A Dragon Born (31 page)

"I have heard of such a thing. It is called death magic," Margo said. "There are many forms of it, but it is one of the things we Rangers keep watch for."

"I have heard of it as well," Keira said, "but we do not understand such magic in Elvanar. It makes little sense to those of the forest."

""I am not a mage," Margo said, "but I have heard this magic involves controlling or stealing the essence of another, usually by force. There are old stories from ages past of dead soldiers being controlled by mages using this kind of power. It was thought lost to the ages, but apparently that secret has been uncovered."

"Could this be the power of this priesthood?" Elric asked. "We do not have many mages in Kandara, but I have heard stories that these mage priests now worship Cerric as a god."

"I am sure my uncle Cerric and his mage, Dakar, are behind this," Ariana told him. "The priesthood have shown themselves to have betrayed the traditional neutrality of mages by openly attacked Kandara. I expect they will work other magics so we must stay on our guard." She looked to the dead soldiers who were struggling to free themselves from the vines and one of them had almost managed to scramble all the way through. "They will eventually break free."

"If you can separate their heads from their shoulders, they will fall," Margo said as she walked over to the nest of vines and swung her blade, taking the soldier's head off in one flash of steel.

In the dim light of the city, Ariana saw the soldier's head fall upon the ground in a pool of blood and she looked into the milky, dead eyes that stared up at her, hating what her uncle had done. These were her people, the people of her kingdome, loyal soldiers of Maramyr, who were lied to and then turned into some kind of dead slaves by the foul magic of the priesthood. As distasteful as it was, there was nothing she could do but to defend the people of Kandara and hope the soldiers who remained loyal to her, would survive the battle outside the walls.

*****

Boric slammed his axe into another catapult as it fired and, instead of lobbing the ensorceled soldiers over the city wall, it sent several handfuls of them flying toward the trenches. The Duke worried for a moment about Nathas and the other soldiers but he figured it was better that Cerric's slave soldiers find their way to the trenches than make it over the city walls. After having seen a number of them get up and keep fighting after taking wounds that should have killed them, he suspected that the defenders inside the city would have their hands full.

A volley from the catapults atop the walls took out another one of Cerric's catapults and that left only a handful more to deal with, as the Elves had attacked the siege engines from both sides of the field. Boric swung his axe in wide arcs, clearing a path toward the next catapult when he heard a loud thundering sound from nearby. Seemingly from out of nowhere, something hit him in the side and sent him flying toward the trenches and knocking him to the ground. His armor was bent badly and his ribs felt as though they had been kicked by a horse. Boric rolled over on the ground and a heavy, iron ball dislodged itself from his side where it had stuck in his armor. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning on his axe, which was still firmly gripped in his hand and he stared at the round chunk of metal, then he sniffed the air and realized what it was.

He heard another crack of thunder and immediately leapt from the place he had been standing. The air whistled as another iron ball whipped by, smashing into the ground just in front of the trenches. Boric looked into the mass of soldiers advancing toward him and he saw them behind a puff of smoke. They were metal cylinders on heavy wooden wheels, cannons. It seemed Cerric had gotten his hands on the weapons of the people of the sea.

Another crack of thunder sounded and Boric leapt again, avoiding another of the heavy iron balls. He glanced up the battlefield and it looked as though the elves were taking care of the remaining catapults so Boric decided it would be best to stop these cannons before they could do any more damage, to him or the thousands of soldiers who were less armored than he. Boric dodged another shot from a cannon and was about to charge into the enemy ranks when he heard another, quieter sound from a different direction. He caught a glimpse of something streaking toward him and tried to jump out of the way but he was too late.

A long, iron spike punched through his armor and caught him in the side, just below his ribs. He looked down and saw that it was attached to a heavy chain, which led a short distance through the sea of soldiers to three Darga, who held a kind of oversized crossbow. Standing next to them was the half-Darga brat, Draxis, who had picked up the chain and was now gathering it toward him. Boric looked down at the spike and found that it had only caught part of him on his left side, just below his ribs and had, luckily, missed his innards, but when he tried to pull it out, he found that it would not budge. He looked over his shoulder at the place where the spike had exited his back and saw that it had short prongs just before the end of its tip. The chain tightened as Draxis pulled it, now helped by his Darga, and Boric felt himself being yanked forward as more Darga ran toward him. He bellowed from pain as the thick iron spike moved around and the sharp prongs dug into his back where it had knocked his armor away.

Boric ran forward toward the Darga faster than Draxis could tighten the chain. He scooped the chain from the ground with his axe and grabbed it with his other hand then pulled the chain forward with all his might, nearly yanking the arms off Draxis and his Darga helpers. Boric threw the chain to the ground then, ignoring the screaming pain in his side, he smashed at the metal with his giant axe, splitting the chain in two. The Darga were closing in fast and Boric spun around as they leapt on him, then he dove for the ground, landing flat on his chest. A Darga screamed as the metal spike pushed through, protruding from Boric's back and punched the lizard man in the chest, impaling him completely.

Boric scrambled to his feet and ran forward, grimacing in pain as the chain slid through the hole in his side, but a moment later he was free and he turned to face the oncoming Darga. Another crack of thunder sounded from nearby and Boric tried to leap out of the way, but his left side was beginning to respond slowly and he felt the vision in his left eye beginning to blur as another iron ball hit him square in the shoulder. The impact nearly made him drop his axe, but he hung onto it and Boric staggered forward toward the Darga, swinging his axe at them through the pain. The giant axe split two Darga clean through the middle and knocked several more aside, clearing a path toward Draxis, who smiled cruelly as he stalked toward the injured duke.

"You move a little slower now, Duke Boric," Draxis jeered. "You cannot run away from me this time."

"I have no intention of running away from a whelp like you," Boric said, swinging his axe at him. "I take it you poisoned that spike of yours."

"You can feel it, yes?" Draxis asked as Boric swiped his axe at several more Darga who got too close.

"It itches a little," Boric lied.

He could barely see out of his left eye now and the vision in his right eye had become a little blurry and Boric wondered how badly he might be bleeding from the hole Draxis' little toy had punched in him. His entire left side was numb and he had little control over his arm or leg, though they seemed to still move. At least he could not feel the pain in his left side, though his right shoulder still hurt from the cannonball.

"I wonder if I should kill you myself, or if I should let my Darga finish the job," Draxis said. "It might not be much of a challenge to fight you now."

"You are getting a little ahead of yourself, boy," Boric said and he reached deep into the primal power that lived within him and bellowed flame at Draxis and the Darga. They had seen his trick before and were ready for it this time, having left themselves room to maneuver and jumping out of the way before the flames could touch them. Draxis laughed.

"I heard stories from the mages of how Kandara has never fallen because of the mighty House of Akandra and they monsters they commanded. It appears the stories were mostly lies meant to scare Xallan children at night, but I never thought that the monsters would be the Akandar themselves. You put on airs and call yourself nobles, but you are no different from me or these Darga warriors."

"I think you'll find there are a lot of differences between the Akandar and the Darga," Boric said then he bellowed more fire at them. He noticed that when he used his fire, the effects of the poison began to recede, which made sense, for his body's ability to repair its wounds had always been accelerated when he touched the flames that lived deep within him. It helped that Draxis wanted to talk to him, for every moment that passed, Boric began to feel stronger again. "And yet, you call yourself a Prince? Would that not be called putting on airs, as you say?"

"It is a title from my mother, the Xallan Queen. It is meaningless. The only titles that matter are those that are won in battle. I fought the leaders of the Darga tribes and killed them, making me their leader. I will fight the leaders of Kandara and kill them too, and take whatever titles they had. Those will mean something, but first I will discover the secrets you keep, the things that have been stolen from the Darga. I know that we once lived in these lands, that the Darga were stripped of their power then banished from the mountains. These stories are still told among the Darga, and they have waited many generations to return to their home and regain their glory."

"And do you know why the Darga were banished?" Boric asked, hoping he could keep Draxis talking a little more.

"I do not know, nor do I care. No crime is great enough to be banished for so long. What I want is what is mine, what is ours," he looked to the Darga that stood at his side and they hissed and growled in agreement.

"I'll tell you what the Darga did," Boric said, slowly taking in extra air between breaths as he decided to share a little bit of history he had recently uncovered. "The leader of the Darga, the great warrior Darga, killed his own queen. Looking at how many Darga now dirty the land, we should have put the entire clan to death. We showed mercy to the Darga clan and this is how you repay us."

"Lies," hissed one of the Darga. "We know the truth. You stole our power and drive us from our homes."

"No, we executed your leader, your greatest warrior, for the crime of stupidity, and we banished those who were part of his crime," Boric told him.

"It does not matter, Boric," Draxis said. "The Darga have returned and we will take Kandara and we will claim what is ours."

Boric had filled himself with as much air as he could manage and he felt the fire raging inside him, deep in his belly.

"You will have to go through me first," he bellowed then blasted liquid fire at them that splashed and sprayed over the Darga.

Draxis leapt back, out of the way as the acid fire scorched the Darga that had been surrounding the duke. He landed a safe distance away and laughed.

"You scoff at my use of poison, yet you spit acid at me," Draxis yelled, raising his hand. "I would say we are evenly matched." He dropped his hand and a series of cannon blasts thundered from all directions.

Boric leapt straight into the air and the cannonballs missed him, but he heard the sound of another iron bolt being fired and, hanging in the air, there was nothing he cold do to move. The bolt caught him through the leg, and the chain went taut, yanking him back to the ground, where he landed with a crash. Boric struggled to his feet, but the spike in his leg has split the bone and the chain was being yanked and pulled. The Darga leapt on him now, latching onto his arms with their teeth and claws, preventing him from moving and he felt sharp pains stabbing through his body. His arms, his legs, his wrists were punctured with large hooks attached to heavy iron chains and a moment later, Boric felt himself being pushed to his feet. Several Darga began yanking at the axe, trying to pry it from his grip.

"Leave it," Draxis said and the Darga moved away from the duke. "His leg is broken and he will need it so he can stand." Draxis turned to one of his Darga. "Give the signal."

The Darga put a horn to his thin, reptilian lips then blew a signal and, apart from a few skirmishes, the army stopped moving almost all at once.

*****

"It sounds like your son has achieved his goal," Cerric said,

He turned to Calexis, who sat next to him on one of the two large thrones that had been placed atop a large platform that the soldiers had built. It had been Cerric's idea that they should create a comfortable vantage point from which he and his queen could observe the battle, like a traveling throne room. From the expression on her face, Cerric could tell that Calexis was pleased.

"I should like to see this monster he has caught," she said.

Calexis had been shocked at how powerful Cerric had become and she wondered if she had yet seen the measure of his true power, but instead of fearing him like Mirdel, Berant and the mages, she lusted for such power even more. The king she had humored with a political marriage had turned into the embodiment of everything she desired. The only problem was, she wanted to be as powerful as he, and if an ineffectual coward like Cerric could gain such power, then it was possible that she, who was far more deserving, might do so as well. Calexis was particularly curious about these Akandar and what Boric had said to Draxis about how he and the Darga would never have such power as the rulers of Kandara enjoyed. It was an interesting claim, but when Draxis had told her of the Duke's boast, something about it rang hollow. If power could be taken away, it could also be granted, and she was determined to find out how such a thing might be possible. For now, it would be satisfying to meet this arrogant Kandaran Duke, who thought he could challenge her son and live.