Chapter 16 #2
Incendium laughed with a sickening gurgle that sounded like thick, boiling liquid.
He held out his trident. Its silvery surface gleamed brighter, and the crystal at the center of its three prongs sparked as though eager to unleash more lightning.
“I shall make ye a bargain, scarred one. Release him by touching this crystal to the medallion on his breast, and ye may prove that loyalty can control this creature born of cruelty itself.” He held up his gloved hand, his fingers smoking.
“But know this, if ye fail to free him, I shall kill him where he stands, and summon another from my many dragons to replace him, and then I shall kill ye.”
Lexi smelled a trap. Even through the mask of his helmet, Incendium’s smugness was unmistakable.
But she had little choice now, because she wasn’t about to let that poor dragon die.
She reached for the trident. Her palm sizzled as soon as she touched it.
Pain ricocheted up her arm. “Dammit!” She threw it down.
The thing was as hot as the handle of a pan straight out of the oven.
Incendium roared with laughter.
“It is all right, she of the prophecy. Death is a welcome release. I do not fear it, and neither should ye.” The dragon’s calm, quiet acceptance broke Lexi’s heart.
“I’m not done yet,” she said. She shed her backpack and Mammaw jacket.
Mammaw would win this day. She wrapped her hands in the jacket, grabbed up the hotly gleaming spear, and charged over to the dragon before the overlord could stop her.
She touched the crystal to the beast’s medallion.
Every shackle, harness, and restraint fell away, dropping into a pile around the beast.
“Destroy the crystal. It focuses his power.”
She whacked it against a boulder.
“No!” Incendium roared as he lunged for her, but his heavy armor slowed him down, making him easier to dodge.
Lexi beat the crystal against a larger stone until it shattered, then she threw the staff in front of the dragon. “Melt it! Hurry!”
The mighty creature reared back with a deep inhale, then blew a mighty blazing breath that engulfed the overlord.
Lexi turned away from the unbearable blast of heat, crouching with her head covered. Her burned hand throbbed, but she ignored it, staying low until the dragon’s incinerating explosion ceased.
“It is done.”
She stumbled to her feet and stared at the pile of smoking char that had once been Incendium.
The dragon took a step back and nodded down at the silver trident. “Keep it with ye. It proves ye are now the overlord of the Fae of the Fires. Yer title won in battle.”
“You should be the overlord, not me.” She cradled her blistered hand close, searching the smoky landscape for Aylryd. The cat was mighty, but he wasn’t built for this. “You are obviously an expert when it comes to fire,” she told the dragon.
“Bring yer wounded hand closer, she of the prophecy.”
Eyeing the magnificent beastie, she did as he asked. “You can call me Lexi, if you like.”
“Lexi?”
She nodded and held out her hand. “Lexington Elizabeth Vine is my full name, but I’d rather you call me Lexi. As a child, I associated my full name with being in big trouble and about to be punished.”
The dragon hovered its mighty head closer to her hand and blinked, allowing a teardrop to splash into her palm.
The throbbing ache of the burn immediately stopped.
Lexi fluttered her fingers and flexed her hand, opening and closing her fist. “It’s completely healed.
Thank you. I had no idea dragon tears could heal burns.
” She smiled at the glorious beast. “You are amazing, and I can’t believe I finally got to meet a real, live dragon. ”
The winged wonder tilted his horned head and somehow seemed befuddled.
“We are not rare, she of the prophecy, but I am proud to have met ye, as well. When ye released my bonds, ye released the bonds of my clan and freed us from the Fae of the Fires.” He lowered his head as though bowing. “I am Corvit, Lord of the Red.”
She managed a proper curtsy without bobbling. “It’s an honor, Corvit.” She picked up the trident that was no longer hot and wrinkled her nose. “I meant it when I said you should be the overlord of the Fae of the Fires.”
“Ye will bring honor to the title.” He cast a glance all around and lifted his head, listening. “The wind has already carried word to the fiery ones.” Twin puffs of smoke rose from his nostrils. “They celebrate the death of Incendium and look forward to yer reign.”
“They may not look forward to it very much when I proclaim no more burning.” She slowly shook her head at the desolation. “It will take decades for the Seventh Realm’s Scotland to heal.”
“The Green Fae and the Water Sprites will have all restored within days. My clan and I will return to the mountains, to our caves, where we belong. We are long overdue for the great sleep.”
“The great sleep…that sounds like I won’t see you again.” Lexi hated that idea, but understood completely.
“Are we forbidden then, she of the prophecy, overlord to the Fae of the Fires?” Corvit asked, sounding dejected.
“No. Absolutely not. You are free to do whatever it is dragons do—just don’t destroy anything or hurt anyone.
Please? Well…” Lexi started to add that she wouldn’t mind if the dragons fried Princess Faeniana and her bunch, but somehow, asking that of the dragons who had just won their freedom didn’t seem fair.
“Well? Who do ye wish ended?”
Lexi motioned at all the surrounding destruction. “I’m not really fond of Princess Faeniana and her courtiers right now, but surely, the Fifth Kingdom has some good people left in it. I’d hate for them to suffer any more than they already have by being under her rule.”
“Ye care for the enemy?”
“There are always good people, innocents, on both sides of any war, and they’re usually the ones who end up suffering the most. I care about those people.” She nodded at him, and the cloud of dragons that appeared on the horizon. “Just like you and your clan. Look how you have suffered.”
The dragon stared at her, then lowered his head once more and outspread his wings, bowing low. “The prophecy spoke the truth. Ye will bring a time of light to the Seventh Realm.”
“I just want everyone to live in peace and be happy.” She untied the bandana, wiped the sweat off her face, then shoved it into her back pocket. “Do you know which direction I should go to get to Sevenrest?”
“Allow my clan and I to escort ye, mighty one.”
A loud sneeze blew up a cloud of ash and dust before Lexi could reply. She turned, spotted Aylryd, and ran to hug him. “I was worried about you getting singed. Are you all right?”
The mighty tiger purred and nudged her with his head.
With her sweet beastie at her side, she turned back to Corvit.
“An escort would be lovely, thank you. As long as you’re certain it won’t endanger any of you.
I don’t know anything about Sevenrest’s defenses.
You and your clan have been through enough.
” She knew Sevenrest’s wards were powered by unicorn magic, or they had been.
But it might not be wise to share that. Since the Seventh Realm mirrored the year 1811 in her world, she doubted they had any surface-to-air firepower, but she didn’t know that for sure.
Magic altered the possibilities of everything.
Then she remembered the white t-shirt she’d stuffed in her backpack at the last minute.
It would make an awesome flag of surrender to ensure Sevenrest knew the dragons weren’t coming to attack.
“If you wouldn’t mind, could you take me to the edge of Sevenrest’s borders? I don’t want you and yours hurt.”
“It would be our honor, mighty one.” He crouched low and extended his wing. “Climb aboard.”
Thrilled speechless at the prospect of riding a dragon, Lexi hurried to climb the ribs of Corvit’s leathery wing to reach the spot on his back where they joined his body.
His large scales were warm and smooth, like finely crafted shields fitted together in a mosaic of armor.
Without being invited, Aylryd leapt up and settled in front of her.
“Don’t dig in with your claws,” she told the tiger with a stern look. “Just because he’s a big, scaly dragon doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings.”
Corvit rumbled and shook beneath her, smoke spiraling out of his nostrils as he lifted his head and twisted his long, serpent-like neck around to look at her. If she didn’t know better, she would say he was smiling. “Yer wee protector canna harm me, mighty one. Rest easy and hold fast. We go.”
* * *
“The sentries sounded the alarm. A dragon horde,” Darkcord said, “headed straight for Sevenrest. They said it looks like every feckin’ dragon what has ever flown for the Fae of the Fires.”
Jeros wiped the sweat from his sooty brow and squinted up at the bank of storm clouds forming.
Rain would be both a blessing and a curse.
It would help abate the fires and keep them from breaching Sevenrest’s southern border, but rain could also trigger mudslides—or more aptly, rivers of wet silt and ash.
“Double the archers. Have them take down those spewing the most carnage first.”
“That is what is strange, my king,” the commander said. “None of them are spewing flames, and the mighty red dragon known to carry the overlord has a rider waving a white flag.”
“I am not yer king yet, old friend. Not until the anointing.”
Darkcord thumped his forearm across his broad chest in a warrior’s salute. “Ye have always been my king. Even before ye became the last Seventhson to survive.”
Jeros accepted the commander’s fealty with a grateful nod, then got back to the matter at hand. “A white flag, ye say? From Overlord Incendium’s dragon? Ye are certain?”
“Aye.”
“They surrender?”
“It would seem so, but why?”
“Aye,” Jeros didn’t trust it any more than Darkcord did. This had to be some sort of trap cooked up by Incendium and Faeniana. “Hold fire for my order, ye ken?”
Darkcord nodded. “Understood.” He charged away in the direction of the archers on the makeshift barriers erected in haste to offer additional protection to the boundary wards.
Jeros climbed the observation tower and pulled his spyglass from his belt. “Show me,” he ordered, and the instrument immediately started to glow. He put it to his eye and swept his gaze across the sky.
And then his weary heart jolted, nearly leaping from his chest. It was her. Lexi. Astride the biggest monstrosity of a beast to ever incinerate the earth. “Stand down!” he bellowed, roaring the words over and over as he descended the tower at a dangerous speed.
He charged forward across the desolate gray grounds surrounding Sevenrest, waving his arms like a fool, but he didn’t care. His beloved had come home.
The mightiest of the dragons, a fierce, formidable enemy, set down in front of him, sending up a cloud of dust and ash.
The rest of the horde remained aloft, hovering in a graceful circle as if watching over their lord.
Aylryd leapt to the ground, then turned and looked up at Lexi.
She leaned forward, hugging the dragon’s neck and pressing her forehead to its scales.
Then she swung her leg over and slid off the beast, making use of the creature’s wing to aid her descent.
“Jeros!” Arms outspread, but holding an eerily familiar trident in one hand, she careened toward him. “Jeros!”
As they collided, he caught her up. “My own,” he groaned against her cheek as he clutched her close.
“Ye came back. Ye found a way back.” He buried his fingers in her hair, tilted her face up to his, and crushed his mouth to hers.
Senses whirling, her sweetness almost more than he could bear, he was tempted to take them both to the ground and love her right then and there.
She wrapped her arms and a leg around him, clutching him as if afraid he wasn’t real. “I’m so mad at you, but I missed you so much.”
“I did it to protect ye,” he said between kisses, unable to get enough of her.
“As you can see, I am not helpless.” She pulled back and fixed him with the sternest, most beautiful glare he had ever received. Tears welled in her eyes. “I love you so much.”
“I love ye more.” He ended the conversation with another kiss until Aylryd head butted their legs and nearly toppled them over. “What the feckin’ hell do ye want?” he asked the tiger.
The animal looked over at the dragon as if reminding Jeros that they had guests.
Lexi smiled, looped her arm through his, and tugged him closer to the fearsome beast. “This is Corvit, Lord of the Red. If not for him, Incendium would still be alive and destroying the land.”
“If not for the fearlessness and determination of she of the prophecy,” Corvit said, “I would not have found myself in a position to free us from Incendium’s cruel reign.”
“You can talk out loud?” Lexi sounded so incredulous that Jeros almost laughed. Almost. He caught himself in time.
“Of course I can speak aloud.” Twin curlicues of light gray smoke spiraled up from the dragon’s gleaming red nostrils. “It would be rude to have a conversation without including King Jeros.” Corvit lowered his head. “Yer Majesty.”
“I have yet to be anointed,” Jeros said for the second time that day.
“Ye have been anointed by the fires of war,” the dragon said without hesitation. “Ye are our king and she of the prophecy is not only our queen, but overlord of the Fae of the Fires.”
“I was going to ask about that staff,” Jeros said, “as soon as I properly greeted my beloved one.” While he felt certain it would be a story worth many retellings around a wintry fire, he was currently enraptured with the return of his mate.
“Incendium was torturing Corvit,” Lexi said, anger flashing in her eyes.
“Ahh…I understand completely now.” And he did. Lexi tolerated no cruelties to any creature.
“So, Corvit and his clan are my friends now. They are going for the deep sleep.”
“The great sleep, she of the prophecy,” the dragon gently corrected.
“Yes…The great sleep.” Lexi tipped a gracious nod. “Sorry. I have a lot to learn about this realm. Thank you for keeping me straight.” She playfully shook a finger. “Never hesitate to correct me. Okay?”
Corvit’s leathery lips curved upward. “It is our honor to serve ye, she of the prophecy.” He stretched taller and spread his wings. “With yer permission, Yer Highness and she of the prophecy, I shall go now. My clan awaits.”
Speechless, Jeros offered the majestic dragon his best formal bow.
Lexi curtsied. “Thank you for your friendship, Corvit. Be safe, and I hope you and your clan have the sweetest dreams ever.”
“Ye gave us our dream, she of the prophecy,” Corvit said as he rose into the air. “Ye gave us our freedom. Dinna hesitate to call upon us should ye ever need us.”