“Ah, hello,” Maya murmured a bit self-consciously, unwilling to acknowledge the bow or the reason behind it. “Sit down, please. Sorry to have kept everyone waiting.” After they sat, she approached the newcomers and they looked up. She shook the woman’s hand first. “Hi, I’m Maya.”
“Good morning, my Lady. My name is Sheri Besnard.” The woman spoke with a French accent. Maya liked the sound of her voice, low and smooth. It made a person want to smile and have her talk some more. She returned Maya’s stare with beautiful large slanted eyes, giving her an exotic look. Her almond complexion suggested a racially mixed background. Come to think of it, they all had mixed racial backgrounds.
“I’m Darryl Jenkins, my Lady,” the man said interrupting her thought and shaking her hand. She stared at his upturned face, the color of dark chocolate, with an infectious grin on his handsome features. She smiled back.
“Are you American?” she asked, hearing a little bit of ’hood in his accent.
He nodded his shaved head. “Washington, DC, born and bred, Lady.”
“We’re practically neighbors. I live in Maryland. Please sit down. And call me, Maya.” She walked around to take her seat near Draakar, but did not look in his direction. She didn’t want to see satisfaction or desire in his stare. If she looked she’d find both there. His emotions beat at her own, or maybe they were all hers. She clamped her mind down tight.
Ian laughed. “I guess we have to come up with breakfast, too,” he said. “Maya and I have been discussing what we want.”
The group found it easier to wield magicks today. The new comers were a little behind but the others gave pointers and Draakar presided over them all, confident they would soon catch up. He waited until they finished breakfast before he gained their attention.
Now that we are all here, I can tell you everything. It is time for you to understand who you really are, and to help all brethren. It is the reason you have been called.
One minute everyone sat at the dining room table, the next they all stood in a circle in an enormous cavernous chamber. Everyone seemed shocked and glanced around. An area aglow in a rainbow of colors illuminated etchings of dragons with various colored gems for eyes around the walls. The sweet smell of clean, crisp, mountain air tickled their noses, and the rough ground of baked dirt and stone could be seen beneath their feet.
Draakar stood in the center of the group. “You all have been imparted with most of the knowledge of what you are and how you came to be here,” Draakar began, turning slowing to make eye contact with them all. “What you do not know is I have come to understand why the brethren left the world of our beginning in the first place. I believe the Dragon Lord who led them could no longer sustain the balance of powers on Akgon, and so came here to a world were they would be able to adapt and survive.”
“Because of the magicks here?” Maya asked.
He swung his gaze to her. “Yes. Earth held magicks dragons could wield and a habitable environment to our kind, at least initially. Now that your dragon blood has awakened you will come to understand for dragons to survive our life energy must feed off the energy created by magicks. Earth has it in abundance. Only a handful of dragons survived to make the first crossing. They were the last of the brethren and the strongest. The memories are sketchy here, so bear with me.” He shifted, clasping his hands together behind him and glancing around the chamber again until he’d met each of their curious gazes.
“Even though we retain our history through imbedded memory in our blood, we do not retain much of the first brethren’s memories.”
“Why is that?” James asked.
“Neither myself nor my advisors, the oldest of the brethren, are sure. We don’t even have a memory of the exact numbers of the brethren who survived the crossing or exactly who they were. We believe the survivors would have been a Dark Dragon Lord and his elite Firsts, as you are mine. So because my memories of this period are not complete, I also know your memories of brethren history are even less so. Even after you come into all of your powers they may never be fully intact. But I digress. In dragon form, these first brethren were both revered and feared. Many humans came to worship them and for a time, dragon and man lived in peace.
“Well what happened to change that?” Paul asked.
“The brethren were always curious about humans and wanted to walk amongst them. They were also probably lonely for companionship. We are not sure if there were any mated pairs among those first brethren. We do not believe there were because we also think they were primarily males. Dragons do not mate with their own gender; it is just not our way, and they would have wanted to find truemates. The one soul placed in the world to complete theirs has always been of the opposite gender in order to call forth all of their magicks and preserve the strongest of the brethren bloodline.”
Draakar paused and looked pointedly at Maya, who stared unblinkingly right back at him as if his words had nothing to do with her. But he sensed the slight increase in her heartbeat. His words affected her.
“I think the first Dark Lord,” he continued, “used Earth magicks to shape-shift into human form and showed the other brethren how to speak to Mother Earth and gain access to the magicks.”
“But you’re not sure?” Maya asked.
“No, but it makes the most sense. The magicks of Mother Earth would have been easy for a Dark Lord to access. Also, I am of his line. Only a Dark Lord or a son of one can beget a Dark Lord, and only between truemates. Using Earth magicks we believe they were able to change so they could live amongst humans. Some obviously did find their truemates, the leader being one of the few who did. The first offspring of the mixed matings could also explain the lapse in our ancestral memories. Before we got to Akgon, my memories and those of the other brethren were strongest after the first matings.”
“What about the ones who couldn’t find truemates?” Sherri asked. “What did they do?”
“They merely found suitable human mates. Eventually, they took their mates and families and began to live apart from humans. All of the first brethren offspring were able to change. We became both dragon and human, brethren of Earth and Akgon.”
“But, why did they live apart from everybody else?” Ian asked.
“Because they were feared,” Maya answered.
“That is correct. Man began to fear dragons. Humans thought dragons were stealing the females. The ancestors thought in order to maintain the peace it would be best to live separately, and for a long time this worked. There was this new race, and while they looked human, they could do things no human could do. And the villagers knew it.”
Draakar opened his arms and gestured around. “They came here, to this remote mountain, and created a small village around the Circle of Stones. This circle is a circle of power as well as a gateway for those with the power and skill to open it, though none ever did. There was no where they wanted to go.”
Everyone looked around and he knew as they all peered harder at the walls, it became clear the Stones of power were indeed a part of the chamber walls.
“Wow!” Darryl exclaimed. “They did built a town…a village here. I can see it in my mind.”
“Very good, Darryl.” Draakar smiled as he watched the confusion on some of their faces. “Darryl is correct and in time the memories of that village will come to all of you. The first brethren chose to die when or soon after their human mates died, but they left many progeny who were long-lived. Eventually some moved to the foot of the mountains and beyond, and the brethren grew and lived longer.
“As ages passed, man began to hold dragons and magicks less in awe and more in envy and fear. Christianity replaced the old ways and magick was seen as evil. Dragons became associated with the devil and blamed for everything bad happening to poor villagers. A renegade among the brethren helped fuel fear among the humans. The brethren, for some reason, were able to access less and less of earth magicks to help protect themselves. As a result, they stayed in dragon form to better harness mag
ick, which did not help alleviate the fear.”
“Is what I’m remembering true?” Ian asked. “My memories show brethren were hunted and literally cut down. The magicks no longer protected us.”
“Yes,” Draakar replied. “Humans had found a way through our protective shields. Later we discovered they had help. The renegade betrayed us. He lived amongst us, but helped the humans hunt and destroy dragons. One night, when only a few were present, they attacked the village we created at the foot of this mountain. All within were slain. No human could have destroyed all those brethren on his or her own. There were powerful brethren in the founding village. My father tracked the betrayer and they fought, but humans fought with the betrayer and they helped him slay my father. My mother died avenging him; we thought she had killed the betrayer.”
“What do you mean, ‘thought’?” Maya asked. “Didn’t you have a body?”
“When we found her we also found a body near hers engulfed in dragon flame. We assumed it belonged to the betrayer because we could find no trace of him. I think we were wrong. When I first arrived here, I felt a recent vibration on the wind and caught a whiff of something in the currents. The vibration and scent are distinctive marks of a silver dragon. There has only ever been one silver dragon and that is the betrayer.”
“You mean this dragon is still alive?” Ian asked incredulously.
“Yes, and if he is, then there must be a reason why he is active now. He was here before I crossed over. I believe he never left, never drained his magicks, and never died.”
“How come we didn’t know about him before now?” Maya asked, shaking her head. “If there was a dragon flying around, believe me, he would have shown up on the evening news.”
“At the very least YouTube,” Darryl joked.
Draakar frowned. “He may have just been biding his time. I do not know. What I do know is the silver dragon will bring nothing but death and destruction to Earth. Like nothing you have even seen before. His is the way of chaos. He must be stopped. This is a selfish creature who wanted to control all the magicks here on Earth and to have humans serve him a thousand years ago. He thought it his right. None of that has probably changed.”
“You sound like you knew him,” Robert said.
“I did. He was my father’s brother.”
Gasps ricocheted off the stonewalls.
“Never in the memory of brethren have there been a silver and a dark dragon born from the same line. As rare as dark dragons are, silver dragons are rarer. Purer brethren usually have one birth. Those with lesser blood are no different from most other humans when it came to procreation. However, only the strongest amongst us ever have multiple births and then never more than two. I was an only birth and the third new generation of dark dragon lords, and that also had never happened in brethren memory.”
“But I don’t understand,” Ian said. “I thought only dark dragons could have dark dragons?”
“Yes, but even with the holes in our memories we know it is rare to have such consecutive births. There should have been generations separating such births. Only one generation had passed before my grandsire’s birth.”
“How far back do your memories go?” Maya asked. “Is it just to the time here on Earth or do they extend back to Akgon?”
“At first it was just to the time here on Earth, but after we returned to Akgon some of us picked up memories from there too. Not everything but enough for us to more fully understand the significance of the dragon colors as well as maybe the importance of finding truemates.”
“I can see we all have different auras of colors surrounding us,” Maya began, “and I know that has something to do with the color dragon we would become, if we could change. Does color also indicate the level of magicks we can use?”
“Very good, yes,” Draakar replied. He noticed she didn’t ask about truemates, and what that meant to brethren. He read the question she wanted to ask as it formed in her mind, but she’d asked a different question so he answered what she had. “While you can all access the magicks of Earth, you can only hold so much of it, and this effects what you can do. For instance, very few of you will be able to control enough magicks to change into your dragon form here on Earth. On Akgon it would be different; you would all be able to change. The magicks there are different. It is the home world of the brethren; therefore, it is easier to take our dragon form. Our powers are greatest there.”
I will answer your other question later.
Chapter Twelve
Maya started to respond to him then she realized he had only mind-spoken to her. No one else had heard so she continued to stare blankly at him, refusing to acknowledge him. She didn’t want to know the answer to the question she hadn’t verbalized. Or did she?
“How many colors are there?” James asked, interrupting her train of thought.
“There are eight. Black is the strongest because black is a conduit and contains every color. Black also controls the greatest amount of magicks on any realm. Silver absorbs color and reflects them all, but to a lesser degree. Next strongest is gold, then bronze, red, brown, green, and blue. There are times when there is a limited combination of colors. These brethren tend to be stronger than some of the purer colors, with the exclusion of black and silver. Usually a red is involved in any combination, a red and gold or a brown and red. This, however, is the first time in memory when there is a brethren of gold and bronze.”
All eyes turned toward Maya.
“If I had to guess,” Draakar continued, “I’d say because the brethren drained their powers back into Mother Earth, this may have changed the magicks in some way. So we may see combinations we have not seen before. Maya is the strongest female brethren in memory. There is none other like her. She is also a Dam.”
“No,” Maya whispered. Spoken so quietly, her ‘no’ carried more weight. It became a desperate plea. Her body took on a rigid stance. She knew what he meant to say next and did not want him to do so.
You bastard, don’t you dare!
They already know, Maya. They sense the power in you. They already sense what is between us.
They sense nothing! There is nothing between us.
She turned to walk away from him, but his next words spoken verbally stopped her.
“A Dam is the rarest of all females. She is one born at a time the brethren have great need, and our needs here on Earth and Akgon are great indeed. The betrayer is alive and we must try to determine where he is and what he’s up to. Above all he must be stopped. For what he did to my parents and for the destruction he brought down on the brethren, and what he will still bring. After brethren and human alike are safe on Earth then I must return to our home realm. Time is of the greatest importance. My world, our home world, is also in trouble and running out of time. I may need your help to reopen the portal to return. The balance of powers there is weakening and must be restored or the brethren will die.”
Yes return, Maya thought bitterly, as she turned around to face him. His precious brethren still needed him. He would not remain on earth. This was not his home and he had someone waiting for him. She would do well to remember that.
“If you know who the betrayer is, can you tell us his name and show us in our minds what he looks like?” Robert asked.
“His name has been stricken from memory because he deserves no such respect. He is merely referred to as the betrayer. I know what he looks like in dragon form, but I do not know his human form. He may have some resemblance to my father.” Draakar sent an image of his father’s human form to all of them.
“He looks a lot like you and Talon,” Maya said.
“Who’s Talon?” James asked.
“His son,” Maya replied before Draakar could.
“Yes,” Draakar said. “He is here somewhere, looking for his truemate, but by human standards he is a mere teenager, about seventeen of your earth years and the woman destined to be his mate is still a mere child.”
“Where is he?” James asked.
“I do not know—yet. But I will and soon.” Draakar gazed at Maya like she held the solution to a puzzle. Maya’s heart rate sped up, freaking her out because she guessed her connection to Talon related to the solution in some way.
“Wait a minute,” Cass said. “I thought Maya was your tru—”
Before Cass could finish her sentence, Maya’s gaze swung to her, instinctively closing off her vocal cords, and the other woman found her voice silenced.
Maya focused her mind solely on Cass. Careful there. Have a care what you say. Maya abruptly released Cass’ voice.
Cass coughed a few times before she could continue. “Ah, never mind.”
Draakar never took his eyes off Maya’s. Enough! You should not fear her question. He sent to Maya but said aloud, “Talon’s mother was not my truemate.”
A confused Robert looked back and forth between Draakar and Maya and said, “I thought dragons only bonded with their truemates?”
“A time existed before the brethren left Akgon when that was true. Once the brethren settled on earth, not all were able to find truemates amongst the humans. As time passed, there were fewer truemate bondings. Even on Akgon a truemate bonding is not common.”
“That’s because you left them behind when you returned,” Maya stated calmly. Inside, a storm raged. She wanted to yell and rant and rave. Probably why his realm lay dying. The same way she died time after time because he hadn’t been there for her. He took someone else as mate, for life.
“That is true,” Draakar spoke slowly. “Some were left behind, some died. Understand, truemate or not, dragons mate for life, which is a very long time and is also why so many brethren are unmated. Females can also only mate with a male stronger than themselves. They wait as long as they can, but eventually the needs of the brethren demand a bonding. We weaken otherwise.” Draakar wanted Maya to understand what he had faced. His heart clenched because he didn’t believe he succeeded or that she’d forgive him anytime soon. At the time he could not have made any other choice.
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