Armies of the Dragon (Book 2 after Warriors of the Dragon)

General

"Wake up." Rauka's voice called in the early morning. She had been standing guard and noticed the sun was orange on the horizon. Sephira was huddled against Craven's chest and Craven was dead asleep. Rauka's rousing was enough to get Sephira to open her eyes. There was confusion in them for a long moment until she over at Craven's bruised sleeping face. Then her eyes flew to the window to see faint sunlight on the stone. She forced herself to sit up and shot a thankful look at Rauka before she ran her hand down Craven's shoulder.

"Wake up." She whispered close to his face with peck on the cheek. His eyes squinted open and she avoided his arm that reached to pull her into his body. "Hurry up. We can't get caught in this position." She insisted in a decidedly quiet voice as she threw off her tunic to reveal her tattoo-covered skin and grabbed the clean clothes that Gia had folded on the dresser.

Craven groaned and rolled onto his stomach in the comfortable bed. He woke up with a feeling that he was back at home with his mate in his bed only to find he was in the capital of Lightning Kingdom in a compromising position if he was caught even by the maid.

Craven took Rauka's place by the door while she laid down to get a few minutes of sleep and Sephira piled on her weapons and armor while she paced the room. The turned Nimbi troops would be arriving mid-day and Sephira only had the name of the place they'd be arriving from that she had heard one of the Lieutenants mention: Icharus. Craven and Rauka had told her that in a battle, the Grey Council members would say a curse that caused a yellow mist to fall from the clouds, which always followed them into battle, and if the mist touched your skin, you'd feel compelled to follow them. They usually released the curse towards the end of a battle after some of them had been killed and their own people had to get back to not get touched with it, but Craven said he had seen their own people get touched with the mist and they acted the same as the orcs. Usually dragon riders were able to easily get away, but the foot soldiers especially would all get taken. It didn't work on the horses, but if the rider was hit, they would direct their horse to follow the Nimbi. Craven and Rauka had never seen a dragon or dragon rider get hit unless their dragon was killed in the battle and they were on foot.

Craven drew his blade when a relatively large gold Nimbi dragon crashed to the side of the castle with his blue eye in the window.

"Don't! It's mine!" Sephira said, getting up from the food at the table. The young male dragon chirped as its eye analyzed Craven in confusion.

"That's right." Rauka recalled. "How were you able to get more than one?"

"Their dragons are simpler than dogs. I'm afraid if you two were to step into the Dragon's nests you would walk out with multiple dragons following you." Sephira explained.

"Maybe that's something we could use?" Craven suggested, looking bright as he put his sword away and looked over the dragon in the window.

"Once they are bound, I don't think they'll listen to anyone else. We wouldn't be able to get all of their allegiance and if you walked out of there with a dragon, I'm worried your cover would be blown instantly."

"I miss Crow." Craven sighed.

"I bet Cerberus has become unbearable by now. I'm surprised they're able to keep them away."

"Sorin is struggling. He's been inching closer and when I sent him an image of Azaesel, I thought he was going to appear with all the dragons." Sephira told them.

"We have enough problems with concealing ourselves, we don't need that to happen..." Craven muttered.

When they finished their morning meal, Sephira let Craven and Rauka get on her other two dragons and the three of them flew down to the courtyard. Most of the soldiers were in the dining hall still and Sephira dismounted her dragon to pace and decide what she'd have them all do for the day. She found herself battling with herself to keep them at a basic level while also being worried about her innocent young soldiers getting killed in battle because she didn't prepare them. Her female dragon paced with her and Sephira looked up to meet her ruby-red eyes. Her dragons wouldn't last three seconds against Caius or even one of the orc dragons. The female dragon seemed concerned as if vaguely aware of what Sephira was thinking.