Dragons Rising

by Daniel Arenson

Bones snapped against the cliff. Rocks tumbled down. A pine cracked above and fell, crashed against the combatants, and then plunged down toward the gorge.

  "Cade, stop hugging it and crush it!" Amity's voice rose somewhere above.

  Cade growled and swung his claws, trying to snap more bones, but the creature fought in a fury, its back against the cliff--or at least its backbone. Its claws scraped at Cade's scales, and its fangs bit down, cracking scales and shedding blood.

  Cade roared. His claws were unable to damage the bones, and his teeth found nothing to bite. He placed his feet against the cliff and pushed back, momentarily freeing the creature. The bonedrake beat its wings and flew toward him. Cade bellowed and charged forward again, driving into the creature and slamming it back against the wall.

  Spine segments cracked. Ribs snapped and drove into the ball of light within them.

  The pulsing heart exploded.

  Light blasted out, bathing Cade.

  He screamed and fell backward in the sky, tumbling, deaf, blind, wings beating uselessly. The shock drove the magic out of him, and Cade tumbled down as a human again. Through the haze, he saw the bonedrake collapse above and rain down in bone fragments.

  "Cade!" Amity screamed above. She was battling three of the creatures.

  Cade gritted his teeth, shifted back into a dragon, and soared.

  "Go for their ribs, Amity!" he shouted.

  She groaned above. "Enough with the ribs already! I get it! I ate too many ribs at the tavern! Now will you be quiet and help me fight?"

  "The bonedrake ribs, Amity! Snap them! Drive them into their hearts!"

  She nodded and drove downward, slamming herself into a creature's ribcage. The bones creaked but did not snap. Another bonedrake landed on her back and blasted down its light.

  Amity screamed.

  The light blazed against her scales, heating them, crackling.

  Cade roared and soared. He lashed his tail, knocking one bonedrake aside, and rose higher until he flew above the bonedrake that was burning Amity.

  "Get it off me!" Amity screamed. One of her scales cracked and fell in the light.

  Flying above the bonedrake, Cade released his magic. He landed in human form upon the bonedrake, swung his sword, and severed the dead paladin's skull. Before the rider's body could tumble down, Cade grabbed its lance, raised the weapon high, then screamed and plunged it between the bonedrake's ribs and into its blazing heart.

  The light exploded, blasting outward.

  Cade tumbled through the air, dropping his lance. Spinning in the sky, he summoned his magic, returned to dragon form, and dived down to grab the falling lance in his claws. He saw Amity, a round burn on her back, swinging her tail against two more bonedrakes.

  One of the beasts below shot forth its beam of light.

  Cade blasted down dragonfire.

  The light dispersed in the fire, reaching Cade as a glowing mist. It stung like acid, and he roared and kept plunging downward, roaring his fire. The bonedrake rose from the inferno, jaws snapping and claws lashing.

  Cade howled, clutched the lance tightly with his claws, and thrust down the weapon.

  The lance scraped across bone, found its way between the skeleton's ribs, and pierced its glowing heart. The light blasted out again, disintegrating the bones and tossing Cade into a spin, searing his underbelly. Before he could steady his flight, a second blast of light exploded as Amity slew the last bonedrake.

  As the creature's bones tumbled down into the gorge, Amity beat her wings and grinned at Cade. He flew in rings around her. Both were bleeding and burnt.

  "Bastards." Cade spat out blood. He twisted his neck around, looking at his body, and grimaced to see cuts and burns covering him. His head spun. Amity seemed in even worse shape, an ugly burn mark on her back. The bonedrake's beam had melted her scales and seared her flesh. But still the red dragon grinned.

  "Not bad work, kid." She winked at him. "I might keep you around for a while longer. Bonedrakes? Fun to kill. Make a nice crunch when you crush 'em." She laughed. "Is that all Beatrix can toss at us?" She raised her voice to a roar. "Come on, you old hag! Beatrix, do you hear me? I know you sent those skeletons! I'm going to crush them all! And then I'm going to snap your own bones. You're worthless, you--"

  Shrieks rose in the distance.

  "Oh stars," Cade muttered. "Oh stars. Amity, you fool! Fly!"

  He spun and began to fly north, heart thrashing. Amity fell silent and flew with him, eyes wide, smoke blasting out from her nostrils.

  "You just had to shout!" Cade said. He looked over his shoulder and saw them there--fifty bonedrakes or more diving into the canyon, casting forth their beams of light.

  "Shut up and fly!" Amity cried.

  * * * * *

  The beams of light blasted outward, blazing across the canyon. They slammed into cliffs, sending boulders tumbling down. Trees collapsed. Cade yowled as a beam nicked his tail. He flew higher, only for another beam to sear his horns. He darted from side to side, moving up and down between the rays of freezing light. Another pillar of stone rose ahead from the gorge, thousands of feet tall, topped with trees.

  "Fly behind that stone!" Cade shouted. "Put it between us and the beams!"

  Amity yowled as a beam grazed her side. She rose higher. The bonedrake cries rolled across the landscape. Cade looked over his shoulder to see the light blazing in the bonedrakes' eye sockets, coil madly in their rib cages, then blast out from their jaws. He turned back forward and flew from side to side, dodging the rays, and skirted around the massive stone monolith. Amity flew at his side. For a moment they were safe from the beams.

  A great, shattering sound roared across the canyon, slamming against Cade's ears like fists. Dust flew. Rocks tumbled. Light blasted out. Cade looked over his shoulder to see the obelisk of stone, wide as a palace and tall as a mountain, snap in two. The light of bonedrakes blasted through the crack, sending boulders flying. With a hailstorm of shattering stones, the pillar tilted and came roaring down toward the gorge.

  "Amity, fly!" Cade cried.

  "Really?" she shouted back, beating her wings. "I thought I'd dance a little jig!"

  They streamed across the gorge as the stone pillar collapsed behind them. Cade cried out as a boulder buffeted him, cracking scales on his shoulder. Dust and pebbles slammed against his wings. A pine flew through the air and snapped against his back. Leafy branches landed on him, then slid down to the gorge. When Cade looked behind him, he saw the pillar arcing down toward him, and he flew as fast as he could, knowing he wouldn’t make it, knowing the pillar would crush him. The tip of the tower roared downward, and Cade stormed forward, curling his tail close to his body.

  The pillar fell past him, scraped across his folded tail, chipping scales . . . then tumbled down to the gorge below. It crashed against the trees in the pit, cracked, and shattered into many pieces.

  A foot or two closer, Cade knew, and it would have tugged him down and snapped his bones.

  "Good flying, kid!" Amity laughed, pebbles raining off her wings with every flap.

  "We're not in the clear yet!" Cade shouted back. The fallen pillar had only revealed the horror behind it. The fifty bonedrakes were now heading over the devastation, blasting their light again.

  The gorge curved ahead. Cade and Amity barely made the turn. The beams of light hit the cliff behind them, shattering more rocks. Boulders tumbled in a landslide. More pines rained into the depths.

  Ahead across the gorge, Cade saw a dozen more bonedrakes flying their way. In the sky, twenty more came swooping down.

  "We're trapped!" Amity shouted. "Ready to kill more bonedrakes?"

  Cade shuddered. "We can't kill them all. Bloody Abyss!"

  His breath shuddered. The bonedrakes shrieked from every direction. Their sickly light blasted out, filling the gorge in a great network like cobwebs--cobwebs that could burn him down. Cade was wincing, prepared to die, when he saw the cave ahead.

  "Amity!" he shouted,
a flicker of hope rising in him. "The cave on the cliff! Make for the cave!"

  She growled. "I'm not going to hide in darkness!" She roared and blasted out dragonfire. "Fight with me, Cade! For glory! For Requiem!" She made to charge against the bonedrakes. "For--ow!"

  He cuffed her hard on the snout, then slapped her with his tail. "To the cave! We'll fight them in darkness. Fly!"

  She yowled but followed him. She flew up and down, skirting the beams of light. A bonedrake rose toward them, and the dragons' tails lashed, knocking it down. The two dragons, burnt and howling, shot toward the cliff wall. The cave entrance was just large enough to let a single dragon fly inside. Cade entered first, and Amity followed close behind.

  The cave delved into the rock, wide as a temple nave. They flew deeper, leaving the sunlight behind, but found that light still shone here. Countless azure beads glowed upon the black ceiling and walls. Strands of light hung everywhere like lichen, illuminating black stalagmites and stalactites. There were more lights here than stars in the sky, Cade thought. The blue beads reflected in a stream that coiled below into the depths.

  "Glowworms," he whispered in awe. "Glowworm homes. Millions of them."

  "And about a million bonedrakes on our tail!" Amity cried, beating her wings and flying deeper into the cave.

  Flying with her, Cade looked behind him and winced. The bonedrakes were flying into the caves, jaws snapping. The lights in their ribcages blazed out, overpowering the gentle blue glowworms.

  "You led us to our grave, kid!" Amity shouted.

  "Keep flying!"

  They rounded a corner, skimming across the wall. Cade's scales brushed against the cave, knocking down a stalactite. Glowworms rained from the ceiling, little beads of gliding light. Amity growled, slammed against the wall, and kept flying. Just as they made the turn, two bonedrakes slammed into the curving wall, their bones shattering. Stalactites plunged down, and one drove between the ribs of a bonedrake and shattered its luminous heart. But several other bonedrakes made the turn and kept flying in pursuit of the dragons. Beams of light shot from their jaws.

  Cade and Amity dived. The beams shot over their heads, slammed into the cave walls, and knocked down more limestone pillars. The dragons rose higher, scraping against the ceiling. More glowworms fell.

  "Turn ahead!" Cade cried.

  They barely made this turn too, cracking the wall. More bonedrakes slammed into the rock and shattered, but others kept flying in pursuit.

  Dodging the beams of light, Cade and Amity flew into a wide cavern, nearly as wide and deep as the gorge outside. Hundreds of stalactites hung from the ceiling, covered in blue glowworms.

  Bonedrakes burst into the chamber behind them.

  "You wanted to kill bonedrakes?" Cade shouted to Amity. "Fly with me! And whip your tail!"

  He rose to fly just under the stalactites, raised his tail like a scorpion, and began whipping it around.

  Stalactites cracked and fell.

  Bonedrakes screeched.

  Cade looked over his shoulder to see the falling stalactites slam into the pursuing beasts, snapping their spines, shattering the glowing essence within them. Amity laughed and flew with Cade, whipping her tail around, shattering more stalactites. The stone daggers showered down, wreathed in glowworms, to slam into the bonedrakes. More of the undead creatures fell to the floor, impaling themselves on jutting stalagmites.

  "Come on, bonies!" Amity shouted, laughing as she flew, as more bonedrakes kept emerging into this great, glowing cathedral in the mountains. "Come on and chase me, you boney-arsed bastards!"

  More of the creatures kept emerging, screeching, the skeletal riders on their backs crying out. The two dragons kept racing forward, tails flailing, sending stalactites crashing down onto the undead. More and more explosions rocked the cave as the bonedrakes collapsed, spilling out their blazing light. With every blast, more stalactites crashed down, only to kill more bonedrakes who in turn burst apart, creating a chain reaction. The caves shook. Cracks raced along the walls. Soon not only stalactites were falling but chunks of the ceiling. The water churned below.

  "The whole damn cave's collapsing!" said Amity.

  Cade pointed his claws ahead. "Keep flying! I see daylight."

  The sunlight was distant, almost invisible in the glare of the bonedrakes, but Cade kept pumping his wings, shooting forward. He whipped his tail a few more times, knocking down more stalactites. The whole ceiling began crumbling behind him. When he glanced back, he saw the cave imploding, raining down onto the bonedrakes. Every second, another rock crushed another skeleton, shoving the creature down toward the floor.

  Cade looked forward. He saw it there--an exit into another gorge. He smelled the fresh air and saw the pines. He beat his wings. He was almost there.

  The exit began to crumble, the walls cracking around it.

  Cade and Amity roared and shot forward.

  The cave gave a last groan, and then the walls crashed down.

  Two dragons plowed through a hailstorm of boulders and burst out into the gorge.

  Their wings beat, and they shot skyward, leaving the gorge into open sky. When they stared down, they saw the cliff crumble. A landslide of boulders and pines drove down into the chasm. The forest sank, sinkholes greedily swallowing trees and hills, burying the bonedrakes within. Dust flew in a cloud, then settled back upon a silent land.

  The two dragons glided above, covered in scrapes and bruises, bleeding from many cuts.

  "I killed more than you, kid," Amity said. "I counted."

  Cade ignored her, flew past the gorge, and landed on a hill between pines. There he released his magic, fell to his knees, and stared down at the gorge. A new visitor to this land would not have noticed any destruction. Within moments, the landscape had rearranged itself into a new formation, and the birds sang again.

  Cade lowered his head.

  Amity flew down, a red dragon wreathed in smoke, and released her magic too. She landed on her feet beside Cade and mussed his hair.

  "What's wrong, kid?"

  He kept staring at the landscape. His wounds ached but worse was the pain inside him. "The cave. All those beautiful formations of stone. All those glowworms--millions of them. An ancient cathedral full of light, a kingdom as glorious as Requiem . . . gone."

  Amity raised an eyebrow. "Cade! Did you get hit too hard on the head? It was a cave full of worms. Worms, kid."

  He nodded. "I know. But they were beautiful. And we killed them. We killed them all."

  She nodded. "And all the bonedrakes too. I'd say the tradeoff was worth it." She tugged him. "Stand up! Stand up and look at me."

  Cade rose to his feet and turned toward her. Amity stared at him, covered in dust and specks of blood.

  "I'm looking," he said.

  "What do you see?"

  "A crazy woman who almost died with me."

  Amity nodded. "I would have died. Without you, I'd have died in some roadside battle, killing one or two bonedrakes before they took me down. But I'm alive now. Thanks to . . well, thanks to you. I'm only going to admit this once, so soak it up now. You're all right, kid. You killed some worms, yes, but you also saved my arse. Maybe that'll comfort you." She growled. "Unless you like the worms better."

  He sighed. "All right, Amity. Your arse is worth more than worms."

  "Gosh, but don't you know how to make a girl feel special!" She rolled her eyes, then sighed and grabbed him. She squeezed him in a crushing embrace, then pinched his cheek. "Now will you stop moping?"

  His legs crumbled as surely as the cave. He landed on the ground and lay on his back. "I'm going to lie down for a bit. Everything hurts."

  Amity lay down at his side, pressing against him. The pine branches swayed above, and birds sang. Only a lingering chill filled the air, then faded as the sun rose higher. Amity was soon snoring softly, but exhausted as he was, Cade could not fall asleep.

  Those things were hunting Vir Requis, he thought and shivered. Did they find th
e others? Korvin and Fidelity and Domi?

  He closed his eyes, shivered, and prayed to the stars to look after his friends.

  FIDELITY

  At dawn, Fidelity and Korvin beheld the glimmering city in the distance.

  "New Confutatis," Fidelity whispered in awe. She turned toward her father. "This was once the capital of Osanna, a nation destroyed and scattered. They say the ghosts of Osannans still dwell here, millions of them crying out from the ground, tormenting the priests of the Cured Temple who now live here." She sighed wistfully. "I've read so many books about this place."

  Korvin began descending toward the fields. "I hope you enjoyed the little view, because we're landing and walking from here. Daylight is coming. We'll skirt around the city and keep making north to the mountains."

  Fidelity looked at her father--a gruff charcoal dragon puffing out smoke like a chimney--and back at the distant white city. New Confutatis was famous not only for its sordid history and ghosts, but for the most wonderful place Fidelity had ever heard of: the White Library. She sighed again, trying to catch a glimpse of that silvery dome and pale towers, the building that housed the world's largest collection of books. But she could see only smudges from here, not even individual buildings. As a dragon, she wore no spectacles, and even as a human, her spectacles were now broken.

  I suppose I'll never see this city of wonder, she thought, never visit the fabled library, never read those books. I'll probably never see much of anything again, what with one lens of my spectacles smashed, the other cracked. I--

  "Fidelity!" Korvin rumbled from below. "Land with me!"

  She nodded briskly and dived down with her father. As the sun rose above the horizon, the gray dragon and the blue dragon landed in a field of wild grass and released their magic.

  Fidelity stared at her father. He looked more haggard than she'd ever seen him. His stubble was still white as snow, thickening into a beard, and now his hair--a wild mane that flowed down to his waist--was turning white too, at least half its black hairs gone pale. Only his thick, bushy eyebrows remained jet black, but they shaded weary eyes set into a gaunt face. He wore one of the green cloaks they had bought on the southern coast, and beneath he wore his armor, but even so he seemed thin to Fidelity, no longer the bluff, gruff soldier she had known but a haggard refugee. She embraced him.