Dragon Legends (Return of the Darkening Book 2)

by Ava Richardson

  “Thea, the commander said—”

  “The commander’s been saying a lot of things that don’t always make sense. I’m not going to wait for this man to catch you alone again.” Turning, I headed for the cabin at a fast, soft run.

  I didn’t tell Seb what else I was thinking—that if we managed to get some answers out of this man, we might also earn our way into the Black Claws.

  Bounding up onto the wooden steps outside, I kicked open the door. I could hear Seb behind me, his sword hissing as he pulled it out, and Kalax took flight, heading to the cabin to help us.

  The door sprang backwards with a crash to reveal a long, narrow room crowded with shelves. A small candle lay on a worktable, and in a chair sat a large man with a pepper-and-black beard and a graying cloak, a book open in front of him.

  “Stop where you are, old man,” I shouted, leveling my sword at him. He put one hand in the air, and his face twisted. I thought I’d frightened him, but then I realized he was making an ‘I have been frozen’ face like a travelling actor might do at one of the summer festivals. “Stop that.”

  Kalax’s roar rattled the cabin’s shutters.

  “No, Kalax, pull back,” Seb shouted.

  The old man straightened and smoothed his cloak. “Make up your mind. Stop? Go? No? What?” He stood, moved to one of the wooden barrels at the back of the cabin and started to uncork it.

  I stepped closer. “Leave that alone.”

  The man glanced at me. “Your dragon is hungry, isn’t she? Of course she is. Dragons are always hungry.” He popped open the barrel and the smell of salted lake fish wafted up, making my stomach growl even though I’d had dinner. That seemed a long time ago now, and I loved salted lake fish.

  Fish?

  I heard Kalax’s thoughts. She landed nearby, branches cracking and breaking under her. Seb stepped up to my side, holding his sword out to match mine. “I feed my dragon, not you. Now…don’t you recognize me?”

  The man laughed as if we were children he’d known for years. “A dragon will feed itself, with or without its rider’s consent!” He pulled out a large fish, took a chunk and popped it into his mouth. “See, it is fine. I wouldn’t poison myself, would I?”

  I’ll judge if food is bad.

  Kalax’s nose pushed into the doorway and she huffed out a long, hot breath.

  “There’s a well-spirited one!” The man laughed. “I bet she’s a beautiful flier, too.”

  Seb’s eyes narrowed, but I could see the blush of pride on his cheeks. “The best.”

  “I’m sure she is.” He threw the salted fish to Kalax. Even within the narrow doorway, she managed to catch the fish and gulp it down.

  She pulled back and announced Fish good.

  “And yes, young Sebastian, the smith’s son, I know you. Just as I know you, Lady Agathea Flamma.” The man wiped his hands on a cloth and smoothed his beard, before nodding at Seb and bowing deeply to me. “My brother told me to expect you two.”

  I glanced at Seb and back to the man. Seb’s sword tip dropped, but I kept mine up. “What do you mean your brother?”

  The man smoothed his beard. “I am very sorry for any harm I may have caused you the other night, Sebastian, but I couldn’t afford to be caught by the city watch. Those dullards would have kept me from important work. The whole game would be ruined!”

  “Game? You think this is a game?” I waved my sword in front of him. “We came for answers.”

  “And you shall have some.” He sat down again at the worktable and waved to an unlit fireplace where a group of rickety stools sat. “My name is Jodreth and Commander Hegarty is my younger brother.”

  Staring at him, I could see some resemblance. Both men had clear, gray eyes, and both shared a similar muscular build. But this man seemed taller. I also knew it was easy enough to claim blood ties. “Why hasn’t he told anyone about you?”

  Jodreth laughed. “Well, we had different fathers, which is why he is so short. But we shared the same mother.” He looked at Seb. “We grew up in similar circumstances to you, young man, as it happens. But take a seat and we’ll get down to business. We must be done before dawn touches the horizon.”

  “Done with what?” I kept my sword up. I still didn’t feel we should trust this man.

  He nodded and smiled. “My brother told me to expect you—he knew the academy was being watched, and he did not trust talking to you directly. We do not want to put you in danger of the Memory Stone being used against you—and that will happen if someone on the other side finds out I am here.”

  His words sent a chill through me, and my sword wavered.

  Seb put a hand on my shoulder. “Thea, I think he’s telling the truth—Kalax at least seems to believe that he is. She just told me this man smells like the commander.”

  I lowered my sword, but I told Jodreth, “Someone already used the Memory Stone. On a friend of ours—and we suspect on the prince as well.”

  Jodreth’s shoulders slumped. “It’s worse than we knew then. For not only has the Memory Stone been stolen, it’s in the hands of our enemies again.”

  *

  Chapter 13:

  The Three Kingdoms

  It took a lot more persuasion from me and from Jodreth before Thea would sit down and listen to the rest of what Jodreth had to tell us. She didn’t trust him, but I was going to go with Kalax, who’d told me she liked the smell of the man. And his fish.

  We sat by the cold hearth. Jodreth offered us wine, but Thea refused any food or drink, so I copied her and just sat and listened.

  “My brother is, as you must know, a stickler for the rules. Once he had the Memory Stone, he knew he could not keep it. He was charged already with care of the Healing Stone, and as he must have told you, it is dangerous to keep the stones too together, for it is such a temptation to use their power. But the king demanded the Memory Stone to be brought to the palace,” Jodreth said.

  “And the commander agreed?” I grimaced.

  Thea shrugged. “Well, they’d have guards and vaults.”

  “That is not what protects any Dragon Stone—it takes courage and a man who will die for what is right to offer real protection.” Jodreth stroked his gray-streaked beard, and the gesture reminded me of Commander Hegarty. Shaking his head, Jodreth said, “The only safe place for any Dragon Stone is near dragons, and with people who know what is at stake.”

  Eyes narrowing, Thea straightening her back on the small stool. She didn’t appear to be about to attack the man, but she still had her naked blade sitting across her knees, which added tension to the room. “Are you trying to tell us the king himself stole the Memory Stone? I would remind you, that the Dragon Riders serve the king.”

  Jodreth shook his head. “Spoken like a true, loyal Flamma. No, what I am saying is that the Memory Stone is missing from the king’s vaults.” He stopped to pierce Thea with a sharp stare. “Did you not say you have seen evidence of its use?”

  Thea frowned, but she nodded and rested her hands on her sword blade.

  “And that is not all,” Jodreth said. “Have you not been feeling it? You’ve been touched by the Healing Stone. It’s said that those who had been touched will feel them, like a pain or a sickness that can’t be explained.”

  Thea nodded.

  I swore under my breath. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” I told her. “Is that what’s been wrong all this time? The Healing Stone did something to you, and now—”

  “I used to feel queasy around the commander at the academy, and then it stopped. I thought…I don’t know what I thought. Yes, maybe it was something to do with being healed, but I thought it was something that went away.” Thea gave me back my stare.

  Jodreth whistled through his teeth. “The stones are very, very powerful. Not even the ancients understood them. The Draconis Order was set up in order to try and understand the stones and the dragons and how they all fit together.”

  “The Draconis Order?” I asked, looking at Jodreth. “We’ve
never come across any mention of that.”

  He smiled, showing that one of his back teeth was missing, and pulled a leather cord from under his cloak. Next to me, Thea gasped. I could only stare. A golden circle, a little smaller than the palm of my hand, hung from the leather cord. On it, a stylized serpent curved around the edges, looking smoothed by decades of use that rubbed it down to little more than a golden zigzag on a hoop. For all its simple craftsmanship, there was something about the lines and curves of the wings, body and neck that perfectly captured the idea of a dragon.

  And I had seen such a carved dragon before—at the monastery ruins.

  “I am the last monk of the Draconis Order and I was initiated by my mother when I was barely older than you are now,” Jodreth said.

  Looking up at him, I met the steady stare of his gray eyes. “That’s the same order of monks that built the academy and who started to catch and tame dragons centuries ago.”

  Who can catch what doesn’t want to be caught?

  Kalax’s loud voice resounded in my mind, and I blushed. Thea hid a smile. I thought I saw an answering shadow of a smile from Jodreth, too. Could he also hear dragons?

  “Not capture. Study. Get to know. Placate, more often than not.” Jodreth’s smile widened. “To be honest, much of what the Draconis Order did is a mystery even to me. We fell from grace a long time ago, after the first rise of the Darkening.”

  Wetting my lips, I nodded. “We…we’ve heard some of the old stories.”

  He let out a breath and leaned forward.

  “But not all the old stories. Ignorance can be a shield sometimes, but you two have special gifts that may be our salvation in these dark times.”

  I leaned forward, too, and braced my elbows on my thighs. “Is that why the commander has kept us at arm’s length, and not let us into what’s going on? To keep us from becoming targets?”

  Thea shook her head. “But what about Prince Justin? And why have all the squadrons been taken out? Is that really just a training exercise?”

  Jodreth’s eyes glittered. He shook his head. “That troubles me as well. Neither I nor my brother knows the truth there. The prince seems to be affected by the Memory Stone—but who is using it on him and why?”

  I nodded. “You think someone is controlling him with the Memory Stone—stealing some of his memories and giving him new ones?”

  Thea straightened. “No.”

  “We can only hope not, for all of our sakes,” Jodreth said. “But…a few months back, the Deep Wood vanished—just like with the King’s Village. No one even remembers where it was or what happened to it.”

  I nodded. “That’s exactly like the Darkening. We know Lord Vincent is still free. And he knows how to use the Memory Stone.”

  Jodreth sat back and his chair creaked. “That is why you are here, and why my brother knew you wouldn’t be able to resist storming in. We needed a way to arrange a meeting without arranging anything. I am here to tell you what I know of the Darkening from what I know of my order. To forewarn you and forearm you.”

  Thea shook her head. “We know this already.”

  “And do you know that before the dawn of recorded history but after the birth of the known world, there lived a powerful king and queen. In those days, the lands would have seemed strange to us, and the king of that time did many great things. He tamed the frost giants of the Leviathan Mountains…he even created the many islands to the far south, and raised the land and broke it where it had to be broken.”

  Thea swapped a glance with me. My stomach growled. Jodreth smiled, and stood to fetch us all fish—Kalax included. As we sat eating our salted fish, Jodreth began to talk again, his voice low and melodic.

  “The people of the known world looked up to this ancient king and his queen. They loved and feared them in equal measure, as it should be with mighty rulers. The king had the best of advisers—monks who had befriended the dragons of the mountains and had forged an alliance. It was said that the people even grew a little more dragon-like, and dragons grew more like humans. Dragons took to speaking with humans, sharing with them their thoughts and their lives, and that the people became a little wilder.”

  Thea shifted on her chair, but I held still, almost able to see these old times.

  “In time, the king and queen had children. Three strong boys. The eldest was a tall man with fair hair. The youngest had brown hair and a quick way about him. The middle had hair black as night and skin pale as moonlight. As the princes grew, the middle child was ever stuck between the other two. He was never able to ride out to battle or to treat with the frost giants like his older brother, but he was also never allowed to be carefree and without responsibilities like the youngest. And that caused problems.”

  Jodreth paused to clear his throat. The candle was nearly guttered. It flickered and Jodreth pulled it closer to him. “The middle child grew bitter. His words and deeds took on a sharp edge. It was later said that some evil star must have been rising when he’d been born, and some of its pale, chill light must have tainted him. In time, when the brothers were old enough to think of becoming rulers, they started to quarrel. The king, now old, feared for his kingdom. To keep the world at peace, the king decided to split his realm into three kingdoms.”

  “The three realms,” I said the words softly.

  Without looking at me or nodding, Jodreth kept talking. “One to the north where the snows and deep forests hid rich mines. The south reaches of hot sands, beaches and islands held food and treasures from the sea. But the middle kingdom—made of lush meadows, lakes and streams, and pleasant woods—went to the eldest brother. The middle brother took the north and the youngest the southern lands with trade winds and adventure. And the king took his queen with him to live the rest of their days in an unknown, but finely-built palace, a place kept secret by magic. Their reign had come to an end, and now it was up to their three sons to govern the known lands.”

  Nudging me with her elbow, Thea rolled her eyes. I straightened and sat back. She might have heard some of these stories growing up, but I never had. Truth was, Jodreth’s voice held me still where I sat.

  “Peace should have held forever if not for one thing. The queen, in truth, came from the old line. She had magic strong in her blood. Some say she was descended from the first dragon and that was why she had created the Draconis Order. It was her magic that had allowed her husband to grow so powerful and it was her magic that she passed to one of her sons. But not to all of them. The eldest son and the youngest had nothing of the old ways in them, but the middle son had the greed that sometimes takes hold of a dragon.”

  Sucking in a breath, I thought to Kalax and asked her if she had ever heard of such a thing. She gave huffed a smoky breath and said, Erufon has such. I remembered then how Erufon kept picking fights—the old dragon was too used to having everything and wanted everything to be that way again. A dragon’s greed could be awful.

  Jodreth’s voice pulled me back to his story. “The queen tried to school her favorite son in the ways of magic and the ways of dragons, but she could not see past a mother’s love to the darkness growing within him. He learned spells and how to talk to dragons. He also learned how to bend others to his will.”

  “The Memory Stone,” Thea whispered.

  Jodreth went on as if he hadn’t heard her. “The years rolled by and the middle son grew jealous of his eldest brother’s richer lands. The lands of the north had rich mines, but also deep snows and cold mountains. He had to trade for food and treat with giants, goblins and storm-wolves—but his brother didn’t have such trouble. He began to think that since he was the one who took after their powerful mother, he should also rule the Middle Kingdom.” Jodreth pushed out a breath. “You can imagine what decision the older brother arrived at. And if he had decided to wage a war of soldiers and knights, stallions and chariots and even dragons, our fate today might be different. The battles would have been terrible, but they would have ended. However, the queen had gifted to
each of her sons something that changed the fate of the world. She had given each brother one of her most prized possessions—the Dragon Stones.”

  I sucked in a breath. Was it true? Were the stones that old?

  As if Jodreth could read my mind, he said, “Who knows if she found them or made them with her magic. Or if they did indeed come from a dragon’s power, perhaps from the first dragon itself. These three stones had been the secret to her husband’s long and successful reign. To the oldest brother, she gave the Armor Stone, jet black and making its wielder impervious to harm. To the middle brother, she gifted the Memory Stone so he would forever remember his love for her and hers for him. To the youngest, the one who was always trying to keep the other brothers from fighting, she gave the Healing Stone, for he had a natural gift as well. But when the queen finally died, the middle brother never got over her loss. He used his Memory Stone to try and peel back the veils of the world, to try and snatch his mother from the chains of death. It was there in those dark places that he found—or perhaps it found him—the Darkening.”

  Thea and I swapped a look. We’d never heard this part of the story, and I wondered how much of it was true. But it sounded…it almost sounded as if Jodreth had been there, even though that was impossible.

  He went on, his voice dropping even lower. “That brother used one of the Dragon Stones for dark purposes, crossing boundaries that should never be crossed. He perverted his own magic to do this and came back changed. When he went to war, he did so not just with his mortal armies—with lords who had joined his strength—but with the blackness of the Darkening. He used the Memory Stone to convince generals and whole armies to change sides or to forget who they were fighting. He became stronger and stronger. The youngest brother of the south cared not who ruled, and so he gave up and left his brothers to fight. The middle brother drove his older brother and his dwindling army with only a few dragons back into the mountains. But the monks who had once advised the king came to the older brother and told him the secret they had kept. There was a counter-magic that could be used—the old king had kept the one Dragon Stone, the one that could unify all of the powers of all of the stones—and it had been buried with him.”