Dragons Reborn

by Daniel Arenson

  "Domi!" she shouted. "Korvin!"

  They saw her and flew her way. A firedrake dived between them, and Fidelity shot forward. The paladin on its back fired an arrow, and Fidelity shouted as the missile scraped along her cheek, shattering a scale. She grabbed the man in her claws and pulled back hard, tearing off his head, exposing a gaping neck that sputtered blood. Korvin roared as he gored the firedrake, tugging his horns along its flank. Its organs spilled like a gutted fish, and the beast crashed down to the ground. Domi flew above, spurting fire upward, holding back other firedrakes, her flames so hot they melted the beasts' bellies. Chunks of charred blood pattered down.

  "Korvin, Domi—the women and children!" Fidelity pointed at the group she had spotted fleeing. "We have to save them."

  They nodded and charged. The four dragons blasted their fire together, cleaving a path through the enemy. Fidelity prayed that Cade still lived, that he had saved the children, that he now flew over the water.

  She landed before the fleeing children. Korvin and Roen remained above, holding back the swarm of firedrakes, as Domi lowered her wing. Fidelity became a human again, herding the children onto Domi, one by one.

  "Hurry! Onto Domi, go, and—"

  Fidelity's voice died as a firedrake made its way past Korvin and Roen. The bronze beast slammed down onto the ground and shrieked, its cry so loud Fidelity covered her ears, and the children who stood closer screamed as their eardrums ruptured, as blood dripped from within. The firedrake lashed its jaws, so fast Fidelity barely saw it move, and tore a boy apart. It tossed back its head, guzzling down the top half of the boy. The child's stomach and legs collapsed onto the ground.

  Fidelity screamed, shifted back into a dragon, and charged. She gored the creature's neck with her horns. It fell back, and Roen roasted it with dragonfire.

  "Go, Domi!" Fidelity cried as another survivor climbed onto the fiery dragon. "Fly to the sea! Fly to Draco Murus!"

  Domi nodded and took flight. Below in the blazing camp, other survivors cried out, reaching up to Domi, begging for their lives, begging to be carried away.

  Korvin landed next. Ugly gashes bled on his side, and holes peppered his wings. One of his horns was cracked, and several of his scales were shattered. He lowered his wing, forming a ramp, and more survivors raced up. The gray dragon took flight, tearing through the enemy, rising into the clouds, vanishing into the shadows.

  A roar pierced the killing field. Wreathed in fire, a figure of wrath and ruin, a red dragon swooped, a creature so beastly at first Fidelity thought it a firedrake. Then she recognized Amity. The Red Queen landed, covered in burns and cuts, her eyes wild.

  "So many dead," she whispered, voice haunted.

  "Grieve later!" Fidelity shouted. "We have to save who we can. Amity, help me!"

  They took flight. Only three dragons remained now: Fidelity, Roen, and Amity. They crashed through enemies. There were barely any more survivors left, only corpses, thousands, hills of them burning. Finally they found a group of survivors who raced over the dead, seeking safety on the beaches, and loaded them onto Amity's back. The red dragon soared, barely able to blow any more fire, her wings creaking, her scales bleeding. Crying out in agony, Amity flew off across the sea, a score of firedrakes in pursuit.

  Only Roen and Fidelity now remained on the coast, and hundreds of firedrakes still flew. Without the other dragons—the burly Korvin, the wild Amity, the fiery Domi—to hold them off, the firedrakes charged forth toward the beach, bloodlust in their eyes. Again Fidelity saw the white firedrake and the white paladin upon it—Mercy Deus.

  A group of children came racing along the sand, fire clutching at their clothes.

  "Help!" they cried, racing toward Fidelity. "Blue Queen, help us!"

  Fidelity made to leap toward them when the fire rained from the sky.

  An inferno.

  A holocaust of heat and light.

  A shattering world, collapsing heavens.

  Fidelity yowled, flying through the pain, trying to reach the children. Several of them fell, burning.

  "I'll hold off the drakes!" Roen shouted, soaring. "Fidelity, fly with the children!"

  Fidelity wept, trying to reach them. A firedrake landed on the beach. She swiped her claws, knocking it down.

  "Roen, fly with me! We have to leave, now!"

  The green dragon growled, soaring higher. "Save them, Fidelity! Fly with them, go!"

  Another firedrake landed on the beach, snapped its jaws, and tore a child apart. Fidelity screamed, leaped toward it, and cut it down. But more drakes kept landing. One landed on her back and bit into her shoulder. Fidelity screamed. Another landed before her and lashed its claws, slicing her face. She cried out in pain, desperate to cling to her magic, to remain a dragon.

  Above she saw Roen battling dozens of the creatures. He whipped his tail around, blew his fire, sent paladins crashing down on their mounts.

  Fidelity cried out, shook off the firedrake on her back, lashed her tail, and knocked down the drake ahead of her. Only a few children still lived.

  "Onto my back!" she shouted. "Hurry!"

  They raced forward. A firedrake landed, lifted one child in its jaws, and feasted. The other children screamed, raced up Fidelity's wing, and clung to her bleeding back.

  She beat her wings. She took flight.

  "Roen, let's go!" she shouted.

  She flew off the beach, over the water, and looked back toward him. "Roen!"

  A hundred firedrakes streamed toward Roen. Hundreds more rose from the camp, blood and flesh in their jaws, flying toward the green dragon.

  He turned to look at Fidelity.

  He whispered through the storm.

  "Fly, Fidelity. Fly. I love you."

  Then Roen roared and blasted out his fire, a torn roar, a great howl, and he charged toward the enemy.

  "Roen, no!" Fidelity shouted. "Roen!"

  She wanted to charge forward. She wanted to fight with Roen, to die with him if she must, but how could she sacrifice the children on her back? She watched, helpless, as the fire draped across the green dragon. She watched, screaming, as he slew firedrake after firedrake, burning them, cutting them, biting out their throats, lashing his tail at their riders. She watched, weeping, as hundreds of arrows slammed into his scales, as hundreds of flaming jets crashed against him, as he roared for her, as he called out her name in his pain. The corpses of firedrakes lay around him, victims of his wrath, until finally it was Mercy Deus upon her firedrake—Mercy, an angel of wrath and retribution—who rode toward him, who smiled, laughed, and thrust her lance.

  Roen's roar died in the sky. His wings spread out, wreathed in fire. The lance drove into his chest, cut through him, and emerged from his back.

  "Roen!" Fidelity screamed, weeping.

  Above the beach, the green dragon lost his magic.

  He tumbled down from the sky, a man again.

  Mercy swooped and her firedrake caught Roen's human form before he could hit the beach. The white firedrake rose, holding Roen, cackling madly, and upon its back Mercy stared across the water toward Fidelity.

  "This will be your fate too, Fidelity!" Mercy cried out. "I know your name, weredragon! I know who you are, and I will kill you all like I kill him."

  Roen was still alive, Fidelity saw; he twitched in the firedrake's claws. He was so beautiful, so hurt, the kindest man Fidelity knew, the bravest, the noblest, the man she loved.

  The white firedrake raised him higher, and Mercy drew her sword. The paladin leaned forward in her saddle and drove her blade into Roen's heart.

  Fidelity wept.

  She turned and flew across the water, the children on her back.

  Roen . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love you. I love you.

  She streamed across the water, those she had saved—those he had saved—upon her back. Her tears fell. She had seen her father fall, seen Amity burn, but this time there could be no doubt. Roen had given his life—to her, to them. To Requiem. Fidelity's te
ars fell as she flew, as behind the hundreds of firedrakes roared and followed.

  I love you, Roen.

  She thought of his warm eyes, his arms wrapped around her, his love, his strength, his wisdom, his kindness, and she could not stop weeping. The children clung to her, and she flew as fast as she could, fleeing the blaze, the crash of a kingdom, fleeing into the darkness. Perhaps there was no place left to flee to. Perhaps all the world was now ruin and above it the cruel light of the Cured Temple. Her hope faded to but a sliver, but a last grain of life like those she had saved, a dying hope in a dying world.

  A few lights burned ahead; Fidelity did not know if they were her fellow Vir Requis or the husks of sinking ships. She flew onward, into despair, into darkness, as behind her the fire burned.

  CADE

  He crashed down onto the beach, scales cracked, wings whistling with holes, smoke puffing out of his nostrils. As soon as his claws hit the surface, he collapsed and slid across the sand, and his head fell onto its side.

  He stared through narrowed eyes. The world was hazy. Cade could barely see through the veil of pain. A rocky beach. Barren hills.

  "The Commonwealth," he whispered.

  The women and children he had saved from the inferno in Terra climbed off his back. They huddled in the sand, lips parched, throats dry, wounded, burnt, shivering, barely alive. Cade shifted into human form and lay on the sand, too weak to cling to his dragon magic, too weak to rise.

  Where are the others?

  He pushed himself onto his wobbly elbows. He had flown for three days across the sea. Vaguely he remembered giving Amity—an Amity in human form, bruised and bleeding—a ride on his back, then shifting into human form and sleeping on the red dragon's back. He could not see the Red Queen now. He could not see Domi, Fidelity, Korvin, Roen.

  "Where are you?" Cade whispered, and something tore and bled in his throat. He had not had water in three days aside from a few drops of rain.

  A flame flickered across the sky, coiling under the clouds, flying nearer. A torn howl rose, and wings spread wide, and Cade could finally make out a red dragon over the gray sea. Amity flew closer, wobbling, and crashed down onto the beach. She lost her magic at once, spilling the refugees off her back. They landed in the sand, shivering, the burnt survivors of the camp. One child, a little girl still clutching her doll, was dead, her skin gray, saved from the fire but too wounded to survive the long flight.

  Amity crawled across the sand toward Cade. Blood caked her short yellow hair. Her clothes were as tattered as his. Rents on her trousers revealed raw cuts, burn marks stretched across her arms, and bruises coated the left side of her face.

  "Amity!" Cade managed to whisper, voice hoarse. "Have you seen the others? Have you seen Domi and Fidelity? Korvin?"

  She reached him, shivering, and clutched his arms. Her fingers dug into him, hard and painful, almost tearing his skin. She stared at him, eyes wild, lips trembling, teeth bared.

  "We . . . we have to go back." Amity shook wildly. "We have to fight. We have to kill Mercy. We have to attack the Temple. We . . ." She lowered her head, and her tears fell into the sand. "How did this happen? We should be here with an army. A great army that I lead."

  Amity doubled over, shaking, sobbing. Cade wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. They sat together in the sand, and Cade kept watching the horizon, waiting for the others to arrive: for Korvin, the strongest and wisest man Cade had ever known; for Fidelity, his dearest friend, the woman he had fought with for so long; for Roen, quiet and wise and strong, a great warrior of the forest; for Domi, precious and wild Domi, the woman he loved.

  Yet no more dragons flew from the sea.

  No more survivors reached the beach.

  Domi . . .

  Cade turned toward the survivors. He walked among them. A young woman, no older than him, holding her babe. A boy and his sister, younger than ten, their limbs burnt. An old man, weeping, whispering of his lost sons. A handful of others, remnants of life.

  "We saved them," Cade whispered. "We failed Requiem. We failed the world. But we saved a few. We saved some life." He turned toward Amity. "We have to find them water, food, shelter, we . . ."

  But Amity did not seem to hear him. She stood with her back to him, facing the sea. Her fists trembled at her sides, and her head was lowered. The wind ruffled her hair. Cade approached slowly.

  "Amity?"

  Ignoring him, she tossed back her head, and she howled to the sky. A torn howl. A roar of rage, of fallen nations, of broken dreams, of genocide and death in fire. Her entire body went into her roar, arms stretched out, a cry that tore through her limbs, belly, lungs, soul. When finally her cry died, cracking into a faded rasp, Amity fell to her knees and her head slumped.

  Cade stood beside her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, not knowing what to do, how to comfort her, how to comfort himself, how to find any hope in a fallen world.

  When Domi whispered in my ear, I dared to dream of Requiem. I dared to hope we could revive our kingdom, save babes from the tillvine . . . yet now those babes are dead, and now all our armies are laid to waste. He looked at Amity. The warrior's eyes were clenched shut, her lips tightened, her face a mask of grief. Now perhaps Amity and I are all that remain of our fallen nation.

  "I'm sorry, Amity," Cade said softly. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how we can keep fighting. I'm not strong like Korvin or Roen, not wise like Fidelity, not brave like Domi. But for whatever it's worth, I'm here with you. You're not alone."

  Amity rose to her feet and tugged him toward her, and at first Cade thought she would attack him, scratch him, gouge out his eyes in her rage, but she only crushed him between her arms, her body shaking against his, clinging to him.

  Are you out there? Cade thought, staring at the sea and the veiled sky. The clouds roiled above like smoke, and a drizzle began to fall, pattering against the sea and sand, washing the dirt from his hair, streaming down his face like tears. He stood for a long time, holding Amity close, staring into a horizon of shadows, of memories of fire . . . and of dying hope.

  The story continues in . . .

  DRAGONS RISING

  Requiem for Dragons, Book Three

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  AFTERWORD

  Thank you for reading Dragons Reborn. I hope you enjoyed the book.

  The next Requiem for Dragons novel, Dragons Rising, is available. Click here to grab your copy or search your favorite ebook store for "Dragons Rising."

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  Thank you again, dear reader, and I hope we meet again between the pages of another book.

  Daniel

  NOVELS BY DANIEL ARENSON

  THE MOTH SAGA

  Moth

  Empires of Moth

  Secrets of Moth

  Daughter of Moth

  Shadows of Moth

  Legacy of Moth

  REQUIEM

  Dawn of Dragons Requiem's Song

  Requiem's Hope

  Requiem's Prayer

  The Complete Trilogy

  Song of Dragons Blood of Requiem

  Tears of Requiem

  Light of Requiem

  The Complete Trilogy

  Dragonlore A Dawn of Dragonfire

  A D
ay of Dragon Blood

  A Night of Dragon Wings

  The Complete Trilogy

  The Dragon War A Legacy of Light

  A Birthright of Blood

  A Memory of Fire

  The Complete Trilogy

  Requiem for Dragons Dragons Lost

  Dragons Reborn

  Dragons Rising

  The Complete Trilogy

  ALIEN HUNTERS

  Alien Hunters

  Alien Sky

  Alien Shadows

  OTHER WORLDS

  Eye of the Wizard

  Wand of the Witch

  Firefly Island

  The Gods of Dream

  Flaming Dove

  KEEP IN TOUCH

  www.DanielArenson.com

  Daniel@DanielArenson.com

  Facebook.com/DanielArenson

  Twitter.com/DanielArenson