Battle for Cymmera. Dani-Lyn Alexander
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searched the platform. There had to be something she could use as a weapon.
“I’ve got it,” Mia cried.
The portal opened just enough for an adult to squeeze through. It would have to be good enough.
“Wait, Mia.” She grabbed her arm and yelled over the raging wind. “How will Jackson find us?”
Mia shook her head. “He won’t.” With a wave toward the others to follow, she started into the opening.
Ryleigh pulled her back. She wasn’t sending Mia, or any other unarmed civilian, into an uncharted realm. Especially with Thaddeus on the loose. Yet this was their only chance of escape. “Can you hold it open?”
“I think so, but I’m not sure how long.” Violent tremors shook her body, and a steady stream of blood flowed from her nose.
The Queen’s Army was already engaged with savages near the edge of the plateau. The enemy had obviously penetrated the line of Guardsmen.
Ryleigh grabbed a fallen savage’s flail and leaped over his body. She grabbed Lucas’s arm.
He spun on her.
She took a step back and gestured toward the wavering portal. “Take one soldier and go.”
He nodded, grabbed the nearest Guardsman, and ran toward the portal.
Ryleigh covered them, taking on two savages to allow them time to escape. The three-headed flail was heavier than she was used to, and it slowed her swing. She ducked to avoid a savage’s sword.
Noah planted his foot against the savage’s gut and shoved him backward over the cliff. “Go, Ryleigh.”
Another Cymmeran soldier fell.
Ryleigh backed off. They couldn’t wait any longer. She could only hope they’d bought Lucas enough time to secure the portal and whatever lay on the other side. She signaled to the waiting civilians.
Trying to avoid the worst of the battle, they bolted toward the portal. A few of the women had broken off large branches and wielded them against any savages that broke through the line of soldiers. Others hefted large rocks, hurling them at savages who seemed to be gaining the upper hand against their soldiers.
Unarmed women fled with the children, shielding them from the carnage as best they could.
A child screamed.
Ryleigh spun.
A woman struggled against a savage’s hold while trying to keep the child out of his grasp.
Running toward them, Ryleigh heaved the flail back, then rounded and nailed him square in the chest, driving him back.
He came again.
Another joined him.
“Get out of here. Faster.” She swung again. She had to find a lighter weapon.
Noah lunged at the savage, driving his sword deep.
“Here.” Tatiana shoved a sword into Ryleigh’s hand.
After discarding the flail, she hefted the sword and rounded on another savage.
A grunt from above her startled her, and she jumped back.
A savage dove from a ledge above the cave.
“Noah,” Ryleigh screamed.
The savage landed on him, knocking him to the ground.
A second savage pounced.
Ryleigh lost sight of Noah beneath the two savages. She plunged her sword into one of them and shoved him back off Noah.
Tatiana went after the other.
Tristan and Jimmy intercepted the savage.
Ryleigh left him to them and ran to Noah. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the portal. The last of the civilians had just gone through. The edges of the portal wavered, faltered, and started to close. “Pull back.”
She gestured the remaining soldiers toward the portal. She had to get them through before Mia lost control.
Tristan and Jimmy continued to fight.
“Pull back. Now,” she screamed.
Tatiana grabbed Noah’s other arm, and together they dragged him toward the portal.
Noah’s eyes popped open, and he scrambled back, trying to gain his feet.
Wind from the closing portal battered them.
Before he could get his balance and try to rejoin the fight, Ryleigh shoved him through the portal. Getting them all to safety was all that mattered. She’d deal with the consequences later.
Tatiana grinned and shook her head, then dove through behind him. The portal wavered again and shrank.
Ryleigh started toward Tristan.
He waved her back as he and Jimmy finally retreated and ran toward her. “Go. We’re right behind you.”
Savages surged onto the plateau. More jumped from the rocky ledges above the caves.
The portal narrowed.
The instant Jimmy and Tristan reached her, knowing they’d never go through before her, she plunged into the portal.
* * * *
Jackson guided Ophidian to avoid an army of creatures pouring from the remnants of the mountainside, barreling through the debris. Enormous beasts, on two legs, their skin pale gray and covered in ice, tufts of hair sticking out randomly from their heads and faces.
One jumped up, grabbed Dakota’s dragon by the wing, and flung him and his rider across the valley into what was left of the opposite mountain face.
Ophidian swung around, then dove toward them.
As they hurtled toward the creatures still freeing themselves from the mountainside, Jackson tore the bow from his back and nocked an arrow. His arrow found its mark in the center of the creature’s chest but bounced off instead of going through its heart.
It kept coming.
He pulled up and waved the others off. Swinging around, he readied another shot. In a move that had worked against the savages in the past, he signaled Ophidian to shoot a stream of fire, then launched his arrow through the flames. It caught fire and flew into a creature, melting a path through the thick ice covering its chest. It took two more arrows to fell the giant monster.
Using the dragon-fire, the Death Dealers eliminated dozens of the creatures, leaving a path of scorched bodies littering the mountainside.
Confident the others could finish the job, Jackson guided Ophidian toward Dakota. He leaped from his back before he landed and ran toward the dragon crumpled in the snow.
“I’m all right, but Draco’s wing is torn.” Dakota crouched behind the dragon, warm orange light emanating from his hands as he smoothed them over the hole in Draco’s wing.
Relieved to find his friend unharmed, Jackson patted his shoulder and fell to his knees beside him. “How bad?”
“Bad enough.” He looked up, blood trickling from a gash above his right eye, his teeth clenched. “I shouldn’t have gotten so close.”
“Not your fault. Just bad luck you were there when they burst from the mountain.” He added his healing touch to Dakota’s, pouring white light along the edges of the tear, concentrating on healing the wound with a clean seam.
At least when the mountain shattered, the earthquake had ended.
“What were those things?”
“I have no idea, but we’ll investigate once Draco’s all right.”
“Jackson,” Ranger called. He landed his dragon and ran to them. “I think we got them all. Some of the prisoners were killed