The issue was not her leadership abilities or her eventually ruling his lands. The issue was dragons. Shayla, like Layton and the bastard child living in Winport, had the mark of the dragon. Layton had spent a lifetime tracking down information on the mark. He had even joined a secret society dedicated to the study of dragons. The society believed that dragons were coming back, and if the tales were true, would alter the world as they know it. When the dragons returned, those with the mark of the dragon would gain powers. More important than that, would be the implications of dragons returning.
The relative peace and stability the world enjoyed would be gone. Man once had the opportunity to live in harmony with dragons, but chose instead to hunt them to extinction. If dragons came back, they would be exacting their revenge. Kings would fall, armies would be crushed, and blood would flow.
Among the secret society, there was a hope that those with the dragon mark would be able to use their connection with a dragon to convince the dragons that peace was possible. However, the risk of the wrong person using the dragon connection for personal gain was a deadly possibility.
Howard, Layton’s most trusted adviser and another member of the society of dragons, entered his chambers.
“How do you feel this morning, brother?” asked Howard.
“Like I’m dying,” answered Layton. “Have you heard anything from Salus yet?”
“Nothing yet,” said Howard. “Perhaps the boy is dead? When was the last time you had word from Droll?”
“Years,” said Layton with a sigh. Ever since we discovered that the society of dragons is under attack I’ve not made any contact.”
“You believe that wise?”
“I believed that it was safer for the boy if no one knew our connection. And it’s not like growing up in a wealthy family has made Shayla more suitable as a dragonblood, perhaps growing up in an orphanage will give the boy some strength of character.”
Howard looked on his master with doubt, “Orphanages are not known for building high character men, they’re known for building thieves and murderers.”
“I can accept a thief or murder as long as they have some moral fiber to them. But, I’m afraid you may be right. Leaving the boy in the orphanage might have been a mistake. However, time is running short. If the prophecies are true, we only have a short amount of time before dragons return. We need to learn about the boy now, before I have to choose.
20
“LYRIC, MEET MY SISTER, Valeria,” said Azina.
After the Lord Lamar’s wagons stopped in Middale to let Lyric and Azina out, they immediately left the small village and headed out into the wilds. Like her sister, Valeria lived in a place where few travelers would stumble upon.
“Hello, Valeria, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Lyric in a cheerful voice. Despite being out of Winport, and his dismay from being too stinky to accept a ride with the Lord Lamar and his daughter, Lyric was in a good mood. Middale had looked like an interesting little village. Perhaps he wouldn’t be beaten up by the local boys of this village. Even if he was, he could always stay here and avoid the village. Lyric was eating every day since he started staying with Azina and he rather liked it.
Valeria looked Lyric over, it was rare for Azina to come visit, even more rare for her to bring a visitor. In fact, it was the first time. Why she had brought this skinny little foreigner with her made no sense. The boy looked and smelled as if he had been living in a gutter his whole life. The boy looked like a slight wind would carry him away like a kite. His dirty and torn rags barely could be considered clothing, and his hair made a rat’s nest look neat and tidy. Done with her examination of the boy, Valeria looked at Azina, waiting for her to explain the situation.
“Lyric, see that large red oak behind the house? Beyond that tree is small pond, before you enter Valeria’s house you’ll go have a wash. Understood?”
Heat came to Lyric’s cheeks. He knew she was telling him he was too stinky to enter the house. “Right away, Azina.”
“Wait,” said Valeria before walking into her house. She returned with a small bar of soap, which she handed to Lyric.
Lyric silently accepted the soap and headed towards the larger redwood so that he could find the pool. As Lyric walked through the forest towards the pool he noticed the differences between the woods here and those back home around Winport. Here they were at a higher elevation and there was less vegetation among the trees. The trees themselves were bigger, some had trunks so thick that it would take a dozen people holding hands to reach all the way around them. Even the air smelled different here. Home had smelled of salty sea air and decaying vegetation, this place smelled fresher. The air had a woodsy smell mixed with wild flowers, very pleasant to Lyric.
Lyric found the pool, it was a small but deep pool with a slow running creek going through it. The water was cool but refreshing. Lyric tossed off his clothing and jumped in. Scrubbing his body with the lavender and lye soap that Valeria had provided, Lyric watched the water around him change to a dark oily mess as years of built up dirt from living on the streets was washed away. Dunking his head into the water, Lyric soaped his hair as well. Once he was done washing himself, Lyric grabbed his clothing and gave them a wash as well. He had to be careful as it seemed the dirt was the only thing holding the seams together in places.
Stepping out of the cold water, Lyric enjoyed the warm afternoon sun on his bare skin. Instead of putting his wet clothes back on, Lyric lay out in the sand beside the pool and basked in the sun, letting it dry him and his clothing.
Lyric drifted off to sleep as sat in the sun.
“You always sleep naked in the middle of the day?”
Lyric woke up and looked up. Someone was standing above him, with the sun behind them Lyric couldn’t see who it was, but the voice was distinctly female. Lyric quickly covered his privates with one hand and reached for his clothing with the other. He turned so only his bare ass was showing to the stranger and put on his pants and shirt. Once he was dressed, Lyric turned to see who the person interrupting him was.
A tall girl with short strawberry-colored hair and big blue eyes that twinkled with amusement was smiling at him.
“You could have yelled that you were here,” accused Lyric.
“I could have,” agreed the girl. “But this is my pond and what fun would that be? Besides, you haven’t anything different than the local boys. You’re just a bit more tanned, and you have no freckles. Where you from?”
“Winport,” said Lyric.
“What are you doing at my pond?” asked the girl.
“I was told to come wash. I wasn’t allowed in the house before I washed.”
“That sounds like something Aunt Valeria would say,” said the girl.
Lyric shook his head, “No, it was Azina.”
“Aunt Azina is here? Great, let’s head to the house.”
“Who are you?” asked Lyric.
“Who are you?” retorted the girl.
“I’m Lyric.”
“That’s a funny name,” said the girl. “My name is Celine.”
“Hello, Celine,” said Lyric. Now that the embarrassment of being caught naked was gone, Lyric liked talking to this strange girl. She was interesting.
When they reached the house, Valeria and Azina were inside drinking tea. Valeria gave Celine a stern look. “Aren’t you supposed to be picking mushrooms?”
“I finished early so I went to the pool. I found this fellow sleeping naked as a baby jay, he talks kind of funny, but he said Azina brought him so I didn’t kill him.”
Lyric, for about the third time that day, felt his cheeks getting flush with embarrassment. This was not his day.
“I suppose you were a lady and made your presence known then turned away until he was decent,” said Valeria.
“Nope, I walked right up and gawked for a bit and then told him to wake up. He looks different from the other fellows from around here. Where did you find him Aunt Azina?”
Azina
smiled and cackled. “I see you’ve been teaching our niece proper manners Valeria. Hello, Celine, it’s lovely to see you too. While you were gawking did you happen to notice a tattoo?”
Celine smirked a bit, “I might’ve noticed it.”
“I don’t have any tattoo’s,” protested Lyric.
Valeria frowned, “What did the tattoo look like, Celine?”
“It was a dragon’s claw, with part of an arm.”
Valeria gasped in astonishment.
Celine looked at both her aunts. “What’s the big deal about the tattoo?”
Valeria ignored Celine and spoke to Lyric. “Show me?”
Lyric looked at Azina who nodded her head.
Lyric carefully pulled his pants down until his hipbone was bare. There was his birthmark, black as night and shaped like a dragon’s claw. He kept one hand covering his body so that he didn’t expose anything else to the old ladies looking at his birthmark.
“Pull your pants back up,” said Valeria. “I’ve seen enough.”
“Somebody going to tell me what’s so special about a tattoo?” asked Celine again.
“It’s not a tattoo,” said Valeria.
“See,” said Lyric. “I told you.”
“What do you mean it’s not a tattoo? That is no normal birthmark, it’s a perfect dragon’s claw,” said Celine.
“The dragon’s claw birthmark is the symbol of the dragonblood. This boy is descendant of someone with a dragon bond.”
Celine’s face showed her confusion. “I thought that all of the dragon-bonded were killed when the dragons were hunted down.”
“Most were,” said Azina. “But when the dragons disappeared, they stopped hunting them. Without dragons, the dragon bonded had no more magical powers. They were no longer a threat, so they were ignored. After all, very few lived and even fewer went on to have families, but for generations there have been children born with the mark.”
“What does it mean?” asked Celine as she stared at Lyric with a new curiosity.
“It means if the dragons do return, Lyric will have the magical powers of a dragon. It also means that one day he could possibly bond with a dragon.”
“Neat,” said Celine. “You got any powers, Lyric?”
“The only powers he’s shown thus far is the ability to create noxious gas,” said Azina.
The woman shared a chuckle while Lyric hung his head in shame. It was true, ever since he had started living with Azina, he had uncontrollable bowel issues. His stomach was not used to getting food on a regular basis. Instead of having leftover dinner scraps and the odd chunk of bread left out for the crows, Lyric was now eating three meals a day. His stomach simply didn’t know what to think and had become a gas producing menace. Even Lyric couldn’t stand his own smells, and his non-existent bathing practices had not helped the situation. However, Lyric had noticed that the last few days his stomach wasn’t so tumultuous. Perhaps he was finally getting used to eating a normal amount of food.
“Well, it’s still very exciting to meet a dragonblood,” declared Celine. If the dragons do come back, we’ll get to see what powers you get.”
“Did you learn anything new in Winport?” Valeria asked Azina.
“Nothing that we didn’t already know,” replied Azina. “What records I could find say the same thing that we know, that the prophecy says dragons will return before the next double eclipse.”
“What about the boy, how does he fit into the prophecy?” asked Valeria.
“That is a different question altogether. Lyric here is an orphan, obvious descendant of a dragon bonded human, and has several people looking for him,” said Azina.
“So someone knows about his mark,” replied Valeria.
“Yes, we don’t know who is searching for him. It could be his father, but we don’t know what the purpose of finding Lyric is. They could be looking to help him or kill him.”
Lyric found it somewhat strange the way they discussed him as if he wasn’t really there, or he was an object, and the talk of someone wanting to kill him was very disconcerting. “Azina, why would anyone want to kill me. I don’t know anything.”
“It’s not what you know, Lyric, it’s what you might know one day, or rather what you might do one day. The ability to bond with a dragon is a very special type of magic. It can give the person immense power. Before the last dragon war, a dragon-bonded mage ruled most of this Isle. He used his dragon bond to terrorize and kill anyone who opposed him. His dragon burned and killed hundreds before the dragon hunters killed him. People blamed all dragons for the actions of a few. The dragon hunters grew in numbers and ambition and kept hunting every dragon they could find until they were all gone. But the mage ruled all of Isle with an iron fist for many decades before that happened. His cruel rule made people hate people with dragon bonds. No one wanted to risk another tyrant using the dragon magic to create another empire,” said Valeria.
“Is that why people are looking for me? They think I’ll become a tyrant?” asked Lyric.
“I doubt anyone would think you have what it takes to become a tyrant, but yes. People will hunt and try to kill you once they know you’re dragonblood,” said Valeria.
“Can’t we just keep it a secret? Hide here forever?” asked Lyric. Having been chased and beaten his whole life, Lyric found the idea of being hunted and killed something to be avoided. He would much rather live as an obscure nobody in the woods instead of a magical dragon person.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Lyric,” said Azina. “When the dragons return, your magic will manifest on its own. You won’t be able to control it. Legend has it that the more powerful the dragon you are bonded to; the more physical changes occur.”
“So I’m doomed,” said Lyric.
“Don’t be such a pathetic princess, you little prat,” swore Azina.
Lyric jumped back at the venom Azina spoke with.
“What have we been doing since I found you?”
“Training and learning to read,” said Lyric.
“That’s right, training and educating your scrawny little butt. You think I’d waste all that time and food on you if I thought you were a walking dead man?”
“Probably not?” conceded Lyric, he’d never really thought about why Azina had saved him. Grateful for his new life, Lyric would do what Azina asked of him, regardless of his own doubts about dragons.
“Lyric, whether you like it or not, you have trying times ahead. People will try to kill you. Dragons will try to kill you. Your body will change, as will your mind. But this isn’t a curse, it’s a gift. You can cry and whine and wait to die, or you can grow a sack and accept your destiny.”
“Actually, that part of him is ample sized, it’s the rest of him that needs to grow,” said Celine.
Azina shook her head, “Celine, you’re just as incorrigible as your mother ever was, possibly worse. I wasn’t referring to the size of his manhood, I was referring to the size of his spirit. It’s time for Lyric to embrace his destiny.”
Lyric didn’t care about his destiny. He cared that he had a roof over his head and was getting fed every day, everything else was a bonus. He might not believe in the whole dragon nonsense, but he was smart enough to know he needed to appease Azina if he was going to stay with them. “Okay, when do we start training again?”
Azina watched Lyric skeptically. “We can start training tomorrow, but first, we’re going back to Middale. We’re getting you some new clothes. You can’t go exposing yourself all the time. The first time a weapon catches those pants, they’ll tear right off.”
“That could be fun. Let’s try it,” said Celine as she turned her head to give Lyric a wink the other woman couldn’t see.
“Celine, that’s enough,” said Valeria, but the way she said it along with the barely hidden smile hinted that she found Celine’s comments amusing as well.
“Let’s eat and then we can figure out sleeping arrangements. You’ll be in the barn, Lyric. You’ll find a ladd
er on the far wall.”
“Celine, take some blanket and show Lyric the loft,” said Valeria.
The barn was small, a stall big enough for a couple horses, another for tack and gear and an open wall on the other side. The wall was covered in tools, shovels, axes, pitchforks, and a wooden ladder.
Lyric climbed the ladder to look at his new living quarters. The barn was small but well built. The roof showed no signs of leaking and the loft floor was sturdy oak planks. Outside of Azina’s house in Winport, this was the nicest place Lyric had stayed.
Celine gathered up some straw and stuffed it under a blanket. “If you pile up the straw good enough, it makes a comfy bed.” She demonstrated that by flopping onto the makeshift bed and sprawling out. “See, it’s nice and comfy.”
Lyric grinned, Celine was one strange girl, but he found her funny and interesting. “Thank you. It looks very comfortable.”
“I’d better head back to the house before my aunts start thinking I’m trying to corrupt you,” said Celine with an airy smile.
Lyric wasn’t too sure he understood how she’d corrupt him, but he was sad to see her go back inside. He liked having someone his age to talk to.
“At the back of the barn is more straw. Bring a few armfuls up here and finish making your bed. Then come back in for dinner,” said Celine.
Lyric watched in amazement as Celine sprung like a cat, jumping off the loft floor and grabbed a roof cross beam and did a somersault around it and then dropped all the way to the ground below. She landed softly on her feet, looked up at the amazed Lyric, gave him a wink and headed into the house.
After Celine left, Lyric walked to the edge of the loft and looked across at the beam, it was a good six feet from him, and a dozen feet in the air. What a crazy girl!
21
AFTER THE ADVENTUROUS TRIP TO Winport, Sibylle was glad to be back home at Redfall. Life was back to normal, normal as it could be, now that she knew her destiny was going to be determined by a tournament.
Lyric's Curse (Dragonblood Sagas Book 1) Page 8
