Soul Fire (Darkling Mage 8)

“The coming of the Eldest will be the end of us all,” I said through gritted teeth. I tried not to sigh, to show so much of my disappointment, because it truly felt like I was reading off of some kind of script. The world is in peril, I’d said several times before, to the Lorica, and to far too many different entities. “We’re in this together. The same realm, the same planet.” I surprised myself with the amount of conviction I managed to force into those words.

Tiamat sneered. I didn’t even think that dragons could do that. But this wasn’t a time to be defiant. I was several hundred feet in the air, trapped in a sea dragon’s claws, precious seconds away from being crushed into Dustin pâté.

“The gods cursed us. Humanity shunned us. And now you turn to the Great Beasts for aid? You are fools.”

I couldn’t be cheeky, sure. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t take risks. I swallowed the lump in my throat, speaking before what was left of my courage withered away.

“You cared for humanity once, didn’t you? The mother goddess of Babylon. That counts for something.”

Tiamat’s great eyes narrowed. “And yet they spurned me. I have been many things. Dragon, serpent, deity. I am all these and more, and yet things change, mortal. Some things change.” Tiamat shifted her great body, the ocean churning and rushing far beneath us as she did. “The Great Beasts are not loved by those who believe they rule the earth – you humans and your entities. You have come to the wrong place, little speck. I am spent. I am tired.”

“But if the world ends,” I said, reading once more from the little script that could have been printed into the back of my eyes, “so will everything. The end of existence is universal. If we’re snuffed out, then so are you, Great Beasts or no.”

“A favor, then?” Tiamat scoffed, her breath ripping at my hair like a furious gale. “Did you think to come to us to beg for an infusion of magical power? A contract, perhaps. Patronage. Or maybe one of Fenrir’s teeth, a claw from Bahamut? No. You will have nothing. The Midnight Convocation can do what it desires with its beloved Crown of Stars. The Great Beasts have nothing to give you, little speck.”

Tread lightly, I thought. “So you know about the Convocation.”

My heart thumped as Tiamat lifted me even higher into the air, bringing me closer to her face. “We know of your battle with the Eldest. We know of the risks that the gods of night and moon took in assisting you. And we know that one of them perished in that fight.” The edges of Tiamat’s mouth drew back, exposing her massive fangs. “And for what? To help puny mankind, to stave off the Old Ones for some precious, fleeting moments? Pah. You have wasted your time and your breath. I should crush you, you and those companions you’ve brought to defile our dimension.”

Fear came rushing back into my body. “We need you,” I said, my insides wavering, but my voice still, and stern. “Please, whatever power you can lend, what counsel you can give – ”

“Your arrogance is staggering. Look around you.” Tiamat gestured, at the thundering sky, at the boiling seas. “We are the agents of the apocalypse. Why should we aid you? What do we earn from stopping the Eldest? What would we receive in return?”

My head rose, my brow creasing as I decided that there was really only one answer. “Survival. Self-preservation. That’s all any of us can hope for, if we even win this fight.”

“Then let the universe collapse around us,” Tiamat hissed. “This is a universe that cares nothing for the Great Beasts. Why should we think to stop the Old Ones?”

Aim for the part of her that would hurt the most, I thought. Go for her pride. “Because they get to end the universe, and you don’t. Your purpose, for so many of you, is the apocalypse. Would you let the Eldest steal away your grandest reason for existing?”

I didn’t think it was possible for Tiamat to look more menacing, but that had done it. Her spine curled as more and more of her body emerged from the ocean, as she bent over me, regarding me with eyes that burned the same blue and green as the rest of her enormous frame.

“This conversation is ended. You came with nothing, speck of dust, and so shall you leave: with nothing. Be grateful that you still live.”

Tiamat’s voice was abnormally still, and calm. I should’ve known to worry then. She threw her head back, and we rocketed into the clouds. I looked down, trembling, seeing for the first time her legs, her knees. All she had done was stand up.

We spiraled higher, ever higher into the sky, and when I thought we couldn’t go any farther, a loud, thundering crack split the air. It was the sound of Tiamat unfurling her great wings, huge and leathery, already wet with rain.

She beat them, only once, and took us into the clouds, so high up that my body forgot how to breathe. If the thinning atmosphere didn’t kill me, then the terrible heat of the dimension’s green sun would. The only mercy was Tiamat’s wings being massive enough to blot out its poisonous rays.

And impossibly, I could still understand Tiamat’s words as her voiced boomed across the sky, across the oceans, filling my ears, filling an entire dimension.

“The Old Ones are a stain on existence, more baleful and corrupt than any demon, monster, or beast that has walked the earth. And the only force powerful enough to cleanse their taint is fire.

Purifying fire. Even this, we will not give you, little mortal. You could never hope to wield our flames, little speck of dust. I speak, and the heavens crumble. I sing, and the world will end.”

My fingers dug into Tiamat’s scales as I held on for dear life. I shouted over the whistling air, the maddening wind of both the domicile and the great dragon’s wings carrying my words.

“Help us, Tiamat. I’ll take that risk, even if the fire consumes me. Help us.”

The membranes of Tiamat’s great eyes flickered as she blinked, her expression uncaring, impassive.

“Witness,” Tiamat bellowed, her voice a storm, a typhoon. “Witness the power you will never wield, and despair.”

Tiamat raised her head, opening her maw. Something like the roaring of a hundred dragons exploded through the dimension as dazzling blue-green flames erupted from her mouth, reaching for the sky, for the sun, scorching the air in their unnatural heat.

And finally it was all too much – too much fire and fear, and not enough air. I couldn’t breathe. My vision blurred with tears of terror, of frustration, and my heart lurched as Tiamat’s claws parted, as she dropped me from the sky. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound left my throat.

The air shrieked in my ears as I plunged. I lifted my hand to the sky, maybe some desperate, wordless plea for someone, something to save me. Far above, still in the clouds, was Tiamat, no longer a dragon, but a radiant woman, as great as the sky, her hair the reflection of fire from the sea. And the sun, the sun was one of her eyes.