Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (3 page)

Asha pulled in a breath. 
“Everyone has heard the story, including,” she said, trying to keep the rage
and worry from her voice when she choked on that hated name, “Lord Graedon of House
of Earth who is in hiding and injured from his near death at my brother’s
hands.”

More than one of the men
sucked in a harsh breath, Lux cursed long and loud.  Braedon never moved his
eyes from her face.  “You saw this?”

“I saw possibilities,”
Asha said carefully.  “She is not the only healer in danger, but your sister is
the one taken in most of the future possibilities.  Her legend has grown with
the telling, and she is mage, not dragon.  He will not see a threat.”

“Shehar,” Lux said, thinking
of the possibilities.  “Rhune and Riva.  But Shehar is mated to Ryall.  No one
would mess with him who had half a brain and she is a dragon tied to two
houses, Air and Water; he would draw down the anger of all of Dracon to take
her.”  He went on thinking out loud.  “Rhune has not come into enough power to
be of use, and he is now related to both General Solan Fire-Eater, Prince
Ladon, and Eben Kinkaid through mating.  No sane man would take that on if they
had a choice.”

Braedon’s jaw was rock
hard, his eyes smoldering mage flame.

“That leaves the Lady
Riva,” Lux said grimly.  “But if he goes after Riva, Furee will feed him his
spleen.”

“She is unclaimed.  No
one outside of Seatown and House of Fire and Water knows what she is to him.” 
Asha shook her head.  “Even Riva doesn’t know.”  Her eyes never left the
smoldering mage-flamed eyes of her mate.  “He doesn’t understand what he brings
down on his head if he goes after Riva.  She will be his first choice, and I
believe he will make his move soon.”

“We leave for Dracon,”
Braedon finally said, his voi
ce harsh as new gravel,
“now.”

Furee saw the young mage
sneak into the garden and sighed, about to intervene when something in the
distance caught his eye.  Taking his eyes off the mink that shimmered on the
ground to look at the dragons flashing across the sky meant he lost sight of
Rhune, and would probably not get to him before the young mage reached Riva.
But something about the way the dragons were flying so fast and intently across
the sky told him they were about to have bigger issues.

He recognized Balin
first.  In dragon form, he had the appearance of a dark moonstone.  Light
back-lit the darkness of his scales and glowed bright from intent eyes.  For
Balin’s eyes to look like the bright side of the moon meant bad things. A man
of few words and no excess of emotions, the only way an enemy could tell he was
raging was by that light in his otherwise dark eyes.  It was usually the last
thing an enemy saw before they died bloody.

Without any further
hesitation, Furee shifted to dragon form and went to meet them with all the
considerable speed at his command.

What has happened? 
In
dragon form, they had the ability of limited thought communication between
them, so he wasted no time in asking the question.

Isolation has been
attacked.  Aarion is in need of the healer. 
It was not Balin
who answered but the young dragon with him.  Adair of House of Earth, a great
gold beast of a dragon with fog-grey eyes when in warrior form, had pledged
himself to the dragon knights after he nearly died protecting Clare and Riva
from the dragons of House of Earth.  Because of that, Furee did not take him to
task for speaking when it was Balin who held the higher rank and should have
been delivering the report.  The young dragon would learn soon enough if he was
determined to take the knight’s oath and training.

After two years of
nothing, Lord Graedon has finally made his first move,
Balin
communicated also ignoring Adair.  His mind voice was grim, his eyes flashing
moonstone bright in the depths of his dragon snout. 
There has been an
attack on Isolation.  I’m sorry, Furee, I know you do not want the Lady Riva
leaving the protection of Forsaken, but when we went for Shehar, we found House
of Air had also been hit.  They drove them off, but Shehar was needed there to
heal Lord Topa.  Aarion cannot wait.

For a dragon of Lord Topa’s
age to even need a healer, the wounds must be death threatening.  And Aarion
was not much younger himself. 
I will get Lady Riva.  You inform Eben
Kinkaid and Prince Ladon.  With the spell Kinkaid cast on Isolation, no one
with intent to harm will be coming here, but they should know just the same.

Agreed,
Balin thought back to him and dived for the entrance of Forsaken with Adair
following close behind.  Both Eben Kinkaid and Prince Ladon would know they
were coming long past and be waiting for them.  Furee had other concerns.

Furee went for the back
garden, absolutely hating that he could not keep Riva safe inside Kinkaid’s
spell with the Ladies Morgan and Clare, but swearing he would keep her from
harm just the same.  Where things stood between them, it was the only thing he
had to offer his mate.

***

Riva felt Furee join them
though he made no sound.  She was looking up even before his great dragon
shadow swooped over her and Rhune.  A second later, he had shifted and landed
within the small space beside them in his warrior form.  Still, even in the
form of a man, he was impressive.  Riva took an involuntary step back as the
small niche she had discovered in the garden was suddenly too small.  Her legs
tangled with the overgrown brush, and she felt the sharp jab of jutting stone
hidden there against the back of her thigh as she tipped back.  Before she
could find herself sprawled ingloriously in the shrubbery, or worse, impaled on
a rock, Furee moved.  From one second to the next, she was pulled out of danger
and found herself high in Furee’s arms, which were wrapped around her back and
legs while dangling one foot off the ground.

Eyes wide at the
unexpected move, Riva did not have a chance to worry that the open flame of his
hair would flay her skin before it was wrapped around her upper arms and
caressing a trail of heat over her cheek and neck.  She gasped at the strange
warmth of it, even as her eyes were caught in the depths of Furee’s eyes. 
Normally, the flames that lived there were banked and smoldered like coals left
too long on the fire, but in that moment, she saw the flare of a white hot
flame in the depths of his heavily fringed eyes and wondered that anything
could be so beautiful . . . or so terrifying.

Had she ever seen him
with his flame hair loose before?  Either it was held back normally in some
magical dragon way that would not be noticed, or the length of his hair had
grown in the last few seconds they had been standing there.  She could feel the
trailing warmth of it moving across her back as she hung in Furee’s warrior
arms.  The supple give of his leathers, the warmth of his skin, and the feel of
hard male body all along the length of her own much softer form called to some
yearning inside Riva, despite the whipping of his flame that seemed drawn to
any exposed skin.   She should be panicking, closing down, and struggling
physically to escape what her eyes were showing her was too close to the fire
of her nightmares, but the thought of Rhune’s words and the look on the young
mage’s face when he remembered Furee’s pain had her instead reaching for Furee
with the healer’s gift that was her own brand of power.  She dropped all her
shields and delved into the depths of the dragon knight who had so many times
protected her from harm.  What she found had her arching back in his arms, her
eyes closing, her head thrown back while the sheer force of his need had her
spine snapping and a scream falling from her lips.

Furee cursed internally
when he felt Riva bend back over his arms in obvious pain.  Her mage light
infused them both so that they glowed with power, warming and lighting him from
the inside out while his own flame sought to wrap her up tight and hold her. 
In that moment when he had suddenly found his mate in his arms, every particle
in his body had yearned toward her.  His shield, which was as automatic as
breathing, whispered away at the feel of her light chasing away the dark inside
him.  For a moment with his mate in his arms and the feel of her healing light
burning away the darkness, he felt almost whole, but it was not worth the sight
of his fragile mage mate physically reacting to the painful need he so
carefully kept hidden.  And the sound of her scream of pain hurt worse than
anything he could suffer himself.

With a curse, Furee
forced his shields back up between them, chasing out the mage light that filled
all his lonely spots.  It was like pulling off his own skin to do it, and it
took him longer than it should have, but when he was done, he was kneeling on
the hard stone of the ground, his head hanging heavy between his shoulders, while
Riva was clutched in the young Rhune’s arms, his eyes big and on Furee.  He
ignored the boy and looked at Riva.  She was glowing with the touch of mage
healing power, whether hers or Rhune’s he could not tell, but she appeared some
ethereal being glowing with compassion.  She was crying, and he knew it was not
for herself that she cried.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”
she asked quietly, her voice breaking with too many emotions for him to read.

Furee closed his eyes at
the knowledge he read in her.  Then, with a shuddered breath, he rose to his
feet and looked down at his mate.  His strength already returning, his eyes
shuttered closed against the searching eyes of his mate reclining at his feet. 
He did not ask her what she meant.  He already knew and could not face the
conversation that would invariably happen when he acknowledged what she was to
him out loud and they had other things that took precedence now.  “Isolation
has been attacked.  Aarion has need of a healer.”

Riva sucked in a breath
and just that quickly set aside everything else.  “What of Shehar?” she asked
standing with Rhune’s help, both healers eyes on him.  As a dragon healer,
Shehar was always the first to be called when dragons were in need.  It was a
valid question.

“House of Air was also
hit.  Lord Topa was damaged beyond his ability to heal quickly.  She is with
him and will not be able to heal another so wounded quickly enough.  They were
able to drive off their attackers in both places but no one knows where Graedon
will strike next.”

Riva shook her head, her
eyes going the cool of mage green.  “I’m ready.”

“I’m ready too,” Rhune
injected.

Furee took a moment to
growl, drawing both their eyes but ignoring the boy.  “I do not like this.”  He
watched as the healer briefly dropped from Riva’s beautiful eyes at his growled
words, and it was again the woman who looked at him questioningly. 

“I would not have you in
danger if I could keep you from it,” he finally said gruffly.  And was rewarded
by the softening in his mate’s eyes.

He watched her take a
moment and a breath before she smiled a touch sadly, her look turning warmer
while she studied him, despite everything she had just discovered.  It floored
him, seeing that look in her eyes, when all he had expected was fear. 

“After what I just saw,
Furee, there is no doubt in my mind of what you would sacrifice to protect me. 
But even a dragon knight of the Light cannot protect me from a healer’s
calling.”  She pulled in a deep breath.  “Or from my fate.”

It was his turn to pull
in a breath at her words and the meaning behind them.  Then he took a careful
step closer to her, towering over her smaller size so that she had to arch her
fragile neck back to meet his eyes.  He pushed the silky black curls that had
escaped her braid carefully back behind a delicate ear.  His eyes moved to hers
when he was finished and he almost lost himself in the unsure topaz depths.

“You would be surprised
what I can and will protect you from, Riva.”  He trailed his thumb over the
soft dampness at her lower lip and felt as much as saw the heat of a blush
brush her soft cheeks.  “For now, I will take you to Isolation and your
calling.  Fate will have to wait until my mate no longer fears the heat of my
flame.”

He watched her eyes close
with what he assumed was relief.  He felt that look in his gut and went to pull
his hand back. She caught his hand in hers and pressed it back to her cheek
where it had drifted.  Furee froze at the first willing touch of his mate.  Her
eyes were open and on his. 

“We will deal with my
calling,” she said resolutely.  “Then we will deal with the other.”  She raised
her chin and firmed her voice once again when he would have spoken.  “I have
felt your pain, Furee.”  She pressed her lips together and then pulled his hand
to her lips and laid a kiss there.  “I am both moved and shamed by your
sacrifice at the altar of my fear.”  She shook her head again when he would
have protested.  Her eyes caught him in their topaz depths.  Her voice dropped
to a whisper he felt along his skin.  “It was never
you
I feared.”

“I’m ready, too,” Rhune
said louder, looking from one of them to the other, his eyes alight with
excitement.

They both turned to look
at the child, immediately drawn back into the world around them.  Riva dropped
his hand, shaking her head at the young mage and Furee could have spit fire at
the loss of her touch. 

“You are staying here,”
she started, turning in his direction, and had to go on hurriedly when Rhune
tried to interrupt her, “in case your sister has need of a healer while I am
gone.”  She smiled at the fallen look on his face.  Even Furee could see the
boy could not argue with that. 

“You are a good brother,
Rhune,” Riva murmured on a smile when the boy looked woebegone but did not
argue.

The mage snorted his
young disgust, but managed to restrain himself to a mere rolling of the eyes at
her words.  Furee knew Riva was biting back a grin when he saw her eyes begin
to twinkle.  But the humor disappeared too rapidly for his taste when she was
reminded of their purpose by a dragon bellow from the castle.  Were it up to
him, his mate would do nothing but smile all the days and nights.  Instead,
they headed in to join the others and set out for Isolation and away from the
safety of Kinkaid land.  Rhune followed behind them slowly, dragging his
overlarge boy feet behind them.  Strangely enough in this instance, Furee could
relate to the young mage’s angst.  He was tempted to drag his feet as well. 
But then with Lord Graedon finally making his move after two years of hiding
from the dragon knights and Kinkaid, he was less than pleased to take Riva away
from the only place Graedon and his ilk could not come.

As she herself had said,
Riva was a healer; this would not be the first or the last time that she went
knowingly into danger.  Nor would it be the last time he was asked to escort
her there himself.  Still feeling the kiss of her lips against his hand, he
curled his fingers in to hold the sweet sting of it, and felt pity for any who
tried to harm his mage mate.