Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1)

by B. D. Snowden

  Ladon continued, “Our people were having difficulty surviving. When a Drakos child is born, it is almost always male. Our dragon genetics favor the masculine and often override the typical genetic markers that allows a female embryo to develop. Because of this, we were forced to search the stars for compatible breeding companions. We were encouraged to father as many children as possible to ensure the continuation of our species.”

  Alexis raised one eyebrow at him. “Hence the harem of handmaidens?”

  Ladon shrugged. “It is the way of my people…at least it was.”

  Alexis winced when Ladon turned his face away from her to stare off into nothing. She hadn’t meant to remind him that something dreadful had happened here on Earth to his people and that they didn’t know how far the event stretched. She laid a hand on his arm.

  “What happened to Apep?” Alexis asked quietly.

  Ladon turned his golden-fire eyes to her. He seemed to be trying to memorize her face.

  With a heavy sigh he continued, “Rarely a dragon is so drawn to one particular female that he forsakes all others. A dragon can be rather obsessive about the things they desire—one of the reasons your mythology has stories of dragon hordes. When that obsession is a person instead of things it can be dangerous because dragons can be relentless. But occasionally an event so rare occurs that it is practically in the realm of legend.”

  Ladon paused like he was trying to decide if he should continue. Alexis stared at him with an expectant look on her face. She could be stubbornly patient when she had to. She knew her strategy had worked when Ladon groaned and wiped his face before turning back to face her.

  “A true mate…Apep had found his true mate. Not only did her feelings for him border on obsession just like his, but they both were more concerned with the other’s happiness and well-being than that obsession to be together.

  There was a revolt against Drakos authority in the area you now call Egypt. It was led by a human named Ra. He was resentful of the power we dragons were able to wield and was convinced that if he somehow destroyed that dragon that he could gain his power.”

  Alexis was transfixed by the story. She had hundreds of questions burning in her mind. How did Ra go from man to god? Why was Apep called the god of chaos? How did Tut end up making Apep’s home his tomb? It was difficult to contain everything she wanted to ask; but she sensed that Ladon would reveal more if she remained quietly attentive.

  “Ra attacked Apep’s home with an army of humans. Apep had sent all of his handmaidens away after he found Hathor.”

  “Hathor? The goddess of love?” Alexis exclaimed.

  Ladon chuckled, “You know I teased Apep relentlessly for always calling her that.”

  “It amazes me that you lived through the creation of our world’s mythology. I could write a dozen dissertations on the information I am learning here.”

  “You can’t do that, Alexis,” growled Ladon.

  Alexis crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. “I said I could not that I would. I’m not stupid, Ladon. I know that if our modern world found out about you and Ryuu that scientists would want to dissect you and see just how you work.”

  Ladon had enough sense to look chagrined. “I never said you were stupid.” Why did he always seem to get Alexis’s hackles up?

  “Just finish the story, Ladon.”

  “As I was saying, Hathor was Apep’s true mate. But she was also one of the main reasons Ra revolted against Apep. Hathor’s family had originally agreed to a betrothal between Hathor and Ra. It would have connected the two most powerful human families in the area. But then Apep saw her and all was lost. He approached the family to have her assigned as a handmaiden in his home. They actually refused, which was rare since humans at that time considered the Drakos to be gods on earth.”

  “The family went against their god?” Alexis was shocked.

  Ladon shrugged, “At that point Apep was considered the kindest of us all. He never forced any woman to be his handmaiden. Ra’s family, on the other hand, was considered brutal to cross. It would have been suicide for Hathor’s family to go against them.”

  “But Hathor ended up with Apep.”

  Ladon smiled. “Hathor was a rather forceful woman. She saw Apep when he visited her family and wanted him just as much as he wanted her. So she snuck away in the middle of the night and walked into Apep’s complex as pretty as you please. When the guards tried to stop her, she announced to them that she was Apep’s bride, not a handmaid to service him.” Ladon laughed at the memory. “I happened to be visiting and decided to scare the upstart human, so I shifted and confronted her. She bopped me on my snout and complained about my manners…. She was magnificent.”

  Alexis couldn’t stop the pang of jealousy Ladon’s admiration for a long-dead woman caused.

  “Hathor and Apep were inseparable at that point. He gave each of his handmaidens a fortune and dismissed them back to their families. He devoted his time to creating numerous works of art in her image.”

  “That explains why so much of Tut’s treasure seemed to depict a woman instead of a male pharaoh.”

  “For a while the pair lived in peaceful bliss. Hathor became pregnant and they were both overjoyed, until Hathor’s family came to get her.”

  “Why did they wait so long to try and retrieve her?”

  “Honestly, they were glad that she was happy and they had a powerful alliance with the local deity.”

  “If that is the case, it doesn’t make sense to try and take her away….” Alexis stopped and thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “Ra!”

  Ladon nodded. “Ra’s family started a war against Hathor’s because of the broken betrothal. Even with the reinforcement of Apep’s human followers, Hathor’s family was losing. As a last hope, they negotiated a truce, but it only went into effect if Ra had Hathor. Ra was known for his cruelty to those he considered to have betrayed him. Hathor carrying another’s child would have been the ultimate betrayal, and everyone knew that Ra would most likely kill her and her unborn child.”

  “That’s horrible. Her family was willing to sacrifice her to save their own necks.”

  “Which earned them Apep’s wrath. Apep was a fire dragon like me, but his flame was even hotter than mine, so it usually burned blue to match his scales in dragon form. He turned her father and brothers to ash because they knowingly would send his beloved to her death.”

  “Talk about not getting along with your in-laws,” mumbled Alexis.

  Ladon smiled, but then turned serious again, “Ra used their deaths as proof that the god Apep had gone mad. He could be very charismatic when he wanted to be. Ra whipped the humans into a frenzy and convinced them that a dream prophecy had come to him that he would be the destroyer of the gods.”

  Alexis sat back into the chair, amazed. “Wow. I am assuming that he accomplished his goal somehow considering his role in the Egyptian pantheon. How did he manage that? You gave me the impression that your physical strength, not to mention technological strength with your nanobots, would make defeating an army a piece of cake.”

  “You would be correct. But Ra only used his armies as a distraction to get to his real goal.”

  “Hathor….”

  “Yes, he kidnapped her and tried to force her to submit to him. She was heavily pregnant at this point. When she refused, he beat her until she lost the child.”

  “Oh my god….”

  “The trauma was too much for her. Apep and I arrived shortly after. Ra had fled when he knew we were coming. We found Hathor lying there in a pool of blood clutching their dead child to her breast, weeping. The trauma had been too much for her; the nanobots in her body couldn’t stem the loss of blood from her ruptured uterus. She died in Apep’s arms.”

  “How horrible.”

  “He incinerated his wife and son and spread their ashes to the wind, as is our custom.”

  “Your people are probably one of the reasons so many cultures preferr
ed funeral pyres instead of burial.”

  Ladon nodded. “Perhaps….” He continued the sad tale. “After the loss of Hathor, Apep went mad with grief. He started to destroy all the people around him. He considered all humans his enemy because of Ra’s actions. The more he rampaged, the more support Ra garnered from the surrounding people until one day Ra had created an army so large not even a Drakonian could stand against it.”

  “Where were you at this time?” Alexis asked. She knew Ladon well enough that she didn’t think he would abandon his friend.

  “I was forced to be an observer at that point. Our governing council had ordered all others on this planet to not interfere. The council was debating whether they should intervene or perhaps even destroy Apep themselves since he had become a scourge for the local population. Honestly they were relieved when Ra managed to kill Apep. After that, it was decreed that should a true mate be found, the pair was to be taken from Earth and returned to Drakos.”

  “They didn’t want a repeat of what happened to Apep.”

  Ladon gave a harsh laugh, “More like they didn’t want to lose the breeding opportunity on Earth. At that time, more Drakos were being born here than any other of our breeding colonies.”

  Alexis tapped a finger on the ancient wooden table they sat at. Something seemed off.

  “If Earth was the most successful breeding program, why did the Drakos abandon it?”

  “That is what we are trying to find out, Alexis.”

  Ladon massaged the bridge of his nose. The action brought Alexis’s attention to his face. She could see the strain around his eyes. He was obviously not sleeping well, and the stress was beginning to show. Alexis got up and started to massage his shoulders. She wasn’t sure why she did it, but a part of her couldn’t stand to see Ladon hurting so much.

  Ladon moaned in bliss. “Damn that feels good.”

  Alexis giggled. “You are easy to please, aren’t you.”

  Ladon reached up and entwined his fingers with Alexis, stopping her wonderful massage. He turned his head and stared at her intently. Alexis felt like a rabbit caught in the sights of a wolf.

  “I think anything you do would please me, Alexis.”

  Ladon’s voice was pitched low and rough. It sent a shiver straight through her lady parts and she could feel the heat of a blush rising up her face. She extracted her fingers from his.

  “Yeah…well…um, I’ve got to go do that thing that I have to do.” She fled from Ladon’s presence like a scared hare.

  Ladon smiled at her retreating backside. So, she wasn’t totally unaffected by him. That was good to know.

  16

  Alexis, Ladon and Ryuu fell into a routine over the next couple of weeks. Alexis was perfectly content to examine the numerous manuscripts housed in the dragon library. The amount of history housed there could keep her happily occupied for years. Despite her own elation at each new manuscript, she could see that the lack of information about what happened to cause them to fall into stasis was wearing on the men.

  Being an archeologist, Alexis was used to having to change the nature of her research on the fly as the dig sites yielded new items. She may not be digging in the dirt, but they were digging for information in the library’s archives. It was still possible that somewhere in the thousands of manuscripts someone recorded what happened to the dragons. However, the more they dug, the more unlikely it became that they would find that specific information.

  Alexis tried to talk to Ladon about shifting their focus. Unfortunately, he was as single minded in the search as he could be in business. It never pays to be inflexible when dealing with history.

  They were looking through a section of the library that had been stocked by humans centuries after the dragon’s stasis. Ladon had hoped that maybe some myth or legend had developed after the dragon’s disappearance to point them in a direction. Alexis tried to tell him that was a waste of time because they found no reference to their disappearance in earlier manuscripts. But as usual he wouldn’t listen. She slammed a leather-bound medieval manuscript, giving away just how frustrated she was.

  Ryuu was the only one sitting across the work table since Ladon had left in a huff after Alexis had tried to reason with him. Ryuu raised his head and frowned at Alexis.

  “Sorry,” Alexis mumbled.

  Ryuu carefully closed his own text and just watched Alexis. His intense gaze made her uncomfortable. She fidgeted under his scrutiny until she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “He just drives me crazy,” Alexis exclaimed, throwing her hands up with a huff.

  “I am assuming you are referring to Ladon.”

  Alexis crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at Ryuu. “Of course it is Ladon. No one else is on the twice forsaken rock, are they?”

  Ryuu’s lip twitched as he tried to suppress his amusement. He had never seen two people who got under each other’s skin more than Ladon and Alexis. He wondered if they succumbed to the attraction that was simmering beneath the surface whether they would keep antagonizing daily. Probably would. Ladon was a fire dragon after all, and they were notoriously abrasive and pig-headed.

  “What did he do now?” Ryuu asked.

  “He completely disregards my suggestions for this investigation,” Alexis growled. She jumped up from her chair and started pacing. The energy of her anger had to go somewhere, and it wasn’t fair to take it out on Ryuu. “Divining history from clues is my area of expertise. No offense, Ryuu, but I’m more knowledgeable about piecing together a narrative from bits and pieces than even you.”

  Ryuu inclined his head in acknowledgement. Alexis wasn’t boasting and he knew it. She had a real talent for archeological work. Ryuu might be a scholar, but until he woke up in this new century he had dealt with the knowledge of the age, not ages past.

  Alexis barreled on. “Ladon came to my job begging for me to come on this expedition because he needed my expertise. And now he just ignores me when I say something he doesn’t want to hear.”

  She uncrossed her arms and flopped back into the chair across from Ryuu. One hand began to drum a nervous rhythm on the table’s surface. Ryuu laid one of his large hands on top of her, stilling her fingers. She looked up at him, and he could see the tears shimmering in her eyes.

  “So tell me what you have been trying to tell Ladon,” Ryuu said softly. “I promise I will listen with an open mind.”

  “If we were going to find any references to the disappearance of dragons, we should have found some sort of clues by now.”

  “We have only gone through a fraction of the contents of this library,” Ryuu reminded Alexis.

  “I know, but there should have been some crumbs of information somewhere. We have pulled texts from all points in the history of this library. There should have been references in the later texts at least. It seems almost like someone erased that event from history. Especially at this library, you falling asleep and not being able to wake you…no other dragons visiting when this had been a hub of learning and travel according to you…. It makes no sense.”

  “So you think those references were purposely removed. To what end?” Ryuu asked.

  “I have no fucking clue. But this feels like a systematic erasure of a major historical event. I would stake my professional reputation on the fact that no matter how much we search this library we won’t find what he is wanting to find.” Alexis sighed and ran her hand through her halo of dark curls.

  Ryuu was thoughtful for a moment. “Okay, let’s assume that you are correct. How would you proceed? Do you give up on the answers? What?”

  Alexis leaned back in her chair and stared up at the beautifully painted ceiling. She couldn’t see all of the detail because they were working by lantern light since the nano machines that once powered the various illumination crystals that studded the area had died off long ago.

  “The best research comes in without preconceived notions.” She leaned forward and looked Ryuu in the eyes while she spoke. Ryuu’s respect w
ent up; few could look a dragon, even a friendly one, in the eye without flinching.

  Ryuu interjected, “Isn’t it human nature to form some sort of conclusion?”

  Alexis smiled, “Of course, which makes the best research nearly impossible. However, you can still be a good researcher if you keep an open mind and a flexible research path. This allows you to adjust as new information is discovered.”

  “But we know the event we are searching for happened, so how does the new information apply to us?”

  “True, and our goal is to find the ‘why’ and not the ‘what’ of that event. Finding a specific reference to the event is about as likely as me growing wings. Think of it like a maze. We know there is an exit, but we have turned into a dead end. We can spend eternity here turning in circles and getting nowhere or we can back track and take a different path.”

  Ryuu nodded. “That makes sense. I assume you have an idea of what path to take next?”

  “Of course.”

  17

  “She makes sense, Ladon.” Ryuu could barely hide his irritation with Ladon. For three days Ryuu had been trying to talk some sense into the stubborn fire dragon.

  “What good would come from us looking for other Drakonians?” Ladon barked. “We are probably the last of our kind on this backwater planet. We need to concentrate on why we fell into stasis.”

  Ryuu grabbed Ladon by the shirt and shook him. “What do you think we would be doing, baka?”

  Ladon shoved away from him, “Wasting time. Even if we find others, they wouldn’t remember what happened just like you and me. And did you call me an ‘idiot’ in Japanese?”

  “When the title fits….” Ryuu ran a hand through his dark hair and glared at his friend. “Alexis knows what she is doing.”

  “I never said she didn’t.”

  “Then why don’t you let her do her job and follow her lead.” Ryuu sighed as he sat at a nearby table. “Alexis is bloody brilliant, and I think her approach would at the minimum find more of our people if she doesn’t find out what happened in the past.”