by Linda McNabb
Mountains of Fire
Book 1 of Dragon Charmers
By Linda McNabb
Copyright Linda McNabb 2006
Linda McNabb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
Cover image Martin Malchev
CHAPTER ONE - DRAGON FARM
Logan covered his eyes just a second too late as the blast of white light struck his eyes. The ringing in his ears brought a sharp pain to his nose and he lost his balance. He groped for the solid wooden bench in front of him and clutched it as he waited for the effects of his last spell to fade away. He shook his head in frustration, but instantly regretted it as his hand slipped from the bench and he toppled sideways onto the cold stone floor.
He didn’t even attempt to get up. Instead, he just lay on the floor and let the coolness seep into his head, soothing the dull ache. When the ringing in his ears had finally faded to a distant buzzing, he opened one eye. It took a few seconds for the room to come into focus. Bright white light still hovered around the edges of his vision, but Logan ignored it and slowly pushed himself to an upright position so he could survey the damage.
The workbench was completely empty and all the ingredients of his spell were spread across the small workroom. The stone bowl he had been mixing them in had shattered to dust, and now the entire room was covered in a white powder that looked a lot like snow.
An old man sat in a threadbare armchair in the corner of the room. He was covered in white dust from head to foot, but he didn’t seem to notice. The old man was gazing at the pale purple gem on a chain he was holding. Logan sighed as he struggled to his feet and walked over to get the broom, which stood by the door. He used the broom a lot these days.
‘Almost time for supper,’ the old man said suddenly and stood up, dislodging a shower of dust from his clothes. His face broke into a smile as he held out a hand to the dancing motes. ‘Snow already? It’s early this year.’
‘It’s not snow, Zared,’ Logan said in a flat tone. He coughed as the broom sent a cloud of dust into his face. ‘I followed your spell book, but instead of making a white rose it exploded.’
‘White roses,’ Zared mused and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘I’ve got a spell for them somewhere. You should try it sometime. It’s quite easy really.’
Logan shook his head and bit his lip to stop himself replying. This was obviously not one of the old wizard’s better days. The old man had seemed so lucid an hour ago when he had started to show Logan the spell, but the old man’s attention span and memory rarely lasted long and the piercing blue eyes had glazed over again in a matter of minutes. Even though Logan had tried to finish the spell on his own,, the results were predictable.
‘I should go and salt the pathway before it snows again,’ Zared said, brushing dust from worn robes that were usually dark brown. ‘Don’t forget to check the stoppers on all the jars and bottles. We don’t want the cold winter air getting into them.’
The old man ambled from the room, whistling happily, and the workroom door slammed shut behind him. Logan wondered how long it would take the old man to figure out it was almost the middle of summer.
He put the broom down and went to the shelves full of the jars that held all the ingredients for the wizard’s spells. He checked the closest jars, wiping off the dust as he went. When he had cleaned all of the containers they used regularly, Logan sighed deeply, strode over to the darkest corner of the room and reached up for the first jar. He wasn’t worried about air getting into these bottles; he was more worried that something might escape from them. The jar he held contained live spiders - huge ones! He had no idea how they managed to live inside a jar with a cork in it, and no food, and he had never been brave enough to ask.
Logan gave the cork a firm shove, wiped the dust off, and quickly put the jar back up on the shelf. The next one didn’t have anything living in it, but the label was bad enough. Bat wings. Logan was wary of things that flew — just imagining bats made him shiver. He could hear the old wizard shovelling salt onto the stone path outside the window and he hurried along the shelf. Toad spots, crow’s feathers, live ants with huge green bellies. The jars on the lower shelf were all empty, but Logan checked the stoppers anyway. He was rather glad they were empty, as the labels sounded gross, especially the last one — dragon heart. Logan cringed as he checked the last stopper and returned to cleaning up the white dust.
‘What’s been going on here?’ a cheerful voice asked from the doorway. Logan looked up and smiled. Alyxa, one of his friends, was standing by the door, her eyebrows raised at the mess which greeted her. ‘And why is the wizard putting salt out in the middle of summer?’
‘Don’t ask,’ Logan replied, a slight blush tingeing his cheeks. He would rather nobody see his latest failure.
‘Leave this. I’ve got something to show you.’ The tone of mystery in Alyxa’s voice showed she was bursting to tell a secret. ‘Haven’t you got some sort of spell that can clean this up?’
‘Yeah, but I was bored so I thought I’d do it by hand,’ Logan lied badly. He knew the spell but the results would probably be worse than he already had. Hopefully the wizard would come back to reality soon and clean it up for him.
‘Come on then,’ Alyxa said with a smile.
‘We’re not flying, are we?’ Logan asked, suddenly wary.
‘No, I walked here. The last dragon I was training has gone to its new owner.’ Alyxa kept a straight face, but Logan knew she was hiding a grin. His dislike of flying, in a world full of dragons, was well known and he was the butt of many jokes because of it.
Logan shrugged, tossed the broom into the corner, and gave his blue tunic a slap to dislodge the remaining dust.
‘It’s still in your hair,’ Alyxa commented, not managing to hide her mirth this time. She laughed as she reached up and brushed the dust from his untidy shoulder-length mop of blond hair.
Logan stepped out of reach and shook his head like a dog, then followed his friend from the room. They walked out the front door, into the brilliant sunshine, and stepped around the old wizard as he busily spread shovel-loads of salt on the stone path.
‘Well?’ Logan looked around at the empty street. Luckily it was the middle of the day and most people were inside, keeping out of the searing heat, so nobody was around to see the wizard’s unusual behaviour.
‘You’ll have to come down to the farm,’ Alyxa said, grabbing Logan’s sleeve and hurrying him out the gate before he could protest.
A loud snort made Logan step into the middle of the road, dragging Alyxa with him. He glared at the immense green dragon, which lay dozing in the shade of a leafy green tree. It was too hot even for sun-loving dragons today. The dragon’s long tail twitched, its yellow, arrow-shaped tip swinging out, narrowly missing them.
‘Greens won’t hurt you,’ Alyxa reminded Logan as he took another step away and hurried past the slumbering giant.
‘I know that,’ Logan muttered. ‘I don’t know what bothers me about them. Do we really have to go down to the dragon farm?’
‘I can’t show you my surprise if we don’t,’ Alyxa pouted. ‘I promise we won’t stay long. Besides, it’s too hot and they’re all asleep in the shade, just like that green.’
‘What if your father sees me at the farm? He doesn’t allow anyone but dragon charmers there,’ Logan pointed out.
‘We could always pretend you are there to buy a dragon,’ Alyxa suggested th
oughtfully.
Logan automatically stepped sideways to avoid a dark shadow from a dense tree. Alyxa shot him an odd look.
‘Why do you do that?’ she asked curiously, pausing under the tree to take advantage of its cool shade. ‘I’ve seen you do it dozens of times.’
‘Zared doesn’t like me walking in the shadows,’ Logan muttered, feeling sweat trickle down his back as he waited out in the sun for her.
‘He doesn’t let you out after dark either,’ Alyxa added with a raised eyebrow and a twitch at the side of her mouth. ‘Does he think the shadow dragons are going to get you? You do know it’s just a story to frighten little kids into being good, don’t you?’
A slight blush stained Logan’s cheeks, and he turned away to look towards the dragon farm. Even from this distance he could see the huge nets which surrounded it.
‘It doesn’t hurt to humour the old man,’ he said bluntly. He took out his slingshot, which was always in his pocket, and picked up a stone. He casually aimed at a tree in the distance. The shot flew true and straight, as always. ‘Can we go now? I’m melting out here.’
‘OK, OK.’ They continued down the road towards the high nets. The cluster of houses came to an abrupt end and the huge dragon farm loomed ahead. Black loose-woven nets were hung between thick wooden poles which stood over twenty feet high. Within the circle was a small cluster of dark green buildings. There were no houses beyond the farm. The moors stretched out for as far as the eye could see, leading up to snow-capped mountains on the horizon.
Even though the large entrance to the dragon farm was directly ahead of them, Alyxa dragged Logan around the side of the enclosure. He tried not to look at the inhabitants through the netting, but the eyes of the dozens of dragonets trapped within followed the humans with interest. One began to run alongside them, keeping pace as Alyxa hurried Logan along.
‘Aren’t they cute when they want to play?’ Alyxa said, pausing to reach through the netting and pat the pale yellow dragonet on the head. ‘Yellow females this large are so rare. She’s only a few weeks old.’
The dragonet stood taller than Alyxa, and small flames licked from the young dragon’s snout, causing Alyxa to quickly retract her arm through the netting. Logan knew the netting would not burn or it would be no use at all for housing baby dragons.
‘It’s such a shame they lose their flames after only a couple of moon cycles,’ Alyxa said with a fond sigh. Logan didn’t think huge dragons breathing fire would be good, but he didn’t bother to comment.
‘Is the yellow dragon the surprise?’ he asked hopefully instead.
‘No, silly. It’s much better than that,’ Alyxa assured him. The yellow dragon followed them around the netting until it reached another netting barrier which kept the different types of dragons apart. They had reached a smaller entrance that was far too small to allow a dragon through. ‘It’s over here in the shed.’
Logan took a deep breath as he followed Alyxa through the small opening in the netting and closed it carefully behind him. He looked around nervously to see if any of the young dragons were at the flying stage, but the only dragons around appeared to be seeking shelter under the many large trees in the compound. They were in an area set aside for the larger, slower-witted green dragons, and only one lifted its head sleepily, snorted and went back to sleep.
Ahead of them was a tall, long building with no windows. It was painted with dark green paint which repelled flames, and had been nicknamed ‘the shed’ by the dragon charmers over the years. It housed the extra-special dragons, but it hadn’t been used in years. One end of the building was hinged so it could open to let dragons in and out.
Alyxa paused at a small, human-sized door and lifted a finger to her lips, grinning broadly. ‘Quiet, he might be asleep.’
The last thing Logan wanted to do was go into a building where there was bound to be a dragon, but Alyxa was a good friend. He seemed to be the only one in the entire village who didn’t like dragons — except for Zared. Hopefully, he would be able to make the appropriate encouraging comments and then leave, quickly.
Alyxa opened the door very slowly and peered inside, then grinned back at Logan, her eyes shining with excitement. She pulled him in and shut the door quickly, blocking out all the light.
It took a minute before Logan’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could make out a shape a few paces in front of them. A gentle snoring told him that the dragon was asleep. Alyxa struck a tinder and lit a small lamp on the wall. Logan saw a glistening blue dragon.
‘He’s amazing,’ Logan said, trying to sound impressed when he really wanted to run away. The dragonet looked to be at least a few moon cycles old by the size of its golden horns and because no flames licked out of its snout as it snored.
‘His first charm is complete and we’re releasing him out into the farm today.’ Alyxa paused to make sure Logan was listening. ‘And I charmed him.’
‘You?’ Logan almost forgot there was a huge dragon in front of him as he stared at his friend. Blue dragons weren’t usually charmed by mere apprentices, especially when there hadn’t been a blue dragon in years.
‘Father said I was the most gifted charmer he had ever seen. He even said I was better than mother was,’ Alyxa stated proudly.
At that very second, a loud, gruff voice came from the other side of the wall.
‘He’s right in here. We’ll be mixing him with the rest of the herd today — getting him used to other dragons.’
‘Father!’ Alyxa hissed at Logan. ‘He can’t find you in here.’
The locks on the huge side wall clattered and the wall began to move slowly out, letting in a flood of light.
‘Hide!’ Alyxa urged desperately, but Logan had already taken a dive towards a large barrel of water by the door. He squeezed between the barrel and the wall, trying to tuck his feet out of sight, as the side of the building swung open completely.
‘Alyxa, what are you doing in here?’ the dragon farmer asked in surprise as the light fell on her and the pearly blue dragon.
‘I... I just wanted to check on him,’ Alyxa replied, stepping back to pat the dragon on its long snout. The dragon opened its eyes and lifted its head to reveal a shimmering purple underbelly. It looked haughtily around, and its pale yellow eyes rested briefly on Logan before flicking back to the huge open doorway.
‘Are you sure it’s charmed?’ Another voice asked cautiously. Peering above the barrel, Logan nearly choked when he saw the king standing next to Alyxa’s father.
