Page 49 of Kingdom of Darkness and Dragons
"Unnatural, those shadows," I heard one of them mutter to his flight partner. "Look how they shift when there's no wind to move them."
"Heard tell the Talfen can make darkness itself into weapons," another replied, his voice barely audible over the sound of beating wings. "Turn a man's own shadow against him."
I considered reprimanding them for spreading rumours that would only increase the formation's unease, but the truth was that I'd been watching those shadows myself. They seemed to writhe and flow with a life of their own, pooling in places where no pool should exist, reaching across clearings with tendrils that looked disturbingly deliberate.
They were moving with a deliberate, predatory grace, coalescing into shapes that were too solid, too defined. They stretched and writhed, tendrils of pure darkness reaching up from the forest floor like grasping arms. Imperia shuddered beneath me, a low growl of distress rumbling in her chest. A wave of cold washed over my skin, a primal dread that had nothing to do with the evening chill.
"Quiet in the ranks," I commanded, my voice sharper than I intended. "Fear is a worse enemy than any Talfen trickery."
Focus on the mission,I told myself firmly.Get these supplies back to the main force. Everything else is speculation and superstition.
But even as I tried to dismiss my growing unease, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. That somewhere in the darkness between the trees, eyes were tracking our flight path, counting our numbers, reporting our position to unseen commanders.
We'd been flying for perhaps three hours when the first messenger dragon appeared on the horizon, its rider pushing his mount to dangerous speeds as he raced toward our formation. The sight of a courier flying alone through hostile territory with such reckless urgency sent ice through my veins.
"Signal from the main force!" the messenger called out as he closed the distance between us. "General Cassius requires immediate assistance!"
I signalled for the formation to hold position while the courier pulled alongside, his dragon's sides heaving with exhaustion. The young rider's face was pale with more than just fatigue, and he was shaking.
"Report!" I snapped, my voice cutting through the wind. "What's happened?"
The courier swallowed hard, his eyes wide with a terror that went beyond battle-shock. "The main force... it's under attack.Talfen and dragons, sir, but that’s not all. The shadows... the gods, the shadows are alive!"
His words sent a fresh wave of fear through my wing. I saw riders exchange panicked glances, their knuckles white on their reins. "Explain," I commanded, keeping my own voice steady through sheer force of will.
“They just... rose up from the ground," the rider stammered, his words tumbling over one another. "Tendrils of darkness, pulling men from their saddles, twisting their armour like it was wet cloth. They're everywhere and nowhere at once. The legions are breaking, sir. Men are screaming, fighting things they can't see, killing each other in the confusion. General Cassius sent me to bring you in. He needs every rider, every dragon.”
Every instinct screamed at me to turn, to fly in the opposite direction and take my small, green command with me. To take Livia somewhere safe. But I could see the General's strategy with sickening clarity: he was throwing bodies at the problem, hoping sheer numbers could overwhelm an enemy he didn’t understand. My wing was just more fodder for the grinder.
My gaze met Livia’s across the formation. There was no fear in her eyes, only a grim, burning certainty. She knew what this was. She was ready. And in that moment, I hated her for it, because her courage made my own agonizing indecision feel like cowardice.
“Wing Commander?” my lieutenant asked, his voice strained.
I looked at the terrified faces of my men, then back at the messenger. My father’s threat echoed in my mind—the lives of thousands held hostage against my obedience. I had no choice. I never had.
“We answer the summons,” I commanded, my voice a dead thing. “Formation, advance at speed. For the Empire.”
The flight to the valley was a nightmare of growing dread and darkening skies. Below us, the forest seemed to pulse withmalevolent life, shadows moving in patterns that suggested intelligence and purpose. Our dragons grew increasingly agitated the closer we came to our destination, their flight patterns becoming erratic despite their riders' best efforts to maintain formation.
By the time we reached the army, full darkness had fallen, and what we saw below defied every assumption I'd made about warfare. Lit by dragon fire, the wide valley before us looked like Inferi on earth. Probably believing the valley would lead them through the mountains, Cassius had clearly pressed forward under attack, meaning to turn and make a stand, but geography had not been on his side, and the Talfen trap had been sprung perfectly. What had appeared to be a long valley, was in fact a basin, surrounded on three sides by sharp jagged mountains. Probably a sight of great natural beauty before tonight, the valley was now a cauldron of violence and supernatural terror. Cassius's army was pinned against the valley's back wall, their formations broken and scattered by attacks that seemed to come from the darkness itself. I could see the shapes of Talfen warriors moving like ghosts through the chaos, striking hard and fast before melting back into shadows that shouldn't have been able to conceal anything, and everywhere, wheeling and diving through the valley like hunting hawks, were free dragons. Dozens of them, their movements fluid and unpredictable compared to the rigid patterns of our collared mounts. They struck without warning, breathing fire into packed formations before climbing beyond the reach of any response. Great flares of dragon fire lit up the battlefield accompanied by screams of horror and pain.
I watched one of our enslaved dragons try to engage a Talfen mount, only to be outmanoeuvred so completely it was almost embarrassing. The free dragon moved like liquid fire, everymotion precise and purposeful, while our beast could only follow the limited tactical patterns programmed into its collar.
"Sir," one of my riders called out, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. "Orders?"
I stared down at the carnage below, my mind struggling to process the scope of the disaster. This wasn't a battle—it was a systematic slaughter carried out by an enemy that wielded powers I'd thought were myth and legend.
The smart thing would be to turn around, fly back to the capital, and report that the expedition was lost. Eleven dragons wouldn't make a difference in that hell below—we'd just be adding to the casualty count.
But as I watched Imperial soldiers fighting desperately against impossible odds, I realized I couldn't abandon them. These were men I'd served with, trained with, sworn oaths alongside. Whatever was happening in that valley, whatever dark magic the Talfen had brought to bear, I couldn't simply fly away and leave our people to die.
But the dragons were only part of the nightmare. The true horror was happening on the ground. I saw them now with my own eyes—the living shadows. They coiled from the earth, amorphous and blacker than any natural night. A tendril of pure void wrapped around a legionary's legs, dragging him screaming into a darkness that swallowed him whole. I saw another shadow solidify into a blade of obsidian nothingness, cleaving through an Imperial shield as if it were parchment. This wasn't war. This was an exorcism, and we were the demons being cast out.
A horn blast cut through the din, followed by a series of coded flashes from Cassius’s command post. The order was relayed by a frantic signalman. “North Wing! Engage the Talfen dragons over the western ridge! Break their aerial assault! Create an opening for the Seventh Legion!”
A suicide run. He was ordering my green recruits to punch a hole through a flight of veteran, free-thinking dragons, a tactic meant to draw their fire and create a diversion. He was sacrificing my wing.
I looked at the terrified faces of my riders, warriors who had been singing songs of glory just that morning. Then my eyes found Livia. She was watching me, her expression unreadable, her hand resting near the hilt of her sword. She was ready to die for a cause I was being forced to fight against.
