by Megg Jensen
"Stop!" Tressa laid Bastian carefully on the ground, stood, and tugged at Jarrett’s arms, but he shook her off as if she were only a pesky fly. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes.
He was too strong, overflowing with a power she didn’t understand. Her eyes were drawn to the sky again, as dragons fought with talons and teeth. Fire burned the clouds and death rained blood.
Jarrett didn’t spare another glance at Tressa. He’d determined she was no longer a threat. Tressa stood next to Bastian, watching Jarrett maim dragon after dragon, drawing no distinction between friend and foe. He wasn’t the man she fell in love with. Not anymore.
Tressa knew she’d spent too much time protecting people who only betrayed her. Fenn, her father, who’d joined the Red and tried to turn her to his side. Bastian, as he drowned his sorrows between any offered pair of breasts. Granna, who’d drugged Tressa for years, keeping her from conceiving and concealing the truth about the very blood flowing within her veins.
No more. She would not let them win. Anger bubbled in her chest. Fire popped and burned in her stomach. Her skin ripped. It was coming. The dragon.
Tressa’s jaws opened wide, as she roared, her teeth glinting. With little effort she raised one taloned foot. Stomping as hard as she could, Tressa smashed Jarrett under her foot. Pulling back, she looked at his body with one slitted eye. His chest lay still. His lips parted in a grimace.
A Blue dragon landed next to Tressa. He reached over, nuzzling her neck. Connor had wanted to kill Jarrett. Instead, Bastian had given his life for them. A group of men dressed in black descended on Jarrett’s body, their swords drawn, as a one-eyed man in gray stood off to the side. So the Black Guard had come and brought a mystery friend with them. She would let them determine Jarrett’s fate.
Tressa burst into the sky, dodging falling body parts, but unable to avoid the showers of blood. Drenched in thick bodily fluids, she flew higher and higher until she could see the battle from above.
Red, Black, Green, and one Yellow blurred in the air. Entangled. Vicious. Her dragon head snapped back, looking again at the fray.
She scanned the battle, looking for only one dragon. The Red Queen. She was the reason they were fighting. She had equipped Tressa's father with the means to kidnap the villagers of Hutton's Bridge. She provoked the Yellow into sealing off the Meadowlands. She sent the Red dragons to attack the Black.
Tressa wanted to chop off the head and see if the body flailed or continued to fight. All she needed was the queen. A bird flew by, cawing, drawing Tressa's eyes to the east. She blinked. Far away in the distance something coasted. Something with a faint tint of red.
Without another thought, she pushed off, flapping her wings as hard as she could toward the spot in the distance. No matter how hard she pushed, it didn't seem to get any closer. Tressa tucked her back legs up tightly against her chest. Her wings flapped in unison, cupping the breeze under them, using every tiny advantage she could get.
The Red dot drew closer and closer until Tressa could see the dragon wasn't alone. A rider was on its back, gray hair streaming like a flag in a storm. She hunched over her dragon, lying low.
The rider's head turned.
Tressa snorted, plumes of smoke from her nostrils. She blinked again, and the rider's grin punched her in the gut.
She knew that grin. That hair. It was Granna.
But how? Why?
Tressa followed the dragon with all of her strength, refusing to believe what she saw. If she could only get closer. Take a better look...
The Red dragon banked to the right, descending toward the castle in the distance. Tressa had been so focused on the dragon and its rider that she'd neglected to notice they'd flown all the way to the Red castle in the northeast part of the Hills of Flame. It must have taken hours. No matter. She was so close.
Spires rose into the clouds, protruding spikes ripping the vapor to shreds. The sun was setting behind them, and bats circled, celebrating the coming darkness.
The Red dragon flew past a window too small for a dragon. The rider jumped through. Tressa followed, saying a little prayer to whatever gods might be listening that she would not miss the window and fall to her death.
Taking a deep breath, Tressa changed from dragon to human. Her hands reached out as she fell through the air, scrabbling for the windowsill. One hand grasped it, fingers slamming on stone, nails digging into the rubble. A shriek ripped from her throat as she pulled up with one arm, desperately willing the second to join it. Biting her lower lip, Tressa called upon all the muscles she'd honed while training for the Black Guard. With one final burst, she flung her arm up. Her fingertips grazed the edge of the sill, falling short.
Tears sprang unbidden from her eyes. Now wasn't the time for weakness. She closed her eyes and let go, hoping her dragon form wouldn't fail her.
Something grabbed her wrist, pulling her up.
Tressa's eyes snapped open. A kindly face appeared from the window above. A woman who looked exactly like Granna, but with green eyes instead of blue. Even though she appeared as old as Granna, her strength belied her age. The woman gave one tug, yanking Tressa up high enough that she could grab hold with her other arm. Tressa heaved herself the rest of the way up and over the sill.
Tressa rested only for a moment before sitting up and gazing at the woman before her.
"Who are you?" Tressa asked.
"I am One."
Tressa didn't appreciate the cryptic answer. Still, she held back her anger. The woman had saved her, after all.
"What is your name?" Tressa asked, hoping the more direct question would yield a solid answer.
"I am the Queen of the Red. I am One. I have no name." The woman stood still, her arms hanging limply at her sides. The smile on her face was too familiar, making Tressa's skin crawl. The queen might have looked like her great-grandmother upon first glance, but they were not the same woman.
"How shall I address you?" Tressa asked, promising herself it would be the last time she would ask.
"You may call me Sophia." The old woman smiled.
Tressa jumped to her feet. "I will not. You are not Granna."
The woman clicked her tongue. "Such impudence from one so young."
"I am not young," Tressa said, her anger growing, despite her wish to contain it. She stalked toward the woman, across the wooden floor covered in dirty rushes.
"Compared to me, you are but a babe." The woman reached out, resting one wrinkled hand on Tressa's cheek. "Barely born. Your whole life ahead of you." She lowered her hand. "But your life is so short. You poor people, living only a handful of years before your horrifying deaths. It's a wonder you even leave your quaint homes."
"I don't understand. Aren't you—” Tressa took in the woman once more. Seeing what others had seen. Farah had claimed she'd seen Granna in Malum. The woman in the Meadowlands had told the story of the young boy lost in the fog so many years ago. "Are you related to me?"
The old woman laughed, her shoulders shaking. "We are not related, child. Your true great-grandmother fights in the battle, riding on the back of the beast who holds her in thrall.”
“Mestifito?” Tressa asked. “What do you mean, ‘holds her in thrall?’”
The old woman chuckled and cocked her head to the side. “You do not understand, yet you were held in such a thrall by your own lover. He, in turn, is held in thrall by the Keeper.”
“Is? Jarrett’s still alive?” Tressa wasn’t sure how she felt about it.
The woman’s only answer was a cryptic smile. “It is all magic of my world. And this," she said, holding out her arms, "is only an illusion. I cannot rule the Red unless I grow and die and grow and die and grow and die. Over and over again, always taking on the form of the last child I set eyes upon. It is part of the illusion. I must keep the people here happy, let them think they know who rules them."
Tressa backed away, wishing she'd taken the time to hide a dagger or two in the secret pockets of her battle clothes.
>
"Because if they knew," the woman continued, "they would lose their minds, knowing what waited outside the mountains. But you," she rasped, pointing at Tressa, "you will know. Because I am dying. Someone must take on the mantle. Someone must protect these insolent, ungrateful, bickering children from what lies beyond."
Tressa couldn't help herself. She had to know. "Beyond what?"
"I knew I chose well. I've been watching you, Tressa Webb of Hutton's Bridge. You will come. You will see. You will feed it the honey."
"It?" Dread rose in her chest.
The woman's laugh echoed in the room. "Yes, it will be pleased to see you. It will be pleased to have the honey once more. The bees we harvested from Hutton’s Bridge after the fog dissipated will not produce honey here."
"I—I don't have any honey with me." Tressa held her empty hands out. She tried not to think about the honey laying in the bottom of her pack hidden in the forest.
The woman's smile turned to a frown. "Oh, now isn't that a shame? Follow me.”
They traveled down a staircase, descending for nearly an eternity, stopping eventually in a cave bathed in torchlight.
The old woman stood in silhouette at the far end of the cave, her arm reaching through an entrance to another hall, a smile on her face. Her lips pursed as she cooed at whatever lay beyond. "Come. I have someone to introduce you to," the woman said, her tone tender and far too familiar.
Despite her trepidation, Tressa's curiosity propelled her feet forward.
The woman beckoned as Tressa drew closer. A pungent smell, so similar to the vinegar they used to pickle their cucumbers in Hutton's Bridge but laced with the stench of decay, permeated the dank air. Tressa’s nose wrinkled, and she fought instinct, leaving her hands hanging at her side instead of covering her face.
"This is Decarian," the old woman said, sweeping an arm out to the side.
Tressa peeked around the corner. She gasped, her hands covering her mouth in horror. "What is that?" she managed to squeak out.
"This is the guardian, Decarian. He separates Dragonlands from Desolation. He keeps you safe from what lies beyond."
Tressa closed her eyes, hoping the monstrosity before her would disappear. When her eyes opened, nothing had changed. Only steps ahead the floor broke away. Flames jumped and licked at the broken edge. And beyond? A beast standing taller than the caverns under the Ruins of Ebon. It observed Tressa with eyes the size of her entire body. Four horns protruded from its head, two curling up, and two curling down. Long talons stuck out from its hands. Tressa could only see to its waist, the rest of the beast was hidden by flames.
"I don't understand." Tressa stumbled backward. "What is Desolation? Where did this thing come from?"
The old woman cackled. "Desolation is that land that lies beyond the Hills of Flame to the east."
"Nothing lies beyond," Tressa said. "The world ends beyond the castle walls." All the books Granna had ever shown her confirmed this. The Red lay on the edge of the world with nothing beyond the mountains east of its borders.
"Ends?" The old woman tossed the beast a leg lying on the ground. Tressa held back the urge to vomit as she realized the floor was littered with dismembered humans. "The world does not end. This is only the beginning. Desolation is the land beyond, but it is a world your people are not prepared to face. You are like children, squabbling over a toy."
Tressa folded her arms across her chest. "No, that's not true. It was the Red that started this war. They also started the last. We were fine before you interfered."
The old woman spun, facing Tressa with squinted eyes. "We were fine until the beekeeper at Hutton's Bridge cut off our supply of honey. It is the fault of your ancestors." She poked Tressa's shoulder with one bony finger. "If you had only continued to produce the honey, give us what we need, then none of this would have happened."
"What is so damn special about the honey?" Tressa asked. "Why start a war over it?"
The old woman cocked her head. "My dear, the honey is the only thing keeping this beast from crossing the border. The honey dulls its senses. It takes away its power. Decarian’s minions cannot walk without its command. But if what you say is true, if the honey is gone and there is no more to be had, then the Dragonlands are in for a war unlike any they've ever fought."
"Because the beast will cross over?" Tressa asked. Her voice cracked, fear stripping her dry. A spiked tail whipped around in the flames. The beast licked its lips with a forked tongue.
"Decarian will destroy everything in its path. And if you think the beast is to be feared, do not even contemplate the army behind it. The enemy has been waiting lifetimes to feast on the flesh of the people in the Dragonlands." The old woman shrugged and smiled. "I have been its guardian for generations. I am tired. It is your turn. The Red is yours Tressa. Your people will win today. I have seen it. Now claim it, responsibilities and all."
Tressa bit her lip. "Will you stay with me? Help me understand how to protect the Dragonlands?"
"Me?" The old woman asked. "My time is done." She took two steps backward and fell into the pit.
Tressa reached out in a futile attempt to grasp the old woman's hand. The beast smiled, spittle dripping from its black lips, and bent down. It plucked the woman out of the flames, her body burning, and popped her into its mouth.
Tressa turned away, but that didn't silence the crunching of the woman's bones between the teeth of the beast. She trudged out of the small opening and into the main cavern, her heart as heavy as her feet.
Tressa climbed wearily, thinking of her friends, still fighting, wondering who was alive and who was dead. Each step took her farther from the beast. It bellowed below, warning Tressa that the war had just begun.
DESOLATION
Dragonlands, Book Four
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Afterword
Thank you so much for reading RETRIBUTION. I hope you had a good time reading it.
There are some really great ways to stay in touch with me and learn about upcoming releases. I would love to hear from you!
- Continue the story with the sequel, DESOLATION, coming in late 2014. Add DESOLATION to your Goodreads list: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23348681-desolation- Want to stay up-to-date on news, being the first to hear about giveaways and sales? Subscribe to my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hnkB-/
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- Or just drop me an email: [email protected]
XoXo,
Megg
Acknowledgments
First, thanks to my army of editors – Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Angela Carlie, Deena Viviani, Karly Kirkpatrick, Michael “Googs” Gugerty, and Joelle Sisto.
Thanks to Michael Gauss for the amazing dragon on the cover.
Steven Novak makes the best covers in the world! Thanks, Steven!
Stefanie Verish created the most amazing map for my series. Thank you!!!!
My family can’t go without mention. They put up with my weird work hours and strange outbursts, usually when plot points would magically descend on me during dinner. Most of all, they’re understanding when I need to work. Love them so much!
Table of Contents
Hidden
Dedication
Covert art and design
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Epilogue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
