After an exhausting night of running the team finally left the Ice Queen’s territory behind just as dawn lightened the ever-present clouds. The only sign they’d crossed over into the kingdom was the sun finally breaking through the gloom. They saw no soldiers, not even the pickets assigned to the perimeter. The general must have called everyone to the central pass.

After the fight with the berserkers a reluctant Damien had tried to fly back ahead of the others to warn the general. He hated leaving the others behind, but as his sister pointed out he could make the trip faster than any of them. He didn’t get over fifty feet off the ground before he slammed into a barrier. The dragon must’ve conjured it to keep them from rushing back to warn their army. With no other options they’d run along as fast as possible and hoped for the best.

They took a moment to catch their breath then the squad turned north. Damien didn’t know how the dragon managed it, but it had raised a sheer wall of ice, blocking them from making a direct run to the central pass. The wall forced them to travel miles out of their way, delaying and exhausting them.

Damien didn’t know what difference a handful of warlords and a single sorcerer would make, but they were determined to make the effort. The squad hadn’t gone more than a hundred paces when a wide-eyed soldier came running towards them as fast as the deep snow would allow. Every few seconds he glanced back over his shoulder, as though he expected to find an ogre on his tail.

Jen raised her hand. “Hey, what’s going on?”

The soldier turned his terrified gaze their way. “A dragon! A bloody big dragon appeared out of nowhere.”

They surrounded the trembling soldier. “Slow down. Just tell us what happened.” Jen rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

He took a deep breath and let it out slow. “A third army arrived just before dawn. Thousands of monsters came howling down the pass. We was ready for them though. The sorcerers hammered the first wave, broke their line, and left the stragglers for us to clean up. We was winning, ’til that dragon rose out of the ground. It sent a blast of ice across our line, froze better than a hundred of our boys solid. The commanders shouted orders, but we’d had it. Last I saw that damn dragon was stomping on the stragglers. Looked like it was having fun too.”

Jen let the soldier go. They couldn’t blame him for running. “We’re too late.”

“Maybe not.” Damien gathered his power. Since they were clear of the Ice Queen’s territory the barrier should be clear. It was probably a suicide mission, but if he couldn’t kill the dragon a lot of soldiers would die. “At the very least I’ve got to try.”

“Damien!” She shouted after him, but he’d already leapt into the air and turned toward the battle.

Damien raced through the sky. The central pass lay a couple of miles from the army camp. Below him tiny figures of fleeing soldiers raced away from the battlefield. The army had routed, pure and simple. No discipline or direction influenced the men, just a need to escape the horror of the dragon.

Damien understood, he’d felt the beast’s power in its unfocused state and it dwarfed the demon he killed last summer. The plain truth was Damien doubted he could kill the dragon. He’d probably hit it with everything he had and get a laugh for his trouble. But what choice did he have?

If all those people died and he did nothing he’d never be able to face himself again.

It took less than a minute to reach the pass. The dragon’s forces had blocked the retreat of the majority of the kingdom’s soldiers. Towering over everything was a horror of icy spikes, horns, and fangs. The dragon had to measure over fifty yards, not counting its sinuous tail. Beside and behind it thousands of ogres and trolls watched it slaughter the trapped humans.

Damien gathered his soul force. Golden energy rushed out of his center and collected in a seething ball in front of him. Any moment he expected the dragon to sense his power and look up, but it was having too much fun to spare Damien a glance. As his power grew the dragon raised a taloned foot and brought it crashing down on half a dozen men, crushing and slashing them to ribbons.

Bastard!

He drew deeper, pulling the power out in a river.

When he’d drawn every drop of energy he had, Damien loosed the blast at the dragon in a single focused lightning bolt.

He fell.

The world went black and the ground rushed to meet him.

Damien hoped he’d pass out before he struck. Hitting the ground from this height would hurt, for a moment at least.