Chapter 165 - Fire and Flight

We rode hard, dashing down deserted streets as fast as Sue could carry me. All the while, I kept looking back over my shoulder for that damned dragon. I knew full well that Peter wouldn’t let me go. He had all the other alliance leaders under his control now. I was the last. Soon as he had me swear to him, that would be the end of it. He’d control the entire Burlington area and every Domain around it.

I checked again. Still no dragon chasing me. What was he going to do once he caught me? The best case scenario was that he’d just demand I become his vassal, same as the other leaders. But his charming little overtures told a somewhat different story. He’d been flirting with me every chance he got for a while now. It had even been a little flattering.

Now the man had a massive army of orcs at his back, on top of the dragon. He was in a position where he could demand just about anything he wanted. I had a bad feeling he was going to try insisting on far more than I was willing to give him.

Since he obviously wasn’t chasing me right away, I had some breathing room. I used the rest of the trip back to the Farm brainstorming ways to stop him, but I ended up drawing a blank. Strong as I was, that dragon was stronger. As well-built as our wall might be, there was no wall which could hold off that orc army.

I wasn’t going to be able to stop him. Not right away. If we were going to have any sort of chance, then I needed to buy us time. That much, I was pretty sure I could accomplish.

As I approached the Farm, I heard shouts of alarm from up ahead. They’d seen me coming, and they knew Sue—but they saw my breakneck pace and rightly assumed something was very wrong. As I got closer I saw more and more guards mounting the walls, preparing to defend their home from whatever was coming our way. How was I supposed to tell them that this time, there was nothing we could do?

The gates were open by the time I got to them, so I slowed Sue and rode through the opening. Kara and Clay already stood in the courtyard just inside, waiting for me.

“What’s going on?” Clay asked.

“It’s bad,” I gasped out in reply. I was too shaken up from the ride to think of much else. I painfully clambered down from Sue’s back onto shaking legs. A couple of deep breaths helped to ground me. There wasn’t time for me to fall apart. My people needed me.

“Orcs? Something else?” Kara asked.

“How’s the escape route?” I asked her. “Did the zombies finish it yet?”

“Yeah, it’s done. Runs right into the basement over at the mall. Easy enough to slip away through there, if we get hit hard. Why? What’s coming?” Kara asked.

“We need to evacuate,” I told her. “All the living need to leave, right now. We’ll get them out through the tunnel so they won’t be seen slipping away. Once they’re clear, take them east toward the river. Find someplace there to hole up.”

“Selena, you’re not making much sense. What’s coming? If it’s something bad, we can fight it together. We can call for backup from the other Domains,” Clay said.

“Not anymore, we can’t,” I told him.

I turned away from my friends and climbed the steps to the top of the wall. There, I cupped my hands to my mouth and raised my voice as much as I could. I needed what I said to carry.

“Everyone, please listen. There is a massive orc army on its way here, about twelve hundred warriors all told. They’re under the command of Peter Eddings, and he has a dragon as well. They’ve taken the rest of the alliance. They’re coming here next.” I paused for breath. All around me, everyone had stopped moving, frozen in shock as they took in what I was saying. “Kara is going to lead our living warriors away to safety while the undead buy the living time to escape. We don’t have much time. They’ll be here in a few hours at most. Pack for travel. Bring supplies. I doubt we’ll be coming back here.”

I didn’t tell them that I didn’t have any plans beyond making sure they all got away. I’d do everything I could to ensure they escaped. After that, I had no idea what to do. Mostly, I figured I’d be dead at that point and it would become someone else’s problem. Even thinking like that was terrifying, but if the alternative was Peter getting me in his clutches, I might actually be okay with death.

My people were rushing around, taking my words to heart and gathering up supplies for their journey. The hard part over, I descended the steps back to the ground. Kara and Clay both waited for me at the bottom.

“Inside, now. I want to hear everything that happened, then we can figure out what we’re doing next,” Clay said.

I didn’t argue, just followed him back into the central building to the room where we held planning sessions. Alfred was already waiting for us in there. As soon as Kara, Clay and I were in, he shut the door behind us.

That’s when I spilled. I gave them all the gory details. I explained what happened in the early part of the meeting with Carver, everything we’d talked about. Then I told them about the dragon’s arrival. How we both went down to meet Peter. How Peter confessed to everything I’d feared he’d done, and to more besides that. I wrapped up the tale by describing the horde of orcs, and how Gideon had become Peter’s vassal, because it was the only option he had that didn’t involve all his people dying.

“You figure they’re on the way here next, right?” Kara asked.

I nodded. “I’d bet on it. I got away while Peter was distracted by taking on Gideon as a vassal. I don’t know why he didn’t just chase me down on his dragon. Maybe he figured he didn’t need to. He knows that orc army is big enough to wipe us out. We can agree to serve him. We can fight and almost certainly die. Or we can run.”

“I gather that he wants something more from you than just vassalage, though,” Clay said. I heard the undercurrent of anger in his tone—he was pissed about this, and I appreciated that. “He wants you, not just your domain, right?”

“He hasn’t outright asked for my hand in marriage yet, but he’s definitely giving that vibe, yeah.”

“Ewww,” Kara said. “Okay, that’s six kinds of creepy.”

“Well, we can’t let him just have Selena, right?” Alfred said. “We need to find a way to stop this.”

“All I can think of is that we need to escape. I have to get our people clear. The undead I can replace, given time and the right sort of resources. But our living friends and allies aren’t so easy,” I said. “That’s why I want you three to go with them. Take them out the escape tunnel we built.”

I was exceptionally glad we’d thought of that. Sure, we could just send people out overland. But the sky was overcast. Peter and his dragon could be up there in the clouds even now, watching. Even if he wasn’t scouting us personally, I’d be stunned if he didn’t have orc or human scouts watching the place. If we tried to send people out above ground, he’d track and capture them.

But underground? That was something different.

“It doesn’t go far,” Kara pointed out. “Just up to the mall.”

“I know. But once you’re there, stay put. I’m going to force Peter to attack the Farm. He’ll send in his troops, and I’ll use all our undead to fend them off. With that sort of distraction, he will have all his focus on the Farm itself, on what’s inside our walls,” I said. “I’ll keep him busy that way for as long as I can. Once he’s fully occupied, you all slip away from the mall. I figure head east, toward the river. Maybe past it. There’s open countryside out there. Find someplace that’s far enough he won’t spot it right away, and hidden enough to stay out of view for at least a few days.”

“And then what?” Clay asked. “Once we’re all out there, hidden somewhere, what’s next? Where will you be?”

I shrugged. “I certainly have no intention of dying or being captured. If I get caught and you guys can think of a way to rescue me, I’d appreciate it. But my main weak spot is all of you! He knows he can hurt me through you. I can fly away, and I’m damned hard to kill. I figure I’ll buy you all as much time to escape as I can, and then I’ll come east looking for you.”

“The dragon feels like the weak link,” Kara said. “It used to be free and independent. Somehow, Eddings got it to be loyal to him. My bet is he has some sort of hold over it. Either he has a spell in place or something else. Selena, what you just said about us being your weak spot?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” I said. “I love you guys. But that’s part of the problem.”

She held up a hand. “You don’t need to apologize. I get it. I’m not thrilled about it, but I get it. What you said got me thinking, though. Eddings knew the dragon was female, right? And he has it under his power? What if he’s not using magic to control it? What if instead he found the dragon’s weak link—like a baby dragon, or an egg, or a mate? Something like that?”

Everything Peter had told me about the dragon came back in a rush. What Kara said made so much sense, it helped slot a few puzzle pieces into place for me.

Peter had known the dragon was female before ever capturing it or getting close to her. The dragon was attacking his Domain long before it attacked anyone else. It didn’t just strike once, either. It attacked several times. Then, when he caught her, Peter showed immediate confidence that he could turn her to his side. He accomplished that feat in just days.

I’d assumed he had simply found some magic spell that let him control the dragon the same way Control Undead gave me power over Sue. But that had never rung entirely true, because the dragon was too high tier to be easily controlled by a low tier spell. Peter was still only tier eight. A tier eight spell shouldn’t be able to control a creature as high rank as the dragon.

“I think that tracks,” I told Kara. “He definitely has some sort of hold, and I doubt it’s a regular spell. He’s not high enough rank. It must be something else, and your idea makes sense. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking if we rescue the baby dragon or egg, we end Peter’s reign of terror,” she replied. “He took over the orcs because the dragon impressed them, you said?”

I nodded.

“And the orcs were what let him take Camp Johnson and Carver’s fortress, right?”

More nodding.

“Then if we steal his leverage over the dragon, she turns on him. Best case scenario, she eats him and solves the problem for us. Worst case, she flies away with her baby and we finish the asshole off ourselves,” Kara finished.

It wasn’t a plan. It was more like the barest outline of a plan. But it was a good enough place to start, and it was more than we’d had ten minutes earlier.

I gave Kara a hug. “I don’t know what I’d do without you all.”

“Probably end up married to a murderous asshole,” she shot back, holding me tight. “Don’t worry, though. We’ve got your back.”

Clay rapped his knuckles on the table. “We have our marching orders, then. We’ll get the people to safety while Selena holds off the enemy. Once we’re clear, she comes out to join us. As soon as we’re all back together, we work out a plan to remove whatever leverage Eddings has over his dragon, and then we put an end to his coup.”

We rose and got to work. There was no time to waste. The enemy would be at our doorstep soon enough.