Song of Dragons The Complete Trilogy - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,276

stretching before her, diving under mountain and ruins. Skeletons surrounded her. Was Father one of these skeletons? She tried to find him.

"Father! Father, don't worry. You can be a skeleton. I'll be one soon too. I don't care, but Mother will say I'm too thin."

Her left hand hurt. She could feel the fingers twisting. Someone was burning it.

"No, Umbra, please," she begged and wept. "Let me go."

But the woman only chained her down, and stars, no, please, no....

She heard the hiss. A sword being drawn. His sword.

"Please, Irae... Mother, help me!"

Stars, it's gone. My hand is gone. How could it be gone? Where is it?

She had to find it. She had to. The pup will hate me without a hand. He'll leave me. He'll go be with Gloriae. She had beautiful hands.

Tears streamed down Agnus Dei's face, so hot. I'm like him now. I'm like Dies Irae.

"He'll take my other hand," she whispered, trembling. "Please, Mother, he'll take my leg. Please don't let him."

Arms embraced her. "I won't let him, sweetheart. I promise."

Where was she? Who was holding her?

"Mother!"

She fell into tunnels. She wanted to stay with her mother, with her sister, with her pup. But the tunnels pulled her down. Pain! Fire on her hand. The fingers moved.

I am mimic. My hand is cruel. My hand will hurt me. Stars, it's gone. How could it be gone? Please, Irae, please.

She saw her hand before her. It rose from the shadows, speckled in blood. It wielded an axe toward her. Please, don't cut my other hand....

The hand grew from a mimic with four arms and a bull's head. Its hair was long, black, curly, rustling with bugs. Its eyes mocked her. It smiled, showing pointed teeth and a slobbering tongue.

"Agnus Dei," it hissed. "He will cut your head. He will make you a mimic like me." It tightened her hand around the axe. Worms crawled over the knuckles.

She trembled. She tried to kick, to fight it, but was too weak. The darkness pulled her. The heat! Fire burned her hand, her forehead, her lungs. Sweat drenched her.

"The nightshades broke me," she whispered. "They're pulling me into their worlds, into the shadows."

The darkness shattered her, tugged her into pieces, drowned her. Fire everywhere. Pain and fire. Her eyes rolled back. I'm sorry, Mother. I'm sorry, Gloriae. I'm sorry, Kyrie. I don't want to leave you. I love you all so much.

Golden light rolled across her, like the hint of dawn over a swaying field.

"Mother?"

The heat left her.

The pain vanished.

When she opened her eyes, she saw light like feathers. It tickled her face. Blue wisps floated above them; bits of sky. She heard rustling leaves, and saw rolling hills, rays of light between birches, and columns of white marble. Figures robed in white floated before her, harps in hand.

"Requiem?" she whispered.

Snowy mountains and valleys of pines spread before her. A great mountain soared ahead, all in gold, dragons flying around it, bugling, sunlight on their scales. They were true dragons, wingless, limbless, flying serpents of brilliant colors, of fluttering white beards, of crystal eyes.

"Salvanae!" she said. She smiled softly under their light. "I am here again, in Salvandos. I remember flying here with Kyrie."

Tears flowed down her cheeks. Was this the afterlife—to spend eternity with the salvanae? Hope welled within her and she wept. This was a good place to die.

I'll wait here for you, she swore to her family. One day we'll fly here together.

A golden salvana flew toward her, coiling and uncoiling. His white moustache and beard fluttered in the wind. His eyes were the size of melons, spinning and glowing.

"Nehushtan!" Agnus Dei cried. "It's me. Agnus Dei. Do you remember?"

She found herself lying in grass in human form. Nehushtan floated above her. He lowered his head, so that his beard brushed against her. His head was larger than her human body. His eyes blinked, his long white lashes fanning her.

"Wake, daughter of stars," he said, his voice like harps. "The song of Requiem calls you."

Stars floated around her, spun, streamed. But I am awake, she thought. I live among the stars.

Somebody squeezed her hand, and she heard Mother's voice.

"Wake up, Agnus Dei. Open your eyes. It's not yet your time to leave me."

But my eyes are open, she thought. I can see beauty and light.

Yet she managed to open them again. New light shone. She gasped, and cold air filled her lungs, scented of mountains. Nehushtan seemed to smile at her, teeth glinting, moustache fluttering. His golden scales chinked