will burn in the Sun God's fire."
The flames overcame its words. Gloriae watched it burn, until it was nothing but a skull. Still its jaw moved, and its teeth clacked. Gloriae walked toward it and kicked with her steel-tipped boot. She kept kicking until the skull shattered.
"I did not make you a boy again," she said. "But I freed you. I ended your pain. That is more than what Dies Irae will do to me, if he catches me." She clenched her fists. "But he will not catch me. He will burn too."
She turned around and stepped underground into the cellars.
TERRA
His wing and leg blazed in pain, but Terra kept flying. The city of giants spread beneath him.
"Stars," Memoria whispered.
She flew beside him, blood staining her green scales. Terra clenched his jaw. The sight of her blood hurt him more than his wounds. I will not let her die too. I will fight and burn and die if I must, but I will protect her.
He returned his eyes to the city. It spread like a labyrinth. Leagues of grey brick walls wound across the mountaintop. Giants ran between them, shouting and howling and pounding their chests. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands.
"Look," Terra said. He pointed a claw and grunted with the pain; his knee felt swollen and burned. "The fort."
"I see it," Memoria said, eyes narrowed. "The king must live there."
The fortress loomed taller than an Ice Palace, taller than the old courts of Requiem; Terra guessed that it stood a thousand feet tall. Built of grey, frosty bricks, it was a simple structure; it had no bridges, towers, or courtyards like the forts of men. It was but a great cube of stone. It rose from the city, a sentinel over the mountain.
Hundreds of spikes lined the fort's parapets, holding the decapitated heads of icelings. The heads gazed with eyeless sockets, their mouths open, their skin frozen blue. Giants stood there too, boulders in hands. They howled, and soon those boulders flew toward the two dragons.
Terra cursed, flew sideways, and dodged a boulder that grazed his leg. More boulders flew.
"Fly above the fort!" he shouted. "We'll be harder to hit."
Memoria nodded. They flapped their wings hard, shooting between the boulders. They flew higher and higher. The cold, thin air spun Terra's head. He righted himself, flew north, and circled above the stone fortress.
One giant tossed a boulder. Terra and Memoria scattered. The boulder flew between them, reached its zenith, and tumbled down. The giants below howled, and the boulder crashed between them, punching a hole into the fort.
The boulders ceased flying.
"Good," Terra said, flapping his wings. "We're safe if we hover right above them. I..." A closer look at the fortress made his breath die.
"Stars above," Memoria said, flying beside him. "Look at the size of him."
Terra clenched his jaw. Ice seemed to form along his spine. Fire filled his mouth, flicking between his teeth.
"I see him," he said, voice low. "He's a big boy, that one is."
A massive, deformed creature stood atop the fort, howling and pounding his chest. He towered over the giants who manned the parapets around him, twice their size. Tufts of hair grew from his squat, misshapen head. His body was all muscles overgrown with boils and scars. Claws grew from his fingers, each the size of a man. He wore a loin cloth, a belt decorated with iceling heads, and a crown of icicles.
"He must be a hundred feet tall," Memoria whispered.
Terra nodded. "Twice our size. He's their king."
The Giant King howled and reached his claws toward them. His cry shook the air; Terra could feel it pound against his chest. In his mind, he heard the howls of dragons, and the shrieks of griffins, and Memoria's voice. Terra... I found him.
"Look at his neck," Memoria said.
Terra frowned and stared. A golden chain hung around the giant's neck. Two small, white objects hung from it. When Terra squinted, they came into focus. Hands. A woman's hands, pale and dainty, folded into fists.
"Adoria's Hands," he said. "Those are the toys we want. Let's burn him, then grab them."
The smaller giants leered and waved their arms. The king pounded his feet, snapped his teeth, and cried out to them in a guttural language.
Memoria shook her head. "No fire, Terra! What if flames burn Adoria's Hands?"
The Giant King spat and shouted. His eyes blazed. Terra imagined that he was insulting them, calling them weak, inviting them to fight. Terra's head spun. He grinded his