Draka Chapter 322: There Were Five Of Us (Patreon)

For a few days, I allowed myself some peace. My time was limited, but I’d known that from the start, with the situation at the front and the risk of a Tekereteki breakthrough on the sea in mind. But this wasn’t something I could do alone, and so I enjoyed some well deserved downtime while I and my allies recovered from our battle with Behold Her.

Well, I call it downtime. It wasn’t like I just lay around. I spent quite a bit of time flying Kira and Mak around, healing my allies; Kira, of course, focused heavily on Quake, who lay deep inside his leafy longhouse, where his mate had been not so long ago.

They made a striking scene, those two: Unquenchable with her truncated tail, small patches of missing scales, one torn wing, and any number of gashes from claws and teeth; and Quake, who was torn up just as bad but with his foreleg freshly amputated instead of his tail. They’d both fought like hell, with no hesitation, and while Quake had been forced to withdraw, Unquenchable hadn’t done so until Behold Her fled. They may have been primarily motivated by personal vengeance, but I had nothing but praise for them as far as them behaving like allies went.

On the third day after Behold Her’s death, I broached the subject of the humans and their war.

“You would have me abandon my mate when he languishes here, maimed and unable to fend for himself?” Unquenchable growled, threatening enough for a warning rumble to rise in Mother’s chest as she watched us.

“Heart, I am not some defenceless whelp,” Quake admonished her. They usually spoke in Draconic to each other, so the fact that he used Tekereteki was no doubt for my benefit. “I did not bleed so much as you when you were wounded, and am less weakened. Our rival is destroyed, the dragons around us have sworn peace, and I can defend myself against any lesser creature. Go. Enjoy yourself. It will only be for a day.”

“As she asks,” Mother corrected him, displeased with my idea but not so much that she’d stop me. “I will have no part in it. I say that if you would interfere in the wars of humans, you must destroy both sides. But what do I know? I have only seen seven centuries, and with them every mistake one can possibly commit when dealing with humans.”

“Be that as it may, we swore an oath to ensure the hegemony of your daughter’s favored humans on this island,” Quake said. “Heart. Your protectiveness delights me, but I would not hold you back from your amusements. Go with her.”

At that point Unquenchable switched to Draconic, speaking much too quickly for me to follow, and Quake answered in kind, but from their expressions and body language I got the feeling that there was no real argument going on.

Kira seemed to agree. “The problem isn’t that she doesn’t want to hold to their oath, is it?” she stated.

“Nah,” I agreed. “She very much wants to fly south to help me terrify—and possibly incinerate—some Happarans. She’s just too proud to leave her mate when he’s injured.”

“I’ll bet you anything that he’s arguing for her to go enjoy herself, as he put it, and she’s arguing back while slowly letting herself be convinced.”

I bobbed my head. “Thus allowing her to go have some fun with a clear conscience. Yep.”

Lo and behold, not much later Unquenchable turned to me and said, “Very well. I will agree to accompany you. Collect me when it is time.”

Dragons and humans could be very similar sometimes.

*

That same afternoon, I was resting in the sun while Kira took a nap when a cloud of dust and the flapping of wings announced Sandstorm’s arrival. “Draka!” she said, far too loud, as I snorted to clear my nose. “That old silver is on the wall. I think he wants to talk.”

“Hrrm?” I looked up at her, forced to close my second eyelids against the fine grit that still hung in the air. “The Might And Splendor Of The Depthless Ocean?”

“Maybe,” she said, wiggling her head. “Something about the water, I think. He circled, then landed on the wall. Grandfather says you should talk to him.”

“Yeah?” I looked up and didn’t see Mother’s shape circling above, but then, she’d been less vigilant now that Behold Her wasn’t a threat anymore. “Alone?”

She did the headwiggle again. “Grandfather says that the old silver is too interested in your mother to be a danger. But I can come along, if you like.”

I considered it, then said, “Nah, that’s alright. Just… keep an eye on us from a distance, would you? Just in case.”

“If I do, will you tell one of your humans to tell me a story later?” she asked. “The one called Tammy has some amusing ones.”

“Sure,” I said, bobbing my head at her. “I’ll ask Tammy to tell you a story. Now come along.”

I took to the air. Splendor’s territory in the ruins was to the south-east, so that was the first direction I looked and that was where I saw him, waiting on the wall and gleaming like burnished steel in the afternoon sun.

“Welcome,” I told him, defaulting to Tekereteki. “Did you wish to speak with me?”

“I do,” he confirmed, seeming entirely at ease on the relatively narrow wall. “I came to tell you that I shall be leaving. With the conclave over, there is no reason for me to stay.”

“Oh,” I replied, a bit nonplussed. I wasn’t sure why he’d even tell me, honestly, though if I were to guess I’d say my mother had something to do with it. Still, if he was being polite I saw no reason not to respond in kind. “Thank you for telling me. Are you going now?”

“In the morning. It is a long flight to my islands, and I wish to arrive before night falls.”

“Right,” I said, hunting for something actually meaningful to say. “Well, thank you for remaining neutral. There has been some speculation that you had some past entanglement with Behold Her And Know That All Things Must End, and I admit I was concerned that you might intervene on her side.”

“I was tempted, at times,” he said with a huff that carried disappointment and sorrow from deep inside him. “I tried to talk her out of her folly, but she would not listen. She never would see reason when it came to this island.”

“So you did know her?”

“She was the clutchmate of my father,” he said, and though dragons were generally bad at expressing anything like embarrassment, he sure seemed embarrassed. “She could be quite pleasant at times, and wise, but this island was a poison in her mind. I know what she did, and I do not blame you or anyone else. She would not have relented. But that is not what I wished to speak of. I am returning to my hoard, and I have a request to make.”

“Ah.” That made more sense than him just dropping by for a chat. “I am listening.”

“I will wish to return here in the future.” He paused, and an edge of hesitation crept into his voice as he continued. “To visit your mother while she is still here.”

Part of me balked. I wasn’t surprised, as such, and I didn’t have any rational reason to object, but some part of me still felt like there was something terribly wrong about Splendor—doing what exactly? Courting my mother? What business of mine was that, really? They were both adults, and had been for far, far longer than I’d been alive. Sure, he was probably three centuries younger than she was, but that was between them. Wasn’t it?

It should be, but it still didn’t feel right to me. My two headmates, though, thought differently. Conscience’s opinion was a silent but pleased sensation best translated as Good on her. Instinct was more explicit.

“Mother will be pleased,” she said, full of approval. “She likes him, I think.”

I was forced to agree. I knew that she’d been visiting Splendor during his stay here. I’d always suspected that she was the main reason he’d remained for as long as he had, and learning that Behold Her was his aunt didn’t change that. But still, I had to be sure.

“Will she appreciate your visits, or am I only setting her up to be harassed?” I asked pointedly. “For all I know she has been visiting you to tell you to leave her alone.”

Instead of getting defensive, his eyes only narrowed in amusement. It was, I had to admit, a point in his favor. “I will swear to you, young one, that she will not be displeased. And that if she is, you will not need to bother yourself with evicting me from your territory. We both know that your mother is more than capable of doing that herself.”

We did both know that. The question had never been whether Mother could run him off, but if Splendor would give up on trying to court her. And clearly persistence on his part had won out, considering how long it had been since I heard Mother complain about him.

I didn’t actually know what was going on with those two. I hadn’t ever bothered to ask how long a dragon courtship would usually last, or what it looked like. For all I knew they were debating philosophy. But unfair as it was, whatever they were up to I still wasn’t comfortable with it. And I couldn’t blame that on my human side! My human parents had been happily married for slightly longer than my older brother had been alive, with no sign of that ever changing, but I’d always been a proponent of people being allowed to look for love and companionship no matter how old they were. Any discomfort I felt now was just me being a terrible, possessive daughter, not wanting to share my mother with anyone else. Hell, even Instinct was fine with it. She was practically cheering them on.

I knew all that. And yet, even though me giving the okay was inevitable, I still felt the need to keep some kind of handle on the whole situation. “I will expect you to come find me whenever you visit, to announce your presence,” I grumbled. “I do not want you just flying around.”

“That is only proper,” he replied, bobbing his head once.

“And you will respect the territories of the other dragons who are settling here, just as you would mine.”

“Of course.”

“If you find Mother before you can tell me… that is fine,” I added reluctantly. “Just do not forget.”

“I will not.”

“Was that all you wanted to speak about?”

“It was,” he said, craning his neck to look back toward the southeast. “Best of fortune, then, young Draka.”

“Yeah, see ya,” I muttered as he left, probably on his way to continue canoodling with my mother.

It was only after he’d left that Instinct asked, “Do you think he knows where her lair is?” Which was an excellent point. I’d thought about it before, of course. I was sure we all had. Somewhere out there, across the sea, was the unguarded lair of a dragon older than the Cataclysm. What treasures might she have gathered over the centuries? Yet none of us dragons spoke of it, at least not where I’d been involved. And why should we? We all wanted it. And Splendor, being the one who knew her best, was likely best positioned to find it.

And I couldn’t even leave the island. Like I needed another reason to dislike him.

*

Herald still hadn’t told anyone what she’d found in her translated records, or if she had, they weren’t telling me. I tried to wheedle something out of her that evening, but she still kept her silence, only telling me that she thought it might bring me some closure but that she wanted to be sure of her translations and the conclusions she was drawing. That did nothing for my almost painful curiosity, but when she finally told me that I’d have to enthrall her to get anything out of her, I gave up. She was entirely serious, and I didn’t like the edge of hope in her voice when she said it.

The next morning it was time. Time to go south, and hopefully put an end to the stupid war that had consumed such a large chunk of my life, and had consumed so many actual lives over the months. With any luck we wouldn’t have to contribute to that, but I was at the point where I wasn’t above a few judicious applications of apocalyptic shock and awe.

Honestly, I was more worried about inspiring the kind of fear in the Karakani that Mother was so worried about, than I was about the lives of the Happaran soldiers. If they hadn’t revolted after my last lesson, I’d just have to drive it home harder this time.

I said my farewells to the humans. My thralls and friends, who meant so much to me and for whose sake I was so determined to make sure that Karakan would have peace. It was more emotional than usual. Everyone knew why I was going, and what I may have to do, and even if the Happarans had brought war to their home they were still human. And the horror I and my allies may have to unleash to utterly rout the enemy wouldn’t just affect the survivors and those left behind; my friends worried how it would all affect me.

I loved them all for it. Personally, I was less concerned. Instinct was eager. I was resolved; Conscience hated everything about our mission and had made me promise to be as restrictive as possible, but even she recognized that ending the war now, even in a spectacular, horrific fashion, would likely prevent far more suffering in the long run.

There would be five of us flying south this time. Quake was too weakened by the massive amounts of healing he was receiving from Kira; Mother refused to have any part of me involving myself in a human war unless it was on her terms; and Sandstorm was again being left behind against her own wishes. Indomitable refused to allow her anywhere near human bows or ballistae.

One dragon could break a small nation. There were five of us.

*

There was fighting along the Grayrun when we arrived. When I roared, and the four adults in my flight responded, that fighting stopped. And when we dove, the Happarans broke. Those who’d made it to the northern bank abandoned their beachheads and half-built bridges and fled back across the river, joining the general retreat.

If only that had been the end of it.

I couldn’t say what possessed the Happaran commanders to try to resist. Perhaps there were Tekereteki attachés there, threatening to withdraw their support or even turn on Happar if they retreated. Or perhaps they simply thought that with some preparation and the benefit of daylight they had a chance to drive us off. We’d never know their reasons, but the retreat stopped. They set up their ballistae, and they massed their archers in open formations, and that was enough to chafe Unquenchable’s pride. She dove on them, and they let loose with everything they had. From the way she flinched, I was pretty sure that some even hit.

Then Unquenchable unleashed a torrent of bright white flame. She let it play over the field, from weapon to weapon and through their formations, and the gods only know how many people died before the screaming even reached us. By then the survivors had already broken, fleeing madly in every direction by foot or on horseback; Unquenchable amused herself by turning her dive into a slow glide, picking off runners seemingly at random.

Presence and Grace, not to be outdone, left her to it and instead headed for the nearby command camp. A first pass left half of it a sea of flame, and the other half a gut-churning mess of noxious vapors, dissolving cloth, wood, and flesh, and agonized screaming. My relief when the vapors reached some kind of critical point where the flames ignited them, sending a firestorm tearing through whatever remained of the camp and ending the suffering of the dying, was immense. Grace had in one swoop justified my decision not to take the Acid Spit advancement. Seeing what he’d done and knowing that I’d brought him here was bad enough; no matter how callous I’d become, I didn’t think I could ever forgive myself if I’d caused such horror myself.

Then all three took off along the front, Grace and Presence heading downstream toward the sea, and Unquenchable toward the mountains. And I realized that there were more Happaran camps.

“Let them run!” I found myself calling, almost begging the three younger adults. “Destroy the camps, but let them flee! No need to hunt them down! And only south of the river!”

I could only hope that they’d heard me. Trying to chase them down was pointless; Fast though I was, I was still the slowest of us. So I remained where I was, circling above the remains of the Happaran command and looking down at what my allies had wrought in no time at all.

The camp was all but gone, little more than a smoldering scar on the ground. Fires raged through what remained of the trampled fields and pastures where the ballistae and entire companies of archers had been, and where Unquenchable’s flames had licked out to pick off groups of fleeing soldiers; they were spreading as the wind drove them west. Riders pushed their mounts hard toward the south, followed by men and women on foot who’d quickly learned that spreading out made them less tempting targets.

On the northern bank of the river, many of the Karakani soldiers were busy helping their wounded friends. Some had crossed to take the few remaining Happarans on the southern bank prisoner. But many others just stood, watching me, or Indomitable high above, or the other three who were still visible in the distance, diving to unleash hell before climbing again to more easily spot their next target.

Even when I flew low, it was almost silent. The pained cries of some few wounded reached me, but only near the river; Unquenchable, Grace, and Presence hadn’t left anyone to scream. Few of the Karakani soldiers cheered, certainly nothing like what I’d gotten used to. They were, I assumed, too stunned, too shocked by the reality of the carnage my allies had wrought, and how helpless the Happarans had been in the face of three dragons.

Some no doubt wondered if it was only a matter of time before that might was turned against them. Convincing the people and the Council that they were safe so long as they didn’t strike first would have to be one of my first and greatest priorities.

It took less than an hour to turn the southern bank of the Grayrun into a patchwork of wildfires, from the mountains to the sea. Wherever there had been a Happaran camp of any size there was a larger patch of flame, spreading on the wind. The Happaran army, their mercenaries, and their Tekereteki sponsors were reduced to so many desperately fleeing ones, twos, and very rarely larger groups, seeking the shelter of dells, woodlands, tall grass, or just the distant south. Unquenchable had some small wounds here and there, including a few tears in her wings, but overall the greatest difficulty we’d faced had been me catching up to the silver to ask her to please stop hunting the runners. She’d agreed, but only reluctantly; she’d been having a great deal of fun.

What convinced her was that we weren’t done. We’d broken the Happaran army at the front, but I’d done that before. Given time they would regroup and return.

We needed to break their will to continue the war entirely. And that was what we were going to do. We were going to Happar.