Page 179 of Of Blood and Banes
Ten.
I roar as I swing my sword up into the closest man’s chest, funneling all my anger from Darian’s betrayal behind my swing and surprising even myself when my blow slams into his ribs and knocks the man sideways. I pull my sword back just in time to block a new attack from a woman, and I spin our connected blades until I direct hers away from me.
Another soldier creeps behind the woman to attack me from the side, but Daeja springs forward and swats them twenty feet to the side. Striking like a snake, she lunges forward and seizes my female attacker in her daggered jaws, clamping down on her body until it splits with a crunch and explosion of blood before she tosses the limp body aside.
“Thank you—”I pause as a group of men and women charge for Daeja, their swords and spears raised.
“Go!”I grunt and smack her hind leg.
“I’m not leaving you.”
There’s no time to argue. I race to her side as she lowers herself to the ground, and I grab hold of one stirrup and swing myself up onto her back. As I settle into the saddle, she begins to gallop forward, and I cling to the horns while squeezing my legs around her to keep me upright. The saddle belt dangles to my right, slamming against her side with each stride, and too far below for me to try and fish it up now.
Daeja roars, and pain spiders throughout my nervous system. I spin to Daeja’s rear and find a man holding on to one half of a sword, the other half embedded into her thick, muscular tail.
“Swing him toward me!”I cry.“I’ll make him fucking pay!”
She slows her pace and turns inward to whip her tail toward me. The man’s eyes widen in fear as he realizes how fucked he is the closer he swings toward me, and yet he still can’t seem to pry his fingers off the blade. But before he can talk some sense into himself, I push up through the stirrups and rise off the saddle to slash through his forearms.
He screams and falls to his demise as I face back forward in my seat, Daeja launching up into the sky. I press myself down into the saddle until she levels out.
“That fucker. Are you okay?”
“Yes…it hurts?—”
“Get us down and I can take it out.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“It’s hurting you, and I can feel it. Get your ass down now!”
She growls but dips low, the wind ripping my eyes open and keeping me from blinking until she lands with a force that whips me forward then back.
Spinning in the saddle, I crawl to my feet and run down her spine toward her rear.“Raise your tail!”
She lifts it, creating a nearly horizontal path to the blade gleaming at the end of her tail. As I race down her tail, I skid and almost slide off as it thins. I drop down and crawl forward until I get to the blade.“This is going to hurt?—”
She roars as I rip it clean out of her tail, drawing a string of her blood almost dark enough to be black. I toss the sword to the side.
“Hop off!”she commands with an urgency that spikes my heart rate.
I jump and roll sideways on the ground to avoid her heavy, clawed feet as she whirls her body toward me. Her tail swings out away from me and sideswipes into three soldiers racing toward us, knocking them over like they’re made of straw. She continues her circle to face them head on with a mighty roar that trembles the ground beneath me.
I jump to my feet as her head plunges down again and again, each time pulling up with more splattered blood and flesh. Lunging for the stirrups, I pull myself into the saddle to find a horde of soldiers racing toward us.
“Fly, Daeja! Get off the ground, more are coming!”
She whips away from the incoming group and gallops until she pulls us up into the air again. As I toss a glance behind my back to make sure none have snuck onto her tail, my body rolls with each wingbeat. She careens down back toward the battle, and I brace my weight as we’ve always practiced. Though, it’s the first time without wearing a belt. This high up and without it, my breath quickens for an entirely different reason as I scan the battle below. Fear creeps up my throat as I search the sea of bodies for all the people on our side. The citizens of Nightfort must have come to our aid, considering how many people now fight back.
A glimmer of red near the northwestern edge catches my attention, and my hope picks up a breath in my chest when I recognize A’nala with Sethan, the other dragon riders at their side. A’nala roars and blasts a shot of fire at a swarm of soldiers with blades glowing in a ghastly blue.
Fuck. That’s not good.
“We have to get back down there! We can’t let them defend themselves on their own! They have dragonblades!”
“A’nala says we have to stay back!”
“I don’t give a fuck what A’nala says! She and Sethan do not command us!”
