Core

by Teshelle Combs

  Cameron spoke up from his place at the dining table across the room. “Since it was my task to verify our facts on siren crests, I’ll explain.”

  Apparently, Karma had given him homework. She nodded for him to go on.

  "Multiple reliable blue dragon sources agree that siren crests and everyday accessories common to their kind are generally of a gaudy nature. Shiny, attractive, and alluring. But the pendants we found at Ava’s home more resemble handmade work. Crude and durable.”

  “Sounds like a dragon crest,” Cale interjected, warranting an approving nod from his younger brother.

  “There is no evidence that they were made by a dragon, but it can be deduced that they were at least made in a dragonlike fashion, for whatever reason.”

  While Cameron spoke, Karma left the living room and returned with a cup of hot cocoa for Miriam. Ava watched as Miriam sipped it, then tried to hide her grimace from her host. Of course, Karma could tell she didn’t enjoy the beverage.

  “Is it cold?” Karma asked, taking the cup back from her. “I was not paying as much attention to temperature settings as I usually do.”

  Ava studied Karma as she left once more. She realized that the blue dragon wasn’t passionate about cooking at all. Ava had thought she enjoyed dreaming up meals for the men in her family. And her cooking was delicious. But for Karma, preparing food was a science, the best tasting meal achieved through accurate flavor combinations and measurements. When Karma returned again, Miriam sipped the cocoa and smiled.

  “It’s delicious,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Ava, would you like one?” Karma asked.

  Ava shook her head. She had spent the whole day talking with Miriam and reviewing their paperwork. At last, when they were too frustrated with the piles of legal documents, Ava had presented them to Karma, who then called Cameron over. He had both the divorce and adoption papers organized, tabbed, and ready for delivery in under an hour.

  Then, Ava took the rest of the evening to explain her recent choices to her mother. When Karma called a “nest meeting,” Ava and Miriam had no idea what she talking about. Ava figured out that it meant they got to sit down together and talk about all the things that confused or worried them, and she was overwhelmed with both anxiety and relief.

  No, she didn’t want a hot cocoa. She wanted to know everything Karma did. She wanted answers.

  “Forgive me,” Miriam spoke up. “I can’t help but notice…Ava and I are the only humans here. And please, excuse me for asking this. Where are all of your other riders? You haven’t…eaten them, have you?”

  “Miriam, for God’s sake, they don’t eat people,” Ava said, rubbing her temple in frustration, wishing her mother would stop being ridiculous. “Those are just stories. No one has a princess trapped in a tower. They eat food just like we do."

  One by one, each losing interest in the talk, the three reds of the family inched closer to the fire, watching intently, as though it was a movie, as if every flicker was something new and exciting. Rory reached in and touched a tongue of the flame before he pulled his hand away and continued to stare. His expression didn’t change at all. Just a dull, blank stare. Like he was hypnotized.

  Ava jerked her thumb towards them. “Explain please,” she said to Karma.

  Karma observed the reds, her eyes soaking up their body language and sorting through the mountains of facts she’d somehow stored in her mind.

  “They have trouble focusing at times. In cases like these, a simple fire helps to prevent spontaneous wrestling matches. We can continue. They’re listening.” She turned away from them, every move she made slow and deliberate, from the way she folded her hands to the tone of her voice. “If I may address your concern, Miriam, we don’t all need riders like Cale does. I will start at the beginning, so try to keep up, both of you.”

  Ava’s muscles tensed at the insult, though she knew Karma hadn’t meant it that way, and she tried not to be offended. Cale looked up at her, resting his head against her knee in an attempt to relax her. It worked. Ava couldn’t believe he’d even noticed the change in her in the first place. It was as though he was always paying attention, always in tune.

  Karma must have noticed the change in her as well. She paused but she didn’t comment or apologize. Instead she cleared her throat. “There are five races of dragon–blue, red, green, black, and grey–all with one purpose: to protect the unprotected.

  “My youngest son and I are blue dragons–our core is made of water and our dragonblood runs blue. We protect knowledge. We don’t need riders, because we can change into our second form whenever we’d like. Most often, it serves no intellectual purpose for us to do so and the form is left alone.”

  Ava chuckled at the thought of Karma or Cameron transforming into big scary dragons, calculators and laptops in hand. Of course they thought it was useless to change forms.

  “Red dragons, like Cale, protect humans. In order for a red to change–”

  “Wait, they protect humans. We’re powerless?”

  Karma shook her head. “No. Not powerless in the least. Just…fragile. It is a very necessary duty. Humans help to maintain the balance and thus should be protected.”

  Fragile? Ava had never felt fragile in her life. But when she looked over at Miriam, she could see why dragons would think they needed protecting. “Go on.”

  Karma nodded. “In order for a red to change to its second form, it must have a human rider that can spark its core and catch its dragonblood on fire.

  “A red dragon harming a human without reason or commission is against red dragon law. And since Cameron and I are pescetarians, none of my family will be eating any of yours tonight.”

  Miriam nodded, though she didn’t seem to relax at all. She was sitting so straight in the armchair it was impossible for her to be comfortable. “So if Ava is Cale’s rider, she has to light his blood on fire so he can become a giant lizard?”

  “That’s one way of thinking of it, yes. The two of them must go to his tribe’s birthplace and find their dragonstones as a rite of passage. Then, they must earn consent from the red council. When it’s all done, they will be bonded together for life. It is a well-known procedure, though finding a rider has become a rare phenomenon.”

  “Mmmhmm….” Miriam nodded her head slowly. “So a road trip, then?”

  “Exactly. We’ve had the funds for the journey set aside since Cale was born. They can leave as soon as they’d like.”

  “Sweet,” Ava said. “Cale didn’t mention the perks. Free trip to… Where are we going?”

  “Peru.”

  “Cale?” Ava said, looking to him. But he was still gawking at the fire. She used one of the sofa cushions to smack him in the head. He snapped out of it and blinked at her. “Peru?” she asked.

  “Sorry it’s so far,” he said. “It won’t make you change your mind, will it?”

  A slow smile spread across her face. “A free trip to South America? No, it won’t make me change my mind.”

  “I bet the dance will,” Cameron said, smirking from across the room, half hidden behind his laptop.

  Ava sat up in the sofa. “Dance? What Dance? Karma you forgot to tell me about any dance.”

  Karma stared at Cameron, giving him what Ava suspected to be a sharp, scolding look, though to Ava it seemed like her features were unchanged. Blue splotches crept onto Cameron’s cheeks, though his expression was as stoic as his mother’s. Blue blood, Ava thought, it makes his blush a different color.

  “I did not forget,” Karma said. “I was simply saving that piece of information. I didn’t think it was a good time to share it.”

  “Why do you get to decide what information to keep from me? If it’s about me, I want to know.”

  “I did not mean to offend, only to inform strategically.”

  Ava’s impatience flared, replacing her curiosity, and Cale touched her shoe, resting his hand on it like he wasn’t even thinking about it. “It’s just a red dragon tradition, Av
a. It doesn’t really affect the pact,” he explained. “It’s so our herd can meet you.”

  His herd. Ava tried to recall all Karma had taught her. Every dragon had a nest, his family. Nests belonged to a herd, and herds made up tribes. Tribes were collected into one of the five races. His herd is going to meet me? That meant his entire community.

  “And we have to dance in front of them?” Ava squirmed in her seat. She was a fighter, not a dancer.

  Karma sighed, disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with a bucket of water. She threw it onto the flames and steam flooded the house. She opened the sliding door to let it out as the reds protested.

  “What was that for?” Mac asked. He sat down in Karma’s seat and pulled her onto his lap. “You ruined the show.”

  Karma seemed to relax in Mac’s embrace, though she didn’t smile or kiss his cheek. “Ava wants to know about the dance, and I won’t do the explanation justice.”

  “I forgot about the dance,” Rory said, shouting for no reason. “When is it going to be?”

  Mac grinned. “Tomorrow night. I already sent word.”

  Karma studied her husband. “That seems unreasonably soon.”

  Mac pulled her closer to him and planted a sloppy kiss on her neck. She blushed blue and pushed him away.

  “We’re excited, Karma,” Mac said. “Let us be excited.”

  She cleared her throat, still composed. “Of course. This is red dragon business. I don’t expect to empathize.”

  Mac lifted her and stood up, setting her back down in her seat like she weighed no more than ten pounds. Then he pulled Cale up to his feet. “That means you can’t see each other until tomorrow night.”

  Cale looked almost afraid with is father’s thick arm around his neck. “Wait,” he said. “Let me just talk to her for a second.” But Mac tossed him towards Rory.

  “It’s tradition, Cale. Rory will make sure you stay away for the night. Usually, both dragon riders and their dragons are the same gender. I’ll have to call in a favor to get Ava ready, since she’s a girl.”

  Rory half-dragged his brother up the stairs and shoved him into his bedroom, then locked the door behind him. He jumped onto the bed, destroying the springs in the mattress as Cale crossed his arms.

  “Mom’s right,” Cale said, shaking his head. “Why is Dad rushing the dance? I just found her and we’re chasing her away.”

  Rory shrugged, opening a water bottle and chugging it. “Like he said, he’s excited. I am too.” He sighed. “My baby brother getting his wings. And at eighteen.” He shook his head. “You’re going to be famous once people find out. There hasn’t been a pact in….”

  “A hundred years, almost.”

  It was hard for Cale to be excited when Ava wasn’t close by. It made his stomach hurt to be away from her. He leaned against Rory’s computer desk, trying to ignore the emptiness. “So, you like her?”

  “Well, she’s not what I expected. Not for you at least.”

  “What do you mean, ‘not for me'?”

  Rory stretched out on his bed. It was full sized, but he was still too big for it. His room was a lot like Cale’s, but messier, with clothes and partly-eaten sandwiches strewn across the tile. And darker. Rory wasn’t a fan of bright lights. His sensitivity was literally the only blue dragon trait he inherited.

  “You know,” Rory said, already tired of the subject. “You’ve got a lot to live up to. I guess we expected someone…better.”

  “Well, there isn’t anyone better than Ava,” Cale snapped.

  Rory held onto his temper, sat up, and turned on his gaming system. Cale sat beside him on the bed and picked up a controller. The game lit up the screen and Cale went through the motions. Each move of his thumbs resulted in the death of a fictional warfare combatant.

  “I’m not going to argue with you, Cale. I trust your instincts.” Rory paused to slaughter another video game character. “Besides, it’s dad who’s having a conniption. I know he hasn’t mentioned it to you yet–”

  “He doesn’t have to. I can tell.”

  Rory raised an eyebrow at Cale. “You can? You’re getting creepy good at that, man. You’ve been hanging out with Cameron too much.”

  “I spend about as much time with him as I do with you,” Cale replied.

  “That’s my point.”

  Cale and Rory got along more than well. They trained together, wrestled together, demolished video game avatars together. Whenever they’d eliminated sirens, it was side by side. But where Rory and Cameron were polar opposites, Cale felt like he filled in the gap.

  “Dad will warm up,” Rory said. “He doesn’t have much of a choice. You’re kind of his last shot at a reputation.”

  Cale didn’t have to look at his brother to hear the bitterness in his voice. Rory’s avatar was merciless as he channeled his anger through it, making it launch grenades at the enemy. Better than him punching the TV again. Things hadn’t been the same between Rory and Mac, not since he found out that his eldest would never be able to have red dragonlings. If Cale was disappointed in Rory’s disregard for his birthright, Mac was livid, still unable to talk about it with his eldest. And because Rory had mated outside of marriage, because he’d given up his birthright, most of their father’s expectations fell onto Cale.

  Cale put down his remote with a sigh. “I’m going to take a walk,” he said. It wasn’t a lie. Not really.

  Rory didn’t try to stop him as he left. He walked past the guest room that Ava and Miriam were sharing. He knew Ava was inside, simply because he could feel the warmth of her, even through the closed door. He headed downstairs and into the basement.

  It was dark and cold in the Anders’ basement. The lights were dimmed, the air damp. Cameron was at his computer, his fingers flitting away at the keys. He stopped as Cale entered and pulled up a chair. Then he continued working. No need for greetings. Unlike Karma, Cameron found it useless to practice frivolous etiquette unless it benefitted him in some way.

  “What are you working on?” Cale asked, leaning over Cameron’s shoulder.

  Cameron gestured to the screen, inviting Cale to take a look. He was researching monastery admission processes.

  Cale raised his eyebrows. “Is this for you?”

  He watched Cameron for his reaction. Cale was becoming more and more accustomed to speaking with his brother without using words. Cameron’s feelings were often hidden in the most subtle cues. The change in his skin color, the twitch of a facial muscle, the difference in breathing patterns. Cameron’s eyelids fluttered a fraction of a second slower, giving Cale his answer.

  Cale was about to ask Cameron why, why he would research how to get into a blue dragon monastery, but he stopped himself. It would just annoy Cameron. He hated when people asked questions they could answer themselves if they just took the time to think.

  Cameron had been accepted into the blue academy when he was only twelve years old. He stayed there for one of the five years necessary for graduation before he was dismissed in disgrace. And since the academy was Karma’s alma mater, she wouldn’t appreciate her youngest researching the academy’s greatest rival. But it didn’t quell Cameron’s interest in the monastic institutions. If anything, it fueled it.

  “Mom been on your case, huh?” Cale asked knowingly.

  Cameron sighed, just a little.

  “Yeah, I know how it feels.”

  The shift in the subject of conversation happened too quickly for someone like Rory to have kept up with. Cameron had been referencing his mother with his sigh, but Cale had diverted to mean his father, an obvious analogy for Cameron and one that didn’t need further explanation.

  Cameron sat back in his chair and looked at Cale. “Your rider hasn’t noticed. If you consider her upbringing and her relationship with her father and mother, it’s clear that she must think your relationship with our father is perfectly well.”

  “Well, it’s not like Dad and I are fighting or anything. And he’ll see soon enough. Same way mom
will come around for you.”

  Cameron didn’t disagree out loud, but Cale knew that he didn’t think Karma would ever condone him researching monasteries.

  Cale heard a door close and he stood up straight. It was Ava. Where’s she going? Cale wanted to follow her so badly it stung.

  Cameron shook his head. “Remarkable,” he said.

  He opened another document, one labeled Red Dragon and Rider, and typed up more notes. Cale sighed but couldn’t help but watch as his brother analyzed his life right in front of him.

  Outside, Ava answered her cell phone. It had been on silent, but the constant illumination of the screen was driving her crazy.

  “Hey,” she said. What she really wanted to say was, “What is your problem?”

  “Ava, finally.” T sighed into the phone. “What is going on? I drove by your house and nobody’s home. And there’s a foreclosure notice on your front door. I know it’s none of my business but–”

  “You’re right. It’s absolutely none of your business.”

  A pause. “Are you okay?”

  “This is what you’ve been calling me about?”

  T hesitated again. Ava could practically hear his frustration in the silence. “You weren’t at the gym today.”

  “I needed a day off.”

  “You never take a day off.”

  “I’m going to hang up now.”

  “Wait….” He sighed again. “Look, I know, okay. I know I irritate you. I just…someone’s got to look out for you.”

  “And you seem to think that that someone is you.”

  “I’d volunteer if you let me.”

  “Why do you insist on making me your problem?”

  When T spoke again, his voice was clouded with resignation. “You want me to leave you alone.”

  Ava felt a twinge of guilt. He wasn’t a bad guy. I just have no patience. None. “I’ll see you around, T. How’s that?”

  “I give up, Ava. Okay? That make you feel better?”

  Ava rolled her eyes. “See, this is the crap, T. This is the crap I don’t have time for.”

  “Caring about people? Being human?”

  Silence. Angry silence. Then, “I thought you gave up.”