Damara perched on a rock, anxiously twisting the ivory ring around her finger in effort to calm her nerves. Her hands trembled and her stomach felt queasy.
I need to get out of here- but how? Chasm was always there, catching her eye every time she started to gaze around for an escape route. She knew evading him would be no easy task.
Making matters worse, the other dragons weren’t going anywhere either. Veer, Hasten, and Iris all kept close to Chasm, heeding his every soft-spoken word.
Damara narrowed her eyes at Iris, taking in each glint that flecked her magenta hide. The vibrant dragon held herself haughtily, looking down on everything through harsh, squinting eyes.
Both Veer and Hasten seemed to ignore her. Compared to Iris, they both looked like mounds of dirt, thickset and drab.
What are they talking about? Damara strained her ears to listen, but Chasm was speaking in quiet, scheming tones and she could not make out the words. The oak grey dragon shot her a menacing glance as she shifted on the rock.
I can’t escape right now, she knew. How could I distract him? I need to catch him off guard, slip away when he least expects it…When they all least expect it.
Feverish, she raked her fingers through her hair. How am I going to do this? Even if I managed to sneak away, I’d soon be tracked down. Chasm found me amongst a whole kingdom of people just by my scent! I need to find some way to mask it.
She noticed Chasm coming her way and crossed her arms, gritting her teeth as he stopped in front of her. Murderous liar.
“Climb on,” Chasm told her, staring into her eyes as though daring her to challenge him.
Damara crouched on the boulder, silent. If I refuse he’ll just carry me by his talons and give me more wounds, she knew, tearing her nails on the rock in frustration.
Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground. With head bowed in reluctant submission, she came forth and straddled the base of his neck. Her breath was shaky and uneven.
“Good,” Chasm praised her mockingly. He spread his wings and pushed off, beating the air. Iris rose like a colorful bird beside him. Veer heaved herself into the air with Hasten right behind.
Where are we going? Damara dreaded the answer. She dared not ask.
The four dragons flew in between mountains and she predicted their destination by the map in her head.
We’re going to Wystil.
Damara was both frightened and hopeful at the same time. One part of her thought that nearing the kingdom would increase her chances of escape, but she also knew that the dragons’ reasons for going there couldn’t be good.
Silently, she rode with her heart in her mouth.
In no time at all, they cleared the mountain range and Damara’s prediction proved true. The entire land of Wystil opened up to them like an unsuspecting victim. Swaine River carved a bend through the land. Beyond it was the castle, with the town of Rookton nearby. Her town. Damara stared at it, wide eyed.
Is Xander there? she wondered anxiously, then shook her head in anger. Don’t be foolish, she told herself. Xander couldn’t have survived that battle against the dragons.
The Strong Pack drew nearer and nearer to civilization, and she grew stiffer with fear at each stroke of Chasm’s wings.
Looking around at all the dragons, Damara thought, They look like buzzards coming to feed. Then, shuddering, she realized, No, they’re worse than that. They’re wolves on wings coming to kill.
This must be what Chasm wanted all along. Chaos. Death.
How far will he go?
As they came upon the river, Damara gawked at town ruins down below.
What is this place? It’s burned down to the ground!
From her vantage point, everything looked like a black, crumbling mess. Everything except for a big stone bridge, which stood out like a dove among crows. Swaine River flowed under it, a vein of life dividing the wrecked town.
My God, this is Swaineford! Damara realized.
Amongst the rubble, she thought she saw a charred body trapped under a collapsed wall. Quickly, she turned her gaze back to Chasm’s spine, praying that it couldn’t be true.
She closed her eyes tightly, recalling the herald’s words, ‘Swaineford has been attacked by dragons!’
That happened last winter, she remembered, feeling the spring sun tickle the back of her neck. Damara took deep breaths as Chasm began to spiral down to earth. She closed her eyes in fear of what she’d see.
Thud! The dragon underneath her landed with a jolt and her eyelids flew open. She stared down at her hands, studying every detail of the ivory fish on her finger, just to distract herself from looking up.
All three of the other dragons landed. The flowing water sang close by.
“Get off,” Chasm told her.
Trembling, Damara kept herself facing inward as she dismounted, staring at the pattern of his scaly hide.
Don’t turn around. Don’t even glance.
Her feet crunched as they touched the ground, but she didn’t look down. Chasm turned his head to her, scrutinizing her. Damara breathed rapidly as her tattered dress and cape fluttered in the soft breeze.
Chasm snorted in amusement.
“You look more scared than a trapped doe with her fawn,” he remarked. “Come. See all that I’ve done.”
Before she could respond, the dragon stepped swiftly aside, revealing the destroyed town behind him. Once her eyes touched the scene, she could not tear them away. She gazed in horror at the wreckage.
This used to be such a lively town, she mourned, searching the ruins from where she stood. And now it’s nothing.
But where are all the bodies? She saw what appeared to be the remains of a goat, but not a person was in sight. The human body she’d spotted when they flew in was obscured from her grounded point of view.
Did everyone else escape? Hope stirred Damara’s heart.
She looked to Chasm, who was also scanning the scenery, his upper lip twitching.
“Didn’t you kill anyone?” Iris voiced Damara’s thoughts, unimpressed.
“We killed everyone!” Veer snarled back.
Iris narrowed her eyes. “That’s not how I see it.”
Damara saw Chasm bare his teeth in frustration. “They must have buried the bodies,” he said. Without a warning, he butted Damara forward with the crown of his head, commanding, “Come.”
He slunk over the wreckage of houses, head sweeping from side to side. As he changed direction, he herded Damara in the same way and she scrambled over rubble in haste.
The Strong Pack followed behind, stalking to the edge of the Swaineford ruins.
“Here.” Chasm pulled to a stop.
Damara looked up from where she stood. Before them was a field of loose dry ground, standing out from the green hills like a bruise. A rancid stench tainted the air.
What is this? An ashen feeling crept over her as she sensed that there was more to the barren lot than what she could see.
Chasm glided from the top of a wreckage mound, alighting on the field of dirt. He bent his head to the ground and began digging like a humungous dog, shoveling his foreclaws into the earth with mighty force.
A clattering sound cluttered the air as he struck something hard, and he peered down into the hole with a smirk.
“Look,” he boasted, stepping aside so the others could see. He watched Iris approach, his chest swelling in pride. Then, as if on second thought, he turned his head to Damara and demanded, “You too.”
What did he find? Damara dreaded what she’d see, picking her way down the rubble. She felt the loose dirt settle beneath her feet as she neared.
She paused, taking a deep breath before slipping past Veer and Hasten to stare into the hole.
Bodies.
Damara’s bottom jaw trembled as her eyes made out the hard, scorched bones sticking out. Ragged clothes stained brown with old blood clung to a rotting torso in the ground. An arm lay exposed from the elbow to its stiff, marred hand. Damara covered her mouth
and nose from the foul odor that assaulted her, as though spiteful that she should be alive unlike the many beneath.
God, why?
These were not soldiers. Not people of power. They were commoners, defenseless against the monsters that seared them, tore their flesh, dismembered their limbs from their core. Their death was not the result of a battle between beings. This was a slaughter, the absolute ruthlessness of one species preying on another, obliterating the weak. There was no reason, no justification. It was simply murder.
Why would anyone do this?!
Veer snorted in amusement as Hasten reached down with one, meaty foreclaw to pry at a dome poking out from the dirt. He dislodged it. Damara retched as she saw that it was a head. Part of the charred scalp was missing from its skull, a white cap atop its sunken, unrecognizable face.
Damara staggered back, bumping into Hasten’s chest, and he shouldered her out of his way. In desperate attempt to avoid the dug up grave, she tripped and fell at Iris’ feet, who spat in disgust, leaping away.
How many are buried here? Tears formed as little beads on her eyelashes before uniting and running themselves into the ground. Her cheek brushed up against soft dirt. She imagined bodies piled beneath the very spot where she lay.
Chasm did this.
There, across the hole from her, the oak grey dragon stood, head high as he tasted the air. He narrowed his eyes in on her, scrutinizing. He was a savage, a killer, a loathsome beast.
Why hasn’t he killed me yet? Damara quavered. Has he a special death for me?
Or is he going to murder me here with all the rest?!
No, no- I have to get away!
Gasping for air, she picked herself up and fled back to the ruins. Tripping over mud and straw, wood and rocks, Damara didn’t stop until she reached the grassy banks of the river. She ran to where the bridge stood strong, tucking herself into the shadows.
I’m powerless. She wept, burying her face in her knees. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t escape. I can’t fight. No one’s going to save me. No one’s going to save Wystil.
Chasm is going to win.
Those last words soaked in, staining her spirit and eating away at her will. Slowly, she lifted her head, glowering into the river that flowed effortlessly before her, hushing softly. Am I to be his slave? Will he not kill me? Make me suffer forever more?
Chasm.
He was a predator and she’d given herself up to him as an unknowing sacrifice.
I was such a fool! Damara cursed herself. Bitterness chased out all her hopes, forming an exoskeleton around her heart. I refused to listen to Xander and now-
Now I have to watch everyone die because of it.
Chapter 10