Shared By The Dragon Clan: The Complete Set

by Rosette Bolter

  Zane grabbed Stacey’s hand. They immediately ran to the door at the end with Conrad lingering behind them.

  “Oh shit,” Conrad gasped. “Get the fuck out of here, brother.”

  Zane charged through the door breaking its lock and forced Stacey inside after him. Just as he was closing the door Stacey caught a glimpse of a very large gold dragon landing in the middle of the roof next Conrad.

  “Let’s go,” Zane said grabbing her hand again.

  They were in the dusty warehouse space Stacey and the guards had entered on her first arrival at the Island. Zane led her around the winding upper level until they reached a set of stairs leading down. At the bottom of the floor, they stopped.

  “What are we doing?” Stacey asked.

  “Be quiet,” Zane hissed at her. “They might hear us.”

  Stacey shut her mouth and tried to remain patient.

  Zane moved round to the side of one of the work desks and leaned against it. Stacey stood next to him. Then they listened to see if they could hear anything that was going on above.

  “Sound proof,” Stacey murmured.

  Zane didn’t seem to hear her.

  His eyes were moving to their corners. She could feel his muscles tensing beside her.

  BANG.

  The door to the roof swung open.

  Zane grabbed Stacey’s wrist and hurried them towards the main door leading outside opposite.

  Just as they reached it, that too opened.

  Standing in front of them was the Human Mage.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Before Zane could react the Human Mage’s hand was cast out, and he sent an invisible force that knocked both Zane and Stacey away from the door and off their feet. Zane was quick to get up, but the magnetic energy had left Stacey in shock. He looked to her first before assessing the move in front of them. The Mage walked confidently towards them, whilst two figures moved round the upper level towards the stairs.

  “Don’t you even dare raise your fist to me,” the Mage scolded. “You are in Master Narses’s presence.”

  Zane and Stacey immediately looked up to the top of the stairs where the Master was descending.

  Master Narses was a large, enormously muscular and tall, giant of a man. He was wearing gold plated armor, with a red cape attached to the back of it. He was bald, had the face of a serpent tattooed to his right cheek, and several long scars on his left. His expression was one of distasteful hostility.

  Conrad lingered behind him.

  Everyone was silent until Narses reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “I recognize you,” Narses said to Zane gruffly. “You’re the one who murdered Horatio.” He turned to the Mage. “You said he was dead.”

  “That is what Conrad informed me,” the Mage said dryly.

  Conrad stepped out from behind Narses and knelt before him.

  “Zane wasn’t given a fair trial into King Horatio’s murder,” he said. “He requested more time to find the truth of what had happened. So I spared him indefinitely.”

  “And have you found that?” Narses asked Zane. “The truth?”

  “It is my belief that the man I murdered was not Horatio. He was an imposter sent to stand in for him, by someone else. I suspect the real Horatio Hurux was removed a short time before or after he became king.”

  “And what proof do you have of this?” Narses asked.

  “I don’t have any. My expulsion from the clan has impeded my investigation.”

  Narses opened and closed his eyes. “I don’t care.”

  “What don’t you care about?”

  “I don’t care if he was an imposter or not. If Horatio was foolish enough to be kidnapped, then he deserves his fate. Likewise if he allowed you to kill him.”

  “Ah – this is not the decision of the court of –” the Mage interrupted.

  “ENOUGH, HUMAN!” Narses boomed. “I AM SPEAKING!”

  The Mage fell silent.

  Narses turned back to Zane. “You were the Commander of the Guard? Were you not?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “So you were the strongest man here. And you disposed of a weakling King. I guess that makes you king of the Island now.”

  “I would be honored to have such privilege and responsibility,” Zane said.

  “Yes, you shall be.”

  Narses turned back to the Mage. “Consider yourself dismissed, human. Take whatever belongings you have here, and leave at once.”

  “What?” the Mage screeched. “You can’t – You can’t –”

  “Your next word will be your last. Go.”

  The Mage’s face screwed up, and he sent Zane and Stacey a seething glare. Then he turned and exited through the outside door.

  “He was not to be trusted,” Narses explained. “If there has been any chance of foul play involving Horatio – you can expect he was involved.”

  “But if he was,” Zane said, “then he couldn’t have been working alone.”

  “Conduct your investigation as King. I’ll assist you in any way I can. Satisfied?”

  “Very much, Master Narses.”

  Narses’s eyes seemed to shrink back for a moment. His face became even graver.

  He walked past Conrad to stand directly in front of Zane.

  “Have I been fair to you?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Good. Because for my fairness, I have two conditions of you should you become King.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “The first we will conduct right here. Turn around Conrad.”

  Conrad turned around.

  Narses moved behind him and unsheathed a long golden sword from his belt. “A King must always destroy his enemies. And you have proven yourself a dangerous enemy for our new King.”

  “I’m his brother and I did my best to protect him,” Conrad said quietly.

  “That’s true,” Zane said. “He could have executed me in front of the clan yesterday evening. He chose not to, because of our brotherhood.”

  “Is that what you would choose, if I asked you to kill him now?”

  Zane seemed unable to answer.

  “Well, because you hesitated, now you have to kill him. Stand up at once.”

  Zane stood up and joined Narses behind Conrad.

  Stacey stood up and backed away from the event on display.

  “Stand still,” Narses said to her sharply. “Close your eyes if it’s too terrible for you.”

  Stacey kept her feet grounded but didn’t close her eyes just yet.

  “I haven’t agreed to this,” Zane said as he took Narses’s sword.

  Stacey noticed Conrad was frozen, but on high alert. He wasn’t just going to allow his head to be cut off either.

  “You don’t have a choice,” Narses explained to him.

  “What is the second thing?” Zane asked. “What is the second condition after this?”

  “You remember my daughter?” Narses replied. “Princess Evelyn Narses?”

  Zane nodded.

  “You will marry her. She will be your Dragon Queen.”

  “I already have someone,” Zane said. He nodded in Stacey’s direction.

  “She was up there fucking your brother, wasn’t she?” Narses snapped. “That’s why they’re both naked, correct?”

  “He was forcing himself on her. She belongs to me.”

  “A Dragon King has many slaves. But only one Queen.”

  “Then she will be my Queen. Not Evelyn.”

  Narses smiled. Then laughed.

  “Give me the sword.”

  Zane handed it back to him.

  “Get on your knees.”

  Zane slowly lowered himself to his knees.

  He looked to Stacey for support. But she had nothing to give him.

  “Now, Conrad,” Narses began. “Why don’t you stand up?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Would you like to marry my daughter, Conrad?”

  Conrad looked at Stacey briefly. He
seemed to be weighing up the matter.

  “Well?”

  “Like, my brother,” Conrad said, “I also have conditions of my own.”

  “And what are they?”

  “You won’t instruct me to execute him now to start with.”

  “Would you prefer to take the fall yourself?”

  “He won’t kill me and I won’t kill him. You can either kill both of us, or spare both our lives.”

  Narses raised his eyebrow, and then in a flash of bright red, the gold sword sliced into Conrad’s chest and tore upward.

  Zane jumped to his feet in shock, but did nothing to prevent the death from playing out.

  Narses ripped the sword from Conrad’s throat and let him drop to the floor.

  There were brief flashes of Conrad’s dragon trying to get out.

  Narses stood over him, and cut off his head in a gigantic swoop.

  He then sheathed his sword. “So do you want to fight me, Zane? Or do you want to marry my daughter?”

  Zane’s eyes trailed off. He looked at the ground. “Give me a moment.”

  He then walked over to where Stacey was. He took her hands.

  There were tears in his eyes.

  “Would he beat you?” Stacey asked. “If you fought him?”

  Zane looked over his shoulder. “I’ve never fought a Dragon Master before.”

  “Then you shouldn’t fight him.”

  Zane seemed satisfied with Stacey’s answer. He turned back to Nasres.

  “This girl, is not a whore,” he declared. “She was wrongfully convicted of a crime she was innocent of and sent to us as punishment.”

  “She’s human. All humans are whores.”

  “I will agree to your terms but you have to make sure Stacey is released from her imprisonment. You have to guarantee the humans will no longer want to arrest, convict or pursue her for anything to do with her crime. She needs to be set free.”

  “Oh, Master,” Stacey gushed in bewilderment.

  Narses took a step towards them. “And then you will marry Evelyn?”

  Zane nodded. “I will.”

  “And you won’t come running after this human again?”

  “Correct.”

  “Then we have a deal. I will organize transportation off the Island for the human in the morning. Until then, she will be isolated from you.”

  “Absolutely not. She stays with me until I see the paperwork regarding her release.”

  “Very well. Make sure you’re both at the Palace tomorrow morning. If you try and escape – I’ll make sure you’re both hunted down and killed. So don’t try me.”

  Seemingly annoyed with the exchange, Narses gave a sharp boot to Conrad’s head and it landed across the room with an unpleasant thud. He then turned and went through the doors outside.

  Stacey turned to her beloved. “So what’s going to happen now, Master? Are we going to go along with everything he said?”

  “Which would you prefer?” Zane shot back. “To be together with me, and be on the run? Or to have your old life back where you’d know you’d be safe?”

  Stacey couldn’t answer right away.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Master,” she said, “I’m not feeling very well. Can we go outside for a bit?”

  “In the rain?” Zane replied. He then saw where her gaze was headed.

  Conrad’s corpse was making her queasy.

  “Outside it is then.”

  Zane put his arm round Stacey for comfort, and she nestled into his warmth, whilst bracing for the harsh return of cold outside. They walked out the door together and Zane closed it behind them.

  The overhead storm was thankfully beginning to clear. The rain was constant, but light.

  “The truth is I can’t leave this decision up to you,” Zane finally said. “I know what needs to happen.”

  “What?” Stacey asked. “What needs to happen?”

  “If we ran, we’d be found. Because I know I wouldn’t stop searching for a way back into the Clan. It’s my home. It’s where I belong. I can’t live without it. The problem is that even if I were to expose the cover up with Horatio, it wouldn’t matter. They’d still want us dead for trying to escape now.”

  Stacey sat down on the dirt. She realized she was crying. “But I don’t want to lose you. You’re unlike any man I’ve ever met before.”

  “That’s because I’m not a man,” Zane said, sitting beside her.

  “I don’t know. Maybe if there’s some other way or… Unless you want to marry the Princess…”

  “What? No. It’s just what Narses wants.”

  “And you trust him? After he killed Conrad right in front of you?”

  “He’s a Dragon Master. Trust isn’t what matters. I know if we try and escape now we’re likely to fail. As it was – we couldn’t last more than a day before they found us already.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Stacey laughed.

  “You don’t need me in your life. You’ll meet someone you’ll like. Just you see.”

  Stacey smiled a little. “I’ll never forget you.”

  “And I’ll never forget you.”

  Stacey stood up and put her arms around him. And even though the cold of rain was brittle, and the darkness of the night was impossibly sad, for Zane and Stacey in that moment…

  All they could feel was each other.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  There was a portal to the otherworld on Firebound Island. Neither Zane or Conrad had known about it – nor did the true Horatio Horux or any of the Dragon Masters. It was built in secret by the Human Mage, whose real name was Professor Patrick Hess. Hess had built it for a specific dragon he was trying to summon, one who had died centuries ago, and was considered to be the most feared and powerful dragon who had ever lived.

  In recent months, Hess had miraculously made contact with this dragon, or at least one who claimed to be the infamous Quraal. Quraal had been the one who had instructed him to bring King Horatio to this portal, where he was consumed by its darkness and a new Horatio had returned in his place. One of Quraal’s minion’s programmed to do whatever was required. Hess didn’t know what the end to Quraal’s plan was, only that he had been promised to be greatly rewarded in Quraal’s return to the human world.

  Now he had been dismissed by Narses however, Hess’s mission was in jeopardy. Having already told Quraal that Zane was dead, as Quraal for some reason considered Zane a threat, the anger from the underworld dragon was likely to be black and harrowing. Still, Hess had nowhere else to turn, and as angry as he might be at the bad news, Quraal still needed him. For the time being at least.

  The portal itself was located in a dark an isolated clearing in the deepest recesses of the forest. While it would’ve taken many hours to reach there on foot, the Mage was able to cast a teleportation spell to land him in the centre of it. Three large, triangular stones, stood tall around the inner circle of the portal. As Hess crouched in the centre of it, the stones began to flicker with fiery light.

  And now, he could see the black dragon standing on the other side, its bright red eyes and teeth sparkling at him from within the shadows.

  “Hess. I wasn’t expecting you,” Quraal murmured in a low voice.

  “Master, I have troubling news, I’m afraid.”

  “Then speak, and let me be the one to shoulder your fears.”

  “Conrad Hunter, brother of Zane, lied to me when he said he had killed Zane. Now Zane is here with his human slave, and they are in conversation with Master Narses, who wants to make one of them King. He has expelled me from the Clan. No reason given.”

  “That is troubling news. But you should not fear my anger.”

  “Thank you. I … I tried my best for you…”

  “And I am not such a fool that I don’t believe you. Your loyalty has been deeply appreciated.”

  “Well, thank you again. What can we do about this now?”

  “I am not ready to return yet. It is not the right time. Zan
e must be dead before then. He is incredibly dangerous. Far more powerful than even he realizes.”

  “So you want me to try and kill Zane? Sneak into his sleeping quarters tonight and –”

  “You would fail should try.”

  “I could cast a paralysis spell on him. He wouldn’t even have to wake up.”

  “This cannot lead back to you, Mage. Not if you are to be King of this Island. No. Narses will be the one to kill him. And it will happen tomorrow. If you do exactly as I say.”

  “Whatever you wish, Master,” Hess said. “I will do anything you ask me to.”

  “Tomorrow, you will find Zane and Narses both at the Palace together. His slave as you call it, will be of great use to us here…”

  CHAPTER NINE

  They flew above the warehouse station. Beyond the KEEP OUT gates. Over the first outpost. Zane’s green tower was right there in front of them. For Stacey looking at it now, she couldn’t help but feel the sadness. This would be her last night in this magical place. Her last night with the dragon she loved.

  At least, for now.

  They landed in the grass in front of it and they surveyed the exterior of it together. It was so dark. So lonely. The day Stacey had come here seemed like a far away dream. So much had changed for her since then.

  Now that Zane had shifted back to his human form, he approached the tower and opened the door. He put his hand to the candle near the wall, and it burned up a green glow brightly.

  The place was trashed. Ransacked. Various objects were smashed and scattered around every part of the floor. Zane seemed deeply troubled by the loss of these artifacts. Stacey put a hand to his shoulder.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I never expected to have any of this stuff back anyway.”

  The glass door opposite them was partially smashed. Behind the door the sofa was turned over and the marble table with the fruit split in two. Stacey looked through the panels to the tower’s aviary, but there were no birds to be seen.