Rare Form: Descended of Dragons, Book 1 (20 page)

H
aving been
to the base of the crater before, Gresham traced us there. It was taller than I’d imagined; we were at the base of a mountain twenty miles north of the city. No vegetation or trees grew around it, or along its sides. Deep gray and charred, the crater was ominous and just plain creepy. I was compelled to leave the moment we stepped foot atop the blackened dust.

“What now? Are we to climb it?” I asked.

“I’m not sure.”

I was stumped at how to proceed. That Gresham was, too, wasn’t encouraging.

I walked the perimeter of the structure in search of a mystical trap door, or a hidden lift…anything.

I was so shocked when I found the entrance that I said nothing for several moments, which Gresham noticed right away.

I used to love to look at those 3D pictures designed to fool the eyes. Upon first glance they were a pattern, nothing more. But then if I stared long enough and let my eyes cross a little another image appeared. The entrance was like that. I would have missed it; Gresham
did
miss it. But I noticed the faintest indication of something more—just a slight wobbly spot in the air surrounding the entrance. And when I looked, really looked hard, the three-dimensional aspect of a crevice hidden by an outcropping of rock revealed itself. Once I saw it, I couldn’t not see it, and wondered how I’d ever missed it. Just like those puzzles I remembered.

“Shall we?”

Gresham nodded solemnly, and we walked side-by-side into the dark opening.

A cold, dank corridor had been chiseled through the body of the mountainous crater long ago. It was just tall enough that Gresham didn’t have to bend his big frame. Fire-lit torches lined the corridor, though not frequently enough to shed any light on the space. The flickering beacons only served to indicate the direction of the path. We walked silently in the darkness together. I admit to grabbing the waistband of Gresham’s pants on one or two occasions as creepy little things that loved the dark skittered across my feet. Beyond one last torch, we spotted daylight through the end of the corridor. I let out a breath, and Gresham squeezed my hand in reassurance.

We stood on either side of the mouth of the corridor, unsure what to do next. What if it was a trap? What if the moment we stepped from the protection of the cave and into the light we became walking torches? I vacillated between leaving before we caught their notice and storming in as my dragon.

The decision was made for us when a deep voice slid across my brain.

“
Come in. We know you are there
,” it said. Since I’d had telepathic experiences with Gresham brain muscle memory kicked in, and I ‘heard’ the wordless communication right away.

“
Who have you brought, little dragon
?” the voice asked. “
Is he the one who fought for you
?”

“
Yes
,” I said. “
He’s my friend
.
Who are you
”

“
Rowan Gresham is no friend to dragons
,” the voice boomed inside my head.

“
What do you mean? He
is
a dragon
.”

“Let’s go in,” said Gresham.

“
I’m coming in with Gresham. If you try to hurt us, you’ll be sorry.
” Bluster, bluster, bluster.

We stepped into the light then, both covering our eyes at the sudden brightness. When I could see again, I found the three dragons that had attacked Gresham’s house.

They sat upright, fearsome heads held high. Big Red was much larger than I remembered now that I was so close to him and in human form. Scales the size of my hands shone in the sun, his a Chinese red to my auburn. If we were, in fact, related, this was almost certainly a family trait since my mother, too, was a redhead. I had a sad little moment and wondered if her coloring as a dragon was copper and auburn, like mine, or Big Red’s brighter scarlet.

“
Aye, your dragon resembles Edina’s
.”

“
Oh. I hadn’t realized I said that out loud…err…thought it. You know what I mean.
”

“
What of your mother, then
?
Is she dead?
”

“
She disappeared. Very recently
.”

“
I’m sorry
,” Big Red chuffed at the same time the smaller brown said, “
Oh. Dear Edina.
”

I nodded.

“
I’m Eiven
,” Big Red said. “
Brother of your mother. This is my son, Stryde, and of course you’ve met Bay, my mother.
”

“
Your mother? Then…I have a grandmother
?” A seedling of hope dared sprout through the cracked soil of my broken heart.

Never mind that she was the one who tried to impale me the night of Solstice Fest. And dive-bombed me at Gresham’s house. Bygones.

“
Aye, love. I’m your granny. Stryde’s your cousin and Eiven your uncle
.”

“
Relatives? Then…wh…why were you trying to kill me
?” I sounded far more pitiful than I intended, my voice coming out in a high-pitched whine.

Big Red—Eiven—jumped in quickly. “
We didn’t know you were our kin. We were…ordered to retrieve a girl called Stella Stonewall. It had been so long since we were let out of this prison that we jumped at the chance. But Bay saw that you were one of our own, and you looked so much like Edina…
”

“
We couldn’t have known the name, you see? We were just looking for a girl,
” explained Bay. “
Edina disappeared so long ago. Changed her name, I suppose. She was a Drakontos. We all are
.”

“
Drakontos
,” I repeated the unfamiliar family name. My name, if they were to be believed. “
Are there more of you? Of us
?”

“
Afraid we three…well, four now…are the last of the Drakontos. The last of any of the dragon lines
,” said Eiven.

“
No, there’s Gresham, too,”
I reminded.
“He’s like us
.”

“
Mr. Gresham is nothing like us, Stella
.”

“
What do you mean? You saw his dragon yourself
.”

“
You said you were ordered to retrieve Stella
,” Gresham cut in. “
Was it Brandubh who gave the command
?”

Eiven gave a slow nod.

“
Are you his prisoners, then? Unwilling henchmen, like my mother
?”

“
We are,
” said Bay before closing her deep-set eyes.
“We have been for a very long time.
” She stretched her leathery neck, and for the first time I noticed that she was wearing some sort of torque—they all were.

“
If you’re compelled to do his bidding, how were you able to flee when you recognized Stella
?” Gresham asked.

“
We felt strongly enough that we were able to resist. But there was a price
.
There’s always a price for disobedience.
”

Eiven turned and made a movement with his shoulder—one that would have flexed his mighty wing had it not been clipped to the quick. All three dragons’ wings had been savagely cleaved.

I stifled a gasp with a shaky hand to my mouth.

“
They’ll grow back. Eventually
.”

The one Eiven had indicated as Stryde paced back and forth, jerking his butchered wing sockets repeatedly. He mumbled something over and over and seemed on the verge of hysterics.

They all looked shamed and miserable. That they made this sacrifice for my benefit wasn’t lost on me, but I didn’t know what to say. The protracted silence became uncomfortable.

“
When was the last time you saw my mother
?” I blurted. I still had so many questions.

“
Not for a very long time,” sighed Eiven. “She once lived here, with us. When Thayer retaliated for the Gnome and Fae, we fought brutally for many years. They killed our kind one after another, and we feared for our lives. We were so tired of fighting, of death. Edina was favored by Brandubh, and she used that advantage to try and help us all escape. He discovered her plan, though, and isolated her as punishment. That is where she eventually met your father.
”

“
Did you see her again after that? Did you know my father?
”

“
Aye, we saw her again. Once she and your father escaped, they attempted to set us free. They came here in an effort to remove our torques, but Brandubh caught them. He always knows. They waged a mighty battle. Brandubh thought Edina too meek, too afraid of him to do any real harm. But once free of his constraints she backed him into a corner and readied to tear his evil head from his body. Brandubh was so furious that she dared betray him he reached around her and struck out against your father in retribution. He hit him with some sort of debilitating spell in the shoulder—any closer to his chest and he would have died where he stood. Though wounded, your father was able to take form, and swung his tail to knock Brandubh into the mountainside.
”

“
Wait. Swung his tail? My father was a wolf. He couldn’t have done much damage with a tail
.”

“
Your father was a wolf, ’tis true
,” said Bay. “
He was also a dragon, a falcon…he could change into anything he’d ever seen. Your father was no’ just a wolf, Stella. He was an omni.
”

“
A wha
?”

“
That’s nonsense
,” Gresham said. “
There are very few lines of omnies left, and I know them all
.”

“
I don’t care a whit who you know
,” Bay bit out. “
Gabrio Shaw was an omni
.”

“Gabrio Shaw,” I whispered, forgetting telepathy in my astonishment. “I never knew his name.”

“
What are…er…omnies?
” I asked, first looking at the dragons and then to Gresham, who’d gone still as death. All of the color drained from his face, making him look dead, too.

“
Later, Stella,”
Gresham choked.

“
I am sick of your high-handedness, Gresham
.”

“
Not. Now.”
Gresham ground the words out between clenched teeth.

“
Yes, now. I won’t be put off or ignored any longer
.”

Gresham turned from me, completely putting me off and ignoring me.

“
I assume you summoned Stella for a reason
,” Gresham addressed the three. “
And if you’ve been trapped here alone for so long, how were you able to contact her at all? How did you send a messenger to Radix
?”

“
I’ll take that question.
” A new voice slithered through my brain—one laced with both cruelty and confidence. “
I sent the messenger.
”

“
I’m sorry, love,
” whimpered Bay, backing into the side of the crater as her pitiful stumps shuddered nervously. “
He…he forced us
.”

“
Trace, Stella
,” Gresham said. “
Don’t hesitate, just go
.” When I didn’t move he reached for my arm, but I jerked away. “
Go
,” he demanded, his face tight with anger; with fear.

“Are you kidding me?” My voice rose in anger. “You three stood there chatting us up this whole time knowing this was a trap? What the hell is wrong with you people? Haven’t you seen enough death and suffering?”

“
Indeed we have
.” Stryde seethed. Though this was the first real time that he’d communicated since our arrival, his anger came through the lines of telepathy loud and clear. His maddened pacing stopped as he addressed me.

“
We have seen more death and torture and suffering than one such as you can imagine. For hundreds of years we’ve suffered not just from our imprisonment, but from our own regret. From self loathing. We’ve been trapped here, slowly losing our grips on reality. Can you imagine what it is like not just to watch your only family—the only ones left of your kind—slowly go mad, but to know that your own mind is growing weak? And to be powerless to do anything about it? No, you cannot imagine, I assure you. Brandubh offered me freedom in exchange for your capture, and I took it. I took it gladly. ”

“
That’s enough, son,
” barked Eiven. “
She’s not our enemy. She’s just a pawn in his game as we all are
.”

“
Pawns, knights, queens
,” intoned the as-yet-unseen owner of the voice. “
Yes, you all have a part to play in my game.
”

Stryde’s gaze shot wildly back and forth. He was terrified of Brandubh. It was beyond odd to see a grown dragon tremble with fear at the sound of a man’s voice.

I swallowed involuntarily, my mouth gone dry with fear. The sorcerer was obviously powerful enough to imprison and abuse not just my mother, but three creatures whose fearsomeness was unparalleled. Would Eiven, Bay, and Stryde stop us if we tried to flee? I had yet to lay eyes on Brandubh, but I thought it was probably time to jet. Gresham was beyond ready. Was Brandubh just toying with us—playing cat and mouse, making us believe we had a chance to escape only to knock us back into the rocky side of the cratered mountain? I looked to Gresham, wondering what our next move should be.

To the untrained eye, Gresham appeared cool and collected, but I could see the tightening clenches of his jaw. He caught my gaze and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

I lifted my foot to trace home…and nothing happened. I tried again with the same result.

“I can’t trace, Gresham,” I whispered urgently.

“
Neither can I. Must be some sort of ward against it
.”

“
What now? What now
?” I was whining and may have been approaching hysterical.

“
Now, we fight
.”

“
No. Let’s run. We can make the cave, leave through the corridor the way we came.
”

“
It’s too late for that. You know as well as I that either Brandubh or one of your charming relatives will have us before we can escape. They’ve planned on it. On my word, run toward the cave. I’ll distract them. Run as far and fast as you can. You can likely trace once on the other side of the corridor.”

“Oh, like I’m just going to abandon you here to fight three dragons and an infamous evil sorcerer.”

“I’ve won a lot of unfair fights in my time, Stella. I’m still here, aren’t I?”