I reached through the bond for Jasin’s flame, but it was faint and elusive. I felt a slight tug inside me and wondered if it was him doing the same. We faced the river and in front of us the air shimmered with a slight buzzing sound, like a spark being struck. Kira’s face tightened and her hand gripped mine harder, but then the sound vanished. We’d lost it.
Sweat beaded on Jasin’s forehead. “Almost got it, but the bond is still too weak.”
“Maybe it will get stronger with time,” I said. “The Dragons have been bonded for hundreds of years, after all.”
“We don’t have time!” Kira said, obviously exasperated. She dropped our hands and pinched the bridge of her nose. I longed to pull her into my arms and tell her everything would be all right, but I knew she would only push me away right now.
“We’ll keep trying until we get it,” Jasin said.
Slade trudged through the brush toward us and called out, “We’re ready to leave when you are.”
Kira sighed. “I suppose we should get going if we’re going to reach the Resistance by nightfall.”
I rested a hand on her back. “It was only our first attempt. We’ll get there eventually.”
We began to follow Slade back to the camp, when a loud splash caught our attention. We froze and turned toward the river, my magic rising as I prepared to defend against a potential threat, and I felt Jasin do the same. Reven and Brin rushed to our sides, both holding their swords and ready for battle. Kira stood in front of us, facing the river like a warrior queen as she slowly drew her sword.
If the Dragons had found us, we weren’t going down without a fight.
10
Kira
The river was wide and flowing fast, and farther down it something large flailed about in the water as if drowning. I couldn’t make out what it was—an animal or a big man perhaps—but it seemed to be fighting against a rock, or perhaps holding onto it. No, I realized as it drew closer, the thing splashing about was the rock.
“It’s an elemental!” Auric said with a gasp.
Jasin immediately summoned fire into his palms. The only way to stop elementals was with magic—we’d learned that when a group of water ones had attacked our boat while we were at sea. But this elemental didn’t appear to be attacking us—it seemed to be in trouble.
“It’s small for a rock elemental,” Slade said.
As its stony head burst above the water and tried to drag in a breath, I realized why it was so small. I dashed toward the river, leaving the others no choice but to follow. “It’s a child!”
“What are you doing?” Jasin asked, as he trampled through the brush behind me.
“We have to save it!” I called over my shoulder. The small elemental was clearly drowning, it’s body too heavy and dense for it to stay afloat. It must have fallen in the river, and there didn’t seem to be any other elementals around to rescue it. If we didn’t help, it would die.
We reached the edge of the river where the elemental struggled against the current. My mates spread out around me, still wary, while I tried to figure out a rescue plan.
“This isn’t safe,” Slade muttered.
Auric nodded. “If there’s one elemental here, there must be others nearby.”
“For all we know this is a trap,” Reven said, crossing his arms.
“I don’t care. We have to help it.” I knew I was taking a big risk, but I wasn’t letting a child die on my watch, whether it was human, animal, or elemental. “Reven, use your magic to rescue it.”
He scowled, but made a lazy gesture toward the river. The water changed from rushing past us to slowly creeping forward. While the current brought the elemental closer to us, Jasin and Auric watched the trees for an attack. I waded out into the river and tried to grab hold of the elemental’s rocky body, but it let out a terrible sound, like steel scraping against stone.
“It’s okay, we’re trying to help,” I told it. I had no idea if it could understand me, but hopefully the sound of my voice would show I wasn’t a threat. The elemental’s glowing eyes widened, but when I reached for it again it didn’t fight back. But I couldn’t move it on my own—the elemental was nearly as big as I was and a lot heavier than I expected, even though it was small for its kind. Slade jumped into the water next to me and grabbed the other side of the elemental, and together we heaved it out of the river and onto the grassy banks.
The elemental coughed and water ran out of its mouth, its eyes still huge and glowing bright gold. I tried to pat it on its back, but wasn’t sure if it had lungs or not—it seemed to be made entirely of thick, gray stone. Now that it was out of the water I could see it had a large, rounded chest that made up most of its bulk, along with two thick arms and short, stumpy legs.
“You’re all right now,” I said to it, as I kept patting its hard back. The elemental was shaking, but it didn’t try to escape, so it must have sensed we weren’t going to harm it. The others kept their hands near their weapons, but they wouldn’t attack unless they thought I was in danger.
Movement caught our attention, and four much larger rock elementals emerged from the trees down the river. They moved surprisingly fast considering their squat legs, and their glowing eyes fixed on us with obvious malice. Brin and my mates tensed beside me, sensing a looming fight, but Enva’s words last night gave me the idea to approach this differently. If the elementals weren’t working for the Black Dragon, that meant they didn’t need to be our enemies…assuming I could reach them somehow.
“Don’t attack,” I said to my mates quietly. “I want to talk to them.”
“Talk?” Jasin snorted. “Elementals don’t talk. They attack.”
“I want to try.”
I helped the elemental child to its feet, making sure it could stand on its own. It suddenly spotted the other elementals and let out that strange sound again, then rushed toward them. The larger elementals quickly surrounded it, as if making sure it was all right. I walked toward them slowly, waving for my mates to stay back. This would have to be handled carefully, or it would all go wrong…and we would likely only have one chance.
One of the elementals broke apart and faced me. Its face was stony and incomprehensible, with a gaping mouth full of jagged rock and those eerie glowing eyes. We stared at each other without moving, and then it asked, “Why did you help him, Spirit Dragon?”
The voice that came from the elemental was like the deep rumble of an earthquake, and the words were spoken slowly, as if it wasn’t used to our language—but it was speaking. My heart leaped at the knowledge we could communicate with them.
“I didn’t want him to drown,” I said. “We mean your kind no harm. We only want to talk.”
“We are no friend to the Dragons,” he grumbled.
“We’re not like the other Dragons. We want to stop them and restore balance to the world. A world where both humans and elementals can live in peace together.”
“Perhaps,” the elemental said, obviously unconvinced.
The other elementals were now watching us, and the small one made a sound I didn’t understand. One of the others replied, and they carried on for a few seconds in their gravelly language while I looked on. The leader rumbled something back at them, before turning to me again.
“We are in your debt, Spirit Dragon.” The elemental did not sound pleased about that, but it was hard to tell with its strange voice. I was too surprised to respond immediately, and then it was too late, as they all stomped back into the forest.
“That was incredible,” Auric said, moving to my side. “I had no idea the elementals could speak our language. I need to record this immediately.”
Jasin put out the fire in his hands. “It was still risky helping them. They nearly attacked us even after we saved that little one.”
“Yes, but it was worth it,” I replied. “Now we know they can communicate with us, and if they hate the other Dragons as much as Enva said, we might be able to convince them to become our allies.”
; “That seems unlikely,” Reven said.
Slade rubbed his beard. “It’s worth trying.”
“Kira will make it happen,” Brin said. “Especially now that they owe her.”
I stared after the elementals for another moment, then turned toward my team. “We’ll worry about that another day. Right now we need to find the Resistance.”
11
Jasin
Auric pointed one of his talons at a mountain in the distance and I nodded. We both tilted our wings slightly to adjust our course, and exhilaration took hold as the brisk wind rushed over my scales.
Being a dragon was incredible. I could fly for hours without growing tired, cross great distances faster than any horse, and was stronger than ever before. Even with Slade and Brin on my back, along with half of our supplies and equipment, I barely noticed the weight. And with fire burning in my lungs, along with my sharp talons and fangs, I could defend Kira better than I could before.
Auric and I flew closer to the snow-capped mountains, and the air around us grew colder. We knew from Cadock’s mark on the map that the Resistance base was somewhere on the edge of these mountains in a cave, and he’d instructed us to look for a rock in the shape of two breasts, but so far we hadn’t spotted them.
“There,” Brin said, from my back. Her arm stretched over my right wing and I followed it’s direction to the base of a mountain where two large, rounded boulders pointed at the sky. I didn’t see an entrance, but assumed it would become more obvious once we got closer.
Auric and I swooped down into a nearby forest and found a good spot to land, since showing up as dragons probably wouldn’t elicit a good reaction. Once on the ground, we hid anything we couldn’t carry and then began the trek to the mountain. None of us felt like talking much with the memory of Kira’s village still fresh in our minds, along with that dangerous encounter with the elementals. Kira thought she might be able to convince them to help us, but I wasn’t sure even she could reverse hundreds of years of conflict and turn it into an alliance.
When we reached the mountain range and stood beside the twin rocks, the way inside was no more clear. It wouldn’t be a very good secret base if the entrance was obvious, but I’d hoped for something more than this. If that bandit had betrayed us or led us astray, I was going to track him down and make him pay.
“I didn’t see an entrance while flying overhead,” Auric said.
I glared up at the mountain. “Cadock probably lied to us. I bet he has no idea where the Resistance base is.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Kira said, as she pulled her cloak around her to fight off the chill. “It’s here. We just need to look for it.”
“I can find it.” Slade took a few steps forward and pressed his palm against the slope of the mountain. He closed his eyes and his face became calm, while we stood back and waited. He’d done this before and he’d always able to find a cave, a lake, or whatever we were looking for with his magic. A useful trick indeed.
When he opened his eyes, he removed his hand and turned to us. “Follow me.”
We began to climb the steep side of the mountain, and I longed to have my wings so I could simply fly up it. It didn’t help that my steps were dragging and hesitant either. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going into the Resistance base, and had no desire to get there any faster, even if it was what Kira wanted.
When I’d been part of the Onyx Army I’d committed horrible acts against the Resistance in the name of duty. I’d helped slaughter entire villages thought to be harboring their members even though it had made me sick. Disobeying my orders had never been an option, no matter how much I’d secretly questioned my superiors. At the time, I’d tried to justify my actions because my brother had been killed by the Resistance, or by telling myself that the Dragons knew what had to be done to keep the world safe. Now I knew better. The guilt and regret tore at me with every step, and I’d do anything to go back and reverse the damage I’d caused and bring back the lives I’d cut short.
When we’d visited the Fire Realm we’d rescued a few prisoners from execution and escorted them to safety, but one of them had recognized me from my past crimes. She’d been terrified of me, and I couldn’t blame her for her reaction, even if it had made me feel like the worst human being in all the four Realms.
Now I was about to face those people again, and would be forced to look into their eyes knowing I’d once been their enemy and their executioner. I liked to think that I’d changed and that I could atone for my sins by stopping the other Dragons, but I wasn’t sure I could ever make up for my mistakes. All I could do was stand by Kira’s side and try to be a better man in the future.
Slade stopped about halfway up the mountainside and found a small crevice that was nearly impossible to see due to the shape of the rocks around it. “I think this is it.”
He slipped through the crack, and the rest of us had to follow one by one. A very defensible entrance since you could easily pick off people as they entered. I rested my hand on my sword in case there was trouble.
Through the crevice, the stone opened up to a wider cave and we spread out inside it. A large metal door stood in front of us and Kira approached it, paused for a moment, and then banged on it sharply three times.
After a brief wait, two heavily armed guards stepped out of the door, before it slammed shut behind them again. They pointed swords at us as one said, “State your business here.”
We all glanced at Kira, who stood at the front of our group. “We’re here to speak with the leader of the Resistance,” she said. “Parin.”
“There’s no Resistance here,” the female guard said. “You should turn around and head back wherever you came from.”
Kira stood tall and met the woman’s gaze, her voice stern. “We know that isn’t true, and we have information your people would definitely like to know about. We’re here to help you fight the Dragons.”
“And why should we believe you?” the male guard asked.
Kira’s jaw clenched and she raised her hands, likely about to use her magic to prove who she was. But then the door opened behind the guards and a dark-skinned woman with hair cropped close to her head stepped out. She was lithe and beautiful, with a fierce intensity in her eyes that made me think she was not to be underestimated. A large sword hung from her hip, along with a dagger on the other.
“Slade?” she asked, her voice almost breathless as she stared at him. “Is that really you?”
Slade’s jaw clenched and his brow furrowed. It was the most emotion I’d seen on his stony face in days. Maybe weeks. Whoever this woman was, he was not pleased to see her. “Hello, Faya.”
“Gods, it is you.” She pressed a hand to her chest, her brown eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to speak with Parin,” Kira said, her voice hard. She wasn’t happy to see this woman either. Was this the girl Slade had loved and lost many years ago? That would explain a lot.
Faya blinked, and finally saw the rest of us standing there. “Of course. Come inside. I’ll take you to Parin.” She flashed Slade another questioning look. “And then we can catch up.”
The guards lowered their weapons and allowed us to pass. Faya led us through the metal door and we stepped into a massive, domed space that took my breath away. The cave stretched for such a great distance that I couldn’t see the end of it, while the dark gray stone slanted into a perfectly smooth ceiling high above us. Wooden and stone buildings filled the giant cave, laid out in a way so there were small roads running between them. More armed guards awaited us inside, while people walked about and gave us curious looks before continuing on to their destinations. Many of them were armed, but some looked like civilians. I even saw a small child running after a woman. This wasn’t just a base, this was an entire village. And none of them screamed or cried out at the sight of me—maybe my past would truly stay behind me this time.
12
Kira
“Welcome to Slateden,” Faya said.
“Home of the Resistance.”
“Impressive,” I said. There was no hint from outside that any of this existed, but there must be hundreds of people living here.
“When did you do all this?” Slade asked.
“About five years ago. We realized we needed a more permanent base of operations, and one that was completely hidden from the world.” She gave us all a sharp look. “It’s a secret any one of us would die to protect.”
I met her eyes with a hard look of my own. This was Slade’s former fiancé, who had betrayed him with another man and abandoned him to join the Resistance. She’d hurt one of the men I cared about more than anything in the world, and even if we became allies I would never forgive her for that. And now she had the nerve to think we’d expose this place?
“We’re honored to be welcomed inside,” Auric said diplomatically.
“Your secret is safe with us,” Jasin added.
Faya nodded and continued walking into the village, past small houses and shops. I fell into step behind her and sneaked a glance at Slade, whose face remained hard. It had to be uncomfortable for him to see Faya again, but he’d done a fine job of hiding it so far.
She led us to a wide, wooden building with a slanted roof and double doors. Guards were stationed outside of it, and they nodded at her as we stepped inside. The interior was sparse, as was the rest of Slateden from what I’d seen, favoring function over form. We walked up a narrow staircase, and then she knocked on a plain door.
“Come in,” a voice called out from inside.
“Give me a moment,” Faya told us, before slipping into the room and closing the door behind her. I exchanged awkward, anxious looks with my mates and Brin while we waited outside, but Faya emerged only a minute or two later and opened the door wide. “He’ll see you now.”
“I’ll wait out here,” Brin said, stepping back. It was part of our plan—she’d try to explore the base and learn what she could while the rest of us spoke with Parin.
Shake The Earth: Her Elemental Dragons Book Three Page 5
