Mary Herbert - Legacy of Steel

The seats of the arena were crowded again, and hawkers were doing a thriving business in the stands. A few groups cheered Sara; many more jeered her.

She instructed Cobalt to land at one end of the oval. He descended with a roar and a rush of wings that sent dust swirling into the stands and crowds of people rushing back from the wall.

The dust raised during Cobalt's landing had barely settled when a shout went up from the audience and a large shadow passed swiftly over the arena. At half speed, Mirielle's dragon, Cerium, circled around and cruised over the arena a second time. Every eye was upon him. Coming in to land across from Cobalt, he beat his wings and stirred up a great cloud of dust and sand that whirled through the arena.

Sara clapped a handful of sleeve over her nose and mouth. She could hear Mirielle laughing. When the dust settled, Sara finally had a close look at the veteran dragon who bore the governor-general.

Cerium was a mature male, slightly larger than Cobalt at more than forty-eight feet in length, and bulky, with bulging muscles. His thick horns were the color of polished steel, and his hide was an iron blue. He stamped his powerful forelimbs and dug out great gouges of dirt with his claws. His scaly frill flared out around his wedge-shaped head to show off his fearsomeness. His roar shook the arena.

Cobalt was not impressed. He returned the challenge with a roar of his own. His tail lashed back and forth in fury, and his own spiked frill flared around his head. His horns stood straight out from his head.

Sara raised her sword in salute to Mirielle. The general returned the gesture. She then shouted to a group of staff officers waiting in the stands. They saluted and hurried to a platform, where one knight stood holding the general's black standard. At a word from an officer, the knight slowly dipped the standard toward the ground.

That was the signal to begin. A chorus of cheers from the crowd mingled with matching roars from the dragons to make a swelling wave of sound that crashed over the arena.

Usually at this point in a duel, dragons cast their spells while still standing on the ground, but in a trial by battle, magic was forbidden. Cobalt and Cerium would have to rely solely on their teeth and claws, their lightning breath, their natural strength, and their riders.

Cerium moved first. He crouched and sprang forward with unexpected agility, hoping to take the younger dragon by surprise. Cobalt reared up, taking the force of the dragon's charge against his powerful chest. His head sloughed around and he snapped at Cerium's wing, tearing the fine membrane at the tip. Forelimbs scrabbling, the dragons wrestled with tooth and claw while their riders held on frantically.

"Go aloft!" Sara shouted. "Fly!"

Suddenly Cobalt broke loose, swept his wings upward, and sprang into the sky. With unbelievable speed, he was airborne above the arena.

In the blink of an eye, Cerium was after him, his massive wings lifting him rapidly after his opponent. The iron-colored blue spat a jolt of electricity that for the most part passed harmlessly under the speeding dragon. Only a tendril of energy caught Cobalt's tail and burned the scales where it struck.

Cobalt roared his defiance. He soared quickly above Cerium, arched around, and furled his wings into a dive. Sara raised her shield as the older blue fired another bolt of lightning. The energy seared around her and rebounded off her shield. Cobalt responded with his own blast that struck Cerium on the foreleg and rocked Mirielle back in her saddle.

Diving and darting in intricate patterns, the dragons climbed ever higher into the sky. For the most part, their riders could only hang on and try to avoid the blasts of lightning that scorched the air around them.

Sara twisted her head back to look at Cerium and Mirielle. The older dragon definitely had more experience and endurance for this kind of battle. Cobalt had more speed and agility, but so far he was just fighting a defensive skirmish. She had to get him to take the offense.

Sara shoved her sword in the saddle scabbard by her leg and unfastened the crossbow. It was already cocked and needed only a dart to fire. She loaded it and waited for her chance.

"His right wing is weak," she yelled to Cobalt. "If you can get me closer, I'll try to shoot him." She could try to shoot Mirielle, and the thought was very tempting, but the dragon presented a much bigger target for a weapon inaccurate as a crossbow in midflight.

Cobalt only grunted a reply and pivoted sharply around to pass underneath Cerium.

The older blue sensed his danger immediately and plummeted straight toward Cobalt. Sara had only a second or two to aim the crossbow, fire the dart toward Cerium's shoulder, and duck as Cobalt furled his wings and rolled to the left out of the way of the other dragon.

The dart must have hit something, for Cerium shrilled in pain, but it did little to slow him down. Furiously he flew after Cobalt. The younger dragon managed to lash him in the muzzle with his tail before looping around and slipping away. He circled around again and headed straight for Cerium.

Sara could see Mirielle holding her own crossbow, but there was little she could do to disarm the general at that moment, for the other blue trumpeted his rage and charged forward at a blinding speed.

The two dragons clashed in midair, craving for the glory of the kill. Their wings pounded each other's heads; their claws raked each other's chests and sides. Their blood mingled across their blue hides. As each strove to outdo the other, their wings became befouled, and suddenly both dragons began to plummet toward the ground.

Calling on hidden reserves of strength, Cobalt wrenched away and spread his wings to pull himself up.

A pain, brilliant red and agonizing, shot through Sara's leg. Taken by surprise, she clutched at a crossbow bolt buried in her thigh and screamed. Her cry of pain jolted Cobalt's attention. He jerked his head around to see his rider collapse against his neck, and in that moment of inattention, Cerium lashed out with a hot streak of lightning.

The bolt was poorly aimed due to the rapid descent of the dragons, but some of the furious energy caught Cobalt across his haunches and lower left wing. A section of his wingsail burned to tatters. Scales melted across his back, and blood welled up through the wound. Cobalt snarled in pain and rage. Memories of another rider, another battle, filled his thoughts. This general had contributed to the death of Vincit, and now she had killed Sara.

Pain blurred the edges of reality, and his only desire became revenge. Instead of avoiding the bigger blue, he turned into him and sank his talons into Cerium's left wing. The right was the weakest, Sara had said. It would never hold. Snapping and snarling at Cerium's head, he held on with all the strength and tenacity he could muster and furled his wings tightly against his body.

Locked together, the two dragons tumbled like dead birds toward the ground. Cerium did not have the strength to stop his descent with an extra dragon weight fastened to his strong wing. Although he struggled frantically to tear away from Cobalt, Cerium could not escape. Cobalt seemed determined to take them all to their deaths on the frozen ground.

Mirielle desperately hacked at Cobalt's neck with her sword, but the blade had little effect on the dragon's tough scales.

He closed his eyes and ignored her, ignored the pain.

Sara lay across Cobalt's neck and stared dizzily at the earth whirling up to meet them. The dragons had risen to a high altitude before beginning their fall, but that distance was rapidly melting away. If Cobalt didn't break off quickly, there would be no time to pull up. She tried feebly to move and discovered the crossbow bolt buried in her upper thigh had pinned her leg to the saddle.