Page 70 of Dragon Valley
A glare in the distance caught my eye. It was too far away for humans to see, but I saw the men coming clearly. A cavalry of blue and gold on horseback, racing across the landscape.
With a snapping sound and the air feeling sucked from my lungs, my perception shifted and jumped.
I blinked and looked down at small human hands with my dull, human eyesight. Back in my own body. Looking behind me, Black Malak had been heading southeast before turning back around. My mind raced as I tried to reorient myself. The cavalry coming from the southeast meant…oh no.
“We need to find Azel!” I yelled at Dusa. “Hurry!”
She turned sharply, following Ryo’s scent as she sensed my urgency.
“To the southeast, Dus. Can you see them or am I crazy?”
She looked, roared her confirmation, and beat her wings harder. Time was precious and we had so little of it before the second wave was upon us.
“Azel!” I screamed the moment Ryo’s green scales caught my eye.
Sensing my panic, he brought Ryo up next to Dusa, concern etched on his face.
“What’s wrong, Nadi?”
“Look!” I pointed to the cloud of dust, now barely discernible on the horizon to our human eyes. “A second wave is coming. Soldiers on horseback. I saw them through Black Malak’s eyes.”
Color drained from his face as he realized the direction they were coming from.
“Fuck, that’s bad.”
“Get the Riders together!” I ordered. “We need to hit them before they attack the rebels from behind!”
We didn’t bother waiting for a reply. Dusa shot like an arrow directly toward the oncoming stampede of horses. I could only hope that Caden felt my panic too and would see us flying overhead.
The ground zipped beneath us. Dusa’s body grew hot as she stoked the flames in her chest, ready to fire. Thousands of hoofbeats drummed in my ears, despite still being so far away. How many riders were there?
Father of Dragons, let me See…
My world darkened for a moment before being thrown back into vivid color and inhumanly rich details.
Through Dusa’s eyes, I immediately realized the cavalry’s strategy. They stretched in one long horizontal line across the landscape. Dusa opened her jaws and rained down fire but sure enough, she scorched only a handful of horses and riders before the line crossed under us and we had to double back.
“No, no, no,” I pleaded with my human mouth the moment I returned to my own body. Turning around again and again wasted precious time but what else could we do? And where the fuck where the other Dragon Riders?!
Their line seemed to stretch on endlessly. Even firing parallel to them only took out a few at a time. Horses ran faster than humans on foot and even jumped through the walls of flame Dusa created in front of them. We flew ahead, fired. Let them pass under, fired. Flew overhead and fired again, rinse and repeat. One small dragon could only chip away at their numbers in small increments.
They were mere seconds away from running up behind the rebels, still distracted by their hand-to-hand combat with the foot soldiers.
“Turn around!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “They’re coming up behind you!” But over the clang of swords on shields, no one could hear me.
We flew low over the rebel soldiers and hovered. Dusa roared to catch their attention until finally, someone looked up. I pointed, screaming until I had no voice left.
“Behind! Cavalry from behind!”
But it was too late.
The horses tore through, trampling foot soldiers on both sides. I didn’t dare order Dusa to fire with our own people on the ground.
The line of horsemen began curling in to surround those fighting on foot. We hurried to fire at the tail end but a massive blast of flames beat us to it. Black Malak flew over like a shadow, the other dragons finally following.
He took out twice as many as Dusa had, but the royal army’s plan had worked. Their line minimized their own damage as they charged and now they had the advantage over our men on foot.
I spotted Caden just as he drove his sword through a man’s stomach. Just as he pulled it out, a brown horse ran up to him, its rider’s sword pulled back and ready to swing.
