Blood of the Dragon Read online

  Copyright © Sarina Langer 2019

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design © Design for Writers

  Map Design © MonkeyBlood Design

  www.sarinalanger.com

  To everyone who wants to give up:

  Paschros kai zo.

  Fight strong and live, my Sparrows.

  Content Warning

  Please be advised that the Relics of Ar’Zac trilogy contains content some readers may find upsetting such as, but not limited to, violence. Please proceed with caution if this might cause distress.

  Chapter One

  Rachael dreamt of soft sheets and joyous chirping outside her window. Of laughing Sparrows. Of a bench by the fountain in her garden, her peace from all the world’s horrors and the people needing her to fix it. She didn’t want to wake up. Her nightmares waited outside her dreams.

  A vicious hiss dragged her out of sleep and into the dark. She couldn’t close her eyes while the demons were with her. She needed to know what they were doing, where they were, what they were planning, how to get away.

  But there was no way out. Rachael couldn’t see her own hand if she held it far enough away, let alone a door or what might lie behind it. It had scared her at first, but she’d got used to it—and that scared her more than the darkness itself.

  And no matter how black the void around her turned, the demons were darker. They were shadow within gloom, the only thing blacker than her fears. And together, they formed her nightmare and erased all hope of freedom.

  The Mother that had woken Rachael slithered closer. Rachael stepped backed into the wall. She had nowhere to go, but she refused to just sit and let it happen. The Mothers hadn’t hurt her yet, but they wouldn’t have brought her here if they didn’t want something from her. All this time running from them across the Far Sea into Midoka and across the Krymistian desert, Rachael had assumed the demons wanted her dead. Why hadn’t they killed her?

  The Mother filled the space before her and expanded until all Rachael saw was black Mist. Its long tendrils cupped her face, inspected her, held her tight and fed her fear. Rachael could wish the wall behind her would swallow her as much as she wanted, she was trapped in this prison. With her nightmare finally come true, terror paralysed her better than any monster could.

  The Mother hissed again and drew away. Rachael couldn’t see where it disappeared—under her door or through a crack in the wall too small for her—but the black filling the room seemed a little less total.

  Without any light, her eyes couldn’t adjust. To her sides, all she felt was stone. Beneath her, more stone; before her, an impossibly long stretch of darkness.

  Rachael shivered and curled in on herself. When she had inspected the prison in the White City, she’d known she hadn’t averted her nightmare. She’d known it would come for her. Running from the demons seemed stupid now, a waste of time. They had travelled to the ruins in the Krymistian desert, entered chambers no one had seen in hundreds of years, but the Mothers had found her. Kaida had carried her and Cale across the continent and hidden them inside a library even Kaida had believed destroyed, but the Mothers had tracked her down.

  Her heart ached. Her mind ached. Her body ached. She’d been in hopeless situations before, but she’d never been helpless. When thugs and rapists had cornered her in some backstreet in Blackrock, she defended herself. They had always underestimated her—she’d been a starving husk of a child—and she had always made them regret it. When Cephy had drawn a ring of hungry fire around her in the White City, she’d had her sword. When demons had overrun her palace, her own small army had fought by her side. Rachael didn’t know where her sword was now, or her armour. The Mothers had stripped her of everything she’d earned, everything that made her strong.

  Cale and Kaida were probably still back at the library since the Mothers weren’t interested in them. She couldn’t fathom where the Mothers had taken Kiana. Her Sparrows were in the White City, defending it from more Mothers. Reeve and Ludo were back in Krymistis, and she didn’t even know where she stood with Ludo; it was possible he’d try to kill her again if he had another chance.

  She couldn’t be sure where the demons had imprisoned her, but Kaida had mentioned something about Kaethe, and island far out on the ocean. The Mothers had been confined there at the end of the Sorcerers’ War, and the Dark One had been sealed with them. If that was where they’d taken her, then there was nothing Rachael could do. She couldn’t swim, but even if she could, she had no idea how far away she was from the nearest shore. She’d drown long before she ever saw land again.

  Her visions were the only thing the Mothers hadn’t taken from her, but they happened in their own time, not when Rachael needed them. They were useless in this prison, anyway. Rachael knew how this would end if no one helped her.

  Maybe she should have put more effort into her gift, but she’d tried with Ailis guiding her and she hadn’t been able to tap into it. If she’d known how to control water or air, maybe there would have been a way across the sea. But it was too late now—if she hadn’t managed it with Ailis’s help, she didn’t stand a chance on her own. Wanting to survive, to find a way out, hadn’t brought her any closer to sensing her magic’s source within herself.

  “Paschros kai—” Her throat was too dry, and she coughed. Paschros kai zo. Paschros kai zo. Paschros kai zo. Her eyes burnt. She wanted to fight back, escape, and reach her Sparrows so they could regroup, but she had no energy. She hadn’t had a vision since she arrived here, but then she didn’t know how long ago that was. Cale didn’t know where she was. She’d walked away from him and Kaida because she needed space; knowing Cale, he’d allow her as much as she needed. He wouldn’t look for her, not right away. Her Sparrows didn’t even know Kaida had taken them to the library. For all they knew, a dragon had swooped in, lifted them out, and taken them to its nest high in a mountain to feed them to its young.

  All she knew was that desire to survive, that necessity, but she didn’t see a way of using it to her advantage now. It had kept her alive in Blackrock. It wouldn’t keep her alive here.

  Chapter Two

  Cale rammed his fist into the library’s cold stone wall. His knuckles split open and he hissed. Pain erupted through his open flesh and gripped his bones. He slammed his other fist into the wall, into the same spot, and then punched with his first fist again. Twice, three times, until the pain blinded him and made thinking impossible.

  His one duty as Rachael’s Sparrow had been to protect her. His one duty to his Sparrows, his family, had been to keep them safe and lead them to victory. But Rachael had been taken and he was miles away from his Sparrows, who were left without a leader and without instructions. They didn’t even know a Mother had kidnapped Rachael. He knew only because the vile demon had let out a blood-curdling screech. It had echoed through the library’s corridors and carried straight to him, to let him know she was gone.

  And Mothers—infernal servants of the Dark One made of the same ever-shifting Mists they came from—had overrun the White Palace when Kaida hauled him and Rachael out of it. For all he knew, his family was dead. Rachael could be dead too, but he doubted it. He’d run through the library’s c
orridors, checked every room, but he hadn’t found a body or blood.

  He screamed and punched the wall again. Pain made him see red stars, and he fell to his knees. It had been a long time since he’d cried, but there was only so much he could take. So many people had relied on him. Arlo. Ailis. His Sparrows. Kiana. Rachael. His new family of fresh Sparrow recruits. He had failed all of them.

  Cale grit his teeth. He doubted the Mothers would kill Rachael, at least not right away. They needed her to unleash the Dark One and destroy everything. Knowing that, however, didn’t make him feel any better. Rachael was suffering. She’d feared this outcome more than anything, and he had let it happen.

  He needed to find her, but where to start? She could be anywhere.

  Pick yourself up, Sparrow.

  Cale jumped and spun around, bright explosions behind his eyes blinding him. He was alone. But someone—

  There’s time to save her.

  He sank back to the floor, head between his knees and arms around his ears to stop the madness. Was it Ailis or Kiana he was hearing, or his own voice? They all blended into one.

  Every man had his limit. Perhaps he’d finally found his.

  You must hurry.

  He screamed in frustration with himself as much as his situation. They may have been voices, but they were right. He didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity. Rachael was imprisoned in her worst nightmare even though he’d sworn to protect her. It wouldn’t end like this. He wouldn’t let it.

  But where would he start? The only place he could think of was Kaethe, where the old sorcerers had banished the Dark One and His Mothers, but if Rachael was there, he couldn’t do anything about it. He hadn’t believed anyone still lived on Kaethe, but then Kaida told them about the hordes of demons worshipping the Dark One inside the island’s temples and working towards his return.

  Cale grimaced. Kaida had also deceived them and turned into a dragon, the beast out of Rachael’s visions. He didn’t believe the Mist Woman any more than he would have believed a Mother offering the Dark One’s peace. He had no options—he either trusted Kaida and didn’t go to Kaethe but Rachael might die, or he didn’t trust Kaida, found Kaethe overrun, and died himself, or he could go to the island only to find it deserted and waste time, or—

  This was pointless. His hands throbbed and bled, and his mind felt like someone had pulled a spiky blanket over it—too clouded to think, too agonised to plan.

  “Are you done throwing your tantrum like a child?”

  Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse… How long had Kaida been watching him?

  “Go away.” He hated how much his words proved her point, but he already couldn’t think without Kaida in the room. Rachael wanted to trust her, but as far as he was concerned, Kaida had betrayed them one time too many. Whatever he’d do about saving Rachael, he was done with Kaida.

  While he believed that Kaida was a dragon, accepting the magnitude of it was another issue. Dragons were supposed to be extinct. He needed a moment to process that one of the ancient creatures had just flown him and Rachael away from his family, into the same country the old sorcerers had destroyed, and hidden them in a fabled library no one had thought still existed. Maker, even Kaida had seemed surprised to find it here. If there were things a dragon and Mist Woman didn’t know about, what chance did he have?

  He needed to be alone for a bit. He didn’t need the reminder of how well she had fooled them.

  “Do not blame yourself for not seeing through my lie. I have far more years of experience than you can imagine. I dare say I am rather good at what I do. When Rachael lies dead and the Dark One enslaves your remaining Sparrows because you sulked when you should have acted, then you can blame yourself.”

  He pulled back his arm to punch the wall one more time, but the mere movement of his muscles made the pain flare and he dropped his hand.

  “Just one moment.” He sighed. Sometimes, war meant he had to appease his enemies. “Some of us don’t have thousands of years of strategic experience. I need a moment to accept… this. You. I just need a second to make sense of everything.”

  “Very well. But do not try to pacify me with petty words, Cale Spurling. We both want the same thing, do we not? I find honesty serves better than false modesty.”

  Cale paused. He didn’t hear his full name often—his Sparrows just called him Cale, and he didn’t know many people outside of them. Even Commander Dryden, the new leader of the White Guard Rachael trusted with her people, called him Cale. At times, Ailis and Kiana had used his full name when they were angry with him or wanted to tease him, but they were both gone now. Kaida was the only one who’d called him by his family name in years.

  He frowned. “How long have you been here?”

  “On this earth, you mean?”

  “I’m not in the mood, witch.” He hadn’t been sure what to call her—dragon, Mist Woman, traitor? —but he supposed that sorted one problem. “In this room, watching me. How long have you stood there?”

  She—or should that be it now he knew what she was? —cocked her head. “Not long. I thought you had punished yourself enough and came to heal your wounds and tell you to stop being a child. Instead, I found you on the floor, screaming with your head between your knees.”

  “You entered my mind, didn’t you.” He had meant it as a question, but he was too sure for that. “You’re trying to manipulate me.”

  She frowned, looking so human he hated her even more for the lie. If there had been some sign she was an immortal beast from ancient times, any sign at all, this would have been easier. Or maybe it would have been harder? He didn’t know anymore. What kind of sign did he even want? Horns coming out of her head? Smoke puffing out of her nostrils when she was angry? The stories he’d grown up with had been fabrication, but clearly dragons weren’t. Kaida was the most powerful—creature, person, thing, whatever he would choose—he had ever met. If she wanted to look like any other woman, he was sure it was as easy for her as sparring was for him.

  He hated that she looked so human. He hated that he’d ever trusted her.

  More than anything, he hated that he needed her help.

  “I know you are angry and cannot see it yet, but I am on your side. I regret that I had to lie to you before, but you will see why it was necessary once you have had time to think. Manipulating you through childish mind games is not how I work.” She sighed and turned away from him. “Take the time you need to make sense of what happened. I admit, it is sometimes difficult for me to understand humans, no matter how many years I have spent as one. But do not take too long. I believe there is a way out of this, and I would prefer not to delay.”

  After everything she’d done, he still believed her. It didn’t explain who he’d heard right before Kaida had chastised him, but perhaps it didn’t matter. Maybe he was going insane, or maybe something else was going on—either way, the voice was right. Nothing had changed; Rachael was his priority.

  Cale leaned into a wall, felt the chill of the stone against his skin and through his clothes, allowed it to calm his mind and settle him. He wanted to get back to his Sparrows and he needed to find Rachael. His emotions couldn’t get in the way. He’d been good at that once, but Rachael had changed everything. He didn’t want to be the cold leader who put the mission over his loved ones. Cale remembered the disappointment in Rachael’s eyes when he wouldn’t go after Kiana all too well. He’d thought Rachael just didn’t understand the hard choices he had to make, but her reaction had burnt itself into his memory and it reminded him of what he could be. His family. His mission. Could he have both without compromising either? Not just with Rachael—because he did care about her—but with his other Sparrows, too. He’d made Kiana his second-in-command because he trusted her with his life. She deserved the same commitment from him.

  It was all so easy in his head—protect the people he loved, do his job… Simplicity itself. But it was beyond difficult to have both. Unlikely, but perhaps not impossibl
e. He did like a challenge.

  Hearing what the dragon from Rachael’s vision had to say was a start.

  Chapter Three

  When Kiana was growing up in Grozma, trying to protect her mother and staying out of her father’s sight, she had taught herself several techniques to stay calm in terrifying situations. They’d never let her down.

  None of them helped her now.

  She lay on a cold stone table, wrists spread to opposite sides and bound to cool hooks behind her head, legs tied in the same way below her.

  Kiana took one deep breath in, let one deep breath out. Repeated the process. Her heart still hammered.

  She thought of her mother’s arms, the way she’d smelled of roses, and closed her eyes until she felt her mother’s comforting embrace. Her mind still raced.

  She focussed on the spot on her hips where her daggers usually sat, tried so hard to feel them now, but nothing was there. Terror still gripped her.

  Fear threatened to overpower her again. Her stomach constricted, her throat tightened, and wave after wave of horror washed over her. She sobbed, and her eyes burnt.

  Kiana had never felt so pathetic. When her father had beaten her mother, Kiana stood against him. When her father had beaten her until she couldn’t see through the pain, she kicked back. When she had gone back to Grozma years later, her daggers a comfort at her hips and her step sure, she repaid him for all the times he’d made his mother regret marrying him.

  But now she had nothing, and it terrified her.

  Thanks to her father, she had grown stronger. Killing him had been easy, rational. There’d been only one of him. The Mothers were endless, and they didn’t bleed like he’d done.

  Her daggers were somewhere she didn’t know, somewhere she couldn’t reach, but since she couldn’t move, she wouldn’t have got out even if they had been cruelly close.