Sky Woman: Book One of The Empress Saga

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A tremor shook Marwin. The city was as a living thing for the first time in centuries. Dust and rubble were shaken free from the ruins and tumbled to the streets. A sound accompanied the tremor, one the city hadn't heard since the fall of Shan Alee. It was the roar of a dragon.

The northern wall of the slave pens exploded outward. Sandstone blocks the size of boulders were thrown into the air. Among the debris, sunlight reflected off of silver scales.

Deebee crashed through the wall. She now stood three stories tall at the shoulder. Her sinuous neck gave her another two. Powerful muscle was layered across her body and encased in scales harder than steel. Four curved horns swept from her brow over her neck, and her jaws were lined with teeth as long and sharp as swords.

The momentum of Deebee's emergence carried her two strides further. Her massive claws crushed the amphitheater into pebbles. She planted one forearm into the ground to bring herself to a halt. The other was clutched protectively against her chest.

Enfri peeked out from her snug perch in Deebee's palm. Her gaze traced up the arm that held her and then higher until it reached the dragon's face.

"You're... big," she said.

"Of course I am," Deebee's voice boomed. "I'm more than five hundred years old, girl."

"Yes," Enfri said breathlessly. She felt her eyes must have become as wide as dinner plates. "Naturally."

Deebee sighed in the way she did when Enfri failed to understand something basic. "Physical things, what you can see and touch, are made of energy at the basest level. When I change forms, I take that energy and put the excess... elsewhere. Using polymorphy as often as I do caused a deficiency— think of it as being malnourished. To reclaim my truest form, I needed to replenish it. The reagent sped the process up considerably."

Truest form. This was who Deebee really was.

"Nice to meet you, finally," Enfri stammered.

"Cheeky," Deebee muttered. "Huddle down, girl. Things are about to get hot."

Out of the crumbling mess that Deebee had made of the slave pen's northern wall, Jin and Maya rushed over broken stone and rubble. Enfri supposed it had been too much to hope that they were crushed. Their swords were drawn, and their free hands were ready to throw out spells.

From her place next to Deebee's chest, Enfri heard a deep rumble coming from inside the dragon. Deebee crouched low to the ground and thrust her head forward. Flames that seemed hotter and brighter than the desert sun erupted from her mouth.

Dragon fire engulfed the structure and the assassins with it. Flames rushed through the interior and set everything they touched alight. The fire coated the pens like burning oil. Stones cracked and burst from the heat.

When the fire subsided, Enfri looked up. Jin and Maya were unscathed. Maya shielded her face with an arm, and the palm of Jin's left hand was stretched forth. She had used magic to protect them from the inferno.

Deebee turned and barreled down the road before the assassins could recover. Her shoulder clipped the edge of a tall manor as she ran. The building shattered and collapsed from the glancing impact.

Enfri closed her eyes as the dust showered over her. She shook her head and coughed. "Where are we going?" she shouted.

"Away," Deebee replied.

Informative, Enfri thought wryly. It seemed dragons grew more terse as they grew larger. Then again, there were other things to be worried about at the moment.