by N. M. Howell
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Fueled by Dragon’s Fire
Return of the Dragonborn Book 2
N.M. Howell
Dungeon Media Corp.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means – by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission.
Copyright © 2017 Dungeon Media Corp.
All rights reserved.
For my readers.
Thank you for supporting me. I wouldn’t be able to do this if it weren’t for you.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
About the Author
Also By N.M. Howell
Prequel
Prologue
The dragons have returned.
It began as a rumor. A rumor like any of the hundred others that had been spread countless times over the centuries. But not once had they proved to be anything other than fabricated stories. Lies propagated by governments and institutions to incite fear and chaos throughout the great land of Shaeyara. Such a rumor had spread so frequently that this time no one seemed to care.
No one even blinked.
It had already been some time since the University in Arvall was ruined and shut down, but still, no one fully understood what took place there that night. No sense could be made from that wreckage. All the world knew was that the University had finally been toppled from its pedestal. The inhabitants of Arvall, one of the greatest cities of all of Noelle, all believed the professors to have gone crazy. As, after all, no one living had ever seen a dragon. Those creatures and their masters had not walked the earth in centuries, and it was insane, impossible even, that they had returned. No one believed it.
Not until they saw for themselves.
The dragons and their riders were first seen in the skies over Abhainn. Even from a thousand feet below, the dragons seemed like enormous manifestations of nightmares. People ran screaming, gathering their children and searching for shelter. No one had ever seen such creatures, such magnificent and terrible beasts that could cut the sky with speed like a thousand celestial knives. They had all heard the stories. Dragons were vicious beasts, capable of slaughtering villages in minutes with their fire. Dragons were evil beasts.
Or so the people were led to believe.
From the moment the first dragon was seen in the skies, rumors spread like wildfire through a brown field, to even the farthest reaches of Noelle. Even to the mine cities in the north where hardly any news ever came or went. Rage and panic began to move through the people. Several attempts were made to find the dragonborn, but it was impossible to track them. The dragons were too fast, and when they sensed they were watched, they could soar so high the eye could not follow them through the clouds.
When the tales began spreading from all corners of the land, however, people began to believe. What everyone once knew to be outlandish stories had finally come alive. The rumors spread by those who survived that horrible night at the University were finally believed. Not only did this mean the dragons had returned, but it also confirmed the deaths of all eight-hundred innocent people who had lost their lives in the mirror hall of the University on the night of their return.
The dragons killed them, people claimed. The evil dragonborn warriors brutally attacked the University that night, a great and angry race who had no business existing in modern time.
Fear grew among the people of Noelle, and the University was only spoken of in whispers for fear of drawing the dragons near. Although many were glad to finally see the University deposed as the leading influencer of Noelle, the people who died were most of the over one-thousand diplomats who had traveled to Arvall to enjoy the Winter Festival. The abrupt and terrible end of so many world leaders left Noelle in utter, devastating confusion as hundreds of politicians across the country clambered over each other to fill the power vacuum. Each claimed to be the one strong enough to lead the people to victory against the evil dragonborn and their dragons. The world waged war.
The threat of the dragons and their riders loomed over the land, increasing with each day that passed without the dragons being found. And so, all the world lived in fear.
But there was at least one who knew the truth.
Chapter One
Andie stared down into the endless depths of the chasm that spread across the largest cavern they’d come across yet. Her toes clung dangerously over the edge, and the cool, damp air sent goosebumps up her arms as a strange breeze made its way up from the abyss, the wind a haunting song in her ear. “There’s no way out,” she whispered.
Their party had traveled through nearly every tunnel and corridor in their search for a way out, but they just kept going in circles. Every path eventually led back to that same cavern with the chasm they could never hope to cross. She was tired, hungry, and had grown thin and pale in the near constant darkness they had been living in for the past few months. Worse still, she had ceased to feel the connection to her people and their magic.
She feared for herself and her friends, but she worried more for the dragonborn out there in a modern world that wanted them slaughtered. A world that must be completely foreign and unwelcoming to them, and so far from home. She knew that with her and her friends trapped underground, nothing but evil rumors would spread throughout Noelle. Whether the University had shut down after their bloody battle or not, she knew in her heart they wouldn’t stop until her people were found. Until her people were destroyed.
“Ow.”
Carmen’s voice pulled her out of her reverie. She had broken her ankle weeks before, and without their magic, they hadn’t been able to mend it. Andie went over to her and kneeled beside her and began to rewrap the torn shirt tied around Carmen’s ankle. It needed to be tighter. Even after all the time that had passed, her ankle still hadn’t healed. Andie thought it was finally better some wee
ks ago, but when they found the bone was mending at the wrong angle, Marvo had to rebreak it. That certainly hadn’t been their best night.
All of Andie’s injuries had healed because of her dragonblood, but Carmen couldn’t heal herself without a spell, which would bring the Searchers right to them. Since the night of the battle in the archives, the University had been monitoring the icons that remained implanted in Andie, Carmen, and Yara’s hands. If any of the girls so much as cast a simple levitation spell, the University would know exactly where to find them. That was not an option. Not after all the trouble they had taken to hide themselves where no one would think to look for them.
“I’m so sorry, Carmen,” Andie said as she yanked the wrapping as tight as she could. “I never meant to get you in this mess. I never meant to get any of you in—“
“I’m old enough to make my own decisions,” Carmen snapped, ever defiant. “I did what I needed to do to protect my friend, and I would do it again. We’ll get out of here, Andie, and we’ll win. We’ll win.”
“Yeah.” Andie wasn’t so sure. Their party grew weak, and their chances of survival decreased with every passing moment.
“You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to look out for one of my friends.” Carmen unsteadily pushed herself to her feet and began collecting whatever small sticks and withered vegetation she could get her hands on to make a fire. “Raesh doesn’t talk about it, but something happened when we were younger. I don’t know if he ever got over it. Did he ever tell you?”
Andie took the sticks from Carmen’s arms and began making a small fire away from the edge of the cavern. It took her numerous tries with the limited supplies they had collected, but eventually, the flame took and cast a much-needed warmth over their shaking bodies. Carmen curled on her side next to the fire, and Andie joined her, eager to hear what she had to say.
“When we were eight our parents took us to Taline. We were going to stay in a hotel there for a little while. It was back when they still had the Glass Games. You probably don’t remember it, but there was loveglass everywhere in the most beautiful and brilliant shapes. The athletes were so talented; I remember one of them offered to take me on a short run and my parents said yes. He took me all the way up to the thirteenth floor of a building, then we swirled and flipped and drifted back down. It was incredible. Raesh was scared to be in the city then. I guess all the people and the size of the buildings scared him. I held his hand as we walked through the city.”
Andie did remember. She held her hands out in front of the small fire for warmth as she listened intently to Carmen’s story. She had never heard this story before. Obviously, it was one Raesh didn’t want her to hear, or else he would have told it to her himself. Nevertheless, she listened quietly as Carmen reminisced, staring dazed out into the dark corners of the cavern.
“Anyway, we’d been in Taline for a couple of nights already, and then one day we were around midtown, just looking for new collar robes for my father. I looked up, and I saw this pair of Red Ravens flying in circles above us. They say it’s a sign of great fortune to have the ravens dance over you, to be chosen by them.” A flash of a smile crossed Carmen’s lips in the flickering firelight, but the smile was quickly replaced with a haunted expression. “I was so excited. I grabbed Raesh and pointed to the sky. But when I looked up again, the ravens had changed color and were flying away. I never knew until then that they turn black when they’re scared. But I looked down Owl’s Line, the main boulevard of the city, and there was this huge purple wave crashing toward us. By the time we knew what it was, the explosion had already reached us. Every one of us was knocked off our feet. I can’t even describe what it was like. Hot, powerful, relentless energy. I’ve never seen anything like it. I can still hear the screams.”
Andie nodded solemnly along to Carmen’s recount. She knew it well. “The first terrorist attack in Taline. They’ve been plagued by them ever since.”
“When the blast wall passed us, I couldn’t find my parents or Raesh’s. The air was so thick with dust. My eyes were burning, and my ears were ringing. A few moments passed, and I realized I could hear Raesh. He was screaming. He’d gotten thrown through the glass window of a nearby store, and his legs were buried in debris. But the building was collapsing; the debris was already falling off of it as the building collapsed in on itself. But I couldn’t leave him there.” A single tear trickled down Carmen’s cheek. Andie pretended to look away as she wiped the evidence away with a torn sleeve.
“What happened?” Andie asked.
“I ran inside, ducking through the people rushing out. I helped him dig himself out, and then I half carried him out. I barely got him out in time before the entire building had collapsed right where he had been trapped. Our parents found us, took us up, and ran. I almost lost everyone I loved that day.”
“You saved Raesh,” Andie said, her eyes tearing lightly. “That’s an incredible story. Is that why you’re so… so…”
“Headstrong?”
“I was going to say protective.”
Carmine laughed. “Yeah, that works, too. It’s strange. That day helped make me who I am, but what I remember most isn’t the explosion or the chaos. It’s all those people running out of that building and ignoring that little boy stuck in the debris, screaming for someone, anyone to help him. To save him. I could never understand how people could be so cruel and so selfish.”
“Fear and the unknown can make a person do anything, but more often than not it just shows you who you really are.” These words held more meaning to Andie than Carmen could ever know. “But you didn’t run. You saved him. You’re a hero.”
“No. I’m just someone who won’t leave a friend behind. Where were you that day?”
“I was at home,” Andie said, trying to hold onto her emotion. She turned away from Carmen and looked back to the chasm behind them. “I never saw the explosion.”
“You’re lucky.”
Andie nodded. “I…” she began, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. The memories of that day have haunted her since she was a child. It was the day her mother had been taken away from her. The day her mother had been killed.
Andie managed to hold herself together with the exception of a few tears that refused to obey her. She turned back to Carmen and offered the most genuine smile she could. Carmen reached out to wipe Andie’s cheek with her own sleeve and took hold of her shaking hand. She gave Andie a moment to breathe, to calm. They had gotten to know each other enough over the past few years that Carmen knew there was more going on behind Andie’s eyes than she let on.
“Andie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful for you.”
Andie shook her head, and a hoarse laugh sounded from her throat. “No, no. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“I only mentioned the story so that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I will never abandon you. Whether it’s a falling building or racist professors. I’ll be here.”
Carmen took Andie’s other hand and gave it a light squeeze. Andie could tell from her hands just how weak her friend had gotten. Carmen yawned, and Andie pulled her pack over for her to use as a pillow while she rested. Andie offered a final smile and got up to go back to the precipice, leaving Carmen to rest. There was something about staring into that cold and endless void that took Andie’s mind off all the problems waiting above ground. She glanced back momentarily to Carmen, who had already fallen asleep next to the dying fire.
After what seemed like an endless amount of time trapped in her own thoughts, Raesh walked up beside her and stood silently. He did that often, always knowing when to speak and when to be silent, almost as if he were reading her mind. He knew her that well. Right then Andie was hoping that he knew what she needed, which was to hear his voice, even if it was only bad news. She had grown to love that voice over the past few months, not that she would ever admit that to him. Not after she had brushed him off for so long while she was at the University.
It was just one of the many things she regretted.
“Eight months,” he finally said to her. “That’s how long we’ve been stuck down here, roving back and forth through these tunnels, looking for a path that isn’t here.”
“What else can we do?” Andie asked, still staring out into the black. “It’s almost a hundred percent guarantee at this point that there’s only one way out of this place, and it’s probably guarded with hundreds of professors. Without the dragonborn here to back us up, we’ll never make it out alive.”
“We have the dragonborn,” he said. “We’ve got you.”
Andie stood silent for a long moment. “I’m not enough.”
Raesh turned to her, slowly, deliberately. For a moment, he just stared at her, as if he couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that again. You’re all we’ll ever need.”
She shared a look with him then that escaped her ability to define. With the immensity of the pressure and the reality of their situation, there hadn’t been much time for romance, but she felt it whether he was near her or not. And she knew he felt it, too. It just wasn’t the right time to act on it.
“Raesh,” she began. “It’s just that now…we can’t really…I know what I’ve put you through with Tarven and the Archives and…the timing—”
“Isn’t right,” he said, nodding. “I know. Maybe someday.”
He smiled at her and then left. She felt incredibly grateful. She turned around, looking for Marvo, and couldn’t help but smile at Carmen snoring softly on the ground, curled up next to the burnt-out fire. Yara was also asleep, sprawled out near the dregs of the food reserves. They hadn’t been able to scavenge in a while, and their reserves has gotten dangerously low. Andie’s stomach grumbled just thinking about food.