I delved into the magic on the island, feeling its connection to the sky and careful not to sever it lest I expose everyone to what had to be dawn by now. Once that aspect of the illusion was protected, I hovered into the air toward Archion, already picking at the rest of the illusion. The overall design was some great work, large in scope, but they hadn’t equipped it with any fail-safes—once you started pulling on a thread, the whole sweater would unravel.
Why are the other riders on foot? Archion asked as I took out a bushy tree and let him lift into the sky. This was a place designed for unicorns—there wasn’t enough open space for the dragons’ great wings.
We need more numbers. They’ll take the ground, and the dragons can provide cover from the sky.
You might leave my back?
Possibly. One can never tell what will happen. Fly close to the tree line.
I continued working on the illusion, pulling faster now, wiping away the trees first. The ground began to shift into a flat, sandy surface. I watched over Archion’s shoulder for any stray unicorns that might have been revealed, but they’d all made it out. Most of the boats had docked, but a couple of them lingered in the murky water, their rowers pulling for all they were worth. They wouldn’t make it.
Can you handle the boats? I thought, seeing Darius lead the charge through the quickly disappearing trees. I skipped ahead in my thread pulling, working at the edge of the swamp where boats had docked. The illusion started to falter as Archion pumped his wings and gained speed. He swooped low, opening his maw and spewing fire across the boats still headed toward shore.
Magic blasted us from behind as flames enveloped the rowers, all of them stopping and throwing their hands up to ward off Archion’s wrath. Then they stopped moving, not able to combat fire. Good news for us.
Magic slapped us, then crushed. Archion faltered, tilting dangerously toward the right.
I turned toward the onslaught and found two elves standing side by side with their hands up. Saphira was right behind us, though, just cresting through the unraveling trees, and she didn’t hesitate to act. Her flame washed over them, catching them unaware. They spasmed and tried to turn, but it was too late. In moments, they were incinerated.
More and more trees cleared, leaving squatting elves caught with their pants down, so to speak, looking around wildly for cover that no longer existed. Coppelia slammed them with fire next, dipping low to get good and close. She wasn’t as powerful as Saphira or Archion, but it made her no less eager to join the battle. She charred the sandy ground and set fire to any trees that hadn’t yet cleared away.
I don’t like elf magic, Archion thought, gaining altitude now that the other dragons had handled the immediate threat. It makes me very angry.
He didn’t sound angry in his thoughts, and I had a suspicion this type of anger was cold and calculated. He was about to go on a killing spree. I was game.
Fire at will, I thought, watching Darius in his monster form zoom into the vicinity of the elves. He caught them as they turned to look up at the dragons, probably intending to combine their might against them. They were likely better at magical cooperation than old-school mages, but not the mages Penny and Emery were training up at the Guild, who would hopefully be meeting us at Roger’s shifter compound. Hopefully because Vlad had a way of infiltrating people you thought were loyal and turning them to his cause. It would be very interesting to see which sides people chose in all of this.
Myself included.
Can you protect your friends? Archion thought, swooping low again.
Yes. Burn the shit out of those bastards.
He roared, using his special brand of magic to freeze up everyone but Penny, who was behind Cahal one moment and in front of him the next. She’d become amazing at the mind over matter side of things.
As we neared, I covered Darius with ice magic. Archion blew fire, scorching elves and the ground alike. The elves on the periphery managed to jump to safety, but Darius was on them a moment later, slashing his claws through their middles or stopping to wrench off their heads.
Pick me up in a minute. I pushed up to standing and then jumped, allowing myself to free-fall for a moment, until I got below the oncoming dragons. Fire slashed into the exposed ground to my right, charring elves and sand, while I covered a spell-slinging Penny, and then Coppelia breathed fire to my left, and I shifted my protection to Cahal and Emery.
A shock of magic slammed into my back, knocking the breath out of me. Pain trickled through my middle and twisted, like it would snap my spine.