by Sam Farren
I rose to my feet, brick clattering against the ground. I grabbed his arm, followed him through the smoke, and drew out all that he'd breathed in, all that was staining his lungs. The soldier shook, but he didn't stop for a second. At the end of the street, we came to the ruins of a bakery, and an arm stretched out from beneath a crumpled wall. The body was fine – from the chest down, at any rate – but I couldn't begin to bring him back until the huge chunk of stone had been dragged off his skull and shoulders.
“We need to move this,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the edge of the fallen wall. I grit my teeth, eyes stinging with tears from the heat and smoke, and put all my strength into lifting, alongside the soldier.
“We were only trying to help people,” he mumbled as we got absolutely nowhere. It was too heavy for the two of us, would've been too heavy for half a dozen of us, but no one was going to venture this far into the smoke. “We got everyone out, but, but...”
My fingers split open on the wall and I let out a pathetic mimicry of the dragon's roar as they healed over, grit caught under them, and tried to lift again and again, shoulders about to give. I turned my head to cough into my shoulder, and with one last futile effort, the wall lifted easily.
“What... ?” I wondered out loud, opening my eyes and finding Kouris next to me, straining to hold the wall up. “Kouris! You're...”
But what was there to say? There was no room left for words. The soldier hadn't flinched at the sight of a necromancer and didn't do so at the sight of a pane, either. He moved instantly, pulling the crushed body of his husband from beneath the wreckage. Kouris dropped the wall once the corpse was clear, and dirt and dust flew into the air. I knelt by the dead man, hands ghosting over his skull, drawing the broken bits of bone back into place.
“Both of you—thank you, thank you so much,” the soldier said, clinging to his husband as he stirred in his arms. “Come with us, please! We'll get out of here together.”
I was determined to help, but it'd been clear from the start that we were fighting a losing battle. I looked to Kouris, felt the smoke coiling within her, and knew that I couldn't ask the two men to help us find Claire. They had to get straight out, no detours.
“There's someone I have to find. Go, go!” I told them, and the soldier nodded his head over and over, understanding but not liking it one bit. His husband, still disorientated, hadn't managed a word yet, and ran when he was told to.
“Where's Claire?” I asked, turning to Kouris and gripping the front of her leathers.
I took all the smoke she was plagued with upon myself, no longer having to think about it. All the death and decay in the surrounding area was sifting into me, and my veins pounded with it, limbs becoming heavy, eyes burning bright.
“We can't afford to be looking for her, yrval,” Kouris said. “This whole city's gonna be a sea of fire within minutes—we've gotta help who we can and get ourselves out of here.”
I couldn't argue with her. I wasn't going to leave without Claire, but I wasn't going to waste what little time Isin had left. She let me climb upon her back and I clung to her horns, desperately trying to see through the smoke and flames, surroundings already unrecognisable. It'd been minutes since the sum total of damage within Isin was smashed glass and torn banners, but now the city was beyond salvation.
“Claire got out of the castle, didn't she? And the others—Akela's out too, right?” I asked as Kouris leapt over a toppled statue, torso feet away from the rest of it. “Everyone's trying to get out, aren't they?”
Kouris growled from the back of her throat, darting into a narrow side-street as a kraau circled overhead, looking for its next perch, and said, “Aye, we got as many as we could out. Everyone wanted to be the first out, though. Can't tell you how many were knocked into that damn moat.”
There were fewer and fewer people to help as we charged through Isin, searching for a way out of a maze made of makeshift dead-ends. I sensed bodies in the flattened buildings around me, trapped under more layers of stone and wood than Kouris and I could claw our way through.
My heart ached for Kouris every time we happened upon a dragon. Her kin were forced to commit atrocities beyond their understanding, and the only way to stop this all was to kill them. The closest we came to a kraau was when one of their back legs rested in a square we had no choice but to cut through, and Kouris bowed down low, dodging its swinging tail.
A glint of white caught my eye through the grey, and I called out, “Claire!” before I was certain it was her.
Kouris ground to a halt and my forehead cracked against one of her horns, but I hadn't been hoping against hope. Claire changed course, running towards us, and relief turned bitter in my throat when I realised why she was wearing her armour.
“There you are,” she said, voice on the verge of cracking. She didn't let herself reach out to me.
I crashed into her, clutching at her arms and said, “Claire, Claire—you have to come with us. You have to.”
There'd be time to explain where I'd been later.
She shook her head, eyes flickering away from me beneath her visor.
“You know I must stay and fight. I've no choice, Rowan,” she said, taking a step back.
“Please,” I begged. “You might be able to stand against one dragon, but not all of these.”
“Listen to her,” Kouris said, “You don't owe Isin your life.”
Claire hesitated, but I knew she'd never turn away from her duty.
“This part of the city was lost first—there is still much that can be saved, west of the castle. I have to go,” she said, and I opened my mouth to snap that I was going to come with her, in that case, but she backed out of my grasp, beating me to it. “You have to go, Rowan. Kouris—take her to Kyrindval. Promise me that.”
Kouris wouldn't look at me, and I knew it was because she was going to do all she could to tear me away. Stepping forward, she bowed down, pressing her forehead to front of Claire's helm, gripping the back of her head.
“You meet us there, Ightham,” she growled, “Swear that you will.”
“No—” I said, making to grab hold of Claire once more, but Kouris wrapped her arms around me, lifting me off the ground. “Don't!” I called out after Claire, reaching for her as she drew her sword and took slow steps backwards. “Don't, Claire. Don't leave me, please!”
Too much smoke drifted between us for me to see her. I screamed after her, calling for her to come back, howling out her name; I beat my fists against Kouris' shoulders, trying to worm my way free, but none of it added up to anything. Kouris didn't flinch, and only headed further and further from Claire, turning sharply as a one of the castle's spires planted itself in the centre of the street ahead of us.
“It's alright, yrval, it's alright,” Kouris was murmuring as I continued to struggle. “She wants you safe—do that much for her, alright?”
“Kouris, she's going to get hurt. I... I need to, I...”
All at once, I was still as a statue in her arms.
Kouris murmured something under her breath in a language I didn't understand, but I knew a curse when I heard one.
Ahead of us, darkness descended upon the shattered streets of Isin. The fhord that'd clawed its way through the wall crushed what remained of the buildings to make space for itself, purple wings fanned out, obscuring the sky as it roared at the sun, making ready to breathe.
There was no absorbing the size of it, not even when it stood before us. I was smaller than its largest fangs, and as I slipped from Kouris' arms and stood motionless by her side, I knew that no matter how quickly we fled, we wouldn't escape its reach.
“Yrval,” Kouris said softly. Too softly.
She reached out, taking my hand in hers, and I entwined our fingers as I stared up at the dragon. There wasn't a scratch on it, despite all the damage it had done, and my other hand trailed through the air, wanting to find Claire's.
The dragon lowered its head, plumes of smoke rising from its nostrils, a
nd I did all I could to brace myself, to fight the flames the moment they raged against me and Kouris. Its jagged fangs parted, long tongue tasting the air, and as its shoulder blades pushed back, I held out a hand, desperate for it to stop.
Heat spiked in the air and Kouris tugged me to the side, meaning to leap into one of the barely-standing buildings, but my mind was still screaming for the dragon to stop, stop: and it did.
Just like that, the fhord gave one final sharp, short roar, and came crashing to the ground like a stone.
My fingers twitched, and all the exhaustion in my body was replaced by a burning in my veins, my bones. The death I'd drawn from the Isiners rushed out of me in that single motion, filling the dragon, bringing it down, down, like the castle no longer rising against the horizon.
I wanted to laugh, overwhelmed by the force locked up inside of me, but when I tried, the sound caught in my throat, sending a bolt of pain between my temples. I doubled over, gripping the sides of my head, palms slick with the blood that trickled out of my ears. My head throbbed, but I was still standing. The taste of copper rushed from the back of my throat, and Kouris caught me as the ground rushed up to meet my knees.
“I can do it,” I said, shaking with certainty, and for all the blood streaming from my nose, it was my eyes Kouris was staring at. “Come on—we can find Claire and get rid of the other dragons, Kouris, please...”
“Yrval, shh. Shh,” she said, as though she hadn't heard me. Kouris rocked me in her arms, holding me close to her chest, and as I saw her mouth words that had been replaced by a high-pitch whine, my body began to writhe in her arms.
A grim, harrowing force rushed through me. It wasn't the smoke flooding the city, or even the mist of death that rose with the heat; a darkness came over me that I couldn't run from, couldn't banish, and Kouris faded as the ringing in my ears turned to a screech, then stopped.
*
I awoke to another sort of darkness, prickled with bright lights.
I stared blankly, barely able to blink, and came to realise that it was the night sky draped over us. Miles away, Isin burnt bright under midnight's shroud, and I felt myself sway to and fro, to and fro, accompanied by the rhythmic thrum of heavy footsteps.
I was in Kouris arms, nothing left inside of me, barely able to move. Beside us, figures moved away from Isin, away from the smoke that blotted out stars, and I saw Akela at my side, blood spilling from a gash across her cheek, eye bruised, dark and angry. She did nothing to tend to her wounds, staring straight ahead as we marched on and on.
I bundled my fingers in the front of Kouris' shirt, and she looked down at me, eyes silver-white, like the moon. I mouthed Claire's name, unable to find my voice. Ears twitching before they drooped, Kouris could only shake her head. After that, I didn't dare to part my lips.
I didn't dare to breathe too deeply.
In the aftermath of the attack, there was nothing left for us but the hollowed-out night, and I watched with wide, dry eyes as the fires of Isin faded beneath the horizon, flames flickering and fading without a sound. In the disquiet that followed the devastation, I thought that no voice would ever be raised again; no word could ever be uttered to make sense of this; and the thought of speech in its entirety became senseless and cruel.
In the end, it was silence that took the last of Kastelir.
About the Author
Sam Farren started writing the way many young authors do: they really, really wanted to post some fanfiction. After dabbling in both transformative and original works for many years, they developed a passion for representing queer women of all sorts in fantasy worlds. Their debut novel, Dragonoak: The Complete History of Kastelir, is the first instalment in a fully-written trilogy, spanning both years and continents.
Born and raised in the south-east of England, Sam currently resides in Oxford, with a charming pile of royal pythons, Tofu, Twix and Toffee. They are currently living the much coveted life of a poor student, and deeply appreciates any and all support via her published works.
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Upcoming Titles in the Dragonoak Series
The Complete History of Kastelir
The Sky Beneath The Sun
Gall and Wormwood
Contact the Author
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