Warlords Rising (15 page)

Becca gave him a flat look. “Really. Breakfast first?”

“I can’t think on an empty stomach,” Trev’nor protested. “I
don’t know about girls, but men sure can’t.”

Nolan coughed, the sound suspiciously close to a laugh. “We
need to keep up our strength, Becca.”

She threw up her hands into the air. “Oh, fine. Breakfast
first. Who’s cooking?”

The benefit of having to re-conquer a city was that one knew
the layout extremely well. Becca knew exactly where to strike, how much power
it required, and which weak points to exploit first.

The garrison of soldiers, dressed in cream white uniforms
that she didn’t recognize, didn’t stand a chance. They received no warning that
they would be fighting three very enraged mages. Trev’nor took down his wall,
what was left of it, which threw them into a tizzy. Then Nolan went dragon
again and took out the original wall and garrison, further disrupting their
chain of command. Becca was perched up high—thanks to Trev’nor—and watched it
play out as she struck her own targets with bolts of lightning.

Rurick fell within an hour.

Anyone left standing immediately retreated, running from the
city like their lives depended on it. (Which they did.) Becca noted the
direction they ran to, due east, with interest. So, they were from a city over
in that direction? That narrowed the field of likely suspects quite nicely.
Maybe they could recover their friends sooner rather than later.

She was just about to call for Trev’nor to get her down from
her earthen pedestal when something caught her attention. From the corner of
her eye, there had been specks that had blocked out part of the suns for a
moment. Hmm? What could possibly do that, when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky?

Turning, she looked harder, lifting a hand to shield her
eyes. Three distinct shadows were in the sky and coming in closer. Becca did
not mistake them for a bird as nothing in the world had a wingspan like that
except one species: dragons.

Becca’s mouth went dry as she stared up at them. Dragons.
Three wild dragons. What in the wide green world were they doing all the way
down
here
? This was not anywhere close to their nesting or hunting
grounds! Dragons didn’t normally attack humans, granted, but they didn’t
normally venture this far from home either. Their behavior was completely
unpredictable at the moment and Becca had no desire to figure out if they were
in the mood to snack on humans or not.

Frantic, she spun this way and that until she spotted
Trev’nor on the ground two streets over. Drawing air into her lungs, she
shouted as loudly as she could, “TREV!”

His head snapped around and he yelled something back, so
faint at this distance she could barely hear it.

She energetically pointed toward the sky with both fingers.

Turning, he looked up in that direction and even from here
she could see him stagger a step backward as he realized what was coming their
direction. Fighting a few squadrons of soldiers? It would be tough, but doable.
Fighting three dragons? No way. Becca wasn’t sure they’d come out with their
skins intact.

They didn’t have long before the dragons came over their
heads. Becca’s primary fear was for Nolan, still in dragon form. They would
probably make a beeline straight for him and she wasn’t sure if that was a good
thing or not. They would either view him as an interloper on their territory
and get huffy about it, or they’d be welcoming. It was a coin toss on which
reaction it would be.

Nolan either noticed them or sensed them because he climbed
half-up onto a building, letting his front legs balance there, and stretched
his neck toward the sky. A long, almost haunting sound came from his throat as
he called out to them.

He was the Life Mage, not her, so she had to believe that he
knew what he was doing, but…wouldn’t it have been better to go un-dragon and
see if they would just pass by?

All three dragons dropped sharply toward the ground. They
came in close enough for her to get a good look at them. Two of them were
small, dainty like Kaya was, one a deep sapphire blue and the other a muted
cream. The third was huge in comparison, an earthen green, and looked much
older.

It was the oldest dragon that responded, voice low and
rumbling. If an earthquake could be given a voice, it would have sounded like
that.

Trev’nor abruptly popped up next to her, snagged Becca
around the waist, and took them quickly back down to solid earth. “We do
not
want to be up high when they come in for a landing,” he said as much to
himself as to her. “The backdraft will likely knock us down.”

Oh, true, it would. Becca paid little attention to where
Trev’nor put her, as her eyes were glued to the dragons. The daintier ones
settled along the rooftops near Nolan, but the largest one circled around until
he could settle in a clear spot. Afraid that the buildings wouldn’t hold up to
this weight? Becca certainly would be, if she was that size.

Even with them on the ground, with buildings in between
them, the backdraft was enough to send her skirt and hair flying. She felt
buffeted by them, although not enough to upset her balance. Thank heavens
Trev’nor had thought of it, though, as she would have fallen off her perch if
he hadn’t reacted so quickly.

Nolan didn’t seem the least bit afraid of them, turning his
head to greet each one in turn, body relaxed. He didn’t look like he was
expecting a fight.

Trev’nor was tense against her side, also staring hard in
their direction. “I vote we stay right here until Nolan says otherwise.”

“Why?” She managed around a tight throat. “Because humans
are crunchy?”

“And we taste good with barbecue sauce, yup, that sums it
up.” He managed a brief, fleeting smile.

They waited edgily as Nolan spoke, which seemed to involve a
lot of nose touching, as he was constantly craning his neck this way or that to
bump noses. The tip of his tail twitched sometimes too in what Becca recognized
as a pleased manner. Kaya did that same thing when she was happy about
something.

Minutes dragged, and the day warmed up enough that sweat
started pouring in a thin line down her spine. Becca began to think that they
would be safer sidling into a building and waiting this out when Nolan looked
at them and gave a beckoning wave of his hand. Claws. Whatever.

“If he says its fine, then…” Trev’nor took in a breath and
strode confidently that direction.

Becca prayed that Nolan knew what he was doing and followed
suit.

As they walked, they lost sight of Nolan briefly, and when
they rounded the corner and came into the marketplace courtyard, they found
that he had shifted back to human form. The dragons didn’t seem upset about
this change or surprised, so they must have realized at some point that he was
not a dragon like they were.

“Hey.” Nolan greeted them with a boyish smile. “So, you’re
not going to believe this, but they’re from a far northern clan of dragons.
They said they heard me down here going into battle mode when we escaped, and
they were worried, so three of them were dispatched to see what was going on.”

“They
heard
you?” Trev’nor demanded incredulously.
“Nolan, do you realize how much distance is between here and the northern
dragon lands?!”

“A lot,” Nolan answered, tone awed. “But it apparently
doesn’t matter to dragons. They can communicate with each other no matter the
distance.”

“You don’t say,” Becca breathed, regarding the pretty blue
dragon near her with open wonder. “I wonder how?”

“It’s not something they question, as the ability is innate,
so I’ll have to study to figure it out.” Nolan’s tone said plainly that he
would
figure it out. “Anyway. They heard ‘young male dragon in trouble’ and came over
as quickly as they could, but when they got here, I was of course no longer in
dragon mode, so they couldn’t find me. They’ve been circling this general area
for the past few days, not knowing what to do, until they heard me again just
now.”

Hence why they’d come in at such blazing speed. “And now
what?”

“Hold on, you came in mid-conversation.” Nolan turned back
to them, neck stretched, mimicking their movements as closely as human anatomy
would let him.

Becca watched and found that she couldn’t follow what they
were saying at all, and yet she could, somehow. They seemed to speak in some
combination of body language, and sounds, and something else that she was
missing. Telepathy? Although it wasn’t the type that a human could pick up on,
not like a nreesce’s. The sounds were growls, or snorts, or soft wuffs of air,
like and unlike nonverbal communication that a human might employ.

They at first seemed to be listening to Nolan more than
anything, only occasionally making some sound that might have been a question
or statement. Then all three flared up, wings snapping out, ridges on their
necks going into sharp spikes, and steam coming out of their mouths. Becca
flinched back in alarm, as she had never seen an angry dragon before. The sight
of them would have given a guilty man heart failure.

Whatever Nolan said next, it made them even more angry, as
the large green dragon let out a roar of sound that was nigh deafening and a
short burst of flame.

Trev’nor put an arm around her waist, leaning in to murmur, “I’ll
drop us onto the Earth Path if they start torching the city.”

Becca had intended to catch a strong gust of wind and ride
it a short distance to the outside of the city. She’d learned the trick from
one of her professors. But it would be vastly safer underground with Trev’nor,
so she nodded adamant approval of this plan.

Their fears proved groundless as Nolan continued talking.
The dragons simmered down into a cold anger, their wings came in to be
half-furled, but the alarming steam disappeared.

Nolan stepped back and turned to them with an update. “Well,
I explained to them the situation and what’s been happening to us. They’re
very, very upset about it all. In their living memory, the magicians have
always been their friends. Not all of them are willing to be paired up with
magicians, of course, but they still like us fine. So to hear that this whole
country is enslaving magicians has them…” Nolan paused here. “This doesn’t
translate to human speech very well. They had a particular phrase for it. ‘Head
in an egg’ I think is the best way to translate it.”

“Extremely frustrated?” Trev’nor offered.

“And angry, too, yeah that’s the kind of feeling. Anyway.”
Nolan gestured very politely to the oldest dragon, using not an arm, but his
whole torso to lean toward that direction. “He is an elder in the dragons, very
old and respected, and is in charge of younglings like these two. It’s part of
the reason why he came, because I’m also a youngling, so I fall under his
responsibilities. He said that he thinks the clan will be willing to help us.”

Becca felt the world tilt on her. She either hadn’t heard
him right or she wasn’t understanding what Nolan said. “Help us. How?”

“Fight, protect, guard the magicians.” Nolan was bouncing on
his toes in excitement. “Isn’t it great? We were wondering what to do, since we
didn’t have an army, but if we ask it right then the dragons might
be
our army.”

“Because they’d be protecting magicians?” Trev’nor’s head
was half-shaking, half-jerking back as if he couldn’t quite process this.
“Nolan, how’d you convince them of that?”

“Well, I haven’t really, we need to go to their clan head
directly to talk about this. But we’re invited to go now and speak to them.”
Nolan blinked ingenious eyes at them, all innocence. “Want to go with me?”

Trev’nor response was immediate. “You bet your life I do.”

“You are
so
not leaving me behind,” Becca replied
fervently.

“Then load up,” Nolan offered, hand outstretched. The Life
Mage almost glowed in anticipation. “I’ll bring you with me.”

The green dragon lowered his head to where it was more eye
level with them and gently bumped his nose against Nolan’s side. He blew out a
long stream of warm air from his nostrils, eyes dipping and flaring open,
revealing eyes of pure gold.

“Oh, really?” Nolan cocked his head and translated for them,
“He says it’s better if we each ride a different dragon. It’s not that we’re
heavy or anything, but they’re afraid that their hands will cramp up after a
certain point if one of them tries to hold onto all three of us.”

That made sense. Becca knew, from Krys, that it was not
feasible to ride a dragon’s back without a saddle first. Riding along in their
claws was the only option. “I’m game?”

“Me too.”

The elder dragon blew out another stream of air, head
inching in closer.

Nolan responded in kind, eyes flaring and narrowing, blowing
out a breath, tilting his head. What it all meant was a mystery to Becca.
“What’s he asking?”

“He wanted to know what kind of mages you two are. He also
said it might be best if I ride in with him; that way he can set me down
straight in front of the clan head.” Nolan rubbed at the back of his head
before offering, “Sounds like there’s some sort of hierarchy in place and the
two younger dragons can’t directly go to the clan head’s side without
permission.”