The Last Chronomancer (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 1)

by Reilyn Hardy

  But it was worth a shot.

  I dug into my bag for another charm and tucked it into the strap tied around me just beside the red stone. If this worked, I needed one to get back out.

  I stood up straight, rolled the marble between my index finger and thumb, and cleared my throat. “Mithlonde castle!” I shouted, and threw the charm down against the root of a nearby tree to make sure it would break. The ground felt too soft, too muddy, it probably would have sank right into it.

  Frost began to form, and traveled quickly. The ground shook slightly while the ice moved toward me and beneath my feet. The crack formed right underneath me and I fell backward into the hole. My eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of my head and I watched as the hole sealed off above me.

  * * * * *

  It wasn’t dark for very long and I landed hard, flat on my back. I slowly turned over and got onto my knees. I sat up, flinching a little from the fall. I rubbed out my shoulder and looked around, having no idea where I had fallen from. The castle was completely enclosed, and the ceilings were high, very high up, that I wondered if maybe the castle was large enough for them to move comfortably in their dragon forms as well.

  I got up and pulled my hood over my head.

  I hoped I wouldn’t run into a dragon.

  The castle was silent and the floor was cold against my bare feet. I looked around carefully, with each step I took. I waited when I heard noises, stopped and I hid. If I heard something, if I felt something. If there was any change at all, I stopped immediately until it passed.

  It was because of Nannu’s stories that I had a general idea of where to go. She told me about the time she had gone to the castle and saw the Heart of Mithlonde, a long time ago, during her youth. All of the dragons got to see it at least once in their life time, she told me.

  I wondered if that was still true.

  I walked down the corridor and stopped at each doorway to listen for anyone, then continued past it. My heart was beating erratically in my chest and I couldn’t seem to calm my nerves no matter how hard I tried. Nannu’s stories were helpful, but they also made it clear to me just how savage King Solomon could be.

  One thing was for certain, the last thing I wanted was to end up face to face with the actual dragon king himself.

  My fears were making my heart race and no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop it. I was on edge and with every noise I heard, my heart would stop for a moment while I was left wondering if this would be the end for me.

  I was unarmed. All I had was the stone, and a charm of Thirondel, strapped to my body. I had nothing else, no weapons, no way of defending myself. I could have brought my Skinharvester beak, but the reality was, I didn’t mean them harm and I wanted them to know that from the start, on the off chance I got captured. I just wanted to do what was right. I just wanted to return the stone and bring them back home. They deserved to be in Aridete, especially dragons like Nannu. They deserved to be free.

  I was unarmed, but I wasn’t dumb enough either, to think that I actually stood a chance against the dragon king or any dragon in general.

  I was still technically of mun, and I just had to make sure that I didn’t get caught.

  Which was much easier said than done, but wasn’t it always?

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  the dragon king

  I never made it to the treasury.

  I wasn’t familiar with the magic in Mithlonde, or the dragons that could conjure it. I wasn’t familiar with the tricks they could do or the masks they could hide behind. I wasn’t familiar with dragons at all, and I had been in way over my head.

  I didn’t mean to walk into them, but I couldn’t see them. I didn’t see them until it was too late. I collided with several guards that appeared instantly on impact, and the stone slipped from the strap. I closed my eyes as I felt it fall out from the bottom of my shirt.

  Before I knew it, my hands were pulled behind my back and I was shoved down to the ground right beside it.

  “Looks like we have another thief trying to rob the king.”

  “I’m not trying to rob —”

  The guard kicked me in my side before I could finish my sentence.

  “Shut up! I didn’t tell ya to speak!” He yelled, and bent over to pick up the red stone. “He’ll have ya executed for this.”

  “Think he’ll put his head on a stick?”

  Another guard grabbed me by the hair and jerked my head back. “Probably — he’s got a pretty face, don’t he — all them freckles.” He let go of my hair and my face crashed into the ground. “Assuming the king doesn’t burn it off.”

  Laughter of the guards filled the hall and echoed off of the walls.

  “I want to burn his face off —”

  “No, I want to do it — I smelled him first — Ronan! Let me!”

  “Shut up! Both of ya,” the guard known as Ronan, commanded the two others, who were arguing over me and my face. “We’re taking him to the king first. He’ll decide what he wants to do with him. Someone pat him down —”

  “I’m not armed, I swear. I mean no harm. I wasn’t trying to steal anything!”

  But Ronan scoffed at my words and motioned for two guards to grab me. I was lucky they only yanked me to my feet and didn’t pat me down. They dragged me down the rest of the corridor, just past the treasury. I was so close that I should have known it was too easy. Of course there would be guards standing right in front of it. I knew nothing of the dragon guards and they completely blindsided me.

  Their grips were tight on my arms, and I knew there was no escaping now.

  They brought me into a large room with a ceiling just as high as all of the rest. It was colorless, aside from the pale dry clay color that the walls were made of, but the floor in this room was different. It was marble. A shining tan marble that had a soft reflection of the yellowing night sky and black moon.

  There were three empty thrones at the other end with the biggest in the middle.

  The guards threw me down with such force, that I slid halfway down the length of the room. I tucked my chin down toward my chest in pain, wincing from the impact. I didn’t get up. I knew better than to think I was allowed to do that on my own. I was at their mercy, and I needed to behave as best I could.

  Many of the guards were talking among themselves and I was grateful that none of them were coming to where I was on the floor. They left me here in the center of the hall, alone with my cheek pressed to the cold marble. I was calm, I still had the Thirondel charm tucked in the strap. If they’d just leave the room, I could get away. But for now, I would cooperate. They had the stone now.

  I just needed to get out.

  The hall quieted suddenly. The guards all stopped talking at once and all I heard were heavy footsteps making their way toward me. Still, I didn’t lift my head. I knew who it was and I didn’t want to look. All of the stories I had heard of King Solomon, I wasn’t ready to look at him. Not directly, not at all. I didn’t want to see him towering over me in a much more intimidating stance.

  I wasn’t ready.

  He didn’t care.

  He kicked me hard enough to flip me over onto my side. I looked up at the large king, trying to keep my breathing steady. He took one look at me and sneered. I did my best to make like I wasn’t intimidated or scared, even though that was all I felt. I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know how to act. But I didn’t make eye contact. That was one thing I was sure to avoid as much as I could.

  He walked away from me, down the rest of the hall and took a seat at his throne, the one in the center. I didn’t think he took his eyes off of me from the moment he sat down.

  “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

  His deep voice boomed, the hall flooding with it as it hit every single wall and made him much more intimidating than he already was. But the king didn’t talk the way the rest of the dragons did. His accent was different than all the rest I had come into contact with. It wasn’t nearly as str
ong.

  He narrowed his eyes.

  “Who sent you to steal from me?”

  I thought of the note my grandfather left me.

  You’re more alone in this world than you think. I was scared to tell him who I was. How would he react to know that the Grim Reaper was my uncle? That his brother, Father Time, was my dad? His reaction could be one of many, and it all depended on whether or not he was forced into an alliance or chose to be in one.

  I shut my eyes tightly, not sure what to do or say.

  I shook my head finally, shaking the note from my thoughts, shaking all of that from my thoughts. I looked at the ring on my thumb and I thought of Weylan. My time with him, he was more of family to me than my actual one.

  I’d tell him what I believed.

  “I’m Maestri Craft of Newacre,” I said, avoiding looking at him altogether as I tried to sit up. He got up from his throne again and started approaching me. I quickly averted my gaze when he got closer. “I wasn’t trying to steal from you, I promise!”

  “Then why did you have this in your possession?” He questioned, shoving the red stone in front of my face. He turned it over in his hand, waiting for me to say something.

  “I was trying to return it! I was trying to bring —”

  “Liar!” He shouted, cutting me off. With the back of his hand, he smacked me. Striking me so hard, my neck cracked from the force, and I collided with the ground again.

  “Do not lie to me, thief.”

  His tone was venomous. I didn’t think I had ever heard anything like it.

  “How did he manage to make it past all of you?” King Solomon then asked his guards as he straightened his posture. None of them answered.

  “I didn’t because I’m not lying! I never made it past them!”

  “Was I talking to you?” He roared as he directed his attention back onto me at his feet. I shook my head and averted my eyes again.

  “Torture him,” he instructed to his guard, not taking his eyes off of me. “We’ll see if he has anything new to say once he’s writhing in pain.”

  He took one last look at his guards, placing a particularly heavy glare on Ronan, and left. Thick fur hung down his back from his shoulders, likely skinned from a bear or something larger. I turned to face the marble floor just as guards seized me by my arms again and pulled me to my feet. But I didn’t stand. I couldn’t. I wasn’t ready for this. I wasn’t ready to be tortured by dragons.

  I had to force myself to find my footing, to walk with them so they didn’t drag me.

  I wasn’t ready, but I was never going to be ready. There was no way for me to prepare myself for something like that, I didn’t even know what to expect. How much was I going to be able to endure before I gave up? What if my body gave up? What if I didn’t make it?

  Would it even matter? Mithlonde would return to Aridete, and maybe things would restore themselves. My best friend died for me to get there. Why did I deserve to live?

  I guess part of me knew that it didn’t matter what they did to me. They couldn’t make me feel any worse than I already did. No one can torture us the way we tortured ourselves.

  Ya brother needs ya.

  Nannu’s voice filled my mind. Nannu. My heart sank. She wouldn’t want me to give up and I knew I couldn’t. I had to make it out of there.

  * * * * *

  They brought me out into the middle square of the land of the dragons, where many inhabitants had come out from their homes to watch. Even young children, dragons who were partially changed, some with horns on their human heads, and dragon claws hanging from their fleshy arms.

  With Ronan leading me, I slowly walked up onto the platform and he chained me to the metal post at the very center. The large clay block was splotched with pink stains, which were darkest where I stood. Stains of blood. When I saw the boulders that were lined off to the side, my mind started to plague me with mental images of Nannu getting tortured right here by King Solomon and his guard, with the boulders pinning down her wings and the hot iron hooks of his being shoved into her eyes.

  I flinched and closed my eyes, trying to get the mental pictures out of my head.

  But they only got worse.

  David getting beheaded, his head rolling at my feet. His body dropping to the floor. I reached for my brother and he vanished right in front of me.

  I curled my hands into fists, and shook against the cuffs that bound my wrists. I could feel the burning sensation again from the venom secreting out of the Witchfen Worm, sinking into my pores, the damage no longer able to be washed away by the rain.

  There was no rain in the land of the dragons.

  I thrashed and pulled against the cuffs until they cut into my wrists, until blood ran down my arms and dripped off of my elbows and onto my knees. I pulled, and pulled and my shoulder dislocated, but Ronan popped it right back in.

  I could see Jace, the fence tearing through the skin on his back. His motionless body in the Ashen Hills.

  Rhiannon was in the cage again, her eyes were sinking into her head and her perfect pale skin was cracking.

  Jace was laughing.

  Jace, my mind plagued me.

  Jace’s dead body, Rhiannon’s vampiric form standing over it.

  No. I shook my head. NO.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  My mind went blank.

  There was darkness surrounding me now, swallowing me whole. I peeked open one eye and fell forward, hanging by my wrists cuffed to the pole. I blinked slowly, sweat trickling down my face and I tried to take a deep breath. My chest felt like it wouldn’t expand any further.

  “I think he’s enjoying our platform of penitence, don’t ya’ll agree?” Ronan asked. I heard the amusement in his voice. “This is only the start,” he told me when he looked down at me. “Show the colony all that ya have to feel guilty for — and my — is there a lot.”

  I looked away from him.

  It wasn’t all of my fault, but not even I was fully convinced.

  “Give it your best shot,” I said, and he grinned.

  I could take it now, I knew I could. I could handle whatever physical pain I was going to receive, but emotionally, I couldn’t. I never could.

  The worst is over.

  Ronan left me there for the night, chained to the post, and he warned everyone not to come near me or there would be consequences.

  They listened.

  Or at least most of them did.

  Someone gave me water, her voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t see her face. My vision was blurry but she told me she would be waiting. Waiting where?

  She told me I just have to make it out and that everything would be okay.

  I figured she was lying.

  Nothing was okay.

  * * * * *

  I was lucky that the dragons couldn’t identify me based on the smell of my blood, which worked in my favor.

  Nannu must’ve only associated me with Drarkodon because she had seen Apollo, she smelled his blood when her eyes were taken from her. Different type of dragon, different type of abilities, and she was the only of her kind left, living in exile.

  I relaxed at the realization. But I tensed again when the metal chain whipped my back. It smacked against my welting skin until it tore open beneath my clothes. It hurt, it was burning. I didn’t cry. I bit my bottom lip and I took it.

  Every crack, every hit.

  I bit down on my lip so hard until I drew blood myself.

  Rhiannon didn’t show it when the people of Thealey tormented her. I wasn’t going to show it either. They weren’t going to get a reaction out of me. I hardened my expression whenever they looked at me. I could feel my eyes water every now and again, but I didn’t cry. I wouldn’t let myself. They weren’t going to break me no matter how hard they tried.

  Another whip, and I lost my balance.

  I fell hard against my chest, and I felt something stab into the front of my body. I closed my eyes. The charm broke. I broke it.

&nb
sp; I heard the guard step in front of me and when I opened my eyes again, he was crouching down, staring at me.

  “What was that?” He demanded to know. “What’s wrong with ya eyes?”

  I looked up at him and I didn’t say anything. No ice formed on the ground, nothing was happening except for what I saw reflecting back at me, in the black beady eyes of the dragon man standing before me. My own eyes, nothing but white, but I blinked and they were back to normal. He shook his head and kicked my side.

  I broke my only way of getting out. Maybe I’d get lucky, maybe the charm would freeze my insides and I’d die turning into a glacier.

  Then again, probably not.

  I was in this for as long as they wanted me to be. I was a prisoner. All because I couldn’t stay home. All because I was selfish, and I didn’t want to leave my friend. I wondered if he’d be alive then if I had let him go alone.

  I should have let him go alone.

  I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to open them again.

  * * * * *

  When I no longer had the energy to hold myself up or get back up, to even move, the guards finally dragged me down the dungeons steps and threw me behind sturdy, reinforced iron bars and slid the door shut.

  “Home sweet home, Maestri. But don’t get too comfortable. We’ll be back for ya.”

  I looked to the side and someone was staring at me through the bars of our conjoining cells. I could hardly see him in the darkness, but I knew he was there, sitting just on the other side.

  He introduced himself to me as Vihaan, but I could barely hear a word he was saying. Everything was a blur and my head was throbbing. My throat ached and the insides grew scratchy as I coughed. My mouth was dry. I needed water.

  But they didn’t give me any. No food, no water.

  They only had news.

  The dragon king would see me in a few days.

  Vihaan gave me what he could when the guards left and at first, I didn’t want to take anything from him. It was his and it wasn’t right. But as each day passed, as the guards would drag me away and return me in worse shape than I was before — I think he just pitied me. Assuring me it was fine — that he was fine and it was okay to be selfish.