Page 97 of House of Ashes

But I could carry her gently one last time. I hoped Aurae had taken her into loving arms, that all the pain was left behind when she shed her mortal body.

I laid her down next to a twisted form, arranging her hands so they were folded over her stomach once more. She was one of the few who was still recognizable as a person; many of the others Rhylan had retrieved were well past that.

It was a necessity to send them off in this manner, even if they had died of a dragon’s flames. Nakasha preferred for customs to be observed in the old ways.

I looked up from the dead woman and saw Rhylan wiping his face. All he did was smear soot around; his blue eyes glittered dangerously in a black mask.

He had brought out many of the worst ones, refusing to allow me or Kirana to enter the still-smoldering cottages. Kirana had examined my nose as he worked; it was unbroken, but would remain tender and sore for a while.

Now Kirana sat on the edge of the well, coughing slightly between gulps of water. The smoke was still thick in the air. Alriss made a count, arranging the bodies over the pyre we had all built.

“Sixty-two souls,” she said, rising from her crouch and staring at the forms. “Everyone. That was everyone in Coldburn.”

Nobody answered. The destruction was too stark.

After a long silence, Rhylan gestured to the woman at the end of the row. “She was the last. I’ll…do it now, if anyone would like to say a word.”

Alriss and Kirana both looked at me. Because I was making the claim for Dragonesse, I couldn’t sit here and wallow in guilt and anger. Saying the final prayer would be expected of me.

But as I stood in front of the carnage, caked with sweat, blood, and soot, I found my mind utterly blank. All I could think about was how tiny some of the forms were, how ruthless this had been.

Rhylan began the shift, scales shimmering down his arms and legs, and I closed my eyes, searching for what I could say.

There was no way to make it up to them, no way to fix this. All I could do was send them on with empty words.

Heat curled around me, a dragon’s warmth. I opened my eyes, letting tears wash the smoke away, and leaned forward to rest my forehead against Rhylan’s scaled jaw.

“This is so…” I started to whisper, but I couldn’t find a word to encompass it all, and trailed off.

I rested my palms flat on his neck, focusing on the ridges and bumps of the scales under my hands.

He rumbled in agreement, smoke curling from his nostrils. We stood like that for a few minutes, until Rhylan slowly uncurled, nudging me forward.

I stepped up to the widespread, hasty pyre, the dragon arching his head over me. Listening. Waiting.

My lips were dry and cracked, and I tasted blood and salt as I licked them. “Aurae of the Fang, hear my words. Take their souls with love, guide them safely to the Gates. Nakasha of the Scale, I beg you to heed me: they were sent with flame and prayer. Allow them through your Gates, under your aegis.”

A small, curled form wavered in my vision. I blinked hard, again and again, my voice temporarily stolen.

“Sunya of the Claw, I beg one request. These were not children of Larivor and Naimah, but I ask you to weigh them lightly, to release them into the Eternal Cycle. Give them another chance. Please.”

My voice broke. Rhylan’s claws squeezed me, and then the dragon reared back as he took a deep breath, chest puffing up like a bellows.

He breathed over them, black flames rushing forward to claim what was left. The sharp crackle of flesh, the popping of wood…my teeth gritted together, and I backed away from the inferno. Ash swirled into the sky, a whirlwind of death.

We observed several moments in silence.

“We need to get back to the eyrie.” Alriss offered Kirana her own waterskin, the creases near her eyes carved even more deeply as she glanced at Rhylan. “It’s unwise to have all members of Erebos’s blood in the killing grounds.”

Kirana stood, walking woodenly at Alriss’s side to the forest. They had tied their wyverns there, far from the destruction. A wyvern wouldn’t know any better than to try to…to eat what was left.

And I couldn’t take offense that Alriss wanted to rush Kirana home. She was right.

If Yura and Tidas were waiting for an opportunity to annihilate the bloodline of the Obsidian Flames, she had a perfectly golden moment right here, with the two remaining siblings out in the open.

I leaned into Rhylan as they walked away. When I was sure I wouldn’t be overheard, I murmured, “She’s right. From this moment on, you and Kirana must go nowhere together. If the worst comes to pass, one of you must survive.”

Rhylan tilted his head, that coal-gleaming eye focused on me. I rubbed soot and blood off my lips and raised a brow, though I didn’t feel a speck of levity. “Don’t argue. You know it’s true. Yura’s got her little band of exiles now, after all.” I laughed bitterly, and it turned into hacking for an alarming moment. My lungs ached from all the smoke. “She could spring a trap at any moment.”

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