Chapter Forty-Three
Vil
We waited for eight hours.
Word of the attack went out and was greeted with outrage and horror. Some decided it would be best to avoid the coming conflict and went to ground. Others knew they had to pick a side.
Not all of them picked ours, but most did.
The village of Riggi quickly swelled in size as dragons arrived in groups.
Swiftly, the army spilled over the town's boundaries, and I had everyone move to a plain nearby.
Coel and his people ensured everyone was fed and watered.
We had to be ready for battle because, come the morning, we would leave.
“I really wish you would stay here for this one,” I told Vanessa, holding her tight, basking in the presence of my mate.
“I know,” she said, stroking my face, her head on my chest, rising and falling with my breathing. “Part of me is shrieking and pulling my hair out. It says I should stay. That it’ll be dangerous for me to go.”
“It will,” I told her, staring at the sky, waiting for the first hints of dawn to show over the horizon, the alarm clock that would be our signal to depart. “This will be ugly. Very ugly. I shudder at the number of my people who won’t live through it.”
“Our people,” she said.
I gave her a squeeze.
“I’m serious, Vil. That’s why I know I have to go.
I have to be there to see this settled. Our people have to know that I’m not going to shy away from what has to be done.
That I’m right there with you through thick and thin.
They have to respect me, or else, God-King approval or not, this will never work. ”
“You’re so wise,” I said, kissing the top of her head, hoping against hope that it wouldn’t be the last time we would to do such simple things.
“I know,” she said with false conceit. “You should probably change the rules so that I’m the one in charge.”
I pointed at the huge outline of Mount Drakonus off in the distance. “You want to go on up there and tell the God-King his rules are wrong?”
She mulled that over for longer than I expected. “Maybe later,” she said at last. “One challenge at a time.”
I chuckled at her response but sobered quickly. Laughter didn’t feel right at a time like that. Even if we won without a single death, there would be a segment of the Iron Clan who never viewed what I was doing in a positive light. They would always resent me and my bloodline.
“I wish there was an easier way to settle this,” I growled.
“You could always give in and let Adamantine win.”
I ground my teeth. “If I believed he would be a better ruler for the clan, I would consider doing just that,” I told her.
“But he ordered an entire village killed just for talking to us. I can’t allow someone who would callously murder so many of his people for something so trivial.
Even if that idiotic decision is what will be his undoing. ”
Vanessa nodded. “I know. If Mel hadn’t attacked anyone but us, Coel would have said no, and we’d still be looking for allies. He’s created his own undoing.”
“Arrogance knows no bounds sometimes,” I said, just as a ray of light speared up over the horizon, breaking the line of darkness and welcoming dawn.
Nearby, Cruce stirred as well.
“Time to go,” I said, my voice carrying out to the nearest dragons, most of whom were dozing in their dragon forms. At my words, heads rose, and those who hadn’t yet shifted did so.
“Ready?” I said, looking at Vanessa.
She nodded, stepping away, giving me time to shift. I called out to my true form, and the power flowed through me, resculpting my body, shaping limbs and joints, turning my skin into scales, and sprouting wings from my shoulder blades.
I dipped one toward Vanessa, and she clambered up into place. A rope went around my neck as Cruce helped her loop it twice before she tied it down, using the excess to wrap around her in a makeshift harness.
She might be coming with me, but I’d been adamant about that precaution.
With her in place, I looked out at my army.
“I’m sorry that it came to this,” I said. “But I won’t let a madman sit on the throne. I go to kill him. May the God-King have mercy on any who get in our way.”
Yellow-orange eyes stayed riveted to me.
“Thank you,” I whispered, then flung myself into the sky.
Behind me, Cruce and the others rose, a living wave of dragons as we began the trek to the Iron Fortress. Wings beating slow, I took us up to a high altitude to make cruising easier and use less energy on the flight.
Nobody spoke. There was no need. We all knew what we were about and what we were setting off to do.
As the Iron Fortress came into view, a single dragon circling high above it shrieked a warning of our approach and dove for ground.
For a long time, nothing more happened. We approached from high above, giving the defenders an hour's warning.
Only when we began our descent did they rise up from the Iron Fortress.
“That’s more than I thought he’d have,” I hissed at Cruce, flying to my left.
“They aren’t all Iron Clan,” he replied. “Must be more mercenaries. Probably all he could get to help him.”
I didn’t share Cruces' disdain. Mercs were still dangerous.
“Damn it. I wish he would just surrender,” I hissed to nobody in particular as the point of no return drew near.
“I know,” Vanessa said, stroking the side of my neck. “So do I, my love. But we’re not here to start a conflict.”
“True,” I growled, my wings beating harder as I picked up speed. The others soon did the same. “We’re here to end one.”
I dove from the sky in total silence, leading the way as I ‘d promised Coel I would. The slightly older dragon moved up to pace me on the right, not making a sound, either.
Like a shadow, we plunged into the defenders of the Iron Fortress, and the battle began.
Cacophony reigned as dragons shrieked, bellowed, roared, and cried. Blasts of fire erupted from numerous mouths, adding the dull roar of flame, while thunder quickly filled the sky as dark clouds appeared at the behest of the storm dragons and their lightning bolts.
Water fell, and the few Tidal dragons that had come to fight went to work. Their green scales revealed themselves relatively quickly, however, and I made it a point to seek them out and kill them before they could wreak too much havoc.
Very quickly, I found myself facing a quartet of iron dragons led by a fire dragon as they rose to meet me.
“Well, we can’t have that,” I growled, inhaling deeply.
None of them were prepared for what came next. They thought I was going to spit a ball of molten iron at them. That was, of course, the usual iron dragon attack. But those of us of royal blood, more closely descended from the God-King himself, had another weapon available.
Before any of the six dragons could react, I vomited a hailstorm of iron at them. Razor-sharp darts filled the sky. Most harmlessly hit their scales and fell away to the ground below.
But not all. Four dragons bleated out cries for help as their wings were suddenly filled with more holes than they could handle. Air streamed through the rips and tears, and the fire dragon and two of Adamantine’s supporters from within the Iron Clan plummeted downward.
I didn’t watch their deaths. I still had two iron dragons to contend with.
Coel dropped out of the sky, and suddenly I was facing the last dragon one-on-one. He didn’t stand a chance and soon fell from the sky with half his face missing, his belly and side dripping blood and scales from the furrows my claws had made.
“Cruce!” I bellowed as a momentary spot opened around me.
“On it!” I heard a cry from nearby. There was a bleat of pain, and then Cruce was banking around just above me while a fire dragon fell from the sky, fire pouring from the wounds in its neck. Fresh red scales and blood dripped from Cruce’s mouth.
“Hold on,” I told Vanessa, and then, as we’d planned, Cruce and I dropped from the sky and into the center of the Iron Fortress while above us, the battle raged.
Adamantine’s time had come.