She rose, tears in her eyes.
"But I ran from battle," she whispered. "When the wyverns attacked, I—"
"You flew to find your family," Elethor said. "I will not fault you for that. And damn it, Treale. You saved my bloody sister, for stars' sake. That's got to count for something, no?"
She laughed, eyes damp. "A knight, Elethor! Bloody stars. Two years ago I thought I'd be a puppeteer." She wiped her eyes, clutched her sword, and nodded down the hall. "Now that I'm a knight and about a hundred times braver, are you ready to go kill the queen?"
He nodded. She clasped his shoulder and bared her teeth. He gripped her shoulder too. They shared one long, final stare, then turned and ran shouting down the hallway. Their men screamed and charged behind them. They smashed against the bronze doors.
These doors were ancient, forged thousands of years ago, and they crashed open, and Elethor and Treale burst into a great chamber.
Countless nephilim screeched, white eyes blazing like molten fire.
Elethor shifted into a dragon and spewed his flames. Treale shifted too and her fire screamed across the chamber. Nephilim shrieked. Fellow Vir Requis burst into the room behind them, and more dragons blew fire, and nephilim crashed against the ceiling and walls, and a column cracked.
The hall blazed, an inferno of flame and flesh and scale and tooth. A nephil burst through fire and thrust claws, and Elethor roared, blood upon his chest. Another nephil leaped onto Treale and knocked her down, and she rolled and wrestled it, her tail flailing. The beasts flew everywhere, a great living mass, and Elethor lashed his claws, bit maggoty flesh, and whipped his tail.
A flaming halo crackled, and a towering nephil rose ahead, wings spread out like the sails of a demon ship. Lord Legion shrieked, and the sound cracked the walls, and rubble fell from the ceiling. Men died in his jaws, and the Nephil King laughed, and all around him his minions spread, an endless sea of the fallen.
We cannot win this, Elethor realized, and fear clutched him, and for a moment he froze. They are too many. I led my people to death.
Legion chewed and swallowed men, licked his lips, and charged toward Elethor. Legion's great arms swung, and Elethor blew his fire, but the arms slammed into him. He flew and crashed against a wall, cracking it. More nephilim mobbed him. Three beasts dragged Treale down and bit into her back, and she screamed.
"Enough!"
The voice rang across the chamber, clear even over the shrieks and roars.
The nephilim froze.
Elethor fell, wheezing, and his wings draped at his sides. He looked up to see Solina sitting upon a throne of living flesh and scales. One of the nephilim formed her backrest, its head above her own, drooling upon her. Two more nephilim formed her armrests; she laid her hands upon their ridged spines. A crown like claws of gold rose upon her head. Nephil drool and pus covered her white gown, and the creatures of her throne licked her with long, white tongues.
"Elethor," she said with a crooked smile. "You cannot win this war. Look around you! A thousand nephilim fill this hall. You have brought…." She squinted. "Oh my, Elethor, but you have only one dragon left, a scrawny female one too."
Elethor growled and looked around him. A hundred men of Osanna and Requiem had charged into this chamber with him. They lay dead upon the floor, torn apart, limbs scattered and bodies crushed. Already nephilim feasted upon them, sucking up bodies like owls sucking up mice.
Only Treale still lived. The young black dragon lay on her belly, and Legion stood above her, his claws pressed down against her neck. Treale growled and tried to rise, but could not. Legion smiled above her, tongue darting, and his halo flamed blue.
Elethor looked back at Solina.
He roared and blew a jet of fire toward her.
She leaped back, and several nephilim slammed against Elethor. Claws swung. Fangs dug into him. He screamed. He burned them. His fire exploded and showered back upon him. Blows thudded against him, and a nephil clawed his cheek, and pain blazed, and more claws slashed his belly, and he roared. Claws drove into his back, and Elethor howled, and his magic left him.
He crashed to the floor in human form.
Legion lolloped toward him, grinning. The Nephil King reached down, wrapped his claws around Elethor, and lifted him like a demonic child lifting a discarded toy.
Elethor hung in the air, dazed, the claws nearly crushing him. Legion shook him wildly, and Elethor's head spun, and he could not see or breathe. All around him the nephilim leered and howled.
"Enough!" Solina shouted again.
The nephilim froze. Legion stood holding Elethor in one fist, pinning his arms down. Blood dripped into Elethor's eyes, and he could barely breathe. It felt like Legion's grip would snap his ribs.
He looked aside and saw that Legion was clutching Treale in his other hand. She too had resumed human form, and she hung in Legion's grip only feet away from Elethor. Blood dripped from her, and her face was pale. She whispered to him, but her voice was so weak Elethor could not hear.
"Treale!" he cried hoarsely.
She gave him a pleading look, eyes full of pain. Her lips uttered his name silently.
"Legion, hold them before me," Solina said. "Hold them still."
She rose upon her throne. The nephilim that formed her seat shifted, creating a ramp of spines and ribs. Solina descended and walked across the bloody floor, hands on the hilts of her sabres.
When she reached Legion, the nephil lowered Elethor and Treale in his claws, holding them a mere foot above the floor. Elethor struggled and kicked and screamed, but could not free himself.
Solina touched his cheek, and her eyes softened.
"Still you fight," she whispered. "Even when all your hope is lost. Still, here in my hall, you struggle."
He spat out a tooth. Blood filled his mouth.
"Fight me," he said. "You and me. No dragons. No nephilim. Just the two of us—sword to sword."
She raised her eyebrows. "Are you…" She laughed. "Are you challenging me to a duel? This is no epic poem of olden days, Elethor. This is no romantic farce." She caressed his hair. "I don't wish to fight you, El. I never did. All I ever wanted was peace."
He laughed mirthlessly, hanging in the claws. "Peace? You wanted peace when you slew my family? When your beasts crushed my city? When you slaughtered children in our tunnels?"
She placed her hands in his hair. She kissed his ear—her lips were soft and full—and whispered.
"I slew them, Elethor, so that we could have peace. So that all those who taunted us, who tried to stop us, who whispered against us—so all of them went away. I killed them, and I will kill everyone else, until all the world is just you… and me." She nodded up toward Legion, whose head drooled above them. "Show him, Legion. Kill the girl."
Elethor shouted.
Clutching Elethor in one hand, Legion tossed Treale down from his other hand. She slammed hard against the floor, and her blood splattered.
"Treale, shift!" Elethor cried.
She looked up at him. Legion's claws thrust. Treale rose to her feet and began to shift.
A claw crashed through her breastplate.
Treale gasped. Her magic vanished. She hung upon the claw, head and limbs tossed back, gasping. Her legs kicked in midair. Blood filled her mouth.
Legion shook his claw and flung her back down.
"Treale!" Elethor shouted. He howled. With strength he had not imagined in him, he tore at the claws that clutched him.
"Let him go, Legion!" Solina said and laughed. "Let him see her!"
Elethor crashed to the floor, banging his knees. He rose, rushed to Treale, and knelt over her.
His eyes stung. His breath caught. She lay on her back, a hole in her chest. She trembled and gasped, and her hands reached toward him. Blood poured from her chest.
"El," she whispered.
With shaking fingers, he tore off her armor. He rifled through his pack, pulled out a bandage, and placed it against her wound, knowing that it
was too late; the blow had pierced through her. He held her, one hand under her head, the other against her cheek.
"I'm here, Treale," he whispered. "I'm here."
She convulsed, legs twitching, chest rising and falling. She could barely speak.
"El," she whispered. "El, do you… do you remember that night?" Her body shook like a fish on a boat's deck. "Do you… do you remember? Under the stars, how… how I kissed your cheek?"
He held her and caressed her hair. "I remember, Treale. I never forgot. Ever."
Her blood flowed, and her trembling eased, and she smiled with blue lips. "El, do you remember how we talked about puppets?"
He blinked tears from his eyes. "I remember," he whispered.
"I… I liked that night," she said. Her breath shook. "El, can I… Please, can I kiss your cheek one more time? Please. I want to… I want to pretend I'm there." Tears flowed down her cheeks. "I want to be back on that hill under the stars."
He lowered his head, and she kissed his cheek with trembling lips, smearing him with blood. He kissed her forehead and caressed her hair.
"Don't leave me," she whispered.
"Never," he said. "Never, Treale. I'm here. I'm right here. Tell me about your puppets. Tell me about all the shelves and piles of them, and all the puppet shows you performed."
She placed her arms around him. A soft light touched her eyes. She trembled against him.
"I had…." Her tears fell. "I sewed them, Elethor, so many… so many. Hundreds of puppets. Green ones. Yellow puppets. And…"
Elethor lowered his head and a silent sob shook his chest. He laid Treale down upon her back. She stared up, mouth open and eyes glassy. His tears wet her face, and with a bloodied hand, he closed her eyes.
Goodbye, Treale. Fly to your puppets. Fly to our starlit halls and wait for me there, and one day you will tell me all about them again.
He rose slowly to his feet.
He turned toward Solina.
He raised his sword, howled, and lunged at her.
She only stood, sighing, as nephilim swooped toward him, and claws grabbed him, and he screamed as wings and scales and rot covered his world.
LYANA
Ships burned along the Pallan, a line of fire blazing across the desert. Once this river had teemed with life. Merchants, soldiers, and fisherman had sailed upon their barges and cogs. Reeds, palm and fig trees, and rustling fields had lined the riverbanks. Ibises, falcons, jackals, and hundreds of other animals had drunk from these waters. Today under the cruel sun the river crossed the desert like a scar, her sails, trees, and farms burning, her animals fallen or scattered.
This place was the vein of Tiranor, Lyana thought, pumping blood to her capital. Today we burned this vein and left Irys to choke and rot.
The capital perhaps was choking now, but her sister city—Iysa, great southern jewel of the desert—still pulsed. Lyana kept flying south, her host around her: thousands of dragons and griffins all bearing riders. Before them in the desert, the Pallan widened into a sprawling oasis, and here rose the white walls and towers of Iysa.
Lyana had heard stories of this city. Here did Tiranor build her ships, forge her steel, and mine her jewels. She had imagined a place bustling with enemy forces: battalions of archers upon the walls, phalanxes of wyverns and phoenixes circling overhead, and swarms of nephilim festering and screeching for blood.
Instead, as she flew toward the white walls, she found a ghost city.
The walls of Iysa stood barren, their battlements like sun-dried jaws upon sand. The towers stood silent; no war horns blew upon them, and only a single, tattered banner flapped from one, hiding and showing the Golden Sun. Lyana frowned, flying closer. Behind her flew her warriors.
"It's too quiet," said Wila, her rider. "Nephilim guarded every cog along the river. Won't they guard a city?"
Lyana sniffed. She could smell the rot of nephilim, but could not decide if they lurked here in hiding, or had left their stench and fled. She flew higher and over the walls. Below her, the streets of Iysa spread like a barren labyrinth. Shops, temples, forts, homes—all lay silent and still. Lyana saw no movement but for a few flapping tunics upon lines and a dog that fled into an alley. Docks stretched into the river, naked of ships.
When Lyana looked south of the city, she saw many footprints in the sand heading toward distant hills. She squinted and gazed into the horizon; she could just make out fleeing beasts aflight, perhaps wyverns or nephilim.
"They fled the city," Lyana said. "They heard of our approach. They ran rather than fight."
Lyana heard the creak of Wila tugging her bowstring.
"I don't like this," the rider said. "Nephilim—the spawn of demons—fleeing from battle? Something is wrong here. This is a trap."
"Let's be careful," Lyana agreed. "As far as we know, Solina loaded up the city with Tiran fire, and some poor bastard down there is just waiting for us to land so he can blow the place up."
They circled above the city—dragons, griffins, riders. Their wings scattered dust and leaves and bent the trees below. By a domed temple, movement caught Lyana's eyes. She stared down, squinting, to see several men cowering in a courtyard. They wore rags, iron collars encircled their necks, and dust filled their white hair. Welts and blood covered them. Chains ran from their ankles to heavy iron balls the size of watermelons, too heavy to even drag.
"The city folk left their slaves," Lyana said. "Those too old, weak, or wounded to flee with them."
She circled above the temple. Rough bricks formed its dome, and several palm trees swayed alongside it. When her shadow fell upon the slaves, they wailed and covered their heads. They were thin, ribs showing between the tatters of their rags, and whip lashes covered their backs. Blood stained their lips.
They're dying of thirst and heat, Lyana thought. She looked around the city, cursing. Damn it. She could still smell rot here somewhere—did nephilim hide in these houses, or did their stench merely linger? Was this a trap and the slaves the bait?
She looked over her shoulder at her rider. Wila sat with an arrow nocked, her face stern and her golden hair billowing. Her breastplate bore the bull horns of Osanna in silver, and a golden pin—shaped like the walls of Confutatis, the White City—clasped her gray cloak.
"Wila," Lyana said, "keep that arrow nocked. We're going to help these men."
Wila frowned. "My lady, I don't like this. Nephilim waited for us on the beaches. They hid along every league of the river. This place is too quiet. I say we burn the damn city from the air."
A sigh clanked Lyana's scales. "I would, but… Wila, too many innocents have died. We have slain too many women and children. How many cowered in the hulls of the ships we burned—the wives, sons, and daughters of merchants shipping supplies to Irys? How many women and children now hide in that northern capital as dragons rain fire upon it?" She shook her head. "We do not crave the death of our enemy's innocents. We are not Solina; she slew our children with relish. I have killed my enemies, Wila, and perhaps while doing so, I have killed innocents too, bystanders whose only sin was standing too close to those who seek my own death. This will haunt me. This blood I cannot wash from my hands. This blood I had to shed. But here in this city, seeing abandoned slaves cowering below me, I cannot blow my fire. If I did, would I not be as Solina is? Fighting a monster, would we not become monsters ourselves? I will save them if I can. If I can save the innocents of the enemy, perhaps after all this blood and fire, I can save my own soul."
She dived toward the courtyard. Her claws clattered against the cobblestones, and the chained slaves whimpered.
Lyana whipped her head from side to side, sniffing the air. The drool and pus of nephilim seeped between the cobblestones and puddled in a corner; the stuff reeked. The creatures had been here not hours ago.
"Please," whispered a slave, an old man with a white beard. "Please don't hurt us, don't burn us, please…"
Still in dragon form, Lyana approached the chained men. In the sky
, griffins and dragons circled over the city; some were descending to land upon roofs and streets. The chained slaves flinched whenever a shadow crossed them.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Lyana said. "Where are the nephilim? Where—"
Stars.
Lyana growled and took flight.
Stars damn it.
These slaves were not chained to balls of iron. They were chained to clay balls of Tiran fire.
She had not soared fifty feet when the temple ceiling crashed open, the doors shattered, and nephilim burst screeching outside.
The air cracked. The Tiran fire exploded below. Fire raged and white light flooded Lyana, and the slaves' blood splattered her. Her ears rang, and claws grabbed her leg, pulling her down. She roared.
As she plummeted, she glimpsed the rest of the city. From every temple, fort, and hall, nephilim burst into the sky. Tiran fire exploded. Flames and blood showered across Iysa.
Lyana crashed back onto the temple courtyard. One nephil grabbed her leg, and three others leaped onto her. The slaves were gone; nothing remained of them but blood and gobbets of flesh. The temple walls had shattered opened; archers stood there, and arrows flew at Lyana.
She roared and blew her fire. Upon her back, Wila screamed and fired her own arrows. Lyana's flames crashed into a nephil, slamming it against a wall. Another leaped onto her shoulder, and claws dug, and Lyana screamed and bit. Her teeth sank into the beast's flesh, and she tasted its rot and maggots.
"Take her alive!" shouted a Tiran soldier in the temple. "Her horns are gilded—this one is a noble. Take her alive!"
Lyana screamed and flapped her wings, struggling to rise. She kicked wildly, freed herself, and flew ten feet.
Three more nephilm swooped from above, crashed down onto her, and she slammed into the cobblestones again. They cracked beneath her. She roared and blew fire.
"Wila, run!" she screamed. She did not know if her rider even lived. Arrows peppered her, clattering against her scales. One pierced her chest, and Lyana roared in pain, and claws tore at her, and teeth bit, and pain flooded her.
A Night of Dragon Wings Page 27