Unleash the Inferno (Heart of a Dragon Book 3)

by Tamara Shoemaker

  A murmur of agreement settled through the cavern, a quiet echoing hum that was reflected in the many nods that accompanied it.

  Paik continued, “Those who have broken faith with the Bond of Blood and Fire, who have turned their backs on what happened centuries ago and found fault with the Amulet that was a true gift bestowed on us by the Stars—these Seer Fey, these Ancients, are rapidly dwindling in number. Helga, our sister, has gone from our midst, one of the last of those Seer Fey who walked apart from us. While that saddens us, as it should, it also steadies our goal. Ere long, the Amulet will be ours, and we will finally rebirth the Bond of Blood and Fire, and the power that it holds over others, giving it a fresh start and a fresh name. The Amulet will be within our grasp to enforce a new power, that of the Seer Fey, the true makers of the Bond of Blood and Fire. Our power, our taibe, wrought the ancient treaty. And our power should lead Dragons, Creatures, and Men into the future.”

  “We must first gain the Amulet, Grand-Master, intact and untarnished.”

  The statement, though quiet, echoed through the chamber with the force of a battering ram. All heads turned toward Kayeck, who had uttered it.

  “Kayeck, speak on, wise Ancient,” Paik murmured, his green eyes glinting as he stared at her.

  “Though we hope to regain the Amulet from the Andrachen line, we will not succeed in enabling your vision of the Seer Fey's unlimited power if the Amulet is first destroyed.”

  “Destroyed!” The word left Paik's lips as though it were an evil deed. “What mean you by this?”

  “Only that the Andrachen twins, Sebastian's niece and nephew, make plans to destroy the Amulet as soon as they are able.”

  Murmurs of disapproval and anger spread around the Seer Fey circle. Ayden's lips tightened. What is she doing? Yes, she had urged the destruction of the Amulet; she planned to teach Sebastian control of the Touches so that the ritual could go forward. But surely she would not give away Kinna and Cedric's plans to the Council. Not only that, if she opposed Paik in the Council of the Seer Fey, she would likely lose her place on it, as well as give up her prime spot as a mole for Kinna and Cedric. He had assumed she would offer no opposition to Paik's reasoning, instead using it to get closer to Sebastian for the necessary instruction.

  “The Andrachen twins have the Amulet? And how do you know this?” Paik asked after a long moment. He shifted his staff before him, leaning even more heavily on it.

  “I found letters,” Kayeck said, “from Helga when she was in our dungeons, ravings of a mind touched by captivity. In those letters, she detailed the need for the Amulet's destruction. Do you think there is any chance that she did not persuade Kinna and Cedric to take up her cause upon her escape from our dungeons? Naturally, it would be the Andrachen twins to whom she would bequeath the Amulet. She was their nurse, recall. She was loyal to them above all others.”

  Paik nodded slowly, and a ripple of agreement worked its way around the circle. “Then there is nothing else for it. The Amulet is in danger of being destroyed in the possession of Kinna and Cedric Andrachen. We must gain it back, at all costs. The world of men will be brought to its knees before the world of Fey and those who wield our powerful taibe.”

  “There is no disputing that, Grand-Master,” Kayeck answered, her voice quiet and respectful. “I simply ask one thing: that I go to Sebastian under the guise of teaching him how to use the four Touches, to master his control of them.”

  “Teach Sebastian to master his control of the Amulet's Touches! We may pose as his ally while we wait until the time is ripe to pluck the Amulet from his hands, but why, in the meantime, would we give our enemy such power?”

  Ayden inhaled sharply. Paik's presence on Sebastian's ships during the battle in the Channel had solidified their suspicions that Paik and the majority of the Seer Fey were working in collusion to subdue The Rebellion. If Paik were planning to subvert Sebastian's own plans against him...

  “You wish to regain the Amulet, do you not, to return it to the Seer Fey and the Seer Fey alone? The Andrachen twins already wield much power. Though their numbers are small, they have the love of the people, and they have gained Sebastian's head Commander to their side along with many of his soldiers. Creatures, too, are turning to them in droves. Rumors say there is one who faithfully serves them, who masters the Touches gifted by the Amulet. Sebastian remains the holder of one half of the Amulet's split power. If he were to be taught to control the Touches, the balance of power would stabilize, and the taibe inside the Amulet would as well. Not only could Sebastian more easily regain the Amulet, bringing it more swiftly to your hands, Grand-Master, it would make the Amulet's power more manageable when it is finally restored to us.”

  Gasps whispered across the gathering. “Another has mastered the Amulet's Touches?” a Seer Fey asked, her magenta hair glistening in the torchlight. “Who? Who has mastered them?”

  “A Dragondimn, a lad who was raised in the foothills of these very mountains, but in whom such power resides that even I, a Seer Fey Ancient, tremble in his presence.”

  Ayden blinked. Surely she was making up stories to woo the Ancients into her tale, to convince them to allow her to do as she wished.

  “How is it possible a mere man could have such an effect?” Paik asked, his voice cracking as he stared at Kayeck in disbelief.

  “Because he holds, in essence, the blessing of the Stars in his palms—the Touches of the Amulet gifted to us.” Here, her blind glance flicked over the wall where Ayden lay hidden. “You and I and all the Seer Fey who hold ourselves blessed by the Stars will one day bow our knees before this one. He will command us, and we will obey.” She fell silent, and Ayden swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth.

  Deep down, comprehension began to spread a slow knowledge over his thoughts.

  Since he'd mastered the Touches, encompassing the essence of the Amulet, all four parts of it, it had taken a deep root inside of him, in his mind, but also in who he was. He had found his identity, but in that identity, the Amulet and its Touches were intricately wrapped.

  Only then did Ayden understand the true nature of the ritual.

  To destroy the Amulet by his own blood meant that he would be destroyed as well. It wouldn't be only a little blood, as he and Kinna had assumed. It would have to be all of it. All of him.

  He would die in order to free to world of the power of the Amulet.

  No. No! He squeezed his eyes shut as his blood thundered in his ears. Visions of his plans, his hopes for the future, swelled in startling clarity before him: Kinna standing on tiptoe, raising her soft, full lips to his, Kinna lacing her fingers through his, squeezing his hand, Kinna cuddling a babe at her breast, her green eyes tender with love.

  The vision melted beneath the overwhelming darkness of what must happen. She would never be his wife; he would not live past the Amulet's destruction.

  Crushing, black despair pressed down on him like the weight of the mountain above his head. It was not what he'd intended. But he could see the necessity in the pair of green eyes that gazed up at him with her soul inside. She'd trusted him with this mission, with this task, and he couldn't fail her, no matter the cost.

  He winged a prayer to the Stars for strength in his weakness, courage in his cowardice. He released a slow breath. So be it.

  Paik was speaking again. “Then he must die. This lad you speak of must die, for he gives the Andrachen rebellion too much power by his mastery of the Touches. The twins have been a thorn in my flesh long enough. Let us quash this rebellion before another full-scale war is upon us by destroying the faces of it. The boy with the Touches, Kinna Andrachen, and her brother Cedric must all die. Mallory and Bay,” he addressed two in the group directly beneath Ayden's hiding place, “take a contingent of Seer Fey and seek out Cedric and Kinna, killing them when you find them. Kayeck, I will heed your advice to train Sebastian in the control of the Touches. Go, with the blessing of the Council of the Ancients, and teach Sebastian well. In the end, he will also die,
but he must regain the Amulet first. I, too, will go to Sebastian, and gain some reinforcement in order to hunt and kill the Andrachen twins. We, the Seer Fey, will not rest until the last Andrachen is nothing more than a smear on the pages of history.”

  Affirmative nods went around the circle of Seer Fey, and as one, the group rose. Kayeck bowed deeply to Paik and turned for the exit. The Seer Fey left the cavern one by one until only three remained. They moved to the center of the room, standing guard over the jeweled blade, the knife that Ayden needed in order to destroy the Amulet.

  In the dark and the quiet, Ayden's thoughts pounded a terrifying tempo through his head.

  The last Andrachen. The last Andrachen.

  Kinna would never know the wrath of the Seer Fey, not while he was still alive to prevent it.

  With some difficulty, he maneuvered around inside the tunnel and headed for the outside opening, already sending instructions to Luasa to meet him along the slopes about a fieldspan to the south. He cast a glance over the gray slopes of the Marron Mountains, wondering where in all the dense thickness Cedric could be. He could not warn him without knowing where he was, but he could warn Kinna. She had to know that the Seer Fey were on their way to kill her and her twin.

  Ayden found Luasa easily enough when she nudged him from a rock jutting where she crouched near their rendezvous point. He jerked to the side, and she shimmered into visibility again, affectionately blowing a smoke ring over him.

  He coughed and waved. “Luasa, we must return to Kinna in Ongalia. The Seer Fey seek to kill her and Cedric immediately. We must warn her.”

  Luasa's thoughts tumbled into a dark swirl as she read his thoughts he'd tried to hide. A low rumble shook her throat, and she lowered her head, her snout only an orlach away, staring him seriously in the face.

  Ayden's shoulders sagged. “I'm sorry,” he murmured. “Yes, it is the only way to destroy the Amulet, and yes, I will flee with you to the far corners of the earth if you refuse to ritual with me.”

  Luasa snorted, and her hot breath waved Ayden's too-long hair in the breeze. He shifted uneasily. “Aye, it would mean Sebastian's unequaled power. Likely more wars, more tyranny. There are no easy answers. Either we give our lives in this ritual, and we won't live to see the resulting peace and—and Kinna and Cedric's reign... or we flee and allow Lismaria, West Ashwynd, and possibly more countries to suffer beneath Sebastian's corrupt rule.” He scratched her muzzle gently, waiting for the answer he knew she'd make, but hoped she wouldn't.

  After a moment, she blinked slowly, tilting her head forward and nudging him in the chest. Her thoughts poured over him, searing him inside, and involuntary tears crowded to his eyes.

  “Then neither of us will survive, Luasa. You're my psuche partner, and there will be no coming back. Is that what you want?”

  She snorted a derisive agreement, as though she laughed at his hesitation. She nudged him once more, and her wings unfurled. Her urgency was clear: they had work to do, and they had best get it done.

  Ayden gathered the dregs of his courage, climbing onto her back. “This must be our secret, Luasa,” he crooned as she leaped from the ground. “No one can know of this.” He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her hot neck. “Especially Kinna.” She would not let me go through with it. They flew high into the sky, soaring over the velvet folds of mountains below them.

  The morning had peaked, and the late winter sun lit the pale sky with a pearly, luminescent glow so Ayden could see fieldspans into the distance. He had turned Luasa's fin so they were invisible again, and urged her lower; the air at the greater altitudes stole his breath altogether.

  To the east, he could see the distant city of ClarenVale, a massive, sprawling shape of stone along the river at the base of the Marron Mountains. Sebastian would be there, concocting his schemes for ending the lives of his own brother's children.

  Disgusted, Ayden returned his gaze ahead. The wind whipping into his face blurred his vision with involuntary tears, but where the land flattened out into the Sand Flats, he could just see the sparkle of the Northern Sea.

  Once they reached the Sand Flats, it was only a matter of following the shoreline into Ongalia. He settled farther down onto Luasa's back, allowing her heat to seep through his tunic, relaxing his taut muscles. They must hurry. The Seer Fey could not travel as fast as he could, but they wielded powerful taibe. If they had somehow figured out a tracking spell, it would only be a matter of time until—

  Luasa abruptly banked to the left, jerking Ayden upright. “What are you doing, Luasa?” The Dragon's thoughts suddenly exploded in excitement, and Ayden knew whose scent she had caught.

  Chennuh.

  “Where?” he asked, scanning the long, yellow stretches of sand below them, his gaze moving to where the forested land ended.

  A flash of mirrored light caught the sun near the edge of the forest.

  “There!”

  Luasa banked again, tilting into a steep dive. Ayden clung to her fin with all his might as the ground drew near. And then she pulled up, her wide wings billowing, catching air, slowing her velocity until she thumped gently to the ground.

  She shimmered into visibility. Chennuh rested on his haunches beneath the trees of the forest line, and Kinna stood nearby next to a fire she had built, over which boiled an assortment of wild herbs. A skinned squirrel roasted on a spit.

  “Ayden!” she cried, vaulting toward him as soon as his feet hit the sand.

  “Kinna!”

  She slammed into him, nearly knocking him off balance, her arms wrapped around his neck, her lips on his.

  All thoughts of danger and urgency drifted away as he kissed her hungrily, and he was disappointed when she pulled back.

  “What are you doing here? I sent you to—”

  “Help urge Kayeck to teach Sebastian the Touches. Yes. She goes to him now, but in so doing... the Council has issued their own death warrant against you, Kinna, and Cedric. They're searching for you, even now, to kill you. They know you and Cedric have the Amulet.”

  Kinna's green gaze deepened as she stared at him, and finally she shook her head ruefully. “Another assassination plot? This is nothing new. I hardly remember what it was like to live a normal, safe life anymore. And I don't have the Amulet. Cedric does—or should. I have yet to hear from him.” She looked worried.

  Ayden squeezed her upper arms. “Someday, you won't have to live in fear, Kinna.” He kissed her forehead quickly, and then looked around. Luasa and Chennuh had already curled up together on the edge of the Sand Flats, nipping playfully at each other as rumbles issued from their throats.

  “When did you leave the Valley?” Ayden asked.

  “This morning, early,” Kinna said. “The Great Dragons have agreed to fight with us, Ayden, but it wasn't without some effort.” She glanced at him, a concerned crease appearing between her eyebrows. “And... Hazel and Jakkob have gone missing.”

  “Missing!” Ayden had assumed they were hunting since they weren't immediately evident. “What happened?”

  “I... met with the Dragons, and Hazel and Jakkob stayed back. When we had finally reached an agreement... they were gone. There was no trace of them. I don't know if they—left, or if one of the Dragons had... taken them?” Kinna absently played with the end of her fiery red braid. “I waited the rest of the night for them to return, but they never did. Lord Fellowes went back to Allande to communicate the Dragons' decision to the nobility, and I decided to come south to find you—and to try to gain word of Cedric.”

  Kinna led the way back to the fire, where she pulled the sizzling meat from the spit, handing half of it to Ayden. “I'm sorry it's not much. I didn't expect to meet you here.”

  Ayden shrugged, biting into the meat. “Blame Luasa's highly sensitive nostrils. She and Chennuh have the best awareness of each other I've ever seen.”

  Kinna picked at the meat on the bones in front of her. “What should we do? The Dragons are great hunters, but we're a long way from th
e Valley where Hazel and Jakkob disappeared, and their scent is long gone.”

  “Aye, and now we know Cedric's life is in imminent danger, as well,” Ayden said. “The Seer Fey are hunting him even now. We don't know where Hazel and Jakkob are, but together, we may have a chance of finding Cedric and Ember...”

  Kinna nodded, though her struggle showed on her face. She clearly disliked abandoning the hunt for Pixie and Trolldimn, but with the Seer Fey searching for the Andrachen twins, Cedric was in grave danger.

  Before he could say anything more though, a gust of wind swept through the forested area, churning the sand beyond it into a dust-storm of gold and brown flecks. Movement from a huge maple nearby caught Ayden's attention, and a Dryad pushed open the bark, stepping out from the tree's innards, bowing deeply.

  “Your Grace,” he said. “An urgent message has come from the Marron Mountains. Your brother's life is in peril.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Cedric

  Cedric crossed his arms, his gloved hands curling into fists, as he watched Ashleen roll free of the she-Dragon's fire. This was the third time she'd tried to approach the Ember, and the leather arm of her buckskin tunic was smoking slightly.

  “Ashleen, enough,” he called.

  She shook her head. “Once more. I feel a connection; I knew it almost as soon as I saw her. She's just being stubborn.” The black-haired maid didn't take her eyes off the she-Dragon as she stepped to the right, and the new Ember's gaze followed her.

  “How do you know?” Cedric asked.

  “She was imprisoned.” Ashleen ducked and rolled toward the Ember, who scampered back a step, her throat rumbling. “She and I—we're two peas in a pod, if she'll just—give me a chance.” She ducked closer to the Dragon, who hissed.

  Slowly, Ashleen stood up, carefully spreading her arms wide, her palms open. “I have nothing,” she told the Dragon. “Like you, I have been stripped of family and name. Won't you give me a chance?” Her voice was low and musical, and the thread of truth ran through it.