It was glorious.

'Keep the pace up,' called The Unknown. 'They'll get themselves together sooner or later. Come on, Denser. This is what Darrick had you swimming round the ship for.'

They were heading up a steep slope. The stone was smoking from dragon fire and presented a hot and slick surface.

'Don't put your hands down,' warned Hirad. 'Keep moving.'

'Sound advice,' said Denser. 'You'll be sure and tell me when we get there just in case I don't realise.'

'Concentrate,' snapped The Unknown. 'No accidents. Not now.'

 

Reavers had gathered in the air ahead and they plunged Forty winged demons diving headlong, heedless of their lives, desperate to kill those that threatened them. Hirad raised his mace to a defensive position knowing it wouldn't be enough. He slipped almost immediately, planting the weapon in front of him to break his fall and push himself upright. He looked back to where the reavers were coming, saw the flash of scale to his right, and a blast of flame brushed them from his sight, squealing as they died, tumbling helpless from the sky.

The dragon pulled a tight circle and flew close, head snaking down.

'At the top of the next rise,' said Sha-Kaan. 'Where your elves have reached already. Wait for the signal. There are many enemies.'

And he was gone with a beat of his wings that almost knocked Hirad over. He reached flatter ground and looked after the mighty dragon, still in awe of his grace and speed. He ran on up the shallow slope to where Auum and Evunn waited, looking down.

'Right,' he said, reaching them ahead of the rest of The Raven. 'What have we . . .'

His voice trailed away, caught in his throat. He sensed the rest of The Raven come to his sides and he felt their hearts sink.

'How the hell did we ever think we could achieve this?' asked Denser.

Hirad would have berated him for his lack of faith but couldn't find it within him to disagree. Stretched out below them, across a plain maybe half a mile long and four times that in width, was a carpet of demons. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, it was hard to tell in the half-light. It was a shifting mass, ordered and with one purpose. It moved towards a massive low edifice on which stood hundreds of spires angled out like the spines of a hedgehog. Each spike glistened and flashed at its end, and closer to the roots a maelstrom of colours danced and clashed.

The entire front of the edifice was open to the air. Hirad could see light within it and watched as demons entered its shadow and were lost in the brightness. Countless karron moved across the plain. Reavers flew in complex patterns overhead while strike-strain cavorted amongst them. The long-fingered albinos issued slowly towards the edifice, trailed by the mana gliders. And around the

periphery masters floated on their tentacle beds, directing the remorseless advance.

But there was consternation in the ranks of the enemy. Not every demon was intent on its goal and eyes had been turned behind from where a threat had risen quite without warning. Even now, cohorts of karron were racing for the rise on which The Raven stood. Great clouds of reavers chattered and grouped, flying high to assess, and strike-strain bunched and flocked.

'Dear Gods,' said Erienne. 'At least it'll be over soon.'

Above, the sky darkened and a wind blew straight down on their heads. Hirad looked back and a smile crossed his face. There they were, moving serenely across the heavens in drilled formations on two levels. He recognised Kaan colouring in the vanguard with Naik red flanking them. He saw Veret blue in the upper skies mixed with sand-yellow and deep green from broods of which he had no knowledge. They were poised.

'It's never over,' he said. 'Raven. Once again. Let's be ready to run. But first, I think we should crouch or we'll be blown away.'

The dragons attacked. Sha-Kaan's bark echoed loud and was washed away in the beat of three thousand wings. Hundreds of dragons power-dived down the slope, passing just a few feet above their heads. Fire belched from their mouths left, right and always down. The karron approaching up the slope were destroyed in the blink of an eye but the attack did not pause there. Sha-Kaan led his legions onto the plain and the demons scattered before them.

Fire gorged again and again. From every mouth, heat singed the flesh from demon backs, blew them aside in their hundreds and drove an expanding wedge all the way to the edifice. Above them, the second wave stormed into the attack. Keeping high, they took reavers and strike-strain from the sky, the bodies falling like rain on the packed earth.

Hirad could only stand and stare at the extraordinary force ranged above him. Flame banished the dark, orange after-echoes ringing his vision. The sky was full of the huge bulk of dragons, die roar of a thousand mouths and the panicked cries of demons being slaughtered in their homeland. The fight in the sky waged as far as he could see in every direction until the dark swallowed it. The stench of burned flesh assaulted his nostrils.

On the ground the demon armies were scattered and running and watching it all, The Raven and a handful of elves. Pitifully few looking for a way through this battle of ancient enemies. Two species locked in war across dimensions and the centuries, facing each other in mass conflict for perhaps the first time.

Hirad felt indescribably small. He shivered despite the heat beat-ing in from all around him and brought himself back to their immediate situation. Reavers were flying in from every point of the compass, rising from hiding places surrounding the plain. And despite the dragons' awesome power, their flame without fuel was finite. The time to move was now.

'Go! Go!'

The Raven and TaiGefhen surged down the slope at full tilt. Ahead, the dragons had reached the end of their run and already the demons were crowding back into the centre of the plain, running for the only safety they could see. The Kaan led the glide up into the air and down they swooped again. More fire, more death, more screams of demons echoing unheeded into the air.

Hirad felt the heat on his face. His legs and arms pumped and his eyes scanned the ground ahead, looking for anything that might trip him up. Occasionally, he glanced upwards and each time he did, he saw the fight beginning to balance. Reavers had organised themselves into attack groups and were falling on dragons from above and behind. Ten and twenty on a single back, clawing and biting. They tore scales out by the root while strike-strain confused their prey, clawing at muzzles, necks and softer underbellies. He saw his allies begin to falter, attack runs break up as thousands more reavers appeared from hiding behind the edifice, screaming challenge.

They hit smouldering flat ground. Sha-Kaan and his wave soared over their heads and climbed again, themselves the targets of reavers now. Karron closed on the ground. Albinos sprinted in front of them, scampering stride driven on by powerful hind legs.

'Don't look back!' yelled Hirad, doing exactly that.

The ranks had closed behind them but above, dragons were coming in. Sha-Kaan had broken his wave into three. One shot straight overhead, scouring the path clear once more. The beat of wings weighed down the runners, the heat from dragon fire burned into their lungs. Each of them stumbled more than once but always there was a Raven hand to keep them up and forward.

The second and third waves passed by left to right, one in front, one behind. Fire lashed across their path and Hirad felt the heat bloom behind them as well. He didn't risk a glance back this time, imagining the carnage that would have been created in an instant.

They were closing on the edifice but now the dragons were beginning to fall. A mournful roar to their right and a Veret thudded into the ground, sending vibration through their feet. Nearby another flew low, spiralling in the air, trying desperately to shake off the reavers that tore at its body and wings. It failed, ploughing into the earth and sending up a spray of mud, stone and demons. A third plummeted straight down, landing just off the path ahead. Too many, too regular.