Daybreak

by Shae Ford

He turned at a creak of the door. “No, don’t go out there — there’s no point in it.”

  She stopped in the doorway and watched him from over her shoulder. “I feel I should. I’ll feel better if I know for certain.”

  Kael sighed. “All right. Let me find my boots, and I’ll …”

  His words trailed off as a bright orange glow filled the room. The arc of its edge stretched quickly across the broken furniture, growing more furiously bright until it touched his boots — launched into two separate corners of the room. Finally, the light flooded up the doorframe, to the ceiling … and he saw every perfect line of Kyleigh’s face twist in horror.

  “Kael!”

  He didn’t have time to look back. He charged across the room and didn’t stop — not even when the wall behind him exploded. He felt the pressure of the rattling boom against his ears, felt the wind shove him forward. He dove for Kyleigh at full tilt.

  She clamped an arm across his back; his weight knocked her down. She managed to kick the door shut as they fell — only to have it ripped off its hinges a second later.

  Kael’s elbows bit the ground hard, but he managed not to flatten Kyleigh beneath him. He grunted when the door slapped across his back and nearly lost his grip when a shower of heavy bits of wall thudded on top of it. He likely would have been crushed to death, had Kyleigh not braced it with her hands.

  “Go!” she grunted.

  He slid out the gap between her arms and the door. Once he had his feet under him, he tore the rubble aside and pulled her free. “Are you —?”

  Another explosion sounded overhead. The floor shook beneath them. Kyleigh’s head whipped around at the noise of terrified screams. “You take the bottom floor — I’ll take the top.”

  She tore off down the hallway, and Kael followed on her heels.

  They split at the main room: Kyleigh charged down the passageway that would lead to the stairs while Kael tried to manage his way through a crush of castle folk.

  They were red-eyed and half-dressed. Many of them were already wounded by debris. There were too many bodies packed inside the hall — and each and every one of them scrambled madly for the keep’s one small door.

  Kael was trying to shove his way through without hurting anybody when someone bellowed from behind him: “Make way! Let the Witchslayer get to the door!”

  Gerald’s voice rose above the panicked shouts. Several of the guards took up his cry. The castle folk parted out of his way. They shoved him on. When he reached the door, he saw it’d been caved in.

  “Bloody trapped,” Gerald hissed from behind him. “We’d better turn around and make for the back.”

  There wasn’t time for that. The back led to a narrow walk that dangled over the edge of a cliff. Kael didn’t think the villagers would be able to make it in the dark.

  So he shoved his hands into the wall, molding the stone and mortar aside like clay. People began slipping through the hole the moment it was wide enough. He dragged its sides until the hole resembled something like the slit in an iron helmet.

  “Keep moving,” Gerald said as he urged the last of them outside. “Head straight for the village!”

  “What’s out there?” Kael panted. His head was still spinning from the shock, his ears still ringing from the blast. But he tried to force himself to be calm.

  Gerald, on the other hand, looked as if he’d just lost a bucket’s worth of blood. “I haven’t got a clue! I was about to take my turn at the watch when the castle started blasting apart. We’ve been hit in the back and the shanks. Looks like forward’s our only option.”

  Before Kael could wonder how on earth someone had managed to get behind Roost, a loud clang drew his eyes down the hallway towards the library.

  A handful of guards tumbled out of the back room, running like Death snapped at their heels. White ringed their eyes and their arms swung madly at Gerald. “Move! Get out of here!”

  Before he could ask, Kael saw it: a red light glowed softly in the doorway. It filled the castle from ceiling to floor, like a sheet of glass that changed its shape along the curves of the hall.

  It blackened the guards’ armor and made their flailing shadows look like wraiths. The man at the back of the sprint tripped over his boots. He managed to crawl a few paces, but the red light didn’t slow. Kael was running to help when a thick, moldy tang struck his nose.

  Magic.

  In the second he realized this, the guard was overtaken. He screamed and writhed upon the ground as the red light scraped across him. Kael managed to grab his hand just as the spell enveloped them. He was so focused on holding his breath against the tang of magic that he moved the guard a foot before he realized that he was dragging a skeleton.

  The magic had stripped the guard’s skin away, peeling his flesh aside until all that remained was shining bone. Kael dropped him, and the guard’s helmet rolled away — revealing a smooth, grinning skull.

  “Run! Get out of the castle!”

  Kael barely heard Gerald’s cries. He was already focused on the hallway, searching for the source of the red light. Fury surged through his limbs. He didn’t know what stood at the hallway’s end — but if it had a heart, he would rip it out.

  The noise around him vanished as he charged deeper into the light. Here, the world shimmered like sun across the waves and everything was doused in a haunting red. The smell of magic sickened him. It filled his mouth and spilled wetly down his throat.

  There was only one thing the light didn’t seem able to touch: a thin, shimmering figure that marched at its back. Its arms were raised and it held what looked like a staff between its hands.

  The mage must’ve seen Kael coming. It stiffened, its limbs curled back and its mouth opened in what could’ve only been a shriek. But he couldn’t hear it. He burst from the light and swung blindly through the darkness. His fist collided with something that gave way with a crunch. A body struck the ground.

  Then came the smell of blood.

  It burned the insides of his nose and swelled to cloud his vision — a thick, bitter stench that made bile rise up his throat. A roar burst from his chest as he lunged. His hands curled out like talons before him, feeling for the wet warmth of the blood. The mage shrieked again and tried to scramble away from him.

  But he caught it around the throat.

  Kael pressed down hard, eyes burning as his grip tightened. Soon, the blood would stop. Soon, the madness would fade …

  “Please!”

  Through the fog that clouded his vision came a small, trembling voice. His roar shrank back from its wailing, confused. His grip loosened against the plea of hands much weaker than his. All at once, the madness slipped away.

  Kael followed the shaking line of his arms to the end of his clenched fists — where a young girl stared up at him in terror. Her face was bloodied from his punches, her skin pale for the lack of air.

  He let go of her throat with a lurch.

  “Who are you?” was all he could think to say.

  She was a young forest woman. Her rounded eyes were filled to the brim with tears. Kael followed the line of blood that dripped from her chin to the collar of her golden robes. His stomach churned when he saw the twisting black dragon sewed into its front — the crest of Midlan.

  He was still battling against the shock when the girl reached to soothe her throat. There was an iron shackle clamped about her wrist — a shackle that glowed with a red, pulsing light.

  He suddenly understood. “Here — no, I’m not going to hurt you. I swear you’re safe.” Kael pressed his thumbnail into the milky white film coating the shackle and peeled the spell away. The iron tore like parchment between his hands.

  The moment the shackle fell, the young woman gasped — as if she’d been holding her breath for ages. Brightness returned to her eyes. But when she looked at Kael, white terror ringed them again.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t touch you again. The King sent you here, didn’t he? You’re one of his mages. How many more
of you are there?” he pressed, raising his voice to be heard over the noise of a fresh wave of explosions. The tower shook and the floor above them groaned. Kael took his eyes away for half a blink to make certain the beams weren’t about to give way.

  But when he glanced down, the mage girl was already gone.

  He didn’t have time to worry; he didn’t even have time to swear. The moment she vanished, he heard the castle folks’ panicked yells coming from behind him, and he turned on his heels.

  The people who’d fled the main hall hadn’t gotten very far: they were gathered in a crowd across the courtyard, beating desperately against its stubborn gate.

  There was a withered knot near the middle of the left door. The lumps in the center of the knot gave it the look of a lopsided face — one with mismatched eyes and a slightly squished nose. As the villagers pounded upon the door, the knot shrilled back:

  “Stop it! Stop hitting me! I’m only trying to hel — ouch!”

  Kael shoved his way through the crowd, already howling at Knotter: “Open up, you stupid apparition! We’re under attack!”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Knotter snapped in reply. “That’s why I’m keeping you all locked up inside here, where you’ll be safe —”

  The thunder of a collapsing tower froze his words. Kael whipped around and for a moment, the whole kingdom went still.

  The tower that held their chambers was collapsing. He watched the windows droop like saddened eyes, their lids heavy with flame. The balcony dropped in a gaping, horrified scream. The tower tilted and swayed, groaning as it fell.

  Kael had taken a panicked leap forward when the roof suddenly burst open.

  A large white dragon erupted from its top, an armful of castle folk pressed against her scaly chest. Her serpentine body darted upwards until it became lost among the clouds.

  Spells of every color chased after her. They burst from the cliffs behind Roost and arced in from the village below. Kael knew that as long as Kyleigh stayed above the clouds, she would be safe.

  He had to take care of the villagers. “Roost is finished, we have to move.”

  Knotter’s jagged crack of a mouth twisted sharply. “No, no! It’s worse out there. It’s far worse —”

  “Let us out, or a swear I’ll rip the skin off of you!” Kael bellowed.

  “All right, all right. But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Knotter huffed.

  The castle gate swung open, and Kael blanched at what he saw.

  It was a picture taken straight from his nightmares: walls of red charged towards Copperdock on either side, drifting hungrily through the spiny woods. They were the arms of some monster about to wrap everything up inside its deadly embrace. Dark shapes of people poured from the homes and shops, streaming for the docks. Their screams thickened the night. Ships were already beginning to make their way from the harbor.

  There was only one thin sliver of earth untouched by the light — a mage’s worth of clear space, the gap left by the young woman he’d freed. “Everybody stay close to me,” Kael called behind him. “We’re going to have to run for it.”

  Gerald balked for half a second before he sputtered: “To the docks! Quickly now, men!”

  A handful of guards took off, charging to the lead while the castle folk followed. Servants hauled their children across their shoulders, the women picked up their skirts. They tore down the winding castle path and plunged into the haunted woods below.

  Rain lashed them while the storm howled above. The red walls slid in on their either side. They rose as high as towers and ringed all of Copperdock in a thick, deadly spell — a horseshoe of flesh-rending light that cut them off from the rest of the Kingdom. The walls left them only one path of escape.

  They had to reach the seas.

  Kael urged the villagers on as he ran. The walls’ eerie light darkened the shadows, deepened the terror across their faces. Not even the veins of lightning were enough to drive them back.

  The smell — sweet mercy, the tang of magic was everywhere. Kael felt the madness begin to rise. His hands shook; his heart started to pound. He wanted nothing more than to plunge into the light and tear every last mage’s head from his shoulders. But he knew that if he left, the villagers would be defenseless.

  So he had no choice but to stay by their side.

  He fell back the moment they reached the docks, waiting until the last servant made it through. The red light seemed to end where the docks began, which meant that everyone who’d managed to board a ship would be safe.

  Unfortunately, all of the ships were well out to sea.

  “Come back! Come back, blast you!” Gerald cried, waving as the nearest vessel slunk off into the waves. He grabbed Kael by the arm. “The merchants have taken off, and they’ve taken everything seaworthy with them. We’ll have to go some other way.”

  There was no other way. Kael knew that if they stood at the docks for too long, the mages would overtake them. He spotted a small boat he thought might hold them all: a vessel that was little more than a deck and a sail. But it would have to do.

  “Get them on board.”

  When he saw where Kael pointed, Gerald’s mouth fell open. “Are you mad? That thing’ll never get us through a storm—”

  “We’ll just have to try,” Kael snapped impatiently. “We have no other choice.”

  Now that the red walls had reached the shoreline, they were starting to close in. They pressed together, sealing the narrow gap between them. The villagers would be one fireball from death once the mages saw them. Kael couldn’t protect them all.

  Their best chance was to head out to sea, to try to disappear inside the storm.

  Gerald seemed to realize this. The guards herded everybody onto the deck while Kael took the wheel. A few of the men seemed to know enough to work the sails, and he was grateful for it. The storm winds filled them quickly and spat them out to sea.

  Kael held his breath as they sailed — hoping to mercy that they were small enough to go unnoticed. When he chanced a look behind him, a number of blackened figures had appeared throughout the light.

  They stood together in a perfect line, unmoving. As he watched, the man in the middle of the line stepped forward. He raised an arm to the clouds and another red light flared brightly from his fist.

  Kael gripped the wheel. He was ready to turn from the spell’s path, ready to spin them away, if he had to. But all at once, the light faded. The red disappeared from the shores. The blackened figures slipped back inside the walls.

  And the world went eerily still.

  CHAPTER 7

  The Black Dragon

  The night crushed them. Waves slapped against their sides and the wind tested their sails. Kael’s grip tightened each time their mast moaned against the storm’s breath.

  He hoped to mercy it would hold.

  Behind them, Copperdock had fallen silent. Kael couldn’t look back: he was too focused on the waves ahead. But he watched the red light fade from the village through the reflections of the guards’ widened eyes. They stared, their hands white-knuckled upon the weapons at their hips.

  Gerald’s mouth sagged beneath his helmet, and the darks of his eyes stretched to caverns. “What now?” he murmured.

  Kael wasn’t sure. The ships ahead of them seemed to know what they were doing, so he followed as closely as he could. The fury with which the rain struck the sea muddled the air. It formed a thick curtain that seemed to devour everything. Soon, he had to rely on flashes of lightning to catch a glimpse of the nearest vessel.

  They’d sailed for hardly a few minutes when a roar startled them from above. Kael spun around and his heart lurched inside his chest when a white bolt whooshed behind them.

  Kyleigh sped close to the water, stirring up a wave that rocked them. Spells of all colors shot out from the darkened shores. They bolted towards her, but she twisted and spun in a rabbit’s pattern across the sky — avoiding them with ease.

  She flew in a wide arc back t
owards the burning village before she shot into the streaming clouds. The mages followed her, flinging spells as they went.

  She knows what she’s doing, Kael told himself, even as his hands screamed to turn the wheel. She knows what she’s —

  “Help!”

  A round of panicked splashing drew his eyes to where Kyleigh had flown past them, and he saw that a handful of villagers bobbed in her wake.

  “Turn around and get us close,” Gerald said, stepping to the rails.

  The guards worked together, pulling three sopping maids and one rather small, wide-eyed man from the waves. Kael didn’t recognize the man. He was trying to get a look at his face when a woman’s relieved cry drew his eyes away.

  “Oh, Gerald — I’m so glad you’re safe!” Mandy said.

  Gerald didn’t seem to mind the fact that she was sopping wet. He held her close and smiled shakily. “You … you are?”

  “I thought you’d gone out to the watch. I thought for sure that you’d been killed! The whole time we were flying around, I should’ve fainted. But I couldn’t even be worried over the height for worrying over you.”

  “I was worried over you, too. I’d been hoping to Fate that you made it onto one of those ships …” Gerald went pale-faced when he saw Kael watching and tried to pull away.

  “Don’t worry — I won’t tell,” he promised.

  Kael knew they’d been incredibly lucky. Not so long ago, he would’ve boiled over what the King had done to Copperdock. His fury might’ve driven him to the edge. But he’d seen far too much since then. He’d stared into too many lifeless faces and felt the ache of losing something far worse than a home.

  He couldn’t help but smile as he watched Gerald and Mandy speak, couldn’t help but feel relief at the sight of so many people safe aboard the boat. Yes, Roost had been destroyed and the people run from their homes, but they were lucky. He’d seen what could happen when the King’s eyes fell upon an unprotected village.

  Kael would rather Copperdock be empty than full of bones.

  The mages’ spell blasts taunted him as he sailed, but he forced himself to look ahead. Kyleigh had outrun the King’s men for years — and with the storm hanging above them so thickly, the mages weren’t likely to catch her tonight. Once she returned, they would figure out how to answer Crevan.