A Birthright of Blood (The Dragon War, Book 2) (23 page)

"Stay with me, Rune,"
she whispered and turned to look at him; he stood at her left. "We
will roar our fire together. We will defeat them."

She grabbed his hand too and
squeezed it. He stared into the northern darkness. He nodded.

"I will fly with you."

Kaelyn took a deep breath,
raised her head, and stared into the shadows. She held their
hands—the two men in her life, the two men she thought she'd always
be torn between.

Valien—the man who'd saved her
from her father, who protected her, who fought for her through blood
and rain and fire. Valien—the gruff, weathered knight whose soul
was torn, whose soul she had vowed to mend. She looked at him—tall,
burly in his armor, his hair wild and grizzled. And she loved him.
She loved him more than she'd ever loved another. Once she had
thought him like a father to her, but now… now she loved him not as
a daughter, but as a woman.

She looked to her left. Rune.
The boy she had saved. The boy she had watched grow into a warrior.
He was two decades younger than Valien, and less pain filled his
eyes, and far more rage and fire. Scruff covered his cheeks now, and
his body had grown hard with training. He stood clad in leather and
wool, his sword upon his back. Once Kaelyn had thought him a foolish
boy, then a figurehead, then a king of legend. But now, looking upon
him, she did not see those things. She saw a friend. She saw a soul
she loved. She saw the young man she had kissed that night, the man
in whose arms she had slept.

And
I love you too, Rune,
she thought, looking at him.
I
love you as much as I love anyone. I will fight with you to victory
or death.

She
placed her hand upon a cannon and watched the northern forest. A red
glow rose from the horizon like a dawn of fire. She couldn't see the
Legions yet—standing upon the walls, close to the surface of the
earth, the horizon only lay a dozen miles away. But she knew that
glow. That was dragonfire. They flew beyond the horizon and they
would soon emerge like a cruel sun.

They
will be here within the hour,
Kaelyn thought and sucked in her breath.

Shouts and roars rose from the
east.

Alarm bells clanged.

Kaelyn's heart burst into a
gallop.

The
alarm. We're under attack! But how?

She shifted into a dragon. She
soared and filled her maw with fire. At her sides, Valien and Rune
rose as dragons too, snarling and leaking fire.

When Kaelyn looked east, she saw
them there, and the breath left her lungs.

A league away from Lynport, a
thousand dragons were flying along the beach, roaring and blowing
fire.

"The vanguard," Kaelyn
whispered, her belly twisting.

She
understood at once.
Of
course.
These thousand dragons, brazen legionaries, had traveled the forest
as humans, hidden under the canopy, and only now emerged.

"Resistance, shift!"
Kaelyn shouted, beat her wings, and rose higher. "Follow!"

She growled, narrowed her eyes,
and shot eastward across the houses. The enemy hadn't reached the
city yet, but they were moving fast along the shore. They flew only
a moment away.

Damn
my father,
Kaelyn
thought as she flew.
He knew we'd see his army from a distance. He knew we'd be watching
the north. And his elite warriors sneaked up from the eastern trees.

She roared and shot forward,
wreathed in flame, ready for battle. She streamed over the last few
houses, her fellow dragons at her sides, and dived along the shore.
The horde approached.

Kaelyn was about to blow fire…
when she gasped.

This
is wrong.

The thousand dragons did not fly
in formation, but in a confused mass. Only a handful wore armor, and
even that steel was muddy and dented. They bore no red spirals.

These
are not legionaries,
Kaelyn realized and gasped.

The dragon at their lead, a
young red beast, blasted fire and shouted out.

"Hello, sister!"

Kaelyn spat her flames onto the
shore below.

"Stars damn it!" she
said, turned her head around, and shouted at her warriors, hundreds
of dragons who flew behind her. "Hold your dragonfire! Do not
attack." She sighed. "It's my idiot of a brother."

The thousand dragons ahead
halted and hovered in midair, wings whipping the sand and water
below. Leresy gave her a crooked, toothy grin.

"You've got to be an idiot
to fight here today," the red dragon said. "Burn me, Kae,
did you know that about a million legionaries are flying your way?"

"I had an idea," she
grumbled, hovering before him, her wings blasting him with air.
"So… these are the famous Leresy's Lechers. I've heard of
your new band of outlaws." She sniffed and wrinkled her snout.
"By the stars, you lot stink."

Leresy sniffed beneath his wing
and winced. "Aye, we're a salty bunch. What is the old saying?
True men stink of oil, soil, and other toil. Villains smell of
roses."

"What are you doing here?"
Kaelyn demanded. Valien, Rune, and her other dragons hovered behind
her, hissing at the beasts ahead.

Her brother twisted his scaly
brow into an expression of surprise. "What do you think? I'm
here to join the fun. I'm not letting you kill Father without me. I
intend to roast his scaly arse myself. And looking at you lot, you
could use some help."

At her side, Rune blasted flame.
"I say we kill them here on the beach. Slay two villains in
one day."

Leresy looked at the young black
dragon. "Well well, and this must be the pup who styles himself
the heir of Aeternum. Quite a temper you've got, boy. But can you
back it up with fire? Fly to me; let's see."

Rune growled and made to charge,
but Kaelyn darted forward, slamming him back.

"Enough!" she howled.
"Leresy, we don't have an hour before Father arrives. With
me—to the walls. We'll talk there. Now!" She spun toward
Rune and the others. "Let him through. He won't cause trouble.
If he does, I'll kill him myself."

They flew back to town.

Soon Leresy stood upon the city
wall in human form, gazed north at the gathering storm, and spat.

"Burn me," he said.
"Father is mad at you this time, Kae."

His Lechers stood in a courtyard
below, also in human forms—a thousand sweaty, bearded men clad in
motley patches of armor and leather. Their shields and sleeves bore
their sigil, a black dog. Their stench wafted even to the top of the
wall, where Kaelyn stood glaring at her twin.

"Leresy," she said,
"this isn't one of your Counter Squares games. You don't know
what you're getting into." She stared at a scar that ran down
his cheek. "Is that the scar I gave you?"

He shrugged. "Father's
given me worse. Now it's time to kill him. You and me. Together."
He sketched a theatrical bow. "I have officially changed
sides."

She grabbed and twisted his
collar. "Leresy! You will die here. You don't know how to
fight."

He snickered. "And you do,
Kae? Look at you." He swept his arms across the walls and
courtyards. "You have… what, fifteen thousand warriors here?"

She sighed. "Nine
thousand," she confessed.

"Bloody shite. Well, ten
thousand now with the Lechers." He pried her hands off his
collar. "Sister, you need me. Let me help you."

He stared at her, his eyes
earnest, and Kaelyn felt her chest deflate.

"Leresy, you are a
bastard."

"That's what you need
here—not righteous, noble warriors of light, but a right bastard
like me and the Lechers." He winked. "We fight dirty."

She stared at the mud caking his
clothes. "I'm sure you do… in more ways than one."

Rune stomped up toward them,
glaring and gripping his sword.

"I've
heard enough," the young heir said. "Merciful stars,
Kaelyn. He's a
Cadigus
.
He's a prince of the empire. We're here to kill Cadiguses, not
fight alongside them."

As Rune talked, Leresy held up
his hand, moving his fingers like a chattering puppet.

"In case you haven't
noticed, boy," Leresy said, "you've been fighting alongside
one Cadigus for a while now. Granted, she's got nicer teats than I
do, but you'll find my sword just as sharp."

Rune glowered at the outcast
prince. "I trust Kaelyn. She is brave and wise and loyal. I
don't trust you. This is all some scheme of yours to… to take the
throne for yourself! I see your ambitions, Cadigus. This is no
game."

"Oh, but it is a game,"
Leresy said and grinned. "And you need my pieces."

"Like a pig needs more
slop!"

Kaelyn
watched the two argue and sighed. Though she hated to admit it, both
Rune and her brother were right. She couldn't trust Leresy, and most
likely, this
was
some plot of his—he would attempt to slay their father in battle and
seize the throne. And yet, Leresy was right too. She did need his
men.

Rune grabbed her arm and glared.

"Kaelyn!" he
whispered. "You can't be considering this. We can't trust him.
They say he…" His voice dropped. "They say he captures
women in the capital, murders their families, and rapes them. They
say he uses them for a night, then tosses their corpses into the
garden."

Leresy overheard and grinned.

"Oh, they still tell those
stories, do they?" he said. "Excellent! It's all rubbish,
of course. Never did anything of the sort. I spread the rumors
myself." He hid his mouth and whispered theatrically. "It's
good for the old reputation."

Kaelyn looked at her twin—her
poor, haunted, miserable brother, whose quips masked pain she could
never understand. She looked at Rune who was still fuming. She
looked over at Valien, who stood by a cannon, staring north and
ignoring them.

She
whispered to herself, "The
wise work with small devils to slay the big ones."

She had spoken those words to
Rune last year about Beras the Brute. They still rang true. She
nodded, stepped forward, and meant to shake her brother's hand… yet
she found herself embracing him.

"You poor, miserable fool,"
she whispered to her twin. "You know we'll both probably die
here, don't you?"

He snorted a laugh. "Death's
not that bad. So long as we take the old man down with us."

Tears burned in Kaelyn's eyes.
The memories pounded through her: her father's hands reaching under
the bed, grabbing her, pulling her out, holding her down, beating and
whipping and burning her.

Please,
Father!
Leresy would cry.
Please.
Don't hurt her. Hurt me instead. It was I who broke the toy.
Please, don't hurt Kaelyn.

She closed her eyes.

And their father had obeyed.
Their father had beaten Leresy until he blacked out in a pool of
blood.

All
to save me… all to save his sister.

She blinked tears away and
touched her twin's scarred cheek.

"Thank you, my brother,"
she whispered. "Welcome home."

She returned her eyes north and
stared. Her brother, her companions, and all her soldiers stared
with her.

In the night, the horizon burned
as if the forest blazed. Distant shrieks rolled like thunder. Yet
what flew toward them, just beyond the horizon, was crueler than
forest fire or storm.

Death itself flew ahead.

Rain began to fall, pattering
against helmets, cannons, and battlements. It soaked Kaelyn's
clothes and steamed over the blazing horizon, rising as clouds.

Standing upon the wall, Kaelyn
looked at her brother. She looked at Rune and Valien. She gripped
her sword and sucked in her breath.

"With rain and fire,"
she whispered, "it begins."

 
 
RUNE

He stood upon the wall, staring
north at the encroaching wave of shadow and fire.

They
will be here in moments.

He swallowed and gripped his
sword. He did not know if he'd live today. But if today was his
death, he would die upon the walls of his home, his friends at his
sides.

"That's not a bad way to
die," he whispered.

I
only wish I got to see you again, Tilla,
he thought.
Do
you fly here too? I only wish I got to hold you one last time,
Scraggles. Do you run through starry meadows in the night sky?

As if to answer his thoughts,
barking rose behind him.

Rune spun around, stared down at
the courtyard, and gasped.

His eyes widened.

His heart leaped.

"Scraggles?" he
whispered. "You're… alive?"

The black mutt stood below,
barking up at him. His tail stood out straight; he was confused, not
sure if his master truly stood above.

"Scraggles!" Rune
shouted.

He had a few moments. Stars
damn it, he had time enough! He shifted into a dragon. He leaped
off the wall, glided, shifted back into human form, and landed before
his dog.

Scraggles leaped back, eyes
widening. He stared, standing still, as if struggling to believe
Rune truly stood before him.

"Scrags," Rune
whispered, and his eyes dampened. "It's me! You remember me,
right?"

He
reached out to pet Scraggles, but the dog took a step back, eyes
still wide, tail still straight, still unsure. His eyes seemed to
say:
It
looks like you, but how can this be? How can you be here?

Rune laughed. "It's me,
Scrags. I've come back."

The dog leaped.

He crashed against Rune, all one
hundred furry pounds of him. His tail wagged furiously and his
tongue lapped at Rune's face. Rune laughed, fell down, and the dog
jumped onto him, squirming and leaping and licking him.