As the warriors poured in, Minx made a solemn promise to herself.
All right, Valry. Have it your way. Keep fighting. Maybe, despite having lost our duel, your army will still be victorious. But I'm going to promise you one thing. This will be the most costly victory you can imagine. I'll see to it personally.
With that, she let the arrows fly once more.
Chapter 24
Their numbers were too great.
Minx, Mau and Kaleb fought as savagely as ever, cutting down Wuff after Wuff, Krah after Krah. They thinned the endless ranks again and again, but were unable to hold their ground for the sheer number of warriors. The other dragons weren't visible from where she stood, and even as she fought dozens at a time, her heart ached for them. Those dragons joined us of their own volition, and now they may be paying the ultimate price. I can't see them. Have they been slain? Has Valry taken their hides? She groaned at the thought. I shouldn't have allowed them to come. I shouldn't have brought Kaleb here, either. This was always my fight—it was always up to the Fae. By bringing the dragons, I've only played into Valry's hands.
Minx turned to Kaleb as he stomped on a fallen Wuff and pummeled another with a hammer fist. “Kaleb, now that Valry's shield has been destroyed, can you shift? Take flight and round up the other dragons. Take them far away from here.”
“What?” spat the dragon shifter, baffled. “Why in the world would I do that? We need all the help we can get!”
She launched an arrow into the throng and stepped back several paces. “I should have known better. Valry's forces are after a dragon's hide, remember? You and the others should never have come here. If one of you dies, she'll get precisely what she wants. They're going to target you more—focus their attacks on you and the other dragons. Get out while there's still time.”
“You're insane,” he bellowed with a hearty laugh. “If we die, we die, Minx. We knew what we were signing up for.” He stopped the charge of a spear-wielding ape-man, shattering the shaft of his weapon and striking his center of mass.
“But Kaleb!” Her quiver was running low again. She emptied it against the next wave of newcomers and hurriedly plucked up a fresh quiver from a dead archer nearby. “We can't win. There's no way they'll let up. I wish we could keep going, but they're going to overwhelm us. They've probably breached the Trading Center already. It's only a matter of time before—”
Kaleb thrust a dirty finger against her lips, silencing her. He looked up to the sky, eyes brimming with fire. He appeared to be tracking a scent with great interest.
“W-What's the matter?” she asked.
Nodding to himself, Kaleb began to laugh. He socked a limping Wuff and wrenched the flail from his grasp, throwing it into the crowd of oncoming swordsmen.
They were heavily outnumbered, pushed to the limits of their strength. The situation hardly warranted laughter. “Have you lost your mind? What're you laughing about? What's happening to you, Kaleb?”
He only pointed up at the sky, where dark grey clouds swirled with the dust of battle.
From behind one of those clouds, without the least warning, there came a sudden flash. The cloud dissolved instantly, and from high up in the sky there barreled a blinding knot of orange flame. A fireball.
The fiery blast sped toward the ground, striking the army with earth-shattering power. An enormous swath of the battlefield erupted into bright flame, and the dark warriors caught up in it were immediately engulfed. Screams and moans rose up from them as they tried in vain to put out the fires that ravaged them.
The answer to those screams came in the form of more fireballs—dozens of them.
The earth was pummeled by a succession of blistering fire blasts from high above the clouds. Dark shapes could be glimpsed in the sky—shapes composed of jagged wings and long, stony tails. They descended over the battlefield, sailing with such closeness that their combined shadows made the day seem like night for those standing below.
“They came!” shouted Kaleb. “Those old codgers! They finally got over themselves!”
The generals of the Pyra Clan soared overhead and prepared to drop another volley of fire blasts. Despite countless hours of bickering and their intense dislike of the Fae, the military leaders of the Talon Range guard had ultimately decided to lend their aid. Their searing attacks, so concentrated and relentless, threw the dark army into utter chaos. Their ranks were permanently broken, and the petrified warriors all took off in their own directions, trying to save themselves. Where minutes ago, they had been so thick as to seem endless, they were now sparse—taking cover in trenches or running for the woods and hills.
There must have been twenty or thirty Royal Dragons in all, and they continued launching attacks until the whole of the field had been reduced to embers. Their coordinated strikes consumed dozens, perhaps hundreds, at a time, and the survivors retreated as swiftly as their legs could take them. For the duration of the battle, Minx, Mau, Kaleb and the other dragons had held off the enormous army, and had known their struggle to be in vain. Their defeat had been certain.
Now, with the appearance of this air support, the tide of battle had turned completely.
Cheers erupted from the Trading Center as the fire bombings continued and the dark army was further dispersed. The territory had not fallen;
