A Night of Dragon Wings - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,4
God, oh Sun God.
When a screech shattered the desert, Zar looked up to see the dark, cloaked figure reappear atop the tower. Once more, no light pierced its hood. Once more, its crimson claws rose. In its grip, it held a twisted corpse.
The creature tossed the body down, then disappeared back into the tower. When the body thumped against the ground, Zar stared for an instant, then doubled over and gagged. Whatever paltry scraps they had fed him—dry old bread and cheese—he now lost.
Please, Sun God, please, how can you let such horror exist under your light?
The dusteater had entered the tower a gaunt, nearly cadaverous woman. Now her body was bloated as if waterlogged. Her head bulged, twice its previous size. A twisted, parasitic creature melted into her body like a conjoined twin. Red eyes blinked upon her chest, and a shriveled hand thrust out from her belly, grasping at the air. A mewl rose from the wreck of a body; she was still alive.
Solina stared down in disgust. Even the queen finally seemed shaken, and her face paled. Her lips curled back in a snarl.
"Kill it!" she hissed to her soldiers. "Sun God, kill this thing."
The soldiers approached the twisting, gurgling creature. The parasite writhed across it, molded into the bloated body. The dusteaster's eyes twitched and shed tears, and her lips whispered. Zar could not hear her, but he could read her lips.
"Please," she begged. "Please kill me."
The soldiers thrust down their swords. Blood spurted. The creature convulsed, then lay still.
Solina shouted. "Send in the last one!"
Zar's knees trembled so badly, he'd have fallen had soldiers not grabbed him. When they began dragging him toward the tower, he kicked and struggled; it was like trying to break iron chains. As the tower grew closer, Zar saw shadows stir beyond its doorway, and he screamed and kicked and wept.
"Untie him!" Solina ordered. "Give him a sword!"
A soldier drew a dagger, pulled Zar's arms back, and sawed through the ropes binding his wrists. His arms blazed with pain as he raised them, and he found his wrists chafed raw and bloody. His fingers trembled and throbbed as the blood rushed back into them. Before Zar could even gasp with the pain, the soldiers shoved a sabre into his hands.
"Go on, you wretch," said one soldier, voice echoing inside his falcon helm—the man who had whipped and stabbed his back so many times. "Fetch us the key, maggot, and you'll have your sweet freedom, and you can return to your whore and miserable whelp."
Zar's eyes stung, the memories coursing through him: his son, his beautiful son with the blue eyes, fingers that clutched his, and soft hair like molten dawn. He could see him again.
All I must do is be strong, be brave, find the key… and I can go home.
Before him loomed the shadowy doorway. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw the queen there, her armor bright in the sunset, her eyes like sapphires. He saw her soldiers, fifty men clad in steel, swords in hand.
Or I can fight them, he thought. I can swing my sword at them. I can try to cut them down. I can't kill them all, but maybe I can kill enough to run between them, to flee into the desert.
He gritted his teeth, sending pain blazing down his jaw. Even if he did escape them, what then? They would hunt him. They would catch him. They would return him to the dungeon—to the whips, the pincers, the rats, the endless agony and screams. Here at least, in this tower, death could relieve him. It would be a gruesome death; the creatures inside could gut him, or mangle him, and he would scream… but at the end, they would kill him. That was more than Solina's dungeon offered.
And maybe… Zar swallowed a lump. Maybe I can find the key. Maybe I can return home to my wife and son, a hero bearing jewels and glory.
He squared his shoulders, swallowed again, and stepped into the tower.
Darkness swirled around him. Wind whispered like voices. He walked, step by step, sword trembling before him.
"Find the key!" Solina shouted behind him, but her voice was muffled and distant, an echo from a different lifetime. "Find the key for your freedom!"
He kept walking. His knees shook. The shadows engulfed him, then parted like a curtain, and Zar found himself standing in a round chamber.