Page 80 of Caress of Fire
A large gray form invaded the sky and landed in the swath of sand between the two armies. On top of the gray dragon was Lord Anion, ready for a battle that would be more a massacre than anything else. The gray beast, smaller and weaker than Nyra by a good measure, lifted his head and shook the fabric of the desert with a deafening roar. His talons dug into the sand and he scratched impatiently, anxious to shed blood and violence.
Lord Anion looked down at Fedryc and his men, an expression of triumph on his face.
Fedryc could feel the fear of his men like a smell in the air. Packed tight behind him, they all stared at the dragon, and each one of them knew just what Fedryc had known even before stepping onto the sand.
They needed Nyra like they needed blood in their veins.
But Nyra was gone, and he still needed these men to fight to the death to save Marielle and the others. With the fear he could practically taste in the air, Fedryc knew the men were close to breaking out in a panic and he couldn’t afford to let that happen.
He turned his back on Lord Anion to face his men.
They looked at him briefly, but their eyes all went back to the gray dragon after a few seconds. They were mesmerized. Most of them had never fought, as Aalstad had been at peace for over a century, and none of them had ever fought a dragon.
“Men of Aalstad.” Fedryc spoke loudly and didn’t have to wait long for their eyes to return to him. “We are not here today to win a fight.”
He paused and more and more men stared at him steadily, their faces closed off, fear brimming in their eyes as their Lord told them exactly what they feared.
“We are here today to give up our lives so that the lives of those we love can go on.” His words traveled over the men, hardening their faces, loosening the grip of fear in their eyes. “Each of you has loved ones he left behind in Aalstad castle. They will be gone now, far away to a safer land. Far from the land of your fathers, far from the graves of your mothers. All because the Order of Evil has come back from its lair in the cesspit of the Night Lands. Fight bravely today so that our allies don’t forget us. So that the order of the Knat-Kanassis is sent back to oblivion once more.”
The men’s faces changed at his words and grunts of approval answered him. His new Captain of the Guard, Captain Brandlo, stepped in front of the line.
“For Lord Haal!” the man shouted, lifting his sword high above his head. “For Aalstad!”
One after the other, the men shouted, repeating the rallying cry for battle. Hearing his men filled him with pride and Fedryc turned around to face his enemies.
Lord Anion atop his gray beast stared down at Fedryc with a grim face. His sensitive Draekon hearing meant he’d heard Fedryc speak and he heard the men behind answer to his call. Lord Anion’s eyes were full of anger and hate and behind him, the rows of Knat-Kanassis soldiers stayed unmoving, silent as ghosts.
“To battle!” Fedryc roared, his dragon-forged sword held high.
Lord Anion’s dragon roared in answer, fire spewing from his open mouth and into the sky, readying for the charge.
Then the sky unleashed a fury of red scales and a hiss resonated against the fabric of Fedryc’s very soul. Nyra landed in the sand between Lord Anion’s dragon and Fedryc, and a rain of fire flew from her mouth in warning as her sapphire eyes locked with the red, angry eyes of the gray dragon.
“Nyra!” Fedryc shouted her name and it was echoed a thousand fold behind him as his men shouted and hooted, relief mixing with a fierce taste for blood as they understood they had a fighting chance now that Nyra was back.
A split second of pure bliss invaded Fedryc’s mind as Marielle’s face shot in front of his eyes. With Nyra back, he would hold her again.
And he would destroy Lord Anion and the Knat-Kanassis once and for all.
The red dragoness was as savage and bloodthirsty as any male, larger and more powerful than the gray dragon as she faced him dead on, her wings open in pure challenge. The gray dragon puffed out his chest then opened his wings in response but stayed put.
Fedryc ran.
He ran for his bond like he’d never run in his life. As he ran for Nyra, the gray dragon bent his head, then Lord Anion screamed, sounding the attack. The gray dragon charged, running straight for Nyra, his mouth gaping, white fangs at the ready. Behind the gray dragon, the army of hooded figures moved in a single, synchronized movement, silent as death as they ran.
Behind Fedryc, his men shouted, their war cries as fierce and deafening as the Knat-Kanassis army’s silence.
After a few hundred yards, Fedryc understood that he wasn’t going to reach Nyra in time. He locked gazes with Nyra’s jewel eyes, then the dragoness lifted her gaze to the sky. The dragoness extended her neck, lifting her mouth high, then a high-pitched whine made her throat vibrate under the fading light.
Fedryc kept running. He was but a hundred yards from her now and his entire body screamed for the contact with the dragoness, for the bond that sustained both their lives.
A wail answered Nyra’s call; deeper, richer than her female cry. The army of hooded figures in front of him stopped running, slowing their pace to a jog, then a walk, then stood still altogether. The gray dragon stopped dead in his tracks.
Behind him, Fedryc’s army went silent and the sound of their feet stopped.
A wide shadow covered the desert sand and terror spread throughout the bodies of the hooded men, running across their shoulders and their legs in taut lines of tension.
The brown dragon landed beside Nyra, and Fedryc almost dropped at the shock. He stood, as still as the rest of them, staring at the feral, his body dwarfing even Nyra’s. The brown roared into the sky, opening his wings wide, showing all around that he was the superior beast.
