Chapter 50. The Judgment of the Archmage
The roar rattled windows across the capital, shook dust from rafters and sent dogs howling in streets half a city away as Sael flew to meet it.
Below him, the city sprawled in miniature. Thousands of lanterns flickered in windows, candles held by hands that had been sleeping moments ago and now pressed against glass, faces turned skyward. The bells had stopped ringing. Even the riots seemed to have paused, the distant shouting fading to silence as an entire capital held its breath.
Sael could see them all. The mother pulling her children back from the window. The old man on his roof, bottle in hand, watching the sky like he'd been waiting for this moment for a long time. The guards who'd abandoned their posts, the people who'd fled their homes, the beggars, the thieves and honest workers all standing in the same streets, all looking up at the same burning light descending from the sky.
The dragon was coming in fast. Too fast.