Warmage uncontrolled the.., p.29
WarMage: Uncontrolled (The Never Ending War Book 3), page 29
She peered over the edge of the stairs and grimaced. “Ouch. Hey, thanks.”
“Yeah, well, we’d better be careful about falling debris from here on out, right?”
“Azerad definitely wasn’t built with that in mind.”
The girls raced on and paused only to avoid the wild swing of another raider’s massive, heavy sword before an Azerad soldier kicked the man in the back and hurled him over the edge of the walkway. He nodded at the young mages and ran ahead to find another opponent.
Finally, they reached the dragon terrace and Raven darted forward. She didn’t see the man hunched beside a crate of dragon feed in the middle of the avenue. He stood suddenly, his grin exposing stained teeth, and raised a bow to aim its arrow directly at her.
“Adsulto protentia!” Bella shouted. The force of her spell thrust him aside. The arrow went wide, the bow flew from his hand, and the raider pounded against the door of the stall that belonged to the silent but deadly brown dragon.
“Wha—aah!” The raider struggled to free himself, but it was difficult with a dragon’s massive jaws clamped around his shoulder and half his chest. The other dragons roared and screeched their excitement. They beat against the stalls as the brown dragon jerked the raider into the stall with him. The man’s screams cut off abruptly, followed by a sickening crunch and a ripping sound.
“Okay. Be careful around dragons in a battle. Got it.” Bella nodded and frowned at her companion. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting weapons.” She crouched beside the crates of dragon feed and lifted a long dagger to show the other girl. “It looks like the guy took something of everything and stockpiled it. Here.”
“Great. Thanks.”
While Bella hefted the blade to test its weight, Raven lifted a mostly full quiver, shrugged, and slung it over her head and shoulder before she darted toward the raider’s abandoned bow. “This is an Azerad bow. It has the seal and everything. It’ll be good enough.”
She stood and ran down the avenue to Leander’s stall with the other girl on her heels. They had almost stopped outside the stall when the air blazed with brilliant flashes of green and blue. Alessandra stood in an open doorway on one of the upper levels and launched attack spells left and right as raiders swarmed up staircases, down walkways, and across terraces.
“Raven.” Leander snorted and lowered his head.
She looked away from Alessandra and nodded at him. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”
“You’re letting him out?”
“I don’t care about the rules right now.”
“I was asking more to make sure you were doing that because it’s what I’d do.”
“Oh. Then, yeah.” She unlatched the door and yanked Bella aside as Leander burst through and almost ripped the door off its hinges. His wings spread wide, and he lowered his belly to the ground before he boosted Raven up with his head. Once she sat securely at the base of his neck, she squeezed tightly with her thighs and leaned down to offer Bella a hand. “Get on.”
“What?” The girl stared at Leander staring at her.
“I won’t leave you here by yourself. Take my hand.”
“Raven, you don’t have a saddle.”
“You rode a horse on the way here. It’s like that. Squeeze with your knees and hold onto me.”
For the first time, Bella Chase looked terrified. After a moment, however, she gritted her teeth, nodded, and took Raven’s hand.
“Step up,” Leander told her and lowered his head beside her foot.
The girl sighed a little nervously, set her boot on the dragon’s ridged head, and shouted in surprise when he lifted her up and onto his back behind his mage. Wesley wheeled above them and screeched. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Okay. So I squeeze with my knees and—ahh!”
The dragon practically plunged over the edge of the dragon terrace and Bella screamed as she clutched her arms around Raven’s waist and squeezed.
“Okay, watch that dagger, huh?”
“Oh. Sorry.” Bella dared herself to open her eyes and she held on with one arm while she lowered the knife in her other hand. “Oh, boy.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m only…uh, riding a dragon.” The mage gulped as Wesley followed closely as the huge red beast soared around the outskirts of the castle.
“You’d better get used to it fast. And keep your eyes open—literally.” She glanced over her shoulder as much as she could without throwing her companion off balance. “An extra pair of eyes comes in handy.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Leander took them higher until they had a full view of the chaos below. The cacophony of battle rose toward them. Swords clashed with swords, fallen men screamed, commands were bellowed, and the dragons’ roars raised to a crescendo, punctuated by the flares of spells cast by Alessandra and the two mages who served Governor Irlish. A horde of the ragged, vicious outlaws in rags was locked in battle with Azerad’s soldiers where they fought in the huge last-minute arena they’d set up for Raven and Leander’s match.
She only had to think about joining the fight there and the dragon banked and descended toward the arena terrace. Bella squeaked and tightened her arm around her waist. “Do you know that voice projection spell Gilliam uses all the time?” she asked the girl.
“Yeah. Totally.”
“Use it and when I say the word, tell the soldiers to fall back.”
“Got it.”
Leander swooped under the arena terrace to give Bella more time. She muttered the spell and tapped her throat, and the great dragon turned away from the castle again to lift them above the largest arena. They glided in a wide circle again, and Raven nodded. “Now!”
“Soldiers! Fall back!” The girl’s voice cracked against the stone of the arena terrace and the thick outer walls of the castle. Everyone looked up from the fighting as the great red dragon circled toward them and descended at a sharp angle. They echoed the cry to fall back, and the last of the soldiers untangled themselves from the snarling, laughing raiders moments before Leander unleashed a massive column of fire.
“Sequantur flamma!” Raven stretched toward the flames and rocketed them onto every raider who still stood in the area. Their screams drowned out the other sounds of battle, and a handful of raiders flailed so wildly that they stumbled over the edge and fell, shrieking and enveloped in flames. The others didn’t last long after that.
The dragon uttered a triumphant screech and the soldiers they’d saved from another grueling battle raised their weapons and cheered.
“Great work,” Raven told Bella as the dragon climbed higher to circle the tallest towers again.
“Yeah. That was awesome.” Wesley fluttered beside them and echoed Leander with a small shriek of his own.
When they reached the west side of the governor’s estate, more shouts and screams issued from below in the city itself. Out in a field within the much lower wall around Azerad, the city’s people fled from a group of raiders who tried to escape across open ground. And we’ll stop them.
Feeling her intention, the dragon leveled out and headed toward the far western quarter and the field. The raiders sprinted toward a tower built into the outer wall above a drawn portcullis. That’s not gonna happen, boys.
“Bella.”
“Yeah.”
“We’ll land directly behind those raiders, got it? That’s where you get off and close in on them from behind.”
“And what will you do?”
“Leander and I will head them off at that tower. If they’re smart, they’ll try to turn back. You’ll be there and we’ll eliminate them together.”
“Raven Alby.”
She glanced briefly over her shoulder. “What?”
“You have skills with battle plans. I’ll give you that.”
With a grin, she nodded and moved her fingers toward Sarah Alby’s pin on her jacket. “So did my mom.”
The terrified people of Azerad had practically cleared a path for the escaping raiders, and they all looked up from where they’d scattered across the fields to see the massive dragon descend from the dark sky and land ahead of them.
Bella leapt down and landed squarely in the grass. “I got this, Raven.”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s show these assholes what real war mages can do, huh?”
Leander launched immediately and skirted about three dozen fleeing raiders to head them off at the gate. Bella tightened her hold around the dagger and trudged after them, while Wesley flew above her head.
“Right there.” Raven pointed although she didn’t have to. Her familiar followed her lead perfectly and glided over the outer wall of the city before he circled. He descended and hovered beside the walkway on the top of the wall, which was too narrow for him but wide enough for her to vault from his back and land perfectly.
The dragon immediately swooped to the tower behind where she’d landed and a little to her right. She scanned the raiders who raced toward the gate as he landed on the tower with a crunch and his huge, deadly talons grated and scratched against the stone. Sparks flurried before he gained a firm hold on his perch and stared at the running criminals.
“Wait!” Raven darted him a quick glance. “They have hostages.”
“I see.” Leander screeched, and every single raider heading toward them skidded to a halt in the grass.
Two women and a boy a few years younger than the mages struggled in the grasp of three sneering and seriously pissed-off raiders. The thin woman with long brown hair that fell over her shoulders screamed when she saw the dragon on the tower.
That’s the same scream from the tournament.
“Let them go,” Raven shouted.
“What are you gonna do, little girl?” One of the first in line drew his sword and gave her a devious grin. “Your dragon’s useless if you want to save these pretty little things we’re taking with us. Governor Irlish’s wife, her personal maid, and… Well, the boy was there so we snatched him anyway.”
“Please!” the younger blonde woman shouted and struggled against the man’s hold on her upper arms. “Help us!”
The mage stepped forward with one foot and propped it against the rising stone beside the wall’s walkway. Calmly, she drew an arrow from the commandeered quiver at her back, nocked it, and drew back to aim the weapon at the raider in the front. “I said let them go.”
“Screw you and your dragon,” yelled a man with an eyepatch that even in the dark looked stained and a little damp. “We have our ticket out of here with these three. There’s nothing you can do to—”
Raven switched her aim and loosed the arrow. It pierced the defiant raider through the throat and he choked, gurgled, and collapsed. The other outlaws hissed and cursed at her, but she ignored them as she nocked another arrow and aimed at the man in front again. I wanted the gut. I should aim a little lower next time.
“You don’t have enough arrows in that quiver to kill all of us, you little brat!”
“True.” She didn’t move her gaze from her target, even when she grinned. “But I didn’t come alone.”
Thinking she meant her dragon, the raiders glanced at Leander perched on the tower. His yellow eyes glowed like torches in the night. “You won’t unleash your dragon on innocent—”
Wesley uttered a startling screech seconds before Bella unleashed her first attack. “Adsulto protentia!”
The force of her spell was enough to hurl half a dozen raiders off their feet and careen them into the men in front of them. Shouts followed, swords were drawn, and Bella Chase finally had the chance to show what she could do.
Green and red attack spells surged from the black-haired mage’s hands to strike raiders left and right with deadly precision. Raven saved her arrows for the men who moved toward the other mage while her companion was busy attacking others. She nocked, drew, and loosed again and again to find her targets every time and fell one raider after another at the girl’s feet.
Bella had to step back to avoid the bodies, but it didn’t matter. The raiders were penned in with no way out and no real way to fight back. A group of them separated to try running south instead, and Leander unleashed his dragon fire on them without any prompting at all from Raven.
“Sequantur flamma!” She stretched toward the spray of fire and delivered it to the retreating vagabonds before she nocked another arrow. Screams and shrieks resulted and quickly petered out. The men who hadn’t met a fiery death retreated a little, trapped between a dragon and two very skilled mages.
Wesley swooped toward the center of the group and unleashed his stream of much more controlled flames. It mostly caught the raiders’ hair on fire, but it was enough to do real damage while Bella continued to launch her spells at the stragglers.
Finally, the young mages had whittled the group of fleeing criminals down to five—the three securing the governor’s wife and the other hostages, plus the apparent leader and another man with a long knife in either hand.
“We won’t give these up!” the raider who clutched the boy declared belligerently. “You’re done. Let’s go.” He hauled his captive with him, who shouted and kicked and put up an admirable fight.
Wesley dove toward the man with outstretched talons and clawed his stained, dirt-encrusted face. The blinded raider shrieked and batted wildly at the darting firedrake. He stumbled toward Bella and knocked himself out cold when he met the stone wall face-first.
Raven put an arrow into the man with two knives and a second later, the bastard who’d led his little band out there to escape screamed as her next arrow quivered where it protruded from his foot.
“You little—shit!” He hopped frantically and clawed at the man who held the governor’s wife. His arm came down on her captor’s shoulder and the second raider stumbled. The woman wrenched herself free from his grasp and ran toward Bella.
The third man holding Mrs. Irlish’s maid chuckled at the plight of his comrades, then jerked the blonde woman closer against him and grinned smugly. “It might be I’m the only one getting outta here at all.”
With a snarl, Leander launched from the top of the tower and swooped beneath Raven as she leapt from the wall. She landed squarely on his back, and when the great dragon touched the grass between the charred corpses and the three raiders holding one final hostage between them, she already had another arrow in her bow. The tip was aimed perfectly at the center of the snarling raider’s forehead. “I won’t miss from this close. Let her go.”
The man glared at her with narrowed eyes but finally shoved the maid away. She stumbled toward Leander, shrieked, and pivoted to run toward her mistress and the boy.
“Go on,” Bella told them. “Get to safety. We’ll handle the rest of it.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Irlish whispered before she hurried with the other hostages across the field and toward the governor’s estate.
The leader of the band of raiders that had now dwindled to three jerked the arrow from his boot with a howl. He flung the arrow aside and spread his arms dramatically. “Are you happy now? No hostages. Tit for tat, right? Let us out through that gap, and we’ll disappear.”
“I’m sure you’ll disappear anyway,” Raven muttered and maintained her aim at his forehead.
Bella stepped toward them, her hands raised and ready while Wesley landed on her shoulder. “I think a freezing dungeon is more appropriate.”
The raiders glanced from one mage to the other and scowled at their determined expressions. Before they could respond, a few shouts issued from the other side of the field. A group of soldiers raced toward them, and the cornered raiders spun in the only direction left to attempt to flee north along the wall.
Leander’s dragon fire erupted from his jaws. Raven shifted on his back to keep her balance as he leaned forward and incinerated the fleeing men. At such a close range, he didn’t need her help for a direct wash of flame, and the men had no time to scream before they lost the ability to do so.
When the column of fire died, the dragon snorted twin plumes of dark-gray smoke.
“Okay…” She removed the arrow from her bow and replaced it in the quiver. “That was also an option.”
Wesley screeched on Bella’s shoulder and delivered his own much smaller fireball into the grass where nothing more remained of the raiders than a few piles of ash. His mage turned her head to shoot him an exasperated glance. The firedrake met her gaze for two seconds, then launched himself into the air to flutter around her head.
Raven leapt from Leander’s back and took inventory of the raiders they’d eliminated in only a few minutes. The guards finally reached them and stopped a safe distance from the massive red dragon and the smoking piles of remains. They caught their breaths, and one of them sheathed his sword. “It looks like you girls handled yourselves well.”
Bella spun to face the man and folded her arms. “Mages. Don’t call us girls.”
The man nodded curtly without so much as a hint of a smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Did the governor’s wife and the other hostages reach you all right?”
“They did. Some of my men led them into the estate, and the fighting has died down to merely gathering a few battered prisoners smart enough to give up. With all due respect, Mage, I think it’s best if you keep your dragon away from those. Governor Irlish wants them interrogated.”
Raven almost laughed at the formal address. It doesn’t have my name after it, but it’s a good start. “No problem.”
Bella nodded at her companion and headed toward the soldiers. “I’ll go back with them.”
“Are you sure?” She gestured toward Leander, who lowered his head and swiveled it toward the girl to flash her a dragon’s grin.
“Uh…yeah. I think one ride on a dragon is enough to last me until the end of the year. At the very least. Good work, Raven. Leander.”
The dragon lowered his head in a subtle bow, and his mage grinned. “We couldn’t have done it without you and Wesley. Your timing was perfect.”
