Requiem's Hope (Dawn of Dragons)

by Daniel Arenson

  Tanin stepped closer to the king, and his hand strayed toward his sword. His face reddened. "Wait a moment! You mean they're married already? That's not a marriage ceremony. I refuse to—"

  The king sighed and waved his hand dismissively. "Guards, drag this man away." He puffed on his hookah. "Keep him alive for now, but keep him out of my sight."

  Soldiers stepped forth, drew their swords, and approached Tanin. The young Vir Requis drew his own blade and snarled. "Stand back! Stand back or I'll burn you all. I do not accept this marriage." He sliced the air with his blade. "I warn you, stand back!"

  Across the hall, the nude women gasped and chattered. Soldiers shouted at Tanin, the priest sang prayers, and Sin-Naharosh laughed and tossed sweets into his mouth.

  Issari shouted over the din. "Do not harm my half-brother! Sin-Naharosh, I will honor our marriage, but do not harm him! I—" She gasped as soldiers stepped forth and grabbed her arms. "Release me! Sin-Naharosh, what is the meaning of this?"

  One soldier twisted her arm. Another kicked her behind her knee, forcing her to kneel. She shouted as the soldiers brought forth chains. Before she could react—before she could even summon her magic—one soldier slapped a metal collar around her neck. Another bound her wrists behind her back. Her magic filled her, and she tried to shift, to become a dragon in this hall. Scales rose across her, yet as her body began to grow, the chains and collar tightened around her, shoving her back into human form.

  "Tanin!" she cried.

  He had begun to shift. Wings grew from his back. Claws lengthened from his fingers. Before he could complete the transformation, a soldier swung a club. The metal weapon slammed into Tanin's scaly head with a crack. His magic left him, and Tanin fell to the floor, only a man again. Soldiers leaped onto him, punching and kicking, and bound his arms and legs.

  "Drag him away!" Sin-Naharosh said, laughing as he chewed his sweets. "Toss him into the dungeon." He wiped crumbs off his chest. "Toss the girl among the others."

  Issari screamed and struggled as the guards pulled her away from the throne. Her heels dragged across the mosaic, and her chains clattered. The other women of the hall looked at her silently, their eyes full of pity. They lay upon tasseled cushions, on the ledges of pools, and upon giltwood beds, nude and jeweled and scented of sweet perfumes. For the first time, Issari saw what the hookah smoke had previously obscured. Every woman here was chained. These were not simply wives; they were slaves.

  The voice of the gatekeeper, the man who had led Issari to the palace, rose ahead. "What of the Eteerians outside our hall?"

  Sin-Naharosh snorted, nearly invisible now behind the green smoke. "Bring in whoever is strong enough to serve as a soldier or slave. If you find the women attractive enough, give a few to your men." He sucked in more smoke and coughed. "Leave the rest outside to perish. The vultures must feed too."

  Terror pounded through Issari. Her limbs trembled, her belly froze, and her heart thrashed against her ribs. "Sin-Naharosh! You will pay for this treachery. You will burn in the light of Taal!" She raised her amulet, but its light seemed so dim in the smoke; it barely shone for more than a few feet.

  "Treachery? I fulfill our deal." The obese king waved smoke aside, coughing. "I married you as you wished. And I will conquer Eteer as you wished too. Your kingdom, like your body, are mine."

  She screamed. The guards knocked her down among the slaves, attached her chains to a column, and walked away. Issari leaped up, tugging at the chains, trying to free herself. The smoke flowed thicker, engulfing her. She saw nothing but the swirling green clouds. She heard nothing but the cruel king laugh.

  ALINA

  "Shine upon me, stars of Requiem," she prayed. "This is Requiem's birth. This is Requiem's greatest hour of need."

  Tears shone in her eyes to behold the evil engulfing her. She flew among only forty other dragons, perhaps the only children of Requiem in the world. Before her the demons seemed endless, covering the sky, hiding the mountainsides, hiding even the light of the stars. Did those stars still shine upon her? Alina had spent her life worshiping those heavenly lights, the Draco constellation that had always guided her way. Today she could not feel that guidance. Their light had led her here—from her tribe, to Requiem, to Bar Luan, and here to their great battle above Two Skull Mountain—but even their light could not pierce the darkness that had flown from the south.

  "Please, my stars. Do not abandon your children."

  A skeletal creature flew toward her like a dragon stripped of all muscle and fat, beating decrepit wings stretched with brittle old leather. Its jaws opened wide, lined with many teeth. Alina tried to burn it, but her fire washed over the dry bones harmlessly. The creature slammed into her, clattering, snapping its teeth, cutting her with its claws. She screamed, her lavender scales cracking under the onslaught. She cried for aid, but none would answer; her brother flew ahead with Laira and Maev, and the dragons of Bar Luan were battling their own demons. The creature's teeth drove into her wing, and Alina shouted out to her stars.

  I've never killed before. I don't know how to fight. I—

  The creature's claws grabbed her throat. Her blood poured.

  I am a dragon of Requiem. Today we are all warriors.

  She swiped her tail, slamming it against the skeletal beast. One of its ribs snapped, and it released her and howled. With a hoarse shout, Alina drove forward, crashing into it, and lashed her tail again and again. Its spine shattered, raining segments. Blowing smoke, she grabbed the creature's neck in her claws, twisted, and tore off its head. She tossed it down, and it slammed into another demon—this one a slimy worm the size of a whale. She roared down her fire, burning both severed head and the creature beneath it.

  Alina growled, teeth bared, and stared from side to side at the flying demons. "And so, with darkness around me, I will cast my own light."

  The demons flew toward her and her people. Behind her, her fellow dragons raised their flames. Demons and dragons slammed together with crashing fire and blood.

  And Alina killed. Her teeth tore through demon hides. Her fire blazed over creatures of nightmare. A bloated thing, its belly swinging, buzzed toward her, and she disemboweled it with her claws. A great, naked fowl with three necks swooped above her, beaks pecking. She blasted it with fire, then bit into the charred meat, tugging out its innards. A pale demon covered in spikes and hooks slammed into her, cutting her leg, and she clawed madly, shattering its armor, cutting the softness beneath. Blood coated her scales and teeth, and she became a feral thing, a beast herself, a creature of retribution. The starlight had faded and her own darkness claimed her.

  "For Requiem I kill," she said. "For Requiem I will become this beast. For Requi—"

  An arrow whistled and slammed into her shoulder.

  Alina yowled.

  She beat her wings, but they felt so slow, so heavy. Pain pulsed from her shoulder across her body, digging like insects crawling through her veins. Her heart pounded. Haze covered her eyes. She looked up, struggling to stay aloft, to see the young woman flying toward her.

  The woman held a bow, and a quiver of arrows hung across her back. She wore a cotton tunic, a fur cloak, and patches of bronze armor. She rode upon a buzzing insect as large as a dragon, its many eyes burning with inner flame. The strangest thing about the woman, however, was not the demon she rode but her face. Stitches surrounded it, as if she wore a mask of skin. She flew toward Alina, nocking another arrow.

  "Fly to me, reptile!" the woman called down to her. "I am Ciana, Slayer of Dragons. I wear a new face after the fire of Requiem burned me. Now I live to see your kingdom fall."

  She fired a second arrow.

  Alina tried to dodge the missile, but the first arrow still blazed in her shoulder; she thought that poison covered its head. She managed to flap her wings once, but she only rose a few feet. The second arrow drove into her leg, and new pain exploded through Alina, and she dipped a dozen feet in the sky.

  She managed to stay afloat
through sheer willpower. Tears in her eyes, Alina looked up at the young woman. Ciana hovered above in the haze, riding her buzzing insect.

  "You don't have to do this, child!" Alina said. "You don't have to fight for him. You don't have to fly with evil. You—"

  Ciana fired a third arrow.

  It slammed into Alina's neck.

  Poison flowed through her, the world spun, and Alina fell from the sky.

  She crashed against one demon, tumbled over him, flapped her wings once, then slammed into the mountainside. The arrows in her body snapped. The shock knocked the magic out of her. She shrank, taking human form again, and lay moaning upon the mountain in her druid robes. Her blood stained the lavender fabric.

  Before Alina could rise, the demonic insect swooped toward her, wings buzzing, eyes spinning. Wreathed in firelight, Ciana leaped from the saddle, landed gracefully upon the mountain, and held a sword to Alina's neck.

  Alina froze, staring up at the woman.

  Ciana trembled, and her lips peeled back into a snarl. Her eyes burned and leaked tears. "Where is Tanin, the creature who lied to me, who tried to sneak into my bed?" Her tears splashed down, and her sword shook. "Where is Jeid, the King of Reptiles, the one who burned me?"

  Such pain in her. Alina winced. Such grief, such rage. She had never seen a child so lost, so broken.

  "We never meant to hurt you, child." Alina pushed herself onto her elbows, her blood still trickling. "I'm so sorry for how you suffered. Let me help you. Let me pray for you. I can heal the pain inside you, can—"

  Ciana drove down her sword, piercing Alina's thigh.

  Blood spurted and Alina screamed.

  "You will be silent, creature!" Ciana twisted the blade. "All you creatures do is lie. You took my face. You made me somebody else. You will all die here this night, and I will laugh and spit upon your graves."

  Alina grimaced, crying out in pain, the sword in her leg. "Listen to me, Ciana. You don't have to fall to evil. Look above you. Look at the demons that cover the sky, that spread across the world. Is this what you fight for? A world of demons?" She reached up a shaky hand. "You need not do this. You can find another way. You can be forgiven."

  Tears streamed down Ciana's cheeks, collecting on her new face's stitches like dew on cobwebs. "It's too late for me. Too late. When Jeid burned me, he burned all compassion from my soul. When he took my face, he took my heart too. And now I will do the same to you." Ciana knelt, driving her knee into Alina's belly. She tugged the sword free from Alina's thigh and brought it to her face. "Now I take your face. I will peel it off, creature, and leave you alive and screaming."

  Alina tried to summon her magic, to become a dragon again, but she had lost too much blood. More blood was flowing from her thigh; she thought an artery was cut. Poison from the arrows still flowed through her. Her magic eluded her, and she could only raise her arms weakly, uselessly trying to shove Ciana off.

  The blade pierced the skin under her ear.

  "You made me do this," Ciana said, trembling. "You made me who I am."

  She moved the blade, cutting a line from Alina's ear down to her chin.

  Her blood dripped, and Alina tried to rise but could not, and she cried out to her stars, but she could not see their light, only the face of her enemy, a face stitched onto a broken soul.

  My own soul will rise, Alina thought. My soul will fly to the stars. If you can hear me, stars, grant me death now.

  Light blazed above, but it was not starlight. Fire rained. A silver dragon swooped and roared. The demonic insect, Ciana's mount, tried to rise and fight, but the dragonfire crashed into it. It crumpled.

  Ciana leaped to her feet, bloody sword in hand, and spun around. She raised her arms in defense, a useless gesture. The dragon's claws drove into her chest and emerged bloody from her back.

  Lying on the mountainside, her lifeblood dripping away, Alina winced and her heart twisted, for even now she had not craved Ciana's death.

  "Alina!" The silver dragon shook his claws, sending Ciana's corpse tumbling down the mountainside. Dorvin released his magic, resumed human form, and knelt above Alina. "Stars damn it. Alina! Can you hear me?"

  She smiled weakly at her brother. She raised her hand and touched his clean-shaven cheek. "Even as war burns the world, you still shave every morning, you vain thing." Her tears flowed down to her smile. "You're going to drive Maev crazy, but you'll make her happy too."

  "You're going to drive me crazy." He tore off a strip of his cloak and bandaged her leg. "Talking like that, like you're not going to be here? Hush your big mouth." Yet she saw the dampness in his eyes, the tremble in his fingers. "Falling down and getting wounded like that . . . Are you sure we're related? Damn it, Alina." He pressed more cloth against the wound on her neck. "Once this war's over, I'm going to kill you."

  Her eyelids fluttered. He was too late; she knew that. She had lost too much blood, and her pain was fading now. "I'll look after you." Her voice was but a whisper. "I promise you, Dorvin. Always. I will look down upon you from the stars, and I will bless Requiem. My light will always shine with you."

  His tears flowed freely. He pulled her into his arms. "I told you to hush your mouth! You just have a few scratches on you. You're talking as if you're dying or something." He held her close. "I'm not going to let you die. I've always looked out for you."

  "And now you'll look after Requiem." She clutched his hand. "You are a warrior of Requiem, a defender of our people. Remember that always. In Requiem's gauntlet, as fire rains and our blood spills upon the mountain, I name you Eleison, an old word in a forgotten tongue. It means mercy, and I pray now to the stars to show mercy to Requiem, to let her rise from flame into a great kingdom of starlight."

  He held her close, whispering into her hair, begging her not to leave, but Alina knew it was her time. This had always been her time to die. A young child learning of the stars, a druid leading her people to Requiem, a priestess freeing the captives of Bar Luan, a warrior in a battle of demons—she had always been meant to travel this path of darkness. This path led her to gates of starlight, and Alina smiled because she could see them now, shining above—the stars of Requiem. The Draco constellation emerged from clouds, and its light warmed her, welcoming her home. And she saw them above—great halls woven of starlight, their many columns bright, a vision of the Requiem that would be, the Requiem those she had led here would build.

  "It's beautiful," she whispered. "It's so beautiful."

  Her brother held her close, and she closed her eyes. She let his warmth comfort her, and she let a new kind of magic flow through her and lead her down a new path.

  LAIRA

  Her father laughed upon his demon. "Your friends abandon you, Laira! The silver dragon has fled."

  Laira glared and blasted fire his way, but she was down to sparks; they scattered off his armor. Dorvin had darted off, calling for his sister. Jeid still fought across the battlefield, surrounded by demons. Only Laira and Maev faced the King of Eteer. The battle raged around them, a sphere of rocs, pteros, and demons. Here, in a pocket of smoke and fire, they fought alone.

  "Fancy the left side, Laira?" Maev asked. Smoke rose between the green dragon's teeth. "I'll take the right."

  Laira beat her wings and smiled thinly. "Let's dance."

  The two dragons, gold and green, charged.

  Raem laughed upon his demon. Scattering what fire remained within her, Laira flew toward her father's right flank. The king's mount reared and lashed its claws, and Laira was forced to pull back, to snap her teeth, to try to claw her way forward. The demon was larger than her, a twisted thing of skin stretched across too much bone. The demon's head was its worst deformity—it looked like a human head, waterlogged, swollen, its eyes leaking tears. But the creature's claws still lashed out, tipped with metal. One claw drove along Laira's chest, shedding her blood. She screamed and clawed back, tearing at the creature. She ripped through its skin and hit bone. The demon barely seemed to feel the pain; i
t had no blood to shed.

  Laira growled, rose higher, and swooped, trying to reach Raem in the saddle. He raised his shield, and her claws clattered against the bronze disk. He rose in the sky, knocking her back, and his demon turned toward her, teeth snapping.

  On the king's other side, Maev was attacking, but the demon's tail was whipping madly, holding her back.

  "Is this how you dance?" Raem asked, laughing. When Laira swooped again, Raem swung his sword. The khopesh bit into Laira's foot, and she roared in pain. The demon's tail slammed into Maev's neck, piercing her skin; the green dragon cried out, suddenly sounding very young, and crashed down onto the mountainside. At once a horde of demons, massive slugs covered with white spikes, landed upon her and began to bite. Maev flailed upon the mountain, rolling down the slope, struggling to tear off the creatures.

  Still flying, bleeding and winded, Laira tried to attack Raem again. His swinging sword and his demon's claws held her back.

  "And so we fight alone, Laira." He smiled thinly. "Everyone has abandoned you. Your friends are gone. Your king cannot reach you. Your mother is dead." He stroked his demon's hair. "Do you see this creature? She was human once. I will turn you into a similar demon."

  Terror pounded through Laira. She did not fear death, but to linger in mockery of life, never dying, always serving her father's cruelty . . . that she could not bear. The demon wept even as it attacked; perhaps some part of its broken mind still clung to memories of its old self. That fear gave Laira the strength to charge again. She slammed into Raem, snapping her teeth, raining her last sparks of fire onto his armor.

  He laughed as he fought back, cutting her. His demon's wings entwined with her own, and for a moment they flew as one creature, some conjoined twin, their limbs locked together. Teeth dug into Laira's chest, and her father's sword cut her again, and they tumbled through the sky, a ball of scales and skin and metal. The world spun madly. Locked together, the dragon, demon, and king fell toward the mountainside, rolled through a cave, and entered the shadowy cavern within.