"You all abandoned me," he whispered, slinking between the shadowy tents. "You all stole my Genesis Shards. Now you will pay. Now you will bow down to me, and I will be your emperor."
His chuckle rose into a laugh, and Leresy bit down, cursing. No. He could not laugh now. He would save his laughter for later. For now he must move silently as a shadow. No one must know it was him who struck this night. He wanted to be remembered as a savior, not a murderer.
The camp slept around him, thousands of soldiers exhausted from the long flight and battle, many of them wounded. They lay as lumps in the night, wrapped in blankets, sleeping upon bare grass. As Leresy moved among them, they breathed and snored in a chorus. A few guards patrolled the perimeter of the camp, but they were gazing outward and upward, scanning for the Legions. Here among the sleeping troops, cloaked in darkness, Leresy walked alone, no eyes upon him.
Fools! he thought, adjusting the scarf that hid his face. They should be watching the enemy within, not shadows beyond.
A hill rose ahead, a slumbering giant in the night. Tents stood atop it like warts. Leresy growled. The high command slept upon that hilltop, Valien leading the Vir Requis and that glorified fisherman Sila leading the Tirans. Both men were filthy, common outlaws. Leresy sneered. He would have lunged uphill now and slain them, but guards surrounded the hill, a ring of sentinels armed with swords and shields. Leresy could not attack those tents now, not unless he shifted into a dragon. As a dragon, he was a great warrior, a champion, a beast of red scales and flame who had slain many... but tonight he was a shadow. Tonight he would strike as a viper.
"If I cannot sneak past your guards, I will draw you to me," he whispered.
He kept creeping among the sleeping men and women, common soldiers who lay upon grass, no tents above them. He only had to find a suitable one, a frightened one, one who would scream. Yes, she would have to be a screamer.
As he passed soldier by soldier, Leresy frowned. Most were men. Among the women, most were ugly freaks, their faces scarred with war, their lips chafed and their hair in disarray. Truly, this was a rabble of filthy commoners.
Finally, by a clump of maple trees, he found a match. He grin widened and his mouth watered.
The girl slept below him, her face upon her palms. Even in the darkness, her beauty shone.
"Miya," Leresy whispered.
Erry's half sister.
He had been eying the girl for a while, a wild thing with golden skin, bright blue eyes, and platinum hair. She was young and blooming into womanhood, a forbidden fruit, and Leresy was famished. He had known no woman but Erry for too long.
Foolish girl, he thought, standing above her. You should have stayed with your father upon the hill, safe behind guards, not here among the commoners. He licked his lips. Tonight you are mine, Miya. You sister is mine and you will be too. And then... then my dagger will strike.
He glanced around him. The other resistors all slept. Leresy sucked in his breath and knelt above Miya.
"Hello, my sweetness," he whispered, kissed her cheek, and caressed her hair.
She mumbled in her sleep. Leresy reached down to undo her clothes.
"Hush and sleep," he whispered and kissed her.
Her eyes opened. She gasped and he clutched her throat, constricting her, and smiled. She sputtered, staring with wide eyes, and kicked.
"Are you ready to scream?" he said. She kicked madly. She punched him, but he only hissed and ignored the pain. He kept tearing at her clothes.
"Now scream, little one," Leresy said, grinned, and released her throat.
She sucked in breath... and she screamed.
He stepped back from her. She leaped up. All around, soldiers rose from their slumber, drew swords, and came running forward.
"Father!" Miya cried, tears in her eyes, and began racing uphill. She clutched the tatters of her clothes to her body. "Father, help!"
As the camp erupted into chaos, Leresy crept behind the maple trees, disappearing into shadow.
Resistors ran through the night. A dragon took flight and blazed fire overhead, lighting the camp. Miya was still running uphill, crying for her father. Atop the hill, Sila emerged from his tent, ran downhill toward her, and embraced her. Men burst out from the other tents too, the officers of their force.
Leresy grinned in the shadows.
The camp had fallen into chaos.
"What is the meaning of this?" rose a raspy voice. Valien emerged from his tent and marched downhill, scowling and drawing his sword. He wore but a tunic, no armor. "Miya, what happened?"
Men were gathering around the haggard old knight. Miya wept and began blubbering about a masked man attacking her. Resistors began sweeping through the camp, holding torches.
In the madness, Leresy crept uphill, moving through the crowd.
"A man... a masked man," Miya said, tears on her cheeks. "He choked me. He tore my clothes. Father..."
Sila held his daughter in his wide, tattooed arms, and his eyes burned. Kaelyn stood nearby, whispering soothing words to the girl, while dozens of others gathered around.
Leresy crept closer, step by step, the people crowding around him.
Valien stepped toward Miya, his lips tight. Unlike the others, the gruff outcast had no embraces or soothing words. He was gritting his teeth, and his eyes burned with rage rather than pain.
"Miya," he rasped in his gravelly hiss of a voice. "Can you describe him? Do you know who did this?"
Leresy crept around the group, placing himself behind Valien, and inched closer. He reached into his cloak and clutched his dagger.
Miya shook her head. "I... I don't know, I... he wore black, and..."
Leresy stepped around a few resistors. Valien stood only two feet away.
Sweat soaked Leresy's back.
Do it now! a voice screamed inside him. Now, while they're all distracted! Stab him! Kill him!
Sweat covered his palm. Inside his cloak, he almost dropped the dagger. People were still shouting and moving about. Chaos covered the hill like a kicked ant hive. It was the time to strike, yet Leresy could barely breathe. The sweat now soaked his tunic, and his pulse thudded in his ears.
"We must find him," Valien said. "Sila, take Miya into your tent. I'll search the camp."
Stab him! Kill him before it's too late!
Leresy shook and his throat constricted.
Valien took a step away.
I can't do it, Leresy thought and tears filled his eyes.
He closed his eyes, and he saw his father again. He saw Frey beating him. He saw the emperor spitting upon him, casting him from his court, banishing him into the wilderness, turning him from a prince into this wretch.
Leresy had to kill the emperor. He had to. He had to seize Frey's throne for his own. And only one man stood between him and the crown.
Valien took another step away.
With a hiss, Leresy leaped forward. His dagger gleamed. He slammed the weapon against Valien's back.
His blade slashed through the man's tunic... and clanged.
Pain shot up Leresy's arm.
He yowled, dropping the dagger like a man dropping a viper.
So fast Leresy could not react, Valien spun around and grabbed him. Leresy yelped and Valien twisted his arm behind his back.
"You..." Leresy sputtered, clutched in the man's grip. "You... you should be dead! What kind of man wears armor under his tunic?"
Valien growled and tightened his grip. Leresy struggled, but the man was too large, too strong; Leresy would have better luck breaking iron shackles.
"Unhand me!" he screamed, tears budding in his eyes. "Leave me alone, savage!"
Resistors were gathering around, shouting. Some eyes widened with shock; others blazed with hatred. All the faces swam around Leresy. He could barely see them. He thought he saw Kaelyn there, her eyes sad. Sila was shouting something. Miya was gasping and pointing at him. A thousand others swirled around
him like some mad puppet show.
"I did nothing!" Leresy screamed. "Let me go."
Valien gripped him only tighter; Leresy thought the man would break his bones.
"I think," Valien rasped, "we have found our villain. Is this the man, Miya?"
She nodded tearfully, and Leresy screamed louder.
"She's lying! I never touched her. Let me go!"
Valien began manhandling him forward. "Make way."
Leresy screamed and howled, but the men pushed and dragged him. A path cleared through the crowd. He kicked and pressed his feet into the dirt, but too many hands now gripped him, moving him forward. When Leresy saw the fallen log ahead, he began to weep.
"Please," he said, mucus and tears running down his face. "Please, don't... don't kill me. I didn't do anything."
Valien growled. "You assaulted a woman, and you stabbed me in the back, Leresy Cadigus. If I hadn't been warned of your treachery, you'd have killed me. Now be silent, place your neck upon this log, and I will make your death painless. Struggle and I will make it hurt."
Leresy howled to the sky. He kicked wildly. He could barely see through his tears.
"Treachery!" he cried. "Who warned him? Who? I've been betrayed!"
He panted, shaking and trembling... and he knew.
He had told only one soul.
Oh stars, no...
Icy water seemed to flow through him, drowning his fear and rage, replacing it with something colder and deeper—the ghostly stab of betrayal.
"Erry..."
He looked through the crowd, seeking her. Not Erry. No... she couldn't have betrayed him. She... she was his woman. She was his love. Not Erry...
"Erry," he said, weeping. "Erry, where are you?"
He raised his head, still clutched in the grip of so many men, and saw her ahead.
His tears fell.
She stood among the crowd. Men almost hid her from view, but he could see her face. She gazed at him, her expression hesitant, almost shy. Her eyes were soft, the eyes of an abandoned child. Suddenly she seemed so young to him. She was only a child, only a little doll.
"I vowed to protect you, Erry," he whispered. "You were my woman. You told him?"
She looked at him and her eyes dampened, but she said nothing. And he knew the answer.
She betrayed me. Erry Docker, the love of my life, the only woman I've ever loved... betrayed me.
They shoved him toward the log. Hands gripped his neck, pushing it down. Steel hissed against leather. Cheek pressed against the wood, Leresy raised his eyes, and he saw Valien drawing his sword. The sword was massive, a hunk of steel wide enough to behead an ox.
Leresy did not want to gaze upon this. No. He did not want to see this bear of a man and his steel; that would not be his last vision.
He turned his eyes back toward Erry.
He looked at her—at her soft face, her small features, her short hair he would always mock. She was beautiful. He would die gazing upon her.
"I love you, Erry Docker," he said, waiting for the steel to fall.
The camp fell silent all around.
Leresy held his breath, waiting to die.
A single, high voice broke the silence.
"Wait."
Leresy twisted his head and saw her there, golden through the veil of his tears.
His twin.
The second half of his soul.
"Kaelyn," he whispered.
She held up her hand, a sign of redemption, of mercy, pointing upward to the heavens and stars of his forebears.
"Wait," she said. "Valien, wait. Don't kill him. He is my brother."
"Sister," Leresy whispered. "Kaelyn... he hurt you... I'm sorry. Please. He hurt you so much. He would beat you. I have to kill Father... I have to..."
His twin looked upon him, eyes soft and full of pity. She stared at him, but she spoke to Valien.
"He is miserable, he is sad, he is drunk and pathetic and a wretch. But he is my brother. Please, Valien, spare his life."
Valien growled, a deep sound like a wolf disturbed in its den. He held his sword high above Leresy's neck.
"He assaulted Miya," he said, eyes staring down, cold with fury. "He stabbed me in the back. And you would spare his life?"
Kaelyn nodded and now tears streamed down her cheeks. "He deserves death, it's true. I've tried to kill him myself in our years of battle; I gave him that scar on his cheek. But now I look down upon him and I pity him. And I see myself. His soul is bound to mine. Our father would beat us; he would beat us until we bled, wept, and blacked out. He nearly beat us to death. I fled from my father, but Leresy was not as strong. My father broke his soul. All my brother does—all his sins—are driven by his madness."
Valien refused to lower his sword. "Life is hard in this land. Many children suffer under the scourge of Frey Cadigus. Past suffering does not excuse present cruelty. Leresy is no longer a child but a man—a man capable of his own choices, a man responsible for his actions."
He raised his sword higher.
Leresy whimpered.
"He saved my life!" Kaelyn blurted out. "Please, Valien. He saved me. When we were children... one night... oh stars." She trembled. "One night Father beat me so badly, all because I picked fruit from a garden tree. He meant to kill me. He would have killed me. Leresy begged. Leresy pleaded with our father. 'Beat me instead!' he said. 'Kaelyn did nothing, beat me! I picked the fruit!'" Kaelyn lowered her head. "And he beat Leresy so badly he broke his arm. My brother saved my life that night. Let me save him now. Let me repay that debt. Please, Valien, I cannot watch him die. Banish him from our camp, but let him live. I love him."
Leresy lay still, face pressed to the log, watching his sister, and the pain of that night returned to him. He remembered his father's fists striking him, his punisher burning him, his boots bruising him. But as bad as that pain had been, it was better than seeing Kaelyn hurt. He had saved her that night; it was the best thing he'd ever done.
"I love you too, my sister," he whispered. "I'm sorry for what I became. I'm sorry for the man that I am. I'm sorry I could never be strong like you. I know what I am... and I'm sorry. I love you."
The silence seemed to stretch forever.
Valien stood, sword held above.
Nobody spoke. Even the wind seemed to die.
Finally, with a grunt, Valien swung and slammed his blade down. It banged against the log an inch from Leresy's face, scattering chips of wood.
Leresy gasped and flinched, for a second not sure if he was alive or dead.
"Get up," Valien said in disgust.
He grabbed Leresy's collar and yanked him to his feet. Leresy stood on shaking legs. His pants clung to him, and he realized that under his cloak, he had wet himself.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Valien shoved him away from the log.
"Leresy Cadigus," he rasped, "I will spare your life tonight, but if our paths cross again, I will slay you. Do not doubt that. Leave this camp. Leave into whatever exile you choose. Fly from here now and thank the stars for my mercy."
Leresy wobbled. The world still spun around him, and he fell to his knees. The resistors all wavered, a sea of faces, and Leresy hissed at them.
"Stand back!" he screamed. "Do not touch me!"
He leaped up and shifted.
He beat his wings. He soared as a red dragon, a legendary beast, a monster none could hurt. He blew fire, lighting the sky.
"You will regret this!" he howled. "I am your prince. I will be your emperor. The throne will be mine, and I will hang you all!"
He soared uphill. The tents rose ahead. Cackling, Leresy stretched out his claws, grabbed Valien's tent, and tossed it aside, exposing the bed and table within.
"You will all kneel before me, and I will break you!" he shouted.
Laughing madly, he reached down his claws.
"Leresy, no!" Kaelyn shouted.
He ignore
d her. His eyes damp with laughter, he could barely see. He grabbed Valien's Genesis Scope from the table. He soared.
"Stop him!" rose a voice behind. "Bring him back! Kill him if you must."
Leresy beat his wings and flew, racing over the hill, a field, and trees. A jet of fire blasted above him, searing the tips of his horns. He looked over his shoulder to see dragons chasing, a hundred or more. Fire blazed his way.
"Requiem will be mine, fools!" he cried. He tore the lid off the scope and pointed it at them.
Red light bathed the world.
The dragons lost their magic and tumbled.
Laughter in his throat, tears in his eyes, and fire in his heart, Leresy turned and flew. He raced into the night, blowing flames, leaving his love, his sister, and his hope behind. He wept and laughed as he flew.
"You banished me," he said into the darkness, "but I will not forget you, Requiem. I will win my throne. You will all see and you will all be sorry, but I will not forgive you. I will be Emperor Leresy Cadigus and you will worship me."
Over a dark forest, miles from the camp, he crashed down onto a bed of pine needles. He shifted back into human form. He lay down, pulled his knees to his chest, and shivered until the dawn.
VALIEN
They crossed the border of Old Requiem at dawn.
Sunbeams broke between the clouds, shining golden over frosty forests and fields. The southern islands had been warm, but here in the north winter covered the land. A distant ruined castle caught the sun and blazed, a beacon of molten bronze. A frozen stream snaked across the land, glimmering silver in the light. Hills rose from mist, earthen children waking from slumber.
For days now, they had been flying over the ruins of Osanna, a fallen kingdom Frey had burned and annexed into his empire. Yet now... now they flew over the ancestral home of the Vir Requis, an ancient land of memory and starlight. Flying at the head of his army, Valien whispered the Old Words, the prayer of his people.
"As the leaves fall upon our marble tiles, as the breeze rustles the birches beyond our columns, as the sun gilds the mountains above our halls—know, young child of the woods, you are home, you are home. Requiem! May our wings forever find your sky."
A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) Page 15
