Web Of Bones: Book II of the Dragon Mage Series (2 page)

The next morning, Melisande awoke to feel of sunlight on her face. The morning light was crisp, clean, and devoid of shadows. She smiled, then laughed and pulled her pillow up to cover her face and shouted with joy. It had been so long since she had more than a few hours’ sleep at a time that it felt miraculous to see the sun upon waking.

The wind whipped about in a happy eddy while she jumped up and rushed to the window. It was true.
Full daylight. She had slept through the night, and this morning she had not woken up with nightmares fading slowly from her mind. She twirled in a circle and laughed, her nightdress and hair whirling around her.

The door creaked open behind her
, and her brother Rhune stuck his head inside. He had just turned nine, and he was without a doubt looking for some trouble to get into. When he saw she was up and smiling, he blinked big green eyes at her. She laughed and he launched himself forward with a gap-toothed smile. He jumped into her arms and she twirled him with a carefree laugh she had not had in some time. Since … she could not remember when, actually.

“
What are you up to?”

“
Ladon found me in the war room and said he was going to tell Eben on me, so I figured I would duck in here and he would never find me.”

“
Right. Because Eben Kinkaid, Dragon Executioner and the greatest hunter alive, will certainly never look in your sister’s room.”

“
He won’t because he doesn’t like to bother you when you might be sleeping.”

“
Whereas you are fine with waking me up when you feel like it.”

“
You never sleep anyway,” he said blithely. “He’s just hoping you will be, and that keeps him away. So can I stay here?”

“
You can, but I’m going to go out to the high cliffs. I was hoping you would keep me company while I practiced my wind calls. But if you’re too busy hiding, I guess I can ask Clare.”

The little boy gasped quite dramatically and started to jiggle so much she had to put him down.
“The cliffs! I’ll be a dragon and ride your winds!”

“
Yes.” She laughed, “But what about Eben and his war room?”

He looked disconcerted for a moment, his face scrunching up most adorably.
“I think I can make it.” His little-boy determination reminded her forcibly of her older sister Morgan. She shook her head, wondering how she seemed to be the only one of their entire family who lacked that fiery determination. Instead, she was always the even-tempered, quiet one. Boring, she thought.
In Dracon, that means I am the only boring person throughout the whole of the land. Certainly, there are no boring dragons.

That brought to mind a certain austere but intense General.
The name Fire-Eater certainly suits him, as does the General part.  At the thought that he might show up again, she looked at her nightgown.

“
Rhune, I have to dress,” she said, heading for the dressing room. “Can you run to the kitchen and pack us a meal? I bet if you are quick you could even get some cookies from your hiding place to take.”

He gasped again, and again it was most dramatic.
He scrunched up his little face. “Why do I have to have sisters who know everything?” He bellowed to the sky, making Melly laugh and shake her head at his dramatics.

“
Well, I doubt Eben will have a hard time finding you now, little man.”

He snapped his mouth closed before he could get his next yell out.
“I’ll meet you there,” he hissed out on a loud whisper, then ran from the room.

Melly shook her head again and then
, with another laugh, went to get dressed.

***

With a blue dress on that had long sleeves and came to her ankle, she headed for the stairs. The waist, which was supposed to be cinched in, was a little looser than it used to be, making her sigh. Sleepless nights and lack of appetite were making her look as gaunt as she had been when they first went into hiding. She braided her long hair back into a thick braid to her hips. It swung with each step she took down the main stairs.

It never stopped being new, the way the walls shimmered with veins of gold and rare gems.
Every inch of the Forsaken Mountain had been carved into the castle of Eben Kinkaid, the oldest of the dragons still living. Nearly a year ago he had also been the oldest unmated dragon alive, until he had met Morgan. Prince Ladon and Eben Kinkaid found they shared a mate, and they had come to rescue Morgan’s family from the blood mage who had captured them. Melly had no recollection of her imprisonment because when the dragon healer had healed her, she had also erased her memory of the trauma. Sometimes Melly wondered if her dreams would get better or worse when the memories returned. At least the blood mages were dead—killed in their pitch castles and consumed by dragon fire.

Melly, Clare and Rhune had all moved in with Morgan and her mates.
After the years of hiding among the humans who hated and feared them, every day among the magical dragon race was a miracle. They joked that Morgan needed two dragons to keep her in line, and they were not wrong. Rhune and even young Clare were all courageous adventure-seekers. Melly liked the garden and the windy cliffs, and was content to help with the children and just live unafraid.

She knew the dragon males looked to them for mates, but she also knew that she was no
match for the fiery dragons in all their pomp and finery. The warrior class was less ostentatious, but no less scary. Thinking of General Solan Fire-Eater, she amended that to “very scary, intense, and proud.” But then, what could you expect from a fire breathing creature of magic?

She was no dragon mate, and she could not help but worry that one day they would realize it and send her back where magic was flown from the world, and the wind was less than a whisper of itself.

She knew she did not belong here in magical Dracon, but she also did not belong there either. It seemed like, her whole life, all she wanted was a place to belong, and while it felt safe here, it did not feel permanent, or hers.

“
Enough of this,” she said to her empty room. “For today the sun is shining and everyone is well and together. And, I slept through the night.” She brushed away her worries and laughed again, heading for the stairs and a day on the cliffs. At her exuberance, the wind swirled in great eddies around her joyful figure. Today she felt brand new again.

She skipped down the great staircase that curved to the mai
n floor in veined granite. The whole castle built inside the mountain seemed something from a story, much like the dragon who stood at the bottom watching her run down seemed like the golden prince of legend. If the prince was seven feet tall and could turn into a fire-breathing dragon at will, that is. In fact, he was a dragon prince, though there was no longer a monarchy.

“
You will fall to your death that way.” Ladon said, shaking his head. His ice blue eyes smiling at her obvious good spirits. “What has you in such a hurry?”

“
I go to the cliffs with Rhune, and no doubt Clare when she gets wind of it.” She said, laughing down the last steps. “What about you? Whatever will you do all alone with your mates for the day?”

The teasing in her eyes was obvious and
he smiled down from his great height. “I suppose we will think of something. Are you sure you want to take the rapscallion all day? You could take some time for yourself.”

“
And miss the entertainment he brings?” She shook her head with a laugh. “I will take him and he will bring adventure to what would no doubt be a quiet day otherwise. I will leave solitude to you and your mates. Though I am sure with the house to yourself you will find something to while away the hours.”

Prince
Ladon took her hand and bowed over it. “And that is why you are my favorite,” he said, making her laugh again. “If it is adventure you seek I have no doubt your brother will provide it. Take care that he does not get you killed in the process.”

“
And waste such a beautiful day on a funeral?” She smiled, skirting around him and heading for the newly created kitchen. When they had moved in there was no such room. Dragons could live on magic alone, though they did prefer to hunt their food in the old ways when the mood struck. In either case, they had no use for a kitchen. Some were old enough and had enough power to create anything they wanted from the magic around them. Eben was such a dragon, but with his new family they had needed to make adjustments. So he dreamed a kitchen into his mountain fortress and there it appeared. Eben Kinkaid was one of the few older dragons left who could dream things into being. Even though Melly was used to her own abilities and those of her family, she was still in awe of what the dragon was capable of.

“
If you come, we can ride Melly’s winds as dragons,” she heard Rhune as she was coming around the corner. He must be with Clare if he was talking about shape-shifting to dragons. Neither Melly nor Morgan had inherited that particular gift.

“
I’ll come, but I don’t have to be a dragon if I don’t want to.” Clare’s voice was a touch belligerent and Melly realized it was a good thing she was getting them out of the castle for a bit.

“
Why would you want to be anything else? Dragons breathe
fire
.”
The way he stressed the last word made Melly smile.

She came around the corner just in time to hear Clare snort and say
with typical 16-year-old belligerence, “You are such a child.”

“
I am not!”

“
Are you two ready?”

Since they were
anxious to get going, they both hurried to pick up the bags for the picnic.

“
You look different today,” Clare said, following beside them. Her grass green eyes and red gold hair were nearly identical to Melisande’s. In every other respect, she was the spitting image of Morgan, complete with stubborn jaw and long legs. “What happened?”

“
Just got a good night’s sleep,” she said smiling. “And I am looking forward to the day ahead.”

Clare smiled.
“I’m glad. You’ve been so sad lately.”

Melly lost her smile and then grabbed it determinedly.
“Well, not today. Today I feel wonderful, and I intend to have a good day with my brother and sister.”

“
If you wanted to have a good time, why are we bringing Rhune?”

“
Hey!”

“
Be nice,” Melly said, laughing at Rhune’s scrunched face. “He can’t help being the most terrible dragon alive.”

He lost his scrunch and puffed out his chest.
“I’m going to breathe fire, and burn off your wings,” he stated, then sticking his tongue out at Clare he ran ahead and out the door.

Clare sighed, clearly put upon.
“We should have drowned him at birth.”

“
Clare!” But she was laughing and they were out the door and looking out across the cliffs and valleys of Dracon. Rhune was already circling in his baby dragon form and Melly laughed to see he was a pint size version of Eben Kinkaid today. Clare disappeared into a cool grey mist. She then flew out as a winged horse, landing on the cliff face of Forsaken Mountain so that Melly could climb on. She had been practicing her wind flying but always over water, so that if she lost her concentration, she would land in the water and could be picked up by her siblings. Soon she hoped she would have enough confidence to jump off the balcony and soar on the thermals, but today was not that day.

Melly sighed
. She was probably fooling herself. When would she ever get the confidence needed to jump off the Forsaken Mountain and fly? Even the thought was ludicrous.

She firmed her chin and climbed aboard the copper
-colored horse that managed to glint in the sunshine; its wings especially shimmered when they moved up and away, catching the light. It was not Clare’s way to be ostentatious, but they had all been warned that when they became anything but a dragon in Dracon, that they needed to pick colors not normally found in nature. Jewel tones and precious metals were the best, because if they were spotted by a dragon, his last thought would be to eat them. His instinct would be to acquire the treasure, and that would give them a chance to explain they were under the protection of Eben Kinkaid and Prince Ladon. If it needed to be explained further after that, it would be dealt with, harshly. So far, no one had tried to either eat or acquire them, but they took care to stay within the boundaries Eben had set for them. Few dragons would think to come here without an invitation, and Melly could send a breeze racing to Morgan quick enough if she needed to.

Just
then, Clare stretch out her massive wings and flew. Melly closed her eyes and felt the wind throw her hair back as it swirled around them both. She laughed, feeling truly free for the first time in a long time. She lifted her arms, threw back her head, and soared; the muscled flanks of the horse were all that held her to the present.

***

From his perch across the great valley, a dragon pressed his claws into the rock of a clandestine ledge. The marble churned and crumbled as he watched the bronze glimmer of a winged horse carry a fiery-haired mage across the skies.