dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames

by Susan Illene

  Aidan stood. “I’m done. You may go change now.”

  “Thanks.”

  I hurried off to the nearby woods. They were thick with vegetation and mosquitoes, but I needed my privacy too much to care. Not to mention being near Aidan was causing conflicting emotions. I wanted to hate him and all of his kind, but the way he’d tended my back had been caring and gentle. A part of me wished he’d been rough so I could keep looking at him as nothing more than a necessary evil. Seeing him as a person with emotions messed with my head.

  Finding sufficient cover, I tore off my clothes. After setting them aside, I shook out the camrium pants. They looked like they’d be a little too big. As I slid them up my legs, they felt loose, but as soon as I started to lace them up they shrank to a perfect fit. I let out a startled yelp. Were these things spelled with magic? They had to be.

  The top he’d given me appeared to be too big as well. It was a little stiffer than the pants with laces on the back and buckles at the front. As soon as I put it on, it tightened to the right size—though my wounded back protested at the new pressure. It took a few moments for the pain to return to a dull ache.

  Moving about, I found the clothing didn’t restrict me at all. The one-inch wide straps for the shoulders allowed free range of motion in my arms and kept my shoulders bare enough that I could stay cool during the summer heat. I slid the boots on last. The material felt the same, but was tougher and thicker. They reached to just above my ankles.

  There was something about putting on the camrium outfit. Like I was stepping into my true role for the first time. No more trying to fight in clothes that didn’t hold up against dragons. This would work a lot better. I’d just have to throw on a t-shirt outside of training so I didn’t draw too much attention to the strange clothing.

  I stepped out of the woods and found Aidan waiting for me. He looked me up and down, his gaze analytical. I swaggered toward him, holding my sword in my hand and feeling more confident than ever.

  He nodded. “Much better.”

  “Yeah.” I glanced down. “It is.”

  “I’ve got a few more things for you,” he said. A pair of black bracers—made of thicker camrium—appeared in his hands. After I set my sword aside, he helped me slide them onto my arms and tighten them.

  “Wow, these are great.” I marveled at how they protected my wrists and forearms without reducing my mobility. No matter which way I moved my arms they didn’t get in the way.

  He produced a black leg harness next. “This goes around your waist and legs.”

  I put the belt on first, then buckled the straps around my legs. Aidan helped me attach a sword sheath he’d also brought. “You can fix other weaponry to this as well if you like, but anything that is not made of fireproof material will burn in dragon flames.”

  “You didn’t have to give me all of this,” I said, feeling a little guilty about getting him into the dragon fight yesterday. Here he was with injuries all over him, including a nasty cut on his face, and he was worried about making sure I had the gear I needed.

  He gave me a solemn look. “If it keeps you alive when I’m not there, it will be worth it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Move around and check that everything feels right,” he ordered.

  I made a circle, rotated my arms, and did a few kicks. Compared to wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and running shoes, it wasn’t too bad. Everything was light and flexible. I picked up my sword and tried moving with it, too.

  “I’m good.” I nodded.

  “Donar, hakam-ha.”

  I tensed, unsure what he’d just said. Aidan was already out of the way by the time I saw the dragon coming. I didn’t even have time to lift my sword before he leaped onto my chest, knocking me to the ground. The blade fell out of my hand and massive jaws lowered toward my throat. I grabbed them and tried to push them back, but my strength was no match for his. Teeth grazed my neck.

  “You’ve got her. Now get off,” Aidan commanded.

  I took in deep gulps of air as the dragon pulled away.

  “Don’t get cocky. The clothes won’t make you a slayer. They will only help you.” He took my hand and pulled me up.

  “I wasn’t ready,” I said, giving him an annoyed look. “What the hell did you say to him?”

  “I told him to attack you. Do you expect dragons to ask permission before they rip your throat out?” he asked, his tone disapproving.

  My hands turned into fists. “No.”

  “Donar,” he called out, backing away. “hakam-ha, mar gania.”

  I scrambled for my sword. This was going to be a long training session.

  Chapter 29

  Bailey

  “You know, there used to be support groups for this sort of thing,” Conrad said, dryly.

  I stretched my neck left and right while keeping my eyes on the road. “What sort of thing?”

  “For people with masochistic tendencies.”

  I rubbed at my ribs, which felt like I’d been stomped on by an elephant. “I don’t have masochistic tendencies.”

  “Yeah, which is why we have to keep coming up with more excuses for why you look beat up all the time.” Conrad rubbed at his recently shaven head. “People are starting to look at me like I’m the one doing it.”

  I flexed my hand on the wheel, noting how callused my palms had become. “They’re totally buying our excuse about almost getting eaten by a dragon—again. You’re just being paranoid.”

  “Right.”

  Conrad wasn’t entirely off. We’d just left after my latest training session and my body felt like it had been through a train wreck. Every other day for the past two weeks Aidan had me come out and train against Donar in his dragon form. If I’d thought the first time was tough, it had gotten steadily worse since then.

  “What are you doing?” Conrad asked.

  I’d gone into a daze. “Huh?”

  “Why are you slowing down?”

  There was a brick house up ahead with a garden in the front. For some reason, I felt an overwhelming urge to visit it and the woman standing in the yard.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, pulling into the driveway.

  “What the fuck? Do you even know this lady?”

  “Yes,” I said, shutting the truck off. The memory of her was slowly resurfacing.

  “Dammit, Bailey,” he cursed as I opened my door. “Let’s get back on the road.”

  “I can’t.” Something had fogged my mind so that I couldn’t think clearly.

  “Dammit, you are a pain in my ass.” He hopped out and joined me in my walk across the lawn.

  Verena smiled. “It’s nice of you to stop by—and with a friend.”

  The fogginess in my mind cleared and I glared at her. “Stop using that magic crap on me.”

  “For the past two weeks, I’ve waited for you to stop by for a visit, but you drove past my house every time.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “You left me no choice.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that I might not want to come here?” I could never remember the sorceress until I got close to her house. Then the memories resurfaced while I drove by only to disappear again once I got farther away. Knowing she was messing with my mind was enough to keep me from visiting her willingly. She could go to hell for all I cared.

  Her expression was serene. “I’d thought the gift I gave you might have been an incentive.”

  “Okay, timeout,” Conrad said, looking at us bewildered. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Verena lifted her brows. “What a lovely, foul-mouthed friend you have, Bailey.”

  “He grows on you.”

  Conrad’s expression hardened. “Still not getting an answer.”

  I took pity on him. “This is Verena. She’s a sorceress who likes to manipulate me, though I’ve yet to figure out why.”

  “A sorceress?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yep.”

  He turned his attention to Verena. “Can you make a rabbit pop
out of a hat?”

  “That is a parlor trick. I use real magic.”

  “For instance.” I put my hands on my hips. “She can do some kind of mind manipulation where I can’t remember her unless she wants me to and she can force me to do things. That’s how she got me to come here.”

  Verena cleared her throat. “I’ve prepared beef stew. Why don’t you two come inside and enjoy a hot meal?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said in a tight voice. Sure, I was hungry after training all afternoon, but I wasn’t falling for the hot meal trick.

  Conrad moved a step closer to me. “I’m with her on that.”

  “Has the shape-shifter told you the story of how dragons were banished from Earth long ago?” she asked.

  “Um, not really.” Aidan had told me they’d been banished, but he’d avoided explaining how or why it happened.

  “Join me for dinner and I’ll tell you the story.”

  I wavered. It had been nearly two months since the dragons arrived and I still didn’t know much about them. Finding out their past would go a long way to understanding how they worked. Maybe even help me deal with Aidan better.

  “Don’t fall for it, Bailey,” Conrad warned. “She just did the equivalent of offering candy to a kid.”

  I gave him a frustrated look. “I know, but aren’t you curious?”

  He shook his head. “Not enough to go in that house.”

  “No?” Verena looked at him and smiled.

  Conrad started walking toward her front door. I tried to grab his arm, but my feet wouldn’t move. They might as well have been cemented in place.

  “Stop it,” I ordered.

  Verena ignored me, her brows drawn in concentration. Her body shook a little as she compelled Conrad to go inside the house. Something told me trying to control the both of us was taking a toll on her. A moment later the hold on me lifted. I ran after Conrad as Verena followed behind.

  “How in the hell did I end up in here?’ he asked, looking around the sorceress’ living room.

  It didn’t fit with the modern exterior on the outside of the house. The wall closest to the front door had a massive fireplace with a small caldron hanging over the flames. The floors were untreated wood that creaked when you walked on them. A rocking chair sat in the corner and a bench with cushions sat under a window that was covered with lace curtains. There were a few small wooden tables dotted around the room as well as oil lamps to complete the rustic look.

  An open doorway led to the kitchen. It was set at the back of the house and lacked modern necessities as well. There was a large basin sink against the far wall and freestanding cupboards on either side. A tall, rectangular table took up space in the middle with several stools around it. Half a dozen crates of fruits and vegetables lined the side wall as if the sorceress had stocked up in preparation for the apocalypse.

  The whole place looked like she’d hardly let the modern world into it. A few small things gave it away such as light switches and pipes under the kitchen sink, but mostly it could have been a home from centuries ago.

  “Please,” Verena said, “Take a seat.”

  Conrad and I exchanged wary glances.

  “Well, fuck. We’re already inside and it don’t look like she wants to let us go anytime soon.” He plopped down on the bench and slouched, stretching his legs out. “We might as well hear her damn story.”

  “You’ve got the manners of a toad,” Verena said scathingly, moving toward the fireplace.

  The strong aroma of stew was coming from the caldron. I hadn’t smelled anything that good since I’d last been home visiting my parents. My mother could make a killer stew.

  “Right back at you, old lady,” Conrad replied. “I’m not the one forcing people into their houses.”

  Verena ignored him, taking one of the ceramic bowls off a nearby table and ladling stew into it. She hummed as she worked.

  I sat next to Conrad. “Don’t piss her off. She might spit in your food.”

  “Yeah, cus that’s what I’m really worried about while we’re in a witch’s house.”

  Verena’s shoulders tensed. “I’m not a witch.”

  “Can you fly on a broom?” he asked.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” She glanced over her shoulder and scoffed. “Of course I can’t.”

  He snorted. “Well, that’s one point in your favor.”

  She carried two steaming bowls across the room and set them on the small table in front of us. “The stew is hot. You might want to wait a minute for it to cool.”

  “What’s in it?” I gazed into the bowl.

  “Vegetables and beef,” Verena replied, returning to the fireplace to ladle more stew for herself.

  “Any particular poison?” Conrad asked.

  “I might add some if you keep asking ridiculous questions.” She settled into the rocking chair. “But it would be counterproductive for me to kill or harm you since I need Bailey’s cooperation.”

  I studied her as she swirled a silver spoon through her stew, attempting to cool it. “What do you want?”

  “For now? Nothing, except your ears.”

  “I knew it!” Conrad said, cupping the sides of his head with his hands. “My grandma always said I had nice ears. Not so sure about yours, though, Bailey. They’re kind of small and puckish.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Shut up. You know that wasn’t what she meant.”

  “If your friend will remain quiet for a few minutes,” Verena interjected, “I’ll tell you the story about the dragons being sent away.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s hear it.”

  She took a bite of her stew. Conrad and I watched as she chewed and swallowed. I suspected we’d both been paying attention while she’d served ours to be sure she didn’t put anything extra in the bowls. When after a minute she didn’t fall over dead, we grabbed ours.

  The only kind of meat we’d had in recent weeks was spam and beef jerky. We reserved the canned soup for kids and sick people. More and more often, I’d been eyeing the squirrels outside thinking they’d make a good meal.

  “It was almost exactly a thousand years ago when the dragons were banished. There had been a terrible war between them, humans, and sorcerers. Many lives were lost. The dragons were controlling too much territory, leaving little resources for the rest of us.” She made a tsking sound. “As you can imagine, they eat a lot.”

  “What about the shape-shifters?” I asked.

  “They were divided. Some clans worked well with humans and others did not. In the end, it didn’t matter. We couldn’t choose which ones we banished—if they had the soul of a dragon, they had to go.”

  “Now here’s where she’s going to tell us how they did it.” Conrad paused from eating his soup. “And I’m willing to bet it involved sacrifices.”

  Verena’s lips thinned. “For all that your friend lacks manners, he is smarter than he looks.”

  “I get that a lot,” Conrad said with a mouthful of food.

  I barely managed to swallow my last bite. “What kind of sacrifices were there?”

  She looked at me. “To rid ourselves of the dragons and send them to an alternate dimension, we had to sacrifice many humans and sorcerers. A thousand of them, to be exact. My own mother gave up her life for the cause.”

  Conrad’s expression turned accusing. “You just dragged them kicking and screaming up to the altar, didn’t you?”

  “I did not.” Verena scowled. “Every one of them volunteered. They were willing to give up their lives to save their families and give them a future.”

  “And this somehow created enough magic to send the dragons away?” I asked.

  She nodded. “There were five powerful sorcerers, including my grandfather, who could draw from the magic the sacrifices made. Even then, it took all their powers to do it and they fell dead afterward. It was a difficult time for all of us and a decision not made lightly.”

  “Well, damn, woman. You’re lookin’ good for being over a
thousand years old.” There was a hint of skepticism in Conrad’s voice.

  She let out a loud sigh. “Fifty of us were chosen to go into a deep slumber before the sacrifices began. Our bodies were preserved in a secret chamber until the walls between our worlds began to crumble. Some of us who’d lived during that time had to be here when the dragons returned. The remaining sorcerers left us written accounts of what happened afterward.”

  “So you would have woken up around the time the crazy weather and increased earthquakes started twenty years ago,” I mused. Over the past couple of months, I’d been piecing some things together.

  “That is correct,” Verena agreed.

  Conrad rubbed his chin. “Why haven’t I seen any magic until recently?”

  “Because we bled the world of magic to send the dragons away. What little of it was left went with them. It is why I had to be put under the sleeping spell beforehand. It was designed so that I couldn’t wake until the walls began to come down.”

  “Okay, but why did my immunity to fire not start until after the dragons arrived?” Conrad and I had been musing on that for a while.

  Verena set her empty bowl down on a side table. “For your abilities, you still had to come face to face with a dragon before they could be triggered.”

  “Ha! I knew it.” Conrad snapped his fingers.

  “Whatever.” I elbowed him. “I’m the one who suggested that might be it.”

  He gave me a triumphant look. “I was still right about it being magic that caused the dragons to show up.”

  “Fine, I’ll give you that,” I conceded, “but my dimension theory wasn’t that far off, either.”

  “If you say so.” He finished the last bite of his food.

  At least it hadn’t been poisoned. I’d only gotten through half of mine because I kept fearing the worst until it soured my appetite.

  “Anyway, we need to get going.” I stood up. “Thanks for the food and the story, but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t use your magic on us again.”

  “Promise to return within the next two weeks and I won’t. You can even keep your memories, though you can’t speak of me with anyone,” Verena replied.