On horseback, Niall, Kye, and Pontris skirted around the city in the mid-morning haze. With the entire city wrapped in smoke Niall couldn’t tell if the dragons continued to burn houses and shrines and noble palaces. When the brothers had left Healer’s Court, some claimed the dragons fought each other as much as they fought the undefended structures. Niall hoped that was true. It would buy them time.
Kye had seen Shival turn into a dragon and fly towards the Samaranthine, but no one had seen a dragon outside of the city — and that sort of news traveled fast. Shival was on foot. With the head start, she might make it to the river by the morning if she transformed occasionally, but Niall’s and his brothers’ horses were the swiftest in the city.
Niall looked into the sky, looking for dragons, but instead, rifts of red, green, and yellow flashed in the sky. Moon Ribbons during the day? Niall yelled at his brothers and motioned to the lights above. The Ribbons were faint against the sun, but there they were. Did the dragons summon them? Or was it something else? Niall took it as a sign from the moons that he was on the proper path.
By midday, Niall caught sight of dragon prints. He ordered a halt and swung off his mount. The great, three-toed prints shifted as if Shival dragged herself on. Or fell. Then there were bare footprints, but even these seemed strange. The same dragging marks followed.
A lone tree marked the horizon. Niall saw something under its shade. Two somethings. He looked down and realized the sliding mark along the hard sandy ground went towards the tree. Not bothering with the horse, he ran. Soon, the figures became clear.
Shival, dressed in only a cloth vest and tattered breeches, slept next to a body propped up against the tree trunk. It was so bloodied and disfigured that Niall couldn’t make out who it was. Careful not to wake the half-dragon, Niall motioned for his brothers to wait and crept into the shade.
He grabbed her hands and Shival jumped to life, roaring in a strange shrieking wail not unlike her half-siblings in the city. Disgusted, Niall shoved her into Kye’s hands and he bent to inspect the body.
“Does he breathe?” Shival asked. Her voice was deep for a woman’s, yet attractive. Under different circumstances, Niall might’ve enjoyed letting her speak more, but not now.
The body had been dressed in a steel chain mail tunic, or so Niall guessed. It was a man. His right leg had been bitten clean off, and blood had seeped into the ground around the wound. From the looks of the stiff joints and the already-pungent smell, the man had died last night, hopefully in his sleep. Niall bent closer to look for an insignia, a tattoo or some other identifier.
Around the man’s neck, or rather melted into his chest, was a pendant. It had been shaped like a vine, with what remained of the letter V on the front.
Vars’s pendant.
Niall spun around and grabbed Shival by the throat. He enjoyed hearing her cough as he squeezed. “What did he do that deserved this? Tell me!”
Defiance sparkled like glowing embers in her black eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto his hands, but all he wanted to do was watch her life fade from her slowly.
It took both Kye and Pontris to pry Niall off her neck, and she fell to the ground in a fit of choking spasms as she tried to breathe again.
“We need her.” But Niall could tell it took every ounce of willpower Kye possessed to say that. His lip quivered. The man they all looked up to was gone, and they had to keep the bitch that killed him alive.
Niall growled and shoved himself away. Carefully, he stalked to Shival and pointed his scythe at her chest. “You’d better start talking, or else we’ll find a way to control the dragons once you’re dead.”
Shival pushed herself up into a sitting position and rubbed her neck. She trembled, but there was something feral in her that overpowered her emotions and replaced her tears with a frigid determination.
Niall pressed his blade onto her skin enough to make her bleed. “Speak.”
“You’re Var’s brother?”
“We are.”
“How did you know where we were?”
Pontris bent down and slapped her hard enough to knock her to the ground. “You have no right to ask questions.”
“Pon.” Niall motioned to Kye, who led Pontris off towards their horses.
Shival picked herself up yet again. “Did Torant send you?” She scoffed and spat out a thick clot of red, then licked her lips as she scoffed. “Are you his bitch, answering when he calls?”
Niall closed his eyes and barely managed to speak through his clenched jaws. “Why did you loose the dragons on the city?”
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t?”
“That’s rich.” Niall barked out a single, sharp laugh. “Did they decide to stop listening to you for a day, is that it?”
“No.”
“You admit your guilt then.” He picked her up by the hair and dragged her to his horse. “When we reach the General, you’ll tell him how to fix this. And then you will die.”