SkyFall (Taken on the Wing Book 2) (53 page)

No shit.

Soar rights himself. Portals discharge
all around, driving down brilliant green bolts of electricity. The heavy stink
of ozone assaults with every breath as he does what Fire says. Each portal
burns another messy yellow streak across his vision. None run straight up or
down since he rolls and tumbles to stay clear of new portals opening above.
More than once he dodges the stationary green fire of the aurora in his
half-blind attempts to avoid the lightning.

The first problem isn
’
t dodging the bolts. Rock and ice explode
below as portals ground, punishing Aledaar's mountain. Jagged stone shrapnel
bounces off his armour and passes through his flight feathers. They portalled
in very near the mountain and Soar fell much closer as he got his bearings.
More dragonkin arrive above and Soar beats his wings to follow Fire
’
s voice. The clash of weapons and cries
of attack already compete with the dragonkin thunder.

Then, instead of flying higher, Soar
moves in the direction of the battle. It
’
s
a hunch but it makes sense that the most intense fighting takes place at the
main entrance. Shit, judging by the crush of bodies tangling together in the
air it looks like the Will was on the move.

“
Dungeon is through the rear of the main
chamber,
”
Fire swoops close and barks in
a hurry-up kind of voice. With his daggers drawn above his clawed hind feet, he
engages a red armoured gryphon. Fire didn
’
t
tie his hair back before they departed the crevasse and in the lights of the
aurora and discharging portals it
’
s as green as the waves of
scales rippling over his skin.

“
I know,
”
Soar
mutters in order to keep annoyance out of his voice then realizes it
’
s Fire
’
s way of expressing good luck.
Soar tightens his grip around the handles of his own blades. He
’
d be a fool to dive in unarmed and flies
through the hole Fire made in the melee to reach Tundra. The gryphon is cut
near his elbow but the blood is already tacky and losing its gloss.
“
Where are the others?
”

Tundra shrugs and takes his place behind
Soar, as close as he can get without causing them to foul each other's flight.
A green dragonkin takes station at Soar
’
s
other shoulder, bringing his team of six up to half-strength. Soar feels the
presence as scent and a slight adjustment of the airstream since the green
’
s silent flight smooths out Soar
’
s turbulence, speeding all three up as
they get closer. The entire exchange and forming up take a split second, enough
time to leave Fire behind as he drops his first kill and moves on.

Each death will be grieved. Every dead
fighter will be honoured and the sooner Soar gets Tempest to Aledaar the fewer
will die.

The front stoop, where Soar spent hours
waiting for Tempest only to be so matter-of-factly dumped, is bottlenecked. A
quick glance over his left shoulder tells him the green is Shatter, another
relation of Cooper
’
s through the gryphon branch
of his family tree. Since the skies have quieted with the arrival of the last
of their forces, individual battles have spread allowing Lev
’
s forces to co-ordinate their assault.

Damned fast but not fast enough.

The disorganized Will reacts more to the
appearance of so many gryphons and green dragonkin than puts up a formal
defense.

Soar curses but doesn
’
t pull up short of landing. Instead, he
roars and draws a pause from nearly everyone blocking the door. Everyone but
Lev, that is. He knows Soar
’
s call as well as Soar knows
his. Most of their forces battle the Will outside in the air and on the rocks
and the bookend guards engage Lev and one of his gryphons. Choking dust and the
flurry of blades and wings block Soar
’
s
view of the tunnel. Grit gathers in the corner of his eyes and crunches beneath
his boots. Larger chunks of stone still fall from the ceiling and litter the
floor. They
’
re lucky the portals didn
’
t bring the mountain down.

“
Ass
inside, Soar,
”
Lev barks. The flash of his
long, slim skyblades outlines a twelve foot wide danger zone around the Sire.
He flips one of the big blades around and lands the pommel in his adversary
’
s gut. The gryphon instinctively drops
his wing to protect his flank and exposes the tunnel entrance.
“
My grand-daughter.
”

The ranger with which Lev fights is good,
nearly as fast, but slows a little too much to assess two heavy dragonkin who
drop down to land behind Soar. Lev doesn
’
t
turn to look and takes advantage. As Soar rushes into the tunnel, blood bubbles
in the Will gryphon
’
s throat and he
’
s hit with the cool spray of blood. He
’
s close enough that the Arctic air didn
’
t have enough time to turn it to icy
crimson powder.

With Tundra and Shatter on his heels,
Soar makes for the main chamber. Back-up be damned. He
’
ll get to Tempest if he has to kick her
cell door down and it
’
s all for nothing if Aledaar isn
’
t in the mountain. The golds will fight
to the death until Aledaar
’
s spell is broken and some
Will gryphons, perhaps, long after.

A half-shifted gold holds position at the
end of the tunnel. Parts of him remain somewhat human, such as his distorted,
scale covered face. Bands of glimmering gold strobe across his features, a
mesmerizing warning thick with the promise of danger. One or two winged shapes
move behind him, silhouettes of silver light and shadow cutting through the
airborne dust. Tundra turns as he brings up his crossbow and Soar prepares to
charge. His wrists loosely cross and he fists his daggers in a blades down
position ready to use his weight to put them through the gold
’
s skull. A quick kill will prevent the
gold from using Tundra as a weapon.

Before Soar can get ahead of Tundra and
Shatter to open his wings enough to launch upward, a head-sized ball of flaming
pitch roars over Soar
’
s shoulder, singing his skin
and feathers. It impacts the gold squarely in the chest and drives him back. At
the same time, a second flame appears above the fire and grows with incredible
speed. Believing the gold is about to immolate before his eyes, Soar eases his
pace only to be knocked sideways by Shatter, hard enough to take Tundra down
with him.

The fireball grew because it closed in,
not because the gold made it bigger, and Soar curses himself for falling for
the illusion. He
’
d nearly taken it in the face.

“
Shit,
”
he mutters as he and Tundra ball up on
top of each other.

Sparks
and sticky flaming dragonkin pitch
explode as the green takes the fireball full-on. Their armour bears most of the
damage but Soar
’
s skin stings at his elbows
and everywhere else he isn
’
t covered.

“
That
’
s,
”
Tundra sputters as Shatter charges past,
unleashing a stream of flame at the gold. Pieces of his deep brown armour fall
to the tunnel floor as his dragon form expands so quickly that the leather
tears free from his green scaled body.

Then a second shifting, naked green bolts
after him. Soar can
’
t tell who it is.

Name tags,
he decides before he can clamp down the
wild thought.
Next time, fucking name tags.

“
On fire,
”
Soar
finishes and focuses on their current status while the greens get the gold out
of the way. He scrapes pitch from Tundra
’
s
armour with his dagger and shoves his other in Tundra
’
s hand to do the same for him.

“
Fuck,
”
he exclaims as another errant ball of
flame brushes past, striking the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel.

“
This what happened in your den?
”
Tundra
’
s voice doesn
’
t betray any nervousness but the joking
does.

“
Better than this,
”
Soar answers. He
’
s just as unhappy about jumping into a
fire fight and allows Tundra the remark. Under any other circumstances he
’
d knock him on the chin for a jab like
that. Shit, maybe not. The big gryph is only curious and Soar feels more than a
little proud that his female can breathe fire.
“
Let
’
s go.
”

Tundra stifles a chesty cough and spits.
Nothing as spectacular as what Shatter let loose but the acrid stink settling
in Soar
’
s own lungs suggests they
’
ll be hacking the stuff up for days.

They pause at the entrance to see the two
greens engaged with two golds. All four are fully shifted and shake off the
heavy flame with which they bombard each other as their sharp talons strike and
slash. Through the dust and smoke he can make out a pair of guards at the other
side, blocking the tunnel that leads to the dungeons and several others cluster
at the door to Aledaar
’
s chamber. Their attention turns
to the inside of Aledaar
’
s chamber and they ignore the
dragon fight behind them. Some of the heavy red and gold drapes burn and the
crash of a green impacting the wall brings down more dust and a ball of flaming
fabric.

“
Just like in my den,
”
Soar exaggerates and earns a wild grin
from Tundra.
“
I can handle this.
”

“
How the hell do we get around without
stepping into the center?
”

The circular array of white tiles about
fifteen feet across is more sacred to the gryphons than anywhere else. Gryphons
believe it marks the spot directly overhead where the first Sire and Dame fell
to earth when they were cast out by the Gods.

“
That way.
”

Soar chooses the route that brings him
closest to Aledaar
’
s chamber since the fire and
fighting dragons hold to the other side of the room, at least for the time
being. If they stay wide of the stairs and keep it quick and quiet they should
avoid catching the attention of the gryphons in Aledaar
’
s chamber. Conflict continues inside but
the guards at the door are content to watch. Aledaar
’
s laugh floats through the smoke as
Tundra and Soar get going. With an eye on the flaming drapes above they hustle,
dodging a fiery curtain just as they reach the stairs.

The tunnel from the main entrance erupts
in fire and Soar and Tundra draw back to the wall at the edge of the wide,
curved stone steps.

“
Go,
”
Soar pushes Tundra toward the guarded
rear door, urging him forward. Either it
’
s
Lev and the green dragonkin coming to cover his back or it
’
s the Will in which case they need to
haul ass.

The chamber shudders and the pair hug the
wall as their shadows race ahead, growing in the strengthening fire light.

“
Here there be gryphons,
”
a deep voice rumbles from the direction
of the entrance and Soar knows time is short.

No more safe passage bullshit, dodging
fireballs and fighting dragonkin. Lord Fury is close behind, each heavy
footfall causes the stone walls to exhale another gasp of dust. The distinctive
sound of Lev
’
s shout from inside the tunnel
spurs Soar on but he only makes it a few steps before the massive dragonkin
lord has him pinned on top of Tundra.

Shit.

Fury hauls Soar to his feet. His hands
shift into huge claws and in the fire, his entire scaled, dragonkin body
shimmers in the constantly changing light. Tundra disappears in the direction
of the dungeons and Shatter, back in his naked dragonkin form, joins him. Over
Fury
’
s shoulder, Lev
’
s blades
cut through the smoke, mixing with a
crush of bodies.