Page 2 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
“The question is, what are the Stormscales doing fighting them down here?” I was unable to hold the excitement in my voice back. The exhilaration of dragons this close to me, and nearly dying, had my heart pounding so hard I felt the vibrations in my ribs. “The rebellion does everything it can to plan out its attacks; why here? Why right now?”
“It’s the queen,” Bella gulped. “She’ll send her army to the underworld itself to kill every last one of them.”
I’d seen the recent posters in town from Emberveil. Hefty rewards for leads on where the Stormscales were hiding. The war had grown in recent years, and tales of their dragon battles rung in even our tiny corner of the world.
“But here? In Bramblebash? This far away from her kingdom? She must be getting even more ruthless than they say…” My words were cut short by another roar that entered the sky like booming, legendary thunder.
It was so thunderous and commanding, it made every other dragon in the sky pivot, instinctively moving away from the approaching beast.
As the new dragon emerged from the thick, dark clouds my jaw dropped and my fingers spread wide. My eyes widened at the sight of the beast, and the hairs on the back of my neck tightened, sending goose pimples all the way down the backs of my arms.
It was him…
“By the beard of Odiun,” Garris muttered. “It’s him… By all that is holy…”
As the dragon and its rider tore through the sky above, my feet froze to the sand and sweat trickled down my arms.
It was him… I’d heard of that black dragon from all the tales. Its unmistakable…
“The Blaze Prince.” The words escaped my lips without restraint. The tales of his ruthlessness and conquests were known by every being in all of Allovan, and there he was, sweeping through the skies of Bramblebash, looking like he was born on the back of that horrible, murderous dragon.
“He’s as terrifying as they say,” Bella murmured, unintentionally holding her breath.
“It’s time to move,” Garris shouted, suddenly ahead of us as we froze. He yanked on the chains at our ankles.
“One more minute!” Rebellion thickened my voice. I couldn’t tear my gaze off such a legendary rider. My heart thumped so hard I felt the blood rushing through the arteries in my neck.
“Ashlyn, you’re gonna feel my whip again for your sharp tongue, make no mistake!”
“Good!” I fought back. “I hope you do, you miserable excuse for a man! And it’s Ash!”
“We should do as he says,” Bella said in a hushed voice, terror gripping her throat.
Her voice shook the last breath of bewilderment from my mind. I needed to get her to safety. This wasn’t about my fascination with dragons anymore. Her life was in danger!
And as if fate heard my thoughts, the great ebony dragon unleashed an unimaginable ghastly plume of devastating dragonfire upon one of the Stormscale dragons, incinerating it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t get my feet under me fast enough.
We rushed back toward town, the shanty beach community of single-story buildings of wood, strong enough to survive hurricanes, but definitely not dragonfire. My feet dragged through theslick sand, both sets of our ankle shackles clattering as we ran up the hill to Bramblebash, the tropical trees surrounding it whipping in the stormy winds, invigorated by the dragon wings beating in the cloudy sky.
That fuck Garris hadn’t run more than six feet in his miserable life, I bet, except for when the dinner bell rang. He’d whip me for sure for talking back, but still, as I ran, my gaze was absolutely stuck onto the infamous black dragon that terrorized the sky—Krakos—the one and only. Sharp ebony scales, huge wings that cut the air like a razor through sheets of papyrus— its eyes as animalistic and demonic as the tales say—an unnatural shade of red that reminded me of somewhere between a spring rose and deep, spilled blood.
The Blaze Prince led the awful, murderous beast through the sky like nothing I’d ever seen. I dreamed of riding my own dragon, pairing with one for life, but not with that thing in the sky! I never wanted to be anywhere near it, not after hearing all the tales of its primal, ruthless, insatiable destruction…
As Krakos’ fire eviscerated another dragon and its rider from the sky, it became quickly apparent, and my words couldn’t be any better than Bella’s…
“We need to get the fuck outta here!” She squeezed my hand tighter as we ran. She’d always been faster than me, with those long legs of hers… ones I’d honestly always been jealous of. “We’ve got to get to shelter, now! I don’t want to die out here, not like this!”
Her words gripped me, haunting me instantly. I realized, as I watched the Blaze Prince ravage the Stormscales above, that all those I cared about in my tiny little corner of the world were in the exact same predicament we were…
I ran as fast as my bare feet could carry me, finally hitting cobblestones in our town. The forge was up ahead, only two hundred yards up and around the bend by the circular town square. Unlike the cobblestone roads that led to the square,nearly all of the houses of my town were perfect kindling for dragonfire. That made me all too keenly aware of the danger of the battle erupting in the ominous sky above.
We ran ahead of Garris, panting like a dog, but suddenly found ourselves stuck. He’d keeled over, hunched with his hands on his fat thighs; beads of sweat pouring down his wrinkled, bald brow.
“Hurry!” My gaze drifted back to the sky battle, just in time to see one of the most terrifying sights of my nineteen years in this world…
“The Blaze Prince,” Bella yanked hard on her own chains, trying to pull Garris out of his exasperated stupor. “He’s coming!”
Krakos was in pursuit of the largest of the rebel dragons, a mighty green drake with aqua-marine spikes fanning all the way down its back. Murder was deep in the mighty Krakos’ eyes. The pursing dragon was over twice as large as the one it hunted. The Blaze Prince was ducked low on his dragon’s back. He wore a dual-horned helm, a blood-red cape whipping hard in the wind behind him, matte-black armor covering every inch of his huge body, and a trident of flames blazing in his hand, eager to find its way into the rider he chased.
