Daybreak (48 page)

Now when he slept, he dreamt of the end of dragonkind. 

No, they would find no mercy from him.

Kael dug his claws into the dragon’s back. The wind’s howl filled his ears as he plummeted from the sky like a rock. He slammed the white dragon’s body into the earth, reveling in the snap of her bones. 

Her blood poured across his claws — each drop broiling with her inner flame. It slid into the cracks between his scales and seared the flesh beneath them. His eyes blurred against the pain, but he forced himself to dig in, to snap more of her bones and draw more of her blood.

Kyleigh’s voice filled his chest and burst with angry words: “Give up your hatching grounds, Halved One! Tell me where they are, and I will kill you quickly.”

Angry screeching filled the air above him. Kael could feel the shadows of his enemies falling towards him, swarming to save their companion from his grasp. They would rip his flesh from its bone and his heart from its cage. They would tear him apart so swiftly with the force of their numbers that he would have no chance to fight back.

But he didn’t care.

Let them come. 

“… don’t know … hatching grounds …” the Halved One whimpered from beneath him. “We don’t … don’t …”

“Argh!” Kael thrust forward with all of his weight and snapped the Halved One’s neck. He dragged his claws against the dirt to staunch the burning of her blood.

The shadow of the swarm was falling upon him: females, males of every color — they wore the skins of those he’d lost. They made a mockery of his friends. He could see the fury wrought in each blue line of their eyes, but he felt no fear.

There was only rage. 

The sky between them disappeared as he charged into battle. They had the force of the earth behind them. The Halved Ones would pummel him in a swarm and thrust his body into the ground. They would snap his neck just as he’d done to their companion.
 

Still, Kael’s pace never slowed. He would crash straight into their middle and drag as many as he could against his belly. Their corpses would break his fall —

A roar pierced the clouds, shook the skies. Kael’s wings beat with a new speed as a monstrous black dragon burst through the Halved Ones’ swarm. His claws hewed their wings. Their throats split against his jagged teeth. With one powerful swipe of his tail, he flung their shattered bodies from the skies.

But there were more.

A strange sound came from the molten city: the clang of metal forced into the shell of a song. Kael had come to hate the noise, and to fear it. This sound meant the Halved Ones’ Great Swarm was coming — led by a human who wielded a terrible fire.

“Flee, the battle is lost!”

Kael’s ears hardened against the black dragon’s voice. A blinding white light had appeared inside the city’s middle. It bounced with the sprint of the man who carried it. Even from a distance, Kael could see his eyes were set upon him — and his mind clouded with the thought of blood. 

Thousands spilled from the city behind the man who carried the light, twisting and bursting into their stolen skins. The man leapt astride the largest Halved One and the Great Swarm followed the blinding arc of the fire he carried.

Let them come!

Kael wanted nothing more than to slaughter every last one …

“My heart’s bond!”

The words tore Kael’s eyes from the Great Swarm and to the black dragon hovering above him. He saw all of his pain, all of his anguish reflected inside the dragon’s eyes. Blood burned between the cracks of his scales. His once-proud head sank low with exhaustion. He knew the weight of Kael’s pain. He’d entrusted it to him, asked him to bear it wisely.

But this time, he’d failed.

He remembered it, now: the black dragon’s anger had carried him across the seas into the heart of the Wildlands. It’d driven him to start a battle he couldn’t win.

“Please, my heart — I couldn’t bear it if you were slain even a moment before I. There will be a time to fight the Halved Ones. But for today, the battle is lost.”

The world turned and the molten city disappeared as Kael followed the black dragon into the sky. The Halved Ones were quick in battle, but the span of their wings was far too short. Their human halves weakened and shrank the dragon. It wasn’t long before Kael had out-distanced them.

His vision swelled with the ice-capped seas; his ears filled with the beating of the black dragon’s wings. The fires of the anger he’d carried suddenly went out. Sorrow waited beneath it.
 

“Our nests our empty, our hatching grounds have gone cold. If we cannot stop the Halved Ones, they will destroy the few of us who remain. I fear our time is nearly at its end.”

“I fear that too, my heart,” the black dragon said from beside her. His great voice hardly rose above the murmur of the wind. “But then I remember that Fate wove our souls from nothing, that she bid our Motherlands rise from the sea. I think she would not have bothered to give us life if she planned to let others steal it away.”

A heavy sigh filled Kael’s chest. “And yet, they steal it. We could have stopped the Halved Ones. But this human who carries flame … he will never stop. I see it in his eyes.”

“With enough time, the Halved Ones will fall, My-Dorcha. As for the human …” the yellow of the black dragon’s eyes flared brightly, “I will see to it that he stops.”

The vision fled him with a
whoosh
, slamming the shutter tightly. Kael did back its bolts before the next vision could throw them open. 

His hands shook as he snapped the lock into place. Something tore at his flesh, pressed down upon his shoulders. It dragged him to his knees. Kael felt as if he wore a cloak made of iron: it hung from his back and turned his skin to ice. But the feeling within him was worse.

Needles jabbed his innards; daggers cut his bone. His blood bubbled and shrank inside his veins, drying to a thick, blackened crust. Flames gnawed through his every rift and lapped furiously at his marrow. Kael wrapped his arms around his chest and squeezed them together tightly.

Desperation bent his back and anger ravaged him from within, but behind all that was fear — the fear that he would be crushed, devoured. It was
fear
that stole his strength and gave him over to the darkness. He had to stop it, had to thaw the spines of ice growing up his back before they reached his head —

My love
!

“No!” 

Kael threw himself against the wall just as the white dragon lunged for him. He couldn’t let Kyleigh touch him. He couldn’t let her feel these horrible things. If she felt them, she might remember — and the memories would consume her. 

“Don’t touch me,” he pleaded, when the dragon crept forward. “Please, just … just talk to me. Tell me everything’s going to be all right.”

It was a foolish thing to ask — Kael knew this. But he thought that perhaps if he were to focus on something else, he might not have to think about the fact that he was being eaten from the inside out. He trusted the dragon not to laugh. 

Whatever it is, you can defeat it. There’s not an enemy you’ve faced that you haven’t found some way to overcome, not a battle you’ve started that you haven’t won
, the dragon said.
 

It was the confidence in her voice that steadied him more than the words. Her belief in him cooled the anger, tore the desperation aside. It melted his fear.

Kyleigh had seen more of the world than he could ever hope to. If she believed in him, he thought it must be true. “Thank you,” he muttered as the last of the anger went out.

The dragon’s fiery green eyes swelled in his vision as she bent her face to his. The flames sputtered in uncertain arcs.
What did you … see
?

Kael wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t want to think about the black dragon — the dragon who’d called Kyleigh his
heart’s bond
… the dragon he was almost entirely certain now lived inside the body of the shapechanger bound to the King. Just the thought of it made him bare his teeth.

He was afraid to say anything about what he’d seen. Even the smallest detail might undo the window’s lock. One wrong word could release her memory and cause the past to come flooding in. If that happened, she would have to bear that horrible anger and desperation once more. He couldn’t take that chance.

Instead, he forced himself to smile and say: “I saw a dragon who loved deeply and battled without fear. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

More of your kindness
. The dragon tilted her head, and her fiery eyes narrowed.
Sometimes I think you are
too
kind. But this is merely a strand of thought flowing down the river. My love runs too fiercely to let it sink in
. 

That was something Kyleigh never would have said. He couldn’t believe her two halves were so completely different. Slowly, Kael got to his feet. “All right … one more window.”

You discovered my name
?
What is it
? the dragon said at his nod.

“I can’t tell you — not here. Not so close to this wall.”
 

No sooner had he spoken than the shutters rattled hard.

Kael took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you the moment I’m … out.”

The dragon inclined her head.
That’s probably for the best. Be careful
.

Kael knew he had to be careful. He was prepared for the shutters’ push, and his warrior half swelled against it. But this time, the metal bolt was strangely hot. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and slid it back quickly. Then he pressed his ear against the worn oak, listening for what lay beyond. 

Instead of wind, he heard screams.

Kael’s heart was thudding before he even cracked the shutter open and plunged into the scene beyond …

*******

Darkness — a damp shroud soaked in orange light.

Footsteps thudded into the earth all around him. The ghosts of screams crawled down the base of his skull — present, but not entirely full. Blurred shadows darted through the soaked orange edges. The fires were so bright that he couldn’t watch them for long. They hurt him. The pain shut his eyes …

A woman’s startled gasp dragged him from the darkness: “Fate! Oh, thank Fate.”

When he opened his eyes, the woman’s face was a hand’s breadth from his. The glow of flame warmed her pale skin, painted shadows across her features. Her raven hair had fallen from its bonds and flowed into the darkness. Her stark blue eyes were fierce and bold — a warrior’s eyes.

Kyleigh’s voice slid between his lips as he moaned: “Ryane …?”

“I’m here.” 

The world swam as the woman pulled him up. She dragged him against her chest. The arms that wrapped around his middle were as hard as coils of iron, but they held him gently.

“Fate,” Ryane whispered again, her voice strangely tight. “How did you survive it? How could you have possibly …?”

His lips were pressed against her shoulder; he could taste the smoke staining the material of her jerkin. He mumbled when he spoke, hoping she wouldn’t be able hear him: “I was looking out the window —”

“I told you not to look!”

“Had I not, I would’ve been blasted away with the others!” he growled, lifting his head to glare at her. “When that bloody spell hit us, it knocked me out the window —” 

“Don’t swear. You know Mother hated your swearing,” Ryane said sharply. Then she hauled him up by his elbows and grabbed his hand. “Can you run?”

“I think so.”

“Good. We haven’t got much time.”

She dragged him into the darkness. A ruined city grew out of the shadows: the pale remains of statues and buildings wrapped in coils of flame. Windows spewed cinders upon his head. Smoke scratched his lungs. 

There were people everywhere. They filled the streets and ran as if Death snapped at their heels. Their skin was as pale as the walls of their city, their hair black as dusk. The fear that ringed their blue eyes sank down to Kael’s knees. The worry that marred their features chilled his blood — and he was almost certain they were heading the wrong way.

“Where are we going?” he gasped as Ryane dragged him forward.

“The shaman says our time has come. We must flee the city or be destroyed.”

A horrible, icy something lurched against his lungs. “But I thought the flyers were picking the spellweavers off! You said it was only a matter time before they —”

“They’ve brought out a new magic, tonight. Spells are flying from every hand, swinging from every fist. They’ve brought down three flyers already. Our shaman says he can’t protect us against the magic this army wields — its power is too great.”

Ryane turned slightly to avoid the charge of the crowd, and he saw the slender, glinting blade clutched in her hand. “The flyers will guard our escape for as long as they can, but Draegoth is lost. All of the groundlings must flee.”

“Then why aren’t we running for the gates?” Kael gasped. A cloud of smoke burned his eyes and made them stream. When he wiped the blurriness aside, he saw where they were headed. He tugged hard on Ryane’s hand. “The
relic
? Is that where you’re taking us?”

“I promised Father —”

“Father is dead, and he wouldn’t want you to join him!”

“You don’t know what he’d want. You don’t remember our parents like I do,” Ryane said harshly.

His palm went cold in her grip. “But what about the curse? You’ll be burned to nothing if you try to take it!”

“I won’t let it fall into the hands of these people. They’ve destroyed all in their path — imagine what they might do with the relic. I swore to guard it in Father’s place, just as his father swore before him. If I burn, then so be it.” 

Ryane’s teeth were bared against the words. She pulled Kael closer behind her as they broke through the last surge of people and into the burning ruins beyond.

A statue loomed before them — the pale statue of a sword wrapped in intricate coils of flame. The sword stood in the middle of the flame upon its tip, tucked inside a plain leather scabbard. Streaks of black fanned out across its rounded hilt and charred grip, but the orb on its pommel still shone.