“Can you fly?” Naydruun urged, nudging her. “We have to get away from here. Can you try to fly?”
“Y-Yes,” she choked, though her eyes were wide and frightened as her wings flapped weakly.
“Get out of here,” Adrissu said. “I’ll burn everything down and meet you back at the clearing where we landed.”
“Right,” Naydruun stammered, and together the two managed to take flight, Naydruun breaking through the damaged ceiling with Heriel following.
Whatever had been on Daiana’s blade was deadly, Adrissu was sure, but was it lethal enough to kill a dragon? He would have to deal with that later; for now, he breathed fire toward the forge, heat blooming around him as he quickly set the workshop ablaze. Then he, too, took flight and streamed more fire down onto the ruined building below. Now that he was in the open air, he could hear screaming and shouting. He could see Heriel and Naydruun already high up and flying away, though Heriel was lagging behind, and Naydruun kept doubling back to help her.
He would have to make sure that they were not followed. With the most fearsome roar he could muster, Adrissu breathed fire down onto the workshop again, then made a tight circle around the city, roaring and spitting fire onto the ground. People were fleeing and screaming beneath him, but he purposely tried not to hit anyone directly. It was not his city to burn, after all, and he only wanted to frighten them enough to ensure no brave idiot would try to follow them. He circled over what looked like an abandoned building, and hoping it truly was empty, he set fire to that one as well, before lifting into the air and heading to the clearing.
Soon the screaming faded away, and the only sound was the rush of wind as he sped through the air, looking down below for any sign of where the other two might have landed. Then, the noise of wood splitting, followed by an anguished roar—his heart sinking in his chest, Adrissu headed toward the source.
When he found the pair, he could see from the state of the surrounding trees that Heriel must have crash-landed, unable to fly any further. She was on the ground writhing, and Naydruun paced restlessly around her, looking up to the sky for Adrissu.
“You know healing magic, don’t you?” they exclaimed, as Adrissu landed beside them.
“A bit,” Adrissu answered with uncertainty, trying to get a better look at Heriel. Her eyes were wide and looking around frantically, her claws scrabbling in the soft earth as if she were trying to get up. As she moved, he could catch a glimpse of the blade still deep in her shoulder; the black veins he had first seen starting to spread out from the entry point had made a dark, thick border around her wound that spidered outward in every direction. It looked like poison, or some sort of blight enchantment that corroded or sickened. “Let me try.”
“Please,” Naydruun urged him. “I don’t—I don’t know anything like that. I can’t help her. Please, you have to try.”
“Hold her as still as you can,” Adrissu said, and Naydruun grabbed her good shoulder, bracing her against him as she struggled, growling and choking with pain. Gingerly, he placed his claws near the wound; she howled, trying to pull away, but Naydruun held her firmly. As quick as he could, Adrissu found the hilt of the blade and wrenched it free, wincing as she screamed and spat. She was trying to breathe fire at him, he was sure, but only a few weak embers escaped her—along with more black, sticky ichor. The blood that poured from the now-open wound was tinged with black as well, but the spreading veins didn’t seem to subside. Adrissu put his claws near the wound again, closing his eyes and reaching with his magic through the opening and into her body, feeling her blood as it traveled sluggishly through her.
It didn’t feel like poison, at least not the kinds of poisons Dirge had shown him. It felt more magical than that: no toxin would work so unimaginably quickly on a creature as resilient as a dragon. Magic flowed through them like blood, so only an extremely powerful enchantment could do this to her.Where, he thought, did Daiana keep finding these things?
With his magic, he tried to draw out some of the rot—Heriel screeched, snapping at him in vain.
“Hold her still!” he hissed.
“I’m trying!” Naydruun snarled back, their voice breaking. Adrissu could all but feel the anguish in their every word, and knew that Naydruun would weep if they were human.
She was mindless with pain, but he had to keep trying. Adrissu leapt toward her again, pushing her long neck back with one claw, and pressing the other to her wound once more. His magic surged through her anew, and he tried every technique Dirge had taught him about drawing out toxins and neutralizing infections; but whatever enchantment the blade had on it was far more sophisticated than poisons made by mortal hands. Maybe this was some other weapon Granville had enchanted, just for Daiana, something that would kill a lesser creature near-instantly.
Heriel had finally gone very still, but her breathing was labored. Instead of roaring at him, she let out a long, drawn-out whimper—her frantic eyes finding Naydruun and locking onto them.
“No, no,” Naydruun panted, squeezing her with their claws. “No, stay, you have tostay--”
“I don’t—I don’t think I can get it out,” Adrissu said, his voice sounding small and frightened even to his own ears. “I’ve never... I don’t know what this is. It isn’t poison, but it’s not like any magic I’ve ever seen before.”
“Heriel,” Naydruun wailed, lowering their body so they could curl around her, as her body became still. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
One last time, Adrissu tried to reach in with his magic, searching foranythingthat he could draw out, any process he could still reverse, any weak pulse he could try to coax back to life—but all he could find was pain, and a heart that was fading away too quickly for him to stop.
It was useless. Quietly, he pulled away and took a few slow steps back, looking down at the ground to avoid having to witness Naydruun come apart as Heriel’s last ragged breaths faded into silence.
Chapter Twenty
“I’llkillthem,”Naydruunsnarled, sparks of rage spitting from their mouth as they paced back and forth beside Heriel’s body. “I’ll kill every last one of them—”
“You don’t want to do that,” Adrissu replied sharply, then shrunk back with a sigh. “I know. I know you want to. But it won’t bring her back. You have to keep yourself safe. If you died too, what would her soul be tethered to? You’ll only see her again if you live.”
Naydruun roared angrily, turning away from Adrissu, but at least they did not look like they were going to fly away. Instead, they took a few more paces, then all but collapsed next to Heriel with a long, low whine.
“How did they do this?” they finally croaked, not moving from where they lay. “How did a human kill her? What was that weapon?”
“I don’t know,” Adrissu admitted, looking back at the blade where he had thrown it to the ground. “It had some enchantment on it that caused the flesh it touched to rot, and the rot spread... I haven’t seen anything like it before. It looks like it would kill any mortal creature instantly. She had another weapon that was very dangerous, too, when I first met her. That time, it was the elves who had made it. This one, though, I don’t know.”
“And that crossbow,” Naydruun hissed, writhing. “We came here for that damned crossbow and it’s a blade that kills her? How are they creating these things?”
