Fate of Dragons

Chapter Twenty One, Part I

Tesa awoke to somebody shaking her. She groaned and opened her eyes to find a young Yennar Lei mage hovering over her. Judging from his garb, he had been one of the scouts. His expression of concern turned into a smile when Tesa began to struggle to sit up.

"That's good," he said, "now drink this." He pushed a carved wooden cup into her hands.

The liquid in the cup was definitely not water, as Tesa had expected. She fought the urge to spit out the bitter brew, knowing that sometimes the herbs best at healing could be the worst tasting.

The young scout moved on to his next patient and Tesa surveyed the scene in the cavern around as her head cleared. Not long after finishing her cup of bitter tea, she could feel her strength begin to return.

Around her, Tesa saw others being helped up, served tea, and recovering groggily from the blast of magic that had filled the cavern. She looked to Renna, who sat staring with a grim expression.

"What was that?" Tesa croaked.

Renna's eyes shifted to her.

"That," he said, "is the evil of bound magic." His eyelids drooped closed and he shook his head slowly. "We heard the blast from the other cavern and returned right away. If you hadn't been shielded..."

Malía had gotten to her feet and stood beneath a warm magelight as she surveyed the cavern. She put a hand to her forehead. Tesa noticed that it shook. Others in the cavern followed Malía's lead and stood. Tesa's legs felt unsteady. Glenna appeared at Tesa's side and held her elbow. They steadied each other.

Every person in the cave turned to attention when Malía cleared her throat.

Before she could speak, a distant roar echoed down the passage.

Panic lanced through Tesa. Where was Orrie? She hadn't checked in with him since before they'd entered the caves.

Orrie, she called to him. She barely heard Malía's orders assigning groups to different areas in the caverns.

Tesa felt her feet carry her as if on their own, joining the group with Malía, which followed the apparent source of the noise.

What happened? came Orrie's voice.

Tesa smiled in relief at hearing him, but much of the panic remained. If the roar hadn't been from Orrie, then who?

Did you see anything from up there? We're in the caves. We heard a dragon. There are dragons here.

He didn't answer right away. Tesa bit her lip as she jogged behind Malía through the cavern, waiting for his answer. A faint light glowed ahead of them in the passage.

Oh no, came Orrie's voice. In the spires.

Tesa's pace quickened. They rounded the corner to find that the light ahead of them was daylight. They ran faster until they emerged from the cavern onto a flat, dusty floor.

Tesa blinked as the sunlight blinded her. Her steps slowed, but she didn't stop until she bumped into Malía, who had frozen with a gasp.

The rock spires towered above the wide open space, ringing it like fingers grasping for the sky. In the middle of the open space, sick dragons sprawled.

A screech echoed above them. This time, Tesa knew it was Orrie's. Some of the dragons below answered, but now there were only groans.

Dragons lay sprawled out in the sunlight on the dusty, rocky ground. Some lay still, and others struggled to lift their heads or move their wings. Some dragons lay off to the side under rock ledges at the edge of the ring. Across the open space, shrouded in shadow, Tesa could see the outline of a person. No, two people. They seemed to be shouting at each other, but she couldn't hear it from here.

"Ireelie," Kiana said, choking on a sob as she uttered her dragon's name. She pushed past Malía, out to the front, and ran out into the sun toward a red dragon. Its form was still and she fell over it, draping over the dragon's neck.

"Get them," Malía said and pointed to the human figures across from them. She bounded toward them and the mages followed. Tesa jogged along, trying to keep her eyes off of the forms of the dragons. She couldn't think about it yet. She didn't want to know.

It was fortunate that the Yennar Lei mages had jogged ahead of her, right behind Malía, because when Tesa reached the two figures on the other side of the open space and saw that one of them was Berick, anger rose in her chest, and she reached into magesight and drew on the fiery energy of the sun that beat down from above. She let out a cry of rage and lifted her dagger, pointing it at Berick and letting the energy travel down it. But before she could act, two of the mages reached him and grabbed both of his arms. In magesight, Tesa could see the magic energy sprout from their stones as they set a restraint spell around Berick.

Tesa reined in the fire but didn't disperse it. At the end of her arm her dagger glowed as if the metal had just been removed from the forge. She strode forward, her chest puffed with her anger that imbued her with a sense of power. Berick would pay for this. She was dimly aware of Malía and Glenna restraining the other person who had been there, but she couldn't tear her eyes from Berick.

She thrust her dagger forward and rested the point of it on Berick's chest. The mages who held his arms cast nervous glances at her, but she didn't care.

"Where are the rest of your people?" she demanded.

Berick's face was ashen, but a flash of anger passed through his eyes.

"They're gone," he said.

"Don't think you can protect them," Tesa said. "We'll find them, too. You'll all pay."

He glowered. "I'm not trying to protect anyone. You find them, punish them, you'll be helping me."

Tesa narrowed her eyes and pushed her dagger harder to his chest. The fibers of his shirt burned and she curled her nose. Her eyes flashed to Malía, who watched her intensely. Tesa's anger had begun to subside, and she pulled back on the power that coursed through her. Her knife returned to normal. The fabric stopped burning. Malía nodded slightly in approval, stepped away from her own prisoner, Linnie, as more Yennar Lei mages came to apply their restraint spells to her.

"We'll find out everything in time," Malía said to Tesa. "But I think right now, we must tend to the dragons."

A flapping of wings and a hot breeze told Tesa that Orrie and the others were landing behind her. She turned, feeling almost sick. She didn't want to face it. But she would have to.

Orrie, Aerix, and Gira had shed their magic shields and were no longer invisible. They landed in the center of the open ground. As their wings came to rest, their heads swung around, taking in the sight of the dragons around them.

Then, they began to wail. They lifted their heads and trumpeted to the sky. The keening filled the space and echoed back at them.

Tesa stared at the fallen forms of the dragons, more than a hundred of them. Some of the dragons shifted, tails and wings twitched. Others did not move at all. Kiana still lay across Ireelie's neck The red dragon's form was still.

Tesa closed her eyes and let the dragon song fill her ears and her consciousness. Still gripping her knife in one hand, and clenching her other hand, empty, she felt the tears slide down her cheeks.