Crown of Dragonfire by Daniel Arenson Page A

his companions. Smoke unfurled,
and more fire kept raining from the sky. Elory gasped at his side and clutched
his hand.
    Vale grabbed a reed at
his side which hadn't yet burned. He snapped it off.
    "Quick, take these." He
snapped three more reeds and handed them to his companions. "Now swim. Go!"
    He placed the reed in
his mouth and sank underwater.
    The water was murky,
full of algae, leaves, and scurrying fish. He could barely see, and his eyes
stung, but he made out the others sinking with him. Meliora's halo extinguished
underwater, and Tash's harem pants fluttered like spirits. Elory still gripped
his hand. They all closed their mouths around reeds, breathing through the
tubes.
    Vale led the way,
swimming away from the burning riverbank, and the others followed. Only the
tips of their reeds emerged from the water. The seraphim flew above; Vale
prayed that the tips of the reeds would look like nothing but bits of leaf or
wood on the water.
    They remained
underwater until they could no longer hear the chariots, then waited longer.
Finally Vale dared raise his head from the water for a look. The riverbanks
were burning, and the chariots flew in the distance, almost too far to see now.
    Tash's head popped out
from the water beside his, and she spat out her reed. Algae filled her hair. "I
think we just lost a boat."
    Meliora rose from the
water next, her halo crackling back into life, and Elory followed. The reeds on
the riverbank burned down quickly, and soon the companions found a patch of
barren, charred land. They climbed over the hot earth and cinders, wincing with
pain, and made their way onto a hilly, rocky land. Patches of fire burned
ahead, and a tree blazed on a hilltop. Most of the landscape was dry soil
strewn with limestone and chalk boulders, and Vale spotted a cave on a hillside.
    "There." He pointed. "We'll
seek shelter in the cave before more chariots arrive."
    The others nodded,
dripping wet. Vale couldn't help but notice that Tash's silken trousers and top
became translucent when wet. Her breasts pressed against the thin material, and
a jewel shone in her navel. She looked at him and smiled thinly, and he quickly
looked away, feeling his cheeks flush.
    What was it about Tash?
He had been looking at the young woman too often since meeting her. Vale had no
use for such thoughts. He was only a slave, doomed to toil, to suffer the whip,
not to desire women, not to—
    We're not slaves out
here, he thought, still seeing Tash from the corner of his eye. And why
shouldn't I desire a woman? Am I not a man?
    But no. Out here in the
wilderness, he was a warrior of Requiem. The only love of his life was the
memory of that fallen land. He would allow no other desires to fill his heart,
only the desire to see Requiem again.
    They walked across the
rocky land between burning bushes, climbed the hill, and made their way to the
cave. It was smaller than their hut back in Tofet, no larger than their burnt
reed boat. They crowded inside, covered with scrapes, bruises, and burns.
    Again, Vale couldn't
help but notice Tash at his side, pressing against him, slender yet curved, her
hair against his shoulder. Yet again, he forced the thought of her away.
    More chariots streamed
outside, fire raining. More seraphim cried out.
    Inside the cave, the
companions huddled in silence. Meliora leaned against the back of the cave,
pale, her wounds still bandaged. Elory prayed, lips moving silently.
    "We wait until
darkness," Vale said. "When night falls again, we move out. Meliora and Elory
to find the Keymaker. Tash and I to find the Chest of Plenty."
    If they truly exist, he thought. Perhaps both were merely old legends. But Vale had to believe, for
if those were mere legends, then what hope was there for Requiem to be real?
And Requiem was real, had to be real, even after five hundred years of
servitude. That land had to exist, far in the north beyond desert, sea, and
forest, or there was no hope at all, and he might as well burn in