A Night of Dragon Wings - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,27
their embrace. For long moments the three stood silently in the rain, holding one another. The rain was cold and their breath plumed warm against their cheeks. The lump refused to leave Bayrin's throat and his eyes stung.
If you hide in the west, Mori, I will find you. Wherever you are in this world, I will bring you here. I promise, Mori. I promise.
NEMES
They had left their wyverns below the mountain. This was holy ground; they would not profane it with beasts that drooled acid. They walked. It seemed like they walked for hours. The trail coiled up the stony mountainside; they must have climbed a league high. All around them rolled the desert, lifeless and golden, nothing but endless sand and rock.
The sun dipped below the horizon, a shimmering drop of blood, then vanished. Only their torches now lit the night, and still they climbed: a golden queen, fifty men in steel, and a prisoner robed in black. Step after step. Mile after mile. And still the mountain loomed.
They had chained his arms. The rusty iron chafed his skin, and Nemes bit down hard against the pain. He could endure some pain, some humiliation. For a hundred years, the weredragons had shamed his family, forcing them to clean plate, floor, and chamber pot. What was one more night of chains for a lifetime of glory?
I will fetch you your key, Solina, he thought and gritted his teeth. I am no weakling, no craven like Leras. I will fetch the key, and I will stand by your side as you release the nephilim, as you crush the weredragons, as you rule the world. I will be no servant then, but a lord of your court.
The night and trail stretched on.
It must have been midnight when they reached the mountaintop. Clouds covered the sky. A hot wind blew and their torches crackled. There above them loomed the tower, a coiling shard of obsidian like a rotten nerve. The torchlight flickered against it, and Nemes bared his teeth and hissed.
The night was hot, but an iciness flowed from this tower; it invaded his cloak, cut his skin, and froze his very bones. He felt his talisman burn against his chest; the iron serpent cried out for its lord. This tower itself, Nemes realized, was like a serpent of stone, rising from the earth to scream at the sky. His breath came fast. His blood pounded in his ears.
"Yes," Nemes whispered. "Yes, my lord! I come to serve you here. I come to seek your treasure. I am Nemes! I am your dark blade to thrust."
His head spun. For years in the Weredragon Court, he would study the books of Lord Legion. He would twist the animals of the forest to please his lord. He would suck and chew their innards to taste Legion's truth. He would study the Old Words and learn the dark magic: to cloak himself in shadow, to move in silence, to see where others were blind. And all the while, the stars of Requiem burned him, the cursed Draco Constellation that had doomed him to servitude. Yet here… here no stars shone. Here the power of Legion reigned.
Nemes fell and kissed the ground. Tears filled his eyes.
"I serve you, Fallen Lord!" he cried. "For years I sought you, Lord Legion, and now I kiss your holy earth. You will rise!"
Somewhere behind him, Solina spoke in disgust. "Stand him up. Toss him in. I'm tired of his whining."
Hands grabbed Nemes's shoulders and tugged him to his feet. They yanked his arms up, unlocked his chains, and shoved him forward. Nemes stumbled, looked over his shoulder, and hissed at the men. His wrists blazed with pain as the blood flowed back into them.
"You will show this place respect!" Nemes said. He snarled at the soldiers; fifty of them stood behind him, clad in steel, faces hidden behind their falcon visors. "You walk on holy ground, and I am the servant of Lord Legion. One day you will bow before me—and before him—or your bones will be his feast."
For an instant the guards hesitated. Nemes hissed again, savoring the taste of power, the scent of their fear. Then Solina marched toward him. Her eyes flashed, and her scarred lips twisted in a snarl. She grabbed a sabre from a guard and thrust it into his hands.
"Fetch me the key and you can hiss like a snake," she said. "For now you are still a worm. Go! Enter the darkness."