Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Istared, jaw open, feeling nothing but shock as the stone floor turned to liquid, dripping down into nothingness, a font of melted rock spraying up out of the hole.
Irad?o yelped, clutching Na? tight as the dais tipped, the throne sliding to the edge. She stepped backward, holding Na? tight to her chest, and practically fell down the stairs getting off them.
A set of claws emerged first. It grabbed hold of the fallen throne, dragging it down into the hole as the creature pulled itself out.
Centipede had said that it wasn’t what killed all those imperial soldiers. I just hadn’t believed it, knowing what a liar it was.
Another paw reached up, just as large as the first, and then a head pulled itself free.
A fire dragon drew itself the rest of the way up, its massive wings closed tight against its body. Where Na? was all white scales and downy tufts of fur, this creature was scales made of metal, molten orange exposed every time it shifted.
Finally, it was free, curling atop the dais. It blinked eyes as black as the stone the Shadow King had so prized.
“You dare to come into my domain and use the magic of ice?” Its voice was massive, so loud I wanted to cover my ears, but I was exhausted and had no energy to do any such thing.
“Na?,” I begged. “Can you get us out of here?”
Na? turned her head, rubbing her face into Irad?o’s shoulder. She shook her head slowly. If she was even half as exhausted as I was, she didn’t have the energy to move independently, much less grow to her full-size and lead an escape from the vengeful fire dragon in front of us.
From behind us, Lerolian said quietly, “The hallway is clear, if you can get away from it.”
That was a big if. Maybe Irad?o could get Na? out of the room, but the dragon was large and fast and I was too injured to move that fast.
“This is a new offense, even for you, Centipede,” the fire dragon said, his eyes fixed on me, and I knew in one terrible moment that he could hear the voices in my head too. The fire dragon began to move, its massive paws leaving behind footprints of lava as it descended the stairs.
Tallu dragged me up, pulling me away, shoving me behind him.
“No. I can taste the ice on you. You think that cold will help you escape me?” He chuckled, the sound turning into a roar.
I leaned heavily on Tallu’s back, and he shifted his position so his arm was around my waist, mine draped over his shoulders.
“We mean no offense,” Tallu said, every inch the Emperor of the Southern Imperium.
The dragon swung its massive head to glare at Tallu.
“I have no use for you, patriarch of House Atobe. I can smell the murder of the One Dragon on your soul. It will live forever in your blood. You will never be rid of it. But you were not the one using ice atop my home, defiling the mountain built with my rage.”
“Great One,” I said, figuring the honorific would never go wrong. “We apologize if we have offended. We were not in your territory by choice. The King of the Shadow Throne took the heir of the Imperium. Now that we have fetched him, we are leaving.”
The dragon had reached King Inor’s fallen body and nudged it with one of his claws. “It appears you have done more than simply retrieve the boy prince. You have killed the dwarven king, and that is despicable, even for you, Centipede.”
“You keep giving me that name,” I said, “but we killed the creature. We killed the animalia that had taken hold of General Maki. Centipede is no more.”
The dragon chuckled, its hot breath stinking of sulfur as it ruffled our hair.
“You think I cannot feel you inside this boy, Centipede, already lying through his lips? I have killed you a thousand times, and I will kill you a thousand more. I may not be animalia myself, but I was given this job by the One Dragon, and I will fulfill it.” The dragon blinked at me, its jaw opening to reveal a tongue made of fire and teeth made of black stone.
For a second, I hesitated, because deep in my soul, I could hear the whisper: Let me out, and I will defeat him. With your magic and ice power, he will not stand a chance. If you don’t, he will kill you, but I will still live. I always live.
Don’t you want to survive?
The Dragon breathed out a hot breath of flame, and instinctively, I raised my hands, desperately calling for the ice, begging it for what I needed.
A wall of ice formed around the four of us, protecting us from the heat of the dragon.
My legs collapsed under me, my breath coming in short gasps.
I could barely hold myself up, and Tallu held tighter.
The only reason I didn’t buckle to the floor was because of his arm around my waist.
The dragon stopped breathing fire, raising a claw and tapping it delicately against the ice I had pushed into existence between us.
“This is quite good,” he commented. “Do you think it is good enough? You know me, and you know how far I will go to fulfill my duty.”
“I don’t know you,” I said, my voice rasping over my dry throat. “Please. I am a northern prince trained as an assassin. I was given this magic by the last ice dragon after losing my own power of animal speak. I am not who you think I am.”
The dragon gently tapped his sharp claw twice more against the ice. His talon broke through, cracks spiraling out like spiderwebs. When he withdrew the claw, he pressed his mouth against the weakened ice, flames licking through, melting our shield too fast for me to repair.
“I will have you,” the fire dragon said.
Let me out, the voice deep inside me begged. I shut my eyes, trying to resist, but I could feel the fire drying my skin.
Tallu dragged us backward, but I was no more than deadweight, and Irad?o yelped as the doorway fell away, lava spouting up into the open space. Lerolian shouted for Tallu to run, even as he came close to us, keeping himself from getting trapped on the other side of the lava we couldn’t cross.
My skin blistered, the inverse of the frostbite I was familiar with.
We were going to die.
I wanted to let the creature inside me out. Surely an animalia could fight this.
Desperately, I put the last of myself into the ice, covering Irad?o and Na? and Tallu in a thick permafrost.
It left me exposed, but in my heart of hearts, I didn’t want to save myself. Not the way I wanted to save them.
The dragon’s flames enveloped me. The magic in them swirled through me: the opposite of familiar ice magic, not just in temperature, but in desire. Ice magic was all about finding the truth in your heart, wanting something so badly that the desire brought it into existence.
Fire magic was about emotion. Anger, love, fury—that was what powered fire.
I opened my mouth, inhaling the flames, and felt the dragon pour his magic inside me. The voice ringing in my head screamed, desperately clawing, begging me to let it free, even as the fire wrapped itself around what was left of Centipede and burned it to nothing but ashes.
The flames went out. The first thing I was aware of was Tallu next to me, his hands on my shoulders, his face inches from mine. He was covered with a thick layer of white, so for a moment, it was as though I was looking at a marble statue of him, eyes blank, mouth open.
We were both on the ground, and the dragon loomed over us, its massive head close enough that I could have reached out and touched its snout.
“You have been touched by an evil so profound that the One Dragon herself left me in charge of its destruction,” the dragon said. “Now I must do what I have done to every host Centipede has taken.”
It opened its jaws, and my limbs were so weak I couldn’t even lift them in defense.
Tallu screamed, standing and raising both hands up. Lightning arced from his palms, and the white permafrost cracked, falling away from him, stained red by his blood.
“You may not have him,” Tallu shouted. His body was a whirlwind of power. I had never seen an electro mage use that much at once.
The voice of his magic was an endless keening wail. I love him. I love him. I love him.
It echoed, a painful shriek as ferocious as a sea serpent. There was nothing in his sheer desperation that was forgiving, and yet, I could feel the precision of Tallu’s technique. Electro magic was not like ice or fire: it needed training on top of raw ability.
The fire dragon reared back, startled, and Tallu pressed forward, his hands directing each bolt precisely, his focus so clear that I could see his intention, even as the dragon lifted his paw, trying to catch some of the electricity.
It passed through his claws, striking the same spot that Tallu had been aiming for: a small gap between his scales, exposed by the red-orange color.
The dragon roared as the gap sparked, his fury coming out in a long line of fire. But it didn’t go straight. Instead, it seemed to part in the middle, curling around both of us. Tallu had created a storm, a shattering boom of thunder where the fire met his electricity.
The dragon sat back, huffing laughter, sulfur thick in the air. It lifted its claw, scratching at the wound Tallu had made in its hide.
“Patriarch of House Atobe, heir to the murder of the One Dragon, killer of animalia, destroyer of magic, you think you can challenge me?”
“I will not let you kill him,” Tallu said, panting, blood trailing from the corner of his cracked lips.
“I have killed Centipede where it lived inside him.” The dragon looked down at me, opening his mouth and blowing out a warm breath.
I didn’t flinch. “Perhaps he does not need to die. You, I have no wish to fight.” His eyes slid to Tallu.
“You are already trapped by fate, and I have no wish to anger Spider. Killing one of the animalia is enough for me.”
Tallu stayed tense, and I forced myself to my feet, every muscle jumping, exhaustion like I had never felt in all my years training with Yor?mu pulling at me. I wanted to sprawl on the floor and never move again.
But that was the sort of sloth that Yor?mu had trained out of me. And if my husband was going to face a fire dragon, I might as well join him in the foolishness.
The dragon shook its massive head, then reached up to pull one of the black stone rocks from the ceiling. He held it delicately between his claws.
“You have learned ice, prince of the frozen kingdom,” the dragon said. “Ice is for the desires you cannot shake. Ice is unmoving and permanent. Ice is what lives in your soul when there is nothing else.”
He flicked the stone toward me, and I caught it against my stomach. It was as large as both hands put together.
“And fire is rage. Fire is raw emotion,” I said.
“You understand. It is strange. I hear an echo in your soul. Fire is magic you could learn if you let go of your control long enough to master it. Yet, ice and fire were not gifts given by the One Dragon to humans,” the fire dragon said.
“I have been blessed by the dragon Na?’s training,” I admitted. “We apologize for our trespass. But we had no idea it was your job to control Centipede, given that he had taken over the Shadow Throne.”
“My mistake. I rested too long and let the dwarves dig too deep. Now, I must rebuild the mountain, to guarantee that all his offspring are gone. They cannot hold Centipede’s power, but that does not make them safe.
” The dragon considered me. “Keep that as a gift. Centipede eluded me for centuries, hiding and letting me kill the smaller ones. You have given me the opportunity to kill him finally. Should you ever need me, use it. There is other evil in this world.”
The dragon turned and raised his head, roaring with the sound of an explosion. Lava flooded up out of the hole behind the throne, and I realized exactly how the dragon planned to rebuild his mountain.
“He’s blowing up the volcano,” I said.
“We need to get out of here,” Irad?o said from the entrance to the cavern. The lava had stopped flowing, but heat still shimmered in the air at the threshold.
“Are you going to let us leave?” Tallu asked.
“You and any dwarf untouched by Centipede’s corruption have until the lava reaches you.
I have let the prince of the frozen kingdom live.
I have given him a gift. I am not required to give any of you safe passage.
” The dragon looked over its shoulder, lips pulled back, teeth exposed. “Run, little ice prince.”