Sword of Fire (Through the Ashes Book 1)

by J. A. Culican

  Bells caught a flash of an image in her mind, a picture of herself smiling. But it wasn't quite right; her faint childhood scar on one cheek was gone, as were the tiny lines around her eyes and lips. The Bells in that image was also bigger than she was, and she got a sense the girl in the image was brave and wild and loyal and happy; nothing like herself. She also caught a feeling, like a vague sense of longing, but it was confused and jumbled. And then it all stopped, like someone had closed the blinds to cover a window.

  She sat in silence, shocked and confused. Beneath that, deep inside her, was also terror about what it all could mean. She was terrified but also thrilled in a way she'd never experienced before.

  Realizing Jaekob might catch her thoughts as she had his, she shoved them away and tried to bury them. Foolish, stupid girl. She was a fae and he was a dragon—and they had a mission to get to. "Let's get out of here."

  Jaekob launched himself into the air, wings beating powerfully. With every stroke, she felt his strong warrior muscles flex beneath her. Somehow, that majestic dragon got them up into the air and made it seem easy.

  Her stomach lurched from the takeoff. Thrill and wonder filled her as they rode higher and higher. She heard herself laughing at the sheer joy of flying.

  They flew fast—faster than Bells had ever thought possible—yet something about the magic of dragons kept their riders from being buffeted by the winds. She looked down at the patchwork quilt of land below but didn't see the landmark. "You sure you don't know what 'the Dragon's Teeth' are?"

  I told you I don't. The closest thing I can think of is the Himalayas, but they're on the other side of this world. There are lots of dragon enclaves there, where we had to hold off the humans long ago, but we don't call it the Dragon's Teeth.

  She frowned, but then an idea struck her. "You know, maybe it's not a dragon term. Maybe it's what the elves or fae call something. I never heard of it, so perhaps it's elven."

  She felt a wave of embarrassment wash through her mind, courtesy of Jaekob's link to her. I'm an idiot. Of course that's it. We've been trying to find what I'd call teeth, but that's the wrong perspective. Let me think.

  He banked left, then began a slow, lazy circle that spanned miles. Bells sighed and tried to wait patiently. Only a couple minutes later, however, he straightened out and headed west, accelerating.

  "You figured something out?"

  Maybe. There's an old elven myth about how they beat us in the first war between our kind—

  "They did?" Bells was shocked.

  No, of course not. But there was one battle they won, according to them. The elf king—they didn't have the Crown of Pures back then, so each race had its own kings and queens—fought a battle they say they won.

  "But they didn't?" It seemed odd to her that elves and dragons had such different versions of the same event.

  Not exactly. Their version is that their king fought our greatest champion and cut his fangs from his mouth. The fangs fell to the Earth and formed two mountains—the humans call them Mount Rainier and Mount Hood.

  "That explains why we're streaking west. What's the dragons' version of the story?"

  Both those mountains contained small dragon settlements. The elf barbarians tried to raid them with their human allies, slaves really, and used magic to blast into the mountains until they found a way in. The elves lost both battles, and the settlements survived until much later times, but a couple dragon warriors of renown did die in the fighting. The elves called those two the 'Fangs of the Dragons' back then, or so I learned from my mother.

  Bells sat silently on his back as they flew onward, enjoying the feel of his mighty muscles flexing with each stroke of his wings. Dragons were indeed mighty beasts in their dragon form.

  Thanks.

  "Get out of my head, stalker. But seriously, don't you think an abandoned dragon settlement in remote mountains with few humans even today would be a great place to hide something?"

  Yep. My money is on Mount Hood. Rainier is too volcanic and a huge section fell away during the earliest human civilizations, obliterating the Warrens there. Rainier was a military outpost. Hood, though, still has abandoned Warrens. It's dangerous, with lots of poisonous gasses that will kill any Pure besides dragons if they wander into a gas pocket, but it's intact.

  "I'm not worried. You'll protect me. Wake me when we get there, I need a nap."

  Jaekob chuckled in her mind and then went silent.

  Soon after, she dozed off lying forward, her arms stretched to either side on his broad back and shoulders. Her last thought was the absurd idea that she was the first fae ever to hug a dragon.

  Bells awoke with a start when Jaekob jolted her by landing. They were surrounded by snow, though the dragon magic that kept the wind from reaching her also kept her comfortably warm. She yawned, then grinned. "That was fast."

  She looked around, then gasped at the breathtaking view from atop Mount Hood.

  Yes, I sped up after you dozed off. But the effort of keeping the air calm around you kind of wore me out. You'll have to stay here for a bit while I go find something to eat.

  "You can't just leave me here," she said, suddenly alarmed. "I'll die up here if anything happens to you."

  No, if I'm not back in an hour, just head down the mountain. Not so hard, right?

  She wasn't convinced. It wasn't as if she could fly down, and she didn't have winter clothes on. Speaking of cold, the wind was blowing fairly hard up there. She might freeze before he returned. She hadn't dealt with enough snow to know for sure.

  Jaekob grunted. She realized he'd felt her concerns through their incredible link. But instead of arguing his point, he turned toward a boulder nestled up against a sheer facing and opened his mouth. A narrow stream of dragonfire struck the boulder and seemed to stick to it like burning oil. He kept pouring his breath onto the boulder until it faintly glowed. She could feel the heat radiating off it, even from ten feet away.

  Stay close to that. You'll be warm long enough for me to get back.

  Before Bells could reply, he launched into the air and, in a few beats of his mighty wings, he was gone.

  She went to the sheer facing and sat down on a smaller rock. She didn't want to get muddy and wet, after all, and the boulder's heat was melting the snow all around it. She closed her eyes and waited.

  Fifteen minutes later, Jaekob landed and the noise alerted her. She opened her eyes, then opened them even wider when she saw he carried a twitching cow in his talons. The next ten minutes were pretty gruesome as the dragon ate hundreds of pounds of beef, consuming everything but the thickest bones and its head.

  He tossed the cow's head aside and it landed in the nearby snow, staring at Bells with vacant eyes. She covered her mouth and laughed at the strange sight, and Jaekob cocked his head to one side, his long neck curved into what almost looked like a question mark. That made her break out into a full belly-laugh.

  He growled at her and she struggled to stop laughing. "I'm... sorry. It's just... that the cow head..."

  He turned so his back was to her and Bells felt bad for hurting his feelings. She hadn't been laughing at him, after all. Well, except for the funny expression he’d made as a confused dragon.

  There was a sound like paper tearing, and in seconds, Jaekob had summoned his human form. He had blood and bits of cow all over his face and he glared at her as he grabbed handfuls of snow to scrub clean. By the time he finished, he had regained his usual stoic expression. "If you're quite finished mocking me?"

  She looked away, withering under his gaze. "I'm sorry, I wasn't laughing at you. Just, the way the cow head landed, it looked like the thing was staring at me while you ate the rest of it. It was funny. Morbid, but funny. And then you made, like, a question mark with your neck."

  He hissed out a long breath. "Okay. I'm just not used to being laughed at, not by dragons and definitely not by—"

  "By a mere fae?" she finished for him. She wasn't looking away anymore but staring him in h
is eyes.

  "I was going to say 'by any other Pure.' I guess that's touchy for you."

  "Yeah, I guess it is. Being a slave makes me a little touchy when my friends start looking down on me." She put her fists on her hips and faced him directly. "But I get that you're used to everyone being beneath you, not just me."

  He started to reply, but she turned her back and started feeling around on the sheer mountain facing that formed the ledge's inner edge. "Where's the entrance?" she asked, trying not to sound angry.

  Jaekob didn’t speak, and Bells kept her back to him. After a few seconds, he broke the awkward silence. "Bells, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Do you... Are we really friends, do you think?"

  She froze in place and then slowly turned to face him. It was her turn to cock her head, confused, but her uncertainty was whether she'd assumed too much. She examined his face for any clue but saw only his usual flat expression. "I think we are. I mean, I'm just a fae, like you were going to say, so I don't expect you to wave at me in the market or take me to your favorite dragon tavern for dragon drinks with your dragon friends, but here, with no one else around to judge you? Sure, I think we're friends."

  Before he could respond, she turned her back again and continued looking for an entrance. She didn't want him to see her hurt expression but was having a hard time hiding it. Maybe she'd gone too far. If he didn't leave her there to die, she would know he was more forgiving than most Pures. Even then, she'd be glad to have said what she said because it felt amazing to tell a Pure what she thought of him.

  Jaekob surprised her, though, when he said, "That's not how we get in. I just needed to get some meat in my belly to get my energy up before we go in. There's a hidden doorway; I'll have to clear half the mountainside to find it. Before you ask, no, I've never been here. I know the entrance is here, but not exactly where because my mother had never been here."

  Great. At least there were no more human armies in the region to take note of half the mountain snow vanishing in a cloud of steam. She wondered what he meant about his mother but let it go. She had higher priorities for the time being. "Should I get behind you when you clear it?"

  Jaekob allowed a faint smile and said, "I would if I were you."

  In minutes, Jaekob had melted half the snow on the mountain. There hadn't been much of it this time of year, but certainly enough to hide a doorway. Once the steam cleared, Bells stepped out from behind him and saw the portal. It was a massive archway, easily large enough to allow two dragons in beast form to pass through side by side. The outer edge had runes carved into it, but they weren't ones she recognized. They were mostly lines and V-shapes, and they glowed faintly.

  "How did the humans never find this?” she asked. “It's huge, it glows, and it obviously isn't natural. They're curious things, the humans. Or so I'm told."

  "Easy," he replied, "only those with a connection to Creation can see the runes. Humans lost that connection long before they could have found this place. It just looks like an impassable rocky outcropping to them."

  "How do you open it?"

  Jaekob frowned. "How in Creation's tears should I know? I figured they told you that when they explained the job to you."

  Bells shook her head. "Nope. I just figured you'd know. Dragon place... Dragon runes..."

  He shrugged, lips pressed tightly together. He stepped up to the grand arch and the runes grew brighter. He touched the nearest one. "Elomite, I think. It's pre-history Persian, basically. One of the very first written languages. I may be able to sound it out."

  As he experimented with different words Bells didn't know, she stepped up to the still-warm boulder and waited. After almost half an hour, though, they still hadn't made progress. Bells walked up to the entryway. "Jaekob, we'll never get in at this rate. But you just ate and recharged, right? So maybe you could, I dunno, melt it? Burn through it."

  "Maybe. Dragonfire is hotter than just about anything on Earth, certainly hotter than what elves can create with their magic. Maybe the builders never expected a dragon to try to force his way in, and if that's the case, they may not have warded the stone against that."

  Bells smirked. "Great. Less talking, more melting."

  He chuckled and stepped a bit closer, motioned her behind him, then began what Bells could only have described as a furious, hellish assault on the stone archway doors. In minutes, the stone doors melted down to thick lava, the red glow fading to black.

  Without looking at her, he said, "I suspect you can't get past this. It'll be hot enough to melt your face for hours."

  "Well, then, with your permission, I'd appreciate it if you'd summon your beast form and carry me through the doorway. If you can protect me from freezing, suffocating, and being blown away while you fly like a meteor, I'm sure you can take a little heat. You can handle the heat, can't you?" She grinned, feeling mischievous. Let him figure out what she meant by that look, hah.

  He paused only long enough for Bells to tell she'd had the desired effect, then he summoned his dragon form. They passed through the doorway and landed on the far side, and he summoned his human form again. Bells looked around in awe. She was in an ancient place, a dragon place. It was a place of legend, and it might well hold a sword out of myths and legends.

  How could a simple fae have gotten herself into such a mess? Her kind simply did not go on such adventures. She wondered what her dear parents and siblings would think of what she was doing. She couldn't wait to find out.

  "It's beautiful," she said aloud to herself. And it was. Glowing mushrooms grew evenly, even after this part of the Warrens had been abandoned several thousand years ago. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all glass-smooth, and the dragons had given the floor traction by melting elegant patterns and designs into it. Elegant, but stark and simple, like dragons themselves, she mused.

  Jaekob replied, "Thank you. Most Pures hate our Warrens, but they don't see the art that goes into every foot of it. You can see the glowshrooms in here?"

  It was pitch black inside the mountain, but she realized with a sudden surprise that yes, she could see at least a couple hundred yards; glowing mushrooms cast faint light that far. "Yeah. How did that happen? Are the mushrooms enchanted to let Pures see in the dark here?"

  He shook his head. "Nope. In fact, I'm not sure how you could come inside at all. The Wards are still up and were strengthened after the elf surprise attack." He paused and looked at her curiously, cocking his head.

  "What?" She shrunk under his intense stare.

  He shrugged. "It must be because you rode me. The bonding has never been done to another Pure race, not that I ever heard, anyway. There are legends of humans who once rode some of us, in the days of ancient Egypt and before, but the same legends say we stopped that when they began to develop writing. We didn't want everyone to know it was possible, so we stopped altogether."

  "Maybe it is from riding you," she said, raising her eyebrows. "If the Wards are up and I can see in pitch black instead of needing at least the moon's faint light, then that has to be the reason. Well, let's take advantage of it and go find this sword."

  "Your sword. I'm not fighting, I told you that. If you want to fight, you'll need it more than me. Come on." He walked on.

  Bells kept pace beside him in the entry tunnel until it led into a vast chamber so wide that, despite the glowing mushrooms, she couldn't see all the way across it. Many other tunnels led from the chamber, even in just the part she could see.

  Jaekob said, "Wow. Does the legend they tricked you with say which tunnel to take?" He chuckled, but it sounded forced. He must have been trying to keep a positive attitude.

  "Nope. Let's walk around the edge and see if any of the tunnels have signs. 'Ancient sword this way, two-hundred meters,' or something."

  He smiled and motioned for her to lead the way. They followed the wall left from the entry, pausing at each new tunnel to look for any indication as to which way they should go. Some tunnels were small, only large enough for a
single transformed dragon to pass through, but most were wide enough for two. They stopped when they got to one that was large enough for four dragons abreast.

  "This tunnel looks important," Jaekob said. "I think an important sword might be down an important tunnel."

  Bells paused. She reached out with her senses, going as far as she could, but felt nothing unusual. Just the living mountain itself, and glowing fungi. "Let's at least check the other tunnels first, and then we can come back."

  They passed more tunnels. One appeared half-collapsed, and Jaekob spent long minutes examining the archway runes, maybe trying to decipher them in his head for clues, but at last, he shook his head. "I don't think it's this way. They wouldn't have left it in an unstable segment in case it collapsed more over time."

  That made sense so she continued onward. After half a dozen more openings, they were about three-quarters of the way around the monstrous cavern and she could no longer see the entry tunnel when they found another collapsed one. Actually, she realized, it was really just a crevasse. Jaekob didn't even slow down, so she followed him. His reasoning had been good the last time they'd found a collapsed tunnel, and nothing had changed.

  Until Bells felt—something. She stopped mid-step, freezing by reflex as her mind tried to catch up to what she'd felt. "Wait..."

  Jaekob stopped and turned back to her. "Come on, slowpoke. If we don't find a clue by the time we get back to the entrance, we'll start wandering the tunnels. Dragons never get lost underground, so don't worry about that."

  He started to walk onward, but she stayed frozen, closing her eyes to focus on her sixth sense. She sent it out as far as she could, down that crevasse-tunnel, and she felt the something once again.

  Actually, it wasn't so much that she felt something down there. It was more like the absence of something. It was like she sensed a void, a nothingness.