War of Dragons (25 page)

"Is it going to be safe to have the Sandy and Wasp Dragons here with the Browns?" John asked.

Theo shrugged. "Hard to say. Why do you ask now?"

John told him about the incident on the beach.

"Hmm," Theo replied. "That could have been nasty. I'm a little surprised that they attacked you after you transformed, but not so surprised about their attitude towards Wasp Dragons. They've fought some very unpleasant wars over the years. The Browns have done more of the invading, but the Wasp Dragons have stooped a lot lower in their tactics. They're sort of at peace at the moment, as we helped negotiate a truce of sorts about ten years ago, but that was after a particularly vicious conflict and both sides have long memories."

"So what happens when they meet up this time?" John asked. "Will they fight the Blues or each other?"

"Gul will manage the Browns," Theo replied. "They won't disobey him. And the Wasp Dragons will be massively outnumbered, so to start a fight would be suicide. The Sandy Dragons are less of an issue."

John nodded. "Fair enough. What about the maps. Have the Daves returned?"

"No," Dinah replied. "But I don't think that's particularly surprising. They want to do an accurate job. I'd expect them back this evening."

"Good. So what do we do now?"

Dinah shrugged. "My work begins now. I need to go and see that Wasp Dragon girl you brought in. The Dark Browns may have agreed to not harm any of them, but they won't be caring for them. As for you, I don't think it matters what you do now. Tomorrow is when the work will begin. See you both for dinner." With that, she headed towards the tents and left John to finally relax, knowing that the most important part of his job was done.

Chapter 15 - First attack

"An exciting day," Pan said in greeting to Perak as he met him near the command centre. "When do you think we will have any news from your men?"

Perak frowned. Pan knew the answers to these question and was just making noise. However, despite the momentous occasion, he didn't have anything that he needed to do at that precise moment so he decided to humour him. "It'll be light in an hour. Every team will attack their targets as soon as they have enough light to transform. They will then move onto their secondary targets and eliminate them before Kessick's dragons even reach the major cities to begin the main assaults. His dragons will leave at first light of course and I will be leaving shortly after him. As you should be aware, I'll be establishing a temporary command centre in a location that is to the north-east of the Red Dragon city called Obud, which is where I will be joined by each of the colonels monitoring my troops' progress. We will learn how their missions went at that time and not before. But this shouldn't matter to you. All you have to do is fly with Kessick, stay with his dragons until the start of the battle and then report back to me. By the time you join me we should have word from each colonel that is heading up the different groups of operations."

"Yes, of course," Pan replied. "I just wondered if there had been any early reports—"

"If there had been I wouldn't be sharing those with you or anyone other than the three generals leading the attack. You know that, surely?"

"Long way to fly to visit those generals," Pan commented. "How would you contact them with any news? Pushak and Xanot are at least a day's flight away." Perak and Pan were near the massive army that was to attack the Red Dragons' Eastern Principality, so they were close to the general in charge—a veteran from the war with the Green Dragons called Farak—but the other two generals led campaigns against the Northern and Southern Principalities and were currently a long way away.

Perak sighed irritably. Pan was being as short-sighted as ever. "Those distances will be much shorter after today, Pan. We'll be moving a long way to the north-west. Pushak will establish his new headquarters to the north-east of the Southern Principality and Xanot will set himself up to the south-west of the Northern Principality. The three operations will be not that far apart."

"But what about information that you learn now? How would you get it to them in time?"

Perak stared at him icily, not answering for a moment. "I can't see how you need to know the answer to that question."

Pan coughed, looking away awkwardly. "Well, I should probably go and join the men soon. Kessick is such a bore; I thought I'd wait till the last minute to avoid having to listen to his inspirational talk."

Perak nodded, his mind already on other matters. He looked at the horizon; the sky still gave no indication that the sun was about to rise any time soon. Like Pan, he was impatient to learn what was happening, although he had learnt how to hide such weaknesses. This could be a very long hour indeed.

***

On the other side of their temporary headquarters, Perak's counterpart responsible for planning the bombing of the cities was also being disturbed by an unexpected visitor.

"General Tarek, how are the preparations? Going well, I trust?" Tarek was the newest general in the army and his promotion ahead of Kanesh had surprised almost everyone. Not Kanesh of course; he prided himself on being supremely well informed and understood exactly how Zygar's mind worked. His time would come and if he felt any resentment at being overtaken by this young man barely half his age he didn't show it.

Tarek looked up in surprise from his desk. He had been reviewing a report from one of his commanders and hadn't expected anyone to visit him in his command tent. "Colonel, what are you doing here? Has Zygar sent you?"

Colonel Kanesh smiled congenially and shook his head. "No, nothing like that. The General doesn't need me to tell him what is happening. He has a very effective network of eyes and ears. It's uncanny how quickly he finds out what is going on."

Like you
, Tarek thought darkly,
with your network of spies from the Army of the Interior
. "Indeed. So, why are you visiting? No offence, but I'm rather busy." He was lying of course; like Perak, his work was largely complete. He was responsible for the planning of the invasion rather than leading it, but he never fully trusted Kanesh.

"None taken, none taken," Kanesh replied cheerfully. "I'm actually working with General Farak. It's a complicated operation and although he already has three colonels to lead the individual operations, he felt he could do with some extra assistance to coordinate them. Someone who can gather information quickly and help him make decisions. I was honoured to be chosen."

Tarek frowned. Farak had seemed an unusual choice; a brilliant strategist, admittedly, but almost as bad as Perak when it came to interacting with his peers, so partnering him with Kanesh did make sense, but it irritated him that Kanesh had such an influential and powerful position. If anything, it was a more important position than his own, at least for today.

"Well, as you asked, there are no further preparations. My troops are ready to go. We are just waiting for the command to leave. They have all practiced this till they were perfect, and then they practiced some more. If Colonel Nabegar can clear the skies, then we will destroy the cities."

"The important parts of the cities, anyway," Kanesh added with a smile. "Take out those Dragonstones and they'll be finished. Handy, having that spy, wasn't it?" Like most races, Red Dragons cultivated Dragonstones—large, egg-shaped stones made from special dragon scales treated with carefully-controlled fire, that had an empowering effect on the dragons that lived in a city and had donated the scales. The presence of the Dragonstones enabled the Red Dragons to fly almost as fast as Blue Dragons and made them even stronger.

Tarek shrugged. "I suppose so; we'd have known which buildings housed the Dragonstones anyway. They are distinctive structures."

"True, but now you know the number in each city and their exact location—even secret entrances to some of them, so we could enter from the ground if needed."

"Unnecessary, of course," Tarek replied curtly. "My men will destroy the buildings from the air."

Kanesh nodded earnestly. "Of course, provided that Farak and the other two generals leading the attacks do their job. Does it bother you not leading one of the three fronts?"

Tarek frowned. Was the old fool trying to goad him? "Of course not," he lied. "My role cuts across the three armies, just as it is true for Perak and Kessick. I have no complaint."

Kanesh smiled at him sympathetically. "How true, and your role is such a vital one. Perak and Kessick could both succeed and yet the battle still be lost; the same is not true for you. If you are successful then the Reds will fall." He glanced out of the tent. "The sun will rise soon. Then Kessick's troops will depart. I do hope his dragons are successful. I'd hate for your dragons to meet any resistance in the air."

"They'll destroy the Reds," Tarek replied confidently. "We've done the numbers many times. Farak is certain of success."

"Of course, but are we sure of the timing?" Kanesh asked. "If your troops get there too soon, before the job is done, then all of your preparation would have been wasted. But I'm probably worrying over nothing. Farak dismisses this as nonsense. Good luck, General. I will see you at the victory celebrations. I have to go and see Colonel Perak…."

***

A few hours’ flight away, one of Perak's advance units was also waiting for the sunrise.

"Squadron Leader, the men are in position," the flight leader announced in a whisper. Squadron Leader Matok nodded, watching his second-in-command melt away into the poorly lit undergrowth. One of many of Perak's advance units, they were deep in Red Dragon territory, readying themselves for the attack they had been preparing and planning for so long. The squadron leader turned back to continue watching the village. Just a minute's flight away was a small community of Red Dragons; monsters that he had spent his whole life hearing about but had yet to see, let alone fight and kill. Like many other squadron leaders under Perak, he had been promoted on the basis of ability demonstrated through training exercises rather than actual accomplishments and even more than normal he keenly felt his lack of combat experience. His flight leader had fought the Browns, even claiming that he thought he had possibly downed one in a terrifying-sounding encounter near their border. The Browns were not nearly as strong as the Reds, but they had speed—enough speed to unnerve the young squadron leader, who was glad to not have to face them in battle. The Reds' strength was all very well, but in the air was it really all that useful? He doubted that even on the ground it was that much of an advantage, as their strength came at a cost in terms of speed and he had enough confidence in his own abilities on the ground to not to be bothered by any Reds he might have to face. But yet, this was his first encounter and would be his first kill. Mess this up and his troops would never respect him. Of course, if he messed it up badly enough it wouldn't matter what they thought of him; he'd be dead.

The sky was slowly getting lighter. They were situated near the top of the hill and would be ready to transform any moment now. There were two large buildings below them, so he had split the men into two groups: one led by him and the other by his flight leader. There were seven of them altogether, three dragons with him and two with the flight leader.

Suddenly the sun appeared above the horizon, lighting up the morning sky and momentarily dazzling him. No command to his troops was required or given; they all began transforming as soon as the light struck them. As soon as he finished his transformation Matok saw his flight leader signal to him that they were all ready. Matok took off immediately, gliding noiselessly above the trees towards the two buildings. Wooden buildings! What fools they were, those living here, he thought. He caught a glimpse of his flight leader to his right, leading his little band of dragons towards the other target. If he was nervous, he certainly didn't show it. Like all he commanded, he was completely focussed on the task, eager to attack the Reds.

They were yet to hear or see anyone moving in either of the buildings, which seemed a little odd. Normally these sorts of people were early risers, starting the day with the sun. He hoped that they hadn't been evacuated already, perhaps alerted by discovery of one of the other teams that were preparing to attack the many small settlements. Matok landed just beside the larger of the two buildings, a shabby-looking, single-storey house with large windows that were covered with flimsy shutters. There was no way of knowing how many were in this building; Colonel Perak's intelligence team had only determined the number and location of the buildings in each of the settlements, and that information was mainly from stolen maps and hadn't been fully corroborated. Matok hoped that there were quite a few, keen to be able to boast about how many he had killed personally, but he doubted they would be so lucky.

He signalled to his three dragons, who spread out around the house, each one moving to a corner of the building. His flight leader did the same with his two dragons, surrounding the other building. From his position, Squadron Leader Matok could see all but one of the six that he commanded. They were all watching him, waiting for the signal to attack.

He paused for a moment, straining to hear anything in the house, before signalling the attack with a nod at his flight leader. All seven dragons attacked the building simultaneously, smashing through the flimsy shutters and breaking the windows with ease. It was a strain holding back from shrieking their usual battle cries, but Perak had made it very clear that he would execute anyone who broke that rule and the only sound he could hear for the moment was that of breaking glass. Matok stuck his head through the window he had just broken and stared into a dark room, lit only by the wisps of fire he emitted from his nostrils. The room was empty, but almost immediately after peering inside he heard a loud shriek of alarm from a neighbouring room. The doorway to the far left corner of the room lit up briefly as a fireball was hurled into the adjacent room by one of his dragons, followed by shrieks of complete agony. An elderly red-haired man burst into the room from another door, half-dressed and a look of horror on his face as he saw Matok peering in through the window. His eyes glowed red, intent on beginning his own transformation, but it was far too late for that. Matok quickly reached into the room with one long foreleg and swiped at the old man with outstretched claws, tearing through the man's loose clothing and opening up his abdomen and spraying blood on the walls. The old man screamed in pain and anger before collapsing to the ground, his face half covered in red scales from his failed transformation. He continued to scream as Matok tore frantically at the window frame, trying to widen the entrance so he could enter the room. The man he had attacked was no threat but Matok had to be sure that the job was complete. Just as he managed to squeeze his body through the ruined window, the door that the old man had come through was smashed open and he found himself staring at one of his own dragons. The Blue Dragon snapped at the dying man's head, silencing him immediately.