Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (69 page)

“I’m all right,” he said, trying to gently push her away but to no avail. “Look, see? I’m fine. You can relax.”

DiNiya refused to relinquish her grip, instead digging her claws into his back. “I thought…I thought I had lost you! You seemed so far away! I thought I would never get you back!”

“Far away?” he repeated, looking up to the other two.

“She means you were dying,” LyCora said bluntly.

“You slipped into some sort of coma,” AnaSaya explained. “You were still alive, but, well…I’m not really sure what was happening with you. I’ve never felt anything like that.”

Rex managed to pry DiNiya off him a bit and sat up straighter. “What do you mean? Was I alive or dead?”

“It was like you were stuck somewhere in between—too far gone to be considered alive, but not close enough to death to be dead. Like I said…I can’t really explain it.”

“Your heart stopped at one point,” DiNiya said, wiping her eyes and regaining her composure somewhat. “That’s when we were able to get you back at last. Next thing we knew, you were suddenly awake.”

Rex did not know what to say but knew how he felt. So he allowed his emotions to churn in his head and take the form of words, where he said, simply, “Thank you.”

AnaSaya smiled. “You’re very welcome, Rex, but don’t thank us just yet.”

“Why not?” he said as he tried to stand up, then “aaaagh!” he cried out as a sharp pain shot through his sides.

“We were able to fix the damage that was immediately life-threatening, but you’re still far from well enough to do anything more than sit up.”

Rex, this time ignoring the pain, placed his hands flat on the ground and pushed down, forcing his body upward. Slowly at first, but then more quickly, he rose to his feet and stood before them, albeit somewhat shakily. He placed a hand on his ribs and exhaled forcefully. “Not so bad,” he said, taking a few deep breaths. “You did a good job putting most of the pieces back together. All three of you.”

“That’s incredible,” AnaSaya gasped with a look of astonishment.

“How the hell are you even standing right now?” LyCora asked. “Let alone passing out compliments so nonchalantly?”

“Seems the three of you did a better job than you thought,” he replied, extending a hand down to DiNiya and pulling her to her feet.

“Not likely. You were seriously moments away from the point of no return. It took everything we had just to keep you from crossing that line. We really didn’t do much beyond that.”

“Well, regardless, the little you did do was apparently good enough,” he said lightly, patting his side. “Anyway, where are EeNox and ShinGaru?”

DiNiya suddenly looked startled, as if she had just remembered something extremely important.

EeNox watched in horror as plumes of fire rose from the smoke below. He knew every moment that went by was another piece of his home destroyed, and another person he had said hello to his entire life lost. He turned back to the DraGon, who seemed to be delighting in his pain.

“Tell me, boy,” she said. “Are you not enjoying the evening’s entertainment?”

“Shut your mouth!” EeNox fired back as he felt tears fall down his face.

The DraGon just laughed. “Why so upset, child? You should consider yourself fortunate to be here and not down there with the rest of your people.”

“Why are you doing this?” ShinGaru asked. “Please, tell us! Whatever the reason, there must be some other way!”

“Now, now,” she said, shaking a clawed finger in front of him. “You need not concern yourself with such matters.”

“Of course we do! These people are our family, and you’re just slaughtering them!”

“And this means what to me, exactly?”

“Damn it, at least tell us
why
you’re keeping us here? Is it just to make us watch and suffer?” EeNox asked.

“My, my. Aren’t we just full of ourselves?” EeNox looked dumbfounded. “Do not presume yourself—or any of your kind, for that matter—to be worthy of such special treatment, or even worthy of anything more than what is happening below.”

“Then why? Why keep us alive?”

“My word, how ungrateful,” the DraGon responded in a way that made her sound like she was actually offended by his lack of gratitude. “Very well. I will tell you this much. You are going to be the pieces of bait I will dangle to lure out tonight’s prize catch. So just wait calmly and enjoy this moment, for your hour of despair will be upon you very soon.”

“What do you mean he didn’t find you?” Rex asked angrily.

“What do you mean what do I mean?” LyCora asked in return. “I’m saying we never saw him after we all split up.”

“This isn’t good,” DiNiya said. “What if something happened to them out there?”

“Your brother is pretty resourceful, so I’m sure he’s managed to stay out of harm’s way,” Rex lied. “He probably just ended up missing you two since you took the river back down. That, and it’s a damned war zone out there.”

DiNiya looked down at the ground for a moment, as if she was devising what she should do next.
I want to make sure Rex will be all right, but I can’t just abandon my brother and friend. I have to do something
. Finally, she snapped out of her trance and stared directly at the other two girls. “You two take Rex deeper into the hot springs. I’m going to find them.”

“You can’t be serious,” LyCora said, frowning. “You wouldn’t last five minutes out there on your own!”

“She’s right, DiNiya,” AnaSaya said. “It’s too dangerous! We must stick together!”

“Stop trying to coddle me,” DiNiya yelled, taking everyone by surprise. “You think I don’t know what’s going on? Trust me, I do, but my brother and friend went out there, risking their lives to save the life of another with no thought to their own! Now they are probably the ones in trouble, and I’m not going to just sit back and wait for the smoke to clear so I can go and bring back their bodies!”

“DiNiya—” Rex began as he tried to place a hand on her shoulder, only to have her push it away.

“Listen to me carefully, Rex. I appreciate everything you have done and everything I know that, if we let you, you would still do, but I can’t let you put yourself in any more danger. You have done so much for us already, and it’s not fair of us to keep leaning on you like this!”

“Is that what you I think you’re doing?” he asked, surprised.

“Once you’re down there, AnaSaya and LyCora can keep healing you until you’re—”

“Who the fuck do you think you are, damn it?” Rex bellowed in a voice that almost made the cave rattle. DiNiya immediately went silent as if an invisible hand had just clamped itself around her throat, while the other two girls exchanged startled expressions of their own. “What, do you think I just hand out good deeds for free?” he continued, his voice escalating as he went on. “I do what I do for all of you, for anyone I’ve ever done anything for, because I made them earn it! Nothing in life is free, especially not my generosity! I came here lost, confused, and scared out of my mind, and well…I’m still pretty much all of those things, but my point is that I can get up every morning and leave my room
because
you people made me feel like someone actually had my back, so if things got rough, I wouldn’t be alone. That is why I spent the past hour covering the floor with a fresh coat of red and knocking on death’s door! For you! All of you!”

DiNiya just stood and stared. She had absolutely no idea what to say. She never knew he even felt that way or that maybe this place had even begun to truly feel like his home. Since the moment she met him, she always had a sense that he was keeping a part of himself guarded from even her. Almost as if he was refusing to fully connect with his life here, and clinging on to the world he came from: the world and life he would probably never see again.
All this time I thought you were looking for a way out, a way to get away from us all
. She slowly reached out with her left hand but had it instantly snatched by the wrist.

“There’ll be time to feel guilty about your hurt feelings later,” Rex said, now more firmly with a cold, commanding look in his eye. “But right now we’ve got to find EeNox and ShinGaru.”

“Not that I disagree, Rex, but where do we start?” AnaSaya asked.

“She’s right,” LyCora agreed. “We don’t even know which route north they took.”

“Well, it obviously wasn’t the river,” he said. “Otherwise you two would have run into them, so they must have gone through the forest. That’s the only other way, right?” he said, turning to DiNiya, who nodded in agreement. “Well, then, that’s where we go.”

“Wait a minute,” LyCora protested. “Say we even make it that far. How do we know they haven’t already gotten up there, saw there was nobody left, and went back down using the river like we did? If we take the forest route, we could bypass each other like we probably did the first time.”

Rex thought about that for a moment before coming to a solution that he was less than enthused about, but he saw no better alternative. “I suppose we will have to split up again.”

“Split up?” DiNiya said in surprise. “But that’s how we got in the mess to begin with. AnaSaya is right, we need to stick together.”

“That lessens our chances of finding them, making this even more of a suicide mission than it already is,” LyCora said. “Face it, neither choice is ideal.”

Suddenly there was a loud boom just outside the cave entrance, and Rex turned in time to see a wall of fire racing towards them.

Back on top of the rocky ledge overlooking KaNar, two other DraGons, one resembling their hostess with a blue flame and the other a good four meters larger with light brown skin, burning with a green intensity, joined EeNox and ShinGaru.

“Still choosing to let others commit dastardly deeds on your behalf, dear sister?” the DraGon most similar to her said.

“Sister?” EeNox repeated as he looked over at ShinGaru, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“Have we been given the signal to proceed?” she asked with what, for the first time to the two boy’s ears, sounded like impatience.

“If we had, you would have no doubt been the first to know, LemaRes.”

ShinGaru was stricken by the sound of that name.
LemaRes…where have I heard that name before? Wait! No…it can’t be!

LemaRes turned and gazed out once again at the devastation below, as if searching for some sort of sign. “When was the last time you spoke with him?” the other DraGon asked.

“Not since the tower,” she replied with a sigh.

“Then perhaps this was a bad idea. We are entrusting him with all our lives, after all. If this little gamble of his doesn’t pay off, then—”

“Have faith, PeroDay,” she said, turning back to him and staring him in the eye. “For what are any of us without it?”

Reluctantly, the other DraGon nodded. “Very well. Still, if he does not make contact soon, then we truly may have to abort this mission.”

“He’s right,” said VorTak. “The grand marshal must inform us soon if we are to intercept the target.”

“Which, by the way, appears to have disappeared,” PeroDay added irritably.

LemaRes looked infuriated. “That’s enough,” she cried out with a roar. “Have you two already forgotten why we’re even here? If it weren’t for him, we would all be dead along with the others! PeroDay, you of all should be ashamed of yourself. Doubting your brother when he has sacrificed so much so we could live!”

PeroDay sighed. “You’re right. Forgive me, LemaRes.”

“No matter. Our time is at hand. Soon we will have what we have waited patiently for, and we can finish what we started so very long ago.”

They continued watching for a time, none of them saying a word. EeNox and ShinGaru busied their minds with ways of escape but kept coming back to the same outcome, that there was no way for them to slip away, nor could they fight their way to freedom. The situation seemed dire, indeed, for they feared that whenever the DraGons received this so-called signal, their lives would be forfeit.

Then they saw it, someone’s golden flame rising into the air above the smoke in a strange spiral.

“Well then,” LemaRes declared. “I believe we have made our presence and power sufficiently known. Now it is time to get on with tonight’s true purpose.” She looked down at ShinGaru and EeNox, who were on their knees, numb from all the pain and anger that had been coursing through them this entire time while they had been forced to watch helplessly as their home was destroyed.

Why?
EeNox thought.
Why can’t I do something, anything? Why am I still so…useless
? His thoughts were quickly interrupted when he felt an enormous hand grab him by the torso and lift him off the ground.

“Shall we?” LemaRes said as she pushed off the ledge and swooped down through the thick cloud of black smoke.

The two boys desperately tried to hold their breath to keep the noxious fumes from infiltrating their lungs, but to no avail. Both began to cough violently as they descended further before, to their great relief, they at last broke through the bottom of the cloud and were greeted by what they could only describe as a scene out of their worst nightmares.

Below was what looked like a luminous sea of fire whose waves lapped up into the sky, like whips trying to swat them down. They could make out dozens of motionless burning shapes lying amongst the flames while others ran to and fro: many fighting, some dying. EeNox wondered who they were, how long ago he had spoken to them, and how he would never do so again. All because of the monsters like the one who currently had him in her clutches. Still, it was the not knowing why that brought him back and forth from the brink of madness and despair.

Suddenly, LemaRes veered hard to the right and flew quickly towards what at first the two of them thought was the main gates, but then realized was a battle raging several hundred meters below it. ShinGaru strained his eyes to see, the smoky air stinging them as he did so, and he saw a battle of a very different sort, one where his people were winning.

There in the middle of all the blood and fire was KyVina and most of the tribe—biting, clawing, and burning at the DraGons mercilessly, who swooped in low or faced them head on at ground level.