The wind was rushing past him, whipping his pajamas this way and that. That they were trying to defend an invasion in their pajamas was absolutely ridiculous to him. The world had grown so large so quickly for him, and he wasn’t sure he kept up with it.
Sayori’s screams faded away as he fell. He hoped the two ladies could survive the onslaught. More alarms were screeching in the night, alerting more of the guards to the invader’s presence. As he fell, he watched all the dotted figures fighting along the walls. They truly were trying to take people out in one fell swoop.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, trying to figure out what he was going to do. If he neared the ground, would he be able to use water to slow his fall again? The ground was still solid, unlike the underground lake he had done it to before. It would still hurt, still possibly kill him.
His body lurched as he was yanked through the air. Claws wrapped around him tightly, ferrying him back toward the building, toward a dock sticking off one of the lofts. The touch of the creature sent ripples across him. It was comforting and familiar. Zuma had caught him.
He didn’t even know how the creature was able to sense him when he couldn’t sense anything else. Whatever ward they may have might only work against the humans. They may not of even thought about the bond the dragon has to their rider.
Setting him down lightly on the dock, he crawled away and let them preen at him. He was so thankful they had sensed his panic and found him, even in the middle of the air. He would have been lost without them. They huffed at him and threw their head back, indicating for him to climb atop.
Zuma didn’t have any harness or saddle, but there wasn’t time to even make something work. He had to just hold on as tightly as he could and hope it worked out. In a few quick steps, he was atop them and they were flying back up toward his companions.
Sayori and Evonne were fighting with a passion he didn’t know was possible. Zuma had to dodge out of the way from several thrown stones. Sayori knocked off an invader before gasping as she noticed Kaden atop Zuma.
“Oh, my… I thought we lost you. Thank the gods for dragons.”
Evonne blasted another as they were nearing them, searing their rope, causing them to fall. She turned around and said, “You need to get your dragon away from the walls, I’ve already seen—”
Kaden felt Zuma lurch forward as he felt the weight of someone behind him. It didn’t take him long to understand what she meant when he was dodging jabs by the assailant. Zuma was flicking her tail and twisting around, trying to shake them off. He didn’t have a good grasp on them and no safety equipment. If he didn’t get them off soon, she’d knock him off, too.
Using his body weight, he threw his shoulder into the attacker. They tried to balance atop the moving dragon, but slipped off their scales. Using a metal hook, they could save themselves by embedding it deep into Zuma’s thigh.
A guttural scream flew out of them as they tried to pull themselves back atop Zuma. Kaden tried to lean over and remove the hook from their flesh, but they were twisting and turning in the sky. He was having a hard time just holding on. They flattened their flight out for a moment, and he didn’t waste the opportunity to yank the hook from them. The attacker had nothing else to hold them up before Zuma’s leg kicked them off. They screamed as they fell to their death.
Looking around, he saw several attackers doing the same to the dragons that were joining the fight. They were wearing wind suits, not unlike the makeshift one that Reese had created. He watched as several covered a young red dragon, swarming it like insects. The horrid scream that reverberated through his mind from the dragon made him nauseous. They were clipping their wings and forcing them to crash.
Motion caught his eye as one of these fliers was headed his direction. Pulling the air in around him, he pulled the moisture and did what he had before, hardened them into ice. Forcing his will forward, he thrust it at the wings of the suit, destroying them. It worked, the attacker plummeted to the ground far below.
Looking up, he watched as Reese was dancing atop his own dragon, Beelin. They must have found each other in the fight out there. He couldn’t make out what color they were in the low light, but he knew that pajamaed figure was Reese, so he could only assume it was Bee.
The man was magnificent. Together, they were flying in and out of groups of the fliers, knocking them right out of the air. He was still jumping off and using his suit to fly before coming back to rest atop his dragon. The air mages were wild to watch with a dragon. He could only wonder how much better they would be if they were fully equipped with the proper gear.
He had little time to watch in amazement as another set of fliers were coming his way. He didn’t know how well his aim would be to knock out several of them at once. They were going to reach them. They would do damage to Zuma. He only hoped they wouldn’t clip their wings before he could get them off.
A silver streak flew by and the group of fliers were instantly incinerated. Passing by him, he recognized the shorter man who had accompanied the Lord Commander when they had first been brought in. The white mages were finally there.
Kaden relaxed slightly atop his dragon as he saw a few more mounted mages joining the fight. They were easily taking out the attackers. He had to remember that while they were magic users, the four of them were newer, new riders even. Their skills did not compare to those that were flying around them. Reese was the only one of them with several years of magical experience. The way he danced in the wind was evidence of that.
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Moving back in toward Sayori and Evonne, he pulled Zuma’s neck toward the citadel. Throwing darts of ice as often as he could, they were clearing out the attackers at a remarkable speed. The ones on the walls were fully attempting to flee now.
He watched as Sayori flipped through the air, her lead flopping around as she did so. They had managed to box several of them in. What were they attempting to do? Evonne was providing her cover, and they were able to keep them close, unable to flee.
Flying nearby on Zuma, he said, “What are you doing?”
“Capturing,” Evonne yelled back.
The serpents looked at one another and nodded. One cut their lead, letting their body fall. Evonne was so startled she didn’t even attempt to catch them. The body fell past her, tumbling down. They had no wings on their outfit and had no hooks. They just willingly sacrificed themselves so they wouldn’t be caught.
Evonne yelled as the second one was trying to cut their own lead. Sayori forced stone beneath them, causing them to fall with an audible thud even from where Kaden was sitting. The third one tried to climb over the stone, but Zuma wasn’t about to let that happen. They blew a blast of cold air, freezing the remaining two in place on the stone.
Looking above, the rest of the serpents were crawling away, into rooms and onto balconies. Several mages were now waiting on those balconies and instead of submitting to them, they too jumped to their death. What insane people would do such a thing?
The sun was rising behind them, coloring the walls with an orange tint. A green shimmer bounced off it and he turned around to see the brilliant emerald green dragon floating nearby with Reese on top.
“Glad to see you guys are still alive.” He nodded to Kaden. “That was a nice dive you made. Glad you got through to Zuma to catch you in time. We’ll make a wind mage out of you yet.”
He let out an exasperated laugh. Diving was not what he had done, but after what he had seen Reese do, flying around Beelin as they fought off assailants, it probably looked like he had done just the same.
If the wind mages were so in tune with flight like Reese was, they had to be a force to be reckoned with. He hoped they would never have to do battle. Reese was probably correct in what he had said before, he probably could have out flew the white mages. He wasn’t going to doubt the guy’s skill at all anymore.
The white dragon flew near them, eyeing them up and down in their pajamas. “Blue dragon boy. What do you know?”
“House of the serpent, again.” Meinor rolled his eyes at them, but Kaden continued. “We caught them trying to assassinate us in the night. When we came out, we found this mess. No one else had been alerted at that point.”
He squinted at the frozen serpents. “How many there?”
Sayori motioned back to them and said, “we made a fine haul today. Two for the price of one frozen serpent!”
He rolled his eyes again at them. “Keep them contained. They keep killing themselves before we’re able to interrogate them. I will have some of my men come join you in a moment.”
Without saying anything else, he flew off.
Reese frowned and said, “what was that guy’s problem?”
“He was with the Lord Commander when we arrived. So far, he’s always been like that,” Kaden explained.
Evonne started trying to wipe her soot covered hands off on her pants. They all looked down at their pajamas in the warming light and laughed. They looked ridiculous out there fighting fully armed soldiers, but they had, and they had lived.
Sayori’s expression firmed. “I hope one of those dragons they clipped wasn’t Taldor.”
“I didn’t see any earth dragons out there among them,” reassured Reese. “I did what I could to stop them.”
She nodded, but Evonne spoke up. “They couldn’t have been here for just us, right?”
“No, no.” Sayori shook her head. “I think it was another case of us being in the right place at the right time. I’m so glad you two caught them in the night. They may have been able to take us all out in our sleep.”
“He was in our loft,” squealed Evonne. Realization was hitting her how close they had gotten to being assassinated.
Reese motioned over to Kaden and said, “this fool woke me up in time.”
“What were you doing awake?”
Kaden shrugged. “It’s been a crazy few days and I couldn’t sleep. My mind wouldn’t shut up and I happened to catch them sneaking in. I didn’t know what to do, so I woke Reese up and, well, you were all there for the rest.”
Beelin’s wings were flapping slowly, easily keeping them afloat. Kaden watched as Zuma had to beat theirs twice as fast to keep the same buoyancy. The difference in the different breeds of dragons was remarkable. He wanted to learn about each of them and how they worked.
They heard a rumble of a growl and he knew what was coming. Taldor flew dramatically into the wall, hitting it with force. It was crawling horizontally on the wall, using the stone to brace itself. He couldn’t believe that the dragon was walking on the side of the building like it was, but it closed the gap between itself and Sayori. She squealed with delight as she pet its thick nose.
“Evonne, can you feel Jerri now?”
She looked at him with concern in her eyes. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and looked as if she was trying to focus. They popped back open with shock and she started nodding quickly. “Yes, yes. Jerri is fine. They are in the skies with the rest of the crimson dragons.”
Kaden let out a sigh of relief. All four of their dragons had survived. Whatever the House of the Serpent was attempting, they hadn’t been able to take out the four of them at least. There had been an assassin in their room, so they indeed were targets, just not the only ones.
He wondered how many people had fallen victim to them. The next few hours were going to be tragic and hectic. They thought their entrance was problematic. This was going to be a disaster. The thought of it made him laugh. He couldn’t help let the belly laugh roll over him.
They all gave him bewildered looks. He managed to say through laughs. “We were supposed to be on our best behavior to avoid causing a scene.”
Sayori looked down at the frozen assassins next to her on her makeshift stone platform and started laughing at herself. She looked around her as the sun was lighting up the morning. All the random juts of stone coming out of the side of the citadel looked like a mess.
“Hey, at least we stopped a lot of them,” Evonne said as she started giggling too. “We murdered a lot of people.”
They all stopped and looked at her awkwardly. She gave a half-hearted smile before dropping her head, tears falling down her cheeks. She wasn’t wrong. They may have saved a lot of lives, but they all took so many that evening. The four of them now had a higher body count than most mages ever will and they just started.
If the visions he had were any indication, this was just the beginning. The four of them would have a lot more numbers to add to that. The chilling thought ached at his soul. They could argue they were just defending themselves, but they had killed people, a lot of people.
They were going to have to get used to it.