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The smell of charred flesh and burnt wood drifted through the air, and the smoldering remains of a large fire could be seen up the road a little. There were a dozen bodies, all clad in metal armor that had partially melted from the heat. Nearby trees were blackened and charred, as if the entire area had been blasted with fire of incredible intensity.

“What could have done this?” Criosa asked with a trembling voice, as they searched amongst the wreckage. The princess suddenly gagged and dashed off into the bushes to throw up. Nellise stood there transfixed at the grisly sight, and Aiden feared her resolve to continue on might fail.

“I’ve got tracks over here,” Colt said grimly. “Mostly theirs, I think, judging by the boot prints. They were running from the east as fast as they could. Whatever hit them, it happened while they were moving. There’s no sign of a fight — they just burned.”

Movement from the brush on the side of the road made everyone whirl around with their weapons at the ready. Half a dozen men in the livery of the Kingdom Guard emerged onto the road with their hands in the air. They carried an assortment of swords, maces and longbows.

“Who are you?” Colt barked, ready to shoot them at the first sign of trouble.

“Sergeant Evans, Kingdom Guard Culdeny detachment, second company,” an older man replied in a drained voice. “We’re the only survivors of this attack. You’re not with the mercenaries — that much I can tell.”

“No, I think we’re on the same side,” Colt began, before he was interrupted.

“Help — I’ve found someone over here,” came Criosa’s sudden cry from the side of the road. Colt and the others lowered their weapons. As one, they rushed over to see a terribly burned man lying in the snow.

He was alive, though only just, and as Nellise brought forth a prayer of light, they could see that his skin was horribly burned and he must have been in terrible pain. “You’re going to be okay,” Nellise told him gently, as she knelt beside the man with her crystal in one hand, putting Aiden’s fears to rest.

“I’ve never heard a priest lie like that before,” the burned man managed to choke out, exhibiting remarkable bravado considering his condition.

“She’s the finest healer in these parts, friend,” Colt told the man. “She’s gonna have you on your feet and back in the fight in no time.”

“No, thanks,” he gasped. “I don’t want to fight that thing.”

“You saw what attacked you?” Pacian asked.

“Dragon,” came the dreaded reply. “It was a dragon. Size of a house...”

Aiden felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and a deathly silence fell over the assembled group as they digested this information. Instantly, he thought of Salinder, the enormous dragon in his dreams who had turned the tide of a battle long ago. But the withered creature he’d met was trapped on another plane of existence, and couldn’t be responsible for this.

“There hasn’t been a dragon in these parts for centuries,” Colt said. “Where the hell did it come from?”

“I’ll ask it next time,” the burned soldier replied, clasping onto Sergeant Evan’s hand as he struggled to breathe.

“My squad was patrolling the highway,” the old soldier explained, “and we came across the monster in the mountains, watching the road. We managed to make it back here before it caught up. Is he going to make it?”

“He’s too far gone,” Nellise whispered sadly, looking down on the burned man with regret as he stiffened, then relaxed for the last time. Evans gently placed the man’s hand across his chest, while Aiden looked around at the carnage the dragon had wrought.

“It must have attacked Culdeny,” he muttered; “that’s why we saw it on fire, well before the Steel Tigers could have made it there.”

“Maybe the dragon attacked the mercenaries as well?” Criosa asked with a trembling voice, sounding like she was starting to regret her decision to come along.

“We’ll find out when we get closer to town,” Aiden surmised. “If the Steel Tigers are still there, working side by side, then it means the dragon has to be working with them.”

“Is that even possible?” Pacian asked, incredulously. “How do you deal with something that could turn you into a pile of ash in seconds?”

“It has been done in the past,” Sayana pointed out. “There are dragons in the mountains where the Akoran live. They have had dealings, though the price is always too high.” Though she hadn’t looked at Aiden directly, he knew she was speaking to him when she said that.

“If they are working together, then there is nothing we can do to help Culdeny,” Criosa whispered soberly. “How can we fight something that powerful?”

“We don’t,” Aiden surmised. “We’re going to engage the Steel Tigers from the shadows, and if that dragon shows up, well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that’ll make it think twice.”

He touched the scroll cases on his belt and hoped the remaining magic at his disposal would be enough. “The dragon can’t be everywhere at once, and this poor man said it was back on the highway in the mountains.”

“If you’re planning to take on the people attacking our home, we’re going to help,” Sergeant Evans volunteered. “We might only number eight men, but the rest of my lads gave their lives in defense of the realm, and I for one ain’t going to let them die in vain.”

“We could use all the help we can get,” Aiden agreed.

“Let’s move west while I scout along the way,” Colt ordered. “Save the horses. We’re going to need whatever they’ve got left.”

With their numbers bolstered, they cautiously set off along the frozen road. It wasn’t long before they saw a flash of light rising into the sky from the tree line, to disappear into the distant glow from the town.

“They’ve set up siege engines,” Evans advised. “I guess that means they are working with the dragon.”

“No sign of it yet, though,” Aiden said hopefully. “Colt would have said something if he’d seen it.”

It wasn’t long before they began to hear the sounds of distant battle, the screams and cries of men fighting for their lives echoing across the frigid landscape. When they had gone as close as they dared, Aiden called for everyone to stop so Colt could move ahead to investigate further.

It was a tense wait, but gave them time to catch their breath after the long day’s journey. Aiden drank from his water skin and rested his eyes for a minute, letting the distant sounds of war wash over him.

When he opened his eyes again, Colt had returned, crouching down in the snow to let them know the situation. “They’re over the rise, about two hundred yards away,” he started, speaking to the gathered assortment of soldiers, civilians and royalty. “Got themselves a couple of big siege engines, trebuchets, I think.”

“We’re still half a mile from Culdeny,” the sergeant remarked. “How many men are they holding in reserve this far back?”

“About two dozen, not including their engineers,” Colt grunted. “There are a few mounted warriors, too, including their commander, from what I can tell. They’re bloody well equipped for a bunch of mercs.”

“Robert Black is there?” Aiden asked, suddenly very interested. “How could you tell?”

“They’ve got a few runners ferrying orders back and forth from the front lines, and they were always meeting up with this one bloke in heavy armor. Has himself a nice big stallion to ride, too, so I think it’s a safe bet that he’s in charge.”

“How much light was there?” Nellise asked. “We had planned a dawn attack, but if my guess is correct, we’re still over an hour from first light.”

“I saw some lanterns here and there, but it’s not quite enough to fight in. I had an idea, though — they’re using burning pitch in those siege engines, so if we set those on fire...”

“I can do that,” Sayana said with a measure of fear in her voice. Aiden glanced around at the faces lit by the distant fires and saw the same trepidation he felt. They were in over their heads, and they knew it.

“I know you’re weary,” Aiden said in sombre tones, “and I know you’re hurt, in more ways than one. I feel the same way. If I thought we had a choice here, I’d be staying out of this fight altogether. This isn’t my war, and for most of you, it isn’t yours either.

“The people who should be fighting this aren’t here, so it falls to us to step forward and do our part. We’ve heard about the king fighting a war in another country, and didn’t think we were part of it. But now the war has come right to our doorstep, and if we walk away, we may not have a home left to go back to.

“Things have come between us in recent weeks,” he continued, speaking directly to his companions, and more specifically to Sayana. “Personal conflicts, hard choices, tough situations, not to mention my own personal failings. Under ordinary circumstances, we probably would have gone our separate ways.

“But remember when we first started working together? We were a team, and we were unstoppable. That’s what we need to be here. If we want to survive the next hour, we need to put aside our issues and trust in each other.”

They looked to each other in the dim light of the nearby burning town, considering Aiden’s words and his admission of guilt at his own failings. He was unsure what their response would be, until Pacian spoke up — and for the first time in many days, Aiden heard his cocky old friend once more.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say that the Steel Tigers are in for a very bad day.”

* * *

A chill wind blew mournfully over the landscape as Aiden, his companions, and the men of the Kingdom Guard moved westward. There was still no sign of the dragon, and Aiden fervently hoped it stayed that way.

As they crested a rise, Aiden was able to see Culdeny itself in the distance, buildings torched by dragonfire and burning pitch, turning the sky a fiery red. More immediately, the entire scope of the battle could be seen from this position, which was probably why Commander Robert Black had chosen it for his command post.

Less than fifty yards away, two siege engines could be seen, their crews winding back the massive wooden arms and placing large barrels of pitch into position before setting them on fire, ready to launch into the town.

Positioned to the left of the trebuchets stood a group of mercenary soldiers, calmly watching the battle take place in the distance. Of that battle, Aiden could see little, but he knew the defenders, led by Sergeant Ariel, would put up a good fight. It would go a lot easier on them, however, if the trebuchets were out of commission, and this was precisely what Aiden intended to achieve.

“Can you hit them from here?” he quietly asked Sayana, crouched down in the snow next to him.

“Yes,” she assured him. “The blast will be huge, so it’s good that we’ve stayed back.”

“I’m moving into position now,” Pacian said to Aiden as he crept past. “As soon as you’ve created your diversion, I’ll go in and make sure those engines never work again.”

“I won’t disappoint you,” Sayana told him before he disappeared into the bushes.

“Do your boys have the horses ready?” Aiden asked Sergeant Evans. “Your experience is going to count for a lot in this fight.”

“They’re saddled up and ready to charge,” he answered, then looked to the princess. “We’ll do our utmost not to disappoint you, Your Highness.”

Aiden raised a hand to Colt and the ranger signaled back, his longbow at the ready. Aiden nodded to Sayana, who raised herself up on one knee and began a rhythmic movement with her arms.

Seconds later, a torrent of fire materialized and blasted towards the siege engines. It struck the barrels sitting next to a trebuchet, which detonated with incredible force. The smoking bodies of engineers and mercenaries flew through the air.

Other barrels of pitch, stacked neatly between the two engines, ignited with a flourish, sending a plume of fire thirty feet into the air, which seemed to ripple from the force. The impact wave washed over Aiden and the others, along with the stench of burning pitch.

The suddenness of the strike sent the mercenaries into disarray. The few horses they had tethered nearby in the darkness pulled free of their ropes and bolted into the night.

It was a perfectly executed opening move, but their advantage wasn’t going to last long. Even now, the officers of the Steel Tigers were shouting orders to control the flames. A dozen mercenaries, led by a brash and loud sergeant, formed up and moved towards Aiden’s position.

“This is probably the time, then,” Aiden muttered to himself, pulling out the last arcane scroll he had left over from the deceased wizard’s collection. By the light of the nearby flaming pitch, he quickly read through the incantation before intoning the words aloud, releasing the energies stored many decades before.

A brief tingling sensation covered his body as the scroll disintegrated in his hands. Aiden looked ahead and saw that the mercenaries seemed to slow in their advance. But it wasn’t them, as such — the incantation had altered the flow of time around him, giving his allies an advantage over their adversaries, even if it would only last a matter of seconds.

“Here they come,” he said grimly, drawing his scepter and speaking the word that would bring his force shield into being. To his right, Sayana stood with her ancient dwarven axe in both hands, her clothing faintly glowing with protective magics.

When the mercenaries were in close enough, Aiden gave the signal to charge forward and fight. “Aielund forever!” Criosa called in challenge, as the men of the Kingdom Guard thundered past on their horses. They crashed through the enemy line, knocking down and trampling those unfortunate enough to get in the way.

With his incantation speeding them up, Colt, Nellise and Sergeant Evans sent an impressive barrage of arrows and bolts into the scattered ranks of the mercenaries, andAiden blasted a few down with the blazing light from his scepter. The mounted soldiers kept moving, sweeping around to make another pass at the enemy infantry. By the time the incantation of speed finally ebbed, fifteen of the enemy had fallen.

Their diversion had worked, for the second trebuchet had its ropes cut, and the fires were slowly making their way toward it, thanks to a trail of pitch poured across the ground by Pacian. The remaining engineers were scrambling, trying to put out the fires and save the trebuchets from total destruction. Aiden glanced to his right and noticed Sayana looking around with a perplexed expression on her face.

“I could have sworn I heard something moving,” she said nervously, before she was bowled into the snow by an unknown assailant. Sayana screamed in pain, for the shadowy figure had stabbed her arm with a dagger at the same time, and the two of them wrestled on the ground for their lives.

Aiden couldn’t help her, tangled up and rolling around as they were, but a moment later, flames erupted from her position, engulfing the mercenary agent and flinging what appeared to be a short, athletic woman back into the snow with smoke rising from her charred body.

Three more of these agents came out of hiding and struck at Aiden and Sayana, using clever flanking tactics to disorient and take advantage of gaps in their defenses. Aiden was struck from behind, leaving his back searing with pain from a laceration. When he whirled around to strike back, he was hit on the back of his leg by some other assailant.

Sayana didn’t waste any time — with one swing of her axe, she leaped forward to cut down the stealthy warrior. Aiden was about to move to support her exposed flank when he was hit on the side of the head by the hilt of a weapon. He staggered to one side, trying to pull back from the unknown assailant.

Shaking his head to clear it, he noticed that Pacian had emerged from the undergrowth to aid them, stabbing and slashing at the agents with fury and precision.

A flash of light suddenly caught Aiden’s attention, and he risked a quick look. What he saw was a robed woman with lightning flaring from her fingertips, sending electricity arcing along the armored men of the militia, shocking them and dropping them to the ground.

“Nel, wizard!” Aiden called, to which she responded with a quick nod, pulling the crystal from her belt pouch. It was, however, too late to prevent the robed woman from conjuring chunks of snow and ice from the ground.

They hovered before her; then the pieces spun around, ice chips flying off them until the points became sharp, and then darted at Nellise.

Her breastplate protected her a little, but the rest of her body bore the brunt of the icy blast tearing through her leathers. She stumbled from the onslaught, blood oozing from a number of tiny wounds. Nellise still had the crystal raised in one hand and this time, as the wizard attempted to unleash another assault, it failed, drawing a string of curses from the woman.

Aiden wanted nothing more than to charge the mercenary wizard at that moment, easily the most dangerous combatant on the field, but the way was blocked by a wall of warriors. The Kingdom Guard were doing their best, but they were sorely outnumbered.

“You got this?” Aiden asked Pacian, who was busy fighting alongside Sayana against the remaining mercenary agents.

“Go!” Pace cried, smashing his opponent across the face with the hilt of a dagger, then bringing his knee up hard and fast to shatter his nose.

Sergeant Evans had overheard the brief exchange, and with his supply of arrows depleted, drew a heavy mace and ran forward to join his men on the front line. Aiden followed close behind, and the two of them charged into the mercenary ranks.

The battle surged around him, and Aiden couldn’t tell if they were winning or losing. Half of their cavalry had fallen, but a large number of mercenaries had been dropped as well. Aiden bashed his foes and used his glowing shield to block their attacks, all the while making sure he wasn’t too far from the sergeant. He was keenly aware of his lack of armor, so kept his focus on aiding the efforts of his allies.

A crackle of lightning suddenly surged through the fight, catching Aiden as well. His muscles were wracked with pain for a long moment, and he barely kept control of his body.

“She’s too strong; I can’t stifle her magic,” Nellise called with dread from nearby, her prayers faltering as the wizard found a way past her protective influence.

“Sarge, drop her,” Aiden gasped, struggling to keep up the fight.

“There’s too many of them to break through,” Evans snarled as he bashed a mercenary’s head in.

Suddenly, a blast of fire shot through the air and engulfed the wizard, who was evidently not invulnerable to its effects. Her charred body was blasted through the air, leaving a trail of flame and smoke.

Aiden let out a cry of triumph, but then held his breath as Sayana wilted and dropped to her knees from the effort. He was about to go to her aid when the ominous sound of hooves pounding the ground sounded, growing louder with each passing moment. Turning toward the noise, his heart almost stopped when he saw Robert Black astride a massive stallion, finally joining the battle.

The remaining mercenary warriors pulled back, and the warhorse plowed through the three militiamen, crushing two of them to death, while Robert swung a massive ball-and-chain, sundering Sergeant Evan’s shield and leaving him broken on the ground.

The commander’s weapon struck Pacian on the shoulder as he rode by, and it was only his reflexes that prevented him from sustaining a mortal injury. Two arrows flew past them in quick succession, striking the last remaining mercenary in the chest, leaving only the unstoppable visage of Robert Black to deal with.

The stallion turned and charged for their position once more, and Aiden didn’t know how to deal with it. Exhaustion was catching up with him, slowing his mind and body, while facing the premier military power of their time — the mounted warrior. He stood, watching the advance of the warhorse as if in a dream, when he was suddenly pushed to the ground from behind, to land in the snow a few feet away.

Looking up, he saw that it was Colt who had shoved him aside as he charged past and swung his sword at the saddle, severing the straps that held it on the horse’s back and throwing Robert into the snow. The horse, wounded from the strike, bolted into the night, while the armored form of the mercenary commander rose ominously to his feet, discarding his ball-and-chain in favor of a longsword and shield he drew from over his shoulder.

“You?” he roared, looking directly at Aiden, Colt and the others from behind his visored helm. “We’re fighting a bunch of civilians and a couple of rangers? And here’s me thinking I was in trouble.”

“Oh, I got plenty of that for you, right here,” Colt shouted back, stepping forward to engage the commander directly. The sound of his greatsword clashing against the mercenary’s shield was deafening.

Black smacked aside the greatsword and brought his own heavy blade across, slashing the big ranger’s chest, cutting through leather and the flesh beneath. Their weapons weren’t subtle — each swing had the potential to take off a limb if they weren’t fast enough to get out of the way.

The commander continued to use his armor and shield to deflect the greatsword’s sweeping arc. “We need to get in there and help,” Aiden whispered to Nellise, who was bent over, trying to catch her breath after the intense fighting.

“I need to check on the wounded,” she whispered, slowly making her way over to Sayana’s last position. Criosa, having kept out of the fighting so far, joined her to assist in any way she could. Pacian was in the snow nearby, on his knees, struggling to get back on his feet. Aiden could see he was just about done for.