Chapter 1
TARYN.
The world could burn for all I care.
At least, that was my thought when I woke up this morning. Before the screams came.
I didn’t even hear the first scream.
Meris and I were out in the garden picking out the weeds and arguing, as always about who fought better in the village, and only realised something was wrong when the smoke rolled through our hollow like a living thing and screams of people filled our ears.
I looked up at the rising smoke as it headed straight for us, and my terror felt so real and haunting that I couldn’t even move, until I heard someone outside yell for everyone to flee. Then came the roar, and it was so loud that I felt it in my bones before I understood it came from above.
“Taryn, get out here! Now!” Dada shouted from outside the house.
I rushed to the doorway just in time to see fire tear across the sky. It wasn’t a torch, and it wasn’t oil. It was fire born from the belly of something that shouldn’t exist this close to our hollow.
A dragon.
Children were running everywhere, and mothers were calling for their families. The heat came before the flames even touched anything, and I froze because my mind couldn’t accept it. There were no dragons here. Dragons didn’t come this far east. They always stayed near the spires beyond the Burning Ridges.
But one was here now, accompanied by an army of soldiers in grey.
“Meris” Dada’s voice snapped me out of it. He was already shoving cloaks and bread into Meris’s arms. “Take them and run. Do you hear me? Alan, take your sisters to the trees!”
“What? No, I can…” I tried to argue before Dada cut me off.
“You listen to me,” he said, crouching before me with his voice shaking. “You take them and you run. Do not look back, and do not come back. Do you understand?”
Meris was crying behind him, even though she was much older than me. Alan grabbed her arm as he threw the bag of supplies over his shoulder, already looking pale but determined. I shook my head because I didn’t want to understand. I didn’t want to hear what he was saying as I turned to our father and said, “Dada, I can fight. I can help.”
“My girl is all grown up,” he tried to joke, but nothing was working right now. “Have you forgotten that you have trained only for a few months? You haven't even learned to hold a sword properly. You will live,” he said gruffly. “That is how you will help. Go.”
I didn’t have time to disobey as a second roar split the air, and the ground trembled. Somewhere to our left, someone yelled that soldiers were in the fields, and they were human soldiers with steel blades. We were being attacked from both sky and earth.
Alan grabbed my wrist. “Taryn,” he said urgently. “We need to run. Now.”
So we ran. Without even seeing mother first.
We bolted through the narrow paths of our hollow, past the houses catching flame, and past people I knew all my life who were now screaming with their skin burning. I heard Dada shouting commands behind us, rallying some men and calling for water and bows. I kept expecting him to tell us to wait, and let him come with us. But he didn’t, and his voice only got farther.
We were still running when Meris suddenly tripped on the root of a tree, and I yanked her back up. “Keep running!” I ordered. “Don’t fall, Meris, don’t you dare fall!”
“I’m scared,” she cried, and even in the chaos all around us. “Taryn, Dada and mother…” she cried, and my jaw tightened as I realised what she was trying to say.
“I know,” I said. “But just move.”
We broke free from the central square, just in time to see the soldiers who were definitely not ours. They wore dark grey armor, and they carried unfamiliar sigils. They poured in like a flood, cutting down anyone who stood before them. I watched our blacksmith rush forward with his hammer raised, and he was cut down with one clean strike. His wife tried to crawl to him, and she was kicked aside like she was nothing.
Alan pushed me and Meris toward the east ridge, and he had a determined look in his eyes that I would later come to regret. “To the trees,” he said. “You know the game trails.”
“You’re coming with us,” I told him, reaching for his arm but he pulled away and shook his head.
“They’ll follow if someone doesn’t slow them,” he said. “Go.”
“No…Alan, don’t…”
“I said run!” he snapped, his voice breaking. “I’ll find you. I swear it. Now just go.”
Meris started to scream for him, but I covered her mouth and dragged her, knowing that there was no other way out of this. She fought me desperately, crying and kicking like a wild animal, but I didn’t let her go. I couldn’t let her turn back. I wouldn’t watch her die.
We ran through the high grass while the flames roared behind us. The trees were close, and the fire somehow didn’t reach this side. If we reached them, we could hide and move through the animal paths, and maybe circle back for our parents. That thought was the only thing that kept my legs moving.
Until Meris stumbled at the worst possible time.
She let out a sharp cry and fell hard, clutching her ankle in pain. I cursed under my breath and dropped beside her, saying, “Get up.”
“I can’t,” she gasped, tears streaking her face. “It hurts, Taryn…I can’t.”
I could hear shouts behind us, like the clashing of steel, strange voices and laughter. The bastards were toying with kills now, so I slung her arm over my shoulder and said, “You don’t get to stop now. On your feet.”
We staggered forward, moving closer to the treeline while I begged for divine intervention. Meris was shaking uncontrollably, and so was I even though I didn’t say it. I wouldn’t let her see how scared I truly was.
But then the wind changed suddenly, and it wasn’t natural wind. It was like a strange pressure, with so much force like something vast cutting through the air.
I turned as a shadow darkened the sky, and I nearly screamed as a massive dragon descended on us. Its wings blotted out the burning sky, and it looked so terrifying. Its scales were silver, and bright even through the smoke. It hit the ground before us like a storm, the impact ripping the breath from my lungs. Meris screamed as the wind slammed into us, knocking her from my grip. I hit the dirt hard, rolling and clawing for something to hold.
Except by the time I looked up, it wasn't a full dragon anymore, but a man, half human, and half dragon. Wings replaced his arms, silver wings with touches of red patterns scattered around, and I had no time to finish taking a proper look at him before chains came flying straight at us.
They were rusted chains, thrown by the man. They wrapped around my wrists before I could move, while another set coiled around Meris’s legs as she cried out for me. I dug my heels into the earth, and my teeth bared as I said, “Let her go! Please!”
But the man, so tall and buff, with thick arms and a very muscular neck said nothing. He wore a black mask that only covered the lower half of his face, and it was carved with no expression. His cloak was dark and heavy with the dust of ash, and his green eyes crinkled like he was smirking at me underneath the mask. His boots crunched softly on the scorched grass as he approached us slowly, as if he had all the time in the world.
“Let her go, please,” I begged again, but the man simply stared at me, crunching down before me. “Please.”
But his eyes crinkled, and even with his mouth covered, I knew he was smiling. The imbecile was smiling at our pain! Maybe pleading wouldn't work.
“Remove these chains and face me like a man! Or are you afraid of being disgraced by a woman?” I hissed, blinking through the pain burning in my throat.
He tilted his head to the side, his eyes cold, amused, and calculating.
“You want to fight?” he asked in a low voice, almost like a whisper. “Like this?”
“I can still take you,” I spat. “Just take off these chains and see.”
“Don’t be a fool,” he said, and I could almost hear the laughter in his voice. “It would be an embarrassment if I fought you like this.”
“Coward!”
He chuckled once again, and I hated how small he made me feel. I hated how powerless I was in front of him, and how easy it was for him to laugh at me because I wasn’t even a threat to him.
I was about to curse him out when the sound of footsteps suddenly approached from behind him.
I twisted slowly and desperately, thinking someone had come to rescue us. But then one of his soldiers stepped up behind him, and my heart sank.
“Report,” the masked man said without looking back.
“Your grace,” the soldier said, “the hollow is cleansed. None of them remain.”
“You lie!” I screamed, my throat tightening up as I looked at him. I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t believe that everyone was dead. It couldn’t be.
The masked man watched me with that sadistic smirk, and he didn’t deny it. He didn’t need to, because I could feel it in my heart. My parents, Alan, and everyone in the hollow were gone. And now it was just me and Meris. How could this happen? What sort of cruel fate was this?
Meris cried hysterically, calling out for our mother. I turned towards her just as the masked man moved, and I thought he was reaching for me. Instead, he drew his sword and struck her across the head with the pommel. She collapsed immediately, and went limp in his arms.
“You bastard!” I screamed violently as I saw nothing but red. “You horrific bastard! You heartless good for nothing barbarian! Take these chains off and I’ll kill you with my bare hands! I'll gut you alive and feed your flesh to your dragons! I'll KILL YOU!!!”
He looked at me for a split second, and I could have sworn that something in his eyes looked familiar. But then he struck me too, and the world went silent.
The last thing I remembered was the hollow burning in the fading light.
