Omensent: Rise of the Shadow Dragons (51 page)

The hall was filled with frightened people who were huddling together
with their families and friends, their expressions terrified as they listened to the rampaging dragons that could clearly be heard as they destroyed the town.

"Everyone should be safe down here." Lady Skie said, glancing over the frightened people worriedly.

"Unless the shadow dragons decide to try to bring the entire mountain down on us." Dar muttered sourly.

Several
castle servants came running down the stairway, looking pale and frightened. "I think that's everyone in the castle, milady," One of the servant girls reported. "except for Azel. He said he was going to double check the upper levels of the keep to be sure that no one was left behind. We haven't seen him since!"

The entire castle suddenly shook violently, and an ear piercing shriek suddenly resounded through the castle, drowning of the screams of terror from the townspeople.

"Damn!" Dar exclaimed once the shriek faded. "I hope the scarlet dragons that built this keep built it to withstand a dragon's attack!"

The castle shook again, sending a shower of dust falling upon those in the hall.

The servant girl tried to stifle her screams, but still had tears flowing from her eyes.

Lady Skie looked at the girl sympathetically. "Go wait with the others
. You'll be safe down here."

"What about Azel?"

Lady Skie's face grew determined, even as the castle shook around her once again. "Don't worry about Azel." She assured the girl with a smile. "I'll go and find him, then bring him back with me." She turned and started up the stairs, but was stopped by Dar, who ran up to grab her by her arm.

"Are you mad?" The Alena asked in alarm. "Do you not hear that dragon out there?"
As if to emphasize his words, another piercing scream echoed through the keep.

"Is that what that is?" Lady Skie asked in feigned astonishment. "I thought it was just the wind." She him an exasperated look. "We can't leave Azel up there to be killed! He's up there on my orders, and I'
ll not have his death on my conscience!"

Dar swore violently. "Then I guess I'm going with you! I can't let you go running off on your own, or your father will have my hide!"

Lady Skie quickly led the way back up the stairway leading to the main floor. Once there, they ran down the castle's main corridor to the grand staircase that led towards the upper levels.

"What floor do you think he's on?" Dar asked, puffing slightly as he tried to keep up.

Lady Skie shook her head. "It's hard to say, but my first guess would be the upper chambers."

They reached the upper chambers just as the castle shook again, this time so violently that they were thrown to the floor. An ear splittingly loud shriek assaulted their senses, followed by the softer cries of a boy and a girl.

"There's someone in Damion's bedchambers!" Lady Skie cried, scrambling back to her feet.

There was another shriek, then the door leading into Damion's chambers suddenly exploded out into the hall, followed by a blast of flames and
a wave of intense heat. The cries of terror continued from the bedchamber as another wave of fire erupted from the room, followed by the castle violently shaking once more.

"It sounds like a shadow dragon is in the room with them!" Dar exclaimed, shielding his face from the heat.

They carefully inched their way towards the doorway leading into the large chambers, then poked their heads around the charred door frame. The room was a complete ruin. The enormous bed that had been constructed to accommodate Damion's huge frame was now nothing but ash, as was most of the furniture that had decorated the room.

Outside the large window that looked out over Sevria was an enormous shadow dragon
, peering into the room with one huge black eye. It slammed its head into the castle with tremendous force in an effort to make an opening in the durable granite.

Another cry of terror drew their attention to Azel and a small female child
, who were cowering in the far corner of a side room that Damion commonly used to house his armor. Although they appeared to be unharmed, the intense heat was incredible, and they would soon be cooked alive.

The shadow dragon clearly heard the cr
ies of terror, and drew a deep breath. Lady Skie and Dar only had a instant to dive for cover as the monstrous beast filled the room with flames, which spilled out into the hallway, singeing their hair and clothing.

"We h
ave to get them out of there!" Lady Skie cried desperately. "They'll be roasted alive if they stay in there much longer!"

"Do you h
ave any suggestions?" The childlike sprite was sweating profusely.

She looked around the hall desperately, then her eyes fell upon a decorative suit of armor holding a long spear. "I have any idea!" She ran over and tore the spear free from the armor's hand, then hurried back to the doorway. "
I hope this works!" She glanced around the doorframe just as the shadow dragon slammed its head into the castle, causing it to shake to its foundation. She drew a deep breath, knowing this could be her only chance, then charged into the room and hurled the spear with all of her might.

The spear flew gracefully across the
devastated room and lodged deep in the shadow dragon's eye as it attempted to peer once again into the room. The sudden roar of agony that shattered the air was shocking. The shadow dragon clawed at its injured eye, snapping off the end of the spear while lodging the rest of the weapon even deeper. It released its grip on the castle, and launched itself into the air, still clawing at its face desperately.

"Come on!" Lady Skie
yelled to Azel and the child, who quickly dashed from the room and followed her and Dar back down to the Vaults.

They were all quite shaken and out of breath by the time they reached the safety of the lower chambers. They collapsed on the cool stone stairway in exhaustion, still not quite sure whether they should believe what they
had just witnessed.

Finally, Dar
took a deep shuddering breath and exhaled heavily. "That is something I never want to do again!"

"We managed to save them, didn't we?" Lady Skie said defensively,
an arm draped around both the child and Axel.

"Aye. We saved them, but we were still nearly roasted alive!" He suddenly laughed
. "I never knew that you were so skilled with a spear!"

Lady Skie laughed. "I
'm not! I've never so much as held a spear before today!"

*************

The monstrous beast dropped from the sky above Sly and Damarius, its razor sharp talons extended. Just moments before the beast was close enough to strike, a scarlet blur appeared from nowhere and slammed into the shadowy serpent with tremendous crash. The shadow dragon and the scarlet dragon crashed to the ground near the edge of town, ripping and biting at one another in savage battle. They rolled into a two story stone structure, instantly reducing it to rubble, still ripping and slashing at one another with lethal intent. The shadow dragon somehow managed to tear itself free from its attacker's deadly grip, then scrambled to launch itself into the air so it could escape, but the scarlet dragon was faster by far. It pounced on the smaller dragon before it could escape, and pinned it firmly to the ground.

It was
over as quickly as it started. The much larger scarlet dragon seized the shadow beast by its throat and ripped it loose with a powerful wrench. Blood sprayed from the dreadful wound, and the shadow dragon convulsed several times, then finally fell still.

The scarlet dragon spit out the throat of the dead beast, then launched itself into the air with a powerful thrust of its great wings, setting off in pursuit of the last shadow dragon, which had fled the instant the scarlet
serpent appeared.

Another roar went up from the men as they watched the
dragons disappear into the distance, and though their town lay half in ruins, many danced along the wall and through the streets joyfully as a crowd began to gather around the carcasses of the shadow dragons.

"Get these men into order and back to their posts!" Sly roared to several guard captains. "This fight isn't over! We still have the hoard to deal with!"

The men were quickly brought into order, and they returned to their places along the wall.

The inferno that had blocked passage to the gates had finally begun to burn itself out, and the dragonspawn that had survived produced another makeshift battering ram, clear
ly intending on trying to breach the gates that were already warped and partially melted from the extreme heat produced by the fire.

"
It looks as though we only have a few minutes before they make their next attempt on the gates!" Sly warned the old wizard with a frown. "Is there any of that naphtha and pitch mixture left?"

Damarius shook his head
. "We used what little we had on their first attack on the gate." He scratched his head thoughtfully. "Given how powerful it was once mixed with my special ingredient, we could have only used half." He sighed, then shrugged. "I guess we'll know better next time."

The little man stared at him in disbelief. "Next time? How about we
focus on getting through this battle
before
we start planning the next?"

"Of course! Of course!"
The old wizard glanced over the edge of the wall at the ground around the gates, which was still smoldered in places. "It'll still be a while before they'll be able to cross it without searing the scales right off of their feet and legs. That should give the gates some time to cool."

"And after that? They don't look like they're up to withstanding another assault!"

"They still have to get passed the inner gate." The old wizard shrugged unconcerned. "It's much heavier than the outer gate."

"Don't you have any other traps prepared for them?"

"Of course I do!" Damarius laughed. "But if I tell you about all of them, you won't be suitably impressed when I trigger them, now will you?"

Sly dropped his head into his hands wearily. "Do you have to act like your enjoying yourself?"

"But I am!" Damarius laughed, sounding very much like a child playing with his favorite toy. "I haven't had this much fun in years!"

"Lord Quickhand!" One of the guards suddenly cried fearfully, pointing
towards the edge of the forest.

"By the gods!" Sly
cursed, his face bleak. "I think the reinforcements they were waiting on just arrived!"

Thousands of dragonspawn w
ere pouring out of the forest and gathering in the empty clearing a few hundred yards from where their brethren were gathered. They continued to emerge from the forest for several minutes until the new hoard outnumbered the old by three to one.

A silence suddenly fell over t
he men still defending the wall as they stared wordlessly at the mass of creatures that slowly began to make their way towards the city.

Chapter 17

"See?" Shirk murmured to Damion as they peered out from the bush at the side of the road leading into Daconia. "The ruins are less than a half mile to the south. The walls that once surrounded the temples have long since fallen apart, so you shouldn't have any problems finding a way in."

"Do you have any idea how many cultists are in the ruins?"
Veren asked, his voice tense.

Shirk shook his head. "I've never been foolish enough to hang around long enough to try to take a count. But from what I've seen and heard, there are
forty or fifty of them, at least."

They drew back away from the road to avoid being detected, then gathered together to decide their next move.