The Order of the Scales Deas - The Order of the Scales

He pressed himself down and clung on, gripping even tighter, turning his head away from the wind and closing his eyes as he felt the familiar tension in her shoulders. He was used to that now, a shudder just a moment before the flames would come. He hunched into himself and let the scorching air flood over him. At least this time he had proper dragon-scale armour and a helm to protect his face. Then Snow landed. She lurched and and staggered and shrieked and spat fire over and over again. Pieces of something – loose stones – showered down around them.

Slowly Kemir opened his eyes. They were on the burning roof of some building. Beams cracked and split and stones crumbled with Snow’s every move. She lunged forward, jumping down, lumbering across the ground. Clouds of snow flew up from the wind of her wings while Kemir bounced up and down like a rag doll on a string. He caught a fleeting glimpse of panicked men before Snow lashed her tail and smashed one end of the building to bits. He wrapped his arms around his head and cringed as pieces of stone, burning wood and charred tiles rained around him. They bounced and thumped off his armour, stolen from knights Snow had killed weeks ago. That would be a thing to do when they were done here, he decided. Look for some better armour. Preferably a suit that fitted properly. Preferably a suit that didn’t have any parts missing. It would be nice too if it didn’t have any gaping holes that were an exact match for Snow’s teeth.

The dragon lunged forward into the guts of the building and doused its innards with fire. More stonework clattered around Kemir’s head.

‘Do you mind?’

You have metal and dragon-scale to protect you.

‘Not much bloody good if the whole roof falls on top of me, is it? Even you might notice that. Some of these beams are bigger than I am.’ Bugger this. I could be down in some valley somewhere, cosy and warm. Why did I stay with these monsters? Right now we could have been… It was a ritual now, thinking these things. They both knew it. He flew with the dragons because he had nowhere else to go. Because everyone else was dead. Because of… Oh, what was the point? Nadira, Sollos, they were pricks on his conscience, faces to remind him of what happened to those who trusted themselves to him. He put his mind elsewhere. To the eyrie outside, to the mountain, covered in a thick coat of soft white snow, glowing gently in the fading light and about to be set on fire.

Snow backed out of the wreckage. The other three dragons had come in behind her, smashing their way into the buildings of the eyrie, shaking the mountain as they landed. As soon as they were down they began to move methodically apart, sweeping fire back and forth. Mist and steam swirled around them. Further away, the snow was falling harder now. As Kemir watched, he saw one of the dragons rear up and use its tail to hurl a stone the size of a horse straight into a squat tower that bristled with scorpions. A second dragon raced across the ground, arriving only moments later, pouring fire into all its holes and then ripping it apart. Snow jogged around the ruins of what had apparently been a barracks. A group of men ran from it, screaming briefly before they burned. Your kind are too fragile.

‘You’re such a comfort.’

Snow thrust her head into a door at the far end of the building and let loose another torrent of flame. Then she reared up into the air and landed her front half on the end of it. The building groaned and creaked and then collapsed.

Where are the alchemists?

‘Try over there.’ Kemir pointed. In the flickering light of the burning barracks, looming out of the falling snow, a little cluster of buildings lay dimly outlined against the mountainside, half buried in white. Snow peered into the gloom. She stretched out her neck towards them and began to walk, slowly at first, then faster, shaking the mountain with every step.

They will not escape.

‘I wouldn’t hurry. It’s not as though there’s anywhere they can go.’

They will have tunnels. They will hide under the ground.

Kemir shrugged. Probably would though, wouldn’t they? He had no idea.

I have been looking forward to this day.

‘Revenge, Snow?’ Kemir sniggered. Snow claimed dragons didn’t understand revenge. Didn’t understand forgiveness either.

No, Kemir. Freedom.

‘Right. Do you mind if I get off before you forget I’m here again?’ Wind whipped at him, stinging his ears. The snow was easing as the day gave way to twilight.

If you must. Snow stopped and lowered her neck. Kemir could feel her impatience, her anger, her anticipation. And something else, something carefully hidden but not quite carefully enough. Pleasure? No, that wasn’t it, that was too mild a word. Joy? Still not enough. Ecstasy? A dragon-sized helping of vicious desire?

I am losing patience, Kemir.

‘You never had any in the first place.’ He shrugged. ‘Don’t blame me if someone sneaks up and shoots you with a scorpion.’ He jumped off the dragon’s back. On the ground, the snow was up to his knees. There’d be frozen feet and frostbite in the morning if he wasn’t careful, but he’d had enough of being stuck to Snow’s back. ‘Look after my stuff, dragon. I’ll take it out of your hide if you don’t. And try not to eat anyone you shouldn’t.’

One day, little one Kemir, you will test my restraint at the wrong time.

‘And how would I do that, dragon? Can’t test something that doesn’t exist, now can I?’

Snow snarled, but she still couldn’t quite hide her exhilaration. Kemir watched her go, bounding on towards the alchemists’ houses, leaping up into the air with a great shriek and then landing on top of them, plumes of snow bursting like clouds around her, smashing left and right with her tail and burning everything into a thick haze of ash and steam. Kemir left her to it. Two of the other dragons had already made their way up the peak to the castle where the eyrie-master and his riders lived and were setting fire to it. He couldn’t see much, but the bursts of orange light in the white sky told him enough. The last dragon had sought out the eyrie dragons and settled in their midst, standing guard. If Kemir strained his ears over the havoc and carnage that Snow had become, he thought he could hear them quietly calling to each other. He walked away, launching a vicious kick at a lump in the snow. That was another reason to be away from the dragons. He needed to think. Needed to think somewhere far enough away that they wouldn’t be listening in. How far away that was, he had no idea.

Think. Yes. What was he doing here? That was the nub of it. What was he doing here? What was he doing flying with these dragons?

Killing dragon-knights. That was the obvious answer. Putting an end to their tyranny.

And then what? He had no answer to that.

He trudged on through the snow. The last rays of the dying sun were still doing a decent enough job of lighting up the mountainside, that and the eerie glowing fog that surrounded where the dragons were, a mist of steam lit up from within by the remnants of their fire. In case anyone doesn’t realise that we’re here.

What am I doing here? What I’m doing is staying alive, that’s what I’m doing here.

Although frankly, he wasn’t sure why.

He didn’t get very much further before he had to stop. In front of him was a frozen lake, presumably the place where the eyrie dragons took their water. Kemir had never been to this particular eyrie, but he’d been to others and knew how they worked. The alchemists kept the dragons pliant and dull with their potions, which they gave to the beasts either in their food or in their water, usually both. So if this was where the dragons took their water, the lake was probably laced with dragon poison. Or dragon-make-stupid potion or whatever the alchemists happened to call it.