Heart Of Destiny_Book One Of The Heart Of The Citadel

by Susan Faw

  As a result of these superstitions and natural barriers, the island chain of Jintessa was unknown to the civilized world. The inhabitants were happy to remain anonymous, cut off from the humans who resided to the south.

  Five islands made up the chain, formed of lava flows over many millenniums. The largest island, called the Great Eye, boasted two volcanoes and a lush forest growing in the rich soils of the alluvial plains. The tallest volcano was forever wreathed in clouds, both due to the height of the rim and the smoke from fissures of rock. The lower volcano was inactive, having gone silent long ago, and inside the bowl lived a growing colony of dragons. The sides of the bowl were pitted with caves, pockets of cooled obsidian that glinted in the rays of the setting sun.

  Ideal for dragons, these caves could hold up to the frequent blasts of fire from their newborns without setting the world around them aflame. Dragons swooped in and out, bringing fresh fish to their hatchlings or the occasional black feathered gull snatched from the air. Each female dragon bore a sole young one each spring and only one. Mated for life, both parents were needed to keep up with the voracious appetite of a young dragon, and so the skies were filled with flapping and screeching from sunrise to sunset. The crater was of a height that the summits were blanketed in snow, thus a constant water supply was present for the hatchling’s needs. For all that, the dragons were isolated. They were a familiar sight in the sky for the inhabitants of the islands.

  The dragons were of a single colour. Grey. That was until they moved. Then their scales sparkled with the iridescence of a hummingbird, but no hummingbird ever breathed fire.

  Their eyes defined their breed. Eleven breeds of dragon were known to the Djinn. Ruby and emerald, pearl and onyx, sapphire and citron, lapis and amber, amethyst and topaz. Each kind of dragon was defined by its eyes. Only one dragon was missing from the Great Eye, the grandest of them all. The Opaleye. An Opaleye had not been seen since the Great Purge. Yet for all their seeming ferocity, the dragons of the Great Eye shared an understanding with the residents, for they shared a common bond, a bond of magic.

  These residents were the Jintessa. Born of magic, they were known only as the Djinn to the outside world. Believed to be the spawn of great evil, the lands to the south spoke the name in hushed tones, as a curse. Many a legend and fireside story handed down through the generations cast the shapeshifting Djinn in villainous roles. The Djinn were portrayed as the fiercest of warriors and were frequently featured in stories as assassins or cutthroats, beings of lethal intent and betrayers of trust. The ability to take any form made them impossible to detect as the imposter they were when in a shifted form. But there were ways of nullifying the advantage of being able to take any shape at will. Most of these ways had been lost to the ages, as was direct knowledge of the Djinn themselves.

  The only ones in all of Gaia to remember the Djinn were the witches, and they lived in seclusion, hidden away from the public. The library in the Castle Ionia housed a few dusty books on the subject, but the populace knew nothing of them.

  One of the greatest insults to this day was to be called a Djinn daughter, meaning that both one’s blood and one’s mother’s blood were false and a lie. Although the Djinn could not mate with humans, it did not stop the stories of defiled and cursed women over generations. Much of this was born out of the witches’ powers and connection to the Djinn rather than the Djinn themselves, but to the non-magical, it came to the same thing. Djinn or witch, they were creatures of magic and the line between the two were blurred. The non-magical population did not understand the nature of a triad merger. Their knowledge was fed by rumours and flyers spread by the church during the time of the Great Purge that announced the ‘unholy union between man and beast, born of the sin of magic’.

  The Jintessa lived in isolation, ignoring the rest of the world and content to keep to themselves. They were a seafaring nation with tall-masted ships and great holds for carrying supplies and trade amongst the islands. They did not fear the monsters of the seas as did the humans of that far away land. Rather they respected the beasts that made the salty waves their homes and where possible, paid homage to the magic of the creatures who were not that different from them. A peaceful accord kept the local seas calm and strangers away from their shores, for the sea serpents patrolled the shores of the distant lands, hemming in their enemies, the humans that hunted them and their kind.

  Amongst the Djinn, the Dragonmergers were revered. These Djinn, chosen for their strength of magic, were called to bind and blend with a dragon. The hybrid entity that resulted was both dragon and Djinn and exponentially more intelligent than they were separately.

  The ceremony merging a dragon and a Djinn acolyte was a national holiday, occurring only once a year when a young dragon reached five years of age. The dragons were not forced to this. (As though it were possible to force a dragon to do anything!) Rather, like any other society, the dragons chose amongst themselves which of their young to put forth for the binding. For the dragons, the safety of their young relied heavily on the Djinn and their knowledge of the men across the sea, for they remembered the Great Purge and the slaughter of their kind. Dragons’ memories were very long, and the Djinn’s relationship with the monsters of the seas kept their nesting places secure and safe from humans.

  That was until recently.

  The wonder of the island of the Great Eye was the hatchling incubator, a structure buried deep within the heart of the volcano. The hostile heat and aggressive terrain of the pumice-draped incline kept wild beasts away, and no Djinn would enter the sacred slopes and approach the birthing grounds of the dragons. The lava of the volcano was precisely the right temperature to incubate the eggs of the dragons. Since the Great Purge, when the pact had been formed with the Djinn, generations of dragons had been hatched within its sacred bowl.

  Two weeks ago, the incubator had been raided, and ten eggs had been stolen from its hallowed depths. Outraged, the dragons had set fire to the surrounding forests, and the Djinn residents of the Great Eye had fled in boats to the neighbouring island of Petite Dracones.

  Such a thing had never occurred in the history of the incubator. No mortal could enter the bowl. It was only accessible and habitable to dragons because their thick scales protected them against the intense heat. Outraged at the theft of their young, the dragons called an emergency council meeting at the Great Rock. The Great Rock was a flat table of stone that reached out over the valley floor. Bonded dragons of every eye colour gathered on the tableau with their Djinn. The unbonded dragons soared overhead, watchful eyes in the sky as the elders of the Jintessa, assembled from every island, huddled together on the grasslands below to hear the details of the theft.

  For all that the relations between the two had been peaceful for thousands of years, this theft had created a rift between the two ancient allies, Djinn and dragon. Bonds of magic aside, they were still two different creatures.

  For Lazuli, the ceremony bonding him to his dragon was the highlight of his young life. At eighteen, he was the youngest Djinn ever bonded. His lapis-eyed dragon was his heart and soul. Lapis was one with him. He could no longer feel where his thoughts left off and Lapis’s musings began. They were unified in every way, even sharing the same eye colour after the bonding. The thought of being separated from him made his heart ache as though stabbed. He sat astride his dragon as the others landed around him, awed at the sheer number of Djinn and dragons that now smothered the ground and darkened the sky. The bonded dragons landed, their bulk crowding out the Djinn observers, pushing them to the edges of the gathering. The dragons left an empty space down the middle of the plateau for the eldest pairing. Hawkeye and his dragon, Crocido, amber eyes glowing, climbed up the rise to the scratched podium of larkspur. Generations of dragons had gathered but only the eldest was commissioned to address the restless crowd. Hawkeye slid off of Crocido’s back and walked to the very edge of the greyed slab, toes dangling over the edge.

  “As you are aware, a great crime
has been committed on the Isle of the Great Eye. The unhatched young of our closest allies have been snatched from their protective chambers, from the birthing caves that would guarantee their safety and safe passage into this world. The dragons are naturally anxious and distressed by this occurrence.” Flames bellowed from the mouths of the angry dragons circling overhead, and the air heated momentarily before cooling once again. “What you may not know is that at the same time on the Island of Petite Dracones, ten daughters of the Djinn, each with the magical gift to bond with a dragon, have been taken.” The Djinn’s muttering rose, and a few wails could be heard from the parents of the missing young women. Hawkeye waited for the shock of his words to calm. “These young women were being apprenticed as Dragonmergers. They have been schooled in the formation and care of the dragon bond. As you know the Djinn cannot be separated from their dragons in the land across the sea. The natural magic of that land has been bottled up and is inaccessible. Without a steady supply of magic, we die. Someone knew of their importance and kidnapped the young women. I suspect where we find the dragon eggs, we will also find our missing Djinn.” The dragons overhead cocked an ear and then swooped down to land on rocky outcroppings, settling their wings on their backs, to listen closer. “I believe there is a sinister reason for taking both the dragon eggs and the young women. Someone is building an army. Someone intends to use our own magic against us. I don’t think we have to look far to guess who this might be?”

  Elektro, bonded to a tiger-eyed dragon named Amber, raised his fist at the mountain and yelled, “Madrid, if you are behind this, you will pay for your crimes! I will hunt you down, Madrid!” Amber roared her approval, spewing a great fountain of flame into the air. The other riders’ voices joined in, shouting challenges and curses until Hawkeye’s shrill whistle interrupted the tirade.

  Once he was sure he had their collective attention, Hawkeye continued. “There can be no doubt that the islands are under attack. Our foe, if it is indeed Madrid the Murderer, is a knowledgeable, sneaky, and calculating enemy. He or she knows of the Djinn, understands the process of bonding, and knows what he or she is looking for. This leads me to conclude that our enemy is one of us or has an apprentice still in our midst.”

  Voices rose in protest and anger. Shouts of “We would not betray the dragons!” and “The dragons have abandoned the Djinn!” rose along with great bouts of flame. Crocido rose up on his hind legs and roared at the crowd, his voice so loud the mountain began to shake. Loose rocks tumbled down the side. His voice drowned out Djinn and dragons both, silencing them.

  “I do not believe this betrayer is still here,” Hawkeye said, his voice calming, “as no more of our younglings have gone missing.”

  “So what is your plan?” yelled a female Djinn from the front row. “Who is it? Who is responsible?”

  “Long ago, our forefathers anticipated that such a day might come, that our presence might be discovered by the humans across the sea. They, with the gift of foresight, put in place a plan, should the worst-case scenario happen. Although it has been thousands of years since the humans have known of dragons, they live on in myth and legend in that land. There are allies there, who have retained the knowledge of the old ways, and who have remembered the common ancestry that was shared in those days. We will go to them and secure their aid in recovering our young, both dragon and Djinn. They are called witches in that land. But we know them by their proper name, L’Ordre du Coeur Sacré. We will secure the sacred hearts and bond them as we were once bonded in the beginning. The first of the children are due to arrive shortly. The bonded dragons left as soon as the theft was discovered to recover the children of the heart. Then the real work begins.”

  Chapter 11

  The Barracks

  THE DRAGONS OF JINTESSA were swift and strong, but the distance was so immense, that the journey still took a solid two weeks of flying. Thus, the first daughter of Bastion arrived on the fourteenth on the back of an emerald-eyed dragon named Beryl. The dragon-induced sleep had slowed Shikara’s bodily processes for the long trip. Soft snores issued from the sleeping girl as they circled the cliff that was their destiny.

  The deep sleep was required for those travelling across the expanse. Time moved differently between the two lands. One year in Jintessa was the equivalent of twenty years in Gaia, and the crossing had aged Shikara considerably. While she was still young, instead of the child he had rescued, the Dragonmerger now carried a young woman. She would never be tall, though.

  Beryl was grey scaled with iridescent green eyes and wing tips. Although she was long limbed, she was considered small for a dragon. Her wings were a point of pride for her, slim and slender with the tapered shape of a kingfisher and as swift at diving. When in flight, the green of her naming was most evident. The underside of her wings cast a shimmering emerald reflection on the waters when gliding above the surface. Beryl’s Djinn was a young man named Chryso, known amongst the Djinn for his daring and cunning.

  Chryso, perched on Beryl’s back, hugged the young woman to his chest, fiercely protective of his precious cargo. His duty as a Dragonmerger was to protect Shikara with his life if he must, as he had Marion. He could feel the bond with Marion still, but soon he would be rebonded to Shikara as his triad merger. Marion would break the bond as planned when it was time.

  As Beryl set down on the level opening to the Cave of the Prefects, Chryso slid from her back with a lightness that did not disturb his sleeping passenger. He collected her in his arms, protective of his charge.

  “Where do you want me to put her?” he asked his voice gruff.

  “This way. A room has been prepared.” The Djinn servant bowed low and then led the way into the cave, which was large enough for the dragons to enter. Beryl followed Chryso through the cavernous opening into an even larger space, the main antechamber. To the left were the roosts for the dragons, stacked twenty stories tall, where they could relax while their Djinn went about their tasks. The ceiling disappeared into the gloom above and it was just possible to see it, if one squinted.

  I will be back shortly, said Chryso to Beryl through their telepathic link, a gift of the bond. Beryl lumbered off in search of food and a cozy cave to relax and sleep in after the long flight.

  Chryso followed the servant into the right, toward the barracks that had not been used in a thousand years. Once, the barracks had overflowed with students, trainees, each hoping to be found worthy and capable of being bonded to a dragon. For centuries, the chambers had sat empty except for a very small corner that was maintained for the current miniscule crop of Djinn bonded every year. The caretakers were born to the caves and lived their entire lives there, caring for the catacombs and maintaining the ancient structures for the time when they might be called back into service. It appeared the time had arrived.

  The servant was a crouched Djinn, white-haired and knobby-kneed. He carried a lantern that shed a weak light on the path ahead, and Chryso hurried to keep close.

  “Why have you not lit the floor lighting? Surely a dragon is nearby?” he asked as he stumbled.

  “No, Dragonmerger, you are the first to appear. Perhaps you can lend the aid of your dragon to light the passages? It would do us good to have the floor lighting active once more.”

  “Consider it done as soon as we have this youngling safe and sound in her chambers.” He shifted Kara onto his shoulder, and she stirred, her thumb coming up into her mouth. “She is such a small sprite. She will be shocked to see how much she has grown up during the trip here.”

  “Aye, we must take care of them. This is the door, ’Merger.” The servant pushed open the heavy door and lit a wall lamp as he entered. The lantern light pushed back the shadows revealing a comfortable room with a single bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe carved with scenes of dragons, and a wooden screen that opened onto a balcony overlooking the main dragon compound. A braided rug warmed the floor, and a pair of crossed swords was mounted in a bracket on the wall. Across the way, the dragon’s roo
sts were clearly visible although only one was currently occupied by a green-eyed dragon named Beryl.

  Gently, Chryso lowered Kara onto the cot and tucked her under the blanket, setting a copper bell with a long wooden handle beside her on the night stand should she wake. Quietly, they left the chamber and the girl to her slumbers.

  Chryso followed the retreating back of the servant back to the main dragon chamber, retrieving his own lantern and lighting it before parting company. He took the spiraling staircase that twisted up from the stone floor and rose to the ceiling past the various levels of the dragon rookery. The ground level was reserved for injured dragons, a hospital of sorts for those who needed to mend and heal before flying to other chambers. Thus, most healthy dragons took caves on the fifth level and above. Chryso climbed until he accessed the eighth level where Beryl had claimed her spot. An orange glow announced her presence, but even without that indicator, he would have known where she was as they were sharing a consciousness.

  He entered the compound, and his image shimmered, his body changing into the shape of a dragon, petite in size.

  Beryl lifted her head from where she had been cleaning a claw and snorted an amused laugh. Why do you persist on taking the form of a dragon hatchling? Do you think it will please me, little Djinn?

  “Not at all,” said Chryso. “I enjoy seeing the world from your eyes, even if it is as a tiny dragon.”

  I think you like to show off, as all Djinn do. How is the girl?

  “Resting, she should sleep for a few more hours yet.”

  I can feel her presence. Already we are bonding. She dreams of me, thought Beryl, her head swiveling in the direction of Kara’s chambers. She is strong and will only grow stronger.