Dragon (A Histories of Purga Novel)

Keiara watched as Wilhelm stood behind a kneeling Rone. In one hand was a device that spouted a little flame and in the other was a weapon she knew would kill him. She struggled against her bonds but they were too tight. She couldn’t get free. Whatever Rone had managed to cut away just wasn’t enough. She watched through a haze of tears as he threw the flame at her and shot the gun with his other hand.

“Rone, no!” she yelled.

He looked at her as he died. She saw him try to say something but she couldn’t hear him.

The little fire device hit the soaked wood pile and went up in flames instantly. She didn’t care. All she could feel was complete and utter anger. It seemed to fill her entire being and the only thing she wanted was to let it. It raged through her. It filled her.

And it brought with it…heat.

The world seemed to shift focus. The colors changed. Everything around her turned into a riotous cacophony of yellows, oranges, and reds. She watched as the flames around her reached higher, but none of them seemed to touch her. She could feel their heat and their presence in her mind.

She yelled her fury out, and the sound of it was like the roaring of a great beast. Everyone present turned to look at her, including Rone’s murderer. The connection with the fire became a tangible bond inside her. She looked to it and seemed to know what to do.

All of a sudden, great leaping tendrils of fire raced out of the flames at her feet. They swirled around her for a moment and then reached out like fingers. They slithered down the steps in front of her and barreled into the soldiers there. She could hear their screams as the fire engulfed dozens of them. Other tendrils reached out for Wilhelm, but he dodged them with hurried, panicked motions.

She could see the evident fear on his face.

She laughed. The sound of it was an eerie accompaniment to the roaring of the flames she now controlled.

The ropes around her suddenly burst into flames, but the fire still didn’t burn her. She took a step forward. The fires all around her suddenly leaped up a dozen feet higher. The half-dozen tendrils rampaging through the soldiers on the streets also burned brighter and with more strength. Soldiers everywhere were crying out in pain as they were burned alive.

But Wilhelm remained standing, staring at her with an expression of awe and fear.

“You are supposed to be dead!” he yelled, his ugly, mottled face screwed up with anger. He leveled the gun at her and fired it three times.

Keiara raised her hand and a wall of flames leaped up at her command. The heat of the fire was enough to instantly vaporize the metal slugs.

She flung out a hand and the wall was suddenly racing toward Wilhelm. He snarled and leaped out of the way. But he wasn’t fast enough. The hem of his cloak caught on fire and raced up the cloth. With a growl, she saw him tear it from his body and fling it away. His gun dissolved and a cloud of nanos hung next to his right hand. He lifted his mechpak and looked through several blueprints before selecting one. More nanos joined the already hovering cloud and converged to create a high-tech blaster with six different barrels. Each one started shooting, and Keiara could feel them coming at her.

She raised a hand again and they all stopped about a foot and a half away from her. Then she flicked her wrist and every last shot was thrown back at Wilhelm.

He jumped and weaved and managed to not be shot through with his own blaster fire. His weapon dissolved again and reformed into another, more sinister-looking thing. He hoisted it to his shoulder and pressed the trigger. A miniature missile rocketed toward her and exploded at her feet. The explosion didn’t hurt or maim her, but the force of it tossed her away. She twisted in the air and landed on her feet. There was nothing but a smoking hole where she’d been standing.

“Kill her!” Wilhelm yelled, pointing at Keiara.

The soldiers that weren’t already dead or on fire hastened to obey. They all came rushing up the steps or the grassy hills on either side of the landing. Blaster fire kept coming at her, but she deflected each one, sending the rounds lancing back into the soldier it had come from. Over fifty of them dropped dead as they were killed by their own weapons. Then she reached out both hands, feeling the heat from each weapon in her mind, and closed her fists. Coughing explosions ripped through the air as every gun the soldiers had exploded in their hands. More bodies were thrown about and she watched them without remorse as they flew through the air.

Then, as her fury reached even higher levels, she felt a even greater power stir inside her. It felt like a bottomless pool of heat and fire buried in the pit of her stomach. She looked once more at Rone and then everything changed.

****

Wilhelm watched the Terraquois girl with a mixture of pure hate and pure fear. He looked at the fire around him and he could almost feel his face and the rest of his body burning again. It melted his usually cool, commanding demeanor at once and turned him into a creature that had nothing but one instinct…run! Run! Get away! Fire!

But he was immobilized. Frozen with fear.

He watched in complete horror as the girl changed right in front of him. Her form seemed to shimmer and waver, and when it stopped he was faced with the most terrifying creature he’d ever seen.

Standing in front of him on four legs was a gigantic dragon. Its eyes blazed yellow and orange and its maw was filled with razor sharp teeth that dribbled fire. Its scales were a bright yellow, red, or orange that tapered off to darkest black. Horns sprouted from the crown of its head and all along its spine and great leathery wings seemed to blot out the sun and most of the sky. It was easily twenty feet tall and those glowing yellow orbs were focused entirely on him. It roared and the sound was nearly loud enough to pop both of his eardrums. He could feel them vibrating painfully. His eyes even started to tear up. He clamped his hands over his ears, but they did nothing to help.

The dragon’s roar stopped and when Wilhelm looked up he saw it leap into the air, its massive wings pumping. The wind they created fanned the flames all around him, causing the heat to rise and his fear to grow even stronger.

He got up, forcing his trembling limbs to cooperate, and then ran.

****

Keiara watched the man that had killed Rone run away and sent a gout of flame after him. He ran just a little bit faster though and was pushing his way through the ranks of his own soldiers. The flame collided with them instead and they screamed as they died. Keiara didn’t care that she killed them. She didn’t care about anything but making sure these people paid for the lives they’d taken.

And they paid for taking Rone’s.

She flapped her wings harder and lifted even higher in the sky. She flew over the already ruined buildings and sent lances of flames into them. She ravaged Roanoke and burned everything she could. Even some of the buildings that had remained standing were now engulfed in fire. When she was finished, she winged her way over the great walls that were supposed to protect Roanoke and headed for the northeast.

She could dimly hear the agonized screams of the people dying in the city she’d destroyed.

She could hear their frightened cries.

But the Keiara of just yesterday was gone.

Now a new creature was born.

The Great Dragon.