Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (52 page)

Master Durus and Arioch still hadn't come back, and it worried me. I hoped it was because they were still working over the curse and not because something bad had happened to them. Alex caught me looking out through one of the embrasures and grabbed my hand. "They'll come back, Daria," he whispered, squeezing my hand gently before pulling it away. I gave him a weary smile and got back to work.

It had also bothered me that we hadn't seen any signs of the kytharii yet. After the initial report, there had been no sightings. Still, there was unease in the air, like some sixth sense of a world gone awry.

Hours passed, and we began to see the first signs of people approaching the walls of the city. Their men were armed and carrying weapons, walking the perimeter of the women and children as if they were herding their flock. The wind howled, blowing their cloaks sideways like full sails, and the closer they came to the walls, the quicker their steps. Gears creaked as the men at the walls rose the great portcullis, letting the newcomers inside.

I was struck by the raw simplicity of those entering the city. I'd seen so much pomp and wealth in Valdon. I'd only seen bits and pieces of normal life in a few of the small villages I'd visited, but this was different. There was something raw about these people. Something tough and resilient that spoke of hard living and loss. Faces were callused from lives of hard work and low expectation, hair ratted and dirty. When they walked past, they looked at me and noticed my clothing, then noticed Alex's, and I could feel their skepticism and derision.

Sonya led this new group of women and children through the city and toward the hall with the rest, while the men assimilated with the city's guards. More clans arrived, looking just like the others. They were coming in droves now, while I stood up on the ramparts with Alex, the both of us watching them.

Just then, a giant flock of birds rose from the trees in the distance. They lifted in a cloud of caws, startled from their perch, and took off in the opposite direction of Karth. I leaned forward, peering through an embrasure in the wall with the dreaded feeling that something was wrong. The dogs in the city began yipping and howling. I glanced over my shoulder and looked down at the city streets; horses brayed and tugged against reins, whinnying. Chickens squawked in cages. When I looked back out past the wall, I noticed another clan crossing the fields.

"Alex, something's wrong," I said as my heart raced.

Alex's eyes narrowed as he stared out. And then I saw them, standing there like ghosts on the edge of the forest. They dropped on all fours and crawled toward the newcomers.

"Sir Torren!" I yelled.

Sir Torren, who had been helping one of his guards make adjustments on an onager, looked up, and fear clouded his features. "We need reinforcements! Now!" he yelled.

The men at the wall looked startled, and then followed Sir Torren's gaze. Their fear wrapped around me like a cold blanket, and the bells of the city rang loudly, drowning out everything. The new clan had noticed the kytharii and they ran. Kytharii snarled and yipped, bounding after them, and then the children started screaming.

And no one was doing anything to help. We couldn't fire at them. The kytharii were too close to the people, and we would risk hitting the clan. I sprinted down from the ramparts with Alex right on my heels. Bone-chilling shrieks filled the air, and the men at the wall yelled. Alex and I bolted toward the gate only to find it closed.

"What are you doing?" I screamed at the guards. "There are people out there!"

"We can't let those monsters through!" one of the guards yelled. He looked terrified.

"Open the gate!" I yelled. Just through the portcullis, I could see the first of the kytharii descending. One of the clan guards charged to fight, but the kytharii leapt on top of him, ripping him apart. The terrified screams from those children tore my heart out.

"Did you hear me? I
said
open the gate!" I screamed again at the guard. "Open them right now or I swear on my life you will pay for this for the rest of yours."

Terrified, he did as asked. The gears and grates cranked as the portcullis rose, and I rolled through when it was just a few feet off the ground. Alex was right behind me, the two of us sprinting toward the clan.

One of the kytharii took down a woman, and a child wailed. I ran harder. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I would not stand back there and watch this. Heat bubbled in my gut as I ran, hotter and hotter, swelling in my torso until I pushed it through my fingertips. A bolt of light shot from my hands, and a sonic pulse shot across the earth. A kytharii, which had been about to snatch the now motherless child, erupted in flame. It shrieked and whirled, trying to put out the fire. Energy pulsed from Alex as he drew his sword, and his sword erupted in flame as he set fire to his blade.

Another kytharii jumped on one of the men, disemboweling him.

Alex and I finally reached the clan. With a savage yell, I ran my way right between a woman and an attacking kytharii. I shoved Nightshade in the center of its chest, and it wailed a horrible, bloodcurdling scream as black blood dripped all over my hand.

"Go! Keep running and don't stop until you're behind the walls!" I yelled at the stunned woman behind me.

I jerked my dagger free as the kytharii stumbled backwards. Another kytharii moved to attack, but Alex swiftly removed its head with his flaming sword. The rest of the creature erupted in flame and it ran away shrieking. The women and children ran on ahead, but the men stayed back to help us.

"Go!" Alex yelled this time, bringing his sword of fire through another kytharii. "Protect the women and children!" The men seemed happy to follow this command.

Alex and I stayed, battling against the handful of kytharii. I was able to catch one more on fire, but I didn't dare try the magic again. It was too draining, and I needed to save my energy for physical battle. Not that I needed magic right now, anyway. Alex was doing marvelously with his flaming sword.

Alex and I had just finished killing the last one when the ground trembled. Violently.

We exchanged a glance, both of us heaving with exhaustion and splattered with black blood.

"Get behind the walls!" boomed a voice.

I looked over to find Master Durus sprinting with Arioch Prime right behind him. You never would have known Arioch was centuries old; he ran with the speed and strength of someone my age. They were a few hundred yards from us when kytharii began crawling out of the ground. Hundreds of them. They scrambled out of the earth like ants out of anthills. Alex and I turned and sprinted, joining Master Durus and Arioch Prime, the four of us headed straight for the wall, fleeing for our lives.

"I thought you were going to destroy the curse!" I yelled.

"We tried," Master Durus grunted. "And we ran out of time."

The men standing along the ramparts were yelling, and I stole a glance back. Kytharii were everywhere, swarming the earth in the thousands. Adrenaline flooded my body as wind ripped all around. The horde of kytharii screamed and snarled, bounding forward with inhuman speed, on two feet and on all fours, quickly closing the distance.

Just a few hundred yards before we reached the wall…

Metal creaked as the men at the gate began lowering the portcullis.

My feet pounded the earth, my arms swinging for speed as my chest heaved with flight. The kytharii were almost upon us and the gate was halfway down.

At the last minute we dove, rolling beneath the grate as it squealed closed on top of the foremost kytharii. They wriggled and writhed, still alive, though impaled, and the horde descended upon the wall, clawing and gnashing and snarling like a terrible nightmare. Alex grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, and the two of us backed away from the horrible sight.

Shrieks and dissonantly layered screams filled the skies as the kytharii tried clawing through the gate. For a moment, the people behind the wall stood still as stone, transfixed in their horror. No one had expected this. And even I—who had seen the kytharii before—was momentarily paralyzed by the sight of so many. I couldn't see the world beyond the gate, because they had completely blocked the view, scrambling over each other to climb through.

Sir Torren gave orders to close the gate and fire the catapults. Shouts and yells sounded from the ramparts as men fired, and the guards starting pushing the doors behind the portcullis closed.

"Take her to the hall," Master Durus said to Alex.

"Absolutely not," I said. "I am staying here."

"But your highness, it isn't safe—" Arioch started.

"It's out of the question. I'm staying."

To my surprise, Alex didn't fight me on this.

"Have I missed any…whoa." Thad suddenly appeared from behind the crowd. His eyes bugged out of his head as he noted the kytharii through the portcullis. The guards finally closed the door, shutting them completely from view.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" The question had come from Vera.

I glanced up at Sir Torren, who walked the wall giving orders to his men. How could we help him?

"Yes," I said, feeling the beginnings of an idea. "You and Thad…make sure the men on the ramparts have enough supplies for the catapults." She nodded sharply. "Master Durus, Arioch," I continued, "that spell you used to make the tower crumble on top of itself?"

Master Durus looked at me expectantly.

"See if you can't get to higher ground and do that very same thing to the holes they're climbing out of. Let's try to channel their movement to one area so that Sir Torren will know where to focus his attention."

Alex looked at me like he was suddenly seeing me for the first time.

"We'll do our best, your highness," Arioch said, and he and Master Durus split up.

"What are you planning?" Alex asked me once everyone had fled to their stations.

I looked up at the dark sky. "I'm not sure yet. Follow me…?"

He nodded sharply. "Anywhere."

I paused, looking into his handsome face, where I found a smile waiting for me. "Thanks."

Alex followed me up the wooden steps to the ramparts, where men were catapulting balls of flame beyond the wall. And once I could see beyond, the sight below was almost hopeless.

Tens of thousands of dead swarmed the fields, turning the once green land into an ocean of snarling and screeching gray, and more were still climbing out of the ground. There were so many. The kytharii threw themselves upon the walls, climbing over each other, clawing at each other, filling the cracks and accumulating in piles. Some would leap ten feet in the air, landing on the wall, scaling their way like spiders toward the top. Guards threw rocks and whatever they could grab to knock them down. More balls of flame were thrown into the cannibalistic sea, but with so many, the damage was negligible.

I closed my eyes, letting the heat build deep inside of me. I let it build and build until I physically couldn't hold it any longer, and released. With a push, I threw the heat toward the horde. A cluster of them ignited in flame, but it hadn't done much more damage than that of the catapults. We needed a bigger fire. I said as much to Master Durus and Arioch Prime, who stood near Sir Torren on the ramparts.

Master Durus and Arioch stood together, muttering a silent spell as the energy around them swelled. Wind stirred and the air convulsed, and something like a great meteor of fire appeared, landing right in the center of the horde. A great many of the kytharii caught flame, screeching and screaming. But even that was not enough.

The kytharii had piled so high, they began reaching the battlements. Men fought them off with swords, but their unmagical blades did not kill. Kytharii arms wriggled and writhed along the ramparts like snakes, and the guards screamed in horror.

"Burn them!" Sir Torren yelled. "Burn whatever you can!"

For hours the fighting continued like this. The sun had long since set, and the men were getting so tired. I could see it on their faces. And even though Sir Torren shouted and tried to keep their energy flowing, their faces sagged with fatigue and hopelessness. Our enemy was so numerous and even after hours of fighting, we had hardly made a dent in their numbers. It was then the idea that had been blossoming in the back of my mind took shape. It was crazy, but it just might work.

I ran over to Sir Torren. "Sir Torren!" I yelled. "I have an idea!"

He kicked back a kytharii over the wall. "What is it?" he yelled back.

"Those tunnels you mentioned…I think we should blow them up."

"
What
?"

"Listen," I continued. "If we blow them up, we'll have a trench that runs like a fence around the kytharii. We can pour pitch over the walls and into the trench and light it on fire. This will trap the kytharii inside and those outside won't be able to get through, and it'll at least give us some time to come up with something."

He paused, staring at me, and almost missed the kytharii reaching for his head. Alex ran it through with his flaming sword, and it squealed as it fell like a ball of fire back into the crowd. This startled Sir Torren back to speech.

"Jarl!" he yelled.

The man called Jarl I'd seen earlier soon appeared, sweaty and dripping and covered in blood. "Yes, sir."

"The doors in the basement that lead underground."

"Yes, sir?"

"Take ten men and line the tunnels with dynamite."

"Sir?"

"And then roll out the pitch." Sir Torren smiled, but it looked a bit more like a grimace. "We're going to start a fire."

Jarl took off, and Alex and I stayed at the wall near Sir Torren, fighting back all the kytharii that we could. I drew upon Cian to give me strength. The constant fighting was wearing me down, and I wouldn't have energy to last the night if I kept at it on my own. I didn't know how Alex was doing it, but he was. Always controlled and swift and sharp. After what felt like forever, Jarl reported back.

"The explosives are placed, Sir Torren."

Sir Torren nodded sharply. "Bring up the pitch!"

Men rolled barrels and barrels of pitch up to the ramparts and near both ends of the wall where Sir Torren said the tunnels would be. Once they were in place, Sir Torren gave the command to ignite the fuses. About fifteen minutes passed, and then in one great blast that rocked the wall, the field ahead exploded. Dirt and kytharii flew in the air as each of the explosives detonated one by one in a ring around them. Some men at the wall covered their ears, and when the explosions stopped, the world fell eerily silent. Or maybe I'd just lost my hearing.

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