“That was intense.”  Connor said, rubbing his hands through his scorched hair.  “I thought he was gonna sic his god rotting zombies on us for a minute there.”

“God’s balls what were you THINKING?”  Reed demanded, turning on her with wild eyes.

“We cannot trust that he won’t attack us after we deal with his dragon problem.” Holt said, a frown creasing his face.

“Yes we can.”  She said with more certainty than she felt.  “His kind respects power, all we need is an overwhelming victory against that dragon and he will treat us with deference.”

“Oh good, all we have to do is destroy a Taken dragon.”  Reed said with mock sincerity.

“No, we must have a decisive victory.”  Callindra said, “Just winning isn’t enough, we have to show that it was no match for us.”

The others stared at her in disbelief.  She kept walking with purpose in her stride.  If she allowed herself to flag at this point she might not get the resolve back.

“You’re serious.”  Holt said at last. “Very well.  How do we do this?”

“Holt, you’re as crazy as SHE is.”  Reed all but shouted, pointing at Callindra with a finger that all but trembled with anger.  “We can’t kill a dragon. I ain’t saying is hard or whatever, I’m sayin we just don’t have … I mean it just ain’t possible.”

“I hate to say it sister, but Reed has a point.”  Vilhylm said. “We can’t swim and fight at the same time.  The instant it sees us in the water that thing will just swallow us.  Even if we lure it out of the water it’s the size of a house. What can we possibly do that will be more than an inconvenience?”

“I can think of a thing or two.”  Connor said, “But I’ll have to be close but preferably not close enough to be eaten or to fall victim to its breath provided the beast has retained such abilities now that it is one of the Taken.”

The others turned to look at Connor with surprised expressions on their faces.  “Ah, and it would be best if it was out of the water also.” He said apologetically, “I know that’s kind of a tall order but if we could manage that we might have a pretty good chance at victory actually.”

“I have a plan.”  Callindra said, “It’s not a safe plan for any of us; least of all me.  It will have just the right amount of danger that if we pull it off this necromancer will eat his own servants before he pits them against us.”

She brought them out past the ramp leading to the pit and up into the remains of a building.  From this vantage they had a decent view of the dammed up river, the wall made from the remains of whatever town had been here and the surrounding terrain.  Pulling out her last wineskin, she took a drink and passed it off to Connor before beginning to explain her battle plan. The longer she spoke the more interested and less skeptical their faces became.  By the end even Reed had lost most of his frown.

–

Callindra was performing the first Korumn and trying to calm herself.  This was the first time the practice of controlling the breath hadn’t brought her racing heart under control.  Of course this was the first time she had thought out something this complex and the first time she’d put everyone’s life on the line this deliberately.  

Certainly there had been fights before, but this was a real battle.  According to General Delanous, fights just happened, but battles were deliberate and planned.  Battles had strategy and were designed to make use of the talents of the fighters to their best ability.   Delanous had also mentioned that the plans of a battle rarely survived the first engagement.

“Are you ready?”  She whispered the words and they slipped into the tiny breeze that furled around her, tickling her neck with the ragged ends of her hair.  With one last flip of the errant wind flew off to find Connor. Within seconds it returned.

“As ready as I was last time you asked five seconds ago.”  His reply came back. She could tell he was beginning to get annoyed.  Then the monster made its appearance and she forgot about everything but her first move.

The beast looked equal parts dragon and snapping turtle, massive shell and huge armored limbs with a head the size of a large wagon on a short, powerful neck.  It surfaced meters from shore and began to move with frightening speed across the water. Emerald fire blazed from its eyes and bright green steam vented from its nostrils.

Before she could convince herself to abort or alter her plan, Callindra swung Shadowsliver in a series of fluid motions and drew a spell of speed followed quickly by another that let her tread on air as easily as ground.  Then, she was off at a sprint that left water sheeting away from her passage in a filthy wake.

The head of the dragon swung to focus on her instantly and a jet of superheated steam lanced from its mouth, tracking across the surface of the lagoon and following her path.  The spell that quickened her footsteps kept her well ahead of its breath, but she didn’t dare slacken her pace for an instant. With a tremendous splash, the monster leaped into the water and gave chase.