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

by Ava Richardson

  No, I didn’t want to think about the alternative answer. I strode toward what looked to be the very last cell.

  This door was locked, but I found the key more easily. Opening the door, I peered inside.

  The cell looked to have enough room for three people to lie down. In one top corner, I glimpsed the small grate. The moon gave me enough light to see someone was trying to stand.

  “Bower!” I gasped the word. Anger sparked inside me for how he’d been left—dirty, bruised by what I could see of the dark shadows on his skin, and his face marked with cuts that looked as if they might fester. My hands twitched with the desire to let out my powers—to blast this place. I could feel the anger changing into magic, starting to pour out of me. The room brightened, and I knew I was the cause of that. But I could not stop it—could not control the power. It was going to burst out of me.

  And then Bower said, “Saffron, what are you doing?”

  Saffron was glowing—there was no other word for that. Light seemed to pour from her skin as if she honestly was on fire. She blazed in the darkness like a beacon. My mind seemed to be working sluggishly, but I remembered she had said she couldn’t really control what she did. Struggling to my feet, I put my back to the wall.

  “Saffron, what are you doing?”

  The glow started to fade from her skin. She gulped down a shaking breath and stretched out a hand, sketching what seemed to be letters in the air—ancient ruins. I recognized the likes of them from the oldest scrolls I had ever seen.

  The glow flowed to her finger tips and condensed into a blinding ball of whiteness. She flicked a finger and the ball launched itself at the wall. I ducked, and it hit just over my head, sending a cascade of bits of stone and leaving the wall glowing red hot. Moving away from the heat and destruction, I stared at the crater she had made—it wasn’t enough to get us out of here for the stones still stood, but I worried now that the structure might be compromised and this place could fall down on top of us. “Bower,” Saffron said again. This time she sounded more like herself—her voice earlier had had both a tight anger in the word and an echo of something I found unsettling. It was as if for a moment she had become something larger. In fact, it was a lot like when Jaydra had changed form into a dragon—Saffron had seemed not to take the shape of a dragon, but I had sensed a power from her that might had destroyed not just this cell, but the entire dungeon and us as well if she had loosed it.

  I began to wonder if she might be more of a danger even than King Enric.

  Was this what happened to someone who lived with dragons? Had the king had been right in saying dragons changed what a person was and made them something dangerous?

  Saffron stepped closer and smiled, looking like herself again, no longer glowing from within, but the stones cast an uncanny light over her face, and I could again see the resemblance between her and the king in the sharp cut of their faces and the bone structure. I shivered. “I’m here to rescue you. We have to get going. Can you walk?”

  I nodded. “I’m just—tired. And hungry. If you see something to eat, grab it, will you?” Pushing off the wall, I managed to walk over to her. My legs shook. I needed water more than I needed food, but it seemed a very long time since I’d had much of either of those things. I wanted to touch her to make certain she was real and that this wasn’t another dream, but I didn’t dare. Not after what she’d just done to the wall. I wasn’t certain what had set her off. “I thought I would never see you again?”

  Saffron flashed a smile, but her eyes seemed very bright. She gave s sniff. “Of course it’s me. I am not Vic. I would never leave a friend in danger.”

  “But we can’t leave. King Enric has a terrible plan.”

  She nodded. “He told me. There is some prophecy about dragon breath, which the king thinks is fire and smoke, and some kind of true king coming out of that, so he thinks this means if he burns Torvald to the ground he will both kill all those who oppose him and become this true king. He wanted me to stand with him, so I had to let him think I was considering it. I mean he is family.” She pulled a sour face, and then her mouth set into a line of grim determination set across her features. “He’s been telling a lot of lies and blood-family doesn’t seem all I thought it would be. But I don’t think he’s lying about his grand plan.”

  I nodded. “No, I think to secure more power, the king would lay waste to all of the Middle Kingdom.”

  She pushed a staff at me. “Here, you look as if you could use this. “Ready?”

  Leaning on the staff, I waved for her to go first. She turned, but paused and turned back. “Oh, you may need this.” Pulling out a long knife from behind her back, she twirled it and handed it to me hilt first.

  Staring at it, I shook my head. “No, you better keep that for now. The shape I’m in, I’m likely to cut myself.”

  She gave a snort but moved ahead, knife held out in front of her.

  My eyes burned from the smoke in the cell, I glanced back at the wall that Saffron had blasted. How had she done that? How had power poured from her fingertips? How had she known to sketch the runes in the air? Had the king taught her this—or did she just know?

  It suddenly occurred to me that she really was of House Maddox—she had the same blood as the king. The thought unsettled me. But for now, we had to escape this place.

  No guards came to check on us—which I thought a touch odd. Saffron led the way down a long corridor with cell doors that stood open. The place seemed oddly empty, as if the king had taken everyone from the place. Was this more of his plan? Had he put all of his enemies back into Torvald, released them under the pretext of doing something noble for the fair celebration to mark a turning point in his reign? If so, I knew he must be doing that to make sure they died along with the rest of Torvald.

  I knew if the king closes the gates, there would be no escape from the walled city. The king could burn it and everyone would die. Once there might have been dragons and those nobles in the city who were Dragon Riders could have flown from danger—that time was no more. We had to stop the king.

  Through my fog of pain and hunger, I followed Saffron, leaning on the staff she had given me. The steps proved more difficult for me, and then we eased through a door and into a room that I recognized as being part of the Imperial Lodge. I’d been hidden below a place I had come to before, long ago when my father had still been welcome at court and I had been a boy.

  “I know where we are,” I told her.

  Saffron glanced at me and waved for me to take the lead. “What’s the best way to the stables? Jaydra is waiting for us there and hiding.”

  I frowned. “Saffron, we can’t leave Torvald to a horrible fate.”

  “I know. But first we have to get to someplace safe. Then we can figure out what we can do.”

  It was my turn to nod, and then I walked ahead of her, trying to be quiet with the staff and not thump it hard against the floor.

  We stepped out into the dawn. A silver light traced the eastern sky, sharpening the ridgeline above the palace. The thin, watery light streaked clouds into colors of red and orange.

  I pulled in a sweet breath of clean air, but the acrid scent of smoke tickled my nose. And something else as well—something sour and old, like flowers that had wilted in a vase and were rotting or like meat gone off and now infested with maggots.

  Turning to tell Saffron we could use the path to the right of us to get to the stables, I saw she had frozen still. For a moment, I thought she was glowing again, but it was just the dawn starting to bring color and shape back to the world. Saffron’s eyes seemed to pale and her gaze went distant and she uttered but one word.

  “Magic.”

  19

  Where You Belong

  The world smelled of magic. Or rather of Enric’s magic. I knew the scent of it now, I knew he had to be using all his powers. But to do what?

  Smoke hung in the air and I feared we were too late to stop the king—he was starting to burn Torvald. But I
heard no alarms from the city, no cries, and no shouts. The palace, too, seemed oddly silent. Not even a morning bird had begun to sing.

  I look to Bower and found him staring at me, his mouth twisted up on one side and down on the other as if he wasn’t happy about something. Fear flashed in his eyes for a moment to be replaced by what I hoped might be a touch of warm gratitude. I wondered for an awful moment what he really thought of the power that had slipped out of my hand in the cell—I hadn’t been able to control it.

  Anger had stirred the power—as it always did. I’d hated to see Bower looking so poorly. My hand seemed to move on its own, sketching a symbol that seemed to be something I knew in my blood—Maddox blood. Maddox magic. Only Bower calling my name had pulled me back into myself and kept me from releasing a power that could have killed us both.

  I was still a danger to those around me—still unable to control my powers.

  How will Bower look at me when he realizes I have the same magic as Enric?

  Bower must hate the king—I did as well. But all too soon, Bower might start to fear and then hate me. I didn’t want that to happen. I would have to control my anger better so I did not allow my powers to take hold.

  Dragging in a breath, I told Bower, “That stink. It’s King Enric’s magic. You do know he’s not a young man—he’s old. Ancient. He uses illusion to make everyone think him handsome.”

  Bower straightened. “I knew it! I knew there was something that was not right with him. I’ve seen a shimmer a few times—like I do with Jaydra at times.”

  Suddenly, I was the one worried about Bower. He shouldn’t have ever seen the shimmer of illusion around Jaydra—or the king. I remembered Jaydra had said there was something special about him. Now I started to wonder just what made him different from anyone I had ever met. Did he have power and not know it? But why I had I sensed nothing from him? Why did my power surge in ways I couldn’t handle, but Bower’s abilities seemed content to be quiet and soft?

  It wasn’t fair.

  It was also nothing I could do anything about. But I could find Jaydra.

  Casting my mind out, I tried to sense where she might be hiding. I found her at last, crouched in a small, dark room that smelled of straw and hay, her muscles coiled as if ready to spring into the air. She still had the form of a horse, but her tail whipped and lashed far more like a dragon’s tail.

  I touched minds with her. Jaydra, what is it? I lost touch with you before.

  Many metal soldiers. I smell magic. Something is happening. Jaydra known now to be a dragon! I wasn’t able to share all of her senses in the same way she could use mine. I could feel the tension in her body, I could also smell the magic in the air both through her and my own nose. But I could not really see through her eyes. I could, however, hear the clank of metal boots.

  “Saffron?” Bower asked and touched a finger to my arm. His face looked as if he had been on the losing end of a fight. He licked chapped lips.

  I gave a nod. “It’s Jaydra. She says the Iron Guard seem to be on the move. They seem to know she’s a dragon.”

  “How—” He cut off the word, and then spat out, “The king. You said he has magic and he’s using it.”

  Tugging on Bower’s sleeve, I told him, “Something is happening. We need to get to a place where we can see what’s going on.”

  Bower pointed up to a grey, stone tower. “There’s always that or the roof.”

  The tower he’d waved at looked a lot like the one where I’d been kept, except this tower seemed to have a flat top at the peak, not a sloping roof. I glanced at Bower. “Sure you can make it up the stairs?”

  He shrugged. “Do we have a choice? Besides, I might find some food or water on the way.”

  Leading the way and leaning heavily on the staff, Bower led me to a narrow staircase that curved up the outside of the tower. It had no railing and so I stayed close to the stone tower wall. I kept glancing behind us, wondering why I was not seeing any guards.

  The long flight of stairs left us both panting hard.

  On the tower’s flat roof, we could see the mountain behind the palace and the ruins on the crest of the ridgeline of hills and down into the city. Smoke curled up from the city, and at first I took it to be fires started for morning meals or perhaps set out for the fair and some kind of entertainment. Bower limped to where a low wall stood between us and a very long fall.

  Below us the Imperial Lodge seemed to be only slate gray roof. The palace gardens seemed extensive, the green of grass and hedges wandering around buildings. We stood even higher than my tower room had been. I felt almost as if this was a place for dragons to perch. Even the vast Rose Hall seemed small from this height.

  Stretching out a hand, Bower pointed to the city. “Look—it’s begun. Fires.”

  Frowning, I stared down at the city. “But…no one has set an alarm. No one is trying to—”

  “Escape?”

  I whirled. The king stood with his back to the sunrise, his figure silhouetted in the morning light. He hovered before us, suspended in mid air, using his magic to fly he had shown me before.

  Power pulsed around him, glowed from his skin as if he was made of nothing but fire and light. He was so much better at magic than me! He could swat me like a fly! But instead, when he spoke he did so with a slow, measured charm.

  He shook his head and sorrow leaked into his voice. “Saffron, Saffron, Saffron…after everything I thought to give you—this is how you betray me?”

  Anger erupted in a burst, scalding my stomach and throat. I forgot my earlier vow to keep it contained—I tried. But it flared like a fire given fresh fuel. “How I betrayed you? You lied to me.” I threw my arm wide, gesturing to the city. “And now you betray your people—you want Torvald to be ashes.

  Enric shook his head. “The prophecy must come true. If I do not make it happen, it will take place on its own, without my guidance. Old and young must unite to rule the land from above. Upon the dragon’s breath will come the return of the True King. What you see now will be the rebirth of the glory of Torvald.” Enric’s voice had begun to rise, the way a wind could start to howl before a storm. A breeze seemed to start from around him, rising fast into a whirling wind that whipped at me. He floated closer, his robes gleaming in the sunlight, jewels winking from his fingers—his face pale and perfect and his black hair not moving an inch despite the wind. “Are you not borne to me on the dragon’s breath, out of the far west? Are you not young. And I am so very old.”

  He smiled. The shimmer Bower had described rose up around him. The image of the young man faded. For a moment, young and old both seemed to be part of his face—he was both handsome and an old man.

  Bower gasped, and I shuddered.

  Enric spread wide his arms. No longer did his robes stretch over bulging muscles. Instead, his form seemed thin and bent, as if magic had sapped the strength and flesh from him. His black hair faded into baldness, leaving only strands of white hair over age-spotted skin. His skin faded into pale whiteness, lined with deep grooves around a mouth that pulled down at the corners. His eyes still glittered deep in sunken sockets.

  How old must he be? Eighty? Ninety? Over a hundred? Or was this the cost of magic? I did not know if the magic preserved his life, extended it, or had the magic aged him into this almost corpse-like being?

  His magic swirled around him now-- I could see it as well as smell it. Waves of ugly purple, black and red held him aloft, left him floating just outside the tower’s low wall as if he stood on a cloud of magic. He did look majestic—but it was a terrible majesty to inspire only fear and loathing.

  Enric lifted a hand. Waves of magic wrapped around me like a dragon’s tail. Invisible, icy fingers seemed to wrap around my throat.

  “You thought I would let you go? With the power you have in your blood?” He drifted closer. I struggled against the iron-like clamp on my throat. From the corner of my eye I could see Bower had also been caught and was being held. “You will help me
fulfill the prophecy. You will…or you will see your friends, your Bower and your Jaydra die. So watch now as the prophecy comes to life!”

  Struggling against his magic, I thought I saw the shimmer around Enric that Bower had described. Had he reached the limits of his power? I knew with my own magic that it came with a cost—that it could drain me. Or was he so powerful he could use magic as if it was a thousand bright jewels to be scattered at will?

  There was but one way to find out. I pushed against the invisible hold wrapped around me—I struggled and grunted.

  Enric smiled and shook his head. He waved his hand and suddenly I stood next to Bower, staring down at the city. Licks of orange flame rose from roof tops. Black smoke curled into the air. And still no shouts or cries or alarms sounded. I knew then that Enric must have set magic over the city, perhaps to hold everyone still as I was being held.

  “The prophecy beings,” Enric shouted. “I will be back for you after Torvald burns and we will build a new, greater capital for our world.”

  With a clap like thunder, Enric vanished.

  He had to have extended himself too far—I was sure of it. I could feel it in the magic that held me—it was weakening, easing. It would fade soon. But soon might not be soon enough.

  “Saffron, we must do something.” Bower choked out the words. I glanced at him, saw his face had gone pale. Enric’s magic hold around him was killing him—but seeing Torvald burn would even be worse for him. “Saffron, I saw what you did in the cell. You’re a Maddox—just like the king.”

  “We’re nothing alike,” I snarled.

  Saffron? Jaydra sent me her worry—she would be by my side in an instant if I asked. But I could not bring her to me.

  Anger bubbled inside me, molten hot. I could not let it out. But it bled up to my skin, it sizzled in my veins. The king was not going to kill me. No, he would keep me alive and imprisoned. He would keep me by his side and use me—and my powers. He would work to bend my will to his—and what if he succeeded?