Dragons of Wild (Upon Dragon's Breath Trilogy Book 1)

by Ava Richardson

  From outside the wagon, I heard the guard shout to make way for the king’s Iron Guard.

  I wondered if the guard thought I was the leader of the rebellious Salamanders or the most dangerous criminal in all of Torvald?

  For some reason, they thought me deadly. That was the least true thing possible.

  I let out a sigh. What would the king do with me if he ever saw that letter from my father—the one with the prophecy that was supposed to lead to his downfall? The answer was obvious. He would do what every king had done when faced with a threat to the throne—he would have the Iron Guard tear me apart. Just as King Enric had done to others. I turned my face into the wall.

  “Bower? Bower, will you stop sulking? We must talk and I fear we don’t have much time.”

  I turned my head to see Saffron sitting opposite me, a chain hanging between her ankles and one between her hands. “I’m such a fool.”

  She frowned. “For trusting that Vic? Yes, you are. But that is not to the point.”

  I winced and tried to sit straighter. “What is to the point? My head feels like a broken melon, my sides were trampled upon by an Iron Guard, and it is a miracle we are not yet the both of us dead.”

  “It’s not a miracle. It’s my mark.” She gestured to her collar bone. “I told them I must see the king. I am going to try what you suggested—I am going to convince him dragons are good and that he does need to fear them.”

  Letting my head fall back against the wagon wall, I took a shallow breath that almost did not make my sides ache. “Saffron, I was wrong. I was wrong about Vic. I fear I was wrong about the king. I don’t think he will listen to reason, and I fear if you try you will die.” I lifted a hand and touched the corner of my mouth. I had the taste of copper blood on my tongue and was one of my teeth loose?

  Saffron’s frown deepened. “Stop acting like that. You did what you said. You helped me find my family. Now I have to do the next part.”

  I glanced at her. “Which is?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t tell you—I shouldn’t. Jaydra said I have to be careful with my secrets and I should have paid more attention to her council before this.”

  “Little late for that,” I muttered. I fixed a hard stare on Saffron. “If you want council, listen to mine. Everyone hates dragons—and they do so because of King Enric. Do not give him a reason to want you dead—do not threaten him in any way.”

  “I have to try—and your idea was a good one. Why are you so ready to quit?”

  “Because Vic was right—I have been living with a head full of stories!”

  “And how is that bad?” Saffron asked, glaring at me

  The wagon rocked to a halt. Wherever we were, it stank of sewage and I feared we would not be kept anywhere comfortable tonight.

  Leaning forward, I told Saffron, “Tell them nothing. Pretend you are just a traveler—you are that. Do not let the king know who you really are! Use that whatever it is thing you do to make yourself vanish and save yourself.”

  Saffron’s mouth took on a mulish downturn. She shook her head. “I’m kin to this king of yours? He’ll have to listen to me. I will make him”

  I opened my mouth to tell her that was a daft idea. Before I could get the words out, the door to the wagon opened and an Iron Guard yanked me out by my chains. I hit the ground and lay there moaning until I was pulled upright by the guards.

  I groaned, but Saffron stepped out of the wagon looking very much like a princess, despite the chains on her ankles and wrists and the skins she wore. She kept her head up and glanced at the guards as if daring them to touch her.

  I could only hope she would listen to me and that she and Jaydra would get out of this alive.

  We should never have come back. “Move,” the guard shouted.

  The Iron Guard dragged me up a few steps and into a circular room. My head was ringing and my sides ached—I wanted to throw up. Instead, I squinted around me, wondering where we were.

  It was only then that I recognized the chambers of the courthouse.

  The Iron Guard dragged me and pushed Saffron into the main chamber, the very one in which I had seen Master Julian sentenced to his doom. I glanced around at the raised tiers of seats and the galleries of wooden benches, the podium and the tall wooden cabinets. It was supposed to be a fine building, full of pride, honor and grandeur.

  Instead, it held only one man—King Enric Maddox.

  14

  The Kindness of Kings

  Saffron stood next to me and it was all I could do not to lean on her. King Enric looked as he had the last time I had seen him—young, tall and elegant in finely embroidered robes of gold and purple. His hair seemed darker and his face—was that a shimmer I saw? One that was not unlike the one I’d first glimpsed on Jaydra when I’d thought I’d seen a horse—or a dragon?

  I narrowed my eyes, but I could not quite bring the king’s face into focus. I glanced at Saffron. Was she doing something? Was she trying to help us escape?

  I turned to look at her, only to see her frowning and staring hard at the king. Was she sensing the same thing I was? Or was she searching for a family resemblance. Certainly the strong chin, the straight nose and the high cheekbones were the same—but I thought Saffron’s eyes were larger and held more intelligence. The king I thought only looked cunning.

  King Enric glanced at us, his expression a touch bored. He signaled for us to be dragged before him. The Iron Guards stood close, one behind me and one behind Saffron. The king smiled, as if my anger amused him. He brushed an invisible touch of lint from the sleeve of his robe.

  The guard fell to one knee, his head bowed. “Sire, these are the traitors Vic of House Cassus informed on.”

  Despite my wish to remain defiant, I myself oddly entranced. There was something mesmerizing about the young king. Was it the too smooth skin? The piercing blue eyes perhaps? Or the fine robes that swayed as he moved? I couldn’t look away from the king as he walked in front of us. He was the ruler of all the Middle Kingdom, the most powerful man in the world. I had been frightened by him and what he represented for so long that it was hard to think of him as being a real person.

  Standing in front of him, I realized I had been a Salamander in truth for years—I was one of those dissidents the king had been after. I had defied him with my books, my reading the forbidden, and I had made friends with a dragon. And I was proud of it all.

  But another emotion tugged at me.

  Behind the king’s silks and his back hair and smooth skin, I sensed a power that reminded me a little of the dragon magic I had seen at work with Jaydra who had made herself into a horse. Could Saffron sense it too? It was as if my mind was trying to tell me something, but it could not quite allow the truth to surface.

  The king stepped closer and I caught a scent of something. Was that the smell of over-ripe fruit? Of flowers starting to turn and die?

  Suddenly, the king grabbed Saffron’s shirt and yanked it down, exposing the mark upon her collar bone.

  I gave a low growl, but the Iron Guard slammed a hand down upon my shoulder, and I fell to my knees.

  Saffron glanced down at me. The king let her go and stepped in front of me. “Bower, I know who you are.” He paused as if he searching for something, almost as if he was scenting the air and sniffing out some truth hidden to me.

  My heart seemed to clench and stop. I had always thought the king uncannily powerful, but now I wondered if he could even read minds? Or was there something other secret he knew?

  “You are Bower …” He paused again and his stare traveled over my face, searching. I realized he waited for me to betray myself but I had nothing to tell him. Did he want to pull the prophecy from me? My head swam for a moment, but I met his stare. “Of House Daris,” he said. Turning away, he smiled at Saffron. “Just as I know who you are—Saffron of House Maddox.”

  Not my real name…my name is Saffron. Just Saffron.

  My mind was whirling as the king’s gaze seemed to se
arch into me. His wasn’t an unkind face, I thought. In fact, some would think him handsome were it not for the glittering, intense concentration in his eyes. If a dragon ever looked at me like that, I would be certain it had the dragon sickness or was about to eat me.

  I stared back at him, trying to see some resemblance between us. Was there something in the set of his eyes and cheekbones that I recognized from having seen my own reflection in the waters of home?

  The king put a hand on my birthmark. His touch was cold, and yet a bolt of recognition shot through me. He was connected to me just as I was to him. Something in our blood spoke to each other.

  The king gave a nod. “I know exactly who you are.”

  For a moment, a giddy delight flooded me. I had found someone who knew magic at last. And then I pulled back, staring at him in confusion. I didn’t know what to feel—angry still at the poor treatment we had been given, outraged by his Iron Guard, a touch frightened. But if we were kin, he must listen to me.

  I am Saffron Maddox, but I am also Saffron dragon-friend. A spark of magic warmed my chest.

  “Guards, take Bower of House Daris to the dungeons.” Turning from me, the king lifted a hand to dismiss the guards.

  “No,” I said and had to clear my throat to keep my voice steady. “You cannot.”

  The king glanced at me, his eyebrows raised. “Cannot? That is not a word to use with a king.”

  He stepped in front of me again. “You may be a Maddox, but you do not yet know what that means. You will learn.”

  I shook my head. I could not allow Bower to be hurt because of me. Bower had come back to the city for my sake—so I might find my people. Well, I had done that. And Bower was not going to suffer for having helped me.

  Summoning the spark of dragon magic, I allowed my fear and anger to twist inside of me until it was like a storm beating against the shore. I threw it against the king.

  For an instant, he staggered back. His image seemed to wobble. And then anger sparked in his eyes. And my magic went wild.

  A thunderous crack split the room. I went flying out of the Iron Guard’s hold and smacked into a stone wall. The air smelled of smoke, singed wood and lightning. My head was ringing. When I could open my eyes, the king bent over me. He glanced to the side, so did I. An Iron Guard had been rent by my magic. Half of the metal body tried to move and twist, but it could only flop about.

  There was nothing inside of it.

  Exhausted, I closed my eyes and let the world fade away.

  15

  Your Rightful Place

  You must follow the truth in your blood!

  Zenema’s voice seemed to be coming from the mouth of a woman with short, frizzy hair tied back. She stared at me with sorrowful eyes and wrapped a blanket around me to protect me against the cold of a dangerous sea journey.

  Mother?

  I thought the word to her but she couldn’t seem to hear my thoughts. She kept looking at me with pity, despair and a wild hope in her eyes. They were the sort of eyes a dragon might have—a deep, golden green, flecked with glittering silver.

  You have to wake up, Saffron.

  The voice coming from the woman changed again, it was not a human voice nor was it Zenema’s.

  “Jaydra?” I whispered.

  Who are you really, Saffron?

  This time the voice seemed to belong to an old man.

  I don’t know. Surely this woman; my mother should know who I was. “Why did you leave me? I asked, tears stinging my eyes.

  I never left you, Saffron. You had to hide. You have to hide.

  The woman’s skin changed, becoming ridged, hard like a dragon’s scales. Her neck elongated and her body widened and wings sprouted. Was I looking at Zenema or Jaydra? I could no longer tell. My family was human. My dragons my family. The woman-dragon regarded me with fear, worry and a challenge.

  Was this the dragon inside me—the part of me where Jaydra’s mind and mine touched?

  “Who are you?”

  “I am Saffron,” I mumbled. I knew no other answer.

  You have to wake up, Saffron.

  Why was she or they so insistent? “Who are you?

  “I am Saffron dragon-friend, Saffron den-sister to Jaydra and den-daughter to Zenema.

  Wrong! Who are you?

  “I—I don’t know!” I found myself wailing the words. “Who do you think I am? Who do you want me to be?”

  Saffron—you have to wake up now!

  I coughed and sat bolt upright. I lay on something soft. A knocking continued. Jaydra had been trying to wake me up, aware I was asleep or unconscious and in danger. I heard a click and turned to see a door open.

  I reached for my belt knife only to realize I was not wearing it. Glancing down I saw I was not wearing an awful lot. A gown of white linen with heavy embroidering around the neck and hem covered me. I looked up. The bed had a blue canopy over the top and blue curtains around it and four huge dark posts.

  I had no recollection of how I gotten here or even where here was.

  The room seemed large, with a small, wooden cabinet that gleamed. A standing mirror stood to one side of one high, thin window slit. Tapestries on the wall showed a man I now recognized as Hacon Maddox leading a charge of Iron Guards across a battlefield.

  “My lady?”

  Looking over, I saw the intruder Jaydra had been trying to warn me about.

  She looked to be a girl no older than me, dressed in a blue gown. She carried a silver tray with bowls of steaming water, scented soaps, and what smelled like roast meat. I was suddenly starving. She looked to be near that, for she was as thin as a sapling.

  “What lady?” I said and frowned at her.

  “Sorry, ma’am. Did I say it wrong? Should it be princess? Your highness?” The skinny girl reached a hand up to touch blonde hair she had scraped back into a knot. Her face paled and her hands started to shake.

  Rubbing at my head, I said, “Come in and shut the door. I’m just not used …” I let the words trail off and waved a hand. I wasn’t used to any of this.

  “Yes my…ma’am.” She came in, shut the door with a kick, and said, “I’m to help you wash and dress, and have brought breakfast, ma’am.” She put the tray on the bed and stood with her eyes downcast and her hands folded in front of her.

  Feeling the ache in my shoulders, I remembered my magic had thrown me against some wood…or a wall. I looked at the tapestries again. “Is this… the palace?” I asked. Wasn’t that where everyone had said the king lived?

  “Yes, ma’am.” She looked up, her eyes bright. “Breakfast first?”

  “Why didn’t the king throw me in the dungeons?”

  “Ma’am?” The girl’s face paled. She blinked several times and swallowed, her Adam’s apple bobbing. “What are you not allowed to have a thought of your own? Or an opinion?”

  “King Enric is great and terrible, my lady,” she said the words clear and slow, as if they were a magic formula that kept her safe.

  I swung my legs out of the bed and stood, trying to stretch the aches and knots from my muscles. The girl was staring at me, eyes wide and her mouth open.

  Walking over to the window I judged the room too high to leap out of and the narrow slit too it slim to climb through.

  Den-sister? Jaydra’s mind touched mine. Saffron in need?

  I let out a breath, relieved that Jaydra had not listened to me and had not left me. I’m being fed breakfast. And I must stay to try and find Bower before we can escape.

  Good. All three leave this place together. Jaydra agreed with a firm determination to try and sniff out where Bower was being kept.

  “Ma’am?” The girl wet her lips and stared at me.

  With a glance at her, I asked, “Is there a river? A waterfall I can use to wash?” I looked the girl over. She was as thin as a stick. “You can eat some of my food while I do wash.”

  The girl shook her head and kept staring at me. I decided there were no waterfalls nearby. I pointed to th
e tray, took up a hot roll that I ate, and then used the water she had bought to wash as best I could under the white gown I wore. The girl’s cheeks reddened. She turned away to pull another dress from the wooden cupboard.

  I shook my head and crossed my arms. “I want my own breeches and jerkin, not that flouncy dress.

  The girl’s eyes widened. “But…”

  “Aren’t you supposed to do what I ask?” She nodded. “Well, fetch me my clothes.” She ran out and came back with my skins, which had been brushed off. I dressed and the girl stood where she was, not moving a muscle.

  I waved at the rolls. “Try one. And I don’t look that bad, do I?” I pulled my hair back and tied it with a leather thong from my pouch. The girl hadn’t brought back my knife, but everything else seemed in place.

  Even though I didn’t want to admit it, I felt better with food inside me and after a night’s sleep. I started to plan.

  Clearly the king recognizes I am a Maddox. He may even be trying to win me over to his side. I will demand the release of Bower—and then call on Jaydra to help us escape! It was a simple enough plan, and one that I hoped wouldn’t require me to wear dresses… They better not have hurt him… I thought about Bower, looking at all of the food laid out before me and instantly felt sick. There was really no way that I could eat a thing while he was wherever he was, starving? Being beaten?

  “Go on, girl.” I said to her. “Break your fast. You look as if you could need all the food you can lay hand to and it’ll only go to waste otherwise.”

  The girl opened and closed her mouth, and shook her head. “I can’t, ma’am. The king ordered me to bring the food to you. It’s for you.”

  I was stunned at this strange behavior. Growing up with dragons had left me practical as far as the fundamentals of life were concerned. If you were hungry and you weren’t stealing a den-mate’s food, you ate. If you were tired and you weren’t in danger, you slept. If you were thirsty, you drank. The idea of this girl not eating when she was clearly near starving and there was plenty of food for both of us struck me as insane. “No one is going to mind. And no one is going to tell. Eat!”