Nightfall

by Den Patrick

  ‘What is the meaning of this?’ said the Boyar. ‘Are you drunk?’

  ‘I …’ Ruslan glanced at Zima and back to his master. ‘I simply wanted you to know I have returned, my lord.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ said the Boyar to the Exarch; then he marched across the room, taking Ruslan firmly by the shoulder. ‘Out! Out!’ The Boyar marched him down the hall until they were in the kitchens. The staff on hand departed with barely a word and the only sound was a metal lid rattling on a simmering pot of stew.

  ‘I was worried you might be in danger,’ said Ruslan, keen to avoid the Boyar’s temper. ‘I don’t trust the Exarch.’

  ‘And what would you, an aide, have done against the likes of that? Are you versed in the arcane now? Are you a match for the Holy Synod and their hypocrites?’

  ‘I’m sorry, my lord.’

  ‘What news from the inn?’ said the Boyar after a pause. He smoothed down his moustaches and took a deep, calming breath.

  ‘Nothing. Steiner and his aunt have not left the inn yet.’

  ‘What?’ Boyar Sokolov’s eyes widened in disbelief.

  ‘Some of the soldiers, Felgenhauer’s men, they came and went, but Steiner himself didn’t leave.’

  ‘I had hoped they would act on the information sooner.’

  ‘What does Exarch Zima want with you, my lord?’

  ‘Never mind that. Get back out there. I want to know the minute they depart. And if they haven’t departed I want to know why the Hel not.’

  ‘But …’ Ruslan swallowed. ‘But Bittervinge is attacking the city, my lord. It’s very dangerous and I’ve barely eaten today.’

  ‘Dangerous out there? Perhaps you have forgotten there is an Exarch in my suite, sent by the Emperor himself? If I do not allude to some sort of progress …’ The Boyar left the consequences unspoken.

  ‘I understand, my lord. What will you tell him?’

  ‘I’ll tell him I have found the Vartiainen boy as he wished. I’ll tell him I have arranged another meeting in an attempt to persuade him to meet the Emperor for an audience.’

  Ruslan nodded and hurried away. Master and servant would both meet the same fate as Dimitri if the Boyar’s attempt at misdirection failed. Somehow, sneaking through a city threatened by a legendary dragon didn’t seem like such a bad fate.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Kimi

  Humans have expressive faces. It is a combination of expression, gesture, tone of voice, and the words themselves that help convey meaning in normal everyday conversations. Dragons by contrast can bare their teeth, snort (usually dismissively), flex their claws, extend their wings like mating birds and growl like hunting cats. The majority of their communication is geared towards intimidation, and while they enjoy many advantages over humans, I think it safe to say humans have the upper hand when communication and diplomacy are called for.

  – From the memoir of Drakina Tveit, Lead Librarian of Midtenjord Province

  What are we doing? Though Namarii didn’t speak the words with his lips, teeth, and tongue like a human would, he had no problem distilling a very peevish quality into his question.

  ‘We’re scouting,’ shouted Kimi, struggling to be heard above the wind that whipped at them as the vast creature glided above the city. Rain clouds crowded in over the city, as dark as Kimi’s mood.

  Scout? A dragon does not scout. This is a task for lowly soldiers, or unproven youths. A dragon hunts.

  ‘Do you have any soldiers to send out scouting?’

  You know that I do not.

  ‘And neither do I, so that leaves it to us.

  I seek the Emperor.

  ‘And so do I, but the simple truth of it is that we can’t reach him before we defeat Bittervinge.’

  I say again. I seek the Emperor. Namarii banked sharply, and the city lurched across one side of her vision. Kimi didn’t want to believe he was trying to unseat her but she clung on tighter all the same.

  ‘Damn it.’ There was a single-minded simplicity to the dragons that had been refreshing at first, but had become maddening the longer they flew together.

  ‘Why do you call off the attack each time the father of dragons flees?’ asked Kimi.

  I thought that was your doing. Do you not think I and my kin are capable of ending him?

  ‘You are somewhat smaller than he is,’ admitted Kimi. ‘But it was you, not I who called off the attack.’

  Namarii said nothing. A plume of soot was snorted into the air, which was caught by the wind and raced along the dragon’s neck. The soot settled across Kimi’s face and clung to her braided hair. Worst of all she could taste it.

  ‘Let’s get some rest,’ said Kimi, realizing that dragons were just as susceptible to denial as humans are. Parts of the city were aflame and columns of smoke dissipated on the blustery wind. The taste of soot evoked memories of Vladibogdan and its forges. She searched the gloomy city for Bittervinge’s sinister silhouette but the father of dragons was no doubt licking his many wounds, preparing for his next assault. ‘Let’s head back to the camp.’

  You did not answer my question. Namarii banked left and headed south, back towards the cove where they had accosted the trading vessel. Kimi clung to the dragon and remained silent. Stonvind and Flodvind were returning from a fishing expedition and all three dragons alighted on the shingle beach at the same time. It was miraculous that none of the creatures collided with their kin. There was no question in Kimi’s mind that they had become stronger and more graceful in the air.

  You did not answer my question. Namarii flexed his claws in the shingle, making a terrible grinding sound as he did so. Kimi dismounted and stalked away, frustration gnawing on her. Had she called off the attack, or had it been Namarii? It was difficult to remember when so much was happening so quickly.

  ‘Back so soon?’ said Tief. He stared as the three dragons stood shoulder to shoulder. They stared after the Yamal princess with stern, unblinking amber gazes. ‘Frejna’s teeth,’ he whispered. ‘Just when I think I’m getting used to these creatures …’

  You did not answer my question. Namarii craned his considerable neck until the blunt wedge of his head towered above her.

  ‘You know why!’ shouted Kimi. ‘You’re in my head, aren’t you? When we fly, when I sleep, when I eat. You’re always in my head.’

  You are afraid we still lack the strength to finish the father of dragons. These words came from Flodvind, gentle and measured.

  And you are correct, added Stonvind in his grinding, gravel-like tone.

  Each day Bittervinge dines on a score of people, while we feed on slivers of fish. Namarii looked out to sea. We need meat.

  ‘He has a point,’ said Tief, tugging on one earlobe. ‘They’re growing in confidence. No doubt about that, but look at the size of them. They need feeding up.’ He winced before saying. ‘Would it really be so bad to let them eat a few Solmindre people?’

  ‘Tief!’ Taiga approached them from their campfire with a look of stony admonishment.

  ‘Frejna knows there’s enough of them and a few won’t go amiss,’ he added, though he sounded less sure of himself.

  ‘I will not feed innocent people to the dragons just so we can defeat the Emperor and Bittervinge,’ replied Taiga. ‘I will not.’ She folded her arms and frowned.

  And yet there is nothing you could do to stop us. Namarii let out a low growl. The sound triggered a powerful urge in Kimi to run away, but she held her ground and glowered at the dark brown dragon. Taiga slowly drew her silver sickle and dagger – the weapons of Frøya herself, if the priestess were to be believed. She adopted a look of such unflinching fury that Kimi reached out to her.

  ‘Taiga, I’m not sure this is the best way …’

  ‘Now you listen to me!’ Taiga’s voice had never been loud, but there was a timbre to it that could not be ignored. ‘We are here to cast down the tyranny of this continent. We’re not here to add to its cruelty. We’re not here to kill people just because we think there
are too many of them.’ The look she gave Tief could have drawn blood. ‘I am a high priestess of Frøya, the way of earth and life and renewal.’

  The little one bears its teeth. Namarii’s words were rank with condescension. He lowered his head until his snout was just a dozen feet from Taiga. Her dagger looked pitifully small compared to Namarii’s teeth.

  The little one is mine. Flodvind lowered her head and moved Namarii out of the way with a motion that was more than a nudge and just slightly less than a head butt. Namarii shook himself like a dog for a moment and a brief growl escaped the dark brown dragon before he composed himself.

  Then I propose a bargain be struck. Namarii’s eyes flickered to the azure dragon. Let us hunt Bittervinge, for good or ill.

  Let us dine on his corpse, added Stonvind, unmoving as the cliffside behind him. And we will have no need for human flesh.

  And when we have picked the father of dragons’ bones clean we shall turn our attentions to the Emperor. Namarii flexed his claws.

  ‘For good or ill?’ Kimi couldn’t hide her disdain. ‘That sounds like recklessness to me.’

  You have been holding us back. Namarii retreated a few paces, but the full weight of his gaze did not leave Kimi. He flared his wings in irritation and folded them slowly.

  ‘I was afraid Bittervinge was too strong for us. I was afraid the Emperor was too strong for us. I didn’t want you to die.’ Kimi stared up at the young dragon. The sun caught his brown scales, revealing all the colours of autumn once again, and Kimi was reminded how majestic the dragons could be. ‘I was looking out for you,’ she added. ‘It’s what friends do for each other.’

  Friends. Namarii snorted a plume of smoke. I have all the friends I need. For a moment Kimi dared to hope Namarii meant the three humans standing before him, but the dragon held up one foot, the long claws shining in the sunlight. His friends, the claws he would use to kill the father of dragons if fortune smiled on them.

  Kimi took a moment to rest before they took to wing again. She didn’t care for the way Namarii had used his size to intimidate them, but it was what dragons did after all. Hadn’t Bittervinge used the very same tactic during their first encounter?

  You are displeased with me. Namarii lowered his head so Kimi could mount more easily.

  ‘Why should that bother you? We’re not friends. Now let’s kill this bastard dragon once and for all.’

  That word again. Friends.

  Tief and Taiga shared a look, though Kimi couldn’t tell if they were concerned for her attitude towards Namarii or the battle ahead. There was the familiar lurch as the dragons launched themselves into the air. Kimi was pressed against the dragon’s neck and her hands gripped the reptilian scales. The ground dropped away and one by one Namarii, Stonvind, and Flodvind swooped out over the sea, gliding when they could, gaining height in lazy circles. The trading ship they had accosted lay below them, waiting at anchor. A few people could be seen on the cliffs – Silverdust, Streig, and Captain Hewn perhaps – but they were soon lost from sight as the dragons headed towards the city.

  The roads heading south, if they could be called roads, were full of fleeing people made tiny by distance. Carts and wagons trundled and livestock trudged, urged onwards by those souls who had the sense to depart Khlystburg. Little did they know that Grave Wolves awaited them in Izhoria, but there was little Kimi could do to warn them.

  Why do you care? Namarii’s question intruded on Kimi’s thoughts like rough stone on bare flesh.

  ‘It’s a human thing,’ she shouted, snarling the words against the wind as the dragons’ wings beat slow and strong. ‘You wouldn’t understand,’ she added, hoping to annoy the arrogant beast. ‘It’s called empathy.’

  A bright pinprick of fire could be seen in the distance, burning at Kimi’s attention. Bittervinge was attacking the city once more.

  Now we dine!

  Stonvind and Flodvind, who had drifted away from their kin, closed formation and came up either side of the dark brown dragon. Taiga wore a sombre, watchful look, while Tief whooped and hollered with excitement. Kimi felt only anxiety, squeezing the air from her lungs a little more with each minute. Khlystburg rushed by underneath them, the buildings snatched away by the almost delirious speed

  He remains weakened from our earlier encounters, counselled Flodvind.

  His end comes, added Stonvind.

  Bittervinge had landed on a row of buildings, though they had sagged under his weight and many roof tiles had slipped and smashed on the cobbled street below. The roof of one home had been torn apart and the father of dragons extended a foreleg inside, the talons questing for fresh meat. A lone voice screamed mindlessly as their doom approached, distracting Bittervinge from the young dragons speeding their way from the south. Namarii led the attack, diving low and seizing the father of dragons about the neck with all four sets of talons. Kimi was almost jolted from her seat between the dragon’s shoulders and she swore in her mother tongue. She’d wanted to unsheathe her sword but it was all she could do to stay mounted. Bittervinge released a thunderous roar of pain and buffeted the younger dragon with his vast black wings. For a moment Khlystburg spun beneath them. Namarii took a moment to regain control, flaring his wings wide to stabilize himself in the air. The father of dragons surged into the sky with powerful strokes of his wings.

  Pitiful! Bittervinge slashed downwards with a claw, opening three gouges on Namarii’s brow, the blood bright and shocking. Kimi drew her sword, determined to score a blow against their hated enemy.

  Damn you. Namarii fled and for a moment it seemed the jet-black dragon would launch himself in pursuit of his attacker, but Flodvind descended directly from above, landing cat-like on Bittervinge’s back, knocking his wings askew, forcing the father of dragons back to the rooftops. The azure dragon unleashed a torrent of fire from her maw directly into Bittervinge’s wounded neck. A heartbeat later and Flodvind was in the air once more, wings beating hard to give her height and distance from their enemy. Taiga met Kimi’s eyes and held up a hand in greeting, a strange and kindly gesture in the chaos. Bittervinge coiled like a vast black spring, using all four legs and his tail to propel him after his sinuous attacker. Kimi felt her heart stutter as she worried for Flodvind.

  ‘We need to help her!’ she shouted at Namarii.

  Stonvind, who had lined up his own attack, might have inflicted a mortal wound had Bittervinge not folded his wings and plummeted back to the rooftops a heartbeat later. Kimi would never have dreamed such a vast creature could perform a feint in combat, and the granite-grey dragon shot past his target. Stonvind folded his wings on instinct, protecting the more fragile parts of himself. Bittervinge breathed a cloud of smoky fire that engulfed both Stonvind and Tief in billowing oranges and angry reds. Kimi could hear her friend’s cries even above the roaring wind and the pounding of her heart.

  ‘Tief?’

  Namarii had circled around since his opening attack and dived at the father of dragons so recklessly that Kimi almost lost her seat. The black dragon now launched himself into the air with jaws wide open and talons splayed, intent on catching the still burning Stonvind. Namarii tried to pull up from his dive but had overcommitted and had to concentrate on avoiding the street below. Kimi could only watch in dismay as Bittervinge raked his claws along Stonvind’s flank. The granite-grey dragon fell from the sky and hit the rooftops with a hushed crunch, sending up a cloud of stone dust.

  Of Tief there was no sign.

  ‘May Frøya keep you close,’ whispered Kimi in desperation. Namarii glided in a wide arc, circling Stonvind while keeping Bittervinge at a distance, but the father of dragons was unconcerned with anything but the downed dragon.

  ‘We have to help them!’ shouted Kimi, but Namarii kept his course, circling the danger, all sign of his earlier bravado now abandoned. Taiga and Flodvind were not so circumspect.

  Again the azure dragon had gained enough height to attack from above and Taiga rode the creature with one arm raised, her
sickle clutched in her fist. As Flodvind descended the heavens opened and the rains made the prospect of dragon fire unlikely. Bittervinge turned just as Flodvind ripped past him, talons rending, teeth snaring. The air was filled with a fine mist of blood. Taiga’s sickle reaped its own reward, opening a bright wound in the jet-black scales.

  ‘Attack him! For the love of Frøya, attack him!’ shouted Kimi, but Namarii held his course. The father of dragons drifted across the city, moving further and further away, his wounded wings held wide. Flodvind and Taiga landed near the unmoving Stonvind.

  ‘Tief?’ Kimi could hear the panic in Taiga’s voice, even at this distance, shrill and piercing. ‘Tief, where are you?’

  Bittervinge slipped away and finally Namarii landed by the buildings next to Stonvind.

  ‘What happened to “Now we dine!”?’ muttered Kimi as she dismounted. ‘What happened to “You have been holding us back”? What happened to fucking fighting like a giant winged reptile?’ she raged.

  But for once Namarii had no answer for her; his amber eyes settled on the prone form of Stonvind, his head hung low, blood dripping from his deeply scored head to spatter over the street below.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Steiner

  People ask me why Steiner and Kimi didn’t make more of an effort to join forces in Khlystburg, but they don’t truly understand the gravity of the situation. Steiner was largely concerned with entering the palace while avoiding Imperial forces and the marauding attacks from the father of dragons. Kimi was preoccupied with many tasks, not least feeding and motivating Namarii and the younger dragons. A search of such a vast and sprawling cityscape, strewn with winding lanes and ruined towers, might have taken a solid week all by itself.

  – From the memoir of Drakina Tveit, Lead Librarian of Midtenjord Province