Thunder o Dragon (Dragon Fires Rising Book 3), page 31
He glared at the water, watching the ripples coursing across the dark, oily surface. If he and Aria had finished making ripples and he was not flicking his tail idly in the water, then what exactly …
ARIA! RAISE THE ALARM!
Aria leaped twenty feet into the air and landed in a befuddled heap next to him, snarling, Thundersong! Don’t you ever – what did you say? Why?
Those ripples, Aria – what’s making them?
She took one look at him and raced out of the cistern as fast as she could, bellowing at the top of her lungs. Given his relative size, he was a great deal slower than his dainty mate through the narrow tunnels, but then only one of them could shake N’ginta Citadel with his thundering.
The question was, what else could shake an entire Human city?
* * * *
Thundersong emerged into a lower city thrown into chaos by the alarm. People rushed about helter-skelter in the pre-dawn gloom, all memory of drills apparently erased from their minds. However, he also saw signs of sensible organisation, especially up on the battlements where squads of soldiers moved with purpose and in the air above, where a Dragonwing raced westward to check up on something he could not yet see.
Rather than add to the confusion, he sprang into the air with a powerful vertical leap and twirled to face the direction that appeared to have attracted the most excitement.
No spectacles.
Marvellous example of an obsidian blur below with a lighter sapphire blue streak above as dawn began to peel back the arching vault of stars, never more perfect out in the desert – when one could see it. Well, one did not need spectacles for what he and Aria had been up to, which might be the last time, if things went sour. He thrust that thought away with an irritable snarl. This was no time to bring out the old, inwardly hostile Blitz.
Away, Blitz! Arise, Thundersong!
Tilting his wings, he hurtled down to the Palace gardens, where Everdeep thundered at the Rangers to get his treble Dragon bow strapped in place.
Azania stood at the ready, taut and – hmm. No Dragon was supposed to admire those leather trousers. Nevertheless, she looked perfectly martial in her light armour, saddle and bows stacked neatly on the grass beside her, despite that it could barely have been a pawful of minutes since Aria had raised the alarm.
As he rushed into his landing, she asked, What kept you?
I’d say, but it’d make you blush, he said, so smugly that she could not fail to miss his meaning.
With an exasperated snort, she threw the saddle at his neck. You!
Wasn’t just me. News?
Disturbance out to the west. Not far below the surface. Bloodworm is my first thought. Shall we go and see?
Yours to command, Princess.
Hmm, that’s an improvement in your attitude, she chuckled, buckling the neck saddle with an experienced hand. Inza should be here any second. Says she has some ideas for us to try. She’ll ride second with me.
Good.
Inzashu arrived, wheeling a hand cart that held four oddly shaped metal barrels. Four Rangers helped her fit a temporary harness behind the secondary saddle upon his back. They were not too heavy, but liquid sloshed inside and Thundersong wrinkled his nose as a whiff of the contents escaped.
“What’s that?”
“Magical-chemical bombs,” she grinned.
“Widespread destruction?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Ooh, you are my new favourite Princess.”
“Silence, you wicked turncoat,” said Azania. “Mount up, Miss Usurper. Second seat, in case you’re wondering about your station in life.”
Thundersong pretended to whisper past Azania, “Psst. She’ll be a Queen soon. Then you’ll definitely be my favourite Princess, alright?”
A pair of diminutive boots kicked his neck. “Gee up, horsie!”
“I say, that is quite out of order,” he snorted, fixing Azania with a baleful glare.
“Aye, horses don’t exactly talk back,” she said blithely. “Do spread your wings and do what you do best, Thundersong. The day grows no younger.”
“As you wish, my chattering little neck ornament.”
“Fighting talk,” said she.
A true Dragon let his deeds do the talking. Executing a fast takeoff that snatched the breath from his Princess’ lungs, he set his muzzle to the west, away from the sky turning pink behind his tail. Out there, Juggernaut’s scouts reported disturbances beneath the sand – three parallel tracks of disturbance, in fact. His first sight of the moving mounds suggested Bloodworms. The mounds of dark black sand were fifty feet tall and well over a thousand feet long, burrowing at a Dragon’s walking pace on a direct bearing for N’ginta Citadel.
He murmured, “About your little beasties, Inzashu?”
“Bloodworms, maybe,” she said, scanning the phenomenon intently.
“Very hot Bloodworms then,” he put in.
“Aye, and over twice as long as that one we destroyed before,” Azania said. “Inza –”
The girl said, “Can’t detect any trace of my mother down there. I’ll bet you anything you like this is the war host – some kind of war host. We should go discuss the matter with a few of Everdeep’s bolts. You and I will try to stop one in its tracks, Dragon … ah, Thundersong. Let’s get above it – no, before that, a quick consult with Everdeep.”
After checking in with Everdeep to help his team pinpoint the likely vulnerable locations, they left him hammering the moving sand with those massive quarrels, while he climbed again to about half a mile in height. On the way, Juggernaut dropped by for a briefing about what they had learned. Inzashu fixed fins and a point to one of her bombs. She explained that the idea was for her to drop the load into the Bloodworm’s body from high enough to penetrate the sand and its thick hide. Thundersong would hit it with one of his fireworks at just the right moment – on impact – to hopefully blow the creature sky-high or, at least, blast a hole large enough to stop it in its tracks.
“I don’t think the quarrels are working,” Azania noted.
“Could be armoured; might not be a Bloodworm at all,” Inza snapped. “Sorry. Just … focussed.”
“Line us up, Azania,” Thundersong said.
“Everdeep’s reloading; still no sign of any impact,” the older Princess observed. “Juggernaut’s suggesting a few shots further back.”
Inzashu said, “Good. Ready?”
“Ready!” Dragon and Rider growled as one.
“Bomb overboard!”
Thundersong watched the silver barrel drop away, the fins keeping it on a good track – mostly. Something in the build could not have been right because it veered steadily away from the hidden enemy. At what he judged to be the right moment, he unleashed one of his fireworks. It arced downward, homing in on the barrel as he touched it with his mind. And …
GRRAABOOM!!
“Nice shot. Hope that wakes them up,” Azania said.
A great plume of dark smoke, laced with sapphire blue flames, rose from the impact site. Briefly, they saw segments of a Bloodworm shifting beneath the displaced sand, and perhaps a smear of green ichor, but the damage they had done was insufficient. It continued to press onward.
“Again,” Thundersong said.
“Those fins were poorly designed,” Inzashu said. “I’ll drop this one without. A little lower, please.”
In a minute, their second shot was underway. The Dragon watched with narrowed eyes, counting down his shot. Everdeep, having spent another round of quarrels, appeared to be landing alongside that second beast’s path, along with ten other Sea Dragons, while a heavy force of Tamarine and Isles Dragons lurked above in support. Sonics? Excellent idea. Maybe that would force the beast to surface and they could work out what they were dealing with.
“Let’s show them how it’s done,” he murmured.
Pursing his lips, he fired another brilliant white fireball into the pre-dawn sky. Down, down it shot, somehow seeming to slow in his perception although he knew it must be travelling at a tremendous speed. Inzashu’s mind linked lightly with his as they observed, physically and magically, the intersection of bomb and pure Sea Dragon fire.
Half a second after the barrel vanished into the sand, his firework burrowed in behind.
GRRAABOOM!!
This time, the fountain of flesh was visible even from afar. The creature shuddered and ground to a halt.
“Shot!” Azania shouted.
Thundersong furled his wings. “Let’s go take a look – carefully.”
His stomach lurched up into his throat as the gravitational forces of his quick descent made their effects felt. He eyeballed Aria, the beautiful creature hovering two hundred feet above Everdeep’s back. She raised her paw in a signal. THUD-THUD – THA-BOOM!! Dull detonations reached their ears as the Sea Dragons worked their particular magic.
Suddenly, the sand fountained as the Bloodworm, perhaps reacting by instinct to the threat, surged up to the surface with a cunning sideways roll toward the attack. A wall of sand rushed toward the Sea Dragons, who were caught flat-pawed in surprise.
“No!” Thundersong gasped.
≈MOVE!!≈ Everdeep hustled his team out of harm’s way in the nick of time. They floundered in the fine, flying sand but backed up, somehow evading the rolling wall of flaming Bloodworm flesh as it squirmed over the area where they had stood a moment before, crushing everything bar a set of fast-departing white tails.
Flaming? That was new.
Plus, it wore some kind of metal armour over the vulnerable brain node area, which was why the quarrels had not penetrated deeply enough to do real damage.
Azania cried, “Look! It creates a kind of crusty tunnel in the sand and it’s towing something.”
A very long grey-green – well, it must be a kind of organic pod – could be seen three-quarters buried in the sand behind that Bloodworm. A massively thick hawser anchored it to some harness arrangement apparently bolted into the Bloodworm’s tail. Their own victim must have been dragging something similar but that was wholly buried – only, not for long. Already, he saw movement beneath the sand. Something was shifting, breaking open, the sand pouring away down the sides.
Thundersong frowned. “That substance …”
“It’s the same as what we saw wrapping up that Sea Dragon fledgling!” Azania cried.
“That’s it! Terror Clan magic!” he boomed.
They watched in growing trepidation as a host of feelers and legs broke the surface, digging busily. Dozens of massive insects, beetles and cockroaches in the main, he thought, squirmed to the surface, closely followed by silver-armoured Skartunese warriors. The pod behind Everdeep’s victim split open along its length like a pea pod, revealing an army standing ready in its belly, several thousand strong. The soldiers were mounted upon insects. They saw shiny black millipedes the size of Tamarine Dragons with huge, jagged mandibles projecting from their mouthparts, outsized orange beetles dragging siege weaponry and crimson scorpions, the size of houses, with stingers curved up above their backs.
“What the freak is all that?” Azania hissed.
“Bad news,” said her sister.
With a mighty roar, Juggernaut unleashed his forces. DESTROY THEM ALL!!
Chapter 23: Siege
IT STRUCK THUNDERSONG IN that first second of comprehension, which cramped his gut and electrified his Dragon hearts, that this was nothing like the army which he had expected. Where were the foot soldiers, the static siege weapons and the Dragon thralls?
Then, he realised that an army of insects of that size might just run up and over the walls in three seconds flat. Took any siege out of the equation.
Brutally brilliant, if one looked at it from their perspective.
Gnarr-blergh evil genius! he snarled.
Princess Azania scrambled up onto his neck, manning – silly word; could it rather be ‘womanning’ – the Dragon bow mount. Meantime, Inzashu-N’shula worked through her limited knowledge of beetles, trying to work out what types these might be. As the insect-borne army found their thousands of legs, they skittered away across the sand, racing for N’ginta Citadel in the distance. Thundersong recalled what he had learned about ‘First Mover’ advantage in the Skartunese mindset. What might seem to be a reckless or even suicidal attack in his mindset, was brave and honourable in theirs. Just a difference of viewpoint.
The insects spread out, trying to thin and confuse the pursuit. Juggernaut’s Dragons swooped, the first volley of crossbow quarrels scything in with brutal effectiveness. All those hours of drills. He reckoned that over seventy percent of that first wave struck targets, smashing into the carapaces of beetles and scorpions, stopping them dead in their tracks. Their riders ate desert sand.
The next wave roared through, mostly Tamarine and Isles Dragons who favoured close combat. Suddenly, powerful spouts of white steam shot from a number of the beetles. The Dragons who were hit screamed in pain and slewed or fell immediately.
“Bombardier beetles!” Inzashu cried.
“Steam attack?”
“Chemical heat,” she said, shuddering. “That’s … brutal.”
“Alright, Inza. Stay with us,” Azania urged.
The Dragons were somewhat protected by their scales, but the steam was so hot that he saw a four-foot hole stripped through a Tamarine Dragon’s left wing in seconds. Their Riders fared worse. Juggernaut roared at his team to target the beetles with crossbow bolts, while the Isles Dragonesses hit the millipedes and disabled the scorpions. Everdeep’s massive quarrels skewered enemies like kebab sticks. A single hit was enough to take out any of the giant insects and he had three skilled Rangers on his back, each working a Dragon crossbow.
Azania’s first shot punched into a millipede’s midsection, knocking it over.
Passing just overhead at high speed, Juggernaut thundered, “What the blazes do you two heroes think you’re doing? Go stop that other Bloodworm!”
The Princess muttered something rude, as did her Dragon.
They were just in time to see the famous Juggernaut battle-roll. King N’chala must have been transferred to another Dragon, because his back was bare. Curling up, the Orange Dragon suddenly spun himself sideways on his longitudinal axis and smashed into a group of millipedes with a crunch that echoed across the dunes.
“Ooh!” Inzashu gasped.
“Mashed insect stew,” Azania whistled. “Watch out, here comes the cavalry!”
“More horsey jokes?” Thundersong complained as he surged out of the way of eight Isles Dragonesses shooting diagonally across his flight path. They mowed through what Juggernaut had left, finishing everything in sight – one was Aria, he saw, her kaniaxi blades reaping Skartunese soldiers like wheat.
“What’s not to love about that, eh?” Azania sang out as half a leg whistled past her nose.
Her sister suddenly retched and decorated the sands with aplomb.
“Sonics ahead!” his Rider yelled.
Thundersong reacted instantly, not having seen six scorpions scuttling behind the low brow of a dune ahead, a touch to his right paw. Pursing his lips and stretching out his neck, he built the sound, as the Sea Dragons had taught him in a refinement of his first, instinctual attempts.
III – AMM – DEAATHH!! he bellowed.
The blast of his throat hit them like a windstorm. Plucked off their claws as the wind curled beneath them, the scorpions whipped up into the air, their riders screaming or slumping unconscious over their backs.
“Watch this,” Azania hissed in the same moment, sliding a quarrel into the fray. It punched right through the head of a crimson scorpion, pinning it to the thorax of a second.
“Not bad, but I can do better,” he said, puffing out a stream of hot white fire. “I call this technique ‘toastfully chargrilled.’ ”
“Oh dear,” Azania groaned. “Gives a new meaning to fresh, in-flight Dragon snacks.”
It was Inzashu’s turn to groan.
Leaving the charcoaled remnants of their victims to drop into the sand, they vaulted into the sky, on the hunt for that third Bloodworm. Vanished? Not for long. With the aid of two Songs that Everdeep had dispatched to help, they located the underground disturbance, still headed directly for N’ginta Citadel. It was too deep for Inzashu’s remaining two bombs.
“Let’s sing them aloft,” said the younger Princess, rubbing her hands.
“What do you mean, sister?” Azania asked.
“Who’s got the biggest Thundersong in this desert, I ask you?” she said. Guffaws! “You and I are going to do a big, bad seismic boom – otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll be left feeling like the spare Princess around here.”
He said, “Spare? Aye, there’s an idea.”
Azania stamped her foot on his back. “Murder’s too good for you.”
“Just evaluating my options,” he grinned.
“I am not some random, spare option! Seriously, Dragon, how many times –”
“Will I wind you up?”
“Aargh!”
“Like a spring,” he said, with maximum annoyance factor. “Right, so that’s … Sweetsong and Lovesong, right? Just the ticket. Let’s go sing that Bloodworm a sweet love song, shall we?”
Landing on the hot desert sands beside his two kin, Thundersong observed his dam flying out with a strong force to go see to the wounded farther from the city than their current position. Taking no chances, a strong escort flew alongside, dark shadows steadily gaining texture and definition as a gorgeous desert sunrise of pinks, oranges and reds brightened the horizon behind them.
No time for beauty. He and his kin quickly exchanged notes. The Bloodworm travelled over one hundred feet deep, slowly grinding its way along toward the rock shelf on which the Citadel stood. They assumed it would be forced to surface there. Given the run-around the warrior-carrying insects were still giving Juggernaut’s numerically much smaller force, allowing this army to reach that position – perhaps half a mile from N’ginta – struck them as a poor idea.
