Soul of the Dragon

by Natalie J. Damschroder

  “Please,” she murmured, and he gave in.

  “The first life, the one in which we were cursed, you lived to be an elderly woman. A spinster, living in the woods, caring for her heartbroken dragon, who fought desperately against his constraints.”

  “We never tried to reverse the curse?”

  “We didn’t think it possible. Ashamed of his rage and pettiness, the mage died in his tower before we could convince him. Alas, it may have been beyond his power.”

  “So what did we do?”

  “We continued. We lived, and loved with an almost telepathic connection. And we mourned. I most of all, when you passed on.”

  Alexa felt a twinge behind her breastbone. She placed her hand on her chest, and said slowly, “I died in my sleep, of heart failure.”

  Cyrgyn bowed his head. “That is what it would now be called, yes.”

  “Then what?”

  This time his sigh held not only heat, but a tinge of flame. It barely flickered between his teeth but betrayed the strength and depth of his emotions. “I waited hundreds of years. In that time I learned to fly, to cloak myself so I could observe without being observed. I learned the changes in society so I would be prepared to use them when the time came. On the same day, in the same hour, your soul and the mage’s reentered this world.”

  Alexa unfolded her arms, caught up in the story. “You knew?”

  “It was part of the curse.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “It might be helpful if you recited the curse to me.”

  Cyrgyn pulled back, scraping his hide on the cave wall. His tail thrashed, unfurling in the darkest recesses at the back of the cave. He swung his head from side to side as if trying to shake the echo of the curse out of it. His distress was so evident Alexa wanted to stop him, but before she could, he drew a deep breath, then recited:

  Betrayers vile, these lovers two,

  From now beyond, let them be doomed.

  The man, forthwith, be dragon known.

  Immortal, all knowing, his power honed.

  Be aware when our souls doth burn,

  His power to use, her lover to yearn.

  Attempt, four times, to overturn

  This curse and then to love return.

  Failure then shall mean the end,

  Her soul to mine, his to rend.

  “It means—”

  “I know what it means.” Alexa hugged herself against the chill in her heart. “If we don’t free you now, before my death, my soul will belong to the mage, and you’ll basically blow up.”

  “No. Worse. I’ll live for eternity, heartbroken. Soul broken.”

  Anger began to burn in Alexa, an ancient anger she recognized and welcomed. Its strength would give her power. But she needed to know more, to figure out where to begin.

  “What happened the other times?” she asked.

  “In our second cycle, you were the orphaned daughter of a warrior. You learned at the foot of his teacher, and became a mercenary. We found the mage, who retained much of his power and some of his memory. You died attempting to gain his tower.”

  “Hm.” It sounded like they hadn’t gotten very far that time. “Was it a magical death or a physical one?”

  “It was physical.”

  Alexa could tell by the look on his face he didn’t like discussing her death. Now that it was specific, she couldn’t say it made her very comfortable, either. “How far did we get the third time?”

  Cyrgyn grumbled. “Two hundred years ago you found the mage again. You married him, but when you attempted to force him to reverse the spell, he dragged you both over the edge of the tower.”

  “How come our marriage didn’t overturn the curse?”

  “I believed it was because you were not truly his, only lying to try to free me.” Bitterness coated his words. Clearly, he blamed her for that one. “The curse references love. You did not love him.”

  She nodded, thinking. The tower was a common theme. She began to pace. “We obviously need to find this mage again. Was it always the same tower?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you know where it is?”

  Cyrgyn obviously knew where her thoughts were leading. “I do. But it will do no good to go. It is now a museum in Scotland and he is not there.”

  Alexa dropped to her bedroll and poked a stick at the smoldering embers in the fire pit. Her mind churned with questions, with possibilities. Something within her burned to go, to seek the evil man who’d doomed them both, and run him through. Of course, she didn’t have a sword in her arsenal, but she could find one. She knew how to fence, so running him through was a definite option. But not yet. They needed a logical plan, a starting place.

  “What’s his name?” she asked suddenly. They couldn’t keep calling him “him,” unless they capitalized it.

  “He was christened Tarsuinn. His name in subsequent existences was always a variation of such.”

  Tarsuinn. Tar swin. Tars win. Something rang a bell with that name, but she couldn’t put a finger on it. It nagged at her, but she knew the more she worried it, the harder it would be to retrieve. So she questioned something else that didn’t make sense.

  “Why are we in Canada? Why did I grow up in Seattle instead of…I don’t know…Salisbury? Wouldn’t we have been reborn in Great Britain?”

  “Souls are not tied to one location unless deliberately linked. The curse did not link you to Scotland, and you have indeed roamed the earth. Your second life was in Italy, your third in what is now Australia. But we always wound up in the same Scottish tower.”

  Alexa yawned and stretched out on her pallet, propping her head with her hand. “Then I presume we will again. Why can’t we just go and wait for him to show up?”

  Cyrgyn snuffed, and heat wafted across the cave. “You must be tired. Why would he go there? If he retains any memory of his past, as he has before, he will avoid that tower at all costs. It was his doom as well as yours, and he knows his curse is final at the end of this life. He wants you to be his, not to be dead.”

  Alexa blinked, then realized she hadn’t opened her eyes at the end of it. She needed sleep. “You didn’t answer before—why now? Why not five years ago or five years from now?”

  A rumble vibrated from Cyrgyn’s throat. “I cannot explain. Only that something compelled me to call you, to begin.” He moved restlessly again. “I can sense Tarsuinn. Not directly, not enough to locate him, but I believe he is ready to act.”

  “So we should strike first,” she murmured, drifting. Images of the dragon in flight flickered behind Alexa’s eyelids, the ends of his powerful wings disappearing at the top and bottom as they beat. He was so beautiful, she thought, and followed him into the mist.

  Chapter Two

  Alexa woke early the next morning, unrefreshed but ready to move. Her mind raced, cataloging possible courses of action. She needed to do some research, make some contacts. Find Tarsuinn. None of which she could do from this cave.

  Cyrgyn watched her as she gathered her gear, seeming to understand her need to think. There were still missing pieces, things he hadn’t told her.

  “Now that we have the important details out of the way, how about we talk about the least important ones?” she said.

  Cyrgyn shifted his weight. “Such as?”

  “Such as how you’ve modernized yourself. Like knowing such things as coordinates?” She waved a hand to indicate their location.

  “It is unimportant to our—”

  “Nothing is unimportant.”

  Silence fell. Alexa waited.

  “I have an…associate,” Cyrgyn finally said.

  “An associate.” She looked around, annoyed. “Then why all the melodrama? Why not send him to get me? Hell, he could have explained things before I even got started. You took a chance appearing to me in Suck-istan.” She blew out a breath. Cyrgyn was right, none of that mattered now. But having an ally was always a good idea. “Who is he? He can—”

  Cyrgyn turned on her wit
h ferocity. “You are not to speak with him. He is no longer necessary.”

  “Whoa.” Her eyebrows rose with her curiosity. “Why not? Can’t we use all the help we can get?”

  “Not his.”

  No one who knew her would consider Alexa a connoisseur of emotion, but she recognized jealousy in his voice. She didn’t understand it. If she was meant to be with Cyrgyn, no other man could tempt her away from him. On the other hand, she felt nothing for him now, not like that. He was an old friend, someone who had guided her in childhood as he tried to prepare her for their future quest. Not a man she loved.

  It was all way beyond her. They’d deal with that part of it when the time came. She had a lot to do and possibly not much time in which to get it done, and arguing about Cyrgyn’s “associate” wasn’t going to help them now.

  “Okay, let’s get to work.” Alexa exploded into action, hefting her gear to trek back to the Hummer.

  Cyrgyn watched, feeling superfluous and disgruntled. This woman was too competent. Even when she had trained as a warrior, she had been one-dimensional and focused on her goal. Out of necessity due to the death of her father, she had known at a much earlier age of the curse and her destiny. Cyrgyn did not like to remember. He had unwisely pushed her to seek the mage, to attack him. He had intended to be there with her, but she had allowed enthusiasm to lead her to attack too soon, during daylight. Unable to cloak, Cyrgyn had been spotted by villagers and never made it to the tower.

  He cleared his head of memories of stones and daggers, ropes and fire, and focused on the present. Alexa Ranger hadn’t known of the curse, but had clearly sensed and trained for her destiny. She was the leader here, and understood this time period much better than he. He feared she would not let the issue of his associate rest, and he did not want to use the man who brought him such anguish. But hope welled in him, warring with his fear and the sense of loss he felt at not being her guide.

  “What are your intentions?” he asked when it became clear she was prepared to leave.

  “Internet search. See what I can find on Tarsuinn. That name means something to me—the now me,” she added when Cyrgyn started to remind her that she could retain memories of her past lives. “I can’t get anything to work here. I need to get a little closer to civilization.”

  “And then? When will you return?”

  Alexa smiled, and Cyrgyn’s heart ached. He did not want her to leave.

  “In a couple of days. Let me find some better accommodations, and I’ll come get you.” She patted him—that was beginning to annoy—and took off down the path.

  And Cyrgyn was left alone. Again.

  * * *

  Alexa had plans. Big plans. They obviously had a struggle and a battle ahead of them, and though she could live in primitive conditions for the long term when necessary, she wasn’t prepared to do so when it wasn’t. She waited until she got to a real road, then booted up her laptop and launched the map program loaded on it. According to the GPS, she wasn’t near any Canadian cities, but just across the border was a small Minnesota town that hopefully had a well-equipped library.

  The border crossing was only two hours away. Alexa went through with no problems and found the library easily. The closed library.

  She cursed. It was summer, and the little building was closed on Wednesday. It would have to be Plan B.

  She found a motel and rented a room for the night, making sure to get a rear-facing room so her Hummer wasn’t so obvious. She paid cash and registered under a different name, listing her vehicle as a Jeep.

  After unloading most of her gear, she plugged in the laptop, inserted the wireless card, and logged on. She surfed to her favorite search engine and entered “Tarsuinn.”

  No hits.

  “Okay, let’s try this.” She typed Tars Win. Nothing. Tar Swinn. She got hits with that one, but they were misspelled bicycle sites. She tried Tars Suinn and hit pay dirt.

  She spent the next couple of hours reading and taking notes. The information was abundantly sparse, in that she found many articles that said next to nothing. The American-born Scot was a typical self-made millionaire who owned a conglomerate, which in turn owned dozens of subsidiaries all over the world. She’d seen his name enough to be familiar with it, but not enough to make the immediate connection when Cyrgyn had given it to her.

  There were no images. No publicity photos, charity snaps, or random airport shots. In today’s paparazzi- and camera-phone flooded world, that was odd. But he’d earned his money quietly and didn’t seem to care about the spotlight, the need for name recognition. Alexa felt no connection to him, not through the words on her screen, the random collection of facts she’d come up with. Still, she had no doubt Tars Suinn was their mage. The clincher was the name of his holding company. Dragonsoul Enterprises. That he capitalized even in a minor way on the evil he had done pissed her off. It made clear, though, that he remembered. And flaunted.

  He was challenging them.

  She dug deeper, checking out the web site of Dragonsoul. It was a typical façade site that extolled the marvels of the company and its benefit to humanity. It didn’t mention its owner, however.

  Alexa couldn’t do much more from here. She noted a few articles she didn’t have online access to. She’d see if the library had them tomorrow. Maybe she’d look up curse reversal while she was there.

  She shut down her computer and stretched, in serious need of some exercise and a buffer. She locked the door and put a strip of tape between the doorjamb and the door at the bottom. After hanging the “do not disturb” sign from the doorknob and pocketing her key, she set off down the street of the typical small town.

  She walked six blocks to reach the center square, then passed a hardware store, a shoe shop, a five-and-dime, and a Laundromat. The square was already decorated for Independence Day. Somehow Alexa doubted she’d get around to celebrating that this year.

  Cyrgyn feared Tarsuinn, but he feared him for his power hundreds of years ago. The man had power now, but less magical, more Hollywood. Alexa wanted to see if she could find illegal activities and ruthlessness. She glanced at her watch and calculated the time difference to Washington. Kurt would still be in his office. But she needed to get a little further from where she’d be sleeping tonight. Tarsuinn hadn’t reached his level of success by being stupid, and this whole thing came from him, anyway. He probably had a whole dossier on her, including the names and contact info for her friends, and the technology to trace her calls.

  When she reached the far side of town and a little park, she pulled out her phone. One turn around the park reassured her that it was deserted. She keyed in her scrambling signal and dialed Kurt’s number from memory.

  “FBI. Tucker here.”

  “Kurt, it’s Alexa.”

  “Hey, babe! Where are you? I thought we had a date last night!”

  “You didn’t get my message.”

  “Yeah, half an hour after we went to meet you.”

  “Sorry.” She perched on the side of a picnic table and made sure her thigh holster didn’t show below the hem of her shorts. “Something came up.”

  “Obviously.” He didn’t sound angry. Alexa would have been surprised if he had. They worked in the same business and knew either of them could be called out on a moment’s notice.

  “How’s Marilee?” Alexa asked. Kurt’s wife was about, oh, fifteen months pregnant, a condition Alexa didn’t envy. The date the night before was supposed to be her friend’s last night out before the babies were born.

  “Surly.”

  “Don’t let her hear how cheerful you are about that,” Alexa cautioned him. “She’s going to have unexpected strength in that delivery room.”

  “Duly warned.” He sounded even more chipper. Alexa had never known a man happier about impending fatherhood.

  “So, whatcha need?”

  “What, you don’t think I’d call you without needing something?”

  “Not on a job, you wouldn’t.”
<
br />   “I’m not on a job.” Alexa cursed her quick tongue. She tended to be too relaxed with Kurt, one of the few people she trusted unconditionally. They’d worked together on dozens of missions, though he was government and she was private sector. His marriage to her college roommate gave the relationship an extra dimension. They were family.

  “Well, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Kurt finally asked.

  “I can’t. It’s personal.”

  “Oh.”

  Alexa cringed at the hurt in his voice. “It’s really weird, Kurt. You wouldn’t believe me.” He didn’t answer. “It’s still a mission. Not a GenCom mission, but not one I’m at liberty to talk about anyway.”

  Finally he gave in. “Okay. You’d tell me if you could.”

  “You know I would.”

  “So what do you need?”

  “What do you have on Tars Suinn and Dragonsoul Enterprises?”

  Kurt whistled. “This isn’t something small, is it?”

  Ah ha. “Why? What do you know?”

  “Personally? Not much more than the general media. He’s big time, but he’s legit. So far, there’s no hint that he’s into anything unethical, never mind unlawful.”

  Disappointed, Alexa didn’t give up. “Can you dig up whatever else you have?”

  “Some of it might be beyond your clearance.”

  “Whatever I can get will help.”

  “Okay. Shoot it to your regular address?”

  “Yeah, but I only have my laptop so just use second level encryption.”

  “Got it.”

  “Thanks, Kurt.”

  After he hung up she listened for a minute out of habit. Silence. She shut off the phone and let it dangle from her hand. If Kurt believed Tars Suinn to be legit, he probably was. There went any vague ideas about neutralization via incarceration. Depending on what Kurt found, she might have to take a different tack.