Free Crown of Dragonfire by Daniel Arenson Page A

it?"
    "Wait," Meliora
whispered, clutching her spear under her cloak. "Wait . . ."
    The two seraphim
descended to hover before the boat. "Turn around now and—"
    Meliora leaped to her
feet and thrust her spear. The blade tore through one seraph's wing. He wobbled
in the sky, cursing, and Meliora reached out, grabbed his wounded wing, and
pulled down hard.
    The seraph slammed into
the water with a splash. Those reptilian eyes shone again, and a crocodile's
maw rose from the water, closing around the seraph.
    At Meliora's side, Vale
drove his spear into the second seraph's face. The soldier stumbled, and Vale
reached out from the boat, tugging him down. The water splashed and the boat rocked.
Elory hissed and swung her oar, shoving one wounded seraph deeper into the
water. The crocodiles feasted. The seraphim sank. The boat sailed onward.
    "Over there!" Elory said.
    Meliora spun her head
to see five or six seraphim race along the boardwalk. She cursed, lifted the
jewels Tash had given her, and tossed them. "Catch!"
    The jewels hit the
boardwalk, and the seraphim knelt. Elory kept rowing, and the sound of seraphim
arguing over a diamond necklace rose from behind.
    "Take us farther from
the bank," Meliora said. "Far from the boardwalk. We'll vanish in shadows."
    Elory complied, guiding
the boat until it sailed in the middle of the Te'ephim. The river was so wide
that, from the riverbanks, the boat would appear as nothing but a speck,
perhaps just another crocodile in the night. Chariots of fire still streamed
above, and distant screams rose from Tofet, but the water seemed almost
peaceful. They left the port behind, and soon they were sailing between two
walls.
    "Stay low," Meliora
whispered, crouching in the boat. The others followed her lead. "Cover anything
metallic so it doesn't glint."
    They flowed onward, a
lump of black on black. The riverbanks were now each a hundred yards away or
more; if the guards along them saw the boat, they gave no sign of it.
    We're nothing but a
hippopotamus, Meliora thought. Just a big hippo floating in the water.
    Ahead she saw it: the
western walls of the city. One wall flowed northward, topped with battlements,
curving to surround Tofet, trapping the slaves within. The other wall flowed
southward, cradling the city of Shayeen, home of the seraphim. Each wall ended
with a stone idol, three hundred feet tall, of a god with a hippopotamus head.
The two guardians stood with hands raised, shadows in the night, torches lit
within their eyes. The river flowed between them, leading out into the
wilderness.
    "Behold Ur and Talan,"
Meliora whispered, raising her eyes to stare at them. "Ancient twin gods of the
water. Legends say that they set the first stones in this city, that—"
    "Mythology later," Vale
muttered and pointed. "Fire in the sky."
    Meliora looked up and
cursed.
    Two chariots were
descending through the sky toward them, diving to fly between the statues. She
could see the seraphim within, raising their lances and shields. Four
firehorses pulled each chariot, scattering brimstone and ashes, flaming wings
opened wide.
    "Bloody stars," Tash
whispered, gripping her dagger.
    Meliora rose in the
boat. "Halt!" she cried out. "I lead lepers out from the city. I—"
    But the chariots kept
charging down, swooping to skim along the water, showering sparks, heading
toward the boat.
    "Escaping slaves!"
cried a seraph in one of the chariots. "Burn them. Burn them down!"
    Meliora readied her
lance.
    The chariots stormed
forth, and she stared up into the eyes of the seraphim—of her people. Of the
people she had once led. The people she would now kill.
    "Meliora!" Elory
shouted in fear.
    She narrowed her eyes.
    I am the wind.
    The chariots charged
toward the boat.
    Meliora leaped into the
air, vaulted skyward toward them, and beat her phantom wings.
    "Meliora!" Elory
shouted again below, but this time Meliora could barely hear. She heard nothing
but the fire above, the wind in her ears, the beat of a