Isabel Read online

  “You don’t like it?” I asked. I smoothed down the silken fabric.

  “I love it. It has a bluish-purple sheen that brings out the violet in your eyes. I just imagined you’d wear something more practical for a visit into dragon territory.”

  “I have my magic for protection. I wouldn’t know what to do with a sword or a bow and arrow in my own hands. Besides, I’m not going there to pick a fight, so why dress like a warrior?”

  Charles looked down at the sword he’d strapped to his waist. “Good point. I’ve reached a level five proficiency with my dueling, but I suspect that will be woefully inadequate to fight a dragon. Still,” he said then unsheathed it and held it out to show it off.

  With a flick of my wrist and a mischievous grin, I wilted the metal and watched it droop.

  “Very funny.” He frowned. He unbuckled the sheath and laid it on the table beside his sword. “Point taken. But I’m keeping my dagger.”

  I returned the sword to its natural shape.

  “Are you ready to travel?” I asked.

  “My trunk is packed in my quarters. And I have this satchel with a few days’ worth of water and food. I was checking the maps the other day and it seems we’ll need some combined form of transportation on horseback and boat.”

  I admired his preparation and felt a twinge of guilt for not explaining my plan sooner and sparing him the effort.

  “Actually, we need a dragon to find a dragon.”

  He stared at me and then stiffened. “I see.”

  A long silence stretched between us as I waited expectantly.

  At last, he sighed. “How long have you known?”

  I gave him a soft smile. “You think someone can hide a dragon in my kingdom without me knowing about it?”

  Charles began to pace the room. “He’s not well. I bought him from the fair six months ago, and I’ve been trying to nurse him back to health. His muscles were atrophied from being shackled in place, his glands were cut out, and he can’t fly.”

  “I didn’t know you were such an animal lover.”

  “They’re magnificent creatures. They shouldn’t be caged.” His tone held a bitterness I’d never heard before.

  I walked to him and placed a hand against his face. “I’ve no intention of hurting your dragon—or any of them.”

  “You’re not going to carve one up for your protection spell?”

  His tone felt like a slap in the face. I retreated a step back from him. “I would never.”

  He pursed his lips in frustration—at himself or me, I wasn’t sure. “It’s not that far-fetched for me to consider, is it? You’re the sorceress who enslaved one son to evil and exiled another as a tree.”

  “You make me sound heartless.” I held up a hand when he moved to come closer. “I suppose I deserve your reservations. Anyone’s reservations. Malakai was dying of poison, and I had no other way to save him except into captivity. Orrick,” I said then put a hand to my stomach. “Orrick was a headstrong boy, not yet mature enough to be a man. If I undo what I did to him, he won’t be around later to help his brother. To any casual observer, I probably seem like a monster.”

  “You’re not a monster. I’m sorry to have judged you.” Charles cast his eyes down.

  Now that I wasn’t his queen, I could see he would speak more freely. “Don’t be sorry. I have a lot of power. Probably more than any one person ought to have. I like when you question my actions. It forces me to reason through them and make sure I’m rational in my endeavors. Be yourself. Speak your mind and your truth, and I’ll not fault you for it.” I winked. “I might disagree, but I won’t fault you.”

  I extended a hand to him. “Shall we meet your dragon?”

  He took my hand, pulled me closer, and pressed his lips to mine. I relaxed into the kiss and the embrace. Five long years I’d been alone without the love of a man. I didn’t deserve one so compassionate and affectionate as Charles—a balance of smoothness to my edges, a flame to my ice. But now that we were finally together, I was never letting him go.

  “It’s an hour’s hard ride on horseback to Indigo,” Charles explained.

  “Indigo is his name?”

  “The name I gave him. He’s the color of indigo.” He shrugged. “Not very original I guess.”

  “We won’t need horseback. Think of where your dragon is, and I’ll take us there.”

  At Charles’s perplexed expression, I turned over my left hand and showed him the purple tattoo on my palm. It consisted of a seven-pointed star.

  “I’m guessing this is more than decoration. It’s some type of magic?”

  I nodded. There was so much I was suddenly at liberty to share with him now that the barriers to our relationship had been lifted.

  “Star travel. It’s the fastest way anywhere. It has its limitations; one can only be where one has been before—or a traveling companion has been.”

  Charles arched an eyebrow. “You can travel wherever, whenever you want?”

  “And with whomever I want.”

  “And you can travel right back here whenever you want?”

  “Precisely.”

  “So I needn’t have packed anything for this trip?”

  I gave him a sheepish grin.

  “Do you travel around the castle in this manner?” he asked, running a hand along the tattoo.

  “Sometimes, and sometimes through little-known passages. I keep my secrets guarded, so you’ll not see me travel this way in front of hired help. In fact, I rarely use magic in front of others and almost never boast of it. Castle walls have eyes and ears. Spies abound.”

  “I remember you once referring to this place as your gilded cage.” He raised my hand to his lips and kissed the star, sending a tingling wave a pleasure through me.

  “I have many luxuries here. But I dream of a far simpler life. Someday I want no more obligations than to wake, have breakfast, and enjoy the day with the man I love. No kingdom, no spies, no meetings, no servants.”

  His lips curled at the edges. “Man you love?”

  I leaned into his embrace. “Man I love. Can the man I love envision a life of simplicity and obscurity?”

  “By your side, he can.”

  I took Charles by star travel to a small, narrow valley with a pond. He shook his head against the disorienting effect of traveling as he looked around in awe that we were here in an instant.

  A breeze rippled the water and swayed the leaves of nearby oaks. Near the water lay a large, blue dragon. He stretched and stood on all fours sniffing the air, sensing our presence.

  Indigo was beautiful—iridescent scales gleamed varying shades of blue in sunlight like feathers from a peacock’s tail. He had two rows of horns extending from his crown to the tip of his tail. Yet beneath the beauty was devastation. He bore scars, some around his wrists and ankles from prior chains, some along his scales as if from whips.

  “He lives here?” I asked Charles.

  “He does now. He can’t fly. He could crawl away, but I think he understands I’m trying to keep him safe. I mostly talk in soothing tones, and, well, he hasn’t eaten me yet.”

  I summoned a simple spell in my mind for language translation. “Greetings, dragon. I am Isabel, a friend of your friend Charles.”

  The dragon’s scales rippled and his nostrils flared in surprise.

  “What are you saying? Is that his language?” Charles gaped at me.

  “No human has ever spoken to me.” Indigo’s voice was deep but with a slight lisp.

  “I am a sorceress. I can speak many languages.”

  The dragon looked at Charles and back to me. “He has been kind to me.”

  “He’s a kind man. I hope he’ll not be the last kind person you meet. He has given you the name Indigo. May I also call you this or do you have another you prefer?”

  “You may call me Indigo. My given name is lost to me after so long in captivity.”

  “Indigo, I asked Charles to bring me to you for a specific purpose. I ne
ed to find and speak with Norak. Do you know where he is?” Norak was as much of a leader of dragons in this region as they had. They were mostly solitary creatures, but he was the alpha male—at least, the one humans knew about. Dragons were nearly extinct thanks to man’s fear, wrath, and weaponry.

  “The penalty for betraying another dragon is death.” His midnight eyes bore into me.

  “It won’t be a betrayal,” I assured the dragon. “I want to speak with Norak only. Only myself and Charles will know the location you reveal.”

  “The only way there is by air.”

  That made sense. A dragon in hiding from man should have a haven only accessible by the one means of transportation man didn’t have.

  “The same way we appeared here suddenly, I can transport us there—with your help. And with a fair exchange.”

  “Exchange?”

  “Your health restored—wings which will fly you again.”

  He blinked at me. “How can this be done?”

  “Magic.” I drew a symbol in the air and directed the spell toward the pond. Water spouted up, fanned out, and splashed back into the pond as if it were a fountain.

  Indigo tilted his head to one side, watching the water fountain.

  I spoke to Charles, “I’m trying to convince him I will heal him in exchange for passage to Norak’s lair.”

  “Seems like more than a reasonable trade,” Charles said.

  “The penalty for revealing another dragon’s safe haven is death.”

  “Ah, well, in that case, it might take more than a water fountain to convince him.”

  Indigo’s tail swished. “Long have I been a slave to mankind. How do I trust your words? How do I know you haven’t cast a spell on Charles?”

  If love was a spell, perhaps he was under its magic—but then so was I.

  “A demonstration,” I offered the dragon. “I will heal the wounds on your legs and the aches in your joints. After you take me to Norak, I will heal your wings.” If I healed his wings first, he might fly away forever.

  “I accept.”

  I began walking toward him—arm stretched toward his large front leg which was as big around as I was. “I need to touch you for the magic to work.”

  Charles put a hand on my shoulder. “Wait. What are you doing?”

  “A show of good faith.” I kept walking toward Indigo.

  I extended a hand to touch the large dragon leg. I felt throughout his body for injuries. Healing magic was a tricky thing. Stone magic could only heal recent injuries. Spell magic could go farther back in time but required a great deal more experience. Skin, bone, and muscle were easier. Healing nervous tissue—brain, spinal cord, and distal sensation were more complex. I had treated many of Karnelik’s wounded soldiers who’d taken days to get from the front lines back to the castle, so I had an abundance of experience.

  Charles and I had met caring for wounded soldiers. We’d been only a healer and a queen to each other at the time. When I began having migraines, he became my personal healer. A year after my husband’s death, on the anniversary of when I’d lost my sons, Charles held me while I cried.

  “It will hurt at first, as I have to simultaneously dissolve scar tissue and stitch living tissue.”

  Indigo remained still as I worked healing his shackle wounds and arthritic joints. I reached out to take measure of the damage to his wings. The membrane of skin connected to the bone infrastructure had been severed. Healing such a delicate area to make it strong enough for flight would take some time. And some strain—Charles wasn’t going to be happy about it.

  I felt awful for Indigo. His flight shouldn’t have been taken from him, and I shouldn’t hold it for ransom. Rather than stop at his legs, I continued the healing process.

  He was enormous, and I’d never healed such a large creature. He shook from the pain but never cried out. I did. The effort caused a migraine to flare. Pain seared behind my eyes as I collapsed backward.

  Charles caught me. “Stars and stones, you pushed too far again.”

  My vision blurred. “I had to heal all of him,” I said breathlessly.

  “I brought your medicine. Drink this before you pass out.”

  The last thing I saw before I blacked out was an enormous dragon spreading his beautiful and intact wings.

  Chapter 3

  Cold air blew against my cheeks and I had the sensation I was flying. I blinked my eyes open. I was flying!

  Charles had a grip around my waist as we straddled Indigo. I grasped the horns within reach, unsettled by the distance between us and the snow-peaked mountains below. If I fell off of this huge, bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard, I didn’t know any flying spells to prevent a collision with the jagged, rocky mountains below and was certain I’d meet my death.

  “Magnificent, isn’t it?” Charles asked over the wind in our ears. He held me from behind and couldn’t see my terrified expression. “I was hoping you’d wake up in time to appreciate this spectacular view. I think he’s taking us to Norak. I would have preferred you resting in your room, but I had no way to communicate that to Indigo. How are you feeling? Any migraines?”

  “I’m okay.” Aside from a newly discovered fear of flying, I was okay.

  “I wish you wouldn’t push your magic so far, Isabel. Every time you exhaust yourself, I worry you won’t come back to me.”

  I squeezed my arms tighter around where he held me. His hands were cold. Temperatures were freezing up here. I pulsed a wisp of magic between us to warm us.

  With Charles’s strong arms around me, my fear of falling began to subside. I took a moment to admire the snow-capped mountains. They shone brilliantly beneath the sun and mixed with splashes of gray rock and blue ice.

  Indigo plunged sharply through a narrow crevice that opened into an underground jungle bursting with tropical plants and bright colors. Charles let out an involuntary whoop of delight as I squeezed my eyes shut while my stomach threatened to somersault its way out of me.

  Indigo spread his wings and slowed his descent. He landed on a patch of mossy ground. Since the temperature down here was humid and pleasant, I disabled my warming spell.

  Charles slid first off the dragon before helping me down. “Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent.”

  At last my feet were on solid ground. “Thank you, Indigo. This is Norak’s home?”

  “Per our agreement, I have brought you to him. Now, I must go.”

  He turned, but a booming voice halted him. “What dragon has dared to trespass and bring the stench of humans no less?”

  I looked up at the ceiling. Among the stalactites of shimmering gold and green, an alabaster dragon snarled down at us. His pink eyes were narrowed to angry slits.

  I placed one hand on Indigo and kept hold of Charles’s hand. “I will explain the intrusion,” I told Indigo.

  “I am Isabel Dallik, former Queen of Karnelik, and I come to offer you a proposition.”

  “You’ve come to die,” he hissed. With blinding speed he dropped from his perch to attack us.

  Using my star magic with one hand on Indigo and the other holding Charles’s hand, I transported us fifty meters away from Norak.

  His outstretched claws sank through air where he’d been expecting flesh. He landed on the ground with a thunderous thud. Turning, he looked at our new position as his nostrils flared.

  Trying a different tactic, Norak drew his head back.

  “Stay behind me,” I told Charles and the blue dragon.

  Norak unleashed fire from his mouth.

  Dragon’s breath.

  The flames launched toward us.

  “Isabel!” Charles shouted in alarm.

  To a human, the fire was deadly. But to a sorceress, who knew how to harness the magic of dragons’ breath, the fire was a gift. The terrifying truth was that I’d never tried such a technique. But I knew from my spell books that absorbing the firepower was possible, and I had enough experience with magic to place my faith in my abilities.


  Mostly.

  Besides, if I was going to be able to convince this angry albino I was powerful enough to protect his kind from extinction, I needed to prove myself to him.

  Trust in your abilities, Isabel.

  I took in the flames and the power, feeling the revitalizing, rejuvenating properties. I’d used so much magic to create a world of peace in the last five years—all of the healing, transmogrifying Malakai to Malos and Orrick to a tree, followed by more healing—I had aged in advance of my years. The visions I’d explored again and again for clarity had taken their toll. But dragon’s breath was like drinking from a fountain of youth.

  The white dragon had stopped the flames and stared at me in utter bewilderment.

  I smoothed the satin of my purple dress. “Now, will you listen to my proposition?”

  “You’re a witch,” Norak sneered.

  “I prefer sorceress.”

  “What quarrel do you have with me?” His pale scales had a faint rainbow hue, more like a pearl than pure white.

  “I have no quarrel at all. I have a stone.” I pulled the stone out of thin air—an illusion since I stored it in a dimension unseen by this world. The golden stone hovered in the air. “I need this Fire Stone safely protected by your children and your children’s children and so on.”

  “I have no offspring.”

  “Not yet.”

  He scowled. “You want to store the stone here?”

  “No. This space is too small for dragons. I want to give you a continent—your own continent.”

  “A continent in exchange for guarding a stone?” His voice was laced with incredulity.

  “And your chance to rebuild.”

  “Rebuild what?”

  “Your species. You’re nearly extinct. Having your own territory away from mankind will keep you from being hunted while you replenish your population.”

  “And what is the price, little sorceress?” His tail twitched. “I’ve no intimate acquaintance with magic, but even I know there’s always a price.”

  “You must uphold your end of the agreement. You must consent to your offspring’s confinement to the entire continent.”

  “How big is this landmass?” He eased his weight back on his hind legs as though no longer ready to pounce, though his muscles remained tense.