The Crippled God

.
    The head lunged.
    He leapt.
    The sword sank deep into the dragon’s chest. The creature roared in shock and pain, and then the wings hammered at its sides, scattering Liosan and Shake alike, and the Soletaken lifted into the air.
    Hanging from his sword, Yedan scrambled, fought his way on to the dragon’s shoulders. He tore his weapon free. Cut two-handed into its neck.
    Twenty reaches above the melee, the creature pitched, canted hard and slammed into Lightfall.
    The concussion thundered.
    Yedan Derryg slid down over the dragon’s right shoulder, down between it and Lightfall.
    The dragon’s neck bowed and the jaws plunged down to engulf him.
    As they closed, the Hust sword burst from the top of the dragon’s snout. Wings smashing the wall of light, the giant reptile reared its head back, Yedan tumbling free, still gripping the sword.
    He was caught by the talons of the Soletaken’s left foot, the massive claws convulsively clenching. Blood sprayed from the body it held.
    Again the dragon careered into Lightfall, and this time a wing collapsed under the impact. Twisting, pitching head first, the creature slid downward. Slammed into the ground.
    Yedan Derryg was thrown clear, his body a shattered mess, and where he fell, he did not move. At his side, the Hust sword howled its rage.
    The journey through the forest by Rake’s last three Soletaken – Korlat, Prazek Goul and Dathenar Fandoris – had been as savage as fighting a riptide. Silanah was among the most ancient of all living Eleint. Her will tore at them, drove them to their knees again and again. Silanah called upon them, called them by name, sought her own summoning. Still, they managed to resist, but Korlat knew that to shift into draconic form would simply make it worse, the blood of the Eleint awakening in each of them, chaos unfurling in their souls like the deadliest flower. At the same time, she knew that there were Soletaken at the First Shore. She could feel them. And what could the Shake do against such creatures?
    Only die .
    The Liosan Soletaken would be able to resist Silanah – at least for a time – or perhaps indeed they could even defy her, if their own Storm, when it broke upon this world, was strong enough. And she feared it would be. This is not the taste of one or two Soletaken. No – gods, how many are there?
    ‘Korlat!’ gasped Dathenar.
    ‘I know. But we have no choice, do we?’
    Prazek spat behind her and said. ‘Better to die in Kharkanas than anywhere else.’
    Korlat agreed.
    As they reached the rise, they saw a frenzied battle at the wound in Lightfall, and the Liosan soldiers now pouring from that breach vastly outnumbered the defenders. They saw a man do battle with a dragon rising skyward. Saw two Liosan warriors veering to join their winged kin.
    They did not hesitate. Darkness bloomed, erupted like black smoke under water, and three black dragons rose above the strand.
    As they closed, eight more Liosan veered, and the air filled with the roars of dragons.
    Yan Tovis dragged herself over corpses, trying to reach her brother’s horrifyingly motionless form. The two witches were taking the last from her – she felt each sorcerous wave they lashed into the flankingdragons, heard the Soletaken screaming in pain and outrage, and knew that all of it was not enough .
    But they were stealing from her this one last act – this journey of love and grief – and the unfairness of that howled in her heart.
    Soldiers fought around her, sought to protect their fallen queen. Bodies fell to either side. It seemed that the Liosan were now everywhere – the Shake and Letherii lines had buckled, companies driven apart, hacked at from all sides.
    And still he seemed a thousand leagues away.
    Draconic sorcery detonated. The bed of bodies beneath her lifted as one, and then fell back with a sound like a drum. And Yan Tovis felt a sudden absence. Skwish. She’s dead .
    A trickle of strength returned to her, and she resumed pulling herself along.
    Her bones were rattling to some distant sound – or was it inside her? Yes, inside, yet still … distant. As far away as hope. And that is a shore I will never reach . It shook through her. Shook even the corpses beneath her, and those to the sides.
    Two stood to either side of her, two of her own, the last two, fighting.
    She did not have to look to know who they were. The love filling all the empty spaces inside her now could take them in, like flavours. Brevity, who imagined