A Night of Dragon Wings - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,111
and pus covered her white gown, and the creatures of her throne licked her with long, white tongues.
"Elethor," she said with a crooked smile. "You cannot win this war. Look around you! A thousand nephilim fill this hall. You have brought…." She squinted. "Oh my, Elethor, but you have only one dragon left, a scrawny female one too."
Elethor growled and looked around him. A hundred men of Osanna and Requiem had charged into this chamber with him. They lay dead upon the floor, torn apart, limbs scattered and bodies crushed. Already nephilim feasted upon them, sucking up bodies like owls sucking up mice.
Only Treale still lived. The young black dragon lay on her belly, and Legion stood above her, his claws pressed down against her neck. Treale growled and tried to rise, but could not. Legion smiled above her, tongue darting, and his halo flamed blue.
Elethor looked back at Solina.
He roared and blew a jet of fire toward her.
She leaped back, and several nephilim slammed against Elethor. Claws swung. Fangs dug into him. He screamed. He burned them. His fire exploded and showered back upon him. Blows thudded against him, and a nephil clawed his cheek, and pain blazed, and more claws slashed his belly, and he roared. Claws drove into his back, and Elethor howled, and his magic left him.
He crashed to the floor in human form.
Legion lolloped toward him, grinning. The Nephil King reached down, wrapped his claws around Elethor, and lifted him like a demonic child lifting a discarded toy.
Elethor hung in the air, dazed, the claws nearly crushing him. Legion shook him wildly, and Elethor's head spun, and he could not see or breathe. All around him the nephilim leered and howled.
"Enough!" Solina shouted again.
The nephilim froze. Legion stood holding Elethor in one fist, pinning his arms down. Blood dripped into Elethor's eyes, and he could barely breathe. It felt like Legion's grip would snap his ribs.
He looked aside and saw that Legion was clutching Treale in his other hand. She too had resumed human form, and she hung in Legion's grip only feet away from Elethor. Blood dripped from her, and her face was pale. She whispered to him, but her voice was so weak Elethor could not hear.
"Treale!" he cried hoarsely.
She gave him a pleading look, eyes full of pain. Her lips uttered his name silently.
"Legion, hold them before me," Solina said. "Hold them still."
She rose upon her throne. The nephilim that formed her seat shifted, creating a ramp of spines and ribs. Solina descended and walked across the bloody floor, hands on the hilts of her sabres.
When she reached Legion, the nephil lowered Elethor and Treale in his claws, holding them a mere foot above the floor. Elethor struggled and kicked and screamed, but could not free himself.
Solina touched his cheek, and her eyes softened.
"Still you fight," she whispered. "Even when all your hope is lost. Still, here in my hall, you struggle."
He spat out a tooth. Blood filled his mouth.
"Fight me," he said. "You and me. No dragons. No nephilim. Just the two of us—sword to sword."
She raised her eyebrows. "Are you…" She laughed. "Are you challenging me to a duel? This is no epic poem of olden days, Elethor. This is no romantic farce." She caressed his hair. "I don't wish to fight you, El. I never did. All I ever wanted was peace."
He laughed mirthlessly, hanging in the claws. "Peace? You wanted peace when you slew my family? When your beasts crushed my city? When you slaughtered children in our tunnels?"
She placed her hands in his hair. She kissed his ear—her lips were soft and full—and whispered.
"I slew them, Elethor, so that we could have peace. So that all those who taunted us, who tried to stop us, who whispered against us—so all of them went away. I killed them, and I will kill everyone else, until all the world is just you… and me." She nodded up toward Legion, whose head drooled above them. "Show him, Legion. Kill the girl."
Elethor shouted.
Clutching Elethor in one hand, Legion tossed Treale down from his other hand. She slammed hard against the floor, and her blood splattered.
"Treale, shift!" Elethor cried.
She looked up at him. Legion's claws thrust. Treale rose to her feet and began to shift.
A claw crashed through her breastplate.
Treale gasped. Her magic vanished. She hung upon the claw, head and limbs tossed back, gasping. Her legs kicked in midair. Blood filled her mouth.