And within the ring of wind, she saw why.
In the smashed rubble that had once been the palace, the gargantuan Crystal Dragon fumed. Layla’s breath caught to see Dusk in his Dragon-form once more. Towering over the ruins, the massive drake was a vision of diamond and white, sapphire and sky-blue beneath the high desert sun. A mantle of serrated diamond spears cascaded from his stout skull, blinding with light like his cruel diamond talons. His muscled body was fierce with serrated diamond-sapphire scales, cobalt along his spine and a bright sky-blue along his belly. Diamond spears ridged his back, flexing as he coiled and arched his massive neck, bellowing another shockwave of earth-shattering power from his huge chest, his enormous maw of fangs large as mammoth tusks.
The drake had a tail of crystal spikes, terribly acute as it whipped, smashing a broken wall and making defenders flash back fast. As a Dragon of the earth, the Crystal Dragon didn’t have wings, and that was the defenders’ one salvation. Dusk couldn’t fly – he wasn’t going anywhere if he couldn’t break through the Desert clan’s barrier. Layla watched as he stamped a hugely-muscled rear leg, splitting the ground in a jagged fault line that blasted rubble up fast, hammering the ring. With a cry, a whole section of Wind-Warders in human form lost their footing as rubble shifted beneath them.
And the wind-barrier around the enormous Crystal drake wavered.
He saw it. Dusk raked those massive diamond-talons through the earth with mean accuracy now, hurling chunks of red sandstone bedrock at the barrier as he roared a shockwave through the air again, turning in a three-sixty to menace every last Desert Dragon holding the barrier. The blocks were bigger than cars as they hit the swirling wind-barrier, shuddering the whole damn thing and making even Desert Dragons in their beast-form snarl with strain. Though Layla saw the human side of Dusk wasn’t home, she saw the beast’s vast intelligence. Layla saw the Crystal drake’s clever sapphire and diamond eyes assessing his containment. He wasn’t raging anymore, he was biding his time; testing their defenses. He wasn’t confused after waking from stasis now – he was simply trapped.
And his Dragon didn’t like being trapped.
As Layla watched, a section of wind-wall swirled out as a small rust-colored Desert Dragon collapsed in a dead faint. Stepping in fast, two Royal members of the clan still in human form closed the gap. But the glittering Crystal drake had seen it. With a nasty smile in his enormous face of serrated diamond-sapphire scales, he turned toward the next-smallest Dragon holding the barrier.
And gouged his diamond talons into the ground again.
CHAPTER 4 – DRAKE
“Drop the barrier!”
In a scalding command, Adrian’s roar whirled out on a wave of hot desert winds to every ear. In Riad Rhakvir’s devastation, his Desert Dragons held their positions all along the wind-barrier, many trembling in earnest now from the strain of containing Dusk’s Crystal Dragon with its tremendous attacks. All eyes glanced to Adrian, vast uncertainty showing in every face, human and Dragon alike. Everyone knew what Dusk was capable of if they dropped the barrier. As a Royal Crystal Dragon strong enough to be First of his extinct Egyptian clan, Dusk could have the whole palace crumbling from shockwaves in moments.
And no one wanted to die today.
“Drop the barrier!” Adrian repeated, his snarl scathing now as he roared his command through the entire area, shuddering every ear with his desert winds. “He doesn’t like being contained!”
Layla heard a sharp whistle like a hawk’s cry from her left. A tall man with a Spanish-Moorish smolder stepped forward, dressed in an all-black suit with a militaristic cut. Brush-cut black curls, deeply tanned skin, and hard black eyes smote the Desert Dragons as Emir Tousk spoke after his whistle, in a voice that boomed through the air. “You heard our First! Drop the barrier!”
Layla saw all hands come down as tight bodies came uncoiled; she felt the Desert Dragons’ wind-magic dissipate. With a popping in her ears, the tremendous pressure of the barrier they had manifested suddenly swirled out. While the winds had been slow on the outside to not blow dust and rubble around, Desert Dragons were able to manifest a thickness to their winds, and it blew fast like a hurricane in the center of the barrier. Layla felt a heaving swirl as the barrier exposed the vicious central ring, casting up funnels of red desert sand and white alabaster dust as they swirled out over the palace complex.
But Adrian didn’t wait for the dust to settle. Striding in fast as the barrier came down, he approached the mad dragon in the rubble and addressed it mind-to-mind.
Dusk. Stop this. Be reasonable.
Layla didn’t often feel Adrian use his telepathy; it wasn’t a talent he showcased openly. She’d only felt it a few times in the past month, as she had sparred with Emir and Rachida in Dragon-form out in the desert and Adrian gave her silent tips to break their attacks. But now, Adrian’s telepathic command sliced through Layla’s mind like a hot firebrand as it came to her through their Bind. And not just her – Layla saw it tremble a number of Dragons in the ring as Adrian moved into the devastation, his bright aqua-gold eyes pinned on the Crystal drake.
It snarled at him. Dusk wasn’t having Adrian’s commands, Layla saw right away. Even as Adrian came fifty paces from the massive creature, it snorted, flaring the gargantuan spread of diamond-spikes that cascaded back from its skull. Diamond-spines rippled all along its back as it coiled into a posture of striking power, wrapping its viciously-spiked tail around its solid forelegs for a bastard of an attack. Arching its neck, it lowered its blocky skull, flaring its mantle of spikes and rolling them in a wave. Glowering at Adrian with hot diamond eyes, it snorted again – baring enormous fangs and breathing a slow coil of blistering diamond-fire from between its teeth.
Adrian saw it. With a shocked motion, he halted. Breathing hard, Layla felt his astonishment that Dusk could make fire, even such a strange fire as was curling from Dusk’s lips now, dripping like smelted diamonds as it eased from his maw. But Adrian didn’t let it stop him, that Dusk was exhibiting Desert Dragon powers through their Bind. Fixing his gaze on the furious creature, Adrian’s mind thundered out again, pummeling Dusk’s.
Don’t be a dick, Dusk. We’re not fighting right now. Stop it.
Coiling up tighter like a viper, the Crystal Dragon roiled that mantle of diamond-brilliance again, opening its maw so Adrian got a good view of the molten diamond-fire it was manifesting, along with a blast of heat that made mirages in the air. It would have been gloriously beautiful had it not been so menacing, and Layla knew Adrian’s approach wasn’t working. She felt someone step to her side, and Layla spared a quick glance. Adrian’s Clan Second and his paternal aunt Rachida Rhakvir stood by Layla, her cunning emerald eyes fixed on the scene.
Graceful, Rachida was a mature woman still in her prime. Her long waves of copper hair were loosely bound over one shoulder, her spring-green caftan the kind of thing Moroccan elite would wear to elegant dinner parties. A fighter and a fury, Rachida’s magic was enormous as she came abreast of Layla, like volcanoes burned in the woman’s veins. Layla had no doubt whom it was that had been holding the majority of the wind-barrier all day. But Rachida hadn’t even broken a sweat in the heat, looking as put-together as if she’d just come from the powder room.
“Fool Adrian! He’s going to get himself killed.” She commented in her smoothly accented alto, rich like buttercream molasses. It wasn’t a Moroccan accent, or even a Spanish or Italian one. Rachida was over two thousand years old and had traveled the world for centuries. The birth-mother of the actual Gaius Julius Caesar – a Desert Dragon – she had a history of dominance in battle, and knew when it was going badly. “Dusk isn’t responding to regular kinds of negotiation. Only the singing-bowls are helping.”
Now that the wind-barrier had fallen, Layla could hear a sound ringing through the air, lovely and haunting. She finally noticed over a hundred people in human form hanging back in the shadows of arches and standing in high galleries away from the destruction. Each had a crystal or metal singing bowl in hand, slowly running a wand of wood or crystal around the rim and making them vibrate. Haunting tones rang through the air like a gamelan orchestra. Flowing like water, they sang like Sirens of the earth, and as Adrian’s mind-commands settled and he listened to the singing bowls also, Layla felt the enormous Crystal drake pause.
Listening with them.
“He’s listening.” Rachida blinked as she glanced to Layla. “He’s listening because you’re listening, and Adrian is. He’s feeling what you’re feeling through your Bind. Focus on the singing bowls, Layla. Make both your Bound drakes feel them.”
Watching the big beast, Layla knew Rachida was right. As Emir Tousk stepped up beside Rachida now with his black gaze attentive on Dusk, he gave a brisk nod. “Listen to the music, Layla,” he spoke in his rolling Spanish accent as his dark gaze pinned her. “It is the only thing that has soothed the beast so far. We need to bring Dusk back. Perhaps this can.”
“I’ll give anything a go if it will help.” Taking a deep breath, Layla faced the enormous Dragon that was Dusk. Opening her mind, she let herself be swept away by that haunting orchestra as Emir waved his hand to the players, motioning for them to keep going. The music surged with renewed vigor as all eyes watched the rubble now. Wind-Warders stepped back, taking a much-needed break as the rest of the clan took over.
Playing those singing bowls for all they were worth.
