Dragons Reborn (25 page)

He
had never known such rage, such bloodlust. The enemies swarmed around him.
Fidelity, Domi, and the others fought at his sides, blasting their heat in a
ring, their claws lashing. Arrows whistled all around. One arrow cracked one of
Cade's scales. Another cut through his wing, and he bellowed with pain. He
soared toward a firedrake above him, dodged the beast's claws, and gored the
animal with his horns. Blood spilled, and Cade tugged his head madly, ripping
the firedrake's belly open, spilling its innards. He yanked his head back, flew
forward, and roared out fire, bathing another firedrake with the inferno. The
paladin in its saddle screamed and burned.

Cade
bellowed in the sky, feeling like a firedrake himself, a mindless beast who
knew nothing but the hunt, the kill, the heat of battle. His roar rang across
the sky. It was a roar for his dead stepparents. For his kidnapped stepsister.
For his burnt village. For all those the Cured Temple had killed, for all they
had destroyed. It was the roar for a lost kingdom, a fallen people, a memory
fading under the light of the Cured.

"Requiem!"
he cried, voice hoarse, mouth full of blood. "Remember Requiem!"

"Requiem!"
Fidelity shouted, rising to fly beside him, scales blue and fangs red.

"Requiem!"
shouted Domi, rising to fly at his other side.

"Requiem!"
cried Korvin and Roen, blasting out their fire, and Amity joined them, shouting
out for their lost kingdom. "Remember Requiem!"

Flying
here with them, fighting with them, Cade was not fighting for the Horde, not
for conquest, not even for revenge. He fought for that word Domi had whispered
into his ear, for that memory Fidelity had kept alive in her books, for that
kingdom Korvin had fought for all his life. For a memory of dragons. For
dragons reborn. For Requiem.

He
dodged a volley of arrows, skirted beneath the claws of firedrakes, and dipped
lower in the sky. Past smoke and fire, he beheld the battle below upon the sea,
and he lost his breath.

Countless
ships covered the roiling waters like flotsam, burning, firing cannons,
bustling with sailors. Hundreds of Temple ships, vessels with white hulls and towering
masts, sailed with deadly precision. Agile longships with many oars surrounded
the looming carracks and brigantines, forming dozens of battle formations.
Cannons blasted from the Templers' hulls, spraying out smoke and light. Archers
in white robes fired from the bulwarks. Iron figureheads, shaped as rams, drove
into the hulls of Horde ships, cracking the wood, and gangplanks slammed down
from deck to deck. Holy warriors, all in white, leaped from the Temple's ships
onto the Horde's decks, swinging swords, raising shields. And everywhere the
cannonballs flew, shattering hulls, snapping masts, driving along decks to tear
men into red mist. Corpses filled the water.

Cade
could only spare the battle a glance. More firedrakes flew toward him, their
dragonfire crashing down. Cade shot forward and soared again, blasting his
flames.

The
sky was a reflection of the sea, a battle of no less intensity. The thousand
firedrakes flew everywhere, a tapestry of scales and fangs. From the east flew
the griffins, screeching as they lashed their talons and snapped their beaks. On
their backs, riders of the Horde fired arrows and thrust lances. The griffins
were burlier than dragons, their wings wider, but they had no fire; the
firedrakes blasted them with their flames, and the griffins' lion bodies and
eagle wings blazed. Every moment, another griffin tumbled from the sky, a fiery
comet, to crash into the sea.

From the west flew hundreds of salvanae. The ancient true dragons coiled
across the sky like many streamers, long and thin serpents of the air, and
their beards fluttered in the sky. They were thinner and weaker than griffins, but
they shot lightning bolts from their jaws. The shards of electricity slammed
into firedrakes, cracking scales, driving into the armor of paladins. The
salvanae were mighty, but they too were falling fast; their scales were too
thin, things of beauty rather than the thick armor of dragons. Firedrake claws
tore off those scales and sent them showering down in a parti-colored hail.
Blood rained. Arrows drove into the true dragons, and fire washed over them,
and they too fell from the sky, twisting madly as they crashed into the waves,
ancient creatures gone into the sea.

By the stars of Requiem,
Cade thought, heart sinking.
We're
only hours off the coast of Terra, still days away from the Commonwealth, and
already we're shattering.

Korvin plunged down from the fray, covered in burns and cuts. Several of
his scales were missing, and the skin beneath bled.

"Cade, with me!" the charcoal dragon shouted. "We have to
protect the ships below!"

"But the sky—"

"The sky is lost!" Korvin shouted. "We must protect the
fleet."

Cade glanced down again. The Horde's fleet was twice the size of the
Temple's armada, but most of its ships were smaller. Rather than sail in formation,
the Horde fought in an unorganized mass. Rather than follow commanders into
battle, the Horde's warriors fought as a mob. Dozens of their ships blazed, listed,
and sank, and cannon fire kept pounding them. Firedrakes kept swooping from the
sky, raining down fire, and sails blazed. Already a dozen Horde ships had been
claimed by the enemy; paladins and Temple soldiers chanted atop them, tossing
off the corpses of the Horde. A few of the surviving griffins and salvanae were
attacking the Temple's ships, but cannonballs and arrows slammed into them,
sending them crashing down into the water.

"Dragons of Requiem, with me!" Korvin shouted and dived,
curving his flight to charge toward the Temple's fleet.

Cade flew with him, screaming in his rage. Roen flew at his side; the
green dragon bellowed, scales charred, claws painted red. Amity still flew
somewhere above, calling out for war, and Cade could no longer see Domi and
Fidelity, but he kept flying with Korvin and Roen, kept roaring, and they flew
closer toward the enemy fleet. Several griffins and salvanae joined their
flight, archers of the Horde on their backs.

Several carracks swayed ahead in the water, lofty ships with many sails,
and hundreds of Templers stood on the decks—paladins in white plate armor and
common soldiers in chain mail and white robes. As the dragons charged, Templer gunners
wheeled cannons toward them.

Cade
roared and dipped in the sky, skimming the water, charging toward the vessels.

The
cannons fired.

Smoke
blasted out. The sound was deafening. The water around the ship was flattened
and waves blasted forth. With flame and roaring noise, cannonballs flew through
the air. One shrieked above Cade, nearly hitting his horns. At his side,
another cannonball slammed into a griffin. The beast collapsed, ribs snapping,
flesh flying out in gobbets, blood raining. It crashed down into the sea, torn
apart. Another cannonball slammed into another griffin's rider, scattering the
body into a shower of meat and blood.

"Burn
them!" Korvin roared above. The iron dragon blasted forth his dragonfire.
Beside him, Roen opened his jaws wide, and the green dragon sent forth an
inferno of light and heat.

Cade
roared and blew his dragonfire with them.

The
jets streamed forth and slammed into the enemy ships.

The
carracks caught fire. Sails blazed, tore free from the masts, and flew through
the air to envelope other ships. Men screamed, burning, and jumped into the
water. The cannons blasted again, and Cade dipped to dodge the iron balls. He
plunged into the water, sinking into the cold sea.

He
opened his eyes underwater to see men sinking, struggling in their armor but
only descending deeper. Blood danced around Cade like red fairies. Beating his
tail, he swam under one of the brigantines, then drove upward.

His
horns pierced the bottom of the ship, and Cade roared and lashed his claws,
tearing through the floor, ripping out wooden flanks. Water gushed into the ship.

Cade
tugged himself free from the hull, swam, and soared up from the sea, wings
raining water. The blazing ship sank beneath him, but hundreds more spread all
around. In the south, ships of the Horde were sinking, collapsing, blazing. The
sea itself seemed to burn.

We're
losing our army,
Cade realized in horror.
Our griffins and salvanae keep
falling dead. Our ships keep sinking.
He trembled in the sky.
We'll
never even reach the coast of the Commonwealth, never mind the Temple.

As
one of the Horde's baghlah ships sank before Cade, he heard a voice cry out
behind him.

"Hello
again, brother! Hello, Cade! I bring you a gift of fire, and I bring you the
song of death!"

Cade
growled. He knew that voice. He spun in the sky and he saw her there. She flew
upon a white firedrake, her cape billowing, holding a lance and shield.

Mercy
Deus. His sister.

Her
firedrake charged toward him, and her lance thrust, its tip smeared with green
ilbane.

Cade
roared and flew toward her, blowing his dragonfire.

Her
white firedrake opened its jaws wide, and its cry tore through the sky, tore at
Cade's ears, high pitched, twanging, beastly. Flames gushed forth from the
gullet and swept toward Cade.

The two jets of fire crashed together and cast out great fountains like an
exploding sun.

The two beasts—a golden dragon and a white firedrake—charged through
the inferno and crashed together.

At once their claws lashed and their teeth snapped. The white firedrake
was smaller than average—even smaller than Cade—but it was a wild thing,
twisting, clawing, shrieking. Cade had the sudden vision of some rabid, flying
ferret covered in scales, thrashing in the sky. Fangs drove into Cade's
shoulder and he yowled. Atop the white firedrake, Mercy raised her spear,
prepared to thrust down the poisoned blade.

Cade hissed and swooped, dodging the lance, and flew across the sky. He
soared toward the sun through smoke and flame, weaving around battling griffins
and firedrakes, then spun downward. As ships blazed below, Mercy and her
firedrake soared toward him. A golden dragon and a white firedrake, they
charged toward each other again.

Cade rained fire. The jet crashed into the white firedrake, spraying
Mercy. The paladin raised her shield, protecting herself from the inferno. The
white firedrake reached out its claws and crashed into Cade again.

Cade drove down his fangs, trying to rip out the firedrake's neck, but
his teeth slammed into scales as hard as steel armor. He could not pierce them.
The rabid beast grabbed Cade in its claws, digging into him, holding him in the
air. Cade beat his wings madly but couldn't free himself.

On the firedrake's back, Mercy rose in her stirrups and hefted her lance,
prepared to thrust it into Cade's neck. Cade kicked and whipped his tail and
beat his wings, but the firedrake held him fast.

"Feel the poison!" Mercy laughed. "Feel my lance drive
through your neck as it drove through the neck of the gray beast."

She thrust the lance.

Cade yowled and released his magic.

The lance thrust above his head as he shrank to human form. He slipped
free from the firedrake's grip and tumbled down toward the sea.

He tried to summon his magic again, but he was so tired. He was bleeding
from several cuts. The blazing ships spread below, many of them sinking.
Corpses rained around him, both of men and beasts. Smoke filled Cade's lungs,
and the sea rushed up to meet him, and Mercy shrieked above.

Shift!

Cade gritted his teeth, reaching for his magic, desperate to clutch it.
It kept slipping from him. A ship burned beneath him, and smoke filled his
nostrils, and—

Finally he grabbed the magic, shifted and soared.

He
rose up, seeking Mercy, but found a hundred griffins, firedrakes, and salvanae
now between him and his sister. The sky burned with the battle.

"Mercy!"
he roared. "Mercy, where are you?"

Cade
flew through the battle, trying to see her. Arrows rose from the ships below,
and one skimmed along his scales, and another sank into one of the spikes on
his tail. All around him, more ships of the Horde sank, and tens of thousands
of men bustled through the water like flies in blood, crying out, silenced,
sinking.

And
ever the ships of the Temple advanced.

White,
towering vessels, they plowed through the sinking fleet of the Horde. Their
cannons carved out their path, and two firedrakes flew above each ship,
blasting down fire to clear any advancing Horde vessel. Again and again, the
paladins on their firedrakes descended, blasting fire. Again and again, ships
of the Horde sank. For every Templer vessel burned, ten ships of the Horde
vanished into the water, their warriors drowned, leaving nothing but the memory
of screams.

The
Temple's fleet tore through the Horde's armada like a spear through flesh. Even
the prodigious Behemoth roared in agony, floundering in the water, unable to
fly, unable to charge. It swam like some obese, furless dog, and a hundred
firedrakes kept charging toward it, bathing it with fire, tearing at its skin
with claws. Again and again, the paladins fired their arrows, piercing Behemoth,
and its blood filled the water.

"Mercy!"
Cade roared, flying through the battle, seeking her. He had to find her again.
He had to kill her. He could end this battle. He could kill its general. He—

"Cade!"

Fidelity
came flying toward him. Burns marred her blue scales, and she bled from several
gashes on her arms.

"Fidelity!"

She
reached him and hovered in the air, panting. Her eyes were red. "Cade, we
have to fly back! Back to Terra!" The blue dragon looked down at the
Templer armada; a hundred ships had already plowed through the Horde and were
sailing south. "Mercy hasn't just sailed here to stop our fleet. She's
going to land on the coast and slay every woman and child of the Horde she can
find. We have to fly back! We have to save them."