Requiem's Song (Book 1) (29 page)

"Taal! Shine your light!"
Issari shouted upon his back. Her amulet's beam drove forward,
gaining some strength. The flaming snake hissed, loosened its grip on
Tanin's neck, and fell. The lanky, winged giant covered its eyes, and
Tanin sent it tumbling down with a swipe of his tail.

"Issari, clear a path for
Maev!" Tanin shouted. "Shine your light around her. I'm
fine. I—"

Before he could complete his
sentence, more creatures slammed into him, great flying jaws with no
bodies, and he roared as their teeth dented his scales. He kept
flying, the creatures clinging to him. Balls of claws landed upon his
wings, digging, cutting, and he roared and flapped madly, scattering
them, flying on, blowing fire. Atop his back, Issari kept chanting,
shining her light, a single beam nearly drowning in the clouds of
darkness. The sun faded. Night fell and countless red eyes burned.

Pain flooded Tanin. Blood coated
him. But he had to keep flying. This was the flight of his life, the
battle he'd been waging since that day years ago. Jaws clamped around
him, and acid rained against his scales, and as the pain flooded him,
he was flying there again in the darkness, flying away from Oldforge,
away from his beloved, away from the only home he'd known. And still
he sought a home. Still he fought for his family, for his people—for
Requiem.

"For you, Requiem," he
whispered. "For my fallen sister and for the nation we will
build in your name."

He blew his fire. He burned them
down. He cut and bit and roared with fury, and finally he drove
through the horde, and Aerhein Tower rose before him. He landed upon
its crest, tossed back his head, and howled to the night sky. The
city of Eteer rolled below him, two hundred thousand souls, countless
lights, and beyond it the sea—beyond it Requiem, that distant tribe,
the heartbeat of his lost, cursed, forsaken people, the people he
would raise to greatness. He blasted his fire in a ring, beating his
wings, burning down the forces of the Abyss that still clawed and
swarmed toward him.

"Tanin, hold them off!"
Maev shouted below, her maw full of blood, her wings pierced with
holes. "I'll tear the damn bars open."

His sister, a green dragon with
chipped scales, clung to the tower. As she began to bite at the bars
in the window, demons swarmed and landed upon her back, biting and
clawing.

"In the name of Taal, you
are banished!" Issari shouted. Clinging to Tanin's back, she
shone her light down onto Maev. As the beam hit the green dragon, the
demons hissed and fell, tumbling down to the courtyard. Yet hundreds
more were flying toward the tower now, rising from every roof and
alley in the city. Tanin leaped off the tower top and hovered by
Maev, protecting her with his body, blowing his fire.

Arrows slammed into him.

He roared in pain.

Soldiers of the city stood
below, nocking more arrows into their bows. Tanin sucked in breath,
prepared to burn the men.

"Tanin, no!" Issari
cried. "We cannot kill humans. We—"

Tanin growled. He spewed down
his flames. The jet crashed into the courtyard ahead of the soldiers,
sending them scurrying back. One man caught fire, fell, and rolled.
The others leaped behind columns. Another blast of flame sent them
scurrying away from the courtyard.

"Maev, damn it, hurry up!"
he shouted. Glancing behind him, he saw her still gnawing at the
bars. She had tugged only one out from the window. A prisoner stood
inside—it must have been Prince Sena, for he looked like his sister
Issari, his hair dark and his eyes green. Maev began tugging the
second bar.

"Maev, for goodness sake,
can you do this a little faster? I—"

Before Tanin could complete his
sentence, demons swooped from above, shaped like hairless, eyeless
moles the size of bears. Their tongues lashed out, as long as their
bodies, slamming into Tanin. Their drool burned, and the tongues
wrapped around his neck and limbs, tugging him away from Maev.

Tanin roared. He tried to blow
more fire, but only sparks left his mouth; one creature's tongue was
constricting him, keeping his fire at bay like a tourniquet. He could
barely breathe, let alone blow flame. He clawed and lashed his tail,
but more demons landed upon his wings, tugging him down, laughing.
One creature landed on his back, tore off a scale, and tossed it
aside with a cackle.

Issari screamed and shone her
light, but the eyeless moles seemed unaffected. Their tongues
tightened around Tanin, tugging him away from the tower. Behind him,
he heard Maev shout as demons landed upon her too.

"They're blind—the light
won't work!" Tanin whispered hoarsely, unable to speak any
louder, struggling to blow more flame.

Issari cried out wordlessly. He
heard a hiss—a blade being drawn from a sheath. A weight lifted off
his back. A flash of white flew before him. Tanin gasped—it was
Issari! She leaped through the air, a dagger in her hand, and landed
upon one of the blind moles. She drove her blade down, severing the
creature's tongue which wrapped around Tanin's neck.

He gasped for breath.

Issari leaped again. She landed
on his wing, thumping down upon the leathery surface. Tanin looked
over his shoulder to see her lash her blade again, cutting down a
demon. With a third leap, she landed upon a remaining mole, severed
another tongue, and hissed like a wild animal. When first meeting the
princess, Tanin had seen an angelic figure, a goddess of piety. Now,
covered in blood, her eyes narrowed and full of rage, Issari seemed
as fierce as any demon.

The princess leaped again, legs
kicking in the air, and caught his neck. She swung around and landed
on Tanin's back. The demons, bloodied and squealing, hovered before
them.

"Burn them, Tanin!"
she shouted.

He sucked in air. He blasted his
fire. Demons burned and fell. Tanin kept blowing his flames, lighting
the night, spewing sparks and smoke like a gushing volcano.

"Got him!" Maev cried
behind.

Tanin turned and saw his sister
spit out another window bar. Prince Sena—thin and pale, his lips
tight—climbed onto the windowsill. Chains bound his wrists and
ankles.

"Maev, lift him in your
claws!" Tanin shouted. "He can't shift with chains."

Maev grunted. "Oh, I'm not
carrying him. He'll fly." As Tanin blew more fire, holding off a
new swarm, Maev grabbed his chains between her claws. She grunted as
she snapped the bronze links—first around the prince's ankles, then
his wrists, and finally the chains that wrapped around his torso.

"I've never flown before!"
the prince shouted, standing on the windowsill. "I've only
shifted in my room."

Maev grunted. "Now's your
time to learn!" She flicked her tail, knocking him down from the
window.

"Maev, damn it!" Tanin
shouted.

Issari screamed.

As the prince tumbled down,
Tanin made to dive, to try to catch the boy, already knowing he had
no time. All he could do was watch.

An instant before Sena could hit
the courtyard, the prince shifted.

A blue dragon rose, wreathed in
smoke, blowing flame.

The demons, perhaps in awe of a
third dragon joining the fight, screamed and cowered. Tanin found
himself grinning, found tears in his eyes. It was true. All the
stories had been true. There were other Vir Requis. There was hope.

Requiem
lives.

The dragons soared. They blew
their fire together. The three flaming jets crashed into the army of
demons, scattering them, and the creatures fled. The dragons of
Requiem flew into the night, ringed in fire.

 
 
ISSARI

As she rode upon the dragon,
holding the amulet before her, Issari felt something new, something
that dampened her eyes and lit her heart. For the first time, she
felt pride. She felt power. She knew then that dragons were not weak,
cursed creatures for some to hunt, for others to pity and save. She
knew that Vir Requis, the children of Requiem, were mighty and
strong.

I
am proud to fight with you.

As they flew across the city,
casting back the demons with fire and holy light, sadness too dwelled
inside her, for she knew that she would never see her brother again.

You
will fly north with them, Sena,
she thought.
You
will be proud and free.

She looked at him—a blue
dragon, the beast that had shifted in their chamber in secret, that
now flew and blew fire and roared. Issari had often pitied him,
thinking his magic a handicap, but now she envied him. Now she wished
she too could shift, could fly, could fight with fang and fire.

She looked down at the city—a
city of evil, of fear. And she knew that her task was different than
his. Her burden, heiress of a kingdom, was to rule.

Ahead she saw it—the coast of
Eteer and the black sea. It would take him home. It would leave her
here, empty, missing him, a single light in a dark city.

"Fly north with us!"
Tanin said between blasts of fire. The red dragon looked over his
shoulder at her, his tongue lolling, his face scratched but his eyes
bright. "Join us in Requiem."

Riding on his back, Issari
lowered her head. She looked down at her city, and she saw it there,
rising from smoke and shadow—the palace. Her father was in the north
now, enlisting his allies, hunting Laira. This was Issari's kingdom
to rule, to inherit, to save from damnation.

"I cannot," Issari
said. "Place me down upon my palace, my friend, I—"

Fire blazed ahead.

Issari stared, gasped, and her
heart seemed to stop.

The demons across the sky
shrieked and fled like birds from a running dog.

Below in the palace
courtyard—the place where Raem had beheaded so many Vir Requis—the
ground shattered. Cobblestones flew. A rent tore open, and a creature
burst from underground, wreathed in fire, beating bat wings. The
figure soared, leaving a trail of smoke and cinder. Her body was
carved of stone, curved and cracked, seeping flames and smoke. Fire
girded her loins, and her fangs shone. Her eyes blazed like cauldrons
of molten metal, and a ring of fire haloed around her head. She
stretched out her arms as she rose, a pillar of sulfur and heat and
light, laughing, shrieking, painting the city with red light.

"Angel," Issari
whispered. "Queen of the Abyss."

The three dragons halted,
reared, and clawed the sky. Their wings beat, scattering smoke and
fire. Sparks flew off Angel, showering the city, igniting trees and
gardens. The Demon Queen wasn't much larger than Issari—small
compared to the bulky dragons—yet she did not cower. She let out a
shriek like shattering glass, so loud that Issari covered her ears,
and the dragons shook as the sound waves blasted them. The demon
laughed, and rings of fire blazed into life around her, unholy halos
that spun around her body, sending out heat and light. Smoke pounded
and her wings beat, the wind tearing down trees, scattering stones,
and sending the dragons into a spin. At that moment, Angel seemed
larger than any dragon.

"Greetings, reptiles!"
she cried. "Greetings, stinking, cursed creatures of disease."
As she laughed, the cracks on her body of stone widened, seeping lava
like blood. "Do you see this kingdom? Do you see this hive the
humans call Eteer? Look upon it! Here is your graveyard. Come to
die."

Sena winced; the blue dragon
turned away from the flames. Tanin growled, but the red dragon dared
not approach, and sparks sizzled against his scales. Sitting upon
Tanin, Issari raised her amulet, but the chain caught fire, and she
cried out and tore it off her neck. The amulet seared her palm when
she held it, and she could barely see through the pain.

Maev—her green scales chipped,
her face bloodied, her wings tattered—seemed the only one undaunted.
She reared, roared, and shot forward.

"Enough talk!" Maev
roared. "Taste some fire."

With that, she blasted out her
flames.

White-hot, the blaze crashed
through the rings of smoke and flame, slamming into Angel.

Engulfed in the inferno, the
Demon Queen laughed. She tossed back her head and stretched out her
arms, basking in the fire.

"I am a creature from the
molten rock inside the womb of the earth!" she shrieked, her
voice rising like typhoons from the blaze. "Your dragonfire
cannot harm me. Now you will taste true heat."

The Demon Queen swung her arm. A
fireball flew from her grasp and tumbled forward, leaving a wake of
light. The projectile slammed into Maev.

The green dragon let out a cry
like a wounded animal. The flaming ball shoved her back in the sky.
Scales cracked. Blood spilled and the smell of burnt flesh rose. Maev
fell from the sky, wings beating uselessly, and crashed into the
palace below. The rooftop gardens ignited and smoke hid Maev, curling
upward in a cloud.

"Maev!" Tanin cried.
The red dragon looked down toward his sister, then back up at Angel,
seemingly torn between flying to Maev and battling his enemy.

Sena seemed to reach a decision
more quickly. The blue dragon let out a roar—a sound that shook the
city below.

"For long days, I
languished in a cell," Sena cried out. "I watched as you
and your kind destroyed my city, my kingdom, my home. My father is
away, and I am Prince of Eteer, and I banish you back into the Abyss.
Leave this place!"

Angel only laughed and tossed
another ball of fire. Sena beat his wings, rising above the flaming
missile, and blasted his own flame. The jet crashed into Angel and
Sena swooped. The blue dragon slammed into the demon, biting and
clawing. Smoke and flame enveloped the two.

"Sena!" Issari cried
from Tanin's back.

Through strands of smoke, Issari
glimpsed the demon spinning, clawing, ripping off scales. Sena's cry
rose, torn in pain. Blood rained. The blue dragon and the Demon Queen
fought within a sphere of light and heat.