Embrace the Fire (15 page)

Luasa lowered her head. Smoke rolled across the grass as she nosed the ground. At another nudge from Chennuh, she lifted her head and placed another leg forward. Orlach by orlach, she crept forward. Her head turned many times back to Chennuh as if seeking reassurance before swiveling back to Ayden again.

Ayden kept his posture loose, angling away from the she-Dragon, watching her from the corner of his eye.

She came closer.

Ayden cemented his feet where he stood. She would come to him, not him to her.

At last, a mere span separated them. If Ayden wished, he could touch the smooth, reflective scales of her neck as she towered over him. Strangely, his fear fled.

“Luasa,” he breathed. The last rays of the evening sun darkened her shadow over him as she lowered her head. Excitement pricked Ayden's spine as her head drew near. Still, he felt no fear.

A cloud of smoke wafted around his face. Ayden slowly raised his head, and his hair brushed the she-Dragon's smooth snout.

“Hello, Luasa,” he whispered. “I'm Ayden.”

She didn't move, and Ayden lifted his hand toward the Dragon's snout. His fingers were less than an orlach away when Kinna's startled cry ripped his hand from the Dragon, and Luasa tumbled backward with a roar.

Over the ledge of rocks above the cave, three Nine-Tails and a Poison-Quill scrambled, most likely drawn by the scent of the two Mirages. The Nine-Tails were smaller Dragons than the Poison-Quill, and quicker, but the Poison-Quill's spikes trembled loosely from his gigantic frame as he stood on the ledge over the cave entrance and roared, the sound vibrating through the ground.

Chennuh flashed from the mouth of the cave toward Kinna, a wave of flame arcing at the beasts above his head. The Nine-Tails whisked down the rocks like overgrown lizards, their razor-tipped tails whirling behind them. Luasa scrambled first one way and then the other, but in a moment, she was the centerpiece of a deadly half circle.

She opened her maw, and Ayden could see the blazing glow of her throat before she released a torrent of flame at the beasts. They hissed and snapped back.

“Kinna!” Ayden shouted.

“Chennuh's coming!”

Chennuh lurched from Kinna's ledge and barreled into the Poison-Quill who roared on the ledge above the cave. The Dragon dwarfed the Mirage, but Chennuh's angry impact bowled the monster sideways, and his talons scrabbled to maintain his position on the shelf.

Two of the Nine-Tails kept Luasa's attention, darting in and striking her scales. Bits of mirrored shards flew from her as she hissed in fury.

The third Nine-Tail faced Ayden, swiftly approaching. He stopped when Ayden's hands burst into an inferno so large, it dwarfed both of them. The Nine-Tail rocked back on his haunches and released a jet of flame.

Ayden met it in the air with his own. Lincoln leaped lightly from rock to rock, closing the gap, already singing. As the Pixie came closer, Ayden could hear the words and feel the magic as it washed over him.

The Dragons seemed confused. One Nine-Tail accidentally swiped at another one. The recipient rolled, hissing, to the side, and Luasa took advantage. She leaped at one of the Dragons, her razor-sharp teeth sinking into the Dragon's neck.

The Nine-Tail roared, but Luasa's hold didn't last. The other Dragon in her circle launched himself at her, his tails spinning.

Ayden wanted to duck around the third Dragon that stood in his way, but the Nine-Tail countered every movement with one of his own.

Lincoln neared, his song crashing against the rocks. Ayden checked Kinna's position. She had disappeared; only Chennuh's mirrored bulk fought the Poison-Quill. His heart dropped into his stomach.

“Kinna!”

Her blue tunic and brilliant braid flashed behind Chennuh's flailing talons and lashing tail, and a moment later, she appeared on the Dragon's back, clinging to the slippery scales, her head tucked to the side.

“Kinna, what—”

He didn't have a chance to finish. The Nine-Tail in front of him leaped, and Ayden tumbled backward as the Dragon's weight cemented him into the ground.

Lincoln's song strengthened, and the Nine-Tail, whose open mouth slavered above Ayden, missed. The razor-tipped tail stabbed the ground beside Ayden's head, and Ayden twisted beneath the talons, his hands igniting patches of fire in the grass.

The Dragon seemed surprised to have missed his prey. He drew his maw closer to inspect Ayden's struggle, and Ayden slammed his fiery hands against the beast's sensitive snout.

The Nine-Tail roared in fury and pain.

“Ayden!” Lincoln's voice broke the tempo of his song.

Ayden jerked toward the Pixie. A knife thudded into the dirt near Ayden's side.

Ayden snatched the handle, and the next time the Dragon swung its tail toward him, Ayden's blade was faster. The knife severed the tip from its tail, and the Dragon screamed. Deep crimson blood streaked from the wound, and the other points whirled around to attack, but Lincoln's song was more effective in the Dragon's weakness.

Two more points impaled the ground, while a third narrowly missed Ayden's cheek. He ducked, and severed the two tips still in the ground.

The Dragon's distress distracted the Nine-Tails still struggling with Luasa. She seemed to be fighting a losing battle; her scales were rent in patches from her neck to her tail. Her mirrored fins were blackened with smoke.

The Nine-Tail in front of Ayden snarled and closed the distance between them. Ayden hated to do it, despised himself as he raised his knife, but the situation didn't call for mercy. As soon as the Dragon's head was within reach, he brought his knife point down into the snout, driving it clear through the roof of the creature's mouth.

The Nine-Tail shrieked; his black wings flapped helplessly. Ayden yanked the knife free again, and Lincoln's song at last broke through the Dragon's fury. In another moment, the creature crawled across the meadow to the rocks, climbing, a wounded beast, weeping as he made his slow way up the ridge.

Ayden hurled himself into the fray with Luasa. On the shelf above him, Chennuh and Kinna had disappeared again. The Poison-Quill still thrashed against an unseen opponent, though, and Ayden jerked his head back to the nearest Nine-Tail in time to feel the scrape of teeth across his bare shoulder.

He rolled to the side, blood flowing over his skin, soaking into the waistband of his breeches. He lunged for the Dragon, clinging to his neck and underside. The sharp tails whirled harmlessly past him as the Dragon roared his fury, his forelegs clawing the air.

Ayden clamped the knife in his teeth and climbed underneath the writhing neck toward the Dragon's mouth. With a prayer to the Great Star for strength, he plunged the knife into the roof of the beast's open mouth, penetrating the creature's brain.

A cold, bare sound escaped the Dragon, and after a moment of stunned stillness, he collapsed. Ayden rolled on impact, regret lancing his movements.

Luasa slammed against the cave mouth beneath the ledge that held the writhing Poison-Quill, and Ayden threw himself between her and the advancing Nine-Tail. His back was to the Mirage, and he knew she could dismember him with one swipe of her talons, but he took the risk.

He advanced, countering each step the Nine-Tail made toward him. When the Dragon charged, Ayden was ready. His hand blazed so hot that the knife in it turned brilliant orange, and white flame licked the metal. In a clash of fire, sparks, smoke, and heat, Ayden leaped on the beast's back, carving a circle of fire across the Dragon's snout, slicing with his super-heated blade through the creature's scales up and over the head, circling around the neck to the underside where the Dragon's life-blood pulsed.

A moment later, the Nine-Tail thudded to the ground with a final shudder.

A roar from above jerked Ayden's gaze to the ledge. Chennuh stood on the shelf, visible again, Kinna clinging to his back. The Poison-Quill's head dripped blood where Chennuh's teeth had sunk in, and the rest of the body keeled slowly to the side, sliding over the edge of the ledge, impacting the earth with thunder and narrowly missing Luasa's exhausted and bleeding frame.

Silence flooded the valley.

Lincoln descended from the rock where he'd stood, singing. The magic in his words drifted away on the sea breeze. Kinna slid from Chennuh's back, jumping from boulder to boulder to the valley floor. Chennuh scrambled down the other side of the cave mouth to approach his mate.

Ayden's gaze lingered on the dead Dragons, and he flinched when Kinna placed a hand on his arm.

“Ayden?”

The Nine-Tail at his feet bore a strong resemblance to his pet Dragon, Flindel. Memories from his life as an eight-year-old Lismarian screamed through his senses.

“Are you all right?” Kinna's quiet voice broke his train of thought.

Ayden hastily brushed an arm across his eyes, clearing the blur.

“The Dragons were only here to mate with Luasa; her season was still in progress even though she'd taken Chennuh for her mate. That's all it was, nature in its most primal form, and I killed them.” The words ripped from his throat in a maelstrom of guilt. “I killed them,” he repeated, flaying his conscience with the words.

Kinna's cool hand gently cradled his arm. “It wasn't your fault, Ayden. They would have killed all of us if you hadn't done what you did.”

Ayden couldn't look away from the dead Nine-Tail. “I could have done something else. Anything. And now they're dead.”

Kinna's silence brought his attention to her. Her arms slid around his waist, and her head rested against his chest. Ayden blinked, determined to keep the tears from his eyes. He brushed an arm across them and caught a glimpse of Luasa behind him.

He jerked away from Kinna and wheeled toward Luasa. Her gasping pants echoed against the rocks and crashed inside his head. Her blood flowed from deep cracks in her flesh; her eyes dulled in the last light of day. Ayden knelt by her neck, his touch running over her scales. “Luasa, don't die on me.” For the first time in his life, he half-wished he still maintained the curse Sebastian had placed on him as a child. His touch would turn anyone else to ash, but it had always strengthened a Dragon's scales, hardening its armor.

“Heat your hands,” Kinna whispered, kneeling beside him.

“It's not the same,” Ayden shook his head.

“Just do it. Hot enough, and the scales will weld together.”

Ayden reached for Luasa, lightly touching the nearest cut. A deep whimper shook the Dragon as Ayden slowly brought the edges of the wound together, his hands glowing bright. He laid a white-hot hand against the closed wound, and felt the tiny adjustments of the scales beneath his fingers.

Lincoln appeared on Ayden's other side, and Kinna gasped as the Pixie approached the Dragon's limp head. He squatted by the Dragon's nostrils as small furls of smoke rose about him and began to sing.

The last notes of the Pixie's song died over the Dragon, and Kinna started to speak, but Ayden stopped her.

“Look,” he whispered.

As he pressed his hand across the cuts, not only did the heat weld the scales together, but multi-colored hues lit up the mirrored hide, radiating outward from Ayden's touches. Luasa raised her head, her eyes already regaining the fire they'd lost in the battle. Slowly, she curled her neck around until she was snout to nose with Ayden.

Awe choked Kinna's voice. “Ayden, she wants
psuche.
”

Ayden's mouth went bone-dry, and he had trouble unsealing his lips. He touched the she-Dragon's snout as he blew out, and her breath wisped around his. Every color of the rainbow refracted around the entire company, and Ayden knew Luasa's thoughts.

She loved him.

S
oreness ripped
through Ayden's shoulder as he saddled the horse for Lincoln. Chennuh and Luasa waited on the clifftops for them, and Kinna talked the Pixie deaf. “Linc, I really wish you'd just come with one of us. I don't want to get separated. You'll be riding through the forest with a thick tree-cover, and even Chennuh's sharp eyes can't pierce that. Are you sure you have to ride the horse?”

“I'm too heavy to ride that ridiculous Dragon,” Lincoln said as he swung himself into the horse's saddle.

Chennuh snorted loudly.

“I'd weigh him down, and then where would we be?”

“Just be careful, Linc.”

“I always am, m'lady.”

“Get going, Linc,” Ayden interrupted. “We'll still have you beat by a day if you don't start moving now.”

Lincoln urged the horse up the valley, disappearing along the smooth clifftops. Ayden led Kinna toward the cliffs and the Dragons.

“I'm so glad you've found
psuche
with Luasa,” Kinna murmured as she rubbed Chennuh's scales.

“It doesn't bother you?” Ayden tossed the remainder of the breakfast fish to the Dragons, watching as both lunged for the meat.

“Why would it bother me?” Kinna's wide green gaze met his.

“You want so badly the freedoms for these creatures that have been denied them so long. I know you've said
psuche
isn't the same, but I wondered if you held any reservations.”

Kinna shook her head. “When Chennuh and I achieved
psuche,
I realized how different that is from the slavery instituted by Sebastian. There's no possibility of cruelty in
psuche
. To hurt Chennuh is to hurt myself.”

Ayden nodded as he glanced at Luasa, gleaming in the morning sun. She ate with divided attention, her gaze never leaving him. “I'm beginning to understand.” He approached Kinna and spanned her waist with his palms, sliding her easily onto Chennuh's back, and then climbing up close behind her.

“Ayden, what are you doing? I thought you were going to ride Luasa.”

“Next time,” Ayden grunted, sliding his arms around Kinna's waist. “This may be my last opportunity to ride Chennuh.”