Celo's Quest

by Deborah Cooke

  “And they were fewer in number, too.”

  “Naturally. It was Scintillon who first rose in rebellion, having been provoked by an injustice done to a shifter and his kin, and Scintillon who was the first dragon king of Incendium. The great house of the kings of Incendium is founded upon the nobility and vigor of weredragon blood.”

  “You did know that he amounted to something!”

  Draco chuckled. “I wasn’t in a hurry to tell you everything I knew, and I was surprised by his success.”

  “Are the kings of Incendium your descendants?”

  “They draw from the line of the dragon bound to air, which is why they sponsor science and invention. They are smitten with ideas and cleverness.”

  “But can you become a man?”

  Draco shook his great head. “I am no weredragon. I was born of a dragon pair. I may be the last pure dragon to survive anywhere.”

  “The other three who colonized Fiero-Four were the same as you?”

  Draco nodded. “We all originate in the same seed, though that was eons past. There are other anomalies that appeared over the ages, but first we must speak more of the shifters.”

  “On Incendium.”

  “Yes. For there, over time, the male gender became dominant. A child conceived by a weredragon and a human would be born male and a shifter, the vast majority of the time.”

  “But that can’t be so,” Celo protested. “King Ouros has twelve daughters.”

  Draco smiled. “We have not yet come to King Ouros and Queen Ignita. Our group of four was not the only team sent to colonize a planet. Dragons scattered though the universe in those dark days. Many lost track of each other as the eons passed, even with our long memories. Each local group mutated and adapted to its environment. Here in the Fiero-Four system, we remained aware of those dragon shifters on Excandesco and preserved relations with them.

  “Queen Ignita’s home planet.”

  “And there, the opposite situation developed. The female became the most likely gender of any child conceived by a dragon shifter and human. The ascendant line is from the founder allied with fire, so they are passionate and emotional dragon shifters. Just as the presence of air feeds a flame, I am certain that Ignita and Ouros have a fiery match.”

  “Is it true that they don’t let the human partner survive after the mating on Excandesco?”

  “It is. Although the mating is seen as valuable and imperative, the human male is regarded to be inferior and unnecessary once the seed has been delivered and the child conceived. Those dragon queens are ferocious in their conviction, and tolerate no possible threat to their rule.”

  “Was Ouros an exception because he was a dragon shifter, too?”

  “That could be so. I do not know the pair, only their history. It is not surprising that they had to flee Excandesco to live together, and it shouldn’t be surprising either that the introduction of Queen Ignita’s heritage into the lineage of Incendium meant more daughters than sons.”

  “It seems they shouldn’t be all sons.”

  Draco placed another log upon the fire, lifting it easily into place despite its size. “That might have something to do with the curse.”

  Two

  “The curse?” Celo had never heard about a curse placed upon the house of Incendium, much less one upon dragons. “What curse?”

  The dragon sighed. “Let us talk of the triumph of Scintillon first. Those who believed him to be a usurper were exiled to Regalia, which had previously been unoccupied, and rebellion bred on this planet ever after.” Draco blinked. “I liked it here before the exile. It was quiet.”

  “It’s no accident that Regalia was kept in a primitive state,” Celo noted. “We were not trusted with technology.”

  “Your forbears did not want it,” Draco noted. “They wanted magic.”

  Celo knew that was true.

  “And when the population was divided between Incendium and Regalia, each group charted their own course. The dragon shifters of Incendium, and all those who lived beneath their control, looked to the stars for inspiration and for their quests. They developed the means of traveling in space, raising the standard of living and education level of all their citizens. They fostered research, development, and the analysis of their world. They became scientists, shining the light of knowledge and reason on mysteries yet to be explained.”

  “They followed the impulse of their forebear, the dragon governed by the element of air,” Celo said and Draco nodded with approval.

  “Excellent. Yes, Celo, they did.” He raised a talon and continued his tale. “Those on Regalia, in contrast, turned to the darkness. They sought truth in mystery, in the secrets of the earth and the shadows of the heart and soul. They studied the arcane and embraced that which could not be readily explained. They became spell casters and augury readers, people who listened to their instincts and found truth echoed in their surroundings.” Draco eyed Celo, his orange eyes glowing. “They learned the language of birds and beasts. They taught themselves how to cast dreams and read thoughts and influence the actions of those beyond their reach. They became magicians.”

  “Scientists and magicians. Do you mean to say one is better than the other?” Celo asked, his pride pricked.

  Draco laughed. “On the contrary, my princely friend, they are two sides of the same coin. Light and dark. Science and magic. Knowledge and instinct.” He held Celo’s gaze as if that was important, but Celo couldn’t guess why. “Both rooted in the same element.”

  “Air!”

  “Air,” Draco agreed. “What do you think that means?”

  “That there really should be more unions like that of Venero and Gemma, for Regalia and Incendium should become one kingdom again. The light and the dark should be gathered again into the whole.”

  “Precisely,” Draco agreed.

  “I could take that message to Venero. He’d see it as a challenge and an opportunity, a goal for his reign.”

  “Good,” Draco said and fell silent. After a moment, he cleared his throat and looked over Regalia again, his thoughts veiled. The sky was getting quite dark, and Celo could see stars overhead. It would have been very chilly without the fire, which still burned steadily. The light glowed on Draco’s scales and sparks danced upward from the blaze. The heat was making Celo a little sleepy, but he knew Draco hadn’t finished his story. He could sense the dragon mustering his words.

  Or choosing them.

  “There must be more,” he prompted finally.

  “More?”

  “A plan or a quest. It is a fine enough tale, but it’s not much of a reward.”

  Draco chuckled a little. “You aren’t the spellbreaker.”

  “But I’m here and I’m listening,” Celo countered. “What about the curse? What affected the dragon shifters of Excandesco?”

  “I told you that our kind left our home in groups of four.”

  “That one in each group had an affinity to each element, yes, and that you were all dragons bred of dragons.”

  “I didn’t tell you why we left.”

  “You said you were hunted.”

  “But we were hunted because we were perceived to be weakening.”

  “Why?” Celo couldn’t imagine thinking of a dragon as weak, especially one as massive as Draco.

  “We became cursed with infertility amongst our own kind. It was after a...dispute with the High Priestess of Nimue.”

  “What kind of dispute?”

  “A dispute I’m not at liberty to share with you,” Draco replied somewhat tersely. “That’s not my story.”

  “Can you tell me the result of the curse?”

  “Of course. Offspring had always been rare but they became almost non-existent. We live long but are not immortal, and there was fear that our kind might become extinct if we didn’t act.”

  Celo nodded understanding.

  “Did anyone talk to the High Priestess?”

  “She wasn’t known for listening to dissenting
views. Probably still isn’t.”

  Celo didn’t know. He’d never heard much about her beyond her name.

  Draco cleared his throat. “We left our home planet in search of new possibilities, and also in the hope of establishing legacies elsewhere in the universe. So many of us established dynasties of dragon shifters that our kind are known in every civilization. But there was divisiveness before we embarked upon our quest, and we became more different from each other than similar.” Draco exhaled smoke, considering this. “Perhaps that was the true root of our infertility. We had become strangers to ourselves.”

  “I don’t know nearly enough about dragons, it appears. Are there more differences than being connected with one of the four elements?”

  “Not originally, but change came. Those allied with the element of air because mist dragons, fog dragons, cloud dragons, guardians of spirits, dreams, and inspiration. Those allied with the element of earth became mountain dragons, earth dragons, beach dragons, guardians of stones, riches, and material wealth. Those allied with water became sea dragons, rain dragons, and snow dragons, guardians of weather, emotion, and empathy. Those allied with fire became war dragons, fiery dragons, light dragons, guardians of passion, power, and persistence. And within each of the four kinds, there was the separation of light and dark as well.”

  Celo was rapt. “Did mating only occur with the same kind and inclination, or did opposites attract?”

  “We thought there had to be a union of differences, but it’s possible that we were mistaken. The four of us who came to Fiero-Four, despite our efforts, did not breed with our own kind. The only offspring were from union of the mist dragon in our number with the humans of Incendium.”

  “So you have no children of any kind?”

  Draco shook his head. “Not personally, but we four all considered those children that resulted from the mist dragon’s unions to be our own. We consider all with dragon blood to be our kin.”

  Celo reasoned that if the lineage of the pure dragons was tracked, there had to be a relationship, however distant, between those four founding dragons. “What did the mates of the mist dragon bring to the union?”

  Draco was dismissive. “Who can say? I barely remember them.”

  But surely someone did?

  Draco raised a talon. “The dragon of greater import, at least to me,” he continued. “Once we were numerous.” His voice boomed. “Once we celebrated the variety of our kind. But as our numbers dwindled and we scattered in search of refuge and opportunity, we became as solitary fragments, each of us only carrying a small measure of the wisdom of our kind.” Draco smiled down at Celo. “We are old beyond old. We have memories that stretch back through the ages. But even that has limitations. I remember the lore of the light-seeking earth dragons, which would only be an eighth of the truth, if I remembered it all.”

  “You need to bring all the dragons back together again.”

  “Someone must.”

  “But you think the other dragons are dead or lost.”

  “I know they are not on Regalia. That again is only part of the truth.”

  “Then where are they? Did they survive?”

  “I do not know. Seeking them is not my task.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  The massive dragon smiled. “That quest is your reward, Prince Celo of Regalia. That is why the raven sent you, because he knew you were the one destined to gather all the dragons of old together again.”

  “Actually, it was the owl who knew that,” Celo clarified.

  “There is great wisdom in the creatures of the wild. Your ability to understand them perhaps makes you a good choice for this task.”

  “But that doesn’t mean I can find dragons,” Celo protested. “If they still exist. I can’t hear your thoughts at all...”

  “Are you afraid to pursue your destiny?”

  “No, but...”

  “To leave Regalia? Has your life here been filled with such joy as that?”

  Celo frowned. He’d never left Regalia and never imagined that he would. He hadn’t been particularly happy on this planet, not after his mother’s abuse, but his solution had been to retreat into the forest—not to venture to the stars in pursuit of dragons.

  He’d done as Draco indicated, looking to the earth instead of the sky for a solution.

  Celo had known from birth that he’d never travel beyond Fiero-Four, as only those on Incendium had the ability to travel to other worlds. In fact, he wouldn’t be able to even get to Incendium without help from Incendium and he wouldn’t get to Incendium’s starport easily. He had a hundred objections to Draco’s plan within seconds.

  “I don’t even know anybody on Incendium,” he protested. “I think you have the wrong prince. My brother Venero would be a better choice, since he married into the Incendium royal family.”

  “So, you do know someone from Incendium. It seems to me that, from your recollection, Queen Gemma might owe you a favor.”

  “But Venero...”

  “Is surely very busy as king of the realm.”

  There was that.

  And really, Celo had so many objections that he had to give the idea serious consideration. Was he afraid?

  What if he did embark on this quest? What if he did seek dragons?

  He had to think that women would find that interesting.

  He was pretty curious himself. What had happened to the dragons? What had been the dispute with the High Priestess of Nimue? Could that curse be broken by bringing the dragons together again? Or would it take even more?

  He looked at Draco, then at the burning fire. “How exactly do I find dragons?”

  “How did you find me?”

  The raven, Celo thought. I need to take Nix with me.

  “A most sensible plan,” Draco said aloud. “There is more to you than meets the eye.”

  Despite himself, Celo found his excitement rising. Any of the other three dragons who had first come to Fiero-Four might think that Draco was dead, after all, since he’d been enchanted for so long. Where might they be?

  Was it a coincidence that four dragons had come to a system with four inhabitable planets?

  Would he find the other two on Sylvawyld or Caligo?

  If they were disguised, their affinity with an element would have to hold a clue. Perhaps one was a lake or another was a blizzard. Maybe one was a fire that wouldn’t die.

  He would first seek the mist dragon who Draco said was the forebear of the dragon shifters of Incendium. He had to think that she might still be somewhere on Incendium, watching over her own descendants.

  “Now you’re thinking,” Draco rumbled with approval.

  Maybe, after he’d found Fiero-Four’s founding dragons, he’d have to go to Excandesco and look for their founding dragons. Maybe it was the same, that only one of those four had managed to produce offspring that were shifters. Maybe he could find the fire dragon and learn more.

  And then there was Nimue.

  “How many groups of four dragons were there?”

  “I remember four,” Draco said, leaning his chin upon his foreleg. He sighed so that a shudder rolled through his body from snout to tail, then his eyes began to close.

  “Do you know where the other two groups went?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “When I find them, where are they supposed to meet? And when?”

  “That is for you to resolve, Prince Celo.”

  “And what will they do? How will they share their knowledge with each other and with everyone else?”

  Draco opened one eye. “You have far too many questions.”

  “You don’t have enough answers.”

  The dragon smiled. “Why else would there be a quest?” He nudged another branch toward the fire and sparks flew into the night sky as the fire seized the new fuel. He yawned then, his jaw creaking and his tongue unfurling. Celo had a good look at all those teeth and the wet red cave that led down the dragon’s gullet. “Sleep now. I
will take you as far as Regalia’s main city in the morning.”

  “So long as we stop for the raven on the way,” Celo stipulated.

  Draco opened one eye. “Well, this is progress. First you were terrified of me and now you’re making demands.”

  Celo smiled. “I’m not going to succeed at a quest by sitting back and waiting for it to happen.”

  “No, you’re not.” Draco’s eyes closed and his breathing deepened. It seemed to Celo that the dragon almost turned back into a mountain. Draco’s breath was so slow that Celo could barely see the dragon’s chest fill. It took what seemed like an eternity for him to inhale and even longer for him to exhale. The fire crackled and burned, and the stars spun overhead. It was warm and he felt that curious mix of exhaustion and excitement.

  A quest.

  He could hardly wait to begin.

  There were shouts in the bailey at midday and Venero left the audience chamber of the palace to find out what was amiss. Gemma hurried after him, her curiosity clear. They were both dressed practically, as if they meant to ride to battle. Gemma wasn’t inclined to wear queenly attire and Venero didn’t mind that she looked like a warrior princess all the time.

  They had been working hard together to rebuild the fortunes of Regalia and to win the trust of its residents. They had made progress but there was a great deal still to be done.

  “Dragon!” cried the sentinel. “Dragon attack!”

  Venero captured Gemma’s hand and they raced into the courtyard together just as there was whoosh of wind overhead. Venero caught a glimpse of a massive scaled belly just overhead and Gemma reached for her bow. The guards loosed a volley of arrows but they bounced off the dragon’s scales and clattered to the ground.

  The dragon roared, shooting a plume of fire into the air as it turned in the distance. It was a massive creature, much bigger than Gemma and her family were in their dragon forms.

  “A dragon,” Gemma whispered, sniffing the air. She caught Venero’s questioning glance and guessed his thoughts. “Not a shifter. Not like me.”

  “Just dragon?”

  “Maybe all dragon would be more accurate.” She stepped into the open fearlessly and took a deep breath. “So old,” she whispered in awe. “So large. It’s a legend come to life.”