The Anvil (59 page)

Tom
went
back
up
and
found
Alex
,
who
told
him
to
eat
and
rest
, 
then
an
hour
after
sunset
he
would
meet
Alex
in
the
courtyard
.
Tom
ate
and
relaxed
,
then
met
Alex
in
the
courtyard
,
as
he
was
told
.
Three
other
people
were
there
also
,
Josh
and
two
people
who
Tom
didn
’
t
know
but
looked
familiar
.
The
group
set
off
into
the
forest
where
the
Ilemart
army
was
camped
.
All
of
them
had
dark
cloaks
,
so
they
blended
with
the
night
. “
Cover
yourself
in
scales
.”
Alex
whispered
to
Tom
,
who
looked
at
the
others
,
Josh
had
cast
a
spell
to
blacken
his
face
,
Alex
and
the
other
two
,
who
must
have
been
Dragon
Guardian
,
had
covered
themselves
in
variously
colored
dark
scales
.

Tom
covered
himself
with
scales
as
they
walked
.
They
reached
the
edge
of
the
enemy
camp
and
one
of
the
Guardians
pulled
out
crossbow
and
shot
the
sentry
in
the
neck
,
cutting
off
the
warning
the
sentry
almost
yelled
.
They
continued
into
the
camp
,
keeping
to
the
shadows
,
until
they
reached
the
siege
equipment
.
Tom
realized
what
they
were
doing
just
then
.
Alex
leaned
over
and
told
him
a
spell
“
That
will
cause
no
visible
damage
now
,
but
when
they
try
to
fire
the
weapon
it
will
explode
.”
he
whispered
,
then
they
all
went
to
work
.
After
half
an
hour
they
started
back
,
and
just
as
they
crossed
the
edge
of
the
camp
,
someone
started
shouting
.

They
had
discovered
the
dead
sentry
.
The
small
group
started
to
run
towards
the
enemy
camp
to
fool
them
as
they
saw
someone
through
the
trees
pointing
at
them
.
They
pulled
out
various
weapons
,
Alex
,
Josh
and
one
of
the
others
pulled
out
their
swords
,
Tom
grabbed
his
axe
,
and
the
last
Dragon
Guardian
pulled
out
a
large
spiked
mace
.
Soon
about
ten
soldiers
caught
up
to
them
,
because
they
couldn
’
t
fly
through
the
trees
.

Josh
spun
and
stabbed
with
his
two
swords
,
which
both
sunk
deep
into
a
soldier
.
Alex
cut
upward
as
he
turned
,
the
other
one
with
a
sword
ran
up
a
tree
and
did
a
back
flip
landing
on
a
soldier
.
The
one
with
the
mace
jumped
and
spun
in
the
air
,
and
brought
down
his
mace
on
a
man
’
s
head
.
Tom
spun
and
swung
his
axe
into
a
man
’
s
neck
.
They
killed
the
rest
and
started
running
again
.
After
two
more
groups
caught
up
and
were
killed
,
they
reached
the
end
of
the
trees
and
Alex
picked
up
Josh
and
they
all
took
flight
. “
Well
that
went
well
.”
Alex
said
,
somewhat
sarcastic
.

Chapter
21

They
all
went
various
ways
,
Tom
went
straight
to
his
room
,
changed
into
some
shorts
,
and
went
to
sleep
.
He
dreamed
he
was
flying
without
wings
over
the
forest
.
Beside
him
flew
two
dragons
,
one
pure
white
the
other
blood
red
.
On
the
side
with
the
red
dragon
on
it
he
saw
tyrants
and
war
.
On
the
side
with
the
white
on
it
,
he
saw
fair
government
and
peace
.
Suddenly
he
was
a
black
dragon
,
he
kept
flying
over
countries
seeing
good
and
evil
fighting
.
He
woke
suddenly
and
went
with
Zack
to
get
food
.

As
they
finished
eating
they
heard
the
alarm
bell
,
the
Ilemites
were
attacking
.
He
went
to
his
room
,
grabbed
his
weapons
,
put
on
his
armour
,
and
ran
to
the
front
walls
.
He
saw
the
siege
engines
being
loaded
across
the
field
,
and
smiled
to
himself
.
The
enemy
army
was
moving
forward
slowly
to
give
the
engines
time
to
break
the
walls
.
But
as
the
enemy
engineers
fired
their
weapons
each
engine
exploded
,
sending
debris
everywhere
,
killing
many
of
the
troops
and
destroying
some
tents
.