Warlords Rising (21 page)

“What it sounds like to me is that Becca should focus on
strategic strikes and pushing soldiers into the same area. Once she’s herded
them together, then Trev’nor can box them in and keep them from attacking.”
Nolan stared blindly forward. “The dragons can be used as guards to keep them
from trying anything, but also as a scare tactic to keep them from forming up
any ranks or utilizing their defenses properly.”

“That will be not only the best way to use them, but the
safest,” Trev’nor agreed. He felt privately relieved about this as they had
promised the dragon chief that they wouldn’t put his dragons into dangerous
situations if they could help it. “Becca, I think this is a pretty good plan.
It’s rough, so I think we should form up and do a few practice runs at Rurick
today until we have a feeling for it.”

“Practice runs only work if someone’s defending,” she
pointed out. “Should we take turns being the enemy?”

“Why not? I’ll go first if you want me to.” Trev’nor wanted
to do this for the simple reason that it would give him a chance to really
study the city’s defenses, which was information he would need to know later to
attack them properly. Hopefully Tiergan’s defenses were similar. That would be
extremely helpful if they were. “Nol, if you want to explain to the dragons?”

“Sure. Meet you outside in an hour.”

They spent a full day doing dry runs at Rurick. Becca was
fervently grateful for the boys’ insight on this, because it was apparent on
the first try that the dragons had a limited grasp on what they needed to do.
It took three runs before they were all in the right places at the right time,
and five before they stopped flying into each other.

Becca also learned, really learned, how Trev’nor and Nolan
thought as they battled. She’d fought along with them as sparring partners, so
when it came to non-magical fighting, she knew how to predict them. But on an
open ground with large group tactics, they didn’t necessarily fight the same
way, and she’d lost three mock battles in a row before learning that lesson.

Really, they could stand more practice. That day had done
them a great deal of good, but no army can form itself up in a day, even when
formed at the core with three childhood friends. They just didn’t feel like
they had time to keep sitting around practicing. It was a miracle that no one
had come to bother Rurick again, in Becca’s opinion.

They left the next morning on dragon-back, more equipped
than when they had started out. The three had gone scavenging for the supplies
they needed and now had proper goggles and leather helms to keep hair out of
their faces. Becca had thrown out basically every skirt she’d brought with her
and now solely wore pants. Wearing a skirt on dragon-back was completely
impractical.

In terms of flight time, Tiergan was very close, barely four
hours away. They did not issue a warning to the city, or declare anything to
them, just flew in fast and hard. Becca called in a storm as she rode, and it
hovered over them in a rolling mass of dark clouds. It was surely an odd sight
to the inhabitants of the city. They saw storms coming in off the ocean,
certainly, but never from the east before.

Nolan and Llona veered sharply left, coming in and around
the city. Trev’nor and Garth dropped further toward the ground, probably to
give Trev’nor the best vantage possible. Becca’s task was to take out the
government buildings as quickly as possible, leaving the garrisons up to the
boys. Her targets were clearly defined by the large banners hanging off the
sides of the buildings. They were the same color and design as the ones in
Rurick, so the map that they had been looking at was accurate—Rurick was part
of Trexler. Did that mean that with this city, they would halve Trexler’s
fighting force?

Part of Becca felt that was a little optimistic.

She had to be very, very careful in how she struck. In
Rurick, Becca had been mad enough that if a few buildings aside from her target
went up in flames, she hadn’t cared. But here, they couldn’t afford that kind
of carelessness. Part of the reason why she had a storm raging above her head,
rearing to be released, was to put out the flames after she started them.

From here, she couldn’t hear much of anything, but she could
see people frantically running around. They were about the size of ants from
this distance, but it didn’t take seeing their expressions to know they were
terrified. This area of the country hadn’t seen a dragon in living memory,
after all. Even Kaya was likely nothing more than rumor mill to them.

Becca urged her dragon to fly in tight circles so that she
could not only strike her key targets, but monitor them afterwards. With a
flick of the wrist, she hit three main buildings with lightning and watched
with a sort of macabre satisfaction as they sizzled and burst into flame.
People launched themselves out of the building left and right, using windows if
they couldn’t get to a door. Seeing people flee for their lives actually
relieved her. It would be fewer bodies to count for her.

Spying two other buildings, she urged her dragon up and
around toward them, then struck them with the same precision. They weren’t
nearly of the same size, so rather than burn, the lightning nearly demolished
them in one strike. She was quick to encourage rain in that area, to douse the
flames before they could spread to the whole city.

Coming back around, she found that her attention had
lingered a little too long on her secondary targets, and the flames had hopped
the street onto another building that didn’t look like it had anything to do
with the government. Oops. Well, Trev’nor would help her fix it later. Becca
called on the rain here, too, dousing the fire.

Anywhere else? She couldn’t see any more banners, at least. Soaked
to the skin, she guided her dragon to fly out of that area of the city and
toward where the boys were fighting. Or where they had been fighting, at least.
When she went back toward the front gates, she found almost the entirety of
Tiergan’s guard locked up in an impromptu rock jail made by Trev’nor, with
several dragons perched on top of the wall and looking at the guards as if they
were contemplating a mid-day meal.

Becca knew very well that dragons did not eat people. Was
she going to stop and explain that to any of the guards? Well, perhaps later.
Much later.

Without her direction, Becca’s dragon back flapped hard and
came in to land next to Garth. The elder dragon had draped himself along the
wall, next to Trev’nor side, and toyed with the guards by idling poking at them
with the tip of his tail. The guards were white and shaking, trying to dodge,
but there wasn’t enough room for them to maneuver more than two feet in any
direction.

“How is it going?” Becca asked Trev’nor.

The Earth Mage looked up with a shrug. “I think we have most
of them. How many guardsmen did you see inside the city?”

“They ran to the front defenses pretty quickly. I didn’t see
anyone lingering.”

“Then we basically have only the ones left on the top of the
wall.” Trev’nor frowned in that direction. “This city looks an awful lot like
Rurick, did you notice?”

She had, actually. “The layout’s a little different, but the
center of the city was almost an exact replica. Are all of the cities like
this?”

“Surely not. Maybe it’s because they’re all of the same warlord’s
territory?”

That could be it. “Where’s Nolan?”

“He went dragon at some point and is flying around to make
sure that we got everything. He’s communicating with me via Garth.”

Flying around as she had been, Becca wouldn’t have been able
to hear much of anything that her dragon said, so it was probably wise that she
had been given a separate task from the boys. Becca surveyed the area again, a
frown forming. “This was far easier than Rurick had been.”

“It really was,” Trev’nor agreed, almost disapprovingly. “I
think it’s because of where they’re located. They’re in the far corner,
protected on all sides, so I think they don’t get attacked more than once a
century. The guards were like sloths responding.”

That did make sense. And it was part of the reason why they
had chosen to strike Tiergan first. “Well, I guess that means we’ve won?”

“We’ve won.” Trev’nor puffed out a breath. “Now comes the
hard part.”

This was not a repeat of Rurick in one simple way: none of
the citizens had been allowed to flee. With dragons perched on top of the walls
in every direction, no one had dared to get close to the gates, and so instead
huddled in the middle of the city like confused sheep. This made the mages’ job
easier as they didn’t have to wait for people to get brave enough to return to
their homes.

Becca went with Trev’nor and Nolan to the center of the
group, noting that some people were hiding in their houses, or any building
they felt safe in. Only a few were brave enough to be out in the open still,
although they were huddled together under a stone portico to shield them from
the eyes of their aviator guards.

Being the best in Khobuntish still, Nolan went a little
ahead and gave the group a proper greeting. “I am Vonnolanen, Life Mage of
Chahir. I wish to speak with the governor or Rikkana of this city.”

There was a moment of taut silence. Everyone stared at Nolan
as if he had announced he was a mythical being come to life. Which, maybe, he
had. For all that they had witches and wizards here, Becca had yet to see a
mage. No one in the crowd moved, or even seemed to breathe, for several long
moments until finally one man in front cleared his throat and offered,
“Governor’s dead.”

“I see. And who might you be?”

He didn’t shrink at gaining Nolan’s undivided attention
although he looked as if he dearly wanted to just jump into a hole and pull the
ground in over him. “Sosa. I’m Head of Artillery Construction.”

Becca leaned closer to Trev’nor. “A civilian doing a
military job?” she whispered.

“Maybe,” he whispered back. “Or maybe he’s part of the guard
but only does construction work.”

“A pleasure, Master Sosa. I’m sure you’re wondering—”
everyone within earshot was included in this ‘you’— “why we have conquered this
city.”

“Yes,” the man agreed carefully, uncertain how to address
someone with magic properly. “Yes, we are.”

“In truth, it’s because of how you treat your magicians.”
Nolan’s smile hadn’t faltered but there was a hard set to the expression that
made him a little scary. “Magicians are not slaves. We will not tolerate having
them treated as ones.”

Sosa glanced at the people around him and there was a low
rumble as people muttered to themselves. Becca picked up a random word here and
there but mostly she heard confusion.

Nolan launched into an explanation of exactly where the
magicians originally came from, what had happened to the three of them when
they traveled into Khobunter, and why they were fighting to reclaim Khobunter
to right the wrong. He started using words Becca didn’t know, and her attention
wandered, since she knew more or less what he would say anyway.

No one knew what to make of it. Becca watched their
expressions, their body language, and saw that the people here didn’t
understand his reasoning at all. They understood that they had three fully trained
mages that were angry with them and that was all they were truly getting.

“Trev.”

Trev’nor turned to her, head cocked, listening.

“This isn’t working.”

“It’s not,” he agreed. His own words spurred him forward and
he stepped up, clapping Nolan’s shoulder, stopping the other mid-sentence.
Leaning in, he whispered something, and Nolan nodded slowly in support.

Decided, Trev’nor looked up and gave the audience a smile.
“I’m Trev’nor, an Earth Mage of Chahir. One question for all of you: do you
like your government here? Do you like your warlord?”

No one dared to speak out.

Trev’nor tried again. “It’s alright to answer the question
honestly. I’m just curious, as the people of Rurick hated him. I’m not asking
if your warlord is a good one or not, just if you like him.”

There was some uneasy shifting and glances, but people
didn’t respond still. No one said any praise, or offered any support to the
government and warlord they had. The silence spoke volumes.

“Right, then, we’ll simplify this for you. We,” Trev’nor
pointed between himself and Becca, “are going to conquer Khobunter and replace
the government you have. It will be far more fair and tolerant than what you’ve
been living under. The only demand we have, aside from your cooperation, is
that you treat the magicians as citizens of Khobunter and not slaves.”

They didn’t know what to make of that, either. Becca knew
that it wouldn’t be a simple matter to change their minds or the traditions
that were engrained here. Notifying them first of what their conquerors felt was
only an initial step and nothing more.

Nolan heaved out a somewhat resigned breath. “Just…keep that
in mind. The dragons are here to make sure this place stays under our control.
They will not hurt you.” He paused, waiting to see how this was taken, then
continued, “Where are your slaves?”

Since Sosa had already spoken up, he was unanimously voted
as the spokesman for the city. Very uneasy, he stepped forward and led the way.