AOA Book III

Chapter 14.4 - Old Friends

There came a sudden swell of motion and energy in the sky to the left. It was so tremendous that Kota's concentration broke and he looked up. What could only be a dragon came darting down from the stars. White fire puffed from its reptilian snout as its wings drew back, and it flew at the craith force. A ball of that flame the size of a wagon wheel shot from the creature's jaws, whipping down to the army in half a second and ripping a dozen of the dark soldiers' bodies apart in a searing burst of white.
The dragon soared over the army and shot back up into the sky, yet at the base of its arc, a human-shape dropped from its back and landed only a few paces in front of Kota, facing the craith.
"Hello, old friend," the figure said as Kota stared at back of the shaved head. His right hand was raised, and already a spell of enormous power was forming in front of his palm—a swirling construction of refracting light that gleamed every color imaginable. <My dragon is going to drop behind us in a few seconds,> Cassian's psychic voice whispered in Kota's mind. <I need you to get Iona onto his back.>
"Alright," Kota grunted, rising.
The shaven head gave a slight nod, and then Cassian unleashed what could only be the legendary Drathnakal at the craith, the closest of which were now only a dozen paces away. The spell thundered forward in a lateral vortex, obliterating everything in its path. Craith bodies shattered before the power, as did their weapons and the very ground beneath them. The Drathnakal tore forward through the army, consuming bodies five and six at a time. Even in the face of all that destruction, the undead rushed forward and around their fallen brothers.
"Now, Kota!" Cassian shouted.
Kota wasted no time assessing whether Cassian could handle the coming army but turned around. The dragon was indeed dropping from the sky only a few paces away from Iona. Kota rushed toward them both and scooped Iona into his arms. She let out a whimper of shock as he brought her to the dragon's side and placed her atop the scaly back. The creature gave no protest to this, but remained perfectly still as the confused girl grabbed a pair of scaly spikes to steady herself.
"W-what's happening?" Iona squeaked.
Kota reached for her hands and squeezed them tighter on the dragon's hard flesh. He thought perhaps he understood Cassian's plan, and he said: "You have to hold on as tight as you can."
Iona gasped, but did as he asked, and immediately the dragon lurched forward and spread its enormous wings. She let out a scream as the two of them shot up into the sky. Almost the instant they did, near a hundred arrows flew in their direction, but they were stopped short in the air. Kota could feel power leaping up from Cassian, Keska, and—standing to his right with a fierce upward stare—Livia. Still screaming, Iona rose with the dragon over the trees, and then the two of them disappeared into the night sky.
The battle came to an abrupt halt. Every craith on the battlefield froze simultaneously, and, it seemed, every single one of them turned toward Cassian, who stood before several dozen charred corpses.
"You will never find her," Cassian said, gazing around and meeting the undead eyes beneath the metallic masks. Kota knew well he was not speaking to the craith, but to their master, Tacitus Adronicus. "Not even the demon king himself could catch my dragon in the sky." The hint of a smirk played across Cassian's features as he gazed about at the metal-masked faces. "I know the places you still fear to tread, my emperor. Can you guess which one I have chosen?"
There was a very long silence from the undead army. Kota glanced sidelong at his sword, which was a dozen paces away on the grass, lying next to Soulic's strange, glowing dagger. Iona's sister, Livia, stood a few paces away from him. She was breathing nervously, yet not cringing. The two of them shared a glance. Gorlick had risen to his feet a dozen paces away with his enormous sword back in his hands. He was ready for combat once more even with arrows sticking out of his back and legs. Soulic had moved very near to Cassian, and he had a sword in one hand and a long dagger in the other. Keska was perhaps twenty paces to the right, and she stood before a small mountain of corpses very similar to Cassian's. Everyone seemed on edge and ready to resume the fight.
Almost in perfect unison, the craith army took a step back in the direction they had come, and then they all turned and began to flee. Livia let out a long exhalation and slumped next to Kota as the dark army disappeared back into the trees without so much as a hint of further attack. Within ten heartbeats, they were gone without a trace save the distant rumbling of their march through the forest.
"Shit," Cassian hissed, and he put a hand on his brow and rand it backward over his stubbly scalp.
For a brief moment, Kota was perplexed by this reaction, until Keska came marching toward Cassian shrieking: "Telemachus—I can't feel him!"
"I know," Cassian panted. He sounded very troubled.
"Is he dead?!" Keska screamed.
"No," Cassian muttered, shaking his head. "He must still be alive."
"You don't know that!" Keska shrieked, rushing up to him. "I am more connected to him than you've ever been, Cassian, and I can feel NOTHING!"
Cassian let out a slow breath through his nose and whispered: "Telemachus has to be alive."
"How do you know?" Keska almost sobbed.
"Because they turned and left us," Cassian said, raising his arm in the direction the craith had gone. "Tacitus would sacrifice every craith in the empire just for the chance to kill us, but he chose to call them back because he does not know if I have hidden troops in the forest." Cassian shook his head. "He has a prize, Keska—one that is important enough to him to protect that he is willing to let us run free in his empire." Cassian balled his fists. "Tacitus has his second gods-damned starborn to be turned to the forces of hell!"
"Oh gods," Keska whispered, her hands going to her mouth.
Livia drew in deep, troubled breath through her nose and swallowed. Then she dashed to Keska's side and put her hands on the princess's shoulder in a conciliatory embrace.
"Can we save him?" Kota exhaled, looking at Cassian, who seemed to know more than anyone else.
"Yes," Keska panted, almost glaring at her brother starborn. "Put that tactical genius I've been hearing about for all these years to something good!" Her eyes narrowed and she added in a more grating tone: "It was Dimitris who brought him down—or what was left of our magnificent brother after you killed him."
"I know it was," Cassian whispered. He stared down at the ground for a few heartbeats in perfect stillness, and then his eyes lifted, suddenly focused. "We have a small window in which to act. Tacitus will know better than to have his slave attempt to bring Telemachus all the way to the capital with just the remaining craith. Dimitris will almost certainly be travelling to join the northern army, most of which is about a day-and-a-half's ride east by my best information. If that happens—"
"We'll never get Telemachus back," Keska snapped. "Fine. We best leave quickly then. Craith move very fast, don't they?" There was murder in her amber eyes.
"I'll go!" Kota said, breaking into a walk toward his sword.
"No," said Cassian. "You will continue to protect Iona." Keska glared at Cassian, but he met her harsh stare and said: "She is more important even than our brother."
"Just have your damned dragon take her somewhere safe so we can all go on the offensive!" Keska snapped.
"Not an option," Cassian responded with a shrug. "You and I will need Titus with us in order to outmaneuver Dimitris." He turned suddenly to Livia and said: "No, you should be with your sister as well. Keska and I will go alone." Her blue eyes stared intently at Cassian, and he seemed to respond again to something unheard: "She is already nearly back."
As if to give context to the words, the primal energy of the dragon tingled against Kota's animus sense from far above the trees, and then Cassian's dragon came swooping down with still terrified and shrieking Iona on his back. He landed a few paces in front of his master in a bit of a skidding slide that threw up dirt and jostled his poor passenger.
"Hello, Iona," Cassian said.
She glanced at him, but her eyes almost immediately fell upon Livia, who almost trembled as she ran to the dragon's side. Iona slid down the scaly hide and the two girls moved together in a fierce embrace.
Cassian stared at them for a brief moment and then shifted his gaze rather abruptly to Gorlick. "You—ogre, come here," he said.
Gorlick bristled at this, his right upper lip curling as if to emphasize teeth as he said: "My name is—"
"Gorelum, but you became known as 'Gorlick' around the time you started committing murders for that little piece of rat shit, Arkas," Cassian said. He walked toward Gorlick, who was uneasily gripping the haft of his Archdemon sword, which did not seem to worry Cassian in the slightest.
"Whadaya want?" Gorlick growled, taking an uneasy step backward.