I held the paper and said the words, feeling foolish. Larun-do stepped to my side and spoke them with me, bolstering my confidence. After three recitations, we fell silent.
Nothing moved, the air itself seemed to still and settle as if waiting with us. My stomach twisted and my hands began to shake. The paper fell from my fingers and everything seemed to change in an instant, my vision narrowing and expanding and my limbs burning.
I screamed, but the sound came out as more of a roar as I dropped to my knees and my back ripped open. Fire burned my stomach and my body contorted as dark blue scales covered my skin, my hands becoming claws with sharp talons. It seemed an eternity passed before it was over, and I was completely changed
My father had fallen back to the door, his mouth dropped open. Beyond the door, Hella-ma and her sisters had fallen to their knees and were busy praying. Exhaustion pulled at me and I could not hold the transformation, collapsing to the marble floor naked and once more a woman.
I remember little of what followed, though it involved Larun-do bundling me in a robe and carrying me up the stairs. For several days, I slept and ate and little more. Kenwith stayed by my side, a comfort to be certain. I had told her little of my studies and nothing of the notion that I might be a dragon. Who would believe such nonsense anyway?
I recovered and found myself ravenous for meat. In the days and nights that followed, I would often find myself in the kitchens, scouring for meat between meals. Hella-ma insisted that it was needed, to feed the dragon within and she encouraged me to try again and again.
With each attempt, the transformation came easier, and I was less drained, even when I held the change for well over an hour. I found the dragon to be empowering. She was strong and fierce when well fed and when I stood tall, stretching out my wings, my head nearly touched the domed ceiling and my wings ended just before the walls.
She filled my dreams with soaring among clouds and rain and I longed for the day when I could leap into the air and follow those dreams out into the world.
That day would come as the Fall began. I was restless and slipped from the bed I shared with Kenwith, tracing the path to the library and down the stairs without need of light. The dragon called to me and I was helpless to resist her. The lights of the fall painted the library in hues of blue and purple and red. The red came only every ten Falls or so, dancing in the skies above the other colors. I dropped my sleeping gown as I entered the throne room, reaching within myself for the fierce fire and calling the dragon to come out.
As the transformation came through me, the roof began to move, the lights of the Fall bathing me, singing to me and without thought, I surrendered myself to the need, leaping into the air and flying free into the night. The sound of the air was musical, and instinctively, I moved my wings, catching the wind and riding it up into the dancing lights. I gave no mind to the houses below me, nor the caution the priestesses had urged upon me.
Nothing could contain me as I embraced the truth of myself and soared through the colors, dancing with them, following them over the hills beyond the city before circling back. I knew I shouldn't exhaust myself, so reluctantly I returned to that open roof, settling down to the marble floor, my wings folding inward as my talons clacked against the stone.
I did not see Kenwith at the door, but I heard her sharp intake of air and turned, even as the transformation reversed and my body returned to that of a woman. I reached out a hand as if to comfort her, but she turned and ran up the stairs. I tried to follow, but the flight had drained me and it was all I could do to pull my sleeping gown back onto my body.
I rested there, at the door until I had the strength to climb the stairs. I returned to Kenwith's suite to find the door locked. I sank to the floor beside it, wanting to tell her to not be afraid, wishing I had told her more about what was happening to me. The door didn't open until morning, and when it did, Kenwith looked startled to find me there.
“Kenwith.” I stood, one hand holding the wall for support. “Let me explain.”
She shook her head. “No, Chenna. I know what I saw.”
“I have not changed.” Which was a lie, I knew. I had changed. I was still changing.
“Is this why you came here?”
I shook my head. “No. I only wanted to know where my mother came from.”
“Then maybe it's time that you leave.” Kenwith said. “If the houses of congress were to find out what you are…”
“I will hide it, I will never change again.”
She shook her head. “You cannot deny what you are, Chenna.”
“Please, Kenwith. I did not want this. I never wanted…” But I did want it now, now that I had felt the euphoria that came with taking wing. My whole body craved it.
“I have a charity meeting with my mother.” Kenwith said, turning on her heel and stalking away. She left the door open for me to go in. I bathed and dressed in the most modest clothes I could find, sitting myself at her vanity to brush through my dark hair. The colors of my skin seemed to be brighter, more intense.
I found myself wondering how I appeared as a dragon. I was still sitting at the vanity when there was a knock on the door and Hella-ma entered the room. “We must take you to the temple,” she said urgently. “Before you are discovered.”
“I don't understand.” I let her tug me to my feet and toward the door.
“We have been exposed,” she responded. “The Counsel of Commons has issued a summons to have you brought before them.”
I frowned as she bustled me through corridors and out to a doorway that led to an external doorway near one of the bridges open to the public. One of her sisters met us there, draping me in one of their red robes and hustling me toward the bridge. I drew the deep hood up over my head as we stepped onto the bridge. It was the time of the Fall, the only time these bridges were empty. I kept my head down as we walked, trying to slow the rapid burning inside of me that longed to take to the skies.
Hella-ma whispered directions, and I followed because I didn't know what else to do. The Counsel of Commons was the largest house of the congress, and the one who most often dealt out punishment for broken laws. I had not broken any laws that I could place. My mind skipped to Kenwith, and the fear I had seen in her eyes.
Surely, she would not have gone to the Counsel of Commons. She would have taken her fear to her father, who sat on the Counsel of Lords. The thought came to me that perhaps she had, and he, in turn had gone to the Counsel of Commons.
I was still thinking about that when we reached the shadows of the red temple that was nearly as old as the palace itself. I was ushered into the quiet, into the sanctuary where I at last felt safe enough to push back the hood of my robe. My father was there, and with him several aids and others I had seen at various times.
“Are you okay?” Larun-do asked as he approached me.
“I am uncertain.” I said. “What happened?”
He lifted an eyebrow at me. “You went flying last night.”
I frowned, crossing my arms. “It is the Fall. No one saw me, save Kenwith, who must have followed me. She saw me return.”
“I saw you, but then, I was out in the garden. When I heard you'd been summoned, I assumed you were seen by someone else.”
“If she was, whomever raised the alarm would have to answer for why they were out on a night in the Fall.” Hella-ma said.
“So, we must assume that one of the servants overheard something.” Larun-do said, one hand on my shoulder. “We must decide our next course of action.”
“Action?” I shook my head. “You had a plan, didn't you? There was a reason you have not publicly claimed me, a reason why we were keeping this entire thing a secret?”
“There was. There is. But we are not ready yet.”
“Maybe it's time you fill me in on this plan.”
They had kept me in the dark for the most part, teaching me the history and language enough that I could find the dragon within, but I still had no idea what they wer
e planning beyond that.
“We are working with a group of people that are tired of the corruption within the Counsels.” Larun-do said. “We had hoped that once you had manifested your true nature we could have you reclaim the throne our ancestors abandoned and wipe the slate clean.”
“You….” The notion of it swam around inside me. They had made me a traitor without even allowing me to know the full weight of their plans. Though looking back now, I must confess that on some level I knew this was why they had been tutoring me.
The dragon within longed to come to life, to eliminate the threats that now faced us.
“We are safe enough until the end of the Fall.” Hella-ma said.
“Maybe we should act now, while they cower away from the lights.” Larun-do countered. “Set loose the dragon to clear out the palace.”
“What is it you would have me do, Father?” I asked, my voice displaying my displeasure. “Shall I burn it to the ground? Kill all of those within? How would that serve anything but destruction?”
“No, of course not,” he replied. “Unless there is no other way.”
I turned away in disgust, my stomach growling its emptiness. “I require food.” I said. “I have not eaten since my transformation last night.”
I said nothing else until the food was brought to me. I sat with my back to them and ate, my thoughts churning. They would not move against us during the Fall, nor would they violate the sanctuary.
I underestimated the fear of those who would lose power if the people were to know that the dragons had returned. I had sated the need within me for sustenance, and was pondering the wisdom of merely taking wing and leaving all together when the sound of doors being broken open roused me from my contemplations.
Larun-do, jumped to my side, determined to protect me I suppose, as the sanctuary filled with armed men. The fighting was brief, the temple's priestesses overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
I was dragged from behind my father, my arms pinned behind my back, a heavy collar put on my neck, forcing me to my knees. The man who seemed to be in charge stepped up beside me, his weapon under my chin pulling my face up.
“You don't look much like a dragon,” he sneered.
I wanted to prove him wrong, but even with the meat warming my belly, I did not think I could transform with the heavy iron restraints holding me. “Really, Larun-do, I would have thought you would be more protective of your little plot.”
My father was forced to his knees beside me. “And I would have expected better of you too, Kava.”
I blinked at the man who now held us prisoner. Kava, the head of the Counsel of Lords. “No matter, we have all the proof we need. Trial will commence in two days, when the Fall has ended.
We were dragged from the temple and separated, and I was taken up into this tiny tower room where even now I await my fate. There is no hope of fleeing now, even if there were room enough to transform. I am surrounded by stone and iron. All I have of freedom is the view out my window as the lights dance along the sky.
If this were a fairy story, the kind we tell children as we put them to bed, there would be some happy ending. Kenwith would come to release me, and we would win the day. But this is not a fairy tale, and Kenwith has not come to even see me since my arrest. In the morning there will be a trial, by tomorrow evening, I expect I shall be dead.
The fire burns within me, but I shall never again taste the euphoria of flight, and when I am gone there will be dragons no more.
The End.
About the Author: Natalie J Case
An avid reader from a very early age, Natalie grew up in worlds that only exist in books. Her influences run the gamut of genres, from childhood mysteries like Nancy Drew and The Bobsey Twins to epic fantasy and hardcore sci-fi.
Jericho Jordan is an introduction to a character and story that will likely come to fruition sometime in 2018. Currently, she is working on the second series in the Shades and Shadows series, a set of paranormal thrillers. The first in that series, Through Shade and Shadow was released in 2017.
Books by Natalie J Case:
Forever
Through Shade and Shadow
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authornataliejcase/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/nataliejcase
Website: https://nataliejcase.com
Tenelach: Legends of the Tri-Gard Vol. 1.5
By Michelle Lynn
Chapter One
To look upon the village was to see heartbreak. Yet, Mira couldn't look away. It was her home. These people were supposed to be her family, her friends, and they were starving. It was hard to feel anything at all for them but pity. She looked up from her place near the hearth to examine her mother's fine bones, sharp and gaunt. The skin was loose over her frame.
As a child, Mira could remember her mother as a plump woman with rosy cheeks. The years had changed them all.
Her father was still the looming figure of her youth, but there was a resignation in him that was painful to see.
Mira held out her hands to let the fire thaw the ice in her veins.
Twenty years to the day. That was how long it had been since magic ran through their lands. She'd been seven when it was stolen and the entire realm of Dreach-Sciene began its downward spiral into ruin. Seven was old enough to remember; old enough to wish she could forget.
There'd been such joy. It was a kind of joy that only an intense connection to the earth could bring. Without magic, that connection was lost.
In the village, they called her a spinster and maybe that was what she was.
Her face still held much of the beauty that others had lost through the hard years. Wide golden eyes sat deep in a face that was framed with thick honey curls. She was thin – as they all were – but managed to hold on to a few of her curves.
The men in the village desired her, but she had yet to meet someone who could challenge her. She didn't want to be only a wife or a mother. She didn't know what she wanted.
Except that more than anything she longed to fall in love.
“I'm going to go into the forest to find some berries,” she said, getting to her feet.
Her mother looked up suddenly. “Mira,” she sneered. “It is too cold.” What her mother really meant was that looking for berries was a useless task because they had long depleted that resource.
Mira looked back at where her mother was stirring the large pot of potato stew that sat over the fire. It wouldn't be enough to keep her brother and sister from crying out with hunger in the night. Hanging her head low, she fastened a cloak about her shoulders and stepped out into the evening chill with a basket swinging from her arm.
The sound of running feet drifted in the air and she turned just in time to catch her brother as he ran past. Toro laughed as she lifted his small frame. Their sister Tara crashed into them from behind and wrapped her arms around Mira's legs.
Such laughter seemed like it didn't belong in their village. People stared as Mira squeezed her siblings. They were only eight. They didn't yet know there was nothing to smile about in their lives.
“Can we come into the forest, Mira?” Toro asked.
“Please?” Tara jumped up and down.
Mira set Toro back on his feet and leaned down to look at the both of them. “Not today, I'm afraid.”
“Oooo,” Toro looked at Tara. “She wants to be alone.”
The little girl crossed her arms over her chest. “She always wants to be alone.”
Mira had nothing to say to that so she ushered them inside and then took off down the path through the village. People stared as she went by, but that was nothing new. They called her odd and didn't speak to her.
She didn't mind. She preferred books to people anyways. Maybe that was the problem. She glanced down at the book of stories hidden in her basket. Books were a rare and precious commodity. An old woman in the village had given this one to her before she died and it was Mira's most valued possession. She wou
ldn't be able to read in the waning light, but having it with her made her believe in the impossible again.
Her life was no fairy-tale. She had yet to meet a man she would consider princely. Magic no longer existed in their land. She didn't believe in happily-ever-afters. All she had was trying to survive.
Before the wars that ended in the destruction of magic, life had been simple. It had been good. She'd had a good childhood. Then the fighting came. It reached every corner of their realm. No one was safe. No one was spared. Her own father was injured. Their king was killed and their lives were forever changed.
The path she trod took her away from the village towards the large expanse of trees that stretched as far as she could see. If she kept walking, she knew that in maybe a week's time, she would reach the shores of whitecap and the sea of Uisce that could take her to the lands beyond. Maybe there was something better out there, something more.
Her legs tired more quickly than she wished and she realized that getting away from her village was only a fantasy. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had the energy to make it past the edge of the trees. It was probably the last time her belly was full.
She set her basket down and dropped to her knees beside a large oak tree. Its branches were twisted and held their dead leaves hanging above her head. She looked up as one drifted down to land on her shoulder. Her fingers picked up the dried, brown leaf and crushed it between them.
A tear leaked from her eye at the thought that this was the only way her brother and sister knew the forest. To them, it was dark and dead. In her mind, it still held so much life. Little feet used to run through the wildflowers, picking them for her mother.
Little mouths used to munch on berries as bright red juice dripped down their chins.
The wind whipped up around her, willing her to go home to warm herself by her fire.
Once Upon A Broken Dream: A Creativia Anthology Page 15
