Page 41 of Drakhana's Treasure
I try to blink to clear my eyes. I want to see what’s happening, if my fire has actually helped us. I fear any dragon who is not prepared for the elemental force may be swept away into ash.
The first thing I notice is the ice dragons screaming. I ask my eyes to focus and through the yellow glare, I see small figures moving. I realize then that I am very high up, the column of flame going up a hundred feet at least. I still don’t know if I’m flying or levitating. I don’t know if I have a body at all.
With great difficulty, I turn my head down. The few men who were left after our stand are all hurling away their guns and shifting. Under the force of my heat they glow red, shifting into larger, stronger dragon forms. They start to breathe fire straight away, as if they can’t contain it. From above, it must look like a flower. My central column surrounded by smaller flares curving out and away.
The radiant heat from the pillar reaches more fire dragons and it makes them glow too. They burn gold as the flame builds in their blood then breathe fire into the sky and surrounding ranks. I see ice dragons falling dead from exposure to heat and others scrambling for cover.
Just outside the basin I see them regrouping. They can’t get near me, but they can cut into the ranks of fire dragons that have not come close to us yet. The ice dragons were well prepared for our army to come in behind them, but now their front and rear lines are in chaos.
I stretch in the flame, wondering what it looks like from outside of it. With just the barest hint of will I stop it from growing and keep the flames close. The last thing I want is for this unquenchable fire to race across the desert. It would never stop. Even once nothing was left to burn, this fire would not go out.
It’s not even like controlling it when I ask it to remain with me. It’s more like singing. We sing the same song and that enables us to hear each other.
A bright, hot blast runs through me, making my body shudder. I know that my physical form is close to disappearing entirely. I can’t stop now, not while my flame is giving the other dragons the power boost they need and cutting a massive slice out of the ice dragon army.
I need help though, or I will not come out of this the way I came in. Without someone to remind me of what I really am, I could let the fire take me.
Rastus.
I reach out with a sense that goes beyond the basic five. I can feel him nearby and when I call, I feel him answer me wordlessly.
Rastus.
He is not far away. I can feel his fear and his determination. He wants to see the ice dragons beaten, but he doesn’t want me to get hurt. I suddenly realize why he put me on the front lines. He believed in me more than I believe in myself.
I look up and my lover is there, swooping close to the bright column. He comes close but doesn’t touch, flitting around the top of the pillar which flares in a small mushroom cloud.
Rastus.
He looks down into the fire, seeing me. I reach out my hands, still not sure if I am human, dragon or completely flame.
He starts to lower himself into the heat. He makes long, slow strokes of his wings to bring himself down carefully. I rise up, burning to meet him in the great pillar of golden fire.
The other dragons have been too afraid to let the fire touch them. Soaking up the radiant heat from nearby has given them all strength and power. I can even see them spitting explosive flares, proving that my summoning of the ancient flame has given them heat as well as strength and speed.
Yet none of them dared to touch it.
Rastus’ claws hit the flames and his entire body catches alight. He raises his head, closing his eyes. His wings stay horizontal to the ground, fluttering gently as he waits for the flames to swallow him.
They flicker along his sides and up over his wings. His natural red and gold fades away under the hot yellow at the heart of the pillar. As he lets himself fall into the deep heart of it, the fire starts to hiss.
A white light explodes across the desert. Rastus’ inner fire has been ignited. He throws back his head and bellows, a terrifying sound. It’s as if every single part of him that resisted his true nature is being burned away.
A quick look around tells me that all the ice dragons are staggering, blinded by the strobe. It starts to fade almost as quickly as it came, the glaring white beginning to shrink back into the shadows as Rastus screams his power into the sky. He channels the almighty force through himself and lets the fire pour through his throat as he allows it to take him over.
Surrender.
I love you, Kirralee.
He opens his eyes, shaking his head. He’s a bright yellow and gold dragon inside the flame with me, something angelic. He keeps drifting downwards in the flow, closer and closer to me.
The battle seems to fall away from me as he comes closer. The strobe light flashes again, pulsing through his body as his cells remember their true shape. I can tell by his quick looks around that he is still watching the fighting but he knows that he can’t interrupt this ceremony.
I am going to give him back his heritage. No matter what the elders decide, Rastus and I have the sacred bond. Through us the clan will be remade. We will be fertile and so will others after us, once I bring my people home to their true nature.
None of that matters right now. The only thing that is real is my lover, here with me in the element that created us.
Twenty-Eight
