Seven inches to his throat.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sindari pulling himself out from under the sign wreckage and shaking shards of wood out of his fur. I didn’t look at him. Shaygor was doubtless aware of him, but I didn’t want to draw any attention to him.
What can I say, dragon? I had to reply silently since I couldn’t suck in air. I’m a girl, and I like jewelry. Six inches.
His eyebrows drew together, jaw clenching, and I sensed him readying another blow. I pushed harder with Chopper and tried to add my mental power to what my muscles were doing to drive the blade toward his throat. Pain erupted in my neck as I shifted my magic away from defending myself and to attacking, but Chopper surged closer. Four inches. Three.
Sindari lunged in and I shifted my focus, willing the ferns to grow into Shaygor’s barrier and create an opening for my ally. Sindari’s snout slipped through, and he bit Shaygor in the calf, fangs sinking deep.
Shaygor roared in pain, the pressure on my throat disappearing, as he jerked his leg away. For an instant, his barrier was down, and I drove Chopper downward. Because he’d moved, I didn’t get his throat, but my blade sank an inch into his shoulder before he blasted Sindari and me with such power that we flew thirty feet.
I soared all the way over the chain-link fence and hit the ground in a hard roll that took me to the parking lot. Pain battered my body, but I forced myself to my feet.
Blood stained Shaygor’s elven tunic, but any triumph I felt from landing a real blow disappeared when he sprang into the air and shifted into his dragon form. He would be stronger and harder to hurt again—harder to even reach. And he could attack us with fire from afar, as it appeared he planned to do. He flew up above the trees and banked. There was a hitch to his left wing—the side I’d struck—and it looked like I’d done real damage to him, but I feared it wouldn’t be enough.
As I prepared to defend myself against fire, I sensed more auras in the trees across the road.
Orcs, Sindari warned. Six of them. Similar to the ones we fought last time.
I groaned. We hadn’t stood a chance against a dragon to start with, and now he had reinforcements.
17
Sindari and I only had time to scoot under the branches of trees—trees that would hopefully protect us from Shaygor’s overhead attacks of fire—and position ourselves back to back before the burly orcs rushed out of the woods across the street. One fired a crossbow bolt that should have taken me in the eye, but I saw him squeezing the trigger and had time to dodge. The quarrel slammed into a tree over Sindari’s head.
As he roared his disgruntlement, I pulled out Fezzik and fired at the charging orcs. My first few bullets ricocheted off magical barriers. Then, remembering how I’d burrowed through Shaygor’s barrier with my magic, I re-formed the plant imagery in my mind and willed it to peel back the barriers of the two lead orcs. One grunted in what sounded like surprise. I fired right at him. Fezzik’s magical bullets blasted into the orc’s chest. Three more rounds hammered into his head, and he stutter-stepped before pitching forward.
More grunts of surprise came from the group, but the orcs kept coming. Shaygor screeched from the trees right above me. He didn’t use fire, maybe because his allies were so close, but a magical hammer strike landed on me as if I were a nail. My knees gave way as his power forced me to the ground.
Sindari snapped at the orcs, trying to keep them at bay. Half of them tried to circle us and the others rushed at me, trying to take advantage.
Though pain and power battered at me from above, I rose to my feet and tried again to force the closest orc’s barrier down. It was like attempting to focus with a nail gun firing into my head, and I couldn’t summon the necessary imagery. I fired, but the bullets bounced off.
An orc with a crossbow fired at me. This time, he was too close, and I didn’t have time to dodge the quarrel. It slipped past the edge of my armored vest and pierced my shoulder with fiery agony. Another orc sprang at me, a sword raised.
Fighting the pain in my shoulder, I swung Chopper up to block him. The force of the blow jarred my shoulder, and I couldn’t keep a cry from escaping my lips. I gritted my teeth and thrust back, trying to drive him farther away. Behind me, Sindari snapped and slashed at his own opponents. He couldn’t help me.
For the first time, I realized I might die tonight.
More orcs pressed in, and all I could do was defend, parrying axes and swords, barely managing to deflect blades before they pierced my chest or bashed my skull. I had to give ground, almost stepping on poor Sindari’s feet as I backed toward the trees. I was too harried and in too much pain to focus on creating magic.
Overhead, Shaygor roared. His next attack would leave me on the ground and defenseless against the orcs.
But then I sensed another dragon. Zav.
Need some help, I cried telepathically toward him, though he surely already knew. He had been back at the house when he popped onto my radar, but he was flying fast toward us. Shaygor roared again, a frustrated roar.
Knowing Zav was coming helped me fight back the pain and gave me fresh energy to use against the orcs. Which was good because they weren’t giving up. They must have also sensed Zav, but maybe they believed their dragon ally would best mine.
“Fat chance,” I growled and found the concentration to focus on my magic once again.
I envisioned the fern fronds in my mind as if they were being batted by a wind, knocking into the orcs and hurling them back. Two of our attackers stumbled backward. It wasn’t as impressive as when Shaygor had hurled me thirty feet, but it was something.
Once again, I tried to poke holes in the magical barriers protecting the orcs. One lifted a crossbow, but I fired with Fezzik first. A bullet took him in the eye, and he dropped his weapon as he pitched back.
Another of the orcs shouted what sounded like a warning. I didn’t have my translation charm activated, but I hoped it was that they were in over their heads and should give up.
Overhead, Zav and Shaygor crashed together in the air. With the branches obscuring the sky, I couldn’t see them with my eyes, but I sensed them and heard them. They fought with fang and talon and magic as they roared and shrieked like great birds of prey.
Meanwhile, I kept focusing on tearing down orc magical barriers with my mental attacks as I fired bullets into my enemies. When the three orcs who had faced me were all down or running back into the woods, I turned to help Sindari. Two of his foes were down, their throats torn by his mighty claws, but he continued to slash at a club-wielder determined to brain him. I shot him in the eye. He stumbled back, and Sindari sprang onto his chest, knocking him the rest of the way to the ground.
As Sindari finished off the orc, I slumped against a tree. In a moment, I would run out into the open and see if there was a way I could help Zav, but I was exhausted, and my shoulder throbbed so hard it was reverberating behind my eyes. Or maybe I had a fresh headache independent of the other wound, a byproduct of focusing so hard on using magic.
A thunderous crack sounded as something struck a tree not ten feet away. The trunk broke in half, and branches snapped off as a dragon plunged to the ground like a cannonball. A silver dragon. A second after he landed, the tree trunk fell on him.
Conniving vermin! Shaygor screeched into my mind as he found his feet, flinging the trunk off his back.
Magic burst into my awareness, and I raised my sword, thinking he meant to attack me. But he was forming a portal, the silvery circle appearing in the air next to him.
Next time we meet, you die! Shaygor pinned me with his fury-filled eyes before springing through the portal and disappearing from this world.
“Me? I’m not the one who dropped a tree on him.” My voice sounded as shaky and weak as I felt.
Sindari came and sat next to me, also leaning against the tree for support. More than one sword had found him, and blood matted his silver fur.
I’m sorry you were hurt, Sindari.
This is the way of battle.
Thank you for your help. For the record, I didn’t want to fight a dragon. I was trying to make sure he didn’t get Nin’s grandfather.
I know. Perhaps later, you will explain to me why one of our enemy dragons wants the gnome.
I will.
As the portal disappeared, Zav flew down and shifted into human form. He eyed the air where it had been, as if he was considering following Shaygor to wherever he’d gone and kicking his ass some more, but then he spotted me, our gazes meeting across the broken branches and dead orcs.
You are injured.
Fighting six orcs and a dragon will do that. I smiled, striving for nonchalance, though the realization of how close a call that had been refused to dissipate. My hands were shaking, and I was sure it wasn’t only from the pain and adrenaline. I risked myself regularly for my job, but I didn’t make a habit of picking fights I didn’t believe I could win. Thank you for your timely arrival.
Zav strode toward me, barely glancing at Sindari. He rested one hand on my hip and lifted the other to my shoulder. The quarrel was broken off—I hadn’t even felt that—and embedded in the muscle.
“I will incinerate this,” Zav said. “It will hurt briefly.”
“I know. Go ahead.” I braced myself.
The flash of pain as he reduced the quarrel to ash was brief, especially compared to what I’d endured that night. He followed that by gently resting his palm against the gouge left in my shoulder. Soothing magic flowed into the wound, and the pain faded further.
Zav leaned in and kissed me as the puncture knitted itself back together. His kiss was gentle, but the telepathic words that accompanied it were determined. I regret that you were hurt by another dragon. I do not know why he was here on Earth harassing you again, but I will find out.
I already know. It’s a long story, and I need to tell you. You’re not going to be pleased.
You did something to goad him?
Yeah, I’m sheltering a fugitive gnome.
Zav drew back, the injury healed, and gave me a puzzled look.
I didn’t know where Ti had chosen to hide, but I hoped he would show up again now that Shaygor was gone. Assuming he wasn’t scared of Zav. Just because Ti thought Zav’s uncle had been a decent ruler didn’t mean he wanted to bump elbows with dragons in general. Most of the non-dragon species seemed to feel that way toward them.