Dragon's Heart (3 page)

Sierran’s
quick glance at Draakar did not go unnoticed by Valour. Sierran and Draakar did
have an inkling of why his powers were waning. She was not his truemate.
 
Although they were joined and Talon
their offspring, their mating had been done of necessity.
 

Their
great powers enabled them to maintain the illusion of truemates. Only Valour
knew the truth—he had realized long ago—but no one else knew, not
even their son. He also suspected his Lady realized the price she would now pay
for forcing Draakar’s hand so many ages ago. Nonetheless, it was worth it and
necessary, and why he’d aided her. While they may not have been truemates, Valour
knew their hearts. She did love him, and Draakar loved her. Together they had
saved the brethren—for a while.

Now
Sierran had to face the harsh reality of the truth. She could no longer help
her mate sustain his powers. She could only enhance it and not for much longer.
Her life energy, her power drained fastest of all. Only Draakar’s truemate
could sustain him now. Sierran turned her head to look at Valour, knowing he
read some of her thoughts, and confirming for him her awareness of the
situation. She would tell Draakar none of these things. She nodded slightly at
him and he nodded back to let her know he understood. As always, she kept her
own counsel.

At
first both Sierran and Draakar thought to convince Talon to take one of the
stronger females as his mate, a gold or a bronze and had come to Valour to get
his support. They’d had it once before, but Valour told them this time things
were different. He would not pressure the boy. Besides, Talon absolutely
refused. He wanted his truemate or he would have none at all. Not even for his
race would he sacrifice his mate.

“I
have always known she is not of this world,” Talon said. “I have simply been
waiting for her to be born, for her life energy to grow strong enough to call
to me so I would be able to find her. For a short while, from time to time I
can sense her, but only for brief moments.”
Like
a passing caress across my heart whenever I catch just the right wind current.

Valour
caught Talon’s last thought and smiled.

“I
need to go to Terra now,” Talon continued. “I must be ready when it is time to
claim her, and it may take awhile for me to find her. The sooner I can begin my
search, the sooner I can return to Akgon with my mate. I have no doubt I will
find her and bring her back with me.”

Draakar’s
sighed and faced his son. “I am proud of you, you know.” Talon did what he
himself had not, so long ago. Draakar had known once he stepped through the
gate on Earth he had left his truemate behind, sacrificing them both, but the
brethren needed him. Unfortunately, for the dragons, he realized too late they
would also need his truemate.

“I
am not even sure we have enough strength amongst us to reopen the gate,”
Draakar said.

“I
have faith in you, Father,” Talon replied.
 
“I will help. All of Akgon will help, and when I cross over
I will shift.”

“Yes,”
Valour agreed. “You will not be able to hold your dragon form for long on
Terra. You will revert to human form, although you will still be stronger than
humans, and you will have some powers.”

“Do
you know how much of his brethren powers he will retain?” Talon’s mother asked.

“I’m
not sure,” Valour replied. “I suspect Earth magick has changed, but he should
still be able to wield it. Once he is joined with his mate, he will come into
his full strength and she should be able to help sustain him.”

     
“But will it be
enough?” Draakar asked.

“It
must be,” Talon replied.

“It
required thousands of dragons to help me open the portal the first time.”

“Yes,”
Talon said, “but once opened you were able to hold it on your own.”

“Just
barely,” Draakar said.

“But
you had to get us all through and then yourself also,” Valour said, his wide
snout flaring even more. “This will be easier, the energy output required would
be less, and there might be others on Earth who may be able to help Talon
reopen the gate.”

“I
thought the dragon magick had been purged from Terra,” Sierran stated.

“Not
really,” Valour replied. “The dragon bloodline is still there. Talon will have
to find a way to tap into it.”

“How,
Val?” Talon asked.

“Blood
will call to blood,” Valour answered, nodding his head. “Not all will answer,
and not all will be able to be trained. Next to your father, you will become
the most powerful dragon ever born and your son has the potential to be even
stronger than your father. But any son you have must be born here. If he is
born on Earth his powers may be lessened.”

“Why?”
Talon asked.

“I’m
only guessing but from the ancestral memories we gained when we returned to our
home world, Akgon as the land of our birth accesses the strongest of our
magicks.
 
The stronger the magicks,
the stronger the births, and Earth magicks were weak when we left.”

“What
if he has a daughter?” Draakar’s tail whipped up with his irritation.

“You
know Dragon Lords only have sons, Highness.”

“But
the blood has been changed on Earth. The Earth magick had been tampered with
when the brethren drained theirs into it. What if the change affects the gender
of the child? What if he has a female child?” Draakar persisted.

Valour
bronze spiked tail twitched in irritation now, too. “The prophecy says the
child of the Dragon Lord will be the next Dark Dragon. The prophecy refers to
Talon; he is the heir. Only males can hold the power of a Dark Dragon. His son
will be a Dark Dragon. It is why we are risking opening the gate. Only a Dark
Lord can save us and rebalance the magicks of our realm.”

“You
are right, Valour,” Sierran agreed.

“It
will take time and the strength, and the will of all brethren to hold the
balance until another Dark Lord can come into his own,” Valour continued. “A
mated Talon will allow us time. He and his truemate would provide the necessary
strength.”

Draakar
sighed painfully, the knowledge Valour spoke true burned in his heart. “I know.
Call the brethren to the circle.
 
If I must do this let it be done now.”

“Majesty,
I think all already know your decision. Look.”

“So
it seems.” If he hadn’t been such a loyal adviser, Draakar would have been
irritated, which he was, but not with Valour.

Draakar
looked to the sky and as far as he could see dragons were in flight headed
toward them. He glanced over at his mate. While not his truemate, he had come
to love her and she had given him his beloved son. Whom he must now send back
to Terra. She nodded her head to him to show her support. She didn’t realize what
opening the gate again would cost her. Her strength weakened already, and
enhancing his for this task would sap most of her remaining reservoirs.

Draakar
gazed at his son, sure love and pride shone in his eyes for all to see. Still,
he said the words, “I am proud of you and I love you. This is your time. As it
was mine to lead the dragons through the portal, it is your destiny to return.
Come back to us. Return to your mother and me.”

“Fear
not, Father. I will do what must be done.”

Valour
stepped from the center of the circle of stones to stand with the other
brethren who began to form an even larger circle around their Dark Dragon Lord,
his mate and his heir. As one, as many of them had done so long ago, they
channeled the power of the brethren to their Dark Lord who harnessed it and
opened the gate he’d once sealed.

A
hint of smoke carried on the air, while above the head of the golden male
dragon a swirling gray cloud appeared. Without glancing at his parents standing
behind him, Talon spread his wings and in one great sweep of air, flew through
the cloud. Blood red tears fell from Draakar’s eyes as he watched the gray
cloud fold in on itself and disappear. He looked down to see the red drops
solidify into two rubies laying on the pebbled tiles, and his mate Sierran in a
crumpled heap at his feet. Bending down, he gently lifted her within his great
forearms. When he saw Valour step forward to help, Draakar shook his head,
stopping him in his tracks.

“Do
not fret, mate mine,” she said. “I am not dead yet. I just need to rest.”

Without
saying a word, Draakar leaped into the air and flew to one of the more
comfortable regions of the realm. Finally arriving at his destination, he set
down with his mate beside a waterfall surrounded by pink crystal rocks. He
carried her beneath the fall, and allowed the healing water to bathe her.
Sierran’s scales slowly lost their dull sheen and glowed golden again. After
awhile, she stood on her own. They both knew she would not live to see many
more risings.

“For
the last time, beloved.” Sierran changed to her human form. Golden scales
shimmered and blurred until a perfectly shaped naked human woman form appeared.

Draakar
watched her change and changed, too. Where once stood a dark dragon, there now
stood a pale-skinned man. He gathered his wife to him; her ankle-length golden
tresses draped over his arms as he kissed her. A kiss of peace.
 

“I
release you,” Sierran said. “Your truemate is also one of the forgotten ones,
the ones left behind. I know you have to go, too.”

“I
made my choice long ago,” Draakar stated. “I cannot leave you.” The words ‘not
yet’ lingered between them.

“You
don’t. It is I who leave you. I am sorry I was not the one. She is out there,
and you must find her. Go to her and watch over our son.”

“I
love you.”

“Then
you must do this for me, for the brethren and for yourself. You have suffered
enough. You have never come into your true strength. With it, we would not be
in this predicament. I love you, and I know you have a place in your heart for
me. Now take me to the air, Draakar, let me feel the wind on my face.”

“
W
hat was
that? Did you see that?”

     
“See what?” his
wife asked from her aisle seat on the plane. She craned her neck to look past
her husband, sitting by the window. “A bunch of clouds?”

     
“I’m not sure.
It looked like something…something big, just blocked out the sun.”

     
“Well, I don’t
see anything. Probably just a bird.”

     
“Not this high
up, and it was bigger than any bird I’ve ever seen.”

     
The passenger in
the window seat in section 14A, on flight forty-seven, bound for the United
States from Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom, hit the call button for a
flight attendant. When she got there he didn’t know quite what to say to her.
‘I think I just saw a UFO,’ didn’t sound right. So instead, he just asked for a
straight gin and pulled the window shade down over his window. It was going to
be a long flight.

Maya
paused on the narrow trail to glance up at the clear blue sky and breathe in
the crisp tang of the cool mountain air. She didn’t know why earlier in the day
she had pulled up her itinerary on her laptop and changed her flight
arrangements—yet again. Instead of leaving Ireland this afternoon, as she
had originally planned, she rebooked to leave tomorrow night. What possessed
her to make those changes and to spend the rest of the day hiking the Sperrin
Mountains again, she hadn’t a clue. Something drove her to get a look at those
stones one more time. She hovered on the verge of a discovery, though of what
she didn’t know.

She
found the beginning of the trail they’d used a few days ago easily enough, even
without a map. Their guide, James, had given her specific instructions before
she’d set out on her own, which she reviewed in her head. Besides, she remembered
the way to the stones, just one winding path. The first time, the entire hike
from point to point took about five hours and only because they went at the
pace of the slowest person. Maya figured she should make better time. Even
though she’d left late morning, she still had plenty of time to make it to the
stones and back well before the sun set. But somehow she had gotten turned
around. No one warned her about the fog rolling in today, or how it would
hinder her sight of the almost non-existent trail.

“Come
on, Maya. Does that tree look familiar? Or is it familiar because you’ve walked
past it three times already?” she asked herself again. Out here in the middle
of nowhere, no one would care.

Maya
stopped to take a drink of water from the hose attached to her backpack and
finish eating half of a power bar. When she looked up again she couldn’t
believe the sight in front of her. The thick fog still hindered her vision, but
she could just make out the outline of what appeared to be part of the perimeter
of the circle of stones.

“Yeah!”
she cried exhilarated, punching a fist in the air. “I’ve found it again!
 
The stones!”

No
sooner had the words left Maya’s mouth when the fog cleared enough for her to
notice, between the gaps of the stones, an odd, rather large shape on the
ground in the center of the circle.

She
cautiously moved past an opening, entered the circle, and walked toward the
form on the ground. The pile didn’t move. The closer she got, the shape took on
the contours of a body. Someone lay curled into a fetal position on the dirt
with his or her back turned to her. She couldn’t tell the sex of the person.
The thick fog impeded her vision; she could barely make out features of a dark
shirt and jean-clad legs. She moved closer until she could kneel over the body.
As soon as she touched what she identified as an arm, she knew a male rested on
the ground. Hard muscle made up his bicep. His skin felt warm. Maybe he hadn’t
been out in the cool air for long.

She
rolled him over unto his back. Maya gazed into the face of a sleeping, golden
angel just before the fog rolled forward and swirled before her eyes,
temporarily obscuring her view.

My God he’s just a boy, a teenager
. She shook
him gently. “Are you all right? Can you hear me? Are you hurt?”

She
stopped speaking when she heard a soft moan.

“Oh,
my head,” a disembodied voice whimpered. “What…what happened?” He tried to sit
up but slumped back down to the hard packed dirt.

“Here,
take it easy,” Maya said, touching his shoulder. “Don’t try to get up yet.
 
Don’t you know what happened?”

Maya
sat back on her hunches. She couldn’t see his face clearly anymore, but she
could tell his head turned at the sound of her voice.

“I…I
don’t know. I…I’m not sure,” he said.

“Just
relax. Give it a minute.”

“Oh…my
head hurts.” The young man groaned again and held his hands to his temples.

Before
Maya could ask any more questions, he fell sideways and passed out. She
couldn’t get him to wake up again. Pulling her backpack off, she placed it near
the boy, and took out her cell phone. The red glow over the bar on the phone
showed her she had no service. She frowned in frustration. “Just great. I spend
all this money for a state-of-the-art smart phone that’s supposed to provide
international service so I can be connected from anywhere in the world.
Anywhere, of course, but wherever I need it most. This sucks!”

The
mist lifted. Maya glanced down, the young man’s features looked clearer, but
the night grew darker. She shivered and zipped up her vest. The temperature in
the mountains dropped quickly. Looking around she saw nothing but shadows. She
didn’t want to leave him; it would take her at least a two hour walk to the
nearest house and help. Maybe she wouldn’t have to go so far. Maybe if she
moved around a little she’d be able to pick up a signal so she could call for
help.

Leaving
his side, she walked around a couple of feet away from the young man but still
no signal. Maya kept going until she went beyond the standing stones. Once she
did she got a signal and the call went through.

The
emergency people would be there as soon as they could. She put her phone in her
cargo pants side pocket and returned to the boy’s side. They could send a
chopper in but the low-laying fog presented a visibility problem. They’d fly in
as close as possible to her coordinates then walk their way up to them. She’d
described the area to the operator and had been a little taken aback when the
woman claimed she’d never heard of the standing stones. Shouldn’t they have
maps of the various hiking areas on the mountain? She even checked to make sure
she’d dialed the emergency number for Sperrin County. After all, she had
programmed the number into her phone while on the first hike out here.
 

Maya
gave the operator the name of her inn and the name of her hiking guide. She
tried to describe how to get there, the way her guide had done, but she didn’t
seem to be very helpful. Hopefully, they’d get a hold of her guide who could
bring them to the right spot or they could call her cell and try to track her
location from the signal.
 

Nothing
had changed with the young man’s condition. She tried to wake him up again by
gently shaking his arm, but he wouldn’t stir. Pressing her fingers between his
jaw and the side of his neck, she checked his pulse. It beat strongly against
her fingers; at least confirming signs of life. Next, she checked his pockets
for a wallet or any type of identification, but they were all empty. Maya
searched near his body for signs of a backpack or any kind of clue as to who he
might be or what happened to him, but she could find nothing. The fog
continuously rolling around the stones didn’t help visibility much.

She
got up, extended her search, and walked within the circle of stones to see if
she could find anything. Her hand reached out to touch one of the stones.
“Ouch!
 
What the…” Maya couldn’t
believe what she saw. The stone glowed, and she’d definitely got an electric
shock, just like before. Only this time no dirt marred the stone. The glow
helped highlight a discernable pattern etched into the rock. “My God! What…what
is that? A dragon? So I did see a dragon before. But…but this is impossible.
First it’s there then it’s not.”

A
moan from behind her caused her to turn around in time to see the young man
trying to sit up. She ran over to him. “Hey, it’s okay. Stay still. Don’t try
to move. Help is on the way.”

He
ignored her. He sat up and drew his legs to his chest. “Oh my head.” His head
fell forward until it almost touched his knees, and he brought his hands up to
cradle his temples. His motions drew Maya’s attention to his hair. It was so
long that when he leaned forward it cascaded past his shoulders until it
completely covered his elbows. “What…what happened?” he stammered.

Momentarily
lost for words, Maya kneeled down beside the young man. “I don’t know.” She
almost lifted her hand to touch the waterfall of hair. “I found you unconscious
here in the middle of the stones.”

“S-stones?”
He lowered his arms and raised his head to look around him.

The
fog had rolled off a little more and Maya sucked in a breath. Oh wow, handsome,
and breathtakingly so. He must drive the young girls crazy. The face of an
angel stared back at her, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old golden angel with
long blond hair. And those eyes. They were eerily familiar. A lot like the eyes
from her dream, like emeralds, and they even glowed.

Wait
a minute.

They
glowed! Light shone from them, like the stone. Maya’s head whipped around to
look at the stone she had touched, and sure enough it continued to glow. The
emerald eyes of the dragon shone, just like the eyes of the young man. Like the
eyes of the dragon in her dream.

“Wh-what
the hell is going on?” Maya looked back and forth between the teenager and the
stone. She stood up abruptly and moved away from both the young man and the
shining stone.

The
young man looked at her, then at the stone. “I-I don’t know. I don’t know.
 
Is it supposed to do that?”

 
“Hell no! Stones don’t just start
glowing.” At least she didn’t think these kinds of stones did. “Who are you?
What happened here?”

“I
told you. I don’t know.” The young man’s frame trembled. “I-I don’t remember.”
He looked at her seemingly pleading with his eyes for her to help him, to help
him understand.

She
took a deep breath. Some instinct told her he would not harm her, and he
appeared to be genuinely confused. “Okay, okay calm down,” she said to him but
she spoke to herself too. “What’s your name?”

“I-I
don’t know. Why don’t I know? I don’t remember anything.” He dropped his head
down and placed his hands over his face. “What’s wrong with me?” His head
snapped up as he looked at her. “Do you know what happened to me? Do you know
who I am?”

     
Maya could read
the turmoil in his weird gaze and felt sorry for him. She slowly returned to
kneel beside him, still a little wary of those glowing eyes of his. Maybe they
were some kind of bizarre colored contacts.

“No.
I’m sorry. I found you lying here. My name’s Maya Trent. I’m just a
tourist.
 
Maybe you were in some
sort of accident and you have temporary memory loss or something.” She
shrugged.

It
seemed to be the most likely scenario. In such a small community, surely
someone would know the young man—she hoped—even as a visitor to the
area. Which he could be. He had an American accent for sure.

“Help
should be here soon. Why don’t you just try to relax?” The young man reached
out and grabbed her arm. When Maya tried to pull away, he immediately released
her. He barely held her but his touch startled her. His warm hand a contrast
against the chilly night air.

“I’m
sorry. I meant no harm.”

Maya
raised her hand and waved his apology away. “It’s okay.”

“Please,
I’m just trying to understand. I don’t know why I can’t remember anything. I
don’t know who I am. I don’t even know where I am.” He looked around at the
stones and his gaze paused, focusing on the glowing dragon. “What’s that? It
looks like some sort of dragon. Dragon. That seems familiar to me. Aarrg!” The
young man slumped forward again and grabbed his head. “The pain…”