Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (13 page)

Aarion sighed long and
loudly.  "We should know by now that we need to bring a healer with
us," he said shaking his head.  "I'll fetch Riva, but Furee is not
going to like it."

"I don't like it,
either."  Braedon growled.  "She is safer at Forsaken."

"Bring her to
Seatown, if you must." Theron interjected.  "Though you need not
bother.  I have healers of my own.  She will be safe enough, and I would prefer
we not wait around here for Graedon to make another bid for Asha."

Asha knew by the firming
of his jaw that Braedon was going to argue.  "I have walked Seatown many
times in my dreams," she assured him.  "There are no bonfires.  Mage
kind walk openly and without fear."  She moved closer to him so that their
chests touched and she could push his dirty hair back from his grimy face.  It
made her wonder how bad she looked, but it was just a passing thought.  Even
covered in dust and rubble, his eyes stood out like moon-touched topaz. 
"Riva will be safe, and you know she will want to heal you herself."

His jaw worked for a
minute until he finally grudgingly agreed.  "Have Furee come with
her."

Lux snorted as Aarion
moved to shift.  "As if you could stop him."

Aarion completed his
shift and took flight without another word.  Asha was too busy checking Braedon
for any other wounds to watch.  Other than the arm, he seemed remarkably
undamaged, but then the major power behind the explosion was fire, and he would
have just absorbed most of that.  She breathed easy when she had circled him
one last time and returned to the front.

He caught her close and
ran his hands over her, careful to miss the healing scratches on her arms.  He
pushed her hair back and fingered her neck where she could feel the sting of a
long scratch.  His eyes were serious, but the topaz warmed as he assured
himself that she was undamaged.

"Don't do that
again."  She opened her mouth to argue, and he took her jaw in his warm
palm, forestalling her.  "If you have something you have to do, we talk
about it.  You do not lie about your visions to make me do what you want."

She closed her mouth with
a snap then wrinkled her nose.  "When you say it like that, it sounds
bad."

Braedon canted his head
and gave her a look of clear exasperation.  "How would you put it if our
places were reversed?"

After thinking about it,
Asha sighed then conceded his point.  "You're right."

"I know I'm right. 
Now, give me your word that you won't lie about a vision again."

Asha looked from him to
Lux and Theron.  Her brother appeared just a little too interested in her
answer.  "Maybe we should finish this discussion when we are safe in
Seatown."

With his grip on her jaw,
Braedon pulled her eyes back to him.  "We'll leave when I have your
promise."

His eyes were as serious
as she had ever seen them, and even without the mate bond she could see he was
in deadly earnest.   Since he was also right, she conceded the point.  "I
promise to tell you the truth about my visions from now on."

She felt the relief that
lifted from his shoulders as if it was her own.  It made her realize that the
bond was returning, and with it she could feel how much that promise meant to
him.  He kissed her, his relief turning to passion as soon as their lips
touched.

She heard Theron clearing
his throat while Lux went his usual loud route.  "Can we save the rest? 
With Aarion on his way, we need to get where we are going before anything else
happens."

"I agree,"
Theron said grimly, even as Braedon was pulling back and glaring their way. 
"We should be off."

Asha reached for the
shift at the same time she heard Braedon coming across the mate bond. 
How
mad will you be when I push your brother off a cliff?

She laughed and then
straightened her face quickly when Theron turned those intense eyes her way. 
She cleared her throat.  "Shall we?"  Then she shifted to dragon and
waited for her mate to climb aboard, leaving her brother to Lux.

From the stories he had
grown up hearing, Braedon expected Seatown to be a mysterious dark fortress
surrounded by sea creatures and deadly beasts.  It was supposed to be a tiny
island without land for farming or game for food.  The fortress part was right;
it was impressive and climbed high into the sky in its glaring white stone. 
Seatown was surrounded on all sides by the township and blue ocean, but it was
hardly impenetrable as there were many large openings that allowed the ocean
breezes to circulate.  In the distance, he could see irrigated and planted
fields and beyond that a thriving overgrown jungle.  What he did not see was a
dismal death trap not worth the dangers you would have to face to get there. 
The island where they stood had palm trees and sandy beaches, and it seemed
devoid of ferocious man-eating beasts.  The populace was scantily clad in
deference to the heat, and everyone went about the daily business just like any
other town he had visited in his travels.  There was, however, one difference.
They had landed on the beach in full view of the people, but no one seemed
overly surprised at their leader returning home on the back of a giant blue
dragon.  They were curious about who they were when they all dismounted and Lux
and Asha shifted back, but no one was alarmed or even afraid, as they would be
anywhere else.

The town itself appeared
prosperous.  Everywhere he looked, there seemed to be an abundance of natural
resources.  The gardens were plush and bore succulent fruit, green and
fragrant.  The people going about their business, healthy looking and well
dressed in colorful sarongs.  There was a verve about them that suggested they
had no worries about where their next meal was coming from.

"No sea monsters or
man-eating dogs?"  Braedon asked dryly, looking at the people who were
starting to get word of their arrival and show up at the beach.

"Oh, we have those
at times," Theron said just as dryly.  "But we only pull them out for
the important visitors."

Since he had no idea if
Asha’s brother was joking or serious, Braedon just grunted without looking at
the man.  His eyes were on the villagers who were congregating. 

In his experience, when
villagers formed up, bad things happened; however, this crowd did not have the
stink of fear about them, nor did they appear to be filled with superstition
and hate.  From the youngest to the oldest, they studied the visitors, looked
to their Lord, and waited. 

A group of men with the
air of warriors arrived quickly, armed for war, and nodded to their Lord.  Two
of them Braedon recognized as the Lord’s security escorts.  He had seen them
twice before, at his first meeting with Lord Theron and in the forest when
Theron had sent them home while he joined Braedon and the dragons to save Asha
from Lord Graedon.  How they had managed to beat them back to the island
without dragons to fly was a mystery he would love to solve, but that would
have to wait.

Theron finally spoke, his
voice rising on the wind and carrying through the crowd.  "These are
welcome guests: my sister, Asha, fire mage, her mate, Braedon, also a fire mage
from the huntsman nomads, and our guest, Lux, who is a dragon knight." 
His eyes went to the warrior group.  "Please treat them as you would any
guest, but raise the battle banner; we could be having some unexpected guests
soon."  He turned and looked over the crowd, his black eyes hardening to
obsidian.  "You all know what has to happen.  Move the children and
noncombatants into the caves within the hour.  The rest of you know your jobs. 
I expect you to be ready when word is given."

He turned back to the
rest of them and looked his sister over.  "I want the healer before he
moves out," was the last thing he sent out over the crowd before he took
his sister’s arm and lead them toward the great white fortress without another
word.

"We have a healer
coming," Lux said, his eyes on a red-headed woman’s ample backside while
she bent over a basket collecting fish.

"We have a healer
already here.  I do not believe yours will have anything to do when she gets
here."  Theron dismissed him without looking.

"There are healers,
and then there is Riva," Braedon said, his eyes still searching through
the bustling crowd for threats.  "My sister will take care of Asha."

Theron looked at Asha,
then back to her mate raising a sardonic brow.  "You have nothing to fear
from my people.  All mages are welcome here."

"If you say
so."  They walked around a clean grass hut, and Braedon blinked his eyes
at the sight of what was clearly a mage with an affinity for earth raising
great crags of rock to form a wall between the fortress and the beach.  Farther
on, a man of advanced years shifted into a large dog and howled.  More howls
answered the call from all over the island.  Even as he watched, the sky began
to darken, and a wall of fog rose up to blind them. 

"What?"  He
started to pull his fire when Theron laughed.

"Relax, huntsman. 
My people merely prepare for war."

Braedon looked around the
place with new eyes, hardly believing what he was seeing.  "Is everyone
here mage?"

A whipping wind pushed
the fog surrounding them off to either side so they had a clear corridor to the
doors of the rock fortress.  Braedon was shaking his head even as Theron was
leading them through his wind tunnel as if all this was an everyday occurrence.

"Most everyone is
mage or mated to one.  We have found that the children of even one-mage couples
tend to have mage children."  His face went grim.  "And the humans
who come here to take what is ours do not last long enough to affect the gene
pool."

Looking at the place with
new eyes, Braedon was flummoxed.  "I have done my best in my travels to
surround myself with mage, and together we have worked to rescue who we could. 
Bring them  to the forests of the huntsman where we can hide them in
safety."  He looked around, seeing the fog that blocked his view to the
island beyond.  "But most of them have been children barely come into
their power.  It has been many years since I have heard of a mage in trouble
that I did not reach too late.  With the few I have found, we number in the
twenties."  He shook his head at the sheer numbers that had been on the
beach.  "…and to live openly without fear among such bounty seems
miraculous to me."

He felt Theron's gaze and
turned at the bottom step to find him looking at him with a less jaundiced
eye.  "You are welcome to bring any mage you have in hiding to Seatown. 
You and your men would be welcome additions.  Indeed, with your renowned
hunting and fighting skills, you would be more than welcome.  Anyone else could
find a place here, though I cannot offer true peace, as you see by our actions
today; we see trouble enough that we must be forever vigilant."

Braedon sucked in a
breath at the generous offer and the idea that he would finally have a home,
rather than just wander from forest to forest.  He looked from Theron to Asha,
who was suspiciously quiet.

"Would you like to
live in Seatown, Asha?"  he asked, pushing back a lock of hair that had
fallen over her eyes.  Neither of them were looking their best right now.

"I have been here
many times in my dream travels," Asha said after a long pause.  "I
would choose this above all other places, having wandered much of it in visions."
she looked at Braedon, her eyes beseeching even as she tried for a nonchalant
shrug, "I do feel safe here."

Braedon studied her face
and felt what she tried to hide from him through their bond.  "Then let us
deal with what is coming so that we can make a home here."

Hearing his words and
understanding the feeling behind them, her smile was blinding.  "You would
give up your forests?"

"I would give up
much for you," he said.  His eyes caressed her even as his thumb thumped
her chin.  He finished with a dry smile. "I do not exactly have to give up
my wilds with the jungle to hunt in.  It will not be a hardship living in
paradise, now will it?"

She lost her smile. 
"What about Riva?"

He shrugged his shoulders
and took her hand to follow Theron up the stairs.  "Why don't we ask her
when she arrives?  I think she might like it here."

Lux was following closely
behind them, and he snorted.  "If you are thinking of trying to take Riva
out of Dracon permanently, you're going to need more than immunity to
fire," he muttered, shaking his head.  "Furee will eviscerate
you."  When they all turned to look at him, he shrugged those massive
shoulders and added, "and then feel
really bad
about it when he has
to tell his mate."

***

After meeting with the
healer, who was an older man with no hair on his head but had a smattering in
his ears and long nose, Asha’s cuts had scabbed over and were moving toward
being healed.

 Having been healed more
than once by Riva and being assured yet again by Theron that Oaken was his
finest healer, she had to agree with Braedon on this one.  There were healers,
and then there was Riva.  She would not say so to her brother or the skinny old
healer with the cold hands and warm smile, but she was going to follow her
mate’s advice and have Riva take care of her when she arrived.  As with every
type of mage, there were different levels of power.   Like Braedon, Riva's
power level was unique.  Compared to Oaken's warm trickle of stream, Riva was
as the ocean tides.  She was looking forward to getting rid of all the pains
and stiffness that Oaken assured her would heal on their own in time.  Besides
the pain of abused muscles, and nerves for the coming battle, she could not
imagine herself being happier at this moment.

During Asha’s childhood,
when she was sometimes trapped in the dungeon and sometimes allowed to wander
the lower level caves of Isolation Mountain, she could always travel beyond her
walls in dream visions.  Sometimes her mother would join her and train her,
teaching her all she would need to know for when they would both be set free. 
It was not until later that Asha learned how her mother’s freedom would only be
bought with her death.  Before that the visions she saw of the world were
magical.  Though others could not see her there, it had been real enough for
her that instead of wasting away in the dark of the dungeons, she saw the world
in all its splendor as well as its drudgery. 

Most of Dracon had been
beautiful for her, but tainted as she was, events with far-reaching
repercussions drew her towards them.  Because of that much of what she saw
showed Dracon in a beautiful but deadly light.  The political maneuvering of
creatures that lived practically forever and were driven to acquire was
sometimes overwhelming.  It was no wonder that her favorite place to visit had
been Seatown.

When she dream walked to
her brother, it was not the same as her other visions.  It was more as if her twin’s
soul called to hers.  She was not drawn to Theron because of political
maneuvering or violent change.  With her brother, she could just be free for a
small amount of time with the one person who wanted nothing from her but her
presence. 

It was miraculous to her
to finally be here in real time with the heat of the sun overhead, to hear the
crash of the waves, and to walk the halls of the only place she had ever found
peace.  Although she knew a fight was coming and that all she held dear were in
danger, she looked around the heated white stones of Theron's Seatown fortress
and smiled.  As cut up, dirty, and smelly as she may be, she was finally home,
and her brother and mate walked beside her, safe for the moment.

At the tail end of that
thought, Theron looked at her from his place at the massive curved opening on
the north wall of his great hall.  "Your healer approaches with two dragon
escorts."  His lips firmed.  "It would be well if you found vision,
sister.  The wind is cold and suggests we will have dangerous company within
the hour.  It would be good to know what to expect."

Braedon, already moving
toward the great wooden doors for his sister’s eminent arrival, stopped at
Theron’s words.  He turned to Asha just before he would have opened the doors. 
"You will not try that until you are seen by Riva.  It takes too high a
toll when you are already wounded, and you don't have enough control yet."

Asha sighed and shook her
head at her brother.  "I am still learning how to walk this line, but I
would take my mate’s counsel in this.  I will do no one good if I hurt myself
in my ignorance."  She went on even as her brother’s brow darkened. 
"But I will try again once the others arrive.  Fully healed, and with
Braedon close, he can keep me centered on the here and now, as opposed to
wandering the threads indefinitely."

With her agreement,
Braedon slipped out the doors and went after his sister.  Asha turned to see
her brother had turned fully from the window and was studying her.

"The training you
had with Mother?" he asked, his brow furrowing.

"Will kick in
eventually, as she said, but just as with all the sword training I received in
visions with you, I will have to familiarize myself with the feel of the real
thing before it truly sinks in."

Asha could see him
thinking behind those black eyes of his, and she did not think she would like
whatever he was thinking now.  She was right.