The building was unassuming, as everyplace they worked had to be—in this case it was a low-lying series of broken warehouses that had once housed wagons, one of the few things the sky elves couldn’t store in the upper stories of their towers. Because all the essence potions had gone to the earth mage working at their other location, Leo and Feng had assigned a few Wyld mages to repair these builds, and a few unleveled people to pile broken parts in piles to make it look damaged and unappealing.

So far, the dragons had been woefully uninterested in the activities of the sky elves, beyond finding buildings that appeared rich and wrecking them to look for loot. Instead, they spent a great deal of their time digging outside the city to find the “great treasure” that Hugh and Zun had convinced the dragons existed, buried somewhere around the city.

Leo still took the precaution of dressing in a huge, ratty cloak—one with slits for wings—as he walked the streets. From time to time he also furtively glanced at the sky. He wasn’t very worried for his personal safety, but if any dragon saw him and took an interest, they could wreck their little rebellion early.

Leo pushed into the broken warehouse, fingering his newest magical item as he did, a ring with skyblue gems set in it. It’s great having intelligence on the enemy when they have none on you.

He found the entire ‘wing’ commanded by Azure Blade Feng inside. Two hundred sky elves, all with at least one level, most with two to four, and all with powers that allowed easier flight, the requirement to enter the elite sky elf fighting force. Most of those that were Level Three or Four also had Air abilities that granted them more accurate and more powerful archery abilities.

Right now, they were practicing with huge spears with giant weights on the end—the opposite of what would normally be a viable weapon. Each spear was about fifteen feet long and weighted at the end. The sky elves were climbing onto poles and practicing carrying the spears by holding them in the middle and then ‘dropping’ them, facing the spears downward, and catching the back.

Ninety percent of the practice they needed was aeriel, but they couldn’t chance it. Leo figuered ten percent practice was better than no practice.

As he entered, Feng was walking around, calling out instructions. “No one need die for the One Land if we practice this correctly. Remember to let go and use your magic at the last moment before impact and get away! Golden Coin Leo has told us that the weapons are devastating, but that half their power will go in the wrong direction. Do not be in that direction when the power is unleashed.”

“Yes, Azure Blade Feng!” the wing cried out, the voice of the sky elves filled with the pride and confidence Leo would expect from an elite team of Delta Force soldiers back on his home world. Each elf was lean and had clear musculature, more runner muscles than bodybuilder ones. Elves never really managed ‘bulk’ in Leo’s experience. They were an impressive force.

“How’re the soldiers doing, Azure Blade,” Leo asked Feng as he approached.

“They do well. As with almost all ascended soldiers, sitting and waiting as the plan didn’t sit well with them,” Feng said, adjusting the grip of a soldier slightly as he talked to Leo.

The soldier grinned savagely at both of them. “By the treatise, you speak truth, Golden Coin Leo. I wasn’t so keen on you at first, being wingless and a coin, both, but I admit you’ve won me over. You think like a warrior, not a damned penpusher.”

For the first time that Leo had seen, Feng’s face lost it’s serene look. “Blade Zhang Fei, you should not speak to your superior’s superior in such a treatiseless manner! You shall place yourself—”

“Whoa, whoa,” Leo interrupted before Feng could make an order Leo wouldn’t want to countermand. “Don’t worry about it! His words are not, um, treastiseless when spoken to me. I asked for bluntness, and both warriors and bureaucrats have their time and their place… and this is a time for warriors. I forgive his lapse of judgment.”

Feng’s recovered his serene smile. “Please be more careful in the future, blade Zhang. This could have gone badly for you. But given our sueprior’s acceptance of your rudeness, and your willingness to fight a very dangerous battle, I shall magnanimously forgive you this time.”

Zhang smiled at Leo and, grip adjusted, did the drop and grab maneuver, managing to pull it off.

Feng kept walking. “As I was saying, Golden Coin Leo, morale is startlingly high… but without either aerial training or practical training on your new weapons, we’re going to be relying on a degree of luck, here.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“How well would your team fare against the dragons and wyrms if they didn’t have these weapons?” Leo asked.

“With the dragonflight? With apologies for bearing the bad news, we’d be slaughtered, Golden Coin. With our blades having a near ten-to-one advantage, against opponents about ten to twelve levels against us, we’d stand a chance, although we would lose many and possibly lose. But with the dragonflight making that mostly twenty to twenty-two levels? No chance at all, effectively. Slaughtered to the last feather is the assessment closest to the truth.”

“Well, the dragonflight should be ending any moment. So be ready, on Neha’s signal, to fight on a moment’s notice.”

“Of course, Golden Coin. If we win this, it won’t bring back the dead or repair the damage to our glorious city—but it’ll recover tens of thousands of years worth of elf work in terms of magical items, some of which give permanent benefits to the entire city. It would be easily worth all two hundred of my men and my worthless life as well to give that back to the Empire of the One Land. Any plan with any chance greater than nothing is worth giving our all, for the sake of our people and the treastises.”

At Feng’s words, a bunch of the soldiers called out, “Truth!”

“Well, good to know,” Leo said, again reminded of an elite fighting force. His people screamed ‘hooah!” but it had the same general vibe despite the very different word.

“Do you know when, exactly, the dragonflight will end?” Feng asked.

“It should be today or tom—” Leo said, but even as he was speaking, a subtle shift in the magic occurred. Of course it did as I was talking about it, Leo thought.

Feng met his eyes. “Now?”

Leo nodded. “Yes. Assemble your soldiers, attach the weapons to the spears, and wait for Neha’s signal!”

Feng nodded.

Leo ran, slamming the door open as he did. He hit the road at a dead run, his usual mile-every-four-minutes run that he could maintain for hours. He would have gone faster if he could fly, but he didn’t want to give away his position. Not yet. In all likelihood it would be hours until he was needed at his destination.

But it could be minutes. It all depended on Hugh.

He reached the destination, the prepared fake vault, in a mere three minutes. Lily was already outside as Leo ran up. She was again ‘dressed’ in her queen outfit—golden circlet, intricate white dress, emerald jewelry.

As Leo ran up, she kissed him, and magic flowed between them—a tricksy mind magic that wanted to paint a new reality over the old. Leo’s look changed as well, to an older sky elf in armor, with huge wings behind him.

“I’ll be nearby,” she said, briefly taking his hand. “Scream if you need healing.”

Leo laughed. He could see the tightness around her eyes and feel the tension in her hand, and knew she was scared. But he was glad she was joking about it.

“Are we ready?” she asked.

Leo gave one sharp nod. “Yes. Head down, into the side passages, and tell Andul to be prepared.”

Leo glanced around. He spotted Neha waiting behind the shattered upper floor of a building, shielded from almost all viewers but able to see the front of the building where Leo was. His daughter gave him a wave and then saluted, grinning manically. She knew her part.

Now he just had to wait. Everyone had to wait for the dragons to take the bait.

***

Leo sat, bored out of his mind, on a collapsed wooden construction beam on the side of the road. It was getting late in the evening, and Leo had seen very little sign of the dragons. None had come for him, but he also hadn’t seen them flying through the sky, except briefly, right after the dragonflight ended. They had all flown about wildly for a bit, and then congregated near the shattered cathedral-palace at the center of the town—a slightly smaller one to the capital one in the city of Dayblossom.

But as he was waiting, wondering if anyone would take the bait, the largest dragon, white and blue scaled, rose from the complex and started to lazily head in Leo’s direction. It was almost forty feet long, about half the length greater than Hugh’s mom, Ann, was. It was a touch more sinuous, but not much, and Leo was pretty sure it weighed close to four times as much as she did—which was getting into whale sized beings, the only organic comparison he could think of.

Leo stood rapidly, headed over to the front of their fake vault, and assumed what he hoped was a heroic defensive pose—hand with the shield on his hip, sword held down-and-out in his other hand, chest out, head up.

As the dragon floated closer, Leo could hear Hugh running through the streets and calling out, “This way! I think it’s over here!”

The dragon glanced down, and in a voice deep even for a dragon, called back, “You’d better be right this time. I know we found the one piece of treasure, but it’s been a wild goose chase since then. You were the one that said the treasure was outside the town, lizard!”

“I’m so sorry,” Hugh called up. “But I’m sure of it! I found the vault!”

“Well, you are our digging dragon, so that makes sense,” the giant dragon said.

As the dragon came nearer, it caught sight of Leo, and flew down toward him.

Leo had seen Feng Gulung before, of course, as the massive dragon flew around. But it was his first time seeing him even slightly close-up. The dragon was huge, with it’s head about the same length as Leo. But it wasn’t The Ash Dragon huge, so while intimidating, it wasn’t quite as scary as it might have been.

Leo’s grip on his sword was still white-knuckled, however.

The dragon landed in the road in front of Leo. “Who are you, elf?”

“I am Lee Stardew, guardian of the vault of the sky kings. You shall not take this treasure to waste away in your caves, vile wyrm! Not if I, and the treatise, have anything to say about it!”

Leo rose into the air, his fake wings ‘flapping’ behind him. He pointed Moonfall at his enemy.

The dragon smiled, an expression all teeth. “You don’t.”

He opened his mouth and the storm poured forth.