Knights of the Wizard (of Knights and Wizards Book 2) (13 page)

THE FULL MOON REFLECTED IN THE GURGLING BROOK, the image shimmering near where the white tailed deer was drinking, casting sparkles of light that appeared to dance. A toad jumped on a rock in the brook, then in the water and out, continuing on its way. The deer looked up to see where the noise was coming from, ready to bolt if necessary. It was three and a half hours after midnight and Marcus was again sleepwalking in the courtyard, mumbling to himself, gesturing wildly with his hands. The doe was now fixated on him but as the boy spoke angrily the deer bolted, best to be safe lest she take an arrow, that very morning she had barely escaped one that remained stuck in a birch tree.

Marcus wandered around conversing with his imaginary companions, stomping his foot hard to make a point as he started to repeatedly shake his head. He stopped suddenly as if he’d felt something, bent down and dug into the soil with his bare hands for a time, then suddenly wandered off into a different direction, searching for something that escaped him. A goat approached Marcus; he stopped and started a conversation with the goat. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

That rose bush I ate was delicious;
Marcus imagined the goat as a young boy with a silver staff, wondering why a boy would be eating a rose bush, not receiving any affection the goat wandered off. Marcus took up a spot near the well, turned around on the spot but wasn’t quite satisfied with his location, moving away from the well to locate another area that felt more appropriate, one where he could feel more energy surging up from the soil. Several minutes later he discovered a location that felt right, and taking a single step to the left it was perfect, plenty of energy flowed from it, so much so that it felt warm.

Marcus threw his arms into the air, summoning white emanations of energy, joining with a whirlwind of golden elements that exited the soil; the white energy collided with the gold and slowly formed another golden knight. Satisfied the sorcerer lay on the ground and commenced to snore loudly.

Raina arrived the next morning as the sun slid over the horizon, riding up on her stallion she discovered Marcus staring at not one but two golden knights standing side by side; the new knight was just a little shorter than the other. The sound of the carpenter’s hammers was heard as they had commenced work on the watch tower, which was to be twice as tall as the castle.

“Marcus, you made another knight?”

“I guess so,” said Marcus.

“You don’t remember conjuring it?” She walked up to Marcus and kissed him in greeting; he wanted to do a lot more kissing but he supposed it would have to wait.

“Don’t remember a thing. This one is a girl.” Marcus wished that he could stop the sleepwalking but had no control over it; maybe he would eventually outgrow it.

That fact made Raina smile. “Really? How do you know it’s a girl?”

“I asked her.”

“But if they’re not really people how can they be male or female?”

Marcus laughed. “Don’t ask me how it works. I’m calling her Kadyn.” Marcus went over and made sure the provisions on the back of the cart were secured properly. “Okay so once we reach Kaday how do I find the wand?”

Raina thought that Marcus was so handsome in the morning light. “Tavarot said you should feel a pull to it. Here smell my neck. I used some rose petals. Do you like it?”

He smelled her neck and thought it was nice enough but he thought her natural scent was more exciting. “It’s nice.” Marcus thought about what she had said about the wand. “I’ll feel a pull towards it? What does that mean? I’ll just know where it is?”

“I guess.”

Less than an hour later they started off for Kaday with the two conjured knights, giving his father’s knights orders to stay at the castle and keep a keen eye out, less they end up being slaughtered as well. Ryxa joined them as well and it would have been easier to simply fly to Kaday but for whatever reason the knights were unable to remain on the back of the dragon, and the prince didn’t feel safe without Brother at his side. He hoped one day he would be an adept wizard able to defend himself, but he feared that he would remain forever incompetent.

The first two days and two nights of the journey were without incident but on the third morning they discovered that Bywood was under siege, the sounds of men fighting and dying were unmistakable, the harsh sounds of swords clashing against swords. Raina and Marcus took to the air and came up behind the Dwagord.

Bywood had sent out a dozen of their knights in an attempt to get details for surrender but the one-eyed general simply had them all slain, having no desire to entertain prisoners or to grant mercy to anyone. The Dwagord were aggressive from early childhood, children were encouraged to fight one another for food. They simply had to fight and without someone to battle they would eventually seek battle amongst themselves.

“Look, those are the bastards that killed our knights,” said Marcus. “Ryxa, burn them all.”

Ryxa swooped down low and released a long blast of flame that incinerated more than two hundred of them but then they all turned their attention to the dragon, and more than a hundred archers launched their arrows simultaneously upon command, Ryxa had to block them with her belly and fly higher to protect both Marcus and Raina. Cheers came from the castle walls, having watched their own knights slaughtered, those bastards were getting what they deserved; perhaps the dragon riders were the miracle that they had prayed for, they certainly hoped so.

Ryxa climbed to more than a thousand feet, launching another fireball ball towards the enemy, but just before the flame reached them a reddish dome appeared, blocking and deflecting her fire, scorching parts of the earth and setting small fires. “Oh, they must have a wizard down there.”

“Yes well we have a wizard up here,” said Raina.

Marcus sighed. “Yes a wizard that doesn’t know how to do anything, at least not while I’m awake.”

Ryxa launched another fireball with the same result, unable to penetrate the magical defence. “They think they’re so smart but watch this.” She flew around the dome, all the while breathing out her fire and heating up the ground around it, so hot it turned into red embers and heated the inside of the dome as well, forcing them to move further away from Bywood lest they be roasted, with the dome following them for protection. One of the Dwagord loosed his arrow at the boy but it broke as it hit the inside of their protective shield.

Ryxa landed with a thud as Marcus and Raina got off the dragon’s back and went up to the shield; the one-eyed general was staring out at the dragon, looking as though he would rip all their heads off if he were able. Sorcerers always complicated matters. He wondered how they were in control of the dragon, must be a powerful enchantment.

“Why did you kill my knights?” Marcus demanded to know. “We’ve never done anything to you or your people. Why would you do such a thing for no reason?”

General Dochacra looked down at Marcus. “Nothing personal boy, to the victor go the spoils of war. This entire land will be ours in a year, perhaps less. I’ll use your skull to decorate my chamber.”

Marcus shook his head as he imagined it. “Not very friendly is he.”

Daijulan approached the shield and stared at the boy, still weak from a previous spell, adjusting his red cloak as he did so; the aura around the child was quite something. A powerful wizard by the feel of it but his age of course indicated his lack of experience, and that would be his downfall. He showed the boy the small glowing coin that was keeping the shield above them. Marcus was impressed but pretended not to be.

The golden knights had finally caught up with Marcus; they immediately pulled their swords and commenced to strike the shield, with cracks appearing and surprising Daijulan. He didn’t even think that such a thing was possible. The look on his face was most worrisome, the sound of the shield cracking most unpleasant. Seven of the Dwagord gathered in a circle and commenced whispering.

“General, I believe we need to pull back. These are no ordinary knights and they will bring down the shield. We’ll be burnt alive.” Daijulan now thought it possible that he would die here.

One particular hit by Brother resulted in one huge crack that slowly continued to spread, the sound of it unnerving, making its way completely around the enchantment. It was a rare thing for the Dwagord to retreat but general Dochacra knew that the dragon would incinerate them, his wizard too weak to defend them properly. Withdrawing was the only smart thing to do.

The general grunted his displeasure. “We’ll consult with the king. These kingdoms may not be so easy to take after all.”

They rode off with the shield continuing to surround them.

Marcus, Raina and even the dragon spent the night in Bywood where they were treated like heroes and they feasted long into the night.

CHAROX WAS PERCHED HIGH UP on a rocky cliff staring down at the kingdom of Fairfall, repeatedly scratching grooves into the solid rock, thoroughly enjoying the attention he was getting from the archers that had gathered below. Almost a hundred archers, some with enchanted bows glowing red were waiting and watching the huge grey dragon, with orders not to attack unless the dragon initiated it. Legend told of such a dragon that had almost destroyed their entire kingdom some four hundred years earlier, and even though none of them were around then it was a story that had been passed down. Four centuries earlier the dragon had taunted them for days before it had attacked, their history books describe that terrible time in great detail, great bursts of fire burning families alive inside the castle, the king killed as heavy stone was pushed down upon him.

The dragon knew he was going to kill them all, burn them alive, perhaps stomp the life out of some of them he just didn’t know when. But anticipation was the best part; he loved to see their frightened faces. Their terrified faces were as appealing as a puppy to a child. It was fun to make them nervous. Charox saw the glowing red bows, knew there was magic in them but wasn’t overly concerned, being a wizard he could conjure up something nasty; it was more entertaining to get rid of them the old fashion way. It would be fun to see them run and scream and roll on the ground trying to put the flames out, that never worked but they tried nonetheless. Alas it was always over much too quick. The ones that were incinerated died too abruptly for his liking.

After a day and a half the archers had set up camp at the bottom of the cliff. They started a fire after sundown, while continuing to monitor the dangerous dragon. Charox was surprised to see two knights on black horses approach him from behind, both holding lochaber axes and a white flag. They bowed to the dragon as a sign of respect. What was this now? Some sort of trick? The dragon snorted and the humans were hit with a blast of hot air.

“We mean you no harm,” said Kroll. The knight raised his visor and he couldn’t believe how massive the dragon actually was; he was face to face with a monster, not knowing if he would survive the encounter and it was terrifying. Dragons were big in comparison to humans but this one was huge, the largest he’d ever seen. He had never fully believed the stories told around campfires about the grey dragons but unfortunately they hadn’t been exaggerated.

“Wouldn’t do you much good even if you did mean me harm,” said Charox.

Kroll didn’t like the look of smugness on the dragon’s scaly face but he was in no position to do anything about it. They did have their own wizard but he wasn’t of the highest grade and might not be much defense against such a monster. “King Yilor asks what your intentions are concerning Fairfall. Perhaps we can offer you food to move along?”

The dragon brought his huge eye up to the knights and examined them. “You want to know what my intentions are. Well, let me think. I’m going to smash your kingdom and burn most of you alive but I guess I will crush some of you. And I’ll probably eat a handful of you as well.”

Kroll looked at his fellow knight and then back at the dragon. “I sincerely hope that you are jesting dragon. We have done absolutely nothing to you to have gained your ire. Why would you want to do such a thing? Our kingdom is peaceful and we only seek to defend ourselves.”

“Well defend yourselves then,” said Charox. He picked up Kroll between his two claws and held him over the cliff. “Do you think that you can survive a drop from this height?”

“I will not,” said the knight, trying hard to remain calm but it wasn’t working. Death was coming for him and he knew it.

“Humans are stupid things; they can’t even fly.” Charox dropped him off the cliff to his death. The other knight ran, unfortunately a fireball caught up with him, melting his suit of armour and turning him to ash, leaving the odour of burnt flesh in the air. The dragon took in the scent and approved.

Arrows were loosed by the hundreds; a lot of them simply bouncing off his scales like rain off a castle wall, but the magical ones went in right up to their fletching and burned, a lot like a bee sting to a human, which infuriated Charox. Sticking his head over the cliff he inhaled deeply and exhaled a great wall of fire, but to his surprise it scorched the surrounding area, turning some of the rocks at the bottom of the cliff red hot, but not a single casualty amongst the archers. It was a fire protection spell and since his fire was magical it must have been a spell that a wizard had worked long and hard on.

“You little maggots!” The dragon spread his wings, flying down he landed on many archers with a thud, killing dozens of them and receiving a lot more of the painful arrows in the process. He flicked his tail and killed dozens more, crushing bones and decapitating several of them, and then he stomped a bunch of them to death. About a dozen tried to run but he caught up to them and flattened them as well, then taking to the air he headed for the kingdom of Fairfall, he could see the spire of the castle in the distance. They were going to pay for their insolence; of course he wasn’t going to show them any mercy even if they hadn’t done anything at all.

Charox hit the castle knocking down one of the towers and part of its wall, scaring the hell out of everyone inside. In no time at all he had demolished it, killing everyone, taking to the air he burned the rest of the kingdom to the ground, huts and shacks and animals were burnt to a crisp. The dragon was forced to set down with a thump. He felt peculiar. A dizziness came upon him as the poison from the arrows commenced to make its way through his system; he sat down as everything started to spin, making him feel nauseous and with loud nasty retches he vomited up embers, and the sound of a belch echoing for miles. A nasty bout of diarrhea hit the grey dragon, shooting out of his rear like molten lava, burning down trees and scorching the earth. His ass was on fire literally.

Charox didn’t know what to do; he had never felt this bad before. It was coming out of both ends with force. He considered that he might be dying; he stood up with shaky legs but then quickly collapsed.