Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN
A ustyn fell beneath me, her arms reaching out wildly in an effort to grab hold of anything to stop her fall. My heart beat chaotically in my chest as terror consumed me and awoke every instinct of my training. If only I could wield gravity and fall faster to catch her.
By some miracle she landed in a red cotton awning over someone’s balcony, and I collided with it a second later, the two of us rolling into each other in the middle as the material tore beneath us.
I grabbed hold of her, surrounding her with my body as we fell, slamming into the hard stone of the balcony below and taking the brunt of the fall to my back.
Austyn’s body shook from the adrenaline as I held her, giving her enough room to breathe, ignoring the pain splintering up my spine.
“Are you alright?” I rasped.
“Yes, I think so. Thank you – er, remind me of your name again?”
“Cass,” I said, figuring it was half true.
“Thank you, Cass. Are you hurt?”
My heart lurched as Azurea fell from the roof above, colliding with the side of the balcony, her huge talons ripping through the stone like it was paper and shattering the structure beneath us, the world flipping on its axis once more.
I crushed Austyn to my chest as we fell, but it seemed like half the building was coming down with us, the pounding of bricks and shattered stone slamming into my body over and over.
Azurea roared as she was struck by the blast too, a huge lump of rock colliding with her head as she clasped at the silver arrow buried deep in her chest. Her enormous tail swiped the building, sending another spray of shrapnel everywhere before she hit the ground below us with an echoing thud that sounded her demise.
We landed on the dragon’s scaly back just as the street buckled beneath her weight and we fell into the dark of the sewers far below, Azurea’s body slamming into the water and sending a wave out into the gloom.
I lifted Austyn into my arms without a second thought, traversing across Azurea’s outstretched wing onto the brick path that ran along one side of the tunnel of water, the darkness in the sewer pressing in.
The building we had fallen from groaned and more masonry crashed over us from above, casting a plume of dust into the air which I squinted against to try and see.
I dropped to the ground with Austyn beneath me, bracing myself against the bricks as I tried to shield her from the falling stones, but as I looked down at the princess, I found her frighteningly still.
Through the gloom, I could just make out a dent in the metal of her helmet, her eyes shut and her features still.
“Princess,” I gasped in terror, tugging her helmet off and cupping her cheek in my palm as panic cut my heart to ribbons. I leaned closer, my ear to her mouth and the softness of her breaths fanned against my skin, filling me with relief. She was alive, but for how much longer?
I slid her helmet back into place to protect her from any further tumbling stones, though the falling brickwork slowed until it finally stopped altogether.
By some hand of god, I hadn’t sustained any life-threatening injuries.
I could still run, and I would. As far as I could until the princess was safe within the hands of a healer.
“Stay with me. I’ll get you out of here,” I swore, looking up at the hole far above us in the roof of the sewer. It would be a difficult climb, especially while I was holding her, but I would find a way.
I scooped her against my chest just as a strange red glow fell over us and I lifted my head, finding an enormous ruby dragon egg laying on its side among the rubble on the path in front of us, the ethereal light emitting from deep within it.
I knew that egg. I’d seen it before, deep in a canyon in the Lyrian Desert where we had first encountered the dragon of old.
Azurea stirred and every bone in my body froze as I looked to her, praying I had imagined it, because surely she could not still live on with an arrow piercing her heart?
But as she tried to regain consciousness, my muscles bunched in preparation of a fight, because it was clear she was not cast from this world yet. I cursed the lost gods as I held Austyn tighter, not wanting to let go of her in a bid to engage the beast.
Azurea shifted, rolling onto her side and revealing a fleshy pouch on her stomach where that egg must have been contained. Her most precious of possessions.
She clawed at the arrow wedged within her chest, trying to tear it from her body, but it wouldn’t shift.
The dragon shuddered and fire rippled deep within her body, her ribs lighting up from the inside and the glow of heat rippling out to spread through her wound and along the length of the arrow.
The silver melted under the intensity of Azurea’s fire, and I watched in horror as the molten silver flooded out of the wound, spilling down her flesh as she began to heal.
I moved to place Austyn down, planning to smite the dragon fast and finish her once and for all.
But before I could make another move in the direction of that plan, a lightning bolt of a crack shot up the side of the egg and the deep glow burst out from within it, so bright I had to squint against it.
With the crack, came an echoing boom that carried across the city, seeming to sound from the very earth itself.
A blast of energy exploded out of the egg and slammed into us, throwing me onto my back on the ground while I held onto Austyn with all my might, snared by the fear of what further misfortune was coming for us.
The ground shook violently beneath us, starting as a low rumble before growing to a furious crescendo that threatened to cave in this whole place.
I acted with urgency, pushing upright with Austyn in my arms, running into an alcove with a stone arch above it, tucking the princess tighter against me as the earthquake tore through Osaria, bringing another bane upon its people.
The windchimes hanging from windows and doorways all around the city started chiming in a wind I couldn’t feel, but I could feel something far more powerful than a storm brewing.
There was magic in the air, the kind of power I had sensed from Kyra, only this was far greater, far more menacing and omnipotent.
It spoke of ancient deities and monstrous beings more frightening than even Azurea who lay before me in all her divinity.
Screams carried across the city as people ran for their lives, but I stood firm, knowing I was safest in the arching structure of the alcove while the tremors ripped through the ground and sent buildings quaking above us, threatening to topple and crush anyone beneath them.
Although, if this place caved in, we were done for.
The dragon egg glowed brighter and brighter, and the crack within it deepened until I was almost certain it was going to split apart entirely.
Azurea growled deep in her chest, lifting her head and licking the air as if she could taste the old magic closing in on us.
I knew I was witnessing something unimaginably almighty unfolding, but I had no idea what it was, only that I was sure it was something to be feared.
“When the shell gleams, the lost will be found.”