“There will be others,” Spear stated confidently.
“Other slayers that give up their blood willingly?” I shook my head at the thought.
“Who said it has to be given willingly?” Spear countered.
“What are you saying, Spear?” Ash’s arm tightened around me.
“That’s not who you are,” I said. “The dragons have always been peaceful. This needs to end for good. Peace needs to reign on both sides. We need to educate both sides. It’s going to take a lot of work, but we can do it. Together.”
“She has a point, Spear,” interjected Ash. “This is what I’ve been saying all along. The people of Dronios are not going to listen to us, but they might listen to her. Without Julianna, we have nothing.”
“If she does what she says she will.”
The time for words was over. Now was the time for action. I lunged forward and took my mother’s sword from Spear. Before he had the chance to stop me, I ran the blade down the palm of my hand. The cut was small, but it was enough. A burst of flame shot out of the end of the sword, sending us all flying backward. The flames swirled into the air, taking on the appearance of a dragon completely made of flames. It spread its wings and flew into the sky. At the very top of the cliff, the flames rearranged themselves and turned into a howling tornado of bright orange fire. Then it disappeared over the top of the cliff.
I picked myself up from the floor where I’d fallen from the intensity of the blast and dusted myself off. One look at Spear’s face was enough to tell me that he hadn’t expected it to work. His mouth formed a perfect O and he was filthy with dirt from falling to the ground.
Silence rained down on us. I looked over to the others. They might not have seen how it happened, but there was no missing the escaped soul of the dragon. The gaze of the people lowered until a hundred eyes were on me.
“That’s right!” I shouted loud enough for them all to hear. “You saw a dragon being freed. I used my own blood.” I held aloft my hand to show them the cut I’d made with the sword.
“I’ve got an apology to make to you all. My father knew all along you were shifters. He’s not the only one. There are others. I’ve never been so angry in my whole life, but this must stop. I’m going to stand with you if you’ll let me, and fight this abomination. I’m going to save them all. We are going to save them all. I will not rest until every single dragon is freed.”
A couple people began to clap. Then another, then another, until the air was filled with the sound of applause.
“It’s not going to be easy,” I said when the clapping died down. “What you just saw was the soul of one of your people. That soul is now heading back to the body it came from. That person is going to wake up scared and confused. They’re going to be so weak that it will be difficult for them to escape. Fiere flew out from the prison, but I think we can assume that now the elders of Dronios know that we are freeing dragons, they will lock the bodies up more securely and make it impossible to just fly out. The good news is, there are a lot more of us than there are of them, and when the rest of the people in my village know the truth, there will be even more people on our side. Not everyone will believe us and of those that do, some may choose to fight with the elders. It’s up to us to convince as many as possible to fight for what is fair and what is right. We need to go back to the village as soon as possible, before they have time to regroup and tell more lies. We need to find where the bodies of the other dragons are kept and free them.”
“That could take days,” shouted someone.
“Actually, that’s going to be the easy part. We have three more swords with dragons trapped inside. You saw yourselves that the souls take the form of fire when outside the body. All we need to do it set one free and be ready to follow it. It will lead us back to the prison. You guys can fly so it should be easy. More than one dragon should go because, after last night, it will be heavily guarded. The biggest problem we face is getting the swords. Look at how many of you were injured and we only got four of them. We need to come up with a better plan.”
I looked to where Spear was just pulling himself up from the ground.
“I’m going to be working closely with Spear. Today we will come up with a better plan and this time, I’m going to be more involved.” I emphasized the “this time.” “Tonight, we go down to the village again and get the swords back. It’s going to take more of you than before. I know many of you are not hunters or fighters, but the ten that went there last night wasn’t enough. Everyone over eighteen and fit needs to go. We need to swamp them so there is no point in fighting. This has got to end tonight!”
I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned, expecting to see Ash, but it was Spear. He had a look of grim determination on his face.
“I admit to being wary of Julianna since she first set foot in the village. Why would a slayer help us? But now I see the truth. It takes a great deal of strength and courage to sacrifice yourself for someone else, but it takes a whole lot more courage to stand up to your family. I need those of you who were out last night to rest. The rest of you, be prepared to save our ancestors. We’re going in tonight! Who is with us?”
Some of the dragons cheered. Some, like Edeline, looked stunned. But they all raised their hands.
My hand instinctively found the hilt of my sword, like a moth to a flame. The sword that started it all. How quickly my life had changed. Just a few days ago I held this sword with the promise of slaying my first dragon, and today I held it as a promise to save the dragons.
The goblin-made gold held strong as my fingers wrapped around the intricate detail of the handle. With a clean whoosh, I unsheathed my sword and held it out in front of me. The rising sun glinted off the blade as the cheers of the dragons met my ears once again.
Tonight, I would make right all the wrong my ancestors caused. Tonight, I would stand with the dragons and bring their families home.
Warrior
Chapter One
The early morning sun bathed the fields in a warm glow, painting the scenery in warm hues of pink and orange. In any other situation, I would have been happy to sit out in the fields, aimlessly watching the day go by. But today was no ordinary day and the beautiful view of summer fields in front of me was only part of the vista, for in front of them were hundreds of dragons. Dragon shifters to be precise. Each milling around, absorbed in their own task. Some were healing the battle wounded, some were sharpening swords and one was silently wrapping up my arm in a bandage where I’d purposely cut it just ten minutes previously. That one was Ash, the dragon shifter who’d been by my side right from the start of all of this mess we were currently in. I’d had to cut my arm so my blood could free a dragon from a sword. My blood, it seemed, was the key to their freedom. I looked down to the ground beside me. Three more swords lay waiting, the souls of dragons trapped inside. Next to them was the empty one. Just looking at it, you could tell it was now free of a dragon soul. It was black and tarnished and looked sad next to its gleaming brothers.
“No,” said Ash firmly. It was the first word he’d said in the last twenty minutes.
“No what?” I asked.
“I saw what you were looking at. They can wait. You are exhausted. You need your blood more than they do at the moment.”
He was right. I was exhausted. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a good night’s sleep. It certainly wasn’t last night as I’d been down in Dronias, the Slayer village and my former home, fighting to get these swords. I yawned as if proving his point.
“I was just looking at them,” I said, trying to suppress another yawn.
“Hmmm,” he replied, obviously not believing me. “You need to sleep. I’m taking you home for some rest.”
“No!” I said, standing up. The end of the bandage he’d not quite fastened hung loose and the whole thing began to unravel. “Spear is planning another attack on my village and he needs me there!”
Yesterday, he didn’t want me to have anything to do with
going into Dronias, but after last night, he conceded that I was on the dragon’s side. Without me helping to plan, it could all go terribly wrong, just as it had done already.
“Will you sit still?” He pulled me back into a sitting position so that he could once again tighten my bandage. “I’ve spoken to Spear. He agrees that everyone who was out fighting last night should take the morning to sleep. There is no point in us all going down there again when we are too tired to fight. We are to meet him after lunch at his house.”
“Oh.” I could feel my heavy eyes begin to close. Spending the morning in bed might have seemed wasteful but the thought of it was very welcome.
I was so sleepy I didn’t notice Ash had finished wrapping my arm, nor did I notice him carrying me to his house and laying me on my bed. He must have, though, because four hours later I woke up there with his arm wrapped around me. I turned my head to look at him. He was beautiful in sleep. Okay, he was beautiful awake, but somehow, in sleep, he looked serene, calm, as if all the worry and stress he’d been carrying around for the past few weeks was gone. He was breathing heavily. Not quite snoring, but there was a light grumble in the back of his throat. Outside the window, I could hear the sounds of people, still busy doing whatever it was they had to do, and I could smell meat of some kind roasting on the big, open fire they had. My mouth watered, but looking at Ash overcame any sense of hunger. I ignored the rumble in my belly and just looked at him. I wanted to kiss him so badly, but I didn’t want to wake him. I settled for kissing his lips delicately, but despite my light touch, his eyes opened. His face cracked into a huge grin.
“Morning.” He whispered through his grin.
“Morning? I think we are past that. I can smell lunch.”
“What is it?” He gave a tentative sniff. “Mmm. Barbecue.”
“Shall we go get some?”
“I’d rather stay here with you.” He put his other arm around me and pulled me closer. My head nuzzled his shoulder.
“Me too, but we have to eat. You have to keep your strength up if you want to shift into a dragon, and I need to eat red meat if I’m going to be using my blood to free the other dragon souls.”
“You’re right. You get up first,” Ash said playfully.
His body heat was calming, and I felt warm and safe up against him, my head on his chest. I didn’t want to move.
“No, you first!” There was no way I was going to be able to get up with him still keeping the bed warm.
“I would, but there is a gorgeous, red-haired woman currently laying on me. I’m afraid I’m pinned down and can’t move.”
“I’m hardly laying all over you. Just my head!” I grinned.
“And your arm.”
“Okay, and my arm,” I conceded.
It took another ten minutes for us to untangle ourselves and get up the motivation to leave the bed. It helped that Ash’s little sister, Lucy, knocked on my door to tell me that lunch was ready.
The meat had already been served and placed on plates by the time we got down to the fire pit. Most of the others were already tucking into their food with relish. As well as the meat, which, judging by the charred carcass still smoldering on the fire, was beef, we also had fresh bread and a heap of fresh vegetables.
For the first time since being in Frokontas, I felt accepted. Some had accepted me from the start, but it took me drawing my own blood this morning for some of them to truly believe in me. The atmosphere was strange. It was one of both happiness and sadness. Happiness that we had found some swords, and sadness that there were so many yet to recover and many of the dragon souls were still trapped.
“I don’t see Spear,” I whispered to Ash.
“He’ll be eating up at his home.”
In the twenty minutes it took me to eat the meal, I had at least ten people come up and talk to me and every one of them was positive. Mostly they wanted to thank me for helping them. Even the ones who had previously shunned me were offering me more food. If it wasn’t for the impending fight tonight, I could almost feel happy.
“What’s it like being a great warrior?” asked Lucy after coming to sit beside me.
“I’m not a great warrior. Spear is a great warrior. Why don’t you ask him when you see him?”
She wrinkled up her nose. “Spear is a boy. I don’t want to be like him when I grow up. I want to be like you.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her.
“If I was such a great warrior, your brother would have his soul trapped in my sword now and I wouldn’t be sitting here with you having this conversation. I’m actually a pretty terrible warrior. I just have a cool sword. You know, there is a great female warrior. Her name is Morganna. She is a Slayer like me.”
“She kills dragons?” Lucy looked at me wide-eyed.
“No. She kills men. There is not one man that has gone up against her and survived. For a long time, I wanted to be like her. Her skill with a sword is legendary.”
“But now you don’t?”
“No. Now I have no desire to kill anyone or anything. Up until I came here, I thought I was a dragon Slayer, but being here has taught me that you can’t just go around killing people or creatures without knowing who or what they really are. You’ve got to remember, I didn’t know you were people, too. I thought you were just dragons.”
“Just dragons?” teased Ash, eavesdropping into the conversation.
“You know what I mean,” I said with a shrug.
“But I want a sword and to be like Morganna!” replied Lucy.
“I think you’ll make a great hunter one day as long as you only kill for food and not out of anger or tradition.”
“You think so?” Lucy clapped her hands together in excitement before running off to speak to her father.
“You’ve made her day,” said Ash, finishing the last of his food.
“I just don’t want her growing up thinking it’s okay to kill like I did.”
“She won’t. She’s just a little kid with a new hero. Come on. I think it’s about time we headed to Spear’s. He’ll be waiting for us.”
Spear’s house was a twenty-minute walk along a dirt path with fields of crops at each side. We skirted around the main part of the village until we saw his house in the distance. It was huge and white and looked stunning in contrast to the golden fields surrounding it.
“Ah, you’re here. Wonderful. The others just arrived.” Spear answered the door himself. Last time it had been his maid that had answered. “Would you like tea? Coffee?”
“Coffee would be lovely, thanks,” I replied and Ash agreed.
Spear clicked his fingers and the maid I’d seen last time I was at the house appeared. “We are all here now. Can you bring the coffee and tea into the parlor, please? Enough for ten people each.”
She nodded her head and left through the same door she’d come through.
We followed Spear from the large entrance hall into the parlor where the others were seated. I’d been in this room before. The last time, I’d been asked to leave. It wasn’t going to happen again.
I found a spare seat and Ash sat beside me. There were about twenty people in the room including Ash and me. Most of them had been with us in Dronias last night, but there were a few newbies too.
“Last night was a disaster, as I’m sure you’ll all agree. I take full responsibility. Tonight will be different. Most of us here know what the village looks like now. We know where the houses are and hopefully, this map we looked at yesterday will make more sense to you.”
He pulled out the crude map I’d drawn for him the day before.
“Out of thirty-three swords, we managed to retrieve four. It wasn’t a good start, but at least we can cross those off the map. Julianna, you know better than the rest of us. Can you do it please?”
As I’d already marked the houses with swords using crosses, I took a red pen and scribbled over the ones I knew we had retrieved. I’d not seen exactly who all the swords were taken from, but I recognized the
m easily enough, so being able to place them wasn’t too difficult.
“This is my house.” I began, pointing to the map. “You’d have seen it as a burnt-out mess. There are no swords there, but there are two in the barn behind. One belongs to my brother, Jasper. It is empty now and therefore worthless to us. It was the sword that held Fiere.
“There is another sword there, but my father will not release it easily and let me warn you all, he is an excellent Slayer. The best in the village. His sword holds a lot of souls, which makes it extremely strong. The Goblin magic imbued in it gets stronger with every soul, and he has taken many. Of all the swords in the village, I suspect this will be the most difficult to get. He will be on guard, too. The whole village will. They know that we were there last night and they know we are after swords. I’m going to say what I said before. I don’t want anyone getting killed or hurt, but I think it’s inevitable that we will have to be ready to fight. We also have to free the dragons from the three swords we have, and one person has to be in charge of following that soul until we find where the soulless dragons are being held.”
“You should be that person,” interrupted Spear.
“Why?”
“Because of all of us here, you have more at stake. We can fight for the swords, but I wouldn’t want you to be in a position where you have to fight your own family or a friend.”
I thought about it for a second and agreed. I couldn’t imagine having to have a sword fight with anyone I knew and loved.
“Okay, Ash will fly me down to the village just after I free the dragons from the swords. We’ll set off about ten minutes after the rest of you so that we can follow the souls without distraction. Hopefully, the Slayers will be too busy with you to notice us, too.”
Dragon Tamer Page 16
