A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) (16 page)

"Stand straight, men!"
she barked. "You're slouching again. Commander Shari will
descend soon, and if she sees you hunched over, she will flay your
hides."

They straightened like blades,
chins raised.

"Yes, Commander!" they
said.

Tilla inspected them, eyes
narrowed. Despite the horror pounding through her, she still
outranked these men. She nodded and kept walking, shoving Rune
before her. He limped and stumbled, his blood dripping.

"Move, worm!" she
shouted at him.

The courtyard seemed miles long.
Walls and towers rose around her; screams rose with them. She kept
walking, shoving Rune forward. Step by step. Past more cells. Past
more towers. Past more guards who marched, armor clanking, whips in
hands.

"Move!" she screamed
at Rune as five guards marched by. "Move, maggot, or I swear, I
will break every segment in your spine. Move, scum!"

She kept shoving him, and the
guards marched by.

Oh
stars, they will find Shari soon. They will shout. They will
descend upon us.

She walked. Step by step. Drop
by drop of blood.

It seemed hours before she
reached the Citadel's gates. More guards stood here, their black
helms spiked, their hands clutching swords.

"I'm taking this one to
Tarath Imperium," she told them and forced herself to snicker.
"The emperor wants to see his blood. I will return him
tonight."

She sucked in her breath. The
guards stared at her silently. Tilla nearly fainted and her heart
pounded. Surely they sensed the ruse. Surely they would capture
her, capture Rune again, torture them both, and—

"Yes, Lanse," the
chief guard finally said. He drew a scroll from his belt—it held
the names of all prisoners who came and went—and made a marking.
"Hail the red spiral!"

She shakily returned the salute.

The guards opened the gates...
and Tilla and Rune stepped out into the city streets.

Snow fell around them. The
houses rose alongside. The city seemed strangely beautiful to
her—the snowy roofs, the trees glimmering with icicles, the small
sun behind the clouds... On any other day, she would marvel at this
beauty.

She turned toward Rune. He
stood looking at the snow too. He stood on his own now, frail and
burnt, but he inhaled deeply. He smiled and tugged his bindings,
freeing his bloodied wrists.

"I'll carry you in my claws
now," Tilla said. "But once we're outside the city, we'll
fly together. Side by side. Like we used to."

She shifted into a dragon. She
beat her wings, scattering snow off the cobblestones, and rose
several feet into the air. She reached down and scooped Rune up into
her claws.

She flew.

The city spread beneath them,
countless houses and streets, statues and forts, ponds and parks, a
million souls who knew none of her pain. Tarath Imperium, palace of
the emperor, rose in its center, a thousand feet tall, the heart of
the empire. Once Tilla had dreamed of serving in that palace. Once
she had stood below it, shouting for the spiral, worshiping the
tower's might.

Today she flew away.

She flew south.

She flew across Nova Vita, over
the city walls, and above a frosted forest.

She flew into the wilderness,
Rune in her grip, and her heart shook and she could barely breathe.

 
 
VALIEN

Sunset gilded the land when he
beheld the shores of Requiem.

He had been flying all day. His
ruined throat wheezed, his lungs burned, and his wings shot agony
through him with every stroke. The scars on his body blazed as if
freshly cut. He was too old, too wounded, too haunted for these long
flights and so many battles, and yet he flew on.

His army flew around him, a
thousand dragons. Each beast bore several riders, a mix of Tiran
arquebusers and Vir Requis in human forms. They had been flying for
three days over the sea. Every few hours, they swapped—one Vir
Requis rider would leap from the saddle, shift into a dragon, and
take the load, allowing the exhausted flier to resume human form and
ride. They slept in the saddle. They kept flying northwest. Three
days and three nights of water.

And finally the shores of
Requiem emerged.

The coast stretched ahead, a
mere hint upon the horizon. All around Valien, dragons chanted for
home. They sang the old songs of the forest. They cried for
starlight and birch leaves and marble columns. They sang for
Requiem, but Valien only lowered his head.

No. This was not Requiem ahead.
This was not Aeternum's kingdom. They flew now toward the shore of
another realm, a fallen land once named Osanna, an ancient kingdom
Frey had burned. Valien had spent years hiding in these ruins with
the Resistance. He had seen thousands of Osanna's burnt skeletons
littering the ash. Frey had annexed his conquest years ago, and
today his banners flew here too, but no—this was not home, no more
than the ruins of Tiranor were.

"We will free Osanna too,"
Valien said as he flew over the water. "We will liberate this
fallen land for the memory of her people." He raised his voice
to a howl. "Children of Requiem! Every Vir Requis—take dragon
form. Every Tiran—load your guns. Scope bearers—ready your
beams."

As the coast drew nearer, his
army formed ranks.

All Vir Requis in human form
leaped from saddles, shifted into dragons, and howled. Jets of fire
lit the twilight. Soon three thousand dragons roared, flying in four
units. Upon their backs rode Tiran arquebusers. They streamed over
the water, chanting for victory. Valien roared with them, hoarse but
pealing his cry across the sea.

"Death to Cadigus!
Dragons—fan out!"

Their four formations spread
side to side. Ahead of each flew a scope bearer—a Tiran rider
clutching a cylinder full of Genesis Shards.

Valien led one group, and upon
his back rode Sila; the gruff captain held one of the scopes. Kaelyn
and Erry each led another group, scope bearers upon their backs.
Leresy held the fourth scope in his own claws; the prince had refused
to let anyone ride him.

Only
four scopes,
Valien thought with a grumble. Even with a hundred, fear would have
filled him today. They had tried dividing the shards into smaller
batches, but found the magic too weak, and so with four scopes they
flew, and fear filled his belly.

He looked across his army.
Three thousand dragons. Two thousand riders. Four scopes. It
wasn't enough. Even with the Genesis Shards and the arquebuses,
superior weapons, it wasn't enough. Not against half a million
legionaries, howling for blood and firing cannons.

We
must fly to Nova Vita without rest,
he thought and snarled.
We
must engage no enemies along the way. We must storm the palace and
slay Frey, fast and deadly as an arrow shot from shadow.

He roared. The coast loomed
only ten miles away. There would be a small patrol; the Legions
patrolled every mile of this beach.

"Slay every legionary you
see!" Valien called out. "Let none flee to bear news."

They streamed toward the shore.
The sun sank below the horizon. The sea vanished into shadows.

From ahead upon the shore,
thousands of flaming pillars blazed skyward.

Roars pounded across the sky.

"Hail the red spiral! Hail
Frey Cadigus!"

Valien felt as if a hammer
slammed against him.

By
the Abyss...

The horizon blazed. Fire
streamed like a storm of comets, like an erupting volcano, like the
Abyss risen into the world. Shadows broke apart from the distant
shore, rising like demonic crows from a rotten tree. Ten thousand
dragons ascended from fire, shadow, and smoke, shrieked to the sky,
and streamed across the sea.

He
knew,
Valien thought, for a moment unable to breathe, barely able to flap
his wings.
Frey
knew we were coming.

Around him, his fellow dragons
cursed and roared. They glanced around. They blasted flame in a
confused array.

"Damn it, Valien, you said
these coasts weren't guarded!" Leresy shouted somewhere in the
distance.

Valien growled and snapped his
teeth. He beat his wings mightily, rising higher in the night. The
sea streamed below him. The beasts raced ahead.

"Dragons of Requiem!"
he howled. "Show the enemy no mercy. Fly! Meet them head-on.
For Requiem!"

Upon their backs, the Tirans
blew their war horns. The cries trumpeted across the sea. The
dragons of the Resistance answered the call, roaring their own battle
cries, wordless howls of rage. Ahead, the Legions streamed across
the miles—five miles away, then four, then three—bellowing and
hailing the spiral.

"Scope bearers!"
Valien shouted. "Ready your weapons!"

The armies streamed closer.
Three thousand dragons of the Resistance. Ten thousand legionaries,
a cloud of flame and shadow.

"Hold!" Valien howled.

They flew, howling. Three
miles. Two.

"Ready
your scopes!
Hold!
"

The Legions howled and laughed
ahead. Their flames crackled, lighting the sea below. The dragons
of the Resistance growled and snarled. Not a gun or flaming jet
fired.

"Hold!"

Two miles.

One.

"Slay them all!"
roared the Legions.

"Break their spines!"

"Feast upon their flesh!"

"Hail the red spiral!"

Valien gritted his teeth, sucked
in his breath, and reared in the air.

"Scope bearers—fire!"

At his side, Kaelyn's rider
unscrewed a scope first. The red light blazed out in the night, a
beam piercing the shadows, an explosion as bright and furious as
dragonfire. A heartbeat later, beams blasted out from Erry and
Leresy, humming and slamming forward. Upon Valien's own back, Sila
howled and his beam shone, nearly blinding Valien, stretching over
his head to crash into the imperial dragons ahead.

The Genesis Beams hit the
Legions with the fury of ten thousand cannonballs.

Where the red light struck,
dragons vanished. Men and women tumbled, screaming, to crash into
the sea below.

Valien howled.
"Resistance—dragonfire!"

He blasted his flames. They
rained onto the falling legionaries, burning them as they fell. The
troops tumbled, blazing comets, to slam into the water. Around
Valien, thousands of dragons roared their fire.

The legionaries screamed. They
fell. They died. The beams ripped through them like great, glowing
blades. Hundreds tumbled into the water.

"Slay them all!"
Valien roared. "Show them no mercy. Leave none alive!"

The two armies crashed together.

Valien barreled through a swarm.
Legionaries flew everywhere, a dark horde, their armor bladed, their
fire raging.

"Sila, cut them down!"
Valien said.

Upon his back, the captain spun
his beam, clearing a path. All around, the legionaries fell. Any
who flew near met the beam, lost his magic, and crashed down in human
form.

"Break their lines!"
Leresy shouted somewhere in the distance, laughing.

The battle descended into chaos.
Legionaries flew at all sides, mingling with resistors. Beams shot
every which way. Fire blazed. Arquebuses fired. The air exploded
into a storm of gunpowder, flame, and light.

"Scope bearers, fan out!"
Valien roared. "Leresy! Erry! Fly to the east. Kaelyn, take
the south. Surround our forces!"

He cursed, trying to find them.
Their formations were falling apart. A phalanx of legionaries flew
toward him, roaring fire. The flames blasted Valien's belly and he
yowled.

"Sila!"

The captain's beam fell upon the
enemy. They fell. Valien bathed their tumbling human bodies with
fire.

"Scope bearers, surround
our forces! Hold the enemy back."

He whipped his head from side to
side, seeking them. He howled curses. They had drilled for this.
On order, the four scope bearers were to surround their army, forming
four pillars of defense, cutting down the enemy while allowing their
comrades to blow fire from within the shield. Yet now they flew in
disarray.

"Leresy, damn it, take the
east!" Valien roared.

The red dragon was crashing into
the enemy above, laughing madly, clutching a scope in his claws. He
spun it around every which way. Behind him, legionaries—still in
dragon form—were crashing into resistors, tearing them down.

"Leresy, damn you!"
Valien roared.

The red dragon blazed his beam
upward. When humans tumbled down, he caught them in his jaws, bit
their bodies apart, and spat out the pieces.

"Valien!" the young
prince shouted, laughing, blood on his teeth. "We will slay
him. We will slay my father!"

Valien blasted fire. "Leresy,
behind you—"

Ten imperial dragons swooped
from above. Their claws reached out. They crashed into the prince.

Leresy yowled, a high-pitched
sound, and reared. His beam shot out wildly, whipping from side to
side. A legionary bit into the prince's back. Leresy's claws
opened, and the scope tumbled from his grasp.

"Damn it, Leresy!"
Valien said. He shot forward and reached out, trying to grab the
scope.

The cylinder spun wildly as it
fell, shining light every which way. The beam blazed against Valien.

Like a sword pulled from his
back, his magic vanished.

Valien tumbled through the sky,
a human. Above him, Sila tumbled too, torn free from the saddle, his
beam still shining.

The water raced up toward them.

Valien roared, swearing to slay
the boy.

An instant before he could slam
into the sea, he emerged from the beam's light. He sucked in his
magic. He shifted back into dragon form.