Yes! Kanin agreed eagerly. We flamed enough to drive them back! Now to finish the battle.
The dragon roared and dove straight down, headed for the enclosed farmland north of the main fortress. Khollo whooped and held on tightly, on the lookout for any vertaga guarding the sealed gate. There were none though and Kanin landed unopposed.
Khollo dismounted and ran to the small gate, which was secured by a simple locking beam. He tried to lift it out of the way, but the beam was too heavy to be moved by one person, probably on purpose.
Allow me, Kanin said, nosing forward.
Khollo stepped aside. Be my guest, he replied wearily.
Kanin reached out with a foreleg and grabbed at the locking bar with a single clawed foot. The dragon’s claws sank into the wood slightly, sticking. Kanin wrenched at the locking beam, growling, and it flew out of its brackets, sending him stumbling.
Khollo ran to the gates and threw them wide. In the distance, he could see the riders still approaching bravely. Apparently, the sight of the dragon had not alarmed them much. Perhaps Janis had warned Relam that the West Bank had a strange, mythical new ally.
Back to the fortress? Kanin asked pointedly.
Khollo nodded, grinning. Yes. Let us take the good news back to the others and finish this battle!
The two Keepers flew quickly up and over the fortress. The courtyard was full of thrashing bodies, with no clear landing spot. Kanin hovered for a moment, undecided, then made for the main gate where all of the struggling figures in the area were vertaga.
Kanin swooped low and flamed the lot of them, quickly clearing a space, squashing a foe in the process. A lutag bounded up from the side, but Kanin spun and batted the creature away with his tail. The lutag collapsed whimpering, its paws flailing at the air as it tried to right itself.
Khollo dismounted and drew his Sen-teel again, carving a path through the enemy, working back towards the safety of the West Bank lines. Kanin did the same with his fire and talons, blasting vertaga out of the way. Finally, they broke through and found themselves facing Sermas and Hern.
“What’s going on?” Hern shouted over the noise of battle. “We heard the horns – ”
Mind the tail, Kanin said to Khollo as he turned on the spot to flame more vertaga. Khollo ducked and Kanin’s heavily-muscled tail whistled overhead. Then, the dragon was torching vertaga again and Khollo straightened.
“ – and then you and Kanin just up and left us to – ”
“Reinforcements!” Khollo shouted. “The Sthan armies have arrived and are liberating the north gate from the vertaga!”
Those soldiers who heard him looked around in disbelief, then Khollo saw hope dawn in their weary eyes.
“Keep fighting!” Khollo shouted, running along the line. “Take heart! The king’s army is near!”
The defenders let out a roar and pressed forward, driving the vertaga back for a moment. The horned monsters wavered under the fresh assault. Khollo saw some at the rear of the group begin to back away from the fight, making for the fortress gate and the open land beyond.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Khollo muttered. “You will not run back to the Fells this time.”
He ran back to Kanin and climbed onto the dragon’s back, grabbing his bow. Before he had raised it to aim though, a new sound joined the battle: the sound of rumbling hoofbeats.
Riders burst through the main gate, clattering across the fortress threshold. They scattered vertaga left, right, and center with long lances, trampling those that did not move out of the way. Kanin roared and continued flaming the vertaga closest to him, then bit another one on the arm and hurled it high into the air.
Just letting the spear riders know whose side I am on, Kanin said anxiously.
Khollo grinned. Then, a torrent of battle cries erupted behind him and he twisted around in the saddle to look. Scores of soldiers were erupting from the entrance to the underground levels, swelling the ranks of defenders in the courtyard and hurling themselves at the vertaga. In minutes, the battle had dissolved into a few isolated fights, and then an eerie silence fell as the last vertag collapsed, mauled by Kanin’s claws.
The silence lasted only for the briefest of moments. As soon as the defenders realized what had happened, they began yelling in triumph and sheathing their weapons, clapping each other on the back, moving forward to greet the new arrivals. Many came over and bowed to Kanin, smiling broadly. Kanin tolerated this for a while, then retreated, with Khollo still on his back, to a position by the west wall, a little out of the way.
I do not want to accidentally trample any of them, Kanin said to Khollo, rubbing his snout with his foreleg. Not now that the battle is over.
Khollo laughed. I thought maybe you just didn’t like crowds.
Well, yes, there is that too, Kanin admitted.
“Khollo! We did it, we won!”
Khollo dismounted and accepted Sermas’ bear hug philosophically. Hern was a little more restrained, clapping Khollo on the shoulder enthusiastically and sending him stumbling. Both cadets were covered in blood and gore, but appeared to have suffered nothing worse than a few scratches here and there.
“I can’t believe it,” Hern said finally, looking over what had all too recently been a battlefield. “We did it. Against four thousand vertaga, we held.”
“With some help,” Khollo reminded him.
“Yes, yes. Do you think King Relam is with them?” Sermas asked, craning his neck to look at the cavalry squad that had come charging up the causeway.
“Kings don’t usually lead charges like that,” Hern pointed
