The Confliction (Book Three of the Dragoneers Saga) (Dragoneer Saga) by M. R. Mathias Page A
Authors: M. R. Mathias
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empty. There was a Sarax just ahead of her. To her and her dragon’s surprise, it whirled around in a seemingly impossible stall and ripped a trio of gashes across the yellow-scaled wyrm’s snout.
Golden lost her equilibrium for a moment and did an awkward spiral loop that whipped Aikira’s chin into her chest.
At least I got it off Rikky’s tail,
she said to no one, just before the Sarax kicked her right off of her dragon’s back.
When it didn’t see her falling, the Sarax hovered in confusion for a beat.
Aikira surprised the thing when she pulled herself up from the hold she had on its leg. With all the strength she could muster, she rammed her dagger into the soft spot in its chest. As she hit the trees, she let go, but not before a massive pulse of hot static power exploded through her. She shot through the trees into a snow-laden branch. Then, in a shower of powder and pine needles, she went back-spinning down and disappeared into a drift.
Jenka drove a Sarax carrying an electrified rod right under a stream of Blaze’s molten spew, then slid over the battle, holding on as Jade banked and curved around the colorful magical missiles. There were a few other Sarax carrying the lance-like weapons, too, but they were at the fringes of the battle. Jenka saw several blue-robed druids kneeling in some archer-like pose. They sent forth high arcing globes of explosive power. Jade twisted out of the way of a red-robed druid’s warbling flow, but the thunderclap of its forming nearly ruptured his and his rider’s eardrums.
Mysterian and a few of her old witches started running toward the breach the rangers had made. Jenka found this odd until he figured out Mysterian’s cunning. When the druids saw the witches converging, they all moved to guard the widening opening that Herald and his men were holding. Other witches had shielding spells cast over those particular rangers. And even more witches were behind them, sending deadly lime-colored streamers of power into the temple yard.
Mysterian, and the three witches running with her, suddenly shifted form. The old women leaned forward as they loped along and morphed into long, sleek wolves. As soon as the druids were committed to their position at the breach, the dark, slavering wolf pack darted away in a completely different direction. They leapt over the modest wall in another area and disappeared into the hedge maze that surrounded the druids’ exterior altar.
Jenka lost the witch-wolves after that. He saw that Marcherion was using his bow well, but was running out of arrows. Then the huge wooden doors to the temple came open, and four gargantuan ogres, standing as tall as the Sarax, came storming out. As he urged Jade up to avoid them, one of their crackling whips snapped at Jenka’s cheek. His skin didn’t break, but his eye felt like it had been poked and started to water terribly. He grew angry then, and had Jade come banking around hard. The pulses of Dour from the teardrop in his sword’s hilt didn’t kill the ogres instantly like it did the Sarax, but the one he hit first probably would have wished for instant death rather than be scorched to ash where the power touched it, and nowhere else.
Jenka pulled clear of it all and came back around, intending to get another of the spell-enhanced monsters. Over the din, he heard Herald call out in pain. Squinting through his blurred vision, he heeled Jade where he wanted him to go. He saw the circle of King’s Rangers forming around their fallen leader. One of the druids’ exploding globes had shattered a tree near the old bastard, and now he was full of wooden shards. He was wallowing in a growing pool of bloody snow and barking out orders to the shocked men. Then the witch that was shielding them was snatched from the ground by a swooping Sarax.
Jenka looked up to find a score or more of the alien things swarming down over the remaining rangers. One of them jabbed a fleeing ranger with its long shocking
Golden lost her equilibrium for a moment and did an awkward spiral loop that whipped Aikira’s chin into her chest.
At least I got it off Rikky’s tail,
she said to no one, just before the Sarax kicked her right off of her dragon’s back.
When it didn’t see her falling, the Sarax hovered in confusion for a beat.
Aikira surprised the thing when she pulled herself up from the hold she had on its leg. With all the strength she could muster, she rammed her dagger into the soft spot in its chest. As she hit the trees, she let go, but not before a massive pulse of hot static power exploded through her. She shot through the trees into a snow-laden branch. Then, in a shower of powder and pine needles, she went back-spinning down and disappeared into a drift.
Jenka drove a Sarax carrying an electrified rod right under a stream of Blaze’s molten spew, then slid over the battle, holding on as Jade banked and curved around the colorful magical missiles. There were a few other Sarax carrying the lance-like weapons, too, but they were at the fringes of the battle. Jenka saw several blue-robed druids kneeling in some archer-like pose. They sent forth high arcing globes of explosive power. Jade twisted out of the way of a red-robed druid’s warbling flow, but the thunderclap of its forming nearly ruptured his and his rider’s eardrums.
Mysterian and a few of her old witches started running toward the breach the rangers had made. Jenka found this odd until he figured out Mysterian’s cunning. When the druids saw the witches converging, they all moved to guard the widening opening that Herald and his men were holding. Other witches had shielding spells cast over those particular rangers. And even more witches were behind them, sending deadly lime-colored streamers of power into the temple yard.
Mysterian, and the three witches running with her, suddenly shifted form. The old women leaned forward as they loped along and morphed into long, sleek wolves. As soon as the druids were committed to their position at the breach, the dark, slavering wolf pack darted away in a completely different direction. They leapt over the modest wall in another area and disappeared into the hedge maze that surrounded the druids’ exterior altar.
Jenka lost the witch-wolves after that. He saw that Marcherion was using his bow well, but was running out of arrows. Then the huge wooden doors to the temple came open, and four gargantuan ogres, standing as tall as the Sarax, came storming out. As he urged Jade up to avoid them, one of their crackling whips snapped at Jenka’s cheek. His skin didn’t break, but his eye felt like it had been poked and started to water terribly. He grew angry then, and had Jade come banking around hard. The pulses of Dour from the teardrop in his sword’s hilt didn’t kill the ogres instantly like it did the Sarax, but the one he hit first probably would have wished for instant death rather than be scorched to ash where the power touched it, and nowhere else.
Jenka pulled clear of it all and came back around, intending to get another of the spell-enhanced monsters. Over the din, he heard Herald call out in pain. Squinting through his blurred vision, he heeled Jade where he wanted him to go. He saw the circle of King’s Rangers forming around their fallen leader. One of the druids’ exploding globes had shattered a tree near the old bastard, and now he was full of wooden shards. He was wallowing in a growing pool of bloody snow and barking out orders to the shocked men. Then the witch that was shielding them was snatched from the ground by a swooping Sarax.
Jenka looked up to find a score or more of the alien things swarming down over the remaining rangers. One of them jabbed a fleeing ranger with its long shocking
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