Dragon's Fire

by Bri Sailor

  Nya’s heart began to pound and she felt a lump in her throat. Tears threatened to come to the surface. Memories of Maxus flooded her mind. His broad shoulders and strong arms and how they held her close. His thick black hair. The way he smelled of fresh cut wood and leather. Vex had already gone through the gates and was motioning for her to follow. With a cursory glance to see if anyone saw them, she slipped through the gates. Vex quickly shut them and dropped the heavy timber beam to prevent anyone from following. The courtyard was blanketed in overgrown beds of brightly colored tulips. He threw off his cloak and raced for the doors. Just before he reached them they suddenly were thrown open.

  “Stop!”

  Vex froze in place. A tired-looking soldier stood in the doorway wielding a sword. Vex’s heart stopped.

  “Túmos!” he exclaimed.

  “Vex!” Túmos’ voice cracked. “Stop! The barrier!”

  Vex took a step forward. “I know. I have come—’’

  “Don’t!” Túmos yelled. “It’s a trap! If you try to come in you will be trapped like us!”

  The general stopped mere inches from the threshold. He stood eye to eye with the forlorn entrapped man.

  “I thought you were dead.” Tears filled Túmos’ eyes.

  “I thought I was.” A single tear fell down Vex’s cheek. “I awoke to find myself captured. I feared that she had killed you all after she… after she killed Ultrek. I can’t tell you how happy I am that you are alive.”

  Túmos sniffed. “I don’t know for how much longer. We’ve nearly emptied the stores. Even with rationing, there may be only a few days left. We have tried everything. But the spell still holds.”

  He slammed his fist. The unseen barrier rippled and glowed a moment before disappearing again.

  “Well, I have brought someone that I pray will be able to set all of you free.” Said Vex hopefully.

  Nya stepped forward and threw back her hood. Túmos fell back in astonishment.

  “M-my Queen!” he stammered. “You’re alive. By the Goddess! You’re alive! How—’’

  She held up a hand. “It does not matter. What matters is that we get you out of there. The city is barren. Lusha has pulled all of her forces north. She is planning on ending everything once and for all. Her powers have grown far beyond this world.”

  Túmos’ eyes went wide and he looked at Vex.

  “But…but she was already so strong. I have never seen anything like what she did.”

  Vex nodded. “She speaks the truth. Gather the men. Our queen is a powerful priestess. She is going to break this damn curse!”

  Túmos nodded and ran to tell his men the news. Nya raised her hand and slowly reached forward. It passed through and the barrier rippled. She pulled it back and stared at it a moment. Closing her eyes, she began to concentrate a spell between her hands. A small orb appeared it was a swirling orange and indigo instead of white. She forced her hands together with all her might, causing the orb to be absorbed by her hands. As her hands neared the barrier it began to vibrate a low tone and turn a murky gray over the entire palace. It seemingly came alive and began to actively push her back. Nya dug in and pushed forward with all of her might.

  “What is happening?” yelled Taryn over the noise.

  “The barrier!” yelled Nya as her eyes began to glow a bright red. “There is no anchor! It’s Lusha!”

  Chapter 22

  After a couple of weeks the grasslands of the Quinmor kingdom slowly began to give way to humid swampland. Everyone was careful to keep an eye out for any signs of them being followed. Their travels had been eerily free of any encounters with the enemy. The hairs on Ky’s neck were almost permanently raised. Though she could not see it, she sensed that they were still being watched. Atreyis and Ky rode side by side.

  “If we get the crystals and Lusha is killed and all of this is stopped, what do you think will happen then?” Atreyis asked the group.

  A few minutes of silence passed as everyone thought about their possible futures.

  “I will lead my people out of banishment.” Said Kova simply.

  “The priesthoods have fallen over the centuries.” Said Cora. “I plan on returning to learn more from Oldrin before traveling to all of the temples I can, and teaching the priests in the ancient ways.”

  Ehren glanced over at Cora and clenched his jaw, holding back something. He cleared his throat.

  “I will return home, and one day take the throne.” He turned around to look at Atreyis. “Hopefully with my brilliant sister by my side.”

  Atreyis pretended not to hear him. She looked over at Ky who seemed lost in thought.

  “And you?” she asked.

  Ky stared at the horizon. She took a deep breath and sighed.

  “Find the perfect spot in the forest. Build my own home. And spend the rest of my days in peace. Withering away with old age. Something that many will never get to experience.”

  Ehren arched an eyebrow. “That sounds so—’’

  “Lonely.” Finished Atreyis. “What about your people? The Khennán throne is yours to rightfully claim.”

  Ky shook her head. “My mother is their queen. I am not. I never was. I have no right to lead them. They deserve a true leader. One that knows the evils of this world but whose heart and hands are clean.”

  “Sometimes the best leaders have made some of the hardest decisions that have resulted in the soul fragmenting.” Said Kova with a sense of humble pride.

  Atreyis squared her shoulders and cracked her neck. “So. You’re going off into the woods to become a hermit. All alone. No one around. Ever.”

  “Well, not ‘no one ever’.” Replied Ky off-handedly. “It’s not like I will shun the very presence of people. But some time alone is most definitely required.”

  “I wonder what Iyara would have to say about that.” Atreyis knew exactly what she was doing.

  Ky caught the tone of her voice and cleared her throat. “I don’t think she will care. Joslette will take care of her. She is meant for greater things. It has taken many years, but I have come to the realization that some of us are meant to belong and some are meant to weather the storm alone.”

  “There will always be a place for you with my brother and me. My parents would gladly accept you. After everything you have done for them, for my people…for me.” Said Atreyis.

  The warrior was silent for a moment.

  “I think it’s best that we not give in to dreams.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “Even if Lusha is defeated, you are still assuming that we will all come out of this alive. Life just doesn’t happen that way.”

  Atreyis felt the ever familiar sense of doom overcome her and she felt faint. Tears began to sting her eyes as she tried desperately to blink them back. She glanced over to make sure that Ky hadn’t seen her reaction. That night they slept under the stars in the driest patch of land they could find. Their horses calmly grazed on the plentiful grasses. Atreyis lay wide awake staring up and the sky while everyone else slept. She couldn’t get the thought out of her mind that she may never see Ky again. Rolling over she scanned the warrior’s slumbering form. The warrior’s muscles were twitching and her face was tense. Sweat was beading on her forehead. Atreyis reached out and shook her awake. The warrior’s eyelids fluttered open. Confused gray eyes stared into never-ending blue.

  “You alright?” Atreyis was concerned. She hadn’t seen the warrior like this for months.

  Ky shook herself. “Yeah. No. I don’t know.”

  “Nightmares?”

  “Ever since that night in the palace. Everything about the dream keeps getting more vivid, but when I wake up, I can’t remember anything hardly.”

  Atreyis bit her lip. “I know what you mean. I’ve had a similar dream once or twice.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s different though. I see flames. Hear screams. And feel this… unquenchable grief.”

  They both lay in silence staring into each other’s eyes, trying to read what
was behind them. Atreyis broke the tension.

  “You really want to live alone? Forever?” whispered the princess.

  Ky blinked. “Is that such a bad thing to want?”

  “I think so.” Sighed the princess. “I have felt alone my entire life. I was constantly surrounded by people, but I have never truly connected with anyone. Not Cora. Not Taryn. Not even my own brother. It was to the point that, oddly, self-imposed isolation was the only way for me to cope. So forgive me if I don’t understand why you would want to go running away from people who actually want you around and understand you. Look what happened to Iyara.”

  Ky squinted. “Now that’s unfair. How was I supposed to know that she would be imprisoned? How was I supposed to know that my leaving would put her in hell on earth? I thought that what I was doing at the time was the right thing. The only thing to do. It was all I knew. It was all I had to believe in.”

  Atreyis clenched her jaw. “So she wasn’t enough?”

  Ky sighed and rolled over, ignoring the question.

  “Answer me.” The princess propped up on her arm.

  The warrior was silent a moment more. Her eyes began to tear up.

  “No. She was. I wasn’t enough for her.”

  She rolled back over.

  “Her soul was so pure, so innocent. All she could see was the good in people so she never saw the evil that lay dormant in their hearts.” Her eyes glistened in the starlight. “You two are more alike than you know.”

  The princess was grateful that the night masked her blush. “I wouldn’t say I’m so innocent. Were you not fighting side by side with me? I’ve spilled more than my fair share of blood.”

  The two stared at each other in comfortable silence for a while. Ky propped herself up on her arm.

  “It’s odd.”

  “What?” asked Atreyis.

  “The more that I think about it, the more it feels…right.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You were meant to become a warrior. You just didn’t know it.”

  Atreyis smiled softly. “Well, you lit the spark.”

  Ky shook her head. “No. No that spark was already there. If anything I uncovered it. Maybe fanned the flames a bit too.”

  Atreyis sighed happily. “Do you ever get the feeling that we have somehow met before?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I’m not entirely sure myself. But if we are twin souls, don’t you think we would remember it? It’s like a dream. I can’t quite put my finger on it. When we first met, and by that I mean when I woke up from my ordeal, I was immediately struck by the sense that we had met before. That and another thing…”

  Ky was intrigued, she leaned in. “What?”

  The princess buried her head in her arms. “Back when you first saved me. In my delirium I thought you were a goddess come to save me.”

  She peaked an eye out. Ky was sporting a lopsided grin.

  “A goddess you say? Now that’s one thing I have for sure never considered myself. More like a death-dealing demon at times. But not a goddess.”

  Atreyis propped herself up. “Forget I said anything. Just promise me that if everything goes exactly according to plan and that we all survive that you won’t disappear into the night, never to be seen or heard from again.”

  “You could come you know.” Ky shrugged. “I never said you couldn’t.”

  Atreyis flopped on her back and yawned.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Ky put her arms behind her head and sighed.

  “Anything is better than having to pretend the rest of your life and do what is expected of you rather than what your heart desires. What kind of life is that?”

  #

  “I have never seen such numbers in my life.” Said Ky with a hint of fear in her voice.

  They were all laying on their stomachs at the top of a hill looking down on the jungle basin below them. Hardly a patch of land could be seen, there were so many tents and legions of soldiers building a base camp.

  “I don’t even know how many that could possibly even be.” Said Ehren in awe.

  “A hundred thousand.” offered Kova with a furrowed brow and serious tone.

  Ky shook her head. “I dare say more.”

  “She knows.” Said Atreyis, the fear evident on her face.

  “How do we even get through it?” asked Cora. “It’s impossible.”

  “We have to go around.” Said Kova simply. “Look. You can see that they are concentrated to the west, towards my people. If we go far enough east we should be able to get around without them knowing. There is only five of us. Much harder to track than an entire army. And we will have to enter the city by daylight. It’s the only way to get to where the crystal is. Philgen and his military regime are cowards who triple the guard every night. They just portray themselves as an unshakable presence. I know better.”

  “If you say so. I hope your friend Doan was able to get a message to my father in time.” Said Ehren to Ky. “Even with all that Joslette has to spare, if he were to bring the full force of our armies, we just might barely stand a chance.”

  “How did they ever become this strong?” asked Atreyis.

  “Unwilling slaves gathered from every newly conquered territory.” Said Ky matter-of-factly. “I bet she promised them freedom if they fought for her and death if they refused.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised.” Remarked Ehren.

  “Those poor souls.” Whispered Cora.

  “We go east then.” Stated Ky. “Kova, lead the way.”

  #

  The detour cost them a few days but allowed for safe passage. They left their horses at a nearby farm that was loyal to Kova. The farmer gladly hid the horses and Ehren paid him handsomely. The weather had turned dark and thunder constantly rumbled overhead. Kova had gone ahead to scout the main gates. The guards that were there were truly just guards. They lacked a strong military presence, but were still going to be a tough obstacle. The gates were wide open. Defiant. The city had been under control of the Black Army for so long that they had become complacent, even arrogant. Defying anyone to try and attack the gates with such a heavy-handed presence. Or at least appeared to be, if what Kova said was true. She came back to the farm with a smirk on her face.

  “It won’t be easy, but we can do it.” She said. “I will distract the guards and you will just walk right on in.”

  “Seriously?” asked Atreyis.

  “Very much so.” Said Kova. “Take the main street until you come to the center of the city. All roads lead to the temple. Behind it is the palace. There is a ‘tavern’ nearby. It may be facing a holy temple, but it is filled with the city’s degenerates, and those that tend to be loyal to my cause. Wait for me there. I won’t be long.”

  “What if you are caught?” asked Ky.

  Kova smiled impishly. “I have played many games with these guards over the years, it’s kind of how I got my start. You could even say I consider it a sport. There won’t be any problems.”

  With Cora at the lead Atreyis, Ky and Ehren followed close behind her. The priestess held her head high and the rest acted as if they were her personal guard. Occasional looks and glances were thrown their way but they seemed to be largely ignored. As they neared the open gates a small, hooded figure with glowing green eyes raced past them. The guards scrambled into action drawing their swords and readying their spears. Kova sped up. Cora held her breath. The stocky little rebel easily vaulted over the stunned guards. She landed on the other side and flashed a cocky grin. The enraged guards took off after her, leaving the gates unattended allowing the covert group to walk right in to the city. They watched in awe as Kova jumped onto an overhang and climbed up to the roof. Ky studied her technique while Atreyis nodded in respect, she had done similar things back home on the palace roof. Kova sprinted barefoot across the wet red clay-tiled rooftops with graceful agility as the guards struggled to follow her, eventually disappearing from sight. Thunder rumbl
ed and a steady downpour started.

  The city was packed shoulder to shoulder. The citizens were used to the constant rain and just ignored it. Following what the rebel had told them, they eventually made it to the center of the city. The temple resembled a giant cube. Statues and carved reliefs covered the entirety of the building. Past kings and queens, priests, and how the Xaemox kingdom was created. On the front face were depictions of the Great War between the gods and demons. Four dragon heads protruded above the doorway, watching all that entered. The palace behind it looked like stone bricks that had bubbled up from the ground into near-perfect domes.