A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(25)

Lucy's eyes grew large. "What?" She jumped off onto the grass and tried to follow the voice, but it always seemed to move ahead of her. "Stop! Where are you?"

Her heart slammed against her ribs. The strange voice from Zerkalo could somehow be heard in the real world? What did that mean? It said the worlds were merging, but how much? She had to know more. She raced after the voice, stumbling in the darkness and barely thinking about how dangerous it was to plunge into the black without a lantern to guide her way.

"You need to return," the voice said. "The nightmares are becoming real. You will not have much time left if you don't hurry."

Lucy, out of breath from racing after it, sucked in air. "What do you mean? Can't you just tell me plainly?"

But then the voice spoke no more and Lucy looked up to see that she was standing around the back of one of the last buildings in the compound, and looking out at the gates. Through their arches she saw the guards pressed closed to each other, their weapons drawn and their eyes wide and frightened in the flaring light of the hundred paper lanterns hanging on wires above them.

As Lucy followed their frightened gazes, she saw what was the cause of all the panic in the palace. 

On the top of the middle arch, twisted along the wooden posts, was the thin and lithe body of a dragon. It's snake-like body curled around and around in multiple spirals, and its torso sat propped up at the apex of the arch. Hundreds of candles stuck to its back, illuminating it against the black sky, and Lucy suddenly realized what she was looking at. It was the stone statue that once sat in the koi pond, only now it was alive and writhing around. It shook its massive head, its beard dripping with something that Lucy knew must be blood. Between its jaws, that had only yesterday been motionless and carved of stone, it crunched the body of some unfortunate guard. 

This was a scene that belonged in Zerkalo, where massive creatures existed in the dream plains. This was not for Strana.

The dragon now seemed made of shifting shadow, only visible against the black sky because of the candles that still burned in a line down its back. Only now the candles burned with red flames, and didn't blow out even as its massive tail smashed into the other end of the gate and sent huge splinters of wood showering down on the guards below. 

Lucy ran forward, wondering if getting closer might somehow answer the question of just how a statue had come to life in the real world. She stumbled down the road, her eyes fastened only on the fight happening at the gate.

The guards desperately tried different methods of attacking the dragon. Spears, swords, arrows, and even rocks. They flung them all up at the dragon, but it still managed to twist down and crush guards below its heavy tail even as a volley of arrows landed in its side.

Lucy stumbled to a stop as the destruction of the palace's front end came into view. In the light of swinging lanterns, the carcasses of buildings creaked in the night breeze, shredded into pieces. Bodies lay scattered along the road, crushed under debris or torn apart by claws and fangs. Their fine clothes soaked with blood, catching the light and making Lucy's stomach churn.

"Heartsore One." The voice was right behind her, causing her skin to prickle and go cold.

"Heartsore One, you have to tell them to use flames," it said. "Tell them."

Lucy shook as she stared at the destruction playing out before her. "Flames? On the dragon?" she whispered. She had run so far that now she was nearly right on the battle waging between the guards the dragon. The sound of wood splitting filled the air as the dragon gripped one of the arches with its talons, bursting it into a thousand splinters. 

"It's the only way you can defeat it," the voice said. "Hurry. Time is running out."

Lucy ran forward until she reached the start of the guards' ranks. She pushed her way through, covering her head as stone and wood rained down from the arch above her. Then she was on the other side of the gate, looking up at the dragon now right above her. It was terrifyingly massive, spanning the entire gate and clinging onto the stone pillars with talons as long as Lucy's own arm.

"Miss!" a guard shouted, his mouth popping open with shock at seeing her curls bouncing amongst the plumed hats of the guards. "Please get to safety! We cannot spare time to keep you safe. You need to leave immediately."

Lucy grabbed his arm and pointed up at the dragon. "Use flames on it!" she shouted over the roar of the men behind her as the dragon whipped a section of them into the air with a flick of its tail.

"Miss, get out of here now!" the guard said, not focusing on her at all. He merely shoved her away and disappeared into the crowd.

Lucy grunted in frustration, but then began pulling any guard nearby to tell them about the flames. But not even one listened to her, and she even earned a few hard blows to her face as they struggled to get away from her and focus on the dragon instead.

Jaw smarting and frustration building, Lucy saw that she was going to get nowhere with the guards. If she wanted flames, she'd have to do it herself.

She changed her focus to the ground, pushing her way through corpses and rubble, looking for a suitable weapon. Kicking away swords and spears, she finally located a bow, and then pulled an arrow out from under a body. With these in hand, she shoved her way to the back of the guards and toward a lantern sitting at the edge of the now empty and destroyed koi pond.

Knocking the glass lid away from the lantern, Lucy exposed the flame and the oil pan. She ripped a section of her skirt off and wound it around the iron tip of the arrow and secured it. She then dipped the fabric into the oil pan and held her breath as she held it to the flame. The fabric caught, burning bright, and she spun quickly on her heel to face the dragon. She'd only have a few seconds in which to shoot before the fabric went out.

Her hands shook as she drew back the heavy bowstring, and she didn't even bother to aim as she let it go and sent the arrow flying. It wavered in the air, a horrible shot, but luckily the dragon was massive enough that precise aiming was not required to hit a section of its body.

The arrow sunk deep into its flanks, and the reaction was immediate. The dragon screeched in pain, its voice shaking the stones they stood on. The guards cringed back, covering their ears, but they couldn't help but see the flames from Lucy's arrow spreading across the dragon's shadow skin. They burnt like on a coal, steady and firm. The dragon writhed, attempting to put the fire out on its side. But the guards had finally seen what flames could do.

Soon every archer was sending up a volley of fire-tipped arrows that burrowed into the dragon's skin. It screeched and writhed, tipping over off the gate and slamming into the ground and sending dirt and gravel spinning into the air. The guards rushed forward with lanterns, tossing them at the dragon until it was completely covered in brightly burning oil and paper and wood.

The fire spread across the dragon until the flames had nothing left to burn, and they faded away to reveal the body of the dragon glowing red like the remains of hearth fire. It moved to face the guards, its eyes still glowing white, and it raised one clawed foot. The guards gasped, moving back in a wave as the foot came tumbling down. But as the claws dug into the ground, the leg crumbled and fell away like soft clay. As the leg disintegrated, it traveled up the rest of the body, until the dragon was nothing more than a rain of charcoal and sparks. The guards, in solemn disbelief, merely raised their sleeves over their faces, staring at the death of something that should never have existed in the first place.