by Lucia Ashta
“We?”
“Oh yes,” Dean said. “You didn’t think you weren’t a part of this, did you?”
I’d been kind of hoping....
“Because there are no such things as accidents,” he continued. “You have faithum, and the chieftain claims he does too.”
I waited for the next unbelievable statement to pass the lips of these hardened dragon charmers.
“We’ll fight faithum with faithum,” Shula said. “You’ll teach us how.”
“Me? How on O will I do that?”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” She smiled the first smile I’d ever seen on her face. “All we have to do is find it.”
“That’s right. Come on, Anira. We have a battle to prepare for.”
“We do?”
“The chieftain will come at us with nothing less than his all.”
“Finally,” Shula said. “We get to fight out in the open. I couldn’t stand Pumpoo’s game of secrets. Fighting out in the open, now that’s something I can do.”
“True. There’s no one better at it than you,” Dean said.
“Except, perhaps, you.”
“True, true. Come on, Anira, catch up,” Dean said, sounding all too jovial.
“Wait, what about Jore?” I asked. “Are we just going to leave him here?”
“You know what, you have a good point. I figured he’d be out long enough to give us the time we need, but better to take more time than less.” Dean moved back to the emissary’s side, and rolled him through the trapdoor. Jore landed with a loud, painful-sounding thump. Dean pulled the trapdoor shut and latched it closed. “That’ll buy us time to gather what we need and get out of the village.”
“Who we need, you mean,” Shula said.
“That too.”
The charmers marched purposefully ahead while my brain struggled to catch up. When they noticed I wasn’t right behind them, and so neither was Rosie, they stopped. Dean said, “Don’t worry, we saw this coming. We’re ready for it.” Even though he couldn’t see me, he must have sensed my concern. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was oozing off me in tangible waves.
“You are?”
“Absolutely. We’ve got this. Now come on. We have to move.” Dean successfully brought an arm to my shoulders, and led me as he walked, Rosie immediately behind me. “Just trust and believe in your faithum.”
It seemed as if I was being given little choice. It was either quake in my boots with fear, just as the chieftain would want, or believe in faithum—something that had been forbidden to me all my life.
Even if I hadn’t planned it, I’d already made my choice. Each step forward brought me closer to a future free of the chieftain’s tyranny and a constant threat of death. Each step brought me closer to understanding myself and why I was the way I was, so different from everyone else, even my twin.
For the first time in my life, I felt as if I might soon be ready to be seen. After a life lived in the shadows, I was ready to step into the light. And as I walked next to the dragon charmers and a small dragon that was as unique as I was, I glimmered, and for the briefest of moments, my invisibility fell. I walked as a member of the Ooba tribe, strong and proud, ready to take on the world and my role in it, for all to see.
Only no one noticed my moments of visibility. Our eyes were trained forward, toward the path that would deliver us somewhere unknown, but toward the honoring of who we were (the only path ever worth walking). Together, Dean, Shula, Rosie, and I were a force to be reckoned with, even if Pumpoo didn’t know it yet.
I might not have known where I was going, but finally, I was moving forward with strength. I wasn’t a mistake, I was a gift. I wasn’t a burden, I was a weapon in taking on Pumpoo and setting right all he’d done wrong.
Pumpoo claimed he wasn’t afraid of anything, but he should be afraid of me. Because I was finished being afraid. I wouldn’t cower any longer. I was ready to be all I was capable of becoming.
Invisible Bound
Dragon Force: Book Two
For my grandmother, Elsa,
who was able to see what others couldn’t
Sometimes all that stands in your way is you.
Chapter One
Something startled me from a deep sleep. I reached out for my twin, Rane, but he wasn’t there. Instead, I touched soft, silky flesh that didn’t feel human. I froze until the first wave of reality hit me: Rosie, the dragon I’d sworn to protect.
I barely breathed while I strained my ears to pick out the sounds beyond those of the forest and the splashing water of the sacred pools. Something had woken me, and whatever it was meant trouble. My body tensed, and the cool air of the summer caressed my skin with electricity.
Rosie sensed something too. She lifted her head, with its stunted snout, and flicked her forked tongue into the air above me. She was a baby, but she was still a dragon, and I wanted to ask her what she smelled in the nighttime air.
But I didn’t. I didn’t dare reveal my presence. Beyond a small dragon lying curled against my side, there was nothing else to give me away. There weren’t many who’d imagine that an invisible girl walked among the Ooba people. Besides, the large, ancient trees above us blocked most of the rays of the Auxle Sun, the weaker of the two. Without the sunlight illuminating my edges, there was no chance the intruder would spot me.
And it was an intruder. I didn’t know what made me so certain of the fact, but there it was, one of those certainties I’d learned not to question. My intuition had saved my life more than once. I had the feeling I’d be relying on it more and more over the next several days—or however long it would take us to resolve the issue of Chieftain Pumpoo and his deceit of our people.
I registered the subtle sound of leaves crunching underfoot. Any one of the people Rosie and I shared this clearing with could have crushed leaves as they woke to relieve themselves. But it didn’t feel like that’s what it was. I wrapped my arms around Rosie’s neck and hugged her tightly.
I scanned the clearing, looking outward among the thick trees beyond it. Dean, the legendary dragon charmer, would have posted sentries while the rest of us slept. As little as I trusted the chieftain, Dean trusted him less. He wouldn’t take our safety for granted.
I didn’t see any sentries, but then, maybe I wouldn’t. Every single person who rested in this clearing was far more skilled than I was. I’d become a member of this force of resistance by default, because there was no one alive who was the way I was. Chieftain Pumpoo and his minions would kill me on sight—if they ever saw me, which they couldn’t.
But while I couldn’t be seen, I could be touched. Another sound, so soft if I’d been sleeping I wouldn’t have noticed it, crunched in the night.
I turned my head and scanned the clearing and the trees surrounding it. At first sweep, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Men and a few women slept on the ground, wrapped in blankets. It was just as it’d been for days.
I swept my sight across the shadows again, and just as I decided there was nothing, and I should go back to sleep, I noticed something. A dark smudge moving through the darkness. Moving toward Rosie and me.
I wanted to scream, to wake every member of the Dragon Force who slept. They’d know what to do. After all, they were the professionals, even if they were trained to deal with dragons and not men. But how much could dealing with the fiercest of beasts differ from confronting a man? Well, I guessed it probably was pretty different, but compared to dragons, who’d kill you a thousand different ways, it seemed as if a man should be no problem.
Only, the more I watched the man’s approach, the more rigid my body became. The more I wanted to grab Rosie—an impossibility; she weighed much more than I—and run.
The man was perhaps not a man at all. He skimmed the shadows like he was a part of them, as if he were both a part of this world, and not. A bit like me.
He was picking his way across through the trees around the clearing. Where were the sentries, and why were
n’t they doing anything? As useful as it would be to alert the others to the danger among us, I would also be alerting the intruder to my presence. And it was likely he didn’t know about me yet. Hardly anyone did, and I aimed to keep it that way. That’s how I survived, by skirting the same shadows with which the intruder was melding.
But he was close, too close. I squeezed Rosie. My heart thumped so loudly I soon wouldn’t be able to hear any sounds beyond the whooshing of my pulse through my head. Rosie squirmed in my hold, but I didn’t loosen my grip. I wanted to whisper words of reassurance and comfort, but I had none. I was terrified, but would do nothing to reveal myself.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum. I tried to focus beyond my beating heart, but I’d never felt more helpless, and this was after seventeen years of feeling like my life was beyond my control.
Then the thought arrived like a flash of light in the darkness. Dean. I had a connection with Dean, one I didn’t quite understand. But he sensed me. Would he sense me now, in my moments of panic, when he was probably asleep? I had no idea, but I had to try. If not, I’d have to scream, and then the shadow that seemed to hunt us like prey would discover me, as would all the members of the Dragon Force.
Dean! Help, there’s someone here! I called out through the waves of my mind. But as the words left me, I realized they wouldn’t reach him. I was too unsettled. I would accomplish nothing with the rising panic inside.
I focused on calming my breath, and settling the erratic beating of my heart. Dean! Wake up! There’s an intruder.
But again, it didn’t work. I could tell even though I’d never tried this form of communication before, not even with my twin, who felt me in a way no one else did.
I needed to be calmer. I needed to trust myself more. I watched the stranger advance a few more careful paces toward me, and then I closed my eyes. I couldn’t stand not watching danger advance, and I flung them right open.
But no, it was the only way. I had to do this, or reveal my secret, and deliver myself to even greater danger.
I closed my eyes again, and fought the impulse to open them. I aligned myself with the rhythm of my breath. Then I merged with the whooshing of my pulse in my head. I could do this. Hadn’t Dean and Shula, the female warrior as fierce as him, told me I had faithum—that magic that Pumpoo had forbidden to our people?
If I had faithum, then I could do this. All I needed to do was believe. It should be easy, right? It felt anything but; I’d do it anyway. I had to find the way. I was finished feeling like a victim of my life circumstances. I was born invisible when no one else was. I was one half of forbidden twins, who’d be killed if discovered. Instead of the burden I’d always believed these two points to be, I was determined to see them as gifts. Being a twin when there were no others on Planet Origins was the greatest blessing of all. I was connected to Rane in a way I couldn’t imagine being connected to anyone else.
I wasn’t a curse, I was a blessing. I wasn’t a freak, I was special. And I could do this. I’d be damned if I failed these people because I was incapable of believing in myself, in the notion that I, inconsequential girl, could be powerful, could have a purpose far beyond any I’d ever imagined.
I wasn’t sure if I was calm enough to reach Dean, but I was going to believe I was. I was going to believe until I became all I was meant to become. And there was no time like the present, with a shadow lurking toward Rosie.
Dean! Wake up! There’s someone here, skirting the shadows, and he’s heading toward Rosie and me.
There, I’d done it. I wasn’t quite sure how I knew it’d worked, but I did. Dean had heard me.
I allowed myself to open my eyes again. I immediately lost whatever calm I’d managed to achieve. The shadow lurker was too close. I didn’t think it had taken me long to reach out to Dean, but it must’ve taken longer than I realized. He was a dragon’s length away—not a dragon’s length like Rosie, who was both a baby and a runt, but like a real, full-grown adult, with all their terrifying claws, sharp tails, and reaching fire. It still wasn’t far enough.
Maybe I hadn’t reached Dean as I thought I had. Maybe I’d failed. He didn’t answer back, and I hadn’t heard a single movement from the area in which he slept.
Resignation settled across me like a damp blanket. I’d revealed my existence to Dean and Shula after a lifetime of keeping the secret. Now I’d have to reveal myself to a portion of the Dragon Force. After that, there was no reining the secret in. No matter how much I trusted the men and women who’d amassed to oppose Pumpoo—and I trusted them mostly because Dean and Shula did—I wouldn’t be able to contain my secret. My invisibility would blow their minds wide open, and that reaction would be too difficult to control.
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to scream. Just as I let the start of it loose, a heavy thump silenced me.
I waited, my heart going crazy in my throat. My eyes trained on the shadows where I’d last seen the intruder, I finally noticed movement. I barely made out the outlines of a man hovering above the lump that was now the trespasser, but I realized it was Dean. No one else moved with the same stealth, efficiency of movement, and a self-assurance I envied.
Dean crouched over the man, ran his hands across him, then scanned the forest around us. His eyes alighted on Rosie, but only for an instant before he moved on to scout the rest. He stood while sliding the man’s knife and sword into his own belt, then he approached me.
He whispered, “Are you all right?”
I nodded, until I remembered he couldn’t see me. “Aye,” I whispered back.
“Rosie?”
“She’s okay too.”
“Stay here while I deal with this.”
Again, I forgot myself and nodded. When Dean started to rise, I asked, “Did you... did you feel me? Am I the one who called you?”
When Dean turned back around, there was no missing his smile, not even in the dim lighting. “I did. I heard you as if you were whispering in my ear.”
I didn’t know what to say. My tongue felt as thick as some of these tree trunks. I did it. Holy moly, I did it.
Dean’s smile grew into a grin, then he slipped away, the night swallowing the sounds of his retreat.
Until he sounded the alarm.
Chapter Two
“Everyone, up!” Dean said. Throughout the clearing, bodies sprang into motion. The members of the Dragon Force, even though principally trained to interact with dragons, were also the soldiers who’d be called upon if raiders ever arrived. They shrugged out of their blankets, grabbed the swords they’d left within reach, and were moving toward Dean before I had the chance to adjust to what was going on.
Shula reached Dean first. She didn’t ask. She waited, alert eyes trained on her leader and friend.
Dean said, “Check the sentries. They should’ve spotted this guy before he was able to get so close.”
“What guy?” Shula asked.
“This one,” Dean said shortly, turning to where he was pointing. “Holy crap. He’s gone.”
I sat up so fast my blanket fell off, and a piece of it slid out of my energetic field and lost its invisibility. Roughly, I tugged it back around my body, and it disappeared from sight. I thought no one else had noticed. Their focus was trained on their leader. As odd as a dragon was in our midst, I hoped the crisis at hand was enough to distract them from Rosie... and me at her side.
“Everyone, spread out,” Dean barked. “Scour the forest. Find the sentries.”
“What are we looking for?” one of dragon charmers, Crush, asked.
“A man, so dark he bled into the shadows. He’ll be mostly unarmed now. I took a sword and a knife from him, but I didn’t have the chance to pat him down.”
Crush and the rest of the Dragon Force, all but Shula, dispersed into the forest that surrounded the clearing on all sides. The only path led to the sacred pools, and eventually back to our village. The other directions led into deeper and thicker forest. The intruder could be anywhere. I clutched the blanke
t against my chest even though I hadn’t been cold moments before.
Dean and Shula waited until everyone else was gone before moving to my side. They pretended to be examining Rosie in case anyone saw.
“Did you see where he went?” Dean asked.
“No. I didn’t see anyone leaving. I didn’t notice any movement.”
Shula, who was more succinct with her words than Dean, asked, “You saw him?”
“Aye, but barely. I don’t know, it was weird, he seemed to disappear into the shadows.”
“He would with how dark it is around the trees.”
“No, not like a normal person would. There was something... strange about him. I can’t explain it. He really seemed to disappear in the shadows, almost as if he were part of them, even though I know that makes no sense.”
“It might not make sense,” Dean said, “but it’s what I experienced too. Dammit, I should never have turned my back on him.”
“Why did you?” Shula said.
“Because I was a fool, because I came to check on Anira and Rosie.”
“Hmph” was all Shula said.
“I know, I know, I should have known better. It’s just that I thought I’d knocked him out cold. I hit him on the back of the skull, and he crumbled.”
“He should still be out then.”
“He should, but he’s not, dammit. Where the hell did he go?”
“I’m more interested in finding out how he got up after one of your hits. I wouldn’t be getting up.”
If Shula wouldn’t have gotten up after Dean hit her in the back of the head, then how did this guy? Shula was no average woman. Nearly as strong as her male counterparts, she looked as if she could reduce a man’s skull to dust with her bare hands.
“Could it be...?” I started, but then stopped. “No, never mind.”
“What?” Dean and Shula asked at the same time.