To Light the Dragon's Fire

by Margaret Taylor

  She lifted a hand, expecting it to pass through his body and prove her point. But very real heat coiled around her outstretched finger a scant second before she touched his chest. An unexpected burst of energy sent her flying backwards. She landed on the roof, arms and legs flailing, the air ripped from her lungs in a whoosh as she slid toward the edge…

  “Terra!”

  She bounced against the low wall at the far end, momentum sending her feet over head in a dizzying spin. She scrambled to grab the wall but missed, her fingers clutching at empty air as she began to fall.

  ***

  Draven’s triple hearts slammed together as the woman he’d just met tumbled out of sight. Instinctively he bolted across the roof, pebbles crunching under his feet as he dove after her. Folding his body into a streamline, he caught her eye as they fell. Hers were panicked beyond reason and he smiled before giving into the fire of his blood and allowing his true self to emerge.

  His torso expanded, pores opening to release the heat that had been boiling under the surface since they’d met. It curled around him, tendrils of flame licking along his skin as it hardened into scales. His neck stretched, the extra vertebrae he needed growing of their own accord. The fire covered his face, momentarily blinding him and he shook it away.

  A ripple of panic coursed over his thoughts as he lost sight of her then he relaxed. She was just below him and he reached out with elongating fingers, massive talons ripping through the ends of each just in time to wrap around her protectively.

  His office was the tallest in the city and that saved them both. No sooner had the rest of his body filled in than he spied the ground rushing up to meet them. With a bellow he unfurled his long wings and caught just enough of an air current to slow their rapid descent.

  But he wouldn’t be able to stop them from crashing. With a curse, he rolled onto his back, folding the newly formed appendages around his body, covering her with a second layer of protection as they slammed into the ground…

  ***

  “Will he live?”

  “His Majesty is fine, just bounced his thick skull on the ground. He should wake shortly.”

  Arin’s relieved sigh worked its way into the darkness and he cracked an eye. “Not my, most graceful landing.”

  Arin snorted out a chuckle. “Definitely not. Definitely not.”

  He groaned, scrubbing a hand down his face. “Did I hit anyone?”

  The bed under him shifted with Arin’s weight. “Fortunately no. Most had already left.”

  Well, at least he hadn’t unintentionally killed an innocent bystander. His eyes snapped open. “Terra?”

  Arin patted his arm. “She’s fine. Shaken, but fine.”

  He sat up, searching his private suite. “Where is she?”

  “In the dungeon,” Arin replied. “Why?”

  He leaned back on his arms, frowning up at his long-time friend. “For what reason?”

  Arin shrugged casually. “She touched you.”

  He loved the man next to him like a brother, despite their differences, but sometimes Arin’s outlook on their laws was enough to drive him to drink! He flopped an arm over his eyes and laid back on the bed, hoping the darkness would ease the pounding in his head. “She did not touch me. My shield…”

  “Stopped her, yes.” Arin finished. “She still tried. An offense as you know, that is punishable by five Suns in the dungeon.”

  He lifted his arm enough to see Arin again. “Did it occur to you to ask her why she tried to touch me first?”

  The Chimera frowned. “Well, no. I just assumed…”

  He smacked the man in the side of the head. “Bring her to me.”

  ***

  Lanni paced the stone cell, one eye on the door, the other on Terra. She hadn’t moved since they’d been dumped in the cold, cramped room. At least they’d been nice enough to stretch her out on one of the two ledges before exiting without so much as a by your leave.

  Her sister’s eyes were closed, her breathing even but she’d still checked Terra over for any injuries. Finding none, she’d been relieved and thankful. She didn’t know what happened once the man had dove after her. By the time she’d reached the edge of the roof, they were on the ground, sixty stories below, several vehicles crushed and mangled under the large body of a dragon.

  She’d figure it out later.

  Right now, they had bigger problems. Like being charged with assault and sentenced to spend the next five suns, whatever that meant, in this cell.

  She spun and stalked toward the wall. “Some nerve,” she muttered only half under her breath. “My sister nearly dies and they throw us in the dungeon!” She went the other way, raising her voice toward the door. “Why, I have half a mind to charge him with assault! And attempted murder!”

  “It would not be wise.”

  The statement brought her up short and she whirled around trying to find the speaker. “What? Who? Who’s there?”

  “Down here, M’lady.”

  She stopped, slowing her gaze until she spied the small, rodent looking creature perched on the edge of the stone ledge jutting out from the wall. She tried not to freak out, she really did, but she’d always hated rats! Something about their intense black eyes and wiggling little noses and squeaks and nails scrapping against things…

  But this one wasn’t squeaking. And it wasn’t scraping. And its nose wasn’t wiggling.

  It was just sitting there. Looking at her with…she leaned in a bit to see it better in the shadows…blue eyes?

  Blue eyes? Rats didn’t have blue eyes!

  Did they? No. They didn’t.

  She took a step toward it at the exact moment the sun chose to shoot a beam through the small window set high in the wall. It landed right on the thing and she gasped sharply.

  The creature wasn’t a rat at all. It looked almost like a Ferret she’d seen once in a vid. A long body covered in very soft looking purple fur, it had four short legs, two of which were folded calmly together across its tiny chest. A long tail was curled behind him in a loop, seeming to help him sit upright and his blue eyes continued to regard her with intelligence glittering in their depths.

  “I’m sorry?”

  He smiled, his little snout lifting to expose sharp teeth and his whiskers finally did wiggle. “I said, it would not be wise. Attempting to levy charges against the King is a fool’s gamble at best.”

  “The, the King?” she stuttered. “What are you talking about?”

  It shifted down onto all fours and moved closer, pushing upright again at the end of the ledge. “The King is the one that saved your sister,” he said, jerking his snout toward Terra. “But that is for later. Right now, we must go.”

  She blinked at him. “Go? Go where? How?”

  His hand dipped to his waist, disappearing into a small pouch she hadn’t noticed before. It reappeared and he opened it, blowing against a small pile of dust on his palm. Green grains lifted into the air and swirled across the cell toward the far wall. They landed against the stone seconds later and formed into…

  A door, complete with a glowing knob on the left hand side?

  She gulped hard, nearly jumping out of her skin as the creature scurried up her leg and perched on her shoulder.

  “If you will kindly open it, we will be on our way,” he said next to her ear.

  “Um, what about Terra? I can’t carry her.”

  The little guy chuckled. “Just open it. Your sister will be attended too.”

  After only a moment’s hesitation, she did as she was asked and walked forward. With a shake in her hand she couldn’t stop, she reached for the lightly glowing knob and gave it a twist…

  ***

  “Sire!”

  The door to his private suite bursting open brought Draven’s head up, a growl in his voice that sounded harsher than he intended. “What?”

  “The, the humans are gone,” one of his guards said breathlessly.

  He shot up off the bed, pausing momentaril
y to shake his head against the pounding pain that hadn’t quite subsided. “What?!”

  The guard gulped, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. “They, they were in their cell,” he stuttered. “One minute and then gone the next.”

  He drew in a long breath, calling on his years of diplomatic dealings to remain calm. “Start, at, the, beginning.”

  The poor man gulped again and dropped his eyes to the floor, ringing his hands, the gauntlets on his wrists rattling softly. “As I said, Sire, they were in the cell. I looked away to sign the dinner sheet and when I looked back, they were gone.”

  He ground his teeth, doing his best to keep another growl out of his voice. “Did you replay the file?”

  The man nodded quickly, still not looking up. “Of course. They just disappeared.”

  Draven ran a hand through his hair, gripping the back of his neck to stave off the increased pounding in his brain. “Show me.”

  The guard turned for the wall across from his bed and pressed an inset button. The area parted on silent mechanics revealing a large screen. Pulling the keyboard out, he pressed a series of buttons and the surface filled with an image of the two women. As he’d said, they were in the cell and Draven watched with a mix of horror and fascination as they simply…disappeared.

  “Back it up, start from the time they were placed there,” he commanded.

  The guard pressed another series of keys and backed up the file to the proper spot.

  He stood, feet braced and watched the one called Lanni talk to herself then stop dead. She bent toward the ledge not holding Terra then stood upright again with a jerk before they both just vanished.

  His eyes cut to the corner of the frame and he noted the time. “Again, slowly.”

  On the second, frame-by-frame run-through, he again noted the time and found a ten second discrepancy from the moment Lanni stopped dead to the next frame in the file.

  “Flagnok!”

  The guard started at his choice of words. “What Sire? What did you see?”

  Not bothering to explain, he grabbed a shirt from his closet and headed for the elevator. Tapping a foot while he waited for the car to arrive, he nearly shoved himself through the doors once it did. Hitting the button for the lowest level, he used the time it took the small car to traverse the 70 plus stories down into the dungeons to focus on the implications of the women’s appearance in their world and their subsequent disappearance.

  Arriving, he said nothing to the guard on duty, simply turned left and headed for the cell. The Keeper and several of his staff milled around the door, talking in low voices. He pushed past them as well, heading into the cramped space.

  Suppressing a shudder to keep his claustrophobia in check, he closed his eyes and opened himself to the magics inherent in his blood. It took him a good five heartbeats to find it – five heartbeats with the walls threatening to close in on him after every one – but eventually he did. On the far side of the room the faintest outline of a door remained.

  He took two steps and touched the surface, jerking back just as quickly when dark evil sizzled against his palm.

  “Unicorns…”

  Chapter Four

  “You cannot be serious!” Arin berated after he explained his plan to go after the women. “We’ll send a Roc Faction, take them from above.”

  Draven stopped throwing things he might need into a travel pack and glared at his friend. “And tell them we are coming? I think not. This requires stealth.”

  Arin tapped a boot against the floor, raising an eyebrow. “And a 200 length dragon is your idea of stealthy?”

  He went back to packing. “No. But if I leave now, I will arrive after darkfall. I can land and make my way in on foot.”

  Arin snorted. “It is a bad plan. We know little about their lands. You could be walking into a trap.”

  He zipped up the pack. “It is most definitely a trap. Why else would they have taken the humans?” Arin didn’t seem to have an immediate answer, but he did. “They were here less than a rotation, which means we have at least one traitor in our midst. Find them.”

  Arin’s shoulders stiffened and he grunted. “No. I will set Furiem to that task. I am coming with you.”

  Without waiting for him to approve that bit of news, Arin disappeared out the door and was back just as quickly. He’d changed from the three-piece suit he’d worn earlier to a black shirt and pants and was sheathing his battle tested Rustac sword, Thonu, across his wide back.

  “Riding or flying?”

  Arin tapped a finger against his chin. “I think I will ride in comfort this time. If you are eight Nether Worlds bent on this fool-hardy mission, someone has to bring your carcass back.”

  He chuckled and tossed the pack to his best friend. “Fine. You can carry the gear.”

  Stepping out onto the balcony, he vaulted over the railing and let the fire in his blood rise to the surface. It came on just as quickly as it had when he’d leapt to save Terra and that was a bit of a shock. Normally it took many heartbeats to fully transform, but not this time.

  Before he was two stories below his suite, his body had filled out. He flapped his long wings, pushing away from the building itself and circled once, swinging back easily to hover next to the railing.

  Arin was waiting and launched himself into the air with a battle cry neither of them had heard in some time.

  Draven snatched him out of the air and without waiting for him to get comfortable in his massive claw, spun on an air current and dove toward the ground…

  ***

  It took him most of the rotation to cover the ground from Bra’ka to Kelas on the western coast. He thought to stop and rest in the Cyclops city, but his presence in either form would bring far too many questions and lead to way too many rumors. Instead he swung just north of the ship building mecca and landed on the sandy beach.

  Pausing only long enough to catch his breath, he scooped Arin up without a word and took flight once more. Crossing the Bay of Cythes was going to take everything he had. He’d be exhausted by the time they reached the far shore, but his gut was screaming at him to do this.

  He had no clue why the Unicorns would want Terra or Lanni. The minions of evil had not shown themselves since his father’s time a hundred Suns ago, so why now? What could they possibly want with a pair of run of the mill humans?

  Granted they were twins, spitting images of one another in all truth, and that could be the reason. Magic users, especially those that practiced the darker side of it, loved twins.

  How many spells and prophecies called for that exact thing?

  He’d lost count…

  Pushing himself as high as he dared, he settled into a strong westerly pocket of the air stream and rode it. The warmed air slipped across his scales and he almost hummed with pleasure. It’d been too many Suns since he’d allowed himself flight and despite the circumstances for this one, it felt good.

  Too good in all reality…almost enough to forget this impromptu mission and just fly.

  Shaking away the desire, he focused again on the problem at hand.

  Racking his brain, he dug deep into history, hoping to find answers there.

  Humans had not been seen in the Five Kingdoms since before the Taraxus Dragons had taken over the Royal House. Not since Decia, the daughter of King Elfane Cali, was banished to their world during Sun 1622. History told her story as one of dark evil. According to the records, Decia had joined with the Unicorns in order to oust her father from the throne.

  When their plan was discovered, she’d been banished and King Elfane had ordered all the portals to the Human world sealed by the Pegasus. The Unicorns had retreated to the Gorum Peninsula on the very western edge of his kingdom and remained there ever since.

  Occasionally they would rear their dark heads, but until now it had been nothing more than a nuisance. His father had always dealt with any sort of uprising swiftly and decisively and they hadn’t tried anything since his own rule began.


  So, why now? What could they possibly be after?

  ***

  “Gently pinch in two fingers of wart root…”

  A soft sizzling noise tickled at Terra’s consciousness, drawing her back to the real world. At first she thought it was a fly, or maybe a bee, but how would an insect have gotten into her hermetically sealed apartment?!

  It wouldn’t have.

  Was Lanni cooking then?

  No, couldn’t be that either. Lanni never cooked, anything. Her twin sibling left that sort of thing to their housekeeper. And whose voice was that talking? It certainly didn’t sound like their quiet housekeeper? No one lived with her but Lanni and what in the world would either of them be doing with something called wart root?!

  The voice was definitely male. Maria wasn’t married and Lanni’s current beau was off somewhere in Britain on business…

  “Very good. Next, dribble in three fingers of scale and…”

  Before he could say more, something exploded with a loud pop, like a firecracker. The scent of burnt fur and flesh coated the inside of her nostrils and she sneezed herself fully awake.

  Sitting up, she swiped the hair out of her eyes and gazed around. She was in a work room of some sort, with floor to ceiling shelves holding all manner of books, jars and the bleached bones of any number of animals.

  Bones?

  She blinked once, hoping this was some weird dream but everything came back in a hard, earth shattering rush. Sailing across the rooftop, bouncing over the edge, falling…watching the man who’d made her heart stop short sail into the air…

  And the very last thing she remembered was his transforming hand coming right for her…

  “Ah yes, there you are.”

  Hooves thudded against the dirt and she turned toward the sound, staring up into the glowing red eyes of a unicorn. She blinked again. The creature was solid black, right down to his shining hooves, save for the eyes and the golden horn protruding from his forehead.

  Wait! Just wait! Every story, every fable, every fantasy book she’d ever read said unicorns were white, weren’t they?