Daybreak

by Shae Ford

  He grabbed her wrists before she could toss it away. “No — it isn’t just any sword. It’s Daybreak. The blade of Sir Gorigan the Dragonslayer,” he said when she raised a brow.

  All at once, Kyleigh’s face fell calm — a deadly, seething sort of calm. The air between them went still and when the last of Kael’s words had echoed off its dampened walls, the cavern fell utterly silent.

  “I’m going to do it, this time. I’m honestly going to kill you.”

  “But it’s true — this is the sword of Sir Gorigan!”

  “It’s only a story! Sir Gorigan is nothing more than a character flitting across a few pages in your moth-eaten picture book.”

  Kael met her glare with one of his own. For a moment, he thought about telling her that he knew the truth: he knew that she’d carried Daybreak from her village and given it up to save the wolves. But the longer he watched her, the more he came to realize that her anger was … real.

  She didn’t remember it. She didn’t remember anything about Daybreak. But if he were to tell her what he knew, the memories might come back.

  Kael still felt her sorrow. His memories of Ryane were as raw now as the day he’d first seen them. They’d left a piece of something inside his head, something sharp that ground against the backs of his eyes and stung them. Her agony was still there, lying in wait beneath the thinnest film of his resolve.

  He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t tell her what he knew. He couldn’t let Kyleigh remember that sorrow.

  No, Ryane was a wound he would carry for her.

  “Just trust me, will you?” he said at last.

  “Let’s see it, then.” Kyleigh shoved the sword into his hands. “Draw it. I’m eager to see the blade that was forged from a ray of the sun.”

  Kael didn’t think that was such a good idea. He remembered the way Daybreak had shone so brightly in the heart of the white city, how Kyleigh’s dragon soul had feared it. He remembered when she’d drawn it in the forest and how, even at an arm’s length, the heat singed her flesh.

  He told himself he was only being careful. But in truth, he was more than a little afraid to draw it. “Look, I don’t know if it’s the real sword or not. Rua and I talked while you were in the valley. He said a bit too much — he mentioned there was a powerful weapon hidden inside the mountain. I thought if we could find it, then perhaps we might have a chance to save the Kingdom. That’s all.”

  Kyleigh’s glare slipped back. She wrapped a hand around his wrist. “I’m sorry. You were only trying to think of something, and it’s not as if I’ve been much help.”

  “No, you’re right. I did a stupid thing, trapping us here.” He stared glumly at Daybreak as the realization crawled down his neck. “There’s no way out. The moment the dragons see us, they’ll swarm — and I don’t think even the knight’s blade will be able to stop them all.”

  Kyleigh took her hand away and crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes swept the room; her brows furrowed together tightly. When she turned and began pacing away, Kael could hold his curiosity back no longer.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m thinking there might be a way out of here, after all. Stand back,” she said before he could get too close. Then she drew up her hood, raised her leg, and brought her heel crashing into the floor.

  Kael shielded his eyes against the burst of light as the floor cracked open. A blast of heat thickened the air and stole his breath. He nearly fell when Kyleigh stumbled into him.

  “Fate, that’s hot!” she gasped. There was a raw, red burn on the side of her face where the steam had cut beneath her hood. She touched it gingerly. “Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea.”

  Kael was far less calm. “It was a horrible idea! You knew there was fire under here. What in Kingdom’s name were you trying to do? Burrow out?” Kael shoved Daybreak into her hands and went to work on her burn.

  Kyleigh’s eyes roved across the ceiling as he tried to drag a fresh layer of skin across the raw bits. “Well, stomping on it isn’t going to work. But if we could think of a way to break the floor open, I bet some of these eggs would hatch.” She pointed to one of the largest. “That one over there would likely bust open with just a spark —”

  “Wait a moment — you want the eggs to hatch?” When she nodded, Kael lost what little was left of his patience. “Are you mad? You want more of these winged terrors chasing after us?”

  She grabbed the sides of his face and brought him in close. “The dragons have been without their hatching grounds for hundreds of years. They have no young — their race is dying. They’re broken and desperate. I swear to you that if they see even a wisp of flame come out the top of this mountain, they’re going to forget all about us.”

  It was a good plan — better than anything Kael had thought of. But still, he worried. “Are you sure?”

  “They would give up anything to have their young. A nest isn’t complete without them.”

  He couldn’t help but notice how her eyes tightened with those words, how the fires dulled and the glow slunk back. She let him go and looked away quickly, but the damage had already been done.

  Kael couldn’t give her a full nest … but he could give her this.

  He slung Daybreak’s belt across her shoulder. “Here. Take this and get into one of those caves. I’ll break the floors.”

  “You can’t — the heat will melt you.”

  “No, it won’t.” He tugged her hood down over her eyes. “There aren’t any gaps in my armor.”

  After a bit of a struggle, Kyleigh finally relented. He watched as she climbed effortlessly up the slick walls and into one of the caves. “It smells like fresh air,” she insisted when Kael groaned about how narrow it was.

  He just hoped she was right.

  The crack Kyleigh’s boot had left in the floor was so thin that he didn’t think he would’ve been able to see it, had the cavern been any less dim. But the heat wafting from it was every bit as potent as a dragon’s breath.

  Kael donned his scaled armor, careful to imagine that it covered every inch of him, this time. He imagined that it swelled up to stretch over his clothes. He watched through his mind’s eye as they draped across him like an oilskin. Once he was certain every thread of his clothes was covered, he went to work.

  The craftsman held the armor in place while the warrior bolstered his strength. He crouched and brought his fist down upon the crack, cringing when it split open with a hiss of steam.

  Kael held tightly to his concentration as he struck the ground again. When molten red and orange began gushing from the crack, he had to hold on even tighter. It took him several moments to get used to the fact that the fire didn’t burn him. Once he was certain his armor would hold, he stopped worrying and focused.

  For the first couple of strokes, things were difficult. He didn’t seem to be gaining much ground. But he found that if he struck at an egg’s base, its girth would crack the floor around it and send it splashing into the fiery lake. Sometimes a lucky hit would cause a large chunk of the floor to break — sending five or six eggs in all at once.

  He worked his way around the center of the room quickly: starting a large ring and smashing his way inward. He was nearing the last few feet of crust when a strange sound caught his attention.

  One of the eggs he’d freed was beginning to move. At nearly a full head and shoulders longer than a man, it was easily the largest egg he’d seen. While the other eggs bobbed contentedly inside the molten lake, this one had begun to squirm. It flipped from its top, onto its side, and back again — splashing Kael with waves of red and orange.

  The egg kept knocking into him. Kael was about to give it a good shove when it started to glow.

  Yellow light swelled within it — bursting, growing, fading back. Each time it glowed, the thousands of hairline cracks across its shell turned crimson. The yellow against the red was an astonishing sight. The bursts of light entranced him.

  Kael couldn’t help himself: he placed his h
ands against the glowing shell. He couldn’t feel its texture through his armor, but he could feel the warmth. And then all at once, he felt something else.

  Kael nearly jumped out of his skin when a hazy shadow scratched by his hands. It was a claw — one already the size of his head. A full, winged body had begun to take shape within the egg. It was a shadow suspended in a glowing world, hanging dully while the flames whipped between its horns.

  Then all at once, it moved.

  The dragon’s body twisted; its wings stretched to fill the egg. A light flared up inside its middle — pulsing along with the egg’s steady glow. Kael was so busy watching the light that he almost didn’t hear it. But when he pressed his ear against the shell, he caught the faintest murmur of a sound:

  Thud, thud … thud, thud … thud, thud …

  The sound grew louder and more furious by the second. Kael’s heart began to race with it in time. He knew it was ridiculous. He shouldn’t have been at all excited about the hatching of a creature that could easily kill him, if it turned.

  But he couldn’t help it.

  “Kyleigh!” he gasped, searching through the rippling waves of heat to find her. “Kyleigh — I can hear it! It’s moving!”

  She grinned at him from her cave. “Why don’t you say hello?”

  When Kael looked back, the dragon’s eyes were open — two orbs that glowed inside the shadow, two spots of yellow that burned brighter than the rest. They closed and opened as it stretched.

  Kael rapped the egg gently. “Hello?”

  The dragon’s eyes flicked to where he’d knocked. Its head peeled back and slammed hard into Kael’s hand, rolling the egg aside. He braced his shoulder against it and managed to flip the egg back over. He was waist-deep in fire, by now. But he was too focused on the dragon to worry over it.

  A web of fresh cracks had appeared where the dragon’s head smacked against the shell. Its eyes blinked slowly, began to close …

  Kael rapped on the shell again. “No, don’t go to sleep. We need you to break open the ceiling, all right? You have to distract the others.”

  The dragon slammed against his hand again. More cracks bloomed where it struck. Kael led the dragon’s charge around the shell, making sure it hit the weakest spots. The shell had begun to give way when he heard Kyleigh yelling at him.

  The fire lake had come to life. Its waves knocked against the crusted floor, eggs broke free and dragged their companions down with them. What remained of the stone shores were disappearing at an alarming rate — and the heat swelled fast.

  Kael left the dragon behind, hoping it would be able to break the rest of the shell on its own. He sloshed his way across the molten river towards Kyleigh. Bubbles swelled and burst across his face; the heat made the whole world ripple madly. It filled the cavern to its sealed topped and packed into any space that would hold it — including the caves.

  Kyleigh no longer waited at the entrance. Not being able to see her sent him into run. He jumped onto the wall and yelled as he climbed: “Head for the outside! I’m right behind you!”

  His hands moved surely and his arms carried him swiftly to the cave’s mouth. The tunnel was so narrow he had to crawl on his hands and knees just to fit inside. Its walls choked him worse than the heat ever could. He hated the way they pressed against him, how they seemed insistent on crushing his limbs. Their coiling grip was closing around his throat —

  “Kyleigh!”

  He could see her body through the light of the fire lake. She was a little ways ahead of him, collapsed upon the tunnel floor. He yelled again, and she twisted her head around to look at him.

  It was too small a space for her dragon shape — and without scales to protect her, the building heat was taking its toll.

  Sweat poured from her face and her eyes were glassy with exhaustion. Wheezing breaths slid from between her swollen lips. “Go,” she gasped.

  “No, you’re going to move!”

  “I can’t —”

  “You can.” It was only the knowing that one of them had to stay calm that kept him from screaming. Kyleigh was never weakened, never hurting. When he saw her shriveled upon the floor, he wanted nothing more than to panic. But instead, he forced himself to breathe.

  She’d gotten them through the mountain — and he was going to get them out.

  Kael wedged his arms around her middle and hauled her onto her knees. He braced his shoulder against the backs of her legs and started to push.

  He shoved her up the tunnel’s floor, through the thick cloud of steam that billowed up as the heat struck its dampened flesh. Even as the walls closed in and the ceiling scraped across his back, he didn’t panic. He wouldn’t let his fears stop him.

  Soon the tunnel came so close that they had to crawl upon their bellies. Kael moved along on one elbow and shoved Kyleigh with the other, forcing her up. Her pace slowed and her breathing grew more ragged.

  “Kael …”

  “Keep going! We’re nearly there.”

  “Kael, please —”

  “No!”

  A swell of anger filled his limbs the moment Kyleigh’s gave out. He wasn’t giving up. He wasn’t going to let her die. Even if he had to give every last bit of his strength, he would do it. So he braced her boots against his shoulders and with a roar, he started to shove.

  He inched his way up the tunnel, his feet scrabbling behind him. As his warrior half grew fiercer, the craftsman lost its grip. Cracks split all down his armor. Kael bared his teeth against the singeing heat and stubbornly forced air into his lungs.

  They were nearly out. He thought he could feel a wind across his back. He fought on — shoving, scrambling, every toe digging into the rock to give him even an ounce more leverage. The walls were closing in; the heat had a strangling grip upon his chest.

  They were nearly there. Nearly …

  He gasped when Kyleigh suddenly disappeared. For the half second it took him to scramble to the tunnel’s end, he had no breath. But when he crawled out, he saw that she lay safely upon the ground.

  Her chest heaved as she sucked in the cool evening air. Color sprang back into her cheeks. She swiped the dampened hair from her face as he helped her sit up.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I think so. I’ll be better once I have this blasted thing off my neck.” She pulled Daybreak from around her shoulders and handed it to him.

  He threw it aside. “Just breathe.”

  “I am breathing.”

  “Well, you aren’t breathing enough!”

  “Kael,” she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her head against his neck, “it’s over, now. We’re out. I’m all right.”

  He held her tightly. “Do you swear?”

  Her nose scraped up and down his neck with her nod. “I was just a little short of breath, is all. I’m sure the worst is … move!”

  It happened quickly. One minute they were together and the next, she’d thrown him aside. Roars filled the air as Kael landed: Kyleigh’s threat, a sharp reply — and a voice that shook the mountain.

  Kael ripped his body around and his stomach lurched when he saw two white dragons go skittering down the mountain’s side — claws flailing and their pointed fangs bared.

  Kael forgot his pain. He leapt to his feet and his eyes found Daybreak. But before he could reach it, Rua’s claw slammed into his chest.

  Had his warrior half not already been coiled for the jump, the shock might’ve crushed him. Instead, Kael blinked the little black spots from his eyes to find that his body had been pinned to the mountain’s side.

  Rua’s furious, blazing glare filled his vision; the crackling of his song matched the heated breath that spewed from his nostrils. Kael’s arms were pinned at his sides. His entire body was stuck between a single wedge of Rua’s claw.

  And Daybreak lay far beneath him.

  The red dragon bared his glistening teeth and for a moment, Kael thought he was about to snap off his head. But then a strangled gr
owl from below twisted him away.

  Kyleigh had won the fight. She crouched over His-Rua, the white dragon’s serpent neck clamped between her jaws. She hadn’t crushed down, yet. But by the way she growled around His-Rua’s throat, Kael knew she meant to.

  Rua’s grip loosened and Kael nearly slipped out. But a strangled roar from His-Rua brought the pressure back. The white dragon’s eyes blazed defiantly as they locked onto Kael’s. She twisted in Kyleigh’s grip and her song came out sharp.

  Rua’s head swung back. His voice shook Kael’s innards; he pressed him more forcefully against the mountain, and it was all he could do to keep his ribs from snapping into halves.

  But Kyleigh’s grip had tightened, too.

  Her fangs dug in so sharply now that His-Rua couldn’t even sing. She clawed helplessly at the ground while her eyes rolled back.

  Kael knew what she wanted, what she begged for with every strangled breath: His-Rua wanted them dead. It was what she’d always wanted, what she asked for even now as Kyleigh held her around the throat — and Rua would have done anything for her.

  But if he harmed Kael, Kyleigh would rip His-Rua’s throat from her scales.

  “You know it isn’t really what she wants — her fire’s gotten the better of her.” The dragon’s ear cut towards Kael, but his eyes stayed locked upon his mate. “She’s angry, Rua. You have to be strong for her. You have to carry her anger wisely, remember?”

  The black slits in the middle of Rua’s eyes went almost round with thought. But even then, his claw crushed down. It strangled Kael’s words, pressed him to his limits. His legs went numb. None of his blood seemed to reach his head …

  All at once, a bright light cut through the dusk. It cast every shadow from Rua’s spines and sent his head whirling around. Beneath them, His-Rua had frozen in Kyleigh’s jaws. She seemed to hardly feel the pressure of her teeth.

  When Kyleigh released her, she scrambled up the mountain to Rua’s side.

  Kael craned his neck back and saw a blast of fire spew from the mountain’s top. Hardly a second after the fire abated, the land erupted in song. Voices of every note filled the air as a swarm of dragons came from Rua’s lands. Even from miles away, Kael could see their wings were beating furiously, desperately. He imagined each burning stare was fixed upon the mountain’s top, waiting breathlessly for the next wisp of fire.