Prince Taurian: Dragon Ruins Compilation (Return of the Dragons Book 2)

by Rinelle Grey

“What do you suggest then?” Taurian asked. “It sounds like you have a plan.”

  “Yes, exactly what do you recommend, Ostrian?” Mesrian demanded. “If you have a plan, why haven’t you shared it before now?”

  “Because it needed a prince.”

  “Keep going,” Taurian said sharply.

  “We need a life dragon,” Ostrian, the slimy man said, his voice calm. “Ultrima would not stand a chance against us if we had the life power.”

  Karla had no idea what he was talking about, but his words had a powerful effect on the other dragons. Their eyes widened, and there were gasps of excitement.

  Taurian though, frowned. “Are any life dragons still alive?”

  The man shook his head. “Our last life dragon, the daughter of the one that created the protections on your Mesmer chambers, died fifty years ago. She was useless anyway, refusing to do anything more than block the Trima dragon’s attacks as we fled our lair.” Ostrian spoke with such force that beads of spittle flew out of his mouth. He took a deep breath, and continued more calmly. “If we had a life dragon who would actually help us, we could defeat Ultrima once and for all.”

  “That’s not right,” Kyrian said immediately. “Life dragons protect, they don’t fight.”

  “I know that,” Ostrian snapped. “They made that very clear when they refused to aid us for many years. If it weren’t for their sensibilities, this war would have ended centuries ago, and we would not have lost so many dragons.”

  “That’s not true,” Jayrian said hotly. “The life dragons helped us. If it weren’t for them, the Mesmer chambers would have been entered years ago. And we would have all died when our lair was discovered.”

  “There would have been no need to protect our Mesmer chambers if the life dragons had helped us defeat Ultrima in the first place,” Ostrian argued.

  Jayrian and Ostrian glared at each other, and they weren’t the only ones. It was clear that feelings ran high on this matter. Karla could understand why. Much as she was against fighting herself, it seemed a little strange for a dragon not to help the other dragons defend themselves against Ultrima.

  She didn’t get what a life dragon was though. Until that moment, it hadn’t really occurred to her that dragons had specific powers. She had seen Taurian’s fire, and Ultrima’s lightning, but she hadn’t thought to question if those were the only powers they had.

  She would have liked to ask more about it, but she was pretty sure now wasn’t a good time. The dragons were already stirred up enough.

  Taurian held up a hand. “Silence.” He stared around the cavern, meeting each dragon’s eyes. Slowly, they quietened. Then he centred in on Ostrian. “Life dragons refuse to participate in conflict for a very good reason—their power is so great as to render any other influence negligible. The side they chose would always win. That would give them far too much power and responsibility.”

  Karla stared at him. She wasn’t sure which to be more shocked about, the fact that there were dragons whose power intimidated Taurian and Ultrima, or that there was a kind of dragon who refused to choose sides because it would give them too much power. Both were hard to believe. Impressive, but hard to believe.

  “A perfectly commendable decision in times of peace,” Ostrian said. “But when our people are at war, when they are dying, it is criminal for them to refuse to help. If we had a royal life dragon, then the dilemma would be answered.”

  For a moment, Karla didn’t understand what Ostrian meant. A royal life dragon? Was that a special kind of life dragon? Then it hit her. By royal, he meant a prince or princess, like Taurian. But Taurian was a fire dragon. Was one of his brothers or sisters a life dragon? Somehow, the sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach told her that wasn’t what they meant. If one of his brothers and sisters had been a life dragon, then they would already know how a royal life dragon would react. And if life dragons were as powerful as they were claiming, then they would already have won the war.

  No, they had to want a new dragon, and unless dragons were vastly different to humans, there was only one way to get a new dragon—an existing royal dragon would have to father one. And they currently only had one available royal dragon for the job.

  She tried to tell herself she didn’t care if Taurian mated with a dragon and had royal life dragon babies, but the fact that her stomach was tying itself in knots and she had clenched her hands without conscious effort meant she couldn’t quite convince herself. Nor could she just walk away. Something kept her tied here, much as she knew it was going to hurt.

  Bloody hell, emotions just sucked.

  “Even if they were royal, they would still be a life dragon,” Jayrian pointed out.

  “That wouldn’t matter,” Ostrian said, his expression smug. “If they were a life dragon, their first loyalty would be to their clan, not to the rules of their power.”

  One responsibility overruled another. Essentially a get out of jail free card. The idea was clever. Karla could see that. A part of her was even impressed. The impartial part. The other part of her wanted to scream that it was a crazy idea.

  “Being a prince or princess does not mean doing what you like,” Taurian said firmly. “A clan ruler must weigh up every aspect of a decision, including the rules of their power, before making a decision. Being a royal would not mean a life dragon would automatically fight for us.”

  “Ultrima broke the rules of our people,” Ostrian said flatly. “Removing him as a deadly threat to our clan should be the most important consideration, unless our laws are optional.”

  Dragons had laws? Karla sure was learning a lot more about Taurian than she’d known up until now. Although one thing she wasn’t sure of. “What law did Ultrima break?”

  When a whole room full of dragon eyes turned in her direction, she wished she’d remained silent. Until that moment, she suspected they’d forgotten her presence.

  “Dragon law is none of your business,” Ostrian snapped.

  “Quiet,” Taurian thundered. “Rudeness may not be against any dragon laws, but it is still unacceptable in my presence. Apologise immediately.”

  Ostrian’s eyes widened. “Sir, I fail to see the problem. She isn’t a dragon.”

  A heavy feeling settled in her stomach at his words. She’d known that dragons didn’t trust humans, but for him to think he could say what he liked to her, just because she wasn’t a dragon indicated a whole new level of disrespect.

  “I don’t care.” Taurian’s voice was a tone lower, but somehow no less threatening. “Karla is a guest in my home, and I will not accept rudeness toward her. Do you have no respect for the fact that she saved my life?”

  Saved his life? Did he really think that? She hadn’t. Not really. She opened her mouth to protest that he had done as much as she had, but the antagonism between Taurian and the elder was so intense her words died before she could utter them.

  This wasn’t her fight, even if it was about her. There was more going on here than how the clan treated a human. This was about whether the clan members accepted Taurian’s leadership or not. Karla held her breath as Ostrian stared at Taurian, and Taurian stared back, his eyes blazing.

  Neither of them were going to back down, were they? The risk of being the cause of a disagreement between Taurian and his clan alarmed her.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “I’m not bothered.”

  “I am,” Taurian said firmly, not looking at her. His eyes didn’t leave the elder dragon. “I’m waiting, Ostrian.”

  The man swallowed, then shifted his gaze away. He mumbled an apology.

  Karla let out a shaky breath.

  Taurian watched him for a few more moments, before turning to Karla and answering the question she’d almost forgotten she’d asked. “Before I entered the Mesmer, Ultrima courted my sister, Sarian. He was obsessed with her, and some of us thought she might succumb to his temptations. But she was not interested in mating for love, and rejected his mating invitation. He refused t
o accept her answer, and continued to beg her to reconsider. He made quite a fool of himself. That in itself would not be an issue, but when she refused him again, quite politely I might add, he flew into a rage and tried to force her to mate with him.”

  Karla’s eyes widened. “He tried to mate with her by force? In front of all of you?” Somehow, she couldn’t imagine the polite and refined Ultrima doing that. Then again, he hadn’t been so polite when he’d been fighting Taurian in dragon form.

  Taurian shook his head, and his hands clenched into fists. “No, he cornered her in her rooms, in private. He was too much of a coward to make his intentions so obvious. But my brother walked in on him before he could complete the mating. When Warrian, my eldest brother, tried to remove him from the area, he attacked him.”

  If she’d had any doubts as to Ultrima deserving the clan’s enmity, Taurian’s story had silenced them. Ultrima’s actions would have been against the laws of humans too. Trying to force someone to mate, either as a one off or the more permanent dragon marriage version, was unacceptable. Attacking one’s clan members just added insult to injury. She was about to simply nod agreement, when the implications of what he had just said sunk in. “What? Ultrima isn’t part of your clan, is he?”

  “He was,” Taurian explained. “But after Sarian refused him and we helped Warrian fight him off, he left to form his own clan, taking many of his lightning dragon friends with him. Thus, the Trima clan was born.”

  Karla tried to make sense of it all. “So the Trima clan are all lightning dragons?” she clarified. “That’s why you didn’t think Jayrian was part of their clan, right?”

  Taurian nodded patiently, ignoring Ostrian’s mumbled comment about this being a waste of time. “There are six types of dragon powers,” he explained. “Fire, lightning, water, metal, wind and sound. Most of the time they breed true to their type. If a fire dragon breeds with a fire dragon, their children are fire dragons, and so on. So with almost an entire clan of lightning dragons, it would be unexpected to find a fire dragon. Not unheard of, but unlikely.”

  Karla hesitated. She should just stop now. The other clan members were already annoyed at her interruption. But her curiosity was strong, and she might not get another. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life wondering, could she? She took a deep breath and asked, “And life dragons are different?”

  She needed to ask that one, right? To determine if Taurian’s potential sacrifice of creating one was worth it.

  Taurian nodded. “They are. Even a life dragon mating with a life dragon only rarely produces a life dragon child. This is why their numbers dwindled until they were all gone. We aren’t sure where they came from, or why they don’t breed true, but they are invaluable to our clan.”

  That she had seen. But she didn’t really get why. “What can they do that’s so valuable?”

  “Dragon magic is actually quite limited, in general,” Taurian explained patiently. “Each dragon only can only do magic that relates to their power. I can create fire, and manipulate it in many ways, but that’s the extent of my power. Water dragons manipulate water, sound dragons manipulate sound, and so on. Life dragons though, can manipulate life itself. They can make a plant or animal grow or die. And they can affect minds, creating the images and fear you felt as you drove closer to the lair.”

  Karla suppressed a shiver at the memory of that fear. Throwing fire might be intimidating, but she could see why it might not be able to stand up to life dragon powers. How could one even throw fire if they were paralysed by fear? Or worse.

  She didn’t really want to think about how far that power could go, so she returned to the issue at hand. Ultrima. “So how are dragon laws usually enforced?” she asked.

  Taurian shrugged. “Usually by a fight.”

  Karla had never heard a more stupid way of enforcing laws in her life. “That makes no sense. What if the one who broke the law wins?”

  “That never happens,” Kyrian insisted. “Because the whole clan will back up the law.”

  “Except when some of them side with the one who broke it,” Karla pointed out. “Has that really never happened before?”

  “No,” Taurian said firmly. “It is rare for a dragon to even break one of our laws in the first place. For others to agree with him and fight for him is unheard of.”

  “Which is exactly why we need to do something about it,” Ostrian insisted. “And why the life dragons need to side with us in this case. Otherwise, our laws mean nothing.”

  Taurian stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter at this point, since we don’t have a life dragon. Not even a non-royal one. It is unlikely we will ever see one again, since the last one has died out.”

  “Exactly why we need to breed one,” Ostrian said immediately.

  Karla’s stomach churned. She’d almost forgotten how this conversation had started. And she wasn’t happy to realise that she hadn’t been on the wrong track with her assumptions.

  “That’s impossible without a life dragon to mate with,” Taurian said firmly.

  “Not impossible,” Ostrian argued. “It has long been summarised that life dragons are different to all the other powers, and aren’t necessarily created in the same way. They aren’t a new breed that just pop up unexpectedly. They are a combination of the existing powers. We just need to figure out what that combination is. I suggest starting with fire and water.”

  The fire was obviously Taurian. Who water was Karla wasn’t sure, and she didn’t care. It certainly wasn’t her. A bitter bile rose in her throat and she swallowed.

  Taurian raised an eyebrow. If anything, he looked amused. His expression settled Karla’s stomach a notch. Only a notch.

  “You do, do you? That’s interesting.” Taurian’s voice sounded almost bored. “How lucky for your plans that I just happen to be a fire dragon.”

  A dragon somewhere nearby gave a snigger. Karla looked around, but couldn’t work out who it was. Then her eyes fell on Jayrian, who gave her a wink. She took a deep breath. Taurian wasn’t really going to mate with another woman, was he? He could see how crazy this was, couldn’t he?

  Ostrian obviously couldn’t. “I found a record of a life dragon being born to fire and water parents.”

  No one sniggered this time. Even Jayrian looked slightly shaken. Karla’s stomach clenched again.

  “When did this supposedly happen?” Taurian demanded. “And why haven’t I heard of it before?” He didn’t look so amused now.

  “You would never have seen it if you hadn’t spent the time I have pouring over our records. It was six hundred years ago, but the facts are still there.”

  Surely they weren’t going to use six hundred year old records to push Taurian into this? It was ludicrous. Karla couldn’t help interrupting. “Surely other fire and water dragons have mated since then? Have they produced life dragons?”

  “Actually,” Taurian looked thoughtful. “It is rare for a mating between fire and water dragons. Neither enhances the other. As water quenches fire, so does a water dragon’s stoic nature eat away at a fire dragon’s spirit. And a fire dragon’s constant search for new adventure exhausts a water dragon’s patience, as fire turns water to steam. It is not a good combination.”

  “Exactly.” Ostrian looked smug. “The very fact that they have not been combined previously explains why we have had no life dragons born to anyone but life dragons for centuries.”

  They had to be joking, right? The fact that even Taurian seemed to be being sucked in now caused panic to rise in her throat. “Even if that worked, and it seems like a long shot, it would be years before the child was old enough to fight Ultrima.” Her voice was unnaturally high.

  The look Ostrian gave her was pitying. “Humans have such short lifespans that that may seem to be an impediment, but dragons see a longer view. What is a few decades against the three centuries we’ve already waited?”

  His words just rammed home the fact that they were different to her. That s
he would never fit in here. Why did she even care? This wasn’t her business. She had no right to tell Taurian he couldn’t mate with another to save his clan. If he thought that was a suitable method of helping them, that was his issue. She didn’t own him.

  In fact, she’d already told him she had no intention of mating with him.

  She looked up at him, slightly disconcerted to find his eyes boring into hers. Suddenly, she found it hard to breathe. The thought of him mating with another dragon caused bands of jealousy to tighten around her chest until she could barely draw breath.

  She forced herself to look away and the feeling eased a little. It had to be leftovers from the Mesmer bond. She’d never felt that sort of jealousy before, never experienced any emotion that strong. It couldn’t be real.

  “Perhaps we should consider Ostrian’s suggestion,” Mesrian said. Her expression was troubled. “It is clear that we have few other options.”

  “Creating a royal life dragon isn’t a new suggestion,” Ostrian insisted. “Princess Sarian was promised to Lirian, our last male life dragon, for just this reason. That is one of the reasons she refused Ultrima. You may have been too young to grasp the implications, Taurian, but I’m sure the other dragons were well aware of the potential of having a royal life dragon.”

  “I was not ‘too young’ to know what was going on,” Taurian said firmly. “All Rian princes and princesses were included in the discussion. So I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that they intended to use life dragons to protect our people from discovery by humans, never to attack another dragon. It has been a goal to create life dragons for several generations, when we realised their numbers were declining. As the eldest in our family, Princess Sarian felt that she could not ask another to take that burden, but that she must bear it herself. Even so, it was never to wage war, but simply to keep the balance.”

  “Then create one to protect your people,” Ostrian said, his voice strained. “Goodness knows we need protecting badly. How can this be a bad idea in any way?”

  “Because once we had that power, the temptation to use it would be too great,” Taurian said. “We have our honour to uphold.”