Chapter 27. "Friend or foe?"
Three dragons, Ivory, Crag and laying on his back Tris were running across the narrow corridors quickly. The fire breather still was knocked out by the stone which hit her head, so two remaining dragons couldn't count on her help in leading the safe tour to the secret passage. The knowledge of Celeste Tribu couldn't be called their advantage, but still, after about a month, they knew it quite well. Luck was definitely on their side, they still haven't met any wyvern and they were slowly enclosing to the noble apartments. Even red torchlight wasn't inconvenient since they had already partly got used to that. Ivory glanced at Tris.
"Will she be fine?" She asked.
"I hope so." Crag would shrug, if he wasn't carrying fire breather. "But it's possible she has some bone broken or serious concussion. That stone which hit her wasn't small one."
"True." Ivory confirmed. "How did they manage to make such a great ceiling fall?" She asked with disbelief. After all, there were no doubts that this happening wasn't just coincidence.
"Earth users are out of the question. Wyverns have no skills in that at all." Crag started considering.
"Brute, Sexto Vengantimo used to use bombs, those had this characteristic noise and smoke. Thinking of this now, I'm sure I've heard such a noise back then. That's only reason why I made that shield in time." Ivory explained.
"Explosives?" Crag glared at her with disbelief. "Are you sure they've used explosives?"
"Definitely." The white dragoness nodded, confirming her words.
"Dear ancestors, planting explosives to destroy ceiling of diameter of ten meters, made of thick and hard stone... They must have been preparing that for quite long already." Then, some thought appeared in his head. "If they've been planning killing us, why didn't they just slit our throats while we were sleeping?"
"Who knows, maybe they were scared, if wouldn't any of us wake up that night?" Ivory shrugged, not understanding that as well. "Anyway, they overdid it so we still have a chance to escape." The white dragoness smiled slightly. Despite their situation, she realized that they were very lucky. Then, she sighed deeply with worries, as she realized that their troubles had just began. "Let's hope Dante will be still there."
"What if he's not?" Crag asked. Neither of them had even thought of such a situation.
"As if I knew." Ivory replied, knowing that they wouldn't come up with any good idea before they wouldn't get to their apartment. "We'll figure something out once we're there. Why did they attack us?" The white dragoness still couldn't understand what and why was happening.
"I have no idea. I guess..." Some idea appeared in Crag's head, but he realized that it was absurd. "I don't know. Let's just get out of here, we'll worry about that later." The dragons stopped at the crossing. "Which way now?" Crag asked curiously. Ivory was thinking the answer for several seconds, trying to recall what Sable had told her about the secret exit.
"Left." She said. They turned left. And then, they saw a wyverness. Just one, but still, she was wearing sword. Dragons, as enclosing to her were preparing for fight.
"I'll take her down." Ivory whispered, as she started focusing magic. Crag nodded with understanding. It was much safer for her to attack from distance and besides, he was carrying Tris. When they were twenty meters from wyverness, she raised her paws, showing that she wouldn't attack.
"I'm with you, dragons!" She shouted. Three dragons stopped about five meters from her, watching her suspiciously. Then, Ivory recognized her.
"Leal." She noticed with disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to get you out of here. You're going wrong way, the exit isn't where you're going." The princess said, still holding hands up. "Can I put my paws down?" She pleased.
"Ye..." Ivory wanted to agree.
"No!" Crag refused, all of sudden. "I don't trust you!" He watched her carefully. "Why would you like to help, huh? We have nothing to offer you. I can hardly believe that you're so good-hearted you come from nowhere and help, not expecting any prize."
"So you don't trust me..." Leal grinned, watching earth dragon carefully. Yes, he definitely had a reason not to trust her. "The passage which you plan to use is already under full control of soldiers, the trap is already set up. They perfectly realize that Sable knows that exit, they expect to catch him in there."
"We're not going straight there, we need to get to noble apartments." Crag said. "It's possible that Dante's still there."
"That suicide. Pointless suicide." Leal said. "Dante's not in apartments anymore."
"What are you talking about?" Ivory asked suspiciously. She didn't trust Leal as well, she perfectly realized that Crag's doubts are reasonable.
"Dragons have not only enemies, but also friends in here. Your poet is heading right now to the exit, I wouldn't be surprised, if he had already left Celeste Tribu. Now, are we going?" She asked impatiently. "You perfectly realize that every second is priceless." Two dragons looked at each other and bobbed their heads once simultaneously.
"Lead." Ivory agreed.
"But keep your paws far away from sword. If I see anything suspicious in your behavior, I won't consider twice if I should kill you." Crag warned her, deadly serious about his words. Leal nodded and started running, dragons were right behind her.
Leal was leading three dragons for already twenty minutes. By then, Tris had already regained consciousness and could finally run on her own, Ivory quickly and silently explained her their situation. The fire dragoness obviously was worried about her mate, but she decided to trust Leal since the others did this same. Then, wyverness stopped, several meters before the crossing. All three dragons stood behind her and they heard steps. Someone was coming in their direction. Leal looked meaningfully at Crag and her sword, asking for permission. Crag shook his head and pointed two dragonesses to look the princess carefully. The nodded slightly and watched Leal carefully. Meanwhile, Crag enclosed to corner as far as he could without being noticed by those who ran the other corridor. The steps were getting louder. From behind, there appeared some wyverness. Crag caught her throat and pushed her to the ground. Then, he noticed that she was wearing blade, which meant she was from royal family.
"Wait, she's on our side!" They heard familiar male voice. Then, from behind corner, there appeared Dante. "Luna's on our side!" He repeated. In that moment, Tris ran to her mate and hugged him strongly.
"Dante!" She kissed him cheerfully. Meanwhile, Crag recognized the princess and dropped her.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. Luna stood up and smiled slightly.
"No problem." Then, she turned at Leal. "What are you doing here?" She asked curiously. Leal watched Dante and Luna with disbelief. What were those two doing there? She didn't expect to meet them, especially not together. After all, story about Dante was just bluff to discourage them to go to noble apartments...
"When I heard what was going on, I went to noble apartments to check, if wasn't any dragon there. I found Dante and I was leading him to exit when we fell at you." Luna asked. Then, she massaged her throat. "You have quite strong grasp, Crag." She said.
"Sorry, I thought it was some soldier..." He scratched his neck, grinning with embarrassment, not sure how to behave. "Anyway, what now?" He watched two princesses carefully.
"Luna, you can go back to your apartments, you'd be in trouble if someone saw you with us. Leal will lead us to exit." Ivory decided.
"But..." Luna wanted to disagree.
"No, she's right." Crag interrupted her only because time was priceless for them. "Leal will lead us out. She perfectly knows that if she leads us into trap, she'll pay for that with her life. And since you leaded Dante this far, we can trust you won't tell anyone about us."
"Fine, just be careful and good luck." Luna said. Then, she turned to Leal. "If you try telling the king about my support to dragons, just don't forget that I can say exactly this same about you. I know you'd love to get rid of me. But not this time." After those words she left the dragons, heading in direction of Core. Four dragons and wyverness, not wasting time, continued running. Leal was leading them with her paws up, since Crag still didn't trust her at all.
Through the side corridors, Syrius, Sable, Vixen and barely conscious Viola were just about to reach the main gate. They appeared right before it when they left some staircase. There were only four guards, two of them sleeping. It looked like the main forces were indeed focused on searching for them since thirty guards were minimum in normal situations. Knocking out all the guards went not exactly as planned because some civilian far away saw them and ran for reinforcements, which didn't put them in good situation.
Syrius and Sable started spinning great wheel, slowly opening giant stone gate. It weighted at least several tones, so despite even very complicated system of gearwheels, it wasn't easy job for only two of them.
"Maybe should I help?" Vixen suggested.
"No, you shouldn't move Viola from your back." Sable refused. Both males were panting hardly, as the gate was being lifted high enough for them to pass. Syrius blocked it and then, they heard some noise. The soldiers were enclosing.
"Your two go." Sable ordered Vixen and Viola. "I and Syrius'll damage the gate and I'll find another way out." The lightning dragon said.
"Sable, no!" Vixen disagreed firmly. The lightning dragon stood right before her and smiled slightly.
"No worries, I'll join you." He promised. Then, he kissed Viola's cheek. "Go." He pleased. Viola watched him sadly, but agreed silently. Vixen only hissed angrily. She carried her through the gate. Then, Sable felt someone caught him. He tried to release himself, but he was thrown away and fell right next to Vixen who watched him with surprise. Sable glared at Syrius with disbelief.
"What are you doing?" He asked, not understanding what did Syrius intend.
"You go. I'll keep them her as long as I can, buy you some time. You just go." The wyvern ordered. Viola's eyes grew wide, as she realized what he meant.
"No!" She shouted madly, even if she was so weak. "You're supposed to come back to dragon city and be judged, not die in a way as if you were hero!" She couldn't believe he really planned to do that. All three dragons watched him helplessly, knowing that they couldn't do anything about that. If they ran to him, he would just close the gate right before their faces. "Don't you dare dying like hero, you murderer! Do you hear me?!" In ice dragoness's eyes, there appeared tears, as she was shouting desperately. Syrius just smiled slightly. He slashed some chains, the gate fell down.
"Just go." Those were his last words they heard. All three dragons were glaring at the entrance to Celeste Tribu. They couldn't believe that Syrius was going to sacrifice himself for them.
"No..." Viola cursed silently, as she was crying. "The murderer of my mother, assassin dying as if he was some hero..." She couldn't stand that thought. "Syrius..." She hissed with hatred.
"No, he won't die like a hero." Sable disagreed. Two dragonesses watched him, not understanding what he meant. "He betrayed the king twice already. At first, my father, now king Verdad. Wyverns will remember him as traitor, if they decide not to erase him from their history. And for us..." Sable sighed deeply. "He didn't have to die. Appearing of soldiers was problematic, but just two of us would manage to break through to the another exit. Syrius only wants to run away from judgment, he wants to die in battle. For us, he's not only murderer, already sentenced, after all. He's also coward and definitely not a hero." Sable explained. "He helped us, but only to help himself."
"You're right." Viola raised her head slowly and kissed her mate's cheek. "Thank you." She whispered. For a moment, she thought that she owed Syrius her life. That thought would be unbearable for her.
"Let's go to that waterfall." Vixen suggested. Three dragons, not wasting any more time, turned around and flew away, as fast as they could.
Syrius damaged several gearwheels destroying gate's mechanism completely. He turned around and saw group of about one hundred soldiers. In front of them, there was standing Cobro with all three of his swords at his back, about twenty meters from him. He was watching his uncle madly.
"Syrius." He hissed angrily. "You're dead. I won't even take your sword to my collection, but I'll order to melt it in forge. I'll wipe out all the signs of your existence, traitor."
"You won't, Cobro." Old prince disagreed as he lifted his sword with both paws. "If I am to die, you're going with me." He grinned in sinister way. Cobro smiled as well.
"Dreams." He narrowed at his soldiers. "Stand back, he's mine." He didn't take out the sword, only straightened his arm and moved fingers, encouraging him to attack. "Come on, Syrius. Let's finish this quickly." Old prince started running to him. When he was in halfway, he saw Cobro straightening his arm and something azure appearing in his paw. He felt painful cold in his chest. After several seconds he felt warmth flowing on his underbelly. It was his blood. Syrius fell on the ground hardly, dropping sword. Before he fell, he could clearly see Cobro's ominous grin. Syrius jerked his head slowly to see his chest. Watching ice spikes pierced through his lungs, he couldn't understand how was that possible for young prince to use the element. Meanwhile, Cobro crouched before him.
"Was it worth not only dying, but also betraying your own kin?" He waited for several seconds, but heard no answer. Then, he spitted disdainfully at Syrius and took his uncle's sword to one of his soldiers. "Loy, give it to the forge, order to melt it and make sure that it's done." He stood up and turned around, not caring about Syrius anymore. "Let's go find another exit. Maybe we still can catch up with those dragons." All the soldiers followed prince, leaving the old wyvern behind, all alone. Before ten minutes passed, Syrius had already bled to death.
Leal was sitting before exit from Celeste Tribu known only to nobility when before her, there appeared some wyverns. Those were soldiers. The princess smiled seeing them. She easily recognized a wyvern leading them with his characteristic purple swords.
"There you are, Clavius." She smiled slightly. "So, how many soldiers you have?" She asked.
"One hundred sixty. Is that enough?" He watched her curiously.
"Just enough." Leal agreed. "The only problem is that I'm not sure which direction they went." She confessed, though reluctantly.
"What?" Clavius couldn't believe she said that. "Didn't they say anything about their direction?" "Crag mentioned Ivory that they would go straight south, in direction of dragon villages. But he didn't trust me at all, so it's very plausible that he just wanted to sell me invalid information." Leal explained.
"Then we have nothing. And our hunters are stuck because of that mess with Luna's orders." The prince sighed deeply. "Any ideas, Leal? You're much better in this stuff than me."
"Straight north and west are out of question. Our tribe has too much influence in there and dragons would only get farther from their home."
"They went southern east or south." Clavius came up with idea. "It's the best choice for them."
"And the most predictable. Sable would never make such obvious choice." Leal disagreed.
"Then where?" Prince asked skeptically.
"East or northern east. He plans to take roundabout way hoping that we won't follow him in those directions. Send half of your army in each of those directions." Leal suggested. Clavius nodded.
"Squad A goes with me at the northern east! Squad B, under command of Captain Celo, goes straight east!" He ordered. Then he turned at Leal. "Why didn't you just lead them in some trap in Celeste Tribu?"
"Crag was suspicious, he could kill me, if I tried anything. I preferred to take care of my safety at the first." The princess explained. "And you'll catch them all anyway."
"I see." Clavius turned around and both squads left Celeste Tribu.
Four dragons were flying low using roads through the forest, only rarely floating above trees, when the forest was simply too dense. They've been flying without pause for several hours already. The sun was setting, the forest shadows were getting bigger and darker every minute. Ivory jerked her head and looked at east. She could barely see the sun through trees. And then, after several hours of relatively peaceful flight, something started happening.
"Can you smell that?" Ivory asked, looking at everyone else.
"What?" Crag watched her with worries. Ivory closed eyes, trying to focus only on the scent in the air, though it wasn't easy because of weakness of that scent.
"Wyverns... For a moment, I could swear I felt them." She explained. Dante cursed silently hearing that. The dragons flew at a little field. Then, wind blew from their right. All dragons' eyes grew wide, as they realized that wyverns could be felt right next to them. Wyverns must have realized that as well because they attacked, not only from right, but from left as well. Ivory pushed them all away with powerful blow of magic and four dragons landed at the verge of the field, just a meter behind them, there was line of forest.
"This is bad." Dante noticed, as about fifty wyverns landed, surrounding them from all the sides of field. Escape wasn't solution anymore, especially not in night. Fight wasn't good solution either, but surrender was even worse one, so they had no choice. Four dragons made defensive poses.
"Tris, once this battle mess starts, sneak out to the forest and run the fastest you can. We'll tie down those wyverns, buy you time to escape." Dante said silently, not bothering himself with rhyming.
"No, I'll fight." The fire breather disagreed. "Sable trained me. I can fight." She assured them.
"No, you go." Ivory ordered. "In your state, you'll only stand in way. You can't change the result of this battle and if we lose, at least you'll save yourself." Tris sighed deeply. She knew that Ivory was right. She was not only pregnant, but also still concussed a little by that roof collapsing in Celeste Tribu.
"Fine." Tris agreed. Then, Clavius landed before his troops.
"I want one of them alive. The rest you can kill. But I swear, one of them has to remain alive!" He ordered. Then, wyverns ran and attacked, all at once. When they were just half a meter from them, Ivory created around dragons shield. In the mess that started, Tris sneaked out unnoticed without any trouble. Well, almost unnoticed.
Tris was running through dark forest the fastest she could. She kept looking behind herself to make sure that she was running straight. The fire dragoness was already tired, but she kept running. She had to run as long she could, forest was simply too dense to fly and appearing above line of trees wasn't good idea. Then, she heard some noise. It was giggle. She stopped and looked around.
"Where are you running, little girl?" Some wyvern said. He was using dragon language, which meant he was most likely a noble. Tris looked around fearfully above her, searching for speaker, but it was too dark, she couldn't see anything.
"She can't even see us." Other wyvern noticed with amusement.
"Maybe we shall kill her before she even realizes where are we?" The third wyvern asked.
"Oh, come on... Three soldiers against one young dragoness, a female?" The first voice asked with disbelief. "We already have too much of head start." After those words, Tris heard three wyverns landing before her. She could barely see their dark figures in weak moonlight. The fire breather felt her heart hammering. Her limbs were shaking fearfully. She was giving her best to control body, but she couldn't do a thing.
"Can we kill her?" The third wyvern asked.
"Yes, the others will catch dragons alive. We don't need her." The first wyvern, their leader, as Tris guessed, decided. Young dragoness really wished she could at least set a fire, but she knew that smoke and intensive light would only alarm more wyverns. She was thinking intensively, trying to recall what Sable had told her in time of training. "If you can't win, run." But she couldn't run. In shadows, they had advantage. "If you can't run, then fight." They would just slaughter her, since she couldn't use fire. Or maybe? Not using fire meant death, using it only troubles. Deadly, but still, only troubles. She hadn't big choice.
"Look, how she's shaking. She can't even move." One of wyverns, Tris guessed it was the second one, noticed. Then, that wyvern stepped to her and stood face to face. The dragoness jumped back, or at least meant to. She didn't even twitch. She couldn't move, paralyzed by fear. Wyvern touched her cheek with finger.
"Move!" Tris screamed in her mind, but body didn't react. "Move, move, move!" That was useless, fear had completely overwhelmed her. All she could do was shaking. Wyvern scratched her cheek and watched her blood covering his talon with amusement.
"I could slit her throat just like that, what do you think of that?" The soldier asked.
"If you want so..." Their leader agreed. Tris felt stabbing touch of four of his talons against her neck. She was begging her body to move, but it refused again. She closed her eyes in helplessness.
"Watch out!" The leader of wyverns shouted. Young medic involuntarily closed eyes. Then, Tris felt someone's presence slipping next to her and heard nasty noise of slashed flesh and bones, as wyvern dropped her neck. She opened her eyes slowly to see the one who meant to kill her was laying in the puddle of his own blood. All that remained from his chest were just shreds, the wyvern was already dead.
"What the fuck had just happened?!" Leader of the group asked with disbelief. "Show yourself! Who are you?!" He shouted, desperately looking around. He had barely noticed the attacker, he saw only silver flash. The wyvern cursed silently. Then, they heard a voice.
"My name is Viento de la Muerto." Old male voice introduced himself.
"V...Viento de la M...M...Muert...t...to?" The other wyvern asked with disbelief, stumbling. "What brings you here?" Then, Tris managed to smile.
"Not only my limbs are shaking, huh?" She noticed insolently.
"Shut up!" Soldier shouted madly, terrified by sudden appearing of that newcomer.
"I'm here to watch your fight." Viento de la Muerto explained. "Not often dragon and wyvern fight to death. But I want it to be a fight, not execution. I can't wait to take several of your souls on the other side."
"So if I just kill that dragon, will you let us go?" Soldier asked.
"Yes." The voice confirmed. He didn't have to repeat himself. The wyvern ran to Tris and swung his paw. But something changed in Tris. Appearing of Viento de la Muerto brought her this small sparkle of hope she had lacked. She realized that she had too many things to do, too many years to live to die in some forgotten by ancestors dark forest. Wyvern slashed with talons. Tris jumped at the side at the very last moment, slashing his throat, exactly as Sable had been teaching her for last several years. Corpse of wyvern fell hardly on the ground two or three meters behind her. Leader of wyverns, the only one alive, attacked as well. Tris released stream of fire, which covered him and burnt to death in just several seconds. Then, she felt terrible pain in underbelly, as fourth wyvern who appeared from nowhere slashed it. Was there fourth wyvern? Tris didn't even notice him. Before she managed to do anything, there came only dull pain of head and she lost consciousness.
Crag cursed silently. Ivory and Dante were laying behind him, knocked out. Whole his body was covered in shallow flesh wounds, he was panting hardly. The three dragons had killed at least thirty of those wyverns, it was already middle of night, which was terrible disadvantage for Crag. He was surrounded, the wyverns were waiting for him to make move. The earth dragon cursed silently. From the very beginning, they couldn't win that fight. Outnumbered, Ivory with practically no magic, caught in ambush, forced to fight in complete darkness... They could fight, they could kill many wyverns, but they couldn't win.
"Just surrender, dragon. You've lost." Prince Clavius demanded.
"Why should I?" Crag watched him skeptically.
"Because I'll spare your life then." The wyvern offered.
"Is my surrender worth just one life? If that was the truth, there wouldn't be thirty corpses around, don't you think?" The earth dragon asked with disbelief, as if he could negotiate terms of surrender. "You want to force me to tell you where's Sable hiding. Most likely with tortures, right?" Crag asked.
"Yes." Clavius agreed. That was mistake.
"It's much easier when you have two dragons to torture. Especially, if one of them has crush on the other." The earth dragon watched meaningfully Ivory, smiling slightly. "Nothing can convince male as well as watching his beloved suffering. I have an offer for you."
"Really?" Clavius estimated Crag carefully. He realized that he met someone much cleverer than him so he had to be careful about his offer. He guessed that he'd be most likely outsmarted. But still, idea of torturing two dragons... "I'm listening." Crag grinned already knowing that he couldn't lose this argument.
Idris woke up screaming. What was this feeling? Blood, so much blood… But this sight was gone, just a nightmare… Little white dragoness sighed deeply and shook her head in order to get rid of those unpleasant thoughts. She rolled down the bed and headed to the stairs. Despite darkness, hatchling walked down those very quickly. She entered the kitchen. There, there was a small cupboard hanging on the wall high beyond her reach. Idris sighed and looked around. She stood on small chest and aimed for kitchen table. She meant to jump, when she stopped. Oh-oh, presentiment. She couldn't know that if she jumped, she'd miss, hang on the wardrobe next to the table and turn it over on herself. But she felt it was better not to jump. Instead of it, she climbed up on the chair and from there, got on the table. She found the cupboard with medicines. It was there since ever, she remembered that her grandpa kept doing her compresses to stop her bleeding from lungs. No one really knew why, but when she was one, the bleedings started getting rarer until they completely stopped. But the cupboard with medicines remained. Idris opened it. There was one, very good medicine, even though it wasn't supposed to be drunk. Sweat and tasty and her belly felt so pleasantly warm after pouring it into her throat. Everyone kept telling her not to drink it, it was… poisonous, or something… But Idris always knew how much of it to drink. The white dragoness took hidden bottle without any trouble. She drank some of it and put it back. Satisfied, she jumped from the table on chest, then on the floor and she headed upstairs to her room. She smiled feeling warmth in her belly. Idris entered her room. She entered her bed and fell asleep, when she woke up again. This view… Small field hidden in darkness lit only by moonlight. Screams of agony. Death. So many dead bodies. Green scales being covered in the blood of dozens of wounds. Death… In Idris's eyes, there appeared a tear. Rationally, she didn't know. She couldn't know. But she felt it.
"Dad." She whispered fearfully. "Please, come back to me."
