Dragon Dawn By Mark E. Cooper

Copyright©2007 by Mark E. Cooper

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Julia threw a ball of fire, but there was something wrong. It looked weak—dim and trailing smoke. Her strength meant any fireball she cast should be strong, but this one was half the size it should be. It fell apart well before hitting its target. Julia gaped.

“What’s wrong?” Jihan asked as Mathius’ spell also failed.

“I don’t know!” Julia cried, and tried again. She had more success than Mathius, but her fireball was still weak and did not reach its target. “I can’t hit them!”

The roar of battle grew louder, and the Hasians fought harder when they realised they were safe. Jihan gestured, and the archers loosed their arrows. Thousands of shafts rose into the air, but as they reached the apex of their flight, waves of fire filled the air burning them to ash.

Julia groaned. The sorcerers had figured out how to counter the archers too! She drew hard upon her magic, hard enough to hurt and threw a bolt of lightning strong enough to blast a hole in solid stone. It flashed toward the Hasian infantry and smashed into a ward that suddenly appeared to intercept it.

Julia stared in shock. Even the legionnaires seemed surprised by their escape. She saw a lot of them hitting the ward with their swords not realising it belonged to them not their enemy. It didn’t take them long to realise their mistake, not when Jihan’s men also hammered on the ward to no effect. The Hasians suddenly stepped back. It seemed to be a well-practiced manoeuvre to Julia. They were reordering their lines, taking no notice of Jihan’s men, and were making good use of the breathing space the ward gave them.

Julia shook her head as her lightning bolt crackled over the ward and bled away, following the ward to the ground. It dissipated harmlessly a moment later, and the ward dropped. The moment it did, the rear rank of Hasian legionnaires threw their javelins. Before Julia could think to duplicate the Hasian ward, the javelins hammered into Jihan’s new legionnaires, killing hundreds.

Mazel wasn’t supposed to attack yet, but he must have realised there was trouble. He sent thousands of his men charging behind the lines and around Jihan’s right. The clans were the best cavalry in the world. They charged passed the mill and wheeled their mounts. As one, they shouted and charged the Hasians, but another ward sprang into being in front of them. Their horses ran at full speed straight into the invisible wall, killing many of them and their riders. Others reared in panic, and went down rolling over the screaming men on their backs. The ward dropped, and another rain of javelins fell upon the now retreating clansman. Jihan was shouting and gesturing at his men to pull back, but only those closest to him heard and obeyed. They were being slaughtered before his eyes, and there was nothing he could do.

“My God,” Mathius hissed. “We’re going to loose.”

“No,” Julia growled. “No! I won’t let that happen!”

She threw another devastating bolt of lightning, but the ward snapped up even quicker this time, almost in her face. She flinched away from the back blast, her hair lifting and floating around her face as the lightning charged the air. She staggered, blinking and half-blind, away from the shimmering ward no more than a few paces in front of her face. The purple afterimage faded slowly, and Julia turned back to the fight.

“They know where you are, Julia!” Lucius shouted over the noise of the ward and the still discharging lightning bolt. “Don’t—”

Julia ignored him, and tried another lightning bolt. This time aimed straight down at the Hasians, but as before a ward intercepted it. They didn’t even flinch or look up. They continued their advance unconcerned.

“Tell the shamen to strike at the main camp, Kerrion. We have to distract the sorcerers!” Mathius yelled over the screams of the dying.

Kerrion ignored the order and launched himself at Julia, throwing her to the ground. A moment later, the air turned to fire and screams. Heat upon heat upon heat bore down on them. Julia yelled, covering her face and anticipating pain, but the fire did not touch her. She didn’t know why, but it did not burn! She should have been dead in that moment, she knew it as sure as she knew her name, but she wasn’t. She rolled over and realised there was a faint ward covering her, but it was failing under the pressure.

Julia snarled and threw up her strongest ward just as the other failed. The heat intensified, pounding against the ward like a giant’s hammer, but it held. Smoke began to fill the air, and sweat drenched her in seconds. Breathing became difficult. She panted, the strain of holding such an immense ward beginning to tell.

Kerrion had saved her life. He must have done it. The others had been concentrating upon the battle. Where was he? Julia swung around in a panic, thinking he might be outside her ward. She found Mathius and Lucius just starting to stir, but not her father. Where was Kerrion? She found the old man lying face down not far away, and ran to help. His clothes still smoked where the flames had singed him. Shelim fell to his knees beside the old man and turned him over.

“Oh no, Kerrion, no,” Julia whispered, and gasped at what she saw. His right eye was gone, simply gone, and so was the rest of that side of his face. “I can heal him,” she gasped, tears falling unheeded. “I can do it. I will heal this, Shelim. I can save him, please let me…”

Shelim pushed her roughly away. “Save them!” he snarled, waving a hand that encompassed the entire battle.

Julia backed away, angrily scrubbing away her tears. She turned to find Lucius helping Mathius up. They appeared unharmed, but she couldn’t link with them. She would have to drop the ward first. They would all die if she did that. Julia groaned as the pressure built over the ward, trying to drive it and her into the ground. She had to find where the attack was coming from. She concentrated and followed the spell’s pattern back to its source, but it didn’t lead back to the Hasian camp. It led to the mill! Someone was using magic in there. How had they got passed Jihan’s men? It didn’t matter. She had to get them out.

She couldn’t throw lightning or fire while the ward was in the way, neither could the others. There was nothing she could do… or was there? She had been experimenting with breaking patterns. Could she break the spell and give herself time to hit the mill?

“Only one way to find out,” she said grimly. She reached for the pattern held within the fire spells roaring around the ward, and twisted.

The patterns shattered. They slipped from her grasp as the spells disintegrated into meaningless chaos. The pressure upon the ward vanished. Julia smiled grimly. She dropped the ward, ignoring the shocked oaths of Mathius and Lucius behind her, and reached for the mill.

A pinprick of light, as bright as the sun and just as hot, flared to life. It expanded in the blink of an eye and the mill disappeared in a flash of white-hot light. A moment later, the roar of a mighty explosion reached her along with the pressure wave. It threw her and all those standing nearby onto their backs, killing men and horses indiscriminately. Devans and Clansmen fell before it, some lived by the grace of the God. Many did not. Horses and men died by the score, thrown hundreds of yards from where they had stood. Every window in the town shattered, and buildings shook on their foundations.

Julia lay still, blinking at the mushroom-shaped cloud looming over her. “Oh my God.”

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