presence, the dragon who was second in size only to the crimson monster in command of all the Dark Queen’s horde. A quick glance to the north showed him four more reds, all winging swiftly closer, but this great red serpent was the immediate threat.
All of Lectral’s rage came together as, with a shrill cry of fury, he flew toward the attacker. His breath exploded in a thunder of frost, but the red evaded it at the last minute, and the silver was forced to veer aside from another hissing fireball.
“Fool!” brayed the crimson wyrm. “Like the pig Darlantan, your ancestor, you are doomed!”
“Spawn of Crematia! It is you who will die!” Lectral roared in response, straining to close with the serpentine crimson tail.
He snapped, barely missing the red dragon, then whirled through a tight spin to fly after his foe. Slashing claws tore at the scarlet membrane of a wing, rending a single gash, and then the two monstrous dragons crashed together. Clenching, they twisted and spiraled, clawing in frantic rage, breaking apart to leave a shower of scales, mixed crimson and argent, fluttering downward.
The two mighty serpents dipped and dodged, diving and climbing, first one, then the other in pursuit. And all the time the other four reds drew closer, winging with desperate speed. The newcomers were all considerably smaller than Lectral’s awesome foe, but even so, the silver knew their arrival would sway the battle into an unwinnable contest.
“Now, son of Darlantan, you will die!” cried the red, seeing the direction of Lectral’s gaze. “I, Tombfyre, will see your life ended!”
Only one tactic gave him hope. Lectral turned southward, pulling his opponent into pursuit, now carrying the fight away from the foursome of reds with as much speed as possible.
“Coward!” brayed Tombfyre. “Stay and fight! At least do your sire that much honor!”
“I am Lectral, heir to Darlantan and Callak,” the silver roared, diving, curling his neck to shout backward, underneath his belly. “I would slay you, but I am no fool, to die against five!”
“Bah!” sneered Tombfyre, abruptly veering out of his pursuit. “Then the wyrmlings can kill you. I have more important affairs!”
With a blink of magic, the red dragon vanished, and Lectral guessed that he had teleported back to the battle that was raging in the north. Trembling with rage, the silver whirled about, more than willing to face the four younger reds in a duel.
Flying toward him, the crimson serpents closed the distance fast, spreading apart only slightly as they and the mighty silver converged. Abruptly Lectral tilted into a stall, then pulled himself upward with a powerful push of his wings. The sky beneath him became a hellish inferno of crackling fire, but the silver dragon escaped with just a few scorches on his tail.
Quickly he pivoted, slashing past the reds, sweeping downward in a plunging dive.
Then, as Lectral blasted the nearest chromatic with an explosion of killing frost, there were three. His wings drove him ever faster, and now he was the attacker, trying to close the distance. Clawing at a red body, veering away from another explosion of fiery breath, the silver dragon ripped scales from the flank of an enemy wyrm.
But the trio of red dragons swerved back, and in a clash of talons and fangs, all four serpents came together. A hissing cloud of frost and flame roared like a thunderstorm, engulfing all the dragons in a horrific cloud of mutually destructive breath.
And then Lectral was falling, twisting lazily, watching the trees rush upward to meet him. He tried to break away, but his wings refused to move.
“There!” Arumnus declared in a harrumph of flame. The knight on his back leaned over, studying the distant ground.
“I see them-four or five greens, eh?”
“And the blacks!” the gold dragon noted, banking slightly to bring the rest of the chromatic dragons into view. The gold looked around anxiously. Where were Heart and her knight?
With bellows of vengeful fury, the dragons and their knightly riders dived toward the enemy wyrms. Lances ripped through emerald scales or shredded wings of midnight black, and the skies were full of smoke and flames and screams. Serpentine fliers weaved, slashed, and breathed, while knightly riders wielded their lances with deadly skill. In a few shocking moments of battle, every one of the chromatic dragons had been driven from the sides.
Heart and her rider pulled ahead, winging beside Arumnus. The silver flew strongly, but her expression was grim.
“I must go,” she declared. “We have a different fight to wage.”
“But our destiny lies here!” Arumnus declared, indicating a vast wing of red dragons spreading across the sky, angling toward a renewed attack.
“You will take this destiny,” Heart replied. “As to me, I must follow the commands of love.”
“Love is not for dragons!” Arumnus asserted, but his silver kin-dragon and her rider were already gone.
And a great, five-headed shadow began to loom out of the clouds. Arumnus knew Heart’s goal, and he could only pray that she would succeed.
Lectral’s body twisted under an onslaught of unbelievable pain. He flailed as one of the scarlet serpents swerved past, catching the red’s leathery wing with his sharp talons. Tearing savagely, the silver dragon rent the stiff surface, pulling the red to him, feeling the brittle membrane, frozen by his blast of silver breath, crumble in his talons.
Two more red dragons, smaller than the heir of Crematia but still dangerous, tried to free their comrade, but Lectral clung tightly to the squirming serpent. With a crushing bite, he snapped the wyrm’s neck, but then the rippling agony through his own body drove blackness upward into his brain. He struggled, groping for words, for magic, for something!
When he crashed into the trees, he was vaguely aware of the two reds flying away, leaving him for dead. Pain swept through his body, wracking agony that seemed certain to kill him.
But he still lived. In a nightmare of agony, he realized his wings were shredded, several of his legs smashed and broken.
Finally he reached out a claw, felt the curving surface under his talons, and raised the ram’s horn to his jaws.
Chapter 34
1028 PC
“Sire!” Tombfyre cried, appearing in the air before Deathfyre’s flying form. “There is a silver to the south, over the forests of the wild elves! He was pursued by four wyrms, but I cannot say that his life is ended, for I came as soon as I heard your summons.”
“There will be time for him later,” Deathfyre growled. “Now I need you here. See these humans? They come to us with lances, cruel weapons that have already rent flights of whites and greens.”
Corro, the mighty black, fell into formation beside them. He snorted, flexing his midnight wings, with many of his inky clan trailing behind. As Corro passed, Tombfyre felt a new presence, and with awe he watched a mighty cloud seethe upward, growing into a solid entity.
“Show courage, my kin-dragons!” roared the elder red. “Our queen approaches, and if we can win this fight, she will hold sway over all the world!”
Deathfyre led his red dragons in a wedge of lethal flight, bellowing furiously at the sight of the metallic serpents winging toward them. Tombfyre pressed ahead, savage and eager, fires of fury burning in his belly.
Now he saw that the good dragons had saddled themselves with riders, a single human warrior astride each of the serpents. Sunlight glinted from the silvery metal shafts of their wicked lances, but Tombfyre chortled aloud at the realization that his enemies had handicapped themselves with all of this clumsy, unnecessary weight.
