A Night of Dragon Wings - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,79
his mouth. "You will not mention my son! You—"
"Dorin, do not flee from this battle. If truly you lead these people, you must fight for them." She looked back at the nephilim; they flew only a mile away now. Her jaw twisted into a crooked smile. "We can take them."
Dorin stared at her. He stared at the dragons behind him. He stared at the enemy and grunted. Finally he bucked and roared.
"Dragons of Second Haven! Leave none alive!" He blew his fire, clawed the sky, and charged toward the horde. "Slay them!"
A hundred dragons, warriors of Second Haven, sounded their cry and charged.
The nephilim crashed into them.
Lyana blew fire. She slammed her tail's spikes into one nephil's head, punching through its skull. Her claws slashed another. Three nephilim crashed onto her, clinging like spiders onto their prey, and teeth punched through her scales. She roared and clawed at them, dipping in the sky. Another soared from below and slammed into her belly. The beasts enveloped her, crushing her and biting, and she howled.
Stars damn it.
With a deep breath, she shifted into human form.
She slipped between their claws and tumbled toward the ground.
Wind roared. The nephilim shrieked above and swooped. Before she could hit the ground, Lyana shifted back into a dragon and soared, shooting fire. Her blaze caught the swooping nephilim and she knocked between them, clawing their burning forms. They fell around her, blood and worms spilling from their wounds.
She soared to fight among her comrades. The dragons flew back and forth, blazing their fire. These ones had survived the phoenixes, the wyverns, and the attacks on Second Haven; they were scarred and battle-hardened, and they killed with grim intent. Nephilim fell before them, blazing.
A few of the beasts dipped, flew beneath the warrior dragons, and crashed into the women, children, and elders. Screams rose. Claws dug into dragon flesh. Dragons returned to human form and tumbled, and nephilim caught them in their jaws and feasted.
Lyana howled.
"Circle the group!" she shouted to her fellow warriors. "Above and below!"
She swooped, slashed a nephil's swollen head, and flew under the mothers and children. Nephilim swarmed her way; she blazed them with flames, and above her, the young dragons screamed. At her sides flew the other warriors, circling the weaker dragons, forming a shield of scale and flame around them. The nephilim kept charging at them. The dragons kept blowing their flames.
Finally only three nephilim remained. They howled, spraying fountains of saliva. One reached out and grabbed the leg of an old, female dragon. He pulled her from the protective ring and bit deep, and the old dragon returned to human form. The nephilim tore her apart and fed upon her.
Lyana roared and charged at them. Fire blazed at her side; Dorin flew there, howling. The two dragons—blue and red—crashed into the feasting nephilim, clawing and biting and thrusting their horns. The beasts fell dead, and Lyana roared to the sky.
She looked back at her people. Some had fallen; their bodies lay upon the fields below. Most still flew, scales splashed with blood and soot. Heart hammering, Lyana whipped her head back toward the city. Dozens of nephilim still flew above the walls, insects above a prized morsel.
"To Confutatis!" Lyana cried and roared a pillar of flame. "Slay the beasts upon the walls and towers!"
Three thousand dragons streamed toward the city, raising a roar to shake the earth. Lyana flew at their lead, blowing fire and howling, a hoarse cry of rage, of pain, of loss—a cry for the death of her parents, for the fall of her palace, for the fading light of her people. She flew to aid others. She flew to slay her enemies. She flew as queen, as a woman haunted, as a blue dragon with so much fear and pain inside her that she could never heal. She shot over the city walls. Above the towers and streets of Confutatis, she crashed into nephilim and slew them with fire and claw.
When all the creatures lay dead, diseased corpses strewn across streets and roofs, Lyana landed upon a steeple that rose among cobbled streets, dwarfing the houses and shops beneath it. Her fellow dragons landed upon roofs, towers, and walls around her, panting and tossing their heads to scatter their smoke. Around them across the city, soldiers ran in armor, cheering and crying for Requiem.
We slew them, Lyana thought, snarling and baring her teeth. We slew the bastards, and we will slay Solina next.