Dragon School: Dust of Death

by Wilson, Sarah K. L.

  If I agreed to let Raolcan open that portal for Jalla’s people, then I was agreeing to do that all over again. I might as well start bathing in the blood.

  Don’t be over-dramatic.

  Well, what would he call it then? To my shame, there were people gone from this earth who should still be here – because of me. And to my shame, I would do it again.

  “What’s taking so long?” Jalla asked. Her arms were crossed and her foot tapped on the stone. “The army is almost across the bridges.”

  I looked where she was pointing, eager for the distraction. The line of lanterns moved slowly towards us, hundreds of feet crossing the narrow stone bridge to the center hub. The snorts of horses and distant babble of low voices met us. One of the lights fell over the side, slowly plunging into the darkness and falling, falling, falling, until I lost sight of it.

  In reaction, the crowd pushed the other direction. I thought I heard someone yell and then a second lantern dropped. If they weren’t careful, they would lose all their lights.

  The lights are attached to men.

  A wave of nausea washed over me and I closed my eyes, clamping my jaw shut as I spread my palms across Raolcan’s scales looking for support. Horror rocked me and burrowed into my mind tentacle-like. How long would they fall before they died? How many minutes of knowing it was too late. What if that had been someone I knew? Lenora? Or Ephretti.

  Stop. You’re spiralling out of control.

  But they were here because I led them here.

  Enough. It’s time to decide. Shall I open the portal?

  “Did you see that?” I asked with a shaky voice.

  “The way is narrow. And this rock island is small,” Jalla said, her voice hard and unyielding. “If you don’t like lives wasted, then pick up the pace. Once they crowd onto this hub we need to start moving them or many more will fall.”

  Do I open it?

  No.

  Really? Do you know what it would take to back all of this up?

  I mean ...

  The fight in Vanika was for this. The lives lost were for this. You can’t back out now. You have to finish what you started.

  I didn’t want to do it. I swallowed, and my throat ached so much it was hard to even swallow my own saliva. I cleared my throat roughly, biting back an anxious whimper.

  Yes, okay, yes.

  There was no turning back now.

  Chapter Ten

  ONCE THIS STARTS, I won’t be able to stop while people are going through the portal.

  I thought they just stood in the circle and you activated it and it transported them.

  That’s one way to do it. The dragon I spoke to at the Dawn’s Gate says it’s possible to trigger the gate to stay open as long as I hold the flow of magic in place.

  And how are you supposed to do that? It didn’t sound like a real thing.

  With a mental trick.

  It sounded too easy. He’d just ‘happened’ on a dragon who knew the legends of these portals when he, a dragon prince, hadn’t known them. And then it just ‘happened’ to be a mental trick that made it work perfectly for our situation?

  My, are you cynical these days. Where did sweet little Amel go?

  She burned up in the fire.

  There was a pause, like he was processing what I’d thought before a burst of chagrin came through our link.

  I asked my brother. He was always more studious than I was.

  He’d talked to his brother about this?! He hadn’t mentioned it.

  Just because you’re getting cynical it doesn’t mean that I need to get all gooey to balance you out. You were busy planning your bright future with Leng while we were at the Dawn’s Gate. I wasn’t just sitting there idly.

  So, he had to focus, and he had to stay focused while the portal was open.

  And practically motionless. Do you want to stay on my back or get down before I start?

  He shuffled slightly, positioning himself so he could access the glowing runes while looking down the bridge before us. The torches were growing closer. I kept my eyes unfocused when I glanced up, trying to judge distance without noting specifics. I didn’t want to know if someone else fell in their hurry to arrive at the bridge.

  Pretending it isn’t happening doesn’t make it stop.

  But feeling the pain of it didn’t make it stop either. Who were these crazy people who would push forward to battle so intently that they lost their footing and then not even show compassion for those who fell?

  These people are your enemies who are temporarily your allies. Note how they think differently than you do. Note how their values and ways of expressing themselves are different. You may need to understand that someday. But don’t ever forget that they are human just like you. No matter how different, no matter how foreign - they are human.

  I let my eyes focus. I’d stay up here on Raolcan’s back – solidarity with my dragon. Whatever befell him would befall me. The first marching feet reached the hub at the same moment that Raolcan’s mind began to feel distant from me. The glowing circle grew brighter.

  “Finally!” Jalla said from the sidelines. “Are we ready?”

  I cleared my throat, nervous suddenly. What if it went wrong?

  “We’re ready.”

  “Test it out, Dragon Rider,” Jalla said to Hubric, but he just raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m on Ifrit watch, Baojang,” he said, calling her by the nation she led like she was a real monarch. I supposed she was, whether it felt that way to me or not.

  Kyrowat shifted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Raolcan and I smiled gratefully at Hubric. At least if we were pinned here we could have him at our back.

  “Fine.” Jalla looked around herself with a frown, clearly trying to think quickly.

  With Hubric and me stuck at the hub that only left Ahummal for her to ride, but if she was the first to go through the portal she’d have to leave her army behind her – uncertain about whether they could follow her. She glanced at the Serpent Prince, her mouth forming a worried moue. He smirked, clearly realizing, as I did, that if she sent him through first he would be in command of the forces on that side until she joined him.

  She cleared her throat. “The Serpent Prince will have the honor of leading us through the portal.”

  I felt a vibration.

  I looked up, slowly.

  Bright, fiery eyes were looking down at me.

  Chapter Eleven

  I’VE ALREADY STARTED. I can’t stop.

  The Ifrit stirred.

  “Hubric!” I whispered. Just a whisper in a cavern full of people talking at full volume. But the Ifrit shifted slightly – like I suddenly had his full attention.

  Everything seemed to happen very slowly – too slowly.

  The Serpent Prince yelled a command in his language, pushing past Jalla and rushing into the circle. As soon as he reached the midway point he startled, freezing in place for a moment – his eyes wild – before he disappeared. He didn’t fade slowly or seem to walk through a door or anything else, he was just gone.

  I didn’t have time to gasp before Jalla drew her sword, raised it in the air and yelled, pointing at the glowing glyph on the floor. The army rushed forward from the bridge onto the central hub, charging for the glyph at full speed. The man leading the charge didn’t even pause as he hit the same point as Habrida had and vanished midstride, just like his leader. I barely saw the faces of the men and women who followed him before they vanished into the portal, too.

  And then everything was moving too quickly. I held my breath as I watched, unwilling to be distracted by the need to breathe.

  The army continued its headlong charge into the portal. Kyrowat launched into the air beside me while Jalla screamed at Renn to follow him. Renn argued back, his face flushed in his intensity. It would take a lot to force Renn to fly into the face of danger.

  He finally launched into the air, cursing so loudly that I could hear him over the pandemonium of the jostling army. I couldn
’t understand the shouted orders or loud calls, but I caught their meaning well enough. The army was both charging into the unknown, and fleeing this dank underground hell, in the same action. Occasionally, one of them would stumble or be pushed to the side, careening into Raolcan and bouncing off his side as he focused on his task. I held my seat and my nerve carefully, refusing to let fear rise up inside me even as I was jostled and pressed.

  The Ifrit shot into the air so suddenly that my heart pounded in my ears. I kept my lips pressed firmly together, my hands on Raolcan’s neck. If a dragon could keep him at bay until the other dragons could get down the passage and burst into the hub cavern, then Kyrowat would have to be that dragon. If a dragon was not enough, there was nothing that I could do.

  The Ifrit spun, sailing through the air like a spark-filled cloud of death. He elongated and then snapped back to his usual size, flying low over the bridge of soldiers so that his belly brushed against their lantern poles. More than one lantern fell from terrified hands and the charge I had thought was at full speed, suddenly sped up to an even faster pace.

  A soldier fell into Jalla, making her stumble backward. She shoved him back with a roar and an order in her language before rounding on me.

  “I’m coming up. Make space.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but she was already scrambling up Raolcan’s motionless side and settling into the saddle.

  “We wouldn’t have this problem if our soldiers were riding those dragons. Instead, we have fleeing soldiers trying to get through this portal and the dragons that could help are behind them, clogging up the rear.”

  I could barely hear her over the shouting. The Ifrit charged down again, this time knocking soldiers off the bridge and grabbing them by the fistful to fling into the dark. My breath caught in my throat. This is what I first feared when we returned to this terrible place. And there was no way to go more quickly. No way to save those who had fallen. No way to prevent more from falling, too.

  “Your soldiers,” I gasped.

  “They are men and women of Baojang, not withered flowers like the people of the Dominion. We accept risk for the prospect of glory. We are made of courage and honed by risk.” She sounded proud.

  Kyrowat swooped toward the Ifrit – flaming as he passed – Ahummal hot on his heels. My eyes widened as I watched Renn lean low over his mount as they unleashed their own flame. Who would have thought he had it in him?

  “Look at my future husband,” Jalla continued. “He fights bravely – like one of us. But he shouldn’t be alone. Our people should be mounted on dragons by the hundred instead of leading them as a vanguard. It has always been our destiny to fill the skies.”

  “Well, you do have the Sentries. But let’s just get as many of your soldiers as we can through the portal,” I said tightly.

  Jalla nodded. “And then we will conquer the Dominion and every man and woman who survived here today will be a war leader with their own fertile lands to rule.”

  I clenched my jaw, not sure what to do with the mixed emotions I felt now that she was mentally dividing up my home. Every person who fell on that bridge was a human person, dying a horrible death they didn’t deserve. And every one that survived was a potential Jalla – a careless slave master who would take everything from my people. I did not like either prospect.

  Raolcan shifted slightly under me. Was the strain becoming too much for him? How long could he hold on?

  I glanced up to where Kyrowat and Ahummal were distracting the Ifrit, one tempting it in one direction and the other swooping in to distract it somewhere else just before it caught the first dragon.

  How long could they keep that up? They only needed to remain steady until the dragons arrived. I reached for the Pipe. Holding it tight in my hand and ready to start piping when the first dragon emerged.

  “You’ll have to give that back eventually,” Jalla said and there was a strange tone in her voice when she said it.

  “It doesn’t work for you.” My voice was tight with stress as I followed the battle, feeling helpless as I sat in one place while others fought and dodged and ran.

  “For now. It seems bound up with you. With your life.”

  Was she suggesting she would kill me if that’s what it took to get the Pipe? I glanced over at her, surprised to see the calculating look in her eye. Why was I surprised? Jalla had been this way from the moment I met her. The thing is – her bark was always worse than her bite. When she made me her slave that mostly involved playing cards and passing the time with her. It also involved loyalty demands and chores – but I thought that maybe from her perspective she’d gone easy on me. What would it mean to go easy on me when it came to acquiring this artifact back?

  Her eyes were hungry as she watched it.

  “I’m not going to die anytime soon,” I said, but my eyes were moving tensely from the Ifrit to the fleeing soldiers. He ignored Kyrowat trying to draw his attention and made a second sweep across the rock bridge. My whole face tensed as my eyes fought to close, but I couldn’t close them – I had to watch. It was wrong to pretend that people weren’t dying. Behind me, Jalla stiffened. So, she did care. No matter what she said, she cared that her people were dying.

  How much longer would it be until the first dragon emerged?

  The army wasn’t coming through the tunnels anymore. There! At the very rear! Rakturan and Enkenay brought up the rear for Baojang, launching immediately into the air as soon as they entered the larger cavern. Enkenay rushed toward the Ifrit with a roar as the last of the Baojang soldiers’ feet pounded toward the glyph.

  But where were the dragons? I expected them to emerge by now.

  The platform suddenly felt darker, as if a shadow had passed over it. Raolcan swayed underneath me and then slumped suddenly against the statue.

  The glyph was dark. The portal was closed.

  Chapter Twelve

  “GET IT BACK!” JALLA shouted. She kicked her heels into Raolcan. “Back, I said.”

  I spun around, my teeth clenched in anger. She kicked Raolcan! Kicked him when he was clearly hurting! With all my strength, I shoved her off his back, not concerned when her eyes went large and she toppled down to the stone. She shot me a look of death before scrambling in the dust on the stone floor and leaping back to her feet and drawing her sword.

  “Baojang! To me! We’ll form defensive lines!” Jalla called. She yelled a second time in her own language, clearly repeating her orders.

  There was no other choice for Baojang, but I had other things on my mind. I blew my Pipe, calling to the dragons in the caverns. If they could only hurry, there were more than enough of them to deal with one Ifrit. Even the addition of Enkenay was helping Kyrowat and Ahummal in their desperate battle to keep the Ifrit occupied.

  I’d thought that too soon. The Ifrit reached out and batted Ahummal. He fell backward, tumbling and crashing before landing limply on the platform. The Baojang soldiers around where he fell, scrambled to clear the area for him before he landed, half tripping over each other in their haste.

  That hurt.

  Raolcan! He was back with us from wherever he’d been!

  No time. Concentrate on calling the wild dragons while I direct them.

  I blew my Pipe in the three-note melody that had worked so well last time as Raolcan found his feet, sliding them in the dust a little as he shook himself. Was he really okay?

  I’ll live. I just need to get my bearings. It’s a lot of work to do so many things at once.

  Where were the dragons? Could they not hear my Pipe? I raised it to my lips.

  Not again! Not yet. It’s too strong for those of us nearby. They’re held up at a narrow point. It has slowed them.

  I held the Pipe tightly, trying not to pay attention as the moments ticked by and Jalla finished chivvying the Baojang soldiers into line. I tried not to worry as she pulled a limp Renn out from under Ahummal. He didn’t seem to be bloody or battered, but he was pale as a ghost.

  I focused on bre
athing evenly as Kyrowat flew low overhead, favoring his left side. Hubric rode slumped slightly over his neck. Were they struck by the Ifrit while I was distracted?

  Yes.

  Kyrowat landed awkwardly behind me, shaking slightly as if from shock. Only Rakturan and Enkenay still dominated the air, but the Ifrit had them on the run. They flew toward the island, barely ahead of his snatching hands. At the last second, it looked as if the creature would grab Rakturan from the saddle, but Enkenay rolled into a summersault, corkscrewing out of the flip in an unexpected direction and the Ifrit’s fist came away empty.

  He surged forward, and I clenched every muscle, willing my eyes to stay open as he charged towards us. All I saw was his inferno mouth as he opened it in a wide shriek. There was nowhere for me to run, nothing I could do, no way to fight. Which also meant that there was no point running and screaming in the face of this charge.

  Hot air blasted over us and the high-pitched squeal of his shriek stabbed through my ears. My fists balled, but I refused to give in to the fear rolling through my belly and making my bowels feel like water inside me.

  Jalla shouted and her line of defenders seemed to stand straighter as the Ifrit dove. Another shout and their weapons moved, stabbing, slashing into the Ifrit at the same moment that he plunged through their ranks, snatching them up by the handful and bowling over anyone in his path.

  It was like a living tornado had spun through our soldiers. On every side bodies scattered like fallen tree limbs. Broken, torn and bleeding, they dropped to the dust below. I stared in shock at the tattered few who still remained. Jalla was among them, her face hard, her sword held high, preparing for another charge. Raolcan had his forehead pressed against the center statue.

  Trying to fix it.

  I blew the Pipe again. Where were the dragons? All my attention was concentrated on the opening at the far end of the stone bridge. Was that movement I saw? He’d be back at any moment. We needed help and we needed it now!