Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  After long moments, Dragon sighed. “I promise always to spare Rivenbourne.”

  Matteo leaned into Dragon’s side, his heart filled to busting. He had made the dragon see reason and he had avoided being eaten. There was just one more thing …

  “Dragon?”

  “Yes, Matteo?” The dragon’s voice sounded more like a snore that time.

  “The people of Rivenbourne are starving.” Matteo pressed his hands together, the way he’d seen Cook do when she prayed. “They are my people.”

  Dragon’s eye popped open. “There’s a drought in the valley.” He said it as though it made perfect sense and nothing to do with him.

  “You have rainberries here, and there is other food closer to the valley.”

  “Your kind tries to kill my kind.”

  “Yes, but you could stay in the cave, and I would protect you.”

  “From grown men?”

  “I protected grown men from you.” He lifted his eyes, stepping forward. He laid his hands on the dragon’s chin. “I think they will listen.”

  “Men are not reliable…”

  “Then only the women will come. If you stay in the cave, they can forage farther down the hill. We can test them. We can warn them that they will be eaten if they approach your lair. Rainberries are Mary’s favorite. If I do nothing, she will starve, and I don’t want Mary to starve. Who would take care of Cook… or… Daisy?” The words tumbled out of Matteo in a torrent.

  Silence stretched between then. In the trees beyond, crickets and frogs sang the last mating songs of the season. “For you, Matteo, I will allow it.”

  Together

  Rivenbourne Towneship

  Dragon touched down beside the two corrals, in view of the lookouts. He leaned to the side, and Matteo slid off his back. The boy lifted his hands and approached the walled city. Men ran one side and then the other, stopping at equidistant spots along the perimeter.

  Archers.

  They nocked their arrows and raised them, the tips trained on the beast. Dragon was a threat. It was the only way they saw him. He didn’t want to leave Matteo to their mercy, so he held still, scarcely moving at all. He was diminished to about the size of two horses. A bevy of arrows would cause more damage than his magic could heal.

  On the wall, someone screamed, “Matteo.”

  “Hello, Mary,” Matteo called back. He waved at a girl barely tall enough to see over the rampart. “How’s Daisy?”

  “Open the gate. Open the gate.” Mary didn’t even stop moving. “He said they would come. He said they would come.” She disappeared down into the city.

  “Did the mayor come back?” Matteo yelled at the wall. Dragon couldn’t tell who he was asking, or even if he asked a specific anyone.

  The gates opened and a crowd poured out. Mary ran ahead of them all, her arms outstretched. “The mayor came and told us everything. He even brought back the cows.”

  The archers still did not lower their weapons, and the dragon considered the distance between the offering pens and the tree line. If he could disappear into the forest, even with the foliage mostly gone, he could hide and fly back toward his lair.

  Matteo raised his hands and the throng quieted. “Dragon has rainberry bushes near his home. Coneys abound, and he has given us permission to fish his stream.”

  The horde did not respond.

  Not even the bugs or birds called.

  “Dragon has been kind to me,” Matteo called. “He has promised to be kind to Rivenbourne in exchange for peace between us.”

  The silence went on.

  Until another child took a step forward.

  Mary.

  Despite the chill, Dragon could see the sweat on her upper lip. She pressed trembling hands together. When she opened them, she hesitated, and the dragon took a step backward, expecting the movement to break the archers’ restraint.

  Instead, her face broke in a smile, and she clapped.

  And everyone joined her.

  The dragon flinched when Matteo waved his hand toward him, but the spear-tips did not lodge in his side. Dragon tilted his head. It was an oddity — a town led by a child, a boy not old enough to have whiskers. It seemed as if Matteo had his own magic, of a kind Dragon did not understand.

  Once the applause died down, a man approached, his chest puffed out. “Matteo,” he said. “Tell us how to find this bounty you’ve brought us.”

  The two made plans and re-worked them until, finally, they were shaking hands.

  “You should stay here, Matteo,” Dragon said at the end. Matteo belonged there… with his own kind.

  Matteo faced Rivenbourne and didn’t move for long moments. “I think I would like that.”

  Dragon turned away, his head drooping. Loneliness hurt most when preceded by companionship. The brave boy had bound him by oaths and now abandoned him, much as the man had long ago, though, not for the same reason.

  Dragon passed the corrals, and the noisy crowd filtered back into Rivenbourne.

  Soft footsteps followed him, and a small hand stroked his scaled side. “Someday, Dragon,” Matteo added. “But today I would rather keep my purpose and come with you.”

  Dragon looked over his shoulder at the city Matteo had worked so hard to save.

  On the top of the rampart, the she-mage watched them.

  “It took many years, she-mage, but you kept your vow.”

  She raised a gnarled hand in salute. “Now I will return to the wind. My vow is fulfilled.” Her form crumbled, and a burst of warm wind came from the south, carrying her essence home.

  Dragon turned to his new Dragon-friend, thankful for the warmth of companionship… for as long as it lasted.

  Ghosts walk the streets of Rivenbourne and long dead friends return.

  With Dragon’s help, Matteo has grown into a benevolent leader of men. Yet, as Matteo’s thoughts turn toward home and family, his interest in Mary, the milkmaid, returns.

  As Matteo is about to propose, the she-mage descends upon Rivenbourne, demanding tribute from the city and fealty from Dragon.

  Something is terribly wrong…

  An evil grows in the shadows, seeding doubt and rumors and discord among the citizens. It will take all the skills and strengths Dragon and Matteo possess to overcome the invisible and malevolent enemy.

  PreOrder Matteo’s Beast now.

  About the Author

  Bokerah Brumley lives on ten permaculture acres, complete with sheep, goats, peacocks, turkeys, geese, guineas, ducks, chickens, five home-educated children, and one husband. She serves as the president of the Cisco Writers Club and moonlights as an acquisitions editor for The Crossover Alliance.

  For more information and a complete list of published works, please visit:

  www.bokerah.com

  Chasing the Dragon

  Jocelyn Dex

  Chasing the Dragon © 2020 Jocelyn Dex

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Chapter 1

  Phlox elbowed the snoring monstrosity next to her. His snores were the worst. Not only were they loud, they were also dangerous. If he had a vivid dream, sparks might fly from his big snout and singe her hair or worse. It wouldn’t have been the first time.


  Rubrum grunted, shifted positions, and clumsily draped a heavy wing atop her. She struggled against the suffocating wing-blanket but couldn’t budge it.

  “Dammit, Rubrum,” she said. Her words were muffled and foreign-sounding under the weight of the wing. “Suffocating under here.”

  She gasped in a breath as her wing-blanket suddenly disappeared. She rubbed at her face and glared up and into his half-lidded, reddish-orange eyes.

  He huffed at her, little puffs of smoke exiting his nostrils and curling upward around his beautiful, red-scaled face.

  “Don’t huff at me,” she said with mock severity. “You’re going to kill me one of these days.”

  He rolled his eyes at her dramatics. Yes, dragons rolled their eyes, and this one did it often, mostly at her.

  Quiet. Tired. He sent the words to her telepathically.

  She was tired too. They’d stayed up late last night. Rubrum had taken her flying high in the night skies—the exhilaration that was a mix of fear and fascination really wore a girl out. Then, she’d kept him company while he’d spent time with his hoarded treasures that were secreted away in the depths of their cave. He sometimes spent hours in there rearranging or simply looking at and touching his goodies. She didn’t exactly understand his absolute fascination with gold and gems, but she appreciated his dedication to it and that it was simply an ingrained dragon trait.

  Phlox was rarely happier or more content than when she was in Otherworld with her rare, red dragon friend, but she enjoyed the contrast of the world of Humankind too. With her lacking magical ability, she often felt as though she belonged there with the humans more than in she did in Otherworld with the plethora of magical beings.

  “I’m hungry,” she said.

  Rubrum yawned long and loud, and she thought he’d taken the not-so-subtle hint and was going to get her something to eat, but he laid his big head down and closed his eyes again.

  She laughed and poked him in the chest. “Hey. It’s your turn.”

  He rolled onto his back, stretched his thick legs into the air, and then stood and stretched his wings as much as he could inside the boundary of the cave walls.

  It was their cave. They’d claimed it years ago, cleared the rubble, and made it homey, comfy, theirs. It was at the base of the mountain cave that they’d met, so it’d seemed as good a place as any for two misfit orphans, and it was conveniently close to a portal to the world of Humankind.

  Food. He communicated the word to her as he tromped to the cave opening, stretched out his shimmering red wings, and hopped off the ledge of the mountain.

  She lay there a few more minutes and then padded down a passage to the crystal clear pool of water they’d both been pleased to find during cave renovations. She scooped up some water and splashed her face with it, the chill of it a definite eye-opening wake-up.

  “Brrr,” she mumbled to herself as she stepped to the natural nooks in the rocky wall where she stored washcloths, towels, toothpaste, and other amenities.

  The thwoosh-wap of his wings through the air alerted her to his return. The floor of the cave shook from shock waves as he landed. Hard. She was pretty sure he did that on purpose in case she’d dozed off again. Turd.

  When she met him back in the main area of the cave, he dropped a bounty of mushrooms, nuts, and fruits at her feet. In Otherworld, everything was available all year around. There were no seasons as they existed in the world of Humankind.

  “You know,” she said as she sat. “We have to get back soon.”

  He nibbled at a cherry and spit the pit at her as a show of protest.

  “Hey!” She slapped the pit off her shoulder.

  He grinned his fangy-toothy grin, and a guttural rumble that was his laughter escaped him.

  “It’s only for two nights,” she said. “We need to visit with Goldi and make sure everything is okay at the house, and we can volunteer some time at the shelter. You can work your magic on the sick animals.”

  She smiled at that. Rubrum acted as though he didn’t like the furry beings, but he loved them, and he enjoyed healing them. And, she loved being a part of it. She might not contain the magic to do it herself, but at least she was involved and got to witness the miraculous recoveries.

  He rolled his eyes and tossed a whole cherry at her this time. She caught it in her mouth. He grinned at her again, and the word careful drifted to her.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “We’ll be careful.” He’d been on a careful-kick recently. The best she could get from him was that he sensed something, but he wasn’t sure what. Either that or he simply couldn’t communicate it to her well enough due to her lack of magical ability.

  The constraints on their communication were a bit of a pain at times, but it didn’t dampen their natural bond—a bond not of magic, just of two kindred souls who were lost until they found each other. They had more than words—an emotional, spiritual connection she’d never shared with another being. Not even with members of her family. And, Rubrum actually could speak, but it was more an insanely loud, ear-splitting roar-type of speech. He hadn’t mastered regular-volume speech and certainly not whispering. Since it was migraine-inducing, she’d requested he keep it to a minimum.

  Peculiari.

  “No.” She shook her head vehemently at the word. He was once again offering her his peculiari scale. Peculiari scales were dragon scales that contained a veritable bounty of the dragon’s magical essence. It could be called upon as a sort of backup when a dragon was exhausted or injured, and it could also be shared with other beings. “I’m already too weird,” she continued. “I don’t need a magical scale embedded in my body.”

  He growled a dragony-growl and huffed out some smoke, but he dropped the subject. Of course, not before his eyes flared an angry, fiery-red as they did when he was upset, but she wasn’t intimidated. He would never intentionally hurt her. Of that, she was certain.

  She held up a mushroom by its stem, and he blew a tiny fireball that cooked the cap to perfection in an instant. She waved it around to cool it down before popping it into her mouth.

  Her thoughts drifted as she savored the earthy flavor. She couldn’t deny the temptation of accepting his scale. From what she knew of them, they simply were not a gift to be turned down. But, she did. Rubrum only had one, and that was an oddity in itself. Neither of them knew what would happen to him if he gave it away. So, even though the benefits to her might be incredible, she wouldn’t risk it. She loved him too much. Besides, she was fine with her limited magical ability…even if her family hadn’t been.

  After finishing breakfast, she pulled out Rubrum’s carrying cage. He eyed it contemptuously but surprisingly didn’t bother arguing. He shrunk himself to Draco lizard size, walked in, and slammed the little door behind him.

  Lame.

  “I know,” she said. “But, it’s only until we get safely home.” She supposed the carrying cage wasn’t absolutely necessary, but she didn’t want the extra attention that walking with a large lizard perched on her shoulder would bring.

  Chapter 2

  Arden’s skin prickled as a girl appeared from seemingly nowhere. He’d tracked the dragon to this area on a few occasions, but had quickly lost its trail. Something was off here. He’d felt it before, but now, seeing the girl appear as if by magic, he knew it to be true. A kind of magic haze blocking even him, a powerful warlock. Well, not as powerful since the sickness had taken hold, but powerful nonetheless.

  What was she doing out there? Not that it was uncommon to see a lone being taking a stroll, but there was something not quite right about her.

  What was she? Even though he sensed the gift of magic in her, it was weak, and he couldn’t determine its origin. He tried to look away, to brush her off—her magic was too weak to be of any importance or help to him—but he felt a little thrill at the sight of her.

  Her wavy, wispy blonde hair glinted in the sunlight as it bounced against her dainty shoulders with the cadence of her steps. Her beautiful face–the
face of an angel really—made him think fairy or pixie or more likely a species of nymph.

  She carried a small cage-like contraption in one hand and a satchel in the other, and he definitely sensed the dragon’s magic now. Another little thrill shot through him as he had a legitimate reason to follow her, to get closer to her. Every being knew that dragons were attracted to beautiful young women for one reason or another.

  Maybe the dragon would swoop in to steal or eat her, and then, with the dragon distracted, Arden could finally attack and get the one thing he needed, the one thing he knew could cure his condition and make him even more powerful than he’d ever been. But, as much as that excited him, if he was being honest, he’d been instantly fascinated with the strange stirring she invoked deep inside him. Something he hadn’t felt in more years than he cared to count. Something he needn’t be feeling for the likes of her—especially if she was to be dragon-bait.

  Was she somehow connected to the dragon? A slave of some sort and magically bound to it? He could find no other explanation for the strong sense emanating from her. It surrounded her. Or did she possess more magic than he sensed and that’s why she walked so confidently even with a dragon close by?

  As she stepped through the portal to the realm of Humankind, all sense of the dragon disappeared with her. So, with no better plan, he followed. He’d never find a dragon in that realm, but the girl might be just the lead he’d been looking for.

  Chapter 3

  Phlox set Rubrum’s cage on the counter in the kitchen of the house she shared with Goldi. She’d bought it a year ago thanks to Rubrum and his gold collection. It was more convenient than renting hotel rooms during her stays in the realm of Humankind and it was safer for Rubrum.