Page 57 of Court of Embers (Dragonesse #2)

Chapter

Thirty-One

W e emerged from the darkness of Talariel to the eyrie’s peak as dawn broke over the horizon, illuminating the Ascendants before us.

They had all come. Erebos and Myst, Caru and Illiae, Rannas and Nereus, and around them a hundred more—the Ascendants of minor Houses, answering the calls of their elder, wiser siblings. The dragonbloods of their Houses, and the Horde, soared through the empty sky above.

I looked out over the city, columns of smoke still rising from the dragonfire burning below. The dead lay everywhere, filling the streets; the dragonblood dead crumpled where they’d fallen from the sky.

I had no doubt they had all collapsed when Ustrael’s stolen body died, like puppets without strings. She was locked away once more, a piece of her gibbering mind trapped in this chunk of stone, but unable to touch or command them.

Before I could give my next order, Tyria stepped forward. “I think it’s time to put tradition aside,” she said dryly. “All hail our new Dragonesse and Drakkon. Long may they live.”

I held my breath as the assembled dragonbloods bowed. Exhausted to the core, mournful in spirit, covered in blood and grieving someone I had never known, none of it felt real.

Rhylan…

He leaned against me.

I know it was worth it. All of it. But…

You’re mourning her, Sera , he said gently. Yura and all the dead. Your family. You don’t have to smile now.

I exhaled, nodding. Somehow I’d always envisioned becoming the Dragonesse in jewels, triumphant, standing before Koressis and secure in the knowledge that I had won.

Not like this, bloodied and bowed under the weight of the burden I carried.

But unbroken . Rhylan squeezed my hand.

I squeezed him back, and for a moment, all I could feel was the intense relief that we’d made it through together. In the darkness under Talariel, I’d been convinced it was the end, that our story was over before it’d ever had a chance to shine.

My eyes moved slowly over the assembly, taking in Doric and his pearl-dripping Ascendant Nereus, the scattered cousins of the Shadowed Stars intermingled with the wild, Houseless dragons of the Horde.

The snowy scales of the Mourning Fangs, and the brilliant colors of the minor Houses.

Even Akiva, Ascendant of the Iron Shards, her steel-bright head lowered beneath the gaze of her elder siblings.

Tyria rose from her bow, and she and Maristela came before me. “The Ascendants are here to aid us,” she said quietly. “We must bury this place under flame and earth. There are too many dead.”

I nodded, shaking off my exhaustion. Bodies meant disease spread in the earth and water.

For years to come, Talariel would be nothing more than a graveyard of ashes.

I hoped something would grow from it in the future, something benign, but after eons of serving as the resting place for a fragment of Ustrael, it might remain poisoned ground forever.

“We’ll fly in sweep formations, and work our way out.

Ascendants.” I looked at the assemblage, at Myst in her full form, towering as high as Erebos and her chest puffed out with pride.

The bells on her antlers tinked softly. “Thank you for coming. We must bring this eyrie down to the very last stone.”

“Leave it to us, Serafina dear.” Myst reached out and tapped a claw on my head, but I noticed she kept her distance from the bag I held.

Rhylan shifted, and I bundled the fragment in its bag inside my leathers, against my chest. I couldn’t risk losing it, or allowing Ustrael to fall into another’s hands.

I clung to the saddle as everyone fled the eyrie, taking to the cleaner air of the open sky, but the Ascendants remained. They were gathered in a circle far below, and before our eyes, they melted into the stone, diving through it as though into water.

It seemed an interminable amount of time passed before the screech and crack of crushed stone filled the air. A rumbling pressed in on my ears, muffling all other sound, and Talariel collapsed.

My mouth dropped open despite myself, watching the mountain cave in on itself. Flames in every shade licked up from the interior, and the Ascendants came flowing out, breathing fire and crushing stone, ensuring the eyrie would never be anything more than a bleak pile of crushed rock.

I thought of Yura’s remains down there in the dark, buried forever.

I’ve never seen anything like it , Rhylan thought numbly.

It had to happen. This is cursed ground now . I felt the icy coldness emanating from the bag against my chest. A weight and a burden.

Together we would travel to the World Scar, and do as Larivor had asked.

As the dragons set to sweeping the streets of the city with flame, crumbling buildings and burning the dead, I let my tears flow freely. I could always blame it on the cold wind and pyre smoke.

We didn’t fly straight home.

Koressis Eyrie was a pillar of white fire in the sun, a beacon that belied what it was now: a mass tomb.

Once upon a time, I’d dreamed of opening those doors and ascending the tower to take the throne. Now the throne would be wherever we were, because I couldn’t bring myself to walk in there and claim it as my home.

Myst flowed through the doors as the rest of us hovered, waiting for an answer. Doric circled overhead with Treza at his side, the smaller, thinner orange dragon remaining tucked under Doric’s icy wings.

When Myst emerged, her eyes were calm. I exhaled with relief as she swam through the sky to meet us.

“Isandoral is dead,” she informed us. “His misery has ended.”

I nodded, sorry for my Ascendant and the loss of her brother, and yet I couldn’t entirely pretend to a grief I didn’t feel.

Either that, or my capacity for mourning had finally run out.

Plenty of good dragons had died from Ustrael’s machinations.

Now, I simply felt numb as I heard the rising numbers of the dead.

“Will you take the throne?” she asked.

I stared at Koressis’s peak. The throne room was right there, the great gilded chairs of the Drakkon and Dragonesse overlooking the Eye of the Gods and the Circle.

“No. We’ll make a new one.”

Let’s go home , I said, leaning over the saddle and resting my cheek on Rhylan’s warm scales. Please .

He sent me a wordless burst of deep love and concern, and I kissed his back everywhere I could reach. I’m fine. I just want to see home one more time before we finish this.

Don’t say it like that , he said, his mental voice jagged. We both know you’re not fine.

I will be. In time . I put a hand over the fragment, letting its cold soak through my fingers. And it’ll start with throwing this where it belongs .

I knew without asking that we needed a few nights to prepare, to heal, to rest before undertaking this final act. I felt Rhylan’s exhaustion, the ache around his ribs from breathing deep, the rasping burn in his throat from breathing fire.

I felt it, too. My body ached, bruised and battered from Ustrael’s final thrashing moments.

And in both of us, all of us, the heartsick grief of the end of the war, when we tallied our dead and asked ourselves what it had all been for.

In time we would heal. And though Ustrael had not intended it, a new Akalla would rise from the ashes she’d left behind.

I would not be the absent ruler my father had been. I would not be the cold idol my mother had tried to raise.

When we landed in Jhazra, it took all my willpower to drag myself to bed before passing out. Our army had scattered, each to their own eyrie to recuperate.

One week from today, we would meet again. And when that time came, I intended to be finished with this.

I locked the fragment into a jewel box and we fell on the bed, collapsing into a dreamless sleep as soon as Rhylan curled around me. I woke fifteen hours later, my body stiff and sore, and dragged myself into a hot bath, washing with my mind turned off, dreading the task ahead.

Rhylan joined me, and at some point between his fingers scrubbing soap into my hair and my hands scrubbing blood from his back, we were kissing violently, the hot taste of his blood in my mouth, his hands squeezing me hard enough to hurt.

But it felt good to feel again.

I couldn’t tell where the water began and my tears ended. Maybe they were one and the same.

We will come back , he said, drawing back long enough to look me in the eye. His eyes were wild with flame, flickering between blue and flaming red. This isn’t the end.

But she’s there. I felt her in my mind, how vast she is—

And she’s a world away. We’re just returning a piece of her, not going through the Scar itself.

I cupped his face. She’s bigger than the Scar. I felt her in my mind. She’s all the dark between the stars. She’s in every shadow. Rhylan, I think I’ll be haunted by her for the rest of my life.

He felt my bleak anguish, and rested his forehead against mine. Then we’ll be haunted together. And we’ll make it through together.

I closed my eyes, reaching for the bond. And found myself believing him, a little speck of hope that blossomed into light.

Sera, I trust you to get things done. I never would’ve let you go into Talariel alone if I didn’t. But in this place…for the love of all the gods, stay on me. Please. For my sake.

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I stayed firmly in the saddle, my wings dissipated to the ether, the reins wrapped around one wrist. I’d feasted on dragon’s blood and raw meat in preparation, but I still felt drained.

Off the coast of Akalla, the Searing Ocean was an expanse of vibrant blue. I could even see the dragons of Endless Depths to the north, flowing through the water like ribbons, acting as an honor guard as we flew out across the vast azure ocean.

But they had fallen back hours ago. Back to the living waters, where the tides moved and the sky was still bright.

Out here, the ocean was still, and the sky was no longer the sky as we knew it.