Ezeru

He lifted his hands and a rush of magic shoved me back into the wall.

“We fight to the death,” he said. “Aurekdel is the one who exiled me out there, beyond the gate, when he was just a smug little boy king. I’ll never forget the sight of a crippled child punishing me.”

“He was a child. And you haven’t given him much reason to like you since—” I choked as Rothair waved his hands, sucking the air out of my lungs.

He wasn’t just a mist dragon, he could rely on the magic he learned from the humans, and I wasn’t entirely sure what he was capable of.

Izeria fled from the chamber. “Ezeru! He’s here! Seize him!”

I wasn’t a child anymore either, I reminded myself. I have as much power as they do. That’s why they fear me. Why they want me back.

I had fallen into the trap Seron warned me about, I realized. I gave them a chance they didn’t deserve. I already knew the answers. Even if Izeria loved me, she was perfectly fine with executions, cutting out tongues, forced marriages, beatings.

I stomped my foot in a fit of desperation as I strained to breathe, and a rock fell off the ceiling and whacked the side of Rothair’s head.

“Rrgh…” He briefly struggled to keep ahold of the magic. “Well, Ezeru, it was a nice attempt. But I’ve been waiting a long time to eliminate you from this world. You’re not my son. But I will have sons—with my priestess.”

“I’m not your son. That part is true. But you will never have a son… I’m going to kill you…”

He laughed, clenching his fingers. “You’re all alone here. And you will never have enough power to stand against me no matter what my sister did to you.” He whispered another chant and some horrible low sound seemed to rise around us. I felt the rock straining against him. What was this? He was spinning dark magic from the stones, draining power from the earth, and I felt the suffering of the rocks inside my bones. But how could I fight against power like this? He looked confident in his abilities, powers he had honed over decades of strife and determination. As much as I hated him, I could feel his skill.

I felt myself weakening. If I passed out, the army would be on us in another moment and that would be the end of it. Maybe they’d kill me. Maybe I’d wake up corrupted by mist, and I would never know what happened.

But you’re not alone, I thought. The love I felt from Himika and Peri and Aurekdel and everyone who had welcomed me, and the trust I forged with my fellow rock dragons, was not the kind of love that went away. No matter what.

My rock dragons hadn’t abandoned me either. Even when I ordered them to leave me to my fate.

I let out a roar and the rock dragons, who were just waiting for my command, burst into the tent and jumped Rothair.

His spell broke just long enough that I got free, straining for breath.

“We fight now?” the rock dragons asked.

“Fight,” I said. “Yes, fight.” I hated that I had to bring them into this. Some of them might die.

But I’ll do my damnedest to keep from losing any more rock dragons to something so stupid.

Rock dragons swarmed Rothair. He ran for the door, but I shaped it shut with a few bars of rock.

Rothair was forced to turn and face us. He slammed one palm forward and shot dark magic at me. He had gathered it from the stones; I felt their power warped and turned against me.

“This is evil magic,” I said.

“Evil? You see things in such a simple way.”

“You don’t work with nature. You force it to work for you.”

“Exactly! That’s what you do, if you’re fit to rule this world.” He tensed to attack, a confident smile on his face. I really was nothing to him.

I had always kept to my human form. If I showed the dark scales of a rock dragon in Izeria’s court, it was even more of a scandal than my usual existence.

Now, I let my dragon form emerge. I barely fit in the cave, but I made sure to slam Rothair into the wall as I changed, spreading my jaws around him. The rock dragons hustled back into the tunnel to get out of my way.

“Ezeru—wait. Is this how you want to fight me? Backing me into a corner? Dragon to man? You would kill your own father in such a dishonorable way?”

“You just told me I’m not your son.” I clamped my jaws on his arm.

He started chanting spell words, and I had no time to hesitate. I ripped the arm off his body, spitting it back at him before I could taste his blood.

He screamed and spat, “How could you!” Now, he finally took me seriously.

“You said you would have killed me along with my mother. The time for honor is long, long gone.”

“I’ve already sent Merrick an order to kill your priestess,” he growled through pain, and the ground rumbled with his magic. I felt the cavern shuddering with resistance as his elemental power turned against me.

“Your own sister made me,” I said. “You’re right. I was your biggest mistake.” I wrapped the rock around him, smothering him. The wall swallowed him, suffocating him, and I kept shaping it until every last thrashing inch of him was out of sight. I smoothed the wall behind him and then I waited, keeping my claws on the rock until I felt the rock settle with relief as his energy died away.

I turned back into a man, without even meaning to, and fell on my knees. Tears fell from my eyes and hit the rock. I couldn’t have said exactly what I was crying over.

I felt like a brute.

Then I thought, Gilbert will like this story when I come back and tell it.

If I come back to tell it…

The mist dragons were on me now. The whole army was heading for the cavern. The bars blocked Rothair in, but left ample room for me to be shot at. I scrambled to my feet, trying to shape the rock as fast as I could, but I was tiring. Killing Rothair seemed to have sucked the life out of me.

Or is it the mist…? I realized how hazy the air was getting.

“That’s enough,” I heard Izeria say as I slumped to my knees. “Where is Rothair?”

I looked at her, still angry and even a little satisfied through my glaze of exhaustion.

“Did you—really—?”

“He killed Elder Rothair?” The mist dragons were alarmed. “Where is he?”

“In the rock,” I said.

“Oh!” Izeria recoiled. “Capture him, but…keep him alive.”

The rock dragons started creeping out of the tunnel again, right into the mist.

“No,” I told them. “Go back. Please go back. They will kill you all.”

“No—get them! Knock them out and drag every last rock dragon out of that tunnel!” Izeria waved her arm. The mist dragons rushed the passage.

She looked at me. “You can watch them die. You can keep all your wits for that. And then I’ll show you. You are my son.”

I heard some scuffle behind her and a few screams. One of the mist dragons pounded a big drum, and more mist dragons came running in from the side passages.

But they weren’t the only ones.

Seron’s army came through the passage, dragons and humans with swords and spears, ice and fire.

“Shit…,” Izeria said.

“You were saying?” I could barely croak out the words. But I couldn’t resist.

Then I realized that I was passing out.

Seron once asked me what the limit of my magic was. It seemed I had found it…