~~~~~
“Where are we going?” Shival asked. She was tied to the back of Niall’s saddle and walked behind his horse.
“The Samaranthine.”
Niall looked into the sky. It was nearly dark. The General would reach the cliffs before they did. At their speed, it would take all night, even though Niall all but dragged Shival through the sharp rocks, sand, and harsh vegetation.
Despite his rage, something inside him felt ashamed of his actions against the Controller. Despite what she did to the city, to Vars. Niall slowed his horse a bit, to let the half-dragon catch her breath. All of this was wrong. General against Controller, Controller against Monarch, dragons against their city. A dark, tangled web of intent wove this together, but Niall didn’t understand whose or why.
Shival claimed innocence, but none of the brothers allowed her to explain. Nothing could justify what she did to Vars.
Sometime later, Niall ordered Pontris and Kye to scout ahead on foot while the horses rested. He didn’t want to push them to death, and he needed time to mull over his thoughts.
“Will you be able to handle her?” Pontris asked.
Niall nodded and, though Pontris seemed uncertain, the two younger brothers stalked off into the fading sunlight.
“They love you,” Shival said. “Vars said such bonds existed between brothers, but I had never seen it.”
“Don’t.” He pushed her away after he dismounted and left her tied to the animal. “You don’t have the right to speak his name.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“No. A dragon bit off his leg and burned him alive.”
Shival tried to lean against the horse, but it started walking and she fell. Niall sighed and untied the rope from the saddle and tied her to him instead.
“It wasn’t me. I’ve sworn to never harm a human as a dragon. If I break that oath —”
“Your blood will boil from inside and your heart will explode, I know. But only magic can undo itself.” He threw a tiny shred of jerky at her. “Dragons are magic in physical form, or so they say.”
Shival chuckled dryly and threw the jerky at his face. “Do you know how Controllers are born? How we become sibling to magic incarnate?” Niall tried to hide his curiosity, but she saw it and smiled. It was a bitter, hateful expression. “Every drop of human blood has to be replaced with that of a dragon. In other words, you die a slow, painful death. Then you wake up with the ability to hear every dragon in existence. They don’t speak, can’t form intelligent thoughts. They’re primal things.” Niall let her inch closer.
“Then you want to act on these desires. To rip the limb from the man who whipped you, to infuse magic into a building through your breath so the one who feeds you and says nice things to you when you’ve done well will live a long and healthy life. All of this, I feel. And every day I want to kill you humans.” She sighed. “But I’m one of you, too, and I can’t escape that fate either.”
“You could turn into a dragon, stay that way.” Niall cursed himself for letting her become so casual, but something about her made him relax.
“I can only sustain that form for a time. A month, maybe a year. And then I’d be a human, but less human than before. Each time I transform it takes a shred of my former self with it.”
“Is that why you let the dragons burn it all to the ground?”
Niall glanced back at the city. The light from the fires twinkled in the distance like burning stars. Why was he entertaining this creature?
“There is another mage who learned the dragon magic. I don’t know how, but he is the one who killed your brother. I couldn’t reach Vars in time, even though he called for me.” Shival clenched her fists. “Do you know how that feels? To have the power to save a human from danger with ease, only to arrive in time to see a white dragon fly off and drop a man from his mouth without a second glance?”
“And this mage, where is he?”
“I can show you.”
“Nice try.” Niall yanked the rope and Shival fell face-first into the dirt. “But your lies won’t change your fate.”
“You are just and honorable, Niall Var’s brother. I pray you consider that.”
Shival let out a shriek. Her bones began to pop. White wings with blue membranes sprouted from her back, and her face turned into a long snout filled with teeth as long as Niall’s hand. The rope around her wrists snapped as her arms grew into forelegs.
As Niall unsheathed his scythe, the transformation finished and Shival took to the sky. He managed to sink the curved blade into her shoulder. She cried out, but she didn’t shake him loose as she rose. Niall watched the horses become black, undefined specks. He wondered if his brothers would be able to catch up but doubted it. He would die as his brother had, and he found himself praying Shival’s story of her innocence was true.
After what felt like an eternity, Niall’s arm tired. He needed to find a way to get off Shival or force himself onto her back. Part of him saw the irony in being dragged across the sky by a dragon when he had dragged her across the desert.
Shival must have heard his thoughts, because she started to descend. Niall spotted the great cliffs of the Samaranthine, but the General wasn’t there yet. Niall needed to give the General time to capture the Controller.
Niall used what remaining strength he had to push his blade further into her flesh. Her scream was agonizing. As he was about to push it more, he saw another form in the sky. A cream-colored dragon with equally white membranes barreled towards them. Shival arched her back and Niall shot up into the air with nothing to catch him. Desperate, he grabbed onto one of the spikes along her spine and managed to wedge himself between two of them. Niall considered leaving the scythe buried in her shoulder, but this other dragon matched her description of the one that killed Vars.
The Shival-dragon roared and tucked in her wings. Niall held on to her spike with all his strength and prayed to the Controllers past to save their descendant from his foolishness. Blood as red as any man’s covered her scales and dripped into the air. Could the other dragon smell it?
White and blue flames flew from Shival’s mouth as a pale fireball came straight for her. Niall cried out. The metal of his scythe burned against his thigh, and he thought his flesh would start to roast if the inferno didn’t calm. Shival swatted the remaining bits of flame with her foreleg and shrieked and hissed. It made Niall tremble.
Smoke clouded Niall’s vision, but Shival dove towards the earth. Breaking through the haze, the white dragon appeared in front of her and bit at her neck. It missed and bit her already-wounded shoulder.
Instead of crying out, Shival sank her claws into the dragon’s chest and bit at his neck over and over. It shrieked and tried to wrench itself free by clawing Shival wherever it could. It left huge gashes in her scaled chest and belly.
Niall felt Shival inhale deeply and hid his face against her spine as she unleashed fire on the other dragon’s deep neck wound. This time Niall felt his hair burn before bits of flame leapt to his skin. Pain like none he’d felt before seared through his bare arms, and he screamed. The snarling dragons and the roaring winds ripped the noise into oblivion the moment it escaped his lips.
Unable to feel his arms, Niall’s grip loosened. He felt emptiness surround him, beg him to fall. And he obliged.
The earth pulled at him, but the two dragons stayed intertwined. Shival’s wing was burned to the point where she could barely move it and she struggled to stay in the sky. As Niall fell past her, she reached out a foreleg and roared. Niall saw her rip at the other dragon’s belly and neck with newfound energy.
In a strangely human move, Shival grabbed the dragon’s neck with her forefeet and twisted it until the dragon all but looked backwards. Still, it hissed and hissed. Shival bit into its neck and it finally went limp.
Niall watched as the dragon transformed into a human dressed in the white dress-like garb of the Westernmen. The man’s body plummeted to the desert ground faster than Niall
did, or at least it looked that way. Shival’s wing was snapped, and she also fell, still in dragon form.
She screeched and tried to go into a dive, managed to catch up with Niall. Her forefeet wrapped around him, the claws barely missing his burnt flesh. Then he felt the world crash around him as he slammed into the scaled hands and into unconsciousness.