Dragons Rising (22 page)

Korvin
roared and reached out his claws. He couldn't blow his fire here. He
couldn't hurt Eliana. But if he could reach Beatrix, if he could grab
her . . .

Light
blasted him. Claws tore at him. Bonedrake jaws closed around his
wings, tugging him back. Korvin stretched out his claws, only yards
away from the balcony, reaching out to her . . .

Beatrix
stood below, smiling up at him. She handed the baby to Mercy. The
paladin took the child and stepped back into the Temple.

"Hello
again, my lover!" Beatrix shouted and raised her hands toward
him.

Two
beams of light blasted out from Beatrix's palms.

Korvin
roared.

The
light crashed against him like war hammers, stronger than beams from
bonedrake jaws. His armor shattered and fell like shards of glass.
The beams wrapped around him, tugging him down, yanking his magic
from him.

Korvin
fell in human form.

He
crashed against the balcony, cracking his steel armor. His blood
spilled.

The
world was nothing but light, blood in his eyes, matted hair, screams.
Everywhere screams. Everywhere the light of the Spirit, the light of
Requiem's fall.

The
Falling begins.

Beatrix
came to stand above him. She wore the white robes of the priesthood,
not bothering to clad herself in armor. She needed no armor today.
With the Column close to cracking, with the Spirit so close to
entering the world, power and light thrummed across the High
Priestess. For the first time in over twenty years, Korvin stared
into her eyes.

He
saw hatred.

He
saw madness.

And
he saw glee.

In
his memory, he still saw the idealistic, bright-eyed young priestess
he had known, a woman devoted to her faith and devoted to him.
Overlaying that memory he saw the Beatrix she had become: a tyrant
consumed with light she could no longer control, a righteousness so
all-consuming it seared away all empathy, leaving only rigid evil.

"Beatrix,"
he said hoarsely, barely able to push the words past his lips.
"Beatrix, you cannot control this light. It's consuming you."

She
laughed. The light flared across her, flowing through her, until he
could see her bones as if she too were a skeleton. Her skull laughed
within her pale skin, and her heart thrummed, pure white and blasting
out heat.

"Beatrix,"
Korvin whispered, struggling to rise to his feet. Bleeding, he
reached out to her. "Beatrix, I saved you once from a crowd that
tried to stone you. Let me save you now. Let me save you from the
Spirit's light." That light burned his eyes, burned his skin.
"The Spirit is no friend of yours, Beatrix. He does not love you
but seeks to burn you, to flow through you into the world. You must
stop. You must--"

She
kicked him. He fell to his knees before her on the balcony, his blood
dripping around him.

"Yes,
kneel before me, Korvin!" she said. "Kneel, weredragon! I
am a conduit to the Spirit's light. I would gladly give my life for
the Spirit to enter the world through my body. And you too will give
your life to the Spirit, Korvin. You too will die in this light--die
here on this balcony as the crowd roars. Guards, grab him!"

Soldiers
rushed forth with clubs. They beat him. He fell, crying out. They
chained him. They dragged him to the edge of the balcony. Korvin
kicked wildly, unable to free himself. He bellowed out his rage. He
tried to shift back into a dragon but could not; the chains bound him
in his human form.

"Let
the crowd see him!" Beatrix cried.

Above
in the sky, bonedrakes and firedrakes and dragons still flew. Fire
and light swirled, hiding the sky. Screeches tore through the air. As
the battle raged, the soldiers of the Spirit dragged Korvin to the
balcony's ledge. They tossed him down, letting the chains yank taut,
holding him dangling above the square below.

Many
in the crowd had fled the square, but many remained, and more kept
returning. They pointed at Korvin and the battle above.

"Behold
Korvin, King of Reptiles!" Beatrix cried, and her voice rose
inhumanly high, a sound like shattering glass, like a bonedrake
scream. "Behold the weredragon! Watch him die!"

Korvin
dangled in his chains, kicking the air. One chain tightened around
his neck, nearly constricting him. He gasped, unable to speak, barely
able to breathe. The world spun all around him: the crowd below, the
Temple behind him, the battle above. He could no longer see the other
dragons. Where were his daughters? Where was Amity?

I'm
the last,
he thought.
I'm the last living dragon. And now I
die in the light.

Beatrix
leaned over the balcony toward him, a thin smile on her lips.

"Yes,
you will die now," she said. "But you won't remain dead for
long, my lover. You will live again." Her smile tightened,
becoming a terrible thing, stretching her cheeks--a demonic grin.
"Your bones will burn . . . then rise."

His
eyes rolled back. He gasped for breath. The world went dark.

 
 
DOMI

As
the battle raged around her, a handful of dragons fighting an army of
bonedrakes, Domi darted between the enemies, flying away from the
fray.

"Domi!"
Amity cried behind her. "Domi, get your scaly arse back here!
Help us fight!"

But
Domi kept flying away. She narrowed her eyes. She gritted her teeth.

I'm
sorry, Amity. I'm sorry, my family.
She kept flying, knocking
bonedrakes aside, diving from the battle toward the courtyard.
I
must do this.

The
Square of the Spirit spread below, full of Nova Vita's citizens and
soldiers. Many had fled when Requiem had first attacked, but people
were now returning to watch the spectacle, to behold the Falling they
believed was coming. Domi roared as she dived and blasted down
dragonfire. The inferno crashed against cobblestones next to the
Temple staircase, sending city folk scurrying back.

Domi
landed in the square, claws clattering, tail lashing. People gasped
and fled. Here was the very place Domi would land so often as Pyre, a
firedrake returning home. The Cured Temple loomed above her, beams of
light blasting out from it, smoke churning, fire blazing. Soldiers
came racing down the staircase toward Domi, firing arrows. The
missiles peppered Domi's armor. She roared her fire across the
stairs, and the soldiers screamed and fell, burning.

A
bonedrake flew down toward her, jaws opening. Domi swung her tail and
shattered its skull. Its teeth clattered against the courtyard. More
bonedrakes came flying down toward her.

Domi
blasted fire upward, holding them back, and ran. Her claws scratched
the cobblestones. Her tail lashed behind her. She blew dragonfire
forward, knocking down more soldiers, and raced over their burning
corpses. There, past smoke and flame, she saw it: the tunnel.

She
lashed her claws, knocking a bonedrake aside. She yowled as an arrow
sank into her tail. She kept running, clinging with all her might to
her dragon form, and entered the tunnel.

She
raced through the darkness, claws clattering against the stone floor.
Her fire lit the darkness. More arrows flew from behind her. Some
sank through her armor to nick her scales. She turned her head over
her shoulder and blasted fire behind her, burning soldiers. She
turned back ahead and kept running.

She
burst into the vast chamber hidden beneath the Cured Temple like
stony bowels--the place where Domi had lived for years. Cells lined
the walls, each the size of a house. Inside each cell, secured behind
bars, they were roaring.

Her
old comrades. The firedrakes.

The
banged against the bars, crying out to her, to the old alpha of their
pack--to Pyre. They did not know her as Domi. They did not know her
to be Vir Requis. To these mindless dragons, Vir Requis with their
human forms burnt out, she was still one of them--still Pyre, the
firedrake who had borne Mercy Deus upon her back, leading them in
battle.

"Firedrakes!"
Domi cried, speaking the word through her dragon jaws. They had never
heard her speak before, but today she would have to make them obey.
"Firedrakes, we fly!"

They
screeched, banging against the bars of their cells, hearing the
battle outside, desperate to join.

"Fly
with me, firedrakes!" Domi said. "With me, with Pyre, to
fire, to war!"

She
shifted into human form, raced toward the wall where the keys hung
from a peg, and ran through the chamber, unlocking the cellar doors.
The firedrakes roared, the sound echoing, as they emerged from their
cells.

"Down!"
she cried to them. "Down, drakes!"

They
were confused. They did not understand where Pyre had gone, why a
human now stood before them. Yet they heard the authority in her
voice. They knelt before her, filling the chamber with smoke.

When
the last cell was opened, Domi shifted back into a dragon--back into
Pyre.

"Fly
with me, firedrakes!" she said. "I led you once as Pyre. I
will lead you again. With me! To war!"

They
beat their wings and roared. Fire filled their gullets. Domi led
them, Pyre again, racing up the tunnel. She blazed out her
dragonfire; it raged through the tunnel. Behind her, the firedrakes
ran, their wings scraping against the walls, their claws scratching
along the floor, their smoke blasting out.

Domi
burst out of the tunnel and back into the courtyard, roared her fire,
and soared.

"With
me, firedrakes!" She flew up in a straight line, blowing her
dragonfire. "Slay the bonedrakes! Slay them dead!"

Beams
of light flared across the sky. Bonedrakes came plunging from above,
claws extended, light blasting down. Domi kept soaring and her
dragonfire streamed. Behind her, the firedrakes of the Cured Temple
flew, following their old leader, and their dragonfire rose like the
columns of a burning cathedral.

Light
and fire, bonedrakes and firedrakes, death and life crashed together.

 
 
GEMINI

As
blood rained, Gemini flew on his brother through a sky of holy light
and fire.

"There!"
Gemini pointed his lance. "Higher! That window there!"

Below
him, Cade flew through the battle. The golden dragon was quick and
agile, almost as quick as Domi. A bonedrake flew toward them, and
Cade soared and bathed it with fire. Gemini leaped up in the saddle,
thrust his lance, and pierced the creature's heart. He tugged the
lance free an instant before the drake shattered. They soared higher,
then dipped to dodge a hailstorm of arrows from one of the Temple's
steeples. They kept flying.

"Which
window?" Cade shouted over the roar of battle. "I see a
hundred windows!"

"That
one!" Gemini shouted. "Spirit damn it, the . . . the one
under the crystal steeple! No, three windows down. I--damn it!"

Another
bonedrake flew toward them. When Gemini tried to stab it, his lance
caught between its ribs and shattered in a shower of sparks. The
bonedrake lashed out its claws, and Gemini screamed. The claws tore
through his armor and bit the flesh. He drew his sword and stabbed
blindly. It took a swipe of Cade's tail to crush the creature's spine
and send it falling down.

"Gemini,
are you all right?" Cade said, glancing over his shoulder at the
blood.

Gemini
clutched his wound. "Keep flying! That window there. That's
Mercy chamber."

The
golden dragon nodded and flew onward. He grabbed the rim of a
window--the wrong one!--and Gemini cursed and directed him one story
up.

"You
got it!" Gemini said. "Now climb in after me."

He
leaped off the saddle, climbed along Cade's neck, and stumbled into
the room.

Gemini
froze, sword raised.

A
shaking sneer found his lips.

"Mercy,"
he whispered.

His
sister stood at the back of the chamber. While Gemini was covered in
blood and soot, Mercy looked resplendent. Her white armor was
polished, and golden filigree shone upon it. The left side of her
head was neatly shaven. The remaining hair was swept across her right
shoulder, freshly bleached. In her left arm, Mercy held Eliana. In
her right hand, she held a drawn sword.

Cade
climbed into the chamber too, back in his human form. He still wore
his transparent, demon-scale armor over his burlap tunic, and he held
a sword. He stared ahead at Mercy and Eliana and froze, face pale.

"And
so . . . the three Deus siblings," Mercy said softly, a small
smile on her lips. "Together at the same place for the first
time. At least, the first time since you were about this size, Cade."
She raised Eliana higher, bringing the babe dangerously close to her
drawn blade.

Cade
had taken half a step closer but froze. "Let her go, Mercy,"
he said, his own sword raised. "Don't you dare harm her."

"Step
back, both of you!" Mercy brought the blade down to rest against
Eliana. "Step back or I'll cut her before I cut you too."

Gemini's
head spun. His knees wobbled. Blood kept dripping down his leg. He
was hurt, maybe badly. Yet he fixed Mercy with a stare, and he barked
a laugh.

"You
won't harm her!" Gemini said. "You treat the babe as your
daughter. A new babe to replace your own dead daughter."

"And
I would gladly sacrifice my daughter to the Spirit!" Mercy spat
back. "You know this, brother." She spun toward Cade. "And
you know this too, my other brother. I've sacrificed many babes to
the Spirit's light. I would give even my own daughter to his glory.
Stand back! Leave this city or Eliana dies."

Cade
wouldn't budge. He stood frozen between Mercy and the window. "Your
own daughter?" he said. "Mercy, she's not yours! Eliana is
the daughter of Derin and Tisha, two humble bakers whom you murdered.
And do not call me brother. You're no sister of mine. But Eliana is.
Hand her to me and I'll spare your life. I will allow you to leave
this city and fly into exile."