“This life you have been given and a path to humanity you will follow. But the day will come when you will desire more and you will have to decide whether or not you are willing to pay the price of ultimate love. Your sacrifice will seed a new race, humanity born of dragon and human blood. Or your life will follow a vastly different course and, eventually, lead to the end of the world and all that is dear to you.
“Remember my instruction, daughter of the dragon. Remember my warning: a life you may bring into the world, but the price of that life is your own.”
The weapon receded from her, engulfing itself in flames. Everything vanished and she drifted back onto the plane of normal existence … where dreams were part of sleep.
“Out! Out! All of you! Gracious me, I’ve got a sick girl on my hands and the presence of you five is not helping matters. Out, I say!” Dantress, groggily stirring from her strange sleep, heard the patter of her sisters’ feet as Elsie closed the door after them.
The woman snapped her fingers, remembering something. She opened the door and called down the hall. “Gwen, bring me more of that herbal cream. Dantress still has a few scratches, and I don’t want her skin to scar.”
“M’st certainly!” Gwen’s muffled voice replied. “I’ll get it right away, Mum.”
“And bring my apron while you’re at it.” Elsie closed the door. “Dantress, you’re awake? No, no! Don’t get up,” she pushed Dantress’s head back to the pillow. “You’ve been unconscious for two days, so you had better take it slow.”
“Mivere … how is he?”
“Fully recovered, my dear. No need to worry. He’s been at your bedside almost every hour for the past couple days. Keeps insisting that you saved his life and that he’s at fault for what happened to you.”
“What?” Dantress sat up.
Elsie pushed her back down with a gentle hand. “We know the fairy isn’t to blame, Honey. And the dragon has commended him for his quick actions on your behalf. Mivere came to him very shortly after you collapsed, and he led us to you.”
Relieved, Dantress let out a long breath. “Good, I was afraid Father would be angry.”
“Angry with the fairy? No. With you, on the other hand … Well, that may be an entirely different story.”
The door opened, and Gwen hurried in. “Here’s the cream, Mum. Oh, and your apron.” She smiled at Dantress. “Your Highness! It is good to see you awake.” She grinned and bowed low. “Are you feeling better?”
“Thank you, Gwen. I’m feeling weak, but fine otherwise.”
“Well you look wonderful, and the color is coming to your cheeks.”
“Out with you, girl.” Elsie shooed her toward the door. “You can discuss things with Dantress later. When she is back to full strength.” She closed the door behind the taller woman and shook her head to get her straying red hair out of her eyes.
“You will have plenty of time to talk later, young lady. For now I want you to try to get more sleep.”
Smiling weakly, Dantress closed her eyes. “Thank you, Aunt Elsie. Thank you for everything.”
“Go to sleep.”
It took Dantress a week to fully recover from her ordeal in the basement. Mivere visited her frequently. “Once, fairest of the dragon’s daughters, you were only my best friend. Now I owe you my life.”
On the first day that she was up and about the palace, Dant-ress wandered into the library. The dragon lounged there, an enormous scroll set before him on an appropriately sized table. “It’s good to see you up, my daughter. Your pallor yesterday concerned me. Last week you gave us quite a scare.”
She hung her head. “I’m sorry, Father. It was my idea to explore the basement. I know you forbade others from going there, but—” She searched for an explanation then, finding nothing adequate, shrugged her shoulders. “I have no excuses. I have always wanted to see what is down there, and the rumor of a sublevel to the palace, or more than one, has intrigued me from childhood. With Xavion’s sword in hand I thought nothing would happen. I was wrong.”
The dragon cocked his head to the side, allowing a curious moment of quiet to endure before he responded. “Very well, I forgive you.” He returned to reading the scroll.
Dantress stood still, not wishing to leave but knowing that he expected her to.
“Was there anything else, my child?”
Hesitating for a millisecond, she nodded her head slowly. “What is Living Fire?”
The dragon jerked his head to look at her, amazement showing on his elegant, bony face. He stepped away from the table and focused his penetrating gaze on her. “Living Fire, the power of an ancient and most powerful and wise prophet. You have heard of it …? It is a secret not yet revealed to the world. Tell me, what has happened. How do you know of this?”
Leaving out no details, Dantress told him of her dream. As she told him about the sword, his eyes widened and yet a smile almost broke his rigid face.
“Not lightly does the Living Fire speak, my daughter. Listen and believe what it has told you.”
“Then it wasn’t only a dream?”
“Oh no,” he rumbled. “Not a mere dream, but a glimpse of the future.” He eyed her up and down. “Something else happened to you that day. Am I not correct?”
“Well, I … I struck down a creature in the basement.”
He leaned closer. “This much I know, but what is it you wish to tell me?”
“Father, I used no weapons to win that battle. I threw some kind of energy from my body, through my hands. And later, when Mivere was dying, I healed him with the same energy. It was like seeing inside his body and being there to tend to him. I can’t explain it.”
The dragon drew back his head and laughed a strong, gloating laugh. “The child of promise you truly are, my daughter! This proves it. My blood runs through your veins, as it does through your sisters.” He lowered his head to gaze into her eyes. “But in you my blood has taken deeper root. Now you are ready to begin the task for which I made you, the task that you accepted when you took the sword of Xavion.
“Fetch your sisters! The time has come for you all to put your swords to good use.”
SPECTER
Dantress fidgeted under the great white dragon’s passing gaze. He impatiently tapped his claws on the marble floor. His pink eyes were fixated on the massive double doors behind Dantress. They’d been waiting like this for over an hour, her with her sword in hand—as he’d instructed—while he stood on the dragon throne.
Expectancy filled her heart and mind. What did the dragon have in mind for her and her sisters? He looked eager, almost as much as she felt.
The double doors swung into the room. Caritha and Laura marched inside ahead of Rose’el, Levena and Evela. “Ah, at last, you are all here.” The dragon roared with satisfaction. “Come closer, my daughters.”
The five sisters joined Dantress. She turned her eyes up the gargantuan steps to Albino’s twisted metal perch. A strip of white cloth ran from the top of the steps to their base. Albino’s powerful claws scraped the reflective metal, digging deeper into previously formed gouges in his Roost. Light rippled through his white scales.
“A mere three months away are your seventeenth birthdays.” The dragon hunched forward, every one of his sharp white teeth showing as he rumbled his satisfaction. “Years ago I told you of the Six and how five of them betrayed me. Their swords are now in your possession and I have observed that you learned how to use them well. And so I have arranged a task for you.
“Here in this palace, in the land of Emperia, I have sheltered you from the cruel world that lies beyond my borders. It is a vast place with beasts and men that will destroy you, my treasures, if you are not prepared for them.
“The Accursed Three walk the world of Subterran as men that have fallen into darkness, and their evil will spread into every dominion if they are not stopped. Therefore I am sending you into the south and to the west, across a sea. On its southern shores flows a river called Eiderveis. When you rea
ch it you may find human settlements … but you will not stop—even to rest— because you do not know where their loyalties lie.
“You will search along the river’s eastern shore until you find a cottage. Being that the cottage is the only one on that side of the river you will easily find it. There you may stay without fear, for I know the tenant of that place. She is a trusted and old friend. This same individual knows what you must do. Listen to what she says and do as she instructs you.”
Dantress looked at the floor. “You will not be coming with us?”
“No, my daughter. You, Caritha, Rose’el, Evela, Levena and Laura must perform this task.”
The color drained from Evela’s face. “Would it not be better if you came along?”
“Evela, there are things that I am not free to tell you, things that prevent me from joining you on this quest. Trust me! It is better that I do not go.”
“But, but why?” Evela wrung her hands.
“Do not question things that have already been determined, my child. Stay close to the others and rely on their strengths to outweigh your weaknesses. Together you are capable of more than you realize.”
Caritha stepped from the line of her sisters and looked solemnly at the dragon. “We will go as you ask, without question.”
A resigned sigh escaped from Rose’el’s lips. She shook her head but shrugged her shoulders. “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. After breakfast,” Albino replied.
“We’d better get some sleep then,” Rose’el muttered under her breath.
Dantress looked at all her sisters. They did not appear afraid, yet their faces clued her in on their misgivings.
The dragon leapt from his perch and stood over them. Flexing his membranous wings he led them out of the throne room into the main hall. From there he brought them to their bedroom and, bidding them sweet dreams, left them. But they sat awake, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
A roar of applause rolled over Dantress and her sisters as the massive doors of Shizar Palace opened inward. They walked out onto the sunlit stone path and their eyes followed its gentle curves as it wended through the masses of creatures standing on the lush, green fields that covered the slopes down to the mountainous region in the west.
She and her sisters curtsied and smiled at their audience. Bears, antelope, deer, lions and birds of confusing variety all mingled in peace. Moose swaggered forward, clearing a path with their antlers. They bowed and then stood at rigid attention in a long line, several hundred strong, their brown chests sticking out pompously. Dantress caught one of the moose’s eyes looking at her. It winked.
The ground shook beneath her feet. A seemingly endless procession of brown mammals emerged from the forests to the east, plodding toward the palace. Long, curving tusks shone white in the sunlight, and a steady wind toyed with the long hair covering their bodies. Trunks swayed with the steady movement of their hulking bodies. The moose stepped aside for the mammoths. The largest of the new arrivals dipped his tusks toward Dantress and her sisters.
“Daughters of the great and mighty dragon,” a bull mammoth trumpeted, drumming his forefeet on the ground, “upon a journey you now embark, and on foreign soil you will be tested.” The mighty creatures continued to gather behind their spokesman, and Dantress could see no end to their number. “Be true to one another, be true to yourselves, daughters of the dragon. Trust no one who is a stranger to the white dragon.” He stood still.
The sisters looked up as a shadow covered them. A hush fell upon the creatures. The great white dragon walked through the doors, setting each foot firmly before the other as he strode down the path. He raised his head high, the ridges along the back of his long neck stood stiff, the scales along his body reflecting the sunlight in all directions, making him ghost-like.
“Come, my daughters! This is a day that the creatures of my kingdom will remember forever. Hold your heads high and follow me. The warriors of the past await us!”
The warriors of the past? Dantress suppressed her urge to question. Instead she followed the dragon down the path. She was of royal descent, a princess of Emperia, so she held her head high.
They passed down the green slopes to the west and approached a mountainous region. The masses of creatures followed them to the base of the first mountains, then they stood still and watched the dragon and his daughters depart in silence.
When they had left their audience in the distance, Dantress tried to catch up to her father. But the dragon leapt over boulders that she was forced to climb and soon he had proceeded a good distance ahead of them. A couple hours later he leapt onto a boulder and spread his wings. He reached them into the still air and a gust of wind broke the calm. He lifted into the air, pulling the enormous rock with him as he clutched it with his claws. Speeding up a smooth mountain slope, he angled toward a cave far up its face.
“Is he leaving us?” Evela looked for reassurance from her sisters.
Rose’el harrumphed. “It sure looks that way—”
“Listen to me, both of you,” Caritha nearly shouted, pointing a finger at Rose’el. “Father would not leave us alone without good reason. Come on!” She ran after the dragon, who waited at the distant cave.
The sisters followed Caritha up the mountain slope. Everyone except Rose’el refused to complain as their back and leg muscles began to ache from ascending the steep incline. Rose’el muttered unintelligibly under her breath, but even though Dant-ress could see that she wasn’t happy about the situation she noted that Rose’el outdistanced the rest of them and her mouth set in a determined line.
The cool mountain air coupled with an encroaching fog that limited visibility to no more than a dozen feet. Dantress looked at her hands, raw from grabbing rough stones and pulling herself upward. But she determined to go on and continued the climb. When she at last grabbed hold of the ledge before the cave entrance, Albino loomed before her and looked down. A grin spread across his bony face.
Her sisters sat on different stones around the entrance. Evela took the opportunity to rub her feet. Rose’el and Laura massaged their hands. Caritha sat quietly with hands folded on her lap. This seemed the moment for the dragon to speak. But when she glanced up at him, his pink eyes blinked.
Then, slowly, the truth dawned on her. This is a test. “Isn’t it?” she asked aloud.
Albino merely looked down at her, his pink eyes shining.
“It’s a test. It’s a test!” She smiled in spite of her pain and turned to her sisters. Closing her eyes she reached out with her mind, probing their aches and pains. Of course! She should have realized. In a moment it all became clear and the power she had discovered that day in the palace basement surged within her.
She opened her eyes. Her hands glowed blue, almost blinding bright. Leaning first over Rose’el, she touched her shoulder. A portion of the energy building within her hands left her body through her fingers and passed into her sister.
Rose’el stood up, almost knocking Dantress over. “How did you do that?” She turned her hands over and displayed them, fully healed, to the rest of the sisters. They gathered to Rose’el and, one by one, allowed Dantress to touch them and heal them.
“Now it is your turn, our sister,” Evela said. “Sit down.” Dant-ress sat down, but though Evela tried she could not perform the same miracle for her. “I don’t understand,” Evela stood back and looked at her hand. “I could feel the power that you imparted. I should be able to—”
“No!” Caritha beamed as understanding dawned on her. “We five are joined through the swords. Don’t you see?” She drew her rusted weapon and touched its blade to Dantress’s shoulder. “Alone we are weak! But together we are strong!”
Laura, Evela, Rose’el and Levena drew their swords and touched them to Caritha’s blade. A flash of blue temporarily blinded Dantress, but a warm sensation of healing, restoring energy surged through her body and testified to her sisters’ success. Her hands no longer felt raw, her muscles no
longer felt sore.
Together the sisters faced the dragon. He reached to his right, pushing the boulder that he had carried up the mountain so that it rolled back down, creating an avalanche as it gained momentum; it crashed into other stones and finally fell into a canyon where it broke into billions of fragments.
Albino swung around, his tail cutting into the cave wall. “Congratulations, my daughters. You have passed the test.”
Caritha parted the fold in her purple skirt and slid her sword back into its scabbard. “Father, why is it that Dantress can use her power without joining with ours? What happens if one of us is separated from the others? We would be powerless.”
“Nay, my daughter,” the dragon rumbled. He raised one clawed hand and waved it at the fog, and the moisture raced away from him. “You are all of dragon blood … my blood. Each one of you will discover the power that that gives you, but only in time.
“Dantress will forever be different but you all have the same potential as she does. Strive to exercise justice with mercy and wield with wisdom the swords that I have granted you. By so doing you will learn the things that she has learned and move on to discover things you had never known were possible.”
He entered the dark cave and they followed.
“I can’t see my feet,” Rose’el said.
“Use your sword.” Dantress drew Xavion’s weapon from beneath her skirt.
But the dragon’s hand settled around her shoulders, and he spoke softly into the darkness. “There is no need of those while you are with me.” To the sisters’ astonishment the imposing form of the dragon glowed surreal beside them, and in that pure white light every step of their way stood out clear as if lit by the light of full moon.
They followed the dragon deep into the mountain, navigating the myriad of tunnels and caves concealed therein until he brought them to a white stone bridge, broad enough for the dragon and his children, spanning a raging underground river.
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