59. Diar
Diar
The blood woven into my brother’s blade pulsed under the strain of my spell. Gritting my teeth, I focused on the sheet of ice wrapping around me like a shield.
Drop it, and I’d die.
The phoenix screamed. Haunting, inhuman.
Flames slammed into the ice, shattering it.
Burning pain cut through my side, and the force threw me backward. My vision blurred as I struggled to my feet.
“You alright, girl?” Agendra grabbed my arm and hauled me up.
“Ferris!” I blurted out at him.
By the endless sea, the prince was an idiot—he’d probably leaped into the fire and immolated himself.
Falling cinders burned my face as I tore toward the back of the courtyard. Flames consumed everything in sight, and pillars of smoke spiraled into the sky.
Charred bodies lay in piles at the feet of the benches. Leaping over them, I rushed toward the man who ran toward me.
Ferris reached out for me, eyes fixed on the flaming bird hovering above us.
“Get out of here,” I ordered, shoving him.
“What? No!”
“I’m the Paragon, not you,” I said, pulling Siotha from my back and drawing an arrow from its spectral quiver.
“Diar, you can’t—” Ferris cut off.
A heavy tremor shook the ground, followed by the worst noise I'd ever heard.
Cloth being torn, claws raking across steel, boards splintering in half—it was all these sounds at once, a thousand times louder.
Doubling over, I pressed my hands to my ears—and watched the world change.
The courtyard tore itself in half. The sky darkened, the stars blinked out. Green grass paled to orange; the trees shifted to barred twigs dotted with glowing orange blooms.
A stripe of red crossed the heavens, scaled like a serpent.
I turned back to the phoenix. It rose above the broken landscape like its queen, flame against the obsidian mountain behind it.
An enormous red creature stood atop the peak and raised its head to heed the phoenix’s call—a dragon. Scales like rubies covered its muscular body, and its piercing yellow eyes snapped open. It spread its wings and took flight.
“Fuck!” Ferris shouted.
I had enough time to turn, push him out of the way, and throw myself backward before the dragon was upon us. It cleaved through the air, cutting the sky like a knife.
The beast slammed into the ground where I’d been standing, claws tearing through the earth. Its massive head snapped toward me, maw widening.
Agendra threw himself between us at the last moment—the dragon’s teeth snapped down on his warhammer. Earthen spikes erupted from the weapon, crashing into the dragon’s maw and forcing it apart.
Scrambling to my feet, I tried to draw my bow, but I had no room. The dragon was too close, and walls of fire boxed me in everywhere I turned.
Rock shattered as the dragon snapped its jaw and broke apart Agendra’s spikes. The Paragon pulled his hammer from its mouth and leaped back. A violet surge of lightning wrapped around the dragon’s neck, pulling its head away from Agendra.
And focusing its attention on Ferris.
Its jaw widened. The scales on its throat glowed with fire as magma pooled in its mouth.
I reached for my sword—for Akemi’s sword—but his voice whispered in my memories.
‘Bows require patience. You cannot swing and swing again. Take your shot carefully—you might only get one.’
Knocking my arrow to the bow, I backed up, crossing through flame that licked at my heels and climbed up my back. Steadying my breathing, I drew back the bow as the dragon spewed a hail of magma at Ferris.
The bowstring snapped forward, and the arrow of ice arced through the air.
It found its target. The dragon reared back as the arrow pierced through its mouth and shattered into lethal shards. Wings spreading, it took off, fleeing the danger.
A heavy tailwind blew down on me, intensifying the flames. Faint burning clawed at my body, but the adrenaline blocked it out. Lowering Siotha, I ran to the pool of molten magma—hoping I wouldn't find a charred corpse.
A broken piece of the bench tumbled over the embers as Ferris pushed it off him. He’d avoided the dragon’s breath, but only barely. Magma boiled an inch from his feet.
Grimacing, he shimmied away from it, wincing in pain. His clothes were torn and burnt.
“Are you alright?” I asked, falling to his side.
“No!” He coughed, eyes flashing to my bow. “The fire—can you put it out?”
“How would I do that?”
“You’re the damn Paragon of Muirashi!” He grabbed my wrist, but avoided touching my skin. “When we touch—the endless sea. Can you make it?”
I’d never thought to use my magic for anything but war. Lifting my eyes to the sky, I reached for the heavens, feeling the dull hum of Siotha and the steel of my blade.
I remembered standing on our balcony, watching rain pour off the tiered roofs like miniature waterfalls, before cascading to the ground.
‘You change when it rains.’ Akemi had said.
‘I do?’
‘Yes. You always seem so sad, sister. But when it rains? You look peaceful, if only for a while.’
The blood bound in the blade sang. Siotha poured its power into me. Clouds gathered in the black sky, concealing the red scales streaking across the black.
Rain poured onto the twisted landscape, turning embers to mist and dousing the lesser fires. The magma hardened beneath its touch.
I heard a gasp and looked to my right. A young woman in the back row gathered a child in her arms, watching the wall of flame surrounding her die. She darted through, and I lost sight of her.
This was a Paragon’s purpose. Not to fight for their place, not to cut men down.
But to save them.