Legon Restoration (24 page)

Laura wasn't sure what to say to that, so she held out her hand and took the book Rachel proffered. Like she had said, it was lighthearted and Laura was surprised to find that as she let herself fall into the pages of the book her worries did seem to vanish for just a short time. The book was a collection of short stories and she read three before closing it. She looked for Rachel but the girl was gone, so enveloped had Laura been she didn't even notice that she was alone in the library. The light from the window at the end of the row she was on was soft orange. The sun was setting and when she looked across the harbor she saw the hill opposite the Palace crowned with the fire and golden rays of the sun. She breathed out and for the first time since the war started, Seeon seemed to her as beautiful and magical as it had when she'd first arrived.
 

* * * * *

Tom had taken Seth and Brian’s advice, letting down his mental guard enough to have his emotions influenced. He didn’t like the thought of the Iumenta controlling him in anyway, but it was better than being found out.
 

He stepped into an alleyway, keeping from being seen. He was tired of being followed and wanted to know who his tail was working for. Tom became the tail and as he suspected, the man he was following wasn’t overly skilled. The man was trying to keep from being followed but not doing a good job of it. Still, Tom stepped lightly, not letting himself get lulled into over confidence. The last thing he needed was to walk into a trap.
 

He followed the man to a small shop. The man walked in and Tom watched from a secluded spot outside. The man walked up to a woman and tapped her shoulder. She turned and Tom almost gasped in surprise.
 

The man was talking to Stacy. She was speaking warmly to him. Tom wished he could use magic to hear what was being said, but the Stacy was too far away and there were too many people around making noise.
 

They only spoke for a moment before the man left, but Tom felt his blood run cold. Was Stacy the mole? She couldn’t have been. Arkin trusted her with his life, and she had almost died when Arkin was killed.

Another thought popped in his head. What if Tom’s tail had figured out who Stacy was? What if she was in danger? Tom thought that more likely. He dashed across the street and into the shop. He walked up to Stacy, who jumped in surprise.

“Tom wh-” she started to say.

He shushed her, “Do you know that man?”
 

“Man?”

“The one that was just talking to you,” he insisted.

Her face lit up, “Oh, no not really, he was just asking me if I’d like to go to dinner sometime. I told him no. Why? And why are you here?”

“This isn’t a good place,” he said pulling her from the shop.
 

Once on their own he explained to her that he was being followed and then he explained how he was now doing the following.

Stacy looked severe, “So this man works for the Iumenta you think?”

“I would think so.”

She nodded, “Right. We need to handle this discretely and soon.”
 

“How?” Tom asked.

Stacy smiled coolly, “Tomorrow allow yourself to be followed again. Go down by the markets.”

“Then what?”
 

She smiled, but this time with her usual warmth, “Shop for dinner, just stay in the market.”

The next day Tom did as he was asked and went to the market. Sure enough, there was his tail. Tom decided to play his role and started to look for things he needed. Soon he had several items and was wondering what Stacy was going to do. Tom walked by a group of draft horses that were harnessed to a cart with wine barrels. Tom talked to the peddler, trying a few of the drinks. Wine wasn’t really his thing but he was running out of things to do. As he moved along he noticed his tail walk by the horses. One of the wine barrels toppled, startling the animals. They launched forward. Tom’s tail tried to move out of the way but was knocked over by the horses. Tom spun with the rest of the people and watched in detached horror as the man was trampled by the horses and the cart pulled over him.

When Tom turned again Stacy was next to him. She looked at his day’s purchases, “What’s for dinner?”
 

* * * * *

A light rain pattered against the hull of the Actuaries. Legon gazed out the opening of his hanger at the gray sky. As a dragon his eyes were keener than as an Elf, and as such he could see the coastline in a haze of rain and smoke. They had made it back to the Cona lands. Little pricks of light were on the horizon as fires burned. Legon watched as the rain extinguished the fires, making them disappear in plumes of steam.
 

Emma came and sat down on Legon's leg. "Is it supposed to rain all day?" she asked.

"No, it should clear up in a few hours," Legon said.

"Are you going to fly any missions today?"
 

Legon sighed. "Yes we are, nothing too major tonight just a standard patrol. What will you and my sister be doing?"

Emma looked a little confused. "I'm not sure exactly, I'm on a very need to know basis. All I know is that whatever we are doing involves water."

Legon laughed, "Live in fear Emma."

"I do, so why isn't Edling here?" she asked.

"He would be a liability. In general only one person in a couple will go to a war zone."

Before they could talk more a group of Elves came in the room. "Un Prosa," one of them said, "we have been sent to help you with your armor."

Legon looked back down at Emma. "Sorry Em got to go, unless you want to help me with my armor?"
 

She smirked. "Lifting giant pieces of metal how fun, no thank you. I think I'll go hide from Sasha," she said walking off.

Legon really didn't mind wearing the armor all that much, it was designed to not limit his movement and didn't feel all that heavy on him. Still, he didn't walk around much in it as the plates on the bottoms of his feet made him sound like he was wearing tap shoes for giants. In the hanger next to him Iselin was also in her armor. They were both excited; they'd trained together for years but never really fought alongside each other.

Legon made his way to the lip of the hanger’s opening. The rain had stopped a while ago giving the air a clear smell that Legon knew would disappear once they were over the coast.
 

He leaped from the hanger opening his wings and driving them down; within a few flaps he was gaining altitude, with Iselin, Opes and a member of his guard behind him. His mind was joined by the others and Sydin.

"Sydin how are you? It's been too long," Legon said.

"Yes it has Un Prosa, how was your trip out here?"
 

"Peachy."

The group formed up in a standard V formation. Legon had learned that there was a lot that went into the dragon formations. Because of the varying size of Ascended, based on what class they were, formations were set. The one they were in now was the most basic, Legon being a class eight was in the lead; this was because he was the most powerful member of the group but also the one with the least amount of speed and maneuverability. On either side of him were Sydin and Opes, both class seven, and bringing out the outside of the formation was Iselin and Legon's guard and Elf named Pondos, both class six. If they got into a fight Legon would directly charge the enemy, Sydin and Opes would take his wings and Pondos and Iselin would try and out flank their opponents. With the Iumenta being out numbered in the sky the Pawdin Empire had found formations like the one Legon was in were giving them a significant edge.

They headed towards the coastline. Below them the sea rushed by as did Elvin and human ships. As they passed over the beach Legon could see the bodies of soldiers strewn along it. His nostrils filled with smoke as they flew over the city wall. Most of the city had been taken, with just the north east holding on. Legon and his unit were just flying over the city on the way to their patrol route when to the north they saw three flashes of light.
 

"Three Iumenta Ascended to the north!" Sydin said.

Legon's formation turned and sped up. "Looks like three sevens," Legon pointed out.

As he said this three more Iumenta jumped in, two of them class sixes and a class seven. Legon and his unit were now outnumbered but not about to back down.
 

Sydin took charge, "Iselin, Pondos keep them off our backs, we will have to hold them until reinforcements come. Opes, you and I need to force them into Legon's line of fire. Legon you focus on one opponent at a time, I want you to try and get in close, save your magic."
 

The Iumenta formed up in front of them, three sevens lined up with the sixes on the outside and just back a bit the last seven was right behind the center Iumenta. Legon knew the technique they were going to use. The Iumenta were going to try to force Legon to fight more than one opponent, the first dragon would try and expose Legon's back.
 

The two formations closed in on each other, Iselin and Pondos separated out from the formation giving the appearance that they were going to try and out flank them. Legon bore down on the Ascended in front of him, its blue scales pulling light from the sky. It showed no sign of fear of the upcoming fight. Legon found himself looking forward to the conflict, his body vibrated with the desire to kill the thing in front of him.
 

Mere feet away from the blue dragon, Legon folded his wing, rolling in the air as he passed the blue, he saw it trying to double back on him. Iselin and Pondos twisted in, converging on the blue dragon as Legon collided with the red Iumenta that had been in the back of the formation. Its eyes were wide with shock as Legon plowed into it, driving out its breath.
 

The red tried to back away from Legon, sending a spell at him that cracked against one of Legon's wards. Legon pushed harder into the red dragon trying to get purchase on it, he blocked a blow from the red’s tail blade and grabbed on with his front paws. He pulled on its tail, un-balancing it in the air, Legon swung with his own tail. It hit the other dragon’s hind end cutting down to the bone. The red twisted its tail away from Legon but not before Legon got two more hits off with his tail.
 

Legon breathed pure fire with no magic in it. The other dragons’ wards blocked the flames with ease, but also impeded the dragon’s view. Legon closed in on the dragon, finally able to lock in with him. They bit and clawed at each other and tried to bite the other’s neck. Being locked together they were losing altitude fast. Legon remembered that the key to his unit’s formation was to stay in a tightly packed group. He broke away from the red and back-pedaled in close to the other Elves.

They were in a close pod with the Iumenta surrounding them, the red dragon circling, giving itself time to heal.
 

"Legon, you can start using magic," Sydin said.

A green Iumenta seven was in front of Legon,
Inis,
a bolt of lavender lighting shot from Legon's front paw colliding with a wall of green. There was a crack of thunder from the Iumenta's wards as Legon pushed with his lighting. The green dragon sent an arch of emerald that smacked ineffectually against Legon's wards.
 

All of the dragons were fighting with magic now, the sky strobed. Legon felt Iselin still fighting the blue Iumenta dragon, she wasn't losing yet, but before long she would. In the first stages of the fight Iselin and Pondos had taken some hits, trying to ward off one class seven and two sixes.
 

"We need to even out the playing field," Legon
said
.

He felt the power in him well up into a ball that ran down his body,
Nuclose,
the ball streaked across the sky hitting the green dragon. There was a blinding flash of light and a deafening boom as the spell hit. Legon felt a wave of heat from the explosion and saw the green dragon tumbling back in the air, rivulets of blood spinning off its body from the many tears and burns now covering it. Its left wing in shreds, unable to steady its decent to the buildings below, Legon watched as it crashed into what he assumed to be a warehouse. He turned his attention back to the fight at hand, clearing his mind from the sudden loss of energy the spell had taken.

"Which one will have the most strength?" Legon asked.
 

Pondos responded, "The blue."

"Right, it's mine then," he said. Opes and Sydin engaged their own targets, while Iselin and Pondos went for the two class sixes. Legon twisted in the sky, making for the blue dragon. It tried to evade him by flying down and away. Legon gave chase. Every time the blue dragon would try and make a tight turn, Legon would send a spell in front of it, keeping it from out maneuvering him.
He must be waiting for that green one to recover
he thought.
 

The blue came in close to the ground over the Iumenta controlled part of town. As Legon followed, anti dragon flack filled the air, he tried to dodge best he could but took some minor hits.
Fine, if you won’t fight in the air we can fight on the ground.
Legon sprinted forward and sent another exploding spell, this one not as powerful, but right in front of the blue. Legon's plan worked and the blue dragon was taken off guard by the explosion in front of it. Legon took the opportunity to make the air under the blue dragon thin, making it drop a few feet and clipping a tree. The dragon tumbled to the ground and Legon followed. He was going to land in a park controlled by the Iumenta; he had to end the fight with the blue dragon fast.
 

The blue dragon tumbled on the ground but before it could recover Legon landed, driving his claws into the dirt
Toriso-vetis!
The trees next to the blue dragon came to life, growing branches as thick as a horse, entangling the Iumenta. Legon became aware of Iumenta approaching behind him. There was a glow behind his horn as his familiar, Bill, detached as a ball of light that turned into a lion to defend Legon's back. The blue dragon roared in pain and frustration as it tried to fight back the trees, their branches becoming sharp and piercing the blue dragon, running it through. It gave a gurgled scream and bloody stakes jutted out from its chest and neck between its armor. Legon altered the spell, making the trees behind him swipe out at twenty or so Iumenta and sending them flying. Bill returned to Legon as he took off and headed back for Sydin and the others, leaving the dead blue dragon behind.