Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (6 page)

Furee gritted his teeth
and then looked away then back, his eyes finding Braedon's, more tortured now
but no less angry.  "And will a woman who fears fire as she does ever want
a mate who
is
fire?  How long will it be before she can stand to look at
me when I enter a room?  How long before she stops flinching at the sight of me
or leaving my presence at the earliest opportunity?"

Braedon blew out a
breath.  He could not answer, just as sure as the other man that the answer
would be never.  Fate had cursed Furee with the appearance of fire and a mate
who recoiled at the smallest flicker of flame.  He could not give the man hope
when there was none, so he said nothing.  He liked Furee, and he knew Riva was
safer in Dracon than in the world of humans, where magic was feared.  It didn’t
matter that her brand of it was healing rather than a more destructive
version.  He needed his sister to find a home here, and he would do what he
must to make her safe.  But Furee would have been the last dragon he would ever
choose as his sister’s mate.  Fate had done none of them a service on this one.

Before anyone could give
further hope where Braedon was sure none existed, Furee transformed into a
dragon of flame and blasted out of the room.  They all watched him go before
turning back to Braedon; none of them looked too pleased with him.

"I could have
handled that better."

"You think?"
Lux boomed, dropping his broad girth to the couch with a huff and a creak of
beleaguered furniture.  Then he brushed his finger back and forth across his
chin in serious thought.  "So Lady Asha is part mage?"  He looked to
Eben Kinkaid.  "How is that even possible?"

"Since she is the
image of Lady Laksee," Eben answered finally, his eyes darkening briefly
in grief at the name.  "I would say her father was a mage, and not Lord
Graedon as we were led to believe."

"Perhaps one of the
mage mates that the council allowed the houses to deal with on their
own?"  Ladon asked, his eyes showing his disgust.

"A dragon female
mated to a human mage, and not just any female, but the seer?  Yes, that would
call down the wrath of the traditionalists, but to separate mates…" Aarion
closed his eyes briefly, his hand going back through his hair in agitation. 
"I do not want to think us capable of such barbarism."

Braedon shook his head at
that.  He met the eyes of Aarion, and his own were grim.  His voice was almost
an accusation.  "Which is how they got away with it for so long."

Aarion dropped his arms,
and his face settled into savage lines that acknowledged the truth of that
statement.

General Solan spoke for
them all as the door opened and they turned to look.  "First, we end
Graedon and these mage laws."  His eyes melted to quicksilver when his
mate entered the room.  "Our mates, and all future ones, will be safe
again."

Melisande looked around
the room.  Her eyes then went to Solan, and the worry was clear on her face. 
"Lady Asha has flown."  She turned to look directly at Braedon, who
felt the news like a kick to his solar plexus.  For a moment he could not
breathe.  "
You
must go after her." 

He narrowed his eyes at
her careful words.  "Don't you mean I should bring her back?"

Melisande licked her lips
and shook her head slowly.  The wind kicked up her skirts and then darted about
the room, blowing a warm warning across all their senses.  Her eyes turned
sad.  "Neither of you will be returning here: not this day."

Braedon stilled utterly,
feeling his stomach drop.  "Riva?"

Lady Melisande's eyes
apologized even while she spoke.  "The two of you have always had separate
paths to walk."

Braedon clenched his
fists, feeling the heat climb his arms with his agitation.  Few things could
cause his control to slip, but this was one of them.  "I cannot leave her
alone again, no matter her path or mine."

Melisande pressed her
lips together, the wind picking up as she tilted her head to listen.  She
shivered visibly, and her mate moved to pull her into his arms.  His eyes were
molten and only for her.

Melisande seemed to lose
some terrible tension when he touched her.  She patted his arm, her eyes going
back to Braedon.  "Riva will never be alone again.  Nor is she any longer
yours to protect."  Braedon would have argued, but she continued, and her
words stopped him cold.  "But I fear should you take any more time, even
to say goodbye, Lady Asha will be lost, forever."

Asha reveled in the
freedom of flight that she had not anticipated.  Had she known the complete and
glorious liberation she would feel riding the thermals on the wings of a
phoenix, she would have never left the sky.  When she added in the feeling of
finally leaving behind Dracon and all that it represented, it was if the
shackles had finally been removed.

Asha had prearranged with
Clare that they would stop at the edge of Kinkaid land.  She was still shaking
her head over the conversation that lead her here.  After knocking on Clare's
door in desperation, she had burdened the girl with a few key secrets in the
hopes that the young mage would understand her dilemma and want to help.  Clare
had listened to the entire story, blinked, and then smiled, answering simply
and a bit recklessly in Asha's opinion. 

Her "Let's go!"
was so very young.

But because of the way
she foolishly jumped in to help, Asha was now free of Forsaken and on her way
to freedom.  Flying so magnificently was a perk she had not anticipated.  It
was with an almost ache that Asha jumped from the back of the phoenix and
waited for the girl to transform.  When she did, Clare smiled at her full out:
the first true smile she had seen since she met the girl.

"Thank you, Clare. I
hope that you don't get into too much trouble."

"It doesn't
matter," Clare said, a mischievous light in her eyes.  "I finally get
to do something other than hide." A worried look replaced the twinkle. 
"You should let me take you the rest of the way.  If you cannot transform
into a dragon, it will be impossible for you to get through the gate and all
the way south without one of the dragons bringing you back.  Melly told me the
dragon knights are loyal to General Solan, but some of the houses have their
own guard and do not always have the same code of honor the knights live
by."

"All the more reason
you should head back now, before I leave Kinkaid land.  I would not have you in
danger."

Clare sighed, kicking a
rock with her long, leather-encased legs.  "I do not know how much longer
I can stay in hiding this way.  Before we came here, we were in hiding, but it
seems so much worse when we were supposed to finally be free.  I am beginning
to think that there is nowhere a mage can be safe."

Asha studied the girl,
wishing she could tell her that Dracon would be the safe place she expected.  "Do
you feel unsafe at Forsaken?  At House Fire and Water, you are under the
protection of Eben Kinkaid.  From the limited time I spent there, it seemed he
took his charges seriously, and I cannot imagine anyone strong enough or
foolish enough to take anything under his protection."

Clare looked away from
her and then back again, her face full of determination.  "If you really
thought it was safe, why would you leave?"

Asha blew out a breath. 
"I am a dragon seer.  Do you know what that means?"

"Like Melisande when
she is wind talked.  You can see the future."

"In a way.  But a
dragon seer does not listen to the wind or hear of future events before they
happen; rather, that is not all we do.  A dragon seer can walk dreams and
experience events, past, present, or future, much as Melisande is wind called,
but that is only a small part of what we are capable of.  We see the weave: the
connections between everything.  In my dream walks, I can see the future, but I
can also walk into the abyss and see how a decision will affect the next
decision, and the next.  For a dragon seer to be a part of a house is to insure
that the house prospers and flourishes.  I could, for instance, walk through
the many possible futures and see your mate there.  And let us not forget that
in olden days when we were ruled by kings, it was the dragon seers who chose
who would rule."

Clare blinked at that bit
of knowledge.  "You can do all that?"

Asha blew out a breath. 
"No.  I should be able to; my mother could, and she taught me the way of
it.  She once told me that a dragon seer comes into her true power after her
first molt."  Asha looked down and began rubbing heat back to suddenly
cold hands.  "But I am past the age where that should have occurred.  I
have never shifted to dragon, and if it were going to happen, it would have
happened in my youth.  No, my powers are limited to dream visions that come
sporadically enough to be of little use to anyone, and I should be grateful,
My
father
would have killed me long ago if I came into true power.  He knew I
would use it against him." She shook her head.  "And the choices my
mother was forced to make...No, I do not wish for that, even to bring Graedon
to his knees I would not wish for that."  She shook off the thoughts of
vengeance that sprouted whenever she considered the what ifs.  She looked at
Clare.  "But the dragons do not know I am not all my mother was, and to
tell them the truth would leave me vulnerable to too many possibilities." 
She shook her head again.  "I must leave Dracon."

Clare pressed her lips
together, her eyes firming to stubborn resolve.  "No one will hear your
secrets from me."

Asha smiled.  "I
know that.  I have seen enough of my possible futures to know you are a part of
most of them, and you always keep my secrets."

Clare opened her mouth in
her surprise then closed it with a snap, her eyes lighting up.  "I could
come with you."

"This is as far as
you go, for now."  Asha said, taking the young girl’s hand and squeezing
it.  "But should there come a time when you have need, promise me you will
come to Seatown."

Clare let out a breath
and felt some of her tension seep away.  "I would like that."

"Thank you for the
flight."  Asha smiled.  "Go now, before the others realize you are
gone and come looking farther afield than a mage can walk."

Clare looked around
hastily.  "You will be safe?"

Asha considered her words
carefully.  "I will reach my destination."  That would have to be
reassuring enough; from her dreams, she knew she reached Seatown, but between
then and now, things were murky and shadowed.  There were too many possibilities
and many of them bad.  She finally convinced Clare, waving the worried girl off
and watching as she soared on golden wings back toward the safety of Forsaken. 
Asha turned and looked in the direction she was to follow, away from that
safety and the mantle of Kinkaid's power.  It was time to see where her path
would take her and to find out if all she had taught herself over the years
while dream walking would truly come back to her when she needed it, as her
mother had assured her. 

She hefted the bag of
provisions along with a sword she had pilfered that was strapped to the pack
and set off through the forest.  She was aware the second she walked through
the invisible boundary that separated Kinkaid's land from the rest of Dracon. 
The shadows seemed to lengthen as the protection melted behind her.  She took a
deep breath and headed into the dubious safety of the dragon lands.

***

Asha was walking for a
only a small time before she became convinced she was being followed.  She just
did not know by whom or how they were staying undetected.

"I know you are
there!" she shouted.  "You might as well come out."  Even though
she had asked for it, she was surprised when a ferret shot out at her from the
underbrush.  She jumped, grabbing her heart as the ferret came to rest at her
feet.  Then she got a better look at the creature.  It was a deep shimmering
bronze: a color no ferret would ever be found in nature.  She also knew it was
not Clare.

"Rhune!"

The ferret transformed
into little boy in the blink of an eye.  "Shhh!  They'll hear you,"
he said waving his arms in warning and looking through the thick trees, as if
he could see more than greenery and brush.

"Who will see, and
what are you doing following me?"

"The dragons who
watch the edge of Kinkaid's property."  He pointed through the brush, but
she saw and heard nothing.

"You can hear
them?"

"The animals can.  I
gotta make sure no one gets their hands on my sister."

"So why are you
following me and not her?"

"She went
home."  His tone of voice suggested that was obvious, then he turned as
slyly as the ferret he had just transformed from.  "Where are you
going?"

Asha huffed out a breath
and turned to continue her journey.  "Go home, Rhune, this instant."

"Can't; you're a
guest, have to protect you."

"I have left Forsaken. 
Thank you for your hospitality.  I will be going now.  Run along."  She
fluttered her hand behind her in the general direction he should go.

"Can't.  The
dragons'll get you."

"Not your concern. 
Go home."

"I can't." He
jumped over a rock and bounced off a log to scamper up beside her.  
"You're a guest."

She blinked at the boy
who was now treading along beside her.  He moved like he had been born in the
forest.  For a second her sight opened up, and she saw the myriad connections
from him to the forest around them.  Then she blinked, and it was gone. 
"You are a shape-shifting mage?"

"Yes," he said,
puffing his chest out while he bounded over obstacles in his path fluidly.
"And a healer.  Like mama."

Asha stumbled a bit at
his words, but he caught her hand in his small one and pulled her upright.  At
least, that was the idea; she ended up teetering too far the other way, but
they settled themselves quickly.  "Your mother was a healer?"

Rhune nodded and smiled
at her with a gap-toothed grin that made her own lips twitch.  "She healed
everybody: dragons, mages, and even humans."  His face went dark, and he
dropped his chin.  "They burned her, like they tried to do to Lady Riva
when she healed them.  And Lady Riva's nice, like my mom was."  His chin
firmed, and a fire hit his eyes that was older than he was.  "I'm not
going to heal humans, even if they ask nicely: no matter what Melly says about
it."

Asha stopped walking and
put her hand over her churning stomach.  "Not everyone is the same.  There
are some good humans.  I have seen them when I dream walk, just as there are
dragons that should not be healed."  She looked up and to the side, trying
to blink the hated vision out of her eyes.  When she could see the forest once
again, she breathed in a cleansing breath.  It felt hot as it traveled down her
chilled throat, which was not a good sign.  "But I understand the
sentiment."

Rhune stopped, too. 
"What's sentiment?

Asha smiled at the boy,
even as she felt a wave of cold washing out from her churning stomach. 
"The feeling behind what you said."  Then she shivered, feeling the
cold spread.  "I get why you are angry.  My mother was nice, too, and she
was killed by a very bad dragon.  It makes me mad at all of them
sometimes."

She had forgotten they
were holding hands until Rhune shivered with her.  "You're sick," he
said.  His voice sounded so different that she looked down at him.  He was
looking at their hands, so she did not realize what was happening until she
felt warmth begin to trickle from his little hand.

"Rhune?" she
asked, trying to shake him off.  She did not understand until he looked back at
her and she saw the green mage light of his eyes.  She lost her breath, and her
voice was weak when she spoke again.  "What are you doing?"

"Healing you,"
he said absently, as if his mind were somewhere else and busy.  The trickle of
heat turned into a flood, and she was brought to her knees from the pressure in
her mind.  One of her hands hit the ground to keep her from face planting in
the dirt.  The other tried and failed to get out of what had turned into an
unshakable grip.  How was it possible for a child to hold this much power
inside his little body?   She felt him all over under her skin, as if he were
mapping every pain she had ever felt and removing the stain of it.  Stains she
had not realized were weighing her down until the weight was lifted, inch by
inch. She closed her eyes and bowed her head as all the beatings and tortures
of her childhood were physically erased from her skin.  Then the pressure in
her head became too much as the healing mage’s power came up against something
foreign.

"Stop, Rhune,"
Asha said as she pounded the forest floor.  The prodding in her head was
getting more pointed and uncomfortable.

"There's something
here," he said, sounding like he was talking to himself and the puzzle of
it had captured all his attention.  "I can fix this," he murmured,
right before all that warm power crashed out of her in a wave and then slammed
back in at that one spot in her mind.

Asha screamed as she felt
the wall there not just fall but implode, scorching her with the debris that
seemed to scour her mind.  Then everything went black.

***

"Move away from her,
little mage.  I don't want to hurt you."

It had taken Braedon
entirely too long to find her.  It had not occurred to him that she would have
come this far in such a short amount of time, so they had wasted valuable time
until Solan had called his mate using the mate bond to work her wind magic.