33
KALINDA
Kur will not be moved. No matter where Brac and I throw our fire, the demon god steps farther from the lake. The evernight will prevail if he gains more ground. I feel it in my gut.
Brac discharges another heatwave at the serpentine dragon, his unique orangey flame weaker than his last. Our powers do not penetrate Kur’s scaly shell. We will soon lose the convenience of our soul-fire with this useless strategy.
Nature-fire feeds off the trees, lighting the battlefield. Serpents dance in the flames, swirling and twirling happily. Their flickering eyes trail me, worshipful and adoring in our mutual love of the light. I stretch my fingers to them.
My friends, I have missed you.
Fiery tendrils shoot out and encircle my body, hot and heady. I call them to action.
Create me a helpmate.
The nature-fire hisses, and more flames zip from the wildfire. They whirl and fasten together, combining ferocity. A monster forms between Kur and me, a serpentine beast that rises to the demon god’s great height. The nature-fire mimics the First-Ever Dragon’s proportions and builds a blazing dragon of his girth and stature with short legs; a sleek, proud neck; and a snappish snout. The fire dragon glows every color of Burners’ powers—vivid white, sun yellow, scarlet—and inside the sweltering beast flickers a heart of sapphire.
I marvel at how rapidly and seamlessly the nature-fire melds into a tangible creature of one mind and purpose—to obey my command.
Brac lists back on his heels. “When did you learn to . . . ?”
“Guard my flank.” My dragon lowers, and I mount it, absorbing the heat without suffering any injury. For I am fire, and fire is me.
Riding atop the immense dragon, I am eye to eye with Kur. His gaze flashes. “You think you can use fire against me? I am born of fire and venom.”
I lean into my dragon, preparing to ride. “I am born of the stars, and I will see them shine again.”
Push him to the lake. Let’s take back the heavens.
My fire dragon drives its head into Kur’s chest and muscles him back. Kur sidesteps and breathes flames. I duck behind my mount’s head. The column blows past me, but his venomous fire rips small holes through my dragon.
Brac throws heatwaves at Kur’s front feet. He bats Brac away with his talons, flinging him into the dark.
Fly!
My dragon launches into the sky. Kur chases us with a blast of white-blue cold-fire. We evade him by flying higher.
Kur lunges at my dragon’s neck, clamps down with his jaws, and throws us to the ground. Everything jostles and trembles as we roll. I struggle to hang on until we are upright again. My dragon crouches, the path we rolled over scorched. Kur ejects more cold-fire at us, tearing new gaps in my dragon. The solidity of the flames beneath me begins to disperse.
As Kur gathers a finishing blast, an astounding sight appears.
Elephants? In the Alpanas?
Green-clad Janardanian warriors ride them, boasting their green-and-white dragon cobra flag. Mathura and Chitt ride together atop an elephant with ivory tusks. The herd stampedes onto the battleground. Land barges—large slabs of stone over rock wheels—roll to a halt. More elephant warriors charge off the barges into the front line, machetes raised.
They shake the ground, loosing the dirt at Kur’s feet and hauling him toward the gate. Kur’s tail crests the cold water. He vents a gut-rolling roar and blows fire at the forward row of elephant warriors. I watch in horror as his venomous cold-fire consumes rider and beast alike.
I hunch into my mount, fury boiling through me. Get him!
We take off. Kur releases a stream of flames. We swerve, but it hits the center of my dragon. The solid fire beneath me dissolves to spindles of smoke and steam. The world washes to red—orange—yellow—blue. I am falling. Fire tunnels around me in a whirlwind of shrieks and snaps.
I smack into the ground, my fire dragon fading above me, just like stars. The quakes continue with the stampeding elephants, the Tremblers relentless. They force Udug and his sister demons to the lake, but Kur is too big and heavy for tremors to topple him.
The First-Ever Dragon slams his front claw over me, locking me down. He pushes one pointed talon into my thigh. Something pops and tears. He digs in farther, puncturing through skin, meat, bone. My ears echo with screams. Only until I find my breath do I realize I am the one screaming.
Trembles carry off from the elephant warriors—distant booms in the ground. Kur’s snout comes over me. One breath and he will burn me to a heap of ash.
“It’s not too late to send you to the Void, my child. You will never suffer pain or regret again.”
I push up against his talons. Nothing but venom burns within him to parch, cold and unyielding. Falling back on my powers, I send my scorching soul-fire into him.
Kur’s brimstone breath cascades over me. “Your powers are insignificant. But another power dwells within you that can never fade. Come into the evernight.” He squeezes, crushing my sides. His whiskers brush over my face, stinging like tentacles. “I can free you from your weak mortal chains. I can make you magnificent.”
I reply through gritted teeth, “I already am.”
Screeches fill the mountaintop, a clarion call to fight. A flock of mahati falcons, the birds of prey larger than any I have seen, dive at Kur, tearing furiously at the demon. He rears up, wrenching his claw out of my limb and releasing me from his clutches. I roll to my side, gasping and cradling my bleeding leg.
Tinley leads a unit of Paljorian warriors who ride the birds. As natural enemies to serpents, the mahatis fight on instinct. They circle Kur’s crown in expert formation. Their talons scratch, and sharp beaks peck at his scaly hide. Indah and Pons ride in tandem upon a falcon with burgundy feathers and release crossbow bolts into Kur’s breast. He chases the circling flock and breathes fire. They scatter, fast and agile, but he strikes one falcon, and it plummets into the lake.
“Kali!” Deven drops to his knees beside me.
“Deven, my leg—”
He strips off his tunic and ties it around my thigh. “It’s all right. Don’t think of it. You can outlast this.”
I groan, a guttural wrench of pain, as he finishes tying the cloth. His white tunic is quickly stained crimson.
The mahati flock’s harassment drives Kur into the lake up to his hind legs, but he knocks another two falcons from the sky with his venomous fire.
A sudden wind stirs, and in the distance, lit by lanterns, a fleet of Paljorian airships speeds into view. Chief Naresh directs his crew at the bow of the lead ship. The Galers on board summon the northern wind and propel gusts at Udug and his sisters.
The ground vibrates around Deven and me, stones hopping and jumping. Whitecaps cover the surface of the lake, whipped into a frenzy by the wind. Aquifiers stake their tridents through Lilu. She flies back into the waves, and they smother her. A Trembler traps Edimmu’s flicking tongue with a boulder, and a landslide pitches her into the lake.
Udug, wounded, shoots blue fire at elephant warriors. Tinley dives at him with Chare. The falcon plucks him up, her talons ripping through his wings. Udug flails, but the falcon lowers to the water and drops him in. A swell sweeps him under.
We’re winning. We’re going to resurrect the morning. Anu is watching over us from Ekur on high. He will not let us fail.
The falcon warriors combating Kur take their leave to give room for the airships. Kur sends fire at the sky, striking one. The patchwork of sails ignites. The ship tips, the flames overtaking it, and careens into the land.
The other Paljorian airships harness the northern wind and converge on the demon dragon. Their gusts slide Deven and me into the knee-high frigid water. Deven stabs his sword through the cloth of my tunic, embedding the blade in the lakeshore and anchoring me to it. He grips the hilt, and I hold on to him.
The airships fly nearer, intensifying their winds. The Lestarian Navy pushes Kur with waves, adding to the impetus. The onslaught impels him farther into the choppy water.
Deven’s hand slips. I catch his wrist before he flies away. I hang on to the sword, but his wet grip slides from mine. He spins off into the lake.
“No!”
I lose sight of him, foam and dirt in my eyes. He reappears swimming helplessly against the powerful currents and crosswinds.
“Someone help him!”
Indah and Pons’s mahati dives, claws outstretched to pluck Deven up, but the gales knock them back, and they pinwheel out of range.
Kur sinks up to his breast. Deafening winds howl at me. My tunic rips free from the sword, but my hand holds me in place. Behind me, the lakeshore has been cleared for this attack. Even the Aquifiers conduct the waves from afar. I am the closest person to Deven.
I inhale a deep breath and let go.
Gusts pitch me across the water. I land among the chunks of ice, up to my neck in freezing waves. The cold bites, the water like teeth dragging me to Kur. Deven is caught in a tide pool near him, dipping in and out of sight.
A surge pushes me under. Another heaves me up and whirls me about. Kur’s claws rake at the air. Our forces are sending all they have at him, but his head remains above water.
He needs a reason to go under.
I ride an incoming swell to him and latch on to his scaly side. With one hand, I reach inside him and pull, parching him. His venom powers flow into my burning palm. My fingers blister and boil. My skin melts, but I hold fast. I can stand his cold-fire. I can embrace the night.
Kur tries shaking me free. I hold on and bring the evernight into my bones. Agony screams up my arm, begging for me to stop. The pain spreads everywhere, excruciating to the point of near blindness.
Unable to draw in anymore, I let go, and a whitecap drags me from him. My fingers continue to shrivel, eaten by the cold venom I welcomed inside me.
“Kur!” I bellow.
He lowers his head to me, and I throw the cold-fire I parched back at him. The sapphire flames burn across his snout and ignite his whiskers. He tosses his head to extinguish them, but the venomous fire blazes across scales, indiscriminate in its destruction.
A wave pushes me under and up again. Kur is eye level. He lowers his snout to the water to put out the flames. I reach for the last of the cold-fire within me and send the blue-white flames at his eye. He roars and thrashes as it burns and burns.
“Kali!” Deven calls.
He is trapped in Kur’s wake. Our gazes connect, both rife with terror. Kur is still on fire. Unable to withstand the pain, the demon god submerges to extinguish the flames.
The strength of his descent whips up a massive tow of crosscurrents. A maelstrom spins me around its outer radius. Closer to the center of the violent whirlpool, Deven is sucked under.
“No!”
I dive for him. Shadows writhe below, grasping and pulling like hooks. I push my powers into my uninjured hand, but the muted glow does not reveal Deven or Kur. The blackness is all-consuming. My lungs pang for air. But the darkness tugs at me, tying itself to my ankles like millstones.
I descend into the cold nothing, closer to the gate.
A sudden upsurge drills into my side. The current launches me into the air. I gasp, sputtering, as I am wrenched on a wave across the surface to shore. I land on the wet rocks, wilted and panting.
Cold chatters my teeth. My leg bleeds freely, lying limp and frozen before me. My injured hand—my drawing hand—is so mangled it is unrecognizable. Its flesh has been nearly eaten away, the remnants of the fiery venom still burning. I cradle my hand close and scan the waves between the chunks of ice for Deven.
Ashwin races up to me in the dying winds. “Kali, where’s Deven?”
I concentrate, pushing against my draining consciousness. “Kur took him.” Ashwin considers the roiling lake, his jaw hard-set. “He went under—”
“I’ll find him, Kalinda.” Ashwin tears off his jacket, splashes in, and dives underwater.
Just as he goes, Natesa and Yatin reach my side. She blanches at my disfigured hand and bloody thigh, and calls for Indah. The quivers within me rise to uncontrollable quakes.
“Where did the prince go, Kalinda?” Yatin says.
“Kur grabbed Deven. Ashwin dove in to find him.”
Yatin pales and shouts to the troops behind us, “The prince is in the lake! Find him! Get him out before he’s dragged through the gate!”
Aquifiers splash into the water up to their knees. The rest of the troops crowd along the shore and call their god by name.
“Anu, God of Storms . . . Ki, Mother of the Mountains . . . Enlil, Keeper of the Flame . . . Enki, Bearer of the Seas . . .”
Why are they praying? They should be jumping into the lake. They should be looking for Deven!
The stars blink into brightness, and the moon reveals its haunting eye. But their reappearance brings no joy. How dare the stars shine without him! How can they return when he is gone? How can the world be saved when my heart is destroyed?
The mournful praying continues, and so does my raging at the heavens. Anu, you cannot! Deven is good. Kur cannot have him!
A wave crashes nearby.
“I have him!” Admiral Rimba shouts.
Which one?
I compel my eyes to open. A man lies on the ground, soldiers crowded around him. I try to sit up, but the abrupt movement rips my strength away. Numbness steals over me.
Is it Deven?
Please, Anu. For all that is good in the world, you must bring him back.
A voice calls my name. I cannot tell whose. My spirit succumbs to the venom, and I float off into the night, seething at the stars.