by Toni Kerr
Tristan gulped. Now was not the time to start doubting himself. “Molajah told me fire will release the races.”
“But what kind?” The dragon’s dark body dissolved into a cascade of shadows and reassembled a few feet back. “Some fire is so hot, nothing will withstand it. And some flames will do nothing more than light a dark room. Do you even know how to call upon this fire?”
Tristan nodded, but kept his mouth shut.
“Well at least there’s that,” said the dragon, pacing back and forth. “So what will it be? Do you want answers or not?”
Tristan turned to Oskar. “Are you sure you want him freed? I really am fine with the whole trial and error thing.”
The ghost flung bits of mist in the air and formed symbols for Donovan. Tristan glanced over his shoulder with a questioning look. “Well?”
“They aren’t visible to me here. Samara was the one who made that possible.”
Tristan glared at the shadow of a dragon, who bowed dramatically. “Whiromanie, that’s me, has served for his crimes against dragons.”
Tristan narrowed his eyes and looked back to the ghost giving the message, then Andros. “Is that about right?”
They both nodded.
Tristan battled within himself. It wasn’t like the dragon had been begging for forgiveness for the last two hundred years—he’d sent the slayers after him less than a few months ago.
“Let it go, Tristan,” said Donovan. “It’s not your decision to make.”
He should break the contract and let the dragon stay tethered to the ground to suffer the consequences. “You organized a cult for the sole purpose of killing every last dragon. For centuries! Just so you could be freed. So forgive me for having a hard time rewarding you for your patience.”
The dragon said nothing.
Tristan leaned his forehead against the staff. His shoulder ached. Why was he stalling? The dragons were becoming less trustworthy, especially after what happened with the falcon, and deep in his heart, the thought sickened him.
“Is that shame?” asked the dragon, as if he’d just won a secret argument.
“Yes.” Tristan straightened himself and let his wings lift a touch. “I will keep my word and free you, but I am ashamed to consider myself a dragon. You are selfish, manipulative, cruel, and I’ll be glad to see you gone.”
The dragon stilled with a frozen scowl on his face, as did the crowd of ghosts.
“Aren’t you Mr. High and Mighty,” the dragon finally said, though the words carried no weight or power.
“Be grateful I’m here at all. Where’s your body? I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible.”
“No questions? I could be off to my homeland first chance I get.”
“I don’t respect you and couldn’t care less what you do once you’re free. I’ll find my answers somewhere else, or not.”
“But once the contract is broken, you will have no one to consult with.”
“I will consult with the humans who have earned my trust, so let’s get on with it.”
“I’m insulted.”
“I’m tired.” Tristan turned to Donovan and Landon. “Maybe we should come back another time.”
“Wait! Think of how disappointed everyone will be if you leave—we’ve been waiting for this.”
Tristan faced the dragon. “Seriously—who cares? I’m pretty sure I disappoint everyone every day anyway.”
“Release me!”
“You have no power over what I do!”
“Very mature. Is that what you’re going to tell the races when they ask what rules they should live by?”
“They’re on their own.”
“Oh, that’s brilliant!”
“What do you want me to do? Keep them locked up forever, like you?”
The dragon shuddered before settling to his belly. “My body is straight below me. Just follow the thread.”
The dragon inched backward, revealing a thin rope of mist that disappeared into the ground. Tristan followed it mentally until a shift in the molecular structure of the ground altered. He knelt down and loosened his neck and shoulders with a deep breath. Power pulsed about ten feet down, and the moment he realized it, it surged through him. He opened his eyes to warn everyone, but the entire area was filled with a dense, foggy mist.
He refocused on the crystallized body and tried to find any hint of human DNA buried in the pattern. Were you a dragon or human when you touched it?
Several long minutes passed before the dragon replied. Human.
Giving up on restoring the body, he focused on concealing the diamond in a box similar to what held the emerald, and transferred it to the ground beside him. It did help to lessen the chaos, giving him a clearer focus on the curse itself.
The process was slower than he would have expected, with such unpredictable patterns in the molecules making it hard to visualize. After what felt like hours, a dead body of organic material lay encased in the opaque glass, several feet down, where no one would ever see.
A tornado of wind lifted small slivers and shards of broken glass. Tristan wavered and felt someone’s arms wrap around him, crushing his wings, and a numbing silence followed. It didn’t matter how or who. He just needed a second to collect his thoughts and the rest of the pieces would fall where they may. “He’s nothing more than a rat with wings.”
“And no longer your problem,” replied Donovan.
31
WHIROMANIE
TWO LARGE TENTS sprawled the edge of the clearing in the Forest of Darkness. Small lanterns hung from the shiny branches every ten feet or so. Shards of glass lay scattered. Landon, Victor, and a handful of others sat around a small campfire. Donovan stood by himself at the tunneling trailhead.
Tristan’s mind fogged. It didn’t feel like he’d fallen asleep, but he couldn’t recall anyone setting up camp. Donovan glanced his way.
“The dragon must have left?”
The people around the campfire quieted to pay attention. Donovan nodded.
That’s all they needed—a rogue dragon on their hands. “How far is the nearest town?”
“I don’t think he’ll cause any trouble. Are the ghosts still here?”
Tristan glanced at the surrounding trees, sitting up from a thick blanket someone had laid on the ground for him. The ghosts were still packed shoulder to shoulder, waiting. “Yes.” They grew more excited when they finally noticed him. “Was I asleep? How long?”
“Twenty minutes, nothing to worry about.”
“Seriously,” added Victor. “They’ve waited this long, right?”
“You should drink some water and eat something before we break the diamond.”
Victor leaped from his chair and rushed to a large grill. He opened the lid and sweet smoke lofted out, filling their makeshift campsite. Tristan made his way to the fire, grateful when a small table appeared before him. “I can’t thank you enough,” he said to Victor, who was stacking two plate-sized steaks on a tray. “I’m starving.”
“Eat as much as you want, in case the energy required to do whatever you’re going to do takes more out of you.”
All thoughts of the diamond vanished the instant the steak was in his mouth, until he spotted the silver box lying where he’d left it, a good distance away.
“We didn’t want to risk touching it,” said Landon, following his gaze.
“Good. It was radiating something, so I thought if I sealed it, it wouldn’t get to me. But I think it touched me anyway.” The same, restless energy that had been such a problem earlier seemed to be surging in his veins, making it difficult to focus on anything else.
“You don’t gain anything new by touching the gems,” said a voice behind him.
Donovan sprung with his sword drawn, but there was nothing to see.
The voice circled the fire and a mostly transparent man appeared, holding his hands over the flames. He shrugged and put them behind his back.
“The council told me as much. But the
re is an energy that consumes me, so I do gain something.”
“Each race has knacks for certain things, but in the end, it all comes down to the same raw power.”
Tristan smiled, half shocked the man returned at all, and even more so by the black jeans and white T-shirt beneath a brown leather jacket. “Whiromanie?”
“At your service.” The man bowed and the modern clothing didn’t suit him at all. “How have you been keeping this power at bay?”
“The council negotiated a truce with it. But this one wasn’t exactly in on that. I think they’re just excited. Frustrated to be free, but not free.”
“They are sentient beings then?” The man looked wary. “I wouldn’t have thought of that. Perhaps I won’t be of service to you after all.”
Tristan waited as the man walked around the fire, making a show of examining Tristan’s friends. “Is there something you need from me? I figured we were done.”
“We’re hoping to see an open doorway once this contract business is done with, so ask your questions while you can.”
Tristan tensed as the waiting ghosts gathered closer around the fire.
“You were correct about one thing…most of being a dragon will come naturally. You can’t fly with too much weight, or with not enough food, or when the oxygen in the air is too thin. You will feel hot or cold in the corresponding seasons, though the fire within will keep you from freezing solid if, by chance, you fall asleep in a great tundra.”
“Why would I ever fall asleep in the tundra?”
“Why do you fall asleep so often now? The human body is not always compatible with the metabolism of a dragon.”
It made sense. Tristan glanced at Donovan, who nodded for him to pay attention.
“That and the fact that you seem to survive on crumbs alone. You call that slab of meat a meal?”
“What else is there?” Though he had to say, he craved apples at the moment.
“Cows, elk, buffalo...bear if you like. But don’t cook all the nutrition out of it.”
“You want me to eat it raw?” Tristan’s stomach growled at the thought. He pushed the plate away. “I want apples. Is that okay?”
“Let me see if I have this right.” The man turned into a dragon and glided around the fire. “Each time you touch a stone, you take in the spirit it contains. To test this theory, we could have someone volunteer to touch the same stone after you’ve touched it.”
“Why risk it?”
Whiromanie shrugged. “Dragons are curious. But the reason I tell you this is, this extra power you’re carrying around with you belongs to them. Do you understand?”
“Yes. They’re mentally free from the stone, but not fully in accordance to the contract.”
“Exactly. If I am correct, when you release each creature back into the world, you will need to give back the spirit for those you have touched. If you have not yet touched them, then the spirit should still be intact with the body.”
Hadn’t the council said as much?
“We just want to help troubleshoot anything that might go wrong before it happens, because no one will be guiding you.”
“Alright then.” Tristan relaxed. “How am I supposed to know how to find the right spirit? You say it like I should be able to tell the powers apart, yet you said it was just power. I guess I don’t understand.”
“It’s just a theory. But keep it in mind if all you have is a body and no spirit. Are you prepared?”
“I guess. As much as I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s get this done with. Anything else?”
“Yes,” Donovan said. “If you see Jacques wherever you’re all going, give him our thanks, and tell him we will do our best to carry on this mission until every last creature is freed.”
The crowd of ghosts appeared happy at the words, thrusting their hands in the air. Tristan smiled at their excitement, and tried not to think too much about what would happen to them. Obviously, they had faith that whatever it was, it was going to be good.
“I’ll miss him. Tell him that, too.”
The dragon nodded. “Get shifting.”
Tristan frowned, confused.
“Shift into a dragon and let us move forward.”
“Oh.” Tristan scowled at the ground. He knew it would take fire to release the gems, but his brain left out the shifting into a dragon part. “You were saying there was a difference in temperature?” He sat back down, stalling more than anything else. Could he shift at will? He’d never wanted to before, and didn’t exactly want to now.
“Control is in the thoughts. You might want to incinerate something, or you might want an item toasted to a golden hue. Your saliva heals wounds. Your scales will camouflage at will, and I suggest you hide those wings before people call you a demon child, or bat boy. Your belly will rarely be sated. You are seen as wise and powerful by the magical creatures, and they have always respected the dragons. They aren’t all friendly toward each other, so you might want to keep their territories separate and their existence to yourself until after you understand their politics. On the other hand, no one knows how much history will remain in their memories.”
“I can hide my wings?”
“Of course. I am told you have done so before—hide yourself, that is.”
Tristan glanced at Donovan, who nodded. They’d already talked about developing this talent, he’d just have to learn how to be very specific with it. “Surely all the dragons in the history of the world equal more than what’s here now…are you sure the records are accurate?”
The dragon consulted with Andros, then turned to face Tristan. “We cannot be sure. Even in the spirit world, the eldest of us can get lost in hibernation. They will have no warning of this shift, once the contract is broken, but hopefully they, we, will all be pulled through.”
“What about dragons who are still alive? Could some be hibernating for the last hundred years?”
He studied Andros again, then shook his head. “You’ve been given all the records for those we know about.”
“If I was to search, where would I look?”
The dragon looked rather sad. “I don’t know exactly. We’re found on every continent in every climate. There are ice dragons, water dragons, fire dragons….”
“What am I?”
“A fire dragon, obviously. You can handle the cold temperatures, you need more oxygen than most, you don’t do well in high altitudes, and you prefer humid climates, but not too humid. You don’t particularly care for swimming, but water is not a life threatening element.”
“Thank you so much. It means a lot that you came back.”
“I have been a dishonor to my kind, and there is nothing I can do to make up for that. But I do not wish to leave you thinking all dragons are as despicable as myself. We are an honorable species, and we hope you will carry on in good faith.”
“I’ll do what I can, and I’m so sorry it’s come down to me.” Whiromanie probably killed off the best choices years ago.
“You’ve already made them proud,” the dragon said. “We haven’t had a shifter among us in over two hundred years. And the fact that you can bring this contract business to a close is something we never thought we’d see. I speak for everyone here.”
Tristan looked at the surrounding ghosts, overwhelmed by their smiles and gestures of gratitude.
“Any more questions?”
Tristan looked at Donovan, who didn’t seem to have anything to add.
“What if I die before everyone can be freed?”
“Then only those who were freed will ever by free.”
Tristan nodded. That was obvious. “What if I don’t know where someone’s native land is? What if it’s full of people?” Tristan clenched his hair in his fist—he was running out of questions, and they already had plans for these kinds of scenarios.
“I suggest they learn to adapt and hide as well as possible.”
Tristan nodded again. Whatever happened would happen. Everyone—human
s, creatures, and dragons—they would be forced to adapt no matter what. And he would keep the peace as much as possible, even if the entire dragon species died with him.
“Well,” Whiromanie clapped his hands once, “let’s get on with it. We’re anxious and more than ready.”
“Now? In front of everyone?” He’d have to do this sooner or later, but now that it was time….
“Why do you shy away from shifting? You’ve done it twice now, successfully. Do you still fear never returning to your human form?”
“Yes. That, and, I don’t seem to remember who anyone is when I’m a dragon. People are usually trying to kill me, and that’s all I can focus on. To run from everything. Even if they’re trying to help me.” Hopefully he wasn’t offending the efforts being made on his behalf. “I’m so large and clumsy. If I stepped on anyone…I would never forgive myself. I mean, Landon survived, but still.”
“Hmmm. I see. We shall take care of that when you are in your dragon form.”
“Really?” Tristan asked, skeptical. “Which part?”
“All of these humans here with you now—they are your allies?”
Tristan took in the group of twenty-plus men and women. “Yes, and they intend to help the magical creatures establish safe places to live.”
“How will they manage that?”
“As secretly as possible.”
“And whose side will they be on when it comes to an all-out war?”
“Whatever side is most reasonable.” Tristan bit his lip and glanced at Donovan. “Are these trick questions?” Maybe he should be considering his answers more carefully.
“All of you are disadvantaged by the fact that you possess stolen faerie magic. All the races will see it, and they will likely never trust any of you.”
Tristan looked at the group who’d agreed to stay with him; male, female, multiple nationalities. “They are not responsible for what their ancestors have done, and they—” If the dragon was correct, this would be an issue he’d have to have an answer for. “—they want to make up for what happened by being of service now.”