“I won’t go further from who I was then?” I asked. “I mean, the transformation’s over?”
The dragon’s eyes told me nothing, but I heard his voice in my mind once again.
‘The transformation is over but becoming more of who you are now will change you. You are more different than you realize and I am also different to how I was before. We will discover this together because we’re joined now.’
I agreed, and tried to communicate telepathically with my dragon. ‘It’s a journey I look forward to taking with you, Endymion.’
I wasn’t sure if the dragon heard me, until I felt his contentment and heard his reply.
‘As do I.’
‘Can we leave the cavern now?’ I asked.
It was interesting how much faster conversation was in my mind when I didn’t need to speak the words aloud.
‘Yes,’ the dragon said. ‘Come with me to the glade and your people will tend to your needs. You will need to eat and drink again. If you don’t, you will die.’
Stepping back out into the sunlight felt like a dream come true. I couldn’t have said how it was different, but the colour of every leaf and every inch of blue sky was richer and more vivid somehow. It was as though I had a much greater frame of reference to appreciate the world around me and more than that, I’d survived.
I knew I had a lot to be happy about—I was still myself, and what’s more, I still felt anger at my father’s betrayal. The transformation hadn’t stripped that away, though I had less to hold against him than I feared I might.
As I walked behind my dragon, I heard his thoughts, just as he’d likely heard mine.
‘Your people will still expect you to fight for them and carry out their orders. We are beholden to our oath to return, even though it was made generations ago.’
I turned up my nose at the thought as I studied the distant view of the castle.
The possibility of burning my father’s castle to ruins had been taking shape in my mind for some time, and now when I’d managed to retain my sense of self, it seemed unlikely that I could.
‘It would be a bad idea,’ the dragon said. ‘The oath directly forbids it. You didn’t want me to be evil, and I’m not, but that means I’m not prepared to do evil things.’
‘What doesn’t the oath forbid?’ I asked.
‘We may leave, but we have to return within seven days, and we cannot act against your people or kill any humans except for when we’re ordered.’
‘Why did you agree to these terms?’ I asked, wondering why the dragons would limit themselves so much.
‘Our ancestors had no choice.’
I knew all about lack of choices. It went hand in hand with being a princess. I would need time to think about what I could do without offending the dragon’s sense of honour or breaking the oath, while bringing about some sense of justice I might not otherwise find. I had a realization.
‘Am I beholden to the same oath?’
I sensed laughter from the dragon.
‘No, you’re not, but remember we’re joined. I wouldn’t like to have a lifelong companion who’s evil or imprisoned out of reach.’
‘Thank you, I will keep that in mind,’ I replied, as I pondered the possibilities.
A few minutes later we approached the clearing where the other dragons had gathered. The last time I was there I was cautious of them, but this time I felt safer and more like I belonged there. The largest of the dragons were huge—more than double the size of elephants, and I was certain they could crush me, but as I felt their minds turn to me, I knew they wouldn’t. Each dragon felt different, and I got an impression of who they were as they opened their thoughts and personalities to me.
I sensed each one as being a complex individual, and while they hunted and fed as animals might, they were something more. They were creatures of magic, and possessed an intellect even greater than humans. It seemed ironic then that they were oath-bound to our kind.
The largest of the dragons—the one known as Jasper—approached and stopped in front of me. There, he lowered his head and gazed at me closely.
‘Welcome,’ his voice said, and soon I heard the others, as the dragons brushed past me, bumping me this way and that.
‘Welcome…’
‘Sister…’
Riding a dragon was a wholly different experience when mentally joined. As we glided above my father’s kingdom, and I grasped the saddle crafted especially for me, I felt at peace. The fear I’d experienced before was gone. I was where I belonged, and I sensed Endymion’s comfort and feeling of control. He was still a bit smaller than the fully-grown dragons, but I was curious to see that whereas he’d grown immensely in a matter of months, his sister, whose rider had escaped, was still much smaller.
She circled the castle alongside us then banked away as we flew on toward the distant ocean. There was no one we had to answer to at present. I’d said little to the humans who’d fed me and prepared me a bath so that they didn’t suspect anything. My father hadn’t been to see me, but I had a feeling that a time would come when he would.
I was in a good position to act without them knowing I could. A Spymaster they’d created and who was more than capable of pulling a few strings without them noticing.
As Endymion took us higher, away from the world that would harm me, my thoughts turned to the girl who I’d saved. I was sure her family would find nothing more terrifying than the sight of a dragon after what had happened, and in any case their land wasn’t a safe place to visit. I decided I would wait for now, as the girl, Elbereth, grew into a woman and my father aged, until such a time that the tides of power turned—should they do so. And then she would find herself an ally in Olys, perhaps.
It was a long game I was playing, but one way or another, I would see justice come to him—even if it was wrought by time. Whether he knew it or not, he had already lost something precious—his only daughter’s love and allegiance, and without an heir he had no way of passing on his mantle of power to a direct descendant, unless he had another.
‘Do riders ever marry?’ I asked my dragon, wondering at the answer. I’d never heard of it happening, but I wouldn’t have put it past my father to arrange a marriage for me.
‘It used to happen in the distant past, but not in a long time.’
‘You wouldn’t let it happen to me unless I chose it?’ I asked.
‘You’re right, I wouldn’t,’ Endymion said. ‘We protect our family above all else and it’s what you are now.’
It was funny that the family I’d found should matter more than the one I was born into, but that’s the way of things sometimes. I wondered if my mother was a gentler soul than I’d been led to believe, and seeing what my father was capable of, I could no longer fault her for her actions.
When time finally caught up with the king, and Albin for that matter, Endymion and I were far away and Elbereth still lived. She was not destined to become queen, but life has a sense of irony sometimes. Unbeknownst to us, the Pirate Kingdom of Kalan had their own dragons, and she became a dragon rider for her own people. In the years since my father’s downfall, our paths crossed more than once… not in combat, but peacefully, because no dragon ever attacks another.
It wasn’t the path I would’ve chosen for myself. I wanted to be Spymaster and I loved being the Princess of Olys, but I found something that was meaningful to me. Sometimes out of fear comes the greatest realizations and wonders you might never have foreseen. I found something more than the vengeance I’d carried for my father—no matter how warranted it might have been. I found out what it meant to be a dragon rider, and after that I didn’t want to be anything else.
About the Author
Mara Amberly is a fantasy and science fiction author. In the past, she's also written poetry and official roleplaying game content for the 7th Sea RPG.
She's a trained journalist, editor and web developer, and she works as an author and graphic designer.
Mara's Web Site: http:
//author.maraamberly.com
The Dragon You Know
Joynell Schultz
The Dragon You Know © 2020 Joynell Schultz
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Chapter 1
“I don’t know how you talked me into this.” My tundra deerskin boots clunked against the fake-wood floor of the hospital’s hallway. I brushed a hand down my beard, trying to look presentable for the mortals’ stares.
“Isn’t this what you do?” Ruby fanned her hand towards the room with three sickly people sitting around a table. “Heal people?”
My jaw clenched. “Yeah, in our world. Not in this one.”
“It’s all the same.” Ruby waved at a little girl whose eyes were as big as the gold coins in my pocket. “Sure, this realm has IV pumps, wheelchairs, and non-magical medicine, but it’s filled with people who need a healer, just like back home.”
I turned her words over in my head, remembering what a wheelchair was from when I lived here as a child, but an IV pump? What the hell was that?
Ruby knocked on a wooden door outside a room marked 317 before glancing down the long corridor where our dragons followed, completely cloaked by their ability to turn invisible. I didn’t go anywhere without Luna, even if she was the size of a horse and barely fit through the doorways in this world. On the other hand, Ruby’s golden gem dragon, Luke, was no bigger than a small child.
“Anyway, thanks for coming,” Ruby said. “I know you’d rather be home, locked away from civilization.”
“You know me so well.” I smiled, tickling my own nostrils with a few stray beard hairs. Rolling my shoulders, I forced myself to grow comfortable in this stale-smelling place.
“I should. I am your sister, after all.”
“Half-sister,” I corrected. I was still getting used to having a sibling. All my life, I had thought I was the only child of two evil spell casters. Turned out, when my father traveled to this realm while I was a small child, he impregnated his mortal girlfriend before leaving this non-magical world. A year ago, voila! A little brunette witch showed up on my doorstep with her dragon-slaying boyfriend, trying to capture Luna.
Now, Ruby’s the queen of the kingdom of Mortia.
And I’m still trying to be Greyson the Healer…who apparently, is branching out to be Greyson the Healer OF BOTH REALMS. If I thought my alone time was already running thin, this was just asking for a whole new layer of Grumpy Greyson to be revealed.
“Come in,” called a feminine voice from behind the door.
Ruby joined a blonde woman, probably a handful of years younger than me, about nineteen or twenty, who scooted herself up in the hospital bed. Across the bridge of her nose and beneath her eyes was a red rash resembling a butterfly.
“Sonja, I’d like you to meet my brother, Greyson.” Ruby smiled from ear-to-ear like she was proud to show me off.
Something warmed inside me, and I informally bowed. Was this what it was like to have a family that cared? That was something I had never experienced before.
“Your brother?” Sonja’s blue eyes lit up. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to introduce him to your BFF.” She tilted her chin at me. “Are you a real lumberjack or do you just like to dress up as one?”
“Isn’t the lumberjack style still popular?” Ruby asked, before both her and Sonja exploded in laughter as they examined me.
Suddenly, I felt naked without my cloak, but Ruby insisted that the drab olive apparel would make me stand out in this world. Apparently, the soft red plaid shirt I wore was a better fit.
My jaw tensed as I remembered what a lumberjack was, but I wouldn’t be the butt of an inside joke. “I should have ‘saw’ that coming. I’m sorry, but I forgot my suspenders at home. Perhaps we can ‘axe’ the lumberjack jokes?” I scratched my cheek hidden beneath my multi-inch-long beard. They weren’t wrong to describe me as a lumberjack. I had let myself go over the past few years, but who did I have to impress? I lived alone in a secluded mountain cabin with my closest neighbors being Luna and the rest of her ice dragon family. I had more than enough human contact when I made my weekly journey to the surrounding kingdoms for supplies. I’d heal whoever was sick, and their families would offer me food, tools, clothing, blankets, and whatever else they could spare.
Outside the hospital room’s door, something crashed.
I held my breath. I swear Ruby did, too, waiting for something else to happen. When there was a thud, followed by a ping, we looked at each other and both broke out in a snicker. The noise had to have been Luna’s doing. She knocked things over all the time with her massive tail. Ruby must have had the same thought about Luke. He tended to cause a bit of trouble, too.
“You have no idea how appreciative I am that you came,” Sonja said bringing us back to reality. “My wedding’s next week, but the docs say I have to stay here until my heart rhythm returns to normal.” She pointed to an electronic device next to her that showed a squiggly line on the screen.
Ruby had told me that Sonja was just diagnosed with lupus, but whatever name her disease had didn’t matter. My healing ability worked the same. “I can help some,” I said, stepping up beside Ruby at the side of Sonja’s bed.
“Ruby told me you practice alternative medicine?”
“Alternative to your customary, yes. For it to work, I need your arm, though.”
Sonja laid her bare arm on the side of her body right in front of me. I didn’t need any particular part of the human body to work my magic, but I did need skin-to-skin contact and a person’s arm or hand was the least intrusive. Sonja’s forearm was warm against my palm when I closed my eyes and pulled at the magic connected to me. Healing someone was easy and didn’t require the sacrifice magic usually demanded. The ability to manipulate a disease was my magical gift. Not only could I heal, but I could also cripple.
I avoided that unpleasant ability the best I could. That painful magic, which ran strong in my bones, was what my mother wielded that brought entire kingdoms down on their knees with crippling disease-filled curses. That was not who I wanted to be.
I sensed the first tendril of disease inside Sonja’s body. It was as if my mind sifted through a beach full of sand until it came to a large rock along its path. With my magic, I took that rock and pulverized it until it was no bigger than the rest of the sand. This caused healing. I didn’t know anything technical about it other than when the disease was shrunk down to tiny pieces, the patient’s own body could handle the rest.
Bringing sickness was just as easy. All I did was take that sand and glob it up into rocks in various parts of the body. Lots of little rocks in the head caused a painful sleep, rocks throughout the body, generalized pain. Big boulders…they could cause death.
I had learned about my pain-crippling skills from experiences that I didn’t want to remember. All while trying to earn my father’s love, but none of that had mattered.
He still disowned me and tried to erase my memories of him.
One by one, I sifted through the sand inside Sonja until all the rocks—and there were a lot of them—were gone. Opening my eyes, I smiled at her and patted her arm before I pulled my hands away.
“Whoa!” Sonja exclaimed. “That was some rush
…and look at that?” She pointed to the monitor beside her. “I think that’s what the docs would call normal sinus rhythm. How’d you do that?”
I laughed. “Magic.”
That was one thing I learned when I visited this realm in my childhood. Nobody actually believed in magic. Sometimes, telling the truth was more effective than creating a cover story.
Outside the room, another crash echoed in the hallway.
I caught Ruby’s eyes and nodded towards the door. “I think I better check on what’s happening out there. I’ll give you two sometime alone for all that ‘girl-talk’ you’ve been missing since you moved away.”
“And I wouldn’t mind some Jell-O,” Sonja said with a big smile. “Ruby, would you grab me some out of that fridge over there?”
As I slinked out of the room, watching the Queen of Mortia being reduced to a Jell-O-retrieving servant, I examined the hallway for any sign of my invisible ice dragon. The nice thing with Luna was that I frequently could find her by frost footprints on the floor or simply a cooler draft in the room. Luke, being a much smaller gem dragon, wasn’t so easy to find.
Besides a tipped over food tray, there were no signs of our two friends.
“Luna?” I whispered as I headed towards the mess I was certain that the dragons had made while playfully wrestling with each other. The doors were closed for each patient room, as I passed rooms 318, 319, and 320. When I stopped in front of room 321, my heart rate did a somersault in my chest. I didn’t mean to look inside and invade a patient’s privacy, but the tip of a light-blue, scaly tail lying in the hallway made me hesitate.
Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology Page 132