Curse of the Garnet Dragon by David Nix II (top books to read .txt) 📕

After the broods had returned to their encampments, Queen Delama was going about ordering her troops to gather together their young and hide them away, in case they lost the war. She hoped that her brood would have a future if they failed in their upcoming war. Delama summoned her daughter, General Tolma, to discuss what they were going to do, and she planned to stand a chance against King Brakle and his army of Amethyst warriors. Moments later, her daughter arrived and greeted her with a cheerful roar. Delama greeted her daughter in return and said, "How goes the war preparations daughter?" Her daughter replied gleefully, "The young are resting with the injured far back in the coldest depths of our territory. I hope they will be safe from harm there." Delama replied, "Do not worry my child, we shall gather our full strength and reinforce the oth-" She was cut off by a loud roar from an approaching scout, whom she had sent to track King Brakles movements. The scout whimpers in fear, "We have to hurry! They are gathering on our border with an entire army clad in armor the likes of which we can not wish to compare." Queen Delama turns to her daughter and gives her the commands, "Gather up our forces, we leave for the Emerald brood at once, hopefully we will make it there before Brakle realizes what we are doing. We must bolster our forces with theirs, if we hope to stand a chance."

Meanwhile, King Gusteria was checking on his brood's young and injured. He wanted to make sure everyone was as safe as could be before the destruction hit their lands from the great war that was coming. He knew there would be no safe haven for his brood, but he did his best to protect them in any way he could. His General, Kloshtun, came flapping down from above and looked out over their young. Finally, he turned and said, "It is going to be a devastating war, we have the power to change continents when we all attack together. The first war separated our broods into a great conflict and we have destroyed this once beautiful land. We should have learned from our mistakes long ago and come together to save Vestom before we completely destroy it." Gusteria turns to Kloshtun and says, "I know, our race has brought this world, and our kind, to the brink of destruction many times. Hopefully we can bring peace to our broods and finally end the war that has lasted for so many millenniums." Gusteria and Kloshtun took one last look at their brood, before departing to meet up with the main force of their army.

As Gusteria and Kloshtun arrive, their troops were preparing for war and each warrior was clad in a simple hellstone breastplate, helm, and wing guard. Their armor was nothing spectacular but it would help keep them alive. Gusteria ordered his men to form up and sent a messenger to each of the outlying broods to check on them. He wanted to know the second they were ready and he wanted to know any movements reported of Brakle's army. His last messenger went off in the direction of the Sapphire brood. After he had left, one of their own messengers came soaring down with great speed. The messenger warned Gusteria and Kloshtun of the threat Queen Delama was facing and that they requested aid to get their spell-casters safely away before they were all killed by Brakles warriors. Gusteria knew there wouldn't be enough time to reach Delama if they had already started to attack. He ordered his men to gather together and fly to the discussed war outpost on the edge of his land where it met the Amethyst territoy. The Garnet and Emerald broods should be heading to meet them at that location soon enough. Their combined forces should be able to push through the Amethyst broods remaining defenders, while the main army was away, causing Brakle to return to protect his brood.

Over in the South, the Garnet dragon brood was unsettled by the commotion the peace summit had caused. Queen Santriva was talking to her General, Malnios, when she got word from King Gusteria about Queen Delama's state and what he was planning to do. She listened to their messengers as they rapidly described the situations that they were in. Queen Santriva sent word back to Gusteria that her army would be prepared to help him soon and they were heading out to meet him. Her army would supply Gusteria with some of the hottest fire in all of the lands, it burned bright orange and the heat helped melt the hellstone around the dragons bodies in combat so they couldn't manuever as easily. When a dragon is encased in their own protective armor and attacked from multiple angles at once, they are easily crushed.

Queen Santriva turned to Malnios and said, "Retrieve the last of our dragons from the deepest pits of the volcanoes. We need every last dragon if we are to survive this war. Also, tell the armorer it is time to test our new hellstone claws we have been working on." Malnios replies, "They haven't ever been combat tested! Who knows even they will do any better than our own talons? Hellstone armor has never been able to be destroyed without immense heat and constantly wear." Santriva roars, "There will be no more time to test it, if we fail the whole of Vestom will fall into Brakles grasp. Is that what you want?" Malnios cowers back and says, "I shall have the armorer send the experimental weapon to the main regiment." As Santriva watches Malnios fly off to follow her orders, she thinks about her children and how much destruction will be caused by this war. She flies off to check on her little ones, some still in their eggs, unhatched.

King Fallow was recovering from his wounds, that he had obtained in the recent ambush, when he received word from Queen Delama and King Gusteria. Their messengers were erratic and rushed as they told their messages to him. He replied to King Gusteria first. He told the messenger to tell Gusteria he would reinforce Queen Delama and aid in the protection of the spell-casters. The message he sent to Delama was short and to the point. His army would arrive as soon as they were armed and ready, and that Delama should make her way towards him as swiftly as she could.

King Fallow would reinforce the Sapphire brood and protect them with his life. The Sapphire spell-casters would be the only ones capable of protecting them when the war started. They would also be a great aid against the Amethyst spell-weavers. The Sapphire brood had the only remaining spell-casters outside of the Amethyst brood, they were capable of removing the wards around the Amethyst warriors which allowed them to be attacked and killed in combat. While the spells themselves would not kill the warriors because of how much strength and concentration it took just to remove the wards that were bolstered over the ages, it would severely weaken them. They also had numerous healing spells at their disposal, as well as a few spells that could kill an unprotected dragon if they had the strength left.

As the Sapphire Queen, Delama, lead her entire army forward to meet with the Emerald dragon King, Fallow, she noticed something shining in the distance. She blinked her heavy eyelids and realized what she was looking at. In front of her was the entirety of the Amethyst army, flying towards her brood with a fiery glow that suggested they wanted them dead. She roared as rage and fury swelled up inside of her because her brood was trapped with nowhere to go to avoid the danger. She flapped her massive, muscular wings, and began to gain altitude to try and go over their army, or at least gain the element of surprise, her brood following closely behind her. She hoped Fallow and his fierce warriors would show up in time to help her. She told her daughter, and General, to lead the spell-casters higher to avoid being seen, but it was too late. King Brakle had already planned for their maneuver and was leading his warriors into the clouds to intercept her and her brood. Her spell-casters engaged in combat with his spell-weavers, and they began trying to outwit each other with spells and counterspells.

Suddenly, one of the Amethyst warriors that was next to Brakle, crashed to the ground, dead. Her spell-casters had been able to stop one of his warriors already, but it would be a victory short lived if they could not stop the rest of them. As they fought back and forth, both Sapphire and Amethyst dragons alike, fell to the ground bleeding and whimpering as they died an agonizing death. From afar it looked like a beautiful display, colors of brilliant blue and dark violet fire spraying everywhere, as they unleashed waves of fiery spray upon each other. Delama roared, "Why must we fight Brakle? We are all just trying to survive!" Brakle roars back, "The Amethyst brood will not bow to any other brood! Nor will we share our lands we have fought so hard to keep!" Delama replies, "We could all live in peace and expand our broods. It has been too long since there was peace in Vestom. Do you really hope to destroy all of us? Bring all of our broods to extinction?"

As they fought on Brakle began to tear through the enchantments surrounding Delama's warriors. He tore open the throat of the first warrior and tore large gashes through the wings of another. As Delama's warriors began to fall, she was overcome with rage and hatred for Brakle and lashed out at his warriors. She clawed through the closest warrior with ease as his weak enchantments were destroyed by her spell-casters. The second warrior she came in contact with was Brakle's General, Romento. They fought for awhile, baking each other in sapphire and amethyst colored flames. The battle from afar would have looked truly magnificient. Beautiful as it was however, both Delama and Romento began to weaken as their fight continued. Romento landed a hit across Delama's backside and she landed one