Last Tower

“Wh- what’s that?” I asked, looking out from our high tower. There was unnatural thunder echoing through the winter air, but I never saw a flash. It came from the nearly endless woods that bordered our small corner of the world. Those trees and their shadows seemed to be closing in by the moment, as twilight creeped in. The sun was sinking behind them now, and I knew it would be a cold night when it fell.

“I'm sure it's nothing.” My mother said curtly, fussing with my brother. He was a fragile thing and facing his second winter we all shared the unspoken worry that he wouldn’t make it. Well, father and I did anyway. Mother... not so much. She stood up from the cradle, leaving the child only half covered in his blankets as a cold draft drifted passed me. Snow dusted our little room and left icy freckles on my new brother's face. He started crying again, so I shut that door before what little heat we had could escape. “I told you to get more firewood!” Mother snapped, dropping her ladle in the soup pot with a splash.

“And I told you he was going to freeze to death. He almost did last week when he went missing.” I shut our balcony door and paced over to my brother. His dark hair matched mine, but his eyes were blue whereas mine were green. Which always made him a bit of a curiosity, since the rest of our family bore the same dark green eyes. My father was always very concerned with that fact and brought it up often, but I never understood why. I tucked his few blankets under his skinny body, and he slowly settled down as he looked up at me. I gently wiped away the melting snowflakes from his cheeks, and his pale face tried to smile.

My mother was suddenly standing over me, and I knew things were about to get ugly if I didn’t start moving. My moment of wisdom didn’t last long. I had turned and started towards the door to our chambers when my mouth started moving without my permission. “I don’t know why you hate him so much. He is still yours, even if-” I froze. I shouldn’t have said that. Slowly I turned my head, waiting for the explosion. Our eyes met, and there was a fury there that promised me that I was not going to be able to sit down for a while. So, I ran. I reached up to rip the door open and scampered down the stone steps as fast as I could. Sure, I may fall flat on my face into a rock wall, but it would still hurt less than staying behind. Maybe I will take my time with the firewood.

I continued down the stairs in a hurry, until my lungs begged me to slow down. I listened but was still panting when I rounded a curve and plastered myself against the left side of the narrow stairwell. Knights were not known to be gentle with children who stood in their way. Especially not this one. I didn’t have time to make out his face, but that black armor was all I needed to see. Lord Aldren. The big, gruff man pushed passed me with barely a glance and I was glad for it. There was always something cruel about his cool blue eyes. He was a foreigner with an odd accent, a thick black beard and a braided mane of hair that reached halfway down his back. He had a rough reputation and was probably the second scariest person in this castle. You can probably guess who the other one is right now. The big man chugged up the stairs, arms pumping as he went. I stood still, listening to his heavy boots fall on the steps.

I shrugged as the noise died away and kept going. He probably had business in one of the other rooms, not ours. Yeah, keep telling yourself that. I reached the bottom of the tower steps and was greeted by rustling plate and chainmail. Half a dozen men formed a half circle around me, each with a hand resting not-so-casually on the hilt of a blade. I wanted to be able to recognize as much about them as I could, in case something bad happened and I needed to recount how they looked. I took mental notes on their hair, scares, eyes, anything that stood out. They hall had a green sash across their chests, which I hadn't seen before. I had heard the grown-ups question whether or not all of our knights had maintained their loyalty, with the growing threat creeping across the kingdom. If these were our men, they shouldn’t have been wearing green.

One of the knights chuckled a little as I stared. “Your family will be with us soon. We wait for them.” Blonde hair, square jaw. Longsword on his right him, must be left-handed. I mentally went over those facts a few times in my head, committing them to memory. I didn’t say anything back, just nodded and crossed my arms. I stood where I could watch all of them at once, not wanting to be caught by surprise. Not that I had a prayer against them anyway.

My patience wore thin in the first few moments of waiting, but eventually I heard footsteps and the gurgles of an unhappy child. My mother carried my brother down the last few steps, Aldren on her heels. He brushed past her, and his men formed up around us. We were more or less herded along between the knights, who donned their helmets as we started walking. They always seemed less human when you couldn’t see their faces, but their helmets swayed back and forth as they surveyed the surrounding halls. They all had a hand crossing their bodies, holding their sword hilts like they were expecting to use them.

We made our way through the fortress, maids and other guests scrambling out of our way. We slowed for no one, and a few times the knights ahead physically shoved people out of our path without hesitation when they didn’t see us coming. We passed a few other children I frequently played with, and I shrugged as they studied us, sharing curious whispers. I passed the cook, a familiar man I had seen daily for as long as I could recall. He brought us breakfast every morning, and my stomach gurgled reflexively. I recognized a few others as well but faces that were generally friendly looked on with confusion at first. Confusion, that slowly shifted to absolute dread. Something was not right.

We reached the bare, white courtyard before the great gates and found the place devoid of the usual lingering socialites and nobles. There were however, five men standing shoulder to shoulder baring our way. The gate was closed behind them, and they all bore naked steel that flickered in the torch light. The snow sparkled at their feet and judging by the lack of footprints around them they had been standing there for a while. “Hold. They are not to leave, as you well know sir. They are to be escorted back to their-” The man guarding the gate, never finished his last word. Instead, he gurgled and choked under his helmet. I didn’t see it happen, but the ending would haunt me the rest of my life. Aldren slowly drew the thin dagger from underneath the man’s chin, the steel glimmering red in the firelight.

One of the guards grabbed my mother, and I felt a gauntlet close around the collar of my shirt as I was suddenly dragged backwards. Three men stayed with us, and the rest collided with the guards before the gate. I wouldn’t have been able to tell who was who, save for the green sashes. I saw the tip of a sword slide into a knight’s visor, followed by a short scream as the man dropped limp to the ground.

A knight struck out at Aldren, but the big man idly took a step back to be just out of range. As the knight brought his sword back up to attempt a one-handed strike, Aldren closed the distance, wrapping an arm around the knight’s sword arm mid-swing. He shoved that dagger under the man’s other arm, and blood ran down the steel and onto Aldren’s black gauntlets as I watched. I thought he would stop at the first thrust, but Aldren ripped the dagger back out of the man’s flesh and repeated the stab at least a dozen times as the man screamed and tried to struggle away. Slowly, he went quiet and limply flopped into the snow. The knight looked to have fallen asleep, but I knew better.

Aldren’s baritone voice growled at one of his men. “Go get the gate open.” The man obliged immediately, stepping over the dead guards. Scaling some nearby stairs and entering a room in the castle wall, we heard more shouts and scuffling right away. A man in gleaming armor, a few doors down from the one our knights had entered, started running across the wall but nobody seemed to be paying him any attention. He obviously saw what was happening and was getting the hell out of there. After a quick sprint, he slipped into another door further down.

The racket ended with a metallic clank, as something heavy dropped to the floor. A few moments later the gate started lifting open, with a clamor of noise that was sure to draw attention. We were rushed forward by the surrounding knights, and they left no room for doubt. We were shoved forward and under the thick archway into the quiet village.

We trudged through the snow between the small homes and shops, snow piling onto their straw thatched roofs. We followed the main street to the outer gates, and found they were standing open. They were never left open anymore, especially not at this hour. I started to repeat my question from earlier, to which the blonde knight replied “Hush” and gave me a rough shove forward. I turned and glared at him, but his attention was already fixed on something ahead. I followed his gaze and found a wagon emerging from an alley ahead. Two broad draft horses were pulling it along, and before it came to a complete stop we were being forced into its open door. I sat across from my mother who still carried my little brother, and a pair of knights squeezed in next to both of us. I heard Aldren start barking orders outside, and the wagon wheels started creaking as we went into motion.

“Mom, what is going on?” Now that we were sitting still, some of the excitement was being replaced by fear. The more I thought about what was going on, the more I trembled. The bloody dagger especially stood out in my mind.

“We are getting out, being taken to safety.” She said, lips pursed. She looked like she was being inconvenienced, rather than whisked away on a trail of murder and blood.

“From what?” I spluttered, not understanding or having any clue of what was going to happen next. She just stared at me. My brother made a noise, and my dear mother raised a hand like she was going to pop the poor thing as the wagon was jostled hard enough to make us all sway in our seats. I didn’t really hear a crunch or a gasp as we rolled over that bump, that had to have been my imagination. That unnatural thunder sounded again, but this time it didn’t seem so far away. Odd, I didn’t remember seeing any clouds today.

A few minutes passed in silence for the most part. I heard distant shouts behind us, but nothing more. Looking out the window, I realized we were in the forest now. There was light left in the sky, but only just. As darkness started to settle, we came to a stop. Aldren threw open the door before we had entirely stopped. There was still blood splashed on his armor that had not completely slid away from its slick surface. “Get out.” The guards waited for us to slide out of the carriage. My mother, who never showed much emotion besides irritation and anger, inhaled a sharp breath. When he exhaled, and I saw her breath in the cold air.

I followed her gaze, and went still. Before us, was a horde. Calling them an army would have been too dignified. They wore armor, maybe a generation behind that of the guards that still stood around us. The only thing uniform about them was that they all wore some scrap of green over their gear. They didn’t stand in rank under the trees and looked more like mob than military. The smell of those unwashed, filthy men nearly made me gag from twenty paces away. They screamed as we were shuffled forward, shaking spears and hanging shields in our direction. There were deep rumbles in the dark behind them.

Closest to us, was a man that didn’t quite belong. He was also in armor, but it was clean, new. There was a cloak that hung around his shoulders, which also told me who must have been someone in charge. You don’t wear a cloak to battle, this was someone who would sit back and watch. The upwards, arrogant tilt of his chin reinforced my first impression that this was someone who gave orders, instead of following them. “I warned you Evelyn.”

“You fucking bastard.” My mother’s language didn’t surprise me but was did was who she was staring at. She was looking down... at my brother. “I left him in the woods for a reason, Aldren. It was dumb luck that one of your riders happened to find him.” Then she turned in a fury, and started screaming while almost nose to nose with Aldren. I could only make out a few of the words, but one of them she repeated more than the rest. Traitor, traitor, you traitor.

Aldren grabbed my mother and slammed a hand over her mouth to stifle her screams. It was his turn to speak. “That child was found by a dragon, Lana. I don’t care that you want it dead, and it doesn’t matter how he came to be. There is too much to gain.” The gruff man was breathing hard, making his voice sound raw. “Those who can bond with the beasts, are becoming harder and harder to find. I couldn’t let you leave him to die regardless of how he was born. Ransoming him to the armada will-” Aldren was interrupted when mother jerked free of his hands and continued with her manic insults.

Then I heard something no one else noticed. Then I felt it. The ground was shaking, to the beat of horses. I looked behind us, and in the last moments of daylight saw the armored calvary of our house charging up the path.

A few other heads turned, but before anyone had time to react a lance was lowered, and the blonde knight was the first to die in an orchestra of chaos. The sound was beyond words. Horses were loud. A hundred horses with a hundred roaring men on their backs, was deafening. And that was before you added the armor, the metallic collisions, the bellows of pain and agony. Men died around us. One nearby knight was centered before an armored charging horse, and the beast simply smashed into him. He screamed and hit the ground a few feet away, only to be trampled to death by another galloping warhorse. At least I hope he was already dead, what was left of the knight looked like a malformed doll.

Aldren drew his blade just intime to deflect an oncoming lance, as the horseman were crashing into the soldiers behind him. It dawned on me that there were far more of them than there were of the calvary, but the men were backing off and hiding behind tress none the less. They tried to stay as mobile as possible, but a few of the calvary were getting bogged down and pulled from their horses. The fall alone, wearing all that metal was ugly. Then their horses would scream as they were hacked apart with axes, and rabid men pounced on the knights and killed them anyway they could.

A cluster of knights rode into our little circle, and one reached a hand down towards me. He wasn’t wearing any green. I checked on my mother, who was already on the back of another knight’s horse. “Ride! Run!” She screamed at me, as her rider took off at a gallop. Aldren and his men were currently preoccupied with the fighting, now was our chance. I looked back up at the knight, and realized it was the same man I watched sneak out of the gatehouse earlier. He must have seen what was going on and mustered these men to come after us. I took his hand, and was amazed at the strength that pulled me behind his saddle. He spun his horse and we galloped with all the speed our beasts could muster. But I didn’t have time to hope. I didn’t have time to realize we were almost out of immediate danger.

Unnatural, twisted thunder roared somewhere behind us. A bolt of lighting thicker than my torso lashed out ahead of us, splitting half a dozen trees to splinters. I screamed, I couldn’t help it, and I wasn’t the only one. The horse reared underneath me, and I came off it’s back. I panicked and started grabbing at the night, holding onto whatever I could to stay on. He was also struggling to stay seated as the horse stumbled and freaked out. I shot a look over my shoulder and wished I didn’t.

Men were dying, horses screaming, and none of it mattered. Above it all, was a pair of violent blue eyes that glowed in the pitch-black night around us. What light was left had died. Below those eyes, a gaping maw opened, and trickles of sparks and lighting danced as the world quivered. Then thunder again rang in my head, and another bolt of lighting shot forth and devastated a knight upon his horse. They both fell, and I saw blackened bone rolling out from underneath the armor. What it did to the horse was even worse. It was still alive to suffer the wound, which was much the same.

I clutched the knight ahead of me as tightly as I could, to the point that it hurt to have all that metal rubbing against my skin but I didn’t care. I had heard enough stories to know what was after us. Lightning flashed again, and a tree next to my mother’s horse exploded into splinters and fire. I saw her mouth open in a scream, but the world was too loud for me to make out any single sound. To my horror, I saw her hands come up out of reflex in a defensive gesture. Which left my little brother, to fend for himself. He slid from the horse and bounced against the burning tree before sliding into a nest of roots at its base. I started pointing at him, and my mother was watching as well. That’s when she did something that surprised me. She was never the most loving, carrying type. But I didn’t think she could ever be completely indifferent towards us. I was wrong.

Through the fog and chaos, I made out the words on her lips. “Leave him.” Her rider obeyed, and rode off without the little boy.

“Save him!” I screamed as loudly as I could at my knight, banging a fist on his steel back. And the man shook his head. He turned his horse to go around an incoming tree, and we galloped on past my little brother. Another knight of the calvary rode so close to him I was amazed he was not crushed under a hoof. I started to adjust my legs, turning and intending to slide off the horse to go help him, but the knight reached back and grabbed a fistful of my shirt. I started pounding on his metal arms, but he wouldn't budge. I tried leaning away from him with all of my weight, but he just kept holding on and refused to let go. “SAVE HIM! SAVE HIM! THATS MY BROTHER!” I screamed for all I was worth, and the man did nothing but hold on.

Tears were running into my eyes now, causing them to burn. I looked backwards and saw the silhouette of fury incarnate behind us. Sparks, and tendrils of lightning flickered out around the creature, lighting it up piece by piece and giving me an idea of what I was looking at. But I already knew what it was. It was a dragon.

Chapter 2

“Lord Aldren, orders?” One of my knights asked.

“Prepare to take the fortress. No need to pursue them now. Ready the men.”

“What of the siege weapons? Would you have any of them prepared?” I squinted at the man for a moment, before pointedly looking at the beast behind us. I looked back at the knight, who nodded looking a little embarrassed before moving on to carry my orders. I started wiping clean my bloodied dagger on a nearby corpse’s clothes.

The monster rumbled loud enough that it shook leaves from the trees around us. The dragon had sent most of the calvary either running away or straight to hell. Torches were now being lit now that stealth was no longer necessary. I was surprised they got this far without being detected, but that the dragon undoubtedly had a hand in that. She was a living, breathing thunderstorm, and could gather dark clouds around her at will. Now that we had some semblance of light, I saw the whispering fog swirling around her bulk. The black clouds also darkened the sky overhead, hiding the light from the moon and stars.

I looked the beast over as the torches threw dull firelight against its shimmering body. Her color was inconsistent. In places she was nearly as dark as the sky, in others she resembled grey morning rain. She was unique as dragons go. The lightning and clouds for starters, but she also had a more interesting appearance. Her scales almost resembled feathers, her wings like a bird's. She resembled an old myth we found scrawled on ancient caves, and thus was named for the creature they depicted. We called her The Thunderbird.

The dragon lumbered forward, as a fresh batch of men came forth to fill in our slightly depleted ranks. A few of them scurried over to the bodies, seeing if they had any armor or clothes their size worth saving. There was another rumble, and the great monster literally stepped over the first few rows of men and over to a burning tree. She was lowering her muzzle to a little pile of rags. I felt my eyebrow arch as I watched. One of her handlers started pulling on a chain fastened to her underbelly. The dragon flinched in pain, before turning and roaring at the handler. He dropped the chain and started backing away in submission, both hands held up in a surrendering gesture. Things like that were never comfortable to watch, as necessary as they were. The handlers gouged holes in the scales of young dragons, and fastened loops into their skin. This gave them a way to hurt, and control the dragons. Well, control was a stretch. But they could at least point them in the right direction with these methods. The dragon returned her attention to the little bundle.

As I watched, I realized the bundle was moving. A moment later, I heard a little cry. Me and the men looked at each other, and I started forward. “Its the kid. The younger one.” I called over my shoulder. None of the other knights dared get this close. I looked over, my eyes nearly level with those of The Thunderbird. She was watching me intently, as if daring me to make a wrong move. I slowly leaned over and lifted the child. It was bruised but didn’t otherwise seem hurt. “What do we do with it?” The knight was running a hand through his blonde hair as he spoke.

“Sir Cedric, I don’t much care. It has some valuable blood, but it will not mean much when we take this castle at dawn. That being said, slaves have become quite precious to the war. Keep the child alive if you can.” I handed the kid over. “I don’t much care what happens to it, keep it out of my sight.”

Cedric furled his eyebrows while looking at the child in his arms. “As you command.” Was all he said as he walked off. My spine tickled, and I looked up to see the dragon’s vicious eyes still watching mine. One of the handler’s pulled on that wretched chain again, and the beast groaned and obeyed. It was still a little shocking to see a man leading a beast around that was taller than most castle walls, but as long as it works.

The dragon was settled down near the dog kennels. That’s where they kept her most of the time when she was not being used, as the dogs tended to keep their snouts shut around her. It had been a few hours since the action, and I was pacing the perimeter. The morning would bring war, and I needed sleep whether I wanted it or not. But I couldn’t, without first taking a walk of the camp. I walked past the dog kennels and stopped in my tracks. Did I really just see that? I turned back to the pens and saw a wrinkled bundle of cloth in the corner with the dogs. Cedric apparently had delegated the baby sitting to the hounds. Whatever, maybe they would eat him. The Thunderbird was laying down, taking up an enormous clearing in the trees. When I looked in her direction, her eyes were still watching me.

The burlap entrance of my tent was flapped open, and I ducked my head inside. There was a water basin, chair, desk, bed, everything I would need for my stay should the siege take longer than anticipated. There was also a young squire standing at attention, hands clasped in front of his waist. “Armor, off.” I said to him. Without hesitating he strode over and started fiddling with various straps. “We have one of your cousins.” I told the squire, false glee in my voice.”

“Uh...which, which one?” The boy asked.

“The younger one. How old are they?” I asked, curious. I never spent much time around children and could never tell their years.

“One is barely over a year, lord. The other is... maybe thirteen?”

The squire didn’t sound confident, but his guess was as good as mine. The elder brother would still be some years away from being old enough to push a claim for this place, should he survive the next few days. I would need to remember that. That boy could very well grow into a thorn in my side one day. I let the squire finish with my armor, gave myself a quick wash in the basin, and laid down on the stiff bed. I kept my longsword propped nearby, and the dagger tucked under an arm.

Eventually, I drifted into a deep sleep like I normally did after a fight. When shouts woke me only a few hours later. I arose, already decided to have the cause of the disturbance flogged down to the sinew. I burst from the tent, scabbard in hand and followed the noise. I walked a little slower, when I realized it was coming from the kennels. One of the dragon handlers saw me coming and jogged his way to me around other sleepy soldiers come to see what the fuss was about. “What is happening?” I asked, with more than a little heat in my voice.

The little man stumbled beside me, clearly nervous. “Sir, I don’t understand. We don’t know how it happened but-”

“Spit it out.” I growled, bearing my teeth.

The handler gulped as we reached the pen. The handler started talking, but he was just background noise. I saw what had happened. The kennel where the kid was left was torn asunder. The escaped dogs were either pacing around nearby or evading their keepers, but I could pay that little mind. It had dawned on me what the real problem was, and it was the last thing I expected. The child was not all that was missing. There was a long, bloody chain laying nearby. At the end of the chain was an empty loop, that still curled around a hunk of dark flesh. Thinking out loud, I spoke to the handler who was still spluttering next to me, interrupting his babbling. “Did... did the dragon run away with the child?”