Bryan Davis - Eye of the Oracle

Goliath, now skimming the clouds again with Roxil, swooped toward the king and smacked into Thigocia, knocking her to the ground. Roxil followed with a stream of flames, but King Arthur blocked it with his shield just before the torrent could slam into his face.

Merlin held up his fist, opening his fingers slightly. Goliath and Roxil faltered, their wings out of sync. As they flew away, they alternately rose and dipped in the gusty winds. Merlin closed his fingers again.

Thigocia pushed her wings against the mud and righted herself. “I saw a new horde of Saxons swarming on the hill! They are coming this way!”

Arthur shouted, “Make your defenses!” The king’s soldiers formed a wall of sword-wielding men and a cadre of bowmen behind them, their arrows bending their strings.

“Edward!” Thigocia shouted, lowering her head. “Mount! We will thin their ranks!”

As Edward climbed into position, Sir Devin stalked toward them and raised his sword. “This is more dragon treachery! The barbarians waited for their dragon allies to join them before they brought their second wave.”

Merlin leaped in front of Devin and blocked the knight’s thrust with his own sword. “Don’t be a fool!” Merlin grunted as he pushed against the crossed blades. “Thigocia is no friend of Goliath or Roxil. She was a victim of their attack!”

“You fell for their ploy!” Devin growled. “She spawned the scaly beasts! They wouldn’t kill their own mother!”

King Arthur lifted the flashing Excalibur high. “Devin! I command you to desist!”

Devin scowled at the king and backed away from Merlin, muttering something unintelligible.

Barlow’s voice rose above the clattering rain. “Bowmen! Pierce those devils!” A hundred arrows shot into the downpour. Edward raised his sword and stretched to see over the wall of men. The savages were closing in, some dropping into the mud as arrows rained on their advance. Shifting his gaze to the sky, he counted three dragons sweeping the enemy with waves of fire, but he couldn’t tell who they were.

Thunder boomed overhead. Rain pounded even harder. Suddenly, a spear flew in, striking Edward in the chest. He fell off Thigocia’s back, but she caught him in her wing and laid him gently on the ground. As he writhed in the mud, a wave of barbarians slammed into the front lines. Arthur, Merlin, Devin, and Palin charged into the fray, Excalibur flashing in the king’s grip.

Stretching her wings, Thigocia created a shield over Edward. He grimaced at her, pain crushing his words. “Break. . break the spear. I must. . fight.”

“You cannot survive this wound,” Thigocia said. “It has likely pierced your lungs.”

Edward felt blood seeping into his throat. “Let me die. . fighting. . not wallowing in the mud.” He struggled to his knees, feeling for the spear at his back.

“The point protrudes several inches.” Thigocia laid her tail on his shoulder. “Stay as still as you can.”

With Edward holding the front end, Thigocia chomped the shaft near the point and broke it into splinters.

Edward clenched his teeth. “Now break the other end.”

Thigocia clamped her jaws around the shaft, but as she crunched the wood, Edward collapsed to the mud, faceup. The spear broke somewhere inside his body and part of it jerked out. Blood flowed freely from his chest. He arched his back, and his arms and legs stiffened.

Thigocia wrapped her wings around him and pulled him to his feet. “Battle or no battle, I will not let you die in the mud. I can try to heal you, but you have been mortally wounded. First, I have to find a dragon to breathe fire on me.”

Edward stuck his head through a gap in the dragon’s wings, but darkness shrouded the battlefield. Everything moved slowly, like a somber dance in a house of mourning. As King Arthur’s sword swept from side to side, one barbarian after another fell to his blows. Suddenly, the blade flashed with radiance as if struck by a bolt of lightning, but instead of knocking the king flat, the bolt seemed to penetrate his body, lighting him as bright as the sun itself. A brilliant beam shot out of Excalibur’s tip, and as Arthur staggered backwards, he lowered the sword. The beam slashed the ground, sending a streak of lightning along the muddy field. The glittering streak shot into Thigocia, creating a shimmering white halo all around her.

A sizzling sensation burned into Edward’s skin. Everything in his vision flashed so brightly, he couldn’t see at all. Blistering heat surged into his lungs, making them feel on fire. Seconds later, the light flickered off. His pain vanished.

Fighting against the dragon’s leathery wings, he bounded through the opening, then laid his palm on his chest and took a deep breath. Blood dampened his fingers, but not even a twinge of pain hampered his lungs. Even the shaft of the spear had disintegrated. He grabbed his sword and gazed at Thigocia. “What happened?”

“I have no idea.” Thigocia lowered her head and sniffed the hole in his vest. “A miracle?”

“I’ll have to accept that. No time for guessing.”

Edward saluted her and rushed into the battle. As he raised his shield, he heard the dragon call from behind him, “Praise the Maker!” An arrow thumped into his shield, then another. He glanced back at Thigocia and nodded. She nodded in return.

The king swung Excalibur’s beam back into the horde. The savages in its path disappeared as if disintegrated by its energy. Arthur swept the enemy’s lines. Dozens of men blew apart in splashes of sparks, their swords, shields, and helmets falling to the spots where they once stood. The Saxons began fleeing once again, many slipping and falling under the tide of trampling feet. Arthur drew the sword back, and the beam disappeared.

Goliath plummeted from the sky. Makaidos zoomed behind him, snapping at his tail. With his wings stretching wide, Goliath leveled his flight near the ground and reached down with expanded claws, seizing Arthur’s clothes and jerking him upward. As the king rose into the air, his shield went flying and Excalibur fell to the ground. Arthur’s bowmen turned their aim toward the sky, keeping their arrows drawn back as they awaited orders.

Scattering water droplets from his wings, Makaidos landed next to Merlin, breathless. “Do not think. . for a moment. . that Goliath fears killing the king. We must. . take great care.” The other dragons, Hartanna, Valcor, and Legossi, settled in next to their king. Clefspeare, however, was still nowhere in sight.

Goliath landed in a nearby patch of grass and threw Arthur against a large stone. Trumpeting a great roar, he planted his claws on the king’s limp body and shouted at the soldiers, “Are you willing to bargain in order to rescue the human king? He is alive, but if you refuse to make a deal with me, he will be dead before sundown.”

Roxil landed close to Goliath, but he pushed her away with his tail.

Merlin reached for Excalibur. The moment he snatched it up, the beam returned to the blade and shot into the sky. He angled the light toward Goliath, but when the dragon raised his claws to strike the king, Merlin pulled it back. “With Arthur in his clutches,” he said, “I dare not strike the dragon.”

Sir Devin drew his sword. “I will give that demon an answer he will never forget!”

Merlin pressed his forearm against Devin’s chest, stopping him. He then stepped to the front of the group and faced Goliath. “What would a rebellious dragon want from the two-legged creatures he despises?”

Goliath spewed a stream of fire into the air and let the sparks sizzle for a moment as they fell to the grass. He laughed and stretched out his reply in a low drone. “War.”

“Between humans and dragons?” Merlin asked.