Arsien was escorted to the dias, the iron grip of a guard on his shoulder. The guard was the same one who’d carried him off the field, an older knight with greyed white hair and cold blue eyes. Arsien flushed with embarrassment as the soldiers chuckled and laughed at his predicament, face burning as the army’s eyes bored through him. Why had he been so stupid? Why hadn’t he just fled? He felt like a fool.

Maybe his father had been right about him.

He was made to kneel before the Prince, and Elenxes’s words were translated by the priestess.

“It is the pleasure of the Prince to have you wait upon him,” she said. “If that is not to your liking, then you may dance the blade dance with his Champion.” Arsien had a good idea of what the champion was. He decided the shame of waiting on Elenxes wasn’t so bad.

A servant brought a platter of smoking meat, the smell making Arsien’s mouth water, and set it on a low table. He reached for a skewer, but there was none. He looked at the priestess, and she gestured with her fingers.

Arsien’s ears burned. He was expected to hand-feed an Edu? Revulsion bubbled in his throat. Elenxes raised a thin, black eyebrow. His choice was clear. Arsien settled next to Elenxes, and reached for the platter. He plucked a cube of blackened meat and offered it to Elenxes. He took it with a delicate bite, baring white teeth.

Arsien looked at the soot-streaked, dark-haired army, still clad in iron armor. They drank ale and ate meat, grinning and celebrating their victory. He wondered again where the dragon was hiding.

***

After the bonfire had burned low, he expected to be led to his small tent. Much to his surprise, he was delivered to the enormous tent Elenxes resided in. The priestess, who he'd learned was named Mercia, accompanied him.

“It is the pleasure of the Prince to have you quarter with him,” she said. “You will find it harder to evade him than Ryam and Mayr. They are not glad to hear that you escaped.”

Arsien shuddered slightly. Mercia noticed.

“No fear, they would not hurt you. The Prince would never allow it.”

“Who is the Prince, truly?” Arsien asked. She was silent for a moment.

“He is our dragon.” His eyes widened. What exactly did she mean by that?

The tent opened, and Elenxes appeared. He shot Arsien a smile, and waved him in. Mercia nodded encouragingly, and Arsien entered.

It was still sparse, but two cots had been brought in and placed on opposite ends of the tent. Elenxes was eating a pomegranate, grinning at Arsien. He found the Edu disturbing. Arsien headed to his cot, and almost instantly fell asleep.

***

That night, Arsien had a dreamless sleep.

Elenxes did not.

He saw a blurred face framed with dark hair. A warm hand touched his face, wiping away a tear.

“Never leave your brothers…” his mother whispered. “Remember the stars…”

Then Elenxes was falling, twisting, reaching for his brother as he caught fire. He stood in the middle of a glowing cavern, molten heat coiling around his limbs and body. He remembered this cave. Elenxes turned, and suddenly saw a field of coals that squished like sand beneath his toes. A soft, grey snow built up, drowning him as he ran.

Rain fell, black, cold rain. It struck him like thousands of whips, and then he was in a forest. The sound of hounds pursued him, arrows flying. One struck his back, and as he leaned against a tree he lost a finger to another arrow. He was crying, running, flesh torn by jagged branches and feet slashed by stones. A trail of blood smoked behind him.

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No.

He would not die like an animal.

Fire filled his veins. He turned, glaring at his pursuers with unbridled rage. Let them burn this time. Flames fell from Heaven, and he was reforged, taller than any man. Their leering faces vaporized, and then he was hurtling through a storm until there was white.

Cool waters washed over his hands and legs. Elenxes was dressed in the garb of slaves, tattered and stiff. He sat in shallow waters, staring at the wheeling stars. He knew the stars were important. They flew and wheeled beneath the branches…

He stood up, looking at the horizon. All the way around, dull red sunrise was beginning. Or was it sunset ending? Did it matter?

As Elenxes turned, he suddenly saw a wall of black diamond. It stretched into the sky, without limit. He knew it to be so.

He walked up to the wall, and saw a shadow within. A mirrored figure that stepped in synch with him. The mirror man’s long, black hair covered his face, but the little of it Elenxes could see was heavily burned. The man was dressed in beautiful, royal robes of purple, but they were soaked in blood. Elenxes raised a hand to touch the mirror, and so did the other. His reflection's hand was hideously charred, smoking and falling apart at the edges.

“Brother?” They both whispered, as their hands touched…

And then Elenxes was awake, tears steaming on his face. He shook himself, and was confronted by the face of one of his men.

“Lord Darion, greetings,” Elenxes said, clumsily mimicking the gesture of greeting. The older man nodded in acknowledgment.

“My Prince, there is an Aenean army approaching from the south. The men need your strength,” he said. Elenxes nodded.

“I will be out shortly,” Elenxes replied. Lord Darion bowed, and exited. Elenxes got up, stretching as his bones popped like a shaken fish. Arsien was awake already, he saw. He was sitting on his cot on the other side of the tent, looking at him. Elenxes was struck once again by his green and brown mismatched eyes. It wasn’t something he’d ever seen before. Both were a nice color.

Elenxes walked out of the tent, striding towards his gathered army. He had to be strong, strong enough to take on any foe. His people needed him.

He raised his arms, and then there was light.

***

Arsien watched Elenxes vacate the tent. After a moment, he decided to follow and see what was happening. Arsien pushed aside the tent flap, seeing Elenxes striding forward. A wide circle of men was cleared in the army as Elenxes walked through, and Arsien didn’t move further through the entrance. Suddenly, Elenxes flashed searing white, and golden-red flames streaked with black lanced from the sky with a noise like thunder.

Arsien fell from the shockwave, eyes fixed on the spectacle in front of his face.

Molten flesh engulfed Elenxes, burning like the sun as bones formed from thin air and heat. A tail and elongated neck emerged from the mess of organs, and then cooled from gold to red, and then to glossy, osseous black. The air rippled around its body.

Arsien had only seen part of the dragon in the darkness of the night battle. Now, he saw every detail in horrible clarity. Human vertebrae jutted from the spine, a skeletal tail coiling like an oversized cat’s, and layered armor plating with glowing vents at the joints. A pair of colossal wing-arms rose from the front of the dragon’s torso, looking like oversized bat wings armored in a layer of scales. It was sixty feet from nose to tail, every line of its body simply wrong.

And then he saw the dragon’s face.

It was a skull, elongated and hornless, with a serrated mouth. The eyes, nostrils and maw smoked with hellish light, grinning like a corpse’s drawn mouth. Arsien was paralyzed as it took off, two powerful legs shoving it into the sky. A trail of smoke fell from its jaws.

***

Elenxes flew, wings beating as he ascended into the clouds. The condensation ran over his body, stripping away the heat that poured from within him. Then he leveled, lowered, and exploded through the clouds, jaws blazing. An army of bronze stretched below him, shining dully in the muted light. A rain of spears and arrows hit his armor, a few piercing and drawing blood.

He roared, and inhaled. Then he unleashed an inferno upon them, flash-melting their armor and bodies. As he flew low over their ranks, the path of carnage lengthened, flames drenching the earth. Eventually the heat was too much, and he cut the blast. Another dozen hurled spears struck, and Elenxes soared away. Another dive, another blast, and then a spear punched through his eye. Boiling gold blood sprayed, cooling to black as it flew through the air.

Elenxes hit the ground, roaring and screeching like nothing human. Warriors charged, only to be splashed against the ground as Elenxes’s tail swiped the ground. Another blast of flame obliterated dozens of men, and he charged through an impromptu shield wall with a bellow of rage. Then he shook the spear loose from his eye, and leapt back into the sky. Elenxes’s eye soon healed, and he dove once again.

When the Edu army arrived, he had singlehandedly slaughtered over a thousand men.