Of course. Someone must keep an eye on them. I took them from your islands, as I promised. What happened after that?
I claimed the fortress and had my minions rebuild it and bring me offerings. It was an excellent time, but then these two gold dragons came in and took over. They let me keep my life and live on the islands, but only if I agreed to serve them. Telmandaroo growled into Trip’s mind.
Stay out of the battle, and you may join us if you wish. For our dragon allies, all of Iskandia is their playground. Trip imagined Angulus sputtering if he heard the offer. The king had probably already stomped around and cursed a lot at the idea of offering the Tlongan Steppes and a weekly tribute to Drysaleskar. Providing you don’t kill any humans.
I do not kill my minions. Dead minions can’t serve you.
You’re a wise dragon.
You think to suborn my minion? Drivortia cried, her words thunderous and painful in Trip’s mind.
“Ow,” Ahn growled, apparently hearing them too. “What are you saying to that dragon?”
He is mine. And you shall soon be dead.
“Just starting a war, apparently,” Trip said. “Focus on the gold. I didn’t get confirmation, but I think the bronze will leave us alone.”
As if we were worried about a puny bronze, Bhrava Saruth said.
The two dragons appeared on the horizon, and nobody responded to him. Trip focused on the female, hoping he could force her to lower her defenses long enough for the fliers to shoot.
“I’m going to try to get her barrier down as soon as we’re within firing range.” He touched the grips of his machine guns, guns loaded with a mix of regular bullets and Tolemek’s acid-containing ceramic bullets. “Any dragons who want to help me with that are welcome to.”
I will take in my rider so she can pierce the dragon’s defenses with her sword, Shulina Arya said. You won’t have to lift a talon, Captain Trip.
“That’s good, since I don’t have any talons.”
Drivortia attacked first, before she and Telmandaroo were in firing range. Trip sensed the massive wave of power rolling toward him and threw up his defenses. The others had the chapaharii blades to dampen that power, but Trip had to concentrate if he wanted to survive this.
As the wave of magical energy slammed into his barrier, Azarwrath fed in power to reinforce it. Trip’s flier wings didn’t wobble, nor did the barrier falter. Not yet.
Trip kept the flight stick steady, driving straight for the gold female. Telmandaroo had put more distance between himself and Drivortia. It was possible that was part of a trick, that he would swoop in from their flank and attack, but Trip hadn’t sensed any deception in his words. He believed the bronze dragon truly resented his current circumstances.
Another wave of power slammed into Trip’s barrier, and he felt it through his defenses, like a jolt to his entire body that rattled his teeth and his joints. He couldn’t yet see the female’s eyes, but he could make out her maw opening. Readying to hurl fire at him?
She was within firing range, but her barrier remained up. Trip drew upon his power and tried to strengthen it with his rage—how dare the female target him over the dragons? Focusing on her mind, he hurled the mental attack, imagining her brain being crushed.
A roar sounded in his own mind, and pain erupted inside his skull as his head thumped back in his seat.
“Trip?” came Rysha’s concerned voice as Shulina Arya picked up speed and sailed over his flier to take the lead.
“I do believe she’s more powerful than I am,” Trip rasped, struggling for nonchalance though his skull pounded, as if the dragon had left a spear embedded in it.
“Not for long,” Rysha said with chilling determination.
Shulina Arya charged ahead and met Drivortia as she spewed fire.
Trip gasped, terrified for Rysha. Logically, he knew Dorfindral would protect her, and that Shulina Arya would, too, but that didn’t keep the emotion from flooding him as flames engulfed her and her dragon. Longing to help her, he urged his flier to full speed.
Shulina Arya came through the flames, flew past the female, and banked, coming in hard toward Drivortia. She tilted in the air so Rysha could jump up on her back and slash Dorfindral over her head and toward their foe.
Trip sensed the blade popping the dragon’s barrier like a soap bubble.
As Shulina Arya circled away to pick up speed for another attack, Trip soared in, machine guns pounding. Drivortia, distracted by Shulina Arya and Rysha, didn’t see him. He strafed past, slamming bullets into her chest and flank. The ceramic projectiles shattered upon impact, and acid oozed onto her scales.
Halfway through his run, the dragon got her barrier back up. The rest of his bullets bounced off.
Drivortia hurled flames, not at him but at Shulina Arya again.
As the momentum of his flier carried him past his foe’s tail, Trip imagined Rysha being bathed in flames, and that built far more rage in him than any affront to himself could. He launched that rage and all his mental energy into an attack, again targeting the dragon’s mind.
Drivortia’s barrier faltered, and he sensed pain from her. He didn’t know if it was from his attack, from Shulina Arya’s attack, or from the acid, but he was relieved to know they were doing damage.
Machine guns fired behind him, Ahn taking a run. Colonel Grady’s roar came over the communication crystal, and as Trip took his flier in a loop so he could come back for another attack, he spotted Grady standing in his seat, one hand gripping his harness and the other slashing at the dragon.
Trip couldn’t tell if they got close enough for him to strike her, but he trusted that some of Ahn’s bullets had found their mark.
Help me, you coward! Drivortia cried.
Trip sensed not only anger but compulsion in that command.
Telmandaroo flew toward the battle, coming in behind Shulina Arya.
Look out! Trip warned her, then piloted his flier toward Drivortia’s back.
As Shulina Arya whipped around to face the threat of the bronze, Drivortia got her barrier up again. Trip had been about to fire, but he released the trigger. Red lightning streaked from Azarwrath’s scabbard, snapping and flashing all around the dragon. Trip sensed her magical barrier flickering and could tell Drivortia was wounded, but she might recover if he didn’t do something.
Shulina Arya hurled flames at the bronze dragon as Bhrava Saruth came in from behind Telmandaroo, battering him with a wave of power. The bronze was hurled to the side, head over tail as he tumbled through the air.
With the others temporarily busy, Drivortia spun away from Trip, her tail snapping toward his flier. He threw all his energy into strengthening his barrier and had the satisfaction of seeing the snake-like appendage bounce off. A jolt went through the dragon as Azarwrath hurled more lightning at her.