Fire and Ash (Rise of the Dragons Trilogy Book 1)

by N. R. Hairston

  A warm hand lowered my arms from my head, and I looked up to see Reid staring intently at me. He put a hand under my chin and forced all my attention on him. “Breathe, concentrate, control it.” His voice was soft and soothing as he spoke. “Come on. You can do it. You are the one in control, not it. Breathe, concentrate, control it.”

  I let his voice guide me. I closed my eyes and focused on the fire as the radius went from ten miles to twenty. I cooled the flame, letting my senses reach out and put the images of fire in the back of my mind, away from my consciousness.

  It was a struggle to keep them there, and pressure built in my head as they kept trying to break free. “It’s, not, I can’t...”

  “You can,” Reid said firmly. “Now concentrate. You are in control, you own the flame, it does not own you.”

  This time I pushed them back with more force, telling them to stay there until I was ready to deal. They faded back, but I could still feel them there, pricking at the edges.

  I fell back on the couch, exhausted, not sure I’d ever get control of this thing.

  “Pick one and bring it to you,” Reid said, looking at me.

  My eyes popped. “You what?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not winding you up. Pick one and bring it to you.”

  I trusted him, so I’d do it. Not only because I knew if it got out of control, he could stop it, but also because, I’d never learn if I didn’t try, and not trying meant never leaving the house again, and that really wasn’t an option.

  The radius was at fifty miles now, and I closed my eyes and pushed it to sixty. The assault of flame and fire playing on my mind was brutal, and my body shook, sweat dripping, as I tried to control it. I reached out, two towns over, right at the edge of that sixty miles and saw a little boy with a lighter in his hand setting the couch he was currently occupying on fire.

  My eyes saw through the flame, and I searched out his mom, who was running water for his bath. I swallowed hard, not sure if it would work, and snatched the flame from him, putting it out, but letting the smoke linger to drift toward her nose.

  She hopped up immediately, face covered in fear as she raced to the living room and stopped the little boy, who was in the process of lighting up again.

  She took the lighter away from him and gathered up others in the house, placing them in a locked box that the little boy couldn’t reach.

  I pulled back, a satisfied smile on my face, happy that something good had come out of this whole thing.

  When I looked at Reid, he wasn’t smiling. “I said bring the fire to you.”

  “Hey, I just stopped a little boy from setting his house on fire,” I said it half playfully and half serious.

  “That’s... good, but we need to practice on you getting the flame to you.”

  So I closed my eyes again and zeroed in on a couple three miles away sitting in front of a cozy fireplace. I reached out to the fire, pricked it on the shoulder and demanded it come with me.

  My body erupted in flames, and I heard Reid’s voice beside me. “Control it! Tell it not to burn the couch, not to burn anything around you.”

  I’d done that when I’d called it to me, as it was one of the things we’d been practicing. The flames didn’t feel hot. Instead, they felt like a part of me. I just needed to find a way to understand them better, to connect with them.

  “Put them out,” Reid said.

  I huffed, seeing perfectly fine through the smoke and flame.

  “Put them out,” he repeated. “Put them out and get rid of the smoke.”

  I hated smoke, hated the way it clogged up my lungs and made it hard for me to breathe, but that wasn’t the case here. This smoke was a part of me just as much as the flame was. So, just like I’d done before with the flame from the little boy, I commanded the smoke away. It lingered for a bit, growing smaller with each passing second until it was finally gone, leaving nothing but the flame behind.

  I came to my feet, and my body rose three inches off the ground as it was engulfed in flames. I didn’t know quite what to do with them.

  Reid held out his hand, and they leaped from me to him. I stayed a few inches in the air, using my concentration and willpower to keep myself there.

  Reid struggled with the fire for a second. I think he was trying to mold it, but it kept shooting up his arm. Finally, he shaped it into a large ball, something that I’d tried before and couldn’t do.

  “I wonder...” his eyes locked with mine and he didn’t look away as he opened his mouth and swallowed the fire whole.

  “Reid!” I flew into his arms, and he wrapped a hand around my waist smiling. “I’m okay, see. No harm, no foul.” He burped, and a thick line of black smoke came out.

  I deflated a bit, then hit him playfully on the arm. “Why did you do that?” I really wanted to know. Reid liked taking risks. I knew that from years of being his friend and studying under him, but this was a bit much.

  He held me at arm’s length, so that he could better see my face. “I wanted to see what would happen.”

  “And if you would have died?” I asked incredulously.

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “Then you would have known not to do it.”

  I hit his arm again, then detangled myself completely from him. “I’m going to take a shower. Then pack a bag.”

  He raised a brow. “Why?”

  I stopped walking and turned around. “Because we are going to find the people who did this to us, or have you forgotten?”

  Chapter 10

  About an hour later, we stood in my living room, backpacks ready. We’d packed bottles of water, cans of ravioli, beef jerky, and other nonperishable food items that had been on my list when I’d sent Reid to the grocery store.

  We’d also packed two changes of clothes and three flashlights. I didn’t have any batteries in the house, and they hadn’t been on the list I’d given him, so I just hoped these held out.

  After putting in a few more miscellaneous things, it was finally time to go.

  “Ok,” Reid said, making sure the straps on my backpack were tight. “Can we focus on Brad and Melinda and have the porter take us to them?”

  I was sure it didn’t work that way. The couple had seemed confident that Kyla and the others wouldn’t be able to find them, so focusing on people was probably not something it could do.

  “From the way Brad and Melinda talked, I doubt it will work, but let’s at least try it and see what happens.”

  He slipped his hand into mine and laced our fingers together. I pulled up an image of the Handlers into my mind’s eye and focused only on finding them in the world they now resided in.

  Nothing. No clicks, no hiss, no swirling blue light.

  Bummed, I told myself that all was not lost. I’d known it wasn’t going to work, but it was still a letdown to be proven right. I felt my spirit break a little but willed myself to believe it would be alright.

  Brad and Melinda, or maybe Kyla, were the only ones who could help us, and knowing that we didn’t have a surefire way of contacting any of them was a bitter pill to swallow.

  Reid let out a quick breath, his hand still tight in mine, and I had an idea. I exhaled, closed my eyes, and brought the word ‘help’ into my mind’s eye. The swirling blue light lit up in front of us, and Reid and I shared a determined look, making the decision together to walk forward and step inside the portal.

  This time, maybe because we weren’t pulled in, or perhaps because we were better in control of ourselves and our powers, whatever the reason, we didn’t tumble like before.

  Instead, we stayed upright, though it did shift us a bit and throw us from side to side. Unlike before, when we’d been spit out onto the ground, this time we walked out of the portal into a hot summer afternoon, at least I assumed it was summer anyway.

  The fact that I didn’t know where we were, meant it was really anyone’s guess.

  I took off my coat. We’d prepared ourselves for freezing cold like the first world we’d e
ntered, so of course I was already sweating up a storm.

  I’d worn a heavy coat, with jeans and a thick sweatshirt. Also, I had on a shirt underneath. I stripped down until I just wore the T-shirt and jeans. The boots would have to stay on, because I hadn’t brought extra shoes.

  I folded my coat and sweater as small as I could make them and stuffed them into my backpack, and watched Reid do the same.

  “You otherworlders should know how to dress when you come here,” a voice said behind us.

  I whipped around and saw a guy who looked to be around twenty-nine. He had red curly hair, and his height and weight were in the average column. He put me in mind of the friendly neighbor next door.

  His eyes were purple, though, and I furrowed my brows, but then reasoned at least they weren’t black and gold.

  He gave me an amused look, but I saw nothing funny.

  “We’re looking for Brad and Melinda,” I blurted out, not knowing what else to say.

  He raised an eyebrow. He didn’t look any different than the people of my world, and I remembered the Handlers had told me that the porter would only take me places where the people were like myself, and spoke the same language. “Brad and Melinda who?” he asked.

  Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten that others wouldn’t automatically know who we were speaking about.

  “Brad and Melinda Handler. They have black hair. Or Kyla, she has black hair too.”

  He gave me a confused look, as if he couldn’t tell if I was serious or not.

  Reid put his hand in mine. It was dry and coarse, but I held it as tight as I could. “They have gold in their hair and in their eyes,” he said, remembering what I’d told him earlier about them.

  The guy immediately stiffened. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He’d been friendly a second ago, well somewhat friendly anyway, but now he looked closed off completely, as his jaw went tight with what I thought was irritation.

  Reid must have seen it too. “You don’t know them, or you don’t want to tell us where they are?”

  He looked insulted. “I don’t know them, but we have bigger things going on. I thought you’d come to help. That’s been it lately. Most people come to help.”

  I looked around at the sunny sky, heard birds chirping, took in the rows of grassy hills, then exhaled a breath of the cleanest air I’d ever breathed. “What do you need help with?” I asked.

  He looked me over, his eyes not impressed with what he saw. “Oh, you’re one of them.”

  I huffed at him, a little taken aback. “One of who?”

  “Those who think this is paradise and nothing could ever go wrong here. Well, you’re wrong. Something’s gone horribly wrong, and if you’re not here to help, then I must leave you now. Please enjoy your stay here on Vilion.”

  “Wait,” I called after him when he turned to walk away.

  He turned slowly back around, back stiff, face unreadable.

  “How about you help us, and we help you?”

  He looked us over as if thinking about it. After a couple of seconds, he relented. “My name is Edward, and you are?

  “Alisa.”

  “Reid.”

  He nodded, then gave us a look that said he already knew the answer to the question he was asking. “What world are this Brad and Melinda from?”

  Reid and I stared at each other, neither of us knowing what to say.

  Edward narrowed his eyes. “I don’t appreciate my time being wasted. I’m leaving now.”

  “Look, dude.” I stepped a little closer. “We’re not wasting your time. We just don’t know where they came from.”

  He looked at my backpack. “Did I see you take off a coat earlier?”

  “Yes,” I said, not sure what that had to do with anything.

  He raised a brow. “Did you not know the sun was shining here?”

  “How would we know that?” I asked.

  His eyes strayed to the porter in my hand, a look of sorrow on his face. “Did your parents die when you were young? Or are they really so neglectful they didn’t see you got a proper education?”

  I thought of my father neglecting my education and knew such a thing wasn’t even possible, me with the freedom to take the courses I’d wanted in school, that right there was a wonderment in itself.

  “Why would you think that?” Reid, the practical one, asked.

  Edward leaned his head to the side and looked at us as if we were naughty kids. “Even a child in school year three knows how to seek out the weather on the world they’re about to enter. Did your parents not teach you this? No other family to pick up their negligence?”

  Reid dropped his backpack and held a hand up. “Look, buddy, stop with the parent talk. They have nothing to do with this. We don’t know all the ways the porter can be used. Do you mind giving us a crash course?”

  He didn’t seem very happy about it, but he did it. “Say you want to come here to Vilion. You would concentrate on our world. Get a clear picture of the language, the people, if it’s suntime or no-suntime. Stuff like that? How do you not know this?”

  I ignored that last part and held the porter up in front of me. “So, I think of a world, and I let all the properties of that world flow through me?”

  Edward seemed pleased. “Yes. Say you want a world where you can buy applefruit for three yecks a barrel. You would point the porter, keeping sure to control it, so it doesn’t suck you in before you’re ready, then you would let the options run over you. As soon as a world passes by your consciousness that has the weather you want, speaks a language you know, and whose people you find agreeable, you click...” He took the porter from my hand and showed me a small button underneath it that I’d had no idea was there. “This, and step inside.”

  “That’s a lot to have to do.” I observed, thinking that was entirely too many steps for me to not mess it up somehow.

  “It becomes second nature. Besides, you can program it to only go to worlds where you speak the language, where it’s always sunny, and stuff like that.” I thought Brad and Melinda had said it was already set up that way, but if he knew how to add extra protection then I was all for it. Besides, depending on the world it was easy to believe the porter would be slightly different.

  He gave the porter back and bid us follow him. We were on a hill, so I along with Reid, fell in line beside him. The terrain was steep, and just a little bit rocky, making me step with care and look down every few seconds “How do I do that?”

  He let out a huff of air, took it from me, punched in another few buttons that had been hidden before he’d touched them and handed it back. “Here, I made it so that it will only take you to lands that are familiar and have a like language. I did not program the weather as that’s shortsighted and you limit yourself a lot by doing that.”

  I looked at the little silver thing in my hand. “Thanks,” I mumbled, before slipping it back into my pocket.

  I walked on one side of him, Reid on the other. “Why can’t we focus on Brad and Melinda and find them that way?”

  He stopped walking and was back to looking at us as if we were five years old. “Even most who can naturally open portals can’t do that.”

  Those who could naturally open portals? Something to file away for later. “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because it is invasive.” His voice held little patience now. “Perhaps I wanted to murder you two?” From the look on his face, I didn’t find it all that hard to believe. “If you open up a portal to get away from me, I shouldn’t be able to follow and complete my dastardly deed. Some portal openers can follow your portal hop, but not if you're far enough away from them. Besides, the trace only lingers about five seconds. That’s the only window of time they have to find you, but this gift is rare, as most portal openers can’t do that, only a select few. You can still get away from a natural though, if you’re fast enough.” From the conspiratorial grin on his face, I figured this was something he had firsthand knowledge of.

  Edward picked up hi
s steps again, and Reid and I did the same.

  “Let me see if I have this correct,” Reid said. “No one with a porter can follow your portal, no matter how close they are to you when you make it. They also can’t think of you later and get the porter to take them where you are?”

  “Correct.”

  “A natural portal opener can only figure out where you’re going if they’re beside you when you open the portal, but five seconds after that, and they won’t ever be able to find you either.”

  “Correct, but only a few naturals have that power, most can’t do it,” Edward answered again, seemingly pleased that we now better understood.

  Well, that was disappointing. “So how do we find the two people we are looking for?” I asked.

  He stopped walking again. “Why do you want these people so bad? Do you wish to fight them?”

  What a strange question, and his face said he was very interested in the answer. “No. We just want to ask them about this thing.” I held up the porter. “They’re the ones who gave it to us.”

  He looked from me to Reid then nodded. “Describe their powers and what they look like again.”

  So, I told him the whole sordid tale starting at the beginning when Melinda had first walked into my office, until now. His eyes, went from amused, to sympathetic, to horrified. “You speak of Yango.” He sounded terrified as he turned and checked our surroundings as if expecting them to pop out at any moment. “You faced down five Yango and survived?” Now he seemed almost in awe as he stared at me.

  I hurried to set him straight. “They said they couldn’t hurt me without breaking some treaty.”

  Edward nodded. “The interworld alliance they told you about is real. I’m surprised you survived your first portal hop.” He looked us over as if checking to see if we were really okay. “You said you had powers, but you did not say what they were.”

  I held up my hand and fire shot out while smoke exhaled from my nose. Reid called it to him, and once he had it, he put it in his mouth and swallowed.