War of Dragons (53 page)

Thank you,
Lord Robert replied.
Prince Arthur, Princess Daisy, as always, it's a pleasure, but I take my leave of you now.

He bowed his scaly head before flying after the others.

What now?
Daisy asked.

Lord Jeremy transformed behind a screen before emerging in a colourful outfit.

"Why Princess, you're from the West. Surely you should know the answer to that one. We celebrate!"

Chapter 28 - John's war

John woke well before first light, keen to make up lost time. The previous day had been spent moving the girls from the camp near to the border between the Browns and Blues, towards the safety of the Golden Dragon territory. It was a huge task and they had nowhere near enough dragons to make it happen quickly, so the girls were going to have to walk a lot of the way. By human foot that would be a ten day journey, but Dinah had begun to teach a number of the girls how to transform so they would cover the distance in less than half of the time. Some of the girls could already transform and John had taught a number of them some very basic flying skills so they would be able to glide downhill and save even more time. The other Golds, as well as about a hundred Browns that Gul had spared, had begun the task of ferrying girls part of the way to reduce the amount of walking they would have to do. At the end of the day the girls were spread across the country in several different camps and would probably reach the safety of the Gold Dragons' territory in another two or three days. It was far from ideal, being still too near to the Blue Dragons, but they were much safer than they were at the beginning of the day.

John had not objected to helping with this task and would have happily stayed till the task was complete, had Benjamin given him some alarming news at the end of the day. John had believed that his friends were still safe back in the capital, but Benjamin had discovered that they had left several days earlier to fly back to Furnace. It was already dark when Benjamin told John this, or he would have left straight away; instead he had to wait until today and after sleeping badly, he woke and waited for the sun to rise so he could take off, shivering in the cold morning air.

He didn't remain cold for long though; the sensation vanishing as soon as he transformed, the impenetrable scales shutting out the elements as soon as they slid into place. Within a few minutes of waking he was airborne, leaving the makeshift camp and the thousands of rescued prisoners behind him, not bothering to even say goodbye to those that were already awake, so intent he was on making good progress. He chose to adopt his Golden Dragon form, flying high above the Brown Dragons' territory. All other dragons could fly as high as this, but most preferred not to, something John found incomprehensible. Up here he could take advantage of the faster winds, when they were in his favour, as well as being able to see much further. It was something his father had had to repeatedly remind John when they had crossed the border on their occasional trips into the Blue Dragons' lands. Just looking like a Blue Dragon was never enough; you had to behave like one as well. Fortunately, Red Dragons were ignorant of Golden Dragons and their ways so there was more room for error, but it never hurt to be cautious, his father pointed out, encouraging him to fly lower and slower than he would have done so otherwise.

Today though, John decided that it would hurt to be cautious. He had to get to Daisy, Crystal and the others as fast as he could. He chose the most direct route, even though that would bring him close to the border with the Blues. He would be flying far higher than they would be and moving far too quickly for them to bother with. Even if they weren't so slow, he would have been able to evade them, as he was too agile for them, their heavier bodies making quick turns in the air impossible.

The land passing below him looked deceptively peaceful from this height; a pretty land of rolling hills and trickling streams, with small farming communities scattered along the land to the south of the border. No one on the ground reacted to his presence, allowing him to fly over without so much as a single dragon emerging to question what he was doing there.

Indeed, John flew for quite some time without seeing any conflict or any sign that a war had started. However, after a few hours of flying it all changed abruptly. The fighting was still a few minutes away from him when John first saw the combatants, but there was no mistaking what was ahead. This was a bloody battle, not just a brief skirmish between border patrols and the air was filled with fighting dragons as the battle raged near to the border. There were several hundred dragons fighting and judging by the number of ruined corpses below them, they had been at it for some time.

John considered his options. The battle was being fought some way below him. If he kept to his current path, he would miss them by a considerable distance and the combatants wouldn't be able to fly up to hinder him. He could probably pass by them without anyone even knowing he had been there. However, this was Brown Dragon territory, so it was likely that they were defending themselves from an invading force. This was a conflict that they had entered almost solely due to his actions and as he could see, many had already died as a result. He couldn't live with himself if he ignored their plight without even considering whether he should help. On the other hand, under Golden Dragon law he would need to be very certain that this wasn't a Brown Dragon offensive that was being driven back by the Blue Dragons and that would be hard to do. Stopping to get involved could only delay him and a few hours' delay here could mean losing a day after taking account the impact on his carefully planned route. There were lots of good reasons why he could skip this fight.

He shifted his direction a little to fly nearer the battle. Taking a closer look couldn’t hurt, after all. As he neared the battle it became clear that the fight was not at all even and unless something changed the Browns were going to lose, and lose badly. The Blue Dragons outnumbered the Browns by at least two to one, but the hundred or so Browns weren't retreating, taking advantage of their greater speed, but were trying to hold their ground instead. John scanned the ground to work out why they were fighting this unwinnable fight and saw what looked like a fairly large settlement just to the south of where they were fighting. The Browns had to be defending that from the Blues, or they would be retreating while they could. Their country wasn't large and they had limited options for evacuating their non-combatants to safer places, so the chances were that there were a lot of lives at stake here, and if this defence failed the casualties could be considerable.

John watched a Brown Dragon drop from the edge of the fighting, plunging lifelessly to the forest below. They were fighting courageously, but the number of Brown Dragons dead beneath them, although not that many, outnumbered the number of Blue Dragon casualties. This fight only had one outcome—at least, only one outcome as things stood.

He was now almost above them and had to make a decision. Quickly he dropped into a dive, throwing his doubts from his mind. Neither side were aware of him yet, so the element of surprise was his. He pulled his wings in close to his body and weaved through the tightly packed cloud of Blue Dragons, ripping through the wings of three of them as he passed through. They were still very much alive, but they were far too high to survive the subsequent fall. He dropped very quickly, only pulling out of the dive when he was just above the treetops and the Blue Dragons were barely aware of what had attacked them until they saw him far below them. Their chilling shrieks rose to a crescendo several seconds after his attack, by which time he was climbing back towards them. He looked up to see several hundred angry eyes turned towards him, glaring furiously. A group of about thirty broke from the main pack to dive towards him, claws outstretched towards him. They made for an impressive and intimidating sight, but John knew he could outfly them easily, even with their numbers and height advantage. He flew parallel to the ground to dodge their attack, then climbed to bring himself to the level of the two fighting groups.

The Brown Dragons had renewed the intensity of their fight, taking advantage of the distraction, and two more Blue Dragons fell, but so did one of the Brown Dragons. John glanced over at the falling dragon for a split second but quickly dispelled any thoughts of trying to rescue the fallen warrior after seeing the extent of its injuries. The Blue Dragons were ruthless killers, preferring to land a fatal blow themselves rather than let the fall do their work for them and John would have to do a lot more than one swift, passing attack to stop this attack.

The group of thirty Blue Dragons turned around to follow John and were climbing back into the sky, but not before the Brown Dragons noticed this small, vulnerable group. The Browns withdrew from fighting the main group of Blues, diving down as a group and attacking the smaller group ferociously.

Outnumbered almost four to one, John was surprised to see any Blues survive and indeed only four managed to rejoin their main group. However, the Browns had now put themselves at a disadvantage, being considerably lower than the rest of the Blues, who were flying towards them as fast as they could, still screaming in rage. The Browns split into two groups to evade the counterattack, but not all managed to dodge the charging Blues and John saw several more Browns plummet to their deaths.

The Blues had forgotten about John, now high above them again and he took advantage of this distraction. He dived again to gain speed before flying past them, slashing at them as he did so. He missed most of his targets but felt his claws catch the wings of two of the Blues and he felt the heat of their fire as they targeted him as he swept past. The two Blue Dragons he had struck spun out of control, dropping away from the group towards the unforgiving terrain below them.

The Blue Dragons had lost one in ten of their number during the last minute and the Browns, sensing an unlikely turnaround in their fortunes, increased the intensity of their attacks. Again, the Blues lost track of John and he flew over the top of them, raking their wings with his claws. He scratched the wings of several of them, causing them to shriek in alarm, but only did any serious damage to one of them, who dropped away from the group. The Blue Dragons quickly organised themselves into a tightly packed group, withdrawing from the fight and turning around to head back to their territory. The significance of the sudden manoeuvre was all too clear; they were retreating! Despite outnumbering their enemy the Blues had decided to give up the battle. The Browns flew after them, screaming gleefully at their fleeing foes as they tried to make the most of the situation. One of them broke away from the group to fly towards John.

Thank you, Gold!
the Brown Dragon called, circling John.
Your help was very welcome. That was a close one!

You are very welcome,
John replied, taking advantage of a thermal to soar higher while he rested.
I was glad to help. It didn't look like a very fair fight, so I thought I should try and even it a bit.

We're very glad you did. We were lucky that we managed to intercept that group, or they'd have destroyed that town, but without your help that would have happened anyway. You saved a lot more lives than you could realise.

That's not your home?
John asked.

No, although about half of those involved in that fight are from there. The rest of us were on patrol in the area. Too small a group unfortunately.

It'll get smaller if you continue to chase after that group of Blues, John replied. You're still outnumbered; you should just let them go. How active are the Blues along the border here?

Very active today. There are lots of groups like that one. They haven't thrown their full force at us yet, but they are more than a match for our numbers. This war was ill-advised, if you ask me.

You either fight them now, while their attention is divided, or wait a few years till the Reds are gone and face them alone,
John replied calmly.
Neither options are attractive, I grant you, but this is the best one.

Maybe,
the Brown Dragon replied.
Maybe the Blues will just wipe us both out in one go, meaning we've just saved them some time.
He sounded bitter for a moment, but his tone quickly changed.
Look Gold, you made a real difference in that fight. The Blues were really unsettled by your presence and you gave us all a chance. I mean, they retreated even though they outnumbered us! You'll see battles like this all along the border if you're travelling this way, which I think you are. Do you mind joining us for a while? We could really do with your help.

John paused, still circling.
I would like to help, but I am trying to get to the Red Dragon capital. I'm a little worried about some friends I have there. They'll need my help even more than you will.

You have reason to be worried,
the Brown Dragon replied earnestly.
That is where they are throwing all their resources. But are you certain your skills would be best used over there? Helping us here would help them there. If the Blues struggle here they'll have to send more troops to fight us, which will mean less troops attacking the Reds. Besides, if you fly along the border it is in the right direction anyway. Helping us might not slow you that much.

John knew the argument, as it was the whole reason he and his friends had made the trip—to bring the Browns into the war—but he was still a little reluctant.
I don't know; I fly faster on my own. I'd have to move more slowly to stay with you.

You'd be surprised,
the Brown Dragon replied.
I'm fast, even for a Brown Dragon. I know you Gold Dragons are impossible to keep up with over short distances, but can you keep up that pace? I can maintain my top speed for hours.