Page 40 of Drakhana's Treasure
I was distracted by Kirralee and my mind was full of the skirmishes in the city. They attacked our businesses relentlessly until losing money was the only thing I could worry about. For so many years now the lives of city dwelling dragons have been in my hands. So many of them can’t go back. With every house, dollar or investor we lost, those shifters were at risk of being homeless.
Then the petty violence and theft. Breaking into one of our gift shops with a baseball bat, wrecking up cars in the underground carpark, trashing one of our good restaurants. I fell for it. I fell for it all. They wanted to make me chase my tail and I fucking did.
The knowledge of how reckless and arrogant I’ve been energizes me. I fucked up at the worst possible time. I’ve put innocent dragons and fighting men at risk. I have to come through for my people.
The thing is, I have no idea how to do that.
There will be a few hundred at the basin tearing up my best men and Kirralee. The ones charging through the desert now will be attacked by my air and ground units, but they have the upper hand. Fire and ice begin to explode beneath me and I know that the fighting has become fierce enough that both sides are shifting.
We just don’t have the numbers and they have the upper hand. They planned out the terrain. They accurately predicted what I would do.
We are all going to die.
Unless Kirralee can come through for us. She really is our only hope now.
And she might be dead.
I power on through the sky, ignoring every sound from below. The battle is joined and it is fierce. Fire dragons are fighting back with incredible strength but the ice dragons are well organized and we are outnumbered three to one.
The basin is ahead and it looks dark. There is screaming coming from it, both human and dragon.
My wings keep pumping, trying to get me there faster, even though my heart has decided it doesn’t want to know.
Suddenly a pillar of light shoots up from the ground and reaches into the sky. It crackles and booms as it flares, orange, gold and red flames wrapping around themselves and spiraling up. It’s a column of flame, perfect and deadly.
It’s got to be Kirralee. That’s my girl in there and she’s kicking ass. I was so frightened for her… But only because my heart can’t take the grief or the guilt if something happened to her.
Deep down I knew she would awaken. She has the powers of the ancients and those never fail. I believed that the flame that lived within her would save her weather she knew how to use it or not.
As I fly closer, I see ice dragons running and screaming from the pillar of fire. Around its base a wide net of about fifty feet is spreading like a lake of flames. My best soldiers are mostly still alive and working their way outwards from Kirralee. A lot of them are tossing away their guns and shifting, their clothes now burnt away.
I slow my headlong charge and flicker my wings uncertainly. I direct dragons into the fray and wait for our ground troops to move in with their trucks to push the main line back.
I flap just a bit closer. It’s only now that I realize I’m afraid of Kirralee. I don’t want to touch the fire. It’s turning acid yellow with tongues of green, the hottest fire there is. I can’t even see her inside it.
I released a goddess and I never stopped to think of the consequences. If she can’t control this power, I might have loosed a demon into the world.
I might lose the woman I love. I see now that there are many ways to lose someone and I truly was blind and reckless to put her in this kind of danger.
I sweep closer to the pillar, flying around it cautiously. She must be in there somewhere.
I am going to find her. We will win this and everything is going to be okay.
It has to be. I didn’t come this far to lose her now.
Twenty-Seven
Kirralee
Idon’t know what happened, but at the same time I’m fully aware. I know the heat rushed through the ground towards me. When it flowed over my skin, something in me ignited, I felt it catch.
Then there was only flame.
For a few glorious moments there is nothing but me and my element. I don’t know if I’m human or dragon. I know that I am the flame and it is me. Whatever form I take, the fire is all that I am.
Maybe my innocence was the only reason I could channel our ancient power. So many dragons are afraid of the fire. They try to trap it, control it, make it a slave. The dragons sunk into contemplation on the mountain rarely breathe fire and they don’t seek the lava. Still others have stayed in the city and let the fire die—like Rastus.
I don’t think I’m special or chosen. I know that I have listened to the fire and invited it into me for as long as I can remember. This is the natural state of a fire dragon. I have never been surer of this than I am right now.
