Dragon Charmers: #1 Mountains of Fire

by Linda McNabb

CHAPTER TWO - RED DRAGONS

  ‘I assure you, King Aemon, that this beauty is perfectly safe. My daughter is an excellent charmer,’ the dragon farmer said proudly.

  ‘It was charmed by a girl?’ a third voice queried with more than a hint of disbelief. ‘Well, I certainly don’t want it then!’

  An elegantly dressed youth with sandy brown hair and well-tanned skin was standing next to the king, looking bored and unimpressed. Alyxa had stiffened at the comments and her hands were balled into tight fists.

  ‘Alyxa is the best, Prince Myles. There hasn’t been a dragon charmer in Shanoria like her in hundreds of years,’ Alyxa’s father insisted quietly.

  ‘Just re-charm my old dragon,’ the prince snapped and turned away from the shed. ‘I need it for a race this evening.’

  ‘My son has won all the races this summer,’ King Aemon said proudly, oblivious to the prince’s arrogant attitude. ‘He is fearless and will undoubtedly be champion for the fourth season running.’

  ‘How wonderful,’ Alyxa’s father responded enthusiastically, although his eyes showed he wasn’t really interested. ‘Perhaps we should come and watch some time.’

  He beckoned to Alyxa as he started to close the huge door. Alyxa hesitated, not daring to look over at the barrel, then reluctantly began to follow her father out.

  ‘Douse the light, Alyxa. The dragon doesn’t need light to see,’ the dragon farmer ordered quietly. ‘And hurry up — I need you out here.’

  Alyxa shot an apologetic glance at Logan as she blew out the flame and slipped out the huge door just before it slammed shut. The darkness closed in on Logan like a blanket, and he felt the hairs on his arms rise and a shiver ran down his back. It was so dark that he couldn’t even see the barrel he was hiding behind, let alone the dragon he knew was only a few paces away. He tried to stay as still as possible, hoping that the blue dragon would fall asleep again and he could quietly slip out the side door. He could still hear murmurs of voices through the walls, so he couldn’t make his exit yet. He shut his eyes against the darkness around him, imagining the approach of the shadow dragons that Zared warned him about so often. He could almost feel their breath on his neck, reaching out their bony talons to snatch hold of him. Another shiver ran down his back and he forced himself to open his eyes to prove to himself that there was nothing there.

  A faint glimmer of light made Logan wonder if his eyes were adjusting to the darkness, but a second later he realised that the light was coming from the eyes of the dragon. The dragon’s eyes glowed softly, casting a pale yellow hue on everything, making the dragon seem deep green instead of blue. The dragon was staring directly at him, and if there had been anywhere to back off to Logan would have done so, but he was wedged between the wall and the barrel.

  You fear me? A gentle whisper touched Logan’s ears, and he stared back at the dragon with a mixture of horror and shock. Nobody had ever told him that dragons could talk! He tried to reply — tried to find his voice — but only a squeak came out.

  Why would I harm you? Do you mean me harm?

  ‘No!’ Logan managed to squeeze out a hoarse reply as he shook his head furiously. The dragon took a step closer. Logan felt his mouth go dry, and the edges of his vision began to mist with a blackness that he knew would engulf him in a few seconds.

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed, dimming the light considerably as Logan raised his right arm. The dragon nudged at a long scar on Logan’s arm that had been there for as long as Logan could remember.

  There is something unusual about you. You do not seek to own or to conquer the dragons. You have been harmed by a dragon... a long time ago. Only a dragon claw could leave a scar like this.

  Logan couldn’t have answered even if he knew what the dragon wanted to hear. He couldn’t stay in the shed any longer. He stood up shakily and held onto the side of the barrel. The cold water lapped at his fingers and brought back his focus. He needed to reach the small door and get out. He gulped. Forcing himself to let go of the barrel, he looked at the door and ran for it as fast as he could. He reached it without feeling the ripping claws on his back that he imagined with each step. He threw the door open, fell into the brilliant sunshine and then slammed the door shut with his foot.

  Voices just ahead kept him on the alert, and he rolled quickly off to his left and dashed for the cover of a large tree. Shadow dragons or not, he did not want to be caught in the dragon farm by Alyxa’s father. He collapsed on the far side of the wide-trunked tree, feeling the roughness of the bark against his back. Suddenly Logan was shivering uncontrollably.

  ‘It’s not that cold under here,’ a young voice whispered, and Logan’s eyes snapped open. A younger version of Prince Myles sat looking at him curiously, and then grinned, showing a deep dimple on one cheek. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be in here either?’

  ‘Umm... no,’ Logan replied slowly. The shivering brought on by the shock of what had just happened was beginning to subside and he rubbed his arms to get rid of the goosebumps.

  ‘Father said I couldn’t come, but I followed them anyway,’ the boy said, pointing back at a cluster of dragons also sheltering under the trees broad limbs. A small blue dragon lay slumbering between the greens. ‘I’m Erik. What’s your name?’

  ‘Umm... Logan,’ Logan said, realising very quickly that this boy, who seemed about a year younger than his own thirteen years, was obviously Prince Erik — second in line for the throne, and the small blue dragon must be his.

  ‘Myles is always pushing his dragon too far, too high and too hard. That’s why the charms never last long,’ the young prince said quietly, peering around the tree at the group of people a dozen paces away. ‘Mine is four years old now and he has never broken his charm at all.’

  ‘What are they doing?’ Logan asked, trying to ignore the slumbering dragons and the shadows that he should not be sitting in. He crept up to join the young prince and saw Alyxa, her father and the two royals standing a short distance from a large blue dragon.

  ‘Myles won’t let the girl charm his dragon and she’s angry,’ Erik whispered back with a grin. ‘Nobody has ever stood up to him before.’

  ‘He has obviously not met Alyxa before, then,’ Logan commented. He could see by Alyxa’s stance that she was ready to tell the prince exactly what she thought of him. The voices of the small group drifted over on the warm breeze and Logan strained to listen.

  ‘There are no other charmers here this afternoon,’ the dragon farmer was explaining. ‘My daughter is the only one here.’

  ‘So you do it, old man,’ the prince replied coldly. Alyxa stood a little straighter, obviously only just keeping her temper in check.

  ‘I’m afraid my hands are not as steady as they once were,’ the dragon farmer said with a shake of his head. ‘I could manage a green or maybe a yellow, but a blue needs a firm, steady hand.’

  The blue dragon next to them suddenly rose up onto its two back legs and pulled against the rope that tethered it to the ground.

  ‘We must charm it now,’ Alyxa’s father insisted. ‘The charm has almost gone.’

  ‘Come on, Myles. Let the girl have a go. We can always come back and get it done again tomorrow if it doesn’t hold,’ the king suggested, looking a little tired of it all.

  ‘Very well,’ the older prince agreed reluctantly, kicking at some stones on the ground. ‘Just hurry up.’

  Alyxa immediately took a large rose-coloured gem on a leather necklace from around her neck and began to swing it in a circular motion. The sun glinted off the crystal and the blue dragon instantly stopped thrashing and hunkered down to gaze at the pretty gem.

  ‘Is that all there is to it?’ Prince Myles snorted. ‘I could do that!’

  ‘Shhh...’ Alyxa’s father said, earning himself a glare from the king, but they all turned their attention to Alyxa as she began to sing. It wasn’t a song, though; it was a string of notes so pure and sweet that every dragon in the farm raised its head to listen. Her voice seemed to resona
te through the crystal, and she sang higher and higher until she appeared to be opening her mouth but nothing was coming out.

  ‘Only dragons can hear it that high,’ Logan whispered to a confused-looking Erik, and the young prince’s eyes widened in surprise.

  A glazed look settled on the blue dragon’s eyes and Alyxa began to slow the speed of the rotating crystal until it hung motionless. The blue dragon continued to stare at the crystal until Alyxa closed her mouth and then closed her hand around the gem. The dragon’s unfocused eyes looked calm and happy, and Prince Myles stepped forward to examine his dragon.

  ‘I guess you did okay,’ he muttered grudgingly. ‘But if it doesn’t hold, I’ll be back to get it done properly.’

  ‘It’ll hold,’ Alyxa snapped, the light in her eyes flaring as wildly as the blue dragon’s eyes had done just a few minutes before.

  ‘We should be going,’ King Aemon interrupted as his son looked ready to argue the point with Alyxa.

  ‘If you would like to see the new blue again in a few weeks, he’ll be ready for sale then,’ the dragon farmer suggested tentatively.

  The prince was about to reply when a bell began to toll in the distance. It rang with short, sharp clangs which froze every person and every dragon on the spot. Everyone knew what the bell meant; red dragons had been spotted coming over the moors!

  Logan felt like the world had slowed down as he watched the dragons begin to panic. They ran around in circles, looking for somewhere to hide, but finding only trees to shelter under. He felt like running in circles as well. Usually he would head for the nearest house to hide in, but he took one look at the shed and didn’t know which was worse.

  ‘I’ve never seen a red dragon.’ The young prince peered curiously around the tree trunk and looked skyward. ‘They don’t come into the city.’

  ‘They come here,’ Logan muttered shortly as he tried to calm his racing heart.

  ‘I heard they snatch little children and fly off,’ Prince Erik said with only the barest hint of nervousness.

  ‘They used to. Now they take older children — and only boys.’ Logan could hear the screams that haunted his dreams at night. He dreamt of the time he had been swimming at the local waterhole a few moons ago with a group of boys. By the time they had heard the warning bell a huge red dragon was overhead, and only diving under the water had stopped the red dragon from seeing him. He had held his breath for as long as he could, and came up to hear the screams of the unlucky boy as he was carried off.

  ‘They’re all going to that building.’ Prince Erik pointed to the dragon farmer leading the others towards the shed which housed the new blue dragon. ‘Shouldn’t we go too?’

  ‘We’re not supposed to be here,’ Logan reminded the prince. Then he put on the bravest voice he could muster and patted the youth on the back. ‘Besides, what are the chances of the reds coming here? I don’t think they’ve ever actually come into the farm before.’

  ‘Really?’ Prince Erik said with a relieved sigh and a small smile which brought back his dimple.

  The words were barely out of Logan’s mouth before his heart dropped into his shoes; a red dot was glittering in the sky. The dot was growing larger by the second and seemed to be heading right for the farm.

  The newly charmed blue dragon, left tied to its tether, had also spotted the red dragon in the distance. It began pulling at the stake which held it, and yanked the stake free with just a few attempts. With a cry of distress, the blue dragon leapt into the sky and flew off.

  ‘Can you climb trees?’ Logan asked, dragging the prince to his feet and almost throwing him halfway up the trunk.

  ‘Why?’

  Logan pointed out across the sky at the now large red dragon. Erik’s face paled instantly and he grabbed at the trunk with suddenly shaky hands.

  Logan pushed the prince up to the first branch and then hoisted himself up. They climbed as deeply into the leaves as they could, and then sat still, listening — hoping they wouldn’t hear anything. Logan closed his eyes, but the darkness made it seem worse, and he peered through the leaves with a growing sense of dread.

  The first sign that things were getting worse was the turmoil on the ground below. The young dragonets were agitated, trying to fly off and crashing into each other, trees and the ground. The frightened cry of a dragon isn’t a pleasant sound, and with dozens of creeling dragonets Logan longed to clamp his hands over his ears. But he needed his hands to keep his balance on the slender branches that were only just holding the boys’ weight.

  A sudden silence made Logan hold his breath and a shadow overhead sent a shiver of panic down his spine. His hands were sweaty and he began to lose his grip on the smooth branches. He waited for the shadow to pass, but when it didn’t he exchanged a panicked look with the young prince.

  ‘It knows we’re here,’ Erik whispered. Logan couldn’t reply. It was his worst nightmare come true. He was stuck in the shadowy depths with a dragon hovering overhead.

  A sharp squawking cry preceded the heart-stopping snapping of branches as the red dragon dropped straight into the tree. Huge, sharp-clawed talons missed both boys by only a handspan, and they fell backwards, tumbling out of the tree as the branches shook violently.

  Logan landed heavily on his back, with the young prince landing on top of him, and he lay for a second trying to catch his breath. Erik rolled off and Logan looked up — right into the glaring yellow eyes of a red dragon.

  Which one?

  Calculating, probing eyes flicked from one boy to the other, then rested on Logan. Logan wanted to get up and run — he wanted to scream — but he just lay on his back staring at the dragon, unable to move a muscle.

  A huge talon reached down from the decimated tree and brushed across Logan’s chest, prevented from reaching him by the branches twisted around the dragon’s body. Logan finally regained the ability to move and crawled out of the reach of the huge creature. The red dragon reached out for the young prince but Logan grabbed the boy’s shirt and dragged him away. The dragon creeled loudly in frustration and tried to free itself from the tree.

  ‘We’d better run for it before the dragon gets out of the tree,’ Logan suggested, still holding onto the prince’s shirt and walking quickly backwards. ‘I think the shed is our only choice right now.’

  Searing flames licked the ground at the boys’ heels as they turned and ran. A howl of frustration filled the air and Logan dared to hope they might actually make it to the shed. He had one hand on the door — the latch within his grasp — when he was dragged backwards with a force that bent him double like a rag doll. He could feel a pressure around his stomach, and as he flew backwards through the air he noted that the talon wrapped around him was chipped and discoloured. Alyxa had once told him that dragon claws were hard and difficult to damage; so what had happened to this one?

  Another sound reached his confused mind, a loud angry yell that was definitely not from a dragon. He forced his mind to focus and saw the young prince attacking the dragon with a branch from the tree they had been hiding in a moment ago. The red dragon’s tail was still entangled in the tree and it held Logan wrapped in its front leg as it tried to free itself to fly off. Erik was hitting the huge dragon on the soft underbelly, the most sensitive part of a dragon, and it howled and let go of Logan. He tumbled to the ground, grabbed a branch and joined the prince in his attack.

  ‘Why did you come back?’ Logan asked breathlessly. ‘You could have got into the shed.’

  ‘You looked like you needed some help,’ the prince said with a dimply grin, slamming the branch into the tender red belly again.

  ‘Erik! Get in this shed now!’ the king’s voice bellowed from the doorway of the shed where he was peering around the door. The commotion had obviously been enough to get the attention of those sheltering with the young blue dragon. Alyxa had taken in the situation at a glance and was running over to help, grabbing a branch as she ran.

  The moment of distraction was badly
timed. Both boys paused and looked over, realising that they should indeed be heading for cover. Taking on a fully grown red dragon was a foolhardy thing to do, and it looked like both of them were in for far more trouble than they could have anticipated whatever they chose to do. In the instant that the boys considered their options, the red dragon finally freed its tail. It reached down, blinded by the pain of being beaten, and grabbed at the closest attacker it could reach.

  It happened in an instant. One second, both Logan and Erik were standing side by side; in the next, Erik was gone. The dragon took off vertically, in one leap, taking the young prince with it. Logan stood next to the remains of the huge tree, helplessly holding the branch and watching the red dragon fade to a dot in a matter of seconds. To the prince’s credit, he hadn’t uttered a single scream as he was taken and Logan could imagine him still beating at his captor even now.

  ‘What in the name of the White Dragon is going on?’ the dragon farmer demanded loudly as he emerged from the shed. ‘What are you doing in my farm?’

  ‘And where is my son?’ the king bellowed, looking amongst the tattered limbs of the tree. He had obviously missed the abduction, which wasn’t surprising as it had happened so fast.

  Logan couldn’t speak. He felt numb and nauseous as he looked blankly at the king.

  ‘I asked you a question boy!’ the king said, turning red and stepping closer.

  Logan raised the branch he was still holding and managed to point to the sky before his legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground. Blackness closed in.