by Oxford, Rain
“You are wrong.”
With ease and familiarity, as if entitled as my father, Sujike-mor entered the room. When my father moved towards him, I thought it was to attack. Instead, my father hugged him and my jaw just about hit the floor.
“I know a way to save both her and the baby,” Sujike-mor said.
“How?” Mokomo asked. My mother started to get out of her seat, but Sujike-mor waved her back down.
“You stay put and relax, Lidin. Stress is bad for the pregnancy. I know a treatment that would make give you both the strength to survive the illness. I am afraid that if I told you what it is, you would refuse to use it.”
“What would be so horrible to make me give up my wife and child’s life?” my father asked.
“Not you. I know where your priorities lie. However, Lidin loves the dragons.”
“You want to use their blood,” my mother concluded, horrified. It made me feel sick inside as well. “That is disgusting. To kill such a magnificent creature…”
“It is either a dragon, or your baby. The doctor is correct that while you may come to term, your baby will not survive the birth without the blood of a dragon. I can find an old dragon that has lived his life. Dragons treasure offspring; one may even volunteer his life to save an unborn child. But there is a cost for this treatment.”
My father looked taken back. “If you need money, you only have to ask.”
“It is not money I need. My wife has become very demanding about finding a wife for our son. I want to merge our families now that my son and Anget are old enough to marry,” he said.
My father and mother looked at each other.
“Who is Anget?” I asked the young woman beside me. “And since when did Sujike-mor have a son?”
The room dimmed and I was standing in Sujike-mor’s main throne room. I knew the place because I had dragged several of his spies back here. Despite his sneaky and manipulative attempts to disgrace my father, steal his land and money, and sometimes kill him, Sujike-mor had always shown politeness to me.
I knew the king once had a wife that had died, but I had no idea it had anything to do with dragons. A woman dressed in royal clothes managed to appear immaculate even as she carried a bag in her arm. Sujike-mor looked at the sack, horrified.
“What is that?”
“The only dragon I could find.” She opened the sack and I fell to my knees. Inside was a tiny boy, only a couple of years older than Sammy, and his head was covered in blood. That was Rojan’s baby, but I felt Rojan’s pain as if he were mine.
“You killed a baby dragon? You were supposed to find an old one!”
“They are difficult enough to find. Who cares whether it is a little one or a big one? They are all vermin.”
“We only hunt the adults. Kill an adult, and we will wipe them out. Kill a child dragon and every single dragon in the world will target us! You fool! Take the dragon to the lab and test his blood.”
Everything became black before my eyes adjusted. We were in a dismal room that was something between a dungeon and a medical lab. Sujike-mor stood over a microscope with his wife cowering against the wall.
“This will never do. The child’s blood is not powerful enough.” He glared at his wife until she looked down in shame. “Young dragons are not allowed too far from their clutch. Go back to where you found the child and find the mother. Kill her and bring the body back. If you fail, I will make sure our son knows just how much of a failure you are.”
“You want me to fight a fully grown dragon on my own?”
“I demand it. Get out of here and do not come back until you have the dragon’s mother.”
Everything grew black and the air became warm. He sent his wife to kill mine. I was out hunting for the murderer of my son, leaving my mate and daughter unprotected. After tracking her scent back to Sujike’s home, I returned to my clutch to find my mate of a hundred and twenty years dead and my daughter screaming, covered in her blood. I caught Sujike’s wife before she made it back to her husband and took revenge. Then I buried my mate and son. I was content in the death of the woman who killed them; I would never have gone after Sujike or his son. That was my mistake.
When the light returned, I was standing on the balcony of a guest room in my father’s estate, and so were the young woman and a man I had never met. He looked familiar, though, as if I had seen a painting of him before, but now he appeared to be in emotional agony. The woman could not see me this time.
“What has you so upset that you came to me in the middle of the night? The night before our wedding even?”
“My mother was killed.”
“By who?” she asked, horrified.
“By a dragon. The dragon that lives in the mountain by the red lakes. He killed her!”
He was devastated by his mother’s death, and I could feel Rojan’s misery at being the cause of the man’s pain. She killed your son. You should feel no regret for killing her.
He is not the only one I left motherless.
“Rojan? But he never leaves the mountains. Why did your mother go to the mountains?” the woman asked.
“The cure. She needed the dragon’s blood to cure your mother’s illness. Now my father cannot help her and she will die, too.”
“Wait, her mother?” I asked. They couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t really care at that point. “Whose mother?!”
Did your father tell you that you were an only child? Rojan asked me.
Yes. My mother had too much trouble with miscarriages and I was the only one that made it.
Your father lied, Rojan growled.
“I need you to help me. Together we can kill Rojan and bring back his blood to save your mother and brother,” the man said. Rojan and I both knew he wasn’t being brave to save my mother, he just wanted vengeance. When the woman, my sister, hesitated, he grabbed her by her shoulders. “Anget, we can save your mother! You have to help me do it.”
She nodded. “But Rojan leads all of the dragons on the land. If he is killed, other dragons would come after us.”
“My family is not the only family that hunts dragons to keep their population down.” He pulled her into his arms. “We can save your mother and your baby brother.”
Where is your daughter? I whispered to Rojan. They’re going to find your cavern. Where is your daughter?
At home sleeping, he said.
The room darkened and I could feel the heat of Rojan’s home. “No!” I yelled out loud. “I don’t want to see her die! Please don’t make me watch this!” Rojan may or may not have been controlling what we saw, so I could only wish with all I had that I wouldn’t be able to see Rojan’s daughter dead like I had seen his son. I may not know those children, but I could feel Rojan’s love for them as if the feelings were mine.
The heat vanished, but it remained dark.
Sujike found his wife dead and told his son, then returned to hunt me down. I was packing up my cave to move my daughter and me to the desert where we would be safe. I am the oldest dragon I know, with the most powerful bloodline, so other dragons looked to me for leadership. I only ever wanted to live in peace with my mate and children.
Sujike cornered me and tried to fight me. I led him into the woods where my daughter would not get in the way and I let him take his frustrations out at me. When he realized I was so much stronger than him, he retreated.
Sujike’s son and your sister did find my cave. When they found me absent, they killed my daughter, but not before she could inflict mortal wounds on them. I found all three of them dead.
He finally stopped talking, possibly because I couldn’t breathe. My misery was so potent it was a wonder I didn’t just die. I was the reason Rojan, his children, his mate, my sister, Sujike’s family, and my own mother were dead. If it weren’t for me, my mother could have been treated by her doctor and Sujike wouldn’t have needed the dragon blood.
Never think that. Your mother put you first, but Sujike and his family hunted dragons for sport. Th
is would have happened even if your mother did not need my blood; she was just an excuse for him. It was more my fault that your mother and sister were dead than yours. For my part in their death, I am sorry, but words are all I have left to give you.
The last part was a bit cryptic, but that could be expected coming from an ancient dragon. You have no fault at all for my mother’s death, or my sister’s. But how did I survive when nobody got the blood?
Light returned and we were in my father’s bedroom. My mother was in bed, heavily pregnant and my father sat next to her. They were both crying.
“He just explained to her that I was dead and she would not be getting the treatment she needed to save you,” Anget said.
I didn’t have to turn to know she was behind me. I did turn, though, because I was still in awe that I had a sister, and I had to check to make sure she was still real. “How are you here if you died?” I asked her.
She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “Because you are in the Land of the Dead.”
My mother screamed with pain in between short, gasping breaths and held my father’s hand as he yelled for Mokomo, who burst in with his medical supplies. I turned away; I didn’t want to see my own birth.
For what seemed like forever, she screamed and cried and it was truly the most horrific thing I ever had to sit through. I heard my mother begging my father not to let her baby die and wiped tears from my eyes when her screams ended.
There was no baby crying. My father begged my mother to open her eyes and the servants were scrambling around in despair… and there was no baby crying. After a while, the doctor removed my mother from the room and my father sat on the bed, ignoring everyone else. I had been staring out of the window for hours, listening to the world come crashing down around me.
Why did I have to see this? Why did my life have to cause so much pain? Why couldn’t she have taken the treatment and lived?
“Never, ever think that.”
I thought it was Rojan, so it took me a moment to respond. When it suddenly clicked in my head that it was a woman speaking, I turned to see my mother, looking at me for the first time in my life.
“It was not the first time; I saw them take you away before my eyes closed for good,” she said. I couldn’t move from the window seat; I was frozen absolutely still. When she moved towards me and put her arms around me, I expected her to be cold and hard like a corpse… but she was soft and warm and I could hear a heartbeat beneath her skin. “This is the Land of the Dead, but it is sometimes difficult to remember that I died.”
“Because of me.”
“No, my baby, not because of you. I made a decision. I knew I would die, but I also knew your father would save you. Nothing could have saved me, but there was a chance you, and I made that choice. I will never regret it. I knew before you were born what kind of man you would grow up to be. You have already changed so many lives for the better and you are just getting started.”
“Not now that I am here,” I argued. At least I would have my mother and sister, but I felt like I was letting Dylan and Sammy down. I would have my time when I died to be with my family, but Dylan was family too, and he needed my help. I had to get back to him.
My father suddenly got up and pushed all of the servants out of the room. In his arms I could see a newborn baby, never opening his eyes, crying, or moving. I listened and could hear a sluggish, barely there heartbeat and strangled breath. The baby would die within the hour.
The desperate man pulled a book off of the shelf, still being meticulous with his cradling of the baby. He locked the door. My mother put her hands over my ears and leaned her forehead against mine. “You cannot hear this,” she said as everything was flooded with blinding white and a horrible ringing started in my ears. It cleared as quickly as it had started.
“What happened?” I asked as my father cleared away candles and books into a leather sack. He opened the sliding glass doors to the massive balcony and then he returned to the bed to rock the baby as if he were crying.
“He used magic to summon Rojan.”
Within a few minutes, Rojan landed. He was imposing as a person, but as a dragon, he was magnificent. Unlike Blood, this dark, forest green dragon looked like he was built for battle.
Entering the bedroom took much contorting on his part and… well, the doorway took considerable damage. His wings, massive and with sharp angles, were tucked as tightly as he could manage against his slim, but enormous, frame. His neck was long and horns angled back from his head. From his head, down his spine, and ending at the tip of his long tail was a row of spikes. Out of his nostrils he snorted smoke and the wood beneath his clawed paws scorched and creaked.
The transition into his person form took a mere instant. “Why have you called me here?” he asked and crossed his arms, completely unashamed of his nudity. Obviously he couldn’t wear clothes when he shifted.
“One of my children is dead because of you. My wife is dead because of you. You can save the life of my other child. You owe me that.”
“I killed neither your wife nor child. I owe you nothing,” Rojan said, his tone leaving no room for argument. Whereas my father could out-argue anyone, Rojan’s shear presence demanded compliance. Whether this was an aspect of dragons or just Rojan, I had no idea.
Predictably, my father said nothing. I knew my dragon’s true feelings, true regrets, but nothing except for cold indifference showed on his face.
Rojan looked at the baby and held out his hands. My father hesitated, but must have realized there was only one way to get Rojan’s help. He handed the infant over and Rojan took him with a gentleness I had never seen before.
There really was nothing to consider, Rojan said in my mind. I knew you could be saved. I had nothing left except for my guilt. Given the chance to save a child, of course I would. You needed me and I had failed everyone else. What better way to spend my life than protecting someone whose future was taken before he could even see it? There was nothing left for me; I had lived my life well, better than I had ever expected. I worked hard for what I had, for my freedom. To see that your life was taken before you even had it was horrible, unforgivable. I could give you your life, and protect you from some of the suffering I endured. It was never a choice for me.
“His mother had already used magic to extend his life,” the Rojan who stood in front of my father said. “She used an ancient and outlawed spell. My blood alone would not be able to save him, but the spell will allow him to assimilate my blood into his DNA, my soul will strengthen his. I will do this, but you must understand that your son will be part dragon. He will have incredible power over fire. Other dragons will seek him out to determine just how many dragon traits he attains. Some will try to kill him.”
“Is there a way to suppress the dragon part of him?” my father asked.
“You are asking me if you can suppress me.”
“He would be ridiculed as a child if he acts like a dragon.”
“He would also be extremely dangerous when he is made angry,” Rojan agreed, “but I will not tell you how to suppress what he will become, for it would make him miserable.” Even when he was about to give his own life for a child he didn’t know, he wanted me to be happy. It made me sick that I had made that girl subdue him.
“As long as he lives, I don’t care,” my father declared.
“Why would you call me? You want him to be as much a sago as possible, why summon the most powerful dragon around? You have to know I could never be completely suppressed. He will have much of my personality, and many of my motivations.”
“You are a king among dragons, are you not?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. Even before I could open my eyes for the first time, he was pushing for me to be king.
“My bloodline is the strongest that ever existed and ever will. For that, others of my kind either follow me or hunt me. With my blood, he will be the same. He will be capable of leading others, and no one will be strong enough to defeat him, bu
t I warn you that if he is anything like me, you will not be pleased,” Rojan cautioned.
I could see it in my father’s eyes as he brushed the warning off. He thinks you mean that I would be too strong for him to handle.
I know, and I knew it then, but he was wrong. I knew he would not be pleased because I spent my entire life trying to avoid leading. Since I was trained by my parents to lead, I never wanted that much responsibility. I only ever wanted the power to control my own life, not anyone else’s. With my blood in you, that desire to be free was passed on. You would, unfortunately, never make a good king because you would always be looking for your own path.
Thank you for that.
Along with my yearning for freedom, my dominant-protective tendencies, and weakness to the cold, my blood assimilated well enough to pass on minor shifting abilities, including the claws, teeth, and eyes. One thing I really wish I had passed on to you is the ability of flight.
Still in awe over what he sacrificed for me, I nearly missed what he said. Dominant-protective? Those are two different things.
Not for dragons.
Why are dragons weak to cold when we can just heat our fire inside us to keep us warm?
That is not how it works. You are unable to shift, but you have dragon fire in person form. Dragons cannot use their dragon fire in person form, or shift their claws, eyes, or teeth. They can only keep themselves warm in their true form. Mountain dragons and others born into cold climates have adapted a resistance to it.
Since you are not a full dragon, yet you share dragon blood, that makes you an abomination in the eyes of many dragons. Others will see you as my son or even a reincarnation of me, and instinctually follow you as a leader. Still some may think you are pure dragon who can control his fire in person form and assume you are the most powerful dragon ever born.
Either way, not a good idea, I decided.
Anget put her hand on my arm. “It is time to go home,” she said.
“I agree.”
That voice was unforgettable and could never be mistaken for another woman’s. I turned to see Divina standing next to my mother, looking determined and a little frustrated. Still, I was shocked to see her.
