dragon tumbled from her back and crashed unceremoniously to the ground from a height of at least twenty feet. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs. Khoal lay in a heap, gasping raggedly for air.
Khisanth launched herself at the other dragon. Before he could raise a claw to defend himself, Khisanth sank her teeth into Khoal's fleshy chest, tearing away large, bloody bites, scratched at his eyes and face with her claws until Khoal couldn't see through his own gore. But the killing blow came when Khisanth simply leaned in, clamped her jaws around his neck, and twisted until she heard a loud snap. What was left of his eyes rolled back into his enormous skull. Khisanth unclenched her claws and let Khoal's head drop to the dirt with a loud, flat thud that raised an enormous cloud of dust.
Khoal's death gave Khisanth great satisfaction. The black dragon turned her sights to the knights who'd penetrated Shalimsha's north wall and were engaged in battle with the wing inside the courtyard. Khisanth would need to hear the death cries of a great many humans to still the hatred throb shy;bing at her temples.
Chapter 18
"Look, sir, they're fleeing." Tate followed the finger of the young knight who pointed skyward. There he saw two black shapes, winging upward like monstrous bats. A general cry of amaze shy;ment burst from the knights as they watched the creatures take flight and streak straight away over the mountains.
A hint of hope crept into Tate's heart. Two dragons … That left three unaccounted for. Still, three was better than five. Tate studied the shapes a few moments longer, until they dropped from view behind the distant range. Satisfied that they wouldn't return, he intended to plunge into the melee seething just inside the breach. A battle still raged beyond the walls, though Tate believed the odds of victory had increased tremendously with the dragons' departure.
But again Tate was stopped when Sir Albrecht emerged from the rolling dust at a gallop and reined up before him.
He was covered in brown filth so thick that his sweated horse looked as if it had rolled in mud. When the knight flipped open his visor, even his eyes were circled with grime where it had filtered through the eye slits.
Tate gripped Albrecht's arm to steady the panting knight in his saddle. "What is it, Albrecht?" Tate shouted. "What have you seen?"
"I bring an ill report, I fear." Albrecht drew a long breath and licked his lips with a dry tongue. "The battle was well in hand. Then the dragons appeared."
Tate's grip tightened on the knight's arm. "We saw two leave. Are others attacking us? Or them?"
"Neither, at first," panted Albrecht. "Two took wing, then two others battled between themselves. Both fought like creatures possessed. Finally, one managed to knock the other down, then nearly devoured it." Albrecht shuddered. "It was incredible-and gruesome."
Tate pulled a heavy glove from his left hand and slapped it angrily against his tunic where it draped across his thigh, rais shy;ing puffs of dust.
By now the din from the courtyard was impossible to ignore, dramatically shifting from the sounds of active battle to the chaos of a rout. Vague clumps of shapes could be seen through the obscuring dust, running through the breach toward Tate. Men-at-arms, he concluded. No Knight of Solamnia would run in so cowardly a fashion.
"Follow me," the lord knight commanded, spurring his horse toward the commotion.
Soon the knights were surrounded by men-at-arms falling back to higher ground. Tate noted that at least they still car shy;ried their weapons, so the position had not crumbled com shy;pletely. He and his retinue immediately set about driving the reluctant soldiers back toward the breach and the courtyard beyond. First they tried bold words of encouragement. When that failed, they turned in their desperation to leveling threats of punishment if the soldiers didn't resume their fighting. Tate had never seen men so fearful in his life. He managed to collar a sergeant who was himself dragging a trooper forward.
"Sergeant, these men have fought battles before. Tell me whaf s happened to cause such panic?"
The sergeant sent his charge reeling forward with a kick in the seat. "There's a dragon loose amongst the men, sir. It's only this damnable dust concealing the creature from general view that prevents every last one of our soldiers inside from scattering like mice."
Tate scanned toward the line, but saw only outlines and shadows. "Where is it?"
"Damned if I know," replied the sergeant. Pointing for shy;ward, he added, "Somewhere in there."
"Is there only one? Can you account for a second one, still alive?"
"No, and I hope I never do," shouted the sergeant. Then he turned and plunged forward again into the throng, shoving men ahead of him and yanking those who stumbled to their feet. Soon he disappeared from Tate's view.
The commander turned to Albrecht. "I've got to ride for shy;ward and see what the situation is for myself."
"You can't," objected Albrecht. "If s too dangerous." "The real danger is in not doing it," Tate shouted back. "Ride down the line and assemble as many knights as you can, then bring them back. Go and be swift."
Albrecht wheeled without a sign and rode away. Tate guided his horse forward, threading into the mass of armed men who seemed to be milling but fighting no one. His horse scrambled through the tumbled rocks and bodies piled in the breach and emerged into the din and dust of the inner court shy;yard.
Even through his dust-caked nostrils Tate detected the stench of blood and burned flesh. He expected the first and had smelled it many times before on battlefields, but the sec shy;ond surprised him.
Through the noise of the battle, Tate heard Wolter's boom shy;ing voice shouting encouragement to his soldiers across the yard, at the second breach. With the knights inside the walls at two places, Tate knew the defenders couldn't hold in the open for long. If they could be cut off from retreating to the inner buildings, the battle would be won. Except for the dragons…
An inhuman bellow shook the air. Tate's horse was spooked and reared up, nearly throwing the knight to the ground. Only with great urging could he get it to move forward again. The terrified horse's nostrils flared, its eyes bulged white. Suddenly an enormous dark shape loomed before them. The awful stench of blood and burned flesh mixed with something even more monstrous, and it made Tate gag. His horse reared again and backed away in terror.
The ground was littered with bodies and weapons. Bub shy;bling pools of some atrocious, noxious liquid seeped into the darkened soil, surrounded like the spokes of a ghastly wagon wheel by the scorched limbs and other portions of bodies that the acid had not devoured.
At the center of the devastation was the towering shape, growing ever more distinct as Tate approached over the dead bodies. It was clearly a dragon, spattered with gore and devouring a path through the remains of Tate's slain men. His stomach nearly turned again when he heard the sicken shy;ing crunch of metal and bone being ground together.
Twenty paces from the beast, Tate's horse would go no far shy;ther. Reluctantly, Tate dismounted. No sooner had he touched the ground than a huge black claw crashed down next to him, ripping open the horse. The noble animal screamed for less than a heartbeat, then was silent. Tate could hardly believe how quickly the dragon had lunged. He found himself staring into its glowing orange eyes.
Brandishing his sword, Sir Tate Sekforde welcomed his fate as he imagined Huma might have.
* * * * *
Khisanth felt the warmth of the horse squeezing between her talons. It was another death, only one of so many that day. Each one brought the sense of power and satisfaction that only came with killing. The veneer of civility and reason that surrounded her at most times was easily stripped away by violence, replaced by bestial instinct and fury. Sensation devoid of thought. Khisanth saw only life and wanted to make it death. She wanted to feel life flowing out from her victims, to squeeze it or burn it or tear it out until only some shy;thing repulsive remained.