“That’s enough!” she said. “I’m going to try to talk to the emperor. Nobody attack, not for any reason, unless the dragons try to overtake the wall. Even if the emperor engages me, do not attack. I want to try to end this without any loss of life. Does everyone understand?”
“You cannot reason with a dragon,” said someone close by. Esofi looked around to find who had spoken, and a woman wielding a massive war hammer stepped forward. It took a moment for Esofi to recognize her—Gertra, Archpriestess of Reygmadra.
Esofi decided that there was no time to attempt to justify her actions. She walked toward the edge of the wall, gazing up at the dragons. “If I am killed,” she announced to nobody in particular, “please tell King Dietrich and Queen Saski that I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience and that my sister Esybele might be willing to come replace me if they ask very nicely.”
Then she leapt from the wall, bringing her magic to her hands to slow her descent enough to land safely on the long grass outside the city. She looked to the sky, but none of the dragons approached her. They seemed to be waiting for something, though Esofi could not guess what. But she knew what would get their attention.
Turning her attention to the fields before her, she called her magic to her hands. She took a few steps back to examine her canvas and began to sear designs into the long grass. She had done this as a child, as a game, admiring the glowing pink marks until they faded away or the gardeners spotted her and began screaming.
Now, she drew a luminous pink waxing crescent, followed by a half moon, then a full moon, and another half moon, this one waning, and then finally a waning crescent. It was a simpler version of the tattoo on her back, and she knew she had been successful even before she was completely finished with it, because one of the dragons, the largest one, was moving quickly and purposefully through the sky.
It dropped to the ground before her, the force of its landing almost knocking her over. Esofi kept her balance, though, and stepped forward to address it.
“Are you the emperor?” she asked.
The dragon said nothing.
“Please answer me,” said Esofi, allowing her magic to envelope her skin in a protective barrier. “I know you can speak.”
The dragon opened his mouth and roared. Esofi screamed back at it, a wordless sound of pain and outrage.
As the last of the sound died away, the dragon made a sound that sounded not unlike a laugh. He lowered his massive body onto all four of his legs and brought his head down to Esofi’s height.
“So, you are the one who has been killing my scouts,” he rumbled. “I was told to fear you, but you’re no different from any other Man.”
“This is my city,” said Esofi, surprising herself with how strong and clear her voice was. “This is my country. You and your soldiers will leave.”
The emperor threw back his head and bellowed out a laugh that echoed across the sky. “Little hairless rat! You think to order me? I rule the skies and all below!”
“Be reasonable,” said Esofi. “Talcia has already warned you—”
The emperor struck her lightly, almost casually. Esofi went flying back into the stone city wall. Fortunately, the magical shield over her skin buffered her from all but the worst of injuries. She staggered forward, and a few shattered pieces of rock fell from her shoulders and onto the street. Up on the wall, the Ieflarians shouted, but she gestured at them to hold their positions.
“You speak of things you do not understand!” roared the emperor. “When Mother sees how easily I have destroyed her new favorite, then she will finally realize how pathetic your kind is!”
“Is that why you hate us?” asked Esofi. “You think she favors Men over dragons?”
“She has favored Men for generations!” the emperor shouted in her face, the force of it knocking the last of the pins from her hair. “She has given blessings to your kind and revoked them from us!”
“The people of Ieflaria have learned that Talcia revokes her gifts when her will is ignored,” said Esofi. “But if you repent, she will forgive you, and you will find yourself blessed again. I can help you in this, if you will listen to me.”
The emperor laughed like an earthquake. “Men have nothing to teach dragons. I would be offended if I were not so entertained. When I finally rule over your lands, I will remember you with fondness.”
Esofi raised her head to the sky where the other dragons were waiting. She wondered if they believed in the emperor’s promise to eradicate mankind or if they were as unwilling as the one that had spoken to her.
But before she could ask any more questions, the emperor flared his neck in the way that signaled he was about to flame. He opened his mouth wide, and the scent emerged of noxious fumes gathering in his throat that would explode into magical fire in only a moment. She leapt aside just in time as the flames struck the wall behind her spot of just a moment ago.
From the skies above came a symphony of shrieks and roars, and the dragons began to move en masse toward the city wall. Esofi gritted her teeth together in despair, but she knew she had to trust the people of Ieflaria to protect their own city. Her opponent at the moment was the emperor.
He swung his head to follow Esofi’s progress across the field, keeping his body lowered to the ground so that she could not pierce his heart as she had so many dragons before. Deprived of her most familiar attack, Esofi was forced to think creatively. A dragon’s back was heavily armored, but the wings were comparatively delicate.
She called her magic to her hands again, releasing it from her palms just enough to propel herself a few meters off the ground, just high enough to leap onto the emperor’s back. Her hands grasped at his coarse scales, which jutted enough from his body for her to pull herself up. He made a sound of outrage and twisted his body around, trying to shake her free, but Esofi found his enormous wing joint and wrapped her hands around it tightly. Her head slammed against his body as he flailed, but she forced herself to hold on.
Finally, perhaps deciding that this course of action was undignified, the emperor spread his wings and launched himself into the sky, spiraling up toward the distant clouds. The delicate warmth of springtime quickly gave way to icy cold, and her hands began to slip. Esofi allowed her magic to race up her arms and gather in her hands, forming a pair of long daggers that manifested half within the emperor’s body. Instead of giving them hilts, she made the ends into gauntlets that clamped tightly around her wrists, leaving no chance that they would slip from her aching hands.
The emperor’s flight faltered as the sudden pain in his wing registered. His other wing still beat, but he was losing altitude. Esofi poured more of her magic into the blades, lengthening them and digging them deeper into the emperor’s wing.
He crashed to the ground inelegantly, rolling over onto his back. Esofi barely had time to dismiss the daggers and leap to safety. Pain shot through her leg as she connected with the ground, but she ignored it.
“You little worm!” he bellowed, blood trickling from his wing. “I will tear your disgusting fleshy hide off, one strip at a time!”
“Come try it, then,” said Esofi, gasping heavily. She spared a glance back toward the city, where the Birsgeners on the wall were engaged in a hundred battles with the other dragons. She could not tell who was winning and did not have time to evaluate their situation.
The emperor flared his neck, preparing to breathe his flames once more. But this time, Esofi knew what she had to do. She called her magic to her hands once more and let it propel her forward and directly toward him.
Alight with rage and magic in equal measures and lacking a more sophisticated plan of action, Esofi leapt into the emperor’s mouth.