Protector

by J. A. Armitage

  “The magic works in the same way as a disease. It is contagious. They will be reborn, too. You’ll have a village of young, vibrant dragons. You should be pleased. It won’t work if you stay as humans though, so I suggest you all go home and stay in your dragon forms until the day you can rise again, free of illness, free of old age and free of any injuries you have sustained.” He eyed Ash as he said this. Blood was still dripping from him and he looked so pale. Was this another trick? I had no idea, but if we didn’t let him free the trapped dragons, they may as well be dead anyway.

  “Do it!” I shouted up at him.

  He held his hand out once again and this time touched the crystal.

  A bright flash of light caused me to close my eyes. With everything else going on, I’d completely forgotten about the intense heat that blasted out of the swords when the dragons were freed, and this time there were so many of them. I braced myself for the fire and flames, but they didn’t come. Instead, a powerful wind wailed around the room, knocking us all over. I curled into a ball as the wind roared. The noise was intense, like being in the center of a hurricane.

  When it was all over, I opened my eyes. The others were laid on the ground as I had been, and the light from the crystal was out.

  I blinked a few times, wondering how I could see everyone, even dimly, when I saw there was a small shaft of light coming from behind a part of the carved wall. I’d not seen it before because the light from the crystal had been so bright.

  “Daylight!” I shouted, running toward the crack. My voice echoed through the cavern.

  “I think this was the way the dragon souls went,” said Spear who’d been right next to it. Between us, we pulled on the wall making the crack wide enough to get through.

  I turned back to get Krikor but he wasn’t there.

  “Where’s Krikor?” I asked, desperately searching the room. “He couldn’t have come this way. The crack was too small until we pulled it open.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Morganna, “I think he escaped back up the tunnel. The wind knocked me over. I felt something jump over me, but I thought it was the dragon souls.”

  He’d escaped, but as I looked down the tunnel through the wall and saw bright daylight flooding in, I knew that so had the dragon souls, and so would we.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The exit led to a dirt road at the base of the mountain. I knew this road. If we followed it, we’d end up in Dronias. It was a road I knew I’d have to take, even if Ash and the others decided to fly back over the mountain to Frokontas.

  On the way out of the tunnel, I’d told Jasper what had happened to our father. He’d nodded, resigned, and told me he’d seen his body as we were fighting.

  Ash dawdled behind our group as we walked the path home.

  “I’m going home,” I said and he nodded.

  “I was hoping you’d want to come back to Frokontas and stay...permanently.”

  I gave him a small smile. He looked so sad at the thought of me leaving. “I meant I have to go home and tell my mother about father. Then I’m going to bring her home. To our home, in Frokontas.”

  He smiled widely then and kissed me on the cheek. He looked so pale. We all did. Just getting everyone up the mountain was going to be an effort, but before that, I had to go back to Dronias and tell them what had happened. My father wasn’t the only Slayer killed up there. Jasper, Xander, Morganna and I survived, as did one or two more, but we would be going home in smaller numbers. I also had to make sure the last of the dragons escaped the dragon keep in the forest. I’d hate to think of leaving any behind.

  When we were far enough down the road, Spear announced that the dragons were taking anyone who wanted to go back to Frokontas.

  Morganna came to me and kissed me on the cheek. “I know you are going back to Dronias. Alpha and I have decided to go back with Spear, just until we are all healed. Many of the Wolvren were injured and Spear has promised us all medical aid. Once we are better, we will return to our own home. I hope you’ll come and see us before we go.”

  I hugged her hard. My idol had become my friend. “Ash is going to bring me back tomorrow,” I explained. “I’m just going to do what I have to do in Dronias first.”

  “What about Jasper?” she asked, seeing him walking slightly further ahead, deep in his own thoughts.

  “Jasper’s a grown man. He’s been living in my father’s shadow for too long. Maybe now he’ll be able to live life the way he wants to.”

  “Do you think he’ll come to Frokontas?”

  I shook my head. “No. Dronias is his home, and now that my father is dead, he will be the leader. I have a feeling that will please him. He always did like to be the best.”

  Hours later, when everyone else had flown back to Frokontas, we arrived in Dronias.

  My mother took the news of my father’s passing better than I thought she would. She insisted on coming to the dragon keep with us to help any left behind dragons, but there were none there. They’d all been matched to their souls.

  “We’ve done it,” I said wearily to Ash. He held my hand tightly. They were free, but this was just the beginning. If what Krikor had said was true, they had a month or two of illness to look forward to.

  That night, after doing her best to patch us all up with her limited first aid knowledge, Xander’s wife, Louisa, made us all dinner. My mother had been staying there since my father had come to Dronias with me, but she wasn’t happy. Her home had long since burned down and now that Xander was back, she was eager to move out. Jasper offered to build her a home, but she chose instead to live in Frokontas with Ash and me.

  “Rocco did a great many things in his lifetime,” she began over dinner. “Not least of which was to impose a lot of pain on the people of Frokontas. Now here I am, being invited to live among those very people. It is humbling to be asked. As for Rocco, he was a good man deep down. He only ever wanted the best for Jasper and Julianna. He was, above all, a family man. It seems like he did everything he could to make up for his mistakes in the last weeks of his life, and it is that for which I will remember him.”

  “Hear, hear,” cried Xander, raising a glass. “To Rocco!”

  The next day we were surprised by Spear knocking at the door. Behind him were two dragons.

  “To what do we owe the pleasure?” asked my mother, recognizing Spear.

  He bowed, actually bowed to her. “I come with my deepest condolences on the passing of your husband. He and I were natural enemies, but in the end, we became the best of friends.”

  She thanked him and invited him in.

  “I’m afraid I cannot come in. The dragons have no spare clothes to change into and the doorway is too small for them to fit through. I came knowing that Ash was injured and thought that he and Julianna might like a lift back home.”

  “It’s going to be my mother’s home, too,” I said, coming up behind her. She rested her arm on my shoulder and grinned.

  “Of course. We will be honored to have her. I was going to invite her to the party anyway.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Party?”

  “Yes. Krikor was telling the truth. The dragons that got sick first have already begun to wake up. It’s pretty disgusting to watch them shed their skins like snakes, but when they do, well, you should see them.”

  “I can’t wait,” I grinned.

  “You don’t have to wait. We decided last night to invite all the inhabitants of Dronias to the party.” He beckoned us outside and pointed skyward.

  I looked up to see a sky full of the most vibrant dragons I’d ever seen. A rainbow of color filled my vision, reminding me of a kite festival. One by one, they landed. Xander, Jasper, my mother and I ran through the town, knocking on doors and inviting people to join us.

  Of course, not everyone wanted to come. Decades of hatred were a hard thing to forget, and many of my fellow Slayers decided to stay at home. Many did come out though, and each one who did was transported on the back of a dragon. The who
ops and excited yells of the people flying for the first time reminded me of how happy my father had been when he’d flown on Spear’s back. The grief over losing my father would never leave me, but having been able to spend so much time with him in the last few weeks, and fighting next to him, was a small consolation.

  Once my mother had hopped up on Stone’s back behind Jasper, there was only Ash and I left to go. Spear shifted into his dragon form. His skin was dull and patchy and I recognized it immediately as the first stage of rebirth. Soon, he would fall asleep and wake up brand new. I had a feeling he was looking forward to it.

  Ash helped me up and then jumped up behind me. As Spear took off, he grabbed hold of my waist tightly.

  “Ouch!” I shouted. He was clamping down on the gash in my side. He shifted his grip a bit lower down.

  “What’s the matter with you?” I asked as the Triad Mountains passed beneath us.

  “I’ve never flown on a dragon’s back before. It’s kinda scary!”

  I had to laugh

  Frokontas was a hive of activity when we landed. The flames in the fire pit were roaring and the delicious smell of cooking meat emanated from it. Tables had been set out at the outer edges and filled with all manner of food and drink, and all the people of Frokontas had brought chairs out to accommodate the arriving Slayers.

  Dragons mixed with Wolvren and Slayers around the fire, while Edeline and some of her friends served food. Some of the dragons stayed in their dragon forms to give pleasure rides to the children of Dronias and to Lucy, who seemed to be enjoying it more than anyone else.

  My mother jumped in and insisted that she help, too, and when she introduced herself, Edeline gave her a bone-crushing hug.

  Fiere thrust a glass of beer in my hand, then passed one to Ash before heading into the crowd. A band of musicians started to play in the background and I watched with surprise as Alpha pulled Morganna from her seat and began to dance with her. Alpha had never struck me as the dancing type.

  Ash took my hand and led me to the edge of the party, away from everyone else. Firecracker saw us leaving and decided to follow, gamboling around our feet as we walked slowly up the track that would take us to town and beyond that, to Spear’s house.

  “Are we going to visit the sick dragons?” I wondered aloud.

  Ash stopped and put his full beer glass on a nearby fence post. “I wasn’t planning to, but we can after, if you like.”

  “After what?” I asked.

  He responded by kissing me. My heart thumped wildly as it always did when Ash kissed me. My own beer sloshed down my side but I didn’t care. I was home. It was the only place I ever wanted to be.

  Later, we did walk to the sick dragons. A couple that had emerged that day after shedding their outer skin walked past us. They gleamed in the sunshine.

  “Maybe I should try this illness thing,” mused Ash, taking in one particularly vivid green dragon.

  “You probably already have,” I said. You were injured by a sword, and you’ve been looking ill for days, even before we went to battle. I bet if you turn into your dragon form now, you’ll be asleep by the end of the day. I think Spear will too. He looked pretty ghastly earlier.”

  “Don’t tell him that,” chuckled Ash. He looked into my eyes. “Will you wait for me while I sleep?”

  I kissed him lightly on the lips. “I’ll wait for you forever.”

  As we got close to Spear’s house, it occurred to me that the beer was soaking through my trousers. I would need to change. I pulled off my sheath with the sword still in it and examined my pants. They were soaked through and I smelled like a brewery.

  “I’m going to head into the house and see if he has a spare pair of pants laying around,” I said to Ash who nodded.

  When I picked my sword up I noticed something unusual about it. It was dull and no longer looked shiny and new.

  “What the...”

  And then reality hit. When Krikor freed the dragons from all the swords, he’d freed the Goblins from mine, too. No wonder he hadn’t tried escaping before touching the crystal.

  I looked upward to the peak of the largest mountain in the Triad Mountain range.

  The Goblins were still up there, only now they were going to be mad!

  * * *

  Check out more books by JA Culican

  https://www.amazon.com/J.A.-Culican/e/B01GG7GLYE

  About J.A. Culican

  About J.A. Culican

  USA Today bestselling author, J.A. Culican is a teacher by day and a writer by night. She lives in New Jersey with her husband of eleven years and their four young children.

  J.A. Culican’s inspiration to start writing came from her children and their love for all things magical. Bedtime stories turned to reality after her oldest daughter begged her for the book from which her stories of dragons came from. In turn, the series The Keeper of Dragons was born.

  Read More from J.A. Culican

  www.jaculican.com

  About J.A. Armitage

  About J.A. Armitage

  Born in a small town, J.A. Armitage longed for adventure and travel.

  Age 20 she moved to Dublin, then to San Diego, then Sydney and back to California where she did a brief stint working at Universal Studios being a minder to Sponge Bob.

  Once back in Britain she got married, had babies and decided to write about the adventure she was now missing out on. She works full time, is a mum to three kids and has had a surrogate baby.

  She has skydived twice (and survived), climbed Kilimanjaro and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She has also worked as a professional clown and banana picker amongst other jobs.

  Somehow she finds time to write.

  Read More from J.A. Armitage

  www.jaarmitage.com

  Books by J.A. Culican

  Novels

  The Prince Returns-Keeper of Dragons book 1

  The Elven Alliance-Keeper of Dragons book 2

  The Mere Treaty-Keeper of Dragons book 3

  The Crowns’ Accord-Keeper of Dragons book 4

  Second Sight-Hollows Ground book 1

  Slayer-Dragon Tamer book 1

  Warrior-Dragon Tamer book 2

  Protector-Dragon Tamer book 3

  Sword of Fire-Through the Ashes book 1

  Embers of Darkness-Through the Ashes book 2

  Blaze of Magic-Through the Ashes book 3

  Spark of War-Through the Ashes prequel

  Short Stories

  The Golden Dragon-Keeper of Dragons short story

  Jericho-Keeper of Dragons short story

  Phoenix-Hollows Ground short story

  Savior-Dragon Tamer short story

  Books by J.A. Armitage

  The Labyrinthians

  When Kimberley's father loses his job and it looks like her whole family will be homeless, a mysterious old benefactor saves them by leaving his 'mansion' to them in his will. However, their new house, with its history of spooky happenings and disappearances, is not all it seems. When Kim's little brother goes missing, it's up to Kim and her new friend, Nate, to find him. The problem is... When they do - who will find them?

  The first in a new YA series, The Labyrinthians begins a story of adventure and of terror and finding yourself when everything else seems lost.

  Endless Winter, Book 1 in the Guardians of the Light Series

  Imagine falling in love for the first time, the adrenaline, the flutters. Now imagine being told you had to have a baby with somebody else...

  Trapped in an unfamiliar room with no way out, Anais has no idea just how much her life is about to change. A locked door stands between her and freedom but as she is just about to find out, the door is the least of her problems.

  Anais had never believed in demons and vampires so when she is transported into a dark world that she doesn’t understand she is forced to realise that humans can be the most terrifying monsters of all. Yet in the shade of her new life she finds light in the most unexpected place of all.r />
  In this occult paranormal romance, follow Anais into the realm of The Guardians of The Light and into a mystery saga filled with temptation, loss, fear and above all love.