Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (14 page)

Furee’s fire did not
lengthen so much as flare.  With the dragon seer in the weave and warnings of
the wind coming to them from Melisande in the north, Furee’s fire reacted to
protect his mate.  Flames flowed over her arms and down her hands, across her
chest and over her thighs, until she was cocooned in his fire.  Dragon magic a
solid shield of protection around her.  It should have been terrifying to look
down and see herself wrapped up in fire, but Riva just felt . . . safe.  It
helped that she felt his intentions flare right along with that fire.  His soul
focus was to find the threat and protect Riva.

Besides, she was watching
General Solan Fire-Eater get angry right before her eyes and that was much
scarier.  When his power flared and his eyes went glacial, he seemed to harden
right before her eyes.  Riva was watching him and he still pulled his swords
faster than she could see.  Without shifting to his dragon form, he suddenly
looked made of something far harder and sharper than normal human skin.  And
when he started giving orders, everyone listened.

“Furee, get the non-combatants
inside the hall.  There are tunnels that lead to reinforced caves below.  Lux,
sound the call for war.”

“How much time do we
have?” Aarion asked grimly, his eyes flattening out, his own sword in his hands
as he moved to protect their backs from an attack from the sea.

Riva jumped when Lux
backed up and took a running leap into the sky, shifting to a great blue dragon
just above their heads so that everyone but the dragon knights ducked from the
great shadow above them.  Even as she looked from that truly impressive sight
to the idyllic scene of mage going about their peaceful lives, Lux roared. 
Everyone dropped what they were doing and began to scramble, some to the safety
of the cliffs at the far side of the beach, some to add to the defenses.  Furee
dragged Clare and Riva towards the hall and the caves below them.  Braedon was
still cursing so she knew he followed close behind with Asha still lost to the
weave in his arms.

She caught the grim look
from Clare as they watched mages going for the beach.  Some with Earth powers
created barriers between the hall and whatever came at them, while some shapeshifters
transformed into wild beasts to fight.

“I can fight.”  Riva
heard Clare’s voice after a second call to war.

Furee turned to look the
girl up and down as they moved, his mouth turned grim, his jaw tightened.  It
went against his every instinct to allow her into the dangers of battle, but
all around them, females with less to offer than Clare were joining the
fighters on the beach or on the walls of the fortress.

“Graedon will send his
beasts to take the beach as a diversion,” he said grimly by way of answer.  “It
will force most of the dragons to protect the mage forces and the families
seeking shelter below the keep in the caves, but it is a healer he wants.  That’s
Riva.”  His voice turned to a growl on her name.  “Or Rhune.”  Then he let
Clare go and kept moving with only Riva.  Riva followed but looked back to see
the indecision on Clare’s face as she looked from the forces on the beach to the
hall before them.  A second later, something flared in her eyes and she ran to
catch up with them.  Furee looked at her as she came back to his side just as
they were passing into the great hall of Seatown.

“He will send a small
force another way,” she said by way of answer.  “You’ll need my help.”

Furee gave her a short
nod, a gleam of respect in his eyes.

Clare raised her chin and
pulled her sword, her eyes flaring mage green, and to Riva’s shock,
transforming into something with slit pupils and looking anything but human. 
Her ears, too, seemed to lengthen into a point, and deadly but elegant little
claws appeared on the hand wrapped around the pommel of her sword.  She smiled
at the shock on more than one face, showing off dainty fangs before she moved
with a new prowling grace to take the next turn before them.

Did you know she could do
that?
Riva asked her mate, aware that her mouth was hanging
open in surprise.

No,
Furee
answered, shaking his head at the sight they had just seen. 
But I have
learned never to underestimate the mages of House of Fire and Water.  They
always manage to surprise you. 
He looked down at Riva as they took the
final turn down into the reinforced hallway that led to the caves and saw Clare
stalking before them. It was with some surprise she realized he was talking
about her as well.

She thought of what she
had seen Morgan, Melisande, and now Clare do since being taken in and claimed
by that particular house. 
I don’t think I have that kind of surprise in me
,
she thought ruefully. 
You have already seen me at my most powerful.

Perhaps when you were
merely a mage, but you are a dragon mate now,
Furee
said offhand, his mind clearly on sensing coming danger and not on Riva’s
recognition of the truth in his words. 
Every mage that has mated with a
dragon grew in power and abilities.  We have yet to see what you are truly
capable of.

Riva did not have time to
really think on what having more power would mean to a healer.  She heard what
sounded like a hiss from Clare before them as she swung open the last steal
door that separated the great hall from the labyrinth of caves below it.  She
smelled the rotten taint of evil and decomposing flesh before the world around
her exploded.

“I am getting more than a
little tired of fighting these beasts,” Aarion said, twirling his sword in
circles to warm up his arm as he walked forward, his eyes on the darkening sky
and the now familiar sight of the coming horde.

“Is there no end to the
army your renegade dragon can produce with his black magic?” Archer asked as he
and his brother came to stand beside the dragon knights.  Archer pulled one of
two swords off his back cross draw, watching the horror come closer.   “Surely
we have to be making a dent on the available body parts at some point.”

Aarion raised a brow at
the conversation, fairly certain it was the first time he had heard either man
speak.

“Don’t tempt fate,” his
brother answered just as grimly.  “I would hate to think what we will be
fighting when he runs out of the animal dead to transform.”

A shambling grotesque
army made up of the human dead flew through everyone’s mind and had more than
one of them grimacing in distaste.

“I suppose there are
worse things,” Archer said dryly while Cree transformed into a black stallion,
his horn shining diamond bright in the sun. 

Aarion looked at the
warriors around them and the oncoming darkness.  Without either Furee or truly
powerful fire mages like Asha and Braedon, normal dragon fire would be useless
against what was coming.  All three of whom had been sent into the hall to
protect the people and away from the battle on the beach.

He turned from the
oncoming beasts to look at General Solan as he came to the realization that
their general had sent away their best weapons for this fight.

That was when they heard
the battle start, not on the beach, but behind them in the caves below the
hall, and he caught General Solan’s grim look, though the man never turned to
look away from the coming cloud over the ocean.  There was no surprise in his
hard face, only grim determination.  General Solan had expected a second battle
and sent their most effective fighters, few though they were, inside.  Aarion
remembered what Asha had said.  Graedon was after the healers.  The beach was a
distraction.  He looked around at the mages ready to defend their home.  Most
were nowhere near as powerful as the House of Fire and Water mages they were
used to, but they stood their ground just the same, facing down the dark
unnatural attack coming at them like a nightmare for the second time. A few mages
on the beach turned and ran to help defend the hall, no doubt going for loved
ones that were supposed to be safe inside the walls.  Most turned to look, and
then with resigned and in some cases devastated expressions, turned back to the
beach.

Aarion turned back to his
own fight.  Furee and the fire mages were on their own.

The shadow of the winged
beasts had consumed the beach when the wind began to pick up.  Aarion looked at
Solan again.

“Lady Melisande?” he
asked, thinking it was the general’s wind mage mate.

Solan shook his head.  “Not
Melly,” he said. “I know the feel of my mate, even on the wind.  This is
something else.”

Aarion was about to ask
if it was a bad something else or a good something else when the wind picked up. 
While winds built above their heads, dancing sands nearly blinded them, but the
sky was where the real action was.

Having seen the Lady Melisande
throw dragons across rooms and hold even the most powerful of them like bugs on
a wall, he had thought she was surely the most powerful wind mage alive.
Apparently, he had been wrong.  This was something altogether different.

With hurricane force winds
building above them, the dragon knights and mages set to defend the beach
watched as the monsters above them fought for every inch of sky they held. 
Then Lord Theron of Seatown arrived, his dragon form landing on the hard-packed
sand so forcefully a percussion could be felt all down the long beach.  Then,
with his normally black eyes flashing from mage green to blood red, his copper
scales gleaming almost ruby in the sun, he roared, proclaiming this territory
his to defend in such a way that, mage or dragon or mindless beast, no one
would mistake his claim.

There was a moment when
everything seemed to still around them.  Then funnels began to appear among the
thrashing cloud above them, winds from opposing sides smashed together like
bookends, leaving everything between them a pulping mess.  It began to rain far
out to sea.  The shrieking and wailing of the beasts turned from threat to
pain.

“That’s not rain.”
 
Aarion
heard Lux across the blowing winds, for once there was no laughter in his voice.

“No,”
Solan
answered with a grim blackness in his voice.  “That’s not rain.”

It was then that Aarion
realized what he was seeing was blood and crushed flesh falling in the
distance, as an army of evil, nearly impossible to kill magic beasts literally
rained from the sky, crushed to dust and slop by a single wind mage.

“I don’t recall Lord
Theron being this powerful,” Aarion said, his eyes moving to the copper dragon
that roared his rage from the beach, his copper scales and eyes flashing blood
red in the sun.  It was only when the dragon mage turned to take to the sky
that Aarion saw the pulsing blood stone stuck like an open wound in his chest.

“He was not.”  If
possible, Solan’s voice had gone even grimmer, and Aarion knew from the looks
that were passing between the brothers Cree and Archer that they saw the stone
as well, and their thoughts were just as grim.

Well,
Lux boomed out in their heads as was his way, making them all wince from the
volume. 
Rather than standing around oohing and awing while the scary dragon
mage bastard has all the fun, should we maybe go see what Furee is up to?

Head for the caves,
Solan
ordered, his eyes never leaving the blood-soaked waves and churning sky.

It was obvious the battle
was won long before the knights left the beach and joined the battle in the
caves, but even after the wind cleared from the clear skies and the great
bronze dragon roared his triumph to the waves, not a single cheer was raised
among the triumphant mages who watched from the beach and the walls of Seatown.

***

Furee had no idea how the
mages who had gone to the safety of the cliffs were fairing, but he hoped better
than those that chose the caves under the fortress.  Between the mass on the
beach and the hundreds that came at them just below the fortress tunnels,
Graedon would have no need to go after the cliffs where the mages hid their non-combatants
and children.  What really worried him was that he had no idea where Rhune was,
and he at least had to have come this way with his escort, though they had yet to
find anything in the caves but Graedon’s twisted creations.  Not even bodies.

Lucky for them, Asha had
come out of the weave and she and her fire mage mate were burning the creatures
that came at them from the side and behind as they moved through the caves. 
Braedon had asked her in between blasts what she saw, but she just gave him a
haunted look and shook her head.  Clare had battled well with her sword after
she realized quite quickly how difficult it was to kill the creatures with
either arrow or claw.  Now she whirled and flipped while slicing off heads,
arms, and legs as she moved like silk through the bulk of them.  As far as
Furee could see, she was fast enough in her half-transformed state that nothing
touched her.  She was there and gone before the creatures realized they no
longer had legs to stand on.  If he was not so busy with his own fight and
worrying about his own mage, he would have had to stop and admire the girl. 
Whatever she had been doing in the last two years had turned her into an
effective weapon, and she neither hesitated nor faltered from the fight.  As
soon as she had moved down the path, Furee followed his fire flaring in a long
wave of molten heat before him, clearing the path she had created.

Riva stayed close behind
him wrapped in his power; her hand on his waist, she kept her head down.  He
could feel in her head how much she wished she could fight alongside him, but
she was a healer.  As powerful as she was, this was not where her talents lay. 
Soon enough, they would make it through the tunnels and find the mages hiding
in the cave system.  Then she would be up and he would have to stand by and
watch her strain herself.  Just as he was having the thought the wall beside
them exploded out at them, and Furee was knocked forward and away from Riva. 
He roared his rage, feeling in his mind that she was hurt and gone from his
thoughts.  Not dead but hurt enough that it had knocked her out, he threw off
the boulders that landed on him and the creatures that poured over him through
the new hole in the wall.  He looked up to see Clare was bleeding but fighting
her way over to where Riva fell, while he battled the tide of mismatched beasts
that seemed to have one thought in mind and that was killing him.  Clare they
ignored.  Asha he could not see and his anger at that thought had the fire
boiling in Furee’s veins so hot that the monsters around him started melting
before they even touched him.

They were cut off from
Braedon and Asha by part of the stone wall, but he could see flashes of their
fire and hear them cursing beyond the barrier and knew they fought on.

“Riva!” 
He
heard Braedon call his sister’s name amid more cursing, and saw the flame of a
steady blast working against the large rocks keeping him from his sister.

“I have her,” Clare
called, clearing a two-foot-wide circle around Furee’s unconscious mate with
her blades.  Then a second blast knocked them all off their feet, and Furee was
buried under more rocks and bodies.  He heard Clare scream, more rage than pain
and then nothing.

By the time he had fought
his way through the new wave of beasts and falling rock, Braedon and Asha had
pushed their way through, melting everything in their way.  He met Braedon’s
tortured eyes through the dust and smoke between them, knowing what he would
find before he made it to his side.  No Riva, no Clare. 

He turned around in a
circle, knowing he would find nothing.  “She’s alive,” he choked out but could
find nothing but rubble and collapsed cave.  The only way out was the way they
had come that Braedon and Asha had cleared.  There was no way to follow, and
blasting more holes in the tunnels would only bury them again.  “She’s alive!” 
He yelled it, his flames whipping up a frenzy around him.  Braedon was no
better, his own anger and fear for his sister had his flames nearly as high as
Furee’s. If there had been any but Furee and the fire mages in the tunnel, they
would have been killed.  Asha sucked a great deal of the flame from them, and
then shot a blanket of ice over everything for good measure, putting out their
fires when it was clear they were too out of control to do it themselves.

“
Enough
, we have
to get out of these caves if we have any hope of finding Riva and Clare.” 
Something in her tone snagged Furee’s attention even more than what she said. 
He narrowed his eyes on her and stomped forward, nearly grabbing her when the
huntsman stepped between them and stopped his forward momentum with his body.

“Careful, dragon,”
Braedon warned, pushing him back from Asha.  His face was a hard plane of
tension, his eyes a straight flame in defense of his mate.

Furee turned his glare
from the huntsman to the dragon seer.  “You saw this?”

Her clenched jaw and
tortured ice dragon eyes said it all.

“You saw this,” he
repeated, his anger burning hotter with each word.  “And you said nothing?”

Braedon turned and looked
at his mate.  Furee knew he was speaking to her in the way of mates, and
whatever she said had his face shutting down and his eyes flaring and then banking. 
If flame could burn cold that was what was in the huntsman’s eyes when he
looked back at Furee. 

“We need to get out
before the walls fall.”  He said his words as cold and hard as his eyes.  “If
we don’t, we waste time Riva and Clare may not have.”

With one more look of
disgust at the seer who knew and did not tell him his mate was going to be
taken, he turned and headed back to the surface.  He moved as fast as his anger
could drive him, which meant he burst out of the tunnels into the hall like a
comet, nearly mowing down the dragons and mage warriors that were just about to
enter the tunnels after them.

He wasted no time.  “Riva
and the Lady Clare have been taken,” he growled, and kept going past them, not
even caring if they followed him or not.  It was only as he emerged from the
keep and shifted into dragon taking to the skies, that he had his first look at
Lord Theron of Seatown.

The copper dragon flew
over the sands of Seatown, his eyes trained on the clear skies as if looking
for a battle that Furee was shocked to see was already over.  That stopped his
headlong flight as nothing else would have.  General Solan and Aarion joined
him in the skies, their dragon eyes catching the same image his did.

He carries a blood stone
,
Furee said grimly.  Then he noticed the waves coming up on the beach sporting all
kinds of grisly things, while pools of sharks and bigger beasts were in a manic
battle farther out. 
Where is the battle?