Dragons Reborn

by Daniel Arenson

  As the sun rose, Gemini wrapped his robe more tightly around him and considered. Aid. Where could he find aid? From his friends, of course. He had plenty of friends left! He could summon . . .

  He tapped his fingertips against his palm, wincing with pain as his injured finger, the one missing its nail, brushed against his skin. He had always been close to the priests who brought him women to breed with, but they still lived in the Cured Temple. He could track down some of those women, he supposed; they might have brothers, fathers, uncles, strong men who'd fight for him.

  "Don't be a fool," Gemini told himself. He had no use for priests or peasants. He needed an army. Soldiers. More firedrakes. Horses and chariots.

  There had to be some lord who'd agree to lend him his army. The lord of Castellum Luna, for example. He had an army! He had many firedrakes and soldiers, and . . .

  Gemini frowned, trying to remember that lord's name. He could recall seeing a tall, beefy man with a wide mustache. The brute had been close to Mercy, would often talk to her about old battles.

  Gemini groaned. "I can't enlist that fool." He spat across the saddle. "If he's friends with Mercy, he's an enemy of mine, and I will slay him too."

  He tried to bring to mind all the other lords he knew across the realm, but he only remembered men in bright armor visiting his sister, drawing swords and drilling with her, riding firedrakes with her, fighting alongside her. Gemini had never had time for such nonsense. He was a pureborn; he had spent his days and nights bedding the women the priests sent him, doing his duty to the realm, not wasting time on wars like a common soldier.

  Gemini's heart sank.

  Could it be true? Had he squandered away his youth with lowborn women and wine while his sister built a network of allies? No. There had to be someone. Gemini sneered.

  "I have friends. Powerful friends! There's Domi. She's a wild beast. She can become a great dragon named Pyre. She . . ." He sighed. "She bedded me for money, then tossed me into a dungeon."

  With horror, Gemini realized that Domi—this very woman who had betrayed him—was his only friend.

  His eyes stung.

  "Are you still my friend, Domi?" His lips wobbled. "Oh stars, Domi, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I did." His chest shook, and he stared at the cuts along his wrists, the cuts the shackles had left. "I need you, Domi. I need you to forgive me. I need your help. I need to hold you again, to protect you, to tell you everything will be all right." His damn tears flowed again. "I need you to love me."

  I need to find you.

  He stood up in the stirrups and stared down at the farmlands.

  "Domi!" he shouted. "Domi, can you hear me?"

  A few birds cawed below. A group of sheep scattered across a meadow. Gemini slumped back into his saddle.

  It was a large empire. The search would take a while.

  "Where do we look, Felesar?" Gemini said. "You knew Pyre. Sniff her out! Follow the scent."

  The copper firedrake snorted. Gemini answered with a snort of his own. It was just a dumb reptile, not a bloodhound. Gemini clutched his head.

  Think.

  He tried to remember the stories Domi would tell him in bed, stories of her childhood. Of wandering from town to town, lost, a weredragon alone in a world that hunted her. Spirit, she had spoken of so many places! Of the library in Sanctus, but Mercy had already destroyed that place. Of time spent in the forest south of the city, but Mercy had already burned that forest. Spirit!

  Gemini closed his eyes, trying to remember the other stories Domi would tell him. Mostly, as Domi would speak to him in bed, Gemini would busy himself with kissing her neck, passing his hands along her curves, and admiring her intoxicating eyes, not listening to her tales. He tried to imagine that he lay with her again, his one hand stroking her hair, the other exploring her body, as she prattled on.

  "That tavern had the best ale," Domi said in his memories, eyes wistful, as he kissed her neck, moving down to her breasts, her belly, the sweet hills and valleys of her pale, freckled body. "We used to drink there sometimes, my sister and I, and even dance. There was an old harpist, and . . ."

  Yet his memories morphed into him kissing her, making love to her, sleeping in her arms.

  No. No! He ground his teeth, forcing himself to remember. What had she told him? What tavern?

  "We used to watch the sea from the window." Domi spoke in his memory. "Sometimes when Lynport was all silent, we'd walk along the beach, and—"

  Gemini stood up in his stirrups. "Lynport!" he shouted and laughed. "She has a favorite tavern in Lynport! Her forest burned. Her library fell. Where else would she go?" He pointed south. "Fly, Felesar! Fly to her. We're going to find her. And she's going to help us."

  He sat back down in the saddle, and he found himself trembling. Spirit damn it. He had wanted to seek Domi with rage and hatred, to find her, burn her, make her pay. But by the Spirit . . . he missed her. He needed to kiss her again, to forgive her, to love her.

  I need your help. I need you Domi.

  They flew on, crossing the last farms. The burnt forest spread below them, smoldering, a pile of ash and charred wood. The whole world was burning, and he followed the memory of green eyes.

  He flew all day, crossing the forests, until the sun fell. They landed by a farm in the evening, and Felesar blasted down his fire, roasting several sheep. The beast ate ten of them, and Gemini—famished after his imprisonment and flight—ate what felt like an entire sheep himself. At only one point did the farmer emerge from his home, see the feasting firedrake and near-naked man, and quickly rush back inside and slam the door shut.

  They slept in the fields and flew again at dawn.

  For six days, they flew across the lands of the Commonwealth. They drank from streams. They ate what they stole from farms, feasting on sheep, chickens, squash and corn and turnips. Every dawn rose upon a free world, a wilderness of fields, mountains, grasslands, forests. Every night, the stars spread above, millions of them, bright and blessing him. Gemini wanted to fly here forever. This life—just him and a firedrake—filled him with vigor. The fuzz that had always covered his mind in the capital, brought on by endless wine and languor, began to lift. Without the stream of women, booze, smoking pipes, rich feasts and sweets, a new strength filled Gemini, a lust for life, for freedom.

  Decadence chained me as surely as chains of iron, he thought as they flew. I'm free now, a free man, a warrior. I left the capital a miserable wretch. I will return a conqueror.

  On his seventh day since leaving the capital, he soared over the vast plains south of the forests, the warm lands north of the Tiran Sea.

  "Domi!" he shouted as he flew. "Domi, where are you?"

  The sun had fallen, and clouds hid the moon, when he saw the coast ahead. He had reached the end of the Commonwealth; beyond lay the Tiran Sea which led to the continent of Terra where the Horde mustered. A cluster of lights glowed on the coast—the city of Lynport. The city Domi had spoken of in his bed.

  Are you there, Domi?

  "Fly on, Felesar," he said to his firedrake. "Let's find her."

  They flew over dark farmlands until they glided over the city. Lynport was perhaps smaller than the capital, but with a hundred thousand souls, it was the largest city in the southern Commonwealth. Many huts rose here, and even older homes from the Lost Age before the Cured Temple had ruled the land—houses built not of clay but of wood and stone. A boardwalk stretched along the coast, and several ships swayed in the water.

  "How the Abyss am I supposed to find some piss-soaked tavern in a city this size?" Gemini grumbled from the saddle, flying in circles above Lynport. "She could be anywhere here, if she's even in this city at all." He leaned over the saddle and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Domi! Domi, where are you? Domi, come to me! I forgive you, Domi!"

  He heard no reply from below. He kept flying, rising higher, spiraling over different neighborhoods.

  "Domi!" he shouted, voice hoarse. "Domi, it's Gemini! If you'r
e here, fly to me. Domi!"

  He kept scanning the city, waiting for her to rise, a dragon of many colors, the old dragon he had called Pyre, the dragon he had loved. Yet she never emerged, and he kept flying. His firedrake glided above the boardwalk, and he kept scanning the buildings, waiting for her to rise, seeing only shadows, only emptiness.

  "Domi!" His damn eyes kept spilling those damn tears. "Domi, please. Domi. Be here, Domi. Be here. I love you, Domi!" He lowered his head, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "I love you."

  She's not here, he thought. I'll never find her. I—

  Shadows rose in the night.

  Felesar bucked in the sky, wings beating madly. Gemini gasped.

  A dragon was soaring up toward him—then another joined it. A third. A fourth. The dragons streamed upward, barely visible in the darkness, no fire in their maws.

  "Domi?" Gemini whispered.

  An instant later one of the dragons slammed into Felesar's belly.

  Gemini screamed as the firedrake tumbled.

  A second dragon slammed into Felesar's flank. When Felesar opened his maw to blast out fire, a third dragon shot forward and grabbed the beast's snout, shoving the jaws shut.

  Gemini rose in his stirrups, fear washing across him.

  "Domi . . ."

  A fourth dragon descended from the darkness above, silent and almost invisible, and talons wrapped around Gemini's body.

  He cried out as the dragon yanked him from the saddle and held him in midair.

  He screamed. The dragon lifted him higher. The claws tightened around Gemini, as hard and unyielding as the iron chains in the dungeon. Below him, he saw the three other dragons slamming into Felesar, biting and clawing, ripping out flesh. With a great snap of its jaws, one dragon—a burly green beast—tore out Felesar's throat. Blood rained in the night, and Felesar—greatest of the capital's firedrakes, an old beast of legend—tumbled from the sky and slammed down onto the beach below.

  Then the dragon clutching Gemini flew even higher, and they vanished into the clouds. When he tried to scream again, the claws tightened around him, and he couldn't even breathe, and all he saw was clouds and wings and blazing dragon eyes.

  DOMI

  She flew through the clouds, holding Gemini in her claws, squeezing him until his screaming died. She narrowed her eyes, refusing to let any feelings she might have had surface.

  He is my enemy. He is a son of the Temple. And I'm a warrior of Requiem.

  Fidelity flew at her side, and Cade and Roen flew close behind. They glided lower in the sky, leaving the city behind, and flew along the coast. The waves whispered to their right, tipped with moonlight, while the dark cliffs of Ralora rose to their left, a wall of stone overlooking the southern sea. In the shadows of those cliffs, a mile out of the city, Domi glided down and tossed Gemini onto the beach. She landed before him, and her fellow dragons landed around her, claws sinking into the sand.

  Domi had always known Gemini to be handsome, at least in a pale, slender sort of way, but the young paladin now looked like a drowned rat. He still wore the same housecoat Domi had last seen him in; it was now tattered and stained with blood. Brown stubble covered his face and the left side of his hair, and brown roots showed where his hair was long and bleached white. He coughed, struggled to rise in the sand, and began to run.

  Still in dragon form, Domi pounced and knocked him facedown. She placed her paw against his back. She was careful not to nick his skin, but she placed enough weight to keep him pinned down.

  "Release me!" Gemini shouted, thrashing. "I'm looking for Domi. Where are you, Domi?"

  Domi sighed. Her scales were still painted black to conceal her during her night flights. He did not recognize Pyre, his dear old dragon. She turned her head toward her companions and nodded.

  Standing in the sand, the three other dragons released their magic. They stepped forward, humans again, and untied the ropes that served as their belts.

  "Let me go!" Gemini screamed. "Release me! I'm a paladin of the Cured Temple, and I order you to release me, weredragons!"

  Domi kept him pinned down as Roen bound the paladin's wrists. Cade meanwhile held down Gemini's kicking legs while Fidelity tied his ankles together. Once Gemini was securely tied up, Domi finally removed her paw off his back and released her own magic.

  She knelt beside her poor, bound paladin.

  "Gemini," she said.

  He blinked sand out of his eyes, spat sand out of his mouth, and looked at her. At first his eyes widened, then narrowed.

  "Domi," he whispered. "Domi!" He began to thrash madly, floundering in the sand. "Release me! Domi, why? You whore! I'll kill you, you whore!" His cheeks reddened, and he began to weep. "Why . . . why, Domi? I love you. I love you. Why?" His words blended into unintelligible blubbering.

  Cade knelt beside Domi and raised an eyebrow. "Bloody bollocks, Domi, is this the man you lived with? I've seen toddlers throw lesser tantrums."

  She sighed and lowered her head. She reached out to stroke Gemini's cheek, then pulled her hand back when he tried to bite. "He's always been a broken man. A child, really. I think his mother stole his childhood, leaving him stuck somewhere between adulthood and—"

  "Release me!" Gemini shouted, interrupting her. "Domi, who are these people? Who are you? Why do you bind me?" He lowered his voice to a frightened whisper. "Don't hurt me. Please, don't put me back into the dungeon. Please. Please! Don't put me back there. They hurt me. I only wanted to find you, to love you, to protect you. All I ever wanted was to love and protect you, Domi. That's all I ever wanted. You have to believe me."

  Cade whistled appreciatively. "Blimey, Domi, you broke his heart good."

  Domi reached out to stroke Gemini's hair, and this time he did not try to bite, merely curled up and sobbed and let her stroke him. She had pinned him down with disdain in her heart, but now pity filled her.

  "Poor, broken child," she whispered.

  She thought back to her times with him. She had served as his firedrake, the beast Pyre, whipped and kicked and hurt with his lash and spur, taking his pain for a chance to fly and breathe fire. She had lived with him later as a woman, seeking shelter, food, protection, and a chance to learn more about her enemy, to collect information about the Cured Temple and its hunt of her friends. Yet finally, at the end, had Domi learned to love him?

  I could have stopped him from making love to me, she thought. I willingly let him bed me, and . . . I enjoyed it. She lowered her head. I enjoyed the feeling of him inside me, and I enjoyed sleeping in his arms, and I enjoyed telling him old stories as his lips brushed across my body. Even now she flushed to remember those days, his emphatic yet gentle lovemaking, the peace and luxury and splendor of her life with him. Yes, perhaps she had learned to love him at the end. Perhaps she had found pleasure with her enemy.

  But those days were over. Now she was no longer Pyre the firedrake, no longer Domi the serving girl. She was a warrior of Requiem, and he was a paladin of weredragon hunters.

  "We've captured Gemini Deus," Fidelity said, coming to stand beside her. "The second in line to the High Priesthood. The third most powerful person in the Commonwealth." Her lips tightened, and fire burned in her eyes. "He knows things. He knows how the paladins always find newborn babes. He knows how many firedrakes fly in the world. He knows if . . . if other Vir Requis exist."

  Lying bound in the sand, Gemini turned to look at the librarian. He spat at her. "Go to the Abyss, weredragon! I'll never tell you a thing. Release me now or my mother will bring an army here to burn you all."

  Roen approached. The bearded forester grabbed Gemini's neck and spoke for the first time. "Your mother can't save you now, boy. And you will talk. I will make sure of that."

  Gemini's eyes dampened again, and once more he screamed.

  ROEN

  He stood atop the cliffs of Ralora, stared down at the miserable wretch, and felt an overwhelming urge to kick the bound paladin down to his death.

  "Domi," t
he paladin whimpered, lying bound between Roen's feet and the cliff's edge. "Domi, where . . . where are you? I love you. Please."

  Roen's eyes narrowed. He couldn't believe what those eyes saw, what his ears heard. This pathetic, sniveling creature, barely a man at all, was a paladin? Was the son of High Priestess Beatrix herself? Was one of the mightiest men in the Cured Temple, that Temple which had stamped out Requiem, hunted down the dragon magic to near extinction, and crushed the Commonwealth under its heel? This worm at his feet?

  Look at him, Roen thought. A begging boy trapped in a man's body. A coward stripped of his armor, lying before me weak and groveling. A paladin. A firedrake rider. One of the men who killed my father.

  Whatever pity Roen might have felt burned away. Rage overflowed him, and he balled his hand into a fist.

  "Domi," Gemini whispered. Ropes still bound his ankles and wrists, chafing them raw. "Domi, where are you? Are you here, Domi?"

  "Domi can't help you anymore," Roen said, voice gravelly. "It's only you and I here above the cliff. The others are gone. You won't see them again, not unless you answer all my questions."

  Rage flooded Gemini's face. "I have nothing to say to you, weredragon! Let me go. Release me now. Do you have any idea how much I can hurt you? I— No! Wait!" As Roen raised his fist, Gemini cowered, curling up into a ball. "No. Don't hurt me! Please. Oh, Spirit, please don't hurt me. I just came here to help you. Yes!" Gemini's face brightened, and a shaky smile stretched across his lips. "I came to help Domi, and you're her friend, so I'll help you too. I hate the Cured Temple. I hate it! I—No, wait!"

  Roen's rage burned inside him, hotter than dragonfire. He grabbed a fistful of the paladin's hair and dragged him toward the edge of the cliff. He shoved Gemini forward until the paladin teetered over the drop. Three hundred feet below, boulders rose from the sand.

  "Wait!" Gemini screamed, and liquid trickled down his leg as he lost control of his bladder.