Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (4 page)

"If you were in my
house, I would have you killed for daring to touch a dragon female."

Braedon raised a brow,
tempted to yawn in the man’s face.  "If I owe anyone an explanation, it’s
certainly not you."

Riva came in just then
and stopped short, taking in the scene.  Braedon watched the man’s eyes light
up with avarice at her entrance.  His sister’s reaction was to raise her chin
haughtily and come join him on the couch, making her allegiance known.  Lord
Rendal looked ready to rip her from his side.

"Lord Rendal,"
Melly said softly, from where she stood with her mate.  "Have you been
formally introduced to the mage healer Riva, and her brother, Braedon, fire
mage and huntsman?"

Rendal blinked; some of
his fury was dissipating, but not all of it.  "I have had the pleasure to
meet Lady Riva." He grimaced at Braedon and then continued on his tirade
only to be stopped before he could get the first word out.

"Enough!"  Eben
said darkly.  "You do not have the authority here to berate my guests or
drool over our females.  I let you in because you are a member of the council,
and my mate insisted.  Now, I say, if you continue to irritate me, they will
have to find yet another House of Earth representative to take the council
seat, as you will be dead."

There was one thing he
could say about Eben Kinkaid; he spoke plainly, and he always got his point
across.  Unfortunately, for all of them, the council lord seemed to lack any
sense at all.

"You threaten me;
you threaten my entire house and the council." He looked to the warriors
lounging behind him.  "You stand witness."  Then he looked around
further.  "What have you done with Lord Topa?"

"Calm yourself, Lord
Rendal; I was merely enjoying the beauty of the garden while we waited for our
host to return."  The dragon male who entered was the first Braedon had
seen who had captured his version of a dragon Council lord.  With his ancient
eyes and white hair, he looked wise in the ways of the long lived despite his
lack of physical age, and other than Kinkaid and General Solan, he felt to
Braedons mage senses the most powerful dragon in the room.  Next to Lord
Rendal, he was almost likable.

"I am pleased
someone was," Eben grumbled, his hard eyes still on Rendal.  "Others
court death with their foolish wanderings."

Lord Topa raised a brow
at that and peered back at Lord Rendal, who sputtered and thrust out his chest,
similar to how prey puffs themselves up to look more dangerous than they are to
bigger predators.

"Lord Topa, you must
bear witness that I have been maligned and threatened," Rendal continued
to bluster, but Braedon tuned him out.  He studied the council lord with his
almost diamond shimmer, the warriors who ranged from bored, and the slowly
simmering General Solan, who particularly did not like it when his wife joined
him again and Lord Rendal showed his true stupidity and turned his attention to
her.  "And that lady should answer for her actions rather than being
coddled by her mate.  Tossing dragons about like riff-raff!  It is bad enough
that you are allowing the dilution of old dragon lines, but to permit the use
of power against dragons by mage folk is a travesty.”

Before General Solan
could bare more than his teeth, his wife spoke in her usual tranquil manner,
her tone mild.  "We should not be allowed to use our power against our
betters; is that what you mean?"

"Yes, exactly,"
Lord Rendal said, looking quite favorably on the lady mage, although he seemed
to be savoring the sweet curves beneath her dress much more than her words. 
Entirely missing the way her mate’s eyes locked on him and stayed there.  The
silver molting and swirling as his hand caressed the knife at his side.

"But then," the
lady went on in the same tranquil tone, though the wind was beginning to whip
about her skirts most tellingly.  "I do not consider myself or anyone else
to be subservient to dragon kind."  Her hand caught her mate’s fist, and
she lifted it to her lips for a soft kiss and a smile she had reserved just for
him.  "Though I do value some more than others."  Solan lost the
killing glint in his eyes and shook his head almost imperceptibly at his mate,
briefly showing a small sideways smile for her.

Lord Rendal had no idea a
mage had just saved his life.  Again, Braedon looked at the dragon male in
question.

Yes, he was still
talking, unfortunate, that.

"I would not in any
way malign the value found in the company of such a lovely and gentle
lady…"

A gentle lady, Braedon
thought, who had just shoved all these dragon males out of a room with a
thought and some wind.

"You cannot know if
you have not been instructed; your mate should have seen to your place long
before now."  He finally looked at the mate in question and blanched at
the death that stared back at him from the eyes of General Solan Fire-Eater. 
Whatever he was going to say was lost to a small stutter and an unconscious
step back.

"Boy," the general
said in that dark, cold voice, making Braedon aware again that Lord Rendal did
not have the years and power that the rest of these dragons had.  It made him
wonder how he became a Council Lord in the first place.  “Careful.”  It was all
Solan said.  It was enough.  In that one word was a host of threat.  Braedon
doubted that Rendal understand how close he was to death, but if his face were
any indication, he understood at least some of the inherent threat well enough.

Eben Kinkaid spoke into
the taut silence.  His voice seeming to echo with the weight of his anger
behind it.  "You are treading a very thin line, Lord Rendal.  I will let
many things slide and suffer your ignorant ramblings and whines, your apparent
lack of direction in my home, and even perhaps your roving eye for the females
under my protection, though it must be said my patience on that score is waning
fast."  The very air around them seemed to gain weight with each word. 
Braedon was very glad to be sitting, and he pulled Riva closer to the
protection of his side while the Dragon Executioner kept talking, his power
growing and weighing against Rendal with each word he uttered.  "But Council
lord or not, to insult my mate and her family in her own home is tantamount to
an open challenge.  Do you want me to take your words and actions as a
challenge, Lord Rendal?  Somehow, I do not think anyone would miss you over
much."

Asha felt the swell and
power of Kinkaid’s anger from the stairs, but she was too angry to heed the warning
it presented.  Instead, she faced the mounting pressure and headed for the war
room, her own eyes burning with an inner fire that she made no attempt to
extinguish.  She pushed open the door with more force than was strictly needed,
and the crash of it hitting the wall was enough to have all eyes shooting her
way.  A second later, the power seeped out of the room as Kinkaid visibly
calmed, lady Morgan beside him.

"What is going on in
here?"

"More
importantly," Melisande said from her own mate’s side, looking not at the
door but at the council lord’s, "Why did the council really come here
today?"

Lord Topa gave a long
sigh.  Lord Rendal began to speak, but Lord Topa turned his diamond-hard eyes
his way and spoke, sending his own not inconsiderable power through the room. 
"Enough, Lord Rendal!  I believe you have said quite enough."  He
bowed gracefully to Lady Morgan and then to Eben Kinkaid.  "The council
has heard some disturbing rumors about Lady Asha." At this point, he
turned to the lady in question.  "You are the image of your lovely
mother.  I must offer my condolences on her death; she was a true lady of the
light and will be missed."

Asha bowed her head
briefly, refusing to think of her mother.  "You spoke of rumors?"

"There are some who
worry you are being held against your will here.  We wonder at your continued
absence from your own house."

"I am a female of
the dragon seer line; I claim no house and will stay where I will."

"No house?!" 
Lord Rendal sputtered.  "You are a female of the House of Earth.  Your
place is with us."

Asha looked over both
council lords, her eyes dissecting them.  "I am a dragon seer, as my
mother was before me.  She was of the House of Air before she married.  Were I
to claim any house, it would not be the one where I was kept prisoner against
my mother’s actions: nor would I claim the man who killed my mother as my
father.  In any event, I am a dragon seer, and as in the old ways, I will claim
no house."

"Lady, many things
have changed with the times and the lack of females born in Dracon."  Lord
Topa looked apologetic, whereas Rendal just appeared smug.  Asha was not
getting a good feeling, and she could feel her emotions calling her fire even
as Lord Topa was speaking.  "I would be honored if you claimed the House
of Air, but the laws are clearly written: a female falls to the protection of
her father’s line until she mates."

After a short pause, Asha
fought to contain whatever was trying to escape her throat, finally swallowing
it back.  "I have been trapped in a small box most of my life," Asha
said, her voice dropping even as her fire began to burn behind her eyes.  Her
fingertips were tingling with the need to attack.  "So that the walls
press in on me.  By dragon law, my mother was trapped before me and lived her
life in fear and pain without any protection from the laws you speak of." 

"We had no idea Lady
Laksee was in such a situation, or you yourself.   If we had, we would have
protected you both..."

She looked up at the
dragon lords, the fire in her eyes halting Lord Topa’s words.  "I do not
need your
protection
," she spat the word back at them along with
the rancid taste it left in her mouth.  "Nor will I be bound by dragon
law.  I will not be trapped again."

"You have clearly
been influenced somehow by this mage and his kind!"  Lord Rendal boomed
back, slashing a hand toward Braedon, who had stood up and was moving purposefully
her way.  "You fall under my protection of the House of Earth, and we will
see you safe from the likes of this human.  You have no choice."

She turned her burning
eyes his way and smiled.  "You think not?  You should keep in mind, Lord
Rendal, that my mother was all things good and gentle, and she paid the price
for it.  I have learned my father’s lessons well.  I am neither of those
things."  Just as her hands burst into flame, Braedon caught them in his
and pulled the fire into himself.  She was shielded from the council lord’s
enough that they did not see what she did, only that Braedon was shackling her
in what appeared to be an intimate matter.

"Unhand her, human! 
What do you think you are playing at?"  Rendal stepped forward. With her
hand still clasped in Braedon’s, Asha let loose some of the rage she
suppressed, knowing he would absorb it.  She imagined Lord Rendal being slapped
about like the fool he was.  Unfortunately, she had underestimated her rage;
while Braedon caught the brunt of it, he was not fully prepared, and some
escaped.  A flame shot out from their joined hands, catching the council Lord
when he was reaching out to separate them.  It was enough of a burst to toss
him back six feet and crash him into the marble wall behind him.   He hit the
wall, and the dragon knights all stood at attention, their eyes going from the
dragon still smoking on the ground to where Asha stood with Braedon.  From the
way they were all looking at him, they thought he was the one to blame. 

"Wait," she
started, only to have him squeeze her hands and say "Quiet." in the
most commanding tone she had ever heard from the man.

"But..."

"Silence."

For some reason Asha
stayed quiet.  She watched as Lord Rendal awoke, and then all hell broke loose.

***

They had been going at it
for a few minutes before Braedon noticed the look on Riva's face. She looked
terrified, and the blotching anger on Rendal's face became no longer funny. 
"Enough of this!  What exactly is the punishment for putting an uppity
dragon in his place? An uppity dragon without a mark on him, I might add."

General Solan came to
stand beside him in a show of camaraderie that he did not expect, but it was
Lord Rendal who spoke.  "The law is clear; striking a council lord while
he is about his duties and without provocation is a serious offense."

"It is unlikely that
a human, even a mage could survive it."  Eben added darkly, his eyes
offering a fierce warning.

"He should not have
threatened the lady," Braedon said with a dismissive shrug, but his brain
worked in fifty different directions to get him out of this.

"I would
never…"  Rendal began to sputter, but he was interrupted by Kinkaid.

"As he is my guest,
it falls to me to punish, or in this case,
praise
the actions of those
under my domain."  He looked right at Lord Rendal.  "Were I the one
standing by the lady, you would not have risen so quickly.  Now, finish your business,
and be gone."

"Fine.  We will deal
with the lady's situation first, and I will take the rest of these goings on to
the council.  We will see what they have to say about a mage attack on a
Council Lord and your defense of him."  At Kinkaid’s warning growl, Lord
Rendal looked away, straightening his clothes.  "The law is clear; without
a mate, she falls under her father’s protection.  In this case, because of the
extenuating circumstances, she falls under the house leader’s protection.  Lady
Asha will be leaving with me."

From the look on Lady
Asha's face, Braedon very much doubted it.  Her outburst had quelled her fury;
if nothing else, she was maintaining her control.  He could no longer feel the
crackling of her rage-fueled heat beneath his hands.  He hoped she realized
that she had nothing to worry about.  If she had been paying attention, she
would know that most of the dragons in the room were more than willing to go to
war for her.  She would not join Lord Rendal and the House of Earth.  Braedon
would see to that himself if need be.

***

Asha looked at the
assembled dragons, and while it was clear most would fight for her decision,
she knew well what dragon law could accomplish; to claim any house, even the
protection of Kinkaid, would be problematic.  She needed to get away from all
dragons before they discovered she was not what they hoped.  If she thought
that would make a difference here, she would announce it, but if she were then
considered a mage, she would be subject to the mage laws that Prince Ladon and
Kinkaid were currently fighting to have rescinded.  The one where a dragon had
only to declare ownership of a mage in company to claim the mage.  After
watching her mother suffer as she had, Asha had no desire for a dragon mate. 

She had a sudden, swift
understanding of Clare's worry and knew why Clare was currently in hiding.  The
corrupt dragon laws had the stink of her father’s heavy hand, and from what she
had heard today, she had no doubt the "rumors" being spread were his
doing as well.  She moved her eyes back to Lord Rendal of the House of Earth. 
She had seen enough of her father’s power plays over the years to recognize his
pawns when she saw one.  At this thought, Asha looked at the fire mage and had
a deplorable idea: one that might just solve a great deal of her problems and
could even help Braedon out considering that Lord Rendal still wanted his
head.  She hurried to speak before she could change her mind.

"I, Lady Asha,
dragon seer, claim Braedon, fire mage and huntsman, as my mate."

The sudden onslaught of
silence that met her loud announcement was only a precursor to the barrage that
would soon follow.  But for now, at least, no one seemed to quite know what to
do with that.  Then the arguments started, but she heard none of it; her eyes
were captured by the topaz eyes of pure predator that slowly swung her way. 
She sucked in a deep breath.  From the look in Braedon's eyes, she would have
to explain her plan quickly, but she could not do it until they were alone. 
Right now, he was furious with her.  Not that she blamed him, if he had made
the declaration, she would have done more than just glare at him.  As it was,
she was not at all sure he was not set on throttling the life from her when he
did get her alone.  She was going to have to talk fast.

Over the loud
protestations of Lord Rendal, she looked directly at Lord Topa.  "If I am
not mistaken, that satisfies both the laws of where I belong and the fire
mage's right to protect me, does it not?"

Topa studied her with
eyes that glimmered with mesmerizing faceted lights and intelligence.  "It
does," he said distinctly after a pregnant pause.  There was a finality in
his tone that made her breathe a little easier.  He sent a little bow of
respect her way.

"I protest!"
Lord Rendal sputtered.

"Why?" Morgan
asked into the silence.  "According to current law, claiming of a mage is
as easy as a declaration.  Is that not how you wanted it?"  She could not
keep the bitter bite out of her words, nor did she try.  Instead, she went on
with some satisfaction.  "Lady Asha is a dragon; Lord Braedon is a mage. 
Dragon law is upheld."

Rendal snapped his lips
shut and then moved his eyes to Riva, his expression changing from furious to
contemplative in an instant.  Braedon was suddenly at a simmer, the air around
him heated.  Asha saw his hand go to his sword hilt, but it was Eben who
stepped forward and blocked Rendal’s view of Lady Riva.  "Speak, and they
will be the last words that leave your lips."  He growled, and the power
that snapped them all like a whip made it clear that he was not bluffing.

Rendal looked uneasily
from him to all the other dragon males who appeared just as forbidding, then he
backed off grudgingly.  It was the first smart move he had made that day as far
as Asha could see.

"We will leave now,
I think," Topa said, shaking his head, "before any further incidences
occur."  He bowed his head to the ladies and then to Lord Kinkaid. 
"Please give Prince Ladon my regards when he returns."

"Yes," Kinkaid
said dryly.  "It was unfortunate that you decided to visit while he was
handling council business elsewhere.  Rest assured, I will appraise him of the
situation and convey your regards."

"Yes, well." 
Topa cleared his throat and at least had the grace to look embarrassed. 
"There are a few things I wish to discuss with him when he has a
moment."

The look Topa passed his
way was not lost on Asha, but as she was being dragged without ceremony along
with Riva out of the room, she had other concerns more present then whatever
secrets the two may have shared.

***

Braedon did not know who
he was more angry with; all he knew was that he wanted to discuss a few things
with his
mate
, and he was not about to leave his sister in that room
with those damn dragon councilors, not after what almost happened before his
eyes and certainly not after experiencing himself how easy it was to be mated
without so much as a by your leave.

He dragged both his
mate
and his sister back to Lady Asha's room where this debacle had begun.

"Talk fast,
lady," he said as soon as the door closed behind them.  It didn’t
guarantee them privacy, but it was enough for now.

It was Riva who spoke
though, pulling her arm out of his grip.  "Give her a moment, and can you
please explain why you are dragging me around as well as
your mate
?"

"Funny," he
muttered.  "You were in that room; you know what almost happened."

"What almost
happened is that Lord Rendal nearly became the victim of his own
stupidity."  She crossed her arms and raised her chin.  "You and I
both know he was not going to get away with what the lady did in there." 
She turned to Asha.  "It was a solid plan, as far as I can tell: very
clever.  Use their own laws against them, especially seeing as how they cannot
doubt your affection based upon the way you were found this morning."