by G. Bailey
“What do they look like?” I ask curiously.
“Pretty little dolls, with green hair and green skin. They are about the size of your hand, and known for causing mischief,” he tells me.
“Sounds cute,” I comment.
“Well, light tree spirits are, dark ones have blue hair, blue skin and are said to be a little less cute,” he tells me as we move around a big group of students that are engrossed in conversation, and don’t even notice us.
“What do dark spirits do?” I ask.
“They are tree spirits as well, but they are born when a tree dies. No one knows much about them to be honest. Most people don’t even believe they exist,” he says with an almost sad tone as we get to the door of the same office I was in last night. Three guards are stood motionless outside, until they see me and bow.
“I will wait for you here and take you to class,” Thorne says with a formal bow as a guard knocks on the door, and then opens it for me. I walk in, hearing the door shut behind me as I look at the back of my uncle, who stands looking out the window. He has a grey suit on, his dark red hair with grey tips a stark contrast. He waves a hand, beckoning me over.
“Do you remember my name? You were so young when I saw you last, Isola,” he says, despite his words coming across as gentle, there’s a touch of a snarl in his tone.
“No,” I reply as he turns to look at me. His dark red eyes lock with mine, but although I know he must be powerful, I am not frightened. He walks straight over to me, and I stand still as he moves around me in a circle, examining me.
“You look so much like my sister, it’s like going back in time to when we were teenagers,” he says, moving a hand to touch me before suddenly changing his mind, lowering his hand.
“I don’t have any photos of her, only memories that I’m not sure are even real,” I say.
“My name is Louis Pendragon, the last of the Pendragons as you have the royal name and I never had a child,” he says, with no emotion in his tone.
“You should get to your class, I only wished to look at you,” he says, walking away and going to sit down on his chair. I give him a confused look at being excused so quickly, but turn around, walking towards the door.
“One more thing, Isola,” he says, stopping me when I get to the door.
“This is not the human world, nor do we play by their rules. I suggest you get your dragon on your side, otherwise you will be powerless to survive here,” he comments.
“How did you know?” I ask, speechless.
“Leave Isola,” he commands, looking down at the paperwork in front of him, and he picks up a pen, as he starts writing something.
“Goodbye uncle,” I say, making him flinch a little, and I walk out the room.
Chapter 5
Isola
“Did everything go well?” Thorne asks when I step outside the office. The guards shut the door behind me, moving back into their motionless stance.
“I actually have no idea,” I mutter. I don’t want to think about my complicated uncle, and his strange ability to know that I’m not in control of my dragon, which I should be at my age. No one should know that, it’s impossible, and I can’t help but think about how he knew. My dragon is inside my mind, speaking only to me.
“Err ok. So, this way is all the classes, except for a few out buildings where training fights are held,” he points to the left staircase as we walk back to the entrance hall. There are a few students walking around, carrying books with their hoods up so I can’t see their faces.
“To the right is all the dorms, study rooms, and the library,” he comments.
“Wait there’s a library?” I ask, grabbing his arm and he looks at me strangely.
“Yes,” he says slowly.
“That’s the best damn thing I’ve heard all day,” I say cheerily, and walk up the staircase with Thorne hurrying to catch up. At the top is a circle corridor, lined with lockers and classroom doors in-between them.
“Lockers? Not what I expected,” I ask Thorne, who reaches into his cloak and hands me another key, this one is small and blue. He pulls out a chain from his other pocket, hooking the key on.
“Hand me your room key, Issy?” he asks, holding out a hand. I feel around my cloak pocket until I find it, and hand it to him. He slides the key onto the chain and holds it out for me.
“Thanks,” I say, taking it off him.
“It’s just easier to have them on a small chain, its nothing,” he smiles and looks around.
“Yours is number one hundred, nice and easy to remember,” he says, nodding his head to the left, and I walk just behind him. I stop when I see a guy leaning against the wall, even through all the students, we just seem to lock eyes with each other. Thorne stops, walking back to my side, and looking at where I’m staring.
“That’s the kind of dragon you want to stay away from Issy,” Thorne tells me, my eyes still locked on the almost black ones staring at me across the hallway. I trail my eyes over his messy black hair, the long tips that brush over his forehead. I look down at his muscular arms crossed against his large chest before raising my eyes back to his. He is dressed in all leather, covered in tattoos, and I get the feeling Thorne is right.
“What’s his name?” I ask Thorne.
“Elias Fire,” Thorne grumbles, as Elias gets a cigarette out of his pocket and lights it up. He puts it in his mouth, sucking in slowly as he watches me like I watch him. His lips pull up in a sinful smirk before blowing the smoke out, and walking away.
“I mean it when I say stay away from him; Elias Fire is nothing but dangerous. A killer that is dripping with dirty blood,” Thorne sneers, and I have to agree with him. Elias looks just like everything any normal girl should avoid, and yet, I can’t help but stare at him as he walks away.
“Is Dagan Fire his brother?” I ask Thorne, who is watching Elias like I am, but my question makes him glance down at me. He looks furious, his eyes turning slightly black in the corner as his dragon threatens to take over.
“The Fire brothers are not guys you want to make friends with, Isola.” He says and walks away, fists held tightly at his sides. I jog a little to catch up with him, and he stops at a door.
“This is yours, I will wait outside each class,” he says coldly. I nod, sliding the key chain into my pocket, and walk to the door. I open it and walk in, seeing five other students sat down, all of them at the front, and they all stare at me with wide eyes. I don’t see the teacher in the small room, which is full of dark brown benches and has a white board at the front, with a desk in front of it. I walk through the students, seeing an empty desk with two seats right at the back, and sit down in it. For the next ten minutes students rush in, and all pause to stare at me. I try to just ignore it, focusing on the empty white board instead. No one sits next to me, which I’m thankful for.
“Morning class, good to see most of you are awake today,” a woman laughs as she walks into the room with a massive pile of books nearly touching her chin, and slams them down on her desk. She smoothes her blonde hair, which is pulled into a ponytail that highlights her dark red tips. Pushing her glasses up, she smiles brightly when she sees me.
“We have a new student, Isola, right?” she asks me, and I nod.
“Right, well Isola, this is history of Dragca. You’re lucky that we just started learning the history of the royal family,” she grins, “I’m sure you will pass this class easy,” she winks.
“Sure, the princess will get everything right,” a guy near the front says sarcastically. He has light red hair, and his brown eyes glare at me before turning back to the teacher.
“Just for that comment, you can hand out the books, Rye,” the teacher snaps at him, and he slides out of his seat and grabs a few books.
“For Isola’s benefit, I will introduce myself, I am Miss Claire,” the teacher starts off, picking up a whiteboard pen, and walking over to the whiteboard. Rye drops a book on my desk, still glaring at me, before he walks back to his seat.
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“Can anyone tell me the name of the very first king of Dragca?” she asks, looking at me, but I don’t have a clue. I probably should have read some of the books my father left with us on Earth, like Jace did. A sharp pain lances through me as I picture him, sat on my bed, reading the books. I remember him laughing when I said I didn’t want to know anything about some old dead people. Looking back, I was innocent and stupid, I should have listened to Jace.
“Icahn Dragice was the first king; he took the throne after the war of fire and ice. Many ice dragons were killed, as well as fire dragons, but it was Icahn who created peace,” a girl two desks in front of me says.
“Very good. Yes, Icahn Dragice was the only one of his family that wanted peace, and he was awarded the throne because of his actions. Up until then, a fight to the death between siblings was the only way to win the throne. Please open your books to page fifty-one,”, Miss Claire says as she starts writing on the board. I flip my book open to the page she wanted, and there’s three paragraphs and a drawing of a large blue dragon, covered in ice. I don’t know if that’s what I look like when I shift, but I remember Jace’s dragon, and he was a little smaller than the one in this drawing.
“As we all know, there are two different forms of dragons, ice and fire. Ice dragons have kept the throne for many years because fire dragons have a natural weakness to ice. If we are in contact with dragon ice for too long, it can kill us,” she says with a pointed look over at Rye, “Maybe some of you should remember than before annoying the only ice dragon here.” Making me chuckle and like her instantly. A few students give me a nervous look, and the whispering starts up again.
“Now, read your book, pages 51 to 91 please. I’m going to test you on it in an hour,” she comments, and I start reading. The first page is mainly full of information on Icahn; how he grew up and that his cousins were the ones that started the war. When they were killed, Icahn was the next in line, but the war meant no one was on the fire throne at the time. I turn the page over and there’s a drawing. It is a depiction of Icahn, holding a staff, with orb on the top and a dragon curled around it. He has long white hair, braided at the sides, and he is huge, built like a giant. I read the next few pages, but no one talks about the staff and I flip back, staring down at it. Maybe it’s just my dragon side and their fascination with collecting shiny things, but I can’t stop staring. I skip to the end of the book, hoping to find an index, but instead, there’s another passage that I read in shock.
Icahn’s first wife was known to be beautiful, but many never realised that it was her strength that made Icahn love her. During a fight on the battlefield, a dragon guard ran away when he was needed most, leaving Icahn alone to fight many fire dragons. Icahn was on the verge of defeat when his wife threw herself in front of him, taking a sword through the heart as she killed the other dragons with her ice. Her last words are the curse on the dragon guard, the curse that was sealed with royal blood.
I turn the page to find the curse written in fancy writing on its own, little fire and ice dragons painted at the sides around it.
“I curse the dragon guard and all its blood to die for the royal throne, and whoever sits upon it.
To desert the throne, is to be killed. Either by fate or the throne.
One day, the curse will break due to the final promise.
If a dragon guard ever falls for a royal dragon, then they will lose their dragon in return.
This curse is final, and unbreakable on my death.
The dragon guard will pay, and the curse will collect.
Ice will rule, and the dragon guard will protect.”
I stop reading when Miss Claire claps and begins talking but I think over and over about the curse, a horrible curse, all because one dragon guard ran in a war. A curse that my father uses to control his dragon guard army, and ensure they do everything he demands. No wonder they hate us, the royals that control them, but can never set them free. We can’t even love them, nor can they love us, or the price would be their dragons. A fate worse than death.
Chapter 6
Isola
“How was your first class?” Thorne asks as I walk to him after leaving history. I slide the two textbooks under my arms before I answer.
“Good and bad,” I say thinking that I liked the teacher, but when she said I have to study all these books to catch up the two months I’m behind, that wasn’t so great. I love reading, but not this kind of reading. One book is just about the farming lands, and what we grow. I need to know every type of edible plant, as well as the unusable ones, grown in Dragca in time for a test in a month.
“Here, hand me those,” he says and I laugh a little.
“Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I need a man to hold stuff for me. I can carry them Thorne, but thanks,” I say, squeezing around a couple of students to look at the locker numbers. I'm at eighty, so I keep walking until I find mine. Opening it up, I slide all my books in before slamming it shut again. I will have to remember to get them out, but I’m not carrying them around all day.
“What’s next?” I ask Thorne.
“Lunch, and then two hours in geometry,” he says and points down the stairs. Food. Food sounds better than it did a few hours ago.
“So how did you get here? Land a job as the dragon guard escorting me around?” I ask Thorne as I expected an older guard. Admittedly though, I don’t know much about dragon guards.
“My family is close to the throne, so they thought it would be smart to have me near you. I’ve also passed a lot of assignments,” he tells me as we get down the stairs and follow the students walking down the corridor by the door.
“Assignments?” I ask him.
“We are given tasks to train us, both here and on Earth. You may be born a dragon guard and live to the curse’s rules, but it doesn’t mean you instantly become a good fighter,” he tells me and holds a door open for me. I walk into the large lunch room, that has circle tables and what looks like a buffet towards the front, with a kitchen behind it. The tables are mostly full, and it's noisy as dragons walk around, everyone giving me hostile looks
“Help yourself, I’m just going to check on something. I won’t be far from you,” he tells me and walks out the room before I can reply to him. I turn away and walk across to the buffet. I am picking up a tray when someone bumps into me.
“Watch it,” a deep voice snaps, and I turn to see Dagan Fire staring down at me. His eyes are slightly black on the edges, but they quickly snap back to a deep blue colour.
“Oh, it’s the moody guard,” I reply blankly, and turn back around.
“Is that the princess?” I hear another male voice ask, and I turn to see a guy about our age watching me. He has a short, tidy black beard, curly black hair and tanned skin. He is dressed in the all leather uniform, and I can see two swords crossed on his back. His green eyes watch me curiously, just as I watch him. What is with this place and all the dragons being hot? Even thinking of any of them as attractive sends waves of pain through me and my own dragon stirring in my mind as I picture Jace. I quickly turn around when I realise I’ve been staring at them for way too long. God, everyone is going to think I’m mad.
“I told you Korbin, she is as crazy as they come,” Dagan says, chuckling. I take a deep breath, trying not to react to the idiots.
“And stunning, you said she was stunning,” Korbin replies, his voice low and deep.
“Well she is stunning, but the crazy ones always are,” Dagan replies, and I slam my tray down on the side before turning to face them.
“I am standing right here, don’t talk about me like I’m not,” I snap as they both look at me, and then at each other, before they start laughing.
“Little princess, you don’t have the throne yet and I won’t listen to a word you say. So, if I want to talk about you, I will,” Korbin finally says with a shrug. You know, after they both stop laughing.
“She won’t inherit the throne anyway, not since her precious little prin
ce was killed,” Dagan says, “Such a shame about that,” he tuts. I lock my eyes with him as anger flows through me, both mine and my dragon’s. I let my dragon out, feeling my eyes glaze over as my hands start to freeze everything near us. Dagan and Korbin take a step back as snow begins to fall from my hands, and I don’t move as I try to calm myself down.
“Kill them?” my dragon whispers in my mind; her sadness and anger is overwhelming and makes me take a deep gasp. Unfortunately, she uses that as an opportunity to completely take over, shooting ice out of my hands in giant waves, and then spreading across the floor as I fall. I don’t hear or see a thing, as my dragon pushes against my mind, trying to make me shift and allow her to act on her anger. Her pain is clouding her judgement, making her view everything as a threat, and want to destroy all she sees.
“Listen to me dragon, this is not the way. They didn’t hurt Jace, and you could kill them,” I manage to grind out in my head, begging her to listen. She doesn’t stop, but she lets me speak to her, lowering the barrier between us a tad.
“We need to work together, to get revenge on the real dragon that did this to us, that hurt Jace. Killing these guards won’t do that,” I beg her, feeling my arms warm up and bones begin to move as the shift starts to happen.
“Please, no,” I beg her once more, and she whines in my head, a whine that transforms into a roar that fills my ears as she pulls back.
“Revenge, we have to get revenge,” she whispers to me and for the first time in years, we are in complete agreement. I blink my eyes open, looking up at icicles hanging from the ceiling. My breath comes out in cold white puffs as I struggle to sit up. All around me is a thick wall of ice; I can’t see anything, and no one can get to me. I lift myself up, trying not to slip on the ice on the floor as I walk to ice wall and place my hand on it. I punch my hand through the ice, cutting my knuckles a little. I punch a hole next to it and then another one, until there’s a big enough gap for me to climb through. The sight in front of me causes me to forget the cuts stinging my knuckles as I stop and stare in shock. All the students are frozen; the whole room looks like they tried to run away from me, but didn’t get far. Dragon ice can kill fire dragons if they are exposed to it for too long, shit. I run over to Dagan and Korbin, who are frozen in place with their eyes completely black, as if they tried to call their dragons before this happened.