Shadow of Flame

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Seren cried out and put a hand over the cut, rocks biting into her backside as she fell to the ground.

  As Mair raised her hand, her gaze caught on the ring. Smoke curled up from her fingers, and the rain-soaked air was laden with the metallic tang of blood.

  A surprised ‘ha!’ escaped Mair’s lips, and her eyes fixed on Seren. “Imagine that.”

  “Imagine...?” Starbursts danced in Seren’s vision. Something important had happened, but thoughts had become slippery, and she couldn’t hold on to any of them for long.

  Mair wasn’t listening. She swore loudly. “Damn this fog!”

  Stop Mair. She had to stop Mair. She rose onto her knees. “Mother!” Seren clutched her mother’s boots.

  Mair kicked her in the side, sending Seren sprawling. “Quiet. You never were mine, and you’ve done enough damage today.”

  She knelt down and put a knee on Seren’s chest. Everything was so oddly vivid without the veil. Mair fumbled around the neck of Seren’s dress, then pulled out her necklace—the one that held her pearl from Cadoc, and the vial of liquid that would force the Sight upon her.

  “No!” Seren squirmed, but Ophelia clamped down on her shoulders as Mair pulled the vial free, snapping the chain of Seren’s necklace.

  “Open her mouth!” Mair commanded. “This will be as good a sedative as any. Visions knock her out for hours. They did even when she was a babe.”

  One of the rogues complied, wrenching Seren’s jaw wide while Mair pulled out the tiny cork and upended the bitter potion onto Seren’s tongue.

  Knowing it was useless to fight, Seren wriggled her hand into her pocket and grasped the sunstone she kept there for recording visions, just in case.

  Inexorable as a tsunami, the potion took hold. Seren gasped, her body arching, every muscle screaming. Lights danced in her eyes. She reached out, but the dragons were gone, already clustered around Mair again, leaving her alone.

  She rolled onto her side, stomach heaving.

  Everything went dark.

  * * *

  Warmth seeped into Cadoc’s brain. With it came the copper taste of blood on his tongue. Something slammed into Cadoc, knocking him to the ground.

  “I will not let you kill me, you sundering idiot!”

  “Rhys? Blood of the Ancients!” Cadoc stumbled away from his friend as the world came back into focus.

  The sounds of growling and snapping teeth surrounded them. The last thing Cadoc remembered was Mair, pulling out her ring. Mair, who had cursed him, then sent him not once, but twice, to kill Rhys. There was something else, too. Something important. But at the moment, Cadoc couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was.

  “Cadoc?” Rhys stood before him, sides heaving. Kai peeked out from behind a huge boulder behind him, one hand on her mouth, as if she were holding her breath. Beyond her, dragons fought in the sky, their battle coming ever closer to the island.

  Cadoc looked back down at Rhys. “Stars...I think it’s gone.” Cadoc flapped his wings. “The curse is broken!”

  And it was. He could feel it. The last time—when Mair had put the real blood charm into the keeping box—he’d felt no different. This time, it was as if a transparent wall of ice between him and his fire had melted. He was himself again.

  He stumbled over his maimed claw.

  Not himself after all.

  Rhys limped toward him, and Cadoc winced when he caught sight of his friend’s back leg. Ancients, had he done that?

  “Watch out!” Evan’s voice.

  Cadoc looked up, then leapt in front of Rhys in time to knock away Tharah, who was coming at him with her claws extended. He roared when they raked down his side instead.

  “Cadoc!” She pulled back, confused. “What are you doing? This is the red king. He wants to enslave us. We have to take him to Mair!”

  “Who do I want to enslave?” Rhys, on Cadoc’s other side, sounded genuinely confused.

  Tharah’s voice was frenzied. “All of us! You want to repair the mantle so you can bend us to your will!”

  Tharah lunged again. Cadoc shoved her with one shoulder and knocked her to the ground, careful as he could be not to hurt her. Casting a glance at Rhys he said, “You never told me you had plans for world domination.”

  Rumbling laughter emanated from Rhys’s chest. “I guess you’ve been gone too long.” He paused, his voice going serious. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  Cadoc felt lighter than he had in months. “So am I.” He nudged Tharah. “Rhys is not going to enslave you. I think someone might have been telling you lies.”

  Lies.

  Mair had lied....

  A black pile of cinders stirred in the breeze caught Cadoc’s attention, breaking apart his thoughts. “What’s that?”

  “That was Alexios,” Kephas replied, naming a rogue Cadoc had only seen in passing. The young Derkin was panicked, his head twisting back and forth to watch the sky. “This is a trap. They lured us here to kill us!”

  Could Rhys’s fire burn that hot? The memory teased, so close he could touch it. For something to kill a dragon like that, it would have to be—

  “Rhys!” Deryn flew toward them, a streak of blue against gray. “You’ve got to fall back! Get out of range! Mair has some kind of weapon and she’s going to try and kill you and Owain!”

  Artifact.

  Rhys hadn’t seemed to hear her. “Deryn! Ancients, you’re alive! Did you escape Owain? Where’s Seren?”

  “Cadoc?” Tharah and Kephas stood shoulder to shoulder, Tharah’s stained-glass mosaic of scales glinting dully in the poor light. Her eyes darted from Rhys to Deryn. “If we aren’t taking him to Mair, what do we do?”

  “Fly!” Cadoc shouted. “Rhys, Deryn is right, Mair has an artifact. She’s trying to kill you and Owain and put Deryn on the throne!”

  A dragon roared, and everyone turned. Down the beach, only a few hundred yards away, Owain and Demba, the dragon who had murdered Griffith, were flying straight for them.

  Cadoc went to Rhys’s side, forming ranks even as Owain sped for them.

  “Oh, hell.” Kai had emerged from behind her boulder. She started to scramble into the harness on Rhys’s back, but Rhys sidled away. “Kai, I want you to go with Jiang.”

  The unfamiliar Lung female stiffened. “Majesty, I would prefer to be part of this fight.”

  Kai leapt down. “No! I’m supposed to watch your back!”

  Cadoc dug his claws into the earth as Owain drew nearer. “Sunder it, Rhys, there’s no time!”

  His friend ignored him. “Kai, please. Any battle but this one. If Owain sees you, he’ll do whatever he can to hurt you so he can hurt me.”

  Kai wavered for the barest of instants, then nodded. She ran for Jiang. For an instant, Cadoc nearly jumped in front of her. There was a dangerous gleam in the stranger’s eye that he didn’t like at all.

  Before he could move, Rhys—acting on desperate instinct, Cadoc assumed—used the mantle on Jiang. “Take her home. Keep her safe until you get there. Don’t stop or waste time speaking to anyone until you’re far, far away.”

  Jiang’s eyes widened. She hesitated for a long moment. Then, as if deciding it was best not to resist, she took off. Cadoc wondered if Rhys realized his command had literally prevented her from speaking. But it was too late to worry about that now.

  Cadoc turned to Tharah and Kephas. Owain was nearly upon them and the rogues were just standing there, dazed. “You don’t want to be enslaved? Good. Fight with us.”

  * * *

  Deryn lashed her tail. Owain was almost on them. She was ready. Stars, she was ready. She’d wanted to rip out his throat since she was a child.

  But instead of attacking, Owain came to a halt twenty yards away, his eyes darting from one of them to the other
like he was looking for someone.

  In the weird moment of calm, Rhys leaned toward her. “Go. Get to Seren. You’ve got to keep her safe from Owain.”

  And leave him? Sunder that!

  “Aderyn,” Rhys said, regarding her with baleful blue eyes as if he could read her thoughts. “You and I are the only thing that stand between Owain and the annihilation of our people in war with the humans. We can’t both be here. Go. Stop Mair from using that weapon and get Seren. Both of you hide until Ashem or I come for you.”

  The weapon. Stars. Owain had driven it from her mind. But...had Mother even shot the thing? There was a pile of cinders on the earth, but none of the bolts had flown since Deryn arrived on the beach. That had to mean something. She’d changed her mind. She wanted to help.

  Rhys was having none of it. “You can go on your own, or I can use the mantle.”

  “Fine.” Deryn turned and jumped into the sky. Flying back the way she’d come, she scanned the cliffs for her mother. She knew that Mair had changed her mind. When Deryn found her, Mother would be ready and willing to help Rhys. Cadoc’s curse had to be some kind of misunderstanding.

  Mair stood on the cliffs, much nearer to Rhys and Owain than she’d been the first time Deryn had spotted her. Deryn started to call out, but Mair lifted an arm.

  Not in greeting.

  Mair aimed the artifact at Rhys and fired.

  “No!” Deryn screamed. Landing hard, she spun to look. The bolt hit dead center in the small space on the beach between Owain and Rhys. Deryn wasn’t a scholar, but she knew there were certain artifacts intended to kill dragons and dragons only. This could be one of those—it could wound like the projectile it was, but it wouldn’t detonate and turn its victim to cinders unless that victim happened to be saturated with dragon magic.

  Deryn turned back to her mother, becoming human as she ran. She diminished, her wings disappearing, four feet becoming legs and arms. She stumbled as she reached her mother. Mair was looking past her, and she had another bolt ready to shoot.

  “Mother, no! Stop! I don’t want to be queen!”

  Mair looked up, brows drawn. “Of course you do. That’s why you got out of the way. You knew I couldn’t shoot them while you were there.” She smiled and patted Deryn on the cheek. “It’s all coming right now, bach.”

  Deryn watched, numb with horror, as Mair raised her arm, aiming at Rhys.

  Deryn’s heartbeat kicking into a frenzy. She didn’t know what to say to stop this. Rhys was the diplomat. Deryn usually just stabbed her problems with her knives until they went away. But she couldn’t stab her own mother.

  She grabbed Mair’s arm, fouling the aim. “Mother, I want you to help Rhys. He’s a good king, and he’s been my only true family for a thousand years. You cannot kill him.”

  Mair tried to shake her off, but Deryn wouldn’t let go. She looked around, horror spreading until its icy tendrils wrapped around her entire torso. Two of Mair’s rogues stood with her, but someone was missing. Deryn knew Seren had come this way. “Mother...where’s Seren?”

  Deryn heard a moan. With growing terror, she sprinted over and looked behind a nearby boulder. Seren lay on the ground, silently convulsing in the throes of a vision.

  “Stars! Mother!”

  She pivoted in time to see Mair shoot another bolt at Rhys.

  Something broken inside Deryn, something that had been starting to mend, snapped. She watched long enough to see the second bolt miss, this time coming within inches of Owain. The white dragon, who had been stalking toward Rhys, stopped dead. Even from where she stood, Deryn could see the murder in his eyes.

  Mair raised her arm to aim another bolt.

  She wasn’t going to stop. She really was trying to kill her own son.

  Deryn tackled her mother to the ground and ripped the sheath full of bolts from her arm. The edge of the cliff was close, so Deryn heaved the weapons into the sea.

  When she looked up and saw Owain flying straight for them, Deryn realized she’d made another mistake.

  “No!” Mair threw Deryn to one side and leapt up, stretching out her arms like she could catch Owain. As if, even without a dragon body, she had a shadow of a chance of protecting Deryn from Owain.

  But Owain wasn’t after Deryn. Before Mair could call her fire, the white dragon plowed into her, taking them both over the edge of the cliff. He let her drop and soared into the sky.

  Mair screamed. And screamed.

  And then her scream cut off.

  A deep and terrible pain rose in Deryn’s heart. She ran for the cliff’s edge. Owain was banking, circling back, but Deryn didn’t care. She leaned over the edge and found Mair’s body, broken on the rocks below. Sound tore from her throat, a shriek of agony she couldn’t stop. “Mam! No!”

  * * *

  In the first instant after Owain leapt over them and flew off, Rhys was relieved. Then he realized where his cousin was headed.

  Straight for Deryn.

  By the time he got there, Deryn was leaning over the edge of the cliff, weeping. Mair was dead, her body broken on a rock sticking out of the surf below.

  Owain was circling back.

  “Change, Deryn. He’s coming.”

  Without protest, she backed away from the cliff. Mist coalesced around her. When it dissipated, she was the azure dragon.

  Ancients, how much had she shifted today? She looked exhausted—even broken. Rhys knew he should feel something about Mair’s death, but all he could muster was rage.

  Barely a quarter of a mile from the island, Ashem’s defense was failing. Owain’s dragons were too strong, stronger than any soldiers Rhys had ever seen. The battle would reach the island in moments.

  Before that happened, they’d have to deal with Owain.

  The white dragon dove for them, his maw gaping, spewing a cloud of ice crystals. Deryn responded before Rhys could, breathing a protective cloud of steam so hot that the air billowed into clouds of fog.

  Then Owain was on them.

  Rhys lunged for Owain’s body while Deryn went for his head. Owain bit and slashed and clawed, but Deryn—driven by Mair’s death—fought like a demon.

  Rhys did what he could to help her, using his larger mass and stronger muscles to keep Owain on the ground. Owain landed a bite on Rhys’s foreleg and a gash to Deryn’s flank, but it wasn’t enough to slow them down. Despite the white dragon’s weirdly magnified strength, they brought Owain to the ground together.

  Deryn closed her jaws around his throat. Owain struggled, and Rhys dug his claws into the Owain’s side until blood oozed around his claws and pooled in the yellow-green grass below.

  This was it.

  The war was over.

  “Let him go.”

  Mesmerized by the sight of his sister slowly crushing Owain’s throat, Rhys didn’t register, at first, that someone had spoken.

  “Let him go, or I’ll kill her.”

  Rhys’s head snapped up. Demba, the great bronze dragon, stood about fifteen yards away, holding Seren limp in his claws. Ancients, no.

  Rhys leapt back. Deryn glowered, but released Owain’s neck from her jaws. Owain didn’t rise. Instead, an icy wind blew over him. The dragon disappeared, replaced by an unconscious blond man.

  So close. So sundering close. Rhys wildly considered leaping forward and smashing his foreclaw down on Owain. If he did it fast enough, he might be able to get to Seren after.

  No. It was too far. Demba would snap Seren’s neck before Rhys moved and inch.

  Dragons roared, forcing Rhys’s eyes to the sky. Ashem’s line had broken, and Owain’s dragons poured through the gaps. Ashem had held off Owain’s forces as long as he could, but from the look of things, it was time to retreat.

  Unless...

  “Put her down,” Rhys comm
anded. But even as he did, he felt the mantle fail him. He’d used an enormous amount of power only a few days ago when he’d silenced a beach full of dragons. Then he’d poured all of his slowly rebuilding stores into his command to Jiang.

  He had nothing left.

  The big, bronze dragon shuddered as Rhys’s power washed over him, but it was too weak to do anything. Demba shook Seren so hard Rhys was afraid her neck would snap.

  “None of that, puppet king. Get away from Owain, or I will eat your Seeress.”

  Something happened in his mind. A flash of shock from Kai, an instant of fear. But then it disappeared.

  Rhys shook himself. Kai was safe with Jiang. He needed to focus on Seren. Fury boiling in his blood, Rhys backed away from Owain. Deryn did the same.

  We can save her. As long as she’s alive, I can save her.

  When they were several yards away, Demba moved forward and picked up Owain’s unconscious body. He bared his teeth at Rhys. “If you follow me—or send your pet Azhdahā to follow me—I will kill her. If I even think that one of your dragons is behind me at any time on my flight to Cadarnle, I will kill her. Do you understand, Son of the Usurper?”

  Rhys dug his claws deep into the earth. “I understand.”

  “Good.”

  Demba took off, shouting at his dragons to retreat.

  Rhys had to tackle Deryn to keep her from following.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Persephone and Hades

  They regrouped on the island. Ashem had come through the battle with relatively few injuries, thank the Ancients. As had Evan and Cadoc.

  Cadoc. Rhys could hardly believe that his friend was back. Two months without him had been too long. He hadn’t been idle, however. Most of them the rogues had fled the island when Mair died and Ashem’s defense had crumbled, but a few stayed. Apparently, they’d stayed because of Cadoc.

  Rhys found his friend sitting on a boulder, staring out at the northeastern sea. The clouds had finally let loose, and most of the dragons had retreated into the waystation to escape the frigid, unrelenting drizzle. Despite Owain’s escape and Seren’s kidnapping, Cadoc’s presence lifted a weight from Rhys’s shoulders.