wards, simply overpower them. Sasha, go for random people but don’t use much power. Sara, use yours sparingly and only target those whose wards flicker and fade. Legon, when I tell you, hit their lead horse’s brain.”
Legon started to send spell after spell at them. With every hit one or two men went down; his attacks were too strong for the other Venefica to counter. He sent a fire spell at a rider in the lead, causing the man’s head to burst into flames. The rider immediately rolled on his horse, disrupting the others. Sasha took advantage of the situation by sending a burst of pure light at them; it wouldn’t hurt anyone but it continued to sow mayhem, causing two more men to fall off their horses.
Then suddenly the message from Arkin came and he sent his spell at the lead horse, ceasing its brain activity. The animal dropped. The other horses running close behind tripped, sending riders and horses all over the place and a gap began to open between them.
That’s when he heard it. He looked up to the gray sky and heard it again, a soft thud. No. Not another Dragon, they couldn’t take the twenty or so men left and a Dragon. THUD. It was overhead now, almost as if it were going to drop on them. THUD. Or behind them?
In the distance a figure dropped from the clouds and his heart skipped as the long body fell, a thin line in the sky with its wings folded close to its body. He squinted ahead, trying to ascertain the appearance of their foe. He knew that Dragons came in every shade and color but he was having a hard time believing his eyes. He felt Sasha’s confusion and then her question.
“Is that Dragon pink?”
It was a vivid shade of pink, but there was more to it than that; its horns were white and its scales glittered in the sun, but there was no direct light hitting it. The Dragon seemed to be producing the light and he felt his heart leap again; it was an Elf! The pink Dragon’s wings snapped open just before the ground and it rushed at them. The men pursuing them scrambled to get out of the way, but too late. It was on them all now.
Legon saw the flicker of pink indicating wards that the other Venefica would not be able to break. He wondered what type of magic it was going to use. He did feel a little apprehension when he saw the huge mouth opening to revel white teeth, then he closed his eyes right before a torrent of pink flames erupted from the mouth.
The fire swept around them; any amusement or doubt caused by the Dragon’s bright color disappeared at the sound of screaming from behind, but he only felt a warm tickling sensation. He opened his eyes, to see a world of total pink. He couldn’t see anything in front of him; he was in the fire, but his wards were not being tested. Why not? Then he remembered what Arkin had said about magical fire: the brighter the color, the more magic is in it. This Dragon was using pure magic, so the flame would burn only what it wanted.
Keither looked frantically at the pink flame that surrounded him, trying to figure how long it would be until he was burned to death, but then it passed and he heard a great whoosh from above and looked up to see a giant pink Dragon. He didn’t feel the regular fear he would with other Dragons. This was in part due to the whoops and yells coming from the others, but also when it passed overhead he saw white claws, not black. This Dragon was producing light around itself as well. The Iumenta dragons seemed to leach light out of the sky and their scales refused to sparkle in the sun. This was not the case for this Dragon; there was a slight glow around it and its scales twinkled even with no direct light.
As it passed, the Dragon turned its head, and for the second time in a few days Keither locked eyes with one of these creatures. The Iumenta Dragon’s eyes were the same color as their scales, with yellow instead of white surrounding the colored part of the eye. With this Elven Dragon the eye was pink but the sounding area was white as snow. It blinked at him… or was it a wink? He felt a rush of air as the Dragon’s large, powerful wings swept it away and off into the distance.
He chanced a look behind him to see the look of awe on all but Arkin’s face, which had a wide smile on it. He waved to him, which was an odd sort of thing to do, but he waved back. They weren’t being pursued any more, or rather there weren’t people on the horses behind them, who looked to be relevantly unharmed. There were, however, blackened and charred corpses on the horses, burned to the bone. He shuddered at the sight. It had been a display of power when the Iumenta Dragon had burned a town in a breath, and that display would stay with him forever. So would this one. They had all been covered in fire, but only their pursuers had been killed, not their animals, not those they pursued, and not even the grass of the field. It was a targeted attack, executed with terrifying surgical precision.
Ahead, the large rocky peaks of the Cornis Mountains were fast approaching. They were incredibly intimidating mountains, barren except for scrub brush and goats. Because the main road was two days away, they were taking the hard way into the Precipice, a narrow goat trail bordered by large cliffs and canyons. No force would be able to go through it as it was a single track most of the time. Keither hated heights, but he hated getting beat up and attacked by the militia more, so the treacherous land it was.
Arkin rode, smiling at the land of his birth. He had been raised in this area and was looking forward to seeing people and places he knew again. There was a tug at his mind. She was leaving, and he just saw her as a dot on the horizon. Why did they send her? “She probably asked for it,” he thought. He was happy it was her in a way, the same part of him that was happy about not being dead or hurt by a misplaced spell, burning them to ashes and not the enemy. He was going to get it when they arrived, there was no doubt about it, and he could already hear the taunts about having to bail him out of babysitting duty. She respected him greatly, but even as kids she had given him a hard time. He smiled. Legon would like her, and he thought that she would like him as well.
He could feel Sasha in all their minds, checking pain centers for injury. He smiled again. For sure she would like Sasha.
Chapter Nineteen
“History repeats itself, or so I’ve been told. One could then ask the question, ‘If I have a perfect understanding of the past, can I see what lies ahead?’ I would be inclined to say yes, yet after all this time the future never fails to surprise me.”
Sasha looked disquietedly at the looming mountains before them. There was a reason the Cornis Mountains had held back the Empire for years. They were known to be dangerous and easy to get lost in. At their base was brown grass and sage dotted with large rocks and yucca plants. The mountains rose steeply then, forced upwards by millennia of pressure. The land looked tortured as it gave way to the razor-like gray stone peaks. It would have been fitting to see vultures and ravens in the air, but there were none. There were, however, white figures dotting the side of the mountains. She stretched her neck to get a better view. Legon flashed the image from his eyes to her mind and she saw mountain goats as if they were no more than fifty yards away. They spoke to each other in their heads.
“That’s incredible,” she remarked.
“I know it is. Here, you can look around if you want.”
She felt an odd sensation as her mind not only joined his but took over much of the control of his body. Conversely, he was controlling hers. She felt what he was doing in her body but it was a separated feeling, almost like when you touch your arm after it falls asleep. The feeling of remoteness soon dissipated as she took in her surroundings through Legon’s eyes.
She could see the world in much more detail than she normally could. She saw the peaks in a new light. They were gray rock, yes, but they were also covered in lichen and there were birds flying high above them. She heard the goats too, jumping from rock to rock in the far distance. She was inundated with smells and feelings as well. His
