Web Of Bones: Book II of the Dragon Mage Series (3 page)

It seems Lotare will have his property back after all.
More rock churned as he clenched his talons in a fist as easy as ripping through paper.
And I will finally have what is mine.

S
he always felt on the edge of the world when she stood on Echo Mountain and looked out at the Great Lake. She had been informed by Ladon that it was sometimes referred to as the Lake of Tears, but that name seemed too sad to belong to such a vivid and lively body of water. Watching the way it seemed to sparkle magically and go on as far as her eyes could see, she always thought of it more a Sea of Diamonds than a sad Lake of Tears. Eben had just smiled at her when she shared that.

“
If I had named it that, every dragon for miles would have come looking for treasure. Wait until the rains come and churn up the water as the fog darkens the land. Then you will see why I named it Lake Of Tears.” She forgot at times that Eben Kinkaid was a very old dragon who had been around as long as living memory. The fact that he was the one who named many of the local landmarks made her pause and consider how old he actually was, but then he looked at Morgan and his old gold eyes softened, and he was just Eben again.

Melly smiled at the memory. Her eyes soaking in the cheerful peaks in the distance, the abundant trees of every description that surrounded the lakes rocky shores, and the warm sun reflecting off the water.
From the cliff face where she stood, it looked as if the wilderness was untouched by man or beast. In the months she had been in Dracon, she had yet to see anything but sunshine and sweet breezes, unless of course she was calling something else.

“
Hurry up, Melly. I want to go faster.”

She smiled, hearing the boy voice coming from the black iridescent dragon that hovered just beyond the ledge.
She looked at him, then leaned over the edge to see the water lapping against the rock cliffs. It was quite a ways down from here. “You can fly without my help, little man—why so impatient?”

“
Because I want to go fast, and when you get the winds going I get to.”

“
Fine. But move away from the rocks, so I only blow you out across the water and not crack you against hard stone.”

With a quick fluid turn of dragon
scales, he nearly hit her with his flipping tail. She stepped back just out of reach and then he was gone racing away from the cliffs edge. Clare was already far enough away hovering in her favorite gryphon form. Unlike her brother who seemed to prefer dragon in all things these days, she would change from animal to animal. Just now, she had the head of an Eagle and the body of a Lion, plus the wings of course. And from where she rode the thermals high above, she looked like a glowing shimmer of gold dancing in the sky.

Looking at them both swirling across the sky, Melly was reminded of when they had been on the human side of the gate
, hiding who they were. Not to mention, the magic here was a thick layer of fog over the senses. It had been like living in a hole and finally seeing the sky. She felt deeply for the mages that were still in hiding across the snowy peaks. Her family was fortunate to be here, where there was no hiding and the magic hummed in your blood.

By her will
, she lifted her hands and called the wind. It was never far from her, content to frolic in her skirts most of the time. Now she felt it build until it circled her in a powerful funnel. With a thought she was airborne over the side of the cliff and whistling across the now churning waves of the lake. She could not see through the gusting winds, but she heard Rhune’s laugh, which sounded beyond strange coming from the throat of a dragon. She heard the caw of an eagle and listened as the wind giggled, tumbling across the sky. Someday she would figure out a way to see where she was going rather than having to follow the whispers of a frolicking breeze.

The
wind shifted to her fancy, clearing the gusting winds beneath her so she could see everything. Including the waters of the lake coming up to meet her.
Oh, no.
She barely had the chance to think it before her lack of discipline had her dropping like a stone into the freezing lake.

It was like ice dunking
, and the shock had her swallowing the water and choking it down into her lungs as she tried to breathe at the same time. She flailed her arms against her heavy dress skirts to get back to the air. She broke the surface, coughing and sputtering, but able to buffer herself from drowning by pulling air around her once again. She looked up to see a dragon and gryphon hovering directly over her. “I’m fine,” she sputtered. “Just lost my concentration.”

Rhune wheeled back and flew a quick circle in the sky.
“Can we do that again?”

“
No!” she called, still trying to get the last of the water from her lungs. “I’m about all flied out today Rhune. Can you get me back to land?”

The gryphon s
quawked out a call, then latched on to her arms with oversized eagle claws and flew straight up, pulling Melly out of the water. She called the wind once more to warm and dry her for the trip. When she was gently lowered back to the cave ledge, Clare became a mist and then her sixteen-year-old self.

“
Do you want to go home?” she asked, looking her sister over.

“
No,” Melly laughed. “I’m fine. It was mostly my pride. I may try again in a bit.” Even the thought had her shuddering. “Go have fun and I will lay here and contemplate my mortality.”

“
What does that mean?” Rhune asked from where he hovered beyond the edge.

Clare shooed him away.
“It means she’s taking a nap. Now go play.”

“
She’s always tired,” he muttered, but he did as they asked.

Clare was looking at her worriedly.
“Don’t worry. It was just a little water, and I’m already dry anyway.”

“
All right. But call if you want to go home.”

“
I will.”

She sat on the rock ledge and watched them for
a while, laughing at their antics. Rhune switched from a shimmering black dragon, a mini Eben Kinkaid, to a golden, bronze mini-Ladon. He tumbled Clare through the sky-breathing fire at every opportunity. Clare finally misted to the fireproof phoenix to keep from being burned. Then to Rhune’s consternation, she just hovered and basked in the flames he sputtered out.

When he saw he would get no reaction
, he huffed and chuffed, then finally left her alone. They drifted after that, going from place to place along the lake to look at something or other that caught their attention. When they seemed to be getting too far, Melly flicked her fingers and sent her voice on the wind.

“
Don’t go far. Stay on this side of the lake.”

A few moments later, Clare turned Rhune around and herded him to closer shores. Enjoying the warm swirling air that caressed her and the sun beaming down in a soft brush of heat
, she leaned back against the stone. Then she nodded off, having no intention of taking a nap.

***

She opened her eyes to a starry night sky and looked around to see a crumbling fortress around her. She sat up quickly, recognizing the stillness where there should have been wind and magic. This was not Dracon. Where there had been heat and magic, this place was cold, dark, and stunk of death.

What is this place?
How did I get here?

Something shined in the dirt beside her hand and she reached within the crumbling black debris.
She pulled it out and it seemed to glow white in the star light.

It took her a second to see that what she held was a broken bone.

“My walls were webbed with power before the dragons came.”

At hearing that voice she so often heard in her nightmares, Melly turned with a gasp.

“They think that this is the end of me?” He asked with his black cloaked arms out flung. “I will have my power back.” Then he turned and looked directly at her. Blood-red eyes in a cruelly handsome face. “And I will have you.”

She scrambled back, gaining her feet as she sank into the piles of fallen wall behind her.
Looking down, she saw herself knee-deep in scattered bones and crumbling black rock. She froze and only then felt the sting in her palm. She dropped the bone she still grasped and it fell skittering down the pile of mage bones that webbed the walls of this black rock monstrosity he had built on the blood and bones of her people.

Opening her
hand, she saw blood welling from the cut on her palm.

“
That’s mine too,” he said. Suddenly close enough to grab her hand and pull her towards him, his eyes intent on the blood welling from her palm.

She felt the brush of him, cold, creeping death saturated the air around him.
Reaching for her. Just before she woke up screaming. Again.

Melly jerked forward, her scream echoing against the rock around her even as she tried to catch her breath, her eyes tearing and her hands pushing at nothing. She looked around, searching for a threat. Seeing it had been a dream, she whipped out her hand and called the wind to whisk her scream away before it could reach the children far across the lake. Then she fell back, her arms wrapping tight around her chest, her knees drawn up so that she was a tight ball for warmth. She looked out at the Lake before her, the sun just as bright and warm. The children frolicking colorfully in the distance. None of it enough to warm the ice in her soul. Once the adrenaline started to pass, she began to feel again. A sting in her palm had her looking down. She pulled her hand from her chest and stared at the blood pooling in her palm and smeared down her forearm. Her mind blanked as she stared at the cut she had received in a place of nightmares, where she had stood upon the bones of her dead people.

Solan stood stoic and grim once again inside the war room of Eben Kinkaid.
He was standing alone, because when he had arrived for the unfinished talk on mage matters, Prince Ladon had met him with bared teeth and a few succinct words. More dragon then man at that moment, despite the skin he wore.

“
Wait. War Room.” Then had left as fast as he had appeared on the open balcony. If Solan had any common sense he would have given his excuses and left him to what was obviously mate time. But he still had hopes of seeing a certain lady mage while he was here, so he just waited, alone, his senses open to the slightest chance she was nearby.

Finally,
he heard a commotion on the stairs and stepped to the door in the hopes of seeing her. Instead, it was Eben Kinkaid, Prince Ladon and Lady Morgan of the House of Fire and Water.

“
I can send him away.” Eben Kinkaid was still speaking with a dragon voice in a man’s throat. “I will reschedule this discussion.”

“
You already did that once. Besides, we were finished anyway.” A rosy-cheeked Lady Morgan practically skipped down the marble stairs while her clearly-put-upon mates followed unhappily.

“
Speak for yourself. Little Falcon,” Ladon muttered following behind. “I was not nearly done.”

She laughed, looking back at them as she desc
ended. “When are you done, my Lord Dragon? I haven’t seen any proof of it.”

Eben looked up
and, catching sight of Solan, he growled.

“
General Solan,” Morgan called. “So glad you waited.” Another growl from her mates, which she blithely ignored. “I wanted to talk to you about this without the children present.”

“
Should we wait for the lady Melisande?” Another growl from both males.

Lady Morgan smiled knowingly at him
, and he had to grit his teeth. It was a valid question, even if it sounded like an obvious ploy for information.

“
I don’t think that will be necessary. Besides, she is with the children on the high cliffs above the Lake of Tears.”

“
I see.” Looking from the aggressive males to the tiny mage, Solan considered making his excuses, but the Lady skirted around him and headed into the room. Her mates came to stand before Solan, a solid wall of unhappy dragon, bearing their teeth in smiles of anything but welcome.

“
Are you coming? Eben, Ladon, can one of you whip up some refreshments? I’m starved. Would you like something, General Solan?” The voice came from the vastness of the war room, so it echoed a bit. Eben Kinkaid, the oldest, most powerful dragon alive, known as the Dragon Executioner, narrowed his eyes and growled again, daring Solan to smile.

There was a reason dragons were not known for their hospitality.
They took care of their own, but they did not try to make a guest comfortable, because they did not want guests to be comfortable. They wanted them to go away. At the very human offer of refreshments Solan was greatly tempted to ask for something to be ‘whipped up,’ by Eben Kinkaid, but the bloody death match that ensued would take up too much time.

“
No,” he said instead, careful to keep his face free of emotion. “I am not in need.”

“
Well, come on. The kids could be home any minute.”

That perked him right up
, which had the other dragons hissing a warning to him back as he turned and headed inside. The Lady Morgan was making herself comfortable on the settee while she stared at the large wall map of the land.

“
Has the council made any statements about this issue?”

Solan snorted
and went to stand by the massive desk, far away from the tiny mage. “Prince Ladon has been most vocal on the need to help as many mages as we can, and the knights support him, as do most unmated dragons. However, the fear persists that humans have no care for the land and the magic, and that bringing them here they will eventually ruin Dracon. Or worse, that they will simply out breed us and take over.”

The Lady
Morgan’s spine stiffened. “Mages have just as much connection to the land as dragons do. Dragons are magic, but we are the Earth, wind, fire and water. To kill the land is to kill ourselves.”

“
That’s true,” Eben said quietly. “But normal humans have no respect for either Earth or Magic, and that is what they are referring to.”

She looked at him.
“We are not suggesting that you bring humans here. Only mages.”

“
Mages are usually born from other mages, but not always. It has also happened that a mage can breed a totally human offspring, especially as there are so few without the mixed blood. Would you have us eject any offspring that are born totally human?”

“
Of course not.”

“
Then in a few thousand years we could very well have many humans in Dracon.”

“
A few thousand years?”

“
We are dragons,” Ladon said with a shrug. “We tend to think long-term.”

“
There is also the worry that opening our borders to any mage that seeks asylum would mean opening our doors to the very people who started the blood rights in the first place.” Eben said quietly, his eyes on Morgan.

“
Those were blood mages.”

“
That were once mage born who chose a dark path.” Solan was the one who said it, but he saw the dawning realization in her eyes and hated the sadness that followed.

She looked out over the sparkling vista the view showed through the open balcony.
“As a people we do not have much to recommend us,” she finally said.

Her mates walked to her
, Ladon pulling her up and into his arms, while Eben stepped close, his hand cupping her cheek. He was sure they spoke together in the way of mates, but Solan spoke aloud anyway.

“
All creatures have the capacity for dark or light in them. Dragons are no different.” They turned to look at him. “We as a people must have a purpose, a battle to fight, a mate to protect, or we may as well be the mountain that squats over treasure and crumbles with age.” He heard a sound and turned his head to see a pale Lady Melisande atop a winged silver horse standing within the doors of the balcony. “You shine like a candle flame in the deepest dark, warming our cold hearts and giving us new purpose.” His glittering eyes returned to Morgan. “We would not lose that to fear for what could be. We will find a way for both our people.”

***

“Come on Melly, let me heal it. I know you’re hurt.”

Melisande heard Rhune
’s voice behind her as he shifted from dragon to boy in a cool grey mist. At his words, the room exploded with power.

“
You’re hurt?” She heard Morgan from between her two mates, but it was General Solan Fire-Eater that moved so fast to her side she was being lifted from Clare’s back even before she realized his intent. He looked her over, his hands on her hips and then he twirled her so he could do the same with the back. She gasped as she was twirled back and her hand was taken oh-so-gently into his much bigger and heated grasp.

“
Someone hurt you?” His voice was a gentle rasp, but deep with restrained power—indeed, she could feel the power beating off him in waves of suppressed rage.

She cleared her throat.
“I cut my hand on a bone. It’s not deep.” But he was unwrapping it anyway. The bleeding had soaked through the makeshift bandage and dried, but there was no pain when he carefully pulled it back, as if she would break from rough handling.

“
A bone?”

She shuddered in a breath and turned to meet her
sister’s eyes. Her own were immeasurably sad. “A bone from a fallen wall of black rock webbed with thousands more, where the earth is leached of magic, and the air reeks of death.”

Everyone froze.

General Solan pulled her towards him almost automatically, so that she was within the heat and power he generated, his head bowed to study her face. “Where did you see such a thing?”

“
In a dream,” she said simply. He looked again at her palm, the dried blood and the cut, then those quicksilver eyes returned to hers.

“
Where you alone?”

“
No.” The tears she had been holding back finally fell silently, and they felt like a branding marking her as they fell. “I’m never alone in my dreams.”

She heard a gasp that had to be Morgan
’s, but she refused to look and see the horror reflected there. She expected the General to cool at the revelation that she was so afflicted. Instead, the air seemed to heat around them. He reached up with one big hand and cupped her head, his thumb wiping away the trail of tears.

“
May I?” Eben asked quietly. General Solan seemed to struggle a moment but then he released the hand so that the other man could look. He did not however move away, and neither did she. She was too cold to leave that blanket of heat just yet.

Eben looked over the hand, he looked up and something seemed to pass over his face.
“Rhune.” He called and the boy was there, unusually quiet as he placed his tiny hand over her wound and healed it. He backed up as soon as he was done, then wrapped his arms around her hips.

“
Why is everyone so worried? It was just a scratch.” Rhune whispered it against her skirt but his tight hold said very clearly that now he was just as worried as the rest.

She sniffed and wiped her tears away with the back of her newly healed hand.
Then she patted his head and smiled, moving so that she could wrap him in a hug. “I’m fine, Rhune. Thank you for healing me.”

“
You should have let me do it before; then everyone wouldn’t be worried,” he muttered, but his hands clutched her tight.

Melly looked up and caught the General
’s liquid eyes taking her in. “Have you met General Solan Fire-Eater, Commander of the Dragon Knights?”

“
What?!” Rhune jumped back as if he had been burned. His eyes going to the man beside her, hitting him somewhere at his knees and then working his way up the tall black boots, the black leather over hard muscled thighs, and then the multitude of weaponry attached to every conceivable place along that tall body. His leather vest was only partially closed over a bulging chest of rock-hard muscle and golden skin; crisscrossed leather straps held a sword, with the pommel just peaking over his shoulder. Then finally, his head tilted at his limit, he met the quicksilver eyes in that fearsome visage, surrounded by pitch black hair that swallowed the light. He blinked and gulped, his ’Adam’s apple jostling. His eyes went huge in his small face. “You’re a dragon knight?”

“
I am.”

“
You have a sword?”

“
I do.”

There was unusual quiet while Rhune seemed to be absorbing that knowledge.
“Can I see your dragon form?”

“
Rhune!” Morgan finally came forward and pulled him away. “Excuse us, General. I’m going to get the children situated and then come back.” Then she pulled the still staring Rhune behind her. “How often do I have to tell you not to ask dragons to change for you? They are not here for your amusement.”

“
But how can I change into a dragon knight if I haven’t seen him?”

“
Please. Come on, Clare.”

Clare had long since turned back into herself
, her long red hair back in a thick braid. With dark lashes surrounding vivid green eyes, she looked like something from a storybook of fair maidens, except it was ruined by her careless garb. Unlike her sisters, she wore trousers tucked into long boots and a sky blue tunic with a rope belt at her narrow hips. She was watching Melly carefully. “Are you really all right?”

She pulled her sister into her arms and hugged her close, almost gasping at the strength of her squeeze.
“I’m fine, Clare. Rhune healed me.”

Clare pulled back, her lips tightening.
“I know he did, but that wasn’t what made you cry.”

She waited, her face set.
Melly sighed. “I don’t want you to worry about this Clare. I’m fine.”

Clare pulled away, a flash of hurt in her eyes, before she shuttered them and spoke with wounded pride.
“I’m not a child anymore, Melly, and I’m not stupid.” Then she raised her chin, looking so much like Morgan when she really put her mind to something that it nearly hurt the eyes. She walked out without another word.

Melisande sighed.
When did that happen?

“
You humans grow up entirely too fast,” Ladon said, watching her go.

“
I’ll have to try and explain this to her.” Melly said softly, her forced smile vanishing.

The general grabbed her hand again, examining it himself and distracting her
. With the large thumb he caressed her newly healed skin. She looked up at him and nearly gave a genuine smile, remembering Rhune’s awed face.