Riders of Fire Complete Series Box Set books 1-6: YA Epic Fantasy Dragon Rider Adventures

by Eileen Mueller

  Dark wings blotted out the stars. In a burst of flame overhead, wings gleamed blood-red as a dragon dived toward the tharuk camp. A red guard!

  “Wait here. Make dragon toy,” 274 said before dashing back toward the cages.

  Wait here? That beast had to be flaming joking.

  Leah grabbed Taliesin’s hand. “Hurry, quick.” They ran into the trees.

  And kept running.

  Snarls, roars, and screams rang out behind them as they thudded their way through the snow. Gods, they’d only a little food left, a few herbal remedies, and no water. No idea where they were. No idea where the piaua was. But providing it survived the encounter with the tharuks, they’d found a red dragon at last—if it could find them.

  The Roaring Dragon

  Roberto stood next to the captain, salt spray hitting his face as the ship’s prow cut through the sapphire ocean. It was good to smell the tang of the sea again. And good to be with a fellow Naobian, someone who understood his customs and traditions without even thinking. Someone who didn’t know his father—or ignored the fact that he was Amato’s son. Someone who’d been through tough times. He tipped his head back and laughed at the captain’s ribald joke.

  This man had definitely seen the world. But then again, so had he—even Death Valley. He allowed his gaze to wander over the deck, evaluating the members of his troop. It was definitely an eye-opener seeing them on the deck without their dragons or the trappings of Dragons’ Hold.

  Charcoal in hand, Lovina was sketching. Sitting next to her with his back against the gunnels, Tomaaz bent, his lips brushing Lovina’s hair as he pointed to something on her parchment. Roberto snapped his gaze away. Tomaaz’s gold hair and green eyes reminded him too much of Tomaaz’s twin—Ezaara. He shook his head. How had it come to this? He’d never imagined he could love so deeply, or that love could be edged with so much pain. His heart felt like a trampled rose, its petals bruised and scattered. He scratched his neck. If Ezaara wasn’t Queen’s Rider, he would’ve brought her with them in a heartbeat.

  No, he was lying to himself. He wouldn’t have brought her.

  If Zens were to break her, Roberto would be tempted to inflict every terrible torture Zens had ever taught him upon the world. He’d shatter the world. Or shatter himself against it. Now that he’d been in love, he couldn’t go back to his half shell of a life before Ezaara. Never. He’d rather die alongside her.

  Roberto cocked his head, gazing at the captain’s pennant, a roaring dragon, snapping in the wind. “If you hate dragons so much, why is your ship named the Roaring Dragon?”

  The captain coughed. “Just because you’re Naobian, do you think I have to tell you all my secrets?”

  Roberto chuckled, his eyes roaming over the deck.

  Danion was teaching Gret how to tack. Lines in hand, she followed his instructions, earning a casual pat on the shoulder. Nearby, Fenni paced along the deck, smoke rising from char marks where his sparks fell on the sun-weathered planking. Gret glared at Fenni, then turned back to listen to Danion’s instructions. Roberto snorted. The mage was so besotted with Gret and so green with envy over Danion’s attention to the girl that he couldn’t even see how angry Gret was. According to Kierion, when Danion was undercover, acting as Captain’s right-hand thug, Danion had claimed Gret with a kiss to prevent the other thugs from harassing her. Kierion said Fenni hadn’t known Danion was a dragon rider, and had disliked him since. Roberto didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t be happy with someone else kissing Ezaara.

  And Kierion—the prankster who could leap from the tip of the dragon’s tail and kidnap a mage on the back of a dark beast—had succumbed to seasickness.

  The captain nudged Roberto, a hand on the ship’s wheel. “So cocky on land, so adrift at sea.” He angled his head toward Kierion.

  Roberto had to chortle.

  Nearby, Adelina stiffened. She stalked over. “Don’t laugh at Kierion’s misfortune. It could be you next.” She spun away in a huff.

  Roberto grabbed her arm. “Adelina, please.”

  She whirled. “Take your hands off me.” Her dark eyes flashed.

  He dropped her arm. “I just want to sort things out.”

  “You promised when we were young, you’d never lay a hand on me.”

  “Zaarusha made me bring Amato home. I had no choice,” Roberto hissed, aware of the ears pricking up around them. “You know I would’ve rather killed him after what he did to us.”

  Adelina walked back to Kierion, chin in the air.

  The captain laughed. Roberto shot him a scathing glance. The laugh died on the captain’s lips and he busied himself staring at the horizon.

  “At least, the waters aren’t stormy,” Captain muttered to no one in particular.

  §

  For the third time that morning, Kierion leaned over the rail and emptied his guts into the choppy sea. Great impression he was making on Adelina, not that he much cared. In the Egg’s name, why had he come on this fine adventure? The only thing he’d seen so far, apart from the first day of breathtaking crystalline waters filled with wondrous sea creatures, was the bottom of a pail or the contents of his stomach filling it. He heaved again and again, but his stomach was empty.

  Next to him at the rail, Adelina stretched her arms open wide, breathing in the briny air, as if she was hugging the wide expanse of turquoise ocean. She waved a hand at a smudge of orange upon the horizon. “I never thought my brother would survive the Wastelands.”

  Kierion took a deep breath and grunted. His roiling stomach was wrung out like garments on wash day. Should be safe to speak without hurling. “None of us did. Flaming lucky he and Ezaara got back in time to save Zaarusha.”

  She turned to him. “And lucky you found the remedy for the poison.”

  “Ah, that was all skill, not luck.” He tried to arch an eyebrow and act cocky, but was sure he’d failed.

  “Just like the skill you’re exhibiting now?” She slugged his arm, but only lightly, and grinned.

  That was more like the Adelina he knew. She’d been stretched as tight as a bowstring. He managed a weak grin back—until the ship pitched. He groaned and slumped on the deck.

  Her lips twitched as she gazed at him.

  Gods, they were exquisitely shaped and so enticing. When they’d come on board, he’d imagined finding a secluded corner so he could find out how soft those lips really were. But now kissing was the last thing on his mind. He clutched his stomach as another wave of nausea hit him.

  “I’ll be back in a moment.” Adelina disappeared.

  She soon returned and passed him a cup of cold peppermint tea. “Here, sip this. The mint should settle your stomach.”

  Kierion sat up and tentatively took a sip. Adelina held a damp cloth to his forehead, then his neck. “Ah, that feels better.” He groaned. “Mara would never call me a hero if she could see me now.”

  “Is that what she called you?” Adelina laughed, dark eyes dancing.

  Gods, she was gorgeous. “I don’t care what anyone calls me as long as this ship stops pitching.” Kierion moaned as the ship crested a huge wave, sea spray misting their faces, then dropped into a trough.

  §

  So the girls at Dragons’ Hold thought Kierion was a hero. Adelina was glad he was with her on this ship, far away from their compliments, even if he had no sea legs and was as sick as a mooning dragonet. She hoped he had no idea how many young women swooned over him or that he was the topic of many conversations in the girls’ sleeping cavern, late at night.

  Her laughter died as Roberto’s voice cut through her thoughts. At least she’d put her brother in his place. Adelina took Kierion’s cup so he could scramble to his feet.

  “You all right?” Kierion murmured. Thankfully, his breath now smelled of mint.

  She pasted a smile on her face, her weapon against the world. “Sure. It’s you that’s sick, not me.”

  Overhead the sails flapped and the mast creaked.

  “Why are you mad at y
our brother?” Kierion’s eyes slid to Roberto, who was conversing with the captain as if they were old friends.

  It was as if that hardened seaman knew he’d met his match in Roberto—Zens’ ex-protégé and the son of Amato the traitor. She huffed. Both the captain and Roberto had nerves of steel and could be just as stubborn as each other. This journey would be hard for Roberto, heading back into Death Valley for the third time.

  But that still didn’t excuse Roberto from bringing her face to face with the father she’d long thought was dead. And still wished was dead. Gods, the shock had rattled all her terrible memories loose.

  Adelina bit her lip. Surely her memories of Amato’s abuse paled in comparison to Roberto’s—being given to Commander Zens by their father, then enduring months of torture at Zens’ hands. Adelina shuddered, but said nothing. She’d also been captured by Zens recently, but only for a few days. Thank the First Egg Kierion had saved her.

  Kierion loosely draped an arm around her shoulders and held the railing with a white-knuckled grip as the ship swayed.

  She braced her legs, leaning into him. Thank the dragon gods Amato was locked in the brig. Kierion had objected, saying it wasn’t fair, but as their leader, Roberto had insisted. If he hadn’t, Adelina would’ve. She didn’t want her father roaming the decks. Out of sight, out of mind.

  Although just knowing Amato was on board was enough for her thoughts to keep returning to her haunted littling years again and again—the blood on the walls, her mother’s screams and Roberto’s soft moans in bed late at night after he’d taken beating after beating for Adelina or Ma.

  “It’s all right, Adelina. I’m here. I won’t let Amato hurt you again.” Kierion’s voice was so soft, she wasn’t sure if she’d heard right.

  Adelina met his steady eyes—ocean gray flecked with blue. The girls called them pretty. Somehow now, they seemed like a life raft, keeping her afloat. She swallowed and nodded, pushing her anger at Roberto down deep.

  Riona thudded to the stern deck with a maw full of wriggling fish. Their stench drifted on the breeze.

  Their dragons had been supplying the pirate cook for the two days since they’d set sail from a tiny fishing village south of the Flatlands. Adelina walked over to the dragon and patted her snout. “I suggest you wait until Kierion’s below deck, so we don’t start him off again.”

  Too late. Behind her, Kierion tensed and spun away, leaning over the rail.

  So much for the peppermint tea she’d given him.

  §

  Fenni paced the length of the deck, then turned and paced again. Thank the living flame, Danion was on the other side of the captain’s cabin, out of sight. Fishing, he called it. Dangling a string into the sea and hoping something would bite was more like it. The hooks at the end of his line were as barbed as the looks Danion was shooting him. Fenni had found out from Kierion that the idiot wasn’t married at all. Danion had just said he was to keep Fenni quiet after he’d kissed Gret, so he could claim he was playing a part. But the truth was that Danion liked Gret.

  Danion didn’t yet know that he knew, but somehow, Fenni would make him pay for kissing Gret. Unless Gret had enjoyed it…

  Oh gods, he was doing it again. The sparks trailing from his fingers had left telltale char marks on the deck’s weathered planking. He shook his head. Master Giddi had warned him to learn control. And where had all Jael’s lessons—throwing underwater fireballs and nearly being killed by strangletons—gotten him? He had to get his emotions under control. Stay cool. They needed to work together as a team. If Zens sensed any division among them, he’d use his mental talents to drive it between them like a wedge, and rip them apart.

  §

  “I’ll be back in a moment.” Adelina patted Kierion’s shoulder and went below deck.

  Gods, he’d been hoping to kiss her, not be patted like a dog. But that was all they could manage with him staring at the inside of his chuck bucket. He groaned as the ship lurched.

  Below him, a hatch opened in the side of the ship and cook flung some scraps out far into the ocean. Cook had a good arm on him to turf the food that far. Shark fins cut through the water, and maws rose from the sea, snapping down the morsels before they hit the ocean’s surface.

  Below the sharks, something large rippled through the water.

  Kierion blinked. Gods, was that a… He was seeing things. It couldn’t be. He waved at Fenni, who was prowling the deck, looking grumpy. “Flaming claws! Fenni, look!”

  A sleek green-scaled maw closed around a shark.

  Fenni dashed over. “By the First Egg! A sea dragon! I never dreamed I’d see one.”

  The sea dragon leaped from the water, the shark flailing in its jaws. Water rushed off its green scales, sparkling like diamonds in the sun. Its wings lifted and flapped, water cascading from them, and then it plunged back into the sea. Cries arose from on deck. Crew and riders rushed over.

  “I thought they were a myth,” Kierion muttered. “Now I’ve seen it all.”

  Roberto laughed. “Not where we come from. Anyone from Naobia knows that sea dragons are real. Look.” He pointed out far beyond the sharks. More large shapes rippled through the ocean.

  “So there’s a whole herd of them. Or whatever it’s called.” Kierion screwed up his face. “If they’re not flying, it is still a wing of dragons? Or are they a school of sea dragons?”

  Roberto clapped Kierion on the back. “I’ll leave that for you to figure out.”

  Kierion squinted. “Look again, Roberto.” There were dark blobs on the back of some of the sea dragons. “What are they?”

  Roberto frowned. “They’re too far out to tell from here, but there are legends that sea dragons have riders, people who can breathe underwater using the dragons’ magic. I’ve never met one, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

  Long after everyone else had left the rail and gone back to their duties, Kierion stared out at the water, straining his eyes, hoping to catch another glimpse of a sea dragon.

  §

  Roberto grunted and strode to the center of the deck. The sea dragons were a welcome diversion, but now that they were gone, tension was increasing again between Fenni and Danion, and Adelina was still avoiding his gaze. Gods, he had to do something to let off steam. “It’s time for sword practice,” Roberto barked. “On your feet.” Riders scrambled up and formed a ragged group. Adelina ignored him, studiously attending to Kierion—who was puking again. “Who’s first?” Roberto called.

  Tomaaz unsheathed his sword.

  “I’m in,” Lovina said, sliding her sword from her scabbard.

  Near the stern, next to Riona, Erob shifted on his haunches and narrowed his eyes, staring at Roberto. “Tut, tut. Taking out your anger on your riders won’t help things.”

  “They’re lazing around on deck. We’ll be fighting tharuks in a day or two. They need to stay sharp.” Roberto readied his sword.

  “If they’re half as sharp as your sister’s tongue, we’ll be fine,” Erob replied.

  That stung. But not as much as Adelina’s anger. She’d been his only family for years. They’d always been tight—until Amato had come between them. And the worst thing was, he wasn’t only upset about Adelina. Ezaara was angry with him too, for leaving her behind. Gods, he had to do something or he’d go mad. Better this, than arguing with his sister.

  Roberto yanked off his shirt. It was so sharding hot down here in the south.

  “Are you sure it’s not just you being steamed up?” Erob tucked his head back under his tail and went to sleep.

  “You need your beauty sleep, but these riders have had enough rest.” Roberto flicked his sword toward Tomaaz and Lovina. “I’ll fight you both at once,” he called. “And anyone else who’s keen.”

  Danion swaggered over, sword in hand. “Three against one?” He raised an eyebrow. “That hardly seems fair, but if that’s what you want, I’ll oblige.”

  That brought throaty laughs from Captain’s motley crew of burly pirat
es. A few gathered to watch.

  Gret tied off her lines and came over too, leaning against the railing and folding her arms. “If you’re going to duel, I may as well provide some tips.”

  The first mate, a wiry pirate with three gold rings in his nose, sniggered.

  “What? Think I can’t fight just because I’m a woman?” Gret glared at him, her hand drifting to her pommel.

  The female pirate with a shaved head tattooed with a burning arrow laughed. “Nod knows better than that,” she said. “I best him three times out of four.”

  Nod glowered. “Enough lip from you, Medina.”

  “I’d watch out if I were you,” Fenni growled. “As Montanara’s swordmaster’s daughter, Gret’s been fighting since she was three summers old.” He stomped across the deck to stand at Roberto’s side. “I’m in. I’ll even out Roberto’s chances.”

  So, he wanted to fight Danion. That could get nasty. “All right, but we need a few rules.” Roberto didn’t want his troop battered and bleeding before they engaged any tharuks. “No mage flame. No sword slashing—only taps with a sword tip.” At a groan from the riders, he barked, “Do you want me to cork your tips like littlings? Or make you use wooden training swords?”

  “No training swords on board,” Nod chuckled, the rings in his nose glinting in the hot sun. “We don’t drill, we only fight.” He grinned, showing yellow-stained teeth.

  “Want to join us?” Roberto asked. “The losers are on galley duty.”

  “That’ll please cook,” said Nod. “But I’ll watch.”

  Roberto drew his sword. Beside him, Fenni held up his hands, sparks dripping from his fingers. “No flame,” Robert muttered as Fenni’s gaze narrowed in on Danion.

  Danion gave a cocky grin and twirled his sword.

  Lovina lunged, aiming for Roberto’s side. He parried. Tomaaz and Danion leaped in, swords flashing. Danion was suddenly buffeted back by a freak gust of wind. Roberto would’ve laughed if he hadn’t been busy blocking Tomaaz and Lovina’s blades. The next time Danion lunged, he slipped on a strange ice slick that appeared underfoot.