Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Dirk
The journey to the northern border was long and arduous, and by the time we entered the mountains themselves, all but the strongest were in need of a break. It pained Caz and me, and likely everyone else, to sit idle, but to face the Reds after such a frantic flight would have been disastrous.
It was already going to be a bloodbath.
Now we gathered our strength under the smoke-filled air of Hollow Earth. Florian marched back and forth across the flat plateau, barking orders and encouragement at the fighters who had accompanied us. Few of the Elites on the council had come with, though that wasn’t unexpected.
Most of them are cowards anyway, who would be of little help and just get in the way.
Over forty hard-faced soldiers formed the heart of our counter-attack, veterans all. They would be the anvil. Caz and I would be the hammer.
“It is time, little brother,” rumbled Casimir Dvorak IV, Ice Tyrant. He got to his feet, leading by example.
The others rose with their tyrant, their faces hard, eyes cold and focused. This was their kingdom. Their home that had been invaded. We had all seen the smoke from the burned-out villages. Seen the convoys of refugees streaming southward to the larger cities.
The Reds were going to learn a painful lesson. They were going to pay.
Marching to the edge of the plateau in lockstep with Casimir, we shifted and leapt into the air. Behind us came a veritable wave of ice dragons, all with one single goal—revenge.
“Faster,” Florian urged his men as they winged their way after Casimir and me.
We crossed a mountaintop and were greeted with the sight of a village under attack. Ruby-red dragons wheeled and dove, breathing lines of explosive flames across the buildings and people within.
We were too far to hear the screams. For now.
I fought against the coldness spreading throughout, trying to remain in the here and now.
I couldn’t afford to lose myself, not anymore.
The darkness must be kept at bay. I had someone waiting for me, someone I hoped would be happy and eager to explore things further between us with every message of mine that was delivered.
Which meant no succumbing to the lust of battle. No embracing that part of me that longed to come out.
Ella was waiting for me, giving me something to look forward to, and I latched on to that thought. It was a nice one. The idea that I had someone to go home to. We weren’t healed yet, but we were trying.
“So many,” I grunted at Florian as the full force of the Red invasion came into view. “Wonder what provoked them. This is a surprising amount of force.”
“Not really. You should know.”
My snout came around in surprise at his words. Did he think this was somehow my fault? “Explain.”
“A month ago, you hit a raiding party with nearly twenty dragons. Wiped them out. The Reds would have viewed that as you responding with overwhelming force to a standard raid.”
“But that wasn’t on purpose. We had just left Bryna’s estate after rescuing Anna and Milly.
We received word of the raid mid-flight.
” I frowned, thinking it through to the conclusion.
“But they can’t know that. They would have assumed we were already in-region as a response force.
So they think we’re gearing up for outright war, and the Red King decided to hit us first.”
“Well, they’re going to pay for that,” Casimir snarled, surging out in front with a burst of speed that only I could match.
We started twisting around one another before we hit the Reds, a helix formation that caused them to hesitate.
It was the undoing for several. As we went, Casimir and I in perfect synchronicity, the temperature of the air between us plunged, and the air began to move as well, propelled by our push-and-pull effect on the moisture within the tunnel.
At the last moment, we broke apart, and the ice-cyclone flew horizontally through the formation of Reds. Four of them were caught in its grip and tumbled from the sky, the water in their bodies freezing solid.
Banking sharply as a line of flame stabbed out at me, I raked my claws across the face of a desperately diving red, ripping a line from his snout to the back of his head. Scales and blood fell to the ground far below.
Rage billowed up out of me and I let it free, breathing a stream of ice across the wing of yet another Red. Suddenly immobile and weighted down, the dragon fell with a trumpet of fear.
Flames singed my belly as I twisted and dove, accelerating sideways and wreaking havoc on their formation even as I made for the village on the ground.
I landed on a Red tormenting the weaker dragons of the village. My talons punched through red scales and tore apart the tendons that attached wing to body just before he could incinerate a helpless woman and her daughter whom she was trying to shield with her weak frost powers.
“Go! Run!” I shouted at the woman before tearing out the throat of the Red.
“T-thank you, my lord,” she said, taking off at a breakneck pace for the edge of the village and what I hoped would be safety beyond.
I was wrong.
A monstrous dragon burst free from a blazing building along her path. Burning embers and debris fell from its frame as it bellowed a deafening battle cry. The woman screamed and tried to dodge the fire dragon, clutching the young child to her breast as the beast’s foot came down on her.
Only to be stopped cold. Ice swarmed up from the snow-covered ground, forming a dome around the woman. The dragon’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Get away from her,” I snarled, stomping forward on all fours.
The murderous dragon turned its gaze on me, its eyelids narrowing.
“You’re going to pay for this.” I gestured at the burning village around me, even as I gathered my power.
I was going to need it. My opponent was none other than Akio himself. Florian’s opposite among the Reds.
I was stronger. He was far older, wilier and battle-trained. This would not be an easy fight, but I wasn’t going to let him get away with such casual murder either. I was the Ice Prince. These were my people. And I would protect them.
The world shook as we collided, each battling for supremacy.
Fire against ice. Akio tossed me sideways.
Extricating myself from the charred remnants of a house, I spat ice at him, a solid stream that pinned his wings to his sides.
Momentarily restricted, Akio had to choose between spewing fire at me or freeing himself.
Fire burst from every surface of his body, and the wings came free. A second later, I was on his back in a blur of paws, claws and wings. Scales were torn free, blood flowed like water, and I thought I was in the clear.
Until the fire returned. It burned bright and hot everywhere, forcing me to jump free before it melted my paws.
We clashed once more, rising up on hind legs, ice countering fire, bathing the battleground in a cloak of fog. Akio’s tail curled around my hind leg and pulled. Off balance at the unexpected move, I went down, the cagey Red using his weight to fall right on top of me.
I was screwed.
Wild victory filled the dragon’s face as he went for my throat, but it swiftly turned to shock as something huge hit him in the side, sending him tumbling.
“Akio,” Florian growled, stomping forward, his paws crunching deep into the gathering snow and ice. “I told you a long time ago, if you ever set foot on ice territory again, I would mount your skull on the gates of the citadel. Or did you forget?”
“Child,” Akio growled, shaking himself free and flicking out a wing to collapse another burning building. “You’re welcome to my head … if you can take it!”
He charged at Florian behind a curtain of fire. The attack was met with the force of Florian and me, and fog fell over everything, reducing vision to no more than a few feet. I paused, listening for the sound of the two fighting, but heard something else instead.
“Oh, shit.”
Then Akio was on me, gliding through the air only a foot or two over the ground. We smashed together. I’d had just enough time to prepare, and as our dragon bodies started to tumble, I tucked my wings in tightly and then pushed off hard from the ground with one leg.
The added force brought a squawk from Akio as he lost his balance. I lashed out with my foreleg, tearing a huge gash down his chest as we slashed at one another with our jaws, trying to tear scales and flesh free.
Florian came through the fog, sacrificing scales on his flank to tear a huge chunk out of the back of Akio’s right forepaw. Then I exhaled, breathing ice down his side. The fire dragon howled in agony as the deadly cold adhered to him.
A wall of fire erupted between us, and then he was in the air, winging away from the battlefield. Florian and I took up the chase while around us the other surviving Reds were driven back from the village, Caz on their heels.
“If I see your face again,” Florian growled as the two sides hovered in the air just out of striking range of breath weapons, “I will kill you. Now take your men and run home to your master.”
Akio—instead of being chaste and respectful that we hadn’t simply slaughtered him and his men as I longed to—laughed. “Oh, you will see my face again, war master. And sooner than you think. Change is coming.”
Then he wheeled away, taking the five surviving Reds with him. Caz sent a dozen of the freshest soldiers to follow, to make sure the fire dragons went straight back across the border and nowhere else.
While that was happening, I landed near where Akio and I had fought and walked over to a mound of snow. With a gentle command, the ice and snow melted back into the ground.
“It’s over now,” I said as the woman looked up at me. “Are you okay?”
Still clutching her child to her chest, she nodded. “Y-y-yes. We’re alive.”
“Good.” I looked at her child now, a young girl no more than five, with beautiful blue eyes not so unlike my own. “You’re very brave, little girl, for not crying.”
The child stuck her hands on her hips and screwed her face up very tight. “I’m not little! You’re little!”
“Darya!” the mother scolded fearfully and needlessly.
It was the perfect counter to the battle rage still simmering in the back of my mind. I plopped my dragon butt on the ground and let the laughter flow in big, booming dragon chuckles. It felt good to laugh. There wouldn’t be much of it in the coming days, I feared.
The Reds had stolen too much.
“What will happen next?” the woman asked, still holding her child, despite the young shifter starting to squirm.
“Next, we will see to those who weren’t so fortunate,” I said as Caz landed nearby. “My brother here will see that the survivors are well looked after. Won’t you, Casimir?”
The woman stiffened, her face paling as she recognized the name and dropped to one knee. “Tyrant. I apologize. I did not—”
“Hush,” Casimir rumbled, lowering his snout to her level. “And get back on your feet. I am not my father. I do not need you to grovel. Yes, my brother is correct. We will look after all survivors. That is what a leader should do. I can only apologize that we did not get here earlier. To save more.”
“You came in the end,” the woman said, rising to her feet. “That is enough, my lord.”
“Not to me it isn’t,” Casimir replied distantly. “Not to me.”
I rose to my full height, my neck in the air as I surveyed the destroyed village. The other men who had come with us were extinguishing fires and gathering up the dead.
But this was only one village among many. We had our work cut out for us.
“This is going to take more than the rest of today,” I told Caz. “We’re going to be gone for a few.”
“I know.”
We had told the women we would be back the next day. That was wrong now. I could see that. I wondered if Ella would understand that, though I longed to be back with her, exploring our mate bond, that I had to be here. I had to stay.
It was my duty.