Leland had ended up with the messenger bag after he’d seen Catori struggling with it. Brian spotted it over the human’s shoulder and reached out for it, but the young man dodged him.
“You want this bag? Come get it.” He stepped back, holding out a large hunting knife he’d swiped from the armory. “I swore to protect Catori at all costs. Unfortunately for you, that involves me staying alive.”
Brian sneered and stepped forward, his eyes snake-like and emerald with steam rising from his teeth. “Did anyone ever tell you I met a Paladin once?”
Leland continued to back away with Catori at his side. He stepped on a loose rock, and it went sliding down the slope. They were on the other side of the mountain. So far there were no Paladins in sight, but if they didn’t leave soon, Catori feared, they’d be discovered.
“Did you ever hear that I don’t care?” Leland snapped, gaining his balance just in time to avoid a swipe from Brian’s sword. It sang as it cleaved the air to the left of Leland’s head.
Way too close.
“Well, I did meet one once. He begged for me to end his life after I was done with him. I burned every inch of his skin. Not all at once, of course. You want to go slowly, melt a bit at a time, take your time to ensure maximum torment. They spill their guts a lot faster that way.”
“You don’t say? Sounds kind of psychotic, if you ask me.” Leland’s jaw tightened as Brian jabbed his sword toward his gut.
“Stop this right now!” Bran yelled from below them. He was still struggling on the loose scree.
Brian ignored his sibling’s call. Bran finally got to his feet and began making his way toward Catori. He reached her as Brian and Leland continued to face off and tucked her behind him, even though she gripped his arm and tried to move to Leland’s side.
“Please, brother,” he said evenly. “Be reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Do you think the Paladins were reasonable when our mother was taken? Do you think they gave her mercy when they raped her in our home before cutting her throat? How merciful do you think that was, brother?” Brian scoffed and glanced at Bran, his sanity gone. His eyes glowed with fire, and his face was now long and scaly. “They tortured our mother in front of me. You don’t remember, but I do. I remember all of it. They cut her pretty throat when she was no longer of use to them. How merciful do you think I should be with any Paladin?”
“This is not the same,” Bran cried, tears of frustration brewing in his eyes. “We are not monsters like those people were.”
But it was too late. Brian was morphing into his dragon form. His clothes shredded, exposing his skin as it turned scaly and his body grew ten times the size of his human form. Finally, talons as well as sharpened teeth grew from his hands and gums.
But Bran was no fool. He paused his own morph long enough to look back at Catori. “Run! Get out of here and take the Paladin with you. Protect the talismans!”
Suddenly, another dragon stood before them on all fours snarling at the large maroon creature which was Brian. Bran’s dragon was an iridescent green, reflecting the red light bleeding from beneath his brother’s scales. They circled before simultaneously breathing jets of fire at one another.
The fire did nothing to either dragon, but it wreaked havoc on the sparse vegetation on the mountainside. Fire raged near Leland and Catori as they took off, running as fast as they could down the loose stones of the slope. The dragons did not watch them go but instead began a wrestling match. Talons swiped at the vulnerable soft spots at the base of the neck, the eyes, and the tender underbelly.
The green one hit lightly, almost afraid to hurt the other, but the red dragon was unforgiving and swiped harder, slashing the green dragon across the shoulder. Blood shot from the small but deep wound. The green dragon roared from the pain and dodged another hit. Brian was merciless, even to his baby brother, slashing at him without restraint.
This wasn’t good. Brian had lost his mind.
The dragons’ battle carried them down the slope, toward the others.
“Catori!” Leland dove to the ground as Brian swept his tail over them. Catori dropped down as well, rolling in the rocks, scraping her arms and legs in the process. The messenger bag remained on Leland; he’d strapped it across his chest and held on to it as though his life depended on it.
He reached for Catori to help her up, keeping an eye on the battle above them. “You have to morph. There’s no other way we can escape Brian. He’s too powerful.”
They heard a screech above them as the ground shook. Bran had scored a hit on Brian, driving his head into the rocks. The two massive forms wrestled across the slope without looking their way.
Catori frowned. Leland was right. They could never outrun a dragon in human form. She could morph, but Leland couldn’t. How would they escape? An explosion sounded off to their right, and their eyes swung toward a mass of people fighting nearby.
The Paladins.
They’d advanced around the side of the small mountain, no doubt looking to surround the underground cavern and cut off any escape routes. Dragons swooped up into the sky to escape. Every now and then, one wouldn’t make it and fall to the ground, too injured to continue its flight. Dozens of them filled the sky and jetted off in all directions. Some even went north, but there was no predictable pattern to their flight.
“Leland, we have to go. The dragons are retreating. It won’t be long before the Paladins make it here. When I morph, you must ride on my back. Hold on as hard as you can, because I’m going to have to book it.”
They fell to their feet as another sonic boom shook the ground. The yelling Paladins had spotted them and were coming in masses to attack them and the two dragons wrestling behind them.
“Okay!” Leland urged her to hurry, and she let out a breath. She had never morphed fully before, not even before she’d been taken. She didn’t think now was the time to tell Leland this. She had never breathed fire or flown on dragon wings either. It was now or never. For her, it literally was fly or die.
Her skin glimmered as scales began to form. The cracking of bones and stretching ligaments made her tense and drop to her knees, screaming in agony.
“Catori!” Leland approached her, but she held her hand up as her body changed. She shook her head, and he waited, watching her achingly slow transformation into a moderately sized, bright red-orange dragon.
A moment later, panting and weary, Catori stood with her wings stretching out and her long, pointed teeth flashing in the moonlight.
“Catori? Are you okay?” Leland asked, afraid to approach her. This monstrous beast was frightening but also the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. “You’re… wow, you’re really a dragon.”
She bowed to him and moved a wing down while glancing back toward the brothers fighting not too far from where they were standing. A snort reminded him to hurry, and he carefully closed the distance between them and pulled himself onto her back. He found a gap between her long, sharp spines and sat. He held onto the spine in front of him for support; there were ridges all along it that pressed into his palms, but they did not break through his skin. Once he was straddling her, he tightened the straps of the backpack, made sure the messenger bag was still secure across his chest, and leaned forward.
“Okay, ready!”
She turned, began to run the rest of the way down the hill, and spread her wings. The span was impressive, and the roar of the wind hit Leland as she ran, flapping them roughly. Her feet floated off the ground for a few seconds before she touched down again, hard, nearly tumbling from the speed. Leland felt the force ripple through him, digging into his bones. He grunted but held on for dear life.
“Come on, Catori! You can do it!” He turned to find the red dragon pinning the green one down but eyeing them. Gaining speed once more, Catori finally managed to shoot off the ground and into the air, flapping her wings to gain altitude. They climbed and climbed, and every beat of her large, leathery wings took them farther and farther away
from the mountain.
Just as the red dragon on the ground was about to deliver a fatal blow to the dragon under him, one more blast shook the ground, and the entire mountain exploded in a spray of boulders and fire, high into the sky. The shockwave flung the red dragon off his brother. Bran managed to get a hit on Brian, knocking the red dragon down before jumping into the sky to follow them.
Brian didn’t move until the Paladins were merely feet away. Upon awakening, he shook his head to clear it, finding he had just seconds to escape. One Paladin flung a spear at the red dragon, embedding into his shoulder. He roared in pain before jumping into the air and flapping his mighty wings and disappearing behind the far side of the mountain.
Leland watched as a cloud of dust covered the group of Paladins. The explosion rained dust and debris across the desert, and they had barely escaped the blast. Bran had only been saved by his brother’s body. The well-armored back of the red dragon had taken the brunt of the explosion. Bran followed a good distance behind them, exhausted and possibly injured.
Leland watched as the last of the dragons shot upward and feathered out into all directions. A few headed their way but broke off before reaching them and disappeared in the clouds.
There was no sign of Brian. Leland wondered if he had survived or had fallen down dead on the other side of the mountain. And what about Fenwick? Was he one of those dragons disappearing into the sky?
Soon they were alone, traveling at the cloud line to hide from human and dragon alike. They flew north until Catori could not fly anymore, and she touched down in the forests somewhere in what Leland guessed was Manitoba. The landing was rough; Catori was exhausted. She could barely move after transforming back into her human form.
They held on to each other for warmth. After patrolling the sky for another hour, Bran joined them and built a small fire to help stave off the cold until morning.
When the sun rose, they ate some of the rations from the backpack Bran had given Leland and gathered wild berries. While Bran limped as he helped, he never complained about the bruises and cuts peppering his face and body.
Another few hours and they would be in Alaska, searching the islands for the northern tribe. But what would they find there? A rival tribe bent on destroying them, or the open arms of an ally?
They kept their eyes on the sky to see if they were being followed, but nothing appeared on the horizon. They hoped to find some shelter, but as the snow began to cover the ground, Catori turned up her heat for the benefit of both her companions. Bran was depleted and would need time to recover. They knew not what awaited them in the frigid northern Draconis kingdom of Valdar.
Acknowledgements
Alexia Purdy
I want to thank Michael K. Rose for all his input and help with Lucidium. I couldn’t get this story on paper without his constant support. Thank you! This also goes out to all my awesome readers again. I can’t do this without you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Every word, every story…it’s for you!
About the Alexia Purdy
Alexia is a USA Today Bestselling author who currently lives in Las Vegas and loves spending every free moment writing or hanging out with her four rambunctious kids. Writing is the ultimate getaway for her since she's always lost in her head. She is best known for her award-winning Reign of Blood series, and A Dark Faerie Tale Series.
Connect with Alexia Purdy:
Sign up for Alexia’s Newsletter HERE
Alexia Purdy’s Website
Twitter
Instagram
You-Tube
Goodreads Author page
Alexia Purdy’s Facebook Fan Page
A Dark Faerie Tale Series Facebook Fan page
Reign of Blood Series Facebook Fan Page
Click here for more books by Alexia Purdy:
The ArcKnight Chronicles:
ArcKnight
Sovereignty
Reign of Blood Series
Reign of Blood
Disarming (Reign of Blood #2)
Elijah (The Miel Chronicles):
A Reign of Blood Companion Story
Amplified (Reign of Blood #3)
A Dark Faerie Tale Series
The Withering Palace (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.1)
Evangeline (A Dark Faerie Tale #0.5)
Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)
Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)
Ever Winter (A Dark Faerie Tale #3)
The Cursed (A Dark Faerie Tale #3.5)
Ever Wrath (A Dark Faerie Tale #4)
Without Armor (A Dark Faerie Tale #4.5)
History of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #5)
Ever Dead (A Dark Faerie Tale #6)
Legends of Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #7)
Guardians (A Dark Faerie Tale #8)
Other Stories
The Fall of Sky
Papercut Doll
Wicked Grove
Poetic Collections
Whispers of Dreams
Five Fathoms
The Dark I Keep
Anthologies
Soul Games
Faery Worlds
Faery Realms
Faery Tales
Lacing Shadows
Destiny’s Dark Fantasy
Once Upon a Curse
The Shapeshifter Chronicles
Once Upon a Kiss
A Plague of Dragons
Chapter One
It was like bathing in fire, being born. Or in his case, reborn. Darion stood atop the great black plateau, his legs spread shoulder width apart, his arms held out to either side. His fists were clenched, as were his teeth.
The fire started in his chest, one that was thick with hard muscle from seventeen years of brutal living. It started as a molten glow, then spread quickly like an exploding star, and red flames crawled over his body. His clothing burned away first, leaving him naked and exposed to all those present for this ceremony. He wasn’t self-conscious, not really, for his body was lean and muscular. Besides, he was in too much pain for any of those self-image based worries.
His skin began to glow, an orangey red, hot all over, sinking deep into his flesh, burning into the fragile nerve endings until they were blunted and calloused. He leaned his head back and screamed into the blackened sky. His voice came out in a roar as the fire leapt up his throat. The heat was uncontainable and it radiated from him, reaching far out over the barren top of this rocky, broken place. The toxic aroma of sulphur filled his nose and he gagged on it, his tormented body retching against the fire that consumed him.
He tried to close his eyes, but found that he could still see everything; there was no escape. Things were melting away inside him, moving and reshaping. His bones were changing, red hot and flexible, creating new paths and building new pieces of him. He looked down at his arms and saw that his skin was changing. Beneath the flames, his pale human flesh was moving, shifting like the sea in the west. Then it began to reform, and strange, diamond shapes began to emerge from the liquid flesh, rising and locking into place. They formed fully into hardened scales with an iridescent purple sheen on their surface.
He was still boiling inside, but felt something else starting to grow within him. It was power, great power. As the pain intensified, so did that other feeling, that grandiose energy, so much that he felt like he was rising above all the others. They watched him now, as his change neared completion. Some watched in awe, others with only a knowing look on their stoic faces.
This was the Great Change, and they had each experienced it on their eighteenth birthday, the day of their true birth. He began to feel his heart beating again, only it was louder and stronger, pumping gallons of blood through him instead of pints. It was nearly finished now, all of his organs were being changed, improved. A new, searing pain lanced through his shoulders as two new appendages were birthed.
His saw the eyes of the council widen, and some clapped their approval. Looking from one side of his body to the next, Darion saw the great, bat-like
wings extend into the night and he was filled with the need to fly. He looked back to the council once more, as the fire began to cool within him. Davidyus, the elder, nodded at him, and Darion let out another long roar, this one accompanied by a jet of flame that burst from his mouth, and burned the cold night air. He crouched down on thick hind legs then sprang up, flapping his wings as he did. He rocketed into the black sky and immediately began searching for what was next on his newly renovated mind… food.
***
Jenisia heard the beast long before she saw it. She was picking moonberries ten minutes from her family's home. For every three berries she picked, one went into her mouth, bursting with a tang of tartness before smoothing out into an earthy sweetness. This was a pleasant chore that Jenisia often assigned to herself, the one time she could gorge on sweet food without feeling guilty about it. She was savoring the taste of a particularly plump berry when she heard the loud barking sound coming from the sky. Her head snapped up, then she heard the beat of loud wings, a deep concussive sound that reached not only her ears but her chest as well. She searched the sky, but the sounds seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once.
She looked through the woods toward her home in the distance. I left the lantern on in the doorway. Her heart suddenly swelled in her chest, so large that it pressed into her lungs and made it hard to breath. Another deep beat of wings and she felt a disturbance in the air above her, passing from west to east. It was right over her now and it was heading for her home. Jenisia released the woven wood basket held in one hand and took off at a dead run. I left it on, I left the lantern on… Tears formed and fell down her face, then whipped off her jawline as she ran.
A Plague of Dragons (A Dragon Anthology) Page 31