Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (7 page)

"They are past the
Kinkaid boundary to the south."  General Solan said grimly, as the rest of
them turned in that direction.  "Rhune stands as her protector as she
recovers."

"Recovers?"  Braedon
asked.  "Recovers from what?" He was not unaware that his voice had
lowered to a threatening timbre.  He just didn't care.  “And who is he
protecting her from?”

Solan growled under his
breath, clearly hearing more he did not like.  "She is unconscious, and
there are dragons."

That was more than
Braedon needed to hear as he fought his own growl.  He was heading south at a
fleet run when a dragon claw grabbed him up, and he was airborne.  Braedon
shuddered from more than the cold.  There were many ways to ride a dragon, and
he had discovered most of them since he had met these dragons.  But this was a
little too reminiscent of a hawk swooping down on a mouse for his liking.  He
looked up and was surprised to see the bronze shimmer that was Prince Ladon in
dragon form carrying him.  Of all the dragons, he had spent the least amount of
time with the Council Lord, who seemed to be forever preoccupied with Council
business.  A position that would have drained the humor out of most people long
ago.  Braedon liked what he knew of the man.  Anyone who could handle politics
with honor and flair and still retain his humor was well worth knowing, even if
he did dress flashy.  He wore it well, and despite his seeming love for things
that sparkled, he was a hell of a fighter on top of that.

Braedon closed his eyes
when it looked like they were going to fly right into a tree. Instead, they
cleared it with a little dip and twirl that had him rethinking his positive
feelings for the overdressed dragon lord.  Braedon felt the whip of the wind
and the scent of green pass across his face.  When he hesitantly cracked an eye
open to see if they were falling to their deaths, he saw only the distant
mountains and clouds.  It was not entirely reassuring, but he let thoughts of
near death go and screamed into the wind, "faster!"

Prince Ladon moved
faster, and Braedon held on tighter, grimly thinking he could endure this as
long as they got to Asha in time.  If she were hurt, the dragons would finally
see what a fire mage was truly capable of.  He felt the fire simmering inside
him and controlled it with an effort.  Burning the dragon that was carrying him
where he needed to go would be a very bad idea right now.  Instead, he
concentrated on containing his growing anger over Asha's danger and screamed
into the wind, "faster!"

Braedon saw Asha in the
small clearing surrounded by three fully grown dragons; a small ebony dragon
was the only thing standing between them and his mate.  It took all he had to
stop the fire until he could be dropped to the ground.  When he landed, he was
still a good ways from the ground, and had to roll with the impact to keep from
breaking anything.  Looking up to see both Ladon and Kinkaid in human form
standing between Rhune and the three strange dragons, all of whom he was quick
to note were the gold common to the House of Earth.  Lux, Aarion, and General
Solan landed behind the House of Earth dragons.  Solan had shifted to his man
form while he flew so that he landed on large boots, his hand on his sword and
his eyes casting an eerie silver glow on the scene before him.

Braedon finally let his
fire free, feeling it race down his arms and hands.  He knew his eyes would be
open flames, and he could feel himself losing his tightly wound control even as
Ladon spoke.

"Rhune, shift and
tell us what is happening here before we kill these three House of Earth
interlopers."

One of them started to
protest, but a hiss from a clearly enraged Eben Kinkaid quickly caused him to
close his mouth.  A second later, Rhune shifted to his small boy form and
looked as though he was going to fall over from exhaustion.

Kinkaid's gaze sharpened
as he peered at the boy.  His dark voice flowed over the clearing with the
pressure of power.  "Did you heal someone?"

"Asha was
hurt."

All eyes turned to fix
one predatory gaze on the three dragons, who were looking less sure of themselves. 
One was shaking his head and his hands were up.  "It wasn't us.  We found
them like this."

"Rhune?"  Eben
growled out the question, and Rhune blinked his exhausted eyes up at him. 
"How was the lady hurt?"

He shrugged, and it
looked like the move was set to topple him.  Ladon reached down and steadied
his little shoulders.  "She was so cold.  I had to heal her."

Braedon felt his fire
diminish as he heard the child.  He walked closer, trying to see Asha where she
lay crumbled on the ground.  "She was shivering? And holding her
stomach?"  He asked, careful to keep his eyes on the dragons as he moved.

Rhune nodded.  His eyes
briefly closed and then opened as he fought his own exhaustion.  "There
was so much to heal."  He looked confused.  "There was a wall I had
to break."

Eben's eyes seemed to
focus their glitter on the boy.  "A wall?"  He looked from him to
Ladon, and Braedon had the feeling they were talking through the mate bond they
shared with Morgan.  "You broke through?"

Rhune nodded, "And
then she fell asleep, and the dragons came."  He worked up enough energy
to glare at the three dragons in question.  "They wanted to take her.  She
needs her sleep."

All eyes turned once
again to the dragons, and Braedon could taste the fear that permeated the air,
even while he felt nothing but relief to know that Asha was just sleeping.

The one that held up his
hands shook his head.  "We just wanted to help.  We called for a real
healer, but while we waited, the boy would not move.  He spat fire at us."
The last was said with a shake of his gold head as if he could not believe the
audacity of that.

Braedon believed him. 
His intentions were probably honorable from the look in his frosty grey eyes. 
His friend, who was backing up a step at a time to try to make space between
them, also looked as harmless as a six-foot-five dragon could.  However, the
other one, the one with the black eyes that seemed to move like smoke, was
looking at Asha, and what Braedon saw in his eyes was pure avarice. 

It was that one he
watched when he moved to Asha's side and spoke.  "I can see to my own
mate
."  He stressed the word “mate” and watched the black smoke in
those eyes snap up to meet his like a hammer falling on an anvil.  Braedon
smiled into the rage he saw there and snapped his hands out to his sides,
feeling the fire flare from his fingers, up his arms, and even through his
hair.  It wasn’t burning him, but it was making one hell of a statement.

"
Mage
,"
the black-eyed dragon spat, his eyes broadcasting his disgust.

Braedon turned so that he
was more fully between Asha and the dragons.  Ladon and Kinkaid had grabbed
Rhune at the first sign of his fire and moved back.  He looked around briefly
and understood.  They considered Asha his mate and would not interfere.  Then
he looked back at the angry dragon male who had a good six inches and probably
fifty pounds on him, not to mention the sharp teeth and claws.  Braedon met
those challenging eyes again and smiled.

Braedon stepped farther
away from Asha, letting the fire inside him build to boiling.  As he was always
so very careful to contain his power, the buildup was almost painful; he looked
forward to the release a little too eagerly.  He had told the dragons before
that he was made for destruction.  They were about to get the full
demonstration of that here where no innocent would be harmed.

"Rhune, change back
to your dragon form, and move away.  It's about to get hot."

From the corner of his eye,
he saw that Eben and Ladon had both moved the boy back and had pushed him
behind the two of them.

"But I want to
see!" Rhune yelled as he struggled ineffectually to get around them. 
"I don't know any fire mages."

Braedon left Rhune’s
protection up to them and turned back to the dragon male, who did not even have
the sense to change into his more protected dragon form.

The dragon laughed with a
bite of cruelty.  "Do you really think you can challenge a dragon, little
mage?  Perhaps you had best just hand over the female to a mate who has the
hope of protecting her before you start what you cannot finish."

Braedon tilted his head
and studied the dragon male.  "Come and get her," he smiled again and
watched the fury chase across the dragon’s face.  His smile grew bigger in open
challenge.  "If you can."

The dragon hissed and
charged.  Braedon set his feet and braced himself.  Lifting his hands, palm
out, he sent a funnel of fire right into the rampaging chest.  You could hear
the dragon roar of pain and fury as he flew back across the field and into the
forest where fire ignited and trees burst from the heat as he passed.  The
dragon did not come back.

Braedon turned to the
other two dragons, who were looking flummoxed.  He had not used even a tenth of
the power he felt welling once again inside him.  "Anyone else want to
show me how I can't protect my mate?"

They both raised their
hands and backed up even as Ryall was touching down with his mate, Shehar.  A
study of contrasts, Ryall's dragon was nearly as dark as his General’s, while
Shehar was a stunningly beautiful white.  Her husband was as standoffish as any
of the other dragon knights, barring Lux, of course, while his wife brought
haughty coldness to a new level.  She acted much like the ice queen she
resembled.  Her dragon was the moon to her husband’s night sky.

As soon as she saw Lady
Asha at his back, she transformed and ducked around him as though he was not
standing there on fire.  She did not bother with explanations but merely moved
her hands over the lady while he turned to watch.  He saw a faint glow as she
examined his mate.  That word “mate” incidentally was coming easier every time
he used it.  Then he watched the healer of dragons rest her hand near Asha's
belly and then pull it back as if she had been bitten.

"What has happened
here? She is turning cold."

"No!" Rhune
said, having transformed back to the boy.  He pushed his way around his
sister’s mates and fell to his knees beside the healer.  "I fixed
her."

Shehar looked from her
patient to the boy, her eyes narrowing.  "How did you fix her,
Rhune?"

"She was blocked in
her mind, and I helped her so she would not be cold anymore."

Shehar looked from the
small child to Asha.  Then she closed her eyes in sorrow.

"Did I do something
wrong?"  Rhune asked, his voice fading under his worry.

"You must promise
you will not heal again without me beside you to guide you, at least until you
are fully trained.  There are things you do not understand.  We will hope that
she is not permanently damaged."

"What do you mean,
not permanently damaged?"  Braedon asked his voice dropping to a growl. 
His fire, which had started to disperse, flashed once more.  "What is
wrong with her?"

Shehar looked at him and
seemed to consider not answering him, her eyes becoming aloof.

"Shehar," Eben
Kinkaid warned.  "Lady Asha claimed the fire mage as her mate."

The healer looked
momentarily struck dumb, and then she spoke with obvious reluctance.  "She
should have been brought to a healer when she was first rescued."  Braedon
was not going to take the time to say that she had been to a healer because
clearly Riva had missed something, and he was not going to argue about it. 
Luckily, Shehar went on without his prompting.  "From what I can see, she
is going into her first molt.  This usually causes fever rather than the cold
she is experiencing, and that I cannot explain; since she is half mage, that
might be the cause."

"Molt?" 
Braedon asked, his voice showing his surprise.

"Dragons experience
it, usually much younger than she is now, but again, as a half mage anything is
possible.  And I believe she was blocked from her dragon side magically,"
she looked at General Solan.  "Much like the block I placed on Lady
Melisande when she first came to us so damaged.  In this case, I believe Rhune removed
the block that had been placed on Lady Asha when she was very young."

"What was the
purpose of this block?" Eben asked darkly, as if he already suspected.

Shehar sighed.  "I
believe it was to keep her dragon side from forming."

"And now that it has
been removed?"

"She could enter her
first molt and come into all that she was meant to be."

"You said
‘could,’" Braedon said, moving to the other side of her when he heard Asha
begin to murmur and awaken.

Shehar sighed, her eyes
going to Asha and staying there.  "She is half mage.  She may not be able
to make the transition."

"Why do I suspect
there is more than her not becoming a dragon in that statement?"

Shehar finally met his
eyes.  "She is cold when she should be hot.  This I have never
seen."  She pressed her lips together as if she could hold in the sorrow
reflected in her eyes.  "If she is not enough dragon to make the change,”
She pursed her lips again, and he knew he was not going to like what she had to
say.  "She could tear herself apart."

Braedon felt those words
like a blow even as Asha gasped in a deep breath and opened her eyes.  He could
see confusion there, then panic hit.  He watched the cold flow over her like a
wave of ice leaving her shivering and icy to the touch as he stood helpless.

She looked around with
terrified eyes, curling herself into a ball and shaking. "What is
happening?"

Shehar looked from her to
the rest of them.  "We need to get her to a hot spring."  She looked
at Braedon and he felt the sear of her eyes like a judgment, even while he was
pulling a shivering Asha into his arms.  "Let us hope that you are true
mate to Lady Asha.  If she were only dragon, I would say she has not had her
second molt and cannot have claimed anyone as mate, but she is mage, so it is
possible.  If you are truly her mate, she may yet survive this."

Braedon felt all the
blood leave his head.  "She has claimed me, but we have not mated truly,
what will that mean?"

Shehar studied him
carefully.  He could physically feel her reaction to his words, then her hand
lifted as she made the same brush over them that Riva had done before.  She
calmed enough that her shoulders lost some tension or dropped in defeat.  She
was not the easiest person to read.  "There is a connection, fragile
though it is right now.  I fear it will be forged in fire or burned out before
this is over."  She looked him in the eyes and gave him his last
instructions as he sent fire to Asha: fire that was no longer warming her. 
"Take her to the hot spring; the old magic will help the transition.  You
must mate in the ways of dragons.  When given freely, sex and blood between
mates is a powerful healer, and the connection you form will strengthen her and
may help her survive what is going to happen.  I must warn you, she is not the
only one in danger.  If you mate, and she cannot make the transition, you will
die an excruciatingly painful death right along with her."

Braedon growled at that
warning, his arms tightening around Lady Asha, who for all her powers and
strength felt so very small as she shivered in his arms.  He remembered how he
had found her buried alive, and the tortures she had endured as a child. 
"She will not die."  He bit out, and it was more a promise than
anything else.  When he turned he saw that Furee had returned to them and stood
among the other dragons.  At least some of his tension left him at the sight. 
Of all the dragons, it was Furee he would have chosen to trust with something
this important; after all, they had flown through the fires of hell once before
together.  He looked at the dragon male.  "Will you take me to this hot
spring?"

"I will," Furee
said, with the banked fire in his eyes, his voice low and gravely with the pain
that they had shared.  "And I will stand guard to see that none disturb you
while you are vulnerable."

Braedon nodded once and
started for the dragon as he transformed.

Eben Kincaid and the rest
stood tall and grim around them.  "We will all see to it that you are not
disturbed," he said.  Kincaid peered directly at the other two House of
Earth dragons who looked worried.

He could hear the two of
them asking the healer to check their fallen comrade, but Braedon was past
caring about anyone but Asha.  He felt her shivering increase despite the heat
that he was generating and steadily sending her way.  He pulled more here even
as he handed her to Lux and climbed onto Furee’s back.  Despite the speed of
the exchange, when he reached for her, she was already colder than she had
been.

"It will be long
hours before this is over," Shehar said, stepping up beside Lux and
Aarion, who was standing sentinel beside him.  "I will see to Brax's
injuries and then come.  I will be there before the end to look over the both
of you.  It would be good to also have a mage healer." 

She was interrupted by
Rhune as he bellowed, "I'll be there!"

She shook her head and
continued, "I understand you have a mage healer with experience.  This may
be too much for a youngling.  It would be wise to bring her along as well, as
we are dealing with more than just dragon in this."

Furee blew out a flame
before he launched them in the air.  Braedon was too busy holding onto Asha and
his seat to listen to the dragons assure the healer that Riva would be there. 
He had other concerns, like the fact that Asha was now shivering so hard she
was practically having a seizure in his arms, despite the amount of heat that
he was pushing into her.

"So-o-o
C-o-ld," she stuttered.  Her face, pressed against his neck, felt like an
icicle.  He amped up the power as much as he could with Furee beneath him until
he was a living flame.  Still, he was greatly relieved that they made it
swiftly to the mouth of a cave.

He could already feel the
steam as they made the ledge of the cave.  He slid off Furee's side, landing
with a knee tweaking thump to the rock floor below.  He wasted no time in
talking or waiting for the others and instead ran on unsteady legs into the hot
spring cave.  Sulfur and growing things hit his nose before the lights ignited
magically, showing him a cave of wonders that made the hot springs at Forsaken
look downright tame.  In Dracon, magic was everywhere; it soaked into the pores
and swirled in the very air they breathed.  In this cave, it was so heavy with
magic it was as if you could drink it.

Without looking too much
at the wonders around them, he made note of a bed that looked big enough to
accommodate even Lux in his dragon form.  Instead, he headed for the hot
springs, his mage senses telling him it was the center of the dragon magic for
the whole place.  He did not stop to take off their clothes; he just flamed
what he was wearing to ash then jumped in, sword, charred boots, and all.

***

Asha had no real idea
what was happening around her.  The cold was all she could feel.  The only
thing that penetrated was the feel of Braedon’s heat reaching her.  She pulled
on it, trying to lead it through her body to all her cold places, but it was
not enough.  The cold was moving into her bones, and everything hurt.  Then she
was plunged into fire.  She opened her mouth to scream only to swallow more
fire.  It flowed down her throat and crashed into the ice, but instead of
thawing her, the ice swallowed the fire and grew, and grew.  Asha searched for
the oblivion that would take her from the pain exploding within her bones, but
it flittered away; all she could do was endure it.

She had no idea how long
it was before the pain receded enough that she could hear again, but there was
a voice bellowing at her, and from the hoarseness she realized it had been
doing it for some time.  Now that she could hear again, it struck a chord deep
inside where her fire twisted and turned, trapped in the ice encasing her.

"Asha!  Fight this,
Asha! You will not die on me!"

"Braedon?" 

The fire mage she had
claimed as her mate shook her, and she blinked open her eyes to see that she
was in a hot spring once again.  She must have burned away her clothes and
possibly Braedon's as well because she could see what was left of them on the
side of the spring with his sword, gleaming among the ashes.  "Did I hurt
anyone?"