A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) (23 page)

No,
he told himself.
No!
It was impossible. Tilla had saved him. Tilla had slain Shari.
Tilla had made love to him in the burrow. This was no ruse. She was
simply... simply mad that he refused to flee with her. That was all.

And yet Rune decided to keep a
close eye on her, and he couldn't eliminate the chill in his belly.

They walked in silence,
following the trail of fire that blazed across the sky.

In
the afternoon the forest thinned out, and they found themselves
walking in open sunlight. The snow was deeper here, and Rune began
to worry about their tracks being seen from the sky. Maples and ash
trees grew upon scattered hills, and frozen streams crossed the land
.
Rune
stuck his hands under his armpits, but he couldn't stop shaking, and
his cough ripped at his throat.

As the sun dipped behind them
and dusk painted the sky, clouds moved in from the east. Another
mile and the clouds thickened above, hiding the sky. Fresh snow
began to fall. Finally, after hours of silence, Tilla spoke.

"We will fly."

Without waiting for a reply or
even glancing his way, she shifted. She rose as a white dragon,
soared straight up, and vanished into the clouds. With a breath of
relief, Rune shifted too and followed.

Stars,
this feels good,
he thought. He had not shifted in so long. Fire filled his belly
and throat. The magic warmed him, flowing through his veins like
wine. For the first time this winter, he felt warm.

For a moment he flew blinded,
seeking Tilla but seeing only snow and clouds. He pounded his wings,
trying to clear the clouds, but they were too thick.

"Tilla?" he called.

He flew on, grumbling, wondering
if she'd flown off and if he'd ever see her again. Perhaps she had
decided to abandon him, to find her own life away from his war. His
belly sank.

"Tilla!" he called
again.

A grumble rose in the darkness.
Her head thrust out from clouds, and her wings blasted him with air.

"Hush!" she said.
"The Legions fly here too. I spotted a battalion flying east
about a mile away. We're heading the right way. Now fly quietly!"

Her words were harsh and biting
as ever, but Rune breathed in relief. Angry or not, at least she was
still with him.

They kept flying, the clouds
streaming around them, the snow flurrying. Rune kept close to Tilla,
but he could barely see her; he only caught glimpses of her white
scales between the wisps. Every few moments, the two dragons rose
higher, emerging above the clouds, then sinking again, like whales
rising for a breath. During these breaches, Rune could see the
Legions ahead beyond the storm. The armored dragons flew east, their
fire bright, their howls a distant thunder.

They
fly to Valien... and to Kaelyn.

At the thought of Kaelyn, his
heart gave a twist, and his eyes stung. He missed her. He missed
Valien too, and he missed Erry, and he missed all the others... but
he mostly missed her. With Tilla's words still stinging, Rune
yearned for Kaelyn's kind eyes, soft touch, and smiling lips. He
thought back to that night in the ruined, hilltop temple, the night
they had kissed.

I
always thought Tilla was the love of my life, but now I miss you,
Kaelyn. Now I wish I were back there in those ruins, holding you.

He looked at Tilla, who flew
beside him, her scales glimmering, and guilt choked his throat, and
he had never felt more confused.

A roar sounded ahead, and fire
pierced the clouds.

Rune started. At first he
thought it was Tilla roaring fire, but she looked just as bewildered.
Rune sucked in his breath and stared ahead. Tilla's eyes narrowed
and she bared her fangs.

The roar sounded again, five
hundred yards away or closer, and more fire blazed, painting the
clouds red.

Rune snarled. The main
battalion was still distant; this was probably a lost soldier or a
small patrol. Rune dipped lower in the clouds, gestured at Tilla,
and she followed his lead. They sank fifty yards, staying within the
cloud cover.

"Keep flying," he
mouthed and pointed his claws ahead. "We'll fly under them."

She nodded, moved closer to him,
and they shot forward through the clouds, silent and straight.

The roars continued above and
fire cascaded down.

"They betrayed me!"
roared a dragon; perhaps there was only one. "They stabbed me
in the back. But I will make them kneel."

Rune frowned as he flew. He
knew that voice from somewhere.

"How dare they banish me?"
The dragon flew directly above now. "I'm their prince. I'm
their savior! I—" The voice halted, then spoke louder. "Who
flies below? I see your wake through the clouds. Is it you, sister?
Have you come to kneel?"

Rune cursed and kept gliding
forward. He gestured with his claws for Tilla to follow. He cursed
under his breath. They'd been spotted, but perhaps they could still
lose this dragon in the clouds. Tilla glided beside him, silent.

A jet of fire crashed down,
missing Rune by a foot. Wings beat, scattering clouds, and air
whistled. The dragon above was swooping.

"You cannot escape me!"
cried the beast. "I see your wake. Come and die, dragons! I
will kill you. I will kill you all."

Rune growled and filled his maw
with fire.

"Stars damn it, there's
only one," he said to Tilla, not caring if the beast above
heard. "Let's kill the bastard."

Tilla gave a battle cry, and
flames crackled to life between her teeth. She and Rune reared,
soared, and blasted flame upward.

The fires roared, scattering the
clouds. From the smoke and flame and mist, a red dragon came
barreling down, bellowing and clawing the air.

Rune's heart skipped a beat and
his anger flared.

"Leresy Cadigus," he
said.

The young prince, twin to
Kaelyn, looked haggard and nearly mad. The gilt on his horns, a sign
of nobility, was peeling. Grime clung to his scales. But worse were
his eyes; they were a madman's eyes. Something inside them had
broken like snapped springs inside a doll. The red dragon cackled
and leered.

"Hello, dragons!" he
said. "You will kneel too. But first you will fall, yes.
Fall!"

He raised his claws, holding up
a cylinder of leather and glass.

Rune wasn't sure what the
contraption was, and he had no time to contemplate it. He soared
with Tilla, and they blasted fire again, shooting the jets up at the
prince.

Red light shot down.

At first Rune thought it a
stream of fire. Then he realized—red light was streaming from the
cylinder like a sunbeam. Rune roared, tried to fly higher, and
gasped.

An unseen claw tugged at his
magic.

He growled, trying to cling to
it, but the magic was jerked away like sleep vanishing under shaking
hands.

Among the clouds, he resumed
human form.

He tumbled.

At his side, he saw Tilla
falling too. They pierced the clouds. They fell through open sky.
The black fields below spun, racing up toward them. The red light
still bathed them.

"I can't fly!" he
shouted.

Even as she plummeted, Tilla
managed to glare. "I noticed!"

He grimaced and tried to summon
his magic again. Its tendrils coiled inside him, but whenever he
reached for them, they slipped from his mind. It felt like trying to
remember a fading dream. Leresy still flew as a dragon. He cackled
and dived, aiming the cylinder down. The red light still bathed Rune
and Tilla.

"It's that damn light of
his!" Rune shouted. "It's canceling out our magic."

Tilla shouted in frustration.
"Yes, Rune, I can see that! Thank you, Sir Obvious."

The ground grew closer. Rune
winced. He had only seconds to live.

"Damn it, Leresy!" he
shouted up. "We're not your enemies. It's Rune and Tilla. You
know us! Take that light off!"

But the red dragon seemed fully
mad. He laughed, head tossed back, and blasted fire across the sky.
His chest rose and fell, and smoke sputtered from him. He seemed
like some cracked, leaky cauldron about to shatter.

"Rune and Tilla, Rune and
Tilla!" he chanted. "I know you. Yes, I know you! Rune
the silly boy my father wants. Tilla the tall woman with the nice,
pale skin to kiss, yes." He howled with laughter. "I
craved you both once, one to kill and one to bed, but which was
which?"

The air howled around them. The
ground loomed so close, they could count the boulders and trees.
They had only a breath or two left.

"Leresy, stars damn you!"
Tilla screamed. "Stop shining the light!"

"Take it off, Leresy!"
Rune shouted, panic thudding through him. "We're not your
enemies! We're your friends!"

The wind roared.

The ground reached toward them.

Rune
winced and knew:
This
is it.

He reached out and held Tilla's
hand.

He held his breath.

Leresy laughed and soared, and
the red light vanished.

Treetops skimmed Rune's boots.

Roaring, he shifted into a
dragon.

His wings bent the trees below.
He blasted fire and sucked in air and his eyes watered.

I'm
alive, stars, I'm alive.

Tilla soared at his side,
howling.

Still laughing, Leresy made a
lazy arc in the air, turning back toward them.

"Tilla, fly down and land!"
Rune shouted.

They swooped.

They crashed between the
treetops.

Several feet above the forest
floor, the red light bathed them again. They lost their magic and
thumped into the snow in human forms.

Rune moaned. The fall wasn't
high enough to break his bones, but he would bruise. He raised his
head, coughed, and struggled to rise. Tilla moaned at his side and
pushed herself up onto her elbows.

Before they could stand, the red
dragon crashed down through the trees. His claws thrust out. One
dragon foot slammed against Rune, shoving him down. Snow filled his
mouth and he moaned. The second foot slammed against Tilla and
pinned her down.

"So, Rune and Tilla, Rune
and Tilla," said the dragon. "Or should I say... Relesar
Aeternum and the famous Lanse Tilla Siren?" He cackled and spat
fire. "Oh yes, I've heard of your ascension, girl." He
thrust down his head, reached out a tongue the size of a human arm,
and licked Tilla's head. "Oh my, but you taste delightful. You
taste like honey and moonlight. I've wanted to taste you for a long
while."

She spat and her face twisted in
disgust. "Go lick gutter shite, Leresy. Get off me."

She struggled and kicked but
couldn't free herself. Rune squirmed too. The cylinder's light no
longer shone upon him, but Leresy's foot pressed down too mightily.
Whenever he grasped his magic and tried to shift, the weight squeezed
it away like juice from a fruit, leaving Rune in human form.

"What do you want?" he
demanded, twisting his head to stare up at the dragon.

Leresy
laughed. "What do I want? Oh, silly child of the woods. What
do I want?" He lowered his scaly head, and his smoke fluttered
across the forest floor. "I want to kill all my enemies. I
want to bed every woman in the world. I want power and money and
booze. I want to forget the blood, the screams, the fire. What do I
want, lost children?" His voice strained, shoving out each word
through a clenched jaw. "I want the
throne
."

The claws dug into the soil
beneath Rune, then tightened, coiling around his torso like a steel
cage. Rune grimaced, his arms pinned to his sides, and glared up at
Leresy.

"Go take your damn throne
then," he said. "Go fight your madman of a father. Or if
you want to face me, face me like a man, or let me shift and face you
as a dragon. Or are you a coward?"

Leresy laughed and lifted Rune
from the ground. In his other foot, he held Tilla, squeezing and
pinning her arms to her sides. The red dragon bucked and tossed his
head, blasting smoke across the forest.

"A coward?" he said.
"Am I a coward? I slew Beras the Brute. I found the Genesis
Shards. I will kill my father. I will kill my sister Shari. I
will—"

"Your damn sister is
already dead," Tilla spat out, squirming in the claws. "I
killed her myself. Stabbed my blade right into her chest."

Leresy froze.

He panted, not moving, holding
Rune and Tilla still in his claws. His eyes widened.

"My sister... Shari...
dead?"

Rune nodded. "I saw her
die. Tilla is speaking truth. You've been away from the capital for
too long."

For a moment Leresy stood
frozen. Fire crackled in his maw. Then, with a howl, he reared. He
tossed back his head and blasted fire, igniting the treetops. He
laughed. His tail lashed, slamming into trees. Flaming branches
fell and sparks showered. The grass kindled.

"Shari is dead!"
Leresy howled and laughed, sounding like a demonic child overcome
with joy. "Dead, dead, dead! Shari is dead!"

He bounced around with glee,
tail knocking down trees, still clutching Rune and Tilla. Smoke
filled the forest. Trees blazed. Rune coughed, blinded. Before the
flames could burn him, Leresy leaped up and soared, rising into the
night sky, still clutching his prizes.

"Dead, dead! Shari is
dead! Happy night, happy night, Shari is dead!"

Rune coughed and squirmed,
trying to free an arm, trying to shift, but the claws clutched him so
tightly he could barely breathe.

"Stars damn you, Leresy, I
thought we were fighting together. You helped us in Lynport. Now
free me!"

Leresy laughed and began flying
back west, back toward the capital. The clouds streamed by, the
forest below burned, and the wind roared.