The Shadow Dragon

by J. R. Castle

  THE DRAGON KNIGHTS SERIES

  THE FLAME DRAGON

  THE SHADOW DRAGON

  THE STORM DRAGON

  To Ollie Samphire,

  the fiercest Dragon Knight

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER 1 RAGING WATERS

  CHAPTER 2 A FROSTY RECEPTION

  CHAPTER 3 A HELPING HAND

  CHAPTER 4 SHADOWS IN THE MIST

  CHAPTER 5 AND THEN, HE WAS GONE

  CHAPTER 6 THE STONE WOMAN

  CHAPTER 7 SHADOW AT THE GATE

  CHAPTER 8 A CRY FOR HELP

  CHAPTER 9 A VOICE FROM AFAR

  CHAPTER 10 THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

  CHAPTER 11 A NEW PLAN

  CHAPTER 12 THE GOLDEN DRAGON

  CHAPTER 13 FLYING HIGH

  CHAPTER 14 ESCAPE

  CHAPTER 15 A COLD EMBRACE

  EPILOGUE

  Copyright

  CHAPTER 1

  RAGING WATERS

  Quinn stood on the ship’s foredeck while the storm raged all around him. Lightning crashed through the sky, splitting the clouds and flickering white light across the dark waves. Rain lashed into his face. Every time the ship was driven into the mountainous waves the impact made his teeth judder, and great sheets of spray surged across the deck. His clothes were soaked through and his hands were freezing where he gripped the wooden rail.

  He’d been on the merchant ship, the Seagull, for two days now, ploughing his way through the storms that plagued the seas between Yaross and Keriss Islands. The days and nights merged into one now that summer had turned into a brutal, storm-laden autumn, and everything was shrouded in fog. But despite the rough conditions, Quinn preferred it up on deck.

  ‘Damn it!’ he cursed, dodging another wave that came crashing over his feet, soaking his legs. A voice called from above him as he grabbed onto the rigging.

  ‘You, boy!’ the voice growled. ‘Get below deck!’

  Quinn could just make out the shadowy figure of the captain’s mate, high in his crow’s nest. Quinn mouthed a reply to suggest he couldn’t hear above the shrieking of the rain, and pulled his wind-blown hood back over his head, ignoring him. Even though Thea, his fellow runaway, and Ignus, the Dragon Knight, would be down there, all he wanted right now was the fresh air and the wind.

  Just a few weeks ago he’d been an orphan living with his aunt in a tiny village on Yaross, the least important of the Twelve Islands of Alariss. It wasn’t until he’d been forced to join the Black Guard trainees and he discovered he had dragon-blood – with the power to morph from a human into a fearsome dragon – that he’d had to run away.

  Quinn had grown up believing that the Dragon Knights had betrayed the Imperial Family and murdered them; but it was all a big lie. His aunt, Marta, had shown him the truth. The person who had really murdered the Emperor and Empress was Vayn, the Emperor’s own brother. And even more difficult to believe, the Emperor and Empress were his parents and he, Quinn, was now the true Emperor.

  Lightning flashed again, casting pink and purple forks of electricity pulsing across the sky. Quinn flinched and wrapped his cloak more tightly around him, gripping the wooden railing until his knuckles turned white. He heard the captain’s mate hollering again from above.

  Back in Yaross Quinn and Thea had managed to escape the Black Guard and use Quinn’s magical sword to free the first of the Dragon Knights, Ignus, the Flame Dragon. Together they had helped to free Ignus’s village from the Black Guard’s tyranny, but Emperor Vayn had discovered what they’d done all too quickly.

  That was why Quinn, Ignus and Thea had to bribe their way onto the Seagull: they were keeping a low profile until they were strong enough to face Vayn. Now Quinn spent his days deep in thought, Ignus made friends with the rowdy sailors and Thea practised her magic spells in a quiet corner.

  The storm winds thrummed madly through the ship’s rigging, battering the creaking vessel into the gigantic waves. The clouds above were black as the gods’ rage.

  ‘Quinn?’ a voice shouted through the howl of the storm.

  Quinn turned, half-expecting to see the grizzled face of an angry sailor. Instead, blinking the rain out of her eyes, Thea was staggering up from below deck and clutching on to a line. She tried to shield herself from the whipping rain, her bright red hair clinging to her face as she struggled to find her feet.

  ‘What are you doing up here?’ she shouted.

  Quinn reached out for her as she traversed the slippery deck. ‘I’m thinking,’ he called.

  ‘Try thinking down below, you idiot!’ Thea shrieked, stretching for his fingertips. ‘There’s less chance of being struck by lightning!’

  Thea grabbed out towards Quinn and hauled herself up beside him, against the angle of the towering waves.

  ‘And more chance of losing my temper with those sailors …’ Quinn replied. Earlier, Quinn and Thea had been playing cards with the sailors below deck, but the cheating captain had got the fiery dragonblood coursing through Quinn’s veins once more. It was only a game, but Quinn couldn’t control it. It was a good job all he could muster was a golden talon or two. If he’d turned into a dragon the size of Ignus, the whole ship would have gone down.

  ‘Dragonform getting to you?’ Thea asked. ‘It’ll just take time – my magic didn’t come overnight …’

  ‘It’s not just that,’ Quinn shrugged awkwardly, although he did wish he had more control over his dragon abilities. ‘It’s my parents.’ He peered out over the rail at the heaving, dark water. Wind thrashed the top of the waves into foamy white crests and sent spray lashing through the air. ‘This is where they drowned – just off the coast of Keriss. Aunt Marta told me they were fishing …’

  But she’d been lying, protecting him from the Black Guard. And yet it still hurt that she hadn’t told him the truth. She could have trusted me, he thought.

  ‘… But they weren’t fishing,’ Thea said. ‘They were the Emperor and Empress.’

  Quinn nodded. ‘Whatever they were doing out here, they didn’t just sink – Vayn must have sabotaged their ship. My father was a dragon-blood. He could have got out of there when it started to sink, but he didn’t …’ He stared gloomily into the water as it surged and fell away beneath them, raising the ship up and then dropping it down with a thump that shook the timbers. ‘Their ship is still down there somewhere.’

  Once again he was snapped out of his thoughts by the captain’s mate barking from above.

  ‘Land ahoy!’ the sailor roared from his crow’s nest. ‘Beware the rocks!’

  Shouts and crashes sounded across the ship. Quinn’s amber eyes flashed. Rocks? For a moment he imagined their own ship going down in these stormy seas, the cold waves crashing over the side, the planks splitting and breaking apart and the angry water closing over them …

  Sailors came hurrying up from the hatches and raced for the lines; some of the ropes were as thick as Quinn’s arm. Ignus stamped up behind them, his face a sickly green. When he wasn’t playing cards with the sailors down below trying to distract himself, he’d been curled up on his bunk. Apparently flame dragons didn’t mix too well with water.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Quinn shouted as Ignus stumbled up to them uneasily. For such a big, strong man, he was clearly lacking sea legs.

  ‘We’re almost at Keriss harbour,’ Ignus rumbled in reply, running a hand across his stubbly chin. ‘Thank the Heavens. Look.’ He pointed a thick finger ahead of them.

  The clouds and mist slowly began to lift, giving the voyagers a better view of where they were heading. However, what Quinn saw didn’t fill him with confidence. Rocks jutted out from the waves like a dragon’s talons, curving high above the ship’s mast; a narrow channel sna
ked its way between the cliffs to clear water beyond with the port in the distance. Water whirled through the channel – it looked like a shipwreck waiting to happen.

  ‘We make for the Kerissian Pass! All hands on deck!’ the captain called, grabbing the helm from a lowly member of the crew. The rest of the sailors manned their stations, pulling at ropes and bustling around on deck.

  ‘Are they crazy?’ Thea shouted up at Ignus. ‘We’ll never make it through there.’

  ‘It’s the only way,’ Ignus bellowed back. ‘You might want to hang on. This is going to get choppy!’

  The sailors eased out the sails as far as they would go as the wind came around behind them; the ship ran before the wind, heading right for the cliffs, picking up speed. The captain seemed to be having trouble controlling its direction as they raced over the waves. Shouts and yells sounded as the sailors struggled to manage their lines. The curving talons of rock seemed to close in over the ship as it headed for the entrance to the harbour. Quinn was sure he could reach out and brush his fingers against them as the sharp rocks sliced by.

  ‘It’s not wide enough,’ he groaned.

  ‘Hang on!’ Thea cried.

  As if in response, a gust of wind sent their ship slipping sideways towards one of the towering rocks. Quinn yelled in surprise, but the next moment the sailors were hauling on a line, pulling a sail across, and the ship darted in the other direction.

  A sudden swirl in the wind sent the sail on the port side snapping across the deck – the wooden boom splintered like a matchstick. With a yell, a sailor holding his line was sent spinning over the planks to crash into the guardrail. The line he’d been holding slashed back and forth in the air as the sail snapped loosely from the mast. Immediately, the ship lost speed and began to drift, driven by the running waves.

  Quinn and Thea stared in horror as the ship lurched directly towards a jagged spike of rock that rose up from the waves like a spear.

  ‘No!’ Quinn yelled. ‘It’s going to crash …!’

  CHAPTER 2

  A FROSTY RECEPTION

  Sailors were shouting and bellowing all around. Quinn watched as the loose sail flapped in the storm surge. His parents’ ship had gone down just here. Now the Seagull was heading for the same rocks.

  And then Vayn will have won, Quinn thought. That’s not going to happen!

  ‘Starboard down!’ the captain shouted.

  Quinn watched the rope whip back and forth, out of control. Waves broke over the deck sending water washing over the planks. The ship rocked from side to side as though shaken by an angry sea god. Quinn clenched his fists.

  The rope snapped across the deck and tangled in the rail on the other side.

  Now’s my chance! Quinn thought, throwing himself forward.

  ‘What are you—?’ Thea yelled.

  Quinn ignored her. He bounced off the foremast as the ship slipped into another trough and then wallowed back up. Water rushed over his legs – it was like trying to stand on ice. Quinn found himself slipping faster and faster towards the rail, which he hit with enough force to knock the breath out of his body. He tried to suck in air, but a wave crashed over him, filling his mouth with salty, freezing water. He spluttered it out and grabbed on tight to the rail. His lungs were desperate for air but the seawater was still swirling over his head.

  Then the ship heaved, sloshing to the port side. The water rushed back off the deck as the vessel was flung in the opposite direction. Quinn gasped and blinked the stinging water out of his eyes.

  There, right next to him, was the rope, lashing angrily back and forth as its sail flapped in the storm wind. Each time it snapped like a whip, the rail groaned.

  Grimacing, Quinn let go of the rail and seized hold of the rope.

  With a crack, the rail gave way. Without its anchor, the sail billowed out, hauling Quinn with it. He scrabbled with his feet, trying to grip the deck, but it was no good.

  ‘Hold on!’ Ignus bellowed.

  ‘I am!’ Quinn shouted as the rope sent him spinning across the deck. If he could just get it caught around the mast, he thought, then maybe he could get it under control.

  The rope jerked in the opposite direction, almost pulling Quinn’s arms out of their sockets. He yelled in pain.

  Suddenly, an enormous hand clamped around his leg and stopped him in his tracks as Ignus seized hold of him, then Thea. The rope burned through his hands as sailors came rushing up behind him, grabbing at the rope and hauling it in. Quinn dug in and pulled, gritting his teeth.

  ‘Lash the boom!’ one of the sailors hollered, and two other sailors raced over to repair the broken wood.

  Even with the sailors to help, the rope was bucking in Quinn’s hands like a wild horse trying to wrench itself free. Quinn’s muscles screamed, but he didn’t let go.

  ‘Bring it to port,’ the sailor shouted.

  Together, they fought the rope, hauling the sail over to the left side of the ship. With every step, the rope tried to pull Quinn off his feet and send him flying across the deck.

  ‘Here,’ the sailor said through gritted teeth. He whipped the end of the rope around a wooden cleat jutting from the deck and pulled it tight. The sail billowed, but the cleat held. For a moment, the howling wind dropped just enough for the ship to level out, and the Seagull lurched to port and away from the rocks.

  Finally Quinn let go and slumped onto the deck. The sailors fell in a sprawling mass of bodies like a deck of cards.

  Thea let out a high-pitched laugh of delight, as she scrambled up. ‘We did it!’

  Ignus rubbed his head and hauled himself up, his face grass green with nausea. ‘I think I really am going to be sick now.’

  Once Quinn was safe, his body shook like a leaf. But the ship was moving again. The captain was leaning into his wheel and they were coming around, further away from the rocks, picking up speed and heading once more for the gap in the cliffs.

  ‘That was pretty stupid,’ Thea hissed. ‘You could have been killed!’

  ‘We could all have been killed,’ Quinn said.

  Thea grabbed Quinn’s hands – they were red, raw and bleeding from where the rope had sliced through them. She muttered a quick spell under her breath and Quinn felt the pain disappear as her magic healed him.

  ‘Sails down!’ the captain bellowed, and the sailors rushed to drop the remaining sails.

  Quinn looked back and saw the deathly Kerissian Pass behind them fading into the distance. He flashed a grin at Thea as the ship sailed smoothly into the calm of the harbour.

  He cocked his head and gave her a cheeky smile. ‘I don’t know what all the fuss was about.’

  Quinn, Thea and Ignus disembarked just as the sun was beginning to set, and made their way off the landing station.

  ‘Port Keriss used to be one of the great ports of the Twelve Islands,’ Ignus rumbled. ‘Ships from every corner of Alariss came here to unload their cargoes. Now look at it.’

  Apart from their own ship, there was only one other large boat moored in the docks. Further along, black-hulled fishing boats had been hauled up onto the stony shore and fishermen were unloading their catches. The smell of fish drifted on the breeze and small, closely packed stone houses hugged the narrow streets lining the water. It was clear the place had seen better days.

  ‘I bet I know who’s responsible,’ Thea muttered.

  Quinn nodded in agreement, hauling his leather satchel onto his back. Lights began coming on in the little cottages as daylight slipped away. As he passed a moored boat, he caught a glimpse of himself in one of the glass portholes. His smooth, tanned face looked weather-beaten and raw. His shoulder-length hair was tangled and in desperate need of taming.

  ‘C’mon. We can’t stay here all night,’ he called, striding off the jetty.

  But … where are we going to stay? he wondered, as he made his way onto the cobbled street.

  Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a man hurrying along the dock, heading for the town. The locals will
know.

  ‘Hey!’ Quinn called.

  The man shot him a dark look.

  ‘Hey!’ Quinn tried again. ‘We’re looking for a hostel or an inn … Can you —?’

  The man pulled his hood further over his eyes, muttered something under his breath, and hurried away.

  ‘What was that about?’ Quinn frowned – surely he didn’t look that scruffy?

  ‘It’s not just him,’ Thea said. ‘Look.’

  The locals working on their nets and boats were shooting angry looks at Quinn, Thea and Ignus and muttering to each other.

  ‘How’s that for a welcome to Keriss?’ Quinn asked, sarcastically.

  Quinn knew that people were often suspicious of strangers – the Black Guard made sure of that. But he’d never seen a town that was so unfriendly; he felt uncomfortable in his own skin.

  ‘Ignore them,’ Ignus growled. ‘I’ve been here before and I know where there’s a good hostel. Follow me.’

  Casting another glance at the hostile groups of locals, Quinn hurried after Ignus and Thea, up the winding streets until they found themselves outside a dilapidated hostel.

  Quinn looked up at the battered sign hanging from a rusty hinge. The paint was peeling so badly that he could hardly make out the picture of the Kerissian Mountains decorating it.

  ‘Travellers’ Rest?’ Thea mocked. ‘Looks lovely!’

  ‘It wasn’t like this last time I was here,’ Ignus grunted, shrugging his huge shoulders. ‘You’re not going to find much luxury away from the capital these days. Emperor Vayn has drained people dry. But they’ll still have beds …’

  He pushed open the door and ducked inside. They found themselves in a low-ceilinged common room with a dozen tables scattered around. A smoky fire burned in a big fireplace and the air was filled with the smell of old smoke and the rotting rushes that were scattered across the floor. Quinn had to squint to look around the room as there were only a couple of guttering oil lamps on the walls to light the place.