Dragonoak: The Complete History of Kastelir (60 page)

The spell was broken; I couldn't wish it away.

Turning on my heels, I ran as the Isiners did, as if there was any escaping it. The people charged every which way, streets becoming rivers raging into one another, and I had to fight the urge to wrap my arms around my head and duck every time debris made craters of the street. The guards atop the shattered wall served as the first invitation death was extended, that morning.

I charged towards the castle, but shadows beat me there.

Dark shapes swarmed the street, and I looked up to find the sky full of orange and red. Six kraau flew in from the east, barrelling towards Isin's highest point. They crashed into the castle, claws hooked against window ledges, winged arms wrapped around high towers, using their tails to beat in the buildings before resorting to fire.

I ground to a halt as everyone swarmed around me. Thick plumes of black smoke rose from the wreckage the fhord left behind, and I saw everything we'd come so far to protect in ashes. I wanted to fall to my knees, giving up there and then.

Half a dozen more dragons swooped across the city, leaving torrents of fire in their wake, each finding their own district to settle down in. The sound of towers shattering, buildings being uprooted and thrown across the city, was the only thing louder than the screams rising above the smoke. There was such a cacophony of fear rattling through the trembling bones of Isin that the clear blue sky drew in all of the clamour.

For a moment, I could think clearly. Claire and Kouris would be able to get out of the castle, and if I kept charging towards it, I'd be greeted by walls of rubble and smoke, guards trying to evacuate people; I'd be one more person in the way, when there were those around me that needed help.

I ran towards the streets that were already in ruin, and knelt down by those who had been forced to stop.

“It's fine—I'm a healer,” I told them, no longer content to hold my powers back. I fixed legs crushed by falling rafters, burns sustained in burning buildings, and ran off to the next person in need before anyone could respond to what I was doing.

The flames rose and the dragons roared, and I kept moving towards the fire. As far as I could see, it was the end of the world; there was no escaping it, only giving others a chance to make it out of Isin. Some chose to stay back and help. Not many, but enough to help me pull people from under crumbled walls and misplaced chunks of roof. Through everything unfurling around me, I felt numbed to it all, even as the wounds wore away and ran up the lengths of my arms, into my chest.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” people said, tears streaming down their faces as they made ready to run. “I owe you my life.”

I wondered how many of them had crowded round to watch the necromancer burn, two short days ago.

There was no shortage of dead and dying. I felt myself tugged in every direction, and ran where the pull was strongest and the smoke thickest. Smoke faded to nothing the moment it flooded into my lungs, but I choked on it regardless, covering my mouth and holding my breath for as long as I could.

A dragon's tail swung overhead, and I pressed my back to a building, as though they were tracking down targets, rather than destroying all that laid in their path, living or otherwise. An orange wing spread out and the creature took off, leaving behind the sound of wood cracking with heat, buildings falling in on themselves. Those who could had already made it out of that part of the city, but bodies lined the street, slumped against walls.

I grabbed a corpse under the arms, dragged it away from the smoke, and knocked the death out of it. The corpse became a woman once more. She stood, and not wanting to believe that she'd been dead, continued running, as though she'd tripped and hit her head and I'd simply brought her back to her senses.

I wanted to make the bodies rise and march themselves to safety, until I could bring them back, but I knew that if anyone saw me, that would be the end of it all. People hated necromancers at the best of times, and there wasn't a thing that could stop them going for my throat and throwing me into the fires now.

I pulled two more bodies down the street, wiped away the burns and brought them back, and ran after the last one I could see, through the smoke. The old woman didn't have a single burn or broken bone, but the smoke had got into her lungs and still coiled within. I wrapped my arms around hers, trying to pull her away from the collapsing building behind, but it was coming down too quickly, and my arms were already aching.

I had to chance bringing her back there. Hands on her shoulders, I forced the smoke out of her, and her eyes opened as she let out a splutter, choking on nothing. “I... I'm alive?” she asked as I urged her onto her feet, pointing towards the end of the street with less smoke spiralling around it.

She stared at me, eyes wide, slowly piecing together what had happened, and only the deafening thud of part of the castle falling from the open sky spurred her into action. She started running without taking her eyes off me, without thanking me, gone within moments. I remained where I was, crouched amidst the smoke, uncertain whether I was doing these people a kindness. I was giving them another chance, but who was to say that chance wouldn't end in fire?

I needed a moment. The heat was stifling, making my head spin, and with my hair and clothes stuck to my skin, I didn't notice the man standing over me until he called out, “Hey—! I saw what you just did.”

My gaze shot up and my hand inched across the ground, fingers wrapping around the edges of a dislodged brick.

I recognised him. He was the soldier who'd implored King Atthis to let him take their forces outside of the city, only now, his armour was torn to shreds and his face was burnt, fingers bloody.

“You're a necromancer...” he said, dirt and soot mixing with sweat and staining his face.

The brick scraped across the ground as I pulled it closer, eyes fixed fast on his, but the sound was lost to the turmoil overtaking the city.

I waited for what would come next, what he meant to do, but his eyes welled up, and all he said was, “You have to help me.
Please
. My husband, he's—he's...”

I rose to my feet, brick clattering against the ground. I grabbed his arm, followed him through the smoke, and drew out all that he'd breathed in, all that was staining his lungs. The soldier shook, but he didn't stop for a second. At the end of the street, we came to the ruins of a bakery, and an arm stretched out from beneath a crumpled wall. The body was fine – from the chest down, at any rate – but I couldn't begin to bring him back until the huge chunk of stone had been dragged off his skull and shoulders.

“We need to move this,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the edge of the fallen wall. I grit my teeth, eyes stinging with tears from the heat and smoke, and put all my strength into lifting, alongside the soldier.

“We were only trying to help people,” he mumbled as we got absolutely nowhere. It was too heavy for the two of us, would've been too heavy for half a dozen of us, but no one was going to venture this far into the smoke. “We got everyone out, but, but...”

My fingers split open on the wall and I let out a pathetic mimicry of the dragon's roar as they healed over, grit caught under them, and tried to lift again and again, shoulders about to give. I turned my head to cough into my shoulder, and with one last futile effort, the wall lifted easily.

“What... ?” I wondered out loud, opening my eyes and finding Kouris next to me, straining to hold the wall up. “Kouris! You're...”

But what was there to say? There was no room left for words. The soldier hadn't flinched at the sight of a necromancer and didn't do so at the sight of a pane, either. He moved instantly, pulling the crushed body of his husband from beneath the wreckage. Kouris dropped the wall once the corpse was clear, and dirt and dust flew into the air. I knelt by the dead man, hands ghosting over his skull, drawing the broken bits of bone back into place.

“Both of you—thank you, thank you so much,” the soldier said, clinging to his husband as he stirred in his arms. “Come with us, please! We'll get out of here together.”

I was determined to help, but it'd been clear from the start that we were fighting a losing battle. I looked to Kouris, felt the smoke coiling within her, and knew that I couldn't ask the two men to help us find Claire. They had to get straight out, no detours.

“There's someone I have to find. Go, go!” I told them, and the soldier nodded his head over and over, understanding but not liking it one bit. His husband, still disorientated, hadn't managed a word yet, and ran when he was told to.

“Where's Claire?” I asked, turning to Kouris and gripping the front of her leathers.

I took all the smoke she was plagued with upon myself, no longer having to think about it. All the death and decay in the surrounding area was sifting into me, and my veins pounded with it, limbs becoming heavy, eyes burning bright.

“We can't afford to be looking for her, yrval,” Kouris said. “This whole city's gonna be a sea of fire within minutes—we've gotta help who we can and get ourselves out of here.”

I couldn't argue with her. I wasn't going to leave without Claire, but I wasn't going to waste what little time Isin had left. She let me climb upon her back and I clung to her horns, desperately trying to see through the smoke and flames, surroundings already unrecognisable. It'd been minutes since the sum total of damage within Isin was smashed glass and torn banners, but now the city was beyond salvation.

“Claire got out of the castle, didn't she? And the others—Akela's out too, right?” I asked as Kouris leapt over a toppled statue, torso feet away from the rest of it. “Everyone's trying to get out, aren't they?”

Kouris growled from the back of her throat, darting into a narrow side-street as a kraau circled overhead, looking for its next perch, and said, “Aye, we got as many as we could out. Everyone wanted to be the first out, though. Can't tell you how many were knocked into that damn moat.”

There were fewer and fewer people to help as we charged through Isin, searching for a way out of a maze made of makeshift dead-ends. I sensed bodies in the flattened buildings around me, trapped under more layers of stone and wood than Kouris and I could claw our way through.

My heart ached for Kouris every time we happened upon a dragon. Her kin were forced to commit atrocities beyond their understanding, and the only way to stop this all was to kill them. The closest we came to a kraau was when one of their back legs rested in a square we had no choice but to cut through, and Kouris bowed down low, dodging its swinging tail.

A glint of white caught my eye through the grey, and I called out, “Claire!” before I was certain it was her.

Kouris ground to a halt and my forehead cracked against one of her horns, but I hadn't been hoping against hope. Claire changed course, running towards us, and relief turned bitter in my throat when I realised
why
she was wearing her armour.

“There you are,” she said, voice on the verge of cracking. She didn't let herself reach out to me.

I crashed into her, clutching at her arms and said, “Claire, Claire—you have to come with us. You
have
to.”

There'd be time to explain where I'd been later.

She shook her head, eyes flickering away from me beneath her visor.

“You know I must stay and fight. I've no choice, Rowan,” she said, taking a step back.

“
Please
,” I begged. “You might be able to stand against one dragon, but not all of these.”

“Listen to her,” Kouris said, “You don't owe Isin your life.”

Claire hesitated, but I knew she'd never turn away from her duty.

“This part of the city was lost first—there is still much that can be saved, west of the castle. I
have
to go,” she said, and I opened my mouth to snap that I was going to come with her, in that case, but she backed out of my grasp, beating me to it. “You have to go, Rowan. Kouris—take her to Kyrindval. Promise me that.”

Kouris wouldn't look at me, and I knew it was because she was going to do all she could to tear me away. Stepping forward, she bowed down, pressing her forehead to front of Claire's helm, gripping the back of her head.

“You meet us there, Ightham,” she growled, “Swear that you will.”

“No—” I said, making to grab hold of Claire once more, but Kouris wrapped her arms around me, lifting me off the ground. “Don't!” I called out after Claire, reaching for her as she drew her sword and took slow steps backwards. “Don't, Claire. Don't leave me, please!”

Too much smoke drifted between us for me to see her. I screamed after her, calling for her to come back, howling out her name; I beat my fists against Kouris' shoulders, trying to worm my way free, but none of it added up to anything. Kouris didn't flinch, and only headed further and further from Claire, turning sharply as a one of the castle's spires planted itself in the centre of the street ahead of us.

“It's alright, yrval, it's alright,” Kouris was murmuring as I continued to struggle. “She wants you safe—do that much for her, alright?”

“Kouris, she's going to get hurt. I... I need to, I...”

All at once, I was still as a statue in her arms.

Kouris murmured something under her breath in a language I didn't understand, but I knew a curse when I heard one.

Ahead of us, darkness descended upon the shattered streets of Isin. The fhord that'd clawed its way through the wall crushed what remained of the buildings to make space for itself, purple wings fanned out, obscuring the sky as it roared at the sun, making ready to breathe.

There was no absorbing the size of it, not even when it stood before us. I was smaller than its largest fangs, and as I slipped from Kouris' arms and stood motionless by her side, I knew that no matter how quickly we fled, we wouldn't escape its reach.

“Yrval,” Kouris said softly. Too softly.

She reached out, taking my hand in hers, and I entwined our fingers as I stared up at the dragon. There wasn't a scratch on it, despite all the damage it had done, and my other hand trailed through the air, wanting to find Claire's.