Dragon Lost

by Lisa Manifold

  Yes.

  What does that mean? Access to us?

  I am not comfortable speaking like this knowing he still has it. May I come to you?

  Sure it will be just you?

  This time, yes, Aodan, it will be only me.

  I considered.

  “M?”

  “What?”

  “You up for a visit?”

  “Who?”

  “Fangorn.”

  “Who?”

  “The dragon.”

  “You really think he’s going to fit in here?”

  I didn’t have to open my eyes to see the expression on her face.

  You’re not going to fit in our motel room.

  Don’t worry about that.

  It’s me that has to pay for things you break.

  I’ll fit, Aodan.

  I hesitated. Did I want him to come? There was no turning back. Up till this point, I kept the illusion that there was choice that I didn’t have to do anything. But if I let this guy in, it would be a lot harder to shut the door on him if this didn’t turn out in a way I liked.

  Sighing, I decided that I had to take the chance. I wanted to find out about this whole dragon thing, and I really wanted to find out about my family. He knew.

  If I needed to cut him off, then I’d deal with it. Just like I’d dealt with everything that came my way.

  “I’m going to let him come here,” I said, sitting up.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?”

  “No,” I admitted. “But he has things I want. There’s no way to get them without this. If we need to, we’ll deal with that.”

  “There’s no way around this?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I don’t trust it, or him, or… or anything,” she finished.

  “I know. I don’t either.” I didn’t like the options. I didn’t like the people in my head. I didn’t like that I sounded completely crazy when I even thought things like that.

  But there was no way around it.

  Margrite sighed. “All right. Call your madman. We’ll see who shows up.”

  I nodded. I’m ready, I thought.

  Very well. His reply was instant, as though he’d been waiting.

  How will you get here?

  In the same manner I did earlier. Via a portal.

  The light thing?

  Yes.

  Okay. What now?

  Nothing. Let me focus on you.

  I saw Margrite watching me. “He says he’s coming. The light.”

  “That big light ball thing? Great. That is totally inconspicuous,” she rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not the one driving the bus,” I said.

  To my surprise, she grinned. I didn’t see that from her often.

  “It’s driving you crazy, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  Margrite laughed. After a moment, I laughed with her. Every time we met one another’s eyes, we laughed harder.

  Which was totally inappropriate for the situation, but seriously, what else could I do? If things went to shit, I’d go dragon, and get Margrite out of here.

  A knock on the door made us both stop immediately.

  “What the hell?” Margrite whispered.

  “You think it’s him?”

  “Who else?”

  “This is one of those times I wish we had a gun,” I said.

  Margrite rolled her eyes. It was one of our few arguments. She hated guns. I was ambivalent. They served a purpose. But she was right in they did complicate things, so we’d never kept one around. Not that I couldn’t get one. It just wasn’t worth the hassle. Not from Margrite, or anyone else.

  “Can you look out the window?” I whispered.

  She walked carefully over toward the window as the person outside knocked again.

  “Aodan,” a man’s voice said. “It’s me. We spoke very recently. Please open the door.”

  “Does that sound like the warehouse guy?” Margrite hissed.

  “No, but…” I shook my head.

  “Open the door.”

  15

  I carefully turned the handle, ready to slam it into the face of Eilor if it was him. Whatever he was, I was done with him.

  A man stood on the doorstep. He was tall, and had dark hair, and the greenest eyes I’d ever seen.

  Margrite stood up from where she’d been crouched next to the window.

  “Oh, my god,” she said.

  “No. I am not any sort of god,” the man said. “May I come in?”

  I opened the door wider. “Yes. Who are you?”

  He stepped in and closed the door behind him. “I am Fangorn, and you are Aodan.” He looked me up and down.

  His eyes glittered.

  “You look like your father,” he said quietly.

  No one spoke. I could almost hear the walls breathing, the silence was so heavy.

  Then Fangorn shook his head slightly. “I am sorry. I hadn’t thought that seeing you would remind me so strongly of Lionel.”

  “That was his name? Lionel?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “Is that really what you want to know?” His green eyes pierced me.

  “Yes, it is,” I said. I meant it. “Did he try to kill me?” That rang in my head, and I couldn’t shake the words. I needed to know if Eilor had been telling me the truth in any way.

  “May I sit down?”

  “Please,” Margrite said, moving around next to me and away from the small table and chair that sat under the window.

  Fangorn looked at us both, and then carefully lowered himself into a chair. It was interesting to watch him. He didn’t move like other people.

  I took a few steps and sat on the bed across from him.

  “Tell me everything. About my parents why I’m a dragon. This is your chance.”

  “Don’t lie,” Margrite said. She’d moved over between the two beds and stood glaring with her arms crossed.

  Fangorn gazed at her. “I do not lie. I may not tell everything, although I will certainly try this evening, but I do not lie, young lady. Who are you?”

  “I am Margrite.”

  “Is she your mate?” Fangorn asked me, turning the eyes onto me again.

  It was disconcerting.

  “No. She’s my best friend. Anything you can say to me, you can say to her,” I said.

  “Best friend?” Fangorn’s one eyebrow raised the tiniest bit. “That is a good thing, Aodan. Friends are hard to come by. Best friends even more so. Where would you like me to start?”

  “Who’s the other guy? Why has he been talking to Aodan?” Margrite asked.

  “Eilor has been talking with you?”

  I nodded. “You both sound the same in my head.”

  Fangorn looked down, saying something in a language I didn’t understand. He was pissed. That much I could tell.

  When he looked up, he’d gotten past the anger, although I could see a spark in his green eyes. “I am sorry. I did not know that he still had the pendant. Honestly…” he looked away and then back at me. “I was under the assumption he was dead. I am not surprised he’s alive, although I am extraordinarily disappointed.”

  “What, is he a bad guy?” Margrite asked.

  Fangorn smiled, but there was no humor in it. “Yes, very much so.”

  “My parents,” I said.

  He gazed at me. “You do not trust me.”

  “I’ve had voices in my head for the past week. Now I find out they were from different people. I’m weighing my options,” I said, trying to keep my tone neutral.

  “That is honest. I appreciate it. Your parents,” he sat back, sighing. “Lionel was my son. His mother was one of many women—”

  “You played the field,” I said.

  “No,” he said forcefully. “No,” more gently this time. “To answer your question, no, your father did not try to kill you. I should be surprised that Eilor would lie so blatantly, but I am not.
He is without morals or convictions outside of his own. Lionel loved you. He and your mother were very happy that they were expecting children even though there was a risk.”

  Fangorn stopped, and looked at me. “It’s important that you know that. You were wanted, and loved. But your parents were fighting against something that began long before they met.”

  “To explain, I need to go further back. I am a dragon, and I am also a shifter. I can shift to fae form. I am from the Dragon Realm within the Fae Realm. This, where you live, is the Human Realm. Long ago, the dragons ruled our Realm. But we were greedy, and careless. We started a war with the other Realms, and the Fae King, who also rules over all the Realms, banded together with the other Realms and fought us.” He looked down again.

  I could see that he was talking, but he wasn’t seeing us. He was seeing whatever memories his words stirred.

  He sighed. “We were not the victors in the war we began. Most of us were destroyed. I was left alive, as were ten of my brethren.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “As you have experienced, dragons can communicate without words, over distance. We share our consciousness with one another.”

  “That’s what I’ve been seeing? Your life?”

  He nodded. “Mine, and the others. For hundreds of years, the others slept. I was woken because I was a shifter. And Eilor, who took the Dragon Throne after we were defeated, wanted my—our power.”

  He looked down again. Now I felt a mixture of anger and sadness from him.

  “What power?” This from Margrite.

  “The fae, and the other inhabitants of the Fae Realm—the trolls, the goblins, the dwarves and the dragons—all have power. Magic. It’s different for all the races. We all have our own form of magic. The dragons have always had strong magic, and we’d always kept it hidden. To hide and to hoard is the way of a dragon. That all disappeared when we lost the war.”

  To hide and to hoard. I’d been doing that for a large part of my life.

  Fangorn sighed. “When one is defeated, there is nothing but the mercy of the victor. Eilor was not merciful. He wanted to harness the power of the dragons. He wanted our magic. It did no good to tell him that since he was not a dragon, it would not work. He is many things and determined is one of them.”

  “Asshat,” I said.

  “I do not understand,” he said.

  “Bad and nasty,” Margrite said helpfully.

  Fangorn smiled again. “That is apt. When I wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he determined that he would take it. That pendant he wears? It has my blood in it. He is able to speak with you because you are of my blood. He used it to monitor me, to keep me from even the barest amount of privacy.”

  “That is horrifying,” Margrite said.

  I could tell that she was getting interested in spite of herself. And she didn’t hate him, which I think would have surprised her if she’d been thinking about it. Fangorn’s story was compelling. I wasn’t getting a sense of dishonesty from him.

  I wondered if it was possible for dragons to lie to one another.

  No, his voice said in my head.

  Get out of my head, I thought.

  I cannot help it when we are this close.

  Okay. Don’t comment then.

  Fangorn smiled at me. He didn’t comment further on our side conversation, but continued his story. “The manner in which he determined he could take the dragons’ power was through a child. So he began to bring fae women to me and force me to mate with them.”

  “That’s disgusting,” Margrite said. “Why did you go through with it?”

  “Because he killed the first one in front of me.” Fangorn’s words were flat.

  “What?” She whispered.

  “When I refused to touch the woman—the girl, really, he cast a spell and killed her. At that point, I realized I had no choice. I told him that I would relent, but that it was to be on my terms. He was to bring the woman to me, and I would take the time to become known to her, and allow her to feel more comfortable with me.”

  He looked down. “There were many women. And some became pregnant. None of them lived. None of the children lived. I watched the women, the little ones—” he stopped, and rubbed his hands over his face. Then he looked back up at both of us. “They all died. Until Lionel. He lived. His mother did not, and I was sorry. I cared for her. Once Lionel was born, and he survived, and kept surviving, Eilor took him from Leona—”

  “That was my grandmother’s name?”

  Fangorn nodded. “She was a servant in the castle. An orphan. Eilor only chose the orphans. Because they wouldn’t be missed. Carrying my child was difficult for the fae women. While I can shift into a fae man, I am a dragon. We are not the same.”

  “What do you mean, fae?” I asked.

  “Fae. I’m told by—well, by a woman raised here in the Human Realm that you see fae as fairies.”

  “Where are your wings?” Margrite had moved to sit next to me. She had a look on her face I didn’t see often.

  I probably had the same look. I couldn’t look away from Fangorn. What he was saying was enthralling—the idea of another world. It was horrifying as well. I could see the hurt on him. It was a part of him, all these women and children that hadn’t made it.

  “Fae do not have wings. Dragons do. Fae do not. And the two are not meant to mix. But Eilor was determined. He allowed Lionel to be with me as he grew, but not much, and rarely unsupervised. Lionel learned, as you did,” Fangorn smiled suddenly, “That dragons can communicate without words. So even when we were apart, we were able to speak. Eilor knew that—all the fae who fought us in the war did—but he didn’t realize that Lionel could as well. Then he caught Lionel trying to shift. That was the beginning of the end,” Fangorn said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I told you Eilor wanted the magic of the dragons? We are stronger than the fae. Our magic is wilder, more primal and fierce. Used with fae spells, it enhances and strengthens magic that fae do. He wanted that, because he wanted to conquer the other Realms, and rule them alone.”

  “Do they all have kings?” I asked.

  Fangorn nodded. “The Fae King rules them all. While he was part of our defeat, I have come to see that the Fae King is a man of honor. We have settled our differences. Eilor hated him and plotted his downfall. He didn’t succeed,” he added, the grin returning.

  “What happened?” Margrite asked.

  “That is far too long to share in one sitting. I will be happy to do so at a later date when we are not pressed for time. Suffice to say, we all believed Eilor dead. I didn’t worry about the pendant, because if he died, the pendant would be lost. But as he lives, and is still able to use the pendant, we must help you to shut him from your consciousness.”

  “That would be nice. First finish telling me about my father. And my mother.”

  Fangorn sighed. “Your father, once he reached the age of adulthood, and he could shift, and fly, and make fire, realized what Eilor sought. Eilor wanted to bind him with magic and make him a vessel for Eilor’s own magic. So when he could, he ran. He discovered how to make a portal—that’s how we travel—”

  “The big ball of light?” Margrite interrupted.

  He nodded. “Yes. And Lionel came here. I was sad to lose my son. I lost all my family in the dragon wars. None of them wanted peace. My former mates, my children—they all wished to overthrow the fae. So they perished. I loved Lionel. I understood why he left. He was safe, here in the Human Realm, for several hundred years. Then he met your mother, Maria. He loved her dearly. He was so delighted when she became pregnant. But worried, as well. He knew my history, knew what carrying my children had done to the women Eilor forced to mate with me.”

  Fangorn ran his hand through his hair. “Well, Eilor had not forgotten Lionel. He kept watch for him. How he found him here, I do not know. But he did. And somehow, he managed to find Maria as well, and bring both of them back to the Dragon Realm. When he did
, he was delighted to find that Maria was pregnant, close to the time of birth. I thought,” he said, rubbing his chin, “That she would be one of the humans who would survive.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “There is something about the Realms of the Fae Realm that is deadly to humans. Most humans do not survive. There are children—not so many anymore—who are wished away to the Goblin King; and most of them do not live. Those that do become fae. But their numbers are small. I thought Maria might be one of the humans who would survive but once she had you both—”

  “What do you mean, both? And why are kids wished away to a goblin?” I’d forgotten that he’d mentioned that before.

  “You have not felt her? You have a sister. The Goblin King is also for another time,” he added.

  “What?” I whispered. “Was she with you tonight?”

  “Yes,” Fangorn said, and I could see his pride. “Aine was with me. She is a strong woman, and she is also the Dragon Queen. She’s recently married the new Dragon King.”

  “Aren’t you the Dragon King?”

  “Didn’t Eilor say he was the Dragon King?” Margrite asked at the same time.

  Fangorn shook his head. “Eilor was once the king. He was removed when his treachery was discovered. I was never the king when the dragons ruled our Realm. Only one of us advisors. After our uprising, we were banned from the throne. The former king—my friend,” Sadness flashed in his eyes, “Was executed. Now, there are only eleven of us, thirteen if I count you and Aine. I no longer wish for a throne, or a kingdom. Now that the other ten dragons are awake, we are happy in the far mountains of the Dragon Realm. I see Aine, and am with my brethren, and I am content.” He smiled.

  His words rang true.

  I have a sister.

  There was so much to take in, I didn’t know where to go first.

  “What happened to Aodan’s parents?” Margrite said.

  The smile faded. “Once you and Aine were born, Maria began to fade. She kept you with her, and she gave you your names. Eilor made sure that Lionel was unable to be with her, but he knew she’d given birth, and he broke free of the prison Eilor had him in, and found Maria and the two of you.”

  Pain crossed his face sharp as a knife. I could feel his pain as though it were my own. I winced at the strength of it.