Dragons Reborn by Daniel Arenson Read Free Book Online Page A

through the hall, roaring, blasting out fire, their tails swinging into
men.
    Shouts rose behind
them. Pain drove into Cade's back, and he yowled. He turned his head to see
soldiers aiming crossbows, firing quarrels. Another shard drove into his
shoulder, crashing through a scale and punching into his flesh. Cade growled
and blasted flame. The jet streamed across the hall and crashed into the
crossbowmen. They fell, screaming, their skin peeling off, their armor melting.
    "Cade, to the
exit!" Domi cried, her claws clattering as she raced forward. "Follow!"
    He spun back toward her
and lolloped in pursuit, his wings banging against the walls, his horns etching
grooves along the ceiling. Doors rose ahead, and more guards shot crossbows. A
blast from Domi knocked them down, and an instant later, her horns slammed into
the doors. They shattered in a shower of splinters.
    The fiery dragon burst
out into the night, beat her wings, and soared. Cade leaped after her and
soared at her side, laughing, his wings billowing with air. The city sprawled
before them, countless huts spreading into the darkness, and beyond them the
forest.
    We're free.
    Screeches rose all
around. Dark wings shaded the moon. With flashes of scales and roaring flame,
the firedrakes swooped toward them.

 
 
DOMI

    She beat her wings, soaring toward
the firedrakes.
    "Fight them, Cade!"
she cried and blasted out her flames.
    A dozen firedrakes or
more flew toward her, and their own dragonfire cascaded down. Paladins sat in
their saddles, firing crossbows. Domi screamed as a quarrel slammed into her
shoulder, as fire washed her. She bellowed with rage, beat her wings, and
soared higher. Cade flew at her side, a golden dragon, blowing his flames. He
too bled, and one of his wings burned; he beat it madly, extinguishing the fire
against his flank.
    More firedrakes kept
rising. Archers ran into the square below, and arrows flew. Domi kept soaring,
but firedrakes swooped from above, blocking her passage, surrounding her, and
she knew she was going to die.
    She growled. So I go
down fighting.
    Bleeding, burnt, dying,
Domi lashed her claws, snapped her jaws, blazed out her fire. A firedrake
screeched above her. Domi's claws tore open its belly, and its entrails
spilled. A paladin fired his crossbow. Domi's dragonfire washed over his steel,
heating the armor and melting the flesh within. Another drake swooped toward
her, and she bit deeply, tearing out its neck, tasting its blood. Cade fought
at her side, roaring, blood on his fangs, his fire blasting out. They could not
win this fight, Domi knew, but they could make a last stand to be sung of for
centuries.
    Domi rose higher,
crashing through the enemies. Her tail slammed into a rider, knocking him off
his saddle. Her fire and claws drove firedrakes aside. She soared into open sky
high above the city, opened her jaws wide, and bellowed out only one word, the
word that meant everything, the word the city needed to hear, that she needed
to shout with all her rage and pain one last time.
    "Requiem!"
    Cade soared at her
side, several scales missing from his back, several quarrels sunken into him,
but he too blasted out his fire, and he too roared the cry.
    "Requiem!"
    The firedrakes
screeched all around, and the riders shouted, and more of the beasts kept
soaring, but from the east Domi heard it: the cry answered. Again. Again.
    "Requiem!
Requiem! Requiem!"
    Domi gasped,
soared higher. Who—
    She stared toward
the east, and her eyes watered.
    Three dragons came
flying toward the battle, not firedrakes but noble dragons of Requiem.
    "Fidelity!"
Domi cried out. "Julian! Roen!"
    The three charged
forth and blasted out their dragonfire.
    The firedrakes
surrounding Domi and Cade howled and burned. Their riders fell, and hope filled
Domi, and her tears streamed down her cheeks.
    "Requiem!"
Domi cried, weeping, calling out the forbidden name, letting all hear, all see
the glory of her fallen kingdom.
    The cries echoed
in the