Authors: Andy Holland
Crystal shrugged indifferently and followed after them with Daisy trailing behind, looking thoroughly miserable.
"John's back," Jenna announced as she entered the classroom with Crystal. "He looks a real mess."
John, like Daniel, hadn't been seen for the rest of the previous week. Daisy had been to see the Keeper to see if he was alright, but had just been told rather curtly that John was recuperating away from Furnace and he wasn't sure when he'd be back. No one else had seen him at all. His face was still covered in bruises, and he had a couple of plasters covering some cuts. He held himself stiffly, turning awkwardly to answer questions from Daisy.
"He doesn't look great," Crystal agreed. "I'd have thought he'd have recovered more than that by now. Daniel took it much too far."
"That's an understatement! If his father wasn't who he was, he'd have been expelled. I've heard he's going to be coming back to school though. Do you know if that's true?"
Crystal shrugged. "Don't know or care. Daisy's right about him. Not that I'd tell her that."
Jenna shrugged. "Plenty of other options. Who is next? Seth or Jerome?"
"Jenna! Neither! Not now, anyway. I didn't realise this, but my father and Daniel's father hate each other. It could never have worked, and from what my mother told me, I wouldn't have wanted it to. Apparently there was a nasty incident involving Daniel and one of his maids last year. It was meant to be hushed up but the maid was from Black Rock so my father found out about it."
"What happened?" Jenna asked.
"My mother wouldn't tell me all of the details, but apparently she hasn't walked since. Sounds like he beat her for some minor misdemeanour and she fell and injured her back. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him."
Jenna shrugged. "Sounds like it was just an accident. She's just a maid, after all. He'd never touch someone like you."
Crystal shook her head, remembering the way that her mother had described the incident. "He's not to be trusted. No, I'm not rushing into anything again."
Jenna shrugged again, clearly indifferent to the story. "Do your research properly next time then. Ask your father if he knows anything about either of their families. When is Uncle Robert next in town?"
"Tomorrow night," Crystal replied. "He's in town to perform city guard duty."
"City guard duty? Why would he do that? He's a Commander, and of the South, not Furnace. That's a bit below him, surely."
Crystal sighed. "It's symbolic. A show of unity. Both the Southern and Northern commanders do it, to show their loyalty to the King. The Lords in the South and the North were never as keen on separate principalities as the East and West, and they've had this tradition for years now. It's just one day a year. All they do is fly around over the city for a few hours."
Jenna shrugged. "Seems pointless to me. Still, at least you'll have your father visiting for a couple of nights. Bet Auntie must be pleased."
"As am I," Crystal replied indignantly. "Come over to say hello, if you like. He always likes seeing you."
"Of course he does," Jenna replied. "I'm lovely."
"Settle down, class," Professor Silver said wearily as he entered the room, pointedly avoiding looking at John. "Bring your homework to the front…"
John's face had improved a little by the following day, but he still seemed quieter than normal in lessons, clearly finding it uncomfortable to talk. He completely ignored Crystal in the morning, looking through her as if she wasn't there, and Crystal wondered if he suspected that the fight with Daniel had anything to do with her. Daniel returned that day, and the two of them completely ignored each other. Daniel was polite but formal to Crystal, clearly understanding that their short relationship was over without having to be told, something of a relief to her. However, if John had held a grudge against her it was quickly forgotten, as he tried to engage her in conversation at lunch. His painful efforts at talking were so pathetic that Crystal didn't have the heart to cut him down in her normal fashion, and just made a weak excuse at having to be somewhere else.
On the third day of the week, just when she thought life had settled back into relative normality, their lives were disrupted in a way none of them had thought possible. It was during their economics lesson, a particularly dull class, and one that no one would never expect anything interesting to happen in, that the alarm was sounded. The economics professor was droning on about agriculture in the south west at the time, and its vital importance to the rest of the Kingdom, when the deep ring of the city alarm bell sounded. A few seconds later, it sounded again, and then a third ring.
"Is that a fire alarm?" Daisy asked the professor. "Should we be going outside?" It always struck Crystal as ironic that as humans they could be killed by fire, when as dragons they were almost completely fireproof. Sadly, that protection was useless at night.
"No, that's not a fire alarm," the professor replied thoughtfully. "It's um, it's—"
"We're under attack!" Jenna shrieked. "That's the attack warning!" The classroom burst into pandemonium as everyone stood up and started talking.
"Be quiet!" shouted the professor, silencing the class. "It's probably another drill. There's nothing to be alarmed about."
"No, sir," Arthur told him. "The drill has a different sound. This is a real attack."
"Are you sure, your highness?" he asked him. "There's never been an attack here before."
Crystal wondered why they would have different sounds for a drill, as surely that would mean that no one would take the drill seriously, but then again, in Furnace they probably never considered an attack something that was likely to happen. Then she heard a sound that snapped her from her thoughts and answered the Professor's question. Outside, and far above the city, the blood curdling screams of the Blue Dragons were heard. With a few exceptions, this was the first time the students had ever heard a Blue Dragon and the class immediately fell silent, and fear was reflected on the faces of all of their faces.
The professor looked around and pulled himself together, knowing that he would have to lead the students. "Right now, you've practiced the drill. This building is connected to an entrance to the city tunnels. We'll be quite safe. The school guard will be watching from the top of the towers and will defend us if any Blues get too close. Form a single file and walk, not run, to the assembly point. Move away from the windows. Quickly now."
The class looked around uneasily and slowly moved towards the door, unsure of what to do. Fire drills were quite routine. When they rehearsed the attack drill, they had treated it with the same casual manner, but a real attack was something quite different. "It'll just be a raid," Seth said nervously. "They might kill one of the city guards, but the attackers will all be wiped out. These happen frequently in other cities, especially Obud and Black Rock. Right, John?" Despite his unpopularity, John was still seen as an expert on all things. He nodded in agreement.
Crystal's face suddenly drained of all colour. "Oh no! My father! He's on guard duty today. Today of all days!"
The other students looked at her blankly. Only Jenna knew about her father's visit.
"Umm, I'm sure he'll be alright," Jenna replied, sounding anything other than sure.
"No he won't," Crystal retorted, looking as if she was going to cry. "You know him; he'll attack them even if he's outnumbered. He'll be killed!"
"Look, there's nothing we can do," Seth said. "He'd want you to get to safety. We should get out of here."
"I have to do something," Crystal objected. "I'm going to go out there!" She started moving towards the large open window, but was stopped by John and Jenna, who held her firmly by the arms.
"You're crazy!" Jenna shouted at her. "You can hardly fly! Do you think watching you die is going to help your father? You can't do anything to help him."
Crystal turned to John, tears running down her face, silently begging him to let her go. John met her eyes, and nodded in understanding. "There's nothing you can do, Crystal. Me, on the other hand..."
He let go of her arm and turned and sprinted towards the open window and dove through it. His classmates rushed to the window to watch what happened. They could see John flapping hard to gain height.
"Get back from the windows!" the professor shouted angrily. "Do you want to be killed as well? Don't any of you dare follow him!"
The chilling shrieks of the Blue Dragons reached their ears again, and the whole class took a step back away from the windows, none of them having any intention of following John, but none of them moving towards the door either. The window faced due south, and they could see Blue Dragons high in the sky directly to the south, with two of the city guard flying straight towards them.
"How can he fly?" Jenna asked Crystal. "I thought he was still badly injured."
"It doesn't work like that," Arthur answered before Crystal could respond. "If you're injured as a dragon, the injuries carry over after you transform, but if you're injured as a human, the injuries are barely noticeable as a dragon. At least that's what Gerald tells me."
"How many are there?" Dale asked. Being a Northerner, hailing from a city near to the Blue Dragon's borders, Dale was calmer than most of the other students and stayed near to the window.
Alex, a fellow Northerner, cautiously approached the window and scanned the horizon. "I can see two groups of seven. One over there," he said, pointing towards the group flying towards the city guard, "and another seven over there," he said, pointing to the right.
"How many of ours are in the air?" Arthur asked, still keeping a distance from the window.
"Just two, plus John," Lauren answered. "The rest of the city guard haven't had time to take off yet."
"Fourteen versus three," Kal noted, "I don't really like those chances."
"Shut up, Kal!" Crystal shouted.
"I think it's more like seven versus two," Alex corrected. "John isn't anywhere near them yet, and the other Blue Dragons aren't headed towards them."
"Where are the others …." Lauren's voice trailed off. "They're headed this way," she said quietly, backing away from the window. The second group of had broken into a dive, and were closing the gap between them and the city very quickly. They flew in a "V" formation, which they held throughout the dive, and when they were less than fifty metres above the ground, they pulled out of their dives, flying completely in sync. They were lower than the window of the classroom, and clearly visible even to their human eyes. Just before they reached the city limits, they fanned out and began their attack. Some young people were caught on the ground below, and one of the Blue Dragons bathed them in fire, leading to screams from the classroom.
"They're alright," someone shouted, "look!" After the flames subsided, a single Red Dragon was visible, shielding the group with its wings. One among the group had just managed to transform in time and had protected the others. A long burst of yellow flames was directed at the Blue Dragon from its mouth, but the Blue had long since moved far out of reach of the counterattack and onto other targets, spraying fireballs at the few remaining people that were scurrying for safety from the open streets.
The city guard had begun to mobilise now, and just as the Blue Dragons reached the city centre, the guard begun launching themselves from the city towers. The first to take off did so with remarkably bad timing, and was caught moving slowly by one of the Blue Dragons as it passed by the tower. The strike was too fast to observe, but the Red Dragon dropped out of the sky immediately and landed with a sickening crunch on the ground. Several of the students screamed.
"Are they dead?" someone asked. One glance at the stricken dragon was enough to answer the question, with a pool of blood forming around the body.
"Dead before they struck the ground," Dale answered grimly. "They didn't have a chance."
The battle that being fought low over the city was quickly turning against the Blue Dragons though, and the sky was beginning to fill with Red Dragons as more and more of the city guard took to the wing. A second Blue Dragon tried to attack some guards as they took off, but was engulfed in flames by his intended victims, and unable to see, crashed into the tower. Before he could fall to the ground, another guard caught his neck in his jaws, and broke it with an audible crunch before tossing the lifeless attacker to the ground.
Many of the students cheered the victory, but Crystal ignored them, keeping her eyes focussed on the skies high above them. Her father and the other city guard—whoever they were—had just reached the seven Blue Dragons. She couldn't see John anywhere. She raised her hand to her mouth and gasped, unable to turn away, knowing the likely outcome. The groups merged briefly, and then two shapes started to fall.
"No!" she cried. The two dragons hurled through their air towards certain death.
"Wait," Seth said, "look, there is still one Red Dragon up there. One of the two killed must have been a Blue."
"And the other was a Red Dragon," she replied. "That might be my father!"
The group of six Blue Dragons wheeled about and where headed back towards the remaining Red Dragon, who was turning to face them again.
"Why doesn't he just flee?" Daisy asked. "He can't beat all six of them."