A Dawn of Dragonfire - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,109

but none could burn it. The creature's appetite knew no bounds; its jaws opened and closed, biting phoenixes like a wolf biting hens.

Blue scales flashed to her left.

A cry pierced the night.

"Mother!"

Adia looked and saw her daughter there. Lyana looked slimmer, the shine of her scales dimmed, but she was alive, she was flying, she was well. Tears filled Adia's eyes. My daughter. My beloved. She wanted to fly toward Lyana, hold her, never let her go again. But she steeled herself.

"Lyana!" she cried. "Lead the southern route!" Behind her daughter's shoulder, she saw a hundred dragons fly into a cloud of phoenixes. Many burned and fell. "Lead them to King's Forest and I will meet you there!"

Lyana looked behind her, saw the phoenixes swoop against the fleeing dragons, and nodded. With a growl, the sapphire dragon flew toward them.

"Dragons of Requiem, follow!" Lyana called. "We fly to the forests!"

Adia looked around her. Hundreds of dragons were fleeing to all directions of the wind. Thousands of phoenixes were swooping upon them or chasing them into the distance. Below, in the collapsed chasm, some Vir Requis still huddled in what shelter remained of the tunnels. The sounds of battle rose from the earth; Tirans and Vir Requis still fought there in human forms.

We are overrun, Adia realized. A chill ran through her. The Starlit Demon could not devour ten thousand phoenixes. It could not stop the fire that burned her people.

Our era ends here, she thought, tears in her eyes. The Second Age of Requiem ends like the first… in blood and fire and destruction.

Three phoenixes fell upon her. Their claws lashed, their beaks bit, and their fire blazed against her. Adia shouted and could barely hear her own voice. She called for the Starlit Demon, but could not see it. She saw nothing but fire.

No more pain filled her. Only warmth.

I die now, she thought. I go to the starlit halls of my fathers. I will forever dine there with my parents, with the fallen men and women of my house. I am coming to you, stars of Requiem.

She heard the glow of those celestial halls, a sound like harps. She saw their glow, silver and soft, bathing her with light. No more fire burned her, and Adia could smile, for she died as she had lived—fighting for the song of her people.

She raised her eyes, and looked to the stars, and saw the silver light blaze. Caught in the beam, the phoenixes still flew, but no more fire burned upon them. They were as naked vultures, black and wizened, exposed for their true ugliness and frailty.

Two dragons came coiling down from the light, tails whipping behind them, and Adia gasped.

"Bayrin!" she called. Her son flew there! She knew his great, lanky frame, his emerald scales, his bright eyes. Princess Mori flew by him, gripping a disk of silver light; she seemed to be holding the moon itself. Did they too die? Did they too now fly among the stars of Afterlife?

"Mother!" Bayrin called. He dived. His fire rained upon the naked vultures, and his claws slashed them. The beasts burned, bled, and fell.

Adia's heart thrashed, she gasped, and tears ran down her cheeks.

They were not dead, she knew. She laughed as she cried. They found the Moondisk.

She flapped her wings—three great thuds—and soared. Her fire roared, spun, and crashed against a naked phoenix that screeched in the Moondisk's glow.

The phoenix blazed. For a moment it looked like a firebird again, but this was dragonfire. This fire burned it. The creature squealed, cawed to the sky, and fell. As it tumbled by Adia, it became a man again… nothing but a burning man who thudded against the ruins of Nova Vita below.

Adia spread her wings wide, blew fire, and roared. Hope burned anew—hope of moonlight and dragonfire.

LYANA

She was rallying the fleeing dragons, driving them toward the southern forests, when the light blazed behind her. Lyana turned and saw her brother plunge through the light, blowing fire upon extinguished phoenixes. Princess Mori flew behind him, holding a disk like the moon, bathing the world with its glow.

Tears sprang into Lyana's eyes.

Bayrin and Mori are back. Hope is back.

"Fly to the forests!" she cried to the children who flew around her. "Wait for us there!"

As the small dragons flew off, Lyana turned, snarled, and soared into battle. Her fire bathed the sky.

Under the beam of Mori's Moondisk, the phoenixes lost their flames, only to ignite under dragonfire. Lyana saw her mother fly