Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (14 page)

"If you are that
defenseless, you should wait in the caves until we have a chance to work with
you on both your sword work and your vision."

She narrowed her eyes. 
"I have my fire."

"Which you have told
me you have trouble controlling.  Without control, a power such as yours could
be more hindrance than help.  You will be safe in the caves, and I will deal
with Lord Graedon, as I should have years ago."

Asha could feel her anger
swelling under her skin.  "I will not hide while unspeakable things
happen.  Not again."

He must have felt some of
what was happening behind her eyes because he tensed up, and his voice went
hard.  "She was my mother, too."

"Then you know of
what I speak."  The lump in her throat was such that her words came out
raspy and hot to her own ears.  "This is my fight."

Then Theron changed the
subject, his voice a pained whisper that scored her heart.  "I should have
ignored Laksee's warning and gotten you out years ago."

She shook her head at the
sudden onslaught of emotions hitting her.  "It would have changed things
too much.  She warned us that we had to see this through until the day she
died."

"Whatever things we
would have changed, it was not worth sacrificing your childhood or Laksee's
life."

Asha took a deep breath
and raised her chin.  "She thought it was.  And so do I."

He hissed out a breath
and ran his hand back through his hair in agitation.  "I want to fight
this battle for you."

She shook her head as
everything seemed to drain out of her but her resolve and the slow simmer of
her rage.  "I will not hide."

Before he could answer,
the doors opened and Braedon returned.  His eyes went immediately to Asha to
ask a question.

"I am well,"
she said, trying to smile for him.  "Theron just thinks I will hide with
the others in the caves while he fights my battles."

Braedon shook his head
and gave Theron a look of censure.  "For her brother, you sure don't know
her very well."

Riva, who was following
at his side, elbowed him in the absentminded way of siblings.  Then they were
both close enough that she could reach out and touch Asha's arm.

Asha felt the waves of
healing power immediately, and she breathed a sigh of relief when the aches and
pains disappeared, the scabs fell off, and nothing was left but smooth, pink
skin.  Just as every other time that Riva had healed her, she was fully
recovered and ready for what was coming.

Theron cursed in his
surprise.  Asha turned to look his way and found he had already moved enough so
that his hand hovered over Riva's on her arm.  His eyes full of appreciation,
he looked over the beauty before him.  "I see what you meant when you said
your healer was unique.  She is breathtaking."  No one could miss that he
was not just referring to her magic when his eyes roved the woman so freely. 
Riva blushed and looked away, clearing her throat.  A second later, Furee had
moved so quickly that he was between Theron and Riva before anyone saw him
move.

Theron looked from her to
her dragon and smiled with a lot of teeth.  "Dragon," he greeted.

"Mage," Furee
answered with a loud bite of teeth.

"Well," Braedon
said, pulling her into his side with a hand around her back, his eyes on the
tableau before him.  "I see your brother has made another friend."

Braedon studied his
sister and the two men who looked ready to come to blows over her.  "Can
we focus on the very old and powerful lunatic who is coming our way?"

Theron's head snapped up,
and he looked toward the distant sea.  "Someone else came after you
three," he said to Aarion, Furee, and Riva.

Aarion pulled his sword
and Lux his battle axe while Theron tilted his head to the side as if he were
listening for distant voices.  The wind whipped about Theron’s short hair,
clattered his old armor displays, and fluttered the tapestries on the walls. 
Theron was the second most powerful wind mage Braedon had met, with Lady
Melisande being the first.  He looked thoughtful for a minute, then something
seemed to flash in his eyes.  He turned and strode to the door on heavy boots. 
Throwing it open, Theron reached out and grabbed a bundle of bronze feathers,
yanking it inside and releasing it so the small creature went tumbling across
the white stones of the floor.

Braedon saw what looked
like a small falcon before it transformed, and Lady Clare was standing and
brushing angry hands across her britches.  She glared green-jeweled daggers at
Lord Theron, who seemed frozen at his spot by the door.  Her hair fell across
her face, but Braedon would have recognized her by that red hair alone.

Lux was already cursing
full steam when Asha addressed the child/woman.  "Clare, what are you
doing here?"

Those green eyes snapped
from Theron and hit on Asha.  She blew out a visible breath of relief.  "I
followed Riva and Furee when Aarion came for them."  She pushed all that
wavy hair back away from her long-waisted frame, clearly agitated.  "You
said I could come to Seatown."

"Yes," Asha said
her voice ironic.  "I said you should come when it was safe.  That is not
this day."

Clare shrugged her small
shoulders.  "I was going to come and just look as a bird, then leave, but
I had to warn you when I saw the monsters that blackened the sky."  She
looked around at all of them.  "Monsters and a great gold dragon come from
the far mountains.  I would say they will be here within the half hour."

Braedon glanced at Asha,
who looked to her brother and back to the girl.  "We know that,
Clare."  She blew out her own sigh then motioned to her brother. 
"Clare of House Fire and Water, shape-changing mage, meet my brother, Lord
Theron of Seatown and wind mage."

Clare blinked at them
both before she turned to study the man more favorably then she had before.  "You
are a wind mage?"

"Among other things,
yes."

Clare looked at Asha and
then back to her brother.  "Are you half dragon like Asha?"

Since no one seemed to
have made that connection yet, all the dragons turned as one to study the man
as if they had never seen him before.  Braedon was actually relieved.  Being
half dragon accounted for the ridiculous bronze shimmer in the man’s hair.

"What army, what
monsters?"  Furee asked into the uncomfortable silence.  He turned
smoldering eyes to Braedon.  "You called your sister to war?"

"Clare," Aarion
said, changing the subject.  "You cannot stay here.  It is too
dangerous."

She raised her chin and
glared at the dragon knight.  Braedon would say this for her; she did not lack
courage.

"It is too late for
that now," Theron broke in.  “The battle is upon us.  We will take the
healer and the girl to the caves with the rest of my people in hiding.  They
will be safe there until we can remove the threat to the island."

Both Riva and Clare had
reactions to that.  "I will stay where I can be of most help," Riva
said in her own quiet, stubborn way that Braedon recognized right away.  He
cursed, knowing that short of dragging her and locking her up, he would not be
able to change her mind.

Clare practically hissed
her displeasure.  "I am not a child.  I will stay and fight."

Theron narrowed his eyes
at both of them.  "You will do as I order and join the others in the
caves."

Riva stepped forward
before Clare could blast him with an argument.  "We waste time:  time we
do not have, or did I misunderstand the reference to monsters and armies in the
sky coming our way?"

Theron looked her up and
down one more time, his anger turning to appreciation before he turned away. 
"Ranulf?" he bellowed, his voice echoing through the halls.  When one
of his guards arrived, he motioned to Riva and Clare.  "Get them to the
safe chamber," he ordered.  Then he looked back at the two women with a
raised brow.  "However you have to do it, get them there and keep them
secure.  You will sit out the coming battle and see that they are
protected."

"I can protect
myself," Clare called from behind Riva.  Then, before anyone could say
anything, she had transformed into a red dragon with emeralds for eyes and
sharp teeth.  She flapped her wings, looked right at Theron, and roared. 
Braedon was tempted to applaud the child just for putting that look on the
man’s arrogant face, but he was right about one thing.  It was not safe, nor
did they have time to deal with it.  He felt and saw Asha fall into a vision,
and fall she did.  Had he not been so close at hand, she would have hit the
hard stone floor instead of his arms.

***

The dream came at her in
a rush of blood and death.  She saw many things in her vision, and not all of
them were going to happen here in this place and time.  It was the most jumbled
and chaotic vision she had ever endured.  It showed a great many possibilities
and outcomes.  Unlike most visions, this one was not like observing someone
else's events as they unfolded; this was like walking a barrage of events that
were seemingly random but with an overall connection she could almost touch.

She didn’t know how much
time had passed before she came out of it, but she was once again in her mate’s
arms.  She shuddered at the barrage of visuals that was still working behind
her eyes.  Her arms went around her mate’s shoulders, and she buried her face
in his neck.  In all her life, she had never known the comfort that her mate
offered her so freely.  She would live in the heat of his arms if she could,
especially if it meant not having to face what would come next.  She stuttered
in a deep breath of forest and heat, clutching him close for as long as she
dared.  Then she turned and looked at Clare back in her human shape and still
angry. 

"Furee, I need you
to take Clare and Riva back to Dracon.  No arguments, either of you.  You are
more needed there than here," she held up a hand.  "And I do not have
time to explain.  Both of you will have jobs to do before this is over.  Furee,
take them now!"  He shifted to dragon and grabbed both women with gentle taloned
paws, and while they were still sputtering, he took off, shooting up and away
from the fight.  Asha had no time to breathe a sigh of relief.  She looked at
her brother and the rest who stayed.  "We need to meet them on the beach. 
If they make it this far, we are all going to suffer for it."

Grimly Braedon stood,
pulling her along with him and holding her until she was once again steady on
her feet.

"What did you
see?" he asked. 

She shook her head. 
Closing her eyes did nothing to clear the pictures in her head, so she opened
them and faced the harsh light of day.  "Everything."  She turned
back to Theron, shuttering her feelings as best she could from his all-seeing
gaze.  "Bring all your fighting mages.  We are going to need the
numbers."

***

The beach was deserted,
the fog a thick pall over everything.  Beyond the thickening mist, Braedon knew
it was day, but from here it might well have been midnight, such was their loss
of sight.  He could hear the crash of the waves and smell the salty brine of
the ocean, but with the fog it sounded like it came from every direction.  The
whipping wind was a broiling mess and did not help his sense of direction.

In theory, it was a good
plan; the fog would hinder the sight of the approaching army until they flew
close enough for the fire and wind to do their thing.  They knew the creatures
were impervious to most dragon fire, Furee being the exception, but with Braedon’s
hotter flame he could handle his share of the battle.  He would wait until the
hordes were closer to spring his trap.  The good news, such as it is, was that
both Theron and Asha assured them he was bringing his entire fleet of mutilated
and pieced together nightmares, and he was coming himself.  This could all be
over today.  The implied 'if' in his mate’s statement was concerning, but there
was nothing to be done except to do whatever it took to win the day.

He felt the wrongness,
the unnaturalness of the creatures wash over him; as a mage and a huntsman, he
was inherently connected to the earth.  What he felt coming at them like a
blanket of shadow made the very earth beneath his feet shudder at its
wrongness.  He fired up his hands and let the power build inside him.  He felt
Asha do the same even before her heat could reach him. He knew she was a
powerful fire mage; he could feel it every time they brushed powers, but he
would feel better about the coming fight if she were in dragon form.  Or  he
had more time to teach her control.  Having her burn herself out before the
fight was over would be a very bad thing.

"Asha," he
started, trying again.

"No, Braedon,"
she interrupted him.  "I have seen that I need to be in this form, at
least in the beginning.  Together our fire is stronger than apart, and they are
impervious to dragon fire.  I would be ineffectual in that form; we need the
heat of our combined power."

He ground his teeth but
gave up the fight.  "Just stay with me.  Do not wander off."

She chuffed out her
annoyance, sounding more dragon than mage.  "You are beginning to sound
like my brother."

Braedon turned and
narrowed his eyes in his mate’s direction, even though he could not see her for
the fog.  "Take that back."

She gurgled out a laugh. 
Even in this situation, it gave Braedon satisfaction to make her laugh. 
Knowing how little she had to laugh at in the past, every time she did felt
like a gift.  That wiped the smile right off his face, and he looked up into
the darkening sky, determined as never before that this would end today.

He heard a whispered
'ready' on the wind, and he cleared his mind in preparation for the hunt.

"Now!" Theron
roared, not needing his wind to be heard that time.  Braedon raised his hands,
knowing Asha was doing the same beside him, and flamed.  His intention was to
build the hottest flame he could, and that's exactly what he did.  He felt the
fire first in his hands and arms as usual and then throughout the rest of his
body, even his hair, which made him look like a living flame.  He saw Asha
following him; the connection open and strong between them gave her a level of
control that she had been missing, and with the added power of dragon blood,
they both heated from the core outward. 

When he knew he could not
handle one more speck of power, together they simultaneously punched their
power out and up, shooting it like a flaming comet towards their target.  It
combined in such a way that it actually gained power as it flew.  The fog
burned out around and above them, giving them a clear line to the now screaming
hordes that descended on them.  There were so many creatures that they appeared
to writhe together across the sky like one nightmare being.  Tentacles and
horns, bat-like wings and feathers all combined to black out the sun.  Then
they caught fire, and with the help of a billowing wind, the fire spread until
they transformed from a seething mass of black into a fiery inferno, falling
into the sea and littered the beach, giving the impression of burning and
thrashing debris on the sand.

Then the earth mages took
over, protecting the rest with quickly erected walls and smothering out the
fires by burying the creatures as they burned to ash.  The ocean was alive with
waves and crashing water funnels that dragged the beasts far out to sea.  Even
as creature after creature was burned to ash, suffocated, or washed out to sea,
they could hear the roar of an angry dragon lord.  An angry dragon lord who had
never faced a well-organized mage defense before, mostly because it had never
been heard of until then.

"I bet he wishes he
had a seer now," Asha said grimly.  She and her mate fired another flare
at the heavens.  The first round of defense was a solid win on their part, but
some of the creatures had reached the beach, and they could hear the fighting
pick up all around them as the dragons in warrior form used their swords and
axes to fight the rest of the beasts.  There was a surge all around them as
more creatures made the beach.  It was not long before they were forced to
concentrate on the beasts coming at them on the ground and ignore what was left
in the skies.  They had decimated a good two-thirds of the unnatural forces,
but they still had a battle before them.  Braedon let his nearly depleted flame
die and pulled his sword from his back sheath.

"Stay back from the
battle as much as you can.  Until you get a little bit of practice outside of
your vision walks, you are still not familiar enough with that sword to chance
attacking."  Braedon whipped to the side just as a spiked tail smashed the
ground where he had been standing.  He saw a blade flash through the beast
twice before the thing fell screaming in pieces to the bloody sand.  He looked
up, and Asha smiled back at him, her sword bloody and ready for more.