by K S Augustin
“Centuries of study!” she objected.
“Centuries of loneliness.”
“To be an ordinary mortal!”
“A mortal such as you is not ordinary, Gamsin Thief. Perhaps I may not be able to conjure up a cottage for us, but I will work with you side by side to build one together. If you’ll still have me.”
Gamsin tried to answer—yes, yes, of course!—but a sense of decency stilled her tongue. If she grasped this chance of happiness, it was at the expense of Ankoll’s hard-won centuries of magical study. If she allowed him to keep such powerful knowledge, then she was also condemning him to a half-life in thrall to a dragon’s animal sensibilities. What should she do?
He took advantage of her indecision and spoke over her head to Beltrin. “I agree.”
“Then we can begin straightaway.”
For a spell of this magnitude, and consequence, Gamsin expected a setting from the myths—a giant altar, great burning sconces of fire and elemental weather. She was nonplussed when Beltrin abruptly began muttering phrases under his breath while his hands moved in graceful gestures. She looked from one to the other. Except for Beltrin’s arm movements, both men were immobile.
Minutes passed and Beltrin began to sweat and his hands started shaking, although his voice continued speaking words she did not understand, and his dark eyes remained locked on Ankoll’s. More minutes passed and the master sorcerer’s body began trembling. He may have looked frail, but he remained standing, still weaving his spell. Finally, when Gamsin’s nerves were at their breaking point, he dropped his hands.
“It is done.”
Ankoll opened his hands, flexing his fingers, and looked down at them, skimming his body as if trying to detect a difference. “I’m mortal now?” He sounded as though he didn’t believe it. Gamsin, too, searched for some kind of difference, in the way he looked or how he moved, but couldn’t find any.
“You only need to be grounded in the mortal world. Perhaps…” He rested a speculative eye on Gamsin and spoke a few more words of magic. “Yes, I think this is appropriate. If you kiss this woman, take her breath into you, then the dragon—and your magic—will be gone.”
Ankoll turned to Gamsin, his eyes blazing blue fire, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I fear this cannot be undone.” She looked to Beltrin for confirmation, and he nodded.
“The vision of a cottage at the edge of the ocean sounds more and more attractive to me,” Ankoll told her. “Especially if I can share it with you. And, perhaps, I can still turn back to learning magic again. It should,” he said with a smile, “be easier this time.”
He bent his head, lifting her chin with a finger…parted his lips…
The beast came out of nowhere, leaping over a boulder and fastening onto Beltrin’s neck with unerring aim. The sorcerer’s scream became a gurgle as the animal ripped out his throat. His lifeblood spurted out in spasming red ribbons, staining his skin and robes and the ground around him.
The beast was not of this world. Gamsin screamed as she focused on the creature. It had four legs and a jaw like a wolf, but its legs ended in bird-like talons and its snout was thick and leathery. It was also white.
Gamsin screamed again, but before she could scrabble back more than a handful of paces, something dark winged over her. The dragon!
Screaming with rage, the dragon descended on the Eidolon, the downdraft from those leathery wings pressing Gamsin into the rocks. Then it lifted the white beast, arrowing back into the sky with it. When they had diminished almost to specks, Gamsin saw the dragon throw the eidolon into the air then shoot a blast of flame at it, catching it expertly as it fell, again throwing it farther in the air and again attacking it with another volley of flame.
Three times it did this until the monster finally dissolved into the blue of the sky, tendrils of white mixing with fiery smoke before dissipating.
Screaming its anger, the dragon continued blasting the air where the Eidolon appeared last until, apparently satisfied, it gradually winged its way to the ground, skimming the rocks as it flew toward her.
She pulled a pair of breeches from his backpack. Just as well he was going to finally remain human, she thought, or most of her time would be spent sourcing clothing for him. But her hands were still shaking from shock.
“It was the white Eidolon,” he told her when he once more assumed human form. She tried not to get distracted by his sculpted, naked form.
“But how?”
“It must have still been in contact with the earth when I thought I destroyed it.” Ankoll pulled on his trousers and quickly laced them. “I had to remove it from its ability to channel energy in order to destroy it.”
They looked at where Beltrin, master sorcerer, had collapsed. Without touching him, they knew he was dead.
“So the enchantment…?”
“It still stands. Beltrin completed it before he was attacked. All I need from you, sweet Gamsin, is one kiss, to take your breath into my mouth, and I’ll be forever human.” He hesitated. “Except…”
She felt her skin grow cold. “Except?”
“In the final moments of the battle, the Eidolon taunted me. It said that there are others like it in this world, loosed by Beltrin’s unthinking conjuring.”
“And Beltrin is dead,” she added, “so he can’t tell us whether the Eidolon was lying.” She didn’t want to listen to his answer, because—with a sinking feeling—she knew what he was going to say.
“The Eidolon were banished once for their excesses,” he told her. “We cannot allow them to gain a second foothold in this world.”
“You’re not breaking the enchantment.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I can do nothing to help this world as a mortal. But as a sorcerer, as a dragon, I can.” He took her cold hands in his. “I turned my back on this world once before, sweet Gamsin, but that was before I found you. I could not live knowing that I was somehow responsible for giving evil even the smallest chance to touch you. I’m sorry, my love, but I cannot kiss you.”
“But what does that mean? If we can never kiss…?” She loved his kisses, adored them. How could she live like this without the touch of his lips on hers?
“We can kiss in the non-physical world,” he suggested, a glint in his eye. “In our dreams. And, back in the physical world, there is still your entire body left for me to explore. I want you with me. As the woman I have grown to love and also as an acrobat and thief. I am putting great faith in your skills to help us in the future.”
“Hunting Eidolon?”
“Eidolon…and gold, Gamsin Thief.” He pulled her close against his warm, bare chest. “You forget, the spirit of the dragon is part of me. And, like thieves, dragons love gold.”
Epilogue
From atop her horse, Gamsin looked back at the cairn they’d built over Beltrin’s grave. The heap of dark rocks rose imposingly on the flat plain they chose for his final resting place, with only the faded green stalks of long grass beating against its sides. It should stand there for many more decades as testament to a dead sorcerer.
She may not have liked the old man very much, but he had kept his word and was deserving of some dignity. A cold wind ruffled her hair and she buried her neck deeper into her cloak. The sooner she was away from the chill of the Twilight Ranges, the happier she would be.
“We’ll need to restock our provisions,” Ankoll called out from slightly ahead of her.
“As long as we don’t stop in Tendraf Village again.”
He laughed. “Agreed.”
“We should probably head for Mishlow City.” She shot his back a sour look. “If you’re determined to pursue this brainless adventure, we’ll need good, more modern, maps.”
She spurred her horse and caught up with him.
What strange turns her life had taken in only a few short months. Once she was a fearful, cynical thief and ex-acrobat. And now she was partner to a dragon, con
fidant to a sorcerer. She still didn’t trust people completely, but she was more at peace with herself than at any other time in her life. And, of course, who knew better than Gamsin Thief that anything worth having always exacted a price.
No kissing.
She thought about delicious ways around that while listening to Ankoll’s off-key whistling as they headed westward, back to the coast.
About the Author
To learn more about KS Augustin, please visit www.ksaugustin.com. Send an email to [email protected]. She loves to hear from readers.
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Are you ready for this world? Get ready to be swept away on the wings of dragons.
The Dragon of
Ankoll Keep
K.S. Augustin
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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The Dragon of Ankoll Keep
Copyright © 2007 by K. S. Augustin
Cover by Christine Clavel
ISBN: 1-59998-609-4
www.samhainpublishing.com
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: September 2007
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