Pillars of Dragonfire Read Online Free

them down as screaming, bleeding men
and women.
    "Welcome home,
Meliora!" rose a voice across the battle—Ishtafel's voice. "You will
watch your people burn before I drag you back to your cell."
    She saw him ahead, and
Meliora growled. She rose to fly toward him, but a dozen chariots stormed her
way. She roared. She blasted her fire. Her tail whipped, her claws lashed, and
she tore into the seraphim around her. A lance thrust and dug into her side,
and Meliora screamed, her scales cracking. She spun, scuttled forward, and grabbed
the seraph in her jaws. She bit deep, tearing into the armor, tearing the flesh
beneath, and pulled back, cutting the man in half. She spat out his upper torso
and roared, blasting fire skyward, holding the chariots back.
    The other dragons
fought around her in a fury, crying out for their kingdom. Every moment another
dragon fell. Lances drove into them, picking them out from the sky. They lost
their magic in death, falling as men, women, children, bleeding, slamming down
onto the field where they had labored for so many years—falling finally as
warriors, not slaves. And always the chariots stormed forth, thousands and
thousands, covering the sky, and still more rising—an inferno in the heavens.
    "Ishtafel!"
Meliora roared, meat and metal in her mouth. "You will die too, coward.
Requiem is free!"
    "Requiem is
free!" the other dragons cried.
    Meliora glanced behind
her, just for a second. Countless dragons were fleeing the battle, flying so
close together their wings touched. The scaly mosaic covered the sky. At their
lead flew Jaren, blowing his fire. But as Meliora watched, thousands of
chariots were making their way past the dragon defenders. Their fire blazed
across those who fled, and the lances of the seraphim drove into dragons,
sending them falling down as humans.
    We're not going to
make it, Meliora thought, heart sinking. We're—
    "Sweet
sister!" The cry rose above, and fire crackled.
    She looked up and saw
him charging down toward her.
    "Ishtafel!"
she roared. Growling, she narrowed her eyes and stormed up to meet him.
    Ishtafel laughed as he
flew, wreathed in the fire, and his lance pointed down toward her. A white and
gold dragon, Meliora blasted forth her fire.
    Her white flames
crackled and streamed over the charging firehorses. Ishtafel raised his shield,
and the blaze exploded across the disk, scattering like a collapsing sun. The
firehorses crashed against Meliora, their flames washing across her. Her scales
expanded in the heat and cracked, and she bellowed with rage. She whipped her
tail, beat her wings, soared higher and swooped toward the chariot.
    Ishtafel grinned, protected
within his armor, the gilt melting and peeling off the steel. He thrust his
lance skyward.
    The blade drove into
Meliora's front foot, cutting through the scales and flesh, then bursting out
the other side.
    Pain blasted up her
leg, along her back, into her head, and she screamed.
    Ishtafel tugged the
lance back with a shower of blood.
    She couldn't even
breathe.
    A hole in her hand,
Meliora lost her magic. She fell. She landed in the chariot beside him, a woman
again.
    "You've come back
to me, sister!" He reached toward her, grinning. "Now stand with me
here and watch as—"
    With her good hand, she
drew her sword and thrust the blade into his chest.
    He yowled, the blade
denting the steel and cutting the skin inside.
    Before she could push
the blade deeper, he swung his fist into her cheek.
    Meliora fell. She saw
nothing but light and shadows.
    Don't faint. Live.
Live!
    She summoned her magic
and rose as a dragon.
    Pain throbbed through
her. The blazing agony of a shattering world filled her wounded hand. Her eyes
began to roll back, but she sneered and blew her fire.
    Chariots slammed into
her.
    Fire washed over her.
    Meliora lost her magic
again and fell.
    She tumbled through the
battle, a woman again, passing through fire. She slammed onto a dragon's back,
rolled across its scaly flank, and fell