A LEGACY OF LIGHT

KAELYN

KAELYN

Kaelyn ran through the forest, clutching her bow, as above her the dragons shrieked and gave chase.

The night was dark; the treetops hid the moon and stars. Kaelyn could barely see. Her foot slammed into an oak's root and she tumbled, cursed, and leaped back up. She kept running. Her quiver of arrows bounced across her back. When she looked up, she saw them there, shades of black above the canopy.

Damn it.

Five or more flew above, and they had picked up her scent. Kaelyn snarled and ran on. Branches slapped her face. Her ankle twisted atop a rock, and she cursed and nearly fell again.

Just keep moving, Kaelyn, she told herself. They can't see you through the trees. The cave is near. There is safety there. Just don't stop running.

Dirt and fallen leaves flew from under her boots. Even in the cold night, sweat soaked her leggings and tunic, and her long golden hair clung damply to her neck and cheeks. A stream of fire blazed above. Kaelyn ducked and rolled. The flames roared, lighting the night, and for an instant Kaelyn saw a thousand black trees, mossy boulders, and a fleeing deer.

"I see the girl!" rose a shriek above. "Right below. I want her alive!"

Then the fire was gone. Wings thudded and air blasted Kaelyn. Claws longer than swords tore at the trees. Wood cracked and branches flew. Two red eyes blazed, their light shining on fangs and black scales.

Kaelyn leaped to her feet. She nocked an arrow. She fired.

The arrow whistled and slammed into the dragon. The beast reared and howled and clawed the sky. Kaelyn turned and ran.

The trees blurred at her sides. Fire blazed behind her. The dragons swooped and claws uprooted trees. A bole slammed down before Kaelyn, showering splinters and broken branches, and she yelped and fell back. A dragon landed upon the fallen oak. Its maw opened, a smelter of molten fire, and light bathed Kaelyn, and heat blasted her.

She fired another arrow, hitting the dragon's chest. The beast bucked and roared, spewing a fountain of fire. Kaelyn leaped, rolled down a rocky hill, and crashed into a tree. Pain exploded. She yelped, sprang back up, and fired a third arrow. She hit another dragon, then spun and kept running.

Damn it! she thought as she raced between the trees. Her heart thudded and her lungs ached. Her bruises blazed so badly that she ran with a limp.

They weren't supposed to be here.

But somehow these beasts knew about the boy in the city. Somehow they knew Kaelyn would try to reach him. She cursed as she sprang between more collapsing trees. If these dragons reached Cadport first, and if they found the boy before she did…

"Then we are lost," she whispered as she ran. "Then all hope is dead. Then the world will fall."

She snarled and ran up a hill thick with oaks and maples.

So I will have to kill these dragons. And I will have to reach the boy before he's found.

A howl tore the air above her.

"Kaelyn!" one dragon cried and laughed, a throaty sound like boulders tumbling. "Kaelyn, you little whore. Haven't you learned you can never hide from me?"

Ice encased Kaelyn's heart.

So the spies were right, she thought. Kaelyn had not wanted to believe, but now she saw the beast above her. It's her. She knows. She's here.