There Are No Dragons Here by Emily Holland

There Are No Dragons Here by Emily Holland (find her on Tumblr)

It was so harrowing a scene, so breathtakingly repellent in its every detail, that T’kamen knew he would never wipe it from his mind, and yet the sheer magnitude of it made him feel oddly removed from the horror. This shouldn’t be, Epherineth. Dragons were never meant to end this way.

But there are no dragons here, said Epherineth. He sounded puzzled, as though he couldn’t wholly grasp the reason for T’kamen’s reaction. The dragons are gone.

Their bodies aren’t.

A body is not a dragon, T’kamen.

Then it doesn’t offend you that they’re being torn apart by wherries and snakes?

They no longer need the flesh that they wore. The wherries and snakes are welcome to it. (Chapter thirty-eight, Dragonchoice 3)

The dragon graveyard at Little Madellon was one of the first and most vivid images that sprang into my mind when I originally envisaged a Pern without between for Dragonchoice 3. Emily’s illustration makes it more visceral and horrible – and beautiful – than ever.