But, as Ymmen turned back towards the rising evening, the last rays of the setting sun had created a line of glowing crimson clouds along the limit of the horizon, above which hovered the moon, as red as a droplet of blood. The Daza have a tradition when the moon is caught like that: it means that blood is on the way.
Chapter 3
Attacked!
It took us another few watches of the night, by my reckoning of the way that the stars wheeled and moved around us – for the moon’s premonition to prove true.
“Smoke, and fire!” Ymmen whisper-hissed into my mind, startling me out of an uneasy slumber. “Our friends – they are under attack!”
“What!?” I shook my head, peering into the umbral darks of the Plains – and instantly, I could see the distant torment: a dim and ruddy glow of fires, far, far ahead of us.
“Please, my heart—” The words caught in my throat, and in the same moment, there was a mighty snap as Ymmen whipped his wings faster and stronger than he had even done before against the Ingwari arrows. The sound was like the boom of thunder, and suddenly we were moving ahead faster and faster as I felt Ymmen’s powerful muscles bunch and pull, and his wings rise and fall to either side of me.
The ruddy glow grew bigger in my eyes, and with it, I could hear the distant shouts and cries of our friends. It was the mechanical dragons; I knew it. Our ragtag army had managed to cross the shifting Sands and were on the edge of Ingwari lands, where the land would be greener. But the flames that I saw weren’t the fires of huts or structures, but were patches of odd, still-burning shapes, like pools.
The mechanical dragons set up fires like that; I remembered the first few ‘experiments’ that Inyene had terrorized us slaves and workers with. Their fire wasn’t like real dragon fire, which was ferociously hot and yet tinged with the scent of frankincense. The fire of the mechanical dragons was almost like a burning liquid, made from poisonous oils that Inyene’s craftspeople had injected their unholy creations with. Abioye? Tamin? I thought in alarm as my eyes saw the scattered groups and knots of people around the fires – most were running, although I could also see several groups attempting to make a stand. I figured that they were the remnants of the Red Hound mercenaries that had joined with us – they were attempting to form lines, kneeling and standing as they lifted their blocky crossbows towards the night skies…
“Where are they? Where are the dragons?” I was calling, trying to rise as high as I dared in my seat, scanning the starlit skies for the sight of stolen scales and steel talons. But I couldn’t see them. But they had to be there, didn’t they—?
“Hssss!” Something moved over the darker lands beyond the fire. The burning light caught mismatched scales and girders of a gleaming gold bronze or copper.
And eyes. The cold, glowing blue eyes of one of Inyene’s abominations, turning in a devastatingly fast strike back towards the ragtag army.
“Look out!” I couldn’t help but shout as my anger and fear joined horribly in my gut, making me feel sick. I knew that the distant people – my friends – couldn’t hear me, but I shouted all the same.
The mechanical dragon flew with a steady hissing noise, like a hearthside pot bubbling over. They were quieter than the other mechanical dragons that I had seen, and fought. I figured darkly that Inyene must be perfecting her designs.
The mechanical dragon also flew with greater skill than the previously awkward, clacking machines that I had seen before. This one drew it’s wings a little closer to itself as it formed a lightning-wedge of metal and scale, arcing down to where the valiant Red Hound mercenaries raised their crossbows.
Useless! I thought in alarm, fear, and frustration. No crossbow would be able to bring one of these monsters down! My head was starting to throb once more with the return of the burning, uncomfortable headache that had made me think I was ill just the previous morning.
I could do nothing but watch as the glowing and cold blue light of the mechanical dragon’s eyes flared brighter, and I saw the ruddy orange light set up in the thing’s solid metal maw. The thing was summoning its oil-flames—
“SKRARGH!” Then suddenly, Ymmen bellowed his challenge as we flew faster and faster. I felt the kick of muscles as the black dragon’s throat swell just before he released his own flame in a boiling lance of red and orange—
The mechanical dragon was opening its maw, with gobbets of the liquid fire-stuff starting to fall behind it, tumbling in the air before splattering on the ground and bursting into more flames—
But Ymmen had primed and directed his attack well. I watched with my head ringing with pain and my heart in my mouth as Ymmen’s comet of fire raced towards the similarly swooping metal beast. Ymmen’s angry flame met the beast’s own, in the meters after it had emerged from the things mouth—
PHA-BOOOM! The resulting inferno was tremendous, like the birth of a new sun in the sky as the two dragon flames met and mixed. Ymmen’s fire had ignited the burning oils of his enemy, and the fireball lit up the terrified faces of the Red Hound mercenaries below, just before they broke and scattered, running for their lives.
The metal dragon still lived – or functioned, I corrected miserably – as the dragon beneath me flicked his wing tips to send us soaring higher and higher over the evaporating ball of flame. I saw the shadow of the mechanical abomination tumble erratically out of the other side of the fireball – but it was injured, and badly.
Ymmen had to power his wings faster to avoid the fireball, and was turning around high in the skies to track his enemy. Far behind and below us, I could see the metal dragon suddenly dropping towards the ground – thankfully far away from our people. One of its wings appeared to be terribly bent and burning, and it’s head, neck, and chest appeared to be throwing smoke as it burned inside as well as out.
There was another flash from the ground – and my teeth immediately ached with a tense feeling as I recognized the effect of Montfre’s magic. I couldn’t see the young man who was my friend, and who had saved mine and Abioye’s life on many occasions. However, I could see the bolt of blue-white energy dart towards the falling dragon and explode in a shower of sparks against the thing’s hide as it crash-landed.
“Yes!” I shouted out, my savage joy momentarily making me forget my thundering headache and the pain growing behind my eyes.
The metal dragon hit the ground with a booming thud that sounded like a hundred trees all falling in a hurricane, all at once. I could see more of the things acrid orange flames burst from the thing’s body as it tumbled, stumbled, before finally falling to a heap.
Thank the stars, I whispered as Ymmen swept low over the Plains, bellowing his challenge as he, too, was caught up in the victory.
“Hsss!” But then I saw something start to stir amidst the orange oil-flames. The mechanical dragon was trying to right itself on broken legs. It stumbled and crashed to one side, but I saw it smash one steel foot down for another attempt.
The horror of these things shook me. By the light of its own fires, I could see just how terribly damaged the beast was – its neck was now ruptured open, and there was the gleam of brass-colored supports amidst the puffs and billows of smoke.