The War Read online

  “Damn Drakaran don’t talk,” the General said. He put his sword in its sheath and sat down next to Lance.

  “We won the battle, but we lost sixty men in the process,” the General said with a sigh, his massive arms crossed in front of him as he leaned against the wall of a house. “Sixty good men who will never return to the families anxiously waiting for them.”

  The General dusted off the sand from his les.

  “We ride out in the morning,” The General said. “We found a map inside the tower. Looks like if we had listened to the first Drakaran we asked and headed north, we would have run into several forts, eventually coming to the edge of a massive ocean. If we head further west in a straight line, we’ll bypass the forts and reach the capital. It’s difficult to tell how long the journey will take and we can be sure the Drakaran will attack us on the way. Get some rest. We’ll all need all the energy we can get in the coming days.

  * * *

  The bright red Drakaran sun found the troops riding west. Lance had found it hard to sleep last night. Too many thoughts crossed his mind as his many worries tormented him.

  Charlotte and Master Porthos rode beside Lance.

  “You know that was a foolish move to take on the Drakaran mystic by yourself,” Master Porthos said. “Even if it likely saved many lives, you’re too valuable to lose. We will need you to open the portal and send everyone back home when this is all over. Think about that the next time you go charging by yourself against a powerful mystic.”

  “We had to take him out,” Lance replied.

  “I agree,” Master Porthos said. “But you could have brought some mages with you. You’re powerful Lance, but it doesn’t mean you have to face everything alone.”

  Several hours of riding brought them to the edge of a forest. It’s trees stood in stark contrast to the white sands of the desert. Brilliant colored leaves of a myriad of colors filled the canopy created by the massive trees standing so close together.

  A single path cleared long ago and made of cobblestones cut through the center of the forest.

  General Kirn looked at the Drakaran map again to double check.

  “We have to cross through here,” the General announced. He turned to the Lieutenant at his side. “It’s a risky move. If I were the Drakaran, I would ambush us inside there. We’ll have to come up with a strategy, because I refuse to march everyone to their deaths.

  The Lieutenant nodded. “I agree with your assessment of the terrain, sir. Perhaps we should send one fourth of the army through the trees to flank us, while we go slow on the path so they can keep up. If we get attacked, at least we’ll have reinforcements to trap the enemy from behind.”

  General Kirn thought it over. There was a lot of room for error with that maneuver. For starters, the men in the trees could be on the wrong side of the fight, therefore defeating its purpose. He sighed. With no better plan he said, “Make it happen, Lieutenant.”

  Chapter 4

  The path through the forest was wide enough for three horses riding abreast. Strange animals peered out from the trees with curious eyes. More than once Lance thought he heard an animal screech and then torn apart by something larger. The Drakaran world was different in many ways, but oddly similar in some aspects as well.

  The horses up front set an intentionally slow pace. The animals watching them grew larger and bolder the deeper into the forest they went. It was a slow process, but so far uneventful.

  Lance hoped that they would reach the Drakaran capital soon, destroy the Drakaran, and return home. He missed how things were with his tiny room up high in the mage tower of the palace. He missed sneaking Charlotte into his room at night and cuddling up to her. Their worst problem then was trying to learn in class. The stakes were remarkably higher now.

  “Up ahead!” A voice called out. “Hold the line!”

  The message was passed along the troops.

  “What’s the hold up?” General Kirn asked.

  “A fallen tree up ahead, sir!” A knight reported.

  “Does it look like it fell by itself or was it cut down?” The General asked.

  “Hard to tell sir,” the knight replied.

  “Well, bring out the saws and get cutting! What are you waiting for?” General Kirn asked.

  “Yes, sir!” The knight said, quickly adding a salute.

  General Kirn turned to the Lieutenant.

  “Have everyone ready for anything. Every bone in my body is warning me to turn back.”

  * * *

  They brought the saws in case they needed lumber for a drawn-out siege, but unfortunately they only brought three, not expecting the trees to be so thick. This Drakaran forest was had trees larger than any found at home by twice the size. The elephants back home would have trouble knocking these over.

  Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound. General Kirn looked back to see three large trees fall. The knight s in its way scattered, but several were crushed beneath. The trees on either side effectively cut the army in half.

  “Draw weapons!” General Kirn yelled. He drew his massive broadsword and turned around, peering into the depths of the forest.

  Everyone kept quiet and still, looking around for an imminent attack. Seconds passed. Then a full minute. They continued to listen and look for any signs of an enemy. General Kirn was skeptical that so many trees would fall at the same time in such an effective placement.

  That’s when he spotted the red eyes. First, there was only a few dozen pairs, but soon there were hundreds of red eyes staring at them from within the forest. These weren’t creatures. They were Drakaran.

  Sure enough, hundreds of obsidian armored warriors stepped from the trees as one. They came from both sides of the path with deadly steel in hands.

  The fight began with a Drakaran soldier drawing first blood. The knights and mages were forced to fight back to back.

  General Kirn swung his sword in wide arcs, keeping the attackers around him at bay. He occasionally glanced to the side to check on the tide of battle. It soon became abundantly clear that for every one Drakaran that fell, at least three of his men perished. At this rate, they would be wiped out, especially with his army divided.

  Lance and the other mages did what they could, casting spell after spell into the Drakaran ranks. Sometimes Lance and Charlotte would combine powers and send a wave of air to knock the attackers back.

  More often than not, Lance found he was forced to use a defensive shield rather than attack. The obsidian armor the Drakaran wore seemed to absorb some of the spells’ powers, minimizing the damage.

  Master Porthos found his way over to Lance.

  “We’re losing!” He told him. “Let’s focus on one area so we can at least clear some space for us to attack.”

  It was then that the hundreds of knights stormed the Drakaran from behind, pinching them from both sides.

  Renewed and invigorated by the reinforcements, the knights pressed forward. Unfortunately, the initial surprise and turn of the tide wore off. The Drakaran were skilled, powerful, and well-organized. They quickly reformed to counter the attack. Knights fell left and right. The screams of the dying and injured tore at Lance’s heart.

  Even General Kirn was hard pressed to kill that many.

  “Fight on, brothers!” The General bellowed. “Send these demons back to hell!”

  * * *

  The dead bodies were starting to pile up on the forest path. The cobblestones were slippery with blood. Even some of the horses weren’t spared. Hundreds of knights had already fallen.

  “Eek! Eek!” Several high pitched voices yelled from the trees above.

  Lance glanced upward to see Drakaran men and women dressed in simple loin cloths, standing on tree limbs with spears in hand.

  “We’re done for,” Lance heard a knight near him say.

  The tribal Drakaran warriors leapt from the trees. Lance readied an energy shield to protect Charlotte and him in a dome.

  Only, it very quickly beca
me clear that the tribal Drakaran were attacking only the Drakaran warriors. Soon hundreds of the tribal Drakaran landed amongst the Drakaran, viciously stabbing with their long spears at any exposed flesh or weak points in the obsidian armor.

  The knights and mages gained renewed hope and energy with the sudden turn of events. With the help of the tribal Drakaran, the battle was over in minutes. They fought with a primal savagery that had quickly turned the tide of battle.

  When all the Drakaran warriors were dead, the tribal chieftain, wearing a crown of twigs and leaves, stepped forward. He had a vicious cut across his bare chest, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it.

  “I am Zulu,” the chieftain announced. “Chieftain of my people.”

  General Kirn, breathing heavily from the recent battle, stepped forward.

  “And I am General Kirn. We humbly thank you for your assistance, but I have to ask why you helped us kill your own people.”

  The chieftain glanced at a dead Drakaran soldier on the ground next to him with a look of disgust.

  “These are not my people. They have warped and twisted our customs, intertwining themselves with the dark arts so much that I no longer recognize them. We used to be one with nature. Now they pervert what it means to be a Drakaran. One world isn’t even enough for them.”

  General Kirn held out his hand. “We are on our way to destroy the Drakaran council and their leaders. Will your people join us?”

  “They have many warriors,” Chieftain Zulu warned. “They have many mystics and powerful creatures as well. They have strategic control of the land, defiling nature everywhere they go. We will join your people. We will end their reign.”

  Chapter 5

  Back at the Drakaran capital city, council member Sareth walked into the command room to find Commander Voltross in a heated discussion with several of his men.

  “Commander Voltross!” Sareth exclaimed.

  “The Commander whipped around, fully intending to yell at the interruption, until he saw the council member standing there.

  “I hear that the humans are getting closer to the capital,” Sareth said. “I assume you have a plan to keep that from happening?”

  Commander Voltross clenched his fist to keep his anger in check. Sareth only wanted results, not excuses. He didn’t care about how the humans were alive only because they were saved by the tribal Drakaran.

  “I’m sending the wyverns,” Voltross replied. “Mystic Falon will lead them. When they are weakened enough, we will send in the Aborits to crush them.”

  Sareth considered the Commander’s words.

  “You are losing many of our troops,” Sareth pointed out. “Now you want to risk our wyverns and Aborits.”

  “If you want me to kill them, then you need to let me do what I need to do,” Commander Voltross replied through gritted teeth. “We’ve already killed hundreds of their men.”

  Sareth’s eyes narrowed. “You come dangerously close to speaking out of line with your tone, Commander. Do not forget that the council controls this city.”

  Voltross nodded. “I understand.”

  “I suggest you have a backup plan for if they manage to win another battle,” Sareth said. “I do not want to wake up one morning and find the humans knocking on our door with my pants down. Make sure our supplies and defenses are in order.”

  Sareth turned and left. Commander Voltross waited a few seconds and then turned to the wall, his glowing green fist slamming a hole into the stone.

  * * *

  It took a long time to exit the forest, finding the remaining two thousand humans and four hundred tribal Drakaran standing on a beautiful plain. The grass was an emerald green, reaching up to their knees, gently swaying in the fair breeze.

  There was a sense of calm. Great, deer-like creatures grazed in the distance, munching on the plentiful and luscious grass.

  Lance looked up. The sky was a clear blue, only a few clouds tinged with red from the sun floating about. In the far distance, black, unidentified specks appeared. He watched them for a time as the line of troops continued to march across the grass. It was most likely a flock of birds. The birds on this planet seemed to be many times larger than back home.

  As they continued on, it became abundantly clear that the specks were not birds. The black specks became large dots, and the dots became forms, long tails and wide wings visible.

  “Up above!” Lance warned.

  General Kirn glanced up and drew his broadsword.

  “Mages to the front!” He ordered.

  Lance realized that all of the fighters were practically useless in an aerial battle. They only had a few extra spears and it would be hard to hit such fast moving targets. Instead, they took up defensive positions around the supply wagons.

  The attackers were close enough to see they were wyverns, creatures extremely rare in Lance’s world. These ones looked much larger, with spikes all along their bodies.

  “Lance, Charlotte, and three others, focus on a giant shield. Extend it over everyone!” Master Porthos instructed. “The rest of us, use lightning to bring them down. Fire won’t work on them.”

  The energy shield went up, extending across all of the troops. Lance knew it was risky. The longer and larger a shield stretched, the weaker it was.

  It wasn’t long before the first wyvern crashed into the energy shield, its speed so fast that its neck broke and it slid to the ground. Even just the hit from its body made the energy shield waver.

  The other thirty wyverns wisely pulled up short and began to shoot flame at the shield. The combined power was intense, but the shield held.

  Master Porthos and the other mages swallowed several silver flakes each and began an attack of their own. Several bolts of lightning hit their targets, but it wasn’t doing enough damage to warrant the tremendous amount of energy it expended.

  Lance suddenly spotted a mystic riding on top of the largest of the wyverns. He hadn’t noticed at first because of the black robes and close to the neck of the wyvern he rode. Now that the mystic sat up and lifted his arms up into the air, Lance could make him out clearly.

  The energy shield vanished abruptly and the wyverns’ attacks rained down on the knights. Those unlucky enough to be in front were burned alive, their screams haunting the peaceful plains.

  General Kirn worked hard to maintain order. Then Lance had an idea. While the others created another shield, Lance ran over to Chieftain Zulu.

  “Zulu! Have your people throw their spears into the air,” Lance said.

  Zulu gave a funny look, but still relayed the order to his four hundred tribal Drakaran. Almost at the same time, four hundred spears were thrown upward. The wyverns were well out of throwing range, but Lance cast a wind spell, propelling all of the spears upward. Most of them missed their target, but many struck home. Twenty nine wyverns fell from the sky and landed in crumpled heaps on the grass. Only one wyvern remained because the mystic had shielded it from half a dozen spears that would have taken it down.

  The Drakaran mystic projected his voice to those below.

  “Come Aborits! Come and crush these puny humans!”

  Lance looked around as the Drakaran mystic waited. Dozens of knights were burned in a horrible death during the wyverns’ attacks. If they kept losing men, there wouldn’t be many left to take the city by the time they reached it.

  Across the plains, giant crab-like creatures scuttled across toward them at a speed that didn’t seem possible for its makeup. They were easily twice the size of an elephant, their two claws snapping excitedly at the sight of so many to kill and eat. They crushed the grass, leaving a large path in their wake. Their hardened shells were bright red, a protective layer that would be hard to penetrate.

  “Holy hell…” Lance heard General Kirn mutter.

  Chapter 6

  Greyson leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his hand. He felt good about his decision to leave the killing business. He was damn good at it, but it never panned out in
the long run.

  The crystals he procured from the dead Drakaran woman sold easily. He took the roughly two thousand gold coins and bought three large ships. It was an investment that would bring him in a constant flow of gold. It wouldn’t take long to get back his initial investment, and eventually, he could buy more ships and build an empire. Greyson always dreamed big.

  As he sat here, the crews were busy loading the ships with spices, wool, grain, and a few other easy sells. He imagined himself a year from now with a fleet of twenty ships and a mansion to top it off. Life would be good.

  A knock on the door interrupted his pleasant thoughts. He instinctively reached for the dagger at his side.

  “Who is it?” Greyson asked. He knew no one in Delvin and he preferred it that way. Whoever was here was a stranger, and strangers usually brought trouble with them.

  “A messenger from Merchant Kahlis,” a man’s voice replied from outside.

  “Come in,” Greyson announced while keeping his hand on the hilt of his dagger.

  A young man dressed in fine silk clothes opened the door and stepped inside with an air of self-importance.

  “I am Glenn, a messenger of my esteemed boss, Merchant Kahlis,” the man explained. “I am here because we understand you have started a trade business. Merchant Kahlis wants to send you a warm welcome.”

  Greyson gave a low chuckle to himself. “I assume you didn’t come here just for that.”

  “He also wants to remind you that he receives ten percent of all profits… per ship. It is how things are done. It is how things have always been done. In return, he will provide guards for your merchandise at each port.”

  Greyson smiled at the man. No man pushed him around and he wasn’t about to let that happen now.

  “Please tell Merchant Kahlis that I thank him for his welcome, but I will kindly decline his offer.”

  Greyson took great pleasure to see the messenger’s eyes widen in surprise, his body squirming uncomfortably.