Dragon Blood 3: Surety (12 page)

“You want to send another one feral?”
Jasper asked.

“I’m running low on power.”
Amber sent her thoughts to Jasper only.

“You’ve still got some stored. We can’t keep dodging the mages all day. One of us will get hurt,”
Jasper said.

She really wanted to say yes. Instead, she sent a fireball at the mage attacking her and Kade.
“I need some reserves.”
Then she sent her thoughts to all her companions.
“Focus on the one. Outnumber him.”

“The one Amber is attacking first, then the female dragon second,”
Ronan said.
“Try and capture mages if possible. Orin can collect the next one if I get him free from the saddle.”

They all attacked at once, one of the dragon’s wings shredded, making him plummet towards the ground. It was too quick for them to capture the mage, but they managed to take the next one, Orin flying away with him. The other dragon and mage disappeared into the Void.

“Cowards,”
Crystal said.
“They’ve left the area completely.”

“What about the one that’s watching?”
Ronan asked.

“Keeping their distance,”
Crystal said.

Flinn flew towards the ground, scooping up the sword before he aimed skywards.
“Meeting point. Let’s get this test wrapped up.”
He wheeled, heading in the correct direction.

Amber wanted to argue, but she really wanted the tests done as soon as possible. Flinn needed to pass them so he could create his own clan. Then Crystal wouldn’t be in such a precarious position. Only the strongest survived and the strongest weren’t usually clanless.

When they reached the meeting point, they landed in front of the two dragons that were in human form. Orin, Maira and Rian stood near them. Two more dragons joined them, becoming human as they landed beside the officials.

“Are you fine?”
Rian asked Amber directly.

She nodded.

“They would not allow us to return to the fight. They said if we did not guard the treasure we would fail the test.”

“I’m glad you stayed.”
Amber turned her attention to Kade, who gestured towards the mages.

“Two treasures taken from enemies and two captives taken from battle.” Kade gestured towards the mages.

“These are humans,” one of the officials said.

“Dragon Mages,” Ronan corrected. “You.” He pointed to one of the men. “Prove what you are or die.”

The mage formed a ball of ice in his hand, throwing it at the ground. Shards exploded around his feet.

Ronan growled at him, “Don’t be smart. You can still die.”

“I-”

Ronan cuffed the man across the head and he abruptly ceased speaking.

The official nodded. “We will let you know your results as soon as the assessment is complete.”

“We’ll let you know if our interrogation gives the name of the ones leaking information about test locations,” Ronan said.

“Interrogation? No one said anything about interrogation.” The mage who’d called ice tried to pull away from Maira. There was fear in his voice.

No one paid him any attention, other than Maira who tightened her grip on him.

“We are secure. The leak must be your problem,” an official said.

“This is the second time. There was no leak on our side,” Ronan said.

“Ronan, your Golds are here now, waiting in the Void.”
Crystal spoke to their entire team.

An official stepped forward. “One of us will need to be there to verify the information gained.”

Ronan nodded. “I’ll take you to the secure location we’ve organised.” He made a motion with his hand and two Golds stepped out of the Void, taking the mages into the Void with them. Ronan held out a hand to the official.

“Your home?”

“No. A secure location.” Ronan smiled.

Amber watched as the official took Ronan’s hand and they disappeared. She wished she could do the same. How much longer did they need to stand around here?

Flinn stepped forward, holding out the sword. “One of the treasures for you to verify the value.” When the official took it from him, he beckoned Rian forward.

Rian looked to Amber first and she nodded. He tipped the contents of the drawstring bag into his hand. A diamond necklace slithered out to lay glittering in his palm.

“No wonder the bag was so heavy,” Amber muttered. “When you said diamond necklace I thought you meant a pendant on a chain. Not an entire string of diamonds.”

Crystal reached out to run a finger across the stones. “It’s beautiful.”

“You’re not keeping it,” Flinn growled.

Crystal glared at him. “I wasn’t planning to.” Her eyes followed the necklace as one of the officials took it. “But it would look awesome on me.”

“We will be in touch.” The rest of the officials disappeared into the Void.

“It looks like I wasn’t the only one who thought the necklace beautiful. That dragon came in for a look and turned into a girl,”
Crystal said.

“Drag her out of the Void. I’ll take her back to our castle,”
Kade said.

“Stop endangering my mage. The girl could just as easily pull Crystal into the Void,”
Flinn said.

Crystal pulled a girl from the Void, pushing her towards Kade.

Amber barely had time to see wide open blue eyes and a mouth opening to scream, before Kade disappeared with her. “We have to get back to our castle, now.” The girl might be shorter than Kade and had a slight frame, but Amber had learned that a dragon’s instinct was to fight. The girl wouldn’t remain surprised for long.

“Chait’s in the Void,” Crystal said.

“Chait, get out of the Void,” Amber said.

“We only have two Golds. They can’t take everyone back at once,” Flinn said. “Crystal goes first.”

Amber nodded, turning to Chait. “You heard.”

Chait shook his head. “My orders are to watch you.”

“The longer we stand around arguing, the greater the change someone might come across us. We’re surrounded by enemy clans.” Amber couldn’t remember seeing a single ally of theirs on the map Ronan had spread out.

“I will watch her. Return immediately,” Rian said. When Chait started to argue, Rian interrupted. “Flinn gets the first trip for his mage, that means he will be the last to leave. Now go before we are discovered. Those dragons we attacked are probably regrouping by now.”

Chait nodded. “Who does Turi take?”

Amber didn’t have to think twice. “Jay.”

Jasper opened his mouth, snapped it shut then opened it again. “Be careful.”

Amber nodded, watching as the four disappeared. She scanned the area, finding only small animals hiding. “There’s no one around here.” She thought of the girl who’d been watching them from the Void. “Unless they’re Gold.”

Chait and Turi came back out of the Void and this time they took Amber and Maira before leaving them at the front of Temolae Keep. It didn’t take Amber long to locate Kade and the girl. She ran inside, stopping in the corridor where Kade warily watched the girl who’d drawn a sword, the keep’s soldiers blocking her retreat in the other direction.

Amber stopped near Kade, whose sword was still sheathed. She warily watched the girl. “Who are you?”

The girl kept her sword up, golden hair hanging past her shoulders in a plait that had partially come undone. “He better not expect me to let you live if you try and kill me.”

“Who?” Amber took a step forward, feeling Crystal and Jasper join Kade.

“My father. But I don’t think he realises how strong you are. I do. I watched you fight. They didn’t stand a chance.”

“Who are you?” Amber met the blue eyes, trying to figure out why they seemed so familiar.

“Don’t forget I saved your life. You owe me for that.” The girl lowered her sword.

“We’re not planning to hurt you unless you hurt us. We just wanted to know who you are and why you’ve been watching us,” Amber said.

“Is this the one you saw when we were out hunting?”
Kade asked Amber.

“Yeah.”
Then she spoke aloud. “Well?”

“I was curious. He’s so weak. He has no way to defend himself. A dragon child is more powerful than him. I want you to turn him into a Dragon Mage like you,” the girl said.

“Who.” Amber was beginning to get annoyed by the lack of information. Why couldn’t the girl come straight out and say who she was?

“My father.”

“Roger.”

Amber turned towards Jasper, who’d spoken, her mouth dropping open as she met his blue eyes. “Our cousin?” She turned back to face the girl, seeing the similarities now. “You’re our cousin?”

Jasper stepped up beside Amber, staring at the girl. “What’s your name?”

“Shylah.” She paused. “Well? What about my father? Will you turn him into a mage so he can defend himself? A mage like you three, not those other weak creatures.”

“I-” Before Amber could say anything else, Rian interrupted.

“She will need to talk it over with everyone involved. It is not a decision she can make on her own.”

Amber nodded her head. Rian’s explanation sounded a lot better than her ‘I don’t know’ would have been.

“So I can go and you’ll send someone with an answer?” Shylah asked.

Amber looked towards Rian, the same words as before were all she could think to say.

“I will show you to a guest room.” Rian took a step forward, his hand outstretched. “Give you time to freshen up before you join us for dinner.”

“I’m a prisoner?” Shylah demanded.

“No. You have asked a very big favour of Amber. She will need to know more details to be able to answer the questions that all the others who are involved will have,” Rian said.

“I did save her life.”

“There were plenty of others around who could have done the same. Now are you staying or going?” Rian asked.

Shylah looked at each of them warily. “I can go if I want?”

Rian nodded. “But if you leave, your request will not be considered.”

Amber wished she had Rian’s ability to know what to say. She waited for Shylah’s answer.

“All right.” Shylah eyed the hand still stretched towards her. “I’ll follow you.”

Rian dropped his hand, a smile fleetingly appearing. “I will walk beside you.” He stepped forward and at a nod from him, the soldiers parted so he and Shylah could walk down the corridor.

As soon as they were out of sight, Amber turned to Jasper. “What are we going to do?”

Jasper shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She was almost relieved to find she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t think of anything other than those words to speak. “We have to do something.”

“We’re not the only mages now,” Crystal said.

“We still shouldn’t be making any more until after Ronan’s lands are taken,” Kade said.

“None should be made. The ones we faced today were bad enough. Think what would happen if they’d been able to fly. No dragon would be safe,” Flinn said. “We’d all risk turning feral in battle.”

“What if we made ones that couldn’t fly?” Brann suggested.

“That seems cruel. What if they fell?” Crystal asked.

Flinn pointed an accusing finger at her. “You stay out of it. You’re not helping.”

Crystal’s hands went to her hips. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Why don’t we wait for Ronan?” Jasper asked.

“I don’t trust him,” Flinn growled.

“No one does,” Kade said. “But he’s our ally. We need to consult him too.”

“Good, that’s settled,” Jasper said. “Amber and I need to make a phone call. We’ll see everyone later.”

Amber nearly groaned. Ringing her mother was the last thing she wanted to do, but there was no point in putting it off. That’d only make her mother worse to talk to when they did finally ring her.

Dinner took far too long to eat between Shylah’s evasive answers and pleas to have her father become a mage and Flinn’s sullen comments. Several times Amber was tempted to throw something at him. Preferably the knives from the table. When the meal ended and Shylah agreed to stay the night, Amber wasn’t sure if she should ring Ronan and ask him to come and give his opinion. Should they let a possible enemy stay the night? She had no idea and wasn’t sure if disturbing Ronan when he was in the middle of an interrogation was a good idea. In the end she decided to go to bed and send Ronan a text message in the morning.

When she woke the next morning, the first thing she did was check where everyone was. Shylah wasn’t in the guest room she’d been shown to. Slipping out of bed, she shook her head when Kade turned human and raised his head to look at her. She didn’t need him following her. Shylah wasn’t about to hurt her when she needed something from her. Hopefully. She grabbed her phone from the bedside drawers, sliding it into a pocket as she left the room.

Amber found Shylah in the gardens, sitting on the edge of a large fountain, trailing her fingers in the water.

Shylah watched her warily. “I thought you’d be more like him.”

“Like who?”

“My father. He seems to think family is extremely important. Still talks about his little sister who followed him around everywhere. But he had to promise never to contact them to keep them safe. You’re not like him. You don’t think family is everything.”

She struggled to figure out what to tell Shylah. “I would do anything for my family. But it’s more than just my brother and parents. There’s Crystal, Kade and Rian too. And many more, but you don’t need the full list.”

“So I’m not family?”

Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. You dragons think differently.” Ronan would be proud of how cautious she was being, but she hated it. This was her cousin. She wanted to like her, wanted to be able to trust her. Why did dragons have to ruin everything? “You’re the one who came to me for help and yet every question I asked you last night you sidestepped it, avoided it or turned it back at me. Maybe I should be the one to ask if you’re family.”

“You were trying to figure out our strengths.”

“I-” Amber shook her head. “What?”

“You wanted to know about my blood sisters, my parents, my clan. You were trying to find out our strengths and weaknesses.”

Amber stared at the girl, her eyes so much like Jasper’s. “This is why I don’t trust you. I wanted to know about my family. Our family. You don’t want me to know them. You kept pushing me away last night. You’ve been raised on survival of the fittest. I’ve been raised to look out for family and friends, protect those weaker than me. You want to kill those weaker.”

“If you don’t take them out when they’re weaker they might take you out if they ever become stronger.”

“Then why did you try and save me yesterday?”

“So you’d owe me a favour. I need to make my father strong. I shouldn’t have to always protect him. One day someone will capture him and they’ll try and use him against me.”

She thought of Ronan who’d remove the issue before it became a problem. “Doesn’t survival of the fittest count for him?”

Shylah looked away. It was a full minute before she answered. “I owe him.”

“What do you owe him?”

Shylah jumped to her feet, crossing the short distance between them. “What does it matter?” There was anger in her voice as she glared at Amber.

“You want my help, remember. What do you owe him?”

“Nothing.” Shylah spat the word at her. “They raised me to think like you do. To protect the weak. They didn’t raise me right. I need to be stronger than that. One day I’ll have to take care of the clan. I can’t afford to look after the weak. They’ll bring me down and the entire clan with me.”

Amber forced herself to hold her ground when all she wanted to do was step back from the anger pouring off Shylah. “If you don’t owe him, then what?”

“I love him.” She spoke the words in the same tone as someone would say ‘I hate him’.

“Maybe you are family after all.”

“I’m… I’m family?” The anger faded from Shylah’s voice. “You’ll help him?”

“I can’t promise anything, but I’m thinking about it. And I’ll probably have to meet him.” She wanted to meet him anyway. A man who should have been a Knight, but instead married a dragon.

“He can’t seek out any of his human family.”

Amber grinned. “I’m a Dragon Mage.” She might consider herself human, but no one else seemed to.

Shylah nodded. “I need to check on the wording of his promise, but I’m pretty certain it was worded human family.” She hesitated. “Can I leave?”

“How will I get in touch with you?”

“I have a phone.” Shylah pulled a mobile phone from her pocket.

Amber laughed. “That’s the last thing I expected, but I shouldn’t be surprised since nearly all the other dragons I know seem to carry one.” She withdrew her own phone. “What’s your number?” She entered the numbers as Shylah rattled them off. Then she told Shylah her number.

“Now can I go?”

Amber nodded. She had no reason to keep her here and she had to let her go sometime. It wasn’t like she was really a prisoner. “I’ll ring you in a few days. I need to talk to all my allies.”

With a nod, Shylah disappeared into the Void.

Amber stared at the place she’d been, wishing she could see into the Void like Crystal could. She looked at her phone in her hand and decided it was probably past time to send Ronan a message. Sitting on the edge of the fountain she typed in the message, deleting it several times before she was happy with what she’d written. As soon as it was sent, she returned her phone to her pocket, continuing to sit on the edge of the fountain.

She closed her eyes, listening to the fall of water. It should be a soothing sound, but it only reminded her of secrets. Dragon secrets. Damn dragons ruined everything. Rising to her feet, she started to walk away, freezing and turning round, her hands raised with fireballs at the ready. Ronan stood by the fountain and he didn’t look happy. She closed her hands, extinguishing the flames before she lowered them.

Ronan held up his phone, the text from her displayed. “What is this meant to mean? You leave it a day to inform me and you don’t even bother ringing. What game are you playing at?”

“None. I was surprised, that’s all. And I didn’t want to interrupt your interrogation.”

“You don’t let anyone take you by surprise. You need to be more prepared than that. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Amber shook her head. Maybe she should have sent him a message last night.

“Or do you think you can keep running to me every time you’re in trouble? I’m not your warrior.”

“I don’t think that.” Or at least she wasn’t about to admit it to him, not with how angry he looked.

Ronan grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her close. “You are not to make any more mages. Are you trying to help our enemies? Look what happened when you let Shannon in on some of the secret. You nearly got us killed.”

“Did you find her?”

“She’s dead. They killed her because she couldn’t tell them exactly how to make mages.” Ronan let Amber go, taking a step away from her.

Thinking he was about to leave, she reached for him, being dragged into the Void and to a room she didn’t recognise. “Where are we?” She mentally searched the area, but nothing seemed familiar and the tug of her family and friends was faint. She began to think he wasn’t going to speak.

“I’ve outlasted them all.”

There was only one exit, a large timber door with metal hinges reaching halfway across it. The stone walls were covered in small brass plaques. Amber crossed the room to get a closer look. She ran her fingers across the name before she turned to face Ronan. “Where are we?”

He stared at her silently for several minutes. “My family crypt. They’re all ashes. Not a single one of my family became a Knight trophy. And I’ve outlasted them all. My grandparents, their parents, my parents and my sister. Sons that failed me, my uncle, even he I wouldn’t leave for anyone else. There’ll be more. I won’t end up in here.” He pointed a finger at her, anger in his tone. “I won’t let your decisions put me in here.”

“Sons that failed you? How?”

“By dying.”

“I don’t plan on dying.” How could she? The moment she was dead all her friends and family were in danger.

“Humans are such insignificant creatures. If you weren’t useful we wouldn’t bother letting you live.” He stalked across the room, coming to a stop in front of her. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to stay alive as long as you have.”

“Because I’m too stubborn to die.” She met his hard stare. “I have too many people to take care of to let myself die. You might see them as a liability, I see them as the reason I survive.”

“You won’t be making any more mages. When we take out the ones Shannon was forced to make, and those with the knowledge, there’ll be no others that aren’t completely ours.”

Amber shook her head. “I will agree to that only until your lands are captured.”

“So you’ve made up your mind. Why did you bother asking for my advice?”

“I need to know more about my uncle and his clan before I can make a proper decision. But I’m not spending the rest of my life as a rare commodity. If every clan had a Dragon Mage then things would be different. No one would have an advantage and we’d cease to be hunted.”

“Fool.” He sent her a look of disgust. “You will always be hunted. The strongest always are.”

She shrugged, not bothering to argue with him. “Where did they get the people from to turn them into mages?”

“A convention for, as the prisoner put it, fantasy geeks. Whatever that is meant to mean.”

“That makes sense. They’re people who wish they could be mages.”

“They are weak and useless. Saying the word torture was all it took for one of them to spill all his secrets along with every boring detail of his extremely uninteresting life.”

“Who made him?”

“He doesn’t know, but if I take him to his home he’ll be able to get everything he needs to create their images and that of the castle he was held at. His computer with some drawing programs and a drawing tablet. He calls himself an artist and yet he can’t use pen and paper.”

“I want to see him. Both of them.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“They’re pathetic creatures. I’m not having you feel sorry for them.”

“I want to see them. They don’t belong to you.”

Ronan smiled his predatory smile. “But they are in my keeping.”

“I won’t be the only one who’ll want to see them.”

“You have more than enough people to protect. You don’t need any more.” Ronan grabbed hold of her arm, taking her through the Void and back to the fountain. He pointed a finger at her as he stepped away. “No more mages.”

This time he vanished before she could stop him. “Bloody dragon,” she muttered as she stalked back inside. She mentally searched for him, smiling grimly when she found his direction. He couldn’t live in the Void and she knew how to find him. After school tomorrow she’d start. He wasn’t keeping her from seeing their prisoners. She wasn’t an idiot. She wasn’t about to adopt anyone else. There were more than enough people for her to look after already. And she wasn’t about to let him think he could ditch her whenever he felt like it. She would find him no matter where he went.