Authors: Daniel Arenson
She
shot fire skyward, holding back other drakes, then landed on the earth.
One
of the children already lay dead, flesh burning, legs gone. The others ran,
fleeing Fidelity, wailing.
They
don't know I'm Vir Requis,
Fidelity realized.
They see the blue dragon
and think I'm a firedrake.
She
leaped upward, knocked down another firedrake with her claws, and landed in
front of the fleeing children.
"Wait!"
she called out. "I'm a good dragon! Listen to me!" The children wept,
screamed, and turned to flee again. Fidelity slammed down her tail, cutting off
their retreat. "I'm here to help you."
Several
firedrakes shrieked above, plunging toward her, and opened their jaws to blow
fire. Fidelity grimaced, prepared to feel the heat, when Roen and Cade shot
overhead. The two dragons, green and gold, roared and slammed into the
firedrakes, knocking them down. They blew their dragonfire skyward, sealing
Fidelity in a blazing shell.
She
took a deep breath and released her magic. She stood before the children as a
woman.
"See
me?" she said. "See? I'm like you. You have to trust me." She
looked up. "Cade! Cade, land here!"
The
golden dragon nodded, swiped his tail against another firedrake, then landed
beside her.
"Cade,
get them out of here!" Fidelity shouted, still in human form. "Take
them over the water, fly north! Fly over the sea."
"To
where?" he shouted.
"Anywhere!"
she cried out as firedrakes and dragons roared above, as blood rained. "Anywhere
that's safe. Fly! I'll find you in the Commonwealth!"
Cade
cursed. "It's a big place, Fidelity. Where will we meet?"
"Draco
Murus!" she said, choosing a name from the old book. "Fly to the
ruins of Draco Murus! You remember!"
He
nodded and lowered his wing. The children still wept, and at first they
resisted, but Fidelity urged them onward, goading them up Cade's wing. They sat
on the gold dragon's back, fourteen in all, clinging together.
"Now
fly!" Fidelity cried. "To Draco Murus!"
Cade
nodded and took flight, wings churning smoke. He dipped, rose higher, blasted
fire at a drake, and cut a way through. He vanished into the smoke.
Fidelity
shifted back into a dragon and soared, joining Roen. She blew her fire skyward,
ascended through the blaze, and crashed into a firedrake. As the beast bled,
she grabbed its paladin in her jaws and bit deep, punching her fangs through
the armor, tearing the man out of the saddle, and finally spat him out. Roen
thrust his horns into the firedrake's neck, goring the reptile, sending it
tumbling down.
Shrieks
rose behind her, and Fidelity spun to see a hundred or more people fleeing,
women and children and elders. Three firedrakes dived down, paladins on their
backs, and blasted forth their fire. The fleeing people burned, fell, rolled,
screamed as they died. Their skin peeled back like bark, falling from their
flesh, and the flames dug deeper, eating down to the bone.
All
across the blazing camp, people were fleeing only to be torched or cut down.
Some firedrakes were swooping, lashing their claws, scooping up people and
tossing them into the air. Other firedrakes pounced onto children, bit down,
tore the little bodies apart, scattering limbs. Several firedrakes stood above
hills of dead and wounded, feasting on human flesh. One girl wept, lying in the
dirt, as a firedrake chewed on her severed arms. A firedrake above tossed its
head around, and a foot pattered down onto Fidelity, then the head of a woman,
mouth opened in a silent scream.
How
can I stop such horror?
she thought, eyes burning.
How can I stop this
bloodshed, this killing, this theater of death?
"We
have to save more, Roen!" she cried, eyes damp. "They're burning them
all!"
The
green dragon nodded. "Fly with me."
They
soared together, crashing through enemies, burning through a falling sky, a
collapsing heaven descending into chaos and light and dancing shadows, a world
of demons. Domi and Korvin flew in the distance, back to back, holding off the
enemies. Far below, Fidelity saw more people racing across the land, heading to
the hills, leaping over the corpses of those who had already failed to flee.
Fidelity knew they wouldn't go far, not without help.
"Domi!"
she shouted. "Korvin!"
They
saw her and flew her way. A firedrake dived between them, and Fidelity shot
forward. The paladin on its back fired an arrow, and Fidelity shouted as the
missile scraped along her cheek, shattering a scale. She grabbed the man in her
claws and pulled back hard, tearing off his head, exposing a gaping neck that
sputtered blood. Korvin roared as he gored the firedrake, tugging his horns
along its flank. Its organs spilled like a gutted fish, and the beast crashed
down to the ground. Domi flew above, spurting fire upward, holding back other
firedrakes, her flames so hot they melted the beasts' bellies. Chunks of charred
blood pattered down.
"Korvin,
Domi—the women and children!" Fidelity pointed at the group she had
spotted fleeing. "We have to save them."
They
nodded and charged. The four dragons blasted their fire together, cleaving a
path through the enemy. Fidelity prayed that Cade still lived, that he had
saved the children, that he now flew over the water.
She
landed before the fleeing children. Korvin and Roen remained above, holding
back the swarm of firedrakes, as Domi lowered her wing. Fidelity became a human
again, herding the children onto Domi, one by one.
"Hurry!
Onto Domi, go, and—"
Fidelity's
voice died as a firedrake made its way past Korvin and Roen. The bronze beast
slammed down onto the ground and shrieked, its cry so loud Fidelity covered her
ears, and the children who stood closer screamed as their eardrums ruptured, as
blood dripped from within. The firedrake lashed its jaws, so fast Fidelity
barely saw it move, and tore a boy apart. It tossed back its head, guzzling
down the top half of the boy. The child's stomach and legs collapsed onto the
ground.
Fidelity
screamed, shifted back into a dragon, and charged. She gored the creature's
neck with her horns. It fell back, and Roen roasted it with dragonfire.
"Go,
Domi!" Fidelity cried as another survivor climbed onto the fiery dragon. "Fly
to the sea! Fly to Draco Murus!"
Domi
nodded and took flight. Below in the blazing camp, other survivors cried out,
reaching up to Domi, begging for their lives, begging to be carried away.
Korvin
landed next. Ugly gashes bled on his side, and holes peppered his wings. One of
his horns was cracked, and several of his scales were shattered. He lowered his
wing, forming a ramp, and more survivors raced up. The gray dragon took flight,
tearing through the enemy, rising into the clouds, vanishing into the shadows.
A
roar pierced the killing field. Wreathed in fire, a figure of wrath and ruin, a
red dragon swooped, a creature so beastly at first Fidelity thought it a
firedrake. Then she recognized Amity. The Red Queen landed, covered in burns
and cuts, her eyes wild.
"So
many dead," she whispered, voice haunted.
"Grieve
later!" Fidelity shouted. "We have to save who we can. Amity, help
me!"
They
took flight. Only three dragons remained now: Fidelity, Roen, and Amity. They
crashed through enemies. There were barely any more survivors left, only corpses,
thousands, hills of them burning. Finally they found a group of survivors who
raced over the dead, seeking safety on the beaches, and loaded them onto Amity's
back. The red dragon soared, barely able to blow any more fire, her wings
creaking, her scales bleeding. Crying out in agony, Amity flew off across the
sea, a score of firedrakes in pursuit.
Only
Roen and Fidelity now remained on the coast, and hundreds of firedrakes still
flew. Without the other dragons—the burly Korvin, the wild Amity, the fiery
Domi—to hold them off, the firedrakes charged forth toward the beach,
bloodlust in their eyes. Again Fidelity saw the white firedrake and the white
paladin upon it—Mercy Deus.
A
group of children came racing along the sand, fire clutching at their clothes.
"Help!"
they cried, racing toward Fidelity. "Blue Queen, help us!"
Fidelity
made to leap toward them when the fire rained from the sky.
An
inferno.
A
holocaust of heat and light.
A
shattering world, collapsing heavens.
Fidelity
yowled, flying through the pain, trying to reach the children. Several of them
fell, burning.
"I'll
hold off the drakes!" Roen shouted, soaring. "Fidelity, fly with the
children!"
Fidelity
wept, trying to reach them. A firedrake landed on the beach. She swiped her claws,
knocking it down.
"Roen,
fly with me! We have to leave, now!"
The
green dragon growled, soaring higher. "Save them, Fidelity! Fly with them,
go!"
Another
firedrake landed on the beach, snapped its jaws, and tore a child apart.
Fidelity screamed, leaped toward it, and cut it down. But more drakes kept
landing. One landed on her back and bit into her shoulder. Fidelity screamed.
Another landed before her and lashed its claws, slicing her face. She cried out
in pain, desperate to cling to her magic, to remain a dragon.
Above she saw Roen battling dozens of the creatures. He whipped his tail
around, blew his fire, sent paladins crashing down on their mounts.
Fidelity cried out, shook off the firedrake on her back, lashed her tail,
and knocked down the drake ahead of her. Only a few children still lived.
"Onto my back!" she shouted. "Hurry!"
They raced forward. A firedrake landed, lifted one child in its jaws, and
feasted. The other children screamed, raced up Fidelity's wing, and clung to
her bleeding back.
She beat her wings. She took flight.
"Roen, let's go!" she shouted.
She flew off the beach, over the water, and looked back toward him. "Roen!"
A hundred firedrakes streamed toward Roen. Hundreds more rose from the
camp, blood and flesh in their jaws, flying toward the green dragon.
He turned to look at Fidelity.
He whispered through the storm.
"Fly, Fidelity. Fly. I love you."
Then Roen roared and blasted out his fire, a torn roar, a great howl, and
he charged toward the enemy.
"Roen, no!" Fidelity shouted. "Roen!"
She wanted to charge forward. She wanted to fight with Roen, to die with
him if she must, but how could she sacrifice the children on her back? She
watched, helpless, as the fire draped across the green dragon. She watched,
screaming, as he slew firedrake after firedrake, burning them, cutting them,
biting out their throats, lashing his tail at their riders. She watched,
weeping, as hundreds of arrows slammed into his scales, as hundreds of flaming
jets crashed against him, as he roared for her, as he called out her name in
his pain. The corpses of firedrakes lay around him, victims of his wrath, until
finally it was Mercy Deus upon her firedrake—Mercy, an angel of wrath and
retribution—who rode toward him, who smiled, laughed, and thrust her lance.
Roen's roar died in the sky. His wings spread out, wreathed in fire. The
lance drove into his chest, cut through him, and emerged from his back.
"Roen!" Fidelity screamed, weeping.
Above the beach, the green dragon lost his magic.
He tumbled down from the sky, a man again.
Mercy swooped and her firedrake caught Roen's human form before he could
hit the beach. The white firedrake rose, holding Roen, cackling madly, and upon
its back Mercy stared across the water toward Fidelity.
"This will be your fate too, Fidelity!" Mercy cried out. "I
know your name, weredragon! I know who you are, and I will kill you all like I
kill him."
Roen was still alive, Fidelity saw; he twitched in the firedrake's claws.
He was so beautiful, so hurt, the kindest man Fidelity knew, the bravest, the
noblest, the man she loved.
The white firedrake raised him higher, and Mercy drew her sword. The
paladin leaned forward in her saddle and drove her blade into Roen's heart.
Fidelity wept.
She turned and flew across the water, the children on her back.
Roen . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love you. I love you.
She streamed across the water, those she had saved—those
he
had
saved—upon her back. Her tears fell. She had seen her father fall, seen Amity
burn, but this time there could be no doubt. Roen had given his life—to her,
to them. To Requiem. Fidelity's tears fell as she flew, as behind the hundreds
of firedrakes roared and followed.
I love you, Roen.
She thought of his warm eyes, his arms wrapped around her, his love, his
strength, his wisdom, his kindness, and she could not stop weeping. The
children clung to her, and she flew as fast as she could, fleeing the blaze,
the crash of a kingdom, fleeing into the darkness. Perhaps there was no place
left to flee to. Perhaps all the world was now ruin and above it the cruel
light of the Cured Temple. Her hope faded to but a sliver, but a last grain of
life like those she had saved, a dying hope in a dying world.
A few lights burned ahead; Fidelity did not know if they were her fellow
Vir Requis or the husks of sinking ships. She flew onward, into despair, into
darkness, as behind her the fire burned.
CADE
He crashed down
onto the beach, scales cracked, wings whistling with holes, smoke puffing out
of his nostrils. As soon as his claws hit the surface, he collapsed and slid across
the sand, and his head fell onto its side.
He
stared through narrowed eyes. The world was hazy. Cade could barely see through
the veil of pain. A rocky beach. Barren hills.