A Dawn of Dragonfire (Dragonlore, Book 1)

by Daniel Arenson

  Elethor gasped.

  As he shot up, he saw burrows running alongside the tunnel the Starlit Demon carved. His people—thin, bloodied Vir Requis—cowered there like ants underground. They covered their eyes in the demon's starlight and cried.

  An instant later, the Starlit Demon crashed through the topsoil and shot into the night sky, a geyser bursting into the world. An army of phoenixes burned above, screeching and flapping wings of fire. The world spun. The sound deafened Elethor. Boulders cascaded and the tunnels began to crumble. Several Vir Requis fell into the darkness, tumbling past Elethor. They shifted into dragons below him, howled, and flew behind him.

  "Elethor!" Lyana cried above. She soared out of the tunnel and into the night, crashing into the army of phoenixes.

  Elethor howled and shot into the night. The phoenixes swooped. Dragons flew up below him. Vir Requis still in human forms ran deeper into tunnels. Sound and light crashed.

  SOLINA

  She was flying with her troops, a phoenix in the night, when the demon burst from underground.

  It looked like a great scarab made of stone, larger than a whale. Its claws tore through the earth, and its eyes blazed, two stars shooting beams of light. The earth crumbled around it, a sinkhole falling into darkness. Vir Requis screamed and fell from their burrows, now revealed to the night.

  It looks, Solina thought in a moment of incredulity, like a gopher bursting from an anthill.

  She spread out her wings of fire and shrieked. Considering its girth, she had expected this stone demon to crawl upon the earth, but it came soaring into the sky. Wingless, it flew toward her and her phoenixes. Its eyes nearly blinded her, and its roars thudded against her, fanning her flames.

  "Kill the beast!" she shrieked, her voice emerging from her beak like typhoons of sound. "Sunspear Phalanx! Dragonbone! Bring it down!"

  The two phalanxes swooped in formation, each a terror of fifty phoenixes. One fell upon the stone demon from the right, the other from its left. Their beaks and talons thrashed its hide.

  They crashed against the beast like flaming paper against a cliff.

  Solina watched, shrieking, the flames crackling with fury across her. The phoenixes attacked the stone demon again, wave after wave of them, only to crash against it. The demon's eyes blazed with starlight. Its claws lashed and its teeth bit, tearing phoenixes apart. Their flames filled its maw, ran down its throat, and blazed through the fissures along its belly. The demon seemed like a great, flying furnace.

  And my men are stoking its fire, Solina realized. She howled, a sound that could shatter walls. Elethor had found a demon in the depths, a creature to eat the flames of her wrath. As she flew above, she saw the beast swallow three phoenixes. Other firebirds slashed at its body, only to die at its claws and fall, shredded, like burning leaves.

  Solina narrowed her eyes and swooped, claws outstretched.

  You think yourself clever, Elethor. But you have only doomed yourself.

  Where the stone demon had burst from the ground, a chasm loomed, its rims crumbling into darkness. Alongside the cavern walls, Solina saw openings to a dozen burrows. Inside each burrow the weredragons still cowered, fragile humans not daring to fly, even now. She saw only several dragons flying behind the stony demon; the rest were too cowardly to shift and emerge to battle.

  But I will bring the battle to them, Solina thought. I spent a moon trying to break into these places… and now, Elethor, you have opened a dozen doors.

  She snarled, skirted around the feasting demon of stone, and swooped into the gaping chasm. A dozen burrows surrounded her, running from the chasm walls into darkness. Weredragons wept in their human forms and tried to flee deeper, but their burrows were packed tight; they could either become dragons and fly into the phoenix sky, or die as humans underground.

  Men with swords were rushing to each tunnel's entrance, pushing back the women and children. But in one tunnel, a crumbly burrow like a wormhole, only children wept, torn from their mothers' grasps when the demon had crashed through their hideout. Shrieking, her flames crackling, Solina flew toward that tunnel.

  The children screamed. Across the crater, men howled inside their own tunnels. A ball of fire, Solina shifted in midair, becoming a woman again. As she flew, she drew her twin blades. She tumbled into the children's tunnel, swords swinging.

  Aknur, her left blade of nightfire, halved a young boy's face. Raem, her right blade of dawn, cut a girl from collarbone to navel. The other children were fleeing deeper, tripping over one another, wailing in fear. Solina grinned and walked deeper, blades swinging, showering blood and cutting down the vermin.

  I will not let these creatures grow and breed, she thought as she sliced two girls who embraced and wept. I will clear the world of their darkness, Sun God, for your wrath and glory.

  She stepped deeper into the tunnel, over bodies and severed limbs, leaving a trail of blood and sunlight.

  I will kill them all.

  Howls rose behind her. Flames crackled. Solina spun to see a brass dragon fly toward the tunnel she stood in. Solina's grin widened, her heart pounded, and she licked blood off her lips.

  "Elethor!" she cried and raised her dripping swords. "You have come to me at last."

  ADIA

  She stood in the tunnel, comforting a girl whose hands had burned to stumps, when the world collapsed.

  The floor cracked, and she watched children fall into the chasm. Boulders fell from the ceiling, crushing people around her. The tunnels shook, dirt rained, and a tower of stone jutted up before her. Great claws, larger than Adia's body, sliced before her. A creature as large as a temple, its eyes blazing beacons, rose before her, leaving ruin and blood in its wake.

  As people fell and screamed, Adia thought she glimpsed two dragons—brass and blue—flying after the creature, following it through the tunnel it carved.

  The Starlit Demon, she knew. Tears sprang into her eyes. Lyana is alive. My daughter is alive!

  As dust flew and stones rolled, Adia clenched her jaw. She wanted to run through the people, shift into a dragon, and fly to Lyana. She forced herself to remain.

  This is my station. These are my people to heal.

  She moved from one to another, digging them from the rubble. One old man wept, clutching a fractured arm. Beside him a young boy lay, his leg buried under a boulder. How could she heal them all? How could she choose between them—grant death to one, life to the other?

  Adia was kneeling over a pregnant woman whose head was bleeding when fire screamed. She looked up and saw phoenixes raining into the chasm the Starlit Demon had left. One phoenix flew to a tunnel that gaped open across the chasm, shifted into Solina, and leaped into a crowd of screaming children. Several other phoenixes swooped toward the tunnel Adia huddled in, shifted into Tiran men with blades and armor, and ran into the throng of survivors.

  Adia found herself snarling. The time to hide was over, she realized; they would find no more shelter underground, not with the tunnels collapsing around them. They had to flee. Her heart ached to leave the wounded woman… but Adia left her.

  "Vir Requis!" she shouted, running toward the Tirans at the entrance. "Vir Requis, follow! We shift! We fly! To the sky, children of Requiem!"

  As she ran, she grabbed a sword from a fallen soldier, drew it, and swung the blade. Around her, living soldiers of Requiem swung their own blades. One Tiran fell into the chasm. Adia ran and barreled into another, shoving him into the darkness.

  "Find the sky!" Adia shouted, leaped from tunnel into chasm, and shifted into a dragon.

  Wings sprouted from her back with a thud. White scales clanked across her. Fangs sprouted from her mouth. She tossed back her head and howled, blowing blue fire. It had been so long since she had shifted, so long since she had felt air under her wings, flames in her gullet, the magic of starlight in her veins.

  Beneath her, the falling Tirans shifted into phoenixes and soared toward her. Behind her, Vir Requis were leaping from the tunnel,
shifting into dragons, and soaring. Adia soared with them. She flew up the chasm, following the path of the Starlit Demon, and shot toward a night sky strewn with firebirds. More tunnels gaped open along the chasm's walls, and hundreds of Vir Requis were leaping from them, turning into dragons, and soaring after her.

  Adia shot past layers of rock, soil, and frost, and finally burst out from the underground. The ruins of Nova Vita spread below her, walls and columns fallen. Thousands of phoenixes flew above her. Hundreds of dragons soared around her. The Starlit Demon howled in the sky, a great slug of stone that flew with no wings. It crushed phoenixes between its teeth, and its belly bulged with their flame, a furnace in the sky like a sun.

  "Rise, dragons of Requiem!" Adia cried. "Into the sky!"

  Phoenixes came swooping toward her, crackling and raising sparks. More flew below. If death flowed underground, and death burned above, she would lead her people to die in the sky. The Starlit Demon could not consume all their enemies; its jaws bit many, but too many phoenixes flew. This creature of the underworld would not be their savior.

  But maybe, Adia dared to hope… maybe in this chaos, a few dragons could escape. Maybe as the Starlit Demon devoured their enemies, some of her people could flee into the mountains, the forests, the southern swamps.

  But I will stay, she thought. I will stay until they are all fled or burned. I will die in the sky of my home under the light of my stars.

  Phoenixes dived toward her, lashing their talons. Adia shot between them, soaring through their wings of fire. The flames crackled against her, and she screamed but drove past them. More flew above. Around her, hundreds of dragons were rising.

  "Fly to all directions of the wind!" she cried. "Fly to the mountains and forests. Flee into the wilderness, dragons of Requiem!"

  Adia saw a group of young dragons, mere children barely old enough to fly, soaring into the air. They wailed, sparks left their throats, and their wings fluttered like the wings of hummingbirds. A crackling phoenix, thrice their size, began swooping toward them. Its howl tore the air and the young dragons wailed.

  Narrowing her eyes, Adia surged. She flew straight up, roaring. She shot around the young dragons, spread her wings wide, and raised her front claws. The swooping phoenix crashed against her, and Adia screamed. The flames bathed her scales.

  "Fly, children!" she shouted as the phoenix claws tore at her shoulders. "Fly north to the mountains."

  She slammed her tail against the phoenix, but it was like clubbing a forest fire. Smoke filled her nostrils and she could barely see. She pulled her wings close, tumbled, and flew again. Welts covered her belly, where she had no scales to protect her. The scales on her back felt like stones in an oven, and lacerations covered her shoulders. She looked around madly, seeking the children, but could not see them, only countless firebirds. Had the young ones escaped?

  The phoenix that had attacked her screeched above. It swooped, a comet of spinning fire. Adia closed her eyes, fearing the fire would melt them, and raised her claws. She prayed, ready to die.

  A shadow fell upon her. A howl thudded in her ears. When she opened her eyes, Adia saw the Starlit Demon crash into the phoenixes above.

  Stars, the size of him, she thought. She was a powerful dragon, her wings wide and her tail long, but beneath the Starlit Demon, she felt like a fish swimming under a ship. Flames crashed around the demon as dozens of phoenixes attacked it, but none could burn it. The creature's appetite knew no bounds; its jaws opened and closed, biting phoenixes like a wolf biting hens.

  Blue scales flashed to her left.

  A cry pierced the night.

  "Mother!"

  Adia looked and saw her daughter there. Lyana looked slimmer, the shine of her scales dimmed, but she was alive, she was flying, she was well. Tears filled Adia's eyes. My daughter. My beloved. She wanted to fly toward Lyana, hold her, never let her go again. But she steeled herself.

  "Lyana!" she cried. "Lead the southern route!" Behind her daughter's shoulder, she saw a hundred dragons fly into a cloud of phoenixes. Many burned and fell. "Lead them to King's Forest and I will meet you there!"

  Lyana looked behind her, saw the phoenixes swoop against the fleeing dragons, and nodded. With a growl, the sapphire dragon flew toward them.

  "Dragons of Requiem, follow!" Lyana called. "We fly to the forests!"

  Adia looked around her. Hundreds of dragons were fleeing to all directions of the wind. Thousands of phoenixes were swooping upon them or chasing them into the distance. Below, in the collapsed chasm, some Vir Requis still huddled in what shelter remained of the tunnels. The sounds of battle rose from the earth; Tirans and Vir Requis still fought there in human forms.

  We are overrun, Adia realized. A chill ran through her. The Starlit Demon could not devour ten thousand phoenixes. It could not stop the fire that burned her people.

  Our era ends here, she thought, tears in her eyes. The Second Age of Requiem ends like the first… in blood and fire and destruction.

  Three phoenixes fell upon her. Their claws lashed, their beaks bit, and their fire blazed against her. Adia shouted and could barely hear her own voice. She called for the Starlit Demon, but could not see it. She saw nothing but fire.

  No more pain filled her. Only warmth.

  I die now, she thought. I go to the starlit halls of my fathers. I will forever dine there with my parents, with the fallen men and women of my house. I am coming to you, stars of Requiem.

  She heard the glow of those celestial halls, a sound like harps. She saw their glow, silver and soft, bathing her with light. No more fire burned her, and Adia could smile, for she died as she had lived—fighting for the song of her people.

  She raised her eyes, and looked to the stars, and saw the silver light blaze. Caught in the beam, the phoenixes still flew, but no more fire burned upon them. They were as naked vultures, black and wizened, exposed for their true ugliness and frailty.

  Two dragons came coiling down from the light, tails whipping behind them, and Adia gasped.

  "Bayrin!" she called. Her son flew there! She knew his great, lanky frame, his emerald scales, his bright eyes. Princess Mori flew by him, gripping a disk of silver light; she seemed to be holding the moon itself. Did they too die? Did they too now fly among the stars of Afterlife?

  "Mother!" Bayrin called. He dived. His fire rained upon the naked vultures, and his claws slashed them. The beasts burned, bled, and fell.

  Adia's heart thrashed, she gasped, and tears ran down her cheeks.

  They were not dead, she knew. She laughed as she cried. They found the Moondisk.

  She flapped her wings—three great thuds—and soared. Her fire roared, spun, and crashed against a naked phoenix that screeched in the Moondisk's glow.

  The phoenix blazed. For a moment it looked like a firebird again, but this was dragonfire. This fire burned it. The creature squealed, cawed to the sky, and fell. As it tumbled by Adia, it became a man again… nothing but a burning man who thudded against the ruins of Nova Vita below.

  Adia spread her wings wide, blew fire, and roared. Hope burned anew—hope of moonlight and dragonfire.

  LYANA

  She was rallying the fleeing dragons, driving them toward the southern forests, when the light blazed behind her. Lyana turned and saw her brother plunge through the light, blowing fire upon extinguished phoenixes. Princess Mori flew behind him, holding a disk like the moon, bathing the world with its glow.

  Tears sprang into Lyana's eyes.

  Bayrin and Mori are back. Hope is back.

  "Fly to the forests!" she cried to the children who flew around her. "Wait for us there!"

  As the small dragons flew off, Lyana turned, snarled, and soared into battle. Her fire bathed the sky.

  Under the beam of Mori's Moondisk, the phoenixes lost their flames, only to ignite under dragonfire. Lyana saw her mother fly above, a great white dragon in the night, blowing her flame upon the enemy. Her father came soaring from below, a burly copper dragon
, a hole in his right wing and fire in his maw.

  Ten phoenixes flew toward Lyana from all sides. The Moondisk's beam blazed far in the north. The Starlit Demon howled and feasted to the west. Lyana flew alone against the enemy.

  "Mori!" she shouted across the battle. "Mori, give me your light!"

  Did the golden dragon hear? Phoenixes filled her vision. One crashed into Lyana, and she howled. Talons cut her. Wings of flame blazed against her. A second phoenix slammed into her right, and fire roared, and Lyana cried in agony, and—

  Moonlight washed the world.

  The flames vanished like a candle under a blanket. The light hummed. Caught in its glare, the phoenixes were nothing but naked birds, blinded and screeching.

  Ignoring the pain of her wounds, Lyana howled and spun, blowing a ring of fire around her. The phoenixes kindled, welts rose across them, their skin cracked, and they crashed from the sky.

  Howls of dying dragons rose to the north. The moonbeam left Lyana, its light rushing to extinguish a northern horde of phoenixes. Lyana looked around, panting. Hundreds of corpses rained upon the ruins of Nova Vita. Thousands of dragons were fleeing or fighting, and countless phoenixes still blazed. Above the battle, Mori was directing the Moondisk from left to right, pausing on each group of phoenixes just long enough for dragons to burn them. The Starlit Demon still moved across the sky, consuming phoenixes that fled from Mori's light.

  "Yarin!" Lyana called to a red dragon who flew above. She remembered him well—a young man in the service of her father.

  He turned toward her, fire between his teeth, a gash along his face. "My Lady Lyana!"

  "Yarin, to me!" she called. "Bring your men. We follow that beam."

  She shot under a swooping phoenix, soared above the Starlit Demon who dived by, and surged toward a group of young dragons. They were mere youths, no older than fifteen, but they would have to fight like men today. Welts covered them and one's wing was torn.