War of Dragons (50 page)

"Stay low," he urged them. "You are my fastest troops and will be starting out a long way ahead of Farak's dragons so you'll reach your targets long before the main force. These towers are used to sound the warning in the event of an invasion so it’s imperative that you reach them unnoticed and silence them before they sound the warning. Take the utmost care to ensure you are not seen. I've trained you for months at doing this on two legs; now you'll need to do this as dragons. Just destroy each bell tower and then your work for the day will be complete. You are not required for the actual attack. I don't really care if you feel you're missing out on this battle; just do your job."

Perak was no longer the commander of these troops, having handed them over to his protégé Wing Commander Eric, who stood silently beside him. If he objected to the General doing his job for him, he didn't show it in the slightest, standing obediently to attention.

"What about those manning the towers?" one of the men asked. "Should we try and eliminate them all?"

Perak shook his head. "They're irrelevant. They'll be buried deep underground and you'll waste too much time getting to them. No, when you reach a target, just destroy the warning bell and then fly on and find the next bell tower. You have all memorised the locations?"

The men all answered in the affirmative.

"Good," Perak replied. He looked to the east. "It will be light soon. Transform and depart as soon as you can. The masses will follow soon after so you won't have as long as you might think. Each tower must be destroyed quickly." He straightened up to salute the men. "Good luck and serve me well. I will see you all at the victory celebrations!"

***

"Are all the troops ready, Captain?" Noah asked Mark. The young man was sitting in one of the tents erected in the town square and had been up for some time.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Ours are, but who can say about the Reds. Most of them should have been sleeping at the top of those volcanoes, not relaxing in their comfortable beds."

"Be thankful they listened at all," Noah replied. "Think of our own leaders and how they would respond in a situation like this."

"What about our scouts?" Mark asked. "Have they been sent out?"

Noah nodded. "Of course, Jude and his dragons left yesterday evening and they are camped out all over the kingdom. They'll be in the air as soon as it is light."

Mark paused. "You should really be staying out of the fighting, you know. They need one of us in that war room. Their commanders have no idea what they're doing. They should have been embarrassed by that meeting yesterday."

Noah shook his head. "They need me more out there. Besides, they're better at this than you realise. They've been fighting these Blue Dragons for thousands of years."

"So had the Green Dragons," Mark replied. "That didn't save them."

"True, but the Red Dragons are stronger than the Green Dragons. There's more of them and they're larger and Furnace is better defended than any of the Green Dragons' cities were."

"And the Blues are stronger now than when they fought and wiped out the Greens. If only we'd done something then."

Noah shrugged. He didn't disagree with Mark but didn't want him to lose hope. "If we had told the Reds, they'd have just attacked the Greens themselves, or waited till the fighting was over and attacked the Blues when they were weak. We couldn't have saved the Greens. We can save the Reds."

"Anything would have been better than nothing. Now the Blues are strong enough to wipe out the Reds and then they will—"

"They're strong enough that the Reds need help," Noah interrupted. "The Reds have never entered into alliances before. That in itself is a good thing. Besides, you can't really believe this is hopeless or you wouldn't be here. And if you do, you need to hide that from the others. Remember that you are a captain."

Mark nodded. "You're right, of course. When are you flying off?"

"Soon," Noah replied. "I'll go and see Prince Henry now and then we will leave. That young Prince, the twins’ older brother, is going to lead the Reds they are sending with me."

"Prince Gerald," Mark replied. "A good man. Apparently, it's rare for their noble leaders to lead their troops from the front. They prefer to let their less privileged country folk to die in their place. Gerald plans to lead them properly."

"He's not unique though," Noah replied. "The Commander of their Northern Army, Lord Lance, did the same when he was young. He was a very competent leader, but he led a cruel and vindictive campaign. Your father brought back an account of it when he returned a year ago."

Mark shrugged. "These two races hate each other more than any other two; I suspect you can find such accounts on both sides."

Noah nodded. "Of course, but now we're allied with the Reds. Just bear that in mind and be prepared for when they ask you to do something you can't. See you later, Captain."

***

Squadron Commander Ivan led his Blue Dragons silently towards their target, flying low over the ground and brushing trees and bushes with their wings and tails. They had a short flight to their targets and it was essential that they were not seen or their mission would be for nothing. The sun was low behind them, barely above the horizon. There were seven of them, flying in a one, three, three formation rather than their normal 'v' formation, adopting the tactic General Perak had insisted on to make them harder to spot. The bell tower was at the top of the next hill and their instructions were to silence it and destroy the tower. Ivan had spent his whole military career reporting to Perak and wouldn't fail him; the others might fear Perak's retribution, but for Ivan it was a matter of pride.

He spotted the tower and ordered the others to stay as close to him as possible and prepare to attack. He swept silently across the tips of the treetops before gliding up the hill and landing directly onto the wall of the bell tower, listening for sounds of life inside, but hearing nothing. Quickly, he reached inside the tower with a foreleg and took hold of the bell with his claws before pulling the bell towards him and holding it tight against the side of the tower to prevent anyone from being able to ring it. Now that it was secured, he sent two fireballs down through the tower, futilely hoping to kill the tower's occupants. The towers had been designed too well for that and the flames hit nothing more than rock. Someone below yelled out in surprise and pulled hard on the chain attached to the bell to sound the alarm, but Ivan had it held firmly in his claws and the muffled sound was too quiet to be heard from any distance.

One of his other dragons had landed opposite him, ready to grab the bell if he lost his grip and four of the others clung on to each side of the tower. The structure was too strong to be damaged by their claws, but each dragon was carrying a heavy metal hammer which they now started to employ against the tower walls. Using a tool was hard as a dragon, but upon Perak's orders the hammers were tied to a foreleg so it couldn't be dropped and they were able to swing them with considerable force. Broken stones started to shower down onto the bell tower inhabitants below as they began reducing the tower to rubble. The last dragon had landed on the ground and set about igniting everything it could, ready to face any Red Dragons should they appear from the building. Within a minute of landing, the bell crashed to the ground, the top of the tower destroyed. Ivan gave the order to take off and they moved on, yet another successful mission completed.

***

"Take no unnecessary risks," Mark told the young Golden Dragons standing in front of him. "Remember, this is just one battle and there may be many more ahead of us. Survive; and you can fight again tomorrow."

"Surely this is the one which counts?" Levi asked. "If we lose their capital, it'll be all over for them, won't it?"

Mark shook his head. "They could win today and still lose tomorrow, or the next day. If you're still alive at the end of the day, they'll have a better chance of winning this war. Don't sacrifice yourself unnecessarily."

Mark felt the gaze of someone standing behind him and turned to see who it was.

"Fine sentiments, Captain," Noah said loudly. "I couldn't agree more, but will add just one thing. We will win today. The Blues will fly away downcast and despondent. They expect to crush the Red Dragons today, but instead will find themselves beaten by an opponent they never expected to meet: us. We can't win this war for the Reds, but today we will help them save their own capital. And every day counts. The Browns will soon be snapping at their heels, destroying their towns and villages in their south, until they have to withdraw to fight them off. When that happens and it will, we shall not only have peace here again, but peace with new friendships, establishing the foundation for much longer-lasting peace, one we have strived for so long, but so ineffectively until now."

The Golden Dragons cheered his words and Noah clapped Mark on the back, before shaking his hand.

"A change of plan and a change you'll approve of: Prince Henry has requested that I stay on the ground with him and the commanders, coordinating the battle."

"At last he's done something sensible," Mark remarked. "Who will take your place on the mountain?"

"My second-in-charge was to be Micah, so now he will lead."

Mark knew Micah from his days in the Defence Force. He was also a veteran from the wars with the Banshee Dragons. He nodded approvingly. "An excellent choice. He will do a fine job."

"I'm sure he will; he's the most experienced captain here." Noah sighed. "I wonder how much I'll be able to do down here. Forgive me my cynicism, but I suspect I'll be far removed from any danger, standing next to that Prince. I wonder if I'm not there as his protector more than anything else."

Mark nodded. "He's hardly an inspiring leader. Still, I guess that's what you get when your leaders are selected based on birth rather than ability. The West are lucky to have Gerald; they could have easily have had someone like Henry."

"They could indeed. Good luck, young man, and I'll see you soon."

Mark shook his hand before rejoining his men, leaving Noah to go and join the Prince and the Red commanders.

***

Commander, did your men destroy all of the warning towers?
Perak was flying above the advancing army and Wing Commander Eric had flown up to join him.

They did, sir. Not a single bell was sounded. Unfavourable reports regarding the number of kills, sir—

That is unimportant,
Perak interrupted dismissively.
Our job was to ensure the attack was a surprise, well, as much of a surprise an attack of this size can be. There will be kills, don't worry about that.

Below them the air was full of Blue Dragons, orderly arranged into squads of seven, flying in 'v' formations repeated thousands of times. The army was on the move and had the numbers to end the battle for Furnace in one day. The troops below them were those reserved for ground fighting, those that would engage in the most brutal and barbaric of the warfare, the painstaking task of going from building to building finishing off the enemy one by one, ensuring that none had survived. They were flying slowly, saving their energy for the fight on the ground.

Some way ahead of them and only just in sight were a hundred or so huge metal lumps hung suspended from groups of dragons. They were currently engaged in the tricky task of transferring the weight from one group to another, as the objects were too heavy to for one group to carry all the way. Their task was the most skilled, but the least risky, carried out when the battle for the skies was over and the enemy had retreated to the safety of their heavily fortified buildings. These huge lumps of metal would rain on the city, smashing the buildings and reducing the fortified towers to rubble. These dragons flew even more slowly, weighed down by their heavy cargo, and had set off a long time ahead of the ground combatants.

Even further ahead were the advance party, those led by Kessick. There were tens of thousands of troops, most not expected to last the first hour in the bloody battle for the skies over Furnace. Once that was over the battle would be as good as won and Colonel Sadik would take over, leading the bombardment, before Colonel Tiam led her troops to slaughter the few survivors.

Perak would be involved in none of this, watching from the rear. He was a skilled and brave warrior, but knew he offered more through his strategies and planning than through leading a charge, much as he would have liked to have done so. He was pleased to have overtaken his two main rivals, Tarek and Kessick, but it pained him to know that Kessick would lead the main attack on Furnace, a battle that would probably be the most celebrated one of the campaign, should it prove successful.

Eric would also have liked to have been playing a more important role and Perak could have used his influence to have him command troops under Kessick. However, Eric was proving too useful to risk wasting in such a manner and he knew better than to ask Perak again.

Sir, our advance scouts approach,
Eric told him.

Perak looked ahead and saw three Blue Dragons flying against the direction of the army.

What news do you have?
Perak asked.
Why have you returned so soon? The battle can hardly have begun.

The three dragons turned as they approached and flew just below him, keeping pace with Perak and Eric.
It had not begun, but the Red Dragons are already in the air! They had been warned!

Perak fumed quietly. His plan had failed and there would be no surprise attack. His one contribution to today's battle would amount to nothing. Sensing his anger, Eric immediately began to protest.
Sir, my men assured me that not a single bell sounded—

That's alright, Wing Commander,
Perak interrupted, catching a glimpse of gold high above them.
The Reds were not alerted to our presence by their feeble warning towers,
he said irritably.
They have allies….