Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
“M an of steel. Oath breaker. I know you are here,” Azurea’s deep, feminine voice filled my head and struck a chord of fear in my heart.
I turned fast, tucking Austyn away into the shadows of the alcove, knowing there was only one thing I could do to save the princess now, and that was to face the monster and draw its eyes away from her.
I stepped out of the shadows as that ruby egg continued to shine, though not so brightly that I couldn’t look at it anymore. There was a humming, living energy spilling from that thing and it set my heart pounding to an unfamiliar tune, one that seemed to lure me in.
I drew my sword as Azurea lifted her head, pushing herself up in the water, her eyes settling on me and seeming to see right through to my bones.
I side stepped towards her egg and she bared her teeth as a vicious snarl left her.
“Do not dare move any closer. She is the most precious creature in all the land.” Azurea sniffed the air and shivered as the quakes in the ground finally eased, though the windchimes and bells continued to call out all across the kingdom.
“Do you know what you have done?” she spat venomously within my mind.
“What I have done?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice even, knowing that showing anger with a dragon was only a death wish in itself. “You have attacked my city and murdered innocent people.”
“Place down your weapon,” she commanded, ignoring my accusation. “Kneel, and pray for your end to be swift, man of steel.”
Fire flickered within her jaws and my heart stuttered as I refused her words, raising my sword higher. “If I am to die, I will do so on my feet as a true warrior of the crown.”
“Then you shall burn for me slowly,” she hissed, and that red fire licked her lips as she bore down on me.
I lifted my sword, preparing to leap forward and strike true in one final act that I hoped would finish her for good.
But the flames were already pouring from her jaws, and as I saw my death coming for me, I moved forward to embrace it with a roar.
The sound was full of every true emotion I had ever felt, my love for my family, for my kingdom, and my love for a princess who lay in the shadows behind me, a woman I would protect with my dying breath.
The flames were all I could see as they circled down from Azurea’s jaws and the heat of them were so intense, I knew I would be consumed by them within moments and cast to ash.
There was a cracking sound behind me accompanied by a wave of energy that blasted through the air and made my ears ring, but I was too focused on my enemy to pay it any heed.
As the first of Azurea’s flames nearly licked my arm, a creature not much larger than I swept in front of me with a shriek, leathery white wings with ice blue tips outstretching as the fire surrounded it.
The flames guttered out against the white beast’s flesh and Azurea screamed a high-pitched scream that made me clamp my hands over my ears, the sound echoing through my skull.
My eyes were dancing with white spots from the intensity of the firelight, but as I blinked them away, I realised my saviour was a small dragon.
One glance sideways showed me the ruby egg was now in pieces and as I turned back to the beast in utter confusion, my gaze locked with the most incredible blue eyes of the new born dragon.
A gentle power washed into my chest, taking me captive as it surrounded my heart and urged me towards this breath-taking beast. In the back of my mind, I feared this was a trick to lure me to my death, but I still couldn’t stop myself from approaching her.
She cocked her head to one side, and I noticed two icy blue horns just poking through the top of her slim head. Every scale on her body looked almost luminescent, the white glinting blue as she moved, and my lips parted in awe at her beauty.
The beast moved forward to meet me and the sword fell from my fingertips, clattering as it hit the ground.
I raised my hand, hearing a heavy pulse within my ears that was beating faster than my own, and I realised it was coming from this mystic creature.
Slowly, her heartbeat fell into the same rhythm as mine and as I reached out, utterly captivated by the magic of her, she rested her nose to my palm.
Her scales were so much smoother than I had expected and as she opened her mouth, a single blue flame kissed my palm.
I knew I should have flinched away from it, expecting pain, but somehow, I knew to stay there as the flame spread over my wrist before disappearing into my flesh.
“No!” Azurea bellowed, lunging forward behind her baby, but the young dragon spread her wings to warn her back.
Her mother held off as if some magic was keeping her at bay, releasing a noise of anguish as she thrashed in the sewer water.
The single blue flame slid deep into my veins, and I watched as it travelled up my arm, a lump forming in my throat over what was happening, sure I should have been terrified, but feeling nothing but delight as it ran deeper into my body.
I felt the moment it met my heart and I gasped as warmth spread through the middle of my chest, that living flame dancing there and burning brightly.
“Do not speak her name,” Azurea boomed inside my head. “You are unworthy. She is not for you!”
I frowned, unsure what she meant, but it became clear as I met the gaze of the small dragon again, her gleaming blue eyes like two sun-drenched oceans.
I knew her name as if I had always known it, as if the world had been waiting for me to speak it for a thousand lifetimes.
And there was simply no way I could stop it from leaving my lips.
“Emberliss,” I said, and the word set a shockwave ringing through the air that made Azurea roar in anguish.
The young dragon released a cry of happiness, rushing towards me and nuzzling my face, as I was released from the magic keeping my instincts at bay.
I backed away from her in fright, looking to her mother as she paced in the water of the sewer, throwing her head back and bellowing furiously.
“Go to her,” I urged, sure this would see my end as Emberliss kept moving towards me like a duckling who had imprinted on a wayward goose.
Emberliss released another soft cry, pressing closer to me and my back hit the wall as her tongue ran up the side of my face.
Azurea’s bellows grew more frantic, and she turned to us, the magic barrier keeping her back fizzling out of existence. She swept Emberliss away from me with her wing and opened her powerful jaws, flames circling in the back of her throat in a promise of death.
I swore, lunging for my sword, but Azurea knocked it into the water with one of her talons, her lips peeled back in a ferocious snarl.
“What have you done?!” she screeched, and I winced away from the voice as it tore through my skull. “She is mine . A gift from the lost gods. How dare you imprint upon her!”
I didn’t know what that meant, and I shook my head as I raised my hands in innocence. “I don’t understand.”
“Well you will understand this,” she hissed. “Now that I cannot kill you, I will curse you instead. Your arrogance will cost you everything, man of steel.”
“Wait, undo it,” I commanded. “I did not mean to.”
“It is already done,” she snarled fiercely. “ I can no easier pull the sun from the sky, you fool. The magic is binding, it cannot be reversed. You have corrupted the only dragon born in this world for a thousand years!”
Emberliss growled, trying to get past her mother’s wing to reach me, and I didn’t just see her panic, I felt it in the centre of my heart, and it made me panic too.
“Stay back,” I told her, raising a hand, fearing what Azurea might do to her.
I didn’t know why I cared, but I did. I loved that creature as if it were my own child, and that knowledge set my mind whirling with terror.
Emberliss was kept back by her mother as the might of Azurea’s next words sent me falling to my knees before her. “Hyesha ola norenti savan. Man of steel, I curse you from your bones to your soul.”
The scale in my pocket started to burn, searing through my trousers and I grabbed it out, meaning to throw it away from me, but instead, it grew against my palm, wrapping over the flesh and encasing it in more scales which were the colour of blood.
They rushed up my right arm and I yelled, trying to tear them off of me, but they were stronger than iron.
And worse than that, they burned like living hellfire was binding itself to my flesh.
I yelled out in agony as they spread rapidly onto my chest and up my neck before climbing the side of my face.
“Stop!” I shouted, but Azurea continued on, a savagery in her eyes that made me certain no words I spoke would ever convince her to free me from this.
“I have longed for a child for a thousand years, and you have stolen her just as she has come to me at last. So I shall return the favour, man of steel.”
“No, please,” I rasped, buckling forward, and pressing my hands to the ground as the sharpened scales on my body spread over my back, tearing through my shirt so it fell in tatters around me.
The scales gripped my shoulder blades, binding to flesh and bone, the fiery touch of them more painful than anything I had ever experienced.
Emberliss released a screech of rage, and I felt her panic ripping a hole through the centre of me as she tried to come to my aid.
“Stay back,” I gritted out through my teeth, not wanting Azurea’s ire to turn on her. “Get out of here!”
“Do not speak to her as if she is yours to command!” Azurea shrieked and the scales spread quicker across my skin, encasing my other arm as the dark, cloying power of them gripped me tighter.
Nausea filled me from the impossible heights of pain, and I was sure no man could survive this, not even one forged into a steel warrior of Osaria.
The ground was shaking beneath me, and debris started to fall from the street above. It felt like the world was ending and I was at the very heart of it, waiting to see the apocalypse come tearing through the doors of the afterlife.
“Gaven herash notin ova. Your soul is mine,” Azurea hissed. “And it will remain so until the curse is done. Verin ashar guren lidash.”
The ancient language sent a flood of magic over me, and I shuddered from its cruel touch, the scales urged on by its power and running down the length of my legs. I was burning from the inside out, and I was near blinded by the flames coursing through my veins.
Through it all, I felt that single blue flame within my chest gifted to me by Emberliss, spreading out as if trying to hold back the potent power of her mother’s curse.
But it was no good. The curse sank in and the moment it connected with my heart, I collapsed forward onto the ground, writhing as my voice was ripped raw by my roars of torment.
“Corrupt one,” she branded me. “You are tainted now, as you have tainted my daughter. This power will not unleash you until it is done.”
The fire in my limbs faded enough for me to catch my breath and I panted as I gazed up at the monster above me. “What is done?”
“Evran ilis ukan,” she said icily in that wicked tongue which bound me in old magic.
“You have stolen my heart’s desire, so you will hunger for the death of yours in kind.
You will ache for their end until the need drives you to the brink of insanity.
You cannot run or hide, you will be pulled towards them with the force of gravity, and they will suffer in your company.
You will only be released from the curse by their death at your hands, or else you will succumb to the curse of the Dragonia Verake, and become my monster, a plague on this world that will spill the blood of innocents until the streets of Osaria run red. ”
“No, wait. I can bring you as much gold as you want, I can pay the debt,” I rasped as I thought of what those words forewarned. My heart’s desire?
My mind turned to Austyn, and I fought the urge to look over at her where she was hidden within the shadows, terror consuming me at what this curse could mean for her. Because there was no desire deeper in my heart than my want for her.
“No treasure can save you now.”
The scales started to recede across my body, sinking away into my flesh as if they hadn’t existed at all. But I could feel them there, waiting to return and twist me into the monster she spoke of. There was no worse fate for me than that, to be turned into a weapon against Austyn.
“I will take any other punishment. Kill me if you must!” I demanded as terror flooded me.
There was some deeply wicked thing taking root in me now, forcing down the morality in me and latching onto every damning thought I’d ever had.
It was gripping the most villainous parts of my being and drawing them to the surface, making me ache for the blood of the princess.
“Please,” I gasped, trying to hold onto the man I was, but he was already slipping from my grasp.
“No. This is the price of what you have done. Ambris elus vertatis,” she hissed, and I felt my tongue weigh down with those final damning words. “You cannot speak of the curse. It is your secret to bear alone. And bear it you will, man of steel.”