A Dragon Born

by Jordan Baker

  "Lento," Aaron said. "Is it possible to change fighters in a match?"

  "It is possible, but not once it has started. As you know, once a fight has begun no one may enter the circle."

  "Is it also possible to enter the circle but only to fight one match?"

  "You mean, enter the circles not to become king?"

  "Yes. Just one fight."

  "We have done this before, for special fighters."

  "I won against Kasha," Aaron said. "Does that make me special enough?"

  Lento smiled at him. "You had a draw against Kasha but you have only fought in one competition, so it makes you a mystery. I will agree to this. Is there a prize?"

  Aaron took out the bag of coins he had taken from Malek's ship. He held it out to the man.

  "Thirty gold, fifty silver and six copper," Aaron told him, then he decided he might need a few coppers in case things did not work out. "Minus the coppers."

  "Thirty gold and fifty silver? That is not a very large prize, but it is a respectable amount. Who do you intend to challenge?"

  "Give me a moment," Aaron said. "Do not start the fight with that creature yet."

  "I will wait a moment," Lento said, then he walked out toward another circle where a match had just ended.

  Aaron ran over to the group of traders who were discussing the upcoming fight with a number of fighters who appeared to be interested in the prize. Aaron pushed past them and walked up to the man who had coaxed the creature into the circle using the blue potion, who appeared to be the leader of the group.

  "I am Antal of Ashford and I would like to make a challenge," Aaron said loudly overtop the fighters who were discussing the terms of the fight. He noticed one of Lento's people standing nearby with a register, which the man opened at Aaron's mention of the name he had used in the fighting circles at Forsina.

  "Good. There are many who seek the prize," said one of the traders.

  "No," Aaron said. "I do not want the prize. I wish to make a different challenge."

  "What challenge is this? The fight is about to begin."

  Aaron looked at all the fighters gathered around.

  "You all wish to kill that creature?" Aaron asked. The fighters all nodded.

  "A hundred pieces is a lot of gold," said one of them. "Free food and drink is only good in Ba'shan."

  "What is your challenge?" asked the lead trader, impatiently.

  "This match seems cowardly to me," Aaron said, doing his best to look disapprovingly at the fighters. "I will fight on the side of the creature and I will add thirty gold and fifty silver to the prize. If any of you can get past me to the creature, then you get both prizes."

  "So you are increasing the prize?" the trader asked. "What do you want from the arrangement? Do you wish to make a wager?"

  "If the creature survives, then you keep your gold and I keep mine, but you will give me the creature's contract."

  The traders conferred with each other for a moment, then spoke with the man with the register, and Aaron noticed Lento making his way to the circle where the blue scaled lizard girl stood just inside it, unmoving, with her head slumped forward and he hair hanging over her face.

  "We will agree to this arrangement, if you agree to fight to the death. These fighters have already agreed to this term and we will not change it, so if you are not a coward, then you will also agree."

  Aaron stared at the fighters.

  "You have all agreed to this?"

  "We are not planning on getting killed," said another one of the fighters, a grizzled looking man who was missing half of one ear and had a long scar running from his shoulder to his stomach underneath his heavy, leather armor. "Are you afraid to test your mettle, boy? Perhaps you're the coward."

  "I do not want to kill you," Aaron said, and the fighters broke into laughter.

  "You're already dead, boy," said one of them. "No one calls me a coward and lives."

  Aaron looked at the angry faces of the gathered fighters and realized what he had gotten himself into. He turned to the traders.

  "You will give me the contract and that potion you have hidden in your robes, if the creature lives and all of these men are either dead or unconscious."

  "We agree to these terms, Antal of Ashford, though we think you are a fool. It is well known among the circles that your match against Kasha was one of luck."

  "We will see about that," Aaron said. He nodded to the register. "Is the arrangement satisfactory to the registers?"

  The man looked over at Lento, who was already waiting at the circle.

  "It is satisfactory," the man said.

  "Good. I wish you all an honorable fight," Aaron said then he turned and walked away from the laughter of the fighters toward the circle.

  "You are an unusual fighter, Antal," Lento said as Aaron approached.

  "I am not a fighter, Lento," Aaron told him.

  "And yet you fight, seemingly without reason. I have a question for you now."

  "What is it?" Aaron asked as he pulled off his desert robes and laid them on the ground outside the circle. He decided to keep the cloth wrappings around his face to make sure no one would recognize him.

  "Why would you enter into such an arrangement as you have made?" Lento held up his register book. "You risk much and gain so little."

  "Truthfully, I am not entirely sure," Aaron answered.

  "Interesting," Lento commented, then he gestured toward the circle. "You must enter the circle now."

  "Can you give me a moment to speak with the creature?" Aaron asked.

  "A brief moment. The match must begin."

  Aaron nodded at the man and walked into the circle, making for the lizard girl who stood at the far side.

  "Hello," Aaron said. The girl did not move. "Is your name Lexi?"

  She turned her head to look at him and he saw a wild look in her eyes that reminded him of an injured wolf or some kind of angry beast, fearful and deadly.

  "Who are you?" she whispered.

  "I am your ally," Aaron told her.

  "I have no allies."

  "Well, you do now. Don't ask me why, but I bet those traders you work for that you and I could beat all those men there and if we win, they will set you free."

  "I don't work for them," she told him.

  "I did not think so." Aaron

  Her head tilted up and she squinted at him.

  "Why would you help me?"

  "I don't know. It just seemed right," Aaron said with a shrug.

  "What does it matter?" Lexi said. "You waste your time. I will fight. I will beat them or they will beat me. I will go back in the cage, then I will fight again. I am a prisoner and that is my place in the world."

  "Is that what the traders told you?" Aaron asked as the other fighters, seven of them, entered the circle and began spreading out. The girl shrugged. "The prize is for killing you. The traders offered a prize of a hundred gold to whichever one of these men kills you. I didn't think that was fair, so I entered the fight."

  Lexi looked at him with a confused look on her face.

  "Why?" she asked.

  "Does it matter?" Aaron asked as he drew his sword. "More importantly, can you use a sword?"

  "Not so much," Lexi told him. "I don't need a sword to fight." She held up her hands and Aaron saw her fingernails begin to grow longer into razor sharp claws.

  At the edge of the circle, Lento held up his hand then let it fall and the fight began as the circle burst into flames. Lexi walked forward toward the men, then she crouched down on the ground and sprang forward at one who wielded a sword. Lexi bounded across the ground like a cat and the man leapt out of the way as she slashed at him with her claws. He swung his sword at her and its tip narrowly missed her back as she ducked low to the ground.

  Aaron was nearly caught off guard by the fighter with the missing ear as he swung his battle axe at him, but Aaron jumped out of the way just in time and brought his sword up in a slash across the man's shoulder. Aaron rolled
and brought his blade up toward another man, who was bearing down on him with a wicked looking curved blade. He blocked the man's strike and dodged to the side, just as another fighter swung low at his feet with a longsword. Aaron stepped over the blade as it whipped through the air beneath him and he spun around and brought his knee up into the man's face. He felt something crunch and he knew that the man's nose had been broken, but that such an injury would only slow the fighter down temporarily.

  Aaron knew he had to keep moving or the other fighters would close in on him. He glanced over at Lexi, who had three fighters attacking her, two with long swords and another who used both a dagger and a sword. They all had longer weapons that kept her at a distance, and she crouched and darted, evading their swings and slashes. Lexi darted forward and slashed her claws at one of the men and his sword connected with her arm, but his blade did not cut her but slid off the hard scales that ran from her wrist to her shoulder and she pushed past it, to rake his face. The man screamed and stumbled back, while the other man with a longsword stabbed at her.

  Lexi spun out of the way but found herself face to face with the other man who slashed at her with his dagger. She caught the steel with her open hands and dark, red blood spattered from the blade and landed on the dirt. The man brought up his sword, ready to strike at her, but Lexi darted forward toward him, past his blade and she leapt atop his chest, knocking him on his back to the ground and she clawed his eyes as she leapt away, narrowly missing a longsword that swung toward her. The man on the ground screamed and grasped at his face as blood poured out of his eyes.

  Aaron gritted his teeth and pushed away a memory that flooded into his thoughts when he saw the girl's hands being cut and he brought his sword up to deflect a blow from the man with the long, black hair. Aaron's blade slid along the other man's sword and he felt something coming from him, like a low rumbling that reminded him of the sound when he would get one of his headaches. Thankfully the pain that usually followed never came, and Aaron was relieved, but when the man's sword erupted in crackling energy, Aaron jumped back.

  Even though his sword no longer touched the other man's blade, energy like lightning leapt between them and Aaron felt his arms go numb for a moment. The man with the battleaxe attacked him again and Aaron was barely able to stumble backwards and avoid the thick, sharp blade. The strength in his arms returned and Aaron leapt sideways, letting his sword drop behind him then he brought it up in a sweep at the upper arms of the man with the axe. The sharp edge of his blade cut through the man's leather bracers and bit into flesh. The man screamed and Aaron did not thing the man would be lifting his axe again any time soon.

  A ball of fire sailed through the air from the man with long, black hair and Aaron ducked instinctively, but then he realized it had not been aimed at him. He saw it hit Lexi, who was fighting the two men with longswords, one of them with claw marks across his face but otherwise uninjured. The force of the blast knocked Lexi sideways, away from the two men, and Aaron expected that the fire would have burned her, but a moment later she was back on her hands and feet, and moving toward the two men. Aaron felt another rumbling of power, but this time it was coming from the man with the curved sword, who attacked him. The man's attacks were so quick that Aaron could barely counter them and he realized that the man must be using some kind of magic to make his sword move faster than normal.

  Aaron retreated from the man's flurrying blade as another blast of fire flew from the man with the long hair, who then leapt at him with his sword. The man with the curved sword hung back for a moment. Aaron saw the ball of fire flying toward him and he realized there was no way for him to dodge it, but he instinctively brought up his sword and the flames split and fell around him on either side. His sword raised, Aaron caught the blade that followed and he saw that the man with the long hair appeared surprised that his mage fire had been cut in half by Aaron's sword.

  Aaron was surprised as well, but he did not have time to think about it. He caught the man's attack on his crosspiece and pressed forward, pushing the man away, as the fighter with the curved blade attacked, darting in again with another blinding series of slashes. Instead of trying to keep up, Aaron fell back and ducked out of the way, crouching low and grabbing a handful of sand from the ground, which he threw in the man's face. The fighter rubbed at his eyes as the grit of the sand blinded him and Aaron swung at the man's legs, cutting through his flesh just above the knees, a deep gash that should take out of the fight. The man fell to his knees but Aaron was driven back by another blast of fire from the man with the long hair. Aaron barely got his sword up in time to cut the mage fire from the air when the longsword of the man whose nose he had broken whistled through the air in a wide arc directly at him. With no angle to deflect, Aaron tried to block the man's attack, but the much heavier longsword smashed hard into Aaron's blade and the impact sent him tumbling to the ground.

  Aaron rolled and hopped back up to his feet to find Lexi had dodged another attack from her two remaining opponents, and ended up near him, crouched on one knee, in the center of the circle. As the fighters closed in on them, Aaron glanced over at her and saw that she had deep cuts on her arms and legs as well as several deep gashes across her back and midsection where her skin was softer and was not protected by scales. He could hear that the rhythm of her breathing did not sound right and she seemed to be choking and wheezing.

  "Are you all right?"

  "I can't breathe," she gasped. "I need the water, the magic water."

  Aaron knew she was talking about the potion that the trader had taunted her with. He did not know much about potions, but it made sense that for people to become slaves to something, they would feel adverse effects to it when it was denied. Aaron shook his head in anger and sized up the remaining four fighters. One of them could use mage fire, and three had longswords and the strength to use them effectively. From their expressions Aaron could tell they did not intend on just winning the match, these men were there to kill and collect their gold. Lexi doubled over and fell to her knees, then began to retch, gasping for breath, and Aaron knew there was no way out of the match if he did not do something.

  "This is the end for you," yelled the man with the long, black hair as he used his power to create a large fireball on his fingertips, much larger than the ones he had thrown before. The man turned to the other three fighters. "I will hit them with this, and the prize will be mine. If you do not want to die, you will stand back."

  "Just kill them," snarled the one with claw marks across his face.

  The other men held back as the man with the long hair poured more power into the ball of fire, creating an inferno in the air above his outstretched hand. Satisfied that the flame was big enough, the man grinned cruelly at the lizard girl and her would be rescuer then he threw the ball of fire at them.

  The explosion of heat and fire was enormous and the flames completely enveloped Aaron and the lizard girl, scorching the earth where they stood. The fighters laughed as the flames exploded in a storm of orange and red, and the cheering of the crowd dropped to a low murmur, but when the flames died down and the smoke was whisked away by the dry desert wind, Aaron and Lexi were still alive, unharmed. Inside the blast, Aaron felt his power react almost instinctively, sending energy out to the invisible sphere around him. As the flames raged around him, he realized that he was unharmed and that his power had saved him, but when he turned to look at the lizard girl beside him, expecting the horror of seeing her burned by the mage fire, he saw her kneeling among the flames, continuing to choke and gasp at the poison that had been affecting her, as though the fire did not even exist.

  "You are not burned," Aaron said, as the smoke cleared.

  "No," she the girl coughed. "It is only fire." She was wracked by another spasm of retching and choking and Aaron knew that there was no way Lexi would be able to fight.

  The smoke around them cleared and Aaron saw the four remaining fighters closing in. He knew he could beat any one of them in singl
e combat, even two of them, but not while trying to protect the girl. Against four, Aaron knew they would have little chance unless he used his power. The fighters leered as they readied their weapons to attack and Aaron frowned. There was no other way.

  The fighter with the long black hair felt it first. He was irritated that his mage fire had not burned the two, but now he thought he might understand why. A low rumbling filled the arena and he saw the swordfighter named Antal draw a circle of power in the air, which he expanded out to the edge of the circle. He reached out with his power to see what kind of magic his opponent intended to use and he realized why he had not noticed his power. Whatever he was doing, it was blocked by some kind of barrier, but a moment later, the fighter found out.

  Aaron expanded the sphere that surrounded him and moved closer to the girl, making sure she was safely inside, then he touched the white, hot energy that he had felt slowly growing inside him from the time he had left the pirate island. Aaron was not sure how much of it to take and, for a moment, the memories of fire flashed through his mind. It could not be helped. Aaron seized the power and the air around him crackled and burned as the temperature rose. The fighters saw their swords begin to glow hot and the tips began to melt as heat shot through the metal and burned their hands. They barely had time to drop their swords when the world around them exploded in blazing light.

  The crowd had felt the low rumbling in the arena, even those who did not have any affinity for magic noticed it, and they felt the air become very still and cool night of the desert became hot as the noonday sun. All at once, the circle where the lizard and her defender fought the group of seven fighters erupted in a column of blinding light that shot up into the night sky. The people shielded their eyes and covered themselves in fear as the air became so hot it became difficult to breathe. Many screamed in terror, but then, the light disappeared again, leaving only a column of smoke inside the circle. A moment later a cool gust of wind blew in from the desert and the smoke drifted away, revealing the circle where only two remained. The other seven fighters were gone, and where they had been, there were only piles of ash.