“I thought I’d never wish to see a pike again!” King Jarrek yelled, letting his memory of King Glendar’s beheadings fuel his courage and anger.
Wishing he had one of Glendar’s pikes now, he broke away from Markeen, and started around the creature’s right side.
“Go around it, Markeen, so it can’t see us both at the same time!”
Markeen did as he was ordered, and was rewarded for it by a jarring crack across the side of his helmet by the wyvern’s thick tail. The force of the blow nearly knocked him from his horse. For a long moment, all he could see was blackness, filled with tiny exploding stars. In a berserk rage, he shook it off, and went charging in at the creature.
His sword made hard, slashing arcs. His horse stopped and started, as Markeen’s knees commanded, but it balked and hopped when the wyvern’s tail came sweeping back across the ground. Markeen landed a solid blow, slicing a deep gash in the beast. The blade would have done massive amounts of damage, had the stumbling motion of his horse not carried them both away from it. It was a stroke of luck that the destrier had faltered, because the wyvern’s jaws came striking round, and snapped shut with an audible crack, exactly where Markeen’s head had just been.
King Jarrek, not one to go into a reckless battle rage, spurred his mount in close enough so that he might thrust into the wyvern’s body deeply. The thing was focused on Markeen, and paying little mind to where he was, so Jarrek took advantage. His attack was thwarted by the beast’s broken wing, as it came around, and nearly clipped him from his horse. It was then that Jarrek heard the Highwander wizard’s voice screaming out hoarsely.
“Away! Get away from it!”
Targon, on foot, with a growing sphere of magical blue force in his hands, was half stumbling, half charging from the tree line. No sooner had Jarrek reined his horse away and got clear of the thing, than a bright, sizzling sapphire crackle came streaking from the wizard’s hands like a shooting star. The blast went right into the wyvern’s side and exploded. A head sized chunk of its meat and bone was blown into an acid mist. By then, both King Jarrek and Markeen were spurring themselves towards Targon at a full gallop.
Seeing that his companions were finally out of his way, Captain Proct let another arrow fly, but his effort seemed pointless when Targon sent two more of his wicked blue blasts at the thing. The last magical blow, hit the wyvern in the side of its viper-like head. Upon impact, skull, scale, and a grayish black mass of bloody muck splattered to the ground with a sizzling hiss. A moment later, the long sinuous neck and body fell sputtering and twitching into the mud.
Exhausted, and half dazed, Targon crumpled to the grass where he stood. Captain Proct raced over to see to him. King Jarrek dismounted and ordered Markeen to follow suit. They took a long time inspecting each other’s armor for damage.
The King’s breastplate had been splattered, and when Markeen tried to wipe it clean with a piece of blanket, the red enamel, and a thin layer of gritty steel smeared across it.
Jarrek’s plate mail had been crafted generations ago, and was far lighter than it appeared to be. Apparently, it was still semi-resistant to the wyvern’s acid blood, because Hargh’s armor was eaten completely through. The smear left on Jarrek’s breast plate resembled a streaking fireball, but the integrity of the armor seemed intact.
Luckily for Markeen, whose armor was of the same make and material as Hargh’s, his was free of the corrosive stuff altogether.
Once Jarrek saw the tip of Markeen’s blade, he was glad that he hadn’t stabbed the wyvern with his. Like his armor, the sword called, Wolf’s Fang, had been passed down from King to Prince, for generations. It wouldn’t do to have an arm’s length of its tip eaten away like Markeen’s sword.
“Was it a dragon, Highness?” Markeen asked his King.
Jarrek told him no, but further explanation was cut off by the wizard’s weak voice calling for him. The captain had run down Targon’s horse, and had gotten the spell-weary man back in the saddle. He was leading the slumped over wizard towards the others.
“Hellborn Wyvern,” Targon rasped to them. He wiped some rain from his face and looked at King Jarrek sternly. “It is a creature of brimstone, which until recently was banished behind Pavreal’s Seal.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn’t have the strength.
“Say a prayer for our countrymen,” Jarrek ordered. “There’s no time to bury them. We have to get into the forest. We’ll be safer there. We’re about ten days out of Highwander, and I, for one, don’t want to wait around and see what else is lingering about out here.”
Maybe it was guilt, or maybe Jarrek just had to say it, but when he was back on his horse, he spoke clearly.
“They would understand and forgive us.”