A Dawn of Dragonfire

ADIA



She stood in the tunnel, comforting a girl whose hands had burned to stumps, when the world collapsed.

The floor cracked, and she watched children fall into the chasm. Boulders fell from the ceiling, crushing people around her. The tunnels shook, dirt rained, and a tower of stone jutted up before her. Great claws, larger than Adia's body, sliced before her. A creature as large as a temple, its eyes blazing beacons, rose before her, leaving ruin and blood in its wake.

As people fell and screamed, Adia thought she glimpsed two dragons—brass and blue—flying after the creature, following it through the tunnel it carved.

The Starlit Demon, she knew. Tears sprang into her eyes. Lyana is alive. My daughter is alive!

As dust flew and stones rolled, Adia clenched her jaw. She wanted to run through the people, shift into a dragon, and fly to Lyana. She forced herself to remain.

This is my station. These are my people to heal.

She moved from one to another, digging them from the rubble. One old man wept, clutching a fractured arm. Beside him a young boy lay, his leg buried under a boulder. How could she heal them all? How could she choose between them—grant death to one, life to the other?

Adia was kneeling over a pregnant woman whose head was bleeding when fire screamed. She looked up and saw phoenixes raining into the chasm the Starlit Demon had left. One phoenix flew to a tunnel that gaped open across the chasm, shifted into Solina, and leaped into a crowd of screaming children. Several other phoenixes swooped toward the tunnel Adia huddled in, shifted into Tiran men with blades and armor, and ran into the throng of survivors.

Adia found herself snarling. The time to hide was over, she realized; they would find no more shelter underground, not with the tunnels collapsing around them. They had to flee. Her heart ached to leave the wounded woman… but Adia left her.

"Vir Requis!" she shouted, running toward the Tirans at the entrance. "Vir Requis, follow! We shift! We fly! To the sky, children of Requiem!"

As she ran, she grabbed a sword from a fallen soldier, drew it, and swung the blade. Around her, living soldiers of Requiem swung their own blades. One Tiran fell into the chasm. Adia ran and barreled into another, shoving him into the darkness.

"Find the sky!" Adia shouted, leaped from tunnel into chasm, and shifted into a dragon.

Wings sprouted from her back with a thud. White scales clanked across her. Fangs sprouted from her mouth. She tossed back her head and howled, blowing blue fire. It had been so long since she had shifted, so long since she had felt air under her wings, flames in her gullet, the magic of starlight in her veins.

Beneath her, the falling Tirans shifted into phoenixes and soared toward her. Behind her, Vir Requis were leaping from the tunnel, shifting into dragons, and soaring. Adia soared with them. She flew up the chasm, following the path of the Starlit Demon, and shot toward a night sky strewn with firebirds. More tunnels gaped open along the chasm's walls, and hundreds of Vir Requis were leaping from them, turning into dragons, and soaring after her.

Adia shot past layers of rock, soil, and frost, and finally burst out from the underground. The ruins of Nova Vita spread below her, walls and columns fallen. Thousands of phoenixes flew above her. Hundreds of dragons soared around her. The Starlit Demon howled in the sky, a great slug of stone that flew with no wings. It crushed phoenixes between its teeth, and its belly bulged with their flame, a furnace in the sky like a sun.

"Rise, dragons of Requiem!" Adia cried. "Into the sky!"

Phoenixes came swooping toward her, crackling and raising sparks. More flew below. If death flowed underground, and death burned above, she would lead her people to die in the sky. The Starlit Demon could not consume all their enemies; its jaws bit many, but too many phoenixes flew. This creature of the underworld would not be their savior.

But maybe, Adia dared to hope… maybe in this chaos, a few dragons could escape. Maybe as the Starlit Demon devoured their enemies, some of her people could flee into the mountains, the forests, the southern swamps.

But I will stay, she thought. I will stay until they are all fled or burned. I will die in the sky of my home under the light of my stars.

Phoenixes dived toward her, lashing their talons. Adia shot between them, soaring through their wings of fire. The flames crackled against her, and she screamed but drove past them. More flew above. Around her, hundreds of dragons were rising.

"Fly to all directions of the wind!" she cried. "Fly to the mountains and forests. Flee into the wilderness, dragons of Requiem!"

Adia saw a group of young dragons, mere children barely old enough to fly, soaring into the air. They wailed, sparks left their throats, and their wings fluttered like the wings of hummingbirds. A crackling phoenix, thrice their size, began swooping toward them. Its howl tore the air and the young dragons wailed.

Narrowing her eyes, Adia surged. She flew straight up, roaring. She shot around the young dragons, spread her wings wide, and raised her front claws. The swooping phoenix crashed against her, and Adia screamed. The flames bathed her scales.

"Fly, children!" she shouted as the phoenix claws tore at her shoulders. "Fly north to the mountains."

She slammed her tail against the phoenix, but it was like clubbing a forest fire. Smoke filled her nostrils and she could barely see. She pulled her wings close, tumbled, and flew again. Welts covered her belly, where she had no scales to protect her. The scales on her back felt like stones in an oven, and lacerations covered her shoulders. She looked around madly, seeking the children, but could not see them, only countless firebirds. Had the young ones escaped?

The phoenix that had attacked her screeched above. It swooped, a comet of spinning fire. Adia closed her eyes, fearing the fire would melt them, and raised her claws. She prayed, ready to die.

A shadow fell upon her. A howl thudded in her ears. When she opened her eyes, Adia saw the Starlit Demon crash into the phoenixes above.

Stars, the size of him, she thought. She was a powerful dragon, her wings wide and her tail long, but beneath the Starlit Demon, she felt like a fish swimming under a ship. Flames crashed around the demon as dozens of phoenixes attacked it, but none could burn it. The creature's appetite knew no bounds; its jaws opened and closed, biting phoenixes like a wolf biting hens.

Blue scales flashed to her left.

A cry pierced the night.

"Mother!"

Adia looked and saw her daughter there. Lyana looked slimmer, the shine of her scales dimmed, but she was alive, she was flying, she was well. Tears filled Adia's eyes. My daughter. My beloved. She wanted to fly toward Lyana, hold her, never let her go again. But she steeled herself.

"Lyana!" she cried. "Lead the southern route!" Behind her daughter's shoulder, she saw a hundred dragons fly into a cloud of phoenixes. Many burned and fell. "Lead them to King's Forest and I will meet you there!"

Lyana looked behind her, saw the phoenixes swoop against the fleeing dragons, and nodded. With a growl, the sapphire dragon flew toward them.

"Dragons of Requiem, follow!" Lyana called. "We fly to the forests!"

Adia looked around her. Hundreds of dragons were fleeing to all directions of the wind. Thousands of phoenixes were swooping upon them or chasing them into the distance. Below, in the collapsed chasm, some Vir Requis still huddled in what shelter remained of the tunnels. The sounds of battle rose from the earth; Tirans and Vir Requis still fought there in human forms.

We are overrun, Adia realized. A chill ran through her. The Starlit Demon could not devour ten thousand phoenixes. It could not stop the fire that burned her people.

Our era ends here, she thought, tears in her eyes. The Second Age of Requiem ends like the first… in blood and fire and destruction.

Three phoenixes fell upon her. Their claws lashed, their beaks bit, and their fire blazed against her. Adia shouted and could barely hear her own voice. She called for the Starlit Demon, but could not see it. She saw nothing but fire.

No more pain filled her. Only warmth.

I die now, she thought. I go to the starlit halls of my fathers. I will forever dine there with my parents, with the fallen men and women of my house. I am coming to you, stars of Requiem.

She heard the glow of those celestial halls, a sound like harps. She saw their glow, silver and soft, bathing her with light. No more fire burned her, and Adia could smile, for she died as she had lived—fighting for the song of her people.

She raised her eyes, and looked to the stars, and saw the silver light blaze. Caught in the beam, the phoenixes still flew, but no more fire burned upon them. They were as naked vultures, black and wizened, exposed for their true ugliness and frailty.

Two dragons came coiling down from the light, tails whipping behind them, and Adia gasped.

"Bayrin!" she called. Her son flew there! She knew his great, lanky frame, his emerald scales, his bright eyes. Princess Mori flew by him, gripping a disk of silver light; she seemed to be holding the moon itself. Did they too die? Did they too now fly among the stars of Afterlife?

"Mother!" Bayrin called. He dived. His fire rained upon the naked vultures, and his claws slashed them. The beasts burned, bled, and fell.

Adia's heart thrashed, she gasped, and tears ran down her cheeks.

They were not dead, she knew. She laughed as she cried. They found the Moondisk.

She flapped her wings—three great thuds—and soared. Her fire roared, spun, and crashed against a naked phoenix that screeched in the Moondisk's glow.

The phoenix blazed. For a moment it looked like a firebird again, but this was dragonfire. This fire burned it. The creature squealed, cawed to the sky, and fell. As it tumbled by Adia, it became a man again… nothing but a burning man who thudded against the ruins of Nova Vita below.

Adia spread her wings wide, blew fire, and roared. Hope burned anew—hope of moonlight and dragonfire.