Chapter 181 - It’s a Face Off

Time for a face off. Tenebris settled himself on the battlements of the tower, his skeletal claws cleaving into the stone. I peered over toward Peter, highlighted from behind by some flames still guttering in the ruined remnants of a ballista. He was drinking something. A potion, maybe? That was awesome. He'd be back at full health again, undoing all my efforts toward killing him. His dragon's wounds were visibly healing as I watched, too.

Of course, the break let me replenish my mana as well, so it wasn't a total loss, but I was already second-guessing this chat and Peter hadn't even opened his mouth yet.

Then he did, and I hated the idea even more.

"Thank you for talking, Selena. Why are you attacking me? Why all of this destruction? These people didn't hurt you. You're mad at me. I get that. But why attack them?" He had to raise his voice to be heard.

For real? "Because you attacked my home?"

"Only because you refused to bend the knee to me, or accept my other offer," Peter shouted back.

"Marriage?"

"Probably not a great idea anymore, under the circumstances," Peter admitted.

I made a scoffing sound that I wasn't sure he could hear, then shouted back. "We agree on something at last. What do you want, Peter?"

"What I wanted was you at my side while we rebuilt this world into something amazing," he replied. "I have a lot of respect for you, Selena. You're more powerful than any other person I've met. You're two tiers above me! That's impressive. I wanted you by my side. I'll still take you as an ally, if you wish. We can rebuild your farm, if you want, bring it right back the way it was. I already know you snuck most of your people out, so they can return to their home. You can, too."

Then he added, "All you have to do is swear an oath as my vassal."

I'd seen that, when he did it to Carver. I wasn't sure precisely what was involved, but my guess was it had something to do with the control stones and the way the Domains were structured. Once someone swore as another Domain owner's vassal, the liege lord was the one really in charge, not the Domain leader. If I swore, Peter would have full control over every Domain in the area. He'd be close to unstoppable at that point.

"No can do," I replied.

He nodded. "I figured as much. I still don't understand why this senseless attack, though. You broke a few ballistas, scorched a couple of towers, and battered my walls. A few guards are dead. This does nothing to me, in the long run. It wasn't an attack so much as the angry lashing out of a child. I expected better from you."

I just smiled through the insults. The fact he was still thinking that way meant he had no idea my friends were deep inside his castle, rooting out his secrets. That was good news for our side. He could think of little of me as he wanted. His feelings didn't matter at all. The mission did.

There was a sudden burst of motion over on his tower. I sat up quickly, alarmed, but it was only a squad of guards coming out to join Peter. They were hauling something. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was, but then I realized it was the pieces of another ballista.

A glance at the other towers told me the same thing was happening there. On each of the four tallest towers except the one where I sat, guards were assembling new siege engines. They had spares in storage somewhere, and now they were bringing them into play.

That wasn't awesome. I leaned in and spoke softly to Tenebris. "We need to take those out, ideally before they're assembled."

Agreed. But we'll need to watch for Peter's dragon, too.

One of the guards on Peter's tower walked closer to his dragon. The poor man looked nervous as hell, like he was terrified Big Red was going to eat him or something. I couldn't say I blamed him. She wasn't Peter's ally by choice. She was a prisoner he'd forced to fight for him. I'd probably be nervous in his shoes, too.

Finally, Peter got tired of waiting and beckoned the man nearer.

The alarms rang before we struck, remember, Tenebris said. They knew they were under attack already. Probably found some trace the inside team left behind. If that guard knows there's an insertion team...

"Oh, shit!" I said. "Let's go!"

Tenebris didn't hesitate. We were airborne as soon as I gave the word, soaring across the short distance between the two towers. Peter saw us coming right away and turned his attention from the guard back to his dragon. Big Red reacted quickly. She didn't have the time for a proper takeoff, so she dove from the tower instead, hurtling downward and using the velocity to catch her as she opened her wings.

That left the guards on the tower completely unprotected, of course. Tenebris flew over the tower-top, venting a mighty gout of flame over everyone standing there. The new ballista burned before it could even be assembled. The guards died, for the most part, although I saw at least one manage to duck back down the stairs in time. That was fine. I didn't need to kill everyone here. I just had to finish off Peter. The rest of them didn't really matter.

Big Red rose over the edge of the tower as we finished pouring flames across it. She snapped at Tenebris. We dodged. My dragon pivoted onto his left side and tumbled away from her maw as she bit down on air.

Then we were over the edge of the tower and falling ourselves.

Hang on! Tenebris spoke into my mind.

I clutched his spine for everything I was worth, extra glad I'd tied myself to his bones as he turned the sideways drop into a full roll. The ground flashed by overhead, then the side of the tower, and finally the sky was above me again and I could breathe properly. We were too low, though. We needed altitude badly, but with Big Red above, that wasn't going to be easy. The better bet would be to use our agility to get some distance again.

When Big Red hurtled down toward us, breathing fire as she came, I had Tenebris dive between the towers again. That bought us a little distance, but not enough. Any time we flew straight, she gained on us quickly.

"Let's try the open sky again," I said.

You plan to hit him with lightning?

"Yeah, it's our best weapon against him," I replied.

We shot upward at a steep angle, gaining height quickly. At first, Big Red followed us, but then she suddenly dropped off when she was barely higher than the towers. Damn it, that wasn't fair! Peter was supposed to chase me so I could blast him with more lightning. But as shitty as he was, the man was not stupid. He knew full well that if he went up toward those clouds, I'd rain skyfire down on him.

So he wasn't playing ball. Instead, he kept Big Red at about the same height as the towers, circling. If I used a Lightning Bolt now, odds were it would hit one of the towers instead of the enemy dragon. Then he'd have the entire cooldown period to chase me without worry.

And the guards were back to assembling their ballistas again. Another few minutes and they'd have the siege weapons ready to fire, and we'd be in even more serious trouble. If I attacked the towers, Peter would come after me. If I waited until there were four new ballistas and an enemy dragon, there'd be no way I could get close enough to the towers to strike any of them.

"What the hell do we do now?" I asked aloud. I was running out of answers fast.

I'm not sure what to suggest, Tenebris said. If we retreat, your friends will be on their own. They may be captured. They certainly will find it harder to win through to their objective. I suspect Peter expects you to withdraw. Since he believes this strike was made out of anger or spite, he may think you'll leave now that you can't easily do more damage.

"That's true. But we really can't leave," I said. "Clay, Kara, and Patches are counting on us keeping him busy up here. If he realizes we're the distraction, they're toast. We need to engage again. Is there any way you can hide us in darkness?"

Against a foe who doesn't know we're here and doesn't know what to look for, perhaps. Not against a ready opponent, no.

"Damn. Guess we're going to have to do this the hard way, then. You up for this?" I asked.

Always.

We dove from the sky like a falling star, a white streak of bone against the black sky. Tenebris pulled in his wings, letting us drop straight down toward our foes. I saw the moment Peter noticed; Big Red jolted into action, moving to intercept us instead of continuing her lazy circles around the towers. But she was too large; she couldn't turn fast enough. We shot past her instead, diving directly toward one of the tower tops, flame already pouring from Tenebris's mouth.