Shadow Of The Mountain by D.A. Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

silence.
    His inexperienced eyes scanned the land for any sign that Amoria was gaining the advantage, but all he saw was carnage. The forces meeting at the front blended together, with the Amorian lines bending backwards. The black tide of the Volrathi punched deep holes into their forces like frightful waves that reached too far to shore. His nation fought to hold rank, struggling to maintain a crumbling structure of defense.
    He looked up into the sky towards his adored dragons, but from below they only looked like angry hornets, near-invisible flecks that spun and darted amidst the clouds. It was a foul scene no matter where his gaze fell.
    He grew dizzy and had to lie on the hill, trying his best not to watch.
    Somewhere along the lines he heard the mages begin their battle, for the sky above the flatlands exploded with burst of light and energy. Waves of heat tore the air and crackling forks of red lightning lashed out like whip strikes, burning both Amorian and Volrathi lines alike. For over an hour tremors racked the land and flashes of fire arced into the sky, bright enough to blind and loud enough to deafen. It sounded as if the very Veil itself were splitting open above them, spewing forth whatever nightmarish terrors it’d kept hidden across eternity.
    Storm-dark clouds soon formed over the battle, slowly at first but then gaining speed, spinning and growing to life. It was a grotesque sight, alive and vile with sharp flares of light and monstrous bellows of rolling thunder, a beast of black smoke the size of a floating city. Spells of unspeakable horror were cast and Tenlon was mesmerized by the display of power on both sides. Unwritten rules of the Magi were cast aside and the laws of man and magic were broken. Death and darkness were born here like never before.
    As time crawled on, the black cloud grew and daytime was snuffed out on the flats. Tenlon could just make out sunlight in the distance behind him, but all of Amoria now fought in the night. The sight was otherworldly.
    And just when Tenlon felt that all hope was lost, when he thought things could not get any worse, dragons began to break through the dark cloud and fall from the sky.
    There were many and he tried to read their scales as they dropped, but it was a challenge in the gloom of the unnatural storm. He recognized Salara first, the young gold. The scales around his missing wing were dreadfully burnt and he spun lifelessly to the ground, smashing into a nearby hillside with a thunderous crash.
    Gora he saw next, emerald green and nearly as old as Draxakis. The softer scales of her underbelly were torn open and much of her insides hung out, still connected. She fell like a stone and crashed into the crowded Amorian lines.
    There must have been others he missed, for the beasts were dropping faster now, two and three at a time. They fell limp and lifeless, charred or still burning, with delicate wings twisted and outstretched by the fall to crash into both Amorian and Volrathi lines below.
    Tenlon watched with dread as Vyra finally fell, life-mate to Draxakis. The silver scales of her sides were covered with heinous claw wounds and her neck was burnt all the way to the nose. The scales of her head were scorched almost completely off, leaving behind a thin spine, blackened skull, and sharp horns. It was then Tenlon knew Draxakis was alone.
    After only a few hours, the Amorians were in disarray. Retreat was not an option for Healianos, Draxakis, or any of the green-clad soldiers fighting underneath the banner of Amoria. The Volrathi were set to sweep across the realm and cleanse the land of all who opposed them. And if retreat was not an option, then death was the alternative.
    When Draxakis broke through the black clouds in a slow and lifeless spin, his bronze scales catching a dismal sliver of sunlight, Tenlon’s world ceased to be.
    ***
    “There was a time when dragons called this land home,” the old man told him. “Long before they began to