I bled all over. Large chunks of skin were missing where bricks and other debris had slammed into me. I watched in quiet amazement as Raikidan used his fire to heal me up. How can he use fire to destroy as well as to fix?
When he was done, there were no signs of injury anywhere. It made me wonder why I had a scar from the first time he healed me. Raikidan placed his hands on my shoulder. “When the time is right, get everyone to run.”
I looked at him funny. “What are you talking about?”
He handed me his headset and stood up. “Just do it, okay?”
I grabbed him by the arm. “Raikidan, what are you doing?”
He looked at me for a moment without speaking. “I’m tired of being a burden to you.”
My eyes widened and he pulled away from me. What was he talking about? He wasn’t going to get himself killed, right? “Raikidan, stop!”
I tried to get up and stop him but I was too late. He was already out in the street and running headfirst into the line of fire. I prayed to Satria I was wrong. Then I heard it—the unmistakable roar. The burden he was talking about wasn’t his existence. It was the secret I’d been forced to keep.
“Dragon!” a soldier shouted.
The sounds and smells of crackling flames filled the air, along with the screams of soldiers as they died.
Regaining my composure, I put Raikidan’s headset on my head. “Everyone fall back and don’t get caught in Raikidan’s flame.”
While I waited for the others, I watched Raikidan from the safety of my hiding place. He torched everything in sight. His flame was so hot it burned white at times and was melting metal within seconds. I had never seen such a hot flame burn from another creature before. It was mesmerizing to watch.
“Laz!” My attention as pulled away from his destruction at the sound of Ryoko’s voice. I watched her dash down the side street I had been taking cover in before. She eyed Raikidan once she reached the open street, but her reaction wasn’t what I was expecting. She looked to me more in awe than in fright or confusion.
“What’s going on?” she asked as she carefully picked her way over to me.
“I’ll explain everything later. Right now we need everyone together so we can get out. Raikidan is going to buy us some time.”
She nodded. “Okay. The others should be here soon.”
Just then, both Argus and Blaze dashed around the corner. They looked like they wanted to ask about the situation, but kept their mouths shut. It wasn’t long after Rylan joined us with a few other people from both our team and the other.
“Commander Innon is already pulling the rest of our team back,” someone informed. “One glance at the dragon and he was more than willing to hightail it.”
Everyone laughed but me. I was more focused on the situation. “Let’s move out then. The others will catch up.”
No one questioned me, or my choice to move out without Raikidan. They just moved. Our ragtag group headed away from the battle with haste but I started to lag behind. It wasn’t until I stopped following that anyone noticed.
“Laz?” Ryoko asked.
I didn’t answer her, only watched Raikidan fight. He thrashed his giant body and his tail against the buildings, causing them to crumble. He set everything ablaze and fought off anyone who tried to stubbornly fight back.
“…get everyone to run.”
Everyone but him. I never let someone stay behind. If someone was to stay behind, it was always me.
“I’m tired of being a burden to you.”
With great conviction I took off in his direction. I didn’t leave anyone behind, and that included Raikidan.
“Laz, what are you doing?” Rylan yelled after me.
“Keep going!” I yelled back. “We’ll catch up.”
I forced the fire from my mouth into my hands and engulfed them with it. Timing myself correctly, I jumped onto the base of Raikidan’s tail and ran up his back as best as I could. His thrashing stopped once my feet touched him.
I slipped on his smoother scales but I wasn’t willing to put my flames out or risk burning him so I willed my shoes to disappear, allowing me to use the hidden spines under my skin to grip him better. Using the spikes on his neck as leverage, I bolted up his long neck, and once I reached his head, I let loose fireball after fireball.
Soldiers attempted to jump out of the way, but those who escaped my flame were instantly incinerated by Raikidan’s. I stopped my attack when a tall, muscular man, standing still caught my eye. His actions confused me until I realized I recognized this man. He and I had much in common but our ideals set us apart. He was an old general who refused to believe Zarda would kill those worthy of living, whereas I believed in the truth.
The two of us stared at each other for several moments before he held up his hand and shouted his command. “Fall back!”
“But, sir!” a soldier protested.
“I said, fall back,” he growled. “We cannot win against a dragon and a demon.”
The soldier looked up at me warily and I glared at him, fire still burning in my hands. This frightened him and he ran off. Slowly, the general turned and stalked off with his retreating company. I stood there on Raikidan’s head and watched him leave. I knew I should stop him. I knew he shouldn’t leave alive. I knew if he left, he would tell Zarda and it would complicate things, but for some reason I couldn’t find the will to move.
I turned my attention behind me when I heard hesitant footsteps, to find Ryoko and the others making their way toward us. From the looks of it, Innon’s team had run off with him, but it didn’t bother me much. They weren’t my problem now that the battle was over.
I gasped in shock as Raikidan jerked his head and I went flying into the air. I was so surprised, I was having a hard time recovering to right myself in time to land properly. I was going to kill that dragon.
I grunted when I was caught by a pair of strong arms. I glared at Raikidan and he grinned back at me. “Don’t do that!”
He snickered. “Scare you?”
I snorted. “Hardly. Now put me down.”
Raikidan thought for a moment. “No, I think you’re fine.”
“Put me down you jerk.” I struggled against his grip when he ignored my order. “I said put me down, Raikidan. Now!”
He chuckled but did as I demanded. I stumbled away from him and punched him in the shoulder.
“Ow!” he complained as he rubbed it.
“That’s for tossing me carelessly,” I muttered.
“I knew what I was doing,” he objected.
I smacked him in the back of the head. “And that’s for not putting me down when I told you to.”
“Can you stop hitting me?” he complained.
I smacked him hard across the face. “And that’s… for everything else.”
He grunted but didn’t say a word—getting the hint. I stalked away from him and past the others.
“Laz?” Ryoko asked quietly.
“We need to get back home,” I instructed. “I’ll answer all of your questions then. It’s too dangerous to stay here much longer.”
“All right,” she replied.
I sat on the windowsill, leaning on my legs with my arms, and waited for someone to say something. Raikidan leaned against the wall near me.
“So you knew this whole time Raikidan was a dragon?” Rylan asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Shva’sika, did you know?” he asked.
Shva’sika nodded. “Yes.”
“Genesis and I knew as well,” Seda informed.
“Why didn’t you tell us, Laz?” Rylan asked, looking at me again.
“It wasn’t my place to say,” I explained. “Seda knew because she’s a psychic and therefore Genesis knew, and Shva’sika knew
because he shifted at the village for basically the same reason as tonight.”
Rylan nodded. “I see.”
Argus scratched his head. “So when we were told dragons were gone, we were lied to?”
“There are plenty of us out there,” Raikidan said. “Hundreds, maybe even thousands. We’re just secretive. When Eira told me you all thought we were dead I was baffled. I didn’t think we were that secretive.”
“Is that why you never told us?” Argus asked.
Raikidan shrugged. “Sorta. At first, yes, but then I figured there was no need to tell you unless you really had to know.”
“Makes sense,” Argus mused.
Blaze grunted. “Why does this all matter? He’s still the same guy… dragon… whatever. We just know a little more about him. Why is everyone getting so weirded out by it?”
“No one ever said we found it weird,” Argus argued. “We’re just trying to piece things together.”
Blaze grunted but stayed quiet. I sighed and rested my hand on my chest. My eyes widened when I could only feel soft skin and no hint of leather or bone. I looked down and noticed my necklace was gone. Jumping up suddenly, confusing everyone, I looked around where I was sitting. I even resorted to unbuttoning my long shirt in attempt to find it stuck in there somehow.
“Laz?” Ryoko asked. “What’s up?”
I stopped my frantic search and rest my hand on my chest again. “My necklace is gone…”
Rylan looked at me. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Yeah…”
Blaze snorted. “What’s the big deal about this necklace? It’s just a necklace.”
“Shut up, Blaze,” Rylan growled. Blaze blinked but didn’t say a word. Rylan looked at me again. “I can make you another one.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want another one. I wanted that one. It was special.
“It must have been cut when that building crumbled on you.” Raikidan stated. “You had a cut on your neck when I healed you.”
Ryoko blinked. “You can heal?”
He nodded. “I use fire to heal. It’s not guaranteed to work and can leave scars behind, like the first time I healed Eira, but now with her it works like it’s supposed to.”
“Because she’s a fire shaman,” Shva’sika informed. “Her body can accept that kind of treatment because it knows how to handle fire. You might have used too much the first time or, since she had never been healed in that way before, it could have shocked her body and it rejected the healing, like the average body would, creating the scar.”
I tuned everyone out and headed for my room. I couldn’t believe I was so careless tonight. I lost my necklace on the battlefield and I allowed a general to see me. Slamming the door behind me, I slid to the floor and pulled my legs up to my chest. I didn’t care how bad it smelled in here, I just wanted to be left alone.
I ignored the knock on my door and didn’t answer when the voice on the other side tried to speak to me. They knocked again but still I ignored them. What I wasn’t able to ignore was the heavy feet on the fire escape outside. I looked up as Raikidan landed on the windowsill. He didn’t enter right away, as if he wasn’t sure if I’d freak out at him, but when I only looked at him he came in the rest of the way.
“You going to be all right?” he asked as he came closer. I rested my chin on my knees and looked away from him. “Eira, if you really want your necklace back, I can go find it for you.”
I shook my head. “The place will be scoured by a military cleanup crew. It’s too dangerous and my necklace isn’t worth it.”
He crouched down. “It’s the least I can do for being a burden to you.”
I looked at him. “Raikidan, you’re not a burden.”
He snorted. “I made you lie to your friends so they wouldn’t know what I really was because I was so unsure of how they’d react.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t make me, Raikidan. You didn’t utter a word about keeping your identity secret. I chose to say nothing and I chose to beat around the bush when answering certain questions because it wasn’t my place to say.”
He placed his hand on my head. “All right, if you say so. But I can go looking for it if it’ll make you feel better.”
I shook my head. “I said it’s not worth it.”
“Then there’s another reason you’re upset,” he said.
I sighed and pulled my legs closer to my chest. “I screwed up. I screwed up real bad. I’m… I’m going to have to leave again.”
He blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“That general leading that military assault, I knew him and he saw me. He knows who I am.” I sighed. “I can’t stay anymore. If they come looking for me it’ll put everyone in danger. I didn’t tell the others because I didn’t want to upset them.”
“Eira…” He rested both his hands on my shoulders. “You don’t have to leave. We’ll figure something out. We’ll figure out how to make it so you can stay, no one will get in trouble, and you can get your revenge.”
Revenge. That’s why he was here. He wasn’t really here to help us. He enjoyed exacting revenge, and once we got it he was gone. Just like me. I was gone after this—maybe even sooner. I couldn’t stay here and let the others suffer for it.
Raikidan stood up and headed for the window. “We’ll figure something out. Now, when Ryoko knocks on the door again, you should let her in. She really wants to talk to you.”
I watched him head up to the roof, and then looked at my door when someone knocked on it softly.
“Laz…” Ryoko said with a quiet voice.
I stood up and opened the door. She looked at me as if unsure if I was willing to talk, but when I opened the door more she smiled and came in.
“You going to be okay?” she asked once the door shut.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I replied.
“Rylan said he could make you another one,” she said.
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t be the same.”
“I could give you mine,” she offered. “It’s not on a leather thread or anything, just in a box where I keep it safe, but I could give it to you to make into another necklace.”
I shook my head again. “That’s yours, Ryo. You keep it.”
“But—”
“I said no, Ryoko. It’s not a big deal. I just wish I had been more careful. I promised him I’d never go anywhere without it and I’ve already broken that promise once. It sucks to have done it again.”
Ryoko blinked. “When did you do it the first time?”
“About eight years ago,” I explained. “It broke while I was training and I couldn’t fix it until my training was done which was three years away.”
“That’s a long time to wait.”
I chuckled. “In the end I waited eight years because when I was finally able to fix it, the village came under attack and I had to leave. I ended up leaving without it. I felt really bad. I don’t like breaking my promises.”
Ryoko smiled and placed her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. I think he’d understand. And he understands now. It’s not like you meant for it to break.”
I sighed. She was right and Rylan hadn’t been upset when we found out it was missing. It felt a little better now. I wasn’t going to tell her about my other mess up. I couldn’t worry her like that.
Ryoko smiled. “You look a little better now.”
“I feel a little better,” I admitted.
Ryoko nodded. “Good. Now I have to find Raikidan and apologize to him.”
My brow rose. “For what?”
“For insulting him by saying I hated serpents that day you had him change into a replica of Argus’ pet snake,” she explained. “When he told me he was a dragon, I forgot to let him know I only hate snakes a
nd not his kind.”
I stared at her. “You knew?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Based on how you reacted when I was hanging around with him, I figured he hadn’t told you. So if he hadn’t said anything, I wasn’t sure if it’d be okay if I did, so I kept quiet.”
“Wait, back up. If you knew, all those weird things I caught you doing with him—”
She laughed. “What, did you really think I was into him or something?”
“No—maybe—I don’t know! I couldn’t understand what you were doing for the life of me. Especially when the two of you were in the garage.”
Ryoko giggled. “I was trying to make him shift into his dragon form.”
I stared at her. “Seriously?”
“You got to see it whenever, so I wanted to.” She pouted. “But he was being a butt-head about it. So I tried to make him.”
I smacked myself in the forehead. “By the gods…”
She grinned wickedly. “Admit it. You thought I was trying to do dirty things with him and you didn’t like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even start. As a matter of fact, since you know he’s a dragon, you shouldn’t even have that idea in your head anymore and you should apologize for trying to push us together.”
“And why would I do that?” She placed her hands on her hips. “I’m human and wogron. If that can work, why can’t a human and dragon?”
“Because wogrons were once human,” I reminded her. “They were human until… what ever happened to them happened. Dragons have never been human. They’re not compatible with humans. I’m not even compatible with humans. I’m not compatible with anything. This crazy idea of yours that I’m going to find someone isn’t going to work.”
Ryoko grunted. “It will. I’ll make sure of it. Even if it kills me.”
I groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me!”
She laughed and headed for the door. “I’ll make it work and you’ll thank me in the end.” She winked. “And then you can share the juicy details with me.” My face flushed several shades in response to the unwanted image she placed in my head and she laughed. “See. You want him. But we can discuss this later. I need to find that dragon.”
Pieces Page 31
