6. No Simple Path #2
The look in Eltoar’s eyes set cracks in Alvira’s heart and bled her soul. In that moment the courtyard was empty save for the pair of them, his stare slicing past the walls that shielded her soul. She could feel his heart, feel the rage that burned within, the guilt, and the darkness that brooded.
“I need you with me on this, Eltoar. I need you by my side.”
“I am always by your side. But this—”
“This is no different. Do you not think I would give my life for those souls in a heartbeat? That I would make this choice for no good reason? I will tell you more as we fly, but I need you to trust me.”
Slowly, Eltoar nodded. “In your wake, I fly. By your eyes, I see.”
“Thank you.” Alvira turned to Lyina. “Carry these words, Sister. Carry them with my voice.”
Hours later, Alvira stood on the hillside, looking out at the flames licking the sky as Arathín burned.
Twenty-five Draleid stood at her back, a force that could turn any battle in an instant.
But they had no army alongside them, no force to march the streets and push the Karvosi back to the water.
And dragonfire could not simply be poured over an Epherian city.
What’s more, the sky above Arathín was black with bodies, dark shapes shifting between the moonlit clouds, shrieks and squawks carrying on the wind.
There must have been over a thousand Veyaks.
Even if Alvira and her Draleid descended upon the city in that moment, Arathín could not be saved.
Her mind and her heart warred as she looked over the scene, her heart disgusted that her mind found understanding with Matharius’ command.
But that was the way of things, the duality of life.
She could understand that holding back led to a stronger position to achieve victory in the war to come, and she could still despise the act of telling her Draleid to stand by and watch innocent souls be slaughtered.
Alvira looked to Eltoar at her right.
He stared out at the burning city, not turning to look at her. “I am with you, through the fires of the void.”
The coldness of his voice and stillness of his features caused her heart to recoil. She nodded, unsure if he could see the gesture.
To her left, Farda stood with folded arms. “I do not envy your position, Alvira. This is a choice I would weigh for eternity.”
“It’s hardly a choice,” she whispered.
“It’s always a choice.”
Alvira let out a soft sigh and turned to face the others who were gathered at her back.
“Tonight, almost four hours ago, Karvosi forces made landfall across the length of the Lightning Coast and along the Veloran Bay. We do not have precise numbers, but it is believed to be the largest attack since the seventh incursion. Fourteen cities have been struck by sea and air. Fourteen cities now burn. In the dark of this night you will hear screams and wails as they travel across the valley. There will be cries for help. Those cries will go unanswered.”
She stopped herself a moment, clasping her hands behind her back and curling her fingers into fists.
She looked around at the faces of the Draleid before her, at the sorrow in their eyes.
She would take the choice from them, to spare their souls.
She was their Archon, the weight of the dead was hers to bear.
“If we take to wing, if we answer those calls, many of us will die, and little will be changed. We have no armies at our backs, no force to drive the Karvosi from Arathín. Those elves will still be slaughtered in the streets, the city will still burn. But we will not be here when the rest of our forces gather. We will not be here to make the Karvosi feel our wrath. And they will push further into Epheria. More cities will be set ablaze, more souls butchered in our absence. For those of you who have neglected your learning, the Karvosi Matarr breed and train winged creatures known as Veyaks. Creatures that spit acid potent enough to melt the scales of dragons. Creatures that in large enough numbers have been recorded to bring down scores of our kind. In the past, we have countered these creatures through the aid of the Battlemages, their wards keeping the Veyak acid from our soulkin’s hides, their lightning striking the creatures from the sky.
But they are not here. Their feet can only carry them so swift across the land.
And so we wait, because our vows are to all Epheria and not just a single moment. ”
She squeezed her fists at her back, feeling Vyldrar rumble in her mind.
His fire raged at the thought of leaving those souls to die.
It roared and ripped, crashing like waves against a cliffside.
She pulled their minds together, allowing his anger to take shelter beneath her.
They needed to think of the greater war, of the lives that would be saved.
“This is my command and as such is steel and iron. Any who break it shall face my wrath, and so help them Varyn. We are Draleid, and we must stand together. Am I understood?”
A few murmurs broke through those gathered, dragons shifting behind them, pale moonlight shimmering against scales.
Just as Kollna and Chora Sarn bowed their heads, a deep, earth-shaking roar sounded to Alvira’s left.
Eltoar spun on his heels, Helios’s rage blazing in him as though they stood in the fires of the void. The dragon’s roar consumed him, all sounds drowning, all feelings yielding. Through the haze of his eyes, he saw Alvira and the others moving, heard voices.
But it was not through his eyes that he saw. His mind and his soul, that was the world he inhabited at that moment. And only two heartbeats existed, two heartbeats that were in truth only one.
Where the rest of existence was a blur, Helios was clear as glass. The great dragon stood before him, chest puffed, wings spread, frills pricked and shivering.
Stop. Eltoar pushed their minds together. Do not do this.
Helios raged against him, images of burning bodies flickering in their shared minds, of skin melting from bones, memories of the seventh incursion.
They had been there. They had flown to Karhal’s Pass to fight alongside their brothers and sisters.
But they had been late. And they had watched as the Veyaks spewed acid atop the broken bodies of still-living dragons, watched as the creatures softened the scales and tore at the flesh.
And Helios would do now what they did then.
He would grant them respite. He would take their pain away and allow their ashes to drift forever in the wind.
A piece of Eltoar and Helios had died that day, died with their kin. In truth a piece of them died every time they witnessed a soul leave this world, but that day was like nothing else.
Eltoar reached out a hand, and Helios roared in defiance. Something passed between them, something Eltoar had never felt before: a separation, a wall of fire and rage.
But in that separation he knew the dragon’s fury, knew Helios’ mind.
I will not stand by and let them die in pain. I will not. No matter the voice that speaks the words that seek to command me. I am Helios, I am fire made flesh.
This is wrong, and I will have no part in it.
A shiver swept through Eltoar as Helios unleashed another roar that shook the air. The dragon shifted forwards, ignoring all who dared stand in his way, and with a tremendous crack of his wings, he lifted himself into the air, leaving Eltoar alone.
As Helios’s mighty wings beat once more, the haze in Eltoar’s mind melted, and the world took shape, voices pouring in. Alvira had her hands on his shoulders, her deep blue eyes staring into his.
“Eltoar!” She shook him, but he looked through her to his soulkin who tore across the sky towards Arathín. And all he could think was one thing: I failed you.
When Eltoar finally pulled himself back Alvira was roaring orders. “Farda, Kollna, Pellenor with me! The rest of you, if you move from this hill the fires of the void would be welcome respite from my wrath.”
As Eltoar turned to look at her, Alvira grabbed him by the shoulders again. “What is he doing?”
When Eltoar didn’t answer, she clapped her hands to his face and held his skull tight. “Eltoar. What is Helios doing?”
“He’s burning the dying. Stopping their pain. The Veyaks kill slow, eat slower… He’s giving them rest.”
Alvira held his gaze for a few moments longer, the look in her eyes softening. Without another word, she mounted Vyldrar and he, Tinua, Meranta, and Shinyara all took to the air in Helios’s wake.
Eltoar closed his eyes and let his mind drift into his soulkin’s.
His entire being became rage and wrath. He felt acid burn at his wings, gouge into his scales.
But so too did he hear the shrieks as Veyaks burned beneath his fury.
Helios savoured the sensation of their blood scratching at his tongue.
And when he broke through the cloud of air-thin wings and fragile bodies, he looked down on the part-eaten, still-living bodies of his kin, of dragons broken across the ground both outside and within the city limits.
And with a fury granted to him by Varyn himself, Helios ignited the sky and set the world aflame.