A Dawn of Dragonfire

ELETHOR



The Starlit Demon rose before him from the shadow.

A beast of stone, it rose two hundred feet tall, nearly as tall as the cavern that held it. Fissures ran across its bulky form, leaking starlight. Its teeth were white boulders, its eyes swirling pools of starlight. Its body shook and clanked as it grumbled, a sound that shook the chamber.

Elethor and Lyana stood upon the pillar of stone, still in human forms. Holding hands, they gazed upon the rising beast.

"Demon of Starlight!" Elethor cried. "I am Elethor, Son of Olasar, King of Requiem! I come to free you from your lair and call upon your help."

The Starlit Demon's head thrust forward, as large as Elethor's house in Nova Vita. Its mouth cracked open, a canyon in rock, and it rumbled with a voice like cascading boulders. The chamber shook with it.

"I serve no king… return to your sunlight… and let me sleep."

The behemoth of stone began descending into the shadows again, a mountain sinking into night. Its eyes began to close, leaving but glowing slits like crescent moons. A ridge of boulders rose down its back like a spine, creaking and shifting.

Elethor tightened his jaw. After all this—walking through the Abyss itself—would this creature refuse to help them? Floaters of light filled his eyes. His breath shook in his lungs. Lyana's hand tightened around his, squeezing it like a drowning woman.

"You will not sleep!" Elethor called to the demon. "Wake, Starlit Demon, and serve those you are bound to! You served my forefathers. You are still sworn to my house. Rise and serve Requiem, the kingdom your stars shine upon."

The demon raised its great head again. Dust and pebbles rained from its body. Its eyes opened again, blazing so bright Elethor snarled and looked aside, his own eyes narrowing.

"Sworn to your house!" the demon bellowed, voice echoing across the cavern, its waves thudding against Elethor's chest. "Your fathers imprisoned me here. Your fathers stripped me of fire to feast on." A growl left its maw, so powerful Elethor swayed and nearly fell. "Leave this place, lest I feed upon your flesh instead."

Clutching Elethor's hand, Lyana raised her chin and shouted to the beast.

"If it's fire you crave, we will feed you fire!" Her cheeks flushed and her eyes blazed. "Are you hungry, Starlit Demon? For years you slumbered here, and your light is dim. Will fire fill your belly?"

The Starlit Demon turned its head so quickly, its tail of stone lashed and hit a wall. A crack ran along the chamber, showering stones. The beast roared, baring its teeth. Its gullet blazed like swirling, molten stars.

"I have craved fire for longer than your mind can grasp," it said. "For two thousand turns of your seasons, I slumbered here, craving heat and flame to devour. The hunger in my belly is a forge you cannot fill."

Elethor and Lyana looked at one another and nodded. They shifted as one, flapped their wings, and rose as dragons. The Starlit Demon roared before them, maw open so wide, Elethor knew it could swallow even his dragon form.

"Here is a taste of the fire you crave!" Elethor shouted and blew his flames.

The stream of fire roared toward the Starlit Demon, and for an instant, fear filled Elethor. What if his fire burned the beast? What if it attacked them? But the Starlit Demon opened its maw wider, swallowing the flames. Lyana blew fire too, and the demon feasted.

The dragons let their flames die. The Starlit Demon roared.

"Is that all the fire you can kindle?" It made a deep sound like laughter, body shaking. "All the dragons of Requiem would not fill my belly. Ten thousand blew their fire upon me, but I knew no fill."

"If you follow us, we will grant you more fire!" Elethor shouted.

The demon's laughter deepened, cruel laughter that made the chamber shake. The pillar of stone upon which Elethor and Lyana had stood crumbled and fell. Cracks raced across the Starlit Demon's stone body, emitting beams of light.

"The armies of your fathers blew flames from their mouths into mine, but my craving was stronger." The Starlit Demon glared at Elethor, drenching him with light. "And so I toppled their halls, and feasted upon their children. Your kings were not pleased. How will you feed me when your fathers could not?"

Elethor hovered before the beast, his wings blowing rocks and dust off its body.

"I will not feed you dragonfire. I will feed you sunfire itself. Ten thousand phoenixes fly over Requiem, and each is woven from the Sun God's flame. Emerge from your lair, Starlit Demon! Follow me to Requiem, and you will feast."

The Starlit Demon rose, filling the chamber with its girth. Its claws emerged from the darkness below, raining earth; each seemed carved of flint, larger than a horse. It tossed back its head and roared, and the sound crashed against the chamber walls, cracking them. Lyana screamed in pain; the demon's howl knocked her back in the air. Elethor grimaced. He felt like that roar could crush his scales and snap his ribs.

"Will you follow, Starlit Demon?" he cried. "Will you fly to Requiem and feast upon the phoenix fire?"

The demon leaped.

The chamber seemed to explode.

A fountain of stone and light, the Starlit Demon crashed into the ceiling, claws digging, maw biting. Boulders cascaded. Dust filled the air, blinding Elethor. He flew backward until his back hit a wall. He saw nothing but raining rock, clouds of dust, and beams of starlight.

"Lyana!" he shouted.

He could not see nor hear her. A boulder fell before him, grazing his tail. Elethor flattened himself against the wall. Rocks pummeled him. He tried to call for Lyana again, but dust and rocks filled his mouth.

The starlight dimmed, and Elethor managed to blow fire, lighting the darkness. Through the storm of debris, he discerned the Starlit Demon burrowing into a hole in the ceiling, tail lashing. Soon the beast disappeared into the tunnel it dug, driving upward like a great earthworm.

"Elethor!" came a cry from across the chamber, and Lyana flew toward him. Dust coated her blue scales, turning her gray. With three great flaps of her wings, she soared toward the hole in the ceiling. "Come on, Elethor, we follow!"

With that, she soared into the hole above, following the Starlit Demon. Heart hammering, Elethor pushed himself off the wall. Dust and rocks rained against his wings as he flapped them, but he gritted his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and forced himself to fly. The tunnel gaped above him, fifty feet wide. He saw Lyana's tail swish above and he followed.

Tunnel walls blurred at his sides. The light of the Starlit Demon fell in rays. Dirt and rocks cascaded, clanking against his scales.

He flew for what seemed like leagues. The Starlit Demon burrowed and roared, crashing through the stone and dirt. Elethor growled, slipstreaming in the beast's wake. If he swerved to the right or left, boulders would tumble against him, denting scales. Lyana flew above him, drafting behind the demon's tail. The behemoth dwarfed the two dragons, ten times their size.

The demon cut through the Abyss. The tunnel drove through craggy chambers, revealing the horrors of the underworld: nests of squirming eggs, rotten children coiled inside them; bloated worms, six feet long and bearing human faces; bodies that rotted, squirming with insects, yet still screamed in pain. But soon the tunnel grew colder, and Elethor saw bones, rocks, soil, and the buried ruins of old cities.

We are leaving the Abyss, he thought. We are leaving this unholy underworld and entering the crust of the world.

He exhaled a shaky breath of relief, and his eyes stung. How long would nightmares of this place haunt him? At once he knew the answer: for the rest of his life. He would not forget the sight of Nedath, a dead girl atop the body of a centipede. In the dark he would always see Lyana wrapped in cobwebs, turning into a shriveled creature. Every night, he knew that he would dream of the bodies upon the hooks, undying beasts that fed upon their own flesh.

He looked at Lyana, who flew above him, and his heart seemed so small, so cold, wrapped in ice.

Nobody else will ever know, he thought. Only Lyana and I. We'll never be able to speak of what we saw… not to anyone above ground, maybe not even to each other. He could barely see; his eyes blurred with tears. But we still have each other. Lyana is saved… and I will always be with her, to hold her in the darkness when our nightmares swell.

The thought of Lyana made his chest feel a little warmer. She kept the terror at bay. Elethor nodded as he flew, eyes damp. We will live in peace again, together—we will save our people, we will stargaze on Lacrimosa Hill, and we will leave this darkness behind us. She and I.

All his life, Lyana had been a thorn in his side, the sanctimonious girl who'd endlessly scold and lecture him. But today as he flew, he saw above him a strong, wise woman… a woman he wanted to spend his life with. A woman, he knew, that he could learn to love.

The Starlit Demon burrowed for what seemed like hours, roaring in the dark, until it crashed through a slab of stone, and screams rose above.

Elethor gasped.

As he shot up, he saw burrows running alongside the tunnel the Starlit Demon carved. His people—thin, bloodied Vir Requis—cowered there like ants underground. They covered their eyes in the demon's starlight and cried.

An instant later, the Starlit Demon crashed through the topsoil and shot into the night sky, a geyser bursting into the world. An army of phoenixes burned above, screeching and flapping wings of fire. The world spun. The sound deafened Elethor. Boulders cascaded and the tunnels began to crumble. Several Vir Requis fell into the darkness, tumbling past Elethor. They shifted into dragons below him, howled, and flew behind him.

"Elethor!" Lyana cried above. She soared out of the tunnel and into the night, crashing into the army of phoenixes.

Elethor howled and shot into the night. The phoenixes swooped. Dragons flew up below him. Vir Requis still in human forms ran deeper into tunnels. Sound and light crashed.