For Alagaesia: 7. The Blue The Red

Eragon's insides started somersaulting for a few moments before he gathered himself enough to process what Saphira had said. The implications of her simple sentence-a simple thought about them-made Eragon shiver all over. He was just speechless;dumb-struck for sometime. When the initial shock abated, Eragon's mind started to process the possibilities ahead of him. His mind was clouded by an unidentifiable emotion; it took moments for his brain to identify it as fear. Cold fear. The prospect of the being captured loomed large in his mind which in turn had brought about the fear. But somewhere in the far corners of his troubled and afraid mind there arose a trifle of another emotion; determination. The trait that had defined him. As the seconds passed agonisingly it started to take over him. Determination to escape or rather determination to save Saphira from capture. Seconds after Saphira had told him that Thorn was following them, Eragon said to her, "Try to out-fly him, Saphira." 'I will try', she replied.

"What is it Shadeslayer?", Blodhgarm asked. "Thorn is chasing.", said Eragon simply. Blodhgarm visibly stiffened. But he didn't respond for a while. Saphira's flying became laboured. 'What happened Saphira?', Eragon tensed. 'Murtagh has solidified the air around us, Little one. It is hard to fly', she said fear leaking through their link. 'He is trying to tire us down. What shall we do?', Eragon said desperately. 'Saphira!! Take my energy. Don't use yours.', the urgent voice of Glaedr tore through their minds. "Who is it?", Blodhgarm seemed to find his voice again. He sounded strangled and surprised at the same time. "Its Glaedr, Blodhgarm.", Eragon said. "Glaedr? But he is dead..!", Blodhgarm was confused. "No time to explain, Blodhgarm. But know this: Glaedr is with us now.", said Eragon impatiently. Blodhgarm nodded his head taking the situation in mind although his face conveyed that he didn't know one bit of what was going on.

However Blodhgarm helped in erecting certain urgent wards to protect Saphira. But as the minutes passed it became clear that not even Glaedr's huge reserves of energy would be enough to overcome the force that Murtagh seemed to possess. Eragon conveyed to Glaedr, the huge reserve of energy present in Aren. Glaedr was amazed, 'This energy is incredible. It has almost comparable energy with what was in Naegling. But we should not use it to power Saphira's flight.' "Why?", Eragon was desperate. 'This energy however large it is cannot outlast Murtagh's with all his Eldunari.', Glaedr said anger emanating from his voice. "Then what else can we do?", Eragon asked unable to think of any solution by himself. 'Fight him, Eragon. We will fight him.', Saphira's voice sounded determined. 'Saphira. Don't be rash. We can't win him. We don't have enough strength' Glaedr admonished her. "Send me against him, Shadeslayer. I will buy you time to escape", Blodhgarm said, finding his voice-it seemed after coming out of the shock of having Glaedr back. "He will kill you, easily Blodhgarm. It won't help us.", Eragon replied earnestly. "Let me die. Why should I live if I can't protect the last dragons?", Blodhgarm was ready to sacrifice. "No. You are not going. I won't send you to where there is sure death.", Eragon said. Thorn's roaring reached their ears then.

'He is near, Eragon. We have to fight him. We don't have any other option.', Saphira said. 'But how? how can we win against him? We don't..', Eragon was cut off by the booming voice of Murtagh, "Where are you running, brother? Where do you hope to go? I see that you and your beautiful Saphira are afraid of us. Do you really think you can escape this time, Shadeslayer?" Eragon's insides where burning; the voice of Murtagh was like poison to him now. 'We will fight him, Saphira. I won't let you be captured by Galbatorix. I swear it Saphira. Even if it means death for me.', Eragon swore to Saphira. 'Don't tell that. You will be fine. We will be fine', Saphira pleaded Eragon. "Oh, Saphira. We will try to be. But I will make sure you are.", Eragon promised her in the ancient language with both his mind and voice.

Arrows aimed at Saphira came from the ground as she reduced her altitude. "They have come planned. There are magicians and soldiers below.", Blodhgarm informed after a quick survey. Eragon's confidence sunk even further. He said, 'Fly high Saphira. Atleast we can avoid these soldiers.' Saphira in her rage sent out roiling flames from her mouth that burnt too few soldiers than normal. 'The soldiers have wards too. They are well prepared', Saphira said fiercely in the anger born out of desperation. Thorn had flown higher even as Saphira had tried to lower her altitude. They knew why now. There was no other way than going high. Murtagh was playing at their helplessness. Eragon cursed.

"Get me down, Shadeslayer. I may be able to help.", Blodhgarm said as Saphira started her upward spiral. "How? You can't defeat all those soldiers.", Eragon said. "Hide and fight, Shadeslayer. There is nothing we can do now than die or escape.", Blodhgarm said emotionlessly. "If you wish so.", Eragon said knowing full well that Blodhgarm would most likely die and Saphira angled herself downward again fighting Murtagh's densified air to find a spot free of the Empire soldiers. Murtagh's amplified voice sounded amused, "Second try, brother?" 'Don't listen to him, Eragon', admonished Glaedr when Eragon's temper gave away. When they found such a spot, Blodhgarm jumped off to the ground and Saphira turned back on course towards Thorn.

Every flap of wing seeming like their own death knells, Saphira flew towards where Thorn was waiting for them. There was a sinister silence in the air. From somewhere below somebody cried; the final cry before death. Blodhgarm had started his attack. But Eragon's focus was only on the ruby red giant above him. Thorn didn't move to attack. He just waited. Waited for his prey to fall before him by itself. Murtagh was bare-headed upon Thorn. A look at Murtagh brought back memories of Oromis's last moments to Eragon's mind. Murtagh was now looking happy; his desperate cries when Oromis was clearly winning flashed through Eragon's mind. Oromis was now dead. The cruel world. Eragon's mind became hard. He was not going to show any mercy this time to Murtagh. Oromis didn't train him to lose-Eldunarya or not-Eragon was not going down without a fight. He had made up his mind. Whatever happens Saphira will not be captured. He will see to that.

As Saphira came level with Thorn, Murtagh laughed, "Are we ready, brother?" "For what?", Eragon asked biting the words. "To go to Uru'baen. Do you think you can win me now? I am too powerful." "Don't act powerful, Murtagh. Without the Eldunari, you are nothing.", Eragon shouted. "So you know. Then how do you expect to fight me brother?", Murtagh asked a little kindly. "Don't you remember Oromis, Murtagh.", roared Eragon "Did you forget how you begged for your life to him? I was trained by him." "Hmmm.... If you don't remember Eragon... That rider was killed by my king.", Murtagh said returning to his mocking voice. "King? That mad man is no king. He is a monster.", refuted Eragon. "Whatever. You will see how monstrous he is soon enough. If fight is what you prefer, brother, then we shall fight.", Murtagh said nonchalantly. "Before we fight though, I think you should know how we know of your arrival, Eragon. A nice creation of yours, that girl, Elva. Galbatorix just had to contact her to make her choose sides.", Murtagh said smirking.

Eragon let out a heavy breath that seemed to say, "So be it". Saphira let out a stream of fire from her mouth even as Thorn tried to climb over her. In the little while she got from the blindness created by her fire, Saphira moved away from her position which left Thorn scrapping at thin air. Meanwhile Eragon unsheathed Brisingr and held it in position so that he could cut Thorn when he neared them. There was a howl of rage from Murtagh because of the balance he had lost due to his over-exerting of pressure on the saddle expecting Thorn to slam into Saphira. Before Thorn could turn around, Saphira moved behind him and bit at his tail which was still not completely cured from the brutal attack of Glaedr. Thorn roared in pain. There was visible disturbance on the ground as a few more of the soldiers had been felled by Blodhgarm.

Murtagh healed his dragon with a Eldunari in the seconds that Thorn had bought them by flying away from Saphira fast. Saphira chased him for a while before it was clear he that he was headed towards the ground. Eragon said to Saphira, 'Let him come to us, Saphira. There are soldiers down on the ground. It will be dangerous for us to go there.' Saphira obliged and Eragon in the few moments he got, extended his mind to the trees below and gathered some energy in the pommel of Brisingr.

Thorn tried to wait for Saphira to descend; but when she didn't go down, he started rising. Saphira seeing the opportunity she was being provided with-her being higher-put in all her force into a dive and slammed Thorn on his back, behind Murtagh. Her action wounded Thorn severely, but left her under-belly vulnerable to attack by Murtagh. He didn't miss the chance and slashed at her with Zar'roc. The pain felt by Saphira flowed through their link to Eragon and Eragon rushed to heal Saphira. But Murtagh wouldn't allow, shooting arrows at Eragon with perfect aim. Eragon felt his wards being weakened and asked Saphira to fly higher. Once they were out of grasp of Murtagh's arrows, Eragon healed Saphira using energy from Glaedr. But Saphira's attack had terribly wounded Thorn who needed medical attention and soon retreated to the ground.

This way the aerial combat continued for several minutes and it was clearly established that Thorn was no match for Saphira. But every time, Thorn was injured, he would go to the ground to get himself ready again. Soon Saphira started growing tired. Surprisingly, Murtagh hadn't used magic till then. It seemed that he actually believed he and Thorn could defeat Saphira and Eragon in fair combat. But as the fight progressed, Murtagh was increasingly sneering and looked set to use magic. Eragon restrained completely from touching magic for he knew, he couldn't match Murtagh in energy reserves.

Eragon and Murtagh didn't cross swords often too because of the nature of their combat. Thorn was rising now trying to match Saphira once again. Saphira was tired of dealing Thorn with occasional powerful strikes. She wanted to do the deadly attack now: catching a dragon by the neck. So she didn't even take advantage of the obvious fact that he was below her and let him draw level with her. The two dragons then started circling each other while their riders brandished their respective swords. Red and Blue around each other. Both dragons slammed against each other with force enough to unsettle even rocks; But Eragon was prepared and adjusted to the jolt with practised ease. Eragon brought Brisingr around to strike at Murtagh who was now near him and their fight went on matched hit for hit. Thorn tried to move away from Saphira when she succeeded in bringing her face right next to his neck. He started to twist away which put Murtagh off balance and Eragon using the opening slashed at Murtagh's ribs opening up a long gash. Meanwhile, Saphira succeeded in holding Thorn's neck with her mouth and she started the difficult job of tearing off Thorn's wings off his body.Both dragons were falling due to lack of flapping of wings. Thorn was roaring in pain. But Saphira would not let him go.

Murtagh tried to attack Eragon mentally so as to make Saphira lose her focus. But Eragon was not the one suffering from pain and hence had superior control over the situations. He counter-attacked Murtagh and pushed him deep into his own mind. Murtagh swore and cursed. Then he said, "Jierda!!" Eragon felt the spell drain on his wards. The spell was aimed at Saphira. Two minutes into the spell, Thorn was writhing in pain; But Eragon & Saphira's reserves of strength were dropping alarmingly. Further Murtagh repeatedly kept healing Thorn with energy from Eldunari. Eragon knew it was time to let go of his wards or risk losing consciousness. But he was loath to using energy from Aren that he had saved for the utmost dangers. He processed the situation at hand. For the moment he and Saphira had the upper hand. But they were falling fast toward the ground and their reserves of energy was being expended alarmingly to keep Murtagh's spell at bay. He looked down to see that in another half-minute they would slam into the ground which meant they were going to lose the advantage of having Thorn in Saphira's grasp in that time. Then it was a matter of minutes before Murtagh's spell broke through their wards. They will be broken and captured.

He had a sudden flash of an idea. Saphira saw it in his mind and shouted, 'No. Little one, don't do it. You may get killed.' 'But it will save you from capture Saphira.', Eragon said, a strange sense of clarity emanating from his mind. 'I don't care if I live a slave or not. I want you with me Eragon', Saphira refuted. 'He is right Saphira. Aren's energy will be enough. Both of you in Galbatorix's grasp is dangerous. Be calm.', said Glaedr immense grief showing through. 'No. What do you know? You got yourself killed when Oromis died.', Saphira refuted Glaedr quite heatedly. But Eragon continued his work. He delved into Aren's seemingly bottomless amounts of energy and connected himself to it. Then he chanted as if in a trance words from the ancient language. Saphira was pleading him, 'No, Eragon. Don't leave me. Please don't do it.' Eragon's face was calm. He stroked Saphira's flanks lovingly and removed himself from the saddle. Tears leaked from his eyes and fell on Saphira's body. 'I love you, Saphira'-those tear drops said. But he kept on chanting. And when they were just about to hit the ground, a flash of great blue light surrounded Saphira blinding everybody's view. It went off nearly as soon as it started and once view cleared, Saphira was nowhere to be seen. Eragon was on the ground alone. And a stunned Murtagh and Thorn lay near him in a heap.

Author's Note:

Writing the aerial combat scene was taxing. I had no clue as to what to do with it.