Gloria Oliver (44 page)

A mass exodus headed for the cave entrance. Talia turned to go as well, when she felt Kel’s hand on her arm. “Talia, wait.”

She felt her face grow hard. “You’re not going to keep me out of it, this time.”

She saw Kel half glance in Nertak’s direction before speaking. “I’m not.” He let go of her arm. “If you’re willing, I want you to come with me and Clarence. We’re going to need the extra pair of eyes.”

She saw the earnestness in his face but wasn’t sure she should believe him. “If this is a trick…”

“No trick, I swear it. I was wrong before. I know it now.” He scratched at his neck again.

“Is that all right?” she asked of Nertak.

The old man smiled. “The more eyes the better. This is not going to be easy.”

“I’ll go then.” And the gods help him if this was some sort of bluff.

Talia ran to get her armor after agreeing to meet Kel by the armory. He in turn would go downstairs to get himself a new helmet and weapons for them both.

She was on her way down, trying hard to hurry and yet not fall, when she suddenly found an armored person cutting off her path.

“Talia, where have you been?” An excited voice reached out to her from the closed helmet.

“Daltan?”

The boy reached up and opened his visor. “Are you all right? We’ve all been so worried.”

She looked away. “I can’t explain right now. But I’m fine. Please tell everyone not to worry. I’ll be helping the squire.”

“Is that where you’ve been? With him?” His tone grew more insistent.

She didn’t want to lie to him. “Not exactly. But I really can’t explain now. He’s waiting for me. I’ll tell you what I can later.” She hurried past him.

A number of other students were in the armory as well as a few watchers handing out weapons. Kel was standing in a corner waiting for her. “There you are. Here.” He handed her a quiver of bolts, a light crossbow, and a short sword. “The crossbow is easy to use. You just put one of the bolts here, then pull this crank to set the line in place. Then just aim and pull the trigger. The sword is just in case.”

She had seen crossbows before but not used one. She hoped it’d be as easy to use as he said.

“Come on.” Kel led the way out of the room and the growing press of armored bodies. The two of them rushed to the dragon habitat and found Clarence there, waiting for them.

“Kel, why would anyone want to attack the school?” She clambered with some difficulty up onto Clarence’s back.

“There could be a number of reasons really,” Kel said. “If they took over the school, they’d be messing up the guild’s system for creating members, it’d show the guild is not infallible and by sending your children there you might get them killed. They’ve probably also heard the rumors some of the schools also serve as treasuries for the guild. I don’t know if the last is true, but since the schools are so inaccessible, it would make some sense to keep the guild’s money there.”

“But wouldn’t attacking the school just bring the whole wrath of the guild on top of them?”

Certainly
, Clarence responded.
But they would need to know who was responsible before they
could do so. And the fact they have Maeloon on their side speaks of the possibility that they posses
great power.

“Does the guild have that many enemies?” she asked.

Kel turned to glance at her as Clarence prepared to take flight. “It has almost as many enemies as it has friends. The guild does a lot of good, and keeps the peace. But there are many who’d rather not have peace dictated to them, or who would prefer to have the right to make war with their neighbors if that’s what they want.”

They took to the air. This cut off any further conversation. Clarence took them back toward the east, flying close to the trees so they could search for signs of the Maeloon. The moon was out in the night sky, but the treetops still spread before them as a sea of darkness. Clarence swept dizzily back and forth, but none of them could see any signs of anything untoward. She was just glad Clarence seemed to be flying better than normal.

After about an hour, Clarence turned back toward the school and flew around the perimeter of the mesa. Talia was slightly startled as his voice suddenly rang in her mind.

A messenger has returned from the Administrator. Things have abruptly intensified on their end.

Luckily, the squadron was not yet gone, or the area set up by the teachers and students for the
wounded would have been overrun
.

She frowned, realizing Nertak was right. This was planned from the beginning. The other village’s plight, while terribly real, was still only a diversion. She shivered, trying not to think of how close they’d come to being unprepared.

Several hours later, they’d still spotted no signs of the enemy. She was beginning to wonder if perhaps there really was nothing to worry about when she saw movement at the edge of the trees. “Kel.” She pulled on the squire’s arm to get his attention and then pointed toward the ground. Clarence changed direction and dove to take a closer look.

Crazed, human-like eyes turned to watch them as they swept by. Talia shuddered as she felt their gaze on them. She counted thirteen Maeloon and more looked to be coming out farther on.

I’ve advised Nertak
, Clarence sent to them.
Defenses have been set at the top of the mesa. We’re to
try and slow them down or stop as many of them as we can
.

Kel signaled her to get her crossbow ready even as he readied his. Clarence dove closer to the Maeloon once they were ready. She tried to aim at the dark masses as best she could, then pulled the trigger. The crossbow jerked back against her shoulder, sending the bolt toward the ground. She heard a pained grunt, but couldn’t see if she’d actually hit anything. Abruptly, Clarence shot upwards as arrows shot toward them from the forest below. Talia yelped, struggling to hang on, almost losing her hold on the crossbow.

The Maeloon are not alone. It will make things more difficult.

She saw Kel gesture at his friend but couldn’t hear what was being said. Clarence turned, and she spotted a number of Maeloon quickly leaping up the side of the mesa. Clarence aimed toward the highest of them and let out a small burst from his mouth. A ball of flame shot from him and hit a Maeloon square in the back. Screaming, the Maeloon let go and tumbled down the side of the mesa. More arrows shot at them from below but fell short.

Talia watched as the lit Maeloon bounced off the rocks to land amidst its brothers at the bottom, before going out. If he’d gone too much farther, Clarence’s fire might have caught on the trees and caused a massive forest fire. She understood now why he hadn’t used his flame before and even now not at full force.

Clarence followed the outside of the mesa, trying his best to hit what Maeloons he could as they rose as one on all sides. Kel and Talia shot at them as well, but like Clarence, were tending to miss more than hit as the Maeloon flickered from one spot to another every few seconds. With their human-like claws and prehensile tails, the Maeloon were having little trouble scaling the almost vertical surface.

As the three of them made another pass, she spotted something cascading from the top of the mesa.

Almost as if reading her thoughts, Clarence provided an explanation.
They’re pouring oil from the top.

They’re hoping it will make the rocks slick, and if worse comes to worse, they will light it.

She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

If the school had had more dragons, they could have made short work of the intruders. As it was, the Maeloon continued to gain more and more ground with only Clarence there to try and stop them.

Twice, she spotted a Maeloon in the forefront reach the oiled areas of rock. The first one slipped and fell, the sound of breaking bones echoing in the night. The second didn’t, instead using his claws to cling even harder to the mesa. Clarence swept by and Kel hit it with a bolt. Once it stopped writhing in pain, Clarence swept it off the mountain face with a sweep of his tail.

Talia tried to count the number of Maeloon and was astounded to realize there were hundreds of them.

Not even in the worst stories about them, had she heard of so many being together in one place. What were those strangers able to do, what could they have offered these weird creatures, to get them to cooperate this way?

As more Maeloon came close to the top, torches were dropped on the ground until a huge ring of fire covered the mesa. With the greater amount of light, she noticed for the first time the large trench dug out around the lip of the mesa filled with oil and pitch. It was a barrier of fire the Maeloon would have to struggle through to get at the school.

Kel?

At the dragon’s query, Talia tore her gaze from the ring below. She turned just in time to see Kel’s crossbow drop from his hand to the darkness below, his body slumping forward. “Kel!”

Something is wrong. I did not notice it earlier, but something’s been wrong
.

She didn’t question this but quickly tied her crossbow to one of the tethers and then reached out for the squire. Pulling him up, she leaned his body back toward her. Fumbling with her gauntlets, she took them off and then reached for his helmet. Taking it off, she gasped as she saw his neck beneath it. It was swollen and red, tendrils of angry flesh reaching toward his face and below the armor. A point close to the edge was dark, full of puss, and gave off a faint, acrid smell. It appeared to be a small puncture. Only too clearly did she recall Kel hadn’t been wearing a helmet when the Maeloon attacked them in the forest. The points at the end of the Maeloon’s tail would make just such a wound. “No.”

Kel’s eyes roamed beneath closed lids, his lips moving in mumbled words she couldn’t hear as they were taken by the wind. His skin was hot to the touch and almost burned in the areas of redness. “Clarence, we have to take him down.”

The dragon’s head turned to look at her as if he heard and then began to descend.
I’ve already called
for help
.

Clarence cleared the ring of fire and landed softly ten arm lengths from the school’s main doors.

We’ve arrived
, Clarence said.
Help will be here in a moment
.

Talia nodded, not sure how Clarence knew all this, but grateful all the same. She struggled to untie herself as quickly as possible and turned to start in on Kel’s restraints when the front doors opened.

An older man and two women hurried over to Clarence’s side with a stretcher and a lamp. The man clambered onto Clarence’s back and helped Talia with the rest of Kel’s restraints. Once they’d gotten him free, she helped the man hand Kel down to those waiting below. “We’ll take over from here.” As soon as they put him on the stretcher, they carried the squire inside.

She was thinking of running in after them when a pained howl rang from the edge of the firewall. The Maeloon had reached the top.

Talia watched the stretcher move away for a long moment and then turned from the sight, pulling the short sword at her side. “They’ll pay for ever having coming here.” Something wet and cold slid down her cheek but she paid it no attention. Her burning eyes met Clarence’s. “You know what you need to do.”

The dragon said nothing, instead taking to the air. Talia ran toward the wall of fire.

A thin line of students and watchers were arrayed around the wall, swords, tools, and bows at the ready. She joined the line, the fire before her close to the sudden fire inside her. This was a school—they were its students. No one had the right to bring war to this place. No one had the right to hurt Kel, not this way, not after all he’d been through.

Clarence made a dive on the other side of the fire, spewing his hot fire on the Maeloon there. Trapped between flames, the Maeloon laughed their snarling laugh and lunged through the cooler of the two fires toward the students.

Students and watchers fell back then surrounded the burning creatures and stabbed them with their weapons. Talia rushed forward when one cut in before her, and with a yell brought her sword down on its head even as others rushed forward to help. This monstrosity would not hurt anyone here. Blood stained the grass beneath her feet.

She stared at the corpse before her, feeling nothing. She had just killed a living being, but felt no remorse. These things were deadly; she could spare them no sympathy. She noticed it wore several coils of rope about its neck, but had no time to wonder why as another Maeloon broke through further down the line.

“Eggs, eggs.” Its hair on fire, the creature seemed oblivious to its pain, its eyes searching frantically about.

As a number of students closed in on it, the barb tail swished around dangerously. “Watch out for the tail, it’s poison!” She yelled this at a couple of students who came in too close.

“Stay back!” This came from a watcher who deftly aimed her crossbow at the Maeloon’s head and shot it in the face.

The Maeloon screamed, leaping over her, heading toward the dragon habitat. “Eggs, eggs.”

Talia didn’t chase it, turning back to hold the line, a shudder racking through her. Surely she didn’t hear right. It sounded so close to human speech, but it couldn’t have been. Could it?

Yet throughout, she felt imbued with a sense of purpose and a protectiveness she’d not known before.

It is done
.

She blinked, realizing it was Clarence’s voice in her mind. He sounded tired. She dropped to the ground as the meaning of his words sunk in, only then realizing how exhausted she was herself. The dragon landed nimbly beside her. Clarence gently nudged her with his snout until she opened her eyes again.

Are you all right?

“Yes, fine,” she managed to whisper. Her throat felt raw. “Is it really over?”

Before Clarence could answer, Nertak’s voice boomed over the field. “The enemy has retreated. Most of the Maeloon are dead. The battle has also ended at the camp and everyone will soon be coming home. We’ve called for help. A fresh squadron is already here to scour the area for any Maeloon that remain. Well done, everyone. Now go get some sleep.”