Dragonia: Dragon Stone (Dragonia Empire Book 3)

by Craig A. Price Jr.

  It took her several more attempts before she felt comfortable leaving the tree to walk on her own. Everything still ached. Her joints popped, but she found a branch, a large branch, more than an inch in diameter and as tall as her shoulders, and she used the branch to help her walk. Lilianya was a little unsteady at first, but she continued on.

  She continued walking with the red sun hanging low in the sky to her left. She knew it was early, so with the sun on her left side, she knew she was traveling south. It was only a matter of time before she found something she recognized. At least, she hoped. She carried on for a while, over an hour. When she finally glanced back at the sun, she realized it was lower in the horizon. She frowned, scratching her head. It should be higher, not lower. Her eyes bulged. Had she slept an entire day away? Was this the sun getting ready to make its set, and not its rise early in the day?

  Her mouth dropped open and she gasped. “No, no no no no no no,” she muttered.

  All this time, she hadn’t been traveling south, she’d been traveling north. Now she was farther away from her destination. She turned around and tired to go as fast as she could in the direction she’d come. But evening was coming less than an hour away, and she knew she would not make it back to the city that day. But she needed to find shelter to wait it out. And she hoped when she woke the next morning, she’d remember today, and not forget again, like earlier when she awoke.

  After another half hour of travel, she spotted a small cave on the side of the mountain she hadn’t noticed before. But when she studied it, she realized why she hadn’t noticed it. It was angled toward the north. When she had come from the other direction, it would have a shadow cast over its entrance, and the entrance would have been invisible to the naked eye.

  Thunder rattled in the sky ahead and the sun began its descent in the horizon. Dusk was starting to form for the light red glowed to the west.

  Lilianya knew she had little time before the darkness came. And the last thing she wanted was to run into a land dragon in the darkness. She strolled over to the cave and inspected it. It looked dry, though a little damp on the inside with stalactites and stalagmites curving a wide path. She frowned as the sky crackled again and a single raindrop fell onto her nose. Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside.

  A dark cave was all she had to look at. Not knowing what else to do, Lilianya went deeper into the cave. She looked around, though it was dark, to try and find a place to lay her head. The darkness was overwhelming and she had a hard time seeing anything. After a few more steps, something slipped from under her foot and she had to catch herself on a stalagmite so she wouldn’t hit the back of her head. She looked down but she couldn’t see anything, and so she took another step. This time it was too slick and she fell onto her bottom. Her hands felt the ground and she felt hundreds of small objects, the size of clams, but thin, and harder, all around her.

  Creasing her eyebrows, she grabbed a handful of them up to try and get a better look. The lighting was way too dark to see, so she held them in her hands as she crawled back the way she had come. She knew the sun had mostly set, and dusk would be in full effect, making it near impossible for her to see. But she had no other choice. She had to know what she held in her hands. It felt cold to the touch, and when she tried to bend it, it would not budge, harder than coins. She tried taking a bite of it, and her teeth hurt.

  When she finally crawled to the entrance of the cavern, she caught enough light to see the wyvern scales sparkling back at her from her hands.

  Chapter 25

  Derkas glanced down the hill toward the Dragon Hatchery. He shivered with nervousness, he didn't know he was ready to make the next step. Taking a deep breath, glancing to Zaviana and Devarius behind him, he stretched out his fingertips and made his way down the hill. what he had to do would not be easy. Derkas had to convince the nursery that he indeed was a noble and that his letter of recommendation for a Dragonling was legitimate.

  He'd spent hours the previous night and that morning reading over the scroll they had acquired from a noble. He checked to make sure that it was a legitimate letter and not some farce the noble had attempted in order to look extraordinary in front of his friends at the pub. Even this morning, Derkas was not entirely convinced and he raised his worries to the Devarius and Zaviana. But they had little choice. It was the only way they could get close enough to the Dragon stone.

  The plan wasn't going to be easy. In fact, Derkas wasn't sure it would work at all. He was tasked with convincing the nursery and the nursery workers of the Dragonia Empire but he was a noble with strict orders to get a baby dragon. Derkas him Zaviana were to follow him, but stand off to the side, as they were posing as slaves. They only problem Derkas saw was that he was the only one there with so-called slaves. He worried at the attention he would bring because of Devarius and Zaviana, and the suspicion. Their entire plan revolved around him fitting in, and Devarius and Zaviana going unnoticed. But since they were the only two dark skinned people there, Derkas imagined it would be hard to disappear. He did not know how discriminatory all the Empire was toward those with a darker complexion. But he had seen discrimination throughout the cities and villages before, and he knew that here in the capital, there was hardly a free brown skinned man or woman.

  Putting his concerns aside, Derkas approached the empire’s nursery master. The man stood tall behind a podium, with long blond hair hanging to his shoulders, and a large bald spot above his forehead. The man’s hair appeared greasy with flecks of brown and gray throughout. But most concerning of all were his eyes. They were open fully and neither one looked straight. One pupil faced to the right and the other faced to the left from opposite eyes, and Derkas had a hard time deciphering where the man looked. When Derkas approached, with Devarius and Zaviana behind him, not only did the crosseyed nursery master look at him, but the rest of the men … soldiers, who had also been granted a dragonling, stared at him as well. Derkas tried to hide his nervousness. He tried to keep from shaking. Derkas kept his chin high, and did his best to look as arrogant as was becoming of a nobleman.

  “And who are you?” the man asked.

  “Me?” Derkas asked. “Well, I am Raemond.”

  “Let me see your paperwork.”

  Derkas edged his chin to the left, still keeping it high, as he meandered to the podium and gently set it orders on top. The man, who was supposedly in charge of a dragon nursery, and giving out dragons, or dragonlings, to soldiers, looked skeptically at the parchment. His eyes crisscrossed back and forth, his wrinkled brow even more wrinkly than an old man, though the man appeared only middle-aged. He was definitely an unsettling person to look at, and Derkas wondered if that were intentional. Had this man been placed in charge of the nursery to intimidate soliders, to make sure whoever received the dragonlings, could take orders from anyone, or respect anyone at the least.

  "These seem to be in order," the man said, "but you're not supposed to bring slaves to the dragon choosing."

  "Well,” Derkas said, "who else am I supposed to have carry all my things? Surely, you don’t expect me to carry it all myself."

  The man scowled at Derkas, the disgust clear his face for the spoiled nobility that he portrayed. "Yes. How could mighty you expect to carry all your possessions?"

  "Yes, thank you for understanding,” Derkas said.

  The man growled, hate clear in his eyes as they glared into Derkas.

  "Very well,” the man said, "just don't let them get in the way."

  Derkas nodded. "Of course. They shouldn't be a bother. They're very loyal, and sometimes even useful."

  The nursery leader looked at the five men standing before the podium, each with orders to receive the very first dragon, or rather, dragonling.

  "One at a time, you may approach and select your dragon egg."

  Derkas immediately stepped forward, his foot pressing onto the first step of the small platform.

  "I wasn't finished. And besides, who is to say that you are first?"
>
  "Why would I not be?” Derkas asked. "Do you know who I am?"

  "I have had enough of you."

  "You will hear about this," Derkas snarled.

  "You will silence yourself, or I will guarantee that you will never be a dragonrider. Don't tempt me."

  Derkas pressed his lips tight together and glared at the man. Nodding his head, Derkas took three steps back.

  "Now, as I was saying, one at a time you will come up to the podium and select a dragon egg, and should it hatch, you will become that dragon’s master. Should it not hatch, you will be re-evaluated to determine whether you should be given another chance. There are too few dragon eggs to be given out to unworthy men.”

  “Too few,” asked one of the other men. "I've seen hundreds of dragon eggs in the nursery, thousands of them."

  “That may be. But most of those eggs are useless, and will not hatch. Only the red eggs hatch for us and their number grows few. Understood?"

  The five of them nodded.

  "And Mr. Noble Fancy Pants," the nursery master said, staring directly at Derkas, "will be the last to come up to the podium."

  Derkas opened his mouth and took one step forward, but immediately closed it with the glare the master gave him. Inwardly, Derkas grinned. The whole purpose of what he was doing, was to make everyone’s attention fall on him, and not Devarius or Zaviana. And so far, it was working.

  “All right. One at a time, approach the podium, and select an egg of your choosing. Keep in mind, the dragon eggs will not hatch right away. Most of the time they take several hours to several days to hatch once in your possession. You will be expected to report in within one week on the news of whether your dragon egg hatched or not.” He shook his index finger. “If you don’t report in, you will be found, dead—or alive.”

  The men gulped.

  Derkas remained perfectly still as he watched as the other men approached the podium one at a time. He shivered as he watched each one of them grab an egg until it was his turn. Everyone watched him carefully, suspect he would make another snide comment.

  “It is your turn, Mr. Noble Fancy Pants. Approach the podium.”

  Derkas nodded, then approached the podium. His eyes glanced all around, and he saw the last remaining egg laying in a small wooden bucket on top of some hay. As he reached down for it, he noticed the glowing stone under the podium where the nursery master stood. When Derkas grabbed the egg, he looked at Devarius and Zaviana. He motioned with his head to the podium, giving them the signal of where the dragon stone lay.

  When Derkas stepped off the podium, the nursery leader cleared his throat.

  “Now, it is very important that once your dragon egg hatches, that you come to see me at once. Dragons can be an unruly lot, and until tamed, they can be quite fierce creatures.”

  “How are they tamed?” one of the men asked.

  He voiced the same thought Derkas had, though, he believed he knew the answer.

  “With this,” the nursery worker said as he pulled the dragon stone from the podium.

  The stone was smaller than Derkas remembered, only the size of as ostrich egg. The stone glowed a beautiful green. It shimmered in the sunlight, then a beam of green energy flew from the stone and into the dragon egg in Derkas’ hand. His eyes widened as the stone turned from a dirty red to green.

  “What?” the nursery leader started.

  Before anyone else could speak, the egg in Derkas’ hands began to crack. His jaw dropped as he watched the shell separate, and a small green head poke out.

  “How?” the nursery leader asked. “A dragon egg has never hatched so soon before. And why did the dragon stone—” He paused as he stared at the small green dragon in Derkas’ hands.

  “A green dragon? How is that possible? I know that was a red dragon egg a moment ago.”

  “I—” Derkas was too dumbfounded for words.

  “Bring it here at once. The dragon must be tamed immediately.”

  Derkas glanced from the small, beautiful dragon to Devarius and Zaviana, and then to the nursery master. Derkas’ hand gently caressed the dragon, and he could feel a presence touch his mind, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It wasn’t words, but there was comfort and trust there. He couldn’t betray that trust, or the love he could feel pulsing through the dragon. Derkas was supposed to go through the ritual if it came to that, but it wasn’t supposed to. Not yet. And when it did, he was supposed to create a distraction for Devarius and Zaviana to steal the stone, but Derkas couldn’t go through with it. He couldn’t let the dragon’s intelligence be sucked away.

  “Bring that beast here, immediately,” the nursery master snarled.

  “No,” Derkas growled.

  “Excuse me?”

  “He’s mine. He doesn’t need to be tamed. I will tame him.”

  “You will do no such thing. Those monsters can only be tamed by the stone. Do you want to kill all of us, you fool?”

  “Kill us?” Derkas laughed. “Look at her. She’s just a baby.”

  “Her? How do you know it’s a girl?”

  “I can feel it. She told me.”

  The nursery master’s eyes bulged. “Bring this noble and his pet dragon to me, immediately!”

  Derkas clutched the dragon in his left arm as the other four sprang after him. He dodged the first, then unsheathed his sword to slash at the next. Derkas and Zaviana rushed toward the conflict as fast as they could. Derkas turned to look at them. He withdrew an extra sword from his side, and tossed it to Devarius. Then he reached over his shoulder and grabbed the bow strapped there, tossing it to Zaviana.

  “What is this—” the nursery master cried.

  An arrow pierced his skull, dropping him, and the dragon stone to the ground. Zaviana nocked another arrow.

  The four others looked skeptical at the three of them now. One tried to run away, but Zaviana’s arrows were swift and true, felling the man after the third arrow released.

  Derkas pushed forward, taking his attacker head on. Sweat beaded down Derkas’ brow as he slashed his sword from left to right. His opponent was skilled, but not as skilled as Derkas. He shifted his sword with an underhanded twist, catching his opponent off guard. Derkas spun, using his momentum to his advantage as he speared his enemy under the chest.

  Sliding the sword out, he turned to see Devarius had also defeated his opponent, decapitating him. The two of them rushed the final man. He turned tail and ran away, but an arrow soared between Derkas and Devarius to penetrate the man’s skull. He dropped to the ground.

  The three of them stood there for a silent moment, looking around. There wasn’t anyone else around, but they’d made a commotion, and Derkas knew they shouldn’t stay there long.

  “Well, that didn’t go as expected,” Derkas said.

  “We need to go,” Zaviana said.

  “We can’t leave the dragon eggs on the ground like this,” Devarius said.

  “The what?” Derkas asked.

  Devarius reached to the ground to pick up the four dragon eggs that had fallen with their dead ‘masters’. He grabbed a satchel from on the ground and put each of the four eggs inside of it.

  “Are you sure about this?” Derkas asked.

  “We can’t just leave them. Not when we can save them.”

  “I just worry they’re going to slow us down.”

  “You mean like that green dragon around your neck?”

  Derkas petted the small creature. “I couldn’t—”

  “I know,” Devarius said. “Come on, we need to go.”

  Zaviana knelt on the ground by the podium and pried the green dragon stone from the dead nursery master. It changed from green to purple in her hand. She tilted her head as she studied it. After only a moment of deliberation, she tucked it into a leather satchel.

  “We’re ready. Let’s go before someone finds the mess we’ve created.”

  Derkas gulped. “When someone finds this … they’re going to be hunting us. There’s no way this w
ill go unnoticed.”

  “Nope,” Devarius said. “So we’d better get back to Ayla and Chalce soon, or we’ll all be dead.”

  Chapter 26

  Paedyn awoke in the morning with a sigh of relief. He looked around his room and opened his mouth.

  “Ah, do you hear that? No, not me talking to myself. That’s not important. But the silence. No one is pounding on my door this morning. I'm all alone talking to myself like I’m crazy. There's nothing to do today. Everything has been done. Look at me, I am a hero. I am awesome. All the deeds are done. However, I can’t just stay in bed all day. I should probably stop talking to myself. Yes that sounds like a good idea.”

  Paedyn finished getting out of bed when he heard a voice return to him in his head.

  You are crazy.

  “Pyro!” Paedyn said aloud. “Don’t be saying such things about me. In fact, how can I be crazy when I’m hearing voices inside of my head?”

  He received a mental image of the dragon rolling his eyes. Paedyn laughed. It was a pleasant feeling, the humor in his voice, the laughter is tone, the light-hearted banter, but he wondered how long it would last.

  Yes, the dragomen were captured, and yes they were in captivity, as far as captivity could go. There were no cells for them. The resistance never intended to build a prison, and most of them didn’t think they would need one. They all shared a common goal: defeat the empire, and bring peace throughout the land. There shouldn’t be resistance inside the resistance.

  Resistance, resistance, resistance, resistance, Padyn thought to himself.

  He shook his thoughts away before he stepped out of bed. Opening the door, he saw Tynaer standing on the other side. Paedyn tilted his head, looking at the captain.

  “Have you been here long?” Paedyn asked.

  “Hardly,” Tynaer responded.