Page 474 of Of Empires and Dust

Dann slid from Drunir’s back and looked into Calen’s eyes. He didn’t speak. Tharn sat on a horse a few feet back, having decided to stay by his son’s side.

All of them still stared at Calen as though he were some kind of apparition. And the soldiers looked at him with awe in their eyes.

“We march for Valtara,” Calen called out. “We crush the Lorians gathering at the Hot Gates, then we burn every trace of them from Epheria.”

Valerys alighted behind Calen, the rain swirling in the draft of his wings. Calen grasped Dann’s forearm. “You have always been a brother to me. I love you like my own blood, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me. I will be from now on.”

Calen would not die again without saying those words.

Dann nodded slowly, his grip tightening around Calen’s forearm. “I thought I lost you.”

“I know…” Calen let out a heavy sigh. He pulled Dann into an embrace, then mounted Valerys. The white dragon let out a low whine as he gazed back at the saplings, then roared and lifted into the air.

Calen looked down at the column of soldiers as they started into a march, banners bearing the white dragon flapping in the breeze. This path was never what he had dreamt of, but it washis now, and he would not shy away from it. Gods and demons warred over the world he loved, and he would burn them all to save it.

As Valerys twisted in the air, Avandeer and Varthear rose from amidst the column, swirling about the white dragon, matching his roars. Valerys angled his wings and swooped down so that he soared over the marching soldiers. A pressure built within him, burning in their shared soul, bound anew by Varyn himself. A raw power surged within them and Valerys unleashed a river of bright purple dragonfire into the sky, luminescent mist drifting from his eyes, cheers and clanging steel sounding below.

“Aldryr ar orimyn, Valerys,” Calen whispered, allowing Valerys’s power to surge through him. “Denuvír latuá væra vidim rakaril.”

Fire and fury, Valerys. These gods will know fear.

The End