Dragon Alliance Dark Storm : Dark Storm (65 page)

“Men, Women, and Dragons of the Weirs, I need not give you a motivating or inspiring speech, for you all know what needs to be done. We are here for our brothers and sisters felled by the cowardly daggers of black-robed assassins and their allies. Retribution is our mission, and now they will learn why it is they fear the light. After your attacks culminate, we will all rendezvous on the plain in front of the Scarab fortress. We will regroup from there. Good hunting, and may the Creator give speed to our victory,” Becknor stated, and then the whole of the Capital Wing and aerial legion vanished in a quick blue flash. Mkel looked over at Lordan and nodded, and then he turned his head right to see his friend Slidess on his silver dragon Trikenth. His High Mountain Weirleader friend raised his wizard’s staff in acknowledgement of his unspoken message.

Mkel could feel the warmer ocean breeze on his face through Gallanth’s shield. All seemed almost calm before the deadly storm they were about to deliver, but then he refocused on the task at hand and took in the images the shadow rangers had sent them on their seeing crystals. Gallanth ensured everyone had the proper image, and in a second, they were gone.

They emerged over the desert in front of the Fire Mountains with the large sprawling Black Scarab fortress a few miles in front of them. They quickly re-cloaked so as not to tip off the tower guards or any shepherds in the area. Gallanth immediately ordered everyone to their assigned sectors, “Talonth, your weir can move in from the left and strike; eliminate the southern wall and second tower of the keep. Trikenth, move in from the right, and make sure to hit the barracks and stables as you destroy the wall. Draden will level the front gate and main part of the wall, and then we will all circle the central keep and twin minarets and grind them to dust. Our rangers and your hippogriffs and griffons will keep any manticores that are able to get airborne away from the dragons. If there aren’t any questions, luck to you all.”

Mkel looked over to Lordan and gave him a quick salute, and then he shifted his gaze to Slidess, who nodded in acknowledgement.

At that, the other two weirs peeled off, as the translucent distortions created by their invisibility shields made them almost impossible to see unless one could see the heat they gave off or used a detection spell as dragons could. Mkel grabbed his seeing crystal and began to speak to his weir. “Heathiret, you and Caraeyeth destroy the tower on the left and anyone on the wall. Jodem, Dekeen, take out the right tower and the top of the wall beside it. Gallanth, Dorin, and I will destroy the gate doors and the adjacent towers. Lupek, have your rangers rain down on any soldiers or assassins beyond the front wall. We will then form up tightly and strike the palace and keep with everything we have, as will Eladran and High Mountain. We’ll then fly over the palace heading west while our sister weirs break in opposite directions. If somebody goes down, Lupek, your recovery team goes into action. If too many go down, we will swing back and extract them, for nobody here wants to become a Shidanese prisoner, trust us. Best of luck, my friends,” Mkel directed his weir.

“Hamshed, another day of watching the empty desert,” the Black Scarab soldier said to his friend as they stood on the main gate tower.

“The emir knows of something in our victorious brothers having slain the devil riders in the cursed Alliance. I know my cousin’s dagger must have pierced the infidel heart of one of them before he achieved martyrdom. But here we stand to watch over our own lands, without the pleasure of drawing non-Kallysh blood, and—wait, what is that in the sky?” the assassin apprentice started to shout when three wings of metallic dragons led by the gigantic Gallanth materialized out of thin air. They were already diving on the Scarab fortress, and fear overwhelmed the would-be assassins. “By Kallysh, warn the brothers! The demons are attacking us; how will we survive this?” the assassin soldier screamed out in fear, awestruck by the sight of the dozens of dragons and hundreds of other winged mounts bearing down on them.

All three wings turned off the invisibility power of their shields about a mile from the fortress, much to the shock of the unprepared defenders on the walls and towers. Dozens started to scramble to get to their ballistae and archery points on the defensive works. This was a futile effort at best given the power that would soon be unleashed on them.

“Sorcerer, there are dozens of Alliance dragons bearing down on us as we speak. You need to call on your dragons and reinforcements, for we will not survive this onslaught,” the bearded assassin guild master hurriedly explained to the Morgathian sorcerer Vorten.

“Three wings!” the young sorcerer exclaimed out loud as he quickly cast a seeing-eye spell that darted out of the palace and into the courtyard. He then saw the three groups of metallics fast approaching the outer walls of the guild city. This was a no-win scenario for him, and he didn’t want to end up like his friend Harfrac. “Master Assassin, you are correct; I must go and call for our squadrons of dragons waiting in the mountains. I must get out in back of the palace first to my nightmare mount,” he quickly stated, as he grabbed his scrolls, book, and staff and ran toward the rear exit of the inner fortress. Once at his mount, he threw all he was carrying into the satchels, jumped up onto the evil demon horse, and spurred it to quickly move forward. He knew he had to get out fast but not too fast, so as not to attract attention to himself. The metallics might dispel his steed’s ability to teleport away. He forced the ebony mount to run along the ground until he reached the outer wall, then it darted over the top of the thick, twenty-foot-tall structure, and he teleported out of sight.

The black-robed guild master couldn’t believe his eyes at the cowardly sorcerer fleeing for his life, but his attention shifted as several large explosions could be heard from the outer wall of the fortress. Gallanth fired a sunburst beam that eliminated all on the top of the left tower beside the gate and sent splintered bricks flying. Mkel aimed just a little high and fired his first explosive-tipped bolt at the right tower and then quickly fired two more as Gallanth let loose a plasma fireball at the large, heavy gate doors. The fiery sphere of destructive energy blew the doors almost off their mounts, while Mkel’s bolts exploded and destroyed everything on top of the tower. The scarab soldiers had just been aiming their ballista at him and his dragon when they hit. Caraeyeth focused, and then with her eyes flashing, she breathed out a bluish, spiraling burst of energy at the corner tower. Her powerful shatter spell struck the mid part of the tower, which absorbed its energy for a second and then burst apart, sending rock and pieces of the mud-brick walls flying in all directions. The whole structure of the tower then collapsed. Dekeen and Jodem made short work of the top of the tower on the right.

The other two wings overwhelmed the defenders on the towers and wall of the north and south portions of the fortress, as all were quickly converging on the palace and keep. Almost in unison, the breath weapons of forty dragons bombarded the palace structure, coupled with the explosive force of weapons like Mkel’s Markthrea, Dekeen’s Elm, and the force of dozens of energy bolts and powerful spells from the wizards and riders among them. This quickly brought the medium-sized structure to rubble. The brilliant explosions and deadly energy of the combined power of the three weirs almost rocked the very ground as debris filled the air and scattered all over the land near the area where the palace once stood.

“I curse you, Morgathian cowards, infidels, traitors! May Kallysh be prais—l” the Black Scarab assassin leader screamed as the ceiling and walls of his palace collapsed, silencing his rant. The dragons performed a highly precise maneuver and crisscrossed their flight paths, passing over the crumbling fortress. A few remaining defenders tried to fire arrows and one or two ballista spears at them, but to no consequence. After a few more passes, the whole of the small city was in ruins, with all but what they thought were the slaves’ quarters either destroyed or in flames. All organized resistance was quickly squashed, and Gallanth ordered all the dragons to land just in front of the now-crumbled gate. He directed the rangers and other forces from Eladran and High Mountain to land and move through the fortress to look for survivors and release any slaves they could find.

Within a couple of minutes, the Capital Wing, along with the entire aerial legion teleported in above the ruined fortress and began to land beside the three weirs already on the ground. The very ground seemed to shake with the landing impact of all those silver and gold dragons, as well as the back-wing flaps of over a thousand large, feathered mounts. The dust and sand kicked up was almost like a small sandstorm. All then dismounted, and the Capital Wing dragonriders walked over to Mkel, Lordan, and Slidess, as the remainder checked their gear and tended to the few wounded they had. “I see your attack was a success; the cowardly assassins and their fortress are no more,” General Becknor remarked as he walked up to them.

“And what of the palace at Dagrad?” Lordan asked.

“It is in just slightly better shape than the assassins’ former stronghold. Their manticores did put up a slight bit of resistance, but it was short-lived, and many cowardly soon fled. Pursuing them was harder than fighting them,” Therosvet replied. “We are not sure if King Ibliss survived, but we do know that most of his division stationed around the city did not.” At the moment, the other eight weirs teleported in from their combined attack on the Shidanese coastal and river fortifications; however, General Becknor did not miss a beat and turned to Valianth.

“Valianth, I need a count on their numbers and status,” to which the gold dragon nodded and then looked to the sky. “Mkel, what were your casualties?” he asked.

“Sir, I only had one griffon hit with a lucky arrow, and he and his rider are now fine, but I still have my rangers combing the scarab’s fortress for resistance and survivors,” Mkel answered.

“Sir, Eladran had three hippogriffs and riders who were hit with arrow and ballista fire, and they have already been evacuated. Otherwise, besides the three female dragons that ferried the wounded back to the weir, all of our dragons are present,” Lordan stated.

“General Becknor, High Mountain has six hippogriffs, a giant eagle, and a griffon, which have all been taken back to the weir. Only one of our brass dragons took a ballista spear, and he was also sent back to get it treated by the weir healer,” Slidess quickly spoke out. “How did the Capital Weir and aerial battalion fair?”

“Only one of the female silver dragons was hit by a lucky ballista shot. We left the second wing back in Draconia at Michenth’s request. The aerial battalion had ten hippogriffs, two eagles, and two griffons that were hit with enough arrows that they had to be evacuated. Only one hippogriff and rider were killed; may the Creator accept their souls,” General Becknor explained as Mkel marveled at the sight of over one hundred dragons and thousands of winged mounts flying in unison as they slowly turned in their descent toward the ground, with Tyrenth of Ice Bay Weir leading the aerial armada.

“Rider of Michenth, all dragons are accounted for with twelve sent back to take wounded to their respective weirs, one brass and one copper dragon hit with enough ballista to cause slight concern. Overall, they had twenty mounts wounded and two hippogriffs slain with one of their riders felled as well,” Valianth reported to General Becknor. Lieutenant Lupek then walked out of the fortress with the black standard flag of the Scarab assassin guild draped over his arms, the sign of victory over at least this sect of the evil cult.

“Sir, we gave food and as much gold as the assassins’ slaves could carry. We also gave them horses, camels, and weapons and sent them north. Any Scarab assassin that we encountered did not last, and all the poisons we found were collected for the wizards for their experiments,” Lupek stated.

“That’s excellent, Lieutenant. Good work, but take care to search the slaves as the scarab assassins are masters of disguise and are not above posing as women in their attempt to flee like cowards. Valianth, gather all the weirs, I need to speak to them,” General Becknor told the Capital Weir dragon. Valianth had all the dragons form a tight circle around him and Becknor. All the winged mounts and their riders quickly formed and stood beside the dragons, awaiting their leader’s speech. “My fellow weirmates, I want to first congratulate you all for an excellent, well-fought mission. I can say that our honored dragonriders who were cowardly taken by these vermin assassins are now avenged.

Their dragons have struck justice to those who have perpetrated this evil. We have destroyed their black fortress, decimated their capital palace, and destroyed their coastal defenses, which will aid our brothers and sisters in the Alliance Army for the invasion that is underway as we speak,” Becknor explained as he projected the images from his sword, which were transmitted to all the listening soldiers’ seeing crystals or dragonstones.

“My rider, I apologize for interrupting your after-battle review, but there is a critical situation developing along the coast of the Alliance. A massive dark-sailed fleet is attacking all the coastal weir cities with dozens of wings of chromatics, supported by armies of saragwin. Rom and Rem Weir batteries are trying to contain the squadron of ships in the Sauric Strait while the auxiliary ships are forming a limited defense. The Second Capital Wing is engaging the chromatics, but they are getting overwhelmed,” Michenth reported to the astonishment of all of the weirs listening through Becknor’s dragonstone.

“My dragon, why hasn’t Atlean Weir come to the defense of Draconia? They were left as the reserve,” Becknor asked.

“My rider, we are facing five wings of chromatics; they are up against several times that amount. Atlean is the focus of the enemy assault,” Michenth answered. The only thing that could be heard from the thousands gathered there in the desert was the light wind blowing down from the mountains. All were astonished and in a state of shock and disbelief. “We have already recalled the fleet, and the ice ships are heading to Atlean at full speed from Askala Island. There are two measures we have left before the chromatics reach Draconia, and I am about to put those to the test. Dragons and Defenders of the Republic, hurry!” Michenth ended his message as the image on Becknor’s crystal showed him limping out of the entrance of the weir to face the incoming chromatics.