I could feel the waves of hurt radiating, still after all of these centuries, from Rivita’s heart. No wonder she had been so vehemently opposed to me wearing the accursed Stone Crown.
“Here.” Rivita nodded her head to the spot of cold stone between her large, red paws. I could not refuse her. I had to step forward.
“Little Sister…” Ymmen gave a low huff of displeasure. I could feel how he wanted to be at my side in this judging, but I knew that I had to do this alone.
“It’s okay, Ymmen,” I said, and suddenly realized that it was, in a strange way. I had never asked to be the scapegoat or representative for all humanity, but I had wanted to be an Imanu for my people – which was nearly the same thing, in a way, wasn’t it? The Imanu holds the stories for the people, I told myself. The Imanu speaks when others can or will not.
I stepped forward, under the maw and between the claws of the Red dragon.
There was a huff of super-heated air from above me, and through the Stone Crown I could feel the Lady Red trying to control her frustration and anger. She was a wilder sort of dragon than some of the others here, I could tell. She was more used to smashing her problems and forgetting them behind her.
“Kneel,” the Lady Red said, and I did so, bending my head to the ground as I accepted that this had to be the way to heal. I felt the hot air all around me as a shadow eclipsed my position, and I flinched, looking up to see that my sky was filled with the giant maw of the Lady Red, open wide and surrounding me as if she meant to bite me in half.
“Sister…!” I heard Ymmen’s growl, but I held my position. And Ritiva held hers. She could kill me at any moment if she wanted to.
“Do you now understand?” Red Ritiva breathed into my mind, and I nodded.
“I do,” I said. This was what it must feel like for all dragons right now, all of those who stood and crouched and perched around me. Dragons rarely feel fear – but each one must have been aware that I could give myself over to the Stone Crown at any moment. That I could command or control them, or cause them to break every bond that they held dear between each other or any other. They all had the jaws of disaster hanging around them so long as this Stone Crown existed.
“I do.” I nodded once more, and I felt the mood lighten and the shadows lift as Red Ritiva lifted back her head.
“Good. Then I will gladly join with Eldest Sister, and you, in destroying this evil!”
I stumbled back into a sitting position, relief flowing through me like a spring-melt wave of fresh water. How many dragons did we have now? Sixty? Seventy? Would that be enough? Fargal had said it would take as many dragons as could come—
“Sit, child of the western wind, and hold your purpose. I will join the others in song, and together we will try to wrest the souls of our lost from their imprisonment—” Fargal announced, a moment before there was a sudden hiss and squawk of alarm from the edge of our gathering. It was the Vicious Orange Drakes, the ones who had borne the Binshee Company to us—
“Hoi!” Prince Akir was shouting, already running past the rousing dragons to his own. “Our dragons sense evil coming! This Metal Queen is coming!”
Oh no. I quickly staggered to my feet, as dragons around me started hissing and crying out in alarm, clashing their wings and preparing to fly.
And there – over their shoulders and heading towards us, already passing the foothills of the Dragon Spine Mountains was a dark cloud of metal bodies, spewing foul smokes and raining gobbets of chemical fire.
The mechanical hosts of Inyene D’Lia, the Metal Queen, had come.
Chapter 22
The Song of Undoing
“Stay! STAY!” Fargal roared at the assembled dragons that were trying to take flight and face the coming mob. But the dragons here were disorganized and furious. Some were leaping into the air, and others were whipping their tails back and forth in agitation over what to do.
“We’ll try to harry them! Destroy the Crown!” I heard Prince Akir shout as he and the ten or twelve Southern dragons jumped into the cold air over the Circle of Grom, using the change of air to flick themselves upwards, higher and higher over our heads, before each turned and shot across the skies towards the approaching horde.
But there are so many! I thought in dismay. I couldn’t count them from this distance, but if we had sixty or so dragons here, then their number could easily be at least a hundred… And the metal dragons do not suffer pain, or tire, or grow confused, or pause in their task… I thought. Inyene must have had some magical awareness of what we were doing and had given up her aim of seizing the citadel and the sacred mountain, instead coming here to seize the Stone Crown itself.
‘…I will separate your head from your body and pry the Crown from your skull!’ I remembered what Inyene herself had declared to me, at the Masaka Pass—
PHABOOM! But then, a flash of blue-white light on the far edge of the mechanical cloud. I saw a commotion at the back as some of the shabby, awkward, noisy and stuttering creatures with their stolen scales separated and broke apart, and other forms – smooth-bodied and sharp-flying forms appeared.
“The Dragon Riders!” Tamin shouted in relief, as there was another flash of blue and white light from one of the Stocky Greens…
Montfre! It had to be, as it looked just like the magical bolts that he had fired before at Inyene’s constructions. It was too far for me to see, but I felt my heart pulse as I once more felt that invisible, golden thread I had never felt before with another human. Abioye was there, I promised myself. I was sure of it.
But there were only about ten or so of the Dragon Riders of Torvald – with Abioye and the mage, Montfre, I was sure – to disrupt Inyene’s force. Adding to that flew the ten or more Binshee Company. Over twenty versus over a hundred?
Five to One, I thought as a hunter did. An impossible task…
My heart was in my throat as the two sets of Dragon Riders converged and attacked. They were the far better flyers than the mechanical dragons, of that I could see, how they wheeled and whirled in tight formation, seeming to act as larger creatures, moving as one in perfect precision before breaking suddenly apart, firing on the metal monstrosities individually, and then tumbling and rolling back into their groups once more.
But for all of their grace and skill – their numbers were too small. They could no more hold back the tide of Inyene’s horde as they could hold back the wind itself—
“We need more…” I whispered, and I felt the answering anger of Ymmen beside me.
“Do the work you have to do, Little Sister,” he informed me, before bunching his legs and lifting his head to roar a mighty jet of flame. “A brood with me! No more!” I heard him bellow as he leapt into the skies. Behind him, there were already agitated dragons wheeling through the air, uncertain what to do—whether to help to destroy the Stone Crown or defend the rest of dragon-kind against Inyene. But, Ymmen wheeled around them, and I felt him speaking and barking at them until only a handful rose to join him.
And out of those seven or eight that did, one was Red Ritiva, beating her wings fast to match her speed to Ymmen’s, as they both turned to shoot towards the mass.