Firedragon Rising

by Mary Fan

  US copyright ©2015 by Mary Fan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

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  Published in the United States by Glass House Press, LLC, 2014. GLASS HOUSE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Glass House Press, LLC.

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  ISBN 978-0-692-49708-1

  Library Of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication is on file with the publisher.

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  Cover by White Rabbit Designs and Creations

  Formatting by Inkstain Interior Book Designing

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  First Edition

  ANGER FLAMED THROUGH AURELIA’S VEINS, burning so hot that she was sure she would explode. She’d been unleashing her rage on practice targets for half an hour, but the fire still blazed in her chest.

  The Triumvirate, the Enchanter-run nation that had raised her and turned her into a deadly fighter, had tried to kill her, for no reason other than that she’d been a convenient sacrifice. And to think, up until three months ago, she’d considered them the good guys, fighting against the Lord of the Underworld—who had escaped his dark dimension almost a hundred years ago and unleashed his supernatural beasts upon the earth. He’d been defeated by the Enchanters—humans born with magic—decades before Aurelia was born, but the creatures remained long after his demise.

  For her entire life, she’d believed the Triumvirate was humanity’s guardian against those supernatural dangers. They’d erected magical barriers around the cities to keep the monsters out and sent Sentinels—a special class of Enchanters who both ran the government and fought the supernatural—and Defenders—elite non-magicals who worked for the Sentinels and helped slay the beasts—to protect people.

  But then the government had forced her into the International Challenge, a monster-fighting competition where she, along with all the other non-magical fighters, was supposed to die to prove that only those with magic could guard the people from the Underworld’s fiends. She’d defied their plans and ganked the beasts that were meant to kill her, winning the contest, but the Triumvirate had stolen her victory. They’d gone out of their way to keep the world from knowing the truth: that a girl born without magic—a Norm—had slain the monster that defeated the world’s best Enchanters.

  She’d always known that the government did corrupt things—keeping the Norms down to favor Enchanters like themselves, choking off any voices that dared disagree with them—but until the Challenge, she hadn’t realized how deep their corruption ran, or how evil they truly were.

  And recently, she’d learned something that made her fury overflow: The Gold Triumvir, the most powerful of the nation’s three rulers, had killed her mother. A friend who wasn’t supposed to say anything broke his silence to reveal the truth about her past, which was that the Gold Triumvir, Adlai Salvator, was the reason she’d spent all fourteen—almost fifteen—years of her life as the state’s ward. More like their property. She’d certainly never had any say about whether she wanted to be raised by the slime-ball-run government, who watched and controlled every second of her life.

  She strode across the brick-walled training room, her thick ponytail clinging to her sweaty neck, and a stray lock of black hair fell over her eye. Clutching her practice bow, she tried to focus on what she was doing, rather than on things that were out of her control.

  Archery wasn’t her favorite form of combat, but she was still pretty freaking good at it. And it was an important skill, especially since razorbirds—the most common monster in the Triumvirate of North America—were only vulnerable to silver-tipped arrows for Norms like her.

  Also, shooting things helped vent her anger.

  But maybe supernaturals like razorbirds weren’t the only things people needed protecting against. She approached a bin filled with practice arrows, wishing she could use her skills to fight against the government instead of for it … which was what she did each time she obeyed another order to gank a beast lurking outside the Capital’s enchanted perimeter. Beside the bin, a tall rack gleamed with scores of other weapons—swords, guns, and knives of every size. She grabbed an arrow and faced the wide area before her. Ordinarily, this space was used to train ten to twenty Cadets—students training to be Defenders—at the same time. But she was far from ordinary. She was the Firedragon, the best Cadet the Academy of Supernatural Defense had ever seen. And that came with certain privileges. Like full access to any training facility at the school whenever she wanted, as long as it wasn’t being used for classes. Her abilities had even drawn the attention of the Gold Triumvir himself.

  That rotten murderer!

  Livid, she quickly raised her bow, eyed the furthest of the many targets dangling from the ceiling, and pictured the Gold Triumvir’s face in its center. Then, remembering that she wouldn’t be standing still in a real-world fight, she took off running, lifted the bow again, slapped the arrow against the right side of it, and drew in mid-step. She released the projectile without missing a beat and watched as it hit the target straight through the center.

  If that had actually been Gold Triumvir Salvator, he’d be dead.

  She slowed to a walk, blood pounding in her ears. An arrow through the head was no less than the real Salvator deserved. He and the other two Triumvirs had trampled her people in their climb to power, dooming all Norms to lives of oppression. And because she was a Norm, Aurelia could beat any Scholar—children of Enchanters who attended the Academy along with the Cadets—at combat, and still be considered beneath her magic-wielding peers. Firedragon or not. What was more, the Triumvirate had strangled freedom by jailing anyone who said a bad word about them, so no one dared speak out against their injustices.

  She’d discovered most of this after the International Challenge, and had spent the last three months quietly seething, trying to decide what to do about it. But she’d finally snapped yesterday, when she’d learned that Salvator himself was the reason her mother was dead.

  Aurelia clenched her fists as she marched back to the bin of arrows. She’d never known who her parents were. All she’d been told was that government social workers had found her being cared for by an old woman of questionable sanity in a rural village—one without magic protections from the supernatural beasts lurking in the wild. Now, she knew how she’d ended up there. And it wasn’t what she’d thought.

  Her mother hadn’t been some vagabond who’d abandoned her. No, she’d worked in the Gold Triumvir’s household as a maid until the day she stood up to him and fought for her rights. Disobeying Salvator was as horrendous a crime as killing someone, apparently, and Salvator had ordered her arrested and executed. She’d been pregnant with Aurelia when she fled, and somehow managed to survive for months before ending up in that village. No one knew how she’d trekked through miles of monster-filled wilderness on her own, but it had taken its toll. She’d spent her last breath giving birth to Aurelia.

  A great swelling pressed against Aurelia’s heart. All she knew about her mother was that her name had been Bridget Sun, and that she’d been one tough lady. Aurelia liked to think that she’d inherited that same doggedness and determination to push on against all odds. But because of Salvator, she would never get to know her mom. Maybe he didn’t kill Bridget Sun with his own hands, but he might as well have. The government he commanded, and acting on his orders, had forced her out of the city, and the hardship had eventually killed her.

  But at least she’d escaped
execution and, in a way, died on her own terms. Hundreds—no, thousands—of others hadn’t been so lucky.

  It isn’t right that saying no to one guy can get you killed. And it isn’t right that the government can get away with lying just because the truth doesn’t fit their plans. She dunked her hand into the bin and seized three more arrows. I’ve gotta do something about it.

  She ran forward again, the arrows in her hand, and this time imagined that all three Triumvirs were floating above her as targets. She fired once at each, releasing the missiles in less than a second and, still needing to vent more of her furious energy, dashed toward the heavy bag in the corner, where she twisted and kicked her heel into the center. A resounding thud reverberated through the room. Unsatisfied, she swept her other foot in an arc, slamming the side of her shoe into the bag. After a few more kicks, she spotted one of the arrows from her previous shooting embedded in a low-hanging target. She ran toward it, leaped, and yanked the arrow out. Before she hit the ground, she took aim at a different target and fired. The sound of the arrow’s impact coincided with the stomp of her feet returning to the floor.

  Suddenly a man’s smooth, arrogant voice wafted toward her. “Our little Firedragon is a wonder to watch, isn’t she?”

  Whirling, Aurelia saw Principal Everett, head of the Academy of Supernatural Defense, standing outside the training room’s window. The faint shimmer of an enchantment gave his pale face and white-blond hair a bluish tint. She’d left the window open; he must have cast some kind of shield spell to ensure that no stray arrows hit him. Too bad, she thought, wrinkling her nose. Everett was part of the system that kept her down, and a prime example of why the Triumvirate sucked. He used the school to reinforce the divide between those with magic and those without, and always looked down his nose at the Norm students at the Academy, though he was supposed to be responsible for their education.

  It’s not like he’s so great. He’s never faced a monster in his life! But he was a member of the ruling Sentinel class, and that mattered more to those in charge than the fact that he couldn’t take on a mouse. Meanwhile, even if Aurelia became the world’s greatest Defender—pfft, I’m already better than the world’s greatest Defender—she’d still never land such a cushy gig. She was only a Norm, after all.

  The thought sent a spark of anger shooting through her.

  Professor Williams, a narrow, gray-haired man, came into view beside Everett. “She’s a girl of rare talent. I’ve never seen anyone so capable at combat.”

  “Any Norm, you mean.” Everett shot Williams a glare.

  “Of course,” Williams answered through clenched teeth. He met Aurelia’s gaze, and a warning look crossed his lined face.

  Realizing that she was grimacing at Everett—a look that could be taken for insubordination—she turned away. That she had to hide her true feelings about how much she hated Everett and everything he represented, or risk being locked up, made her blood boil. She didn’t know how Williams kept up his guise as a loyal servant of the Triumvirate. He was an Enchanter like Everett, but his views matched Aurelia’s. One didn’t have to be a Norm to detest the system that bullied the majority of their population.

  And the Triumvirate wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for those with magic, either. A wrong word could send the professor to jail as easily as it could Aurelia. The Triumvirate demanded total and unquestioning obedience from all its citizens, whether they had magic or not. And if you resisted by, say, claiming a Norm like Aurelia was the world’s best monster fighter—even if it was true—then not even being a respected Enchanter, as Williams was, would keep you from being locked up.

  He was the one who’d told her about the underground rebellion against the Triumvirate—a movement called the Rising that she yearned to join with every fiber of her being … because the government crushed her kind and silenced anyone who disagreed with them. Because by stealing her International Challenge victory, they’d destroyed her chance to prove that Norms deserved to be treated as equals to those with magic. And because they were the reason her mother was dead.

  If the Triumvirate hadn’t been keeping such a close watch on her since the competition, to make sure she didn’t go leaking the truth to anyone, she would have found the rebels already. Williams, who was a secret member of the Rising and spied on the Triumvirate for them, had promised that as soon as it was safe, he’d take her to their secret base.

  But she didn’t know if she could wait any longer.

  Gritting her teeth, Aurelia returned to the bin for more arrows. And though she tried to block out Everett’s nasty voice, her ears were too accustomed to catching every snippet of sound she encountered. So it was basically impossible not to hear what he was saying about her. However, since she couldn’t let him or anyone else suspect that she was less than loyal to the Triumvirate, she had to act like a good little Cadet. Which meant she had to pretend to be deaf and keep training as if he weren’t there.

  She needed to lull them into thinking she was obedient so they’d stop watching her so closely. The sooner they backed off, the sooner Williams could get her out.

  “A fighter of Aurelia’s caliber would be an asset to the Defender force.” Everett’s slimy voice muddied the air. “Having her graduate early would benefit the Triumvirate, even if she isn’t intelligent enough to pass the exit exams.” He was talking about her as if she weren’t right in front of him—a fellow human being who could hear everything he said.

  Because to him, I’m not. A practice knife glinted on one of the shelves, and though its blade was duller than a real one, it could still pierce most obstacles if wielded with the right strength. Her fingers itched to seize it and hurl it in Everett’s direction, just to remind him that she wasn’t a weapon he could control. But then the big-talking coward would say she’d tried to kill him, even though he had a magic barrier protecting him, and she’d be lucky if the Triumvirate gave her anything less than a life sentence for her crime.

  Abruptly deciding that she was tired of arrows, she put down the bow and grabbed the knife instead. Still targets were getting boring too; she needed a challenge. A rack of gray rubber balls, used as moving targets in training, sat against the wall, and she grabbed one, then strode across the room.

  “While we’re on the subject of students, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Everett said. “Do you think they’d be more forthcoming if they knew what an interrogator was looking for, or if the interrogator used subtler methods and gleaned information from their general behavior?”

  “Excuse me?” Williams sounded puzzled.

  Yeah, what? Aurelia snuck a glance over her shoulder.

  “As you know, a group of rebels recently robbed a Triumvirate warehouse and stole several valuable enchanted objects.” Everett twirled his dark blue wand between his fingers. “They were able to achieve this because they had an insider among the staff. I’ve heard rumors that there may be rebel sympathizers within our very own student body. I find it … necessary to weed them out, to prevent that sort of thing from happening here.”

  Aurelia planted the ball on the floor, her heart racing at the words. Weed them out… If anyone knew what she’d been thinking earlier when she pictured the Triumvirs on the practice targets, if they figured out that she sided with the rebels and wanted to join them, she could be thrown in jail—or worse.

  “That’s ridiculous.” Williams sounded indignant. “They’re children, Everett. How could any of them be revolutionaries?”

  “It doesn’t matter if they’re directly involved or not.” Everett’s voice was cold. “If they believe as the insurgents do, they pose a threat.”

  “So you’d punish them for thinking?”

  “I’ll punish them for being threats to our nation!” Everett’s voice rose.

  Aurelia swallowed hard. She was just the type of person he was after.

  “Now I’m not worried about the Scholars, of course.” Everett ran one hand through his white-blond hair. “No chi
ld of an Enchanter would hold such treasonous opinions. Nor am I concerned about the Secondstringers. Whatever their opinions, they are of little consequence. They’re entirely dependent on the Triumvirate for their survival, and must therefore be content with their lot.”

  Indignation shot through Aurelia. She’d never cared much about the Secondstringers—orphans sent to the Academy to work in exchange for a basic education. She’d started out as one of them, but been promoted to Cadet shortly after, and had hardly noticed them since. But she hated that Everett talked about them as if they weren’t even people.

  “It’s the Cadets I want questioned.” Everett’s head was only about as big as a fingernail from her present distance, but Aurelia could still feel his gaze sliding over her.

  She glared back. She was sick of pretending she didn’t hear him; that his words didn’t make her want to wring his scrawny old neck.

  “I don’t care what methods we have to use.” Everett’s tone carried a warning, and Aurelia’s heart clenched again. “Spells, trickery, potions—I will use whatever is necessary to determine the true affiliation of each.”

  He knows. Aurelia’s pulse pounded as the realization hit her. Somehow, he knows I want to join the Rising, but he has no proof. He’s trying to flush me out. But he’d just been talking about graduating her early—why had he brought that up if he was after her? Is he trying to scare me into being loyal?

  She could never be the brainless monster-killing machine Everett wanted, no matter how he tried to bully her. But she could hear his ultimatum as if her interrogation had already come, and she’d already been discovered: Obey the Triumvirate, or be arrested for treason. She couldn’t stand the thought of spending the rest of her life serving people she hated, terrified that one wrong move would get her locked in a cell, sent to a labor camp for the rest of her life … or executed.

  She had to get out, now more than ever. Not only because she couldn’t stand the Triumvirate’s evil ways anymore, but because staying would mean capture … and possibly death. Her whole body burned with fury. She’d done nothing but obey the Triumvirate her whole life, and yet they wanted to kill her—again. They’d already tried once with the competition, just to prove a point, but she’d survived. Now it appeared that they were looking for an excuse to murder her and call it “getting rid of a threat” if she didn’t bow down to their wishes.