Awakening The Dragon (Exiled Dragons Book 9)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “What do we do?” she asked again.

  “They won’t stop. Even if they don’t find us this time, they will keep coming. We have to leave.”

  “Where will we go? Where can we go that will be safe for us?”

  “Ireland, with the others that have gone before us. I fear it is our only choice now.”

  “I’m frightened. I’ve never lived anywhere but here and now must go to live among strangers?”

  “We don’t have to go. We can stay, take our chances, but what is there here for us, really? Neither of us have any family.

  “Yes, we do. We are one another’s family.”

  Kergot turned toward her with a smile. His mind conveyed all that he did not say when he opted simply to utter, “Then we need to take care of one another someplace far from here.”

  “I will get dressed.”

  “No, not yet. We still have a bit of time. Let’s get bathed in the hot springs and clean your wounds before we make the trip. It will be tiring to fly across the ocean, and we will have to rest in the rough before continuing on to the village.”

  “You have been there before?”

  “No, but I know where it lies. We will fly over the water, rest in the daylight, and then use the cover of darkness to fly the rest of the way. It is too far and too treacherous to make the trip on foot once we land.”

  “I guess we best get bathed and packed then,” she told him.

  “Don’t get discouraged, Pene. We will get through this together. We are one now.”

  “Of course,” she replied. “I know we will.”

  After a hasty bath in the hot springs, Penelope let Kergot dress her remaining wounds. Her feet were much better, mostly just a map of thin scratches that were almost healed with only one larger wound that remained on one side. It was sore, but not infected, and that was a good sign.

  The wound on her arm was much worse, a large section of skin opened by the bullet that had hit her and left its mark. It would heal, but leave a definite scar. It was something she wasn’t used to, with her dragon healing. Wounds usually closed quickly and left no trace, but it was looking like she might have to get used to being not human, but also not quite dragon now.

  Once they were ready, they packed only what they needed in two large pouches that she could sling over her shoulders and carry along as she rode on Kergot’s back across the water. The weather had warmed outside over the past couple of weeks, so, at least, it would not be quite so chilly across the water, and they could easily go out through the falls, even in the daylight.

  “We will go straight out through the falls and over the water. It is cloudy out, so there will be little chance of us being seen even by seafarers in the broad open daylight, but once we near the other island, we will be more noticeable. That’s why we will camp until it gets dark again and then continue down the coastline to the Mourne Mountains where the village lies.”

  “Do you know how to find it once we arrive?”

  “Not exactly. I understand that I will see the circle there. It is set up for teaching the youth to fight, use their power, but it is said to be visible from the skies, even in darkness.”

  “Let’s hope so. I’m told that it is a much larger island there by those who have crossed the sea.”

  “I’ve heard the same, but even if we get lost and never find it, we will be together, and I promise you that we will find a way.”

  “Let’s go then. I still have one thing left to do.”

  Penelope followed him out, waiting outside the large gates as he locked them and then began to pull rocks from the ground nearby to cover the entrance. She wasn’t sure why it mattered, but began to pull what she could with one arm and stack them with the others.

  “Hopefully, they will see the rocks and believe it is just another blocked entrance without pulling them away. Even if they do find it, they would have to blast the gate to get it down and that could collapse everything around them. Once we are settled, I may return here at some point to retrieve more things for us, if I can.”

  “Maybe I will be able to help you, rather than ride on your back.”

  “I hope so. I love having you on my back when I fly, but I know that you want to be able to fly on your own. I can feel the pain of the loss within you, and I know that I would feel the same in your place. If there is a way to reverse what has been done to you, then we will find it.”

  Penelope smiled at him as they piled the last of the rocks into place and then turned to make their way to the ledge. There, Kergot shifted, and she took her place for the long ride ahead of them. There was a certain sadness that she felt from not only herself, but also from him as they sailed high over the clouds and out over the sea toward a new destiny.

  CHAPTER 10

  The hours passed as Kergot made the flight across the sea toward a new land. They landed on a cliff at the edge of a large forest, and he changed back into human form, reaching for the clothing Penelope pulled from one of the two large bags slung over her back. She set down the bags, while he got dressed, looking back in the direction from which they had flown.

  “It is all so far away now,” she said.

  “Yes, but I think we will be okay here. I don’t know much about the village. My father told me about it a very long time ago. He lived in another village not far from the caves in which I made my home and had heard about it from others that had passed through.”

  “The village he lived in, were there no other shifters there?”

  “No, not dragon shifters.”

  “There are other kinds?”

  “Yes, many kinds. I know there are bear and tiger shifters, even some shifters that can shift into multiple shapes.”

  “How is that possible?” she gasped, turning toward him as he put on his boots and walked over to put his arms around her waist.

  They stood looking over the water that crashed against the rocks below. Penelope was sad that she had not been able to fly over it on her own wings, possibly dipping into it from time to time. There would most likely never be a time that she didn’t feel heartbroken by her inability to shift.

  “I don’t know. No more than how I know how we came to be.”

  “Tell me about your parents,” she urged.

  “Okay, but first, let’s sit for a while and eat something. The trip has made me very weary, and we still have a long way to go once the sun drops.”

  “Of course, Kergot. Poor timing, I suppose. You can tell me another time.”

  “No, I will tell you while we eat, then we will nap at the edge of the forest where we aren’t out in the open. I’m sure you could use some rest, as well.”

  “That I could,” she replied with a smile, reaching back into one of the bags and retrieving a cloth in which they had wrapped some meat, hard cheese, and crusts of bread.

  Sitting on the ground, they ate from the cloth that lay between them, still looking out over the glorious view that revealed itself from the desolate cliff. Kergot seemed to struggle with his words a bit, but soon found his way with a story that she found fascinating.

  “My grandfather was one of the last dragons to guard a castle in Scotland. He spent years in a dungeon, changing at night into a man that fell in love with one of the scullery maids. Their son, my father, escaped when they were killed by thieves in the night.”

  “Your father was young then?”

  “Yes, only a child himself. He grew up splitting time between a village that had taken him in and being out on his own.”

  “That is where you get your solemn, lone nature from then,” she observed.

  “I suppose so, but the father I knew was not that solemn, lonely creature he must have been in his youth. I knew him as Aodh, but it was one of many names he had adopted in order to elude anyone who might seek him out. People had burned his home after discovering what he was and he had fled to I guess the place that felt most like home to him.”

  “The village?”

  “No. The castle where he had be
en born. There, he befriended the princess after saving her life and they fell in love, but she was betrayed by her family and they had to run. So, they ended up in the village living as normal people.”

  “Wait. Your mother? Are you telling me your mother was a princess?”

  “Yes. Was. The mother I knew was an ordinary human who washed clothes in the stream and baked bread with the elders. Her name was Katherine, but I’ve only ever heard anyone call her Kate.”

  “So, she was never allowed to go back to her life as a princess?”

  “She was. Events unfolded that would have allowed for her to return and take the throne, but she chose to stay with my father. She returned only long enough to abdicate to her cousin.”

  “Kergot? Do you realize what this means? You are royalty!”

  “No. I am not and never will be, would not want to be. I lived in the village all my life not knowing any of that. It was not until my mother died that my father told me her tale, and when he died, many years later, I left to find another place for myself.”

  “Why? If you grew up in the village and were happy there, why did you not stay among people who knew and cared for you?”

  “Because I had been there for decades and watched them die one by one. Even the bear and tiger shifters have a much shorter life span, and I grew weary of losing those I cared about. It was better to live alone.”

  “That makes sense,” she said sadly.

  Kergot nodded wordlessly. She could feel his sadness sweep over him as he remembered so many lost loved ones. A thought occurred to her and she looked back up to him.

  “Was your father also half human. Did he have enhanced ability like yours?”

  “He had other abilities, but not like mine. His possessed some strange mutation that allowed him to breath ice, though he only learned about it later in his life.”

  “How could he not know?”

  “I suppose he just never tried. It happened when he was teaching me to control the direction of my flames. I don’t even know what drove it, but he seemed just as surprised by it as I was.”

  “I’ve never met an ice dragon, much less one that could breathe either.”

  “Have you met any dragon shifters other than your parents and me?”

  “Only one. I had an uncle, my mother’s brother, but he disappeared before my parents died. No one is really sure what became of him. He may be dead or may even be living elsewhere.”

  “Perhaps we will run across him someday.”

  “Perhaps we will.”

  Penelope looked toward the sky. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky, but it was still a while before it would be dark here. It was a good time to sleep, not too bright but warmer than it would be once the sun fell.

  “Shall we rest a while then?” Kergot asked, reading her thoughts again.

  “I’m not sure I will ever get used to that,” she told him.

  “Good. Then you will not lose interest in me.”

  “I don’t see that happening, ever,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him softly.

  They stood and gathered the bags, heading toward a section of the woods that appeared undisturbed. There was a row of low-hanging trees that provided some coverage from easy visibility in the event that anyone did actually even come to this remote area among the cliffs.

  Kergot spread a thin blanket upon the ground, and they lay down upon it, tucking the bags under their heads both to soften them from being directly on the hardened ground, and to protect the bags from anyone that might sneak up and seize them, though that wasn’t likely with their sense of hearing.

  Giving in to their exhaustion, they curled up against one another for added warmth and fell into a much needed sleep. When they awoke, the sun had dropped deep into the horizon, and dusk was upon them. They packed away their things and prepared themselves for the next leg of their flight around the coast of Ireland.

  CHAPTER 11

  There. There it is, Penelope’s mind spoke to Kergot’s.

  She felt his mighty head turn further downward, looking to make out what she had spotted for himself from their low-level of flight. He had dropped from above the clouds once what appeared to be the Mournes had come into view and flown at a distance that allowed them to see what they were looking for without being spotted by anyone who might be out during the night.

  They had landed in the center of the large circle, each with breath held in anticipation of what they might find there. It was dark, except for the subtle glow of the stones that surrounded the arena. They were what had made it clear that they there were in the right place. It was just as it had been described to Kergot.

  “Where should we go now?” Penelope asked, climbing down from his back.

  Kergot shifted and looked around. There was silence, a quiet so absent of sound that it seemed threatening in some way. There was something not right here, but he couldn’t quite decide what it was. Suddenly, light flooded them from all around. Kergot quickly shifted back to dragon form as they were surrounded by at least a dozen men.

  “What is your business here?” one of them boomed.

  “We mean no harm,” Penelope responded. “We’ve come a long way, from Scotland to speak with your elders and request permission to join your village.”

  Kergot stood fast in dragon form, his large figure foreboding, though he suspected it would be no match if the men surrounding them shifted into dragons, as well.

  “You are human,” the man responded flatly.

  “What? No. I am not human.”

  “You arrived on your mate’s back, and you have not shifted along with him.”

  Penelope swallowed hard and looked at the ground, then back up at him, meeting his fierce gaze. She spoke to him in a calm voice as she explained herself.

  “A witch took my ability to shift. She gave me a potion, and I’ve not been able to shift since then,” she told him. “I brought some of it with me in hopes that someone here might be able to help me.”

  The man looked her up and down before turning toward Kergot and addressing him without responding to what she had told him.

  “You. Stand down. No one here will harm you unless you bring it upon yourself.”

  Kergot silently warned her to be wary of them and prepared to take flight with him at a moment’s notice, if necessary. They were in a strange place, and though these were their own kind, they weren’t known to them. Then, he shifted, accepting the clothes she had been in the process of handing him when the men had shown themselves.

  “Get dressed, and the guards will escort you to my chambers,” the man said, turning to leave.

  Kergot did as asked and took Penelope’s hand, leading her onto the path that followed behind the man. The other men followed behind them. She could feel that something was making Kergot uneasy, though even he seemed to be uncertain as to what that might be. They made their way into a large hall, adorned in tacky, gold statues, many of which bore a likeness to the man in front of them.

  “I am Tomlin, the dragon leader of this clan,” he told them.

  “It is our pleasure to meet you. As my mate has previously explained, we are Kergot and Penelope of Scotland. We have only come here to escape human persecution and be with our own kind.”

  “What skills have you to offer us?”

  “I am a skilled craftsman and hunter. Both of us are well educated at our own bidding. We could teach, if you require such a thing.”

  “That is a consideration. We are always in need of more teachers, though most are tutored privately. I’ve been interested in creating a more formal school for some time now. Perhaps both your craftsmanship and educational skill might come in handy?”

  “It would be our pleasure to help in whatever ways we could, Dragon Leader,” Kergot told him.

  “Very well. Granted you cause no harm and do your part in the village, you will be afforded a place here for as long as you wish,” the dragon leader told him.

  “Thank you. We will not let you down
,” Kergot told him. Penelope repeated his sentiments.

  “The hour is late. If you fly to the east of the village, you will find an inn there run by a young shifter and his wife. They should be able to afford you lodging until morning. Once the sun has risen, return here, and we will discuss finding you a more permanent place to live and work.”

  “Your kindness will not go unappreciated,” Kergot told him.

  “Then I will see you both tomorrow,” he told them, waving toward his guards to see them out.

  Kergot and Penelope had wasted no time in making their way to the inn. Knocking loudly on the front door, they were greeted by a kindly older woman with wild, blonde hair and bright, blue eyes. She smiled at them and motioned for them to come inside.

  “You are the owner?”

  “No. My name is Cassi Baker. I am tending the inn while the owners are away. I am assuming you seek lodging?”

  “Yes, the dragon leader named Tomlin sent us here.”

  “Ah, of course. Well, we are currently doing some renovations to the house and can’t really offer you a finished room.”

  “I see. Well, that is okay. It is warm outside, and we can sleep out on the moors if that is okay with the house owners. I assume they also own the surrounding land.

  “Nonsense. I can’t offer you a finished room, but we do have one that is partially furnished. It lacks all the proper amenities, but the bed is in place, and it should be more comfortable than the ground outside. You can stay there for free until morning. After that, we have some people checking out, and I can get you a full room.”

  “I don’t know what we will be doing for lodging tomorrow, but if you are sure, then we will be more than grateful for the bed tonight.”