A Dawn of Dragonfire - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,49

eyebrows and clucked his tongue. "Well hullo, Soli old friend. Been what, seven years? Time does fly. You must be looking for your old lover, El. Sorry to say he's not here at the moment, but if you'd like a roll in the hay—you know, for old time's sake—I'm more than happy to fill in."

She sighed. "Time has not made you any wiser." She turned to one of her men, a beefy warrior who looked like a rabid bear with yellow teeth. "Acribus, kill him."

The man snarled, drooled, and burst into flames.

Bayrin caught his breath.

The fire raced across Acribus. The man's flaming arms outstretched, and he rose into the air, ballooning and crackling, until he soared as a phoenix.

With a growl, Bayrin shifted into a dragon, flapped leathern wings, and shot into the sky.

He crashed between burnt branches, scattering chips of wood. Flames crackled and phoenix screeches rose. Bayrin growled and flew higher, as high and fast as he could. Below him, the other Tirans combusted into phoenixes. Their inferno rose, and heat blasted Bayrin.

"Stars damn it!" he shouted and flew forward, circling the hill. Phoenixes rose around him, their flames reaching toward him. One firebird shrieked behind him, and talons blazed against Bayrin's tail. He howled, spun around, and blew his own fire. The jet slammed into the phoenix, its beak lashed, and Bayrin screamed.

I can't fight it, he knew. Fang or fire can't kill it. He cursed and swooped, crashed between branches, and soared again.

"Mori!" he shouted. "Mori, where the stars are you?"

A phoenix swooped from above. Two more took flight from each side. Bayrin cursed, dived, and flew between trees. Smashed branches flew around him. He soared again, covered with ash, his scales blazing.

"Mori!" he shouted. "Stars damn it, Mori!"

He saw a flash of blue below. He dodged a phoenix, suffered a blast of fire, and dived. He saw the color again—a girl in a blue cloak, huddling between the trees.

"Mori! Mori, fly!"

She looked up at him, shivered, and seemed ready to faint. The phoenixes swooped toward Bayrin, and the trees below crackled. The snow melted.

"Mori, shift into a dragon! We're getting out of here!"

With a cry of fear, Mori became a slim golden dragon and took flight. A phoenix dived toward her, lashing fire. So fast Bayrin gasped, Mori skirted around the phoenix and soared higher. She flew toward him.

"Bayrin, behind you! Fly!"

He spun in time to see the phoenix shoot toward him, a blazing comet. The firebird crashed into him, and flames engulfed Bayrin. He howled in pain. Golden scales flashed, and Mori flew toward them. Her wings beat and her claws slammed into the phoenix, kicking it off. She cried in pain.

"Come on, Mori, we're out of here!" Bayrin shouted.

He began flying west. She flew at his side. When Bayrin looked over his shoulder, he saw five phoenixes following.

"Catch them!" Solina cried below, the only Tiran still in human form. "Bring me their heads, Acribus, or I will content myself with yours!"

Bayrin flew as fast as he could. Mori flew at his side, panting. The flames howled behind them, the heat bathed them, and ten thousand more phoenixes flamed a league north above the city. Bayrin cursed, narrowed his eyes, and flew.

LYANA

"Well, here it is," she said quietly and couldn't suppress a shudder. "The Gates of the Abyss."

Lyana raised her tin lamp, shining its light against the archway. It rose fifty feet tall, dwarfing her; she could have walked through this archway even in dragon form. Its keystone was shaped as a dragon's skull, horns blood red. Its remaining stones bore engravings of screaming mouths full of shattered teeth. Heavy doors filled the archway, wrought of iron that had not rusted in two thousand years. Cold air blew from beneath those doors, sneaking under Lyana's armor to chill her flesh. She clutched her sword's hilt like she would clutch Mother's hand as a child.

Standing at her side, Elethor drew a silver key from his tunic; it hung around his neck on a chain. All members of royal House Aeternum owned these keys, Lyana knew, even the young Princess Mori. They unlocked all forbidden places here in the underground: the library of ancient codices, the Chamber of Artifacts… and these dark doors to the Abyss.

"Are you ready, Lyana?" he said. "Are you afraid?"

Lyana shuddered to remember the stories her nurse would tell her of this place. The old woman whispered of horrors that dwelled below—rotting bodies that walked, naked moles the size of horses, ancient