by Jada Fisher
Taken
The Brindle Dragon, Book 3
Jada Fisher
Copyright © 2019 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
1. To Begin Again
2. Uncomfortable Recollections
3. The Worst of Enemies, the Slightest of Friends
4. Sharp as a Sword
5. Missing Links
6. Crash Landing
7. Two Heads are Better than One
8. Shadow of a Doubt
9. This Little Dragon Went to Market
10. Piggybacking on a Nightmare
11. One’s Company, Fifteen’s a Small Army
12. Out of the Cauldron and into the Fire
13. Dark Horizons
Thank You
1
To Begin Again
Eist limped for a moment, her leg throbbing with a sort of phantom pain. She could feel her grandfather’s eyes on her and looked up just in time to see him turn his head as if he hadn’t just been observing her.
“I’m fine,” she said for perhaps the tenth time that day.
“That limp doesn’t seem fine,” he said flatly, trying to keep his tone neutral. But Eist just slid her hand into his and squeezed. The poor man. He was several centuries old and life hadn’t exactly been easy for him.
One would think that awakening from his slumber would have been a joyous thing, and while it was at first, it wasn’t long before he and Eist were called before the council to speak about ‘the incident.’
That was what they had called it. But something about it irritated Eist. It sounded so formal, so sanitized. A nice, neat way to say an agent of evil had slipped into their fold and almost managed to wipe out what was left of her family. It was an innocuous sort of phrase, one that sounded like it absolved them of their responsibility, and it was just some unfortunate accident that couldn’t have been avoided.
Eist didn’t believe that. Someone should have known something was going on. In the investigation that ensued, it was found that only three of the assailant’s colleagues had been concerned about her keeping grandfather unconscious for so long, and she told each of them a different story. The fact that there wasn’t a system in place to prevent such a thing was ridiculous.
But Eist supposed that all of that didn’t roll off the tongue nearly as smoothly as ‘the incident,’ so it was what it was.
“It’s just a phantom pain,” she said, pausing as the shadow of the massive wooden doors at the gate loomed over the two of them. “I think it’s because we’re back where it happened.”
He nodded, his own face a little flushed. The council had offered to let him retire, but they would still pay his working wages so he wouldn’t have to be where he was struck by lightning and then almost turned into a vessel for darkness, but he’d refused. However, they had worked it out so he now had a dorm in a hallway adjacent to Eist’s, so if he ever wanted to stay the night, they would be close to each other.
That thought gave her comfort, which was part of why Eist felt brave enough to go back only a few months after she had been nearly beaten to death. She would have gone even if she wasn’t brave enough, because there was nothing that was going to stop her from becoming a dragon rider, but it was easier if she wasn’t quaking in her boots.
“Let’s get a move on, shall we?” she said, looking up at her grandfather. He nodded and nudged their horse, who began moving the small wagon full of their personal items once again.
Eist’s own interview with the council had been…interesting, to say the least. They asked the same questions over and over again to make sure that her answers didn’t change, and often it felt like they were trying to trick her or make her stumble over her words. Grandfather said they were just being thorough, but Eist didn’t like looking up at her heroes and being treated like she was in an interrogation.
She told them everything she could, not leaving a single detail out. They wanted to know what led her to believe that the healer was up to no good, and for some reason had the hardest time accepting that it was just a feeling in her gut. Something hadn’t added up to her, so she’d held on like a dog with a bone until she finally had an answer one way or another.
She had told them about the book too, of course. How could she not? It was integral to how she confirmed her suspicions, so she didn’t care if she got in trouble for nosing around in the older, more advanced sections of the library. They needed to know. But when they had gone to look for it in the ruins of the healer’s room, it was gone, which Eist knew made even less of them believe her.
But she didn’t care if they didn’t buy what happened, because it was the truth. She had the scars to prove it. At least her other eye’s dark pool hadn’t blown out too. She was sure people would have a field day with that.
Fior chirped from where he sat on the horse’s back, his voice only having deepened ever-so-slightly in the months back at home. But he had grown, and Eist was fiercely proud of that. It was a bit strange to owe her life to a dragon about the size of a lapdog, but she loved him even more fiercely than the day she met him, and she certainly hadn’t thought that was possible.
“Yeah, we’re back.” Eist murmured, reaching up to scratch under his scaled chin. “What do you think about that?”
He let out a cautious chirp, his head lifting as he smelled the air. No doubt he could smell other dragons around. Eist could tell there was a bit of apprehension to his stance, too, and she gently rubbed the tiny horns that were beginning to grow from his crown.
“It’s alright. That person is gone now. You saved me, remember?”
He trilled again and settled back onto the horse, but that only lasted a few moments. As soon as they stepped into the court, he jumped up like someone had poked him, then jumped to the ground and took off.
Eist’s gaze followed him, certainly surprised, only to see him beeline straight toward a young red dragon.
The beast was at least twice his size and layered with both muscle and fat under its scarlet scales. For a moment, her heart leapt up into her throat, but then a familiar head of curly hair peeked out from behind the large reptile.
“Dille!” Eist called, gently jogging toward her friend. Although Eist had put a lot of work into making sure that she was ready for the new year, her leg still was a little iffy about running. She hoped that her teachers would understand, considering the limb had literally been run through by a fragment of the door.
Of course they would. After the investigation, the council had thanked her for her diligence and bravery and promised whatever she needed to make sure her return to the academy was as smooth as it could be.
The real issue was whether they were going to baby her, or if were they going to let her train, and hurt, and force her body to accept that she wasn’t going to stop. Eist hoped that it was the latter, because she had no desire to fall behind again, like she had when her grandfather was first hurt.
“Eist!” Dille returned in kind, rushing toward the stockier girl and throwing her arms around the blonde’s broad shoulders. “I missed you! How have you been? Have you been taking it easy?”
Eist gave her friend a look. “Sometimes I wonder if you even know me.”
“Right, so you ran it into the ground until your grandfather forced you to stop. I should have known.” Despite her reprimand, she was smiling. They parted, and Eist looked her over.
“You’ve lost weight,” she said with a frown, noticin
g her friend had returned to her more skeletal stature with deep, dark circles under her eyes.
But Dille just shrugged. “Not as much food back home. Don’t worry, I’ll plump up soon. Verelda doesn’t like to eat unless I’m eating with her too, so she makes sure I stay nourished.”
Eist looked at the plump dragon, which had rolled onto its back to let Fior pounce around on her belly. She was already the size of a bear and Eist couldn’t help but wonder if she was exceptionally large—even for a red dragon—or if Fior was exceptionally small.
“You two go ahead!” Grandfather called from behind Eist. She craned her neck to see that several staff members had already surrounded him, hugging him, shaking his hand, and generally seeming happy to see him. After the investigation, the two of them had pretty much returned home immediately just to get away from everything. Eist imagined his friends missed him, even if they understood the reasons he had to go.
In the months since they had left the academy for the break, they had spent almost all of their time together. It was like too much time had already been stolen from them, and they were trying to make up for it. Or, as a very quiet voice whispered in the back of Eist’s head, they had come so close to losing each other that now they were terrified the other would slip from their fingers without warning.
Eist shuddered as she turned back to her friend. Her recovery from her injuries had been…difficult to say the least.
There had been the cleaning of the wounds, and then she had developed a fever. It was nothing too serious, but the burning of her skin and the sweating reminded her of when she had nearly died and had lost her much of her hearing. Because of the medicines she was given and the stress of the situation, apparently Eist had thrown full-body tantrums and had to be restrained for her own safety. That was not exactly the best way to come to consciousness, and often she would awaken to think she had been kidnapped.
Eist glanced down at her wrists, where there was only a faint scar from when she had rubbed them raw. Who knew that healing could be such a traumatic process?
“Dille! Eist!”
A familiar voice called to them as Yacrist jogged up. Eist couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he had grown even more over the summer and now his hair was long enough to pull into a stately ponytail at the back of his head.
“Good to see you! I’d like to say you’re both looking well, but my mother taught me not to lie.” He grinned cheekily. “Eist, you look like you’re in pain, and Dille, you look like you’re very hungry.”
“It’s nice to see you too,” she countered, sticking out her tongue. “Where’s your dragon? Did he run away after too many of your compliments?”
As if on cue, two sleek purple heads rose from behind Yacrist’s shoulders. They shook blearily, before noticing Fior and Verelda, who were still playing.
Well, they had been playing, but it seemed that Verelda had decided to clean some of her front scaling while Fior was going to town, chewing on her tail.
“Fior!” Eist cried, rushing forward and removing the limb from his mouth. Thankfully, Verelda’s tail was just covered with sticky dragon spit, but still. “You can’t just go chewing on other dragons!”
Alynbach let out a squawk and clambered down from Yacrist’s back, joining his friends. He too had grown, and while he wasn’t bear-sized like Verelda, he certainly had many inches on tiny Fior.
Goodness. Eist hoped that she didn’t have to hear any more comments about Fior being deformed. He was just a small guy. That didn’t mean he wasn’t just as valuable a companion. After all, he wasn’t even a year old yet and he had saved her life. Certainly, that had to count for something.
“So, are you guys ready to all have different dorms from each other but still spend all of our time in Eist’s room?” Yacrist asked with a laugh.
“Actually…” Dille said slowly. “Because Eist’s roommate never showed up, we requested that we be put in the same room.”
“Really?” the young man asked, sounding surprised. “You two are going to be rooming together?”
“Yes…” Eist said carefully.
Yacrist groaned and dramatically sank to his knees. “This is it. You two will grow closer than ever and I will be left on the fringes until you forget me entirely. What a tragic, terrible existence.”
Eist laughed and pulled him to his feet. He took a step forward as he stood, and suddenly they were much closer than she had intended.
It was just a fraction of a moment, but it was enough to make her breath hitch in surprise. She stared up at him, and there was something about his gaze that made the hair at the back of her neck rise.
Thankfully, Fior was there to save the day again, a thick, slobbering sound coming from between them.
Eist jumped back and looked down to see that Fior had latched his jaws around Yacrist’s boot, slobbering all over the fine leather.
“By the All-Mother!” she cried, reaching down and snatching him up.
The moment gone, Yacrist stepped back, shaking his leg as he laughed weakly. “What’s up with him? You haven’t been feeding him enough?”
“No,” Eist said with a sigh. “He’s teething, so he feels the need to chew on everything.”
“What? Teething? Like a baby?”
Eist nodded and lifted one of his thin, scaled lips, revealing the tiniest of rounded teeth peeling out from his pink and black gums. They weren’t even big enough to break the skin on her hand, but they were still causing plenty of trouble.
“See? He started about a week ago, and I’ve had to keep a constant eye on him or he goes after the legs of our sitting table.”
“Huh. He really is something, isn’t he?”
“I think he’s well proven that at this point,” Eist said with a chuckle, nuzzling him. She was so proud of her boy. She hoped that he could feel it. No matter what everyone else said, he was her amazing dragon.
“Never thought I’d be jealous of a dragon.”
“What was that?” Dille asked.
“Nothing. Anyway.” Yacrist flashed them one of his grins that seemed to drive the other women in their class wild. “Ready to head to your dorm so you two can forget about me?”
“I wish I could,” Eist said. “But you talk too much for that to ever happen.”
Dille laughed. “Even if you died, I feel like your ghost would haunt us if you didn’t think we mourned enough.”
“Pardon me for just wanting a little positive affirmation!”
They all shared a laugh and continued to talk on the way back to the dorm. After so many nightmares and uncertainty, Eist felt that it was nice to be where she felt more secure. She had her friends, they had her, and they all had their dragons.
And for now, that was all Eist needed.
2
Uncomfortable Recollections
Eist made her bed, Fior eagerly sniffing the room as he ran around refamiliarizing himself with everything. Normally, she would have been done taking care of things by then—she wasn’t exactly overflowing with material possessions—but she had to coat the legs of their cots and her desk and her chair with the juice of citrus rinds from the coast so that he wouldn’t chew them into little splintery bits.
Yacrist made himself at home, flopping across her bed and hanging his legs over the side. Dille was perched on top of the work station, swinging her own feet as she scratched under Verelda’s chin. With the three dragons inside, the room was becoming quite crowded. It made sense that there were larger dorms reserved for them once they got to their third year. As their dragons grew, so would their dorms, but for now, those rooms remained empty.
“So, what’s the first order of business?” Yacrist asked.
“Don’t you have your own dorm to organize?” Dille asked, raising one of her thick eyebrows.
He just shrugged. “I arrived yesterday so everything’s all set. I thought I was going to go crazy without all you guys here. It turns out this place is lonely when there are only a dozen or so people in it.”
“Why did you come early? I thought that wasn’t allowed.”
He shrugged. “Certain perks come with being the son of the Lord of the House.”
“I guess so.”
“Anyway, stop making the conversation about me, when it should be we. And more specifically, what we’re all going to do on our first evening together as second years.”
“Get food,” Dille answered just as quickly. “The answer is always food.”
“Ya know, that’s a good answer.”
“I’m almost done,” Eist said, coating the bottom of her bedframe. “I think—”
A knock sounded at the door and Eist stood, rushing over to it. “I think it’s my grandfather. He must be settling into his own ro—” She trailed off, realizing it wasn’t her grandfather at all, but rather two healers, both with blue waistbands.
Eist paled and her mind flashed back to that day. She could see the woman snarling at her, eyes dark and demonic. Panic shot through her, reality superimposed over the image of the healer’s hands squeezing around Eist’s throat.
“Whoa, hey, are you alright there? You look flushed.”
Eist shook her head, trying to collect herself. “I’m fine. I just, uh, wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“I imagine,” one of the healers said, who she recognized as the same one who had examined Fior the first time. “It’s the first day and everyone is busy. We hoped, if you had time, that you could bring your little one in for another exam. We didn’t get a chance to give him his pre-break check, considering the, uh, incident.”
“You want to check him here?” Eist asked, feeling like her mind was moving through sludge. She wished they weren’t here. They made her nervous. She knew that they weren’t the woman that had attacked her, but they put her back in that same mindset.