Kindling Ashes: Firesouls Book I (20 page)

/I remember flying over this hill. I was carrying the eggs
./

A new perspective of her surroundings burst into life.

She soared above the hill in Baltair’s body, fresh wind in her lungs with the sun beating down on a gorgeous day. But one of the grassy fields was littered with bodies, dragon and human. Soldiers ran in their direction and she beat her wings to gain height. This was too close to
Cridhal,
they’d be overrun soon. If there was any chance of saving the humans this had to happen fast.

Baltair shuddered, breaking her out of the memory. Giselle frowned, trying to make sense of what she’d just felt. Saving the humans?

/Never repeat that
,/
Baltair whispered. He was nervous, fidgeting and shifting. Guilt raced through him. It felt like the same guilt that had haunted him for years, but doubled in strength.

“I don’t understand.” Why was he so anxious about this? She started walking back down the hill in an attempt to match his movement and make it less uncomfortable.

/The other dragons can never know. Cridhal was about to be overrun. If the dragonslayers thought dragons were dead, they wouldn’t attack. Cridhal would be saved
./

“So you didn’t leave your bodies to save the dragons?”

/Of course we did! I knew it would save us, but… others were not so keen. They thought we could last longer or fly somewhere else. Some dragons said the Ikjorians across the border would accept us, even though we’d fought them for years to stop them invading. We didn’t have enough time to argue and make a decision if we were going to save the humans too. I couldn’t let their time–wasting
kill
Simon. I had to compel them
./

“Compel?” Giselle repeated, dread settling in her stomach.

/I am the alpha dragon. Not just of my own flock, but over all the other flock alphas as well. I could bend their minds to my will. We didn’t have enough time to argue if we were going to save Cridhal, so I made them all do the only thing I knew would save us
./
Regret laced his words. If he had been human she would have seen the tears in his eyes; instead, she felt them.

“I won’t say,” she whispered, even though her stomach churned. “I just… didn’t know you could do that.” She was only half talking about the compulsion. The rest of her was wondering at how she’d never have suspected the dragon inside her for all these years was capable of going through with that.

/I wish I hadn’t! I never used it on you and I’ll never use it again! I wish I’d never remembered this
./

Giselle hugged him as best she could, sending comfort inwards. She tripped the next moment, sprawling over the forest ground and turning her head to find the obstacle. She frowned at the stamped out campfire. It couldn’t be more than a day old; ashes had settled on the ground nearby and had yet to be blown away.

/Giselle… I think you need to leave…/

There was only one explanation she could think of for why people would be camping here, so close to Cridhal but hiding from it.

/
You can’t stay here alone
,
it’s dangerous
! Get back there
!/

The urgency in his voice pushed her to her feet and she ran, away from the remnants of the fire and back towards the village. It seemed to take far longer than walking to the hill had, even though that had been slower and steeper. Around every tree she expected people to appear – raiders with swords all over again.
The memory of killing that man haunted her, chasing at her shadow as she sprinted as fast as her body would allow.
The sun
had disappeared behind clouds hours ago, but the light got dimmer until she was worrying about running into trees as well as everything else. Was someone following? She wouldn’t be able to see them! The wind whipped through the high branches above her, swishing them into the sounds of breathing and footsteps.

She plunged out of the tree line into Cridhal and stumbled to a halt, wheezing. It was okay. She was back. She was safe.

“Giselle! Did you see him?”

She looked up to find Henry careening towards her. The usual cheery smile on his face was gone, replaced with a black eye and a fearful expression.

“What? Who?”

“Corran!”

“What about him?” she asked, the nerves that had just started to fade spiking again. Corran was a dangerous factor – anything that had caused this much of a reaction from Henry couldn’t be good news.

“He’s gone! He took the horse and he left!”

CHAPTER
18

/
Traitor
.
/

Rocks and roots stuck out of the ground, reaching for Corran’s feet and trying to trip him. His head ached from hitting a branch when he’d tried to ride the horse. Now it trotted beside him.

/Traitor
./

His breathing came hard and fast and every few seconds he would glance over his shoulder and look for someone following him. Someone come to get revenge. Gerard come to reason with him. Giselle come to fight. Garth’s ghost…

/Traitor
./

Shut up! Just… shut up!

/No. Why would I listen to a traitor
?/

I always was! You knew it from the start!

A low, rumbling growl came from Frang and a shiver ran through Corran. He had never heard Frang sound so
dangerous
before. He was sarcastic, yes, and of course he had no
body which
limited the danger, but he couldn’t let himself forget that the voice in his head was a dragon. That growl was just a reminder that a dangerous beast
lay
within him.

/Dangerous beast?
You’re delusional
!/

I know everything my father told me about what you are! About what you do!

/You father is a madman
!/

You know nothing of my father!

/I know the same as every other dragon – that Huwcyn the dragonslayer is a madman intent on revenge, that he can’t be reasoned with, that he stirred up the southerners against us with lies
!/

Now was not the time for arguing with Frang. Soon, Frang would be gone and so would the rest of the dragons. He could go back to his life in Dunslade Town in peace and no one would dare say he was a weakling or stupid or that he didn’t deserve his dragon bone sword.
But only if he focused now.
He had to find his brothers, somewhere in this forest.

/You’re as delusional as your father
!/

Corran cursed under his breath as the frustration inside him bubbled. He allowed himself to slow into a walk but kept his ears open in case anyone did follow him.

Soon, maybe even today, he would find his brothers. He would give them the news that would allow them to destroy the dragons once and for all. But he would have to be careful about what he told them or Huw would try and steal all the glory. He would have to lead them. His brothers would follow
him
. They would have to deal with being second best for once.

And in a few weeks, he would be home. He let his mind drift, imagining his entrance through the Dunslade Town gates, where word would have spread about his deeds. He would enter on Ember, finally a horse of his own. He would not have a dragon skull to place up there alongside his father’s, but maybe that was fitting. He would be leaving not a trace in the world of dragons once the eggs were destroyed. His mother would lavish praise on him and his father would pronounce him the dragonslayer he always wanted as a son.

/Henry’s parents will be so thrilled
./

He stumbled to a halt,
then
forced himself to keep walking. He couldn’t think about Henry right now.

/But why not?
You left him with such a good parting present
./

The memory of his fist crashing into Henry’s face sent a shudder through him. He hadn’t wanted to do that – but Henry had caught him getting Ember ready. Henry had asked too many questions; Henry, with that stupid grin on his face, never imagining what he had stumbled upon. He had left him out cold on the floor of the house.

/He was your friend
./

I didn’t ask him to be!

/Of course you didn’t. But he was still your friend. He forgave you for lying to him about who you were. Will he forgive you for this
?/

Maybe it’ll teach him not to trust everyone, not to grin at everyone like everything’s always fine.

For a few minutes, Frang went silent. Corran took a breath of relief and paused to look around, searching for any sign of where his brothers might be. Huw would be in charge – if he were Huw, where would he hide? It wouldn’t be too far. They’d have horses too, so it would have to be somewhere there was food for them. It was why he’d taken Ember. He knew he wouldn’t be able to take her up into the mountains, but when all was done it meant he could get home quicker, back to normality.

/Do you think you taught them well enough
?/

What?

/The other Firesouls, when you were teaching them how to defend themselves. Do you think they’ll manage to fight well
enough to stay alive? Or will your brothers chop them all down where they stand
?/

He did all he could to ignore the dragon’s words and continued to walk, lifting a hand to pet Ember’s nose. Soon, this would all be over. Soon, he would never have to hear another word spoken in his head again.

*

It was a whole day since he had left Cridhal and despite foraging and a little hunting, the best he had come up with was a squirrel and a few nuts and berries. His stomach grumbled; the horse was equally grumpy. He hadn’t slept the night before out of worry that someone might come across him and he’d never know until he was being dragged back to Cridhal or until there was a knife in him.

He had edged closer to the mountains – water was sure to be there and he might get a better idea of where the Firesouls were going. The path he had started up this morning was steep with a sheer drop to the trees below, but maybe he would catch a glimpse of his brothers from up here – and of anyone else who might be following.

They caught him unaware. One moment he was alone on the mountain path, peering down through the trees below in search of his brothers. The next, a familiar voice spoke from behind him.

“Well, look what the dragons dragged in.”

He spun and found himself staring at the three people he had been searching for – but now he faced them, the pit of nerves in his stomach started wriggling like snakes. All three had the beginnings of beards and looked like they hadn’t washed in some time. But their clothes were fine and warm, while he was stuck in the disgusting stained shirt that used to be
his disguise back in Dunslade Town. He had tried washing it, but dirt seemed to cling to it and the stains – especially the blood from the night of the raiders – refused to come out. Dragon bone swords were strapped to their waists and his new golden one felt pathetic in comparison. They looked every bit the part of a dragonslayer and he looked like a peasant with uppity ideas. But it didn’t matter what he looked like, because it was what he did that mattered. He slithered off Ember and hurried forward.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said, when none of them said anything.

“Have you now? Took you long enough. You’ve been with the heathens for weeks.”
Huw again – and not friendly.
But that was hardly a surprise. What was surprising was that Glyn refused to look at him. Was he angry because Corran had left it so long to find them?

He bit his lip against the protest that ‘heathen’ was hardly an appropriate word. “Well I had to, to get information I needed. And I have it.”

“And what is it?”

Irritation ran through him at the cold response. A glint in Huw’s eyes told him his eldest brother was enjoying himself. Normally when conversations went like this Glyn stepped in to defend him and Floyd got bored and walked off. Instead, all three brothers had serious expressions. He wasn’t going to give in that easily, though. They wanted the glory. Even Glyn, it seemed. But he’d spent weeks pretending he was okay with being a Firesoul and that he was one of them. He wasn’t going to give his information up for nothing.