Page 58 of Hearts on Fire
Six arrows. Against an army of dragons.
That would have to do, because that was all I had.
Eighteen
AMBER
Dragons were swarming the sky as far as the eye could see. There were so many of them, their wings blocked the sun, turning day into night. The air heated from their fire, turning spring into scorching summer.
One of them shot a blast of fire as he passed by. The flames hit the mountain just a short distance up from the recovering women.
Another dragon swerved our way. The burgundy of his scales lightened to sandy brown on his belly. His eyes were rimmed with the lighter color, too, which made them easy to see, even from a distance.
“Well, come on, buddy,” I whispered, raising my bow with an arrow nocked.
Taking aim, I breathed in and out. Slowly, rhythmically. I waited for the world to fall away with all its distractions. The noise of the battle, the roaring of the dragons, and the fiery blasts no longer existed. It was just the iron tip of my arrow and the gold-brown eye of the approaching dragon.
Closer… Just a little bit closer.
I smoothly glided the arrow, following the dragon’s flight. His head was turned, aiming for thesalamandras, which made the angle just right for me as he flew by.
His mouth opened with a ball of fire curling over his tongue. He spewed it out in a blast. I waited for him to blink. Then I let the arrow go. It sang through the air, then sank right between his eyelids.
“Fuck…”
Did I actually do it?
I watched, stunned, as he rolled through the air, his wings flailing. Blood poured from his eye. But it was the blood that remained in his body that killed him. Each pumping of his heart spread the poison of Nerifir iron through his body.
He crashed onto the rocks below, then rolled down the steep mountainside. I turned away just as the dead dragon started to transform into a dead man. I had no desire to watch that transformation to the end.
“We can do it, ladies!” I shouted enthusiastically, facing the platform where the women were.
It was engulfed in flames. Thesalamandras—every single one of them—had turned to ashes. Wind blew the gray ash from the platform. The morbid tendrils of it joined the smoke above, filling the air with the stench of burned flesh.
“No…”
It’d happened so fast. The dragon I’d just killed had managed to release a single blast of fire. And that was all it took. One blast of the dragon’s fire at its full power, and dozens of living breathing women were now nothing but gray ash drifting in the wind.
“No.” I dropped my bow. It proved useless. It didn’t save them.
Ididn’t save them.
More airborne dragons pivoted my way. Clearly, they didn’t want anyone to leave this mountainside alive, including me.
Struck by shock and weighted down by sorrow, I didn’t move. But when their shapes grew bigger as they approached and the flapping of their wings grew louder, the instinct of self-preservation kicked in. I scrambled up the mountain, trying to get away.
The climb was steep. I used both hands and feet. Yet it was futile. I couldn’t hide. My red robe, clearly visible against the black rocks, betrayed me. Both the satchel and the quiver dangled on my side, getting in the way. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape.
I pulled my head into my shoulders, waiting for a fiery blast to incinerate me any minute.
A dragon’s claws closed around me, instead. Their sharp tips scraped the rocks, snatching me off the mountain.
The ground grew distant as the dragon took me higher. I couldn’t look away from the scorched platform where the women had been just moments ago. They fought for their king. And now they were gone.
King Edkhar used them, without ensuring their safety. The royal asshole didn’t even give them a single dragon for protection. All they had was me. And I failed them. I did what I’d been training for. I killed a dragon. But I still failed. People died. So many…
Tears rushed from my eyes. Wind smeared them on my cheeks.