A Dawn of Dragonfire - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,113

spoke with a trembling voice; she sounded so much like the Solina who would hold him years ago. Her every word shot arrows through him.

"El, you carved it for me. I remember… I said how I wanted a pet, a friend in Requiem, and you made me a wooden turtle. Remember how we'd imagine that, in the magical kingdom we would find, our turtle would come alive? How—"

Pain blazed on his thigh, not the throb of memory, but searing agony. Elethor gasped. His eyes snapped open to see Solina twisting a dagger in his leg.

Blood spurted and Solina leaped. She drove her fist into Elethor's chin, and his head snapped back, and he saw nothing but light and blood and stone. He fell, stars floating before his eyes. Solina pounced atop him, baring her teeth.

"I will spare your life this night," she hissed, "so you may see the death I bring to your land. But I will give you this first."

She pulled the dagger from his thigh. He raised his arms, but could not block her strength. She drove her blade down his face. Pain exploded. Blood filled his eyes and mouth.

"I will kill them all, Elethor!" she screamed. "I will burn them all with my fire. You will watch! And then you will crawl to me and beg to be mine!"

She leaped past him, tossed herself outside, and shifted into a phoenix. Her flames crackled, and when Elethor turned his head, he saw her soar into the night. Her scream carried on the wind, high-pitched, a storm of rage.

"You will beg, Elethor! You will beg!"

He struggled to his feet. Blood washed his face and leg. He made to leap after her, but his thigh twisted, and he fell. His elbows banged against the tunnel floor. He crawled to the exit, stared up, and saw the Moondisk bathe the world with light.

He tried to shift into a dragon. He let the magic fill him. Light and agony flooded him, his eyes closed, and his head fell.

BAYRIN

Time swirled like stars.

Darkness clutched him, pulling him into slumber, and Bayrin dreamed. In his dreams, he lay in human form upon bloody earth. Mori was kneeling above, also a human, cradling him in her arms.

"Bay!" she cried and shook him. "Bay, please…"

He dreamed of his sister there too, weeping over him, and his mother praying, and soldiers bearing him on a litter into a temple of marble and candles.

"Mori," he whispered. "I have to protect her… I have to fly…."

His voice died and he slept.

He felt like he slept for years.

When his eyes finally fluttered open, he thought he was dead. Soft light bathed him, and marble columns rose around him. He lay in a bed, a white blanket pulled over him. It was supposed to be night, but dawn's light fell from the windows.

"Mori?" he whispered, voice hoarse. He raised his arm and saw that bandages covered it.

"Do I look like Mori?" a voice answered him. "Bay, if I look like my sister, you look like a phoenix. Actually, for a while up there, you did look like one."

Bayrin pushed himself up in bed, pain blazing. He winced. A figure sat at his bedside, silhouetted in the dawn's light. Bayrin squinted, bringing the figure into focus. His breath caught.

"Elethor?" he whispered.

His friend nodded, smiling softly, though his eyes were sad.

"El!" Bayrin cried. He tried to leap up, to hug his friend, but his head spun, and he fell back into bed. Everything hurt; he felt like he'd been dipped into a bath of coals.

"Take it easy, Bay!" Elethor said and squeezed his shoulder. "You got banged up pretty badly there."

In a flash, Bayrin remembered. The phoenixes! They had swooped toward Mori, and…

He pushed himself back up, panting. "I have to save her, El. The battle! Mori is…"

"Mori is fine, Bay!" Elethor said. "Lie down, for stars' sake, or I'll tie you down." His voice softened. "You saved her life up there. You saved all of us."

Elethor himself was wounded, Bayrin saw. Bandages covered his shoulder and leg. Fresh stitches ran along his face, from forehead to chin. The young king looked like he'd been to the Abyss and back—which, Bayrin supposed, he had been. He couldn't help but laugh.

"Look at us, El—a pair of beaten up patients." Suddenly he found that tears filled his eyes. "Stars, Elethor, I missed you. What happened? Is the battle…?"

"The battle is over." Elethor sighed and lowered his head. "Solina fled. So have those phoenixes who survived. Not