AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Arrows rose to meet her, but most passed behind or stuck into her tail, for she gathered speed as she fell, or so it seemed, for in battle all motion was slowed to a dreadful crawl.
She fell against the banner and its cart, knocking the totem down. Using wreckage to shield her breast, she lashed out with tail and spat fire across the ranks that faced the Hypatian right.
Horses screamed and scattered.
Wistala thought it best to keep moving. She trotted, tail lashing to keep them off, head held low where a sword-stroke couldn’t get behind her extended griff, and simply used her body as a sort of mobile linebreaker against the ranks of Ironriders.o;I’m also a dragon of the Lavadome. The Lavadome hasn’t surrendered to Ghioz.”
“If the dragons of the Lavadome attack, can we count on your support?”
“What will be left? The docks and the iron-quarter are burning.”
“I wonder if the Ironriders have ever had Hypatian wines and brandies?”
“If they haven’t, they will wish they’d lost their heads in battle.”
“The Ironriders wouldn’t be so foolish as to let all their riders pillage. There must be some force still keeping order.”
“I’m told there are chieftains and their personal guard squatting in on the Ziggurat and the Directory hall.”
“We’d best come in two waves, light/heavy,” Ayafeeia said. “Heavy wave will wait for the light to go to ground fighting, then fly in and support. We’ll grind them between ground and sky.”
“Opportunities for glory in the light wave, I think,” a dragonelle said.
“I shall lead it, my Queen—”
“No, Ayafeeia. You shall lead the heavy wave, to more judiciously direct their strength. You have the more experienced eye for that sort of thing.”
“No! The Tyr would never.”
“It’s a poor Queen who shouts ‘go’ and remains behind.”
“Yes, but a live one.”
“Oh, I’ve heard the whispers. ‘She does it for the bows.’ ‘She lives to humble those who once stood as her betters.’ ‘She murdered the Tyr’s first mate.’
“If the only proof they’ll accept is a corpse, so be it. My mate has said this is the beginning of an age of fire. I will put my flame where his words are.
“Are you coming, Essea, to represent the Imperial Line in this red dawn? Or were you only my friend these years to better pass around gossip about the private habits of the Tyr and his mate?”
Wistala had never seen such beautifully shaped claws on a dragon before. Her servants must have labored hard perfecting their shape. But they’d also perfected the points.
Essea looked doubtful. “I am your friend and loyalist, my Queen.” She stepped forward. “Admit me into the first wave.”
“Who else will fly with their Queen?”
Other Firemaids stepped forward, by tradition the oldest and toughest or the young seeking the glory of being named as the leader of the attack.
“That’s enough!” Ayafeeia cried, seeing old Verkeera step forward, her battered scales stitched together with Ironrider-rein and bound up in blood. “Verkeera, you have the biggest firebladder of any of us. Let me have it in my line to pour down on the enemy.”
“I would rather shield my Queen’s other flank with my body,” Verkeera said.
“I intend to move too fast to have much care for my flanks, Verkeera,” Nilrasha said. “The last time I led a line into battle against the Ghioz, we were trapped under walls and destroyed by Ghioz fighting from their fortifications. But this time our opponents are strangers to the city too! A house collapsed on me. I’ve been waiting years to return the experience to a few Ghioz.”
“Carry full bladders into battle,” Ayafeeia said. “We are matched against horsemen. But horses don’t care for the smell of dragons. Spray your water as carefully as you spray your fire, for once.”
The dragonelles chuckled at this and some made jokes about fighting with both ends. A few coarse jokes passed among the green ranks.
“What about you, Wistala?”
