Protector

by J. A. Armitage

  Someone knocked on the door lightly, waking Ash from his slumber.

  “Come in.” I tried sitting up to welcome whoever it was, but pain shot through me. I cried out as Edeline ran through the door.

  “Don’t move!” she commanded. “I’m here to put more of the lotion on you.” I did as she asked and stayed still. To move was agony, anyway. “I was hoping this would have worked faster,” she said, pulling the light cotton cover gently away from my skin. Underneath, I still wore the white cotton dress.

  “Where am I?” I asked as Edeline got to work, smothering my dry, cracked skin with the cream. As soon as she started to apply it, the pain began to subside.

  “This is Spear’s room,” Ash said, taking my hand. “He said you could stay here as long as you need to. He’s been sleeping on a couch downstairs.”

  Sleeping on a couch? “How long have I been up here?”

  Ash gave his mother a look.

  “Tell me,” I demanded.

  “You’ve been out of it for a week,” Edeline began. “I’d hoped that the lotion would work a lot faster, but you’ve been through so much that your body is taking its time to heal. The blisters are gone now and your skin is looking a lot better than it was.” She gave a slight, comforting smile.

  It certainly didn’t feel any better. Nor did I feel better knowing I’d been asleep for so long. “A week? What’s been happening?” I tried to sit up again. This time, it was slightly easier thanks to the soothing properties of the lotion.

  “Please don’t panic. You’ve not missed anything.”

  I saw another look pass between her and Ash. There was something they weren’t telling me. “What is it? You are hiding something.”

  I saw Ash fire a warning look at Edeline, but she ignored him. “The dragons you saved haven’t returned.”

  If I’d been asleep for a week, it meant the dragons’ souls returned to them at the same time. They should have been back with us by now. “What happened?”

  “We don’t know. Spear is forbidding anyone to turn into their dragon form at the moment. The disease seems to be contagious. Some of the other dragons have caught it, but no one has contracted it in their human form. Because of that, we are all trapped here. No one can fly. We’ve been spending the week looking after the sick dragons. Your father has outdone himself. He got together a crew and between them, they’ve made a shelter outside. It’s almost like a hospital for dragons.”

  “My father is still here?”

  “Of course,” replied Ash, taking over for his mother and applying the lotion to my arms. “He can’t go because no one can get out, but I doubt he’d leave anyway. Not with you still here like this. He’s been checking up on you every couple of hours.”

  “But what about the steps up the cliff face? Has no one gone up there?” I remembered the time I tried going home. There was a steep set of stairs carved into the cliff with a set of tunnels through the mountain to the other side. It was a grueling journey, but it was certainly doable.

  Edeline shook her head. “The stairs are impassable. Heavy rain caused parts of them to wash away.”

  So, we were well and truly trapped here. The only way out of Dronias was from the south, the way we’d come in a week ago. I sighed and closed my eyes. Nothing was going to plan. The Goblins had lied to us, we’d failed to collect any more swords, and I’d almost burned all my skin off freeing the dragons. Worse still, the ones I did free hadn’t returned, and there was no possible way to find out why.

  I thought back to Dronias, to my mother. We should have been back by now. She would be beside herself with worry. I wondered how the Slayers were dealing with the dragons. If they were ill like the ones over here, they would need caring for. Would they do that? I didn’t know. It was one thing to open the doors to let them go free, but it was quite another to actively care for them, and that’s if they knew they were ill in the first place. If the souls had returned to them and then they’d promptly fallen ill to the ground after waking up, there was every chance that the villagers wouldn’t have even spotted the souls returning.

  “Can I speak to Spear, please?” I asked Edeline. She looked unsure of what to say but nodded her head.

  “I’ll go get him. He wanted to be the first to know when you woke up anyway.”

  She left me alone with Ash. He didn’t speak as he carried on applying the lotion. My skin, no longer hurting, tingled under his touch.

  “Kiss me.”

  He looked surprised by request. “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I gave him a smile. It had been so long since he’d last kissed me, I could barely remember. Our lives were a maelstrom of chaos and adventure, and because of that, we’d not had time alone for a long while. I almost wished I’d sent Edeline away instead of to fetch Spear.

  “My face wasn’t burned, and even if it was, I’d still want to kiss you.”

  He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips. I leaned into him, but at that moment, Spear opened the door and we shot apart.

  “You look to be doing better,” smirked Spear. I felt the blush rise to my cheeks. Typical. My face was the only part of me that wasn’t already bright pink.

  “Edeline tells me you want to see me.”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I want to know what our next move is.”

  “To be honest with you, Julianna, we’ve been too preoccupied to come up with a plan. Everyone has been busy looking after the sick.” He sat on the only place he could, the end of the bed, careful to stay away from my feet and legs.

  “How is everyone?”

  Spear sighed. “The dragons that were ill that managed to change into their human form have recovered, but those that were too weak to transform back are still sick. I don’t know what to do for them. Thanks to your father, they’re sheltered from the weather and being kept warm, but unfortunately, there seems to be no improvement.”

  “What about the swords?”

  Ash jumped up. “What about the swords? You aren’t suggesting cutting yourself again, are you?” He turned to Spear. “I won’t allow it. Look at her. The blast nearly killed her.”

  “Calm down, Ash,” replied Spear gently. “We have all agreed —the dragons, the Slayers, and the Wolvren—that Julianna cannot possibly offer herself up again. I think the blast gave everyone a wake-up call, even the doubting dragons. No one wants, nor expects, Julianna to hurt herself further.” He looked right at me. “I hope you agree to that.”

  I nodded gratefully. The truth was, my whole body had been put through enough. I knew, as Spear did, that we’d have to do something, but for now, all I wanted to do was rest. “Thank you, Spear.”

  Over the course of the next few days, I had many visitors. My father came to see me at the end of every day. Morganna kept popping in to update me on everything, although there was very little news to tell me. Lucy often came to read me stories. Throughout it all, Ash never left my side. He brought food up to eat with me and moved from sleeping on the chair to sleeping with me on the bed once I’d healed enough to be touched.

  After a few days, thanks to Edeline and Ash looking after me, I was finally allowed downstairs. The lotion had worked enough that I could move quite freely and without pain. My skin was covered in scars that would never fully heal, but it was a small price to pay for the return of the dragons.

  The day I was able to get up, a meeting was called in the parlor. Spear had deliberately only invited a few people. Beside myself and Ash, there was also my father, Morganna, Alpha, Edeline, Fiere, Xander, Jasper and, of course, Spear. A plate of cookies and a pot of tea were brought in by a maid and set on a small side table. I grabbed a cookie before sitting on the sofa next to Morganna. Ash took the place beside me.

  “I’ve already told Julianna that we’ve all agreed that she cannot hurt herself any further to free the dragons. I think we can all agree that she has gone above and beyond what any of us could expect of her. I, on behalf of the dragons, want to thank you, Julia
nna, for everything you have done for us. Your bravery is unsurpassed and my gratitude knows no bounds.”

  I cast my eyes down at his words. It was so embarrassing being praised so publicly, and yet my heart jumped with pride.

  “However,” Spear continued. “We now have a problem. Julianna is the only person that can free our ancestors and family members. Because of this, we have to find another solution and we have to do it quickly. The dragons outside do not appear to be getting worse, but at the same time, they are not getting better either.”

  “I say we head back up to pay those Goblins another visit,” My father broke in.

  Surprisingly, Spear agreed. “Yes, I have to admit, it’s looking like a trip back up the mountain is our only way to solve this. The Goblins have gotten away with this for far too long, and I, for one, am sick of them tricking us.”

  Everyone nodded. I nibbled on the cookie, not too sure. We’d all gone up there before, twice in fact, and nothing good had come of it. I didn’t see how dragging everyone back up the mountain would help.

  I quickly finished the cookie. “We promised Krikor that the dragons, Slayers, and Wolvren would never return to the Goblin city together.”

  “And he promised us that there were more Slayer swords in that village,” my father reminded me. “They can’t be trusted, so I see no reason why we shouldn’t just go up there anyway.”

  “Actually I agree with Julianna,” cut in Morganna. “They might be more willing to cooperate if only a few of us go.”

  “Are you volunteering?” Spear asked her.

  Morganna nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can to help. Of course, we are going to have to figure a way up the mountain first. With the dragons being ill, we cannot do anything.” She looked right at me as she said this, something that Ash picked up on right away.

  “You surely aren’t going to ask Julianna to go with you?”

  “Why not? She’s better now. I can’t go with you or with Alpha or with most of the rest of you. We have to show that we can be trusted, even if they can’t. I need to go up the mountain with another Slayer. It’s the only way.”

  “What about me?” my father asked. “Or Jasper, or both of us? Why does it have to be Julianna?”

  “Because I trust her with my life, that’s why, and you should know you can trust me with hers.”

  I filled with pride at hearing my hero talk about me in such a way. Of all the people in this room, many of whom were bigger and stronger than me, it was me that she picked. I couldn’t help the grin that appeared on my lips.

  Unfortunately, not everyone agreed. “I won’t be separated from her,” argued Ash. “I love her too much to let her go.”

  “I’m not letting my daughter go up the mountain in the state she’s in,” roared my father. Pretty soon everyone was squabbling again.

  I was just about to chime in, to tell them what I thought of the plan, when the room went dark. Something was blocking the sunlight. I turned to see a dragon landing, then another.

  “It’s the dragons!” I shouted. “They are back!”

  Chapter Twelve

  I don’t know who got out of the house first, but we were all in the garden within a minute of spotting the first dragon. Three or four of the dragons had already landed, but the sky was filled with many more, too many to count.

  “Someone go inside and grab some clothes for them,” directed Spear, running toward the first dragon. Jasper, Xander, and Alpha ran inside, following Spear’s orders.

  The first few dragons changed into their human forms. I recognized one of them immediately. It was Stone. The last time I’d seen him was when he and his brother Ally were training me to hunt. It felt like so long ago.

  “Where’s Ally?” I asked Ash, trying not to look at Stone’s naked body.

  “I think he’s in the dragon hospital your father helped build. The last time I saw him, he was helping out in there.”

  I looked to where Ash was pointing. A huge shed now took up most of Spear’s garden. My father had done an amazing job.

  “I’ll get him,” Ash ran off toward the shed.

  Ally was going to be so happy. He’d been so utterly depressed that his brother had been killed. Even when we found out that he’d not been killed, but his soul reaped, he was still upset. I don’t think I’d seen him smile since the last day we were all together.

  “What happened?” asked Spear, pulling his jacket off and handing it to Stone. “Why has it taken so long for you to get back? Your souls were released a week and a half ago.”

  “We were confused. There were so many of us waking up at the same time. Some had been trapped recently like me, but some of the dragons had been trapped for decades. There were also many that didn’t wake up. We tried everything we could, but nothing would wake them.”

  “That’s because Julianna only released the souls from one sword. There are still so many swords to find.”

  Stone looked confused. “That’s what happened? Our souls were harvested?”

  “I guess you could put it like that,” replied Spear. “What happened next?”

  “I thought we’d all come back from the dead. I wasn’t the only one. I wanted to come home, but some of the others wanted to find out what had happened to them. When we left the building our bodies had been kept in, we found ourselves in the woods at the base of the Triad Mountains. A quick flyover showed us to be near the Slayer village. The village where Julianna comes from.”

  Stone glanced over at me. “I wanted to get revenge. Most of the others did, too, so we flew down to the village.”

  I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear the rest. The biggest and bravest of all the Slayers were here in Frokontas. There was no one left to defend the village against all these angry dragons.

  “What did you do?” roared my father, rushing up to Stone.

  At that moment, Xander, Jasper, and Alpha came running up, their arms full of clothes. One by one, the dragons began to shift into their human forms behind Stone. Stone raised his hands.

  “It’s not what you think,” replied Stone quickly. “No one was hurt.”

  “They’d better not be!” yelled my father, poking his finger against Stone’s chest.

  Spear pulled it away. “Enough. You heard him. No one was hurt.” He turned back to Stone. “So what did happen?”

  “We went in to attack but Julianna’s mother came running toward us with a white flag. Actually, it was a white dress on a stick, but we got the message. We thought we’d won without having to fight, but when we shifted, she told us about everything that had been happening. About how Julianna had done what she set out to do and turned the Slayers and the dragons into friends. Of course, I didn’t believe it at first, but the rest of the village came out and corroborated her story. They were so nice to us.”

  “That doesn’t explain why it took you so long to get back,” argued Spear.

  Xander threw a pair of pants at him, which he slipped into. Stone looked embarrassed now. “We didn’t know we were friends before seeing Julianna’s mother, so we might have...kind of...well, we might possibly have burned down a few buildings.”

  I sighed. So many of the buildings in Dronias had already succumbed to the fire of the dragons.

  “No one was in them, but we felt bad so we all agreed to stay and rebuild them. I know we could have sent someone home to tell you that we were okay, but we didn’t know you were waiting for us. We decided as a group to help out there and then all come back at once. We wanted to make a splash, so to speak.”

  I looked up. The skies were still filled with the returning dragons. “Well, you’ve certainly done that,” I commented.

  “You burned down part of the village?” My father was close to having another temper tantrum. I ran up to him and whispered into his ear.

  “Daddy. You were the one who took these dragons’ souls, forcing them to be trapped. Some of them have been in there for over twenty years. Don’t you think you might want to cut them some slack? A
fter all, they are the ones who should be mad at you.” I raised my eyebrows at him. He nodded, slowly accepting my words.

  “I’m going to need you to go to the fire pit,” announced Spear loudly so all the newly returned dragons could hear him. “We have much to tell you and my house will not accommodate so many people. Julianna, do you think you are well enough to round up everyone and ask them to meet us there?”

  I was just about to answer when I heard a yell coming from behind me. I turned to see Ash coming toward us with Ally.

  “Brother!” Ally yelled, rushing toward Stone. Stone grinned as Ally crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. The pair of them play-wrestled for a few seconds before Ally pulled Stone to his feet and gave him a huge hug.

  “I’ll do what I can,” I said to Spear over the commotion.

  It took over two hours to get everyone around the campfire. The dragons kept on coming, so I had to wait until the last one had arrived. Someone lit a fire and a wild deer was roasting above it. Flagons of beer were passed around, and the noise of conversation was almost deafening. The whole thing had turned into a party of sorts, so when it was time for Spear to speak, he had to shout loudly to be heard.

  “Welcome back to those of you who came home to us today. I’m sure many of you will want to catch up with old friends and family members. I’m going to ask you all to stay in your human forms. You’ve probably heard the rumors over the course of the past couple of hours, but for those of you that haven’t, a lot of the other dragons that came back to us got ill not long after coming back. It’s already been well over a week since you got your souls back so I’m assuming you will come down with whatever it is. If you stay in your human form, you will recover. At the present time, we cannot find a cure for those that fell ill in their dragon form. I do not want the same fate to happen to anyone here so it is imperative that you do as I say for your own health. At the first sign of any illness, you may come to my house to be looked after or you may stay at home to be looked after by your families.”