I always thought Tilla was the love of my life, but now I miss you, Kaelyn. Now I wish I were back there in those ruins, holding you.
He looked at Tilla, who flew beside him, her scales glimmering, and guilt choked his throat, and he had never felt more confused.
A roar sounded ahead, and fire pierced the clouds.
Rune started. At first he thought it was Tilla roaring fire, but she looked just as bewildered. Rune sucked in his breath and stared ahead. Tilla's eyes narrowed and she bared her fangs.
The roar sounded again, five hundred yards away or closer, and more fire blazed, painting the clouds red.
Rune snarled. The main battalion was still distant; this was probably a lost soldier or a small patrol. Rune dipped lower in the clouds, gestured at Tilla, and she followed his lead. They sank fifty yards, staying within the cloud cover.
"Keep flying," he mouthed and pointed his claws ahead. "We'll fly under them."
She nodded, moved closer to him, and they shot forward through the clouds, silent and straight.
The roars continued above and fire cascaded down.
"They betrayed me!" roared a dragon; perhaps there was only one. "They stabbed me in the back. But I will make them kneel."
Rune frowned as he flew. He knew that voice from somewhere.
"How dare they banish me?" The dragon flew directly above now. "I'm their prince. I'm their savior! I—" The voice halted, then spoke louder. "Who flies below? I see your wake through the clouds. Is it you, sister? Have you come to kneel?"
Rune cursed and kept gliding forward. He gestured with his claws for Tilla to follow. He cursed under his breath. They'd been spotted, but perhaps they could still lose this dragon in the clouds. Tilla glided beside him, silent.
A jet of fire crashed down, missing Rune by a foot. Wings beat, scattering clouds, and air whistled. The dragon above was swooping.
"You cannot escape me!" cried the beast. "I see your wake. Come and die, dragons! I will kill you. I will kill you all."
Rune growled and filled his maw with fire.
"Stars damn it, there's only one," he said to Tilla, not caring if the beast above heard. "Let's kill the bastard."
Tilla gave a battle cry, and flames crackled to life between her teeth. She and Rune reared, soared, and blasted flame upward.
The fires roared, scattering the clouds. From the smoke and flame and mist, a red dragon came barreling down, bellowing and clawing the air.
Rune's heart skipped a beat and his anger flared.
"Leresy Cadigus," he said.
The young prince, twin to Kaelyn, looked haggard and nearly mad. The gilt on his horns, a sign of nobility, was peeling. Grime clung to his scales. But worse were his eyes; they were a madman's eyes. Something inside them had broken like snapped springs inside a doll. The red dragon cackled and leered.
"Hello, dragons!" he said. "You will kneel too. But first you will fall, yes. Fall!"
He raised his claws, holding up a cylinder of leather and glass.
Rune wasn't sure what the contraption was, and he had no time to contemplate it. He soared with Tilla, and they blasted fire again, shooting the jets up at the prince.
Red light shot down.
At first Rune thought it a stream of fire. Then he realized—red light was streaming from the cylinder like a sunbeam. Rune roared, tried to fly higher, and gasped.
An unseen claw tugged at his magic.
He growled, trying to cling to it, but the magic was jerked away like sleep vanishing under shaking hands.
Among the clouds, he resumed human form.
He tumbled.
At his side, he saw Tilla falling too. They pierced the clouds. They fell through open sky. The black fields below spun, racing up toward them. The red light still bathed them.
"I can't fly!" he shouted.
Even as she plummeted, Tilla managed to glare. "I noticed!"
He grimaced and tried to summon his magic again. Its tendrils coiled inside him, but whenever he reached for them, they slipped from his mind. It felt like trying to remember a fading dream.Leresy still flew as a dragon. He cackled and dived, aiming the cylinder down. The red light still bathed Rune and Tilla.
"It's that damn light of his!" Rune shouted. "It's canceling out our magic."
Tilla shouted in frustration. "Yes, Rune, I can see that! Thank you, Sir Obvious."
The ground grew closer. Rune winced. He had only seconds to live.
"Damn it, Leresy!" he shouted up. "We're not your enemies. It's Rune and Tilla. You know us! Take that light off!"
But the red dragon seemed fully mad. He laughed, head tossed back, and blasted fire across the sky. His chest rose and fell, and smoke sputtered from him. He seemed like some cracked, leaky cauldron about to shatter.
"Rune and Tilla, Rune and Tilla!" he chanted. "I know you. Yes, I know you! Rune the silly boy my father wants. Tilla the tall woman with the nice, pale skin to kiss, yes." He howled with laughter. "I craved you both once, one to kill and one to bed, but which was which?"
The air howled around them. The ground loomed so close, they could count the boulders and trees. They had only a breath or two left.
"Leresy, stars damn you!" Tilla screamed. "Stop shining the light!"
"Take it off, Leresy!" Rune shouted, panic thudding through him. "We're not your enemies! We're your friends!"
The wind roared.
The ground reached toward them.
Rune winced and knew: This is it.
He reached out and held Tilla's hand.
He held his breath.
Leresy laughed and soared, and the red light vanished.
Treetops skimmed Rune's boots.
Roaring, he shifted into a dragon.
His wings bent the trees below. He blasted fire and sucked in air and his eyes watered.
I'm alive, stars, I'm alive.
Tilla soared at his side, howling.
Still laughing, Leresy made a lazy arc in the air, turning back toward them.
"Tilla, fly down and land!" Rune shouted.
They swooped.
They crashed between the treetops.
Several feet above the forest floor, the red light bathed them again. They lost their magic and thumped into the snow in human forms.
Rune moaned. The fall wasn't high enough to break his bones, but he would bruise. He raised his head, coughed, and struggled to rise. Tilla moaned at his side and pushed herself up onto her elbows.
Before they could stand, the red dragon crashed down through the trees. His claws thrust out. One dragon foot slammed against Rune, shoving him down. Snow filled his mouth and he moaned. The second foot slammed against Tilla and pinned her down.
"So, Rune and Tilla, Rune and Tilla," said the dragon. "Or should I say... Relesar Aeternum and the famous Lanse Tilla Siren?" He cackled and spat fire. "Oh yes, I've heard of your ascension, girl." He thrust down his head, reached out a tongue the size of a human arm, and licked Tilla's head. "Oh my, but you taste delightful. You taste like honey and moonlight. I've wanted to taste you for a long while."
She spat and her face twisted in disgust. "Go lick gutter shite, Leresy. Get off me."
She struggled and kicked but couldn't free herself. Rune squirmed too. The cylinder's light no longer shone upon him, but Leresy's foot pressed down too mightily. Whenever he grasped his magic and tried to shift, the weight squeezed it away like juice from a fruit, leaving Rune in human form.
"What do you want?" he demanded, twisting his head to stare up at the dragon.
Leresy laughed. "What do I want? Oh, silly child of the woods. What do I want?" He lowered his scaly head, and his smoke fluttered across the forest floor. "I want to kill all my enemies. I want to bed every woman in the world. I want power and money and booze. I want to forget the blood, the screams, the fire. What do I want, lost children?" His voice strained, shoving out each word through a clenched jaw. "I want the th
rone."
The claws dug into the soil beneath Rune, then tightened, coiling around his torso like a steel cage. Rune grimaced, his arms pinned to his sides, and glared up at Leresy.
"Go take your damn throne then," he said. "Go fight your madman of a father. Or if you want to face me, face me like a man, or let me shift and face you as a dragon. Or are you a coward?"
Leresy laughed and lifted Rune from the ground. In his other foot, he held Tilla, squeezing and pinning her arms to her sides. The red dragon bucked and tossed his head, blasting smoke across the forest.
"A coward?" he said. "Am I a coward? I slew Beras the Brute. I found the Genesis Shards. I will kill my father. I will kill my sister Shari. I will—"
"Your damn sister is already dead," Tilla spat out, squirming in the claws. "I killed her myself. Stabbed my blade right into her chest."
Leresy froze.
He panted, not moving, holding Rune and Tilla still in his claws. His eyes widened.
"My sister... Shari... dead?"
Rune nodded. "I saw her die. Tilla is speaking truth. You've been away from the capital for too long."
For a moment Leresy stood frozen. Fire crackled in his maw. Then, with a howl, he reared. He tossed back his head and blasted fire, igniting the treetops. He laughed. His tail lashed, slamming into trees. Flaming branches fell and sparks showered. The grass kindled.
"Shari is dead!" Leresy howled and laughed, sounding like a demonic child overcome with joy. "Dead, dead, dead! Shari is dead!"
He bounced around with glee, tail knocking down trees, still clutching Rune and Tilla. Smoke filled the forest. Trees blazed. Rune coughed, blinded. Before the flames could burn him, Leresy leaped up and soared, rising into the night sky, still clutching his prizes.
"Dead, dead! Shari is dead! Happy night, happy night, Shari is dead!"
Rune coughed and squirmed, trying to free an arm, trying to shift, but the claws clutched him so tightly he could barely breathe.
"Stars damn you, Leresy, I thought we were fighting together. You helped us in Lynport. Now free me!"
Leresy laughed and began flying back west, back toward the capital. The clouds streamed by, the forest below burned, and the wind roared.
"Shari is dead!" he cried into the night. "I am heir. I am heir to Requiem!"
Tilla kicked wildly.
"Leresy, you bloody fool," she shouted into the wind. "Your father banished you. He will kill you if you return. You're no heir, damn you."
But the red dragon kept flying, clutching them, and roared fire over their heads. He beat his wings, flying faster, streaming over the forests.
"Banished me?" He laughed. "Yes, yes, that he did. But now I return. Now I bear his greatest prizes—Relesar, the lost whelp of a miserable dynasty, and Tilla Siren, the traitor who murdered his daughter. Frey Cadigus will name me heir now. I will be his golden child." Leresy howled and his fire bathed the sky. "It is Leresy's turn to rise. Requiem is mine."
Rune and Tilla cursed and shouted and squirmed. The red dragon tightened his claws, grinned, and flew through the night.
KAELYN
A thousand dragons, their scales chipped and charred. A thousand riders on their backs, bandaged and burnt and bearing their guns. A ragtag force of refugees and rebels. A whisper in the night. A single flicker in a storm. They flew through the night and beheld the capital of Requiem ahead, rising from the dark forest like a crown of fire.
"Nova Vita," Kaelyn whispered, flying ahead of her people.
The capital had many names. Jewel of Requiem. Gloriae's City. Light of Aeternum. Yet to Kaelyn it was more than that. It was her home, her haunting pain, and her glittering prize. It was all that mattered in the world.
"Nova Vita." Her voice shook in the wind. "City of our ancestors. City of my pain and hope. Today I liberate you, Nova Vita, or I die upon your walls."
The city still lay miles away. From here it seemed no larger than a ring she could slip onto her finger. Fires blazed upon its walls, countless torches to light the night. More fire crackled within the ring—dragons flying over the roofs in patrol, blasting their flames. All around the capital, the land slept in darkness, a black sea.
Kaelyn took deep breaths, narrowed her eyes, and flew faster. The others flew at her sides: Valien, her guiding light; Erry Docker, a coppery dragon with flames in her nostrils; and two thousand more of her comrades, the dearest souls she knew.
"And you wait for me there, Rune," she whispered. "I will find you and I will free you. Be strong, my friend."
At her side, Valien raised his head, and his eyes shone in the night. He gazed upon his city and began to sing. His voice was a low rumble, a thunder rolling in a distant storm. Kaelyn knew the song. He sang Old Requiem Woods, an ancient tune, a song the Vir Requis would sing before they had a kingdom, before marble columns stood, before books were written and myths were told. It was a song of days before gunpowder, before walls of stone, before bloodshed and swords and a land that was torn, a song of the Vir Requis living in this forest below, wild children of the woods.
Kaelyn joined her voice to his. He sang in a rumble, but her voice was soft and pure as summer wine. Behind her, the others joined. A thousand dragons raised their voice in song.
"Old Requiem Woods, where do thy harpists play, in Old Requiem Woods, where do thy dragons fly..."
They flew closer. The city blazed ahead, a disk of light in the darkness, the beacon of her heart. With every mile they crossed, more details emerged, and Kaelyn could soon see dark towers and battlements. The streets stretched out, lit with palisades of lamps, shaped like a wagon wheel. In the wheel's center, like an axle, rose the black tower of Tarath Imperium, a thousand feet tall.
A rumble sounded ahead, a distant chant.
The Resistance flew onward, singing their song.
Ahead, the walls of Nova Vita blazed with torchlight. Specks upon the walls grew larger, revealing themselves to be dragons, tens of thousands of them. Smoke plumed from their nostrils, and flames blasted from their maws. A thousand cannons rose between them, small as matches from here but growing larger with every flap of wings. The rumble upon the walls grew louder, becoming a battle cry, a howl for blood.
"Hail the red spiral!" rose thousands of distant voices. "For the glory of Cadigus! Purification!"
Kaelyn snarled. Her heart twisted. Fear pounded through her. But she flew on and she kept singing. She raised her voice, letting her song ring out. All around, the other dragons sang with her. Their voices rose in hope, in light, in memory.
The Legions howled ahead upon the walls.
"Slay the Resistance!"
"We will break them upon the wheel!"
"We will drink their blood!"
"Leave none alive!"
Kaelyn shivered as she flew. Her heart pounded in her throat. Ice seemed to wrap around her spine. Myriads roared for her death ahead—hundreds of thousands. Half a million troops or more waited here, each bred and broken into a machine of perfect hatred, a killer who longed for her blood. Half a million demons... flaming and screaming for her death.
She flew among two thousand.
The miles blurred below. The walls grew ahead. The Legions screamed and blasted flames. The Resistance sang their old song, voices clear and deep, a psalm of old.
In darkness and firelight, with song and with prayer, after two decades of fighting in shadows, the Resistance flew toward the ancient walls of Nova Vita, capital of Requiem.
"Old Requiem Woods, where do thy harpists play, in Old Requiem Woods, where do thy dragons—"
A thousand fuses burned. Upon the walls, a thousand cannons blasted.
Fire ripped across the sky. Smoke blasted upward. Cannonballs blazed through the night, streaked like comets, and slammed into the Resistance.
Blood sprayed. Iron tore through dragons. In death they lost their magic; they scattered in a shower of blood and human limbs.
Their song rose lo
uder.
Kaelyn sang out the old words. Her comrades sang with her. They flew on. Their flames lit the night. They sang and they flew and though fear filled her, Kaelyn felt the light of Requiem guide her onward and glow within her.
"Cannons!" rose howls from officers ahead. "Fire!"
The Resistance sang as they flew.
Matches burned. Explosions rocked the walls, blasting smoke and flame.
A thousand more cannonballs flew through the night.
The rounds ripped into the Resistance. Hundreds of dragons howled, lost their magic, and fell dead as ravaged men and women.
Kaelyn kept singing, staring ahead.
The others flew around her.
The walls loomed closer.
Cannons fired. Smoke and blood filled the sky.
They flew over the last fields, and Kaelyn tossed back her head and blasted a jet of flame.
"Arquebuses!" she cried.
At her side, Valien roared. "Tirans, fire your guns!"
The dragons of the Resistance swooped toward the city walls.
The cannons blasted and smoke blinded them.
Hundreds of arquebuses blasted. With an explosion of smoke and flame, with a thousand cracks of gunpowder blasting, the iron rounds pummeled the city battlements.
Legionaries fell.
Iron rounds tore through armor, more powerful than any sword or arrow, cutting into steel like knives into butter. Blood sprayed in a mist. Men and women tumbled from the walls.
"Dragonfire!" Kaelyn shouted. She dived toward the battlements and rained her flames.
Around her, a thousand dragons of the Resistance swooped and blew fire. The walls rose in flame. Barrels of gunpowder burst, and smoke and fire covered the sky. Stone cracked. Kaelyn roared and beat her wings, churning ash and smoke. Below, she beheld a wall crumbling. Bricks rained and cannons tumbled, disappearing into clouds of dust.
A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) Page 17
