Daybreak

by Shae Ford

  But for now, he focused all of his thoughts on getting the villagers to safety.

  They cut across the heaving swells, following in the wake of the larger ships. The breadth of their monstrous sails carried them away quickly, and it wasn’t long before Kael could barely make out their shadows.

  “Where are they headed?” he wondered.

  “The chancellor’s fortress,” Gerald said, his mouth taut. “They’ll be looking for answers … and for the council’s protection.”

  But it won’t do them any good.

  Those were the words that hung between them, the words that sat so heavily across their heads. Kael gripped the wheel tightly and tried to keep his frustration at bay.

  He remembered the island fortress all too well — and he thought it was about the worst possible place for the whole of the seas to gather. If Gerald knew the villagers would flee to the chancellor’s fortress, then it was likely Crevan knew it, as well.

  There had to be a reason the mages hadn’t blasted them from the waves … had to be a reason Copperdock wasn’t burned …

  Dark things swirled in the back of his mind. Half-formed plans drifted behind his eyes, but he couldn’t focus with Kyleigh so far away. He found himself glancing back more and more often.

  Gerald’s hand clamped across his arm, startling him from his thoughts. “Do you hear that?”

  Kael had been so intent on listening for Kyleigh’s roars that he hadn’t actually been paying attention. He looked up to where the clouds trembled softly overhead. “It’s only thunder.”

  “Then why isn’t it stopping?”

  Hairs rose down the back of Kael’s neck when he realized Gerald was right: the thunder hadn’t stopped. If anything, it seemed to be growing.

  Ahead of them, the last ship slipped out of their sight. It disappeared into the storm-muddled seas as the rumbling grew louder. A yellow orb appeared in the clouds above the fleeing ships. It cracked open like an eye and shone above the waves — illuminating the whole fleet before them.

  Gerald peered at the orb, leaning over the bow. “What in Kingdom’s —?”

  Kael’s heart shot up his throat as the rumbling burst into a roar. The orb erupted — a pillar of flame spilled from its middle and into the waves. A cluster of ships ahead of them was stricken with color. Kael swore he could make out every line of their planks, every flutter of their sails. And then they were gone — replaced towering balls of flame.

  Kael realized with a horror that stole his breath that he’d been right. There was a reason Crevan had spared them at the docks. He’d forced the villagers away from land and onto their boats, left them with no place to run.

  He’d been sending them into a trap.

  The deck erupted in swears and Gerald leapt backwards as the flames devoured the ships. “To the sails! Change course — change course!”

  Kael spun the wheel around, cutting to the left. He watched in disbelief as the ruined ships glowed for a mere few seconds before the ocean sucked them down. Then just as suddenly as it’d appeared, the orb was gone — leaving them only with the slap of the waves and the steady thud of the rain.

  Bells started to clang from the decks of the others ships. They spun on their hulls, stumbling like blind men through a lash of rain. One bell in particular began to grow loud: it started at their right and cut directly across their front.

  “Hold on!” Kael bellowed as their tiny vessel met the ship’s wake. “Hold —!”

  There was a blast of searing heat and a burst of light. A pillar of flame struck the ship in front of them, wrapped its sails and rigging between its monstrous jaws. The ship was gone it a blink, dragged to a watery grave.

  Kael’s ears rang loudly in the silence left behind.

  Mandy screamed.

  “Get us out of here!” Gerald roared.

  Kael was trying. But no matter where he steered them, the pillars of fire fell. They crashed into the seas in bolts all around them, reducing one ship after the next to flames. Boiling water slapped up under the force of the fire and rained down upon them in stinging waves.

  The light was so blinding and the roar of its breath so furious that the most Kael could do was steer them towards the few black patches on the horizon — hoping the darkness meant a clear sky.

  “Make way!” Gerald cried, thrusting a finger over Kael’s shoulder. “There’s one coming up on our heels. Make way, or she’ll run us over!”

  Kael heard the panicked groans of the ship behind them — heard the panicked shouts of its crew as they charged for the same black gap that he did. But he also felt the growing heat on the back of his neck, saw the tensed white of his knuckles illuminated against the ship’s wheel as fire in the sky grew at his back.

  He held his course.

  The pillar fell and devoured the ship behind them. Wind roared from its flesh, the waves spouted from its fall in a powerful rush. The force of the wind and the waves crushed Kael against the wheel — it made Gerald stumble sideways and sent the rest of the crew directly to their rumps.

  That blast of wind and crush of the waves propelled their little vessel forward. Its slender mast bowed as the sail filled it to tearing, but it didn’t break. Kael held on tightly as the seas spat them away, aiming for the dark horizon.

  The ship behind them sank with a crackling moan. Soon, the darkness returned and the world went silent.

  “Mages!” Gerald gasped, pulling himself to his feet. His hands shook as he reached to help Mandy; his eyes stayed fixed upon the clouds. “Oh, I can’t stand magic — can’t they leave us alone for a blasted moment?”

  Though worry marred her face, Mandy kept her voice calm. “Are we …? Do you think any of the other ships …?”

  “I don’t know,” Kael managed to whisper over the yelps of his heart. “I don’t know.”

  “A lucky thing we’re small. Otherwise, we would’ve been … what’s that?” Gerald leapt back and his hand flew to his sword.

  Mandy’s eyes followed the soft rumble overhead until it faded. “It was only the thunder,” she said. But though the men on deck relaxed, Kael couldn’t breathe.

  He remembered all too well what the Witch of Wendelgrimm had done to the seas. The tempest she’d crafted from the wind and waves was a mark of how powerful magic could be. Though the Sovereign Five all had mages under their command, Kael had no doubt that Crevan had kept the best of the battlemages for himself — and he had no trouble believing they could call down fire from the skies.

  The mage who’d raised his arm, the one whose fist had glowed so brightly, he must’ve been the one responsible for this. What Kael had hoped was merely surrender was actually the casting of a spell.

  Now the fires were upon them.

  Little hairs rose on the back of his neck as he listened for the rumble to come again. His companions’ voices grew muffled. He squinted through the fat drops of rain that thudded across his brow, peering into the blackness above him. A flash of lighting revealed the feathered bottoms of the clouds, but nothing seemed amiss.

  Thunder followed the lightning’s flash. It rumbled overhead, sent tremors down the sail’s ties and across the polished deck. As Kael watched, he realized the thunder hadn’t trailed away.

  It only grew louder.

  “Kael!”

  He saw it. He saw the orb of light appear in the clouds ahead of them even before Gerald cried out.

  A blast of heated wind stopped their boat in its path. It shoved against the storm and trapped them between the gales. Screams cut above its bellow. The villagers fell to the ground and threw their arms over their faces, trying desperately to shield themselves from the heat.

  Kael swore he could feel the topmost layer of his flesh being ripped away, becoming red and raw. His eyes streamed against the heat, ached from the light of the orb. Little glowing embers began to appear across the mast and sails. They flickered to life like torches upon a distant shore.

  He knew he had to do something quickly. If he didn�
��t, they would burst into flame. Rather than try to fight the force of the heated wind, he spun the wheel. He ripped them to the side and broke out of its path.

  For a moment, the heat shrank back. Kael wrenched his head to the side and watched as the orb slid between the clouds. A deep rumbling shook his bones again. Then all at once, a pillar of yellow flame spewed down.

  It crashed into the seas beside them and cut up the waves, tearing for their flank. Kael tried to turn them away, but the pillar moved too quickly. Its head ground into the seas, two great wings of water sprayed up as it roared to devour them. The light blinded him; the heat stole his breath.

  He knew, in an instant that froze his blood against his bones, that they were trapped.

  People screamed. A few of the servants scrambled below deck. Gerald held Mandy tightly against his chest, teeth bared against the red blisters that popped up across his face. Kael twisted the wheel so hard that one of the knobs snapped beneath his strength.

  The fire was coming for them; the white light stabbed his eyes. Kael searched for a black patch on the horizon, but there was none.

  Then, in the half-moment before the orb could burst, something remarkable happened: the heat faded and the light suddenly went out. The wind stopped and the seas fell silent. Soon all that remained was the murmur of the seas and the shadow of the storm.

  The night crushed them once again.

  *******

  Kyleigh soared through the clouds above Copperdock, her ears straining for the telltale pop of the mages’ spells. These were the same mages Crevan always sent after her — the ones who could travel over land through short portals.

  He’d learned the hard way that his armies and beasts had little chance against her. Any creature that flew within her reach would have its wings torn apart, and her flame would reduce anything on the ground to ashes.

  No, this band of mages was the only chance Crevan had against her — and from the speed with which their portals popped, she knew something else must be driving them on.

  They only moved that boldly when Ulric was among them.

  It wasn’t difficult to find the archmage. The portal that traveled furthest and popped the loudest was clearly Ulric’s. Sometimes there would be a flash of light when he landed — a fireball that burst from his fist to devour a nearby home. He always made it a point to stomp back to Midlan, leveling as much as he could along the way.

  But tonight, his journey would be short-lived.

  Clouds whipped by as Kyleigh fell towards the ruins of a burning home. Ulric stood outside its door, his horrid grin fixed upon the blaze. She breathed in until the flap over her second set of lungs opened. There was a faint click inside her chest as the heat climbed her throat.

  She held the flames trapped against her tongue as her fall carried her closer to Ulric. He saw her shadow dull the light of the blaze before him and spun. The chained impetus glowed against his arm and he disappeared in a lightning’s flash of red — narrowly avoiding the blast of Kyleigh’s flame.

  “The Dragongirl! Stop her, you fools — bring her down!”

  Kyleigh knew better than to linger. Her wings snapped open and she raised her chin, turning the force of her fall to a power that launched her into the refuge of the clouds. And not a moment too soon.

  Faint red dots appeared along the earth beneath her as the mages’ shackles burst to life. Their spells flew with more fury than thought, crazed by the ring of Ulric’s furious command. Had they slowed to aim, they might have actually hit their mark. But as it was, their magic was more annoying than dangerous.

  Kyleigh stayed out of their reach for most of the chase. She listened for the whistling of spells and spun to dodge the ones that came too close. All the while she moved, her eyes scanned the red dots.

  Most were careful to bunch together. They knew she wouldn’t risk coming too close, if they stayed in a group. But that was before tonight — before they’d destroyed her home and hurt her people. Kyleigh wasn’t going to be careful, tonight.

  She was going to make sure they knew her fury.

  One mage strayed too far from his companions. She hovered over the spot where his shackle glowed. The breath of the storm held her aloft, pushing gently on the thin under-edges of her wings. She tilted them as she took a breath, shifting to catch the blusters of the storm.

  The clouds hissed by. The rain thundered against her scales. Lightning flashed behind her, and the mage saw her shadow cross his boots. His face went white with terror.

  A blast of Kyleigh’s flames devoured his screams … and his flesh.

  Before the mage’s bones had finished crumbling to ash, his companions fired back with a deadly hail of colored bolts. Kyleigh darted into the clouds and tore east — deeper into land and further from the shores. All she had to do was lead them away. As long as they were focused on her, Kael and the villagers would be safe.

  Angry shouts pierced the storm. Kyleigh darted quickly out and up, gliding along a current of the wind. The mages saw her white wings appear and gave chase. It was too easy to fool them. Kyleigh dipped down every once in a while to give them a flash of her wings, and they tore off after her. Just a little bit further, and Kael would be safe.

  Ulric’s voice filled the air suddenly, as if he’d spoken from the storm: “Stop her, beast! Do not let her escape!”

  Kyleigh sighed inwardly. Though she knew most had been crazed beyond saving, she didn’t like to harm the shapechangers. She would much rather go back to roasting Ulric and his lot. But Crevan still hadn’t learned.

  Her ears twitched to catch the far-off beat of wings. They were coming from behind her. Kyleigh glanced down at the red dots one last time, marking them in her memory. Once she’d finished with this beast, she’d come back for Ulric.

  And this time, she intended to hit her mark.

  The wingbeats grew louder as Kyleigh turned — so loud that she expected a swarm of crows or hawks to come bursting from the clouds. The noise grew stronger by the moment, and soon she’d slowed to a hover. It was impossible … she knew it was impossible. But the longer she listened, the more convinced she became:

  The noise wasn’t coming from a swarm of wings, but from a single, monstrous set.

  Kyleigh climbed higher. She rose through the storm and circled as the noise grew beneath her, careful to stay quiet. Something moved through the clouds. They churned like water from the bow of a ship, helpless against the creature’s edge. The churning stopped just beneath her; the beats became deeper as the creature paused.

  With every stroke of its wings, the clouds were cast aside — until she could see the full, enormous body of the thing that hung within them.

  He was a monster: a beast more than thrice her size with wings that bullied the storm. They flattened the bumps from its crest and tore a hole through its maw. The mass of scales and spines that covered his body were the color of a starless night. Kyleigh felt lost, staring into their depths.

  But that was before she saw his eyes.

  For a moment, the world stopped turning. She hung suspended in his gaze while her vision darkened around its edges — plunging her into a dream. She’d seen those eyes before. She’d felt the fury of that gaze in a shadowed stretch of her thoughts. There was a part of her that remembered them well.

  Other things filled the corners of his gaze … a softness the dragon in her remembered, a courage that framed her chest in steel. A strange feeling clawed at her as she watched him. She dropped a little closer, filled her lungs to call out …

  All at once, the dragon’s eyes changed. Their blackened slits narrowed; the yellow flames inside them burned with hunger. His jaw cracked open, revealing a jagged cage of teeth. The collar around his neck flared brightly. Its glow matched the hunger within his eyes.

  She didn’t have time to think. Whoever the dragon had been before, Crevan owned him now. The curse controlled him. Kyleigh’s flames turned to ice inside her chest, and she flew for her life.

  His voice f
illed the air when he roared. The rumbling inside his chest warned her of his strength. His claws could crush her ribs as surely as his voice could rattle them. Panic seized her limbs when she heard the thunder of his wings. But though the human cringed, the dragon in her was calm.

  Pictures flashed before her eyes — memories that were not her own. She saw those powerful horns crush other dragons beneath them, saw those teeth snap through flesh and bone. She watched those claws rake through lines of scales: they fluttered from the chests of his enemies in a rain of glowing ash.

  His eyes came to her again — eyes she’d seen many times in her dreams. They were walls of yellow flame bolstered by fury, pressed against black, merciless slits …

  He is not all he seems, the dragon in her whispered. He’s strong, yes … but only dangerous if he catches us.

  When Kyleigh chanced a look behind her, she saw the black dragon wasn’t as close as she’d thought. In fact, he’d only just managed to turn around. His strength was frightening, but his girth slowed him down.

  She would face him as the crow faced the hawk.

  Kyleigh cut upwards. She looped back and shot behind the black dragon — sailing directly over his monstrous wings. A furious roar split the air and she couldn’t help but grin at his cursing. Those were Crevan’s words, his fury. But though the King deserved to have his skull crushed in, Kyleigh didn’t want to harm the dragon.

  Perhaps she could lead him into the desert, or find some obliging mountain to trap his great body against — any obstacle that might slow him down. She’d only just begun to plan when a blast of air spun her to the side.

  The black dragon was right behind her.

  Kyleigh shot downwards with a single, powerful beat. She tucked her wings against her sides and let the force of the earth whip her towards the black dragon. She darted past his scaly face and had to twist to avoid crashing into his wings. But at least she managed to get him angry.