A Night of Dragon Wings - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,102
so sorry, Lyana, for the man that I was. For the man who pined for Solina. For the man—no, the boy—you tried to reach, but who pushed you back. I remember myself in Nova Vita before this all began—a dour youth who shunned you, who shunned the court. And I'm ashamed." His throat tightened. "Will you forgive me for those years, Lyana? For those years I yearned for Solina and forgot about you, about my family?"
She kissed him. "Only if you forgive the woman I was then—the woman who would pester and lecture you. Stars, I drove you crazy!"
He laughed, opened his eyes, and saw her smiling mischievously. He mussed her hair.
"Oh, I'll never forgive you for that," he said. "What was it I called you once? Intolerable and overbearing?"
"And supercilious," she said with a grin. "I think you called me that too. Big word for you, El. I was impressed."
He gave her a mock shove, then felt the coldness between them and pulled her back into his embrace. She laid her head upon his chest, and he stroked her hair.
"Goodnight, Lyana," he said softly.
She raised her head, kissed his lips, and cuddled against him.
"I love you too, Elethor," she whispered. "Always."
The candles guttered into darkness, and they slept.
SOLINA
She lay in his bed under the quilts. She paced his room and caressed the marble statues he had sculpted. She lifted the wooden turtle he had carved for her, kissed its head, and placed it back upon the shelf. She stepped outside and gazed upon the trees. She dreamed. She missed him. Loneliness clawed at her and stung her eyes.
I am so sad without you, she thought, pacing his chamber again and again like a prisoner in a cell. I am so alone. I want you with me.
But it was time to leave this place. It was time to rule. To conquer. To slaughter his people and bring him here—to warmth, to memory, to light.
To me.
She stepped toward the door of his chamber, placed her hand on the knob, and closed her eyes.
I wish I could stay here forever. She was young here, only twenty-three and still bright with youth, and her face was unscarred, and no pain or hatred or death filled her heart. A perfect day.
She tightened her lips, twisted the knob, and opened the door.
She stepped out of memory and into the chamber.
She walked up the stairs, emerging to the rim of the well. All around her spread the Hall of Memories, its columns rising from darkness to the shadowy domed ceiling. The pit surrounded the well, spreading all around her like a moat around a tower. Once only shadows and wind had filled this pit. Today her glory festered here.
"My children," she whispered.
The spawn of nephilim filled the pit, biting and mewling and clawing at one another, their bat wings beating and their eyes leaking pus. Each was the size of a man already, and they were growing larger every day, the strong feeding upon the weak. They writhed in the pit like a pile of maggots. A million or more rotted here. The strongest rose to the top, teeth bloodied and bellies bloated with the flesh of their brothers. For a mile deep they festered, stinking of decomposing flesh and blood and nightsoil.
"You will rule the world someday," Solina said softly. She stood upon the bridge, looking down at them. They reached out to her, claws shaking and glimmering with blood. They hissed her name.
"Sssolina… Sssolina…"
Mature female nephilim clung to the columns around the pit. Fifteen of them screamed here, bellies bulging and contracting and birthing more spawn into the pit. Blood poured down their legs, and nothing but wounds now spread between their thighs, and still their spawn burst out screaming and hungry to fall onto the million others.
Lord Legion himself clung to the sixteenth column, father of his brood. He licked his lips, gazed upon his wives and children, and gave a toothy smile. His drool rained.
"My queen," he said to her, bowing his horned head.
"Your brood is strong, Legion," Solina said to him from the bridge. "They will consume the world."
The great nephil hissed. Twenty feet tall, his body like a blackened cadaver, he spread out his bat wings, lovingly embracing the stench of his spawn. He inhaled and licked his chops.
"He will lead them when I'm gone," Legion said. "He will be the greatest among them, a devourer of the weak, a conqueror of dragons."