Scaled Soul (Dragon Academy Book 1)

by Gage Lee

  And then the princess was gone, hurrying up the road between towers, her hair trailing behind her like a dark comet’s trail.

  Taun watched her go, then shook his head and went back to find the Broken Blades.

  The friends sat together in the common room for a bit longer, then took a bottle of wine up to their lodge. They passed the rest of the night remembering the year gone by, and dreaming of what was yet to come. Then they embraced one another and retired to their rooms. The year was over, and it was time for them to go their separate ways, at least for a few months.

  Deep in the night, Taun still had trouble sleeping. He was haunted by the memory of those he couldn't save, and the storm of destruction he'd unleashed on the eldwyr. Holding that power within him had shown him what it felt like to be a god. Now that it was gone, he found he missed it.

  And he worried what he'd do to feel like that again.

  Do not worry, Taun. I am here to make sure you don't run amok.

  "I think that's my line," the knight laughed quietly.

  It was.

  "So you don't plan on leaving?" Taun had wondered what it would be like to not have the soul scale. He knew he'd miss it.

  You are strong enough to survive our separation. And there are many dragons who want to be my host.

  "But?" Taun asked.

  Most of them are not as crazy as you. I prefer to be entertained.

  Taun laughed at that and let sleep take him.

  Chapter 28

  TAUN WOKE SHIVERING. A deep chill had settled into his bones and a freezing wind tugged at his hair. He blinked his eyes against the wind and had to raise his hand to shield them from the sun's light. He wasn't in his own bed.

  No, he was on the deck of a tombship.

  "What happened?" He asked the air and scrambled to his feet. He was still dressed in his bedclothes and had no shoes. The planks beneath his feet were icy cold.

  "Oh, you're up," Emissary Reth said with a dismissive smile. "There are warmer clothes for you in that chest there."

  "They're comfortable," Lira said when she peered around Reth. Like him, she was wrapped up in a heavy fur parka. She had heavy boots on her feet, and frost in her eyelashes.

  "Why did you bring us here?" Taun asked, brow furrowed. He shivered as he pawed through the chest's contents. He pulled out a pair of heavy pants and pulled those on, then shoved his feet into boots. "And how?"

  "First things last," Reth chuckled. "I'm an occultist. I ported you here. It's easy enough when you have a sample of hair or blood."

  The tombship was smaller than Auris's ride had been. It was a mere fifty feet long and only twenty wide, with a single mast. From where Taun stood, he saw all five of the dragons powering the pneuma engine and the helmsmen. There were no other crew that he could see.

  "How did you get my hair?" he asked, annoyed at Reth's presumption.

  "You were asleep when I arrived at Ruby Blade Keep," he said. "And your mother was quite accommodating. Lira's hair did cost me a few coppers, though."

  "But why?" Taun asked.

  Reth laughed. He motioned for Taun to join him at the edge of the foredeck. "The world is changing," the emissary mused. "This frigid plain we're flying over used to be hidden from mortals by the Godwall. That fell a few years ago. Now the eldwyr are poking their noses up from the muck. I heard a human was turning into a dragon. Strange times indeed."

  The knight looked down at the frosty wasteland below the tombship. Another tombgate had opened in the distance, but that seemed boring compared to the white expanse beneath it. The snow had blown into strange drifts that looked more like enormous serpents than piles of flakes. Hair yeti were down there, too, scrambling over the icy ground while glaring up at the ship casting its shadow over them.

  "What do you want?" Lira asked. She was by far the most suspicious of Taun's friends, but that didn't mean she was wrong. Reth had taken a human and a slave into the Celestial Academy. Now he'd collected them both.

  There had to be a reason for that.

  "Did you know the emperor personally authorized a cohort of dragon guard to protect the Ruby Blade Keep?" Reth asked, ignoring Lira's question. "And we're delivering a shipment of soul steal armor and arms. I hear some of it is your handiwork. Your parents will be so proud of you, Taun."

  "Answer her question," Taun said. He hated to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there was something strange about Reth. Something untrustworthy.

  "I'm taking you home as a gesture of good faith," the dragon replied. "I want you to enjoy some time away from the Academy. Tell your family of all the impressive things you did. Bask in the glory. You've earned it."

  "That's not an answer," Taun said.

  Reth sighed and looked out at the tombgate. "I want you both to think of me as a friend. A powerful, clever ally that you will definitely need in the future. And all I ask in return is one, tiny favor."

  Lira and Taun exchanged nervous glances. Reth caught their moment of connection and chuckled. "Don't worry," he said. "It won't be hard. But when the time comes..."

  He rubbed his hands together and a faraway glint shone from his eyes.

  "I want you to kill Auris Vash."

  Books, Mailing List, and Reviews

  IF YOU LOVED Scaled Soul and would like to stay in the loop about the latest book releases, promotional deals, and upcoming book giveaways be sure to subscribe to the Shadow Alley Press mailing list: Shadow Alley Press Mailing List. Sign up now and get a free copy of our bestselling anthology, Viridian Gate Online: Side Quests! Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. You can also connect with us on our Facebook Fan Page: Shadow Alley Press.

  You can find even more books and awesome recommendations over on our Facebook Group Page, Fantasy Nation! Home to the best Epic, Urban, and LitRPG Fantasy around!

  Word-of-mouth and book reviews are crazy helpful for the success of any writer—or, in our case, Publishing Company. If you really enjoyed reading about Taun and his crew, please consider leaving a short, honest review—just a couple of lines about your overall reading experience. You can click here to leave a review at Amazon, and thank you in advance: Scaled Soul.

  Looking for more awesome cultivation, and need it right this minute? Check out: Hollow Core, the first in the School of Swords and Serpents series. Or keep reading to take a sneak peek.

  JACE WARIN NEVER WANTED anything more than to attend the School of Swords and Serpents to escape the labor camps and restore his family's stained honor.

  But the determined young martial artist soon discovers the school he's always dreamed about is teeming with secret plots and sinister designs. To survive, he will have to master long-lost jinsei techniques, repair his wounded soul, and face down a most unexpected enemy: The Academy's ruthless headmaster and cunning professors.

  Hollow Core is the first book in the School of Swords and Serpents series, a tale of wuxia adventure, cultivation mastery, and lurking threats.

  “Wow, this book is crazy-good. If the Harry Potter series were somehow violently smashed together with the characters from Mortal Kombat, you might have something that comes close to the School of Swords and Serpents.” —James A. Hunter, Bestselling Author of Rogue Dungeon, Bibliomancer, and the LitRPG epic Viridian Gate Online

  The Champion

  THE APPEARANCE OF A full-fledged member of the Resplendent Suns in the arena had whipped the crowd into a frenzy. He was larger than life, a mountain of a young man with channels so filled with jinsei that his blond hair practically stood on end from the energy coursing through his flesh and bones. His white gi shone like a beacon against the ancient polished wood beneath his calloused feet, and the bold scrivenings that ran down each of his sleeves blazed with so much sacred light they seemed to have been poured from molten gold.

  I’d never seen an Empyreal before, but now I understood why the defender clans thought they were better than the rest of us.

  They were.

  But tha
t didn’t mean I couldn’t defeat one of them. And if I ever wanted to earn a place at the famed School of Swords and Serpents and heal my wounded core, I’d have to beat the man at the heart of the arena.

  The trip from the undercity had taken far longer than I’d anticipated, and by the time my mother and I had reached the arena, it was already packed to the rafters with rowdy spectators who’d overflowed their seats and formed a human traffic jam in the aisles between the bleachers. While it wasn’t the most honorable thing to do, I forced my way through the crowd and ignored their angry shouts and curses. These strangers could be angry at me, I didn’t care. My only chance for a brighter future was to reach the registrar before the challenger window closed.

  For a fatherless son from a disgraced family, that chance was too valuable for me to miss.

  “Watch where you’re going!” A fat man shouted at me as I brushed against his back on my way down the steps toward the arena’s floor.

  “I am!” Before he could shout another insult, I’d already pushed three rows deeper into the crowd.

  “You’re going to hurt someone.” My mother didn’t shout, but her sharp, crisp voice reached my ears with ease, as if we weren’t surrounded by thousands of howling fight fans. “Slow down. Move through the crowd, not against it.”

  “There isn’t time!” I’d begged my mother to please, please let me register early for the Five Dragons Challenge. Unfortunately, she’d refused to even consider letting me take the challenge until after she’d drilled me relentlessly on the defensive techniques that we’d already worked on for most of my life. We’d spent years preparing for this day, but when the time came to leave for the arena she still wasn’t satisfied with my progress. I’d had to threaten to leave without her before she’d agreed to come with me, and now we were almost out of time. “There’s only twenty minutes left.”

  I clutched the coinpurse under my shirt tight to my chest and pushed my way another row closer to the arena. We were still ten rows above the arena’s floor when another roar swept through the crowd. The challenger, a guy my age with a face prematurely lined from too much time spent in a labor camp and a whipcord thin body to match, had made his way into the ring. He was a good foot shorter than the Resplendent Sun and gave up at least thirty pounds to his opponent. Despite their size difference, the challenger exuded an aura of street-hardened confidence that I’d seen often in the undercity.

  The Empyreals kept the best food for their warriors. As the defenders of the mortal realms it was imperative that they be well-fed and rested to face the incursions of hungry spirits who tried to devour the Empyrean Flame that fueled the word. A lifetime of extra calories and better medical care made the clan members bigger than the rest of us, stronger, and gave them the time they needed to practice and perfect techniques that we laborers could only dream about.

  I knew why the laborer was confident, because he and I saw the world through the same eyes.

  Despite all the advantages the Resplendent Sun possessed, the challenger had spent most of his life fighting for anything he wanted or needed. The challenger didn’t see an oversized mountain of a man in front of him, he saw a soft Empyreal who’d never had to knock out a neighbor for a scrap of maggoty bread to keep himself from starving. The clans fought because it was their duty and their honor. We fought because our lives demanded it.

  “Honored guests!” The announcer unleashed the words in a jinsei-boosted shout that reached every ear in the arena. He must have put something other than simple volume behind the greeting, as a wave of calm rippled through the crowd. Rowdy voices lowered, and every eye focused on the black-robed speaker who stood between the two combatants. I recognized the man as Ben Oolou, a local politician who hailed from the Disciples of the Jade Flame clan. “Welcome to the Five Dragons Challenge! Our first contender is Hau-Lin Gray, who hails from the harvest camps outside our fair city.”

  Mr. Oolou paused, and the hometown crowd offered their contender a few feeble shouts of encouragement. Sadly, most of the spectators were from the overcity, and they did not really want any of the laborers to succeed. Every one of us who escaped the labor camps thanks to the challenge would damage the profits of those who watched us fight, and to them even a miniscule loss was too much to bear.

  “And here we have the School’s champion, Hank Eli, straight from the overcity of the Resplendent Suns. Give it up for Hank, who’ll face all of our contenders today.”

  The Empyreal initiate thrust both fists toward the sky, and the scrivenings on his sleeves crackled like living flames. He turned in a slow circle, letting every member of the crowd soak in his glory, and then stopped, facing his opponent. Hank’s aura flared up from his shoulders like fiery wings, and I marveled at the intensity of the jinsei that surrounded him.

  Hank bowed low to his opponent, eyes never leaving Hau-Lin. It would be dishonorable for the challenger to strike before the bout had officially begun, but the champion wasn’t taking any chances. Those of us who had no clans were already considered without honor, and a desperate man might hope to strike the champion down and succeed at the challenge even at the risk of his reputation.

  Hau-Lin, it turned out, was an honorable man. The challenger returned the champion’s bow so deeply his forehead almost bumped the arena’s wooden planks. He maintained this posture of deference for long seconds after the Resplendent Sun had straightened, then rose into a wide-legged stance with his arms raised like a boxer. It was an unorthodox combination of a traditional grounding stance to gather jinsei from the earth and a street fighter’s defense.

  “His training is poor,” my mother whispered. She took me by the elbow and guided me through the crowd to the next row. Where I’d stomped and shoved, she flowed through the crowd like water. “And his stance will not gather the power he needs to withstand the fury of the Resplendent Sun. Do not make the same mistake when your time comes.”

  Members of the clans had great experience accumulating and cultivating the jinsei, or life energy, that surrounded them. As children, they were trained to focus this mystical energy in their cores and used it to fuel their powerful techniques.

  Those of us outside the clans never received such advanced training. A few of us could still bend jinsei to our will for small things, and a handful of clanless prize fighters had even mastered some basic jinsei art techniques to give themselves an edge over their less-skilled opponents.

  But jinsei was tricky, and a master could turn a student’s own energy against him. If Hau-Lin relied on his life energy to defeat the Resplendent Sun, it would be like trying to defend himself from a forest fire with a matchstick.

  Personally, I had never learned a true stance, my fighting style was intended for children, and the only technique I’d mastered was a foundation breathing technique. I was so overmatched by the champion that he could kill me without breaking a sweat.

  Fortunately, I’d planned ahead. I still had a chance.

  The five dragons painted on the floor of the arena began to glow with vibrant colors. By the time my mother and I were five rows from the raised platform, the red and green dragons were already filled with brilliant light. When all five of the dragons were lit, the contender would be in for the fight of his life.

  Both combatants watched the dragons and focused their breathing into smooth and even cycles. Every breath they drew into their lungs brought jinsei with it, and every exhalation expelled impurities from their cores and strengthened their bodies for the battle ahead. Even at this distance, the expansion and contraction of their auras was plain to me, as was the fact that the ghostly light that surrounded Hank was many times brighter and more expansive than Hau-Lin’s.

  The crowd was thicker near the bottom of the rows of seats, and my mother and I had to force our way through ever-tightening knots of spectators who had no desire to give ground. My mother was a gentle woman, but I saw her hands jab into the sides of several people who wouldn’t let her pass. The blows, which seemed more like gentle taps than a
ny punch I’d ever thrown, had just banished a yelping group of college kids when a gasp rippled through the crowd.

  The last dragon had blazed to life, and the challenger and champion were surrounded by a circle of neon-bright spirits. The representations of the five sacred dragons who had formed the Empyreal clans were hungry for jinsei to be spilled, and they licked their chops with forked tongues as they prowled the edges of the fight.

  In the undercity, the first man to strike is often the only man to strike. The challenger’s experience in street fights had taught him that lesson well.

  With an explosive cry Hau-Lin thrust the jinsei from his core out into his legs. The burst of sacred energy pushed his muscles past their normal limits and hurled him toward the Resplendent Sun with astonishing speed and force. The instant the challenger landed in front of Hank, he squared his shoulders and unleashed a brutal uppercut.

  Hau-Lin put his entire body and every shred of jinsei he could muster into that blow. Serpents of crimson light exploded from his aura and reinforced his arm and fist with strands of sacred energy that sparked and twitched with supernatural life. It was a powerful, beautiful attack, and I couldn’t imagine how the champion could survive its impact.

  The Resplendent Sun didn’t try to block the attack or deflect its force. One moment his chin was a hairsbreadth from shattering violence, and the next he twisted his body away from the attack in a blur. The devastating strike that could so easily have shattered his skull instead passed by his chin with inches to spare.

  Hau-Lin could only watch in horror as his all-or-nothing assault whiffed through his opponent’s aura with a crackling hiss, like a splash of water dropped into a red-hot iron skillet. The serpents of light around his arm and fist faded to pale ribbons as the jinsei he’d expended in the attack dissipated into the air. The challenger was twisted so far out of position, I knew there was no way he could erect a defense in time to stop Hank’s counterattack.