Page 36 of Drakhana's Treasure
Luke turns aside to speak to Dylan quietly. Voices start up and begin to chatter all around the room. I’m still shocked that some of our group think this is exiting when people have actually been killed. I’m mortified already and I’m only just wrapping my head around the fact that to stop anyone else from getting killed, ice dragons will have to die.
I wish I could just scare them away with heat. Isn’t that how it was done in the old days? Walls of fire to push back ice dragons, walls of ice to stop fire dragons in their tracks. I don’t think we possess that kind of power anymore.
As for earth dragons, everyone just stays the fuck away from them. We only have stories to go on as they are rarely seen, but what I have heard about them is terrifying.
I realize that we will have to live in a state of tension for a few days now. Ice dragons have dug themselves in with the buildings they have taken. They’ve stopped pushing towards the casino and randomly attacking. This has enabled Rastus to send more dragons to help set up in the desert.
If Luke has just come in from the mountains, then he’s head of the pack and thousands of dragons will now be coming in. They will be going to the desert forces and to here so Rastus can assign them tasks.
We have no intel on the ice dragons at this time except for their fixed locations. They might be moving around in the city but they are not attacking. This means that Rastus will have time to set up his attack. I’m sure he’s ready for anything but is hatching a plan to get this battle done as quickly as possible. They still refuse to communicate with us.
If they decide to hit us, it will be late at night when the desert is cold. They might believe that the temperature can favor them, right out there in the middle of the desert. But I know that’s folly. It doesn’t matter if the sun is up or not, the desert will be holding trapped heat from the sun and radiating from her molten blood. My fingers glow, just a little as I think about calling the fire into me.
I shake my head a little. I’ve got no business on a battlefield. I don’t have the experience and I don’t have control over my powers. I’m scared to be in the battle at all and I certainly shouldn’t be overconfidently thinking about my powers.
With grim looks, we all settle in for days of tension. Both armies will move into position, trying to gain the advantage over the other. Ice dragons are moving into the desert, keen to fight. Once the two sides are properly assembled, it will be a wait to see who makes the first move.
Once it starts, how do we know when it ends? Battles between the clans have gone on for generations. The pride of a dragon demands that we don’t accept loss. The battle could last a long time.
I admonish myself for the selfish thought, but the thing that strikes me hardest right now is how long I will have to wait before I can go home. Even if I was on the mountain, I’d be called out for war.
It’s as if the world itself conspires to keep me from home.
Twenty-Four
Rastus
Days have passed, so full of tension that they felt like years. My sweet Kirralee is in my every thought. It feels like she is with me every second but that doesn’t stop me from missing her. Its as if there is an empty space beside me that echoes with her voice.
I’m in my office with a rare moment to myself. The phone keeps ringing off the hook while I slowly work through maps and numbers of troops entering the city.
Every moment of every day has been a frantic struggle. Its a good thing I finally have people to lean on in the business side of things, because organizing hundreds of dragons into attack formations literally sucks every second out of the day. We have very little idea of where the ice dragons are hiding and I’m trying to cast a wide net.
We see large crowds of them in certain places in the city and out in the desert, but I can’t rely on those locations to be correct. Obviously, they are trying to outmaneuver us. They know that we can see them and that makes me very suspicious.
The streets are not safe for a fire dragon alone now. The ice dragons have several small gangs running the streets and they violently attack any rival clan member. They are passing themselves off as organized crime groups and to my disgust, its working. The police are putting together a special response unit to keep up with the new gang activity and in the meantime, ice dragons are flooding the streets.
The business side of things has been utterly relentless. They have several rich members from LA who have moved down here for negotiations on some of the most expensive buildings in Vegas. Zelena, Bailey and Kane are holding their own. They work with our banks and business partners trying to keep the cash flowing.
It’s a horrific situation but I have to abandon Vegas operations. I can’t stretch us any further. The three young recruits will be left on that job as long as possible. We have battle hardened elders now taking to the streets and men of my age and rank mobilizing in the desert.
I knew they wouldn’t be able to play covert forever. They had a sound strategy financially and it probably would have done a lot of damage, even forcing a lot of us out. If that happened, we would go back to the mountain and in our stronghold, we would become proud and resilient before coming back to take them on.
That’s why they are luring us to the desert as well as shoving us out of our businesses. They want to chase us back to the mountain with dwindling numbers. Losing the city, losing a lot of our clan, that could sink the elders into a depression that couldn’t be broken.
After all, who is having babies? The war is risky for them and potentially catastrophic for us. I still don’t know if they have increasing numbers or if they are just using them creatively.
A stack of papers catches on the edge of the desk and the entre stack goes flying to the floor. In a comical fashion they flicker up and down, spiraling to every last corner of the room.
Its lists of safe houses in Vegas that are stocked with food, weapons and other basic supplies. I need to hand it over to the senior warrior who is assigning people to their stations. Cursing softly, I bend down to pick them up, stopping briefly to rub my temples.
I want to see Kirralee quite desperately. I know that if I do see her, it will make my decision about what to do with her far more difficult.
I want her out of this war. I want her buried deep in the mountain, possibly in a deep river of lava where no ice dragon could ever touch her. I could send her home and give her instructions to do just that. No one would question me.
But Kirralee is hiding the greatest secret that fire dragons have ever had. She carries the power of the ancients. She could win the war single handedly, if she was able to kindle and draw her deepest fire.
There is no guarantee that would happen though. I’ve seen her failing and weak so many times now it is almost unthinkable to use her in that way, to expect her to become a weapon when so far, the powers have been more of an affliction than a gift.
