Dragons Rising (18 page)

But
she wasn't merely stillborn
, Mercy thought.
She was murdered.

She
winced, feeling that pain again--the pain of her husband's fists
driving into her swollen belly. And again she could feel her blade
thrusting into his belly. He was her first kill, and Mercy remembered
marveling at how little resistance there was to a sharp blade, how
the skin had given way like paper, and how the blood had splashed
her, hot, coppery. She would never forget that smell. Never forget
how easy it was to kill.

And
she remembered coming here to this place, wrapped in a cloak, staring
with dry eyes as they had buried her child.

"That
was the day I gave up the priesthood," she whispered to Eliana.
"That was the day I became a paladin, dedicated to fighting
evil, to hunting murderers and heretics and weredragons. That was the
day I stepped onto a path that led me to you, my daughter."

The
baby gurgled and reached out her small, pudgy fingers. Mercy held her
close, rocking her gently.

"I
love you, little Eliana," Mercy whispered. "You are mine
now. You will always be mine. You will grow to become a paladin too,
then a High Priestess someday. The Cured Temple, the city, the entire
empire will be yours. And you will grow up in a world without
weredragons. I swear this to you. I'm going to find them. I'm going
to find Cade and all the rest of them, and I will kill them. I will
kill them all for you, my sweetness, so that the column will finally
fall, so that the Spirit can descend into the world and fill you with
his light."

Suddenly
Mercy froze.

She
stared down at the grave.

Fill
you with his light.

Her
legs began to shake. Her mother had raised the bones of dead
firedrakes and dead paladins, giving them a glowing heart of the
god's light. Could . . . could Beatrix raise
her
too, raise
Mercy's daughter, fill her bones with light and . . .

"No,"
Mercy whispered. "Spirit, no."

She
could not request this. Or could she? Would she dare to see it, the
bones of her child animated, screeching, hunting . . . alive again?

Mercy
felt tears on her cheeks. She wanted this. She wanted a life for the
babe again, no matter how perverse. She was her daughter! Her
daughter! She had seen Beatrix raising the dead before. Mercy could
do it too. She knew how, she--

She
spun around, shaking wildly.

"She's
dead," she whispered, jaw clenched. "She's dead and we must
forget her, Eliana. We must. We must. We will never think of her
again. You are my only daughter now."

Before
temptation could strike her again, Mercy marched out of the cemetery.

She
walked through the city of Nova Vita. It was a harsh winter, and ice
coated the cobblestones, and snow piled high upon the domes of huts,
and everywhere she saw the bonedrakes. The creatures perched upon
steeples, domes, and walls. They circled above in the sky, bones
creaking, the light of the Spirit pulsing within them. Hundreds flew
around the Cured Temple ahead, crying out their strange, unearthly
cries, the voices of the dead. The dead had risen. The dead had come
to fight for life.

And
soon other bones would replace those torn from the earth. Soon she,
Mercy Deus, would slay the weredragons. Soon the light, this light
that thrummed within the ribcages of dead dragons, would fill the
world, searing all evil, all pain, and all memory.

Mercy
entered the Temple, entered her chambers, and laid Eliana down in her
bed. Then she stood at the window, staring outside at the city, the
snow, the countless bonedrakes that flew upon the wind.

"You're
coming here, weredragons," Mercy whispered. "And you're
with them, Gemini. I know this. And I'm waiting for you. Come to me,
heretics. Come to die like Roen died. Like my daughter died. This is
a city of bones, and that is what you will become: dead bones, dry
and bleached in the sun." She bit her lip so hard she tasted
blood. "Nothing but bones."

 
 
DOMI

She
was flying toward the mountains, her journey almost over, when twenty
bonedrakes rose from the snowy peaks and flew toward her.

"More
of the damn creatures!" Gemini shouted on her back. "Spirit
damn it. Turn to escape, Domi! Fly away!"

Domi
stared ahead in horror. She had been fighting and fleeing these
creatures all across the skies of the Commonwealth. She had slain a
few, fled from most, and her body still bore the wounds of those
battles. And twenty--a full twenty!--now flew toward her. She had
barely defeated the last single bonedrake to attack. She could not
defeat this many.

"Domi,
turn and fly away!" Gemini screamed from the saddle, spurring
her. "What are you waiting for?"

Yet
how could Domi flee now? Ahead were the Dair Ranin mountains! The
ruins of Draco Murus lay there, the place where she was meant to meet
the others. She had to reach those mountains. She had to find her
sister, her father, Cade, and Roen. She couldn't flee. She--

The
bonedrakes ahead flew closer, opened their jaws, and blasted their
beams of light.

Domi
screamed and soared higher, dodging the rays.

"Domi,
turn around and fly back south!" Gemini cried. "Oh Spirit,
Domi!"

She
soared higher, trying to gaze toward the distant mountains. The
bonedrakes came soaring up after her. On their backs, the skeletal
paladins raised their lances. More beams of light shot forth, and
Domi banked and swerved in the sky. One beam hit her tail, and she
screamed in pain. She nearly fell but she forced herself to keep
flying, to rise higher, to gaze toward the mountains.

"Fidelity!"
she shouted. "Cade! Father! Can you hear me?"

The
bonedrakes flew toward her, gaining on her, and she was flying too
high, too high for Gemini to survive the cold thin air. She growled
and swooped, swerving between beams of light, dodging bonedrakes that
flew from every side.

"Fidelity!
It's Domi! Are you here?"

She
heard no reply, and Domi wanted to flee now, but it was too late. The
bonedrakes surrounded her, moving closer on every side, cackling,
prepared to shoot forth their light and slay her.

Roars.

Roars
rose from the north, tearing across the sky.

Fire
blazed.

Domi
stared north and her eyes watered. She laughed in joy.

Four
dragons came flying toward the battle, blowing dragonfire.

"Cade!"
Domi cried out. "Sister! Father! Amity!"

The
four came charging forward, their flames blasting against the
bonedrakes. The undead dragons screeched, turned in the sky, and
blasted their beams of light against this new threat.

Domi
winced, expecting to see the beams sear through her fellow dragons.
But she gasped. The beams indeed hit the dragons, but they did not
burn them. The rays or light glanced off translucent armor like panes
of glass. No, not glass but scales! Many transparent scales! The
dragons seemed coated with this clear shield, and the light bounced
off the scales to scatter in every direction, breaking apart.

The
dragons kept flying, and their dragonfire crashed into the
bonedrakes.

Domi
blew her own dragonfire.

The
bonedrakes screeched in the inferno but did not burn. Their bones
thinned in the heat but did not crumble. The undead beasts burst out
from the flames and shone their light again. Again the beams crashed
against the invisible scales the dragons wore.

"Fly
back, Quilty!" Cade cried. "We'll take care of them."

"Don't
call me that, Goldy!"

The
golden dragon flew high, turned in the sky, and plunged down toward a
firedrake. Before he could hit the skeletal creature, Cade became a
human again and thrust down a sharpened stick. The spear glanced off
the bonedrake's spine, slid between its ribs, and pierced its heart
of light.

The
light exploded, shattering bones and sending ribs flying out. The
bone fragments crashed down toward the mountains.

Across
the battle, the other dragons were doing the same. They all landed
onto bonedrakes, returned to human forms, stabbed the luminous hearts
with spears, then flew again. They darted from bonedrake to
bonedrake, and the beams of light kept bouncing off their glassy
armor.

"Gemini,
your lance!" Domi shouted.

"Let
the others take care of it!" Gemini shouted back.

"Your
lance or I'm going to burn you!"

Domi
growled and shot forward. She wore none of that magical
armor--whatever it was made of--but she would not shy away from a
fight. She roared as she shot toward a bonedrake, skirting its beam
of light. A second before she could crash into the beast, Domi
swerved to fly past it.

"Your
lance!" she shouted.

From
her saddle, Gemini thrust the weapon.

The
lance drove between the bonedrake's ribs and into its glowing heart.
Domi soared as the light exploded, scattering bones.

All
across the sky, more hearts burst and more bones crashed down toward
the mountains.

Finally
the sky was cleared. All the bonedrakes lay below upon the snowy
mountaintops as piles of bones.

The
dragons spiraled downward, landed on a snowy peak, and returned to
human forms, and Domi knew nothing but embraces, tears, laughter,
joy, and family.

"I'm
here," she whispered. "I'm finally here."

They
took turns pulling her into their arms, nearly crushing her,
laughing, weeping, speaking of their love. Domi lowered her head and
wept to hear of Roen's passing, and she hugged her family again, and
their warmth and love filled her. She knew that for the rest of her
life she would remember this moment--a reunion, a gathering, all the
Vir Requis in the world gathered in their ancient homeland for the
first time.

"We
stand on the old holy ground of Requiem," Domi whispered. "All
of us. For this moment, here on this mountain, Requiem lives."

Then
she laughed as Fidelity tugged her back into an embrace, and they all
fell into the snow, gazed up at the sky, and for a brief morning they
knew peace, and they knew joy.

"Thank
the stars you're here, Domi," Cade whispered, lying at her side.
He kissed her cheek. "I was so worried."

She
held him, resting her head against his shoulder. "Sweet little
Goldy." Tears stung her eyes, and she remembered making love to
him so long ago--only months ago, yet it felt like the passage of
eras. "You always worry too much." She squeezed his hand.
"I was worried too. I love you, Goldy. You know that, right?"

Cade
squeezed her hand back. "I love you too, Quilty. Always."

As
she lay in the snow, her sister to one side and Cade to the other,
Domi turned her head, and she saw that Gemini stood apart from the
others. The young paladin, unable to become a dragon, was clenching
his fists, and his eyes burned with rage, jealousy, hatred.

"Gemini?"
Domi said. "Gemini, we found them! We're together now. We can
fight together now. Gemini?"

The
outcast paladin said nothing. He turned away and walked a few paces
down the mountain. He stood staring south, and when he finally turned
back, his eyes were red, and his lips trembled.

"Enough
of this," Gemini said, and his voice cracked. "I didn't fly
here to see this. We are together now, and we must fly. Fly to war.
To crush the bonedrakes around the Temple." His fists shook. "I
have no family waiting for me, no family to embrace me or cry for
me." He smiled a cruel, twisted smile. "But I will see my
family again . . . and I will kill them."

Domi
approached him slowly. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let
us be your family," she whispered.

Gemini
snorted and shoved her hand away. "I don't need your pity.
Remember this, Domi." He raised his voice to a shout. "Remember
this all of you! I am your lord! I will rule the Temple, and only by
my grace will you have a kingdom. Now shift, fly! I order you!"
He laughed bitterly even as tears flowed down his cheeks. "The
time for hiding has ended. It's time to fly to the capital and to
blow our dragonfire."

 
 
KORVIN

As
the others huddled in the cellar, drawing up their plans of attack on
the Cured Temple, Korvin stood outside upon the snowy mountaintop and
stared south.

They
each had their own reasons to fight, Korvin knew. Fidelity fought for
her dream of rebuilding Requiem, the legendary land she had spent her
life reading about, dreaming about, and she fought for Roen, for the
memory of her fallen beloved. Domi fought for her years of pain, a
firedrake enslaved in the Temple, beaten and whipped and spurred.
Cade fought for revenge, the death of his stepparents still burning
inside him, and for a chance to save Eliana, the babe kidnapped and
imprisoned in those marble halls. Amity too fought for revenge--for
the death of her parents, for the death of her army, countless lives
lost in the Horde.

And
what do I fight for?
Korvin thought as the snowy wind whipped his
cloak.

He
stared across the mountains. Between the two remaining columns of
Draco Murus, he could see leagues of snowy peaks and valleys beneath
a cloudy sky. Beyond that horizon, only a day and night's flight
away, rose the Cured Temple. And within that crystal palace she
waited.

"Beatrix,"
he whispered.

Staring
into the flurries, Korvin remembered that summer. It had been almost
thirty years ago, but it still seemed so recent to Korvin. He could
recall every detail with a clarity so real he seemed to relive it.
Once more, he was a young soldier, not much more than a boy, and she
was a bright-eyed priestess. Once more, he was saving her from the
mob, suffering their stones against his armor. Once more, he spent a
dizzying summer with Beatrix--walking with her through the gardens,
making love to her in the night, whispering of their dreams.