A Dawn of Dragonfire

ELETHOR



He flew toward the tunnel, shifted into human form, and rolled into the darkness. He leaped to his feet while drawing his sword. When his eyes adjusted to the shadows, his stomach churned. The sight was as sickening as anything from the Abyss.

Dead children covered the tunnel floor, cut with blades. One girl's face was slashed. A boy was missing his arm. A second boy lay in the corner, disemboweled. The sight and stench nearly made Elethor gag. He gritted his teeth and raised his sword.

Ahead in the darkness, before a crowd of weeping children, stood Solina.

Elethor's heart thudded. His head spun.

Solina. Flame of his life. Light of his soul. The woman he had loved with heat like dragonfire. Blood covered her armor, face, and blades. She stared at him, and he saw the same emotion swirl in her eyes. She gave him a sad, crooked smile.

"Elethor," she said softly.

He walked deeper into the tunnel, stepping over strewn limbs and corpses, his boots sloshing through blood. His eyes narrowed, he could barely breathe, and for a moment he only managed to shake his head and whisper.

"Solina… how could you do this?"

A snarl fled her lips, sounding almost like a sob. A shaky, toothy grin twisted her face; Elethor couldn't decide if she grinned like a wolf or a madwoman.

"They are vermin, Elethor," she said. "They are nothing but lizards. You saw how they taunted me." Her eyes blazed, narrowing to blue slits. "You saw how they would fly above me, mock me, roar fire down on me. They burned me." She took a step toward him. "I won't let them come between us again. I will kill every weredragon between you and me until you're mine again."

"I am one of them!" Elethor shouted. His eyes stung. "Solina, you have gone mad. You have lost your mind. This is not the woman I knew, that I loved. You were good once, Solina. You were—"

"I was weak!" she screamed. "I was scared." Tears fled her eyes. "I was an orphan, Elethor. Your father murdered my parents, slaughtered my brothers like animals, and made me live here, a prisoner, a cripple." She took another step toward him, tears rolling. She let one sabre clang to the ground and reached out to him. "But you made it bearable, Elethor. You loved me, even though I could not become a dragon, even as everyone else in this land loathed me, saw me as less than human. But they are less than human. They are creatures. They are dead now; I killed them. I burned them. I did this for us, Elethor. Don't you understand? For me and you."

He shook his head, looking at the blood that covered the tunnel. "Killing children?" His voice was barely a whisper. "Stars, Solina, how could you think this would bring us together?"

"Because I know that you still love me." She stared into his eyes. "Because I remember. I remember your kisses. Your whispers. I remember how we would come here, to this very tunnel, and speak of our dreams. We would speak about how cruel your father was to me, how one day we would fly away and be together in some faraway land." Her eyes shone. "That day has come, Elethor! I brought it here. I made it happen so our dream could come true." Her body shook. "Don't you see?" She clutched his shoulder. "We can be together now like we always wanted, like we knew would always happen. We'll fly to Tiranor, you a dragon and I a phoenix. I've built a palace where we will reign, king and queen of a desert land. It's that magical place we've always dreamed of, Elethor. It's what we've always wanted."

"I did not want this!" he shouted. His pulse pounded in his ears, and his head spun. "You will not cast this blood on me. You've gone mad in your southern land, with this… this Sun God who corrupted your mind." He swept his arms around him. "Dreams? Magical kingdoms? Love? You drenched the world in blood! You slaughtered children!"

"For you!" she shouted hoarsely. "For us!"

"Not for me!" His eyes burned. "I did not ask for this. You—"

A child tore free from the group of survivors behind Solina. He ran forward, skirted around Solina, and made toward the tunnel exit, maybe hoping to fly outside. Solina cut him down. Her blade flashed and sliced his leg, then swung down onto his shoulder, cleaving him. The child fell, gurgled, and died.

Elethor sucked in his breath. Head spinning and heart pounding, barely able to see through the sting of tears, he swung his sword at Solina.

She stood only three feet away, but it seemed the longest distance his sword had ever swung. It seemed the longest instant of his life. He was cutting the roots of that life, the old memories and meaning that had forever filled him, driven him, defined him. In that instant that lasted hours, he realized how much Solina had shaped him—he had grown up in her light, in her arms, almost a part of her. Without her, who was he?

A king, a voice whispered inside him. A betrothed to Lyana. A leader of dragons.

A whole man—no longer a boy in his brother's shadow, no longer a sculptor who shied away from the court his fathers had built. If he cut her down, he would cut himself free—free to become this man of his own right, to sit upon the throne with a whole heart.

He had always felt like half a soul; a night to Solina's day, starlight to her fire. Now he became one.

The instant passed. His sword reached her. Her blade rose and parried, and steel clanged.

She thrust her sabre at him, snarling, a wild animal, no longer human. He parried. He thrust again. And they danced.

It was a dance like they used to love—of passion and rage and hope. Her sword bit his shoulder, like her teeth would as they made love in this tunnel. He bled and thrust again, slamming his blade against her armor. Her sword flew at him, he parried, swung again.

He felt no rage. No more sadness. When he looked upon her, he no longer saw the old Solina—the girl of golden hair, of bright eyes, of secrets only he knew. He saw only the rot inside her, and he slammed at her until he cut her down. His blade shattered hers, and she fell. His sword slammed against her armor, denting it, and she gasped.

She knelt before him, head tossed back. Blood poured from a crack in her breastplate. Her mouth opened and closed.

"El," she whispered. "El…"

He stood above her, his sword raised. He could stab her now. He could slice her neck. He could—

"El," she whispered, "do you remember the wooden turtle?"

Blackness clutched him. He could not help but lower his head, close his eyes, and feel the breath leave him. She spoke with a trembling voice; she sounded so much like the Solina who would hold him years ago. Her every word shot arrows through him.

"El, you carved it for me. I remember… I said how I wanted a pet, a friend in Requiem, and you made me a wooden turtle. Remember how we'd imagine that, in the magical kingdom we would find, our turtle would come alive? How—"

Pain blazed on his thigh, not the throb of memory, but searing agony. Elethor gasped. His eyes snapped open to see Solina twisting a dagger in his leg.

Blood spurted and Solina leaped. She drove her fist into Elethor's chin, and his head snapped back, and he saw nothing but light and blood and stone. He fell, stars floating before his eyes. Solina pounced atop him, baring her teeth.

"I will spare your life this night," she hissed, "so you may see the death I bring to your land. But I will give you this first."

She pulled the dagger from his thigh. He raised his arms, but could not block her strength. She drove her blade down his face. Pain exploded. Blood filled his eyes and mouth.

"I will kill them all, Elethor!" she screamed. "I will burn them all with my fire. You will watch! And then you will crawl to me and beg to be mine!"

She leaped past him, tossed herself outside, and shifted into a phoenix. Her flames crackled, and when Elethor turned his head, he saw her soar into the night. Her scream carried on the wind, high-pitched, a storm of rage.

"You will beg, Elethor! You will beg!"

He struggled to his feet. Blood washed his face and leg. He made to leap after her, but his thigh twisted, and he fell. His elbows banged against the tunnel floor. He crawled to the exit, stared up, and saw the Moondisk bathe the world with light.

He tried to shift into a dragon. He let the magic fill him. Light and agony flooded him, his eyes closed, and his head fell.