Stormblower

By C R Leonard

The Kingdom of Mithania is under attack ... Will Stormblower save them from invasion ... Or will she die trying?

16 year old Charlie wakes up to what should have been a normal Monday morning. However, she knows this day will be very, very different ...

Queen Athaliah has reigned over a peaceful Mithania for over 40 years, guided by the Prophecy but now all her borders are under attack. With men, women and children dying all across her land, she only has one choice to call for Stormblower to save her and her people. However the Prophecy is precise, all who do not follow it will die and it is not Stormblower’s time yet and will the Queen really sacrifice her only child.

Sordread a ruthless and formidable Commander will stop at nothing in his quest to rule the Kingdom. Leading Sordread’s Hunters is his determined and rampaging General Ezra and the mighty Dramariyan Dragons. Conquering Mithania and slaying all who stand in their way, especially Stormblower is his only thought.
Stormblower, on arrival in Mithania, finds she is without knowledge of the circumstances surrounding her summons. Suited with her armour, sword, and her faithful dragons Pico and Nimrod they embark on their perilous journey to meet the Queen and stop Sordread.

Faced with Sordread’s Hunters and the determined General Ezra constantly chasing her down, Stormblower and her companion’s journey is fraught with menace, betrayal and loss. Relentless, thunderous battles between the dragons riddle the skies as soldiers clash on the ground. Swords and magic clash ferociously as the companions encounter the strengthening Hunters again and again. Weakened and tired, the companions must find the strength and courage to fight every step of the way or risk death and the loss of Mithania.

With destruction all around and Stormblower on her lowest ebb she must find the power within herself and her friends to destroy Sordread and Ezra and fulfil the prophecy which she believes in, not realising it means her death.

Stormblower is an epic quest portraying the powerful clash between good and evil, faith and determination – in a bid to restore the Mithania back to its peaceful state.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C R Leonard
• Release date: Jun 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781910667620

Book preview

Prologue

Daydreaming can be a dangerous game to play when you’re walking next to a busy road; especially when there are crows flying above you, looking down whilst circling like vultures …

‘Look out Charlie!’ her dad shouted as she stepped out between the two parked cars, onto the busy road.

But Charlie didn’t hear him. She was too busy daydreaming, looking up at the crows wondering why they were called a murder, to notice. But the car driver saw her. He had expected her. For it had been foretold she would enter the Kingdom of Mithania in minutes and he had been sent to stop her — to kill her. With her walking onto the road, it just made his job so much easier. Grabbing the steering wheel, Ezra swerved across the traffic and headed straight for her.

‘Charlie!’ her dad shouted again, running as fast as he could towards her, swerving in between the honking cars and screeching of tires as they braked to get out of his way. ‘Charlie, move! Get off the road,’ he continued as he saw the big four-by-four on the other side of her swerve across — not away, but towards her.

Suddenly a loud boom filled the air, setting off the car alarms and shattering the shop windows, causing Charlie’s dad to trip and fall hard onto the road. He banged his head on the side of a car as he fell, so mercifully he didn’t feel the hard landing.

Charlie spun round, knocked out of her daydream by the loud noise, only to have her long brown hair pulled sharply down. As her body followed her hair, she found herself being roughly pushed from behind, underneath one of the now stopped cars. Crying out loud at the pain, she didn’t notice the four-by-four, driven by Ezra, crash off of her temporary sanctuary until the two vehicles collided with a loud crash and a sickening crush of metal.

‘Dad!’ She screamed, as in front of her eyes a crow that had flown down jumped underneath the car next to her face. Its loud call cutting through the pandemonium around her. It bent forward and pecked her hard on the forehead with its sharp beak.

‘Ow!’ Charlie cried out in alarm. She pushed out her hands to push away the bird, only to notice that at least five more crows had landed and were jumping towards her under the car, calling as they did.

Then, she heard a car door open and footsteps — big, loud, hob-nailed footsteps — walk towards her. A face bent down to look at her, a face she would remember forever.

Ezra had sliced his face open in the collision, one that would surely leave a nice scar. As he bent down to look at her, he felt the blood flow down into his eyes, forcing him to stand up and wipe it away. ‘Don’t worry Stormblower,’ he said, ‘I’ll not leave you there for long.’ After wiping the blood from his eyes, he bent down again to look under the car and resumed talking, ’I’m here to end this. It’s time to kill …’ but before he could finish, he realised the girl had gone. All that was left was a long piece of fine red ribbon being pecked at by one of the crows.

‘Pico!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll kill you next, you worthless dragon.’

Turning quickly, Ezra realised he had drawn a crowd around him. He could hear the police sirens, getting closer every second.

‘I have to go!’ He thought. ‘Get out of my way,’ he shouted turning and pushing people out of the way as he darted down a nearby alley, leaving the carnage and police behind him. Ezra fled the chaos he had created.

Chapter 1

Decisions

We all have our dreams, our hopes, our desires, and a naïve belief that we control our own destinies.

However, someone else has a plan for us to follow; an unknown path we blindly walk, chained to a destiny that cannot be altered. Sometimes, the path does split and we are given a choice, an opportunity to exercise free will if you like: Do you go left or do you go right? Do you follow good or do you follow evil?

Other times, the choices are made for us; the keys to the locks that bind the chains are turned for us. Against our will, we are thrown off the path, our every move affecting all of those around us. Some call it freedom; others call it entrapment.

The Queen stood on the balcony, overlooking the gardens below her, breathing in the sweet fragrance of the summer blooms as the birds darted between the trees. She still held her striking beauty after forty-three years of reigning Mithania with a just and fair hand, but the lines on her face had deepened lately as her troubles grew. Scarring her once fair and smooth skin with worry and colouring her hair grey.

‘We need her, Pico,’ wept the Queen.

‘But it is not her time, Your Majesty,’ Pico replied. ‘She is ill prepared and may not fulfil the prophecy if we call her now, unlike last time when she saved you. Even then Ezra nearly killed her when I went to bring her into Mithania; and that was obeying the prophecy. And, do you remember the scar he got?’ He continued in his all too matter-of-fact tone, which suggested he was right as always.

The Queen turned and walked towards the small blue dragon, her long dark red dress trailed out behind her on the marble floor. It reminded Pico of the blood of so many of his friends that had spilled to the ground already.

‘But we will all die if I don’t call her, you pompous fool!’ the Queen retorted. ‘Time is running out. We are under threat at all our borders. Every day, more men, women, and children die. I am the Queen of this land, and I demand that you get her!’

Pico jumped back, flew upwards and rested on a stool in front of her, hoping that the increase in height would give him more authority.

‘But, the prophecy … Your Majesty, if we don’t obey it …’

‘Obey it? Pico! Foolish words from a wise mouth. Should I put the sacrifice of my own child before theirs?’ shouted the Queen at the visibly shaking dragon. ‘You suggest we wait? For how long then? Tell me, how long must I watch my people be put to the sword?’

‘I know your majesty,’ he butted in. ‘But …’ The rest of his words were quickly cut out.

‘I need to put an end to this. She must kill Sordread, and if she doesn’t, then …’

The Queen paused as the reality of what she was about to say hit her. ‘Then,’ she continued in a quieter tone, ‘then she must die trying.’

Silence crept in as Pico absorbed the Queen’s words. He was honour bound to her and obliged to do as she commanded. He also knew that if Stormblower came before the prophecy foretold, and she fulfilled it, then all who helped her would also die — including himself. He would have to lie to all those willing to help. For who would want to help her if they knew they would die doing so.

Bowing and turning away from her, Pico leapt silently into the air, spread his wings, and flew off to find Stormblower.

Chapter 2

Welcome Charlie

Charlie lives at 14 Faerie Crescent in a small three-bed semi, in what we would call rural England, a leafy suburb. She is a precocious sixteen year old girl, and on the day we join her, she is upstairs in her bedroom getting ready for another day at school. But unlike most girls her age, her bedroom is not filled with the usual array of boy band posters and fluffy toys. Instead, the walls are covered in certificates of merit and achievement, and her bedroom shelves are lined with trophies she has been collecting since the age of eight. There is one memento that takes pride of place in the middle of her dressing table. It is visible to anyone as soon as they open her bedroom door: a photo of her meeting with Louie Giglio, a renowned pastor, a believer in God, and the man she has admired all her life. She favours this photograph particularly as it was, firstly, taken after she heard Giglio speak about the earth being the size of a golf ball, and secondly, because she looked very pretty in the photo. Her mum had brought her a brand new dress for the special occasion. The colour of it offset her shoulder length brown hair and deep blue eyes.

However, our story begins on a Monday morning and nobody would have expected anything unusual — except our Charlie, that is, for she was sure that Pico would come. Why? Because he had told her so in a dream the night before; it was that simple.

You see, Charlie was about to start living two lives: one as Charlie, oh yes, and of course, as the other one …

Chapter 3

The Meeting

‘Goodness me, who can that be?’ asked Charlie’s mum, in response to the three loud knocks at the front door. ‘It’s only half past seven, and we’re trying to have breakfast. Charlie, see who’s at the door.’ She shouted as she heard Charlie clumping down the stairs.

Charlie continued down the stairs but peeked into the kitchen before answering the door. Herbert, her annoying brother, was happily stuffing his face with toast again. Her mum was still at the sink and, as for her dad, he was reading the morning paper as usual.

‘Good,’ she muttered to herself as she walked to the door and opened it quietly. Glancing outside, a big smile spread across her face as she looked down and saw her good friend Pico. He, however, was not so happy to see her.

‘Pico, my dear friend, how are you?’ started Charlie in hushed voice.

‘I’ve been better! Do you know how cold it is out here?’

Pico took a big intake of air and Charlie knew he was about to start on one of his customary rants. Charlie also knew that a small dragon strutting, and ranting, up and down her path at half past seven in the morning was the last thing she needed. But before she could stop him, he began. ‘I am Lord Pico the Third, of the Night Hawks Dynasty, son of Lord Pico the Second, and the great slayer of the evil Lord Nian.’

Charlie closed her eyes in despair and prayed nobody would hear him. ‘Pico, will you get in here … please?’ she pleaded.

Curtly, Pico continued. ‘My name is Lord Pico, Lord Pico the Third, of the Night …’

But before he could get any further, Charlie clasped her hand over his mouth and muffled the rest of the proud dragon’s words. She picked him up and stuffed him headfirst in her schoolbag. ‘Lord Pico the Pompous more likely,’ she thought. Just then her mum, having heard the commotion, came towards the front door to see who her daughter was talking to.

‘Charlie, who’s at the door?’ her mum asked as she walked out of the kitchen towards Charlie.

‘No one Mum, honest,’ Charlie replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible whilst doing her best to keep hold of the struggling dragon inside her schoolbag.

‘I’ve really ruffled his scales this time; he’ll be furious,’ she thought as she bolted past her mum and up the stairs into her bedroom, quickly slipping the clasp across the door to stop anyone from coming in, especially her mum.

‘Put me down at once, Stormblower,’ came the muffled angry voice of Pico, who was trying to free himself from Charlie’s schoolbag. ‘Have your senses left you, Stormblower? Put me down, I said!’

Now, in the relative safety of her locked bedroom, Charlie relaxed her grip on the struggling dragon, allowing him to leap onto her bed. ‘I’m sorry, Lord Pico,’ said Charlie, ‘my humblest apologies.’

‘That’s as good as an apology he’s going to get from me,’ thought Charlie as she faced Pico and bowed slightly. ‘Well, even if he is the great Queen’s Personal Messenger, manners cost nothing at all,’ her thoughts continued.

Pico started to smooth down his ruffled blue scales with his claws and then turned to face Charlie. ‘Charlie,’ he started, ‘or should I say Stormblower? Her Royal Highness, Queen Athaliah the Second, daughter of Queen Athaliah the First, requests your presence immediately.’

‘Of course, I’ll come,’ stammered Charlie. ‘Do you know why the Queen needs me?’

‘You will be told everything when we get there. Now, let’s stop wasting time and get going.’

Charlie stood on top of the bed and watched as Pico started mumbling strange words under his breath. Then suddenly, red coloured ribbons lanced out from his fingers, striking her on the head, almost knocking her from her feet with its force. Charlie yelped in surprise, but could do nothing else as they wrapped themselves around her body, pinning her arms and legs in tight, spinning her around, faster and faster, as Pico’s chanting sped up and got louder and louder.

The air in the room started to shimmer in front of her eyes as she spun around. All she could clearly now see were the red ribbons and her long brown hair dancing in front of her eyes. Then her bedroom wall started to change. It was replaced by dusty old brickwork, and her lovely pink carpet was replaced by a grubby dirty floor. She found herself wrapped in red ribbons in a dark, cold, and dingy room.

All that was left back in her bedroom were the remaining red ribbons still spinning and connecting the two worlds together. But then, they too started to disappear one by one.

Pico stopped chanting as soon as Charlie had disappeared, letting the room slowly return to its quiet and peaceful state.

Looking around and quite proud of himself, he said out loud, ‘Job well done, again,’ even though no one was listening. ‘Stormblower is on her way, all because of me,’ he continued. ‘One more problem sorted out; it’s always Lord Pico to save everyone, to solve all the problems, to put everything back where it should be. What would these people do without me?’ he finally concluded.

‘And lastly, now to get home myself.’ He jumped off the bed and started to chant the magic words that would send him back home when he was interrupted by a knocking at the door.

‘Charlie is everything okay?’ asked Charlie’s mum from behind the locked door.

‘So, okay then!’ said Pico in annoyance. ‘One more problem left to sort out,’ he continued as he slowly unlocked the latch on the door.

‘Maybe she’ll look better coloured blue like me,’ he thought. ‘That’ll teach her not to help Lord Pico the Third, of the Nights Hawk Dynasty …’

But before poor Pico could do anything, a loud scream came from Charlie’s mum, followed by a whack across his head from the Hoover pole.

‘Retreat!’ shouted Pico running back into the room with flapping wings and jumping feet.

‘Hold on, Stormblower, I’m coming,’ he shouted, grasping onto the last red ribbon before it disappeared, whirling the dragon down, along with Stormblower into Mithania.

Chapter 4

Sordread

‘I have heard a rumor … Is she back? I can sense her presence … here.’

Only silence followed the words, which were swallowed up in the darkness that covered the room in a deep black shroud — the room within which all feared to tread, the room nestled into Sordread’s fortress — a huge, black, and ominous castle topped with dark towers that soared up into the clouds where Sordread’s Dramariyan Dragons ruled the sky. The fortress had stood for years, testing even time itself. But the thick black walls still held, the battlements were still patrolled by Sordread’s fierce Hunters, and the ugly gargoyles that adorned the walls still allowed the rain to run off into the deep, dark abyss below.

The only other person in the room was Baka, Sordread’s commander of the 10th Doom Legion, the Fighting 10 as they were also called, a legion many feared as it was said to be the best. Its ranks were filled with unstoppable Doom Troopers living for their only belief, to die a warrior’s death.

However, as Baka now stood in the presence of Sordread, only one thought crossed his mind and it was not to die a warrior’s death; rather, he wondered whether Sordread would spare his life. Ironically, he had gotten his own command as a result of the previous commander’s demise; those were good times, when he was first given command of the fabled Fighting 10. He ruled the land with them. But now, the people were rising up once more, based on a simple rumour that Stormblower had returned to save them.

Baka had stood there long enough without replying and he felt his master growing impatient.

‘I don’t know, my Lord, there have been no reports of her. The Fighting 10 have scoured the land, burned villages, and tortured people to loosen their pathetic tongues, but no one talks. I’ve not even seen her since …’ Baka suddenly realised what he was about to say and very quickly swallowed the rest of his words.

‘Since when, Baka? When did you last see her?’

Sordread’s menacing reply sank into Baka’s mind as he turned to face his master. Then, he proceeded. ‘Since that day, my Lord …’ Baka paused and stood perfectly still in front of Sordread, the silence hanging in the air like a noose around his neck. He did not want to carry on, but he knew he had to continue, he knew there was no turning back. ‘Since the day you were defeated.’

Looking up into Sordread’s eyes and then down as fear struck through him, Baka took a deep breath; he knew now was the time for fight or flight.

Sordread, though, had no problem looking at Baka. The commander that had failed him. The commander who had the audacity to stand here in his Doom Legions armour, wear its banner, fight in its ranks, and yet still fail him. The black Dramariyan Dragon, the strongest and fiercest in the land, adorned the thick metal breastplate worn only by Sordread’s own elite troops, which were led by only the best.

He didn’t like to be let down; it would not happen again.

Chapter 5

Welcome Ezra

Baka looked up into his master’s face and watched his irritation grow; watched as Sordread reached down to him. He was helpless to stop Sordread, into whose glowing eyes he stared. He stood, unable to move, as Sordread’s long, sharp nails dug into his battle armour and punctured it, making sharp popping sounds as the knife-like nails drove into the flesh of his shoulders, only to stop as they hit his bone.

Baka cried out in pain as he was hoisted into the air. His feet were left to flail helplessly as pain swept through his body.

‘No one fails me, you fool!’ Sordread shouted into his face.

Baka felt his body turning as Sordread moved him like a puppet, suspended from its master’s fingers, over to the rooms only window. Then, with a quick sweep of his arms, Sordread cut the puppet’s strings, sending Baka to his death on the rocks below.

‘Guards, get me Ezra now!’ he roared.

And those were the last words Baka ever heard as his flailing arms failed to find a purchase and stop his descent.

Baka landed on the sharp rocks, many hundreds of feet below, with a sickening thud; not even his battle armour could save him. He was now fresh meat for the crows that swarmed over him.

The commander’s army, who were camped below the castle, witnessed their commander’s demise, heard his last screams. They knew their Second in Command, General Ezra, was now in charge of the Fighting 10 — for the time being, anyway!

Chapter 6

On the Move

The Fighting 10 had been on the move for weeks now. Like a plague of vengeful locusts, they burned, destroyed, and pillaged everything that came into their path, and all for one reason: to find and kill Stormblower. The closest they had been to finding this elusive girl, this child, this Stormblower, was when some half-beaten man, to save his wife and children, had said the bright lights in the sky were her dragon, Nimrod.

General Ezra, the new commander of the Fighting 10, rode his black horse at the front of a long column of soldiers. On either side of him, but of course, slightly to his rear, came the flag bearers. Their black banners blew briskly in the stiff breeze to reveal the dark black Dramariyan Dragon entwined through the deep red fire cloth. Behind them came the Hunters in their thick black metal armour, clanking as they walked. Their long silver spears, which they held in their right hands, towered over their heads with the razor sharp edge of each long curving blade catching the sunlight.

Behind them came the supplies: hundreds of carts pulled by the strongest of horses carried all an army would need for such a long hunt — food, extra weapons, the metalworkers, the carpenters, and so on and so on. The organisation of this endless list had given Ezra a never ending headache.

Chapter 7

News at Last

Looking around him, Ezra surveyed the land through his one good eye. The other had been torn out in a fight with a Silver Phantom Dragon years ago. Its sharp talons had blinded him in one eye and left a deep, ugly scar that stretched across the right side of his face, from forehead to chin. The scar gave him a very mean-looking appearance, one he used to his advantage to intimidate other troops. But today, there were no other troops; the view was of mostly flat and open farmland dotted with small peasant villages that now burned, leaving thick, black smoke trails to snake up to the sky to mark where the 10th Doom Legion had once been. And, more importantly, giving Ezra a clear view of where they had not.

‘Nothing, absolutely nothing. How much longer till I get her?’ Ezra lamented in growing despair as the horse he sat on trudged wearily through the mud that seemed to cover everything.

Ezra lived for the day when he would find himself torturing Stormblower, slashing a nailed whip across her bare back as she begged for mercy. But in the meantime, he contented himself by burning another village. He never cared whether the people he tortured and killed knew anything or not; he just liked hurting people.

‘Sir!’ came the call from Isa, his Second in Command.

Ezra didn’t much like Isa, but he knew Isa was good at keeping the troops in line. Besides, Ezra didn’t really like anyone.

‘What is it, Isa?’ Ezra shouted in obvious contempt.

‘We’re running short on food, sir; two days left at the most. It’s all on here.’ Isa leaned closer to Ezra and passed him a scroll of paper.

Ezra didn’t even care to look at the list; he took the scroll from Isa and threw it to the ground. ‘Put everyone on half rations and if they don’t like it, kill them.’

‘Yes, sir; however, there is more.’

‘What?’

‘The men are fighting amongst themselves. Three died this morning.’

Ezra burst out laughing, to Isa’s surprise. ‘Fighting is good for the men, and if some die, they were weak and deserved their deaths. Go, Isa, and trouble me no more.’

Suddenly, a warning cry from one of the patrolling Ridge Raider Dragons flying overhead caught Ezra’s attention. The dragon rider quickly flew down close to Ezra and shouted his report whilst the dragon he rode on moved his thick, leathery wings up and down, giving Ezra a welcome breeze in the muggy, damp air. ‘Dragon rider up ahead, sir, heading this way. Shall I go and see who it is?’ the Ridge Raider rider asked.

Looking up, Ezra dismissed the rider with the wave of his hand, sending him off ahead to investigate, leaving the warm, damp, and muggy air behind him.

Chapter 8

Rovithe

Ezra watched the Ridge Raider Dragon up ahead as it approached the incoming rider. The Ridge Raider Dragon, however, did not take long before turning and heading swiftly back to the head of the column, followed by the latest arrival. The dragon rider was held in check by the dragon guards, who would not let him through until Ezra commanded it.

The Ridge Raider once more flew in close to him, guided by the skilled hand of its rider, allowing him to shout down his report to Ezra.

‘It’s one of ours, sir. An out-flyer with a report for you.’

‘Very well, let him through,’ Ezra replied with a wave of his hand, dismissing the Ridge Raider Dragon and rider, without care, once more.

Watching the approaching dragon rider with little interest, Ezra hoped it was good news. He wondered whether there was another village up ahead to burn, which would give his Hunters something to do at least.

‘General Ezra, sir!’ shouted the rider on his blowing dragon as he came to a halt above him, supplying the commander with yet another welcoming breeze. ‘A village, sir. There’s another village about half a day’s ride ahead.’ The rider gasped, almost as worn out as his dragon.

Ezra looked at the man who now flew next to him; he’d flown hard. In fact, he’d flown so hard that his dragon was foaming at the mouth through sheer exhaustion as it gulped in large volumes of air to fill its tired lungs. It would probably die by the time daybreak came, but dragons weren’t something he was short