The Hollow Grove: The Companions [Book 2]

[54] Battle (Part 2)

It took all Kayla just had to hang on.

Arataas flew low and fast, banking hard. The effect sent Kayla's mind spinning. The force of his turn felt so violent and pulled so much that she closed her eyes and grit her teeth to hold in a scream.  She heard the rustling of trees, telling her that the Dragon's talons, or wing scraped the treetops.

Just hold on a little while longer, she thought.

She felt him even out. She opened her eyes, and the main road lay straight in line with their flight path.  The mist barrier, taken down, the full beauty of Green Haven lay to her left. The battle, just in its infancy, raged on.

"Do you see him?" asked Kayla.

"No," said Arataas. "Wait, yes, I see him.  Just there at the north end."

"Shall we say hello?" asked Kayla.

"Love to," said the Dragon.

Arataas began his dive.

"Careful of our own down there!" she warned him.

The wind rushed all around her, she leaned forward, eager for the inevitable.

The Dragon loosed a burst of fire, striking a flaming line across the rear guard of the enemy. Two spears went flying over Kayla's back, but the enemy launched them far too late. The surprise attack worked.

"Heading down," said Arataas, "get ready."

Kayla fumbled for her charcoal and crushed two large pieces in her hands. "Prasidius Arsonas!"  Her protective shield covered her as well as her extra ring of fire that banded around her.

Arataas came in low, then flared his wings at the last moment in a practiced technique.  He landed so quickly that Kayla could not hang on. She went flying from her saddle, crashing to the ground.

The Wizard tried to suck in air to breath, but the impact took the wind from her.  She scrambled to her feet. Arataas roared in a crack of lightning. The sound of his vicious cry frightened even her. He breathed his dragonfire at something she could not see.

She felt for her satchel and a touch of its strap comforted her. She stepped to see what lay before the Dragon. She saw Orcs in dark armor running from him, leaping over his first line of flames, their fear taking hold as they ran for their lives.  Not even a wall of fire deterred them.

Then she saw him...it.  A creature of vile black ichor and twisting vines and roots. He shot them forth as Arataas smashed him down with a single claw, like a cat playing with a mouse.

"Now Kayla!" Cried Arataas. "The spell!"

The spell, yes, of course, she thought.

Dazed, she dug into her satchel and removed three items: a blackened skull, a cloth sack of her ground ingredients, and Kellis Vöhl's gauntlet.

She poured the fine powder from the bag into the skull like an ugly mixing bowl.  She then picked up Kellis' ebony gauntlet and shook his fragile hand bones into the skull.  

"Where did you get that, Witch!"  Shouted Lord Vöhl staring at her now. "That is mine!"  He snapped a wicked vine at her.

Arataas lifted his claw and stopped the vine. The end of it wriggled and fought to get to Kayla. 

In his new found freedom, Vöhl tried to roll away.  But the Dragon slammed him down with his right claw, crushing him to the earth once again.

"Blast you!" screamed the fiend and struggled to free himself.  "I'll kill you just as I did Slate."  The dark being shot forth more vines, wrapping them around Arataas' clawed feet.