Herasa wore a long, flowing black robe that was cinched at the waist with a wide length of hide that was tanned and adorned with glittering beads and very small … was that baby dragon scales? Skulla’s fury grew. How dare she face him wearing such an adornment? But then that was the idea, wasn’t it? To let him know that whatever reason she had for approaching him, she wasn’t scared. Then he caught sight of the handle of her knife sticking out and imagined plunging it into her black heart.
‘Steady big guy,’ his mate crooned telepathically to him. Suddenly Skulla calmed.
The witch studied him, then finally pulled the hood from her head to reveal long grey hair. Her eyes shone black as she held his gaze without blinking. “They say you are the most powerful dragon in all the realms,” she said, looking up at him as she drew to within ten feet of where he stood. Her assessing gaze raked him from his large scaled head, and all the way down to his sharp talons, before rising to meet his eyes once again.
Though Skulla had the power to communicate within her mind, he refrained from doing so. It was an unspoken secret all dragonkind kept from other beings for their own protection.
“Can you speak?” she finally asked and then frowned, showing the first sign of uncertainty when he remained silent.
As much as he hated that they were here on his territory, he wasn’t going to find out the reason why unless he talked with them. Still, he drew on his power to search for any malicious intent, only shifting to his human form when he didn’t sense any harm meant.
At the sight of his height and build, various gasps sounded around him. Skulla ignored them. “Why have you dared intrude upon my territory?” he demanded instead, staring at the witch while he kept his eyes on all the warriors.
A slow smile lit Herasa’s lips, though it didn’t quite meet her eyes. “It was not by choice, we prefer to take care of our own problems.”
Skulla didn’t say anything, he already knew that. He waited.
Herasa gave a frustrated sigh. “We need your help. The Irod demons have opened a portal.” Skulla’s eyes narrowed on her as he thought about her words. He’d always been able to feel the shift in magic whenever any portal opened. Still, while he felt one open in Ilyium territory recently, he hadn’t thought much of it. The Ilyium often made use of the portals on their lands. Lands that dragonkind stayed off of, as the Ilyium normally stayed off his.
Although, judging by her warrior’s worried expressions, whatever the Irod demons did had to be bad. The Irod weren’t even from this galaxy and after the last time he’d run into them, they hadn’t set foot back here as far as he were aware of. “What do you want from me?” he asked.
“They have been sneaking into our city,” she said.
Skulla waited.
Herasa continued. “They’ve been stealing women and children, along with some of our young men before retreating back through the portal to Kalesai with them,” she explained with a pinched look as if it pained her to admit the Ilyium defenses weren’t strong enough to prevent such a thing happening.
Skulla took a deep breath as horror, quickly followed by dread and anger washed through him. He knew the Irod demons had once sought humans as slaves, but he and his sentinels had put a stop to them taking anyone under dragonkind protection a great many years before. Now he wondered, could the slaves they have be growing too old, dying? Were they targeting the Ilyium because they weren’t under dragonkind protection?
Just the thought of any innocent being taken, even if they were Ilyium, filled him with rage and a fierce desire to protect.
Still, dragonkind had a truce with the Ilyium, one that couldn’t be disregarded without thought. “What is it you are wanting me to do about it?” he asked.
“We’d like your help with fighting the demons and keeping them from taking any more of our people,” Herasa said.
Skulla was silent as he thought about what she asked of him. Finally, one of Herasa’s warriors, a very pale skinned male with short cropped hair, inched up beside her and looked at him. His pale silver eyes showed fear, yet he swallowed it down as he got the courage to speak.
“We have concocted a spell-bomb. Once thrown into their portal, it will suck all the power from the Irod queen and shut the gate down,” the male said, trying not to show how nervous he was as he stared at Skulla.
Skulla raised an eyebrow and though he gave a slight tremble, the other male nodded. The Irod demon queen’s power was what allowed them to open a portal to anywhere and yet prevented anyone from entering their realm. “It will take the demon queen a thousand years to gain back all her power,” he said and watched the nods of affirmation while they all awaited his answer with bated breath. “And the truce?” he finally asked, turning back to Herasa.
The Ilyium witch eyed him speculatively before nodding. “We will agree on a new truce until after this problem is taken care of.”
Skulla took a deep breath and finally nodded. While it should be a simple enough task, the earlier feeling of foreboding lay heavy upon him once more. “I will think on this and give you an answer tomorrow morning.”
Chapter Three
WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD, SKULLA shifted back into his dragon and flew home to his mate and family. Never in all his years had he wanted to ignore a summons for help. Yet there was just something about the whole scenario, and the witch, that made him want to keep himself and his family as far from it all as possible.
“You need to help them, the demons are taking their children,” Kiah said later after she returned home from healing the damaged Dimi forest. Skulla pulled her into his arms, knowing that while his mate might be fierce, she was also the most gentle-hearted soul he’d ever met.
When he first got back, he had been hesitant to tell her why the Ilyium wanted his help, knowing how she felt about young of any kind. Still, no matter what held him back, he knew it was the right thing to do.
That night he wandered from each glittering alcove to the next, gazing at each and every one of his young. Adarias and Jaxsaron had just turned one-hundred-years-old, while the rest of his young ranged in age from ninety to four. All the kids joked that Adarias and Jaxsaron were so old, yet compared to Skulla, they were all babes. He watched them each sleep and studied their faces, soaking up the sight as they cuddled together. Two of his young, one female and one male had already taken mates, so now he gazed upon them as his own as well.
***
ONE WEEK AND SEVEN frustrating battles later, Skulla surveyed the trampled ground just outside of the Ilyium’s city. Despite the wind having picked up a lot of the ash and sent it across the land, piles of the thick black soot still lay everywhere. Skulla was tired of playing this game with the Irod. In fact, he was surprised they hadn’t given up already. They had to be pretty desperate to keep on, especially considering the number of their warriors that they had lost over the week.
He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. The stench of burned flesh was overpowering, sickening. First they’d tried capturing one of the demons, hoping to get some answers that would explain why they were so desperate to steal the Ilyium’s people. Skulla had hoped that they might at least come to an understanding. But unfortunately, the demons were not willing to communicate at all, let alone negotiate.
Growing tired of this useless fight and the wasted life, Skulla was ready to finish it. It was time to get home to his family. Not seeing any other options, he knew they needed to get the portal closed once and for all. So far, they had managed to keep the demons from stealing anyone else, but they also lost track of the number of demons he and his two oldest sons had taken out. Yet the Irod kept coming.
The Ilyium had been steadfast in their help, though even their warriors were no match for the large demons. Today however, they’d be no help at all. This was the day of the Ilyium’s biggest celebration of the year. Though small in stature and young in experience, the two most powerful witches to have ever been born had just turned fourteen.
So now, Skulla and his dragons
ons were on their own. Not that it mattered. They were used to working by themselves. In fact, they preferred it. Having to accommodate the Ilyium warriors was trying. He and his two oldest offspring were so used to fighting together that they instinctively knew what the other was doing, or going to do.
“This time we close it,” he said, talking about the portal. Adarias and Jaxsaron both nodded their agreement, as did an eager Daimon. Skulla glanced at his young dragonson who had joined them today. “I know you’ve been practicing how to fight your whole life, but you do as I say,” he instructed.
“I will,” Dai said solemnly. Skulla studied his young dragonson, and though it felt like a weight had settled on his chest, he finally nodded. “Good, you remember the words to activate the spell?”
“Yes,” Dai answered, trying not to sound too eager at his part in the plan.
Skulla sighed as even more dread seeped in. He shook his head, trying to shake it away. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Each time they’d tried to close the portal before, the Irod knew they were up to something and the portal would close before they could activate and toss the bomb in.
Now, as the portal opened in a flash of blinding white light once again, the Irod emerged and the fighting began. While he fought the demons, Skulla, in half-form, was sure to keep an eye on young Daimon who stood ready to play his very important part.
Together, Skulla and his dragonsons used their superior strength and speed to fight the eight-foot-tall, red skinned, horned demons. With skill and precision, they quickly plowed their way through the horde, only for more to exit the portal and leap into the fray.
‘Get behind me, move with me as I move,’ Skulla commanded Dai when he saw his dragonson standing exposed. He swiftly stepped in front of Daimon, cutting the demon down who had darted in toward his young. Skulla used his body to shield Dai as he continued to fight the Irod.
Finally, Skulla took out the last demon near him with a single swipe of his razor-sharp claws. Then, he breathed a stream of fire over the thirty-odd corpses surrounding him and Dai. Flesh sizzled and the stench grew before they turned to ash. Skulla nodded at Dai, who had remained in his human form so he could do what was needed.
Dai swallowed hard as he hurried to the large slab of stone where they’d hidden the magic bomb. He reached into the crevasse of the rock and withdrew a small globe, swirling with colorful yet deadly magic. As Daimon quietly spoke the words that would activate the magical globe he carried, Skulla could feel his young’s already intense power. Then Dai glanced at Skulla again with a question in his eyes.
‘Do it,’ Skulla commanded telepathically. Without another word, Dai ran forward and tossed the activated spell-bomb into the portal to Kalesai. Immediately, it began to snap and sizzle as it started to close.
‘Hurry,’ Skulla instructed. ‘I don't want you anywhere near when it implodes.’
With pride shining on his face, Dai nodded and began to back away. Movement from the corner of his eye, drew Skulla’s gaze to his other sons. One of the demons Jaxsaron had been fighting took off, running away from them. With a grin on his face, Jaxsaron gave chase, leaping into the sky and fully shifting into his dragon. Not worried, Skulla knew without the slightest doubt, that his older dragonson would take care of the Irod demon.
A sudden blood-curdling scream, that was quickly silenced, drew his gaze to his other dragonson. Adarias had his own pile of bodies surrounding him, and now he made quick work of his last demon.
‘Well done,’ Skulla praised him. Together, they set the bodies on fire until Adarias’s horrified gaze shot past him to the portal.
‘No! Dai—’ Adarias screamed and his face blanched of all color.
Heart thundering as the dread he’d been feeling since they began this task threatened to consume him, Skulla spun around, ready to defend his youngest to the death.
What he saw stopped his heart for a brief moment, then tore it in two.
He didn’t even have a moment to blink, as time seemed to speed up. Yet, Skulla knew the details would be forever etched in his mind with crystal clarity, ready to shred his soul each and every time he recalled the memory.
Fear and anguish stabbed straight to his soul as an eight-foot tall, Irod demon streaked from the forest and through the now minuscule portal.
Yet, it wasn’t the escape of the demon that so completely shattered Skulla. Nor was it the two blond-haired children the demon held captive, one under each thick arm. Although in that fraction of time, he was fully aware of the repercussions. The loss of the Ilyium druids’ two most powerful children to be born in thousands of years would be utterly devastating.
No, it was not all that, but instead the sight of Daimon. His young dragonson, ever honorable and gallant, rushed after the demon in the hopes of preventing him from stealing the children.
Not a second after Dai dove through the ever-shrinking portal, it snapped closed. The ground around them shook as the gateway to Kalesai imploded. Skulla drew in a ragged breath and fought not to cry out. He blinked, numb, as he stared at the single leather boot on the ground in front of where the portal had been. There was no conceivable way that Dai could have made it to the other side.
Even on the off chance that he had, it would still be another thousand years before the demon queen would produce enough juice to open another gateway.
Adarias let out a loud soul-wrenching cry. Normally, he shifted in a swirl of golden magic, but now, red sparks flew as Adarias shifted into his human form and dropped to his knees. Tears fell from his eyes as he began to shake.
Skulla shifted as well and with a heart consumed by pain, he stumbled over to kneel in front of his eldest son. “Adarias!” Skulla grabbed his oldest dragonson by the shoulders and pulled him close even as he fought to push his own grief back for the moment.
“There has to be a way to go after him, bring him back,” Adarias finally said, pulling away to stare at the spot where the Irod portal had been.
Skulla fought to hold in his own scream and crying inside, shook his head. “We’ve talked about this, there is no way into Kalesia, especially not now after we’ve blown their portal.”
“But, I—”
“No. Adarias!” He waited for his dragonson to finally look at him. When he did, Adarias’s pain nearly took Skulla’s breath away. “Believe me, if there were, I’d be going after him right now, but there isn’t. I’m sorry. So, so, sorry, but this is not on you. You cannot blame yourself,” he said fiercely, knowing he himself was the one who was really to blame.
"But it is, I petitioned you on Dai's behalf to let him join us. I should never have done so, I should just have left it alone—"
"No, my son. He wanted to help. To prove his worth. I would have let him come regardless. It was past time he began to learn, I’d been holding him back and could no longer," he said.
Then he touched his forehead to Adarias's and stared into his son’s blue eyes. Eyes now filled with a torment Skulla hoped none of his offspring would ever experience. "Now, you need to listen to me. I hear the Ilyium, they approach fast. They will have chased the demon and children this way. I need to go break the news to the witch.” The thought left bile churning in his gut, along with an even stronger sense of impending doom.
“You need to go now. Find Jaxsaron and fly straight home. Your mother will be…well, beyond distraught. But you need to prepare her, to protect her and all your siblings in case the witch doesn’t take the news well, and I don’t imagine she will."
"Father—" Adarias protested.
Skulla cut him off. "No. I will be home as soon as I am able. Now do as I say. Go!" he commanded harshly, hating himself as he did so. But as he rose to his feet, dreading what was to come, his harshness achieved the desired result.
"Yes, father." Adarias slowly rose to his own feet. He stood for a moment with his head bowed in shame.
“Go,” Skulla repeated, his tone a little softer as he stared at his young with love. At his wor
ds, Adarias tensed up, then he lifted his eyes to Skulla’s.
Skulla nodded, letting him know he didn’t blame him. Lips pursed, Adarias turned away. A moment later, he shifted back into his dragon form.
Skulla watched Adarias take flight, just as fifty Ilyium warriors burst from the forest into the ash-covered clearing.
“What happened? Where did they go?” they asked as he went and collected Daimon’s boot.
Their faces turned white as Skulla explained.
“You need to come with us.” The male that had originally told him about the spell-bomb, stepped forward. Skulla nodded.
Chapter Four
SKULLA CLUTCHED DAI’S soft boot in his hands, and fought not to break down in front of the Ilyium warriors who led him through their city. He absently noted the decorations they had put up, flowers and lanterns hanging everywhere. Then the sound of someone keening, likely over the loss of the children that the Irod demon had snatched, drew his attention. Skulla stared, trying to locate the sound, but there were too many people milling about. Some were attempting to clean up the mess, while others just looked dazed. He knew how they felt.
The warriors led him past numerous overturned tables and chairs, careful not to step in any of the food that lay scattered over the ground. It was obvious this was where the demon had made his move. Heart breaking over all of their losses, he thought of the day Daimon was born as he continued to take in his surroundings. Though he really wasn’t seeing much other than memories of his dragonson’s life.
Skulla knew it was only a short time that the warriors had been leading him through their city, but the desire to get home to his family was so great that it seemed like it was taking forever. Finally, they led him into the square where even more tables were set up. These ones were filled to overflowing with mountains of uneaten food for their festivities. Food forgotten when the Irod had abducted two of their own. Ilyium stared at Skulla and the warriors, but no one said a word as they led him to their oldest building.
Bk 0 Dracones Primalthorn Prequel Page 2