The Dragonswarm (24 page)

Less than a pace from the new gateway was a soldier in cavalry plate that looked almost new. Caleb brought up the sword he'd turned against Lareth, but I stopped it short on unyielding threads of air.

"It's not an ambush," I said quietly, focusing on the soldiers sprawled on the grass around a game of cards.

"Not for
us
," Lareth said with a wicked twist to his mangled lips.

The soldier in question stood no more than three paces from us—though he might have been a hundred miles away—yet he showed no reaction to anything we'd said, nor even to the sword Caleb still held on a hard cut toward his neck.

The soldier only snapped a smart salute. "Master Lareth!"

Lareth nodded at him, then waved me over to stand beside him. "Well met, Garrett Dain. Your men are ready?"

The soldier nodded, "Always, Master. You have news?"

Lareth smiled, "Very good news indeed. We have a new protector greater by far than the failed duke."

Garrett Dain's eyes snapped to Caleb for two slow beats, then flicked to me and away. "Fine, sir."

Lareth cackled for a moment then cut it off abruptly. "Inform your men. We'll likely come to gather you by dawn."

"We stand ready."

"They all do," Lareth said, as an aside, then he held a hand toward me. "This is Lord Daven. Your oath is now to him."

The soldier looked confused for a only a moment, but then he turned to me. "It will be an honor to serve you, Lord Daven. Direct me, and my men will follow."

And just like that, I felt the force of new power. As much again and more as I had gained from all the oaths of the men in this camp, delivered at once with a word from the other army's leader—and that at Lareth's direction.

I swayed in place as the power washed over me, and behind me the wizard made a sound that was very nearly a purr. Caleb dropped a heavy hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Power," Lareth crooned. "I've never seen it manifest. It's beautiful."

"Daven?" Caleb sounded unsettled. "What happened there?"

"I gained another army," I said, fighting for my breath. "Halfway across Ardain, I just gained another army. Like this one."

"Not an army," Lareth said. "A detachment, I liked to call them. Large enough to raid a good-sized town, small enough that we could afford to lose one to the King's Guard without ending all our goals."

Garrett Dain nodded calmly, and Lareth chuckled. "Although we'd certainly miss Mister Dain. Yes?"

"Another like this?" Caleb asked, turning between Lareth and me. He finally lowered his sword and stood looking thunderstruck. "
This
is one of your detachments?" He waved beyond the portal to the neat formations he had brought, still waiting, still watching.

"Of course," Lareth said.

Caleb shook his head. To me, he said, "They've been talking about detachments all day. All across the Ardain, they say. I pictured raiding parties of ten to twenty."

"Oh! Ha hah!" Lareth barked. "No, no, no, no. This is one of the smaller detachments. I was only here to speak with the prisoner." He frowned. "You do still have my prisoner?"

"We sent him back to his masters," I said sternly.

"I'm sure that you know best. Of course. But yes. But no. Mister Dain's detachment is nearly six hundred strong."

"Battalions," Caleb said, almost under his breath. "We would call them battalions in the Guard."

"Is that...is that bad?" I asked, trying to read his expression.

He met my eyes, as much afraid of power as Lareth seemed to lust for it. "It gives Lareth something close to two thousand men."

"Not Lareth," the wizard said, his voice cracking with glee. "You. This is your army now. Two thousand, eight hundred, and fifty-seven at last count, but more coming every day. The poor little Guards do
not
enjoy a fight on our terms."

"Cut-throats and deserters," Caleb said, but without a touch of contempt. I met his eyes, and he nodded toward Lareth, "Can he get them all?"

"To a man," Lareth said. "Ohhhh, yes. We can have you on the throne in Tirah before another sunset."

I shook my head. "Close the portal, Lareth."

"But—"

"Close it. Now. We'll see you shortly, Mister Dain." I'd barely said his name before the portal folded back into the sickly flame, then I turned my attention to Lareth. "We will not march on Tirah."

"Oh, but we can take them."

Caleb scoffed. "I interviewed the prisoner, wizard. They have seven men for every one of yours, and the fortified position."

"And still we would defeat them," Lareth said. "We have the advantage in tactics."

"In the open, perhaps—"

"Enough," I said.

"Oh! Of course." The wizard nodded to me as though ceding a point in some debate. "It's moot now, isn't it? Daven alone could burn the city to the ground."

Caleb frowned over at me. "Could you really?"

I opened my mouth to deny it, then stopped. I thought of the bonfire blaze of my collected powers. I thought of the Chaos energy I'd nearly unleashed from within a web of flame, and that had been before six hundred men and a ruthless battle wizard tied their lives to mine. "With two thousand more drakes beneath my wing?" I asked after a moment, and gave a slow nod. "I think perhaps I could."

"Drakes?" Caleb asked.

Behind me, Lareth laughed and laughed.

Caleb had been right about the wizard's usefulness. The men had watched me already with a quiet, obedient fear, but now that I had the support of this madman, they one and all looked at me with adoration and excitement. I saw that same malevolent hunger, dimly reflected in every man's expression. They were here to wage a war. They were here for blood and glory.

They
were
like little drakes, prowling across the floor while dragons on the wing soared overhead, and all of them alike just waiting for another shot at violence and blood. Dominion.

We walked among them now while they scurried to finish packing up the camp. Where we went they stopped to watch us, awestruck, until Caleb snapped them back to work. Lareth only shook his head.

"These are not your soft-sided noblemen's sons, ground to obedience beneath the king's heel. These are another breed of warrior."

"Undisciplined is not a breed," Caleb said. "It is a liability. I will correct it."

Lareth turned his argument to me. "We won't defeat the soldiers at Tirah if we agree to meet them on their terms."

"We won't," I said. "But that is not my goal."

"It's not Tirah?" Lareth asked, surprised. Then he hung his head. "I'm shamed to say I cannot take us farther than the coast. It would be a fine thing indeed to put the City to the sword—"

"We won't," I said more sharply still, "because we do not go to war with men."

Lareth frowned. "Then whom?"

"The dragonswarm," I said. "As many there as all the king's forces in Tirah, and every one is worth an army in itself. How is that for a challenge?"

Lareth threw his hands up in the air, "I do not want a challenge," he whined. "I want more
power
."

It was my turn to laugh, if darkly. "You have seen some part of it," I said. "Somehow you understand what even I don't. But there are other ways to grow my power."

"Greater ways than killing a king?" he asked. "Greater rewards than all the power in Tirah?"

I thought silently of Pazyarev, the elder legend who had bent a thousand dragons of his own against me. I recalled the time I'd spent within his lair and saw it with different eyes now, with different understanding. I recognized the markers of his power—his brood, his lair, his hoard, and all the things that he had killed.

And then I gave the frail wizard a grin as twisted as his soul. "Far greater things to kill than kings," I said, imagining the power that would come from cutting that one down. "Far greater power than all the riches in Tirah."

"Among the dragons?" Lareth asked, doubtful, but he seemed to take some assurance from my expression.

"In just one lair," I said. "Kingdoms rise and fall, and dragons barely notice."

"And you would fight them?" Lareth asked. He looked to Caleb. "And
you
? You're just a man."

Caleb raised two fingers, "I got a brace of them already, not even counting the little worms. I hope to get a dozen before I die."

"I'll give you a thousand," I said. It was more than I had ever promised when Caleb and I had spoken before, but everything had changed. Everything. Two thousand men? A wizard hungry to kill anything I would let him, and an officer like Caleb to make an army of this rabble? I could do more than protect Teelevon with power like that. I could storm Pazyarev's lair and pull the dragonswarm from the sky. I took a deep breath and felt the maelstrom of power surging forever all around me. It billowed and whorled and blazed with living powers ready to serve me.

"We'll kill them all," I promised Caleb. "And we will be so much more than kings," I promised Lareth. I could feel their satisfaction as they pondered it. Everything they wanted, and I had no doubt I could make it real. With power like this? I could have faced a hundred dragonswarms.

But even as my two lieutenants played bloody daydreams in their heads, I felt my gaze dragged west. Teelevon. I had not forgotten it since Caleb asked me two days before. With this army at my back, I could give Caleb and Lareth precisely what they wanted.

And, in a sense, me too. I had to keep Isabelle safe. To protect Teelevon from Pazyarev. And after that, a thousand other little towns from a thousand other broodlords. For home. Not just for the home I'd briefly had, but for all the wretched lives that would never know a safe and happy hearth at all if the dragons were not stopped.

I could give them that. I could not go back to Isabelle, not with these for my allies. Not at the head of the army that had once laid siege to her father's land. But I could hardly make a different choice. Caleb had told me precisely why I
had
to ally with Lareth, and for reasons just as strong I
had
to have this army. It would cost me what I wanted most, but it would allow me to do exactly what I had to do.

I shook myself and scrubbed both hands across my face, then turned back to Caleb and Lareth. They were chatting now like old colleagues, talking strategy and plans. They were united, so quickly, by the promise of blood.

"I hate to interrupt," I said softly, "but there are first concerns before we can begin our pleasant work."

Caleb nodded. "The king's forces."

"Ah, yes," Lareth said. "But killing them should not take—"

"We kill no men at all," I said. "My word is law. Our only war is with the dragonswarm."

Lareth showed his teeth in a teasing smile. "But...will...do you really expect the king to bide that law?"

Caleb grunted. "He has a point."

"It is not an easy task, but that's the price of killing dragons," I said. "I will not give you one without the other. Find some way to keep us out of war, gather your battalions quickly, and get us to the tower. I will do the rest."

"The tower?" Lareth asked.

Caleb barked a laugh. "Oh, you don't know!"

"He'll find out soon enough," I said. "Come. We have two thousand men to snatch before the King's Guard finds them. We should probably move swiftly."

We did, and even with Lareth's portals and Caleb's efficient authority, we worked all night to fetch just two. They were ready, one and all, prepared to strike against Tirah at no more than a moment's notice. But I did not intend a rapid strike. I meant to take them away, and for that we needed their rations and resources. It took time to break such extensive camps.

Three days, in fact, we moved from camp to camp all across the wide Ardain. We gathered news and spread the word and organized the move, and then we went back, one by one, and helped them as we could. The second night, as we left one camp behind and returned to the first, three of Pazyarev's greens came swooping in.

They killed thirty of my men in the first pass, but then I went to meet them. The elder legend had barely begun his taunts before I dragged all three beasts out of the air. My soldiers watched in awe. Then Caleb barked an order, and without any special training, without much in the way of tactics, my first battalion fell upon the stricken beasts and tore them to shreds. That silenced Pazyarev's voice in my head, and flooded my heart with more black power. It did not boil and drift away as it had when Caleb struck the killing blow before. Because these men were mine. Oathbound. They fed me power, and I trembled with it.

My soldiers buried what remained of their dead, then drank themselves to stupor in celebration of the victory. Caleb grumbled; Lareth joined right in. They celebrated late into the night. Then at dawn Caleb roused them anyway, and Lareth opened a portal wide enough for a dozen men abreast. While the soldiers from the first camp filed through, Lareth jumped to the next, and the next, and the next, lingering only long enough to set them moving.

They left no sign of their camps at all, but I left three huge, stinking dragon corpses where the king's scout would lead his men. At dawn on the third day I stepped through the final portal to find all Lareth's men gathered into a single massive force upon an empty plain far from prying eyes. Seven battalions in all, and Caleb ordered them into seven columns. I stood for a long time staring out over the huge sea of men. They had been the scourge of the Ardain, and already I had ended that by bringing them away, but I would do so much more good with them.

"Tell me, then," Lareth said, stepping up beside me. "Three days you've kept it from me, and I have done as I was bid. But now I've seen the enemy, now I've seen your power expressed, I have to know what place could ever hold you. Where do we take your men?"

"I told you already. South, to the end of the continent." I pointed to the distant jagged shadows of the cruel mountains that skirted both coasts this far south, pinching in from east and west. "Another sixty miles at least. Perhaps a hundred."

He shook his head. "You're fortunate I could bring you this far," he said. "I cannot work a traveling to a place I've never been, and no one alive has cause to go so far from the world of men. There is nothing south of here."