Dragon Falls (Indigo Apocalypse Book III)

Chapter Six: Come Fly With Me

ZAVALA:
    Flying as lookout gives one ample time to think. Which, in truth, was the reason why Huntor gave me the task. To give me the time to think, and, to grieve. Raveaque, Raveaque, oh Raveaque. Quiet as stone, yet only just recently starting to let loose and have a sense of humor. The stone to Draco's rushing wild water. The rock that kept him and I off the water, out the roiling waves of despair and agony. And yet, something we both took for granted. Something I had no idea of until it was evinced after his death. Draco flying off, disappearing for untold weeks, leaving me wanting to just dive into the torrid ocean of grief and despair, but unable to find the time to. I remember the way seeing Raveaque felt, the venom of the Ragni Di Morte, the bedlam of the battle. So unlike how I thought it would be. Neat smooth rows, each side delivering equal broadside, but that battle, that fight, bedlam, absolute bedlam, and death. Raveaque, oh, Raveaque. Draco's absolute denial, his rage, absolute rage at me, then at Kitana, his craving for her to bring Raveaque back, to stop him moving on. "He needs someone to blame, and I'm Death, I'm the one to blame."
    Those weren't her exact words, but I knew it would, would have been close. Draco had blamed her, had done exactly what Kitana expected, and still flown off to who knew where. But his return, seeing my brother again, knowing that he was still alive, still there, it filled me with hope, hope that perhaps Raveaque wasn't here, but Draco and I could still be a family. I swerved, my wings strong and straight as I banked and turned to lower a little. There was nothing to see, nothing to spot, nothing nothing nothing. So, I allowed my mind to wander, to fly as I was. I dove a little, the icy air feeling good on my wings, waking my body the rest of the way up. Then, it went to these royals, to the negotiations Huntor was dancing through. His words yesterday, that he would have taken their armies with or without their permission. I hadn't doubted him, hell, look at Zavala using human swear words. Anyway, I'd have assumed he'd have taken their armies in one way or another. We already had Qudorzo and Pheequa and Quedesha already, had Decre's consent to use those three, who were the best out of the entire Snow Kingdom army, in which there were thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands to command.
    Which, in a sense, would have been freezing hard for Huntor to command. Placing the armies across the continent, ordering them around, even hundreds of warriors, which he did prove was second nature to him, but thousands, was damned, oooh, there goes another one, damn near impossible to do. I nearly scoffed to myself. Huntor, impossible, Freezing Dragon Talons, he would never have known the meaning of impossible. "Impossible Zeej, the word impossible and the word indigo doesn't fit together in a sentence." Now that would be something he'd say. Snickering slightly, I arrowed toward a point, and watched Huntor, Kneecora, Arachne, Briella and Lorna walk through a little smattering of buildings. I landed on the roof of one, and just watched Kneecora. She stood, a seven foot tall Dracon with those turquoise wings so akin to my own. Those eyes, just like mine. They neared my vantage point, and she looked up, an instinct no doubt, always watching, always observing, always ready for a fight. A warrior through and through. We made eye contact and I gave her a wide smile. She smiled up at me, her eyes filling with love. The wind shifted, and I adjusted my stance a little to the sudden change. My blood ran cold as Kneecora stiffened, as the scent registered in my brain. "Ragni Di Morte." I opened my wings with a vicious thrust, the echo of them lashing overhead. A warning, a warning to Huntor and the others down below as the scent kept blowing, blowing from the South. I rose high high high above their heads, eying the terrain, looking looking.
    I whistled, a loud lash of sound that could be heard across the Snow Kingdom, across the silent terrain. I swooped through the air and landed by Huntor's side. "Should I shift?" I asked. Huntor already had his sword in hand, and Briella was already partially shifted into her lioness form, her fangs bared, claws extended as she stood. "Go ahead." He said. "Kneecora you take the rear, I don't want them to have the idea of getting behind us. Briella, you and Lorna take the flanks, Arachne and Zavala, you're with me." I fell forward, feeling the shift, the ripple of flesh into scales, the slight warm feeling as clothes melted into my scales. My talons extended and dug into the pebbles of the road. The wind shoved against us, a prelude to the battle to come. "How many?" Briella asked, her voice feral in her partial form. "Six spiders, huge carriage sized beasts, and three werewolves." Answered Huntor. "Fun." Briella snarled. Arachne reached for her forearm and ran her finger along the moon white flesh. Black scales replaced skin, and I realized she had activated her exoskeleton. In no time at all, her body was immured in that strange armor, her face mask looking haunting in the bright lights of the Northern Lights high high above. "Ready." Her usually high voice was deeper, more fluid, almost filled with venom. Then, they appeared. They marched in sync with each other, the werewolves were dressed in a warrior's garb. No parlay here, nothing but battle. "They are huge." Noted Briella. The lead wolf snarled as he stepped toward us, his brown eyes filled with hatred. I rose on my back legs and roared a deep bellow of challenge. Huntor smiled dominantly and said, "Now now girl, no need to show off."
    The Ragni attacked first, one leaping over Huntor's head and speeding for Kneecora's back with a gigantic, "whoosh" and the erroneous scent of venom. The spider landed and with a smattering and scuttling of great heavy legs it was upon her. She spun and whipped her arm out. Water appeared, lashing across the Ragni's pincers and freezing them together. The creature stumbled slightly, but shrieked and spun with the move, slamming it's abdomen into Kneecora's side. "Hmm," Commented Huntor. "She sent warriors this time." Kneecora swiped out with a leg and kicked the spider. Again, it stumbled, but didn't fall. It shook it's head, trying to dislodge the ice. The other five spiders faced us. Huntor flipped his sword. "Let's play." One wolf charged me, his legs moving swiftly even in his human form. I threw my body into his, and we both went flying, flipping across the pebbles. I landed on top and wasted no time in sinking my fangs into his throat. He jerked under me, but went still. I rose as a spider charged me. I swung out my tail and the Ragni dodged easily, pebbles skittering as it's legs sought traction. Snarling, I threw myself into the beast and sent it flying. But my body ached from the contact. It was like hitting a brick wall. Since I lived in the Symbol for a time, I was aware of how it felt. Huntor was currently in a sword fight between the last two wolves. Briella spun in and sank her claws into the neck of one, and Huntor lashed out at the second, gutting him.
A spider snapped at Briella. She spun, slashing her claws down it's leg. The spider barely reacted, her claws bouncing off the spider's exoskeleton, Briella swore viciously. The Ragni snapped again and Briella danced away, spinning and lashing her booted foot into one of it's many eyes. I threw myself at my spider and snapped my jaws around it's leg, or would've, if it hadn't scuttled back at the last moment. Huntor was surrounded by three, as the other two were busying Lorna and Arachne. "They're playing with us." Snarled Briella. "No kidding." Said Huntor calmly as he slashed his sword through one of the spider's legs. The creature shrieked and spun, it's bulbous abdomen lashing into Huntor. I saw the spinnerets working, silk evincing from them. "HUNTOR." I wanted to shout, tried to, but a warning roar exploded out of my chest. He rolled just in time to avoid the strike of silk, near invisible. Dressed in her dark exoskeleton, Arachne leapt on the back of one spider and brought her elbow down on it's head. There was a nasty wet crunch, and it's head imploded. Cracked like an egg. Shards of it's exoskeleton sank into it's head. Arachne threw out a silk line, a silk line the color of the purest Dragon Breath Falls water. She snagged a Ragni around the leg and it shrieked, in agony, in true agony as the silk line continued around it's leg. The spider began to turn to mud, the slowest turn I had seen yet.The one she was still on trembled as death started to take it. She drove her claws into it's skull and ripped off it's pincers. The other four watched with those horrifying eyes, then all faced us.
"Zavala," Commanded Huntor. "Get to the air, you too Kneecora." "What?" Snarled Briella. "Kneecora, grab Briella, Arachne you get Lorna and take to one of the rooftops." Without a word, Arachne grabbed Lorna around the waist and swung on a line up. I stared at Huntor in shock. No, Frozen Dung he was not about to sacrifice himself. But Kneecora grabbed a protesting Briella and flew upward. "GO ZAVALA." The order, the order. The bond between us went tight, as if it never died. My body moved of it's own accord, wings extending and flapping up up up up, clearing the rooftops where Arachne and Lorna laid on their bellies. Even from this height, I could clearly see Huntor. As the spiders converged on Him, he stomped his foot. The ground shuttered hard, a loud powerful quake that exploded outward from him. The spiders shuttered and fell over each other as their balance was thrown to dung. But wait, it gets better. As they fell over each other, huntor brought his foot down again, and the ground quaked. Oh but wait, it gets better, as he thrusted his hands toward the ground and outward in a mirror move of his mate, the ground started smoldering, then, started glowing. Oh but wait, it gets better still. The ground cracked like an egg, and lava, lava, true lava spewed forth. Huntor moved his arms, and the lava swirled around his little island. The four spiders watched, horrified as he stepped off his island, and through the boiling molten rock toward them. In that moment, I clearly saw Sydney in Huntor, in the predatory way he moved, in the pure animalistic way he faced the spiders down. He brought his foot out the lava, up to his waist, and brought it down. The rock under them quaked, and cracked, tipping them into the lava pool. They didn't even have the time to shriek as they were destroyed.
Huntor righted the rock, and stepped on to it. He breathed and as if a great wind, the lava melted back into stone, but not just any stone, pure, obsidian, stone. Huntor grinned devilishly. I shifted back into my human body and landed in front of him. "I wish you'd have said you could do that." I said. "I wanted more of an audience to see that, but, well, He, she, they, sent warriors this time." He frowned, staring at the plain of obsidian stone around us. "She has a contingency, just like I did. I've yet to, haha, see Ragni who have that kind of exoskeleton, who don't go down under the first few blows. Meaning, she may or may not have foreseen her falling here, probably figured she wouldn't, but still." He stroked his sword, and said softly, "We need that army." "Because it may come to her sending hundreds of thousands against us." Kneecora said. He noddded darkly. "I can talk with Decre, I need at least ten thousand, at the very least. The Molten Lord sent over five thousand and intends to send another five. But we need a true army to fight the Dark Queen." Huntor looked upward, toward the great eight lights dancing for an eternity around a smaller version of the sun. An incandescent light, a beatific incandescent light that sent, that does send, a huge message. "We started the process, we won battles, but to really win, to really destroy her, we need to learn all we can about the Dark Queen's past, what she was before she was the Queen of spiders and malice. Learn just how a Queen of dragons, turns into a Queen of spiders. We need to go to Dodona." "You believe the answers are there?" I asked.
Huntor glanced Southward. "You could tell me all you Knew Kneecora, you, the Molten Lord. Vello Seeka and Theia could tell me their suspicions. But we need hard truths, hard facts. We can't go on suspicions. Brooklyn is our Delphi, but we need to go to the birthplace of Delphi, the Delphi before Delphi. To where the oldest oracle lived." There was more, more he wasn't saying, more he wasn't telling us. I wanted to stomp my foot, to demand he speak, but I knew to wait. With Huntor, everything mattered, everyone, mattered. He would say it when the time was right. "You don't believe they'll send forth an army, you believe they have information on Arachne, before she was Arachne." He nodded. "Dione will be expecting us, will have foreseen most of this. If she's as old as I suspect, then she is both an asset, and, a liability. Keeping secrets from her perfect little world. Would be interesting to tromp through Dodona with our forces. But, hmm." He ran a finger over his sword again, and said. "We'll see, har-har, but we need to get back to camp, before we have another present from the Queen. She'll have realized we took out her little Monster crew." Nodding, he turned to me, "Let's fly out of here."