by Jensine Odom
“You’ve heard that Drustana has been killed,” I address them. “I’m Shiirah Xerxia, the one who defeated her. I’ve done what none before has; I united all of dragonkind.”
“Why should we believe you?” one woman spits angrily.
“Look around you. Do you see who I’ve brought with me?” I point out. But, if you need more proof, here it is. I’m a Royal, and a Knight, but also an Esper, I let all the Acolytes hear my thoughts, and a few are surprised.
“Do none of you know the crown she wears? Surely you have heard of it,” the elder man says, but none of the Acolytes seem to know what he’s talking about.
“Were any of you raised in a clan?” I ask, but am met with the same stony silence, and a few glares of loathing. “Alright. We’ll get right to it, then.”
With a look to the other Vanguard, we step to the first seven Acolytes. I take the woman who spoke a moment ago, and she meets my gaze with hatred in her eyes. I think I know how this is going to play out.
Placing my hand to the center of her chest, she’s immediately engulfed in white flames, and a pile of ash falls where she had been, getting blown away a moment later. I look to the others, finding three of the Acolytes still standing, looks of terror on their faces, two of them openly weeping.
“They passed,” Zebulon reports the obvious.
I nod, stepping before the survivors, and the two who are crying flinch. Release them, I send to the Knights. “I’m not going to hurt you, but I hope you understand I had to make sure you weren’t going to kill me. Let’s try this again, shall we? Do any of you belong to a clan?”
“N—no,” one young woman finally speaks up, getting brave enough to glance at me. “We are all Espers, rescued from Honorbound clans.”
“See, was that so hard?” I lightly tease, giving a soft smile. “It also explains a lot. Now, I’m going to give you a crash course on what’s happened. There are no Honorless, nor Honorbound, Drustana’s dead, I’m Shiirah, and all dragonkind is truly united. If you have any more questions, speak to Bodri—”
“Shiirah,” one of the Knights calls, eyes widening at something behind me.
I turn in time to see a Dragon’s Bane arrow, flying right for me. With a sickening thud and a gasp, Drustana’s father falls to the ground, having stepped in the way to take the hit. Hoping to save his soul, I grab the shaft protruding from his chest before the magic has seeped into his being. He gasps again as the arrow turns to ash, leaving a gaping wound in its wake.
I lay a hand on his chest to heal him, but it’s too late. I may have saved his soul, but it’s beyond my reach now. Alarr could help bring it back, but he’s not here.
“I’m sorry,” I cry, resting my head on his. “I didn’t even know your name.”
“It was Lucian,” the young woman who spoke up before tells me.
“Thank you, Lucian. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. Be free, Friend.” My Purificent magic flows through me, and Lucian’s body becomes a million stars that return to the sky.
“What’s your name?” I ask the woman as I stand, meeting her soft pink eyes.
“Moira.” She ducks her head.
“Thank you, Moira.” I touch her shoulder, then look to the other two I had been talking to. “You’re not prisoners anymore. I know you were only serving Drustana to survive. She’s dead, and so are the old ways that kept us divided. We are one people, and if you want, you can join us. I’m sure you have family somewhere.”
“We have a choice?” another young man speaks up, one of the Acolytes that hasn’t been tested yet.
“Yes,” I answer, moving in front of him. “After you have been tested, you can choose what to do with your life.”
“Don’t listen to her lies,” the woman who killed Lucian screams as the Knight who caught her drags her across the clearing. “She will kill us all, just as she did our true Royal!”
I huff with impatience. “First off, Drustana was never a Royal. Two, if you’re innocent, you won’t die.”
“None of us are innocent,” the young man admits, sorrow in his heart. “We have done terrible things.”
“What did you do that was so terrible, because I’ve killed people.” The young man’s eyebrows shoot up at this. “It’s not about what you’ve done, but how you felt about doing it.” I step closer, smiling, and touch the young man’s shoulder, making him jump. “Let this one go,” I order the Knight holding him.
The young man looks relieved, and with a nod, joins Bodrick and the others.
I gesture for Zaara and Baldure to handle the other two Acolytes, then turn my attention on the last, whose Dragon’s Bane was meant for me. Unlike the other two, she doesn’t have an ounce of remorse in her heart, and stares defiantly as I make my way to her. Without preamble, I place a hand over her heart, sending her up in flames.
I breathe in the salty air as the ashes blow away; that will never get easy. As I had thought, the other two acolytes passed their tests and have chosen to join our ranks, waiting with Bodrick and the other families.
The only thing left to do is destroy the Dragon’s Bane. It only takes a moment, splitting the arrows up between the Vanguard, and when the last of the sinister ashes is carried away by the coming storm, we take off, heading back home with the rest of our people.
In The End
“MY people,” I address the whole of the clan that has gathered. “My friends.” I smile to the former Chieftains and Vanguard at my sides. “I’ve called you here to announce a few things. After some thought, and a few conversations with Alarr, I have come to the realization that the draquus are unnecessary for making Royals. It’s Source that deems them so, and as such, I have decided to raise the stations of your former Chieftains. Their actions have proven them Royal, so Royals they shall be.”
This gets me several surprised looks from the Chieftains themselves, and a wave of irritation from Sylaena. I didn’t discuss any of this with her for that reason. Perks of being the Shiirah.
“I do this to help me better rule. I know one person can’t oversee so many of you without a little help. They will help me be a better Shiirah.” Again, everyone cheers, and I wave them down. “Don’t be afraid to let them know if there’s anything I could be doing to better our lives, and don’t be afraid to speak out against me should I do anything that would do more harm than good. Only together can we grow and prosper.
“On that note, we won’t be using the term Honorless, Honorbound, or Outcast, for we are all simply dragons. We may be different, but we’re one. No one dragon will be discriminated against, like the Espers had been.
“To that end, any young Espers will be trained, making sure they don’t accidentally hurt someone. Sitrian has agreed to head a school so they can learn to control their ability, and we’ll be expanding it to include the other abilities as soon as I find instructors.”
With this, many people come forward offering to help train the next generations of dragons. Turhion’s among them, as is Amarya. Sitrian beams at the overwhelming response to her idea and takes over coordinating everyone.
“That’s all,” I call to the crowd still gathered. “You can return to what you were doing.”
At my dismissal, everyone disperses, heading back to their camps or chores. The kids all gather, including Madelaine, and begin to play, kicking around a ball in their own version of soccer while Volpe tries to steal their toy.
After defeating Drustana, we decided to keep the camp she worked so hard to make. It was too perfect to leave. The toxicity of the oilfields hadn’t reached all the way to the river, which runs right behind the camp, so there’s plenty of game to sustain us, and the wastelands will discourage any humans who want to seek us out.
I haven’t discussed it with Sylaena, for obvious reasons, but I don’t plan on hiding, as dragons have done since the beginning of our time here on Earth. I firmly believe knowledge will bring us more peace than hiding ever did, but I also know that there are those that will want to test their mettle
against a dragon, or even try to bag one as a trophy. Humans can be shit sometimes.
As if my thoughts summoned her, Sylaena appears next to me, accompanied as always by Malakai.
“We will be leaving you for a short time,” Sylaena starts, surprising me. “There are some things we left behind that we must retrieve. When we return, we will need to speak with the Vanguard.”
“Alright…” I narrow my eyes at her, but she refuses to say anymore. “How long will you be gone, roughly?”
“Expect us to be gone three weeks.”
✽✽✽
While Sylaena and Malakai were gone, the other Vanguard and I chased down any Beasts we could find, turning those we could and eliminating those we couldn’t. Thankfully, there weren’t that many.
There haven’t been any recent sightings, and now that there’s only about a week left before Sylaena and Malakai get back, I want to check on my friends I left behind at the beginning of this crazy journey. I also figured it’d be as good a place as any to start spreading our story.
Caedryn and I touch down in the field right outside Thunder Mountain Inn, which thankfully still stands. It’s even expanded a bit. Since the Santa Fe settlement was burned to ashes, the Inn must have taken up all the trade, and any refugees who weren’t there that day.
Alarr joins us a moment later, and we make our way to the Inn, taking a pit stop by the newly renovated barns. With my acute hearing, I know someone’s here, getting the hay for the morning rounds. I’m just not sure if it’s Todd. Where I can see the different colors of the dragon’s energy signatures, humans are all the same white-gold.
The crunching of wheelbarrow tires on gravel grows closer, and my heart leaps into my throat as my stomach does a couple backflips. Todd steps around the corner, head down as he counts his steps.
“Todd,” I call, my voice straining with anxiety.
Todd skitters, nearly dumping the wheelbarrow full of hay. I catch it, managing to cover the several yards between us with preternatural speed, but he doesn’t seem to notice, or just doesn’t care. His face breaks out with the widest smile I’ve ever seen, and he rushes, wrapping me in a bracing hug.
“I thought I would never see you again,” he cries into my shoulder, his strong emotions slamming into me; relief, happiness, love.
“Me, too,” I cry with him, trying hard not to crush him with my extra strength. He feels like a glass figurine in my arms.
“I’m so happy you’re alive,” he exclaims, holding me at arm’s length, then hugging me again. “You’re really warm, Xerxia,” he observes. “Are you sick?”
“Forever the medic.” I laugh. “I’m fine. I’m actually more than fine.” I can’t help a wide smile, getting excited for what I’m about to reveal, but think better of it. He has horses to feed. “When you’re done with your rounds, come find us inside. I have some exciting stories to share.”
“Okay,” he agrees, narrowing his eyes at me for a moment. “Do you still have that horse?”
“Yeah, but he won’t be needing hay or a paddock this time.”
“Trained him a bit extra, did you?” Todd asks, impressed.
“You could say that. I’ll see you inside, Todd.” I give him one last hug, then head for the Inn.
Stopping just inside the door, I listen to din of the Inn, the butterflies back in my stomach. Breakfast has been served. People speak between taking bites of whatever’s on the menu today. Carl’s telling a story, loudly, and Cookie gives one of her raucous laughs, the kitchen only amplifying the noise.
A smile touches my lips. If any place felt close to home for me, it was this Inn. I turn the corner, expecting to see the twinkling blue eyes of Steve looking up, crinkling at the corners as he smiles in greeting, but the set of dark brown eyes stops me dead in my tracks.
“Can I help you?” the new man asks, a faint Hispanic accent to his voice.
My heart sinks. “Where’s Steve?” I barely manage to ask past the lump in my throat, and Caedryn puts a comforting arm around my shoulders, just in case the answer isn’t good.
“Right here,” comes Steve’s voice from behind me, just as the front door snaps shut.
I turn on my heel to see the familiar smile peeking out of a much longer gray beard. Steve’s eyes have more sparkle than I remember, and his face is tanned from working outside. In one of his hands he holds a handful of rabbits, all neatly bled and gutted.
He hugs me with his unburdened arm. “I’ve been helping out with Todd’s garden. Pesky rabbits keep nibbling the shoots.” He holds up the dead offenders in example. “Rabbit stew for dinner. Again.”
“There’ll just be more,” the man behind the counter tells Steve, looking at the carcasses with disdain.
“Yep. And there’ll be more rabbit stew.” Steve winks at the man, laying the rabbits on the counter just to spite him. “Xerxia, this is Isaac,” Steve introduces us. “Isaac came to us as the only survivor from the Santa Fe settlement.”
“I thought everyone was killed,” I can’t hide the suspicion in my voice. This man could very easily be a spy, unaware of Drustana’s demise. He doesn’t register as a dragon in my awareness, but if he’s an Esper he could maybe mask that. Then again, there’s his accent…
“I would have died with everyone else, but I was down in the bunker beneath the inn there,” Isaac explains. “I heard the commotion above and ran to check it out, but the hatch was blocked. By the time I got enough leverage to open it, the settlement was burned to the ground, and the three dragons responsible flew off to the north.”
“Those dragons didn’t do it,” I correct him before I can stop myself.
“How do you know?” comes Carl’s voice from the nearest table. Leave it to that man to have been listening in. He’d make a great spy, if he wasn’t lazy, and almost always drunk. It’s amazing how that man even manages to be a good hunter.
I take a breath. There’s no way around it now. This is what I came here to do. “Because I killed the dragon responsible.”
“You did say you had some exciting stories,” Todd pipes up, pulling his gloves off as he joins the growing group.
“Mead for the table,” Carl yells exuberantly, and gestures to the seat beside him.
As it is, Carl doesn’t even touch his glass of mead the entire time I’m telling my story. He just watches me, enraptured, his eyes wide and glittering like that of a child’s, despite him being in his late forties. If anything, I think Carl’s more sober now than he’s been since I met him.
“If someone had told me the kid I rescued, barely able to fire a bow or fight with a sword, would actually turn out to be the Queen of dragons.” Steve smiles proudly, shaking his head. “I would have believed them. You have heart, Xerxia, and determination.” He pats my shoulder, standing to leave.
“Where are you going? I’m not done yet.” I stand now, gesturing for everyone to follow. “It’s not really real until you see. Come on.” With a giddy laugh, I lead my entourage outside, where Alarr’s now waiting for us, in his true form. “Everyone, this is Alarr.”
Pleased to meet all of you, Alarr greets, and everybody has about the same reaction my brothers did the first time they met Alarr.
Todd’s the only one who moves after a moment, walking up to the draquus with wonder in his eyes. “So, he was never a horse,” he realizes. “What did you say he was?”
I am a draquus, Alarr answers himself. You may touch me, if you wish. He lowers his head, showing respect.
Todd tentatively brushes a hand across Alarr’s cheek and neck, the same surprise I had at his warmth flashing across his face. Steve gets brave now and joins Todd, running his hand along Alarr’s shoulder and back. I wouldn’t think it, but Alarr seems to be enjoying the attention.
“You guys ready for the grand finale?” I ask after everyone’s had a chance to pet my draquus.
“What could be grander than this beast?” Carl asks, his words surprisingly not slurred.
In answer, I nod to Caedryn,
and we take three big steps back, then two apart, and shift. I spread my glittering wings wide, and in a move I just learned I could do, I puff my scales out and shake, making a deep rattling noise. Getting carried away, I roar, spewing a jet of fire into the air.
This gets the attention of everyone inside the inn, and they all come running out, including Isaac, who looks a little more shook than the others. To show I’m not a threat, I lay down, resting my head on the ground. Caedryn just shifts back, getting gasps of amazement, and the crowd flocks this way.
All I can think of, while people poke and prod Caedryn and me, is that Sylaena would abhor being inspected like this. That’s why dragons were a legend. Now they’ll be real; a legend awakened.
✽✽✽
Light barely brightens the eastern sky, deep orange just outlining the flat horizon. Crickets chirp right outside the open windows of the sunroom. One of those sneaky bastards is inside, hiding amongst the large sunflowers somewhere. A breeze rustles through their deep green leaves, filling the air with their tangy floral scent, and brushes cool against my bare skin.
I close my eyes, soaking up as much of this freedom as I can. Today Caedryn and I have to return, going back to being the Shiirah and Knight-Commander. The week went by much too fast for my liking.
Summoned by my thoughts, Caedryn appears behind me, his strong arms encompassing me, fingertips blazing paths across my hips and belly. I lean into him, letting him do as he pleases with my body.
This week has been like a honeymoon, with no demands on our time. It has just been the two of us, doing what we want.
The sun blazes over the horizon, bathing the room in golden light, its rays tingling on my skin. Caedryn’s lips brush across my shoulder, his beard tickling my neck as he kisses higher, one arm encircling my waist.
“We need to be leaving,” I protest, but it’s weak.