A LEGACY OF LIGHT

SHARI

SHARI

She flew back toward Cadport, shrieking and blowing fire. Her blood pounded in her ears. Her wings beat, bending trees below. Six of her warriors flew around her, metallic dragons blasting fire and howling.

The boy escaped.

Shari screeched and streamed above the city walls.

This backwater will pay.

"I seek Rune Brewer!" Shari screamed to city. She flew above the streets and homes, smoke streaming behind her. "You let the boy escape."

She swooped, reached out her claws, and slashed at a home. Its clay walls collapsed, and the family inside wailed. Shari rose higher, breathing fire.

"You will bring me the boy!" she cried. "You will bring him to me, or this city will burn."

She dived over a square and blew fire at another home. Its roof burst into flame. The family inside screamed and fled into the street.

Shari snarled, rage pounding through her. This foul southern city was conniving against her. This was a hive of resistors; she knew it. How else could Kaelyn have smuggled the boy out?

She turned to look at her warriors, six iron dragons who flew behind her.

"Each of you," she said, "grab two of this city's vermin. I don't care who. I don't care how young they are. Grab a dozen of these filthy maggots and break them upon a dozen wheels."

The six dragons blasted fire, grinned toothily, and swooped.

Claws slammed into homes. Walls collapsed and people ran through the streets, wailing.

Shari beat her wings, flew toward the hill above the boardwalk, and circled around Castellum Acta, citadel of this city. She screeched orders, voice pealing across the sky. A hundred soldiers streamed out of the craggy fortress, shifted into dragons, and streamed above the streets. The city shook and jets of fire crisscrossed the sky. Homes burned.

"Raise twelve wheels!" Shari howled, wings beating back flames across the city. Smoke filled her throat, and she roared hoarsely. "Raise them outside the courthouse!"

As thousands wailed and fled across the city, her soldiers dragged twelve wagon wheels into the city square, that same square where Shari had spoken to the recruits. Dragons dived and grabbed people from the streets--men, women, and children.

"Break their bodies!" Shari shouted, flying above.

Her six dragons returned and rallied around her. Each clutched two people, one in each claw. They dived, tossed the people onto the square, and pinned them down. Soldiers streamed from alleyways to form a ring around the plaza.

Shari landed upon the cobblestones and blasted fire skyward. She roared so the entire city could hear.

"Break them!" she cried. "Shatter their bones and hang them here. I want the city to hear them scream!"

The twelve, selected randomly from the thousands, squirmed and tried to flee, but they could not escape the claws that pinned them down. One of them, a young man with wide eyes, tried to shift into a dragon, to break the law of Cadigus. Scales began to appear across his body, but the dragon above him, one of Shari's soldiers, pressed his claws down. The young man below wailed and his magic left him.

"Break them! Bring hammers!"

Soldiers walked forward in human form, clad in black armor and bearing great hammers. The dozen townsfolk wailed, trapped under the claws.

"Please!" one begged, a young girl no older than ten. "Please..."

Another wailed, an old woman with white hair. "Please, my princess, have mercy--"

The hammers swung.

Bones snapped.

The dozen screamed.

Shari stood, snarling and snorting smoke, and laughed.

The hammers swung again. Again. Snapping limbs. Snapping spines. Shari laughed.

"Sling them onto the wheels!" she commanded.

The soldiers dragged the wailing, broken bodies onto the wagon wheels, slung limbs between spokes, and tied the dozen down.

"Hang them on the courthouse balcony!" she commanded, laughing and blasting smoke.

Her soldiers laughed too. Ropes were slung over the balcony, and Shari smiled; had she not met the ropermaker's daughter at this very place?

The wheels were raised to dangle off the balcony like bloodied wind chimes. Upon each one, a shattered body twitched and wept. Shari stood in the square, still in dragon form. She was tempted to blow her fire, to roast these wailing bodies and taste their flesh. But no, she thought. No. She would let them linger here. She would let them scream a while longer.

She flapped her wings and rose high above the square. The city rolled around her. From up here, she could see Castellum Acta upon the hill, the boardwalk lined with rotting shops, the docks that stretched into the sea, and the abandoned lighthouse upon the breakwater. In the north, beyond the city walls, stretched the forest where the boy had fled.

Shari roared her cry, making sure every soul in Cadport heard.

"I seek Rune Brewer!" she shouted. "You let him flee this city. This is your punishment. These bodies will hang until they rot!" She blew fire down at homes, torching roofs. "You will bring me information about the boy. You will tell me where he fled. Or next moon, I will break a hundred bodies, then a thousand, then ten thousand, until none are left alive." She screamed so loudly her eardrums thrummed. "You will bring me Rune Brewer or you will die!"

People streamed into the square below her, weeping and wailing and reaching out to those dying upon the wheels. They were the families of the broken, Shari realized, and her grin widened.

Good, she thought. Let them see their beloveds suffer. This city sheltered an Aeternum. She shrieked and blasted fire. They will suffer greatly until he's mine.

She spun and flew away. Once she had crossed the city walls and flew over the forest, a chill claimed her belly, overpowering the fire of her rage.

She had told her father she would return the boy.

She had vowed to drag Relesar Aeternum back to the capital, he a broken wretch and she a glorious ruler. She had promised her father this gift within the moon.

Frey Cadigus, she knew, was not one to take disappointment well.

She howled, thrashed her tail, and blasted fire.

"You will pay for this, Kaelyn!" she roared. "I will break you too, and I will break the boy, and I will break this city, and the world itself will weep until Relesar is mine."

With fire and roars, Shari flew north, heading to the capital, to her father... and to the rage of an empire.