MAEV

She had wrestled in grungy town squares. She had fought in pits of mud surrounded by cheering tribesmen. She had swapped punches and kicks in rundown huts and cellars, and she had flown over a southern kingdom, battling demons. She was Maev, a lost woman, a fighter, a dragon of Requiem. And here above her home, above this new tribe, she fought the battle of her life.

This was also the battle of her death. The battle she could not win.

The rocs swarmed toward her, many times the size of demons, dwarfing even her dragon form. They clawed through her scales. Their beaks drove into her flesh. She kicked, bit, lashed her tail. She blew her flames, and her comrades fought with as much vigor.

But the enemy was too strong.

The arrows of their riders were too many. The bolts slammed into Maev, and she dipped in the sky.

"Requiem!" she shouted, hoarse. A roc swooped toward her, and she torched it. It slammed into her, burning, and she knocked it off. "Fight them, dragons of Requiem! We die in blood! We die in fire!"

Yes. She would die here. Maev knew that, and she was ready. She would die in glory, slaying them, so that for eras tribes and villages and distant kingdoms would speak of Requiem, would speak of the last stand of dragons.

I do not go gently into death, she thought, grinning as blood dripped from her mouth. If I die here, I die taking down dozens of you.

She whipped her tail, slamming its spikes into a rider. The man's armor caved in. She yanked back her tail, tugging the man off his roc, and tossed him against a second bird. The beast shrieked, and more flew from above, and more claws slammed into Maev.

She dipped in the sky, and her flank hit the side of the canyon. Boulders tumbled down, and her tail hit a tree. The oak crashed into the canyon, burying a man beneath it.

She heard Tanin cry in pain above, and his blood splattered her. He crashed down, three rocs upon him, plunging into the shadowy gorge. A boulder shattered beneath him. Ahead of her, Maev saw more of the vultures mob her father. They knocked Jeid into the forest above the canyon. Trees ignited and fell, and fire hid the world. She no longer saw Sena, but blue scales fell from the sky, pattering around her like small discarded shields.

And so here I fall, Maev thought. Not in a distant kingdom. Not in a strange town. But here. At home.

It was not a bad place to die.

She pushed herself up.

She emitted a roar and torched a swooping roc.

Claws lashing, wings beating, she soared. The sky was hidden behind feathers, blood, and smoke.

Let me die in the sky.

"Requiem!" she cried. "My wings will forever find your sky."

She soared into the cloud of rocs, crashing into them, smiling as she killed.