The Dragon's Eyes
Authors: Rain Oxford
The Dragon’s Eyes
By Rain Oxford
The
Dragon’s Eyes © 2015 Rain Oxford
All
Rights Reserved
Book
2 of the “Guardian Series”
My father was trying to return power to the kings, to
bring Duran back from the laws of the people to the monarchy. He felt that
Duran should be governed by the most powerful of the wizards and politicians
and not by the people. He felt that only the powerful know best. And he felt
that I was to rule in his place when he retired. The only problem; there was no
way I was going to be king.
Mokii was a different land than the others. Each of
the other lands had a king, a ruler over the entire land, ocean to ocean, but
they obeyed the votes of people. The kingship over Mokii had always been in
battle. My father was technically king of all of Mokii, but he ignored the masses.
Instead, most of Mokii was governed by individual kingdoms, which had to pay
allegiance and a salary to my father’s kingdom. His were the only people he
cared about and everyone outside his kingdom was not his problem.
I have always strived to make my father proud and
never succeeded on purpose. The harder I tried to be something I wasn’t, to
believe in something I didn’t, and do something I couldn’t, the more
catastrophic the results. I suppose I could blame my mother for this; but it
would have to be for dying. She was a seer, but not a very good one it seems.
She knew she would die giving birth to me, her first child, and yet allowed the
pregnancy to continue. The moment I was born, she placed an outlawed spell on
me to absorb her power as she died from a sudden, incurable illness.
The servants of the house said I was born with no
voice, silent as my mother was. My father demanded they leave and the next
morning, he brought me out of the room as a healthy child. A frightfully
powerful child with no mother.
From the moment I could walk, I was exploring,
escaping, and searching. I didn’t know what I was searching for. My caretakers
hated my exploring, my tutors hated my escaping, and my father hated me. Oh,
sure, he never said so. When he hit me, he truly thought it was an acceptable
means of shaping me into a future king. It was the way he looked at me with
disappointment when one of the servants or townspeople spoke of my antics.
And it was never on purpose. I would step on a stick
in the forest and set off a stampede of large herd animals that would destroy
the village, mistake one plant for another and create a poisonous gas instead
of useful potion, or be in the wrong place at the wrong time and overhear a
horrible secret.
This leads to my current predicament. I was standing
in front of my father’s throne as he lectured me with all the importance of an
angry ruler, and all I could think of was that there was a ship leaving for the
Aradlin forest. I had never been, for my father would not allow his only heir
to visit a place so dangerous, but I didn’t plan on asking his permission.
I still had a couple of months before I reached
twenty-two years of age and became independent. This was another thing my
father was trying to change; he believed a child wasn’t a man or woman until
they were twenty-five, and women had to be married by such age. He felt a woman
had to be taken care of, first by the father, and then by the husband. Speaking
of women…
“… will be the day before your birthday,” he was
saying. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach; father was making plans that
involved me.
“What?” I asked.
“I know it is not soon enough, but the girl’s father
will not---”
“No, I mean I was not listening to what you were
saying,” I interrupted.
He sighed. “Then listen closely. You will be married
to the Corsicot daughter of Banjii. With Banjii’s ruling family’s alliance, we
will have taxing rights to all homesteads of the entire west-central lands.”
“Father, I know how much you love sucking klahs out
of people who have none, but I will not be married. Not now, not tomorrow, not
the day before my birthday, and not by your hand. I have never met this girl
and I do not intend to,” I said, using the best “king” voice I could.
He gave me an unsure frown. “They have a son who---”
“Father!” I yelled.
He shrugged. “I just wanted you to have that option.
You will have a child to carry on the line. I don’t care who you marry as long
as the person is in the Corsicot family and you do it by your next birthday.”
I had always been useful to my father as a form of
currency; many families of Mokii wanted their daughters married to the king’s
son. Luckily for me, my father’s greed drove him to hold off, waiting for the
best deal, until it was almost too late. On my next birthday, he could no
longer marry me to anyone against my will. Unfortunately, he was getting
desperate.
“I will not. I think I’m coming down with the
six-month plague.”
“Then you will be wed in your bedchambers.”
“They’re a mess, too shameful to bring a woman into.”
“I will send the servants immediately.”
“I think I’m infertile.”
“I will enlist a sperm donor; no one will know.”
“I hate children.”
“You need never see the child.” He frowned. “You
adore children. This matter is settled. You will be married before your
birthday to the Corsicot daughter and I will accept no excuses. I do not
authorize any sickness or disasters. Now, return to your rooms.”
“As you wish. Will you teach me anything tonight?”
“No, practice your control over your elemental magic.
We will use the practice arena tomorrow and you had better be able to control
your fire or the servants will get burned,” he threatened.
Yes, I had a problem with my fire control but the
problem was my father. When alone, I could master fire like nothing else, but
around people, and particularly my father, things went wrong.
I had always been scrawny, no matter how much
training I had or courses they put me through. It never helped me to stand up
to my tall father, and none of the servants stood up to him for me. To
everyone’s shock, including my own, I grew in the last two years. I was no
longer small for my age and I had a pretty fair build for someone who only ever
fought on the practice field. Still, years of conditioning made it difficult
for me to deny my father.
I left the room as quickly as possible, stopping by
the library instead of my room. “Jedes,” I whispered when I spotted the young
woman sitting in a big chair. About a head shorter than me, Jedes was a meek,
soft-faced girl with red-blond hair and light green eyes, who weighed less than
the stack of books she always carried around. While only a few days younger
than me, she was just now starting to look like a woman.
Her parents were servants of my father’s before they
decided to move to Banjii. However, they thought having a girl and no boy would
give them less of a standing, so they left their newborn here to be raised by
other servants. This worked out for the best, because Jedes was treated like a
princess by almost everyone.
Seeing that she was asleep, I took the book out of
her hand, careful to mark the page, and set it aside. I then pulled a blanket
off a nearby desk and wrapped it around her. After a small kiss on her lips, I
turned to leave.
“You’re not even going to say goodbye?” she asked
quietly.
I turned back. “I thought you needed sleep. I will
only be gone a few days.” I had long since given up trying to run away
permanently.
“You’re going to a forest of monsters and you plan to
be back soon?”
“I’ll be careful,” I said, sitting beside her in the
huge chair. She snuggled under my arm and leaned her head on my chest.
“You will find what you have always been looking for.
This place will be your past. The forest is a turning point, and that man, the
one who speaks the language of the demons, will help you. Remember that in the
dark, when you cannot see your path, you can still walk it. Your light is
inside you. Do not come back here.”
Jedes was a seer, like my mother had been, and her
predictions were becoming more clear with every year. “I could take you with
me. We could travel together.”
“No. Your path is with others. My destiny is yet to
come, but it will come for me here. I’ll miss you, though.” She leaned up and
met my lips in a gentle kiss; the first one she had ever initiated. “Leave
tonight. Don’t miss this ship. Tomorrow will be too late. Whatever you do,
never come back to this castle, especially not to confront your father.”
After saying goodbye to Jedes, I headed back to my
room to pack. Instead of the light three-night bag I had ready, I collected
everything important to me into several bags. It was an easy climb off my
terrace and easier still to leave the grounds. Perhaps my father should look
into his security better.
* * *
I had read about the forest from the few who survived
its darkness. The forest was exactly as I expected; tall and forbidding. The
small crowd of people blocking my path was not. Curious, I approached.
“Is everyone ready?” one man in hiking gear asked.
“Ready for what?” I inquired.
“This is a tour group,” he said, proudly. It came
across as pretentious, but only because his face was sunburned, and obviously
not for the first time.
“To the Aradlin forest? I didn’t think there was
one.”
“We are new. My parents were explorers their whole
lives and I have extensive collections of their writings as they explored this
forest.”
“Well, then, you must have many safety tips and
medical supplies. I was wondering what to do if I encounter a draxuni?” I
asked. Of course, I knew already to back away and be non-threatening. They only
attacked anything that was a threat to their pups or food.
“You climb.”
“A tree?” I frowned. Draxuni were fair climbers.
“Of course!” he smiled. “Draxuni cannot climb. You
can join the tour if you want, but we have to be very quiet.”
Actually, you had to be silent, but most people I
encountered didn’t understand the concept. We headed into the forest, me taking
up the rear, since I was not going to lead. Soon I was trying to find some
small alternate path because the group was making so much noise it was like
they were yelling “dinner time.” I could feel something watching me.
It wasn’t long before someone stepped on a porter
mushroom, which puffed out a toxic powder that caused hallucinations and heart
failure in high doses. One scream from a woman was all it took for the group to
scatter. I sighed and continued along the path. Unfortunately, whatever was
watching me didn’t go away. I tried to get a scent for it, but it must have
been downwind and there were many more powerful odors in the forest.
The walk was nice. I walked slowly enough to be both
silent and to avoid the forest’s vicious traps, while also seeing the beauty of
it. The sounds and smells… it was such an incredible place. Suddenly, an
explosion in the distance broke the peace. Someone had shot off a gun. I knew
this would attract hungry creatures, so I took off fast in the opposite
direction. One wrong step had me tumbling down a hill. When I came to a stop, I
laid still while I got my bearings. Screaming tourists could be heard in the
distance. I was just about to sit up when I heard a little yip and something
pounced on my chest.
Oh, no
. I raised my head in time to see a
draxuni pup try to stick his tongue in my nose. I reached up to push him off me
and he latched onto my thumb, not hard enough to break my skin, but still a
little painful. I had a split second warning growl before another pup tumbled
over my shoulder and into the first pup. They joined into a rolling, snarling ball
of fluff. As cute as they were, I was terrified; a draxuni pup is much more
frightening than an adult. A draxuni will hunt and guard his territory alone,
but a pup is never alone. Where there were pups, there were at least six adults
on high alert.
I sat up and scanned my surroundings. Two more pups
decided I was a playmate and one jumped in my lap to try his hardest to stick
his tongue in my mouth. I couldn’t help but laugh until the parents slowly
crept out of the shadows. I was surrounded by four, but they were not
advancing. I knew from my studies that half the attack pack stayed hidden,
meaning there were eight in total in the immediate area. I could hear the one
behind me approach, but the pups continued to play. He started sniffing my head
and neck. I couldn’t have been more shocked when he nudged my head and they all
relaxed. He turned away.
No creature is allowed around draxuni pups, and yet
this pack not only let me live, they didn’t even chase me out. They all turned,
guarding against outside forces. After my nausea settled, I stood to leave, but
as I started to pass through the protected circle, the closest draxuni batted
me back with his huge paw.
“What did you do that for?” I asked, getting back up.
Trying again, I was swatted again, but the draxuni was being careful not to
claw me. I tried to get out the opposite side but another blocked my path. “I’m
not a puppy, let me through!” I demanded. They ignored me.
After several more attempts, I sat down in defeat and
was immediately trampled by pups. Having been warned against returning home,
being the adopted pup in a draxuni pack was certainly not the worst fate I
could have, but it was not the one I wanted.