Matra wheeled after sending another red dragon plummeting to the ground, to see Firedragor flying headlong towards Cara. Enraged, insane, now Firedragor cared nothing about himself only seeking to strike at his hated enemy. Matra flew to intercept the red dragon’s flight. As he neared, Firedragor turned his head to see Matra’s approach. He turned to face Matra, eyes blazing with madness.
“Now I will kill you, Fangdragor then I will take your little princess,” Var Firedragor sent with a spiteful snarl.
“I don’t think so,” Matra sent calmly. His shield flared brightly in the now fading light as Firedragor sent a gout of fire towards him. Matra dived then climbed high, sending his fire in answer. Firedragor’s shield glowed a ruddy red as he rushed in, talons extended. Matra’s shield flared with sparks as Firedragor’s talons swept over him. Bolts of blue-white lightning lanced out, striking the red dragon’s shield which momentarily flickered in and out. Matra wheeled and dived, air rushing over him as he sped down in chase of the red dragon. He was glad he had dropped Hedra and the maidens off earlier to give him more freedom of movement.
He turned, spiralling upwards again as Firedragor wheeled to fly towards him again. Matra sent lightening bursts at the onrushing dragon. Firedragor’s shield flared and flickered hesitantly, spluttering in and out. The red dragon ignored his defences, continuing his suicidal advance. Matra dropped his shield and hovered as Firedragor flew straight for him.
“Thy sense of fair play will be the death of thee, Fangdragor,” Firedragor scoffed. Twin fireballs arched out towards Matra but passed through space as Matra disappeared. Firedragor bellowed in rage, wheeling to find his hated enemy. Matra appeared in front of Firedragor, his shield glowing with blue energy as Firedragor flew towards him again, flinging fireballs.
Matra easily deflected the fireballs, his shield glowing to a bright intensity. The front of Matra’s shield elongated, stretching out, and coalesced into spheres of energy which separated to fly towards the maddened red dragon. The spheres hit Firedragor, shattering his faltering shield. Energy crackled wildly around the stricken dragon. Gradually, almost in slow motion, the body of the red dragon began to disintegrate until finally vaporising in an explosive release of energy.
Matra looked down to see where Emeldra, Cara, Casandra and General Sandar stood. Wearily he dived down to land on an open stretch of ground and shapeshifted. He could tell by the faces of his friends that all was not well as he strode forward to meet them.
Drawing nearer he saw that they stood over a body. King Amard stood nearby, trying to hide the tears that ran down his cheeks.
“Father died of his wounds,” Emeldra said almost emotionlessly. The body on the ground was not King Faldarin’s though, but Jason Kith’s. Matra bent over the still form of his friend. A tear ran down his cheek.
“He saved my life twice,” King Amard said, coming to stand over Matra.
“That would be like him,” Matra said. “Where is the king’s body?” Matra asked bleakly.
“They have taken the king’s body back to the ship, Matra,” Casandra said, her tone conveying all the sympathy she felt.
“That half-breed that helped the princess went with the knights who bore the king’s body to the ship,” General Sandar added solemnly.
“Doogan. They were like brothers,” Matra said as he stood looking around at the carnage. The island looked like some vast charnel house with bodies littered everywhere. Scattered fires burning all around. The smell of death and charred flesh filled the air; it was not a pleasant place to be right now, Matra thought.
Wounded and bewildered men stood or lay everywhere. Dragons too, mixed with their human allies, crouched or staggered about in a daze. Cara had put some gold dragons to healing the wounded. The assigned dragons went about healing both humans and dragons alike with equal care, for which their human allies were profoundly grateful.
It was sometime after dark when Matra heard the summons, Emeldra met him on deck. Her face, though tear-streaked and lined with weariness, showed that she too had felt the summons. Surprisingly enough, Casandra had felt it also.
The three of them set off towards the jagged mountainside on the far side of the island. It was nearing midnight as they entered a large cave mouth on the rocky mountainside. The cave ended in a large cavern with a gaping chimney on the far side. In the centre, the dragon that had turned the tide of the battle.
“The Dragon King,” Matra said in an almost reverent whisper.
“It has been a long time coming, Matra Fangdragor,” the Dragon King said in a voice that rasped with age. He regarded the three with a great deal of wisdom and responsibility.
“At last the prophecy has come to fruition, oh Maker of Change.” His head turned slightly to look Emeldra full in the face. “Grieve not overlong, Weaver of Destiny, your father rests well on the other side, and he is proud of you.” The dragon paused, sighing wearily.
“There is much still ahead of you. Know that at a greater evil than what you have faced awakens even now. All that is yet to be will be decided by you three, the fate of all dragonkind and humanity alike depends on you.” He paused, looking at all three. “It is a great responsibility I know, but I’m sure you are up to it. Therefore, put aside any petty differences you may bear one another and work together for the benefit of all, lest we fall into chaos and all is for nought,” the Dragon King’s voice echoed around the vast cavern like a harbinger of doom.
“What is this evil that awakens that you speak of, o Dragon King?” Matra asked, his tone solemn.
“When dragons were put upon this world their purpose was as protectors and guardians of the human race against that which now awakens. Over time both dragons and humans grew apart, and the role of dragons as protectors was lost in the mists of time.” He paused for what seemed an eternity. “The evil which now stirs, though not able to bring its full power to play as yet, has led through deceit and corruption to today’s unhappy events,” the Dragon King explained in an ominous tone.
Matra felt chilled by what the Dragon King said. Reluctantly he pressed his question, though he feared what the answer might be; he felt he must know. “I must ask again, who or what is this evil you speak of that I presume only dragons can counter effectively?”
“You are shrewd indeed, Fangdragor. I have much hope for you and your princess. Know that it was I who guided the predictions of you and your forebears. Down the long lonely years, I have worked alone in preparation for this day. It is a beginning.” The Dragon King paused for emphasis. “The evil you face is the Demon Lord and his minions. You must unite dragons and humans alike before the Demon Lord returns. Now I grow tired. My time here is finished. Fare you well.” The shape of the Dragon King began to waver.
“Know you, daughter-heir, that your duty lies in uniting the vast lands of Cyomatro; your burden is to wield the Sword of Justice.” With his words echoing once again around the vast cavern, the Dragon King vanished.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was some weeks later, after they returned to Castle Talmon that Emeldra sat in her chair, staring out of the window, her mood one of melancholy. The funeral of her father and Jason had been but a week since, the memory of it still fresh in her mind like it had been only yesterday. She remembered King Amard clad in black, his face tear-stained not only for the death of his cousin, but for the young knight that had saved his life.
Even Owsin’s frail wife had travelled to be at the funeral. Matra was there also, tears running unbidden down his face. Senion crying for her lost love. General Sandar, his scarred face bleak as he stood stiffly with his captain Cara had helped heal some months back and seemed like an age ago now to Emeldra.
All her friends were there and remained now. They all seemed unwilling to return to their normal lives. Even the sultry daughter-heir of Cyomatro still wandered about the castle.
Emeldra felt a stab of jealousy towards the daughter-heir. The thought brought her back to another painful problem. She had carefully
tried to distance herself from Matra, though it cut her deeply and she had to control herself from collapsing in a gale of tears in his arms every time he came close to her. Doomed as their love was, Emeldra believed Matra blithely ignorant of what would happen if they were to give into to what they both felt and wanted.
Nor could she bring herself to tell him, so she had to watch his hurt expression as she shunned him while all the time it tore at her heart. She wondered how she could be so cruel and yet she felt she must be so.
“All right, Emeldra, what’s this all about? You’ve been avoiding Matra like the plague. I know you’re still grieving for your father and Jason but this is something else, isn’t it?” Cara asked, entering the room. She took a chair beside the distraught princess and looked at her gravely.
Taken by surprise, Emeldra burst into tears, letting out all that the former Firedragor had told her in the desert. “Oh, Cara, he’s a dragon, and I’m human, how can we ever — I mean, it’s just impossible,” Emeldra said, the last of her poise and control finally breaking down. She sobbed as Cara took her into her arms.
“Foolish child, how little you know. Watch now and see the truth,” Cara stood and gestured with her hands. In a sensation similar to what she felt when she first met Cara, Emeldra felt her surroundings fade and vanish.
Darkness engulfed her, a darkness filled with stars. Grey puffy clouds floated across a night sky, and white flakes fell to a landscape already white with snow. Below her Emeldra saw a small house nestled in a forest. A solitary light shone in the window. As Emeldra watched the scene before her, the sky grew greyer, and snow fell harder. A howling wind rose, blowing the snow into deep drifts.
A single coloured spot appeared on the horizon, growing larger until she could see it was a very young dragon, not much bigger than a hatchling. Its tiny wings were caked with snow, and only touches of blue showed through the white covering on the dragon’s wings. The hatchling dragon struggled to stay aloft until whether through exhaustion or the sheer weight of snow on his wings or both, the dragon plummeted down, crashing through the trees. Emeldra’s heart went out to the tiny dragon and tears of sympathy welled up in her eyes.
“You are watching past events, Princess,” Cara explained, pausing in her viewing to let Emeldra compose herself.
Once again the scene appeared as the tiny dragon stumbled towards the house, drawn by that single light with its promise of warmth. It scratched feebly at the door for a minute or two, and then the door opened. A gaunt woman with flame-red hair stood framed in the glow within. The resemblance not lost on Emeldra.
The woman gasped in astonishment and fear at the tiny dragon whose eyes stared up at her imploringly. Then her face softened to a look of wonder and sympathy for the tiny being before her. She picked the hatchling up and carried him inside.
The scene changed to the inside of the house a small, sickly boy sat by a blazing fire, and he looked around as the woman brought the half-frozen hatchling in and sat him by the fire. The boy’s eyes filled with a kind of strange joy.
As time passed, the boy and the hatchling dragon became fast friends and the woman joined in their happiness, though there was a sad look in her eyes as she watched them play together. The scene skipped, and Emeldra watched intently as the woman stood outside on what looked like a bright spring day. The snow had melted, and the trees were starting to bud. As she watched, a gold dragon appeared before the woman, then the young dragon appeared with the boy who looked even sicklier than he had before. Something seemed to pass between the gold dragon and the woman. The dragon nodded its head sagely at the red-haired woman then turned and lifted up into a clear blue sky.
The scene changed again to the inside of the house. It looked like late summer outside as Emeldra continued to watch, and then she saw the boy lying on a cot. Her heart gave a wrench as she saw how pallid the boy looked. The woman stood over the boy, close to tears, and the young dragon hovered between the two, his round eyes pleading. Intelligence had grown in the young dragon’s eyes, though he seemed not to understand what was happening fully.
Then he seemed to grasp something, and he went to the boy. Emeldra could sense that the young dragon’s sole purpose was to help the dying boy who had become his friend. As she watched, the young dragon focused all his will and strength into trying to make the boy well again. But it seemed not to be enough.
The young dragon became more intent and desperate, committed beyond reprieve. He poured all his friendship and love for the boy and all that he was his very being in the frantic effort to make the boy well. The young dragon glowed with an incandescent light that filled the whole room with its brilliance. Energy seemed to flow from the dragon to the boy. When the light faded the boy sat up. His face shone with joy and wonder, but the young dragon was nowhere to be seen.
The scene vanished, and Emeldra found herself facing Cara, tears running down her already wet cheeks. She blinked her tears away as Cara smiled at her.
“Dry your eyes, child, before you go to him,” Cara said, her expression mysterious.
“Then it’s true? He is a man, and yet he is a dragon, as you are also both dragon and woman,” Emeldra said, hardly able to believe what she had witnessed.
“We are both. When I saw what had happened to my son, that he had become both dragon and boy, at first I was afraid. Then I was happy for my son and the young dragon. When the queen dragon returned she knew instinctively what had happened and she bespoke me if I wished to do the same.
“I willingly placed my trust in her, for her heart is great indeed. Within me dwells the dragon in spirit form, and I in the dragon. We are two in one, joined in spirit and mutual love and trust for each other,” Cara stated with a slight catch in her voice. “Now go to your love, Princess, for he is very much a man who loves you,” Cara said as the princess got to her feet and rushed from the room, her heart in her mouth. It was a while later that she caught up with Matra as he stood over the grave of his friend.
“We have both have lost someone we care for,” Emeldra said as she clasped his hand in hers. He nodded, looking a little startled by her sudden warmth towards him.
“But at least we have each other,” Matra said tentatively, a wry smile crossing his face.
“Reading my thoughts again.” She smiled back teasingly as they walked back together.
“Only a little. Can you forgive me?” he answered, his smile widening.
“Oh, Matra, I do love you,” Emeldra said as she reached up and kissed him soundly on the lips.
“And I you, Princess, since the moment we first met, although it took me long enough to realise it,” Matra answered, returning her kiss.
Around her neck, the heartstone throbbed with a soft, warm glow, and Emeldra remembered a hatchling blue dragon that had grown into the man who held her now, and she knew he had put part of that which was his spirit, his being and heart, into the stone around her neck.
On the Isle of Storms, an ancient grey-haired man stroked his beard thoughtfully as he skried the scene at Castle Talmon. He watched as the young couple walked hand in hand. He wished them all the happiness they could get. Sighing, he knew all too soon their happiness would be cut short. The new spirit that dwelt within him seemed troubled by the young couple walking hand in hand. Time, however, would mellow even a king’s prejudices.
The End – For Now!
World of The Dragon Legacy
Names, Places and Terminology
World - Althya
Ladlain - E land bound - home of princess Emeldra – Castle Talmon Centre - Fertile country consists of towns & villages some mountainous regions bordering Paen desert
Deryl - diverse seafaring nation large port in Deryl ruler - King Oswin Amard
Paen Desert desert home Paenalirs clans tribal people furthermost E
Tulata – Northern nation bordering- Iceborn furthermost north
Isle of Storms where the battle of the dragons took place NW
Cyomatro - NW consists of th
ree joined countries - west coastal large port - sail to Deryl or Tulata ruled by Empress
Amada SE governed by Adion male-dominated class system – home of the Amadon Maidens
Princess/Queen Emeldra/ Matra Fangdragor/shapeshifter/Sir Halwain Knight-Captain/Marcus Lanton – Sorcerer for castle Talmon
Jason Kith – Knight,
Jilena – Paenlir woman /Kiame – Jilena’s little girl
King Damon Faldarin
Gerta – Castle Talmon's cook
Senion Larsel - Maid to Emeldra
King Oswin Amard – Ruler Deryl
Zacharia Doogan – Master spy for Ladlain’s - half Paenlir
Cara Beldragor home Tulata Matra’s mother/shapeshifter
Eartdragor – Bronze dragon- named Soltin
Soltin/Jace Picu shapeshifter
Empress of Cyomatro - Vella Maya
Natam Raemalis – First Advisor to Empress of Cyomatro
Casandra – Daughter-heir to the throne of Cyomatro
High Commissioner Koan – Defacto leader of a warring faction of Tulata
Jemito – Native tribesman and Leader of native Tulatan’s
General Estan Sandar – Defacto leader of other faction
Vince Gan – Captain under general Sandar
Var Firedragor – Red dragon
Hedra – Amadon maiden- from Amada
Amadon Maidens fierce warrior women from Amada
Major Liskin – Magor in the Cyomatron army
Dragons:-
Most queen dragons are gold
Fangdragor – Blue most common male dragon
Firedragor – Red – few remain
Beldragor – Blue queen most common queen dragon
Eartdragor – Bronze 2nd most frequent dragon
Sheldragor - Bronze queens rare and smaller
Dragon's Heart Page 17