Chapter 22

Christopher lines the cavalry up at the head of the force just inside the woods. They stretch north and south for as far as the naked eye can see. Then he takes half the wagons and set them at a sideward angles about twenty feet behind the cavalry. Spacing them at random intervals so as not to make it too easy for the enemy to find.

Loaded down with arrows and archers positioned around them. The infantry and the non-flying magical creatures, just behind, ready to do their part. The centaurs are part of the cavalry, and the minotaurs position themselves between the cavalry and the wagons. They insist they be the first line of foot soldiers to hit the enemy line.

With the remaining wagons Christopher creates an established hidden base about a half stretch from the front lines. Here the gentles and secondary medical people will wait until they are needed, or it is over.

The battle has already begun, as throughout the first night little explosions and fires spring up through the two cities of the same name in two different countries. No doubt the fairies are being the wonderful little pests they can be.

"I smiled. Even Katarina wanted to go, but I put a stop to that forthwith."

Shadow Brigade didn't have enough time to build the machines Christopher wanted, but they did make one that has the power to launch serious bolts of arrows all the way into the other side of city in his country.

The order goes out, "Begin the final preparations immediately."

Even with the continual efforts to build saddles for the dragons, at this point they have only about thirty-five ready for service. Just from the enemy dragons that had just flown in, Christopher knows the enemy has at least forty ready to go.

"As far as I could tell we still had them outnumbered by around a thousand, but that numerical advantage was going to go away if and when the enemy force behind us caught up and attacked us from behind. And plus we were attacking an established base, which always brought with it high casualties."

The biggest problem Christopher could see was the enemy had nearly three hundred dragons to their seventy, with many more of them mounted with magical folk.

The thought occurs to Christopher just to burn the damn towns down, but he doesn't want to risk burning the bridge down, which will make them miss the big party that is brewing out on the Westlanders Plains of his kingdom.

"The decision has been made, we go at daybreak."

The sky starts to turn the horizon amber, although gray clouds linger from the passing storm. The moment is at hand. The dragons are aloft. Even the pegasuses take to the sky with their riders, knowing that the Dragons of Light won't survive long against that many dark dragons.

Christopher mounts Shadow after giving Caitlin and Sara hugs and kisses, and walks out onto the open ground as his cavalry follows him out.

The centaurs are the only one with bows powerful enough to reach from where they are, so Christopher orders, "Fire several volleys."

The enemy dragons take to the sky. The harpies also take to the skies, but they remain just behind the barricades leading into the eastern side of Riverflow City.

"The order was simple for our troops. Get into the town as fast as possible and engage the enemy at close range, that way the dark dragons might be wary to hurt their own troops."

Christopher figures his dragons can hold them off long enough for their cavalry to get into the city, and hopefully their ground forces will be coming shortly after that. They are not to move until the cavalry is half way across the open area.

With these tactics the archers are not going to be used in the first phase. Their orders are to enter the town and get to the river as fast as possible, and keep the bridge under constant assault so the enemy cannot send masses of reinforcements across.

The battle has begun. They can hear clashes happening across the river as their commando force makes their suicidal charge.

"Damn it, they are early."

"They weren't supposed to attack until after the main force hit the line, that way they would of had a better chance of making it deeper into the town before the enemy mobilized against them, and that would also hopefully grant them the same protection I was hoping for us against the enemy dragons."

"Charge!" Four hundred horses and centaurs begin their attack.

With a count of ten after that, the remaining five hundred cavalry are to charge.

Arrows start falling into their ranks. The dark dragons ignore the dragons of Kind and dive for the soldiers. The Shadow Brigade's wonderfully brave dragons and pegasuses cut them off as the battle has begun in earnest.

Just before they hit the line the sky goes dark and a chill covers the land.

"I had no time to look up or even guess what it was. The only noise I heard above the horrible racket above me was when our horses burst through the enemy barricades and defenses. More than a hundred horses died from the initial impact alone."

Dead dragons are dropping all around, and even lone riders are falling to their deaths. One big red dragon falls onto the second charge of the Allies' cavalry, killing a handful easy.

Christopher is now off of Shadow and fighting hand to hand in the streets. A momentary thought of pleasure crosses his mind as he notices the enemy dragons aren't attacking their forces once they are inside the city.

Christopher has his sword in his left hand and a large dagger in his right. He has already taken many wounds, including an arrow hit to his side, as they charged out into the open. Christopher can now see their fairies swarm by the hundreds, as they give that all-important moment of distraction as the battles wears on.

"We hit with such force and ferocity that by the time our infantry and archers made it into the town, the enemy force was already retreating across the bridge. Son of the abyss, they were catching it on fire themselves."

"Charge!"

Christopher had already remounted Shadow, and with fifty other troopers they started to head across the bridge. The sound of the hooves on the wooden bridge alert all that war is coming. By the time they are half way across the bridge the Shadow Brigade's archers who have taken up their positions are now raining arrows down into the other side of town. It helps a little, but by the time they reach the other side of the bridge half of their forces are dead.

Christopher is thinking fast now. He knows now that there aren't anymore enemy forces on the eastern side of the river, the dragons will soon start attacking and it will only be a matter of seconds before they burn the bridge themselves.

One second goes by and then another. By now Shadow Brigade has several hundred forces across the bridge.

Christopher screams, "Archers put down your bows and put the bridge out. Smother the damn fires, damn it."

Just then a wall of five hundred enemy soldiers hit Christopher's forces and they pull Shadow down, and as Christopher falls to the ground hard something breaks. A sword strike hits him in the chest.

"I could feel blood running down my face."

Christopher's last thought just before he blacked out was, "At least I died in my own land. I am home."

Christopher awakes under the cover of darkness.

He can't see anybody, but he can feel him or her. "Hello?"

"Hello." Great joyous voices reply. It is Caitlin, Kat and Sara.

"I should have known."

A healer comes in moments later and makes him drink the most god-awful concoction he has ever tasted.

"How long have I been out?"

"Two full days."

"What?" Christopher tries to sit up too fast and falls back down. That hurt.

"What has happened?"

Caitlin comes back in with the highest ranking human and the commanding centaur.

"Relax, Christopher, relax, sir, we have won the day."

"What? How?"

"When the sky went dark it was from hundreds and hundreds of our dragons coming from the main army to reinforce us. The enemy sent their dragons from their main forces also, but it was too late. By the time they reached this battle it was already over, so they returned to their massive army to prepare for the real battle that is about to happen."

"The bridge and the rest of our forces and people?"

"The bridge is fine and our wagons and gentles are still crossing as we speak."

"The enemy force coming up behind us?"

"They're about five hours out."

"Get everything across and secured, then burn the bridge."

"What?" says one of the generals

"BURN THE BRIDGE!" Christopher screams and then passes out again.

It is daylight now and the light hurts his throbbing head. Christopher manages his way out of the tent against Katarina's protestations. He goes to find his friends and the command tent, to see how the preparations are going to move out for the main big battle that is still to come.

Kara and lots of other dragons have been killed. Ember is hurt, but alive. Of Christopher's personal guard that used to number forty-one, they now number nineteen. Christopher knows Caitlin to be okay, because she had been there when he first came to.

Christopher is glad to hear that the fairies took very little casualties. In all, four hundred people and allies lay dead. The biggest hit to them was they lost nearly half of their horses. They manage to gather another two hundred, so that leaves them with six hundred and fifty, give or take a dozen or two, and actually many of them are not cavalry as much as they are centaurs, who it appears have taken it upon themselves to let horseless cavalry fighters ride them. It will be a very devastating force with two bows and two swords per horse, so to speak.