Corec tracked Sarette’s progress through the warden bond. She was no longer visible, hidden by the distance and the gathering storm, but she’d headed steadily southwest. Then her pattern changed, and she made wide sweeps to either side before settling down again. Corec checked his compass. She was just a few degrees west of southwest. Had she found the dragon?

“Cenric!” Corec called out, deciding not to wait until the creature came into view. “Pike-and-shield wall in front of Ballista Three. Face southwest, stay behind the stakes, and listen for my signal in case I need to move you. Single rank, but double up if you need to.”

The mercenary nodded. “Let’s go, men! You heard him!” His squad followed behind, struggling to carry their shields and pikes at the same time. Moving the equipment was awkward, but once they could brace both the shields and the weapon on the ground, they could keep them steady.

“Same with you, Ned, but Ballista One,” Corec said. The young man had just arrived, jogging back from completing Shavala’s task. Leaving some distance between the two infantry squads would ensure the dragon couldn’t hit them both at the same time.

“I’ll take Ballista Two, then?” Ellerie asked. Ballista Two was the closest to the dragon’s approach. If Ellerie’s attacks could draw the creature there before it landed to attack, then Cenric’s and Nedley’s infantry squads would be protecting the two other ballistae which still had a direct line of sight to their target.

Boktar scowled. He didn’t like Ellerie’s part of the plan.

“Yes,” Corec said, “at least until we can see the dragon. After that, go wherever’s best, but get out of the way before it gets too close. Behind the back lines, or at least back to Treya and Ariadne.” The Chosar woman had joined Treya on top of the second freight wagon, where she’d have a good view of any fighting. She’d protect Treya if needed, or join in wherever she thought she could help out.

Ellerie nodded and took off.

Boktar watched her go, a worried look on his face, then turned back. “Corec?” he prompted.

Corec hesitated. Boktar was commanding the three catapults from Tir Yadar, which could be repositioned quickly, but his crews needed time to carry ammunition from the freight wagons to their final locations. If Corec waited until he could see the dragon’s approach before he let them get set up, they might not have time to take more than one or two of the heavy loads.

“South, but keep them spread out,” he said. “Choose spots where they can change direction as much as possible without the rest of us getting in their way.” The catapults couldn’t pivot, but the crews could shrink and rotate them, then return them to full size.

“Weapon ready!” said Ral, a retired caravan guard who worked with Ballista One. As the only ballista that didn’t require a mule team, the crew had just needed to enlarge it, then crank the winches.

“Get it loaded,” Corec said. He himself was in command of Ballista One, but he’d be otherwise occupied once they managed to get the dragon on the ground. He’d selected Ral as the crew member most likely to keep his head if left in charge of one of the weapons. “Where’s Bobo?”

Bobo was already on his way to the ballista, carrying an armful of bolts. Ral took the bundle of ammunition, then his partner, Ludlo, helped Bobo up onto the cart.

The knights were issuing orders to their own weapon crews, and the infantry squads had arranged themselves in shield walls. Now they just had to wait until they could see something. If the dragon came from a different direction than expected, Corec would reposition anyone who needed to be moved.

Scattered flickers of lightning had begun appearing in the distance as Shavala and Sarette worked, but now, suddenly, the roiling storm was full of lightning bouncing between the clouds, never reaching the earth. It had to be Sarette, but what was happening? She was moving around, but from this far away the directional changes to the warden sense were too slight to be helpful.

Then a dark shape emerged below the clouds. It was tiny due to the distance, but it didn’t look like a bird—or like Sarette. It could only be the dragon. Corec watched the figure as the armsmen murmured and pointed. The dragon grew more distinct as it drew closer, but then it almost came to a stop mid-flight, its neck twisting back and darting around as if it were a dog biting at a flea.

Sarette’s warden bond suddenly dropped lower in the sky, and then kept descending. Had she fallen? Or was she attempting to land? Corec was on the tips of his toes, squinting, but she was too far away to see. He cursed silently—he shouldn’t have asked her to go out there alone. What if something happened to her?

And then, well beyond the dragon, a massive lightning bolt snaked down from the clouds, and the sensation of Sarette’s bond shot back up into the sky. The roll of thunder washed over the formation as the tension drained from Corec’s shoulders. She was all right. He focused on the dragon once more. It had resumed flying, allowing him to judge its approach.

“Nedley, reposition!” he called out. Now that they could see the creature, the infantry squads could move their shield walls to face it directly. Cenric had adjusted his squad without prompting, and the knights were estimating wind speed and ordering their crews to adjust the ballistae pivot mounts. Boktar eyed the line of attack for each of the catapults under his command but left them as they were.

When Ellerie glanced back from her position near Ballista Two, Corec gave her the signal to begin the assault.

The dragon had passed by them before without attacking, but judging by the angle of its approach, it didn’t intend to ignore them any longer. They wouldn’t be able to delay the fight this time.

As soon as the creature drew within Ellerie’s range, she launched one of her beam spells. Her first attack missed, and some of the armsmen muttered in worry.

Corec tried to estimate the dragon’s distance. It was flying faster than he’d pictured in his mind, though something seemed off about the way it moved. He’d hoped for two volleys from the ballistae before the creature reached them, but there wouldn’t be enough time.

A single volley, then. Medium range would provide the best accuracy while still allowing the men time to flee if the dragon realized the source of the attack.

“At three hundred yards, ready!” Corec shouted to the weapon commanders, then glanced at his own ballista and lowered his voice. “Right ten degrees and down five,” he ordered his crew.

Bobo waited for Ludlo to finish adjusting the pivot mount before laying his hand on the weapon. The bolt began to glow with a bright white light.

As the dragon neared the three-hundred-yard mark, Ellerie released another beam, this time hitting the creature.

The sound of its defiant roar reached them just as he shouted, “All ballistae, release!” That order gave the commanders the go-ahead to loose their bolts once their shots were lined up.

“Lead it by five yards,” he told Ral. “Go when you’ve got it.”

The caravan guard nodded and took aim, Bobo moving out of his way. During their practice drills, Bobo’s spell had lasted for half a minute after he stopped touching the bolt.

One of the front-rank ballistae launched its attack too soon, falling short of its target. Then Ral released Ballista One’s trigger mechanism and the white-glowing bolt shot into the sky, passing just ahead of the dragon at an angle. The others had loosed as well, the bolts soaring below the creature or off to the side.

Ballistae were difficult weapons to aim at a mobile enemy—they performed better when the crew could loose multiple bolts at the same stationary target and adjust their aim each time—but Corec had hoped for better results. If the ballistae weren’t accurate enough to hit while the creature was in the air, they’d have to wait until it landed to attack.

Then came Georg’s voice from Ballista Seven, which, at the northeast corner of the formation, was farthest from the dragon. “Now!” the knight shouted. His crew released their bolt. Corec couldn’t see the hit, but the dragon let loose with a cry of pain. Ellerie struck it with another of her beam spells and the beast roared again.

The dragon’s figure had loomed larger and larger as it flew toward them, and now, as it neared the expedition, Corec realized why its flying seemed so strange. Its wings beat unsteadily rather than with the smooth motion of the previous times he’d seen it. Had Sarette and Ellerie hurt it enough that it would be forced to land soon?

It was hard to tell—it was descending steadily, but wasn’t slowing down yet.

“Get ready!” Corec yelled to Treya. If the dragon intended to fly directly overhead at low elevation, it could burn half the expedition in a single pass.

Treya thrust her arms out to her side. There was no visible indicator of her fire protection spell, but they’d tested the manuever with torches and campfires to ensure it worked. A flame with a fuel source outside the barrier would continue burning, but it wouldn’t damage anything within the barrier. When they’d helped Treya practice back in Cordaea, Shavala had been able to maintain a flame using magic alone, but it hadn’t burned anything protected by Treya’s spell.

The ballista crews were frantically cranking the winches, but they wouldn’t be able to reload before the dragon reached the formation. While the expedition was protected from fire, there wasn’t much else they could do until the siege weapons or the mages managed to knock the dragon out of the sky or force it to land. Shavala had warned that she’d have to use most of her strength to summon a storm of the size they needed, and Sarette hadn’t returned yet. That left Ellerie, who’d remained near Ballista Two for some reason rather than moving to a safer location.

Before Corec could call out to her, the dragon’s wings fell out of rhythm with one another and the beast awkwardly dropped lower in the sky, heading straight for the ballista.

“Get out of there!” Corec yelled at Ellerie and the weapon crew, but with all the sudden shouting and cries of fear, his words were lost in the wind. The elven woman appeared to be trying to convince Sir Willem to flee.

The three Tir Yadar catapults launched their loads, but with the dragon’s rapid descent, two of the three overshot it. Only one load reached its target, half a dozen heavy stones pounding against the creature’s side. That caused the dragon to lose what control it had left, and it barreled toward Ballista Two. Corec could only watch in dread as Ellerie lost her footing and fell to the ground before she could get away. Then Leena appeared right next to her from out of nowhere.

The ground trembled as the dragon made impact, the massive creature half rolling and half skidding into the ballista cart and shattering it to splinters.

For a brief moment Corec froze, desperately searching for Ellerie’s and Leena’s warden bonds. Then they suddenly reappeared, pointing to the south. He took his eyes off the dragon long enough to look for them, but they were beyond his view.

How … ?

Then he remembered. Some of the Travelers could take people with them when they teleported, and Leena had suggested she’d be able to do the same someday. She must have gotten Ellerie out in time. Had she saved Willem as well?

The dragon thrashed around as it tried to right itself. Its talons slammed down onto the body of a man who’d been thrown clear of the cart. The few mules in sight which hadn’t already fled took off running, frightened of the commotion.

“Ned, protect the ballista!” Corec called out, then gave a hand signal to the knights in the rear ranks. With the dragon down this close to the formation, only Ballista Three, commanded by Kevik, and Corec’s own Ballista One still had a clear shot. The rest of the knights would have to decide whether to risk loosing a bolt into the melee or join in the fight in some other way.

“Ellerie!” Boktar shouted, leaving his post as he ran toward the dragon.

Corec grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him back. “She’s safe!”

The dwarven man tried to push past. “Let me go! I’ve got to go!”

“Ellerie’s safe!” Corec repeated. “Leena took her south!” With Boktar distracted, Corec waved a signal to the catapult crews, who quickly shrank their weapons down to miniature size, then ran them farther away. Unlike the ballistae with their pivot mounts, the catapults’ aim could only be adjusted by a small amount, and only by changing the tension. To use them at full strength, they needed more distance between themselves and the target.

It took a moment for Boktar to understand. “She’s safe?”

“Yes, get your pike!”

Nedley had rotated his shield wall again, the dragon now northwest of the squad’s position. Those armsmen were the only defense for Ballista One and Bobo’s enchanted bolts, so Corec and Boktar would have to make the first assault on their own.

Corec grabbed his pike, but before he could charge the dragon, the creature managed to get its legs beneath itself and stand upright. It drew its neck back and up, and then its head darted forward as it breathed flame.

The billowing sound of the dragon’s breath lighting the air on fire nearly drowned out the screams as flame washed over the southern end of the formation, startling Nedley’s squad out of position. Bobo and Ral froze in place, while Ludlo dove off the back of the cart and cowered behind it.

But Treya’s spell was working. The screams were of fear and surprise rather than pain.

Corec squinted, trying to peer through the fire. It was hot, but not unbearably so. His helmet’s visor blocked the worst of the blown dust from his eyes, and there was little smoke since nothing was burning.

As the flames continued, the men realized they weren’t burning to death. Ral recovered from his shock and quickly finished cranking both his winch and Ludlo’s, and Bobo loaded another bolt.

The dragon hadn’t realized its attack wasn’t working. It swiveled its neck, aiming its breath at the rest of the formation in turn.

With the flame passing to the north, the freight wagons came into view once again. Treya was sagging, held up by Ariadne as she strained to keep the protection spell in place.

They had to hurry. Corec activated his combat spells and motioned to Boktar. The two of them sprinted around Ballista One and then past Nedley’s squad. The men were attempting to reform into a shield wall, but they were one soldier short. One of the armsmen had dropped his pike and shield and was fleeing to the east. Nedley was chivvying the others to stay in the line. If they didn’t, it would leave the ballista open to attack. With Ellerie missing and Sarette and Shavala seemingly out of the fight, they couldn’t afford to risk Bobo too.

But then as Corec and Boktar drew close to the dragon, a cone of flickering blue and white light appeared high in the sky above the battle.

It streaked straight down toward the beast and struck with a resounding boom, the lightning magic discharging into the creature’s body as Sarette landed between its wings and stabbed her spear down into its back. The billowing flame breath disappeared and the beast reared back on its hind legs, letting out a wild shriek of pain. Sarette went tumbling off, falling to the ground behind the dragon.

“Conley!” Corec yelled, searching behind himself for the man. “Go after her! We’ll distract it!” The priest of Pallisur was the only person who could safely leave the range of Treya’s fire protection spell, and Sarette might have need of his healing magic.

Conley gave a quick salute, then jogged in a wide arc to the south to avoid the dragon. The creature was getting its bearings after Sarette’s attack. It returned to all fours, one of its forelegs crashing through the first freight wagon and flipping the remains on its side.

With the flame gone, the noise had died down enough to issue orders.

“All weapons, attack when able!” Corec called out to the crews. The catapults and ballistae with a line of attack toward the dragon would continue fighting. The siege weapons that were out of position couldn’t be moved with the mules gone, but those crews would retrieve crossbows—if any could be recovered from the remains of the wagon—and then find a safe spot from which to launch their own attack.

Corec nodded to Boktar and then they charged at the dragon until they were close enough that it loomed above them. Even crouched down in wariness, its back was still over twice Corec’s height.

They braced their pikes to strike just as Bobo’s glowing ballista bolt streaked by to their left, hitting the creature’s haunch. Their pikes hit next, the fortisteel tips penetrating through the brown scales, but before they could force them in deeper, the dragon’s wing whipped down wildly toward them. It seemed more of a reflex than an attack, but the wing snapped the pikes’ shafts in half and knocked Boktar to the ground.

They hadn’t anticipated losing the weapons so quickly. Corec reached behind himself and unlatched the scabbard from his back as the dragon twisted its body around to face them, its talons clawing into the earth to improve its grip. Boktar scrambled backward out of the way. The beast’s long tail whipped out behind it, slamming into Cenric’s shield wall. Cries of fear and pain came from that direction.

The dragon struck before Corec could unsheathe his sword, the creature’s foreleg slashing out and down with talons extended. There was no time to dodge, so Corec braced his feet at an angle and held his arms up in front of himself to shield his head. The shimmering of his shield spell disappeared in an instant as the dragon’s claws tore through the barrier without stopping, then crashed into him and knocked the sword out of his hand.

A deep, reverberating echo sounded around the battlefield … but it was the dragon, not Corec, that was jolted back from the impact. King Argyros’s armor started humming in the same way the war maul did.

It took Corec a moment to overcome his surprise. The sword was on the ground, still sheathed. To strike before the dragon could recover, Corec held out his hand and summoned the hammer. It leapt up from where he’d left it propped near Ballista One and flew into his grasp, just barely missing one of Nedley’s soldiers. Using the maul’s momentum to spin himself back toward the dragon, Corec rushed the last few steps and slammed the weapon against the creature’s breastbone, where the keel would have been if it was a bird.

There was a crunching sound and the dragon lost its footing. It swept its wing out and down to try to regain its balance, and as the wing brushed close to the ground, Corec tossed the hammer onto it, pinning the leathery membrane between the weapon and the earth. When the maul landed, there was a faint rumbling sensation and the humming from the armor faded away.

The dragon shrieked as it tried to pull its wing back, tearing a gash in the membrane from the hammer’s weight enchantment. Taking advantage of the creature’s distraction, Corec crouched down to grab his sword. Boktar had climbed to his feet and pulled his shield from his back, standing between Corec and the dragon while Corec slid the scabbard off the blade and tossed it to the side.

The dragon managed to pull its wing up, the hammer sliding off to the ground and pulling a strip of scaled skin off along the way. Before the beast could attack, though, the catapults launched their second loads. One of the weighted nets undershot its mark and the second never unfurled—the tight clump bouncing off the dragon’s body—but the third catapult launched a bundle of heavy chains that draped themselves over and around the damaged wing.

The dragon took its anger out on Corec and Boktar, angling its head toward them and opening its maw before blowing its breath out and igniting the area around them once more. The heat was more intense this time and Treya cried out in distress. Her protection spell wouldn’t last much longer.

This close to the dragon it was almost impossible to see through the fire. Corec swung his blade up at the beast’s snout, hoping to disrupt the flame, but it drew its head back on its long neck while still keeping its breath aimed in their direction. Boktar attacked its foreleg, not causing any real damage with his warhammer but keeping the dragon from bracing itself to launch some other attack.

Suddenly, a burst of cold, frosty wind washed over the area, blowing the creature’s breath out of the way like a campfire in a storm. Corec risked a glance to the rear. Shavala, not looking to be in much better shape than Treya, had joined the other woman on top of the freight wagon. Ariadne was no longer with them. The elven woman held her arms outstretched before her, palms facing forward toward the dragon.

A look of intense concentration grew on her face and the wind grew stronger and colder until hundreds of hail stones were pelting Corec’s armor. The dragon’s breath was forced completely backward, the flames curling around the creature’s own body. Startled, it stopped breathing fire.

With the flames out of the way, Ariadne and the knights from the rear ranks rushed into the melee, pikes in hands. Ariadne and Cason ran past Corec around to the creature’s right side while Trentin and Georg took its left, ensuring the dragon couldn’t reach them all at once. A few scattered crossbow bolts arced through the air as the rear weapon crews, their ballistae out of position, joined their commanders in the assault.

When the knights struck with the pikes, the dragon’s head darted to the side. It bit down on Sir Cason’s shoulder, the teeth penetrating into the silversteel armor but not able to bite all the way through. The knight cried out in pain and lost hold of his pike as the dragon shook its head trying to get loose.

Corec slashed at the creature’s long neck, his glowing blue blade scoring deep marks into the scales. It managed to get its jaw loose from Cason’s armor and turned its attention back to the front, but Corec kept his sword up, striking the creature’s head each time it attempted to bite him. A sword wasn’t an ideal weapon for fighting a dragon, but the enchanted blade was shattering scales and cutting divots of flesh out of the creature.

Roaring in defiance, the dragon rested its weight on its rear legs and stretched out to slash at Corec, but the knights took the opportunity to stab it again with their pikes. Kevik and Osbert joined in this time, having left their ballista crews behind.

The dragon’s head reared back as the creature was distracted by the new attacks. Corec took the opportunity to rush in toward its body. The sword began buzzing as it had during the battle at Tir Yadar, and the blue light coming from the blade was replaced by the weapon’s natural green glow.

Dodging between the dragon’s forelegs, Corec grasped the sword’s ricasso in one hand and the hilt in the other and rammed the blade into the creature’s chest. It went in cleanly, slicing through scales and bone as if they weren’t there.

The dragon gave a gasping attempt at a roar as it tried to scramble back out of the way. Corec pulled the sword out and struck again, this time closer to the neck.

The knights had followed the creature’s failed attempt at a retreat and struck at it again, and then the infantry squads came in next, leaving their shields behind and charging with their own pikes. The impacts from both sides at once caused the beast to shudder and twitch.

After that, all it took was time.

The men struck again and again, doing their best to avoid the dragon’s flailing limbs and wings. The creature cried out piteously as it died.

When the last of its whimpering faded, Corec stepped back, his blade still dripping with blood. Stunned silence settled over the battlefield as everyone realized the fight was over.

With the danger having come to an end, Corec saw things he hadn’t noticed before.

Bobo pulling a white-glowing pike from the dragon’s body. He’d likely joined in once there were too many people in the way to risk using the ballista.

Boktar standing near him, now wielding Sir Cason’s pike. Cason himself was on his knees, using his uninjured arm to try to get his damaged armor off.

Treya, unconscious, her head resting in Shavala’s lap.

Shavala staring at the dragon, tears running down her face.

Priest Conley helping Sarette back to the group, blood and dirt caked over her left temple and cheek.

And, half-buried by the dragon’s corpse, the savaged body of a man. Judging by the crushed armor, it had to be Sir Willem.

The fight was over, but it didn’t feel like a victory.