“Just here to transport the new recruits, Nemreth,” Charmingface said, turning to our audience. All their gazes were fixed on me. It wasn’t just dragon fae who had joined Rakarthen. The students came in all shapes and sizes. Some of them had antlers and horns. Others with greenish, scaly skin and webbed feet. Some of the students were tiny with dragonfly-like wings. They left glitter behind their trails and wore tiny outfits that looked like the one I’d been provided. I thought that the one I spotted was cute, until she hissed at me and showed me a row of fangs.
Right, I remembered, all the fae here hated me.
“Thank you, General,” Nemreth said, bowing his head.
“I’ll be off, now”. “Have a realm to save, after all.”
“Your services are well appreciated.”
Charmingface gave Nemreth a finger salute, similar to the one he’d given me. He summoned that white light again, and his dragon re-appeared, just as quickly as it’d disappeared. How was he doing that so easily? I shifted often, but not this much. It was too much of a pain to be constantly taking my clothes off and putting them back on. I found myself strangely jealous of the dragon fae. Could I learn to use my powers like that, too? Didn’t I overhear the fae king talking about myself having fae magic?
Nemreth turned to me. “Welcome, Lyra.”
I huffed a fireball.
“Still angry from yesterday?” Nemreth tutted. “I hope that forgiveness is one of your virtues. Let’s try to get along, shall we? Now, before we start, you’ll need to shift out of your dragon form. I know we come in many forms here, but one that’s more like dragon fae would be more conducive.”
I narrowed my yellow eyes at him. Then, without caring about the state of nakedness I’d be in, I called my wings into my back, turning back into my usual form. The appendages on my back receded. Yellow flashed, radiating from my body, and my body shrank. Kaji shifted the same time I did. A moment later, the both of us were completely bare, standing on dried, cracked ground and with our satchels at our feet.
The attendees of Rakarthen academy stared at us, mouths gaping wide.
Kaji and I weren’t embarrassed about our nudity. It was a trait of many dragon-kind, really. Why cover ourselves when we were ultimately, beasts? Hidrae were usually the most confident of our bodies, but we suffered covering ourselves for the propriety lower classes sought. The tradition of donning clothes was a leftover artifact from our intermingling with humans. Mother used to hate it when I’d swing around the palace grounds without wearing clothes.
“Something wrong?” I asked Nemreth. His sights were hot against my skin. A sultry expression shadowed his features, darkening them, and he dropped the friendly facade he often used to hide himself with.
Nemreth blinked, awakening from his stupor. “No, nothing’s wrong at all. Get dressed. Hurry. And we can begin our lesson.”
“Sure,” I said, pulling my shirt down my torso. I thought I spotted Nemreth stealing a glance at my breasts. My nudity made most of the other students uncomfortable, and they abashedly tore their sights away. I swung my scarf over my shoulders. I’d worn a scarf for the first time in my life after coming to Rakarthen. Dragon-kind could regulate our own body temperature, so thick layers of clothes were’ never a necessity.
Together with Kaji, I filed in with the rest of the students. Many of them gave me space after I neared them. I thanked them for giving me a better view of the front, where Nemreth conducted his class. The pixie hissed at me once more, flashing her gods-awful row of fangs. I shrugged, trying not to let all this bad attention get to my head.
Nemreth started with his class. “Behind me,” he began, “Is the Wall of Thorns. I’m saying this for the sake of new recruits. Most of you know of it well. Beyond it is the home of the teramarth. Those who dare venture past the wall are often awarded with death, cursed to be one of the creatures.”
I re-called the teramarth I’d seen in Raynea’s court, back when the fae had first arrived. The teramarth was a bone-chilling sight.
“Are we here just to gaze upon that magnificent, but terrible structure?” I said, raising my hand. Curiosity always got to me, forcing me to rush to the answers. It was one reason why I hated reading so much. I often flipped to the end first to find out what happened, and with that, I ruined the activity for myself.
Nemreth shook his head. “The forest orb predicts that there will be a small swarm of teramarth today. It’s a good time to practice our skills.”
“A… a swarm?” the hissing pixie asked. Her voice was squeaky, as her tiny figure would suggest. “But a lot of us are new. We can’t fight a swarm of them. We’ll… we’ll die.”
A chorus of mutters played through the band of students. I made a brief headcount of our numbers. There couldn’t be more than thirty attendees in this class. How could so little of us manage a swarm of those creatures? The dragon in me didn’t cower easily. I was a mighty beast, after all. But those creatures didn’t die. And from my memory, their presence was dreadful.
Kaji, unlike many of the fae, didn’t show a hint of distress. He’ told me that in the past, and especially during the civil wars in Kainrya, he’d seen plenty of death. Was this nothing new to him?
“There’s no need to worry,” Nemreth said. “The orb predicts that it’ll only be a small swarm. Nothing enough to overwhelm us with. In the worst-case scenario, I’ll be here to limit the amount of deaths.”
I tensed my jowls. I noticed that Nemreth hadn’t said that there’d be no deaths, just that he’d try to minimize them.
I raised my hand.
“Yes, princess?” Nemreth asked.
“Kaji and I don’t have any weapons. We can’t fight undead without swords.”
“I see.”
I screwed my nose. “You told us you’d give us our weapons in the next lesson.”
Nemreath stroked his chin. “Ah, I do recall that.”
“Well?”
“I seem to have forgotten to bring them with me.”
I squinted. “What?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any extra weapons with me. You’ll have to fight with your bare hands, or in dragon form, not unless some of you might want to lend our dear princess here a sword?”
The rest of the fae kept to themselves, not’ saying a thing. Even if they did have extra blades for me, I doubt they’d share them. They wanted me dead. I could smell their sentiments.
“Oops,” Nemreth said, not bearing a hint of apology.
I’ll just have to fight in dragon form, then, I thought to myself. It wouldn’t be too bad. But I enjoyed the rush of a fight as I twisted around in human form. I always saw the evaradraes dueling like that, and so that was how I trained, sometimes skipping my meals so I could master a stance. I’d grown addicted to practicing my sword-fighting, feverishly chasing after that experience, sometimes as if it was my sole purpose in life.
Nemreth angled his body toward the Wall of Thorns. “A few things to note about the teramarth,” he said. “Some of you might have already heard of this, but it serves well to remind you of the basics. The teramarth cannot be killed if you stab them in any area that’s not their head. Sometimes, thrusting your weapon through their skulls doesn’t work either. It has to be at a specific spot.” Nemreth tapped the spot between his temple. “Between their eyes. That’s their weakness. Burning them has become less and less effective lately. They’re growing accustomed to flames. Previously, they used to die, over and over again until they stopped moving. Recent swarms have portrayed a higher resistance to fire. They’d continue fighting until their bodies turn to mere dust.”
The pixie raised her hand, asking, “How many of the undead will there be?”
As if answering, the temperature around us dropped, as if an entity had sucked all warmth from the air. The ease on Nemreth’s face disappeared, replaced by a tight-lipped expression. He directed his attention toward the Wall of Thorns. “They’re coming,” he said. He’d spoken softly, but the students had quieted
so much that the sound of his voice seemed to echo across the barren expanse.
The thorns shifted, pulling away to form an opening.
And then they came.
A single figure stumbled out at first. Running toward us in a craze.
The smell.
It had been terrible at the court, but it came a hundred times as strong now.
Kaji grimaced and cracked his knuckles. “It’s like the gods have decided to shit on us.”
An army of teramarth followed the singular figure. Some of them crept forward, missing legs or half of their faces. Others rushed at us in a sprint. And then there were some that flew, bat-like wings stretched behind their backs.
I heard the pixie stutter. “Tt-here’s… there’s so many of them… How is this a s-small swarm?”
“Prepare to fight,” Nemreth said, drawing his sword. The sun was dimming, lowering toward the horizon. Twilight struck his glass weapon, faintly glimmering. “A friendly reminder: if you die, consider yourself expelled from Rakarthen.”
I had to roll my eyes. Couldn’t he be more obvious? I reached for the hilt of my sword. My hands curled around empty air. I cursed, annoyed again that my weapon had been confiscated.
The army neared us, their stench growing fouler. As they came closer, I spotted a few teramarth riding beasts with dozens of eyes. Saliva drooled from their fanged mouth. The shapes and sizes of the teramarth were almost as varied as the class.
“Charge!” Nemreth shouted, raising his weapon above his head as he leapt into the air. He called to his dragon, and a resplendent bright green light burst from his hands, surrounding his form. Bright, fiery wings spread from his back, and he soared into danger itself.
I had to admire him for that. Nemreth might have been a cunt, but at least he showed no fear.
Some other students shifted, too, summoning their dragons. Not all of them were dragon fae, however. The tiny pixie was nowhere to be seen. She’d loved to hiss, but that was all she was good at, apparently.
“Ready?” I asked Kaji.
Kaji cracked his knuckles. “You can sit aside, you know. You’re the princess.”
“Hm. Why does that sound boring to me?”
I stripped, tossing my clothes to the ground as I eyed the teramarth.
“Because you’re crazy.”
“And isn’t that great?”
“No, not really. I like sanity. Peace. Quiet.”
“It’s a pity you’re friends with me, then. You don’t get enough of that with me around.”
“No need to remind me.”
Kaji didn’t say anything to that. Instead, he offered a long sigh. I summoned my dragon and readied myself to breathe out fire.
Nemreth and I circled each other, our dragon forms matching each other’s pace as we burned the teramarth beneath us. The swarm had seemed huge at first, but it was no match for dragon fire.
In dragon form and with my wings beating against the cold air, I watched the battle playing out beneath me.
A young male fae with horns rushed into the teramarth to prove himself. He was swarmed by the monsters, his limbs torn from their joints and his face eaten off. I stared. How could I save him? I considered it, but it was too late. The teramarth had him in their claws, and too much of him had been ripped off.
“Are you all right?” Nemreth asked, pausing from breathing his flames.
I am, I told myself. Why wouldn’t I be? I’d trained myself to be a warrior, and nothing should faze me. Yet the sight caused my wings to slow. It made me uneasy, and if I were in human form, I was certain a queasy sensation would churn through me. I’d just witnessed death of the most violent kind. I’d read about it and heard Kaji tell stories. I believed I’d be prepared for it. Still, watching it, hearing the screams of the victim, was a lot to take in.
If that fae hadn’t rushed in, he would have lived.
Warriors weren’t supposed to cower at death. When it came for them, they were to face it head-on. At least, that was what the stories made me believe.
“Are you scared?” Nemreth taunted me. “It isn’t too late to turn back. You can extract yourself from this battle and run home, your tail tucked between your legs. The fae king will send for someone to bring you back to Constanria. You would have failed the test, and an alliance won’t happen.”
“I’m not done,” I replied, puffing out a fireball right after. Half the swarm of teramarth had turned to dust. I’d been breathing fire upon them for a good ten minutes now. My black flames mixed with Kaji’s and the other dragon fae’s. A rainbow of flames flickered beneath me. The other half of the teramarth continued to fight, using the last of their strength to plow onward. Fire flickered on the teramarth’s skin, licking back and forth. The flames made them look more formidable, acting as their shield temporarily until the teramarth completely disintegrated into ash.
“The fight will be over soon,” I said. “I think the stench made these creatures appear more frightening than they actually were.”
“You sound confident about this situation,” Nemreth replied. “Too much so.”
All the dragons had stopped blowing flames. There was no point. The teramarth had all caught fire. The five dragons stared down at the sea of flames beneath them. The other fae students felt like accessories to our handiwork. They’d barely taken down any teramarth compared to us. “To be honest,” I said, “the teramarth threat doesn’t look scary at all.”
Nemreth flapped his ethereal wings before me, keeping himself hovering in the air. “Not scary? Cocky, aren’t you?”
“Am I?” I blinked. “I’m stating fact. Look at the Wall of Thorns. It’s not made of much.”
“It’s surrounded by magic.”
“We can burn it down.”
“We can’t. Not with the magic that protects it.” Nemreth chuckled. A mocking sound. “Confidence will be the death of you, princess. We can’t remove the wall so easily.”
“Are you saying that the fae are weak?”
“Insult my race any more, and you test my patience.”
I withheld an eye-roll. “The teramarth aren’t just an army of undead. They’re fueled by strong magic and power. Initially, when the dragon fae first found them, they could easily be killed with a stab through the heart.” I glanced at the burning bodies. “It’s not so simple now, apparently.”
“They grow stronger each day. Even flames aren’t enough. The teramarth are exhibiting signs of magic.”
“We can destroy the walls before they grow strong enough to beat us.”
Nemreth growled. “You’re still adamant about that? It doesn’t work so easily. The walls are protected by magic, too. A barrier surrounds it, impenetrable by magic. We tried destroying it in a physical assault, but the thorns grow back at a rapid pace, stretching even further than before.”
“How inconvenient.”
“The wall inches farther out each day, and increasingly more fae fall to Lysunth’s will.”
A shriek, like a dragon’s, sounded in the distance.
“What was that?” I asked, stiffening. “Are there more dragon fae coming?”
The glow from Nemreth’s dragon form flickered. “No. That shriek didn’t come from the right direction.”
“It’s a bad sign,” Kaji said flatly.
We all turned toward the Wall of Thorns as an ominous gloom soaked the atmosphere. The shriek sounded again, closer than before. Right after, a shadowy form rose from beyond the thorns.
Three dragon fae appeared, covered by black flames with tints of red. They shot toward us, faster than even Nemreth.
Kaji blew smoke from his nostrils.
“Shit,” Nemreth said.
“Has this never happened before?” I asked.
“No. And the forest orb didn’t foretell of it, either. Fucking Neremin, he’s gone and ruined the damn object for us.” Nemreth swung his dragon’s body toward the oncoming threat.
“Flames are trailing behind them,” I said. “They’re immune to f
ire.”
“We need to use brute force.”
I grappled with my undead opponent.
The dragon teramarth, with its glossy exterior and flaming wings, reminded me of Nemreth, but I smelled the rotting body hiding inside its form.
A roar tore from my throat as the dragon gnashed at my neck.
You are strong enough!
It was my own voice shouting in my head, blaring loudly. I had to keep telling myself that I could win this. The teramarth pushed against me. Such strength. When I had last faced an opponent capable of overwhelming me? My dragon form was supposed to be indestructible, but clashing with this dragon fae, it felt as if my limbs might give out. My lungs strained and a hiss came from between my fangs as I battled the creature. This was nothing more than a mindless brawl.
One I might lose.
You are strong enough!
I was going to be fine. The teramarth were outnumbered. It was five dragons against three.
“Fall back!” Nemreth shouted.
What?
“We return to Cardell. The teramarth will not come so close.”
But I was caught in this dragon’s hold. I tried to pull away, but its claw latched on to my wing joint. Should I call for help? My pride refused to let me ask for it. Nemreth wasn’t really going to abandon me, was he?
A disturbing sensation crawled up my spine. I was too focused on the teramarth in front of me to look at Nemreth, but I already sensed that he’d left me to die amongst the undead. I shoved aside the chilling feeling that overwhelmed me, reminding myself to focus on battle.
“Ly!” Kaji shouted.
He forced away the dragon teramarth. My flesh went with its claws. Slicing agony shot up my front leg. I growled, turning to Kaji, then saw another dragon teramarth coming for him. I released a column of black flame, blowing at the creature’s face to distract it. Kaji flipped around, following my cue. He slashed his claw forward, breaking through the creature’s head, the spot between its eyes. But that was not the dragon teramarth’s actual skull, merely an exterior built from magic. And so it didn’t die.
Rakarthen Academy Page 8