curled the claws through the air.

A jolt shook Resolute. All of the tattoos on his body began to glow an angry shade of red, which was something he'd not seen before.Aurolani magick is red. He tried to move, but found himself paralyzed.

Then, much to his amazement, his right arm swung the blade away from Sayce and pressed it beneath Isaura's right breast.

"That's right, Resolute. All the magick, all the lore that went into giving you those tattoos and that power, whence do you think it came?" The dragon laughed almost warmly. "I expected you and your people for decades, and I found a way to guarantee you would not hurt me. You have been mine for ages and did not know it. Now, I think, it is time you do my bidding directly."

The instant he heard Alexia's orders, Erlestoke knew his day was likely to end shortly, although it would seem as if it had taken forever to do so. He snapped orders to his signalman, who translated them into bugle calls. Ahead of him the infantry began to move. Tightly packed and heavily armored, they clanked forward, their voices rising in song. Standards flew high and swords glittered in the morning light as men marched toward death. Beyond them, on the enemy line, draconetteers and dragonel crews busied themselves.

Erlestoke turned in his saddle. "Count Storton, I want your sprinters going straight up that eastern hill.

Jullagh-tse, the same goes for your people. You just have to get up there fast. They're going to be shooting at us as we come in, and they're not going to have time to s.h.i.+ft aim. Your people are literally running for their lives."

Both of them acknowledged the orders and sped off to their troops. Erlestoke signaled the cavalry around to the east and saw that Wheatly was already bringing the irregulars up to plunge into battle after the infantry. The prince gave him a salute, then started the cavalry trotting forward. Drawing Crown, he raised it on high, then snapped it down.

Digging his heels into his horse's flanks, he started a headlong charge down the slope. Behind him came just over two regiments of hors.e.m.e.n almost evenly split between light and heavy troops. As they galloped forward, some of his guardsmen moved to the fore, closing ranks around him, and leveled their lances at the ma.s.sed Aurolani infantry in the gap. The Aurolani clearly would have preferred to stay in place to take the charge, but the pressure from behind kept pus.h.i.+ng them forward.

Erlestoke recognized how their precarious position benefited his troops.At least, in theory. Infantry that is not set in position, bristling with spears, is fodder for a cavalry charge. His people should be into and through that first battalion as if it were nothing more menacing than gra.s.s stalks.

But there were many other things to take into account, such as the dragonels that were already shooting up the middle. On his left, as his horse crested the far bank of the Eirsena, he watched a dragonel crew lever their weapon around so it could bear on his troops. Part of him wanted to protest how poorly they were working, but he held his tongue.

On the right, on the top of the dam, Aurolani sharpshooters triggered their draconettes. A horse fell, spilling his rider. Other warriors spun from the saddle, or just sagged forward. The draconetteers were not so powerful a force that they could break up his charge, but they could certainly chew on his troops.

But before he could give them any more thought, the cavalry hit the Aurolani line. He watched wide-eyed gibberers get launched high in the air, only to tumble back and flatten other comrades. His horse slammed into aturekadine, spinning him about like a toy, then another rider spitted him. Crown whipped down and around, slas.h.i.+ng.

Draconettes from the trench spoke. Warriors and horses all around Erlestoke fell, peeling away his unit's left flank. Nothing and no one s.h.i.+elded Erlestoke from the Aurolani trench. For the barest of moments he entertained the fantasy of charging the trench and clearing his way to the base of the hill where Tythsai waited.I can die battling the consort of thesullancirithat died in Oriosa.

But that fantasy died as reality spoke in another ripple of shots from the dam. Before he had time to turn and study that situation, an unearthly shriek sounded. Up over the Aurolani trench, leaping ten and fifteen feet in the air, came an Aurolani cavalry unit. The frostclaws easily cleared the trench and drove straight at Erlestoke's troops. His hors.e.m.e.n wheeled to face this new threat, but none of the Aurolani wanted to engage the prince.

He wondered after that for a moment, then a grand temeryx sailed over the line. Heavier than its white cousins, the colorful temeryx carried Tythsai. She leveled her right arm at him. What appeared to be a limb of quicksilver s.h.i.+fted, beginning at the wrist. It thinned and lengthened, becoming almost a whipcord.

The hand folded into a fist, then sprouted spikes.

Erlestoke raised his sword in a salute. He watched a crimson droplet of blood drip over the silver blade, then he flicked it away as he brought his sword down. "Come to me, Tythsai. Let me reacquaint you with death and free you from the burden it has given you."

The dragonbone armor had not erupted up through his flesh, but that did not make Kerrigan feel any better. His vision cleared, but only with the sensation of thorns being raked across his eyes. As he focused, he found himself on theSvarskya'swheeldeck beside a terrified crewman. At the wheel stood a huge metal dragon.

Even before Kerrigan could decide which was more important-learninghowhe'd gotten there orwhothe dragon was-reality s.h.i.+fted again and it felt as if his skull had been opened with an ax. Something was doing its best to scramble his mind, but it gave up after a moment or two.

Kerrigan focused again as the s.h.i.+p dropped a dozen feet with a great splash. It took him a second or two to realize it, but off the starboard side he saw the battlefield. Across the hills, the dragonels in the woods spoke again with devastating effect. The southern cavalry already was reaching the riverbed on the western flank and starting the move around past the woods. Further north Adrogans' cavalry was moving out. In the middle of Alexia's line a gap had opened.

And, closer at hand... TheSvarskya'slanding in the lake behind the dam had one immediately beneficial effect. The s.h.i.+p displaced a lot of water, which rose in a wave and swept over the dam. All the draconetteers who had been up there shooting tumbled down and into the formations of men who had been their targets.

Kerrigan hauled himself to his feet and pointed. "We can use the dragonels to shoot the Aurolani."

The metal helmsman remained silent and impa.s.sive. Below, on the dragonel deck, the crewmen Adrogans had left behind were down and twitching.They liked traveling this way even less than I did.

Kerrigan shrugged, drew his wand, and invoked a spell.

Ten blue sparks flew from the wand's tip and hit the dragonels' touchholes in a tidy succession. The s.h.i.+p rolled as each weapon detonated, blasting iron b.a.l.l.s deep into the ma.s.ses of Aurolani troops. The hot metal killed some, crushed others, and maimed yet more. Up on the hill, one battery blasted back, smas.h.i.+ng timbers and spilling one dragonel off its truck.

"At least they're not shooting my friends!" Kerrigan nodded, then looked at the helmsman. "You want to bring her about, or shall I? We've got the other side to fight, and there will be no better time than now to do it."

Chytrine's claw twitched and Syverce slid forward a hair. The tip punctured Isaura's thick coat. Another twitch and it went further, enlarging the hole. The tip had not yet met fleshy resistance, but Resolute knew it would not be long before it did. When the blade slid into Isaura it would seek her heart, penetrating her inch by inch until her life spilled out.

Resolute snarled, and the next time Chytrine flicked a talon, the blade did not move. The red heat of his tattoos slackened for a heartbeat and he was able to withdraw the blade a bit. He set himself to resist her, but when the redness flared again, it brought with it all the pain he had known when decorating his body.

"Ah, you fight me. Good, very good. I like that in asullanciri. Youaremine, Resolute, now and forever."

The dragon nodded and moved her claw a bit more deliberately. Resolute's arm responded despite his best effort to hold it back. It reentered the hole and reached Isaura's flesh.

Resolute wanted to shake his head, but he couldn't do even that. Vorquelves, in adopting new names and getting themselves enchanted, had played a dangerous game.In having this done to me, I gave her information she needed to control me.

His arm inched forward and the blade pierced Isaura's side. The woman groaned, but even the pain was not enough to rouse her. Resolute stared at his arm as if it were not part of him, and if he could have cut it off he would have. He fought Chytrine again and gained respite, but then she gestured even more strongly and his blade cut Isaura again.

The idea that his arm was acting as if it belonged to someone else reminded him of the conversation he'd had with Kerrigan after they had discovered the Norrington.Will was part of the Norrington, but the Norrington was more. My arm is part of me, but I am more. And I've not always been Resolute.

Resolute is just part of me.

The Vorquelf's silver eyes became slits and his lips peeled back from teeth in a snarl. He fought Chytrine as hard as he could physically, but his mind was focused in another way.I was not always Resolute. Who was I?

His eyes opened wide. "My name is Dunardel."

The tattoos on his flesh went dark. He whipped the sword from Isaura, then placed himself between her and Chytrine. "I am Dunardel of Vorquellyn. I am not your creature."

Chytrine snorted. "Very well. Die, Dunardel of Vorquellyn. I will resurrect Resolute and you shall reign over Vorquellyn for me."

She drew in a deep breath and Resolute brought Syverce into a guard. He knew the blade would not turn the fire, but that was how he chose to die.

Her head came forward and jaws opened, but instead of fire, all she produced was a half-choked hiss.

The dragon coughed with enough force to knock Resolute down, then raised her head again. She stretched her throat and Resolute would have gotten up to plunge his sword as deep as he could into her breast, but what he saw stopped him.

All over her ivory-and-gold scales, the ash moved. Splotches and dots, stripes and blobs, it flowed over her. The ash on his skin likewise crawled forward. The floor all but writhed as ash converged. Clumps formed and rolled across the floor to splash over her feet and belly. It covered her scales for a moment, then crept like shadow underneath them.

Resolute coughed up dark phlegm and spat it toward the dragon.Just imagine how much ash she's inhaled.

Chytrine's head came back down. She shook it side to side, then coughed again. "No!" Her comment came as a harsh croak. "This cannot happen." She rolled on her side and began to claw at herself, tearing the scales on her breast and belly.

Resolute stood. "Of course it can. It's been prophesied."

Skycasters that had meant to explode thunderb.a.l.l.s over the killing ground between hill and wood had been aimed again. Their m.u.f.fledwhumpswere all but lost in the cacophony of cavalry charging around through the gap, and the thunder of dragonels attempting to stem the tide of men, horses, and metal. The thunderb.a.l.l.s overshot the steel-skinned warriors and burst among the trees. The explosions rained down hot iron shrapnel and jagged wooden splinters on the dragonel crews and those standing nearby.

Something burned in Adrogans' left arm, and the pain spiked as he spun to the ground. A shriek rose from his throat as hisyrunmistress used the wound as a portal. She flooded into him and with her came other awarenesses.

Thesullanciri/ Adrogans struggled to his feet and found a foot-long piece of wood as thick around as his thumb poking through his left biceps and brus.h.i.+ng against the mail on his chest. The wood firmly filled the wound so that very little blood dripped from it, but the arm no longer worked.

Adrogans snorted and thrust Pain away. "Release the cavalry. I want them up the back of that hillnow't Captain Agitare, elevate and blast that hilltop."

Pain tore at him again as more thunderb.a.l.l.s exploded in the trees above, but the a.s.saults were distant-the agony inflicted on others, not on him. His awareness of thesullancirigrew. And there, coming down the hillside, he caught sight of the feline form. It moved like a grand black tiger, its prodigious leaps carrying it above the lances. As it landed, it batted aside spears and swords, snapping the former and bending the latter, then leaped again. With each bound it came closer, directly toward him.

Adrogans drew his sword and moved forward. Thunderb.a.l.l.s burst overhead, scattering leaves, branches, and screaming soldiers, but Adrogans never took his eyes off the approachingsullanciri. She only paused once, flicking a paw out to snap the spine of a warrior whose horse she'd crushed, then she came at him in a rush. She even voiced a low, throaty growl that rose in pitch as she leaped again.

In midair her shape s.h.i.+fted from that of a big cat to a feline humanoid with sharp claws and a tufted tail that whipped about as she flew. Adrogans cut right, pulling himself from her line of flight, then slashed at her. His cut didn't miss, catching her below the ribs and above her right hip, but she rolled away and came up unharmed.

She snarled furiously, then leaped again, her arms outstretched. Once more Adrogans dodged and slashed, this time catching her full in the belly. He felt the impact and watched her body fold around the blade. He twisted it and yanked it free, but she landed on all fours, then spun in a crouch.

The delight on her face could not be denied. Moreover, Adrogans had felt no pain in her-and given his connectionthroughPain, he should have felt her wounds as if they were his own. He began to panic, and though he fought it down, his left arm throbbed.

Pain's laughter kissed his ears like sparks burning flesh.

She's enjoying this. We are both her creatures, and here we fight each other. She wins and wins. Then Adrogans shook his head.I've played her games before, and I've won.

As the felinesullanciridrove at him again, Adrogans s.h.i.+fted away from the line of her attack, but not fast enough. She caught him with a swipe of a claw on his right thigh that ripped away mail, leather trousers, and flesh beneath. The blow had enough force that Adrogans whirled away, then smashed into a small tree. He rebounded and fell to his back.

Thesullanciricrouched again, her tail twitching as she shook her paw to rid it of the mail, then licked at the blood on her claws. Her delicate pink tongue took special care to clean her fingers, curling about each, then flicking right beneath the claws. The link they shared through Pain let Adrogans once again feel her carnal nature, and his fingers tingled as if she were licking him.

But her antics gave him a moment to clear his head. As she began to suck on a finger, confident that he could not hurt her, Adrogans struck. Using the link he pumped the agony of his wounds right back into her. As he did so, she shrieked and blood began to drip from her left arm and right thigh.

Adrogans laughed. "That's right. We are linked-and as long as we are linked, what happens to me happens to you." He looked up, hoping against hope that a thunderball might, even at that moment, be falling from the sky to land on him before it exploded.

The only thing descending toward him, however, was the bleedingsullanciri. She sprang from her crouch and rose high in the air. The claws on her rear paws extended. Her toes reached for him. She'd land on his chest, sinking claws into his midsection, then her forepaws would slash through his body. She doubtlessly imagined that if he were dead, the link would be broken.

Could be she's right.

Thesullanciricame down, tail snaking through the air, eyes blazing. Then she stopped. She juststopped.

She hung there, a dozen feet above him, unmoving and barely breathing, her attempted snarl reduced to a squeaked mew.

"Finish her, nephew." Phfas stood off to the right, his trembling hand extended. Bound to air, he had used hisyrunto catch and hold her. As the perspiration pouring down his body made apparent, he couldn't hold her forever. "Do itnow''

Adrogans closed his eyes and sank into himself. He found his mistress and grabbed her by the hair, forcing her down onto hands and knees. He mounted her like a horse and she s.h.i.+fted her shape to accommodate him. Kicking her in the ribs, yanking her mane left and right, he directed her out into the battlefield. Together they rode over it and through it, experiencing pain as song, then pa.s.sing it back through into thesullanciri.

Horses torn in half, with both parts thras.h.i.+ng, established the melody of his deathsong. Men shrieking as life pumped in spurts through severed limbs added the high notes, while disemboweled gibberers clutching cooling entrails provided more somber base tones. The quick, sharp pain of shrapnel piercing victims provided tempo, while the snap of limbs and crus.h.i.+ng blows of sword and mace gave the music its percussive quality.

Discordant and hideous, full of sharps and flats, s.h.i.+fting key and beat, with no overture and no true rhythm, the deathsong Adrogans wove and forced into thesullanciridid not lack for power. It moved through him like a diet of thistle, bramble, and iron sc.r.a.p, then flowed into his suspended enemy. Even the notes of agony he caught in her mews he fed back into her. Only when she grew silent and he could no longer feel her did he open his eyes.

He almost wished he had not.

Had he not known what she had been, he never could have identified her. Blood matted the sleek black pelt, which now hung in ribbons from her body. He could see many of her bones, for most poked through her flesh. All had been broken, some sharply, and some twisted around until the bone had fragmented. Various organs dangled and intestines descended in a white, ropy curtain.

Phfas released her and she puddled to the ground, splas.h.i.+ng Adrogans with noxious fluid that itched and burned.

The general pulled himself away, then gingerly rose to his feet. He leaned heavily on the tree he'd slammed into previously, and found his grip not quite as strong as he would have liked.

Phfas crossed to him and began to wrap the wound in his leg. "This is more than a scratch."

"I've noticed." Adrogans smiled. "Thank you for saving me, Uncle."

"You saved me. It was fair."

"I did? How so?"