Dragon Force: The Complete Series

by Lucia Ashta

  After the umph of the initial surprise of her weight against me, I was careful not to further indicate that she was too much for me, to in any way suggest she might be some kind of burden. “I’ll never leave you again. I’m so sorry.”

  She licked my cheek; it was the start of forgiveness, and even though Rosie was still visibly upset, and her body was beginning to shake, she hadn’t lost her trust in me. We could come back from this.

  As I had that thought, and relief began to take hold, I froze with Rosie still in my arms.

  In an instant all the charmers, including Crush, were at my side.

  “What is it?” I asked. “What’s that terrible sound?” But even before they answered, I knew. There was only one thing that could make them react the way they had. There was only one thing that would have these seasoned dragon charmers casting worried glances to the tree canopies and beyond.

  “Dragons are coming,” Dean said.

  “That’s what that sound is?” I asked. But of course it was. I had the habit of deflecting truths I didn’t want to accept by delaying their acceptance. I might not have ever heard these piercing sounds—so unlike the dragons’ usual ferocious roars—but my instincts understood that they were rallying calls. The dragons were signaling each other to come together. I hoped I was wrong.

  “They’re calling to each other.”

  Damn. I was right.

  Shula said, “We need to move Rosie.”

  I was finished delaying until I understood. The dragon calls were growing closer with each passing second. I stood up and brought a guiding hand to her neck. If Rosie had been shaking before, now she was trembling so hard I worried she might not be able to walk.

  What she perceived as my abandonment was one thing. The approach of what sounded like multiple full-grown dragons, when dragons had been the ones to fling her to her intended death, was more than a shocked baby could handle.

  “Where to?” I asked. When none of the charmers answered right away, I realized we were in greater trouble than I thought. “There are no caves here, are there?”

  “No,” Dean said. “The dragons never come this low, never below the tree line.”

  “Until a baby dragon puts out a distress call.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Crap. Dean, where do we go?” Brute asked, and I took it as a very bad sign that the giant had to ask what to do.

  “Dammit, I don’t know.” Dean was spinning in a circle, looking in every direction, his eyes frantic. “Where do we go?”

  “What’s beyond this side of the forest?” I asked. As much as I’d explored our village and beyond in secret, I’d never had reason to go farther beyond the forest than we were then. Whenever I’d come here, it had always been to visit the sacred pools.

  “More forest,” Peachy said.

  Shula said, “Aye, but past the forest, there’s a small rock plain area.”

  “It’s too far away.”

  “I don’t see any other choice. We can’t go back up the mountain path; we’ll be easy pickings for the dragons. We can’t go to the pools; they offer no protection. If we stay here, we’ll be lunch. We need to move.”

  Everyone, including me, looked to Dean. He hesitated, but only until the next screech arrived from the skies. “Leave what you don’t need; we’re running.”

  A few items dropped with a thud, and then we were off.

  It was a good thing I was experienced in running as if my life depended on it. If I hadn’t been, there was no way I would have been able to keep up. And if Rosie hadn’t been a dragon, even a stunted, baby one, she wouldn’t have been able to move at the charmers’ lightning speed. If I thought I’d had practice running to save my life, apparently it was nothing compared to a life in the Dragon Force. These men and women could run.

  There was no path this far into the forest—where no one from the Ooba people had reason to travel—but the charmers leapt over obstacles and whipped between trees as if they had borrowed grace. Even Brute, whom I’d assumed would lumber clumsily due to his size, kept pace. Rosie and I were the only ones to struggle.

  In minutes, sweat was streaming down my face. Branches lashed at my arms and face, and I’d tripped once, something I rarely did; I was too used to picking my step carefully. “Will we make it?” I managed to get out over my heavy breathing.

  “Aye,” Dean said from right behind me, where he was hurrying Rosie and me along. “We have to.”

  He hadn’t exactly answered my question, but it didn’t much matter. There was only one way we’d survive this run. Whenever there was a smooth patch of ground, I flicked my vision upward to the tree line, searching for its end. It was nowhere in sight.

  “They’re tracking us,” Shula, who ran on my other side, said.

  “Aye,” Dean said. “We’re making enough noise.”

  The charmers were conserving their focus and breath. I was reading between the lines and had questions, but wouldn’t ask them. I doubted any of the charmers would keep going on their own if the dragons swooped for attack before we could reach safety. Which meant that how fast Rosie and I could move determined the survival not just of us, but of all the dragon charmers too. The most seasoned charmers were there, the ones the Ooba tribe relied on for protection. The only ones with the nerve to stand up to Pumpoo.

  The weight of that burden tried to settle on me, but it didn’t. I was moving too fast. Tree branches continued whipping at me, and small prickly plants tore at my bare legs. But I didn’t slow down. I was cut and bleeding, but I felt light as a feather.

  To both sides, Dean and Shula suddenly looked up. I didn’t know what drew their attention to the skies, but when Dean roared, “Faster,” I picked up the pace. I thought I’d already been moving as fast as I could; I was wrong. Somehow, we all moved faster. Even Rosie kept up. The stunted dragon, for all her unique differences from the usual sleek dragon form, could still move.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Scar said from up ahead.

  “Scar,” Dean berated.

  “Right, we’re going to make it,” he corrected, “but we need to move faster.”

  This time, there was no more speed to attain. I was nearly flying, and there was no more my long legs could manage, not while keeping a small dragon moving along with me.

  We hadn’t yet cleared the trees when I sensed a large form close. When the shadow of the first beast moved in to block the sun, I still couldn’t see an end to the trees.

  When the first beast to reach us let loose an almighty roar, a shiver ran through me, throwing me slightly off balance. I kept going, the surge of nerves and energy continuing to pump my legs, arms, and heart.

  “No matter what you see, you keep running,” Dean said. I was as amazed by his sentiment as by the fact that he could speak a whole sentence without wheezing. And I’d thought I was in better shape than them, with the decades and centuries they had on me.... They ran armed, with swords and knives, and they still ran as fast or faster than me, twin to the fastest boy in the tribe.

  I didn’t like the sound of what Dean said. It sounded entirely too... self-sacrificing. But I was moving too fast to consider what it might mean.

  The first of the dragons swooped down and couldn’t get past the tree canopies, thick enough to blot out the sun almost entirely. The dragon perched, and trees, older than time, creaked and groaned under its weight. Cracking sounds marked our retreat as the first of the trees broke and started to come down.

  “Move!” Dean roared as the dragon roared too. Even through the protection of the tree canopies, I felt the heat along my body. The stream of the dragon’s flame, which I imagined and didn’t turn to see, set the tree canopies on fire. The crackling sound was instantaneous, as loud as the terrifying sound of streaming flame.

  I was certain I couldn’t move any faster, and that I’d die in a charred pile, along with the best men and women of our tribe. At least Rosie would be all right. Fire wouldn’t affect her—I didn’t think it would, at leas
t. She was a dragon, but one with underdeveloped scales. Maybe she wasn’t impervious to dragon flame yet, after all. And maybe the dragons, who were intent on rescuing her now, were only responding to animal instinct. They heard a call of distress of a baby, and they’d set out to save her. But they hadn’t yet made out the unusual form of the baby. They’d tried to kill her once, what would stop them from trying to kill her again? Nothing.

  “Faster, Rosie, faster,” I said, while I willed my tired legs to pump impossibly fast.

  “Faithum,” Dean said.

  “What?”

  “You have faithum.” Even his breath was coming heavily now. “Use it.”

  My mind, focused only on survival, tried to skip over what he said. Faithum, use it. Whatever, I couldn’t think about that now. It was a marvel that Rosie and I had made it this far and this fast.

  “Don’t think, do,” Dean said, as if he could read my mind. That’s when I remembered that I’d been able to speak to him through my thoughts. Not that I would do that now; it required a concentration I couldn’t hold. But it did remind me I was capable of more than I’d realized.

  Dean, legendary dragon charmer, wanted me to do faithum? Fine, I’d do faithum. Whatever. Nothing could be more over-the-top than my current reality. I mean, I was running for my life because dragons were trying to burn me to a crisp.

  I had no idea what I might be able to do, and I didn’t try to figure it out. I held just one thought aloft in my mind while I urged my feet to keep moving, no matter what sounds I heard above me, no matter how they grew, as the fire spread from tree canopy to tree canopy. Faithum, that’s all I thought. Over and over. Faithum. Faithum.

  I ran, unsure of what else to do.

  I didn’t realize something was going on until Rosie and I started leaving Dean and Shula behind. I didn’t notice that I must have activated faithum somehow until Rosie and I passed Crush and Peachy, who were in the lead, marking the pace for the rest of us.

  It wasn’t until I looked to Rosie and saw that she was flying that it really sank in. Faithum. I’m doing faithum. Or something, I was definitely doing something, and if it wasn’t faithum, it was still something extraordinary.

  Rosie’s flight was clumsy, but fast enough. Her wings were stunted and awkward, but they worked, and she jetted ahead to safety. I matched her pace.

  Whatever I was doing, I wanted to share it with the charmers, but didn’t know how.

  A set of twin roars sounded overhead, and I stumbled. I picked myself up and continued, not even daring to look behind. I heard another dragon land on the trees with the same crunching, destructive sound. Another roar, this one accompanied by flame, and another wave of heat and crackling that wanted to pull at my heart.

  I wouldn’t let it. Finally, I could make out the end of the trees up ahead. It was still far, especially since the dragons were overhead. But at least I had a target in sight.

  Faithum. Whatever it was, and however much of it I might possess, I willed it to spring to life, to grow and stretch like the dragons’ flames. I held the vision of myself and Rosie, and the rest of the charmers, running onto the rock beyond the trees. I didn’t see it in the future, I saw it now.

  I didn’t notice it happening with my eyes as much I did with my body. A feeling I’d never experienced before spread through my entire body at once, an explosion of tingles.

  And just like that, my feet pounded across rock in a whirl.

  One of the charmers, Crush I thought, said, “Whoa.” Without turning, I knew I’d brought every one of the dragon charmers to safety with me.

  Chapter Eight

  The part of me that registered that I’d just done some sort of faithum started to slow down. Whether I’d done a lot or a little, I’d done faithum, something I’d been told all my life I shouldn’t do.

  “Don’t stop,” Dean barked, unmistakable panic in his voice.

  “Wha—?” I looked behind me. If I’d been in a daze before, I sure as hell wasn’t any more. Four giant dragons, silhouetted by fire, flew toward us. The forest was burning, and the dragons were still after us.

  “Run!” Shula said with so much ferocity that my legs snapped back into motion before my brain managed to register what I was seeing and what it meant to the fragility of human life.

  My feet pounded across the hot rock—or maybe I was the one who was hot, sweat leaking from every pore. Rosie continued her inelegant flight.

  Caves were in sight across the rock, but there was still no guarantee we’d make it. Even as I moved I could recognize the silhouettes of the dragons above as they blocked the sun. Distorted shadows of wings, claws, and sharp tails marred the plain gray rock, spelling out doom in continually moving images.

  The seven dragon charmers were a blur, and this time Rosie and I moved right along with them, as fast or faster.

  A myriad of caves dotted the edge of the rock plains. I’d learned my lesson from Dram. I wouldn’t pick the first cave I saw, I’d follow the charmers wherever they went. They’d choose their target more wisely than I. All I had to focus on was getting my legs to keep working, to keep my breath coming, and to keep my frantically beating heart from erupting inside my chest. I just had to keep myself and Rosie moving. The charmers would have to figure out a plan to deal with the four dragons. That was beyond my skill set. I knew only to run and hide, the skills I’d been practicing all my life.

  “They’re in a dive,” Shula said without turning. I thought she said it for my benefit and not that of the others, since no one else turned either. Maybe they’d already predicted it, or maybe they understood they couldn’t afford the second they’d lose if they turned to look.

  When I started hearing the flapping of giant wings with crisp clarity, I realized our time was nearly spent. We’d crossed half the distance to the caves, but if I could hear the dragons’ approach this clearly... well, there could be nothing good about that.

  “Faithum,” Dean said again, but this time the suggestion induced panic. I’d managed to do faithum, but I didn’t know how I’d done it—I certainly didn’t know if I’d manage to do it again.

  As if he read my mind another time, Dean said, “Don’t think. Do.”

  All right. So I stopped thinking, and I just held that one thought—faithum—in my awareness, just as I’d done before.

  Faithum. Faithum. But what if I fail? I hadn’t meant to think that, but there it was. My fear. If I failed to do this energy thing, we’d all die.

  The flapping sound grew louder. A roar shook the blood in my veins and rattled my eyeballs. Fire streamed behind us. My bare feet felt the heat, and whatever ability I’d had to hold onto the thought of faithum melted along with my resolve.

  I tried it anyway. But it was useless. Like vapor on my breath on a cold night, I’d form the thought of faithum, but as quickly as I did, it’d dissolve.

  I tried to envision the charmers, Rosie, and me in the depth of one of the caves—of any damn cave—but it didn’t work. I felt it even before the failed result came to pass.

  Faithum, faithum, faithum. But whatever magic I’d been able to touch before was out of my reach.

  Another roar. Another blast of flame. This time, it licked at my heels, and my flesh burned.

  I barely felt it over the taste of fear in my mouth. My burned feet continued pounding at the rock. I stumbled, but didn’t allow myself to fall. Any fall now would’ve secured my death.

  While I tried not to let go of my tenuous hold on faithum, images of my twin took over. Rane. I loved him. He of all people had managed to make me feel like a real person, even if I didn’t always give him the credit he deserved. Sweet Traya, a gentle big sister, who had the courage to put others before her own well-being, every single time.

  For Rane and Traya, and for Mother, whose broken heart couldn’t afford my loss, who’d suffered enough already due to my recklessness—I put energy I didn’t believe I had into those last strides. Because if these last strides didn’t find the way to propel me
toward safety, death was all that awaited. I was sure of it as I imagined every dragon charmer with me was.

  Every one of them ran with a power I hadn’t realized they possessed. Even after all the legends and stories of their feats, I didn’t imagine it would be like this. That it would take so much courage, so much resolve, to lead the life of a dragon charmer, to fulfill the noble, sacred purpose of the Ooba people. And to survive long enough to do it again the next day.

  The dragons roared again. This time it sounded as if the four beasts had united and merged their fury to rain destruction on every one of us. There wouldn’t be a single survivor among us. Not even Rosie could survive such wrath.

  Fire heated the rock behind us, marking pace with our escape.

  And then, out of nowhere, as if I hadn’t been trying to achieve this goal all along, the caves were within reach. I might actually make it. We all might actually survive.

  Then my mind went completely blank. I no longer tried to reach faithum. I no longer tried to hold onto what apparently wasn’t mine to touch.

  All I did was run, run, run, and run some more. Until I reached the coolness of the caves.

  And then, I leapt.

  Chapter Nine

  Laughter erupted in the cave long before I was ready for such a joyous sound. I thought I might never be ready for laughter again as I shook like a leaf in an uncaring wind. I pressed my head against Rosie’s side, squeezed her as if she alone could make me forget the four gigantic dragons that waited for us outside.

  We were far enough back into the cave that it was too dark to make out faces. I couldn’t tell who was the first to laugh, but it sounded like it might have been Boom or Brute. The laughter was deep and resonant, but there wasn’t a single part of me that considered joining in.

  “Are we even sure we’re safe?” I snapped without meaning to. The laughter of now two dragon charmers grated on every one of my nerves as my heart pounded and my chest heaved. “Can their fire stream this far back?”