The Draykon Series (1-3)

Orlind: Chapter Twenty-Six

Another shattering tremor gripped the ground and shook itself out. In the quiet that followed, Llan's ears picked up a distant sound, a thin rumble that grew more piercing as it grew in volume.

'What fresh mischief...' she began, lacking the strength to finish the sentence. Looking at Ori, she saw raw despair in his face.

'I don't know, but we can't survive anything more.'

They waited, huddled together, while the rumbling buzz grew to a roar. Something zipped by overhead.

'What the...?' Ori gripped her hand so hard that it hurt, but she didn't have the heart to berate him.

Another shape flashed past, and a third. They were moving too fast; Llandry couldn't get a clear idea of what they were. But that buzzing roar sounded very much like engines...

Then the noise began in earnest. It was like the racket her father's machines had made, only more distant. Whatever those things were, she guessed they weren't going to land.

'More constructs,' she whispered, feeling sick. That's all it could be. Krays must have sent some new mechanicals to replace the ones they had destroyed.

'We're going up,' Ori said, spreading his wings. She flexed hers, too, ready to spring. Up they went, tracing the upward path of one lone glissenwol tree. When they reached the top, they landed on the broken remains of its cap.

Here they had an almost unimpeded view of the skies. Turning her face up to the heavens, Llan's dread quickly gave way to wonder.

The new machines looked like giant insects to her eyes. They had long, thin bodies and big wings, with spinning things on the front and at the back. Propellers, that's what her father called them. Each flying machine was piloted by a helmeted, human figure.

'They... I think they're on our side!' she yelled, bouncing in excitement.

'Hold up! Can't be sure of that. Those might be Krays's people.'

That possibility dampened her enthusiasm immediately. But the flying machines lined up and went for the draykoni in a group, and she realised that the sounds she'd heard were generated by the weapons they bore at the front of each vehicle. Guns! And they were pointed unequivocally at the enemy.

'Yes!' she shrieked, bouncing some more. 'Irbel's turned out at last!'

'Irbel?' The word emerged as a hoarse croak. 'How in the Lowers did they make those?'

'No idea, and I doubt they'll tell,' she grinned. 'But Pa knew, and he said they'd come!'

They watched in silence as the flyers - Llandry counted eighteen of them - sent four draykoni spiralling out of the skies in a matter of minutes. Three more followed, and the rest began an enraged retreat. She and Ori cheered as the flyers forced them further away from the city, claiming another two drayks.

But the rest weren't finished yet. Their leader, Eterna, shrieked her defiance and whirled about, leading the remainder in a full-on charge on the flyers. The tables were quickly turned: the draykoni, reckless, crashed headlong into the flying machines and three went down, bursting into flame as they hit the trees below.

'Oh no, Ori...!' Llan clutched him in her sudden trepidation that the drayks would win after all. The flyers' guns were impressive but the beasts were much bigger, much heavier, and they didn't seem to care anymore whether they survived. Two more flying machines went down...

The thirteen remaining flyers broke formation and dropped, speeding away from their pursuers. They had the advantage here, their smaller size and greater manoeuvrability allowing them to escape through the scattered glissenwol trunks. The drayks halted pursuit and climbed back into the skies, waiting.