Dragons Reborn: Requiem: Requiem for Dragons, #2

AMITY

She shuffled out of her cell, weak and bleeding, into an arena of fire, death, and the roars of thousands.

Torches blazed around her, filling the chamber with smoke, heat, and dancing shadows. Amity coughed and had to blink a few times, bringing the world into focus. When finally her eyes cleared, her heart sank.

Bloody shite. She bared her teeth. Korvin, am I passed out drunk and dreaming again, or are you seeing this too?

She glanced to her side. Korvin walked there, jaw clenched and eyes dark. His hands balled into fists, and sweat beaded on his brow. Chains hobbled both their ankles.

Be calm. His voice was low, strained. Be focused. We can kill it.

Amity spat. Like an ant can kill a donkey by biting its arse.

Guards of the Horde, bearded men wearing leather and ring mail, knelt to unchain Amity and Korvin. The manacles clattered off their ankles. Amity spun around, wanting to leap back into her prison cell, only to see the guards slam the door shut, sealing her outside. She had spent days banging on that door, trying to break out. Now all she wanted to do was flee back inside. She spun toward the arena again, spitting out every foul curse she knew.

She stood in a vast cave, a cavern larger than any palace or temple, a hollowed-out mountain. All along the craggy walls, alcoves dug into the rock, sealed off with wire mesh. Thousands of these holes spread all around like a honeycomb, spreading hundreds of feet up, and within each burrow, men and women chanted and roared. The crowd—people of the Horde—drank from tankards of ale, sang songs of death, and cried out for blood. High above, in one of the larger alcoves, stood Abina Kahan himself, King of the Horde. The bearded brute roared with the rest of them.

Behemoth, Behemoth! the king chanted. Slay the weredragons!

Amity gulped and looked back down. A round, rough floor spread before her, and here crouched the creature. The champion of the Horde. Her executioner.

The Behemoth.

Ugly son of a whore, ain't he? she muttered.

The creature's back was turned toward her. He lay on his belly, and many chains—the links larger than Amity's head—bound him to the floor. Even like this, lying down and chained, his size made Amity cringe. The monster was massive, several times larger than a dragon. His skin was warty and armored, reminding Amity of a rhinoceros, and many horns rose along his back. With every breath, his body creaked and smoke plumed. Heat emanated from the beast, and his stench wafted, the odor of rotted meat and sulfur.

Tales of Behemoth filled the ancient legends of the Horde. Amity had thought the beast only a myth. Now this myth seemed ready to slay her.

Release the beast! roared Abina Kahan from his alcove high above. The king waved a torch. Unchain Behemoth!

Along the chamber walls, guards placed keys into padlocks, freeing the chains from their brackets. The men quickly rushed back into their own alcoves, then slammed down iron meshes.

Only Amity and Korvin now remained in the arena. Before them, with a clatter of falling chains, Behemoth began to rise.

Amity gulped. Spirit's flea-ridden beard, I've seen smaller mountains.

The crowd roared even louder than before, stamping their feet and banging their tankards against the wire meshes protecting them. Behemoth kept unfurling with cracking joints and creaking, thick hide. Smoke and heat rose from the beast, and his grumbles shook the arena. With thumping feet, the monster turned around to face Amity and Korvin.

Behemoth's head was as large as a dragon. A bony plate rose from his brow, lined with horns. His nostrils snorted out smoke, and eight white eyes narrowed above them, swirling like smelters of molten metal. His jaw unhooked, revealing a cavernous maw as large as a prison cell, and let out a roar. The sound blasted against Amity, ruffling her clothes and hair, deafening, shaking the mountain. She cried out in pain.

With blasts of smoke and a grumble that thudded against Amity's chest, Behemoth charged.

Amity and Korvin shifted.

She rose in the cavern, a red dragon, her wings stirring the smoke and stench. Korvin soared at her side, a charcoal dragon with chipped scales. The crowd cheered, and the two dragons blew their flames together.

The two fiery jets blasted forward, spinning and shrieking, white-hot, an inferno that could melt flesh and crumble bones to ash.

Behemoth crashed through the blaze as if charging through a light mist.

Oh bloody bollocks! Amity beat her wings, soaring higher.

She was too slow. The charging beast rammed into her like a god's hammer. Amity couldn't even scream. She gasped for breath, unable to inhale. She fell backward and slammed against the chasm wall, cracking the wire mesh protecting one of the alcoves.

Stars floated before her eyes, and through the haze of shadows and light, she saw Behemoth swing his head toward Korvin. The gray dragon was larger than she, the largest dragon Amity had ever seen, yet Behemoth knocked Korvin aside as easily as a bison ramming a deer.

Amity pushed herself off the wall, growled, and charged.

She breathed her dragonfire again. The jet crashed against Behemoth and sprayed off in a fountain, doing the beast no harm. An instant later, Amity slammed against the creature, biting and clawing at his face.

She cried out in pain. Her claws sparked against Behemoth's hide, and her fangs felt close to shattering when she bit. She might as well have attacked a slab of granite. The creature swung his head again, tossing her into the air, then swiped his paw.

Pain blasted through Amity.

Her scales cracked.

She tumbled through the air, hit the wall, and slumped down to the ground. She blinked, dizzy, struggling to cling to her dragon form.

Behemoth bellowed and charged toward her, feet shaking the arena.

Amity growled and ran, tail flicking, to meet him.

An instant before beast and dragon could slam together, Amity released her magic. She shrank and ran in human form, passing between Behemoth's legs and under his belly.

Behemoth slammed into the wall where Amity had lain instants ago. The beast shattered chips of stone and bent the wire meshes across several alcoves. Rock and metal rained. The crowd roared. Amity kept running between the creature's six legs. As she raced, she drew and raised her sword. The blade scraped against Behemoth's underbelly, spraying sparks but not cutting the skin. She might as well have stabbed a stone ceiling.

When she emerged behind the creature, she summoned her magic again and beat her wings, soaring.

Korvin, the damn thing's harder than your backside!

The gray dragon growled, flying forward. A gash bled on his head. Aim for his eyes! Stab them out.

Before she could reply, Behemoth turned toward them, opened his maw wide, and blasted out a jet of raw, red smoke.

The cloud washed over the two dragons.

It felt like falling into the sun.

Amity couldn't breathe, couldn't see. The noxious smoke invaded her nostrils, her mouth, her ears, burning like acid. She tasted blood.

She fell and slammed against the ground. Korvin crashed down beside her, losing his dragon form on impact.

Amity clawed at her throat, coughing blood, struggling for breath. All around her, the people in the alcoves roared, and the chamber swayed. Amity couldn't help it; she gagged, losing what paltry food the jailors had been feeding her.

Behemoth, Behemoth! the crowd chanted.

From somewhere far above rose the cry of Abina Kahan. Slay the weredragons!

Amity pushed herself onto her knees, realizing she had lost her dragon magic too. Through stinging, watering eyes, she saw Behemoth stomping toward her.

She screamed and rolled aside an instant before his foot slammed down, cracking the ground.

She leaped into the air and shifted again, only for the beast's head to ram into her.

Amity cried out, tumbling through the air, wings flapping uselessly. The cavern spun around her, and blood seeped down her flanks. It was all she could do to maintain her dragon form. Before she could right herself, she slammed into the cavern wall, face-first, cracking the wire mesh protecting one of the alcoves.

Inside the burrow, King Kahan was laughing. He stepped forward and thrust his torch, and the fire burned Amity's cheek.

She cried out and fell, tumbling, wings beating. A heartbeat before she could hit the ground, she managed to steady herself and fly again.

Behemoth was charging toward Korvin now. The gray dragon was blowing fire, but the flames cascaded off Behemoth's face. With a roar, the beast's jaws snapped, crushing Korvin between them.

Amity screamed, swooped, and landed on Behemoth's back.

Release him! She clawed and bit, trying to break through the creature's skin. She managed to dig several inches into his leathery armor, but she could not reach the soft flesh and blood that surely lurked within. She snarled, climbed onto Behemoth's head, and drove her claws deep into one of his eyes.

The eyeball, large as a human head, popped and oozed across her paw.

The creature opened his jaws to scream, dropping Korvin to the ground.

Amity snarled and raised her claws again, prepared to pop a second eyeball.

Before she could claw again, the creature bucked madly. She clung on. Roaring, Behemoth leaped through the air, soaring higher and higher, rising hundreds of feet, racing toward the cavern ceiling.

Oh bloody maggot guts! Amity scampered off Behemoth's head an instant before the beast could crush her against the ceiling.

The stone cracked above and stones rained. Amity swooped, rocks pounding against her wings and scales. She glimpsed Korvin lying on the ground, bleeding, still in dragon form but unable to rise.

He's still alive. If he's still in dragon form, he's still alive. He—

Behemoth screeched above and blasted out more crimson smoke.

Amity screamed and dodged the noxious cloud. She rose higher, beating her wings madly, as Behemoth slammed back onto the cavern floor. The mountain shook. Rocks still rained from the ceiling, and the crowd cheered madly.

Slay her, Behemoth! Kahan cried from his alcove.

The beast charged forward. Amity blasted him with fire, but the flames wouldn't hurt him. She soared, narrowly dodging the assault. Behemoth rammed into the wall, horns driving through an alcove's wire mesh to pierce a cheering man within. Across the cavern, the crowd cheered louder than ever, delighted at the sight of death—even the death of a fellow spectator.

Behemoth tugged back from the alcove, letting his victim slump dead to the floor, then spun toward Amity and charged again.

Amity cursed and flew higher, but she was too slow. Behemoth's horn, still bloody, scraped across her leg. She cried out, and her own blood spilled.

Korvin, up and fly, damn you! she shouted down. The gray dragon rose slowly, groaning, bleeding.

Behemoth leaped toward Amity, and his jaws grabbed her wing.

Amity cried out and lost her magic.

She fell and slammed onto the ground, shouting in pain, a human again.

She could barely see, barely breathe, and her blood would not stop falling. She rolled just as the creature's paw slammed down. She rolled again, trying to swing her sword, only to lose the blade under his foot. The sword shattered. Behemoth screamed and blasted down his poisonous breath.

Amity closed her eyes, covered her ears, and knew she was going to die.

I can't beat him, she thought, gagging as the smoke washed over her. She couldn't see. She could hear nothing but the roaring beast, the chanting crowd. I'm going to die here. I can't beat him.

Amity, fly! Korvin's voice rose. Fly, damn you!

She could barely see; her eyes would not stop watering. She thought she could make out Korvin atop the creature, clawing and biting. Above in his alcove, the king laughed.

No, I can't beat this creature, Amity thought. But maybe I can tame him.

Keep him busy, big boy! she shouted. I mean you, Korvin!

She soared as fast as she could.