Chapter 21 War
WAR
Bjorn surges in, diving in front of his King and Prince to defend them, as the Usurper roars its terrible heart-cursing magic.
All three are hit by the Black Dragon’s blast. Terrible crimson curses spiral out from them, coating their bodies as blood jettisons from them in countless rips, and their bones shatter and crack.
A roar thunders throughout the Void as I scream with the towering overtones of my dragon ripping from my throat.
Because our Ancestors have screamed with me, as our Lineage’s best fighters fall.
Lithava’s roar of triumph echoes through the burning skies as well, as a sudden, towering fierceness fills me. I shift, blasting our lodgings in Harnakje apart as I roar all through my bones for Baldur to rip us open a portal and get us to Stockholm, stat.
Though I want to tear Lithava out of the skies as my inner dragons crash together into my furious Bloodwalker might, crazy love fills me instead. The blackest side of my nature gets seized in the jaws of my brightest now, and I know where my true heart lies.
It’s not punishing Lithava right now; it’s saving those I love. As I concentrate all our Bloodbond’s furious power into one massive lance now, my drakes shift up fast into their dragons with me.
I am a firestorm of focused intent as I thrust that lance right through us all, seizing our bound power and spearing it into Bjorn through our bond. I feel his strength gutter from those diabolical curses spiraling into him, as I give my all to save him now.
That blast didn’t quite get his heart, thank all the gods. It’s a battle of life and death anyway to mend his bones and refill his blood, and banish the other curses claiming him, as I pour my all into my insane drive of love now, to keep Bjorn with us.
Our power pours down through that connection to Bjorn, but his life-force flickers, threatening to go out.
I won’t let it, as I rage and wrath now in a towering inferno of power and devotion to defend my First Drake; I come into a true, shining place inside my heart now, as a torrent of white auric fire seethes from me.
That fire blazes down my connection to Bjorn, from all of us. Everything inside me focuses on the depth of my love for him, rather than my hate for Lithava, and I feel that love surge right down through our Bloodbond into him.
Even though Bjorn’s beautiful heart is wrecked by his father’s involvement in all this, plus the Black Dragon’s curse-work flooding all through him now, I feel how that sundering energy is thrust back.
Bjorn feels our love; as his heart gives a massive thud, it lights up with our white auric fire, tinged a bright crimson and gold from Bjorn’s own power, banishing those curses from his chest as his bones mend and his blood rushes back.
Bjorn’s righteously courageous heart shines pure gold now as the Black Dragon’s power rushes away—and I hear Bjorn roar.
Because he has felt my love, all of us; it lights him up from the inside now, banishing the darkness as the curses punishing him are cast back.
Everything inside me shakes from the towering overtones and bass notes in Bjorn’s dragon-voice, as his furious scent of battlefield char, peat whiskey, and good cigars floods my nose.
As Bjorn roars to the skies, returned from the brink of death, his magic floods back to us. He gives a masterful heave as his incredible Blood Magic resonates with Baldur’s now, ripping open a towering portal for us, right to the Grand Palace.
The portal is big enough to get our entire army through, here in Harnakje. Bjorn thunders a massive three-note roar all through us now, shaking the skies where he’s crash-landed in the middle of the burning palace, and we know that towering call.
It’s a call all Blood Dragons know to our bones, to protect our King. Exhausted Erikssons and True Knights shift up all around us now in Harnakje, roaring up towards that gargantuan portal as they feel a renewed rush to fight, my drakes and I with them.
Bjorn and Baldur have melded their power now, as Bjorn holds the portal open in Stockholm, and Baldur holds it open here at Harnakje.
Bjorn has crash-landed with our King and Prince in a section of the palace that is not burning yet, but the day is black as death.
Soot scalds through the air upon terrible cyclones of black fire, ravaging everything else.
As Strom echoes Bjorn’s roar now, towering up as his lithe crimson and green dragon, he takes up the mantle of Eriksson Jarl, at last. Unleashing his passionate heart, Strom roars for his Eriksson forces to protect our King, as I feel his incredible love for his people flood me.
Strom leads his people to war now, as I flash through that portal with Mikkel and Laerke, to do what I was born for.
Holding the portal, Baldur trembles from the massive amount of magic it takes to hold a portal of that size open long enough to get hundreds of dragons through.
Blazing like a star, he’s determined in our darkest hour.
I ground Baldur’s immense magic through my own Bloodwalker power now, synergizing with my First and Fourth Drakes to hold the portal open, even as I dart through, on a mission.
Mikkel and Laerke are with me, as we bypass the Black Dragon and Lithava entirely, striking right down into the burning palace where Bjorn alone protects our fallen King and Prince.
It takes everything I have not to go Berserk or Wraith, as I dart down into the carnage.
Dragon bodies litter the wreckage; blackened with soot, burning with a terrible scent of charred flesh, death is everywhere as I dive like a mad thing into the fray, led on only by my heart through the billowing smoke.
I’m following my Bloodbond to Bjorn, as he protects our fallen King and Prince alone now, coiled up as his immense golden drake around their frail human bodies.
With massive roars, he battles back anything that comes at them from the skies; heaving falling debris away with his tremendous flaps from his wings, he hammers back burning timbers with his blocky head, preventing them from crushing his lieges.
Our Old Palace fighters surge into the fray, harrying the Black Dragon and helping the King’s forces battle it, as a terrible feeling engulfs me. I arrive at Bjorn’s position with Mikkel and Laerke, winging to a quick halt in the small space, and see how bad both our lieges are.
Pale and drawn, long bones broken and blood pouring from him in countless terrible rips from the Black Dragon’s voice, my cousin Halfdir was hit hard by the Black Dragon’s curses, though he’s alive.
Like Bjorn, he was not square-center when the heart-stopping curse was roared at them from the Black Dragon’s maw; blessedly spared, he got the lesser version of the Usurper’s cursing, though it’s bad enough.
As Laerke and Mikkel rush to Halfdir, I hear Bjorn’s strangled roar hammer all through me, Rikyava!
The King! even as I rush to my uncle now.
Torn and bleeding from countless wounds, his bones smashed and pulverized in a dozen places, and covered in oilslick-black curses, I feel our King’s heart suddenly beat its last as I shift down fast from my dragon.
Heaving forward, I set my hands to the terrible black curse-work spiraling all through my uncle’s chest. King Huttr was the intended target of that heart-stopping blast; I can feel the Black Dragon’s terrible masterwork now, where it dives into Huttr’s heart.
As my King’s towering life snuffs out, I roar with everything I’ve got.
Taking everything left inside me and thrusting it down through my hands, locked into talons now on his chest.
I give my everything as I pour my magic right inside King Huttr’s heart to save him. I give him every bit of love I have for kin, for family, for our Lineage and the ending of this terrible war, as I let my magic do as it will for him.
As both sides of my power crash together inside me, my Bloodwalker magic hauls from my drakes in a riptide. It dives into our King, as I pour all my love inside him now, for the wonderful father he was to me after my parents died, and how he’s been that stalwart figure in my life ever since.
Not to mention that he’s an incredible King. I know that if we lose him, our Lineage is done for—everything inside me knows it, as our combined auric flames blaze off me in a firestorm now, rushing down into our King’s heart.
It seethes through all my drakes now, as they cry out with ecstasy and abandon to that towering wave of love and fire filling them.
As I pour my everlasting love deep inside my King and uncle’s heart, I feel it rush into my cousin, too, via our familial bonds.
I banish the heart-curse from one, healing the countless rips and broken bones, as well, as the curse-work on the other is banished, too.
King Huttr’s heart gives a hard pound beneath my hand, his breath returning in a rush. With that breath, he roars out his power and supremacy to the world, as the Blood Dragon King.
Then promptly passes out.
But both the King and Prince have been restored by my magic; even as all my drakes gasp from how much power it drained from them, we roar, celebrating to the skies that our lieges live.
Prince Halfdir’s voice thunders with us. It’s weak, but my heart sings to hear my cousin’s determined snarl now as he stumbles to his father with Mikkel and Larke’s help, slamming up a massive spiked Bloodshield around himself and our King for protection.
As Bjorn’s shift suddenly fails now from the intense magical exhaustion we are in from saving our lieges, plus his own near death a moment ago, we draw into a tight knot around our fallen royals.
It’s up to us to save our King and Prince—both Bjorn and I will fight to the death to keep them with us, as enemies crash-land down all around us.