A Night of Dragon Wings Read Free

a sabre in her hands.  After so many years crouched in alleys, licking the dust of the south, could she even feel pain and fear?  Her eyes were sunken, already dead.  She clutched the sabre before her; the blade reflected the red sunset as if already bloodied.  Her only sign of life was sweat upon her brow and a tremble to her arms.  Her lips, pale and dry, finally opened to speak.
    "If I slay the evil inside," she rasped, "and if I find your key, I want the dust."  She looked at Solina and her eyes reddened.  A tear streamed down her cheek.  "Please, my queen, if only a spoonful, if only a taste.  I will find your key not for freedom, not for jewels, only for a sprinkling of the dust, my queen."
    Solina sighed and shook her head.  "Pathetic creature.  You are a daughter of the desert!  You are the stock of a noble breed, a warrior race of steel and sand and glory.  And all you crave is that southern spice that twists you into a beast?"  The queen spat.  "But I will grant your wish.  Bring me the key, and I will give you not a spoonful of dust, but great barrels of the stuff, so you may lick your desire for all your remaining days."
    The dusteater's eyes widened, and she wept and trembled.  "Thank you, my queen!"  She could barely speak; her chest rose and fell as sobs racked her body.  "I will find your key.  I promise you, my queen."
    With that, the dusteater turned, stepped toward the tower, and entered the darkness.
    Zar stared, not daring to breathe.  Queen Solina and her men stood frozen, eyes upon the tower.  A single crow circled above, the only movement in the desert.
    A scream rose.
    Clashing steel rang.
    Cruel, deep laughter bubbled.
    Zar closed his eyes.  Sun God, oh Sun God.
    When a screech shattered the desert, Zar looked up to see the dark, cloaked figure reappear atop the tower.  Once more, no light pierced its hood.  Once more, its crimson claws rose.  In its grip, it held a twisted corpse.
    The creature tossed the body down, then disappeared back into the tower.  When the body thumped against the ground, Zar stared for an instant, then doubled over and gagged.  Whatever paltry scraps they had fed him—dry old bread and cheese—he now lost.
    Please, Sun God, please, how can you let such horror exist under your light?
    The dusteater had entered the tower a gaunt, nearly cadaverous woman.  Now her body was bloated as if waterlogged.  Her head bulged, twice its previous size.  A twisted, parasitic creature melted into her body like a conjoined twin.  Red eyes blinked upon her chest, and a shriveled hand thrust out from her belly, grasping at the air.  A mewl rose from the wreck of a body; she was still alive.
    Solina stared down in disgust.  Even the queen finally seemed shaken, and her face paled.  Her lips curled back in a snarl.
    "Kill it!" she hissed to her soldiers.  "Sun God, kill this thing."
    The soldiers approached the twisting, gurgling creature.  The parasite writhed across it, molded into the bloated body.  The dusteaster's eyes twitched and shed tears, and her lips whispered.  Zar could not hear her, but he could read her lips.
    "Please," she begged.  "Please kill me."
    The soldiers thrust down their swords.  Blood spurted.  The creature convulsed, then lay still.
    Solina shouted.  "Send in the last one!"
    Zar's knees trembled so badly, he'd have fallen had soldiers not grabbed him.  When they began dragging him toward the tower, he kicked and struggled; it was like trying to break iron chains.  As the tower grew closer, Zar saw shadows stir beyond its doorway, and he screamed and kicked and wept.
    "Untie him!" Solina ordered.  "Give him a sword!"
    A soldier drew a dagger, pulled Zar's arms back, and sawed through the ropes binding his wrists.  His arms blazed with pain as he raised them, and he found his wrists chafed raw and bloody.  His fingers trembled and throbbed as the blood rushed back into them.  Before Zar could even gasp with the pain, the