Scaled Soul (Dragon Academy Book 1)

by Gage Lee

  Taun's core ascended again, its blue light shooting out of him in every direction. A sapphire dragonette appeared above him, its wings fanning his face with air heated from the mystic power they'd unleashed. And as it soared into the air, Taun felt another dragon sign manifesting. Wings of pneuma carried him up after the dragonette.

  Straight toward the sphere of pneuma, far above the tower.

  Taun caught the spirit creature just as it passed into the blazing orb of energy.

  "Now is your time, half-man, half-dragon," the creature said in a melodic voice that reminded Taun of ringing chimes. "The borrowed power will not last long, but it will see you through this challenge."

  "And then what?" Taun asked.

  "Who knows?" The dragonette laughed as it faded away. "You are the one who said he would not bow to fate."

  Taun threw his head back and laughed. All the power Axaranth's engine of destruction could muster flowed into him. The soul steel he'd bonded with appeared and burned away in waves of silver light as it protected him from the raw pneuma’s destructive force. But the knight pulled more of the bonded metal to him, replenishing his armor as quickly as it was destroyed.

  You are a madman.

  "Maybe," Taun laughed again. "But it worked."

  The knight soared away from the tower, pneuma streaming behind him like a comet's tail. His azure wings sliced through the air with a high-pitched scream as he streaked toward the eldwyr host. He reached the battle in seconds and hovered above the surviving mercenaries. The Frozen Axes had pulled back into a defensive circle, saving many of their lives, but they had still lost half their number. It wouldn't be long before the rest fell before the deadly power of the eldwyr assault.

  "Not if I have anything to say about it," Taun roared and dove toward the enemy.

  His wings rippled behind him as he dropped low over the heads of the eldwyr. He roared at the foul creatures, unleashing a blast of dragon's breath. It was fueled by the pneuma he'd taken from the tower, and it poured out of him in a blazing line. Where it touched the eldwyr, they blasted apart like lightning-struck trees. The smaller ones left behind nothing but ash, but the larger monsters showered the mercenaries with broken limbs and chunks of steaming meat.

  Finish them. You are running low on soul steel. If you are still bound to the power when that happens, nothing will save you.

  Taun circled the mercenaries, turning his head to direct the dragon's breath in a widening pattern. The world became a blur of screaming eldwyr and unearthly flame. The ashes drifted like snow as the eldwyr fell, and soon even the largest of them toppled to the ground. The soul steel Taun bonded with patched up the wounds he gathered before he even registered the pain, but evaporated almost as quickly. He was still a mortal connected to a power even Axaranth had feared to harness.

  Let it go.

  The knight dropped lower, his lungs heaving, his core aching like a torn muscle. He cut the connection to the tower, and his wings faded away. The last of the soul steel formed armor around his legs, bracing them for impact. Taun hit the ash-covered ground, hard, and the metal shattered. He tumbled across the ground, arms and legs splayed out like a thrown doll's.

  The stars wheeled overhead when he finally came to a stop. They were like nothing he'd ever seen, spots of dark light that stabbed down at the ashen plain. There was something strange up there, but Taun couldn't make sense of it. His thoughts unraveled, and the darkness took him.

  "THIS IS THE ONE," AURIS said. "The physickers say his body is fine. They worry that his soul is broken."

  Taun cracked an eye, expecting to find himself still lying in the ashen remains of the eldwyr.

  But there was no greasy dust here. No hard earth. He lay upon soft furs that smelled like sandalwood incense. His body should have felt battered and bruised, but he felt no aches and pains as he stirred. "Where am I?"

  Auris jumped like Taun had stuck him with a needle. "Now you wake up?"

  Taun tried to sit up, but the prince put a hand on his chest. "Why not just stay right there a bit longer? You gave us a scare."

  But Taun didn't want to lie down. He had to get to the Scaled Council to warn them. He shoved the prince's hands away and stood up from the bed where he'd been lying.

  "Uh, Taun," Auris said. "You should, I mean, you're, you know. Naked."

  Taun looked down to find that, other than the bandages that were wrapped around his chest, he was, indeed, naked. Voices murmured behind him. "Where am I?" he asked the prince.

  The golden dragon leaned down to whisper, "The Hall of the Scaled Council."

  The young knight did his best to hide his nakedness, with his hands and turned away from his friends. He was in a massive arched hallway populated by dragons of every size, shape, and color. At the hall's far end, an enormous golden dragon sat on an obsidian throne, his eyes burning with pneuma.

  Auris grabbed one of the furs from the litter Taun had been carried on and draped it around the knight's shoulders. "They told us you wouldn't wake up. I brought you here so my father could heal you, but we didn't expect you to walk around naked."

  You have nothing to be ashamed of. Let them see the one who saved their miserable empire.

  Silence hung heavy in the hall. All those dragons, some no bigger than the students, others so large they had entire sections of the seats to themselves, watched Taun with a mixture of amusement, curiosity, and embarrassment. Taun knew he should have been mortified. And he would have been, but Axaranth was right. He'd saved all of these creatures from an invasion none of them had seen coming. He was not the one who had something to be ashamed of.

  "Taun Koth'tok of the Ruby Blade Keep," the golden dragon called from his throne. "Please come before me. I wish to hear your tale."

  The knight strode forward with his head held high. The weight of the dragons' attention weighed on his shoulders, but he wouldn't let them see it. He was a dragon knight, and they were all about to learn what that meant. It took him ten minutes to walk the length of the hall, and he didn't waver the entire trip.

  "Thank you for seeing me," Taun said to the massive gold dragon. "I've been hoping for this moment all year."

  The dragon stirred on his throne. Though the creature was enormous, it had a mixture of humanoid and dragon features that made Taun feel both more at ease and very, very nervous. The dragon could easily snuff out his life without a thought. The creature's lips pulled back from its teeth, revealing a snout filled with daggers.

  "My son tells me you saved his life," the dragon said. No, Taun realized, the dragon emperor.

  Taun's heart thudded, but even when fear took root, he still had a problem with authority figures. "Someone had to do it."

  A hush fell over the hall. The dragon emperor lowered his head to look more closely at Taun. His enormous talons drummed on the arms of his throne, and he took in a deep breath.

  A little more respect was called for. At least their son can warn them of the eldwyr. It has been very nice knowing you.

  Taun waited for the dragon's breath to transform him into a pile of ashes. Still, he held his head high and waited for the end to come. He would not show weakness or fear.

  The emperor's laughter rocked Taun back on his heels. The thunderous roar of the audience deafened him, and he wondered if his ears would ever stop ringing.

  "Well said, dragon knight," the emperor said. "Now, tell us everything."

  TAUN FELT LIKE HE'D run a hundred miles by the time his audience with the Scaled Council had ended. He'd answered what seemed like a thousand questions, one after another, and when he didn't know the answers, Axaranth chimed in with the kind of ancient knowledge that made even the emperor of dragons raise his eyebrows in surprise and respect. The young knight understood why the dragon emperor was so cautious. He'd look like an idiot if he jumped to follow the orders of a human teenager without sufficient evidence. But after hours of incessant badgering, the young knight had finally lost his patience and demanded a rest. He missed his frien
ds, and he still had no real idea of what had happened to him after he and Axaranth had laid waste to an army of eldwyr. He deserved a break.

  His request had been granted easier than Taun had expected, and the Council dismissed him to return to his lodge with the promise that he would answer their summons the next day, if they felt they needed even more answers. Taun agreed, grudgingly, and was transported from the hall back to his campus once the dragons had found suitable clothes for him. The tunic was a little fancier than he was used to, but Taun preferred that to wandering around the campus naked.

  You did well in there. We convinced those do-nothing blowhards that the danger was real. I am sure they will send reinforcements to your home to ward off the invasion. The world owes you a debt of gratitude.

  "We'll see," Taun said, still dubious that the Council would act on his warning. The dragons were notoriously slow to come to decisions, and some members had been very vocal about not wanting to spend their precious resources protecting the frontier when there'd been no uprisings of eldwyr in centuries. They also seemed quite sure that Taun had stopped the foul creatures from pressing in from the wyld. They were confident the danger was overblown.

  That was a worry for the next day, though. For the moment, Taun wanted to crawl into his bed and dream of calmer days. He paused outside the lodge tower, looking up at its glowing sides. It was strange how quickly he'd adapted to the world of dragons. After what happened out in the tombworld, all of this seemed so much smaller than it had when he'd first arrived months ago. As grand as it was, the Celestial Academy was a fly speck in the sea of the many worlds. There were so many enemies out there just waiting for a chance to strike back at the dragons and their followers.

  You become what you must. You have done yourself and your family proud, Taun. Worrying about how it has changed you serves no purpose.

  "Easy for you to say," Taun grumbled. "Humans aren't supposed to change like this."

  They're not supposed to use pneuma, either. You defy expectations.

  Taun shook his head, not sure what to say to that. The dragon was right, of course. He'd done the impossible, again and again. But the knight didn't feel that different, really. He'd always believed one day he would control pneuma. Now that he could, it just seemed like the natural course of events. With another shake of his head, Taun opened the tower's door and strode inside.

  "Here he is!" Kam shouted. Other voices cheered, and the Broken Blades lodge rushed to the door and grabbed Taun by the hands as spirits in blue and green flashed through the air around them.

  "Oh, no," Taun groaned. He did not want a surprise party.

  But his friends were not taking no for an answer. They dragged him back into the main room, where the rest of the tower's inhabitants had gathered. Tables loaded with all manner of food—fresh fruits and vegetables, rare cheeses, steaming roasts, platters of lobster tails, and so much more that Taun couldn't even take it all in—all waited to be devoured. Someone had even procured bottles of wine, and Kam grabbed a glass off a tray and pressed it into his friend's hands.

  "I know you're not a big fan of dragons," the occultist said quietly, "but a lot of people owe you an apology, and you're going to hear it from everyone here."

  Taun laughed at that and sipped at his wine. The knight wasn't a huge fan of the drink, but this glass was sweet and fruity, like a liquid dessert. The pleasant warmth that spread from his belly into his head was nice, too. He'd needed something to help him relax.

  True to his word, the occultist hauled Taun from one group of partiers to the next. Sutari and Lira followed along, chuckling to themselves as the occultist introduced the young knight to the dragons who lived in their lodge tower.

  "Hi, so glad you made it to our little shindig," Kam said to each group with a toothy grin. "This is my friend Taun, you know, Taun Koth'Tok? Right, right, he's the leader of our lodge. The Broken Blades? Winners of the Glory Chase? I think you had something you wanted to say to him?"

  The other dragons shuffled their feet nervously or stared at the floor or ceiling. Some of them scrubbed their hands together, as if trying to wash them clean, and others cleared their throats as if they'd just swallowed a bug. In the end, though, every dragon at the party ended their conversations with the same words.

  "Thank you, Taun Koth'Tok," they said, "for saving us from ourselves."

  Taun could only shake his head and accept their gratitude, though he wasn't sure how much of it was real and how much a result of arm-twisting by his friends. Kam was tight-lipped about why these dragons had such a change of heart, and Taun didn't feel like pressing him about it. It was nice to hear the sentiment from those who'd worked against him for so long.

  Little wins are worth their weight in gold.

  The party went on deep into the night. As the party wore down, and the wine loosened lips, Taun heard the rest of the tale from the tombworld from his friends. He'd collapsed near the Frozen Axes following the final battle. Auris flew his tombship back to the site, and they loaded up the survivors. Nearly three hundred mercenaries had perished, and those that survived swore up and down that they would never have made it out of there without Taun's daring attack.

  That had been two days ago. Taun had missed the last day of classes, the end of the Glory Chase, and the awards ceremony where his team got their due. He'd been under Auris's protection the whole time he was unconscious. Moglan had been moved to the same medical wing in the capital to recover alongside Taun.

  "Is he still there?" the knight asked.

  "Nah, I wasn't cut out for city life," Moglan answered as he strode up to the group of friends. He still favored his wounded side, but looked nearly good as new. "I brought something for you, Sutari."

  The shaman winked and handed her a phial filled with a glowing fluid the color of honey. "Is this what I think it is?" Sutari asked.

  "Do you think it's a cure for the crudlung? Because that's what it is," Moglan answered. "I would have been back yesterday, but I pestered the capital's physickers to whip this up for you."

  The silver warrior bowed her head. Her shoulders shook for a moment, and when she looked at her friends, there were tears in her eyes. She raised the flask and looked at it, an expression somewhere between awe and disgust on her face. "Ten years," she whispered in a hoarse voice. "That's how long I was sick. Because my parents couldn't afford a shaman who could make this potion."

  Lira moved to Sutari's side. She wrapped her hands around the warrior's shoulders and hugged her close. "Shhh," she said. "The past is dead. Drink the cure. You have many more years ahead of you than behind."

  "I'll drink to that," Kam said, his word slurred. He raised his wine glass to his friends. Sutari cracked the top off the potion and returned the gesture. "To the biggest losers on campus. Somehow we tricked them all into believing we won."

  They all laughed at that, even Lira. But she watched Taun over the rim of her glass, and he saw the glint of steel in her eyes. There was a warning there, and a promise.

  “It wasn’t a trick,” Karsi said as she joined them with a tray of drinks and small plates of food held out before her. “The Broken Blades deserved to win.”

  Lira raised an eyebrow at the sound of the princess’s voice. “Well, this is a change.”

  Karsi handled the tray of refreshments with surprising skill, keeping it perfectly balanced even as the Blades removed food and drinks. “What’s that?”

  “Being served by a princess,” Lira said with a frosty smile. “I could get used to it.”

  Taun tensed and watched his two friends anxiously. The last thing he wanted was to see them fight.

  “Maybe you’ll have your chance,” Karsi said with a devilish grin. “I’ve been serving Taun all year.”

  There was a moment of shocked silence as the friends glanced between the princess and the knight.

  “That’s not,” Taun spluttered. “She helped me in the workshop, that’s what she meant.”

  Moglan laughed and swept th
e princess up into a bear hug, knocking the empty serving tray to the floor. He held her until she began to wriggle, then carefully lowered her to the floor.

  “Thanks,” Karsi said, then gasped in a deep breath. “Thought you were going to crush me.”

  Moglan’s eyes sparkled as a wide smile split his face. “And thank you,” the shaman said, “for giving me some much needed rest.”

  The princess looked away from him, a scarlet blush settling into her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

  The big shaman’s hand landed on Karsi’s shoulder and gently squeezed. “It was not your fault. And I needed some time away from Taun. Carrying him this year was exhausting.”

  They all laughed at that, even Taun. Seeing Moglan absolve Karsi for what had happened to him instantly relieved the pressure that had built around the group. Even Lira’s smile lingered, as if she’d finally let go of her anger.

  “I should go,” Karsi said. “My parents are sending a carpet for me. They’ll be furious if I keep it waiting.”

  She only had eyes for Taun as she said her goodbyes to the others. The princess hesitated a moment when she came to the knight. Then she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the tower’s door. She stopped outside, her hair blowing in the early summer breeze, her eyes shining.

  “Next year,” she said, “things will be different.”

  “Yeah,” Taun agreed, “Auris won’t try to kill me.”

  They both chuckled at that, and Karsi reached out to cup Taun’s chin.

  “You’re not what any of us expected, Taun Koth’tok,” she murmured. “I wanted you to know that if you need anything, anything, just ask.”

  Taun couldn’t take his eyes off the princess. Her breath tickled his nose with every breath, its minty scent cool and fresh. The tension between them made it hard for him to breathe.

  “Next year,” Karsi said, and Taun realized they’d somehow gotten so close he felt her lips move against his.